June 2011 - TVBEurope

Transcription

TVBE June P1,6,8 news v2
6/6/11
21:13
Page 1
Inside: NAB Wrap-Up, New MAM for Russia, Hitachi for RAI Italy
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
JUNE 2011 £5.00/€ 8.00/$10.00
www.tvbeurope.com
Japan supplies concern
Recording Media
David Fox takes a close look at how
the Japanese earthquake and tsunami
is continuing to affect the supply of
professional video tape across Europe
Vince Pace (left): “Our view is to concentrate on enhancing the viewing experience
Photo: Marissa Roth
without treating 3D as a different product”
Joining forces for 3D?
3DTV Analysis
Can 2D and 3D live coverage be
produced both technically and
editorially from the same operation?
Broadcasters and rigs developers
appear at odds in this key debate —
ahead of TVBEurope’s 3D Masters
(www.3d-tvmasters.com)
conference in London this month,
writes Adrian Pennington
If 3D content is to move beyond
niche and one-off events into regular and mainstream TV programming the time, complexity and cost
of production has to be brought
within manageable means.
While there’s broad agreement
that to do this new technology
needs developing and adopting,
it’s fair to say that there are
differences of opinion about
how quickly and how easily this
is to be achieved.
The issue was highlighted recently when Avatar Director James
Cameron declared that within two
years most 2D productions will
have a 3D feed extracted from it
for broadcast. Along with business
partner Vince Pace, Cameron outlined a vision in which 3D technology would effectively piggy-back on
2D camera positions, directorial
and workflows, eliminating the
need and budget for additional 3D
specialists, convergence ops and a
separate technical operation.
It’s a view that Pace, cofounder of CAMERON — PACE
Group, realises is fundamentally
different to how 3D broadcasters
this side of the pond believe 3D
live production is best achieved.
Continued on page 6
Winner of the TV Technology
STAR Award 2011
To learn more, please visit broadcast.harris.com/selenio.
The 11 March Japanese earthquake and tsunami is having an
effect on broadcasting, with
shortages reported of most cameras, and many other pieces of
equipment. Recording media
have been badly affected, with
stocks of HDCAM SR tape in
particularly short supply.
Part of the reason is that Sony
had to suspend operations at 10
of its facilities due to the damage
caused by the earthquake, tsunami
and subsequent power outages.
Within six weeks, nine of the
manufacturing operations had at
least partially resumed.
The remaining site, Sony
Chemical and Information Device
Corporation’s Tagajyo Plant in
Miyagi Prefecture, was expected to
resume optical disc manufacturing
by now, but tape manufacture wasn’t expected to resume until the end
of July. Some other manufacturing
processes have been moved elsewhere, but this plant is the only supplier of HDCAM SR tape, which is
why there is such a shortage.
Indeed, a single HDCAM SR
tape (BCT-124SRL) went for $510
recently on eBay (more than
double the normal price), where
another seller with a box of 10
offered them at $1,000 each.
HDCAM SR is the preferred
delivery format for many broadcasters, such as the BBC, ITV and
Sky in the UK and CBS,
NBC/Bravo and Fox in the US —
and the longer tape lengths used
for delivery are in shortest supply.
Tape shortage changes Chelsea choice for BBC: Coverage of the RHS Chelsea
Flower Show at the end of May was affected by the tape shortages caused by the
Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which forced the BBC to shoot on DVCPRO
HD instead of HDCAM due to limited supplies. The BBC coverage, which is one of
its most complex outside broadcasts, included the production of two or three
magazine-style programmes each day, some of which are completely wireless.
Although parts of the coverage, including all of a daily lunchtime programme,
were recorded wirelessly to an EVS system, five of its camera crews shot on tape,
and had to switch to Panasonic cameras when it was discovered that there were
insufficient stocks of HDCAM tape available to cope with their requirements. The
full story of the BBC’s Chelsea coverage is in TVBEurope’s Sports Broadcast
Europe newsletter (www.tvbeurope.com/sportsbroadcast-europe), which is sent
out every second Tuesday — David Fox
Members of the Guild of
Television Cameramen across the
world report very limited availability of tapes or optical discs, and
some production companies have
been receiving calls from their dealers
asking if they have any unused tape
stock they want to sell back.
However, supplies of many
types of equipment have been limited, from many manufacturers (even
some of those outside Japan as
component suppliers were affected).
“It’s worse than most people
know or understand,” states Mike
Continued on page 8
NAB 2011 Wrap-Up
This issue we take a serious look
back to what happened at NAB in
Las Vegas and what it all means for
the European broadcast operations
community. Our writing team of
Carolyn Giardina, Dick Hobbs,
David Kirk and Adrian Pennington
brings you the analysis behind the
headlines in NAB acquisition,
production, infrastructure and
post. — Fergal Ringrose
Section starts page 16
dig rap june
1/6/11
12:38
Page 1
See Digital Rapids at Broadcast Asia 2011
June 21 – 24 2011 - Suntec Singapore,
On dealer booth Mediamatic 4J4 – 07 Singapore Pavilion.
TVBE June P3-4 News
7/6/11
11:26
Page 3
TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LY S I S
‘RAI didn’t want different cameras for different applications’ so opted for Hitachi HD cameras
Why RAI went for Hitachi
in giant studio camera deal
Acquisition Special
By David Fox
RAI Television is to install Hitachi
HD cameras in a three-year
upgrade of its digital studios and
facilities throughout Italy. By the
end of the project, RAI will have
taken delivery of more than 150
Hitachi SK-HD1000 studio, EFP
and ENG cameras.
The Italian state-owned public
service broadcaster has budgeted
some €5.5 million for cameras and
a further €1 million for accessories
(such as large lens adapters, wireless
links or triax outputs). It selected
Hitachi after conducting extensive
trials of HD studio cameras and
conducting a competitive tender.
“The competition to meet
RAI’s advanced specifications was
intense,” says Masahiko Kato, general manager of Hitachi Kokusai’s
Global Business Division. Hitachi
eventually won out on price against
Sony and Ikegami to meet RAI’s
tender (Grass Valley had been part
of the shortlist but dropped out after
an initial tender). Hitachi’s Italian
representative, CVE, will provide
comprehensive technical support
from its offices in Milan and Rome.
The key benefits of the Hitachi
cameras were: quality (more than
1,100 TV lines resolution, better than
60dB signal-to-noise, modulation
depth more than 60%, dynamic range
more than 600% and f10 sensitivity);
efficiency (16W power consumption);
and price performance. “Also very
important is its dockable design. The
camera head is separate and you can
dock it to wireless, triax, fibre or a
P2 adapter,” explains Cemal Yilmaz,
Hitachi’s general sales and marketing manager, Broadcast and
Professional Video. “RAI didn’t
want to have to use different cameras
for different applications.”
The SK-HD range offers the
choice of native 1080i or 720p CCD
options, can be fitted with a full studio adapter that enables the use of
both hanger-type and bayonet-type
lenses without removing the camera
from the adapter. The camera head
weighs 2.2kg, and for ENG use will
weigh 4.4kg with a wireless, fibre or
triax adapter or 5.7kg if fitted with
the P2 AVC-I recorder. “Also, if there
12 Pick a winner:
Shaking hands on the deal at NAB: (L-R) Masahiko Kato, Hitachi; Riccardo
Rombaldoni, RAI; Shinij Nakamura, Hitachi and Carmelo Catalano, CVE
Riedel transforms Eurovision venue
Acting as a back-up, the entire
system was set up with at least one
layer of redundancy to cabling
and also on a hardware level. “It was
one of EBU’s and NDR’s major
demands to provide a flexible redundancy concept,” said Korzen.
Around 1,200 audio signals were
transported via MediorNet and
RockNet during the event.
Forty-eight commentator booths
were used for broadcasting the event
each being equipped with a Riedel
Artist CCP-1116 control panel.
In addition two TV screens were
used in each booth. One provided
the programme, the second offered
parallel voting information and extra
camera positions simultaneously.
MediorNet transported broadcast
signals to the OB trucks and
distributed the video signals within
the arena to the monitors
signals and 734 communications
ports. A total of 70 MediorNet
mainframes were used to integrate
David Fox looks at how
the Japanese
earthquake and
tsunami continues to
affect the supply of
professional video
tape across Europe
SES has invested in
new and expanded
facilities on the ground.
Chris Forrester finds
out more
At NAB, Hitachi announced
four new HD cameras. Three of the
cameras are based on 3Gbps technology (the SK-HD2200 studio
camera, SK-HD1200 handheld
companion, and DK-HD200 PoV
box-camera — all of which should
be available by IBC), while the
fourth, the SK-HD2000, is a studiobody version of the SK-HD1000,
and is available now. Hitachi will also
launch a 3x slo-mo camera at IBC.
EBU and NDR, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest organisers,
opted for a fibre-based MediorNet
system from Riedel Communications to distribute video, audio and
communications signals at the May
event. This comprised MediorNet,
RockNet, Artist and Performer
components, turning the former
football stadium into a 15,000sqm
TV broadcast studio.
To provide the broadcast infrastructure and the signal distribution
backbone, the company installed a
system that distributed 70 HD/
SD-SDI video signals, 1,200 audio
1-8 News & Analysis
1 Japan supplies concern
11-14 The Business
Case
11 SES expands on
the ground
are any future requirements, the camera can be upgraded easily thanks to
its FPGA [Field Programmable Gate
Array] design.”
More than 150 camera chains will
be used as RAI upgrades its studio
and OB operations to HD, probably
starting with studios in Rome and
Milan. The first deliveries are expected in the next month or two.
Fujinon is believed to have won
the lens contract for the cameras,
but the final papers hadn’t been
signed as we went to press.
By Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
CONTENTS
the various positions and departments into a single system, including the TV compound, commentator positions and the press centre.
MediorNet was responsible for
transporting the broadcast signals
to the OB trucks and distributing
the video signals within the arena,
eg, to the monitors on visitor floors,
the video walls, the greenroom and
the commentator booths. “MediorNet’s network approach allowed us
to keep full flexibility regarding the
signal distribution and allowed us to
monitor the installation,” said
Simon Korzen, project director for
the ESC at Riedel Communications.
www.cve-italy.com
www.hitachi-keu.com
www.riedel.net
Ross Video
Dick Hobbs talks to
David Ross, owner of
Ross Video, to gain an
insight into the
success of the private
Canadian company
16-32 NAB 2011 Wrap-Up
16 A race towards the
4K finish line
Adrian Pennington
provides an in-depth
analysis of
acquisition/product
highlights from the
Las Vegas show
26 Glimpse of a
‘sensible future’
Workflow specialist
Dick Hobbs takes a look
at the infrastructure
trends at NAB
34-46 The Workflow
34 Directing the third
dimension
Philip Stevens takes a
look at the 3D
production learning
curve from a director’s
viewpoint
40 Antena 3 bigs up
the news
Spanish TV channel
Antena 3 has updated
its newsroom with a
brand new studio,
writes Fergal Ringrose
41 Post magic for
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fantasy world
A new HBO fantasy
drama gets a spot of
post magic from an
Avid-based workflow,
writes David Stewart
46 New home for
Emmerdale
One of the UK’s
longest running soaps
has moved house.
Philip Stevens reports
3
TVBE June P3-4 News
7/6/11
11:26
Page 4
TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S
People on the move
NEWS
IN BRIEF
DVD recorders
for TVM OB fleet
Bright Space Technologies
has supplied six BCD 1150
DVD recorders to Television
Mobiles in Ireland for the
company’s OB fleet. The DVD
rack-mountable units can be
used to record outputs for a
number of purposes such as
compliance. “Television
Mobiles has a proven track
record as a first class outside
broadcast facilities provider,”
said Colin Clarke, senior
technical sales and support
manager for Bright Space.
“The company had originally
tried domestic DVD units,
however, these would not
withstand the OB
environment and road
transport. We initially
supplied a demo unit and
after a thorough trial,
Television Mobiles was happy
to invest in the BCD 1150
units as it was assured the
robust design could deliver.”
The BCD DVD-1150 was
developed with full remote
control and complete
operational status reporting
capabilities including, current
transport mode, frame
position, remaining record
time, and 15-character title
labels. The DVD-1150
provides two-way
communication over RS-232
serial and USB.
www.brightspacebroadcast.com
Mark Bainbridge, Avid
John De Cet, Analog Way
Ginny Goudy, Nexo
Louisa Maguire, Avid
promoted to VP of American
Operations last March. He will
report directly to Adrien Corso,
CEO at Analog Way.
Avid has boosted its Pro
Video team with three new
Analog Way has announced the
appointment of John De Cet
as new sales director for EMEA.
He is taking over Alexander
Schöpff ’s position who was
hires. Mark Bainbridge has been
appointed Northern Pro Video
channel sales manager, EMEA.
He will be responsible for
managing sales and pre-sales
technical support teams in the
UK, Ireland, Northern Europe
and Israel. Bainbridge has over
20 years’ experience in broadcast and pro video sales and
joins Avid from Sony. Louisa
Maguire has been appointed
Pro Video channel partner
account
manager,
North
EMEA. She joins the company
from LANDesk Software.
Coming from Microsoft, Rachel
Daly has joined Avid as customer and partner sales representative. As part of Daly’s role,
she will be driving sales of
Avid’s video solutions into the
educational market.
Xavier De Vynck has joined
EVS as vice president of New
Market Development with a special focus on EVS’ new Archive
and Media Asset Management
Division in Brussels. De Vynck is
a 20-year veteran of the broadcasting technology industry,
previously working at Avid.
Marquis Consulting has
recruited media asset management specialist Ulf Genzel to
develop business opportunities as
a freelance associate with broadcasters and other media organisations as they migrate from
analogue to digital technology.
Sound reinforcement systems
specialist Nexo has confirmed
the appointment of Ginny Goudy
as its new international marketing director. Goudy has acted as
the company’s PR and communications consultant since 1997.
“We are delighted to have persuaded Ginny to join us in Paris:
she is a distinctive figure with a
distinctive perspective on our
business,” said Nexo chairman
and CEO Keisuke Kobayashi.
Pixel Power has made three
key appointments: Roger Sewell
has joined the company as vice
president of Business Development, Europe; Matthew Williams
has been hired as senior product
specialist, US; and Francois
Cavalade has added Asia to his
portfolio as business development manager, Middle East and
Asia. Sewell worked most recently as director of sales, Europe,
with Omnibus and immediately
prior to that he was business
development director, EMEA,
with Miranda.
Rushes has announced the
appointment of two new roles in
Rachel Daly, Avid
Newsroom in a Box
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Roger Sewell, Pixel Power
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the production team. Anthony
McCaffery has been promoted to
head of production and Luke
Toyne has joined as CG commercials producer.
The European Broadcasting
Union (EBU) has appointed
Wallace Macmillan as chief
financial and administrative officer (CFAO). Macmillan succeeds
Julian Ekiert, who will be retiring
at the end of September after 18
years with the EBU. Director
General Ingrid Deltenre said:
“Mr Macmillan is a key addition
to the EBU’s management team
and will help its Members meet
the challenges of a rapidly changing media landscape.” Macmillan
was most recently chief financial
officer at Central European
Media Enterprises.
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6/6/11
16:36
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6/6/11
21:14
Page 6
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director Fergal Ringrose
[email protected]
Media House, South County Business Park,
Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
+3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799
Deputy Editor Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
[email protected]
+44 (0)207 921 8346
UBM Ltd, Ludgate House,
245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UR
Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington
Associate & Web Editor David Fox
USA Correspondent Carolyn Giardina
Contributors Mike Clark, Richard Dean,
Chris Forrester, Jonathan Higgins, Mark Hill,
Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett,
Heather McLean, Bob Pank, Nick Radlo,
Neal Romanek, Philip Stevens, Reinhard E Wagner
Digital Delivery David Davies, Paul Watson
Digital Content Manager Tim Frost
Publisher Joe Hosken
ART & PRODUCTION
Group Production Editor Dawn Boultwood
Production Executive Alistair Taylor
SALES
Sales Director Steve Connolly
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7921 8316
Deputy Sales Manager Ben Ewles
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7921 8233
US SALES
Michael Mitchell
Broadcast Media International, PO Box 44,
Greenlawn, New York, NY 11740
[email protected]
+1 (631) 673 3199 Fax: +1 (631) 673 0072
JAPAN AND KOREA SALES
Sho Harihara
Sales & Project, Yukari Media Incorporated
[email protected]
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ISSN 1461-4197
6
Understanding the impact of NAB
NAB 2011 Wrap-Up
By Fergal Ringrose
In his NAB analysis of broadcast ops starting on page 26, Dick Hobbs
reviews highlights in servers & archives, transcoding & clouds, assets &
automation, and sound & light. As if that isn’t enough ground to cover,
Hobbs says at the outset ‘there was one key area where I was particularly impressed with the latest innovations, and I want to start there.
‘Since the effective demise of the CRT monitor, evaluating quality
has been a real issue. The LCD monitor has not really been able to
compete for displaying the complete video gamut, although some new
entrants into the market — Frontniche for some time, and more recently
Hamlet, for instance, have made good attempts. At NAB 2011 there
were two monitor ranges on show that genuinely did tackle the issue…’
Our guest analyst David Kirk — a senior industry editor of many
years experience — quotes Sony Electronics’ Alec Shapiro summing up
NAB in just five words, “change is the only constant.” Sony certainly
should know, says Kirk, ‘as the engine powering the change is the electronics industry, broadcasting merely being a branch. And it is not just
the goalposts that are moving; the entire stadium is going virtual.’
Kirk goes on to observe that the broadcast business operates on a
similar principle to the weather. ‘It is common knowledge among
meterologists that long-term trends are more easily predicted than the
short-term variety: winter is likely to be colder than summer but next
week’s temperature is anybody’s guess… Yes the broadcast business is
moving towards higher resolution, to 3D, to a limitless number of
transmission channels — and perhaps even to higher quality content.
To get a grip on actual timescales, major trade shows are invaluable
— NAB this year even more so than usual.’
USA Correspondent Carolyn Giardina tackles the big NAB issues
in the post production sector on page 21. Capabilities for boosting the
viewing experience — via 3D, 4K and higher frame rates up to 120fps
— were again boosted at NAB, meaning the post industry was beginning to evaluate what it really means for those involved in finishing.
Obviously the post business has already been moving towards
‘development and refinement of file-based workflows,’ says Giardina.
‘But this is an area where one size doesn’t fit all, and new formats,
higher resolutions and the like could add further complexities. R&D
Joining forces for 3D?
Continued from page 1
Darren Long, director of operations at Sky
Sports, admits to feeling “incredibly surprised”
by Cameron’s remarks “because I don’t see
how you can treat every production the same.”
Sky is trialing dual 2D 3D operation but
picking its sports carefully. “Darts works.
Boxing is totally possible and other sports
where the action is constrained in one area
and we’re not swinging cameras around.
With football though, you will get away with
some joint editorial, but not all.”
CAN Communicate’s Duncan Humphreys
who is advising Sony on its production of
Wimbledon in 3D and HBS for the production
of the FIFA World Cup in 2014, says he can
envisage a joint 2D and 3D technical production “but different sports require a different
editorial approach. One size does not fit all and
for most sports a separate 3D cut is necessary.”
