November 2011

Transcription

November 2011

TVBE_Nov P1, 11, 12 news_TVBE_Aug_P_news 09/11/2011 10:57 Page 1
Inside: IBC2011 Wrap-Up, MAM Focus, AP High-Def Rollout
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
www.tvbeurope.com
NOVEMBER 2011
£5.00/€8.00/$10.00
First Alexa M for CPG
Broadcast 3D TV
By David Fox
LNK’s new LDK 3000 cameras have been installed in the refurbished
news studio. Here they are in use with presenter Lina Kairyte
Lithuania gears up for
high def transmissions
HD Build-Out
As this Baltic state gears up for high
definition television broadcast transmission,
Philip Stevens talks to a broadcaster and the
winner of a competitive tender for new cameras
Set up in 1995, LNK TV — Laisvas ir
Nepriklausomas Kanalas (‘Free and Independent Channel’) — is one of the major
broadcasters in Lithuania. Operating from
studios in the capital, Vilnius, the company
runs four channels — LNK, TV1, LIUX!,
and Info TV. Since 2006, the broadcaster has
covered 95% of the country using DVB-T,
with the LNK channel also available as an
analogue transmission for 93% of the population. Cable is also used for all four channels.
“Our main channel, LNK, focuses on transmitting in-house and locally produced productions,” explains Ricardas Kazlauskas, technical
director and a board member of the broadcaster.
“LNK has three studios — news, a small production facility and a main production studio.”
LNK Gallery: The gallery serving
LNK’s refurbished news studio
Over the past several years, the company
has carried out a number of major refurbishment projects. The first involved the
installation of a new playout and production system for all the channels. “This was
based on Grass Valley products such as
Maestro, K2 Classic, Concerto, Jupiter,
LDK400 cameras, Kayak 2.5 and 1.5 ME
SD/HD vision mixers. We also installed
Continued on page 11
Arri has delivered production prototypes
of its modular Alexa M camera to the
Cameron–Pace Group. The compact M
was developed with CPG for use in a new
smaller 3D rig that minimises cabling and
offers an optimised, streamlined 3D system.
“The Arri team has been amazingly
responsive to the needs of the 3D market
by creating the Alexa M,” said CPG
Co-Chairman, James Cameron at the recent
IBC. CPG will be the exclusive distributor
of the Alexa M in its Phase 1 rollout.
“The success of 3D will be based on
designing technology that supports the
creative process of the filmmaker; we are
excited about the Alexa M towards that
goal. The team at Arri has brought to
the industry a great step forward toward
quality 3D,” added co-chairman and CEO,
Vince Pace.
The front-end of the Alexa M transmits
uncompressed raw sensor data at around
18Gbps to a back-end image processor/
recorder using a hybrid fibre-optic cable
that can also power the head. Weighing
well under 3kg, the Alexa M head has
multiple mounting points and will also be
useful for Steadicam or remote use.
The camera body provides the same
image processing and recording options as
the standard Alexa: images, sound and
metadata can be recorded onto SxS Pro
cards or external recorders, including
uncompressed Arriraw.
The fibre means the head can be up to
1km from the body, which “allows for
some unique and extremely innovative 3D
camera applications. We hope CPG will
take full advantage of them in the months
ahead,” said Franz Kraus, managing director of Arri Munich.
The feedback Arri receives from CPG
will help develop the final production version expected early 2012. Arri will also
integrate elements of CPG’s 3D rig automation technology into the Alexa M.
Global Award Winner
To learn more, please visit www.broadcast.harris.com/Selenio.
Head and body in concert: Arri’s Alexa M
on a Cameron–Pace Group S3D rig
There is also a new flagship Alexa
Studio camera, which has a quiet,
adjustable mirror shutter and optical
viewfinder. It also has a 4:3 sensor, making
it the only digital camera (besides the
Arriflex D-21) to boast true anamorphic
capability. Many cinematographers prefer
the anamorphic look, which cannot be
created in post.
Arri also has a new High Speed mode
allowing Alexa and Alexa Plus cameras to
run from 60 to 120fps, using newly
released Sony 64GB SxS Pro cards, which
are about four times faster than current
32GB cards.
The 120fps feature is part of the new
Alexa Software Update Packet 5.0, and has
to be separately licensed. Licenses can be disContinued on page 12
IBC Wrap-Up
This issue we’re very pleased to bring you an
in-depth and we believe comprehensive wrap-up
of key trends and themes from IBC2011. What
were the lessons we can learn from the IBC
experience, and what pointers for the future?
IBC analysis is provided by our writing team of
Chris Forrester, David Fox, Carolyn Giardina,
Dick Hobbs, George Jarrett, David Kirk and
Adrian Pennington. Our 28-page IBC Wrap-Up
section begins on page 14. — Fergal Ringrose
Project1_Layout 1 09/11/2011 10:47 Page 1
TVBE_Nov P3 news_TVBE_Aug_P_news 09/11/2011 10:59 Page 3
TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LY S I S
HBS grapples with 3D plan CONTENTS
for World Cup 2014 coverage
x
1-12 News & Analysis
1 Lithuania gears up
for high definition
By Adrian Pennington
Francis Tellier, the CEO of
HBS, has urged patience from
those calling for football matches
like those at the World Cup
to be simultaneously produced
in 2D and 3D. “This is not
Hollywood, this is a live sports
production,” he stated. “There
will be progress in 2014, but we
have to be patient.”
Although FIFA won’t greenlight a 3D production of the 2014
World Cup until next year, it is
unlikely to roll back the breakthrough it made in 2010. Cost,
however, remains a considerable
concern; and if it goes ahead,
“3D in 2014 will be a grand
experiment,” said Tellier.
While 25 matches were covered
in 3D in 2010, the production was
entirely separate to that of the
main 2D host feed, although
both were provided by HBS.
Using that model to shoot all
64 matches in a country the size
Letter to the editor
Dear Sir,
It was good to see FOR-A
receiving a Best of IBC 2011
Editors’ Award for our VFC-7000
camera in the October issue of
TVBEurope. Unfortunately the
paragraph title incorrectly gives
the name of the product as the
FC-7000 — sounds like a football
club! More interestingly, my
colleague David Ackroyd is
re-christened ‘Dan’ in the photo
accompanying the piece. He
swears he’s never been called
that before and can’t think how
the error occurred.
Best wishes,
Peter Jones
FOR-A (UK) Ltd
Francis Tellier: “The next step, for
2018, will be a move to 1080p.
Super Hi-Vision is another step
beyond that of course”
of Brazil would require either
dedicated roving outside broadcast trucks or a dedicated 3D
unit at each of the 12 stadia. The
former is risky in the extreme and
both are financially impractical
unless FIFA media rights holders
and their distributors are prepared to pay.
The Cameron–Pace Group
(among others) are lobbying
HBS to use its technology in
2014 and arguing that it can
bring the cost down by mirroring the 2D cameras and having
essentially one production.
Tellier has a track record of
consistent innovation and is
certainly not resistant to change,
but feels 2014 is too soon to
make that leap. “The productions of 2D and 3D will become
ever more closely integrated over
successive tournaments in 2014,
2018 and 2022,” he said.
“If we had two separate productions in 2010 then maybe we
are 1.8 productions in 2014 and
1.5 in 2018. The costs certainly
have to come down, but maybe it
will never be 100% integrated.”
He points to one of the key
moments in his career: his decision in 2003 to produce a single
high definition and standard
definition production for the 2006
World Cup in Germany.
“We are at a similar junction
now. I had been pushing the
idea of a single standard definition and high definition
since 1998, but running up
against a brick wall. People said
that editorially the 4x3 and
16x9 aspect ratios were too different. Maybe they had a point
— but from where we stand
now it doesn’t matter. My argument was also that you cannot
finance a double production
forever. So certainly the productions will become closer and
closer,” he said.
www.hbs.tv
Weather timeline changes
By Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
At IBC MeteoGroup’s dedicated broadcast division, MeteoGraphics, presented its newest
developments in the field of realtime weather and news broadcasts. The company’s realtime
software packages, WeatherPresenter and MeteoEarth, allow
users to interact with the weather
content, add geo-referenced
weather symbols or other graphical elements, sweep the timeline
back and forth or pan and zoom
inside the maps.
Featuring an integrated playout system, WeatherPresenter
blends content from its sister
application MeteoEarth, a 3D
nowcasting tool that demonstrates the progression of global
weather events and how
they might affect the forecast for the coming days.
MeteoEarth displays
satellite animations, precipitation fields, radar
images and other meteorological elements which can
be overlaid and animated
to show how the weather
is unfolding. The system
can even be used for WeatherPresenter and MeteoEarth can
illustrating non weather- offer an increased degree of flexibility and
related news stories by independence to weather presenters
uploading images, symbols
or videos and positioning them offer an increased degree of flexiaround the MeteoEarth globe.
bility and independence to weathWith the ability to incorporate er presenters, allowing them to
live video as well as user- react quickly to last-minute
generated videos and still imagery, changes or weather developments.
WeatherPresenter and MeteoEarth www.meteogroup.de
Philip Stevens talks to LNK
TV about the channel’s
refurbished news studio and
the winner of a competitive
tender for new cameras
14-41 IBC2011 Wrap-Up
20 The business of
broadcasting
An analysis of key IBC
acquisition, display, studio
and archiving highlights
by David Kirk
23 IBC and the
digital ripple
George Jarrett reports on news
from the world of standards
and workflows at IBC
26 IBC flesh for
production workflows
Adrian Pennington reflects
on the latest developments
in high-end acquisition,
cinematography and
3D production
A
M
34 Post tackles need
for more content
File-based workflows and
cloud computing were hot
topics at IBC2011. Carolyn
Giardina examines trends and
innovations in the post sector
40 Panasonic route
to 4K and 1080p
Panasonic unveiled new 3D
cameras, a switcher, new LCD
monitors and announced its
entry into the European studio
camera market at IBC. David
Fox reports
42-47 Media Asset
Management
43 Sharing access
across RTVE
Avid’s Simon Hayward
outlines the MAM solution it
provided for RTVE’s full-scale
newsroom digitisation
47 JCA digitises
for KidsCo
JCA developed a five-stage
digitisation programme to
re-version and reformat
KidsCo’s existing content,
written by JCA MD Simon Kay
x
48-50 The Workflow
48 AP global HD strategy
Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
takes a tour of the
Associated Press’ new
Master Control Room at its
Camden office – part of the
news agency’s global HD
rollout strategy
50 A delivery you
can rely on
Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
talks to Loft London
Co-founder Davide Maglio and
Signiant’s EMEA MD David
Nortier about a smooth path
for digital file exchange
www.tvbeurope.com N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 1
3
Brought to you by
TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S
Ronald Khoo, Front Porch Digital
Katsuaki Kiyohara, FOR-A Company
Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, EBU
Steve Ellis, Telestream
People on the move
Industry veteran Dave Sampson
has joined AJA Video Systems as
OEM sales manager. He comes
from Autodesk’s Media and
Entertainment Division.
Tamas Vass has joined
AmberFin as the company's new
EMEA sales and partner director. Vass was most recently
European sales director for
Image Systems (formerly Digital
Vision). Ben Davenport has also
recently joined AmberFin as software product manager. Before
joining AmberFin, Davenport
was Harmonic's solutions marketing manager.
ANNOVA Systems has welcomed Daniel Klein as a new
project engineer to its team.
Previously, he worked as broadcast engineer/software developer
at ZDF.
John Sears has joined Argosy
as senior field sales engineer,
reporting to newly-appointed
Director Chris Smeeton. Sears
comes to Argosy with over 20
years of experience in broadcast,
most recently with PAG.
Roger Beck has been promoted
to CTO at Bright Technologies from
his position as worldwide manager
of the company’s Technical Services
Group (TSG). “Roger is a true
visionary, a strategic thinker and a
strong collaborative leader,” stated
Ed Rodriguez, Bright’s chief architect and president.
Camera Corps has appointed
David Sisson to its senior technical
support team. His freelance
activity for Camera Corps has
included technical support roles at
World Cup and Winter Olympics
as well as reality shows such as
Big Brother, Fame Academy and
I’m a Celebrity.
Clear-Com has promoted
Simon Browne to director of
Worldwide Product Management.
“With more than 22 years of experience in our company, Simon
brings deep knowledge of our
products and customers,” said
Matt Danilowicz, president and
managing director.
dB Broadcast has announced
an expansion to both its engineering and wiring teams. Mitch
Honey arrives as a trainee wireman, Jack Mitchell will be assisting in the design and implementation of embedded software, while
Edward Waife joins as a systems
design engineer.
The European Broadcasting
Union (EBU) has appointed
Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser as
its first media director, starting in
February 2012. She will lead the
newly-formed media department,
which consolidates the activities of
the television and radio departments as well as news services.
Following the recent departure
of Managing Director and CEO
Pierre L’Hoest, from EVS, the
Board of Directors has modified
the composition of the Executive
Committee, now composed of
Michel Counson, Jacques Galloy
and Luc Doneux. Under the leadership of Pierre Rion, president of the
Board, the Executive Committee
will manage the technical, commercial, operational, corporate and
financial functions of EVS, pending
the announcement of a new management structure in early 2012.
FOR-A has named Katsuaki
Kiyohara, former vice president,
as its new president. He assumes
his new role as chairman of the
Board of Directors of FOR-A
Company and continues as the
CEO of FOR-A Group.
Front Porch Digital has
announced appointments in three
key positions: Damien Bommart as
product and marketing manager
for the DIVASolutions Manage
category; Fabien Donato as solution architect for the EMEA
region; and Ronald Khoo as solution architect for the Asia-Pacific
region (APAC).
Halo Post Production has hired
Roger Beck and David Turner to
the roles of chief operating officer
and director of film post production respectively. The appointments follow Halo’s recent expansion into film audio.
Harris Broadcast Communications has hired Marcel Tölkemeier,
Mathias Kunert and Markus
Kartulik. Tölkemeier joins as a
solution architect for video headend systems while Kunert and
Kartulik join its Nordic and central
European customer support team.
Conrad Blackledge has joined
HHB Communications’ technical
department as technical sales support engineer reporting to Group
Sales Director Steve Angel.
Dr Terry Harmer will head up
the operation at Mediasmiths
Forge, a new Belfast-based software research and development
facility established by Mediasmiths, as general manager.
Following the appointment of Dr
Harmer, a further six technical
experts will join the team within
the first year to facilitate growth
and innovation.
Prime Focus has announced a
management restructure within
the London business. Broadcast
Facilities Director Rowan Bray
steps up to become managing
director, Broadcast and Independent Film in the UK, allowing
Simon Briggs to fully assume his
role as group managing director in
the UK. Another new recruit is
Anne Marie Phelan, the former
studio sales manager at The
Hospital Club, who takes up a
senior sales role.
Signiant’s board of directors
has chosen Margaret Craig to
serve as CEO. She recently served
as COO of Network Services for
Ascent Media Group.
Markus Kartulik, Harris
Broadcast Communications
Rowan Bray, Prime Focus
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See the latest jobs at www.tvbeurope.com/jobs
Dave Payette has joined Snell
as global sales director. Payette
will be based in Reading and
reports to Simon Derry, Snell
CEO. Prior to joining Snell,
Payette was managing director
and head of sales at NEC UK.
Telestream has created new
sales management roles for Steve
Ellis as vice president of Emerging
Markets and Kevin McCartney as
vice president of Sales for
Telestream’s enterprise products.
“We’ve established our business
worldwide, and now we’re poised
for more aggressive growth,” said
Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream.
Wohler Technologies has
recruited John Terrey as the company’s vice president of inside sales
and channel management. He
most recently held senior sales and
management roles with DK
Technologies, Norterra Technologies and Eyeheight.
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TVBE_Nov P6 news_TVBE_Oct_P_news 09/11/2011 11:00 Page 6
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
Three key events for 2012
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director Fergal Ringrose
tvbeurope@mediateam.ie
Media House, South County Business Park,
Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
+3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799
Deputy Editor Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
Melanie.Dayasena-Lowe@intentmedia.co.uk
Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House,
18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England
+44 207 226 7246
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
Managing Director Stuart Dinsey
ART & PRODUCTION
Head of Production Adam Butler
Editorial Production Manager Dawn Boultwood
Senior Production Executive Alistair Taylor
SALES
Publisher Steve Connolly
steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk
+44 207 354 6000 Fax:+44 207 354 6049
Sales Manager Ben Ewles
ben.ewles@intentmedia.co.uk
+44 207 354 6000 Fax:+44 207 354 6049
US SALES
Michael Mitchell
Broadcast Media International, PO Box 44,
Greenlawn, New York, NY 11740
mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv
+1 (631) 673 3199 Fax: +1 (631) 673 0072
JAPAN AND KOREA SALES
Sho Harihara
Sales & Project, Yukari Media Incorporated
sho@yukarimedia.com
+81 6 4790 2222 Fax: +81 6 4793 0800
CIRCULATION
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Free subscriptions:
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Intent Media is a member of the
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ISSN 1461-4197
6
Conference Preview 2012
TVBEurope has announced a new event, Fast Turnaround TV, for
13 March — and confirmed 2012 dates of 13 June for 3D Masters
and 3 July for The IT Broadcast Workflow — in a three-event lineup for next year.
While both 3D Masters and The IT Broadcast Workflow are
already well established in the European broadcast TV technology
marketplace, Fast Turnaround TV is a brand new idea and we are
very pleased to introduce this event in Spring 2012.
Fast Turnaround TV will be held at The Soho Hotel on Tuesday
13 March. What’s its raison d’etre? Quite simply, the new technologies and workflows behind big live/as-live broadcast TV productions.
Live event-driven TV programming has become the cornerstone
of a broadcaster’s schedule. Despite the threat to traditional viewing from VoD and online catch-up, audiences have been sustained
and even grown by major live and as-live ‘watercooler’ events,
which deliver audience mass that no other media can yet match.
All of these events require rigorous planning, preparation and
testing often to extremely exacting deadlines. They are all underpinned by innovation in technology and they all require the right
craft expertise that will make — or break — the show.
Fast Turnaround TV uniquely exposes the constraints and
complexities of these multi-faceted productions. It breaks down
the new and upcoming technologies broadcasters and producers
need in order to deliver innovative forms of presentation. It
uncovers the specialist skills necessary to deliver a failsafe transmission and unearths the behind-the-scenes accounts of the most
high profile recent live/as-live productions.
What are the keys to success? How do market leaders plan,
implement, communicate and execute successful large-scale
productions whether in sports, music events, topical comedy, international events or shiny-floor light entertainment? With huge
pressure to raise the bar every time, what are the latest technology
innovations out there that boost coverage and retain eyeballs?
Fast Turnaround TV looks at the technical deployments
involved, whether for HD or 3D delivery — or both. How do you
combine teams, so that main show production, news teams and
digital media can share assets — across principal broadcast, incidentals, lead-ins and lead-outs and web content?
How do you set up and connect camera positions, contribution, links, storage, sound, ingest, I/O, graphics, editing, crewing
and new delivery methods? Is there still a role for videotape?
What’s the optimum mix of hardware-based and software-based
systems? What are the biggest delivery problems — path delays,
compression limitations, profanity loops, and delivery via non-RF
based technologies?
We believe Fast Turnaround TV will be a unique opportunity
for peers and colleagues from around Europe to come together for
one day to experience case studies that detail how events were
Introducing the programme: Editorial Director Fergal Ringrose
welcomes delegates to The IT Broadcast Workflow event in July
produced, how technology and logistics were deployed, and what
technical innovations were introduced to enhance the coverage.
Meanwhile, 3D Masters will return to BAFTA on 13 June
2012. We are very pleased to confirm that two of the premier societies supporting the broadcasting industry, BKSTS and SMPTE,
will be key industry partners for the 2012 event. In return,
TVBEurope will become a media partner for The Forum on
Emerging Media Technologies, to be hosted by SMPTE and the
EBU and held in Geneva next May.
Ahead of the London 2012 Games next summer, 3D TV will
come into sharp industry focus as the marketplace looks to establish which technologies, productions, partnerships and commercial strategies hold the key to breakthrough success. 3D Masters
will be a central part of this dialogue in 2012.
The venue for the 3 July IT Broadcast Workflow conference
will be the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington — moved to the west
of London and closer to Heathrow Airport, the BBC and the UK
vendor community by request, following its last outing at America
Square in the City of London earlier this year.
Here’s what 2012 SMPTE David Sarnoff Award Winner Bruce
Devlin, CTO of AmberFin, said about this year’s ITBW event: “The
ITBW conference was excellent (again) and I thank you for the opportunity we had to present. The presentations were of high quality
and much of the post-presentation discussion was excellent. Jeremy
Bancroft did a great job (as always) of pulling the whole thing together.
One suggestion for next year might be to have a panel on topics suggested from the audience. There were enough vendors, users and
industry heavyweights in the room to cope with most ITBW topics”.
We’re listening, Bruce, we’re listening! At TVBEurope we look
forward to working with the community of broadcasters, production companies, equipment vendors and dealers, SIs, consultants,
and key industry bodies across our three-conference programme
for 2012.
2012 to be record year for OBs
It is not just the London Olympics which
could make 2012 a record-breaking year
in UK outside broadcasting. A number of
other events including the Diamond Jubilee
are expected to make 2012 a business
bonanza for the half dozen major OB firms.
The London Games in late July of
course dominates the OB agenda next year
with Arena and SIS Live among those contracted to the host broadcast operation of
Olympic Broadcast Services.
The UEFA European Football
Championship in Ukraine and Poland
(from 8 June 2012) will absorb further
capacity from at least two UK OB companies (Arena and Telegenic).
Then there is the Diamond Jubilee with
celebrations spread over a number of days
expected to make the total OB requirement
(led by the BBC) three or four times bigger
than for the Royal Wedding for which
the BBC, ITN
and Sky fielded more than
150
outside
broadcast
cameras. The
official Jubilee
weekend
is
planned
for
the first weekend in June.
According
to one source:
“We are led to
Barry Johnstone: “2012 is an believe
some
opportunity for everybody”
competitors are
charging rate
card plus a premium for these events, (rather
than rate card less a discount).” On top of all
that, there is the usual bread and butter work
which means OB crews will be working
around the clock especially in the summer.
Barry Johnstone, MD of CTV and
COO of Euro Media Group, said: “2012 is
an opportunity for everybody. Although
we are not working directly for OBS all of
our facilities are committed in the busy
summer period. On the opening weekend
of the 2012 Olympics, for example, we will
be up to our eyeballs covering three golf
tournaments for European Tour Golf, then
later in the year we will be producing the
host feed of around 35-40 cameras for ETP
of the Ryder Cup.” Ed Note: This article
first appeared on our Sports Broadcast
Europe enewsletter. To subscribe to SBE or
any of our other enewsletters, just click on
Newsletters at the top of our homepage,
www.tvbeurope.com.
www.arena-tv.com
www.ctvob.co.uk
www.euromediagroup.com
www.sislive.tv
www.telegenic.co.uk
www.fujinon.eu
That about wraps it up
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Fujinon. To see more is to know more.
3D TV making real progress
Chris Forrester reports from the recent MIPCOM market in Cannes on the rude
health of 3D TV — according to BSkyB, ESPN, BBC, Sky Italia, 3Net and more
Market Analysis
Broadcast pioneers across Europe
are staying true to the 3D concept
and are now creating 3D programming — despite a degree of
highly vocal naysayers who suggest that perhaps 3D TV is just a
flash in the broadcasting pan and
not for mainstream viewing.
