First DSLR drama in Oslo

Transcription

TVBE_Apr P1-6 news
29/3/10
11:20
Page 1
Inside: NAB Show Issue, 3D Masters Preview, Red war ends
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
APRIL 2010 £5.00/€ 8.00/$10.00
www.tvbeurope.com
DSLR Production
Norway’s TV2 is believed to be
the first broadcaster to shoot a
complete drama series on a DSLR.
The 10-part (23-minute) Dags
Univers is a dark comedy about a
marriage therapist who wants
people to live alone. It is currently
shooting in Olso and is scheduled
for prime-time transmission in the
autumn. David Fox reports
Dags Univers is being shot with two
Canon 1D Mark IV cameras, which
were chosen mainly as a matter
of timing. Håvar Karlsen, the Bcamera Operator/2nd Unit DoP
and Canon DSLR consultant on
the series, “had used the 5Ds for
some time, and from what I could
see the results were quite promising,
and when we heard news about the
arrival of the 1D Mark IV we got in
touch with Canon to be part of an
early arrival testing […] taking a calculated risk that the 1D would arrive
in time for our production to start,”
explains Director of Photography
Pål Bugge Haagenrud.
“Shooting under incredible low
light levels was an advantage we
wanted to take use of, since we are
shooting in practical locations.”
The lighting has been planned
with the option to use venetian
blinds to control daylight coming
through windows, and includes a
few KinoFlos, a Dedolight 400
Par, a Dedolight 400 Octodome, a
Dedolight 200 HMI, and 200
Dedo Octodome (with the option
to use 200W HMI Tungsten
globes and Daylight globes). “In
addition we have found great use
in a small shiny board with flex fill
to bring out the eyes,” he says.
“But we discovered through a
hectic week of testing (as we got
Arri’s Stephan Ukas-Bradley (left) demonstrates the Alexa protoype camera
The EOS 1D Mark IV with Scorpio remote, Marshall monitor, Red Rock
baseplate, Globalmediapro battery and Blackmagic Design converter.
Below: DoP Pål Bugge Haagenrud with the Canon rig
Wood urges study of 3D
unknowns at HPA Retreat
Hollywood Post
As Sky and other organisations
move toward launching 3D in the
home, David Wood, deputy director
of the EBU Technical Group, urged
the industry to look at a number of
still unknown broadcast topics.
Analysis by Carolyn Giardina
the cameras one week prior to
principal photography) that since
we have such a compressed file,
we had to light the way we wanted
it to look, and with my background of more than 25 years as
a cameraman, shooting 16mm
reversal as a starter, the allegory
was simple: light it like you are
shooting good old slides or reversal film.” What you see is (more
or less) what you get.
Canon Norway helped out,
and supplied a range of prime
lenses and three zooms. “We were
able to shoot at T1.4, but we have
discovered that focus is then so
limited that it is hard for our seasoned veteran for more than 25
years as focus puller, Anders
Legaard, to be close to hit the
focus target on moving objects,
Continued on page 6
Is a common standard for 3D TV
doable? Does there need to be
worldwide or regional standards?
Are we sure that 3D production
suits all sports? Does 3D ever turn
from ‘wow’ to ‘ho-hum?’, asked
David Wood at the recent
Hollywood Post Alliance Technology Retreat, a four-day event
held in sunny Palm Springs,
California, during which an estimated 400 industry leaders and attendees examined technology trends.
“We owe it to ourselves to
research the economic and behavioural issues. We owe it to the
public to research physical effects,”
Wood said. “Is half a dozen people working on this enough for
a billion dollar industry? There
should be more (research). What
we have is anecdotes. I think we
should add a word of caution to
broadcasters, until we know the
scientific evidence.”
To these points, Panasonic CTO
Eisuke Tsuyuzaki reported that
Panasonic and the nonprofit
Entertainment Technology Centre@
University of Southern California
are planning to conduct a study of
motion in relation to stereo 3D. “We
need to understand the biophysics
and physiology of watching things
in 3D,” Tsuyuzaki said.
Professor Marty Banks of
University of California at
Berkeley has already conducted
some studies, and he suggested that
a health or science organisation
might be able to provide additional
research funding. Based on his
work, Banks proposed that manufacturers consider the creation of
3D TVs with a user settings menu
to accommodate variables such as
viewing distance. This, he suggested,
Continued on page 4
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www.HarrisNAB2010.com
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April 12 - 15th 2010
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TVBE_Apr P1-6 news
29/3/10
11:21
Page 3
TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LY S I S
New Kayaks for Studios
Grass Valley SD and HD for Denmark
Independent Danish facilities
house Studios A/S has upgraded
the control rooms of two of its
main production studios with two
new Grass Valley Kayak video
production switchers — one HD
and one SD.
The first installation (Kayak
SD) was completed in the autumn
Greg Neal, Miller’s general manager,
shows off the new 3-stage Solo DV
Solo DV
aims high
of 2009 to meet a tight deadline
for a new game show that is now
on the air. Once production of the
show was successfully completed,
the company’s management
decided to order a second Kayak
switcher (an HD version) to
support the upgrade of its largest
studio to full digital operations.
By Fergal Ringrose
“The Kayak is very competitively priced, is compact in
size, and it comes standard with
all the features we use most,”
said Peter Seehausen, COO of
Studios A/S. “Also, we know that
our investment is future-proofed.
Once we decide to move the first
control room to high definition
production, the switcher can be
easily upgraded.”
Studios A/S is a long-time
Grass Valley user, having purchased several DD35, DD20, and
DD10 switchers in the mid-1990s
as well as a number of Turbo
iDDR units for clip management
and playback. For companies like
Studios A/S, which rents its studio
facilities for local game shows
and all types of television programmes and commercial productions, the Kayak offers
sophisticated video switching in
an affordable package.
www.grassvalley.com
CONTENTS
1-14 News & Analysis
6 The path to 3D
Fergal Ringrose
introduces TVBEurope’s
3D Masters 2010
conference, which will
be held at BAFTA in
London on June 22
8 Epic Red year
Leader of the Rebellion
Ted Schilowitz tells
Editorial Consultant
Adrian Pennington that
the Red war is over
Adaptimax offers budget
users new lens adaptations
10 Mobile TV dead
By David Fox
12 Technology trends
Many budget productions buy
camcorders with interchangeable lenses, and only have one
lens. Now Adaptimax offers a
way to fit stills photography
lenses from Canon and Nikon to
1/3-inch or 1/2-inch camcorders,
such as Sony’s PMW-EX3,
HVR-Z7 or HVR-S270, JVC’s
GY-HM700, GY-HD 100 or
200, and Panasonic’s HPX300.
The Canon converter only works
with Canon EF lenses and
the EX3.
It previously had an EX3
adapter for Nikon lenses, but only
old lenses that had an external
aperture ring (a limitation that
also applies to its new 1/3-inch
bayonet adaptor). However, its
new Adaptimax Plus (for the EX3)
can use all Nikon lenses, including
DX and G-series models, and
allows users to open and close the
aperture using a thumb screw.
It opens up a whole array of
interesting lenses to camcorder
users (a Nikon 55mm macro lens
can be bought for as little as £50 on
With DVB-H stalled, the
focus at Mobile World
Congress this year was
on other ways of getting
service to users.
Heather McLean reports
Adapter adopter: An old Nikon
55mm macro lens on a Sony Z7
e-bay). “You can also add very long
lenses. When you factor in the crop
factor of an EX3 (5.4), a 1,000mm
lens becomes 5,400mm,” explains
Steve Shovlar, Adaptimax’ sales
director. “You don’t lose any light,
so you can stop right down.” Prices
range from £195 to £235.
www.adaptimax.com
Miller Camera Support has
extended its Solo DV Tripod
range with a new three-stage
version with a 75mm bowl. The
carbon fibre model has been
designed with Miller’s recent
Compass 15 and 20 fluid heads in
mind and now goes up to 187cm
(plus head), to give a lens height
of about 2m. It’s minimum
height is just 22cm, and it packs
small for carrying.
It retains the Solo’s foam ‘leg
warmers’, for comfortable on
the shoulder carrying (although
there is also an air-cushioned
carrying strap), and has rubber
feet with a retractable spike. It
can carry up to 20kg and needs
no spreader.
New SNG Artist: Swiss SNG
provider NewsCam has expanded
its four camera HD SNG vehicle
with a Riedel Artist 32 digital
matrix intercom. Tele Comm
Sportservice, Riedel’s partner in
Switzerland, was responsible for
implementing the project. At the
heart of the HD SNG vehicle is
an Artist 32 digital matrix
intercom mainframe. Artist 32
is designed for the requirements
of stand-alone broadcast
applications, opera houses and
theatres as well as sports and
cultural events. The system is
based on a modular concept and
can be adapted to the users’
individual requirements. Artist
1000 series control panels are
used in the NewsCam HD SNG
truck. “Switzerland’s most advanced HD SNG was being used more and more at sporting events. We quickly
reached its limits; an investment in a new intercom solution was desperately needed. Riedel’s Artist gives us
maximum reliability and flexibility,” said Roger Lips, owner of NewsCam.
www.millertripods.com
www.riedel.net
What types of major
projects are being
planned by European
broadcasters this year,
and in what order?
By Joe Zaller
16 Olympic effort
Making the events of
Vancouver 2010 real for
Europeans fell on the
shoulders of Olympic
Broadcast Services.
Ken Kerschbaumer
looks back
18-27 The Workflow
18 Romania report
Philip Stevens talks to the
latest TV station in
Romania, Vox News,
about its file-based
infrastructure investment
20 Rugby in 3D
Live 3D sports
production is slowly
kicking off in Europe,
as witnessed at the Six
Nations championship.
David Fox reports
24 Tapeless Swiss
Philip Stevens talks to a
production facility in
Switzerland that is
expanding its
commitment to a
tapeless environment
30-45 NAB Preview II
Our second take on
new products and
upgrades introduced
at NAB this month. By
Fergal Ringrose
46-53 Business Case
46 100 not out
A momentous year for
Vinten as it celebrates
its 100th anniversary:
Kevin Hilton looks back
at the Vinten story
48 Beach workflow
Pebble Beach is
celebrating its tenth
anniversary — and its
best ever quarter of
results. Dick Hobbs talks
to Peter Hajittofi
51 Three screens
As broadcasting moves
inexorably towards IPdistribution, Red Bee is
positioning itself as a
primary provider. By
Adrian Pennington
www.tvbeurope.com A P R I L 2 0 1 0
3
TVBE_Apr P1-6 news
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11:21
Page 4
TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S
most recently served as supervisor of engineering for American
Public Media Los Angeles.
Malcolm Switzer has joined
By Fergal Ringrose
worldwide sales, hav- Hirstwood Consulting. His previTrevor Spielmann has
ing been European ous senior management roles
started in his new role
sales manager for the with Reuters, BSkyB, GMTV and
as Annova Systems’
past three years. The GlobeCast Group mean a wealth
international
sales
company has also of experience for the company.
manager at the comappointed
Catrin
Petr Peterka is the new chief
pany’s headquarters in
Beck as its new technology officer at Verimatrix.
Munich. Spielmann
marketing manager Peterka was previously a member
has previously held
at headquarters in of the technical staff in the
sales roles at Klotz
Reno, Nevada. Beck CTO’s office at Motorola’s Home
Catrin Beck,
Digital and DVC
has
held
and Networks Mobility
Bright Systems
(Digital Video Comsenior roles
Team. Xytech Systems
puting). Clive Mumby is the new in Germany with Magic
has
announced
the
European sales manager for Video and Das Werk.
appointment of Greg
ENPS. Mumby joins Associated
Character generator
Dolan as executive VP of
Press from Quantel and brings company
Compix
worldwide sales. In previa broad knowledge of news Media has appointed
ous times Dolan was CIO
workflows gained from many Nisie Teeter to the newly
of the New York Media
large broadcasters.
created role of director
Group and manager of
Bright Systems has named of operations. Teeter Nisie Teeter,
Budget Systems for
Oliver Au as its new director of comes to Compix having Compix Media
Sedgwick James.
People on the move
Study of 3D at
HPA Retreat
Continued from page 1
can impact viewing comfort, as for
instance short viewing distances
can be problematic.
At HPA, these cautionary messages were tempered with a string
of updates about the global 3D
movement, as well as manufacturers
showing their latest 3D kit.
Hanno Basse, VP broadcast systems engineering DirecTV, reported
on DirecTV’s plan to launch three
3D channels, beginning in June.
This trio will include one linear 24/7
3D only channel, sponsored by
Panasonic, which will essentially
include all available content. “We
have several content deals in place
with top names in the industry,” he
added, without providing details.
The second channel will offer live
events, and the third is planned for
video-on-demand.
From TV to the PC, Phil Eisler,
general manager of 3D Vision at
NVIDIA discussed the rollout of
new 3D PCs, such as the new
ACER netbook, as well as 3D
ready mobile devices and tablets.
He estimated that about 100,000
3D-ready PCs are already in the
market, half of which are in
Europe. Eisler predicted that one
million could enter the market by
mid-2011. He also reported that
NVIDIA and Adobe are beta testing active shutter glass technology,
designed for home use.
As for content, he noted that
over 5,000 YouTube videos are
Nano3D at NAB: Convergent
Design is introducing a 3D
recording package, nano3D, at
NAB. It consists of two standard
nanoFlash solid-state recorders,
plus a nano3D kit, which provides
for synchronised 3D recording from
two cameras with high quality
‘Pixel Synced’ playback.
The Pixel Synced playback enables
easy, on-set playback of 3D with the
proper monitoring equipment.
The nano3D can also be used with
a single camera for redundant recording, or simultaneous High Quality and
Proxy Mode recordings. It can also be quickly separated into two independent
recorders. The nanoFlash records from HD-SDI or HDMI camera outputs at
bitrates up to 180Mbps (Long-GOP) or 280Mbps (I-Frame), 4:2:2, in various
QuickTime, MXF or MPEG formats, onto Compact Flash cards.
The nanoFlash has also received new firmware that allows it record up to
eight uncompressed audio channels for 5.1 and 7.1 audio or Holophone
recording. It also adds variable frame rate (over/under crank), loop recording
and expanded XDCAM Optical support for 50Mbps HD 422, 35Mbps HD 4:2:0,
and 30/40/50Mbps SD IMX formats. — David Fox
www.convergent-design.com
NAB C11731
HPA members ‘roast’ Mark Schubin, who chairs the Tech Retreat programme
already offered 3D, though “of
varying quality.” These clips may
also find viewers via mobile devices,
suggested Ethan Schur, chief marketing officer at TDVision.
“Mobile 3D will become increasingly important, especially because
the mobile turnover is faster than
TVs,” he pointed out, adding that
Boost Your
Studio Production
autostereo options are already surfacing for mobile devices. “Personally, I
don’t think autostereo (for TVs) will
be ready in 20 years. For a mobile
device, I think it can be viable.”
The exhibition area included a
number of evolving technologies
aimed at forwarding the 3D market.
Dolby previewed an encoding and
VTR Replacement
Media Sharing Network
Fast Editing
Post-Production
Integration
Instant Playback
Field Proven Reliability
www.evs.tv
4
realtime decode system for Full HD
3D. The Dolby system utilises AVC
compression and is developed to
use 7.5Mbps, for low bit rate applications such as cable, satellite and
online. The demonstration showed
1920x1080 24fps content.
Miranda previewed two 3D
developments — its Multiviewer,
upgraded to view stereo content, and
a branding/master control system.
The company also revealed that it is
developing technology that automatically gauges depth, for use in setting viewing positions for graphics.
For
production,
Fujinon
showed a new system that calibrates
and synchronises two lenses for
stereo 3D shoots. Imartis and IFX
teamed to present a 3D workflow
using a SwissRig beam splitter rig
and IFX’s On-set control system.
The conference program underscored the still varied approaches
and views on 3D production. For
instance, 3Ality Digital CEO Steve
Schklair has repeatedly asserted
that 3D production doesn’t have to
cost more that 2D. But Wayne
Miller, president/CCO of Action
3D Productions, offered a different
perspective during his HPA
address, suggesting that 3D production costs will be higher — an
estimated 30% higher for a multicamera 3D shoot.
Non-3D topics in the HPA programme included a look at some
new collaborative workflows,
including UK R&D project MUPPITS (Multiple User Post
Production IT Services). Peter
Wilson related that the open system is based on a service-oriented
architecture, and includes features
such as remote rendering and tapeless workflow tools. BBC,
Sohonet, Pinewood, Molinare and
Smoke & Mirrors are partners in
the project. Wilson reported that
the service is available for business.
Arri grabbed attention with a
working prototype of its new 35
mm format digital camera technology, code amed Alexa, which
was first announced at IBC. There
will be three ‘Alexa’ models —
ranging in price from €50,000
to €130,000.
IE/OTO/PSN/TVBE Page Template
26/3/10
10:47
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TVBE_Apr P1-6 news
29/3/10
11:21
Page 6
TVBEUROPE
Europe’s television technology business magazine
Exploring the path to 3DTV
EDITORIAL
Editor Fergal Ringrose
tvbeurope@mediateam.ie
Media House, South County Business Park,
Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
+3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799
Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington
Associate Editor David Fox
United States Correspondent
Ken Kerschbaumer
Contributors Mike Clark, David Davies,
Richard Dean, Chris Forrester, Carolyn Giardina,
Jonathan Higgins, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs,
John Ive, George Jarrett, Ian McMurray,
Ken Kerschbaumer, Heather McLean,
Bob Pank, Nick Radlo, Neal Romanek, Philip
Stevens, Andy Stout, Reinhard E Wagner
Digital Content Manager Tim Frost
Publisher Joe Hosken
ART & PRODUCTION
Group Production Editor Dawn Boultwood
Production Executive Phil Taylor
SALES
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6
Conference Preview
By Fergal Ringrose
We’re very pleased to announce that well-known broadcast industry
consultant John Ive will be our Chairman for 3D Masters 2010, held
in association with the BKSTS. In fact both of these parties have
worked with us over the four years of our previous HD Masters
event — which is now replaced by 3D Masters — and we’re very
happy to continue these relationships for our June 22 event.
We are most grateful to stereo3D leader Quantel for coming in as
our Platinum Sponsor. Gold Sponsors for the event are Decode, Digital
Vision, Harris Broadcast, Miranda, SGO Mistika, Sony and Snell; and
our Silver Sponsors are Canon, For-A, Fujinon, Hamlet and Phabrix.
Sincere thanks to all sponsors for enabling us to stage this event.
In an already packed agenda for the day (with more speakers still
to be confirmed), we will feature no less than four keynote presentations. Leading us off will be BSkyB Chief Engineer Chris Johns on
‘Sky 3D: Year One’. Johns will look at key investment decisions facing broadcasters, bringing production costs down, and a vision for
the future of Sky 3D and global 3DTV.
3Ality Digital Systems Chief Executive Officer Steve Schklair —
featured on the front cover of our March issue — will guide us
through practical experiences of a true world leader, from U2 3D to
Sky 3D. He will discuss how (and how not) to shoot 3D, and lessons
learned from ‘training the trainers’ on 3D production.
One of our keynotes will be ‘a two-hander’ from Screen Digest, with
Senior Analyst Charlotte Jones focusing on Film & Cinema and Head of
TV Technology Tom Morrod discussing the developing 3DTV market.
Our fourth keynote will be another 3D trailblazer — Phil
Streather, owner of Principal Large Format, a specialist in stereo 3D
production for all formats. Streather will provide insight and guidance for companies with ambitions in stereo 3D by laying out the
basic toolset for 3D creation.
The key Production session will address acquisition challenges,
new tools and stereography. Andy Millns, director, Inition will discuss stereo documentary challenges and present a wildlife case
study. Telegenic Stereographer Adam Sculthorp will examine the
role of the stereographer. Andy Shelley, head of Development at
Onsight will tell us how to project manager the recording of 3D TV.
And David Wooster, partner in Can Communicate, will look at new
acquisition technologies.
In Post, the first workflows for low budget 3D feature and 3D TV
are being devised. What lessons have been learned by those at the cutting edge? e-Motion Consultant David Bush will discuss shooting and
posting 3D from Red. Prime Focus Group Managing Director Anshul
Doshi will explore 2D to 3D conversion, along with issues surrounding
post on Mortician 3D, the UK’s first 3DS feature. Michael Reuter, managing director of Paradise FX, will present a Streetdance 3D case study.
And Richard Wilding, senior editing manager at Molinare, will tell us
how to establish a 3D post pipeline.
Our Standards session will look at unifying the 3D chain. For 3D production and distribution costs to reduce in line with current HD costs, a
set of standards is needed linking all parts of the chain from storage to inhome reception. Confirmed speakers are John Bird, principal consultant,
Futuresource; Simon Gauntlett, technical director, Digital TV Group; Dr
Sean McCarthy, chair, MPEG Working Group on 3D; and David Wood,
head of New Technology, EBU (featured on the front cover of this issue).
Needless to say, our eventual speaker line-up will be subject to
change — and our Broadcast session is still being finalised; news of
this important session will follow in coming weeks. But already, lots
to look forward to at our premier 3D broadcast TV event. You can
register now at www.3Dmasters2010.com
There was a corrupted file in the first week, “which we do
believe can have to do with a long take,” but 39 days into the production that was on the only file problem they had experienced.
but we have managed to nail it on designed shots with fantastic
results,” adds Haagenrud.
