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VOLUME 5 > ISSUE 6
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008
PP: 255003/06831
An Industry “Plus” Since 2003
MAGAZINE
Media Management Production Distribution
Hot FX from the Lab
-Jeffrey Katzenberg Proclaims End of Film as We Know it
News Operations
Sportscasting
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Transmission
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CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY
ISSN 1448-9554
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VOLUME 3 > ISSUE 5
<< 41
CONTENTS
>04 NEWS
Videocraft Passes University Test, Scott Leaves
Park Road, Digital Switchover, Omnilab
Launches Captioning, MPEG Trends.
>50 POST-PRODUCTION
Digital Dimensions Takes BBC to the Reef,
Keeping It Clean with Lux & da Vinci, EFIlm
Catapults Data
>10 MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Life in 2009
>54 STORAGE & ASSET MANAGEMENT
Silver Trak Hits Migration Trail, New MPEG
Standards, DAM form IBC
>12 TAKING STOCK
The Business of Content + Technology
<< 45
>18 TRAINING & CERTIFICATION
MITC, SMPTE & Women in Film and Television
>20 ACQUISITION
Bad Bush Fires Up JVC, XDCAM HD Takes
Gibson Group to Paradise, Geoffrey Simpson
DOP, Cameras in Focus at IBC, Classic
Cameras: RCA TK76.
>30 SPORTSCASTING
Global Monitors with Wohler & Quinto, TEN
Sports Channel the ‘ONE’, Zer01zer0 Integrates
Riedel/Lawo, Better Vision for Spectators.
<< 50
Back to Contents Page
>64 RADIO
Advertising: Digital’s Dilemma for Delivery,
DAB+ Hits the Road, ABC Modernises
PNG Radio, Paperless Production System
>68 TRANSMISSION, SIGNAL
DISTRIBUTION, T&M
Software Solution for DTV Updates, DTV
Reception Survey, Broadcast Australia
Chalks Up 500 Sites for DVB-T, Milestone
for UK Switchover, TX and T&M from IBC.
c+t
>34 NEWS OPERATIONS
CNBC Handles High Volume News with XD,
BigPond Launches 24 Hour News Channel,
TVNZ Unifies News with Quantel/Omnibus,
Automated captions for Parliament, Covering the
Fosters AGM.
>40 3D STEREOSCOPIC CINEMA
The pitfalls of 3D production, DreamWorks
Animation and the 3D Vision, 3D HD Via
Satellite with 3Ality Digital, Live 3D HD from
IDC, Stereoscopic 3D: the Business Opportunity,
3D Glossary
>58 AUDIO
SBS, Sky Channel Take Telex for Talkback,
IP Broadcasting & Session Initiation
Protocol, Soundfirm Powers Post with JBL
>74 EVENTS/ESP – EQUIPMENT,
SERVICES, PRODUCTS, JOBS
>76 OFF-AIR
What Happens on Tour … gets Printed
Right Here.
>80 BABBLING BROOKS
Gerry Brooks – The Choice of Multichannels!
CINEMA TECHNOLOGY - NEW MAGAZINE
Visit www.cinematechnology.info
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Editor’s Welcome
We just can’t contain ourselves
so we have to go online.
Visit the following C+T web sites.
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C+T Corporate
C+T in pdf for download, features, deadlines, it’s all here.
Visit www.content-technology.com
By Phil Sandberg
It was
a repeat screening, after a year, of the
ABC Four Corners special ‘Mortgage Meltdown’
that drove home to me the value of a properly
funded public broadcaster with an independent
news and current affairs department.
Paul Barry and his team had delved into the
sub-prime lending morass of the American midwest soliciting views from borrowers, moneymen,
regulators and analysts alike to present an
uncannily accurate prediction of the global market
turmoil that has unfolded since late 2007.
While others were preoccupied with celebrity
gossip, fuel discounting stunts or body hugging
underwear, the Four Corners team were bringing
real analysis to bear on a real issue – and without
the budget of a BBC!
Compared to the almost hysterical, dramaladen coverage that has ensured since, ‘Mortgage
Meltdown’ was a stunning example of what
can be achieved when great journalists and
researchers are joined with great production staff
and have faith placed in them by a non-partisan
news organisation. If only more people had taken
notice!
Now for some of the drama...
According to Jörg Decressin, Chief of the
World Economic Outlook Studies Division with
the International Monetary Fund, global economic
growth will be down to 3.7 percent for 2008 and
2.2 percent for 2009. The IMF feels that for 2009
growth will be negative in advanced countries,
minus 0.3 percent, and 5.1 percent for emerging
and low income countries.
According to Mr Decressin, “What you have
to bear in mind, though, is that in the course of
the last 40 years, potential growth of advanced
economies has been slowly diminishing. The
reason is, for example, slower population growth,
but there are also other reasons.
“Now if you measure the slowdown in growth
relative to potential, then what we are expecting
to happen is not worse than, for example, what
happened in `82, but it’s going to be worse than
what happened in the early Nineties.”
In those early Nineties, I was a young cub
reporter on a now-defunct broadcast technology
magazine. This was before the widespread use
of Digital Betacam! While there was pain and
restructuring for some, the sky didn’t fall in a la the
1930s and the industry survived.
It is true today that there is more competition, but
there are also more outlets for content, and more
2 Editor’s Welcome
accessible and cheaper technology to produce
it. What will decide who stands and who falls
is the business model and how that technology
is employed. Not to mention that cool heads will
always prevail.
The bursting of the Internet bubble some
seven/eight years ago weeded out those with
unsustainable business models – especially ‘the
pour loads of money into it until somebody buys
us’ model. This will happen again.
As the Four Corners example illustrates, this
industry is full of bright, creative and inventive
people with foresight who will adapt to whatever
is thrown up at them.
I have no doubt that these people will continue
to propel the industry along and we look forward
to being there along with them.
As this is our last issue for 2008, I’d like to thank
all our readers and advertisers and wish them the
very best for 2009.
Thanks again for reading
Regards
Phil Sandberg
Editor/Publisher
[email protected]
T: +61-(0)2-9332 2221
C+T Tools
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September 2008
ASIA-PACIFIC LAUNCH ISSUE
B•K•S•T•S The Moving Image Society
&UTURESSOBRIGHT
WEVEGOTTOWEARSHADES
Singapore’s Cathay
Gives 4K the OK
D-Cinema - the
Word from Atlab
AIMC 2008
Preview Inside
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cinema technology asia pacific - september 2008
page 1
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DEADLINES
Editorial/Ad Bookings – Early Bird: December 18, 2008
Final: January 14, 2009
CONTENT
• Acquisition • Post-Production • VFX & Graphics
• Sportscasting • Production Snapshot
TECHNOLOGY
• IPTV/Broadband • News Operations
• Mobile Media • Digital Asset Management
• Storage/Networking • Transmission
BUSINESS
• Takin’ Stock
REGULARS
• News • Technical Standards
• Receivers/D-Cinema • Babbling Brooks
• Recruiting/Staff Management
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Media Industry Technologist Certification - www.mitc.tv
For the latest news, visit www.smpte.org.au
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Videocraft Passes University Test
The School of Communication Arts at
University of Western Sydney (UWS)
has launched a new 3-camera studio
and 3-camera OB van to give students
a taste of ‘real life’ television production.
Broadcast equipment sales and rental
company Videocraft was appointed to
supply and install the system by UWS
after Graham Paech of Australian
Systems Integration (ASI) won the SI
design and build tender.
According to Videocraft State
Manager Andy Liell, “There were
a number of complex logistical and
technical considerations that needed
to be addressed. The first being the
integration of UWS’ existing equipment
into what was a major new facility
and OB van. With the complexities of
the install, ASI were able to give us a
75% of the design and we completed
the remainder. It was also a key
requirement of UWS that we make
their training facility as close to a real
broadcast environment as possible.”
According to School of Communication
Arts Facilities Co-ordinator Sue Powell,
“This is the largest project of its kind that
we have ever undertaken.”
The project was split into several parts,
the studio’s technical control room (for
lighting, camera balance and audio),
vision control room, green screen and
studio area and OB van. Central to
the vision control room is the Sony
DVS9000 switcher recommended
by Videocraft. “It’s an SD version
of the MVS switcher and provides
our students with a real operational
environment similar to those being
used by Global Television, zer01zer0,
Charter Broadcast and Channel 9.”
said Sue Powell. “The system also
includes Codan Broadcast routing
switchers and peripherals, a Chyron
Micro X Character Generator, a
Yamaha DM1000 digital audio
console, Tektronix test equipment,
Miller tripods and an RTS intercom
system.”
The system also includes an Apple
server system with capture, playout and
streaming servers and two Final Cut
Pro edit suites, all connected to fibre
channel storage. Files recorded in the
studio or OB van can be streamed live
to the university intranet or captured
and edited in the suites for delivery at
a later date. Thomson Turbo iDDR’s are
also used in the studio and OB van.
Warren Becomes Luminary
Peter Warren, formerly
with United Group
Infrastructure, has
established Lumina
Broadcast Systems with
the aim of providing
broadcast consultancy
services throughout
Australia and New
Zealand. Initially
fronting a team of three,
Warren will be based in Sydney looking to provide
expertise in radio, television, transmission, IP and more.
Lumina Broadcast Systems can be reached via PO Box
1693, Lane Cove, NSW 1595. Tel: +61 2 9427
8475. Mobile: +61 433 301 195.
4 News
Sue Powell (far left) and the team at UWS.
As an integral part of UWS’ training
courses the students are required to
do ‘real life’ field work using a fully
operational OB van. The van includes
3 JVC GY-HD251E studio configured
cameras, a B-Pix Slate 2100 all-in-one
switcher solution with breakout box
and failsafe mode and a V-Brick
encoder for encoding SDI video and
2 channels of audio into MPEG-4, for
streaming across a network.
The OB truck workflow is a
particular source of pride for Powell
who explained, “UWS has seven
campuses all over Sydney. Videocraft
have integrated a second V-Brick
decoder into our IP network so that we
can drive the OB van to any location,
plug into the network and transmit
directly into the studio where it is
seamlessly mixed into the programme
being made. It’s real-time MPEG-4
encoding made simple. Completing
the installation is a bi-directional
comms, programme audio and video
set up with full functionality through just
one network cable.”
Live and recorded programmes from
the studio and OB van can also be
fed to the school’s foyer where a
two-storey ‘monitor garden’ was built
alongside a 4-screen video wall.
Scott Leaves Park Road While Lilley
Goes for Gold at Foxtel
As of mid-January, 2009, Mike Lilley, Director of Broadcast
Operations at Foxtel, will take up a new role within Foxtel’s
newly formed Olympic unit. Lilley will assume the role of
Broadcast manager, Olympics and Commonwealth Games,
and will work with Foxtel’s Head of sport, Peter Campbell.
Foxtel has acquired rights for the 2010 Vancouver Winter
Olympics, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, New Delhi, India,
and the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. The 2012
coverage includes broadcast and online rights in conjunction
with the Nine Network. Taking over from Mike Lilley will be none other than Park Road Post
Head of Digital Intermediate and C+T Award recipient, Adam Scott who has accepted an
offer from Foxtel CEO Kim Williams to leave Peter Jackson’s ‘Wellywood’ and assume the role
of Director, Broadcast Operations, Foxtel TV Centre. Under Adam’s stewardship, the Foxtel
TV Centre will become an outward facing production business as well as a platform solution
for existing Foxtel channels. Adam is currently finishing up his DI duties on Peter Jackson’s The
Lovely Bones, Alex Proyas’ Knowing and the Laundry Warrior starring Geoffrey Rush.
Adam Scott.
News 5
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Digital Switchover Timetable for Australian TV
Australian Minister for Broadband,
Communications and the Digital
Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has
released the timetable for the country’s
switchover to digital television.
The Victorian region surrounding
Mildura, which leads the nation
with digital TV take-up, will lead
with analogue switch-off in the first
half of 2010. Under this timetable
analogue broadcasting will cease
in the Mildura/Sunraysia district in a
window between 1 January and 30
June 2010.
“The regional broadcasting licence
covering the Sunraysia district in
northern Victoria has the highest
penetration of digital TV in Australia,
at over 70 per cent of homes, so it
makes sense to start there,” Senator
Conroy said. “This particular community
is already well informed about the
benefits of digital TV after the third
commercial network entered the market
in 2006 and drove take-up with
digital-only broadcasts.“Depending
on local conditions and community
feedback I will set the final date within
the switch-off window next year.
Importantly people in this community
now have plenty of notice to be digitalready. The Digital Switchover Taskforce
will be working with broadcasters,
retailers, antenna installers and the
wider Sunraysia community throughout
2009 to ensure information is available
to assist people to join the digital TV
revolution,” Senator Conroy said.
The Taskforce is developing an
extensive labelling scheme for digitalready TV equipment and services and
will launch a communication campaign
to raise awareness of the label to assist
consumers early next year.
Broken Hill in NSW and Mt Gambier,
Riverland and Spencer Gulf in South
Australia will turn off analogue
broadcasts in the second half on
2010 and the rest of regional Victoria
in the first half of 2011. Regional
Queensland, excluding remote western
and northern areas, will switch-off
analogue in the second half of 2011.
The major regional centres of NSW
will switch-off analogue in 2012.
Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold
Coast, Perth and Tasmania will switchoff analogue in the first half of 2013
and Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide,
remote western, central and eastern
Australia will be digital-only by the end
of 2013.
Timetable for Australian digital TV switchover.
Type
VIC
SA
SA
SA
SA
VIC
VIC
VIC
VIC
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
NSW
NSW
NSW
NSW
NSW
NSW
NSW
NSW
NSW
Metro
Metro
Metro
Metro
Metro
Metro
Remote
Remote
Switchover Area
Mildura/Sunraysia
Broken Hill
Riverland
Mt Gambier/South East South Australia
Spencer Gulf
Gippsland
North Central Victoria
South West Victoria
Goulburn Valley /Upper Murray
Wide Bay
Capricornia
QLD Central Coast and Whitsundays
Darling Downs
North Queensland
Far North Queensland
Griffith/Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area
South West Slopes and Eastern Riverina
Illawarra and the South Coast
Central Tablelands and Central Western Slopes
ACT and Southern Tablelands
North West Slopes and Plains
Richmond/Tweed
Northern Rivers
Hunter
Tasmania
Perth
Brisbane
Melbourne
Adelaide
Sydney
Regional and Remote Western Australia
Remote Central & Eastern Australia
6 News
Major Centres
Mildura
Broken Hill
Renmark and Loxton
Mt Gambier, Naracoorte and Bordertown
Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta
Traralgon, Bairnsdale and Mallacoota
Bendigo and Swan Hill
Ballarat, Warrnambool and Horsham
Albury/Wodonga, Wangaratta and Shepparton
Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Maryborough
Rockhampton, Emerald and Yeppoon
Mackay, Proserpine and Bowen
Toowoomba, Warwick and Dalby
Townsville, Ayr and Charters Towers
Cairns, Port Douglas and Innisfail
Griffith and Hay
Wagga Wagga and Gundagai
Wollongong, Ulladulla and Eden
Dubbo, Orange and Mudgee
Canberra, Thredbo and Cooma
Tamworth, Armidale and Inverell
Byron Bay, Tenterfield and Lismore
Coffs Harbour, Forster and Grafton
Newcastle, Port Stephens
Hobart, Launceston and King Island
Perth
Brisbane, Gold Coast and Noosa
Melbourne
Adelaide
Sydney and Gosford
Kalgoorlie, Broome and Bunbury
Darwin, Alice Springs and Mt Isa
Analog Switch-off Window
1 January – 30 June 2010
1 July – 31 December 2010
News 7
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Minicola Heads Hybrid TV
Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Ltd, the exclusive licensee of
TiVo products in Australia and New Zealand, has appointed Robbee
Minicola to the position of Chief Executive Officer.
In her new position as CEO, Robbee has full responsibility for Hybrid
Television Services (Hybrid TV) the convergent media platform of the
Seven Media Group (SMG) and for growing the TiVo brand in the local
market. According to Minicola, “as SMG expands from a broadcaster
to content provider across multiple platforms the TiVo media device will
play an integral role. Through blending digital television with broadband
content and services we will be able to provide Australians with a
unique experience. The fight for penetration isn’t about volume – the fight
is about content, services and a better user experience. With the TiVo
media device – we can fight, and win, on all battlefields.”
James Warburton Chief Sales & Digital Officer, Seven Media Group
commented, “Robbee has achieved demonstrated financial benefits to
our business in terms of digital, cross platform and branded entertainment
while at Seven. Her move to lead Hybrid TV enables focus on building
both the brand and broadband content portfolio to deliver a significant
customer footprint. We believe Robbee brings with her the right mix of
marketing and product development experience to strengthen the group’s
position in convergent media, and equally importantly, a pathway to
monetise new platforms underpinning our core capability of ad-funded
services over consumer-pays.”
Robbee has a rich background in digital services and delivery
specialising in marketing across broadcast television, online and mobile.
She holds an Advanced MBA from Adelaide University and is a Fellow
and CPM of the Australian Marketing Institute.
Videocraft Lands Lloyd for Canberra
Furthering their commitment to and
expansion in the Australian broadcast
market Videocraft has announced that
Jack Lloyd has joined their team as ACT
Sales Manager.
Industry veteran Lloyd is a sixth
generation Australian whose family has
been connected with Canberra since
Old Parliament House stood on its own
in open grasslands.
Lloyd brings with him over 16 years
experience in sales of audio visual
equipment in Australia and the USA and
has had senior roles with companies
including
Canberra
Professional
Equipment and Staging Connections
and Silver Trak Digital for whom he
established a Canberra office.
Jack says, “I am very excited to
have joined Videocraft as they offer
the best ongoing sales, rental, support
and service for the broadcast and
production industry in Canberra,
regional New South Wales and
beyond. I have strong relationships
with camera people, post production
companies, education institutions and
government departments all of whom
stand to benefit from Videocraft’s
approach. I’m also looking forward
to further supporting the production
industry where I see a very positive
future.”
Videocraft Sales Director James
Taylor added, “Jack is an excellent
addition to the Videocraft team and
brings great knowledge and expertise
with him. He has already made a
positive impact on the market and
with all his contacts, experience,
product knowledge and enthusiasm,
significantly strengthens our ability to
service clients in the ACT.”
Visit www.videocraft.com.au
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Jain Joins Jampro
Aditya Jain has joined Jampro Antennas
as Regional Sales Manager for South
Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The
announcement was made by Jampro
President Alex Perchevitch, from the
Company’s world headquarters in
Sacramento, California, USA.
“We are pleased to demonstrate
our commitment to this growing region
by providing superior resources like
Aditya,” said Perchevitch. “His fresh
approach coupled with his industry
experience in designing broadcasting
systems is a benefit to our customers.”
Jain joins Jampro following a
tenure as Sales/Marketing Manager
for QuantM Net Technologies in
New Delhi, India, an IT Systems
Integrator and IBM partner. He was
previously Accounts Manager of
Horizon Broadcast Electronics (HBE) in
Gurgaon, India.
Based in New Delhi, India, Jain’s
responsibilities as Regional Sales
Manager include servicing existing
clients and working with Jampro
headquarters to develop strategies to
target emerging markets.
Jain holds an EE (Electrical engineering
degree) from the Birla Institute of
Technology/Science.
Visit www.jampro.com
MSA Focus Expands in Malaysia
Driven by the need to accomodate rapid growth in software development
staff numbers, MSA Focus, a developer of broadcast management systems,
is moving to a new office building in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, with more
than twice the capacity of its existing facility in the Malaysian capital. The
expansion has been facilitated by the company’s adoption of Microsoft.Net
technology for its broadcast management system, ForeTV.
The .Net source code is hosted at MSA Focus’ HQ in Cardiff, Wales, but
can be accessed remotely, allowing developers in the UK and Malaysia to
work on it simultaneously. In addition, .Net is used extensively by businesses
and taught in universities across the world. As a result, MSA Focus is able
to recruit from a broad selection of engineers in Malaysia with the required
skills. Visit www.msafocus.com
BlackMagic Appoints Lim MD for Asia
Blackmagic Design has announced the appointment of Richard Lim as
Director of Blackmagic Design Asia, effective immediately. Blackmagic
Design manufactures video cards, converters and routers for the post
production and television broadcast industries.
Richard Lim will be responsible for Sales, Business Development,
Customer Service and Field Support for all customers in the Asia Pacific
Region. Richard will be looking to consolidate the success of Blackmagic
Design and expand sales channels with industry leading pre-sales and
post-sales support.
“Richard brings strong video industry experience as well as in-depth
knowledge of the region,” said Phil Hickey, Worldwide Sales Director. “We
are now in a position to add even further support to our Asian customers.”
“I am excited to join Blackmagic Design, an aggressively growing
company. It’s a dynamic environment and I am sure we will grow to greater
heights together” said Richard Lim when asked about his new position as
Director. “We are looking forward to an era of expansion and growth in
the region.” Visit www.blackmagic-design.com
MPEG Focus on Video Trends
During its recent 86th meeting, The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
hosted a workshop to identify future challenges in video coding. Topics
of discussion included video coding for next-generation networks, as
well as reports on developments in displays, packaged media, and new
compression technology.
The most significant conclusion of the workshop is that video bit rate
(when current compression technology is used) will increase at a rate
faster than network infrastructures will be able to economically carry,
both for wireless and wired networks. MPEG has therefore determined
that the next generation of video compression technology is needed to
meet these demands in bit rate. Such video technology would need to
have compression capability that is clearly higher than the existing AVC
standard in its best configuration, the High Profile.
As a consequence, a study has been launched on the feasibility of HighPerformance Video Coding (HVC), which is mainly targeted for high
quality and high to ultra-high definition applications. As a first step, a Call
for Testing Materials has been issued. A Call for Evidence related to new
compression technology will also be issued in the near future.
During the 86th meeting, MPEG has also finalized amendments to
the MPEG-2 (ITU-T H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2) and MPEG-4 Visual
(ISO/IEC 14496-2) standards to add support for larger formats:
1920x1080p@50/60Hz for the MPEG-2 Main Profile and 4Kx2K for
the MPEG-4 Simple Studio Profile).
The Video Surveillance Application Format (ISO/IEC 23000-10),
which also reached its final stage at the 86th MPEG meeting, provides
a lightweight and useful wrapper for MPEG video technologies that
serves the needs of the video surveillance market. Major features of this
application format include the packaging of visual data and associated
metadata, and selective access to the visual data and metadata.
Visit www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/mpeg-tech.htm
Omnilab Launches Caption Service
Omnilab Media has announced that Linda Baker has joined its team as
General Manager of ‘The SubStation’ - its newly launched subtitling and
captioning service.
Omnilab Media, through The SubStation, is now offering educational
and community subtitling and captioning service benefiting in excess of
2 million deaf and hearing-impaired television viewers across Australia
& New Zealand. The service also helps people who don’t have English
as their primary language and assists children with their grammar and
reading skills. The SubStation offers TV, TVC and DVD subtitling and
captioning to any company involved in visual media including advertisers,
entertainment companies and channel owners.
Based at their Yurong Street offices, Baker will be reporting into Omnilab
Media’s GM Media Innovation and Technology Grant Schuetrumpf.
Contact Linda Baker at The SubStation on (02) 9467 3031.
8 News
News 9
media MANAGEMENT
- STRATEGY, STAFF, STUFF
by Karl Jansson*
Life in 2009
OK, as we approach the end of another
year, a year of uncertainty as we head towards
2009, thought a diagnostic approach would be the
order of the day.
About three years ago we covered in a previous
issue of C&T the generational differences that are
present in our workplace. As we are all currently
experiencing the cause of some radical global market
shifts, thought it would be pertinent to re-visit again.
Now we don’t have the answers to how the
world should bring into line the global money
market , but it’s always interesting to note some
of the influencing factors around us as we pull out
of it. Some of us could see it coming, whilst others
were broadsided.
Why were some aware whilst others not? Some
were credit happy whilst others were credit shy.
Every generation was influenced by the banking
community offering credit so we are not pointing
to one group of people by their age. However, the
younger generations were easily influenced more so
than their older colleagues.
Ask the baby boomers, the older generation,
about money, and they will remember the days when
your pay-packet was an envelope, with dollars and
cents in there. There was little credit, and the closest
item to a credit card was a bankbook that the teller
stamped when you went into a bank to withdraw
money, during bank hours.
That’s right, only during bank hours. ATMs were
not on the radar, and when they arrived, few people
were game to use a machine where money popped
out of a slot into your hands next to total strangers, in
the middle of a street.
Ok times have changed and the Baby Boomers
have accepted change, whilst Gen Y’s know no
difference. They were born with credit cards in their
hands. Now this is no blame game on who caused
the global credit squeeze, but we need to be aware
of the generational differences as we move forward,
and we will. This inconvenience is short lived.
Ok let’s look at who’s who in the zoo! The world
consists of Generation Y (1994-1980), Generation
X (1979-1965), Baby Boomers (1964-1946) and
Traditionalists (1945-1900), all with a different
approach to the new year and the current global
crisis.
10 Media Management
Oh, and by the way the next generation playing on
your computer at home, installing the latest software
challenging Microsoft’s latest operating systems are
called “Millennials”. Best remember this little group
as they sneak up on all of us!
How to keep a straight face
… or save face.
This clever algebraic expression is self explanatory.
Generation x + Technology = y
Both the Boomers (aged 42-60) and Gen X’rs
(aged 27-41) have something in common. They’re
goal setters, chronological thinkers who process
information in linear form, from front to back, from top
to bottom. They understand how today’s decisions
may impact upon tomorrow.
Now Generation Y’s or should we say “Whys”
(Aged 12-26) are the digital thinkers who process
information randomly as opposed to sequentially.
They’re not inherently convinced that today’s actions
will affect tomorrow’s outcomes in any certain way.
They know all-too-well that someone can be the
hero today and a villain tomorrow - and visa versa.
They reflect upon icons who have survived drug
addictions, criminal prosecution, sexual misconduct,
bounced back and made millions in the process.
Interestingly a third of this group will opt for
a portfolio career, made up of part time and
entrepreneurial ventures.
In North America a trend is occurring within this
group with just below half of the “Y” workforce opting
not to work full time for a single employer.
Gen Y’s are seeking a more flexible lifestyle, that’s
also highly mobile. Although this sounds a tad self
centered and non committal, statistics also indicate
that a third are involved in some kind of volunteer or
not for profit activity.
So it appears this has been a legacy from the “X’rs
who are environmentally and socially conscious.
It’s also said that X’rs are the generation looking for
peace of mind and leisure time.
They’re health conscious with almost half the
generation using vitamins or supplements as well
reading labels. If you haven’t already noticed they
are also the prominent generation who live longer
at home. This is influenced by boomer parents
possessing a strong sense of family values.
So how does this affect me
at work?
Look around you, be aware of the make up of your
colleagues, identify the potholes before stepping into
them, and observe those characteristics of others and
take a mental note.
Use this information to assist in achieving your
goals.
Our environment is constantly changing due to the
people in it, so we should be aware of where the
changes are occurring and by whom.
Change occurs as a consequence of people’s
actions, not because it just happens.
So, who are you in 2009? Are you the leading
edge of change, or someone who’s comfortable in
riding the wave? Not that there’s anything wrong with
that. However, if you’re a rebel, chances are your
career will stagnate.
People are a company’s greatest asset, so identify
those in your organization with traces of positive
change, harness a team with like values, be part
of this team, and forge a career where others will
follow.
Karl Jansson is General Manager of J-Curve
Broadcast Recruitment Consultants.
Email: [email protected] Interactive web: www.jcurve.tv &
www.broadcastjobz.tv
taking STOCK
- MOVES IN THE BUSINESS OF CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY
Wohler to Acquire Europa Australia
Wohler Technologies Inc. has announced it is acquiring Europa Australia
Pty Ltd. Led by Elio Deluca, one of the world’s preeminent experts in the
field of closed captioning and data insertion and extraction technologies,
Wohler would lay claim to the industry’s only platform-based closed
captioning system capable of supporting all global standards. The
Europa Australia technology is also available to other manufacturers
who need to incorporate closed-captioning and extended data service
solutions into their systems. “Europa Australia is known for its ability
to provide cost-effective solutions customized to the specific needs of
each broadcast client,” said Carl J. Dempsey, Wohler president and
CEO. “The purchase of Europa Australia positions Wohler as a premier
provider of closed-captioning and data control solutions. Through our
new relationship with Elio and the Europa Australia engineering team,
we will be equipped to respond to the development of closed-captioning
standards in any country. This is a fantastic add-on to our existing
talented engineering team. It is our ambition to be an extension of our
clients’ engineering resources and we can only do this is if we invest
in the right talent and technology.” Europa Australia was established
in 1996 to provide unique and cost-effective high-end solutions for
the broadcast industry. The closed-captioning processing technology
developed by Europa Australia is compliant with CEA-608/708, the
U.S. closed-captioning standard, and with OP:47, the Australian closedcaptioning standard. Wohler already has incorporated this technology
into the HDCC-200A HD/SD-SDI dual-channel, closed-caption
encoder/decoder bridge, a compact modular solution that simplifies
closed-caption encoding of two independent SD and/or HD sources.
Availability of this closed-captioning solution in 4D ECard modules
enables flexible use in the openGear platform, in turn giving facilities the
freedom to invest in processing functionality that meets their operational
needs. Visit www.wohler.com
Carl J Dempsey
and Elio Deluca
at IBC2008.
12 Taking Stock
OpenTV Acquires Ruzz TV
Ruzz TV founder Robert Rutherford.
OpenTV Corp., a provider of
advanced television and advanced
advertising services, has acquired Ruzz
TV Pty Ltd, the privately-held company
based in Sydney, Australia, that
provides turnkey software solutions for
television broadcasters. The terms of the
deal were not disclosed. Ruzz TV’s key
technology provides broadcasters with
a platform that enables the optimization
of broadcast play-out operations by
seamlessly integrating mission-critical
systems and components supplied by
multiple vendors. The platform allows
for the rapid deployment of highly
flexible solutions across a broad range
of operational areas, covering the
business, technical and operational
requirements of the broadcaster. It also
manages the actual assembly and
transmission of the stream of pictures and
sounds that are broadcast to television
viewers, from scheduling and sales,
to acquisition, production, assembly,
play-out, transmission and distribution. In
addition, Ruzz TV is a leading developer
of solutions that support content
management and delivery across a
wide range of platforms and formats, as
well as the platform-wide synchronization
of schedules and metadata.
Ruzz TV was founded in 1999 by
Robert Rutherford and has ten employees
based in Sydney, Australia. Mr.
Rutherford will continue as MD and CTO
with Ruzz TV following the acquisition.
Deluxe Acquires Atlab
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. (Deluxe), and Amalgamated Holdings Limited
(AHL) have announced that Deluxe has acquired The Atlab Group (Atlab) from AHL.
The deal does not include the Atlab Image & Sound Technology division which will
continue to operate as part of AHL. Atlab is the largest film processing laboratory in
the region and traces its roots in the Australian film industry back 80 years. “Over the
last few years we’ve developed a strong alliance with Atlab and look forward to the
continued working relationship with them,” said Cyril Drabinsky, CEO and President of
Deluxe. “This next step will strengthen our ability to service the film and post-production
needs of our clients in the southern hemisphere,” adds Drabinsky. The Atlab facilities
will be rebranded Deluxe Sydney, Deluxe Melbourne, and Deluxe Auckland with the
management team remaining in place. Alaric McAusland is named as Managing
Director of Deluxe’s Australian operations. McAusland said, “this announcement
cements our already good relationship with the Deluxe group. Their investment in Atlab,
and in particular their commitment to our new digital and sound facilities demonstrates
their confidence in our operation and in the local industry going forward. We will
continue to provide world class digital post, sound post, and release printing services
for both local and international filmmakers.” Atlab’s main laboratory in Lane Cove,
Sydney, provides processing, printing and post production services for feature films,
television and commercials. Sydney operations also include EFILM, which offers a
broad range of creative services including digital post production and deliverables;
digital intermediates and StageOne Sound, a brand new first class sound mixing
facility. The 400 channel mixing stage is fully integrated into Atlab’s film laboratory and
EFILM’s Sydney location so that filmmakers can manage all of their post needs under
one roof. The group also includes Cinevex’s film and digital operations in Melbourne
and Atlab New Zealand in Auckland. Visit www.bydeluxe.com
Taking Stock
Front Porch Digital ‘Ingests’ SAMMA Systems
Front Porch Digital, the developer of content storage
management (CSM) systems for the broadcast,
media, and entertainment industries, has acquired
New York-based SAMMA Systems Inc., the solutions
provider for the migration and preservation of
videotape to digital files.
“While Front Porch Digital has offered our current
broadcast customers near-line and online storage for
many years, the largest collection of media in the
world today is still stored on videotape,” said Mike
Knaisch, president and chief executive officer of
Front Porch Digital. “Our acquisition of SAMMA is
strategically planned to offer broadcasters, archiving
facilities, and other content owners a new system
uniquely capable of accessing all that stored content
and of making it available in a cost-effective way.”
Front Porch Digital boasts more than 280 instal-
lations in more
Jim Lindner, founder of
than 55 countries.
SAMMA Systems.
There are more
than 6 billion videocassettes in the
world, 1 billion of
them containing
historic, important,
and valuable content, representing
more than 7,000
petabytes of highvalue data stored
only on videotape.
An estimated five percent of this content is lost to deterioration each year, but the expense of digitising it
has proved prohibitive.
SAMMA, founded with the aim of saving the
world’s video heritage, brings unique expertise
and proven preservation solutions to Front Porch
Digital. Going forward, Front Porch Digital says it
will provide an end-to-end solution for media past,
present, and future on a scale not offered by anyone
else in the world.
Mark Gray, CEO of SAMMA Systems, Inc.
will assume the role of executive vice president
and general manager of the company’s Americas
division, reporting directly to Mike Knaisch. Jim
Lindner, founder of SAMMA Systems and well-known
expert in the field of audio/visual preservation will
continue in his role as evangelist and visionary in the
preservation of A/V content.
Visit www.fpdigital.com and
www.sammasystems.com
Adobe Buys Euro Image Server
Sandar Sells to Utah Scientific
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) has acquired YaWah
ApS, a European dynamic imaging software provider based in Aarhus,
Denmark. The acquisition will accelerate the European and global expansion of Adobe Scene7, the leading hosted rich media platform designed
for eCommerce and multi-channel marketing companies. Today Adobe
Scene7 solutions are used by blue-chip companies worldwide — such
as QVC, Otto UK, and Levi Strauss & Co. — to drive online business,
through the management, distribution and delivery of dynamic content
across channels.
