TM Broadcast International 20, April 2015

Editor Javier de Martín editor@tmbroadcast.com Editor in chief Jesús Carrillo director@tmbroadcast.com Key account manager Cristina Feduchi international@tmbroadcast.com Creative Direction Mercedes González design@tmbroadcast.com Editorial staff press@tmbroadcast.com Administration Laura de Diego Marga Quevedo administration@tmbroadcast.com

Summary

04

Editorial

06

PAN SHOT

King of Hammers 2015 Broadcasts Take AJA Gear Off-Roading

46

360° Election Coverage with LiveU

How to share media across all applications - including AVID

NAB 2015 Preview TM Broadcast International #20 April 2015

TM Broadcast International is a magazine published by Daró Media Group SL Centro Empresarial Tartessos Calle Pollensa 2, oficina 1 28290 Las Rozas (Madrid), Spain Phone +34 91 640 46 43

Published in Spain

Benefits of IP

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TEST ZONE

Aviwest DMNG PRO 180-RA

Editorial

Media convergence is something we’ve been talking about a long time ago, years ago seemed almost science fiction but the acceleration of this begins to be exponential. There are several reasons but one very important, the unstoppable advance of broadband in homes, we´re talking about more and more customers with fiber having access to internet with great bandwidth.

This makes the viewer to be more user each time and not only in the younger population sectors.

The use of technology tends to be increasingly easy. This trend is understood by new players such as the popular and successful case of Netflix. But we miss things that don’t stand up. Is necessary to digitize everything, when we say everything, we mean just that, everything. It is something that will take a long time but what the user wants is, to push a button and have access to everything, not only relatively current contents. Because these older population has learned to manage internet and wants to review its past. We cannot live in a digital world where we left things behind in the past outside that digitization. There is an obvious problem of monetization, digitize everything has a cost, but we must think in long term amortization, benefits in this case transcends money. Digitize everything we had produced and make it available for users of our audiovisual history is something we have to do towards a digital society, governments should be involved in this process also. Cloud Computing and shares between different players are the way to go.

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2015

Sky News UK upgrades broadcast infrastructure with ATEM and Smart Videohub Blackmagic Design announced that Sky News in the UK has implemented Blackmagic’s ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K with an ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel and Smart Videohub as part of an overhaul to the news organization’s broadcast systems in “Studio D”.

A small team of multi skilled staff use the studio to create three minute news summary, which are then published across Sky News’ digital outlets. The studio also has the layout and facilities available so that a bigger gallery set up, with producer, director, vision mixer and sound supervisor, all managed by a technical director, can be deployed on more complicated projects if the need arises.

Creating those news summaries had been very time consuming reveals veteran anchorman Martin Stanford. “This used to be a long edit suite job, marrying presenter video with news footage, adding information straps and so on. With the new studio workflow we can now create a bulletin in real time,

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mark the in and out, and then post to all digital devices. That has reduced the publication time lag from over an hour to a matter of minutes.”

“Every source, whether it’s station wide or local to the studio, goes through a Smart Videohub router to an assigned channel on the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher. That includes three of our existing HD studio cameras, which have been repositioned onto the studio floor, as well as all of the monitoring in the gallery and on the studio floor, ensuring maximum flexibility.”

Four pre existing playout channels from the Sky News media server are connected to the switcher, as are three outside source channels, which can be populated by almost any source from the central Sky router, and our local feeds from a Mac computer and Apple TV unit, allowing us to connect devices via airplay.”

The lead project engineer, George Davies, Head of Operations

at Sky News, explains they also assigned all three HD camera channels their own keyer. “Each camera has assigned to it an ATEM Television Studio switcher as a keyer. This means we can give the vision mixer access to camera sources with backgrounds already chroma keyed,” he explains.

“Interviews and other program elements really are much easier to film against green when you don’t have to worry about cameras and keyed images at the same time!”

“For staff new to gallery operations the Blackmagic workflows we’ve implemented in “Studio D” have been both easy to learn and use, while the broadcast standard architecture and workflows have been easy enough to understand and adapt to for our more skilled operators,” concludes George. “Blackmagic’s ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K offers good levels of functionality for the price, while the broadcast panel, provided us a reassuringly familiar layout for staff.”

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2015

Advantech Wireless releases New Series 7000 Family of VSAT Routers

Digigram marks 30 years of innovation with launch of new visual identity Digigram is celebrating its 30th anniversary by introducing a new look and logo designed to symbolize the dynamic, modern face of the company while reflecting both its strong history and future-oriented focus. Based on an image of audio waves propagating in an infinite spiral, the logo echoes the "D" in Digigram and is evocative of the "play" symbol known worldwide.

The new product family provisions Advantech Wireless A-SAT-IITM Bandwidth Optimized Satellite System technology, providing over 50% reduction in the satellite bandwidth, through dynamic transmission switching between multiple access schemes achieved by application and volume aware algorithms, literally serving any type of applications using: - MF-TDMA (Multi-Frequency-TDMA) required for high variable internet traffic - InterSKYTM-BM-FDMATM (Burst Mode-FDMA) ideally suited for video streaming, cellular backhauling and highly reliable QoS aware Trunking pipes - CM-SCPC (Continuous Mode –SCPC) for always on, non- shared mission critical applications The 7000 family of VSAT routers supports Star, Mesh and Hybrid architectures with dual modulator and dual demodulator units supporting any frequency band: L, S, C, X, Ku, Ka-Bands with multiple modem models available for different market applications and verticals such as Cellular Backhauling, SCADA, Broadcasting, Oil and Gas, Enterprise and Corporate, Maritime and Cruise Lines, In-Flight-Entertainment, Homeland Security, Consumer Internet, Military and Mobility.

“Our new Series 7000 family is an order of magnitude more powerful than its predecessors S4120/S5420, contains powerful multicore networking processor and supports over 200 Mbps/100Kpps on Forward Link and 20 Mbps/13kpps on Return Link of sustained data/video/voice throughput as these routers are also equipped with dual ASI inputs and outputs for direct MPEG2/MPEG4 video streaming that could operate simultaneously with IP bidirectional traffic” stated John Landovskis, VP PLM and BD VSAT and Modem Products at Advantech Wireless. “This is a breakthrough technology for VSATs and provides Advantech Wireless with endless applications opportunities for different market segments.”

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"Over the past three decades, from its early participation in the revolution of radio to its current delivery of advanced sound cards and IP-based audio/video solutions, Digigram has grown into a world-leading provider of technologies supporting the digital media industries," said Philippe Delacroix, president and CEO at Digigram. "The production of technical advances in the service of our customers always has been at the heart of our business. The shape and flow of our new logo, enhanced with a vibrant touch of color, reinforce the idea of dynamic forward movement and speak to Digigram's continual work to offer uniquely sophisticated solutions to the global marketplace."

In the past few years, Digigram has made strategic acquisitions that bring advanced IP video solutions into the company's portfolio, rounding out a complete offering of IP-based solutions. Through ongoing R&D, Digigram is extending these technologies into solutions that leverage the cloud to enable more flexible and efficient management and transport of audio and video.

Digigram's perpetual commitment to research and innovation in the realm of audio and video technologies is reflected by the company's new visual identity. Later in 2015, this campaign will include the publishing of a new corporate website that is closely aligned with the symbolism and visual impact of the new Digigram logo.

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Mediapro uses EVS solutions to boost production capacity for new F1 Channel Mediapro group owns exclusive rights to F1 in Latin America (excluding Brazil) and upgraded its production workflows ahead of the launch of its new 24/7 F1 channel, F1 LATIN AMÉRICA. The channel launched on 1st March and will cover all F1, GP2 and GP3 races as well as exclusive interviews, analysis and reports on each championship. Ahead of F1 LATIN AMÉRICA’s launch, MEDIAPRO has benefitted from additional solutions from EVS, the leading provider of live production systems.

To provide 24 hours of content, 11 EVS XT series production servers receive up to seven feeds directly from Formula One Management (FOM), including the principal transmission, redundant and personalized signals, on-board camera feeds and information

about the circuit. Files are ingested directly into an EVS XStore shared storage of 200TB – after being logged and enriched with metadata.

The addition of XTAccess and Xedio CleanEdit has readied the workflow for the launch of the new channel.

The EVS-equipped studios and the new integration of Xedio CleanEdit in the production workflow means editors are able to instantly work on content as soon as it’s transferred to the SAN shared storage. The Xedio CleanEdit software enables edits with multiple resolutions (SD/HD) and varying aspect ratios in the same timeline while offering a seamless integration with the EVS XT series servers that are in place.

The workflow enhancement is

New DVB-S2X satellite modulator with dual IF and RF signal outputs, CID insertion and multi-stream over IP TeamCast is introducing the 3rd generation of its successful Vyper satellite modulator at CABSAT 2015. This new Vyper is indeed combining two products in one, offering both IF and RF (L-Band) signal outputs on a single product, for a maximum flexibility in system built-up, operation and maintenance. Additionally, it offers CID insertion,

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completed with new XTAccess units, which are dedicated to transferring files from the central SAN storage to the Snell play out channel-in-a-box server. XTAccess simplifies this exchange, guaranteeing the maximum levels of integration with third-party systems.

This new installation at its Barcelona production facilities assures MEDIAPRO that F1 LATIN AMÉRICA has the highest quality and most reliable production processes available to deliver broadcast content to its viewers. It also enables MEDIAPRO to deliver F1 content to viewers via its second screen app, which features live camera feeds, content highlights and social media integration.

responding today to the short term requirements for use in the USA (2016 for DSNG application, and 2018 for all applications) and is therefore ready for the future, worldwide. Vyper also supports multistream operation through IP inputs, in addition to multi-stream through ASI inputs. And it is of course DVB-S2X compliant, with new MODCOD, 64APSK modulation and low Roll-Off values, like the previous model was, for maximum transmission efficiency.

"Vyper, the well-known and highly acknowledged satellite modulator developed by TeamCast, is continuing its road towards optimized operational capabilities, with a long term view, and best return on investment to our customers, thanks to its unique evolutionary platform"says Christophe Trolet, Business Unit Manager at TeamCast.

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Belar innovates for HD Radio and FM time alignment At the 2015 NAB Show, Belar Electronics will showcase a simple and cost-effective way for radio broadcasters to eliminate delay between digital and analog signals on the fringes of HD Radio™ coverage. Branded as Automatic Delay Correction, the softwaredefined feature consistently adjusts the time alignment, eliminating the roughly eight-second delay between the HD main and analog FM programming. This ensures a pleasant listening experience for audiences in areas where HD Radio coverage is less robust, seamlessly switching back and forth between the two programs without audience detection.

Belar accomplishes this important task without forcing its customers to push the audio through the

modulation monitor. Instead, Belar’s Automatic Delay Correction for time alignment feeds the adjustment back toward the front of the air chain, with corrections taking place in the audio processor, precision delay or exporter. This is a significant innovation, as it keeps costs lower for the broadcaster while eliminating a redundancy in the air chain.

“Every HD Radio broadcaster already has a delay line built into the air chain, whether it’s through the leading audio processors on the market or within a current generation exporter,” said Mark Grant, CEO, Belar Electronics. “We are removing an unnecessary step by feeding the signal back to the processor or exporter. Our modulation monitors require only a

Spain’s Atresmedia gets promoted with Quantel Atresmedia, one of Spain’s largest private media groups, has purchased a Quantel Enterprise sQ fastturnaround production system to enhance its busy corporate promotions department. The system will support program promotions for four free-to-air national terrestrial channels - Antena 3 (HD), La Sexta (HD), Neox, Nova, two international satellite channels and one national cable channel.

The Atresmedia system comprises 100 hours of HD workspace, five sQ Cut licenses for desktop editing, four Qube craft editors and five Final Cut Pro workstations. Ingest is handled by sQ Record and sQ Play is used for playback quality check operations. The Enterprise sQ system is integrated with Atresmedia’s large storage via Fileflow and the soft-mount capabilities of its Qube craft-editors and sQ Cut applications via Q I/O - giving Atresmedia’s

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simple software upgrade in the field, ensuring that broadcasters can seamlessly incorporate time alignment without significant costs or complexity.”

Belar will demonstrate Automatic Delay Correction in its FMHD-1 modulation monitor at its NAB booth (C2452, April 13-16 at the Las Vegas Convention Center), with additional demos on the exhibit floor to be confirmed. The demos will detail how Automatic Delay Correction establishes a connection to an audio processor or exporter measures the signal error and communicates the necessary adjustment to the delay line. That communication is locked into in a continuous loop, ensuring that the appropriate time delay is constant and consistent.

producers instant access to program material for their promotions. The combination of soft mount, the sophisticated Qube editing toolset and the efficient Enterprise sQ workflow enables Atresmedia to satisfy the ever increasing demand for high quality promotions to attract and retain viewers.

Santiago Pintor, Head of Technical Support and responsible for this project, said, “The new Enterprise sQ solution boosts the creativity of our operators through better team working and it improves productivity by optimizing technical processes such as locating media and transferring to broadcasting systems, in a better way than our previous standalone eQ systems.”

Quantel Sales Director, Martin Mulligan, said, “Atresmedia is a long-standing Quantel customer, so we are delighted that they have chosen Quantel systems once again - the result of a detailed competitive analysis. The system will enhance Atresmedia’s creative and competitive edge, producing the best experience for its customers.”

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Metus MAM now integrated with Adobe Anywhere Metus has announced integration of its media asset management system with Adobe® Anywhere.

Adobe Anywhere is a collaborative workflow platform that empowers users of Adobe professional video solutions to work together, using centralized media, across standard networks.

With this integration, the Metus MAM plugin creates Anywhere assets in the selected production while retaining the marker metadata from the MAM. The Adobe Anywhere server automatically streams high quality video streams on the fly to Premiere Pro for playback and frame accurate editing on the client machines.

This integration enables users to access all Adobe Premiere® Pro CC and Adobe Prelude® CC projects, and their assets and thumbnails created while using Adobe Anywhere. It also allows teams to create an Adobe Anywhere production from assets stored within the MAM via a simple drag and drop from the asset manager.

“Adobe Anywhere is a powerful creative tool that empowers editors to use media across standard networks,” said Simon Williams, senior director of business development at Adobe. “The integration with the Metus MAM solution provides our customers with a collaborative editing experience that further complements the Anywhere

workflow.”

“Adobe Premiere Pro users who use Adobe Anywhere for their production projects can now easily use assets stored in their MAM in an Adobe Anywhere workflow. This accelerates project workflows and makes life much easier for our customers,” said Mustafa Yilmaz, Managing Director of METUS.

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Quantum Stornext Pro Solutions named as a finalist for Studiodaily Prime Awards - StorNext Pro Production provides users with the complete workflow storage they need for not only creating content but also controlling, monetizing and managing it long-term.

Quantum Corp. announced that its StorNext Pro™ Solutions family is a finalist in the Postproduction category of the StudioDaily Prime Awards, which recognize the top tier of new technology in media and entertainment. This latest honor follows StorNext® Pro Solutions receiving the Visionary Product Award for "Enabling Collaborative Storage Technology" at the Storage Visions Conference in January. In addition, Quantum's StorNext 5 platform — on which StorNext Pro Solutions are built — was recently named a finalist in the Storage Product of the Year category of the UK's Network Computing Awards 2015. These awards recognize companies and products at the forefront of the evolving technology market.

StorNext Pro Solutions include five high-performance storage systems optimized to enable collaborative workflows, providing faster and more cost-effective creation, management, processing

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and delivery of content: - StorNext Pro Studio is a highly scalable solution that is 100 percent compatible with Apple Xsan storage, making it ideal for users looking to refresh or enhance their Xsan environments.

- StorNext Pro 4K combines a flash-based metadata appliance and highly scalable disk storage to meet the demands of modern 4K media workflows from ingest to production to delivery.

- StorNext Pro Foundation provides shared storage for smaller production workgroups in a highperformance, attractively priced solution.

- StorNext Pro Workgroup offers ingest, production, review and delivery in one system, with different options for petascale content storage and access, including Quantum's Lattus™ extended online storage or archive tape.

All five StorNext Pro Solutions are powered by StorNext 5, a scale-out storage platform designed for today's modern workflow challenges of capturing, sharing and preserving massive amounts of data in the most demanding environments. It includes the industry's fastest streaming file system and policy-based tiering for automatically moving data across primary storage, extended online storage, tape archive and the cloud.

Alex Grossman, Vice President, Media and Entertainment, Quantum: "We built StorNext 5 from the ground up to enable users to meet new workflow demands, including the ability to access data whenever and wherever it's needed for analysis, monetization or repurposing — all in the most costeffective way possible. With StorNext Pro Solutions, broadcast and postproduction users get the benefits of StorNext 5 in a fully integrated system designed to match their specific workflows, from ingest to archive. This unique value that StorNext 5 and StorNext Pro Solutions deliver is clearly resonating with customers, and we're excited about the resulting industry recognition and honors we continue to receive."

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Bluebell Opticom announces ShaxX SMPTE Hybrid Cable Alternative with power insertion for broadcast cameras Bluebell Opticom Ltd., announced the ShaxX, a rugged system designed to provide full bidirectional signalling and power for broadcast cameras fitted with standard SMPTE 304M hybrid connectors. The ShaxX allows outside broadcast and remote production crews to forgo SMPTE hybrid cables and take advantage of preinstalled fibre networks on location in order to cut rigging time and position cameras freely wherever they are needed, regardless of distance or the location of mains power sources.

"In production scenarios that require the camera operator to work far away from the CCU, SMPTE hybrid cables are often impractical. So there is great demand for getting power to the camera without using SMPTE hybrid cables. The ShaxX meets that demand," said Paul McCann, Bluebell Opticom, managing director. "By taking power out of the hands of the CCU and inserting it on the camera end, the ShaxX eliminates the need to transfer power all the way from the CCU to the camera, leaving only the transmission of signals back and forth on lightweight single-mode optical fibre that's reliable and easy to rig. The ShaxX complements our standard Shax devices and, when paired with our modular fibre interface cards, can offer resilient signal transport and management of complete camera chains."

The ShaxX works with Bluebell's Shax hybrid alternative interface to provide power to the camera without having to transport it from a remote CCU, thereby removing the expense and effort of rigging SMPTE hybrid cables. Instead, users simply connect the ShaxX unit to the camera with a SMPTE hybrid jumper cable. The ShaxX unit, which is connected to mains power on the camera end, powers

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the camera. At the same time, the ShaxX is also connected to two strands of single-mode fibre in order to carry signals from the camera to the CCU and vice versa.