Acknowledging the difference ofopinion,
Pace responds: “The prevailing view is that
3D is a standalone product which is getting 2D
to convert to a 3D methodology but that is not
our direction,” he says. “Our view is to concentrate on enhancing the viewing experience
withouttreating3Dasadifferentproduct.
“Our approach to designing technology is to
use as many of the 2D assets as we can, to tell the
story of sports with a 2D foundation and elevate
the viewing experience to another level.”
CPG (as PACE) has completed over 40
live mainly sports broadcasts, working
closely with ESPN, Fox Sports and the
MBA and designing and building two dedicated 3D trucks for NEP Visions.
Red’s Ted Schilowitz, right, at NAB (with AJA CEO Nick Rashby):
“I think it’s great Sony has finally realised that 1080p is not cinema”
has already started, as evidenced at NAB, generally speaking…
Numerous companies also showed tools at a variety of price points.’
Covering the NAB acquisition/production beat (page 16),
Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington records the typically blunt
views of Red Leader of the Revolution, Ted Schilowitz. “Sony’s marketing says to me, we are so scared of this young radical company that
we won’t even dare to mention their name. I think it’s great Sony has
finally realised that 1080p is not cinema but let’s see if it delivers the
kind of picture people want to see rather than something that looks
electronic,” said Schilowitz. “That’s a legitimate concern I would have
until at least we can see what it produces. They can put any kind of
nomenclature around it — a 4K, 5K, 8K — none of that matters
until you put images up onto a big screen and the Peter Jacksons and
David Finchers of this world say ‘that’s the camera I want to use’.”
In this internet age — where breaking headline stories at NAB
news conferences can be zapped out to the world within mere seconds
— it is certainly legitimate to question the relevance of a hugely deep
and broad analysis of NAB in print form, targeted to the European
broadcast technology community. What’s the point of providing
perspective, context, pointers and reflections in this way? Get yourself
a fresh coffee, turn to our NAB Wrap-Up section on page 16, lean
back … and make up your own mind!
“I used to say, like
many others, that 3D
is the best seat in the
house. But I realise
that the person sitting
in the best seat in the
house is the 2D camera guy and the 2D
director,” he argues.
“Another example
— there is a lot of value in the colour and
commentary of a 2D
Sky’s Darren Long is
sportscast with which
“incredibly surprised”
people are familiar.
by Cameron’s remarks
Are we going to have
“because I don’t see
to condition people
how you can treat every to accept separate
production the same”
commentaries?”
Finding the right fit
The experience of the Sony/HBS production of the FIFA World Cup and also
of Sky Sports’ 3D coverage of English
Premiership Football leans toward a fewer
cuts, judicious use of steadicams at pitchside, slower pans, separate commentary
and a view that the camera One gantry
position doesn’t provide quite enough depth
of field to add anything of value for the 3D
viewer. Sky is negotiating with soccer stadia
to locate its rigs on lower positions.
Pace recognises that he has a fight on his
hands to convince broadcasters to alter this
perception. “The technology feels like it is
restricting the editorial vision at this point —
that you can’t move cameras fast, that you have
to frame differently in 3D, that the high up
angle is flat,” he says. “When you are dealing
with tools at a basic level it pushes you into an
interpretation of 3D that is unfair. This is what
happens when you don’t have the right tools to
experiment with. The technology should be
working with the subject matter, not against it.”
Pace’s chief competitor, Steve Schklair,
CEO 3ality Digital — a keynote speaker at
3D Masters — concurs with the broad line of
Pace’s argument.
“Everyone talks about the creative differences between 2D and 3D as being a barrier
to simultaneous productions but I’ve never
seen a 2D cut of anything shot in 3D that
didn’t work,” Schklair says. “The audience
has been trained by the broadcaster over a
decade to accept more cameras and angles.
So it’s about training the audience back the
other way. There would be some compromise
on the 2D and the 3D editorial but TV is a
business of compromise.”
There is in fact a great deal of common
ground between CPG and, say, the BSkyB’s
position, not least in the drive to reduce
operational costs by using technology to
streamline production and eradicate the
number of convergence and 3D technicians.
“The problem is that we are all discussing
the 10-30% difference between 2D and 3D
when we should be working on the 60% that is
positive and the same,” says Pace. “I think the
viewer wants an enhanced viewing experience
yet we get so caught up on how this camera
pan won’t work, or this cut won’t make it in 3D
— shots which wind up being 5% of the total
show. As an industry we are fixated on that 5%
instead of the real heart of the production. If
we can elevate 2D production into an entertainment experience people are willing to pay
for then we will have accomplished our goal.”
www.cameronpace.com
www.3alitydigital.com
6/6/11
16:40
Page 1
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6/6/11
21:14
Page 8
Sachtler delves deep in Vatican
Sachtler camera systems made a
star appearance on the set of
Richard Ladkani’s documentary
about the Vatican. Director
and screenwriter Ladkani spent
almost three years working on his
documentary. For some shoots,
he worked with the artemis DV
Pro MD camera stabiliser system
from Sachtler.
Ladkani and his team
received a half-hour film permit
for the most sacred place in the
Japan supplies
concern
Thomas, sales director at UK dealer,
Top Teks. It had just had deliveries
when we talked, which were its first in
a month from Sony, and he didn’t
expect anything substantial until July.
Panasonic is much the same, he
claimed, and generally cameras,
batteries, lenses and media are all
in short supply. “Virtually anything with something Japanese in
them is in short supply,” he says.
The east coast of Japan, which
was hit hardest by the earthquake
and tsunami is home to a lot of
semi-conductor suppliers, many of
whom are having to rebuild their
businesses, and this means that
equipment manufacturers around
the world have been affected as they
wait for supplies to resume or seek
replacement parts elsewhere.
Ladkani accompanied journalist Gudrun Sailer with camera
Photo: Holger Fleig
and artemis through Campo Santo Teutonico
Panasonic is “still going
through alternative suppliers to
find parts,” says Adrian Clark, its
general manager for the UK and
Ireland, but he insists there are
still good supplies of many cameras, such as the AF101, which is
its biggest seller, where the only
delays have been in meeting unexpectedly high customer demand.
Thomas has seen limited availability of all sorts of broadcast
media, including SxS and P2
cards, CF and SDHC cards from
Sandisk, HDCAM and HDCAM
SR tape, and XDCAM discs.
However, a lot of this media is
available from more than one
manufacturer (such as Maxell or
Fujifilm, which haven’t been affected, but where production may not
yet have ramped up to fill the void).
He also expects a lot of price
increases this year, as manufacturers have to rebuild factories and/or
invest in redesigning cameras, etc, if
they move to new components.
Sony has already announced price
Vatican — the Necropolis underneath St Peter’s Basilica. The
director used the artemis DV Pro
MD, outfitted with a Sony EX3,
for filming in the intricate centuries-old corridors.
“There is no other place
where access is so limited, or
where you need as many permits
as here,” said Ladkani. “Sometimes they simply retracted film
permits right before we started
filming without giving any
reasons. If we had already laid
rails for a dolly, all of the preparation would have been for
nothing, since it could take days
until we were granted a new film
permit and were able to continue.” For this reason, the
artemis stabiliser system was
twice as valuable to Ladkani.
Ladkani describes the use of
the artemis as an “essential stylistic device” on his documentary,
which had its premiere on ARD
in January.
www.sachtler.com
increases, which Thomas expects
will be across the board. “Even
though Sony assembles a lot of its
cameras in Wales, there are shortages. We may get cameras and not
viewfinders, or maybe not lenses or
batteries. There really isn’t any
product that isn’t affected.”
In its most recent statement,
Sony said: “We have started to see
yet more encouraging results with,
for example, the supply of our professional monitors and most of our
entry level professional camcorders
brought back to its usual level.”
Donation made
Cable guy: HHB’s Matthew Fletcher with its first shipment of Mogami cables
While the effects of the earthquake may cause minor inconvenience for some productions,
and provide a profitable opportunity to anyone with tape
stocks, it is good to see that some
companies are offering practical
help to those affected by the
earthquake. At least one major
New York-based eBay supplier
of HDCAM SR tape is donating
10% of all of its sales to the
Japanese Red Cross, while HHB,
the newly appointed exclusive
distributor of Mogami cable in
the UK and Ireland, is also offering its support.
“10% of the value of our
Mogami sales between now and
the IBC show in September will
be donated to the Red Cross
Japan Tsunami Appeal,” says
HHB’s Managing Director, Ian
Jones. “Our initial meetings with
Mogami took place shortly before
this devastating natural disaster
and, although Mogami was not
directly affected, it seems to us
an ideal way to help our many
friends and industry colleagues
in Japan.”
Used by virtually every major
recording facility, Mogami’s
product range encompasses
microphone, speaker, guitar,
coaxial, video and digital interfacing cables, along with analogue and digital snakes.
The company’s Cat5 product,
which HHB believes is ideal for
OB use, lies very flat on the
ground and can withstand being
run over by a truck without loss
of bandwidth, while Mogami’s
commitment to developing the
optimum cable for each application is shown it its Polar Flex, a
microphone cable that retains its
flexibility down to minus 40º
centigrade, making it ideal for
polar film-makers.
“Any audio or video recording
or production system is only as
good as its weakest link and
Mogami ensures that it isn’t going
to be the cabling that lets you
down. From the tiniest lavalier
microphone cable to a heavy duty
digital snake, every Mogami cable
is designed and manufactured to
perform at the highest levels,”
stated HHB’s Mogami Product
Specialist, Matthew Fletcher.
www.hhb.co.uk
www.panasonic-broadcast.com
www.top-teks.co.uk
www.pro.sony.eu
8
6/6/11
16:41
Page 1
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9/5/11
15:42
Page 1
ACTION.
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Part of the flexible MKH 8000 series, just add the MZD 8000
and it is a digital mic.
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TVBE_June P11-14 Business
6/6/11
21:20
Page 11
TVBEU R O PE T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E
SES expands on the ground
TVBEurope360
SES has invested in new and
expanded facilities on the ground to
allow the company to scale in terms
of the number of channels it can
handle as well as adding new services
for its clients. Chris Forrester
finds out more
Satellite operator SES is investing
heavily in its ground-based infrastructure as well as in new satellite
capacity. In April there were two celebratory events, one to lay the foundation stone on a major expansion of
facilities at its Betzdorf, Luxembourg,
headquarters and another the official
opening of its impressive new Astra
Platform Services (APS) playout
centre near Munich.
Most playout centres use
converted office space and this
frequently creates problems in
handling the inevitable mile upon
mile of cable runs, heat dissipation and the like. Hence APS’
decision to build this facility from
the sub-basement up, with everything designed to be best of breed
for the job, and allowing plenty of
elbow room for expansion.
APS’ location, near Munich,
sits at the heart of German broadcasting, on Beta Strasse, and at the
junction of MedienAllee and ZDF
Strasse, and just over the road from
Sky Deutschland’s brand-new HQ
— while the next door building is
Kabel Deutschland’s HQ.
APS counts almost all these
names as regular clients. Sky
Deutschland is a key customer, and
is also rapidly adding channels and
new services including HDTV and
3DTV. But APS also has a major
customer operating some 8,400km
away, in Johannesburg, and in the
shape of Top TV. Handling Top
TV’s extra 60+ channels was
one of the reasons APS started
building a second Network Operations Centre (NOC). Stefan
Hennecke, CTO at APS, says Sky
Deutschland remains the largest
customer, “but we have enjoyed
good channel growth over the past
six months. Since 2004 we have
grown three-fold and now handle
more than 240 channels, and are
constantly adding new channels
and services.”
Hennecke explains that APS’
role is to make channel playout
seamless for clients and viewers.
“For example, we recently had to
handle a change of location for
N24 [a German all-news channel]
and the technical service for the
channel moved from down the
street [from Pro7’s HQ] to here!
APS service offerings
SES’ new playout centre near Munich features LED Backlight 46-inch
screens and LED room lighting to minimise heat dissipation in the MCR.
It was designed to be best of breed with room for expansion
themselves from every aspect of
their previous home, including all
their ingest which is based in Berlin
and all the back-office systems, and
to make matters even more challenging we had to handle the links
to their new Media Sales agency.”
”It is nice to have a new building, but our plan
is to cope with growth for the next five to
eight years from here and to have the flexibility to
add more power” — Stefan Hennecke, CTO, APS
“It could have been miles and
miles away, it would have been just
as complex an operation, but we
switched over for them on 1
January. There was considerable
time pressure on them and us, and
we only won the contract last
September. They had to extract
Fully redundant power distribution system equipped
with invisibly switching capabilities (invisible switchover
between the two systems in
case of maintenance etc)
G Air conditioning system based on
groundwater cooling technology
G Latest generation Harmonic
SD and HD encoders and
multiplexers for DVB-S/DVBS2 distribution
G Fully redundant Snell Sirius
800 routing system
G BFE router control system
G Harris Predator Multiviewer
systems for service monitoring
G LED Backlight 46-inch
screens and LED room lighting to minimise heat dissipation in MCR
G
Hennecke adds that what N24
wants, as with the bulk of his other
clients, was a highly-secure environment, with complete system
redundancy extending well
beyond simple power back-up.
“It is the same with the new
demands for handling channels to
smaller screens, whether computers,
iPads, iPhones and the other variants, and the new breed of so-called
‘connected TVs’ and Over The Top
services,” he admits. “There is a
strong demand to see more of these
services added by clients. The next
step for many of our customers is
providing those ‘on demand’ services. We already have the Media Asset
Management skills here, complete
with encryption and the other
needs of any broadcaster. More
importantly, perhaps, we can be
highly competitive.”
Hennecke says that its growth
over the past few years meant that
fresh investment had to be made.
“Our old operations room had 20 full
racks of equipment and there was no
space for growth. That had been filled
in less than two years, so expansion
was not a difficult decision to make.
“We now find that our plannedfor growth is in fact happening
faster than we anticipated. But
what also needs fresh rack space
are the new services we are adding
for clients. It is nice to have a new
building, but our plan is to cope
with growth for the next five to
eight years from here and to have
the flexibility to add more power,
and more air conditioning and
more monitoring equipment, as it
is needed. This is why we started
from scratch. We also wanted
to avoid the risks and problems
associated with making key alterations to an existing 24/7 facility.
Every engineer knows that there
are major risks to that strategy.”
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11
6/6/11
21:21
Page 12
Pick a winner: Ross Video
Dick Hobbs talks to David Ross, owner of Ross Video, to gain an insight into
the continuing success behind the understated private Canadian company
Broadcast Production
In a diverse industry worth
around $25 billion it is inevitable
that there will be many different
corporate structures among the
vendors, each with unique funding backgrounds and growth
patterns. In among them all,
though, the Canadian company
Ross Video is surely unique.
Until fairly recently the business was wholly owned by David
Ross, the son of the founder. He
has now made 10% of the shares
available to employees. Perhaps
even more intriguingly, the company has never had any external
funding, yet still manages to invest
25% of its revenues into R&D —
revenues which continue to grow
year on year, without exception.
To find out how a company,
based in Iroquois, a tiny town in
rural Ontario, balances all these
claims to fame, Ross, the engaging
45-year-old who heads the company, explains how it all began.
The business was started in
1974, with a gentle push from
another well-known name in the
Canadian broadcast business.
“My father had no money and
was not planning on starting a
company, but Jim Leitch said to
him ‘John, what are you doing
working for someone else. There’s
a Leitch Video, so why can’t there
be a Ross Video?’ Jim Leitch actually named our company.”
Rather than go to the bank for
funding, John Ross sold a World
War Two trainer airplane he had
just finished rebuilding in his
garage. “The equity in the company was a $3,500 airplane,” says
Ross. “Jim Leitch said ‘sell it —
some day you’ll have two’.”
Since that day there has
been no injection of venture
capital, and no private equity.
“Amazingly — almost suicidally,
some would say — we are not for
sale,” says Ross.
David Ross: “One of the biggest
dangers in companies is that
they self-perpetuate the thing that
they did a long time ago”
Start me up
While his father was founding the
company, the son was proving a
very able student, winning three
national science fair championships and reading computer engineering at the University of
Waterloo where, he recalled, he
“took as many business courses as
possible”. Work experience while
at university included a spell at
Electrohome where he worked on
one of the first ever DVEs, the
Jazz, and time at national broadcaster CBC, where his boss was
Strath Goodship.
He also contributed to Ross
Video, writing software for switchers, designing hardware, helping
out in manufacturing and working
in the front office. Ross joined the
company formally in 1991, at the
age of 25. “At the time the company was 25 people,” he recalls. “I
said ‘Dad, I think we have to grow’.
So we oriented things in that direction, and we have had a record year
every single year, with no declining
sales, since then. This is our 20th
straight year.
“Last year we grew through
the recession. We grew last year
when the Canadian currency
went up by 20%. That was difficult but we did it. Six months
into this year, we are 50% up on
the same period last year. I feel
like a start-up.”
That is a remarkable achievement. How does it happen? “My
mom was a particularly strong
people person, and one of the
secrets is actually just treating
people right,” he remarks.
“Maybe it is because we don’t
have venture capitalists breathing
down our necks that we have the
freedom to do that. I have a
strong belief that people want to
do the right thing. Don’t demotivate them, let people be proud of
the work they are doing.
“Today we have 383 very
proud, hard working people that
I don’t control on a day-to-day
basis. But it is surprising how
many companies mess that up.”
Yes, but that can only be a part
of the solution. How do you
manage a business which has
elected to be self-reliant? “I do a
lot of management by wandering
around. We don’t have a strategy
offsite session once a year, we
have strategy sessions in the hallways on an hourly basis.
“When you’re not sitting on a
big bag of money, and you have a
dozen ideas and the money to
do only one, you choose a winner.
Every single time,” he says.
“Every single thing we have chosen we knocked out of the park
because we focused on doing the
one next thing really, really well.”
Yes, but how do you choose
that winner? “When my dad was
sitting in the boardroom arguing
about what the customer wants or
and not so key customers, getting
a balanced viewpoint of what’s
needed in our marketplace. If
you keep doing that — and you
get your engineers out on the
road, and you hire industry professionals — there isn’t a whole
bunch of soul-searching as to
whether or not the thing is right.
You know passionately in your
bones there is a market and you
have the technology for it. The
only problem is how fast can we
get it done.”
The right intuition
Speed to market is clearly a top
priority for Ross the company.
Ross the man says that his engineers know his thoughts: “you’re
going to design this thing and
we’ll take it to market in one form
then, in the second iteration, we
may have to redesign some of it. I
know it drives you crazy as an
engineer, but you’re going to do it
“Jim Leitch said to my father ‘John, what are
you doing working for someone else? There’s a
Leitch Video, so why can’t there be a Ross
Video?’ Jim Leitch actually named our company”
how it should be engineered, he
would look at us and say why are
we having this conversation? The
answers are not in this room —
the answers are out there. Get up,
go talk to the customer, and then
you’ll know.
