April 2011 - TVBEurope

Transcription

TVBE_April P1,3,4,8
28/3/11
11:43
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Inside: Carmen in 3D, Major BBC Moves, Spectrum Analysis
TVBEUROPE
APRIL 2011 £5.00/€ 8.00/$10.00
www.tvbeurope.com
Europe’s television technology business magazine
Technical strategy and development implications
Where is 3DTV now?
Conference Preview
By Adrian Pennington
& Fergal Ringrose
With over 80 bureaux, AP claims more than half the world’s population sees its news every day
AP to go HD by London 2012
HD Build-Out
Richard Dean reports on the filebased HD initiative from Associated
Press, the world’s oldest and
largest newsgathering organisation
The multi-million dollar upgrade
by Associated Press of its global
newsgathering infrastructure — the
single biggest investment in its
video business since the acquisition
of Worldwide Television News in
1998 — is on course for completion
in time for the London Olympics
(27 July to 12 August 2012).
“Actually we’ll have HD
entertainment coverage and filebased workflows in place by the
end of this year, and move on to
sport and live news coverage by
the middle of 2012,” says David
Hoad, AP’s director of Global
Video Technology.
It’s a huge undertaking for the
London-based company, which
supplies live news video and edited
Dave Hoad: “We shall have to
upgrade all of our infrastructure
from the camera lens to
distribution technologies and
everything in between”
clips of entertainment, sport and
lifestyle coverage to more than
1,000 national and international
broadcasters and major portals
worldwide via an international
satellite and fibre network. With
video bureaux in more than 80
countries, AP claims that more
than half the world’s population
sees its news every day.
By the time this ambitious
‘camera to customer’ upgrade is
complete, AP claims it will have
the most advanced and innovative
video newsgathering operation on
the planet. “This is much more
than a parity game,” says Hoad.
So what’s involved? “The aim is to
deliver HD content from a breaking news story to all of our customers, which means replacing all of
our cameras and migrating to the
latest generation of video editing,
compression and transfer tools
that a field producer will use,” says
Hoad. “AP has always done a lot
of editing on location — typically
using Apple Final Cut Pro — as
it produces a more complete
result from those who know the
story best.
“We shall also be upgrading all
of our production and distribution equipment, and are investing
in technology to allow live coverage of news events via cellular
phone networks to give customers
improved content coverage, as our
Continued on page 8
TVBEurope’s second 3D Masters
conference will take place at
BAFTA in London on 15 June
2011. Supported by the IABM
and BKSTS, confirmed sponsors
to
date
include
Decode,
Presteigne Charter, Quantel and
Screen Subtitling.
BSkyB broke new ground last
October with the launch to
homes of the world’s first dedicated 3DTV channel. Architect
of that service is Sky’s Chief
Engineer Chris Johns, who
arguably — more than any other
executive in world broadcasting
— has a handle on the direction
of 3DTV.
His keynote to 3D Masters
will take up the Sky 3D story and
offers delegates a chance to hear
the lessons the broadcaster has
learnt to date. There are huge
challenges behind the infrastructure, monitoring and distribution
of 3D which have yet to be
solved, while the generation of
quality 3D content in sufficient
volume remains, for many, the
format’s Achilles heel.
The
editorial
decisions
behind current live sports production need to be compromised if 3D broadcast costs are
to be reduced, says 3Ality
Digital CEO, Steve Schklair.
You won’t find anyone with
more forthright views — nor
anyone with as much authority
on the subject — than Schklair,
who is once again a keynote
speaker at 3D Masters 2011.
“It’s great to be a purist; but you
INTRODUCING
See Selenio at the NAB Show, Booth #N2502, or at www.harrisbroadcastlive.com.
can be a purist right up till it’s
not a business,” he says.
There’s a burgeoning number
of 3D festivals and stereoscopic
3D conferences but none has its
focus trained on giving TV producers and broadcasters the takeaway knowledge of 3D Masters.
Backed by the major consumer
electronics manufacturers the
3DTV sector makes a lot of noise,
but its small size can mask a
remarkable lack of education
about how 3D works technically
and what doesn’t work creatively.
In most European countries
only one 3D channel, at best, has
launched but there are growing distribution opportunities to be tapped
for producers targeting IMAX to
laptop PC or overseas markets and
with increasingly varied genres.
Continued on page 3
NAB 2011 Preview
Welcome to our NAB issue: we're
pleased to bring you Part II of our new
product release coverage, compiled
over recent weeks by Deputy Editor
Melanie Dayasena-Lowe. Starting
page 24, we bring you 20 pages of
new products, innovations and
upgrades to be launched at the LVCC
this month. — Fergal Ringrose
OTO/TVBE Page Template
28/2/11
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TVBE_April P1,3,4,8
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TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LY S I S
TVBE in your inbox
Market Analysis
By Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
TVBEurope has launched two
new digital newsletters covering
the 3D and IT Workflow markets
plus a brand new venture covering sports.
TVBEurope 3D, written by
Adrian Pennington, launched on
14 March. The fortnightly enewsletter is dedicated to news
and analysis of stereo 3D production, technology and post
production developments. As
stereoscopic 3D production
takes off, TVBEurope 3D is an
informative and insightful news round-up of the
latest developments in
stereo filmmaking and
the purchase of new
kit for 3D productions
plus much more from
Europe’s leading 3D production writer.
Also new to our digital
newsletter portfolio is The
Workflow Files, written
by Dick Hobbs, which
launched on 21 March.
The monthly e-newsletter
provides in-depth analysis of
digital workflows and file-based
operations. It features industry
news and analysis, new technology, workflow case studies and a
unique Jargon Buster section.
SBS opts for Junger Magic
SBS Broadcasting chose Jünger
C8000 for its ability to control
huge loudness jumps
complicated, step-by-step process.
Proper and clean switched loudness
processing is of vital importance if
SBS is to be able to combine old
style programming with content
that is already compliant to the new
paradigm. Switching needs to be
carried out in a smooth manner,
without changing the overall audio
impression. In our opinion, Jünger
Audio’s solution complies with
this requirement.”
SBS has invested in a Jünger
Audio modular C8000 solution
that incorporates a suite of DSP
still necessitates an element of
speculation. The number of
3DTV-capable
receivers
in
European homes is slowly growing but profitable 3D services
remain some way off. Programming costs are high and the
industry is wary that 2D conversions can provide an answer.
While payTV operators hope
to move the market and attract
subscribers to their premium
bouquets with a 3D offer, the
lack of standards — which in
turn means more affordable production technology — is causing
free to air broadcasters to pause.
3D Masters takes in these
debates with a series of analytic
presentations and Q&A discussions featuring EBU and
SMPTE senior executive Dr
Hans Hoffmann, who is the
heart of the standardisation
process. Find out first hand how
3DTV is developing in Europe,
how the major technical limitations are being solved and what’s
needed to develop an audience
for 3DTV. Perhaps the answer
lies in glasses-free displays — but
can you afford to wait?
Other confirmed speakers to
date include Jim Bottoms, director of Futuresource Consulting;
Michel Chabrol, director of
sales support, Eutelsat; Anthony
Geffen, chief executive & creative
TV Loudness
SBS
Broadcasting
in
The
Netherlands has installed Jünger
Audio’s Level Magic solution for
loudness processing across all of its
television channels. SBS was prompted to investigate loudness control in
order to comply with the new EBU
R128 loudness recommendation.
Josbert van Rooijen, manager
Broadcast & IT at SBS, said:
“Complying with R128 is a
Where is
3D TV now
Continued from page 1
3D Masters encapsulates this
with expert-led seminars taking
apart the basics of stereo capture,
prepping a 3D shoot for multiscreen deliverables and case studies
from producers on the practicalities
of 3D commercials and documentary projects. All this and an
appraisal of what is required to
produce episodic 3DTV.
Establishing a business case
for the introduction of 3DTV
Another brand new venture
launching on 5 April will be
Sports Broadcast Europe —
TVBEurope’s Sports Video
Technology newsletter. The fortnightly send, written and compiled by Adrian Pennington and
David Fox, will be aimed at the
sports, events and live production
sectors. It will deliver the latest
news on outside broadcast
technologies, workflows and
business to the European broadcast industry.
These new digital newsletters
add to our existing and successful
collection of e-newsletters: TVBe
weekly, Audio for Broadcast fortnightly and our special previews
for BVE, NAB and IBC.
To keep up-to-date on the
latest news from all parts of the
technology broadcasting market,
make sure you sign up at
www.tvbeurope.com/newsletters
and I/O interface cards enabling it
to completely integrate workflow
for managing surround sound
and Dolby coded 5.1 audio
signals in production, ingest and
playout. These include HD/SDI
de-embedding/embedding with
VANC, Dolby E resynchronisation with in-built video delay and
Dolby Metadata generation.
All C8000 systems include the
Level Magic adaptive loudness
algorithm, which is based on a
Multi-Loop dynamic range control principle. This enables slow
changes (AGC), fast changes
(Transient processing) and Look
Ahead peak limiting to be handled simultaneously.
junger-audio.com
director, Atlantic Productions;
Duncan Humphreys, creative
director, Can Communicate; Sam
Martin, director of documentary,
Decode; Andy Milns, founder &
director, Pointy Stick; Danny
Popkin, technical development
manager, BBC Studios & Post
Production; David Pounds, chief
executive, Electric Sky; Natalie
Samson, head of TV, Vision 3;
Julian Stanford, general manager, IMAX Corporation; and
Phil Streather, CEO, Principal
Large Format.
Follow the evolving conference programme, and avail of the
Early Bird registration offer, at
CONTENTS
1-10 News & Analysis
1 3D Masters 2011
Adrian Pennington
and Fergal Ringrose
reveal the line-up at
TVBEurope’s second
3D Masters conference
on 15 June at BAFTA
6 Wireless channel hop
European broadcast
wireless audio users will
have to swap channels
as governments
comply with an EU
Directive following the
analogue switch off.
David Fox reports
13-21 The Workflow
13 BBC back to roots
Philip Stevens follows
the BBC’s move to a
redeveloped and
extended Broadcasting
House bringing more
than 5,500 staff under
one roof
18 Hollywood’s 3D
Awards
Walking the red carpet,
Carolyn Giardina
reports from behind the
scenes at the 3D
broadcast of the 3D
Creative Arts Awards in
Hollywood
24-44 NAB Sneak
Preview
TVBEurope gives you
a second chance to
see what vendors have
planned for NAB 2011
in Las Vegas
46-49 The Workflow
46 Carmen in 3D
George Jarrett talks
to Phil Streather
about planning,
production and post
on the RealD Project,
Carmen 3D
www.3D-TVMasters.com.
50-53 The Business Case
50 BBC technology
blueprint
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www.tvbeurope.com A P R I L 2 0 1 1
Cloud, metadata and
file-based production
are on the BBC’s
technology agenda,
writes Adrian Pennington
62 News & Analysis
Connected TV at DTG
Richard Dean reports
on the main topics of
discussion at this
year’s DTG AGM and
conference
3
TVBE_April P1,3,4,8
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TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S
Ian Davies, Argosy
DEV, Squire worked for Snell &
Wilcox, Codan & Pro-Bel. She
will be working closely with
DEV’s UK-based systems engineer David Joyce.
Marquis Consulting has
recruited David Burge as its
latest senior associate. Burge
brings over 30 years of
experience working in broadcasting. He previously held
senior management positions
at Channel 5 Broadcasting,
Carlton, BSkyB, ITV Network
Centre, Granada TV and
Thames Television.
The NewTek board of directors has promoted Andrew Cross
to chief technology officer.
Cross will report to NewTek
CEO and President Jim Plant.
“Andrew has managed the
development and release of a
long string of successful products during his 13-year tenure
with NewTek,” said NewTek
Founder, Tim Jenison. A new
addition for NewTek Europe is
Joshua Schneeloch who joined
as sales representative for
Germany,
Austria
and
Switzerland (DACH).
Prime Focus has strengthened its European Content
Services Division by recruiting
David Candler as senior sales
executive. Based in London, his
new role will involve exploring
opportunities for digital delivery
and global content services contracts using CLEAR, Prime
Focus Technologies’ hybrid
cloud multi-platform content
Andrew Cross, NewTek
Joshua S Th Schneeloch, NewTek Europe
Jo van der Linde, Tyrell CCT
Craig Newbury, Axon Digital Design
People on the move
Argosy has announced the
appointment of Ian Davies who
will run its new Manchester
branch office and warehouse
facility. He takes on the role of
senior sales engineer reporting to
Chris Smeeton, sales manager.
Davies previously held key positions at PAG and Teletest.
Axon Digital Design has
expanded its UK sales force with
the appointment of Craig
Newbury. Before joining Axon,
Newbury had most recently
worked for both AmberFin and
Snell & Wilcox as sales executive.
Prior to that he held operational
positions with Ascent Media and
Technicolor. Newbury will report
to Axon UK Regional Sales
Director Bill Leadbetter.
Sandra Squire has joined DEV
Systemtechnik’s UK team as area
sales manager. Prior to joining
Sandra Squire, DEV Systemtechnik
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operations solution. Candler has
held a number of key senior
commercial and operational
positions within Technicolor,
Ascent Media, RTL Group,
Pearson Television and the BBC.
Red Bee Media has reorganised and strengthened its commercial team. Steve Plunkett, director
of technology and innovation, and
Stella Medlicott, chief marketing
officer, have been appointed to the
executive leadership team reporting directly into Bill Patrizio,
CEO. James Arnold, an experienced member of the Red Bee
executive team, has assumed the
expanded role of director of commercial and legal affairs.
Jo van der Linde has joined
Tyrell CCT as new business
development manager. Van der
Linde brings a wealth of media
industry and account management experience to the role having held senior sales positions in
Panasonic Broadcast Systems,
Emap and TNS Global.
Morten Holst will take on the
role of online product strategy
manager within Vizrt’s marketing
team from 1 June. In a newly created position, Holst joins Vizrt
from VG, Norway’s largest online
and printed newspaper, where he
held the position as business
development
manager
for
Strategic Channels and Platforms.
Oxygen joins the Elite: Oxygen
DCT has added a new range of
LCD picture monitors to its
Evolution Pro Series. The
Evolution Elite monitors can
handle all formats including 4.2.2,
4.4.4, 1080p, 3Gbps and Dual
Link as well as standard HD-SDI,
SDI-SDI, DVI, HDMI and all
analogue signal formats. These
‘super’ monitors also address the
need for audio monitoring with an
integrated eight channel audio deembedded audio metering with
users selectable scales including
VU, PPM, EBU, BBC and Nordic.
The Elite combines the functions
of a traditional monitor with a
signal quality measurement tool,
providing important facilities such
as a waveform monitor, a vector
display, CRC and EDH error
detection and analysis of ancillary
data packets. All of the
engineering functions are
controlled by FlightDeck, a
system that allows users to
simultaneously monitor the
picture, waveform, vector, eight
channels of audio, signal status
and other functions on screen at
the same time. — Melanie
Dayasena-Lowe
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4
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TVBE_April P6 News
28/3/11
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Page 6
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director Fergal Ringrose
[email protected]
Media House, South County Business Park,
Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
+3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799
Deputy Editor Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
[email protected]
+44 (0)207 921 8346
UBM Ltd, Ludgate House,
245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UR
Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington
Associate Editor David Fox
USA Correspondent Carolyn Giardina
Contributors Bob Charlton, Mike Clark,
Richard Dean, Chris Forrester, Jonathan Higgins,
Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett,
Heather McLean, Bob Pank, Nick Radlo,
Neal Romanek, Philip Stevens, Will Strauss,
Reinhard E Wagner
Digital Editor David Davies, Paul Watson
Digital Content Manager Tim Frost
Publisher Joe Hosken
ART & PRODUCTION
Group Production Editor Dawn Boultwood
Production Executive Alistair Taylor
SALES
Sales Director Steve Connolly
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7921 8316
Deputy Sales Manager Ben Ewles
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7921 8233
Business Development Manager Alex Hall
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7921 8305
US SALES
Michael Mitchell
Broadcast Media International, PO Box 44,
Greenlawn, New York, NY 11740
[email protected]
+1 (631) 673 3199 Fax: +1 (631) 673 0072
JAPAN AND KOREA SALES
Sho Harihara
Sales & Project, Yukari Media Incorporated
[email protected]
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ISSN 1461-4197
6
Broadcast users channel hop
Spectrum Analysis
European broadcast wireless audio users will have
to swap channels, and probably buy new equipment,
as governments comply with an EU Directive on
what to do with broadcast spectrum following the
analogue switch-off. David Fox reports
The EU wants to use the 800MHz frequency
band used by analogue TV for mobile communications and high-speed internet access, which will
mean repositioning some TV channels and a frequency switch for users of radio microphones.
The UK is one of the first countries to make
this change, as governments see the opportunity to
make billions from the ‘digital dividend’ sell off
(Germany raised €3.576 billion last May for its
800MHz spectrum). Starting this month, licensed
wireless users in the UK have to start moving from Sennheiser Business Development Specialist Alan March: In the UK alone,
Channel 69 (854-862 MHz) to Channel 38 (606- the PMSE sector employs more than 150,000 people producing content
614 MHz), which generally involves investment in
completely new equipment. Sweden, Germany and France will be
among the next wave of countries making the change.
“It’s quite a significant move for the whole industry in Europe,”
says Sony’s Strategic Marketing Manager, Bill Drummond. Not
all countries will be moving to Channel 38 (Sweden is going to
Channel 42, others are going to 51).
Channel 69 is part of the wider 790-862MHz band that is being
reallocated for new LTE 4G mobile services. “There is tremendous
pressure on RF spectrum. The frequencies from 470MHz all
the way up to the bottom of Channel 69, which is 854MHz,
traditionally have been allocated solely for broadcast or services
ancillary to broadcasting,” such as wireless microphones, says
Alan March, business development specialist, Sennheiser.
Television’s move to digital transmission “freed up” frequencies
for other uses, as far as regulators were concerned, but “far from Sony’s Bill Drummond: “It’s a significant move for the whole industry in Europe”
being unused, these frequencies are in use daily for large production
events,” including broadcasting, theatre and conferences, he adds.
The UK’s radio telescopes will be switching channels, but as the
“A programme like The X Factor goes to air using in excess of 70 Netherlands also uses Channel 38 for radio astronomy, the UK could
channels of wireless products. That needs a lot of spectrum.”
only use that frequency for short-range uses, such as wireless audio.
Channel 38 should be completely free, UK wide, by 2012, when
Finite tuning range
the analogue TV switch-off will be complete. The wireless systems
So broadcasters, manufacturers and others across the programme on offer should, at least, cover channels 38-40. “It is likely that
making and special events sector (PMSE) have spent a lot of time other countries will also choose 38, but it is not clear yet which
over the last 18 months lobbying for both a move to a new clear country will move to which band,” added Drummond.
frequency and for compensation due to the expense of modifying
There will also be other bandwidth available locally for shortexisting equipment or buying new.
range use, in the white space not used by digital TV transmissions
Both Sony and Sennheiser are members of BEIRG (the British due to the risks of interference. Ofcom, the UK regulator, wants
Entertainment Industry Radio Group — www.beirg.co.uk), which to see Channel 69 cleared by July 2012, so that it will then be availworks to ensure that sufficient quantity and quality of spectrum is able for use by incoming media organisations during the
available to the entertainment industry, and ran an effective Save Olympics. Mobile companies should be able to start using the
Our Sound campaign to ensure wireless users weren’t squeezed released frequencies at the end of 2012, assuming a successful
out. “We’re very concerned with our customers’ requirements and (litigation free) outcome to the spectrum auctions.
making sure their concerns are represented to government,” says
Drummond. In the UK alone, the PMSE sector employs more Licence exempt
Part of Channel 70 (from 863-865MHz) is licence exempt, so you
than 150,000 people producing content.
It managed to win an agreement that any wireless user who pur- don’t need an operator’s licence. This tends to be used with less
chased a licence from the regulator should receive about 55% of the expensive wireless systems.
“If you are only running a couple of channels, that is still an
replacement cost (as detailed in a comprehensive rate card which sets
out what is considered a comparable current model for obsolete option. However, it remains to be seen how clean that 863-865 will
equipment). Any equipment claimed for has to be surrendered to the be once the new mobile services are rolled out. At the moment
scheme administrator (Equiniti), or proof of modification shown Ofcom’s position is that we can continue to use that. Not just in this
country. It’s more or less a pan-European allocation,” says March.
before December 2012, when all claims must have been processed.
This licence-free bandwidth can support four radio microThe funding is also going to hire companies (who don’t need a
licence — their customers do), and will help pay for new equip- phone channels, or up to six if you use one of the latest wireless
ment or upgrading those models that can be modified to work in systems, such as Sennheiser’s Range E G3 line. However, there is
the new bandwidth. Many of the more recent wireless systems no de-regulated spectrum within the tuning range around Channel
from various manufacturers can support Channel 38, but this usu- 38, so all systems using this bandwidth will require an operator’s
ally requires return-to-factory modification. “All wireless equip- licence. One shared licence per user covers multiple systems operment has a finite tuning range, so Channel 69 equipment, general- ating on the shared frequencies. Licences are available from the
spectrum management company JFMG (www.jfmg.co.uk), and
ly speaking, does not tune to Channel 38,” says March.
Registration for the funding scheme finished at the end of last year, there are currently about 1,700 licences held for Channel 69.
Sony recently started deliveries of its first Channel 38 devices
and about 66% of registered licence holders have applied for the funding.
“Channel 38 is a good fit in the UK as it is just being used for (analogue entry level UWP products for ENG use), and will soon
radio telescopes, and there are currently limits on using it near the have its 800-series analogue mid-range models and DWX-series digtelescopes (near Manchester and Cambridge), where channels 39 ital products for the new frequency. Drummond sees it as “an opporand 40 can be used in the short term,” explains Drummond. There tunity [for customers] to re-invest in digital at the same time.”
are also problems using Channel 38 where analogue switch-off www.ofcom.org.uk
www.pmsefunding.co.uk
hasn’t yet occurred.
28/3/11
11:27
Page 1
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TVBE_April P1,3,4,8
28/3/11
11:45
Page 8
SGT plays out in France
SGT was in charge of the playout
and media management for identification and media acquisition
for four TMC channels in Monaco
and two NT1 channels in
Boulogne (near Paris), as well as
content checking and archiving.
The installed workflows for NT1
and TMC are identical. The objective was to ensure the playout continuity while reproducing TMC´s
workflow for NT1, and to share as
Playout Systems
Software vendor SGT has assisted
its client TMC in the process of
extending and modernising its
playout system and integrating the
French TV channel NT1. Since
last November, NT1 has been
broadcast through TMC´s control
room in Monaco. For the project,
AP to go HD by
London 2012
camera staff will no longer be tethered to a satellite truck.
“Ultimately this investment will
give our customers a wide range of
options about the technology they
use to receive video, both in the traditional broadcast market and on digital platforms — and we believe 2011
is the tipping point when the majority
of the international TV news market
will want pictures in HD.”
AP began the project with a
detailed analysis of customers’
requirements, followed by a technical assessment of competing Sony
and Panasonic cameras at the end
of last year. “We decided that the
Panasonic P2 solid state system was
right for us,” says Hoad. “We considered it to be more reliable within
a hostile environment — such as
desert sand in the Middle East
for example — than any electromechanical system, and a better fit
for our file-based workflow.
“We’ll be using a mixture of P2
cards, mostly at the lower end of
capacity, as we do a lot of fast turnaround, short duration material.
Field material will be locally
archived onto consumer-based
technology such as Blu-ray, which is
widely available and doesn’t need a
support package.
“Looking beyond the acquisition
of content, we are installing a stateof-the-art HD MCR in London and
an integrated satellite and video-overIP contribution network capable of
working in HD and SD. There will
also be a new video production system in London that fully integrates
with our archive systems, to ensure
that all content is captured in HD for
our archive customers.
“Outside of London we are
undertaking very similar MCR and
production system upgrades in New
York, Washington DC and LA,”
says Hoad. “The mobile systems
providing content to our GMS
(Global Media Services) customers
will also be upgraded to HD but
will be flexible enough to provide
customer feeds in HD or SD.”
Sprint to the line
As well as the delivery of HD
and SD files to Media Port, live
breaking news in HD video for
APTN Direct, HD services to
GMS customers and the upgrade
of archive systems to capture HD
content, the new system will see the
introduction of ‘eBusiness’ transactions and the global migration to
a true file-based workflow. “AP is
undertaking market research and
discussions with customers regarding the file formats to be supported
by the new eBusiness delivery platforms,” says Hoad.
Several projects are already running in parallel. “We have started to
deploy new solid-state cameras,
video editing, compression and
transfer tools, and appointed system integrators to upgrade the
London and New York MCRs.
Plans are also underway on replacement production systems in
London, and upgrades to our video
communications networks.”
These new systems and workflows build on AP’s current use of
much existing equipment as possible. The system now interfaces with
the LOUISE traffic system from
Proconsultant according to TMC´s
workflows already in place.
“Following the acquisition in
2010 of 80% of TMC and 100%
of NT1 by the TF1 Group, it was
important to quickly upgrade the
existing playout systems for the
two channels and to share the
playout tools. SGT responded to
View of London newsroom: Similar MCR and production upgrades
are also planned for New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles
technology, where a producer can
edit content at the desktop as it is
being recorded for fast turnaround
to customers via the company’s
GVW (Global Video Wire), APTN
Direct and Media Port services.
All 80 AP video news bureaux
will be affected to some extent, with
large locations undergoing significant upgrades such as MCR, editing
and transmission technologies, while
smaller one person bureaux will have
new camera and editing equipment.
Hoad admits that AP faces an
aggressive timescale to complete
this work in time for the launch of
its first digital news products in HD
by the end of this year — followed
by a sprint towards the ‘drop dead’
finishing line of London 2012. “The
magnitude of this project is such
that we shall have to upgrade all of
our infrastructure right from the
camera lens to the distribution
technologies and everything in
between,” he says. “However in
recent years we’ve been purchasing
HD-ready equipment in preparation for this strategic initiative, so
not every nut and bolt will need to
be replaced as we migrate to HD.”
The majority of video infrastructure will be replaced or
upgraded to HD, although some of
the equipment will be retained as
AP still has a need to work with SD
in specific locations. The oldest
equipment will be recycled where
possible, or if not scrapped.
Clearly not all customers will
have ‘gone HD’ by the middle of
next year. “Indeed, so as well as
delivering HD content via APTN
our expectations and ensured
exemplary project management,”
said Guy Fougerolle, technical
director for the thematic channels
of TF1 Group.
The acquisition management for
the Monegasque platform has been
completed with a remote SeaChange
video server based at NT1´s headquarters in Boulogne near Paris.
TMC and NT1 share the same
archiving space. SGT manages a
new archiving robot through Diva
Manager (Front Porch). This workflow adds to the existing archiving
workflow type NOL (based on an
Apple archive server).
www.sgt.eu
satellite delivery compared to fibre.
“There is still a need for both methods of acquisition, and over the
years AP has been very innovative
in how we use technology to cover
breaking news.
“Often in some very remote
and challenging locations, different types of technology have been
vital in getting content to our
customers as fast as possible, and
the new system should streamline
that process.”