“YaWah has built an excellent product, customer base and a supportive set of partners that deliver dynamic rich media across Europe,”
said Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Consumer and
Hosted Solutions at Adobe. “YaWah’s market knowledge and technology, integrated with Scene7, will ensure that European companies have
immediate access to hosted media solutions that are transforming the
online experience for some of the Web’s most visited sites.”
The addition of YaWah is not expected to have a material impact
to Adobe revenue and earnings in fiscal year 2008. Terms were not
disclosed.
Utah Scientific has acquired Sandar, a European manufacturer and distributor of
routing switchers whose marketing reach in Northern and Eastern Europe and
in Asia neatly complements Utah’s historical strength in the Americas. Sandar,
like Utah Scientific, has been a renowned name in the broadcast industry for
30 years, and its products are widely used by many of the top broadcasters
and telecom operators in Europe and Asia. The new company will be known
as Utah Sandar.
While Sandar primarily makes small routers, from 3×3 to 32×32 in size,
Utah’s product line is focused on larger routers up to 1152×1152 in size. As
a result, the combined product line of the two companies will enable customers
to take advantage of one-stop shopping with all the benefits of Utah Scientific’s
famous customer service, 10-year warranty, and support. Sandar has recently
developed a new family of affordable, compact routers that are fully compatible
with the routing systems manufactured by Utah — using the same control
systems.
Headquartered in Sandefjord, Norway, Utah Sandar will continue to sell
and service the well-established Sandar family of routing switchers, as well as
the full line of Utah products.
Visit www.sandar.no and www.utahscientific.com
Autodesk Signs with Avid to Acquire Softimage
Autodesk, Inc. and Avid Technology, Inc. have announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Autodesk to acquire substantially all of the
assets of Avid’s Softimage business unit for approximately US$35 million.
Softimage was founded in 1986 by Daniel
Langlois and is headquartered in Montreal,
Canada. Softimage develops 3D technology for the
film, television and games markets. Its flagship product is SOFTIMAGE|XSI, an extensible 3D animation
software solution used by leading media and entertainment companies, including Digital Domain,
Ubisoft, SEGA Corporation, CAPCOM, Animal
Logic and The Mill.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Autodesk intends
to continue developing and selling Softimage’s core
product line, while integrating certain Softimage
technology into future versions of Autodesk solu-
14 Taking Stock
tions and products.
Autodesk plans to
acquire and continue developing the
following Softimage
products, including:
Gary Greenfield, CEO
and chairman of Avid
Technology.
•SOFTIMAGE|XSI:
Including XSI
Essentials, XSI
Advanced, XSI
Academic, XSI
Mod Tool and the
XSI software development kit. XSI is productionproven 3D animation software for games, film
and television. It offers a complete 3D modelling,
animation, rendering and development environment for visual effects and custom tools.
•SOFTIMAGE|Face Robot: A complete software
solution for easily rigging and animating 3D faces. Face Robot enables studios to create life-like
facial animation at incredible speeds.
•SOFTIMAGE|Cat: This advanced character animation system is a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max
software. It is intended to be integrated into the
3ds Max product line.
•SOFTIMAGE|Crosswalk: This interoperability solution is intended to be integrated with Autodesk’s
own interoperability technology.
Gary Greenfield, CEO and chairman of Avid
Technology, said, “We are excited about what this
transaction means for customers of Softimage. The
Softimage 3D product line has performed well in the
video games market, a sector where Autodesk has
a track record of success. Autodesk will provide a
great home for the business.”
Taking Stock
Clear-Com Takes Talkdynamics’ Technology
Clear-Com Communication Systems, a brand of
The Vitec Group, and a provider of intercom systems worldwide, has announced the acquisition of
the IV-Core technology, which powers voice communication solutions for professional-grade live production communication over standard IP networks.
With this acquisition, Clear-Com establishes ClearCom Research, an R&D facility based in Montreal,
Canada, and retains an exceptionally talented team
of engineers and business development staff.
Developed by Talkdynamics Technologies Inc.,
an innovator of IP-based voice technologies, ClearCom plans to embed IV-Core technologies (Instant
Voice Network “IV-N” and Instant Voice Router “IVRouter”) into its traditional and next-generation inter-
com systems, delivering capabilities such as intelligent signal routing, low-latency IP audio, presence
awareness and other advanced features that will
radically change the intercom experience in even
the most demanding of production workflows.
The product of a four-year research and development effort, the IV-Core suite of technologies is
designed to deliver highly secure, low-latency distributed multi-conferencing and group communication capabilities. This unique development achieves
ultra-wideband audio quality at low bandwidths.
IV-Core also overcomes the performance variation
of IP networks (including the Internet) via a bespoke
packet-loss recovery algorithm combined with proprietary Instant Voice Routing algorithms. Furthermore,
IV-Core technologies provide AES 128-bit encryption for protecting privacy of transmissions — a
security level on par with that of online banking
transactions.
The development of IV-Core was led by President
Stephane Menard of Talkdynamics, who joins
Clear-Com as the Director of IP Development, and
Business Development Director Patrick Menard
of Talkdynamics, who assumes the role of Sales
Director of Clear-Com Concert, Clear-Com’s native IP-based intercom software. The extensive IP
knowledge and expertise of the Talkdynamics technical team will remain in the Montreal office, now
incorporated as Clear-Com Research, a Canadian
subsidiary of Clear-Com.
“ inspiration. partnership. support ”
Your global partner in media technology solutions, providing
you with product, design and full integration services.
GENCOM TECHNOLOGY - SUPPLIER OF QUALITY EQUIPMENT INCLUDING
Telestream Acquires Vara for Internet Video
Telestream, the provider of Flip4mac, Episode and
FlipFactory content repurposing and workflow automation products, has completed the acquisition
of European-based Vara Software Ltd., a privatelyheld company. The acquisition adds the products,
technologies and employees of Vara Software to
those of Telestream, Inc., a privately-held US-based
company. Vara Software brings successful, awardwinning live production and streaming products
to the Telestream product family. Vara Software
provides real-time production tools, including webcasting, screencasting and rich media presentation
products for entertainment, corporate communications, education and training. Webcasting allows
companies to reach large, dispersed audiences by
distributing content over the Internet, either live or on demand. Screencasting combines screen captures, video
recordings and audio narration to provide cost-effective
software training and sharing of computer desktop activity over the Internet.
Vara Software adds 3 new products to Telestream’s
portfolio:
•Wirecast is an advanced live webcasting application for Mac or Windows that combines multiple video cameras, movies, desktop output, audio tracks,
images and titles to make striking webcasts that can
be streamed live or archived for later broadcast. Live
Earth, which delivered on-demand footage to more
than 10 million simultaneous viewers on MSN.com
in July 2007, was powered by Wirecast.
•ScreenFlow is a professional screencasting
application for Mac users that simultaneously
captures desktop screens, video camera, microphone and computer audio elements, and
then allows users to add and edit recordings
and publish finished videos to websites or weblogs.
•Videocue is a toolkit that allows Mac users to
write and record speeches that include video
capture of the presenter, on-screen viewing of
the script, plus the ability to add movies, images and titles for rich media presentations. This
enables users to quickly and easily pre-record
presentations for publishing to websites.
Visit www.telestream.net
Thomson Sells Grass Valley Film Business
Thomson announced at IBC2008 that it is selling
the Thomson Grass Valley digital film transfer equipment business to private investors led by PARTER
Capital Group, a German private equity advisory
firm. The sale includes the Spirit film scanning family, together with the Bones digital intermediate
workflow tools and LUTher, a colour space management product. Financial terms of the sale are
not being made public.
All Thomson Grass Valley digital film transfer
hardware and related high-end post production
software solutions – including the market-leading
Spirit family of film scanners and DataCine systems, Bones workflow tools, and LUTher color
space management solution will be spun off into a
new international company with operational headquarters in Germany.
“The Spirit family has been the industry standard
for digital film scanning in the high-end post production process for more than a decade, and we have
built a set of very powerful software tools around it
to complete the digital intermediate workflow,” said
16 Taking Stock
Jeff Rosica, Senior VP, Broadcast & Professional
Solutions, Thomson at IBC2008.
Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Broadcast &
Professional Solutions business unit within Thomson.
“The new company structure, combined with the dynamic and entrepreneurial management, is an ideal
match for the demands of this niche post production
business, and we are confident that the products will
continue to thrive under their new ownership.”
The 100th second-generation Spirit system has
just been delivered, adding to the 250-plus Spirit
classic systems still in use.
A temporary forum site has been established at
www.thomsongrassvalley.com/forum for customers
and others seeking information about this transaction and/or service and support questions.
BROADCAST SERVERS & STORAGE
CHANNEL BRANDING & GRAPHICS
Omneon - Your Digital Content Platform: Robust
integrated and modular (scalable) media servers and active
storage systems for news & production, transmission & post
production.
Pixel Power - Broadcast Graphics Solutions:
Innovative, powerful, award winning graphics & branding
products for the video broadcasting & post production
industries.
ROUTING, DISTRIBUTION AND PRESENTATION
VIDEOWALL & CAPTURE CARDS
Evertz - Complete Broadcast Infrastructure: An
integrated family of products for all broadcast infrastructure
requirements including routing, distribution, conversion,
transport, display & presentation.
Datapath - The Big Picture: Enabling you to build
simple to highly complex data walls. Capture VGA/DVI for
remote display and /or recording.
DIGITAL RECORDING
DIGITAL AUDIO PROCESSING
DOREMI - Tapeless Digital Recording: Cost effective
solutions for digital recording & playback from analog SD
to digital HD video, compressed or un-compressed.
Linear Acoustic - Loudness Problems Solved:
Innovative, sophisticated solutions for managing multichannel surround sound audio loudness issues in digital
broadcast.
CAMERA POWER SYSTEMS
VIDEO TECHNOLOGY
Anton Bauer - From Mini to Cine: Intelligent power
systems for professional, broadcast and digital cinema
acquisition. In the field your camera is only as good as the
battery powering it.
IPV - Empowering your Content: Management, serving
& browsing of low bit-rate, frame-accurate video over
the internet (or any network) with VTR–like transport
controls enabling the optimisation of video assets.
Australia tel | +61 2 9888 8208
NZ/Asia/Sth Africa tel | +64 9 913 7500
Email | [email protected]
www.gencom.com
Media Mentorship for Women Launches
Training & Certification
Giving Back to Industry
Who comes after us,
After some very nice
words
from Trevor Bird,
and how are we setting
as Chair of the MITC
them up to succeed?
Assessment Board, we
Sure, as technologists
handed to each person a
we can all live for the
framed certificate which
moment, but there are
REALLY looks the part.
downside dangers. As
Media
Industry
an industry, we’re pretty
Technologist Certification
committed to getting
was created to recognise
it right, but you can
MITC Board members Trevor Bird and John Maizels [at right] with MITC
existing skills within the
always give it a bit of
certificate recipients [L-R] Dave Gibbons, Heidi Peters, Kevin Lategan, Renato
industry, and to kick off
help by engaging with
Boncato, Leonard Thorne, Tim Davis, Matt McHugh, Clive Radvan, Steve
the process which will
Edmunds, Ed Scott, Karthick Venkatasubramanian and Damian McNamara.
your peers and experts
restore learning culture
at a good conference
to the industry across TV,
… such as SMPTE09,
Radio, Film, New Media,
• submit an synopsis for a paper. Have you just
which is in preparation
Operations and Transmission. MITC is not a singleengineered a better widget? Tell us, so that we
now. “Empowering the Next Generation” is an
point approach, it’s a holistic system which brings
can
help
you
tell
everyone
else.
excellent theme just as we move into the final phase
together the industry (the employers), educators (the
See www.smpte.org.au for details of the call for
of converting TV totally into digits, and as several
people who will deliver training), and practitioners
papers, and the Australia Section’s 2008 End of Year
new technologies take hold in the film industry.
(the people who make everything work). As MITC
Bash, and other Section activity.
The reason for raising the SMPTE09 event right
becomes widely accepted, it will provide roadmaps
Another
way
in
which
the
industry
is
empowering
now is to get you to put the dates in your diary – 21for people who want to enter the industry.
the next generation is through the Media Industry
24 July 2009.
In the words of one candidate: “[MITC] gave me
Technologist Certification project, and on the 23rd
The Call For Papers is still open. There are two
a chance to interact with fellow practitioners and
of October the team celebrated another milestone.
ways in which you can help make the SMPTE09
seniors. In the future if need arises for an extra pair of
Following the first assessment round, we have our first
conference a top-of-the-line experience for everyone:
hands, please feel free to drop me a line.”
28 recipients of the MITC Practitioner Television (MP• tell us what you’d like on the program. Some of our
Look for details of the next steps with MITC, and
TV) and an Associate Practitioner Television (MAPbest sessions have come from delegate suggestions,
how you can get a certification, at www.mitc.tv.
TV), so we invited them to gather and receive their
pub discussions, and out-there ideas. So don’t hold
- John Maizels, Regional Governor, SMPTE.
certificates.
back: drop a line to [email protected].
Media Mentorship for Women Launches
WIFT NSW new Media Mentorship for Women
(MMW), was officially launched in October on the
Opening Night of the 15th WOW Film Festival at
the Chauvel Cinema.
Tania Chambers, Chief Executive of the NSW
Film and Television Office (FTO), opened the
WOW Film Festival and announced the launch of
the MMW.
Chambers, who strongly felt that the MMW will
continue to expand well beyond the initial two
rounds, was very proud that the NSW FTO was
a sponsor.
Thrilled of WIFT NSW’s involvement in the
program, she commented: “Everybody I talk
to who has either had the opportunity…to be
mentored by somebody, or who has been involved
in mentoring,… talks about the fact that it is a two
way experience; that the people who are there as
mentors get invigorated, inspired and enthused and
actually get to see the world in a slightly different
way.”
18 Training & Certification
Ian Robertson, Managing Partner, Holding Redlich
and Deputy Chair, Screen Australia, also proud to
be a Platinum sponsor of the program, thinks that
the MMW is an important initiative for the Film and
Television industry.
“I think one of the terrific things from the point
of view of women working in this industry is that
we have so many female role models … It is to be
hoped that this mentorship program will add many
more names to the list of outstanding female talent in
our industry,” said Robertson.
The first round of the MMW was marked with
a stylish kick off at the Rex Center in Potts Point.
Attended by Mentors, applicants and other industry
professionals, the event included a speech on worklife balance by special guest Alison Nancye, a
mentorship forum and a speed networking session.
Ana Tiwary Mentorship Co-ordinator, Vice
President WIFT NSW, thanked all the sponsors,
volunteers and acknowledged all of the 28 mentors
who have come on board for Mentorship Round 1.
The program has attracted mentors from many
different areas of the industry, from scriptwriting and
cinematography to sound design and editing. MMW
offers established industry professionals such as Piet De
Vries, Robert Humphries, Laura Sivis, Jessica Douglas
Henry and US-based Laurie Scheer.
For the first round of the MMW, there are eight
mentors for scriptwriting, five for directing, four
for both cinematography and producing, two for
documentary and editing, as well as one for sound
design, music composition; and a colourist.
With a panel of five inspiring mentors,
comprising of Sarah Joyce, Kathy Drayton, Karel
Segers, Phillippa Harvey and Madeleine Hetherton,
engrossing debate was sparked.
The MMW Committee will be organising free
workshops and forums for applicants over the next
six months. Mentorship Round 2 applications will be
accepted between 10th December 2008 and 1st
of February 2009.
Visit www.nsw.wift.org/mentor
Acquisition
ACQUISITION
‘Bad Bush’ Fires Up JVC
>> >>
excellent value for money. You really can’t complain
about these cameras.”
Bad Bush DOP Paul Howard (The Delivery, Picture
This) explained his involvement in the project and
the extent of the shoot, “When Sam initially told me
about how big the undertaking was for Bad Bush
and how little time we had I turned him down. Sam
being Sam talked me round and I’m glad he did.
This movie has it all. Good locations, orchards,
waterfalls, real Commanchero bikers, guns, knives,
cross bows, Harley Davidsons and a ‘Sixth Sense’
like twist. We also had 16 tracks of sound on every
take so the rushes have been track laid with the GYHD251E cameras. All in all it’s been a real blast in
more ways than one.”
Bad Bush stars Chris Sadrinna (Water Rats, All
Saints, Beneath Clouds, Garage Days, Home and
Away) and Viva Bianci making her on screen debut.
Genocchio continued, “The film was essentially
written for Chris and it took a huge casting of over
150 girls to find Viva who only came out of WAAPA
in 2006 and has made such a huge impression in
such a short time. I’ve worked well with Paul (Howard)
in the past and we have really pulled out all the stops
on this one too.”
Howard added, “We shot HDV 720 25p with
18:1 and 13:1 Fujinon lenses. The ProHD cameras
have surpassed my expectations and given us a
unique look. I love their portability, the ability to
integrate with follow focus and matte box. It’s fast at
320 ASA and being able to store scene files makes
the whole thing a very easy process.”
Bad Bush is currently in post production and is
expected to air on the Movie Network in 2009.
Bad Bush DOP Paul Howard.
Director Sam Genocchio’s (Get Rich Quick) latest
feature ‘Bad Bush’ revolves around a young girl, her
newborn baby, and a visit to her sister which brings
on a night of terror.
In typical Australian movie industry fashion, Bad
Bush came about whilst another movie was taking
too long to get made.
According to Genocchio, “I was in the throes of
making King of the Mountain, a six million dollar
movie with a star cast. For reasons, including the
death of Peter Brock, the piece was delayed, so I
pulled together The Movie Network, Frame Set and
Match (for post and grade), JVC and the King of the
Mountain’s producers and told them about my other
idea ‘Bad Bush’, a sinister thriller that could be made
for a fraction of the cost. Fortunately they and the
King of the Mountain’s investors loved the idea so we
started work.”
Genocchio’s idea for Bad Bush came from true
stories and personal experiences. “It’s part of the small
films in farmhouses genre - which is where I come
from. We kept the production very tight financially
and geographically to keep the costs down. Similarly
with equipment, everything had to be affordable and
of high quality, that’s where JVC came in with their
GY-HD251E cameras.”
Producer Anna Cridland introduced Genocchio to
the JVC ProHD cameras following her recent Australian
experience with Gabriel on the big screen.
“I think everyone in independent movies knows
that JVC ProHD cameras are the only ones to use,”
adds Genocchio. “They suit fast shooting schedules,
produce amazing pictures, allow an easy grade, are
very adaptable for hand held or on a dolly and are
20 Acquisition
Thomson, Telecast Link to Infinity
Thomson and Telecast Fiber Systems have developed
a compact fibre optic camera link which allows
the Thomson Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media
Camcorder (DMC) to be used as a live system
camera for studios, flypacks, and other multi-camera
productions. The new interface adds more operational
flexibility to the Infinity platform.
The Telecast Fiber Systems CopperHead system is
a well-established product for camera connectivity,
providing two-way communication over lightweight
fibre cable. The Infinity version carries a choice of
1080p, 1080i, or 720p HD video, PAL, or NTSC
SD video, plus embedded audio from the camera –
as well as return video, genlock, audio, and intercom
to the camera.
Operators have full control over the video and
audio with control operations using the Thomson
Grass Valley C2IP Ethernet-based TCP/IP camera
control system, and the standard OCP and MCP
control panels from the Thomson Grass Valley LDK
series camera line.
While the CopperHead system adds live system
camera capabilities to the Infinity DMC, all of the
camcorder capabilities remain fully functional. The
Infinity CopperHead leverages the built-in connectivity
and audio embedding processing in the Infinity. The
Infinity CopperHead camera unit is therefore quite
compact and lightweight. Because it simply snaps
into the Infinity DMC’s standard A/B battery mount,
it can be installed or removed in seconds, allowing
>> >>
The Infinity CopperHead on the
stand at IBC2008.
quick conversion from portable camcorder to multicam studio camera and visa-versa.
Telecast’s CopperHead system for the Infinity DMC
will be available in two versions: the “TAC” model
uses lightweight mil-spec Tactical fibre optic cable,
with power being supplied to the Infinity camcorder
via battery or local DC power source. The “Hybrid”
model utilizes industry standard SMPTE hybrid fiber/
copper cable that carries all of the signals on two
single mode fibers, while power for the camcorder is
supplied from the base station on integrated copper
strands. The CopperHead system will be marketed
by Telecast Fiber Systems.
Visit www.telecast-fiber.com
Acquisition
Sportscasting
XDCAM HD Takes Gibson Group to Paradise
By Peter Parnham
Long time New Zealand producer Dave Gibson
knows that a rock solid workflow is vital especially
when you are on locations that can be hot, humid and
salty - where things don’t always go as planned.
That’s why he was cautious about relying solely
on flash card technology as a recording medium
for Paradise Café, a kids drama Gibson Group is
shooting in high definition for Television New Zealand
and the BBC. The production schedule has shooting
in Rarotonga during October and November after six
weeks in Wellington’s Avalon Studios.
Instead Gibson selected Sony’s XDCAM HD discbased system.
“They show ingests and edits in the islands as they
shoot. You can walk away at lunchtime, take it back
to the hotel, have a look at it and know that it is OK,”
he explains, “and you can digitise it and start editing
and you have got those disks as a backup.” He
says the alternative systems would have shot good
pictures, but good pictures are only one part of the
overall workflow. He calls the card based workflow
a double dump system - something that as a producer
makes him nervous.
Adam Sondej is the online editor for the Gibson
Group and it fell to him to test the workflow.
Acquisition systems in contention were the Panasonic
AJ-HPX3000, recording DVCPRO HD 1080 to P2
flash cards, the Sony PDW700 recording HD422
to XDCAM disks, and the Red camera recording Red
RAW files to flash cards or hard disk drives.
The Red was dropped as contender after the
testing team made calculations for converting Red
RAW format footage to HD for non-linear editing.
Optimum results would mean rendering files at five
times real time. With three hours of rushes a day this
would have meant unacceptable delays.
The Panasonic HPX3000 option has full 1920
x 1080 sensors and 4:2:2 10 bit recording, “We
were quite excited by that and we wanted to use it,
then TVNZ approached us with the Sony PDW700,
and that also has a new HD4:2:2 10 bit format,”
Sondej confirms, while noting the recording codec’s
are completely different.
The Sony camera records using a variant on
MPEG inter-frame compression scheme referred to by
Sony as MPEG HD422. This results in a 50 Mb/s
data rate. The Panasonic camera records using an
intra-frame compression scheme marketed as AVCIntra Compression or DVCPRO HD 1080, resulting
in a 100Mb/s data rate.
“This made me suspicious of the PDW700,” says
Sondej who thought there must be a trade off. “So
we put it through some pretty rigorous comparison
tests and for viewing purposes we couldn’t fault it
for any motion artefacts that you would expect from
an inter-frame compression system - so it is doing
something pretty clever.”
Studying the technical delivery specifications from
the broadcasters, they found delivery in 1080i on
22 Acquisition
Eurosport Partners with TransACT
Eurosport, the 24-hour sports events television channel, and Eurosportnews,
the 24-hour sports news channel, have débuted on another Australian pay
TV platform, TransTV, a division of the communication services company,
TransACT. Residents in Canberra can now enjoy round-the-clock sports
coverage, including select live events and the latest score updates of key
sports from around the world.
The launch of Eurosport and Eurosportnews on TransTV will allow
sports enthusiasts in Canberra to have access to a wider range of sports,
more than 60 different types of sports, including rugby, cycling, tennis,
motorsports, athletics, sailing, winter sports and more.
On TransTV Eurosport is available on Channel 354 and Eurosportnews
is available on Channel 355.
ZerO1zerO,
>> >>
one of Australia’s leading
production and post-production companies, has
installed a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom system
in its new HD truck. The intercom is fully integrated
with the truck’s Lawo digital audio console via 6x
Riedel MADI client cards. This set-up allows the truck’s
audio engineer to easily remote both intercom panels
and 4-wire ports from the Artist system through the
existing audio infrastructure.
“The choice was simple,” said Keith Cooper,
head of Audio and Communications at zerO1zerO.
“I needed flexibility to fulfil my clients’ ever increasing
needs, seamless digital integration, ease of patching
between communications and audio and the best
sounding system available. Riedel is the one.”
The truck’s intercom system consists of an Artist 128
mainframe populated with 6x MADI, 1x CAT-5, 3x
COAX and 3x AIO client cards. The MADI cards
connect directly to the Lawo Mc66 and provide the
console/intercom integration. The CAT-5 card is
used for 2 Riedel Connect Solo telephone hybrids,
providing access to up to four telephone lines from the
intercom system. The COAX cards connect external
intercom panels to the truck via coax cabling and the
analogue cards provide transformer balanced audio
directly to the truck’s 12 HD cameras.
Control panels include both Artist 1000 series
LED display panels for the audio and communication
workstations as well as 2000 series panels with
LCD displays for production and technical areas.
All panels connect digitally to the Artist mainframe
using 16 bit 48kHz audio.
In addition to just using the panels for comms, six
DCP-1016E desktop control panels will also serve
as on-air commentary stations for zerO1zerO’s
coverage of A-League USL Soccer. These panels
are supplemented with 6x CSX-11 commentary
The cast of Paradise Cafe.
Sony HDCAM tape
was the international
standard. However,
the production is
shot in 25p. Gibson
says the progressive
look is aesthetically
desirable
and
required for the
computer graphics
needed to create the
ghosts that appear in
>> >> Producer
most episodes.
Dave Gibson.
Tests with the
progressive look introduced a new worry for Gibson
- judder from rapid movements and panning. Tests
confirmed that depth of field plays a significant part
in the way judder is perceived. If the background
remains sharp and in focus it exacerbates judder as
do strong vertical elements.
“We have to be very careful - it is very easy to
forget. We had some posts in the centre of the café
that we were constantly tracking across - we broke
them up, so that the set didn’t have strong vertical
lines,” explains Gibson.
Sondej believes the rival cameras produce a
different look.
“We discuss the show and the look, then we look
at the scripts and we choose what would be a nice
style for the show,” says Sondej who then searches
for the right camera. “Then we get into the camera
menus. For instance we’d always soften the Sony
cameras down because they come out with electronic
sharpening activated by default.”
“The Panasonic by default has a slightly softer look
- it doesn’t crank up the electronic focus like the Sony
does. It’s pretty tricky to emulate on a Sony camera
but I think Sony’s response has been to introduce this
new feature called Hyper gamma”
“This has just been released for the PDW 700 so
we may employ that for the islands to contain our
highlights so that they don’t get exaggerated - there is
nothing as ugly as a clipped highlight for distracting
your eye from the drama.”
Using Firewire 400 out of the PDW-HD1500
XDCAM deck Sondej reports transfer to the Avid is
just faster than real time, while the card reader for the
Panasonic tested at 3 times real time transfers due to
the Firewire 800 connection.
The company updated to Avid Media Composer
3 for editing as it handles XDCAM HD422 natively.
“It worked fine out of the box” says Sondej who notes
the 50 Mb/s data rate give twice the storage of the
100 Mb/s competitor.
Despite choosing XDCAM for the main shoot Gibson
is not altogether disregarding the Panasonic offering.
Underwater shooting is on a smaller Panasonic P2
card based AG-HVX202AEN camera which the
company purchased for themselves, knowing an
underwater housing was readily available. Sondej
says this will be acceptable because of the nature
of the underwater material which will not be intercut
with the main cameras.
According to Gibson the show is very much a
kids’ drama. “It’s got a terrific slot on the BBC. The
other thing for us is that from the UK point of view
they’ve been very happy with what we are doing we’ve got a situation where the only people out here
from the UK are the two actors and their mums. It’s
fully crewed by New Zealanders and all the rest of
the cast are New Zealanders so in terms of the trust
element, it’s terrific.”
Peter Parnham is a technology writer and consultant
based in Auckland. He spent 25 years in New Zealand
film industry and is a former MD of Panavision NZ.
Spectators at many large-scale sporting and other
live events can miss a lot of the action taking place
outside their field of view.
Now, a team of engineers working closely with
industrial partners is developing a way of providing
spectators with “near real-time” access to otherwise
unseen events as they unfold, via mobile phones
and other handheld devices.
In a two-year collaborative project called
Visualise, academics at Bristol University, England,
have joined a range of industrial partners including
3C Research, BT, Inmarsat, International Sportsworld
Communicators,
Maniac
Films,
ProVision
Communication Technologies, Turner Broadcasting,
Util4 and U4EA.
Big shows and events use a huge infrastructure of
production and transmission equipment with many
fixed and portable cameras. Most of the content
captured by these is never made available to local
spectators except through a single feed of edited
Acquisition
Sportscasting
Cameras in Focus at IBC
FOR PROFESSIONAL and prosumer cameras, this
year’s IBC saw some incremental improvements, some
new models and one surprising alliance.
That alliance, between JVC and Sony Corporation, saw
JVC announce support of Sony’s XDCAM EX MPEG-2
professional video file format and SxS (S-By-S) solid state
flash memory cards. JVC will launch the KA-MR100G
docking media recorder as its first product featuring
native XDCAM EX file recording and an SxS memory
card slot. This device will record and playback XDCAM
EX files on an SxS memory card. The KAMR100G will
also attach to current JVC ProHD GY-HD200/250
series professional high definition camcorders via a
specially designed adapter. Future products from JVC
will attach directly to the KA-MR100G.
The company also announced the MR-HD100
Media Recorder, designed to bring a new class of
native file recording to the JVC GY-HD200/201EB
and GY-HD251E series of ProHD camcorders. The
MR-HD100 is capable of recording native QuickTime
HDV 720p24/25/30/50/60 and 1080i50/60
for direct use within Apple Final Cut Pro, as well as
native MXF HD 720p30 and 1080i50/60 support
for direct use in Avid applications. M2T HDV recording
is also supported for use with editing applications from
Adobe, Grass Valley and others.
Features include a rotating clickable dial, colour
menu screen, disk status indication in the cameras
viewfinder and record trigger from the camera. It also
features an internal 1.8” 100GB hard drive capable of
recording up to 10 hours of 720p content. By utilizing
the widely supported UDF file system the MR-HD100
supports ultra-long, single file recordings eliminating the
need to split recordings every 2GB thus allowing the
recording of events like music concerts into a single
contiguous file.
For interfacing with non linear editing equipment,
the MR-HD100 offers a standard USB2.0 computer
interface, In addition, it includes WiFi networking
capabilities, allowing custom, NLE-compatible
metadata to be added live to clips while recording. A
three-hour removable Li-Ion battery is included.
Visit www.jvcpro.com.au
PANASONIC showcased the AG-HMC151E
AVCHD tapeless professional handheld camera which
features a newly developed Leica Dicomar zoom lens.
The Dicomar boasts a frontal lens diameter reduced to
53.2 mm from the 67 mm of conventional systems, and
a 28-mm wide angle.
The AG-HMC151E’s AVCHD format allows the
camera to record HD digital AV data on SD/SDHC
memory cards with the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec,
providing the robust and convenient tapeless operation
XDCAM EX and SxS memory card
compatible, JVC’s KA-MR100G docking media
recorder.
AVC/H.264 provides improved compression efficiency
and supports full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) recording.
The AG-HMC151E also supports variable bit rate
(VBR) recording, reducing image quality degradation
in scenes with rapid movement.
A range of shooting support functions enhances
the AG-HMC151E’s performance in demanding
conditions. These include the Dynamic Range Stretcher
(DRS) function, which reduces blocked shadows and
blown highlights in scenes that include both bright
and dark objects, such as views of interiors shot from
outside. Gradations across bright, halftone, and dark
areas are maintained, and colour distortions are
minimised, resulting in footage with an exceptionally
wide dynamic range. The AG-HMC151E’s focusassist function for HD has been enhanced to provide
a histogram in addition to the centre zooming function
that enlarges the centre of the viewfinder. A simplified
waveform and vectorscope display of the image can
be viewed on the LCD monitor.
Additional specifications include: a high-performance
DSP with 14-bit A/D and 19-bit process functions;
seven-mode gamma parameters that produce rich
gradations and cine-like images; an XLR audio input
terminal; and an HDMI output terminal.
Email [email protected]
proven in Panasonic’s P2 range of professional
cameras. Footage shot with the AG-HMC151E is
recorded as files and can be transferred at high speed
for immediate use on a PC or Mac, without the need
for digitisation.
The AVCHD recording format allows HD video to
be recorded in the form of 8-bit digital component
video using 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. The AGHMC151E’s “high profile” implementation of MPEG-4
SONY announced its latest generation of HDV
production technology with a new compact
camcorder, the HVR-Z5E and memory recording unit,
the HVR-MRC1K. The camcorder features a new
fixed “G Lens” system, native progressive recording
capabilities, increased sensitivity for low-light conditions
and an array of other features designed for general
TV production, videographers, budget movie-makers
and corporate video production professionals. The
>> >>
>> >>
Panasonic’s
AG-HMC151E AVCHD
tapeless handheld
camera.
Continued on Page 28
24 Acquisition
Sportscasting 25
Acquisition
Acquisition
Acquisition
Grainger Captures ‘Australia’ with Sony, Videopro
shot entirely with JVC ProHD cameras. The film won
the 2007 SPAARTAN Award for Best Australian
Digital Film of the Year, Digispaa 2007 and was
GraingerTV
is a
Sydney-based
officially
selected at the
Rotterdam
2008,television
Sydney
production
company
specialising
in
documentaries
2008, Copenhagen 2008 and Warsaw
2008
for the
Australian and international markets. Over the
film
festivals.
past
years,
delivered more
than
The20result
of GraingerTV
a creative has
collaboration
between
110
productions
to
more
than
80
international
Director Michael Joy and Creative Producer John
focussing
onhas
wildlife,
L.broadcasters,
Simpson, Men’s
Group
been adventure
describedand
as
travel. Headed
by
veteran
producer
Greg
Grainger,
a ‘must see’ and as Simpson attests, with
good
the teamSpeaking
includesofGreg’s
sonsbackground
– camera he
operator
reason.
the film’s
said,
Jefferson
and
editor
Chris.
Among
its
programmes,
“As a team we wanted to explore some of the
GraingerTV
produces
Travel OZ for
unspoken
fears
and vulnerabilities
thatABC1
manywhich
men
explores
travel
destinations
around
Australia.
face, but are unable to voice. Michael and I both
recent
outback
saw
company
not
hadAdear
friends
who sojourn
tragically
tookthetheir
own lives,
only
collecting
footage
for
the
travel
programme,
we began to recognise that many Australian men
but also
for Tourism
Australia
in the to
form
B-roll
were
in crisis.