“So I spend a quarter of my
time travelling, visiting customers. I spend a week a month on
the road talking to key customers
Ross Video is set to double the size of its factory building,
giving the company space to ship products worth $270 million
because we can sell it, we can
make money, we can raise market
awareness, and that will pay for
the next thing.”
As an instinctive manager,
Ross is dismissive of formal
strategies. “I haven’t seen a business plan in Ross Video in
almost a decade,” he says. “And
the last business plan that I saw
was utterly wrong. We see the
start of an idea in a conversation with a customer, then you
have a few more conversations,
then all of a sudden you see an
efficient way to get that done. It
turns out that if you just keep
doing things that customers
want, that’s half the picture.”
The other half is to spot the
things that customers are not yet
asking for, but would if only they
knew the technology was coming
along to make it possible. “One of
the biggest dangers in companies is
that they self-perpetuate the thing
that they did a long time ago, and
refine it to death. You have to
step back two stages and ask what
problem were you actually trying
to solve 20 years ago when you
designed the product the first time.”
When asked what is next for
Ross Video, he gave a typically
upbeat answer. “We’ve broken
ground in May to double the size
of the factory building. Our
manufacturing manager did the
calculations and that will give us
the space to ship products worth
$270 million,” he says. “So what’s
next is to come up with products
that will earn $270 million.
“Really what’s next is we continue to listen to customers. One
of the great things about Ross
Video is we have so many ideas
that it is fun and frustrating at the
same time, deciding what to do
next — you want to do them all.”
www.rossvideo.com
12
6/6/11
16:49
Page 1
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6/6/11
21:21
Page 14
Outside the Boxx: Hitting
hotspots in wireless links
Wireless Links
Boxx.tv’s network of wireless
hotspots was road-tested under
duress by TV2 Denmark during
coverage of the Royal Wedding.
David Fox reports on how the
developers believe Street-Live can
offer lower streaming costs
compared with a satellite truck
for live event OBs
Boxx.tv, which specialises in 5GHz
camera links, has launched a new
hotspot service that gave a boost to
Royal Wedding coverage and developed a prototype IT-based camera
link using low-cost components.
Its new Street-Live network of
wireless hotspots should allow
broadcasters to stream live pictures
for significantly less than the cost of
a satellite truck. It is being set up,
initially, in London. “It’s similar to
a hotspot you’d find in Starbucks,
but doesn’t use 2.4GHz, so you
don’t get interference from standard WiFi,” explains Boxx.tv CTO,
Scott Walker.
“We provide a fixed bandwidth
connection to the internet [of up to
about 20Mbps], but what happens
within that we have no control
over.” It would be used in conjunction with Quicklink, Streambox, or
Dejero, which most news crews
tend to have, “and we provide them
with a fast, reliable upload”.
Current hardware systems for
sending live pictures back via the
web “are all restricted by the lack
of access to a fast, constant and
reliable connection into the internet”, he adds.
“All these platforms have been
designed to work with very bad
quality internet, typically in
places like Afghanistan or Libya,
where the connection would
typically be under half a megabit.
So when you offer these platforms
10, 15 or 20Mbps, they perform
very well.”
A typical news truck or satellite feed would use 4Mbps or
possibly 8Mbps, but the two are
not directly comparable as the
mobile platforms typically send
the most important parts of the
picture two or three times, to
ensure it gets through, and can
then re-assemble it — something
a sat truck, with its dedicated
bandwidth, won’t have to do.
However, “there is plenty of
bandwidth to stream an HD picture with Street-Live,” he says.
Its first use was for the recent
Royal Wedding at Westminster
Abbey, where it was used by TV2
Denmark, and a CBS regional
news feed, providing a 10Mbps
uplink. The hotspot covers
Westminster, from the Abbey to
the door of the Houses of
Parliament and, with the addition
of a small antenna on a pole,
crews can also connect from
Abingdon Green (the favourite
stand-up position for reporting
from Westminster with Parliament and Big Ben in the background). The Street-Live connection is on the fourth floor of a
building near the Abbey. If it had
been higher, it would have cost
more and Boxx wants to keep the
costs low — they should be about
a fifth the cost of using a satellite
truck (or less).
“The wedding was a testing
ground to see if the concept
would work (we knew that the
Twin peaks: Zenith has two
antennae on the back of the camera
technology would), and it proved
that. It fitted in with the way the
news crews worked.”
Street-Live should also be in
use this month at The Queen’s
Club in London, during the ATP
Aegon Championships tennis
tournament (6-12 June), where it
will cover a substantial portion
of the grounds and outside the
front gate (useful for non-rights
holders). It also intends to have
a hotspot in place for the
Wimbledon tennis championships starting on 20 June.
Boxx has also been asked to
set up a location in Leicester
Square, where most of London’s
movie premieres take place, and
plans to have other hotspots in
place for the 2012 London
Olympics. The technology can
cover up to about 10km from a
hotspot, so long as they can find
a suitably high building.
Scott Walker: “The technology doesn’t have boundaries,
so you can do an interview in the stadium, or outside”
— although each cell can be
expanded to offer more connectivity (so long as Boxx has enough
time to arrange it; at least a fourweek lead time). “The cell’s the
easy part. It’s the connection to
the internet that is challenging.”
Whether the system can be
used for links to a mobile camera
“The Royal Wedding was a testing ground to see
if the concept would work (we knew that the
technology would), and it proved that. It fitted in
with the way the news crews worked”
“The technology doesn’t have
boundaries, so you can do an
interview in the stadium, or outside. It is small technology and
can be carried around in a backpack. As long as you can see the
receiver you can go live.” Walker
believes it will also be important
for crews wanting to ftp stories.
“For example: you want to go live
for the 6 o’clock news with a two
minute story that needs to be top
and tailed with a live cross. You
book a slot between 5.45 and
6.15, ftp a 100MB two-minute
story that takes five minutes to go
up, and gives you the rest of the
booking to top and tail live.”
A single hotspot could cope
with two to four broadcasters at
once, but the number of crews
that can use it at once depends on
how much bandwidth they book
depends on the location.
Generally it will be free to roam if
it is close enough (within about
500m depending on the topology), otherwise it will need to
use a directional antenna. “The
technology can be rolled out anywhere in the world, so our big
focus is to identify where news
crews want to be.”
Access points
Boxx has been working with
5GHz spectrum on its wireless
products for about five years.
“Everything we do is between
5GHz and 6GHz, which is traditionally a frequency our competitors don’t use,” he claims.
It currently offers Cobalt, a
standard definition wireless system, and Meridian, an uncompressed, zero-delay HD link with
a limited range (about 150m). It
will launch Zenith, a long-range
(up to 1km), low-latency (under
three frames) HD system using
H.264 compression at IBC. This
will use the next generation of
technology that won Boxx an
Emmy award in 2005.
It should cut costs thanks to
low-cost access points that can be
deployed for about £200-£300
each. It uses cheap Cat5 cable and
IP networking protocols and
hardware to get back to the
decoder. Users could potentially
have hundreds of access points
for a decoder.
Zenith has two antennae on the
back of the camera (compared to
four on Meridian). Both systems
use MIMO (Multiple Input,
Multiple Output) technology, but
Meridian uses four transmit and
five receive antennae, whereas
Zenith has a 2x2 system. Zenith
sends its compressed images at
10-15Mbps, while Meridian is well
over 500Mbps. “The trade off is
distance or latency,” he explains.
Zenith should ship by the end of
the year.
Meridian has been out for
about 18 months and was initially seen by users as principally
for video assist use (probably
because of its short range but
zero delay). That was its use on
a just-released blockbuster 3D
movie, where it sent 3D back to
the video village and was used
on a follow car for a horse
chase scene. It was also used for
video assist on the TV drama,
Blue Bloods.
Although Meridian was first
used for ice hockey coverage at the
Vancouver Olympics, it is only
now being used more widely for
live broadcasts and light entertainment productions, such as
a Penn and Teller special and
Australia’s Got Talent. Its
extremely low latency means that
directors can use the classic
Steadicam shot circling a singer,
with no cables in the way but perfect lip sync, “which is where we
come in to our own,” he says.
www.boxx.tv
14
9/5/11
12:09
Page 1
TVBE_June P16-32 NAB
6/6/11
21:48
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TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 1 1 W R A P - U P
A race towards the 4K finish line
Welcome to TVBEurope’s formal Wrap-Up of NAB 2011, where we attempt, in the following pages, to put the
show into context for European broadcast professionals — whether you attended the Las Vegas event or not.
Adrian Pennington leads us off with an analysis of acquisition/production highlights from the show
Sifting through the announcements from production kit manufacturers and it’s clear that 3D and
4K technologies have been fast
tracked with an occasional product combining the two. Both are
emerging technologies with question marks over business models
but both will become more prevalent, even the de facto standard
over time, as new tools and accessories facilitate smoother and
cheaper production.
The filmmaker (if not yet the
consumer’s) appetite for higher
fidelity images is driving the
industry toward 4K tools. That’s
notwithstanding the fact that the
human eye would find it difficult
to take in all detail at resolutions
beyond 4K.
“Recording at 4K is not just
about delivering in 4K today but
about capturing content at a
higher resolution with benefits in
dynamic range, colorimetry and
latitude to 2K and HD images
derived from it,” explained Sony’s
General Manager for Content
Creation Olivier Bovis. “In that
sense it is similar to when broadcasters capture at HD when the
deliverable was SD only.”
Sony made most noise by
unveiling a prototype digital
cinematography camera built
around an 8K chip and due for
release (component parts from
Japan permitting) this autumn. In
the company’s labs for at least
four years, the F65 CineAlta, is
touted as the first true 4K camera, a claim hotly disputed by Red
Digital. It should also be noted
that NHK’s Super Hi-Vision
posts an 8K (7680 x 4320) resolution although it is aimed at live
events and broadcast.
At the heart of Sony’s system
is an 8K 20 megapixel CMOS
sensor, subsampling to 4K. The
finished camera is expected to be
light enough for use on 3D rigs
NAB 2011: Our Wrap-Up section analyses the key long-term broadcast industry trends to emerge from Las Vegas in April
promotion of a camera’s ability
based purely on a sensor’s horizontal pixel count can be misleading.
Red, for example, made 4K
claims for the Mysterium sensor
contained in Red One. You can
indeed count 4,000 lines of resolution but after debayering the
output is 3.2K. Its Epic, 30 of
which are being used by Peter
Jackson to shoot The Hobbit,
captures 5K and outputs 4K,
according to Red.
“The confusion is engineering
mixed with marketing,” said Seth
Emmons at rental house Band
Pro, a longstanding Sony dealer
who at NAB announced a partnership with Red to offer Epic’s
bundled with 8K rated Leica
lenses. “It all comes down to the
image. You can still make great
images with a particular characteristic from World War II engineered glass.”
Red Digital’s Ted Schilowitz
was typically blunt in repelling
Sony’s claim. “Up to now Sony
makes great TV cameras which
is fine if you’re okay with 16mm
“We are shifting from a paradigm of having
created a few hundred rigs to service the movie
industry to one where two years from now the
broadcast industry will be served with thousands
of rigs” – James Cameron
Sony’s F65 CineAlta is being touted as the first true 4K
camera — a claim hotly disputed by Red Digital
and Steadicams. Curtis Clark,
ASC, who was commissioned by
Sony to direct and lens a short
film using the camera, praised the
look of the images that “certainly
matched and even exceed that of
35mm film.”
Measuring the quality of digital imaging systems is to some
extent subjective and dependent
on the skill of the cinematographer to bring out the best in
the technology. Certainly the
level of imaging for a major
motion
picture,” he
told
TVBEurope. “There are a lot of
cameras which make great pictures
when you view it on a plasma
display but when you blow it up
40ft it looks nothing like film. In
all Sony’s messaging they don’t
mention the first real digital cinema camera that is being used
[meaning Red]. They reference an
older camera that was ground
breaking as a science experiment
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4 x (3G/HD/SD)-SDI Input
1 x (3G/HD/SD)-SDI Output
1 x HDMI Output
'W/ƉŽƌƚĨŽƌdĂůůŝĞƐĂŶĚƐĞůĞĐƟŽŶĐŽŶƚƌŽů
h^ƉŽƌƚĨŽƌĐŽŶƚƌŽůĂŶĚƵƉĚĂƚĞƐ
Features include:
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ͻ >ŽǁůĂƚĞŶĐǇďƵīĞƌŝŶŐĨŽƌĞĂĐŚŝŶƉƵƚĂůůŽǁŝŶŐ
ŶŽŶͲƐǇŶĐŚƌŽŶŽƵƐŝŶƉƵƚƐǁŝƚŚĂŵĂǆŝŵƵŵĚĞůĂǇŽĨ
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simultaneously
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ǀŝĚĞŽĨŽƌŵĂƚͬĨƌĂŵĞƌĂƚĞ͊
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ϮǆŶĂůŽŐƵĞŽƌ^ͬhƵĚŝŽKƵƚƉƵƚƐ
Features include:
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ͻ ϭϲŚĂŶŶĞůƵĚŝŽDŽŶŝƚŽƌŝŶŐKǀĞƌůĂǇ
ͻ ĚũƵƐƚĂďůĞ^ĂĨĞdŝƚůĞĂŶĚĐƟŽŶ'ƌĂƟĐƵůĞKǀĞƌůĂǇƐ
ͻ KŶ^ĐƌĞĞŶ&ŽƌŵĂƚĂŶĚŝĚĞŶƟĨǇKǀĞƌůĂǇ
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6/6/11
21:48
Page 17
but was never viable as a camera
[Dalsa’s Origin] but Sony’s marketing says to me ‘we are so
scared of this young radical company that we won’t even dare
mention their name.’”
Schilowitz continued: “I think
it’s great Sony has finally realised
that 1080p is not cinema but let’s
see if it delivers the kind of picture people want to see rather
than something that looks electronic. That’s a legitimate concern
I would have until at least we can
see what it produces. They can
put any kind of nomenclature
around it — a 4K, 5K 8K — none
of that matters until you put
images up onto a big screen and
the Peter Jackson’s and David
Fincher’s of this world say ‘that’s
the camera I want to use’.”
format — not coincidentally from
Sony — and the sheer volume of
data would buckle the budgets if
not the equipment within post
production facilities.
“Studios don’t want projects
delivered in 4K,” explained
Leandro Marini, founder of LA
digital intermediate specialist
Local Hero Post. “We should be
moving to 4K as an industry — it
is the future of film — but most
of the infrastructure is solidly 2K
and it’s not that easy to switch
into 4K.”
The chief bottleneck lies in the
rendering of vfx images at 4K
which requires more disc space,
more time and more expense.
“We could render vfx at 2K but a
film that is a mix of 4K and 2K is
not really a 4K film,” observed
Sporting the same optics as its sister, the Alexa M has had its
transmission system parted from the camera head, linked by fibre
Continued on page 18
The 4k business case
While Sony and Red are using
sensors with a bayer pattern
(which entails some loss of resolution when debayering), Sony’s
secret sauce is a new technology
which flips the sensor 45˚ offering
a diamond pixel pattern rather
than a conventional square. What
this means is that the sampling
of horizontal lines will hit more
pixel sites and provide greater
information enabling a 16-bit
colour depth.
Canon, Panasonic and JVC all
have roadmaps for 4K products
while Grass Valley’s Bart Van
Dijk joked that he had a 128K
camera, pointing at an Elite 8000.
“There would be no demand
for a handheld camcorder capable
of 4K imaging at this stage. But
we wanted to demonstrate the
power of a chip that is so small it
could be engineered to work in a
very small camera,” explained
JVC’s John Kelly highlighting a
GYM 100 body powered by a
Falconbrid large-scale integration
(LSI) chip. That chip is already
deployed in JVC’s GS-TD1 full
HD 3D consumer camcorder to
enable processing, encoding, and
recording of 1920x1080 images
from left and right lenses simultaneously using MPEG-4 MVC.
Panasonic had no 4K demos
but said its research teams are
developing cameras based on the
AVC Ultra compression system.
Adrian Clark, the firm’s general
manager for UK and Ireland
said: “We start from the concept
of engineering the best possible
codec rather than designing a
camera in the hope the codec will
be suitable. If you get the codec
right you will get the camera
right. There will be several versions of AVC Ultra, which builds
on our established AVC Intra
codec, including for 4:2:2, HD,
2K and 4K 4:4:4 at the top end.”
A 4K picture is, in most people’s opinion, a far richer, more
nuanced and detailed experience
than 2K, yet the business case is
far from transparent. The bandwidth required to transmit it to
homes is light years away, there is
only one cinema projection system capable of supporting the
17
7/6/11
11:35
Page 18
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Screen Spots
subtitle editor
Screen Subtitling Systems has
reached a formal agreement
with Netherlands-based Spot
Software, licensing them to
create and issue compliant PAC
files — coinciding with the
release of version 5.1 of Spot
Subtitle Editor. Originated by
Screen Subtitling and used
exclusively in their Polistream
transmission systems, PAC is
one of the most commonly
recognised subtitle file formats
for professional, high-end use.
The agreement has led to Spot
being the first subtitle
preparation systems vendor
outside any formal partnership
to undergo PAC testing and
compliance certification by
Screen. On authorising its first
PAC licence, Screen Subtitling’s
Partnerships Manager John
Birch said: “It’s not just in our
own interest but that of many
large broadcasters and of
course in the interest of the
software developers themselves
that there’s a regulated
licensing route, ensuring that
any PAC files created conform
to our technical specifications
so as to sustain reliability for
all concerned.”
www.screen.subtitling.com
Linear partners
for Snell modules
Linear Acoustic is partnering
with Snell for its modular
products. “We are pleased to
be working with the innovative
professionals at Snell,” said
Tim Carroll, founder of Linear
Acoustic. “Broadcasters and
other attendees of the 2011
NAB Show were very
interested in the new 3G
conversion modules for the
company’s signature IQ
Modular solution.” Snell’s new
range of IQ modules include
comprehensive audio
processing functions allowing
complete control over
external and embedded audio
signals for applications
requiring channel routing or
mixing. In addition to these
standard audio functions is
the inclusion of both stereoto-5.1 upmixing and loudness
control technology developed
by Linear Acoustic. “We are
excited to be working with
Linear Acoustic, a leader in
the field of audio technology,”
said Steve Cole, product
manager, modular products at
Snell. “Working together, we
are able to bring significant
benefits to our customers
looking for industry-leading
audio control solutions.”
www.linearacoustic.com
www.snellgroup.com
18
When Avatar Director James Cameron used the opening keynote to
declare that the future of 3D lay in broadcasting, he set NAB buzzing
Photo: NAB 2011
A race towards
the 4K finish line
Marini. “It’s much easier to perform a 4K finish on a romantic
comedy than on a film like The
Green Lantern.”
While Sony doesn’t have the
answer for post production it is
building out support for 4K
recording. The new SR family of
memory cards including a 1TB
version onto which 50 minutes of
uncompressed 16-bit 4K raw
footage from the F65 at 24fps can
be recorded. That card can be
immediately slotted into a new
playback device, the SR-R1000.