“Not so,” stressed BSkyB’s
John Cassy. BSkyB will this
year have transmitted around 150
live 3D OBs, mostly sport in the
shape of soccer, rugby, tennis,
championship golf and even
speedway racing. “There’s absolutely an appetite for 3D out
there,” said Cassy. One of Sky’s
very first non-sport 3D commissions (Flying Monsters narrated
by Sir David Attenborough) was
the first-ever 3D programme to
win a BAFTA. Sky has transmitted live concerts, including a spectacular from Kylie Minogue, and
is buying more.
Flying Monsters is being followed
up
with
another
Attenborough special, Bachelor
King, tracking life in a penguin
colony. Moreover, Cassy is keeping Sir David on its payroll with
another breathtaking 3D series
set at the Royal Botanical Gardens
in Kew, which will air next spring.
They are also backing a Meerkats
series in 3D.
Cassy says that while sport and
movies take up the bulk of Sky’s
3D output, the natural history/
travelogue segments are also being
focused upon. “They run a close
third for us, and we have struck
major deals with Discovery for
their 3D output which is a primetime slot for us on Saturday and
Sunday evenings. We will continue
to invest in this genre ourselves, and
brands like Discovery as well as
National Geographic are natural
partners for us.”
Asked what is needed to push
3D TV towards a wider audience,
Steadicam operator Dom Jackson on stage at the Royal Opera House filming
Carmen in 3D, produced by Phil Streather and directed by Julian Napier
One of Sky’s very first non-sport 3D commissions (Flying Monsters with
Sir David Attenborough) was the first-ever 3D programme to win a BAFTA
Cassy said it is all about chicken
and eggs! “People need 3D sets,
and the prices for good TV sets
are now tumbling down. Those
viewers then need to be persuaded
to sit down and tune into good
programming. And if there’s
good programming, surprise surprise, they’ll watch it. It has
always been this way in TV. ”
Eyeing drama
The BBC is also ramping up its 3D
output. It has announced that
Strictly Come Dancing will have a
3D final from Blackpool, and has
also bought music concerts from
the likes of Britney Spears and
Alice Cooper. BBC Worldwide’s
(BBCW) Director of content
strategy Jo Sermon said that
while natural history, some science
and music form the main thrusts
of 3D activity at BBC Worldwide,
“we are looking for drama projects, and we are exploring our
top franchises”.
Her comment might have
referred to Doctor Who star Matt
Smith’s very public wish, made
in August that he’d love his toprated show to be made in 3D.
Doctor Who, in his assorted TV
re-incarnations, celebrates its 50th
birthday in 2013 and the show
remains one of Worldwide’s ‘Top
5’ best ‘export’ properties.
Indeed, another top export is
the BBC’s perennial Antiques
Roadshow, and in September
Graham Howe, one of the UK’s
most experienced 3D cameramen,
took test footage of the show
with Sony’s brand new TD300
model. The exercise was a great
success, and the regular ‘Roadshow’
crew quickly won over with the
camera’s versatility.
Sermon said BBCW recognised
that drama was something the
BBC itself would have to tackle as
part of its overall learning curve.
“The real curve for us is that there’s
good 3D and bad 3D. Some of our
Earthflight 3D has prompted the
audience to reach out to touch
what’s in front of them, it is that
good. BBCW is working with
James Cameron on the Walking
with Dinosaurs 3D movie, and he
speaks very eloquently on the good
3D vs bad 3D debate. It is good
that standards are high, and that
everyone is really passionate about
making everything look superb.”
3D TV is also encouraging
BBC Worldwide to think creatively
as to how best to exploit the new
technology. “3D is expensive,
everyone knows that. But our
strategy is to look at three or sixpart shows and make a one-hour
3D special from them. This seems
to us to be an interesting way of
getting the 3D element off the
ground. We take the best bits —
which particularly lend themselves to 3D. It seems to be a business model that works.”
Crazy world of rodeo
3Net is a 24-hour 3D TV channel
in the US, which launched only in
February 2011, and is commissioning or acquiring about 100
hours of original 3D material this
year, and the same in 2012. 3net
is also tapping into sport, but
because most existing big-ticket
events already have their TV
rights sewn up they are looking
further afield.
For example, Bullproof is
focused on the crazy world of the
rodeo ring (and is described as a
‘sportumentary’) and extreme
man-vs-beast encounters, all shot
in native 3D and which, said CEO
Tom Cosgrove, “gives a sense of
immersion in the action that’s
simply not possible with any other video medium.”
Sony’s Professional Solutions
division is helping create special
3DTV event-led experiences into
cinemas and theatres. “But it is
a steep learning curve,” admits
Sony’s David McIntosh (SVP,
Digital Cinema). Sony, with help
from RealD, has helped put on
live 3D telecasts of Carmen in
3D (in conjunction with the
Royal Opera House), Kylie
Minogue, and many others. “It is
a new industry, almost a cottage
industry at the moment,”
McIntosh adds. “We take it very
seriously at Sony because there
are some really good opportunities for widening access to these
events, and increasing the number
of events available.”
Few expect 3D TV to match
the wholesale success of HDTV
channels. However, broadcasters
and the TV set-makers insist that
3D will be far more than just
niche services.
iQ scores with
Alsumaria TV
The Lebanese arm of Alsumaria
TV has purchased a Quantel iQ 2K
multi-resolution finishing system
for its creative department. The iQ
will be the lynchpin of Alsumaria
TV’s intensive promotions production operation, and will also help
drive the broadcaster’s channel
identity design, commercials
creation, post production and programme graphic design.
“We produce more than 35 different promos every week, 15 or
more 3D jingles and 20 2D animations each month as well,” said
Walid Melki, Antenna Management director of Alsumaria. “When
you’re under that kind of pressure,
you need a system which is really
fast and efficient, and nothing beats
Quantel in these areas. The iQ also
fully integrates all the editing and
graphics tools we need in a single
system, which will further help
speed work through the creative
suite. And when Alsumaria TV
moves into HD broadcasting, being
a 2K capable system, the iQ will
make the transition.
“As regards selecting the iQ, I
knew what we wanted right from
the beginning. I’ve worked on
Quantel systems for many years,”
Melki continued. “I started at TF1
in France on Paintbox, then Harry,
Hal, Henry and Editbox. When I
moved to Lebanon in 2004 I began
working on Final Cut, After Effects
etc, but I missed the speed and efficiency of Quantel systems.”
www.quantel.com
8
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Continued from page 1
Aveco automation equipment,”
says Kazlauskas.
This Aveco system is made up
of mirrored ASTRA servers, which
run under a realtime operating system (QNX). It controls the associated Grass Valley K2 videoservers,
enabling a clean switch-over in
the event of the failure of a server
channel. In addition, it manages
other Grass Valley devices, such as
the Maestro master control switchers and Concerto router under
Jupiter control system.
This automation controls the
main programme playout as an
AB roll configuration, with two K2
ports playing the output. However,
backup is achieved using just one
K2 port and playing the same content ‘back-to-back’. This enables
1+1 redundancy for each TV channel, while preserving K2 server
output ports and the required
equipment for backup transmission chain. The ASTRA Content
Management System also carries
out media asset management for
LNK by managing videoserver
storage and Diva archive.
One of the unique features
designed for LNK is the ability to
attach new audio tracks to existing clips. The audio files come
from the dubbing studio, ASTRA
picks the files, uploads to K2
and through the native protocol,
attaches them to the relevant clip.
The workflow is also integrated
with the archive, which allows
ASTRA to retrieve a file from
Diva, attach the audio and then
re-archive the material.
Another development specially
designed for LNK is the ability to
handle sub second events. This
allows LNK to air an event lasting
just a few frames between two clips. A second major reconstruction
has involved the 200sqm news
studio. Again, much of the equipment has been centred on Grass
Valley technology — including a
2 M/E Kayak SD/HD mixer and
Concerto router expansion modulars. “We selected K2 Classic for
News playout controlled by Aurora
Play, along with Front Porch
Digital LTO Tape Library.”
Kazlauskas continues, “We use 18
Edius NLEs for news editing by
journalists. They complete a rough
cut using this system, although
complex stories are finished in three
Final Cut Pro edit suites. LNK has
operated a completely tapeless
workflow since 2008, with the only
‘tape’ to be found in the archives.”
Beating the competition
The provision of new equipment
for the refurbished news studio was
put out to intensive tender. Despite
stiff competition from other systems integrators — including those
offering low-priced entry-level equipment — Grass Valley, through its
local distributor Hannu Pro, won
the contract to supply its LDK
3000 high definition cameras.
These were delivered in August.
“In the end there were only
two manufacturers who appeared
to meet our criteria,” reveals
Kazlauskas. “The image quality, at
first sight, was similar on both systems. But after deeper analysis
using various test charts for objective parameters, several studio setups, and comparisons of different
camera controls, interfaces and
connections, we found the LDK
3000 was better. Its picture looked
more natural, was very clear and
chromakeyed images had a more
detailed image.”
Looking after the project from
the Grass Valley side was Pascal
Demême, sales area manager,
Baltics-Eastern Europe. Why did he
think his bid was successful? “The
customer is, of course, doing a
proper job by checking the market
and comparing available solutions
from all approved manufacturers
within the budget granted by the
investment board. Apart from the
fact the LDK 3000 is an ideal
camera for the LNK operation, it
certainly helped to have developed a
good relationship with the customer
over so many years.”
The LDK 3000 cameras were
supplied with an integrated HD
Wideband Triax transmission
adapter. Also included were a
base-station supporting HD and
SD HQ outputs, 7-inch HD LCD
viewfinders, and control panels for
all five cameras.
“The OCP 400 with its multi
coloured buttons and the LCD display allow for a very flexible and
operator-friendly control of any
function available on the camera
system,” explains Demême. “The
Hannu Pro also supplied
LNK’s ENG department with two
Panasonic AG HPX371EJ and two
AG-HPX171EJ P2 series tapeless
cameras, equipped with Fujinon
lenses — including an additional
Fujinon ZA17x7.6BRM-M QuickZoom technology HD lens.
“With these acquisitions, LNK
has been able to launch its new
broadcasting season with one of the
most sophisticated camera set-ups
in the Baltic States,” confirms
Kalvis Baumanis, general manager
at Hannu Pro.
LNK is using a Yamaha 02R96
audio mixer and an Inscriber G1
graphics system in the upgraded
news studio. To date, there has been
no upconverting of SD material, but
when the need arises, LNK will probably be using its K2 playout servers.
Following fierce competition, LNK selected LDK 3000
cameras for its refurbished news studio
Moving forward
Complementing the LDK 3000s is a crane-mounted DMC 1000
camera control system C2IP uses
standard Ethernet hardware with
TCP/IP protocols. This allows integration into any existing Ethernet
control system and allows the use
of commercially available Ethernet
hardware such as wireless LAN
systems. All in all, this makes this
camera control system extremely
flexible in operation.”
Each camera is equipped with
three 2/3-inch Xensium imagers.
This is the first fully digital camera
imager developed for broadcast
applications. It provides native HD
resolution with 2,400,000 pixels,
and uses state-of-the-art CMOS
imaging technology. Also included
in the camera deal is Grass Valley’s
SuperXpander. This allows a compact handheld LDK 3000 camera
to be converted into a studio configuration for the use of large box
lenses. The cameras will be mounted
on Vinten Radamec tripods.
Working alongside the new
cameras, and mounted on a studio crane, will be a Grass Valley
DMC 1000 multi-format tapeless camera.
Like other parts of the broadcasting
world, Kazlauskas states that
Lithuania has been affected by the
global financial situation. “Our last
major refurbishment was in 2008,
and we have had to wait until 2011
to upgrade our news and small production studio cameras to HD from
the existing 13-year-old 4x3 Ikegami
cameras. We are excited about using
studio cameras with one Infinity
camera and controlling all of them
through IP using one MCP. This is a
major development for us.”
Although the news studio is now
HD ready, it will be 2012 before high
definition transmissions will begin.
“During next year there will be tenders for Free To Air HD broadcasting licences and we will be ready for
that growth,” concludes Kazlauskas.
www.lnk.lt
www.grassvalley.com
www.hannu-pro.com
www.aveco.com
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11
NEWS
IN BRIEF
First Alexa
M for CPG
A-Stor for tape
Arkivum has selected IBM to provide
the tape technology required to grow
its business. The archiving specialist
will use IBM’s tape library and drive
technology as an integral part of its
ultra-dependable A-Stor solution.
According to global market
intelligence firm IDC, the demand for
storage worldwide is expected to
grow by 49.8% a year until 2014.
A-Stor is a highly cost-effective
service that uses LTO/LTFS data tape
technology and open standards to
deliver fast and efficient online
access. “Tape is still by far the best
medium for cost-effective, long-term
storage and it’s exactly this that
enables us to offer our 100% data
integrity guarantee,” said Arkivum
CEO, Jim Cook.
www.arkivum.com
eStudio graphics
eStudio 3D, the rendering engine from
Brainstorm Multimedia, will provide the
technology for the new Avid Motion
Graphics platform, giving it nextgeneration 3D graphics creation
capabilities. Launched at IBC2011, Avid
Motion Graphics lets media enterprises
create graphics and imagery while
journalists and others integrate those
graphics into their stories. Brainstorm
eStudio 3D technology has been
embedded into the Avid Motion
Graphics platform, which supports both
Avid and other high-demand third-party
tools and plug-ins. It will enable
existing Avid on-air graphics users to
easily transfer existing assets from
their legacy Avid Deko on-air graphics
systems to the new platform.
www.brainstorm.es
abled, giving rental facilities control over which cameras have High
Speed mode (4:2:2 only). The
64GB cards also allow ProRes
4444 filming at up to 60fps.
Get the look
Following its Software Update
Packet 4.0, Alexas can now apply
with other developers planning
similar applications. Creating looks
based on Arriraw will be possible in
a future software upgrade.
Alura lightweight zooms
Light to the Max
Arri and Fujinon have doubled
their range of Alura zooms with
two new lightweight models: the
Alura LWZ 15.5-45 and Alura
LWZ 30-80, T2.8 zooms. They are
designed to match the Alexa camera, and are ideal for handheld and
Steadicam work, while the two
original Alura Zooms, with their
much wider focal ranges, are better
suited to tripod and dolly setups.
“The success of 3D will be based on designing
technology that supports the creative process of
the filmmaker; we are excited about the Alexa M
towards that goal” — Vince Pace, CPG
user-defined looks to customise
the rendering of video images for
different applications and individual preferences, enabling DoPs
to preview images as they want
them to appear in post and to
embed the metadata that define
the look in the media.
Look files are different from
look-up tables, which change
one colour space to another
(eg from Log C to video), in
being a purely creative tool
used within the camera. They
can be created by the colourist
or the DoP, and allow monitors
on set to give a better idea of
the final look for each scene.
To create Alexa look files
based on film lab thinking, with
printer light settings, Arri has
developed Look Creator, for
Mac OS X, a new free application. Look Files can also be created
using Pomfort’s Silverstack SET,
Lightweight
zooms
are
becoming popular for 3D, as they
allow easy adjustment of focal
length without lens changes, rig
readjustments and calibration.
“We sold twice as many as
planned of the original ones, so
the next obvious step is to build
lightweight zooms,” said Marc
Shipman-Müller, Arri product
manager for cameras and lenses.
“They are optimised for
digital cameras, with resolution
True Blue: The new Arri M40
open face, focusable light
Dance Studio: Arri’s new Alexa Studio
beyond 4K, and will also work
with film cameras with a rotating
shutter (as used on the new
Alexa Studio too).” They have a
31.5mm image circle, so will cover
all the digital cameras, including
those with larger sensors, and will
cost €16,800 each when they ship
in February.
“We are the only company with a complete set of
matching modern zoom and
prime lenses,” he claimed.
The four Alura lenses are
also compatible with the Arri
Lens Data System. The optical design should ensure an
evenly illuminated image on
the sensor or film plane,
while flares, ghosting and
veiling glare are greatly
reduced by Fujinon’s multilayer Electron Beam Coating.
Breathing has been minimised, as
has colour fringing.
The new Arri M40/AS40 daylight
fixture fills the gap between the
1800W M18 and the 18kW
ArriMax. The M40 is a lensless
system combining the advantages
of a Fresnel and a PAR fixture. It
is open face, very bright, and
focusable from 19-60°, producing
a crisp, clear shadow. By eliminating the need for spread lenses,
it should speed up workflows
on set and reduce the risk of
lost production time because of
glass breakage.
The same lamp head equipped
with a PAR reflector becomes
the AS40, replacing the current
ArriSun 40/25. It is lighter than
its predecessors, but has the same
accessory diameter so that existing lenses, barn doors and scrims
can be reused. The M40 and
AS40 fixtures can be operated
with 4kW and 2.5kW metal
halide lamps.
Both implement Arri’s True
Blue features, with disc brakes
keeping the lamp head in place
even if heavy accessories are used,
while the electronics housing is
spaced apart from the lamp housing to reduce temperatures and
prolong component lifetimes. The
units are ruggedised and IP23
certified to withstand rough handling and weather.
Other recently launched lights
include the L-Series collection of
focusable, LED-based lamp
heads, with a true Fresnel light
field for film and TV applications,
and the ArriSun 18 Event light.
www.arri.com
www.cameronpace.com
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IP-enabled V-Series
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www.clearcom.com
Copyright © 2011. Clear-Com, LLC. All rights reserved.
® Clear-Com and Clear-Com logo are registered trademarks of HM Electronics, Inc.
12
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TVBE_Nov P14-41 IBC3_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 11:04 Page 14
TVBEU R O PE I B C 2 0 1 1 W R A P - U P
Crossing the line at IBC
So what really happened at IBC2011? What were the key ‘take-away’ themes and trends, in hindsight?
Dick Hobbs leads off our Wrap-Up analysis, with the realisation that the desire to provide content to consumers
wherever, whenever and however brings with it huge challenges for all European media organisations
IBC Keynote Joanna Shields of Facebook on social media: “We are
shifting from the wisdom of crowds to the wisdom of friends”
One of the biggest projects
currently underway is the new
Sky Sports Arabia channel, with
systems integration by TSL and
servers from EVS. As well as supporting multi-platform delivery
this also integrates incoming contributions from the internet as
well as broadcast lines and feeds,
for instance, to allow the use of
Skype video calling on air.
Harris announced two projects
at IBC. The recently completed Bid
Shopping in the UK gave the company an asset management system
to support both on air and online
channels. The massive Turkmenistan TV project — including 13
television studios and 50 radio studios as well as all the supporting
infrastructure — also includes
The message was that comment
on social media drives engagement
with and discovery of content. “We
are shifting from the wisdom of
crowds to the wisdom of friends,”
according to Shields. Which means
we as the media providers have to
plan for a multi-screen future.
For a few years now we have
been talking about the concept of
providing the content the consumer
wants, when they want it, where
they want it, on the device they
want it. Now the realisation that the
ambition brings with it huge challenges is also looming over the
major debating areas like IBC.
According
to
Gabrielle
Gauthey of Alcatel Lucent, in five
years “70% of mobile devices will
be internet-enabled, and 80% of
the traffic on wireless broadband
networks will be video.” She
called for a new spectrum model
based on innovative sharing technologies to support what looks
like a 30-fold growth in demand
for data bandwidth.
Roberto Viola of the Radio
Spectrum Policy Group said that
multi-platform broadcasting and a
clever use of digital signage technology to provide the internal ring main
viewing and communication system.
The technical systems are being
implemented by Turkish company
Policom, with Harris the largest individual supplier holding orders worth
tens of millions of dollars.
An ex-Harris stalwart, Yannick
Defrenne, has now set up his own
venture, Soft Vallée, to develop a
business oriented asset management
infrastructure. He describes Teamium as offering “a holistic overview
to track multiple business processes,
from management of broadcast
operations to the optimisation of
existing assets and personnel.
“We start from a management
approach rather than a technical
Infrastructure Analysis
While the IBC organisers — and
star guests like James Cameron
— continued to push the 3D
agenda, there was little doubt
about the issue on the minds of
most delegates. Entirely without
any drive from broadcast technologists, audiences have enthusiastically embraced a new
behaviour: multi-screening.
“Eighty-percent of under
24-year-olds watch television with
another screen in their hands,”
explained Claire Tavernier, senior
executive vice president of
Fremantle Media, the company
responsible for inflicting The X
Factor upon us. I hate to disagree
with such an industry luminary but
I have to say it is not just the under
24s. My iPad may not be permanently in my hand but it is always
nearby, and I miss the age group by
more than a factor of two.
“Social TV is not just a buzzword: it is the future of TV and
people’s desire to have a deeper
engagement with their favourite
content,” said Alex Blum of Kit
Digital, which was majoring on its
social television solution on the
show floor.
“The key to success lies in
developing a second screen strategy that provides control while
complementing and enhancing
the viewer experience,” he added.
Joanna Shields of Facebook
gave the convention keynote, and
she was enthusiastic about the
way that comments quickly
spread. The American animated
series Family Guy has more than
37 million Facebook friends.
John Smith of BBC Worldwide
said that more than a third of
visits to topgear.com are directed
there from the programme’s
Facebook page.
point of view,” he said. “We offer a
view of the entire chain from the
content you create to how you monetise it and where you put the files.”
Some broadcasters are developing their own solutions. In
Belgium VRT is tackling second
screen applications through its
R&D Medialab. It already has an
HTML5 web app running alongside a popular television programme in realtime, allowing
viewers to interact with the content as well as with fellow viewers
through a social media element.
TV2 in Norway chose to base its
dedicated second screen service on
the Interactivity Suite product from
never.no. It was first rolled out for
coverage of the Tour de France
cycle race, pushing up to date
“The internet will not replace traditional
broadcasting tomorrow, but transformation
is necessary. Whether we like it or not,
IP transport will be the standard” —
Roberto Viola, Radio Spectrum Policy Group
broadcasters have to understand
there is a need to change to accommodate IP traffic in a much more
efficient way. “The internet will
not replace traditional broadcasting tomorrow,” he said, “but transformation is necessary. Whether
we like it or not, IP transport will
be the standard, and the question
is whether to have a network that
is flexible enough to allow for different priorities of traffic.”
The big projects
But if that is likely to dominate
the debate at future IBCs,
cross-platform workflows were
high on the news agenda at
IBC2011. The big sales stories
were noticeable for their multiscreen abilities.
IBC organisers and star guests
continued to push the 3D agenda —
but there was little doubt about the
issue on the minds of most delegates
statistics and other realtime information to iOS and Android devices
alongside the live pictures. It also
allowed the producers to collect
feedback via polls and chat areas.
Managing Editor of TV2 Sport
Morten Jørs seems to have quickly
seen great benefits. “We now have a
tool that allows us to add value and
engage our viewers as the action
unfolds,” he said. “It opens up a
whole new world in terms of gaining and retaining audience share.”
Eyeheight launched what it
calls the TVTweetCaster, and that
pretty much sums up what it does.
It is a package to access and filter
Twitter content, then insert it into
a SDi stream to appear as a ticker
on live content.
14
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Crossing the
line at IBC
AmberFin was promoting the
integration of its iCR file-based
content ingest and transcoding
device into the Sony Media
Backbone Conductor. The Sony
system is described as a “workflow
orchestration and integration platform”, and is essentially the bases
for developing a service oriented
architecture in a broadcast centre.
In this application the AmberFin
iCR sits on the service bus to provide the buffer between the broadcaster and the outside world with
its multitude of file formats.
Chyron
and
AP
also
announced a strategic alliance at
IBC. The cloud-based graphics
service developed by Chyron is
now embedded into the ENPS
newsroom automation system,
allowing users to drag-and-drop
graphics into scripts and rundowns, automatically reformatting them to meet the needs of
online and mobile platforms.
“Customers can reduce costs and
maximise productivity by using a
common set of editorial and
media tools, staff and workflow
for all the content they publish
and broadcast,” said Chyron’s
Bill Hendler.