Having been used to carrying large cameras, such as the Arri
BL4S with 1000-foot magazine and a 25-250 zoom, he saw this as
“an opportunity of a lifetime to work fast with small and lightweight cameras — grab shots from impossible angles — but at the
same time treat the camera as a single camera film camera, with
good old Ronford Baker F15S fluid head and solid baby and standard [tripods] and a lightweight dolly.”
Haagenrud loves the size of the camera, which makes it easy to
put “in impossible places. Actors love it, but it must be mounted
to look like a camera or people won’t take it seriously.”
The option to use 35mm lenses with the shallow depth of field
was also a reason to use DSLRs — as was the budget. “I would love
to shoot on Red or even Panasonic 3000, but now I’m not so sure.
This show, done 65% on controlled locations, with exteriors in the
low light period of winter in the Nordic light, harsh contrast is not
a problem — so we can easily control the exteriors, and have been
blessed with clouds on our exterior days,” says Haagenrud.
Prior to production, they did a week of testing and Legaard decided
to take the Red Rock Cinema package and totally strip it down and build
it the way he would want a film camera to work. “We tried for a few days
pulling focus from the lens, but eventually brought in the Scorpio follow
focus, and Anders is now pulling focus from a 17-inch TV Logic monitor,
and also a great help to control the exposure from his dark tent,” he adds.
“Since we are shooting with Canon Primes there is a great challenge to
pull focus since the pull is so short on the barrel of the lens.”
They use Blackmagic HDMI-to-SDI converters and encounter a
few seconds delay from when the HDMI signal leaves the 1D to
arriving at the video village (where it is also recorded onto
Panasonic AVCAM solid-state recorders) and the on board monitor. “We do also encounter quite a bit of static electricity that make
us lose the signal to the onboard monitor, forcing is to turn on/turn
off the monitor to get the image — a little bit like rebooting the Red,
but still hard to cope with the instability of this problem.”
Getting the look
They shoot 1080 25p with no HLT (Highlight Tone Priority). Karlsen
had read a lot online about HLT: “People were really uncertain about
the pros/cons. After all, it’s just a minor tweak in ISO settings to protect
highlight. As we shoot mostly indoors, there’s no need to complicate
things.” They also use 50p for slow motion work, and have selected a
neutral picture style with sharpness, and contrast turned way down.
“The production house we are using are using Avid, so offline is
being done there. I think the codec they went for is DNxHD 120,
because of faster transcoding times. I did some online tests with some
shots in H.264 and DNxHD 120, and after seeing more noise patterns, etc, in the 120 version, we decided we were going to assemble a
H.264 online based on an Avid EDL. The online facility will then use
uncompressed HD or DPX to the final master,” explains Karlsen.
In grading, “we’re going to apply noise reduction and sharpening as a general rule. We took off all sharpening in the camera
to reduce moiré, and we are adding this in post to get the punch
in the focus back,” he adds.
“The main battle we are fighting every day with these cameras is
rather focus than moiré. Since we have pulled the sharpness down in
camera, focus can appear soft if not viewed in a proper full HD monitor. We know we have some moiré issues in certain scenes (background),
but once the problem is identified, we always try to open the lens to hide
the problem. In post (and especially in an SD master) we also have tools
to reduce the issue. It remains to be seen how bad the issue is, but during shooting we haven’t noticed too much,” says Karlsen.
Improvements that Haagenrud would like to see to the 1D are
the addition of zebra patterns, colour bar, controlled sound levels
(which has recently been added to the 5D), XLR inputs “in the
bottom of the 1D”, and lenses with film style focus options.
He advises anyone contemplating using a DSLR to “treat it
like a film camera, as much as possible. Light it like reversal film.
Enjoy the loss of weight on your shoulder. Grab the frames it used
to take hours to rig. Think multicamera.”
www.hkarlsen.no/eng
www.kamerakameratene.no
23/3/10
17:07
Page 1
3D Cinematography. He’s got the vision, we’ve got the focus.
James Cameron’s venture into 3D cinematography is nothing less than groundbreaking. Of course, major
endeavors require focus. In this case, Fujinon lenses did the trick. Our lenses accompanied him to the
ocean’s bottom for Aliens of the Deep, Ghosts of the Abyss and Expedition Bismarck. They are also with
him on the set of Avatar, his first major feature since Titanic. Bottom line? Before you select a lens for
the front of your camera, consider who stands behind it. To learn more, visit www.fujinon.com
NAB, Las Vegas • April 10 –15, 2010 • Booth C7425
TVBE_April P8 News
29/3/10
11:23
Page 8
Red prepares for Epic year
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Mantrics flows at NAB
Mantrics Digital Video is
exhibiting for the first time at
NAB with Mantrics Workflow
Manager, a solution to manage
and control even the most
complex workflows. Mantrics
will be at Booth C9526, located
in the Italian Pavilion. Scalable
and easily configurable,
Mantrics Workflow Manager is
characterised by an open
architecture that allows it to suit
all media company needs. It
manages the media assets from
ingest to delivery, supporting
users in the metadata process
as well as in Quality Control,
editing and transcoding.
Offering a Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA) and an
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
approach, Mantrics Workflow
Manager makes it easier and
more affordable for broadcasters
to manage delocalised workflows.
Mantrics 2.2 features a new
powerful catalogue tool that lets
you create instances with an
unlimited number of metadata,
to describe content accurately
and speed up searches.
World Cup Insight
Net Insight has received new
orders from GlobeCast for
expansion of its media
contribution network and for
handling GlobeCast’s services for
2010 FIFA World Cup. GlobeCast
operates a secure global satellite
and fibre network to manage and
transport 10 million hours of video
and other rich media each year.
The fibre network is based on Net
Insight’s Nimbra platform and
interconnects more than 20
major sites in Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australia, North and South
America. GlobeCast will now
further expand its use of the
Nimbra platform by implementing
a major media network for one
of Europe’s leading TV
companies. The network will
handle a large amount of
uncompressed and compressed
video channels using HD-SDI,
SD-SDI, ASI and Ethernet.
www.netinsight.com
Red Innovation
By Adrian Pennington
Few pieces of kit have made as
much impact in recent years as the
Red One. Its use alone generates
headlines, helping to convey a
sense of excitement which the
company’s carefully guarded, even
cryptic, public announcements are
designed to cultivate.
Now the firm’s evangelist Ted
Schilowitz says he has dropped the
self-styled title ‘Leader of the
Rebellion’, claiming the war has been
won. “The rebellion phase is over. We
are all just working to achieve the
best imaging system,” he says.
Red Digital Cinema launched
the Red One in 2007 with the intent
of building a digital movie camera
— rather than a video camera —
from the ground up. For several
months preceding its debut
rumours persisted that the technology itself was smoke and mirrors.
For some months afterwards there
were doubts it would ever ship.
apiece, have shipped worldwide
making the rental market highly
competitive. The basic package
including a Red supplied 18-50mm
lens can be hired for no more than
£275 a day. Adding in primes and
matte boxes will soon bring the
level up to the £800 per day range
but there are workarounds.
Schilowitz claims there are now
hundreds of productions shooting
with Red, daily. TVBEurope spoke
to him in the midst of a tour to
London, Paris, Amsterdam and
Rome where he met Red owners to
outline the latest developments.
First up is a next generation
Super 35mm CMOS sensor,
Mysterium-X, which users can have
retro-fitted to their existing Red Ones
provided they ship them to Red’s
California HQ.James Milner-Smyth,
CTO of The Post Factory, who owns
six bodies, has done just that.
“The new chip is a huge
improvement for low-light situations,” he says. “Whereas before we
worked at a rated sensitivity of
320ASA and could get at a push to
“When you do crank up the gain to crazy levels,
you struggle to make out any fixed sensor pattern
that you’d expect: the noise looks more randomly
organic, like film grain” — James Milner-Smyth
Seasoned industry observers
used to gradual increments in
technology were sceptical of its
claims to deliver a resolution and
colour fidelity to rival that of
35mm film, at a fraction of the
price. Yet its eventual release
blindsided the major manufacturers, Sony and Panasonic, who
suddenly found themselves with a
serious new competitor.
“We wanted digital cinema to be
inclusive not exclusive,” says
Schilowitz, whom Red owner Jim
Jannard poached from AJA Video,
making him employee number one
of his new camera company. “The
expense of previous systems meant
you were making compromises on
budget or creativity so we drove in a
different direction and a lot of people came along for that ride.”
Between 6,000 to 7,000 Red
Ones, which cost less than £10,000
500ASA before you’d have to do
noise reduction, now we can comfortably work at 800ASA and push
to 2000ASA.”
He adds, “Nearly all DPs want
to have a more natural, less lit style
these days and I think this is going
to be better than using a very fast
film stock. You could light a scene
with practical lights and still get
very useable pictures.”
Directors David Fincher and
Stephen Soderbergh shot their
latest projects, The Social
Network and The Girlfriend
Experience on Reds fitted with
the M-X sensor.
Red’s demo features actor
Leonardo Di Caprio sitting in an
unlit room and lighting a cigar and
in the process lighting up his face.
“No noise in an unprocessed huge
screen at 4k is astonishing,” remarks
Milner-Smyth. “And when you do
crank up the gain to crazy levels, you
struggle to make out any fixed sensor
pattern that you’d expect: the noise
looks more randomly organic in the
same manner as film grain.”
The Mysterium-X is also core to
Epic, which in its initial release
shortly after NAB will be capable of
resolving 5,120 horizontal lines (5k)
at 100fps. Later versions, about a
year away, will include sensors capable of 6k and 9k. “We believe the
industry should be pushing toward
Ted Schilowitz: “We believe the industry should be pushing toward 4k
distribution end to end from acquisition through to finishing and projection”
4k distribution end to end from
acquisition through to finishing and
projection,” says Schilowitz.
Complications in post
A forthcoming Red Ray rack-mount
device will play back R3D RAW files
natively for on-set use and dailies
delivery of 4k rushes. The system
also handles up to 12 channels of
24-bit audio. Says Schilowitz, “2k is
inadequate for the demands of
larger viewing displays in the home
and in modern cinema environments
where contrary to 30 years ago when
the auditoria positioned people away
from the screen, the experience is
now akin to being in a stadium
where people sit up close for full
picture immersion.”
If the £19,000 (brain only) EpicX is aimed at top-tier feature film
practioners, the sub-$5000 (£3,200)
Scarlett with 2/3 inch sensor due for a
summer release will deliver 3k. “It’s
Epic’s baby brother,” says Schilowitz.
“With a set of primes Scarlett is the
camera that indie filmmakers have
been waiting for to begin to acquire
digital cinema quality footage.”
6HH\RXDW1$%%RRWK&
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8
Reds have not been immune to
heavy criticism of complications in
post stemming from its imaging
format. In order to record the sheer
volumes of 4k information, a lossless
compression codec Redcode Raw is
used which requires data wrangling
both on-set in the form of digital
imaging technicians and in a facility.
“The camera is constantly
evolving — it’s intended as an
active work in progress and is different to anything that preceded it,”
he says. The Red is designed to be
modular in hardware (for addition
or subtraction of batteries, lenses,
recording devices, viewfinders) and
software (a series of free firmware
upgrades are periodically released).
“I think such flexibility was a
major source of confusion,” he
admits. “There is so much flexibility
in configuring the set up and working with the data that people can
overkill a project. You don’t 4k finish for TV. In reality it is incredibly
simple to use, much more so than
tape or film, since everything is digital. I agree, though, that there is an
education process in understanding
how file-based workflows can offer
extraordinary efficiencies.”
Grading tool Redcine is being
replaced by RedCine-X, which
Milner-Smyth believes will iron out
issues associated with translating
RAW footage into HD video colour
space. “Now there will only be one
setting which is quite filmic, more of
a match to what a cinematographer
will see on a light metre,” he says.
“The big breakthrough though is a
hardware card (RedRocket) that can
play full quality up to 4k output in
realtime. There aren’t many 4k
screens and projectors out there right
now so we won’t be getting the full
benefit of that, but for HD we can
now use a Mac as a VTR: have realtime, full quality playback of Red
files for less than a tenth the price of
an HDCamSR deck.”
Although Red faces competition
from Canon’s £1,700 5D Mark II at
the bottom end of its market —
where the DLSR’s video capture
feature is being used to shoot
pop promos — both cameras have
a growing niche among stills
photographers looking to feed the
changing dynamics of the print
publishing industry.
26/3/10
11:13
Page 1
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TVBE_April P10-14 News
29/3/10
13:37
Page 10
Mobile TV is dead: long live mobile video
Mobile World
At this year’s Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona, much of
previous years’ hype and heat on
broadcast mobile TV had been
snuffed out. With Europe still waiting
for Digital Switchovers to get spare
UHF spectrum for DVB-H and
broadcast mobile TV, the focus for
mobile TV was instead on other
ways of getting the service to end
users. Analysis by Heather McLean
With consumer demand for dataintensive services such as mobile
video and apps increasing, European operators are faced with the
challenge of delivering services
that provide differentiation in the
marketplace, while managing a
growing burden on 3G networks.
The mobile TV strategy in
Europe in 2008 was defined
around the broadcast standard
DVB-H as the preferred technology for mobile broadcasting
and built on a subscription
fee-based business model, yet
nothing has shifted significantly
over the past two years in
Europe in terms of available
spectrum, and therefore, broadcast mobile TV services.
10
Planet of the Apps: “We’re expanding into Europe now. Carriers can for sure launch successful
mobile television services and make money out of it,” says Kay Johannsson, MobiTV
Forget DVB-H
Diana Jovin, vice president for
corporate marketing and business
development at Telegent Systems,
provider of single-chip CMOS
solutions enabling free-to-air
and pay-per-view mobile TV,
comments that this focus on
DVB-H has hampered widespread adoption in the region.
DVB-H requires a significant
capital investment in infrastructure and content licensing by operators, and meaningful consumer
demand for mobile TV on a subscription basis has failed to materialise. Jovin says streamed TV
services are now being explored
as an alternative delivery vehicle,
but are fuelling similar infrastructure requirement concerns as
demand for mobile video grows
and the capacity of 3G networks
is strained further.
Yet free-to-air mobile TV provides operators with the opportunity
to offer a service to consumers that
can deliver differentiation in the
competitive European mobile market, noted Jovin. “The service offers
operators additional benefits; it
doesn’t require capital investment
for new infrastructure. Free-to-air
mobile TV provides operators with
an offload strategy because it
receives transmissions from the
existing analogue and digital television networks; and it does not
contribute to increased data traffic
on networks,” she stated.
“The free-to-air model has
emerged globally as a compelling
way to drive mobile TV forward,”
added Jovin. “Although a free
handset feature might initially
seem to be a counterintuitive
business model to operators in
Europe, the fact that operators
can provide consumers with the
content they want, without making a huge investment and without overloading already strained
networks, translates to a business
case worth consideration.”
Continued on page 14
Communication multimédia - Tél. +33 (0)5 57 262 264
Non contractual images. TriCaster, TriCaster PRO, TriCaster STUDIO, TriCaster BROADCAST, TriCaster TCXD300 are trademarks of NewTek, Inc. Copyright ©2010 NewTek, Inc. and 3D Storm. All rights reserved.
26/3/10
11:04
Page 1
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It is the most complete, portable, reliable, efficient and affordable
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www.newtek-europe.com
29/3/10
15:12
Page 12
Top technology trends and
projects for Europe revealed
By Joe Zaller
Each year Devoncroft Partners
takes the pulse of the broadcast
industry through the annual Big
Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global
study of industry trends, vendor
brands and technology purchasing behavior. With more than
5,600 people in 120+ countries
participating, the 2010 version of
the BBS is claimed to be the
largest and most comprehensive
market study ever done in the
broadcast industry.
European participation in the
2010 BBS was high. Nearly 1,900
Europeans participated, including
broadcasters, cable/satellite/IPTV
operators, playout centres, systems
integrators, recording studios,
radio stations and technology
vendors. Please note that in both
cases, the charts in this article show
the responses from technology
buyers (ie, non-vendors).
To determine the most important technology trends in Europe,
respondents were presented with
a list of 14 trends and asked to
choose which is the ‘most important,’ ‘second most important’
and ‘also very important’ to their
business. Asking the question in
this way provides insight into the
commercial drivers behind the
respondent’s answer.
The responses to this question
were then weighted based on the
importance of each trend to
the business of the respondents.
Responses that were ranked ‘most
important’ were multiplied by
five, responses ranked ‘second
most important’ were multiplied
are a clear priority for European
broadcast professionals.
It’s also worth noting that
new technology trends (those
that require new investment)
such as transition to 3Gbps operations and 3D TV move down
in the ranking relative to the
trend index.
Major projects planned
European trend rankings for all non-vendor responses from Europe
by three and those deemed ‘also
very important’ were multiplied
by one. The table above shows the
trend rankings for all non-vendor
responses from Europe.
Topping the list are filebased/tapeless workflows, transition to HDTV operations and
multi-platform content delivery.
These trends show that Europe
will continue with its move to
HD, while looking for operation
efficiencies through file-based
workflows and new revenue
streams through multi-platform
content delivery.
Looking at this data another
way reinforces the fact that
Europeans are looking for ways
to increase operating efficiencies,
reduce operating costs and find
new sources of revenue.
The most noticeable thing
about this chart is how strongly
the top three trends were ranked as
most important relative to the others. It’s clear the moving to HD,
achieving operational efficiencies
and finding new revenue streams
Following on from the technology trends, the 2010 BBS
explored what projects are being
planned for the next year by
broadcast
professionals
in
Europe. Respondents were presented with a list of projects and
asked to indicate up to five choices
that they are planning to implement in the next year. The results
are shown in the table below.
By a wide margin, more
European respondents selected
‘upgrading infrastructure for
HD/3Gbps operations’ than any
other project. This is consistent
with the trend findings discussed
earlier, as is the third-ranked
‘upgrading transmission and distribution capabilities,’ which will
of course be required in order to
deliver HD content to consumers.
Many respondents indicated
that they are planning workflow/asset-management
and
archive-related projects, which is
consistent with the importance
attached to the ‘file-based/tapeless workflows’ trend.
The 2010 BBS also reveals that
new studios will be built and new
channels will be put on the air.
Many of these will undoubtedly
have a strong automation component, and they will certainly be
HD-capable.
The rest of the list offers a
mixed picture of project activity
across Europe, with everything
from upgrading audio and
newsrooms, to multi-platform
distribution being chosen in
large numbers.
Interestingly, ‘centralcasting’
appears towards the bottom of
this list, versus its relatively higher position in the industry trend
index above, and despite the fact
that it (along with outsourced
operations) will deliver increased
efficiencies. There are two explanations for this apparent inconsistency. The Planned Projects
chart shows the responses of all
European participants in the
BBS, regardless of organisation
type, size or location. In addition
this chart above is a graphic representation of the number of all
planned projects across Europe.
It does not measure size, value or
relative commercial importance
of planned projects.
More than 5,600 people in 120+
countries participated in the 2010
BBS project. Information about
the 2010 BBS can be found at
www.devoncroft.com
Planned projects — Europe all respondents
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29/3/10
11:25
Page 14
Mobile TV
is dead
She continued: “Free-to-air
mobile TV has been rapidly gaining acceptance among consumers
in both emerging and developed
markets, and across both analogue and digital standards. For
2009, analyst house Forward
Concepts estimates that free to air
mobile TV accounted for more
than 85% of all broadcast TV
handsets shipped.”
However, while broadcast
mobile TV on DVB-H seems to
have died a death in Europe,
broadcast standard FLO TV has
made inroads in the US, with
coverage of over 110 major populations in the sprawling country
following on from the US digital
switchover in July 2009.
Vikki Mealer, senior director of
product management at FLO TV,
commented: “The digital TV transition in June was like a chequered
flag to us. We now have the coverage, the network and the direct to
consumer business model.”
Key US operators AT&T and
Verizon allowed handsets in their
portfolios for FLO TV to dwindle
to just one model each by last
December. However, from the
beginning of 2010, each operator
has placed orders for more models and shipments are rising
steadily, claimed Mealer.
On moving into Europe,
Mealer commented: “We’re cautiously optimistic; someone needs
to build a nationwide network
and while we did that in the US,
we’re looking at creative ways to
partner with people for a network
build-out in Europe.
“I think some people think
mobile TV isn’t viable; they think
it’s all hype, and that’s died off.
We’re here to say we’re very bullish. We feel strongly about the
service and the technology provides a very strong case for broadcasting TV and data also. It’s all
about live TV, not streaming,”
continued Mealer.
live, such as sports or news coverage, come on. “People definitely
want to see live TV, but specific
stuff, not necessarily a show that
comes on at 8pm. Sport is very
popular.”
Johansson added: “The thing
that’s been so interesting for us in
Europe is people say broadcast
mobile TV will see X million
sure launch successful mobile TV
services and make money out of
it, and this is what we do for them;
make a mobile TV service.”
Rise of the broadcaster?
With the US digital switchover,
another broadcast TV standard
has started to move forward.
With the US digital switchover,
Mobile TV success
Kay Johansson is CTO at
MobiTV, which provides whitelabelled, managed mobile TV
services as a combined service of
steamed, video-on-demand, local
playback, and soon broadcast,
mainly in the US to Sprint,
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile,
MobiTV is one company that
has been working quietly in the
background of mobile TV since
2003. It has defied the market and
now has over nine million mobile
TV subscribers to its services.