AJA also has a new 4K Mode
for its KONA 3G capture card in
support of 4K playout and monitoring. “4K is everywhere, it’s
almost old hat,” argued Chris
Cary, CEO of Meduza Systems,
intent on putting the cat among
the pigeons. “There are even 4K
sensors in cell phones. To imagine
that you see cutting-edge tech in
the entertainment industry would
be inaccurate.”
Cary claimed that Meduza,
which was previewed at NAB, is
not only the first 4K 3D camera
but one that’s powered by sensors
capable of generating higher
frame rates than Sony’s prototype.
“The Meduza is not tied
to any sensor,” explained Cary.
“There are currently a number of
sensors on the market that can
capture above 4K, 4K, or slightly
under 4K at different film speeds.
We support Aptina, Omnivision
and a third sensor we are launching in June. This sensor is above
4K and will run at a higher frame
rate then the Sony 4K [more than
117fps] at full frame.”
Tricky as it is to verify that
claim, the Meduza’s agnostic
approach to sensors is an almost
360˚ reversal on conventional
camera development.
“What we are trying to do is to
accept that component technology is moving forward much
faster than product development
and to integrate emerging technologies within six months of
their release, rather than the ‘normal’ 18 to 36 months of the
industry,” explained Cary.
Streamlining stereo
production
When Avatar Director James
Cameron used the opening keynote to declare that the future of
3D lay in broadcasting he set
NAB buzzing. Could a technovisionary of Cameron’s status
give 3D the tonic it needs to go
mainstream?
“A lot of people would say I’ve
just drunk my own Kool-Aid, but
everything we’ve predicted about
3D so far has come true and, for
the most part, ahead of schedule,” Cameron said.
Without a hint of irony he
forecast that 3D will be ubiquitous across platforms within a
decade and that most productions will be shot simultaneously
in 2D and 3D by 2014. Getting
there would be straightforward
and would essentially entail
deriving a 3D feed from the exact
same 2D production — much in
the way HD was extrapolated
from SD at minimal extra cost
and often solely for archive.
“Our goal begins from establishing a business model for
3DTV and that means letting 2D
production teams go about their
business and letting tech firms
come up with the means to
integrate 3D into the 2D show,”
he said.
Cameron wasn’t just giving
free advice to the industry — he
had a business to plug. By
launching the CAMERON –
PACE Group (CPG), allying
with 3D rig innovator Vince
Pace, he aims to take a slice of
the market for 3DTV technologies which Cameron is betting
will explode. The duo designed
the Fusion rig system used to
make Ghosts of the Abyss and
then Avatar, and are now adapting it for TV production.
“We are shifting from a paradigm of having created a few
hundred rigs to service the movie
industry to one where two years
from now the broadcast industry
will be served with thousands of
rigs,” Cameron said.
With a brand as strong as
‘Cameron’, doors will open for
CPG but it doesn’t phase competitors who are already down the
line with their own solutions.
“Jim is a big voice and his
announcement will help drive the
market but today we have the
software which he is only dreaming about,” says Steve Schklair,
CEO 3Ality Digital.
At NAB, 3Ality launched
3space, a set of automated software tools which BSkyB is testing
for live sports production, while
Element Technica (ET) said it
was exploring episodic production with Sony Professional and
with the encouragement of a
major US studio. ET announced
efficient means of identifying disparities between the lenses and
correcting them in post,” noted
co-founder Stephen Pizzo.
Extracting and handling
metadata is key to all approaches
to software convergence. In theory, for live work, the disparities
in lens rotation and tracking
would be identified corrected
on-the-fly, while for features or
recorded programming lens
and rig analysis would be stored
with timecode alongside colorimetry, exposure and geometry to aid the edit, colour
grade and depth balancing.
Right now this applies to cameras twinned on rigs where lighter
weight models for unrestrictive
movement are seen as important
as the quality of imaging. The
Red and the Alexa are current
imagers of choice for 3D if
“4K is everywhere, it’s almost old hat.
There are even 4K sensors in cell phones.
To imagine that you see cutting-edge tech in the
entertainment industry would be inaccurate”
— Chris Cary, Meduza
pre-show a pact with SGO to pass
on-set analytics through to post
via Mistika Live and its other
partners include Fraunhofer HII
which was showing versions of its
STAN stereoscopic analyser for
post and broadcast.
“For recorded 3DTV what is
needed is a streamlining of the
whole process from smaller,
lighter cameras to a more
blockbusters from Pirates 4 and
The Hobbit (Red) to Hugo Cabret
and The Three Musketeers (Alexa)
are anything to go by. Arri may
receive a significant boost if the
Alexa is chosen by Cameron to
lens his Avatar sequel.
In development at Arri to a
CAMERON – PACE specification,
the Alexa M is being timed for
an early 2012 release with
Panasonic’s AG-3DP1 — one of nine new integrated 3D camera systems
launched — features a traffic light system in the viewfinder
Sony PMW-TD300 3D is equipped with three 1/2-inch Exmor CMOS sensors
6/6/11
21:49
Page 19
pre-production models exclusively
given to CPG ahead of that for
work on 3D projects.
Sporting the same optics as its
sister, the ‘M’ has had its transmission system parted from the
camera head, linked by fibre.
Red’s Schilowitz wanted to know
how convenient directors would
find the cable. “There are so
many cables and fibres on set at
the back of the camera going
to monitors, recorders, analysers one more will make no
difference,” responded Milan
Krsljanin, Arri’s business development manager.
Likely to augment rigs, at
least for recorded TV and live
production, are the integrated
camcorders which have now
begun to proliferate. Again the
aim is to put 3D into the mainstream by means of cheaper
technologies although no vendor
would go so far as to claim these
models are suitable for shooting
a whole show.
“The smaller handhelds will
put stereo capture into the hands
of videographers and events
producers while the shoulder
mounts are intended for
Steadicam work, for getting into
places where larger rigs can’t go
or as a B-camera for cutaway
shots on multi-camera productions,” explained Clark.
By the end of the year both
Sony and Panasonic will have
professional shoulder-mounted
and semi-pro handheld integrated
3D camcorders on the market.
Panasonic’s AG-3DP1 contains two 1/3-inch, 2.2 3MOS
imagers, larger than the AG3DA1, recording 10 bit AVC intra
to twin 64Gb P2 cards. A traffic
light system in the viewfinder
gives operators an indication of
the safe convergence boundaries.
Both Panasonic camcorders are
supported through to post by the
Assimilate Scratch system, which
incidentally now has a budget
version intended for stereo television production.
Its shoulder mount will vie
for attention with Sony’s version
which is due around the same
time, at IBC. The PMW-TD300
3D camcorder is equipped with
three 1/2-inch Exmor CMOS
sensors. Based on the XDCAM
EX platform this camera records
left and right eye signals onto
separate SxS cards. It has an
inter-axial of 45mm with a 1.2m
minimum convergence. JVC and
Sony are shipping compact integrated camcorders later this year
intended for the events and
corporate market.
Sony’s HXR-NX3D1 incorporates two 1/4-type CMOS sensors recording AVCHD format
to internal flash memory or
memory cards. JVC meanwhile
claims its model captures full
1920x1080 resolution for both
eyes, unlike its rivals.
The £1,600 GY-HMZ1U
ProHD 3D cam features dual
3.32 megapixel sensors and delivers 34Mbps AVCHD recording to
Red Digital’s Ted Schilowitz was typically blunt in
repelling Sony’s claim. “Up to now Sony makes
great TV cameras, which is fine if you’re okay with
16mm level of imaging for a major motion picture”
SDHC or SDXC media cards or
to in-built 80GB memory.
According to John Kelly,
JVC’s UK general manager, the
company has no plans for a
shoulder mounted version. “We
are taking a watching brief on
that space because we are not sure
where the market for professional
twin lens cameras is heading or
what demand there will be.”
That’s the watchword at Grass
Valley which nonetheless has
stereo cameras in R&D. “Unlike
Sony and Panasonic we don’t
have huge display business so we
need a real business model based
around real market demand for
integrated cameras before we
proceed,” says Bart van Dijk, GV’s
marketing manager for cameras.
Grass Valley is working with
new French 3D rig developer
Microfilms and 3Ality to marry
lens data from its LDK Elite
series with rig mechanics. For
3Ality’s beamsplitter rig, demoed
on the stand, it had added an
19
7/6/11
11:35
Page 20
A race towards
the 4K finish line
6HH
PH
«
Operational Control Panel
(OCP) and the ability to flip the
second image the right way up
inside the camera head “effectively saving an ME on a mixer,”
explained van Dijk.
There were in fact nine new
integrated camera systems
launched at NAB including
GoPro’s 3D expansion pack for
pairing two HD Hero cameras;
Digital Design Studio’s prototype SHVC2 Ultimate featuring
two 1920x1080 1/3-inch 3CMOS
sensors with Canon 12x zoom;
and Datavideo’s LIVE S3D-1
manually adjusted convergence
and IO/IA unit which uses
C-mount lenses and records
most standard formats.
Incidentally the shouldermounted integrated camera
announced as in-development
at Discovery and Sony by
Discovery at NAB 2010 has
apparently been shelved.
“The project appears to
have been organised between
Discovery and Sony America
but we know nothing about it,”
Chris Cary claims that Meduza is not only the first 4K 3D camera but one that’s
powered by sensors capable of generating higher frame rates than Sony’s prototype
“If you get the codec right you will get the
camera right. There will be several versions of
AVC Ultra — which builds on our established AVC
Intra codec — including for 4:2:2, HD, 2K and 4K
4:4:4 at the top end” – Adrian Clark, Panasonic
Sony Professional Europe told
TVBEurope.
Gaining most attention in
this sector was a system built
around the Phantom high frame
rate recorder which deployed
removable sets of twin Zepar
optics. The Phantom 65-Z3D
captured twin 2K 35mm sized
images onto a single 65mm sensor and was shown alongside a
handsome promo shot on the
camera by vfx legend Doug
Trumball. Handy for short
sequences or commercials the
system can record up to 320fps
for slow motion, only weighs
20lb including lens, and can have
its lens changed and ready for
action in a minute — far superior
to recalibrating rigged pairs.
Along a similar theme was the
3D Lensys which connects to any
standard lens for adaptation for
3D. Co-developed by Ikegami
and Korea’s Wasol, the adapter
features a field-sequencing device
Grass Valley and Vitec Group show fibre
By Adrian Pennington
ZZZULHGHOQHW
20
Grass Valley’s main announcement in live production was the
debut of a new transmission
pack capable of carrying 3G signals over both triax and fibre
engineered to use the same
cables installed on OB trucks or
in venues. “No one else has done
this which is to give producers of
live events a solution which
meets their technical requirements today and tomorrow,”
said Camera Marketing Manager
Bart van Dijk. “It saves time and
money straight off the bottom
line of live productions.”
Tested on 20 channels of an
NEP Visions truck covering the
English Premier League since
January, the system allows any
choice of transmission cable to
carry either 1080i, 720p or
1080p50/60 video, while being
prepared for multiplexed pairs
of 720p or 1080i HD signals.
Also showing its fibre, Sony
presented its HDFA-200 optical
fibre transmission adapters
which combine 1.5G signals
into a single 3G-capable SMPTE
feed. The device also incorporates a viewfinder output with
multiple analytical and diagnostic modes — including several
specifically for 3D use.
JVC’s ENG body GYHM790U was sporting a new
fibre-optic transceiver, built by
Telecast Fiber Systems, which
provides a means of uplinking
video without the use of an
external encoder on location.
Using the camera’s built-in
encoder, high definition video
and audio are compressed into
MPEG-2 then transcoded to
DVB-ASI. A lightweight, 1RU
Base Station talks to the camera head and integrates into
studio, mobile truck, or
portable fly pack or into a
facility’s switcher, router and
intercom systems.
Joop Janssen, CEO of The
Vitec
Group’s
Broadcast
Systems Division, said he
expects significant orders of
pedestal cameras, robotics and
prompting systems at large scale
facilities such as Sky News’ in
Abu Dhabi but also sees business at the other end of the
chain as freelance videographers
adopt digital SLRs cameras.
“The ergonomics around
DSLRs are different from traditional video cameras so accessories like matte boxes, grips
even prompters don’t fit that
profile very well unless you
make dedicated versions of
them,” said Janssen.
Sachtler, for example, has
brought out a DSLR-friendly
tripod. The Cine DSLR can
support up to 11lb in weight
while a 10-step counterbalance
and three vertical and horizontal grades of drag permit professional operation.
There’s a new Petrol line
of DSLR bags including the
lightweight
DSLR/Personal
rotating at 60 times a second in
front of two small lenses. It has
already been used on local
Korean ENG-type productions.
Stereo 3D is becoming almost
mundane in its ubiquity with virtually every company in the video
space touting product capable of
acquiring, recording, managing,
manipulating, delivering or viewing 3D in some fashion.
“Two years ago the technology to produce 3D was limited to
a few companies and needed
bespoke pieces of software or
hardware to patch it together,”
observed Pizzo. “Now there are
a multitude of accessories on
the market and systems are
becoming commoditised.”
Some accessories to note
include 24-inch and 47-inch 3D
post production LCD monitors
(TDM-243W/473W) from TV
Logic which feature a passive
micro-polarising filter. “The
TDM-243W will be the best solution for desk-top editing and the
TDM-473W will be a good
replacement for 3D projectors,”
says the firm’s Charlie Chin.
Bringing the 4K story full
circle is arguably the first 4K
stereo monitor developed between
Korea’s Redrover and Japan’s
Keisoku Giken. It employs halfmirror technology in which two
27-inch 4K LCD panels are divided
by a half mirror providing a resolution of 3840x2160 (4Kx2K).
According to Tsukasa Baba of
Keisoku Giken, “the monitor is a
world first with 4K full resolution suitable for stereoscopic post
production. There are no flickers
as you might have with shutter
glass systems and there’s no compromise on resolution as you
might see with interleaved systems.” It’s released this summer
priced US$120,000 under the
Redrover brand.
Computer Backpack and a hiker’s
Campack Plus, designed to carry up to two DSLR cameras and
a 17-inch screen laptop.
“DSLR shoots also tend
to require more lights which is
why Litepanels developed the
MicroPro Hybrid LED oncamera lighting fixture. It provides continuous, naturally soft
lighting when shooting video,”
said Janssen.
LED lighting from Litepanels
are claimed to deliver operational
savings to a TV station’s bottom
line because of savings in carbon
footprints.“Tungsten-based
lighting in a single newscast
studio can deposit 200,000+lbs
of CO2 into the atmosphere
annually,” said Janssen. “Replacement with Litepanels cuts that
carbon footprint by up to 95%.”
Among the group’s principal
NAB releases was the Vector 75,
successor to Vinten’s popular
Vector 70 head, shipping this
month. It features a counterbalance
mechanism combined with Vinten’s
standard LF drag system for
more precise movement.
6/6/11
21:50
Page 21
3D, 4K and 120fps: How
do they all add up in post?
Workflow challenges in post a major NAB topic
Post Production
Capabilities that proponents suggest hold the promise of enhancing the viewing experience —
including 3D, 4K and higher
frame rates up to 120 fps — had
a boost during NAB, meaning
that the post industry was beginning to evaluate what it means for
those involved in finishing.
The post production industry
has already been moving toward
development and refinement of
file-based workflows. But this is
an area where one size doesn’t fit
3D at NAB
With more than half of the
world’s digital cinema screens
now capable of showing stereoscopic movies, the 3D format has
clearly had a penetrating impact
on that market. But Patel suggested that while 3D took off in
features, the industry watched
stereo “fizzle in the broader production space. It hasn’t decreased,
but hasn’t accelerated”.
At NAB, 3D for the home did
get a burst of fresh attention,
thanks in large part to a keynote
from James Cameron and 3D
“The project shouldn’t be about the workflow,
it should be about the project. The technology
should be an enabler, not an impediment to
getting the job done” — Marker Karahadian,
CineFLOW
all, and new formats, higher resolutions and the like could add
further complexities. Therefore,
opinions vary about what is both
possible and practical.
Related R&D had already
started, as evident this year at
NAB, generally speaking, where
most post equipment manufacturers demonstrated support for
an expanded range of formats,
high-resolution images, and 3D.
Numerous companies also
showed tools at a variety of
price points.
“The biggest thing we have
seen is the rapid rise of high quality digital acquisition — DSLRs,
Red — and this combined with
the decreasing cost of storage has
resulted in the proliferation of
tapeless workflows. It is becoming more prevalent at any budget,” said Maurice Patel, industry
and product marketing manager
for Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment business.
But manufacturers also
recognise that still more needs
to be done. “People had fun
investing in [custom made]
workflows, but the power users
are fatigued from that sort of
ad hoc extra work,” observed
Marker
Karahadian,
lead
investor and US distributor of
newly formed technology developer cineFLOW, which debuted
at NAB on the Band Pro stand.
“The project shouldn’t be
about the workflow, it should be
about the project. The technology should be an enabler, not
an impediment to getting the
job done.”
By Carolyn Giardina
i n n ovat o r / c i n e m at og rap h e r
Vince Pace, who launched their
new CAMERON – PACE Group
during the show while telling
broadcasters that they are “the
future of 3D”.
NAB goers also heard from
some pioneering 3D channels.
BSkyB’s chief engineer Chris
The evergreen and indefatigable Kiki Stockhammer, NewTek
evangelist, demoes the TriCaster production workflow at NAB
Johns reported that Sky 3D —
which launched in 2010 — has
70,000 subscriptions, half of
the estimated total number of
3D-ready TVs installed in UK
homes. Johns — a keynote
speaker at TVBEurope’s 3D
Masters conference in London
this month — said at NAB that
emphasis is needed on programme production.
Execs from American 24/7 3D
channel 3net — a joint venture
between Sony, Discovery and
Imax — also emphasised content
creation, discussing the channel’s
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21
6/6/11
21:51
Page 22
LQ
2UODQGR
DVS previewed version 4.3 of its Clipster, which includes the ability to generate 3D Digital Cinema Packages in realtime
3D, 4K and 120fps:
How do they add up?
aim to create a library of native 3D
content. Launched in February,
3net execs previewed new series
including Bullproof, a 3D-lensed
‘sportumentary’ about a team of
professional bullfighters.
On the exhibition floor, numerous post production equipment
makers such as DVS made 3D a
key part of their NAB message.
DVS previewed version 4.3 of
Clipster, which includes the ability
to generate 3D Digital Cinema
Packages in realtime and speed up
3D subtitling in 4K. The newly
integrated STAN (Stereoscopic
Analyser) software in Clipster
analyses and corrects 3D material
in realtime. CAMERON – PACE
Group has multiple Clipsters as
part of its 3D production technology inventory. DVS’ multi-channel
Venice video server also has an
upgraded 3D feature set with 3D
ingest and 3D play-out functions.
Venice also incorporates the
STAN software.
In the case of SGO, new 3D
capabilities were demoed in version 6 software for its Mistika
and live on-set application,
Mistika Live. On the stand, the
company also presented recent
3D work, including the finishing
of Flying Monsters 3D with Sir
David Attenborough.
