Content+Technology ANZ February-March 2019

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Cover Story – Inside Deluxe Media Cloud, page 43.

REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 04 NEWS Kordia Media Hub Launches in NZ,

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GatesAir Excites DVB-T2 Field Trials, New Cable Between Oz and SE Asia, Silver Trak Launches Cinema Distribution Platform, Network 10 Picks Lotame as Data Partner, APAC Update, People Moves.

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46 INDUSTRY FOCUS 48

DATES AND RATES FOR 2019

FEATURES 11 STANDARDS The MPEG Ecosystem by

28 POST-PRODUCTION Animal Logic Goes

Live with Lego Animation, HPA IMF UG Looks Beyond Time Code, Lightworks 14.5, HDRmaster 8K Toolset, Boris FX Sapphire 2019, and more.

Leonardo Chiariglione, MPEG Chairman.

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MEDIA BUSINESS A Bruising Brexit for

British Broadcasting?

ACQUISITION It’s Stage Mums for

Blackmagic and Bad Mums for Sony, Camera Hire Chooses FUJINON; plus new cameras, lenses and accessories from Sony, Panasonic, Fujinon, Blackmagic, Atomos and more.

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35 AUDIO Gearhouse Picks Clear-com for Supercars, QBIT Names PAT Reseller for ANZ; New technology from Comrex, PreSonus, DirectOut, Tascam, Studio Technologies, Sennheiser, Neumann, and more.

18 SPORTSCASTING Sky Racing Bets on

LAWO, Fox Sports Selects G&D KVM, New Era for Australian Open Tennis Coverage, PA People Give Sydney FC ‘Carte Blanche’ for Audio.

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CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY: ISSN 1448-9554 PP:255003/06831 Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd (ABN 34 095 653 277) PO Box 259, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300 Australia www.broadcastpapers.com PUBLISHER: Phil Sandberg Tel +61 (0)2 4368 4569 Mob +61 (0)414 671 811 papers@broadcastpapers.com

40 RADIO EU Mandates Digital Radio in

Cars, Blackley Chair of Commercial Radio Australia, RØDE Microphones Powers Podcasters.

NEWS OPERATIONS Sarah Ferguson

Appointed ABC China Bureau Chief, Ooyala Teams with DPP on Metadata in News, MetraWeather - Graphics for All Seasons, Asiaworks Adopts Sachtler Flowtech100 for ENG.

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD New Media

Management Solutions.

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EDITOR’S WELCOME

Voice Shouts Down 5G – for Now

By Phil Sandberg 5G IS ON THE MOVE. Right throughout the APAC region, telco providers are either planning or rolling out services while governments and regulators look to phase out older technologies and free up spectrum.

• Despite the early hype, adoption rates of VR headsets in developed markets have remained flat year-on-year at around 6 per cent of households and have even dropped in some key markets such as the UK. AR applications in fashion, gaming and various enterprise sectors are more advanced at this stage

• Alongside the smartphone, the range of connected devices (and therefore internet access channels) is now greater than ever. The average US and UK household, for example, now owns six connected devices - from TVs to consoles to emerging categories such as smart speakers

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• Smart speaker ownership rates have nearly doubled in developed countries over the last 12 months. For example, 16 per cent of US households now own a smart speaker, compared to 9 per cent a year earlier. Amazon and Google continue to dominate this sector, together accounting for 85 per cent of sales units worldwide

The DPP has been compiling annual reports on the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) since 2010. This year’s report highlights the arrival of voice-led content voice search as the most significant development at CES 2019.

According to DPP Managing Director and author of the report, Mark Harrison, “Google assistant integration into smart displays was widespread at CES 2019.

In short, most smart TVs now work with some combination of Apple, Amazon or Google voice search, as well other proprietary voice solutions. This contextual voice-led content search takes consumers one step nearer publisher-agnostic content platforms of the kind we have seen in news and music.”

Another significant trend highlighted by the DPP was the emergence of out of home environments as technology rich spaces suited to ubiquitous media.

"There are a range of public spaces - from airports to shopping malls, leisure resorts to sports stadiums - that are really well suited to the introduction of the internet of things (IoT), AI, robotics and automation. And they will all need a supply of media,” says Harrison. “This is going to prove a very active market for technology and media companies over the next few years.”

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• The smartphone is now a nearly ubiquitous consumer technology; almost 90 per cent of consumers in developed countries own a smartphone, with an average of 2.5 smartphones in every US household

Meanwhile, according to UK-based Digital Production Partnership Ltd (DPP), the most significant technology coming out of CES for media companies was ‘Voice’.

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GSMA Intelligence released two new reports at CES 2019. ‘The Future of Devices’ focuses on the global adoption and changing uses of smartphones into the 5G era, plus the growing popularity of smart speakers and other emerging consumer device categories, while ‘5G’s Great Expectations’ examines what consumers are anticipating from the first wave of 5G network and device launches.

• Only one in four consumers (25 per cent) expect 5G to deliver ‘innovative new services’, and only 20 per cent believe 5G will usher in a new era of devices

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According to Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, the research and consulting arm of mobile operators’ association, the GSMA, “We are at the start of a new era of consumer devices that is being driven by advances in immersive reality and AI, creating a strong consumer appetite for products such as smart speakers and an important new battleground for the major tech players. And, while smartphones remain the dominant consumer technology, device vendors and operators are looking to 5G to unlock a new chapter in the smartphone growth story - even though our research suggests there is still work to do to convince consumers of the benefits of the move to 5G.”

• More than half of consumers in developed countries (54 per cent) expect 5G networks to deliver faster speeds, suggesting that early 5G promotional activity will focus on network speed as a key differentiator (versus 4G) - but it is not clear if consumers will pay a premium for faster speeds

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The technology and its applications were certainly front and centre at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas. But, just as with 4K and 8K broadcast services, consumer anticipation for 5G isn’t quite at the level witnessed with previous iterations of technology.

The future, it seems, is full of bandwidth and the barking of orders. Perhaps, it’s closer than we think.

Thanks for reading Phil Sandberg – Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com +61(0)414671811

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NEWS + PEOPLE ‘Kordia Media Hub’ Launches in New Zealand

By Phil Sandberg

Broadcast and connectivity provider Kordia has begun broadcasting from its new ‘Kordia Media Hub’ facility, located at the Avalon Television Studios in Wellington, New Zealand.

THE BROADCAST WAS FOR long-standing Kordia client, Parliament TV, with the day’s proceedings being beamed from the House of Representatives to the company’s new state-of-the-art production facility located over 20km away and broadcast to New Zealanders via Freeview channel 31.

Not only will the ‘Kordia Media Hub’ service Parliament TV, it is part of a wider Kordia initiative to provide services further up the value chain for both new and existing customers. The new facility was designed and built in conjunction with partners Gencom New Zealand and Ross Video.

According to Kordia’s Head of Media, Dean Brain, “We’ve been able to use a reliable customer we’ve had for quite a few years, which is the Parliament TV, to help us launch our media products where we can do playout, presentation and content aggregation, and storage and archive.”

Impetus for the new facility came with the recent upgrading of Parliament TV from SD to HD. This saw Kordia take responsibility for ownership of equipment and allowed the Office of the Clerk of Parliament to move to an OPEX model for its broadcast needs.

Sittings of the New Zealand Parliament are captured from the old Parliament Buildings, adjacent to the iconic ‘Beehive’, using a mix Kordia Head of Media, Dean Brain. of Sony cameras equipped with Fujinon lenses mounted on robotic pedestals under the control of Ross Video’s LCS Legislative Control System. From there, it is carried by redundant fibre optic cable to Avalon Television Studios and the Kordia Mediahub at Avalon. Once there, signals go through a Ross Carbonite mixer and Legislative Control System and software located there. Final programming is then sent to NZ Freeview head-ends, both DTH and DTT, for transmission on Freeview New Zealand channel 31.

“Our remit from our contract with the Office of the Clerk in New Zealand is to broadcast the proceedings of Parliament in New Zealand. That runs 30 weeks a year, three days a week, so with our new facility, we have plenty of capacity outside of that time to do live production - a bit like the NEP Andrews Hub in Australia. I guess we’ve sort of designed a smaller version of the same sort of thing here in New Zealand to be able to take feeds from sporting events and from other events around the country on the network.

“We have a comprehensive NIMBRA network in New Zealand that we feed into, and then we can produce that. And then once again, through our NIMBRA network we can feed that off for the main broadcasters in the country.”

While the company is inviting enquiries from new potential clients, it is operating its own channel, Kordia TV, a pop-up TV channel running on NZ Freeview service. Brain says, as well as positioning ‘Kordia Media Hub’ as cost-effective option for playout, the company is also in discussions to provide disaster recovery services.

Kordia Media Hub in action.

NEWS + PEOPLE

“We’ve got disaster recovery built into our facility,” he says. “We have two effective control rooms. One of them sits there with the main production control room, and then the pres-suite, if required, could do switching if required. From a customer’s point of view, the likes of the two main broadcasters in New Zealand are looking for options for DR playout, and we have the ability with our playout product to be able to snip their playlist and grab their content down and put it into our servers and then have it there ready to go.

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“We run the Freeview platform in New Zealand, the Freeview head-ends and the Freeview infrastructure all goes through this facility that we have in Avalon. From our point of view, if we have a fibre cut or something else happens to one of our customers on Freeview, we have the ability to completely inject their program as long as the content that we have is up-to-date and just basically insert it into their program stream, put them into our on-air service and put them on air.”

In addition to DR services, the Kordia Media Hub has access to the production studios located at Avalon.

“If we need to,” says Dean Brain, “we can put a talking head or a group panel in the back of our studios and actually be able to use it as a studio as well, put it through our control room and put it onto our network or send it up to a number of networks, to our customers.”

Beyond the Land of the Long White Cloud, the Kordia Media Hub also has connectivity between New Zealand and Australia with fibre connections via Telstra and Equinix, and satellite through Sydney Teleport Services.

“Certainly, we’re able to send them plenty of signals across the Tasman,” says Dean Brain, “and incoming as well, so we can bring it back into New Zealand, as well.”

Visit www.kordia.co.nz

Blackmagic Video Assist 4K adds professional monitoring with HD and Ultra HD recording to any camera!

Now it’s easy to add professional monitoring along with HD and Ultra HD recording to any SDI or HDMI camera! Blackmagic Video Assist 4K has a large super bright 7 inch monitor so you can see your shot clearly, making it easier to frame and get perfect focus! Featuring two high speed SD card recorders that save HD and Ultra HD video as 10-bit 4:2:2 ProRes or DNxHD files, you get much better quality than what most cameras can record. The files are open standard which makes them compatible with all leading video software so you can start editing immediately!

High Quality Audio Recording

On Set Monitoring

Broadcast Quality Connections

The super bright 7 inch display is much bigger than the tiny displays built into most cameras and can be used to monitor HD or Ultra HD video. The touchscreen works with simple tap and swipe gestures, making it easy to set up and use!

You can rig it directly onto your camera or pass it around to the crew so they can review shots on set!

Blackmagic Video Assist 4K includes HDMI and 6G-SDI inputs so you can record from virtually any camera or DSLR. The HDMI and SDI video outputs let you view shots on larger screens or even projectors! You also get a built in speaker, headphone jack, LANC, 12V power and two LP-E6 battery slots for non stop power!

Non-Stop HD and Ultra HD Recording Now you can bypass the lossy compression used on most DSLR and video cameras! With 2 high speed UHS-II recorders that use commonly available SD cards, you’ll never miss a shot because when one card is full, recording automatically continues onto the next! You get 10-bit 4:2:2 ProRes or DNxHD files that work with all editing software.

Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com/au

Get better quality sound recording than your camera! Blackmagic Video Assist 4K features two mini XLR inputs with 48V of phantom power and an extremely low noise floor of -128dBV so you can bypass poor quality camera audio. Audio is embedded in the same file with the video so you don’t have to worry about syncing separate files!

Blackmagic Video Assist $755 Blackmagic Video Assist 4K $1,375

Camera not included.

NEWS + PEOPLE GatesAir Excites Gold Coast DVB-T2 Field Trials GATESAIR, THE PROVIDER OF wireless, over-the-air content delivery solutions for TV and radio broadcasters, has supplied its Maxiva XTE exciter to prominent Australian broadcast entities — TX Australia, Broadcast Australia, and Free TV — for DVB-T2 field trials on Australia’s Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane.

Following a trial in Sydney, the capabilities of DVB-T2 have again been tested, including in an extended single-frequency network (SFN). DVB-T2 is being considered as a technology to replace the current DVB-T standard for television, which has been in operation in Australia since 2001.

“GatesAir has a long history of field trial support in advance of digital transitions worldwide, and this Gold Coast initiative represents an important step in Australia’s consideration of migration from DVB-T to DVB-T2,” said Rich Redmond, President and Managing Director, International for GatesAir. “With its 4K picture quality, IP-based transmission, and superior, broadband capabilities, DVB-T2 offers over-the-air broadcasters and viewers many programming advantages. This collaboration between TX Australia, Free TV Australia, and Broadcast Australia is a prime example of the innovation and first-class engineering skills within the Australian broadcast industry.”

A key objective of these field trials is to test and verify interoperability between third-party systems used in both classic transmission and SFN configurations.

According to Redmond, “The GatesAir Maxiva XTE Exciter platform has already demonstrated reliable, seamless transmission performance in multi-vendor DVB-T2 installations across Europe and Asia.”

This latest DVB-T2 trial originated from a Gold Coast re-transmission site located on Mount Tamborine, which is managed by TX Australia, a joint venture company of the Seven, Nine, and Ten broadcast television networks.

TX Australia, which provides transmission services to a wide array of TV and FM broadcasters and networks across metropolitan Australia, has been collaborating closely with Free TV Australia, an industry body that represents all of Australia’s commercial free-to-air television licensees. Another key party to the field trials, Broadcast Australia, is responsible for delivering digital television and radio services for Australia’s national broadcasters.

The Gold Coast field trial utilised the same video and audio content provided to the Sydney trial by members of Free TV. It also sought to replicate the characteristics measured and analysed in Sydney, including assessment of the service threshold across the target coverage area when operating in extended SFN mode.

TX Australia Executive Chairman Paul Mullen expressed appreciation for GatesAir’s contribution in a previous announcement. He also noted the importance of these trials for evaluating new technologies, and ensuring “the best quality content is available to the viewer.”

The Maxiva XTE includes native IP inputs and a software-defined modulator for seamless transition between analog and digital broadcast standards. The XTE design eliminates the need to retrofit transmitters to enable network connectivity for next-gen TV standards (DVB-T2, DVB-T2 Lite, ATSC 3.0), giving broadcasters an out-of-the-box solution to simplify the input and output of multimedia services via a local- or wide-area IP network. The XTE-driven modulation reduces costs and power consumption by lowering wattage requirements at the amplification stage, without affecting signal strength.

Visit www.gatesair.com

New Subsea Cable Between Australia and SE Asia AARNET, GOOGLE, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra have announced a significant milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO subsea cable system with the completion, on schedule, of the final splicing of both the INDIGO West cable and Indigo Central cable.

This marks the completion of the marine installation of both the 4600km Singapore to Perth INDIGO West submarine cable and 4600km Perth to Sydney INDIGO Central submarine cable.

Commissioning of the submarine cable system has now begun, with the INDIGO cable system on-schedule and on-track to be ready for service before mid-2019.

This milestone follows the announcement in April 2017 that the consortium had entered into an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build the INDIGO cable system connecting Singapore, Perth and Sydney, with two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit.

The 9200km INDIGO cable system will strengthen links between Australia and the fast-growing South East Asian markets, providing lower latency and enhanced reliability. Using today’s coherent optical technology, the cable’s two-fibre pairs will be able to support up to 36 terabits per second, the equivalent of simultaneously streaming millions of movies a second.

The INDIGO cable system will utilise new spectrum sharing technology so each consortium member will have the ability to independently take advantage of technology advancements for future upgrades and capacity increases on demand.

For more, visit: • www.telstra.com.au • www.aarnet.edu.au • www.indosatooredoo.com • www.singtel.com • www.subpartners.net • www.superloop.com

New Telstra TV Launched TELSTRA HAS LAUNCHED its new Telstra TV streaming player and new Home Broadband plans with no more lock-in contracts. Customers simply pay out their modem if they leave within 24 months.

The third generation of Telstra TV is smaller, and includes a new and improved wireless remote control with voice search, plus buttons for TV power and volume control.

NEWS + PEOPLE

The Telstra TV Smart Search function has been enhanced to enable users to use their voice to search for actors, TV shows and movies. Among several commands, users can also ask the Telstra TV to “Chuck on Telstra TV Box Office” to open the Telstra TV Box Office app.

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Acting Group Executive Telstra Consumer and Small Business, Michael Ackland, said over 1.4 million customers had added the Telstra TV to their entertainment set up since the first-generation Roku Powered device was introduced in 2015.

“Our customers can enjoy the best content from

free-to-air TV, Foxtel Now, Netflix, Stan, Kayo and many other video-on-demand subscriptions all from the one device,” Mr Ackland said.

“We have now further enhanced the customer experience by adding a Wi-Fi remote with voice capabilities.”

“The new plans are another step forward in our commitment to introduce fully flexible plans, providing customers the choice to add the options they value to their service. This delivers cost certainty, flexible subscription options, and the freedom to upgrade or downgrade their plan within a set range on a monthly basis.”

With the launch of the latest Telstra TV device Telstra is also replacing BigPond Movies with Telstra TV Box Office, allowing customers to buy or rent the latest release films with billing to their Telstra monthly account.

• Free-to-air Tuner – Live TV • Audio support – Dolby Digital 7.1 • Connectivity – 802.11a/b/g/n/ac dual band wireless or 10/100 Ethernet port • Remote – Wi-Fi & Infrared (IR) remote with Power, Volume, Voice control, Live TV, TV Guide, Netflix and Foxtel Now buttons • External input – MicroSD slot and USB port for external media input • Mobile integration – support screen mirroring with Miracast and second screen ‘casting’ with Netflix and YouTube • Processor – Quad-core MStar C2 • RAM – 2GB DRAM

Telstra TV specifications include:

• Storage – 512MB Flash NAND

• Video – 2160p 4K UHD / 1080p HD / 720p with HEVC support

Visit www.telstra.com.au

• Ports – HDMI 2.0, USB 2.0, MicroSD Slot

Network 10 Picks Lotame as Data Partner NETWORK 10 HAS SIGNED a partnership with data management platform Lotame as it continues to accelerate the roll out of its data solutions.

The partnership gives 10 access to Lotame’s extensive third-party data sets, one of the biggest in the world, delivering unrivalled depth in audience targeting.

Network 10’s director of 10 Interactive Christian Williams said: “We’re continuing to invest in our digital platforms, 10 Play and 10 Daily, to attract our key under 50s audience into our ecosystem. We’re seeing audiences across these platforms growing at an exceptional rate.

“Our partnership with Lotame means we can leverage their more than

three billion additional audience profiles with our existing data set, giving advertisers the opportunity to create deeply targeted and relevant campaigns with us, at scale.”

Lotame’s clients include IBM, Ticketek, Annalect, and Omnicom Media Group.

Network 10’s partnership with Lotame follows recently announced partnerships with real-time data customer solutions company Tealium and data technology agency Venntifact.

Visit https://tenplay.com.au and www.lotame.com

Silver Trak Launches Cinema Distribution Platform

The service, currently operational throughout the US, takes the traditional DCP, uploads it to the KenCast secured cloud-based distribution platform and server and automates the forward transmission and download to participant cinemas wherever connected in Australia and New Zealand.

As Silver Trak COO Christian Christiansen explained, “The cost and efficiency advantages of using Cinecastar are significant with the removal of physical HDD delivery and the instant recognition of content delivery.”

Silver Trak Digital’s extensive experience in processing, creating and QC analysis of DCPs plays an integral part in the preparation of the content for satellite transmission and is completely integrated into the delivery service alongside the company’s traditional services including DCP creation, KDM management and HDD delivery.

Christiansen continued, “There are major benefits to distributors and exhibitors including reduced total cost of ownership by providing a secure and efficient end-to-end IP delivery platform. We are also using proven KenCast technology that securely and efficiently delivers content to over 2700 cinemas in the US and reports on delivery of that content.”

IPSTAR also owns the satellite bandwidth and provides a dedicated one-stop-shop service from the satellite down to the earth station that connects it to the company’s data centre in Sydney where DCPs are ingested. Thus, the service is not reliant on the service performance or limits of exhibitors’ individual internet connections.

Silver Trak COO Christian

Christian Christiansen concluded, “With IPSTAR Christiansen. owning and controlling the satellite bandwidth, Cinecastar can immediately scale bandwidth as required to meet demand which means we can always ensure reliability of service. We can also offer excellent disaster recovery as, in the event of cinema site equipment failure, we have a backup system whereby we send HDDs directly to the affected site at no extra cost to any party. In parallel we arrange a service call for the site at no extra cost to exhibitors. In short our Cinecastar system is cheaper and more efficient than the current method of shipping content around the country via couriers which is good news for the vast majority of cinemas in Australia and New Zealand.”

Visit https://silvertrak.com.au

NEWS + PEOPLE

SYDNEY-BASED MEDIA LOGISTICS COMPANY Silver Trak Digital has partnered with broadband and satellite support provider IPSTAR and KenCast to launch Cinecastar, a new method for providing rapid cinema content distribution in Australia and New Zealand.

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NEWS + PEOPLE Bradley Named Content Director, Triple M Melbourne SENIOR RADIO EXECUTIVE DAN BRADLEY has been appointed as Content Director of Triple M Melbourne. The move sees Dan return to the Triple M family, having previously been on air at Triple M Brisbane and Music Director at both Triple M Melbourne and Fox FM. As a Content Director, Dan was the foundation programmer at Nova 100 and one of the architects of the Nova brand. More recently, he has programmed Radio Hauraki in New Zealand and Hot Tomato on the Gold Coast.

Triple M’s Head of Content Mike Fitzpatrick said, “With a consistent track record of success, Dan is the right person to lead Triple M Melbourne and we are delighted to have him back.

“It’s very exciting to add another experienced programmer of Dan’s calibre to the already strong Triple M content leadership team of Jamie Angel, Rex Morris, Shaun Gough, Matthew O’Reilly and Erica Hodge.”

Visit www.southerncrossaustereo.com.au

Position Vacant VIDEO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Blonde Robot Pty Ltd (part of the Midwich Group of companies) is a distributor of professional video products based in Melbourne, Australia. We distribute throughout 16 countries in South East Asia and represent products ranging from photographic accessories to products for the production, post-production and content creation markets. We have offices in Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur and we are experiencing strong growth in our professional video division.

An opportunity has arisen for a Video Business Development Manager to join our team, specifically focusing on our integration and post-production products: AJA Video System, NewTek, StorageDNA, Facilis Technology, CatDV, Promise Technology and many more.

As the Video Business Development Manager, you will be tasked with maintaining and growing our reseller list, whilst developing strong relationships with customers, to help promote Blonde Robot brands through focused sales and marketing actions.

Key to the success of the position will be increasing demand for our existing products as well as sourcing new brands to represent.