The Shax unit on the CCU end receives those fibres, and is then connected to the CCU via a SMPTE hybrid jumper cable. When used in combination with Bluebell's BC series modular fibre interface cards, the ShaxX can multiplex multiple camera links over a single fibre.

especially in instances such as on a ski slope or a golf course where the distance between the camera and OB vans is great, the ShaxX gives the production team the freedom to position cameras for the best shot/angle rather than being restricted by the location of mains power. At the same time, it reduces rigging time and allows crews to tap into existing fibre networks in stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and other venues.

The ShaxX overcomes the challenges of using SMPTE hybrid cables, which are expensive, heavy, and can be sensitive to lightning or other grounding variables. By replacing the SMPTE hybrid cable with plain fibre between the CCU and the camera,

The ShaxX is enclosed in a robust and ruggedised aluminium case, making it ideal for outside broadcast and fly-away applications. LEDs on the front panel give operators instant feedback on the status of the link between camera and CCU.

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Vislink grows Middle East and Africa operations with appointment of new General Manager Vislink announced the addition of John Aslett to its Dubai office as General Manager. John will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the office, heading up a team which is focused on sales into the Middle East and Africa.

John has a strong background in broadcast and IT, bringing to VISLINK 18 years of sales and senior management experience in the Middle East, including most recently as Managing Director at Media Group International, the largest broadcast system integrator in the region. He has also held positions at Avid Technology, Orbit Communications Company and Grass Valley.

“John has a proven track record in sales and business management, working for technology-based

businesses in the Middle East and Africa markets,” commented Ayes Amewudah, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. “Vislink has a strong track record in the region working with major broadcasters including Al Jazeera and Al Kass. Adding John to the team is part of a larger strategy to expand within the Middle East and Africa markets.”

“I’m looking forward to starting a new chapter at VISLINK using my extensive knowledge of the broadcast sector in the Middle East and Africa markets to help solidify Vislink’s leadership in the area. I am confident that my unique understanding of business dynamics in the Middle East, combined with the incredible staff already in place at the Dubai office, will lead to increased growth and brand recognition in the region,” said John.

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Leading European Broadcaster BFM TV expands live newsgathering capabilities with AVIWEST AVIWEST announced that BFM TV, a 24-hour news channel based in France, has selected AVIWEST's DMNG RACK180 advanced hybrid contribution video encoder and QUAD wideband antennas to enhance its newsgathering capabilities. Utilizing AVIWEST's DMNG RACK180 encoders in newsgathering vehicles, BFM TV can transmit live SD and HD video content via satellite and cellular bonded 3G/4G networks, while maintaining high signal quality. By enabling BFM TV to deliver content over the Ku- and Ka-band spectrums as well as cellular networks, the digital mobile newsgathering solutions from AVIWEST significantly reduce the news provider's operating expenses while strengthening signal delivery.

"Prior to deploying AVIWEST's DMNG RACK180 contribution encoders, our satellite vehicles were limited to only using the traditional Ku-band spectrum for breaking news and live event coverage, which is not a costeffective method of video distribution," said Quentin GuinĂŠ, engineering maintenance and operation manager, BFM TV. "The DMNG RACK180 guarantees superior performance in all environments, including crowded cities and bad weather conditions.

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It also increases our flexibility in the field by enabling us to utilize affordable Ka-band satellite spectrum and cellular networks.

The end result is a better videoquality experience for our viewers and lower operating costs for our organization."

BFM TV is using the DMNG RACK180 encoders alongside existing DMNG PRO180 portable encoders and DMNG Studio receivers from AVIWEST for increased efficiency. Housed in a compact 1U rackmount chassis, the DMNG RACK180 can easily be integrated into newsgathering vehicles. The advanced contribution video encoder features the same robust hardware and software core as the company's industry-leading DMNG PRO180 encoder, including eight 3G/4G internal modems and two USB interfaces, plus a built-in Wi-Fi modem. In addition, the DMNG RACK180 includes eight MCX antenna connectors that are used with AVIWEST's QUAD wideband external cellular antenna arrays to strengthen signal transmission in critical environments such as vehicles in motion.

Leveraging AVIWEST SafeStreams technology and an intelligent bonding stack, the

DMNG RACK180 guarantees the delivery of BFM TV's live transmissions for a wide range of newsgathering scenarios. For example, the DMNG RACK180 allows the broadcaster to transmit live video or recorded files seamlessly over bonded cellular networks while driving, ensure transmission resiliency by using bonded cellular connections as a seamless backup to satellite when weather or congested network conditions cause fluctuations in satellite bandwidth, and increase the overall transmission capacity by bonding together all satellite and cellular network connections.

"While in the field, it's nearly impossible for broadcasters to predict the kind of environmental, climatic, and network conditions they will be up against. Given such challenges, broadcasters need robust newsgathering solutions that are cost-effective, reliable, and flexible no matter where they are in the world," said Ronan Poullaouec, CTO, AVIWEST. "Our DMNG RACK180 provides BFM TV with a high-performance, rack-mount encoding device that supports satellite and cellular networks, ensuring they can deliver a highquality video image to television viewers in real time, anywhere, despite varying conditions."

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Egripment Support Systems puts the picture into focus for Pink Hippo Productions Experienced in the latest techniques in digital filmmaking, Pink Hippo takes great pride in providing its clients with creativity, professionalism and a balanced workflow for their production needs.

The company understands the importance of using the highest quality gear on the market and that's why it relies on the Super Maxi-jib camera crane and Hot Shot Remote Heads from Egripment Support Systems, manufacturer of high-end camera support systems and remote broadcast solutions for the film and broadcast industries.

Pink Hippo Executives Nicholas Puetz and Ioannis "John" Xydis first became familiar with Egripment's gear while still students at Columbia College Chicago's film school. In about 2004, Egripment

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President Constant Tresfon made a generous donation of company equipment, including a Hot Shot Remote Head, controls and accessories to the students and faculty. After having had the opportunity to experience the Egripment gear first-hand, the duo then reached out to the company directly in 2014 for a large Egripment purchase, which included the Super Maxi-jib and Hot Shot crane, for their soon-to-beestablished Pink Hippo Productions. Since then, they have used the gear for projects such as TLC network's made-for-TV movie Secret Santa; the independent feature film Double Yellow Lines, directed by Maria Pulera; and a commercial dubbed Lemon Soprano.

"Pink Hippo Productions is

incredibly satisfied with the purchases of our Super Maxi-jib and steel track as well as the Hotshot Remote Head systems," says Puetz. "Since we started in business, our Egripment gear has helped us land the jobs we want.

The types of projects we service range from corporate campaigns to feature films, television pilots and commercials. Clients come to us because we sell our systems on the quality of the gear. We are able to get the job done more efficiently because the gear that Egripment makes is of the highest quality available and can handle the weight of the best camera systems out there. The shots are easier to execute and the end result is smoother and cleaner when compared to lesser quality systems."

The Vitec Group acquires Paralinx

Dan Kanes

The Vitec Group has acquired the business of Paralinx, a California company known for its high-quality wireless video systems.

Paralinx will be incorporated into the Vitec Group's Videocom Division,

complementing its existing brands.

Paralinx was founded by Dan Kanes and Greg Smokler, two members of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) who sought to develop a new wave of affordable, high-definition wireless video tools for professionals and enthusiasts alike. The company will join Teradek and SmallHD in Vitec Videocom’s Creative Solutions business unit.

“Like Teradek and SmallHD, Paralinx is another great example of the pioneering spirit that is so important to disrupting the professional video industry with game-changing products and top-notch customer support,” said Vitec Videocom CEO Matt Danilowicz. “By combining Paralinx’s deep understanding of the market with Teradek’s engineering acumen, both companies are positioned to develop truly cutting-edge technology tailored specifically to their customers’ needs.”

To adequately address the growing demand for wireless video devices, Paralinx will continue to innovate in the UAV and independent content creator spaces, while Teradek will focus on cinema and television applications.

"When we launched Paralinx in 2012, our mission was simple: to enable filmmakers to monitor wirelessly a camera’s HD recording in real time,” said Dan Kanes, co-founder of Paralinx. “We sought to bring a new level of freedom to video production, an essential link in digital cinematography. Now, in 2015, we are excited to be joining forces with Teradek and SmallHD, other innovators under the world-renowned Vitec Group, to continue empowering content creators with revolutionary technology and unparalleled support.”

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2015

Lighthouse Evangelism upgrades with two SSL LIVE. L500 consoles The services at Lighthouse Evangelism Woodlands in Singapore are being heard in a new light thanks to the addition of two SSL Live. L500 consoles, one for its front of house duties and the other for monitors mixes. As Lighthouse Evangelism’s sister location in Tampines is home to a Duality equipped recording studio, the choice of SSL for the sound system at the Woodlands venue was a natural progression.

With the help of SSL’s Singapore office, the two L500 consoles were delivered and installed by Managing Director Chan Kheng Wah and Live Marketing Manager Dominic Koh, who also facilitated the sale and are coordinating local training and support. The SSL consoles were chosen to replace Woodlands’ previous consoles and have delivered a significant sonic improvement.

“The difference between the previous consoles and the SSL L500s is like night and day,” says Rhey Ruiz, Head of Sound for Lighthouse Evangelism. “The microphone preamplifiers are amazing. We can hear so much more of our instrumentation, which has really contributed to the enjoyment and fulfillment that the congregation experiences at each service. What’s more, we record all of our services to multi-track, and the integration of the recording capabilities has been perfect. We can record directly from the microphone to the recorder without any filtering, which is something we were not able to do in the past.”

Lighthouse Evangelism Woodlands hosts various worship services throughout the week, accommodating as many as 4,000 people with an average weekly attendance of 15,000 congregants.

The new SSL Live. consoles were installed in the Main Hall Sanctuary of the multi-level facility, which features a two-tier seating arrangement. The console used for front-of-house duties accommodates band instrumentation, choir and microphones for the pastors as well as for guests and congregants. The second L500, situated stage-side, serves as the monitor console. The two consoles share inputs from SSL stageboxes via SSL’s Blacklight II high-bandwidth, multiplexed MADI interface, which reduces the number of interconnecting cables between stage rack, FOH and monitor desks. The system additionally employs SSL’s arbitrated gain sharing.

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2015

Crestron reveals newly updated interactive showroom Crestron has updated its technology showroom, located in the Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour. “We have installed all our latest solutions in the London showroom to give visitors a real feel for what is possible with a Crestron system,” comments Linda Furino, Showroom Manager. “The showroom is designed as an interactive space, we want people to experience the lifestyle benefits that fingertip, intuitive control can bring to the home, in a setting where the technology is almost invisible!”

The updated Crestron showroom now demonstrates the latest in

Ultra High-Definition (4K) sources and displays, providing a demonstration of how 4K technology can be introduced to any home. A 4K display has up to four times the detail, depth, and sharpness of a full HD display and Crestron is the only company that can successfully integrate 4K distribution completely into a home.

This is demonstrated beautifully by the crystal clear 4K projector screen image on display.

run scenes and events, whilst

The updated showroom has a demonstration of the new Crestron Pyng, the app that IS the home automation system. A compact hub connects accessories with the app,

integrator can restore to an

continuously backing up all home settings to the cloud – so making changes is easy and secure. Once the initial set up is complete, anyone can easily modify settings or create new scenes right from the app. Crestron Pyng empowers homeowners to make changes to scenes and settings themselves with the confidence that their automatic cloud backup if they wish to undo any adjustments.

Crestron has also installed new control panels from the TSW-X52 range and is encouraging visitors to touch and experiment with the controls. Crestron touch panels are one of the most user friendly control sets on the market. New to the touch panels for 2015 is the Language control, from a single button users can select and switch between multiple languages.

Additionally homeowners can make changes to lighting scenes, answer the door, set the alarm and check the security cameras, as well as endless bespoke options to suit any lifestyle.

Crestron solutions are available wall mounted control panels but also in the form of simple handheld remotes, which are also on display.

Crestron remotes are wireless and customisable, designed for use in home theatres, bedrooms, hotel rooms, boardrooms, and many other applications. The remotes are backlit and clearly visible under all conditions, providing control of lighting, entertainment sources, HVAC, and much more.

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2015

DVEO to Demo Miniature (1.66 Inches) full featured

Singapore’s MediaCorp selects EVS for its HD news production EVS announced that MediaCorp, Singapore’s leading media company with platforms spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media, has selected a full end-to-end news production solution from EVS for their new facilities in Mediapolis, which are now under construction.

At NAB 2015, DVEO will demonstrate the broadcast standard version of their miniature 1080p HD camera, featuring 29.97/59.94 frames per second in addition to 30/60 fps. DVEO will feature the GNAT 1080p 60™ at booth SU6605 at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show, April 13-16 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The competitively priced GNAT 1080p 60 is a tiny 1080p 60 fps or 59.94 fps camera with HD-SDI or full 3 Gbps output. The 2.1 megapixel CMOS camera is just 1.66 x 1.14 x 1.14 inches (42.1 x 29 x 29 millimeters) and weighs approximately 1.41 ounces (40 grams).

The GNAT features a built-in OSD (on screen displays) joystick and a 1/3 inch progressive scan CMOS sensor. The DSP chip based camera is available in cased or board versions, with prices starting at under $500 (U.S.).

A broadcast standard version is available with 29.97/59.94 fps. All versions of the camera have NTSC or PAL video outùt. The cased version ships with a tripod adapter, universal power supply, and control cable.

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"The ultra-compact GNAT is ideal for situations where large HD cameras are impractical or obtrusive. Its sharp, high quality HD video makes it perfect for sports broadcasting, reality television, and electronic news gathering," commented Laszlo Zoltan, Vice President of DVEO. "It is also suitable for military and law enforcement applications such as unmanned vehicle or robot vision or situational awareness for subs, airplanes, and ships."

The GNAT features WDR (Wide Dynamic Range), which allows it to filter the intense back light surrounding a subject; and thus enhance the ability to distinguish features and shapes in the image. The GNAT also features AGC (Automatic Gain Control), which automatically adjusts the incoming signal to the proper level for display or recording; and improves performance in low light conditions.

Other features include Dynamic Motion Detection (8 zones, up to 1980 blocks), digital zoom, and defog. The GNAT also supports brilliant DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) technologies like DNR, 3D-NR and 2D+3D.

“The size and scope of this installation is impressive,” said Jerome Wauthoz, EVS market manager for broadcast center solutions. “But critically important in the live environment is the reliability of EVS solutions and the unsurpassed speed for breaking news. The workflow will also provide the instant access to all content so essential to productivity and ultimately to the quality of MediaCorp’s programming.”

When fully implemented later this year, the EVS News PAM system will provide infrastructure for 56 HD-SDI channels, 500TB of central storage equivalent to 12,000 hours of HD content (plus 20,000 hours of low resolution), and over 500 journalist editing stations.

The integrated solution from EVS will facilitate all aspects of state-ofthe-art news production, from recording to playout, including central shared storage and archiving, high- and low-resolution client browsing, onsite and remote editing, playout and NRCS integration.

“MediaCorp has selected awardwinning live news production solutions from EVS already in use by major broadcasting networks across the globe,” added Stephane Jauroyou, EVS APAC VP Sales. “We look forward to working together to make News @ Mediapolis facility among the best in the world.”

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2015

Riedel provides flexible high-performance network infrastructure and comms for G20 Summit in Australia Riedel Australia partnered with the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) to provide a robust fiber and radio network for the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia. The companies not only deployed Riedel's MediorNet real-time fiber infrastructure along with more than 200 Hytera DMR radios for the high-profile event, but also provided audio, video, and communications services throughout the two-day summit.

"In planning for the G20 summit, we knew that redundancy was of the utmost importance, so Riedel's MediorNet immediately sprang to mind," said BCEC AV Project Manager Richard Saunders. "During the event, we would get requests for immediate visibility into specific areas, and MediorNet gave us access to video within seconds. Without this Riedel network, such demands would have required 15 minutes of repatching."

MediorNet's ability to route signals in real time was critical to the G20 event. In total, 37 MediorNet frames were installed throughout the BCEC, providing complete path and signal redundancy for the large number of HD video channels, Ethernet tunnels, and audio and comms channels used for the summit.

Alongside the host broadcast services, provided by NEP Australia, Riedel's MediorNet network enabled transport of video feeds to and from the main conference rooms, media suites, hospitality areas, security zones,

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and delegates' offices. It also allowed the BCEC team to embed and de-embed any audio source to and from the video streams. Thus, when delegates needed specific languages supplied with their video feeds, that audio was just a mouseclick away.

In addition to the MediorNet infrastructure, Riedel Australia also provided a sitewide digital radio solution for the BCEC and a number of other stakeholders.

Riedel used Hytera radios for the event and by installing two receive sites, Riedel Australia ensured that radios — and their users — could roam between the two buildings that make up the BCEC. Riedel Australia also provided a 24-hour confidence crew for the week of the event to ensure that the radios,

digital radio network, and fiber infrastructure performed well at all times.

"The standards required for the extreme scale of the G20 Summit and the event's requirements for delivery of extremely sensitive pictures were handled by Riedel gear without a hitch and without any loss of quality, often at a moment's notice," added Saunders.

"This is the kind of performance that sets Riedel's MediorNet solution apart from any other."

The BCEC expanded its singlemode fiber network for the event, greatly increasing its capacity. The company also purchased a number of Riedel's MediorNet frames to use in conjunction with rented MediorNet systems during future events.

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2015

Acorn Technologies launch true ‘plug and play’ camera control system for wireless camera transmitters Acorn Technologies have signed a partnership arrangement with Broadcast Electronics Ltd to bring to market a new camera control system for wireless camera transmitters. The new BEL Z24 system is the first ‘plug and play’ control system with integrated tally support, just connect the cameras remote output to the camera interface unit, power on and the system is operational. The system works in the licence free 2.4GHz band so there are no operating costs involved for a frequency licence and no complicated set up for

the camera operator. Using FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) wireless technology the system actively avoids interference resulting in no loss of signal and so delivering an extremely robust connection whatever the environment. The base unit is equally quick to set up and the unit interfaces with the camera manufactures OCP (Paint) control panel supporting full bidirectional control of the camera as with wired systems. The system is fully compatible with any camera back video transmitter and has been designed to be small enough to be mounted anywhere on the camera or Steadicam rig.