As artists,
we wanted
giveof voice
material
to
coincide
with
the
release
of
the
Baz
to the many dilemmas and situations men face,
Luhrman feature
‘Australia’.
particularly
in their
relationships as partners, son’s
a Sony PDW700 XDCAM HD camera with
andUsing
fathers.”
ZA12
x
4.5
lens for
supplied
by Videopro,
Jeff Grainger
As the idea
the film
took shape
Simpson
shot
a
total
of
32
hours
of
outback
footage
from
and Joy decided that they wanted to add an extra
the Northwest
of Western
Australia,
Kimberly,
element
of realism.
He continued,
“Wethe
wanted
the
Kakadu and
otherempathy
locationsfor
in the
Territory,
audience
to feel
the Northern
characters,
so it
oftencrucial
in dusty
conditions
at over
degrees
was
that the
performances
were40
truthful.
We
Celsius.
And,
while
GraingerTV
had
high
also wanted the audience to feel as if they praise
were
forthe
theroom
service
from
Videopro,
reliability
of the
in
with
them
men, notthemerely
observers
equipment
meant
it
wasn’t
required.
but participants in the group. Michael worked with
“The
were workshopping
phenomenal,” in
said
Jeff. “Great
each
of shots
the actor’s
isolation
over
pictures
and
the
quality
was
fantastic.
heavier
two months; developing their characters It’s
from
birth
>> William Zappa as Anthony in Men’s Group
till the day they join the Men’s Group.”
With this unique approach to the making of the
film Joy immersed himself fully into the project. He
added, “We crafted a script that was only given
to the heads of departments. The actors were not
than I’m used to but it’s beautiful especially with the
allowed to see the script, as we wanted to capture
wide angle lens. I love it.”
their first responses to their lives as they unfolded in
“I’m delighted with the picture quality,” added
real time as the cameras were rolling. We had three
Greg Grainger. “The camera’s a joy in all regards
cameras rolling during most scenes and everything
and, from the viewpoint of a producer, the flip out
that you see in the film is the first and only take.”
viewfinder is great, especially for review.”
When choosing the cameras to record this
Shooting in 1920 x 1080i, Jeff averaged about
extraordinary piece of filmmaking Simpson and Joy
40 mins-1 hour per XDCAM HD disc. This was
only had one choice, JVC’s ProHD range.
complemented by HVR Z7 1080 x 1440i HDV
As Joy explained it was a more straightforward
footage shot from an R22 helicopter.
decision than they had anticipated. “We looked
Footage was logged and filed for editing upon
around for cameras that suited our needs in terms
of size, image resolution, sound quality, and price.
We were working in locations with limited space
and we wanted the camera to be as unobtrusive
as possible. Resolution was crucial, as we were
making our film for the cinema so we need to be
able to have enough resolution to work with during
the grade and knowing it was going to end up on
40-foot screens, it had to be HD. We were capturing
sound straight to the camera tape (via booms) so it
need to be sharp. All of this on a tight budget.”
Simpson, Joy and DOP Geoffrey Wharton ACS
used the ProHD cameras in a wide variety of
return to Sydney by Greg’s other son, Chris, using
locations including under water in spa baths, onto
Final Cut Pro. Material for Travel OZ was downthe Anzac Bridge, a massage centre cubical, and
converted to allow for more efficient handling in
sex booth interior.
Final Cut Pro and to meet ABC1 standard definition
Simpson commented, “You name it, we dragged
requirements.
those cameras into spaces big, bright, dark and
Tourism Australia, meanwhile, took delivery of its
tiny! We used the cameras as a one-stop feature
footage in uncompressed high definition.
filmmaking shop recording 16-bit sound and hi-res
According to Chris Grainger, “They were rapped
images with a variety of lenses. Considering the strain
with the pictures.”
we put them under, the ProHD cameras performed
Travel OZ has been signed up for a second year
very well indeed. We didn’t lose any shots or scenes
of production with a new series of 24 programmes
amassing over 69 hours of footage.”
to go to air on ABC1 from next March. Travel Oz
Summing up his experience with the ProHD
can be seen at 6pm on Wednesdays, with the
cameras John Simpson concluded, “The JVC
current series of 25 programmes to be repeated
cameras really have been an integral part of the
immediately the new series ends, from September
film’s success. We had a rule that we would never
2009. The ABC has also commissioned a one-off
stop for technicals, the cameras had to be ready
special the Spirit of Australia.
and fully functional … and guess what, we never
Visit www.graingertv.com
had a hair in the gate!”
Never Stop
Looking
<< <<
Geoffrey on Location
for “The Riddle Of the Stinson”
1987. Producer: Kennedy Miller;
Director Chris Noonan.
>> >>
Philip Hearnshaw First Assistant director [left] helps grips erect 30’ x 30 sail cloth with Geoffrey Simpson DOP close by. At right, David
Nichols, grip, watches on. Photograph William Yang.
Name: Geoffrey Simpson
Recent Completed Projects: “Romulus My Father”
Produced by Robert Connolly and John Maynard/
Directed by Richard Roxburgh 2006. “The Starter
Wife” Produced by NBC Universal TV / Directed by
Jon Avnet (US 6 hour mini-series) 2006/2007. “The
Tender Hook” Producers: Michelle Harrison and John
Brousek. Directed by Jonathan Ogilvie 2007.
Upcoming Projects: “The Bridge of Sighs”, Director
Ben Lewen; “Almost French” Director Kate Dennis;
26 Acquisition
Acquistion 39
“The Stragglers”, a Second World War film to be
directed by Jonathan Ogilvie.
Society Memberships: ACS, AFI, IATSE Local 600,
Cinema Pioneers.
Mentors: “In my early career, I had the opportunity
to work with and watch Geoff Burton, Russell Boyd
and John Seale - all good blokes and extremely
good cinematographers. Their grace and humour
on set combined with their good eyes and technical
ability were a bench mark for the future.”
Advice for Future Cinematographers: “See as many
films as possible from all over the world including films
from the past. Look at photographs taken over the last
one hundred years, look at paintings from the last five
hundred years or more, the Dutch Masters, German
Expressionists, the Australian Impressionists. Look at
Architecture past and future. Never stop looking.”
Contact: Top Technicians Management
on +61 2 9958 1611 or visit
http://www.toptechsmanagement.com.au
Acquistion 27
Acquisition
Continued from Page 24
recording unit offers a CompactFlash recording option,
not only for the new camcorder, but for all existing Sony
HDV camcorders.
The new camcorder uses Sony’s new 1/3-inch 3
ClearVid CMOS Sensor system enhanced by the
technology of Exmor. With its 45-degree rotated
pixel layout, the 3 ClearVid CMOS Sensor system
offers sufficient pixel surface area while it keeps high
resolution. The technology of Exmor features a unique
column-parallel analogue-to-digital conversion technique
and dual noise cancelling, resulting in high quality
digital signals with extremely low noise, similar to the
imaging technology used in the PMW-EX1 camcorder.
The integration of the two new technologies allows the
new camcorder to perform significantly better in lowlight environments with sensitivity of 1.5 lux.
The camcorder’s new fixed “G Lens” incorporates
Sony’s optical design and quality control. It has been
optimised to complement the camcorder’s advanced
image sensor and image-processing technology. This
lens offers a wide 29.5mm angle lens and brand new
20x optical zoom, as well as three ND filters (1/4,
1/16, 1/64) and independent focus, zoom and iris
rings.
The HVR-Z5E also offers 1080/25p Native
progressive recording along with the usual flexibility
to switch between HDV/DVCAM and DV recording
(1080/50i, 576/50i). 60Hz operation will also
be available via an optional service upgrade. The
camcorder can down-convert material from HD to SD,
and output the video signals through its i.LINK interface
and other SD output connectors. HDMI output is also
available.
The HVR-Z5E is equipped with the same new
XtraFine LCD and XtraFine EVF as seen on the HVR-Z7E
and HVR-S270E, which offers high-resolution and highcontrast images with remarkable colour reproduction.
It can deliver more than 60 minutes of recording time
on miniDV videotapes, and approximate recording
times of 63 minutes with Sony’s DigitalMaster cassettes
(PHDVM-63DM).
Sony also launched the new HYBRID memory
recorder, the HVR-MRC1K which captures HDV1080i,
DVCAM or DV stream output from the camcorder
and allows users to record HDV/DVCAM/DV files
to a standard CompactFlash solid-state memory card,
while users are simultaneously recording to tape. The
recording times on an 8 and 16 GB CompactFlash
card in HDV, DVCAM and DV format are 36 and 72
minutes, respectively.
The new HVR-Z5E has been designed especially for
the HVR-MRC1K memory recording unit offering direct
attachment to the rear of the camcorder, eliminating the
need for cables. The unit automatically synchronises with
the recording action of the camcorder and a special
shoe connector inputs and outputs an HDV/DVCAM/
DV stream and supplies power to the unit. For all other
existing professional HDV and DVCAM users, the HVRMRC1K comes supplied with a mounting bracket to
mount the unit on the hot shoe of the camcorder.
Sony also unveiled new technology developments
for the XDCAM format including new XDCAM V1.2
firmware that completes the feature set of the PDW-700
and PDW-HD1500, with new frame rates, more filmic
28 Acquisition
Acquisition
Acquisition
CLASSI
C
CAMERA
S
Bell
RCA and
TK76 Howell
Video Camera
70DR
a point of
difference
CLASSIC
>> >>
Thomson’s Infinity Digital Media Camcorder.
hyperGamma and SD options to record DVCAM and
IMX. Sony’s latest 1080 23.98P capability for XDCAM
HD422 was also on display for the first time in Europe,
with June 2009 as the target availability of the upgrade
kits for the PDW-700 and PDW-HD1500.
Sony also unveiled the new XDCAM Memory
Adapter which bridges the world of professional disc
and SxS memory card.
Visit www.sony.com.au/production
THOMSON announced the Cine-style option for its
Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media Camcorder (DMC)
which enables the camcorder to shoot in productionstyle, high-definition (HD) progressive formats including
1080P23.97, P25 and P29.97 at a full 1920x1080
HD resolution. This is combined with the ability to
capture full 10-bit 4:2:2 HD, with its JPEG 2000
codec.
The Infinity DMC can also record HD in Long GOP.
This gives the user the option of capturing HD in bitrates
at 18, 25, 35 and 50 Mb/s.
The company also announced the LDK 8300 HD
Super SloMo camera, a newly designed camera
system that captures true progressive HD images,
natively, in multiple formats and frame rates.
The new camera offers the ability to selectively
operate at 1X, 2X, and 3X speeds; 1080i and 720p
acquisition; and Thomson AnyLight flicker reduction
technology for quality slow-motion replay.
The camera also features a high signal-to-noise ratio
of >57 dB and captures video at 150 and 180 HD
fields per second — three times the 50 and 60 fields
per second rate of traditional HD cameras.
A new fibre interface delivers the extremely high data
rate back to the servers. The Thomson AnyLight flicker
reduction technology eliminates any perceived changes
in light levels due to any differences in the mains power
frequency and with the synchronisation with artificial
lights, such as those found in sports venues. The LDK
8300 is available in Q1 2009.
Thomson also announced the Elite HD Camera
Series including the LDK 4000 Elite, LDK 8000 Elite
(in Standard and WorldCam versions), and the LDK
8000 SportElite.
Among the new enhancements, the LDK Elite and
SportElite HD series incorporate all new DSP circuits
with a completely updated software platform that
performs all camera image management functions –
such as knee, gamma, contours, and variable matrix –
with three channel 22-bit digital precision. The SportElite
adds 2x Super Slow-Motion sampling functionality in
both 720p and 1080i HD formats.
A newly designed chipset used across the entire
Elite series contains additional features, such as digital
cosmetics – sometimes known as negative skin contours
– with independent, dual skin tone selection. Extensive
colourimetry and colour-matching tools are also
available. Users can choose whether to perform matrix
processing before or after gamma.
Across the Elite camera line sensitivity has also
been improved to f10@2000 lux with 60 dB signalto-noise performance. There are also new multi-vector
secondary colour correction features for manipulating
images inside the camera, as well as user-selectable
digital noise reduction (DNR) adjustments.
The multiformat LDK 8000 Elite camera can acquire
images in 720p, 1080i, and 1080p formats.
The SportElite features high performance (F10 at
2000 lux) in single- and F8 in double-speed mode,
a signal-to-noise ratio of 60dB in single- and 58 dB
in double-speed mode, a high-quality secondary color
corrector, and a user-selectable digital noise reducer.
It’s a two-piece dockable camera system, fully
compatible with all current LDK HD sub-systems. By
adding the capability for double speed acquisition,
it means that mobile production companies can outfit
an entire truck with them, using some for slo-mo and
others for standard HD acquisition alongside regular
LDK 8000 cameras.
The LDK 4000 Elite is a single format HD camera,
available as either a 720p or 1080i camera head.
In each case, its operating frequency is switchable
between 50 Hz and 59.94 Hz, enabling it to support
a variety of production environments. In addition,
an optional service pack is available to transform
the camera from 720p to 1080i or the other way
around.
An Elite Upgrade Kit, LDK 5825/10, is available
for the current installed base of LDK 8000 and LDK
4000 mk II cameras. All three cameras include three
9.2-million pixel HD-DPM+ CCD imagers, 14-bit
A/D sampling, and 3 channel 22-bit digital signal
processing resolution.
Visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com
CAMit.EAs
The TK76 was the beginning of the end for
the time over who should operate
it was
RA
S
the film camera in newsgathering.
a ‘TV’ camera, it was argued that it should
This ungainly, ergonomic nightmare, with
be operated by a ‘TV’ cameraman, whose
its separate backpack recorder, meant that
traditional role had been in the studio, not a
The original Bell and Howell ‘Eyemo’ series was introduced in the 1920s and developed gradually over
‘instant’ pictures were now a reality for the
‘film’ cameraman, whose traditional role was
many years. They were so robust that for a while Bell and Howell sold them with a lifetime warranty.
television news Chief of Staff.
in the field.
The 70DR was the last model of this fine clockwork masterpiece to be produced shortly after WWII. It
ENG (Electronic News Gathering) was
By December of 1980, more than 2000 TKremained unchanged until production ceased in the late 1970s although they were still sold new into
suddenly a reality and instant pictures were
76’s had been sold worldwide, but it was soon
the 1980s.
more important than the quality of the image.
to be overshadowed by the introduction of the
The ‘70’ series was the camera of choice for decades of combat cameramen the world over for its
The TK76 caused much controversy at
Sony 3AP Betacam around 1983.
simplicity and reliability. It was the ideal tool in an era when capturing the action, not the sound, was
the over-riding concern.
This camera belongs to Butch Calderwood OAM, ACS and has seen service in the Vietnam War and
many other trouble spots. Visit www.cinematographer.org.au
“
shooting on location with
the arrow 55 and sprinter legs
gave me the performance and
stability I was looking for in
”
a light weight 100mm bowl
package.
Calvin Gardiner ACS
on location shooting
scenes for a documentary.
arrow
<<
camera support systems
Bell-and-Howell-70DR-06
ARRI to Acquire DALSA Digital Cinema?
Canada-based chip manufacturer DALSA recently
entered into a non-binding letter of intent (“LOI”),
which includes a 30-day period of exclusive
negotiations, with Arnold & Richter Cine Technik
GmbH (“ARRI”), acknowledged as one of the
world’s leading manufacturers of cinematography
cameras.
Under the terms of the LOI, ARRI would
acquire certain existing assets of the
DALSA Digital Cinema division.
Concurrently, DALSA and ARRI
would enter into a technology
partnership agreement whereby
DALSA will develop for ARRI
custom high performance CCD
image sensors and related products.
Furthermore, DALSA would supply
the developed products to ARRI for
digital cinematography applications
through DALSA’s core businesses.
There is no assurance that any
transactions will be completed.
DALSA>>
Digital
Cinema recently
Bell-and-Howell-70DR-02
announced that the next James
Bond motion picture, “Quantum
of Solace,” starring Daniel
Craig as James Bond, features
a complex visual effects shot
captured
by simultaneously shooting with eight shutterBack to Contents Page
synchronized DALSA Origin 4K cameras.
The eight DALSA cameras recorded their
data to eight CODEX digital disc recorders. The
CODEX disc packs were delivered to sohonet in
London for backup, after which the RAW 4K files
were delivered to Double Negative in Soho for
rendering and final compositing.
<< <<
DALSA’s
NEW Arrow fluid heads,
feature-filled for
performance news gathering
3 models with payloads
designed to suit a
wide range of camcorders
Available in system
combinations that
offer Sprinter II,
HD or Solo Tripods
www.millertripods.com
Acquistion 29
37
Acquistion
Sportscasting
Sportscasting
SPORTSCASTING
Global Monitors with Wohler and Quinto
Quinto Communications is supplying
and thus may be rotated approximately
Global
Television
audio
and
±30 degrees in the vertical plane for
video monitoring equipment from
optimum operator viewing angles.
PANORAMAdtv, the video products
A total of nine MON4-2W/HR HD/
division of Wohler Technologies Inc.,
SD rack-mount LCD video monitors are
for two new state-of-the-art HD OB
being installed in each truck, providing
trucks. Wohler’s compact HD/SD
36 individual widescreen displays in just
monitoring solutions will simplify high18 RU. These units will support the bulk
resolution audio and video monitoring
of Global Television’s video monitoring
of Global Television’s programming,
activity. Seven MON1-T/7W-HR 7-inch
which includes many of Australia’s
high-resolution HD/SD monitors will be
>> >> Terry Manley, Chief Engineer at Global Television, with
highest profile reality, entertainment,
mounted adjacent to Tektronix Waveform
Wohler monitoring equipment in one of Global’s new HD trucks.
and sports programmes.
Monitors in a Tektronix tub to facilitate
“As the first units in Australia to
detailed signal analysis.
deploy 3Gb/s ready infrastructure,
Each OB truck will be equipped with
our new HD trucks represent leading14 of Wohler’s AMP1-S8MDA HD/SD
the Global Television OB trucks includes MON series
edge broadcast technologies,” said Terry Manley,
embedded audio monitoring bridges and a single
rackmount LCD HD/SD video monitors, along with
chief engineer at Global Television. “The Wohler
E MON-1/M audio bridge with built in Dolby E
Wohler’s digital audio monitoring bridges for HD/
equipment is an optimal fit, enabling robust and
decoding. The AMP1-S8MDA is a complete audio
SD video and digital audio monitoring. The compact
flexible monitoring of digital audio and high-resolution
monitoring solution capable of monitoring audio from
yet flexible design of Wohler’s MON high-resolution
video while taking up very little space in our truck.
HD-SDI, SD-SDI, AES/EBU, and analogue signal
display monitors is ideal for confidence monitoring
Space, power, and weight savings are critical to costsources. The 1RU system processes and monitors up
of multiple video feeds in mobile applications where
effective mobile production, and Wohler’s monitoring
to eight channels from an HD-SDI or SD-SDI bit stream,
space is at a premium.
solutions meet all these requirements while offering
two sets of four AES/EBU signal pairs (balanced and
The MON4-2W/HR features four side-by-side 4.3the premium performance our clients demand in HD
unbalanced), or eight balanced analogue channels.
inch wide-format LCD panels, each with dedicated
production.”
Eight high-resolution 26-segment tricolour LED barrecessed controls for contrast and brightness, native
“This will be the largest deployment of Wohler
graph audio-level meters provide accurate and
16:9 aspect ratio, and selection between 16:9
monitoring equipment in an OB environment within
instantaneous visual level monitoring at a glance.
and 4:3 aspect ratios for SD-SDI signals, as well as
Australia,” said Tom Pavicic, general manager of
The first of the two HD OB units will hit the road by
tally indicators and independent power and input
Quinto Communications.
the end of 2008, and the second will be completed
termination switches. Each LCD is mounted in a cylinder
The extensive installation of Wohler gear within
in early 2009.
GlobeCast, Chunghwa to Deliver World Games
At the recent Sportel Monaco conference,
GlobeCast announced it has signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) with Chunghwa Telecom
International Business Group (CHTI), the official
international broadcast delivery provider for the
2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
GlobeCast will provide domestic and international
broadcast delivery via satellite and fibre for all SD
and HD feeds as well as an international broadcast
booking centre for the entire duration of the World
Games, to be held on 16-26 July 2009.
The IOC-sanctioned World Games aims to
feature the diversity of sport, showcasing sport
not featured at the Olympics such as snooker,
aikido, field archery, boules, dragon boat racing,
bodybuilding, wakeboarding, sumo, tug of war,
lifesaving, Ultimate Frisbee, DanceSport amongst
many others.
GlobeCast will be delivering LIVE feeds of the
pre-Games 30 minutes highlights free-to-air and
rights-free to broadcasters from 29 October to 9
November 2008. The feed will be available in
Asia via AsiaSat2, Europe via Eutelsat, Africa via
Intelsat 904, and North & South America via Intelsat
9. To obtain the feed, broadcasters can contact
GlobeCast for the satellite parameters.
Visit http://www.worldgames2009.tw/
TEN Sports Channel to Become the ‘ONE’
A dedicated sports channel providing 24-hour
sports coverage from Australia and around the
world will become the first all-new commercial freeto-air television channel in almost 50 years, thanks
to Network Ten.
ONE will be broadcast from early in the second
quarter of calendar 2009 in High Definition (HD) on
Channel 1 and it will also be available in Standard
Definition (SD) on the network’s second SD channel
(Channel 12).
According to Network Ten CEO Grant Blackley,
“ONE’s appeal to Australia’s natural sports lovers will
complement TEN’s seriously different programming
strategy – with each channel offering viewers and
clients a unique and appealing programming
format.
“In considering the opportunities for our new multichannel, it became obvious very quickly that sport
would be a highly attractive genre for the Australian
viewing public, of both genders and all ages. There
is currently no dedicated free-to-air sports channel
in this market, and Ten has existing relationships
with key sports rights holders and a reputation for
delivery of high quality sports broadcasts.
“Importantly, the network’s upgraded broadcast
infrastructure means we are exceptionally well
placed to provide these three digital channels,
supporting our network’s – and the industry’s – move
into a multichannel and multi-platform environment.
“We anticipate that ONE will add significant
momentum to digital switchover by giving Australian
viewers a compelling reason to purchase an HD or
SD receiver,” Mr Blackley said.
According to David White, Network Ten’s general
manager - sport,
“Live and exclusive will be a hallmark of the
channel. Broadcasting in digital means we will be
able to most vividly capture the greatest sporting
events and achievements, along with the intimate
details of the intense human dramas that play out in
sport.”
Some of the sports highlights that viewers can
expect to enjoy on ONE include: AFL; Netball; 2010
Delhi Commonwealth Games; Indian Premier
League Cricket; Formula 1; Moto GP; NASCAR;
Australian Rally Championship; US National
Football League (NFL); US Major League Baseball
(MLB); US National Basketball Association (NBA);
Golf; US College sports; Tennis; and Swimming –
Network Ten is, from 2009, exclusive broadcaster
for Swimming Australia.
According to rights agreements and current
Federal Government anti-siphoning regulations,
some of these sports and events will also be shown
first or simultaneously on TEN.
There will also be a new live AFL show on
Monday nights, weekly wrap shows for NFL, NBA,
MLB, NASCAR Sprint Cup series and Nationwide
series, Formula 1, Moto GP and US PGA Tour.
Every week night, ONE will also broadcast
two expanded editions of Sports Tonight, bringing
viewers further in-depth news from both domestic
and international sources.
From time to time, ONE will feature extreme
sports, emerging sports and a range of sportsrelated programming including documentaries.
To hear the TEN media briefing, click on
www.tencorporate.com.au/library/audio/
networkten_281008_1500.mp3
Nine Goes HD 1080i 4:2:2 for HD Cricket Coverage
The Nine Network will be utilising full HD 1080i
4:2:2 contribution circuits for the 2008/9 summer
cricket season following deployment of HV9100
Series AVC/H.264 HDTV/SDTV encoders/
decoders from NTT Australia.
According to NTT’s sales and marketing director
Peter Cheleski, the “encoders and decoders will
allow Nine Network to reduce its bandwidth
requirements whilst still being able to be the first
broadcaster in Australia to use 4:2:2 technology
for HD cricket.”
The NTT Electronics HV9100 Series allow
broadcasts of sports with intense action levels to
be shown in high video quality with low latency.
“Nine Network’s coverage of this year’s
international cricket season will be produced
in full resolution high definition with surround
sound audio. We will be using MPEG-4 AVC
30 Sportscasting
High Definition 4:2:2 profile compression on the
contribution circuits carrying the live feed from the
venue to Nine’s HD distribution and transmission
system,” said Charles Sevior, Nine’s Network
Manager Broadcast Technology.
The HV9100 series supports both HD
(1080i/720p) and SD (480i/576i) and a maximum
of two audio systems, for a total of sixteen channel
audio encoding and decoding.
“NTT Australia has worked closely with the
broadcast systems development team headed by
Matthew Benson and his team at Channel 9 over
the past few months, conducting rigorous tests both
internally at the Nine laboratories and also in a
number of outside broadcast scenarios proving the
technical superiority of 4:2:2,” added Cheleski.
“Our selection process was very intense; The NTT
team met and exceeded all our expectations. Technical
and commercial support was of the highest level
meeting all parameters demanded by Nine. NTT
were very proactive and met extremely short time
frames and turnaround demands by Nine to satisfy
our on-air schedules. We have entered a long term
agreement between our two corporations for HD
contribution requirements,” said Tony Anthony,
Nine’s Broadcast Communications Manager.
“NTT [Japan] own the world’s largest commercial
grade IPv6 network that allows HD smart content
delivery using minimum bandwidth. Combine
that with NTT Electronics’ encoders and decoders
and you have a new innovative and cost effective
mechanism for all new and existing media
businesses that wish to enter the IPTV, Broadcast,
and Streaming Multimedia arena,” said Cheleski.
Reach NTT Australia on + 61 89158990.
WORLD-CLASS COMMUNICATIONS
RENTAL • SALES • SUPPORT
Digital Matrix Intercom
Digital Partyline Intercom
Professional Mobile Radios
Riedel Communications Australia Pty Ltd. • South Sydney Technology Park • 68/45-51 Huntley Street • Alexandria 2015 • Australia • www.riedel.net
Sportscasting 31
Sportscasting
Sportscasting
ZerO1zerO Integrates Riedel/Lawo in HD Truck
Control panels include both Artist
ZerO1zerO, one of Australia’s
1000
series LED display panels for the
leading production and post-production
audio and communication workstations
companies, has installed a Riedel Artist
as well as 2000 series panels with
digital matrix intercom system in its new
LCD displays for production and
HD truck. The intercom is fully integrated
technical areas. All panels connect
with the truck’s Lawo digital audio console
digitally to the Artist mainframe using
via 6x Riedel MADI client cards. This set-up
16 bit 48kHz audio.
allows the truck’s audio engineer to easily
In addition to just using the panels
remote both intercom panels and 4-wire
for
comms, six DCP-1016E desktop
ports from the Artist system through the
control panels will also serve as on-air
existing audio infrastructure.
commentary stations for zerO1zerO’s
“The choice was simple,” said
coverage of A-League USL Soccer.
Keith Cooper, head of Audio and
These panels are supplemented
Communications at zerO1zerO. “I needed
with 6x CSX-11 commentary addflexibility to fulfil my clients’ ever increasing
>> >> Inside ZerO1zerO’s new HD truck: The Riedel’s Artist
on units, which utilise the intercom
needs, seamless digital integration, ease
Digital Matrix Intercom is seamlessly integrated with Lawo’s Mc66
panel’s second audio channel. The
of patching between communications audio console & routing environment via Riedel’s MADI client cards.
CSX-11 was specially designed to
and audio and the best sounding system
work with Riedel DCP panels and
used for 2 Riedel Connect Solo telephone hybrids,
available. Riedel is the one.”
offers expanded features for commentary such as
providing access to up to four telephone lines from the
The truck’s intercom system consists of an Artist 128
additional XLR connectors, a phones connector,
intercom system. The COAX cards connect external
mainframe populated with 6x MADI, 1x CAT-5, 3x
dedicated pushbutton switches for On-Air, Talkback
intercom panels to the truck via coax cabling and the
COAX and 3x AIO client cards. The MADI cards
and Mic-Mute, as well as a special fail-safe
analogue cards provide transformer balanced audio
connect directly to the Lawo Mc66 and provide the
commentary mode.
directly to the truck’s 12 HD cameras.
console/intercom integration. The CAT-5 card is
Endemol, a world leader in entertainment
programming, has appointed Lawrence Duffy and
Gregg Oldfield as Joint Managing Directors of new
global division Endemol Sport.
Lawrence Duffy was previously Vice President and
Head of Development at IMG Sports Media, in
charge of securing production business with sports
federations, brands and broadcasters. Formerly at
BBC Sport, he brings seventeen years of experience
developing and executing high profile events and
productions.
Gregg Oldfield was formerly Vice President,
Network Ventures at IMG Media where he was
responsible for creating strategic partnerships, joint
ventures and multi-media sports channels with leading
IP and media networks across Europe and Asia.
As joint Managing Directors of Endemol Sport,
Lawrence and Gregg will be responsible for
building a worldwide, multimedia sports business.
This will include further leveraging Endemol’s
global infrastructure by producing and distributing
a wide range of sports content such as live events
coverage as well as factual and sport entertainment
programming and magazine shows.
Endemol’s strategy for growth will also incorporate
the development and management of sports channels
across TV and digital media platforms.
Endemol Sport will be based in London. Lawrence
and Gregg will take up their roles on 1st January
2009 and will report to Ynon Kreiz, Chief Executive
Officer of Endemol.
Visit www.endemol.com
Eurosport, the European sports multimedia
platform, has launched a catch-up VOD offer for
cable, IPTV and satellite operators throughout Europe.
Eurosport’s catch up VOD service includes the best
of Eurosport and Eurosport 2 on demand, featuring
premium events such as the Australian Open, US
Open, WTCC, etc.
For the first time, operators will be able to provide
Eurosport subscribers access to up to 4000 hours of
VOD sports programming from both Eurosport and
Eurosport 2. Eurosport’s catch-up programming can be
made available for up to 7 days after 1st broadcast.
Eurosport will provide operators both content and
technical solutions. Eurosport will push the content
via FTP to operators who then are responsible for
distributing the content to subscribers. The Eurosport
catch-up service will only be made available to clients
subscribed to the channel.
• Ability to instantly stream IMG’s latest programs at
the touch of a button;
• An enhanced browse facility to search by content
type, category and subject;
• Ability to view multiple episodes from a series;
• An option to save programs to a showreel to view
or email to colleagues.
Visit. www.imgprogramming.com
Meanwhile, IMG Sports Media has
been appointed by Dorna Sports, the commercial
and television rights-holders to the MotoGP World
Championship, to work as the exclusive global
agents for broadcast rights sales in key markets
across the globe for the next three years.
The world’s premier motorcycle championship is
currently broadcast live across the world on over
50 national and continental networks, and under
the terms of the new agreement, IMG will assist in
increasing international distribution and exposure in
those countries where MotoGP is looking to reach its
full media potential.
IMG Sports Media has also been appointed by
IMG Media has relaunched www.imgprogramming. Red Bull Air Race GmbH to act as the exclusive sales
com, the company’s comprehensive programming
agent for the international TV rights to the 2009 Red
catalogue website.
Bull Air Race World Championship.
In addition to enhanced search and share tools, the
After success this year in cities such as London,
new website now offers features that complement IMG’s
San Diego, Budapest and Perth, Australia, the global
deep and broad selection of sports and entertainment
8-race championship will touch down in multiple
content, including:
different locations around the world in 2009.
12657GENN 190mmx127.qxd:Content+Techonology 1/2PgTabHoriz 10/10/08 11:59 AM Page 1
Hi-Tech Plan a Better View for Spectators
- David Welsh, London Press Service
Spectators at many large-scale sporting and
other live events can miss a lot of the action
taking place outside their field of view.
Now, a team of engineers working closely
with industrial partners is developing a way of
providing spectators with “near real-time” access
to otherwise unseen events as they unfold, via
mobile phones and other handheld devices.
In a two-year collaborative project called
Visualise, academics at Bristol University,
England, have joined a range of industrial
partners including 3C Research, BT, Inmarsat,
International
Sportsworld
Communicators,
Maniac Films, ProVision Communication
Technologies, Turner Broadcasting, Util4 and
U4EA.
Big shows and events use a huge infrastructure
of production and transmission equipment with
many fixed and portable cameras. Most of
the content captured by these is never made
available to local spectators except through a
single feed of edited output to portable TVs or
large-screen open-air displays.
The Visualise project aims to provide an
enhanced experience for spectators on site at
events by providing local area access to a rich
range of media via handheld devices such as
mobile phones. This can include otherwise non-
32 Sportscasting
viewable events or locations, archive material and
real-time statistics.
For example, spectators at the World Rally
Championship would be able to experience all the
key events from every stage, even when these occur
many hundreds of kilometres away. They would also
be able to follow a team or individual’s performance
(using live timing, live GPS tracking, and live video
at selected locations).
The research behind Visualise aims to develop
video compression and streaming techniques that
work effectively with low-cost wireless broadband
networks and to integrate fixed (service park and
trackside) and mobile (for example: in-car) cameras
into a live-viewing system.
The team aims to develop enhanced spectator
interaction possibilities, using standard mobile
terminals such as mobile phones and PDAs (personal
digital assistants).
The Visualise concept, which has already been
demonstrated in prototype form at a number of
sporting events, also integrates live timing and GPS
data in a seamless user interface.
Researchers are also analysing live timing and
working to enhance the performance of current
(WiFi and HSPA) and emerging (WiMax and LTE)
wireless techniques. The team also aims to create a
system that provides management and distribution
of available content while integrating with existing
broadcasting systems.
The researchers have also developed a lowcost mobile camera acquisition system using longrange WiFi links to stream IP (Internet protocol)
and TV content directly to mobile terminals and the
Internet; an in-car audio-video system to stream live
content to spectators; and a rugged H.264 AVC
encoder to compress, package and serve live IP
video streams at 256 kb/s.