A hands-on role, there will be regular calls and visits to all key resellers and their customers, along with hosting industry events around new product releases and vendor signings.

Maintaining a strong technical and commercial understanding of the products, market perception, price expectation and competitive products is essential.

Key duties will include, but not limited to: • Communicating with end users to identify new sales opportunities and assisting resellers to provide the best solution • Product Management of key brand/s including implementing and executing sales strategies • Assisting with technical sales and support • Liaising with suppliers on pricing, new products and opportunities • Introducing new products/brands and technologies to dealers and end users with clear go to market strategies • Liaising with sales staff and end users to ensure dealers are trained on new features or products • Working with vendors, dealers and the team to host end user events such as trade shows, product launches and promotions

NEWS + PEOPLE

Blonde Robot’s Head Office is Melbourne based, however the role can be conducted from a Sydney location. Significant domestic travel will be required.

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The ideal candidate will have at least 3 years experience in the broadcast industry, specifically around areas of production and post-production systems implementation and integration. Previous sales experience would be beneficial.

Remuneration for the position includes base wage, phone, laptop and uncapped commission.

Contact jobs@blonde-robot.com.au to apply.

Kathy-Anne McManus Returns to Avid AVID HAS APPOINTED highly-accomplished media technology services expert Kathy-Anne “KAM” McManus as Senior Vice President of Global Customer Solutions and Services. With more than 30 years of experience in providing services, support and education to creative individuals, teams and large media enterprises, KAM returns to the Company to establish a service strategy to further optimise customers’ and users’ experience and success with Avid tools and solutions.

McManus’ previous roles with Avid included VP of Worldwide Professional Services and Director of Services for Asia Pacific. Prior to rejoining Avid in January 2019, KAM held senior leadership roles in the services and support organizations of several media technology providers including Adobe, Amdocs and Ericsson and telecommunications operator Telstra.

She entered the media industry as an editor and producer for major Australian broadcast television networks Seven and Nine.

“We’re fortunate that our search for the best available talent in media technology services has resulted in KAM’s return to Avid,” said Jeff Rosica, Avid CEO & President. “She’s done a lot of work in our customers’ community and knows how to navigate our landscape, so I anticipate we’ll make rapid progress in evolving our offerings.”

“Avid customers and users count on us to help them deliver their best work so they can delight their audiences everywhere. In turn, it’s our responsibility to deliver a service experience that delights our customers,” said McManus. “I’m excited to get to work with the team on a strategy that will further elevate customer success with our tools and solutions today, and position them for their future through advanced approaches, such as SaaS, for more effective service delivery.”

Visit www.avid.com/learn-and-support#Support-Offerings

AFTRS CEO Neil Peplow to Depart RUSSEL HOWCROFT, Chair of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, has announced the resignation of AFTRS CEO Neil Peplow.

Mr Peplow, originally from the UK, is returning with his family to London. He will leave the School mid-2019.

In making the announcement, Mr Howcroft said, “Under Neil’s stewardship, AFTRS has become internationally renowned as a centre of creative excellence and one which, at a time of unprecedented change and opportunity in our industry, is incredibly forward thinking in its approach to screen education. I respect Neil enormously and applaud the work he has done at AFTRS over the past three and a half years. His energy, ideas and dynamism have set the School on an excellent path for the future.

“I would also like to acknowledge Neil’s work for the broader screen industry, particularly in the areas of diversity and innovation. I am very sorry to see him depart but wish him and his family well for the future.”

Mr Howcroft said the search for a new CEO will begin immediately.

Visit www.aftrs.edu.au

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SK Telecom, Sinclair Broadcast in ATSC Tech Joint Venture KOREA’S SK TELECOM and Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the largest TV broadcasting companies in the U.S., have announced the signing of a joint venture agreement to develop and commercialise broadcasting solutions based on ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. The two companies will jointly fund and manage a joint venture company within the first quarter of this year.

AIMS Interop at VidTrans17 Shows Viability of SMPTE 2110

Through the joint venture company, two Solutions companies(AIMS) plan to actively provide MEMBERS OF the Alliance for IPthe Media recently ATSC 3.0 standards-based all U.S. companies contributed to an interopsolutions session, to which wasbroadcasting sponsored by Video and seek other opportunities globally.

Services Forum (VSF) and concluded at VidTrans17 in Los Angeles, which

showcased viability of of thethe draft SMPTE Television 2110 standard andCommittee AMWA ATSC 3.0 is thethe latest version Advanced Systems IS-04 as a carefully architected initiative.

(ATSC) standard (adopted in North IP America and South Korea). It will support several advancements including viewing, 3D television, 4K Ultra High Leading up to VidTrans17, 19mobile AIMS members took part in VSF-sponsored Definition (UHD), high dynamic range (HDR), high frame rate (HFR), and wide interoperability testing at the Fox technical center in The Woodlands, colour gamut (WCG) picture quality, as well as immersive audio.

Texas. The testing was unprecedented, as it was the first time a

Thesignificant commercialisation ofparticipants broadcasting solutions based onon ATSC 3.0 will enable number of focused specifically interoperability services as personalised advertisement and 21 in-vehicle TV of thesuch SMPTE ST-2110 drafts.

Approximately vendors,terrestrial 19 of whom broadcasting and map updates.

It will also support two-way communication were AIMS members, were able to successfully transmit and receive from between broadcasting companies and user’s smartphone/vehicle/TV by each other without major adjustments to their equipment or the network. recognising user’s personal IP address.

Following the testing event in Texas, 12 AIMS members exhibited their draft SMPTE ST-2110 systems in the interoperability session at VidTrans17. The results were on display, and the progress thus far WITH A FULL LAUNCH OF ITSconsensus 5G NETWORK scheduled forand March, South generated strongly positive between vendors attendees Korean alike. telco KT has been touting its new service offerings at the recent

KT Corp Unveils New 5G Services

Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland.

“We’re energized by the success of this latest round of tests, so we’re

KT recently world-first 5G bus vigor, in downtown SeoulCronk, during ready to getunveiled back to awork with renewed ” said Michael a promotional event. In the 5G-connected limousine bus, passengers AIMS board chair. “AIMS members are very active in supporting and experienced various Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) services implementing the draft SMPTE 2110 standard. We are thrilled that available from the company’s GiGA Live TV.

testing to date is both showing excellent progress toward interoperability

GiGA Live TV isgreat a wireless network-based, next-generation service that does and providing data for further improvements.

There will be future not require separate terminals such as a smartphone.

Bus passengers interoperability events and tests, which makes this an exciting time forcould all experience high-quality media services GiGA LiveSDI TV,first which who support a commonimmersive industry standard, much asfrom it was when are available through a 5G will mobile hotspot (MHS) up signals from appeared.

Interoperability remain the key, andpicking those who get involved

will reap the benefits of new workflows and solutions.” additions to the AIMS membership roster include Bridge INNew BRIEF

Technologies, Clear-Com, Solid State Logic, Juniper Networks, Atos,

2019, as the date for shutdown of INSIGHT one of theDigital world’sMedia, largest Leader,TV, Encompass and sonoVTS. the county’s 2G mobile network.

UHD broadcasters and producer of Visit http://aimsalliance.org According to the NBTC, the shutdown native UHD HDR content covering will increase efficiency for network action sports, entertainment, and operators and open the door for 5G lifestyle, has announced it is the wireless broadband service by 2020. launching its content in China on the Operatorsitare BesTV platform, provided by Shanghai EUROFINS DIGITAL TESTING has announced willexpected develop to anmigrate HbbTV their 2G users to 3G and Oriental Pearl (Group) Co., Ltd. The application test centre in co-operation with Samsung Electronics4G forservices. testing Provincial governments will assist in distribution deal was facilitated HbbTV Applications on HbbTVby enabled TVs. informing 2G users of the move.

Shanghai Mych Technology Co., Ltd. ‘HbbTV Applications’ include interactive applications that deliver additional (Mych Tech), Insight TV’s new partner Visitare www.nbtc.go.th functionality such as video-on-demand and designed to run on TVs in the region. compliant with the HbbTV specification. ---------------------------------As the lead supporter, Samsung will

www.content-technology.com/standards

The two firms have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with audio technology developer Harman which will see the three companies THE DIGITALcollaborate PRODUCTION PARTNERSHIP (DPP) recently on building anthe advanced published first ever guide to help producers find the right kind of automotive platform based connectivity for their business. ‘The DPP Survey Report: Connectivity on ATSC 3.0 to enable drivers Supply to Production’ helps producers to identify the kind of to experience in-vehicle HD connectivity provision appropriate to their needs, with an indication of terrestrial TV broadcasting, costs and type of service. secure firmware updates, HD map updates and V2X certificate management previous research with production companies revealed that via “Our terrestrial digital broadcasting facilities operated byhas Sinclair Broadcast many still rely on broadband connections, and don’t always Group throughout theinadequate United States.

DPP Guide to Connectivity Services for Production

they understand alternatives, ” says DPP Managing Director, Mark Thefeel companies intend to the unveil their automotive platform and related Harrison.and “So,services we haveforconducted some and sought advice equipment the first time at research, the NAB Show in Las the Vegas of DPP Member companies, to pull together a user-friendly view of what in April 2019. the market offers. ” Visit www.sk.com www.harman.com and www.sbgi.net

The survey report considers the needs of different sizes of production company, and whether the connectivity they need is for general office use, for working with video, or out on location.

nearby base stations.

The needs of media production companies are unusual when compared

On January 27, KT successfully live-broadcasted K-pop group Wanna One’s to other sectors. The workload can expand and contract dramatically, last concert, attended by more than 25,000 fans, on its HD IPTV service, and this makes for huge variations in the bandwidth required. Video Olleh TV. The broadcast was delivered through set-top boxes and mobile files are also much bigger than the files being transferred by most other devices, using the 5G network.

industries.

KT successfully demonstrated the world’s first 5G trial services during the “There is no doubt connectivity suppliers find the media production PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in February 2018. The company, in community difficult to serve,” says Harrison. “But, provision is getting December last year, held a historic ceremony to commemorate the start of better all the time and now might be the right time for producers to its commercial 5G network. The full-scale, official launch is coming in March.

explore the benefits they could get from professional supply.”

Visit https://corp.kt.com/eng/

‘DPP Survey Report: Connectivity Supply to Production’ is the fifth in the DPP’s Survey Report series, and follows on from the ‘2016 Survey Report Connectivity and Production’, which shared eye-opening DPP research into how production companies view their connectivity company’s ---------------------------------services.Japan business, based in

Tokyo. Prior to joining Adobe, he was RADIO FREE ASIA (RFA) www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk VP Visit of APAC and Japan at Dell EMC. has hired veteran journalist Matthew Visit www.adobe.com/au Pennington as its new Managing ---------------------------------Director for Southeast Asia.

COMREX HAS APPOINTED Pennington, an award-winning former Sue Gilks as Director, Asia-Pacific. initially build the test centre at its office Associated in Bristol, UK. This(AP) testreporter, centre will Press will Sue will work with distributors in the take responsibility for testing and validating HbbTV Applications oversee RFA’s coverage ofprovided Burma, by region to support existing customers Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. appfurther developers (who be broadcasters or other parties) and will work and develop themight markets.

Over MD of forthe Southeast he will with these app developers to define scope testingAsia, required.

This the last 30 years Sue has served as theAs work closely with the directors of will ensure that the HbbTV applications conform to the HbbTV specification a senior manager in the international four language services to leading manage and function correctly on real, of deployed devices from the market broadcast arena with a number daily and long-term operations of world brand.leading technology companies including DTC (formerly Cobham RFA Vietnamese, Khmer, Lao, and The agreement betweendivision) Samsung and Eurofins allows for the growth of Security and Surveillance Burmese. He will report to RFA’s VP the Test TV, Centre to include more devices in course – including those from Tandberg Motorola, of due Programming, Parameswaran other manufacturers – to further extend the testing capabilities. and Sony.

Ponnudurai.

Eurofins, Samsung to Develop HbbTV App Test Centre

Visit www.insight.tv provide the initial TV platforms for conducting compatibility tests.

These ADOBEthe HAS ANNOUNCED James platforms include an enhanced debug mode which allows theofgathering ---------------------------------McCready, President Adobe

NEWS + PEOPLE TECHNICAL STANDARDS

of additionalNATIONAL data to diagnose issues. Samsung also provide technical Japan, iswill expanding his role to lead THAILAND’S assistance to the program to assist app developers to run their applications the company’s operations in Japan BROADCASTING and on Samsung TVs. and Asia Pacific (APAC). McCready Telecommunications Comission joined Adobe in April to lead (NBTC) haswhich approved Octoberin31, Eurofins, has offices Belgium, Hong Kong, Poland and2018 Sweden, willthe

10 12

Visit Visitwww.comrex.com www.eurofins-digitaltesting.comVisit andwww.rfa.org www.hbbtv.org

TECHNICAL STANDARDS www.content-technology.com/standards

The MPEG Ecosystem

By Leonardo Chiariglione, MPEG chairman

Introduction An ecosystem is composed of elements variously interconnected and variously dependent on one another. Standardisation is a particular type of ecosystem. Purpose of this article is to analyse the elements of the MPEG ecosystem and their relationships.

Standardisation in the past In days long bygone, standardisation in what today we would call the “media industry” followed a rather simple process. A company wishing to attach a “standard” label to a product that had become successful in the market made a request to a standards committee whose members, typically from companies in the same industry, had an interest in getting an open specification of what had to be until then a closed system. A good example is offered by the video cassette player for which two products from two different companies, ostensibly for the same functionality – VHS and Beta – were approved by the same standard organisation – the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) and by the same committee – SC 60 B at that time.

Things were a little different in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) where ITU-T (then called CCITT) had a Study Group where the telecommunication industry – represented by the Post and Telecommunication Administrations of the member countries, at that time the only ones admitted to the committee – requested a standard (called recommendation in the ITU) for digital telephony speech. ITU-T ended up with two different specifications in the same standard: one called A-law and the other called µ-law.

In ITU-R (then called CCIR) National Aministrations were operating, or had authorised various entities to operate, television broadcasting services (some had even started doing so before WW II) and were therefore unable to settle on even a limited number of television systems. The only thing they could do was to produce a document called Report 624 Television Systems that collected the 3 main television systems (NTSC, PAL and SECAM) with tens of pages where country A selected, e.g., a different frequency or a different tolerance of the colour subcarrier than country B or C.

format to another when speech moves from one environment (country, application etc.) to another.

If there were only the 10 points listed above do not make the MPEG process would not be much more complex than the ITU’s. The real difference is that MPEG does not have the mindset of the telecom industry who had decided A-law – µ-law digital speech 50+ years ago. MPEG is different because it would address speech digitisation taking into consideration the needs of a range of other industries who intend to use and hence want to have a say in how the standard is made: Consumer Electronic (CE), Information Technology (IT), broadcasting, gaming and probably more. Taking into account so many views is a burden for those developing the standard (actually, not necessarily) but the standards eventually produced is abstracted from the little (or big) needs that are specific of individual industries. Profiles and Level allow an industry not to be overburdened by technologies introduced to satisfy requirements from other industries that are irrelevant (and possibly costly) to an industry. Those who need the functionality, not matter what the cost, can do it with different profiles and levels.

Exploring the MPEG ecosystem Figure 1 colourfully depicts with how MPEG has succeeded in its role of “abstracting” the needs of client “digital media” industries currently served by MPEG. The figure does not include other industries, such as genomics, that MPEG has begun to serve.

Figure 1, however, does not describe all the ecosystem actors. In MPEG-1 the Consumer Electronics industry was typically able to develop by itself (or

MPEG

Standardisation, à la MPEG Not unaware of past failures of standardisation and taking advantage of the radical technology discontinuity, MPEG took a different approach to standardisation which can be expressed by the synthetic expression “one functionality – one tool”. To apply this expression to the example of ITU-T’s A-law – µ-law dichotomy, if MPEG had to decide on a standard for digital speech, it would 1. Develop requirements

Fixed telco network

Consumer Electronics

MPEG-1

Terrestrial b’casting

Cable

Satellite

MPEG-2

Mobile internet

Fixed internet MPEG-4

Figure 1 – MPEG and its client “digital media” industries.

2. Select speech samples to be used for tests 4. Run the selected test speech with the proposals 5. Subjectively assess the quality 6. Check the proposals for any issue such as complexty etc.

7. Create a Test Model with the proposals 8. Create Core Experiments (CE) 9. Iterate the Test Model with the results of CEs 10. Produce WD, CD, DIS and FDIS The process would be long – an overkill in this case because a speech digitiser is a simple analogue-to-digital (A/D) converter – but not necessarily longer that having a committee decide on competing proposals with the goal of accepting only one. The result would be a single standard providing seamless bitstream interoperability without the need to convert speech from one

found it more convenient to develop) the technology needed to make products that used the MPEG-1 standard. With MPEG-2 this was less the case. Today the industry implementing (as opposed to using or selling products based on) MPEG standards has grown to be a very important element of the MPEG ecosystem. This industry typically provides components to companies who actually manufacture a complete product (sometimes this happens inside the same company, but the logic is the same).

MPEG standards can be implemented using various combinations of software, hardware and hybrid software/hardware technologies. The choice for hardware is very wide: from various integrated circuit architectures to analogue technologies. The latter choice is for devices with extremely low power consumption, although with limited compression. Just about to come are devices that use neural networks. Other technologies are likely to find use in the future, such as quantum computing or even genomic technologies.

Continues >>

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

3. Issue a Call for Proposals (CfP)

11

TECHNICAL STANDARDS Continued from 11

Requirements

Standards

MPEG technologies

Calls for technologies

MPEG Toolkit Standards Implem.

Industry2

Client industry2

Client industry3

Implem.

IndustryI

Client industryK

Implem.

IndustryJ

Client industryN

Competence Centre N

MPEG Client/ Implementation Industry 1

Client/ Implementation Industry 2

Submitted technologies

Client/ Implementation Industry M

Figure 3 – The MPEG process.

Figure 2 identifies 3 “layers” in the MPEG ecosystem, and the arrows show their relationships.

elements of the MPEG ecosystem are in italic).

Client industries in need of a standard provide requirements. However, the “Implementation layer” industries, examples of which have been provided above, also provide requirements. The MPEG layer eventually develops standards that are fed to the Client Industry layer that requested it, but also to the Implementation layer. Requests to implement a standard are generated by companies in the Client industry layer and directed to companies in the Implementation layer who eventually deliver the implementation to the companies requesting it. Conformance testing typically plays a role in assessing conformance of an implementation to the standard.

2. The MPEG Requirements Competence Centre develops requirements by interacting with Client Industries and Implementation Industries

The new elements highlighted by the Figure are 1. The MPEG Toolkit assembling all technologies that have been used in MPEG standards 2. The MPEG Competence Centres mastering specific technology areas and 3. The Technology industries providing new technologies to MPEG by responding to Calls for Proposals (CfP).

In the early days the Implementation Industries did not have a clear identity and were largely merged with the Client Industries and Implementation Industries. Today, as highlighted above, the providers of basic technologies are well identified and separate industries.

1. MPEG receives a request for a standard from a Client Industry

3. MPEG issues CfPs (Calls for technologies in the figure) 4. Technology Industries respond to CfP by submitting technologies 5. MPEG mobilises appropriate Competence Centres 6. Competence Centres, coordinated by MPEG, develop standards by selecting/adapting existing technologies (drawn from the toolkit) and submitted technologies 7. MPEG updates the toolkit with new technologies It should be clear now that MPEG cannot be described by the simple “Standards Provider – Client Industry” relationship. MPEG is a complex ecosystem that works because all its entities play the role proper to them.

Dividing MPEG by Client Industries means losing the commonality of technologies. Dividing MPEG by Implementation Industries makes no sense, because in principle any MPEG standard must be implementable with different technology. Dividing MPEG by Competence Centres means losing the interaction between them.

Conclusions

Revisiting the MPEG process

MPEG is a complex ecosystem that has successfully operated for decades serving the needs of the growing number of its component industries. As much as you would not allow a child to open a toy with complicated gears inside just to see “how it works”, industry should not allow apprentice sorcerers to undo this wonderful ecosystem called MPEG.

Using Figure 3 it is possible to describe how the MPEG process unfolds (the

Visit https://mpeg.chiariglione.org

Association Formed to Develop 8K

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

Competence Centre 2

Figure 2 – MPEG, its Client Industries and Implementation Industries.

Figure 2, however, is not a full description of the MPEG ecosystem. More elements are provided by Figure 3 which describes how the MPEG process actually takes place.

12

Competence Centre 1

Technology IndustryK

Client industry1

Implem.

Industry3

Technology Industry2

Implem.

Industry1

Implementations

Client Industry layer

Implementation requests

Requirements Implementation layer

Technology Industry1

MPEG standards layer

A GROUP OF THE WORLD’S LEADING display technology brands came together at CES 2019 to form a new industry organization: The 8K Association (8KA).

Founding companies include leading panel supplier AU Optronics (AUO) along with consumer electronics giants Hisense, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics and TCL Electronics. Panel supplier Samsung Display has also joined the 8KA. This international group of leaders recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form the non-profit organization to advance their common vision and mission.

Specific goals of the organization include: • Promoting 8K TVs and 8K Content to consumers and professionals • Helping educate consumers and professionals about the 8K ecosystem • Helping secure 8K native content for members • Encouraging service providers (especially OTT) to develop 8K offerings • Facilitating communication within 8K ecosystem to help with commercialisation • Developing initial technical requirements for 8K input signals • Developing initial 8K TV categories and minimum specifications for image quality The organisation will work on developing the entire value chain for 8K with an initial focus on supporting the early commercialisation and adoption of 8K TVs. Visit www.8kassociation.com

AIMS Creates New Working Group Focused on Pro AV Market THE ALLIANCE FOR IP MEDIA SOLUTIONS (AIMS) has launched a new Pro AV Working Group tasked with promoting the adoption of one set of mediaover-IP protocols for the professional AV and installed systems market. AIMS has appointed David Chiappini as chair and Scott Barella as deputy chair of the new working group.

The AIMS Pro AV Working Group will define an open-standards approach to addressing the pro AV world's move toward IP media. The group's efforts will be based on evaluating and recommending existing standards and specifications from AES, AMWA, VSF, SMPTE, IEEE, and IETF that already have been broadly adopted by the media and entertainment industry, incorporating pro AV-market-specific features including security, HDCP support for protected content, and IO control. The anticipated result of the Pro AV Working Group's efforts is a flexible, future-proof method for meeting the video, audio, and data requirements of current and future pro AV solutions.

David Chiappini, the new working group's chair, is vice president of research and development for AIMS member Matrox. Scott Barella, who is CTO at PESA, also serves as the AIMS Technical Working Group deputy chair.

Visit www.aimsalliance.org

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MEDIA BUSINESS Moves in the business of content + technology

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A Bruising Brexit for British Broadcasting?

WITH JUST WEEKS LEFT ON THE CLOCK for the UK’s hitherto shambolic exit from the European Union, broadcasters have been enacting contingency plans to deal with what they were assured would not come to pass – a no-deal BREXIT.

