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VOLUME 12 ISSUE 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
Also see C+T in PDF at www.content-technology.com
Inside NEP’s New Supertruck
26 REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 04 NEWS Seven Network, Racing Victoria in Free-to-Air Partnership, Report Considers Next Step in Digital Radio Rollout, SKY NZ Chooses Fujinon Lenses for New OB Truck
60 INDUSTRY FOCUS 64 TIME SHIFTER Australian Radio’s Digital Tsunami?
31 SPECIAL FOCUS – FACILITY TOUR Chief Entertainment – Kings of Content
20 FEATURES 10 IBC 2015 Conference and Exhibition 20 ACQUISITION Power Rangers Use ARRI AMIRA, Hillary: A Mountainous Challenge on Sony F55, Gittoes Shoots Snow Monkey with Sony
24 SPORTSCASTING Netball World Cup
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Chooses Gearhouse, Seven is Ready for Rio, Wisycom Arrives in the Winner’s Circle for V8s
35 NEWS OPERATIONS Sky News Austrlia Upgrades Talkback with RTS and Magna, Five Years of ABC News 24, Reuters Launches Partner Marketplace
38 POST-PRODUCTION Margaret Sixel Drives Fury Road with Avid Everywhere, Red Giant Plugins Star in Filthy Look Films, SGO Presents Inspiring Sessions
42 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Foxtel Chooses Media Room from Silver Trak, Mãori TV Selects Interra Baton, Cutting Edge Stores with Oracle and Magna
46 AUDIO Audio Supervisor Rob Wolifson – Commanding Nine’s Apollo Mission, ClearCom Introduces LQ-R, RTW Unveil CLC
51 RADIO Nova’s Mission Made Possible with LAWO, Digital Radio to be Further Monetised, CRA Welcomes Spectrum Review
54 CONTENT DELIVERY Sydney Teleport Services Send Out the Signal, BTV Brings Rural News Live with ConceroTel, C-Band Satellites and the Perfect Storm
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CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY: ISSN 1448-9554 PP:255003/06831 Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd (ABN: 34 095 653 277) PO Box 259, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300 Australia www.broadcastpapers.com PUBLISHER: Phil Sandberg Tel: +61 (0)2 4368 4569 Mob: +61 (0)414 671 811 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com
SUB-EDITOR: Keith Ford Mob: +61 (0)430 432 437 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lucy Salmon Tel: +61 (0)412 479 662 production@broadcastpapers.com DESIGN & LAYOUT: Wide Open Media Tel: +61-2-9282 9359 info@wideopenmedia.com.au PRINTING: Lindsay Yates COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All material in Broadcastpapers’ Content+Technology Magazine is protected under
Australian Commonwealth Copyright Laws. No material may be reproduced in part or whole in any manner without prior consent of the Publisher and/or copyright holder. DISCLAIMER: Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility for omissions or mistakes made within, claims made or information provided by advertisers.
EDITOR’S WELCOME
DAM MAM! Is it 4K if IP? By Phil Sandberg BACK IN THE EARLY 2000s, I was involved with a group called the Global
to look at Internet Protocol as a means of distributing video.
Society for Asset Management (G-SAM).
Quantel and Snell recently released the results of a survey they commissioned into the global industry’s views on IP and 4K adoption. More than 1000 people responded to the survey from small, medium and large-scale public and private broadcast and post organisations across more than 80 countries.
Results of the research included: ¡ 66% of surveyed executives lowered the cost of multi-platform distribution
¡ 52% improved delivery of personalised content on connected devices ¡ 54% enabled new revenue streams across multiple channels
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¡ 50% improved real-time collaboration of creative media professionals
¡ 50% of executives plan to increase MAM spending over the next 5 years ¡ 82% see MAM delivering more than 10% of ROI
On 4K, 60% of respondents saw it as relevant only in the future, with the majority of predictions spread across the two to five year timescale. When asked whether High Frame Rate (HFR) or High Dynamic Range (HDR) would bring the most economic benefit to respondents; 47% saw HDR as a potential revenue generator, only 22% HFR, with 31% seeing no potential benefit from either. Finally, to learn where IP and 4K fit in, respondents were asked about features they look for in production switchers. 44% chose multi-format, multi-program production, with 20% and 16% concerned with IP and 4K readiness respectively. Quantel/Snell CEO, Tim Thorsteinson, said “The results of our survey will go a long way to dispelling the myths and claims around IP and 4K. It clearly shows that broadcasters see these as key future concerns, but for the vast majority, a full-on infrastructure lift-out and replacement with IP and 4K is not going to happen any time soon. What broadcasters need are future-flexible solutions that can meet their current needs and give them a progressive path to IP and 4K adoption as dictated by their individual business needs.” 03:00
The Ovum-conducted research shows that MAM implementations are delivering strong results for top media organisations. According to Ovum, MAM boosts collaboration and productivity by enabling production teams to access media assets from any location, and MAM solutions help media enterprises to reduce lifecycle costs and deliver content to audiences via new multi-platform delivery services. By using MAM as a strategic tool to accelerate multi-platform asset monetisation, says Ovum, organisations can gain significant ROI.
When asked if they would be using live signals over IP in 2016, 20% said not at all, 47% somewhat and 29% extensively – with just 4% indicating that they are going fully IP next year.
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Fast forward to 2015 and Avid has announced research findings that reveal how the leaders of major global media enterprises are using that DAM offshoot, MAM, to improve collaboration and operational efficiency, reduce costs, drive revenue, and deliver a higher return on investment (ROI).
The headline findings on IP are: Only 19% of respondents thought that SDI routers would be completely replaced by IP within two years, 42% within five years and 27% only seeing this happen within ten years. Interestingly, 9% of respondents predicted that SDI will never be completely replaced.
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“What is crystal clear, however, is that the promise of DAM has not realised a fraction of its full potential.”
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At the group’s first annual conference in New York in 2003, Executive Director, Richard Eberhart, said “It is a forgone conclusion that the world is going digital and we all believe that Digital Asset Management is the key to doing better business in this digital age, regardless of what the business may be.
The research also found that the ability to quickly introduce new online video services has resulted into average revenue increase of 17% on these new platforms and that, on average, media organisations are reducing multi-platform distribution costs 19-20% with their MAM deployments.
Given the number of countries throughout the region that have just made, or are still making, the transition to “plain, old” high definition, that’s one research finding that makes sense.
Of course, it’s a short path from DAM and MAM to file-based workflow which, in conjunction with the proliferation of the Internet, has lead media technologists
Phil Sandberg - Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com - T: +61-(0)414671811
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NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com
Seven Network, Racing Victoria in Free-to-Air Partnership AUSTRALIA’S SEVEN NETWORK and Racing Victoria have launched Racing.com, a new freeto-air (FTA) television channel devoted daily to Victorian thoroughbred racing. Launched on August 29, the new channel is the only FTA channel on Australian television dedicated to broadcasting and promoting a single sport and will extend beyond broadcast television across all communication platforms to deliver horse racing to all Australians on any connected device. The launch of Racing.com follows a split between Racing Victoria and Racing New South Wales whose fixtures were jointly broadcast via the TVN (Thoroughbred Vision) horseracing network. Details on Racing.com were announced by Tim
Worner, CEO and MD of Seven West Media, Lewis Martin, MD of Channel Seven Melbourne, and David Moodie, Chairman of Racing Victoria. According to Mr Worner, “This is an important new partnership for our company. We are the home of horse racing on broadcast television and we are committing our company to building an increasing presence for horse racing in Victoria across our expanding presence in all forms of content delivery. Our Racing.com partnership joins our portfolio of major sports and we are looking forward to working with Racing Victoria in ensuring the future growth and success of horse racing in this state.” Mr Moodie added, “The launch of the free-to-air Racing.com channel achieves the goal of the
Victorian thoroughbred racing industry to make our sport available to more people in more places than ever before. Racing.com will showcase Victorian racing 363-days-a-year to well over 90 per cent of the Australian population.” Joining the channel will be experienced racing hosts Jason Richardson and Shane Anderson and form analysts David Gately and Warren Huntly as the key presenters on the new channel. They will combine with former AFL footballer and racehorse owner Campbell Brown and Hong Kong-based form analyst Clint Hutchison. Former TVN distribution provider, Chief Entertainment has signed a three year deal with Racing Victoria and will act as the “head-end” for both the Internet service and Channel 7.
Report Considers Next Step in Digital Radio Rollout AUSTRALIA’S DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS has released the findings of two statutory reviews into digital radio services in Australia, which considered changes to the regulatory regime and technologies. According to the report, “Definitive views on the future of digital terrestrial radio cannot be made at this time. Australia will continue to rely on a combination of complementary analogue, digital and online radio technologies to deliver radio services to all Australians. Digital terrestrial radio will continue as a supplementary, rather than a replacement, technology in at least the short to medium term. “The rollout of digital terrestrial radio services in regional areas should be a commercial decision for broadcasters, subject to spectrum
availability and planning.” The report makes a number of recommendations, including that the Government should not set a timetable for analogue radio switch off at this time and should give the ACMA responsibility for determining where and when digital terrestrial radio services can commence. It also recommends that the industry be encouraged to work with the ACMA to establish a Digital Radio Planning Committee for Regional Australia, and that the Government should not reintroduce a moratorium on digital-only commercial radio licences in mainland state capital cities. It goes on to recommend the removal of a six year moratorium on additional commercial digital radio services in a regional licence area following the commencement of commercial services in that area.
The report also recommends that Government should consider allowing broadcasters to choose the mode(s) in which they deliver their radio services, and that it should amend the regulatory regime to provide a simpler process for planning and licensing in regional Australia. Finally, the report recommends the Government should relax restrictions on who can provide digital radio services in regional areas where incumbent broadcasters have not moved to establish services by 30 June 2018; it should also consider allowing narrowcasters to provide services in areas where services have already been established or to join incumbent broadcasters in rolling out services. The full report is available from https://www. communications.gov.au/publications/digitalradio-report
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Completely Customizable Blackmagic URSA Mini is completely customizable so you can create a rig that’s built specifically for your production! Add accessories like the Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder and Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kit, or choose from hundreds of third party accessories. URSA Mini has 9 standard ¼" threaded mounting points on the top and bottom of the camera so you can mount it directly to a tripod as well as add accessories such as rails, matte boxes and more.
Non-Stop Recording You never have to stop recording because URSA Mini features two CFast 2.0 recorders! When one card is full, recording automatically continues onto the next. URSA Mini uses the latest, incredibly fast CFast 2.0 technology for recording speeds up to 350 MB/s. Wide dynamic range images are saved as 12-bit RAW files, which are perfect for high end grading and effects work, or as broadcast quality ProRes, for easy post production workflows with minimum storage requirements!
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NEWS + PEOPLE
SKY NZ Chooses Fujinon Lenses for New OB Truck SKY NEW ZEALAND’S Outside Broadcasting division (OSB) have been active worldwide for many years in facilitating equipment and coverage of live events for both host broadcasters and those requiring unilateral feeds. In New Zealand the company owns and operates five major state of the art high definition outside broadcast vehicles and three standard definition vehicles capable of handling the most complex outside broadcasts. Recently SKY had a requirement to equip its newest vehicle with the latest broadcast lens and for that it chose Fujinon. Technical Manager, Nick Haines, explained, “We have a long history with Fujinon and it made sense for compatibility with the rest of fleet to carry on that history. In this instance we were looking for a cost effective solution for a new production vehicle and Fujinon were able to supply lenses which were of a slightly more cost effective pricing model but still retained compatibility with our fully featured top end product.” After discussions with the Fujinon team SKY purchased ZA22x7.6BERD-S6 lenses for their new truck. With servo for focus and zoom the ZA22x7.6BERD-S6 is a 7.6-167mm lens, designed to provide 2/3” cameras
Magna Expands Tedial Partnership in Asia Pacific
Innerfocus minimises the effects of lens breathing, which ensures a more consistent angle-of-view when making focus adjustments. QuickZoom improves zoom speed to 0.7 seconds end to end. The Focused Intelligent Network Diagnosis (FIND) system aids in preventive maintenance and troubleshooting by evaluating electronic and mechanical parameters. The new Fujinon lenses will be used in SKY’s new lightweight production vehicle covering small events that would otherwise not be cost effective to cover with larger vehicles. Nick Haines concluded, “The lenses form a key part of this compact truck whose size enables us to access venues that may not be so accessible by the larger trucks in our fleet." Visit www.fujifilm.com.au
Silver Trak Digital to Deliver Ultra HD Blu-ray SYDNEY-BASED MAM SPECIALISTS and production facility Silver Trak Digital has joined Scenarist’s UHDG focus group and will deliver the country’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray titles this year. Scenarist, LLC is the developer of Hollywood-standard professional Blu-ray Disc authoring systems based in Marin County, California.
IN ONE OF THE MORE high profile moves of its kind this year Magna Systems and Engineering has significantly expanded and bolstered its partnership with media asset management specialists Tedial across the Asia Pacific region. The move sees additional resources and infrastructure in pre-sales, sales, service, and support. Included are two additional Tedial specialists as full time solutions architects based in Magna’s Sydney offices with responsibilities that reach across all of Magna’s other offices including New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Magna Systems Executive Chairman, Robert Clemesha, said, “Our partnership with Tedial provides a tier one offering in the Asia Pacific region that offers the most benefits to our clients. Smart media professionals today demand tangible benefits from the business of media management and require business solutions that applies IT practices and technologies to all of their media orientated operations in order to maximise the capabilities of their modern multi-discipline facilities.” Robert Clemesha concluded, “With the Magna Systems Tedial partnership media professionals and broadcasters across the Asia Pacific now have a full range of scalable, flexible solutions that adapt to legacy systems and enable fast, advanced updates and changes to address any fast-evolving business. They also have the benefit of Magna Systems’ 47 years experience in the IT, broadcast, telecoms and communications industries to support them.” Visit www.magnasys.tv and www.tedial.com
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with a wide to telephoto angle-of-view. The lens has a zoom ratio of 22x, and a 2x extender effectively doubles the focal range. The maximum aperture is a fast f/1.8 at 7.6-120mm and stops down to f/2.5 at 167mm. The lens also includes a digital servo for focus and zoom, which enables full studio control via RS-232.
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The UHDG is a global discussion group of high-end production and authoring facilities, technology companies and service providers who are actively participating in the launch of the Ultra HD Blu-ray format. Participating members, including Q-Tec, DTS, Craigman Digital, ATEME, Philips, Deluxe, Dolby, GLS Studios, D-Studio Services, and MediaL, have access to Scenarist’s alpha and beta-stage UHD-BD tools so they can gain authoring experience in the new format, provide workflow feed back to Scenarist, and prepare the first titles for launch this year. “Blu-ray Disc is a proven consumer format that our clients can rely on for quality and consistent performance. Ultra HD Blu-ray adds amazing image quality and consistent performance, and we anticipate high demand for the new capabilities as more and more homes become adopt 4K TVs this year,” said Tim Creswell, founding partner at Silver Trak Digital. “We’ve relied on Scenarist for over a dozen years and hundreds upon hundreds of titles released, and we are eager to participate in the UHDG and bring Ultra HD to Australia.” Ultra HD Blu-ray is similar to Blu-ray Disc format but with twice the image resolution and frame rate, a greatly expanded colour brilliance, and immersive audio that combine to deliver a thrilling in-home theatre experience. UHDG members are already creating test titles with early versions of Scenarist UHD. With each new release, Scenarist meets with each UHDG member to solicit feedback, provide key information, updates and training. Visit www.silvertrak.com.au and www.scenarist.com
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NINE ENTERTAINMENT CO. has signed a put and call option agreement to sell its Willoughby, Sydney site for AUD$147.5m, subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval and other standard completion requirements. The purchaser, Euro Properties, a Hong Kong based property investor has been active in the international property market for over 25 years. The boutique firm specialises in the investment, development and marketing of prime residential and mixed-use projects with a focus on exceptional design and first-class execution.
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The sale will complete in two years after which Nine will be able to remain on the site, under a lease, for up to a further three years, following which it will re-locate to new premises. Net cash proceeds after tax are expected to be around AUD$135m, with pre-tax annual lease costs of approximately $10m from completion. Simon Kelly, NEC Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, said, “The move from the birthplace of Australian Free-to-Air television is a significant milestone for Nine. Our relocation to state of the art facilities will enable us to further optimise our operations as we evolve our business model in a digital world. This sale frees up surplus capital which provides us with significant flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities whilst underpinning our program of increased shareholder returns through our previously announced on-market share buyback and enhanced dividend payout policy.” Visit www.nineentertainment.com.au
TVNZ Turns to Quinto for Production Router and Multiviewer AS PART OF THE UPGRADE of their studio facilities at Television Centre in central Auckland, engineers from New Zealand’s state broadcaster, TVNZ, faced the daunting task of temporarily relocating productions whist each studio was being rebuilt. This involved the re-routing of incoming and outgoing video feeds which proved to be a major challenge. Following discussions with engineering staff from the Quinto Communications office in Auckland, TVNZ chose, as their new Production Router, the Evertz EQX 26RU routing switcher, populated up to 198 x 144. The Evertz EQX platform is Evertz’s flagship routing & distribution solution designed for high availability by adopting extensive industry leading redundancy for all critical system elements. Capable of being expanded to 576 x 576, the EQX supplied to TVNZ also incorporated an Evertz VIPX multiviewer to monitor incoming and outgoing signal feeds. According to Quinto’s Pete Fullerton, “When making their decision TVNZ were looking for a router and multiviewer that had a proven track record, was easily expandable, and fully future-proof. We believe the Evertz solution met these criteria and by using an Evertz Multiviewer, TVNZ were able to take advantage of the XLink outputs from the EQX Router, meaning that they did not lose valuable router outputs to the multiviewer.” In selecting the Evertz EQX solution, TVNZ joins a long list of prestigious broadcasters who have found this acclaimed product to not only satisfy their stringent technical requirements, but have found the EQX to be an extremely reliable and transparent solution to their high quality digital signal routing requirements. Visit www.quinto.com.au
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Hitachi Data Systems Appoints McGregor VP-GM ANZ HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS (HDS) Corporation has announced the appointment of Nathan McGregor as vice president and general manager, Australia and New Zealand. Nathan will be responsible for leading HDS ANZ’s strategic direction and operations, to grow market share within its core business while also delivering on the company’s long-term goals for Social Innovation. With over 16 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, McGregor joins HDS from Juniper Networks, where he was managing director for ANZ. “We’re delighted to welcome Nathan to the HDS business, as he will play a critical role in supporting our continued transformation within Australia and New Zealand. Nathan’s extensive experience leading high-value, complex solutions sales is well suited to support our growing portfolio of technology and services,” said Mark Ablett, senior vice president and general manager, HDS Asia Pacific. “Hitachi Data Systems is a dynamic organisation, transforming itself from a data storage provider into an information solutions company,” said McGregor. “I am excited about the opportunity to lead the Australia and New Zealand business as it enters the next phase of its strategy for Social Innovation, to become a leader in the market for big data and Internet of Things that matter, helping customers turn data into intelligence.” Visit www.hds.com
TSL Products Appoints APAC Field Sales Engineer BROADCAST EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER, TSL Products, has appointed Dan Shihata to the role of Field Sales Engineer responsible for South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Dan’s responsibilities will include growing TSL Products’ market reach in the APAC region and championing its broad range of industryleading broadcast solutions. Dan joined TSL Products in 2012 as a Support Solutions Engineer following his completion of a BEng in electronic and electrical engineering. The extensive technical knowledge gained from his initial role, as well as his dedication to customer service, drove his promotion into the sales team. Chris Exelby, Managing Director, TSL Products, said, “Dan has done a fantastic job of supporting our clients technically and building strong relationships within the region. It’s a natural transition for him to move into a sales role, as he knows first hand what our customers need to make their audio great and their jobs easier.”
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Appointments to the National Archives Advisory Council THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT HAS APPOINTED Dr Denver Beanland as Chair of the National Archives of Australia Advisory Council, and Mr Christopher Puplick AM as a member of the Council. Dr Beanland is an historian with a PhD in history from the University of Queensland who has been a member of the National Archives’ Council since 2014. He is a past President of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (2007-2009), a member of the Society’s Council, and chairs the Brisbane City Council’s Heritage Advisory Committee. Dr Beanland served as a member of the Queensland Parliament, having held the positions of Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Minister for Consumer Affairs. He is also a former Deputy Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Mr Puplick is the Principal of Issus Solutions Pty Ltd. He is a former Senator for New South Wales and served as the Shadow Minister for Environment and Arts during his time in Federal politics. He served as the President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and the NSW Privacy Commissioner, and has been a member on the boards of the Australian Museum, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, and the National Film and Sound Archive. Each appointment is for a period of three years.
Pukeko Pictures Announces Appointment of Clive Spink as CEO PUKEKO PICTURES HAS ANNOUNCED the appointment of Clive Spink as Chief Executive Officer. He will replace Andrew Smith who will be leaving in August to take up the position of Chief Executive Officer of Touchtech, one of Wellington’s leading mobile, web, and cloud software developers. Clive has been with Pukeko Pictures for over a year in the position of Chief Operating Officer. In his new role he will continue to drive Pukeko Picture’s business growth including its development and production momentum. Clive brings to the role both a strong commercial background and broadcasting/production experience. Prior to Pukeko Pictures his most recent roles were in the IT and telecommunications industries where he led the commercial team responsible for all of Vodafone New Zealand’s Enterprise customers. “In his year with Pukeko Pictures Clive has demonstrated a considerable understanding of the local and international business landscape. We are thrilled to see him transition into the role of Chief Executive Officer. Clive will be instrumental in driving the business forward and ensuring our production presence locally and internationally. It is also a sad time for Pukeko Pictures as we say farewell to Andrew,” said Sir Richard Taylor, Founder and Director of Pukeko Pictures. “I am looking forward to stepping into the role of Chief Executive Officer and furthering my relationships with local and international partners and broadcasters,” said Clive Spink. Visit http://pukekopictures.com
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IBC 2015 IBC2015 Conference Examines ‘The Future of Media in an Age of Disruption’ THE IBC CONFERENCE is a global destination for networking, discussion and debate, presenting a mix of visionary keynotes, panel discussions and master classes with the most influential thought-leaders and innovators in their fields. With the rapid convergence of broadcast, IT and telecoms, this year’s conference theme ‘The Future of Media in an Age of Disruption’ provides the forum to explore new strategies, gain insight into business disruptors, chart future technological progress and examine how the industry can seize the new opportunities. Each day of the conference will address the myriad issues facing the industry, prefaced by a keynote address that will set the stage. Attracting toplevel executives, technical experts and visionaries from over 170 countries, with business interests spanning the full spectrum of content creation, management and delivery, as well as emerging markets and key industry disruptors, the conference ensures valuable access to insights and contacts. The opening IBC Forum session, ‘Broadcasting in an Age of Challenge’, will reveal how four top media powerhouses are solving the challenges they face. Fran Unsworth will explain how she plans to use technology to expand despite squeezed budgets and well-funded opponents such as Russia Today and China Central Television. David Butorac, who runs 146 pay TV channels in the Middle East and North Africa will show how quality content always wins in the end. Philip Luff, Managing Director UK and EMEA for Scripps Networks Interactive will explain how the Knoxville, Tennessee company is expanding around Europe – the latest deal winning control of Poland’s TVN. The three “traditional” broadcasters in the opening conference session will
be joined by Thomas Riedl, head of Android TV Global Partnerships at Google in California, to explain Google’s latest forays into TV. In Thursday afternoon’s keynote ‘Is TV facing up to the Internet Era?’ Andrew Neil will be posing the big questions to industry leaders most affected by the connected era. As media companies face an increasingly fragmented viewing environment, the keynote ‘Programming With Global Ambition’ promises to offer valuable insights into how one of the biggest players, Discovery Communications, is tackling the future and redefining its business models. Sling TV’s CEO Roger Lynch will speak in Saturday’s keynote ‘Over the Top Comes of Age’ to discuss how Sling TV (part of DISH) is pioneering the nextgeneration TV service. Sunday will see BT TV MD Delia Bushell discussing how BT sees the future, how the broadcasting model is changing and how communications technology will evolve in the session ‘Telcos Tune Into Broadcasting’. Visit www.ibc.org
Leaders’ Summit to Examine ‘Leading Through a Changing Media Ecosystem’ THE IBC LEADERS’ SUMMIT is an exclusive invitation-only event for over 150 European and MENA leaders of the electronic media and entertainment industry. Now in its fifth year, it blends penetrating insights from influential speakers with independent and exclusive research, this year provided by research partner IBM Institute for Business Value, and the collaborative participation of C-level delegates in a day-long event that informs and shapes future strategy.
business’ will highlight the importance of understanding consumer behaviour in the company of Christian Kurz, Senior Vice President, Research, Insights And Reporting, Viacom International Media Networks; Laurence Miall d’Aout, CEO, TV Beat; and Elisabetta Romano, VP and Head of TV & Media Solutions, Ericsson.