Quantel continues to refine
the stereo tools in its Pablo system. At NAB, company R&D
offered a peak at a new 3D cursor
for the Pablo. According to
Quantel, the cursor would float at
the z depth of the measured feature in the picture, and it would
produce such information as
numerical values for ‘x’ and ‘y’
disparity and the percentage of
screen width disparity.
Case for higher framerates
ZZZULHGHOQHW
22
The NAB unveiling of Sony’s F65
16-bit 4K digital cinematography
camera drove an increased dialogue
about the challenges of 4K post.
“We are actively developing systems
to address that workflow…. that fit
into a typical post workflow,”
explained Peter Crithary, US-based
production marketing manager for
Sony Electronics, noting that the
end goal is a system that is scalable
to meet any delivery requirements.
“We are developing the entire
workflow from camera to processing to post production to deliver
16-bit linear RAW,” he explained.
“From this we can derive 2K or
4K.” The workflow will include
use of the recently announced
SRMaster format, which is aimed
at file-based applications.
productions in resolutions as high as
4K. Created by team members who
were behind the Dalsa 4K camera
system, CineFLOW is designed
around cinePIPE, a software core
with an integrated database that is
supported by specially designed
hardware. With cinePIPE, on-set
teams would record content in an
open-standard uncompressed 4:4:4
format, then review, search and
annotate the metadata.
The metadata remains married
to a production’s image files from
production through final conform.
The on-camera hardware consists
of two modules: cineTAKE, a
“A lot of drama can be added with good colour
correction: I’m talking about sports shows,
documentaries, news stories and background
pieces” — Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design
Through SRMaster, Sony is
making the SR Codec available as
a file. The same compression
scheme that resides on the
HDCAM-SR digital tape would
therefore be available as data
files for post production. “The
HDCAM-SR format is well
entrenched in the post production
industry,” Crithary said. “Sony is
firmly committed to file-based
production, and we are continuing
to develop the SR workflow.”
Under the umbrella of the
SRMaster platform, Sony previewed SRMaster studio deck,
multiple SRMaster portable field
recorders, an SRMaster data transfer unit, and SRMemory media.
This lineup includes the SR-R4, an
F65 companion recorder being
developed to support 16-bit RAW
recording and up to 120fps. The
target is to begin delivering this
product line by year’s end.
Sony is actively working with
vendors to support the SR File,
and the codec is already supported for ‘direct to edit’ workflow
with vendors including Apple,
Avid, Blackmagic and FilmLight.
On the Band Pro stand at NAB,
startup cineFLOW introduced
its answer to the need for a filebased workflow for 3D and 2D
compact recording system; and
cineCLIP, the recording cartridge.
Two server boxes include the
cinePIPE HUB, a server designed
for on- and near-set production;
and cinePIPE DI, which takes the
features of the cinePIPE HUB
and delivers them in a server
installed at post facility. The
HUB would distribute and track
clips, as well as other housekeeping and multitasking production
functions via its database.
A slew of additional tools with
4K capabilities were announced at
NAB. Blackmagic Design showed
DeckLink 4K, a new 3Gbps Quad
Link SDI capture card that supports
SD, HD, 3 Gbps HD, 2K and 4K
capture and playback using a single
PCI Express slot. Another example
was at the stand of AJA, which
revealed a new 4K mode for its Kona
3G capture card; the 4K mode supports 4K playout and monitoring.
Still, many warn that post
production efficiencies remain a
central issue. “The complexity
has exploded almost out of control,” Autodesk’s Patel noted.
“There needs to be a very clear
advantage gained by 4K workflow before it becomes ubiquitous
in the production pipeline.
“The customer is still a bit
wary of 4K because processing
overhead of working at 4K resolution is still quite high,” Patel
added. “But we do have customers that are already working
in 4K. Adoption of 4K is about
CPU performance, bandwidth
and storage costs. As those costs
decrease
and
performance
increases, those formats will
become much more prevalent.
“The creative process doesn’t
change, as much as the render
process changes,” he related.
“You need to render more frames.
That is going to change a few
things. It [might involve] pushing
back the deadline. [4K] puts a lot
of pressure on our customers to
have significant render capacity.”
At NAB, Autodesk showed the
newest version of Flame, Smoke,
Maya, MotionBuilder and other
systems, all of which were
announced in March.
Looking at post production
today, Patel observed, “many customers are finding that going
from 4K to 2K for the bulk of the
workflow is an efficient way of
complete production.”
During a CAMERON – PACE
Group press conference at NAB,
James Cameron weighed in on the
4K discussion, suggesting: “We
can display 4K, but the truth is the
centre of that pipeline is still 2K.
Visual effects companies can’t
operate cost effectively above 2K
for their render process.”
Just prior to the start of NAB,
Cameron had introduced the
notion of shooting movies at frame
rates higher that 24fps to achieve
results such as enhanced clarity.
Avid demoed its Media Composer version 5.5 software at NAB
6/6/11
21:51
Page 23
Also aiming to make a case for
higher frame rates at NAB was
VFX pioneer Douglas Trumbull,
who is also the developer of the
Showscan 70mm, 60fps process.
Trumbull related that just
prior to NAB, he conducted a test
by shooting 120fps with the
Phantom and Zepar 3D lens
system. And he planned to try
out a new workflow for post, in
development with suppliers
including
Vision
Research
and AbelCine.
Price drop
Prices were falling at NAB. And
that was perhaps nowhere more
evident than at the off-site Final
Cut User Group’s Supermeet.
Apple unveiled a beta version of
an upcoming 64-bit Final Cut
Pro X, costing just $299.
Highlights of the new version
include support for image quality
as high as 4K within a resolutionindependent playback system;
no need for transcoding; new
organisational tools; and a new
UI that includes tools built into
the timeline.
The response to the new version was very positive among
users of Final Cut, which according to Apple represents roughly
55% of the broadcast and post
production market, with more
than two million users worldwide.
Apple competitor Avid —
which demo’d its Media
Maurice Patel: “There needs to be a very clear advantage gained by
4K workflow before it becomes ubiquitous in the production pipeline”
Composer version 5.5 software at
NAB — continued to position
itself as the market leader in professional circles. Customers can
purchase a software only version
of Media Composer for $2,495,
and students can buy the package
for $295.
Editshare, which acquired the
Lightworks editing system in 2009,
meanwhile plans to build the size of
its user community with a free,
open source version of Lightworks.
Aggressive pricing is also
coming to the market for colour
grading technology. But at
NAB some questioned if post
production technology makers
could sustain the R&D investment at these price points?
Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty
believes that more accessible
pricing will actually expand the
colour grading market, particularly in broadcast television.
He related: “If you look at 2D
commercials, music videos and
TV shows, it is all colour corrected
and it looks beautiful. But there
is a lot of content on air that
isn’t colour corrected at all. It
is right out of the camera and
doesn’t look very good — it
looks unprofessional.
“A lot of drama can be added
with good colour correction,” Petty
continued. “I’m talking about
sports shows, documentaries, news
stories and background pieces.
Colour correction makes things
look rich and emotional, the other
stuff looks cheap.”
Less than a year after its
acquisition of Da Vinci at IBC,
Blackmagic Design introduced at
NAB its DaVinci Resolve 8, an
update to its colour grading
toolset that lists for $995. The
new version gains multi layer
timeline support with editing,
and XML import and export
with Apple Final Cut Pro. For
colorists working on stereoscopic
3D work, DaVinci Resolve 8
includes an automatic image
alignment tool.
Blackmagic also announced
DaVinci Resolve Lite, a reduced
feature version of DaVinci
Resolve in a downloadable software package available free of
charge. The aim is to use the
option to further expand the
colour grading market. Explained Petty of the strategy behind
offering this free software: “We
are so excited about what colour
correction can offer the whole
television and post production
industry that we think this no
charge DaVinci Resolve Lite will
create a revolution in visual
NEWS
IN BRIEF
VMTV expands Cinegy
After last year’s success with the first
Cinegy project in Sweden at
Västmanlands Television (VMTV),
Cinegy’s Swedish-based partner Veritas
Produktion has further expanded the
playout system with the addition of
Cinegy’s branding and CG module
Cinegy Type. It enables multiple layers
of automation controlled, template
based titles, logos, animated graphics,
and more. From simple ticker tapes and
lower thirds to multi-layer character
animations, Cinegy Type includes a
whole range of advanced effects and
features. It addresses simple
requirements such as logo insertion,
right through to complex branding with
templated information and animated
video plates. The Cinegy Type template
builder and title designer allows users
to build creative templates offline with
all the effects and features required to
make professional templates. VMTV now
uses Cinegy Type for all its text-based
news that runs in between programmes.
Anders Höög, MD at Veritas Produktion,
commented: “VMTV are already using
Cinegy Type for simple things; titles and
logo insertion, the idea though is to use
it for full dynamic, automated CG playout.”
www.cinegy.com
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23
6/6/11
21:51
Page 24
3D, 4K and 120fps:
How do they add up?
design that will dramatically
improve the production values of
even the lowest budget work.”
FilmLight also aimed to break
pricing barriers at NAB by introducing a new Baselight colour
grading plug-in for Final Cut,
which is expected to ship in the
fall for under $1,000. The plug-in
is aimed primarily at smaller
0HGLRU1HW
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FilmLight reported that in the
future, the technology behind
Baselight for Final Cut Pro could
be applied to other editing systems, as well as to visual effects
and compositing systems.
At the high end, FilmLight
previewed its new Blackboard 2
for Baselight. It also announced
that Spice Shop in Bangkok is the
first post facility to place an order
for the new control surface.
FilmLight reported that every
key in the new control surface is
soft programmable and is labelled
from below with back projection
“We are developing the entire workflow from
camera to processing to post production to
deliver 16-bit linear RAW” – Peter Crithary,
Sony Electronics
editorial and post production facilities, as well as indie filmmakers. It
is also recommended as a low-cost
prep station for larger facilities
with full Baselight systems.
The plug-in is the first in a
new initiative to make Baselight’s
capabilities directly available
within third-party applications.
that changes as the functions
change. The aim is that
Blackboard 2 could therefore
accommodate additional functions without the need for redesign
and to suit individual preferences.
“Blackboard 2 represents a
huge ergonomic shift that will
result in increased productivity and
For colorists working on stereoscopic 3D work, Blackmagic Design’s
DaVinci Resolve 8 includes an automatic image alignment tool
transform grading into a more
dynamic and exciting process for
both the colourist and the client,”
said Wolfgang Lempp, co-founder
of FilmLight. “For post production service providers, Blackboard
2 offers a way to empower artists
and differentiate a facility from its
competitors by providing a premium, creative service.”
Also in the DI space, Assimilate
launched Scratch version 6, available on Mac OS X and Windows 7,
which underscored many of this
year’s post production trends with
Apps for new I/O technology a major trend at NAB 2011. By Carolyn Giardina
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24
The power of Thunderbolt
NAB hosted the previews of
tools designed for the new
Thunderbolt high speed I/O
technology from Intel and
Apple, with transfer speeds up
to 10Gbps. The Thunderbolt
port is already available on
Macbook Pro, launched in
February, as well as the new
iMac line.
Blackmagic Design introduced UltraStudio 3D, a
portable capture and playback
device based on Thunderbolt. It
features full resolution dual
stream 3D support, 12-bit hardware architecture, dual link
3Gbps SDI, support for up to
1080p60 in SDI and component
analogue and HDMI 1.4a connections, as well as full SD, HD
and 2K support. It lists for $995.
Matrox’s MXO2 I/O devices
for Thunderbolt are designed to
provide broadcast-quality video
and audio capture, monitoring,
output, and H.264 encoding for
use with various editing and
content creation applications.
“Our original vision for the
Matrox MXO2 product line was
to bring audio/video connectivity and encoding functionality
outside the computer to provide
video professionals with portable, future-proof systems,” said
Alberto Cieri, senior director of
sales and marketing at Matrox.
“Thunderbolt technology builds
on that vision, giving our customers the ability to take advantage of the latest and greatest
connectivity technology with
our MXO2 products.”
Image Systems (formerly Digital Vision) featured Golden
Eye III, the company’s newest scanner, on its NAB stand
The range of Thunderboltenabled Matrox MXO2 devices
start at £460. Matrox Thunderbolt adapters for MXO2
devices can be purchased as an
add-on for £199.
“Thunderbolt is very interesting to the production community for a variety of reasons,”
said Nick Rashby, president of
AJA. “The high bandwidth
that Thunderbolt affords will
enable there to be no compromise editing systems that are
completely portable on set.
“In the past the challenge
has been getting data in and
out of a MacBook Pro or laptop, and not having enough
ports or extensibility. With
Thunderbolt that goes away
because you can daisy chain
multiple devices to one another
and move lots of high resolution
data around very quickly —
dual link, 4:4:4 1080p formats
and potentially even greater
resolutions than that. Overall,
the faster file transfer times
for offloading media from
camera to edit systems will
lead to significant time savings
and productivity boosts,”
said Rashby.
AJA also demonstrated
upcoming technology with
Thunderbolt in mind. Codenamed
Phaser, AJA said that its upcoming
product is being developed to
support HDMI 1.3a input and
HDMI 1.4 output for stereo
playback, provides 10-bit up/
down/cross-conversions,
with
RS422 device control and professional reference/LTC I/O, in a
portable design.
AJA’s technology demos also
included a preview of a product
a multilayer timeline for tighter
integration with editorial systems,
enhanced 3D stereo capabilities,
and support for a growing range of
input/output formats. Assimilate
revealed that the DI system now
lists for $17,995 for either the Mac
or PC, and is aimed at a wide range
of customers. The product line also
now includes Scratch Lab, a digital
lab tool designed for on-set and
VFX dailies. Scratch lab is available
on Mac OS X and Windows 7, is
paired with Scratch v6 software,
and lists for $4,995.
code-named Riker, which is
multi-format I/O technology for
SD to 5K workflows, designed
to address changing I/O and
processing requirements via a
modular architecture. AJA said
Riker would offer an arbitrary
hardware scalar that enables
users to scale up or down any
sized-raster up to 5K, in realtime at full quality.
As to business news from the
confab, Digital Vision arrived
in Las Vegas as newly-named
and rebranded Image Systems,
following the completion of its
acquisition of Image Systems
for €5 million. “Our promise
and number one priority is that
[customers] will receive the
same high-level dedication to
customer service that has
marked these companies since
their inception,” said Mikael
Jacobsson, CEO, Image Systems,
which trades on the Swedish
stock exchange.
“The breadth of R&D for
all divisions will be significantly
expanded,” he said. “There
will be greater opportunities
for product integration and
cross selling of applications
and products. DI, restoration
and archiving systems will
grow. Combining the Golden
Eye scanner and the Nucoda
and Phoenix systems, we
will deliver end-to-end solutions that are unique to
the industry.”
Nucoda Film Master and
Phoenix grading and restoration tools, the Precision touchscreen grading panel, Golden
Eye Archiver, and Golden Eye
III — the company’s newest
scanner, which integrates with
Phoenix and Film Master —
were all featured on the company’s NAB stand.
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Page 26
In broadcast operations, the emphasis was on real solutions with real Return on Investment
Glimpse of a ‘sensible’ future
Broadcast Infrastructure
For senior industry writer
Dick Hobbs, NAB 2011 was the
sensible show. For the most part,
vendors were shying away from
technological showmanship and new
gadgets, the worth of which was
unproven. Most were focusing very
firmly on the practical requirements
of broadcasters and producers today.
Central to that was controlling
costs: manufacturers were offering
products to help their customers do
more for less
There was one key area where I
was particuarly impressed with the
latest innovations, and I want to
start there. Since the effective
demise of the CRT monitor, evaluating quality has been a real
issue. The LCD monitor has not
really been able to compete for
displaying the complete video
gamut, although some new
entrants into the market —
Frontniche for some time, and
more recently Hamlet, for instance
— have made good attempts.
At NAB 2011 there were two
monitor ranges on show that genuinely did tackle the issue, and
Sony was confident enough to
show in a direct comparison just
how good its solution is. We have
felt for some time that the future
lay in Oled display technology,
but it has proved extraordinarily
difficult for manufacturers to
grow panels large enough in commercial quantities.
Sony claims it has now solved
this issue: I was told that the factory was now obtaining “reasonable yields”. This has allowed it to
introduce a new variant of its
Trimaster monitor family, the EL,
in 17-inch and 25-inch sizes.
In a darkened room on the
stand Sony put three monitors in
a row: a venerable BVM CRT, the
current LCD-based Trimaster
and the new Oled screen. To avoid
accusations of blatant cheating
the first thing shown in the
demonstration was a set of colour
bars to show the set-ups matched,
because the blacks on the CRT
were distinctly grey, and it looked
like you could read a newspaper
in the light thrown out by the
LCD panel.
Oled is a light-emitting technology, though, and if you tell it
a pixel is black then no light at all
comes out. As impressive is the
way that colour saturation is perceptually constant even at very
low luma levels. Fast motion is
also extremely good.
Also impressing me with its
image accuracy was the 42-inch
graded monitor from Dolby. The
people I spoke to on the stand
were very evasive about how it
On the show floor: One of the key themes this year was multi-screening
and finding a way to meet the demand without increasing cost
The downside with both Oled monitors is that
the price takes us back to the old rule of thumb
of $1k an inch. Dolby and Sony suggest their
displays would have a longer life than CRT, which
makes the economics slightly more palatable
Harris’ Selenio ‘is actually a ground-breaking product, combining linear audio
and video with IP in the same box, to provide a bearer-agnostic infrastructure
platform’. The signal processor was launched at Cabsat in Dubai
26
Servers and archives
actually works, saying only that
the LCD panel itself is a relatively
trivial part of its accuracy. Again
blacks were very black which suggests that the backlight is manipulated to a great degree. It works in
12-bit colour space which makes it
ideal for digital cinema as well as
television, and its 42-inch screen
would be good in a colour or
effects suite in a post house.
The downside with both these
monitors is that the price takes us
back to the old rule of thumb of
$1k an inch, which today probably
translates to €1k an inch. Both
manufacturers suggested that
their displays would have a longer
life than CRT which makes the
economics slightly more palatable.
Before I leave monitors, a
couple of other lesser known
manufacturers caught my eye.
Flanders Scientific combined
good colour gamut with good
value, and with waveform monitors built in. Keisoku Giken had
an interesting solution for critical
stereoscopic 3D monitoring,
using two 4K LCD panels in the
same sort of mirror rig as the
cameras. It means you get the full
resolution for each eye, with no
flicker which is thought to be a
major source of fatigue.
Keisoku Giken offers an impressive digital video recorder, at up
to stereo 4K resolution, uncompressed, using SSD drives for
speed and low power consumption. For manufacturers developing display devices it can deliver
1920x1080 at up to 480Hz.
Once a name on everyone’s
lips, SGI has moved from being
the lead provider of highpowered hardware to storage
solutions. Its ArcFiniti network
attached archive can deliver
1.4PB in a single rack cabinet, all
on spinning disks.
The enabling technology is
Maid: massive array of idle disks.