Dave Remnant, Acorn Technologies Managing Director said, “We are always looking to add to our portfolio and Broadcast Electronics Ltd were a perfect fit. We have over twenty years of experience in the broadcast sector and we feel this product has all the potential to be a must have for those companies looking to expand their offering for live productions.”

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2015

Nexidia announces Dialogue Search v2.0 with combined phonetic and metadata search and filtering, Avid Interplay MAM support , and enhanced user interface

Nexidia announced version 2.0 of Nexidia Dialogue Search, the company's award-winning solution that searches for any spoken word or phrase across massive media libraries in seconds. Dialogue Search v2.0 boasts several new features including full-text search and filtering of all metadata fields across all available sources, Avid Interplay MAM support, and a redesigned user interface. These improvements streamline and enrich the user experience, open the doors to new stores of media, and leverage existing metadata.

"Dialogue Search v2.0 is a great leap forward. The new metadata search capability allows Dialogue Search to combine phonetic search with any existing metadata to create the best possible search experience," said Drew Lanham, senior vice president and general manager, Nexidia Media and Entertainment Division. "Another great addition is the integration of

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Dialogue Search with Avid's Interplay MAM, which dramatically expands the ability to find and reuse media managed by Interplay."

Dialogue Search v2.0 integrates the ability to index and search media and metadata managed by Avid Interplay MAM. Using Avid's Interplay Web Services, assets are automatically discovered, and Dialogue Search's indexes are kept in sync as assets are added and removed from Interplay. Results can be played in the Dialogue Search interface using Avid's ICPS player, and search results can be published back into Interplay as markers, enabling users to immediately access the results in Interplay. Interplay MAM support is the latest in the ever-growing list of integrations with the industry's leading media asset management solutions, including existing integrations with Interplay Production, Dalet Galaxy, IPV Curator, Vizrt Viz One, and Square

Box Systems' CatDV. Dialogue Search v2.0 also introduces a new user interface that features several elements that make it easier for users to execute searches and organize results while adding powerful features for advanced users. The application enables advanced filtering to finetune results, and will automatically suggest filters to aid the user in navigating their media results.

Users can organize search results into "project bins" that can be exported directly into an NLE or MAM, and they can create saved searches to find assets using custom search criteria, with results automatically updating as new media enters the system. The ability to dock and undock panels lets users customize the application to their unique needs, allowing each user to strike a balance between simplicity and power.

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2015

EVS introduces collaborative editing with Adobe Anywhere EVS, the leading provider of live video production systems, announces new integration with Adobe® Anywhere, Adobe’s collaborative video workflow platform. “Adobe Anywhere enables teams of talent to collaborate and create productions from virtually any location where there is network connectivity. These customers need the fastest turnaround workflows possible,” said Simon Williams, senior director of business development at Adobe. “EVS servers and live content management tools are critical aspects of these demanding workflows for broadcasters and editors working with live content.

Faster, integrated access to EVS live systems only improves the output and efficiency of editors using Adobe solutions, including

Adobe Anywhere.”

Through EVS’ IPLink plug-in extension panel for Adobe Premiere® Pro CC, EVS provides editors with high-speed access to live content while content is still being ingested, and allows easy delivery for fast playout. Editors can search through logging and clip metadata; locate content from live bins; preview content and make decisions without committing to final content; and bring the fastpaced multi-camera content into their edits.

The added value of Adobe Anywhere brings the next degree of power to environments that need to collaborate and define best teambased editing solutions for fastaction productions. The collaboration hub gives editors

access to centralized production files from any workstation; allows production versioning and conflict resolution; and provides views to activity feeds. Data remains secure in the event of a hardware or software issue.

“By extending our offering with Adobe Anywhere, we’re providing editors with vital collaborative capabilities and immediate editing visibility to much larger teams,” said Henry Alexander, SVP Market and Product, EVS. “This important step in our partnership with Adobe brings our editing workflows, integrated live content management and storage solutions to the next level.”

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2015

Argosy Components Limited to be acquired by IEWC On March 16, 2015, Argosy Components Limited entered into a definitive purchase agreement with IEWC, a US-based distributor. With 20 locations across 8 countries, IEWC is a premier global provider of total connectivity solutions for sub-assemblers, OEMs and the broadcast and communications industries. In addition to UL and CSA certifications, IEWC maintains strong partnerships with a broad range of the industry's most notable suppliers and customers.

As the world of digital communications has continued to grow around the globe, IEWC has aggressively expanded its capabilities within the broadcast and communications marketplace with strong offerings in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and China. Argosy's strong presence in the UK, United Arab Emirates and South East Asia will help to bolster IEWC's growing broadcast and communications initiatives, while offering Argosy access to IEWC's globalised distribution network and on-site service offerings to streamline and improve Argosy's already unparalleled customer experience.

"As IEWC continues to strengthen its investments within the broadcast and communications industries, choosing partners and solutions that will truly enhance the IEWC customer experience has been of the utmost importance," stated Roger Caynor, IEWC's VP of Broadcast & Communications.

"With Argosy, their proven track record with supplier partners and customers will allow IEWC to continue to raise the bar on our offered solutions."

Argosy will continue to operate under the "Argosy" name and retain the same sales and operations teams the company's customers have come to know and trust.

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Digital Anarchy releases Beauty Box Video 4.0 offering real time skin retouching and digital makeup Digital Anarchy announced today the release of Beauty Box Video 4.0. This upgrade adds real time rendering to the industry leading plug-in for removing blemishes and wrinkles from film, 4K, and HD. Beauty Box Video 4.0 adds in support for Nvidia’s CUDA, providing a big boost in rendering speeds on those GPUs. It also further refines OpenCL support and increases rendering speed on AMD GPUs. This results in real time rendering when using newer GPUs, like the Nvidia GTX 980.

"Beauty Box has been very beneficial to our pipeline, and has helped further improve the quality of the work we can provide and the timeframes we can turn shots around in.” says Darwin Go, VFX Supervisor, Park Road Post Production.

Since 2009, Beauty Box Video has been a critical tool for dealing with skin and makeup problems that HD and 4K video reveal. It’s become the industry standard for doing automatic skin retouching and digital makeup. With Beauty Box 4.0, it’s now the fastest way of doing this, without sacrificing any of the quality it’s famous for.

Beauty Box Video 4.0 solves these problems by giving subjects an incredible makeover in post-production, using stateof-the-art face detection, masking, and smoothing algorithms that preserve important details and the natural skin texture. All this combines to create realistic digital makeup. The retouching is subtle and the resulting video looks natural creating a look that is indistinguishable from real makeup. HD and 4K show so much detail that its essential video editors have tools to reduce the skin and makeup detail when necessary.

"The only complaint we’ve had with Beauty Box has been the speed.” Said Jim Tierney, Chief Executive Anarchist of Digital Anarchy. "By using Nvidia’s CUDA and OpenCL we’re excited to announce that users will be able to achieve real time rendering. Making Beauty Box not only the best digital makeup plugin, but the fastest.”

Beauty Box Video 4.0 currently works in Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and Apple’s Final Cut Pro X. Support for Avid, Davinci Resolve, Assimilate Scratch, and other host applications will be following in the next month.

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2015

Cobalt Digital introduces openGear® Dual-Channel Test Signal Generator with Active Signal Indicator Cobalt Digital announced the 9960-TG2-REF1 3G/HD/SD-SDI dual-channel test signal generator, an openGear® card that sends dual test signals into a facility's video chain in order to ensure the validity of downstream baseband SDI systems. The 9960-TG2-REF1 is the only openGear card that can perform two separate tests on two separate paths. It is also the only such card that generates a "bouncing box" confidence indicator to track the movement of a signal throughout the facility and show whether a test was successful. These unique features increase the card's functionality and can reduce testing costs for broadcast facilities.

them after the systems go live.

The 9960-TG2-REF1 card features a stress-test generator that can intentionally send illegal characters into the video path in order to determine whether the downstream systems will catch them. This feature helps broadcasters find and fix problems along the signal path during testing and setup instead of discovering

The 9960-TG2-REF1 card can generate video, audio, analog, timecode, data, and other types of test signals that broadcasters use every day. Unlike other openGear test generator cards, the 9960TG2-REF1 lets users set up dual test packages, which they can run simultaneously on two different paths in order to test different parts

"Our new test signal generator is another demonstration of Cobalt's high-density approach to product design. That is, we pack as much functionality as possible into our cards so that users can get maximum performance for their money in the densest-possible footprint," said Jesse Foster, Cobalt Digital's product manager. "With its two independent signal generators and the ability to simultaneously generate timecode and bi-level sync — something that wasn't possible on the openGear platform until now — the 9960-TG2-REF1 could potentially do the work of three other cards."

of the chain at the same time or feed selectively to a single path. In addition to numerous high-quality industry-standard test patterns, the 9960-TG2-REF1 also provides ANC data generators that are designed to check all standard ANC packages, including CEA-608/708 closed captioning, SMPTE 12M TC, SMPTE 2020 HANC audio, and SMPTE SCTE 104 test packets. A CVBS output offers bi-level reference output, line 21 (CEA-608) closed-captioning, and VITC waveform test sequences.

In another first for the openGear platform, the 9960-TG2-REF1 features bouncing-box animation that serves as an easy-to-use, dynamic raster confidence check. If there is a problem along the signal path, such as with a frame sync generating color bars during a loss of active video, the operator may lose confidence in the actual signal transport. An animated moving box ensures active video is actually passing through the chain. Users can customize trouble slides with text or imported graphics.

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2015

GatesAir strengthens IP Networking strategy for Connected Studios

GatesAir is extending the networking capabilities of its VistaMax™ portfolio with VMXpress IP, an AES67-compliant audio and logic device that establishes a standards based Audio over IP gateway for radio studios.

Leveraging the non-proprietary nature of ALC NetworX’s Ravenna networking technology, VMXpress IP drives interoperability across the studio and signal transport architecture through its open, standards-based foundation.

VMXpress IP evolves the robust networking architecture of GatesAir audio distribution and consoles, seamlessly integrating with existing and emerging AES67-compliant devices to help broadcasters build the optimal connected studio facility. Using the tremendous flexibility of open-standards IP networking, VMXpress IP simplifies connectivity with audio processors, satellite receivers, phone systems and studio support equipment,

including program delays, among other key systems. With GatesAir’s existing network-based, minimallywired studio networking architecture at the core, Ravenna’s networking technology fortifies the overall infrastructure through lowlatency distribution and full signal transparency. Overall, broadcasters will enjoy a highly reliable and flexible network to move audio and data facility-wide.

Beyond the studio, VMXpress IP extends networking to leading IP transport solutions, including GatesAir Intraplex® IP Link codecs, for low-latency audio contribution and distribution. This expands connectivity to transmitter facilities (STL), live remote broadcast sites, and the internet for streaming content to other studios and the web. Therefore, the limitations of AES and analog connectivity are eliminated, instead leveraging intelligent networking with IP transport systems by using AES67

over the local Ethernet.

“With thousands of stations relying on GatesAir’s robust studio networking solutions, including seven of the top 10 billing stations in the US, adopting a standardsbased approach to the rapidly evolving transition to IP is critical,” said Rich Redmond, chief product officer, GatesAir. “VMXpress IP represents our extension of GatesAir’s robust studio networking into this greater, highly flexible and interoperable Audio over IP environment, simplifying how our customers create, operate, scale and drive revenue within digital studio facilities.”

VMXpress IP continues GatesAir’s market leading strategy of using single network-based connections (Cat5/6) to move hundreds of audio and data signals across a multipoint network, ensuring a clean studio design that is easy to deploy, operate and scale as requirements evolve.

Rogers Sportsnet doubles its Enterprise sQ system for NHL coverage

regional channels and the nationally-distributed Sportsnet ONE and Sportsnet World. The Quantel system, installed at The Rogers Building in downtown Toronto also covers baseball, basketball, American Football and soccer.

Canada’s leading sports media broadcaster, Rogers Sportsnet, has doubled the size of its Quantel Enterprise sQ fast-turnaround news and sports system to handle its growing workflow after acquiring the exclusive national rights to NHL coverage for the next 12 years. Sportsnet consists of four

The huge system now supports a total of 72 ingest ports, 56 playout ports and 350 editing seats. At the heart of the system is 7500 hours of online storage on sQ servers. Sportsnet has also expanded its QTube global workflow system allowing its remote editors to access and edit content stored on its central Toronto-based Enterprise sQ system wherever they are located.

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2015

Qligent announces 24/7 managed service to outsource monitoring and compliance verification tasks Qligent has developed a monitoring-as-a-service (MaaS) suite for its flagship Vision platform that removes the responsibilities and expense of monitoring the linear TV air chain from the studio.

Using Qligent’s networked intelligence and data visualization expertise, management can redirect operations, engineering and production staff away from tactical day-to-day monitoring, analysis and troubleshooting tasks, and toward more strategic and creative initiatives.

Branded as Oversight, the 24/7 managed service offloads these important responsibilities to Qligent’s team of industry experts via its distributed cloud environment. Oversight provides an outsourced first response and reporting capability for broadcasters and multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs). Additionally, Oversight turns disparity into convergence at larger facilities and networks, offloading monitoring tasks from multiple departments to its centralized managed service

layer.

Oversight pairs with Vision, Qligent’s enterprise-level system for monitoring broadcast and media quality through the entire delivery chain, to support tasks from individual fault analysis to historical trend reporting. This allows the outsourced monitoring team to rapidly pinpoint, isolate and repair performance issues. Additionally, Oversight delivers Vision’s comprehensive service-level agreement (SLA) metrics and analytics as part of the managed service, allowing staff to correlate the programming being aired with quality of service and experience (QoS/QoE). Vision’s big data capabilities help users connect the cause and effect of performance issues as they relate to the impact on the viewing population.

Ted Korte, COO of Qligent, notes that Oversight will help broadcasters and MVPDs make a clean break from the traditional practice—and expense—of on-site monitoring. Instead, Oversight provides a reliable and cost-

effective way to enhance the impact of real-time monitoring and analysis in a rapidly changing digital TV environment.

“The increased reliance on big data and deep analytics, for everything from QC monitoring to audience measurement, is driving a clear transition from CAPEX to OPEX expenditures,” said Ted Korte, COO, Qligent. “With approximately 50 percent of industry spending moving toward services, the transition from product purchases to an OPEX partnership is clearly a sensible approach, especially in facilities where multiple departments have their own unique problems to solve. With Oversight, broadcasters and MVPDs no longer have to worry about staffing on-site monitoring or overloading less technical operators, and can instead invest in resources appropriate for each function such as new technology, new revenue streams, content acquisition, editing and other pertinent elements of the creative production process.”

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2015

Riedel expands presence in Middle East with appointment of Mohamed Hammad as Dubai Systems Consultant Riedel Communications has appointed Mohamed Hammad to serve as systems consultant for Dubai. In this new role, Hammad will help to define customer requirements, specify systems that meet those requirements, and aid in ensuring smooth installation and commissioning of the resulting Riedel solutions.

Forbidden has signed a distribution deal with new enterprise video company Field59 Inc. An offshoot of long-time Forscene client Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM), Field59 will integrate Forscene into its video platform in order to provide live-feed capture, editing, closed-caption, and Web publishing solutions to its broadcast, sports, and education clients in North America.

BIM first integrated Forscene into its video platform, Bimvid, in 2009 to provide local television broadcasters a real-time, frame-accurate editing platform. As an integration partner, BIM has shipped, supported, and managed the Forscene installations across the United States while working with Forscene on new customer-driven development projects.

Mohamed Hammad

"Mohamed joins Riedel with impressive experience as an engineer working with the latest media and production technologies," said Ahmed Magd, Riedel's general manager for the Middle East and Turkey. "We are confident that he will hit the ground running and make an immediate and positive impact for Riedel, as well as for our customers in the Middle East."

Hammad most recently served as playout manager for popular Egyptian satellite channel CBC at its Media Production City facilities in Egypt.

Earlier, while in broadcast and studio engineering roles at CBC, he helped to design and launch three HD studios and a new master control room for the broadcaster. Prior to joining CBC, Hammad served in a variety of engineering roles — including field system and support engineer, followed by technical presales and solution architecture — for systems integrator Brainwaves Broadcast. He earlier was with Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU), where he held broadcast engineering positions for various channels and ultimately played a key role in designing and launching the broadcaster's new multichannel playout center.

Hammad will be based in Dubai and report directly to Magd.

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Field59 chooses Forscene to expand video services

"BIM saw the potential of cloud technology early on and, by integrating Forscene into its platform, pioneered new workflows for local broadcasters," said Jason Cowan, director of business development at Forbidden. "We look forward to working with Field59 to continue that trend, developing and providing new and innovative solutions for its expanded client base."

Integrating Field59 live streams into Forscene will make it possible for clients to edit video-on-demand clips from live streams in real time, from one platform anywhere, anytime. The integration also means that Field59 clients will be able to stream live and edit in Forscene from a single encoder, a potentially significant reduction in both hardware investment and network bandwidth usage.

"Working with the team at Forbidden has been a pleasure. The company is a true partner in every sense of the word," said Derek Gebler, CEO and founder of Field59 Inc. "Forscene is the best cloudbased editing system on the planet, and I am excited to continue our relationship."

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2015

Globecast strengthens american presence with launch of new media centre in LA Globecast today announced the launch of its new Los Angeles Media Centre, offering broadcasters and content providers a converged workflow to prepare, deliver and playout content to any kind of distribution platform. The new Media Centre compliments established Globecast facilities in London and Singapore, enabling Globecast to offer a truly one-stopshop for Media Management, Playout, Satellite and OTT distribution globally. The new facility, which has been upgraded to include Globecast’s Media Factory for content logistics and converged workflow, brings broadcast and OTT solutions together under one roof, and leverages Globecast’s proven expertise in handling both linear broadcast and on-demand services. Globecast’s Media Factory steps beyond traditional media management, logistics and playout services. It replaces

multiple, siloed operations, with a single, efficient process that handles everything from VoD preparation and content formatting through to creative services, quality control and compliance. The Media Factory approach allows Globecast to pass on economies of scale to customers who also benefit from the greater flexibility and the ability to scale up and down as required.

A flexible and scalable workflow enables broadcasters to easily adapt to growing audiences or new delivery platforms without having to make costly infrastructure investments of their own.

Globecast has already signed up customers for its newest Media Factory, including equestrian lifestyle channel, Ride TV. Internationally, BBC Worldwide is also a customer.