Even if it eventuates For broadcasters, that its signatories are bound by the the main impact is quarter-century old framework (with none on those who use of them contesting the UK as a base its validity), the ECTT for delivering does not cover ondemand operators, channels into EU mainly because these did not exist in 1993. countries.

The first commercial VOD service in the UK, rolled out by Kingston Communications, was not launched until 1998.

While it will retain a sizable presence in the UK, Discovery Networks is moving its European pay-TV channels to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Turner and NBC Universal have applied for German licences and even the BBC is looking at Brussels or Amsterdam to relocate its international channels. Yes, that’s right, the British Broadcasting Corporation.

For broadcasters, the main impact is on those who use the UK as a base for delivering channels into EU countries.

If there is no Brexit deal before March 29 covering these operators, the country of origin principle will no longer apply to services under UK jurisdiction as the UK would be classified by the EU as a third country.

There are a number of criteria for determining which country has jurisdiction over a broadcast or VOD provider. These include “establishment criteria”, i.e., where the head office and/or editorial decisions for a service are taken, and “technical criteria” relating to the location of satellite uplinks employed by the provider, or the use of satellite capacity related to an EU country.

A revised version of the AVMSD was adopted in November 2018 and is to be implemented by EU countries by August 2020.

The revised rules strengthen the country of origin principle and extend the European audiovisual rules to video-sharing platforms (such as Youtube). They are designed to ensure better protection of minors against harmful content, and include stronger rules against hate speech and public provocation to commit terrorist offences. They also seek to enhance the promotion of European works, ensure more flexibility in television advertising and reinforce the independence of audiovisual regulators. The independence of audio-visual regulators is also reinforced in EU law by ensuring they are legally distinct from their respective governments and functionally independent from the government and any other public or private body.

So, where does this leave UK-based broadcasters and VOD operators?

Well, the UK Government has pinned its advice to broadcasters on a 25-year-old convention. Back in 1993, the UK and 20 other countries signed

According to the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport guidance, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, “The ECTT does not provide for freedom of reception for video-on-demand services, and so providers of these services will need to comply with the requirements of AVMSD for jurisdiction.” the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT). Signatories to the ECTT include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Today, the Council of Europe mainly operates as a human rights body, advocating “freedom of expression and of the media, freedom of assembly, equality, and the protection of minorities.”

The original ECTT guaranteed freedom of reception between the parties and set out that parties to the Convention must not restrict the retransmission of compliant programmes within their territories.

However, for EU signatories and their dealings within the single market, the current AVMSD takes precedence over the ECTT. Also, the ECTT does not have the same enforcement mechanisms as the AVMSD. There was a standing committee to resolve disputes, but this has not met since 2010. In February 2011, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe endorsed proposals to discontinue work on trans-frontier television.

Despite this, the guidance from the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport states, “In the absence of the AVMSD regulatory framework, the ECTT framework continues to apply and may have increased relevance. The 20 EU countries that have signed and ratified ECTT will be required to permit freedom of reception to services under UK jurisdiction (how this right is given effect in each country may depend on national law and how the ECTT has been implemented locally). In turn, the UK would be required to permit freedom of reception for services which originate from EU and non-EU countries that are parties to the ECTT.” The guidance says that details will be “confirmed in due course” regarding the seven EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Sweden) that are not signatories to the convention.

Logically, this would involve video-on-demand services having to establish operations in the EU. The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport also acknowledges that, should ECTT continue to apply (as it insists it will), operators may need to have two or more licences – an Ofcom licence, and licences for those EU countries not party to the ECTT. As well as Discovery, NBC Universal and Turner, other firms facing the impact of BREXIT include A+E Networks, Disney and Fox. In December 2018, the Commercial Broadcasters Association (COBA), which represents these broadcasters (among others), warned “In the weeks prior to the UK hitting a cliff edge, the UK’s £1 billion international broadcasting sector will have no choice but to implement contingency plans in order to be able to still comply with EU law post-BREXIT. Hundreds of UK-based channels that are received in EU countries will be forced to find alternative arrangements, including securing broadcast licences from regulators in the remaining EU Member States before the end of March, so that they will have legally valid EU broadcast licences once the UK is no longer part of the single market. This will entail restructuring their European operations to support those new licences and comply with EU law requirements.”

While an eleventh-hour BREXIT deal may yet be struck, the damage to Britain’s broadcast sector – and, one imagines, to many other industries caused by uncertainty has already been done. It remains to be seen whether the UK will remain a hub for international broadcasting or a mere spoke.

For more, see https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/broadcasting-and-video-on-demandif-theres-no-brexit-deal/broadcasting-and-videoon-demand-if-theres-no-brexit-deal

MEDIA BUSINESS

Prior to 29 March 2019, UK-based broadcasters and video-on-demand providers are covered by the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) (Directive 2010/13/EU) which sets out a “country of origin principle”. This means audiovisual media service providers are only subject to the jurisdiction of one EU country. Up until March 29, a broadcasting licence issued by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, would be valid in the whole of the EU. The provider therefore need only comply with Ofcom rules, regardless of where the licenced service is received within the EU.

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ACQUISITION

Stage Mums Steal the Limelight with Blackmagic BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS ANNOUNCED that season one of Australian television comedy “Stage Mums” was shot using its URSA Mini 4.6K and Pocket Cinema Camera digital film cameras.

The show’s editing, audio editing and colour correction were also completed using DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Airing on a Network Ten in Australia and available on Tenplay, “Stage Mums” takes a tongue in cheek look at the lives of two stage mothers who will go to any lengths to give their daughters opportunities to showcase their amazing talents, most of which don’t work out exactly as planned. Created by Anna Waters-Massey and produced by SundayArvo Productions in association with OZPIX Entertainment, the series was filmed on Australia’s Gold Coast, and recently had its debut broadcast season, which comprised of an entirely Australian cast and crew.

With a highly stylised look and feel to match its over the top comedy, “Stage Mums” combines a familiar run and gun reality show look with the bright, warm and hot feeling that comes from shooting on the Gold Coast. Director of Photography Andrew Condor and internationally acclaimed filmmaker, actress and producer Amie Casey decided to use URSA Mini 4.6K as the main camera for the most recent season in order to capture the stylised look.

“We definitely wanted ‘Stage Mums’ to be bright and colourful and relative to the style of high quality Australian television, allowing us to build a product that Australians can get behind and be proud of while becoming a beloved series internationally,” explained Casey. “As a producer, one of the great things I loved about working with both Blackmagic Design cameras was the portability. Our production days were fast paced and largely location based, and working with such easily maneuverable cameras while not having to compromise on quality was a dream come true.”

Condor used an URSA Mini 4.6K as the A and B camera and the Pocket Cinema Camera for BTS and as a second unit insert and pick up camera. Both cameras made use of a Rec. 709 LUT and were used in multiple locations and in a variety of different natural and artificial lighting situations.

“The Ursa Mini 4.6K is a giant for quality in a lightweight, compact body! It was the perfect camera for ‘Stage Mums’ as I wanted a smaller camera package

for a run and gun feel, but I didn’t want to compromise on quality of the image.

Its compact size allowed us to get shots where bigger cameras just would not fit, and we often found ourselves in very small shooting locations, but we were always able to fit both cameras to keep the style of the show consistent,” said Condor. “The 15 stops of dynamic range and the low light capabilities really came in handy with our tight schedule and even tighter lighting budget.”

Shot on a very tight schedule, and with the reality, on the run production style, Condor wanted to work with a smaller team of people around the cameras.

“That’s where the URSA Mini 4.6K comes into its own. My excellent B camera operator, Colin Larsen, and I were able to control everything in an instant and keep the flow of the show going. We had a few slow mo shots, and being able to shoot up to 120fps without quality loss was fantastic. We also had a lot of locations where we were constantly dealing with different levels of illumination, and I loved the quality of the built in ND filters so that we didn’t have to concern ourselves with ’in front of lens’ filtration,” he said.

Post-production for the series is completed at Sound Vision Studio by post producer Robert Merlini. DaVinci Resolve Studio was used for colour correction, audio and video editing and final HD and UHD delivery for the various channels, including Australia’s Channel 10 Peach, Tenplay and US platform Seeka TV. “DaVinci Resolve Studio was the obvious choice for the overall look and feel of the show. Its color features helped to no end in our final product. I also used the Fairlight audio editing page for the the sound mix and was amazed at the functional mix features that helped create the end sound,” Merlini said.

He continued, “We really benefitted from DaVinci Resolve Studio not having unnecessarily complicated processes for preparing final deliverables. On the Deliver page, we were able to batch compile and process the file in all of our delivery file formats. DaVinci Resolve Studio made this a breeze. To be able to deliver to the broadcaster exactly to their specification was the perfect way forward for us.”

Stage Mums can also be viewed at www.stagemums.com Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/ and www.newmagic.com.au

ACQUISITION

Camera Hire Chooses FUJIFILM’s FUJINON MK Lenses

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SYDNEY-BASED RENTAL HOUSE CAMERA HIRE recently made the decision to significantly bolster its inventory by stocking and adding FUJIFILM’s FUJINON MK lenses to its rental fleet.

requirements very nicely indeed. Feedback from clients has been excellent and we now have multiple quantities of both the 18-55mm and 50-135mm MK lenses.”

As Camera Hire’s Bevan Dally explained, “We run a rental company and heard fairly early on FUJINON were releasing some new lightweight E-mount MK zooms specifically targeting the Sony FS7 and FS5 cameras. Both cameras have been extremely popular, however the only zoom lens options have been either by Sony or using PL or EF adapters so these new MK lenses were ideal for us and our customers.”

According to Dally most of Camera Hire’s customers use the MK lenses with a variety of cameras.

FUJIFILM launched its MK series of cinema lenses specifically for consumer and prosumer videographers and emerging cinematographers. The MK18-55mm T2.9 standard zoom lens and MK50-135mm T2.9 telephoto zoom lens boast advanced optical performance an ultra-compact and lightweight design.

“FUJINON has an excellent reputation in the industry. The MK series are particularly good compared to other lightweight cine zoom options around so they are an excellent choice for anyone wanting a low cost, high quality lens option to shoot with.”

Dally added, “Our customers who hire these lenses are after outstanding image quality in a lightweight package and the FUJINON MK lenses fulfil those

Visit www.camerahire.com.au and www.fujifilm.com.au/optical_devices/cine/mk/

“The MK lenses are flexible and can be used with multiple camera models in either shoulder-mount or tripod-mount configurations. The lenses’ real wow factors are how lightweight they are, their incredible image quality and low price-point.

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ACQUISITION

Sony Upgrading VENICE to 4K 120 fps SONY IS UPGRADING THE CAPABILITIES of its VENICE motion picture camera system by introducing High Frame Rate (HFR) shooting, advanced remote-control functionalities and Cooke/i3 and Zeiss extended metadata support, as part of its latest firmware update. Following the recent release of VENICE’s firmware Version 3.0 and the upcoming launch of its Extension System CBK-3610XS, which was developed in collaboration with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and is currently being used to shoot the AVATAR sequels, the latest upgrade will offer filmmakers even greater creative freedom, flexibility and choice.

The new optional High Frame Rate licence allows VENICE to shoot at speeds of up to 120fps at 4K 2.39:1, and 60fps at 6K 3:2 as well as up to 110fps at 4K 17:9 and 75fps at 4K 4:3 with anamorphic lenses. The new additional frame rates are particularly well-suited for drama, movie and commercial productions in 4K and 6K, as well as productions at 50/60p in 6K and VR productions using large viewing angle of 6K 3:2 in 60p.

All High Frame Rates support X-OCN recording including X-OCN XT implemented from Ver.3.0 and High Frame Rate up to 60fps support XAVC 4K and ProRes recording.

Additionally, Version 4.0 of the VENICE firmware will introduce: • 700 Protocol – A control protocol developed by Sony to connect VENICE to a remote-control unit (RM-B750 or ) and a series remote control panel, giving filmmakers greater flexibility in bringing their visions to life.

Further expanding on the camera’s existing remote-control capabilities, the VENICE now offers paint control, iris control, recording start/stop, clip control, and more. The upgraded remote-control function also adds new workflows to extend VENICE’s use in multi-camera and live production settings, such as live concerts and fashion shows.

• Support for Cooke’s /i third generation metadata Technology, /i3 and ZEISS eXtended Data technology (based on Cooke /i Technology) – Extended lens metadata can now be embedded straight into a RAW/ XOCN/XAVC file and HD-SDI output without the need for additional metadata equipment. The new function allows distortion and shading caused by supported lenses to be easily rectified, significantly reducing postproduction costs.

• Further features include an extended Mask+Line setting in the Frame line set-up, selectable functions for the assignable buttons of the DVFEL200 viewfinder and pure Progressive HD-SDI output in 25p and 29p.

Both the free upgrade to firmware Version 4.0 and the optional HFR licence will be available in June 2019.

Visit www.pro.sony

Panasonic 4K Camcorder Delivers Broadcast, Streaming THE PANASONIC AG-CX350 CAMCORDER provides NDI | HX connectivity.

It ensures smooth video transmission and camera control over IP for live events and web distribution. The AG-CX350 has the capability to be built into larger systems, working alongside Panasonic PTZ cameras equipped with NDI | HX and the Panasonic Live Production Centre (AV-HLC100).

The camera features a wide-angle of 24.5mm, with a high-powered optical 20x zoom lens and a new high-definition, high sensitivity 1.0-type 4K MOS sensor to enable 10-bit image quality and 4K (UHD) or FHD resolution recording at up to 50/60p, on to SDXC card. It also features a HLG gamma mode to support HDR image production.

Featuring a high brightness, high definition LCD, the camera provides SDI/ HDMI parallel outputs for enhanced operation and usability. Weighing just 1.9kg it has the added benefits of compact size and low power consumption.

A new, high-efficiency HEVC codec (LongGOP, 10-bit, 4:2:0/MOV) enables smooth playback and editing with a notebook PC or MacBook.

In addition, the camera supports a streaming function for Facebook and YouTube live with compatible RTSP and RTMP protocols. The camera will also support the MXF P2 file format futureproofing it for potential broadcasting applications, enabling AVC-Intra and AVC-LongG. Visit https://business.panasonic.sg/professional-camera/

Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 Update BLACKMAGIC CAMERAS 6.1 which is a new update for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. This update adds quieter audio recording, a new pixel remapping feature, new 2:1 monitoring frame guides, improved battery performance, and more.

Blackmagic Camera 6.1 update is available now as a free download from the Blackmagic Design website.

ACQUISITION

The new Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 significantly audio recording when using the built-in microphones on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. The new processing now analyses incoming audio from the dual microphones on each side of the camera to lower the noise floor, resulting in quieter recordings than possible before. In addition, latency has been reduced for audio monitoring, audio and video synchronisation has been fine-tuned, and the 3.5mm audio input selection interface is now more intuitive.

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Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 also improves auto-focus performance. Auto-focus now responds quicker and more accurately so that lens hunting is greatly reduced when the camera is locking on to the focal point. There’s also a new media formatting interface that helps prevent customers from accidentally formatting media cards. Once the camera is updated, customers will need to tap and hold the media format confirmation button for three seconds before a card will be erased and reformatted.

This update also includes a new in-camera calibration feature which allows customers to recalibrate pixels in the camera. Over time some pixels can change in brightness and create small variations across the sensor. The

new pixel calibration feature allows the camera to realign the light output of each pixel resulting in a smooth clean image under changing environmental conditions. Blackmagic Camera 6.1 update also features 2:1 monitoring frame guides, which is another creative composition tool for filmmakers to frame shots. In addition, new power savings and efficiency enhancements improve battery runtime by 10-15 percent and give customers a more accurate indication of remaining battery power.

Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 Update Key Features: • Adds support for pixel calibration in camera.

• Improves auto focus performance.

• Improves signal to noise ratio performance of the camera’s internal microphone.

• Improves power efficiency for improved battery life.

• Adds 2:1 monitoring frame guide.

• Improves media formatting user interface.

• Improves audio monitoring latency performance.

• Improves 3.5mm audio input selection interface.

• Improves AV sync performance.

Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

ACQUISITION

Sony VENICE Presses Flesh with Bad Mothers BAD MOTHERS IS A NEW eight-part drama series for Australia’s Channel Nine from Jungle Productions and Filthy Productions. Starring Tess Haubrich, Mandy McElhinney, Jessica Tovey, Shalom-Brune Franklin, Daniel MacPherson and Don Hany. It explores the underbelly of modern motherhood through the prism of four very different women. DoP on Bad Mothers is John Stokes ACS and the camera he chose to shoot the series is Sony’s new flagship VENICE next generation motion picture system with full frame sensor, phenomenal colour science and user-friendly operation.

Stokes explained, “I did some tests with VENICE and was astonished at how well it worked with flesh tones. The large format is excellent as is being able to work with 500 and 2500 ISO. VENICE also has some very clever functionality such as the ability to change the in-camera NDs one stop at a time up to 2.4.

With all of these factors and more it became evident that only the VENICE could give us the new, fresh look we wanted to implement on Bad Mothers from the ground up.”

VENICE is a cinema camera created by and for the cinematographer. It’s equipped with a newly developed full-frame image sensor meeting the needs of the film industry in pushing the boundaries of large format image capture with exceptional picture quality.

It’s not just John Stokes ACS who loves how the images the new Sony VENICE is creating for Bad Mothers, according to Stokes it’s the entire crew from the top down.

Stokes continued, “The VENICE is perfectly weighted and balanced and is great for shooting handheld which makes it very easy to work with. In fact, we use two VENICE cameras on Bad Mothers along with Zeiss Supreme Primes. We mainly shoot the wider shots with a 50mm on one VENICE and a tighter, over the shoulder with an 85mm on the other. There’s a real pattern to the vision with this set up and the VENICE’s sensor responds incredibly well to whatever light comes in and how the lenses accept that light.”

First AC B-CAM Keir Suggett added, “The VENICE is a great camera to work with. It just works as it says it will. No fancy workarounds required. The menus are better than ever before, less cluttered and it’s easier to find what you’re looking for. The short press menu and longer press menus are a real bonus, as is the fact that the most used functions are easily accessible on both sides of the camera – which is great if you’re pressed up against a wall. It’s also good to have the read out on camera operator side so they can easily see the settings.

The internal NDs and two base ISO settings are also a huge plus.”

With the wide latitude and gamut recorded by the VENICE, Stokes’ freedom of expression is significantly expanded on Bad Mothers. The camera’s userfriendly design, clear and simple menu navigation, and a highly durable, reliable construction allows him to simply concentrate on filming, and not the camera.

He added, “The VENICE gives you this lovely, silky, velvety look which is hard to explain until you see it and when you see it you can’t help but love it. When I’m using a T2 aperture there’s also a lovely fall off and look that just ‘happens’.

We shoot 16-bit X-OCN LT (eXtended tonal range Original Camera Negative) as by combining 16-bit precision with surprisingly moderate bit rates, X-OCN opens up a world of new production possibilities for us. X-OCN also produces file sizes much smaller than typical camera RAW, but offers 16-bit scene linear encoding, so we get the ultimate in tonal expression, longer record times, faster file transfers and more economical post-production.”

Stokes also makes good use of the VENICE’s simple ability to change resolution to save time, money and ensure continuity.

He explained: “We shoot X-OCN LT at 6K but we alternate between 6K and 4K on a daily basis as a changing the 50mm lens from 4K to 6K is the equivalent to going from a 50mm to a 33mm, so in order to save ourselves a lens change we simply change the resolution.”

First AC A-CAM Karina Davies agrees, “Having two base ISOs is fantastic as when you’re outside in harsh sunlight you can start with 500 ISO which is great, as if you started at 2500 and you were trying to stop down you’d get to 2.4 very quickly and then have nowhere else to go. With 500 you only go up to 2.1 maximum. As John said, being able to switch from 6K to 4K is great as it’s so quick, efficient and perfect for producing this kind of TV. Having the full range of NDs also really takes the pressure off us in terms of putting glass on the front which means John has more time up his sleeve and doesn’t have to compromise on the style, look and feel he wants to achieve. We’ve run the VENICE with every accessory imaginable and it hasn’t skipped a beat. The fast changing between modes means we will see VENICE cameras used to produce a great deal more of this kind of TV in 2019.”

John Stokes concluded, “The images we get are of the highest quality and yet the workflow is so simple and straightforward. There are no problems and the camera is consistent, predictable and reliable. As I said in the beginning, the best thing about the VENICE is the incredible way it works with flesh tones but overall, I just love working with this camera.”

Visit pro.sony.com.au or pro.sony.co.nz

Cooke Adds Zoom to Anamorphic/i SF Range for ‘Special Flair’ Stage

Anamorphic/i SF (Special Flair) lenses feature a specially developed coating that adds even more flare, in addition to the oval bokeh and other aberrations that are synonymous with the anamorphic look.

The new zoom lens is identical in every other aspect to the standard 35mm-140mm Anamorphic/i zoom. The Anamorphic/i SF is a true front anamorphic zoom with 2x squeeze, a cam-style focus mechanism, /i Technology to capture lens metadata, and, of course, the Cooke Look. Color and depth of field are matched to the rest of the Anamorphic/i SF range.

The Anamorphic/i SF range was used to shoot two of the biggest box office hits of October 2018, A Star Is Born (Warner Bros) and Venom (Sony).

Les Zellan, Chairman, Cooke Optics, said, “Cinematographers love the bokeh and the kicked-up flare that they get with the Anamorphic/i SF zoom lenses – this additional character, combined with the warmth of the Cooke Look, gives yet another option for storytelling. With many cinematographers asking us to add this ‘special flair’ to the family, we were happy to oblige.”

The Cooke Anamorphic/i SF 35mm-140mm zoom is now available to order.

Visit https://www.cookeoptics.com

ACQUISITION

COOKE OPTICS is pleased to announce the addition of a 35mm-140mm zoom lens to its Anamorphic/i SF family, due to the demand of cinematographers around the world.

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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Sky Racing Bets on LAWO’s Virtual Studio Manager for Control

SPORTSCASTING

PROFESSIONAL AUDIO & TELEVISION, in close cooperation with Sky Racing Australia (Tabcorp), has announced the successful rollout of LAWO’s Virtual Studio Manager (VSM) in Sky Racing’s Sydney and Melbourne sites.

The VSM control system brings together all the requirements for a safe and flexible broadcast operation for Sky Racing. The “everything under one roof” philosophy unites technical devices and operators in a most adaptable way. User panels and interfaces can be configured without limitation to meet the requirements of different workflows and applications, while the whole system is under redundant control.

Initially, Sky Racing opted for two medium-sized VSM systems with 6400 x 6400 cross-points, a modest amount of control ports for DANTE Matrix control, DMX control and control of their video routers in Sydney and Melbourne. In addition to the control ports, each system has storage groups enabled to create, load and save pre-sets including labels, cross-points, GPO states, parameters and panel layouts using mimic buttons.

Also enabled are vsmGadgets which allow Sky Racing to control up to 500 third party parameters. Each system has 18 virtual vsmPanels, which were custom configured to meet Sky Racing unique workflow requirements.

In its Sydney Frenchs Forest facility, Sky Racing uses VSM to unify all legacy systems to prepare for the transformation to IP. This will allow for seamless transition with the operations teams not affected by technological changes.