There are also plans to make
greater use of the internet for content delivery, but satellite remains
the principal means of delivery for
HD content to broadcasters. “The
internet will be a very important
part of the customer experience
going forward for our new products that are under development,”
Hoad adds.
“Citizen journalism has a part to play, and
sometimes delivers great footage. But we don’t
see it as a competitor” — Dave Hoad
Direct and as HD files via Media
Port, we shall maintain SD files
via Media Port. Also the GVW
will remain as a linear playout of
content in SD. By adopting this
hybrid approach to content
delivery, we shall be allowing
customers to choose the format
most applicable to them,” says
Hoad, adding that AP currently
has no major plans to introduce
3D services.
Despite the new capability to
interface with cellular networks,
Hoad doesn’t expect to see a significant change in the proportion of
After all this investment in an
expensive network of professional
newsgathering crews and equipment,
doesn’t the increasingly high quality
footage from private camcorders or
even phones represent a threat to
parts of the newsgathering industry?
“Citizen journalism has a part
to play, and sometimes delivers
great footage,” says Hoad. “But we
don’t see it as a competitor: apart
from high quality technical and editorial standards, we can offer a level
of trust and authority that cannot
necessarily be relied upon from an
amateur source.”
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11:28
Page 1
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TVBE_April P10 News
28/3/11
15:14
Page 10
Giving a concert added dimension
A high profile rock concert needed special attention for its 3D
transmission. Philip Stevens talked to the editor to discover
what was involved behind the scenes in 3D post production
3D Production
Enrique Bunbury’s popularity in
Spain meant that when he starred
in a rock concert in Madrid,
the television coverage demanded
considerable thought — especially
for the 3D version that was transmitted on Canal+3D. Vértice
360º was entrusted with the production of this event, with associated companies Videoreport and
Apuntolapospo handling the
staging and editing respectively.
In all, seven stereoscopic units
and four mono cameras were
used to cover the event.
“This was the first music concert in 3D for Canal+ Spain,”
explains Bernat Aragones, film
editor and director of post production at Apuntolapospo. “As a
result, Enrique Bunbury and Paco
Plaza, the director, were very passionate about the idea and the
challenge. Although the concert
was recorded for later transmission, we wanted to create the
excitement of a live atmosphere.”
It was decided to build three
sets in the centre of the soundstage
and have the crew and the audience
move around them. These very distinct sets recreated a cemetery, a
plane crash and a saloon. The
show was recorded twice in each of
these scenarios in order to obtain
different camera positions for editing. To enable the dramatic lighting
needed for the 3D production, the
cameras were moved around the
circular set according to exact preestablished positions. Next to the
OB truck, a stereoscopic control
unit was installed to monitor and
adjust the rigs remotely.
The OB truck was equipped
with an EVS array of disks that
recorded the discreet Left/Right
HDSDI camera signals. Several
resolutions were tested before
the DNXHD 185 was selected for
this production. The 3D content
was provided directly from the
OB truck as MXF files to
Apuntolapospo’s Nucoda system.
Some years ago, Aragones
selected Avid as his preferred
editing system to work alongside
Nucoda. “Our workflow was
conceived with a nonlinear IT
based architecture that would
allow for easy platform integration in the future. The Avid and
Nucoda combination allow for
great flexibility, especially since
the Nucoda adopted the MFX.”
Throughout the process, all
source material was stored on
Avid Unity MediaNetwork allowing multiple users to work on the
same content at the same time.
Aragones believes that efficient
storage is crucial to fast turnaround jobs to ensure all content
could be referenced back to the
original material, if needed.
The Nucoda Film Master was
used to create the DnxHD sideby-side rushes for the offline
process. Files were written directly
back to the Unity as MFX and
opened in the Media Composer.
Aragones has used the Avid
Media Composer for a number of
years and finds it ideally suited to
3D post production. He continues, “The great thing about Media
Composer is that once the source
material has been aligned you can
edit in 3D and switch easily
between a 2D and 3D view.”
Both left eye and right eye content was imported directly into
Digital Vision’s Nucoda Film
Master for alignment before editing.
It was considered vital that eye content was aligned, otherwise it would
have been impossible to work with
the material in the stereo edit.
Different perceptions
Aragones wanted to edit in 3D
because he knew his decisions
would be different from 2D editing.
“The image is perceived differently,
and I needed to see the pictures as
Rock ’n’ Roll: A specially built set, tastefully depicting a plane crash
that uses fast cutting, image overlays, camera movements, fragmentation, changes of point of view
and so on. Aragones says that 3D
will allow for this and much more,
but adds “3D camera acquisition
technology needs to improve to
allow the same flexibility we have
“Training for 3D editors relies on sense of story, a
deep visual culture and the ability to focus on what’s
important. Needless to say, basic stereoscopic
knowledge and strong technological background is
also necessary” — Bernat Aragones
the viewer would be experiencing
them. On the other hand, the fast
turnaround meant there would be
no time for compositing restoration
of a misaligned shot. That is why in
order to proceed with the 3D editing, the material had first to be
properly aligned.”
He maintains that 2D audiences
expect a very complex narrative
One of the dramatic sets used for the Enrique Bunbury concert in Madrid
achieved in 2D shooting. Also,
audiences are learning to see 3D. At
present, a long shot provides a
sense of immersion that holds people’s attention, but this will fade as
people get more used to it. Basically
this is the reason why 2D and 3D
cuts are different. If you cut for 3D,
the 2D version will probably feel
somewhat less intense than what
the viewer is used to experiencing.”
Media Composer was also used
by Apuntolapospo to synch the
audio and a small amount of pregrading was also done before the
main body of the edited content
was then exported to Nucoda Film
Master as an AAF for the final
grade. The preferred method for
this grading was to complete a
mono version first, although
Aragones notes that this routine
may change from project to project.
“I think the final grade on a
stereoscopic project should be done
in 3D, unless the technological
TM
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Television Audio Processor
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drawbacks disrupt the creative
process. When this happens, I recommend keeping the creative momentum and later adjust the second eye.
Obviously, this is very dependant on
the footage. In an uncontrolled environment with bright sky or lights
pointing at the camera and productions with mirror rigs, you might
have several binocular asymmetries
related to colour that need fixing.
Doing that during the final grade
might disturb the process of creating
colour consistency and giving an
artistic intention to the piece.”
After the mono version was
finished, the grade merge feature
on the Nucoda Film Master was
used to apply automatically the
grades to the left and right eye of
the 3D programme. Then a final
pass was made to adjust the discrepancies between the two eyes.
“We consider colour correction a separate department from
editing because it involves using
sophisticated tools and requires
specialist knowledge. In addition,
our technical infrastructure and
workflow allows for great efficiency and we get better and
faster results this way.”
As 3D is considered for more
and more productions, expertise in
editing for the medium will increase,
but meanwhile there are new skills
to be learned by editors. “The editor
is the first viewer of the film, so his
or her knowledge of the medium is
essential for the quality of the production. The training for 3D editors
relies on the sense of story, a deep
visual culture and the ability to
focus on what is important.
Needless to say, basic stereoscopic
knowledge and strong technological
background is also necessary.”
Aragones concludes, “The type
of 3D work has been evolving over
the years. It can be said that 2010
was the year for 3DTV content and
we provided stereoscopic design
and control for live broadcast
events such as tennis, bullfighting
and opera to Digital Cinema
screens. We also shot and post produced music concerts, circus shows,
commercials and documentaries
for both Digital Cinema and
3DTV. About 40% of our output
has been in 3D, and this will continue to grow in the future.”
28/3/11
11:32
Page 1
21/3/11
17:35
Page 1
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TVBE_April P13-21 Workflow
28/3/11
11:58
Page 13
TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W
BBC goes back to its roots
The iconic home for the BBC in London’s west end has seen many changes over the years.
Philip Stevens takes a close look at the latest — the move of TV News from Television
Centre at White City and of the World Service from Bush House to Broadcasting House
TV News Transition
It was in May 1932 that the BBC
moved into the imposing building
that became known as Broadcasting House (BH). Located
right in the heart of London, this
headquarters building has been
the source of most of the
Corporation’s radio broadcasts
for almost 80 years.
Almost three decades later, in
order to provide a home for its
expanding television service, the
equally impressive Television Centre
opened in the White City area of
west London. Prior to that time, a
number of studios had been used for
television output — with news originating from Alexandra Palace (‘Ally
Pally’) in north London. Beyond
that, the BBC World Service has
created its own programmes from
the equally well-known Bush House
located in Aldwych.
However, over the next year or
so, these three major parts of the
BBC’s operation will be merged
within the distinguished walls of
a redeveloped and extended
Broadcasting House in a project
known as BBC W1.
“As the BBC moves towards
fully digital production, it became
clear that Television Centre and
Bush House could not meet all
the requirements of a broadcaster in the multimedia age,” reports
Andy Griffee, programme director, W1 Project. “A radical
solution was needed, and the
redevelopment of the site at
Broadcasting House offered that
opportunity bringing more than
5,500 staff under one roof.”
The move means that for the
first time, all the BBC’s national
and global journalism can plan
coverage together, share expertise
and respond more quickly to
breaking stories. The aim is both
to reduce costs and raise quality.
Griffee goes on, “Aside from the
creative benefits, there are also
direct financial advantages to moving. These include operating with a
single Technology Support team
and the sale or surrender of leases
on a wide range of smaller buildings scattered across London.”
The empty shell of the revamped
building has now been passed from
the builders to the BBC. This has
allowed the next phase to be implemented – the installation and testing
of new technology.
Andy Baker, controller of
Major Projects, Infrastructure —
the man responsible for delivering
the W1 Phase 2 Technology
The new look Broadcasting House that will house the news teams
from across the networks and online services (5,500 staff)
The curved glass facade (Cyclorama)
and ‘World’ piazza lit up at night
Credit: Mike O’Dwyer
programme — says “some of the
technology will be familiar to the
teams, some of it is new. The
move provides us with an opportunity to upgrade and replace
much of the technology that’s
coming to the end of its useful
life. We can also reduce the number of systems currently in use to
enable more effective and efficient
ways of working.”
Phasing the transition
During the first part of the fit out,
the BBC’s Technology project
teams will install miles of fibres
and cables under the floors and up
and down the building. These will
join up the servers and other
equipment required in apparatus
rooms, studios and production
office areas. This will be followed
by the equipping of the TV studios
for the BBC News Channel, BBC
World, and programmes like
Newsnight. One wing, known as
Egton, houses four TV presentation areas and four radio studios
and is already occupied by BBC
London TV and Radio, Arabic
TV and Radio and Persian TV.
The next stage of the project will
see the TV and radio editing systems
installed, along with the technology
to support graphics, weather and
online output and communications
systems. Finally, lights, sets and
cameras will be commissioned.
This installation and subsequent testing will take until the
end of 2011. The move of personnel will then be phased in during
2012 and the early part of 2013. In
fact, the various moves have been
scheduled around the delivery of
new technology packages and a
busy editorial year that includes
the 2012 London Olympics,
the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,
London Mayoral elections and a
US Presidential election.
Baker reveals that there will be
five television studios, two flexible
multiplatform presentation areas
and 27 radio studios in the new
development. In addition, there
are a number of radio studios in
the old Broadcasting House, which
have been refurbished as part of
Phase 1 of the redevelopment.
“It is currently anticipated
that one of the four TV studios
in the basement will be configured for virtual reality. This
will allow maximum flexibility
and use by a wide range of different programmes.”
Through its normal procurement process, the Corporation
has selected Sony HSC 300 HD
cameras. At present, no decisions
have been made regarding the
lenses or peds that will be used in
conjunction with these cameras.
The studios will be equipped with
Snell Kahuma vision mixers — all
of which will be HD-capable.
Snell will also provide a Sirius 800
Series large-scale multiformat
system for core video routing.
On the audio side, Calrec
Artemis Beam consoles will be
used for television production,
while Studer On-Air 3000 desks
will be employed for radio use.
The contract for comms, which
was awarded to DELEC, will result
in the largest intercom system in the
world. This installation will incorporate a 3072x3072 central router
that can be expanded to 4096 x 4096
routing if required. The router connects to several intercom frames via
standard Ethernet links. At the
same time, this also provides a
connection of remote sites to the
Broadcasting House intercom.
Overall, the new system covers over
300 desktop and rack mount panels, all of which provide 18 character labelling, that is the standard in
DELEC intercom, and will operate
at 48kHz 24-bit.
To meet its editing needs, the
BBC has opted for the Quantel
Enterprise sQ system — the largest
of which can handle 2,600 hours of
HD storage across 12 sQ servers.
For playout, the Quantel technology includes 10 sQ servers with a
total of 300 hours of HD storage.
Alongside 19 SQEdit Plus and
11 Final Cut Pro craft editors,
which are fully integrated into the
Quantel workflow, the system supports a very high level of scalable
desktop production including 46
Quantel SQEdit editors and 500
journalist workstations all integrated into the BBC’s own Jupiter
Asset Management system.
Newsroom needs
“As far as the journalists are concerned, most of them will be able to
work on systems that are the same
or very familiar,” declares Peter
Coles, technology controller journalism — responsible for looking
after technology around the globe
for BBC News, World Service and
English Regions. “However, in
practice, all of the equipment and
infrastructure will be new and rearchitected for bringing all news
services together in multiple languages, while appearing as a minimal change for the users.”
The universal text-based system ENPS will migrate to W1
using a recently upgraded version,
but there will be updates of the
main audio and video production
systems from Quantel. “The
automation system for the TV
Galleries will be entirely new for all
users — Mosart, provided by Dalet
— and will be configured to work
in the same way in all transmission
areas to enhance interoperability.”
Coles continues, “One of the
aims of moving to Broadcasting
House is to fully exploit the
breadth and depth of BBC journalism, which requires tools to
allow editorial collaboration,
knowledge management and
media sharing. At the heart of this
endeavour is the Journalism Portal
— currently being developed on a
Sharepoint platform, but already
live and in daily use. This JPortal
will be fully rolled out and familiar
to users well before migration.”
The JPortal, when coupled
with the new single production
platforms, will provide increased
opportunity for collaboration
and sharing at an editorial,
resource and operational level for
BBC journalists both within and
outside the new facility.
Another feature of the newsroom infrastructure is Jupiter —
the BBC Journalism’s strategic
content management system.
“This is crucial to an increasing
number of non-news users to
access journalism content,” states
Coles. “Jupiter has enabled significant change in journalism, allowing streamlined workflows and
Continued on page 14
BBC facts and figures
Some interesting metrics for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Broadcasting
House redevelopment
G 830 racks are being installed in Phase 2 of BH — enough to fill 23
articulated lorries!
G There will be 35,000 LAN cables in Phase 2 — which equates to
around 2,000km of cable — long enough to stretch from London to
Reykavik, Iceland
G All video cabling between areas will be fibre optic to allow for HD
G It will house one of the largest integrated communication systems in
Europe (DELEC)
G It will have the largest video and audio routing (switching) capacity
anywhere in the BBC
G Five TV studios, one of which is a flexible rig, double height studio
G 27 edit suites
G 60 radio studios altogether — in both Phase I (original Broadcasting
House, home to BBC radio and music) and Phase 2
13
28/3/11
11:58
Page 14
Studio Six: 3D and 3G facility
BBC has kitted out studio six at TV Centre as a 3D production facility. By Adrian Pennington
3D Build-Out
As plans for the upgrade to Studio
Six at TV Centre were being drawn
up late last year, BBC Studios and
Post Production (BBC S&PP)
decided to make it not just the UK’s
first 1080 50P HD studio but a 3D
equipped facility also. The production control, lighting and vision
control areas were refurbished, as
well as the vision apparatus area,
including the installation of dual
link 1.5Gbps and single link 3Gbps
HD video infrastructure.
Although BBC has no transmission path for 3D or a 3D content
agenda, in the view of BBC S&PP
there would be demand for 3D work.
“It’s our business as a facility
provider to ensure we captured some
of that market by providing the most
up to date facility we can,” explains
Technical Development Manager
Danny Popkin. “Studio Six can handle any HD source or HD material
at 1080 50P as well as stereo 3D.
“Initially the upgrade wasn’t
going to be 3D but we realised that
most 3D production was outside
broadcast based and felt there was
an opportunity to bring the experience into the studio and gallery to
replicate conventional production
as much as possible.” The 800sqm
space can accommodate up to eight
3D rigs or 16 camera channels. An
adjoining room has space for eight
stereographers and/or convergence
pullers although Popkin believes
Danny Popkin: “To facilitate any
3DTV production we’ve got to find
a way of getting camera optics
lined-up in good time”
studio shows could effectively
employ four convergence pullers
working eight channels.
The BBC has one channel of 3D
in-house, a Swiss rig with Sony
HDC1500s and a HDC-P1 box
camera with other channels
obtained from the hire market as
required. A Sony MPE200 processor
is used to provide final convergence
and CCD centering. Five large lens
adaptors with Fujinon AH 27x 6.5
studio box lenses and a full complement of Fujinon wide angle or standard lenses are available.
“Because technology is moving so fast the time is not right for
investing in rigs and accessories,”
he says. “We will cord onto any
technology clients want, such as
directly to an EVS or SRW.”
Popkin plumped for the Swissrig
after testing competitors, including
those from Stereotech and Element
Technica, “primarily because it
would take a full-sized camera such
as the HDC1500 with P1 working in
dual stream HD so that down one
fibre we could get two cameras
back. The Swissrig is a neat solution
and the quality of its optical glass,
during our testing, appeared to the
best of its kind around.”
Rounding out the gallery’s kit is
a Studer On-air 3000 sound desk
and Sony MVS-8000 vision mixer
which operates 4ME in standard
and 2ME in 3D mode, ensuring
compatability with the rest of the
mixers in the building.
Instead of a multiviewer, monitoring is via 42-inch and 24-inch
Sony LMD-4251TD LCDs. These
models incorporate a micro-polariser filter attached to the panel
and come supplied with polarised
glasses. A Colledia Control system
allows simple control of dual or
single link selection for monitoring
with a full memory system.
Glue products include Crystal
Vision upconverters, downconverters, and dual-link to 3G converters.
The lighting gallery is refurbished
with 19-inch HD Ikegami CRT’s
and 15-inchTV Logic OLED’s for
camera previews.
Developments at NAB
For post there is an in-house FCP
with Cineform for offline cutting
and an Autodesk Smoke 2011 which
includes stereoscopic 3D finishing
capabilities. “Post is a rapidly changing area and one which we will be
keeping our eye on for developments at NAB,” says Popkin who
may combine a Las Vegas visit with
trips to Sony Pictures and 3Ality.
Two new Fairburn line-up charts
from DSC Labs will allow engineers
and DP’s to set the IA, convergence,
and geometry, as well as ensure that
the pairs of lenses are matched in
terms of breathing, ramping, zoom,
and focus adjustment range. In addition, the charts will be used to ensure
colourimetry accuracy, between the
dual cameras and between rigs.
“To facilitate any 3DTV production we’ve got to find a way of
getting camera optics lined-up in
good time,” says Popkin. “Technologies such as the Fairburn make
this process more feasible.”
BBC S&PP has provided 3D
facilities for Sky quiz Are you
smarter than a ten year old and the
BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing 3D
pilot. “We’ve also conducted
other pilots for indie productions
and our own test shoots,” reports
Popkin. “In our tests and
with indies we’ve tried to devise a
style that works for game and
panel shows.
“Some formats would benefit
from 3D. The broad rule is to take
things wider, give the viewer’s eye
a chance to look around and
adjust, ‘linger longer’. Formats
where the contestants are placed
between the audience and other
contestants or panellists for
example [Popkin references the
miming round of A Question of
Sport] seem to work well.”
Currently the only outlet in
the UK for 3DTV content is at
Sky but in order to pitch for Sky
commissions, independents need
to be sure of the technology and
ideas they are putting forward —
hence the need for tests.
“Indies are wary of the technology and of the cost,” says Popkin.
“The first step is to trial formats
and ideas. There has to be a collaborative approach between facility
providers, broadcasters and the
producer because TV schedules
and budgets don’t permit the careful crafting of single-camera shots.
Multi-camera shoots for 3DTV
require a different discipline and a
lot of pre-planning.”
BBC goes back
to its roots
rapid processing of editorial
assets. In reality, it enables hundreds of journalists to access,
instantaneously and simultaneously, key content including
Andy Baker, controller of Major
Projects, Infrastructure
agency wires, rushes, work-inprogress and TX-ready items.”
He maintains that this
advanced integration allows producers to share media and work
across a range of tools, including
the Quantel QCut desktop editor
and QEdit Pro craft seat, in addition to FCP, Avid and other editing systems across locations,
through the Jupiter file transfer
gateway (JEX). Furthermore,
the core Jupiter architecture has
been utilised to provide a webportal into many other content
stores across the BBC enabling a
global capability to manage and
share content.
Baker concludes, “The move
to BH offers the BBC opportunities to work differently and
will
enhance
collaboration
between divisions. Four different
Technology Operations support
teams have already been merged
into one, so that it can be as efficient and effective as possible
after the move into the new
Broadcasting House.”
14
28/3/11
11:37
Page 1
Smarter IT-based playout,
faster end-to-end workflows.
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>L»]LIYV\NO[HUL^SL]LSVM^VYRÅV^PU[LNYH[PVU[VT\S[PMVYTH[WSH`V\[)`JVTIPUPUNV\YP;?0;IHZLK
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TVYLJOHUULSZ^P[OHOPNOLYX\HSP[`VMZLY]PJL\ZPUNML^LYVWLYH[VYZ0[»ZHZTHY[LYZPTWSLYHWWYVHJO
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28/3/11
13:58
Page 16
Converting standards
for digital distribution
6HH
ZZZULHGHOQHW
16
Philip Stevens talks to a leading
distributor of digitised material about
the move to tapeless and HD for
commercials — and why it decided to
work with AmberFin on software that
delivers quality equivalent to
traditional broadcast video hardware
In those now distant days of supplying commercials on film, each broadcaster in the UK needed a copy of
the advertisement for every advertising slot within a specified period –
maybe one or two days. For commercials that ran frequently across
the network, that could mean a print
order that ran into, perhaps, 40 or 50
copies. Quite an expensive business!
The move to tape reduced that
requirement somewhat — but now
the transition to digital distribution has changed that situation yet
again. One estimate puts the UK
delivery of commercials by digital
means at 90%.
“We are a media logistics company that handles the digital distribution of commercials across the
UK, Ireland and major parts of
Europe,” explains Ross Priestley,
director of business development at
IMD (Independent Media Distribution), based in London’s West
End. “We’ve been in the business
since 1996 — first handling radio
then, from 2003 onwards, television
commercials. Until then, commercials were delivered to stations either
on tape or via distribution lines —
which was very expensive.”
Priestley reports that IMD started its Media Logistics business by
developing a software platform that
evolved from its original radiooriented provision. Over the past
eight years, the company has steadily built up the business and it now
handles distribution for around half
of all the TV commercials and 75%
of all radio commercials that are
produced in the United Kingdom.
In fact, during 2010, over 20,000
commercials were distributed. “We
are, if you like, a digital postman for
commercials.”
Dedicated facilities
To accomplish this massive task,
the company owns fibre connections — typically 100MB — to all
the major broadcasters in the UK
and Ireland. Clients supply IMD
with a file via an FTP connection
or, less common these days, on
DigiBeta tape.
“We do not just simply pass on
the production to the broadcaster,”
emphasises Priestley. “We carry
out exhaustive Quality Control
checks, too. We ensure that no
commercial sent out from here will
be rejected by a broadcaster
because of quality considerations.
Furthermore, we provide extensive
metadata to the stations to enable
Ross Priestley: “We ensure that no
commercial sent out from here will
be rejected by a broadcaster
because of quality considerations”
until the station has a delivery
window. Broadcasters receive the
commercial already in the right
format for transmission and it
requires no further manipulation.”
“Germany is currently leading the way in
accelerating delivery of native HD commercials
rather than up-resing existing SD ads. We have
recently made our first live HD deliveries to the
major German broadcasters” — Ross Priestley
easy and quick processing of material downstream.”
He continues, “Each broadcaster is provided with an IMD system,
which links directly into the station’s
ingest and traffic departments. The
benefit of this set up is that it allows
us to send a commercial as soon as
it is ready rather than having to wait
Bruce Devlin: “iCR Media Assist Pro solves the problem of
‘how can I view files as video on a broadcast grade one monitor’
Although most commercials in
the UK are still supplied in SD, it’s
expected that HD will become
more common during 2011. To
cope with that requirement, IMD
has recently invested in new HD
equipment provided by AmberFin.
This company was originally the
software division of Snell, but is
now wholly independent.
“IMD has selected our iCR
standards converter and the iCR
Media Assist Pro,” declares
Bruce Devlin, AmberFin’s CTO.
“The software within this equipment delivers equivalent quality
to traditional video hardware
products, but with the full range
of tools and workflow integration possibilities needed for
file-based operation. This software runs on conventional PCs,
utilising a standard windows
server and integrates into a standard IT infrastructure.”
Devlin says that the system will
convert from 60 fps US files in SD
and HD to 50fps files in SD and
HD. This is a similar range of standards to traditional hardware products, with the addition of a full set
of transcode and rewrapping tools.
The options give the benefits of
being able to convert, for example,
an HD Pro-Res file at 1080i 60fps
into an HD DNxHD file 1080i 50
fps in a single software step. What’s
more, no playout servers or capture
cards are required.
“The operation of the unit can
be manual, semi automatic or fully automatic. In whatever mode,
the equipment will auto detect the
incoming content type. Then the
user or the automation system simply has to instruct the iCR what
kind of deliverables need making.”
The AmberFin iCR software
allows conventional transcoding
between different codecs and
wrappers, but has the added benefit of being able to up/down
convert SD and HD. Devlin
believes it provides the best software deinterlacer to convert interlaced television content for optimal
viewing on LCD and Plasma flat
screens at the lowest possible
bitrates. Furthermore, this system
streamlines QC workflow requirements by allowing metadata addition and colour correction to be
carried out by operational staff.
Devlin goes on, “AmberFin’s
iCR Media Assist Pro solves the
problem of ‘how can I view files as
video on a broadcast grade one
monitor’ rather than rely on SVGA
display. As we know, these displays
are not reliable for checking video
deliverables because of interlacing,
scaling, field order reversal and
colourspace issues. In addition, iCR
Media Assist Pro allows file based
content to be played out to a VTR.
“For this installation at IMD,
we worked closely with their technical team to ensure that the full
range of formats needed by its
clients would be available, including the increasingly popular
AVC-Intra format. This equipment is not just for now — it is for
future requirements, too.”
However, Devlin is aware that
not everyone is yet completely
convinced about IT solutions to
commercials production. “We are
alert to the need to be both ‘future
proof’ and ‘past compatible’. That’s
why we have developed tools and
technologies that allow our users to
exist in either traditional or future
facing environments.”
But as far as Priestley at IMD is
concerned, the future is increasingly
about HD — and 3D — production.
“We are very conscious of the way
HD is developing in the UK and we
need to be ready for anything.
Germany is currently leading the
way in accelerating the delivery of
native HD commercials rather than
up-resing their existing SD ads. We
have recently made our first live HD
deliveries to the major German
broadcasters and we anticipate other major markets will move to HD
delivery during 2011.”