The LA Media Centre features state-of-the art technology from

leading providers to create a fully integrated and efficient broadcast facility with industry-leading redundancy and proactive and predictive fault monitoring.

Globecast’s Managing Director in the US, Eddie Ferraro, said, “In this constantly shifting media landscape, cost-efficiency and time to market are key to a successful business model. Broadcasters today have to cover off traditional linear playout as well as VoD and catch-up services across multiple platforms in order to reach their viewers. Our new Media Centre enables them to do exactly this from right here in the heart of LA. Bringing our Media Factory concept to the US will enable us to offer tried and tested approaches from the world of industry to media management and combine it with our unique heritage to deliver effective solutions.”

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2015

DRM Digital Radio Mondiale: International Acceptance through Field Test Platform in Hannover

Joseph Electronics announces Kick Box fiber breakouts Joseph Electronics (JE) announced the launch of Kick Box, a simple interconnect solution for fiber breakouts that can be used in the field, in the studio, or anywhere camera crews need to create fiber connections quickly in order to manage and maximize fiber cable runs. Kick Box is ideal for outside broadcast, digital satellite newsgathering, and satellite applications.

"Before we developed Kick Box, camera crews had to use higher priced boxes and custom fan-out fiber cable assemblies to make what should be quick and easy interconnections," said Yohay Hahamy, president and CEO of Joseph Electronics. "We developed Kick Box as an alternative to those more costly solutions. It's an affordable, reliable, compact throw-down box that is not only simple to maintain and repair, but requires very little effort to use, which saves time on setup and strike.

Crews can simply throw down a couple of Kick Boxes to solve interconnection problems on the spot."

A new addition to JE's Caddie Series of products, Kick Box is a small throwdown box in a durable, hardened enclosure that can withstand daily use in even the most demanding production environments. Kick Box comes in several different versions to accommodate different connector types.

The first models can connect opticalCON QUAD to four STs or to two opticalCON DUOs. A typical setup uses two Kick Boxes, one at each end of the fiber cable.

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Ampegon has granted a solid state low power (500 W) transmission solution to RFmondial GmbH in Hannover, Germany. In cooperation with the Institute of Communication Technology (IKT) at the Leibniz Universität Hannover the transmitter enables technologists to continue expert measurements and demonstrations of the DRM standard on regular city environmental broadcasting conditions. A broadcast license for 26.045 MHz shortwave has been given to the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

The installation will bring DRM technology and research equipment to the campus laboratory allowing technical demonstrations for professional listeners and reception results.

The use of the equipment in mobile configuration enables a testing environment for improved car radio receivers with live reception inside a city. The unlimited access and the flexible operation of the broadcast chain including all possible configurations and power levels will help to test and demonstrate DRM live broadcast and will show the technical strength of the technology. The equipment is fully remote accessible for unmanned operation.

New algorithms, coding and power improvements will be tested and verified. System linearization and coverage conditions for several operation modes are under examination.

The measurements and reports are well received in international technical publications and conferences.

This DRM installation is a complete DRM service chain maintained and operated by RFmondial together with the Leibniz Universität Hannover and the support of Fraunhofer IIS. It coexists next to a DRM transmission in the FM band at 95.2 MHz. In parallel to experiments under their own supervision, the service is offered to receiver, module or chip-set manufacturers to verify and improve their implementations under real environmental conditions.

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2015

TV-Film chooses Ikegami HDK-970A cameras for OB truck Ü6 TV-Film, a Vienna-based company specialising in providing mobile television production services, outside broadcast vehicles and related equipment, has purchased Ikegami HDK-970A and HDK-97A cameras for its Ü6 OB truck. The sale was negotiated

by Ikegami's Austrian dealer, Avisys Electronics GmbH, which is also located in Vienna.

"TV-Film's Technical Director, Thomas Völkl, chose the HDK970A cameras to meet expanding

demand for high-definition broadcast production," comments Avisys CEO Keigo Yoneda. "Each camera was purchased complete with a CCU and 3G optical fibre transmission adapter. TV-Film has used Ikegami cameras very successfully for over 20 years and already owns four HDK-97A portable cameras, each of which is equipped with a digital triax system."

Top of Ikegami's Unicam HD line, the HDK-970A is a full digital 3G-

HD-SDI 59.94/50 Hz studio/EFP camera system with advanced 16bit digital signal processing.

Increased dark-area graduation ensures natural colour reproduction across the full luminance range.

Other features include operatoradjustable gamma curve, lens aberration correction and support for a wide range of HDTV formats including 1080i 119.88/100 Hz (optionally). Single and dual link output are available via Ikegami CCU-970 and BS-97 camera control units and base stations.

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APR

PA N S H O T

2015

Adder and Lund Halsey announce strategic alliance in Middle East Adder Technology has announced an exclusive partnership with control room furniture specialist Lund Halsey that sees the company become Adder’s sole distributor in the Middle East.

Rob Parker, operations director, Lund Halsey says: “Over the past few years we have noticed an active requirement for KVM solutions amongst our clients and in project specifications. This alliance with Adder ensures that we are able to meet those needs with a high quality, respected product and supply a complete solution.” Lund Halsey’s primary market is the Middle East and has found success there due to its strong UK brand.

Jamie Adkin, strategic sales

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manager, EMEA, Adder Technology says: "Lund Halsey has an excellent reputation and strong customer relationships with the leading system integrators in our target markets, making it an ideal partner. We are delighted to be working with the company and realising the potential that the Broadcast, Control Room and Security industries present in the Middle East."

Both companies have been operating for over 30 years and have developed enviable brand reputations as high-end designer manufacturers.

“There is a great deal of synergy between our two companies in terms of the quality of our products,

our philosophy and culture. In addition, both companies manufacture their products in the UK which is something that customers in the Middle East really value,” says Parker.

“The partnership ensures that we are not only able to work with the Adder technical team to come up with solutions where there is a definite need for KVM, but can also proactively engage with customers and prospects who are likely to have a KVM requirement. This is particularly true for the AdderLink Infinity Matrix which is a unique, powerful and cost-effective alternative to generic, point-to-point KVM products.”

APR

PA N S H O T

2015

Cuescript adds Alphatron Broadcast Systems to expand MEA Reach CueScript has named Alphatron Broadcast Systems a distributor and dealer of CueScript products in the Middle East(MEA). Alphatron Broadcast Systems, a subsidiary of Alphatron Broadcast Electronics, a highly regarded worldwide distributor and manufacturer of broadcast solutions, is expanding its presence in the MEA region, and felt CueScript’s rich pedigree and superior-quality products would compliment its efforts.

Established in 1986 in the Netherlands, Alphatron Broadcast Electronics initially serviced the Benelux region, but gradually expanded its operations to the rest of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America. Today, it distributes a number of notable broadcast equipment brands across the globe, including CueScript. It also manufactures CamRade, its own brand of protective camera bags and covers, and the Alphatron line including electronic viewfinders, developed with TVLogic.

“We knew that CueScript would bring the most complete and thought-out prompting packages available to the market, making a great addition to our portfolio,” says Chris Darnley, MEA Sales Manager, Alphatron Broadcast Systems. “Plus, the extensive experience of the CueScript team makes our introduction of them to television stations and system integrators in the region very easy.”

Alphatron Broadcast Systems will employ Darnley and its other staff members to head up the UAE location and expand CueScript’s reach in the region, highlighting CueScript products’ light weight, ease of installation and setup and ability to work under any type of lighting conditions to potential customers, along with other key benefits. Darnley notes that CueScript’s excellent customer service will also aid in his company’s endeavors.

“We are new to distributing prompting products, but feel confident approaching customers about CueScript,” Darnley continues.

“We have an excellent relationship with the company, and know we’ll get the required product support from them when we need it.

We’re very excited to introduce our widereaching customer base to the next big name in prompting.”

John Raadgeep, Director of Alphatron Broadcast Electronics, also sees CueScript as an ideal fit for the Alphatron Broadcast Systems portfolio. “We’re pleased to bring this exciting new player in the prompting market into the fold,” he says. “The background and industry knowledge of the CueScript team is impeccable, with a long history of delivering exactly what broadcasters need to run their operations successfully. That, combined with the excellent quality of the CueScript products, will further bolster our reputation in the burgeoning MEA broadcast community.”

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APR

PA N S H O T

2015

EBC launched its new TV infrastructure

I-MOVIX X10 UHD RF brings wireless ultra motion closer to the action

In September 2013, following a call for tender, BCE was selected by EBC (previously ERTA) for the upgrade of their infrastructure to a high definition (HD) and tapeless facility in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Taking a step into the future, EBC is now the first Ethiopian media organisation with a state-of-the-art digital workflow.

The EBC was created in 1995 (previously named ERTA) as the result of the merge between the Ethiopian Radio and the ETV (Ethiopian Television). Ethiopian Radio was launched in 1935 and ETV in 1964. ERTA broadcasts their news and other programs nationwide and overseas through radio, television and the Internet.

“Following our strategy to offer our services to the MENA market, BCE has committed to installing state-ofthe-art platforms to media customers using its expertise and its trusted supplier’s network. This major evolution of their infrastructure will drive the company to a leading position on the Ethiopian media market”, comments Frédéric Fievez, Manager Special Projects at BCE. After a call for tender, BCE, in partnership with Grass Valley®, was selected for the integration of this infrastructure. BCE, thanks to its strong experience in mass content digitisation for important European media players as well as international content producers and TV channels, was able to answer rapidly to their demand.

BCE’s experts were able to install the platform and also train EBC staff to work in this new environment.

“In collaboration with Grass Valley, BCE took its first major step in Africa. Thanks to an off-site pre-installation in Luxembourg, our team succeeded in seamlessly delivering, in a cost-effective way, a high-achieving platform to EBC.” commented Frédéric Lemaire, CEO of BCE. Taking advantage of its strong infrastructure in Luxembourg, with extended room for projects, BCE decided to install the complete platform of the customer in Luxembourg in order to prepare it for the local team.

During this first integration in Luxembourg, EBC’s team came to Luxembourg to be trained directly on their new platform. The platform was then moved to Ethiopia where BCE’s experts teamed up with the local architects and EBC’s team to reassemble the parts of the pre-configured platform. The local team finished their training on site as well with BCE experts.

Meanwhile a large volume of EBC legacy content was digitised by BCE. Less than a year after the beginning of the work, the new platform was ready. To ensure a seamless start, BCE provided assistance during the launch and the first weeks of operations.

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X10 UHD RF extends the operational flexibility of the X10 technology by supporting wireless shooting in HD productions where being close to the action is important. For very high-frame rate ultra-slow motion in HD sports coverage, X10 UHD RF operates in USM (Ultra Slow Motion) mode to deliver instant replays of up to 3,000 FPS in 720p or up to 2,000 FPS in 1080i.

The system is available with a choice of wireless cameraback solutions, including Vislink’s Clip-On 4 or L1700. Control can be from the OB (mobile) truck using the OCP and JOG remotes, or when a data channel is unavailable the camera operator can control the system in standalone mode to send replays to the truck over a single wireless link.

“Vislink wireless camera solutions provide the ultimate flexibility for capturing live sporting events worldwide, including the World Cup, Olympics and the Super Bowl,” commented Ashley Dove, VP of Solutions at Vislink. “The untethered nature of cameraback RF transmission allows broadcasters to collect unique angles from the field and deliver them to the fans at home, for a more complete live event experience. The L1700 is lightweight, compact, and transmits in high-quality HD, making it the perfect compliment to the IMOVIX range of products.”

“With its wireless capability the X10 UHD RF is clearly the most advanced ultra slow motion camera for HD sports broadcasting,” said Laurent Renard, CEO of I-MOVIX. “The ability to take the camera close to the action and into any corner of the arena gives production teams a new freedom to uncover detail and sporting drama that has never been seen before.”

APR

PA N S H O T

2015

Nexidia QC™ v2.3 now shipping, in use by Major Media Outlets Nexidia announced that Nexidia QC™ v2.3 is now shipping. The latest release of Nexidia's software tool for automating quality control of closed captions, video description, and languages for broadcast and IP workflows has been deployed at major media organizations and is also integrated with some of the world's most popular workflow automation systems.

"Broadcasters and other media outlets are facing tighter caption regulations while needing to address the challenges created by the expansion in alternative distribution channels. They require automated tools to streamline their delivery and to automate their workflows for what has traditionally required manual checks," said Drew Lanham, senior vice president and general manager, Nexidia Media and Entertainment Division. "By bundling the Nexidia QC API and aggressively supporting customer and partner integrations, we are helping to

ensure that customers are better able to automate compliance with closed-caption regulations around the world and with the delivery requirements of OTT partners."

Already in use at CBS, CNN, Comcast, PBS, Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., and Turner Networks, Nexidia QC v2.3 has been integrated with the Telestream® Vantage file-based workflow automation system, Dalet's AmberFin Unified QC platform, the Evertz Mediator content management and workflow solution, and the Aspera Orchestrator workflow automation system.

Nexidia QC v2.3 features an optional automated caption-retiming action for live captioned content, making it the first caption tool to correct live caption-timing issues automatically, ensuring that captions are synchronized with the speech in repurposed content. By testing for and automatically

repairing out-of-sync captions due to drift or other reasons, media organizations can avoid costly recaptioning or manual realignment. A caption review player allows users to review reported caption errors and compare caption synchronization before and after the automated retiming.

In addition, Nexidia QC v2.3 expands to 15 the list of languages available for the spoken-language verification function, and the enhanced implementation alerts users when the spoken language is not one of the potential languages identified in the test profile. Tested across a broad set of media, the accuracy was greater than 97 percent. Nexidia QC v2.3 includes support for EBU-STL and EBU-TT, the most widely used caption formats in Europe, as well as the iTunes® Timed Text (ITT) and SRT formats — additions that build upon existing support for SCC, SMPTETT, SAMI, and Cheetah CAP.

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NAB Booth SL2505 60,000 spectators descended upon Johnson Valley, CA in February to witness the largest offroad race in King of Hammers (KOH) history. During the event, 430 Ultra4Racing teams navigated more than 200 miles of boulderladen terrain in an attempt to win the KOH 2015 championship title, though only 17 crossed the finish line. For the fourth consecutive year, Freelance Producer Dan Campbell-Lloyd returned to the desert to capture and broadcast the action in HD for fans on-site and more than 400,000 viewers online.

To carry out such a massive endeavor, he led a 25-person Hammerking Productions crew, who implemented a robust live production workflow that included

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AJA Io XT, KUMO, Ki Pro Mini, Hi5Plus, HA5-Plus, V2Digital, UDC, HD10MD3 and other equipment.“AJA makes really awesome gear, and without it, we wouldn't have been able to pull off what we did,” Campbell-Lloyd shared. “It allows us to deliver a very cool, professional looking webcast that even the big guys I work for are impressed with. AJA’s team is also fantastic to work with; you couldn’t find a more helpful group in the industry.”

Campbell-Lloyd’s crew captured live footage for the webcast and two jumbotron streams using Sony EX3 and NEX-F100U cameras with ENG and fixed Canon lenses. The team also used Re-Play XD cameras, two of which were

streamed 24/7 and kept locked off as a safe cutaway. Teradek H.264 Cube encoders, Hi5-Plus 3G-SDI to HDMI Mini-Converters and HA5Plus HDMI to 3G-SDI MiniConverters were also tapped to send signals back through a dish, which also worked on a roaming, side-by-side UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle) camera.

AJA’s Mini-Converters were able to withstand the rigorous Johnson Valley conditions while enabling Campbell-Lloyd and his team to deliver the live camera feed to fans.

“AJA Mini-Converters are the glue that ties all of our equipment together; we couldn’t operate without them,” he explained.

“They’re also incredibly reliable. I can toss one in a UTV or on top of

a microwave dish atop a mountain and know that it will continue to perform perfectly through dust, rain, sleet and snow.”

The broadcast also called for highlight footage to be fed to the jumbotrons and social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, as well as for a DVD highlight reel post-event. Using RED and Sony FS-700 cameras; Shotover aerialstabilized camera systems; and AJA Ki Pro Minis stationed in two helicopters, the team recorded aerial footage of the race in Apple ProRes 422. Files were handed over to the editing team when the helicopters landed to refuel.

Editorial then added the files to a Final Cut Pro timeline on an iMac, which utilized an Io XT connected via Thunderbolt for ingest and playout, for scrubbing and trimming and final playout into an AJA KUMO router and the TriCaster 850EX for the live stream for the jumbotrons and webcast. Using this workflow, the team was also able to load any commercials, bumps and pre-edited driver infused footage, into the timeline and send it straight to the show.

nowhere without needing an extra operator,” said Campbell-Lloyd.

“KUMO was also huge for us on this project, because we were able to route feeds through more than 20 cameras, TVs and jumbotrons; it turned out to be our TriCaster operator’s favorite piece of equipment.”

By the end of five days of production, Campbell-Lloyd and crew brought KOH fans more than 35 hours of action-packed coverage, enduring cold, damp weather throughout. Pleased by the durability of AJA gear in such harsh

conditions, he concluded, “One of the great things about AJA gear is that it keeps working, even in the most undesirable environments. I never have to worry about replacing it, which can’t be said for all of our gear; it saves us a lot of time and money.”

For a look at all of the action from this year’s race, check out the 2015 KOH Highlight Reel.

“IoXT made it really simple to take a live feed, record and playback in one step. I loved that we could do all that in the middle of

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NAB Booth SU4405

Covering elections has always presented broadcasters – and now media companies more generally – with a particular set of challenges.

They are by their nature widereaching geographically, with coverage required not only in major urban metropolises but from townto-town too. Politicians move around all day: look at the US media scramble and the coaches, planes, helicopters and motorcades involved in moving candidates.

From doorsteps to soap boxes, electioneering rallies to moving through the streets, capturing the hustle and bustle of an election campaign requires a fleet footedness that has previously been impossible to achieve.

Bonding transmission technology has changed that. and has also introduced a whole new level of cost-efftiveness.

Taking things chronologically, hundreds of LiveU units were used

by India’s broadcasters and online media last year to boost their live

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reporting of the Indian General Elections. These are said to be the world’s biggest. These units increased the newsgathering capabilities for many of India’s broadcasters including ANI, Network 18, Times Now, Aajtak, ETV Network, News Wire Services, GTPL, Bansal News, TV9, Jaya TV, Sun TV and Zee Network.