One of the traditional issues
of delivering content to multiple
platforms is the difficulty of
streaming content live. Viewcast
offered a new solution, the
Niagara 7559 which is described
as a plug-and-play SDI to live IP
streaming device. It can output to
multiple file formats and bitrates,
ADV
and is controlled from a touchscreen interface.
Digital Rapids was showing
the latest version of its streaming
encoder, the StreamZ Live. It features the capability of delivering
adaptive bitrate streaming for
Adobe, Apple and Microsoft, as
well as streaming to mobiles,
tablets, computers, games consoles and more.
Grass Valley added live
streaming to its established
MediaFuse content re-purposing
system. Again described as ‘plugand-play’, it offers dynamic live
streaming in Flash, HLS-5 and
Windows Media, meeting, it is
claimed, 95% of the multimedia
consumption devices in use today,
which is a clear indication of the
Fremantle Media Senior Executive VP Claire Tavernier: “80% of
under 24-year-olds watch television with another screen in their hands”
Audio loudness continues to be a major issue,
with manufacturers producing practical solutions
now that clearly defined and internationally
recognised standards have been established
complexity faced in delivering to
multiple platforms.
Another challenge lies in managing the rights issue of cross
platform delivery. Sintec Media
added a new module to its OnAir
broadcast management system.
OnRights is specifically designed to
track license conditions across multiple dimensions such as territories,
platforms, formats and languages.
The software platform is as
applicable to content owners as it
is to broadcasters and network
operators. Its rules base, for example, will ensure for the content
owner that exclusive rights can
only be offered to one licensee in
a territory, while for the broadcaster
it will prevent the scheduling of
content on a platform for which it
does not have permission.
Digital watermarking is now
commonly used to track content.
Axon Digital Design has now
implemented watermarking technology from Civolution for its
Synapse modular system, meaning
that it can easily be used to track
usage and audience measurement
across multiple platforms from a
standard broadcast infrastructure.
Audio additions
So far I have regularly referred to
multi-platform delivery as ‘second screen’, but DTS was keen to
remind IBC visitors that sound
matters — that good audio makes
the pictures look better. It showed
a complete enhanced audio environment, with everything from
pseudo-surround sound on an
iPod to real immersive sound
fields delivered online, with the
system adapting its capabilities to
the bandwidth available.
Murraypro showed two new
audio monitoring units, including
one with built-in speakers. They
have the capability to monitor up
to 16 channels, with phase and
peak error indicators.
This is a product area where
TSL has been active for some time.
At IBC the company introduced a
clever new unit, the Touchmix
which, while sharing the 2U form
factor of TSL monitoring units
(and the same high quality speakers), includes a dual level 19 input
digitally assignable mixer. The
applications for this will continue
to grow — it was developed in
response to a user request from a
bravebureau.com
big UK installation which is taking 80 of them — and it is as likely to be seen in creative areas like
edit suites as it is in machine rooms
and master control.
Audio loudness continues to
be a major issue, with manufacturers producing practical solutions now that are clearly defined
and internationally recognised
standards have been established.
According to Marc Judor of
Junger Audio, “this move is good
for the industry. Viewers’ quality
expectations are not being
matched, leading to viewers
switching channels in search of a
better listening experience.”
Young company Emotion
Systems tackled loudness as one
of its first software implementations. EFF (Emotion File Finish)
analyses content files, models
both analogue PPMs and the latest loudness specifications, and
provides a seamless and satisfying
correction to any audio level
errors automatically.
Harris claims that its capabilities uniquely allow it to analyse,
correct and verify loudness issues.
It uses DTS Neural Loudness
Control, which is now implemented in both Harris modular
units and in its Selenio convergence platform. It works with
Videotek measurement, also part
of the Harris stable, to identify
problems and to report to
automation systems to record
corrections in the as-run log.
Linear Acoustic says that its
approach turns the problem on its
head, from being a compliance
issue to a driver for audio quality.
Further, its loudness management
product Aero Calm controls the
level and dynamic range without
affecting the original content, so
individual consumers can reverse
the correction and hear the original balance if they choose.
What caught my eye
SISVEL TECHNOLOGY OFFERS SYNDICATION OF 3D CONTENT.
The syndication promoted by Sisvel Technology is open to contributions of every
content provider who wants to promote 3D Tile Format technology and enhance
deliverance of 3D content. The 3D Tile Format provides better-quality images for 3D
content and maintains backward compatibility, allowing viewers not equipped for 3D to
view the programs as 2D images on their full HD sets. The reconstructed right and left
images maintain their original spatial and temporal resolution, giving viewers of both
versions the full benefit of the original picture, and the transmission of both 2D and
3D can be achieved without the need for increased bandwidth (www.sisveltechnology.
com). New members joining the syndication will benefit from the free exchange of 3D
content among members on a reciprocity basis. The catalog of the 3DT content library
can be viewed on-line at the new 3DT website www.3dt.it
www.3dt.it
Finally, the usual quick round-up
of interesting products which
caught my eye but do not fit into
the general exhibition narrative.
Top of the list is the Presto 16 input
switcher from Wohler. This is a
simple use of new technology to
make the world a better place. The
1U device has a row of 16 buttons
on it, each of which is an Oled
screen showing the video that is
under the button. It makes selecting a source more or less foolproof.
Snell also has a new take on
the router, the Vega. This is a 96
channel device, but it is up to the
user whether to make it a 48 in by
48 out or any other combination,
up to 95 in and one out. Further,
for each pair of ports you can
insert either fibre connectors or a
miniature BNC, so it is very flexible on cable types too.
Talking of fibre, Argosy Cable
has a really neat solution to
keeping fibre connectors clean,
when the temptation just to blow
the dust away is really strong.
The tool contains a dry cleaning
16
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B e c a u s e
i t
m a t t e r s .
Crossing the
line at IBC
material that removes any dust
without the need for solvents so
without the risk of leaving a residue.
The same tool has adaptors for
male and female connectors, and a
single tool has enough of the selfadvancing material to clean 525
The first part of the system
puts a cut down version of the editor onto the newsroom desktop,
which means the journalist has
more tools than the typical and
very elementary desktop editor
but not so much as to be a
distraction. Thanks to the IPV
plug-in this can start editing on a
growing file, so there is no need
for the journalist to wait for ingest
to be completed and a browse
resolution file generated, which
saves a lot of time.
Finally, the usual quick round-up of interesting
products which caught my eye. Top of the list is
the Presto 16 input switcher from Wohler. This
is a simple use of new technology to make the
world a better place
contacts. Why would an engineer
not have one in the toolbag?
CNN won an IBC Innovation
Award for the system it has developed to handle the masses of content that pours into its newsrooms
— 20,000 new clips a week typically. One of the companies working behind the scenes on this project is IPV, which developed for it,
and is now offering to other
broadcasters a neat way of handling content that allows Adobe
Premiere Pro to be fully integrated into the broadcast newsroom.
Once the story is ready to be
published it is passed to the IPV
Conform Engine, which runs on a
processor farm so completes the
edit and delivers it to the playout
server much faster than realtime,
again greatly increasing the
chances of getting the story on air
in the next bulletin.
In a broadcast installation the
newsroom computer can be just
one of many cluttering up the
working area. A number of vendors now offer KVM extenders —
a means to get the keyboard, video
and mouse signal to a remote location (the desktop) while keeping
the computer and its fans in the
machine room. Most offer some
switching so one keyboard, mouse
and display can be routed to a couple of different computers.
What makes the Infinity from
Adder different is that the KVM
signals are packetised for IP so
can be sent around an ethernet.
That means that potentially huge
numbers of workstations can be
connected to an equally vast number of processors. The Infinity
units are designed for performance, so latency is virtually zero,
and certainly imperceptible.
Most important, the system
uses lossless run-length encoding
to ensure that the video display is
a pixel perfect match to the original with full 24-bit DVI resolution. Coupled with the lack of
latency it means the system is
fine for critical viewing applications like editing and graphics.
A new version, the AdderLink
Infinity Dual, supports either
dual monitor set-ups or very
large screens such as the Apple
Cinema Display.
Early in this review I talked
about a technology area we will
be forced to tackle at a future
IBC. To finish, here is another.
OpenNI is an industry body that
exists to promote the interoperability of natural interactions.
Gabrielle Gauthey: In five years “70% of mobile devices will be internetenabled, and 80% of traffic on wireless broadband networks will be video”
Think gesture-based control, avatars
and augmented reality.
Iris Finklestein-Sagi of PrimeSense is one of the movers behind
the OpenNI Arena, which is a
repository for applications using
the emerging concepts. “Developers
are playing with the technology,
experimenting to see what it is
capable of. NI allows you to locate
yourself in a different environment,
to add more things to that environment, and to appear as an avatar —
it has massive possibilities.”
In her keynote, Shields of
Facebook predicted that “all TV
will be social”. Not just social
but interacting socially through
natural interactions — the future
could be exciting.
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CORIOgraphy
… let your
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Analysis of key IBC acquisition, display, studio and archiving highlights
The business of broadcasting
and chaotic world of the web
The IABM bestowed its 2011 Peter Wayne Award on Sony’s BVM-E250
24.5-inch organic LED screen. Pictured: Sony’s Senior Product
Specialist Daniel Dubreuil with the award at the Amsterdam Show
By David Kirk
CORIOmatrix
… anything in, anything out
s #/2)/SOFTSWITCHlRMWAREBASEDROUTINGSWITCHING
SCALINGPLATFORM
s 25CHASSISWITH!6$ATAMODULESLOTSAVAILABLE
s -ODULESFORANYANALOGORDIGITALFORMATTHRU'3$)
s 5PTOINPUTSOROUTPUTSPERMODULE)/MAX
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The Video Processing Specialists
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20
The key message emerging from
IBC2011 came loud and clear: If
you can’t beat it, eat it. Thus concludes the long and uncomfortable
relationship between the monopolistic business of broadcasting and
the free-entry but chaotic world of
the web. Proof of this convergence
was evident in the conference programme which faithfully embraced
the buzzwords that currently exercise the minds of the multimedia
community: hybrid broadcast
broadband, multiple platform outreach, social media, cloud computing, gaming, tablet-TV, and so on.
This was no sudden change.
The conference programmes both
of IBC and the NAB Spring
Convention have reflected the
convergence of on-air and on-line
broadcasting for years. Worldwide
investment in telecommunications
infrastructure meanwhile continues, even if not yet literally optical
fibre from door to door, both
enabling and to some extent
powered by the continuing rise in
internet-based television viewing.
IBC felt more than usually like
an action-replay of NAB this year,
with Sony, Panasonic and JVC
campaigning hard to raise the
industry’s sights above 1920x1080
pixel ‘high definition’. The future
they anticipate is 3820x2160 (4K),
followed sooner or later by 7680x
4320 (8K) Super Hi-Vision. Sony
and JVC displayed prototype 4K
and 8K cameras at both conventions. Panasonic has meanwhile
joined the increasing number of
companies with prototype 8K
display screens. In D-SLR-speak,
8K equates to 33 megapixels, which
translates in turn to a huge display
screen or extremely high resolution.
LED screen, which is the largest
of its kind yet offered to the
broadcast market. OLED technology is gaining increasing
recognition for applications such
as broadcast playout monitoring
and in master control rooms.
Each pixel in an OLED generates
its own light rather than merely
acting as a filter.
LCDs. LG and Samsung are both
developing 55-inch consumer
OLED displays.
3D remains alive and well
though less ‘in-your-face’ than
when Philips’ autostereoscopic
wall display greeted each newly
arriving visitor. The various
elements of the 3D production,
post production and delivery
workflow continue to come
together. Most important of all is
the increasing awareness that
upgrading from standard definition to a 1080p infrastructure
makes the transition from 2D to
3D a relatively easy one.
Attention is now focused on
display manufacturers to produce
screens that can be viewed in
full 3D without need for special
headware. Every direct-view television demonstration I have
seen (dating back to an InterBEE
show about 16 years ago) has
suffered from ‘sweet-spot/sourspot’ lateral directionality. Designers
of direct-view 3D displays have a
choice of two left/right isolation
technologies to exploit: parallax-
Designers of direct-view 3D displays have a
choice of two left/right isolation technologies to
exploit: parallax-barrier and lenticular filters. If
neither proves up to the task, then 3D television
could remain a minority-interest activity
This allows deeper black
levels to be achieved than
with LCDs, delivering higher
contrast ratio when viewed in the
low ambient light common to
most master control rooms.
Other virtues include very compact construction, the OLED
array being wafer-thin, and
exceptionally consistent performance from one display to
another. The small size of currently available OLED screens
appears to be a production-yield
issue, as in the early years of
barrier and lenticular filters. If
neither proves up to the task, then
3D television could remain a
minority-interest activity until a
more effective viewing system
is developed.
Sony has been exploring an
alternative 3D display option in
the shape of its HMZ-T1 ‘personal 3D viewer’, which incorporates two 0.7-inch 1280x720 pixel
OLEDs in a head-mounted
arrangement feeding images
independently to left and right
eyes. Horizontal viewing angle is
Improving image displays
The IABM bestowed its 2011
Peter Wayne Award on Sony’s
BVM-E250 24.5-inch organic
Photon Beard’s Peter Daffarn (left) and Simon Larn with the Nova 270
45˚, simulating a 750-inch cinema
screen seen at 20m distance. Price
of the HMZ-T1 when it is introduced in Japan this month is
expected to be around £480. This
device didn’t get to IBC but
shows a potential direction for
2K, 4K and even 8K display
development — particularly if
Apple wakes up to it.
Improving efficiency
As well as ensuring that their
products deliver high signal quality, IBC exhibitors recognise the
importance of offering customers
greater efficiency in the acquisition, post production, playout
and repurposing of content. A
central theme in the acquisition
category was the implementation
of new-generation camera systems allowing wired or wireless
remote control within a studio or
sports OB environment, or via
IP over practically any distance
in situations where latency is not
an issue.
Danmon Systems Group
introduced a complete packaged
IP-based television studio control
system optimised for regional
presenter-to-camera operation.
Based on integrated pan-tiltzoom HD/SD cameras, the studio
can be operated using a standard
internet browser from a network
headquarters. All control data is
carried securely via intranet or
virtual private network. Video
from regional site to HQ can be
carried on black fibre or as
JPEG2000 via IP. A reporter or
guest interviewee entering the
regional studio has only one useradjustable element to contend
with: the earpiece volume level.
Telco-based ENG devices are
not inherently new but Aviwest’s
IBIS digital mobile newsgathering unit includes an interesting
workaround for locations where
no wireless link can be maintained: an integral recorder
allows content to be captured to
Secure-Digital card for later fileforwarding. The IBIS can be
clipped onto a camera and used
to stream HD/SD-SDI with
embedded audio via multiple
bonded 3G or 4G networks to
a receiver (the one-rack-unit
IBIS Studio).
An unusual approach to studio lighting was announced by
Photon Beard whose PhotonSpot
Nova 270 uses a light-emitting
plasma source to achieve the
claimed equivalent of a 2kw
tungsten Fresnel from a power
input of 273 watts. On the
portable-power side, the new
PAGLink from PAG allows up
to eight 96 watt-hour V-Mount
Li-Ion battery packs to be
stacked for long-duration operation. Three linked batteries create
a single power source of nearly
288 watt-hours, handling a current-draw of up to 12 amps.
Combined weight is under 2.2kg.
Power efficiency continues to
be uppermost in the minds of
transmitter manufacturers, notably Rohde & Schwarz whose
new THU9 high-power solidstate television transmitter is
claimed to offer the highest efficiency in its class: up to 28% for
COFDM standards and up to
30% for ATSC standards, including the cooling system. Thomson
Broadcast’s Futhura Plus wideband UHF television transmitter
has claimed 35% maximum transmitter efficiency.
Archiving
Increasing use of file-based video
and audio content capture devices,
whether to disc or solid-state
media, is forcing even the most
traditionally-minded production
companies and broadcasters to
ingest their programme libraries
into more easily shared digital
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21
The business
of broadcasting
Roland’s £350 R-26 6-channel audio recorder
data. Then comes the question of
how best to archive this data for
quickest possible access and maximum security?
Staying with baseband videotape is not a serious option given
the rapidly declining population
of up-to-spec vintage VTRs. One
option, perversely, is to continue
using magnetic tape but in a format designed specifically for data
archiving and therefore more likely
to receive long-term manufacturing support. That was For-A’s
reason for launching the LTR-
120HS archiving recorder into
Europe at IBC. This uses the
LTO-5 version of the Linear Tape
Open format, storing 1.5TB to a
single tape cartridge.
If you are twitchy about the
lifetime of magnetically stored
data, Sony announced at IBC
the development of a file-based
video archive storage system
based on a cartridge housing 12
optical discs. Scheduled for
introduction next year, this will
be available in write-once and a
rewriteable formats with various
capacity options. And there is
always The Cloud: remote
content archiving is already an
integral part of the broadcast
playout business.
In the purely storage arena,
Thunderbolt-compatible
disc
drives and RAIDs emerged at
IBC in increasing numbers to
meet the demand from video
editors using the latest generation
of Apple computers. AJA Video
Systems introduced its Io XT
video interface and up/down/
cross converter, which allows
daisy-chaining to other Thunderbolt peripherals like high bandwidth storage and high-resolution displays via a single interface.
Value for money
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22
Some spectacular value-for-money deals were evident on many
stands, from front-end grip
equipment right through the production, post, presentation and
playout chain. And it certainly
isn’t all software. Examples are
Blackmagic’s £1,565 ATEM production switcher; JVC’s £1,890
GY-HM150E 3x1/4-inch CCD
camcorder; Matrox’s US$495
MC-100 dual SDI to HDMI
converter; NewTek’s £16,000
Tricaster 450 four-input virtual
studio; Polecam’s £6,000 Starter
Pack portable camera crane;
Rode’s £450 NTG-3 shotgun
capacitor microphone; and
Roland’s £350 R-26 6-channel
audio recorder.
For an encore, IBC exhibitor
Editshare was promoting the
compatibility of its networked
servers with the essentially free
Lightworks Open Source nonlinear video editor. And yes, the
Apple community did coincide
its Amsterdam Final Cut Pro
User Group Network meeting
with IBC, open to all comers at
the Krasnapolsky from 7pm to
11pm on the Sunday.
Do trade conventions like
IBC still have a role in an
increasingly internet-connected
world? The show’s healthy
attendance figures strongly suggest that they do. Search engines
have their advantages when
you are hunting for new broadcast products and new technology. But it takes an IBC or an
NAB show to put the whole lot
into focus. IBC returns to the
Amsterdam RAI Centre 6-11
September 2012. Rehearsal
will be held at the Las Vegas
Convention Center, Nevada,
14-19 April 2012.
IBC and the digital ripple
Standards & Workflows
Condensing IBC2011 into a few short
summaries, broadcasters must
swallow the tablets; content
storage has a cloudy future; the
spectrum shuffle is pure poker;
public service broadcasters are an
endangered species; streaming and
quality broadband are the hot bets;
3D is struggling to hit consistent
quality; standards bodies are
playing a blinder; and, 4K and
faster frame rates sit in the wings.
Analysis by George Jarrett
An IBC attendance of 50,000
media professionals saw lights
shone on mobile interactive social
connected media, and on awesome prospects like 4K 3D
movies shot at 60fps, but it was
clear that demanding quantum
technology jumps in every sector
of the industry is a different game
to identifying how they will
impact exactly.
This is where tracking what
SMPTE, the EBU, the DVB and
key industry players gave to the
event brings a bubbling — under
perspective to match with the
major product launches, like
Sony’s 4K camera. The time has
come for the industry to drop out
and see what condition it’s in,
something SMPTE and the EBU
plan to achieve through the
scientifically inspired Forum on
Emerging Media Technologies,
set for 13-15 May in Geneva [for
which TVBEurope will be an official Media Partner].
According to SMPTE President Peter Lude, “We will look at
motion picture technology due to
come out of the labs in the next
five years. We are collaborating
with the EBU because interoperability is the way forward. Expect
newer standards after the revelations and debates. Leveraging IT
technology may be the biggest
trend out there.”
One of the key questions was
how the forum might challenge
IBC editorially.
“We do not intend to compete
with the IBC Conference. The
forum offers a positive and valueadded event, and it also offers a
Taking the right partners
Contracts
establishing closer end user links
to speed up ratification — happened at an IBC meeting chaired
by Hans Hoffmann, the EBU’s
“The digital dividend is good, but even if you
used the whole broadcasting spectrum you would
not match the need and demand we will have in
10 years” — Ingrid Deltenre, EBU
different yet complementary perspective: a longer-term, futurist
view across the digital media
ecosystem to help facilitate shorterterm strategic business decisionmaking,” explained SMPTE
Executive Director Barbara Lange.
“We believe no other organisation has targeted this perspective,
and that the forum will uniquely
be able to assist business and technology leaders endeavouring to
assess near-term investments for
longer-term growth,” she added.
Peter Siebert on T2 Lite: “It is
basically a very young child”
First formal meeting of the EBU, SMPTE and AMWA:
(L-R) Lieven Vermaele, Barbara Lange, Brad Gilmer and Hans Hoffmann
The EBU and SMPTE, in tandem
with AMWA, and the EBU in
partnership with AMWA were
responsible for two of the biggest
stories to break at IBC. The first
— the trio agreeing formally to
co-operate on future media related software standards, and on
Content
head of media fundamentals and
production technology, and also
SMPTE VP of Engineering.
“Our aim is to identify common points where we have issues
to resolve. Digital workflows are
high on the agenda, as are the
evolution of media, new innovative technologies, identifying the
best user input, software life cycle
management, and moving the
standards process to meet the
demands of the market,” he said.
“We need to get better and
faster here,” Hoffmann added. “It
is important to understand that
non standards setting organisations can do good work in a rapid
manner in terms of providing a
spec and also an implementation.
However, normally due to the rapid implementation and work
which is done it never does undergo a very detailed technical
review. This is what you need in
order to maintain and guarantee
interoperability, and it is the high
added value that a standards body
(SMPTE) brings to the game.”
Speaking for the Advanced
Media Workflow Association
(AMWA), Executive Director
Brad Gilmer said: “As a trade
association we very much benefit
from our partnership with the
EBU because it gives us very
strong user representation. In
terms of SMPTE, we highly value
the pier review process it provides.
“There are clear benefits that
each organisation brings to the
table, and when people hear
about the agreement they will
ask why didn’t we do it before,”
he added.
The AMWA, EBU, and
SMPTE management teams
already have several meetings
scheduled. Asked if membership
responses to the partnership had
been positive, Hoffmann said:
“Generally speaking, the industry approves when like-minded
groups agree to work together to
create solutions that benefit the
user community. We’re now
working to facilitate means by
which members of the user community can contribute to this
vital effort.”
Publishing
Essential to workflows
IBC saw the introduction of V1.0
of FIMS — an SOA with the
full name of Framework for
Interoperable Media Services —
and it was industry veteran Al
Kovalick, now a strategist with
Avid, who described it as “totally
essential for our industry to succeed in terms of making flexible,
agile workflows.
“I can see FIMS growing to
hundreds of services because it is
really a framework of plumbing
to get things started,” he added.
At present FIMS only supports
ingest, transform, and transfer,
and Gilmer hinted at its beta status
and the inspiration for the
SMPTE/EBU/AMWA partnership when he said: “The industry
will not wait in this area for some
huge standard that takes three
years to write. There is a lot of
demand for a framework and for
some common service definitions
right now, so the approach we are
taking is putting a stake in the
ground,” he added. “We are going
to establish some fundamentals,
and we have also released a second
request for technology.”
The result of this will drive phase
two of FIMS. “We are going to turn
the crank,” said Gilmer. “My whole
point is that rather than taking several years to write some huge monolithic standard, we are going to publish and iterate, increasing the richness as we go along.”