Last year, viewers of its services
watched two billion minutes of
mobile TV, an increase of 70% to
80% year on year, said Johansson.
MobiTV focuses on pulling all
delivery channels together, so the
viewer is not aware of the delivery
mechanism. Johansson commented:
“We don’t believe that separate
apps for broadcast and VoD and
the rest will work; it’s about personalisation for the individual.
We pull everything together into
one space for the user.”
Johansson said the MobiTV
service is mostly delivered over 3G,
also over WiFi, switching seamlessly over those carrier mechanisms. She added the service is
50/50 VoD and live viewing, with
VoD being used until something
World Congress: DVB-H still requires investment in infrastucture and content
number of subscribers by 2012,
but whatever figure they quote we
can say we passed that a long time
ago. It’s interesting that in the
broadcast mobile TV area, how
the focus has been on the technology rather than the service.
People don’t realise the size of
our operations. We’re expanding
into Europe now. Carriers can for
the US equivalent of DVB-H,
Advanced Television Systems
Committee — Mobile/Handheld
(ATSC-M/H), is starting to take
off according to Johansson.
ATSC-M/H is a standard in the
US for broadcast mobile digital
TV. As DVB-H and 1seg are
mobile TV extensions to the
DVB-T and ISDB-T terrestrial
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digital TV standards respectively,
ATSC-M/H is an extension to the
available digital TV broadcasting
standard, ATSC A/53. Trials of
mobile TV on ATSC-M/H began
in the Washington area in
February this year.
However, the difference between
DVB-H and ATSC-M/H is the
latter is only able to carry four
Uruguay
Dubai
local channels, so it is to be used for
free-to-air local content, rather than
a broader spectrum of programming.
Fautier commented: “Mobile
TV is dead; long live mobile video.
There is still no business model
for DVB-H, while in the US,
ATSC-M/H is free, so of course
people will take it. However, in
my view broadcast TV has very
little future, while unicast has
a great future as long as it’s not
live streaming.”
Boris Felts, vice president of
marketing at Envivio, said that
mobile network operators have
had their moment in the sun with
broadcast TV ideas, and failed.
He claims it is now time for
broadcasters to take IPTV to the
masses using side-loaded content,
downloaded to the mobile from
the internet without touching the
mobile network.
“People in Europe have looked
into DVB-H for broadcast mobile
TV, but have decided to move
away from that as it’s too complex.
Most people are dropping it and
moving to side-loaded on demand
instead; networks don’t have the
capacity or bandwidth for even
streamed TV, so side-loading is the
answer,” Felts stated.
He added: “This means broadcasters that don’t have mobile network access can distribute content
on the internet, without the need to
control a network, and no need for
carrier agreements and the like.”
Felts continues that this is now a
race between broadcasters who
have everything to gain, and mobile
operators who have everything to
lose if they too do not step onto the
side-loaded content bandwagon.
29/3/10
10:56
Page 1
TVBE_April P16-27 Workflow
29/3/10
13:39
Page 16
T V BEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W
The Europeans in Vancouver
The 2010 Winter Olympics will be remembered for a luge tragedy before the games even began, a Russian team that
was a shadow of its former glory, and a mistake by a speed-skating coach that cost Netherlands another gold medal.
And let’s not forget the medal performances. Ken Kerschbaumer reviews the European broadcasting effort
OB Production
Making the momentous events
real for Europeans across the continent fell largely on the shoulders
of Olympic Broadcast Services
(OBS), who utilised hundreds of
Europeans for its productions; the
European Broadcast Union (EBU)
which delivered the signals back
to the continent; and, of course,
dozens of European TV networks
that were on hand to give the coverage a personal touch.
An example of the European
presence behind the productions
was Whistler Olympic Park, home
of the ski jumping, biathalon, and
cross country skiing events. The
biathlon competitions were produced by a crew from Norwegian
broadcaster NRK. In addition to
being the world’s experts in biathlon
production, NRK has developed
a proprietary system called
TargetCam, which ensures easy
access to each of the targets as the
athletes take their shots.
“The TargetCam is a rail camera designed specifically to cover
the targets,” explained Bjorn
Bjorklund, venue tech manager
for Olympic Broadcast Services
(OBS). “It’s pre-programmed for a
tight shot on each one of the targets, so the operator can push a
button for any one of the targets
Whistler Olympic Park was home to ski jumping, biathalon, and cross-country.
The biathlon was produced by a crew from Norwegian broadcaster NRK
and the camera will go directly
there. It’s a production decision as
to which target we go to and when,
but the operator can move pretty
quickly between the targets.”
While the Norwegians are the
experts in biathlon, the Finns are
the best in the world at cross-country
production, so a crew from
Finland’s YLE handled the production of the cross-country
events. “Cross country has a totally
different setup,” Bjorklund said.
“We have 57 cameras on the cross
country course, and that includes
photo finish cameras, a blimp, and
a helicopter. Except for the snowmobiles, they’re all manned.”
The cameras on both courses
were wired by triax, which took
nearly three weeks to lay down. An
additional 12,000m of triax had to
be run at the last minute, when some
equipment “didn’t want to work,”
as Bjorklund put it, a few days
before the Games were set to begin.
An important part of OBS coverage was specialty cameras, from
super slow-motion systems to POV
cameras. John Pearce, Olympic
Broadcast Services (OBS) manager
of specialty equipment and his
team oversaw 20 high-speed camera systems from three manufacturers: Arri, DVS and LMC.
An EBU facility within the IBC pulled in live feeds and repackaged them into
six multilateral HD and SD feeds that were delivered live to 37 broadcasters
“With 20 systems spread
throughout the venues, there is no
way one company that could provide all of those systems,” said
Pearce. The Arri system, which
uses the HiMotion camera system,
was used at speed skating, hockey,
curling, alpine, and cross-country
events. The DVS system, which
uses the SuperLoupe high-speed
camera system, was used for figure
skating, short track speed skating,
speed skating, hockey, and the
moguls skiing course. And the
LMC system, which relies on the
Antelope camera system, was
found at snowboard cross, ski
jumping, and biathlon. All of the
systems recorded onto the camera
head and then transfered clips over
to the EVS server system at the
core of the OBS facilities.
Shots from above were also
important at the Winter Games, as
seven aerial cabled camera systems,
two helicopters, and even two tethered blimps got into the action to give
fans fascinating new perspectives
on everything from snowboard and
skiing to cross country skiing and
biathlon, downhill skiing, and more.
Cypress Mountain, for example, featured a cable camera system
from Camcat for the moguls and a
cable camera system from Aerial
Camera Systems (ACS) France for
the snowboard cross competition.
“We spent a year putting the
Camcat system for the moguls
together for a two-day competition, but I was blown away by the
coverage,” said Pearce. Cineflex
gyrostabilised heads played a key
role in getting steady, clear shots.
“Their heads can get a very stable
shot using a 42-times [magnification] lens despite a huge amount of
vibration,” he added.
Getting signals home
While Olympic Broadcast Services
handled the production of the
events at the venues, the EBU’s role
in the IBC was almost as important.
An EBU facility within the IBC
(and also in Whistler, two hours
north of Vancouver and home to
the alpine, nordic, and sliding
events) pulled in live feeds from
OBS over 2Gbps connections and
repackaged them into six multilateral HD and SD feeds that were then
delivered live to 37 broadcasters
within the IBC and roughly another
dosen directly to Europe.
“There are a lot of our members
without any people on site who are
working with our multilateral feeds
16
26/3/10
10:55
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29/3/10
11:33
Page 18
TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W
Philip Stevens talks to the latest TV station in Romania about its file-based investment
Filing a report on Romania
IT-based Automation
Launched in November 2009,
Vox News is a Romanian television station broadcasting a mixture of news, talk shows and documentaries. The privately owned
station, which operates from a
new, purpose built facility in the
nation’s capital, Bucharest, is the
third news channel in Romania. It
provides free-to-air national coverage with both analogue and digital transmissions via the Amos 2
satellite, and SDI feeds to several
cable companies. Currently, all
programmes are broadcast in
standard definition, but the facility has been structured to allow
easy conversion to high definition
at some date in the future.
“The launch was timed to
coincide with the second round of
the country’s presidential elections,” explains Dan Lita, technical consultant for News Television
Romania. “But the overall aim of
the station is to reflect the political, economical and social
Romanian environment.”
At present, all original programming originates from the
station’s one 240sqm studio. “The
equipment at the studio is currently rented,” says Lita. “But a
new project is currently under
development and I can only say
that we have selected equipment
from Ikegami, Snell and Nevion
on the video side. I cannot talk
about other options at this stage.”
One aspect of the operation
Lita is prepared to discuss at
length is the commitment to a
completely file-based environment. “Right from inception, this
has always been our intention. We
had a requirement for an ITbased automation and playout
system that could also offer realtime graphics capabilities. And
when we provided a brief to
potential suppliers of such systems we specified that it needed to
provide a small footprint, 2 plus 1
channel playout with database
and storage on one server.”
After investigating a number of
systems, Lita opted for the iTX
transmission platform from
OmniBus. He reports that this
package offered a software solution
that reduced the number of units
involved in the transmission chain.
He also believes there is better integration when all the components
came from a single company.
“Many companies produce
video servers, but then you have to
buy separate automation and
other components from different
vendors. However, the iTX system
provides all the elements of the
transmission chain in a single unit.
These include transitions, logos,
Vox News in Bucharest selected the Omnibus iTX system as
the foundation for its tapeless broadcast workflow environment
commercials, promos, crawls and
active format descriptor (AFD)
signalling — and they all come
from within just one box.”
According to Lita this allows
the creation from scratch of a
complete high-quality multichannel transmission infrastructure —
and, perhaps more significantly,
for a price that is lower than a
conventional automation system.
He also cites the speed of installation and setup as a key factor.
“We needed to be ready to cover
the elections last December — and
that effectively only gave us one
month to commission the system
and then have just one week’s onair support. But we made it.”
Media management
To meet its specific needs, the iTX
system used by Vox News
includes automation, graphics,
logos, video clip playout and live
feeds. Lita points out that the
iTX provides an intuitive and
flexible user interface with a
plug-in architecture. This allows
instant access to the various elements that are required in the live
news environment, and enables
the operator responsible for
monitoring and controlling the
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#PCNQI9C[(TCPEG2JQPG'OCKNUCNGUGWTQ"CPCNQIYC[EQO
18
channels to apply or modify character generations, logos and video
transitions from the same screen.
The system also includes an
integrated character generator
and allows graphics — including
both animations and effects — to
be previewed directly on the iTX
Desktop. In addition, operators
can either create these graphics
from scratch or load and modify,
if required, pre-built CGs from
the system’s templates.
There is also the option to
have one or more text crawls on
screen — and these can either be
scheduled in the playlist or activated manually. These crawls can
be combined with animated
Targa sequences for moving
backgrounds and can receive
their data from three different
sources — manually entered text,
the traffic system via the schedule
or an external text file.
An unlimited number of logos
can be keyed over any primary
video with varying key levels,
audio effects and video transitions. “Vox News is also using the
Live Event functionality available
with the iTX system,” states Lita.
“This enables us to play out live
and studio feeds, adding CGs,
crawls and logos as required.” To
confirm playout, as-run logs
detailing when events occurred,
are generated by the iTX system.
Vox News has also opted for the
Encore Router Control provided
by OmniBus. This facility allows
direct control of its 16x16 Leitch
Xplus router from within iTX, and
means that there is no need for
manual or separate control of the
router. This allows the schedule to
route automatically the correct
source to air. It also provides control of the Leitch router from the
iTX desktop should the routing
need to be overridden, for example
where an item of late-breaking
news needs to be played out directly
from the studio.
For added reassurance, media
management is an integral part of
the solution at Vox News and the
iTX system highlights any missing materials from items scheduled for playout, creating a work
list for ingest. The iTX platform is
fully redundant and the system at
Vox News includes a backup
channel that will provide full continuity service in the event of a
failure of the main system for
whatever reason.
Lita maintains that by eliminating the need for thirdparty graphics devices, the
OmniBus system has proved
extremely
cost
effective.
Although very satisfied with the
operation, Lita has made some
suggestions regarding improvements for future such systems. “I
would like to see a separated
framework/ database from storage, and a direct matrix control,
rather than via an additional box.
The system would also benefit
from having the ability to capture
live sources when they are on air
via an output server for programme replay.”
29/3/10
16:55
Page 19
The Europeans
in Vancouver
that are sent to Europe,” said Francis
Cloiseau, head of Eurovision Sports
Operations. “They just don’t have the
money to send anyone here.”
A Pesa 200x200 routing switcher
sat at the heart of the EBU facility,
pulling in signals and distributing
them to the broadcasters on site and
to the distribution area. Signal distribution gear from Vistek (Snell) and
Avalon handled a variety of technical
issues while encoders and decoders
from Nevion did the heavy lifting of
getting the content ready for distribution via MPEG-2. Nevion gear
also multiplexed the SD signals, as
many countries still require SD.
“That reduces the cost of the circuits
we need,” said Javier Polo, head of
EBU Sports Operations.
The EBU served more than 35
member countries on site and a little more than a dozen in Europe
that simply received the content on
the home front. The majority of
EBU members, however, at least
sent commentators. AEQ commentary systems were used to capture
the commentary. “All of the cabling
of the EBU member facilities here
in the IBC was also done by
our staff,” said Cloiseau. “Two big
optic fibre pipes then send up to 30
different feeds back to Europe.”
Five Vizrt graphic systems were
also being used for the broadcasts
and the networks used the Dartfish
virtual enhancements provided by
OBS, allowing them to lay one athlete over another virtually for easy
comparison of performance. “I
especially like the Dartfish at sliding and skiing,” said Frank.
The BBC took a different
approach, sending a small workforce
of 70 that worked closely with BBC
staff in London. Charlie Cope, BBC
Sport technical executive, said the
eight-hour time difference between
London and Vancouver was part of
the reason for the smaller staff as the
on-location crew was primarily in
place to add commentary to EBU
HD feeds being received in London.
Of course, 2012 is a big focus for
the staff as well, as the BBC will
broadcast a summer games that will
take place in London. BBC execu-
tives were in Vancouver meeting with
broadcasters, in particular CTV, to
learn about workflows, staffing
strategies and more. “It’s been great
to visit the different venues and
broadcasters here,” said Cope.
The expectation, he said, is that
the evolution of digital platforms
like the internet, mobile devices
and IPTV will be a big driver of
Exterior view of the International
Broadcasting Centre in downtown
Vancouver
Discover the
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Kahunaverse
The broadcaster
perspective
Cooperation was also the name of
the game within nations as broadcasters from countries like Canada
and Germany collaborated with
other networks within their borders. German broadcasters ZDF
and ARD worked together to
deliver their first HD Olympics,
giving German sports fans a clear
look at a team that was second
only to the US in medal count.
A staff of more than 600 was on
hand covering the action for both
TV and radio and the networks with
unilateral coverage at five venues. At
three of those venues, the Sliding
Center, Whistler Creekside and the
Richmond Oval (speed skating), the
Germans operated out of flypack
units while NEP provided two OB
vans at the biathlon (SS19) and ski
jumping (NCP12).
“The quality of the world feed
has been improving so we’re mainly
supplementing a few things,” said
Volker Frank, ARD technical
leader. Thomson LDK8000 cameras recording to P2 decks were on
hand to capture the different start
and finish zones, interview players
in the mixed zones, and cover
coaches. The biathlon also featured
Hot Head camera systems with 86x
lenses that allowed for tight coverage on the eye of the biathlete as
they focused on a shot.
“We can transfer material with
the Avid Airspeed, ingesting content into the Avid world,” said
Frank. The compression codec
was DNXHD at 145 Mbps.
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19
29/3/10
11:33
Page 20
Tackling rugby in 3D
Live 3D sports production is slowly kicking off in Europe
By David Fox
3D Production
Three international matches in the
recent Six Nations rugby competition were covered in 3D — England
v Wales, England v Ireland, and
France v England. 3D specialists
Inition covered the first two matches
at Twickenham. The resulting 3D
broadcast was transmitted to 40
cinemas around England.
These were shot at 25fps for
each camera (combining for
50fps, which was upconverted for
display to 60fps, as that is what
the projectors could handle in the
cinema). Each match was covered
with eight camera positions, using
a mixture of Sony 950 and 1500
cameras (including split head versions, which fit better on beam
splitter/mirror rigs as they are
more compact and weigh less).
All the rigs were from Element
Technica, including the Quasar
beam splitter rig. For the first
match there were three beam splitter and three side-by-side rigs
(two and four respectively for the
second match), plus a 3D
Steadicam (a side-by-side rig
developed by Presteigne Hire,
using miniature cameras “very
much a prototype camera, but it
seems to work very well,” says
stereographer, Campbell Goodwille).
Up and under: 3D operator at work covering the rugby at Twickenham
There was also a single pitch level
camera on the halfway line, linked
to a JVC 2D to 3D converter.
There were 3D Transvideo
monitors at each 3D camera position, so that the operators could
check alignment, etc, locally.
Using beam splitter rigs live
required extra cards in the vision
mixer to be able to flip a channel.
SIS provided the OB, using a
standard HD outside broadcast
truck. Inition added a JVC 3D
plasma display, and its own
StereoBrain 3D processors, which
it developed with Numedia
Technology. The broadcast was
mixed in a standard vision mixer
using dual channels. The vision
mixer had to be reprogrammed,
to deal with issues of timing and
flipping mirror images. “It’s
essential to monitor sync and
timing between left eye and right
eye,” explains Inition director,
Andy Millns (who will be one of
the speakers at 3D Masters 2010,
to be held at BAFTA in London
on June 22).
They also had to integrate the
OB’s EVS systems and add
graphics, the 3D encoder and the
framerate conversion for cinema.
Millns was seated next to the
director in the OB truck (Inition
used the same director that had
done the first 3D rugby experiment for the BBC in 2008).
“Certain camera angles are better
in 3D, but you also have to tell
the story of the game.” To make
the most of 3D, they used the
pitch-side cameras more and cut
more slowly.
“We probably punched the 3D
a little bit more in the wide positions for the second match. It’s
very difficult to get much 3D from
“The most important thing is to get the correct
[camera] positions, otherwise you won’t get
the drama people expect, especially pitch level.
We were lucky we got three pitch level positions”
— Andy Millns, director, Inition
those positions. Shooting anything
from long range in 3D is difficult,”
says Goodwille. This meant putting the cameras further apart,
which is why one position was
moved from a mirror rig to sideby-side for the second game.
Practice match
Inition did a lot of pre-visualisation work before getting to the
stadium, “to work out what rigs
we’d need in each position and
what focal lengths we’d be looking at,” he says. They spent three
days before the first event setting
up the OB truck, including
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matching all the lenses. There
were also grip issues, such as
where to put the monitor and lens
controller. “A lot of it is film gear
that we have to integrate with
broadcast,” says Millns.
“The most important thing is
to get the correct [camera] positions, otherwise you won’t get the
drama people expect, especially
pitch level. We were lucky we got
three pitch level positions,” he
adds. You have to also work with
the director to show what works
for 3D, but “you have to tell the
story of the game primarily and
the 3D is an added bonus.”
“We were a lot more ambitious
on the second game, with some
improved added graphics, where
the stereoscopic functionality of
the software was improved to
enable them to render out better
quality 3D,” says Goodwille.
The Ireland match also used
one of Sony’s new 3D image processing boxes on one camera, “so
we could use that position as a
variable one, as we could re-set
the focal lengths fairly quickly,
otherwise we couldn’t’ really
zoom,” explains Goodwille. “If
you pick two broadcast lenses off
the shelf, they don’t really track
very well together as you zoom,
and you go out of alignment.”
However, the time spent beforehand working out which pairs of
lenses worked best together
meant they could do a limited
amount of zooming between cuts.
Goodwille says that better lens
control systems for 3D are coming, with Fujinon, for example,
working on them at the moment.
“That will make a big difference
in using standard broadcast lenses
for 3D.”
The operators would pull convergence during a shot, as play
came towards the camera, “otherwise the player would come out
of the screen towards you.”
Convergence on all the rigs was
motorised, and controlled by the
3D camera assistant using a
remote from Element Technica,
which comes with the rigs as an
integrated system.
The Steadicam was locked off,
but in future it might be possible to
have some remote control over the
3D functions. “At the moment, we
give the operator a range over
which it will work well.”
The parts of the game that
worked best in 3D were the lineouts, rucks and mauls close to the
touchline. “Any time the action
gets close,” says Goodwille.
It helps that rugby has a lot of
action close to the touchline,
which produced “some good 3D
moments.” It is certainly better
20
28/1/10
12:46
Page 1
29/3/10
13:40
Page 22
Tackling rugby
in 3D
than soccer in that respect.
Inition did a football game for
France Telecom in 3D in Lyon last
year which was “very successful
and resulted in some very nice
footage, but one of the difficulties
is getting the right positions in the
stadium,” says Goodwille. “Not
only are there 2D cameras already
in position, but you can’t put the
relatively bulky 3D rigs in certain
positions because of seat kill.”