He concludes, “Beyond that, part
of the reason for choosing this equipment was the fact we are increasingly
aware that the demand for 3D commercials will grow. We already have
enquiries from our clients asking
about delivering 3D commercials
and predict that we may be delivering
3D commercials by the end of this
year. The recent upgrades we have
made will enable us to be ready to
meet these new demands.”
28/3/11
11:40
Page 1
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28/3/11
11:59
Page 18
A Hollywood 3D Awards show, appropriately produced in 3D for broadcast on 3net
3D hits the red carpet
3D Production
PH
ZZZULHGHOQHW
18
The International 3D Society’s 3D
Creative Arts Awards was produced
in stereo for broadcast on
America’s new 24/7 3D network 3net.
Carolyn Giardina was at the
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in
Hollywood for TVBEurope
Billed as the first 3D coverage
of an Awards Show, the
International 3D Society’s second
annual 3D Creative Arts Awards
— held February in Hollywood
was lensed in 3D, including the
red carpet, ceremony and fanfare
of the black-tie affair. The event
recognised achievements in 3D
movies and television. The result
is a two-hour special to air on
3net — the new 24/7 American
3D television network that is a
joint venture between Sony,
Discovery and IMAX.
The event was held at
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in
Hollywood, whose famous exterior served as the backdrop for the
red carpet. Outside an OB van
from HD Touring and a second
van (used for 3D processing) was
parked on Hollywood Boulevard.
The OB van was actually a 2D van,
with 3D displays set up inside for
monitoring — meaning that a 2D
van could be used for 3D productions. “3Ality has developed a
stereo image processor that can
be placed into any 2D truck,”
explained 3ality Digital Telecast
Producer Ted Kenney. “If you are
a company out there that has a 2D
truck, you don’t have to spend a
million dollars to build a brand
new truck. I think 3D trucks in the
future will be very important, but
in today’s society we have to also
look at costs and the infrastructure
that is readily available to most
producers and productions.”
The red carpet festivities were
hosted by American TV personalities Michael Corbett and
Karyn Bryant.
Used to shoot the red carpet
activities were 3Ality 3D rigs — one
equipped with Sony HDC-1500
cameras and the other with Sony P1
cameras. 3D production company
Digital Revolution Studios provided a Steadicam and a Jib, using
Canon cameras. Panasonic’s A1
cameras were tapped for additional
red carpet coverage.
The interview platform was
positioned in front of the Chinese
theatre entrance. “I wanted to
show off the hosts with this
iconic background,” Kenney
explained. “I couldn’t have paid
for a better background.”
The production also includes
what he described as a “lenticular
red carpet”, which is essentially a
A ‘lenticular red carpet’ was used in
front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre
panel system that lies on top of a
carpet, manufactured by RIP
Floor of Park City, Utah. “It you
look at it from different angles, it
moves,” Kenney explained. The
material used for the 34-foot
entrance uses custom 3D high
resolution imaging in the flooring. The design was a collaboration between The RIP team
and Create Advertising of Los
Angeles for the design elements.
Plans are to integrate into the
broadcast some clips from some
winning projects, as well as looks
at new and upcoming 3D productions — some of which do not yet
have distribution plans. “Will they
find distribution, I don’t know,
but I think it is important to show
all the work that is being done in
3D from studios to independent
filmmakers,” Kenney commented.
Inside the theatre there were
two centre positions on sticks,
which were 3Ality rigs with Sony
1500s in T-block configuration;
and two back of the house wide
shots with the same camera configurations. A handheld P1 configuration and Steadicam from the
red carpet were brought indoors
for the ceremony. A P1 configuration remained on the red carpet for
post-show interviews.
During the ceremony, which
was hosted by Tom Cavanaugh
(from the film Yogi Bear),
Disney’s Tron: Legacy was named
best live action 3D feature and
DreamWorks Animation’s How
To Train Your Dragon was honoured as best animated 3D movie.
Tron and Dragon also earned trophies for best stereography in a
live action and animated motion
picture, respectively. Additional
winners included BSkyB’s Dance,
Dance, Dance, which earned a 3D
television award for entertainment/music programming.
James Cameron was the recipient of the Harold Lloyd Award
for 3D filmmaking and advocacy;
accepting on Cameron’s behalf
was Avatar Producer Jon Landau.
3D veteran Lenny Lipton was
presented the Society’s Century
Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The camera images were routed to a small truck where members of the 3D team monitored
each camera with the ability to
make adjustments with 3Ality’s
SIP (stereo image processor)
software, with one operator per
camera. “People are controlling
the convergence and interaxial,
so that the 3D is smooth and easy
to watch,” explained Steve
Schklair, founder and CEO of
3Ality Digital.
3Ality Stereographer Nick
Brown explained: “I’m making
sure they are consistent in terms
of depth between cameras.”
“The operator is looking more
at the framing of the shot, in our
truck we are judging 3D with our
stereographer so they don’t have to
worry about it,” Kenney added.
The images were then routed to
the OB van. The footage was
recorded on Sony SR 5800s and
also recorded on Abekas hard disc
recorders. “I wanted to do a digital
record and see how those images
compare to tape,” Kenney
explained. “We felt Abekas was a
good solution for the project and
Abekas stepped up at very short
notice. Basically it was a workflow
test. Eventually I want to get to a
point where as a production we feel
comfortable with the image quality on a disc recorder we can record
to a hard drive and get away from
tape for some productions.”
The participants explained that
although this was a recorded show,
this was a live setup. Digital
Revolution Studios was handling
post production at press time.
Executive producers of the programme are International 3D
Society president Jim Chabin; aforementioned Schklair; and Gina
Tanner, CEO/co-founder of Digital
Revolution Studios. Kenney, along
with Mike Piltzecker of Influence
Pictures, served as producers.
Veteran director Paul Miller of Rick
Mill Productions directed the show.
Dean DeBlois (left) and Chris Sanders, co-directors of DreamWorks
Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon, celebrate their wins for
best 3D animated feature and best stereography
During the ceremony, the audience watched 3D clips of the winning work
28/3/11
12:06
Page 1
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28/3/11
11:59
Page 20
All systems go for integration
Despite economic gloom from many
quarters, some businesses in the
broadcast market report that things
are looking up. Philip Stevens talks
to one such company to discover
the secrets of success that included
the delivery of 17 OB trucks and
DSNG vehicles in 2010
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Buoyant and challenging — that’s
how Tom Haye, managing director
of UK based Broadcast Networks,
describes the current systems integration market. And he should
know. The company reports record
business levels for 2010 and is looking forward to the trend continuing
during this year — and beyond.
“Today, the systems integration business is about deploying
solutions while minimising risk
for the customer so that day-today operations can continue
without disruption. It’s the balance of delivering leading edge
technology quickly, but without
compromising standards.”
Set up in 1998, Broadcast
Networks specialises in the design
and implementation of HD and
SD Master Control Rooms, studio
systems, Outside Broadcast vehicles, on location communications,
satellite uplinks and facilities for
streaming media. Although headquartered in the United Kingdom,
the company’s activities span much
of Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, the
Middle East and North Africa. To
cope with the expansion of the
operation, an additional sales
office in Amsterdam was opened in
2009. The company employs a full
time staff of 14, but has a group of
freelance engineers and coachbuilders who join the team as business levels demand.
And that team was fully
employed during 2010. The company delivered no less than 17
Outside Broadcast vehicles and
Digital Satellite News Gathering
trucks — many of them equipped
for high definition transmissions.
“Without a doubt the main
driver was and continues to be
HD,” states Haye. “There are many
companies looking to move into the
Broadcast Networks has built and refurbished a fleet for Norway’s outside broadcast team.
OB61, on the right, is an eight-camera high definition OB that upgraded in just four weeks
A control room at Chellomedia’s multi-platform European playout centre
HD environment, or upgrading systems to HD capability. But beyond
that there are budgetary pressures
to increase Return On Investment
from ageing fleets — and that
means refurbishment continues to
be a popular solution.”
Among those projects was the
design and build of a four-camera
high definition Digital Satellite
News Gathering vehicle for BTRC
— the National TV and Radio
Company of Belarus. This job was
completed in just 24 days and
included Sony HDC-1550 HD cameras and a PDW-F800 XDCAM
HD camcorder with Link Research
wireless system; a Sony MFS-2000
multi-format switcher, Evertz EQT
0HBLRB1BW&BPBBFB
32x32 video router and a Yamaha
DM1000 digital audio console.
Uplink facilities include CPI Satcom
amplifiers, Tandberg (Ericsson)
encoders and Newtec up-converters.
A further six DSNG trucks
were delivered to ERTU in Egypt,
while a number of trucks for OBTeam in Norway were refurbished
to allow the broadcaster to make a
quick transition from SD to HD.
“In the case of OB-Team, the
total time for refurbishment of
OB61 — a 16-camera OB vehicle —
was just four weeks. This allowed
the customer to get the truck back
on the road and earning money
again in the shortest timeframe.
“But the move to HD is not the
only reason for such a successful
year,” Haye adds. “We also continue to win repeat business, driven by
customer satisfaction and trust
that we will support future plans.”
Haye cites continuing work at
Chellomedia’s multi-lingual, multiplatform playout centre in the
Netherlands as an example of this
ongoing commitment.
“We now have a dedicated
team on site in Amsterdam, supporting the various upgrades and
expansion projects at the DMC.
In fact, we are seen as an extension of the Chellomedia team.”
Home and away
ZZZULHGHOQHW
20
BTRC’s four-camera HD off-road DSNG, which was designed as a
dual-path digital uplink system and mounted on a four-wheel-drive chassis
Most of the company’s international OB build and refurbishment projects are completed at
the UK base, where systems can
be pre-fabricated in-house to
ensure tight deadlines can be met
without compromising standards. However, Haye states that
work can also be carried out at a
customer’s site when schedules do
not allow for transport to the
UK. “The refurbishment for OBTeam, for example, was carried
out in Norway, while other work
was completed for SBP, the
Italian OB provider, at their base
in Rome.”
He continues, “The challenge
is to try and keep the costs down,
especially on the larger projects.
Our installation teams regularly
travel all over the world to carry
out installations — after all, an
OB build is no different from
fixed installations.”
Beyond the upgrades to HD,
there are two other factors that
help Haye remain optimistic
about future prospects — 3D and
the London Olympics.
“A number of our commitments involve 3D-ready projects,
but it seems that some customers
are hesitating on rolling out this
service until the business case is
really established and proven.
However, we are also seeing
enquiries coming through for 3D
spanning a broad spectrum from
acquisition right through to playout in cinemas. As a result, we’re
investing heavily in staff training
to ensure we are at the pinnacle of
this area and can effectively guide
our customers through adoption
and deployment.”
Part of that customer support includes regular 3D
training courses for clients’
operational and engineering
staff, as well as senior management. For the operators and
engineers, it presents a chance to
work with the equipment and
understand the deeper theory.
For senior management, the
opportunity to work through
business cases for the introduction of 3D in different areas
with key industry experts has
benefitted decision makers.
As far as the Olympics are
concerned, Haye points out that
28/3/11
12:00
Page 21
much of the work has already
been completed or is in progress.
However, opportunities for systems integrators remain. “There
will be potential for on-theground system support and integration services, which we are
discussing with many of our
overseas clients to help them
during their coverage of the
Olympics. In addition to conventional television broadcasts, we
are experienced in delivering onlocation satellite systems and
uplink facilities through to live
streaming on to internet and
mobile platforms. It’s all part of
having to move with the times.
But let’s not forget that revenue
from the Olympics for OB
companies means that investments are being considered for
T-VIPS to increase
operator efficiency
T-VIPS has announced that NAB
2011 will see new functionality
and products launched across its
product ranges: video transport;
monitoring and switching; and
transport stream processing and
remultiplexing. The company’s onbooth demonstrations will show
how the company is enabling
broadcasters and operators to save
time, money and resources by
increasing operational efficiency
and reliability, reducing the requirement for capital investment and
through simplifying workflows.
The new product introductions
at NAB will include the CP546
Transport Steam Monitor, a
powerful tool for the continuous
monitoring of transport streams,
services, PID’s and PSI/SI/PSIP
tables, ensuring fast fault detection
and diagnostics. The CP546 provides remote supervision and monitoring of up to eight DVB-ASI or
SMPTE-310 transport streams,
and up to 16 IP/Ethernet transport
streams. In addition, the CP546 is
fully configurable and may be set
up to detect and initiate alarms as
required by the network operator.
The T-VIPS NAB booth
will have a number of pods dedicated to individual segments,
including JPEG2000 video contribution, 3D contribution and
Terrestrial Broadcasting (end to
end redundancy).
“Workflows will be a major
focus at NAB this year, as customers are increasingly looking to
take advantage of the high-level of
cost-savings that can be achieved
through deploying new simplified
and more efficient workflows,” said
Johnny Dolvik, CEO, T-VIPS. “I
look forward to our NAB demos
showing operators and broadcasters how our solutions utilise key
technologies such as IP, advanced
error correction and FEC,
JPEG2000 and intelligent switching and remultiplexing to simplify
the management and control of
broadcast workflows.”
NAB SU7807
refurbishments and/or new vehicles after the Games.”
So, overall, Haye is optimistic
about the future — but he is also
realistic. “We recognise the challenges faced by ever decreasing
budgets, which is why we also
consider carefully with customers
the balance between refurbishing
existing facilities and OB trucks
versus the investment in brand
Beyond the upgrades to HD, there are two other
factors that help Tom Haye remain optimistic about
future prospects — 3D and the London Olympics
new. Many of our clients now
have strict policies with regards
to the environment and together
with our coachbuilders not
only do we look at the best
technological solutions, but also
the greenest solutions.”
Haye concludes, “We are
aware that clients look for reliable partners to help them
through periods of business and
technical transition whether it is
SD to HD, 3D or ‘television in
the cloud’. Our goal is to provide
them with complete end-to-end
full-cycle solutions that includes
de-commissioning and disposal
of old systems, design and integration of new systems, training,
education, financial packages
and after sales support.”
Discover the Kahuna 360
A Revolution In Live Production
Kahuna 360 is the brand new
addition to the Kahunaverse. It
brings major new functionality
and flexibility to meet the
most demanding production
requirements. Kahuna 360 breaks
the tradition of fixed M/Es, fixed
resources and fixed formats, and
supports many simultaneous
productions that would require
multiple switchers from any other
provsider.
Efficient Operations
Creative Freedom
Reduced Costs
Creativity
Unmatched freedom in
combining mixers, keyers and
3D DVE effects to create any
on-air style.
New intelligence in the switcher
allows Kahuna 360 to handle
the mundane, freeing you to
create great productions.
Flexibility
Uniquely powerful, Kahuna 360
can run up to 16 productions
simultaneously from a single
mainframe.
FormatFusion3 raises the bar
for multi-format operations,
supporting any combination
of SD, HD, and 3G.
Productivity
Dramatically reduce the
overhead of show set-up times.
Advanced file workflow tools
enable you to turn around
content in seconds.
Reliability
Designed for mission critical
operations with a hot-swappable
architecture.
Innovative Live Assist features
provide even greater on-air
confidence.
Routing
Modular Infrastructure
Conversion & Restoration
Live Production
Automation & Media Management
Control & Monitoring
21
TVBE_April P22 News
28/3/11
12:02
Page 22
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Digital libraries in the cloud
Bel in Madeira
UltraViolet is the first serious attempt to get consumers to switch from physical
media to owning content as files stored remotely, reports Adrian Pennington
Portugal’s state broadcaster RTP
has installed several of Bel Digital
Audio’s 3G, HD and SD multi
channel Dolby R E audio
confidence monitor and deembedders in its Madeira facility.
It follows on from the first batch
installed in the broadcaster’s
Lisbon facilities. The units were
supplied via the Bel distributor for
Portugal, Auvid Cientifico also
based in Lisbon and were part of
the upgrade to HD broadcasting
throughout RTP’s facilities. The
BM-A2-E8SHD+ accepts two SDI
and two AES sources and
automatically identifies between
3G, HD or SD video. Video format
is then provided on the LCD
display. Up to eight de-embedded
audio channels can be selected
directly from its front panel rotary
controls and visually displayed on
eight individual LED bar graphs.
Each channel can then be routed
to either, or both, left and right
speakers. Dolby R E bitstreams
can be decoded (with metadata)
for monitoring purposes, while all
eight decoded channels are
available on the rear panel for
connection to external speakers.
www.beldigital.com
Grass Valley scores
Dutch football channel Eredivisie
Live’s new playout centre uses
Grass Valley technology as the
channel migrated to HD for the
beginning of the 2010/11 season.
The channel is hosted by
Technicolor at its Media Park in
Hilversum. In 2010, the decision to
move to HD was made, and
Technicolor built a new multichannel playout suite, based
around the Grass Valley K2 media
server using K2 Summit
production clients. The backbone
has three K2 Summit production
clients and provides 12 channels
total configured as five ingest
and seven playout channels all
connected into a redundant
K2 SAN, with a dedicated FTP
server with a 10 Gigabit
Ethernet interface.
www.grassvalley.com
DRM Analysis
Later this year the digital rights system UltraViolet will begin to roll out,
first in the US and by the end of the
year in Canada and the UK. The
UltraViolet name and logo UVVU
will brand online ecommerce film
and TV listings and badge Blu-ray
and DVD discs. From 2012 a range
of consumer electronics UV-compliant hardware will debut.
Administered by Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem
(DECE), a consortia which includes
virtually all the major studios plus
leading CE manufacturers and technology giants, UV is intended to
facilitate the interoperable and
secure ownership of digital content.
“Consumers are increasingly confused by the multitude of file formats
available and the rights management systems (DRM) that manage
their consumption,” explains Mark
Deitell, executive director of DECE.
“This lack of choice and freedom not
only reduces the perceived value of
the content and the delivery platform
but also inhibits general consumer
adoption and consumption.”
UV is planned to be a universal
and elegant means for content owners and manufacturers to use their
existing DRM and delivery infrastructure while simplifying consumption for the consumer. By
default it is also intended to get rid
of the problem of content being
locked to devices by the company
that sold it, and is therefore the
biggest test yet of Apple’s hold over
the entertainment industry.
Although DECE has the backing
of 70 firms — including Fox,
Warners, Paramount, Microsoft,
Motorola, Akamai, Cisco Panasonic, Sony and Samsung — Apple is
not one of them. Neither is Walt
Disney, in which Apple CEO Steve
Jobs is the main shareholder.
The basic idea is that rights to
content are all stored online and
transferred to any UltraViolet-compatible equipment. The cloud-based
authentication service and account
management hub has been built by
Neustar. Each household will be
able to create an account for up to
six members with registered titles
playable on up to 12 UV-enabled
devices. This could allow users to
stream movies or TV shows encoded with UltraViolet, but it may also
allow users to burn DVDs with the
encoding. It should also give people
lifetime content ownership rights,
instead of having to repurchase the
work if it gets lost or wears out.
BSkyB has signed up and is taking a watching brief on developments before possible implementation into its set-top boxes. Other
UK members are Amazon-owned
film rental service LoveFilm, Tesco
and Red Bee Media.
Red Bee fulfills media services
for ITV Player, iPlayer, 4oD and
Five’s VoD catch-up and is readying
itself for when these and other content owners join the UV scheme.
“UltraViolet is an interesting
evolution of the retail channel for
studio content and episodic TV,”
says Red Bee’s Steve Plunkett,
director of Customer Innovation.
more for in-home distribution.
DTLA (the consortium behind
DTCP-IP) has just five controlling
members — all CE companies.
DECE may gain traction
because of its breadth as an industry
consortium. “Assuming that license
fees are reasonable there is nothing
preventing a device from supporting
both UVVU and DTCP-IP,” says
Stephen Froehlich, senior analyst at
IMS Research’s consumer electronics research group.
The Apple factor
However the concept faces some big
obstacles, not least in getting consumers to understand and buy into it.
Michael Comish, co-founder of
VoD site Blinkbox, says, “Rights
holders can get carried away
deploying complex DRM systems.
If consumers want to pirate a copy
of film there are a host of illegal
sites they can go to steal the title
quickly and easily. No one actually
cracks the DRM to steal it. A
simple DRM is all that’s required.
The complex ones only make the
consumer experience worse and are
expensive to deploy.”
“Apple has incredibly strong music and apps but
they don’t have a big video business. They want to
grow that also and we hope over time that they
will participate” — JB Perrette, NBC Universal
“We will act as a local digital service provider for UV, storing and
packaging the content in keeping
with the DECE standards.”
DECE hasn’t devised a new
DRM but will wrap around leading
existing DRM’s such as Microsoft’s
PlayReady, Widevine and Marlin.
There have been other attempts
to harmonise DRM. Microsoft’s
Playsforsure (2004-2008) was an illfated approach to ensure playback
of content on Windows Media
compatible devices.
The only other current security
system with similar levels of adoption is DTCP-IP, which is designed
With such a large number of
stakeholders, the content licensing
agreements will be complex, but must
be straightforward and consistent
when presented to the consumer.
“There is clearly some commitment
from DECE to create simple licensing terms however, there is a delicate
balance between implementation of
flexible license/pricing and reasonable simplicity,” observes Froehlich.
“Purchase-only and rental-only platforms have proven to be of limited
use. A truly converged media vault
like UVVU should include models
for permanent purchase, rental as
well as PPV and subscription VoD
while keeping the UI simple. The
challenge is not insignificant.”
Previous attempts to impose
digital rights management have
generally failed because they have
been too restrictive or obstructive
for consumers, for instance limiting
them to particular types of devices.
However, the failure to court
Apple is a potentially more significant barrier. Having achieved a
sterling business in music, apps and
video retail hooked into its own
device ecosystem, Apple is naturally
disinclined to unlock that with
more universal access. That means
that owners of iPads, iPhones,
iPods, Apple TVs, perhaps even
Macs, may not be able to use
UltraViolet content.
DECE argues that there’s no reason why the iTunes Store shouldn’t
adopt UV support if Apple thinks it
makes good business sense.
“In the same way we have all
struggled in making digital ownership a business so have they,” says
JB Perrette, president, digital & affiliate distribution, NBC Universal.
“Apple has incredibly strong music
and apps but they don’t have a big
video business. They want to grow
that also and we hope over time that
they will participate.”
Is there no danger of a format
war as the industry witnessed with
HD DVD and Blu-ray? “You have
one versus everybody else,” responds
John Calkins, executive VP, global
digital and commercial innovation at
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
“I like this side of the bet.”
However with an overwhelming
hold on the digital retail entertainment market there’s no business reason why Apple would get involved.
“Companies are unlikely to get
much of a near-term benefit from
Ultraviolet in a sector where Apple
is a major player,” states Dan
Cryan, IHS Screen Digest head of
broadband. “This is because of the
lack of engagement and awareness
on the part of consumers about UV
coupled with the fact that they are
happy to buy from Apple because
it’s already convenient for them.”
www.uvvu.com
Watch out for a panel session at
NAB which will unpack the aims
and implementation of UltraViolet.
22
28/3/11
11:44
Page 1
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TVBE_April P24-44 NAB v3
28/3/11
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Page 24
TVBEUROPE N A B 20 1 1 P RO D U C T P R EV I EW
NewTek makes a connection
By Fergal Ringrose
NewTek will be giving live
demonstrations of its HD live
production system as well as displaying its HD replay products.
The company will showcase
its TriCaster TCXD850 HD
portable live production system
and TriCaster TCXD850 CS
hardware control surface. The
TriCaster TCXD850 CS provides a physical connection to
the 24-channel system’s functions and effects. It provides
illuminated push buttons, twist
knobs, a premium T-bar and
three-axis joystick to control
all functions and effects available in the TriCaster TCXD850,
letting operators perform commands instantly.
Also on display will be the
TriCaster Virtual Set Editor
(VSE). It allows TriCaster
TCXD850
and
TriCaster
TCXD850 supports video input from up to eight cameras
TCXD300 users to customise
specially designed TriCaster VSE
Sets to fit production needs.
VSE Sets produce realtime reflections and provide users with a
wide range of elements that they
can edit.
In addition, Newtek will
demonstrate the new capabilities
of LightWave 10, its animation
and effects software. The software
gives artists the ability to interact
directly in the viewport and see
changes to lights, textures, volumetrics and more, to view updates
to their stereoscopic work in
reatime, and to deliver realistic
environment walkthroughs in
ways never before possible.
SL4514
News travels fast with ENPS
By David Davies
Used in almost 800 newsrooms
in 60 countries, ENPS provides
easy-to-use features for journalists working in broadcast and
online news environments.
NAB visitors can find out more
about ENPS Mobile Suite for
use in the field. It includes a
Smartphone client, enhanced
script writing and editing capabilities in the ENPS Web Client,
and a plug-in to access ENPS
from Microsoft Outlook. In
the studio, the Tablet Story
Viewer removes the need for
printed scripts by caching the
entire running order to
Tablet Story Viewer removes the need for printed scripts
Videssence lights up
Videssence will debut its new
LED Softkeys at NAB. The
SK025 and SK050 adjustable
fixtures provide a quality beam
of light from a small, fully
recessed unit suitable for key or
fill lighting for video/teleconferencing multi-use spaces. The
LED Softkey offers the capability of providing the proper
illumination from a much higher
ceiling range, ie auditoriums and
meeting halls.
The small, 12-inchx12-inch
recessed or surface mount housing shrouds an adjustable fixture
that is tension held and rotates
359° and tilts 130°. The 40,000
hour life is achieved through
24
precision heat sink design and
optimum driving of the LEDs.
Also new at NAB is
Vi d e s s e n c e ‘ s
portable SeeMe Lites for
personal image
b ro a d c a s t i n g
via web cam.
These long lasting energy efficient
LED
lights
are
designed to
produce soft,
comfortable,
non-glaring
totally indirect
lighting. The design provides
vertical illumination on the
the newsreader’s iPad or
Android equivalent.
Also on show is the Digital
Publishing Engine, which enables
journalists to get multimedia content on-air, online, and to mobile
devices using a single set of tools
and a simple workflow.
Managing user-generated content is another ENPS feature.
Journalists can quickly and easily
monitor content from both
Twitter and YouTube, as well
as publish news updates to
their newsroom’s Twitter feeds,
all without leaving ENPS.
Standards-based integration
allows ENPS to function as a
desktop portal for journalists,
providing a single point of
search and entry into key
production areas, such as
ingest, editing, automation,
content management and
multi-channel distribution.
SU2002
subject’s face. An additional
benefit of the indirect optics
is that it provides a uniform
spread of light and minimises
the contrast between the light
from the fixture.
C2944
Portable See-Me Lites are
energy-efficient LED lights
NAB 2011 PRODUCT PREVIEW
Welcome to Part II of our 2011 guide to new products and
iterations being introduced by NAB vendors of relevance to a
European audience. This issue we bring you news of the NAB
plans from another 50 key companies exhibiting at the show. If
you're travelling to Las Vegas, safe journey! — Fergal Ringrose
A helping hand:
Egripment,
manufacturer of
camera support
equipment, will
demonstrate a
variety of new
innovations and
developments for
professionals and
prosumers. The
company will
present its TDT
encoded system
that can create all
kinds of augmented
reality such as
realistic backgrounds, virtual advertisements or virtually created figures
that interact with a real person. Based on the proven concept of the
classic Focus Dolly, the new Focus Dolly Light is a complete, lightweight,
ultra-portable dolly for track use. Also on show will be the compact 305
Remote Head and the ProTraveller system, a new jib/crane system for the
prosumer type cameras and budget. — David Fox
C8312
Summit and Kayenne additions
lead Grass Valley NAB offering
By David Fox
Grass Valley will
unveil new transmission clients
and servers as
well as introduce
the latest software versions for its line of
Kayenne Video Production
Center (v3.0) and Kayak
(v7.0.4) high definition switchers.