Over the years, different routing solutions supplied by different manufacturers had to be united under one overarching control layer to unify operational tasks.

Benefits also include centralised labelling of all incoming race tracks across both video labels within the control rooms, but also IFB and tech talkback keys on RTS talkback panels.

A second system has also been deployed in the new Tabcorp office in Collins

Street, Melbourne, where VSM is managing the routing of the Race Day Control Room. This comprises of 18 desks, each with three Genelec 8010APM speakers having DANTE audio routed into them via the VSM virtual control panels. All 54 Genelec speakers were also supplied by PAT with a DANTE monitoring bridge. PAT also supplied VSM configuration services in addition to indepth training for Sky Racing engineering staff.

Sky Racing’s Manager Media Technology, Dennis Dovale, commented, “We are very happy with the ability to bring various manufacturers under one common control layer to streamline operational workflows without operators having to worry what underlying equipment is being controlled. Our staff can concentrate on the production task at hand and worry less about the underlying technology.

PAT and LAWO have been great to work with and we see VSM as a clear way forward to allow our platforms to move from baseband into IP over the coming years.”

Professional Audio & Televisions’s Managing Director, Patrick Salloch, welcomed the opportunity of close co-operation.

“Sky Racing have been nothing but accommodating and cooperative, when it came to the implementation of VSM. Their Engineering department have been very willing and eager to learn about their new VSM system and we are looking forward to growing the system as operational requirements and technology advances evolve with Sky Racing’s business demands.”

Sky Racing and Professional Audio & Television will continue their close cooperation over the coming months while Sky undergoes a technology refresh.

Visit www.proaudiotv.com.au, www.lawo.com, www.skyracing.com.au and www.tab.com.au

Fox Sports Selects G&D KVM Digital Matrix System FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA has chosen the Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) 160 port ControlCenter-Digital KVM Digital Matrix System for its Artarmon broadcast facility. The final decision was made after consulting with the engineers at Chief Entertainment, next door, who have been using the G&D Control Centre KVM Matrix system for more than four years.

The KVM Matrix will allow Fox Sports to locate all their PCs and Servers in centralised secure and temperature-controlled locations, and provide agile remote control of the keyboard, mouse and monitor for each. Rooms and suites can easily be configured dynamically for different user requirements, based on a schedule or controlled by an orchestration tool.

SPORTSCASTING

The visual, interface and switching performance of the system is immediately apparent, with rapid switching between target devices, making it suitable for time-critical applications such as the studio control rooms.

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Another critical requirement for Fox Sports is its use of specialised interface devices, such as Contour ShuttlePro2 controllers for instant replay systems and Wacom pen tablets for edit suites – both of which G&D supports out of the box. For Fox Sports, it made the G&D system an easy choice for any application and any level of criticality.

“The G&D KVM system provided us with the most cost-effective solution with proven resilience and reliability,” stated Stephen Edwards, Director of Technology and Infrastructure, Fox Sports Australia.

The G&D ControlCenter-Digital160 KVM solution comes in a 6RU chassis with up to 160 dynamic ports. Aside from being available in sizes of 80 and 288 ports, it is also expandable and can easily interface to local or remote legacy systems. The Fox Sports system has a mixture of RJ45 and Fibre ports for further flexibility and long runs, boasting up to 140m on CAT6 and up to 10km on fibre.

With features like “Cross Display Switching”, single operators with the one keyboard and mouse can easily control multiple computers depending on which screen the mouse cursor has been moved to. That is, by moving the mouse cursor from one screen to the next, the operator will have full control of the PC associated with that screen, automatically and seamlessly.

Studiotech Australia supplied and commissioned the G&D KVM system as well as provided training for operators and technical staff.

Visit www.studiotechau.com

SPORTSCASTING

IP Made Easy Talk to the leader in open-standards IP installations

4K

In the race to live IP productions, with OB trucks, on-site production studios or remote (REMI) productions, you need a pace-setting partner that delivers: • The widest range of interoperable IP-ready solutions including cameras, production switchers, video servers, replay, infrastructure, conversion and multiviewers • Unique DirectIP connectivity provides IP communication directly between cameras and XCU base station

• Signal monitoring from beginning to end with unique media assurance technology • Proven installations throughout the world Copyright © 2019 Grass Valley Canada. All rights reserved.

Specifications subject to change without notice.

Join the conversation

SPORTSCASTING

• Easy to configure and control systems supporting self-discovery of IP edge devices, hitless redundancy, and policy-based security

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SPORTSCASTING

Grabyo Teams with Tennis Australia

New Era for Australian Open Tennis Coverage

CLOUD-BASED VIDEO PRODUCTION, editing and distribution platform, Grabyo has joined forces with Tennis Australia to enhance its international video content strategy and expand Tennis Australia’s reach across the globe.

FOR AUSTRALIA’S NINE NETWORK, 2019 marked the first time the former home of cricket had taken on the Grand Slam of the Australian Open tennis championships.

Grabyo’s cloud-based video platform is enabling Tennis Australia’s digital and social teams to create, edit and distribute real-time video clips and live streams to multiple social and digital platforms throughout its major domestic and international events in 2019.

The Australian Open is a major highlight in the global tennis calendar, drawing huge global interest; the 2018 Open reached over 900 million homes in more than 220 territories. Using Grabyo, Tennis Australia has streamlined its digital workflows and is scaling its presence in key markets around the world, leveraging the increasing demand for live streaming and VOD on multiple platforms and devices.

According to Xavier Muhlebach, Supervising Producer at Tennis Australia, “In 2019 we want to connect to fans all over the world faster and in a more personal way than ever before. Our global audience is incredibly engaged and hungry for great content, so by working with Grabyo we have created a content strategy that uniquely targets every possible market. Using this platform has given us the freedom to be creative and make great content without the concerns of distribution slowing us down.”

Tennis Australia will capture every key moment by creating and sharing clips using Grabyo Studio. The platform reduces the time and resources needed to produce real-time highlights including options for while allowing custom graphics and branding – an important attribute for audiences on mobile, social and OTT. Grabyo’s Producer platform will also enable Tennis Australia to create unique broadcasts for digital fans and live stream one-hour daily shows and other content directly to social media. Live content creates a community-based viewing experience, with commenting and discussion on live video and digital-first productions driving increased engagement and more memorable moments for a growing international fanbase.

Elliot Renton, Senior Director & Head of Asia-Pacific at Grabyo, said, “Grabyo is delighted to work with Tennis Australia. The team has bold and exciting ambitions to drive digital experiences as part of its international growth strategy and we are well positioned to help them deliver these. We have seen really strong engagement from tennis fans across the Grabyo platform and look forward to ensuring Tennis Australia connects with its global fan base more broadly than ever before.”

Visit www.grabyo.com

SPORTSCASTING

For its inaugural year as host broadcaster of Australian tennis, Nine unveiled a host of new innovations designed to make the game more enjoyable for home viewers.

In an Australian first, the network used 360°, Matrix-style cameras: immersive video technology that positions cameras right around the court to simultaneously capture every angle. The resulting vision gave viewers a panorama-like experience of the world’s greatest tennis players in action.

In another Australian television first, Nine used cutting-edge Viz Libero technology to combine realistic 3D replays with advanced virtual graphics, giving viewers insight into controversial or tactically interesting moments of play. The technology tracked player actions, analysed their errors, and predicted their future movements.

For the first time at the Australian Open, Nine also employed the use of a Wirecam to provide shots of Melbourne Park and its surrounds. The system ran almost 270 metres from the roof of Tennis Australia HQ, over Garden Square, towering across Show Court 3 and onto the outside courts beyond.

OB coverage was provided to Nine by Gearhouse Broadcast Australia.

Nine also employed a half-court which doubled as the network’s hosting set.

The outdoor studio provided a backdrop to its hosting of the Australian Open, and was home to its Today morning show during the tournament. The halfcourt was equipped with Hawk-Eye technology so commentators could take viewers through step-by-step analysis for each day’s play.

When not being used as a live television studio, the half-court was open to the public. Tennis enthusiasts were able to have their service speed measured and play half-court tennis against their friends.

Players also conducted pre- and post-game interviews on the half-court, with the public able to watch on.

In addition, a giant screen positioned in the half-court showcased Nine’s broadcast, providing general admission punters with a front-row seat to the premier matches.

Visit www.nineentertainmentco.com.au

University Sports Federation Signs with ABU

Infosys Creates Immersive Tennis Experience

THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SPORTS FEDERATION (FISU) and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) have announced a three-year agreement. which will see the ABU Sports Network distribute broadcast content from FISU sports events throughout the Asia-Pacific region to its members.

AS THE OFFICIAL DIGITAL INNOVATION PARTNER of the Australian Open, Infosys launched a series of big data and analytics, artificial intelligence as well as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) based experiences in Melbourne Park and on AO website. This is the first year of a three-year strategic partnership that was announced in September 2018.

As the global governing body of international university sports, FISU has an impressive collection of international sports events coming up, notably the Summer and Winter Universiades. The largest university multi-sport competitions in the world, the Winter Universiade will take place in Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation from 2-12 March, while the summer edition will take place in Naples, Italy from 3-14 July 2019. This year, two emerging FISU sport properties, the University World Cups in 3×3 Basketball and Football, will also be available to ABU members.

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From January 14, the network broadcast the tournament’s matches across its terrestrial channels Nine and 9Gem, as well as its VOD channel 9Now.

By visiting an Infosys Fan Zone, Australian Open fans had the opportunity to play against the greatest tennis players in the world on a virtual Rod Laver Arena, watch the Australian Open live from on court via a VR headset, and shop for Australian Open merchandise and clothing, all using virtual reality and augmented reality technology at the Official AO Virtual Reality Store.

The ABU Sports Network is a platform to share and exchange audio video content from major sports events. The platform also offers an enhanced content distribution system where ABU members can freely access daily highlights and will soon offer live streaming.

Fans at home and on-site could also engage with matches in new and unique ways through the use of Match Beats. Match Beats is a refreshed way for fans to look at live tennis scores, akin to musical notes of a match.

These insights let fans understand how the match flowed, where the ups and downs were, and where players were serving better and returning better. On top of this, “Infosys AI Clips” provided a recap video of matches showing key highlights in near-real-time, shared on social media.

Visit www.abu.org.my

Visit www.infosys.com

SPORTSCASTING

PA People Give Sydney FC ‘Carte Blanche’ for Audio THE P.A. PEOPLE HAS RECREATED its iconic ‘Speaker Carts’ which are designed to provide quality sound reinforcement in stadiums. This significantly expands the company’s inventory of Bose ShowMatch Delta-Q cabinets and Linea Research amplification.

range solution with exceptionally even coverage both vertically and horizontally. Array cabinets and subs can be added to the ‘Carts’ to achieve appropriate vertical coverage and sound pressure levels for entertainment applications.

“Shortly after we deployed our first Bose ShowMatch system for the Sydney Kings [basketball team] in Qudos Bank Arena in October, we were approached by Sydney FC [soccer team] to look at providing a system for their home matches at Jubilee Oval in Kogarah and Leichardt Oval over the next three years. We were very happy with the sound of the ShowMatch system for the Kings, so we set about working out the best way to deploy a system around a football field on a weekly basis. The end result is a reimagining of the Speaker Carts that we built for SuperLeague over twenty years ago,” commented Chris Dodds, Managing Director of The P.A. People.

Each Bose ‘Cart’ is designed to house an array of ShowMatch cabinets flanked by two SMS118 18” subwoofers. Under the rear sub cabinet is an amplifier sleeve that houses a Linea Research 44M20 four channel amplifier and a network switch. Under the front sub is the steering axle, while the space behind the array cabinets houses a flip up panel concealing the mains and signal connector panels.

The ‘Carts’ leverage ShowMatch’s unique Delta-Q array technology. In its standard configuration each ‘Cart’ array comprises a SM20 20degree, SM10 10 degree and an SM5 5-degree cabinet. As the vertical coverage decreases the output of each cabinet increases, providing a natural gradient of SPL without having to shade the power applied to each box. Coupled with the selection of wave guides the ShowMatch system is able to provide a high-power full

Mechanically the Bose ‘Carts’ ride on four turf tyres and feature a front retractable draw bar and a concealed rear hitch enabling the units to be towed in a line. These are towed into place behind a Kubota diesel UTV which forms part of The P.A. People ‘Cart’ package. Each unit is 2400 long, 800mm wide and sits at around 900mm high, and comes complete with a full set of 75mm sports grade padding to the rear and ends, to reduce the risk of player injury.

Both of The P.A. People’s ShowMatch systems are powered by Dante enabled Linea Research 44M20 amplifiers, each capable of developing 20kW of power over four channels in a 2ru high chassis. As you would expect, the amps feature a comprehensive DSP based signal processing and management chain and their own control application.

The P.A. People have again opted for an entirely Dante based signal distribution system for the Cart system. Each unit is interconnected with a loom comprising a 32A Ceeform mains cable and a single mode OpticalCon four core fibre cable. Optical interconnection was chosen for electrical safety, eliminating the possibility of earth loops from different mains sources, as well as providing a second fibre path that can be utilised for video or comms applications.

The system for Sydney FC is supplemented with a comprehensive Clear-Com Communications system centred around a HelixNet digital partyline system and a FreeSpeak II wireless solution.

Visit www.papeople.com.au

SPORTSCASTING

Video Over IP Solu ons

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SPORTSCASTING

Player Tracking-Powered Stadium Adverts AT SEPARATE FOOTBALL MATCHES in Denmark and the Netherlands, ChyronHego has introduced a new solution by pairing the company's TRACAB optical tracking system and Click Effects PRIME graphics authoring system. For both matches, ChyronHego worked with competition organisers, teams, and their sponsors to create a first-of-its-kind LED perimeter-board display at pitch level that graphically tracks a player's movements, including stats such as speed and distance travelled, using real-time TRACAB data.

captivating fans but for creating new sponsor opportunities and revenue streams."

The first competition match to host this unique TRACAB-Click Effects PRIME solution was a UEFA Nations League match between Denmark and Republic of Ireland, driven by the Danish Football Association (Dansk Boldspil-Union or DBU) and sponsored by Denmark's national lottery provider and DBU Sponsor, Danske Spil A/S. The next match was between Heracles Almelo and VVV-Venlo in the Netherlands' Eredivisie league and represented the first time the technology was provided at the domestic league level. Both DBU and the Dutch Eredivisie football league are current users of TRACAB to capture player and team performance analytics. TRACAB optical tracking solutions are installed league-wide in both the Danish Superliga (where DBU play their home games in league stadia) and Eredivisie stadiums.

"Traditional rotating arena ads tend to be disconnected from the players and the action, but this solution takes sponsored graphics to a whole new level," said Teus Groenewoud, director of product development, ChyronHego. "With the cameras trained on a player and the specialized LED graphic behind him following his movements and displaying his real-time data, sponsors have an unprecedented opportunity to engage viewers and hold their attention. They can even build promotions around the data; for example, a sportswear brand could promote the player with the top speed who is wearing the brand's boots."

"The idea of combining live, real-time TRACAB data with Click Effects PRIME had been discussed with some of our key sports customers for a while," said Niall Hendry, product manager, ChyronHego. "Finally, with these two productions, we were able to prove how well the two systems seamlessly complement each other and how compelling data-driven player graphics can be, not only for

With the Click Effects PRIME software serving as an intuitive and integrated graphics authoring front-end, operators are able to generate and control the LED presentations without the need for specialized training or sophisticated computer graphics equipment. They can access the line-up for the match and then choose which player to assign to the LED boards.

The TRACAB-Click Effects PRIME application at the DBU match holds particular promise for the sports betting industry, considering the sponsorship by Danske Spil, Denmark's national lottery and betting organization. With football fans' huge and growing appetite for player and club statistics, betting companies will be able to present and leverage the data in new and profitable ways - and even eventually put odds on factors such as player speed and distance covered.

Visit www.chyronhego.com

EBU Extends Reach of Winter Sports with FTA Coverage in China IN JULY 2015, Beijing was elected as the host city for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, kick-starting a major initiative to build a Chinese winter sports spectator fan-base and drive participation. To support this initiative, demand for premium winter sports content on Chinese channels has increased.

This season, CCTV-5 Sports Channel is the official rights-holder for Swiss-Ski live events in Snowboard Park and Pipe and Freestyle, taking place in LAAX, Scuol, Veysonnaz and Silvaplana.

The channel reaches a potential audience of 220

million households.

In parallel, Eurovision Sport is making ten of the FIS sanctioned World Cup events hosted by Swiss-Ski available to CCTV-5, TenCent (China’s largest social media platform) and the Snow and Ice Channel as news and highlights, with Chinese commentary.

A dedicated Swiss-Ski SINA Weibo social media account is also being instigated to provide the latest race results and information.

CCTV is taking particular interest in Biathlon due to the participation of the Chinese national teams on the World Cup circuit this season. The International Biathlon Union is providing unilateral coverage of Team China through its own TV team as part of market-familiarisation for Chinese fans as the country prepares to host an IBU World Cup in 2021, as a test event for the Olympic Winter Games in 2022.

Visit https://www.ebu.ch

PRESENTING THE INAUGURAL

Ovum 5G Australia Summit Tuesday 12 March 2019

|

The Westin Sydney

SPORTSCASTING

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Michelle Rowland MP, Shadow Minister for Communications

Dennis Wong, Managing Director Networks, Optus

Chris Althaus, Chief Executive, Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association

David Kennedy, Practice leader, Ovum

Kevin Bloch, Chief Technology Officer, Cisco ANZ

Steven Deskovic, Director Telecom and Media Industry Sales APAC, IBM

Nicole McCormick, Practice Leader – Broadband and Multiplay, Ovum

Els Baert, Director of Marketing and Communications, NetComm Wireless

BRONZE SPONSOR:

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Channa Seneviratne, Network Engineering Executive, Telstra

REGISTER NOW www.informa.com.au/5g

NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations

Sarah Ferguson Appointed ABC China Bureau Chief SARAH FERGUSON, one of Australia’s most respected journalists, has been appointed China Bureau Chief as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation expands its commitment to covering this increasingly powerful nation, and the Asia-Pacific region, at this fascinating and crucial time.

Ferguson takes over the role later this year, joining fellow China Correspondent Bill Birtles in Beijing, after completing her current project: a major three-part documentary series for ABC TV. “The China story is irresistible for a journalist,” Ferguson says. “It has become the story of our time — and one with immense implications for Australia.

Understanding China and the Chinese perspective is vital.

“This is a unique opportunity to join the Beijing bureau and continue the first rate analysis and coverage my colleagues have produced.”

Gaven Morris, Director ABC NEWS, says: “Now more than ever Australians need quality, in-depth coverage of China through Australian eyes. Delivering that for our audiences will be a key element of the ABC’s international newsgathering in 2019, as well as an enhanced focus on the Asia-Pacific.

“Having journalists on the ground is essential. And having reporters of the calibre of Sarah Ferguson and Bill Birtles is a huge strength. They will tell the

stories, explain the issues and analyse the impacts for our audiences across our programs and platforms.”

Ferguson is a multi-award winning journalist and one of the ABC’s editorial leaders. In addition to her documentary work, she has been a reporter with weekly investigative flagship Four Corners for a decade, as well as presenting the program for the past three years.

“Reporting at Four Corners has been rewarding and demanding – the program is a journalistic powerhouse,” Ferguson says. “In my ten years, many talented people have given me a huge breadth of knowledge and experience that I am grateful to take with me on this new adventure.”

Visit www.abc.net.au

Weather Graphics for All Seasons WEATHER GRAPHICS SOLUTIONS PROVIDER, MetraWeather, has launched Weatherscape Scenes, an automatically updated service which produces generic clips of weather content for on-demand purchase.

For almost 25 years, the New Zealand-based company has been providing WeatherScape XT, a computer-based graphics and data management system for weather presentation, primarily for broadcast but also, for general media application. The system is used by customers in Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia-New Zealand. Also in the MetraWeather stable is Weatherscape Clip, a service which provides customised pre-rendered weather clips complete with the broadcaster’ branding.

“The concept of Weatherscape Scenes is to provide weather clips on demand,” says Tom Sutherland, MetraWeather’s General Manager, Asia.

“These are generic clips of weather as it’s occurring, as its forecast to occur, which are pre-rendered and uploaded to the Media Beach content delivery network. Users can go in and grab that content on a daily basis as they want to and make their own weather shows out of that, or they can potentially subscribe to the service, as well.

“We’re providing, basically, the standard content that most broadcasters would use on a typical daily weather broadcast, which includes the forecast about rain, forecast temperature, town and city forecasts across the region, wind flow, potential storm activity from tropical cyclones and typhoons in the region. And that content is provided in three graphic styles in which the user can select and download.”

Weatherscape Scenes are generally provided as 10-second HD MPEG movies, but the system can also transcode to other formats if desired.

Movies are rendered via an Amazon cloud platform using data provided by MetraWeather and then automatically updated on the Media Beach video marketplace.

“There are really two types of weather data,” says Tom Sutherland. “One is observational data, which is things like observations, satellite imagery, radar data, current temperature observations and weather observations, and so on. That’s observational data, and then there’s forecast data. The observational data tends to get updated much more frequently, probably at least hourly. Satellite images get updated all the time. Forecast data gets updated typically in six-hourly blocks.”

Visit https://metraweather.com/media/data-visualisation

Ooyala Teams with DPP on Metadata in News Production

The company recently showcased the integration of its Ooyala Flex Media Platform at the DPP’s Metadata for News – Innovation Day event at the London headquarters of DPP Member ITV. “In an increasingly lightning-quick environment, news organisations are looking to media asset management and content delivery with metadata that is both accurate and relevant at every step in the process,” said Bea Alonso, director of global product marketing at Ooyala. “The DPP is doing important work in this area, and this week’s event promises to mark a significant step toward the goal of global industry standardisation.”

Using Metadata Exchange for News, metadata generated in newsroom planning systems can be transferred to cameras, and from cameras ingested into media asset management systems, then delivered to a publishing system.

The theory is news organisations will quickly be able to get breaking news stories to air, and to manage rights issues more easily as news packages and clips are clearly marked with copyright and restriction information. Content search and discovery will be improved with access to keyword search, enabling greater lifespans for content.

“News organisations want journalists and correspondents to be focused on the story, not the process,” said DPP managing director Mark Harrison.

“With the participation of leading companies, like Ooyala, in the media-assetmanagement and workflow-automation fields, we will advance more quickly toward these important objectives.”

Visit www.ooyala.com and www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk

NEWS OPERATIONS

OOYALA IS WORKING WITH the UK-based Digital Production Partnership (DPP) on its efforts to advance global news-industry standards for the use of metadata. The DPP’s initiative, Metadata Exchange for News, is designed to help establish standards for application in every step of delivering news content - from planning and newsgathering to production, distribution, display and archive.

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NEWS OPERATIONS

Asiaworks Adopts Sachtler Flowtech100 for ENG ASIAWORKS, AN INDEPENDENT media company with locations in Bangkok, Beijing, Singapore, and Jakarta, has adopted Sachtler’s all-new flowtech100 carbon-fibre tripod for use in a wide range of demanding electronic newsgathering (ENG) and live news environments. With its stability, capacity to support a payload of up to 30 kilograms, and compatibility with all major 100mm fluid heads, flowtech100 is optimised for AsiaWorks’ heavy-duty ENG workflows.