At Twickenham, Inition were
on the opposite side of the pitch
to the BBC, but were still relatively
limited. “We would like to have
had another Steadicam at pitch
level and another 3D camera on
the halfway line.”
State of play
Tennis works very well in 3D.
“Games that are in a relatively confined space, so you can get
a bit closer, work very well.”
Snooker, for example, could benefit
from 3D, in the same way it did from
the introduction of colour, and
Inition has also shot boxing in 3D.
Goodwille has also worked on
cricket and golf tests for Sky, and
got very nice results. “It’s all about
positions. Golf is difficult to cover,
even in 2D. Trying to do it in 3D,
the amount of camera positions
they’d need would be tricky, but it
can certainly be great and add to
the coverage.” For cricket, 3D
would require a lot of innovation,
requiring much smaller cameras
for a stump cam, and getting the
umpires to wear cameras. “You
need to get in amongst the action.”
He believes that extreme
sports look particularly good in
3D. “Ice hockey is tricky, because
it is so fast moving, but it can
work pretty well.” Inition has also
shot wildlife material in 3D in
Kenya for Sky. “It’s probably
some of the best footage we’ve
shot. And there are plenty of other areas that could benefit hugely
from the 3D treatment.”
Inition is working with other
companies on basic technology,
such as subtitling and encoding.
Campbell Goodwille with one of Inition’s Element Technica beam splitter rigs
The rugby transmission to cinemas used the Sensio format, which
squashes the two images side-byside into a single frame. It also
does some clever sub-sampling to
improve image quality. The broadcast was managed by Arqiva,
which handled the decoding in cinemas into a single standard digital
projector using the RealD system.
“Ideally, projectors in the
cinema would run at 150Hz, but
Side-by-side step: One of Inition’s rigs covering the middle of the pitch
Live 2D to 3D conversion
Inition used JVC’s IF-2D3D1
real-time 2D to 3D conversion
system, which can output in a
variety of 3D formats, and
includes Parallax and 3D
Intensity adjustments. “It is a
useful tool for positions where
you either can’t get a 3D rig to
or where you won’t be able to
get much 3D — mainly on
long lens, zoomed-in, footage.
But you have to be selective in
your use of it, because alongside
true stereoscopic 3D footage,
you can see the difference. It
22
definitely serves a purpose, but
it has to be used sparingly,”
says Campbell Goodwille.
“It’s not a substitute, but it is
a useful addition.”
“It just allows us the freedom to do very long lens
shots,” says Andy Millns.
“That sort of shot probably
wouldn’t be very successful in
[true] 3D anyway.” However,
using the converter means “it
intercuts better. It gives it a 3D
feel. It’s less jarring that using
a pure 2D shot.”
most were only 120Hz, max, so
we had to convert from 50 to 60
and do a double flash,” explains
Goodwille. “It was only being
broadcast at 720p, and we’d like
to see it at 1080, especially for the
wide shots.”
All the equipment in the cinemas was installed for the event.
“It had never been done before in
this country,” adds Millns.
After the first match, preregistration for the second was
very high, “so rugby fans were
obviously happy with it.” Because
they were sports fans rather than
geeks, “we had to give them the
game first and foremost, and
make sure they didn’t get
headaches. The 3D result was our
third priority.”
Both games were sold out in
advance, and Millns is “extremely
keen” to do more, as the cinemas
are now equipped to take them.
However, the ticket sales from
40 cinemas are not enough to
support it (“maybe 400 cinemas”), so it does need to have
sponsorship to be viable (mobile
phone company, O2 sponsored
the rugby). Further sports and
music events are in discussion.
www.inition.co.uk
It is particularly effective
if you get the framing right.
“The contour (the way it
sculpts the image) presumes
that things at the bottom of
the picture are close to you.
If shots don’t conform to
that it’s not as successful,”
says Millns.
Inition used it for the rugby because it wasn’t possible
to get a 3D rig in that position.
“It will serve certain purposes,
particularly live,” he believes.
For recorded productions it is
also possible to convert 2D to
3D in post, and achieve better
results, but this isn’t possible
for a live event. – David Fox
TVBE_FP
29/5/09
15:57
Page 1
the results couldn’t be
any clearer
We do a wide range of productions – news,
sports, corporate, reality and more – in HD. After
comparing the 19x7.3 to competitive lenses,
we went with Angenieux. Not only is it the most
cost effective lens in this class, it's a convenient
size and can focus down to .6m for
close-up interviews.
Rick Smosky
Director of Photography
Rick Smosky Inc.
As a smaller company with international
clients, we need maximum versatility, value
and performance. We depend on the Angenieux
19x7.3 lens for convenient features like variable
zoom control and double extender for golf
coverage. We've been rewarded with honors
and with satisfied clients, so we're sticking
with Angenieux.
Paul Piasecki
Director of Photography
Ko-mar Video Productions
The only lenses we use in our HD studios are
Angenieux. We've used Angenieux lenses for
over 20 years on major projects like Jazz Fest
as well as nationally aired shows. Angenieux is
very responsive – they've sent critical items to
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Larry Allen
Engineering Section Manager
Louisiana Public Broadcasting
images
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29/3/10
11:34
Page 24
Philip Stevens talks to a production facility in Switzerland that is expanding
its commitment to a tapeless environment and introducing an HD capability
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Tapeless TV in Switzerland
Linear Germany
Linear Acoustic is continuing its
expansion into Europe with the
addition of Sono Studiotechnik
as its German dealer. Further
strengthening presence in
the German market, Sono
Studiotechnik will serve as the
sole dealer for Linear Acoustic
in Germany. Founded more
than 20 years ago by industry
veteran Gottfried Düren, Sono
Studiotechnik is a high-end
service provider and consultant
for broadcast systems. With a
long history of key projects for
national, regional and state
broadcasters, Sono
Studotechnik focuses on
system design and system
integration, broadcast rental
and the sale of broadcast
equipment including full audio,
video and intercom systems.
“Recently, we have seen an
uptick in demand from our
customers for high-quality HD
and broadcast surround sound
equipment,” said Düren. “As a
systems integrator, it was
extremely important to us to
have the right audio and
loudness control products in
our portfolio, so the addition of
Linear Acoustic to our core
product line was a natural step
in our expansion as a company.
We are thrilled to partner with
the Linear Acoustic team to
grow their brand in Germany.”
www.linearacoustic.com
Tapeless Production
Swiss-based production facility tpc
(tv productioncenter zürich ag) is
expanding its tapeless capability in
readiness for more high definition
work from its wide customer base. In
January, it started using a number of
production client servers for shared
storage editing and playout activities,
as well as suites of edit software for
HD studio and sports production.
“The company was founded in
2000 as a fully-owned subsidiary of
SRG SSR idée suisse,” explains
Christoph Beuggert, the facility’s
technical director. “We are
Switzerland’s largest audiovisual
production company and offer a
full range of services for television
programming and other audiovisual output.”
Its centre in Zurich includes a
number of studios ranging in size
from 200 to 1,000sqm, and from
here tpc provides facilities for
SF Schweizer Fernsehen and the
Swiss national Organisational
Unit Business Unit Sport (BUS).
Other customers include additional
television channels in Switzerland
and elsewhere, plus companies
from the industrial, service and
public administration sectors.
tpc also operates OB Vans,
News Production, ENG crews
and video and audio post production suites.
To handle the move to a tapeless
production scenario, tpc ordered a
comprehensive Grass Valley SAN
system to migrate existing production studio facilities to a file-based
high definition infrastructure. The
system includes a fully redundant
SAN with a capacity of 300 hours
at 100Mbps HDTV, MPEG. This
includes 400Mbps FTP Transfer,
eight channels of Grass Valley K2Summit production client servers,
one Aurora Edit system and a K2Appcenter PRO. The system can
accommodate both MPEG 50Mbps
and MPEG 100Mbps HDTV.
The K2-AppCenter Pro is a
graphical user interface (GUI) to
control the K2-Server. It includes a
built-in video disk recorder and
player application that provides a
single interface for tasks such as
channel control, configuration, clip
management, media transfers, channel monitoring, and system monitoring. Significantly, AppCenter can
be accessed on a separate networkconnected PC with Control Point
software or connecting a VGA monitor, mouse, and keyboard to the K2
Summit Production Client or K2
Solo Media Server.
“We selected Grass Valley for the
previously installed SD system two
years ago,” states Fritz Rüdiger, the
manager in charge of file-based
transfer at tpc. “But before making
the choice involving the recent
installations, tpc again evaluated
all servers on the market. Three
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potential suppliers were considered,
but we found that K2 was still ahead
and added the functionalities which
were missed on the previous HDK2, such as bi-directional channels
and time code output.”
In fact, this purchase follows a
similar decision by MSC (media
service center) in Bern-Medienhaus
(also an affiliate of SRG SSR)
which also installed Grass Valley K2
servers some time ago.
“When we were looking at the
choices, we felt that it was important that the concept of the system
fits the needs of the users. The
optimal user interface with a perfect ‘look and feel’ is a great advantage of the Grass Valley system,”
maintains Rüdiger.
A number of operations will be
involved with the new file-based
technology, including ingest, editing,
transfer and playout of video files. Of
necessity, this has involved changes in
a number of working practices. “As
the tape-based workflows have to be
changed to new file-based practices,
production and editorial people have
to adapt to a new file-based thinkingin terms of handling the material.
The transition certainly requires
training of personnel.”
Rüdiger adds that a key element for having a workflow based
on file exchange is that tpc avoided
having to extend the size of the
central router. “We will be archiving all tape-based material to our
IBM digital archive. This started
around 12 months ago, and the
whole process will take about
another year. A driving element is
the fact that tape material is subject to degradation in spite of professional storage conditions.”
Making it easy
Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, sales manager at Grass Valley Switzerland
provides some further insight into
the installation at tpc. “Each system
is dedicated for quick editing and
playout including channel ganging
during studio productions. The
benefits to tpc include interoperability with other systems, for
example Final Cut Pro, and file
exchange using the MXF format to
interface with other products such
as Avid, Sony and Harris Nexio.
The Aurora Edit also provides intuitive and quick editing — because
everyone can use it!’
According to Rousseau, there
will be significant efficiency savings for the tpc operation through
this purchase. “In terms of equipment there are savings regarding
the amount of routers cross points,
especially in view of future extensions. It is much easier to extend a
file-based distribution system by
adding switches as to extend a
router system by adding I/O cards,
chassis, video cable and so on.”
When it comes to workflow, he
explains that manpower can be
redeployed. “To push or to pull the
content needed, only one operator
is required. Within a video transfer
you need an operator on the source
side, one on the receiver side and
24
26/3/10
10:58
Page 1
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29/3/10
11:34
Page 26
Get it Right in the Mix
Channel in a van TV
TV Rennes 35 is a mobile TV station in an OB
Outside Broadcasting
TV station TV Rennes 35, local TV station
TyTélé and systems integrator PAD are at
the forefront of a technological revolution.
Starting with a creative concept, they have
developed a fully mobile TV station in the
form of an OB van using professional, yet
affordable and simple to use equipment.
“This is a new concept,” says Jean-Luc Nelle,
general manager of TV Rennes 35. “The
entire TV station is run from within the van.”
Founded in March 1987, TV Rennes was
the first local TV station created in France.
By Fergal Ringrose
such as video rental companies, and sound and
lighting equipment.” He finds Blackmagic
Design’s Mini converters particularly useful for
this in terms of flexibility and compatibility. “I
consider them to be a ‘must have’ for any OB
van,” he says. TyTélé’s van is equipped with
three SDI to analogue, two analogue to SDI,
three SDI to HDMI and three HDMI to SD.
The set up of the van is fully HD and comprises of Apple Mac Pros using Blackmagic
Design DeckLink cards to ingest and playout
content using Softron software. It also uses
OpenGear optical fibre converters in combination with a single high-grade fibre-optic
cable to connect to the stage or shooting area
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With the LQ-1000,
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26
TV Rennes 35: ‘The entire television station is run from within the van’
Inaugurated by the President of the
Republique, it was originally broadcast around
the city of Rennes. Early in 2007, the TV station was renamed TV Rennes 35 and now
broadcasts to around 1.2 million viewers offering 15 hours per week of viewing in full HD.
Nelle’s vision was for a fully local, fully
mobile TV station. “I originally had the idea
for the mobile TV station in 1984,” explains
Nelle, “but at the time people did not believe
that this was possible. Because of the products that are now available, it was not difficult to make this idea a reality.”
System integrator PAD was approached
in 2007 by TV Rennes 35 to design the technical setup for TyTélé. Phillipe Baudet of
PAD and Nelle shared the same philosophy
of finding creative means to develop technical solutions. Nelle believes, “When you can
be creative, you can create your own freedom
to achieve what you have imagined.”
In order to create the mobile television
station, PAD chose products from
Blackmagic Design as the basis for the workflow. This includes Studio Videohub for
routing, DeckLink HD Extreme cards for
capture and playback, Mini converters,
OpenGear converters, and the new
Blackmagic UltraScope for test equipment.
The station currently has around 300,000
potential viewers across France and is run by
a team of 12 people, including nine in production. TyTélé is an entirely ‘local’ station
made possible by the mobile TV station. The
van is used outside at different locations in
different conditions every day to broadcast a
variety of events including musical events,
sports events and local news.
Baudet’s prerogative was for the van to be
as flexible and as simple to use as possible. “The
van required products that would be easy to
integrate with equipment from other companies,
to carry all HD video signal and data and 48
channels of audio.
Blackmagic Design’s Studio Videohub is
used to route all equipment in the van and is
integral to the station’s workflow. “Routing
all equipment through the Studio Videohub
makes everything a lot more simple as this
completely eliminates manual patching,”
explains Baudet.
The mixer used in the van is a Panasonic
AV HS400A and, as with all other equipment
in the van, has been chosen for simplicity of
use. The studio uses a Blackmagic UltraScope
for waveform monitoring, which runs on a
Mac Pro using Windows XP and is connected
to a Roland M-400 Soundesk and to the mixer
to control all manual shading. The van is
equipped with Telemetrics robotic camera system and four Sony EX full HD cameras.
Using this simple set up, TyTélé is able to
do all programming within the van, so it is a
completely self-sufficient TV station that
can be manned by two people, or one person
if necessary. Nelle likens this to a DJ running a radio station.
Thanks to the technical set up in the van
that they supplied, PAD were asked to work
on a regional broadcasting and archiving
project located at TV Rennes 35. The station
was established 22 years ago in the town of
Rennes in the North West of France. At the
time its viewers amounted to 150,000. Since
then this figure has increased to around
1.3 million potential viewers.
For this project, PAD installed an SAN,
coupled with a backup and archive capacity,
with a simple to use final control room based
on pro-video equipment rather than traditional
equipment that can often be expensive and
complicated to install, maintain and operate.
Everything is distributed on an HD/SD-SDI
signal with embedded audio. For this, two
29/3/10
11:34
Page 27
Studio Videohubs are used with a
number of SDI to analogue and
analogue to SDI Mini converters to
convert analogue VTRs and SDI to
HDMI Mini converters for big
screen monitoring. PAD also used
many SDI to audio and audio to
SDI converters to build a selfdeveloped final switcher, adding
audio follow functionality to the
Panasonic AV-HS400 Videomixer.
Nelle ascertains that these types
of projects have recently become easier to set up and develop. “The price
of these products a few years ago
meant that only an expert or large,
well established companies were able
to use the equipment that was available at the time. Now, more people
are able to use this equipment as it is
more affordable, which marks a turning point in the technological revolution for the broadcast industry.”
Many industry professionals
have traditionally opted to buy more
expensive equipment as they see a
certain security in this. Nelle maintains that it is important to break
away from this idea. “The technology is not late, but rather it has taken
time for people to evolve and change
their frame of mind. These are the
people who are a part of the technological revolution. We have chosen to
use products from Blackmagic
Design as they enable us to achieve
the highest quality results at a very
affordable price. This is a significant
factor helping us to progress in this
technological revolution.”
Vancouver
View of interior of the van, including Blackmagic Design Ultrascope T&M
content creation and distribution
in 2012. “Those platforms tend to
drive everyone to reassess how they
make content, not just a single
platform that drives the production process,” said Cope.
As if the challenge of broadcasting an Olympics held on home soil is
not enough, the BBC will also broadcast the Games following a move of
its base of operations from London
to Manchester. The good news, says
Cope, is a new building will mean
new technologies that will make it
easier to deliver and create content.
“It’s going to be a busy few
years,” he said.
Tapeless TV in
Switzerland
usually one operator within the
central room.”
Although this is a significant
move forward for tpc, it does not
mean that the facility has become
totally tapeless. “This is a first step in
a roadmap towards a completely
tapeless operation,” reveals Rüdiger.
“There is some further work to do
enabling and establishing interoperability between the Grass Valley
system and other legacy production
systems and facilities in tpc. Up to
now the overall file exchange
between the different systems is
restricted to some technical metadata.tpc would like to add descriptive
metadata to all files throughout the
various operational areas: for that an
improved interoperability between
the various systems from different
vendors is required in future.”
As mentioned earlier, one of the
reasons for the expansion was to
handle increased HD work. “At the
moment HD production is growing
rapidly using HD-capable equipment
from ENG up to playout,” states
Rüdiger. “It is currently at a level of
around 50%, but the prospects for
HD are very positive for Switzerland.
It is the strategy of SRG to transmit
all channels with HD signals at the
beginning of 2012 and to switch off
all SD-channels by the end of 2015.”
www.grassvalley.com
www.tpcag.ch
27
29/3/10
11:05
Page 2
Vinten celebrating
100 years of innovation
William Vinten saw his first movie at the age of 16 in 1896, and instantly
knew this was the business he wanted to be in. An immensely talented
precision engineer, he got his chance when he set up his own business,
W Vinten Cinematograph Engineers, on 1 January 1910, at 89 – 91
Wardour Street, the heart of London’s film land.
Cameras
From the start he had a lively trade in repairing cameras, not
to mention preparing special versions for polar explorers like
Shackleton and Scott. In the first world war he was asked by
the Royal Flying Corps to develop a camera to be mounted on
the side of a plane to get footage of the battlefields.
Vinten developed cameras for movie studios and for research,
developing a stunning design for a 300 frames a second camera
in the 1930s. With the coming of the talkies the company built
a combined picture and sound camera, and in turn this became
a film recorder – the first way to record television.
29/3/10
11:06
Page 3
The television era
Adding electronics to mechanical perfection
The company, now led by William’s son Bill, recognised that
television required new ways of moving cameras. Working to a
BBC specification they developed the hydro-pneumatic pedestal
– a design that everyone said could not be done – and the Mk III
pan and tilt head. Together they allowed a single operator to
move the camera freely.
Perfect Balance uses mechanics to achieve the best possible
camera support. But in today’s world, the addition of advanced
electronics can make the solution even more powerful.
With the first colour cameras weighing 160kg or more, fresh
innovation was called for, and the result was the Fulmar
pedestal, a product popular around the world. Along with
the Heron crane, they made Vinten the number one name
in broadcast camera supports.
At NAB2010 the Vector 750i will be unveiled, adding encoders to
one of Vinten’s most popular pan and tilt heads. These electronic
sensors are accurate to 1.8 million pulses in 360˚ of pan and 1.6
million counts in 360˚ of tilt and it is this precise positional
information which is streamed continuously into a graphics
system to provide perfect synchronisation, whether for graphics
in place on a sports field or a virtual environment in the studio.
Vinten today and tomorrow
100 years on from its foundation, the company is still founded
on William Vinten's guiding principles of highly innovative design
and extreme precision in manufacturing. Through a dedication to
meeting the expectations of its customers, with products which
meet their real requirements and excellent service and support,
Vinten remains the world leader in broadcast camera supports.
For more information please visit:
www.vinten.com/shapingthefuture
Perfect Balance
A new generation of brilliant engineers realised that the
fundamental principle of a camera support is that it should
move when the operator wants it to, but not otherwise.
It should appear weightless, wherever it is placed and at
whatever angle of tilt. There must be smooth, controllable
drag to prevent unwanted movement, but no restrictions to
prevent the operator getting the perfect shot.
Perfect Balance is just that. The Vinten team set about
understanding the complex mathematics behind achieving
that sensation of weightlessness, then implemented it in
pedestals such as the Quattro and pan and tilt heads like the
Vector. The latest addition to the family, the Vision AS range,
brings Perfect Balance to even the lightest professional
camcorder, supporting payloads from 2Kg to 33kg.
S
NEW EE THE
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AB
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TVBEUROPE N A B 20 1 0 P RO D U C T P R EV I EW
Sony to lead with 3D
New cameras, switchers and processors in the mix
Sony will debut its MPE-200 3D
Processor, which provides a variety
of digital adjustments to the stereo
imaging HD cameras, allowing a similar control experience to mechanical
servos. The MPE-200 digitally simulates several of the adjustments that
are currently performed mechanically on higher end rigs. The 3D
Processor provides stereographic
engineers a means to manage camera and rig parameters in order to
deliver high-quality 3D images.
Sony is set to introduce a new
resolution-independent
multiformat ingest and transcoder platform. Based on Cell processor
technology, with up to 128 cores
per workstation, each system can
be configured to meet a number of
challenges faced by broadcasters
and post facilities. Each system can
simultaneously ingest content from
up to four high-definition VTRs
(four sampling 4:2:2, or two sampling 4:4:4 signals) in parallel.