Also, they provided a Windows Mobile
interactive GUI (graphical user interface) with
integrated multi-channel video; dynamic selection
of live video streams based on user preferences
(such as to follow a specific driver or watch
content from a particular location); GPS tracking
and interactive map displays, and an advanced
computer network that can operate anywhere
on the planet by combining satellite access to
the Internet with local WiFi, cellular and WiMax
(Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)
communications.
The team has developed world-leading simulation
models of multiple-antenna enhanced WiFi and
WiMax communication systems, along with novel
video-compression algorithms to reduce data
rates and enhance tolerance to dropped packets.
Visit http://www.3cresearch.co.uk/item/8
Route and re-route your
high-def content
anywhere around the
world, on-demand
and on the fly.
• Superior video / audio broadcast services – in all transmission formats
• Specialized on-demand video-centric solutions – real-time servicing
and troubleshooting
• Global, proprietary and fully meshed end-to-end video network – fiber and
satellite based (SABER)
• Multipoint connections to worldwide switching hubs and media points of interest –
in all major markets
• Easy, customer-controlled, remote ordering / scheduling
• Expert video-centric NOC – monitoring, reporting and calibrating 24-7-365
www.gen-networks.com
Corporate US: +1 212 962 1776 | 24/7 NOC: +1 212 962 1722 | UK: +44 (0) 208 899 6464
EMEA: +33 (0) 4 67 69 74 76 | Latin America: +1 305 728 7150 | Asia Pacific: +1 646 216 5740
©2008 Genesis Networks. All rights reserved.
Sportscasting 33
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IT-BASED NEWS PRODUCTION SOLUTIONS
NZ Bank Pigs Out with Animal Logic
CNBC Handles High Volume News with XD discs
According to senior CNBC Cameraman Craig
Johnston, the pace and volume of newsgathering at
the leading broadcaster is such that reliable recording
media is critical.
“CNBC has grown rapidly and is still expanding,”
said Johnston. “With all the news we have to cover
on a daily basis the media we use really gets put
through its paces.”
Johnston uses the much-heralded XDCAM format
and with it FujiFilm XD discs. He continued, “I have
been using XD cameras for five years and find them
to be very versatile. The Cine Alta variable frame rate
model I currently use allows me to shoot in 4:3, 16:9,
PAL and NTSC which is great as we are currently
shooting SD PAL 4:3 and will soon be moving to
HD PAL 16:9 MPEG-2. I need that versatility and
reliability as we now produce three packages per
day which often include 2-3 grabs from analysts in
addition to three SBS updates per day, two of which
are live and one pre-recorded.”
With CNBC’s new flagship Sydney studios nearly
complete, Johnston made a conscious decision to
evaluate all the recording media available to ensure
CNBC Cameraman
Craig Johnston.
he had the best for the rigorous schedule.
“Like all companies these days we all have to
work to a budget. When I did the media evaluation
I found that FujiFilm discs are perfectly balanced,
never dropped out, had no problems with colour
and the storage was robust and reliable. In addition
I got better value for money too, so the decision to
exclusively use FujiFilm XD discs really was a nobrainer.”
Johnston and the CNBC production team start the
day with a group meeting to decide which stories
they will be covering. Once the decision is made
Johnston heads off with his XD camera and lighting kit
to get the footage. With daily show ‘Trading Matters’
presenter and anchor Oriel Morrisson doing a piece
to camera and Johnston adding an overlay, the
package then comes back to the studio for editing.
Johnston added, “It’s a fast-paced turnaround. We
bring back the XD discs and they are immediately
digitized using an XD HD deck faster than real-time
via Firewire into Avid Adrenaline Extreme where it’s
edited. The editor assembles the package, a voice
over is added and out pops the story. Speed is most
definitely of the essence in news and our process is
quick and efficient.”
With the volume of work at CNBC, storage is
a key issue. Johnston concluded, “Once the stories
have been broadcast they are trimmed up by the
Editors and archived onto the XDCam discs. We are
really happy with the FujiFilm XD discs and the service
and support from the entire FujiFilm team. We have
a very good and efficient working relationship that,
combined with the better value for money, means it’s
a win-win situation all round.”
BigPond Launches 24-hour News Channel
Telstra BigPond has launched
Australia’s first online and mobile
dedicated 24 hour news channel.
The new channel, called BigPond
Live TV News, is a continuous live
video stream of general news,
politics, finance, sport and weather.
It will combine regular news bulletins
with wider coverage of business,
health, environment, entertainment
and technology. The new channel is
available online at bigpond.com or
on compatible Telstra Next G mobiles
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Telstra Media Group Managing
Director, Mr Justin Milne, said the new
service will serve the growing number
of Australians who want the convenience of online or
mobile news.
“Telstra’s new service will provide Australians with
a whole new way to receive their news, because
from today they can watch and listen to live video
news almost anywhere they go and exactly when
they feel like it,” Mr Milne said. “Telstra is challenging
other news services by offering a dedicated 24 hour
34 News Operations
online and mobile streaming video service. We cross
live to important events as they occur. On our first
day we covered the US Presidential debate and
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announcing his rescue
package for British banks. If there’s something worth
knowing it will be found at BigPond News. It means
our customers could be on the bus, in a paddock or
waiting for the dentist, and still watch live news as it
happens.”
The BigPond Live News service
is continually updated with video
bulletins and also has the ability to
break to live news when this occurs.
“Telstra
continually
pioneers
new and innovative content for our
customers. We remain committed
to being the leader in the region
for delivering the best and exclusive
mobile and online entertainment to
our customers,” Mr Milne said. “Our
news channel is yet another example
of how Telstra’s high-speed networks,
whether they are fixed or mobile, are
used to deliver high-quality media
entertainment.”
Telstra 3G and Next G mobile
customers with compatible handsets can subscribe
to BigPond Live TV News for $4.95 per month or
$1.95 for a day pass. The news channel is also
available online at bigpond.com by clicking on
the TV tab. The online service is unmetered for most
BigPond broadband customers, which means viewing
the video does not count towards any monthly data
allowance.
COLLABORATE LIKE NEVER BEFORE.
Central to collaborative newsgathering operation is the IT-based
infrastructure behind it. And the Thomson Grass Valley™ IT-based Aurora
news production suite and the K2™ media server and client systems
provide your personnel with the tools that allow team members to work
together in ways previously thought impossible. Freedom of format,
media, compression and codecs–our HD news tools enhance every aspect
of your Digital News Production workflow at an affordable price.
For more information, visit us on the web at:
www.thomsongrassvalley.com/hdnews
News Operations 35
News Operations
News Operations
TVNZ Unifies News with Quantel, Omnibus
By Peter Parnham
You would be forgiven for thinking a
technology project would be all about technology.
But, that’s not the way it worked for Television New
Zealand’s NZ$6 million recently completed news
room project. They knew that technology alone would
not achieve the project’s objectives.
“It wasn’t until the journalists became involved and
saw the benefit of it, that it became a useful tool,”
says Don Cunningham, TVNZ’s Head of Operations
for News and Current Affairs.
He credits his colleague Darryl Walker, the Senior
Manager of News Infrastructure, as the key to success
in that area. Himself a trained journalist, Walker
describes his role as “getting best value out of the
system, so it works for the users and the users know
how to use it.”
The project called for a replacement to the existing
Quantel Inspiration system as it approached the end
of its life. Concern arose when Walker was advised
that the system would soon be unsupported. More
importantly, it was an opportunity to improve the
productivity within the news room by putting improved
editing functionality on the journalists’ desktops. A
more open system was sought.
“The system itself, while it was pretty radical in 2001,
was a little bit limited. We couldn’t share those files
to cope with our growing requirement for immediate
access to the server content from, say, our web-based
and mobile news services,” Walker explains.
The existing system ran in conjunction with an
OmniBus Automation and Content Management
system which TVNZ decided to upgrade at the same
time - a combination familiar to Quantel.
The systems chosen were a Quantel Enterprise
sQ V3.5 (now upgraded to v3.6) and OmniBus
OPUS G3. The Quantel servers are proprietary while
OmniBus runs on standard Blade servers.
Walker cites the Frame Magic concept and the
Zone Magic capabilities as key elements of the
Quantel bid. Frame Magic is Quantel’s frame-based
strategy for managing material. Edits consist of pointers
to individual frames rather than clips. This results in
efficient use of storage because only the frames used
need to be kept.
Zone Magic is Quantel’s system for managing
remote sites, something of vital importance to TVNZ.
“One of the reasons we needed to change was
previously Wellington and Christchurch played their
stories live into our bulletins. We wanted to bring all
of their stories to Auckland. Firstly, so that we could
play them out under OmniBus automation control and
secondly so that they were immediately available to
the digital news channel as well as to our appointment
36 News Operations
>> >> TVNZ news studio with control area in background.
to their home greater than the bandwidth to some of
the Australasian broadcasters. Quantel recognised
this situation is not unique and introduced a new
system named Dino (an acronym for Distance is no
Object) that allows two or more Quantel production
servers to collaborate over limited bandwidth WAN
links. But, the new software previewed at NAB
2008 - after this project was well underway.
>> >> Darryl Walker, TVNZ Senior Manager
>> >> TVNZ’s Auckland HQ.
TV One programmes,” says Walker, explaining the
radical change in workflow.
But using Quantel again was not a given. Request for
proposals were called from five main TVNZ suppliers
and a rigorous selection process was applied. The
project team looked at other Quantel/OmniBus sites
around the world but found that no two sites are the
same.
Cunningham describes Portugal’s RTP [Radio and
Television Portugal, Lisbon] as the closest to the TVNZ
approach, and found shared experiences very useful,
especially since RTP performed server upgrades in
advance of TVNZ.
Vendors were asked to demonstrate their systems
on-site in Auckland. Within about two hours Quantel
had two systems up and running demonstrating
Zone Magic working across a simulated AucklandWellington link.
“That was a fantastic demonstration - given the
things that we were concerned about, which was we
need to buy a working system,” says Walker who was
keen not to be a de-facto beta site.
TVNZ appointed internal project manager Craig
Turner in November 2007 and installation of the
equipment began in January this year. TVNZ handled
the installation in-house with support from Quantel.
Turner comes from an IT background. “This is not
just pure IT. You are doing data and video - IT have
very set ways of how they manage projects whereas
broadcast is totally different - so trying to get the two to
merge is interesting,” he comments.
Only about half of the project management role
was technical, and Turner cites change management
of News Infrastructure in the newsroom.
as the biggest non-technical component.
The change management task extended to 97
journalist desks in the Auckland news room sharing
74 concurrent licenses. On a typical day, the news
room produces about six and half hours of news and
current affairs, at least nine news bulletins, with promos
adding to the deadlines. The new system provides a
big increase in functionality at the journalists’ desktops
- in contrast to the previously used OmniBus Browse
interface.
“One compelling reason we chose Quantel was
because of the common edit interface,” explains
Walker.
The system includes a series of workstations from
the basic sQ View for newsroom browsing and shot
selection, to intermediate edit station sQ Cut, and
workhorse craft edit station sQ Edit. All run on ordinary
windows desktops networked with gigabit Ethernet.
For the most demanding work a hardware assisted
workstation runs sQ Edit Plus.
Soon after installation the team found they had too
many sQ Views and not enough of the higher end
editing capability and had to make changes to the
mix.
There is a big change in the way the journalists
work, particularly with audio.
“We try and cut as much as we can and put it to air
just by the journalists working at their desktop and that
includes audio manipulation,” Walker explains, “ but
when the reporter is voicing a track we get them to do
a rough picture EDL and then take that to an edit suite
and a craft editor will edit the package either on an sQ
Edit or an sQ Edit plus.”
This means the turnaround time for these stories has
been halved.
TVNZ has two remote news bureaux, each with
their own servers. Under Zone Magic each remote site
has its own zone, in contrast to the OmniBus system
which treats all three sites as one domain.
The Wellington site covers the capital city with
four workstations and acts as a redundant site should
disaster strike Auckland. The South Island is covered
from Christchurch using two sQ edits and one sQ Edit
plus.
The intention was to use the Quantel Zone Magic
system to implement remote editing at any of the sites,
pulling across only the minimum high resolution frames
needed. However, Walker explains this didn’t work
out as originally planned.
“The sQ system requires a full gigabit link that is
jumbo frame compliant, [Ethernet jumbo frame size
of 9000 bytes] this is an absolute minimum spec for
the Zone Magic to work. The problem for us in New
Zealand is the Telco’s limited ability to provide us with
a network of that spec at a cost we could afford”.
They have found a workaround using 200M/bit
links that transfers files at around four times real time
speed. Walker explains that they take control of a
remote workstation, edit and publish on the remote
server. They then use the OmniBus tools to transfer the
material to the local server.
Julien James, Managing Director of Quantel Australia
says it is not a TVNZ issue or Quantel issue but a
bandwidth issue ultimately caused by the structure of
the Telco industries in New Zealand and Australia. He
points out that his friends in Hong Kong have bandwidth
MEDIA EXCHANGE
The Media Exchange Room is where ingestion
takes place. The older Quantel ClipBox and new
sQ Server were running in parallel for some months
before the full switchover in August 2008.
“We had a phased approach,” explains Walker,
“We first installed the sQ server and then it was a
matter of making OmniBus take control of all of the
ports on all of the servers and started to make sure
we were mirroring all of our content into both our
boxes.”
The main ingestion is handled by OmniBus G3,
set up for both manual and automated scheduled
records. A Quantel sQ Record module - part of
the Enterprise sQ suite - is used as a backup ingest
system in Auckland. The smaller Wellington and
Christchurch site use sQ Record for local ingestion.
sQ Play is used in the remote sites, and functions as
a standby in Auckland for the OmniBus G2 News
Columbus play out application and for OmniBus
G3 ingestion.
There is a mix of acquisition formats accepted
into the system, and any HD material is currently
down converted at ingestion. Everything is ingested
to the server as IMX 30 files and any trans-coding
is done after export from the system. This means a
consistent codec is used as content moves between
servers or is added to timelines.
The system is upgradeable to HD but Cunningham
says there is little point in upgrading until the whole
production chain is HD. While TVNZ has begun
transmitting in HD the priority for HD production is
programs that have resale value.
Even though TVNZ may be a smaller channel by
world standards there is a lot of content generated
- all of which has to be managed, stored and
archived. Cunningham is quick to point out the
importance of a consistent and enforced naming
convention for files. It took users time to adapt to this
but they saw the benefits as they realised improperly
named material was apt to be overwritten.
The Auckland server holds 270 hours of
material, and the remote servers in Wellington and
Christchurch hold 60 hours each. TVNZ’s own
content remains on the server for 24 -36 hours and
after that is archived out or deleted. Foreign news
content from sources like the BBC generally stays on
the server for 24 hours before over-writing.
About 60 hours of content is archived each week
to Sony SX tape.
“Because we are still archiving to tape we are
not utilising the metadata much at all,” admits
Cunningham, “It’s an under-utilised part of the system
- until we can get a digital archive back end, which
is scheduled for next year.”
Now the project is finished (although in an aside
Cunningham points out they never really finish),
Walker is able to review the major risks knowing
they were successfully managed. He identifies
the need to maintain business as usual during the
transition as the area of greatest risk, since TVNZ
does not have a test environment.
“We originally did not realise that upgrading
Omnibus was going to be such a major undertaking
as well,” Walker admits, “We thought it was going
to be like for like, but in fact the Omnibus media
management system was quite different. It is highly
configurable. When they ask how you want it, we
didn’t actually know because of all that configurability
and the new features. So that became quite a big
risk for us even though we hadn’t anticipated it.”
ABC Takes
Thomson Ignite
Thomson used the recent IBC2008 show to
announce the signing of a major contract with
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
for the progressive roll-out of Thomson Grass
Valley Ignite systems throughout the ABC major
city and regional areas.
The announcement a similar rollout with WIN
TV Australia, which is the largest regional Free to
Air Commercial operator in Australia.
Installation of the first ABC system in
Melbourne went online in October 2008 with
additional systems brought scheduled to be
online progressively over following months. The
Ignite systems will be used to produce a range
of programming within the ABC including news
and Current Affairs.
Installation, commissioning, training and
ongoing support of the systems will be carried
out by Australian-based Thomson engineers and
trainers and will follow an aggressive timeline to
achieve the desired roll-out required by the ABC.
News Operations 37
News Operations
News Operations
Foster’s AGM – quality pays dividend
Automated Captions for Parliamentary Television
Like most democracies, the Australian
parliament makes its proceedings
accessible to its citizens through
television coverage of debates in the
chambers and the workings of its major
committees. The formalised nature of
these sessions makes them ideal for
automated presentation.
The Department of Parliamentary
Services (DPS) in Canberra recently
decided to upgrade its graphics
facilities, both to provide more attractive
captions and to simplify the operation.
The contract was won by Pixel Power,
which has now installed a network
of four Clarity GX systems for graphics creation and
editing, and six Claritys for the live playout of material.
Pixel Power also developed a customised workflow
and automation system for the graphics.
AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION
In the main chambers Australia’s senators and
representatives sit in assigned places. This has the
benefit of allowing the television coverage to be
automated. Voice-activated microphones respond to
a member speaking. The microphone sends a control
signal to the robotic camera control system (provided by
Vinten Radamec) to move and switch the appropriate
camera.
In turn, this cues the Pixel Power automation system,
running on its central file server, which maintains a
database of members. On cue the playout Clarity
graphics system retrieves the caption template,
NewSwift Antennas at IBC
Advent
Communications
has
unveiled
enhanced versions of its 1.5m and 1.8m
NewSwift antennas, designed to support
high-power C- and Ku-band RF as well as HD
requirements.
The enhanced NewSwift antennas have a
larger electronics pod that can house a pair of
400W C- or Ku-band TWTAs, either as 1+1
phase combined or 1:1 redundant pairs, or a
1:1 redundant pair of 750W C- or Ku-band
TWTAs, or a 1:1 redundant pair of outdoor
solid-state power amplifiers.
They also incorporate a new feedarm and
interchangeable multi-band feed cartridge
assemblies. The company also introduced
the receiver/decoder IRD5000, the SCPC
IP modem ADM5000, the Multiplexer router
AMR5000, the Protection Switch APS5000
and the Advent System Controller ASC5000.
Visit www.adventcomms.com
38 News Operations
Somewhere
integration functionality, based on its
Toolbox development kit. These standard
tools allowed the quick and robust creation
of all this functionality, including database
maintenance and editing, metadata
search, and dynamic graphics building
and preview triggered either by one of
a number of operators or automatically at
the request of the Vinten Radamec system.
Any of the playout Clarity systems can be
accessed from any of the nine production
control rooms.
populates it with the appropriate information from the
database, and offers it to the Radamec switcher. There
the operator can make a selection and take the offered
graphics at the click of a mouse. The same graphics
can also be selected from one of a number of Sony
edit suites.
In committee rooms, where smaller groups of senators
and representatives can call on relevant authorities,
expert witnesses and members of the public to aid their
investigations, the captioning is also fully automated. A
list of the attendees and speakers, with their attributions
for each session is prepared on a simple spreadsheet
and imported into the Pixel Power database. Once
loaded, captions are again created and delivered
automatically.
This integration ensures that captions are inserted
without the risk of error, and the entire operation is
fully automatic and seamless. Pixel Power added this
MULTIMEDIA Weather
Spanish company Activa Multimedia presented
its new Audiovisual Weather Services at IBC
2008. Audiovisual Weather Services (Servicios
Audiovisuales de Meteorología, SAM), is a
leading provider weather forecasts in Spain.
The company produces and edits content for TV,
interactive TV, mobile phones and the Internet and
has been producing Canal Méteo for Digital+
since 1997. And with a team of meteorologists
and journalists operating 24 hours a day, 365
days a year, it also offers multilingual services,
and a forecast database for some 15,000
geographical spots all over the world.
One of SAM’s main products is the Meteoplay
3 platform, which can generate high-definition 3D
graphics and weather bulletins for a multi-channel
environment. The system generates animated
maps, as well as moving shots and satellite and
radar images.
Visit www.activamultimedia.com
DIGITAL
SIGNAGE
SECURITY
&
The final graphics application for which the Pixel
Power Clarity graphics systems are used is in
digital signage around the parliament buildings.
The flexibility of four creative workstations based on
Clarity GX allows attractive and informative displays
to be built for special occasions.
As well as delivering the right user interface,
developed in conjunction with staff from DPS, the
Pixel Power solution also met a tight technical brief.
The image quality of the proven Clarity technology
is of course excellent. Each unit takes just 2U of rack
space so the whole installation is compact.
Finally, the nature of the installation means that
IT security is a major issue for DPS, and its policy is
that all equipment must use its own secure build of
Microsoft Windows. The Pixel Power Clarity family
runs on an open platform and so could support this
secure Windows requirement.
ENG Encoding
Streambox has released a software-only
version of the company’s Streambox ACTL3 Encoder. Designed for live, file-based
newsgathering and video acquisition over low
data-rate IP networks, the software is for Mac
or Windows.
The company has also debuted the new
Streambox ACT-L3 Mobile Software Encoder,
which is designed for streaming breaking news
and events via broadband, as well as the
hardware-based Streambox SBT3-9500 HD/
SD Encoder - a system that enables broadcasters
to do live, file-based newsgathering, video
transport and acquisition in HD and SD.
The SBT3-9500 Encoder is integrated into
one compact chassis making it ideal for live,
file-based mobile newsgathering over lowlatency, low-data-rate networks. It features 2.5
hours of battery life and it is capable of running
on a car battery. Visit www.streambox.com
in between a press conference,
parliamentary telecast and a sports OB, the coverage
of corporate Annual General Meetings is the domain of
big companies with big budgets who need to get their
message to shareholders, market analysts and media
by the most efficient means possible.
If the 1000 plus shareholders at Foster’s Group
2008 AGM hadn’t been so absorbed in Chairman
David Crawford and CEO Ian Johnson’s presentations,
they would have been quite surprised to turn around
and see an impressive array of broadcast/AV
firepower lighting, shooting, recording, streaming –
and history…
Crown Casino’s 2000sqm Palladium Grand
Ballroom seats 1500 and for 4 of the last 5 years has
been the venue of choice for Fosters. For 13 of the
last 14 years Foster’s (formerly Elders IXL) has called
on Murray Tregonning (MT&A) and his self-professed
Dad’s Army and their 30-plus team of young guns to
deliver a slick yet subtly transparent live and televised
event.
“Fosters has always turned to broadcast personnel
and equipment for their AGM, explains Tregonning.
It might look like an excuse to get together with my
GTV9 mates, but when Fosters see the results, they
know they’ve got the best in the business.”
I spent two days with MT&A’s Tony Hambling
witnessing more than 39 crew set up the event. This is
a major OB with MT&A’s Tregonning directing and Ron
Cairns overseeing technical production for cameras,
audio, comms and tele-prompting; McLean Audio’s
Paul Mossop looking after Speakers, crossPA and
audio desk; Upfront Displays putting finishing touches
set design and staging; Clearlight Shows running
lighting; Haycom Staging switching and projecting;
and Livescreen on camera control and switching.
Throw in Staging Connections, Crown’s in-house AV
supervisors, and you’ve got the best of Melbourne
event and broadcast production.
The best includes a handfull of MD’s and luminaries
who choose to personally handle the Foster’s gig. Mike
Chandler, owner of Upfront Displays, is relied upon
every year by the brewing giant to guide his team of 8
through set design and construction. Clearlight Shows’
boss John McKissock sets lighting with his team of
Gordon Boyd, Nick Rutherford and Stephen Kendall
- and controls the Leap Frog Desk Zero 88lighting desk
during the actual AGM.
Former GTV9 lighting, Audio and production
manager, steam train driver, author and former MT&A
and Solution Red event producer, Peter Evans is
Production Manager. Paul Davies, former Executive
stage manager at the Victorian Arts Centre, stage
manages the talent.
VISION & AUDIO
Livescreen is sub-hired by Haycomm to operate the
Sony BVP-550 cameras with Fujinon 55x lenses: the
camera and a DVD playback output are cut via a
Grass Switcher into Haycom’s Screen Pro II multi-format
<<
The stage for
the Fosters’ AGM at
Melbourne’s Crown
Casino.
<<
switchers. Titles and graphics from dual-redundant CG’s
are fed as VGA into the ScreenPro II. The projectors are
fed split VGA signals with VGA output as a backup
against camera failure.
Paul Mossop mixes microphones and soundtrack
audio for the ‘wallpaper’ Fosters TVC’s on a Yamaha
M7CL-48 console while Nexo GOS compact speaker
arrays blend music with voice carried on Crown’s
distributed PA. Four mini speakers across the board’s
presentation desk provide balanced foldback of
shareholder’s voices and an on-stage presenters mix.
RECORDING & STREAMING
DVD players play the commercials and the output
is recorded back to DVD. Thomson-Reuters takes a
composite feed from the Screen Pro Switchers to drive
the Streamyx streaming software. News crews are fed
a composite split from the Screen Pro Switchers.
RADIO MICS & COMMS
If you could identify a specific niche expertise
Tregonning has carved out in television production it’s
wireless - be it comms, radio mics or a microwave
two-way link.
Radio Mics are Lectrosonics UT700 Encrypted
Digital Handheld transmitters sending to Lectrosonics
Venue Series VRS Digital Hybrid Wireless receivers.
Ron Cairns explains, “The Q&A has to be clear
and easily heard by both sides” so the Q&A mic
handlers are on the HME DXE300 2 channel digital
talkback system. It’s a split system: the mic handlers all
Cameras and ‘presentation’.
have radio comms so Murray can talk to them and
cue shareholder questions.”
“All the production crew at the back are hard wired
to Murray’s show call. John (lighting) has his own radio
system, as does Ron, Peter Evans, Paul Davies and
Cathy Poynter on the Autoscript Executive prompting
system. I don’t know of any AGM as big as this in
terms of communications – 17 radio comms units and
8 hard wired.”
PROMPTING
The board of directors with the exception of the
chairman, use two Autoscript Executive Systems, a Rise
& Fall Motorized Robotic Stand with height presets
that adjust to the height of the presenter. Transparent
glass reflectors and a 1600 lumens LCD enhance the
Autoscript’s telescopic prowess.
LIGHTING
John McKissock explains the Foster’s lighting plan.
“There a few light changes - it’s more about an even
coverage for the cameras, a really nice ‘walk-in’ look,
then a slightly higher intensity for the actual AGM – and
that’s it. It’s very much about making sure that people on
stage – who are not performers – are comfortable, and
we achieve the balance between them and the needs
of the cameras.”
“ The Pixelines LED’s give a really nice blue for the
backdrop, and Selecon 1200W profiles to light the
Foster’s signage.
By Brett Smith
News Operations 39
Broadband & IPTV
3D Stereoscopic
2009: Year of the Third Dimension?
By Phil Sandberg
Despite developments in the global economy, 2009
is shaping up to be the year that true 3D cinema truly
arrives. Made possible by the conversion of movie
theatres to digital projection, the new 3D, while not
without its idiosyncrasies, is easier to produce, post
and project than the 3D of old.
Today, there are three leading solutions for 3D
exhibition - RealD, Xpand/NuVision and Dolby –
which have demonstrated successful results with both
pre-produced animated and live action content. As
movie houses convert to digital and move into
alternative content such as live sports, it is likely 3D
will follow.
Following this year’s 3D release of Journey to
the Center of the Earth (Walden Media), March/
April of 2009 will see the release of DreamWorks
Animation’s Monsters Vs Aliens especially produced
for 3D screening and it is believed that all major
Hollywood studios have at least one 3D production
in the works, but the most anticipated is James
Cameron’s Avatar (Twentieth Century Fox) which will
see release in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D in December
2009.
Avatar is directed and written by Academy
Award Winner James Cameron and stars Australian
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang,
Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It is
the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust
into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic
life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien
body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in
a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the
indigenous people.
According to Cameron, “Our goal with Avatar is
to revolutionize live-action 3D moviemaking.”
New Zealand’s WETA Digital, renowned for its
work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong,
will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to
transform the environments and characters into
photorealistic 3D imagery.
At IBC 2008, companies working to supply 3D
workflow solutions were a growing force, including
Iridas, The Foundry, da Vinci, Quantel and 3Ality
(see story page 43), and Autodesk.
According to Maurice Patel, Autodesk’s Head of
Industry Management, part of the challenge with 3D
production is a lack of standardised workflow.
“We’ve had a lot of demand for more tools and
more consistency of workflow for stereoscopic,”
he says. “I think when we look at stereoscopic
production it really is a workflow problem. Everything
from planning the production to execution of the
40 3D Stereoscopic
DreamWorks Animation and the 3D Vision
Addressing IBC2008 in 3D HD via satellite, Jeffrey Katzenberg,
>> >>
Maurice Patel, Autodesk
Head of Industry Management.
production right down to the final grading.
“It can be pretty challenging because there are
many different types of stereo display technology,
so how do you drive consistency throughout
the production chain? We actually concurrently
published a stereoscopic white paper [see www.
broadcastpapers.com] which really just looks not so
much at the product side of things, but really about
the economics and and workflow use in stereoscopic
production.
“At the same time we introduced stereo capability
to three of our products, into Maya, our 3D animation
product, into Toxik, our compositing and visual
effects product, and into Lustre, our digital grading
product. And again, the purpose there is really so
that we could start building a stereo pipeline that’s
consistent with CGI compositing .
“There’s a big difference between CG and live
action in stereoscopic,” says Patel. “First of all, with
CG, you complete control over the environment, so
you eliminate one of the biggest production hurdles
in live which is, you know, the fact that you need
two cameras and you basically need to manage
that level of complexity in the production chain.
“In CG production the cameras are virtual, so
they can be completely controlled. You don’t have a
problem of discrepancies you get in cameras such
as two different lenses - there’s always going to
be slight differences between two different lenses,
they’re never going to be exactly identical. In a
computer environment they can be exactly identical
so all you have to worry about is the separation.
You can completely control convergence, you can
completely control everything in the CG environment.
So you have that complete control so it removes a lot
of the headaches.
“The display problem was, by and large, solved
by the advent of digital projectors. That made it
easy to produce and project high quality and much,
much cheaper to project high quality stereo images,
So, stereo projection quality improved and reliability
improved.
“On the flipside, when you look at CG
productions, you’ve got complete control of the
environment, so as long as you plan your story,
you actually plan it as a stereo production, you
can control that environment. And that’s important
because when you’re building stereo projects, of
course you can throw in stereo wow effects and
that might work for some types of movies, but if you
want to create a stereo experience it’s really about
understanding the three dimensionality of your story
and you have to plan it as a 3D volume experience
as being engaged in that 3D experience so it’s nonobtrusive. You might want the sound level or the
effects that come out and grab you from the screen
or you’re trying to grab things that are flying out at
you, or those kind of experiences. But, you can’t
run 90 minutes of that, and maybe you don’t want
to run any of it at all, you just want the experience
to be more engaging or immersive, and doing that
requires clever storytelling and understanding the
story in a different dimension.
“Creating the stereo separation on sets is
difficult. There are a lot of things which happen in
a production environment where you’re not exactly
sure what repercussion that will have. When you
hit the postproduction phase and you identify a
problem sometimes it’s very costly and expensive to
fix because you can’t go back and shoot it, and so
you have to do a lot of manual data extraction type
processes and reconstruction processes. So, unless
you really meticulously plan the production part so
that you know what all the various separation is
beforehand and you shoot it that way, you don’t
have a lot of control over that, you can’t avoid that.
“It’s not quite a garbage in, garbage out, because
post-production can save it, but it comes at a cost
and the production costs increase.”
CEO of Dreamworks Animation, has proclaimed the end of cinema as we know it.
Further pushing
the 3D barrow,
one of the highlights of this year’s IBC show in
Amsterdam was a trans-Atlantic first in the form of a
live interview in stereoscopic, high definition 3D with
Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation.
Broadcast live from Los Angeles and transmitted to
an audience at the RAI exhibition centre theatre,
the interview was conducted by Elizabeth Daley,
Professor and Dean of USC’s School of Cinematic
Arts, and explored Katzenberg’s view of motion
picture production in an age of diverse distribution
channels as well as the impact of 3D technology in
theatres, the home and across other platforms.
The live 3D stereoscopic HD broadcast was
delivered to the IBC big screen using 3Ality Digital’s
3D image capture and transmission encoder/
decoder technology. Communication specialist
Arqiva provided the high bandwidth HD satellite
circuit to Amsterdam and Christie and RealD
provided the stereoscopic images projected at the
conference.
Like many proponents of 3D, Jeffrey Katzenberg
points to the advent of digital cinema as the defining
factor to push 3D stereoscopic projection forward.
“I think today it’s all changed,” said Katzenberg.
“Everything from the quality of the glasses, the
quality of digital projection, and most importantly
the tools, the creative tools, the technology tools
that exist to put in the hands of our artists today
that allow us to make a quality image, 3D image.
Back41
to Contents
Page
3D Stereoscopic
That really wasn’t possible even just a handful of
years ago. The rate of innovation that has gone
on in terms of all aspects of the process of making
3D, projecting 3D, watching 3D, it’s all changed
in rather dramatic terms in a very short period of
time, and that rate of innovation is continuing.
“In terms of [3D] glasses, we’ve been working with
the largest eyeglass company in the world, Luxottica,
with a team from Oakley here in California, and
they are very close to having a transition lens. These
lenses are polarised, they’re what we would use for
sunglasses, with one lens turned on a 90 degree
angle. They are at a point where they are about to
introduce a transition lens that when you’re outside
they’re your sunglasses, and when you go into the
movie theatre they transition into 3D glasses.”
Once this happens, Katzenberg predict the stigma
associated with 3D glasses will disappear and,
while theatres will stock glasses for those turning up
for screenings at the last minute, many cinema goers
will own their own glasses – something that may
also become a fashion item.
Beyond superficial fashion, Katzenberg predicts
that 3D stereoscopic cinema will have a profound
effect upon film production to a degree not seen
since the introduction of sound and, later on,
colour.
“When you look at the history of film there
have actually been two great revolutions that have
occurred,” he says. “The first is when movies went
from silent films to talkies, the next great revolution is
when films went from black and white to colour.
“I think is this next generation of 3D, which will
begin next year, is actually going to be the third
great revolution. And if you look at history here’s
the fact of what went on, within a handful of years
when sound was introduced silent films went away.
Not some, all.
“Likewise, when technicolour was introduced
70 years ago, within four or five years all movies
were being made in colour. Why? We see in
colour. And we see in 3D. It makes the experience
more emotional, more involving, more immersive. A
story teller, a filmmaker, uses two senses, the sense
of sound and sight in service of telling a narrative to
impact its audience, to make people feel something,
to make them laugh, to make them cry, to make
them jump in their seat if it’s scary.