Highlights include ‘OTT Moving Beyond Broadcast Devices in a Strategic Plan’. Speakers including Maaz Sheikh, President, Starz Play Arabia; Michelle Munson, CEO & Co-Founder, Aspera; and Tom Burns, M&E CTO, EMC, will examine how traditional business models are set to adapt to the new age of all devices.
Finally, the IBC Leaders’ Summit delegates will move to the Forum and join the rest of the IBC Conference to participate in, ‘The Big Talking Point: The impact of the internet on TV’. Here, Bruce Tuchman, President, AMC and Sundance Channel Global; Tom Toumazis MBE, Head of Partnerships EMEA, Yahoo; Rhys Noelke SVP Strategy, RTL Group; and Erwin Jansen, President, Benelux, Y&R, and EMEA SVP of Business Development & Marketing, Wunderman Group, will discuss the impact of the connected era in a wideranging session that dissects the transformational power of the internet and looks ahead to the EU’s Digital Single Market.
‘Consumer Knowledge: The better you know your consumer, the better your
Visit www.ibc.org/leaders
IBC 2015
This year’s topic is, ‘Leading Through a Changing Media Ecosystem’, and once more journalist and noted broadcaster Andrew Neil will anchor the interlocked sessions at the summit.
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IBC 2015
High Dynamic Range Takes the IBC2015 Conference Prize THE IBC2015 CONFERENCE PRIZE is to be awarded to Andrew Cotton and Tim Borer of BBC Research & Development for their paper ‘A display independent high dynamic range television system’. The paper will be given in the IBC Conference in a session starting at 14:00 on Friday 11 September. Drawn from the technical papers section, the IBC Conference Prize is awarded by the team of peer reviewers to the contribution, which both advances the industry’s knowledge and does so in the most clear and informative way. The BBC paper looks at how high dynamic range (HDR) video can be delivered and displayed while remaining compatible with conventional systems. “This year’s winner describes a novel solution that could fundamentally influence how we perceive tomorrow’s ultra-high definition video,” said Dr Nick Lodge, chair of the technical papers committee. “In their very clear paper, Andrew and Tim explain how they brought together theory in engineering and visual psychology, along with practical experiments, to arrive at a high quality, flexible representation of high dynamic range video. This is creative technology at its very best.” Andrew Cotton will present the paper, and Tim Borer will join him to receive the award on stage as part of the Awards Ceremony on Sunday 13 September. “We are delighted that IBC has recognised our paper on a display-independent HDR television system,” they said. “We believe that the technical solution we have presented provides the best universal approach for HDR, allowing it to rapidly become part of mainstream UHD offerings internationally.” Visit www.ibc.org/awards
Calrec Debuting Fieldbox I/O and H2Hub AT IBC 2015, Calrec will debut two compact aluminium expansion units, its new Fieldbox I/O range and H2Hub switch point, that can be used to expand and distribute a Hydra2 network. The new Fieldbox range of small-format I/O units brings the advantages of Calrec’s Hydra2 stagebox to rugged environments and areas in which rack space is at a premium. These 1U half-rack units are suited for work in outside broadcast environments in which I/O must be spread over a large area, such as a golf course. Fieldboxes can be located and distributed exactly where they are needed using just two high-capacity network cables for full redundancy. To add even further distribution flexibility to a Hydra2 network, Calrec has also developed the H2Hub switch point. Using the same compact form factor as the Fieldbox, the H2Hub provides a hub or switch point for a Hydra2 network. A single connection from the router can then be switched via the H2Hub to multiple I/O units, or to multiple H2Hubs if further I/O distribution is required. At IBC2015, Calrec will showcase the first technology release developed in conjunction with DiGiCo since the formation of the Audiotonix pro audio group in August 2014. DiGiCo consoles can now integrate onto the Hydra2 network via a Hydra2-enabled DiGiCo Multichannel Interface (DMI) card. DiGiCo’s range of cards easily converts audio from one transport protocol to another and can be placed in DiGiCo’s ‘anything in, anything out’ Orange Box, or directly into the back of the company’s newest digital mixing console; the S21. Visit www.calrec.com
Emotion Systems to Fire Up ‘Engine’ at IBC 2015 AT IBC 2015 (STAND 6.C28C), Emotion Systems will feature ‘Engine’,
and WAV Media Files.
comprised of all-new signal processing modules that ensure loudness compliance plus additional features such as channel mapping and mute; Dolby encoding and decoding; upmix and downmix (i.e. stereo to 5.1 or 5.1 to stereo.) and audio description insertion. Engine modules also feature a handy replace/extract function.
According to Emotion Systems CEO, MC Patel, “Engine is a major step forward in our already considerable suite of highly effective cross-platform, file-based signal processing technologies. Our flagship ‘eFF’ loudness compliance product has been widely adopted by leading post production and broadcast customers and we look forward to showcasing even more power in our Engine at IBC.”
Engine can be user-programmed to allow a wide variety of audio workflows, or it can be operated manually for use with API or watch folders. Engine can also process audio embedded within MXF, QuickTime, MOV, GXF, LXF, AIFF,
Cinegy Showing Version 10 Portfolio CINEGY HAS ANNOUNCED that at IBC 2015 it will be showcasing version 10 of its complete product range on stands 7.A30 and 7.A41. Cinegy Desktop is a universal production tool with real-time access to media in Cinegy Archive. Cinegy Desktop runs on a standard PC and is a power tool for logging, searching and editing. Cinegy Air PRO is a multichannel software playout and automation solution for scheduled or live operation in SD/HD or even 4K. Cinegy Air easily integrates into existing SDI infrastructure, or can be running in 100% cloud environment using IP streaming for I/O.
IBC 2015
Cinegy Capture is a multi-channel, multi-format and multi-proxy ingest solution and reinvents the acquisition and transcode process, unifying the task of ingesting material and generating edit or web proxies.
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Cinegy Multiviewer is Cinegy’s multi-channel video monitoring software, enables broadcasters and production houses to monitor streams from satellites, camera feeds, playout devices and other sources locally and remotely. Visit www.cinegy.com
Visit www.emotion-systems.tv
Riedel Showcasing MicroN BEING SHOWCASED AT IBC 2015, MicroN is an 80G media distribution network device for the company’s MediorNet line of media transport and management solutions. Working with the MediorNet MetroN core fibre router, MicroN is a high-density signal interface with an array of audio, video, and data inputs and outputs, including 24 SD/HD/3G-SDI I/Os, two MADI optical digital audio ports, a Gigabit ethernet port, two sync reference I/Os, and eight 10G SFP+ high-speed ports at a very competitive price point.
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During the exhibition, Riedel will feature the RSP-2318 Smartpanel. As the world’s first control panel designed to serve as a multifunctional user interface, the Riedel device boasts a unique feature set that includes three high-resolution, sunlight-readable, multitouch colour displays, premiumquality stereo audio, a multilingual character set, and 18 keys in 1RU. Three apps are available offering different levels of functionality. With the ‘BASIC’ app, users have 12 intercom keys and connectivity to RAVENNA/ AES67 or AVB. The ‘PLUS’ app also has 12 intercom keys and adds an analogue audio port for 4-wire integration and three GPI/Os. The ‘PRO’ app has 18 intercom keys and two analogue audio ports for 4-wire integration, three GPI/Os, and the ability to connect an independent second headset. Visit www.riedel.net
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IBC 2015
Gearhouse Broadcast Hits the Red Light for Remote Production GEARHOUSE BROADCAST will present a live remote production
the facilities that would be present on a normal production.
demonstration at IBC 2015. The company will showcase the transporting of uncompressed video and auxiliary data through its IT-based DYVI switcher from EVS on stand 10.B39.
“Remote production’s time has arrived and it brings with it enormous creative and business benefits for our industry,” said Kevin Moorhouse, COO at Gearhouse Broadcast. “We’d been getting a lot of enquiries from clients about the feasibility of doing remote productions. There is a lot of interest out in the market already and we are delighted to be able to bring this exciting solution to IBC2015.”
At the IBC 2015 demonstration, two IP-based servers will transport HD footage from two Hitachi SK-HD1200 portable production cameras and a remote pan-tilt camera over a 10Gbit network. Audio with full control of mic levels, communications and tally signals will also be transported across this network. This connectivity will demonstrate a true remote production with all
Visit www.gearhousebroadcast.com
Thomson Video Networks’ Shows Compression Solutions THOMSON VIDEO NETWORKS will showcase new software releases
Main10 compressed stream with specific HDR information.
that boost compression efficiency for its industry-leading ViBE family of SD/HD encoding solutions as well as a new software release of MediaFlexSUITE.
Thomson will also unveil a new SingleFeed capability for both the NetProcessor 9030/40 multiplexing and transport system and the RD1100 receiver/descrambler. SingleFeed is designed to simultaneously feed DTH receivers and DVB-T2 transmitters with a single multiplex, resulting in significant OPEX savings for DTTV headend operators.
Thomson Video Networks will unveil the second release of its MediaFlexSUITE, designed to greatly simplify services management for customers operating across multiple delivery platforms. Combined with MediaFlexOS, the suite can provision branding and compression resources based on priorities for deployment speed, video quality requirements, bandwidth optimisation, and content customisation. During IBC2015, Thomson will showcase new software releases for its ViBE EM4000, ViBE VS7000, and ViBE XT1000 HD/SD encoding solutions that significantly enhance compression efficiency across all current and emerging standards, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and HEVC. Thomson will demonstrate encoding of an Ultra HD high dynamic range (HDR) TV signal in HEVC — designed for distributing live HDR content — based on the company’s new ViBE 4K real-time encoding solution. The complete solution takes a UHD HDR signal from a SMPTE 2084-compliant broadcast feed and processes it in order to provide a standard UHD HEVC
Miller Debuts Cineline 2090 Tripod System at IBC 2015 MILLER CAMERA SUPPORT will be debuting its Cineline 2090 Tripod System to the European market at IBC 2015 (Stand 11.D30). The tripod system includes a new HD Mitchell Base 1-Stage Alloy Tripod and HD Alloy Ground Spreader to complement the Cineline 70 Fluid Head. This new system provides cinematographers with the stability, plus smooth and consistent pan and tilts.
IBC 2015
The high-capacity leg-lock system, deploying turn-lock levers with rapid lock/release action, as well as a heavy duty base with a built-in bubble level of heavy duty HD Mitchell Base 1-Stage Alloy Tripod offer a fast and easy setup. Built with the strength and torsional rigidity to take on heavy payloads, the 2090 tripod system has a capacity from 4.5 kilograms to 37.5 kilograms, providing stability and security when supporting varying rigging configurations. Designed for rapid setup and pull-down, the sturdy HD Alloy Ground Spreader easily attaches to the Alloy Tripod.
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Constructed of corrosion resistant alloy, the Cineline 70 Fluid Head offers advanced precision fluid drag control with ultra-soft starts, smooth stops and perfect diagonal drag transition, as well as counterbalance systems with ‘all-in-one-location’ control layout. Visit www.millertripods.com
Making its IBC debut, Thomson Video Networks’ new FUZE-1 Playout System offers a rich set of features for playout applications such as linear TV channel playout, ad insertion, branding, mosaic channel playout, timeshifting, disaster recovery, censorship, and EAS insertion. Thomson will announce a partnership with Expway, a leader in delivery of live content and multimedia files in multi-cast mode over wireless networks, to combine the compression performance of live HEVC video with the efficiency of LTE multi-cast distribution technology. At IBC2015, the two companies will showcase a full distribution chain that consists of live encoding by the ViBE VS7000 HD/SD encoder, Expway BM-SC encapsulation, service provisioning, and eMBMS middleware devices. Visit www.thomson-networks.com
Rohde & Schwarz Shows 4K Product Portfolio AT IBC 2015, Rohde & Schwarz will present its new products under the motto: “Rohde & Schwarz 4K: more than just resolution”. The company’s product portfolio has long supported the 4K video format. Rohde & Schwarz will present a number of new products that optimise post production and broadcast workflows. The next generation of the R&S CLIPSTER mastering station will make its debut at IBC. Based on a completely new hardware architecture, the R&S CLIPSTER will bring I/O, image processing and codec acceleration to a new level. The proven R&S VENICE ingest and production server is now even better aligned with the requirements of live studio productions. With the R&S VENICE 4K, the requirements of high-quality 4K studio productions can be met with the efficiency of HD productions. The R&S AVHE100 headend for operators of terrestrial and satellite networks is scalable from SD through to 4K/UHD. The encoding and multiplexing solution to be showcased at IBC will offer enhanced performance in an even smaller space thanks to an even more powerful equipment generation. Up to 33 MPEG-4 SD or eleven MPEG-4 HD encoders fit into only one height unit. Only two height units will hold 4K/UHD with 10-bit resolution. The R&S ETL TV analyser, the well-established reference receiver, will soon also support the HEVC standard. Rohde & Schwarz will present a technological preview at its booth. The demo will provide a detailed insight into how the R&S ETL analyses DVB T2 signals, detects HEVC-encoded video signals and outputs them over IP interfaces for external decoding and picture display. Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com
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IBC 2015
Ross Video Solutions and Workflows at IBC
Harmonic Highlight Electra X and Spectrum X HARMONIC WILL HIGHLIGHT the latest enhancements and releases from across its portfolio of video delivery infrastructure solutions. The company will showcase the new Electra X advanced media processor family and the Spectrum X advanced media server system. At IBC2015, Harmonic will showcase its new fully converged platform for broadcast and OTT delivery of SD, HD and Ultra HD/4K content. As the world’s first encoder family to support graphics, branding and playout functionalities, as well as industry-leading video quality and full-frame UHD/4K live encoding,
THE ROSS VIDEO THEME in hall 9, stand C.10 this year at IBC is solutions and workflows – showing how the Ross technology can be used to provide complete solutions for different types of production environments. The various solutions being shown are highlighted here, followed by specific product details. Automated news production runs through a full OverDrive Automated Production Control System. Inception News, the Ross News Room Computer System offering is showing ‘Idea Centric News Production’ as a single hub for news, web, and social providing the advanced tools required for the modern news environment. Sports stadium production is demonstrated as a complete solution with a 20 foot screen and ribbon board. This features the flagship Acuity Series Production Switcher and XPression Motion Graphics System. 4K is very much part of what is being shown in this area. The Acuity switcher offers enhanced processing power features. These include: full UHD (4K) production with eight keys/16 channels of DVE per ME, MultiFeed configurable program outputs with two preview and six program outputs for every ME, 36 channels of system wide Media Stores, and expanded dual head, 20 source window multi-viewers. XPression Studio 4K and BlueBox 4K bring UHD video and key graphics into production components such as switchers. Clips and real-time graphics come together in XPression Clips, an advanced IT technology production clip server with instant recall times and backto-back transitions from an intuitive user interface or via automation triggers from other devices. A companion product is XPression INcoder for file-based ingest and transcoding of material delivered for playout using multi-target publishing capability. SmartShell 4 is a single, unified control system for both CamBot and Furio pedestals, lifts, and heads. It comes with a new USB-based joystick panel to trigger robotic movements. Most importantly, SmartShell 4 now permits both CamBots and Furios to be controlled from a common interface, so studios can combine dollies on tracks, manual and free-roaming pedestals, and standalone PT heads. OverDrive Caprica is released, shipping, and on the air! Adding the OverDrive system to any control room is now possible, regardless of which existing production switcher is being used. OverDrive now controls the Ross Video Carbonite mid-sized production switcher as well as the Grass Valley Kayenne production switcher.
IBC 2015
Inception News/Social version 9.1 release has a native multilanguage spell checker, and introduces several time saving workflow features such as story templates and support for MOS redirection. Inception Live offers game day production for stadiums and sports teams through a browser-based environment. It is accessible universally, and offers a tablet-based interface that reflects changes made to scripts on the fly, as well as flexible printing options.
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At IBC2015, the Spectrum X advanced media server system makes its European debut. Spectrum X elevates the industry’s most trusted server platform to new levels of flexibility, efficiency and reliability. Designed for production and playout applications, the Spectrum X media server system eases the transition to IP broadcast workflows by integrating SDI and IP I/O on the same chassis. The new Harmonic MediaGrid ContentStore 5840 allows users of largescale Harmonic MediaGrid shared storage systems to reduce rack space by two-thirds and achieve 30 per cent cost savings on equivalent storage capacity. By integrating ContentStore 5840 storage nodes into new or existing MediaGrid installations, users can build larger, faster video file systems within a smaller footprint using fewer cable connections. With the release of the ContentStore 5840 storage node, Harmonic enables the largest media customers in the world to realise the performance and efficiency of the MediaGrid shared storage system in a low total-cost-of-ownership package. The Harmonic VOS is a software-based, virtualisable platform that unifies the entire media processing chain for broadcast and multiscreen distribution. Enabling the key functions of video delivery infrastructure — including ingest, compression, graphics and branding, packaging and delivery — on common hardware platforms, the VOS architecture leverages IT economics to enable content and service providers to simplify workflows, maximise flexibility, gain operational efficiency and lower their total cost of ownership. Harmonic’s ProView 7100 is the company’s single-rack, multiformat, integrated receiver-decoder (IRD), transcoder and MPEG stream processor to support the HEVC standard. As part of an end-to-end HEVC-based video transmission solution offered by Harmonic, the ProView 7100 enables video content and service providers to decode HEVC compressed streams up to 1080p60 resolution, maximising bandwidth efficiency for broadcast service delivery while maintaining pristine video quality. Visit www.harmonicinc.com
Mediaproxy to Showcase New LogServer Suite of Products MEDIAPROXY PTY. LTD., the industry leader for broadcast compliance logging, content monitoring and transport stream analysis is demonstrating the newest version of its LogServer suite of products at IBC 2015, version 10. The LogServer suite of product provides broadcasters with a comprehensive and intuitive set of client applications across Windows, Mac, web and mobile platforms.
The Streamline Media Asset Management System now includes a MOS engine and HTML5-based plug-in to discover and source media, browse, and link to broadcast scripts in Inception News.
Supported SD and HD input formats range from baseband, ASI, IP to OTT. Users can easily review, extract and analyse live and recorded contents across multiple channels via the simple yet powerful LogPlayer interface, while TSAnalyzer provides engineers with a leading edge UI for transport stream analysis. The robust LogServer core engine provides the highest level of reliability for hands-off operations.
Visit www.rossvideo.com
Visit www.mediaproxy.com
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IBC 2015
Grass Valley Showcasing Broadcast Solutions AT IBC 2015, Grass Valley will be showcasing its portfolio of broadcast solutions including cameras, switchers, routers, servers, multiviewers, editing software, automation, and playout. Grass Valley experts will be on hand to help visitors improve efficiency and tell better stories by leveraging 4K workflows, IP infrastructure and the cloud. LDX 86 Universe, an LDX 4K/6X HD switchable camera, in tandem with the K2 Dyno Universe Replay System, is a first-of-its-kind system that brings 4K and extreme-speed storytelling into the mainstream, enabling any camera or replay position to be set up for regular HD, 4K or extreme-speed acquisition/replay.
Consisting of two different single HD format camera heads, with 1080i50/59.94 and 720p50/59.94 support, the Focus 70 live camera offers a feature set optimised for many of the typical live studio and field applications at an affordable entry price.
Management System is a set of production tools in one application. GV STRATUS lets you manage entertainment, on-air operations and news production media workflows.
With the GV Convergent CDN solution, operators control the routing of IP signals using the same control surface they’ve been using for years to control SDI, providing transparent control in hybrid IP/SDI workflows. Part of Grass Valley’s Glass-to-Glass IP solution, GV Convergent SDN leverages proven IT technologies, such as COTS routing switches and SDN control, to maximise flexibility.
Featuring a new broadcast engine, iTX delivers simulcast for greater scalability; is better adapted for live content with the most complete real-time processing algorithms; and provides enhanced automation of ingest for streamlined workflows. Version 2.8 adds IP capability, supporting compressed inputs and outputs with DVBcomplaint MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 transport streams enabling simulcast SDI/IP playout or IP-only delivery to streaming platforms and IP-enabled multiplexes.
GV STRATUS Video Production and Content
Visit www.grassvalley.com
EVS Leads the Way in IP for Live EVS IS INVITING visitors of IBC2015 to see their future-proof broadcast technology at stand 8.B90. This includes IP technology, cloud-based multimedia distribution, live replay content management, and a new install for IBC TV. At IBC2015, EVS will present multiple IP-based live production solutions, which will unlock new perspectives for live events broadcasters and producers. Visitors will be presented with the live production possibilities offered by IP-based infrastructures including content contribution between venue and studio and remote production operations. A series of live demos integrating EVS’ new IP-based solutions with third-party leading technologies will be featured. The ‘LSM Cockpit’ which will showcase LSM Connect, MultiReview and Epsio at IBC2015,
will display a single, cohesive environment of EVS technologies which lets operators pilot live productions with the new version of server software engine Multicam. With its latest Epsio FX Reveal mode, EVS improves live story-telling by enriching live replays through the addition of synchronised data to create scoreboards and biometric graphic displays. Epsio FX Reveal integrates into any LSM live environment and makes for an unmatched viewer experience. EVS will also demonstrate Ingest Funnel, a unique processing portal that automatically transforms, legalises and masterises all ingest formats. With Ingest Funnel, content is made ready to air or configured easily for post production or archive. EVS’ IT-based DYVI switcher is maximising
Dejero Demonstrating IP Video Contribution AT IBC 2015, Dejero will demonstrate IP video contribution and cloud-based content management solutions for ENG and remote broadcasting.
IBC 2015
Making its IBC debut, the LIVE+ EnGo is a compact camera-mounted or wearable transmitter that encodes H.264 video and transmits it over multiple IP networks – delivering extremely low latency.
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LIVE+ Multipoint is Dejero’s all-new professional video-over-IP distribution network for costeffective exchanges of HD-quality, low-latency video from location to location, at any time, anywhere. The cloud-based solution enables broadcasters and media organisations to send a broadcast-quality live stream from a source
location to multiple locations simultaneously, with known and controlled latency at each end point. Dejero will showcase LIVE+ Control, a nextgeneration cloud-based management, monitoring, and reporting tool that simplifies IP video workflows used in remote broadcasting productions. LIVE+ Control manages all Dejero LIVE+ video transmission solutions including EnGo, GoBox, VSET, NewsBook, and Mobile App. By accessing the intuitive LIVE+ Control interface from a Web browser, broadcasters and video professionals can geolocate and remotely control their entire fleet of field transmitters. Dejero will showcase its new strategic technology partnership with small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) manufacturer Aeryon Labs to provide secure, real-time distribution of HD video, captured by Aeryon sUAS, through the Dejero LIVE+ platform. Visit www.dejero.com
creative resources as the convergence of IT and broadcast infrastructures draws nearer. The switcher-like hybrid solution combines an easy to use operational interface with high-end functions and makes the system ideal for any studio with a number of control rooms or multivenue campuses. Showcasing how stakeholders can monetise enriched live video content, EVS will be presenting a global ecosystem concept based on its multimedia distribution platform C-Cast. IBC TV will once again be deploying an EVS news solution for its live news programming for the seventh year at the show. It will use EVS technology including XS live production servers and an IPDirector software suite. Visit www.evs.com
Quantel and Snell to Unveil New Branding QUANTEL AND SNELL will be out in force at IBC 2015 with a new stand, a new brand and a new vision, all of which will be unveiled when the show opens. They are also showing major developments across the product range. New developments on show include: A suite of technologies and solutions to enable broadcasters and media organisations to transition to IP and 4K infrastructures. Virtualised media workflow management and delivery, enabling the Software-Defined Channel. Unique technology that enables intelligent monitoring across the media production chain to provide joined-up, error free content delivery to multiple platforms. Support for next-generation display technology with HDR production systems. Visit www.quantel.com and www.snellgroup.com
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Software-defined video processing and delivery solutions from Elemental provide flexibility, scalability and performance via turnkey, cloud-based and virtualized deployment models. Pay TV operators, content programmers, broadcasters and enterprise customers around the world rely on Elemental to bring live and on-demand video to any screen, anytime – all at once.