Depending on the target workflow,
the systems are designed to allow
users to choose to deliver content
directly to their shared storage
using many of today’s popular file
formats including MXF, DPX,
J2K and Avid DNxHD.
The new HSC-300 and HXC100 cameras are based on the
performance of Sony’s HDC Series
studio cameras, which are the production tools of choice for TV
broadcast and live event content
creation. Both cameras use Sony’s
digital triax transmission technology. The HSC-300 camera is compatible with Sony’s existing large
lens adaptors and can be used with
triax cable runs of up to 1,300m.
The HXC-100 model can be used
for runs of up to 850m. Both models feature a 2/3-inch Power HAD
FX CCD with 2.2 million pixels.
Sony is also expanding its line
of MVS Series production switchers with the new MVS-6000, which
inherits many of the capabilities of
the MVS-8000G in a small and
efficient design. The new multiformat switcher is expandable with
By Fergal Ringrose
up to 49 inputs, and is available in
configurations up to 2.5ME.
Sony’s first professional camcorder that implements the AVCHD
format — the HXR-NX5U — is
part of Sony’s NXCAM family. It
features Sony’s Exmor CMOS
sensor with ClearVid array, to
deliver full high definition resolution
and low light sensitivity with low
noise. The camcorder records
AVCHD up to 24Mbps, delivering
1920x1080 high definition images
with both interlace and progressive
modes along with native 1080/24p,
720/60p and MPEG-2 standard definition recording.
The expanding family of Sony’s
XDCAM EX technologies now
includes two new camcorders —
Sony’s first 2/3-inch CMOS memory camcorder, the shoulder-mount
model PMW-350, and the PMWEX1R, which adds DVCAM
recording capability as well as
numerous enhancements directly
resulting from customer feedback.
www.sonybiz.net
Big brother For-A switcher
For-A is set to introduce the HVS350HS HD/SD 1.5 M/E digital
video switcher at NAB on Booth
C5219. A big brother to the popular HVS-300HS, the HVS-350HS
switcher is ideal for mobile production units and small control rooms
that have limited space but produce
challenging programmes, such as
sports and other live events. For-A
will also showcase the HVS300RPS, an upgraded version of
the HVS-300HS with a redundant
power supply, at the show.
The HVS-350HS provides eight
inputs and outputs standard, which
can be expanded to 24 inputs and 12
outputs. HD/SD-SDI I/O is standard, though a variety of other
formats can be installed to support
analogue video and PC sources. Its
10-bit processor supports 1080i,
720p, NTSC, and PAL formats.
Built-in frame synchronisers on
each input and a resizing engine on
NAB 2010 PRODUCT PREVIEW
In March issue we brought you over 50 brand new innovations
from NAB exhibitors, and this issue we’re pleased to bring
you many more in Part II of our NAB Product Preview.
So even if you’re not travelling to the show, we hope this
gives you a good first snapshot of new stuff coming onto the
marketplace at NAB Las Vegas. — Fergal Ringrose
SSL divides Gravity: The newly formed SSL DV, a Solid State Logic
company, will showcase the Gravity Media Asset Management system at
NAB Booth N808. Says Shaun McTernan, vice president of marketing for
SSL DV, “Gravity, as an integrated system, solves the problems of media
asset management and production for the broadcast, education, government
and corporate markets by offering a wide range of powerful options to fill
the specific needs of an end user.” Gravity offers clients the power of readily
available content and automated digital workflows to streamline any
production process, yielding an advantageous return on investment over
time. The demonstrations at the booth will highlight some of the main
features of a Gravity system (some systems are available as standalone
systems). Systems to be featured include the Gravity Media Studio media
asset management system, the News Studio system designed for rapid news
production applications, the Web Mobile Media system, Live Edit, the
powerful Studio Recorder and the new ION Compliance Monitoring system.
New Cheetah and Cougar
versions on show from Pesa
By Fergal Ringrose
four inputs allows asynchronous
signals — including HD, SD, analogue, and PC signals — to be
switched in the same programme.
Other standard features include
two keyer and four DSK channels,
four still stores, and a dual-channel
16-split multi-viewer. The HVS350HS also provides more than 100
2D and 3D transitions and effects,
along with two channels of dedicated
picture-in-picture, event memory and
sequence functionality, and an onscreen display for easy changes.
In response to customer requests,
the HVS-300RPS is a redundant
power supply version of the HVS300HS. It has a slightly larger main
unit than the original HVS-300HS,
but can still be controlled with the
same control panels. The HVS350HS will be available in July 2010.
Pesa will display several new products at NAB at Booth N4123
including the new Cheetah-3, a
fibre optic router for Dual Link
DVI or 3G-SDI systems up to
144X144. For 3G-SDI and
1080p/60 transports, Pesa will be
displaying the new Cougar-3 for
3G-SDI/HD-SDI up to 32X32 and
the Ocelot-3 for 3G-SDI/HD-SDI
for 16x8 and 16x16.
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For high performance computer
displays, Pesa will demonstrate the
new Vidblox family of Media
Extenders for DVI, VGA, and
RGBHV over fibre or coax and several new models of QuadBox for
4x4 switching and signal extension.
Pesa’s Cheetah-3 is one of the
smallest and most compact 3GSDI fibre-optic routers on the
market offering 144X144 in only
4RU. Eco-friendly Cheetah-3
offers sizes starting at 36x36 with
the flexibility to expand up to
144x144 without the need for
additional rack space or power
supplies. A fully loaded frame consumes a maximum of 300 watts,
reducing the cost of total ownership over the life of the product.
Systems can be setup to support a wide range of digital transports including SMPTE 259M,
292M, and 424M. Additionally,
the Cheetah-3 can support transport of 3D-HD using two parallel
HD-SDI paths. The user selectable format by-pass features
allow data rates from 143Mbps
up to 3Gbps.
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TVBEUROPE N A B 20 1 0 P RO D U CY P R EV I EW
Dalet for the Enterprise
New process management for NAB
Dalet Enterprise Edition is an
open Media Asset Management
(MAM) platform designed to
facilitate highly efficient and collaborative workflows for news,
sports, programme preparation
and archives. Natively integrated
production tools manage ingest,
logging, production, playout,
archive and distribution of content across multiple platforms.
Filling in gaps
with DNF
Control Glue
Delivered with the comprehensive Dalet Newsroom
Computer System (NCRS), Dalet
Enterprise Edition provides a
By Fergal Ringrose
fully integrated solution that can
be adapted to any newsroom
operation. The Dalet platform
also meets the production needs
for complex end-to-end, multiplatform production workflows.
Dalet will also unveil a new
Business Process Management
engine to orchestrate workflows
and optimise resources — including
management of digital rights and
genealogy for any type of content,
including news, programmes and
sports clips. This feature simplifies
the tracking of rights metadata at
every step of the production workflow both in the newsroom and in
the production departments. It
enables an extended set of supported media formats and new
functionalities for centralised
ingest, and features new manual
and automated quality check (QC)
tools that are fully integrated in the
production workflows.
SL4720
THINK ENTERPRISE
By Andy Stout
DNF Controls has focused this
year’s NAB presentation on
three specific areas: Production
Automation, Automate What’s
Left and the new Control Glue
family of products.
Production
Automation
leverages the expanding power
of DNF’s Flex Control Network
within a customer’s existing
production control infrastructure. “Other solutions require
major hardware purchases just
to get started,” explained DNF’s
CTO Dan Fogel, “Flex overlays
the existing infrastructure no
matter how old, offering efficiency improvements for any
budget. We’ll show you how at
our booth.”
Automate What’s Left is a
result of ongoing customer and
industry feedback.
“Broadcasters now have
decades of automation experience, but they struggle with
automating the processes those
systems don’t reach,” said Fogel.
“This NAB we will show broadcasters how to expand the
reach of automation by adding
intelligence to the control
system itself.”
Control Glue is a category
that brings the industry two
new products: the AnyWhere
Interface Box (AIB) and
AnyWhere Interface Switch
(AIS). These benefit from years
of experience with the simple
to configure Flex Control
Network family of products.
“When we say ‘Control Glue’,
we literally mean the ability to
fill in gaps of a control system
in a permanent way,” clarified
CTO Fogel. “A common control
gap is distance: contact closures
are technically straightforward,
but what do you do when
the button you push needs to
create a momentary closure at
a device five miles away? We
have the solution in our Control
Glue line.”
N1212
DALET SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS
combine an enterprise media
asset management platform
with a flexible workflow
engine to manage News,
Sports, Production and
Archive workflows.
learn more on www.dalet.com
31
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TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 1 0 P R O D U C T P R E V I E W
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Get set for Grass Valley
LED luminaires
Innovation across the range at NAB
Gekko Technology will be
introducing two major additions
to its range at NAB. Designated
kazia 50 and kazia 200, both are
hard-source LED luminaires based
on Gekko’s kleer-colour light
engine, with variants for film and
TV as well as entertainment.
“The kazia 50 and 200 offer film
and TV lighting directors and
cameramen precise tuneable
whites and dimming under local
or DMX control,” explained Gekko
Technology MD David Amphlett.
“As well as tuneable whites in the
2,900 to 6,500k range, the
entertainment version can also
produce millions of other colours.
The capacity of the lamp to
generate high quality whites
reduces the need for multiple
sources with different capabilities.”
The kazia 50 is comparable in
output brightness to a 400 W
tungsten fresnel lamp-head yet
consumes only 50W of electrical
power. The kazia 200 has a
similar brightness to a 1kW
tungsten source whilst
consuming only 190W of power.
C3743
Thanks to new software capabilities within its AppCenter Elite
software suite that leverage a flexible system architecture, Grass
Valley has made it possible for all
K2 Summit and K2 Solo servers to
be expanded from handling four
SD/HD video streams to up to
eight streams in specific applications such as Super Slo-Mo, multicam recording, and even 3D.
Grass Valley has added new
features and functionality to its
GV Connect plug-in for Final
Cut Pro users which increases
productivity and provides new
performance benefits when working with Grass Valley K2 media
servers and storage area networks. The latest version, 2.0,
adds tighter newsroom computer
integration with K2/Aurora news
systems, via the MOS protocol, to
tightly link scripts with audio and
video clips making digital news
production easy and getting news
content to air much faster and
more efficiently.
Following
its
successful
launch last fall, the Grass Valley
K2 Dyno replay system has
already been enhanced with new
32
features and functionality for filebased workflows that are now
available as free upgrades to existing customers.
In cameras, NAB 2010 sees
two major new innovations. First,
a unique fibre transmission system carries 1080p 3Gbps signals
from the camera to the base station and into the production network; and second, a new 3D software enhancement of the standard camera control panel enables
two cameras to be controlled
simultaneously so that stereographic shaders can control 3D
pairs of cameras from a single
control panel.
Grass Valley has announced
a new hardware and software
conversion
product
named
‘ADVCmini’ that allows consumers and prosumers to easily
and transfer high-quality video
images from VHS tapes, digital
camcorders, and similar sources
to their Mac computer for editing
in Final Cut Pro or iMovie. Grass
Valley will also introduce a PC
version later this year that will
enable users to edit their footage
with nonlinear editing software
such as the Edius Neo 2 editing
software program.
www.grassvalley.com
New camera-top for this hot acquisition sector
3D for Telecast
100 times slower than live
I-MOVIX will launch SprintCam
Vvs HD, a new ultra-slow-motion
system for live HD broadcast
production. Featuring the
outstanding quality, performance
and usability of SprintCam
technology, SprintCam Vvs HD
operates at frame rates from 25
to 2,500fps (up to 100 times
slower than the live action) and
provides instant replay at native
HD resolution and image quality.
Two versions of the SprintCam
Vvs HD are offered: a standard
camera version, or optimised for
shoulder-mounted portable
shooting, providing an
unprecedented level of
convenience and creativity in
ultra-slow-motion action.
I-MOVIX will also show a new
version of the SprintCam V3 HD,
with enhanced functionality
including image capture at frame
rates of between 150 to 2,000fps.
C4644 Belgian Pavilion
By Fergal Ringrose
SWIT monitor for DSLRs
By David Fox
SWIT is releasing a new 7-inch
camera-top monitor S-1070C series
(pictured) at NAB. With a portable,
light-weight design, this monitor is
considered a perfect solution for
DSLR and video professionals. It
offers HDMI, composite video,
2-channel audio and an easy operation menu — allowing a power of
different battery plates or 4-pin
XLR power jacket.
The optional cold-shoe bracket
makes it very easy to fix on the
DSLR cameras. SWIT’s competitve prices allow cameramen
to invest in their cameras. A
smaller size of 4.8-inch (S-1048C
series) will be also added on this
range at NAB.
A new Red compatible battery/charger set has been ready
for delivery since February. The
D-8161S battery pack can work
for more than three hours on Red
cameras. Both the rear and onscreen LCD can display the
remaining capacity as a numeric
percentage. Also, the SWIT battery watch D-4200 can read the
accurate working time for the battery. The upgraded D-3004S
charger can display charging status and full information of Red
original batteries.
C11428
Telecast Fiber Systems will demonstrate fibre-optic technology that
powers the state-of-the-art 3D
cameras used in many of today’s
most exciting motion picture and
sports productions. Using Telecast
Fiber Systems technology, 3D
camera engineers have devised a
system that enables the controlling
electronics to be decoupled from
the camera lenses. Connected by a
fibre link, the lenses can be
deployed far away from the electronics for difficult shots such as
undersea scenes, and can be
controlled independently of each
other to create the highly realistic,
stereoscopic 3D effects that are
rapidly transforming movie-making
and audience expectations.
Making its NAB debut is
the patent-pending TeleCube
Modular Media Interface (MMI)
family of 3G transmitter and
receiver modules. Developed
specifically for OEM applications,
the TeleCube MMI system offers
broadcasters a highly flexible, costeffective I/O solution for distribution of HD/SDI signals via fibre
optics as well as copper cable.
Combining a number of features
such as lasers, detectors, EQ, and
state-of-the-art line drivers and
receivers in a compact, integrated
package, each TeleCube MMI
module allows a single I/O port to
be configured as an input or output for either fibre or copper.
C8925
Autocue displays Talent
Autocue is launching the second
generation of QMaster and
QBox, claimed to be the world’s
only IP-based prompting system. The new release includes
much faster rundown load times,
an easy installation wizard,
pre-configured studio and field
profiles, and full complex language handling.
To complete the system,
Autocue is also launching a new
battery-powered wireless foot
control and USB versions of its
existing hand controllers. CEO
Frank Hyman said, “A lot of big
US networks are asking talent to
control the scrolling of the script
to help reduce costs. The new
wireless foot control solution
meets this need whilst offering
studios a lot of flexibility in set up
and configuration.”
The first generation of
QMaster/QBox first launched at
NAB 2007, and has since been
sold extensively to major broadcast networks throughout the
world. Three years on it remains a
unique product, and Autocue has
been able to incorporate extensive
customer feedback into the second generation release.
C9921
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29/3/10
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THE STANDARD
HDTV
CONNECTOR
New high-end LCD
monitor from Barco
By Fergal Ringrose
3K.93C HDTV
connection system
Professional broadcast’s
preferred choice
Hybrid configuration
- 2 fibre optic contacts
- 2 power contacts
- 2 signal contacts
Conforms to standards :
ARIB / SMPTE / EBU
Over 20’000 mating cycles
Cable assembly service
Sony Green Partner
Pre-terminated
contacts
No epoxy - no polish
Easy and fast assembly
Field repair kit available
SEE US AT BOOTH C9012
NABSHOW- LAS VEGAS
12-15 APRIL 2010
Triax to fibre optic
converter
LEMO SA - Switzerland
Phone : +41 21 695 16 00
Fax : +41 21 695 16 02
info@lemo.com
Contact your local partner on www.lemo.com
34
At this year’s NAB Show Barco will premiere the RHDM-1701, its new 17-inch high
definition reference monitor. This display
solution is a compact version of the 23-inch
large RHDM-2301, which has proven its
quality since its first market appearance two
years ago. The 17-inch version was developed to a specific market demand for a high
definition reference monitor that brings the
same quality to more confined spaces – fitting into 19-inch racks.
As a true Grade-1 LCD display, the
RHDM-1701 offers the colour accuracy
demanded by professionals. Advanced calibration and stabilisation technology keep the
colours lasting, ensuring an accurate reference.
The motion handling system prevents
motion blur and produces CRT-like quality.
And a native 10-bit panel, calibrated RGBLED backlights and 48-bit processing
guarantee high colour accuracy.
The compact nature of the RHDM1701 makes this monitor with full HD resolution ideal for camera shading and use in
OB vans — or basically anywhere a reference monitor is needed and space is limited.
SL3314
New Harris tools across the chain
By Fergal Ringrose
Supporting up to four SD/HD- or SD-only
channels, the Harris Nexio Volt video server
brings high-channel density, space savings
and lower cost of ownership to the Nexio
product family. Built on the same platform
as the Nexio AMP advanced media platform, Nexio Volt provides SD and HD
baseband I/O and direct access to the Nexio
shared storage network in a slim-line,
1RU package.
The Harris Videotek VMM-4SNY
module is the first integrated, professional
test and measurement device for Sony LCD
monitors (LMD-2450W, LMD-2050W,
LMD-4250W, LMD-2451W, BVM-L170,
PVM-L2300 and BVM-L230) — providing
a cost-effective alternative to test equipment housed in separate rackmount units.
Offering HD/SD-SDI capabilities and
optional 3G-SDI, the VMM-4SNY module enables waveform, vector, gamut, timing, picture, alarms or audio to be viewed
in a quadrant or as individual full-screen
displays and can meter 16 channels of
embedded audio. Functional control is
enabled through a standard Ethernet connection via a Web browser or an optional
remote control panel (RCU-CMS).
The new Inscriber G5 is easily incorporated into any automated, live sports broadcast environment via the industry-standard
Intelligent Interface, MOS protocols, or the
new Harris Direct Control 2 interface. The
3RU G5 delivers flawless 2D and 3D realtime
graphics on a single channel in SD or HD, as
well as 3D scene playback capability.
Also new is Inscriber G-Flow, a toolkit
of applications that enable broadcasters to
integrate complex graphics into popular
NLE editing platforms. With Inscriber GFlow, graphics designed for live broadcasts
can be re-used quickly and easily in the
broadcaster’s preferred NLE environment.
Finally, the X50 converter/synchroniser
is a cost-effective, single-channel platform
that delivers the quality and functionality
that defines the series of Harris 1RU processors. The X50 offers integrated colour correction as standard and optional 3Gbps and
fibre-optic I/O. Other features include up-,
down- and cross-conversion, eight analogue
and four AES inputs and outputs, 16 channels of embedded audio processing, control
and monitoring via a built-in web server,
support for AFD and two fully controllable
aspect ratio converters.
www.harris.com
29/3/10
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MediorNet US debut and Virtual Panel for Artist
Riedel makes NAB changes
By Andy Stout
Besides several products to be
announced at NAB, Riedel is introducing the new and free Artist
VCP-1004 Virtual Panel, the
MADI and RockNet MediorNet
cards as well as the software-based
Framestore feature for MediorNet
to the american markets at NAB.
The Riedel MediorNet is the
first step into an innovative new
age of fibre-based realtime signal
transport solutions for uncompressed multichannel HD/SD
video, audio, intercom and data.
MediorNet combines signal transport, routing and signal processing
and conversion into one integrated
realtime network. MediorNet is
not designed just for simple pointto-point links but offers a real network solution. This includes signal
routing, allowing the user to send
any incoming signal to any output
or even to multiple outputs by just
a mouse-click or, even more conveniently, by a router control system.
The new and free Riedel Artist
VCP-1004 Virtual Panel allows a
regular computer to be used as an
intercom control panel in combination with any Artist digital matrix
intercom system. Computers running the Virtual Panel can be
integrated via a wired or a wireless
Ethernet connection into the matrix.
The communication between matrix
and virtual panel is realised via the
VoIP-108 G2 client card.
The new Riedel Virtual Panel
features four talk-keys and a shift-
key to double the number of available keys. The panel provides the
same signalisation as regular Artist
1000 series control panels. The user
operates the Virtual Panel with the
computer‘s keyboard and mouse.
The panel‘s audio input and output
is implemented with the audio interface of the computer.
www.riedel.net.
SAN storage
During the 2010 NAB, SAN
Solutions will showcase the company’s new ArtiSAN storage platform and ArtiSAN application
platform. Both products extend
SAN Solutions’ ability to offer
media infrastructure solutions at a
price point for every budget. The
new ArtiSAN platforms will be
integrated with the company’s existing SAN offerings, and will be on
display at the SAN Solutions booth
(SL2327) throughout the Show.
Designed for small workgroup
media production environments, the
new ArtiSAN Storage Platform is a
direct descendant of the high-end
systems found in most SAN
Solutions’ implementations. The
ArtiSAN Storage Platform is configured with either 450GB SAS
drives, 600GB SAS drives, or classleading 2TB SATA drives, all in a
compact, 16-slot, 3RU enclosure.
All RAID formats are supported
including RAID5 and RAID6.
ArtiSAN Storage Platform offers
enterprise-class features such as 4x
8Gb Fibre Channel host ports, activeactive controllers, global hot-sparing,
dual redundant power supplies, automatic call-home break-fix repair, and
three-year, 24/7 on-site support plans.