Asked if adopting the Autodesk
model of multiple software releases
over years will work, Kovalick provided reassurance. “I cannot see
any other solution on the drawing
board that even comes close to
what FIMS promises,” he said.
“The fact that it is vendor neutral is
great for the whole industry.”
The DVB’s Lite Version
The DVB had a great IBC with
Sony agreeing to manufacture a
DVB-C2 modulator and Russia
announcing that it will adopt
DVB-T2 nationally. Biggest interest focused on T2 Lite, published
on 7 July as a subset of the 1.3
version of the DVB-T2 standard.
“It is basically a very young
child,” said DVB Executive Director
Peter Siebert. “It offers all the elements relevant for a mobile/portable
MediaFlow
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23
service without having to build
out an entire new network.”
The part of the trial that drew
most questions was the BBC’s
assessment of how many fill-in
transmitters would be needed to
close gaps. “You would not cover
the whole country with a mobile
service with our existing broadcast
network,” agreed Mitchell. “One
of our main aims is to identify how
many fill-in transmitters we would
need, and the cost implications.”
Phase 2a 3DTV promised
Ingrid Deltenre: “We have to talk and we have to find solutions
together to solve demand for linear and nonlinear media usage”
IBC and the
digital ripple
environment, and it also puts a
restriction on the bit rate. The resulting consequences are that the chipset
for implementing T2 Lite can be
significantly smaller than the chip
set for the base standard.”
T2 Lite is kind to mobile battery life. Best of all — or worst of
all according to some people worried about the bitrate implications
— it is easy to integrate with existing broadcast networks.
“Together with the down
selection and restriction of T2
Lite it makes it very easy and cost
efficient to build up a mobile network based on an existing infrastructure, said Siebert. “As with
T2, Lite is a very spectrum efficient transmission scheme.”
The subset has two additional
code rates required for forward
error correction management.
T2 Lite was the subject of an
excellent BBC R&D demonstration fronted by Lead Engineer
Justin Mitchell, who explained
that the BBC had begun test
transmission and reception trials
on 7 July from White City. No
published results are expected
though until March.
“There are lots of ways of configuring T2 Lite. The normal UK
mode is about 40Mbps and we
reduced that down to 33Mbps for
the R&D base, which probably costs
you one HD service,” Mitchell said.
“We then use those 7Mbps to get 1
Mbps of mobile service. The reason
it is 7:1 is that the mobile service
needs to be much more robust.
“We use QPSK and code rate
half whereas the base T2 service
uses 256 QAM rate two 2/3,” he
added. “T2 Lite might enable you
to start transmissions of a mobile
On the last day of IBC, the DVB
commercial module group looking into a Phase 2 3DTV standard
met to consider ideas it has been
considering, starting with sharper
pictures through full L/R HD
quality. The other main new element was Depth Range Control
— an adjustment that consumers
would select from their remote
control device. This would require
the transmission of two depth
maps, which raises bit rate issues.
The commercial module,
chaired by EBU Deputy Director
David Wood, also looked at preferred picture quality based on Bluray technology (for service compatibility) as well as the MVC element
of Blu-ray. It also considered the
use of top up signals by broadcasters with a Phase 1 system in place.
Wood reported: “On 13
September we agreed the draft
requirements for a Phase 2a 3DTV
broadcast system, which will
be service compatible. This means
that although a new receiver or settop box will be needed for Phase 2,
existing HDTV receivers will see a
normal 2D picture. We are asking
for this specification to be available
by June 2012. In the meeting,
we understood that at least one
broadcaster will use it as soon as it is
available. We continue work on a
Phase 2b system, which will add a top
up signal to a Phase 1 signal to give
full bandwidth L and R images.”
Don’t mention
the spectrum war
It was Gary Shapiro, president and
CEO of the Consumer Electronics
Association, who identified that,
“The biggest issue without question
is the availability of spectrum.”
Interviews in the IBC Daily
Executive Summary cover a
number of vested interest viewpoints on spectrum management,
and the potential uses of white
space, but during IBC it was
EBU Director General Ingrid
Deltenre who cut to the chase
and called for 3GPP to work
closely with broadcasters, and
rethink its shunning of the DVB
back in March.
“We have to talk and we have to
find solutions together to solve the
demand for linear and nonlinear
media usage in the future. Stakeholders must work together on
technical solutions, innovation and
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The digital ripple
Key contributors to and IBC in
retrospect discussion were SMPTE
President Peter Lude, Howard
Lukk, VP of digital production at
BBC R&D’s Justin Mitchell said the BBC had begun test
transmission and reception trials in July from White City
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integration,” Deltenre said. “We
need a quantum leap.”
“The digital dividend is good,
but even if you used the whole
broadcasting spectrum you would
not match the need and demand
we will have in 10 years. The
growth is there for tablets and
smart phones, and it will grow rapidly. Broadcasting and mobile
broadband networks have a future
together,” she added. “It is not
about fighting against each other
and trying to weaken one to the
advantage of the other one. That’s
not going to happen.”
Walt Disney Studios, and Chris
Johns, chief engineer, Sky.
Lukk chose the choice between
shooting 3D natively and converting from 2D. “I think it is a lame
argument to compare the two any
more. It is like the old argument of
do we shoot on film or digital. It is
two different tool sets and looks,
and people should start to look at
them as separate options,” he said.
“You do one or the other, and
actually look at a combination. I
think conversion is fine if you spend
the money and time properly, to the
same level as shooting with two
cameras. It is something we should
stop arguing about,” he added.
Asked what he sees across the
industry, he said: “A massive paradigm shift to the whole digital
world. There is a digital ripple all
the way through the whole filmmaking process.”
Johns went for context. “If you
look just over three years ago 3D
was not a twinkle in anybody’s eyes,
and where was the iPad? Nowadays,
if you don’t have an entertainment
system that supports iPad, telephony, broadband and 3D you are
behind the times,” he said.
“A quantum leap is required,
and the digital age is going to
mean that things happen so fast
that there will probably be other
huge great steps that suddenly
happen that we cannot even start
to envisage now,” he added.
Lude also went for context.
“Look back 10 years and manufacturers were pretty clearly
defined. Now we are moving
towards commodity tools. The
question comes down to where in
Triax goes the distance
An account of extra functionality in transmission distances
being achieved by Draka, Fischer Connectors and Grass Valley
By David Stewart
Gary Shapiro: “The biggest
issue without question is the
availability of spectrum”
our systems can we take advantage
of high power GPUs,” he said.
A lot of opinion pointed to 4K
being the next impact technology,
and Lude was the most gung ho.
“4K is already on the surface in
cinema and I think it is heading
that way for consumers. There are
no standards in place for making
3D in 4K, and I think how quickly
that happens depends on market
acceptance,” he said. “There is a
debate right now about should we
do 3D in higher frame rates, should
we do 3D in 4K, or should we do
both? There is going to be a very
interesting decision over the next
six months.”
During the IBC2009 show in
Amsterdam, Oli Hentschel from
Draka and Mark Richards from
Fischer Connectors in the UK
decided over a beer and chat to
improve the transmission distances
for triax cables in the predominant
‘HD-Ready’ environment at the
time. The concept: an optimised
cable, not much thicker than a
triax 11 cable, that is still easy to
transport and doesn’t take up any
additional space on the cable reel.
With it an adapted triax plug that
matches the current Fischer 1051
A004-9, without the extra expense
of developing a new housing.
With fibre as the promise for
the advancing HD roll, Triax’s
weakness until a couple of years
ago was that of transmission distances. Back in 2009, triax cable
with an HD camera (such as the
GV LDK8000) was only capable
of transmitting up to a maximum
distance of 800m without a
repeater. On the other hand, even
at that time a SMPTE cable
could easily do 5km with virtually
no loss.
Draka and Fischer decided to
level the playing field. From an
informal exchange of ideas, and a
review to treat the issue from a
‘total connectivity viewpoint’ the
first cable and plug drawings were
prepared in cooperation between
Draka and Fischer in February
2010. In April the two companies
put together a test setup with a
cable length of 1,500m. The calculated damping values promised a
theoretical performance sufficient
for 30% more cable length. But
would this work in the field?
Gregor Mucha of Magic Media in
Leipzig organised a special broadcast vehicle test. The results were
well within the initial target range
— and in some ways even better.
Enter Grass Valley. Draka and
Fischer first introduced the new
Triax HD Pro+ solution to this
camera manufacturer. With its
camera, a model LDK8000, they
also achieved the outstanding
performance values over lengths
Oli Hentschel from Draka (pictured)
agreed with Mark Richards from
Fischer Connectors to improve
the transmission distances for
triax cables in the predominant
‘HD-Ready’ environment
of 1,500m. In fact, an optimum
image quality could even be
achieved over a distance of 2,000m
with the help of a triax repeater.
In August at Sony UK, the
range was even 50% greater with
the company’s triax camera. After
these successes, Draka and Fischer
sensed that the triax market would
experience a mid-life kicker (not
bad after 70 years or more), and
that this old mainstay of sports
TV and OB connectivity had the
chance to become a competitor to
fibre in HD broadcast environments. (Incidentally, in a previous
life, Grass Valley was one of the
early inventors of Triax cables as
far back as the 1940s).
Last year at IBC2010, the
TRIAX HD Pro+ connectivity
solution brought Draka and
Fischer a ‘TVBEurope’s Best of
IBC2010 Editors’ Awards’ award
for innovation and cost-effectiveness. As well as Grass Valley,
Sony, Hitachi and Ikegami were
also upbeat about the new solution. In April this year Grass
Valley, with its new 3G digital triax camera, the LDK 8000 3G,
was able to demonstrate that
superb transmission over distances of 1,500m is achievable.
During the summer of 2011,
Grass Valley, Draka and Fischer
hit the road together to show
broadcast pro’s that triax will continue to play its part in 1080i, 720p,
1080p 50/60, and keep camera crew
in their comfort zone with good,
reliable triax cabling that does the
job up to 1,700m. They are convinced that far greater transmission
lengths can still be achieved and the
partners are comfortable about
beating the 2,000m benchmark.
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25
IBC flesh for production workflows
Adrian Pennington reflects on the latest developments in high-end
acquisition, cinematography and 3D production from Amsterdam
Since vendors tend to gear their
big releases for the US market
every April, IBC organisers wisely decided to take its conference
line-up more centre stage. That’s
certainly true for IBC2011 where
the headlines were generated by
keynote acts with few technology
surprises on the showfloor. IBC
remains, though, the pre-eminent
place for Europeans to get a first
chance to see kit trailed at NAB.
“We view NAB and IBC as
complimentary in that we
announced many new developments in April but at IBC you are
seeing them fleshed out with a
fuller spec, pricing and imminent
shipping dates,” spelled out
Olivier Bovis, general manager
for content creation, Sony
Professional Europe. “Our developments in OLED, digital 35mm,
3D and 4K are all about extending the ‘beyond HD’ story and we
aren’t just talking about it — they
are all ready to go from here.”
Sony’s F65 CineAlta, which
samples data from its 20
Megapixel sensor to 4K, is priced
at a competitive €38,000 with 70
pre-orders worth nearly €7 million taken at the show. Band Pro
Munich acquired 50 (to go with
the 70 its US operation ordered)
while Top Teks and CVP Group
will bank 10 each.
Top Teks has since added
another 10 selling onto hire
companies Movietech, Ice Film,
IBC Production Village: At the top of the scale boasting 16 times the
‘K’ of HD is Super Hi-Vision, still pushed as a broadcast format by NHK
Films@59 and Cineworks, which
have TV clients. “The initial
requirements are in feature film
and commercials but due to the
F65’s pricing and feature I would
see that coming down to television,” observed Top Teks MD
Mike Thomas.
Sony was able to flesh out the
F65’s workflow. The 16-bit linear
RAW is recorded to the dockable
SR-R4 deck which accepts
256GB-1TB SRMemory cards
which in turn can write the
tremendous amount of data
generated by the camera at speeds
of 5.5GB a second. Those cards
can then be plugged into an
SR-PC4 transfer unit from which
a laptop or tablet can be used
to select material for speedy
ingest into a dailies system or
post house for finishing. Sony
has released an SDK which a
number of third parties have taken advantage of including AJA,
Apple, Avid, Filmlight, Fotokem,
Assimilate and Pixel Farm to
take files from the SR-PC4 into
post applications.
“It means production teams
and post houses can incorporate
F65 directly into the workflows
they are accustomed to,” said
Peter Sykes, Sony’s strategic marketing manager for digital cinematography who notes that the
camera can also be switched to
shoot HD.
While a RAW 4K acquisition
will get delivered as 1080p on
HDCAMSR to broadcasters and
will be further crushed on transmission, interestingly Thomas
sees a future of such high end
imagery in TV on-demand.
“More programming will be
delivered to home media centres
as downloads where it is not
restricted by transmission and
data rates,” he said. “This is why
we see 4K being effectively the
new HD and that requests for
higher and higher image quality
will grow.”
The F65 launches in January
into a digital film market dominated by Red and Arri, both cameras strongly favoured in 2D and
3D features and, increasingly,
broadcast drama. Films@59, for
example, has supplied a dozen
Alexas to the sets of Doctor Who
and Casualty. Roger Deakins
selected the camera to shoot the
in-production Sam Mendesdirected Bond movie.
The latest in the range, shipping December, is the Alexa
Studio which features an optical
viewfinder for higher resolution,
higher contrast image and a
4:3 sensor, which Arri Product
Manager, Cameras and Lenses,
Marc Shipman-Mueller said
makes it the only digital camera
to boast anamorphic capability.
Anamorphic lenses create a
unique look, and cannot be created in post. Orders from 24-7
Drama (part of Visual Impact)
and Take 2 are among the first for
the unit.
(CPG) has taken exclusive
delivery of multiple prototypes of
the Alexa M, dubbed ‘Marie
Antoinette’ by the Arri team
because the ‘M’ is an Alexa,
which has had its optical head
divorced from its body to facilitate greater mobility for 3D work.
“The ‘M’ has been developed
by Arri with heavy input from
CPG while CPG has devised a rig
with heavy input from Arri,” said
Shipman-Mueller pointing to a
CPG rig mounted with Alexa’s on
the stand and possibly the only
CPG kit in IBC. CPG is working
to integrate the Fusion 3D system
with the camera and, while not
confirmed, it would seem to be
earmarked for shooting the
Avatar sequels.
Show debuts
Two genuine IBC debuts are
designed to offer high-end digital
film capture and hi-speed recording in the same unit. They both
seem to have emerged from the
same brainstorming session at
P+S Technik/Weisscam, but with
the participants disagreeing on
final execution. P+S Technik’s
PS-Cam X35 can record Super35mm quality synced with sound
as well as frame rates from 1-450fps
for shooting motion effects such
as time-lapse or slow motion.
“We’re used to shooting the bulk
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of any project on a main camera
(Alexa, Epic or F3 for example)
and then bringing out the high
speed cameras for those few special shots that we know we just
can’t get any other way,”
explained filmmaker Joel Bergvall
who has tested the product. “The
idea with the X35 is that this will
be your A-camera, capable of
shooting your entire project at
24fps (or 23.98, 25, 30, 60 or
whatever standard you like) as
well as all your high speed shots.
If your A-camera can do 450fps
you probably won’t need to bring
an extra camera out for the high
speed stuff.”
It is the first camera that is a
100% P+S Technik product and
costs €59,900 for 9GB memory or
€76,900 for a 36GB version. It
previously co-developed high
speed cameras with Weisscam
which had a prototype of a
remarkably similar concept displayed on the Band Pro booth.
The T-1, due this winter, has a
2/3-inch CCD with a B-mount for
sports and broadcast and can
record 1-350fps. A 4K version with
PL mount is also being readied.
“It is much smaller than
the P+S model, more suitable
for crane, steadicam and 3D
work,” said Seth Emmons, marketing manager for Band Pro.
Apparently Vince Pace of CPG
fame had stopped by and showed
interest in the broadcast product.
At NAB Sony had put great
stress on the amount of special
‘K’ its new camera’s sensors could
record. In contrast the Alexa is
nominally 3K-3.5K and the PSCam X35 ‘just’ HD 1080p.
However image capture at this
range is about far more than sampling raw resolution and often
comes down to the subjective
‘look’ of the pictures in the eyes
of a cinematographer.
“In the run up to the Alexa’s
development we asked many
respected cinematographers what
“There is a lot of discussion
about resolution but what we
found when we showed F65 pictures to cinematographers is that
they look at the overall quality of
latitude, detail, highlights and
low light, colour rendition and
noise performance,” said Sykes.
“It is not just about resolution but
overall performance.”
At the top of the scale boasting 16 times the ‘K’ of HD is
Super Hi-Vision that continues to
be pushed as a broadcast format
by NHK. Live transmissions
“More programming will be delivered to home
media centres as downloads, where it is not
restricted by transmission and data rates. This
is why we see 4K being effectively the new HD”
— Mike Thomas, Top Teks
is more important for them: more
Ks or better latitude (dynamic
range) and more sensitivity and
their answers were unquestionably: more latitude, wider colour
gamut, more sensitivity,” said
Milan Krsljanin, Arri’s director
of group business development.
“Some manufacturers are driving
their offerings in that direction
(greater K) perhaps believing that
the higher resolution capture will
improve their competitiveness.”
It’s a point that Sony is also
now keen to de-emphasise.
from Broadcasting House were
shown alongside an 8-channel
switcher and slow-motion replay
system making a live production
of sports events such as the
Olympics 2012 a possibility.
3D broadcasting
Thanks to the presence of
James Cameron who, with Vince
Pace, made at least six public
appearances, 3DTV broadcasting was arguably the main theme
at the show. The central message
was that if 3D is to go mass
market then a hardboiled business model needs cementing.
The emphasis at IBC was on the
production aspect of that model
in acknowledgement that without practical and inexpensive
technology and workflows the
content gap needed for 3D channels will not be filled.
“The current phase of 3D
began with the clunky, cabled and
complex approach,” noted Sony’s
senior VP of engineering and
SMPTE President Peter
Lude in a conference session examining 3D’s future.
“We are now into
phase two which
is about greater
automation and
computer analysis with the aim
of making it easier to use rigs,
correct errors and
reduce manual convergence.”
He continued: “It should be
possible for a computer system to
network together multiple cameras arrayed around a stadia and
to toe-in those cameras at the
same time to keep the object at
the same convergence point so
that when cutting there is no discomfort for the viewer.”
That is something that CPG,
3ality Technica and others are
working toward in the outside
broadcast environment although
the substitution of all convergence
ops and stereographers by machines,
which appears to be CPG’s line in
the interests of economic efficiency,
is one bone of contention.
“Just as you wouldn’t replace
the creative skill of a camera operator who is framing a scene in
accordance with the context of the
action in front of them, so a convergence puller’s critical judgement can’t be easily replaced,”
insisted Stereographer
Richard Hingley. “The
skill of a
Sony’s F65 CineAlta, which
samples data from its 20
megapixel sensor to 4K, received
70 pre-orders worth nearly
€7 million taken at the show
News Room
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27
Sony’s first professional integrated camcorder, the shoulder
mounted PMW-TD300 is also
shipping priced around €25,000
and with an optional wireless link
permitting remote control by
MPE-200 processor. Devised by
Broadcast RF, the link will make
pitchside steadicam action more
feasible, and is something that
Panasonic does not yet offer.
Presteigne Charter made the first
purchase in Europe of this unit and
will put the RF functionality to test.
According to Sony’s 3D sports expert
IBC flesh for
workflows
convergence puller comes from
using their own eyes to judge
whether the vision is comfortable.”
Evolutionary ladder
Greater automation and more
agile kit is needed and inevitable
and there is an argument,
acknowledged even by their manufacturers, that stereo rigs are a
rung on an evolutionary ladder.
“Rigs are large, cumbersome and
heavy and a greater degree of electronics will help streamline the
systems but quality stereo work
can only be achieved using top of
the range imagers and mirror systems which give a wide range of
interaxial distance and control,”
observed Florian Schaefer, product specialist at P+S Technik.
The counter argument can be
heard from companies like Meduza
Sales, which has begun taking
orders for its dual lens 4K-capable
imager although cinematographers
have yet to provide public feedback.
“It’s clear that rigs have a limited
lifespan,” claimed CEO Chris Cary.
“Today’s S3D rigs are great cousins
of the ones invented in 1905. The
industry needs to move on and find
28
Marc Shipman-Mueller pictured with Alura lenses:
“The ‘M’ has been developed by Arri with heavy input from
CPG while CPG has devised a rig with heavy input from Arri”
the next generation, which in our
view is portable, high resolution,
truly flexible systems. The camera
can be configured according to the
electronics in the head,” he explained.
“So we can configure a 1080, 180fps
version, for example, with output via
HDSDI or fibre just as easily as a
head that can shoot 4K.”
Panasonic says it has no interest
in allying with a rig developer and
is also strategising for a day when
rigs become obsolete. “Our starting
point is to make 3D acquisition easy
and mobile,” European Product
Manager Rob Tarrant stated.
“That’s what we are doing with our
first generation of integrated 3D
cameras. With our range you get easier operation, mobile operation and
truer 3D because the interaxial distance mirrors what we naturally see.”
Panasonic now has three integrated camcorders on the market,
the latest of which the HDCZ10000 prosumer unit includes a
‘black box’ technology which makes
it seem like the interaxial distance
between the fixed lenses are adjusted during the shoot.
“One of the issues with twin lens
cameras is the fixed interaxial which
this macro convergence function
helps overcome,” Tarrant added.
“With it we can shoot objects as
close as 45cm from the lens.” be integrated with Sony’s MPE-200
and HDFA-200 fibre multiplexer so
that all the rig parameters including
power, sync and genlock can be managed by a single cable.
Fellow European rig vendors
were also showing expanded ranges
usually with lightweight versions for
steadicam and sturdier ones for
mounting heavier camera configurations. As one IBC visitor put it the
EU manufacturers “are finally starting to pull themselves out of the hobby market, to build a few rigs and rent
them into a proper business world.”
“By using the link, the camcorder effectively
looks to a convergence operator in a OB truck as
if it were a 3D rig. This is something that live
3D sports productions in particular have been
crying out for” — Mark Grinyer, Sony
Mark Grinyer: “By using the link, the
camcorder effectively looks to a convergence operator in a OB truck as if
it were a 3D rig. This is something
that live 3D sports productions in
particular have been crying out for.”
Rig design
Rig manufacturers continue to tinker
with design to aid ease of use. P+S
Technik was showing an adjustable
riser as an accessory, which enables
Freestyle rigs to be tilted up and
down. For live OBs the rig can now
For example, the Production
Rig from Germany’s Screen Plane
is now being manufactured and
sold by Austrian lens control specialists Cmotion with a compact
Stead-Flex rig available from year
end. Similar to the P+S riser, the
tilt angle of the Production Rig
can be adjusted from the rig’s
centre of gravity in increments of
2.5˚. It can also be side-mounted
on an accessory devised by Italian
firm Cartoni for even greater
tilt range.
Binocle’s Brigger I and its bigger brother
Brigger II are well respected but still largely
confined to the French feature and TV market. They are being put to use on an ambitious semi-fictional feature in the Amazon.
After two years R&D, Bournemouth’s
Teletest launched the Binorig, at €10,000
claimed to be the world’s most affordable.
“We designed a complete package contained in two flight cases for stereographers
or cameramen with little experience shooting S3D,” said MD Nick Rose. “It produces
images which are as good as those produced
by rigs costing 10 times the price.”
The star wattage of Cameron–Pace’s
IBC presence masked the fact that CPG
wasn’t actually exhibiting. It inadvertently
masked a little of what could have been
IBC’s biggest 3D news, which was the
merger of 3Ality Digital with Element
Technica announced just a week before.