“You look at what has happened to the rate of
innovation that has gone on in sound in really no
more than about two decades or so. We’ve gone
from vinyl to an eight track to a cassette to a CD
to digital sound. And our ability today to record,
capture and play sound, with perfect fidelity for our
ear, is amazing.
“If you look at picture today, what we are actually
seeing is deceiving, it’s cheating the eyes. You’re
looking at a twodimensional image and the mind is
tricked into thinking that it’s three-dimensional, which
it’s not.
3D Stereoscopic 41
3D Stereoscopic
3D Stereoscopic
“Everybody thinks of 3D as a theme park attraction
or something that’s been used for lowest common
denominator exploitation in the past to titillate the
audience and to be actually conscious, openly
conscious, to say to the audience you’re watching
something in 3D, whereas when you see this next
generation of filmmaking you’re going to see it’s just
the opposite.
“It is actually about not breaking the proscenium,
but bringing the audience and immersing them into
the story telling. I actually believe all movies are going
to be made in 3D. I know that’s an extraordinary
statement, but when the audience experiences this
and sees how exceptional it is and the filmmakers
understand how much greater an experience they
can offer their audience and they can have as a
filmmaking tool, I actually think 2D films are going to
be a thing of the past.”
According to Jeffrey Katzenberg, the 3D future will
also extend into the home viewing experience.
“It’s not a technology issue,” he says, “the technology
is here today, you can create a 3D experience. There
are some really exciting presentations and formats
and things that are being done for in-home. We just
recently formed a partnership with Intel and I know
that they are very committed and very ambitious about
delivering 3D on the internet, through the web. You
can do this on laptops, on computers, on all kinds of
hand-held devices and the fact is that a 3D image is
a better quality image for us, for human beings, and
so, yes, you’re going to see this roll out into all facets
of our lives and our culture.”
However, unlike the remastering of 2D films for
DVD and Blu-Ray release, Katzenberg is dubious
about the reformatting the existing film catalogue for
a 3D platform.
“We’ve gone back and tried a couple of
experiments of repurposing our 2D work into 3D,
and with the existing tools that are here today we’ve
not been happy with the quality of it,” he says. “It’s
a little analogous to taking a black and white movie
and colourising it. You can do it, it just doesn’t quite
look right. Now, once again, the rate of innovation is
continuing here, the tools are getting better, and so I
don’t want to say that it’s not going to happen, I just
don’t know when. We’ve not actually been able to
see something that was of a high enough quality yet
that we were comfortable with it.
“It may be less problematic for live action movies,
and particularly for more classic live action movies
that were less effects driven, because when you start
looking at matte paintings and very heavy effects
driven pictures, it’s more difficult to adapt them from
2D into 3D. All the imperfections start to show.
“We were about half way through production
on Kung Fu Panda and I thought it would be very
instructive for us, rather than talk about this, let’s actually
just take a piece of film. So, we took a sequence
from Kung Fu Panda and went all the way back to
the story boards, right back to the very beginning
of the process and remade that sequence from
beginning to end, now it’s designed be shown in 3D.
“The sort of three holy grails of 3D are how difficult
it is to work in very dark environments, the darker
the environment the more difficult it is to see depth
of field and the whole of the images and to know
where to focus, so darkness is not a friend of 3D.
The second thing is moving things very quickly
across the screen, when you do that you get, you
known, strobing effect and ghosting. The third
thing is when you have very fast cutting, that’s
what gives you eye strain and ultimately for some
people, you know, leads them to get nauseous.
“I do have to say I have a business philosophy that
it probably doesn’t make sense to go into a business
that would make your customers hurl.”
Katzenberg went on to treat IBC attendees with
the screening of a sequence from Kung Fu Panda
where the villain of the piece, a tiger called Tai Lung,
has been locked away in a dark prison for 20 years
is about to make his escape through an army of
guards.
Aliens comes which will be spring to Easter time
worldwide next year, around the end of March,
beginning of April, I expect there’ll be between
2500 and 3000 3D screens in North America.
That means about 30% of the audience will actually
see our movie in 3D. I think in the international
marketplace it’s going to be a slower adaption
rate and I would suspect there’ll probably be
in the neighbourhood of 500 to 700 screens.
“By the time Shrek 4 comes out a year later, I expect
75 to 80% of the audience will actually be able to
see it. So it didn’t get there at that at the first moment
of coming, but I think exhibition has finally seen the
light. The Kung Fu Panda and Monsters Vs. Aliens
footage we have been showing have really got
exhibition fired up about this finally because they
could see for themselves how this would change the
experience in their theatres.
I actually think 2D films
are going to be a thing
of the past - Jeffrey
Katzenberg, CEO,
DreamWorks Animation.
“The interesting thing,” says Katzenberg, “is that
sequence, is just slightly under three minutes long.
The difference between the 2D version and the
3D version is that 70% of the cuts are different or
changed from the 2D version of it, and it’s actually
11 seconds longer. So, almost every shot or three
quarters of the shots are actually changed in some
fashion, shape or form. So, many times, it’s very
subtle things, just adding a few more frames, to give
people time to adjust, sometimes it was changing
shots around completely in order to maximise the
space and the volume in it.
“The thing that was so exciting to us was the little
touches, the way you could see the hairs on the
back of Tai Lung when he breathes out, you know,
that first moment, that exhale, you could almost feel
that coming into the audience. And so, here’s a
sequence in which the villain of our piece never
says a word and yet you couldn’t feel something
more compelling, more menacing, out of it.”
Katzenberg says Dreamworks have applied the
lessons learnt from the Kung Fu Panda exercise to
its next release Monsters Vs. Aliens, due for release
in early 2009. He expects MVA and other releases
next year to generate great momentum for 3D.
“Here’s kind of the time line as I see it right
now today,” he says, “by the time Monsters vs.
“You think about it. The theatre experience has
really been principally the same now for a number
of decades, there’s been very little innovation in
it, where comparatively the home experience has
gone through extraordinary innovation. The rate
of adaption is very strong to big, flat screen TVs
and high def and stereo sound, and so frankly the
theatre experience has been, in many ways, has
been trumped by the home experience. This is a
chance, and exhibition understands, for them to
now leap back ahead. The home experience will
catch up with it, but it’s a good cycle there in which
innovation is causing more innovation and it is
causing the experience to be better.
“This is the greatest opportunity that has occurred
for exhibition, and they’ve gone from a business
that was basically about just pulling cash out of
the business to now suddenly a growth business
again. Not only is this a chance to enhance the
experience of moviegoers today and to actually get
a premium price for this, but I actually think it’s a
chance to bring people back to the movie theatres
and stock them. Because, once again, you have an
exceptional premium quality experience to be able
to offer that they can’t see anywhere else, at least
not for a while.”
3D HD via Satellite: from Pipedream to Pipeline
- Behind the Broadcast with 3ality Digital CEO Steve Schklair. By Phil Sandberg
Addressing the crowd just prior to the
Jeffrey Katzenberg interview on the IBC2008 Big
Screen, Steve Schklair, CEO of 3ality Digital,
the team behind the U2 3D movie, outlined the
technical details behind the first ever trans-Atlantic
satellite transmission of 3D high definition.
“There’s so much significance to this because in
my mind there’s no doubt that the future of media will
be transmissions of 3D - 3D broadcasts for theatre,
3D broadcasts in the home, so this is just the first
of what I believe is many. It’s a proven production
pipeline. We’ve done this before, although never
on a trans-Atlantic basis.”
Originating in Los Angeles, transmission of the
Jeffrey Katzenberg interview was shot using camera
systems based on Sony F1500s and built by 3ality
Digital with one angle coming from a camera system
based on Iconix cameras.
“They’re wrapped into a ‘motion control rig’, a
3D rig that was built by 3ality that has a lot of image
processing and a lot of motors in it to really keep
two cameras working as a single camera. If you
haven’t seen a lot of 3D or if you’re not aware of
this, the most important thing in 3D is that the images
be as perfect as possible, that’s perfect geometry,
perfect alignment, perfect light, perfect colour, as
closely matched as possible. The closer the match
is, the easier it is to watch - the more comfortable
the viewing is. And this is not the 3D that we
used to know, this is a whole new generation of
technology.”
According to Schklair, what makes the difference
is digital projection.
“This is a medium that just did not fit an analogue
world, this did not fit a celluloid world,” he says.
“So the breakthrough is digital because with digital
we can then apply a lot of technologies we’ve built,
which is a vast amount of image processing that
takes what are fairly perfect images now coming
from the camera and forcing them into an image
perfection so that everything is lined up, clean,
ready to go, ready to look at.”
After acquisition by the 3ality camera rigs, and
the customised image processing, footage of the
interview was fed into a multiplexer built by 3ality to
be converted into a single 2D signal.
“The importance of a single 2D signal to a
broadcaster is to do this we require no infrastructure
upgrade,” says Schklair. “Past the cameras it’s a 2D
truck, 2D switcher, the entire path fits within existing
digital infrastructure ‘cause one of the early questions
that used to come at me all the time is ‘do I need to
>> >>
3ality’s 3flex SIP2100
Stereo Image Processor.
allot two channels?’, ‘How much bandwidth is this
going to take up?’.
“So I believe we’re coming off a satellite, I’ve been
told at around 36 megabits, and we’ve done this
before at 20 and the picture was beautiful. So we fit
within existing structure.”
After being converted to ‘2D’, the signal was
uplinked from the Los Angeles area via Arqiva
facilities via satellite, then back down to Amsterdam
at a low angle, sent into RAI Exhibition Centre and
then decoded again through a demultiplexer from
3ality up in the projection booth. From there it was
projected out of a single Christie super-bright projector
through a RealD filtration package allowing viewing
via polarised glasses with alternating left and right
images at a frame rate fast enough for viewers not to
discern any flicker.
While at IBC2008, Steve Schklair also addressed
the Quantel press conference and detailed the
cooperative work being undertaken by the two
>> >>
Ray Cross, CEO of Quantel [left]
with Steve Schklair CEO of 3Ality Digital at
IBC2008. Pic - Phil Sandberg
companies, including the launch of 3ality’s 3flex
SIP2100 Stereo Image Processor.
The SIP2100 can analyse and, in some cases,
correct all the most common stereo3D faults, so helping
to create technically perfect stereo. The SIP2100 has
applications right throughout the production chain –
in acquisition, editing and deliverables. Quantel has
sole rights to market the 3ality SIP2100 worldwide.
The SIP2100 was demonstrated performing a
variety of different roles on the Quantel stand:
• Processing content captured directly from the
3ality Digital TS2 stereo camera rig for display on a
new-generation stereo-capable TV set via a Quantel
Pablo
• Operating up and downstream of a Quantel
Pablo in the Stereo3D theatre presentation
• Pre-correcting an incoming broadcast feed to
Quantel’s new Stereo3D broadcast server
Quantel gave a technology demonstration of the
world’s first Stereo3D broadcast server at IBC 2008.
The development adds a key component to the
broadcast Stereo3D production chain. The Stereo3D
server is based on Quantel’s existing sQ server
platform and supports realtime ingest and playout
of multiple channels of stereo HD content under the
control of Quantel’s own sQ Record and sQ Play
applications.
The use of AVC-Intra compression provides optimal
use of disk storage while guaranteeing the highest
image quality, which is essential with stereo material
where inter-eye artefacts need to be minimised
to ensure a high quality viewing experience. The
Stereo3D server also taps the video processing
power of sQ to produce a side-by-side mode that is
compatible with stereo monitors and uses single feed
HD-SDI infrastructure for signal transport.
“3ality started many years ago developing
technologies to move the 3D industry forward,” said
Schklair. “We saw it as a business that needed more
than two cameras screwed to a piece of wood and
42 3D Stereoscopic
3D Stereoscopic 43
3D Stereoscopic
3D Stereoscopic
say we’re shooting 3D. It was a business that needed
new technologies to make it work effectively.
“We’re probably best known at this point
because we made this movie last year called U2
3D, which was fairly critically acclaimed as being
kind of a landmark, state-of-the-art piece, and what
can be done in a live-action 3D. To do this project
we wrote a large number of software tools, image
processing tools, image analysis tools, and so we
had this collection of these great tools and we started
discussions with Quantel who has an amazing
platform.
“And so it’s the combination of these tools that
really come from our years of experience in doing
this, and this amazing platform that Quantel has
developed called the Pablo, that makes this stuff fly
so that as this rolls out more and more people can
make quality 3D, because the watch word is it has
to be of high quality. If it’s not, it’s the kind of thing
that gives you a headache after 10 minutes and that
won’t work, that won’t last, that’s why it kind of went
away in the past.
“We’re based in Hollywood, and at this point
every studio in Hollywood has come through our
facility, every studio in Hollywood has at least one
if not more 3D projects going, and what has started
to roll forward now, since that’s almost old news, we
know they’re building projects, is the interest level
on the side of broadcasters. “Now, we’ve started
doing tests with a various number of broadcasters, I
obviously can’t say who they are ‘cause everyone’s
doing their quiet little tests, but this is moving into
the broadcast industry, I think, so fast it will surprise
people how quickly it starts moving in, certainly in this
new generation of 3D tools.
“In these initial days there’s only one place to send
it and that’s theatres which are now equipped to play
3D. And it’s a digital signal, we can move it into
theatres. So some of the early broadcasts are now
exactly what this is, it’s to a theatre. This is going
to move into the home faster than you can blink. If
you look at all the technology advances over the last
years, each one takes less and less time to move into
the home. I think this one will surprise you at how
quickly it moves in.”
International Datacasting Showcases Live 3D HD
International Datacasting Corporation, a
specialist in providing advanced solutions for the
distribution of broadband multimedia content via
satellite, showcased its live 3D video capabilities
on the Company’s booth at IBC.
Visitors to the IDC booth were able to view all
of the action in the booth and on the surrounding
show floor in live, high definition 3D on a
Spectron IQ ACL HD 3D television supplied by
Sensio Technologies. The live setup used the IDC
SuperFlex Pro Cinema Decoder, a Motorola
MPEG-4 HD Encoder, two Toshiba 1K-HDI HD
3CCD Colour camera systems and a state of the
art crane and camera rig from Polecam.
The SuperFlex Pro Cinema Live Decoder
and Encoder with Sensio technology on board
supports both 2D and 3D live and pre-recorded
events which allows movie houses and other
venues increased new revenue opportunities via
alternative content programming.
The Sensio 3D technology allowed playback
of broadcast and pre-recorded stereoscopic
(3D) content, up to 1080p 60fps, using the
standard 2D video distribution infrastructure
and is compatible with all types of digital
projection systems available on the market.
>> >>
C+T editor Phil Sandberg dons the glasses at
IBC alongside Barry Sullivan of International Datacasting.
SENSIO remains the only corporation in the world
to have successfully integrated its live 3D content
broadcasting technology throughout a network of
movie theatres.
A Motorola MPEG-4 HD Encoder was used to
output an MPEG-4 AVC signal at 1080i resolution.
The camera rig from Polecam provides smooth,
floating shots, and could be easily moved around
the booth as required to provide a variety of
views of the booth and the surrounding show
floor.
Visit www.datacast.com
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Why Stereoscopic 3D May be the Key Business
Opportunity for Broadcast & Post
By Mark Horton, Strategic Marketing Manager, Quantel
In 2007, Stereoscopic
3D was hardly registering as
a subject for the vast majority
of people worldwide in our
industry or outside of it. Now
for Film makers, Post Houses,
Broadcasters and increasingly
consumer electronics
companies. It is the single hot
topic.
A year ago, Hollywood lead
the way in arguing the case
for Sterescopic movies. Now,
more and more Broadcasters
are researching Stereoscopic
services. Meanwhile the Post
houses that provide services for
Film, Broadcast and Corporate are starting to equip
for Stereo.
At Quantel, we’ve been out on the road for nearly a
year, showing Stereo to everyone we can and learning
a great deal from individuals and companies who
already involved in Stereo.
Our first conclusion: There is a lot more Stereo
happening out there than people realise.
Our second conclusion: This is potentially the biggest
opportunity for our industry in years and we need to
work as an industry to make it happen. If we get it right,
everyone wins.
In this white paper, we’d like to share what we’ve
found and hope this sparks of yet more interest.
EARLY STEREOSCOPIC CONTENT
Stereoscopy has a 150 year history. When I think of
3D I think of the ‘creature features’ of the fifties or the
theme park movies of my childhood. However stereo
stills cameras were on the market from the 1830’s and
the first test moving films were shown very early in the
last Century – some say 1902, others 1915.
The first feature length screening ‘The Power of Love’
showed around 1922. The so called ‘Golden Age’
of 3D movies ran from around 1952 to 1955. At
that time, the Studios were under attack from TV
and were looking for the ‘next big thing’ to lure
audiences back to the theatre.
One widely held view is that 1950’s 3D movies
suffered from three main problems:
• They were very complex to shoot, (you had
no idea what 3D shots would look like until a day
or more later) which explains how inconsistent and
STEREO 3D CINEMA NOW
DreamWorks have announced all their animated
movies will be 3D from 2009 and with many other
new stereoscopic projects in the pipeline, demand for
Post services is growing and growing fast.
Quantel Post customers have already played a part
in digital 3D. For example, in Ghosts of the Abyss,
Aliens of the Deep (James Cameron) Spy Kids 3D and
Shark Boy and Lava Girl (Robert Rodriguez).
Every month brings announcements of new projects.
As well as the creative push, the obvious commercial
angle is that good 3D movies enjoy a premium at the
box office. Interestingly, 3D movies also can’t be shown
on conventional VHS, DVD or Web which is a new
angle on anti-piracy.
Watching modern stereo 3D is a quite different
experience from the preconceived idea of uncomfortable
coloured cardboard glasses used on comics. Today,
it’s much more like wearing comfortable Polarised
‘sunglasses’ and there are also non polarised frequency
based glasses. Both can give excellent results.
3D BROADCAST
At Quantel we work with Post and Broadcast customers.
Some Broadcasters today are a little bit in the same
position as Filmmakers in the 1950s – they want to
23/9/08 10:50:18 AM
poor much of the photography was and how some
3D effects are uncomfortable to watch;
• They were very slow and difficult to post produce.
Traditional optical and chemical effects are
cumbersome enough even with a conventional 2D
movie as you have no idea what the effect looks like
until it has been printed.
• They were very tricky to project. Keeping two
projectors in harmony was very difficult so screenings
were inconsistent (there were single strip systems
that solved the issue of projector synchronisation but
at the expense of introducing other complexities),
plus traditional 3D glasses (Typically Polarised,
not Anaglyph ) were uncomfortable to wear.
Some audience members often went out with a
headache!
Others say that the real problem was that there was
a knowledge gap in production and distribution - as the
rapid growth in demand got ahead of the numbers of
skilled people. In any case, 3D cinema wasn’t a really
commercial product.
It seems from the 1960s onwards the film 3D market
settled into specialist areas like IMAX with the odd
high profile side project to a big movie (Amityville 3D,
Jaws 3D, Terminator 2) often linked to theme parks and
museums.
Things started to change a few years ago. As
someone involved in conventional Digital Post, it
makes sense to me that 3D Stereo Digital Post is more
agile and less error prone than optical and chemical
methods. So the growth in Digital Effects and later in DI
potentially makes stereo 3D post quite a bit easier.
Another new tool is stereo digital acquisition. Unlike
shooting film, a cameraman or director can view
digital on location while it is being shot.
Also unlike film, digital doesn’t suffer
from weave or hop and doesn’t need
to go through a chemical development
process which can lead to differences
between the ‘eyes’. One of the
pioneers of this process is Vince Pace
who worked closely with directors like
James Cameron.
Finally, digital projection is eminently
suited to 3D. Unlike optical projectors,
there are no issues with film movement,
scratches or dirt. There are now various
different digital projection choices that
can handle conventional 2D films as
well and from what I’ve seen of them
they all look good. RealD (passive
polarised glasses), Dolby (passive frequency based
glasses) and McNaughton (active glasses) are three
well known examples.
These three steps forward – digital post, digital
capture and now digital projection, have removed a
lot of the complexities and costs of film.
3D Stereoscopic 45
3D Stereoscopic
3D Stereoscopic
tempt audiences back from
new kinds of competitors
– today it is the Web and
Games. High Definition
is part of the answer –
compare watching a big
sporting or music event
on the web or your phone
and then on HD with 5.1
sound and there is no
doubt that Broadcasters
have a powerful new tool
for attracting audiences –
but just supposing that tool
could be made even more
compelling.
The gut reaction to
Stereo Broadcasting is
almost always positive –
audiences love it. There is
no question of demand but of course it has to work as a business model too.
Our industry is ultimately about entertaining and
educating people. Channel proliferation has changed
the economics of Broadcasting as have Games and
the Web. Broadcasters are adapting by cutting costs,
improving efficiency, offering HD services, increasing
the use of user generated content and looking for new
delivery revenue streams.
These are all good measures to improve their
position versus other Broadcasters – but Stereo offers
the prospect of grabbing back viewers who spend their
time on the Web or playing games.
Of course Stereo presents technical challenges to a
Broadcaster for roll out - but far less now than even a
few years ago. Analogue Stereo TV was a commercial
non starter.
Today, if you shoot digitally, post digitally and transmit
digitally, Stereo is less difficult than many imagine. Also,
well shot stereo may have some compression friendly
characteristics - there is similarity between the ‘eyes’.
Let’s not forget Colour TV was difficult too.
OK, so what are the objections to Stereo
Broadcasting? One statement that you’ll hear is ‘not
all material is suitable for 3D’. I find that rather hard
to understand. During the course of a day, how much
time do you spend with one eye closed? Another one
is the ‘you’ll never get people to watch 3D at home with
glasses’. I really don’t know how we can be so certain
about that – many of us wear spectacles – or at least
sunglasses – without objection. Sales of walkmans or
iPods doesn’t seem to have been affected by the need
to wear earphones. People will happily go to a 3D
movie and wear special glasses – the same may soon
go for computer games. So while of course glasses
- free viewing (autostereoscopic) would be ideally
preferable, it doesn’t seem to be mandatory and in any
case auto stereo TV sets using picket or lenticular display
methods are coming on the market as a possible future
choice for Broadcasters to use.
Stereo 3D broadcast is amazing – I’ve seen tests
with my own eyes. Maybe you can if you are my
age – just – remember the first time you saw colour
TV compared to Black and White. The difference is
46 3D Stereoscopic
POST PRODUCTION
IN 3D
that big. No point in saying more – just wait until you
see it.
So, the real long term business may be in Broadcast.
Early 3D domestic sets are here – an estimated 3
million by end of 2009. Test broadcasts are underway
in Japan. Test shoots have happened with Basketball,
American Football, Rugby, Boxing, Motor Racing and
Ice Hockey. Keep an eye on broadcasters in China
and Korea but also Europe and North America.
Also expect most the major electronics vendors to
make a move some time soon – the long term business
opportunities are obvious. Mitsubishi, Samsung and
Hyundai are amongst the vendors shipping TV sets
already. There are many proposals for delivery, either to
the home or for narrowcast. There are many interesting
proposed schemes that could be deployed.
3D NARROWCAST & POINT
DELIVERY
The NBA have already conducted stunning
‘narrowcast’ experiments of relaying basketball
from one stadium to another which shows huge
potential for 3D events (sports and shows). You can
only get a fixed number of people in a concert area
or sports stadium. For really big sports events (think
Superbowl, the World Cup, Boxing title fights, the
Olympics) or really big music events (think of the
recent one-off Led Zeppelin reunion concert that sold
out in minutes) the demand for tickets can be tens,
hundreds or even thousands of times greater than the
capacity of the venue – or the worldwide audience
simply can’t travel. Music downloads have changed
the economics of the Music industry. Now, live
music is becoming commercially far more important
again. Recording or transmitting live events may be
a key new part of the Stereoscopic business.
Narrowcasting to Stereo equipped venues and
also Cinemas has huge business potential. Now
think worldwide product launches. Big trade shows.
Regular sports bar narrowcasts. Even autosterescopic
(no glasses) digital signage in shops and public
places. There are many opportunities just waiting
to be grasped.
So, is making a 3D project now
easy? Speaking to folks doing it
right now the answer is ‘no’. I was
told that there are still many issues
in Post. Customers have all the day
to day issues of conventional 2D
projects multiplied by at least two:
• 3D projects mean double the
recorded material – that means
double the disc space, double the
rendering overhead and double
the issues with moving media.
• There are issues in off-line.
You can’t judge depth effects, you
can’t judge the pace of the project
(3D feels better with longer, slower
shots), you can’t easily see if there
are colourimetry, positioning or
synchronisation issues between the
cameras etc. That all means off lines are guesswork
and much more fixing needs to be done in the
online sessions. That can mean using a team of VFX,
Colour and Editing applications to fix the problems
in the edit or during DI – but that is complex and
slow – guesswork again.
•You can’t accurately on-line projects. Customers
tell us that the systems they are using now either
work ‘one eye at a time’ (lots of opportunities for
errors) or use proxy/rendering workflows (lots
of time waiting for renders and opportunities for
technical errors). Either way, 3D post is still really
difficult.
So, seems like someone should do something to
help make Stereo 3D post easier, which is why we
have a family of stereoscopic Post colour correction
and finishing systems – Pablo, iQ and Sid – and are
working with like-minded industry partners like 3ality
Digital who have cutting edge technology to make
Stereoscopic projects practical and profitable.
3D Business Now
Almost any member of the public who sees Stereo likes
it – and after all they are the people who pay all our
wages. Stereoscopic cinema is here now. Corporate
video are using stereo now and even Stereoscopic
broadcasting is being seriously considered.
Our industry has been through some painful structural
changes in the last 10 years. The rise of the desktop,
broadcast channel proliferation, film piracy, chat rooms
and video games have seriously impacted industry
profitability.
Now we have an opportunity to re-engage with the
public, especially the new generation of viewers we
are losing to games and the web, to provide some
enthralling new entertainment forms and win back
audiences.
Our industry is ultimately there to entertain and
educate and the public reaction to Stereo is tremendous.
Stereo is a fantastic opportunity for all of us.
As I said at the beginning – please drop me a line
if you have anything you want to add or comment on.
Email [email protected]
Stereo Terminology
Accommodation: The ability of our eyes to refocus
at a new point of interest. In normal vision, the
processes of focusing on objects at different
distances (accommodation) and convergence/
divergence (the angle between the lines of sight
of our eyes) are linked by muscle reflex.
A change in one creates a complementary
change in the other. However, watching a
stereoscopic film or TV programme requires
the viewer to break the link between these
different processes by accommodating at a fixed
distance (the screen) while dynamically varying
eye convergence and divergence (something
we don’t do in life) to view objects at different
stereoscopic distances.
Anaglyph: A type of stereoscopy in which the
two pictures are individually coloured and then
superimposed as a single image rather than two
separate images. Each eye sees only the required
image through the use of coloured filters (e.g. red
and green or red and cyan). Anaglyph glasses
have been popular over the years for viewing
3D comics and some 3D films (particularly on
VHS and DVD).
Although Anaglyph itself has fallen out of
favour for quality Stereo work there is modern
work going on with other somewhat anaglyph
like colour based systems (e.g. Trioviz or
ColorCode-3D).
Breaking the Frame: Stereo objects in front
of the screen plane (negative parallax) are
problematic if they intersect the edge of frame, as
contradictory depth cues are sent to the viewer.
Essentially one cue is saying that the object is in
front of the screen and another is saying that the
object is behind it.
This problem can be reduced in Post by a
technique known as a ‘floating window’. This
involves applying a partially transparent mask on
the left of the left image and on the right of the
right image, reducing the strength of the cues on
whichever side the object is breaking frame (and
simultaneously if there are objects breaking frame
both left and right).
Another kind of issue is caused by objects
moving backwards and forwards over the edge
of frame. As an object moves off the edge of a
screen one stereo camera signal is lost before
the other. The result is that the stereo signal
temporarily ‘switches off’. This can sometimes be
solved by sizing up both images in Post, causing
the object to move off screen altogether. Objects
breaking the frame aren’t necessarily a problem.
It happens in IMAX all the time and also is
common in conventional stereo films - the audience
is encouraged to concentrate away from such an
object by well thought out shooting.
Cardboarding: Lack of true 3D feel to a shot making
it look like it is made from cardboard cut-outs. This
is also referred to as Cut-out Planar Effect. Caused
by inadequate depth resolution due to an incorrect
matching between the focal length of the recording
lens (or CGI camera) and the interocular distance
between the cameras. See: Interocular
Convergence: In human eyesight, the ability of our
eyes to divert eye optical axes horizontally in an
inward direction.
The convergence ‘near point’ is the closest point
which is still possible to perceive one image. In
practice, the eyes can easily converge inward but
have much less ability to diverge outward, as it is
something we don’t do in life and only when looking
at 3D images that have positive parallax beyond the
individual human interocular.
In cameras – ‘toeing’ of the cameras (to simulate
the eyes converging) focusing on a depth point in
the scene, either in front of, behind or at the point of
interest. The ‘convergence point’ is where the axes
of toed in cameras align on the Z-axis. Convergence
can be adjusted in Post by horizontal movement.
Note that sometimes the term ‘vergence’ is used
to describe both convergence and divergence.
Convergence pullers are camera-crew members
on a Stereoscopic shoot who are responsible for
setting up and shifting the convergence during a
shot. See: Parallax
Depth Grading: A post production process where
negative and positive parallax convergence and
divergence are adjusted. This is not only a creative
tool used to place objects on the Z axis but also
a way to ensure that stereoscopic content can
be comfortably watched on the screen size it is
intended for. For example, in a Post suite the Director
may be viewing a film on a small projection screen
but the final delivery format may be a large theatre
or IMAX.
In practice the eyes have little ability to diverge
(up to one degree is considered the rule of thumb)
and this is especially a consideration in depth
grading for very large screens with positive parallax
images, where the distance between the left and
right representations of an image may be very
widely spaced.
Sometimes the term Depth Budget is used to refer
to the combined value of positive and negative
parallax and expressed as a % of screen width.
See: Parallax
Floating edges or Floating Window: See:
Breaking the Frame
Ghosting: Artefacts typically caused by signal
leakage (crosstalk) between the two ‘eyes’. A
secondary ‘ghost’ image can be seen. There are
several possible causes that can introduce the
problem during acquisition, post production and
display. One reason can be high contrast levels
between an object and its background.
Gigantism: Confusing Visual cues in a
stereoscopic scene that can make an object
appear to be the ‘wrong’ size i.e. the impression
of strangely enlarged size of objects. This is due
to the choice of interocular distance relative to the
focal length of the camera lenses, e.g. shooting
with an interocular distance much less than adult
human eyesight can make a figure appear to be
a giant. See: Miniaturization, Interocular
Hypostereo: Using closely spaced cameras (e.g.
less than 50 mm interocular) which record less
stereo effect than the eyes can see. Such a small
interocular distance can produce the effect of
gigantism. If standard cameras are used, the
minimum interocular distance is typically limited
by the thickness of the cameras so a mirror or
beam splitter system is often used, enabling
interoculars down to millimetres. See: Gigantism
Hyperstereo: Using widely spaced cameras
(e.g. beyond 70mm interocular) which record
more stereo effect than the eyes can see. Such a
large interocular distance can produce the effect
of miniaturization. Also used in order to achieve
the effect of more stereo depth and less scale in
a scene.
For close up work (e.g. miniatures etc.) special
Interocular camera set ups of 5mm or less have
been used (known as Hypostereo).
For stereo effects on very long shots (e.g.
landscapes) Interocular camera set ups of several
meters have been used (Hyperstereo). One
extreme example of Hyperstereo is from cameras
mounted in space to record the Sun in 3D. See:
Miniaturization, Interocular
Interocular Distance: The distance between
the centers of the lenses of two recording
cameras. A typical distance would be 63.5 mm
(approximating average adult eye layout).
The term ‘Interaxial’ is sometimes also used
interchangeably with ‘Interocular’ (when referring
to eyesight, ‘Interpupillary’ is often used)
3D Stereoscopic 47
3D Stereoscopic
storage &
Keystoning: The result arising when the film plane
in a camera or projector is not parallel to the
view or screen, leading to a trapeze shape. On
a stereoscopic image, where the cameras are
‘toed-in’ so that the object of interest coincides
when viewed, there can be some mismatching
of the outlines or borders of the two images.
Techniques like corner pinning can be use to help
correct this.
Parallax: This refers to the separation of the left and right
images on the projection device or display screen.
Positive Parallax puts an object behind the screen (on
screen objects in the left eye image are to the left of the
same objects in the right eye image). Negative Parallax
puts an object in front of the screen (on screen objects
in the left eye image are to the right of the same objects
in the right eye image).
Zero or neutral Parallax puts an object on the screen
(on screen objects in the left eye image are overlaid on
the same objects in the right eye image).
The only difference between stereo cameras should
be parallax or angle between the axes of the lenses as
in Camera Convergence – anything else can disturb
the stereo viewing experience. This requires close
attention, so that the cameras are set-up the same and
with the same filters. Colour differences, skewing,
vertical misalignment, differential weave and hop, lens
flares, poor VFX fixes, scratches and dirt can all cause
problems.
Fast cuts between shots with strong positive and
strong negative parallax can be unsettling in some
circumstances. This is because the eyes and brain
are being asked to jump uncomfortably quickly
between positions and then make sense of the
result. This can be mitigated by the use of ‘handing
off’ – dynamically changing the convergence of an
outgoing shot in relation to an incoming shot. Another
method of dealing with this is trying wherever possible
to cut between shots that are somewhat close in
parallax.
Vertical parallax is a vertical offset between
stereo images and is very uncomfortable to
watch – so it is necessary to remove during post
production.
Note: The term ‘Parallax’ is sometimes used
interchangeably with ‘Congruence’ or ‘Disparity’.
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Miniaturization: Confusing visual cues in a
stereoscopic scene that can make an object
appear to be the ‘wrong’ size i.e. the impression
of being strangely reduced in size. This is due
to the choice of an interaxial distance of greater
than 63.5 mm relative to the focal length of the
camera lenses e.g. shooting with very widely
spaced cameras. Subjectively this makes the
audience feel like a giant looking at tiny objects,
which is why miniaturization is sometime referred to
as Lilliputianisism. See: Gigantism, Interocular
Orthostereoscopic: A one-to-one condition where
what is being displayed is the same as the ‘real
world’. For example IMAX 3D is often shot with
parallel cameras spaced at the average human adult
interpupillary distance (approx 63.5 mm) and with
wide angle lenses that closely match an audience
members’ view of the screen.