SL2327
35
29/3/10
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NEWS
IN BRIEF
New PAG LED dimmer
PAG, the camera power and
lighting specialist, is using NAB
2010 to launch a new plug-in LED
Dimmer option for its widely
adopted Paglight broadcast
camera light. Improvements in
LED technology, coupled with the
increasing demand for low
power-consumption camera
lighting, have led PAG to create a
plug-in LED option for its 12V
broadcast Paglight.
Paglight has an individual design
concept: one light that embraces
a range of lighting technologies
by allowing separate lamp holders
to be plugged into the rear of the
lamp head. This has enabled PAG
to create the first halogen, HMI
and now LED camera light — one
light that provides the correct
method of illumination for any
professional newsgathering or
film production situation.
The Paglight LED Dimmer unit
has an output of 850 lux at 2m.
The impressive intensity of light
over distance has been achieved
by a design that focuses the
output of the emitters, using an
integrated lens, and by
suspending this system within the
parabolic reflector of the Paglight.
www.paguk.com
Stream flows on
for Digital Rapids
By Fergal Ringrose
Digital Rapids has unveiled a
powerful new version of the Stream
software for the company’s
StreamZ, StreamZHD and DRCStream encoding and live streaming
systems. Available immediately, new
features in Stream version 3.2
include advanced encoding for
adaptive streaming to Apple iPhone
mobile devices; expanded format
support including JPEG2000 video
and Dolby Pulse audio; enhanced
encoding of content for Sony
PlayStation 3 and other Sony
devices; Microsoft PlayReady technology for protection of Microsoft
Internet Information Services (IIS)
Smooth
Streaming
content;
enhanced IIS Smooth Streaming;
and YouTube Content ID reference
file generation.
A new optional module for
Stream 3.2 adds enhanced capabilities for encoding content for
live and on-demand viewing on
iPhone mobile devices and iPod
touch personal media players. The
iPhone module’s integrated segmenting capabilities provide full
support for HTTP-based adaptive
bit rate delivery to the iPhone
while eliminating the need for an
external stream segmenter, simplifying encoding workflows and
reducing overall system costs.
Stream 3.2 enables encoding
and decoding of the Motion
JPEG2000 format in powerful
and efficient workflows through a
new software option. Content can
be encoded into the JPEG2000
compression standard and output
as image sequences or wrapped in
an MXF container. Stream 3.2
provides full encoding support for
the JPEG2000 format’s ability to
combine multiple layers at progressively higher quality — from
visually ‘lossy’ to mathematically
lossless — within a single output.
Control your loudness: Dynamics
processing specialist Jünger Audio is
unveiling a new TV Audio Processor
at NAB (Booth SU7206). The device,
which is primarily designed for TV playout facilities, will provide loudness control, upmix and surround sound processing for
up to eight channels of audio. Peter Pörs, managing director of Jünger Audio, says: “This latest addition to our product
range fulfils the quality requirements set by major broadcasters around the world. Maintaining loudness consistency is now
a major issue for our industry and one that particularly affects playout facilities because they have absolutely no control
over the broadcasted content’s average operating levels. Our new processor is designed to solve this problem for them in a
very easy and cost effective way.” The wide band 8-channel processor (8x1, 4x2, or 6+2) focuses on automatic and
adaptive loudness control using Jünger Audio’s renowned Level Magic algorithm (ITU compliant). It also offers dynamic
filters so that the sound can be ‘coloured’ much more easily than one can achieve with a traditional multi band sound
processor. Optional Dolby Decoding and Encoding (D, D+, or Pulse), as well as metadata management, are also provided.
Bluebell set to mux
and demux at NAB
Pilat pleads its rights
SGO unveils new Mistika
By Andy Stout
SGO will be unveiling Mistika
Version 5.0 at NAB, revealing one
of the most significant software
releases to date, with a brand new
interface for maximum user
acceptability as well as a set of
new stereoscopic 3D and 2D tools.
Stereoscopic 3D is the buzzword
again this year and SGO’s Mistika
has been recognised as “the
most capable system in the
market for stereoscopic 3D
finishing” according to
Framestore’s Director of
Technology Steve Prescott.
British Sky Broadcasting
(BSkyB) has chosen Mistika as
a core system for its 3D channel
launch and utilised Mistika’s
stereoscopic finishing ability for
the channel’s 3D cinema advert
shown before Avatar.
SL4511
Based around the BC Series modular format, Bluebell is introducing the TDM-300 card to the
North American market at NAB.
Responding to the needs of
broadcasters to provide everincreasing numbers of feeds
between outside broadcast trucks
and across venues, the TDM-300
offers multiple broadcast services
on one singlemode fibre.
Fitting in a compact 60x100mm
footprint the TDM-300 multiplexes
four digital video streams including one HD signal plus eight analogue audio channels, RS232 and
RS422 onto a single optical wavelength. Cards can be supplied
with wavelengths providing bidirectional links over the same fibre
and low latency ensures that the
cards are ideally suited for live
broadcast applications.
N4019
The growth of linear and ondemand multiplatform deployment has made compliance with
contractual and regulatory obligations even more difficult. Pilat
Media is helping broadcasters
maximise their revenues while
remaining rights compliant with
a stand-alone centralised rights
management system, based on
proven IBMS features and technology. This new product covers
a complete set of services for
asset lifecycle management from
production through distribution
— applying centralised rights
management, contract management, deal management, and
asset finance.
With the new advanced rights
management system, users can
record contractual terms and assign
rights to centrally log and manage
the consumption and distribution
terms for all acquired or produced
Noisy signal. RF interference. End of range drop-outs.
Stop making excuses for poor performance of
your wireless intercom.
Tempest®2400 2.4GHz Digital Wireless Intercom Systems have been
proven and heard by audio experts like you. Tempest’s patented
wireless technology can tolerate crowded Wi-Fi environments; provide
exceptional coverage and range where most other wireless intercoms
fail; and combat noisy environments with high audio dynamic range.
Contact Clear-Com® today for a demonstration.
Your next production depends on clear communications.
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36
©2010 Vitec Group Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. ®Clear-Com is a registered
trademark of Vitec Group plc.Tempest is a registered trademark of CoachComm LLC.
content, both long form and short
form, across all types of services.
A comprehensive application programming interface (API) enables
integration with third-party systems
including linear scheduling systems,
on-demand storefront management
systems, internet content management systems, and media asset management systems.
Expanding the company’s commitment to building scalable and
responsive file-based operations,
Pilat Media is introducing an
advanced set of automation system
interfaces based upon BXF standards, initially for OmniBus automation systems. The highly dynamic
Web service interface handles the
synchronisation of schedules, playout, and plant routing between
IBMS and automation systems to
enable just-in-time changes up to airtime in file-based operations.
N5812
For audio, version 3.2 adds
optional support for the Dolby
Pulse codec. Dolby Pulse is a robust
High-Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC)
based technology designed for delivering high-quality multi-channel
content to TVs, computers, mobile
phones, and other entertainment
platforms, with metadata capabilities similar to those in Dolby Digital
and Dolby Digital Plus.
Stream 3.2 also features
enhanced encoding of media
compliant with the conformance
requirements of Sony PlayStation
3, PSP and other Sony consumer
devices. A new multiplexing
option, tailored to Sony specifications, also adds support for the
Sony BDN subtitling format,
text-to-picture subtitling from
RTF (Rich Text Files) and more.
SL6010
Civolution evolves
from Thomson
STS watermark
Civolution arrives at NAB for the
first time since it assumed full
ownership of the Thomson STS
watermarking business in July
2009. At NAB (Booth SU6502),
Civolution will be demonstrating its
newly integrated solution portfolio,
including NexGuard — PayTV &
Online; NexGuard — Pre-release;
Teletrax broadcast monitoring
and will be launching Mediahedge, a fingerprint-based content identification and management platform.
NexGuard — PayTV & Online
now includes the ability to embed
a watermark directly into the compressed and encrypted video bitstream. The resulting bit-stream
can be played back on the subscriber’s device or, if desired, can
be exported to a connected device.
Launching at NAB, Mediahedge is a fingerprint-based content identification and management platform. This new platform
enables media monetisation and
management applications such as
content filtering, airplay verification, asset management and metadata association for consumer
devices. Content owners or publishers can automatically identify
large volumes of content at the
time of upload and trigger predefined rules before copyrighted
material becomes publicly available. Rules can vary, ranging from
content being blocked before
online publication, re-directing
users to specific websites, to linking
content to targeted advertisements.
Teletrax is a broadcast monitoring solution that enables
video content owners to precisely
identify and monitor where,
when and how much content is
being aired. The latest functionality launched at NAB includes
new advances in fingerprinting
technology and a move from
proprietary to PC-based detection methods and file-based
embedding solutions.
29/3/10
14:04
Page 37
VSN unveils Mac platform
By Andy Stout
VSN will be presenting its latest
versions of the newsroom, MAM
and archive clients that can be
installed on Apple’s workstations.
The capability to integrate the VSN
solutions with Apple’s FinalCutPro
editing software is now reality.
Features like drag & drop between
different modules, specific plug-ins
to assign editing projects to a
playlist, and new attractive user
interfaces, will provide VSN customers with a greatly enhanced level
of flexibility to design their production architecture.
VSN will also introduce new client
versions for the traffic & scheduling
solution, vsncreaTV, and the powerful vsnIPTransfer, the ultimate IP content exchange tool, both of them running on the Mac and Windows platforms. The short-term target of the
company is to offer the complete set
of broadcast automation solutions in
a true multiplatform environment.
N4616
On the yellobrik road Virtual Fusion for Vinten Radamec
By Andy Stout
Lynx Technik, provider of signal
processing solutions for the broadcast and professional AV industries, will launch the new yellobrik
SDI to HDMI Converter, the
CDH 1811, at Booth N5011. The
CDH 1811 yellobrik is ideal for
converting any SDI video signal
(up to 3Gbps 1080p60) into a
standard HDMI signal for monitoring and display. It allows you to
easily connect HDMI displays to
SDI equipment.
This new yellobrik auto-detects
inputs and formats supporting
SDI video up to 3Gbps, includes
balanced or unbalanced line level
stereo analogue audio outputs, as
well AES outputs which can pass
through DolbyE. Two channels
of audio from the incoming video
signal can be de-embedded and
output as digital AES or analogue
audio, or embedded into the
HDMI output.
With the fibre transceiver
option, the CDH 1811 can be
used as an SDI fibre transmission
system with HDMI confidence
monitoring. It can also be used as
an SDI to fibre optic converter.
Unique to the CDH 1811
yellobrik is its selectable timecode
and metadata overlay mode,
which make the module ideal for
editing applications. The module
detects and displays timecode formats, indicates audio presence
and also detects the presence of
key metadata parameters in the
incoming SDI stream.
By David Fox
Vinten Radamec is launching a virtual reality enabled version of robotic
and manual pedestal. The Fusion
FP-188VR supports today’s studio
camera packages on Fusion heads
and has the ability to send precise
positioning data for use with VR sets.
Designed for automated studio operation the robotic pedestal senses its
location on the floor from a small,
L-shaped floor target that is unobtrusive and works on any surface.
Also showing is the LCS
Legislative Control System, now
shipping for use with the Radamec
431 and Autocam HS-102 heads, as
well as cost-effective robotic solutions for small studios. Technology
demonstrations on the NAB floor
will be incorporated into a dedicated VR set, showing Vinten Radamec
products working live with software
from leading graphics providers
including Brainstorm and Orad.
Vinten Radamec will also demonstrate its control systems for production. For the newsroom it will show
its ability to control third-party products, such as Telemetrics tracking
solutions and external cameras such
as the Canon weatherproof head.
C6025
Live 3DTV broadcast to stop you in your tracks
By Andy Stout
At NAB, Net Insight (Booth
SU3323) will demonstrate its ability
to transport high quality content
such as 3DTV and 4k HD with
unmatched QoS. The company will
also demonstrate its line of Nimbra
switches and modules that combine
the benefits of IP and optical transport for flexibility in media networking.Net Insight’s solutions are designed
to enhance media transport in an IP
centric world for video content, ensuring that its customers can guarantee
QoS for subscribers. With this
approach, Net Insight’s Nimbra
offers 97% bandwidth utilisation and
10% QoS guaranteed.
37
29/3/10
13:44
Page 38
Oasys finds partners in the desert
Oasys, Comprompter and Video
Technics will join forces at NAB to
demonstrate IT-based broadcast
workflow solutions, based on over
50 years of experience in the field.
Building on the joint marketing and
development agreements announced
at IBC 2009, the co-operation between
the companies now provides a product portfolio consisting of ingest, asset
management, editing, shared storage,
archive, newsroom automation, master control and automated playout.
These can be configured in a
variety of ways to create a com-
plete broadcast workflow of automation tools, or further integrated
with a huge range of other broadcast equipment and software, providing the ultimate in customer
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flexibility. Mark Errington, CEO
Oasys said, “Oasys, Video
Technics and Comprompter are
the true pioneers in the field of
automated live and pre-recorded
playout solutions. Despite many a
claim from legacy system manufacturers to be at the forefront of
a new revolution of IT-based
broadcast workflow, our companies have only ever developed ITbased solutions, and have a long
history of delivering integrated
workflows — unlike organisations
that have historically produced
legacy playout automation solutions and have only latterly changed
focus. Our experience, together
with proven price performance,
quality and unique features, puts us
squarely at the vanguard of this
growing market.”Ralph King,
president of Comprompter said,
“Together we prepare, produce,
and present a station’s newscasts
and other special programming
day in and day out.”
Fibre connectivity
to embedded audio
On Booth N820 Crystal Vision will
be showing for the first time the
fibre input and output options for
its latest embedded audio and up
and down modules. This integrated
fibre connectivity makes the UpDown 3G up/down/cross-converter,
Q-Down 3G down-converter,
Synner-E 3G multi-functional synchroniser and Tandem 3G embedder/de-embedder powerful products
which still only use a single slot in a
frame, and allows signals to be sent
and received from beyond the local
equipment bay without being
restricted by the cable length issues
posed by 3G video.
Up and down converters have
been Crystal Vision’s best-selling
products of the last year, and NAB
sees the addition to the range of
two new 3G versions.
Up-Down 3G allows flexible
up, down and cross conversions
between 3Gbps, HD and SD
sources and includes special features to allow studios to easily
operate in HD and SD at the
same time. The up conversions
available are 525i/625i to 720p/
1080i/1080p, 720p to 1080p, and
1080i to 1080p, the down conversions are 1080p to 1080i/720p/
625i/525i, 1080i to 625i/525i, and
720p to 625i/525i, and the cross
conversions are 1080i to 720p and
720p to 1080i.
Providing an output picture of
quality, Up-Down 3G offers the
choice of three processing options:
either Crystal Vision’s proprietary
short-delay down conversion,
motion adaptive video de-interlacing
up/down/cross conversion which
maximises the picture’s vertical resolution, or a matching delay.
25/02/2010 10:07:51
29/3/10
11:51
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29/3/10
11:44
Page 40
Broadcast Pix turns iPad to control panel
By Fergal Ringrose
The new Apple iPad is about to
become a fully functional live video
production system control panel.
Broadcast Pix has announced
iPixPanel, an application that will
allow an iPad to control any of its
Slate video production systems.
The iPixPanel combines the iPad’s
touch screen and wireless control
with a Slate panel’s feedback,
which shows device and file name
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Integrated cable bend relief
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Integrated connector and
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on the panel’s buttons, helping
users to create engaging live video.
The iPixPanel application is
expected to be available for download
at Apple’s App Store for $195 this
month. The iPixPanel will be able to
control every aspect of a video production, including switching cameras,
adding graphics and clips, controlling
robotic cameras, and creating special
effects like an interview with dual
picture-in-picture. It is ideal for
entry-level Broadcast Pix systems,
such as the Slate 100.
Broadcast Pix will also introduce
Granite, a native HD 1080p-ready
live video production system. The
new flagship product line for
Broadcast Pix, Granite combines
the company’s Fluent workflow
software with a new HD switcher
and HD server.
The Granite Switcher provides
simultaneous multi-definition SDI
I/O for 1080i, 720p, and SD sources
— and is upgradable to 1080p. The
companion Granite Server completes the video production system
by running Fluent workflow software, which provides up to 120
hours of clip store, a graphics system
with a new Harris CG, a multi-view
that displays video and file sources,
watch-folders that streamline file
import from editing systems, and
macros for file-based effects.
N4506
Autoscript through the Xbox
it can power twice as many oncamera units, and also features a
smooth on-screen scroll on the
computer screen — eliminating
the need for an external preview
monitor. The video output is
standard composite PAL or
NTSC and is compatible with all
Autoscript on-camera units.
The X-Lite, which replaces the
WinPlus VGA unit, is an entrylevel prompting tool which incorporates one output, and is suitable for simple pieces to camera
and for educational purposes.
By David Fox
Vitec Group brand Autoscript
will present a range of high performance prompting solutions on
Booth C6025. Demonstrations
will include high brightness LED
TFT flat screens, and the first fullyfeatured demonstrations in the
US of the Xbox Ultra and X-Lite
portable prompting systems.
Autoscript’s LED TFT flat
screens utilise recent advances in
New power supply options
Continued expansion of Dionic range
Anton/Bauer, a brand of The
Vitec Group, will introduce an
addition to its Dionic HC battery
line at NAB 2010 (Booth C6025).
The company, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year,
will also debut the Tandem 150
modular power system and its
new ULHM-LED and EledZ
LED light solutions.
With last year’s launch of the
Dionic HC 91 watt-hour battery,
Anton/Bauer continues its expansion of the Dionic HC series. With
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40
LED technology to provide superior brightness, higher contrast
levels, improved reliability and
energy efficiency.
Based on the successful Xbox
USB external box solution, the
Xbox Ultra connects via USB
port to a laptop or PC and provides enhanced features and
capabilities which make it particularly useful for portable prompting. Now featuring four outputs,
By David Fox
new features for maximum powersaving, this battery can be stored
for years without losing capacity.
Making its NAB debut, the
Tandem 150 brings users more power
supply options during on-location
or outdoor shoots. Weighing just
one pound, the Tandem 150 unit is
claimed to be the smallest and lightest charger and on-camera power
supply available on the market. This
fully automatic system functions by
separating the Gold Mount device
(QR-TM) from the power supply
Mode-Al racks it up at NAB
Mode-AL will launch Speed Rack
19, a way to mount 19-inch rack
equipment via NIRA (NonInverting Right Angle) adaptor
onto a 19-inch rack cabinet. Any
19-inch rack with bolt-on rack
strips can be changed over to
Speed Rack 19 by unbolting the
strip and replacing it with the
Speed Rack equivalent.
The simplification of Speed
Rack 19 rack mounting enables
specifiers/designers to place equipment in the optimum location and
have the confidence that no additional supports or brackets will be
needed, enabling faster design and
much tighter cost control.
Equipment manufactures benefit from the simplification and significant cost reduction of casework
designs, the front of the equipment
enclosure now being non-structural
allowing for the creation of signifi-
(PSU-150), allowing a user to simultaneously charge a battery and power
a camera.
Anton/Bauer’s EledZ and
ULHM-LED lights will be making their first NAB appearance.
Developed with sister Vitec
brand Litepanels, these LED
light
modules
complement
Anton/Bauer’s existing UltraLight
Series and ElipZ battery systems.
Both lights are designed to maximise HD camera battery run
time by successfully cutting down
the total power consumption of a
user’s lights.
cantly more flexible layouts and the
ability to have interchangeable
fronts for badge engineering.
Rack builders stand to benefit
from Speed Rack 19 due to greatly
reduced build, strip down, and
onsite installation time, thereby
providing increased cost control
because equipment fits where it is
meant to the first time. Machine
rooms benefit because there are
no tools required. Planned or
unscheduled maintenance is also
much simpler, greatly reducing
downtime and saving money.
C3846
29/3/10
11:44
Page 41
XS and Xedio from EVS
EVS is expanding its range of
servers and software systems for
live and OB productions. With two
new servers, integrated graphics
and on-the-fly editing solutions,
EVS is able to fulfil the needs of all
producers; whether they require
stand alone operations or fully
integrated workflows for the most
demanding productions.
For studio producers that are
looking for a clever and reliable
alternative to tape EVS offers XS,
a high-performing recording and
playout server that guarantees
swift and productive workflows
that are fully integrated with
third-party systems.
Xedio is a software-based
solution designed for fast news
and sports productions, which
can adapt to any type of multiformat HD/SD broadcast workflow, including feed acquisition,
file ingest without transcoding,
virtual production and editing,
central media management as
well as direct playout with no
need for prior rendering. Xedio’s
unique level of integration with
third-party systems makes it
adaptable to any infrastructure.
With live 3D becoming a
reality, EVS is also demonstrating the 3D capabilities of its
XT[2]+ production server used
at worldwide flagship events
for live 3D replays, editing and
slow-motion actions.
www.evs.tv
Metadata Grab
Anystream/Grab Networks will
highlight its new automated metadata packaging solution designed to
address the growing challenges
around adapting and transforming
metadata to meet the specific requirements of each unique platform and
distribution outlet. In most workflows, metadata remains one of the
most problematic areas, requiring
much manual intervention, limiting
the ability to cost-effectively capitalise on the growing opportunity of
multi-platform business models.