Basically the core storage uses
standard SATA drives but instead
of running them all the time, when
they are not in use they are spun
down to an idle speed. This reduces
energy consumption and increases
the life of the drive by a factor of
four. Latency to access data on the
Maid is around 15 seconds, which
is less than locating and loading an
LTO tape in a robot.
Reminding us of its high power
computing days, SGI also offers the
Altix UV, which has up to 2,048
processor cores running under
Linux, with 16TB of memory and
looking like a single PC. Not sure of
the applications, but for computer
geeks it is a fascinating prospect.
Cache-A, unlike SGI, is sticking firmly to the LTO tape as the
long-term storage medium. Its
archive appliances contain a
Linux server as well as LTO tape
to provide what it sees as the right
combination of speed and reassurance. By August this year it
will introduce Prime Cache 5,
using LTO-5 tapes and 10Gb
ethernet connectivity.
Omneon servers are now part of
the Harmonic product line. New
was the MediaPort 7000 series
which brings multi-codec support
to the Spectrum server. Suggesting
that Harmonic’s expertise in encoding is already reaping benefits, the
MediaPort 7000 offers back to
back DV and MPEG-2 playback,
as well as up, down and cross
conversion on every channel,
regardless of source codec.
Harmonic also offered an
integrated storage version of
Spectrum, the MediaCenter, for
installations requiring four to
12 channels.
Server news led the way at
Grass Valley, too, with version 2.0
software for its K2 Dyno live production environment, integrated
proxy generation across the K2
media server range, and a new
workflow platform, Stratus.
This is a service-oriented
architecture which sits on top of a
6/6/11
21:52
Page 27
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New Sony Oled monitor range: ‘The way that colour saturation is
perceptually constant even at very low luma levels is impressive’
server network, and related tools such as
editors and switchers, to create a complete
workflow. It claims to bridge the broadcast and IT worlds by using web-enabled
tools to access content anywhere, and to
design workflows and create workspaces.
Not only the tools for the job but the
screen layout and preferences follow the
user wherever they log on.
SOA was also high on the agenda at
AmberFin, where Mark Horton told me
“connecting point to point by API is just
not viable in complex workflows. You
need to come in from above not across”.
He made the point that a seemingly
small change in connectivity may lead to
unexpected and uneconomic costs: one
London post house was reportedly quoted £70k by a vendor for the consultancy to
consider changing an API.
He also explained that workflows for
multiple deliveries means that connectivity
rises exponentially. Sixty distribution versions, each with 15 sub-versions is not
uncommon for an international commercial.
Transcoding and clouds
Telestream also has a major presence in SOA
workflows through its Vantage product.
Given that transcoding and versioning is
clearly a major requirement already, and
Telestream has a long reputation for
transcoding, this is a logical development. In
the latest iteration of Vantage, Telestream’s
recent acquisition of Anystream gives excellent system management for capture,
transcoding, analysis, metadata, delivery and
notification through the Agility product.
Telestream also introduced a product
called LiveView which returns television
signals over cellular circuits. For journalists in city centres, a backpack processor
gangs together a number of 3G or 4G
channels to achieve enough bandwidth for
live contributions.
Vislink, too, was showing technology
to use cellular telephony for live broadcast. The company already provides solutions for other applications like law
enforcement and public safety, and is now
consulting with broadcasters to determine
how best to extend the technology.
Like Telestream, Digital Rapids is big in
handling and delivering encoded files, and the
launch of Transcode Manager version 2.0
brings cloud processing alongside onpremise encoding farms,
allowing you to use the cloud
to relieve peaks in demand.
It runs on the Windows
Azure platform which makes it
easy to connect, and to calculate how much it
is going to cost to run over into the cloud.
Digital Rapids also made the point that
while process automation is critical to meet
multi-platform delivery demands, it needs
SOA was also high on the
agenda at AmberFin, where
Mark Horton told me
“connecting point to point by
API is just not viable in
complex workflows. You need to
come in from above, not across”
to be intelligent enough to understand how
to deal with problems. Their estimate is that
around 10% of input files have anomalies
which need correction: the Digital Rapids
solution is to break the job down to work at
the frame level, not the file level.
Adopting a software approach to
multiple file creation is Blue Lucy Media,
which runs on a standard PC with the
addition of a Blackmagic video capture
card. Also impressive from Blue Lucy was
MXF Tailor, a product which may solve
some practical problems. It claims to be
able to stitch MXF files together, even in
different flavours, without decompressing
the essence, and as fast as reading the file
from one location to another.
Cinegy Capture also needs no more than
an I/O card to create an ingest device in a
standard computer, either Mac or PC.
Internally it encodes to multiple codecs and
wraps to both MXF and Quicktime simultaneously, and because the device sits on an
network it can be remotely controlled, and
content browsed, using Sliverlight.
The device was at the heart of a
demonstration organised by FIMS, the
Framework for Interoperable Media
Services. This is a joint development
between AMWA and EBU, to try to
move the industry forward in service
The new DVICenter from Guntermann &
Drunck is a DVI Matrix switch that optimises
studio workflow. Offering centralised
configuration through a web interface or OSD,
it provides multiple users with access to a
series of computers using different platforms
simultaneously.
This unique KVM broadcast solution provides
a high resolution of 1920x1200 @ 60Hz over
distances of up to 280m by CAT cabling and up
to 10km by fiber optics. Which means computers
can now be based in a dedicated plant room,
gaining more space in the studio with less heat
and noise. Yet despite the distance between
computers and consoles, users enjoy brilliant
video quality with absolutely no loss of quality.
Leading
the way in
digital KVM
www.gdsys.de
The DVICenter allows engineers and IT
administrators to service and configure the
system, without disturbing studio or post
production personnel and so allowing
continuous use, 24/7. It supports both PS/2
and USB keyboards, offers Dynamic Port
technology – 32 ports in total – and any number
of computer and workstation connections can be
freely chosen. This ensures flexibility for all your
future tasks.
Cinegy Capture ‘was at the heart of a
demonstration organised by FIMS, the
Framework for Interoperable Media Services’
27
6/6/11
21:52
Page 28
Glimpse of a
‘sensible’ future
oriented architectures through
common interfaces.
Aspera sees a growing requirement for encoding and transcoding
in the cloud, but also recognises that
the big challenge is getting content
there. Its Fasp technology is designed
to move large files, such as media,
over IP networks with maximum
speed, predictability and security.
Aspera Sync is typical of the
sort of application that can be
built on it. As its name suggests,
this is a multi-directional replication and synchronisation system,
supporting millions of individual
files and any file size.
Another key supplier of transfer
technology is XDT with its Catapult
product, reaching version 3.0 at
NAB, and aimed primarily at delivering content for high end production and post. The new release uses
JPEG2000, in either lossy or lossless
forms, to further boost speed, with
XDT claiming that a 100Mbps
connection can deliver an effective
bandwidth of between 200Mbps
and 1Gbps without impairing image
quality or losing metadata.
Nevion is a well established
name in video transport and, with
its new Video iPath system, is
providing managed services over
existing mixed infrastructures. The
system provides for the provisioning of connections with selfhealing routing as well as managing the hardware to ensure the necessary connectivity. As explained
to me, their philosophy is shifting
from monitoring the hardware to
monitoring the health of the content itself, reducing the cost while
maintaining quality.
In a very interesting application, Onside Productions in
Sweden covers lower league football matches without using outside broadcast vehicles. Sixteen
stadiums are equipped with
remote pan-and-tilt heads, with
all the camera and sound outputs
connected to the national data
infrastructure. Video iPath can
set up paths from three stadiums
simultaneously, with all the camera switching carried out at the
production headquarters.
Sound and light at NAB
Hi Tech Systems is known for
producing cost effective and
highly practical controllers. At
NAB it launched Avita, a new
configurable controller for
servers and related products.
Although a software-only version is available, the primary
product is a hardware panel with
a touchscreen controller, which
allows drag and drop compilation of clips into a playlist.
There are lots of nice design
touches in Avita, including the
flexible mount for the touchscreen which allows it to fold
down flat for ease of intensive
typing when you are configuring the system. Currently it
supports the VDCP protocol,
but APIs for other server protocols will be rolled out in due
course. It is also MOS compliant for system integration.
Now that international standards have been agreed, audio
loudness is becoming an urgent
requirement needing solutions.
Ross has OpenCast plugin modules using Linear
Acoustic algorithms.
Eyeheight has software
plug-ins for Final Cut Pro and
Avid editors, with a degree of
control to suit the programme
content while remaining within
the agreed standards. It sees
plug-ins for transcoding engines
as the way ahead for loudness.
A similar plan is being
offered by Hamlet, which has
incorporated loudness into its
Assets and automation
Evertz was reflecting on its acquisition of Pharos. The logic is that
Evertz has always been good at
hardware, and Pharos adds the software element of workflows. This
has allowed it to develop Overture
RT Live, its offering in the channel
in a box sector, with integral server,
switching and branding.
Similarly, the recent acquisition of Omnibus by Miranda has
led to tighter integration of the
ITX automation platform, particularly with graphics and branding. As well as the advantages of
better programme quality and
VidChecker quality control tool
for file-based infrastructures.
The software checks new files as
they arrive at a facility, either
through a drop box or under
the control of a workflow
automation system (there is a
VidChecker API). It not only
looks for level issues in the video
and audio, including loudness, it
applies intelligent algorithms to
provide an invisible fix.
Volicon now has loudness
monitoring integrated into its
logging systems, giving instant
proof of compliance against
complaints. The latest version
of its logger, ObserverTS,
records complete transport
streams, generating proxy video
for each channel on the fly.
Another compliance company offering transport stream
capture is Digital Nirvana. Best
known in the US at present —
NBC records its output at more
than a dozen points in its signal
flow so it can track where errors
occur — the company suggested
it will be announcing major sales
in Europe in the near future.
LogServer from Mediaproxy
also records and can play out
an ASI stream. It also supports
MHEG-5 to capture interactive
information.
An interesting product from
Norwia makes it easy to set up
fibre circuits. Its MiniHub
product is modular but uses just
one card design, which automatically determines whether it
lower operational costs, it was
offered as a route to providing
multi-platform delivery.
The company prefers not to
talk about ‘channel in a box’, but
the new Dolphin system from
Pebble Beach is certainly a powerful and cost-effective integrated
system. On the stand at NAB
Dolphin was running 12 HD
channels from a 5U system, with
internal storage, graphics and
branding as well as switching, and
consuming less than 2kW of
power overall.
According to Miranda CTO
Michel Proulx, “the most important thing for our customers is
Digital Nirvana compliance: NBC records its output at
more than a dozen points to track where errors occur
needs to be a transmitter, a
receiver, a bridge, a splitter or
whatever. Apart from making it
easy to set up, it means you only
need to hold one spare board
which saves capital.
Elsewhere in optics much of
the talk was of ‘bend tolerant
fibre’. This is fibre-optic cable
with a special jacket that not
only adds mechanical protection but reflects light back into
the fibre, allowing it to go
around very tight curves. Both
OCC and Argosy Cable were
talking about bend tolerant
products, with Argosy showing
practical patch panels that
make it all feel much more like
a broadcast system.
Argosy also had an answer
to the perennial fibre problem
that it is hard to fit connectors
without complex and expensive
how they deal with nonlinear
platforms”, and that encapsulated one of the key themes of NAB
this year. Everyone knows that
multi-screening is real, and finding a way of meeting the demand
without increasing cost is critical.
The aptly-named Harris
Morris, president of Harris, told
me that the average American
young person consumes 10.4
hours of content in 7.5 hours a
day thanks to multi-screening.
During the NCAA college sports
‘March Madness’ programme in
the States this year, app online
visits rose by 64% — but television viewing also rose by 7%.
tools. A new kit from Belden
makes termination simply a
matter of stripping the jacket
and clipping on a plug.
And finally, it is not often
that a new light makes it into
an exhibition review, but
Photon Beard was showing its
PhotonSpot Nova that promises greatly improved energy efficiency and consequent cool
running. In its fresnel housing
the new light source is equivalent to a 2kW tungsten lamp
while consuming only 273W.
The secret is the light source,
described by Photon Beard’s
Peter Daffarn as “a tiny
little glass bubble”, which is
indeed what it looks like,
although that was all he was
prepared to tell me. It runs off
30V dc so is ideal for location
lighting. — Dick Hobbs
For me his clinching comment, though, was that “broadcasters tell us they spend 80% of
their operating expenditure on
20% of their revenues”. In other
words, you probably cannot avoid
getting involved in multi-platform
delivery if you want to keep your
audience, but beware of blowing
a lot of money on it.
Harris took the unusual step
of launching its Selenio signal
processor not at NAB but a couple of months earlier at the
Cabsat exhibition in Dubai (that
the launch customer is Omantel
was probably the reason). That
does not take away from the
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21:53
importance of Selenio which is
actually a ground-breaking product, combining linear audio and
video with IP in the same box, to
provide a bearer-agnostic infrastructure platform.
One of its key benefits is that,
beyond simply supporting multiplatform operations, because it is
a software device it allows experimentation on new services at
virtually no cost, allowing broadcasters to try out new services and
new revenue models.
Greg Dolan of Xytech said
something
fundamental,
I
thought, when he told me “The
broadcast industry is being commoditised. That battle is lost. We
have to use that to be fast, flexible
and affordable.”
Xytech MediaPulse is a
comprehensive workflow system,
bringing resource scheduling and
planning into the same environment as asset management. The
core data engine allows users to
analyse workflows on a financial
or key performance indicator
basis, as well as seeing how the
assets move.
An open source interface means
that “anything message-based” can
be connected to the data engine, so
users — or, perhaps more commonly, specialist consultants and
integrators — can build sophisticated solutions quickly.
NVerzion has been supplying
automation for 20 years, but at
NAB offered a technology
demonstration of Kiss, which
does not stand for quite what you
think, but the Keep It Simple
Scheduler. It is a traffic and billing
system that works equally well for
radio and television, with or without NVerzion automation.
Going back to the multiplatform issue, Front Porch
Digital looks at it from the archive
viewpoint. Its DivaPublish software automatically prepares
content for the web, YouTube,
iPad and so on, handling all the
formatting and metadata shuffling. The company’s view is that
if you have an archive you have
no alternative but to digitise it,
so you may as well take the
opportunity to ensure the content is widely available.
Front Porch Digital is actively
supporting the development of
AXF, the archive exchange
format, with the goal of allowing
the exchange of content between
digital archives.
Vivesta, now part of SGT,
also suggests its asset management tools fit into the multiplatform world, with particularly
powerful tools for nonlinear
transmissions like video on
demand and web television.
Most important, it helps with
cross-platform content, for
instance promoting linear television from video on demand and
vice versa, encouraging take-up.
To bring every aspect of
automation and asset management together there is an increasing interest in business process
automation. For Pro Consultant
Page 29
Informatique Herve Obed made
the point that other industries
long ago saw the potential to simplify processes and reduce operational expenditure, and that
“compared to banks, this is an
exciting business”.
Tedial has extended its business process management capabilities, with its system capable of
executing more than 3,500 work-
Harris Morris said “broadcasters tell us they spend
80% of their operating expenditure on 20% of their
revenues”. You may need multiplatform delivery …
but beware of blowing a lot of money on it
flows if required. Internally it
runs on an Oracle database which
can support different data models
for different departments within a
broadcaster, and allow special
structures and workflows to be
created for one-off events, such as
the Olympic Games.
In wishing well those proposing business process automation
systems, surely the way of the
future, it seems a good moment
to report my favourite quote of
NAB 2011. Speaking at the Grass
Valley press event, Paul Ragland
of Irdeto said “The broadcasting
industry is plagued by inefficient
and outdated processes”. Let the
change start now.
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29
7/6/11
11:41
Page 30
Plotting the relentless moves towards Ultra High Definition, 3D and limitless transmission channels
Get a grip on innovation timescales
‘bridge’ camera, hence perhaps
the curiously selected name
GC-PX1 ‘Falconbrid’. Or was
that a prototype?
Both JVC cameras follow a
style promoted by Canon at its
‘Canon Expo’ events in 2010,
addressing the issue that bugs
every owner of a modern digital
snapshot camera: why can’t the
video resolution be as high as the
stills resolution? Simple answer:
It soon will be.
NAB Reflections
Alec Shapiro of Sony summed up the
2011 NAB show, and the broadcast
business itself, in just five words:
“Change is the only constant”.
The engine powering this change is
of course the electronics industry,
broadcasting being merely a branch.
And it is not just the goalposts that
are moving; the entire stadium is
going virtual. The NAB 2011
perspective of David Kirk
It is common knowledge among
meteorologists that long-term
trends are more easily predicted
than the short-term variety: winter
is likely to be colder than summer
but next week’s temperature is
anybody’s guess. The broadcast
business operates on a similar
principle. Long term, it will obviously move to higher resolution,
to 3D, to a limitless number of
transmission channels... and perhaps even to higher quality content. To get a grip on actual
timescales, major trade shows are
invaluable — NAB this year even
more so than usual.
If you attend the shows, keep
an eye on the magazines or trawl
the net, you will already know that
NHK has for nearly eight years
been promoting 32 megapixel
Ultra High Definition (UHD)
television as a possible future
broadcast standard. UHD was
first demonstrated in September
2003 and made its NAB/IBC
debuts in 2006. At 7680x4320, it is
16 times the resolution of 1920x1080
HDTV and offers image sizes
comparable with IMAX. But how
to get there from today’s television
standards, let alone today’s delivery infrastructure?
One of the most remarkable
demonstrations at NAB this year
was, by common consent, a prototype JVC camcorder with an
8 megapixel resolution. This has
the potential to become a bridge
between 2 megapixel HD and 32
megapixel UHD, perhaps via an
3D is still around
The perpetually crowded Panasonic booth at NAB 2011 in Las Vegas: The AG-3DP1 is a twin-lens P2 HD
shoulder-mount camcorder with dual 1920x1080 MOS imagers and adjustable convergence
Anyone expecting a
high tide of iPad-based
products would have
been premature. I saw
two notable examples,
from Tascam and
Yamaha respectively
extra transitional standard (16
megapixel) along the way.
Capturing to a four-SD-chip
memory cartridge, the prototype
is designed to capture 3840 x 2160
pixel video at 24p, 50p or 60p fps
as a 144Mbps MPEG-4 AVC/
H.264 stream.
It can also operate in 1920x1080
60p, 60i, 50p, 50i and 24p modes or
will capture 12 megapixel stills at
up to 30fps. Features include timelapse recording, remote control
capability, 3.5-inch touchscreen
LCD and dual XLR audio inputs
By common content, one of the most remarkable demonstrations at NAB
this year was a prototype JVC camcorder with an 8 megapixel resolution
with phantom power output. The
quality of a 3840x2160 display
adjacent to the prototype was
breathtaking. Sounds expensive?
The prototype had no price label
but looked distinctly like a potential prosumer product.
Also shown by JVC was a
concept-model consumer camcorder intended to capture 60p
video at 3840x2160, 3200x1800
or 1920x1080 pixel resolution
but to a single SD memory card.