Highlighted at NAB will be
Grass Valley’s new K2 Summit
Transmission Client line made up
of five new models: two shared
storage clients that connect to a
K2 storage area network (SAN)
via iSCSI and three integrated
storage servers.
The features of the new K2
Summit Transmission Clients
include: up to four SD/HD configurable channels (MPEG-2
encoding up to 50Mbps); up to
16TB of internal storage; agile
playback of DV and MPEG-2
formats; up/down/cross conversion; built in file interchange using
GXF, MXF, QuickTime, and AVI
formats; and up to 16 tracks of
audio I/O per video channel.
Also new at the show are
the latest software versions of
Kayenne and Kayak switchers.
The new functionality in
Kayenne v3.0 and Kayak v7.0.4
gives TDs control over multiple
cameras directly from the switcher
control panel via an Ethernet interface. This includes tally for each
camera, with controls that include
Auto Iris, Auto Black Level, Filter
Wheel Position, and Color Bars.
The new Kayenne software provides
a new macro editor that
eliminates the need to rebuild a
macro entirely from scratch
The new Kayenne software also
provides a new macro editor that
eliminates the need to rebuild a
macro entirely from scratch merely
to modify some of its functions.
With Kayenne v3.0, router/
switcher integration has advanced
with the ability to control Kayenne
aux busses from Grass Valley Encore
and Prelude control systems.
Standalone router control panels
running Prelude software can also be
configured as remote aux panels.
These include Joystick Override
modes for temporary or latching
cuts to a specific source, or for salvos.
Scott Murray, senior vice president, Live Production Solutions
for Grass Valley said, “The
Kayenne has become the new
workhorse of the worldwide highend live production community,
while the Kayak HD offers many
of the same capabilities in a
smaller, cost-effective system.”
SL106
28/3/11
11:45
Page 1
Ki Pro Mini.
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Designed as a miniature field recorder for creating ‘ready-to-edit’ professional digital video, Ki Pro Mini speeds your
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28/3/11
12:12
Page 26
TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 1 1 P R O D U C T P R E V I E W
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Gefen shows
video Matrix
The new GefenPRO 32x32 DVI
Matrix offers cross-point
switching among 32 computers
and displays, with a one-to-one
or one-to-many distribution
controlled by front-panel
selector, RS-232, IR remote or
any web browser. Though
designed to supply audio/video
and studio professionals with a
solution for accessing many
different workstations, it is also
suitable for digital signage, large
presentations and video walls
that need immediate access to
various computer sources.
The front panel display provides
easy to read status and switching
information. The GefenPRO
32x32 DVI Matrix is
cross-platform in capability and
supports high resolution video
to 1920x1200.
SL 1405
ScheduleSmart
with Softel
Softel will be showing its
portfolio of captioning and
subtitling products as well as its
interactive TV and connected
TV solutions. Softel’s captioning
and subtitling products can
cater for next-generation
workflows, for companies
transitioning to tapeless,
upgrading to HD, exploring multi
platform delivery, rolling out
multi language feeds or
focusing on 3D.
On display will be Softel’s
ScheduleSmart, a workflow
technology that uses
proprietary heuristics and
algorithms to determine the
optimum point in the
workflow at which to bind
captions, subtitles and
ancillary data to content.
Caption and subtitle encoding
software Swift vTX enables
broadcasters to repurpose
content regardless of file format.
It allows them to switch
between SD and HD formats
easily for multi platform and
worldwide distribution.
N5829
MediaCenter and MediaPort additions to the Omneon range on show at NAB
Harmonic goes Pro
with new transcoder
MediaPort 7000 streamlines playout workflows and simplifies HD transition
By Fergal Ringrose
Harmonic will demonstrate a host
of new features of its multi-screen
transcoder as well as showcasing
its Omneon product range. The
ProStream 4000 multi-screen
transcoder, optimised for adaptive
streaming applications, now
offers high density with up to 12
SD or six HD transcoded
channels per RU for OTT applications. Other new features
include premium H.264 video
encoding, built-in multi-encapsulation and ad insertion for the
adaptive streaming environment.
In addition, the company will
showcase Omneon Spectrum
MediaCenter, a new multichannel
media server with integrated lowcost storage and support for
Spectrum MediaPort modularity
and scalability. The unit includes
up to 16TB (more than 600 hours
at 50Mbps) of integrated SATA
storage and supports 600Mbps of
realtime channel bandwidth —
enough for 12 channels of multiformat record and play for material at 50Mbps.
“The Omneon MediaCenter
enables a new cost-optimised
Spectrum video server configuration for applications requiring a
moderate number of ingest and
playout channels,” said Geoff
Synview gets the 3D treatment
By David Davies
Ten new Synapse modules and
a 3D multiviewer will take centre
stage within Axon Digital
Design’s new technology showcase at NAB. The company will
present its Cortex monitoring and
control system. The product has
been enhanced with additional
features, a hardware control
panel (CCP1601) and client
Axon demonstrates its Cortex
monitoring and control system
(redundant)
server
option.
Cortex is supplied to Synapse
users free of charge.
New Synapse products on display will be the GRB100 — a 3Gbps
HD and SD 48x16 channel shuffler — re-embedder. With this new
unit, the source audio channels
used for embedding into the output SDI can be derived from two
individual 3Gbps HD or SD
inputs
and
from the 32
channels that
are available in
the quad speed
mu l t i p l e x i n g
audio ADDON bus.
The
card
includes
an
output embedding 16 channels and the
source for this
audio can be
derived from both SDI input 1
(which normally also carries the
video) or from SDI input 2. Input
two can be connected to a second
SDI source that is exclusively
used for carrying audio (the two
SDI streams need to be clock
locked). The unit is also available
in an HD/SD version, which can
be future upgraded to handle
3Gbps-signals.
The Synapse powered SynView
multiview product line has been
enhanced with 3D multiviewing.
Set-up of the 3D multivewer is
done through Cortex. Two multiview inputs are locked to each
other and displayed side-by-side.
Stereoscopic displays will then
output a 3D image. Also tallies,
borders and UMD information
will be processed for 3D display.
In addition, Axon will showcase its TRACS video logging and
compliance recording system for
SD and HD signals. Also, the company will launch hardware control
panels for its Cortex monitoring
and control software system.
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[email protected]
26
Stedman, vice president for corporate marketing at Harmonic.
Also new is the release of the
Omneon MediaPort 7000 series of
video I/O modules for the Omneon
Spectrum media server system. In
a single, highly configurable unit,
the MediaPort 7000 delivers new
multicodec support with enhanced
media processing functionality to
streamline playout workflows and
simplify the transition to HD.
“Multiformat ingest and playout have led to more complexity
in broadcast operations, and now
we’re taking a great step toward
simplifying these workflows with
the integrated conversion and
simulcast capabilities along with
multicodec record and play available in the MediaPort 7000
series,” said Stedman. “Our focus
is on making the transition to HD
as easy as possible for our customers, while providing the foundation that they can build on.”
Harmonic’s range of production and playout solutions will be
shown on stand SL2005. The
company’s line of video distribution and delivery solutions will be
on display in booth SU4909.
SL2005 & SU4909
MatrixStore
debuts at NAB
Object Matrix will be showcasing
its tapeless workflow archive technology MatrixStore at NAB for
the first time. MatrixStore acts as
a pre-production, nearline or local
archive, allowing content to move
smoothly through any digital
workflow from ingest to delivery.
Features of the archive system
include guaranteed ingest with
metadata harvesting; secure
ingest vaults, production/project
parking to a nearline vault in
Avid and Final Cut Workflows;
and archiving legacy assets to a
local online library vault.
MatrixStore clustered storage
consists of commodity server
hardware and software to ensure
the integrity of data coupled with
self-healing in the case of component failure. The solution is
scalable in both performance and
capacity with the addition of
storage nodes when needed.
MatrixStore provides users
with a keyword search tool to
quickly and efficiently search
through stored material and
metadata. The recently introduced Media Asset Management
bundle from Object Matrix,
Cantemo and Vidispine will also
be demonstrated.
SL8923
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Page 27
New Logic in monitors
monitors and a new dual 9-inch
rack mount model at NAB 2011
that incorporate a host of innovative features for enhanced
HD-SLR, digital cinema and
broadcast production.
The VFM-056W/WP is available in two configurations and is
ideal for HD-SLR production.
The LVM-074W features a highresolution (1024x600) 7-inch
LED backlit LCD panel housed
in a lightweight durable magnesium alloy case. The LVM-091WM is an updated version of
TVLogic’s 9-inch broadcast production monitor, which features a
high contrast (1000:1) 960x540
anti-glare hard-coated LCD
panel designed for minimum
glare and accurate HD downscaling (exactly 1/2 1920x1080).The
PRM-902Q features two 960x540
(exactly 1/2 1920x1080) resolution
high contrast (1000:1) LCD panels in a 4RU rack mount with 90°
tilt range. In addition, TVLogic
will also showcase two new 2D
and 3D production and post production monitors that incorporate a host of innovative features
for 2D/3D cinema production
and post production.
SL1526
The VFM-056W field production
monitor is ideal for HD-SLR production
By David Fox
TVLogic, designer and manufacturer of LCD and OLED
high definition displays, will
exhibit three new field production
Third generation
Cheetah on show
By David Davies
Provider of audio/video connectivity
PESA is to unveil its new Cheetah
Enterprise Audio Routing System
(EARS) architecture. Based on its
DRS Audio Distributed Routing
System, the new Cheetah DRSEARS is a third generation system
that can now be configured up to
6144x6144 and beyond. The Cheetah
removes the boundaries between
mixed signal formats and it can deliver content anywhere and in any way.
The EARS Data Exchange
Engine (DXE) supports up to 24
ports in 1RU and can interconnect frames to build a system up
to 1536x1536 mono. The EARS
package provides essential signal
processing features needed to distribute AES3, AES3id, Time
Code, Analogue Audio and
MADI in one frame and without
the need for external converters.
Each EARS-DXE can be configured for complete system
redundancy of the data paths. A
second interconnect on each
DXE allows for two parallel data
paths in the event signals are lost
on the primary path.
“The new Cheetah Enterprise
Audio Routing System is a robust
and reliable system that adapts all the
features audio professionals demand
in a large scale audio distribution system,” said Keith Bond, PESA’s vice
president of product development.
“Many broadcasters and mobile production engineers understand the
competitive advantage gained
through the efficient exchange of distributed audio through our routers
and control system.”
N4123
27
28/3/11
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Heavy lenses can be used with new stability by Denz for Sony’s PMW-F3 camera
Denz support for Sony F3
By David Fox
Denz will present its PMW-F3
Support for the Sony PMW-F3
camera with its Super35mm
sensor. The support is screwed
to both threads (in front and
back) at the bottom of the
camera to give the necessary
stability for using heavy PLMount lenses.
The support, which weighs 480g,
offers at the bottom all mountings
for bridge plates from Arri like the
BP3, BP5, BP8 and BP9, or the
O’Connor wedge plate. The bridge
plates can also be used with 19mm
rods with the required height for professional studio equipment. There
are also the necessary threaded holes
for mounting the Sony wedge plate in
connection with the quick release
plates for Sony VTD-14 or for Arri’s
QR-HD1. The PMW-F3 Support
also offers devices for 15mm rods,
which may be lengthened for using
the shoulder pad or additional accessories like the battery etc. Attached
to the side there are Hirth-toothed
rosettes for use with the Denz
Lightweight-Handle-System. The
lateral tapped holes allow individual
customised extensions.
In combination with the
15mm rods the FFMini-FollowFocus can also be used. With the
Universal Holder for the Cineroid
HD viewfinder the Sony PMWF3 will be fully equipped as a
professional shoulder camera.
C8438
Handy new tools from Hamlet
Starter Pack has new DSLR head and redesigned back-end
Polecam starts rig
for DSLR cameras
By David Fox
Polecam is to launch a major new
addition to its product range: Polecam Starter Pack at NAB. Designed
for use with digital SLR cameras,
Polecam Starter Pack offers lowbudget programme-makers all the
essential features of the Polecam rig.
“Polecam Starter Pack enables
an entire new generation of video
producers to experience the creative
advantages of our truly-portable
camera crane,” explained Polecam
Founder and Managing Director
Steffan Hewitt. “The ability to create dynamic pan and tilt shots
round a very wide radius, to shoot
over the heads of a crowd and to
get in ultra-close to the action, is
appreciated by Polecam operators
around the world. We have been
under pressure to introduce an
entry-level Polecam system for
some time and have achieved this
without compromising on quality.”
“Polecam Starter Pack incorporates a newly designed DSLR head
and redesigned back-end,” revealed
Polecam Sales and Marketing
Manager Jeremy Curtis. The rig can
be attached to any standard professional camera tripod or harness
mount. It comes complete with a
counterweight system, mains power
supply unit with three four-pin
XLR cables (for head, camera and
monitor power), three interlocking
carbon-fibre poles with a total
length of nearly 12 feet, control joystick and the pan/tilt head.
“Price point of the Polecam
Starter Pack including pan/tilt head
for the Canon 5D DSLR is under
$10,000,” added Greg Salman of
Polecam USA. “Options for Polecam
Starter Pack include an HDMI monitor at less than a quarter the price of
our high-end HD-SDI monitor plus
a full range of Polecam elements
allowing the Starter Pack to be
upgraded to a full five-pole 2D or 3D
Polecam rig or to the ultra-long-reach
seven-pole version.”
C8013
British company Hamlet is launching
three new products at NAB as it celebrates its 25th anniversary year. The
new DS900 test and measurement
platform is a new way of tackling
signal monitoring in busy production
or master control areas. The current
Hamlet DigiScope performs
multiple tests simultaneously,
displaying up to four windows
on an external display. With
the DS900, Hamlet has added
the capability for four inputs
and a multiviewer, so on a
large screen there can be four
windows for each of the four
signals. The modular structure
of the DS900 means that the
inputs can be different formats:
analogue or digital, component or
composite,standard definition or HD.
To get the maximum benefit from
file-based workflows the infrastructure needs automated quality control
tests, which run without operator
intervention, raising a warning only
when problems are identified, in the
technical quality or in the metadata.
The new VidChecker software system provides testing, messaging and
direct interfacing to workflow systems. It also incorporates intelligent
automated correction for both video
levels and audio loudness.
Hamlet DS900: capability for
four inputs and a multiviewer
For critical image viewing,
Hamlet now also offers 24-inch grade
one and grade two monitors, and a
17-inch grade two monitor, based on
carefully selected and calibrated
Avitech goes Solo
with multiviewers
By Fergal Ringrose
Avitech International, the manufacturer of the VCC-8000 multiviewers
series, is showcasing the SequoiaSolo 2x2V and 4H at NAB 2011.
The Sequoia-Solo is integrated with
a switching function for keyboard/mouse, USB hub, speakers
and microphone. Enclosed in a box
approximately the size of a Wii console, the Solo allows users to control
multiple computers and oversee
multiple video sources on a single
monitor. All input windows are
freely adjustable and have full screen
capability. This standalone multiviewer takes HDMI, DVI-I and
HD/SD-SDI inputs and is suitable
LCD panels. The grade one version
uses LED illumination to provide
even and consistent performance.
The grade two monitors, which uses
a cold cathode light source, provide
almost equivalent image quality, and
also include an integrated quad split
multi-viewer for added flexibility in
crowded control rooms.
“There are a number of
suppliers in the test and measurement business who provide highly technical tools
aimed at engineers, but we
believe there is a real need for
practical solutions which
meet the real day to day operational needs of broadcasters
and production facilities,”
said Steve Nunney, director of
Hamlet. “That is where our products sit — they are the tools you can
work with, day in, day out. Accurate,
easy to use and with the right combination of measurements and displays for operational people.”
C4841
for technical directors, producers
and video editors, among others.
The Solo enables multitasking and
streamlines monitoring and control
of multiple video and computer
systems from both desktops and
conference rooms.
The Solo line includes the 2x2V,
the 4H, and the 2H2V. The fan-less
2x2V accepts two coax inputs and
two DVI-I/VGA inputs. The 4H,
scheduled for release in Q2, boasts
four HDMI inputs, and the 2H2V
(Q3 release) is a combination of
the two, with two DVI-I inputs and
two HDMI inputs.
SL9120
www.solidstatelogic.com
C10HD
Compact Broadcast Console
Big console power in a compact, simple and affordable package.
Broadcast Audio. This is SSL.
28
[email protected] :: Tel +44 (0) 1865 842300
28/3/11
11:48
Page 1
extend your definition 40X, 26X, 19X
and now 14X… better.
With the addition of our new 14X HD Series Video Zoom Lens, you can expand your range even further and
wider than before. It complements our field-proven family of 40X EFP, 26X and 19X ENG HD lenses to provide
you with the focal range that takes you exactly where you need to be. All with precision optics and functionality
that makes the latest HD cameras perform to your highest expectations. And with our studio control kits, all
Angenieux HD Series Video Zoom Lenses perform as well on a pedestal as they do on your shoulder. It’s
optical performance that extends your definition and redefines the boundaries of your imagination... better.
40X
Actual product images may vary
26X
19X
+33 (0)4 77 90 78 00
[email protected]
www.angenieux.com
28/3/11
12:13
Page 30
A web interface has been added
that allows users to operate the unit
remotely from a host computer. It
also has a new front panel design and
is now compliant with all current
loudness recommendations including ATSC, ITU and EBU R128.
Another key new innovation is
the Loudness Logger, a tool that
offers customers of C8000 Jünger
Audio levelling processors an easy
way to monitor the development
of the loudness over time. Using
this new software, broadcasters
can monitor in realtime or by
analysing previously stored loudness log files.
Jünger Audio will also be showing its T*AP TV Audio Processor at
this year’s NAB. The device, which
is primarily designed for TV playout facilities, provides Loudness
control, Upmix and surround
sound processing for up to eight
channels of audio and is fully compliant with ATSC, ITU and EBU
R128 loudness recommendations.
Peter Pörs, managing director
of Jünger Audio, said: “When it
comes to controlling audio loudness and ensuring that broadcast
audio stays within the law, T*AP
is the ideal solution for broadcasters. This latest addition to our
product range fulfils the quality
requirements set by major broadcasters around the world and
allows them to maintain loudness
consistency in a very easy and cost
effective way.”
C6742
of HD/SD-SDI, ATSC/QAM,
DVB-T/C/S2 or eight streams
over ASI.
Also new, MonitorIQ Producer makes it easy to repurpose broadcast content to
the web, produce podcasts, and
save broadcast-ready clips for
archiving. Producer records multiple channels of video, audio
and closed caption text at full
broadcast resolution. Recorded
content can be easily edited,
clipped, stored, and sent via
email or FTP for archiving
or external viewing in high or
low resolution.
Digital Nirvana will also
introduce new features of
MonitorIQ. It now offers
Loudness monitoring — to the
ITU BS.1770 standard — in compliance with the US CALM Act
and EBU regulations.
Another highlight is the ability
to access all MonitorIQ functions
on an Apple iPad such as recordings, schedules, clippings and
admin settings.
N3834
New Junger Magic for NAB
Jünger Audio will be showing a
number of new products at NAB
including an updated version of
its B46 Level Magic digital
dynamics processor and new
software to enable broadcasters
to log loudness levels. The standalone B46 processor is a professional non destructive normaliser
that performs automated levelling of digital audio signals. The
unit integrates Level Magic,
Jünger Audio’s adaptive loudness
algorithm which is based on a
Multi-Loop dynamic range control principle where slow changes
T*AP TV has already been installed by broadcasters in Germany and the Netherlands
(AGC), fast changes (Transient
processing) and Look Ahead
peak limiting are handled simultaneously. This offers level
management with high audio
quality and without colouration,
pumping, breathing, distortion
or modulation effects.
Digital Nirvana raises IQ
By David Davies
Digital Nirvana will show its
family of MonitorIQ Broadcast
Monitoring Systems, introduce
two new MonitorIQ products,
and many new features of its
systems. MonitorIQ Broadcast
Monitoring System is used for
multichannel signal monitoring,
logging, compliance, content
IQ now offers Loudness monitoring and
all functions can be accessed on an iPad
repurposing, archiving, QC and
competitive analysis. The company will present two new products at NAB. The MonitorIQ
Compliance Logging System is
a cost-effective logger for
audio/video with closed caption/DVB subtitles/teletext and
VANC metadata. MonitorIQ
CLS records up to four channels
“With Canon’s 3D solution,
it’s easier to set up and to
get the best quality pictures.
Only Canon gives me simple
adjustability through the drive
unit display, and let’s me
create a matched pair from any
two of the same lens models.”
John Perry, 3D Engineer,
CanCommunicate
www.canon-europe.com/tv-products
30
28/3/11
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Archive, news and MAM with VSN
By Fergal Ringrose
VSN will be presenting new
solutions at NAB including
integration of all archive, news
and MAM modules with current
domains (Active Directory,
LDAP, etc) and Avid editing
software, the UMP transfer
accelerator
integrated
with
VSNIPTransfer, a new version of
its Traffic system and new workflows for graphics.
Pioneering the Tapeless 2.0 concept, VSN will exhibit new versions
of its products covering most areas
of a broadcast workflow such as
archive & MAM, news production,
IP Video, scheduling & traffic and
master control room.
Within its Spider project,
aimed to develop a new architecture and generate customised
broadcast solutions and workflows, VSN will be showcasing
a workflow manager that
employs a simple and innovative
script editor. Also, the integration of all archive, news and
MAM modules with current
domains (Active Directory,
LDAP, etc) will be presented. It
can also be added to the list of
new features, the ability of the
VSN system to integrate with
Avid editing software.
Version 7.0 of VSNIPTransfer integrates the new
UMP protocol, fully developed
by VSN. This enhancement
Haivision execs
speak at NAB
By David Davies
Haivision, provider of video networking, digital signage and IP
video distribution solutions, has
announced that Joseph Gaucher,
CTO, and Peter Maag, executive
vice president, will present at
the 2011 NAB Broadcast
Engineering Conference (BEC).
During the ‘Mission Critical
IT for Broadcast’ session scheduled for Monday 11 April,
Gaucher will present ‘Wireless
HD Secure Streaming Media
Application and Case Study’.
Gaucher’s presentation will discuss the opportunities and challenges of using IP networks to
deliver multicast live HD video
content to mobile laptops, smart
phones, and tablets.
On Wednesday 13 April, during
the BEC Technology Luncheon,
Maag will present ‘Leveraging
Advanced Video Encoding to
Enrich Distance Education.’
Maag’s presentation will
address how live two-way video in
distance education settings enables
students at both a primary hub
and at remote sites to interact and
engage with professors, peers, and
high-value presenters.
SL9112
increases transfer speed at rates
10-20 times faster than other
technologies, like ftp.
Also, for the first time in the
US, VSN will be presenting
its ‘Live’ module for live
event broadcasting in broadcast quality.
Within its news production
environment, and with a vision to
develop ‘in the cloud’ applications
to facilitate journalists and TV
channels’ work, VSN will present
its news Web client VSNNews
WebTerminal and will also unveil
its new Web pre-editor, VSNRCE,
based on Silverlight.
N1208
Version 3.0 of VSNCREATV will be
shown for the first time at NAB
More video… on more devices. Video is everywhere, and the explosive
growth of video consumption is driving a whole new video economy for
both providers and consumers. This dynamic economy is generating
huge opportunities, but it also requires more efficient ways to produce
and distribute more content, faster than ever.
At Harmonic, we’re 100% focused on developing video infrastructure
that helps you create, prepare and deliver high-value video content in any
format, to any device. Let us show you how our innovations can enable
you to succeed in the video economy.
Learn more at harmonicinc.com/video-economy
Visit us at NAB 2011 SU4909 and SL2005
PRODUCTION
I
PREPARATION
I
PACKAGING
I
DISTRIBUTION
I
DELIVERY
©2011 Harmonic, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
31
TVBE_April P32-33 BCE Advertorial
28/3/11
12:20
Page 32
TVBEU R O PE A DV E R T O R I A L
Viasat's multiplayout platform
Multicast infrastructure with
synchronized digital archives
Modern Times Group MTG AB is among the leading international broadcasters of channels
with the largest broadcast coverage area in Europe
Viasat is a subsidiary of MTG
with a large free-TV and pay-TV
offer in the Scandinavian and
Baltic countries. It has broadcasting operations in Bulgaria, the
Czech
Republic,
Hungary,
Slovenia, Russia, Ukraine and
Ghana. The offer of Viasat
attracts a total of 125 million
viewers in 31 countries.
MTG is the majority shareholder of the largest television
broadcaster in Russia (CTC
Media), and the number one
radio operator and Internet
reseller of entertainment products in the Nordic countries.
In
April
2009,
BCE
(www.bce.lu) was selected in a tender procedure among five systems
integrators for the installation of a
multicast infrastructure in Latvia,
the duplication of several thousands of frequency bands and the
32
implementation of a system for
synchronizing the new digital
archives located in Riga with those
established in London.
The Challenge
The challenge was to create a
multicast platform for Baltic
countries, a resilience system for
London and a system for synchronization of content between
London and Riga.
In the late nineties, Viasat
launched several television channels
in the Baltic countries. In this context, the company installed distribution and production centers in each
country, thus allowing improved
customization of content and control of costs for physical distribution between the various entities.
In a time of transition to
tapeless systems, Viasat decided to
create synergies with a unique
BCE employees testing the multiplayout control room
multicast platform located in
Riga, Latvia. However, each
country had to maintain its own
production and post production
facilities to ensure identity of
content. These centers will be connected to the multicast platform
and the digital archives by dedicated links, allowing to abandon
nearly all physical exchanges in
favor of file distribution, thus considerably reducing transport costs.
In order to ensure the rapid
putting into service of the platform in Riga, the 3,000 tapes
stored in the digital archives in
London will have to be duplicated
before the end of the project and
made available in the archives
located in Latvia.
“In order to be able to duplicate
content within the allotted time, BCE
installed a temporary infrastructure
in London and subsequently moved
the tapes to the archives in Riga,”
says Jean-Marc Gacher, Special
Projects Manager, BCE.
In addition, Viasat will
also establish a resilience
TVBE_April P32-33 BCE Advertorial
28/3/11
12:21
Page 33
TVBEU R O PE A DV E R T O R I A L
infrastructure in Riga for the
major channels broadcast from
London — a security measure at
broadcasting level, but also with
regard to all content stored in
their respective digital archives.
Finally, in order to decongest
the existing multicast platform in
London, the Riga facilities will
have to be expandable and allow
the launch of new channels on
different markets.