AsiaWorks camera operators have tested flowtech100 at a variety of onlocation shoots, including coverage of earthquakes in Lombok, Indonesia; the Asian Games in Jakarta; and the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Bali.

Payloads ranged from DSLR cameras to a Sony FS7 and an ARRI Amira.

Exclusive carbon-fibre technology makes flowtech100 extremely strong and lightweight and yet offers outstanding torsional stiffness. Quick-release brakes conveniently located at the top of the tripod enable the legs to be deployed simultaneously, each leg adjusts automatically to the ground’s surface, saving operators from having to bend over and manually adjust multiple brakes on each leg. These are important features for AsiaWorks because much of its onlocation work is filmed by a single individual who requires the ability to move quickly from location to location.

“Since our mobile crews often find themselves in remote and challenging locations, having the right gear is essential. That’s why we’re so excited about flowtech100,” said Andrew Fisher, head of operations, AsiaWorks. “With its rugged construction and ability to support heavy payloads, the tripod is ideal for heavy-duty newsgathering. At the same time, flowtech100 is extremely lightweight, rugged, and easy to carry, and - quite honestly - it’s one of the easiest and fastest-deploying tripods I’ve ever used.”

In addition to the flowtech100 carbon-fibre mid-level spreader - which adds stability when the tripod is used on uneven terrain - Sachtler has just launched a new ground spreader that connects the three tripod legs at ground level for use on even surfaces, such as pavement. Both spreaders can be instantly removed, enabling crews to adjust the tripod as low as 26cm from the ground.

“This height accommodation is one of our favourite flowtech100 features,” Fisher said. “In one instant, we can position the camera at eye level to conduct an interview, and in the next, we’re at ground level to capture a particular action shot like a kick of a ball. It means we can get dramatic ground-level shots without having to lug around an additional, smaller tripod.”

Fisher applauded other flowtech100 features, such as the threaded mounting points that AsiaWorks crews use for attaching monitors and other peripheral gear, the built-in carry handle, and the magnets for securing the legs.

“The fantastic feature set is what makes flowtech100 an essential newsgathering tool and really sets it apart from other tripods we’ve used,” Fisher added. “As we add this new tripod to our permanent gear inventory, I am confident that we will use it in any situation requiring us to be nimble and fast-moving, thereby ensuring we can cover breaking news and capture the exceptional footage for which AsiaWorks is known.”

Visit www.flowtech-tripod.com and www.asiaworks.com

Ross Video Launches XPression v8.5 ROSS VIDEO HAS RELEASED XPression version 8.5, which brings several new features and enhancements to the industry’s fastest-growing set of real-time motion graphics systems, clip servers, workflow tools and purpose-built software applications.

XPression’s unrivaled cache management will now be part of 64-bit editions of XPression Studio, XPression BlueBox and XPression Prime, allowing customers to create even larger XPression projects. In addition to the performance benefits offered by 64-bit applications (which can access greater resources on the host computer), XPression Studio 64-bit edition users will now find a Cinema4D import tool, allowing designers to bring scenes from Maxon’s Cinema4D application into XPression’s real-time motion graphics workflows.

XPression 8.5 includes user-centric new features such as a Global Search tool to find any assets in the current project with a simple text string, an HTML5 edition of the XPression MOS plug-in for cross-platform newsroom systems like Ross Video’s Inception and the XPression Gateway’s new Connection Group Configuration, which enables the set-up of multiple configurations (ranging from multiple control rooms to setting up primary

and backup XPression engine configurations). Also included in this new version is Adobe Premiere Pro CC2019 for Windows NLE Workflow support.

Version 8.5 also bring some DataLinq enhancements including new sources for horse racing data, Improved support for international Unicode text input methods, and browse to file capability for ADODB sources.

Visit www.rossvideo.com

HK Cable TV Launches Greater Bay Area News Centre HONG KONG CABLE TELEVISION LIMITED has officially launched its Greater Bay Area News Centre. The GBA News Centre, located in Guangzhou with correspondent from Hong Kong, is dedicated to bringing viewers with the latest news and finance information of the Bay Area as well as talks of the town in the regions.

NEWS OPERATIONS

The company says it is dedicated to becoming one of the leading media organisations in the Bay Area.

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Mr Ronald Chiu, Executive Director of i-CABLE News Limited, said, “As an international financial centre in Asia, Hong Kong plays an important role for the development of Great Bay Area. The demand for finance news and information of the regions is growing rapidly. In view of this, the GBA News Centre was established to produce quality and professional news and finance programmes to help foster information exchange among “9+2″ cities. Furthermore, we will be able to keep up with the latest news in the regions with our dedicated

GBA news team and correspondents in Guangzhou to collect the first-hand information.”

To keep viewers updated on the new developments of the regions, our GBA News Centre will introduce GBA Express, a prime-time news programme covering the hottest news of the day. The GBA news team will connect simultaneously with Cable TV’s news centre in Hong Kong for information exchange. The team will also work around the member cities to conduct live reporting and interviews with prominent guests to produce news reports with professional analysis.

In addition, the team will produce other programmes including Bay Area Elites, a series of exclusive interviews with key figures of various industries in the regions. Another programme Here you are, Bay Area, will present viewers with the latest developments of the “9+2″ cities.

Visit www.i-cablecomm.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

NEWS OPERATIONS

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NEWS OPERATIONS

Smartphone Kit from Shure

Carbonite Ultra Production Switcher ROSS VIDEO HAS ANNOUNCED that following a limited manufacturing run for specific customers and partners, the new Carbonite Ultra production switcher is now in full production and available to customers worldwide.

The new Carbonite Ultra, introduced at IBC 2018, uses the latest FPGA technology and distils the best elements of the Carbonite series into a single, compact platform.

Within an entirely-new 1RU chassis, Carbonite Ultra provides 24-inputs, 14-outputs and an improved version of the flexible Carbonite feature set. Built on Ross Video’s software-defined production philosophy, Carbonite Ultra is a versatile piece of hardware that can easily adapt to a variety of production applications. Carbonite Ultra is configurable with 1-3 MEs, a complete I/O signalprocessing toolkit and comprehensive MultiViewer monitoring resources.

Carbonite Ultra ships with V1.0 software and 240 per cent more processing power than the original Carbonite. Carbonite Ultra’s next software release will unlock 12G/UHD support for systems with the 2ME license.

Visit www.rossvideo.com

Iridium CertusSM Global Broadband Service Goes Live IRIDIUM COMMUNICATIONS INC. has launched its Iridium Certus broadband service, the first new capability activated from the company’s US$3 billion Iridium NEXT satellite replacement program. Iridium Certus offers on-the-move internet and high-quality voice access.

“Iridium Certus is an innovation engine for the future. It will enable us to provide broadband connections to teams, vehicles and the important IoT “things” that are in the 80-plus percent of the world that lacks cellular coverage,” said Iridium CEO Matt Desch.

Aside from operating on the only truly global satellite constellation, According to the company, Iridium Certus terminals are smaller in form factor, will offer higher speeds and are more cost-effective than competitive L-band broadband offerings. Terminals are being built by Cobham (maritime), Thales (maritime, aviation and land-mobile), Collins Aerospace (aviation), L3 (aviation), Gogo (aviation) and Satcom Direct (aviation). And to date, 36 world-class service providers are authorised by Iridium to provide the service around the world.

Iridium is debuting the service, which will feature a variety of speed classes, with the Iridium Certus 350 (352/352 Kbps) offering, which supports capabilities like internet and high-quality voice services to compact terminals built specifically for maritime, aviation and terrestrial/vehicle applications.

Terminals will be upgradable to the next speed class, Iridium Certus 700 (352/704 Kbps), with a firmware update once available.

Iridium Certus is powered by the low earth orbit Iridium satellite network, comprised of 66 crosslinked satellites that create a web of coverage around

NEWS OPERATIONS

the entire planet. Unlike other satellite systems, Iridium’s crosslinked

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architecture enables real-time transit of data to and from any location on the globe without the need for abundant ground stations and allows it to maintain consistent, high quality coverage, including over the oceans and polar regions. https://www.iridium.com/services/iridium-certus/

SHURE HAS UNVEILED the MV88+ Video Kit, featuring a digital stereo condenser microphone that provides content creators with an all-in-one solution for capturing professionalquality recordings on-the-go. The kit also includes a Manfrotto PIXI tripod, phone clamp, and mount as well as iOS and USB-C cables for compatibility and connectivity.

Built on the success and classic design of the MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone, this latest addition to the Company’s MOTIV line of digital microphones and portable recording solutions delivers Shure signature audio quality. Designed for podcasters, videographers, content creators, and field recordists looking to record immersive, rich, high-quality audio wherever, the MV88+ transforms a smartphone device into a professional-level mobile audio and video rig.

Compatible with iOS and other selected devices, the MV88+ Video Kit equips users with a variety of new and improved accessories, arming them with the tools and versatility needed for recording on-the-go. To ensure real-time audio assessment, a headphone jack lets users record with confidence. A convenient phone clamp and tripod stand multiplies the types of environments users can record in.

The MV88+ can also be used for standalone audio capture, replacing the need for field recordists to carry a portable audio recorder.

Visit www.jands.com.au

Dejero Cloud-Based Management System DEJERO HAS BOOSTED the features within its cloud-based management system, Dejero Control. The expanded capabilities of Control further simplify the workflows of broadcasters and content providers enabling expanded device sharing and metadata generation.

Leveraging the integrated cloud workflow, a automated and customisable recorded clip metadata feature allows users in the field or back at the control room to edit and add metadata to clips via the Dejero Control interface. Station administrators can create a custom metadata template that is used across all clips to add relevant auto-generated metadata defined by the templates. Users at the station can now quickly search and find relevant content - saving them significant time.

A metadata template is applied to all ingested clips at the station level and users can select from a list of ten pre-set fields, such as geolocation and acquisition date - all auto populated from the transmitter. Users can also add free-form fields that station operators can define to further organise recorded clips.

The system also offers an expanded device sharing capability that allows broadcasters to temporarily route a feed from a field transmitter to a partner station or broadcaster. Building upon this capability, broadcasters can now also share access to receivers. This adds flexibility to how stations integrate with other stations or freelancers in the field. Dejero users can now send or receive video with the transmitters and receivers set up within the ‘device sharing’ feature in Control.

The simple UI of Dejero Control allows station operators to provide freelancers or other collaborators access to route content, while a cloudbased infrastructure permits device sharing to provide secure, controlled interoperability between stations and freelancers.

Metadata and expanded device sharing capabilities continue to build on the features of Dejero Control to support broadcasters in transforming their workflows. Existing Control features including real-time analytics, usage reports and notifications, remote controlled settings, and transmitter health monitoring combined with the new features all aim to simplify time-consuming processes allowing broadcasters to focus on the work that matters most and automate their workflows driving improved efficiencies.

Visit www.dejero.com.

• • • • •

Up to 20TB to protect immense amounts of hi-res footage Fast speeds up to 440MB/s Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for 4K workflows Innovative design with RAID for reliability Built in SD and CF card slots

• • • • •

Up to 120TB to protect immense amounts of hi-res footage Up to 2600MB/s speeds to edit 6K video Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for daisy chaining RAID-protected solution. Improve data access and security Enterprise-class drives (Seagate IronWolf Pro)

DATA RECOVERY SERVICES

Includes 5-year services

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

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POST PRODUCTION www.content-technology.com/postproduction

Animal Logic Goes Live with HQ Trivia for Lego Animation Experience THE RELEASE OF The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part from Warner Bros. Pictures is nigh, and as part of the lead-up, Animal Logic, the animation and FX house responsible for ‘construction’ of the long-awaited sequel, and online app, HQ Trivia, teamed up for a live animation experience with host Scott Rogowsky transformed into a Lego mini-figure.

out his tongue.

The broadcast originated live from Animal Logic’s Sydney studio. Animal Logic’s team of artists, technicians and animators worked closely with HQ Trivia and Warner Bros. Pictures, with the Unreal engine from Epic Games, to execute the live and interactive animation that brought Scott Rogowsky’s LEGO mini-figure to life, achieving a seamless and organic stop-motion feel that best represented the look and movement of the iconic toy characters in real-time.

The February event saw over half a million phones connected at one time to tap into the experience.

The live HQ show lasted over 20 minutes and, according to Animal Logic opened doors for new possibilities in the world of animation as we currently know it.

Rogowsky wore a skin-tight, but wireless suit that included 12 sensors for virtual motion capture and a shoulder mounted facial capture rig. There was no camera used for the broadcast.

Players competed live for cash and rare LEGO collectibles.

While dispensing questions, HQ Trivia host Scott Rogowsky demonstrated he was live by prompting the audience to control what he did on screen. In real-time he read the requests live and on command he winked, nodded and even stuck

Visit www.animallogic.com

Teradici Partners with Avid for Secure Remote Video Editing TERADICI, THE DEVELOPER OF PCoIP technology and Cloud Access Software, has entered into a collaboration with Avid to offer a remote video editing solution for professional editors, movie makers, and multimedia journalists. The new joint solution combines the Teradici PCoIP-powered Cloud Access Software and Avid Media Composer | Cloud VM to enable these creative professionals the ability to securely access and edit video content remotely from their private data centre or from the public cloud with low latency and full colour accuracy.

“With our PCoIP-powered Cloud Access Software available with Media Composer, the loyal Avid user base now has the ability to utilise virtualized infrastructure to full potential during the creation process,” said David Smith, CEO of Teradici. “We are committed to empowering more film and editorial professionals by offering our leading remote visualization technology through valued partners. This new solution enables creative professionals to run their workflows in virtualized

infrastructure enabling effective content creation, collaboration and delivery without the security risks, inefficiencies and compliance challenges of locally managed assets.”

Under the collaboration: • Avid and Teradici will jointly offer an ultrasecure, high performance solution in which Cloud Access Software enables remote access to remote Avid video editing software, Media Composer | Cloud VM, from any virtualized infrastructure • Avid will join the Teradici partner ecosystem to directly offer Teradici Cloud Access and Cloud Access Plus subscriptions to Avid Media Composer | Cloud VM customers • Media Composer | Cloud VM users will now benefit from the flexibility to access and manage their latest editing projects and workloads from any location “Top editors in the film, television, and broadcast industry rely on Media Composer to help them

deliver compelling content regardless of where they are. Avid is continuously expanding Media Composer’s features and offerings to enable editing to happen from anywhere,” said Raymond Thompson, Director Broadcast and Media Solutions at Avid. “Partnering with Teradici to include Cloud Access Software in our offering will enable Media Composer customers using specialized technology to work remotely and securely using Teradici high-performance PCoIP technology.”

Avid users can now purchase using specialised technology Teradici Cloud Access and Cloud Access Plus subscription plans available through Avid and Avid resellers. Avid can also enable customer trials of the joint solution and transition from proof of concept to production.

Visit https://www.teradici.com/products/cloudaccess/cloud-access-software and www.avid.com

POST PRODUCTION

HPA IMF UG Looks Beyond Time Code

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AT THIS YEAR’S Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Tech Retreat, the HPA IMF UG (Interoperable Master Format User Group) announced that the first product of the group, the Best Practices Document on Timecode in IMF, is available for download. The HPA IMF UG is the first user group formed by HPA, and serves as a forum for users and implementers of the IMF family of standards. The HPA IMF UG includes more than 100 members from around the world and this first output from the user group is considered a significant milestone.

IMF is an international standard published by SMPTE, and the solution for interchange of component-based audio-visual masters. The document recommends behaviour of IMF systems when interacting with SMPTE Timecode (SMPTE ST 12-1).

Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Chairman of the IMF UG noted, “Timecode was

a perfect topic for the UG given its historical use in mastering workflows, where IMF excels. While storing timecode information is not forbidden in IMF, timecode is never used for synchronisation since it cannot tackle the requirements of modern component-based workflows. The Best Practice document recommends that timecode not be routinely included in IMF.” The HPA IMF UG hopes that the best practice will help adopters avoid common pitfalls when adapting legacy content to component-based workflows and IMF. Barbara Lange, Executive Director of HPA and SMPTE, noted that “The development of viable user groups is an important part of what HPA can bring to relevant industry issues. We are delighted to see the fruit of the labour of this engaged group, tackling a topic that is of direct concern to our community.”

The best practice is a living document which is available free-of-charge at https://www.imfug.com/TR/timecode-in-imf/.

POST PRODUCTION

HDRmaster 8K Toolset GERMANY’S FF PICTURES has released HDRmaster 8K, a standalone software toolset for Microsoft Windows 8 and 10 with several features for performing quality analysis and essential metadata tasks in HDR productions with up to 8K (7680×4320 pixels) resolution.

HDRmaster 8K is the successor of HDRmaster v2 which is already in use by Ultra-HD Bluray facilities, post-production houses, studios and manufacturers worldwide.

EDITSHARE’S LIGHTWORKS non-linear editor (NLE) version 14.5 (Windows, Mac, and Linux) offers over 70 new features and 500 improvements. Topping the list of creative capabilities for the NLE is support for popular smartphone and tablet formats and variable frame rates, a new comprehensive histogram and GPU precision options for accurate colour grading, and improved third-party VFX and audio roundtripping support.

There’s a total of 10 independent analysers and modules within HDRmaster 8K, each one to fulfil an essential task: • HDR Inspector (automated analysis and calculations for Quality Control and static/ dynamic metadata).

• Metadata and Signal Levels (MaxCLL and MaxFALL analysis, allowing to compare real signal and nominal values).

Lightworks 14.5 Feature Highlights include:

• Statistics (advanced frame statistics for different metrics on luminance distribution)

• Support for variable frame rates (.mov .mp4, .m4v) – Ending the need to transcode content from non-traditional broadcast cameras, Lightworks 14.5 users can simply drag files directly into your project and begin working immediately.

• Chromaticity Diagram (CIE 1976 and CIE 1931 diagram representation of the content).

• Enhanced handling of .MOD and .TOD files – Lightworks 14.5 now offers format support for JVC Everio formats via .TOD file extension. Native support for the .MOD file extension from cameras from JVC, Panasonic, and Canon.

• Heatmap (False color representation of the luminance, MaxRGB, chroma or hue values).

• New Adjustable RED R3D RAW metadata parameters – New individual clip R3D decode settings panel and projectwide R3D Decode settings improve the workflow between RED Film cameras and Lightworks 14.5.

• New File Structure Support - Lightworks 14.5 now supports XDCAM HD, AVCHD, GFCAM, JVC, GoPro, FlipVideo, and Canon folder structures. It also supports Ikegami FieldPak and chunked Canon XF clips.

• Enhanced Colour with GPU precision options and Histogram Graphs - Colour Grading is even easier in Lightworks 14.5 thanks to the powerful new 16bit and 32bit GPU Precision options. Users can also check colour details against the new Lightworks Histogram Graph panel.

• Color Analyzer (RAW and decoded values including Luminance values and Chroma coordinates for selected pixels).

• Histogram (RGB or Luminance histograms, linear or logarithmic scale).

• Oscilloscope (Pixel profile for lines or in between cursors to show detailed gradations).

• Test Pattern Q/C (detailed analysis of test patches in a digital leader (delivered with HDRmaster) with pass/fail results).

• Dynamic Metadata (creating and editing of HDR10+ dynamic metadata, including graphical representation and automated suggestions for values and the ability to write it to .JSON or .MP4 files).

A growing number of input formats are currently supported by HDRmaster 8K. Most importantly, the software is designed to check and process encoded files for distribution to end consumers (.MP4, .TS, .HEVC, .H265, .H264). This includes video files for Ultra HD Blu-ray authoring but also supports image sequences which are commonly used prior to encoding (TIFF, DNG, DPX, Open EXR).

Visit http://ff.de

Boris FX Sapphire 2019

• Export to REAPER (Lightworks Pro only) - Export Lightworks 14.5 audio compositions directly to REAPER for further editing, processing, or mixing.

THE NEWEST VERSION OF SAPPHIRE 2019 is now available. Sapphire 2019 from Boris FX delivers new creative effects to editors, VFX artists, and motion graphics artists.

• Added support for decode/encode of Cineform codecs - Lightworks 14.5 users can now transcode, render or generate Cineform proxies for smooth and efficient editing.

With Lightworks 14.5 Pro, users can export directly to the Cineform.

• Lens Flare Designer has been completely overhauled and redesigned with a fully customisable UI, a new flare component workflow, and tons of new pre-sets designed by the pros.

• Support for Fusion 9 on Mac - Integration with Fusion 9 (Mac) opens up collaborative round tripping visual effects workflow for Lightworks 14.5 users.

• Project-Wide LUTs – Control the look and feel of your project by adding a project-wide LUT to all your media including the exported file.

• Voice Over and Mackie MIDI support for Linux users Simplify adding narratives by recording direct to your timeline and mix audio levels with the new Lightworks 14.5 voiceover tool and Mackie MIDI device.

• Set Entire Range Cue Marker - Previously users of Lightworks have only been able to mark an individual frame, with Lightworks 14.5 they can mark an entire range.

Lightworks 14.5 is available in either the Free or Pro version.

Download Lightworks 14.5 for free now, or purchase the Pro version for a month, year or outright licence.

Visit www.editshare.com

New in Sapphire 2019:

• PixelSort: A trendy, digital glitch art effect for music videos and highly-stylised looks.

• WhipLash: A swish pan style effect in warp speed. Uses multiple copies of an image to travel through time further and faster. Features tons of advanced parameters for ultimate control.

• Transition Pre-sets for Builder: Retro multi-colour shape wipes and organic transitions with a hand-drawn look are simple pre-sets thanks to the new Animating Shape effect inside of Builder (Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Avid Media Composer, Blackmagic Resolve, and Blackmagic Fusion only).

• Mocha Essentials Workspace: Simplifies the power of Mocha with an updated interface, new magnetic spline tool with edge-snapping, a new freehand spline tool, new pre-set geometric shapes tools for easier effect masking and rotoscoping, and support for high DPI monitors.

• Fastest Sapphire Ever: Improved GPU performance (NVIDIA CUDA only) with significant speed increases for some hosts.

Sapphire 2019 supports popular video host applications including Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Avid Media Composer, Autodesk Flame family, and OFX hosts The Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve and Fusion, and Magix VEGAS Pro. Full license, upgrade, and subscription options can be purchased through https://borisfx.com

POST PRODUCTION

Lightworks 14.5

HDRmaster 8K is designed to allow anyone in the industry to check in detail if the HDR delivery files carry proper HDR levels and metadata. This includes tools to measure and visualise issues like signal clippings in luminance range or colour gamut. While experts will be thrilled with the wide range of features, even non-experts can use this tool immediately thanks to a feature called ‘HDR Inspector’. This pre-set is designed to automatically perform all needed tasks at the push of one button. This includes the unique feature of creating suggested static and dynamic metadata based on image analysis.

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POST PRODUCTION

The Post Lounge Sticks with Resin BRISBANE-BASED POST PRODUCTION STUDIO, The Post Lounge, has combined forces with VFX powerhouse, Resin.

One of Australia’s most recognised film and television post production facilities, The Post Lounge (TPL), is has announced a new partnership with visual effects studio, Resin.