Piyush Gupta, Operations Director and CTO - Broadcast, Network 18, said at the time, “We needed to increase our coverage capabilities during the elections.

Supported by the local Lamhas team (LiveU partner), we’ve been able to transmit live coverage of the campaign around the country with ad hoc interviews and press conferences.”

An important part of the deployment has been LiveU’s smaller, stronger LU500 uplink unit offering optimal video performance and reliability in a lightweight unit, weighing less than 1 kg. The LTEready LU500 is compatible with

Indian networks.

The newly elected Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi started his term with a very busy schedule visiting foreign countries and international events. Again, portable video transmission technology helped Indian media outlets cope with this, providing streaming solutions from foreign locations to India on multiple platforms with some reports made using cellular uplinking smartphone apps.

To meet the demands of the campaign trail, increased numbers of units were provided to customers around India on a long-term and short-term basis.

Rajat Nigam, Sr. VP & Head Technology, Times TV Network, said, “The General Elections in India were a massive event challenging every aspect of news channel infrastructure. Being the leader in the news genre, we were expected to put out programming with a high benchmark standard

coverage during January’s presidential election in Sri Lanka.

The main Sri Lankan public and private broadcasting companies selected LiveU for election day coverage. Several broadcasters increased their fleet of units before the elections, having successfully used the technology for live newsgathering, while others acquired and used their units for the first time during the election.

targeting viewers across the length and breadth of the vast country.

Newsgathering, which is the core to any news channel, was a focus area and LiveU units proved to be of great value.

They allowed faster movement between locations, quick deployment time and flexibility to provide live feeds across varying networks. We were clearly ahead of other channels because of the effective and efficient field units."

Earlier this year, as has of course been very widely covered, there were general elections held in Greece. Once again, broadcasters recognised that cellular uplinking technology could provide truly dynamic coverage.

Greek broadcasters who used LiveU’s technology included: Alpha TV, STAR Channel, MEGA Channel, SKAI TV, Antenna TV, ACTION 24, NERIT (public broadcaster) and KRITI TV. International broadcasters included: Russia Today, CNN, Canal+, CNBC and Associated Press. This was a combination of short- and long-term users.

Broadcasters deployed technology from across the LiveU platform, with LiveU Central LiveU’s cloud-based, unified management platform that provides operators with a range of essential tools, also playing a key role. Broadcasters used LU500 and other LiveU uplink units.

Panos Pierides, of Pierides TechnoSystems, LiveU’s Greek partner, worked with the broadcasters to ensure that all requirements were met. He said,

“Broadcasters were attracted by the simple and fast movement from one location to another that this technology allows. Everyone knows how important and dramatic these elections were and technology came to broadcasters’ aid. Athens in particular is a crowded city and hard to move around in at the best of times. Cellular uplinking provided broadcasters with a dynamic way of being where the story is with flawless coverage, day and night.”

Not only that, but of course filming can take place while on the move, which broadcasters took advantage of. Connectivity was via both 3G and 4G networks with the international broadcasters also using store and forward. In addition to the live pool feeds that were provided to all broadcasters by the Public Broadcaster NERIT via point-to-point links, satellite feeds and fibre connections, LiveU usage was responsible for more than 50 per cent of total live transmissions during the election period.

LU500 backpacks and LU-Smart mobile apps were also used to provide round-the-clock live video

When local operators started to deploy and offer LTE service in Sri Lanka, LiveU had engineers on the ground making sure units were compatible with local LTE technologies and customers could immediately benefit from the new service.

Several broadcasters replaced their old LiveU backpacks for smaller, stronger LU500s and increased their number of units, while others had their units upgraded to support the new technologies.

Mr. Priyal Udugampola of MTV Channel, a long time user, said, “With LTE-support and the new smaller LU500 backpack, LiveU was the obvious choice for the elections. Its mobile app for smartphones, LU-Smart, offered an added advantage, enabling us to cover more locations, live, around the country.”

Increasing the viewership of elections is important not only in television channel competition terms but also in encouraging democracy and getting more people to vote. Bringing the action to the screen in a dynamic, fleetfooted way has never been possible in the way that it is now.

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High-speed production cycles.

Tight deadlines. Numerous video professionals working simultaneously on the same project, utilizing various workstations on different platforms and applications, generating a multitude of file formats. It can hardly get any more complicated than that. The media and broadcast industry is one of the most demanding when it comes to requirements on IT and network performance and flexibility. Fast, efficient and effortless sharing of media files amongst the various workstations involved in a project is crucial.

Unfortunately many proprietary software and hardware applications like e.g. AVID don't tolerate sharing media files natively, making rather complex workarounds or additional media management tools necessary, which increase management effort in the daily workflow and decrease productivity significantly.

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So far there was no remedy to this situation, leaving many IT administrators and even more video professionals desperately longing for a miracle that would take the additional effort off their hands, and make sharing media files fast and easy, without wasting so much time and money on media file management.

After dealing with the same issues for years, the core team of experienced solution designers and system engineers at syslink in Duesseldorf (Germany) heard their calling, and started in 2011 with the development of ELEMENTS, a revolutionary line of media server and storage products, specifically designed for the media and broadcast industry. And they have accomplished a fundamental breakthrough and achieved to square the circle: sharing media files natively across all platforms and applications, even embracing those not allowing native project and media sharing, including AVID

AndrĂŠ Kamps

bin locking. But the professional systems don’t stop there, as they support collaborative workflows between the majority of non-linear editing and VFX applications, like Quantel, Autodesk, Apple Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. With this unique approach, ELEMENTS are

It is possible to outsmart proprietary software limitations autonomously, with virtually no IT skills required.

the first and only products in the global market field that provide not only a shared storage but a truly shared file systems in heterogeneous SAN/NAS environments.

“It was a mystery to us why sharing media files had to be such a struggle,” says André Kamps, CEO and master mind behind the visionary endeavor. “So we put on our thinking caps and are proud to have found a way to outsmart the limitations posed by proprietary software applications. But we wanted to provide our customers with even more than that.” adds Kamps.

Besides delivering highperformance media storage and server topology that bridges the gap between all applications, ELEMENTS is a novelty regarding simplicity and intuitive manageability. Developed for video professionals, as opposed to IT professionals, ELEMENTS’ products provide unique and fieldproven workflow enhancement features and management tools, like a lean Media Asset Management and comprehensive file and user management, allowing to really taking control of the shared storage and filing system.

ELEMENTS comes in different flavors for both SAN and NAS environments, and many companies across Europe leverage the benefits of the unique product range. THE POST REPUBLIC, a professional end-to-end postproduction facility with entities in Berlin, London and Halle, is just one customer that utilizes

ELEMENTS ONE - not only in their daily workflow but even on live production events, like the international music festival in Wacken (Germany), 2013. “At the festival we relied on ultra-fast writing of huge amounts of data onto disk, while accessing and reading the data at the same time,” says Michael Reuter, Managing Director at THE POST REPUBLIC. “ELEMENTS allowed us to ingest live-data from 10 S3D cameras plus 5 additional S3D rigs at once, while still performing quality control of the material simultaneously.” Reuter adds.

ELEMENTS ONE connected 5 ingest and control workstations plus an EVS system for the live feed.

“We were impressed,” states Reuter. “Not only by the performance and versatility of the ELEMENTS system, but also by the experience and knowledge of the ELEMENTS development team that provided onsite support and service.”

The goal was not only to increase collaboration and workflow efficiency, but to enable every user to manage and maintain the system

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

AVT C8934

AVT connects Talkshow System and Audio Codec At NAB 2015 AVT is presenting the new MAGIC THipPro ACconnect feature which allows to control the MAGIC THipPro Telephone Hybrid System and the new MAGIC ACip3 Audio Codec via one Management Software. The MAGIC ACip3 Audio Codec will be displayed as additional “caller line” in the MAGIC THipPro Windows PC user interface. In this way, incoming calls to the Audio Codec can be accepted as well as outgoing connections can be established via the hybrid’s control software. To allow the Audio Codec to route the incoming AoIP connection via its Audio interfaces to the mixing console, the operator just presses the ON AIR button in the MAGIC THipPro Software. Details of the Audio Codec connection such as e.g. coding algorithm and bit rate are available via the caller line’s Info button. A shared phone book can be used for the Audio Codec as well as

for the Telephone Hybrid. The MAGIC THipPro ACconnect functionality can be easily activated with a fee-based software upgrade which is available for the MAGIC THipPro Telephone Hybrid. The MAGIC ACip3 Audio Codec can be integrated in all MAGIC THipPro systems, no matter if POTS, ISDN or VoIP. The new MAGIC ACip3 Audio Codec is also displayed at the NAB show for the first time. The system is signal processor based which guarantees highest availability and low power consumption and provides three LAN interfaces. They can be used flexibly for Audio over IP transmissions, for system control via the Windows PC Management Software or for the integration into a network management system via SNMP. The line interfaces can be also configured freely as a main or backup connection. With the Secure Streaming feature, a backup can be realized via two independent IP connections.

The system supports in standard delivery the coding algorithms

G.711, G.722, MPEG Layer 2 and PCM. Optionally, the system can be extended with the Enhanced apt-X 16/24 Bit, AAC-LD and AACLC+V1/V2 coding algorithms. The system encodes one Stereo programme in the standard version and can optionally be upgraded to a second Stereo programme. The Audio programmes can - flexibly and freely assignable - be fed in or given out via an analogue and two digital Stereo interfaces. Besides, a headphones interface is available for monitoring. As backup of the integrated power supply an external 12V power supply can be optionally connected in redundant mode.

Also on display at the show are AVT’s MAGIC TH1 Go, MAGIC TH2plus and MAGIC TH6 Telephone Hybrids for VoIP, POTS and ISDN lines as well as the IP, ISDN & E1 Audio Codecs of the MAGIC AC1 XIP family for StudioTransmitter-Links or reporting applications.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Barco Silex C8427b

4K Video over IP with JPEG 2000 Barco Silex has developed a complete reference design on FPGA for Video over IP applications. The reference design implements the VSF Technical Recommendation entitled "Transport of JPEG 2000 Broadcast Profile video in MPEG-2 TS over IP".

Barco Silex participated to several interoperability tests to validate its reference design. The reference design takes SDI signals, compresses them with JPEG 2000 and encapsulates them into MPEG-2 TS and SMPTE-2022 to transmit them over IP network. At this year’s NAB,

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Barco will demonstrate that their design can also handle 4K and UHD signals. Using the four input channels of the reference design in quadSDI mode (4K carried over 4 SDI cables), it can now take a 4K input signal and send it over an IP network.

VC-2 Low Delay – Lightweight compression codec Video will be captured in high-definition formats. At the same time, the transport may still depend on legacy equipment with a lower bandwidth. It is also desirable to reduce the cost

of the video transport infrastructure.

A lightweight compression algorithm is the perfect solution. VC-2 LD is an ideal candidate as standard for lightweight compression. It has been officially stamped as an SMPTE standard, it does not originate with a single vendor, and it is patent-free.

At NAB Show, visitors will be able to view a live demo of the VC-2 Low Delay algorithm. VC-2 is ideally suited for ultra-low latency video transmission. The low complexity of the algorithm allows cost-effective compression of the video stream.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Blackmagic Studio SL219

Hotel Bellavista and Blackmagic Studio CEF Producciónes is shooting a 13 chapter season of this HD fiction series set in Mallorca the sixties decade for IB3 (television of the Balearic Islands, Spain). All media is recorded, ingested and catalogue with Blackmagic equipment in 1080 25p, using apple Pro Res 422 HQ. This is the first series shoot in HD for IB3.

The production is made with three Blackmagic Studio cameras for interior shooting. Each camera signal goes to Blacmagic Studio Converter via fiber, and then in SDI to an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K wich is connected to Hyperdeck Studio for media recording; each camera is ingested separately for editing, the production don´t use live mixing. Outside shooting are recording using the Blackmagic Production Camera 2,5k.

Postproduction is made on Premier CC 2014 and colour correction in Da Vinci Resolve 11, this production generates daily about 600 Gb of media content.

“We use Blackmagic equipments since a while and that was one of the reasons why we opted for them. Not only have they worked well but have very good prices.

In fact we have not thought of another brand for this production”, said Eduardo Biurrun, Image supervisor.

Blackmagic Studio will showcase Blackmagic Studio Camera al NAB 2015

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Bluefish444 SL9721

Bluefish444 announces the immediate availability of a new range of cross platform Windows, Linux and Mac OSX supported video cards; the Epoch | 4K Neutron Turbo, Epoch | 4K Neutron and Epoch | Neutron.

The Epoch Neutron cards adopt an all new form factor, allowing for integration into a wide range of chassis. The low profile, half height form factor allows both cards to be installed into low profile servers, small form factor (SFF) computers, and low profile expansion chassis.

Full height shield options allow for integration in more traditional workstation computers and provide additional I/O requirements like AES/EBU, RS422 machine control, and domestic analogue audio monitoring.

Both Epoch Neutron cards are fitted with 3x industry standard BNC connectors enabling two simultaneous streams of 2K/HD/SD including video fill+key opera-

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tions and each SDI connector is programmable as input or output. The Epoch | Neutron supports 1.5G SDI I/O and the Epoch | 4K Neutron, and Epoch | 4K Neutron Turbo extend support to 3G SDI I/O enabling up to 4K 60p I/O. An HDMI 1.4a mini connector provides a low cost 4K/2K/HD/SD HDMI monitoring preview, and allows for colour critical monitoring on consumer HDMI displays.

Even with a shrunk down halflength PCIe and low profile format, Bluefish444 have managed to cram in more functionality with the addition of a low latency hardware keyer.

Neutron cards feature a new interlocking connector allowing for multiple cards in a single server to be locked to a common sync source. This feature is a benefit for broadcasters and post facilities requiring multicard synchronisation by alleviating the need for multiple reference signals.

All Bluefish444 SDI solutions are Thunderbolt compatible and the Epoch Neutron cards make integra-

tion a breeze. From the smallest Low Profile Thunderbolt expansion chassis through to larger multi-card Thunderbolt expansion chassis the Epoch Neutron cards will be compatible. Bluefish444 have certified Thunderbolt expansion chassis from Sonnet, Magma, and Netstor for both Windows and MAC OSX platforms.

Bluefish444 SDI solutions are used in a plethora of workflows across industries such as Broadcast, Post Production, Industrial, Medical and many more.

At NAB Show 2015 Bluefish444 will demonstrate some of the major emerging workflows including Mobile 4K Post-Production, 4K Production, Multi-Channel Streaming, Audio Post-Production, Live Broadcast, and Finishing.

At NAB Bluefish444 will demonstrate our SDI/HDMI cards with popular software solutions including Fluid ingeSTore, Avid Media Composer, Avid Pro Tools, Adobe Creative Cloud, Assimilate SCRATCH, and a Live Broadcast Keyer.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Estructure Media Systems N4639 - N4637

Estructure Media Systems, designs advanced technology solutions for audiovisual assets exploitation. The company provides powerful and cost-effective products for broadcasters and media professionals. Estructure solutions can be easily integrated in any existing workflow covering the entire production process, from ingest to archive and storage: edition, writing, documentation, monitoring, distribution. Estructure provides interfaces fully geared to users, in ways that are easy-to-use while functional, thus facilitating the work for operators. The result is a higher productivity and time saving.

The systems are based on open and standard technology which dramatically reduces the investment. Estructure incorporates new technologies making easier the integration of new devices or applications of any vendor. It can be adapted to the real needs of each company from a single workstation to a large number of users. The company will be showcasing new workflows for digital news production along with the full range of Luxor family products with new features and functionalities. Check out the booth for an exclusive demo of the products.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

GatesAir C3107

At NAB, GatesAir will display two new low-power TV platforms that address two distinct needs. The Maxiva™ Ultra-Compact series offers standalone low-power translator and on-channel gap filler solutions for UHF and High Band VHF stations across four power levels (30, 50, 80 and 130 watts). The new solution cuts the rack space requirements of its predecessor by 50 percent, delivering a broadband 1RU solution with exceptional performance and efficiency.

The Maxiva Multi-Compact series comprises high-density, 4RU 19inch rack-mounted UHF and VHF transmission systems available in several configurations, including N+1, N+2, or N+1+M+1 redundancy.

The innovative Multi-Compact series provides a single chassis to house up to eight separate 15 Watt transmitters, translators or on-channel gap fillers, and provides the most compact design available, along with multiple redundancy options and configurations.

Both solutions share performance and efficiency attributes with market-leading medium-to-high power Maxiva transmitters, balancing exceptional over-the-air quality with a green, cost-reducing architecture that slashes energy consumption, power bills and maintenance requirements. Additionally, both systems are fully broadband across UHF and High VHF, ensuring a frequencyagile design that removes any concerns about future spectrum re-

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pack. The broadband design also greatly reduces spare part holdings for group owners with multiple systems to maintain. Maxiva UltraCompact and Multi-Compact series’ are available for multiple DTV standards, including DVB-T/T2, ISDBT/Tb and ATSC, with many input interfaces to ensure complete, interoperable solutions for any DTV network.

“We continue to evolve our Maxiva solutions to ensure maximum performance, flexibility, efficiency and lowest total cost of ownership for our customers as they build out digital over-the-air networks,” said Rich Redmond, chief product officer, GatesAir. “Every network is looking to streamline operations, and these two distinct low-power solutions simplify network deployment and enable cost-effective wireless content delivery.”

The Connected Studio On the radio side, GatesAir is extending the networking capabilities of its VistaMax™ portfolio with VMXpress IP, an AES67-compliant audio and logic device that establishes a standards based Audio over IP gateway for radio studios.

Leveraging the non-proprietary nature of ALC NetworX’s Ravenna networking technology, VMXpress IP drives interoperability across the studio and signal transport architecture through its open, standardsbased foundation.

VMXpress IP evolves the robust networking architecture of GatesAir audio distribution and consoles, seamlessly integrating with existing and emerging AES67-compliant devices to help broadcasters build the optimal connected studio facility.

Using the tremendous flexibility of open-standards IP networking, VMXpress IP simplifies connectivity

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

with audio processors, satellite receivers, phone systems and studio support equipment, including program delays, among other key systems. With GatesAir’s existing network-based, minimally-wired studio networking architecture at the core, Ravenna’s networking technology fortifies the overall infrastructure through lowlatency distribution and full signal transparency. Overall, broadcasters will enjoy a highly reliable and flexible network to move audio and data facility-wide.