“The high-level expertise of
BCE in a variety of areas, namely
in media engineering, information technology, telecommunications, broadcasting and
transmission, has allowed to find
the best solutions to ensure a
perfect symbiosis between the
new platform and the existing system in London,” explains Tun
Van Rijswijck, COO, BCE.
The solution
Installation of a 24-channel multicast including eight channels for a
resilience system.
High speed duplication
The duplication of 24,000 hours
of content, a task for which a time
period limited to 14 months was
scheduled, could be completed in
less than seven months.
To achieve this, BCE used the
equipment meant to be installed
at the Riga platform to set up a
temporary duplication infrastructure in London and to allow easy
access to the current digital
archives. The 3,000 tapes were
then shipped to the new archives
in Latvia.
In addition, each video file
is accompanied by its lowresolution version to allow easy
consultation of data, available to
the production units located in all
other countries.
The workflow implemented by BCE
Efficiency and security
in real time
To ensure synergies between
the different entities and the
multicast platform, content is
centralized in a digital archive
based in Riga.
This library has two main
functions: first, to optimize the
workflow of the players in the
other Baltic countries by allowing them access to all content
through low-resolution files,
that are available via a detailed
search interface.
The production teams can
thus easily identify the video
pieces and download only the
desired sequences in high resolution. After editing, these high
resolution files are returned to
Riga for archiving and/or broadcasting purposes. In view of
the multilingual environment of
these regions, the contents stored
in Riga can also integrate up to 13
additional languages.
The second function of this
archive is to secure the digitized
heritage content stored in
London. Indeed, the two digital
libraries are permanently interconnected. When a file is newly
added to the English platform,
the Latvian platform is automatically updated and vice versa.
To ensure perfect synchronization between the two
archives, BCE uses its system for
transferring content via the
Internet (Movie2Me) by adapting it to the dedicated line and
ensuring increased availability of
bandwidth. That way, the team
managed to master the latency
issues due to the distance separating the two archives and
ensure continuity of updates
between each platform.
"Viasat cannot afford latency
that can lead to delays or even
lack of availability of its content;
the maximization of bandwidth
by using Movie2Me is a blessing,
both at the technological
and financial level", says
Gusty Feinen, Manager Special
Projects, BCE.
A three-tier distribution
BCE employees installing the network
The objective of the project was
to combine the five channels in
Latvia, the two channels in
Estonia and the other two in
Lithuania within one central
unit. To do this, BCE has
installed a multicast platform
with nine channels.
In addition to this basic configuration, the station has eight
additional channels that can
duplicate the major channels
broadcast from London. This
configuration allows to cope
with any situation and thus to
ensure continuity of operation in
target markets.
Finally, in order to meet the
requirements of Viasat for the
launch of new channels, BCE has
extended the system to include
seven additional channels, thus
giving them a comfortable lead
for the future.
The benefits
With its multicast platform of
24 channels, Viasat has created
important synergies between its
various entities in the Baltics.
This genuinely future-oriented
infrastructure allows them to
optimize their workflow with the
transition to a tapeless environment, to enhance security with
regards to their main channels
and their content as well as the
launch of new channels in the
near future.
For more information:
Website: www.bce.lu
Tel: (+352) 24 80 66 05
33
28/3/11
12:14
Page 36
Vitec goes AccuWeather storms in with CinemaLive HD
live at NAB
By David Davies
By David Fox
The Vitec Group will hold a dedicated live event area at NAB.
Representatives from Vitec
Group brands will be joined by
industry experts to host a range
of informative sessions.
The live event area will
feature eight daily 30 minute
sessions covering hot topics and
tips on everything from how to
transform studio lighting, to
discussions on HDSLR and battery masterclasses.
Specialists from brands such
as Anton Bauer, Litepanels,
Manfrotto, Microwave Service
Company, Nucomm, OConnor,
RF Central, Sachtler and
Vinten will lead the sessions
and be on hand to share product knowledge.
Each day a headline speaker
will lead a ‘Meet the Experts’
session to pass on their personal
experiences of the industry
using products from the Vitec
Group brands.
Speakers confirmed so far
include director and Pulitzer
Prize winning photographer,
Vincent Laforet, who will talk
about his “journey from stills
to cinematography”.
One of the ‘Meet The
Experts’ slots will be hosted by
the BAFTA-nominated film
maker Philip Bloom, who will be
discussing his latest filming projects and techniques from his
productions
on
Discovery
Channel, Living and Sky One.
Another headline guest
speaker will be award-winning
New York based cinematographer
and director, Michael Huss, who
will talk about embracing the
new capabilities available to
filmmakers, particularly with the
new lighting choices.
Also appearing as guest speakers are Buck McNeely, producer
and host of The Outdoorsman,
and Pulitzer Prize winning
photographer Bill Frakes. The live
event will close on Thursday 14
April with a special one-off
discussion with Litepanels’ cofounder Ken Fisher.
C6428
AccuWeather’s weather graphics
presentation system CinemaLive
HD has recently been launched
in Europe and the Middle East.
CinemaLive HD, which
will be on display at NAB,
uses a combination of highimpact graphics, sophisticated
presentation tools and detailed
weather information. It enables
broadcasters to show tomorrow’s
weather on the viewer’s street
corner today and gives them
the ability to get breaking
weather stories on the air
in seconds.
At the heart of CinemaLive
HD is a state-of-the-art eStudio
graphics engine from Brainstorm Multimedia. This software
already powers the news,
elections, sports graphics and
virtual studios of broadcasters
worldwide including the BBC,
CNBC, RTL Germany, TVE
Spain, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and
TSR Switzerland.
AccuWeather has built a
weather application on top of
Brainstorm’s graphics engine,
delivering cinema-quality weather,
mapping and traffic graphics,
combining photo-realistic 3D
and 2D graphics, interactive 3D
models and maps as well as
virtual sets, screens and
elements. The system includes
meteorological tools and coaches
as well as a suite of authoring
tools, enabling high definition
weather shows to be created rapidly and easily. The system is
HD ready and has future-proof
PC-based architecture.
With CinemaLive HD, sophisticated graphical animations can
be fully automated, updating
every day with the latest data.
This relieves graphics artists and
presenters from the daily task
of routine manual show creation.
By Fergal Ringrose
Phabrix is showing its newly
released rack mount products at
NAB 2011. Developed using an
innovative new technology platform, Phabrix will demonstrate
the first of a range of broadcast
test and measurement instruments designed to be a key install
for broadcast engineering bays,
control rooms, OB facilities and
broadcast manufacturers.
The new Rx 2000A 2U on
show offers a dual screen display
for instrumentation and the
Dual screen display for instrumentation and video confirmation
second display for video confirmation. The unit is housed in a
slim 15cm depth housing, light in
weight, with a power rate less
than 20W and a tilt mechanism
making it suitable for space critical installations.
Mosart Medialab will demonstrate
Mosart
Newscast
Automation 3.0, featuring a
completely redesigned graphical
interface. Other enhancements
include the ability to execute
commands quickly via a touchscreen monitor and updated
implementation of Active-X for
the newsroom system.
Louise© BMS Designed for Media
End to end program management
Linear and nonlinear scheduling
3Comprehensive rights, metadata and budget tracking
3Workflow engine automates processes
3Scalable multichannel, multiplatform
Mosart: Redesigned GUI and the
capability to store settings
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Office Europe Metz, France - Office USA Atlanta, Georgia
www.proconsultant.net
36
Key to the success of the Rx
product line is the ability for customers to customise independent
T&M instruments. With up to four
module slots available, additional
analysers and generators capable
of SD-SDI, HD-SDI and 3G-SDI
Mosart enhances TV newsrooms
YOUR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MUST BE MEDIA-SAVVY
3
Presenters have full editorial
control over their shows and can
adapt these to tell the weather
Phabrix Rx to cause a stir
WHEN YOUR BUSINESS IS MEDIA
3
CinemaLive HD offers 100% realtime graphics and 3D mapping
See us at NAB 2011
Booth N5812
With Mosart, story elements
such as cameras, clips, and
graphics can easily be assigned
to buttons allowing easy and
quick access, and a range of
interface overviews can also be
assigned to buttons, making the
GUI a shot box for touch screens
and adaptable for any TV production. Story scripts from the
newsroom computer system are
story of the day as well as capturing
breaking weather stories.
SL5220
are easily added. Optical support is
new to the Rx platform, useful for
studios adding fibre networks to
their infrastructure.
The remote control capability of
the Rx range allows each instrument
to be interrogated over Ethernet
using any standard web browser.
Paul Nicholls, sales and marketing manager at Phabrix commented:
“With increased speed of operation
and a flexible modular upgrade
path I know the new Rx is going to
cause quite a stir at NAB this year.
The feature set of the new Rx products builds upon our experience
and reputation in broadcast T&M
from customer feedback gained
from around the world.”
N325
shown directly in the Mosart
GUI, and Mosart operators can
store clips and graphical elements in a pool ready for execution on request.
Content repurposing/reuse
and MAM integration are
enhanced with Mosart’s delivery
of news as-run information to
continuity control systems such
as Snell’s Morpheus. Through
the news as-run integration, continuity and MAM systems are
now able to reuse individual
stories or events from earlier
recorded Mosart productions.
Mosart can also be user-configured
to query MAM systems for metadata information.
Mosart also features enhanced
handling of macros, sequences,
loops, and continue points.
Compatibility is extended with
new support for Dalet News and
Annova’s OpenMedia, in addition to ENPS, iNEWS, Octopus,
and NorCom. Mosart now supports eight manufacturers of
audio mixers, five manufacturers
of vision mixers, seven brands of
servers, four graphics systems,
and five camera robotics systems.
N1820
28/3/11
12:15
Page 37
Bandwidth savings of over 30% compared to MPEG-2 Video contribution
Ericsson sends news
on debut NAB voyage
By David Davies
A new flexible and scalable news
gathering product from Ericsson
will make its debut at NAB 2011.
To meet growing consumer
demand for greater quality
coverage, such as high definition
news services, Ericsson has developed Voyager II, its fifth generation Digital Satellite News
Gathering (DSNG) product. It
features a fully redesigned intuitive front panel user interface
based on industry feedback.
Voyager II is claimed to be the
first solution to unleash the power
of MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:2 encoding
with 10-bit precision at up to
1080p50/60 resolutions to the
DSNG market. Offering a range
of video processing options, it
allows users to scale their event
coverage from SD to HD and
even multichannel and 3D, delivered across a multitude of satellite and terrestrial networks.
“In a dynamic and fast
moving market, future DSNG
solutions must reliably deliver
high quality video in multiple
formats over all modern transmission technologies and networks,” said Giles Wilson, head
of technology, Ericsson Solution
Area TV.
“It is vital that news services
and organisations meet the needs
and desires of today’s consumers
to watch coverage in the highest
possible quality, and also ensure
they are equipped to provide the
next generation experience, such
as 3D coverage. Voyager II delivers exactly that, today.”
SU3308
Avid to present Broadcast focus
By David Davies
Avid will present an array of asset
management, storage, video and
audio solutions that help its customers make the most of their
media with innovative technology
enabling openness, collaboration
and productivity at NAB.
Main stage presentations will
focus on new solutions and concepts, including the recently released
Avid Media Composer 5.5 and
Pro Tools 9, as well as EUCON,
Interplay Production, and the
Integrated Media Enterprise,
among others.
The company will also
present a technology preview
highlighting some of the capabilities that are in development
for its editing and finishing
solutions for stereoscopy 3D
content creation.
SU902
First for Alteran with
video capture flypack
By David Fox
Alteran Technologies will present
its enhanced ViTaDi product suite,
offering a series of low-cost,
mobile and modular solutions for
videotape ingest. Built around the
company’s AutoPack — claimed
to be the world’s first low-cost
4-channel videotape capture
flypack that operates in both
automatic (robotic) and semiautomatic modes — ViTaDi’s
scalable systems facilitate migration of all library sizes on location.
ViTaDi AutoPack features
revised master control, which
organises and monitors the entire
workflow process. Productivity
is enhanced by flexible features
including multi-clip capture
mode and timecode break mode.
Native file formats include
Quicktime, MXF and OP-atom.
The AutoPack is scalable, has
onboard storage and works with
customer-supplied VTRs or with
two different ViTaDi playback
configurations; the VTRPack
(semi-automatic) for most formats including U-Matic, Beta, 1
Inch, VHS or the RoboPack
(automatic) for Betacam formats
and D2.
ViTaDi-AutoRoboPack-Betacam
comprises Flexicart robot hardware,
racks, tape bins for 60 tapes, SDI
converters and cable harnesses
The ViTaDi mini-AutoPack is
a 4-channel basic videotape ingest
flypack with basic ingest functionality. The mini-AutoPack’s automatic control software (ACS)
works with most RS-422 controlled VTRs and can interface
with the ViTaDi VTRPack,
RoboPack or customer-supplied
VTRs that are ViTaDi approved.
It also uses customer-supplied
storage. Standard components
include a 4-channel encoder
engine, server, fibre switch, barcode reader, quad monitors and
ACS License for the first year.
N5537
37
28/3/11
12:15
Page 38
XT3, with eight SD/HD channels, available from July
EVS in renewed
production push
By Fergal Ringrose
EVS is introducing a range of new
solutions for streamlining production operations and workflows
plus a new production server.
The latest version of EVS’
IPDirector enables broadcasters
and producers to boost their workflow’s speed and efficiency. Its innovative architecture, modularity and
advanced database management
system means that it can be easily
adapted to a wide variety of TV
and broadcast production facilities.
EVS will introduce Xedio
Flash, an integrated hardware and
software system offering all-inone newsroom capabilities. Xedio
Flash is designed for small and
regional newsrooms.
The company reinforces the
power of live sports with the introduction of a new generation of
production and media management solutions. Products on display include Epsio and its new live
graphics tools; IPEdit, EVS’ live
editing tool, presented with its new
3D feature; and 3D SuperMotion
replay on its XT-LSM platform
EVS will demonstrate a
range of applications aiming to
optimise post
p ro d u c t i o n
operations in
various broadcast environments. The
products on
show include
Director’s
Cut, a new
EVS unveils the third generation of its XT series server at NAB
IPDirector feature; Insio, for
recording and streaming sessions
of today’s TV series or drama;
and ProNotes, a metadata management tool associated to Insio.
ProNotes on iPad will be presented at the show.
EVS will also unveil the third
generation of its XT servers at
NAB. The new XT3 production
server, which offers eight flexible
channels SD/HD and six channels
3D/1080p capabilities, will be
available from July 2011.
The XT3 server features a
number of improvements including more supported audio and
video channels, an increase of
bitrates per video channel, an
introduction of lower scale
chassis version and an implementation of new mixes on one
channel capabilities.
The new server is available in
two versions, a 6RU chassis
supporting up to eight HD/SD
channels (including 6in/2out) or
six channels in 3D/1080p mode,
or a 4RU chassis supporting
up to seven HD/SD channels
or four channels in 3D/1080p
mode. It supports up to 96
audio tracks (16 audio tracks per
video channel) and can be configured in an extensive range of
natively-supported video codec
(including the new Panasonic
Avc-Intra) without requiring
hardware change.
C9508
FOR-A switcher’s US debut
FOR-A will showcase its new
HVS-4000 multi-format video
switcher at NAB. Available in
2 M/E, 2.5 M/E or 3 M/E models,
the switcher is loaded with standard features to handle complex
video productions, and offers
optional support for 3Gbps and
3D production.
“The new HVS-4000 was
designed to handle a variety of
production challenges,” said
Pedro Silvestre, sales director,
FOR-A Corporation of America.
“With options that can support
1080p and 3D production, our
switcher can easily grow with our
customers as their production
needs evolve. Customers can also
easily upgrade to a 3 M/E model
from a 2 M/E version.”
With its simple panel operation, the HVS-4000 lets the operator switch between HD and SD
signals and the various HD formats. Its optional stereo 3D function means the HVS-4000 can
handle the left and right video
from a stereo camera as a pair,
allowing the operator to switch or
invert video, add delays, and
adjust parallax.
FOR-A has also announced a
new interface that allows the HVS350HS HD/SD 1.5 M/E digital
video switcher to control the
The HVS-4000 lets the operator
switch between HD and SD signals
Abekas Mira Production Server.
The interface will be part of FOR-A’s
display highlights at NAB.
With the new interface, users can
review a list of clips, set in/out
points, and then control clip playback (play, stop, record, rewind, etc)
from up to four independent video
channels through the switcher’s
HVS-350U control panel or HVS35GUI remote control software.
“The HVS-350HS-Mira combination is perfect for live sports
instant replay, as well as concerts,
events, and studio applications,”
said Silvestre. “We’re currently
integrating our products with other manufacturers to provide more
value to our products. This interface with the Abekas Mira server
is a step in the right direction, and
we’ll be adding other manufacturers shortly.”
C5219
Visit us at
BOOTH: SL4105
HS-2000
5-Channel Mobile Video Studio
- HD 1920 x 1080i and 1280 x 720p
- IQSXWFRQ¿JXUDWLRQ[+'6',['9,'RU
[+'6',['9,'
[+'6',[+'<89+'YLGHRRXWSXW
- LQFKPXOWLLPDJHYLGHRPRQLWRUGLVSOD\LQJ
HDFKVRXUFHSUHYLHZDQGSURJUDP
%XLOWLQGLJLWDOFORFNDQGORJRVWRUH
/XPDNH\IXQFWLRQIRUWH[WRYHUOD\
)RXU;/5PLFURSKRQHRUOLQHDXGLRLQSXW
3LFWXUHLQ3LFWXUHIXQFWLRQ
- IntHJUDWHG¿YHFKDQQHOGXDOLQWHUFRPV\VWHP
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'DWDYLGHR(0($2I¿FH'DWDYLGHR7HFKQRORJLHV(XURSH%9
Floridadreef 106, 3565 AM Utrecht - The Netherlands - Telephone: +31 (0)30 261 9656 - www.datavideo.info - [email protected]
38
28/3/11
14:11
Page 1
28/3/11
12:15
Page 40
Panasonic previews NAB line up
By David Fox
Panasonic will show a new P2 drive,
archiving software, a 3D-ready
deck, a 9-inch LCD monitor, and
WiFi metadata handling at NAB. It
has also reduced P2 card prices. The
AJ-PCD30 P2 Drive boasts ‘the
industry’s fastest offloads from a
solid-state source’ thanks to its
USB 3.0 interface. It has three card
slots, and is claimed to be able
to transfer AVC-Intra 100Mbps
footage at more than 15x realtime,
making it particularly well suited
for use in long-form production. It
will be available this summer and
could cost about €2,000.
Its new AG-HPD24 half-rack
deck will have synchronised 3D
recording and playback; native 24p
recording with variable frame
New AG-HPD24 half-rack deck has synchronised recording and playback
rates; USB 3.0; HDMI output; and
24-bit, 4-channel audio recording
in AVC-Intra 100/50. It is claimed
to make 10-bit, 4:2:2 master-quality video ‘affordable and portable’.
It will be available in the summer
priced about €5,000.
Cel-Scope3D has new depth charting and full logging facilities
Cel-Scope3D goes
portable for laptops
By David Davies
Cel-Soft is announcing the international launch of its latest
version of the Cel-Scope3D
stereoscopic analyser at NAB.
Exhibiting in partnership with
Leader Instruments, Cel-Soft will
demonstrate a faster and more
powerful upgrade of the system,
including a portable version running on a laptop.
A new automatic depth budget
and depth plot logging feature allows
40
automatic QC for 3D, particularly in
post production. This replaces manual assessment by looking for alignment errors and depth budget excursions that are visually objectionable
or exceed emerging 3D standards.
Cel-Scope3D is designed for use
on set with live inputs as well as for
checking 3D media files during
post production. Available as a
complete system or as Microsoft
Windows-compatible software, it
allows stereoscopic camera alignment
The BT-LH910 23cm (9-inch)
LCD monitor can be used for field
and studio applications. Features
include: a new high-brightness,
high-contrast IPS panel that
affords ‘the best picture quality in
its class’; newly-developed 3D
to be performed quickly and confidently, ensuring 3D is accurate
from the moment of capture.
Footage and edits in a wide range
of file formats can be viewed and
assessed in realtime. Disparities are
analysed and displayed as clear
and intelligible graphics on 2D or
3D monitors. Anaglyph display,
touch-screen control and autoalarm are all supported.
The new logging option charts
against timecode the maximum and
minimum depth values employed,
together with the range in use.
Measurements can be viewed either
in percentage of screen width or in
horizontal pixels. A cursor can be
placed on any object of interest or
point of attention for an instant
measurement of that spot’s disparity and hence depth. The display
chart can be shared electronically
or on paper with other members of
the production team.
Cel-Scope3D displays can be
scaled and arranged as six or eight
windows on one or two PC monitors and on a 3D monitor. Left
and right channels can be viewed
simultaneously together with
actual depth dynamics. Each
display window can be set to
show waveform, vectorscope and
histogram graphics as well as
differences in video parameters
between each channel.
C7833
assist functions; and professional
interfaces including HDMI and
3G-SDI. It can be used on-camera
as an electronic viewfinder, on
location, and in mobile or live settings. It will be available in April,
priced about €3,000.
Panasonic talked about the
new wireless system for its AJHPX3100 1080p P2 HD camera
at IBC, and should have it shipping at NAB. It will allow users to
playback proxies and add or display metadata wirelessly from an
iPad, iPhone, or any web browser.
The system requires the
installation of the new AJWM30 wireless module and AJSFU3100 software, with suggested list prices of €130 and €1,300
respectively.
Panasonic is also introducing
new software for archiving: the
AJ-SF110 Video Ingest software
and AJ-SF100 Linear Tape-Open
(LTO) Archive applications, to
facilitate the secure storage and
easy retrieval of P2 content. The
software supports all P2 card
sizes, formats and frame rates.
There will also be new, free
AVCCAM Importer software, a
QuickTime plug-in that eliminates
the need to convert AVCHD .mts files
to ProRes 422 files before editing in
Final Cut Pro. It will be available this
summer from Panasonic’s website.
Panasonic has announced
lower list prices for its P2 cards.
The E-Series of 64GB, 32GB and
16GB cards will be available with
RRPs of €505, €350 and €276
respectively (ex VAT).
The robust E-Series P2 cards
offer fast transfer speeds (up to
1.2Gbps) — faster than most rival
solid-state memory cards.
C3712
Part of the process
with TC Electronic
By Fergal Ringrose
At this year’s NAB, TC Electronic
exhibits its precision loudness
meter range as well as a number
of professional broadcasting
processors. A key element in its
loudness metering solutions is the
unique ’Radar Meter’ that provides a standardised, precise and
clear presentation of any audio
signal. This meter comes standard
with several TC Electronic
broadcast units such as the rackmountable, stereo loudness meter,
LM2, and the brand new DB4
MKII and DB8 MKII broadcasting processors.
The DB4 MKII and DB8
MKII broadcast processors conform to new EBU, ATSC and ITU
Loudness and True-peak level
standards across all platforms and
all formats. The MKII versions
feature EBU R128 and ATSC
A/85 compliant new LM6
Loudness Meters, new SNMP
functions and one week of
detailed logging. The MKII
versions double up on the power
Processors conform to new EBU,
ATSC and ITU Loudness and
True-peak level standards
supply, fuses, mains inlets and the
Swiss-made Papst fans.
The System 6000 MKII
processor is capable of handling
any signal. Each of its four
engines may be used for loudness
and dynamics processing, reverb
and effects processing, loudness
and true-peak metering, format
conversion and pitch change. One
or more System 6000 MKII
frames may be controlled from a
TC Icon touch screen and
motorised fader remote, and from
a Mac or a PC.
SU10217
28/3/11
12:17
Page 41
Streambox into the cloud
By David Davies
Streambox Live Pro Encoder, an
enhanced version of Streambox
Live, will make its debut at NAB
2011. It will give users the ability
to take advantage of uncapped
bandwidth, full D1 resolution,
and Advanced Audio Coding
(AAC). With emerging 4G cellular networks, Streambox Live Pro
Encoder will use more available
bandwidth on mobile networks to
send professional quality video.
Streambox Live Pro enables
broadcasters to enhance breaking
news stories with ad hoc broadcasting content supplied by a
variety of contributors including
video journalists and stringers. It
is a scalable service that allows
broadcasters to capture video
from their town, country, or anywhere around the world.
Also making its first appearance at NAB is Streambox
Enterprise Server, designed for
broadcasters to capture content at
a lower cost by providing an acquisition platform that can be used to
manage and play out live and filebased video sent from the field.
Debuting at the show is
Streambox 3D, a low-latency
full-frame left and full-frame
right 4:2:2 HD 3D 1RU
encoder/decoder. Designed for
low-bandwidth HD 3D video
acquisition and transport, the
Streambox HD 3D encoder/
decoder enables users to capture
and transmit live and file-based
3D video over existing HD 2D
bandwidth infrastructures.
Avenir is designed for field
newsgathering, sports broadcasting, and other mobile live and
file-based video applications,
Avenir is Streambox’s first hardware-based mobile encoder to
offer up to eight 3G/4G bonded
wireless network mobile modems
for high-quality HD or SD in a
fully portable form factor,
enabling live or file-based video
acquisition over a variety of lowdata-rate networks.
SU1702
Streambox Live Pro: Cloud-based video contribution service
fischer
connectors
New
Triax HD Pro+
Broadcast Solution
Analog switchers
and matrix go light
by Draka and Fischer Connectors
Interface to anywhere: DNF Controls will present a range of new
production control and automation technologies. Tally Manager is a flexible,
modular tally control system that monitors video signal usage from source
to on-air, and drives monitor wall tallies and UMDs, camera tallies, on-air
lights, and device-in-use indicators. Also new is the AnyWhere Interface
Box (AIB), a compact, single-box ‘missing link’ solution for control,
monitoring, and interfacing. The AnyWhere Interface Switch is the
‘missing link’ user interface, equipped with one to four tactile pushbuttons
(each with a built-in LCD display), that provides an off-the-shelf custom
solution that can be configured for specific applications. – David Davies
N2115
Pebble Beach debuts
HD Dolphin in the US
By Fergal Ringrose
Pebble Beach Systems is expected
to announce several key new
contracts at this year’s NAB. The
company is also launching its
new integrated channel device,
Dolphin, in the US as well as
showcasing Marina, the nextgeneration enterprise-level automation system.
The company will demonstrate
12 Dolphin channels, all HD,
under Marina automation control
in five Rack units and with an
overall power consumption figure
of less than 2kW. Available in different configurations dependent
on encoder and decoder requirements, Dolphin is fully HD and
comes with internal or NAS storage. The system supports a range
of new and legacy formats —
including DNxHD, DV, DVCPro,
IMX MPEG, H.264 in MOV,
MXF, GXF or LXF wrappers.
Dolphin allows multiple formats
to be mixed on the same timeline
and can also deliver true simulcast,
driving an SD and HD output
from the same playlist. Dolphin is
shipped as a complete unit that is
preconfigured, assembled and tested for ease of installation.
Marina attempts to redefine the
traditional role of automation,
extending both upstream and
downstream in the broadcast chain
to encompass Content Capture,
Content/Media Management, Archive Management, Playout Automation and Content Delivery.
Marina is designed to cater for all
channel types — from complex,
dynamic, channels using conventional
broadcast technology through to
channels using the latest integrated
channel devices such as Dolphin; all
through a common user interface
and media management workflow.