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Power Rangers Use ARRI AMIRA Cameras POWER RANGERS, THE ICONIC TV SHOW about a group of ordinary teens who morph into superheroes and save the world from evil recently wrapped production in Auckland. Power Rangers – Dino Charge, the 23rd series of the show, exclusively used ARRI AMIRA cameras for the entire shoot. Here the two DOPs on Power Rangers – Dino Charge, DJ Stipsen and Kevin Riley, explain the shoot, its challenges and why they chose AMIRA cameras. DJ Stipsen explained, “Over the years that Power Rangers has been shooting they have used a variety of cameras and formats. Starting with 16mm film for drama and 35mm for green screen/wire work, then going digital with Red One, followed by the ALEXA. The producers have always been open to format change so they can keep pace with evolving camera technologies. We looked at all options in the digital realm for this series to find a format that would deliver the best possible pictures while maintaining the show’s style, having an easy post process and staying within budget. “The AMIRA was just released and there were a couple of things that when comparing all the camera options, put the AMIRA in the lead. One
was that it was small, lightweight yet very robust – we had Steadicam full time on main unit and 2nd unit generally do a lot of handheld work. Another was the ability to go from 24 FPS up 200 FPS at the flick of a switch with no reboot time and stay at 2K 12bit ProRes 4444 – again, 2nd unit shoot a lot of off speed.” After talking with the producers, post supervisor and VFX house it was decided that 2K would be acceptable for the show, even with the amount of green screen and wire work that 2nd unit would be doing, and wouldn’t hinder the VFX team. Stipsen continued, “Post love the ease of the ProRes 4444 format and we liked the rendering of flesh tones that the ARRI ALEXA family of cameras delivers. As we needed three camera bodies at all times across the two units, and due to the fact that the ALEXA and AMIRA share the same chip we knew we could, at a pinch, use an ALEXA on set as an additional camera.” Power Rangers – Dino Charge Main Unit ran two AMIRA camera bodies full time with Production mode, Dolly and Steadicam configurations as the default. For the most part, even when on sticks, the cameras would utilise sliders of various lengths either to get onto the eye line or to
correct over the shoulder masking on the fly. As he reflected on the entire production and how the AMIRAs handled everything they threw at them, DJ Stipsen concluded, “We didn’t have any ‘typical’ shots’ on Power Rangers – Dino Charge. We did have some ‘rules’ around main and 2nd unit though. Generally Main unit would shoot the humans and drama and 2nd unit would shoot the action, fights and monsters. 2nd unit did a lot more handheld work than Main, and I know they loved the AMIRA for this. Main Unit shot a lot more production mode and Steadicam, which again the AMIRA was a winner for because of its lightweight.” Visit www.arri.com.au
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Hillary: A Mountainous Challenge on Sony F55 FACED WITH CAPTURING ON SCREEN the essence of venerated Kiwi climber and adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand cinematographer David Paul NZCS knew he would be asking a lot of his camera. For the six-part, prestige drama he needed a camera to capture feature-quality images, but he would need to carry that same camera up high snowy mountain slopes where the progress would be no more than three steps up, two steps back.
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“The choice of a Sony F55 camera for this production was a no-brainer,” Paul says, “I can just grab it and I am ready to go. I have used all the main cameras, and so sometimes people wonder out loud why it is now my camera of choice, but when they see the pictures they go quiet.”
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For Hillary he shot with the Sony PMW-F55 CineAlta 4K digital camera for nine weeks in Auckland, two weeks in Mount Cook, and two weeks in Nepal. The challenge for Paul was to visually retell Sir Ed’s life up to the Everest climb, his Antarctic and New Zealand adventures, and his turmoil after the death of his wife in Nepal. With six hours of flagship television to shoot, the schedule left no room for superfluous gear or second chances. “I loved the pressure of shooting a six-part
series about Sir Ed,” says Paul. “It’s a chance we’ll never get again. Yet so much of it comes back to the images. I think of the Sony F55 like some of the Vision 3 Kodak film stocks – it’s not imposing anything on you. Unlike some digital cameras it is not saying ‘this is your look’, it is saying ‘here is your image, you can go and do what you want with it’.” Another imposition lifted by the Sony F55 is the rolling shutter look normally associated with CMOS imagers. “The global shutter is a huge advance,” says Paul. “Suddenly you are not worrying about vertical lines or panning. The motion overall has a much nicer feel to it, even within a static frame – it’s quite subtle, but add these little things together and they count for something.” Although the Sony F55 has the option of recording true 4K thanks to a native super 35mm 4K sensor, this project was shot in HD. Paul says going HD allowed them to use internal recording cards, minimising the size and weight of the kit. He chose the SR-SQ recording codec and 4:4:4 for the cleanest green screen shots. For a second camera, Paul chose an S-Log capable Sony Alpha a7S fitted with a PL mount, forming a kit that he slipped into his backpack
when flying to Nepal, just in case the main camera baggage went astray. Paul and his AC Sam Mathews repacked the camera baggage several times, eventually stripping the Nepal main camera kit down to just five cases. “We simply couldn’t have managed this with any other type of camera,” he says, “But we had to fly up into the mountains and the villages, where the planes aren’t very big.” Hillary premieres on New Zealand’s TV One in 2016. Visit http://pro.sony.com.au or http://pro.sony.co.nz
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George Gittoes Shoots Snow Monkey Doco with Sony PMW-200 RECENTLY, DISTINGUISHED WAR ARTIST, filmmaker, photojournalist and Sydney Peace Prize winner, George Gittoes shot his latest documentary Snow Monkey with two Sony PMW-200 cameras over a one year period in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
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Gittoes explained, “I have been using Sony cameras since I switched to tape from 16mm film in 2003 with my film Soundtrack to War. Over the years I moved on to the Sony HVR-Z1 HD and HVR-Z5 cameras. “Snow Monkey is the last in a trilogy of three films starting with Miscreants of Taliwood and it is fantastic to know viewers will be getting the full detail of the amazing medieval world of Jalalabad with its many characters in their exotic cloths and environments thanks to the Sony PMW-200.” Working on the trilogy of the three movies required Gittoes to train Afghan-Pashtuns to use all his equipment. He continued, “They had all used Sony equipment in the past for their dramas and found it easy to adapt to the upgraded models of cameras which I provided. With all of my movies I always shoot with two or more cameras simultaneously, on Snow Monkey it was two PMW-200 cameras. I do this as I seek an immersive experience. On Snow Monkey we also had a small Sony digital camera and often shot with a fourth camera by using one of the Z5 cameras.”
done by the editors. The whole PMW-200 workflow was particularly straightforward and very efficient.”
He continued, “Being able to share the footage at the end of the day with both the crew and participants was always a joy. Also, being in a war zone it was crucial to do good back up so we made three versions of all our footage on separate 2TB hard drives. We had about twelve of these drives with us and would send drives back to Australia by DHL after every few weeks to ensure the safety of the material and get tech checks
An upgraded model, the PXW-X200, which boasts all the features of the PMW-200 with a larger 14x to 17x zoom lens and additional codec recording choices, has now superseded the PMW-200.
Tiffen Highlight New Steadicam M1 and Lowell PRO Power LED TIFFEN INTERNATIONAL will highlight the new top of the range M1 Steadicam and the Lowel PRO Power LED light at IBC 2015 along with other new products across the range. The M-1 Steadicam is the most modular Steadicam ever. You can start with the simplest post and upgrade later to the full rig. The new M-1 camera stage is built around strength and high load precision with centre drives for superior rigidity with an optional vernier fingertip tilt adjustment – no tools needed. The G-70x Elastic Arm is highly durable, performance adjustable, and offers smooth operation with a huge 70lb. lifting capacity and a 29” boom range. Also headlining on the stand, the Lowel PRO Power LED, the latest LED light from Lowel. It’s a compact focusing light available in hi-CRI tungsten or daylight color, with impressive output and a wide fresnel 8:1 focus range. It is comparable to a 150w tungsten-halogen fixture with similar optics. Dimmable without colour shift, the Lowel PRO light is perfect for on-the-go shooting and small location studio setups. Visit www.tiffen.com
Gittoes added, “It is clear from watching it on the big screen at Trackdown during the mix as we have been doing over the last week that it will look that good. I can honestly say the PMW-200 cameras used on Snow Monkey have delivered the best picture quality in any of my movies so far.”
Visit http://pro.sony.com.au
Polecam Gets Clever with Ronin and Excels with Toshiba
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Ikegami’s Unicam UHD 4K-native 3-CMOS 2/3-inch camera provides the deep focus required for broadcast operation combined with ultra high quality colour reproduction. Ergonomic and operational features are the same as a conventional Ikegami Unicam HD camera. Also making their first IBC appearance are the Ikegami BS-98/CCU-980 hybrid 2K/4K rack-mountable optical-fibre transmission links. When used in
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POLECAM SYSTEMS WILL EXHIBIT a new Polecam remote head at IBC2015 (Stand 10.C49), a winning combination of Polecam + gimbal, extending further the range of remote head options for their lightweight, portable single operator crane system. Polecam a Ronin M gimbal fully interfaced to the crane system, offering a new dimension and extending Polecam’s shooting capabilities now even further. This innovation will bring further benefits when using zoom lenses on a rig and when operating in difficult weather situations. Also on show will be the very latest Toshiba minicams. Polecam Systems was recently appointed by Toshiba as their European Centre of Excellence for their range of broadcast products. The Toshiba IK-4K minicam is the world’s smallest 3-chip UltraHD 4K video camera providing 8Mp 3840 x 2160 output and showing extraordinary detail with up to 1600 TV lines resolution. Finally, the Antelope Pico High Speed Camera, a minicam that delivers spectacular extreme slow motion, recording at up to 520 frames per second in native HD. Visit www.polecam.com
Ikegami Maintains Focus on Broadcast Innovation IKEGAMI, a leader in the development and manufacture of broadcastquality cameras and production equipment, will show its wide range of systems and technologies at IBC2015. Broadcast innovation will be a major theme of the exhibit, including demonstrations of new 4K and 8K cameras.
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combination with current Ikegami Unicam HD cameras, the BS-98/CCU-980 can deliver HD and 4K processed UHD signals simultaneously. Ikegami introduced the world’s first generation 8K UHDTV camera in 2002 as a collaborative project with Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK. This year, through further technological innovation and collaboration with NHK, sees the demonstration of the SHK-810. The SHK-810 employs a single 33 million-pixel Super 35 CMOS sensor, achieving 4,000TVL horizontal and vertical resolution. The sensor allows the tight depth of focus often chosen for high-impact drama programmes. Visit www.ikegami.co.jp
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Fujinon 4K Ultra HD Series Lenses In Australia and NZ FUJIFILM HAS ANNOUNCED that first two lenses in its 4K Ultra HD Series for sports and entertainment applications have arrived in Australia and New Zealand. The UA22x8 is the first portable zoom lens in the series, and the new UA80X9 is the first field lens. Fujifilm GM Recording Media and Optical, Marc Van Agten, said, “These lenses got a lot of attention at this year’s NAB and SMPTE shows because of their 2/3-inch design, extended focal length and 4K optical performance. As a result they are currently being tested locally by some of the industry’s major players. From long-form programming DoPs to sports and news camera operators, everyone is excited about the range and resolution now offered in a 2/3-inch lens. The real benefit of these lenses is that 4K UltraHD productions can be produced with equipment that has the same ‘look and feel’ capabilities of HD, but with a premium picture quality.” With a compact and lightweight design, a 22× zoom ratio and a focal length from 8mm in wide angle to 176mm in telephoto, the UA22x8 excels in capturing a broad range of applications, including live sports, program production and news reporting. The UA22x8 comes standard with a 16-bit encoder capable of high-resolution output of lens data, such as zoom and focal position information. Zoom and focus position data is divided in 16-bit resolution and output as electric signals. With an 80x zoom and optical image stabilisation, the UA80x9 is aimed at coverage of large-scale live events, such as concerts and sports. In addition to its optical performance, the lens covers focal lengths ranging from 9mm in wide angle to 720mm in telephoto. Designed using proprietary optical simulation software, the UA80x9 offers exceptional optical performance in the centre of the image through to the corners of the frame. Visit www.fujifilm.com.au
Canon Goes Wide with 4K Portable Broadcast Lens
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CANON AUSTRALIA HAS UNVEILED the CJ12ex4.3B, a new 2/3”
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portable 4K zoom lens with a wide focal length of 4.3mm, designed for professionals shooting interviews or live broadcast, including sport and news.
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Leveraging Canon’s heritage in optical design and advanced technologies, the CJ12ex4.3B delivers 4K image quality throughout the entire 12x optical zoom range. Providing the freedom to quickly adapt to different shooting environments, the new lens enables shooters to swiftly move from an ultra-wide 4.3mm angle shot to close ups, whilst ensuring first-class image quality from the very centre to the edge.
Video Devices Upgrades Filesafe to Version 1.4.4 VIDEO DEVICES, developed by Sound Devices, LLC, expands its FileSafe feature with software update 1.4.4 to ensure that its customers’ files are secure. Video Devices newest PIX-E Series of recording field monitors are now equipped with FileSafe in its firmware. If drives are unintentionally removed or power is lost during recording, FileSafe recovers the video and audio files. FileSafe version 1.4.4 functions as a Mac/Windows utility, enabling users to recover files through a computer-based application regardless if the recording equipment is readily available. FileSafe is also available on the Video Devices PIX 270i and PIX 250i rack-mount recorders, and comes embedded into the firmware of the Sound Devices’ 970 rack-mount audio recorder. “We have received excellent feedback from our customers about FileSafe, as it is another way for us to provide the highest reliability into our products,” says Paul Isaacs, Director of Product Management and Design. “We understand how important our customers’ content is, and we are continually looking at ways to improve and expand our products’ dependability.” Visit www.videodevices.com
Sony PXW-X320 Now Shipping SONY’S SHOULDER-MOUNT XDCAM CAMCORDER, the new PXW-X320, recently unveiled at this year’s NAB, is now shipping. The PXW-X320 combines shoulder-mount ergonomics, with the ability to capture phenomenal clarity from three ½”-type Exmor CMOS sensors with 6dB improved signal-to-noise ratio. This camcorder is capable of recording images with Sony’s 10-bit, 4:2:2 XAVC I and XAVC L codecs, plus the choice of several other formats. An improved Flash Band Reducer ensures image capture under difficult conditions. The camcorder can also optionally support sharing content wirelessly, including advanced Quality of Service streaming. With the many features inherited from Sony’s XDCAM camcorders, the PXW-X320 is aimed toward a broad range of camera professionals, from TV program and documentary production, to corporate, educational and event videography. Visit http://pro.sony.com.au
3D Robotics Announces ANZ Release of Solo Smart Drone 3D ROBOTICS (3DR) AND CONVOY INTERNATIONAL have announced the Australian and New Zealand release of Solo, an allin-one personal smart drone whose ease of use and powerful new features kick off a new aerial age.
To further provide sharp, high contrast images, the CJ12ex4.3B includes an increased use of fluorite and UD glass combined with Canon’s expert coatings, resulting in exceptional control over ghosting and flare. A new three group internal focus system also reduces focus breathing.
Solo can define its own flight, freeing users to focus on getting the perfect shot. This intelligent drone is also the first to support full control of GoPro cameras and deliver live-streaming HD video straight to mobile devices or through the controller’s HDMI port.
The CJ12ex4.3B is compact and lightweight, weighing just 2.1kg, making it similar in size and weight to a comparable 2/3” HD lens. Ideal for onshoulder shooting traditionally adopted by news gatherers, the lens can easily be used on-the-go, and with an ergonomic design and grip, it is comfortable to hold for longer periods of time.
Solo makes flying easy with its smooth and authoritative GPS satelliteguided flight, which also features auto takeoff and land, return home and the ability to instantly hit an e-brake and pause your flight midair.
Featuring a Digital Drive Unit, the CJ12ex4.3B offers advanced operability giving users the freedom to select repeatable zoom positions and speeds, in addition to focus and iris settings. A 16-bit absolute value encoder integrated into the Digital Drive Unit allows operators to start shooting with the camera’s aberration compensation function in an instant, without the need for any initialisation. Visit www.canon.com.au
The Solo Gimbal taps Solo’s intelligence to get perfect shots automatically, plus rock-solid footage, GoPro control & charging and long-range HD video feed. The new Solo app (for iOS and Android) makes it easy to get the most out of Solo’s smart features. Stream live video to a mobile device and enjoy sophisticated camera and copter control, often with the push of a button. Visit www.3dr.com
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Netball World Cup Sydney 2015 Chooses Gearhouse as Host Broadcaster FOLLOWING ON FROM ITS SUCCESS as host broadcaster for the Australian Open Tennis and the AFC Asian Cup earlier this year, Gearhouse Broadcast again provided this key role at a top sporting event in collaboration with McGuire Media as production service provider, this time for the Netball World Cup Sydney 2015 where the Australian Diamonds emerged as World Champions. From 7-16 August 2015, the world’s top 16 netball nations gathered in Sydney for the 14th edition of the Netball World Cup (formerly World Netball Championships). Held every four years since 1963, Netball World Cup is the pinnacle event for international netball. Held at AllPhones Arena and the brand new Netball Central venues in Homebush the Netball World Cup (NWC) was played out over three main courts and Gearhouse Broadcast, having won the tender for host broadcaster, provided the complete TV coverage of all games from the group stages to the final. Part of Gearhouse’s role at the NWC, much like at the Australian Open Tennis and the AFC Asian Cup involved not only producing the TV coverage but also providing all the broadcast and unilateral facilities for local broadcasters Network Ten and Fox Sports. As well as local feeds the coverage was then delivered to a teleport for satellite distribution to broadcasters all over the world. As part of its technical offering Gearhouse provided three mobile OB broadcast facilities, power generators, 16 Hitachi SKHD1200 and SKHD1500 HD and slow motion cameras, the latest in RF cameras and Seadicams, 40 channels of EVS via XT3s, all audio effects and umpire mics and the production of all graphics via six Namadgi graphics systems. CEO of Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015, Marne Fechner, said, “Gearhouse Broadcast has been a great partner, providing an innovative service of the highest quality as host broadcaster. Their experience, expertise and
willingness to find solutions to all our challenges ensured there were no surprises. They’ve done a great job as host broadcaster at the Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015.” Gearhouse Broadcast also provides technical equipment, facilities and expertise for the ANZ Netball Championship and all Australian Netball international test matches. Broadcast Consultant for the Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015, Tony Sinclair, added, “Gearhouse Broadcast have done an excellent job as host broadcaster on the 2015 Netball World Cup. They provide the very best and latest equipment and constantly strive for excellence. We knew Gearhouse had a proven track record as host broadcaster for the Australian Open Tennis and the AFC Asian Cup so we were very confident they would deliver the best solution for the Netball World Cup and they did. Gearhouse’s philosophy was to share all the knowledge they have gained in previous sporting events and work with us as a partnership. This worked very well and the entire event was a great success as a result.” Visit www.gearhousebroadcast.com
Seven is Ready for Rio SEVEN WEST MEDIA is set to deliver the most comprehensive, innovative multi-platform and technologically advanced Olympic Games coverage ever seen with its all-encompassing delivery across all communications devices of the Games in Rio de Janeiro next year. Every event will be broadcast live across broadcast television and any connected device.
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Twelve months ago, the Seven Network confirmed the signing of an historic, long-term agreement for an all-encompassing coverage of the Olympic Games over the coming decade. Seven’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee delivers free broadcast television and subscription television rights, and expands beyond television to Seven’s digital platforms, including online, mobile and other emerging forms of content delivery and Hybrid Broadband Broadcast Television. Seven has also secured radio broadcasting rights.
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Under the unprecedented new agreement, Seven will broadcast the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018, and the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo in 2020. Underlining this new partnership is an option which, if exercised, extends the rights to include the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in 2022 and the XXXIII Olympic Games in 2024. Seven will also broadcast the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer and the 2018 Summer
Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. Over the coming decade, Seven will create and deliver the most comprehensive, technologically advanced, multi-platform coverage of the Olympic Games to all Australians on any communications device. Commenting, Tim Worner, CEO of Seven West Media, said, “The Olympic Games have been an integral part of Seven’s history since those first days of television in Australia 59 years ago. We are extraordinarily proud of our long partnership with the IOC and the Olympic movement. The Olympic Games are a commitment to excellence. As our first coverage of an Olympic Games in Melbourne defined our television business, the forthcoming Games in Rio will define our business and our connections with our audiences over the coming decade. We will deliver a coverage that takes every moment of the Games to all Australians across any communications device. “And on a more personal level, we take great pride in our partnership and our newly formed agreement as a key sponsor of the Australian Olympic Team. Beyond television and beyond our expanding coverage, we are so pleased to be actively involved with the Australian Olympic Team and the Australian Paralympic Team as a major sponsor and partner. We are backing in great Australians.” Visit www.sevenwestmedia.com.au
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NEP Australia Takes OB to Next Level with HD11
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“With this truck, we’re taking it a step further. It doesn’t just control our core devices. We can control everything from end-to-end in this truck, apart from the deployment. We use that as a differentiator for us, because we move [sporting] code to code, and client to client, and it’s a very fast way of turning this truck around. It allows us the freedom to change technology, but it keeps the familiar control panels, the familiar touch screen panels that people are used to.” Another example of NEP Australia’s pioneering implementation of VSM is in HD11’s EVS Record/Replay area.
TO MEET THE INCREASING COMPLEXITY and volume of client projects NEP Australia has launched the newest addition to its outside broadcasting (OB) fleet: HD11. A purpose-built 4K broadcast truck, and the first equipped with Sony’s HDC4300 4K and high-speed camera technology. According to NEP Australia President Soames Treffry, the new truck is just part of continuing investment for the company. “We’re continuing to invest in facilities, technology, innovation, and everything that we can do to support our customers,” he says. “The investment in HD 11 and soon to be 12 [early 2016], then with 13 and 14 on the roadmap as well, is putting our money where our mouth is in terms of showing customers we have a desire to be reflective of their brands, their aspirations and what they’re trying to do with their businesses. “That’s why now in terms of our full service offering, we can do anything for anybody, for any customer. We can do entirely self-produced events, white label TV, or we can still just hire them facilities and do a straight technical service for them. We can do segments of it, we can do the whole thing, but we can support them in any way that suits their business.” HD11’s fit-out has been completed while work is currently underway on its twin, HD12. HD11 is the largest OB unit in Australia with a maximumlength trailer with full-length double expanding sides, creating more than 65m2 of interior space. HD11 features ultra-fast physical turnaround with one-touch deployment and 90kw of cooling designed for the extreme Australian climate. The 34-seat capacity of HD 11 can accommodate: 9 EVS operators, 7 CCU operators, 3 audio control positions, seating for technical director and broadcast engineer, and 13 production gallery seats. Other features include: NEP’s single centre rack design for technical areas to minimise cabling and support workplace health and safety; Virtual system manager (VSM) fully integrated with every truck system; New NEP-designed touch screen with completely configurable control panels; Imagine hybrid router with 502 inputs, 824 outputs, and 22 multi-viewers; Up to 28 x Sony HDC4300 4K and high-speed cameras – an Australian first – and 10 point-of-view (POV) or specialty cameras; Up to 10, 12-channel EVS machines with 10Gbs networking; Sony’s MVS8000X vision switcher with second-gen control panel; Lawo Mc56 audio mixer with 64-fader panel supplied by Professional Audio & Television; and Riedel 192 x 192 communications system.
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HD11 was designed and developed by NEP Australia’s engineering team and constructed at A Smith Great Bentley (ASGB), the UK’s leading coachbuilder and arrived in Australia in 2015 for technical fit-out, commissioning and testing.
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At the heart of NEP Australia’s new truck is the VSM from L-S-B. “This is our core control system,” says Marc Segar, Director of Technical Services with NEP Australia, “we’ve used it since 2008 on HD 1. We were one of the first companies in the world to commit to doing VSM on a truck, and a lot of the European guys have followed us. The first truck we really had full control of everything through VSM was HD 9, and that drove the decision to go with Sony, Lawo, and Riedel more than other products that are similar.
According to Marc Segar, “Each operator has a touch screen VSM panel now. It’s a panel designed by us, it’s completely configurable. As a user, you can have your own settings, or we choose the settings for you. The great thing is it’s graphical, so you can see on the panel there’s ‘physical’ inputs for cameras, there’s physical inputs for ISO-switching, for audio channels, and they can all be on complete discrete buttons. And the buttons can be anywhere on the screen.” Also pioneering is the decision to ensure HD11 is 4K compatible for both current and future production demands. “This is a 4K truck,” says Marc Segar. “It’s built to be a 4K truck. We did 4K for the Cricket World Cup. We learnt a lot out of that project, and this truck was tailored for a lot of things that we learnt. Effectively, you’re talking about four of everything - so you divide the truck into a quarter of the resources that you would normally have. We’ve gone for a much larger router than we ordinarily would have, so the router on this truck is a 502 x 824 physical inputs and outputs, it’s got hybrid audio embedding/deembedding built into it, plus it’s got all the processing options. Plus it’s got 66 multi-view outputs, so when you talk about that size of router, 4K is a non-issue. “We also bought the first Sony HDC4300 4K cameras. This is the first of our trucks to release with those cameras, and I can’t see why we wouldn’t do that for future trucks.” Visit www.nepinc.com/welcome/nep_australia See page 28 for a photo tour of HD11.