This resembled a sub-D-SLR
Stereoscopic products were not
quite so in-your-face this year as at
NAB 2010 but perhaps we are just
getting used to it. It is unlikely to
become seriously popular until
direct-view displays become good
enough to do away with the need
for additional nose-wear. JVC,
Panasonic and Sony meanwhile
had progressed from prototype to
production-model with their latestgeneration 3D camcorders.
JVC’s GY-HMZ1U HD camcorder has dual 3.32 megapixel
CMOS sensors and is capable of
34Mbps 1920x1080 AVCHD recording in 3D or 24 Mbps in 2D. It
captures to SDHC or SDXC media
cards or to 80 GB internal memory.
Panasonic’s AG-3DP1 is a
twin-lens P2 HD shoulder-mount
camcorder with dual 1920x1080
MOS imagers and adjustable convergence. Equipped with dual
optical 17x zoom lenses, it can
record for up to 80 minutes on
dual 64GB P2 cards in AVC-Intra
100 1080/24pN.
Sony’s HXR-NX3D1 is a
lightweight all-in-one 3D camcorder with 34.4 to 344mm optical zoom, dual 1/4-inch 1920x
1080 pixel CMOS sensors and
96GB internal memory. A multicard card slot allows direct capture or file transfer to Memory
Sticks and SD cards.
Canon introduced a ‘3D
Assist Function’ which allows
two camcorders in its XF300
series to be paired for 1920x1080
3D capture to Compact Flash
cards. This new feature also
allows the use of 3D mirror rigs
and supports double slot recording for instantaneous backup.
GoPro displayed a new $100
waterproof housing holding a
stereoscopic pair of its ultra-small
‘Hero’ camcorders. A third Hero can
be added to provide a choice of interocular distances. Powered by two
AA cells, the $180 Hero can be used
in wet, dusty or downright dangerous conditions where one would not
want to field a more expensive
device. The 3D housing comes
complete with a synchronising cable
and various mounting accessories.
30
6/6/11
16:57
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Page 32
Thunderbolt high speed interface processor which is now
incorporated in the Apple Mac
platform. Thunderbolt is a copper-based version of Intel’s Light
Peak optical interface. A single
Thunderbolt port can handle up
to 40Gbps of data across two
10Gbps bidirectional streams at
very low latency as well as providing up to 10 watts of power to an
attached device.
T h u n d e r b o l t - c o m p at i b l e
NAB exhibits included Sonnet
Technology’s new Fusion D800TBR5
and Blackmagic Design’s UltraStudio 3D storage data stores.
The Fusion D800TBR5 is an
8-drive desktop RAID 5 available
in 8, 12, 16, or 24TB configurations with data transfers of up to
800MBps read and 730MBps
write. It can handle one stream of
uncompressed 10-bit 1080 4:4:4
video and audio edits created
remotely to be ready for immediate multi-platform delivery.
Solid-state storage is now so
affordable that it would be pointless to capture audio to any other
medium. The same is becoming
increasingly true for video provided the signal is not wrecked by
compression and/or slow writing
speed. A clutch of new solid-state
video recorders appeared at this
year’s NAB show, one of the
most elegant being Blackmagic
Design’s HyperDeck Shuttle at
$345 which can capture uncompressed video via SDI/HD-SDI
or HDMI to a plug-in 2.5-inch
SSD memory.
Anyone expecting a high tide
of iPad-based products would
have been premature. I saw two
notable examples, from Tascam
and Yamaha respectively.
Stereoscopic products were not quite so
in-your-face this year ... 3D is unlikely to
become seriously popular until direct-view
displays become good enough to do away with
the need for additional nose-wear
GoPro displayed a new $100 waterproof housing holding a stereoscopic
pair of its ultra-small ‘Hero’ camcorders. A third Hero can be added
Innovation
timescales
Post production
The most widely discussed
new post production offering,
Apple’s Final Cut Pro X, was not
actually at the show. Rather than
exhibit in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Apple participated
in an FCP user-group gathering at
Bally’s to launch the software. This
supports the 64-bit architecture of
Apple’s Snow Leopard platform,
giving access to very large amounts
of memory. Features include
the ability to edit content while
it is being ingested plus a safeguard against accidental loss of
audio/video synchronisation. Price
is expected to be $299. The full
capabilities of FCP X will become
clearer when it is becomes available
in June.
Several NAB exhibitors introduced products supporting the
Trends in Transmission
At the transmission end of the
chain, it is only a matter of time
before major-league broadcasters migrate their satellite-based
operations completely to the
net. Cloud-based delivery services were a key subject of the
NAB 2011 conference as they
offer an easily-managed way
round contention issues as well
as tracking precise audienceviewing figures. Taken to
extreme, that could leave traditional transmission as the preserve of the very largest-scale
state broadcasters, for whom
television and radio form a
central element of national,
provincial or tribal identity.
2020? – David Kirk
HD or multiple streams of ProRes
422, uncompressed 8-bit 1080
HD, DV, HDV, and DVCPRO
video. Blackmagic Design’s UltraStudio 3D is a capture and playback device capable of supporting
full resolution 1080p60 in SDI
at US$995.
Adobe pulled a huge audience
to its demonstrations in the Lower
South Hall, promoting Creative
Suite 5.5. I sat in on a fascinating
lecture showing how quickly and
cost-efficiently a producer can
simulate a fairly realistic army
by shooting a few short video
sequences and pasting these into a
scene much as a PhotoShop user
can cut and paste additional
eyes/ears/noses into a still image.
IP-based networking has
been a routine aspect of broadcasting for years, notably for
remotely updating playout
schedules and delivering small
video/audio files. Quantel’s
QTube takes this activity to a
more ambitious level by allowing
complete edit timelines to be
created remotely using browsequality media. Edit decisions are
then published back to the home
server, allowing frame-accurate
Tascam introduced an iPadbased version of its Portastudio
based on, and similar in length and
width to, the 1984-vintage Tascam
Porta One 4-track cassette recorder.
The downloadable iPad version
records up to four tracks (not simultaneously), displaying VU meters
and an image of a cassette transport.
All four can then be mixed to a
stereo pair. A touchscreen switch
assigns which track Portastudio
records to. Trim and limiting are
applied to the input before recording.
Audio can be sourced from the iPad’s
integral microphone or an external
microphone. Production facilities
include pan, level and high/low EQ.
Mixes are saved as WAV files and can
be output to iTunes.
Yamaha’s iPad-based StageMix provides remote control of
some LS9 digital mixing console
functions from anywhere within
wireless range. The main screen
shows the EQ curve, cue and on
buttons, fader and level meters,
and channel names for eight adjacent channels. Input, mix and
matrix level meters and faders are
displayed in blocks of eight across
the top of the screen.
Blackmagic introduced the ATEM series of broadcast quality production
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8/6/11
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TVBE_June P34-46 Workflow
8/6/11
14:27
Page 34
TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W
Directing the third dimension
There is considerably more to 3D television success than just engineering techniques – both established and fresh
production considerations are vital, too. Philip Stevens talks to a number of experts in taking a closer look at the
3D production learning curve from a director’s viewpoint by putting television sports coverage under the spotlight
3D Production
Since Sky Sports first launched its
3D output in August 2010, the
broadcaster has covered a variety
of events using that technology.
These have included football,
rugby, the Ryder Cup and US
Masters golf, the US Open
Tennis, darts and the Haye v
Harrison boxing match.
Understandably, much of the
attention over the past year has
been focused on the engineering
achievement of generating 3D
output. Beyond that, manufacturers of 3D televisions have been
keen to display their latest wares.
But what about those charged
with the responsibility of producing the programmes? What, if
any, new production techniques
have to be employed when directing 3D programmes? Can the 3D
production facilities be used for
2D output — or are there separate outside broadcasts for each
standard? As far as costs are concerned, it would make sense to
have just one production unit
generating pictures for both formats. But is that practical?
“Usually there are two
autonomous OBs,” states Andy
Sky 3D football: One of the eight 3D camera rigs
typically used by Sky Sports for its football coverage
Finn, a programme director at Sky
Sports. Finn has more than 20
years experience of directing
sports output and is a regular when
it comes to 3D coverage. “This
enables the best coverage for both
sets of viewers. When it comes to
many sports, low camera angles for
3D coverage tend to produce the
best results. Of course, each venue
has different considerations, such
as seat sales and sight lines. When
it comes to football matches,
the number of 3D cameras we
employ is considerably less than
conventional coverage. In most
cases, we use eight 3ality camera
rigs for 3D productions.”
At the moment, because of
restrictions with the mirror boxes
and the physical size of the lenses
on side by side rigs, only 22:1 lenses
are available for 3D sports coverage. Doubtless, manufacturers
are working to overcome this
restriction. Similarly, the weight
of rigs is also an issue for both
handheld cameras and jimmy jibs.
Finn explains that there is an
exception to this two separate OBs
configuration when it comes to the
coverage of darts. “Here we use a
single 3D OB unit, with the right eye
output of the camera rigs being used
for 2D transmission. This is because
space is generally limited at a darts
venue, meaning there is really only
one good position to capture important action. For this reason, it is space
efficient and cost effective to treat the
event as a single outside broadcast.”
Mention was made of the fact
that the right eye output of the 3D
rigs is used for conventional coverage. As the image from this
source doesn’t pass through the
mirror on the camera rig, it is
generally sharper than the output
as 2D images on Vutrix production
monitors. Sony stereography monitors are used for engineering.
It has often been said that
directing for 3D requires some
different disciplines. For instance,
because the brain is unable to
assimilate the images as quickly,
fast cutting is not appropriate. “I
can understand why there might be
a problem with, say, a rock concert
— but the cutting of pictures for
sport is determined by the pace of
the event. Admittedly, I think my
pace of cutting has changed somewhat for 3D, but for some events —
golf, for example — quick shot
changes have never been correct.”
The key, Finn believes, is always
to be sensitive to the needs of the
“Directors are concerned with the lack of long
lenses for coverage of certain sports, most
notably football. However, I believe that we are
entering an era where all major sports events
will be covered in 3D” – Terry James, Telegenic
from the left eye lens, and therefore better suited for transmission.
Scanners used by Sky Sports
generally have JVC 3D monitors
for the transmission and preview
output, while all sources are viewed
viewers, and if over-cutting reaches
a point where it is hard to watch,
then the pace is wrong. He says that
hands-on experience of directing
this type of coverage will quickly
reveal what is best practice.
Graphic needs
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34
Similar considerations have to be given to the use of graphics. Two factors
— convergence and depth budget —
are crucial for the successful use of
graphics for 3D programmes.
Convergence involves the ability of both eyes to turn inwards
together, enabling them to look at
the same point in space. Depth
budget is used to describe the
maximum amount of depth consistent with acceptable stereoscopic viewing. In reality, this
depends on location of the viewer
and the size of the display.
“The last thing viewers want is to
feel the graphics are on the end of
their nose,” declares Finn. “Also,
you have to think about the image
behind it. For example, during a
darts match where you have a player walking towards the camera to
retrieve the darts from the board, a
badly designed caption could make
it appear that the individual is in
front of the graphic. It is vital that
the convergence issue is considered
along with the screen plane.”
He continues, “When it comes
to depth budget it is important
that the graphic does not appear
to have a great deal of depth
6/6/11
17:00
Page 1
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17:02
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Directing the
third dimension
because our eyes simply cannot
tolerate that effect.”
Vizrt UK provides the graphics
support for the Sky Sports 3D programmes. Its Managing Director
Roy Jenkins says that 3D graphic
operators must be good Illusionists.
“After all, 3DTV is an optical illusion. The graphics are not really
popping out of the screen, they just
appear to be. And it is all too easy to
ruin the illusion if you don’t follow
the rules of how the illusion works.”
Although it is normal for a lowerthird 2DTV animation to come in
from the left or right, this doesn’t
work for 3D because the golden rule
for all stereoscopic images is that they
mustn’t touch the edges of the screen.
“Since your eyes know in which plane
the edges of the screen are, if a graphic that appears to be sticking out from
the screen is allowed to touch one
side, the eyes register the conflicting
information and the illusion is lost.
3DTV graphics change their perspective by animating from the top or
bottom to the centre or by fading in
and not by flying in from outside.”
Jenkins explains that unless
full-frame graphics are shown, it is
best not to inject too much depthchanging into the scene. Graphics
overlaid on video and whizzing
about at all 3D depths could conflict with the stereoscopic content
of the video itself.
“When it comes to live stereoscopic production, a graphics operator can feed changing depth information to the graphics scenes automatically using GPI signals, according to whichever camera is on-air.
This enables a director to know that
the graphics will always have the
appropriate depth perception for
any camera view. These important
tweaks adjust the separation distance between each eye depending
on whether a graphic occupies the
front, main or background layers.”
22:04
Page 37
considerations, make it easier for
mirror and side-by-side positions
in stadia where space is at a premium. This will provide greater
flexibility for directors in their
coverage of 3D events.
James then echoes a comment
made earlier by Finn. “When it
comes to cameras, directors are concerned with the lack of long lenses for
coverage of certain sports, most
notably football. However, I believe
that we are entering an era where all
major sports events will be covered in
3D. And that means technological
developments will increase.”
www.sky.com
www.telegenic.co.uk
www.vizrt.com
www.3alitydigital.com
www.sony.co.uk
www.vutrix.com
One of the problems facing 3D coverage is the weight of handheld
rigs. Doubtless, future developments will help alleviate the difficulty
More capacity
With an increasing demand for Sky
Sports 3D production on the horizon, OB provider Telegenic has
just announced its fourth truck
equipped for that format is about to
be built. “We have been using our
T18 and T19 units for Sky’s 3D
production,” explains Terry James,
Telegenic’s director of operations.
“The latest, T21, was built to come
online at the end of May.”
Telegenic reports that with several
Premiership football games to cover
each week, the investment has been
justified. “As far as directors are
concerned, there is very little technical difference between the trucks.
However, we are purchasing Sony P1
cameras for the new unit — and these
will likely then be spread on rigs
across all the trucks,” reveals James.
“Our third truck will house space for
24 cameras, or 12 3D positions.”
He goes on to say that Sony
P1 cameras will, among other
37
Netia MAM management
for Russia’s TV Center
By David Stewart
Russia’s TV Center has
selected Netia technology
to supports its tapeless
model by simplifying the
sharing, handling and
management of media
assets across all of its operations. The project has also
facilitated the digitising
and archiving of 28,000
tapes in various formats.
The Russian TV station
worked closely with systems integrator Vidau
Systems Media, also based
in Moscow, to select a
media asset management
(MAM) system that would
allow staff to search, find,
and easily access and
repurpose its digital material. After much consideration, TV Center chose
the Netia Content Management System (CMS),
capable of interacting with all its
existing applications.
38
Within the CMS, a workflow manager automates, choreographs,
visually represents, and executes processes or workflows
The NETIA CMS is
an integrated suite of
MAM solutions that
allow TV Center to
streamline its production
processes. The implementation at TV Center is
designed to unite separate
areas of its operation
for simpler, faster, and
more transparent use of
media by all staff,
whether they work in
news, post production,
production, or the on-air
complex. The system
provides a single customisable interface through
which facilities and
departments across TV
Center can perform
searches across all new
and legacy stored content.
By connecting all
digital systems — editing, production, archives,
and newsroom systems — within
the broadcast environment, Netia’s
software has enabled them to
implement easy-to-manage workflows and task automation from
editing through post and distribution. Within the CMS,
a workflow manager automates,
choreographs, visually represents,
and then executes processes
or workflows.
The Netia system also plays
a critical role at TV Center
by supporting the digitisation,
preservation and repurposing of
its significant store of tape-based
assets. A variety of modules
provide for ingest and quality
control; metadata extraction and
tagging; and search, browse, and
low-resolution proxy generation.
The CMS software not only
brings greater speed and efficiency to its internal operations, it
also provides the foundation for
the station’s future roadmap. TV
Center now has the search and
rights management tools necessary to make historical archived
content readily available to a
broader user community. With the
Netia CMS, it is easy for TV
Center to store, manage, and
distribute content quickly to
any service provider or multimedia platform. To streamline
content delivery itself, the
CMS provides tools for content
packaging, metadata tagging,
and rights management, with
workflow supervision guiding
these processes.
23/5/11
12:19
Page 1
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11:50
Page 40
Brand new studio wall for flagship Antena 3 Noticias news programme
Antena 3 bigs up the news
News Production
By Fergal Ringrose
Spanish TV channel Antena 3 has
updated its newsroom with a brand
new studio featuring a 11 x 2.5m
video wall. Videoreport and Christie
worked with Antena 3’s engineering
department on a new set for the
Antena 3 Noticias news programme.
The new studio is spread over an
area of 1,200m2 and is equipped
with groundbreaking technological
resources including a production
system unprecedented in Spain.
The most striking element of
this new studio set is a 11m x
2.5m rear projection display
made up of 33 50-inch Christie
Entero LED tiles with SXGA+
resolution, built on DLP technology with LED illumination.
It is claimed to be the biggest
display of any news programme
in Spain and one of the largest in
Europe. The videowall was
installed jointly by Christie and
Videoreport, a company belonging to the audiovisual group
Vértice 360 (and a Christie partner in Spain).
“The idea was to create a different news bulletin, opening a
window on the world through a
giant display with superb quality
image as the centrepiece of the
new set, that would also be used
as a backdrop for the news
bulletin,” says Jesús Lozano
Corchón, director of Image and
Production at Antena 3.
The Spanish TV channel’s new broadcasting style
means newscasters are now more mobile and dynamic
Antena 3’s studio features Christie Entero LED 11x2.5m videowall
“We were looking for a curved
display, because this type of screen is
more attractive from a visual
perspective. We also wanted an image
with the smallest possible seams
between the cubes. We required a
silent display solution giving off the
least heat, because this screen was to
be located in studio space with 150
people, given that the Antena 3
Noticias newsroom is part of the set.
“We also needed a display
with outstanding brightness,
considering the strong effect on
the set of both the sunlight coming from the street and the artificial light. As such, after weighing
up all these factors and studying
other options on the market we
concluded that Christie offered us
the best solution.”
“To be honest, it was a very
complicated installation and
great effort and time was invested,” says Marcos Fernández,
business development manager,
Christie Spain. “It should be
noted that there is a projector
inside each of the 33 cubes units
comprising this display. This
involved some adjustments with
regards to the geometry and
colourimetry of each tile, requiring a lot of work. But it was
definitely worth the effort, considering the incredible result.”
The display solution offers a
resolution of 15,400x3,150 pixels, giving a total of 48,510,000
pixels, and one third of its
surface is touchscreen. This
application is mainly used for
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presenting the weather forecast
at the end of the news.
The new Antena 3 display is
controlled by a Christie Spyder
X20 video-processor outputting
the different signals. “As soon as we
discovered the resolution of such
a big display, we realised that we
needed more than a simple video
mixer to send the signal to the
screen, and Antena 3 immediately
asked us to resolve this,” explains
Julio Chorro of Videoreport. “To
tell the truth we didn’t make any
other suggestion, because straight
away we thought of Spyder X20
due to its power and the obvious
advantages with regard to its compatibility range,” he adds.
The Spyder system can mix a
number of sources in multiple
windows (up to 32 independent
windows), display a picture inside a
picture (PiP application), easily
define, shape and blend edges
and apply a wide variety of effects
in realtime.