At this year’s NAB the system
will be shown with Conditional
Playout functionality. This feature
allows users to closely specify the
criteria which dictate whether
events can be aired, using metadata from the database to ensure
technical, editorial or compliance
conditions are met. The Summary
Cell will also be demonstrated
enabling a high density of channels to be managed more easily,
and Extended Media Validation
to reassure operators that an event
meets all of the necessary conditions to ensure error free playout.
N6212
Analog Way releases new additions
to its range of image converters and
presentation switchers at NAB.
Eikos is a new multi layer mixer
scaler switcher offering up to 12
inputs including four fitted with
SDI and two fitted with DVI-D. It
offers three operating modes: multi
layer mixer, 12x2 native matrix and
QuadraVision modes. Eikos offers
a classic preview as well as a still
mosaic full preview function. It
Three operating modes:
multi layer mixer, 12x2 native
matrix and QuadraVision
also comes in a light edition, Eikos
LE, for less complex projects.
Also new is Smart MatriX, a
scaled matrix with native hi-resolution output equipped with four
scalers. It offers up to 12 inputs
including four fitted with SDI and
two fitted with DVI-D. With stateof-the-art 100% digital processing,
Smart MatriX outputs digital and
analogue signals in DVI and VGA
(RGBHV) simultaneously with a
selection of many formats from
HDTV to Computer 2K. A video
output card provides SD or HDTV
formats in various signals from
Composite Video to HD SDI.
Smart MatriX also comes in a light
edition, Smart MatriX LE.
Also on display include Pulse, a
multi layer high resolution mixer
seamless switcher with two scalers,
and Broad Scan HD, a high resolution to video and HDTV scan converter with genlock and embedded
audio. In addition, the company will
be demonstrating Axion2, a new
high-end remote controller, designed
for live events and multi-screen
venues, which can control the new
generation of Analog Way’s switchers.
SL1511
1051 Triax
HD Pro +
3
Integrated Triax HD connector and cable solution
3
> 30% longer transmission distance
3
Significantly lower cost of ownership
vs SMPTE 304 solution
3
HD/SD signal compliant
3
Fast and easy cable assembly
3
Proven rugged and reliable
3
Watertight IP68
3
Maintenance-friendly & easy field repair
www.fischerconnectors.com
Headquarters
Fischer Connectors SA
Saint-Prex - Switzerland
Phone +41 21 800 95 95
[email protected]
In Partnership with :
www.draka.com/communications
41
TVB_Europe_HDPRO_88x255_b3_EN_HQ.indd 1
22.03.11 14:20
28/3/11
12:16
Page 42
IBMS cockpit enables business overview
Pilat Media will unveil a new
Operational Cockpit for its
Integrated Broadcast Management System (IBMS). Designed
specifically for IBMS Content
and Sales, the Operational
Cockpit gives busy executives
an at-a-glance view of their
entire media business operation,
including the status of key content, scheduling, sales, and financial workflows.
“In
today’s
increasingly
complex and competitive media
environment, information is power
and advanced information results
in better operations,” said Ron
Bar-Lev, executive vice president
of product strategy, Pilat Media.
“Department managers and corporate executives are continually challenged to maintain control over
multichannel and multiplatform
operations while at the same time
improving communications to all
of their major stakeholders. With
the new Operational Cockpit for
IBMS, we’re taking aim at these
challenges by giving executives
visual key performance indicators
for better, integrated control over
key business process decisions.”
Pilat Media’s IBMS is a complete, scalable, and integrated broadcast management system, delivering
multiplatform solutions for content,
ad sales, and rights management to
boost productivity across an entire
broadcasting operation. The new
Operational Cockpit integrates
workflow processes and business
information to monitor and display
the current status of all key business
processes, with tools that enable
users to define views and set threshold triggers. The system can also
forecast risks which may cause business process timelines to slip.
N4429
New releases for Utah Scientific
By Fergal Ringrose
Call management software interfaces to Telos 2x12 and 2101 systems
New Neo releases
By Fergal Ringrose
NeoGroupe will showcase the latest releases of its application software portfolio, including a range
of new features and enhancements. NeoScreener TV, developed in partnership with Media
Broadcast Technology (MBT), is
the latest release of the
NeoScreener software. This solution enables the reception of
audience reaction in realtime. It
then moderates and publishes
comments as captions on the television broadcast.
NeoScreener, the reference in
call-management solutions, now
supports the Telos VX and also
features matchless VOIP capabilities. The release of NeoWinners
Version 3 Television and Radio
comes with enhancements such as
a new more intuitive interface;
support for all major RDBMSs
(Microsoft SQL, Oracle, MySQL,
DB2, Informix, AS/400) for easy,
tight integration in an IT environment; and multichannel contest
management with new, unique
internet distribution capabilities
to increase audience loyalty.
Other products on display
include NeoAgent, which provides streamlined radio audience
facilities including listener selfregistration for contest participation, and NeoStock for
budget, purchasing and inventory management.
C3113
At NAB, Utah Scientific will
introduce a new family of I/O
boards that enables embedded
signal processing (ESP) functionality in multirate UTAH-400
Series 2 routers. Utah Scientific’s
line of advanced routing switchers includes the full range of analogue, digital, and HD (3G) systems, with integrated high-density
frame sizes from 32x32 to
1056x1056.
Also new for the UTAH-400
series is the UTAH-400/MV, an
integrated multiviewer option.
The UTAH-400/MV integrates
seamlessly with the router control
system and does not require
the use of dedicated router ports
for monitoring. The multiviewer
offers multiple outputs that allow
the user to control the number of
pictures to be displayed on each
screen. Built-in cable extenders
are included for easy installation
and outputs can be formatted in
DVI, HDMI, or HD-SDI, to support the widest-possible range of
display devices.
capabilities for its MC-4000 highend master control switcher, the
MCP-4000 control panel option
for its complete family of master
control processors, and the new
MC-412 master control processor
The UTAH-100 compact routing switcher family also has several
new additions, including monitor
switchers and 32x32 routers for all
signal formats.
Also at the show, Utah
Scientific will demonstrate new
internal squeeze and graphics
card for UTAH-400 Series 2
routers. The MC-412 master control processor is an integrated system that handles the most
demanding on-air operations in
live, automated, or automationassisted operating environments.
N4511
IPV starts its Engine at NAB
By David Davies
IPV, supplier of media, metadata
and video technology, will be
showcasing the latest version of its
Process Engine, the company’s
services orientated and automated
rules driven engine that allows
users to manage, track and orchestrate multiple scripted workflows.
The Process Engine enables users
to control job workflows of any
scale and will now operate as a
standalone product or integrated
into the IPV SpectreView, Curator
and Teragator range.
One of the Engine’s key features
is its ability to notify users of job sta-
tus to ensure the process of work is
seamlessly automated. If workflows
change then the Process Engine provides the tools to support and map
this change easily and efficiently.
“Our Process Engine has taken
on a life of its own and this IPV
solution is now available as a standalone system with its optimised
components for broadcast centric
workflows and broadcast critical
activities that can be configured
independently of our Production
MAM solution,” said Nigel Booth,
executive vice president for sales
and marketing at IPV. “The scriptable nature of the Engine empow-
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ers users to create and monitor
automated processes and achieve
greater workflow efficiencies across
their entire production system.”
NAB 2011 will also see the latest
IPV offering for both its Curator
and SpectreView product ranges.
The company has further increased
the productivity of the Curator
workflow by incorporating tools
that improve the speed of ingest, logging and retrieval, while at the same
time providing an integrated editing
solution for live applications controlled directly from the desktop.
An affordable, tapeless workflow
environment running on both PC and
Apple Mac platforms, the Curator
system is designed to allow users to
efficiently fulfil tasks such as desktop
editing, media annotation, review and
approval and general media browsing
as well as easy management of the
high resolution source media.
Visitors to the IPV booth will
experience the flexibility and scalability of the IPV Curator
Production Asset Management
and workflow automation system
that has been integrated into
Adobe’s Premiere Pro. The
IPVLive plug-in enables live growing, frame accurate proxies to be
streamed directly into Premiere Pro
in a multi-user environment across
a standard IT network. The
IPVLive plug-in can also be seen
on the Adobe booth (SL3320).
N4017
28/3/11
12:16
Page 43
Go digital with Fast Forward Video
the-art DVR and controller technology with an integral HD
monitor in a hard portable case,
the HD3 features JPEG2000
compression for optimal HD
and SD image quality. The
Micron HD single-rack unit
records HD and SD using highquality JPEG2000 compression
at speeds of up to 100Mbps.
“From the beginning, our customers have had significant input into
the design and development of our
products — and more than anything
else, this philosophy has enabled Fast
Forward Video to become the industry-leading provider of DVR solutions,” said Paul DeKeyser, founder
of Fast Forward Video.
C12719
Thrilling
moments –
fascinating
perspectives.
sideKick HD captures directly
from HD/SDI or HDMI outputs
By David Fox
At NAB Fast Forward Video
(FFV) will demonstrate its digital
video recorder (DVR) systems,
including the sideKick HD, a
multiformat,
straight-to-edit
camera-mountable DVR.
Making its debut at the show,
the new sideKick HD is a versatile recording solution designed
to ease production workflow and
meet the demands of both producers and post production
editors. The camera-mountable
sideKick HD captures video
directly from HD/SDI or HDMI
outputs at bit rates up to
220Mbps, with 4:2:2 sampling
and 10-bit resolution in multiple
codecs starting with ProRes on
removable 2.5-inch SSD drives.
Recording directly to highquality NLE formats eliminates
time-consuming transcoding,
which can degrade image quality.
The sideKick HD also provides a
4.3-inch on-board confidence
monitor, which offers playback
options including scrub and
jog capabilities.
For high-end recording and
playback, FFV’s Omega HD digital video recorder can record
either SD or HD video with
JPEG2000 compression and up
to 100Mbps. Using the Omega
HD recorder, users can simultaneously record, play, and store
multiple SD and HD video files
and create video clips, loops, and
playlists using the simple-touch
front panel. It can also provide a
powerful and fully integrated
alternative to high-end instant
replay servers and is suitable for
synchronised playback of dual
video streams for stereoscopic
3D applications.
Also on display will be digital
video recorders: the HD3 &
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43
28/3/11
12:16
Page 44
Brainstorm set
for Easy design
V.12 gives power for realtime playout of virtual studios and 3D graphics
Brainstorm Multimedia is showing EasySet12, one of its latest
developments within the Easy
product family, which attempts to
simplify virtual set design.
EasySet12 is a trackless virtual set solution that offers a 3D
realtime environment with up to
four SD/HD inputs, all from just
one PC. In addition to bringing
in external video feeds, virtually
every popular image file format
can be imported, making the
EasySet12 very open to the integration of external content.
EasySet12 comes with an
expandable library of 18 virtual
sets and each one can be
customised
by
modifying
colours, textures, size of objects,
animating elements and inserting live video.
Visitors can participate in a
demonstration of EasySet12, and
will also have the opportunity to
view live demos of Brainstorm’s
entire product range including the
latest version of product and
graphics engine eStudio v.12. This
offers unlimited power for both
graphic design options and realtime playout of virtual studios
and 3D graphics as well as the
easy creation of highly customised applications.
Also featuring at NAB will
be the latest version of the
Aston Character Generator,
plus the template-based news
graphics system BrainNews,
which enables news departments
to integrate Brainstorm’s realtime 3D graphics into their
workflow without the need
for constant input from designers. Easy OnAir Graphics,
includes a toolset for live streaming of graphics based on building highly creative designs on
pre-defined templates.
SL5305
In a Flash for Nevion
By David Davies
Nevion, formerly Network VPG,
introduces new Flashlink video
transport products that enable an
efficient and cost-effective way of
transporting 3G/HD/SD-SDI signals. “We continue to innovate on
a platform that revolutionised the
broadcast market with powerful
yet compact, low-energy optical
solutions,” said Arne-Johan
Martinsen, director of product
management, Flashlink. “Our
new modules can be deployed easily in a wide variety of settings —
from permanent central facilities
to temporary event venues — and
offer the reliability and cost efficiencies we’re known for.”
Flashlink is known for its optical converters, widely used by
broadcasters for a range of interand intra-facility transport applications. The entire optical
CWDM transmitter range
now supports 18-wavelength channels.
Nevion adds
3G
capability to its
existing HD
time division
multiplexer platform, allowing broadcasters to pack up to eight
asynchronous SD-SDI signals
into one fully-compliant 3GSDI stream.
Flashlink’s extended audio
embedder range has also been
upgraded with 3G-SDI support.
The AV-3G-XMUX is a highly
integrated audio embedding module that provides simultaneous
embedding and de-embedding of
eight AES3 stereo digital channels from a digital 3G, HD or SD
serial video signal.
Debuting at NAB is the
VideoIPath connection management platform, which simplifies
video-over-IP deployment with key
scheduling, provisioning and monitoring of video-over-IP services.
SU7217
3G-SDI multiplexer can transport
synchronous or asynchronous SD/HD
Introducing VideoIPath
Is video transport dead? Witness its re-birth at NAB
Nevion’s new VideoIPath moves beyond video
transport to intelligently managed video services.
Whether managing a service provider’s video-overIP services or a broadcaster’s fully-redundant optical
network, VideoIPath puts network management
and control in your hands. Provisioning, scheduling,
resource management and analytics, all from a single
user interface—that’s a path worth following.
Make your move to intelligent,
managed video services
Join the V.I.P. unveiling
NAB, BOOTH SU7217
WHERE VIDEO IS MOVING
44
NEVION.COM
+47 33 48 99 99
28/3/11
11:52
Page 1
TVBE_April P46-62
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Page 46
The story of Carmen
3D Masters
Phil Streather learned that he
would be brought in to produce the
movie Carmen 3D just after IBC
2009. He had heard that the Royal
Opera House was in funding
partnership talks with RealD, and
out of the blue RealD President
Josh Greer called and told Streather,
“I think you are the best partner for
us in Europe.” George Jarrett
talked in-depth with Streather — a
‘Production Spotlight’ speaker at
TVBEurope’s upcoming 3D Masters
conference — about planning,
production and post on this
high-profile RealD project
Before signing up for Carmen 3D,
Phil Streather had much to consider. “I was getting feedback that
the test shoots done on both ballets and operas at the ROH had
fallen short of the mark, particularly in terms of miniaturisation
and cardboard cut outing. This is
the effect you get if you put camera rigs too far away from what’s
happening,” he says.
“You have to zoom in, in order
to get the framing you want, and
then you have to pull the cameras
out in order to try and get some
3D back.”
Streather took pains not to
blame the people who did the
Steadicam operator Dom Jackson on stage filming Carmen 3D at the Royal Opera House
filming: just poor camera positions. He told his executive producers, “You are going to have to
put cranes in with cameras the
other side of the orchestra pit, and
let us get Steadicams on stage.
“They said fine, but that this
would be a huge investment so
Executive Producer Robert Mayson and Producer
Phil Streather by one of the 3ality Digital 3D rigs on a crane
a development process was
required,” he says. “I suggested
that we use software called
FrameForge, which allows you to
pre-visualise in stereo 3D.
Everything is optically correct,
including the roundness of the 3D.
Streather thought in terms of
putting a 10mm lens on 2/3-inch
chip cameras and getting four or
five feet from the talent. “I could
pre-visualise and give an approximation as to what the finished film
would look like if I was given the
privileged camera positions.”
Once
assured,
Streather
brought director Julian Napier on
board, and they then designed the
overall feel of the 3D in terms of
camera positions, lenses, how
close they would get to shoot, and
how much 3D they were going
to get in the shots. Napier then
made a 90-second animation of
one of the Carmen arias, kidding
FrameForge, a stills system, into
doing stuff it was not designed for.
“You can do some very basic
tweening over time, of sliding
people around. On a song, on a
timeline, with 20 people on stage,
Julian enabled us to then create a
DCP — a full left eye/right eye
HD output from FrameForge,” he
says. “We showed that full DCP
to the ROH and RealD, and they
said: “We are in.”
graphy credits on the film,”
he says. Next into the team
came Telegenic as technical
partner, with its 3ality rigs,
and cranes.
The technical posers
The first thing that had to be
resolved was the big difference
between crane positions when
compared to track positions for
remote dollies, and the use of
Steadicam units. “We shot
Carmen over three nights, and on
two we had two cranes, one
Steadicam and a remote dolly
moving up and down in front of
the stage, over the orchestra pit,”
says Streather. “On the third
night we had a single camera
position at the back of the hall, to
give us a wide angle of audience
heads and the full theatre.”
The wide shots could not be
done when the cranes, Steadicam
and dolly were in situ, but what
were the issues on his mind?
“In terms of doing live shows
with zoom lenses, either where
you use the zoom or you use the
lens as a variable prime, I still
think that the 3ality digital systems are the best because you are
able to work with ENG cameras
and ENG glass. Telegenic has a
whole lot of 3ality systems it uses
for Sky Sports work so it has Sony
1500 T block cameras and Canon
J22 lenses,” he says. “We were able
to bully those systems into giving
us relatively good 3D.”
For electronic control reasons
Streather went with two P+S
Technik rigs for the Steadicam
“For me, I have yet to see any 2D to 3D conversion
that makes any close-up of a face look anything
other than weird. It is like plastic surgery”
Greer handed executive
responsibilities to his colleague
Robert Mayson, and the production green light came in January
2010. Streather found himself
looking around Europe for his
crew.
“I wanted to see if I could do
the whole thing out of the UK,
in terms of stereography talent.
I eventually went with Sean
Macleod Phillips out of LA,
who had done a lot of my
previous 3D. He was the overall
DoP, but Julian and I get very
involved in our own stereo 3D
projects, and we have stereo-
and one for the remote dolly.
This carried Sony 1500 cameras,
and the Steadicam used Sony
P1 cameras.
“In both instances it was way
more complicated to do the lens
control because they use a different type of motor systems than
the 3ality rigs. C Motion is more
evolved now, but last summer it
was troublesome in terms of
being able to produce multiple
pinning focus decisions,” he says.
“The focus and the zooming was
relatively unsophisticated, but
now the C Motion system has
multiple pinning points.
“Just nine months ago the
trickiest problem was using zoom
lenses as variable primes, when
the lenses don’t really track that
accurately down the middle.
However we were using the same
equipment essentially that James
Cameron used on Avatar,” he
adds. “The biggest technical issue
was not being allowed any tethering of the Steadicam on stage. We
had to take a full HD left and
right and mux it together.
“We sent BFS a single HD
stream muxed and got a de-mux
at the other end. This was then
Continued on page 48
46
TVBE_April P46-62
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12:50
Page 48
The story of
Carmen
The director went back to the
beginning with all his options in
order to crack the edit, and Stroo
Oloffson was brought in to cut
the film.
The first of these is how to marry
offline and online.”
He would be happy with
good offline and online tools
to bring together, and of course
that hadn’t been resolved,” says
Streather. “And what was very hard
were the 3D pullers.
“It was a very dark show and
often there were errors on the 3D
recorded as full HD left and right.
That was an epic of trying to get
away from interference, and it
added a lot of weight to the
Steadicam,” he continues.
In the truck the team had a
line (or live) cut every night, and
everything was recorded to
HDCAM SR, dual synchronous.
Each camera had isolated recording, and eventually all the
HDCAM SR footage was digitised into Pro Res 4:2:2 for what
was planned to be a Cineform
Neo 3D offline.
Wrinkles to iron out
“We took the Left and Right eyes
and muxed those together for
offline editing on Neo 3D, which
was all very good in principal.
And then we were going to use
Final Cut Pro and the plug-in
and offline on multi-cam making
sure everything was time-coded
so that Julian could have all the
streams from every show in timecode,” says Streather. “He could
then choose between angles
because what we were never
going to do was to use 80% of
the live cut and just fill in a bit
here and there.”
48
The Movie Bird crane swings over the Carmen audience at the Royal Opera House in London
“There were two or three
issues around the edit,” says
Streather. “One is that you try
desperately hard not to let the tale
of technology wag the dog of creativity, but 3D is way more than
twice the pain of 2D and there are
all sorts of wrinkles to iron out.
the Neo 3D has advanced in
nine months.
“Back then it did not give us
multiple key frames on a single clip,
so whatever re-positioning you did,
and even with the 3ality systems,
there were sometimes little bits of
vertical misalignment, and rotation
pulling: they could not see into the
background and they ended up
converging on that background.
This meant we had to do a lot of
horizontal image translation to
get some 3D behind the screen,” he
adds. “During a shot there might
have been unnecessary re-converg-
ing when there was no reason for
it. This meant that from any given
10-minute clip Julian would have
needed maybe five different settings of parallax, of HIT where
the convergence plane was. He
might have had to zoom in a little
bit on part of the shot, but Neo
3D could not do that.”
Cineform worked hard to
crack this development, but could
not do it in time. “The reason we
were working so hard to get the
offline to look right was because
we needed to have at least part
of the creative sign off done,”
says Streather.
“We had to do half an online
session’s worth of 3D corrections
in the offline, and the ROH and
RealD looked at the edit on a
3DTV straight off the FCP. We
could not have done it with big
variances,” he adds. “The problem is that the grown up finishing
software is still tens of thousands
of Euros. And those systems do
not have cheap, time-line based
bin structure editing plug-ins,
which exist in Avid and FCP.”
This has led to people going
two routes for editing — the offline
route Streather went, or taking all
the rushes and running them
through a headache removal pass
using Mistika, Pablo or Iridas.
“You then export side-by-side
rushes in a single HD stream, which
is minus rotation and vertical misalignment issues, and the enormous
TVBE_April P46-62
28/3/11
12:51
Page 49
going to be the left-hand side of
the frame,” says Streather.
The pan-and-scan within FCP
was stretched to do rotation, vertical alignment, image size and
horizontal image translation. It
also did the key frame ramps, so
cushion cuts were possible. Next
up was the rendering out into a
single side-by-side Pro Res stream
with all the changes baked in.
“The skills base is not very deep anywhere.
3D has been around a few years, since Hannah
Montana. But before that there were a handful
of people who had been producing theme park
3D, and IMAX 3D shows”
The online was done at My
Therapy using Iridas Speed
Grade DI. Napier did the depth
balancing, and a number of
DCP exports were produced to
get the official sign off.
“We looked at everything on
3D monitors and then created 3D
wedge tests to get the colour and
the luminance signed off by RealD.
We sent over a range of colours
and light levels to choose from,”
says Streather. “My Therapy created all the DCPs and then the master DCPs and all the sub titles and
sub title versions. De Luxe in LA
handled the distribution.”
Lawo | Rastatt / Germany
colour balance issues. Effectively,
you can edit in 2D but see 3D,” says
Streather. “For us that was not
sophisticated enough to really do a
sign off. Over a two-and-a-half hour
show, if you are going to have cuts
where you need them you know in
the online you are going to be doing
cushion cutting, which is where you
are ramping the convergence point at
the beginning of the incoming shot.”
He wanted the ability to do a
relatively sophisticated depth balance in the offline, and on his latest project (Meer Kats 3D) he is
getting from NEO 3D multiple
keyframing across a clip on FCP.
The Carmen 3D project saw
Oloffson using two streams of the
Cineform mux. “He put on V1
and repeated exactly the same on
V2 and created a mask whereby
he was then able to send to the
UI. Now you see half of the left
eye and an anamorphic squeeze is
going to fill the left-hand side of
frame. The right eye squeeze is
Ficus and Tarsys
new from Tedial
By Fergal Ringrose
Tedial has a host of product
launches at NAB 2011 as the company celebrates its 10th anniversary.
New at the show will be Ficus (business process manager). Its latest
enhancements include control by
multiple operators distributed
across different geographical locations and web interface featuring
customisable work orders for each
step of the production workflow.
Ficus’ powerful grid computing
now supports the management of
over 3,500 workflows a day.
Enterprise integration system
Media Process Manager (MPM)
now automatically detects the
aspect ratio of a video file that it is
processing and is also able to handle video files with multiple audio
tracks. Tedial’s integration with
Avid now supports ingesting and
editing metadata directly into Avid
Interplay using the Tedial Capture
client. It can also move media and
metadata to and from Interplay
either automatically or manually
performing any required rewrapping ‘on the fly’.
Tarsys is Tedial’s powerful
MAM system with integrated
HSM software. The latest version is
based on object-relational database
management technology, which
allows the creation of dedicated
database models for special events
or production areas in an organisation. Users can create metadata
fields relevant to their own requirements. It also enables the linking of
databases that are traditionally
incompatible (eg, automation, traffic, news, video servers, HSM and
MAM). Tedial will also launch
Tarsys’ new web client at the show.
The latest version of Tedial’s
ingest manager application, Capture, includes simultaneous control
of multiple ingest channels from the
same client.
NAB N6506
Adapts perfectly
to any environment.
sapphire — as versatile as your requirements. Efficiency in a tool means it handles not only
changing challenges but also changing users. Like the new sapphire from Lawo — the
state-of-the-art tool for on-air broadcast and production. sapphire is a console
packed with technology that will even inspire non-technical users; its easy
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49
TVBE_April P46-62
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12:51
Page 50
TVBEU R O PE T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E
Clear blueprint for the future
Cloud, metadata and file-based production are on the agenda as the BBC
opens a dialogue with industry suppliers, writes Adrian Pennington
with a new end-to-end digital
production environment and
access to a digital archive.
Technology Trends
Building on the framework
established by Chief Technology
Officer John Linwood, the BBC
has fleshed out details of its
technology direction. In a wideranging
public
document
released last month, the Corporation revealed the scope of its
ambition for the next five years
as it overhauls its entire business
and production practices.
It made full strategy documents for 35 technology areas
available to external companies to
allow suppliers more insight into
what details and specifications it
requires. The next step is to translate these goals into specific areas
of technology and action.
“We hope that having this
information will make tenders
simpler and more efficient and
will aid the growth of the external
broadcast and technology industry,” explains Spencer Piggott,
head of technology direction.
“The BBC is at a tipping point
where integration is the focus
for both our content production
and our enterprise systems.
Integration will enable the BBC
to deliver efficiencies and better
ways of working but it’s not
trivial to deliver. For the BBC
to achieve its goals the role of
The key directives:
Spencer Piggott: “Integration will
enable the BBC to deliver efficiencies
and better ways of working but it’s
not trivial to deliver”
architectural frameworks, interoperability standards (such as
minimal metadata standards) and
shared services are vital.”
The Digital Media Initiative
(DMI) is the key programme
that is building Fabric: a set of
tools that will provide the BBC
Metadata: The aspiration is that
by 2013 there will be an endto-end digital file-based media
publishing system. The BBC
will be implementing a universal
metadata management and data
repository (titled EM3) — which
is a DMI-delivered product. The
BBC will be able to apply metadata templates and mandatory
controls through the deployment
of EM3.
By 2016 all BBC content will
have a globally unique identifier
throughout its lifetime and be
stored frame accurately using
MXF. Transcodes will be avoided
or ideally done once as near to the
content’s master or origin while
encoding for transmission will
happen as late as possible.
Genealogy and metadata will be
maintained throughout workflow
and the BBC will mandate an
industry standard by which a
complete audit trail for content
will exist with all its partners.