The benefits of the marriage, which
unites ET machining with 3Ality software
engineering, was demonstrated with Sony
F3s mounted on a ET Pulsar connected to
a SIP and showing a wide range of data.
“It’s great for our customers who have
been mixing the two technologies anyway,
but they had to integrate them themselves.
Now we can offer them fully integrated
technology,” said 3ality Technica CEO
Steve Schklair.
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Howard Lukk: “There are enough things for the DoP, director and camera operators
to track on the set as it is, without having to track interaxial and convergence”
3D: Cameron, Pace, Lukk, EVS,
Fraunhofer and picturestitching
In the show’s biggest news impacting
Outside Broadcasters (signed literally a
day before IBC), CPG flagged a partnership with Grass Valley which will see
them jointly develop equipment and
equip new scanners. CPG runs three
dedicated mobile units and has a stock
of 100 3D camera systems in the US but
its GV pairing will enable it to export its
Shadow systems and business model
into Europe. [Ed Note: See also David
Fox’s GVG story, page 31.]
“Our message is that you can use our
equipment for 3D just the same as for
2D — there are no special bolt-ons,” said
Grass Valley 3D specialist Lyle Van
Horn. “For example, we have internal
flipping of the image, standard on our
LDK 8000 series cameras, so there is no
external processing needed to flip the
image and put another kink in the chain
when mounting on a beam splitter rig.
“The Kayanne and Karrera switchers
process each eye as two separate 2D
streams paired, so an operator is using
the same standard set of buttons for
both 2D and 3D. 3D is complex enough
without adding a separate set of equipment to do the same job which is why we
have the only Super Slo-Motion system,
which again handles both 3D and 2D
sources with the same hardware (a combination of the Summit server and Dyno
replay control system),” said Van Horn.
The view that 3D rigs have a limited
lifespan for non-live projects at least was
given heavyweight support by Walt
Disney Studios’ VP production technology Howard Lukk. “There are enough
things for the DoP, director and camera
operators to try to track on the set as it
is, without having to track interaxial and
convergence,” he argued. “We are making it more complicated on the set, where
I think it needs to be less complicated.”
Lukk suggested a hybrid approach
that would supplement a 2D camera
with smaller ‘witness’ cameras to pick up
the 3D volumes, then apply algorithms
at a VFX or a conversion house to create the 3D and free the filmmaker from
cumbersome on-set equipment. It is
something that Disney is researching.
Related developments include picture
stitching in which images from multiple HD
cameras are ‘sewn’ together to generate a
panoramic view of a field of play that can
then be ‘zoomed’ into by an operator, or
potentially by individual viewers.
Fraunhofer HII, Sony and Belgium startup Carmargus were all demonstrating variants, with Sony’s the most advanced and
now integrated with data tracking software.
The enriching of live feeds with realtime data over IP will be an increasingly
regular feature of televised sports.
Viewers will also soon be able to interact
with the action directly via tablet by
selecting to watch views and replays
from half a dozen point of view cameras
ringed around stadia.
The technology is already possible, as
EVS demonstrated of an Australian
Rules football match it produced for
Channel Nine and arguably only
requires a solid business model for it to
spread. HBS, the host broadcaster for
FIFA, is examining the concept.
These initiatives could break the pattern of sports broadcasts established and
unbroken for 60 years by providing genuinely immersive viewer involvement. In
that context the new wave of 3D looks a
little prosaic since it still hinges on a
broadcaster calling the shots.
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29
Grass grows through
acquisition, investment
out workflow as each tool (server,
graphics, master control, and the
automation system) is integrated
and built to work together.
However, this is more than just a
simple channel-in-a-box, as it can
cope with even the biggest multichannel operations.
PubliTronic started in 1997
developing some of the earliest
integrated playout systems, primarily for the European market, and
saw its revenues double in each of
the last several years. Its systems
now range from small disaster
recovery solutions to addressing
the needs of large multichannel
service providers. It has an
installed base of more than 800
on-air channels, with customers
such as Red Bee Media, Encompass,
Nickelodeon, the BBC, and
Turner. It sees its main competitors
as Miranda’s iTX and Snell’s
Morpheus ICE for larger facilities,
and PlayBox for smaller installations. All of its 32 employees have
joined Grass Valley.
Leading Edge
Alain Andreoli is focused on mainstream live production and playout
Following its acquisition by
Francisco Partners on 1 January,
2011 has seen a resurgent Grass
Valley focus on expansion through
investment in R&D and its own
acquisitions, most recently of playout
specialist PubliTronic. David Fox
analyses the varied and ambitious
IBC-time moves from GVG
Grass Valley has a new CEO and
a new confidence after recent
years of uncertainty as it waited
for someone to buy it from
Technicolor. While it will remain a
mainstream broadcast business, it
has identified key growth areas and
strategies that have already resulted in new offerings.
GVG saw a huge opportunity
in integrated playout, as 90% of
facilities that could use such systems
have yet to buy them, and Alain
Andreoli, president and CEO,
believes such systems will become
the norm within the next five years.
So, in October, Grass Valley bought
PubliTronic, the privately held
Dutch-based provider of multichannel automated playout systems.
“When we decided to expand
our playout offerings to include
an integrated approach, we had
a choice: do it on our own or
invest through an acquisition,”
said Andreoli.
He had evaluated several companies as possible takeover targets,
but concluded that PubliTronic
offered the most modern approach
and had core technology that
could be used in other products.
“As we learned more about
PubliTronic’s technology and
people, it became very clear that a
combination of our talents and
resources could allow us to offer
innovative and compelling products to our customers quickly,” he
said. Its first product, the K2
Edge server, “is a sophisticated
and very powerful multichannel,
integrated, automated playout
system that delivers benefits to
our customers from day one.”
While admitting that there are
benefits for some facilities invested in traditional playout automation to continue with that
approach, Grass Valley argues
that it is too expensive and unnecessarily complex for many. A
fully integrated system not only
offers a lower initial capital cost,
but total cost of ownership is
reduced by streamlining the play-
The new K2 Edge will be the
centrepiece of Grass Valley’s integrated playout systems. The 1RU
device costs from $25,000 and
is a Linux-based system with a
purpose-built, high-availability
architecture for 24/7 playout.
It will be available in three versions: K2 Edge Express, for entry
level channels with minimal
graphics needs; K2 Edge Pro, for
main-line channels with more
sophisticated graphics such as
picture-in-picture; and K2 Edge
Elite, offering switching for up to
four HD sources and multichannel 2D and 3D graphics complete
with DVE moves including credit
squeeze. Customers can migrate
via a software license to any level
of capability.
Each K2 Edge system includes
two features developed by
PubliTronic: the K2 TX/MAM
asset management system, with a
central database, and Cobalt
playout automation software.
The MAM server uses a webbased GUI to control all assets
including video clips, audio clips,
captioning, metadata, and graphic elements. Cobalt manages all
on-air events and, for increased
reliability, runs independently of
the database.
To help create the on-air look of
a channel, Grass Valley Channel
Composer (formerly PubliTronic
Channel Director) is optional software that manages the import and
animation of 2D and 3D graphics,
creates animations, and links
graphics templates to data sources
for realtime on-air presentation. It
is a fully-integrated channel graphics composition and management
tool, running on Windows or Mac,
and is integrated with the K2
TX/MAM server where templated
graphics and a data stream can
be defined and then referenced
together as live elements in the onair playlist.
“The K2 Edge server gives
Grass Valley an immediate market-leading position in the integrated playout segment,” said
PubliTronic’s Founder, Harold
Vermeulen, now Grass Valley’s VP
Media Playout Solutions. “With
its purpose-built and mission-critical architecture, service providers
and broadcasters of all sizes will
immediately be able to benefit
from the cost savings and operations benefits of the K2 Edge multichannel, integrated, automated
playout solution.”
Plus points: Marcel Koutstaal with
the new LDK 3000+ camera
“The integrated playout market
is not just about adding a PC to an
existing automation system for clip
playout,” added Charlie Dunn,
executive VP, Products and general manager, Editing, Servers &
Storage Product Group for Grass
Valley. “To address our customer’s
needs, we wanted to take a more
integrated approach, especially in
the area of on-air channel design
with the management of all onscreen elements. That’s what we
liked about PubliTronic — their
system was integrated and built
from the ground up, not some ‘lite’
version cut out of a high-end playout system.”
30
Evolution not revolution
Grass Valley may be best known
for hardware, but its future
lies as much in software and
services. “We are not moving
from hardware to software,
but to blended solutions,” in
areas like media asset management and multi-channel playout,
said Andreoli.
“It looks very much like an IT
wave taking the industry by storm.
That means the same ingredients:
software and services.” Which
means that Grass Valley is no
longer selling products but solutions, primarily targeting live
sports, live entertainment, studio
productions, news and playout.
Although it will continue to
make flagship systems, “we also
need the volume product for
every customer. All the technologies have improved. You don’t
need more performance, but need
a product that is good enough at
a price,” said Andreoli.
“The critical part is to have the
right products for the emerging
markets,” where there are more
likely to be greenfield projects
that are more open to moving to
new ways of working, but where
cost is an even bigger factor.
One way it is addressing this is
through Evolution, the touchscreen specialist it acquired earlier in the year. It created the
touchscreen interfaces for the
Kayenne and the new Karrera,
and Grass Valley will use the
technology for other products,
enabling it to hit lower price
points, with further announcements at NAB.
It has shown the first iteration
of a backup switcher on a touchscreen, “after years of telling people you need the buttons, so you
can watch the action and intuitively know where to put your
hands. But there may be applications for simpler interfaces using
a GUI,” he said.
“I believe the switcher is the
critical piece of hardware in
live production. As the leader in
this market, we want to stay
there, so we have to think laterally as to where switchers will go
— such as touchscreens. We
want to cover completely the
switcher space, because that is
the hook for everything else for
live production.”
CPG and GV form 3D alliance
By David Fox
(CPG) bestowed its star power
on several companies at IBC,
such as Arri and Calrec, but
probably its most important
announcement was the formation of an alliance with Grass
Valley to accelerate the broadcast industry’s move to 3D
stereoscopic production and to
end the need for separate 2D
and 3D crews to cover an event.
CPG and Grass Valley will
be “working together to bring
better 3D workflows to broadcast, developing new products
for the market, and to advance
and promote more efficient and
effective production solutions
in the live 3D sports and entertainment broadcasting arena,
which is going to benefit all production and content creation
companies involved in 3D,”
explained
Grass
Valley
Executive VP Jeff Rosica.
“The future of 3D is in
broadcast and it’s really going
to explode over the next couple
of years, so we’re scrambling to
stay ahead of the rising curve of
demand,” said James Cameron,
CPG’s co-chairman.
“It’s a little bit daunting staying ahead of the rapid rate of
technology change, so we have
to have powerful alliances with
people who are major players in
broadcast in order to really be
able to fulfil this future and supply the kind of quality 3D enter-
Karrera advancement
The new Karrera live production
switcher is the long-term replacement for the mid-market Kayak,
and will come in 4RU or 8RU
frames with 1M/E to 4.5M/Es.
Either can be combined with a
choice of 2- or 3M/E control panels
as well as a 1M/E soft-panel GUI.
It includes features from
Kayenne, such as source rules,
RGB buttons, key chaining, bus
linking,
DoubleTake
and
FlexiKey. “We’re bringing highend functionality to a mid-range
price point,” said Scott Murray,
Grass Valley’s senior VP, Live
Production Solutions.
The Shadow alliance: James Cameron and Vince Pace announce
the new Cameron–Pace Group deal with Grass Valley at IBC
tainment that people are going
to demand,” he added.
CPG has already been
involved in about 140 sports
productions in 3D and 27 feature films, and “we’re on a
relentless path to grow the 3D
business. It’s very exciting what
we’re going to be able to do
together, in terms of creating
new products and integrating
them into the workflows. We’ve
been working together for a
long time and this just formalises the relationship.”
The big question for CPG’s
other Co-Chairman and CEO,
Vince Pace, is: “How are we going
to get all the way through this
challenge of making 3D more
Its multicolour buttons allow
users to assign different colours to
cameras, replay or VTR sources, for
ease of use, while source rules would
permit a remote camera, for example, to be linked to a key signal, and
both come up at once. “This idea of
multiple events together in one
button push has been only available
on Kayenne so far.”
With pressure to reduce costs,
especially in mid market, Murray
claims that Karrera will allow
people to operate more efficiently.
For example, with multi-language
production, the Karrera allows
users to do two versions with one
truck, where everything is the
reads the 2D telemetry (the focus
and the subject distance) and
incorporates it in the 3D result.
“This is a very cost-effective solution,” and makes it easier to tell
the whole story, with all the cameras, in 3D as it would be in 2D.
It was used on the US Open
Tennis, where the production for
CBS used 14 camera systems,
nine of which were Shadow rigs.
“We’re not going to increase
your crew size, we’re not going
to increase your dependency on
additional personnel, and we’re
going to manage those costs so
that when you compare them
to the revenue delta, they make
sense to you, and that is good
business for us,” he added.
CPG is incorporating Grass
Valley technologies, including
the Kayenne switcher, K2
servers and K2 Dyno replay
controllers into its 3D production truck.
“It’s a little bit daunting staying ahead of the
rapid rate of technology change, so we have to
have powerful alliances with people who are
major players in broadcast in order to really be
able to fulfil this future” — James Cameron, CPG
cost-effective and making it more
similar to the 2D approach?” One
way is through alliances like this
and CPG’s work with its 5D
truck, which shoots 2D and 3D at
the same time using a Shadow rig
with 2D and 3D cameras controlled by a single 2D operator.
“The similarity is the point of
interest. We all want to see the
same story.” The Shadow rig
same but the graphics, while
DoubleTake lets the M/E channels be split. It can also be integrated with other Grass Valley
equipment, and be used to control aspects of its LDK cameras,
or work with K2 servers for multiple Clip Store channels.
Workflow management
Beyond switchers, Andreoli’s next
priority is workflow management. “Everything is digital files,
so how do you manage them?
How do you distribute them?
How do you automate this so it
costs very little?” He sees Stratus,
its media workflow management
“Our customers want to be
ready for 3D, but to do it with
the equipment and the people
they already have. That is the
only way 3D is going to work
and make sense in the television
business,” said Rosica, who
promised that Grass Valley’s
current products will support
3D with just a simple upgrade.
www.cameronpace.com
system (part of the K2 platform),
as the key to this and is focusing
a lot of energy on developing it
further in the coming months.
Today, systems at many of its
customers operate like islands,
and he wants to link them all,
particularly with Stratus, which
has application programming
interfaces to open it up to Avid,
Final Cut Pro and other applications, to allow it to exchange
files easily with all areas of a
production chain, from editing
to playout. “This is what we are
doing already with several cusContinued on page 32
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31
Grass grows
tomers,” but it will take time for
the industry to move. It has just
launched version 2.0 of Stratus
“and will keep upgrading it until
it becomes the one tool to connect you.”
Sky
Racing,
Australia,
already uses it to help manage
more than 70,000 horse and
greyhound races each year, integrating K2, Dyno and Stratus
for clip highlights, rough cut
edits and playback in an open
system integrated with its existing MAM.
Because there is just one
application to install, learn, and
maintain, Stratus can reduce
costs of entry and enable users
to do more. It allows simple
configuration, reduces hardware
requirements and shortens training cycles.
Media clips can be scheduled
for ingest and stored in different
locations, and then played back in
realtime from anywhere on the
Stratus network, from a single
software interface. It can also be
scaled down to accommodate a
single user, with a single PC and a
K2 Summit server.
It is also tightly integrated with
such applications as the Edius
NLE, to allow realtime edit-inplace and rendering of effects, as
well as automated playback.
For news production, Grass
Valley is introducing new Stratus
plug-ins for AP’s ENPS and
Avid’s iNews systems that allow
users to access Stratus through
the newsroom computer.
“Stratus builds gateways
between different worlds that were
once a room or a building apart,”
said Dunn. “Now they can all be
brought together at the same user
level very easily. This allows one
staff member to handle multiple
tasks, which is becoming
more appealing to media
companies, large and small,
in all markets.”
Its Service Oriented Architecture should allow Grass Valley
to develop and install new tools
and capabilities quickly and costeffectively — often a simple software download. This will also
enable third-party developers to
write new applications for the
Stratus framework.
Added functionality
Adding more to existing equipment was a big part of Grass
Valley’s offering at IBC. Its
decade-old Trinix NXT routers
can now be fitted with
a high-quality,
fully integrated
multiviewer supporting up to
3Gbps. This provides up to eight
SDI multiviewer monitor outputs per card — including the
ability to monitor audio for
each source.
Green choices drive DutchView OBs
By David Fox
DutchView, the Netherlands’
leading broadcast and facilities
company, is building two new
3D-ready, 3Gbps outside
broadcast trucks designed with
the environment in mind.
The 12m 12-camera trucks,
with dual expanding sides, will
each cost €2.3 million (excluding
cameras), with the first due to enter
service this month — the other will
be delivered next summer.
It has also signed a five-year
exclusive vendor contract with
Grass Valley for cameras, switchers, routers, and servers, which
includes up to 70 cameras, with
24 LDK 8000 Elite cameras
already delivered for the trucks,
which will also use the new 3G
Transmission system. “We’ve
been a Grass Valley customer for
many years,” said DutchView
CTO, Dave Nijmeijers. “We
have been working for many
years with Grass Valley switchers
and routers, and still think they
are the best for different types
of programmes.”
The trucks will be fitted with
the new Karrera 3Gbps production switcher, chosen partly
because it is 3D ready, plus a
Multiviewer-equipped
Trinix
Going green: Dave Nijmeijers is working to make DutchView more sustainable
NXT router, which he said is “stable and easy to set up.” They will
also have 62-channel Studer Vista
9 audio consoles, plus Riedel
wireless and wired intercom systems, which he called “the best
intercoms at the moment.”
It is also using a Riedel
MediorNet, chosen because
many of its productions have
to be set up and rigged quickly
and the single fibre design
of the MediorNet makes it
simple to get video, audio and
intercom from a stage to the
truck. “It’s very handy and
smart to use it. It’s very stable,
fast and easy to set up,” he said.
DutchView took delivery of
the MediorNet in August and
used it for the first time at a huge
music festival, with four OB
trucks and three audio trucks
covering five stages. “It was a
good experience,” he added.
For its monitor wall, it is
installing Penta monitors and
Sony OLED displays for reference
and grading, bought partly for
their low-energy use.
The trucks will have lowemission engines using a blend of
LPG and gasoil, to reduce emissions by about 30%. It will gain a
further 30% saving on air conditioning, using separate circuits
for equipment and production
staff (with heavy, sustainable,
insulation between them). Its
coachbuilder, D&MS, is making
all furniture from sustainable
materials. It is also moving to a
fully tapeless workflow, recording to EVS or Avid servers.
They will also be 3D ready.
“We didn’t decide which equipment we use for stereography”
(such as Sony’s MPE-200),
but will wait for demand for
3D production to build
before making a final decision.
“There is no requirement for
3D in the Netherlands at the
moment, and we can always
rent the equipment if there is,”
explained Nijmeijers.
“We make our [OB trucks]
as general as possible, for all
types of TV programme. They
are big enough for sports and
big entertainment productions,” he added.
www.dutchview.nl
Mid-market mixer:
Grass Valley’s new
Karrera switcher
It “is the perfect solution for
facilities and outside broadcast
vans with limited rack space,”
said Karl Schubert, Grass
Valley’s senior VP & CTO.
“With a fully integrated solution, no additional rack space
and cabling are needed, making
the Trinix Multiviewer a very
elegant solution.”
Power consumption for
eight outputs should be
under 75W, and it features: two
MADI inputs for discrete AES
audio monitoring in addition to
embedded audio monitoring
from any source; sophisticated
graphics, tally (TSL and Image
Video), and UMD support;
signal
monitoring,
status,
and alarming functions; and
support for Grass Valley control
systems. By using the card’s
cascade capability, the system
can support up to 128 images on
a single output without rescaling the cascaded signals. Users
can also set up a single image to
span multiple monitors.
LDK 3000+ adds CLASS
GVG’s camera business has
grown by 20% this year. “We are
probably the fastest growing camera company at the moment,”
claimed Andreoli at IBC.
The new LDK 3000+ camera
is based on its successful LDK
3000, with additional features,
but at the same price. It adds
secondary colour correction
and CLASS (Chromatic Lens
Aberration
and
Sharpness
Solution) for improved image
quality. “It delivers about 40%
uplift in sharpness, especially in
the corners,” explained Marcel
Koutstaal, SVP and GM Camera
Product Group.
A typical LDK3000+ configuration lists at €60,309,
including camera head, triax
camera adapter, 2-inch view finder, base station, OCP400
and tripod adapter. Existing
LDK 3000 owners can add all
the plus points for about €3,000
as a field upgrade.
There is also a new €14,499
9-inch LCD colour viewfinder
(LDK 5309/10) for its LDK
cameras. For fine focus it can
zoom to pixel-for-pixel size. It
also has three rotary controls
and four buttons (assignable for
different camera controls), plus
more flexible mounting options.
www.grassvalley.com
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Post production tackles
need for more content
File-based workflows and cloud computing were hot topics at IBC2011.
Carolyn Giardina examines trends and innovations in the post sector
The IBC Special Award went to Atlantic Productions (CEO Anthony Geffen holding Award) with Sky 3D,
Onsight and SGO Mistika for the overall production of Flying Monsters 3D with Sir David Attenborough
Post production
As IBC attendees explored the
future of the multi-platform electronic media business, they simultaneously addressed various post production topics. As the lines between
production and post continue to
blur, such themes included file-based
workflows and cloud computing.
Summed up Avid Technology’s
CEO Gary Greenfield: “It’s really
about the tremendous need to create
more and more content.”
Announcements from the IBC
exhibition floor flooded in, but as
AJA Video Systems President Nick
Rashby observed: “There were
multiple technology trend themes
discussed at IBC, but they all
revolved around solving the same
complex problems that face video
professionals: workflow, speed,
flexibility and space management.
“One noticeable trend is a
greater demand for providing
video editors with flexible options
— for example with an upcoming
34
firmware update, all of our Ki Pro
Mini customers will have the
option of using the device to
record to various flavours of either
Apple ProRes or Avid’s DNxHD
codecs depending on the demands
of a given project or workflow.”
Related, Atomos said its
newly launched HD-SDI Samurai
10-bit Apple ProRes field
recorder, monitor and playback/playout device would gain
optional DNxHD support. Avid’s
DNxHD is an existing feature for
Codex, which at IBC placed
emphasis on its ability to support
60fps ArriRaw capture on its
onboard recorder.
Adobe said its Adobe Creative
Suite Production Premium and
Adobe Creative Suite Master
Collection “are expected to gain a
comprehensive set of tools so
video editors can manipulate
colour and light for any type of
content, including professional
film and television.” But Roberts
offered: “We think that the tasks
of audio, effects, finishing, editing should all have dedicated
interfaces and the workflow
should be simple and seamless
and lossless between the applications. Historically that is what we
have done and there should be no
change going forward as we start
to integrate this technology.”
space with its Lightworks open
source initiative. At IBC, the project added codec licensing through
a new membership programme, as
well as editing features, 3D capabilities, and expanded third-party
support. In the coming months, it
will introduce the Lightworks editor for Windows, Linux and Mac
OS X platforms.
On the finishing side, many
major finishing systems showed
upgraded features in terms of 3D
tools, workflow efficiencies, and/
or support for the latest digital
cinematography cameras. SGO’s
Mistika — whose version 6.5 was
demoed at IBC — also generated
news at the IBC Awards for its
contributions to Atlantic Productions’ and Sky3D’s Flying
Monsters 3D with Sir David
Attenborough, which was shortlisted in the content creation category for its post production and
won a Special Award for the overall production.