Nick Wheeler, who has
worked very hard to set into
motion the Spyder system at
Antena 3, says: “The imagination
that Antena 3 has put into the use
of the Christie X20 video processor is amazing. They were able to
grasp the concept and possibilities of the processor very quickly
and I was amazed to see them
already using some of the nice
features such as PiP shapes and
key frame effects. This gives the
whole wall a very dynamic feel,
also giving the director more
choice and variations in his
camera shots.”
Antena 3 also uses several
systems to launch the content displayed on the brand new screen,
such as a Grass Valley mixer, a
Dalet system for launching content, a Chyron digital library and
a Vizrt graphic solution.
The Spanish TV channel’s new
broadcasting style led to a new
studio format, moving away from
the conventional front shot of the
seated newsreader to open up different possibilities for presenting
the news. Newscasters are now
more mobile and dynamic, making the news more accessible by
analysing issues together with
spectators using a whole range of
available elements.
The display serves as a support
for newsreaders to transmit the
news giving, for example, the
headlines with the powerful backup of the display, showing data
using the latest infographics or
making closer live links with
roaming reporters and correspondents. “Today the role played by
newscasters is much more active.
They can now move around the
set, making the news more
dynamic and presenting items
differently,” explained Corchón.
“All this has involved a shift in
our way of working; now we have
more staff working in production
and we even have an outline script
exclusively for the display feeds,”
he adds.
7/6/11
12:17
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HBO medieval drama series posted in Belfast and Dublin with Avid-based workflow
Post magic for fantasy world
TV Drama Post
By David Stewart
HBO used an Avid post production workflow for its new medieval
fantasy drama, Game of Thrones,
which launched worldwide in
April. Filming of the fantasy drama series began last June from
ARRI Alexa cameras onto Sony
HDCAM SR.
Using the eight-acre Paint
Hall studio complex in Belfast,
the production chose local Avidbased facility Yellow Moon to
provide offline editing/dailies
service using Avid Media
Composer. With 16TB of Avid
Unity storage, the self-contained
workflow was then transported to
Screen Scene in Dublin.
Working with Avid reseller
Tyrell CCT Ireland, Yellow
Moon offered a bespoke post
production environment or
“bubble system” as Stuart Lawn,
technical director at Tyrell CCT
refers to it, that could then be
replicated at the second location
85 miles away in Dublin.
HBO’s Game of Thrones stars Sean Bean and Mark Addy. For finishing, the online edit team used two Avid DS 10.5s with high-speed Rorke Data SAN
Screen Scene designed a sound
post workflow using six Avid Pro
Tools suites, working across dialogue, effects, ADR and music for
the sound editorial of the series.
When it came to mixing The Centre
Stage, one of Screen Scene’s
two ICON mixing rooms was
“beefed up” specifically for Game
of Thrones. The stage combined
three Mac-based Pro Tools systems, one each for dialogue effects
and music play-in, locked together
with a fourth system driving the
ICON mix and recording.
One of the big challenges solved
by Screen Scene engineers was
ensuring all tracks could be seen by
the mixer and editors in many different configurations at all times. Alan
Collins, who co-ordinates sound for
Screen Scene and sister company
Ardmore Sound, worked closely
with the Game of Thrones team.
“One of the reasons we used
ICON is the ease of handshake in
moving from editorial to mixing.
I don’t know that the shows were
mixed any quicker on the ICON
but in terms of the very real dayto-day issues of sign-off and
delivery having everything ‘live’
all of the time is a huge help.”
Screen Scene played a significant part in the delivery of the
show’s VFX and housed a large
team of artists in The Scullery, its
dedicated VFX area led by supervisor Ed Bruce. “The workflow
we built in the facility allowed us
to easily give temp versions to
editorial and then automatically
replace those in the live timeline
with finished shots. It worked
brilliantly and meant the process
was always moving forward and
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41
6/6/11
22:05
Page 42
Post magic for
fantasy world
not necessarily waiting for us.”
Nuke was used for compositing,
with Autodesk Smoke and Flame
also playing a small role.
Yellow Moon’s Managing
Director Greg Darby commented:
“Game of Thrones was by far the
largest television production ever
filmed in Northern Ireland. It was
crucial we had an infrastructure
and support network to match the
scale of the series — and in Tyrell
and Avid we found that support.”
Avid Unity integrated with the
HBO team’s Macs, which were
used for organising the dailies
back to the US. Similarly, the
team used a Cache-A LTO data
storage facility for additional
archiving which worked in partnership with the Unity.
If required source picture
could be accessed ‘live’ from the
Unity storage system as DNX36,
feeding directly into The Centre
Stage’s Christie projector. As a
result of Pro Tools connectivity in
the mixing room the sound team,
under the direction of Stefan
Henrix, had the ability to work
with up to 800 virtual tracks.
For finishing, the online edit
team used two Avid DS 10.5 systems working with a high-speed
SAN from Rorke Data. The DPX
files could be imported into the
DS for finishing while also being
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Workflow
Acquisition format:
Sony HDCAM SR
Output: Delivery of finished
masters as HDCAM SR 444
Offline: Yellow Moon &
Screen Scene x 8 Avid Media
Composers
Storage: 16TB Avid Unity
and Facilis Terra Block
Back-up: Cache-A LTO
data storage
Project transferred from
Yellow Moon Belfast to
Screen Scene Dublin for
additional offline, online, audio
post production and VFX
Audio Post
Editorial: Six Avid Pro Tools
editing suites
Mixing: Avid ICON 32 Fader
D-Control with 3 play-in
Avid Pro Tools
All connected via satellite
link and with picture via MC
Video Satellite
Online/Grade/VFX
Storage: Rorke Data highspeed SAN (DPX files)
Grade: Image Systems
Nucoda Film Maker
Visual FX: In-house using
Nuke, Smoke and Flame
Conforming tool: Image
Visions Data Conform
Finishing tool: Avid DS
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42
accessible to Screen Scene’s senior
colourist Gary Curran working on
a Digital Vision Nucoda Film
Master for the final grade.
Working with DPX files meant any
last minute editorial changes could
be easily incorporated into the live
workflow without having to go
back to original source material.
Associate Producer Greg
Spence worked closely with the
post team: “We worked through a
large number of challenges and
firsts posting this 10-part series
— from using an early version of
the Alexa all the way through
HBO’s recent shift to file-based
delivery of some of the master
elements. It’s remarkable how
efficient we became working
across Belfast, Dublin, London,
New York and Los Angeles —
sometimes simultaneously.”
Jim Duggan, managing director of Screen Scene, believes Avid
solutions played a part in the success of the post. “With Game of
Thrones, picture and sound came
with huge ambition and a tight
schedule. When you have those
challenges you need clever and
efficient workflows. Luckily the
HBO production team really
understood post and collectively
we built a workflow that allowed
picture, sound, colour and VFX
to move securely around the facility. Getting the technical workflow right had a really positive
creative impact on the show.”
7/6/11
17:01
Page 1
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6/6/11
22:06
Page 44
Production challenge: FIFA World Cup 2010 retrospective — the lessons learned for future 3D OBs
Solving the 3D zoom problem
3D Production
In February 2010, Host Broadcast
Services, together with Sony,
decided to film the FIFA World Cup
in 3D. Can Communicate was the 3D
consultant on the project — and as
3D Engineer John Perry writes,
one of the biggest problems they
had to solve was zooming. For
TVBEurope, he looks back here at
the specific challenges faced, how
they were tackled, and the lessons
learned for future outside
broadcast production in 3D
The difficulty with zooming in
3D comes from needing both
lenses to zoom at the same time
and at the same speed, while
staying perfectly matched in
terms of field of view and focus
distance. If one lens is sharper
than the other, or if one is
zoomed in more than the other,
it would ruin the 3D alignment
and cause a lot of discomfort for
the viewer. Another problem is
the natural tracking of the lenses. When zooming from wide to
tight, you would assume that the
lens is zooming into the centre of
the image, but it actually tracks
away from the centre.
Thankfully, with Canon
involved, we were not on our own
in solving the problem. Canon
had upgraded zoom and focus
demands to enable them to
control two lenses at the same
time, which was actually a huge
step forward. Until then the only
way to control two lenses at once
was to use a Preston or C-Motion
lens control system. Those systems are very good, but they are
made for the drama world and
don’t fit easily into an outside
broadcast set up.
The combination of the Sony
MPE-200 and the new Canon
demands looked like they would
solve the zooming problem. HBS
arranged a series of test weekends
so we could try out the system
and see if we could really make
it work. We started our testing
period in February, in a very cold
football stadium in Grenoble.
The MPE-200 was set up in a
small OB van and we had one rig
inside the stadium.
Masa Kikuzawa and Bernard
Allart from Canon Europe
brought a pair of HJ22ex7.6
(-168mm) lenses for us to use.
The HJ22ex had become our lens
Can Communicate’s standard 3D set up is an Element
Quasar rig, Sony P1 cameras and Canon HJ22 lenses
“A scale difference like that is horrible to look
at in 3D … If we’d shown footage like that to
cinemas full of people we would have given them
all splitting headaches”
of choice for live events. Its range
of focal lengths makes it ideal for
both mirror rigs and side-by-side
rigs. We knew that MPE-200
would fix the lens tracking, but
Bernard showed us a way to
reduce the tracking by adjusting
the lens itself.
A scale headache
The test shoot went well. We were
zooming and reframing exactly as
we would on a normal 2D camera,
and the Element rig performed
perfectly. It felt like a huge success
— and we started to feel like we
might be able to pull this off. It
wasn’t until the fourth test that we
would see the issue that could have
ruined the whole project.
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For the next few test weekends
we increased the number of rigs
and experimented with different
camera positions around the stadium. Everything was going well —
until we started to notice scale differences between the lenses after a
zoom. A scale difference is caused
by one image being larger than the
other; it was as if the lenses were
both zooming, but when they
stopped one would be slightly
more zoomed in than the other.
A scale difference like that is
horrible to look at in 3D. It causes
vertical offsets (where one image
appears to be higher than the
other) and makes it difficult to converge properly, since no parts of the
two images are the same size. If
we’d shown footage like that to cinemas full of people we would have
given them all splitting headaches!
The Sony MPE-200 could do a
lot of things to perfect the 3D alignment, but it couldn’t fix this problem for us. The zoom demands were
positional demands, so they were
telling each lens to zoom to a certain focal length — for example
50mm — but the problem was that
50mm on one lens was different to
50mm on the other lens. The lenses
had never been designed to match
each other — the problem was not
a mechanical fault, it was just the
natural differences between lenses.
Allart of Canon was with us and
he had an idea that he thought
might fix it. He explained that the
lenses have hard stops and soft
stops. The hard stops are the
mechanical limits to lens movement,
and the soft stops are an electronic
limit to the movement. The electronic limit is set by a ‘secret’ service
menu that only Canon engineers
know about. [Canon Note: This
‘secret’ menu is now open in the user
3D menu, allowing user adjustment
of soft end limits.]
By adjusting the soft stops we
could match the lenses to each
other and make 50mm on one lens
the same as 50mm on the other
lens. The soft stops could be
adjusted for focal length, focus distance and iris, so we were able to
match the lenses really accurately.
This was a vitally important
feature. It meant we could take
any pair of lenses and adjust them
to make a matched pair as and
when we needed. For me, the
adjustability of the lenses has
become the thing that makes
them perfect for 3D. Whenever
we see a scale problem or focus
mismatch we have the tools to fix
the problem right there and then.
We had finished the testing
period and we felt like we were in
good shape for the tournament.
The first match was a bit tense
for everyone on the team, but it
went well and we got some great
6/6/11
22:06
Page 45
feedback from people watching
around the world. The second and
third games went smoothly and
everyone on the team started to
relax. The system was working and
we were able to focus on getting the
3D to be as good as possible.
A gearing effect
But, as the games went on the scale
problem kept on coming up and we
found that we couldn’t fix it completely with the soft stops. It was
better on some rigs than on others;
and it would seem to come and go
during matches. We realised that
the problem was the backlash on
the lenses. The lenses have such a
wide range of focal lengths that the
slightest movement of the zoom
barrel causes a big difference to the
size of the image on the screen.
When you push the switch
under the lens to turn on servo control, a gear moves in to position and
engages with a gear on the zoom
barrel. There has to be a degree of
play in-between the gears to allow
them to be separated by the switch
— and it was this play that was
causing the backlash.
The play was allowing the zoom
barrel to stop in a slightly different
position compared to the zoom
clutchless version does not disengage the gear on the zoom
barrel so the backlash is greatly
reduced. [Canon Note: This
clutchless drive is optionally
available on newer lenses]. They
have also improved the menu system to make it quicker and easier
to adjust the soft stops.
Our standard 3D set up has
now become an Element Quasar
“The worst thing was that the problem was
unpredictable and there was nothing we could do to
fix it. We were asking these lenses to do something
that they had never been designed to do?”
rig, Sony P1 cameras and Canon
HJ22 lenses. 3D keeps getting
faster and better — and some of
it is thanks to Canon.
Ed Note: Since this article was written, Canon has further improved its
3D lens controls to eliminate or greatly reduce the problems mentioned.
Notably, the new 3D software allows
a ‘master and slave’lens combination,
where the slave lens exactly mimics
the master. (In mirror-configured rigs,
the vertical lens should be the master.)
The software also allows precise
matching of the range of zoom, focus
and iris by the user. Work continues
to improve the mechanical axis
alignment of the camera chips to the
optical axis of the lens.
‘The combination of the Sony
MPE-200 and the new Canon
demands looked like they would
solve the zooming problem’
barrel on the other lens. The difference would be less than 1mm in
focal length but it made a big difference to the images on screen. The
worst thing was that it was unpredictable and there was nothing we
could do to fix it. We were asking
these lenses to do something that
they had never been designed to do.
We came up with some tricks to
get us through: with really careful
alignment we could set each rig to
an acceptable level even with the
backlash. The MPE-200 could be
used to adjust scale manually on the
fly, so if the backlash on a rig was
particularly bad that day I would
monitor it and adjust the scale during the game.
It was a bit frustrating: but in
reality it was a miracle that the
lenses worked as well as they did.
We had taken standard lenses and
made them perform way beyond
their specifications. There are no
other lenses on the market that
would have given us the kind of
results we got from the Canons.
New clutch dispersion
Since the FIFA World Cup,
Canon has let us test a clutchless
version of its HJ22ex lens. The
45
7/6/11
12:35
Page 46
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One of the UK’s longest-running soaps has moved house. Philip Stevens reports
New home for Emmerdale
Emmerdale is one of the most popular daily programmes on British
television. This soap opera first
appeared (as Emmerdale Farm) in
1972 as a twice-weekly afternoon
programme, but its popularity saw
it move to an evening slot and its
frequency increased. Around eight
million viewers regularly tune in to
watch the events of this fictitious
Yorkshire community.
As well as being aired in the
UK, the programme has been
seen throughout the world,
including Ireland, Sweden,
Finland and Romania.
While some of the programme
is shot on location (there has been
three main sites since the start of
the programme), interior scenes
have been taped at studios created
from a former car salesroom in
Leeds. However, in December
2009, ITV Studios (which makes
the programmes) announced a
£5 million refurbishment of its
nearby Kirkstall Road studios.
Central to the project was a full
upgrade of the Emmerdale production centre.
ITV Studios completed a £5 million
refurb of its Kirkstall Road
studios, including an upgrade of the
Emmerdale centre
The overall plan revolved
around consolidating the production centre to fit the programme’s future requirements.
Needless to say, the refurbishment involved the introduction
of high definition facilities. The
work has now been completed,
and the refitted studios came
online in April.
Purpose-built
Before the refurbishment was
announced, it had been thought
that the facility might actually
close, but a review found that a
modern, purpose-built facility was
key to enhancing the quality of
production for many years into
the future. “The decision was taken to put investment back into the
original main building which had
the foundation of purpose built
studio facilities,” says Adrian
Bleasdale, project leader, Project
Farm. “Obviously, the new digital
technologies which have been
introduced in the industry over the
years meant that a significant update of the resource was needed.
As well as HD facilities, a filebased infrastructure and new
innovative acoustic treatment
have been introduced into the
upgraded facilities in Leeds.”
He adds that dressing rooms,
make-up and costume areas, plus
a new joinery workshop have
also been created. In addition,
ITV Studios’ television and film
equipment hire business, known
as Provision, has a new bespoke
facility in the refurbished production centre.
In all, five studios and two
production galleries have been
totally refurbished. Each gallery
can be connected with any studio
— creating the flexibility that is
needed for the tight scheduling to
be met. Most studios accommodate three or four sets that are
used in each episode, and careful
orchestration is required to
enable the production teams to
move around between studios as
their particular scripts demand.
“The whole facility and production throughput is designed
around a high definition filebased solution,” states Bleasdale.
“Editshare has provided us with a
really clever studio ingest system,
server system and post production solution.”
He explains that the system is
unique to the programme’s requirements. The production galleries are
fitted with standard For-A vision
The faces and the sets are the same, but one of the UK’s most
popular programmes has moved into refurbished studios
mixers. The output from the mixer,
plus each of the four Ikegami studio
cameras, is fed directly to the
Editshare system, automatically
producing an EDL. “The vision
mixing is quite simple at this stage
— with no effects or complex procedures needed. In effect, the studio
output acts as a rough cut, with the
editor tweaking the shots to make
the required final version. Generally
speaking, we utilise Avid for cutting
and Final Cut Pro for conversion
and file delivery. It’s a combination
that works well for us.”
Alongside the upgrading of
the production galleries, which
also included Ikegami monitors
and Clear-Com talkback systems, the audio control rooms
were refurbished, including the
installation of Calrec C2 mixers.
In lighting control, ETC dimmers
were provided by Whitelight.
“For sound-proofing in both
the studios and galleries we used
an innovative acoustic reverberation system material that is made
by a Portuguese company called
Vicoustic. It is lightweight and
works really well.” Supervision of
all the installation work was handled by systems integrator, AVC.
Enhanced production
A sizeable amount of the £5 million was spent on building work.
“Two of the new studios were
originally part of the scene dock.
But since most of the sets are a permanent installation, we have limited requirements to store sets.”
He continues, “We’ve worked
very closely with the Emmerdale
team to create a studio which is
specifically designed for the
unique needs of the programme,”
maintains Bleasdale. “So after
months of careful planning, construction, consultation and work
with a wide breadth of contractors and a detailed technical
build, to a very high specification, we now have a modern,
purpose-built studio which will
enhance our production for years
to come. Not only that, all the
interior production requirements
are now housed under one roof
— whereas this has not been possible up until now.”
Exterior scenes for the programme will continue to be
filmed at the specially built
Emmerdale village in the grounds
of nearby Harewood House.
“The process of moving Emmerdale production from the old
facility in Burley Road to
Kirkstall Road has taken a great
deal of detailed planning,”
reflects Bleasdale. “It has meant
liaising closely with the production team to ensure that we were
able to continue meeting the
demanding filming schedule.”
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June 2011 - TVBEurope

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