This new solution is an extension to the Agility platform and
automates the packaging of both
metadata and media to enable a
cost effective, scalable, and automated process for delivering full
content packages to a growing
number of syndication outlets and
platforms from a single video and
metadata source.
SL2010
Together: Cooke
and Angenieux
Cooke Optics and Thales Angenieux
are set to announce a working partnership at the show. Both companies
have track records for innovation and
development in the field of acquisition, and the partnership announcement underlines each company’s
drive to bring the best technology to
the film community.
“We have a great respect for
Cooke Optics’history and their focus
on the future, which our respective
companies share,” said Philippe
Parain, managing director, Thales
Angenieux. “By joining forces on this
exciting project, we are bringing
together two of the film industry’s
most experienced names to enhance
the film workflow process.”
“We have known the team at
Thales Angenieux for a long time,
and it is a delight to be working
closely with them on this new project,” said Les Zellan, Chairman,
Cooke Optics. “Working together
can only strengthen our offering to
our customers.”
Visitors to NAB 2010 can find
out more by visiting the Cooke
Optics and Thales Angenieux
booths during the show. In addition, Cooke will be demonstrating its new 5/i Prime lenses and
the Panchro by Cooke Series,
which were launched at IBC
2009, as well as the iconic Cooke
4/i Prime lenses.
Cooke Optics C5347
Thales Angenieux C6037
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29/3/10
11:32
Page 1
29/3/10
11:44
Page 43
Ericsson compression efficiency
At NAB (Booth SU3308)
Ericsson will demonstrate how
the migration towards an allhigh definitin television universe
is more realistic than ever before.
The company will debut a number of products that will enable
more and better HDTV throughout the content to consumer
delivery chain.
The new Ericsson CE-xH42
contribution encoder provides
broadcasters and operators with
the highest video quality and
compression efficiency in the
most feature-rich and futureproof 1RU platform on the market. The MPEG-4 AVC HD 4:2:2
encoder delivers the highest contribution video quality, enabling
broadcasters to capture and
IPTV Remote, a new device for controlling media through the home
Canon adopts new recording codec
Working with Adobe, Apple, Avid and Grass
Canon USA has adopted an
MPEG-2 Full HD (4:2:2) filebased recording codec for a new
professional video camera currently under development. The
new Canon MPEG-2 codec will
enable high-quality imaging and
audio performance with up to
50Mbps data recording and twice
the colour data of the HDV*1
profile format.
File-based recording helps
video operations realise greater
efficiencies during post production,
By Fergal Ringrose
making it an ideal format for many
industry applications such as
newsgathering, documentary filmmaking and event videography.
The adoption of MPEG-2 Full
HD (MPEG-2 4:2:2P@HL compliant) compression enables the
archive pristine HD content.
Combined with Ericsson’s new
MPEG-4 AVC contribution
receiver, the RX8200, the CExH42 delivers the first true system solution for HD MPEG-4
AVC contribution.
Benefits include future-proof
3Gbps hardware with a software
upgrade path to enhanced
features; exceptional encoding
efficiency allows for migration
of the highest end MPEG-2
high definition 4:2:2 links to
MPEG-4 AVC; stand-alone box
operations for point-to-point
links; and an integral part of
Cortex-2 or Director systems
for expanding telco or satellite
contribution and also for distribution networks
The WatchPoint Content
Management System (CMS) by
Ericsson is a metadata and content library designed for the centralised management of any
metadata format, content type,
and any workflow process. The
system enables visibility of the
content that enters the library
throughout the content lifecycle.
NAB will also be the US debut
of the Ericsson IPTV Remote
(left), a new device for controlling
the TV and other media devices
throughout the connected home.
The innovative device is a single
interface for controlling internet
video, the TV, both live and ondemand, the PC and the mobile
phone in the home. It also provides a second screen for previewing content, exploring program
guides, browsing the web and
chatting with friends and family
without a distracting window on
the TV screen.
recording of 1,920 x 1,080-pixel
full high definition video.
Additionally, compared with the
4:2:0 profile format used in HDV
and other standards, 4:2:2 colour
sampling offers twice the volume
of colour data, providing double
the level of colour resolution.
To support the swift adoption of
its new recording codec, Canon is
working in cooperation with Adobe
Systems Apple, Avid Technology,
and Grass Valley to ensure
compatibility with major editing
and processing software programs
widely used within the video imaging industry. Additionally, at future
industry events, Canon intends to
demonstrate the overall video production workflow, from initial
video capture to clip-trimming and
final editing, with video clips stored
in a file-based recording system
and using industry-standard software applications.
C4325
43
29/3/10
11:45
Page 44
DVS innovation for
post and broadcast
By Fergal Ringrose
At booth SL3305, DVS will
highlight its current product portfolio for post production and
broadcast. Presenting Clipster’s
advancements in 3D, DCI, and
digital acquisition, DVS also
showcases Venice’s latest feature
developments. For the first time at
NAB, DVS unveils the SpycerBox
Ultra storage solution, Fuze
for digital cinema delivery and
Atomix, DVS’s newest addition to
its family of video boards.
Just one year after its launch,
DVS’s multichannel video server
Venice is enhanced with new features.
Venice enables realtime capture and
playout of compressed formats, and
is equipped with a vast feature set that
includes four independent video
channels, playlists, intelligent global
presets and native support for
Panasonic’s AVC-Intra. With its
HD/SD video playout blended with realtime 3D graphics
Orad Blend joins channel
in a box TV solution mix
Orad will enhance its offering to
the TV broadcasting market with
the new Blend channel in a box
solution. Blend is a cost effective
solution that is set to address
today’s workflow challenges by
providing HD/SD video playout
coupled with 3D real time graphics
in a single box.
44
With Blend, a channel dedicated to video clips playback and a
channel dedicated to graphics playout coexist. Both channels are controlled from the same user interface
by a single operator, dramatically
reducing operational costs.
As a file-based video server,
Blend enables broadcasters to rely
extensive playlist support, the video
server even handles VDCP. At NAB
2010, DVS presents Venice’s new
transcoding mode, its extended support of compressed formats, and
numerous workflow improvements.
With Venice, the transition to tapeless
broadcast and post workflows has
never been easier.
For the first time at NAB, DVS
is showcasing SpycerBox Ultra. The
ultra fast storage solution can be tailored to meet each client’s specific
workflow requirements. Configured
as a NAS or ‘SAN in a Box’ solution, SpycerBox Ultra is offered
with the choice of high performance
SAS or high capacity SATA drives,
with 14.4TB and up to 48TB of
storage, respectively.
on all commonly used file formats,
codecs and wrappers. Clips can be
played back in SD, HD and even
uncompressed HD is supported,
and can be copied to the local storage while on air without disturbing
the current playout. In addition,
with Blend, broadcasters can choose
to trigger clips’ playback either manually or from automation using standard VDCP protocol.
Blend provides broadcasts with
full use of graphic elements such as
multiple tickers, lower thirds, full
frames, and animated logos to graphics without requiring scripting or programming. Blend’s video output can
be captured by its graphic playout.
SL 2014
With Atomix, DVS is unveiling a new line of cutting-edge
video boards. It not only has
support for 4k resolution in realtime, but also includes full 4k
processing in realtime.
Callisto leads Brick House offering
Previewing at NAB will be the HD
version of Callisto Micro, possibly
the smallest SDI switcher on
the market. Callisto Micro-HD
features four asynchronous HD
inputs, multiple program/preview
and monitoring outputs, 12V operation and a very small footprint.
Callisto Micro-HD is designed
especially for mobile crews, helicopter
operators and other users for whom
space, weight and ease of use are at a
premium. The switcher will also be
offering an on-board web server as
part of BHV’s policy to make all of
its products controllable over IP.
From NAB onwards, Syntax will
be shipping with an on-board web
server and Ethernet port for remote
control. Enhancements to this broadcast specification converter will include
analogue video inputs and 3G capability. The Proteus multi-format, multipurpose converter will be shown with
new detail enhancement. Based on an
advanced motion adaptive standards
converter. Proteus offers full format
conversion, frame synchronising,
TBC, video and audio proc amps,
audio delay and aspect ratio conversion as well as bi-directional standards (rate) conversion.
29/3/10
11:45
Page 45
Two new Miranda brands
external graphics devices with fill/
key outputs. Graphics capabilities
include automated character generation and EAS insertion, as well as
clock and temperature insertion.
The Imagestore-Modular variant is similar but it does not include
the integrated clip playout. It’s a single card, 3Gbps/HD/SD processor,
which offers up to 10 channels of
master control switching and channel branding in a 3RU Densité
frame. Master control features
include AB video/audio mixing (16
channels) plus voice-overs. Designed
Lawo AG | Rastatt / Germany
Miranda Technologies is launching two low cost, high performance master control switching
and channel branding systems
at NAB (North Hall, 2515),
called Imagestore-Modular+ and
Imagestore-Modular.
Imagestore-Modular+ offers
the full breadth of channel branding capabilities, including clip/
animation playout for advanced
graphics effects. This HD/SD
processor can provide up to 80
minutes of clip playout for partial
or full frame branding and promo
graphics. It uses a space and energy efficient, dual card design, with
up to four channels housed in a
single 3RU Densite frame.
The processor is designed for
pre-rendered graphics, and can provide up to five layers of keying.
Three layers can be fed by internally
stored stills/animations, one layer
is for clips, and one layer is for
for pre-rendered graphics, it can
provide five layers of keying (using
three internal stores), character
generation and EAS, as well as
clock and temperature insertion.
Imagestore-Modular can be controlled via automation using the
widely adopted Oxtel protocol, and
by manual control using the
PresStation master control panel or
the compact Branding Panel.
NAB Playtime
for Mediator
For NAB 2010, Pharos will be
demonstrating the latest version
of its Mediator broadcast workflow management platform,
which now includes Playtime
automation options within a
highly integrated solution aimed
at improving operational efficiency and driving down costs.
For its ninth year attending the
event in Las Vegas, Pharos will
show full integration of Playtime
into Mediator 4, providing a functionally advanced broadcast
automation system that helps
broadcasters and service providers
publish content for both traditional
channels and new media. Mediator
4 now has the ability to separately
manage presentation requirements
and content independently based
on schedule priority and media
management workflows.
Additional enhancements to
Mediator 4 include an advanced
metadata system allowing information to be added as new delivery
platforms such as On Demand,
.com, podcasting and mobile are
launched. Combined with detailed
workflow analytics, ongoing system
optimisation and maintenance can
finally keep pace with a constantly
evolving business environment.
Pharos Mediator is built
around the Enterprise Service
Bus (ESB) concept to aid speedy
implementation and to provide
flexibility for future products and
services. Key elements such as the
Mediator interface, device control, workflow and messaging are
designed based on the best tools
for the job and include Oracle,
Java, Flash and key industry standards such as MXF and BXF.
To create a masterpiece,
sometimes it only takes a simple tool.
mc²56 – Performance, pure and simple. A reduced
control surface with maximum performance from the system core –
these advantages of the latest mixing console from Lawo will really
impress you. With the mc²56, not only do you benefit from the wellknown highlights of the mc² family – powerful HD core, absolute reliability
and innovative features – you also benefit from the console’s intuitive user
guidance system, which guarantees unprecedented ease of use. The
worldwide success of mc² quality, paired with groundbreaking functionality – just two of the features that make an mc²56 the perfect
tool for daily broadcasting. For further information visit www.lawo.de
Visit Lawo at the NAB 2010
Las Vegas, April 12 – 15, Central Hall, Booth C2271
www.pharos.com
45
TVBE_April P46-54 Business
29/3/10
11:50
Page 46
TVBEU R O PE T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E
Vinten 100 not out
Vinten was a family
business for much of the
20th century. William was
supported by his wife
Ellen and four of their
five children, who decided to join the company.
Bill Vinten Junior trained
as a mechanical engineer
and went on to have an
important influence on
the later development of
the company and its
product ranges.
For a while he left the
fold and forged a career as
a film lighting technician
and camera operator. Bill
and his elder brother
Charles, who became MD
and a lead designer on
their father’s death, had
a “stormy relationship”,
which doubtless caused the
kerfuffle that led to the
younger sibling’s departure.
Bill Vinten served with
the Royal Navy Film Unit
during the War and after
demob spent six years at
J Arthur Rank’s Gate
Studios. Vinten also made
a name for himself lighting for television and during the early 1950s worked
with High Definition
Films Limited, which
developed a TV system
that transmitted 24fps
35mm footage on a 834 or
625 lines screen.
Making Light Work
Photon Beard is a major provider of studio and portable lighting
for the professional broadcast market worldwide, as a result of the
proven build quality and reliability of our equipment. With our
recent growth, we are now in a position where we are continually
developing new innovative products, all designed and manufactured
at our UK factory.
Our most recent introduction is a range of compact Tungsten
studio Fresnels, from 300W to 2kW, featuring our customary
dependable design and construction, and incorporating an
innovative application of lamp technology and optical design.
Full details of our extensive range of fluorescent and tungsten
lighting, and our studio design and installation service are
available from our website.
William Charles Vinten established a business in 1910 for ‘gear
cutting, engraving, small accurate die and press toolmaking’
N
EW
There is a strong tradition of engineering in
the UK, not just the big, nation-building things
like bridges, tunnels and railways but smaller
and more specialised constructions as well.
Vinten fits into the second category and over
the past 100 years has become firmly
established in television, supporting
programme making in the most literal sense
with its camera pedestals, cranes and moving
heads. Kevin Hilton reports
www.photonbeard.com
Se e u
s at
NAB
Sta
nd C3
2
46
Unit K3, Cherry Court Way, Stanbridge Road,
Leighton Buzzard,Bedfordshire, LU7 4UH, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0)1525 850911 Fax: +44 (0)1525 850922
info@photonbeard.com
46
W Vinten was founded in 1910 by William
Charles Vinten, a “very creative engineer”
in the words of his son Bill. Over the course
of the manufacturer’s first 25 years
Vinten Senior produced a huge range of
products, usually saying that he would
make anything.
The portfolio has changed over the
years and while traditional engineering values are still at the heart of what Vinten
does, there is more reliance on electronics
today. But, as the present managing director, Roger Wilson, says, whatever the means
of production and operation Vinten products are used around the world to enable
“the art of broadcasting”.
W Vinten was established as a ‘gear cutting, engraving, small accurate die and
press toolmaker’ and its first order was taken on 7 January 1910. This was for 25
‘Kinemacolor Machines (heavy type)’ at
£25 each, ordered by cinema pioneer
Charles Urban, who had given Vinten the
opportunity to run his own workshops.
Into television
By 1952 UK film production was heading into a
slump. Vinten went back to the family company and eventually assumed responsibility
for its technical direction. Up to that time
the firm had been heavily involved with cinema but had diversified into other areas,
including reconnaissance equipment during the War and TV.
Vinten saw an opportunity at the BBC,
which at the time didn’t have equipment
designed specifically for TV. Vinten adapted
dollies and pedestals to produce specific
TV systems, including the Pathfinder MkII
dolly, known as the Marconi, the HydroPneumatic pedestal and the MkIII pan and
tilt head.
This took Vinten away from film,
although the reconnaissance/military
business continued in parallel. Bill Vinten
does not claim any great foresight in this,
saying he and the company were in the
right position with the right experience to
meet the demand. “We had the creative
engineering talent,” he says, “but I didn’t
say ‘We must take the company into TV’,
it was the BBC asking for equipment and
we responded.”
Vinten’s products have changed over the
years but the most significant change came
during the 1980s with the introduction of
remote controlled robotic camera systems.
Vinten was at the forefront of this trend,
designing systems for the BBC and ultimately forming a new brand by combining
its heads and pedestals with the electronics
of Radamec Broadcast Robotics.
29/3/10
18:27
Page 47
Vinten as a company has also
grown and changed considerably. The workshops moved
from Wardour Street to
Cricklewood
in
northwest
London and then, in 1964, to
Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk,
where the company still has its
headquarters. Vinten remembers
that the new factory housed 20
to 30 operators working at lathes
and other machinery. Now, he
says, there are only five to six
automatic machines that produce the entire product range.
“It’s a different world from 50
years ago,” he observes.
One step ahead
The company floated on the
Stock Exchange in the early 1970s
and in 1988 was split into two separate entities; Vinten Broadcast
to concentrate on the TV market
and W Vinten Limited (now
Thales Optronics) for the military
products. Between 1989 and 1995
the Vinten Group bought several
signified a total break with the
past following Bill Vinten’s retirement in 1992, aged 72.
Roger Wilson, who became
MD of Vinten two and a half
years ago, is keen to respect the
heritage of the company but
feels that “moving on to the next
generation” is also important.
“We want the products to develop,” he says, “and there is the
whole area of virtual reality and
integrating with graphics environments that needs to be
addressed. The way TV is made
is developing as well and we have
to respond to that, which is why
we have new versions of pan and
tilt heads, for example, that have
encoders built in.”
Vinten’s’ products have continued to develop, from those
built by William Senior and
Charles to the near-iconic
Kestrel, Dunlin, Merlin and
Fulmar pedestals and heads produced under Bill Junior. (He
explains that the trend for
On the issue of ownership Roger Wilson comments
that the ‘Vi’ in Vitec comes from Vinten, with
each member of the group being autonomous
companies in the broadcast
support
market,
including
Manfrotto, Bexel, Gitzo and
Sachtler. At the end of this period the group was renamed Vitec
plc, which in some respects also
ornithological naming came
partly from his interest in bird
watching but also because the
names stood out, rather than
being merely “the MkII” or a
serial number.)
The Osprey survives in the
Vinten catalogue today but it is
surround by more pragmatic or
marketingese appellations: the
Pro5 Plus system, the Quattro L
pedestal and the Vector 950
active pan and tilt head. Wilson
says the intention is to stay one
step ahead of the competition
and meet market demands.
Despite the recession Vinten
recently invested £2 million in
new milling machines at the Bury
St Edmunds factory to secure its
position in the market.
There is often concern that
smaller, specialised companies
of whatever nationality can be
swallowed up by big conglomerates, which usually move
production to somewhere else to
reduce costs. Vinten has a manufacturing facility in Costa
Rica, which is used for higher
volume production, although
Wilson stresses it matches the
factory in the UK. On the issue
of ownership Wilson comments
that the ‘Vi’ in Vitec comes from
Vinten, with each member of the
group being autonomous.
There are plans to launch
new products to mark Vinten’s
100 years but these were being
kept under wraps in the run-up
to NAB. Bill Vinten has been
retired for 25 of those years and
none of his children chose to go
into the business. Vinten says he
has regular conversations with
Early Model C Vinten film camera
Lino Manfrotto, his Italian
counterpart, and the two sometimes reminisce and tut about
the TV business in general.
But his pride in what his
father created and what he
continued is clear and from his
home near the factory Bill
Vinten drops in occasionally to
keep a grandfatherly eye on what
is going on. Some family ties are
hard to break.
47
29/3/10
11:51
Page 48
NEWS
IN BRIEF
The Pebble Beach workflow
Chyron goes virtual
With the company’s 10th anniversary
this month, and its best ever
quarter at the end of 2009, it
seems like a good time to review
the performance of automation and
asset management specialist Pebble
Beach Systems. Dick Hobbs takes a
look at the company
Chyron has entered into a
worldwide partnership with
NeuroTV integrating its NeuroVS
virtual set technology. The
partnership enables Chyron to
integrate and co-market virtual
set technology across its existing
graphics platforms. The
resulting solutions will allow
Chyron to offer a broader-based
line of products offering increased
ROI to clients. “We have been
watching this technology very
carefully and believe that now the
time is right to integrate graphics
and virtual sets and introduce a
comprehensive, integrated,
workflow package to the market,”
said Kevin Prince, Chyron’s senior
vice president & chief operating
officer. “As our industry
transitions from SD to HD
budgets are being squeezed, so
our goal at Chyron is to offer
clients systems with at least a
5:1 financial benefit. Combined
with the NeuroTV trackless
technology, these products fit our
core goals and provide our clients
with alternative technology while
fitting with standard workflows.”
NeuroTV’s virtual set technology
is an emerging solution that
generates realtime 3D sets,
animations, interactive
characters and graphics. While
virtual set technology is still in its
infancy in the US, both companies
believe that the current industry
atmosphere makes adoption
increasingly attractive.
NAB SL1420
The Pebble Beach Systems
founders used to claim, with
some justification, that few had a
longer heritage in playout
automation. Peter Hajittofi and
Ian Cockett worked together at
Logica at the software house’s illfated attempts to pioneer broadcast automation, then acted as
the European arm of Louth, first
with Logica acting as distributor
then setting up a new business.
When Louth became part of
Harris, Cockett and Hajittofi
were full of ideas for a new architecture and, with another old
Logica hand Julian Hepworth
they set up their own business.
Master control: “Content in the right form still has to be delivered to the server,
and later archived. We will still have a media asset management role”
Playout automation is mission critical for broadcasters. So
how do you persuade a company
“This is not like conventional IT. You have to
offer constant support, remotely and on site.
We are proud that we have never lost a
customer” — Peter Hajittofi
“It is a real advantage that the
directors all have the same background,” CEO Peter Hajittofi
told me. “There is a strong Logica
legacy in terms of how to plan,
structure and cost a project, and
in pride in the job. For Pebble
Beach it means that the management team are of like mind.”
to entrust it to a start-up?