For Resolve, Blackmagic Design
is planning support for ACES
(Academy Colour Encoding Spec),
initiated by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’
committee to create a way to maintain colour consistency throughout
post production. “The end result
of ACES is to get accurate colour
“There were multiple technology themes discussed
at IBC, but they all revolved around solving
the same complex problems that face video
professionals: workflow, speed, flexibility and
space management” — Nick Rashby, AJA
Editing and finishing
Steven Poster: “There has been a
need to address the idea of an
end to end, device-independent
colour management system…”
As IBC opened, word was travelling that Adobe bought Iridas,
maker of the SpeedGrade finishing system, for an undisclosed
sum. “The ability to deal with
HDR workflows and also their
stereoscopic pipeline — those are
two areas where we wanted to
accelerate our efforts… Iridas
fit,” said Bill Roberts, Adobe’s
director of video product management. “We also saw a very big
shift in colour grading. It seemed
like a good time to bring the two
organisations together to help us
to go faster and meet the needs of
the pros.”
Commenting on Adobe’s news,
Avid’s Greenfield said: “I think its
great that they have some interest
— having good competition keeps
the market honest. I think there is
a long reach between products that
work well in a corporate environment and work well to produce
major motion pictures.”
Avid hosted a technical
demonstration of future tools for
Media Composer. This includes
DNxHD 4:4:4, AVC HD support
through Avid Media Access
(AMA), support for Epic, new 3D
capabilities and integration with
ProTools. Avid also introduced its
new Motion Graphics system.
EditShare is looking to shake
up the professional post production
from any camera and easily pass
those colour changes down through
a post workflow for a universal
and open interchange and processing of colour,” said Dan May,
president of Blackmagic.
“Resolve is a huge part of the
colour process for all levels of
film and video makers, so support
of ACES opens up our customers
to use the format seamlessly in
their workflow. This gives a seamless colour workflow from camera
to Resolve.”
International Cinematographers
Guild President Steven Poster,
ASC, addressed this issue in the IBC
Daily Executive Summary. Poster
said: “There has been a need to
address the idea of an end-to-end,
device independent colour management system that will allow
artists and technicians to indicate
from the point of exposure… what
the intent of any ‘look’ is for the
story, and how to get there.”
Key news from The Foundry
includes a new Nuke application
called Hiero, which is a shot management, conform, and review
tool. “Nuke is already a powerful
compositing tool,” said CTO/
Founder Bruno Nicoletti. “Hiero
provides the missing link functionality currently dealt with
either by expensive tools, inhouse scripting or a cumbersome
manual process.”
material from multiple sites.
“Multi-sites was one (feature)
that we asked for because we
already have multiple sites across
Canada,” said Frank Bruno, VP
engineering for Rogers Media.
Chyron revealed that Sky
Sports News would be the first
broadcaster in Europe to implement its Axis World Graphics
cloud-based graphics creation
(Right) Hiero ‘provides missing link
functionality currently dealt with either
by expensive tools, in-house scripting
or cumbersome manual process’
platform. At Sky Studios, BSkyB’s
new West London headquarters,
Axis World Graphics has been added to a production infrastructure
Face on The Cloud
In looking at ways to improve
areas such as workflow, speed and
flexibility, cloud computing was a
frequent topic — though it remains
a term that means different things
to different people. Said Mike
Nann, Digital Rapids’ director of
marketing and communications:
“For premium media organisations
— whether the studios, post production facilities, media services
providers, broadcasters — we see
the value of the cloud model as
an elastic extension of their onpremises capabilities.
“It isn’t about a wholesale move
of their media processing operations
to external infrastructure as a
service or platform,” he continued.
“Instead, the cloud provides a means
of rapidly and dynamically expanding and managing their media processing capacity, allowing them to
handle peaks in demand — bigger
projects, or more simultaneous
projects — without making significant capital investments that may be
subsequently underutilised.”
Underscoring that vision,
Digital Rapids’ new Transcode
Manager 2.0 was featured at IBC
with new software features, built on
the Kayak application platform,
with integration between onpremises and cloud-based media
processing. “This hybrid on-premises
and cloud approach lets (customers)
leverage external cloud services
where they make sense, expand their
capacity as-needed with better cost
predictability, and manage the cloud
resources seamlessly alongside their
on-premises media processing infrastructures,” said Nann.
Underscoring the interest in
cloud-based workflows, Canadabased broadcaster Rogers Media
and its Quantel’s QTube workflow was an IBC Innovation
Awards finalist. Rogers transmits
news, sports and entertainment
channels both nationally and
regionally across Canada, with
major production bases in five
cities and reporters generating
content across the country.
With QTube, journalists in the
field can review and edit proxy
files, with the full HD edit conformed and rendered at the transmission site. At IBC, Quantel
showed added functionality, giving QTube the ability to integrate
files that sit on generic storage, as
well as to access and combine
35
The need for
more content
devices, such as our UltraStudio 3D
and Intensity Extreme, is an
absolute must in order to support all
levels of our customer base.”
Matrox and Promise Technology showed how Thunderbolt
technology could be used in post
production with a demonstration
of multi-layer realtime editing
of uncompressed HD projects,
using the Thunderbolt interface.
Matrox’s MXO2 LE MAX video
I/O and Promise Pegasus RAID
storage were connected to an
Apple iMac as part of the demo.
Meanwhile Sonnet Technologies
showed Thunderbolt-enabled RAID
storage and its Echo Express PCIe
that includes Chyron’s CAMIO
graphics management servers,
iSQ remote monitoring and
playout application, HyperX systems that support streamlined
graphics creation and playout for
on-air graphics.
Said Darren Long, director of
operations at Sky Sports News:
“Our operators have found
Chyron systems to be very userfriendly, and features such as integrated order management have
made it very easy for our staff to
order graphics from the desktop,
view the graphics, and request or
make any necessary changes.”
Avid put a focus on the cloud
with a demo and the release of a
white paper. The company also
announced that it was near completion of a €4.5 million installation of a tapeless workflow at
regional German broadcaster,
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).
The four-year project is based
around Interplay production asset
management, ISIS shared storage
and Media Composer finishing.
The goal is to enable journalists in WDR’s regional studios
to centrally access, edit and play
out its news and current affairs
Chyron revealed that Sky Sports News would be the first broadcaster
in Europe to implement its Axis cloud-based graphics creation platform
programming. Said Greenfield: “It
is going to be working from 13 different locations and will be using
their media, distributed in a
remote environment that is in
essence a private cloud.”
Concluded Greenfield: “The
first (cloud application from
Avid) is in news broadcasting. In
the next 12 months you will start
to see applications that will
impact post production.”
Prime Focus Technologies used
IBC as an opportunity to highlight
what it refers to as its ‘Domain
Centric Cloud’ (DCC) infrastructure, which it offers to connect
broadcasters, content suppliers and
playout origination centres. Highspeed file transfer business Aspera
is showing Aspera Orchestrator, a
web-based application and SDK
platform for creating and managing
automated Aspera file transfer
workflows including third-party
media applications and services
(both on-premise or cloud-based)
such as transcoding, quality control
and digital marking.
Tracking Thunderbolt
A number of post production
technology manufacturers featured
Thunderbolt-enabled devices at
IBC. Said Blackmagic’s May:
“Thunderbolt is a technology that
supports high resolution displays and
high performance data devices in a
single port, and that is going to be
used on set, in the field, in mobile
trucks. Being able to support that technology with capture and playback
2.0 expansion chassis. Sonnet’s
Echo Express PCIe 2.0 enables users
to plug in PCI Express 2.0 adapter
cards — such as full-sized video
capture cards, 8Gb Fibre Channel
cards, 10Gb Ethernet cards — to
any computer with a Thunderbolt
port. Sonnet’s Fusion D800TBR5
eight-drive RAID 5 desktop storage
system featuring Thunderbolt
technology includes an internal
RAID controller that supports
RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and JBOD. Both
products offer two Thunderbolt
ports to support daisy chaining.
AJA introduced Io XT, an I/O
device that also has two Thunderbolt ports to support daisy chaining.
The purpose of IMF
By Carolyn Giardina
While tackling content creation, the industry is also
looking at the challenges of
mastering for different platforms. SMPTE’s IMF Working
Group believes the Interoperable Master Format, or
IMF, could simplify that issue.
“IMF is intended for worldwide, professional applications,
and originally was loosely
based upon Digital Cinema
standards. You can think of it as
a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) for home video/television
masters,” said Disney’s Annie
Chang, who chairs SMPTE’s
IMF Working Group.
“The purpose of IMF is to
create a high-quality, standardised
and interoperable file framework
for finished content. IMF allows
for flexible versioning so that
multiple language versions and
edits can be put together without
the need to create full linear
versions of each language/edit.”
Chang encourages post production hardware and software
manufacturers to get involved.
Reflecting that message, at IBC
DVS demoed IMF support for its
Clipster post production system.
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The broader significance of major displays from NHK and NDS
IBC Big Screens carry
the message forward
Display Technologies
By Chris Forrester
IBC is always full of surprises, and while
visitors will always head for their favourite
Halls to seek out the latest re-invention
of this or that piece of kit, for me the
two most fascinating exhibits concerned
screens. On the one hand there was NHK’s
‘milestone’ screen in the shape of a Sharp
85-inch prototype LCD designed to handle
8K transmissions of its spectacular Super
Hi-Vision/Ultra HDTV technology.
The other equally impressive ‘screen’ was
NDS’ magnificent video wall which stretched
across a 3x2 mosaic of six NEC X551UN
55-inch edgeless flat-panels (each delivering
1920x1080, and with just a 5.7mm content
gap), of which more in a moment.
In many respects NHK’s spectacular
demo wasn’t simply the 85-inch LCD, or
the even more impressive 275-inch projection screen, or even their never-less-than
amazing test footage, which this year
showed the final launch of the Space
Shuttle Endeavor captured in May, and
which rumbled right into your body helped
by the 22.2-channel surround sound system.
Their other key test footage was taken
from the colourful Copa America soccer
finals in Argentina in July, and managed to
totally capture the infectious enthusiasm of
fans — and the on-pitch action. Live action
The image quality from NHK was like that of an open window, such was the depth of realism achieved
came from the BBC’s Television Centre
and the most mundane of images, that of
Wood Lane, and London’s red buses and
tube trains trundling to and from Wood
Lane station! The image quality was like
that of an open window, such was the
depth of realism achieved.
All this was truly extraordinary. But for
me the even more important message was in
the progress made by the Japanese over the
past year. Dr Keiichi Kubota, head of NHK’s
science, technology and research laboratories, talking at the show said significant
developed jointly by ourselves and Sharp.
Our goal now is to move onto a secondgeneration set, probably at 70-inch but with
finer, reduced-size pixels.”
Dr Kubota said the Super-HD camera’s
lens had also been dramatically reduced in
weight, and size, from 80kgs in its firstgeneration to today’s third-generation lens at
“just” 20kgs. Images from London came into
the theatre at 250Mbps having been compressed using H.264 algorithms. Dr Kubota
added that while development work continued on all of the key elements in the video
chain, the next major thrust is further compression with a target of around 100Mbps
using the emerging High Efficiency Video
Coding, (HEVC) which is expecting to be an
MPEG standard within the next year or so.
HEVC is truly a vital component in the
NHK system. Although the BBC’s Dirac
Professional system was used in early work
by NHK, they are now waiting for the joint
ISO/IEC Motion Picture Experts Group
and the ITU’s Video Coding Experts Group
to resolve and fix the standard, with a first
draft scheduled for February 2012 and a
Draft International Standard likely to
emerge by about July 2012.
It is this work which, on the current
timetable, should see a ratified standard in
place by January 2013.
In other words, the joint NHK and BBC
efforts to capture images from next year’s
2012 London Olympic Games might be
‘pre-standardisation’ in terms of video compression. But Dr Kubota was enthusiastic
In other words, the joint NHK and BBC efforts to capture
images from next year’s 2012 London Olympic Games might
be ‘pre-standardisation’ in terms of video compression
technical progress has been made in the
year, especially in image displays. “Up until
now almost everything that we have done
has been projected onto screens and in darkened theatres. For broadcasting we need directview displays such as Plasma or LCD units.
We now have an LCD working at 85-inch,
about the opening and closing ceremonies
being filmed, and that NHK’s cameras
(they have only two UHV cameras at the
moment) would be working hard in and
around the London Games, and beaming
their signals to crowds of viewers in some
UK city centre locations by the BBC.
To date, NHK has been working to a
very structured timetable with scheduled
test transmissions to start in 2020. Dr
Kubota says the official target “has not
been changed — yet. But our management
is pushing very strongly to start the experiments in 2015. It is a possibility, but many
elements have still to come together.”
For broadcasters this is an incredibly short
timescale. There were plenty of senior broadcast engineers and studio equipment vendors
at September’s IBC who are already responding to RFP’s that extend well beyond a fouryear timescale. Even allowing for the ‘experimental’ aspect of NHK’s commitment, and
extending that by another four-to-six years,
this suggests that perhaps in 10 years from
now we might see the first non-Japanese
deployments of Ultra High-Definition, probably by the likes of DirecTV or BSkyB.
NDS: Surfaces
The other stunning display on show was
the NDS 3.5m across ‘video wall’, officially
called ‘Surfaces’. One commentator accurately said he was “blown away” by the
demo, and others used “breathtaking” and
‘’amazing” in a similar vein. What truly was
staggering was the amount of wholly contextual information that was drawn together
by the NDS kit, and using existing metadata.
In other words, everything they showed
could be achieved today.
The NDS team, led by Simon Parnell
(VP/Technology), has recognised the
38
inevitable adoption of ever-larger
screen sizes — and as they grow
they end up ‘displaying’ a huge
acreage of black nothing when
not in use. There’s also the quite
real prospect of almost wall-sized
displays, as well as video-capable
flexible screens and ‘wallpaper’
perhaps within the next five years
or so.
NDS has a solution. First, in
this particular version, they
matched the room’s wallpaper on
the screens, making the display
almost invisible! That was neat,
but there was more.
The real advantage of any
giant screen is having real estate to
play with. A Hollywood 4,000-line
movie or HDTV drama might well
fill all six screens, but for dayto-day use the NDS team see different elements coming into play
on the screen, with social media’s
speech ‘bubbles’ popping up, or
news/weather reports and connected home applications each
potentially playing their part.
Indeed, it is those existing
Apps that make ‘Surfaces’ so
intuitive and desirable. Using a
lightweight wireless tablet as the
control device, NDS has ‘Mum’
switching on the radio, but where
the video wall then draws down
the radio station’s ID and playlist,
a clock, and upcoming audio
temptations as well as the latest
news headlines. The on-screen
data says that a celebrity is about
to be interviewed on a breakfast
TV show, and ’Mum’ decides she
wants to watch it.
The ‘radio’ shrinks away to be
replaced by the network’s video
feed. NDS has engineered what it
describes as an Immersive Bar on
the tablet, similar to a volume
control, and this permits the
viewer to decide how immersive
they want the video experience to
be. Slide it ‘up’ and the screen
image gets bigger. Slide it ‘down’
and the screen can shrink back to
any desired size. And what’s more
the whole concept takes about a
nano-second to ‘learn’, it is completely intuitive.
With this demo NDS has taken
the TV experience beyond video,
exploiting the immense variety of
Apps out there, along with text and
image-based news feeds and data —
as well as supplementary media
sources and programme-specific
additional information. The assembled result depends on NDS’ Service
Delivery Platform for functionality,
plus a bit of extra computing.
What is spectacular is that this
treatment could be supplied today.
Nigel Smith, NDS’ VP/CMO while
admitting that this might be a
costly investment, said that in a few
years this could easily cost less
than today’s higher-end displays.
“Surfaces means there’s no TV set
filling up the lounge,” he added.
My view is that whatever the
cost of today’s Surfaces concept
there are plenty of well-heeled
buyers out there who would
immediately buy into the technology. In my viewing group
just about everyone said if they
had the cash they’d write the
cheque there and then! Five
years from now Surfaces might
be well past the early-adopter
phase and be near mainstream.
It’s that good.
The NHK spec
G
G
G
G
85-inch LCD Ultra HighRes (7680x43209 pixels)
250Mbps signal compressed
using H.264
BBC-IBC Fibre links used
NTT’s Academic Network
8-channel video switcher/
slow-motion unit
The NDS spec
Hardware:
G Quad core CPU PC
G ATI Eyefinity 6 Graphics card
G 6 x NEC X551UN 55-inch
panels (1920 x 1080, 5.7mm
content-content gap)
G iPads
Software
G Large Surface: HTML5
application running in
Google Chrome Web Browser
G Companion: HTML5
application running in
Apple Safari Web Browser
G Large Surface & Companion
application synchronised
using WebSockets
G Contextual metadata from
NDS SDP Web Service API
39
AVC Ultra is Panasonic
route to 4K and 1080p
Panasonic unveiled new 3D cameras,
a switcher, new LCD monitors, and
announced its entry into the
European studio camera market
at IBC. It also discussed plans for
how it will enhance its AVC codec
for future file-based products.
David Fox examines its IBC moves
With its new AVC Ultra codec,
Panasonic plans to extend its
H.264-based AVC Intra compression scheme to cover 1080p
recording and visually-lossless
master quality 12-bit 4:4:4 and
4K resolution, and also to reach
into the low bitrate segment.
“This is really a big differentiator
and a big milestone for the industry. With AVC Ultra, we can offer
customers the choice to record
from 25Mbps 4:2:2 10-bit up to
400Mbps,” said Christian Sokcevic,
Panasonic’s director of Professional AV, Europe.
It will launch AVC Ultra products in 2013 (probably starting with
a mid-range model), but showed a
comparison of different versions
at IBC, notably uncompressed vs
AVC-Ultra 200 Class, and MPEG-2
50Mbps vs AVC Ultra 25, which
shows no difference in quality, but
twice the efficiency from the new
codec, representing cost savings on
storage and bandwidth. The EBU
has already tested the AVC Ultra 200
Class, which records at up to
400Mbps for 4K or 4:4:4. The bit
rate depends on the resolution and
sampling rate, but should allow visually lossless, file-based mastering.
“We believe that the intrabased codecs are the most suitable
for quality-conscious productions,” said Sokcevic.
3D camcorders
The new HDC-Z10000 is the
first integrated twin-lens 2D/3D
camcorder that is officially compatible with the new AVCHD
3D/Progressive standard. It has
two sets of 3xCMOS sensors
recording 1920x1080 50p 2D and
3D images, manual operation,
and is aimed at bridging the gap
between amateur and professional
in both quality and cost.
“It provides a macro function at
45cm distance, which is the closest
of any integrated 3D camcorder
yet,” said Sokcevic. The F1.5 lenses
go as wide as 32mm for 3D or
29.8mm for 2D (where it can shoot
as close as 3.5cm), with a 10x zoom
for 3D and 12x for 2D. It records
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound
or stereo and has two XLR audio
inputs with 48v phantom power.
Also new is the AG-3DP1 HD
shoulder-mount camcorder with
40
that it hopes to expand on. “For
us, as a European organisation,
we need to get closer to our customers and understand their
requirements so we can implement their requests in our future
products,” he added.
Panasonic showed two new
LCD displays at IBC: the 21.5-inch
BT-L2150 (1920x1080, €1,600)
and the 15.4-inch BT-L1500
(1280x800, €1,400). Both have
two HD-SDI inputs and LED
backlighting, and are aimed at
lower-budget users than its previous BT-LH models.
They also have HDMI, analogue component (Y/PB/PR,
BNC×3), PC (D-SUB 15P) and
analogue composite (BNC×1)
inputs are provided, plus a single
2-channel analogue audio (pin
jacks×2) input and embedded
audio via the SDI and HDMI
inputs. Other features include:
tally lamps; markers; blue-only
display; colour adjustments (colour
temp., sharpness, RGB white balance); and GPI remote control.
Live switching
Eye popping: A visitor checks out Panasonic’s new HDC-Z10000 twin-lens 2D/3D camcorder
The new AV-HS410 all-in-one
1ME switcher will include stereo
3D support in a rack size
(48.26cm) model. Its standard
configuration takes nine multiformat signal inputs (eight SDI
The 3DP1, plus the AG-3DA1, will be used to
produce about 10 hours per day of 3D content
for Olympic Broadcasting Services during the
2012 Games in London
Focused on the studio: Sokcevic with Panasonic’s AK-HC3500 camera
10 bit, 4:2:2 1920x1080 AVC-Intra
recording at 50 or 100Mbps to P2
cards, twin 17x zoom lenses, two
sets of three 1/3-inch CMOS sensors and a 20-bit Digital Signal
Processor. It has variable frame
rate recording, with 20 variable
frame steps between 12 and 60fps
in 720p mode.
The camcorder has dual
HD-SDI outputs, 3D-compatible
HDMI output, and two XLR
connectors, plus genlock and
timecode inputs for multi-camera
operation. It also has a remote
terminal for focus iris, zoom,
REC start/stop and convergence
point, 3.2-inch LCD tht can display Left, Right or overlay image
for reviewing depth information.
It will ship in December, with a
list price of €27,000.
The 3DP1, plus the AG-3DA1,
will be used to produce about 10
hours per day of 3D content for
Olympic Broadcasting Services for
the 2012 Games in London. It will
include the opening and closing
ceremonies, and selections from athletics, gymnastics, diving and swimming, plus some sports that have
never been covered in 3D before.
Studio too
Panasonic will enter the studio
camera market in Europe for the
first time with the introduction of
the AK-HC3500 early next year,
with further studio-type cameras
promised later in 2012.
The AK-HC3500 is a onebody 1080i camera, with three
2/3-inch 2.2-megapixal IT-CCDs,
14-bit A/D converter, 38-bit digital signal processor and spatial
offset processing for greater sensitivity. The DSP includes dynamic
range stretch for detailed, high
quality images when shooting in a
high contrast environment.
It also has fibre output.
Although many broadcasters
have a triax infrastructure,
Sokcevic believes that triax is
showing its limitations in an era
of 1080p and 3D. “Fibre-optic is
surely the future proof system.
We understand that customers
have an existing infrastructure,
but I’m confident we will find
some sort of solution to integrate
our cameras with them.”
The AK-HC3500 has two
HD SDI connections, plus teleprompter and AUX outputs, and
microphone, intercom and genlock
inputs. The 4.7kg camera also has
a shoulder pad for stable EFP
shooting, and an SD memory card
slot for storage and retrieval of
various camera settings.
Panasonic has been selling
studio cameras in other markets
for years, but the European
Union’s former anti-dumping
levy made it uneconomic to supply such cameras here, and introducing the €36,000 AK-HC3500
will allow it to gain a foothold
inputs and one DVI-D), expandable to 13 (HD/SD switchable). It
can also have up to 10 outputs.
All input channels feature a builtin frame synchroniser, there are
up-converters for four channels
and video processing circuits for
eight channels. Five HD-SDI
outputs and one DVI-D output
are provided in the standard configuration, plus four Aux busses
(Aux 1 comes with a mix transition function).
Support is planned for switching stereo 3D, with four 3D inputs
(expandable to five). Primatte
chroma keyer compositing will be
also supported. The AV-HS410
will cost less than €11,000, and
the optional support for 3D is
scheduled for spring 2012 (requiring installation of the AVHS04M7D board and an upgrade
of the AV-HS410).
www.panasonic-broadcast.com
3D potential: The AV-HS410 all-in-one 1ME switcher
Transmitter offers energy efficiency
By Michael Burns
Rohde & Schwarz launched the
R&S THU9 high-power transmitter at IBC this year, boasting
the best energy efficiency values
for solid-state TV transmitters,
according to the company. The
transmitter can handle all common digital and analogue TV
standards, reducing energy costs
by offering efficiencies of up to
28% for COFDM standards and
up to 30% for ATSC standards
including the cooling system.