‘‘
Psuedoscopic: If a stereoscopic signal is reversed
(e.g. each eye is being fed the opposite eye signal
or if there is a one frame offset between each eyes)
a strange ‘punched in’ effect appears. This is also
referred to as inverted stereo or reversed stereo.
Pulfrich Effect: Horizontal motion that can be
interpreted as binocular depth. A stereo effect
which is produced when 2D images moving
laterally on a single plane are viewed at slightly
different times by each eye.
Stereoscopic Window: The amount of Stereo
image available to the viewer is dictated by the
frame surrounding a stereoscopic image, e.g. the
size of TV or projection screen. This boundary is
called the Stereo Window.
Depending on their Parallax objects will appear
either in front, at or behind this Window. IMAX
has the largest window.
Gencom was happy to work with us on a substantial digital conversion...
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‘‘
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1-2 page int-nov.indd 1
48 3D Stereoscopic
4/11/08 3:32:12 PM
Storage & Asset Management 49
Post Production
post
PRODUCTION
Digital Dimensions Takes BBC to the Reef
Townsville based production house Digital
Dimensions recently secured a BBC
co-production contract to produce 20
half-hour HD television episodes called
‘Barney’s Barrier Reef’, for the 8–12 year
old demographic. Digital Dimensions’
appeal to Children’s BBC stemmed partly
from their previous marine documentaries
and work with the BBC Natural History
Unit, ongoing research on the Great Barrier
Reef and its marine wildlife. Over the years
Digital Dimensions have built up the largest
HD stock library of Indo-Pacific reef life in
the world, including unique behavioural
sequences from the wild and from macro
and high-speed filming done in their inhouse aquarium studio.
Directors Brett Shorthouse and Richard Fitzpatrick
realised that the tight delivery timeframes for the series
– 7 months to produce 10 hours of television - would
far exceed the capabilities of their current Avid and
Final Cut Pro editing suites.
“We had a major re-think on our current workflow
and how we could increase our post production
capabilities to cope with the additional workload. We
sent our Senior Editor Rob Davis to NAB in early March
so he could investigate our options,” said Brett.
After realising the huge amount of options
available workflow specialists Dave Thompson and
Wayne Newton from the Broadcast equipment sales
and rental company Videopro were consulted and
advised on how to best tackle the new challenges
that Digital Dimensions faced with this project.
“In our initial talks with Brett, Richard and Rob from
Digital Dimensions, it was agreed quite early that a
collaborative editing environment with multiple suites
working at the same time was required to get the job
done properly and to meet the tight deadlines that
BBC required. Instead of having media stored locally
on several different editing suites or on a SAN storage
system, Digital Dimensions needed the flexibility that
a collaborative storage solution such as EditShare
could provide. The EditShare
system would allow them have
multiple editors accessing and
working on the same media and
the same projects all at the same
time without the need to copy
media and projects,” says Dave
Thompson from Videopro.
The final solution supplied
and installed by Videopro was 7
Avid HD editing suites including
an Avid Symphony Nitris DX
system for HD ingest, finishing
and universal mastering, and an
EditShare 7.8TB collaborative
storage solution.
“The end result is fantastic! Our workflow is
exactly how we imagined it to be. We have
been utilizing Videopro’s services since before we
set up this business 11 years ago, and Dave and
Wayne really understand how we operate and what
challenges we face. Even though they are based in
Brisbane more than 1500kms away, they were able
to supply, install, train and are even able to provide
continued remote support to us which is reassuring
with the tight deadlines on this project,” says Brett.
‘Barney’s Barrier Reef’ is due to air in UK later this
year, with in-house versioning done for the rest of the
world markets in 2009.
New Version EDIUS Editing Software
Thomson has unveiled version (5) of its Thomson
Grass Valley EDIUS nonlinear editing software.
Representing the most feature-rich release of
EDIUS yet, it comes bundled with third-party plugins and software, and offers the industry’s first true
end-to-end native workflow using the emerging
JPEG 2000 (J2K) compression format.
As part of the improved workflow, EDIUS 5
runs on Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating
system; has new GPU-accelerated effects, has
much-improved MPEG-2 processing through multithreading and has Ikegami GigaFlash and AVCIntra support, including export, as standard.
EDIUS 5 brings together all of the features
of the previous EDIUS versions (EDIUS Pro and
EDIUS Broadcast) into a single product offering,
including the proven Canopus HQ codec that
assists in providing real-time, multi-layer SD and
HD editing, while adding new features such as
full support for J2K, smart encoding of JVC’s ProHD
25 Mbps format when doing cuts-edits (eliminating
having to re-transcode files), universal MPEG MXF
file export, native AVC-Intra editing and a 2D Pan
and Zoom Tool.
In addition, new GPU-accelerated 3D effects
are processed entirely in YUV, which means faster
performance because, unlike other NLE systems, it
eliminates the need to convert material from YUV to
RGB and back again.
More HD formats are supported, such as Infinity
MXF (J2K), AVC-Intra, XDCAM 4:2:2, Ikegami GF
and AVCHD. EDIUS 5 also is more efficient when
editing MPEG-based formats like XDCAM HD and
XDCAM EX. In addition, EDIUS 5 works with all
currently available hardware options as well as the
new HDSTORM PCIe I/O board.
EDIUS users will also be able to take advantage
of a number of bundled third-party plug-ins and
software. These include tools from ProDAD
(VitaScene + Mercalli Expert); NewBlueFX (Motion
Effects + Art Effects+ Film Effects); iZotope (Audio
Effects, Mastering); and Corel (DVD MovieFactory).
Also included is a free package of SD and HD
stock footage from Artbeats.
http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com
50 Post Production
Post Production
Post Production
Post Production
storage &
Efilm Australia
Catapults
Data
ASSET MANAGEMENT
DA VINCI SYSTEMS COLLABORATES WITH GAMMA & DENSITY
TO DELIVER INTEGRATED ON-SET COLOUR CORRECTION SYSTEM
Keeping it Clean with Lux and da Vinci
By David Gibson, Senior Commercial Colourist, Digipost
From its
earliest days, Digipost, located
in Auckland, New Zealand, has been positioned
at the forefront of the international post-production
industry, both in terms of technology and talent. This
combination of equipment and people has enabled
Digipost to compete successfully in the global
marketplace.
Our clients include almost all of the region’s
major television production companies, advertising
agencies and feature film producers. We have
also completed commercial campaigns, as well as
episodic TV dramas for U.S. broadcast.
In 2006, Digipost determined that it had outgrown
its space and built a new $6.5 million facility from the
ground up. We elected to build a modular facility so
that we could “future-proof” the company, enabling
us to update and grow with minimal disruption to our
work when the time comes.
My history with da Vinci equipment goes back to
the early days of my career when, in 1994, I was
lucky enough to be trained on the da Vinci DUI in Ft.
Lauderdale, Fla. As for the 2K, I received my training
from Jim MacKrell, da Vinci’s Resolve and 2K product
manager, in New York in 1999.
I rate da Vinci training very highly. Because I was
taught to use equipment in exactly the way it was
designed, I learned tricks and tweaks that I may not
have figured out right away on my own. There is
also a level of confidence you take into a session
when you have been shown the correct way to use
a grader. Good training grounds and frees you to
experiment with the certainty that you have a sound
understanding of the basics.
Digipost operates three grading suites: a da Vinci
2K Plus on a Spirit 2K with Bones, a da Vinci 2K on
a Spirit Datacine, and a Baselight. Our workflow is
traditional, working in real-time from SD dailies and,
after editorial, performing the SD or HD final grade
from an original camera negative. If the budget
allows, a final tape-to-tape is applied to tidy up the
grade after it has been seen in final context.
Because the 2K Plus is so versatile, it is used daily
for a variety of SD and HD projects, including feature
and commercial dallies, commercial grading, and
long-form episodic grading. The 2K Plus is also used
for the finishing touch on tape-to-tape grading and
final grades in HD and SD.
Earlier this year, I worked on a Lux Soap campaign
that was truly global in nature. Directed by Kathi
Prosser from The Sweet Shop, the campaign was
an epic shoot, involving three lead actresses and
locations in New York City and Thailand.
52 Post Production
>> >> Stills from the Lux soap campaign.
Spots were shot three times. While each spot was
different in terms of creative content, they had to
have the same look and feel so that they would bind
together the entire campaign. Each actress targeted
a specific geographic market; with Kristin Davis’
face behind the North American spots. I worked
very closely with the director to create a clearly
defined look that would work with all three actresses
representing campaign versions for North American,
Asian and Arabic audiences.
The 2K Plus allowed me to establish the look of
actress’ skin tone so that her ethnicity was appropriately
represented. At the same time, I created a strong
complementary look for the surrounding images.
Even with close to 10 years grading experience
on the 2K, I still find new ways to use it that are fast
to replicate and easy to repeat. It is a particularly fast
platform to work on. The grading time for the Lux project
was approximately a long day. Much of the material
for the product spots was shot green screen, mainly 2D
and 3D, but the look was derived from the 60-second
live-action spots that I established on the 2K Plus.
Every time I sit in front of the 2K Plus and
work with the vectors and kilovectors, I give a
silent thanks for some of the cleanest and fastest
secondaries I have ever used. And I can’t do a
grade without relying on Power Tiers, independent
image-processing channels each with their own
Power Window and Super Vector qualifier. The
Defocus tool, which controls depth of field and
can apply soft light or glow effects at any image
resolution, is a great way to create a look quickly
and cleanly. Almost every time I do final grades on
the 2K Plus, I find myself using every tool we have,
either to create a tried and tested look, or to cook
up my own new direction.
Despite the industry shift towards grading in a nonlinear, software-based environment, we find our 2K
grading rooms are still very much in demand. We
have many clients who lack either time or money for
the software-based grading path, as well as clients
who want to grade in real-time from the original
camera negative. For this workflow, the 2K Plus really
is king and the only truly real-time grading system to
use today.
David Gibson has worked in post-production on
three continents since 1992. He started as a tape-op
and eventually a colourist at Windmill Lane Pictures
in Dublin, Ireland, progressed to Post Perfect in New
York City, as a senior colourist, and in 2003 joined
Digipost with senior colourists Peter Williams and
Gerard Ward.
da Vinci Systems recently announced that it
has been collaborating with Los Angeles-based
Gamma & Density to integrate that company’s 3cP
Efilm Sydney is the first
facilityCorrection
in the world
to
(Cinematographer’s
Colour
Process)
integrate
catapult,
slingshot
andPlusflipstream
with
da Vinci’s
Resolve
and 2K
systems, from
giving
Melbourne-based XDTanintoon-set
its E-Cinema
digital
cinematographers
colourandcorrection
film workflows.
and
calibration system that is compatible with
When processing
for its
E-Cinema system,
downstream
colourprojects
correction
systems.
Efilm’s
workflow included
renderedthe
3cPprevious
is a laptop-based
systemmoving
that allows
frames using NFS to a
dedicated
server
cinematographer
make
colour processing
grading decisions
to encode
thethe
finalnew
clip.ASC
AfterCDL
encoding,
the content
on-set
using
(American
Society
was
reviewed and checked.
of
Cinematographers
Colour Decision List) protocol.
Through
the integration
flipstream,
These
settings
are thenofsaved
to auncompressed
USB memory
full resolution
frames
can now
be streamed
stick
as XML rendered
files, which
are easily
transferred
to the
directly from
to any standard workstation
Resolve
suite catapult
for finishing.
using
or Infiniband
TheGigabit
ASC Ethernet
CDL protocol
was (depending
developedonby
resolution) without
need Technology
to copy the frames
to a
members
of thetheASC
Committee,
dedicated high-end
workstation.
(including
Gamma review
& Density
Co. and da Vinci),
to reviewstandard
uncompressed
rendered
to “Being
provideable
an industry
for cross-platform
frames directly
the server
flipstream
has
exchange
of off
primary
RGBusing
colour
correction
addedusing
a powerful
our E-Cinema
data
settings QA
that step
havetobeen
familiar to
processing pipeline.”
says E-Film
cinematographers
for many
years - Australia’s
offset (lift), Rob
slope
Sandeman.
“2K uncompressed
film asreview
is
(gain),
and power
(gamma), as well
saturation,
reportinglights,
sustained
speeds
of 24
fps over
onlybe
printing
curves,
and other
utilities
that will
3 Gigabit
added
in theEthernet
future. connections from a catapult
system.”
“There is often a disconnect between what a
cinematographer expects and what actually occurs
during the final colour correction process, a
problem our two companies have worked together
to eliminate,” explains Yuri Neyman, DP and CEO
film resolution
Intermediate
serviceswith
ofEfilm’s
Gamma
& Density.Digital
“3cP’s
tight integration
atthe
2K or
4K - include
colour
correction,
digital
optical
Resolve
and 2K
systems
makes
it an
even
and
effects,
design.theEfilm’s
digitalof video
more
usefultitles
tooland
to solve
problem
colour
services
start with
the Spirit
datacine – with
transfers
consistency
in today’s
post-production
environment,
toparticularly
HD, SD or directly
data files.
also handles
when ittocomes
to DIEfilm
work.”
electronically
captured
product, offering
editorial,
Using 3cP,
colour decisions
can be accurately
colour
correction and
master
services. Efilm
communicated
from
the duplication
cinematographer
to the
is dailies
also fully
integrated
withcolourist.
Atlab’s (Deluxe Australia)
timer
and to the
full range
laboratory
services,
including
negative
3cP isofbeing
deployed
by some
of the
world’s
and
processing, film
scanning
& laser
film
toppositive
cinematographers
on major
motion
pictures,
recording,
mixing
release blockbuster,
printing, as well
includingsound
2008’s
firstand
summer
Iron
asMan,
E-cinema
and distribution.
as mastering
well as The
Tudors, The Kite Runner,
AccordingB.C.
to Rob
“We enjoy a close
10,000,
andSandeman,
State of Play.
relationship
with more,
XDT which
us to aaccess
the
“More and
3cP isallows
becoming
lifesaver
very
technology.
have eventheir
worked
for latest
DPs who
want to We
communicate
visionwith
them
during into
the development
- bothLyon,
parties
accurately
the DI world,”phase
says Dean
benefit
from director
this exchange
expertise
and“The
thinking.
marketing
at da of
Vinci
Systems.
The
naturecommunication
of our business demands
performance
perfect
between high
the 3cP
system
from
andand
software.
XDT
are experienced
andhardware
the Resolve
2K that’s
enabled
by the
atASC
delivering
high-bandwidth
systems
integration
in
CDL promotes
workflow
efficiency,
technical
environments
like ours
where
it is importantly,
critical.”
accuracy, and
perhaps
most
artistic
“Efilm has also leapfrogged point-to-point transfer
quality.”
speeds
using slingshot over Gigabitor networking
Visit http://gammaanddensity.com
http://davsys.com
GEE BROADCAST ADDS SONY
XDCAM EX SUPPORT
Gee Broadcast has implemented support for
the Sony XDCAM EX format to its Geevs Server
and Lightworks Editors. Files from the new
infrastructure. We are dealing with very large frame
Sony XDCAM EX cameras can be imported
data workflows, often up to 6K, and slingshot has
directly in to Geevs Servers for Playout or into
significantly accelerated our frame management.
the Lightworks Softworks and Alacrity Editors,
The effect of catapult on our productivity has been
keeping the clip’s original timecode and 1920
dramatic, especially for previews and quality control,
x 1080 format intact.
which then has a flow on effect to production in
Material from XDCAM EX can be freely mixed
general.”
with other material for editing on Lightworks or
“We have been working very closely with Efilm
playout on Geevs Servers.
to ensure that the technology accelerates their film
Geevs and Lightworks have always supported
pipelines.” adds Erik Otto, Managing Director XDT
the XDCAM file format and the company reports
Pty Ltd. “Efilm have been a model partner for us,
that it was a relatively simple step to add the EX
focusing on highest resolution digital intermediate
version support.
workflows utilising Linux as a preferred platform.
“It was a natural extension to our family of
“The initial demo was showing 720p uncompressed
products to add the XDCAM EX support,” said
at 85MB/s over a single Gigabit Ethernet to a
Keith Gee managing director of Gee Broadcast
stockstandard $2,000 workstation. This certainly
Systems. “We have seen substantial interest in
made an impact since the highest point-to-point
this format since its introduction and already have
throughput available using CIFS or NFS is only
several customers using it in production.”
around 40MB/s.”
Sony’s XDCAM EX, which records to solidXDT’s products have been deployed across
state memory, offers 1920 x 1080 resolution
facilities in both Sydney and Melbourne, and XDT
throughout the production chain starting from the
continues to work with Efilm to further accelerate
imaging chip in the camera.
digital film pipelines. Visit www.xdt.com.au
Visit www.geebroadcast.co.uk
Your job is to be creative,
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48 Post Production
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or visit: www.editshare.com
Back
to Contents
Post
Production
53 Page
Storage & Asset Management
Transmission/IBC 2008
storage &
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Silver Trak Hits Migration Trail
Digital media
migration specialists, Silver
Trak Digital, have had a taste of both Army life and
sporting excellence with the launch of two recent
restoration and archiving projects.
When members of the Australian Army Apprentices
Association (AAAA) Inc. discovered that the Army
Museum at Bandiana (AMB) had a vast quantity of
historical material relating to the Army Apprentice
School (AAS), which was wasting away in an
old warehouse and not available for the general
enjoyment of apprentices far and wide, they called
upon Silver Trak Digital and Project SPAASSM
(Special Project for Army Apprentice School Special
Material) took shape.
According to Silver Trak Digital’s Media Migration
Manager, Joe Kelly, “Peter Thornton of AAAA Inc.
approached us with his requirement to digitise,
migrate and archive the AMB footage. We took
Peter through our full DAMsmart! process and he was
impressed enough to give us the job on the spot.”
The material was originally rescued by Lt Col Jim
Hislop (Rtd), from almost certain destruction after
recovering it from an industrial waste bin, at the
closing of the AAS Bonegilla. Lt Col Hislop then
organised to have the material and a display set up
at the Army Museum Bandiana who are now the
official owners and custodians.
The items include photographs, slides, negatives,
video tapes, movie films, journals, graduation
booklets, standing orders, handbooks and histories.
There were approximately 20 boxes of material
stored on shelves in an old warehouse at the Army
Museum. This material was relocated from Bandiana
to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
SPAASSM has achieved a significant profile
in government circles with a recent decision by
the National Archive of Australia to use the video
collection as a pilot to assess and forge a new
preservation standard for Australia.
The longer term outcome and aim of this project
is to make the digitised material publicly available
via the web for the general enjoyment of all exapprentices and visitors and to eventually make more
complete the catalogue record for each item of the
archive.
Kelly and the Silver Trak team created preservation
files and DVDs for the Army and Motion JPEG2000
files of all the AMB footage which were then passed
to the National Archives of Australia (NAA).
According to Joe Kelly, “The technical and IT team
at the NAA then easily integrated the MJPEG2000
filers into their system which proved the accuracy
54 Storage & Asset Management
and efficiency of the MJPEG2000 encoding and
decoding process. This was particularly well received
by the NAA.”
Peter Thornton added, “We were delighted
with Silver Trak’s service and performance on
Project SPAASSM. They completed all video and
film migration to a very high standard which was
particularly pleasing when one considers the poor
quality of the original material. The entire process
was seamless with the DVD material shipped and
stored back at AMB and all the new digital tapes
dispatched to the National Archive for long term
environmental storage.”
With the AMB archive now also presented
on DVDs many recruits were finally able to view
previously unseen footage.
Peter Thornton concluded, “Project SPAASSM and
Silver Trak have been instrumental in setting a new
national standard for digital preservation, which is a
credit to Silver Trak’s credentials and professionalism
in this area. I believe that Army can be very proud
that it was instrumental (through its sponsorship of
Project SPAASSM) to have helped forge this new
standard for Australia. Silver Trak’s professionalism in
processing the Museum’s collection and its continued
engagement with the project in general has been
second to none.”
GOING FOR GOLD
Silver Trak Digital were also involved in a recent
project migrating and archiving original master tapes
for the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
According to Joe Kelly, “The AIS had what we
call a ‘Typical DAMsmart! project’ consisting of old
stock footage that needed to be digitally migrated
and archived so that it could be viewed by a wide
audience and kept safely without degrading for future
generations. To get the full scope of the project we sat
down with the AIS team and did a complete log of
all their one inch videotape masters that they needed
migrating, some dating back to 1984.”
Much of the AIS’ corporate history was held on
these inaccessible masters in addition to public
awareness and community service campaigns for
physical activity and Women in Sport campaigns.
Kelly continued, “We proposed a very
straightforward DAMsmart! digital media migration
process at our Canberra facility and once approved,
the entire job was seamless. The final deliverables
consisted of digital copies of all original masters at
50Mb/s MPEG2 in MXF for direct import into a Final
Cut Pro editing environment. We also simultaneously
created WM9 streaming copies as well.”
With the AIS project complete in record time Kelly
commented on the growing success of the DAMsmart!
digital media migration process, “We are now
undertaking projects across many industries including
the media, government, corporate and broadcast
markets. DAMsmart’s success lies in the fact that we
are using the very latest automated technology to
digitise footage. Traditionally, digitising film or video
footage has meant a well-trained operator using one
of the latest editing systems and completing the entire
process manually. This method often takes two hours
to digitise one hour of footage, is extremely expensive
and thus not very practical. Using DAMsmart! the
entire process is automated and scalable (with
multiple inputs and feeds) significantly reducing
the amount of time needed and cost involved. The
automated process covers the sophisticated analysis
of video and audio signals, compression, dropouts
and constant monitoring and testing in real time. All
of this can be done by Silver Trak Digital or an inhouse tape operator, it’s that easy.”
Visit www.silvertrak.com.au
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OMNIBUS PARTNERS
Neptuny
has
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second release of the company’s
can be filled
using an
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keyer. 2.0, the WITH
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HP
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The new Densite Series XVP-3901.
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IPTV, Interactive-Cable
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16forchannels
of
The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) has The XVP-3901
OmniBus Systems announced that it is
enables with
operators
provide their customers with content that is tailored to their
embedded ContentWise
audio processing,
four toAES
delivered the final standard for the Professional Archival
working with HP to develop systems for
user ratings and content metadata. Plus the system provides
inputs andindividual
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Advanced based
audio on
functions
Application Format (ISO/IEC 23000-6) which defines
IT broadcasting based on OmniBus’s iTX
opportunities for up-selling and
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include compressor/limiter/expander
capabilities,
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and ringtones
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and 5.1-to-stereo
downmixing.
The XVP-3901
is the opportunity
fulfill the industry need for an interoperable multimedia
software and HP server hardware.
uses twoSeries
different
mechanisms
its recommendations. The first mechanism is
designed forThe
thesystem
new Densite
3RU
frame, to generate
content archival format for the preservation of multimedia
Under the HP Developer and Solution
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a user’s ratings and experiences are used to recommend content
which cancalled
combine
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content. Several advanced features of the standard
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has been
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by others
with similar tastes. The second mechanism, called Content-Based
announced
its Kaleido-X
include comprehensive metadata to model all information Mirandathatalso
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multi-imageFiltering,
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system
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necessary to support and preserve digital files, a flexible
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addition,
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with Pro-bel’sInSirius
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integration
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mechanism to pre-process digital files prior to their storage
OmniBus will work with HP to design and
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objectives.
also offers online and offline reporting.
a flexible strategic
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Kaleido-X
multi- ContentWise
in archives, and a robust file format to allow easy access
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viewer. The
also offers intuitive on-screen
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HP Factory Express, the company’s portfolio
Miranda
Technologies
be highlighting
multiple easy
router control, and dynamic source text tracking.
Meanwhile,
a newwill
amendment
that enables
of customised, factory-integrated systems.
new HD
products
IBC, including
singleShowtime
Enlists extends
LTO-4thefor Workflow
Intuition XG co-processor
image
retrieval
andatidentification
(sucha as
in large The new
OmniBus iTX software will be supplied
card Densite
3Gbps,
HD and
SDtovideo
Australia,
the premiumImagestore
movie channel suppliers to Foxtel and Austar, has signed an agreement
graphicsShowtime
capabilities
of the company’s
databases
or Series
the web)
has been
added
the Visual
on HP BladeSystem c-Class servers and HP
and of
audio
processor,
new expansion
options
for
with Fujifilm
supply
of LTO-4
data
tapes and Digital Betacam tapes.
750 HD/SD
masterfor
control
and
channel
branding
part
MPEG-7.
This amendment
defines
a description
ProLiant servers, and will be scalable to meet
the Kaleido-X
and new
audio the
andsearch
According
to Showtime
Operations & Production, John Turner, “At Showtime, the workflow
system. Intuition
XG is
ideal for Director
complex,of datatechnology
for multi-viewer,
Image Signatures
that makes
customer requirements.
graphics
capabilities
Imagestore
750or are
involves ingesting
videotape
to SAN storage at a rate which equates to approximately 20 driven graphics,
includingfrom
in-show
and masters
interstitial
and
retrieval
of images for
that the
are similar
in nature,
OmniBus iTX combines all the functions of a
master control
and branding
processor.straightforward to
per hour ofoffers
videomulti-level
while a clone
Digital Beta copy is also made for Foxtel Transmission. The master
promos. 25Gb
The co-processor
character
modified
versions
of other images,
conventional transmission chain into a single,
The new
Densite
Seriesexploits
XVP-3901
offers
tapeanimation
then remains
the Showtime
library
period of the movie as the SAN copy is stored
generation,
andinclip
playout, and
canfor the licence
perform.
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a highly
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integrated suite of software applications,
advanced 3Gbps,
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and audio
online
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which includes preview & promo production. The SAN copy and
be readily
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Miranda’s
Xmedia
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are archived
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graphicspromos
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even
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verycard,
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method
playout features. iTX can be configured for
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Theunder
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are considerable cost savings to be realised. Thus the robust and
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in
the standard is feed
remarkably
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a wide range of operating environments.
accepts 3Gbps,
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via BNC
reliable
LTO-4 tapes750,
play aincluding
very important role in our workflow.
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the Imagestore
modifications,
suchHD
as and
illumination
and colour
changes,
The company is also entering HP’s hardware
or fibre, compression,
and provides and
simultaneous
3Gbps,
HD
support for Dolby E decoding/encoding, Dolby
filtering,
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converted another
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Finally, MPEG has achieved the first step of defining a
the Masstech archiving applications; providing a fluid workflow for media exchange between
standard
(ISO/IEC
21000-19)
for
Media
Value
Chain
TSL ADDS 3GBPS SUPPORT
archives,
broadcast
programmingThe
andnew
business
Ontology.
provides
a representation
of a coreitsmodel
UK-based,It TSL
will use
IBC 2008 to introduce
latest audio video
monitor
- the AVMU2-3G.
unit isoperations.
capable of decoding all standards up to and
flagshipHD-SDI
Louise audio
systemmetering
is the persistence
“hub” of4.5-inch,
any broadcast
operation,
ofincluding
a knowledge
domain
for which
a detailed
description
3 Gbps,
1080p
60, 59.94
and 50Hz.
Features includeThe
precision
with an integrated
16.9 LCD
screen tofacilitating
provide
both
linear
and
non-linear
services
across
production
and
programming.
The
development with
allows
for
consistent
and
systematic
specialisation.
an efficient audio and video monitoring system for professional broadcast facilities.
Masstech provides
seamless
information
between
the Hub
and Masstech’s
The Inrepresentation
ontologieswell-established
can be formalized
for
addition, the of
company’s
AMU2-8HD-3G
8-channel
HD-SDI and
Dolbyexchange
decoding of
rack
audio monitor
has Louise
also been
updated
to support
solution
Metadata
is maintained
across
all transactions.
Media
computer
in the form
of a listing
of the relevant
the new processing
3 Gbps standard,
providing
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HD monitoringarchiving
solution for
masterMassStore.
control rooms,
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andLouise
outside
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installations.
The
access
immediate
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can be
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classes,
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properties,
classdisplays, AES
AMU-8HD-3G
also features
high-resolution
barand
graph
andisanalogue
audio
andsimultaneous
an intuitive, easy-to-use
Louise maintains
full control
data genetic
andoptions,
media repository.
individuals.
TSL will also be demonstrating four rack-mount confidence monitors
with passive,
active,ofanalogue
and makeup
AES digital
as well as its intelligent power
Visit
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and
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Back 64
to Contents
Page 2008
Transmission/IBC
high performance storage solutions
Easier Channel
Promotions with
Mediator 4
Thomson Reaches
Summit with K2
Pharos has announced a newly
developed
Event
Template-driven
promotions feature for its integrated
Playtime playout option in Mediator 4.
New Event Templates manage
complex secondary events such as
“coming up next” graphics and channel
promotions. Pharos Event Templates
reduce the risk of on-screen errors
when scaling up for multi-channel and
multi-language expansion, streamlining
the creation and delivery of complex
graphics. Cross-channel promotions can also be managed using the same processes. Pharos Event Templates
also extend this workflow to produce promotions for new distribution platforms such as VOD, IPTV and mobile,
alongside linear playout.
This new feature is compatible with both discrete server and graphics air-chains and the latest channel-in-abox graphics servers from third-party manufacturers.
The Mediator 4 content management platform with the Playtime option can also be directly integrated with
third-party channel management, traffic and scheduling systems.
Visit www.pharos.tv
Video Transcoder
The HERA 4000 from Media Excel is the first video transcoding product to use the Texas Instruments
DaVinci digital media processor, which will enable customers to deliver higher-quality video at higher
speeds than previous systems. The single-rack HERA 4000 is ideal for broadcasters and cable operators,
as well as mobile operators, telcos, web video aggregators, content delivery networks and media
content production firms. Media Excel’s customers include MTV Networks and MobiTV, which rely on the
company’s HERA products to handle all global encoding and transcoding requirements.
Visit www.mediaexcel.com
‘Content Genealogy’
with Media Archive
Blue Order’s version 3.3 of its Media Archive
MAM system can track a media object’s
history throughout the production process.
Media Archive’s new “Content Genealogy”
allows users to reference or copy all metadata,
global and timecode-based, including rights
information from the source assets to the newly
generated asset.
It also features a new Essence Search
designed to speed up the retrieval process
by enabling users to search for material with
specific essence information, for example, HD
material only or a specific aspect ratio. It also
adds document management capabilities so
that users can search for text in the essences.
Individual user profiles can now be stored so
that as soon as a user logs into the systems their
individual settings are automatically restored.
The company has also added support for
Panasonic’s P2 format. Events recorded on P2
can now be easily imported into Media Archive
- either the entire recording or just selectively.
Immediately after being imported the content
can be searched, browsed and edited.
Visit www.blue-order.com
56 Storage & Asset Management
with
IBIS Interoperates with Sony
and Avid
A member of Sony’s XDCAM Cart Alliance, which is
dedicated to helping broadcasters embrace the filebased archiving workflow, IBIS has developed a suite
of applications, which automate the transfer of material
to and from the array of XDCAM disks held within the
XDCAM Cart.
IBIS controls the automated bulk file ingest process,
which allows programme material to be restored
simultaneously from multiple separate discs without user
intervention, offering rapid file access, rich metadata
handling and non-linear access to stored content.
Once the AVID edit process is complete, users can
initiate the transfer of material to the XDCAM Cart from
the desktop. IBIS supports the transfer of the edited
material to the next available unused space within the
Cart. This workflow is particularly suited to environments
where the XDCAM Cart is used as a small archive.
Alternatively, users can move material to a specific disc
or discs within the Cart, which can be made available
for removal.
In addition to exploiting XDCAM as a conventional
digital video source, IBIS provides integration with the
asset management and archiving applications. This
allows users to access built-in low-resolution browse
video for reference and previewing, and re-purpose
content directly to web-compatible formats.
Visit www.ibistv.com
Thomson has announced the expansion of its K2
server family with the Grass Valley K2 Summit
production client which supports streamlined
standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD)
live event news production, and live-to-tape/
live-to-disk applications. It joins and broadens
the well-established K2 server for transmission
playout, news production, and other live events.
Both systems are part of a growing range of
peak-performance clients, as a client in a K2
storage area network (SAN) infrastructure or
with internal server and storage for standalone
applications
The new K2 Summit production client includes
HD/SD operation, smooth slow-motion (slo-mo)
playback and up to four bi-directional channels
in a ruggedized two RU chassis, making it
ideal for regional mobile production vehicles,
stadiums and arenas or in university sports
facilities. It also has unique features that make
it ideal for sports and live news applications,
where extremely fast, frame-accurate operation
is critical—as well as general production.
For news, the new server supports four bidirectional channels of DVCPRO HD (sometimes
referred to as DV100), DVCPRO 50 and
DVCPRO 25 making it the ideal for users of
the Panasonic P2 acquisition format. Other key
features include responsive performance, a
small form factor, instant playback of recorded
material, and built-in transition effects that only
take one playback channel, all at a new low
price point for HD.
K2 Summit sports a flash-based embedded
operating system for high reliability and fast
boot times, and optional built-in 15,000 RPM
SAS drives. The base system offers up to 20
hours of HD or 80 hours of SD performance in
a compact 2 RU ruggedized chassis ideal for
mobile production use.
The video subsystem offers a new robust
hardware-based and programmable codec
allowing for up to four bi-directional channels of
DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO25, and
DV compression formats. Playback features are
optimized for fast action sports and live events
with instant replay, smooth slow-mo playback
and flexible low-cost monitoring capability
including a built-in multiviewer.
K2 Summit enables users to easily import and
export material in all industry standard formats,
including QuickTime, MXF, GXF (SMPTE 360M)
and other file formats while offering in-place
editing with any QuickTime-based NLE while
material is being recorded.
Used with the new K2 Dyno replay controller,
the K2 Summit provides
fast generation of highlight packages during
events, including easy metadata entry and onthe-fly editing with QuickTime-based NLEs.
Visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com
DVS Debuts New SpycerBox Features
DVS presented new features for its SpycerBox central media hub at IBC 2008. Post-production houses
can integrate the SpycerBox, with its 24 TB capacity, into their workflows as a central NAS (Network
Attached Storage) or as a file or backup server. The SpycerBox is also a video server with large memory
as well as capture functionality.
The system’s new ingest option enables users to import uncompressed image sequences to preserve the
best possible image quality. The ingest control is run by a remote user interface that, when installed on
other systems and clients, can also control record or play-out processes.