Where the G RUDD Hits the Road WITH NUMBER PLATES bearing the inscription “G RUDD”, NEP Australia’s HD11 is dedicated to the late Geoff Rudder – until early 2015 General Manager of Resources and Logistics. Geoff’s 40 year career in the broadcast industry began with Network Ten in November 1975. He worked in the Audio Department for 18 years and was Audio Supervisor for 12 years. Geoff worked on many iconic Australian programs and worldwide sporting events. Geoff held various positions within the Operations division at Global/ NEP with different departments reporting to him. At the launch of HD11, Geoff’s wife, Jennie, said, “Geoff was a big believer in progress. He always wanted the latest and greatest piece of equipment and he thought he owned it all, and would work hard to get what he wanted. And, he would be so proud to see the efforts of all you in this, the latest and greatest HD OB van.” “We miss Geoff a lot,” said NEP Australia President Soames Treffry. “A guy who lived it, loved it, and just really passionate about TV and anything new and shiny, and the people and the culture. He was very much part of the culture of the joint, the backbone.”
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“First thing you notice in the production gallery is we’ve done a 90 degree about face. We’ve done that because it gives you more space, it gives you an extra seat.
MAIN PRODUCTION
“CCU has seven positions plus the overflow position and the TD position and is ready for up to 28 x Sony HDC4300 4K cameras. It’s also our first truck to showcase our new cameras. The great thing about the 4300 is that in HD it can operate at 6 and 8 x high speed so we are able to offer clients higher framerates than the current 3x super slow motion cameras and 4K for future proofing.”
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“Another change in this truck is the monitor wall or multi-view. Multi-view is now low latency, you don’t have the processing issues you used to have in the early trucks. So, it made more sense for us to do an all multi-view screen, and as we look at VSM, trying to control more things in the truck, it makes it more configurable.
TECHNICAL AREA
“In the EVS area, HD 11 and 12 are ready for up to ten 12-channel XT 3 machines. Both trucks will have dual 10Gbs networking as standard and HD 11 is equipped with multiple X-File 3s for archive, IP Director for content management, and EVS C-Cast. Each operator has our new VSM touchscreen interface as well as individual output monitoring and multi-view source monitoring. We have redesigned the area with two additional positions so we can house seven EVS operators and with the multi-use area we can have nine EVS operators inside the truck.”
“This a multi-use area, somewhere that we can add an EVS position, it could become a second production gallery, specialist web streaming area. There are two positions here and two sets of monitoring.
MULTI-FUNCTION AND RECORD/REPLAY AREAS
“We went with Imagine Communications for the core system router. The router physically has 502 inputs x 824 outputs, with internal multiviewer that has an additional 66 outputs. It also has hybrid audio processing and image processing on board. The main technical area is behind glass doors, good for keeping the equipment cool and the noise contained and our Engineer in charge position was swung by 180 degrees from previous trucks and now sits at the heart of the truck with a clear view of EVS and CCU.”
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NEP Australia HD11 Tour Guide: Marc Segar, Director of Technical Services
AUDIO
s It‘ “The bench you’re looking at, the new Sony MVS8000X Series II mixer with OLED monitoring. It’s a 104-input, 48-output mixer, and that’s the largest mixer we own. It has every option on it, so it’s fully 3G, 4K, it will do eight ME rows, and it’s got the flexible key arrangement on it.”
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“The audio room is very similar to most of our trucks, in fact. There’s a good reason for that: it works. We’ve worked very hard on trying to get the noise suppression down from other rooms. “Lawo mc²56 Mark II is the main audio console. As with all the trucks, it’s all wired for 5.1 surround sound. The main reason we’ve gone for Lawo is its integration with Virtual System Manager (VSM). We can control every facet of the audio console using VSM. The adjacent comms position has a Riedel 192 x 192 communications system. In HD 11 and 12, there’s a dedicated position with a dedicated entry way, and the great thing is you can fold the monitor wall and the comms panel out of the way revealing a door and windows to the production gallery.”
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The PA People Deliver Comms for Baku European Games A BRAND NEW ADDITION to the global sports landscape, the European Games ran from 12-28 June in Baku, Azerbaijan. Sydney, Australia-based firm The P.A. People delivered the world’s largest ceremonies communication system for the Games. The P.A. People is a specialist in stadium audio installations and event communications. Its projects include Stadium Australia, Sydney Cricket Ground and Brisbane Cricket Ground. In the run-up to Baku, The P.A. People won the contract to provide ceremonies comms, providing two-way radio, intercom, CCTV and technical services. For the Ceremony proceedings, The P.A. People selected ClearCom intercom systems to handle production communications during both rehearsal and both Ceremonies. “The scale of the project was pretty remarkable,” says Chris Dodds, managing director of The P.A. People. “In many ways it was a bigger undertaking than Sochi. The other particularly notable aspect of the project was the use of the Clear-Com FreeSpeak II [DECT-based wireless communications] system to cater to the Moving Stage. The production crew did not include full duplex on the original specification, but as the artistic component of the event developed – and after we had been appointed as contractor – it was determined that a full duplex solution would constitute a significant advantage for the Ceremonies.” Ultimately, the call was for a capacity of 80-plus packs to be put in place. With 50 or so packs generally constituting the maximum for a single-location FreeSpeak II deployment, The P.A. People designed a configuration “…using two systems in two different frequency bands, and with the support of the Azerbaijani authorities we were able to operate one system in one local license band and the other outside of that. With the two systems co-located, we could achieve the desired 80 packs in one physical RF space to the satisfaction of all. It was a great achievement,” said Chris.
Other elements of the ClearCom Moving Stage comms specification included a single Eclipse HX Median Digital Matrix Platform, nine HelixNet Master Stations and 70 HelixNet Beltpacks.
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Comms for general main stadium usage included two Clear-Com Eclipse HX-Omega digital matrix systems and more than 200 IP-enabled intercom panels. Clear-Com V-Series Intercom Panels were also to be found in the rehearsal tent and remote cauldron areas. Chris Dodds reports a “highly positive” response to the performance of the comms systems on the night, whilst Bob Boster, President of Clear-Com – which provided two support engineers on the ground – reports “another in a long line of great collaborations with The P.A. People. We really have a great partnership with them. They have highly trained and knowledgeable personnel who know exactly how to get the most out of the systems – as the deployment at Baku demonstrates.”
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14/03/2015 2:38 pm
www.content-technology.com
MEDIA + PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY
Chief Entertainment – Kings of Content Hamish Cameron, CEO, and Scott Kinlyside, General Manager, of Chief Entertainment, talk to Phil Sandberg about the company’s new facility, attitude and direction.
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Chief Entertainment Headquarters
THE NEW HEADQUARTERS of Chief Entertainment, with its capacity for linear and non-linear content distribution, video and audio production and post, has been designed for the multi-platform present while allowing for a disruptive media future.
The Chief 1.0 facilities included remote cameras with feeds carried via cabling through the wall of the night club to webcast over 360 concerts. Of these, 120 were repackaged for broadcast on ABC TV as Live at the Basement series. A number were also released on DVD through Warner Music. At its height, basement.com reached some 100,000 Australian viewers a month on broadband and another 700,000 located overseas. With Telstra’s domestic broadband customer base numbering a mere 300,000 and mobile video yet to make its arrival, the webcasting site was deemed ahead of its time.
The new HQ not only represents a new era for the company but also, from its position atop the Fox Sports building in the Sydney suburb of Gore Hill, is part of an emerging new, connected media hub that is developing around the former site of ABC TV. “We’ve sort of morphed into a ‘mini-Foxtel’,” says Chief Entertainment CEO Hamish Cameron. “We’re underpinned by a number of 24/7 channels, but to make the channels we also make the programs that go into the channels, or we make the promos and the ads that go into the channels.” “We’ve had a very successful business for the last 15 years,” adds General Manager Scott Kinlyside, “and we’ve had multiple years of growth, and this has really put us on steroids to be able to build on what we’ve done and also offer new services that we haven’t been able to offer previously. It’s also given us a great platform for future growth in whichever ways we end up going.”
HISTORY The Chief Entertainment story has its origins in Sydney radio of the 1990s when Hamish Cameron and high-profile DJ Doug Mulray established a studio with cameras to simulcast Mulray’s 2WS programme via the internet. “This is in ’98,” says the Chief Entertainment CEO, “so it was quite early. Broadband hadn’t even really hit then. “So, we built the studio, put the cameras in, started doing that. That then led to Telstra’s Ted Pretty, who came and saw what we were doing, and he said, ‘This is fantastic. There’s this thing coming round the corner called broadband, and this is going to be ideal usage of that’.” Following Mulray’s departure from 2WS, the pair approached Pretty with the idea of webcasting from Sydney night club The Basement. On basement.com, Mulray would present a morning show playing video clips, while concerts would be streamed in the evenings from the stage of the club. “Telstra bought into the idea,” says Cameron, “and they underwrote and funded our first version of Chief Entertainment, which was at Circular Quay, next door to the Basement.”
The next step in Chief Entertainment’s evolution came with Telstra’s acquisition of rights for a variety of sports, including the AFL, NRL and V8 supercars. An approach was made by former Telstra Bigpond head Justin Milne to explore how best to exploit these rights. According to Hamish Cameron, “Telstra wanted something more than just banners and sponsors. So, we started to come up with answers including rugby league highlights for matches online as soon as the matches finished, packaged up, Race Tracker to keep track of the V8 supercars, in-car cameras, telemetry, putting that into a visual scope. We were a bit of a laboratory.” Chief’s incubator stage continued until 2004 when the basement.com was retired and Telstra exercised an option to buy the company. Capitalising on its expertise gained with the AFL and NRL, Chief Entertainment began a transformation into a fully-fledged production company. The next ten years saw the company expand to a staff of 80 with a roster of new clients, including the TVN (Thoroughbred Vision) horseracing network. The period also saw Chief entering the nascent IPTV arena. “We were starting to do corporate videos and make commercials,” says Hamish Cameron, “and we decided to have a play with some of the assets we got from Telstra. We said to Telstra, ‘If we get all of the clips that we make for you for VOD on the website and loop them all together, we could make a linear channel’. They thought that was a pretty good experiment, so we did those, which were the forerunner to the [SportsFan and BPM BigPond Music] IPTV channels that we do now.”
A NEW FACILITY By 2014, Chief had outgrown its premises in the Sydney CBD and a plan was formulated for a purpose-built studio facility. A visit to the Gore Hill HQ
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Chief Entertainment CEO Hamish Cameron
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COVER STORY captured. Other resources include a Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve colour suite with control surface, Cinema 4D Studio R16 and Trapcode suite plugins for 3D motion graphics and VFX.
Continued from Page 31 of Fox Sports during this process not only pointed the Chief team in a new direction for technology, but a new physical address as well. “At the time, Fox Sports represented the leading best of breed technology, so we came over to poke around, meet with the engineers and see how things were moving away from tape-oriented to digital spinning disc, file-driven workflows. So, we learnt quite a lot about what a new age broadcaster looked like, and while we were here, they said ‘There’s a floor up on level four, why don’t you have a look at that?’” In a locality with Telstra DVN connectivity, a robust power grid also servicing the Royal North Shore Hospital, proximity to other broadcasters and media companies and an existing client in the form of Fox Sports as a downstairs neighbour, the 2400 square metres ticked a number of boxes for Chief management who began on a business case to take over the space. Following management and development approvals, September 2014 saw work commence on the green-field facility with design by Lauren Haynes of WMK Architecture, project management by Root Projects Australia, fit-out by FDC, and technology solutions design and integration by Studiotech Australia working alongside Chief Entertainment GM Scott Kinleyside and veteran Australian broadcast industry consultant Peter Bedford. With work completed in May 2015, Chief Entertainment moved in. The new facility includes:
C+T COVER STORY
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Master Control offering full service broadcast delivery, encoding and live streaming. Connectivity includes 6 x SD plus 4 x HD RX DVNs; 1 x SD plus 1 x HD TX DVNs; 4 x DVN2; 9 live streaming Rhozet encoders; Presentation suite for live broadcast delivery; and International connectivity to Globecast.
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Two large studios paired with Make-Up, Green Room and two fully equipped control rooms.
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Studio A measures 10m x 10m x 3.1m and is equipped with 3 x Sony 1080i HD cameras on full studio pedestals. It is cabled for fourth camera; features floor monitoring; a lighting grid with power and DMX distribution; customisable Fab-frame light boxes with full colour control; Black, White, Digi Blue or Digi Green wrap-around drapes; and digital audio interface with control-rooms.
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Studio B measures 10m x 10m x 3.1m, is cabled for four camera channels, features floor monitoring, lighting grid with power and DMX distribution, Black, White, Digi Blue or Digi Green wrap-around drapes, Digital audio interface with control-rooms, and camera connections to control room.
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Control Rooms feature Sony 1.5 M/E vision switchers, Yamaha digital audio mixer, 6 x EVS HD servers including LSM driven by 4 IP Directors, and Chyron graphics system.
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Lighting & Vision Control includes a Technical director/CCU area and Full lighting console
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11 production suites (including two Cinema 4k ProRes 4444 capable suites) running Adobe 2015 Creative Cloud platform on high spec MacPros & iMacs, linked to professional audio & vision reference monitors. Suites are coupled to a fibre-connected high speed NAS. Fast turn-around projects can access EVS live record systems. Connected to the Adobe Premiere front-end, this gives the ability to edit files as they are being
Office and freelancer space with edit suite pods at right.
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Dolby-standard, acoustically designed Avid ProTools HDX Studio with C24 control surface, 5.1 Surround Sound with Genelec 8050 and 8030 monitoring, an extensive microphone kit, and the ability to live multitrack record from a voice-over booth or the two studio floors.
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An additional 500 square metres of space on the building’s fifth floor not only gives Chief Entertainment real estate for future expansion, but can also function as an itinerant area for production clients while they complete projects such as episodic series or branded content.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telstra, Chief Entertainment is also able to leverage the reach of Australia’s largest telecommunications company. “The Telstra relationship is one that allows us to have our own identity and be our own organisation,” says Chief GM Scott Kinlyside, “but at the same time we have the support of and backing of their organisation. The sort of services that they bring to us is, obviously, DVN connectivity, data connectivity. They’re also a major client of ours as well. So, they feed us business as well as being a shareholder, so we actually fulfill a lot of work for them.
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“For a lot of content that we’re skilled in, we’ll produce for them, such as their digital rights fulfilment for video and internal videos for corporate, for Telstra corporate, and product reels for their product departments, and event reels, if they’re hosting an event, there might be 400 people at a venue, they need a video, so they come to us to make that. “Telstra’s recent investments in companies like Ooyala, Elemental, and also Globecast, they’re companies that we have already dealt with, particularly Globecast. We’ve had a long relationship with Globecast throughout the years, so we’re quite excited about that. I think there are lots of things we can do as a combined solution, us being production and Globecast being delivery. Ooyala, we talk to lot, too, and we’re using Ooyala for a lot of digital publishing of content, but we’re agnostic in that we’ll work with any platform based on what the client needs.” The capabilities enabled by the new facility have already lead to an expansion of business for Chief, including downstreaming and graphics of The Daily Serve Wimbledon tennis show for Fox Sports, a soccer show for the Football Federation of Australia, asset management for the NRL in conjunction with US-based Wazee Digital, as well as production of Kia and Hyundai TVCs and New Year’s Eve coverage via YouTube for Telstra. Chief has also signed a three year deal with Racing Victoria to act as the “head-end” for both the Racing.com Internet service and the Seven Network’s recently launched free-to-air racing channel. A stripped-down version of the racing channel also goes to bookmakers like Sportingbet.com.
Stud custo
“We’re very pleased with what we’ve built,” says Hamish Cameron. “It’s a complete ecosystem. Whether you just want to come and do an audio track with us, or you want to edit something, or you want to put something out on mobiles and do distribution, or whether you want to rent a studio to do something, it’s opened up a broad palette of clients for us, which we’re really excited about.” Visit www.chiefentertainment.com.au
Chief Entertainment Master Control.
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COVER STORY
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Make-up area.
Studio A. In addition to Sony HD cameras, the studio is also equipped with customisable FABframes for creating different on-set looks as well as green screen.
One of two TD areas featuring camera and lighting control. The control rooms are designed to handle output from one or both studios, depending on workload.
Audio Suite built as a full floating room based on a 48-track ProTools system. According to Hamish Cameron, “We could put a band or an orchestra in the studio and master them in here. That’s the capacity. The true function is to make ads and promos. The whole place is networked. All the edit suites end up in here as well so we can pass projects through for audio sweetening.”
One of Chief’s 11 edit suites which are based on Macs running Adobe Premiere. Fed by EVS systems and designed for quick turnaround of sports highlights, four of the suites feature sound proofing and Røde microphones for reporters to record direct to disc while footage is edited. The results are then published for online access.
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Future-Proofing a Chief Concern “What we know is from our previous 15 years as Chief Entertainment is that what you are today is not what you’re going to be tomorrow,” says Chief Entertainment GM, Scott Kinlyside, citing “flexibility and future proofing” as key infrastructure requirements in the company’s new Gore Hill headquarters. To meet those requirements, the company turned to solutions provider and integrator, Studiotech Australia. STUDIOTECH PROVIDED consultation, design, project management, commissioning, training and support services, as well as Technical Furniture, Routing, Presentation, KVM, Talkback, Tally, Audio and MasterClock Systems for the facility. “We decided on Studiotech as a bit of a leap of faith,” says Scott Kinlyside. “Even though they’re backed internationally and Studiotech do operate in other countries, this was their first major foray into Australia. The guys working here, however, have a long history in the Australian market, and we believed in them, and they were absolutely outstanding from a project management point of view, systems integration, the quality of their work, their communication, everything. “They did everything, not only the designing work in consultation with our key internal project leads including Peter Bedford, Adam Dodman, Nathan Hartley, Rob Roehnelt and Clinton Jones, but they basically drove the broadcast fit-out for us. We also went to them because we wanted external expertise in what’s happening in the market, different products that are out there, and different thinking behind how facilities can be set up these days. So they did quite a bit of research and came to us with solutions.” At the core of those solutions is an Evertz EQX 3G router, initially configured as a 1442 router then upgraded to a 1982 router. To allow for further expansion and installation of new technology within the facility, the router can be upgraded to 2882 configuration and also be fitted with SMPTE2022 interface cards for IP-based transport of real-time video, audio, and ancillary signals. According to Studiotech Australia MD, Michael Bentsen, “We included an enterprise routing system that can optioned up to meet future technology requirements. Currently it is a pure baseband router; however by adding readily available IP gateway cards, it will make it a true Hybrid routing solution. Newer IP ready equipment can then be connected to the gateways via IP or a redundant SDVN matrix can be added to really make it interesting. The Evertz Magnum Control systems intelligently manage the complete routing system as one. This allows you to build the facility you need today and by adding a few components, make it future proof.” While the heart of the broadcast network is the Evertz Router, the company uses EVS units for recording of live content and editing of sports content, Chief also has a vast array of Dell Compellent NAS servers for its 11 postproduction suites which are equipped with Adobe Creative Cloud package, including Premiere and After Effects. A centralised digital media department controls all ingest and naming conventions. Content is ingested into the Compellent storage to be accessed by the edit suites, as well as a number of desktop editing machines around the facility that are used for previews or rough cut editing. The company is still searching for a Holy Grail of MAM that can cater to all aspects of its multiplatform business. In the meantime, projects are logged and archived on LTO.
C+T COVER STORY
In audio, the Pro Tools-equipped suite is a floating room design set on rubber pads and acoustically designed for a resultant flat sound. It also features current industry-standard networking in the form of Dante, the uncompressed, multi-channel, digital media networking technology developed by Australian company Audinate.
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“We are very proud of what we achieved by fully packetising most of the audio in the facility and are thankful that the Chief decision makers allowed us to do this,” says Michael Bentsen. “This was done to avoid the complication of endless audio wiring and inflexible patching in the facility, which is what you typically find in such installations. The Yamaha System we installed is based around a redundant IP network that connects all mixers and I/O boxes together. For example all the microphone pre-amps in the Studio Stage boxes can in this system be accessed by multiple audio mixers simultaneously, and each pre-amp has multiple gain controls.... This way you can for example have three different mixes on a single microphone pre-amp
The Chief Entertainment rack room.
if you like, or in other words ‘everything goes everywhere’ and it is now purely just about configuration.” “The thing that we really needed in this facility was the ability to be as flexible and nimble as possible, because it’s how we are for our clients,” says Scott Kinlyside. “Everything ‘mission critical’ has full redundancy,” says Michael Bentsen. “The router has intelligent path-by-path redundancy where the overarching Magnum control system and the Masterclock Reference system are both fully redundant with automatic fail-over. Everything else in the system is “Modular”. You might have 15 frame stores and if one fails we have the other 14. The same with the studios, they have enough bandwidth allowing for failures. Single failures can be easily routed around and if a critical failure occurs in a studio control, another Studio control can then take over the operation. Everything is fully routable for reasons of both redundancy and flexibility.” While Chief Entertainment’s studios are equipped with HD cameras and switchers from Sony, the company also has one eye on a 4K future with not only two 4K edit suites, but also cabling capacity and rack room real estate. “There are so many varying views on what 4K means for live broadcast in the future,” says Scott Kinlyside. “I think we need to play it as it comes with 4K for the live production sense. What we are though is 4K in two of our postproduction edit suites, so Edit 1 and Edit 2 are 4K capable now. “But there is future expansion, flexibility and scalability in the design of the building fitout, as well as some of the key technology investments. We were also thinking about future cable runs, additional cable trays and increased back-up power so we can easily add more at a later date, that’s where our future proof thinking came into it. In our rack area we have still got capacity for another dozen or so racks, yet our existing racks are not at capacity at all.” According to Kinlyside, some of the expertise Studiotech brought to the table was not necessarily with the cables and wires. It also supplied ergonomically adjustable TBC consoles furniture in the Studio control rooms, Master control and other technical areas which allows for future reconfiguration of those rooms and gives staff the ability to sit or stand in some of the edit suites. “We made a conscious decision to go with TBC furniture,” says the Chief COO, “as opposed to built-in furniture, because we believe that that’s going to give us a lot more flexibility in the future, because of its modular design and expandability. We don’t need to keep bringing in joiners every time we need to do some more work to add some equipment. It’s kind of like scaffolding; you just piece it together based on the requirement. “Studiotech responded to every challenge we gave them, they had solutions for us, and came back with options on certain things as well. So it was a really good working relationship and we are extremely happy with the results.” Visit www.chiefentertainment.com.au and www.studiotechau.com
NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations
Sky News Selects Elemental For Live Streaming
Sky News Australia Upgrades Talkback with RTS and Magna
AUSTRALIAN NEWS CHANNEL (Sky News) has become the latest in a line of Australian Broadcasters to choose Elemental Live from Quinto Communications to provide high quality live internet streaming of their services.