Storage: The BBC will move
to a ‘Storage as a Service’ model,
with storage centrally consolidated as far as possible. Storage
will be delivered through a
combination of dedicated and
‘private cloud’ based on commodity infrastructure. The ambition is to modernise through
scalable storage infrastructures,
eliminating tape as a backup
medium through the use of snapshots, de-duplication and Virtual
Tape Libraries. It notes that
Data Tape remains the least
expensive medium for long term
archive and as a result will continue to be used for that purpose.
Archive: Access to the BBC’s
archive for internal and external
suppliers will be enabled by a new
pan-BBC technology for federated archives (across the BBC’s
national hubs). Fabric is the platform/user interface which will
provide access to file-based production assets, and EM3 is the
metadata management tool and
repository for all assets stored
within the digital archive.
Public access to the archive
will be through bbc.co.uk with
a technology solution still to
be determined. There will be a
solution for indicating the editorial/
enduring value of content and
ensuring its long term retention.
The number of formats and
codecs in use in production and
archive will be reduced. An
archival solution for new media
content including dynamic web
pages, interactive TV content and
applications will be introduced.
HD: The vision is to make
HD integral to BBC activities by
the end of 2012-13. To that end
HD will be embedded into all
infrastructure and equipment
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investment programmes rather
than financed separately. The
entire backbone of the organisation must support HD. This
requires the BBC contribution
infrastructure to have sufficient
capacity to address the increase in
file sizes, bit rates while at the
same time be sufficiently flexible
to handle a wide range of codecs.
Acquisition: All new acquisition technology must be able to
record to HD file-based, solid
state media as the BBC commits
to a tape-free transition. Formats
will vary according to workflow
and genre. High end drama, documentaries, entertainment, studio
output and events will operate at
the upper end, using 100Mbps
AVCi or higher, with ob-docs
and more general programming
using a minimum of 50Mbps.
Consumer acquisition technology
including DSLRs will be introduced for HD video capture use
once technically mature.
According to Steve Jupe,
head of archive policy, BBC
Information & Archives, adoption of a fully tapeless infrastructure requires the alignment of a
number of strategic initiatives,
such as the W1 project, BBC
North, DMI roll out, as well as
incorporation of BBC World
Service. “So a strategic plan exists
for fully file-based operations, but
a detailed timetable is subject to
many large scale variables. Plus
the BBC needs to take account of
the wider uptake of file-based
working such as the use of tapeless cameras for capture.”
3D: The broadcaster remains
reluctant to invest in 3D programme making but will investigate stereo production in limited
trials. It has also outfitted its own
3D studio for external demand. It
rather scathingly, though accurately, says that 3D is a consumer
display
manufacturer-driven
technology and that much of the
current hype has come from the
success of recent movies and
Blu-ray releases.
It will play an active role in setting 3D standards and workflows
but without standardisation for
acquisition, post, contribution or
distribution the financial implications means TV commissions are
unlikely. Fully aware that the situation is in flux, it expects to
review this strategy in a year.
Cloud: The BBC is moving
some of its services and operations toward the cloud (dedicated
BBC networked servers, internet
accessible public cloud or a
hybrid of the two) but is conscious of the need for the technology and business models to
mature. It states: ‘A low-risk
incremental approach is proposed, supporting the creation of
a dedicated private BBC cloud (or
‘B-Cloud’) of software and infrastructure to pave the way for later
and broader adoption of emerging offerings once they mature.’
More at bbc.co.uk/blogs/
bbcinternet/2011/ 03/technology_
strategy_update_sum.html
TVBE_April P46-62
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15:12
Page 51
Avid heads to NAB with fresh approach and partnerships while keeping an eye on 3D
Understanding the new Avid
The Business Case
By George Jarrett
The complete re-invention of
Avid that happened early in 2008
has seen the company work
towards being a single brand, and
concentrate on delivering userrequested feature sets for its three
main editing products — Media
Composer, NewsCutter, and
Symphony — with a quick succession of upgrades.
It used the recent BVE show in
London to give Europeans a preNAB look at Version 5.5 of both
Media Composer and Symphony,
and Version 9.5 of NewsCutter,
with
Professional
Segment
Marketing Manager Angus
Mackay out of the Montreal
office holding court.
He knew editing professionals
would concentrate on two of the
main announcements. “The first
one is that Avid continues to open
up Media Composer to third party hardware,” he said. “You will
recall that in version 5 of Media
Composer we added support for
the Matrox MSX02 Mini monitoring hardware, for file-based
workflows,” he added. “We have
built on that in 5.5 with the AJA
Io Express, so you can do input
and output as well as monitoring
with non Avid hardware in Media
Composer (and NewsCutter) for
the first time ever.
“AJA is obviously a well
respected company, and these
devices are already being used by
lots of different owners of other
NLE systems,” he continued.
“They will be able to add Media
Composer to their existing set up
and use the one card for both, so
this gives our editing system a
great new price point.”
The second invented feature
Mackay highlighted was the
impressive option Avid PhraseFind, which is powered by
Nexidia phonetic searching. “This
is a completely new way of working with material, and the feedback from beta users says that it is
simply the coolest feature,” he
said. “If you are familiar with the
Avid ScriptSync function, you will
understand that PhraseFind
builds on that same indexing
engine provided by Nexidia.
“Additionally, we have separated out the Script function and
integrated the phonetic indexing
into the Media Composer fine
tool. So PhraseFind does the listening for you and pretty much
eliminates the need to transcribe
or log a lot of material,” he added.
“All the audio and the clips
that you capture into your project
are indexed and then you can simply type to find all of those key
words you note. If you add 400
hours of clips for a reality TV
show and wanted to find each
time someone says the word
Timbuktu, you would type in that
word and all of those results will
appear in a bin right in front of
you, and you can immediately
begin to cut your show.
“The applications for this flexibility are far-ranging. Think of
sports highlights reels, news and
current affairs applications, documentary films, reality TV, and
dialogue editing just for starters.”
Processor-intensive
Avid has also boosted the efficiencies of using specific Panasonic
and Sony formats. “We have the
new Nitris DX AVC-Intra
accelerator which will give
users realtime capture and
increased playback streams
of Panasonic AVC-Intra
content,” said Mackay.
“This is about more efficient
workflows and a codec that
is pretty processor intensive,
so to get multiple streams of
playback of FX in realtime
is challenging. We have put
acceleration onto Nitris
DX boxes. You can add a
little module and plug it
into Nitris DX. It has an
expandable design and gives you
great functionality.”
The accelerator is bundled
with new Symphony systems, and
also available as a user-installable
upgrade to existing Avid Nitris
DX hardware. The Sony
HDCAM SR support is via the
AMA (Avid Media Access) and
this allows users to handle original tape-based content ‘natively’
as files over a GB Ethernet network connection.
Mackay had news production
people in mind for his next element
from the upgrades. “There is something that addresses file-based
camera support. So many news
operations are based on file-based
material, so AMA really helps people to get their material in and start
editing right away, without the
delay associated with transcoding
and conversion,” he said.
“NewsCutter has the great
‘voice
over
to
timeline’
function,
and now with NewsCutter and
Media Composer supporting
the Pro Tools line of hardware,
another feature of v5.5, you
can easily imagine a news journalist taking a Pro Tools MBox 3
out to the field, editing filebased material with the Media
Composer and then getting a very
high quality V/O recording right
to the timeline,” he added.
Avid’s large user base will
spot things like the improved
Smart Tool Functionality (direct
timeline control of transitions,
for example), and the ability to
deploy the Euphonix-devised
Artist Mix, Artist Control, and
Artist Transport control surfaces
to manage media transport and audio
and FX parameters. And broadcasters will like the improved
ability to route audio signals when
sending content to air.
‘With the AJA Io Express …you can do input and output as well
as monitoring with non Avid hardware in Media Composer’
Angus Mackay: “We continue to
open Composer to third parties”
What everyone wants to know
however are Avid’s plans to
improve the stereoscopic 3D
toolset in Media Composer. The
market needs offline tools that
talk to online tools.
“We will take an approach to
stereo 3D that builds on our success in the market already,” said
Mackay. “Media Composer, since
version 3.5 and with progress to
version 4.0, has got a base for
stereoscopic editing, and we will
be showing some very interesting
new technology at NAB that’s a
probable indication of the direction that we would want to take.
“The market is maturing rapidly in this space,
and ambitious production
companies are figuring out what
they need and what they want to
get done,” he added. “We are
watching very carefully so we can
come to market with solutions
that are going to help them to
work easily with 3D.”
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51
TVBE_April P46-62
28/3/11
15:17
Page 52
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Teracue systems
for Spanish live TV
Spanish TV station V Televisión
Grupo Voz has selected encoder
and decoder products from
Teracue IPTV Systems for live TV
contribution and for the
connection of different broadcast
sites. With the ENC-200 encoders
and DEC-200 decoders it is
possible to send and to transmit
video/audio signals in H.264
format over an IP connection. For
the contribution and live links a
dedicated 3Mbps network
connection is being used. Over
this network V Televisión is
transmitting SDI broadcast
signals and video feeds. Three
DEC-200 decoders are installed in
the central office, within the
broadcast headquarters in A
Coruña. The units are able to
output a variety of signals
simultaneously. The ENC-200
H.264 encoders are installed in
remote areas such as Santiago de
Compostela (Galicia) and in Vigo
(Galicia). A third encoder is
available for backup and
occasional purposes.
www.teracue.com
New Matrox app
Matrox Video Products has
announced a new free app that
allows quick creation of H.264
video files for smart phones, iPad,
the web, and Blu-ray. Matrox MAX
H.264 Capture is a standalone
Windows application where
material can be captured from
video and audio input on an
MXO2 device and simultaneously
monitored. It also provides the
ability for the user to create
custom presets. Video can be
captured to the .mp4 file wrapper
for the web, iPad, and other
popular H.264 deliverables or to
.264 elementary stream files for
immediate Blu-ray authoring
without transcoding. “This new
app enables smooth workflows
for faster delivery of video
content and dailies. It’s also ideal
for archiving legacy material from
tape,” said Wayne Andrews,
Matrox product manager.
www.matrox.com/video
52
World Cup 2010 production in South Africa: “We knew the problems from the R&D technical level, but in doing the World Cup for real we got over some
of the myths,” said Malcolm Robinson. Peter Angell, director Production and Programming at Host Broadcasting Services, is on the right of the picture
George Jarrett discussed 3D technologies and applications with Sony Europe troika
Sony’s ambitions in
the 3D marketplace
By moving further into production
support than it has ever ventured
before, and by re-deploying technology from its PS3 and Bravia
consumer lines, Sony is better positioned to exploit 3D commercially
than it was even with HD.
The live production solutions
group has two pillars — products
and solutions — but it contrived
to win a production award for its
support work behind Sky and
Telegenic at the World Cup, and it
has ridden the 3D wave created in
Europe by Sky with some guile.
To put its ambitions to be the
GT car of live 3D into context, the
company fielded three wise men;
Malcolm Robinson, head of live
production
solutions,
Mark
Grinyer, head of live production
business development, and Ian
Davis, 3D OB specialist. OB truck
design is Sony’s anchor point in the
broadcast market, and the new front
line effort is built on a fast maturing
workflow offering and software
applications for lens correction and
2D to 3D conversion.
This is layer B technology, and
Robinson explained the origins of
a busy year spent transitioning
from back room R&D to front
line production. “We knew the
problems from the R&D technical
level, but in doing the World Cup
for real we got over some of the
Mark Grinyer: “What we have been doing is trading
EVS operator seats with convergence operators”
myths – like you cannot zoom
and, you cannot prepare 3D for
cinema and TV,” he said. “What
we did was get the R&D team
involved in that project, so we had
development aligned with production operations.
“R&D was our start point,
with the production workflows.
We then used the World Cup as
the lynch pin for driving issues
into the open. We took on the
problem of 3D rigging times and
we have driven them down. We
have also driven deployment times
down, and we have a good functional workflow now for broadcast and OB to adopt,” he added.
Explaining the imperative to
introduce products, Grinyer said:
“The key thing about the MPE box
is that it is software for both applications. When we were opening it
up to solve some of the World Cup
problems, we had to take R&D
support with us. They took that
knowledge back to put into the
next generation of algorithm. And
because our hardware platform is
powerful, R&D is now coming up
with other toolsets that run on it.
“If you buy a high-end platform
to put into an OB truck, you need as
much ROI as possible,” he added.
“For example, you see QC seats that
are very important for managing 3D
content, and for 2D to 3D conversion.
We are building a platform around the
production with that toolset.”
Anti phase correction
Feedback then poured in from the
Ryder Cup and various music
events, and Sony R&D kept fixing
problems. This led to a very fast
development route for what are
single fibre boxes, and honed
Sony’s ambition to turn live 3D
into a broadcasting reality.
“We are getting to a workflow
stage where there is a metadata layer
emerging that enables information
to be shared from the rig into the
processor, and later on into other
parts of the workflow,” said Davis.
“With log in we can go back and
look at a period of time and see what
things we were doing back then to
make the whole workflow function,
not just live but also when you go
into post production. That metadata can be useful in cutting quicker.
“To get cost effectiveness is to
use whatever products people
already know. The hire companies
have shelves full of broadcast
lenses with in-built servos. The
last thing we wanted to do was to
rip those servos off and put on an
external high-precision, filmbased Arri system,” he added.
Out of those lenses the MPE
tool reads focal length information, which can be passed down the
production chain. It is embedded
into the video signal, so you don’t
need extra cabling.
“It is transparent to the user, but
the box knows what the lenses are
doing,”Davis explained. “As part of
our set up before any event we do a
zoom in and out and produce a
number of key frames that track
what the lenses have done during
that travel. The system then makes
an anti phase electronic correction.
“When you go live, the box is
always making sub adjustments to
the image at any zoom position.
Basically, it has enabled live zooming without the complication of
external motors or physically moving the rigs to compensate for where
the zooms wander,” he added.
Sky is a giant commercial player,
but 3D needs more broadcasters of
all types to join the party if 3D is
going to become a consumer reality.
“We have seen more of a pull, and
have 20 proposals out there right
now,” said Robinson. “That has
only taken place in the last number
of months, and the World Cup was
the watershed. People saw that you
TVBE_April P46-62
28/3/11
12:52
Page 53
can now produce 3D shows, and they are
starting to understand the production techniques and the issues around zoom lenses.
“In some ways 3D matches the initial pull
we had for HD. There are some artefacts, as
there would be if you shot in HD,” he added.
“Obviously there are the two 3s — 3D and
then 3G; 1080 50p will get rid of a number of
the motion artefacts, and the issues now are
partly related to the backhaul bandwidths you
can attain. Most of them are 1080 50i. To get
rid of artefacts you would be looking at higher resolution and higher bit rates.
“We are coming in on the 3D drive to help
the broadcaster to produce and show 3D day
in and day out. In 3D you almost have an
analogy of the F1 car and the GT car. The F1
car needs a lot of looking after if you expect
it to work every time you get it out of the
garage. We are trying to create the GT car —
which races 24 hours a day, and needs only a
little bit of care,” he added. “It will run when
you switch it on, which will deliver 3D into
the broadcasting environment.”
3D an add-on to 2D
Mark Grinyer believes that the delivery of
World Cup coverage to cinemas was hugely significant, premium ticket prices being
the driver, and he explained some of Sony’s
wider activities.
“Specialist camera technology is another area we are focussed on. The MPE has
allowed us to work with Presteigne on its
3D wireless cameras, and with ACS and its
rail cams. These systems are operational
with the MPE, but we are working on the
integration so they effectively become baby
rigs,” he said.
“And then there is conversion. If you have
got a very high camera doing a stadium beauty
shot, the value of taking a full 3D rig up high is
probably zero, based on the facts that you have
to lug it up there and it is only going to yield one
shot with 3D depth,” he added. “With a controllable converter, you can put in some real 3D
and make the 2D look the same.”
This would give production teams access to
a phase two that looks to the cinematic experience would be very important to us.
“However the MPE already offers the
ability to do some corrections on set and
see where the disparities are. Using our
analysis tools — realtime analysis of L and
R eyes, with optional correction — you
learn that you may have a problem, and it
posts this information to the metadata for
later use in finishing,” he added. “We are
trying to educate broadcast customers to
shoot good 3D, and Culver City does exactly the same thing for the film industry.”
On both sides of the Atlantic Sony’s
biggest existing card has to be the PS3’s
consumer market dominance, and another
has to be the fact that, for major broadcast
vendors, 3D is not the complicated show
stopper they worried it might be.
“The product sets have been built around
a 3D platform, and there are over 39 millions
3D players in Europe already because the PS3
was upgraded in August,” said Grinyer. “It is
going to be a lynch pin in the house for getting 3D accepted, not only on the movie side,
and not only on the game playing side.
“Yes, 3D is not as complicated as we initially thought. But we are quite fortunate
because most of the OB trucks going out of
here have a flexible system infrastructure,”
said Robinson.
“We can upgrade without too many problems. For example, the Telegenic truck that
went to South Africa for the World Cup was
built in 2008. We had it here for five days and
installed a 3D layer, which was basically some
additional cabling, additional I/O on the
router, and a change of monitor compliment
in the production area,” he added.
There are issues with the production
areas and how they work, because 3D and
2D production are very different. 3D is
slower, giving everyone time to get involved
with the shots.
“Be clear, with the workflows we have
developed most of the staff inside an OB
truck are not looking at 3D. They are looking at different signals or they are seeing 2D
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series of computers using different platforms
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“For us in the production environment standards are a little
bit irrelevant. We are producing L eye/R eye as an HD SDI
signal. Two cameras squirt down one fibre” — Ian Davis
2D cameras for shots where they cannot position rigs — like the backward shot down a corridor as a team gets off the bus or where 2D units
already have the camera angles. “At the moment
3D is the add-on to 2D,so you cannot have those
cameras all of the time anyway,” said Grinyer.
“In live production you use automatic conversion. In our system you can cut the input and it
does not become disturbed because we are using
a system that was developed to sit in the back of
a Bravia and accepts very high-speed cuts.
“Looking ahead we must study the architecture for stadia, for events and locations. If
3D is going to become the norm, people need
to look at their camera positions to make it
better for the viewer,” he added.
Missing a trick
Given that Sony’s recently launched 3D
education facility at Basingstoke was largely inspired by Sony Pictures’ training centre
in Culver City, surely the GT vehicle will
have to roar around other sectors of the
market, where post production is the norm?
“We are not pigeon-holed into strict broadcast 3D. We would be missing a trick,” said
Davis. “We certainly have prioritised the development of a live 3D workflow, and this is at
the latter stages of its development. Making
corrections of a digital video signal is not that
important to a movie, but the development of
representations,” said Grinyer. “The guys
who are seeing 3D are the producer and director, the stereographer and the 3D engineer. It
is the stereographer’s job to make sure the
images are within the boundaries of what is
acceptable 3D to the viewer.”
Issues of the day were that the workflow
needed finishing to give specialist cameras
their full power, and the fact that the number
of 3D rigs on any shoot has started to rise.
“As we have driven the cost of 3D production down, producers are saying why can’t I have
an extra camera rig here? That means that truck
layouts have to be looked at because suddenly
you have operational problems,” said Grinyer.
“What we have been doing is trading EVS operator seats with convergence operators. As we go
to six to eight camera rigs for 3D we can take out
those EVS operators, because it is normally a 28camera shoot. We can put in the convergence
guys, but if the cameras for 3D start to go up in
number there is a physical space limitation
because trucks can only be so big in Europe.”
“We need to look at job roles, sustaining
the safe environment, and giving the producer more cameras. That’s going to be an issue
going forwards. The other issue is to look at
stadia shots to get the best from sports coverage in 3D. At the moment we probably
don’t have the premium camera angles in
every sport,” he added.
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53
TVBE_April P46-62
28/3/11
15:16
Page 54
Newsgathering gears
up for the next level
The Business Case
By Fabio Murra, product manager,
Solution Area TV, Ericsson
The speed with which broadcasters have adopted HD is a tribute
to the agility and creative flair
within the industry. Now the race
is on to increase the number of
European news reports broadcast
in HD.
However, unlike their colleagues producing studio-based
programming,
newsgathering
crews rarely have the same level of
certainty over which type of contribution platform will be on offer
when the news breaks, and indeed
they may need to feed several
platforms simultaneously. By the
same token, while a groundbreaking event may not have HD
connectivity today, documentary
makers are going to want the
footage in HD for tomorrow.
Maintaining a fleet of units
that are dedicated to particular
combinations of connection platform and resolution, or even
segregated between different
programming genres, is simply a
luxury the industry can no longer
afford. The same crew must be
able to get those time-sensitive
pictures back by whatever means
are to hand, while at the same
time serving a wide range of programming needs.
In essence we need to re-think
newsgathering system design in a
way that gives operators much
more flexibility, both in terms of
presentation and delivery. There’s
also the all-important issue of
operational costs. As news services across the globe play an
increasingly
important role in
the daily viewing
habits of TV consumers, and round the clock dedicated news channels offer more
live HD coverage from the scene,
bandwidth fees are taking an everlarger bite out of the budget.
For a number of years, the
ultra-competitive DSNG (digital satellite news gathering)
uplink market has been looking
at technologies that could
address all of these issues, while
endeavouring to maximise all
available bandwidth. The transition from DVB-S modulation to
DVB-S2 is a no-brainer — this
mathematically obvious and
application-agnostic broadcasting system offers substantial
reductions in bandwidth for a
given level of picture quality.
However, the migration from
legacy MPEG-2 codecs to
MPEG-4 AVC has been somewhat slower so far, due to the lack
of interoperability between equipment primarily developed for
volume DTH (Direct To Home)
applications. It also offers a
greater abundance of tools, some
of which may appear alien to
newsgathering requirements. The
capability to encode to 10-bits for
example is not usually associated
with a conventional news event
but is very good for sports, which
immediately increases the versatility of any newsgathering system
built around it.
A lot of news organisations
have a closed network through
which their vans and uplinks feed
into multiple receive sites, so
changing codecs across the board
is not a trivial matter. The transition to the more efficient
MPEG-4 AVC standard is
nonetheless inexorable, with each
major sporting event (such as a
World Cup or Olympics) triggering a further round of upgrades.
Fit for purpose
Not unreasonably, anybody contemplating a new system wants to
know how long it will remain fit
for purpose, and with all the variables in play this is especially pertinent to DSNG systems. After all,
as well as all the various contribution platforms the kit is likely to
encounter — from satellite, fibre
and microwave to broadband or
even a cellular network — we have
the prospect of 3DTV growing in
the future and quite possibly one
day encompassing news.
All of the 3D systems in commercial use today adopt a framecompatible approach, where both
the left and right signals can use
existing HD equipment usually
within a single channel, but trials
are underway to allocate a separate channel for each eye to convey 3D in true HD quality.
As any broadcaster knows, it’s
impossible to predict the future
with any degree of certainty, so
designing a system that is not only
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TVBE_April P46-62
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modular in structure but capable
of having its boards hot-swapped
in the field is absolutely essential.
This philosophy lies at the
heart of Ericsson’s fifth generation multi-format integrated
DSNG being unveiled at this
year’s NAB, which we believe is
the first to unleash the power of
MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:2 encoding
with 10-bit precision at up to
1080p50/60 resolutions.
The new Voyager II features
an integrated satellite modulator,
offering DVB-S and DVB-S2
modulation on both IF and LBand outputs. But we think it
goes beyond conventional definitions of DSNG, as it embraces
other contribution platforms in
the quest to simply give crews the
best possible tool for the job.
For instance the proliferation of
fibre networks often provides a
viable alternative to satellite, so
we’ve made sure that Voyager II can
implement other algorithms such as
JPEG2000 and AVC-Intra. While
these codecs are less bandwidthefficient, they provide lower latencies
and compatibility with many studio
file-based workflows. MPEG-4 AVC
and legacy MPEG-2 codecs can also
be used concurrently.
To establish a reliable newsgathering link at reduced band-
width and lower cost, the 1RU
unit offers the option of IP-based
satellite communications, along
with both broadband internet
and cellular network links —
which for locations with limited
connectivity may be the only
options. A number of vendors
offer equipment to multiplex six
or eight 3G channels from different carriers to increase resilience
or bandwidth.
But ultimately of course (and
despite increased capacity on
each network), neither network
can guarantee the Quality of
Service (QoS) that a broadcaster
would normally expect from a
contribution link — and as
some broadcasters have found
out the hard way, particular
caution should be exercised
when relying on 3G at crowdpulling sports events.
Broadcaster
goes live with
Soundcraft
Austrian national public service
broadcaster Österreichischer
Rundfunk (ORF) has selected a
pair of Harman’s Soundcraft
Vi1 digital consoles for live
broadcasts, FOH mixing and
recording in the Innsbruck/Tirol
region. The order was placed
with Soundcraft’s Austrian distributor Kain Audio by
Landesstudio Tirol, one of nine
regional studios operating under
the ORF umbrella.
ORF Tonmeister Jürgen
Brunner said the old set-up was in
need of upgrading. “We considered a number of different factors, such as price, size, quality
and ease of use. We concluded
that the Vi1 was the best concept
for us, very easy to use, with the
Widescreen Vistonics interface,
and with no quality limitations.
“The internal filters sounded
excellent as did the graphic EQ,
and it offers good flexibility, with
external Stagebox, MADI option
and offline editor — all packaged
into a really good price. With a digital console like the Vi1 there is no
need to pick up dozens of graphic
EQs or other external effects.”
One of the compact Vi1’s will
be for portable use while the other will be permanently installed
in the broadcaster’s Innsbruck
broadcasting hall for FOH
and recording purposes (using
RME MADI cards and M-16
DA extension).
While the desk’s footprint had
been one of the overriding criteria, ORF also needed the ability
to save and recall different shows
with different cues — and to handle everything over a WLAN network in the future. Brunner said:
“The Vi1 is exactly the right console for the things we need — it’s
very easy to use and to configure,
and it sounds great.”
This is not ORF’s first experience with the Soundcraft platform, it runs three analogue consoles in its FÜ25 (small video OB
trucks). Future orders by ORF
include
purchasing
new
Compact Stageboxes for its
mobile Vi1 and also for the new
Soundcraft Si Compact, on
order with Kain Audio.
www.harman.com
55
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large sensor size and solid-state
storage, according to Fiona
Lloyd-Davies of Studio 9 Films.
“With no tape mechanism and no
moving parts, the camera worked
faultlessly in all conditions, delivering excellent results,” says the
award-winning producer/director. “This is a beautiful part of
the world and I wanted a camera
that could do it justice. Not only
did the 101 bring out the vivid
colours of the people and their
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Ninja and Samurai
at the ready for NAB
Atomos has announced two new
recorders, which will be
demonstrated at next month’s
NAB. Making its worldwide
release, Ninja is a portable
touchscreen HD recorder,
monitor and playback device
that captures video direct to
Apple ProRes from any camera
with an HDMI output onto lowcost, removable 2 1/2-inch hard
disks. Inside Ninja’s compact
design is a hardware
implementation of the Apples
ProRes codec . “We’ve worked
with Apple to perfect our
implementation of Apple
ProRes, and using it is like
storing a fine painting by gently
rolling it up, instead of screwing
it into a ball and throwing good
data away, which is what the incamera codecs do, said Jeromy
Young, CEO, Atomos. ” The
second new product to be
released is the
HD-SDI-equipped Samurai, a
portable device that records,
monitors, and instantly plays
back ready-to-edit, visuallylossless Apple Pro Res files.
www.atomos.com
Pandora reveals
three new products
Pandora International will
introduce three new products at
NAB. PSi is a hardware upgrade
for Spirit Classic and Shadow
telecines that gives users 2K
and HD scanning capabilities.