As a part of the new arrangement, Resin welcomes Kurt Royan as a company director and executive producer. Royan will oversee the expansion of Resin into Brisbane and Melbourne.

In 2018, TPL completed post on a number of feature films including Stan’s first original feature film, The Second, acclaimed comedy special for Netflix, Hannah Gadsby: Nanette, as well as TV dramas Safe Harbour and The Family Law Series 3. Resin supervised and produced the VFX on the Netflix Original series Tidelands filmed in Brisbane, as well as on the recent remake of classic Australian feature film Storm Boy, in theatres now.

Both companies are now ramping up for combined post and VFX on an exciting new US series, the first production to take advantage of the new alliance. The expansion of Resin into Queensland and Victoria maximises TPL’s service offering to clients providing a wider talent pool of artists across the country and ability to engage face-to-face with clients in these states.

Each company will continue to operate independently allowing TPL to remain focussed on high quality picture and sound post and Resin dedicated

The Post Lounge’s Kurt Royan [left] and Resin Co-founder, Lincoln Wogan.

to VFX. TPL and Resin will now offer a pipeline between the two companies and across the three states, creating more efficiencies in post and VFX workflows, simplifying communications whilst each maintaining specialised services.

The partnership will also open up more rebate opportunities for producers applying for both Australian federal and state incentives on offer in South Australia and Queensland, taking the rebate to 40% on post and VFX. Visit www.thepostlounge.com and www.resin.tv

HDR Image Analyser AJA VIDEO SYSTEMS is shipping HDR Image Analyser, a real-time HDR monitoring and analysis solution developed in partnership with Colorfront to help high dynamic range productions achieve more engaging visuals. HDR Image Analyzer features waveform, histogram and vectorscope monitoring and analysis of 4K/UltraHD/2K/HD, HDR and WCG content for broadcast and OTT production, post-production, QC and mastering.

• CIE graph, vectorscope, waveform and histogram support

Fusing AJA’s production-proven video I/O with HDR analysis tools from Colorfront in a compact 1RU chassis, HDR Image Analyzer features a comprehensive toolset for monitoring and analyzing HDR formats including PQ (Perceptual Quantizer) and Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) for 4K/UltraHD workflows.

HDR Image Analyzer takes in up to 4K sources across 4x 3G-SDI inputs and loops the video out, allowing analysis at any point in the production workflow.

Additional feature highlights include: • Support for display referred SDR (Rec.709), HDR ST 2084/PQ and HLG analysis.

• Support for scene referred ARRI, Canon, Panasonic, RED and Sony camera colour spaces.

• Display and colour processing look up table (LUT) support.

• Automatic colour space conversion based on the award winning Colorfront Engine .

• Line mode to focus a region of interest onto a single horizontal or vertical line.

Bluefish444 Epoch Compatible with Akitio Thunderbolt 3

POST PRODUCTION

BLUEFISH444 has announced compatibility with Akitio Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis’ for Bluefish444’s Epoch range of video I/O cards.

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Akitio offers a range of Thunderbolt 3 solutions designed to house regular PCIe cards in an external enclosure, making it possible to extend the functionality of a Thunderbolt-enabled computer and even move the PCIe card from one system to another for added flexibility, both in the studio and in the field. With the new compatibility between Epoch and Node hardware, the highest quality video I/O is accessible in any environment.

With Bluefish444’s complete Epoch range of Neutron, 4K Neutron, Supernova S+ and Supernova CG SDI cards made available within Node, Node Lite and Node Pro expansion chassis’ from Akitio, it’s possible to find an option for any SDI I/O requirement.

Bluefish444’s Epoch video I/O card range, compatible with Akitio’s Node Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis’, is available from Bluefish444 authorised distributors and resellers.

Visit https://bluefish444.com and www.akitio.com

• Nit levels and phase metering.

• False colour mode to easily spot out of gamut/out of brightness pixels.

• Advanced out of gamut and out of brightness detection with error intolerance.

• Data analyser with pixel picker.

• File base error logging with timecode.

• Reference still store.

• UltraHD UI for native-resolution picture display.

• Up to 4K/UltraHD 60p over 4x 3G-SDI inputs, with loop out.

• SDI auto signal detection.

• Loop through output to broadcast monitors.

HDR Image Analyzer is the second technology collaboration between AJA and Colorfront, following the integration of Colorfront Engine into AJA’s FS-HDR realtime HDR/WCG converter. Colorfront has exclusively licensed its Colorfront HDR Image Analyzer software to AJA for HDR Image Analyzer.

Visit ww.aja.com

Instant Dialogue Cleaner AUDIONAMIX RECENTLY INTRODUCED IDC 1.5, the latest version of its IDC: Instant Dialogue Cleaner plug-in. IDC 1.5 will now offer users expanded compatibility and unlimited gain reduction for unwanted background interference, among other updates.

The IDC plug-in is Audionamix’s first real-time, cloudless solution. It’s versatile and easy to use due to its unique, integrated DNN artificial intelligence that automatically detects and separates speech, no matter the surrounding content. The software will continue to excel at addressing common audio issues and now boasts unlimited noise reduction for unwanted background interference, which was previously limited to 24dB. With a turn of a knob, IDC 1.5 can completely remove wind, troubleshoot roomy files and control complex, varying background noise such as birds or insects, car and plane interference, and music.

IDC 1.5 will expand compatibility for Adobe Premiere CC, Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X and macOS 10.14 Mojave systems. The software will also remain compatible with VST, AU, AAX Native and AudioSuite formats for both Mac and Windows systems.

Visit https://audionamix.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM Seagate Partners with Tape Ark to Liberate Legacy Tape Data PERTH-BASED “tape to cloud” data management organisation Tape Ark has struck a partnership agreement with global data storage giant Seagate Technology which will see Seagate’s Lyve Data Services advanced data management expertise being combined with Tape Ark’s unique data restoration technology, to enable zettabytes of tape-bound data to be rapidly migrated from client’s ageing offsite tapes directly to large public cloud platforms of the customer’s choice to enable access and analysis using AIdriven technologies.

It is estimated over one billion tapes are stored in physical offsite locations with much of this data at risk, not easily accessible, and susceptible to decay, deterioration and even permanent loss. The Tape Ark and Seagate partnership will allow organisations around the world to restore and preserve this valuable latent data, making it instantly accessible again to enable organisations to mine, explore, analyse and extract value from these massive datasets while also turning a stagnant cost centre into a valuable business asset.

Paul Steele, senior director of Seagate’s Lyve Data Services said, “The legacy data in the world’s tape archives holds the potential to deliver tremendous value and potentially major breakthroughs in research, understanding, processes and practices in a wide variety of sectors, but only if it’s brought in from the cold. We believe clients will gain an incalculable advantage by adding years or decades of latent data back into their data sets to be accessible for AI-enabled deep analytics.”

Tape Ark Founder and CEO Guy Holmes commented, “The Tape Ark Team is excited and proud to be partnering with Seagate Technology – a global data storage leader and innovator. This announcement is a significant step in Tape

“With zettabytes of

Ark’s roadmap for growth and coincides with the finalisation of our first round of venture capital funding.”

Tape Ark, which has pioneered a groundbreaking software and tape-to-cloud data transfer interface, will expand its operations into Seagate facilities globally, establishing scalable, mass ingest facilities capable of processing tens of thousands of tapes per day - by far the largest facilities of the kind anywhere in the world.

These new facilities, in Oklahoma and Amsterdam, will become Tape Ark’s new North American and European operations base.

data sitting on ageing, inaccessible tape globally, this partnership will effectively see the largest data recovery project ever undertaken

in human history “With zettabytes of data sitting on ageing, inaccessible tape globally, this partnership become a reality". will effectively see the largest data recovery project ever undertaken in human history become a reality. Our vision is to give client data back to the client and make it instantly and economically accessible to them where and when they want it,” said Holmes. “Ingesting these data sets into the cloud puts clients back in control of their data assets and by applying today’s analytics and machine learning tools they can potentially make profound discoveries from their legacy data.”

Visit www.seagate.com and www.tapeark.com

Quantum Xcellis Appliance for Demanding Video Workflows

According to Eric Bassier, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Quantum, “The new Xcellis offerings demonstrate the continued investment Quantum is making in its high-performance storage portfolio. Our file system is uniquely designed for video and video-like data. We’ve been honing it for over 15 years, and we are obsessed with maintaining our leadership position. These new platforms are designed to enable customers to fully realise the benefits of the features offered by StorNext.”

The new appliances are based on a next-generation server architecture that includes dual 8-core Intel Xeon CPU’s, 64 GB memory, SSD boot drives, and dual 100Gb Ethernet or 32 Gb Fibre Channel ports. The significantly enhanced CPU and 50% increase in RAM over the previous generation greatly improve StorNext metadata performance. These enhancements make tasks such as file auditing less time intensive, support an even greater number of clients per node, and enable the management of billions of files per node. Customers operating in a dynamic application environment on storage nodes will also see performance improvements.

From leading post-houses to cutting-edge autonomous vehicle engineering firms, organizations are turning to the latest networking technologies to attain the most cost-effective storage solutions. With the latest 100 Gb Ethernet and 32 Gb Fibre Channel connectivity options, customers will be able to utilize the latest generation networking infrastructure between their clients and storage arrays, thereby accelerating workflows and improving productivity. Combined with StorNext’s capability to provide the most comprehensive and coordinated file accessibility over NAS, SAN, and

DLC architectures, the new platform offers industry-leading architectural flexibility.

Features include: • Comprehensive, unified access across geographies: With the unique ability to provide cross-protocol locking for shared files across SAN, NFS, and SMB, Xcellis is an optimal solution for organisations that have collaborative workflows and need to share content across both Fibre Channel and Ethernet.

• Unparalleled video playback performance: Quantum’s Xcellis has long been trusted to deliver the performance needed for increasingly demanding applications and higher resolution content. Now leveraging the benefits that come with an improved next-generation hardware platform, StorNext will provide even higher levels of streaming performance for video playback, with even greater reliability.

• Cost-effectively preserve massive amounts of data: Xcellis appliances provide a high-performance gateway for StorNext advanced data management software to integrate tiers of massively scalable on-premise and cloud-based storage. This end-to-end capability provides a costeffective solution to retain massive amounts of data.

• Integrated data protection functionality: StorNext offers a variety of important features that ensure data-protection of valuable content over its entire life-cycle. Customers can easily copy files to off-site tiers and take advantage of versioning to roll back to an earlier point in time (prior to a malware attack, for example) as well as set up automated replication for disaster recovery purposes – all of which is designed to protect valuable digital assets.

Visit www.quantum.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

QUANTUM CORP HAS ANNOUNCED the availability of the latest Xcellis appliances, powered by Quantum’s StorNext file system. The new offerings reinforce Xcellis as the solution of choice to ingest, edit, share and store media content and provide an improved technical foundation for organisations to run their operations.

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

MOG Ingests Into Adobe Creative Cloud MOG TECHNOLOGIES, the supplier of end-to-end solutions for professional media, has announced the full integration of its central ingest tools - both for mxfSPEEDRAIL and SKYWATCH product line - with Adobe Creative Cloud.

Media professionals face an extremely demanding market with the proliferation of new technologies, systems, platforms and devices. Getting the content ready with the maximum quality and on short deadlines is a must-have capability. With that in mind, MOG central ingest platform addresses media challenges and makes ingest, transcoding, scheduling, and exporting operations easier and faster. The system supports dozens of formats and is fully compliant with all editorial environments and workflows.

MOG central ingest tools already provide support for growing file workflows with Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder. Now the integration includes full support for Adobe Creative Cloud. A user, whether on a standalone system or a connected network, can easily capture or ingest content, taking advantage of the MOG automation and transcoding tools to make sequences bring media into Adobe Creative Cloud apps in a single step. There is no need for additional tools or steps on the workflow: the content is immediately available for creative work, post-production, and distribution.

MOG and Adobe have collaborated since 2012 to accelerate media workflows and create future-proof tapeless broadcasting infrastructures, both for SD and HD environments.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Visit www.mog-technologies.com

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EditShare QScan Speeds Automated QC EDITSHARE HAS RELEASED version 3.3 of its automated quality control solution, QScan. Powered by the QUALES AQC engine, QScan employs a single-pass analysis process which can be applied at any point during the workflow, making it an ideal automated quality control solution for media professionals across production, post-production and distribution. QScan comes pre-loaded with AQC templates such as IMF testing and AS-11 presets.

Available as a free software download for existing QScan maintenance customers, version 3.3 offers the following bump in capabilities and features: • Significant Speed Boost: The performance improvement can reach speeds up to 30 times faster when analyzing J2K UHD files.

• Timecodes in the timeline: QScan users will now be able to jump to specific time codes in the timeline view by simply entering the desired TC, improving the usability of the timeline view.

• Configure Thresholds in Frames or Seconds: This new capability is ideal when expecting events of a certain duration in seconds. Since the frame rate can change between files, the duration in frames would be different depending on the frame rate. With this change, the event will be triggered according to the duration in seconds, independently of the frame rate.

• System Settings replaces Local Settings: The Time Zone, Character Set for the Report, and System Language (GUI) can now be configured from the System Settings menu option.

• Expanded Thresholds View: QScan users can now see the number of thresholds and severity without having to expand the Parameter Groups in the Project Edit.

• Simplified License Activation: Any registered user with authorized access to my.editshare.com will be able to activate an available license directly from QScan, thus avoiding the upload of the activation file, and download of the license file.

Visit https://qscan.editshare.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Enterprise Support with EditShare Flow 2019 EDITSHARE HAS ANNOUNCED the release of Flow 2019 Extension 2. The softwaredefined media asset management (MAM) solution simplifies media sharing and collaboration with embedded production tools to track, search, retrieve, and edit media across on-premise and cloud-based storage solutions.

With support for storage solutions from Avid, AWS, generic S3, Microsoft and StorageDNA, Flow 2019, connects users to millions of assets across diverse storage pools providing advanced automation capabilities to facilitate complex and redundant tasks.

New Feature Highlights of Flow 2019 Extension 2 include: • Networked Licensing with EditShare Licensing System (ELS) - Through the EditShare ELS licensing system, managers eliminate the need to keep track of individual Flow licenses. Users can freely move to the next available station and utilise a Flow license. Each license offers the latest updates and capabilities, making it easy to deploy Flow 2019 Extension 2 across large workgroups that have a continuous ebb and flow with regards to resources.

Worker Nodes - Straight forward admin controls allow users to assign tasks such as media ingest and proxy creation to specific worker nodes simultaneously, offloading jobs across multiple worker node servers to accelerate the overall production workflow. With the ability to multi-assign ingest ports, facilities can improve the capture to edit process, speeding up the workflow.

• Time Saving Sequence Creation in Flow Story - Flow 2019 Extension 2 lets users create a sequence based on Flow Story Ranged Marker metadata. Extremely useful in fast turnaround scenarios, sequences can be generated, published and shared with only a couple of clicks.

Fast and easy, users search the Flow Story Marker panel for the metadata they want to be included in the sequence and right click to make a sequence.

• Added support for data migration between systems - This allows users to move their existing data from an older server to a newer one or a replacement one (should the need arise).

EditShare Flow is available in three packages: Basic, Advanced and Enterprise.

• Offload Production Tasks Across1 Multiple Visit http://flow.editshare.com Mediaproxy_Ad_C+T_ANZ_2019-02-04.pdf 4 Feb 19 4:57:38 pm

Software Defined Archives with Hybrid Cloud Platforms OBJECT MATRIX AND CLOUDFIRST have announced an integration to enable their Software Defined Archive (SDA) platform across a wide range of storage platforms: from LTO, to Object Matrix’s MatrixStore, and to public cloud.

MatrixStore, the media-focused hybrid cloud solution from Object Matrix and Cloudfirst’s SDA are designed to make it easy for media companies to de-risk implementing their cloud strategy. As well as software defining (virtualising) the hardware storage stack, the solution provides SMB, NFS, S3, FC (SCSI) and native access through a global namespace spanning all storage tiers and technologies.

The combined solution also allows for built-in automated background migration of content from legacy LTO archives to newer storage platforms. Because of the software virtualisation, current workflows can be seamlessly maintained during the migration period.

MatrixStore allows media companies to better organise and exploit their archives. It ensures stored content is secure, protected and indexed. Thus, providing easy and instant access to content at all times. As a comprehensive hybrid cloud solution, MatrixStore allows the user to control the assets and the types of assets (e.g. low res and high res) that are kept on-prem and/or in a public cloud solution, along with providing modern browserbased views of those assets.

Cloudfirst’s Software Defined Archive (SDA) platform, is a fully media aware and metadata-driven unified storage abstraction layer that gives users unified access to all storages, no matter whether legacy, cloud, or on-premise.

Visit http://object-matrix.com and www.cloudfirst.io

UNIFY

OTT Stream Monitoring Live Content Matching Exception-based Monitoring SMPTE 2110 and NDI Support

Explore the possibilities at mediaproxy.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Software-based IP Broadcast Monitoring, Analysis and Compliance. All in one place.

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Viaccess-Orca and Technicolor Secure Android TV VIACCESS-ORCA (VO), a global leader providing OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, has teamed up with Technicolor to simplify the delivery of Android TV experiences. VO's DRM solution and its secure VO Player have been integrated on Android TV set-top boxes (STBs) from Technicolor in full compliance with the TV Input Framework (TIF). By making the plug-in for its DRM available in the media DRM format, VO ensures seamless integration into Android TV platforms and minimizes complexity for STB device manufacturers.

VO's DRM and secure VO Player solutions have been integrated on Technicolor Sapphire STBs featuring an Android operating system and Broadcom 7271 chipset. Through universal integration of its DRM on Android TV devices, VO allows for de facto support of the various Android TV apps and players, including the VO Player. By combining Technicolor STBs, VO DRM, and the VO

Player, pay-TV operators gain a fully integrated Android TV solution that is easy to deploy and that provides the highest security levels for premium video content protection.

Technicolor STBs are certified for Android TV distribution with full DVB extensions, addressing both telco operators and broadcasters' requirements.

"Thanks to this new partnership, operators can now take advantage of VO's extensive portfolio of security services, such as digital rights management and security renewal, on Technicolor Android TV STBs," said Chem Assayag, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Viaccess-Orca. "The end result is that viewers around the world can enjoy premium video content from Hollywood studios they desire on Android TV." Visit www.viaccess-orca.com

Advanced Incident Management MEDIAPROXY, THE PROVIDER OF software-based IP broadcast solutions, has announced a partnership with Pikolo Systems, the advanced workflow automation solutions provider based in Addison, Texas.

Pikolo’s ITracker, an industry leading discrepancy reporting workflow, allows broadcasters to easily manage their complex operations. The collaboration enhances the monitoring confidence levels of enterprise scale content management.

Mediaproxy develops compliance recording systems for broadcasters worldwide. Its premier technology, LogServer, provides real-time compliance monitoring, reporting, and incident management of multiple channels by uniting access to all broadcast sources via IP. Once logged and stored in a proxy format, content can be retrieved for reconciliation using the intuitive HTML5-based Mediaproxy LogPlayer.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

The integration of LogServer, with Pikolo Systems’ flagship ITracker, will provide broadcasters with the enhanced ability to maintain accountability and perform real-time assessment of their operations. The integration connects Incident Tracker events and alerts directly into LogServer. Users of Incident Tracker will now have direct access to recorded archives on LogServer systems.

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“Our software solutions are designed to help broadcast operations work more efficiently in a homogenous and collaborative environment,” said Vernon Omegah, President at Pikolo Systems. “Incident Tracker provides broadcasters the means to communicate and engage effectively despite the complexity of their operations. From local television to network and internet operations, to satellite and origination operations, our solutions together with Mediaproxy help broadcasters acquire, manage, distribute and analyse their assets.”

Erik Otto, CEO of Mediaproxy, added, “Integrating LogServer with Pikolo Systems delivers unprecedented versatility to maintain the highest level of transmission service and user experience. The ability for our customers to easily monitor and rapidly respond to any outgoing and off-air sources is vital to maintaining the highest levels of consumer experience and compliance with regulations on the multiplicity of distribution platforms and territories. Partnering with Pikolo Systems and their mission critical management tool allows us together to stay one step ahead of the evolving needs of OTT and broadcast operators and their subscribers worldwide.”

Visit www.mediaproxy.com and www.pikoloinc.com

Four-Port SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps PCIe Adapter Cards SONNET TECHNOLOGIES HAS ANNOUNCED THE AVAILABILITY OF two new four-port, dual-controller SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps PCIe adapter cards, the Allegro Pro USB 3.1 PCIe and Allegro USB-C 4-Port PCIe. The Allegro cards add four powered USB-A or USB-C ports, respectively, to any Mac, Windows, or Linux computer with PCI Express (PCIe) slots, and to Mac and Windows computers with Thunderbolt ports when installed in a Thunderbolt-to-PCI Express card expansion chassis.

Both Sonnet adapter cards feature dual USB 3.1 Gen 2 controllers and support the fastest SSD-based USB drives available with file transfer speeds up to 800 MB/s from a single drive, and up to 1,200 MB/s aggregate from four drives. Both cards support USB bus-powered SSD, SSD RAID, and hard drive devices with up to 7.5 watts of power per port, without the user having to connect auxiliary power to the card or AC power adapters to the devices. Hubs and other USB-IF-compliant devices are also supported.

"Although they feature modern CPUs, so many current desktop and workstation computers are equipped only with generations-old USB interfaces or, at best, a single modern USB port," said Greg LaPorte, vice president of sales and marketing, Sonnet Technologies. "For broadcasters, post, and AV professionals, the ability to move files quickly from and between multiple USB drives is critical; onboard I/O is too slow. Sonnet's latest USB adapter cards make it easy for users to add four superfast 10Gbps USB-A or USB-C ports to their setups and benefit from significantly faster data transfers."

Sonnet designed the Allegro cards with a focus on intelligent power management and delivery for powering attached drives through its ports.

Allegro incorporates advanced technologies including independent power regulation that isolates each port to prevent cross-coupled power glitches - such as when a hard drive spins up after connection - that may cause accidental disconnects, and resettable port power fuses. Additionally, the cards are optimized for Thunderbolt, offering full performance when installed in any of Sonnet's Thunderbolt-to-PCIe card chassis.

Visit www.sonnettech.com

AUDIO Digital soundwaves

www.content-technology.com/audio

Gearhouse Picks Clear-com for Supercars THE AUSTRALIAN ARM of Gearhouse Broadcast (owned by Gravity Media), and Triple Eight Race Engineering Australia have entered into a four-year service partnership for communications systems, with Clear-Com’s FreeSpeak II digital wireless intercom system providing communications between car controllers and their support staff.

Both Gearhouse and Clear-Com are the Official Communications Partner to Triple Eight Race Engineering, competing as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team in their pursuit of Supercars Championship success.

“It was very clear to us that using FreeSpeak II is the best possible solution for the Supercars Championship,” said Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton. “The tunability of the system to suit and support our needs is truly next level, no other system in the past has come close to the functions, features, and clarity of the system. FreeSpeak II is

II belt packs roaming between four FreeSpeak II transceivers. Gearhouse will also supply other communications equipment, including custom designed high noise headsets (modified for FreeSpeak II), equipment racks and solid-state recorders.

a high-performance system which has allowed to communicate in high pressure situations in a way we only dreamed of in the past.”