With the THU9, Rohde &
Schwarz has significantly reduced
attenuation throughout the whole
RF chain, while the amplifier integrates advanced efficient power transistors in 50V LDMOS technology.
The liquid cooling system also
boosts efficiency, while specially
developed power supplies allow the
transmitter control unit to optimise
the transistor supply voltage, which
results in further design efficiencies.
With 15kW total output power for COFDM standards in a single rack, the R&S THU9 provides
significant power density. The
maximum output power per rack
is 18.5kW for ATSC and ATSC
Mobile DTV, and 30kW for
analogue TV.
If necessary, they can be combined into an N+1 system. When
configured as a single transmitter,
the pump unit and the bandpass
filter are integrated in the rack. The
new R&S TCE900 transmitter
control exciter can be configured as
a transmitter control unit or as an
exciter using plug-in boards, and
can be software-switched from
analogue to digital TV standards.
The ergonomic operating terminal is easy to access, featuring a
display unit with touchscreen that
can accommodate a wide variety
of viewing angles. Intuitive menus
also add to the ease of use.
“This is a real milestone for us,”
said Axel Menke, Rohde & Schwarz
product manager for Terrestrial
Transmitter Systems. “It’s a very
modular design — a bit like a toolbox,
really — you can pick out whatever
you like. The graphic interface operating concept is also new and easy
to navigate; although other manufacturers do use touchscreen, ours is
a unique and intuitive design.”
www.rohde-schwarz.com
Axel Menke: The R&S THU9 offers
reduced energy consumption
SWR purchases
first 1238CFs
By Paul Watson
At IBC Genelec announced it
had sold the first batch of its
new 1238CF monitors to German
public broadcasting station
SWR, which purchased more
than 40 of Genelec’s 1238CFs at
the back end of 2010 for its new
facility that’s currently being
built in Stuttgart.
SWR has a longstanding relationship with Genelec and
was involved in the development
of the 1238CF, which newly
appointed Managing Director
Siamak Naghian says has been
particularly beneficial.
“SWR worked with us on the
listening tests when we were
developing the product,” he
explained. “It’s kind of designed
for them, really. We have a very
strong working relationship with
SWR; they were able to come to
us and propose certain requirements, and we were able to give
them what they wanted.”
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www.genelec.com
41
TVBE_Nov P42-47 MAM 2_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 11:18 Page 42
TVBEU R O PE M E D I A A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T
Frankenstein or sleeping beauty?
What to look for in a broadcast MAM solution for 2012 and beyond
MAM Opinion
By Russell Grute
Working as an independent consultant, specialising in media management and workflow development, I
was recently asked by the CEO of a
growing broadcaster “if we could
start from scratch next year how
should we improve our MAM
strategy?” An apparently reasonable
question I thought. Yet despite having worked through successful
MAM-based projects over the last
10 years with clients including ESPN
Star Sports, NRK, Channel 4, MTV
Northern Europe, HBO Asia, Al
Jazeera and SBS Networks, I admit
I struggled for an easy answer.
At IBC in September around
400 technology vendors, partners
and integrators offered a MAM
capability as part of their value
proposition. Improved content creation, repurposing and distribution
workflows to increase broadcast
and new media revenue were promised by all.
With such wide choice has
MAM now matured and are clear
choices are easier? Perhaps our
CTO’s ‘reasonable question’ can be
answered by sharing what has
worked for others so far. And by
looking at better solutions architecture and integration, and the skills
and motivations required to deliver
improved media asset management.
Solutions architecture
There is a wider range of solutions
architectures than ever before to
improve any scale of media
management. Today’s island subsystems in production, post production, graphics and playout are
potentially now so performant that
for some cases I question if a separate MAM system is necessary.
The interoperability of content,
its metadata, projects and libraries,
while still a delicate area, is now
mainstream. Ironically, many manufacturers champion their compatibility and interoperability with
partners (and competitors) as much
as their own core value proposition.
Avid, EVS and Grass Valley, as
examples, regularly vie with each
other to be the most compatible
with Apple’s Final Cut. Recent ‘X’
rated news has clouded this somewhat but I hope it makes the point;
keep an eye on Adobe too.
Other technologies manage high
volume incompatibilities throughout the content lifecycle. Harmonic
or Telestream for example, can
transform any legacy file and send
it anywhere; often unnecessarily in
a poorly designed workflow. As a
result thousands of duplicate file
copies going nowhere now infect
many broadcasters’ storage systems. End-to-end media lifecycle
management is just one reason to
consider better enterprise MAM.
Other reasons include: helping
staff across the business to search
and access material to collaborate
more efficiently and, sharing and
monitoring both content and infrastructure. Where multivendor technology needs to be integrated to
improve workflow many MAM vendors have progressed, or been forced,
toward software systems integration.
This is evident in multichannel
playout systems where often only
the MAM vendor can properly
integrate channel management
systems such as ad sales, traffic,
and scheduling and increasingly
new media distribution. Only by
durable long term integration
between MAM and channel management systems can media distribution businesses now succeed.
Whether islands and/or enterprise
are required, a technological economy of scale can now only be gained
by having the right software integration capabilities and partnerships.
Issue Focus on Broadcast MAM
At TVBEurope we regularly return to the ever-evolving topic of Media Asset
Management. Why? Because new technologies and file-based workflows are
constantly moving the goalposts in terms of broadcast operations, ROI,
functionality and plain ease of use. Our MAM columnist Russell Grute hits the
nail right on the head in his first paragraph: ‘I was recently asked by the CEO
of a growing broadcaster “if we could start from scratch next year how
should we improve our MAM strategy?” An apparently reasonable question I
thought…’ Indeed: but not so easy to answer! In the following pages, please
find further MAM opinion and two case studies from France, one from Spain,
one from the UK and another from further afield. — Fergal Ringrose
These skills are now the key enablers
in achieving secure solutions architectures, which comprise generic
integration platforms, virtualisation
and distributed cloud-based services.
Quiet beautiful integration
While investment over the next
three-to-five years could be dramatically lower on technology
costs there will be increased investment in specialist services. Today’s
flexible software driven systems
based on IT offer higher performance, more flexibility and resilience
but require careful handling. Those
key individuals that understand
properly the use cases and potential workflow improvements, who
can also liaise with technologists,
are currently still a rare breed. Software integration, ongoing workflow
development and flexible operational support are the key new
disciplines required to maintain a
strong MAM ecosystem.
A clear danger sign early in a
MAM project is when a few smart
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42
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people on the client’s IT side, often
focused on in-house IT access or the
scheduling system, start talking ‘in
code’ with supply-side developers.
A short-term boost of well-intentioned technical problem solving is
often followed by a Frankenstein integration with too many hidden and
poorly documented technical workarounds. Structuring wider review
of these early decisions and risks by
involving key users, the project manager and the support team can avoid
problems with ongoing workflow
improvement, scalability in adding
new services and operational support.
Many clients admit they are
sometimes slower in delivering their
in-house project commitments than
specialist technology suppliers, due
to limited in-house expertise and
capacity. This is a key reason to
engage an SI and specialist third-party
integration partners.
Motivation for success
By 2012 MAM is not new. Broadcasters continue to look at reorganising their talent, operations and
technology using MAM and better
workflows. Some broadcasters are
looking for a second or even third
time at MAM to drive enterprise
efficiency. Carefully balancing new
job roles with high volume media
processing is a key success factor
when delivering improved media
asset management.
To achieve this balance and to
help heads of operations work effectively with their CTO’s team and
technology suppliers it’s helpful to
use a vision statement. For example:
‘What will we do when the business
asks us to deliver increased programming, or launch twice as many new
channels, with no increase in staff?’
So which MAM strategy would I
recommend for 2012 to help our CEO
streamline content creation, repurposing and distribution? Regrettably
this short story doesn’t offer a ‘happily ever after’. The improved ROI
using MAM, which has eluded many
so far, was caused in part by a weak
vision, inaccurate scope and poor
integration. Somehow if we stitched
enough IT and broadcast parts together and added enough volts many
hoped the vision would come to life.
In 2012 perhaps we’ll create less
clunky misunderstood monsters and
instead take the opportunity for some
restful beautiful integrated efficiency.
Sharing access across RTVE
By Simon Hayward, regional
sales director of Northern
and Southern Europe, Avid
With its seven television channels and six radio stations spread
across Spain, news represents
one of Spanish Radio and
Television (RTVE) Corporation’s main pillars. The company’s Canal 24 Horas (24/7
news channel), its Teledeporte
(sports channel) and telediarios
(daily news bulletins) have generated leading audience market
shares over the last few years.
Because of this growing
consumer thirst for quality programming, RTVE has seen substantial increases in the volume
of content created by its channels. And this was the catalyst
to exploratory investigations to
invest in an enterprise-wide
media asset management system.
No mean feat as it had to meet
RTVE’s stringent requirements
of storing hundreds of thousands of hours of footage but
also be sufficiently flexible and
reliable to provide media access
from multiple locations.
end-to-end Avid workflow. With
the concepts and designs for the
digital workflow in place, work
began. The plan: to eliminate the
daily use of videotape, bring
the group fully into the world
of file-based workflow, speed
up and improve the quality
of production, and generally
make it a slicker, more professional operation.
To meet the tough challenge
of implementing a media asset
management solution across
diverse environments and locations, while at the same time
incorporating remote access,
media sharing and transfer
facilities, a close working partnership was essential. We recommended Avid’s asset man agement solution, Interplay, to
sit at the heart of the integrated news workflow. The other
key components making up the
end-to-end news solution comprised of ISIS 7000 shared
storage, AirSpeed Multi Stream
servers, Interplay Assist, NewsCutter, iNews Instinct and
iNews Command.
The plan: to eliminate the daily use of videotape,
bring the group fully into the world of file-based
workflow, speed up and improve the quality
of production, and make it a slicker, more
professional operation
A challenging brief
The rollout
As Spain’s largest and most influential multimedia group, RTVE
needed an expert in media asset
management to advise, implement, transition and train staff
on the mammoth task that is
full-scale newsroom digitisation.
RTVE’s overall objective was
clear: to implement a file-based
workflow capable of increasing
the flexibility, speed, productivity
and quality of their entire news
production system.
After evaluating a wide range
of offerings on the market,
RTVE decided the answer to
their challenging brief was an
As with any large-scale project, we
approached it one step at a time. The
master control centre at Torrespaña
was the first site to go entirely
file-based, and after that success,
RTVE asked us to follow up with
similar projects in its Mérida, Las
Palmas and Sant Cugat Del Vallés
(Barcelona) facilities. Each of these
sites included an ISIS 7000 shared
storage system and Interplay
production asset management system for ingest, archiving, coding,
transcoding and transfer.
The creation of news bulletins is
a fundamental function in RTVE,
and we helped to advise them on the
iNews Instinct was picked as the journalist’s tool primarily because
it allows RTVE to work with text, video and audio in one application
Ingest and playout is handled by AirSpeed MultiStream servers
best tools to get bulletins to air
quickly and efficiently. Avid iNews
Instinct was picked as the journalist’s tool primarily because it allows
them to work with text, video and
audio in one application. To help
contributors find the right clips and
accelerate the editorial process, Avid
Interplay Assist was chosen to allow
them to add locators, comments,
annotations and personalised notes.
To support the key journalist
iNews Instinct editing stations, Avid
NewsCutter craft-editing systems
were installed to ensure the visual
quality of stories before playout.
For master ingest and playout,
RTVE contributors put in AirSpeed
MultiStream servers. And for
regional centres, playout of daily
news programmes is handled by
iNews Command with its dynamic
playlist management.
Accessing content
With the end-to-end Avid workflow in place, RTVE can now connect its seven regional production
centres. And it has allowed them
to optimise access to legacy
assets, data stock audiovisual
archive, and all the recently
acquired material used in news
and post production.
The new production infrastructure has enabled staff across all
areas of the news production chain
to access content. This brings many
benefits. It enables contributors to
edit the most recently acquired
video at their own workstations
while the same material is made
available across the rest of the
organisation. It allows locally
stored content to be accessed from
any production centre. It makes
online media at Torrespaña, the
heart of the RTVE network in
Madrid, available to regional centres. And it establishes a protocol to
access legacy content (deep historical archive), which currently stands
at about 250,000 hours.
Currently, the number of
workstations with simultaneous
access to online material at the
Torrespaña centre exceeds 300
licenses. The spectrum of solutions installed as part of the digitisation project now allows any
professional to access a wealth of
media from a single workstation
— using advanced browsing
and editing tools in a shared environment. This has truly revolutionised the way RTVE employees access, manage and share
their content, and the company
is now beginning to reap the
rewards of a full-scale file-based
news operation.
Transmit-Route-Receive
MULTIDYNECOMs
43
Paris-based TV channel CANAL+ i>TÉLÉ has undergone a major MAM upgrade
A news factory in Paris
With the MAM, everything is in one place and all the metadata is
linked directly to the video and immediately available to the journalists
By David Stewart
All-news
outlet
CANAL+
i>TÉLÉ is omnipresent, available
free on the terrestrial TNT television channel satellite and cable,
the web and mobile devices.
Having delivered more than a
decade of reliable TV news programming, the Paris-based channel was due for a major upgrade of
its aging technical infrastructure.
The technology-savvy channel
had added new media services as
they became available, but the teams
generating content for the extended
platforms tended to be ‘add-ons’ to
the main newsroom rather than
fully integrated into the workflow.
With an upgrade on the drawing
board, management saw an opportunity to create a truly collaborative,
multimedia ‘news factory’.
“We envisioned this modernisation project as something much
bigger than an equipment purchase. We wanted to rethink everything in order to improve productivity and to create a model
for multiplatform news production that would last well into
the future,” explains Pierre
Fraidenraich, CEO of i>TÉLÉ.
“We planned a significant
revamping of the editorial roles,
responsibilities and workflows.
That kind of major change is difficult to implement in practical and
in human terms.” As part of their
internal process, i>TÉLÉ performed an extensive analysis and
identified many redundant tasks
and roles. They developed an
extensive RFP that included
detailed requirements for new
hardware and for a software solution that would deliver a unified
system with state-of-the art production and distribution tools.
Xavier Bodin Hullin, director of
Operations for i>TÉLÉ, says the
project scope required an integrator
who could expertly address the
technical issues as well as the
change management considerations. “We wanted to minimise
investment and maximise results. In
choosing an integrator we sought a
partner who could work well with
our team and other vendors. We
would need to train our 200-strong
staff and an additional 150 parttime contributors, so training was
also very important as we wanted
the staff to feel confident and fully
engaged to achieve a successful
transition,” says Bodin Hullin.
management) and a separate system for clip-editing. It was discordant. We generated three different
rundowns depending on your role
— producer, presenter, director —
and they were not linked together.”
Now everyone is on the same
system and uses the same tools.
Everyone sees the same rundown
and version of the show. “All the
necessary information is centralised and visible on the rundown
whether its video, VOs, packages,
scripts, or graphics”, explains
Angotti. “There’s much better
organisation and fewer errors.”
Dalet News Suite also met the
requirement for integration with
other broadcast and storage systems including Omneon Spectrum
video servers, production storage
from Quantum Stornext and Data
Direct Networks, Apple Final Cut
Pro NLE’s, VizRT graphics, the
in-house archive and publishing
systems. Dalet Professional Services
was chosen as lead integrator for
the modernisation project.
agencies or camera crew right at
the point of ingest. We enter all the
essential metadata using Dalet’s
asset management forms. We also
select the best and most relevant
shots,” he explains.
With the MAM, everything is in
one place and all the metadata is
linked directly to the video and
immediately available to the journalists. The consistency of metadata
entry greatly improves the workflow
and also adds tremendous value to
the archive, making it far easier to
search, find and retrieve content.
“We are at least 50% more efficient when compared to our old
method which depended on paper
notes handed from person to person and media stored in different
places,” says Michel. “During
breaking news, we use chat windows and send links to best clips to
speed production. The system
gives us great flexibility.”
In addition to managing metadata schemes, the Dalet MAM
also controls user workflows
Training team
All from one desktop
CANAL+ i>TÉLÉ selected Dalet
News Suite to provide a unified and
fluid workflow for its multimedia
newsroom. News Suite is built on
the Dalet’s Media Asset Management platform and includes a complete set of NRCS tools within a
single user interface, allowing journalists to perform all their essential
tasks from one desktop.
“This was a major improvement
for the journalists,” says Fabrice
Angotti, chief editor of i>TÉLÉ.
“In our old workflow, journalists
would work on two computers —
one with office tools, internet
and email; and another with a
NRCS (wires, scripting, rundown
Dalet News Suite includes an integrated editor that allows journalists
to drag high resolution clips directly to the timeline for fast editing,
simple effects such as blurring, voiceover creation and CG placement
Control tower
i>TÉLÉ leveraged the capabilities of
the Dalet MAM and integrated
newsroom production tools to transform its workflow making it far more
productive and collaborative. The
MAM capabilities of News Suite
provided an important foundation
for the change.
Luc Michel manages the newly
created Media Coordination Team,
which he compares to a control
tower. “We receive and review all
incoming media, whether from
throughout the production process
from planning through playout
and new media publication including notifications, chats, editorial
statuses, approvals and task assignments. “We want to be as fast as
possible, but also accurate. The validation process is very important,”
says Angotti.
More than 150 workstations are
deployed at i>TÉLÉ. In addition
to the traditional NRCS functionality, Dalet News Suite includes
an integrated editor that allows
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44
journalists to drag high resolution
clips directly to the timeline for
fast editing, simple effects such as
blurring, voice-over creation and
CG placement.
There’s no need for a CG operator in the control room as Dalet
automatically triggers CGs during
playout which allows an unburned
version of the story to be saved for
the archive. Simultaneously, an
additional timeline track can be
used to apply burned graphics.
Playout is also controlled by Dalet.
All of the news packages are
created with Dalet Media Cutter.
Final Cut Pro systems are principally used for post production. The
new workflow also allows graphic
artists to focus on sophisticated animations and complex designs rather
than simple graphics. In the studio,
Dalet controls teleprompters,
VizRT graphic engine and playout
video servers.
Dalet allowed i>TÉLÉ to drastically simplify the processes to edit
a story and distribute it on any
platform. Angotti credits Dalet for
the workflow improvement. “There
were questions about how to adapt
graphics that can be played out on
air, but not on a mobile phone, for
instance. Dalet answered those
needs with automatic repackaging
and burning of graphics,” he
explains. “Overall, there are fewer
manipulations and the new media
people are more involved as they are
working with the asset right from
the start — they can search, dragand-drop the video file into a category and the system manages the
distribution to iPads, internet, mobile
and so on, it’s very automatic.”
WWW.BVEXPO.COM
PRIORITY CODE
ETVBN
All the i>TÉLÉ staff agree that the
new system significantly improved
productivity with streamlinedworkflows and greater collaboration that
embraced new media production
as an integralpartof i>TÉLÉnewsroom. “Dalet allows journalists to
work faster and better. It was
remarkable how fast users grasped
the tools, and we thank the training
team,” says Angotti. “There was a
training plan and several dry runs,
andwhenwewentlivethere were-no
mistakes.” The underlying MAM
platform in News Suite also provides metadataandmedia managementfromingest through to archiving and multiplatform publishing.
MaintenanceManagerBenjamin
Ghez likes the fact that that the technical aspects of the system are transparent to users. “There are several
bricks involved with many complex
integrations,” he explains. “As lead
integrator Dalet managed all this,
andasaresultallthesepartsworkas
one.” He also appreciates the open,
IT-basednatureof theDaletsystem
which makes it more cost effective,
easier to maintain and more adaptable for future innovations.
Bodin Hullin says the modernisation project achieved its goals.
“On D-Day all the i>TÉLÉ staff
agreed that the new system significantly improved productivity
with streamlined workflows and
greater collaboration.”
Distributed system links Luxembourg and Paris playlists
AB Television taps SI Media
for golf and poker channels
By David Stewart
SI Media was recently selected by AB
Television, one of the main private
television operators in France, as the
supplier of a system consisting of
two HD channels. The system
manages the emission on-air of two
thematic channels: AB Golf Channel
and AB Lucky Jack Channel.
This involves a distributed system, with the main playout carried
out in a datacentre in Luxemburg,
while the disaster recovery system,
capturing and the preparation of
the playlists are carried out in
Paris in the main branch of AB
Television Company.
The playout occurs in 1080i HD
and the chosen containers for clip
management are MXF and GXF.
Indeed, the choice of GXF format
is necessary due to the enormous
existing archive, all in SD and GXF.
The adopted video server is
based on a custom solution that
foresees a local cache in Raid-5
and a Matrox board. Another two
video servers with the same configuration operate in Paris. These
SI Media’s MAM system is capable of distributing the clips planned
by the playlists in the three video servers; archiving new clips in the
central archive; and recovery, if need be, of clips into the video servers
intervene in case of a fault at the
main video server, but are also used
as the ingest channels from live
sources and/or tapes both operating in XDCAM-HD format.
The MAM supplied by SI
Media distributes the clips planned
by the playlists in the three video
WHATS’On allows me to plan
multimedia content on all
channels and platforms
from within one single system.
servers; archives new clips in the
central archive; and recovers, if need
be, clips into the video servers.
Other than the ingestion from
external sources (lives and tapes),
it is also possible to import clips
from watch folders, take advantage
of the MAM capacity, to recognise
the new clips and recover the necessary metadata.
The playlists are created with
traffic Karina developed entirely
by AB Television. This large interfacing project from both parts has
allowed Karina to connect to the
SI Media database thanks to a
gateway (MediaLinker) developed
by SI Media.
Aside from the three video servers
and numerous clients, the system
involves two Hitachi Central Archives (one of 40TB in Luxemburg
and one of 120TB in Paris), 4 Cast
Genie CG and logo generators supplied by Anywhere Video (two main
and two backup), and Harris routers.
The SI Traffic, Automation,
MAM and Newsroom systems are
available for deployment either as
stand-alone solutions, or integrated
in a harmonic and homogeneous
workflow. The solutions will easily
interface with popular archiving
systems, video servers, CGs, subtitle
inserters as well as other traffic and
automation systems.
All solutions developed by SI
Media are field-proven, based on the
.NET platform using MS SQL database engine in high availability clustering environment.
With experience gained from
the deployment of 180 medium
to large sized broadcasters (238
channels on-air 24/7) the SI Media
Automation solution interfaces
with almost any broadcast device
and video server.
New Genesix
for playout
By Fergal Ringrose
As a result of continuous development, Stryme launched the
next generation of its IT-based
Genesix playout solution at IBC.
Genesix V2 offers new features
and improvements like client/
server architecture, enhanced
scheduling, character generator,
fully automated workflows and
traffic management on new
redundant server hardware.
Through the improved calendarstyle scheduling user interface,
programme planning becomes as
easy as creating appointments in
Outlook. Beside the improved
interface, scheduling now offers
programme planning on daily
and weekly bases.
The new automation feature
provides functions like automated
gap-filling, GPI- and CG-triggering or logo insertion. The traffic
management service keeps the
local video storage of the playout
server up-to-date and fetches the
required content files from central
storage automatically. With the
integrated character generator it is
now much easier to put title, banner, news line, stocks and weather
information into the video stream.
www.stryme.com
The
LONG-TERM
SCHEDULER
www.mediagenix.tv
MediaGeniX
45
Supporting digital workflow
and multiplatform operation
By Christophe Carniel,
Chief Executive Officer, Netia
The shift from tape-based media
operations to digital file-based
workflows has opened up new
opportunities for media distribution and monetisation. For broadcasters and telecom operators, it
also has introduced greater competition and a variety of new technical and operational challenges.