“With thousands of stations relying on GatesAir’s robust studio networking solutions, adopting a standards-based approach to the rapidly evolving transition to IP is critical,” said Rich Redmond, chief product officer, GatesAir. “VMXpress IP represents our extension of GatesAir’s robust studio networking into this greater, highly flexible and interoperable Audio over IP environment, simplifying how our customers create, operate, scale and drive revenue within digital studio facilities.”

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Innovative Europe SL14518

Innovative will be showcasing our ergonomic monitor mounts, including the award-winning Bild and the heavy duty 7500 monitor arm, ideal for all sectors of the broadcasting industry. Guests to NAB Show can visit Innovative at booth SL14518 in the Las Vegas Convention Center to get a tour of these products and learn more about their use in broadcasting applications.

Bild is a highly configurable multimonitor mount that can accommodate two to 16 or more monitors.

Ideal for fast-paced broadcast control rooms, this multi-monitor solution is built to the specifications of

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the customer and ensures all data and information is in view when needed.

The 7500 deluxe radial monitor arm is designed to accommodate larger monitors while maintaining flexibility, range of monitor motion, and ergonomic comfort. This high-

value monitor arm features effortless repositioning, Innovative’s patented HD tilter, and cable management system. With a number of mounting options available, the 7500 monitor arm can be mounted to consoles for radio stations, TV control rooms, and studios.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Plura N2718

ICAC tool, production staff can quickly and automatically calibrate multiple color-related elements across the entire monitor network over IP, including the 4K Series.

Plura Extends Reach Across the Production Workflow The production space has always been a dynamically changing environment. While big-ticket topics like 4K get a bulk of the attention, every stage of the production workflow is continually tweaked to drive new operational efficiencies, support more formats and enable new functionality. Much of these updates have to do with a common goal around building a networked environment. Increasingly, production facilities are transitioning to IP and supporting more wireless connectivity across components, simplifying the way we work and communicate in the production studio. Plura is coming to the 2015 NAB Show with new solutions for both emerging, hot-topic trends; and more traditionally overlooked areas that are arguably of greater importance to successful production operations.

Along with the cloud, 4K is certainly going to be the biggest trend on the exhibit floor this year. At the show, Plura Broadcast will introduce a complete portfolio of 4K monitors at the 2015 NAB Show in alignment with increased industry demand.

Available in widths scaling to 84 inches, the Plura 4K Series brings together the exceptional built-in feature set Plura monitors are known for, while doubling down on quality, detail and performance to give production facilities an edge in Ultra HD monitoring. The Plura 4K Series, which supports resolutions up to

Keeping Time

3840x2160, focuses on delivering the highly detailed, accurate color representation and stunning picture consistency that high-end production applications require. The series also adopts the exceptionally slim form factor that Plura customers enjoy, ensuring that even the largest 4K monitors in the portfolio demand a modest slice of real estate. The Plura 4K Series will also feature the traditional software-redefined feature set built into most Plura monitors, including intelligent connections for calibration alignment, adjustable colormetry, gamma correction and audio monitoring – all accessible from an intuitive menu offering smooth navigation. Using Plura’s unique

At NAB, Plura will shows its new Alpermann+Velte SPT range of networked production timers in North America for the first time, complete with a mobile app for advanced wireless applications. Now shipping, the SPT family from Plura constitutes rackmount and tabletop versions, each capable of distributing six different timers across unlimited associated hardware or software devices. With freedom to deploy any combination or number of these readout devices, studios can gradually scale the timer network as requirements grow. The networked SPT architecture, which includes Power over Ethernet (PoE) signal distribution, also enables synchronization with studio clock reference systems, as well as IP control across all connected devices to start, stop, reset and adjust other timer settings. The SPT range delivers software-defined intelligence to advance production timer applications in broadcast and production facilities.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Quales.TV N3720

QUALES.TV has entered strongly in the audiovisual market with its proposed high efficiency Quality Control System. The company has been successful entry into its capital from investors that allow you to boost access to international markets, has formed a distribution network that reaches over 32 countries. QUALES system is adaptable to different needs and analysis environments at any point in the workflow of audiovisual content file based, allowing also live feed analysis in SDI, IP or ASI. IT works with web application accessible from any web browser this helps to define personalized analysis projects and configure the thresholds that determine different levels of alarm (Logging, Warning, Critical). Is a definitely good value / price system that ensures the integrity of audiovisual content in reduced time, minimizing human intervention.

The further development of the company in recent months has been its commercial network that reaches 16 distributors worldwide with special presence in Asia.

QUALES is adapted to customer needs before sale in those with large systems, where modularity and scalabi-

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lity applies, either in companies with specific needs where QUALES premium for their versatility and price according to the need. QUALES easily integrate into MAM systems of other companies, and that is where the synergies are being so successful through agreements with integrators.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Riedel Communications C4937

A New Member to the MediorNet Family The 2015 NAB Show will see the launch of a new MediorNet device that will add increased flexibility and convenience to the acclaimed MediorNet real-time network. More details will be provided as NAB approaches.

"NAB will see the introduction of a brand new member to the MediorNet family. Making their North American debuts, our innovative new Tango platform and Smartpanel represent the cutting edge of communications interfaces, with powerful features that will provide unprecedented power and convenience."

Thomas Riedel, CEO, Riedel Communications

RSP-2318 Smartpanel The new RSP-2318 Smartpanel offers features and capabilities that will enrich the user experience and change the way broadcasters and AV professionals communicate. As the world's first control panel designed to serve as a powerful multifunctional user interface, the Riedel device boasts a unique feature set that includes three high-resolution, sunlight-readable, multitouch color displays; premium-quality stereo audio; a multilingual character set; and 18 keys in just 1RU. These features make Riedel's new Smartpanel a powerful user interface that can be further expanded through the use of apps. Riedel's

first app for the RSP-2318 turns the Smartpanel into an innovative and smart intercom panel.

RAVENNA/AES67 and AVB connectivity are standard, with AES3 over CAT/coax optional. Additional features include exchangeable headset connectors for mono or stereo applications, an integrated power supply, individual volume controls for each key, two USB ports, two Ethernet connectors, GPIO, audio I/O, an option slot, a removable gooseneck microphone, an SD card slot, and an HDMI output.

Tango TNG-200 Fully Networked Platform Supporting RAVENNA/AES67 and AVB The Tango TNG-200 represents Riedel's first network-based platform supporting RAVENNA/AES67 and AVB standards. With its own dedicated intercom application, the platform can be turned into a flexible, cutting-edge solution for a variety of communications scenarios. The unit itself is equipped with a high-resolution, full-color TFT display that ensures perfect readability at all times.

Intuitive front-panel controls simplify the recall of presets and adjustment of audio levels. Along with powerful processing capabilities, the Tango TNG-200 features two integrated Riedel digital partylines, two RAVENNA/AES67- and AVB-compatible ports, two Ethernet ports, one option slot, and redundant

power supplies. The dedicated intercom application, "My First Riedel," turns the Tango platform into an efficient intercom system that users can tailor according to their needs.

The asymmetric 40 x 80 matrix size is another Riedel innovation, allowing for standard premium-quality stereo audio connections to panels.

STX-200 Professional Broadcast-Grade Interface The STX-200 professional broadcast-grade interface brings any Skype® user worldwide into the professional broadcast environment.

Licensed by Microsoft®, the new Riedel product meets broadcasters' increasing need for a reliable singlebox solution that enables them to bring live contributions from both reporters and viewers into live programming — all while avoiding typical problems such as consumer PCs running common Skype clients, the need to add scan and HDMI-toSDI converters, or audio dropouts and menu pop-ups on the live feed.

Serving as more than a stand-alone solution, Riedel's STX-200 integrates Skype into the intercom solution to enable even more powerful, flexible applications and workflows. The 1RU box offers broadcast-quality HD-SDI and balanced XLR audio I/Os and is packaged with professional Microsoft Skype TX software.

The solution's broad feature set includes remote management and monitoring of Skype calls.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Ross Video N3906

Virtual and Augmented Reality Production Studio - A complete virtual and augmented reality production studio shows how VS/AR can enhance productions while reducing cost. The core of this solution is based around Ross Robotics, XPression Graphics and Ross Virtual Solutions components.

Sports Stadium - Is demonstrated as a complete solution with a jaw dropping, giant 20 foot screen and ribbon board. 4K is very much part of what is being shown in this area.

Automated News Production Runs through a full OverDrive Automated Production control system. Clients are able to see the efficiency, power and simplicity that can be achieved by deploying OverDrive automation.

openTruckTM with Ross Mobile Productions - Ross Mobile Productions is showcasing the latest addition to their fleet – FIN5, a high definition production truck based on Ross’ openTruck standard. FIN5 provides the capability to efficiently produce high quality, network-level mobile productions at a much lower cost than previously possible in a compact vehicle.

News Editorial Workflow Inception News 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.

Infrastructure Products Infrastructure is a necessary foundation for all the solutions being demonstrated. openGear™ H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC Contribution Encoders are designed for organizations looking for a way to stream

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content between locations or into a CDN using Internet Protocol (IP). openGear™ High Performance 3G / HD / SD Distribution Amplifiers are offered in Single, Dual and Quad reclocking and equalizing models, with support for SMPTE 424M, SMPTE ST 292-1 and SMPTE 259 serial digital video signals at 3G, HD, and SD rates.

Production Switcher Products The Acuity switcher offers enhanced processing power features. These include: full UHD (4K) production with 8 keys/16 channels of DVE per ME, MultiFeedTM configurable program outputs with 2 preview and 6 program outputs for every ME, 36 channels of system wide Media Stores, and expanded dual head, 20 source window multi-viewers. The mid-sized Carbonite and Vision Tritium 3ME value priced production switchers, are showing new and

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

exciting features that enhance operations, particularly when combined with DashBoard system control and XPression motion graphics.

Graphics Products Latest XPression features include: Ncam integration for augmented reality and virtual sets, GV EDIUS NLE integration, and QuickTime export.

Robotics Products SmartShell 4 is a single, unified control system for both CamBot and Furio pedestals, lifts, and heads. USB-based joystick panels provide significant increases in control functionality. The Furio Pedestal features a three-wheeled manual pedestal base for Furio lifts and heads. This supports cameras that need robotic control, but primarily remain in a static location.

Automated Production Control

ved design capabilities for increased control and functionality. Scripting support for building and parsing messages brings better access to information without having to significantly modify the formats it is in.

Products - OverDrive now controls the Ross Video Carbonite mid-sized production switcher. This integrated system offers a complete APC workflow at a compelling price point.

OverDrive can be paired with Carbonite and Ross Video’s Inception NRCS to offer a complete production workflow.

Control and Monitoring Products - DashBoard offers impro-

Media Workflow Products - Inception News / Social adds instant messaging, alerts, and notifications features, as well as custom metadata support.

Inception Sports offers game day production for stadiums and sports teams.

Legislative Control System Products - Extensive user interface improvements help to optimize legislature set up and functionality. Data is stored as separate files for a more streamlined upgrade path. Cameras can be controlled with a hardwired joystick, support manual red and blue gain.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Screen Systems SU9610

NAB Demonstration Screen’s Live Web Captioning Solution Global captioning and subtitling technology specialist Screen Systems has announced that they will be offering a real-time, hands-on demonstration of their live web video subtitling solution at NAB. Last year

at NAB Screen launched their latest development of a method for served web video playback to ensure that subtitles are always displayed in the position and style intended on web and OTT content irrespective of the player used. This is all whilst allowing viewers to select from several language streams without the need

to re-encode the video or host multiple copies of media.

A challenging, yet much sought after solution to subtitling live web video however has now been developed by the company and will be demonstrated at NAB this Year. In a live web video the player cannot correctly report the current play position within the video, since this differs for each viewer depending on when they ‘switched on’.

Additionally, each viewer may choose to pause or rewind live video stream (if this feature is provided).

Screen has therefore developed a different synchronisation mechanism, while still using image based subtitles from a separate server.

In Screen’s solution, some low bandwidth timing information is added to the video stream and used to synchronise subtitles to the frames of video the viewer is watching.

The ‘script’ at the viewer’s device can obtain the current frame's time value from the video stream and use it to determine when subtitles, should be displayed from the subtitle server.

An advantage of the Screen solution is that the same general mechanism of image based subtitles held on a separate server can be used for consistent broadcast quality subtitling of both Video on Demand and live web video.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Aviwest SU6716

DMNG Studio AVIWEST will showcase a new version of its DMNG Studio server at the 2015 NAB Show that is capable of receiving incoming streams from DMNG video uplink systems, as well as third-party products such as IP cameras through a variety of protocols such as RTP, RTSP, TS over UDP, HLS, and RTMP. The new Linux®-based DMNG Studio supports multiple output formats and allows for point-to-point, and pointto-multipoint video distribution. The new DMNG Studio system enables inputting video signals from the studio mixer and streaming to the cloud, thereby allowing broadcasters to use the solution as a central video hub and interface rather than just a receiver. The DMNG Studio is compatible with all AVIWEST live video transmission solutions, including the DMNG PRO series, DMNG RACK180, and the DMNG APP.

DMNG APP — Now Available for Android™ and iOS-Based Smartphones A key highlight at the 2015 NAB Show will be AVIWEST's DMNG APP, which turns any smartphone into a live broadcast video camera.

Designed with ease of use in mind, the DMNG APP allows any Android™ or iOS-based smartphone user to transmit video content in just seconds. Using the DMNG APP video professionals can stream high-quality, live video content via WiFi and 3G/4G-LTE networks (even bonding both together for higher bandwidth, coverage, and reliability), or transmit pre-recorded video files from anywhere in the world to the DMNG Studio receiver.

Fully integrated into the DMNG ecosystem, the application can be remotely controlled through

AVIWEST's DMNG Manager, enabling organizations to effectively manage a large fleet of smartphones.

Capabilities for DMNG PRO At the 2015 NAB Show, AVIWEST will launch a specially designed backpack for the DMNG PRO video uplink system. The backpack is ideal for broadcasters utilizing the DMNG PRO with a handheld camera. This system can also be mounted on camera. DMNG PRO now comes standard with a new integration with Cobham's EXPLORER 710 BGAN terminal, an ultra-portable satellite antenna. When used during satellite transmission, the Cobham antenna provides real-time information about the satellite's available bit rate, enabling the DMNG PRO to compress video content accordingly to ensure superior video quality.

In addition to general enhancement of system performance, several new functions have been added to the DMNG PRO system. A new roaming function supporting international SIM cards has been added allowing the user to select the ope-

rator that the SIM will be connected to, gaining increased flexibility. A new, low-frame-rate feature has also been added to the DMNG PRO, which is especially beneficial for low bit rate streaming.

DMNG Manager At the 2015 NAB Show, AVIWEST will demonstrate new cloud-based capabilities for the DMNG Manager, an innovative server application that enables broadcasters and video professionals to monitor and manage an entire fleet of DMNG equipment including DMNG transmitters, smartphones using the DMNG APP, and DMNG Studio receivers.

Through a unified Web-based user interface, which can be installed through either a cloud-based application or a headend solution, operators can easily allocate resources and route live video content for transmission over 3G/4G cellular wireless, WiFi, Ethernet, and satellite networks. The DMNG Manager also includes geolocation capabilities for easy identification of the exact location of each transmission.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Bubble & Squeak SL5121a Believed to be the first and only agency with a presence on the show floor, the company will use a NewTek TriCaster to produce video interviews with industry figures for a web-based show ‘Bubble TV’, as well as offering a base for client appointments and providing a central meeting point. Bubble & Squeak will be on the expanded UKTI booth SL5121a.

Bubble & Squeak has a track record of innovation at NAB. It was the first agency to present multi-client press events to save journalists’ time, the first to put all its clients’ press releases on a single USB stick and now on Dropcards, and Bubble & Squeak staff are always easy to spot around the show in their distinctive ‘show shirts’.

At NAB 2015 Bubble & Squeak is currently representing companies including Cambridge Imaging Systems, Clear-Com, Cooke Optics, Digital Vision, General Dynamics Mediaware, NewTek (EMEA), RED Digital Cinema, Stream TV Networks and TSL Products.

Bluebell Opticom N4422

ShaxX Broadcast Camera Interface The ShaxX System from Bluebell has been designed to provide power insertion to broadcast cameras fitted with standard SMPTE 304M hybrid connectors, thus allowing them to be remotely powered over the hybrid cable. For easier on-site deployment, complete camera chains can be multiplexed onto a single duplex singlemode fibre and powered locally, permitting broadcasters to utilise the ordinary singlemode optical fibre networks found within a stadium or available dark fibres.

Utilising the popular BC Series footprint, we can also offer a complete wavelength management facility while providing all the camera and CCU communications, as well as power. In this way, up to 16 cameras can be easily deployed and connected over a single cable.

BC364 Multiformat SFP Interface The BC364 is a compact rackbased multiformat converter for use

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with a wide range of broadcast video and audio signals. The BC364 provides a base unit that comprises input and output SFP cages. With different SFP converter modules, users can adapt the functionality of the unit to suit different applications.

Signal input and output formats are defined by selecting appropriate standard SFPs that can perform optical and/or electrical format conversions. The BC364 card offers a range of options including distribution, format conversion, monitoring, and wavelength management including CWDM.

BN366 4K Fibre Link The BN366 is designed for the

cost-effective transport of 4K UHD signals over fibre. Based on fieldproven technology, the compact unit provides the transport of four 3GSDI signals over a dual fibre link.

The BN366 uses premium-grade, broadcast-quality components to maintain the highest signal integrity and ensure transparent, error-free pathological signal performance.

Units have already been successfully deployed to cover a series of major sporting events using the latest 4K Ultra-HDTV broadcast cameras. Alternatively, the BN366 provides a sturdy, compact conversion unit that allows the outputs from up to four cameras to be transmitted over fibre.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

ChyronHego SL1110

All-New 64-Bit Release of Industry-Leading Lyric Graphics Platform At the 2015 NAB Show, ChyronHego will preview Lyric64, an all-new version of the company's flagship Lyric graphics creation and playout platform that has been reengineered for the 64-bit environment. Lyric64 features a completely new and highly customizable user interface that provides seamless usability and easy access to the platform's rich and extensive feature set. In addition, Lyric64 is resolutionagnostic with full support for graphics authoring and playout in nonstandard aspect ratios, such as on video walls, and in resolutions to 4K and beyond. Lyric64 will be released for purchase in the third quarter of 2015.