As part of the agreement, Gearhouse will supply, service and install Clear-Com solutions for Triple Eight. This includes an Eclipse-HX based system with nine 12 key panels and with 15 FreeSpeak

Sennheiser Opens Flagship Store in Sydney

“The Australian Supercars Championship requires that teams have superb communications regardless of the track, its conditions or anything else that would impede communications,” said Mitchell Lockyer-Lane, Business Development Manager for Gearhouse Australia. “The communications systems that we’ve put together for Triple Eight, based on FreeSpeak II and the Eclipse HX Delta assures the teams that their intercom system is something they won’t have to worry about.”

Visit www.gearhousebroadcast.com and www.clearcom.com

QBIT Names PAT Reseller for ANZ

AUDIO SPECIALIST SENNHEISER has opened the doors to its newest flagship store in the heart of Sydney at 5 Martin Place. Commonly known as the ‘Money Box’, this heritage-listed building will provide a dramatic venue for music and sound lovers seeking to immerse themselves in the world of Sennheiser and experience the future of audio.

The new Sennheiser store will provide the opportunity to test and purchase a wide range of consumer, gaming, business and professional audio products, including new products such as the MOMENTUM True Wireless earphones, which set new standards in audio fidelity for true wireless ear buds. In addition, a premium Experience Room offering

GERMANY-BASED SPECIALIST for audio transport solutions, QBIT GmbH and Professional Audio and Television have announced a cooperative agreement for Australia and New Zealand.

QBIT GmbH is known for its audio codecs, encoders, decoders, transcoders, audio receivers for Sat, DAB+, FM and Internet streaming, as well as its newly launched QARION – RAVENNA Tools.

QBIT’s recently unveiled QARION RAVENNA (AES67) interface series offers straight forward ingress, egress and monitoring of RAVENNA/AES67 streams in audio networks and plug-and-play integration of legacy audio equipment to RAVENNA/AES67 networks.

QBIT’s Sales Director Berry Eskes enthused, “We have been watching PAT for a while now and believe the projects they are delivering in Australia and New Zealand are perfectly suited to our products and the synergy with their current product portfolio will expand the QBIT footprint in Australia and New Zealand significantly.”

at AU$80,000.

Professional Audio and Television’s Managing Director Patrick Salloch continued, “QBIT seem to share PAT’s vision when it comes to the deployment of IP-based audio infrastructure projects and it is vital for our continued growth to align ourselves with the right partners for the future.

I believe QBIT will be able to add technical expertise and value to our customer projects and their products will enable PAT to offer even better turn-key solutions.”

Visit https://en-au.sennheiser.com

Visit www.proaudiotv.com.au

personalised listening sessions will give visitors the chance to engage in an immersive experience with the new Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar incorporating AMBEO 3D technology. The Experience Room will also be home to the Sennheiser HE1 high-end headphones valued

New AKG Digital Wireless Systems

AKG DMS digital wireless systems combine 2.4GHz operation with signature AKG sound quality to deliver crisp, studio-quality sound with advanced security features, extended battery life and ease-of-use. The eight-channel DMS300 and four-channel DMS100 are available in two configurations: a high-quality, AKG handheld microphone or an instrument- or headset-ready body pack. DMS digital wireless systems deliver 24-bit/48 kHz uncompressed audio coding, ultra-

low latency and signal security provided by AES 256-bit encryption.

DMS systems were designed from the ground up for intuitive operation, with push-button channel pairing and color-coding for easy identification.

Adaptive channel selection takes the guesswork out of locating available wireless channels, and DMS300 features a high-resolution front-panel LCD screen that allows for easy setup, monitoring and control. Up to four DMS100 and up to eight DMS300 systems can be synced and used simultaneously.

DMS handheld transmitters feature an authentic

AKG microphone capsule and acoustical engineering, and both the handheld transmitter and body pack offer 24-bit, 48kHz resolution and a linear frequency response. The body pack is instrument ready or can be used with optional AKG headsets or clip-on mics.

AKG DMS digital wireless systems operate in the 2.4GHz band, a global license-free space, avoiding the interference found in traditional analogue wireless systems. Built-in advanced AES 256-bit encryption protects the signal and keeps wireless audio communications private.

Visit www.akg.com

AUDIO

HARMAN PROFESSIONAL SOLUTIONS has announced the new AKG DMS100 and DMS300 professional digital wireless systems.

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AUDIO

High-Definition Monitoring Headphones TASCAM HAS INTRODUCED the TH-07 High Definition Headphone Monitors.

A premium headphone set intended to duplicate the audio quality of highend near field monitors, the TH-07 has been tuned for full but natural bass, flat mid-range, and clear high end and is suitable for mixing, monitoring, or any audio task demanding outstanding quality. The new headphones employ custom-made 50mm drivers and offer a wide 10Hz to 30kHz frequency response and sensitivity of 100dB ±3dB. Their closed-back design allows a full bass response while blocking out most external noise.

With its circum-aural design and earcups of soft, pliable leather that fit snugly over the ear, TH-07s remain comfortable over long sessions, even when wearing eyeglasses. The earcups can be rotated and angled for maximum flexibility and easy one-ear monitoring and provide substantial isolation from sounds in the outside world.

DirectOut’s EXBOX.MD Adds Network Control and Dante DIRECTOUT TECHNOLOGIES has implemented DO.Net daemon to its EXBOX.MD Dante/MADI interface to remotely access and control the entire ANDIAMO Series. The combination of an EXBOX.MD and any ANDIAMO also upgrades the popular converter series with a Dante IO. The new firmware for DirectOut’s Dante/MADI converter adds another important feature to this compact but powerful device. DO.Net is a technology based on a multicast system which transmits the control protocol within the MADI signal going from the EXBOX.MD to the connected ANDIAMO devices and allows to remotely access and control them over a local network. Once the function is activated and set, available ANDIAMO devices automatically appear in globcon and are fully manageable from the software along with all other devices connected to the same network. This feature is supported for all ANDIAMO devices independent from their hardware revision.

The latest globcon beta, released at the same time, also introduces source selection (Auto/Manual) and MIDI triggering to EARS, the automatic input

The TASCAM TH-07 comes with two detachable cables.

One cable is coiled and shorter for low-clutter, short-distance work and has a 1/8-inch connector; the other is straight and longer (approximately 8½ feet) and has a multi-connector that accommodates both 1/8-inch and ¼-inch jacks. Both cables have gold-plated connectors. A leather bag with a pull-tie closure protects the headphones when they are being transported or not in use.

Visit www.tascam.com

RCF Group Acquires DPA Microphones RCF GROUP RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the signing of a definitive agreement for the acquisition of DPA Microphones A/S (“DPA”) from The Riverside Company.

DPA, based in Allerod, Denmark, is the #1 premium brand in the high-end professional audio microphone market for the live, broadcast, theatre and studio end-user segments and is known as the undisputed quality leader in the industry, continuously pushing the boundaries with regards to performance and durability.

RCF Group, with Headquarters in Italy and branches in the USA and Europe, operates under the companies RCF, AEB Industriale (dB Technologies) and EAW and is an international leader in the design, production and sale of products and solutions for professional audio and installation systems. RCF Group generates over 80 percent of its revenues outside of Italy in 120 countries.

In 2017 two prominent European private equity players, Palladio Holding and Amundi Private Equity Funds, invested in RCF Group with a minority stake in order to support and enhance the group in its growth plans.

unique feature of the device.

Following the September 2018 acquisition of EAW, with its iconic history in install and touring sound, the acquisition of DPA represents a second important milestone on RCF Group’s growth path.

Visit www.directout.eu

Visit https://rcf.it and www.dpamicrophones.com

switching function of the EXBOX.MD, upgrading and completing this

Dante-Compliant Audio Interfaces STUDIO TECHNOLOGIES, MANUFACTURER OF professional audio, video and fiber-optic solutions, has introduced the Model 5412 Audio Interface and the Model 5418 Mic/Line Interface, two new Dante-compliant solutions for applications that use Audio-over-Ethernet (AoE) network connectivity.

AUDIO

The Model 5412 supports analogue line-level inputs and outputs, and is available in two versions – one with eight input and eight output channels, and the other with 16 input and 16 output channels. The Model 5412 uses 25-pin D-subminiature connectors for easy interfacing with balanced and unbalanced sources and destinations. Low noise, low distortion, and high headroom are key highlights to the audio performance of this unit.

Troubleshooting features, including signal loop-back and tone generation, help to ensure successful deployment and operation.

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The Model 5418 allows users to connect eight analogue microphone or linelevel sources, and then output the signals in the Dante digital domain by way of an Ethernet interface. In addition, eight audio channels that arrive via Dante are converted to analogue and output as line-level signals. The eight mic/line audio inputs use standard three-pin female XLR connectors, which are located on the Model 5418’s front panel. The analogue audio input signals are converted to

24-bit PCM digital and then transported via the Dante network interface.

The unit offers excellent audio performance with adjustable preamplifier gain, high-pass filters, and P48 phantom power. Control of the operating parameters can be performed locally using the front-panel push-button switches, or remotely using the management web pages or ST controller software application. A monitor section allows both visual and audible observation of the input and output signals.

Both the Model 5412 and the Model 5418 are housed in compact, lightweight enclosures, which mount in one space (“1U”) of standard 19-inch racks. Power can be provided by 100-240 volts, 50/60Hz, or 12 volts DC with redundant operation supported. Both units include three Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces, two to support redundant Dante operation, and the third for accessing the management menu system.

An internal web server allows fast and flexible monitoring, and configuration of many of the units’ audio and network parameters. In addition, front-panel indicators, a display, and pushbutton switches provide users with direct access to key configuration selections.

Visit www.studio-tech.com

AUDIO

THEY HEARD,

“BAD NEWS, THE BUSINESS IS IN TROUBLE.” But you said, “Big news, our business has doubled!” With Devio, the message is always clear thanks to an 8-element, voice-tracking microphone for crystal clear sound in any conference or huddle space.

Quickly transition ideas from your laptop to a collaborative work session, adding displays, speakers, a web camera, and microphones with a single USB connection. Communicate better with Devio the conferencing tool that works the way you work. biamp.com/devio

www.jands.com.au

AUDIO

Distributed by

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AUDIO

Sennheiser XS Wireless Digital Mics SENNHEISER’S NEW XS WIRELESS DIGITAL series is designed to provide musicians and videographers with an easy entry into wireless audio. XSW-D replaces the cable with sleek, compact transmitters and receivers that work on 2.4 GHz for worldwide, license-free operation. Versatile and easy to use, the series provides wireless solutions for almost every conceivable configuration and application. Transmitters and receivers can be freely combined so users can opt for a wireless link that will protect their existing microphone investments, or select one of the fully-equipped wireless microphone sets.

XSW-D employs digital transmission in the 2.4 GHz range and uses the aptX Live codec. The receivers have antenna diversity; the transmitters work redundantly, transmitting all data packages twice to ensure reliable transmission. In case of interference, the transmitter and receiver will seamlessly hop to a free frequency. The audio latency remains below 4 ms. Up to five systems can be used simultaneously and they have a range of up to 75 m (250 ft). The transmitter and receiver units can be conveniently recharged via USB using the included charging cable and work for up to five hours on a single charge.

microphone that has a 3.5 mm (1/8”) mini-jack connector.

All transmitters and receivers are also available separately.

The Vocal Set of the series includes: • XS 1 dynamic cardioid microphone, mic clip, transmitter, receiver and USB-A to USB-C charging cable • The Vocal Set of the series contains everything needed to get started immediately: • XS 1 dynamic cardioid microphone, mic clip, transmitter, receiver and USB-A to USB-C charging cable

Operation has been made as easy as possible via a single button: Pressing the buttons on both the transmitter and the receiver will power up and automatically link the units, clicking either button on the receiver or transmitter will mute the audio signal and pressing and holding both buttons again will power the system down.

For videography, XSW-D reliably records audio directly into a video camera via the mic input. The receiver attaches to the camera via the XSW-D coldshoe mount and a 3.5 mm (1/8”) coiled cable, while the transmitter simply connects to a handheld or lavalier microphone depending on the use case and preference.

The transmitter is connected to a handheld mic, a lavalier mic or an instrument, while the receiver can be directly connected to a mixing desk, a guitar or bass amp or the mic input of a video camera respectively.

Videographers and content creators can choose between a Portable Lavalier Set complete with an ME 2-II clip-on microphone, a Portable Interview Set for use with an existing dynamic microphone, a Portable Base Set for use with an existing lavalier microphone, and the Portable ENG Set, which contains transmitters for a lavalier microphone (ME 2-II included) and an existing handheld dynamic microphone.

Presenters, vocalists and instrumentalists can choose between a Vocal Set with an XS 1 dynamic cardioid microphone, a Lavalier Set with an ME 2-II clipon microphone, and an Instrument Base Set for instruments with a 6.3 mm (1/4”) output. Also available is an XLR Base Set for use with existing dynamic microphones, and a Presentation Base Set for use with an existing clip-on

Visit http://en-au.sennheiser.com

Voice-over-IP Solution for TV IFB

DirectOut’s EXBOX.MD Adds Network Control and Dante

EARSHOT IFB, a new VoIP-based auto coupler for IFB and listen lines from Comrex, is now shipping. EarShot IFB is designed to help TV stations reduce costs and provide more flexibility for remote IFB feeds.

DIRECTOUT TECHNOLOGIES has implemented DO.Net daemon to its EXBOX.MD Dante/MADI interface to remotely access and control the entire ANDIAMO Series. The combination of an EXBOX.MD and any ANDIAMO also upgrades the popular converter series with a Dante IO.

EarShot IFB provides telephone-based live studio program and IFB audio to field-based remote broadcasts. Up to 30 users can listen to programme

or IFB feeds by calling into EarShot IFB with a standard telephone.

EarShot IFB has four audio inputs (or feeds). Two of the feeds can be alternately configured as IFB inputs. Callers can switch between the feeds using DTMF (Touch Tone) selection.

The new firmware for DirectOut’s Dante/MADI converter adds another important feature to this compact but powerful device. DO.Net is a technology based on a multicast system which transmits the control protocol within the MADI signal going from the EXBOX.MD to the connected ANDIAMO devices and allows to remotely access and control them over a local network. Once the function is activated and set, available ANDIAMO devices automatically appear in globcon and are fully manageable from the software along with all other devices connected to the same network. This feature is supported for all ANDIAMO devices independent from their hardware revision.

FieldTap uses the Opus audio decoder to deliver studio quality audio, and is available to download for free on iOS and Android.

The latest globcon beta, released at the same time, also introduces source selection (Auto/Manual) and MIDI triggering to EARS, the automatic input switching function of the EXBOX.MD, upgrading and completing this unique feature of the device.

Visit www.comrex.com

Visit www.directout.eu

For higher fidelity, the Comrex FieldTap smartphone app can be used to pull audio in studio quality.

AUDIO

Neumann’s First Studio Headphones

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NEUMANN.BERLIN, known for its studio microphones and high-class studio monitors, has expanded its product portfolio with the Neumann NDH 20, a closed-back studio headphone combining excellent isolation with carefully balanced sound image and high resolution suited to monitoring, editing and mixing tasks, even in loud and noisy environments.

The headband is made of flexible spring steel while the ear cup covers are machined from lightweight aluminium. Large and soft memory foam ear pads make the NDH 20 a pleasure to wear for long periods without fatigue. For easy transportation, the NDH 20 is foldable.w

The NDH 20’s newly designed 38-mm drivers with high-gauss neodymium magnets ensure high sensitivity and low distortion. In other words, the NDH 20 would not need a dedicated headphone amplifier; it sounds just as great on mobile devices such as laptop computers.

• Linear sound balance, like Neumann’s acclaimed studio monitors

Features include: • Excellent isolation allows working in noisy environments • High long-term comfort, easy transportation • Two detachable cables (straight/coiled) Visit www.NDH20.neumann.com

AUDIO

IE 40 PRO

More me.

When the show is underway, your monitoring is crucial. It keeps you connected with the others — but above all: with yourself. We have further developed dynamic drivers that fit the smallest of spaces. Powerful monitoring sound for loud stages remains precise with solid bass whatever the sound level. Sounds like more — like much more.

AUDIO

www.sennheiser.com/moreme

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RADIO The original broadcast media

www.content-technology.com/radio

Blackley Chair of Commercial Radio Australia LATE LAST YEAR SAW GRANT BLACKLEY, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Southern Cross Austereo elected as the new Chair of Commercial Radio Australia. Adam Lang, chief executive officer, Macquarie Media Limited stepped down after four years. Lang had been on the board since 2012 and will remain on the board and retain his role as Chair of the CRA Research Committee.

Blackley has worked in the media and entertainment sector for more than 30 years. As chief executive officer and managing director of Southern Cross Austereo, he is responsible for leading the strategic and operational performance of the company. Blackley has been a director of the CRA Board since 2015 and also serves as a director at Free TV Australia. He has held numerous senior leadership roles including CEO of Ten Network from 2005 – 2012.

HT&E returns to the CRA Board, replacing outgoing ARN CEO Rob Atkinson.

The CRA Board includes: • Grant Blackley, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Southern Cross Austereo, Chair of Commercial Radio Australia.

• Alison Cameron, Chief Executive Officer of Grant Broadcasters Group, elected as Vice-Chairman Regional.

• Adam Lang – Chief Executive Officer – Macquarie Media Ltd • Kevin Blyton – Managing Director, Capital Radio Network • Greg Cupitt – Consultant, Super Radio Network

Blackley said, “The commercial radio industry is a dynamic and innovative multiplatform medium and I look forward to working collaboratively as Chair of CRA with all key stakeholders including the networks and station members, industry commentators and observers as well as key political and government agencies.”

• Michael Harvey – Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Australian Radio Network

Dr Grant Cameron, Director of Grant Broadcasters Group and ViceChairman, CRA Regional Committee resigned from the board after 12 years.

Alison Cameron, appointed CEO of the family-owned regional broadcaster in July this year, was elected to the CRA Board and will also serve as the ViceChair, CRA Regional Committee.

• Cathy O’Connor – Chief Executive Officer, Nova Entertainment

Ciaran Davis, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ARN and

• Ciaran Davis – Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Australian Radio Network and HT&E • Lisa Young – Chief Financial Officer – Macquarie Media Ltd • Tony Hudson – General Counsel and Company Secretary – Southern Cross Austereo • Peter Colosimo – Group General Manager – Nova Entertainment Visit http://www.commercialradio.com.au

Virtualised Audio Codecs from Mayah GERMAN DEVELOPER MAYAH COMMUNICATIONS has announced Sirrah, a new approach to audio transmission in the form of software packages for virtualised audio codecs.

is a suitable option to get audio content to a content-delivery-network (CDN) and from there to listeners. Sirrah OTT marks Mayah’s first product specifically designed for handling internet audio streaming.

Sirrah allows users to simply install the audio transmission software on an existing server machine instead of procuring specialised hardware. Control and monitoring is undertaken via a modern GUI based on the control software found in the company’s GeMINI and ANDROMEDA devices.

The advantages of Sirrah include:

The company says, with suitable infrastructure it will soon no longer be necessary to buy specialised hardware to perform Audio-over-IP transmission.

Users simply need a server with appropriate audio and network connections and the Sirrah installer to can get started. The installer will be available on USB storage devices and CD/DVD-ROM.

• more economical solution for most applications • a user-friendly, customizable, intuitive and modern control GUI • (OTT) focus on facilitating over-the-top streaming (HLS, DASH, IceCast, Metadata)

Sirrah SIP is for conventional audio broadcasting via SIP or RTP. It contains all the features of Mayah’s hardware audio codecs in a software package. This includes all the extra functions and the user-friendly design of its WebRemote 5.0.

As the name implies, Sirrah OTT is focused on over-the-top audio streaming and

Visit www.mayah.com

EU Mandates Digital Radio in Cars

RADIO

• efficient use of resources in a cloud-based environment

Customers who prefer specialised hardware for straightforward plug-andplay use or require more specific applications will still be able to enjoy the benefits of the GUI with Mayah’s GeMINI and ANDROMEDA series of products (WebRemote 5.0). Servers running Sirrah are fully compatible with the GeMINI and ANDROMEDA devices.

Sirrah comes in two editions: Sirrah SIP and Sirrah OTT.

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• easy implementation and installation into an existing infrastructure.

JANUARY’S BRUSSELS MOTOR SHOW saw EU policy makers, broadcasters and car makers are gather to raise awareness of new EU rules requiring all new car radios to be capable of receiving digital terrestrial radio within two years.

The European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) entered into force on 20 December 2018. EU Member States have two years from this date to transpose the code into national legislation The EECC states that “… any car radio receiver integrated in a new vehicle available for sale or rent in the EU will be required to include a receiver capable of receiving and reproducing radio services provided via digital terrestrial radio broadcasting.”

In addition to its focus on car, the EECC also gives EU member states the opportunity to introduce measures requiring consumer radios to be able to receive digital transmissions. Italy is the first country to introduce such a rule for consumer radios, along with the French law triggered in December last year, which requires all new consumer radios sold 12 months from now to have DAB+. Other markets, including Germany, UK and the Netherlands are currently considering similar laws.

Visit www.worlddab.org

AOIP Console from Telos

THE TELOS ALLIANCE HAS DEBUTED the new Axia iQx AoIP Broadcast Console which combines a control surface and mix engine into a single compact, cost-efficient unit, providing fast and easy access to AES67compliant networked sources and devices.

By combining the mix engine and surface into a single desktop unit configuration, Axia iQx AoIP Consoles dramatically reduce equipment and installation costs and streamline studio design. The AES67-compliant consoles fully support emerging standards including SMPTE 2110-30 and can access any audio AoIP source, anywhere on the network, from anywhere in the world. By piggybacking off existing network resources, including Axia iQ Consoles, Axia QOR engines, as well as microphones, headphones, or any other audio source using Telos Alliance xNodes, broadcasters can easily add new studios.

Since Axia iQx AoIP Consoles can be controlled from the remote site, they eliminate the need for an in-studio operator. This makes them suitable for a wide range of applications including permanent and temporary studios, remote operations, and more.

Visit www.telosalliance.com

RADIO

Røde Clear the Path for Podcast Producers It’s compact, it’s powerful, it’s Australian made, and it’s about to revolutionise podcasting production as we know it.

Phil Sandberg talks to Daniel Woodall, Marketing Manager with Røde about the new Rødecaster Pro. FOR AROUND 15 YEARS, Australian manufacturer RØDE has been on a mission to empower the podcast producer. In 2004, the company launched the RØDE Podcaster microphone featuring USB connectivity. More recently, RØDE launched the AI-1 USB interface to give producers an easier way to connect an XLR mic into their computers.

Now the company has upped the ante with the release of an integrated podcasting mixing, recording and live production console, the RØDECaster Pro. “The starting point for the RØDECaster Pro stemmed from seeing the number of questions we were getting about podcasting and the sales of podcasting microphones going up,” says Daniel Woodall Marketing Manager with RØDE Microphones. “The question we kept getting from podcasting customers was, ‘how do I do this? Once I’ve gone beyond having a single microphone like an NT USB or podcaster into my computer, how do I have more microphones, how do I record a phone call, how do I put music into my podcast, how do I make it sound good?’