SKY NEWS, one of Australia’s leaders in 24 hour breaking news and top
Elemental is able to support MPEG2, H.264 and HEVC (H.265) video encoding, and streaming in popular web streaming formats such as Adobe RTMP, Adobe HDS, Apple HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming and MPEG DASH. Visit www.quinto.com.au
ABC News 24 Celebrates Five Years On Air WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015 saw Australian news channel ABC News 24 celebrate five years on air. Since its launch in in 2010 during the Australian Federal Election campaign, the channel has provided rolling coverage of the major news and events that have shaped Australia and the world. On average it now reaches four million people a week. Kate Torney, ABC Director of News, said, “I’m incredibly proud of what the News 24 team and the ABC News Division has been able to achieve over the past five years in changing to meet audience needs and demands. We’ve seen extraordinary growth year-on-year for News 24, to the extent that four million people each week now tune in.” Since its launch, ABC News 24 milestones have included: 3 January 2015 – Highest ever day-time share of 7.5% (Metro) recorded due to rolling coverage of bushfires in South Australia. December 2014 – A record 428,000 ABC News 24 streams (all platforms – geoblock lifted) were recorded on 15 December (Sydney Siege), with a total of 1 million across December. 7 September 2013 – Highest ever prime-time share of 6.4% (Metro) was recorded due to coverage of the Federal Election. 26 June 2013 – Highest ever weekly reach of 4.8 million (Combined Metro + Regional) was recorded across 23-29 June due to coverage of the Labor Leadership Change. 26 June 2013 – Highest ever average audience was also recorded during this week, with an average of 344,000 (Metro) for program Labor Leadership News Conferences. 22 July 2011 – ABC News 24’s one-year anniversary. In the first year of broadcast, ABC News 24 became Australia’s most watched news channel. On its first anniversary, it reached more than 3 million viewers per week (Combined Metro + Regional). In the five major cities it reached more than double the viewers of any other news channel. Visit www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24
Sky News Australia Deputy Engineering Manager, John Cambronero, explained, “We had been running out of talkback ports for a while and modules were getting harder to repair so we wanted to a system that would take care of our current requirements and be scalable for the future. We discussed options with Lucas Bohm at Magna Systems and as ever he gave us the right information and the right advice.” Sky News purchased the latest RTS ADAM-M Digital Matrix Communication Frame with 128 x 128 ports and RVON16 functionality and multiple KP32 keypanels. The ADAM-M mid-size modular matrix boasts 8 GPIOs as standard per frame and is compatible with all current and legacy RTS Digital Matrix Intercom Keypanels and accessories. The compatibility with legacy systems and seamless changeover was something that Cambronero also remarked upon, commenting, “Being a 24 hour news channel we want to minimise the changes and any disruption on the user’s side. As it turns out, no one even noticed that the system has been updated except for the fact that they now had new features available.” Sky News uses its RTS talkback system as main comms between studios, newsrooms and presentation suites. With new upgraded ADAM-M matrix it now also deploys the system to its bureaus using the in-built RVON functionality-enabling intercom over IP. Visit www.magnasys.tv
Network TEN Chooses HiTech AViTA QUINTO COMMUNICATIONS HAS ANNOUNCED the sale and implementation of 16 HiTech “AVITA” Production Control Systems to Network TEN Australia. The AVITA Systems were chosen to replace ageing and unsupported Omnibus control systems across the network in Production Studio Control Rooms, News Studio Control Rooms, News Exchange, News Editing and Presentation areas. The AVITA Production Solutions are versatile and expandable with software plug-ins to cater for any production or play out requirement offering integration with Automation/MAM, News Gateways, Video Servers and routers whilst offering a powerful and friendly user interface (GUI) across a choice of hardware and software control surfaces including dedicated multibutton hard key panels, touch screen or conventional keyboard and mouse. Visit www.quinto.com.au
CNN Indonesia Begins Broadcasts AUGUST 17, 2015 saw the commencement of broadcasts from CNN Indonesia, marking an historic day for CNN International, Transmedia, and the people of Indonesia. From brand new state-of-the-art news facilities located in the Transmedia broadcast centre in Jakarta, CNN Indonesia offers viewers a mix of national and international news, plus the latest in business and sport in Bahasa Indonesia The start of CNN Indonesia TV follows the launch of www.CNNIndonesia.com in October last year. Jeff Zucker, CNN Worldwide President, said, “This is an incredibly important day for us. To be able to extend our footprint locally and reach millions of Indonesians is hugely exciting and humbling. We are confident Transmedia will deliver first-class content that appeals to Indonesians all across the country.”
NEWS OPERATIONS
Sky News selected and deployed a high density Elemental Live L176AE 1 rack unit live streaming appliance that is capable of taking in 4 x HDSDI/SDI digital video services simultaneously and streaming each of them in multiple bit rates, multiple resolutions and multiple live web streaming formats, by using Elemental’s GPU accelerated video encoding.
stories, recently had a pressing requirement to upgrade its talkback system, and for that turned to Magna Systems and Engineering and RTS.
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Deutsche Welle Goes Over-the-Top in Vietnam DEUTSCHE WELLE (DW) has expanded its partnership with Vietnamese telecommunication provider FPT in an agreement that will see DW’s English channel added to FPT’s over-the-top (OTT) television service. The launch of DW’s international English language channel on FPT’s OTT platform, FPT Play, on June 28, 2015, delivers DW to another 5 milliion users across Vietnam. DW and FPT Play is an expansion on FPT’s IPTV service, which has carried DW since 2009. The channel (DW) on FPT (both OTT and IPTV) includes a selection of DW shows broadcast with Vietnamese subtitles. Petra schneider, DW’s Director of Distribution, said, “We are excited about this collaboration with FPT, as it enables our target audience in Vietnam to access our unique programming via the FPT Play app that is accessible through mobile, smart TV and web services.” At the centre of DW’s new English channel is DW News, which provides audiences around the world with international news and information around the clock in English. Visit www.dw.de
Aveco Announces ASTRA Studio 3 AT IBC 2105, AVECO, a worldwide studio production automation and master control specialist, will demonstrate ASTRA Studio 3, the company’s third-generation news production automation system in Stand 3.B67. Astra Studio 3 includes a host of new features, including floating shots that provide unique flexibility in handling a director’s breaking news requests outside a planned rundown, with the flexibility to handle events across multiple stories. Astra Studio 3 MAM integration allows video search results to get to air instantly outside of a rundown during breaking news, and includes the ability to integrate with multiple third-party MAMs in a facility. Key to ASTRA Studio 3’s flexibility is a new Template Editor used to develop and modify story templates that specify how a story is presented. Other features include one-button release of CG control during times of breaking news, an advanced mode for news magazine and episodic studio recording, improved video search and additional local/remote preview capabilities.
Channel NewsAsia Opens Vietnam News Bureau in Hanoi APAC REGIONAL BROADCASTER CHANNEL NEWSASIA has launched a Vietnam news bureau. The office, located in Hanoi, is the channel’s 14th dedicated bureau in Southeast and East Asia. Government officials, business leaders, and partners attended the event in Hanoi. Channel NewsAsia’s Correspondent based in Hanoi, Tan Qiuyi, who has been based there since late last year, will file first-hand reports on the developments in a country that has one of the fastest growing economies in the region. Ms Debra Soon, Head of MediaCorp’s News and Premier Segment announced the opening of the bureau last year at Channel NewsAsia’s Vietnam Business Insights forum. Ms Soon said, “With our bureau in place here in Hanoi, we are extending our capability to report with depth and integrity. This is what the channel stands for, to create better understanding of Asia and what it has to offer the world.” Visit www.channelnewsasia.com
Reuters Launches Partner Marketplace REUTERS RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the launch of Reuters Partner Marketplace, a service offering clients fully-licensed video content from a range of specialist providers, available via a single, tiered usage subscription. All partners are handpicked by Reuters and cover an array of topics, including animated news content, celebrity news, and viral videos. Covering the most topical stories and footage of breaking news events as they happen, Reuters Partner Marketplace provides content complementary to Reuters output, giving a different angle on topical stories. Launch partners include: Next Media Animations – Offering animated news, science and innovation explainers. Hollywood.TV – A source for celebrity gossip and videos of the stars.
“ASTRA Studio 3 incorporates feedback from existing ASTRA Studio 2 customers to make this new system even more capable and powerful,” said Pavel Potuzak, Aveco’s founder and CEO. “ASTRA Studio 3 enables our customers to produce newscasts, magazine shows, and other studio productions easier, with more impressive graphics and effects and with lower operating costs.”
Rumble – Delivers social video news from around the world, with over 13,000 creators contributing to a portfolio of over 80,000 videos.
Visit www.aveco.com
Visit http://thomsonreuters.com
Hristo Guertchev, Senior Product Manager for Reuters, said, “Reuters Partner Marketplace will help our clients enrich their coverage, save time and resources and access a growing pool of content, all through our easily accessed and dependable web-based delivery platform Media Express.”
Ross Video Releases Inception Version 9 ROSS VIDEO RECENTLY ANNOUNCED that Inception version 9.0
NEWS OPERATIONS
has shipped and is available for both new and existing customers on an active maintenance plan. Version v9 expands upon the browser-based newsroom and social media platform, offering an instant messaging system, and further improving customisation with the addition of columns and validators that can be tailored to various environments.
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“We’re breaking new ground and have designed a product that meets the needs of news in the 21st century. The features in Inception v9 have been driven by requests from our rapidly growing customer base,” said Shawn Snider, Marketing Product Manager for Inception. Inception version 9 is introducing an integrated notification and instant messaging system, permitting users to communicate directly within the newsroom. Users can quickly send one-on-one messages,
engage in group chats and virtual meetings, or share documents and photos within the conversation. Inception has also added the ability to customise the running order, assignment, and story grids, with users being able to add custom columns with various validation and presentation options such as dropdown lists, checkboxes, and date and time fields, among others. Visit www.rossvideo.com
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Margaret Sixel Drives Mad Max: Fury Road to Success with Avid Everywhere MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is the fourth film in veteran director George Millerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mad Max franchise, and the first Mad Max film in 30 years. Set in a stark desert landscape, the film stars Tom Hardy as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maxâ&#x20AC;? and Charlize Theron as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Furiosa.â&#x20AC;? The two team up to face a relentless enemy as they try to escape the desert wasteland on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fury Road.â&#x20AC;? An intense eight-month shoot in the desolate Namib Desert in Southern Africa was followed by more than two years of post production. To cut the film, Millerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longtime editor Margaret Sixel and her team had to weave together more than 470 hours of location footage into what would eventually become the final 120-minute film. Sixel and her team relied on cutting-edge creative tools built upon the Avid MediaCentral Platform. By embracing Avid Everywhere, they were able to overcome immense challenges, including harsh production environments, limited Internet bandwidth, and great distances between creative teams to deliver one of the most innovative and exciting films of this generation. The majority of Mad Max: Fury Road revolves around an intense road battle, with dozens of vehicles, hundreds of extras, and mind-boggling stunts. To create these sequences, the team shot with up to 20 cameras at one time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from ARRI Alexas to Canon 5Dsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that were often fixed to moving cars and trucks. The editorial team on location needed to process 10 to 20 hours of footage on a daily basisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from ingest through transcoding to clearanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;before finally sending media to the cutting rooms in Sydney. Furthermore, the more complex stunts had to be processed first to meet the shooting schedule and ensure they had been captured properly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All of the footage had to be flown back to Australia, which took at least three days, with essential material uploaded to Sydney daily,â&#x20AC;? explains post production supervisor Matt Town. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unfortunately, the limited and inconsistent Internet bandwidth in Namibia made this extremely difficult. With over 470 hours of film, including 90 minutes of complex stunt work, the complexity of managing and sharing such a massive amount of media was staggering.â&#x20AC;? In order to meet these challenges, the team turned to Media Composer and ISIS shared storage. The system was comprised of nine Avid Media Composer stations running off a 44 TB ISIS system, including three Media Composer | Nitris DX systems to provide editors with highest performance for editing real time effects. Assistant editors used six additional stations to cut the film, with one running remotely in an in-house DI suite to facilitate greater integration with the DI process. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For the most part the film was shot chronologically, which proved very useful,â&#x20AC;? Sixel explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Throughout the eight month shoot in Southern Africa, I was in Australia building the cut. It was important to create decent cuts of the film early, so I could give George feedback and discuss pickups.â&#x20AC;?
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The Media Composer system on location had its own separate ISIS system containing a copy of all the footage, which helped the teams overcome the difficulty of uploading cuts. Avid bins containing sequences were sent via email, which allowed them to turnaround sequences in as little as an hourâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from
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the cutting rooms in Sydney to the desert of Namibia. The Avid systems never failed or faltered in the two-year post-production process, including the time spent in the heat and dust of the Namib Desert. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Throughout the entire process, Media Composer and ISIS allowed us to handle a massive amount of footage with ease,â&#x20AC;? says Town. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ability to share bins enabled us to spread the load of sorting and arranging the footage across multiple assistants, so it could be easily reviewed. This is the bedrock upon which the whole editorial process stands. If you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find footage easily, you simply cannot edit it.â&#x20AC;? Once the dust settled on the Namibia shoot, the real challenge for Sixel and her team began. Sixel spent countless hours experimenting, re-examining material, and searching for overlooked gems to provide Miller with as many creative choices as possible. The team created an enormous number of comps to build hundreds of shots, often combining up to eight layers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I try to be as prepared as possible before George steps into the room, and I know what he expects,â&#x20AC;? says Sixel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This was not an easy film to cut, and the overall orchestration was more challenging than any one scene. I created multiple versions of each scene and ordered them in terms of my favourites. Some of it looks deceptively simple, but the variables were enormous. Every sequence had a huge number of hours put into it, and every scene had to earn its place. No fat. No repetition.â&#x20AC;? Once Miller was happy with a scene, Sixel asked the assistant editors to string together every available option for every shot, including numerous comp options. To create the alternate comp versions, the editors varied the timing of elements, used different takes, and experimented with alternate backgrounds. Miller and Sixel would then review all the alternatives and refine the cut further. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Editing is not merely a technical exerciseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is intellectual, emotional and ultimately, like all artistic endeavours, intuitive,â&#x20AC;? concludes Sixel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Editing the film on Media Composer made the creative process very straightforward and intuitive. I could sleep easily at night knowing that our Avid systems would keep track of the hundreds of edit decisions we made every day.â&#x20AC;? Visit www.avid.com
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Bluefish444 Announces Epoch | 4K Neutron Bundle BLUEFISH444, manufacturer of the high-quality uncompressed 4K/2K/HD/ SD SDI video cards, announced the immediate availability of an Epoch 4K Neutron and ASSIMILATE SCRATCH v8 software bundle, obtainable through the Bluefish444 distribution channel worldwide. Epoch 4K Neutron and SCRATCH will be demonstrated at IBC 2015 in the Bluefish 444 booth, 7.J07. “ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH is a fantastic, all-around tool for dailies, grading, and finishing workflows and a perfect match with Bluefish444 4K SDI/HDMI solutions,” comments Tom Lithgow, Product Manager at Bluefish444. “This software bundle offer with the Epoch | 4K Neutron is a great value and makes SCRATCH even more accessible to our global partners.”
4K SDI workflows. An HDMI mini connector provides a lower cost 4K/2K/HD/ SD HDMI monitoring preview, and allows for colour critical monitoring on consumer HDMI displays supporting Deep Color. Bluefish444 has also announced the availability of a Q4 2015 Mac driver update bringing the first Adobe Transmit plugin from Bluefish444 to the Mac OSX platform. Bluefish444 has supported Adobe video applications on Windows for a decade and has a large installed Adobe customer base asking for cross platform support. The forthcoming Mac driver will support Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe After Effects CC, and all other Adobe Transmit applications with all Bluefish444 4K/2K/HD/SD SDI I/O video cards.
The Epoch 4K Neutron adopts an all new form factor, allowing for integration into a wide range of chassis. The low profile, half-height form factor allows Epoch | 4K Neutron to be installed into low profile servers, small form factor (SFF) computers, and low-profile Thunderbolt expansion chassis. The full height shield option allows for integration in more traditional workstation computers and provides additional I/O requirements like AES/EBU, RS422 machine control, and domestic analogue audio monitoring.
New features include multi-card support enabling advanced 4K workflows including 60fps high frame rates and complex 12-bit RGB modes to Adobe, Assimilate Scratch, and AVID software. The Mac driver will be fully compatible with Thunderbolt 2 and certified with a range of 3rd party expansion chassis from Sonnet, Magma, Netstore and others. Bluefish444 4K/2K/HD/SD I/O video cards will be even more accessible for Mac users, compatible in both traditional PCIe Mac Pro Towers and PCIe Thunderbolt 2 expansion chassis.
Epoch | 4K Neutron features support for 3G SDI I/O configurations, allowing
Visit www.bluefish444.com
SolidAnim Introduces SolidTrack and New Virtual Camera SOLIDANIM, A LEADER IN VIRTUAL PRODUCTION PRODUCTS, will showcase its framing software SolidFrame, the latest version of its SolidTrack solution and introduce its new Virtual Camera, SolidVCam (aka, Méliès) for the film and broadcast industries at IBC 2015. SolidAnim will present a special demo on its booth dedicated to broadcasters, showcasing SolidTrack’s new broadcast version and its virtual camera Mr Méliès. In addition, demonstrations for feature films will also occur during the exhibition. SolidTrack is a real time camera tracking solution for recording camera moves and data logging of camera moves on the virtual set. This simple yet versatile markerless camera tracking system for the film and broadcast industries addresses virtual production needs. SolidTrack combines real-time camera tracking and augmented reality previsualising VFX while shooting. Producers achieve greater control of VFX budgets and timescales, minimising wastage and ensuring efficient delivery, from previs to the final movie or television show. Comparing to traditional shooting methods, producers save approximately 30% time on a film or television show utilising SolidTrack. SolidTrack new version includes a box that gathers all tracking and other data in a single wire, which makes the organisation of data and global information significantly easier. In addition a new Genlock feature to genlock
SolidTrack tracking data and the film camera has been implemented. This two-way synchronisation ensures there are no frame delays. SolidAnim will introduce its new virtual camera, Mr. Méliès, equipped with SolidTrack camera real time markerless tracking technology, Motion Builder and Unity plug-in. The smart portable viewer meets the needs of any virtual production project such as on-set previs, virtual shows, providing accurate framing or cinematics. SolidFrame is a new interactive tool designed for animators and cinematographers to interactive explore a large collection of shots over their 3D animation, and rapidly create and compare multiple edits of the same animation. Designed in mind for virtual production and rapid prototyping of synthetic movies, the tool assists the filmmaker in exploring the cinematographic possibilities of the 3D scene. It is easy to use, is flexible and offers a quick set-up. SolidFrame offers a quick and user-friendly set-up of a cinematographic sequence based on several framings selected and arranged. SolidFrame is based on a selected frame, to manually reframe and play with the zoom directly in the screen-space. The software enables you to change the focal lens by freezing the framing and using focal types from the main camera/ lens brands.
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S SGO Presents Inspiring Sessions at IBC2015 SGO IS DOING SOMETHING a little bit different this IBC. To engage and
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indulge the creative senses, the SGO team is hosting informative, thoughtprovoking and compelling sessions on their booth (6.A11). Relevant for all professionals, such as colourists, compositors and editors creating content for broadcast, commercials and feature films, SGO has it covered with a session to suit everyone.
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SY showcased on SGO’s booth. Mistika is a complete post production platform, seamlessly integrating colour finishing, compositing and delivery. Mamba FX is low cost, high power, node-based compositing software for Mac, Windows and Linux. Both are resolution, colour-space and frame-rate independent. Mistika features real-time performance, even at 4K 60P and above.
Pertinent topics range from how to succeed in a competitive post market; focussing on opportunities for small and medium-sized commercial facilities; to the challenges of delivering high production-value long-form drama and documentaries; as well as delving into the cutting-edge workflows used in some of the world’s biggest blockbusters. The future of post is the salient theme threaded across a number of subjects including emerging technologies such as HFR, HDR and VR.
Also new this IBC, SGO is partnering with Canon to display its pioneering advancements in HDR technology with a state-of-the-art Mistika system on Canon’s stand E50, Hall 11. Mistika will drive an end-to-end HDR-4K “Glass-to-Glass” colour-process workflow demonstration. “The Canon HDRMistika presentation is cutting-edge and a great exhibit for technology that supports this game-changing technology of HDR, it is an exceptional space to demonstrate a new colour-finishing process,” SGO’s Marketing Strategies Manager, Sofia Pensado confirms.
In addition, the very latest evolutions of Mistika and Mamba FX are being
Visit www.sgo.es
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Red Giant Plugins Star in Filthy Look Films AUSTRALIA’S FILTHY LOOK FILMS might not be “dirty” as its namesake suggests, but it certainly is of-the-earth. Founder and director/cinematographer Mick Jones supplements this with his own definition – it means professional work, exceptional quality and a great relationship with clientele. Filthy Look Films produces a range of content including commercials, music videos, documentaries and television series. Mick shot, edited and graded a spot for Wrangler Asia-Pacific’s campaign, “Worn Across America”. The final look comes together in many harmonious pieces, with Red Giant plugins helping set the mood from the very beginning. “The first thing I do with my footage when I get into Premiere Pro is to start playing with the colour tools to establish a look for my project,” Jones says. “Red Giant Colorista has been my number-one colour grading tool for a very long time, and I would say it is my go-to plugin in Premiere Pro. Colour is so important in establishing mood and tone for a piece, so I do quite a bit of grading before I even start editing, because it inspires me and actually affects the way I will edit a piece.” Although each project has its own unique vibe, Colorista has helped Jones to evolve his own general style over the years. He uses the selective colour correction feature often, and it has worked its way into his standard workflow. “Being able to select the blues or reds and very simply change the hue or saturation of that particular colour has been key to developing my style, particularly when grading with baked-in and crunchy DSLR footage,” he says. “Those cameras tend to have super high saturated reds, and it’s easy to selectively knock that down a bit.” Jones’ Colorista work is bringing out the best hues in spots across the globe. “Love Pittwater – The Beach” is the first in a series of lifestyle videos for the local Pittwater government, just north of Sydney. As the director of photography and colourist on the project, Jones used a Sony F55 and a Sony A7S to shoot and Red Giant Colorista to colour grade. “If I could only use one Red Giant plugin for the rest of my life, it would be Colorista,” he says. “It’s the go-anywhere, accomplish-just-aboutanything colour tool.”
More recently, Jones has started exploring the rest of Red Giant’s Magic Bullet suite and is using Denoiser on low contrast looks where shadow detail is visible. Because these areas can often get noisy, he uses Denoiser to clean them up without crushing black levels. A Colorista and Denoiser plugin combination saved Jones a lot of time on a tight turnaround when shooting documentary footage on tour for British pop star Robbie Williams. Occasionally, there would be some quick edits needed for broadcasting in the UK, and Jones’ team had to shoot, edit, compress and send via the internet to the BBC all within a short timeframe. “Shooting backstage with limited lighting was a challenge and sometimes the footage was quite noisy,” he says. “I uploaded the footage to my laptop and did some quick colour correction with Colorista, and then Denoiser saved the day to get it clean enough for broadcast with such a tight turnaround.” Mick Jones has even more plans in the works for using Red Giant in the future. Next on his list is a short film for Filthy Look that will bring together some great locations, music and surfing. “The best part about using Red Giant plugins is the simplicity of use and the speed at which I can achieve the look I am after,” Jones says. “No complications.” Visit www.redgiant.com
Silver Trak Digital Subtitles with Screen Systems Solutions SYDNEY-BASED BROADCAST SERVICES FACILITY Silver Trak
that the client required.
Digital has recently upgraded and expanded its offering to now include a comprehensive set of subtitling services using subtitling software solutions from Screen Systems supplied by Quinto Communications.
The second part of Silver Trak’s offering involves their new Screen Systems WinCaps Quantum subtitling workstation software which gives them the ability to author subtitles from programmes from scratch and to perform subtitle quality control checks for their clients. WinCaps Quantum fundamentally supports the work Silver Trak does for Netflix in its role as one of only two Netflix Preferred Vendors in Australia.
Silver Trak’s new subtitling offering comes in two parts. In the first instance Silver Trak has deployed Screen Systems’ Mediamate, the highly acclaimed system that provides powerful capabilities for both the extraction of subtitles contained in video files such as broadcast MXF files and also for the insertion of subtitles from a separately authored subtitle file into video files such as broadcast MXF files. Mediamate has already helped Silver Trak with a significant job from a large international customer who required them to ingest a large number of tapes and to create from them both a separate video and audio file and a separate caption file. After the video tapes containing captioned video were ingested into the Silver Trak workflow Mediamate was used to extract the subtitles from these video files to produce the separate subtitle files
Silver Trak also provides a wide range of services to broadcasters, Internet, video on demand content providers and other video content publishers. Their diverse range of video content processing services include video tape to broadcast video file transfers, broadcast file to broadcast file transcodes and broadcast quality frame rate standards conversions, the creation of internet video on demand assets and the authoring of DVD and BluRay content. Visit www.silvertrak.com.au and www.quinto.com.au
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Foxtel Chooses Media Room Smart MAM from Silver Trak WHEN AUSTRALIA’S leading subscription television operator Foxtel had a requirement for a smart media asset management system the evaluation and assessment process resulted in the use of Media Room from Silver Trak. Foxtel Networks Australia Head of Content Operations, Rachel Thorley, explained, “Media Room serves two purposes, the Production Portal and the Publicity Portal. The purpose of the Production Portal is to enable Foxtel’s production department to store and archive production content, production houses to share content with Foxtel’s production department and Foxtel’s production department to deliver commissioned content to other parties. The purpose of the Publicity Portal is to replace the DVD delivery service where previously Foxtel publicity made DVD copies of key programs and posted them to journalists for review. Both these portals are now part of our daily workflow.” Silver Trak’s Media Room addresses the specific needs of any broadcaster, production house, post production house, or distributor who has media assets they want to store, manage and deliver from the convenience of any web connected device. In simple terms it gives the user 100% control over their assets and the ability to use Silver Trak’s services such as QC, file storage or Aspera fasp high speed data transfers without paying any licence fees and without leaving the comfort of their seat. Thorley continued, “When we did our evaluation and assessment of available systems on the market we found that Media Room met our objectives. Media Room is also particularly easy to use.” At Foxtel when using the Production Portal ‘rough cuts’ are sent from external production house to Foxtel’s internal production team for review and approval, then stored and archived. In the Publicity Portal ‘screeners’, promos, and synopsis are shown and incorporated into a campaign at Foxtel Publicity, which is then made available to other external parties to view online.
media assets. The system has been designed to allow for assets to be viewed in customised ‘media rooms’ where users can decide on access and viewing rights thereby enabling a personalised viewing service for their clients. Once viewed the assets can also be delivered anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Assets are automatically transcoded into five proxies and data selection is automated for any browser enabling a superior viewing experience irrespective of viewing device or speed of Internet access. Silver Trak MD, Christian Christiansen, said, “Media Room works so well for Foxtel because it is unlike any other asset management and delivery service. We developed Media Room in-house, in Australia and it is still fully owned by an Australian company. There is no charge to upload or populate your own Media Room and aside from your small monthly subscription, you only pay when you use any of Media Room or Silver Trak’s services. All assets are stored redundantly and all are easily accessible at anytime. This means Foxtel, indeed all of our clients, many of whom are dealing with their own international clients, can upload, view, amend and deliver those assets 24/7. Also all assets are all QC’d via the industry-renowned Interra Baton system with the QC reports readily available.”