Like its predecessor, Lyric64

offers a single powerful solution for graphics creation and playout including point-and-click access to external data sources using ChyronHego's Advanced Data Object technology. With this feature, Lyric64 users can enrich their on-air graphics with data from a multitude of sources, including ODBC, JSON feeds, AP wire feeds, and XML from the Internet, simply by pointing and clicking in the Advanced Data Object window. Lyric64 now provides navigation tools that enable the system to cycle through and automatically update selected data sets on a periodic basis.

In addition to the Advanced Data Object usability enhancements, the all-new user interface in Lyric64 features docking panes that enable users to define interface elements by dragging and dropping them into position. Users can create tabbed

windows and pre-build window configurations that can be instantly recalled for playing out a specific set of graphics.

"Lyric64 is the result of an extensive development effort to evolve our flagship product to keep pace with customers' ever-challenging graphics requirements," said Johan Apel, president and CEO, ChyronHego. "With Lyric64, we've taken everything that's great about Lyric and ported it to the 64-bit environment to give users more power and versatility than ever before. In addition to new user interface features that bring all of Lyric's rich functionality right to the surface and make them instantly accessible, Lyric64 positions ChyronHego and our customers perfectly for the coming world of 4K broadcasting."

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Digigram N3718

NA/AES67 audio-overIP equipment.

Cobalt Digital

New LX-MADI PCIe Sound Card

N2722 At the 2015 NAB Show, Cobalt Digital will highlight 27 advancements in processing and convergence products across three of its primary product platforms. "Cobalt Digital's development projects are based on specific technical requirements and customer applications gained from direct interaction with our staff. We pride ourselves on cost-effective innovations for both openGear and the Blue Box Group products and the resultant quality of our products." Bob McAlpine, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing

New openGear®-Compatible Cards Cobalt Digital continually works to expand its already extensive product line. That includes building upon key product families to make them increasingly cost-effective, and space- and power-efficient. One major area of focus at the 2015 NAB Show will be on products that have evolved along with the openGear® standard.

Examples of Cobalt Digital's evolutionary steps forward include:

Blue Box Group™ BBG-1000 Series Each of the new products being launched for the openGear®-compliant platform will also be available in the popular BBG-1000 series, a line of desktop stand-alone enclosures that have front-panel controls and can be rack-mounted to provide up to three systems in 1 RU. Each box in the series supports the openGear DashBoard™ control and monitoring application, as well as Web GUI control and monitoring via an integrated HTML5 Web server.

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RAVENNA/AES67-Enabled Encoder Products At the 2015 NAB Show, Digigram will showcase the addition of RAVENNA/AES67 connectivity to the company's IQOYA range of audio-over-IP codecs, which now allow users to get audio programs directly from an in-studio RAVENNA network and subsequently encode and stream them over IP to transmitter sites via a WAN in compliance with EBU ACIP. Users likewise can decode EBU ACIP streams from a WAN to their in-studio RAVENNA network.

MADI Option on LX-IP RAVENNA PCIe Sound Card With the addition of an optical MADI interface option to the company's LX-IP RAVENNA PCIe sound card, Digigram enables the industry's migration from synchronous audio (MADI) to IP audio (RAVENNA/AES67) in the studio environment. The new MADI option facilitates a seamless shift by supporting use of the LX-IP RAVENNA soundcard in a synchronous audio environment to stream up to 64/64 I/O MADI channels from/to the host PC and from/to RAVEN-

Equipped with an optical MADI interface, the card supports a 64/64 I/O channel count with low roundtrip latency down to 3 milliseconds.

Embedded 64 x 64 routing gives users direct monitoring capabilities, along with record and play functions. Because the LX-MADI card is a hardware solution, it offers high stability regardless of the computational load presented by other applications being supported by the host system.

IQOYA *CLOUD Speeds and Simplifies Management and Operation of AoIP Contribution Codecs Digigram will present the full release of the company's new IQOYA *CLOUD. The Webbased application, which can be hosted privately on any virtual machine or operated as SaaS in the cloud, enables structured management and seamless operation of all deployed audio-over-IP (AoIP) remote live contribution codecs. Accessible from anywhere through the Web browsers of Internet-connected devices such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones, the application automatically synchronizes phone books, connection profiles, and "favorite" groups of codecs to dramatically simplify deployment and day-today operation of the full codec fleet.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Egripment Support Systems C8612

205/D DIGITAL REMOTE HEAD Egripment Support Systems unveils its new 205/D Digital Remote Head for modern, smaller cine and ENG cameras at the 2015 NAB Show. Following the success of the company’s 306/D Digital and Encoded Remote Camera heads and systems, the more compact 205/D offers the same exacting precision and smoothness in a smaller and lighter design, providing users with an affordable solution for virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) production.

“With the reduction in camera sizes, it is not always necessary or desirable to use our larger digital or encoded heads,” says Richard Villhaber, Vice President and Sales Director for Egripment. “So, we now offer the 205/D in our line up to fill this growing need. Thanks to the smaller size and lighter weight of the 205, live ope-

ration, studio automation and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), has never been this economical and easy to achieve.”

The 205/D is fully compatible with all Egripment Digital Remote and VR/AR Systems. Like all Egripment remote broadcast products, the 205/D seamlessly integrates with the company’s TDT Encoded Camera Crane and Dolly, the 225 G-Track Generic Track System and the Encoded StarCam Studio System, for a very sophisticated multi-axis studio system suitable for the highest quality of VR/AR and Studio Automation. In addition to traditional mounting on tripods lightning spigots and tripods, it can be inverted and/or externally-mounted, offering users the option of a variety of unique and creative angles for current and future applications.

Companion pieces for the 205/D include the joystickcontrolled 336/DCB Digital Control Box and optional 336/TPM Touch Screen Module and Software. With storable options, menus and controls for six digital remote heads, the 336/D comes standard with pan, tilt, zoom, focus, dolly track, electric camera and limit switches. It can quickly switch between as many as six heads or easily control combined heads and allows for as many as four operators to tune and store their control preferences. An additional option of the 336/DCB is the 336/TPM, which makes it possible to program an unlimited quantity of digital remote heads and camera movements/position in a user-friendly and easy-tohandle manner from a straightforward touch screen interface. It also provides added features, such as presets for camera positions in pan, tilt, zoom and focus or repeatable camera movements.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Pronology SL12517

Quantel and Snell will be out in force at NAB 2015 on a brand new stand in the South Hall – SL2009.

Pronology announces Pronology Version 3, its latest digital media asset management (MAM) system, at NAB 2015. Pronology Version 3 features additional record and import options, significant improvements to the way metadata can be automatically attached to assets, as well as a more streamlined user experience.

Transitioning to a more flexible and agile infrastructure

“Pronology Version 3 adds an increased usability factor to the software, as we continually look at how we can address the latest real-world production workflow concerns,” says Mike Shore, co-founder of Pronology. “We are committed to expanding our footprint in order to handle an even more diverse range of workflows.”

Pronology has revamped its video player to support HTML5 for enhanced cross-browser compatibility. This allows for a better user experience as the player is smoother and more agile. It also features a quicker response in playback. “As part of our forward thinking, we are always looking at new technologies and integrating them into our toolset,” continues Shore. “HTML 5 is an emerging standard in web video, and as it sees wider adoption, we are already fully compliant.”

Pronology’s Version 3 adds new and enhanced features that streamline workflow by “templatizing” ingest activities to give more robust and reliable metadata to all inbound assets. Now, all media can automatically “inherit” metadata based on user-defined rules, making organization, search and retrieval significantly more efficient for both small and large productions. Metadata can now be

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Quantel and Snell SL2009

easily assigned to groups of content with a single action.

Pronology placed a large emphasis on user interaction with Version 3 in the form of more granular user rights as well as the ability to set up a “Share Group” for a folder of content or a specific clip. In addition, it has expanded on its interoperability with various third party systems including a range of transcode engines and approval systems.

Version 3 manages recordings and file imports from the beginning of a production, allowing a creative team to map out critical metadata information about each incoming asset, before the recording process has begun.

This metadata follows each clip to the end of the production to a long term archive, yielding a level of organization and retrieval not possible in the past, especially with a tape-based system.

At NAB Quantel & Snell will demonstrate a complete IP system including routing, production switching, processing and playout. They will also be showing how to transition from today’s SDI world into this IP future with modules for Sirius 800 routers and Kahuna switchers and a hybrid SDI/IP control system that enables current products to work across both worlds – eliminating the cost and disruption of a complete lift out. There will also be a raft of new developments across routers, switchers, channel in a box and news production that ensure customers can get the best out of their existing infrastructure while they transition to the IP future.

“NAB 2015 is the first opportunity for Quantel and Snell to demonstrate the breadth and depth of our complete product range,” said Martin Mulligan, Sales Director.

“The raft of new products and developments on show will simplify, streamline and even transform workflows - enabling our industry to transition to its IP future.”

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Quantum SL8416

StorNext 5 Workflow Storage Platform During the 2015 NAB Show, Quantum will showcase the StorNext® high-performance shared storage architecture that includes online storage, extended online storage and tape and cloud archives. The company also will highlight StorNext Connect, a new management and monitoring console developed for the StorNext platform with an elegant new user interface that provides an at-a-glance dashboard of the entire StorNext environment.

StorNext Pro™ Foundation Quantum has extended its line of StorNext Pro™ Solutions with StorNext Pro Foundation, a complete, low-cost, integrated shared storage solution designed specifically for new users or new deployments in the post, broadcast, corporate and government video sectors. StorNext Pro Foundation gives small to mid-sized production workgroups a powerful and attractively priced solution for managing assets from ingest to delivery to archive at any scale. The underlying StorNext 5 platform ensures that the solution can adapt as workflows evolve so that users can ingest more content from multiple camera sources, create more content and deliver it on time while preserving owned content for future monetization.

NEW Q-Cloud™ Archive Solution Quantum Q-Cloud™ Archive seamlessly extends StorNext® end-to-end workflow capabilities to the cloud, allowing StorNext environments to fully leverage cloud storage with no additional hardware, separate applications or programming, while maintaining full compatibility with existing software applications. Q-Cloud Archive adds flexible, safe and secure off-site cloud archiving of valuable content to StorNext workflows. Users buy only the capacity they need and only as they need it, keeping assets archived long-term for re-monetization or simply as an off-site asset pool.

Extended Online With Lattus™ Object Storage Modern, high-resolution workflows come with increased complexity — a greater number of ingest points, more delivery formats, many transcode steps and a significant dependency on quality control steps. Just handling the volume of content and large file sizes can lead to slowdowns, inconsistent operation and potentially risky asset loss situations. Quantum extended online offers an answer to these challenges by seamlessly

extending storage and workflow operations onto a lowlatency, massively scalable Lattus™ object storage system. Extended online storage creates a parallel workflow for non real-time operations — such as ingest, transcode, rendering and delivery — by using IP connections to separate their network traffic from that of streaming real-time operations such as editing, colour correction and audio sweetening.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

RCS SL2417 (Vizrt)

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2015 in Las Vegas, NV, Reality Check Systems (RCS) will spotlight the newest iteration of LaunchPad™, its production-proven interactive touchscreen solution that simplifies advanced soccer analysis for live broadcasts. The release will be on display at NAB in Vizrt Booth SL2417.

“Since announcing LaunchPad at the end 2014, we’ve seen great enthusiasm for the product, and we’re

excited to showcase it for the first time publicly this year at NAB,” said Jeff Heimbold, VP of Business Development, RCS. “With feedback from LaunchPad customers, our team has been working on several

new features that make LaunchPad even easier to use, while also helping networks and leagues take their soccer coverage to the next level, and bring fans a viewing experience unlike any other.”

Rohde & Schwarz DVS SL1105

vides TV studios with a feasible transition option until content is broadcast entirely in 4K.

Rohde & Schwarz DVS will be demonstrating how TV studios can efficiently realize production workflows in 4K, from ingest to studio playout, with the help of the ingest and production server R&S VENICE 4K. With the launch of the new R&S VENICE 4K server, which gets its preview at NAB 2015, Rohde & Schwarz DVS is meeting the increasing demand for production of 4K

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content. Ingest and production server enables TV studios to set up filebased studio production workflows in 4K which resemble HD workflows in their simplicity. R&S VENICE 4K allows direct recording in 4K without any time-consuming stitching processes. The material is synchronously converted to HD-SDI and saved as a file. This parallel generation of both HD and 4K content pro-

With its ingest and production server, Rohde & Schwarz DVS is laying a solid foundation for successful 4K production and helping broadcasters meet today’s challenges. On the one hand they want to meet their customers’ demands for 4K content while at the same time producing content fast and economically – without having to settle on any specific workflow requirements. Here, the multi-format capability of R&S VENICE 4K comes into its own: It offers production freedom as workflows can easily and flexibly be adjusted to meet changing needs. Since external storage solutions can be addressed directly without any gateway hardware, R&S VENICE 4K creates the perfect opportunity for workflows to be as fast as in HD production.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Shotoku Broadcast Systems C7033

Shotoku Broadcast Systems is marking its 70th Anniversary at this year’s 2015 NAB Show with a celebration in its Booth C7033. Along

SGL SL5306 SGL is announcing its integration with Avid® Interplay® Web Services at NAB 2015. This latest integration between the two companies includes partial file restore, a unique feature of the Avid® Interplay® Web Services solution developed by SGL. Avid and SGL have a strong alliance that has provided customers around the world with a fully integrated MAM/PAM and archive solution.

with showcasing its full range of control solutions, pan & tilt heads, robotic and manual pedestals, and virtual reality products for OB, studio, field production and legislative applications, the company is also officially launching its new TP500 compact and lightweight pneumatic pedestal as well as showcasing its well-received SmartTrack ‘smart’ rail camera system that addresses the demands of daily TV studio use.

“We are delighted with the opportunity to celebrate a milestone anniversary at NAB this year as we mark 70 years providing the industry with advanced technology and solid,

high-performing products,” said Tony Hanada, Shotoku managing director. “NAB also allows us vital time to learn more about the needs of our US and global customers, while sharing our latest solutions such as our new pneumatic pedestal and rail system. As always, we look forward to showcasing our fullrange of remote camera systems for TV live news, sports and current affairs as well as government and legislative applications at this year’s show alongside our series of manual support gear used by production professionals around the globe.”

Whilst the fully implemented Avid Interplay | Archive provides a seamless user experience, smaller work groups may require a paired down version. SGL’s support for Avid® Interplay® Web Services means that customers can use the archive capabilities that they currently require, but can employ Avid Interplay | Archive at any time in the future without the need to re-archive any content.

SGL is the only archive provider to enable partial file restore functionality as part of Avid® Interplay® Web Services. This feature enables operators to easily select and restore elements of a clip directly from the archive in high resolution. Prior to this, partial file restore functionality could only be achieved using the full Avid Interplay | Archive system.

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NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Vitec SL6305

MGW Ace — The First Portable HEVC Encoder At the 2015 NAB Show, VITEC will introduce MGW Ace, the industry's first 100-percent hardware-based HEVC portable device for encoding and streaming video. The MGW Ace features HEVC/H.265 bandwidth-efficient compression as well as legacy H.264 capabilities. Its wide selection of I/Os and low power consumption using VITEC's HEVC compression chip make it a perfect solution for streaming video, audio, and KLV metadata while in the field or on the move.

EZ TV IPTV System Also at the 2015 NAB Show will be VITEC's award-winning EZ TV IPTV system. Now equipped with a new add-on for IPTV and Broadcast Monitoring, EZ TV offers real-time video analysis and statistical tools to monitor, log, and generate performance reports for all IPTV streams. The new EZ TV add-on complements any IPTV deployment with quality and compliance dashboards as well as alerts — ensuring video, audio, and metadata services are delivered reliably to users.

MGW Sprint and MGW Portable Encoders New and improved, the MGW Sprint is a fast MPEG-4 H.264 HD codec. With the ability to encode and decode in under 10 milliseconds, this professional-grade IPTV device can stream full-HD 1080p60 video and audio, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint, with less than one video frame of delay, practically matching the latency of hardwired uncompressed video systems. Also on display will be VITEC's full line of MGW portable encoders, including Premium, Nano, Nano TOUGH, and Pico, all of which now support Zixi error-correction technology.

Proxsys PX-Series Media Asset Management System and Archiving Solution Proxsys PX-Series media asset management system enables organizations to edit, archive, and share valuable media assets efficiently and securely, both within an organization and with credentialed third parties. Within a

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smooth, user-friendly workflow, Proxsys PX-Series provides the functionality and features required to safeguard high- and low-resolution video as well as audio, graphic, and data files.

NABSHOW 2015 PREVIEW

Volicon SU7916

"The 2015 NAB Show gives us the opportunity to showcase significant functional enhancements that make the Media Intelligence Platform an even more powerful tool for a variety of use cases across the broadcast operation. We look forward to demonstrating the substantial efficiencies and cost savings enabled by the combination of the platform's unique content-recording capabilities with the specific functionality delivered by our ever-expanding portfolio of applications." Russell Wise, Vice President of Global Sales at Volicon

NEW Archiver for the Media Intelligence Platform速 Addressing broadcasters need for convenient, cost-effective long-term storage of aired content, Volicon has introduced a new Archiver option for the company's Observer Media Intelligence Platform速. Providing multiple simultaneous users with random access to an indexed store of full-resolution, high-bitrate (long-GOP H.264, 9-15 Mbps) content, as well as lowresolution proxies, this option makes programming, promos, and advertisements readily available for use cases ranging from ad verification to repurposing.

When years of online storage are required, the Archiver option offers a scalable, high-performance, low-cost alternative to the expensive systems typically implemented for long-term archives. Because it features both baseband (SDI) and transport stream (TS) interfaces and is compatible with any application, the module can be deployed easily in virtually any broadcast environment.

Enhanced Multiviewer for Added Monitoring Convenience Volicon's enhanced Multiviewer option for the Media Intelligence Platform速 unites the Observer速 platform's recording capability with multiviewer functionality to give users access to multiple live or recorded programs (audio and video), complemented by frame-accurate data, on a monitor wall or other display. In addition to enabling users to keep their eyes and ears on every channel, the option makes it easy to identify and look past audio and video impairments to examine the integrity of metadata.