Hajittofi is honest: “For the first
year or so we leaned heavily on
friends in the industry who knew
us and trusted us. We showed
them our new architectures, and
demonstrated that we could offer
customisation that other suppliers
would not do.
“Then we had to start winning
business from other people,” he
continues. “We had a couple of
great IBCs. Our first multichannel installation was MTG in
Sweden — we promoted it and
were fortunate to get some more.”
Fortune was a small part of it,
and Hajittofi is being characteristically modest. The work came
because Pebble Beach demonstrated that they could do what
they promised. “Just because the
market is there does not make it
easy,” he said. “You have to deliver,
to do what you say.”
That pride also comes out in
Hajittofi’s assertion that their
ambition is to be the leader in
automation and media management worldwide. “We probably
already are in the Middle East and
some parts of northern Europe,”
he claims. As well as a base in the
Middle East, the company has
recently opened offices in Hong
Kong and the US.
“We make some sales direct,” he
explains, “but much of our business comes from dealers and systems integrators around the world.
They have been very important for
our success. You can only keep a
systems integrator on side if you
are not costing them money. So you
have to put in the support.”
New MAM structure
As well as looking after customers and partners, Pebble
Beach has also had to face the
practicalities of being a start-up
company, which can seem a lot
less glamorous. “Cash flow and
finance needs to be well managed,” says Hajittofi. “Our decision was to grow organically.
“We have never borrowed
money,” he adds. “There is no
doubt that with venture funding
we could have grown more quickly,
but I think that one of the reasons
for our success is the relatively slow
start. It meant we were able to
develop things behind the scenes
without too many customer pressures. There is a real danger in
going too fast.”
When the three started the business in 2000 playout automation
was an established concept but still
being rolled out. Today, surely,
everyone who needs it has got it, so
where does the continuing business
come from, and how can a company retain a distinctive offering?
“Yes, playout is almost a commodity today,” Hajittofi admits,
adding “but it is the workflow
that is new ground.
“Automation is a very wide
remit,” he explains. “We are not just
48
26/3/10
11:06
Page 1
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25/3/10
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Page 1
29/3/10
11:51
Page 51
As broadcasting moves inexorably toward IP-distribution, Red Bee Media aims to be
one of the premier gateways for digital content delivery across Europe and beyond
Addressing three screens
By Adrian Pennington
“We want to be one of the top
digital content services companies in the world,” declares
Brian Levy, Red Bee Media’s
director and chief technology
officer. “Red Bee has moved
from a pure broadcast playout
operation to a global media
logistics business.”
To recap, Red Bee Media was
created in 2005 following the
£166 million sale of BBC Broadcast, the Corporation’s transmission services wing, to Australianbased banking group Macquarie.
The brand is still predominantly
associated with supplying playout
services for the BBC, Channel 4,
Five and Virgin Media yet the
business also handles 70% of
broadcast VoD content consumed in the UK — including all
ingest and file conversion for
BBC iPlayer — and has ambitions to transition existing broadcaster clients and new media
publishers toward a three screen
digital distribution strategy.
In 2008-09 the business turned
over £153 million and employed
1,500 staff across its London
headquarters and operations in
Australia, France, Germany and
Spain. A physical move into the
US is not ruled out.
major studios might want to create a worldwide infrastructure to
support it,” explains Levy. “It’s
unlikely that they will want to
own that infrastructure but
instead outsource the management of digital content to wholesalers who in turn will supply a
series of retailers ranging from
supermarkets to mobile operators
on a per-request basis from those
wholesalers. As the value chain
evolves companies like Red Bee
can move into this potentially
massive, new market space.”
With Cisco predicting that
90% of all internet traffic will be
video by 2013, a knowledge of
With Cisco predicting that 90% of all internet
traffic will be video by 2013, a knowledge of how
IP, content and distribution to TV, PC and mobile
will merge is critical to Red Bee’s business
Brian Levy: “We are seeing post production and production merging together”
“We already have a tremendous
capacity to transcode and convert
files. We are playing out live to air
most of UK TV on a daily basis.
How many others are doing that?
There is a phenomenal opportunity for Red Bee to take that content and repurpose it,” says Levy.
It has begun working with an
(unannounced) US studio to perform versioning work on its content for the European market and
is taking an active interest in the
DRM initiatives DECE (Digital
Entertainment Content Ecosystem)
and its counterpart at Disney
(Keychest) which Levy describes
as “very interesting” for its future.
“As the content distribution
market evolves from physical
DVD to digital downloads you
get to the point where any of the
how IP, content and distribution
to TV, PC and mobile networks
will merge is critical to Red
Bee’s business.
Fortunately Levy, who joined the
company in January to spearhead
the transition, brings with him experience of just these areas spanning
four decades. He led the deployment
of AT&T’s ATM and IP backbone
infrastructure across Europe in the
eighties and subsequently, at Qwest,
51
29/3/10
11:52
Page 52
Addressing
three screens
global Communications and Media
Solutions software business.
“Red Bee’s business is about getting the right media in the right format to the right place at the right
time,” says Levy. “At its heart is a
centralised store for all media and
associated metadata from which
material can be enhanced, by creating trails or promotions, adding
subtitles or creating new versions.
“Platform-specific transformations are conducted just in time for
presentation,” he explains. “Specialised technology is employed as close
as possible to the point of delivery.
This provides a scaleable architecture, with simple delivery systems re-using data from the store,
reducing the unit cost and enabling
rapid deployment of new delivery
platforms with minimal custom
development required.”
Rather than having separate
platforms to provide tailored services
for each of its clients, Red Bee wants
to aggregate common steps in the
media workflows where possible —
in other words to implement a service oriented architecture (SOA) for
media management and delivery.
“SOA offers us an approach to
flexible and adaptable technology
that can change with the needs of
the business,” he explains. “In some
cases, like playout, there are essential
islands of technology that are tightly
integrated for performance reasons,
or because they use broadcastingspecific technology that doesn’t play
nicely in a SOA architecture.
“Before SOA these processes
were siloed, brittle, monolithic
applications that were difficult to
adapt or change over time. One
benefit of adopting an SOA is the
ability to align our technical capabilities to business functionality.”
Red Bee has organically built
such an architecture with its single ingest and file-based approach
to asset management but Levy
intends to expand on this so that
the same content can be rebranded,
or recut for specific platforms.
“We are seeing post production
and production merging together,
Volicon offers a new
Observer Professional
support, plus enhancements to the
Observer’s search capabilities and
the Scheduled Recording Module.
The Observer Professional is
Volicon’s new offering for budgetconscious television stations and
companies that require quick and
easy scheduling, recording, and
searching to support simplified
media monitoring workflows. A
key feature of the Observer
Professional is Volicon’s new
streamlined user interface, based
on the latest Microsoft Silverlight
technology. This new version will
support the Windows and Mac
operating systems, as well as
Explorer, Safari, and Firefox.
NAB SU5302
Signiant on the move for World Cup
he ran the operations of EUnet
across Europe (which spread the
ARPANET throughout the research
community on the continent). He
joined BT as group technology
officer Service Strategy and
Innovation, where he conceived and
developed services content distribution network Aduronet and Storm
Telecommunications. Prior to joining Red Bee, Levy was president
and CTO for Hewlett Packard’s
At NAB Volicon will unveil a
new product family that includes
three versions of the Observer:
Observer Professional, targeted
for budget-conscious television
stations and companies that
require streamlined features and
workflows for scheduled recording, searching media mentions,
and clipping for quick export;
Observer Enterprise for larger
broadcasting networks that
require 24x7 multichannel media
monitoring and compliance logging; and Observer Enterprise
Plus for the largest and most
complex editorial production
facilities that require multiple bit
rates and resolutions for high resolution finishing.
At the same time, Volicon will
introduce a streamlined user interface for the Mac and Windows platforms and expanded web browser
At the show Signiant will announce
three new products that facilitate
cost-effective, secure and managed
movement of content. Content
Transporter, Content Point and
Content Transfer Engine will create
new business opportunities as they
allow organisations of any size to
exchange material quickly and safely.
Signiant will explain how it is set
to play a major role in the 2010 FIFA
World Cup alongside LaserNet, a
South African provider of multimedia services. Lasernet will use the
Signiant solution to manage file
delivery of news and sports content
with metadata linking all parts of the
value chain,” he says. “What we used
to call post really applied to TV and
film but now where we have three
screens (TV, PC, Mobile) that is all
changing. Content doesn’t just need
transcoding, it may need re-editing for
specific platform; captioned or language reversioned per territory.
Advertising can be dynamically inserted around on-demand content.”
Keen use of metadata, he says,
can be used to serve suggestions
to the viewer around that content
such as additional VoD or related
information pulled from the
internet. “This is where content
owners can begin to make additional revenue,” he says.
across LaserNet’s Media Network
for its current South African broadcast customers. Signiant will also
play a key role in the infrastructure
that LaserNet will set up for broadcasters and journalists from other
countries, specifically to deliver prerecorded content for packages.
In addition, Signiant recently partnered with NBC to deliver coverage
of the 2010 Winter Games to Microsoft for viewing online in the Microsoft Silverlight player. There were 14
different workflows behind the scenes
that Signiant’s software managed.
NAB SL2027
NAB 2010, Las Vegas
12. bis 15. April
Hewlett-PackardStand: SL 5220
Your first choice for professional
news management.
Take advantage of our story-centric
workflow from planning to broadcast.
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continues to set new standards in quality and reliability.
New powerful tools as role concept, story tracking, event
planning and multi usage of content give you more options
to produce your stories more effective and faster.
www.annova.tv
52
29/3/10
11:52
Page 53
The Pebble
Beach workflow
getting things to air any more. Now
we have to manage assets, get them in
the right form and in the right place.
It is not just ingesting and playing out.
the Miranda Xchannel server
with graphics, for example.”
The strategy for the next 10
years, and towards the ambition
of market leadership, sees the
completion of investment in the
next generation platform which,
in keeping with the company’s
seaside theme, is called Marina.
“This is a totally distributed
architecture, so we can scale
much better than the old
platform,” says Hajittofi. “It will
run on Linux — not being
dependent just on Microsoft will
be significant.”
The new platform is designed
to support the extended role for
asset management that the company sees as its future market. It
is also designed to meet the needs
of its global market by supporting
any language through a configurable user interface.
“We have made the language
choice hot-swappable,” he claims.
“How can we support a system any
other way: an engineer can see what
is going on with the touch of a key,
even if the native system is running
in Arabic or an Asian language.”
That seems to underline a core
part of the Pebble Beach philosophy
— and perhaps the secret of being
a success in such a critical market
— which is that support is
absolutely central to keeping the
user happy.
“This is not like conventional
IT,” Peter Hajittofi claims.
“You have to offer constant
support, remotely and on site.
We are proud that we have never
lost a customer.”
Peter Hajittofi: “File-based workflows
will become more common, so
automation will move upstream”
“We are now being involved
much earlier in the cycle,” he says.
“In the old days, the traffic system
looked after assets and just handed
us a playlist. Now we are being
notified of the content sometimes
months in advance. Making trailers, compliance editing — this is
all seen as part of the asset management structure, and we now
include tools for this.
“Broadcasters have still got a
long way to go to automate all of
these things. This business is
going to be around for a long
time. File-based workflows will
become more common, so
automation will move upstream.
There will always be linear playout, but there will be more
emphasis on content on demand.
“But that still needs the basics
of production and media management,” he continues. “Content
in the right form still has to be
delivered to the server, and later
archived. We will still have a role
in the management of the media.
In fact, we are going to have to
manage larger volumes of data.”
Recently there has been a great
deal of pressure towards ‘channel
in a box’ solutions, at all levels of
the industry. Is this a goal for
Pebble Beach?
“We see the value in best of
breed, so we are not going to station
in a box systems,” Peter Hajittofi
states. “For most broadcasters a
high level of service and functionality like fault tolerance is important.
“But we do need to support all
equipment for lower cost channels and emergency backup facilities,” he adds. “So we have
already delivered systems using
53
29/3/10
11:52
Page 54
AD
INDEX
SBP OB20 truck ready for 3D
55
18
AJA www.aja.com
Annalog Way
www.analogway.com
23
Angenieux www.angenieux.com
52
Annova www.annova.de
37
Anton Bauer
www.antonbauer.com
41
Argosy www.argosycable.com
38
Avance Rapide www.s3dcampus.eu
39
Barco www.barco.com
5
Blackmagic
www.blackmagic-design.com
43
Blueshape www.blueshape.net
27
BMS www.bms-inc.com
3
Bridge Technologies
www.bridgetech.tv
13
Broadcast Centre Europe
www.bce.lu
39
Canon www.canon.com
20,36 Clearcom www.clearcom.com
21
CVP www.creativevideo.co.uk
31
Dalet www.dalet.com
2
Digital Rapids
www.digital-rapids.com
54
DVS www.dvs.de
4
EVS www.evs.tv
40
Fischer Conectors
www.fischerconnectors.com
7
Fujinon www.fujinon.de
17
Grass Valley www.grassvalley.com
12
Hamlet www.hamlet.co.uk
1
Harris www.broadcast.harris.com
50
IBC www.ibc.org
24
Junger Audio
www.junger-audio.de
20
Kroma www.kromatelecom.com
42
KOBA2010 www.kobashow.com
45
Lawo www.lawo.de
34
Lemo www.lemo.de
26
Linear Acoustics
www.linearacoustics.com
33
Lynx Technik
www.lynx-technik.com
25
Matrox www.matrox.com
15
Miranda www.miranda.com
48
Multidyne www.mutidyne.com
16
Murraypro www.murraypro.com
44
Neutrik www.neutrik.com
11
Newtek www.newtek-europe.com
47
Nevion www.nevion.com
10
NTT www.ntt-electronics.com/en/
46
Photon Beard
www.photonbeard.com
24,32, Playbox
56
www.playbox.tv
35
Publitronic www.publitronic.com
30
Quantum www.quantum.com
8,18
Riedel www.riedel.net
49
RF Extreme www.rfextreme.com
53
Ross www.rossvideo.com
19
Snell Group www.snellgroup.com
51
Swit www.swit-battery.com
22
Tedial www.tedial.com
9
Viewcast www.viewcast.com
28,29 Vinten www.vinten.com
14
VSN www.vsn-tv.com
SBP’s 24-camera 3D-ready truck: ‘We believe it is precisely in periods
of great difficulty that it’s necessary to focus on new technologies’
3D OB Production
By Mike Clark
Italian outside broadcast production company SBP, a member of
the huge Mediacontech Group,
recently held a preview European
presentation of its 3D-ready OB20
HD truck at La Casa del Cinema in
Rome’s Villa Borghese. 3D facilities
have been implemented on the
impressive 14m trailer with an
upgrade to the unit’s Snell & Wilcox
Kahuna production switcher’s software and a series of other modifications that the company is keeping
strictly under wraps.
The artic, designed by SBP’s technical manager, Sergio Nuvoloni, was
built by specialist UK coachbuilders
A Smith of Great Bentley and fitted
out by SBP. Before its upgrade to 3D
the truck had already covered numerous high profile events such as
Champions League Finals in Rome,
approximately 30 Moto GP circuits
in Europe, key music events, RBS Six
Nations rugby matches, about 40
matches of Italy’s soccer championship and more.
The triple-expansion unit is a
concentrate of technology that
includes 24 Sony HDC 1500 HDTV
cameras (or 20 plus four HDC 3300)
and Probel (Snell) Sirius matrices for
both video (256x256 HD/SD) and
audio (128x128 AES/EBU). The
main production area’s monitor wall
is courtesy of eight Clarity 46-inch
displays and four Harris Zandar
Fusion Pro Multiviewers, enabling a
maximum configuration of 108
monitors — whereas the second
production zone has a Clarity 40inch display and a Zandar Fusion
Pro, with up to 26 monitors.
At the presentation, SBP
Managing
Director
Marco
Balsamo explained that the firm,
founded in 1976, had seen a lot of
big changes in the broadcast industry and is currently counting a lot on
HDTV, in which it has invested considerably. “In Italy, the spread of
HD channels on the Sky platform,
and soon via digital terrestrial with
other broadcasters, shows that the
initiative is meeting with success.
However, whereas HDTV has
changed the way television is used,
without modifying its ‘language’,
three-dimensional productions on
the other hand are destined to
modify the narrative aspect, which
requires a precise commitment right
along the entire production chain —
above all on behalf of directors.”
Balsamo went on to explain that,
while watching Avatar, he saw how
James Cameron had taken care
not to exaggerate certain effects,
enabling spectators to follow the
film without excessive effort. “Our
aim in this field is also to avoid
effects for effects’ sake and ensure a
more constant technique that will
enable viewers to appreciate our
coverage of the events in question.”
Stressing that 3D changes the
way television’s language is interpreted and how producers and directors interact with viewers, he added,
“We’re convinced that this next technological step will be as important,
or even more so, than the previous
ones, particularly if the new 3D challenge is taken up by the key players
in the cinema and TV world.”
Considering the possibilities
offered by 3D took Balsamo back
in time to 1998, when SBP decided to produce sports events with
Dolby surround and then 5.1
audio, as he explained, “We were
the first in Italy to introduce this
new technique for audio coverage,
positioning numerous microphones dedicated to reproducing
the sound, following tests carried
out directly with Dolby UK. I
remember we concentrated more
on the atmosphere that had to be
created in viewers’ home, rather
than effects able to showcase the
new technique being used. So we
tried to avoid a constant sonic
assault, ensuring enjoyable viewing with three or four real effects
during the match, which also
required greater commitment on
our behalf to pick out the best
effects. The excitement of following the matches thus became
more incisive, as it was perceptibly real and not artificial.”
As far as the company’s work
in the 3D field was concerned,
Nuvoloni continued, “We’ve been
Production area’s monitor wall features Clarity 46-inch displays and Zandar
Fusion Pro Multiviewers, enabling a maximum configuration of 108 monitors
experimenting for about six months
with DBW in the 3D Stereoscopic
Group, of which Eutelsat is also a
member.” DBW Communication is
a Rome-based audiovisual and
multimedia production company,
specialising in the field of documentaries and television productions in
stereoscopic 3D.
SBP 3D Project Manager
Simone de Lella added, “Apart from
being able to work on 2D and 3D
productions and having an impressive array of high-tech hardware,
such as the leading edge audio setup, with a Studer Vista 8 desk and
5.1 facilities, from an operational
point of view additional features
include triple expansion — which
ensures working comfort, as it can
host 20 specialist staffers, but,
thanks to double production areas,
the possibility of providing national
and international coverage simultaneously. OB20 HD can also offer up
to 10 six-channel EVS XT(2) on
board, something no other OB unit
in Italy is currently able to do.”
As to the decision to launch a
new vehicle of this type in a period
that is anything by rosy generally
speaking, SBP has no doubts and
Balsamo stated, ”We believe it is
precisely in periods of great difficulty that it’s necessary to focus on
new technologies, the driving force
behind the market’s future.”
As far as the truck’s current target is concerned, SBP at present has
a request for between 20 and 30 3D
projects, so there’s a great deal of
interest. The company initially
intends feeding the 3D signal produced by the truck to cinemas with
the necessary hardware for receiving
the signals from sat service integrator Open Sky, another member of
the 3D group.
Balsamo concluded, “the current situation as far as 3D TV is concerned in Italy is that there are at
present no 3D channels on television platforms, so we’ll see if the
key players here decide to launch
one, as is happening in the UK. In
the meantime, audiences will be able
to get a foretaste of what the future
has in store by going to selected cinemas or other suitably equipped
venues to see the events we cover,
such as concerts and sports.”
VENICE
the DVS multi-channel
video server
DVS – passion for perfection
54
www.dvs.de
26/3/10
10:44
Page 1
www.aja.com
“On every shoot, AJA helps me deliver
the highest quality.”
Bob Kertesz
Chief Technical Partner, BlueScreen LLC.
With a 30-year reputation for quality, Bob Kertesz
relies on AJA at the heart of his workflow.
As Chief Technical Partner at BlueScreen LLC., Kertesz specializes in
high-end compositing of live images. In fast-paced environments his
array of AJA converters and the FS1 ensure he can meet whatever
format and equipment challenges he faces. “A client shows up with an
HD tape for an SD project? No problem,” he explains. “He wants to
integrate 720p footage into a 1080i show? No problem. He brings a
camera with only component outputs and I need digital? No problem.”
HD/SD Audio/Video Frame Synchronizer and Converter
• SD/HD up/down conversion
• SD/SD aspect ratio conversion
• HD/HD cross conversion (720p/1080i)
• Dual HD/SD SDI Inputs and Outputs
• Component Analog HD/SD Input and Output
• Closed Caption Support
F S 1 .
B e c a u s e
i t
For a recent series of promotional spots for NBC’s Amercian Gladiators,
Kertesz created on-set pre-visualization compositing taking a feed from
a Vision Research Phantom HD Camera. “Because of the tight
turnaround time, and the talent involved, it was essential that we were
working with equipment that was reliable and fast. The camera didn’t
genlock, so we had to have an on-set solution to feed its footage into
the HD Ultimatte 11. The FS1 was essential for that purpose.”
Find out more about AJA products at - www.aja.com
m a t t e r s .
25/3/10
17:15
Page 1

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