“These questions people were asking seemed like very simple questions, but there were no simple solutions out there. You needed a whole studio full of equipment and a whole lot of know-how to do what, on the face of it, is quite a simple thing. That was where it really started on, from that user feedback, and the recognition podcasting was a growing and hugely interesting media space where there was this problem that needed solving. And, so, we sat down with a white board and some coffee and started mapping out what the solution could possibly look like. And, about 12 months later, the RØDECaster Pro was launched.”

If we start with the features of the RØDECaster Pro, it’s capable of taking in four mic inputs?

“That’s right. It has our high-quality mic inputs on board. The circuitry in those pre-amps is based on the well-received AI-1 USB interface we launched last

year, with a few tweaks and changes to make sure they really work well in this application. They are broadcast spec, low noise, servo-biased Class-A pre-amps to give you a very clean signal. There are four of these fully discrete mic amps built into the RØDECaster Pro. The unit also has Aphex technology on board.

“There’s a number of different audio brands within the Freedman Group which, of course, RØDE is largest, but Aphex has been in the Freedman Group for a number of years. This was an opportunity to leverage that brand and create synergy between RØDE and Aphex. It was very much a personal thing that Peter Freedman, the founder, wanted. He was like, ‘We have this incredible broadcast technology, the global standard in processing for radio and for voice, and we should include it.’”

There are other features that set it apart from a conventional audio desk.

There’s a USB input, a phone jack input and Bluetooth?

“That’s right. This is all about being able to easily bring in these sources, which is what people were struggling with. Just being able to record a phone call is a real challenge for people. Allowing both Bluetooth and the cable connection to a phone to makes it super simple. The mix minus is already set up so you don’t need to do any settings or set up, all those complicated things you have to do with a traditional mixer, and the levels are all preset to be suitable for mobile phones and similar devices.

“In addition, the USB connection allows people to record their podcast to their computer if they want to do that and also bring in music or pre-recorded segments or sound effects or whatever else from their PC as well. All those sources can be mixed together very easily with traditional, full 100mm throw faders. You just sit there and get the audio balance the way you want very Continues over >>

RADIO

Video Over IP Solu ons

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RADIO

quickly and intuitively. It takes away a lot of the mystique and a lot of the technical aspects of connecting equipment together. You just plug it in, put your headphones on, set the faders so everything sounds nice and balanced and press the record button, it’s that simple.”

There are also eight trigger pads for various stings or theme music.

“Yeah. Again, it’s that apparently simple thing; how do I put a music sting, ident or sound effect into my podcast? Now you have these eight pads that you can easily load a sound on to. You can either load sounds onto them using your computer by just dragging a sound file across, or you can record on to them directly. A lot of people have found that function pretty useful. For example, you can pre-record an interview such as this one directly onto one of the sound pads, then, when you’re actually presenting your podcast, you can say, ‘And earlier I spoke to so and so’, and you can press the button and play that into your podcast in real time from the pad. You have that flexibility to use them either as a very traditional sound effects board, or to use them more creatively to pre-record segments or to bring other material into the podcast.”

I guess that bypasses the need for separate editing software?

“That was always the ambition. There are obviously some people who produce podcasts with a lot of post-production and they do a lot of editing, but typically that’s not how podcasters do it. Most actual podcasters don’t want to spend a lot of time in post-production, they want to think about their podcast, they want to plan what they’re going to say, map out the structure of their show and then make it.

They want to sit down, be creative, talk the topics they want to cover and have it finished. They don’t want to then have to spend the next two hours slaving over a computer fiddling around with an edit.

“That was very much the feedback we had and that’s what we wanted to achieve with the RØDECaster Pro. You can sit down with a small amount of preparation and planning and just make your podcast very organically and have it pretty much ready to upload to your podcast platform and distribute it to the world within moments of finishing the recording.”

Users will be able to upgrade the functionality of the unit via a download. Is that the idea?

“Exactly. It’s a very straightforward firmware update. We have an app which you can download for free that allows you to update your firmware. We’ve released a couple of small firmware updates already but they were just to fix very small issues mostly relating USB audio compatibility. But we’ve got a much bigger update coming and that update is going to bring multi-track recording, the ability to record not just a single stereo file as the unit does today but actually to record each individual stem from each microphone, from the USB, from the two phone inputs and from the pad all as separate files.

For those people who do want to do that more detailed post-production, it is, I think, is a useful feature and it’s the first big feature upgrade that we have planned.”

Currently, the unit is recording audio in .wav files?

“That’s correct, yes. It records a 48KHz .wav file at 24 bits resolution.”

What was the reason behind that just, given that MP3 is so prevalent these days?

“We wanted to make sure the quality that was coming out of the unit was full broadcast quality. We didn’t want to put in any compromises or any barriers in terms of the quality. Most streaming or podcast upload services will do the conversion for you so you can upload that .wav file and then obviously it will stream out to your listeners at whatever, MP3 or other system, is appropriate.

We were just trying to make it simple. Wav is very universally recognised.

Pretty much every piece of recording software or upload service will support it.”

The unit records onto a micro SD card. Why pick that as a medium?

“The RØDECaster Pro has onboard storage; a micro SD in the back so you can press record and use the unit completely standalone as well as or instead of recording to your computer via USB. An increasing number of cameras, phones and recording devices are using micro SD cards and it just seemed the obvious choice for this unit.”

RADIO

The app to download new features also gives you some control over the sounds in the trigger pads. What other functionality is coming?

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“One of the other areas we’re looking at is enhancing the computer app, which comes with the device. Right now, the app is a fairly straight forward piece of software. It allows you to set up the pads - to put the files on to them and to change the colours and the pad playback mode. We are looking at expanding the capability of that piece of software to include, for example, the file management capability so you can get the files on and off the SD card more easily as well as some other set-up features to configure the RØDECaster Pro

from the software rather than just having to use the touchscreen.”

“There are other features that a lot of people are asking about of course - mix minus on the USB, ability to manage the SD card content, etc., These are all things that are on our list for future upgrades.”

There are audio podcasts but also video. Where’s your thinking at when it comes to video integration?

“The RØDECaster Pro was developed for podcasting. We really wanted to make something that was good for that one job. There’s a real risk if you try and make gear that suits 20 different applications, it suits 20 applications badly. We wanted to really make this an out and out podcasting console, which is what we did. That said, there’s a lot of other styles of working which the RØDECaster Pro can be a part of; one of those is working with video and another is streaming. For streaming, we know a lot of people are already using this unit for this application. The USB out makes for a perfect streaming output and a lot of people are already using that in conjunction with possibly a video switcher.

Often, they are a gaming streamer or something like that and we know that is working well.

“Similarly, many people who are making video podcasts. There’s no video integration direct into this unit, but it’s a pretty straightforward process to have your webcam set up for your vision and then just take the audio out of the RØDECaster Pro by USB, or just sync it afterwards from the recorded files on the SD card.”

What’s the response been from media organisations?

“We have genuinely been blown away. We were very excited about the RØDECaster Pro, and quite proud of what we’d produced, to be honest. But the response has been phenomenal. We have had great responses, and not just from podcasters who are doing this at home or making a small podcast channel. We’ve also had bigger players who have commercial podcasting studios contacting us and asking if they can have them. Even the broadcast community, the radio stations, they’re using them as well. We have a number of radio stations who’ve taken delivery of them. And, down the other end of the scale, schools who are just setting up their first ever foray into this technology and they see this as something very easy to use for their kids just to use to learn how to make podcast. I suppose what’s been very humbling and very exciting for us, to not just to see the RØDECaster Pro adopted by the podcasting community; people who are already making podcasts or are somewhat familiar with the technology but it’s gone right down to those real beginners and right up through to the radio stations and professional studio outfits. To see it being accepted across such a wide range of different applications and different types of podcasters is just terrific. It’s so exciting to watch.”

Visit www.rode.com

CONTENT DELIVERY Terrestrial, Mobile, Broadband

www.content-technology.com/delivery

Deluxe – Wisdom of the Cloud

By Phil Sandberg

“We’re sitting here now in 2019 and our position in terms of that IP play, is that it’s the only game in town. If you consider where every broadcaster is today, in the next 5-10 years they will all be running technology platforms exactly like ours. You can’t resist it in terms of scalability, the flexibility and the cost dynamics of IP and what that allows you to do.”

That’s the word from David Radoczy, General Manager of Deluxe MediaCloud, Sydney, who says the vision behind MediaCloud was “really about IP and the benefits from a real commitment to an IP backbone in terms of the converged network and software defined solutions and how that then interfaced into production, and where the whole of the industry was going.”

Evolving from a UK-based unit of Deluxe to a network of 64 points of presence, the MediaCloud platform comprises; the Portal asset management system which also handles orchestration of workflow; Portalive master control, routing and video distribution; and the BDN Deluxe’s Broadcast Delivery Network. These are complimented by Cinegy automation.

The MediaCloud platform really hit its stride with its adoption in 2016 by Australian multicultural broadcaster, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service).

Following a staged migration process, Deluxe MediaCloud now undertakes playout for the Government-owned broadcaster including SBS SD and HD channels, Viceland and HD channels, the SBS Food network, NITV, SBS OnDemand, and radio services.

“The real turning point, the real milestone was our business with SBS,” says David Radoczy. “SBS took a pretty enlightened and innovative approach to what they were doing with their outsourced services, realising very much that if you don’t believe in it, if you don’t commit to it in a real substantive way, you’re not going to fully leverage all of the benefits from a good sensible outsource. That early leadership from Noel Leslie (CTO SBS), and his team’s ongoing vision for what our partnership can achieve has helped both our businesses.”

According to Radoczy, that sensible outsource is not just taking over functions

previously handled by a client, but providing a service and working in partnership with that client.

“That is probably the most critical thing to always decipher,” he says. “What are David Radoczy, General Manager, Deluxe MediaCloud, the demarcations Sydney: “If you consider where every broadcaster is today, and to have really in the next 5-10 years they will all be running technology good laser-sharp platforms exactly like ours.” line across who does what and where.

If you take it well back to the point of acquisition, SBS will acquire content, we’ll get notice of that acquisition. We’ll on-board that content for them. Our media assets and delivery team will do QC or metadata checks and enhancements for linear and VOD. We run that through our systems here, through Portal, which is our asset management system. We sign off and we’ve integrations between archives and asset management. They then get all that metadata that then helps them through their scheduling across their linear and VOD services.

“The point that SBS then schedules the content - we get advance skeleton schedules and ongoing updates until a final version is released – it is a pretty traditional model now. We will backhaul all of that content - and we take care of all the [TVC] commercial content as well - and play it out. The demarcations are really, they give us a schedule and instructions. From that point on, we’re responsible to deliver on those outcomes to make sure that the playout is correct.

“We run a pretty deep and intimate outsource through SBS because, at a support and maintenance level as well, our engineering staff monitor all the old legacy [systems] as well as the new support and maintenance of all of the SBS broadcast facilities in Sydney, so that’s from front line support for MAM and all the Dalet systems, through to their radio and all their television facilities and up

CONTENT DELIVERY

IT SAYS MUCH ABOUT THE PACE of change that it was barely four years ago the Deluxe MediaCloud software-defined play-out platform was launched to much scepticism from an industry raised on proprietary hardware and hands-on, in-house control.

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CONTENT DELIVERY

and until the headends. Really from cradle to grave, we can manage or we’re responsible in some way in close partnership with SBS to deliver on all those services.”

Since taking on SBS Australia as a client, Deluxe MediaCloud has gone on to handle services for clients between Hong Kong and Thailand via its Sydney HQ. This has been made possible by the IP-based nature of MediaCloud.

“Our asset management system allows every part of the workflow,” says Radoczy “Because a third-party is doing their captioning, a third-party is doing their program supply, and there’s obviously the people that run the channel, all of them come together in Portal and the tailored workflows. These are designed so that they check TX ready programmes and captions and can review deliveries of captions and audio files in the various languages they need; it builds a great customer experience when you playout and service from the cloud. They can see their schedules in a cut-down format so a lay person doesn’t need to see a full pre-schedule. They can see some summaries of it. They can sign off and check it.

“Through the BDN, we run their contribution and delivery services and monitor all their networks down to the packet. We can give them reports on what’s happening with their IP providers and routes. It’s a really comprehensive service, but it really is where the tech helps us, because the platform itself runs a pile of elastic search, big data principles, and we actually build a lot of these things in-house. A lot of it’s understanding the service we need, what is specific, and specific things we need to monitor. And we can trap nearly anything. It’s most definitely a preventative approach, so we’ll monitor everything.

“So, from all of those things, all the way from Ingest, and this is live Ingest and top and tailing and editing of incoming feeds, through to presentation, through to master control, and all our engineering services, they are all location-agnostic.

Give me an Internet connection, and the teams here can connect and can run those systems.

“Looking forward and we are a global business, we see a wide variety of client needs and emerging requirements. A lot of these businesses are running global channel services across multiple platforms, so making real the idea of edge playout, for localised insertion services, anywhere in the world is a real service in MediaCloud. We can hit multiple networks and make connections to applications, and I say applications rather than hard-wired boxes, sitting on non-proprietary servers and with content partners anywhere bring these channels together.

They’re seamless services. They’re timed and we run them as one unified service, one unified application and its through IP that we do it more cost effectively.

CONTENT DELIVERY

“We haven’t any of those tyrannies surrounding distance. The same way and the same disciplines, we need to apply to two boxes that are sitting three inches apart in the same rack, that could be 300 kilometres apart across two different VLAN’s or multiple different networks. It’s really liberating. It’s really eye-opening.

What it does, it does start up a whole pile of new opportunities.

44

“We ran some modelling for a foreign broadcaster who was looking to run services into markets that just weren’t viable to run channels into it. When we put our tech in, and the way that we can spin out sub-markets and the cost for us of running those sub-markets, and we put into that our BDN, which uses the public internet to deliver broadcast quality of service then you have a frictionless way to launch into new markets. Once you tie those two together, we make the transforming old services or the building of new ones into niche markets really, really viable. And that, for me, is really exciting when you can overlay the tech, with the way we can work, to open new markets and grow your services and the services your partners need.”

And this transformation extends to disaster recovery.

According to the MediaCloud Sydney GM, “Our DR is a significant point of difference between what a true IP multicast network can do versus what

a traditional playout technology allows you to do. Because we’re IP and we can network over distance and multicast from any point to any point then that transforms how we manage our primary and our secondary systems. In MediaCloud these aren’t are physically 20 kilometres apart. On a traditional plant, that would have been the same rack room.

“If we sit here and we want to fail over, we can fail over to backup systems, but those backup systems are literally 20 kilometres apart. They could be 100 kilometres apart and it’s seamless to us. They run synchronously and they run well. The difference with MediaCloud is that we have an operational centre which is purely control surfaces. All you’re going to see is blue CAT-6 string coming out of the walls. There’s isn’t coax and not a single BNC. All of that other stuff is actually hosted out of properly tiered, high availability data centres, and all the disciplines and all the superior service you get out of those third-party providers.

DR in this building here is literally mobile laptops and dongles and we have a second control room in Artarmon which cost us less to build then you’d have once paid for a pair of broadcast tech monitors.

“We talk about the true idea of convergence. It’s not a term you hear very often anymore. It’s sort of fallen out of fashion. When we talk about what are those IT disciplines, well you can walk into a lot of places and they’ll have little ‘Broadcast IT’ stickers on kit and there is this great ambition to bring our broadcast and IT worlds together but the transition can be tough. It really is. We are a greenfield, built from the ground up IP platform and it’s the only way that we function.

It’s that marriage, what are those IT smarts, the great tool sets, the great development that goes into those parts of the platform with what are broadcast disciplines around performance and SLA’s, the uniqueness of video and bringing those two things together.

“It really is just merging what are all software-based disciplines into what is a living, breathing application which is playout. But most importantly, you can’t just shoe-horn what you know into these types of platforms, building and operating them is a different experience to traditional television and for us we impose a lot of service disciplines and demands; from RTP skips, CPU usage, switches, firewalls, our IP networks and all those bandwidths we’ve a well understood service to provide and we are measured on every frame of our delivery. We do all of that here and do it with a pretty small and sensible team, and it’s the tech and the systems that enable us and help us manage that in a really, really positive and cost effective way.”

Ultimately though, it’s the results that speak for themselves, something SBS Australia has found since it migrated to MediaCloud’s outsourced technology and services.

“They came back and confirmed for us recently a little about the quality of service we have given them,” concludes David Radoczy, “which is better with Deluxe than it was in the whole 13 years beforehand while SBS were managing these same services internally. It demonstrates the possibilities when you take a clean start and fresh run at it, we’ve a great partner with SBS, they have been terrific for us. Is there a learning curve? Again, there absolutely is. And I think if you’re a traditional broadcaster looking to move to our space, I think it scares the bejesus out of you because you do have to re-blood your technology base, re-blood your approach because it is just such a move away from what you know. Is it better or worse? I’ll say it’s most definitely different… yeah, its better.

“And if you try to impose the same approaches and if you don’t embrace everything IP and the software defined model offers then no doubt you can still make it work for you but I think you’re missing the boat on what are the real business-driven outcomes that you get from it. The risk is you get the worse of both worlds. I like to say, MediaCloud protects you from the greatest risk of all, technical obsolescence.

CONTENT DELIVERY

SBS Chief Technology Officer, Noel Leslie.

SBS Australia – Any Platform, Any Time

By Phil Sandberg.

THE YEAR 2016 SAW SBS AUSTRALIA BEGIN what would be a migration of all its terrestrial broadcast channels to Deluxe’s software-defined and IP-based playout platform, MediaCloud, a move which has meant greater efficiencies and opportunities. Initially, however, according to SBS Chief Technology Officer, Noel Leslie, the move was met with great scepticism.

“There was a huge amount of scepticism and quite reasonably so,” says Leslie. “As the first to do this in this territory, I guess it was not surprising that people reacted to that. I think the thing to remember, from my perspective is, if you look into North America or Europe, there are very, very few broadcasters that own their own playout.

If you take the UK, as an example, virtually all broadcasters have managed services agreements.

So I think in terms of direction, the strategy was always right.

“There were some initial teething problems. It’d be pretty surprising if there weren’t because we picked up our whole playout and presentation and moved it. We’ve become used to working in a way which is perhaps different in Australia, but it’s just been routine. I think that was a big piece of work to move into managed service model, which allows us to spin up and spin down channels. We have a lot more agility than we’ve ever had before.

“And, I think that flexibility plays to our desire to focus on the creation and curation of content.

There isn’t a lot of distinctive competence in how you play a file out to Broadcast Australia just to transmit around Australia. We were trying to focus on anything we could do to make us more efficient, free up resources that would allow us to acquire or commission content because that is, obviously, in our interest. I think that was a big platform change that we made.”

Has that enabled you to localise advertising?

“We already have 12 advertising markets. We do

a degree of localised advertising already, but that move [to MediaCloud] hasn’t changed that, but they certainly perform all that work for us now.

As we made public at the time, we transferred 58 people from here to Deluxe, so that was quite a big change for us. The project that followed pretty quickly on top of that was the publishing and the playout of content.

“And, internally, like a lot of broadcasters, we had lots of different groups doing things in slightly different ways and one of the things that we saw was if we could get onto a single platform, a single content repository for our content, a single production platform, then that would enable us to be truly multiskilled and also to get, again, some efficiency in how we put that content together.

“We used to joke internally that actually getting content from TV to radio was way more complicated than it needed to be because we had just different systems. Whereas now, we’re using the same system, and we deployed an enterprise Dalet MAM, and that project was completed a couple of months before the [2018 FIFA] World Cup because that was a nice immoveable object that meant we had to be ready.

“And that’s working really well for us. Whether you create content or news and current affairs, in sport, in radio, in NITV, you all use the Dalet tools now.

And I think that will offer us some opportunities going forward in being more flexible on how we deploy people, because previously when we had literally different systems for every area, then clearly you had to be competent in those systems.

“I think that’s a pretty big change for us and there are only a few broadcasters in the world that have moved to a single system for both the creation piece and the programmatic piece. We streamlined that whole process from creation of content through playout by simplifying a number of systems which, I think, is proving to be beneficial for us.”

And this feeds TV, radio, web?

“We still do the content production of web in Drupal CMS but we will make that tighter. We certainly

have a lot of the content that then goes online coming through the MAM, but for the websites themselves, they still go through our web CMS rather than other systems. But I think even there, we’re looking to try and tie those systems more closely together because the holy grail for everybody, is for any content that comes in, ideally, touch it once, to make sure it has the right metadata, to direct it to whichever platform you want to play it out on - be that TV, radio or online.

If we could turn to SBS On Demand. What sort of metrics are you getting back?

“The thing that you absolutely get in a digital environment is the numbers and you see what you’re seeing. We’ve seen that growth from literally a couple of hundred thousand registered users up to about 5.4 million so we know that’s been growing. We know that’s being driven by the content offer, we look at SBS On Demand, which is the primary driver of that, with 76% of the 7000 hours in the catalogue we have are in language. A key distinct proposition for us is that we’re serving communities in their own language with an offer that you don’t necessarily get somewhere else.

“One of our challenges is clearly that as a freeto-air broadcaster, it’s great to have all of that growth, but with that comes growing CDN costs and other costs, so part of what we do and part of what we’ve just done with our partners at Amazon is look for more efficient ways to encode stuff and look for better quality and picture at lower bit rate.

“Audiences want content in the best quality they can get and they want it to be a TV-like experience.

Every month we’ll look at those figures, we’ll look at the growth and we need to keep trying to forecast what we need in terms of whether it’s storage, whether it’s CDN bandwidth.

“There’s no doubt that’s been a significant area of growth for us and the challenge from my perspective is to make sure we have the service available so that we can, in times of peak traffic, give people a positive experience, because people are very quick to tell you if it’s not.”

CONTENT DELIVERY

The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) was the first Australian broadcaster to move to software-defined playout. CTO Noel Leslie reflects on the lessons and opportunities.

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PHIL SANDBERG

ADAM BUICK

LUCY SALMON

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He has also produced the ABE2016, Sportscasting (2014-2016), and 3D-Day (2011) industry conferences.

Adam’s previous role as Manager of the SMPTE Australia Exhibition, along with strong family ties in Australia and SE Asia, has given him a unique perspective on the broadcast and content creation sector throughout the region.

Co-founder and Production co-ordinator Lucy Salmon has worked with Broadcastpapers.com since its inception.

She also holds a PhD in the field of sports medicine.

Contact Phil via +61(0)414 671 811 or papers@broadcastpapers.com

You can contact Adam on +61(0)413 007 144 or adam@broadcastpapers.com

You can reach her via +61(0)412 479 662 or production@broadcastpapers.com

Phil Sandberg has spent 28 years reporting on technology issues across the Asia-Pacific.

His credits include launching Content+Technology, Broadcastpapers.com, the SMPTE Australia Exhibition, Directory, and Cinema Technology Asia-Pacific.

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