OTT Volicon's OTT offering provides networks, video service providers, and broadcasters with a solution for logging (recording) and monitoring the over-the-top (OTT) A/V services that stream content to computers, tablets, and smartphones. With the same suite of tools already proven for set-top box (STB) and transport stream (TS) monitoring, the solution offers a complete, cost-effective quality monitoring and/or compliance logging solution for multiplatform media delivery. Users can ensure that video-on-demand (VOD) and linear services are available 24/7 at optimal quality, validate service level agreements (SLAs) with content delivery networks (CDNs) using pixel-level verification of cloud delivery and playback, confirm the presence of captioning, and determine that specialized apps are providing optimal quality of experience. In addition to providing a true recording of services, the system facilitates remote streaming and review, as well as in-depth analysis of both unencrypted and encrypted content.

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standards evolve. One of the current trends within the sector is to move away from this dependence on proprietary hardware towards a more open, flexible and costeffective approach.

John Halksworth, Senior Product Manager, Adder Technology

The broadcast industry can be characterised by one word: Flux. It has been in a constant state of change and evolution from the first television broadcast in the US in 1928. It has been witness to major overhauls and minor changes; ground breaking new technologies – like UHD/4K – and short-lived fads such as 3D television. While traditional broadcasters in the terrestrial, satellite and cable space battle for competitiveness against new entrants to the market, most notably internet television providers, the landscape continues to advance.

As a result, broadcasters are being tasked with meeting customer needs and being more productive, while simultaneously cutting costs. Essentially they are required to do more with less and it is here that technology can assist.

The majority of traditional broadcasters have based their infrastructure on proprietary technology, which often needs to be changed and updated as

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Internet protocol (IP) is the technology that is enabling this transition. The use of IP brings tremendous benefits to the broadcast workflow, from capture and gallery control, through to post production. It has the potential to make operations more flexible, more scalable, more cost-effective and far better able to adapt to change.

The use of IP-based KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) is a case in point. It has been used in the broadcast setting over the last few years with excellent results and is paving the way for the further adoption of IP as a standard transport method around the workflow.

IP-BASED KVM

IN THE

CONTROL ROOM The use of standard IP networks and KVM ensures that video content and data can be managed from almost anywhere in the world.

It can be accessed from a different room, a different building or even a different city. IP-based KVM, particularly high performance KVM, allows this information to be reliably and securely shared across machines and operators in real time, over an IP network.

In the gallery control room, there is the requirement for operators to sit at a single work station and manage multiple workflows without moving computers or desk. What KVM allows them to do, is remove the computers and machines from the room and relocate them to a secure, temperature-controlled

server room environment. Not only does this free up desk space in an already pressurised and compact environment, it also removes the excess heat and noise generated by the machines, making it a more user-friendly and ergonomic place.

The use of IP-based KVM also ensures that one keyboard and mouse is not required per machine.

Instead, operators can make use of the same mouse and keyboard to control multiple computers. This is accomplished through extension technology whereby video and USB signals can be fed back to the desk and multiple machines can be controlled by one person via one keyboard and mouse, or by several people in multiple locations.

This technology also allows operators to be more efficient and productive because they are able to switch between the computers and multi-task. It is particularly effective where staffing requirements vary according to time or workflow, maximising efficiency of the available resource. The benefits that it brings to staff include the ability for two users to view the same computer from different screens, and while only one user can have control, the other user can follow what is going on in realtime. This makes it ideal for shift change overs, ensuring a seamless handover, or for supervising employees within the studio.

The use of network-based extension technology also makes the sharing of HD video to a shared video wall or to other operators within the control room much easier. IP-based KVM solutions use the existing IP network infrastructure to remove the limitations of traditional AV equipment. The distances between rooms and buildings are therefore not prohibitive in delivering high quality data, as IP-based high

performance KVM ensures that the content is pixel perfect.

UNPACKING

THE

BENEFITS OF

KVM

IP-BASED

The advantages of using IP within the broadcast setting, and especially gallery control, include reliability, scalability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Consider that the gallery control room’s infrastructure is already built on IP, with a network already present. As a result, the main investment in technology has already been made so adding more products will not require further significant and costly changes to the technology environment.

In addition, with the use of IP, no great expenditure or expertise is needed to add more end points.

This is especially true for IP-based KVM where scaling up entails the simple addition of end points, negating the issue of not having enough ports. Any number of machines can therefore be added and there is no restriction on the distance that can be placed between machines and users.

There is no need for specialist IT knowledge when adding these endpoints to an IP-based system as it is easy to set up and can be maintained by the IT department, unlike proprietary devices.

In addition, the opportunity for greater fail-over and redundancy options increase with IP-based KVM technology. If all machines are linked via a high performance KVM system and one piece of equipment fails, an operator can simply move to another workstation (or studio, if need be), type in a command and access the same

computing resources, immediately recovering what he or she was working on. If required, all users within a studio can migrate to the next studio with no downtime or loss of productivity.

CONCLUSION Most businesses are operating in a climate that demands greater cost-efficiency and improved productivity, but nowhere is this more apparent than in the increasingly competitive broadcast sector. Adopting IP throughout the entire workflow would bring increased cost savings and productivity to operations, improved flexibility in operations and future scalability, better use of resources, and enhanced reliability. With IPbased KVM leading the way, the wider adoption of this transport method is continuing apace.

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TEST AREA

Test bench made by Pablo MartĂ­nez In this issue of TM BROADCAST, we analyze one of the products that is currently revolutionizing the market of video/audio transmission with live broadcast-quality.

We are experiencing a period of important transmission changes; market has made major strides since our first test benches with transmission systems based on mobile networks. We have reached a crossroads when it comes to opting for a real and effective live broadcast transmission system. The necessary miniaturization of components results in an effective size reduction of the technical equipment needed to work, moving from the use of KU band TTE configuration vehicles to cover news towards slowly choosing mobile network transmission technologies, and even simpler Ka band TTE format configuration. We can now say that the use of these systems in the media to cover quickly and easily any news or event is becoming a tangible reality. In this light, especially regarding the equipment we are analyzing in this issue, it is a reality due to size, robustness and quality transmission. It is the first equipment that I have the chance to analyze for TMBroadcast which unites portability and easinessof-use to the highest extent. We will later explain the reason for this statement, but it actually is a "black box" with a huge potential which, in my view, will gradually oust traditional systems as we know them today when covering live broadcast events.

In this case, I have analyzed the DMG PRO 180-RA

equipment, designed by AVIWEST, a French company incorporated in 2008, which showcased its first 3G transmission device at the 2009 NAB Show. From then, they have succeeded in adapting to market demands and have achieved with this model a technical reference within the broadcasting market, providing it with several elements for which it is a step ahead of other devices with similar characteristics. This constant research and development gives added confidence to their products, well-suited to the emerging equipments' market, by updating them on a regular basis and including visible improvements.

KNOWING MORE ABOUT DMG PRO 180-RA This device weighs just over 1Kg (excluding the battery) and it is quite compact when comparing it to the rest of equipments currently on the market. This could a priori lead to problems due to the position of the electronic components inside the box, but not at all. Thanks to the robustness and the perfect programming of every element inside the box, heat saturation is avoided, which is one of the most common problems that we face when working with this type of compact devices, and it is equipped with a heat sink on the front.

Once we start to play around with the device, the handling of connections is very much appreciated,

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TEST AREA

firstly due to its size compared with a canon standard surface, and secondly due to its standard, as it is available anywhere, when manufacturing/assembling a canon adapter to BNC. However, being more practical, I would have chosen a mini-jack connector with threaded anchor (commonly used in several audio systems), or failing this, a mini XLR, as they would occupy the same surface area on whether we are working with direct camera-mounting or with an external format, on a backpack (these are the two possibilities offered by default). On one of the sides we find access to setup menu (local) which can be configured via touch screen. The touch screen is quite compact but, thanks to simplicity and development of setup menus, its size is more than enough. In this same screen, we will be able to configure transmission settings and display the input signal. We must underline that, although it may seem trivial, the option to adapt (rotate) the information on screen according to the position of the equipment (vertical or horizontal) is actually very useful. On that same side we find the power button, activity and transmission status LED, two mini jack stereo (In/Out) which allow IFB communication with the receiver, a SD card slot, in order to video/record a video or audio file for its subsequent broadcast or just to use the device as a play-out, independently from the camera.

Finally, we find the big difference between this model DMG PRO 180-RA and the previous model DMG PRO 180: the MCX external antenna connectors in two blocks of 4 connectors. On the other side we find dual Ethernet Gigabit connectors, SDI (HD/SD-SDI), composite video and HDMI video inputs, and analog audio input related to composite video on two BNC connectors. I personally understand the choice of this type of connection,

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Main specifications

Main functions

Live & Auto-record Forward Progressive Store & Forward

Other functions

IFB Return Channel Tally Light Geolocation

Video Inputs

HD/SD-SDI embedded audio (BNC) Composite video (BNC) Analog Audio L&R (BNC) HDMI (1.3) 8 x 3G/4G built-in modems 8 x 3G/4G High gain Custom Antennas 8 x MCX antenna connectors for QUAD Dual Gigabit Ethernet – LAN, WAN

Network Interfaces

– BGAN, Thuraya, KA band Satellite Built-in Wi-Fi modem – Client & Hot Spot modes – Patented high-efficiency antenna 2 USB 2.0 ports for external 3G/4G/Wi-Fi modems

Other interfaces

ASI-TS out (BNC) 2 x USB 2.0 ports (Forward, external USB modems, etc.)

SD Card slot (Store & Forward) Stereo mini jack (3.5 mm) in & out for IFB Mini jack (3.5 mm) for Tally Light Expansion port (RS232, RS485)

Networking protocols

RTP Unicast streaming RTP Multicast streaming (IGMP) MPEG-2 Transport Stream over UDP/IP RTMP, RTSP, HLS (DMNG Studio)

TEST AREA

the system but would clearly distinguish audio from video. On this same side we find the ASI-TS (BNC) output, for the connection, a mini-jack connector that may provide us with a remote Tally signal, two USB 2.0 ports that can be used as a complement to the internal modems by plugging two additional modems (thus, we would have up to 10 modems to perform transmission) or file transfer from a USB. We also have an external power supply via XLR (4 pins) and 8 SIM card slots.

Main specifications

Video compression

H.264/AVC Main/High Profile level 4 1080i/720p/576i/480i @ 50/59.94/25/29.97 fps Bit rates: 100Kbps to 15Mbps CBR / VBR / Capped VBR Dynamic resolution Simultaneous Live & Store at different bitrates

Audio compression

IAAC-LC/HE-AACv2; 32 to 256Kbps MPEG-1 Layer II; 32 to 384Kbps Dual Mono / Stereo

Advanced features

Dual encoding (Live & Auto-record) HD & SD downscaling Forward Error Correction (FEC) AES Encryption (128-bit or 256-bit)

Operational modes

Glass-to-glass latency: down to 1s Preset profiles & manual modes

Monitoring & Configuration

Rotating Touchscreen On screen video preview Remote Control & Configuration from: – Web GUI (any devices) – Receiver (DMNG Studio) – Managt System (DMNG Manager) – DMNG Remote App (iOS/Android)

Power Supply

12-24V input XLR 4 pins – Hot swap Average power consumption: 30W Max power consumption: 45W V-Mount, Gold Mount,PAGLOK plate

Dimensions, weight

Dimensions: 245x128x55 mm Weight (Kg/Lb): 1.16 / 2.55

Configuration and menus Navigation through the menu via the integrated touch screen of DMG PRO 180-RA is intuitive and easyto-understand, even when the user has no practice. Our user experience has been excellent, and navigation response times are very fluid.

On the main start-up screen we find different information icons on connection and status, which give direct access to the configuration menu, status menu and modem status menu, as well as three quick access buttons to “LIVE” (screen to begin with transmission), “STORE” (screen to record on a SD card) and “FORWARD” (screen to select recorded files over different removable media, for their transmission).

Regarding access to menus, it may be noted that, especially when we work with camera-mounted or backpack system, it is possible to get direct access from a Smartphone, by creating an access point in the backpack's WiFi modem (we can also set up a WiFi access point in our Smartphone and share data) or through a downloadable app (it is currently available for Android and coming soon to other existing platforms). By means of this shared WiFi access between the “Smartphone” and the DMG PRO 180-RA, we are able to control the menu settings with no need to physically view the device's screen.

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TEST AREA

but when we have XLR connected to any of the camera inputs (in my case an external wireless receiver), the connector rubs against the lower part of the DMG PRO 180RA, and it has to be slightly forced to guarantee a safe anchorage to the camera transmitter. This can be solved by using an elbow XLR, but as they are quite uncommon, it's important for it to be noted.

Furthermore, in critical coverage connections or overcrowding where telephony nodes may saturate, we have the option of connecting up to two external antennas (QUAD), 4 antenna connections through side slots via MCX connectors. These external antennas have a magnetic base and centered slot on the bottom to screw it into a support.

Receiver

As to hardware and software development, it uses MPEG4 (H.264) encoding on a dedicated chipset, avoiding emulation encoding via software, providing lower work processing and achieving minimum transmission standards of 100Mb/s in low quality (QVGA) but with no packet loss, which is something to be thankful for, especially when we work with “Dynamic encoding� mode, which analyzes in real time the status of the transmission system to adapt balancing and latency (within the range defined), slitting packets to best possible quality. If we want to avoid possible low qualities, we can also configure transmission within the needed fix quality settings, though I personally believe in specific circumstances it's best to have occasional lower quality and to avoid transmission signal dropouts due to saturation of mobile networks when using 3G/4G transmission systems.

Within network configuration of each modem we are able to select

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an automatic balanced setting on 3G/4G coverage (only for the UE version) or carry out an independent manual adjustment of the technology to be used, 3G or 4G (depending on the type of SIM purchased, companies offer one specific connection or the other).

Use cases The default setting allows camera-mounting using the different available battery plates (V-Mount, Gold Mount, PAGLOK plate) or using the backpack solution, by fixing it to the inside with one of the defined plates at the time of its purchase. When mounted on camera, in the outside tests carried out with one of the camera models used for this test bench, the only snag that I found was that it is important to take into account that the lower part of the system is likely to have the same height as the back side connectors of the camera. This is not a problem with camera video output due to the size of the BNC,

Along with the DMG PRO 180RA, I was provided with a DMNG Studio (1UR, 1 Out SDI) receiver, which connects to a LAN, is assigned a public IP address, and opens different ports to enable correct point-to-point communication between the DMG PRO 180-RA (configured to be associated with the public IP address of our facilities) and DMNG Studio. It is relatively easy to set up so that it can operate as receiver of associated devices; handling and management of graphic layout is intuitive and user friendly, settings of both receiver and issuer can be configured via a remote connection and it is possible to carry out at the same time a down-convertion over the final output signal, according to our needs.

Here, it should be pointed out that AVIWEST does not impose its own receiver (although I believe it to be interesting, specially due to its technical support), but gives us the possibility to locally mount with own resources a receiver/computer (with the minimum specifications given by the manufacturer + a SDI video output card) and set it up for reception of AVIWEST transmission

TEST AREA

systems, this may be done by purchasing a license with a dongle (USB) depending on the number of outputs needed (the manufacturer does not provide support for this equipment). We could thus mount a cloned one if we were to use different transmission systems from several manufacturers (provided that the other systems used offer this same possibility).

Tests on the field In order to develop this test, one of the parts that I believe to be the most important one, is carrying out field-testing in real environments.

After all described before, starting from scratch, implementation and configuration of the different elements that make up the system was very easy (in fact, probably the toughest job is having a public IP address, and the device is not even responsible for that). Once we had carried out the communications test in our facilities (we placed 8 SIM of two different phone operators), it was time to take it out on the street.

Partly thanks to these test benches and to my daily work with these systems, my workmates and I have developed a coverage map of our geographical area, and we have full knowledge of the dead zones and the different services offered by mobile telephone operators as to 3G and 4G data. Having said that, the first test was carried out in motion, on a vehicle and as follows: 1 DMG PRO 180-RA (supplied by the cigarette lighter socket of the vehicle with a 12-24v / 120W transformer and dynamic quality settings) + QUAD (external antenna) + broadcast camera with HD-SDI output.

The reason for setting the DMG PRO 180-RA with power supply from the cigarette lighter socket was to evaluate whether the electrical parasites affected it, as it sometimes happens with some devices when using this power supply. In his case, there were no problems,

both starting up and transmission were free of electrical interferences in the zones that we defined for the test. As usual, we refer to areas with average coverage with little telephone cells and dead zones. In such areas route and initial transmission was never under 25oo Kb/s; in sensitive areas transmission dropped to 1800 Kb/s and at the start of the small dead zone, where hardly mobile networks reach, it was of 100 Kb/s (QVGA).

This dead zone lasts for two minutes in motion, after which it raised to 1600 Kb/s. Perfect numbers taking into account the margins we are used to working with. At the end of the route, we carried out the same one in the reverse direction but this time we removed the external antenna (QUAD), and surprisingly the numbers from this test were just 200 Kb/s lower in the coverage zones and, obviously, of no coverage in the dead zone.

The other tests, including a live broadcast for the news service from various locations in the central area and in limited coverage areas were perfect, preserving in most of them maximum quality, except in a couple of them were quality was SD, mainly due to low availability of telephony nodes and large influx of people.

as it would be placed above the users' reception line. Secondly, to avoid potential problems, during SIM configuration of each modem, it would be interesting to have the possibility of inserting the pin code associated to each SIM card, as most operators provide each of them with a code and if we do not have a free terminal we will be unable to delete it and use it with this system. It doesn't seem to matter but in some specific cases it can be very useful, especially when using the backpack in a different country to where it is normally used.

CONCLUSION This is a device with huge potential, technologically advanced, robust and ultra-compact, that I am sure you will enjoy. It's a great competitor that should be kept in mind within the market. I recommend that you take a look at their web page and take full advantage of the potential it offers.

I want to thank David Jaquen from AVIWEST and David Cervera from NRD for lending us the system and for the technical support provided by them, as well as my workmates for their help and IB3 for lending us their facilities in order to carry out this test bench.

WHAT WE MISS Result was very satisfactory in terms of versatility, performance and reliability of the system, nothing is missing, fulfilling its function perfectly. If could be greatly improved by introducing slots for external antennas, but such development would have to be accompanied by an encapsulation, with the possibility of having the eight antennas on it and making it more portable, that is, some kind of attachment to enable working on DMG PRO 180-RA (with a support or something similar). This approach would allow gaining several db in crowded areas,

TMBi - 87