Digital workflows have facilitated a significant rise in the number of
distribution platforms and outlets
through which broadcasters and
telecom operators, as well as content
owners, can deliver and monetise
their digital assets with the promise
of offering content anywhere at any
time. In today’s media marketplace,
relative newcomers such as overthe-top (OTT) portals are working
closely with content owners and
providing the IT-based technologies
required to sell and deliver content
directly to consumers cost-effectively.
As a result, the premium programming once available only from
46
terrestrial broadcasters and cable
and satellite operators now is being
offered to consumers via OTT services and internet-connected TV sets.
Effective media management
Coincident with the convergence
of the traditional broadcast and
telecommunications sectors, along
with the advance of IP-based video
transmission technologies, the entry
of new players into the marketplace is
driving the growth of multiplatform
media delivery. Of the new technical
demands facing broadcast and telcos
seeking to launch multiplatform services, efficient media management is
among the most important.
Rather than establish multiple
parallel content preparation and
delivery workflows, media companies must create streamlined
content management (CM) models
that support their multiplatform
publishing activity. Within such
models, MAM systems are proving
essential to managing production
and delivery of content for IPTV,
the internet, VoD, and mobile platforms. Creation of a single comprehensive workflow and elimination of duplicate processes and
storage saves media companies
both time and money while simplifying overall operations.
Sophisticated MAM solutions
today support workflows incorporating all key processes. Offering
users control through a single interface and customisable task-oriented
GUI, such MAM solutions simplify
the handling of multiformat media
and provide powerful tools for
leveraging metadata associated with
content. Consequently, broadcasters
and telcos can more easily manage
their stored images, audio, video, and
text throughout their operations.
CM begins as media enters a
facility, where the MAM system
interfaces with ingest, production,
automation, and storage applications to automate acquisition of
high-resolution media and associated metadata from sources ranging
from post houses and production
facilities to traditional TV and radio
broadcasters. During this process,
the MAM system enriches media
with metadata that later will help
staff to employ search engine capabilities to locate and access specific
content with speed and ease.
Automation
Equipped with partial-restore functionality, the MAM system enables
users to access and restore just the
high-resolution media they need.
Easy-to-use click, mark in/mark out,
and drag-and-drop functions gives
those users, regardless of their technical know-how, the ability to enter
precise search queries and to find
and retrieve a particular piece of
content. Automation of other key
functions, such as speech-to-text
processing, transcoding, and quality
control, aids in cutting production
times while improving the accuracy
of media handling.
As content is prepared for
delivery, the MAM system guides
and performs key tasks including
transcoding, quality checking,
image processing, and subtitle
management. Tapping into the
MAM system’s desktop interface,
users can access tools for content
packaging, metadata tagging, and
rights management.
The MAM system ensures the
consistency of metadata and organises this information in categories
developed to support the company’s
business model and workflow. The
preservation of metadata related to
digital rights enables the operator to
ensure that programming can be
delivered to particular outlets.
A series of configurable rules
directs the delivery of content to the
appropriate service provider and
ensures that it meets the requirements of the target platform and
application, whether it be VoD to a
set-top box, catch-up TV, or an
internet portal.
By implementing comprehensive
yet straightforward MAM systems,
these media companies can expand
their business models and maintain
their competitive edge in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Media asset management overcomes format, language, geographical and time zone barriers
JCA digitises for KidsCo
By Simon Kay,
managing director, JCA
Digital delivery
As UK-based broadcasters continue
to expand into new markets and
territories around the world, the
demand for an effective, simple
and streamlined solution for collecting content in varying formats
and transforming it for marketing,
distribution and international and
broadcast delivery has become
increasingly prevalent. The way we
share and distribute content has
also changed dramatically over the
past decade and highlighted the
importance of investment in digital, tapeless workflow solutions
and an effective media asset management system.
Nowadays we shoot digitally,
post digitally for both film and TV
and broadcast digitally, so why don’t
we distribute digitally? Rights/
content owners have long been reluctant to move from using tape to
digital files, but now more and more
distributors are embarking on mass
The easiest way for broadcasters
and distributors to navigate these
parameters is to ensure that all
their content exists in digital
form. This not only reduces distribution costs, it also makes the
delivery process quicker, simpler
and more accurate. That said the
appropriate support mechanism
of a MAM system is key to this
because it provides broadcasters
and suppliers with complete control of their content — so they
can easily manage and access
their library 24/7 and track the
material flow; to transmission,
VoD population, an online player
or simple digital file delivery.
These bespoke systems can
hold vast amounts of metadata
relating to each item, including
timecode capture for transmission, clip management and
ancillary data about specific programmes. This metadata can then
The compliance view system within the MAM allowed details of
changes to be circulated among the compliance team and KidsCo
computers to pre-prepared content
such as complete programmes,
promos, images and scripts, broadcasters can eradicate the need to
rely on couriers or mail deliveries,
meaning deals can be negotiated
faster and more efficiently.
While it can be argued these
systems do provide content/rights
owners and broadcasters with
greater control of their content,
there are some, that find it limiting
and time-consuming because files
have to be re-versioned to suit the
desired platform. Previously content owners would have simply
sent the tapes and not worried
about it. However, while this may
be seen as a negative by some, it
does allow content to be delivered
safely and presented in the way it
was supposed to be viewed.
Digitisation programme
International children’s television channel KidsCo needed a
system that could distribute its schedule of content to different
broadcasters with the right languages, in the right format
digitisation projects in a way we’ve
not seen before. This, combined with
increasing levels of competition and
technological advancements, has
resulted in new business opportunities emerging, as well as new distribution channels, for broadcasters to
exploit and use to enhance international growth strategies.
be tracked and referenced internally and externally via a web
browser providing end-to-end
management for all client content.
The other added benefit of an
effective MAM is that it helps
speed up the sales process for
broadcasters. By giving prospective platforms access from their
For the international children’s
television channel, KidsCo, which is
available in nearly 100 territories
across Europe, Asia and Africa,
media asset management is a big
issue. KidsCo required a system that
could distribute its schedule of original productions, classic content and
interstitials to different broadcasters
with the right languages, in the right
format, and overcome geographical
and time zone barriers.
To solve this problem, the JCA
team developed a five-stage
digitisation programme to re-version
and re-format KidsCo’s existing
content and deliver it for broadcast through a bespoke MAM
system which could manage
regional playouts and enhance their
international expansion plans into
new and emerging territories.
The first stage in this process
focused on the re-formatting and
standardisation of KidsCo’s content to fit its master file specifications. During this stage all of the
digitised content was also made
available to the client for general
viewing but also to facilitate the
second stage process of compliance
viewing. The compliance view system within the MAM system also
allowed details of changes to be
circulated among the compliance
team and KidsCo so that speedy
decisions about content amendments could be made.
The third stage in this process
was concerned with the establishment of multiple language feeds to
satisfy KidsCo’s different territories.
The MAM system would control
the distribution and receipt of language files such that multi language
content could be distributed prior
to transmission. Once these three
preparation stages had been completed the pre-delivery process was
undertaken to ensure that video and
relevant multiple audio elements
were compliant and in sync.
New British PBS service launched
Myers Information Systems, a
developer of broadcast traffic,
business and content management software, has implemented
a metadata delivery platform that
will enable the airing of PBS
content to audiences in the UK.
The platform was developed for
PBS Distribution (PBSd), a joint
venture of PBS and WGBH,
Boston’s public television outlet,
with international rights to a
significant library of public television titles. Myers has supplied
metadata for the programmes
identified by PBSd, enabling the
new British PBS service — which
launched this month on Sky
channel 166 — to populate its
traffic and scheduling system.
“Myers’ long-standing commitment to PBS, coupled with an
in-depth understanding of our
operations, made the company an
ideal partner for this unique outreach project,” said Tom Koch,
vice president of PBS Distribution.
“We look forward to a successful
collaboration with the Myers team
as we extend our programming to
new audiences overseas.”
“As this project demonstrates,
the ‘information systems’ part of
our company name grows increasingly relevant — we’re engaged
in much more than traffic and
billing solutions,” said Crist Myers,
company CEO and president.
“PBS presented us with an exceptional opportunity to contribute
our expertise to this project and
help them extend the reach of PBS
programming into the UK multichannel market. I strongly believe
in the mission and values that
PBS promotes and it brings me
great pleasure to know that
On demand
Once ready this was flagged
within the MAM system and all
the content was then delivered to
playout centres electronically
and formatted according to the
transmission schedule for the
designated regional markets. The
final stage in the project was to
implement a system to fully use
the digital content library for
video-on-demand platforms with
the appropriate language dub.
These material assets were then
tagged to various promos, sports,
scripts and marketing materials
to allow the programme assets
to be fully monetised in order
to improve upon the on-going
sales process.
Paul Robinson, Global CEO,
KidsCo says: “We are delighted
with the work JCA have done
for us in developing a bespoke
system through which we can
manage all our programming,
marketing, and promotional
material. As KidsCo continues
to grow and move into new markets and territories all around
the world it is becoming increasingly important for us to be able
to deliver content to platforms,
in varying formats with different
language tracks instantly. Our
media asset management system
streamlines this process and
provides us with the ability to
develop and negotiate new business opportunities both simply
and effectively.”
Although the benefits of a digital MAM system are clear, there
are still some distributors who
remain resilient and unconvinced
by a fully digitised distribution
model. The key to this is maturity. Digital distribution is still
relatively new and at present an
untapped opportunity. It also
depends upon broadcasters and
content/rights owners’ distribution models, content libraries and
overall requirements.
For some a digital solution at
present is not suitable or a worthwhile investment. However, for
broadcasters who deal with international partners it’s an essential
businesses requirement which can
ultimately reduce costs, delivery
times and streamline the content
management process for all parties. For distributors who wish to
participate in exploiting their
content in the VoD world it is an
absolute must.
Myers Information Systems is
playing a small, albeit important,
role in helping to launch this exciting new venture.”
Myers’ flagship suite, ProTrack,
is available in both radio and television editions. It offers scheduling
and business management for individual, multichannel and multistation facilities. Actively used
by more than 226 media outlets,
supporting more than 1,300 channels, ProTrack provides a highlevel of structure and scalability,
without sacrificing flexibility,
for today’s rapidly evolving
media environments.
47
TVBE_Nov P48-50 Workflow_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 15:18 Page 48
TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W
AP rolls out global HD strategy
The news agency selected ATG as its SI for the new MCR in London
Melanie Dayasena-Lowe takes a
tour of the Associated Press’ new
Master Control Room (MCR) at its
London office in Camden — part of
the news agency’s global HD
rollout strategy
The Associated Press has put an
aggressive HD rollout strategy
into action, starting with its
London hub. This year the global
news agency will complete its HD
rollout at nine international locations and 25 in 2012.
In a multi-million dollar
upgrade, the AP is transforming
its video business by switching its
entire newsgathering, production and distribution systems to
HD, forming the largest rollout
of HD by any news agency globally. This investment will provide
AP customers with a wider range
of options in how they receive
video content, both in the traditional broadcast market and on
digital platforms.
The AP began rolling out HD
in phases, beginning with entertainment news on 11 November
2011, to be followed by sports news
via its joint venture with Sports
News Television (SNTV) in January
2012. The completion date for the
main breaking news service will be
June next year. “2012 was the tipping point for HD because of the
Olympics and the US presidential
elections,” explains AP’s Nigel
Baker, VP, Business Operations,
EMEA and Asia. AP took the
decision to go HD to “keep ahead
of the competition,” he adds.
48
Baker believes there is an
appetite out there for HD: “The
most recent research we’ve done
with our entertainment customers
would indicate a third of them are
formed to accommodate HD
with customers able to download
broadcast quality and HD
footage from its website.
Also part of AP’s HD strategy
involves the upgrade of SNG
mobile trucks and flyway units
to HD, the introduction of a
new production system and the
upgrade of its internal connectivity for moving HD video around.
AP Director of Global Video
Technology David Hoad says:
“The magnitude of this project is
such that we are upgrading all
our infrastructure right from the
camera lens to the distribution
technologies and everything in
between. We recognise in today’s
information driven world it’s all
about choice and getting the
information you want, when,
was a logical choice for the project
given its successful track record in
designing and installing comparable systems for major broadcasters
in many countries.” “With organisations of the
calibre of Associated Press
making the transition to highdefinition, 1080-line is now clearly
the benchmark resolution for
broadcasting,” comments ATG
Broadcast Managing Director
Graham Day. “We designed a
complete multi-seat MCR and
transmission facility that can
accommodate five operators plus
a supervisor. It is fully equipped
for 1.5Gbps operation but with a
core that can easily be upgraded
to 3Gbps as or when required.
The project includes connection
to existing architecture and
“The most recent research we’ve done with
our entertainment customers would indicate a
third of them are going to be HD within the next
12 months” — Nigel Baker
going to be HD within the next 12
months. It’s actually keeping faith
with the major customers and also
ensuring that we take the lead in the
marketplace. It doesn’t mean that
customers who are still SD are disadvantaged as we’ll be providing
the files in both HD and SD.”
Upgrading technology
The move to HD will see the AP
change the way it gathers, produces and distributes news to its
customers, involving a series of
upgrades, including the introduction of over 200 HD cameras,
upgraded mobile satellites and
enhanced backhaul capabilities to
handle the HD signal. Video news
bureaus around the globe have
also been upgraded to the latest
generation of video editing,
compression and transmission
technologies and state-of-the-art
HD Master Control Rooms
(MCR) are being constructed in
more than 20 locations including London, New York, and
Washington. The AP’s extensive
video archive will also be trans-
where and how you want it. As
such, we’re upgrading our technology to make it simpler than
ever for customers to receive and
use our video footage.”
AP’s London hub has a brand
new HD MCR, which moved
from the third to the first floor to
accommodate more space for
additional operational positions.
The physical control room is three
times the size of the old MCR
and the technical infrastructure is
twice the size.
The news agency selected
ATG as its systems integrator for
the new MCR, which features
furniture from Custom Consoles.
The six workstations in the MCR
have been designed to be identical. “The new MCR is part of
our HD infrastructure upgrade,
providing a state-of-the-art video
infrastructure for AP’s video
operations” explains AP Senior
Technical Lead Peter Watson.
“The control room provides
enhanced video monitoring and
ergonomic workstations for the
operational team. ATG Broadcast
David Hoad: “As we continue our
HD journey, more feeds in here will
be originated in HD and we’ll phase
out the old SD infrastructure”
Derl McCrudden: “We’ve also
put in place some new kit, LiveU
units, which help with our live
delivery of content”
migration of live services to the
new area.”
Hoad explains the challenge
AP encountered at its Camden
site during the construction: “The
Interchange is a Grade II listed
building so there was a lot of
work with English Heritage and
Camden local authority to get the
appropriate approval. It was
helped by the complete 2007 refurbishment of the building that we
carried out so they got to know us.
They quite like the contrast of
very new against very old; it shows
up the heritage of the building by
that complete contrast.
“As we continue our HD journey, then more and more feeds in
here will be originated in HD and
we’ll phase out the old SD infrastructure,” he adds. The rollout of
HD does mean some of AP’s workflows will need to be changed or
adapted. “One of the bigger challenges around HD workflow is the
speed of content gathering and some
retraining for the camera people
to understand the differences of
shooting for HD as opposed to SD.
It is a good opportunity for us to
reflect and challenge existing workflows. HD is a great catalyst to
open up the can to look at how we
do it. There must now be a better
way of doing things.”
Getting close to the news
The newsroom at AP’s London
bureau is excited about the move to
HD, says Derl McCrudden, head of
newsgathering for AP. “If you look
at some of the key stories we’ve
done this year, clearly it’s been
dominated by the Arab Spring and
we were exclusively inside the
Gaddafi compound. In the future
the prospect of having those kinds
of images in HD I think is a very
tantalising prospect because if news
is stories about individuals and people, the sense of taking people to the
story is really great.”
He explains that there has been
an investment on the technology
side, matched by an investment on
the editorial side reflected by the
recruitment of new video journalists
in Asia, south and central Europe
and the Nordics. “We’ve also put in
place some new kit, LiveU units,
which help with our live delivery of
content. These are small mobile
units using the GSM data network
and allow us to be live in places
that previously you would have
needed a lot of kit and expensive
people to do that. So it gives us a
lot of flexibility and the new units
are also HD capable. It’s all in the
step of HD,” McCrudden explains.
The new HD strategy also builds
on the success of AP’s Global
Media Services (GMS), which has
been providing HD transmission to
international broadcasters from
major news events for several years,
most recently including the UK
Royal Wedding.
IBC Page Template
21/7/11
12:31
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TVBE_Nov P48-50 Workflow_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 15:23 Page 50
TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W
AD
INDEX
17
AJA
18
Autoscript
41
Avid
5
Blackmagic Design
3
Bridge Technologies
44
Broadcast Video
Forum
12
Clear-Com
35
Dalet
25
Datavideo
IFC
Digital Rapids
34
DVS
24,
Egripment
46
Ensemble
IBC
Evertz
11
EVS
4
Front Porch Digital
7
Fujinon
26
Glensound
22
Grass Valley
29
Guntermann &
Druck
39
Harmonic
FC
Harris
13
Matrox
45
Mediagenix
8
Merging
Technologies
42
Meteo Group
43
Multidyne
30
Murraypro
36
Nevion
9
NewTek
14
NMR
21
Oxygen
32
PlayBox
48
PlayBox
OBC
PlayBox
19
Rohde & Schwarz
37
Sennheiser
27
Servizi
23
SGT
16
Sisvel
33
Snell
15
Sony
31
SSL
49
Studer
28
Studiotech
38
TV Logic
20
TV One
10
Twofour54
50
A delivery you can rely on
Content Exchange
Melanie Dayasena-Lowe talks to
Loft London Co-founder Davide
Maglio and Signiant’s EMEA MD
David Nortier about a smooth path
for digital file exchange provided
by Signiant software
Hailing from a small start up in
a loft space in SE11 in 2007,
privately owned Loft London has
grown into a well respected media
facility for the broadcast industry. It counts Sky, Channel Four,
Red Bee Media and On Demand
Group among its client base.
At the start, the firm worked
exclusively for Red Bee Media
supplying services to its clients
such as Virgin Media and
Channel 4. Co-founder of Loft
London Davide Maglio says:
“Channel 4 had a large and aging
library where a lot of the formats
were becoming extinct such as
D2’s, D3’s, D5’s, Beta SP’s and
1-inch C’s. We were asked to create digitised masters for Channel
4 to repurpose on their 4oD platform. We grew from there.”
Over the years, Loft London
has developed a close working
relationship with a US-based
international broadcaster and
they have seen the level of
engagement grow from channel
migrations to content preparation for broadcast and VoD platforms in the UK, Europe, Nordic
territories and the Middle East.
Loft London has grown its
facilities in the UK by moving to
a 6,500sqft premises in Chiswick
last year. The original office in
SE11 has been kept as a DR facility for business continuity. There
is also an office in Los Angeles,
an operational hub being built in
Lisbon and ongoing plans to
open up in Singapore. The company now boasts 25 staff in the UK.
The Chiswick location is perfectly situated to service its large UK
client base. Due to its high speed
and uncontended connectivity, Loft
London can distribute and provide
a complete file-based workflow for
Davide Maglio: “Channel 4’s aging
library had a lot of formats becoming
extinct such as D2’s, D3’s, D5’s,
Beta SP’s and 1-inch C’s”
customers. This is where software
specialist Signiant comes in.
The media services company
has expanded its Signiant portfolio
of products. Signiant connects
both internal and external partner
sites to facilitate simple collabora-
years ago, and I had been
impressed with its capabilities for
digital file exchanges ever since,”
says Maglio.
“Our largest media client has
been using Signiant as its content
exchange backbone for at least six
years, and many of its playout
providers are also Signiant users, so
there is a great deal of momentum
in the industry for the solution.
“Until companies such as
Signiant opened in Europe, moving content involved laying it to
tape or you’d FTP it. But running
an HD FTP workflow is fraught
with risk. With packet loss and
session time outs, you’d have to
employ a team to manage the
FTP distribution and servers
alone.” By comparison, Maglio
reveals that the beauty of
Signiant is the ease of use and
reliability:
“Whereas
with
[Signiant] your Media Managers
can set it all up in the morning,
trigger a sequence of tasks and
Signiant makes sure the content
gets to its destination.”
Maglio explains that every
time a process touches a piece of
content an expense is incurred,
“Until companies such as Signiant opened in
Europe, moving content involved laying it to tape
or you’d FTP it. But running an HD FTP workflow
is fraught with risk. With packet loss and session
time outs, you’d have to employ a team to
manage the FTP distribution and servers alone”
tion and content exchange. When
deployed, a managed B2B content
network is created with simple
automated movement, ensuring all
transfers are centrally managed,
monitored, and reported. Signiant
is ideally suited for use during the
production, capture, or creation of
content where multiple sites need
to exchange data quickly, securely,
and reliably with tight transmission deadlines.
“I became familiar with the
Signiant solution when the company’s products first became
available in Europe five or so
Signiant is suited for use during the production, capture or creation
of content where multiple sites need to exchange data quickly
which is why it is essential to speed
up the process to air. “Timeliness
to air is essential. With Signiant
we can provide an accurate picture
to the client of when material
reached its intended distribution
points and with that data, all parties can target areas where efficiencies can be improved.”
All of our clients have transmission service level agreements
that make it imperative for them
to receive their content on time.
With Signiant, we have complete
visibility into the entire transaction, and the system generates a
delivery confirmation receipt that
ensures that the media has
arrived at its destination in good
working condition. That’s just
not possible using FTP or more
traditional WAN accelerationonly tools,” he adds.
“The software is aimed directly
at enterprises such as Loft
London, companies with up to 15
delivery locations that need the
central management of content
transfers,” says David Nortier,
Signiant’s managing director,
EMEA. “With features such as
the Signiant Acceleration Protocol for fast, reliable, and secure
movement of files over a WAN,
as well as centralised network
management to ensure that all
Loft London
at a glance:
Signiant software with distribution points in Amsterdam,
London, Los Angeles &
Warsaw. Scheduled points in
Istanbul, Lisbon & Moscow
G 2 x 1 GB uncontended
fibres for distribution
G Automated ingest facilities
G On-site storage facility for
30,000 tape assets
G 15-20 Final Cut Pro stations
G 250TB Edit Store plus
access to 3.5PB archive
G Plans
to build two
ProTools suites and two
Smoke suites in 2012
processes and transfers are controlled, monitored, tracked, and
reported, Signiant is becoming a
content exchange standard for
multi-site media operations.”
The components of Signiant’s
Content Distribution Management software includes a Manager
that performs administration, control and reporting of all system
activity; Media Agents installed on
remote computers and responsible
for jobs such as file movement; and
Relay Agents for firewall transversal and isolation of content from
an external network. Secure transfer
Nortier explains how the workflow operates: “You can have a
physical agent installed at the
client and one installed at Loft
London. Historically the client
would send a long form movie by
putting a tape on a plane from LA
to London with someone picking
it up from the airport at the other
end. Now with Signiant software
that is all done using the internet.
“Some of the benefits of that
over the long distance from LA to
London is that the internet has
inherent problems of call latency,
which makes it impossible to
transmit that size of data in a
timely fashion. But with Signiant
software it takes away that latency, therefore accelerating the
transfer and securely so it can’t be
pirated at the same time while in
transit. Then it lands at Loft.”
The Central Manager can be
used to locate where the package
is at any point in time throughout
the process. “When it lands at
Loft it doesn’t necessarily have to
stay in an inbox. The workflow
that sits side-by-side with the
manager logs that the file has
come in, alerts the relevant people, performs a quality check and
transcodes it to a mobile device,
for instance.” This also means
more automation for processes
that were manual in the past.

November 2011

Transcription

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