With its transcoding option, the Spycer software can be used to automatically convert image sequences
into compressed video sequences or proxies. Thanks to InfiniBand, Ethernet and other IT interfaces,
the recorded video clips can be distributed to other workstations using the Spycer high-speed copying
process, which prevents fragmentation.
In addition to InfiniBand and Ethernet, the SpycerBox provides users with a large variety of interfaces,
including 8/4 GBps Fibre Channel, 1 GBps as well as 10 GBps Ethernet, eSATA, FireWire and USB.
If required, multiple SpycerBoxes can be combined into a SpycerBox cluster solution and can then be
connected to each other using high-speed SpycerLinks.
Visit www.dvs.de
Outstanding performance
at breakthrough prices
SANman is the trusted name in performance
RAID solutions. Whether connected to a
single computer or sophisticated workgroup
SAN environments, SANman RAIDs deliver
unbeatable manageability, compatibility,
reliability, performance and scalability.
SANman RAIDs are built exclusively around
Infortrend RAID subsystems designed for
enterprise level stability and performance,
ideal for high volume production
environments.
The SANman range of very high-performance,
low cost-per-GB RAIDs will deliver the ultimate
storage solution for your needs.
✔ Affordable
SGL Integrates with Avid
At the IBC show in Amsterdam, Software Generation
Ltd., (SGL), a developer of Content Archive and
Storage Management systems, demonstrated an
Avid Interplay non-linear workflow engine, integrated
with its storage and archive systems.
FlashBrowse is SGL’s new archive access tool,
which creates browse copies of material in the
archive, providing an easy way to browse content.
FlashBrowse provides an interface independent of
the archive control system, such as Avid’s Interplay
system, allowing material to be searched and
viewed and then restored back into the online
environment.
The company also showed its new FlashBox
archive system, which starts with an entry-level
combined disk and LTO4 tape archive with up to
1,000 hours of storage. From there, the system can
scale up to nearly 5,000 hours.
The company also announced that it has
integrated its FlashNet and FlashBox systems with
Marquis Broadcast’s Medway Media Highway.
This enables users to transcode files and metadata
between multiple formats, including Avid, Quicktime
and DNxHD, as well as a number of other MXF
formats in both SD and HD.
Visit www.sgluk.com
ScheduALL Bundles
Product Suites
The Media Manager system from ScheduALL, a
developer of enterprise resource management (ERM)
software for the broadcast and media industries,
provides media, entertainment, and broadcast
companies with an effective way to organise and
track their media assets. Media Manager incorporates
workflow decisions, creation costs, source elements,
and asset locations into an asset’s metadata. Fully
integrated with ScheduALL, Media Manager
manages the tasks involved in content creation, as
well as traffic, shipping, and duplication.
The company has bundled several of its most
powerful individual modules into user-centric product
suites to better service its specific buyer communities,
including
post-production,
transmission
and
broadcast.
The new ScheduALL “Financial” suite includes
comprehensive cost-allocation, billing, and invoicing,
as well as business analysis and reporting capabilities.
The “Administrator” package offers enhanced project,
personnel, rental, and media management tools.
The company will also be offering a Sports
Broadcast Solution designed for the complexities
involved in high-profile live sporting events.
Visit www.scheduall.com
✔ Extreme performance
✔ Ultimate reliability
✔ Unbeatable local support
No compromise –
ATTO the best controller
ATTO controllers deliver
blazingly-fast performance,
one-click installation and
smooth data streaming.
ATTO optimises the link
between your computer and
SANman storage, realising
the promise of every
SANman installation.
Check out SANman today. Go to
www.adimex.com.au/wheretobuy
or give us a call on +61 (0)2 9906 4556
to find an authorised SANman dealer near you.
[email protected]
www.adimex.com.au
SANman photo courtesy Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre www.scec.com.au
Audio
??
Klotz to Rebuild Austero Melbourne
AUDIO
SBS, Sky Channel Take Telex for Talkback
With studios
in Sydney, Melbourne and
Canberra, SBS Television is watched by more
than seven million Australians each week and
broadcasts a unique mix of Australian-produced
and international programs drawn from over 400
national and international sources.
Meanwhile, racing broadcaster Sky Channel
pioneered satellite television in Australia and
now transmits via satellite to more than 5000
outlets across Australia and to more than a dozen
countries. For both broadcasters, a comprehensive
and reliable talkback system is critical, and both
broadcasters settled on an RTS Telex ADAM solution
from Magna Systems and Engineering.
SBS Manager, Broadcast Projects Technology
and Distribution, Metodi Andonov explained the
national broadcaster’s decision to upgrade its
>> >>
Sky Channel Chief Engineer Sam
Cannizzaro.
talkback system, “We used to have several smaller
systems but, even combined together, they didn’t
have enough capacity to handle all of SBS’ comms
requirements,” he said. “We did a lot of market
research and we found that the RTS Telex ADAM
(Advanced Digital Audio Matrix) system best suited
our needs. It was also the only system that could
easily incorporate and redeploy our existing Telex
panels.”
The updated high-end ADAM matrix now in its
3rd generation supports 8 to 1000+ users per
system with 272 ports possible in a 7RU frame.
Utilising a Time Division Multiplex (TDM) technique,
the ADAM grows linearly as users are added;
the system comes standard with redundant high
current power supplies and new redundant Ethernet
master controllers, MCII-e, allowing for automatic
58 Audio
>> >>
SBS World News presenter Janice
Petersen uses the Telex talkback panel in the
SBS make-up room
changeover in the event of failure.
Andonov continued, “Our new ADAM
system is a good solution for remote connection
between our Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra
offices, something that wasn’t possible in such a
straightforward manner before. As the ADAM is
available with a variety of interface cards including
the AIO-16, AES-3, and RVON-16 VoIP interfaces it
meant an easy expansion allowed us to use VoIP at
all 3 locations utilizing a network I/O card without
the need for a major upgrade.”
The new Telex ADAM talkback system at SBS
networks the broadcaster’s studios, operations
rooms, editing suites, post production facilities,
online units, presentation areas, technical support,
radio operations, master control room and remote
contributors.
AND THEY’RE RACING!
At Sky Channel, according to Chief Engineer Sam
Cannizzaro, their talkback and communications
system forms a key cornerstone of the broadcasting
service they provide.
Through the 1990’s Sky Channel as Australia’s
leading multi-venue racing broadcaster used the
Telex CS9500 system which, due to the company’s
success, quickly needed expanding.
“From 1999 onwards we have consistently
grown as a company,” he added. “This included
providing the new Sky Racing channel for the pay
TV networks. The expansion meant more sources
and the need for more talkback panels. We also
use our talkback system as a confidence monitoring
station for incoming feeds.”
Klotz Digital has won the tender for the rebuild
of the Melbourne radio facilities of Austereo.
Klotz Digital Australia will provide VADIS D.C.II
mixing consoles, VADIS 888 frames for all onair studios, pre-production studios and all news
booths. In addition to this Klotz Digital Australia
will also provide all signal routing for the Main
Control Room (MCR) and a VARIZONE digital
Public Address System.
“We are honoured to have been chosen again
by Austereo. Through the close work between the
Austereo engineers and our staff, I believe that we
have come up with a system design which will set
the standard for a long time to come,” said Patrick
Salloch, General Manager of Klotz Digital Asia
Pacific.
The Austereo contract follows that of ABC
Melbourne tender in late 2007, which will
see the Australian branch deliver and configure
16 on-air studios for the ABC up until the
end of 2008.
With the need for expansion evident, Sky
Channel purchased an additional 64x64 RTS Telex
Advanced Digital Audio Matrix (ADAM) CS from
Magna Systems and Engineering.
“We’ve had a long history with Magna Systems,”
explained Cannizzaro. “They have always been an
excellent resource for us and know talkback very
well indeed so we sat down with them and devised
a way to ‘glue’ our two talkback systems together.
The two frames worked well side by side but as we
grew further, still lacked the capacity we needed.”
In search of a system that would meet all their
requirements and give more efficient integration
with their other in-house systems, Cannizzaro and
his team set about researching the latest in talkback
technology.
“We quickly came to the conclusion that there
was a very strong case to replace our two existing
systems with the new Telex ADAM system. This would
fix any incompatibility issues, was an efficient single
frame solution and more economical than buying
another CS.”
With Sky Channel’s many remote partners
ADAM’s easy VoIP functionality was a great bonus
according to Cannizzaro.
“We have partners in New Zealand, a remote
studio and DR site in Ultimo. So, using our existing
infrastructure and our new ADAM system we can
now efficiently and cost effectively use VoIP panels
to communicate between offices.”
The current Sky Channel 96x96 ADAM system
provides in-house comms between master control,
video tape rooms, edit suites, the Ultimo remote
studio (via VoIP), several overseas partners and uses
ISDN at racetracks to bring in comms which are
then fed through talkback and IFBs.
The ADAM system is backwards-compatible so
Sky could use its existing panels, but this led to a
further requirement.
According to Cannizzaro , “We needed panels
with more keys and IFBs for Master Control and our
Technical Directors, especially on our busy race days
so we purchased an additional four 32-way key
panels. I am happy to say the system has been very
reliable and we have had no issues with it. We will
be looking to buy more VoIP panels as we link up
with other remote partners across the globe and we
now have a system that can easily accommodate
this expansion. We are particularly pleased with the
expertise and high level of service and support from
Magna Systems who have made the entire project
an incredibly efficient one.”
?? 59
Audio
IP Broadcasting & Session Initiation Protocol
By Glen Davies, Tieline Technology
Broadcasting over IP is rapidly becoming the paradigm
by which broadcasters are planning future broadcast
network infrastructures. Within the diverse range of
broadcast IP devices coming onto the market, Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP) is currently the signaling protocol
that is used by most of the world’s Telcos and broadcast
codec manufacturers. It is also the most likely to provide
connectivity between IP devices for the foreseeable
future.
To understand the context in which SIP is developing
as a signaling protocol, it is useful to know some
background about SIP, its history and how it is currently
used in broadcast products.
What is SIP?
Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP as it is known, is an
open standard application layer signaling protocol
used to connect and disconnect connections over IP
networks and the Internet.
SIP can work with a myriad of other protocols to
establish connections between all sorts of different
devices and it is capable of supporting audio, video
and instant messaging technologies, without regard
for the particular device or the media content that is
delivered.
Historically, it has been widely used in VoIP
applications. It has also been used for multimedia
distribution and multimedia conferencing and can
be used to create two-party, multiparty or multicast
sessions.
More recently, its ability to create and manage
connections over the Internet has led to its integration
into an increasing number of broadcast audio and
video products that stream data packets in broadcast
applications.
There are two distinct parts to a call when dialing
and broadcasting over IP. SIP is used in the initial
stage for call setup. The second stage is when data
transference occurs and this is left to the other protocols
used by a device (i.e. using UDP to send audio data).
SIP only defines the way in which a communication
session between devices should be managed. It does
not define the type of communication session that is
established.
As an example, broadcast audio codecs can use
SIP to make peer-to-peer connections between two
codecs. In this scenario, IP addresses are used to
dial between two codecs and then SIP uses Session
Description Protocol (SDP) to negotiate the features to
be used during a call. This may include the bit-rate of
the connection and the algorithm to be used.
One of the challenges in broadcasting audio over
the Internet is creating reliable connections that support
remote broadcasting from different locations. In the
60 Audio
past, broadcasters have used IP addresses as a method
of connection but this has been complicated for two
reasons. IP addresses that are dynamically assigned
often change and are therefore not reliable for dialing.
In addition, private IP addresses, such as those
assigned over private LANs, cannot be dialed directly
by a device outside a private LAN. This principle is very
similar to dialing a phone’s extension number within a
PABX system. Extension numbers within these systems
cannot be dialed directly from outside the PABX.
To solve this requires either the programming of a
static public IP address into a device like a codec, or
the use of Network Address Translation (NAT) and port
forwarding to avoid firewall connection issues.
SIP can be used to work around this problem by
using a SIP server (registrar) to act as a gateway
between public and private IP networks. The first
step is to connect each SIP-compliant device to a SIP
registrar which assigns SIP addresses (similar to an
email address) to a device. Once two devices are SIPregistered they can find each other by connecting to SIP
servers and exchanging connection information. This
process is displayed in the following diagram.
When a SIP call is initiated, a SIP server establishes
a device’s location, determines its availability and,
negotiates the features to be used during a call. Audio
is then streamed according to those parameters.
Using SIP in Broadcast Audio
Applications
In many ways the future of SIP technology development
for broadcasting is being driven by the different
approaches required for audio contribution and remote
outside broadcast applications.
Tieline Technology, a leading broadcast audio
codec manufacturer, saw the potential of SIP several
years ago and since 2005 has been working on wired
and wireless IP solutions for broadcasters using SIP.
Tieline and its partners in the Audio-via-IP Experts
Group see SIP as the future of IP connectivity in
broadcasting. They recently worked together with the
EBU as part of a project group to test and develop
EBU-approved standards for audio contribution and
broadcasting over IP. These standards apply to
signaling and network profiles, audio coding and
transport protocols.
The EBU project group developed an
interoperability standard between manufacturers
based on open IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force) standards, which included SIP as a signaling
protocol.
Audio codecs that use SIP and are EBU compliant
should all be able to connect to each other more
easily than in the past. As a result, major broadcasters
in Europe will only consider purchasing IP codecs
that have implemented these EBU standards.
Recent interoperability testing by Tieline and eight
other European codec manufacturers found that they
were all able to connect over IP using SIP. These
tests used peer-to-peer connections that don’t use SIP
servers.
On the other hand, SIP-compatible audio codecs
registered to SIP servers can simply dial and connect
to other codecs and VoIP devices without knowing
their IP address. This hugely simplifies remote
broadcasting over IP and is particularly useful when
broadcast locations are constantly changing.
One current issue is that most current SIP servers
are configured for VoIP traffic and provide low
quality audio using G.711 or GSM algorithms. For
broadcast codecs to take advantage of SIP server
connectivity, the SIP server should support higher
quality algorithms such as MPEG, AAC and other
proprietary ones. This requires a broadcaster to use
a more compatible SIP server or transversal server to
negotiate higher quality connections.
Broadcasters will also face some other challenges
with SIP, including how to deal with Telcos who
block SIP traffic. This is done to stop SIP traffic
competing with other phone network products and
is accomplished by blocking port 5060, which SIP
uses to communicate between devices.
Negotiating all of these challenges will not happen
overnight, but SIP is already providing interoperability
between different codec brands in a multitude of
situations. The influence of SIP is certain to grow as
broadcasters work with industry stakeholders to further
develop SIP functionality in years to come.
An electronic version of this whitepaper can be
found on www.broadcastpapers.com
For more information, visit www.tieline.com.au
Audio
Audio
Tannoy Steers
the Sound
World’s first
professional
digital recording
microphone.
The HHB FlashMic is the world’s first professional
digital recording microphone. It combines a highquality, Sennheiser omnidirectional (DRM85) or
cardioid (DRM85-C) condenser capsule with an
inbuilt, 1GB broadcast-quality Flash recorder to
deliver a maximum recording time of over 18 hours.
Just one button press is all it takes to start
recording in either linear or MPEG 2 formats. Simple
‘drag and drop’ file transfer at up to 70x real time
to a Mac or PC for editing or onward transmission is
enabled by a ‘plug and play’ USB connection.
Two AA batteries provide more than 8 hours
continuous power and the included FlashMic
Manager Mac/PC software provides powerful
tools for naming and organising recordings, and
configuring the FlashMic for various applications.
Audition a FlashMic today;
COMPLETE
PACKAGE
The FlashMic comes
complete with a
pouch, stand clamp,
USB cable, FlashMic
Manager software,
2 x AA batteries and
user manual
CONNECTIVITY
VITY
FlashMic has a built in USB port for fast transfer of recorded data
to a computer. Both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 protocols are supported.
The headphone socket accepts a standard 3.5mm jack. The mono
signal from the A/D converter is buffered
uffered and sent to
both channels of the headphone jack.
ack. The output
from the headphone socket can also
lso be
connected to the analogue line-in
n on
any soundcard, should external
recording be required.
Demonstrated at a recent launch
in North Sydney, Syntec has
available Tannoy’s Qflex range of
digitally steerable, multi- channel,
array speaker systems for the
professional install market.
Qflex is able to achieve even
coverage and SPL which is
maintained across the listening
plane, and can create an
asymmetrical pattern which allows
similar SPL’s both in the near and
far field. It is able to steer the
beam away from surfaces that
cause reflections to frequencies
beyond 12kHz. This makes Qflex the first digitally steerable array to maintain
music quality over the desired area of coverage.
An intuitive BeamEngine GUI allows the designer to specify target areas.
Based on those target areas a steering algorithm is generated and tailored
for that specific area, rather than having to choose from a limited palette of
opening and steering angles.
Features include:
•Extremely intelligible speech and music reinforcement.
•Class leading steering control (+/- 70 degrees).
•Densely spaced transducers to defeat the effects of aliasing.
•Intuitive GUI.
•Integrated cutting edge DSP, network control and amplification.
•A dedicated amplifier channel for every transducer.
•Networkable with other Tannoy VNET products.
•Digital filter structure for efficient implementation and low latency.
•Uses a powerful Regularized Least-Squares Multichannel Inversion algorithm
for beam control.
Reach Syntec via www.syntec.com.au
SSL Upgrades AWS 900+
At the recent AES Convention, Solid State Logic announced a major upgrade
to the AWS 900+ Analogue Workstation System.
The AWS 900+ SE includes a MIDI over Ethernet system introduced this
year with the SSL Matrix console. MIDI over Ethernet replaces existing MIDI
connectivity with a single Ethernet connection that enables the console to
communicate directly with a DAW host computer, thus simplifying installation
and removing the need for a separate MIDI interface.
AWS 900+ SE also includes SSL’s Logictivity browser software, a DAW
host computer based project management browser application, which was
originally introduced on Duality. Logictivity facilitates TR and AWSomation
data storage and streamlined offline configuration capabilities including
scribble strip naming. The SE upgrade is available for purchase by existing
AWS 900 and AWS 900+ owners. Visit www.solid-state-logic.com.
For more information contact;
00 648 628
Syntec Australia: Free Call: 1800
syntec com au
Email: [email protected] | Web: www
www.syntec.com.au
Syntec New Zealand: Free Call: 0800 100 755
Email: [email protected] | Web: www.syntec.co.nz
62 Audio
Oursmallest
Sound Pro
Soundfirm Powers Post with JBL
Soundfirm, Australia’s largest and most highly awarded sound postproduction company, has provided award winning sound post-production
services for feature films, television drama series and television commercials
for over twenty-two years.
With three state-of-the-art facilities situated in the centre of Melbourne’s
production hub; on the Fox Studios lot in Sydney and in Central Beijing,
Soundfirm is fully equipped to meet all sound post production needs.
Soundfirm’s Sydney facility includes Film Mix One which is the largest
mixing stage in Australia. Many Australian and international feature films
have been completed in Film Mix One including “Rabbit Proof Fence”, “The
Quite American”, “No Reservations”, “Moulin Rouge”, “House of the Flying
Daggers” and most recently director John Woo’s epic two-part Chinese
language feature “Red Cliff.”
Certified to THX standards with a JBL 3632 3-way speaker system, Film
Mix One is capable of mixing and mastering in both Dolby Digital 5.1
surround (SRD) and Dolby Stereo.
Bruce Emery, Soundfirm’s Technical Manager, is a great fan of JBL audio
products particularly the JBL ScreenArray system that has been utilised day
in and day out for the past eight years at Film Mix One. The Screen Array
system is complemented by the room JBL 4642 Dual 18” subwoofers and
JBL 8340A, high powered surround speakers.
“Soundfirm has always used JBL audio products in their film mixing
rooms,” commented Bruce. “Three way monitoring is still the trend and
has improved the acoustics in the film sound industry, which is notoriously
slow to upgrade. It’s not like the music studios which seem to install new
versions of monitoring almost on a project to project basis. Film rooms don’t
need to change monitoring very often and when they do, they want to go
with something that is proven and reliable and gives good results. Our JBL
ScreenArray system has been working faultlessly for the past eight years and
it makes us compatible with other similar size film mix rooms both in Australia
and abroad. The JBL name is known, you never have to explain to people
who they are as it really is a benchmark of quality and reliability.”
Crown amplifiers are used to drive the audio system in Film Mix One
as well as the other main mix rooms which also utilise JBL in the form of
JBL Screen Channel systems. In fact all recent additions to the Soundfirm
surround systems are based on JBL Surround loudspeakers. Edit suites and
small screening spaces are fitted with the JBL LSR range of powered studio
monitoring.
“We’ve recently been buying lots of 5.1 packs of both sizes of the JBL
LSR self-powered studio speakers,” added Bruce. “The sound quality for the
price is great and we’re able to get compatibility across all of the editing
rooms as well as a nice compatibility between those rooms and what we
have in the mix rooms. The fact that the speakers have digital inputs means
that we’re maintaining a total digital environment and using the speakers
in a variety of room sizes and shapes, we’re also using the room mode
correction function in the speakers to provide consistent acoustics.”
Contact Jands on (02) 9582 0909 or email [email protected]
The new MKE1
Whether for musicians and
live shows, or for broadcasting
applications, the MKE 1 –
Sennheiser’s smallest clip-on
microphone performs at its best in
all situations where a microphone
needs to be virtually invisible and
still offer outstanding sound quality.
Reliability
Sweat protected by a newly
developed protective membrane, the
MKE 1 stands up better than other
clip-on microphones to harsh live
conditions. It’s special gauze and
multi-purpose cap offer additional
protection from moisture so that
it only picks us what it is meant to
pick up - perfect sound. The MKE 1 is
robust in every respect. The Kevlar™
reinforced cable with moulded antikink sleeve minimises handling noise
and makes this a
microphone you
can rely upon
completely.
For more information contact;
Syntec Australia: Free Call: 1800 648 628
Email: [email protected] | Web: www.syntec.com.au
Syntec New Zealand: Free Call: 0800 100 755
Email: [email protected] | Web: www.syntec.co.nz
Sennheiser are proud to be the sound partner for Sydney Opera House
Audio 63
Radio
Spill Page
THE ORIGINAL BROADCAST MEDIA
RADIO
ACMA Assigns Channels
Harris Gets 3 Gb/s-Ready for Remote DTV Repeaters
Digital Radio: a Brave New World for Advertising
The introduction of DAB+ digital radio
services in Australia in 2009 will give
radio broadcasters the ability to not
only broadcast crystal clear adverts,
but also accompanying images. This
is something the TV fraternity takes for
granted as audio and visual elements
of a piece of content are contained
within the same ‘file’. Not so in the
audio world!
This has led James Douglas,
General Manager of Adstream, Bill
Barrington, GM of Southern Cross
Syndication to seek out a technology
and workflow solution that will
synchronise the transmission of audio
and image component of a DAB+
broadcast.
Speaking at the recent National
Radio Conference on the Gold
Coast, the pair illustrated the potential
problems that could arise if “a Toyota
ad was broadcast with a Ford
image”.
Highlighting the fact that there is
no applied industry standard relating
to commercials, the pair pointed out
that:
• Stations time scale ads by as much as 8% to
bring them to a standard duration for networking
resulting in audible distortion;
• Spots are frequently encoded to MP3 for
distribution with no bit rate consistency;
• Bit rate can vary from 56k to 256k and engineers
are concerned about the impact this will have on
Digital Radio;
• With no quality control the same problems could
also affect images.
Part of the problem is that there is no standard
naming protocol, audio files are hard to track and
duplication of file names is common. Images add
complexity and compound the potential for error,
and a lack of a unique ID will makes the media
‘union’ difficult to manage.
“In no other media is there such a disconnection
between the two parts of the one commercial at the
time of delivery as that which will exist with digital
content,” said James Douglas.
Douglas and Barrington have proposed a twopronged strategy to solve this disconnect.
The first prong involves establishing production
standards for commercials, and they advocate the
following.
64 Radio
with existing audio tools. In other
words, it survives analogue transfer.
Image and audio quality control
is established at distribution and
broadcast points for consistency with
current practices in television and
print. Image and audio would not be
independent. A change would require
both to be re-submitted.
At the point of broadcast, the audio
would be scanned for a watermark
and content would undergo the
following process:
•
If there is a watermark and
it does not match the waiting image
the audio proceeds, but the image is
denied and a standby substituted - the
recommendation is for the standby
image to be minimum size for fast
transmission;
•
If there is a match, then the
image is displayed;
•
If there is no watermark then
both audio and image proceed.
This method allows reliable image
and audio correlation; it also can be
used for automated image display
triggered by any pre-recorded audio.
Polling in Palestine
For Audio:
• File Format:16 bit 48Khz uncompressed PCM
audio
• Duration: 1% tolerance
• Headers: EBU Broadcast Wave File Format
• Naming: File name to reflect key number
For Images:
• File Formats:JPEG, PNG, APNG
• Orientation: Landscape
• Size: 320 pixels wide x 240 pixels high
• Animation: 10 frames per second – maximum
• Tagging Standard: EXIF image data
The pair says Downloadable Sounds (DLS)
standards could be included in this framework.
The second part of the solution is to adopt a
reliable means of matching audio and image.
They say this could be achieved by assigning a
Unique ID to both the audio & image files (allocated
from, say, a Commercial Radio Australia website).
The Unique ID would be embedded into the
audio using a Digital Audio Watermark at point of
distribution; and embedded into the image using
EXIF tags, also at the distribution point.
Watermarking creates a data channel in the
audio to carry the ID with complete compatibility
Phabrix Sews Up Test for 3G-SDI, HD-SDI and SD-SDI
Winner of the IABM Peter Wayne Award for Design
and Innovation at IBC2008, the Phabrix SxA is the
World’s first 3G-SDI, HD-SDI and SD-SDI portable
video test signal generator, analyser and monitor.
In addition to SDI the unit also supports AES/EBU
audio testing and monitoring. The SxA’s intuitive
interface allows the professional engineer to quickly
select from generator, analyser and monitor toolsets.
Feedback is smooth and interactive clearly displaying
a full range of test patterns, both static and animated
on its clear 4.3, 16:9 colour TFT screen.
The SxA offers Auto Bi-Ievel, Tri-Ievel and SDI
genlock with cross lock capability which is so
important for a range of broadcast applications.
The combined audio features of the SxA include
support for 16 channels of embedded audio to
Klotz to Rebuild Austero
Melbourne
Klotz Digital has won the tender for the rebuild of
the Melbourne radio facilities of Austereo. Klotz
Digital Australia will provide VADIS D.C.II mixing
consoles, VADIS 888 frames for all on-air studios,
pre-production studios and all news booths. In
addition to this Klotz Digital Australia will also
provide all signal routing for the Main Control
Room (MCR) and a VARIZONE digital Public
Address System.
“We are honoured to have been chosen again
by Austereo. Through the close work between the
Austereo engineers and our staff, I believe that we
have come up with a system design which will
set the standard for a long time to come,” said
Patrick Salloch, General Manager of Klotz Digital
Asia Pacific.
The Austereo contract follows that of ABC
Melbourne tender in late 2007, which will see the
Australian branch deliver and configure 16 on-air
studios for the ABC up until the end of 2008.
complete the suite of functions. The AES functionality
of the Phabrix SxA allows the user to embed a single
external 48kHz synchronous AES stream into the
generated video stream. Audio de-embed using the
SxA’s analyzer function allows the user to receive a
video stream with embedded audio on one of the
AES pairs, stripping the audio to be exported onto
the AES output - a useful function for those working
with a Dolby DM100.
The Phabrix SxA also has a built-in USB and
Ethernet connectivity for remote operation allowing
an engineer to interrogate the Sx in the field where
it may have been left for field trials of equipment and
the sophisticated data logging function is required.
The core device contains a generator, analyser and
monitor with support for 3G-SDI, HD-SDI and SD-
SDI. Using simple button press control and the colour
coded menu system, each of the different instruments
can be selected within three presses. Specific set-up
preferences can be saved into the memory making
the SxA personal to the specific user if required ready
to be used on repeat tasks where commissioning of
equipment is important. The SxA is ideal for studio,
DB, and lab environments operating from either the
internal battery or via the included mains adaptor.
For Australian enquiries, contact the AV Group on +
61 (0)2 9764 5911 or visit www.avgroup.com.au.
In New Zealand, contact Cobalt Technologies on
+64 9 413 9070 or visit www.cobalt.co.nz.
For enquiries in Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand,
Indonesia and Singapore, contact TekMark via
www.tekmarkgroup.com
Radio
Radio
DAB+ Hits the Traffic Down Under
Your car radio soon could know whether you
will be late for work before you even head out the
door, following the test of a new digital radio service
by Intelematics Australia, and the launch of another trial
service by Sentinel Content and Commercial Radio
Australia.
Intelematics has begun testing a new free-to-air
service which would allow radio stations to deliver
traffic flow information snapshots directly to motorists’
digital radios, including time taken to travel along
motorways and major arterial roads.
Intelematics, which already provides the SUNA realtime traffic service for portable GPS navigation devices,
expects to launch the service in Australia next year. To
receive the service, motorists would just need a digital
receiver or device with a Digital Audio Broadcasting
(DAB+) chip and tune in to a supporting radio station.
The digital radio service allows motorists to receive
short text-based traffic messages or images which
are broadcast in conjunction with their regular radio
station programs. Intelematics provides the information
by accessing raw traffic flow data from a network of
sensors embedded in the road to deliver real travel time
information along major city arterials.
Adam Game, Chief Executive Officer, Intelematics
said the flexibility of digital radio meant the service
could be used a wide variety of ways.
“A radio station broadcasting commentary for a
football final could send through information on traffic
conditions around the ground for those travelling to the
game,” Mr Game said. “Other potential applications
include daily travel time information on popular roads
or alerts when significant accidents or other incidents
occur.”
Intelematics is hoping to undertake on-road testing
during the coming months.
Sentinel Content and Commercial Radio Australia
(CRA), meanwhile, have begun live demonstration
John Pearce of 2GO FM/SEA FM Outlines his ACRA Award Winning Entry for Engineering Excellence.
broadcasts of real-time traffic information on digital
radio.
Digital radio services will begin in Sydney,
Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth in the first
half of 2009. Sentinel, an Australian live content and
service provision company, has been working closely
with CRA since March 2008 to access and develop
the first live Australian demonstration of traffic reports
and other traveller information broadcast over Transport
Protocol Experts Group (TPEG) Traffic using digital
radio technology.
“We offer more than just traffic information” says
Sentinel Content’s General Manager, Danny Woolard.
“Through the next generation of digital radios, the
information we can provide to people on the move will
allow them to plan the best time to leave and what
route to take to a destination, taking into account traffic
incidents, road-works, travel times and road safety
information.”
“You will also get real-time petrol pricing, not just
where you are, but where you are going,” Mr Woolard
said. “And when you get there you can get information
ahead of time about how many parking spots are left
in a car park as well as accommodation pricing and
vacancies.”
Sentinel has been working with German technology
partner GEWI, to deliver the technical TPEG Digital
Radio standard. With their joint experience they have
been extensively involved in the development of the new
broadcast data service standards and deployments
of traffic services. The new Australian service uses a
similar technology platform which is proven and widely
deployed throughout Europe.
Sentinel’s Road Sense Traffic and its other live
information services cover major population areas in
all Australian States. They can be accessed through
Sentinel’s demonstration web site myDrive.com.au and
197drive.com.au; a premium rate SMS text message
service. The company has also recently released a
GPRS-TMC server to server service which delivers traffic
information direct to mobile phones and in-vehicle GPS
satellite navigation devices.
Visit www.intelematics.com.au and
www.sentinelcontent.com.au
ABC Modernises PNG Radio with IDC
International Datacasting Corporation has
announced that the company, in partnership with
its Australian distributor UGL Infrastructure, has
received an order from the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, (ABC) to upgrade and modernise
the Papua New Guinea, (PNG) radio network.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
(ABC), Australia’s national public broadcaster, is
working with AusAID, the Australian Government
Overseas Aid programme, to provision a next
generation radio broadcasting system throughout
Papua New Guinea.
The Papua New Guinea Satellite Radio Project
will incorporate IDC’s SuperFlex Pro Audio system
comprising uplink/head-end equipment and
the latest generation of the Company’s DVB-S/
S2 professional satellite radio receivers. The
66 Radio
Paperless Production System
SuperFlex Pro Audio product line takes advantage
of DVB-S/S2 technology to provide bandwidth
savings of over 30 percent on satellite transponders
and features Multi Channel Per Carrier (MCPC)
operation and IP multicast for the delivery of multiple
channels of content to radio broadcast stations. The
technology also features MPEG4 High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) technology to
provide high quality audio performance.
The system uses NetManager, IDC’s over-thesatellite network management system, to interface
with and remotely control the SuperFlex Audio
receivers. Able to control individual receivers,
special groups and the entire network, NetManager
securely maintains and updates system configuration
information.
The communications systems division of IDC’s
Australian based distributor, UGL Infrastructure, will
implement the new uplink system and has been
trained to provide first level, in-country support on
the new system backed up by IDC’s comprehensive
Priority 247 Support organization.
“We are extremely proud that ABC has
selected SuperFlex Pro Audio for the upgrade
and modernisation of their Papua New Guinea
network. ABC has been a customer of IDC for
over 15 years and we are pleased that they
have once again selected our technology as they
begin the modernization of their networks. This
cutting edge solution using IDC products and
technologies is exciting and will make the Papua
New Guinea network one of the most advanced
systems in the world,” said Ron Clifton, President
and CEO of IDC.
Production Studio 2, first studio to be brought online with the Paperless Production System. The producer’s screen displays all scripts to be read, as
well as doubling as a follow screen for the booth prompter.
The Central Coast Radio Centre Paperless Production
System is a cost and time saving system removing
paper from the complex sales/creative/production/
voice booth workflow of the radio stations.
The system was designed to meet the need for a
more efficient and reliable flow of information between
the different departments involved in commercial
production and imaging production at CCRC.
The system starts with account managers creating
creative briefs on their own PC in their own time, and
placing them in the ‘Creative Inbox’, from there the
creative team are able to delegate, write, park and
acquire approval for scripts.
Once approved, production is notified that there are
ads to be written and voice talent are informed that they
have scripts to read. Once the voice talent arrives in the
voice booth the script is displayed on computer screens
visible to the producer and talent.
The backbone of the system is automated and
therefore completely eliminates the remedial work
associated with a paper based system; tasks such as
walking briefs and scripts around the building and
physically chasing voice talent are no longer required.