Media Room’s latest feature is the system’s unique per-campaign perdelivery watermarking solution, which enables users to upload their own watermarks and apply them in campaigns and deliveries. This new level of security sits alongside the already successful HLS-encrypted screeners and passcode protection offered by Media Room.
Media Room allows the seamless flow of content between Foxtel’s external partners and Foxtel’s production team. This is something Thorley sees as a bonus as she concluded, “The seamless flow of content enabled by Media Room saves us time and money, which has helped us to be more efficient. Media Room also allows the creation of programming campaigns and distribution to external publicity parties with the added bonus of easily viewed usage statistics. In addition, Silver Trak’s sales, service and support that backs up Media Room is excellent.”
Media Room’s offering doesn’t end with storage and management of
Visit www.silvertrak.com.au
Thorley added, “Media Room has been custom-built to Foxtel’s requirements and meets our needs. Media Room is simple to use and as it is completely outsourced, does not require additional hardware or storage.”
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM
NRL Signs Wazee Digital for Content Management
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WAZEE DIGITAL, the provider of title management, delivery and
visibility and access to NRL archives.
monetisation services for sports media and entertainment companies, has announced it is to provide content management, metadata and distribution services for the National Rugby League (NRL) in Australia.
“Working with Wazee will further provide us with a scalable solution and dynamic archiving options, strengthening our future growth initiatives,” said NRL Films Manager Nigel Naseby.
The multi-year agreement will see Wazee Digital provide swift access of match day action back to NRL teams and approved organisations. By leveraging the cloud, NRL users from multiple locations will be able to search, preview and access NRL video and photo archives from the 16 NRL teams.
Harris Morris, CEO of Wazee Digital, commented, “We continue to see high demand from key sporting organisations both at home in the United States and internationally, who recognise the appetite of consumers to dive a little deeper into the background of players or who want on-demand access to stats and data. We have developed a customised tool set focused on delivering metadata rich content back to the content owners with speed and accuracy at the heart of our offering. We are delighted to be working with the NRL and look forward to rolling out this solution to their network of teams, broadcasters and partners.”
Wazee Digital Core, a highly customisable content management platform, will be at the center of the solution, which will enhance the overall access and utility of the NRL’s content to domestic and global audiences. At the conclusion of matches, metadata rich content will be archived and made available to all NRL approved users, in addition to providing full
Visit www.wazeedigital.com
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM
Māori Television Selects Interra Systems’ Baton QC Solution Versatility meets performance INTERRA SYSTEMS, a global provider of software products and solutions for quality control, real-time monitoring and video analysis to the digital media industry, has announced that New Zealand’s Māori Television has selected Baton as its file-QC solution.
SpycerBox Family - The perfect storage for your media SpycerBox Cell - Scalability at its maximum SpycerBox Flex - High-availablity storage synchronizations SpycerBox - is aStores SAN andwith NAS solution CuttingUltra Edge Oracle and Magna As Māori Television transforms to a fully file-based work flow, the Baton Automated file-based QC solution will form an integral part of this to ensure the integrity of the source file throughout its lifecycle by ensuring its compliance, presence and quality. “The non-linear nature of file-based workflows requires us to have a system to provide quality and integrity checks throughout its lifecycle
and to ensure externally delivered media complies to our specifications,” says Gavin Ho, Technology Manager, Māori Television. “The new system will be fully implemented once testing with independent producers is complete. This will enable Māori Television to have the right technological infrastructure to support its future multi-platform operating model. Baton stands out due to its comprehensive features, QC capabilities and focus on customer support.” Baton is a multi-platform, enterprise class, automated content verification system for file-based SD, HD, UHD, 4K and mixed workflows. Visit www.interrasystems.com
CUTTING EDGE, one of Australia’s leading artist driven VFX and post produc-
any in depth questions.”
tion studios has purchased multiple Oracle ZFS ZS3-2 engineered storage systems, part of the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance series, from Magna Systems and Engineering for use in their Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne studios.
Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance is the company’s premier applicationengineered storage for multiprotocol environments and delivers extreme performance, superior efficiency for VM and cloud storage environments, and deep Oracle integration. To complement the ZS3-2 systems Cutting Edge also purchased multiple SL150 modular tape libraries, two for system backups and one for both archive and backup.
For more information: sales.australia@rohde-schwarz.com
Owner and director of the Cutting Edge Group, Michael Burton, explained, “We had a need to upgrade our current file serving system to handle a greater volume of projects and data that would also optimise our workflows, so we began a search for the best options. When we assessed what was available it became clear that the Oracle ZFS ZS3-2 storage systems offered by Magna Systems and Engineering were by far the best solution for our needs.” Dan Mons, Head of IT R&D, explained, “After initial discussions with the team at Magna Systems and Engineering we tested and evaluated the ZFS ZS3-2 at our studios. Magna also brought in tech experts from Oracle to help with
Michael Burton concluded, “When all was said and done the combination of the ZFS ZS3-2 and the SL150 was the best the market could offer. We found Magna Systems’ sales, service and support to be excellent and the combination of their expertise coupled with that of Oracle’s to be a formidable offering.” Visit www.oracle.com and www.magnasys.tv
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Versatility meets performance
SpycerBox Family - The perfect storage for your media SpycerBox Cell - Scalability at its maximum SpycerBox Flex - High-availablity storage synchronizations SpycerBox Ultra - is a SAN and NAS solution For more information: sales.australia@rohde-schwarz.com
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM
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Rohde & Schwarz Storage Solutions
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM
Friend MTS to Launch New Content Protection Technology FRIEND MTS IS RAMPING UP the fight against video piracy with the launch of ASiD (Advanced Subscriber iDentification), a revolutionary new content protection service at IBC 2015. ASiD, which will be demonstrated on Friend MTS Stand 1.A44, is an ultra-lightweight subscriber identification technology that enables both traditional broadcasters and OTT providers to identify and shut down unauthorised streams within minutes. It works by inserting near undetectable identifying symbols onto the content for just a fraction of a second to identify any subscriber who is re-transmitting an unauthorised stream within five minutes of detection. ASiD is a true step change in the fight against video piracy. Its combination of discrete identifying symbols, fractional second display and sophisticated placement, and interpretation algorithms make it impossible to obscure or mask with zero impact on the consumer experience. Visit www.friendmts.com
Avid ISIS | 1000 Shared Storage System AVID HAS ANNOUNCED that the new Avid ISIS | 1000 shared storage system is now shipping. Powered by the MediaCentral Platform, ISIS | 1000 integrates with Avid Media Composer, Pro Tools, and third-party tools including Adobe Premiere Pro CC, allowing creative professionals to take on the most complex projects. Key features include: ¡ Enhanced integration with Avid solutions - When used with Avid solutions
like Media Composer and Pro Tools, ISIS | 1000 delivers time-saving workflows, enhanced performance, and greater efficiency. ¡ ISIS | 1000 uses advanced, self-balancing intelligent storage, backed by
comprehensive reliability and workflow testing. ¡ Offers streamlined usability, making it possible for non-technical
professionals to set up, use, and manage the system. ¡ With support for real-time SD, HD, 2K, and 4K media performance, ISIS |
1000 is the ideal core for modern yet budget-minded media production workflows. ¡ Real-time collaboration allowing up to 24 editors, assistants, loggers, and
other contributors to access media at the same time. ¡ With high-quality hardware and patented data protection technology, ISIS |
1000 safeguards media in the event that one or even two drives go down. ¡ Simple expandability — Starting at 20TB, ISIS | 1000 can be expanded to
80TB delivering 36 to 144 streams of 50Mbit/sec media. Visit www.avid.com
XDT Showcasing New Version of Catapult MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM
XDT PTY. LTD., a developer of advanced software-based solutions for high-
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speed data transfers, is showcasing the latest version of Catapult at IBC 2015. IBC also marks the release of a free version of Catapult, which includes unlimited clients and server bandwidth of up to 25Mbits. “We are excited to make a free version of Catapult available,” states Erik Otto, CEO at XDT. “Customers without the budget to invest in proprietary transfer applications or who resort to FTP based solutions will now have free access to fast and secure technology to meet their growing high-speed data transfer needs.” XDT’s Catapult technology delivers high-speed point-to-point performance by utilising standard LAN and WAN networking infrastructure. The Catapult protocol addresses the shortcomings of common network protocols such as FTP, NFS and CIFS and bridges the gap between local and wide area transfers. Catapult is designed to reach speeds of 10Gb or more on private networks. Visit www.catapultsoft.com
make.tv ACQUIRE Plugin for Avid MediaCentral Platform MAKE.TV IS DRIVING THE REVOLUTION toward cloud-based TV production further forward with its latest development, make.tv ACQUIRE. The new plugin enables third-party solution providers to integrate the functions of the make.tv Live Video Cloud into their own applications. As part of this development, make.tv has announced that Avid has certified the integration of the make.tv ACQUIRE plugin within the Avid MediaCentral Platform ecosystem, using the Avid Connectivity Toolkit. With make.tv ACQUIRE, Avid MediaCentral Platform users can enjoy complete access to the make.tv Live Video Cloud and all its features. News productions can be enriched with live feeds from smartphones and tablets. For example, news reporters can upload live streams using the free make. tv MOBILE APP and, at any time, the producer can determine the location of his roving reporters thanks to geo-localisation, query their online status and communicate via a chat function and integrated intercom. On top of this, a tally light in the make.tv MOBILE APP notifies the reporter as soon as the supplied live stream is on-air. As a result, make.tv is becoming a daily business tool for Avid users and news reporters all over the world. The seamless compatibility with other make. tv tools, such as make.tv SELECTOR and make.tv MANAGER, means that the content generated can be selected, managed and distributed with excellent flexibility. Producers also have the option of transferring their content to Avid Interplay | Production. Visit www.make.tv
Unlimi-Tech to Launch FileCatalyst Direct 3.5 UNLIMI-TECH SOFTWARE, INC., a pioneer in managed file transfers and the creator of FileCatalyst, will officially launch FileCatalyst Direct 3.5 at IBC 2015 on Stand 7.H37, as well as demonstrate the latest updates to the FileCatalyst product suite. FileCatalyst Direct – the company’s flagship product – is a suite of client and server applications that perform point-to-point accelerated file transfers at speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The latest version, FileCatalyst Direct 3.5, offers users new options to transfer files of any size and format, to anywhere across the globe. FileCatalyst 3.5 is now fully integrated with – and can save data directly to – Amazon S3, the online file storage offered by Amazon Web Services, making it easier than ever for users to share their large media files in the cloud as opposed to having to store files on premise. FileCatalyst Direct 3.5 also offers extended support for dynamic files. The software compensates for potential file transfer errors, such as those that don’t grow sequentially or are inappropriately modified by certain file formats. FileCatalyst Direct 3.5 can substantially reduce the wait for file transfer corrections, and can also retransfer potions of a file that have been modified once the primary transfer is complete. The latter is particularly important for popular file formats used for live sports broadcasts. At IBC, FileCatalyst will also demonstrate the next generation of accelerated file transfer tools, including new and improved features for TransferAgent, a full-featured web browser application for highly accelerated file transfer with no reliance on a Java plug-in. Also, emails, including attachments, can now be sent through TransferAgent and are indistinguishable from a normal email client. The very latest browser security protocols have been incorporated to ensure that files are kept as secure as possible throughout the transfer process. Additionally, updates to FileCatalyst WorkFlow, a web-based file transfer portal that provides new tools for seamless online file submission and distribution, will be demonstrated. Visit http://filecatalyst.com
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Audio Supervisor Rob Wolifson – Commanding Nine’s Apollo Mission Rob Wolifson, TCN audio supervisor at Nine Network in Sydney, has earned a well-deserved reputation in the business as a broadcast mix master with an ear that’s spot-on. In his nearly 35 years at Nine, he has not only seen audio become much more sophisticated and complex, but he has had an opportunity to work with technologies and artists that have shaped the face of sound and music. C+T How did you get into the broadcast audio business? What made you decide that this was what you wanted to do? RW Growing up I was always fascinated by two things. One was television. I believe it’s a very powerful medium that can reach people directly and in a very personal way. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a part of that. My second interest was sound, although I didn’t understand why. It was more than just liking a song or a piece of music. There was something about its construction and feel that fascinated me. I was very lucky to get into TV at the Channel Nine Network because they really did experiment and take chances and do things that maybe weren’t “safe.” That gave opportunities to people like me. The music came with the job because Nine did the programs that I liked the most, which were sort of chat shows, variety shows. Things with lots of music, bands, and artists. I liked hearing musicians in the studio work to get their sound right for a given song, and then sitting in the control room and listening to how the engineers of the day would process and mix those sounds. What was your career path? How did you move up the ranks to where you are today? As I said, I was very fortunate that I started my TV career at the Channel Nine Network. Channel Nine had an obsession with being the biggest and best, and as such had constant big productions in Studios and Outside Broadcasts. I realised immediately that I wanted to work in sound, so as soon as an opportunity came up, I joined the Audio department and have loved every second for the past 34 years. I started as a floor assistant, learning what the different microphones did and then how important it was to select the right ones for each application and how to place them correctly. I was lucky to learn from some great and passionate people. Among the programs I worked on was a five-day-a-week live variety show that had three musical numbers per day. There was an amazing house band and international guest artists covering the whole musical spectrum. Sammy Davis Jr. was the guest on one of my first shows. I was then given the chance to mix music regularly for one of our recorded shows. I became completely hooked on mixing when I was lucky enough to
spend an afternoon recording Joni Mitchell. She was so lovely and liked what I was doing, and so I felt that maybe I was OK at this. I then went on to mix a local late night version of MTV, and in the Channel Nine way, our producer was not happy just playing clips. He invited musicians and bands to come to the studio after their gigs and play live. That was a great thrill and allowed me to experiment and find my own style. In time I took over as Audio Director on the daytime show where I had started as an assistant. The show continued to have a huge focus on music, and I had the thrill and privilege of mixing live – everything from symphony orchestras to Joe Cocker and all things in between. Now, as audio supervisor, my main focus is on training the next generation to have an appreciation of what TV audio can deliver and develop their skills and motivation to want to stay in the industry. You’ve been at Nine since 1981. In that time, what are the biggest shifts you’ve seen that have changed the way you work and affected the output of the programming? When I started, audio was still done in mono, and we were just experimenting with stereo. To go from mono to stereo was quite something. We didn’t have the equipment or the knowledge to do it properly at first, so we worked it out as we went along. That’s part of the charm of our network — that we’re encouraged to try new things and push the envelope. I’ve found over the years that not knowing is not necessarily a bad thing because it forces you to adapt and not always do things by the book then trusting your ears to tell you whether its working or not. Another big change was to 5.1 audio. Whilst it works really well on post produced documentaries and films where the time can be taken to use it for dramatic effect in our studios, we’re still experimenting with how best to use it live. When it came out, it was fashionable to do everything in surround sound. Eventually we decided to take our time and get it right, because most of
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The biggest challenge, though, was the shift from analogue to digital, which we made about 18 months ago with our installation of Calrec Apollo audio consoles. I had a lot of concerns about ease and speed of use in a live broadcast environment. Yes, loading a template is easy with a digital console, but beyond that, I needed to be sure that changes could be made quickly and easily while still mixing the shows. In the analogue world, where each function has a knob or button, it is simple to reach over and adjust something on the run. But that’s not always the case with digital. Some digital consoles require a lot of scrolling through menus and sacrificing control of things so that changes can be made.
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As an example, we have a regular Thursday night sport/chat/variety show — “The Footy Show” — that has as many as 10 hosts at a time (all ad lib); an audience of around 400; stunts in and out of the studio; guest bands; a house band; and more. There is no opportunity to scroll through menus or sacrifice surface control by swapping layers in order to make adjustments and changes, so one of my primary concerns was to have a large-format console with as much surface control as possible. The design approach Calrec has taken with its consoles, especially with the Apollo, was the most straightforward of all the desks we tested. It has a very comprehensive work surface with many options to customise it for our workflow and make sense across our range of show requirements. I have had no trouble training operators young and old to work the console and understand its operational flow. It’s simple to build templates configure channels, patch sources, and make changes on the run. Plus the visual feedback you get from the touch screens and meter sections is easy to see, understand and react to. From the operator’s perspective the amount of knobs and buttons available to change parameters instantly is very impressive, and so is the fader spacing and the sensible way the screen-patching and source/destination-routing works. Although some other manufacturers had excellent products, all of those factors made the end choice clear. We were quite apprehensive and concerned before such a major change, but it didn’t take long before all the operators settled in and started looking forward to the next time they had a chance to use the Calrec Apollo desk. Tell us a bit about your audio operation. At our Sydney facility, we have three working studios. Of the three, the main studio is where we produce our live shows like the weekly “The Footy Show.” We’ve got a core of live shows that are on every day. A breakfast “Today show” into a morning chat show and a current affairs show plus weekend sport shows. Our main production studio can be utilised 24/7 and is on air live a minimum of eight hours a day (often more, with many shows running back to back). We have designed the control room for our main studio so that one person can operate all of the equipment and mix almost all of the shows on their own. The control room has two Calrec Apollo consoles — one with 64 faders and one with 32. The original plan was to have the smaller Apollo as a backup console for the larger one, but we have not needed a backup because there is already so much redundancy built in. So we decided to use the 32-fader Apollo as a second console on larger music shows — either with one operator using both consoles, or with a second operator on the smaller Apollo when needed.
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Nine has made hardware redundancy a major priority, so much so that when you installed the Apollo consoles, you also installed dual router cores — the only ones in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere! Why? What was it about the Apollo desks and the dual router cores that quelled your redundancy concerns?
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us agree that with surround sound, less is more. It stops being special if it’s always happening. If you have too much in the rear speakers all the time, people get a little indifferent to it. It makes sense to use it selectively, so that listeners perk up when they hear it, even if they don’t know why. Some people are very keen to use every piece of technology they have just because it’s there, but I’m not one of them. The simple path from source to destination is a great starting point then use the tools available to “fine tune things.” I like viewers as much as is possible to feel like they are in an audience listening acoustically.
As I said before, our main production studio is live on air several hours every day, and to our station management, it is totally unacceptable to be off air
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for any reason. When the time came to replace our old audio console, the primary demand of management was that it stay on air no matter what. It’s really as simple as that. The competition for advertising dollars and audience share is so great that no broadcaster can afford to lose either, especially due to a preventable equipment failure. Our engineering team pushed all the manufacturers to provide their maximum level of redundancy. Calrec was able to deliver with a second console that shares inputs from Calrec Hydra I/O boxes and dual router cores. That means, in the unlikely event of a failure so catastrophic that it renders the primary system unusable, we can still stay on air with the second console using the same I/O in a quick and elegant way. This system also worked well for operators because the process of getting to the second desk was simple, quick, and easily understood. We read a lot about manufacturers designing redundancy into their products, but the term “redundant hardware” can mean very different things to different people. As a broadcaster with a clear focus on redundancy, what do you expect to see from a redundant system?
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Simply put, our expectations of redundancy is to know without any doubt that all aspects of the system are covered — that every link in the chain had been looked at — so that should a failure occur in any path, we would be able to carry on. Calrec came up with a design that gave all of us — managers, engineers, and operators — confidence that this requirement would be met. In terms of console technology, what can you do with today’s consoles that would have been impossible to do when you first started? In the past, shows were set up differently, so you had more time to prepare. For example, if a show was on at noon in one studio, the breakfast show would be done in a different studio, you would have all the time beforehand to set up the bands, listen to all the musicians and then rehearse them to get it right. Transitioning from one show to the next was quite easy, and you could be fairly sure of what you were going to get. In the analogue world everything is more organic in some ways easier to follow. We don’t have that luxury anymore because these shows are done in one studio, back to back. If there’s music to rehearse, it has to be done during commercial breaks, where you might have only three minutes, so you never hear the end of the song before you put it to air. And you might have other things to do in that break, like checking the lines for a remote interview. Mostly there is no time or opportunity as a single operator to record and do “off line” mixing while the show is on air. There are a lot more crosses to guests and reporters now without checks and so multiple Mix Minuses need to be relied on. In the past we had to use lots of patch cords and make manual connections to go from one show to the next — and then continue to patch throughout the show. Now we can build templates and change in an instant, at the push of a button. You can get things done quickly and still maintain the quality and reliability. That’s a huge gain. Even better, when you load the template and you’ve got a good console like the Apollo in front of you, you can be sure everything will work as expected. Add to that the Apollo’s intuitive surface and you know you can operate with confidence. Visit http://calrec.com
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Linear Acoustic Showcases MT2000 LINEAR ACOUSTIC IS EXHIBITING its MT2000 Multichannel Bitstream Analyzer at IBC 2015 (Stand 8.D47). Featuring a full suite of test capabilities in a handheld form factor, the MT2000 allows engineers to analyse and troubleshoot digital audio paths quickly, anywhere inside or outside a facility. It is ideal for a variety of testing applications, including broadcast, cable, satellite and home theatre.
A bright OLED display on the MT2000 provides a status update at a glance, while a combination jog wheel and navigation joystick provides complete control. In addition to viewing the characteristics of a signal from the analyser’s display, engineers can utilise the unit’s built-in speaker or headphone output to listen to the audio on the spot. This way, the user can ensure sound quality and use of the proper signal.
This portable diagnostic tool provides stream composition and input envelope information, identification of the input video format and frame rate, and audio stream analysis, as well as error detection at the AES3 layer. Users can employ it for both two-channel and multichannel PCM and Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby E monitoring and analysis. The MT2000 can also analyse SMPTE 337 formatting, measure Dolby E guard band and line position, and display all the metadata contained in a Dolby formatted bitstream. In support of ATSC A/85 (CALM) and EBU R128 recommendations, it also includes a comprehensive ITU-R BS.1770-1/2/3 loudness measurement capabilities with user selectable Dolby Dialog Intelligence.
The MT2000 is able to output test signals in both PCM- and Dolby-coded formats, and can output test signals simultaneously on all outputs, even while receiving and decoding an input signal. When generating twochannel PCM tone signals, it allows independently adjustable frequency and level on each channel. It also offers an extensive set of Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby E test bitstreams, which are stored internally.
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ATT Audio Controls on the Move to Northcote. Both ATT Audio Controls Pty Ltd and its sister company Classic Audio Designs Pty Ltd (Grover Notting) have been operating from the same premises. This has been a complimentary arrangement and worked well for both parties and their stakeholders, however due to growth, the need for more space and for strategic reasons the time has come to physically separate.
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Signal I/O includes HD/SD-SDI, AES, MADI, and TOSLINK. Additional options include DVB-ASI and HDMI inputs. Power is supplied by an internal NiMH battery or an included external DC power supply.
has moved to Northcote an inner Northern suburb of Melbourne. ATT Audio Controls new address is 1 – 174 Clarke Street, Northcote, Victoria 3070. All receiving, despatching, sales/demonstration and administration will take place from this location. All other communication details such as telephones, e-mail addresses etc., remain the same. In the not-to-distant future ATT Audio Controls Pty Ltd will announce a new office facility in Sydney, and possibly Perth which is currently under consideration. Visit www.emotion-systems.com
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SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL. Inspired by the simplicity and intuitiveness of tablet technology, Summa is designed for a broad range of operator levels, with an easy-to-use touchscreen interface which uses established finger gestures to navigate the system. Designed for live broadcast applications, with a focus on instinctive operation, Summa simplifies even complex workflow tasks with common procedures that are just a touch away. Leading-edge Bluefin2 DSP and the same high-performance Hydra2 router technology featured on the Apollo and Artemis consoles means Summa is fully integrated with the wider broadcast community. Lean, refined and simple – more reasons why the world’s most successful broadcasters rely on Calrec.