PLUTO is a display colour
management system, and
PILOT is a controller for
telecines, VTRs and image
processors. “The new products
flesh out the Pandora colour
management workflow,” said
Adam Welsh, sales manager for
Pandora. “Pandora’s Revolution
colour corrector is the choice of
the high-end post facilities such
as the Mill. The Revolution, with
its YoYo data management
software, is the most efficient
multi-format workflow
available,” he added.
www.pandora-int.com
“This is a beautiful part
of the world and I
wanted a camera that
could do it justice. Not
only did the 101 bring
out the vivid colours of
the people and their
environment, but its
four thirds chip allowed
me to adjust the depth
of field to great effect”
Umbilical cord: The nanoFlash recorder was connected via HD-SDI, but in
a belt pack where Lloyd-Davies couldn’t easily view its remaining capacity
AF101 in broadcast first
David Fox learns how Studio 9 Films used Panasonic’s AG-AF101
large-sensor camera to capture vivid documentary imagery set in
the Great Lakes region of Africa in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Doc Production
A production for Al Jazeera’s
Witness strand is believed to be
the first to use Panasonic’s AGAF101 large-sensor camera for
broadcast work. It is being used
for a documentary set in the
Great Lakes region of Africa, in
the Democratic Republic of
Congo, about how women raped
and abused during the conflict are
rebuilding their lives.
The production required a
robust, agile camera that could
capture the beauty of the environment, and the AF101 was
chosen because of its lightweight,
Depth of field: Lloyd-Davies loved the quality she got with the prime lenses
environment, but its four thirds
chip allowed me to adjust the
depth of field to great effect.”
She wanted to step up from
the Sony Z1 or Z5 type of camera, but didn’t want a larger camcorder, particularly as she is
shooting by herself. She does
have a fixer working with her, but
he’s not a camera assistant or
sound recordist. “So I had to
find something I could work
with on my own,” in a very difficult place to work.
It was also “very important to
use a format that would be visually very strong and would
give great pictures,” she explains.
“Some people suggested using the
Canon 5D, but as far as I understand it doesn’t handle movement
very well and doesn’t have XLR
[audio inputs] or handle sound
very well.”
As she was preparing to leave
for Africa for the first part of her
shoot, the London-based hire
company she was using, VMI,
received its first AF101. “They
have been absolutely magnificent.
They gave me a huge amount of
technical assistance.”
Working in the Congo there
was no chance of getting something fixed if it went wrong, so it
was important that everything
was reliable (especially as she
didn’t have the budget for a second camera body, which she
would have liked to be able to
bring) — fortunately it was.
nanoFlash rig
The main downside with the
AF101 is that it doesn’t record at
50Mbps in the camera (it records
AVCHD at 24Mbps to two SD
card slots, which doesn’t meet Al
Jazeera’s technical requirements), so VMI added a
Convergent Design nanoFlash
rig to the camera, which can
record MXF or QuickTime files
to Compact Flash cards. Before
56
TVBE_April P46-62
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15:18
Page 57
she left, she did some tests with
the AF101 for Al Jazeera, which
they were happy with. The
nanoFlash was attached to the
camera’s HD-SDI connector,
and the resulting 50Mbps broadcast-compliant files were downloaded daily onto two separate
rugged drives.
She also recorded simultaneously to the SD cards, which gave
the security of a high resolution
back-up and ensured that the
nanoFlash was in sync with the
camera, being set up to record
when the timecode changed on
the HD-SDI output. When the
camera recorded, Lloyd-Davies
could be confident that the
nanoFlash was recording.
Having an external recorder
wasn’t a perfect solution.
“There were occasions where I
started shooting and realised it
wasn’t connected and had to
start again.” It was also hard to
tell how much time she had
remaining on the cards when she
was concentrating on operating
the camera.
The nanoFlash was powered
by the main Anton/Bauer camera
battery pack rather than a discreet power supply to ensure
that she could not start shooting
only to discover later that the
nanoFlash had run out of power.
“This is a new camcorder with
a third party recording device.
With limited technical support
available in Eastern Congo, we
needed to know that it would be
fool proof. VMI carried out full
testing before we hired the unit
and gave us an excellent grounding in operating the equipment
and getting the workflow right,”
she says.
A further problem was having
enough electricity to charge the
batteries and download all the
cards to disk each evening. She
was staying at a priest’s house that
only had a small generator on for
a few hours each night, luckily it
was just about possible to view
and back-up everything in that
time. She also had to clean all the
kit each night, as the conditions
were so dusty.
She needed to remain mobile,
so needed to limit the amount of
equipment she took. She was also
on a tiny budget, “which is why
I’m self-shooting and doing
everything myself.”
It is her first time working
with solid-state and she took
two 500GB FireWire drives,
backing up to both each night.
She had wanted to take larger
drives but they didn’t arrive in
time. The nanoFlash can record
at much higher bit rates, but “if
I had recorded on more than
50Mbps I would have run out of
space.” She is shooting a lot of
footage, hoping to capture some
great moments, and took five
32GB Compact Flash cards, for
the nanoFlash, although the
most she recorded to on one day
was four.
Each card took about 25-35
minutes to back up. She also
downloaded the video from
the SD cards each evening too.
She used prime lenses, which
meant she had to think
more about what type of shot
she wanted and why. However,
“the quality of the prime
lenses is fantastic,” although
she was very mindful of
how critical the focus was,
especially in such bright sunlight,
“It was a really nice camera to work with. The
pictures looked great. I felt I was working with a
much higher calibre camera than the Z1 or Z5”
where the LCD screen was hard
to see.
Nevertheless, “it was a really
nice camera to work with,” she
said. “The pictures looked great. I
felt I was working with a much
higher calibre camera than the Z1
or Z5.”
She has also been shooting a
project for the BBC in the Congo
over the last 18 months, but not in
HD. “I’d love to use the camera
again. I think it’s a great camera
and the quality is fantastic, but it
depends on the broadcaster as
well,” she adds. Lloyd-Davies will
be returning to the Congo for a second shoot in May, together with an
AF101, to finish the film, and then
edit it in June on Final Cut Pro.
www.studio9films.co.uk
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57
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A record of OB firsts
Ali Mohammed Mubarak (left), assistant secretary general, Qatar Olympic Committee, and Giovanni Bertini, Telerecord
HD OB Delivery
Mike Clark finds out how Italian
company Telerecord delivered a
high definition OB van for Qatari
broadcaster Al Kass Sport Channel
and how the truck boasts special
features to be able to cope in
Arabian climates and conditions
Italian OB company Telerecord,
which celebrates 35 years’ activity
this year, has added another ‘first’
to its list. As well as being the first
in Italy to experiment digital technology (in 1996), the first to use
HD OB facilities (in 2004) and
the first to cover events in 3D
(in 2007), the firm, strategically
based in central Italy (near
Florence), has delivered its first
HD OB van built in-house for a
foreign broadcaster.
Run by Giovanni Bertini, his
son Fabio and daughter Rosella,
Telerecord’s OB vans are familiar
sights at high-profile sports and
music events throughout Italy
and further afield (their first foreign HD project dates back to the
2005 Champions League Final in
Istanbul) and the firm decided to
put its lengthy experience designing OB units (its current fleet
ranges from motorbikes to a
45-foot 20-camera HD truck) at
other companies’ disposal.
Telerecord’s Founder, Bertini
Sr. explains: “We took a partiallyequipped truck, based on an
Iveco 150.25 E 5, to the IBC expo
in Amsterdam as a ‘sample’ of
what we could do and it caught
the attention of Qatar broadcaster
Al Kass Sport Channel.”
The Qatar Olympic Committee,
founded in 1979 and a member
of the International Olympic
Committee since 1980, bought the
58
Sound control room seats two engineers and hosts a Yamaha
PM5D-RH digital console and a Genelec 5.1 audio monitor system
channel for the year 2007, due
to ‘its quality programming, in
depth coverage and professional
analysis.’ Al Kass played a major
part in the broadcast of the 15th
Asian Games-Doha 2006 and the
18th Gulf Cup, with a high profile coverage that got excellent critiques from most of the major
newspapers and sports websites
on the GCC.
Younes continues, “The new
OB van bought from Telerecord
was used during all the AFC
Asian Cup 2011 matches held in
Qatar and during the DTFF
(Doha Tribeca Film Festival),
and other events we have covered
recently have included the 16th
Asian Games, the 20th Gulf Cup
in November 2010 and the AFC
Champions League 2010 — 2011.
The van is being used on all three
channels operated by Al Dawri &
Al Kass Sport Channel: Al Dawri
& Al Kass, Al Kass HD and AL
Kass Plus (+).”
As far as on-board equipment
is concerned, Giovanni Bertini
explains, “We suggested the
equipment we normally use on
our own trucks. This includes
three Evertz VIP 7767 multiimage display processors, used
with Sony LCD monitors (42inch versions in the production
and VT zones and 32-inch in
the audio zone, Harris (Leitch)
3901 Sys-3 master timing generator, Leitch audio and video
distributors and up/down converters and four For-A FA-9100
frame synchronisers.”
The client, on the other hand,
specified the Grass Valley
cameras (10 LDK 8000 Elite
multi-format HDTV cameras and
two Live Super SloMo LDK 8300
HDTV triple-speed cameras
and the production switcher, a
Grass Valley Kayak HD 2.5 M/E
48 In/24 Out. Other key equipment includes three EVS XT[2]
high definition broadcast servers
and, for communication, a
Trilogy Commander Digital
Matrix intercom.
The production truck is divided
into three areas: at the front
end, the sound control room
comfortably seats two engineers
and hosts a Yamaha PM5D-RH
digital console, Dolby E and ProLogic encoders, Audio Tool
DP570 GPI0 controller and a
Genelec 5.1 audio monitor system
(an G7050 subwoofer and five
G8020 enclosures, identical to the
pair in the main production area).
The central production area
with the expansion hosts the main
desk, with four operators at the
Kayak switcher and Avid Deko
Cast graphics/title generator system. The rear production desk is
equipped as a VT zone with three
operator positions, while at the
rear of the truck, there is the engineering zone with two operator
positions and another recording/VT zone, with two more.
The van’s specialist coachbuilder is another Tuscan company, Resti of Figline Valdarno near
Florence. Telerecord designed the
truck, supervised the work and
installed all the equipment and
cabling and, as far as special features required for work in Arabian
countries were concerned, Bertini
explains, “The main differences
from the vans we use in Europe
were necessitated by the temperatures and airborne sand and dust
in the locations which the channels
are using the truck. We boosted the
Climaimpianti/Daikin air conditioning system, adding an extra
10kW unit with three diverters, to
ensure a comfortable working environment in the various areas of the
vehicle and dust problems were
addressed by installing a spring
door return and double rubber
seals on the access door.”
As well as the main production
van Telerecord also designed and
supplied an 11m support vehicle,
also based on an Iveco truck — a
180.28 E5 plus a considerable
range of other equipment. This
includes two Steadicam Clipper
324, two Link Research L1503
HD-SD wireless camera systems,
two Iconix Studio2K net cameras,
a Sony HDWF 900R HD camcorder, a Stanton Triangle
Extreme (30-foot reach) jimmyjib, an 18 kVA UPS and a series of
Vinten tripods (five Vision 250 and
four Vector 90) and an Avid
Dekocast HD graphics system.
The trucks’ cable drums, 12-channel audio cable and XLR stage
boxes are manufactured by another specialist Italian company:
Rome’s Link.
The central production area hosts four operators at the Kayak switcher
and Avid Deko Cast graphics/title generator system while rear production
desk is equipped as a VT zone with three operator positions
completed truck, which in fact
bears the Olympic logo and the
‘Sport for Life’, and is operated by
Al Kass Channel, whose Technical
Adviser Samer Younes explains,
“Al Dawri & Al Kass is an Arabicspeaking satellite sports channel
launched in September 2006 and
located in Doha, Qatar. The channel, which broadcasts round the
clock, free to air, covers international sports news and events
with a major focus on football,
particularly in Qatar and the GCC.
It is the official broadcaster of the
Qatar Football Stars League
(QSL), Qatar Stars Cup (QSC)
and was host broadcaster of the
AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011 held
in January.”
The year after the channel’s
launch, Egyptian newspaper Al
Ahram held a survey among the
200 best-known sports journalists
in Arab countries, who voted Al
Kass number one Arabic sports
The HD OB van for The Qatar Olympic Committee undergoes final testing
28/3/11
11:56
Page 1
RAI Amsterdam
Conference 8-13 September : Exhibition 9-13 September
Exhibit at
IBC2011
Raise your profile, move into new
markets, develop distribution channels
and generate sales leads.
• 48,000+ attendees from over
140 countries
• more than 1,300 of the industry’s
leading companies
• leading event for professionals
involved in the creation, management
and delivery of entertainment and
electronic media content
• world renowned conference with
over 300 global leaders presenting
their views on the future direction of
the industry
• benefit from a number of added
value opportunities including the
Production Village, Post Production
Zone, New Technology Campus,
IBC Awards Ceremony and the
IBC Big Screen Experience
To exhibit at IBC2011
contact the Exhibition team on:
[email protected]
IBC Fifth Floor International Press Centre 76 Shoe Lane London EC4A 3JB UK
T +44 (0) 20 7832 4100 F +44 (0) 20 7832 4130 E [email protected]
www.ibc.org
TVBE_April P46-62
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HDR with 20 stops of latitude
Camera Technology
Researchers at the University of
Warwick have been working on a
High Dynamic Range camera
that creates imagery more
representative of real world lighting.
David Fox finds out more
A new camera, post production
and display system that offers the
highest of High Dynamic Range
recording, similar to the human
eye, has been demonstrated by
researchers at the University of
Warwick (UK).
A typical broadcast camera
can handle about ten to 12 f-stops
of dynamic range. High-end cameras, like the Arri Alexa, offer
about 15 stops, almost as much as
film stock, while the best currently available video camera, the Red
Epic, in its HDRx mode, is
claimed to offer 18 stops. Each
stop up or down represents a doubling or halving of light, so the 20
stops being claimed by Warwick
covers everything from deep shadows to the sun in a single shot.
HDR imaging has been available for stills cameras for more
60
Dynamic duo: Alan Chalmers with the experimental HDR camera which stores data with a higher bit-depth per pixel
than a decade, and HDR video
sequences have been assembled
from multiple stills, but until now
HDR hasn’t been possible with
realtime video.
“If the human eye can see it,
this camera can capture it, and
that’s the difference — whereas
before, with traditional camera
technology, you haven’t been able
to capture what the eye can see.
You either have under- or overexposed parts of the scene,” says
professor Alan Chalmers, head of
the Visualisation Research group,
at the university’s WMG
International Digital Laboratory.
The lab has been conducting
HDR research for several years,
but this is the first camera that
it has worked with, and has
been developed as part of a
joint venture with the German
high precision camera company
SpheronVR. In a video made by
the lab, the difference between
how a broadcast camera and the
HDR camera handled a difficult
scene (with a light pointing at the
camera from behind the speaker)
was very obvious.
“We have put together unique
compression software with a high
TVBE_April P46-62
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Page 61
performance HDR camera and
HDR displays that will revolutionise the use of HDR in a range
of applications. The impact will
be enormous — for example, the
ability to clearly see the football
when it is kicked from the shadow of the stadium into sunshine,” he says.
“We have also recently successfully trialled its use to assist and
document surgery together with
the thoracic surgery team and the
multi-media group at Heartlands
Hospital. HDR is able to accurately capture for the first time the
wide range of lighting present in
an operation from the dark body
cavities through to the bright
highlights on the shiny medical
instruments,” he adds.
“The natural world presents us
with a wide range of colours and
intensities. In addition, a scene
may be constantly changing with,
for example, significant differences in lighting levels going from
outside to inside or simply as the
sun goes behind some clouds, etc.
A human eye can cope with those
rapid changes and variety but a
traditional camera is only capable
of capturing a limited range of
lighting in any scene. The actual
range it can cope with depends on
the exposure and f-stop setting of
the camera. Anything outside that
limited range is either under- or
over-exposed.
“HDR imagery offers a more
representative description of real
world lighting by storing data
with a higher bit-depth per pixel
than more conventional images.
Although HDR imagery for static images has been around for 15
years, it has not been possible to
capture HDR video until now.
However such HDR images are
typically painstakingly created in
computer graphics or generated
from a number of static images,
often merging only four exposures at different stops to build an
HDR image.
“Our new HDR camera technology and software enables
panel behind an LCD panel, with
the combination of the two able
to show the full range of latitude.
The HDRx system for Red’s
latest Epic is already in use
(although it can’t capture the full
extent of the scene that the Warwick system can). It can acquire
about 18 stops of dynamic range
at 5k resolution, at 48fps. In a
demonstration video shot by Red
(http://red.cachefly.net/walk.m4v)
it is possible to see how well
HDRx can handle a shot of a
man walking from bright sunlight
into a dark barn. The recently
released Redcine-X programme
can recognise the HDRx data
and transcode it to other editing formats.
www2.warwick.ac.uk
www.gohdr.com
www.spheron.com
www.red.com
THE STANDARD
HDTV
CONNECTOR
Making the cut: Warwick’s HDR camera is successfully trialled
while shooting an operation at Heartlands Hospital
us to capture and display dynamic HDR images, covering at
least 20 f-stops, at full high definition resolution, and at 30fps.
Furthermore, HDR can complement 3D technology by providing depth perception without
can either be tone-mapped (where
the optimum exposures for each
shot are combined and displayed
as a single exposure) or the viewer
can look at the available exposures.
A minute of the HDR footage
takes up 42GB (as each frame is
“If the human eye can see it, this camera can
capture it, and that’s the difference — whereas
before, with traditional camera technology, you
haven’t been able to capture what the eye can
see” — Alan Chalmers
the need to wear 3D glasses,”
he claims.
The researchers have been
working with a UK production
company Entanglement Productions and IBM’s Austin
Research Laboratory, as well as
SpheronVR. Together they have
also set up a spin-off high-tech
company specialising in HDR
technology, goHDR, which has
just released a beta version of its
HDR Media Player.
A compressed HDR stream is
decompressed in realtime back
into HDR content, which can be
displayed directly on an HDR display. On a conventional screen it
24MB), compared to 9GB for standard HD. goHDR has developed
software to allow the HDR content
to be viewed online using existing
broadband infrastructure. While
developing this software, goHDR
has obtained a patent for compressing the HDR video by 100-fold or
more. The software for watching
HDR video on the internet will be
distributed free, and the company
intends to profit from more sophisticated encoding and viewing
products it will licence to camera
manufacturers, broadcasters, and
HDR application providers.
They have also developed an
HDR display, which uses an LED
3K.93C HDTV
connection system
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61
TVBE_April P46-62
28/3/11
14:56
Page 62
AD
INDEX
25
48
60
4
32-33
5
43
3
30
34
38
IFC
40
54
17
41
35
49
12
23
53
31
FC
59
19
10
51
61
39
47
15
52
37
44
9
36
22,56,
OBC
27
57
26
8
16,18,
20
55
7
21
28
14
45
29
IBC
11
42,62
AJA www.aja.com
Annova www.annova.tv
Anton Bauer
www.antonbauer.com
Argosy
www.argosycable.com
BCE www.bce.lu
Blackmagic Design
www.blackmagic-design.com
Broadcast Microwave
Services www.bms-inc.com
Bridge Technologies
www.bridgetech.tv
Canon
www.canon-europe.com
Clearcom
www.clearcom.com
Datavideo
www.datavideo.co.uk
Digital Rapids
www.digital-rapids.com
DVS www.dvs.de
Ensemble Designs
www.ensembledesigns.com
EVS www.evs.tv
Fischer
www.fischerconnectors.co.uk
For-A www.for-a.com
Front Porch Digital
www.fpdigital.com
Fujinon www.fujinon.de
Genelec
www.genelec.com
Guntermann and
Drunck www.gdsys.de
Harmonic
www.harmonicinc.com
Harris
www.broadcast.harris.com
IBC www.ibc.org
ITBWF Conference
www.broadcastworkflow.com
Junger Audio
www.junger-audio.com
Lawo www.lawo.de
Lemo www.lemo.com
Lynx
www.lynx-technik.com
Matrox www.matrox.com
Miranda
www.miranda.com
Murraypro
www.murraypro.com
Neutrik www.neutrik.com
Nevion www.nevion.com
Newtek
www.newtek-europe.com
PCI
www.proconsultant.net
Playbox
www.playbox.tv
Publitronic
www.publitronic.com
Quantel www.quantel.com
Quantum www.quantum.com
Red Byte
www.decimator.com
Riedel
www.riedel.net
Ross Video
www.rossvideo.com
Sennheiser
www.sennheiser.com
Snell www.snellgroup.com
Solid State Logic
www.solid-state-logic
Studiotech
www.studiotech.be
Telestream
www.telestream.com
Thales Angenieux
www.angenieux.com
Thomson
www.thomson-broadcast.com
TwoFour54
www.twofour54.com
Wohler
www.wohler.com
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enhance TV with integrated internet content
DTG ponders seismic
impact of connected TV
said Docherty, adding that the guiding principle for connected TV was
to “keep it simple, keep it stable”.
TVBEurope360
Richard Dean reports on the main
topics of discussion at this year’s
DTG AGM and conference from the
future of internet-connected
viewing devices, YouView and HD to
the slow take-up of 3DTV and
regulatory standards
The refurbished Congress Centre
at London’s TUC (Trades Union
Congress) was an especially fitting
venue for this year’s DTG (Digital
TV Group) AGM and conference,
as delegates sought to discover
what changes to pay and conditions would result from the looming new working practices of
internet-connected TV.
DTG
Chairman
David
Docherty opened the event by suggesting that while the industry had
been talking generally about convergence for years, some feared the
relationship between established
media and the internet would be
more akin to the Titanic and an iceberg than a rapturous romance. “To
many broadcasters, the internet is
like the coolest guy at school that
you wanted to hang out with, but
were never quite sure what he wanted from you in return,” he added.
However Docherty said there
was a pent-up consumer demand
for new media to finally reach the
main screen, citing the fact that
several manufacturers were now
“playing outside of their normal
positions” with programme offers
alongside their normal hardware
role as evidence.
John Bird of Futuresource
Consulting agreed by quoting
several CE manufacturers that
have already launched their own
versions of connected viewing,
including Sony Bravia Internet
Video, Samsung Apps and
Panasonic Viera Connect alongside a variety of well established
HbbTV (Hybrid broadband TV)
YouView technical
Richard Halton, CEO of the
YouView consortium, revealed that
the platform’s core technical
specification is set to be finalised
on 14 April with the commercial
launch due in 2012
implementations across continental Europe.
Not all attempts by internetbased content companies had been
successful, noted Bird. While Yahoo
Widgets was still there, Google TV
had launched to a lukewarm reception in the US in Q4 last year, and
the UK launch is currently on hold.
A slim-line second generation Apple
TV box was launched at the same
time for US$100 (£100 in the UK),
but with no TV tuner or PVR
(Personal Video Recorder), he
regarded this as more of an extension to the iTunes ecosystem than
full-on connected TV.
All of which lent weight to
Docherty’s view that the television industry faces a once-in-alifetime opportunity to enhance
viewing with smoothly integrated
internet content, rather than end
up as just another ‘app’ on the TV
screen — and that the DTG was
developing the necessary tools to
allow this to happen.
That’s why the new D-Book 7
digital broadcasting specification
will encompass not only the new v.3
of BBC iPlayer with social networking but also the internet-connected
Freeview TV platform YouView,
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62
According to Richard Halton, CEO
of the YouView consortium comprising Arqiva, the BBC, BT, Channel 4,
five, ITV and Talk Talk Group plus
hardware partners Cisco, Humax
and Technicolor, the platform’s core
technical specification is set to be
finalised on 14 April. The YouView
API (Application Programming
Interface) will also be available from
that date on the consortium’s website
(www.youview.com/developer-zone)
for manufacturers wishing to use a
subset of features, thus facilitating
deployment internationally. YouView
technical details were previously
available only to DTG members.
After several delays, a working prototype of YouView is now slated for
release by the end of this year prior to
commercial launch early next.
John Bird predicted that the
number of consumer devices with
an internet connection, which he
said was quite inexpensive for CE
manufacturers to add, will jump
from the current 6% to 60% by
2014 — although connectivity
was no guarantee of usage.
Indeed Roly Keating, director of
archive content at the BBC, said
that today only 40% of connectable
devices were actually connected or
used in such a way, although he
agreed that this will increase dramatically over the coming months
and years. “We need to combine
skills to re-invent the experience of
pressing the Red Button to offer a
‘Dynamic Bridge’ that responds to
what the viewer is watching,”he said.
This raised the issue of how to prevent the selection of web-based optouts, checking email or participating
in social networks from disrupting
others during group viewing at home.
At one point conference chair Sophie
Raworth said that she didn’t like
the idea of her husband delving into
football news while she was trying to
watch the BBC news — when she
wasn’t reading it herself, that is.
Keating reassured delegates that
restricted gateways would ensure all
added-value content was closely
relevant to linear content. He also
later told TVBEurope that he expected the linear video to be converted
to PIP — the Picture-in-Picture
function often found on electronic
programme guides — during brief
‘Bridge’ detours, rather than being
obliterated by the new content.
However many believed that the
best place for such incidental material
or activities would be on a new breed
of TV-synchronised personal smartphones rather than the main screen.
Bird said that while a lot of
attention was understandably currently focused on the future of
internet-connected viewing devices,
it was worth noting that 2010 had
emerged as the year of HD.
The number of homes now
receiving HD broadcast services
was around 7.5 million in the UK
alone, which Futuresource expects
to exceed 13 million by 2012, and
HD growth rates were running at up
to 20% in emerging markets. Even
online TV and film content was now
available in HD, even if it was not
always running at full frame rate.
Bird predicted that the average
European HD household penetration
of 15% last year will jump to over 60%
in 2014, with a split of about 60/40
between pay and free-to-air. Currently
1.5 million of Freeview’s 10 million
viewers now watch Freeview HD,
while SkyHD now offers more than
50 channels.
Take-up of 3DTV last year had
been disappointing said Bird, with
only 140,000 3D sets sold in the UK,
largely due to lack of content and
patchy retail support. However the
forecast was stronger for 2011, with
more programmes to come from
Sky3D, Blu-ray packaged media,
games and online content plus usergenerated video and photos.
Also more 3DTV models and
higher performance switched glasses were emerging, along with muchneeded 3D broadcast standards as
the finalised DVB-3DTV specification wends its way through the
ETSI ratification process. Bird
boldly predicted that some 45% of
UK homes will own at least one
3DTV set by 2015.
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28/3/11
11:57
Page 1
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BROADCAST
28/3/11
11:59
Page 1

April 2011 - TVBEurope

Transcription

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