All scripts are tracked and logged and at a glance all
users are able to view the status of any item.
The versatility of this Paperless Production System
allows it to be deployed into any radio or television
station. The simplicity and use of all standard IT
hardware makes it very easy and inexpensive to
implement and maintain.
COST EFFICIENCY
On initially inspection, paper is the obvious cost saving,
on an average workday one ream of paper is used in
Two of the four Creative workstations; each with dual screen PC’s to
allow reading from Sales Breifs and writing to Scripts simultaneously.
Creative writers also have a station automation PC (NexGen) to review
produced commercials and add ‘live read’ scripts directly for on-air
announcers to read without paper.
Central Coast Radio Centre’s commercial production
and imaging production. At almost $9 per ream these
savings quickly add up to over $2300.00 per year.
The real cost savings come from the efficiency of
workflow, the ability for an account manager or
creative writer to, at a glance, gather information on
where his/her script is up to in the system. Also, for
producers and voice artists this system allows them to
quickly identify work to be completed. This information
can be acquired by any user from any PC connected
to the network without the need to stop what they are
doing and interrupt other members of staff.
At Central Coast Radio Centre, like many other
radio stations, staff efficiency is paramount to hitting
the high expectations of quality and quantity.
John can be contacted via
[email protected]
Production Recording Booth 2, picture shows booth prompter screen
which allows voice talent to read directly from a dynamic script without
paper. The script can be updated or comments added as the voice talent
reads, this allows archiving of the final version of the script.
Radio 67
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Mediaproxy
Unveils Version 7
SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION, TEST & MEASUREMENT
Software Solution for Digital TV Updates
Australian Digital Testing Pty Limited has signed a
landmark agreement with the ABC to establish a
digital TV Over the Air System Update (OASSU)
facility in Australia.
Australian Digital Testing Pty Limited is Australia’s
first independent digital television testing and
conformance centre. Located at North Ryde,
Australian Digital Testing maintains a digital television
receiver ‘farm’ and has a suite of tests to ensure
digital TV products conform to digital television
reception and energy efficiency standards.
LG Electronics Australia, Panasonic Australia,
Samsung Electronics Australia and Sony Australia
are the first subscribers to the Australian facility.
The Ai Group’s Australian Digital Suppliers Industry
Forum has been the coordinating body working with
the ABC.
OASSU enables consumer electronics suppliers to
efficiently update the software in digital televisions,
personal video recorders and set top boxes
without any inconvenience to the viewer.
By utilising the ABC’s national transmission
network, a consumer electronics supplier has the
option to update one, some or all of that supplier’s
digital televisions without any interruption or
inconvenience to the digital TV viewer.
The facility will be available to any subscribing
consumer electronics supplier to fix software bugs
and to add features to their digital television
equipment in the market.
Digital televisions are driven by software. Even
a supplier with a relatively small market share
could be exposed to extensive software updating
costs if a problem arises with the transmission or
reception of digital television. A subscription to
the OASSU facility is the ‘insurance policy’ that’s
now finally available to digital television suppliers
in Australia.
Australian Digital Testing tests, authorises and
schedules the software update prior to transmission
by the ABC. Australian Digital Testing also advises
consumer electronics suppliers on how to implement
the necessary OASSU capability within their digital
TV receivers.
The ABC has been a strong and active supporter
of the establishment of an OASSU facility in
Australia. OASSU enables free to air broadcasters to
benefit from the dynamic nature of digital television
transmission by delivering increased spectrum
efficiencies without being limited by legacy software
within digital television receivers in viewers’ homes.
OASSU is a critical part of the infrastructure for
any digital television system. A facility has been
available to free to air digital TV suppliers in the
United Kingdom for some years and similar facilities
are being introduced in many European countries.
Visit www.digitaltesting.com.au
DTV Reception Survey for Apartments
Australian apartment and townhouse residents in
Canberra, Gold Coast, Perth, Melbourne and
Sydney will be able to take advantage of a $1
million technical survey announced by Minister
for Broadband, Communications and the Digital
Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.
“The Rudd Government is getting on with the
job of the digital TV switchover. This research
arrangement will allow us to meet our commitment
in a sensible, considered way,” Senator Conroy
said.
Foreshadowed earlier this year, the survey will
address the special digital TV reception issues
for some flats, apartments and townhouses, or
Multi-Dwelling Units, and will be conducted by
Australian Digital Testing.
It will concentrate on apartment blocks and
townhouse complexes that use a single aerial to
provide TV reception within the block.
Executive Director of the Rudd Government’s
Digital Switchover Taskforce, Andy Townend,
said the research will provide vital information
ahead of the digital switchover, which will be
completed by 2013.
“We will survey six hundred sites across the
nation to provide estimates of the cost and timeframes needed to rectify problems within different
sizes and types of buildings so we can provide
H.264 Codec from HaiVision
Australian monitoring and logging specialist
Mediaproxy has introduced version 7 of its flagship
Enigma LogServer system.
The Enigma 7 platform incorporates several
enhancements, which are designed to increase
long-term usability, and support the expanding IPTV
market.
Version 7 offers full support for IPTV/ASI sources.
It will feature a web browser interface that enables
users to review, stream, configure and monitor all
logging resources. It also features searchable caption
logging, notification of keywords, and support for
multiple caption and text channels.
Mediaproxy’s flexible package eliminates banks of
long-play recorders, and replaces them with compact
servers linked to the existing LAN/WAN/Intranet
infrastructure - with media retention for weeks, months
or even years archived to optical disk.
The system allows online retrieval in seconds by
any authorised person from almost any location.
It also provides confidence monitoring of diverse
program streams from multiple sites, including
real-time alarm indication, audio alerts and email
notifications.
Plus, the system can be easily adapted to the
different regulatory requirements in every region.
Visit www.mediaproxy.com
The MAKO-HD, from HaiVision Systems, is
an H.264 codec for telepresence, interactive
broadcast (remote interviews), and medical
applications.
As a codec for the hai1000 multi-stream system, it
provides low end-to-end latency - 70 milliseconds
- and supports up to 1080p resolution at up to
10 Mbps.
This codec also supports full-frame rate WXGA
computer input. The MAKO-equipped hai1000
can support up to 10 interactive streams of high
definition simultaneously. For addressing multibandwidth distribution, the MAKO provides for
HiLo streaming, emitting both high-resolution and
CIF resolution simultaneously for the same source.
MAKO is interoperable with set-top boxes,
soft players, and Flash and Quicktime streaming
servers.
HaiVision also has available the SHAREHD Network Video Record Server. Specifically
designed for the medical, education, simulation
and military markets, SHARE-HD captures multiple
streams synchronously and can replay these multistream sessions to performance decoders, set-top
boxes, or soft players. It can record up to 10 HD
or 20 SD streams.
Visit www.haivision.com
Encoder, PCI Express
Capture Card
ViewCast has introducde its Niagara GoStream
SURF - the newest in the Niagara line of encoders,
all of which are based on ViewCast’s Osprey video
capture technology.
This encoder is the smallest in the Niagara
GoStream portable encoder family. Users can capture
video to send multiple full-resolution streams to PCs
and mobile devices in multiple formats at multiple
bit rates - all simultaneously in real time. It’s ideal for
broadcasters, businesses, and government institutions
that need to be able to stream video on location,
while broadcasting live or on-demand.
It supports MPEG-4, Adobe Flash Live, Microsoft
Windows Media, RealVideo, and uncompressed
AVI.
The company has also introduced the Osprey-450e
PCI Express Video Capture Card, which can capture
four individual channels of analogue video and
unbalanced stereo audio channels simultaneously and
process them independently, significantly minimising
internal PC space requirements. The higher channel
density means fewer computer systems are required
to capture multiple channels - reducing overall
system costs. The Osprey-450e PCIe card also takes
advantage of the high-speed PCI Express bus for
maximum performance.
Visit www.viewcast.com
Solving Your Multi-Platform
Video Puzzle
From IPTV and VOD to mobile phones and the Web,
Digital Rapids has the solutions to make the most of
today’s multi-platform content opportunities. Spanning
the critical points in your workflow, Digital Rapids’
products give you the power to repurpose media at
top quality in any format for any audience, anywhere.
With all the right pieces to boost your productivity,
quality and efficiency, Digital Rapids can help turn your
multi-platform strategy from a puzzle into profits.
timely and practical advice to the public,” Mr
Townend said.
The Taskforce is calling for expressions of interest
from strata owners, building managers and other
relevant parties to have their buildings included in
the project. The selected buildings will undergo a
full inspection and a free report will be provided
highlighting the status of the building, conversion
cost and likely time-frame of any upgrade.
Expressions of interest from relevant parties can
be sent to [email protected]
Visit www.adimex.com.au/digitalrapids to learn
how.
*OHFTUt&ODPEFt5SBOTDPEFt4USFBNt%FMJWFSt1SPUFDUt1MBZPVU
Proudly distributed by
digital
www.adimex.com.au/digitalrapids
rapids
TM
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Broadcast Australia ‘Chalks-Up’ 500th DTTB service
In a ‘world’s first’ achievement, leading broadcast
transmission provider, Broadcast Australia, has
successfully deployed its 500th digital terrestrial
television broadcast (DTTB) transmitter. Located at
Broadcast Australia’s recently upgraded Mt Read
site on Tasmania’s western coast, the company’s
latest facility transmits digital video broadcastingterrestrial (DVB-T) services.
Broadcast Australia’s 500th digital television
service represents a significant milestone in
the deployment of what it is believed to be
geographically the largest DTTB network in the
world. It is the latest addition to a massive Australiawide network, spanning approximately 580 sites
and a geographic area of almost 77 million square
kilometres. So far, the DTTB network deployment
has rolled out in stages since 2001–starting
in metropolitan centres, followed by regional
centres, translator sites, major tourist areas, and
rural Australia. Over 97.3 per cent of Australia’s
population now has access to DTV services.
According to Broadcast Australia Engineering
Team Leader, Andrew Clements, Broadcast
Australia’s strength centres on its experience in the
design, deployment, management, and operation
of end-to-end digital broadcast networks.
expertise in the digital broadcast arena.”
This expertise extends to detailed coverage
plans and network design, plus deployment and
site upgrade strategies.
“Furthermore, most Broadcast Australia’s DTTB
transmission facilities are linked to our network
operations centre (NOC) in Gore Hill, Sydney,
which provides real-time monitoring and control,”
Clements said. “In addition to our 500 fully
managed DTTB services, our network hosts nearly
200 additional digital services, plus over 1370
analogue television and radio services.”
As host of Broadcast Australia’s 500th DTTB
service, Mt Read exemplifies the dedicated
engineering approach the company takes.
“The site fulfils two important roles,” Clements
said. “It provides DTV coverage to the nearby
town of Rosebery, and at the same time is a key
element in the program distribution network via
UHF ‘line-of-sight’ links. Owing to the extreme
weather conditions experienced by the site,
we’ve installed custom-designed ice-resistant
radomes on the UHF solid dish antennas.
The end-result is an improvement in overall
availability of television services to the region.”
Visit www.broadcastaustralia.com.au
SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION, TEST & MEASUREMENT
“Digital networks are significantly different to
analogue networks, demanding a multiplicity of
new technology and expertise,” he said. “We
have pioneered many of the techniques and skills
required for establishing and operating successful
DTTB transmission services, resulting in a unique
Harris Gets 3 Gb/s-Ready
ACMA Assigns Channels
for Remote DTV Repeaters
Harris Corporation used the recent IBC2008 show
to unveil a complete portfolio of 3 Gb/s-ready
technology designed to enable broadcasters to
easily and affordably transition from standard
definition (SD) to high definition (HD) and all the
way to 1080p broadcasting, including signal
processors, multiviewers, test and measurement,
routers and servers.
Harris showed support of 1080p I/O for its
NEXIO AMP advanced media platform, now
making it a 3 Gb/s-ready broadcast server. This
functionality enhances the broad range of HD and
SD video formats the NEXIO AMP platform already
supports, and enables broadcasters to more easily
migrate to the emerging 1080p format.
In signal processing, Harris debuted the X85
enhanced all-in-one processor. The X85 adds
all-new features into its space-saving 1RU frame:
a linear frame rate conversion option converts
59.94 Hz and 50 Hz-based signals; dual-channel
processing provides maximum efficiency; and a 3
Gb/s upgrade capability.
Harris also unveiled the SFS6800+ — a 3
Gb/s embedded audio/video synchroniser.
The SFS6800+ provides both video and audio
synchronization and delay for SD-SDI (and
optionally HD-SDI and 3 Gb/s), integrated audio
and video processing amplifiers, and support for
four-AES audio embedding, de-embedding, and
insertion/removal of Dolby metadata. Other
The Australian Communications and Media
Authority has allotted and assigned digital
channels for television repeater services in 94
areas in Remote Central and Eastern Australia.
Areas include Bourke, Lightning Ridge,
Menindee and Wilcannia in Far West New
South Wales; Bathurst Island, Groote Eylandt,
Jabiru and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory;
Charleville, Cunnamulla, Longreach, Roma and
Weipa in Queensland and Ceduna, Coober
Pedy and Roxby Downs in South Australia.
ACMA has also identified as yet unassigned
channels that may be used for other purposes,
including datacasting, in areas where channels for
both national and commercial or only commercial
services are identified.
According to Chris Chapman, ACMA
Chairman, “These plans may have some impact
on the use of VCRs and set-top boxes, although
any disruption is expected to be relatively minor
as, in most cases, all that will be required is retuning.”
The decisions are contained in explanatory
papers and variations to the commercial and
national digital channel plans, released by ACMA.
Summaries of the assignment of channels, including
unassigned channels, and the explanatory paper
and variations to the digital channel plans are
available on the ACMA website, or by calling
1800 226 667.
70 Transmission
highlights in signal processing included NEO
XHD-3903 HDTV converter available with builtin 3 Gb/s 1080p 50/59.94 processing and
conversion capabilities, and a range of OPTO+
fibre products in the 6800+ platform, which offer
3 Gb/s electrical-to-optical and optical-to-electrical
conversion capabilities.
In routing, the Platinum MX 3 Gb/s router
series, in a space-saving 5RU frame, offers highquality signal routing up to 72x64 and high-end
options such as integrated CENTRIO multiviewer
and mux/demux, the 5RU Platinum MX provides
customers with a high-capacity, small-footprint
routing solution that supports a mix of any signal
— video and audio, from analogue to 3 Gb/s
HD-SDI.
For test and measurement applications, Harris
showed a new 3 Gb/s dual-input module for its
Videotek VTM and TVM series. The VTM Series
now adds the new 3 Gb/s module to provide
a combined package offering SD, HD and 3
Gb/s performance — including integral 3 Gb/
HD/SD signal source for complete system testing.
Also 3 Gb/s-capable is the new Videotek AVM717-3GB, a self-contained test and measurement
solution that supports all existing HD formats
including 1080p, as well as standard-definition
SDI and optionally, composite analogue.
Visit www.harris.com or call
+61 2 9975 9742.
EtherTV deLuxe
Madrid-based SIDSA has introduced EtherTV deLuxe,
an improved version of its original EtherTV IP gateway,
which allows users to distribute more TV and radio
channels, and offers DVB-H streaming.
Ether TV is a professional IP gateway that provides
live TV streaming for triple-play networks. It is able to
distribute and unlimited number of TV channels to an
unlimited number of viewers equipped with IP set-topbox or PCs.
The system can basically stream any type of
DVB signal, including DVB-T and DVB-S/S2, into IP
networks.
SIDSA also provides IP encoder-streamers, both
MPEG-2 and H264.AVC, as well as its brand-new
HDTV H264.AVC encoder.
Visit www.sidsa.com
ADC Connects
ADC has available the ProPatch Miniature
(PPM) series Super High-Density Coax (SHDC)
HD patching system, and the ProAx Hybrid
Fibre (HF) camera connector.
The company also offers ProAx Quad Fibre
- a harsh-environment multi-fibre connector,
along with its UniPatch GigE Patch Panel - a
high-density patching system designed for
demanding environments.
Visit www.adc.com
Pebble Beach Intros New Automation Features
Pebble Beach Systems has announced enhanced features for its range of Neptune automation
systems.
These features include greater scalability, an ingest resource timeline, integration with Rhozet
transcoders, a host of new drivers, a random access news list for easy control of news playout and
secondary templates, which enable users to group frequently used secondary sequences for easy recall
at a future time.
The Pebble Beach Systems News list has been developed to give broadcasters rapid control over
dynamic content, such as live and breaking news that is played to air from a newsroom environment.
The company has developed a new interface to DNF control panels to make the News List as
responsive as possible. This allows the operator to select any decoder to play at the press of a single
button, as well as control ingest, quick-turn recordings, material preview and basic editing/trimming
from a single GUI.
The company’s new Ingest Resource Timeline provides a graphical view of devices used for ingest
within the system, where users are able to monitor running and scheduled ingest jobs and resources.
Secondary templates will enable users to configure a number of secondaries to be inserted by
default whenever a new live or media event is inserted into the list.
In addition, Pebble Beach Systems offers several new drivers for its Neptune Automation Systems
including drivers for direct control of a range of Axon interface cards, Eyeheight’s ARC products, as
well as the Aurora control protocol from Pro-Bel.
The company also offers a new driver for Digital Rapids’ Rapid StreamZ encoders. Once encoded,
the company’s Anchor Media Manager can be employed to intelligently move content through a facility
based upon rules specifically tailored to the workflow of the customer.
Anchor Media Manager provides deep storage management as part of its playout automation.
New features for Anchor Media Manager include data tape defragmentation and integration with
higher capacity LTO4 drives. The system is also integrated with a range of transcoder engines from
Rhozet, IPV and Telestream.
Visit www.pebble.tv
ProPatch® Programmable
Audio Patching
UniPatch® GigE Series
s
#AT%CHANNELCOMPLIANT2ATEDCYCLES
s
$)03WITCHPROGRAMMABLEFORmEXIBILITY
s
(IGHDENSITYMODULARDESIGNCIRCUITSPERPANEL
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EXCEPTIONORSTRAIGHTTHROUGHMODULES
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PATCHCORDS
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!VAILABLEWITHAVARIETYOFBACKCHASSISTERMINATIONOPTIONS
Australian Distributor
New Zealand Distributor
Phone: 02 94824533 Fax: 02 94824769
Free Call: 1800 15 13 14 Email: [email protected]
Web: www.teltec.com.au
Auckland New Zealand
Phone: +64-9 413 9070 Fax: +64-9 413 8484
Email: [email protected] Web: www.cobalt.co.nz
!LSOASKUSABOUTOURNEWPATENTEDPro-Patch® Miniature Series3($#
Transmission 71
ANDProAx® Hybrid Fiber ConnectorsORVISITadc.com/broadcastandentertainment
Transmission
Transmission
Milestone for UK Switchover
UK Transmission service provider Arqiva has confirmed
that the Digital Switch Over process in the England/
Scotland Border region has begun successfully and the
high-power digital TV signal is now being transmitted
from the main Selkirk transmitter and eleven relay sites Bonchester Bridge, Clovenfords, Eyemouth, Galashiels,
Hawick, Innerleithen, Jedburgh, Lauder, Peebles, Stow,
and Yetholm.
The BBC 2 analogue signal was switched off at
00:31am on Thursday 6 November 2008 and the
digital signal for the PSB1 multiplex, which is owned by
the BBC and carries channels including BBC One, BBC
Two, BBC Three, CBBC, BBC News and BBCi, was
switched on at 02:16am on Thursday 6 November
2008 (except Eyemouth and Innerleithen which came
on stream at 10:05 am).
Peter Heslop, DSO Programme Director at Arqiva,
said, “We are pleased to confirm that all transmitters in
Live DVB-SH Mobile TV
A number of major players joined forces at
IBC2008 to present a live demonstration of full
end-to-end DVB-SH mobile TV in S-Band and
in UHF. Participants included Alcatel-Lucent,
Audemat, Axcera, DiBcom, RVR Elettronica,
Sagem Mobiles, Sidsa, TeamCast and UDcast.
On the Alcatel-Lucent booth, additional mobile
TV demonstrations were presented including live
DVB-SH in UHF, unified UHF/S-Band access on
a single handset, and unified DVB-H/DVB-SH
access on a single handset, making it possible
to receive up to 45 live broadcast TV channels
on a single handset. A drive tour around the RAI
convention centre premises was also offered by
Alcatel-Lucent to IBC visitors wishing to enjoy highquality DVB-SH mobile TV on handsets while inside
a moving car.
DVB-SH (Digital Video Broadcast – Satellite
services to Handhelds) is an evolution of DVB-H and
a powerful mobile broadcast standard allowing
cost-effective mobile TV deployments. It can be used
in any frequency spectrum below 3GHz, including
UHF, L-Band and S-Band, this in terrestrial only,
satellite only or also in hybrid networks.
The DVB-SH in S-band signal was made available
throughout Amsterdam’s RAI convention centre
Broadcasting
Where Australia’s
television and radio
industries meet
Chris Chapman
ACMA Chair
Cocktail sponsor
Lunch sponsor
72 Transmission
Tel: (02)
8908 8555
using Alcatel-Lucent’s 9600 broadcast mobile TV
transmitters series which support DVB-SH, DVB-H
and DVB-T. They include technological elements from
TeamCast (DVB-SH modulators) and UDcast (DVB-SH
IP encapsulators). The demonstration used handsets
from Sagem Mobiles, the first mobile phones
equipped with the DVB-SH/DVB-H technology, with
DiBcom’s DIB29098 quad-band DVB-SH/DVB-H/
DVB-T diversity receiver. Additional terrestrial gap
fillers were provided by Selecom. Coverage for the
demonstration was validated using the Navigator
DVB-SH, a multi-standard portable test and
measurement equipment provided by Audemat.
Pre programme discount rate of $995+GST available
Hurry - offer expires 21st November
7th Annual Australian
Tony Maddox
Executive
Vice President &
Managing Director
CNN International
the Selkirk transmitter group have successfully completed
the first stage of Digital Switchover. This is an ambitious
broadcast engineering project which will see 1154
sites switch over during the next four years and Arqiva is
extremely proud to be supporting the government and
Digital UK in this project. As a result of Digital Switch
Over, free digital terrestrial television will be available
to almost all of the UK through a roof-top aerial, just as
analogue terrestrial television has been for decades.”
4th & 5th March 2009
Sydney Convention Centre
Video Transport
Systems
Digital Rapids has a new version of its StreamZ
Live - a live streaming media encoder with for
applications ranging from live IPTV channels to
webcasting and mobile video. StreamZ Live offers
a choice of encoding formats, including H.264/
AVC, VC-1/WMV, On2 VP6 for Adobe Flash,
MPEG-2, and in the newest model, 3GPP/
Mobile.
New features for its Broadcast Manager – a
management application for multiple live streaming
encoders – include mosaic-style multi-channel
confidence monitoring and router matrix control.
The company also introduced new software
versions for its StreamZ and StreamZHD media
ingest, encoding, transcoding and streaming
systems.
Digital Rapids Transcode Manager - the
company’s automated, distributed, high-volume
transcoding application - now offers expanded
format support
The CarbonHD HD/SD digital disk recorder with
integrated HD/SD format conversion now features
a new streamlined user interface for managing
capture, clip trimming, playlisting and playout.
Visit www.digital-rapids.com
The LiGHTBoX Fiber Optic Field Transport
System from MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic
Systems is designed for fibre transport in
harsh-environments. Ideal for ENG, sports
and military applications, the LiGHTBoX
has both AC and DC power operation with
battery back-up.
Meanwhile, the company’s HD-3000
Series 3Gbps Serial Digital Video Fiber
Optic Transport Link, supports the new
1080p, 3Gbps HD-SDI format.
The HD-3000 provides an economical
fibre-optic transport system for virtually
any digital signal ranging from 5Mbps to
3Gbps.
In addition, MultiDyne’s DVI-5000 Single
and Dual Link series is a long-haul fibre
transport system for uncompressed DVI. The
DVI-5000 supports WQXGA, 2560×1600
resolution with dual-link, or WUXGA,
1920×1200 resolution through a single
fibre, and has optional stereo audio and
simplex data capability.
Visit www.multidyne.com
Moving up to HD shouldn’t be hard
With Telestream you can simplify HD media capture,
automate transcoding between all major SD & HD video
and audio formats and deliver your HD-ready media to
destination systems – quickly, easily and affordably.
Summit
Sheau Ng
Vice President Consumer
and Broadcast Technology,
Standard, and Policy
NBC Universal
Mark Scott
MD
ABC
Shaun Brown
Managing Director
SBS Corporation
Chris Hibbert
VP Media Technology
& Standards
The Walt Disney
Company
Michael Anderson
CEO
Austereo
At IBC 2008, San Diego-based DVEO
introduced its new OnRamp IP/Sat – a DVB-Sor S2-to-IP gateway for IPTV applications.
Designed for broadcasting, IPTV and Telco
TV, OnRamp IP/Sat simultaneously receives
transport streams from one or more satellite
transponders, different satellites, cable channels
or terrestrial channels and outputs them to an IP
network. Resulting streams can be viewed with
standard IP capable set-top boxes or streaming
video software clients such as VLC or MPlayer.
The Linux-based unit also has the optional
capability to transcode streams into H.264
format up to a maximum combined bitrate of
6 Mbps.
The system supports MPEG-2 and H.264
input and output in SD and HD. It provides PID
filtering of all unwanted traffic, increasing system
performance and the number of channels that
can be transmitted per unit. DVEO’s OnRamp
IP/Sat is available as a two-rack unit with one
to four DVB-S or S2 receivers. Transcoding from
MPEG-2 to H.264 is available as an option
on all units.
Visit www.dveo.com
Digital Rapids Intros
New Features
Let Telestream make it easy.
Senator the Hon
Stephen Conroy
Minister for
Broadband,
Communications
and the Digital
Economy
Endorsed by
Four-Channel
Satellite-to-IP Gateway
Media partner
Sponsorship and exhibition
opportunities available.
Call Ian Devlin on
(02) 8908 8509
to get involved
www.acevents.com.au/broadcasting2009
Pipeline HD networked video capture from tape or live
sources to DNxHD, ProRes and more.
Episode desktop and server applications quickly encode
media between all the latest video and audio file formats.
FlipFactory automates media ingest, transcoding and
delivery – including faster-then-real-time HD-to-HD
transcoding on a single server.
DNxHD DVCPRO HD AVC-Intra ProRes QT H.264 MPEG WMV
CAPTURE ➤ TRANSCODE ➤ DELIVER
Fast • Easy • Flexible • Affordable
Proudly distributed by
www.adimex.com.au/telestream
Transmission 73
ESP Directory
Equipment
Events
visual FX &
GRAPHICS
>
Services
>
Products
UPCOMING EVENTS >>
CBAA 2008 - Community Broadcasting
Association of Australia
13th - 16th November 2008
Alice Springs Convention Centre, Alice Springs,
Northern Territory, Australia
www.cbaa.org.au
InterBEE
19-21 November, 2008
Makuhari Messe, Mihama-ku, Chiba, Japan
http://www.inter-bee.com
Eyeon Generation World Tour
December 15, 2008 - January 8, 2009
Sydney, Australia
www.eyeon.com
Australian Broadcasting Summit
4-5 March, 2009
Sydney Convention Centre, Darling
Harbour, Sydney, Australia
http://www.acevents.com.au/
broadcasting2009
Media & Broadcasting Congress 2008
25-27 November, 2008
InterContinental Hotel, Sydney, Australia
http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/media_au
FOR ALL YOUR
WIRELESS NEEDS…
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2ADIOS2EPEATERS3ATELLITE
$ATA)NTERNET
+61 2 9939 9911
[email protected]
www.lateral-linking.com.au
ADVERTISER INDEX
ADC................................................71
Amber Broadcast...............................13
Broadcastjobz.tv................................74
Digistor.......................IFC,44,57,69,73
EditShare..........................................53
Expertise Events.................................75
Gencom Technology..................... 17,48
Genesis Networks..............................33
Harris Communications......................IBC
H-Digital...........................................49
JVC..................................................21
Lawo...............................................59
Lateral Linking....................................74
Lemac...........................................OBC
Logitek..........................................5,65
Magna Systems & Engineering.............19
Mediaware.........................................7
Miller......................................... 27,29
Murray Tregonning & Associates........9,74
Omneon.............................................3
OmniBus Systems...............................55
Quinto Communications......................11
Riedel Communications.......................31
Syntec................................... 61,62,63
Techtel..............................................15
Thomson...........................................35
VideoCraft........................................23
Videoguys.........................................26
VideoPro..........................................25
XDT.................................................51
POSITION AVAILABLE
BROADCAST SALES PROFESSIONAL
Gencom Technology requires the services of an experienced
Broadcast Sales Professional in order to expand its operations in the
Australian market.
The position is Sydney based, and would suit someone who already
has a proven record in selling or designing broadcast technical
solutions within Australia.
It is important that potential candidates have up-to-date knowledge
of modern television infrastructure, including Media Management and
file based operations.
A competitive remuneration package is offered, including a
company vehicle.
Please respond in the first instance,
including resume, to [email protected]
74 Events
Off-Air
Off-Air
Off-Air
Let Us Remember for YOU!
Sponsored by
>> >> National Radio Conference
>> >> Women In Film & TV 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
>> >> IBC 2008
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76 Off-Air
Off-Air 77
Off-Air
www.fujifilm.com.au
Off-Air
Let Us Remember for YOU!
www.fujifilm.com.au
Off-Air
Sponsored by
>> >> IBC 2008
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78 Off-Air
Off-Air 79
BABBLING Brooks
Vote 1
– The Last Word from Gerry Brooks
Freedom of Choice!
Well, I’m confused. I went along to
my local school to vote in the recent NSW Local
Government elections. But there was no sign of
Barrack Obama’s name or John McCain, Sarah
Palin or even Hilary Clinton! I had to settle for a local
version of Angela Merkel… er, she’s Greens isn’t she?
Or is it just that the Channel I’m watching is obsessed
with the USA election?
All of which got me thinking about Content.
Next year, all the free-to-air stations will at last
be allowed to do multicasting, thereby introducing
another SD digital channel to their current offerings.
This change will affect the commercial broadcasters
significantly, while the ABC and SBS have been
doing it for some time. For example – the recent split
into ABC-1 and ABC-2.
Now comes the Big Question: what programming
we will see on these extra channels. If they’re going
to be operating 24 hours per day, they’ll need access
to a very large store of on-air material for feeding out
to viewers every week. And this will be an audience
that’s invested in digital-era equipment, and expecting
a similar standard in what they’re watching. Re-runs
of James Cagney or Bette Davis really won’t do.
So, will we see more Australian programming,
more sport and quiz shows? More morning talk-fests
ad infinitum? Maybe more reality or even DIY project
themes? Perhaps multiples of more in children’s
programming? Each one is a big question-mark - and
the answers will depend on what approach operators
take to (guess what!) budgets.
I foresee the need for a radical rethink about
funding models because this new content, especially
quality content, is going to cost heaps. It’ll either be
very expensive to make, or costly to buy in a sellers’
market with competitive channels all clamouring for
their share.
Remember too, this change means commercial
channels will also be competing more directly with
subscription TV Channels. Right now, it’s estimated
that Foxtel, the main PAY-TV provider, has about
20% audience share, but only attracts about 7% of
the advertising revenue. SBS is also competing for
a share of this pie – with limited success. Adding
more channels into the mix is going to complicate
the scene no end – especially in times of financial
crisis, with global ad-spend tipped for some major
80 Babbling Brooks
>> >> Your selection sir!
belt-tightening.
To date, the free-to-air’s have hinted that more
sports programming can be provided. More hours
and/or more sports – no doubt all the way to
tiddlywinks tournaments in Tidbinbilla. Quick, cheap
actuality coverage with action replay galore to fill
up those endless hours. Sounds easy, but there are
consequences.
These include technical issues of available
bandwidth and what sort of sharing the various
programmes will pull out of the available data rate
of around 20Megabits per second (Mbps). Statistical
multiplexing, which shares bits around the programme
services depending upon their need, will obviously
be working overtime, but sports programming will try
to take a large share of that pool, along with HDTV.
The dilemma for the commercial TV stations is
today’s diversification of the viewer marketplace. It
demands content diversity to match. Some years ago,
it was suggested that PAY-TV would be doing well
to get 10% share of the viewers, but it has already
doubled that figure. Certainly they are spending a
large amount of money on local programming and
maybe outspending the other channels, including the
ABC.
But with at least an extra 3 digital channels (some
predict a total of 15 SD channels being available
free-to-air) the viewer-per-programme scores must
decline – even if overall viewing expands. Now
add vod-casting, IP Broadcasting and other Internet
services into the mix. As these become available,
competition for viewers is going to move from intense
to insane.
This means the traditional commercial TV station is
going to be hard pressed to deliver the mass-market
audiences they’ve enjoyed for so long. The new
reach is going to be niche. It’s going to have a great
impact on revenue streams, all downwards. This in
turn will also put pressure on the amount of money
available to spend on new programming.
Foxtel’s chief, Kim Williams relishes the opportunities
these changing viewership patterns will bring to the
market place. He sees it as a great opportunity for
creative experimentation in programmes. But the
subscription service he’s got available is a readymade advantage. He can go to his viewers directly,
offering a smorgasbord of extra services for little extra
fees, with every expectation that enough people
across the board will pick and choose – and be
willing to pay.
With all this about to overtake commercial TV
stations, it may be that their only saviour will be
“democracy” aka the political process. If the US
example is anything to go by, the advertising spend
from governments and political parties, is set to be an
ever-increasing factor in modern life – especially on
TV and radio.
Then again, as all these new technologies help
to diversify delivery platforms and multiply interactive
programming possibilities, it opens up a new
dimension for targeted audiences. What we’ll see
is maybe lower viewers per topic, but all with much
higher value for specific reach and response. Who
knows, with that kind of flexibility, TV advertisers may
well move from mass-market mania and start to target
their dollars more discriminately as well.
This brings us back to my start point. Content. The
more choice there is, the critical it is to have material
that catches the viewer’s eye – and holds it, intrigues
it, involves it, inveigles it to stay – and pay. In short
– sport might work short-term, but not tiddlywinks
24/7.
Quality programming doesn’t have to be expensive,
but it certainly does have to be creative. “West Wing”
was both – and it’s paid off handsomely. Perhaps I
should just vote for Matt Santos!
Gerry Brooks is an Independent Consultant. You
can reach him via email at [email protected]

gencom technology supplier of quality equipment including

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