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Clear-Com Introduces LQ-R Interfaces for IP Connection CLEAR-COM HAS ANNOUNCED the introduction of LQ-R, four or eightport IP interface devices in a 1RU form factor. LQ-R are new additions to the LQ Series family which have already proven to simplify and cost-effectively extend or link any industry-standard 2-wire or 4-wire intercom and audio systems over LAN, WAN or IP networks to any remote location. The new LQ-R devices can provide either four or eight ports per rack unit, while the compact LQ throw-down devices offer two ports of connectivity. The LQ-R devices have the option of eight 4-wire connections, four 2-wire connections, or four 2-wire and four 4-wire connections in a single unit. The 2-wire option is both Clear-Com and RTS TW compatible. A maximum of six LQ IP interfaces can be linked together in any 2- or 4-wire combination. LQ utilises the low latency audio CODEC OPUS, which features a range of different settings to provide high quality audio on the network bandwidth
available. This means that the LQ Series can be used for intercom conversation and for audio signals that need to be transported between floors or buildings, or across cities or countries. The LQ series of products can operate in both point to point and partyline modes allowing the user flexibility of connection to meet their workflow needs. This combined with the efficient use of IP data rates makes LQ the smart choice compared to other data rate hungry IP protocols. Visit www.clearcom.com
First introduced in 2014, the CLC software, developed and patented by Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT), has been implemented into RTW’s
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RTW Unveiling CLC Software RTW, A LEADING VENDOR OF VISUAL AUDIO METERS and monitoring devices for professional broadcast, production, post production and quality control, will unveil its implementation of Continuous Loudness Correction (CLC) Software as both a plugin and standalone software at this year’s IBC show. RTW will also release new firmware for its TouchMonitor TM7 and TM9 devices, its new TM3 USB Connect tool, and its new plug-in version 3.0 for its popular Masterclass plug-ins, Mastering Tools, and Loudness Tools.
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broadcast focused equipment, expanding the company’s line of products and supporting the industry needs regarding loudness control. (Stand 8.D89) CLC technology allows users to constantly adapt the level of audio they are working on, against a given program-loudness value, along with a definable loudness range in real-time with minimal obstacles. The CLC software is capable of handling DAW audio, live audio and files. It may be operated with the most common DAW software products with Mac and PC and now also as a standalone software tool. Visit www.rtw.com
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How much more impressive and emotional are sports broadcasts that also convey the spirit and atmosphere of the venue. The solution is Sennheiser’s ESFERA, the surround microphone system that enables you to generate and broadcast 5.1 surround sound using two standard audio channels.
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ESFERA - contact us for further details www.sennheiser.com.au/esfera
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Nova’s Mission Made Possible with LAWO Crystal Engine and VisTools THE NOVA NETWORK’S TOP RATING DRIVE SHOW “Kate, Tim & Marty” and 20 lucky listeners jumped on board a plane to broadcast from 35,000 feet, including 44-year-old listener Craig who flew for the very first time… aboard a private jet nonetheless. Kate, Tim & Marty like to dream big and thanks to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation took their show to new heights, and from the moment everyone stepped on board the Fokker 70, it was clear this was going to be a flight to be remembered. Tasked with making it all possible from a technical perspective was NOVA Entertainment’s Technology Manager John Pearce and his team. The chosen solution had to be easy to operate, while still providing the on-air talent and panel ops with familiar controls to their usual studio environment – of course on a much smaller and portable footprint. Just
like for past Nova’s Red Room Global Tours, John and his team relied on a LAWO crystal frame with a virtual console surface, configured in LAWO’s VisTools Unlimited control software. The NOVA Entertainment custom configured LAWO console had 22 virtual faders on a DELL touch screen with ON/OFF and CUE buttons, bus assignments, level meters, monitoring control, dynamics, EQ, and everything else necessary to provide visual feedback and touch functionality. “The LAWO crystal frame with a virtual surface has been a great addition to our arsenal of technical solutions here at NOVA Entertainment. We never know what will be thrown at us next and this time it was a show from 35,000 feet. The LAWO solution passed the ‘Mission impossible’ with flying colours and it was certainly not the last time we will dispatch this solution in the field,” said John Pearce. Visit www.proaudiotv.com.au and www.lawo.com
Radio Industry Welcomes Government Digital Radio Report COMMERCIAL RADIO AUSTRALIA (CRA) has welcomed the release of the Digital Radio Report by the Department of Communications and looks forward to joining the recommended planning group to commence planning for the rollout of DAB+ broadcast radio to regional Australia. Joan Warner, chief executive officer of CRA, said, “CRA is pleased to note the signal of support for regional DAB+ rollout in the report, with its recommendation for the establishment of an industry planning group. This means that regional Australians will not suffer a digital divide in relation to free to air broadcast radio but will eventually be on an equal footing with their metropolitan counterparts.” Australian radio listeners have demonstrated strong support for DAB+ digital broadcast radio.
Since the launch of DAB+ digital radio in metropolitan Australia in late 2009, DAB+ digital radio listening continues to outperform expectations, with 3.2 million people or nearly 25% now listening to radio each week using a DAB+ digital radio in the five metropolitan capitals. Twenty-six vehicle manufacturers in Australia now include DAB+ digital radio and more than 190,000 vehicles with the technology have been sold. Ms Warner said, “The radio industry has invested in a robust reliable future broadcast technology that is easy for listeners to access, remains free, live and local with additional choice and content. Broadcast radio plays a vital role in metropolitan and regional areas with the provision of local news and local emergency services information, so it is very important we continue to provide free to air broadcast radio services into the future.” Visit www.commercialradio.com.au
Commercial Radio Stations Signal Intention to Further Monetise Digital Radio COMMERCIAL RADIO STATIONS in the metropolitan capitals have signalled their intention to start focusing on sales for DAB+ only stations, with the announcement of DAB+ digital only station listener numbers released by GfK in a DAB+ Digital Radio Report. For the first time since the launch of DAB+ digital radio broadcasts in 2009, audience numbers for commercial radio DAB+ only stations have been released showing the Top 10 Commercial DAB+ only stations and the Top 3 Commercial DAB+ only stations by market. The report is an average of results from surveys 2, 3, and 4 this year and shows the total DAB+ audience is now at a high of nearly 3.2 million people (3,164,000) across the five state metropolitan cities. The extra DAB+ only stations have attracted 1.36 million listeners each week in the five capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
achievements. Firstly, the development, popularity and ongoing success of DAB+ broadcast technology and devices in Australia. Secondly, to highlight that the radio industry’s innovation and investment in a plethora of additional free to air DAB+ only broadcast stations is also proving popular with listeners,” said Adam Lang, Chair of Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) and COO of Macquarie Radio Network. “DAB+ only stations deliver more content to target audiences which not only adds choice for listeners but also gives advertisers new opportunities to speak to specific listener groups,” said Joan Warner, chief executive officer of CRA. “These strong numbers show that Australians are embracing the diversity offered by the new free-to-air DAB+ stations while also continuing to enjoy their favourite existing stations via DAB+.
This is in addition to the more than 2.2 million listeners who listen via DAB+ to their favourite AM/FM stations. Overall, 24.1% of the population in the metropolitan capitals is now listening to local radio via DAB+ digital radio broadcasts.
“The digital radio market has matured and there is an appetite for targeted advertising, the DAB+ numbers are now comparable to multi-channel digital television and networks are able to offer advertisers niche opportunities and further monetise DAB+ digital radio.”
“We are releasing these figures now to highlight two important
Visit www.digitalradioplus.com.au
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CRA Welcomes Government Response to Spectrum Review COMMERCIAL RADIO AUSTRALIA (CRA) has welcomed the Government’s response to the Spectrum Review. Ms Joan Warner, CRA’s chief executive, said, “A simpler and more flexible framework will allow for a more efficient and responsive system. It will however be important to consider the pricing of spectrum licences for commercial free-to-air radio broadcasters in the broader context of heavy regulation, local and Australian music content requirements, advertising restrictions and mandatory tags required of radio broadcasters, as well as the key role of radio in emergency situations. “The final outcome must ensure there is no increase in pricing for commercial radio broadcasters’ spectrum licences. In addition, the pricing should be considered in the wider context of total licence fees paid by radio broadcasters for the use of spectrum, which are very high compared to our global counterparts. “We look forward to engaging fully with the Department of Communications and with ACMA to streamline and make more efficient spectrum licensing arrangements, and to make sure that the unique role that commercial broadcast radio plays in providing robust, reliable freeto-air programming to all Australians, particularly in times of emergency, is recognised and preserved.” Visit www.commercialradio.com.au
WorldDAB Hosting Industry Insight Session VISIT WORLDDAB AT IBC 2015 IN HALL 9, stand D30 to see the latest receivers on the market, learn about international developments and get advice and support on how WorldDAB can help you plan and implement DAB/DAB+ in your market. Delegates can attend the IBC exhibition and the free Industry Insight Sessions by registering with the unique WorldDAB code 13741. This code will still be available after the early bird registration has closed and includes a free six-day Amsterdam travel pass.
StreamGuys Addresses Evolving Audio Codec Universe
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STREAMGUYS IS BRINGING BROADCASTERS a new transcoding platform
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to that focuses on efficient and proper audio output across multiple devices. The new Audio Transcoding software-as-a-service (SaaS) outperforms transcoding systems that lack compatibility with multiple audio formats; or deemphasize the significance of audio transcoding in the video stream. “With the wide range of devices available to consumers today, broadcasters deserve an audio transcoding solution that specialises in keeping pace with the ever-evolving world of audio formats and codecs,” said Eduardo Martinez, Director of Technology, StreamGuys. “Many do multi-bitrate video transcoding, but few if any focus solely on audio and their many transport mechanisms.” The Audio Transcoding service was born out of a need to implement better compatibility with iTunes Radio for many StreamGuys customers. In addition to converting from one audio codec to another, the service can ingest live video feeds and extract the audio to provide an audio-only rendition of the output. Visit www.streamguys.com
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AT IBC2015, NETIA will highlight new product features that enhance the flexibility and reliability of multichannel radio playout and new capabilities that enrich multimedia production, as well as mobile and remote production workflows. NETIA will also demonstrate its ability to integrate complex production ecosystems and simplify the publishing of content and data to the second screen.
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The NETIA Media Assist software suite empowers users to manage all types of content — in any format, on any platform — from anywhere and at any time. The new AirPlayList 2.0 module facilitates automated playout of multiple radio channels simultaneously and with guaranteed redundancy. Because the module is AES67- and audio-over-IP-compliant, users can broadcast either from a traditional physical sound card or using IP-based virtual drivers.
The WorldDAB Industry Insight Session at IBC will focus on broadcast radio’s future in the digital age. Europe is the world leader in broadcast digital radio, with large commercial and public broadcasting via DAB/DAB+. This session looks at current market opportunities and future plans around Europe and the world.
Built on a distributed architecture, the AirPlayList 2.0 module augments the overall reliability and robustness of playout. In high-demand scenarios, the AirPlayList 2.0 user interface supports centralised control and monitoring of many different playout systems installed across different servers. Users can access and broadcast media or channels located within separate databases rather than one central database. With the module’s Web-based interface, remote users can easily access the module to monitor or supervise playout on each channel and check the status of media.
Visit www.worlddab.org
Visit www.netia.com
ENCO and Yellowtec Simplify Remote Newsgathering for Radio Broadcasters ENCO ANNOUNCES A NEW PARTNERSHIP with Yellowtec that accelerates time to air for news content gathered in the field. At IBC2015, the two companies will unveil a remote newsgathering solution featuring ENCO’s iDAD mobile application and Yellowtec iXM recording microphones, giving reporters a high-quality, handheld system to record, process and transfer audio files back to the studio.
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The collaborative workflow reduces equipment costs, eliminating the need to use expensive field recorders to gather interviews in the field. Additionally, reporters no longer need to use codecs to transport files back to the studio; or drive back to the station to deliver files for editing. Instead, reporters and sources speak into the iXM microphone, which incorporates auto levelling to ensure pristine-quality recordings.
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ENCO’s iDAD app can connect wirelessly to the iXM’s internal WiFi storage device, allowing iDAD to directly access iXM recordings for editing and
director transfer to a radio station’s DAD audio library. iDAD can also remotely control the ENCO DAD automation system at the studio. “The main purpose of this combined solution is to make life easier on the field journalist,” said Andy Mikkuta, sales director, Yellowtec. “The simplicity of the solution removes the technical burden of newsgathering from the equation. Reporters can have complete files back to the radio station within 10 minutes of an interview.” The iXM incorporates only two large buttons (record and stop) and three light-up status icons, essentially cancelling any learning curve for the reporter. As Yellowtec and ENCO are world-renowned for robust, high-end broadcast technology, users are assured a reliable, end-to-end networked solution from field to studio. Visit www.enco.com and www.yellowtec.com
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DAB in Europe – Broadcasters Call Digital as Standard in Cars AT THE RECENT WORLDDMB European Automotive Event in Brussels,
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broadcasters from across Europe called for digital radio to be fitted as standard in all cars to give drivers access to the benefits of digital radio services. Digital radio coverage levels are now approaching FM equivalence – reaching 99 percent of the population in Norway and Switzerland, over 95 percent in Denmark, the UK and Netherlands, 91 percent in Germany, and 68 percent in Italy. At the conference, broadcasters presented the joint initiatives taken in countries around Europe to ensure digital radio for drivers. Patrick Hannon, President, WorldDMB, said, “Digital radio has reached a tipping point in Europe. The first countries have confirmed Digital Switchover dates and political commitment towards digital radio is building in many other markets. Digital radio offers significant benefits to drivers. The technology is tried and tested. Now is the time for car manufacturers to embrace the opportunity.”
The conference opened with Sven Gatz, Flemish Minister for Culture, Belgium, switching on the first DAB+ commercial multiplex. He said, “It is my great pleasure to be here today to switch on digital radio in the Flemish region of Belgium. The Flemish radio market is remarkably strong, with 4.2m listeners everyday, which is the second highest listening rate in Europe. Digitalisation brings more comfort to the media user…I am ecstatic about the work the private sector has undertaken to go digital, which is alongside work taking place by the public broadcaster. Digital radio brings even better audio quality, more space and capacity and reduces the environmental impact.” Broadcasters also called for the European Commission to ensure that sufficient spectrum remains for digital radio services. It was agreed that it is essential that Band III continue to be the dedicated digital radio band for Europe. Visit www.worlddab.org
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WorldDMB Becomes WorldDAB FROM THE 7TH OF AUGUST, 2015, WorldDMB is changing its name to WorldDAB. This move is to ensure that the name reflects the primary mission of the organisation, which is to promote the adoption of DAB / DAB+ digital radio around the world.
progress – particularly in Europe and Australia. There are growing signs of interest in other territories. It is clear transnational co-operation will play a critical part in driving the success of the standard. WorldDAB aims to play a leading role in this process.
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As the organisation engages with a growing number of international stakeholders – including policy makers, regulators, broadcasters, receiver manufacturers and the automotive sector – it is important that the organisation’s messaging, including its name, is consistent with this core objective.
This decision to revert to the organisation’s original name was taken by the Steering Board at its meeting in June.
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In the last four years, the DAB family of standards has made enormous
Visit www.worlddab.org
The new logo will be used on all new materials produced by the organisation.
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- Slot in format dual true diversity
- Easy setup and operation thru a OLED display
- Switching bandwidth of 174 MHz in the UHF range spanning 520 MHz to 694 MHz
- Wisycom exclusive digital sub-carrier telemetry technology allows:
- DSP based audio processing for unbeatable audio and digital outputs
• Remote TX battery monitoring
- 40 groups of 60 frequencies fully user programmable
• PTT function (An optional back-panel module is available, with the secondary intercom output)
- Broadcast superlative quality of any audiosignal transposition - DSP fully digital audio processing for broadcast superlative quality and multicompander compatibility - Infrared interface for programming and transmitter synchronization
• Advanced tone-squelch operating
- Exceptional sturdiness and absolute reliability even in very congested environments - Amazing small size - Very easy and pleasant use with easy status indication by means of RGB LEDs
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CONTENT DELIVERY Terrestrial, Mobile, Broadband
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Sydney Teleport Services Send Out the Signal By Keith Ford Founded in 2004, Sydney Teleport Services (STS) is based in the Inner West Sydney suburb of Rozelle, providing satellite uplink/downlinks, MCR switching, global fibre backhaul, DTH broadcasting, encoding services, VSAT data links, whilst also operating a fleet of mobile HD SNG services. “11 YEARS AGO SYDNEY TELEPORT was operating as a small operation with a single dish, now we have over 30 full time staff and we’ve gone from one dish to 41 dishes, along with 12 HD/SD SNG vehicles,” said Justin Burns, Manager of Business Development at STS. “In addition to traditional teleport services, we manage the Nextgen Video Network, connecting 17 sporting venues throughout Australia back to STS. This network provides multiple video and data paths to and from the venues back to Rozelle. Here the video signals are monitored and quality checked before being switched out to the end broadcast clients, (both domestic and international). The backbone of the domestic video network is provided by STS’s Channel Partner, Nextgen Networks, on their 18,000Km of domestic fibre, providing redundant venue connectivity and inter-capital routes.” “Recently we worked on the Cricket World Cup series providing remote production feeds for Star TV India. We were providing seven video feeds from the OB and encoding them at the grounds then delivering them to Mumbai, via our connectivity to BT Media. Additionally, we were also providing VPLS data connectivity to the venues at the same time,” explained Scott Jenkins, Managing Director. “Star TV used this data circuit for remotely controlling the analytics equipment at the venues from Mumbai to incorporate this into their own unique production alongside the multiple video feeds.” Nine of the Cricket World Cup finals were transmitted in 4K with an audience of approximately 1 million Star Sports subscribers who had upgraded to the new UHD service, making this the first ever live international 4K cricket transmission. STS Master Control is manned 24/7 by a team of professionally experienced operators monitoring
and controlling all video signals that pass through the facility. STS processes hundreds of hours of content a week via satellite paths, domestic connectivity and internationally on STS’s permanent global network, reaching into the US, UK, Europe, Middle East and New Zealand. STS runs the latest version of ScheduALL for all its bookings and operations scheduling and is currently rolling out the ‘Connector’ plugin enabling integration and collaboration with other ScheduALL users, (both clients and suppliers). An important aspect of the STS business is its agile SNG capability for sports, news, current affairs and major events or emergencies. “Our 12 vehicles are strategically located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Adelaide,” said Jenkins. “This means that we can offer a more economical solution to our clients with less travel and quicker response times.” “We also operate several dual antenna hybrid SNG trucks that can cover C band and Ku band simultaneously, for both video and VSAT data services,” added Andrew Rogers, Manager - Field Operations & Special Projects. “We recently supported a remote production in Kakadu National Park using one of our hybrid trucks. Here we were able to provide additional VSAT services for internet connectivity and telephony by extending the internal STS VoIP network to Kakadu for our customers, to replace the nonexistent mobile service.” Another large-scale project for Sydney Teleport is providing satellite connectivity for V8 Supercars, who often find themselves in remote areas and who require additional VSAT data services to support their OTT streams. This makes hybrid trucks incredibly beneficial and economical, which is why two STS hybrid trucks are permanently travelling with the V8’s.
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With the current increase in video over IP, alongside advances in encoding technologies, bandwidth efficiencies and demands for OTT offerings we see VSAT as becoming increasingly important. This is an area that STS believes will undergo above average growth. Justin Burns stated, “Opportunities are there for VSAT. It’s all becoming data driven and IP driven and we are in a position to react as these opportunities arise. We can offer fixed or mobile IP connectivity for video. We can help drive digital signage feeds. We can offer local Wi-Fi connectivity. We can integrate with the venues themselves to offer flexible connected stadium solutions and we can offer it all at a price point that works.” Scott Jenkins concluded by stating, “Beyond our technical achievements, Sydney Teleport Services is a great place to work. We empower our team to be innovative, we allow a breadth of exposure to the variety of technologies we provide to the industry and where possible we promote from within. This has seen nearly 18% of our current staff promoted into higher roles in the last few years. Our team is diverse, with experts in their fields and best of all great fun to work with! It’s the people that count in this business and we have a great team here that I’m very proud of.” Visit www.sydneyteleport.com.au
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BTV Brings Rural News Live with ConceroTel BOTSWANA TELEVISION (BTV), the national broadcaster of Botswana, have until recently had difficulties reporting rural news in a timely manner. Typically, these stories would be put on magnetic tape and taken to the capital Gaborone by bus. This process would sometimes take three days, by which time it was old news. To resolve this issue BTV turned to ConceroTel, a telecommunications company based in both Australia and Botswana that specialises in satellite, VoIP, mobile (GSM), video conferencing, and wireless communication networks. ConceroTel also has expertise in connecting remote and rural regions that lack reliable telecommunications infrastructure. With the purchase of new satellite equipment, BTV is now able to broadcast rural events back to their main control room in Gaborone, doing either live broadcasts or news feeds ready for the evening news. In addition, BTV requested a portable solution; simple enough for journalists to set up quickly, and to be able to broadcast live from any location within the country. ConceroTel, in collaboration with Lumina Broadcast Systems, have developed and implemented this solution. Lumina have a strong background in broadcasting; supplying the world’s most technologically advanced broadcast systems. Concerotel have a strong background in satellite communications, as well as a physical presence in Botswana. The synergy between these two companies has resulted in a solution that not only satisfied but exceeded customer expectations. “Botswana TV told us what they wanted to do. We’re satellite guys, so very strong in satellite and wireless and working in emerging regions, but we weren’t that familiar in the broadcast area at the time. That’s where I grabbed Peter Warren from Lumina,” explained Mark Sprey, Managing Director at ConceroTel. “He put together the equipment requirements and then we did a bit of a crash course in Australia on how to use it. We then went over and trained our local Botswana team who are now providing a support service for Botswana TV.” An MSAT120 (1.2m dish) from Vislink with an integrated Advent DVE5100 encoder and 40W BUC provides BTV the capability to provide live contribution links from any location. This unit can be unpacked and assembled by a single person with basic technical skills within 3 minutes. Alignment to the satellite is fully automated and the system is ready for operation within 2 minutes.
Make the SWITCH today! +61 2 9292 0000 MCR +61 2 9292 0092
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provides an IP data link back to an iDirect hub at their main operations centre. The satellite link is through an MSAT90 (90cm dish) with integrated iDirect e850mp modem and 40W BUC. The MSAT90 units have manual alignment to keep the weight down and are packed into a single backpack. Journalists use this equipment to do onsite editing of their story and load it into the Quantel server ready for the evening news. “When Journalists connect to Quantel QTube they can then send the edited file back, but they can also grab clips from the library. With two megabits of bandwidth they can do a fair bit of searching and find the clip they want, bring it over, edit that one and then complete their story,” said Sprey. The next step is to run MSAT terminals off lithium battery packs for even greater mobility. The battery packs, used in conjunction with portable roll out solar panels, are compact, lightweight and fast charging. They would provide the travelling journalists the freedom to broadcast anywhere, anytime without worrying where the power will come from. “We are working with a local company in Brisbane and, because we’re building a full satellite teleport in Botswana where power is so unreliable, we thought that instead of trying to survive exclusively with diesel generators, we’d investigate a renewable energy solution,” explained Sprey. In order to test the concept, Sprey converted his house to run exclusively on solar power using lithium batteries for power storage. When the system performed well, it convinced Mark to also adapt the solution for MSAT terminals.
“The MSAT120 is fully automated; they just put it together, which takes three minutes, and press a button and walk away. It does the rest,” said Sprey.
“That was the introduction to lithium technology and what it can do in a much smaller form factor. We sat down and said, ‘Right. We need solar input as well to extend battery life. We can even put a little power over Ethernet adapter, so people can plug in and power a Wi-Fi hotspot.’ So it’s all integrated. They’re being tested in Botswana now,” concluded Sprey.
For those stories that don’t require live broadcast, BTV have a smaller unit that
Visit www.concerotel.com and www.luminabsa.com.au
The MSAT120 comes in two backpack carry cases that can travel as ordinary airline cargo.
• Downlink/Uplink • SD/HD/4K transmissions • Satellite coverage - 91.3°E – 177°W • 12x HD/SD SNG vehicles • Direct To Home • Fibre backhaul • HD/SD Video Encoding • OTT Streaming • VSAT services • Telehousing/CoLo • Media Management • Domestic/International contribution platform - New Zealand - USA - UK - Europe - Middle East • PoP representation - Nextgen Networks - BT Media - Level3 - EBU - Tata Communications
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The Streaming Challenge Mark Senecal, Imagine Communications Earlier this year, Oztam and Nielsen published their latest research, which found that Australians are watching 27% more online video than a year ago. That adds up to almost seven and a half hours a month. AUSTRALIANS ARE FAR FROM LEADING this shift in video consumption patterns. A recent Nordicom survey, for instance, found that Swedes are spending close to 14 hours a month watching content online. And the Ooyala Global Video Index found that content being played on tablets and smartphones grew a staggering 100% from the first quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of this year.
agility and productivity, thanks to the ability to add new functionality through simple software downloads. That allows the media business to grab new monetisation opportunities without impeding the efficiency of the operation.
The Oztam/Nielsen study found that tablet use in Australia grew to more than two hours a month, up 15%, and smartphone video viewing was two hours 47 minutes, up 44%. While conventional television viewing still represents 88% of our consumption, the pattern is changing very quickly indeed.
Even if the advantages of moving to a software environment are clear, the transition will not happen overnight. Any shift from hardwarebased infrastructures to software-based systems will depend upon a number of factors.
This shift in video consumption patterns is driving a significant change in the structure of the typical content delivery plant. Compression equipment in a multichannel workflow is increasingly important. The challenge is to provide systems, which are agile enough for media companies to keep place with the rapidly evolving industry. Agility is a key word, because the days of one codec, one format, one transcoder are long gone. A dedicated device, which can only deliver one output is no longer appropriate when the business model requires media companies to distribute content to a growing diversity of devices. Those devices largely require a unique combination of resolution, codec, wrapping and delivery format. More important, that combination is not under the control of the content provider but the manufacturer of the device, which is making decisions based on its own assessment of the market: currently the drive is for ever-larger smartphones, for example, but that may soon change.
SOFTWARE The overriding metamorphosis in broadcast and media technology today is the move from dedicated hardware to specialised software running on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware. The growing power of COTS hardware, together with the increasing sophistication of codec modelling, has allowed the complex computational tasks to be performed purely in software. The first advantage here is that if the process can be achieved in software on COTS hardware, it can be virtualised in a data centre. That means content providers are now capable of scaling their transcoding capabilities by simply adding more processors to the task, or at worst case adding readily available and affordable servers to the data centre. The second advantage can be seen as a result of the growing number of protocols, formats and resolutions. To meet this continually evolving challenge, media companies are faced with the need to make upgrades to their transcoding equipment. For systems based on bespoke hardware, this is not financially viable.
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But what most of these upgrades involve, essentially, are algorithmic changes to video processing, rate control and other compression techniques. With a software system, these upgrades can be made by updating or replacing these algorithms with the new ones which may not be feasible with ASIC’s.
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Where there are more sophisticated changes, such as a new codec, then this clearly needs more development work. But that development, to create the compression algorithms, must be done anyway, and if it can then be implemented on COTS hardware providers can leverage their existing capital investment in servers rather than a direct replacement. In other words, a software approach to compression delivers levels of
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Those factors are led by cost. A broadcaster or content provider is likely to have a legacy infrastructure, and any programme to migrate to softwarebased encoding may be part of a wider programme of IP transition. No one wants to lose the value of previous capital investments. Other factors will include video quality and latency. It may be that some specific workflows have been fine-tuned, using dedicated encoding hardware, and replacing them would not give equivalent processing speed and quality. Media companies must constantly balance cost and technical requirements to fulfil the needs of a growing universe of consumers. It is likely that encoding resources will be a mix of hardware, software and hybrid solutions for the immediate future.
VIRTUALISATION The logical next step in the software transformation is to move functionality from a standalone COTS platform into a virtualised environment. That could be in a private data centre, or in a public cloud service. This approach changes the entire economic model for media companies. Investment in physical plant is diverted to operational expenditure, providing the enterprise with even greater levels of flexibility and resource elasticity. This allows media companies to scale resources – up and down – on the fly, creating an even balance between demand and utilisation. This elasticity allows priority work to grab additional resources for encoding or transcoding, which in turn enables the concept of on-the-fly encoding. Also known as just-in-time transcoding, JITT allows content owners and aggregators to reduce storage requirements by orders of magnitude, by just storing one instance of a piece of content and encoding and or packaging it as required on demand. The ability to transcode for any bitrate or package it for any device, including encryption, at the time of the subscriber’s request frees service providers from storing multiple versions of each piece of content. Best estimate are that this can save as much as 80% of the storage requirements in the data centre. At the same time being able to support new devices, packaging and resolution requirements that were unknown when the content was first stored. JITT is one element of a modular workflow, in which individual processes are assembled as required. Intelligence in the workflow allows it to be driven entirely by metadata, ensuring that the piece of content is licensed for a particular delivery platform, and ensuring it arrives there in the right format and in perfect condition. Software-defined infrastructures allow flexible workflows to be developed simply and quickly. As we move to virtualised implementations, then they also allow economies of scale through intelligent use of resources. Given an orderly transition, they represent the future of media delivery. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com
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GatesAir to Unveil Next-Generation TV and DAB Radio Exciter Offering efficiency and performance for broadcast network operators, the XTE further enhances signal correction to improve modulation error ratio (MER) and address other signal imperfections in over-the-air broadcasts.
GATESAIR, A LEADER IN WIRELESS, over-the-air content delivery solutions for radio and TV broadcasters, will introduce its next-generation software-defined exciter for TV and DAB Radio broadcasters and network operators at IBC2015. The new GatesAir Maxiva XTE exciter builds on the previous-generation Maxiva M2X exciter with new efficiencies and improvements for future generations of digital broadcasting. Like the M2X exciter, the Maxiva XTE exciter is a GatesAir innovation developed by the company’s signal processing and modulation specialists.
Delivered in a 1RU platform, the XTE incorporates a 300 percent increase in digital signal processing capability, along with a 1 GHz quad-core CPU featuring 20 times the horsepower. This ensures improved signal quality, throughput and IP networking capabilities for today’s leading DTV standards (and DAB Radio) and emerging broadcast opportunities, including LTE Mobile Offload and next-generation TV standards like ATSC 3.0. Additionally, its software-defined design provides a field-upgradeable platform, ensuring broadcasters worldwide can quickly and seamlessly upgrade as standards evolve. The XTE also adds a new highly intuitive HTML5 GUI with advanced monitoring and diagnostic capabilities. Visit www.gatesair.com
DigiLink’s Ethernet Aggregators Simplify Transport and Routing ARTEL VIDEO SYSTEMS, has announced the DigiLink DLM205 and DLC205 9-port Ethernet aggregators and optical transceivers include VLAN trunking and tagging capabilities. The versatile DLM205 and DLC205 modules aggregate up to nine channels of 10/100/1000 Ethernet traffic for transporting across electrical or optical networks. Additionally, up to nine VLANs can be defined and managed via DigiLink’s DL-Manager Element Management System, allowing end users the ability to trunk and tag video and Ethernet data
streams for subsequent routing through their networks. “Broadcasters and video service providers are looking for flexible solutions for transporting contribution-quality video and data,” said Tom Beardsley, Director of Product Management at Artel Video System. “Having VLAN trunking and tagging capabilities in the DLC205 and DLM205 provides a simple, reliable, and cost-effective solution for transporting and managing the routing of video and data across Ethernet networks.” Visit www.artel.com
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CONTENT DELIVERY
C-Band Satellites and the Perfect Storm
WIS
Adrian Potter asks will the likes of O3B combined with the mobile industry at WRC15 kill C-Band forever? C-Band satellite is essentially where our modern satellite industry began all those decades ago. I remember as a young man reading the books written by Frank Baylin, S J Birkill, Mark Long and Jeffrey Keating and getting back copies of Coops satellite digest magazines from the USA. It was a time before fax, when the Telex machine still ruled the office and many years before the wondrous world of email and the internet. I had to get my information “old school” and travel to our local library at the Lae University of Technology on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea. MY CONNECTION TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD, other than my trusty shortwave radio, was several television channels received on a very large mesh spherical reflector in our backyard. The satellite was Intelsat IVA F3 at 179 degrees East. This provided my family and neighbours with two channels of television from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) originating from their studios in Brisbane and Perth. We also got a few other services such as the AFRTS which was destined for US troops stationed in Japan, Korea and the Philippines. But, being an Australian, we longed for News from home or “down south” as we called it. Australia soon built and launched its very own domestic satellite system in 1985; AUSSAT. With the ABC and several new Australian commercial channels now available via the AUSSAT A1 satellite we quickly purchased a “small” 3.7m (12”) fiberglass dish, a Ku-Band LNBF and a new BMAC decoder. Plans were made to remove the C-Band old mesh dish as it no longer provided for our needs. After the ABC left C-Band for our shiny new Ku Band dish, we started to notice an extraordinarily annoying new feature, rain fade. Towards the end of our favourite weekly drama or just at the juicy bit of the movie it would, without fail, start raining. Within 10 – 20 seconds the analogue BMAC pictures started to break up and the audio failed. NO SIGNAL would be displayed in white lettering on a black back ground. In extreme tropical down pours we could be without signal for 30 – 40 minutes and on a bad night this could happen three or four times. This never ever happened on our trusty C-Band satellite system.
CONTENT DELIVERY
Fast forward thirty or so years and I’m now the Chief Engineer at the ABC responsible for all of our shortwave broadcasts and our vast assortment of satellite networks. We currently operate a mixture of Ku Band for our domestic DTH viewers and distribution services, and C-Band (believe it or not on Intelsat at 180 degrees east and still circular polarity) for our international viewers. All my old friends and neighbours in the Pacific and in particular Lae in Papua New Guinea no longer have to suffer the rain fade features I did all those years ago.
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I’ve heard good things on how 03B, that brand new medium earth orbit, Ka-Band satellite network has recently brought cost effective, high bandwidth and low latency internet to many of the Pacific Islands. A task long overdue and something we in Australia and New Zealand should have done long ago to assist our closest neighbours. Colleagues and friends of mine throughout the Pacific marvel in this new high speed network, as they rightly should. After a few early teething problems with the tracking and some minor issues with O3B that were quickly resolved, some telcos disconnected their slow, old, expensive,
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high latency SCPC and DAMA C-Band links, links they had relied upon for decades. However, they quickly learned of a new and hidden feature, one that I experienced many years ago - rainfade. Even though these new satellites fly around the equator at about 8,000KM, the path loss at Ka-Band (20-30GHz) is still high and the rain fade effect significant. In tropical downpours, these links can go from hundreds of megabits per second delivering Skype and Netflix to a standstill in seconds. I’m told this can be just as infuriating for the end users of the telco as it was for us in Papua New Guinea all those years ago. It’ll pour with rain just as you’re about to see your grandkids back in the UK on Facetime or just as you’re about to snare that bargain on eBay. I’m not suggesting for a second that these new ultra-fast, cost effective O3B systems should be removed, in fact I encourage more of them to be installed, and not just O3B but all of these new innovative solutions that connect us to the internet. It can only serve to advance our neighbours in the Pacific and elsewhere and provide new opportunities only fantasied about a few short years ago. I am suggesting that C-Band should be considered as the best possible alternative and the technology of choice to combat rain fade and other outages. C-Band will continue to provide services to end users during these situations. Relying upon one technology to provide your services to your clients is never a long term proposition, particularly when facing new and emerging competitors who have backup redundant technology paths. Thanks to new technologies such as carrier in carrier, C-Band satellite internet capacity can now approach Ka-Band price points. It could be made even more cost effective if several Pacific Island telco operators got together and shared the C-Band bandwidth. It would be unlikely they’ll all need at the same time during faults or rain fade events. Many operators still have their old C-Band antennas and therefore very cost effective business cases can be made to continue with C-Band as a backup solution or for connectivity to outer Island provinces. Don’t abandon C-Band altogether, an unnecessary short term decline due to new technologies, combined with the demands of the mobile industry for access to the C-Band spectrum, might just scare off the operators from investing in follow on C-Band satellites. We cannot afford to let the precious C-Band spectrum we now enjoy fall into the hands of the mobile industry. We’ll never get it back. See http://www.intelsat.com/tools-resources/c-band/ and register your continued support for C-Band at the upcoming WRC15 (2 to 27 November, 2015). I encourage you to engage with your regulators and government officials to protect this valuable asset which we’ll certainly continue to depend upon for many decades to come. Adrian Potter is the Director of Communications Networks at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Company Director at MediaHub Australia. Contact him via mail@adrianpotter.com.au
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Imagine Communications Introduces Platinum IP3 15RU
WISYCOM, DESIGNER AND BUILDER OF sophisticated RF solutions for broadcast, film and live production, will launch its MTP41S Pocket Wireless Transmitter at the 2015 IBC Show (Stand 8.D78). This extremely small and light pocket transmitter was specially designed for professional wireless microphone applications, including broadcast, film, location sound and live sound reinforcement.
IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS, a leader in video and advertising solutions serving the media and entertainment, multichannel video programming distributors and enterprise markets, has announced the availability of a compact version of its acclaimed Platinum IP3 28RU high-performance router. The new router delivers the same integrated routing and processing capabilities of the larger model in a space-saving 15RU form factor, providing mobile and other production environments with significant cost-, space- and powerefficiency improvements. The market-ready Platinum IP3 15RU will debut at IBC2015.
“The newly updated MTP41S now incorporates all of the features of its big brother, the MTP40S in a compact frame,” says Massimo Polo, Sales & Marketing Director, Wisycom. “These new advancements combined with Wisycom’s RF technology offer the customer and talent the smallest, most advanced transmitter on the marketplace today.” The biggest feature added to the MTP41S is the integrated hardware limiter. The limiter acts as a variable attenuator maintaining a distortion less than three percent, without lost quality. These features have been added to standardise performance in Wisycom’s body-pack transmitter product line. “The 100mW output power will now offer top, in-class performance in the tough environments of today’s RF spectrum,” Polo continues. “Peak audio levels are controlled better with the advancement of the hardware limiter (30 dB above peak), while the device transmits a digitally modulated subcarrier, suitable for tone-squelch operating, remote battery monitoring and optional PTT [push to talk] operation.” The MTP41S presents users with up to 232 MHz bandwidth in 470/798 MHz range, offering a wide range of frequency options. Setup is easy and fast via an OLED display, a gain/frequency button and a ‘joggle’ selector. The miniature design of the MTP41S features flexible PCB (no connectors) for extended reliability, and an ultra-light metal alloy body. It also offers user-selectable multicompanding systems: ENR (noise optimised) or ENC (voice optimised). Power options include one AA Alkaline or rechargeable NiMH or Lithium battery. Visit www.wisycom.com
The new router, future-proofed to support Ultra High Definition (UHD) signals, is well suited for mobile and broadcast production environments and is designed for high-quality routing of all signal types. Signal distribution in any media operation relies on the highly dependable routing of mission-critical signals. The Platinum IP3 is the only router in the industry that protects audio, video and multiviewer signals in a single-frame solution. Both the 28RU and 15RU versions of the IP3 support redundant crosspoints, delivering the assurance of always-available signals that broadcasters demand. The Imagine Communications family of Platinum routers plays a central role in the company’s IP transition strategy, enabling media companies to preserve and leverage investments in baseband infrastructure through a hybrid SDI-IP environment. The Imagine Communications Magellan SDN Orchestrator simultaneously manages Platinum routers and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Ethernet switches, providing an operationally transparent and carefully orchestrated migration of operations to an IP-enabled environment. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com
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䰀伀吀吀䔀刀夀
䰀伀吀吀䔀刀夀
伀栀椀漀 䰀漀琀琀攀爀礀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 伀栀椀漀 䰀漀琀琀攀爀礀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 䐀愀瘀攀 䬀椀渀最Ⰰ 䴀椀氀氀猀 䨀愀洀攀猀 倀爀漀搀甀挀琀椀漀渀猀Ⰰ 䌀漀氀甀洀戀甀猀Ⰰ 伀䠀 䐀愀瘀攀 䬀椀渀最Ⰰ 䴀椀氀氀猀 䨀愀洀攀猀 倀爀漀搀甀挀琀椀漀渀猀Ⰰ 䌀漀氀甀洀戀甀猀Ⰰ 伀䠀
伀栀椀漀 䰀漀琀琀攀爀礀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 伀栀椀漀 䰀漀琀琀攀爀礀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 䐀愀瘀攀 䬀椀渀最Ⰰ 䴀椀氀氀猀 䨀愀洀攀猀 倀爀漀搀甀挀琀椀漀渀猀Ⰰ 䌀漀氀甀洀戀甀猀Ⰰ 伀䠀 䐀愀瘀攀 䬀椀渀最Ⰰ 䴀椀氀氀猀 䨀愀洀攀猀 倀爀漀搀甀挀琀椀漀渀猀Ⰰ 䌀漀氀甀洀戀甀猀Ⰰ 伀䠀
一䬀 匀䔀刀䤀䔀匀 一䬀 匀䔀刀䤀䔀匀
㌀爀搀 倀愀爀琀礀 䤀倀 䐀攀瘀椀挀攀猀 ㌀爀搀 倀愀爀琀礀 䤀倀 䐀攀瘀椀挀攀猀 匀伀䌀䌀䔀刀
匀伀䌀䌀䔀刀
匀伀䌀䌀䔀刀
匀伀䌀䌀䔀刀
匀漀挀挀攀爀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 匀漀挀挀攀爀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 伀氀攀 䄀渀搀爀攀愀猀 吀漀爀瘀洀愀爀欀Ⰰ 匀䄀吀 䄀氀氀椀愀渀挀攀Ⰰ 一漀爀眀愀礀 伀氀攀 䄀渀搀爀攀愀猀 吀漀爀瘀洀愀爀欀Ⰰ 匀䄀吀 䄀氀氀椀愀渀挀攀Ⰰ 一漀爀眀愀礀
匀漀挀挀攀爀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 匀漀挀挀攀爀 䌀甀猀琀漀洀 倀愀渀攀氀 挀漀甀爀琀攀猀礀 漀昀 伀氀攀 䄀渀搀爀攀愀猀 吀漀爀瘀洀愀爀欀Ⰰ 匀䄀吀 䄀氀氀椀愀渀挀攀Ⰰ 一漀爀眀愀礀 伀氀攀 䄀渀搀爀攀愀猀 吀漀爀瘀洀愀爀欀Ⰰ 匀䄀吀 䄀氀氀椀愀渀挀攀Ⰰ 一漀爀眀愀礀
CONTENT DELIVERY
n y.
Wisycom Unveils MTP41S Pocket Wireless Transmitter
刀漀猀猀 嘀椀搀攀漀 䄀猀椀愀 倀愀挀椀昀椀挀 倀琀攀 䰀琀搀 刀漀猀猀 嘀椀搀攀漀 䄀猀椀愀 倀愀挀椀昀椀挀 倀琀攀 䰀琀搀 刀漀猀猀 嘀椀搀攀漀 䄀猀椀愀 倀愀挀椀昀椀挀 倀琀攀 䰀琀搀 刀漀猀猀 嘀椀搀攀漀 䄀猀椀愀 倀愀挀椀昀椀挀 倀琀攀 䰀琀搀 匀愀氀攀猀 䔀渀焀甀椀爀礀㨀 刀漀猀猀ⴀ䄀倀䄀䌀⸀匀愀氀攀猀䀀爀漀猀猀瘀椀搀攀漀⸀挀漀洀 匀愀氀攀猀 䔀渀焀甀椀爀礀㨀 刀漀猀猀ⴀ䄀倀䄀䌀⸀匀愀氀攀猀䀀爀漀猀猀瘀椀搀攀漀⸀挀漀洀 匀愀氀攀猀 䔀渀焀甀椀爀礀㨀 刀漀猀猀ⴀ䄀倀䄀䌀⸀匀愀氀攀猀䀀爀漀猀猀瘀椀搀攀漀⸀挀漀洀 匀愀氀攀猀 䔀渀焀甀椀爀礀㨀 刀漀猀猀ⴀ䄀倀䄀䌀⸀匀愀氀攀猀䀀爀漀猀猀瘀椀搀攀漀⸀挀漀洀
e,
CONTENT DELIVERY
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TIME shifter Australian Radio’s Digital Tsunami? THE 2015 NATIONAL RADIO CONFERENCE
radio services operating outside the BSB.
being held in October on Queensland’s Gold Coast will mark ten years since the then Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, announced a framework to guide the introduction of digital radio in Australia.
Other elements of the framework included dedicated spectrum for the two national broadcasters, a guaranteed minimum level of broadcast capacity to incumbent commercial broadcasters (more spectrum would be available if new services were offered), guaranteed access to the digital platform for wide-area community broadcasters, no simulcast requirement and a first right of refusal to broadcasters to control the multiplex and hold relevant spectrum for a nominal administration cost.
Speaking at the 2005 RadioFest, Senator Coonan said “As radio is the only mainstream broadcasting platform to remain analogue-only, and with increasing competition from new digital platforms such as the Internet and mobile phones, the radio industry needs the certainty to plan and promote the potential benefits of digital radio.” Pointing to overseas experience, the Senator commented that “… digital radio will supplement existing analogue radio services for a considerable period, and may never be a complete replacement. Accordingly, the Government’s framework has been built around digital radio being a supplement to existing services in Australia rather a replacement technology, as it is in television.” A staged rollout of digital radio in Australia was announced, commencing in metropolitan areas, with the Government urging broadcasters to commence trials of digital radio in regional areas, so technical and other issues could be resolved. The Government said it would then consider what financial support was necessary to expand digital radio services to rural and regional Australians.
EUREKA MOMENT Under the framework announced by Senator Coonan, Australia was to implement terrestrial digital radio based upon European Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) Standards, also known as Eureka 147. There was to also be a six-year moratorium on the allocation of new Broadcasting Services Band commercial radio licences, though no new restrictions on digital
The commercial radio industry welcomed the Federal Government, though there were reservations expressed over spectrum availability and efficiency. In response to the Ministerial announcement, Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, said, “We want to ensure the amount of spectrum allocated to commercial radio allows us to provide the additional services and features that are necessary to take full advantage of the technology and drive consumer uptake. Under the current compression technology, 128 kb is not enough to do this, we need 256kb.”
NEW STANDARD – A PLUS The answer to these concerns came in the form of an upgraded version of the standard; DAB+. The DAB+ standard features the audio codec HE-AAC version 2 (known as AAC+). AAC+ is approximately three-times more efficient than the audio codec used in the older version of the DAB standard. Broadcasters using DAB+ can provide higher audio quality or more stations than they could via the first generation DAB standard. DAB+ operates in the VHF Band III (174 - 230 MHz) which is also widely used for TV broadcasts. Since the launch of DAB+ digital radio in metropolitan Australia in late 2009, coverage has extended to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,
The then Minister for Communications, Helen Coonan, following the 2005 announcement of Australia’s digital radio framework.
Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, and Darwin with 3.2 million people or nearly 25% now listening to radio each week using a DAB+ digital radio in the five metropolitan capitals. Twenty six vehicle manufacturers in Australia now include DAB+ digital radio and more than 190,000 vehicles with the technology have been sold. Ten years since Helen Coonan’s announcement and another Government report into digital radio has been released (see story page 4). Welcomed by Commercial Radio Australia, the Digital Radio Report by the Department of Communications has recommended a planning group be formed to commence planning for the rollout of DAB+ broadcast radio to regional Australia. In contrast to countries like Norway where plans are in place to transition from FM to digital radio broadcasting as early as 2017, the Australian report also states that “Definitive views on the future of digital terrestrial radio cannot be made at this time”. It also states that “Australia will continue to rely on a combination of complementary analogue, digital and online radio technologies to deliver radio services to all Australians. Digital terrestrial radio will continue as a supplementary, rather than a replacement, technology in at least the short to medium term.” The evolution continues. Visit www.commercialradio.com.au
Forget Digital TV, It’s Radio with Pictures
song titles and lyrics, real time news updates, weather and traffic maps, stock reports, competitions and advertising images.
RADIOFEST 2005 also saw the unveiling of the
TIME SHIFTER
world’s first digital radio capable of displaying pictures. The groundbreaking prototype, called the DAB Picture Radio, was designed to allow consumers to hear radio programs in CD-quality sound, while seeing images of their favourite artist, news reports or weather maps being broadcast on a colour screen.
64
The prototype radio was a world first and came out of a partnership between Commercial Radio Australia and Inventec Electronics. The receiver was designed so that it could theoretically retail
CRA’s picture-capable DAB prototype receiver.
on the mass market for about AUD$400.
¡
The screen can also be used to display a slide show of selected personal photos.
¡
Rewind feature so if you miss something, you can rewind and playback the last five minutes of live radio
¡
Record a program segment to SD card and playback on mp3
¡
Autotune and select stations by name from a menu.
¡
240V to 9V DC external power adapter or C-type alkaline battery.
Key features of the radio included: ¡
320 by 240 pixel backlit colour LCD screen to display pictures or text such as album covers,
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Quantel and Snell is now SAM a new company that has the vision and technology to deliver businesstransforming solutions. We understand that it’s not only about the future; to get there, today’s needs are also paramount. That’s why we deliver future-ready systems now that will enable your business to succeed in the consumer-driven era.
The SAM Difference. SAM_Launch_297x210_C&T.indd 1
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I ISSN
01/09/2015 12:16