Content + Technology - September/October 2012

PP: 255003/06831

VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012

MEDIA + PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY

www.content-technology.com

CANON GETS A WIGGLE ON

Blockbuster Pipelines ISSN 1448-9554

Olympic Setup

Giving You THE EDGE.

WORLDWIDE LEADER IN VIDEO COMPRESSION

>> www.t >> www.thomson-networks.com www.thomsonthomson-networks.com networks.com

VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012

Also see C+T in PDF at www.content-technology.com

Shooting in the Snow

30 REGULARS

02 04

EDITOR’S WELCOME NEWS Magna Restructures in Asia, New Director for NBN Co, Cayzer to ARRI, Dalet Expands

10

TAKING STOCK The Business of

61 62

CLASSIFIEDS AND EVENTS OFF-AIR What Happened on Tour, Gets Printed Right Here!

64

TIME SHIFTER Look Back at the 2000 Paralympic Games Coverage

48

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Australian Data Centre from Rackspace, Avid and Hostworks Collaborate, The Cloud as Active Archive

51

RADIO EBU Wants .radio, Thai Digital Delegation in Oz, Digital Radio Unites Industry, DAB + Trial Extended in Canberra and Darwin

54

AUDIO Sound Foundation for Big Brother,

Connected Entertainment, The New Religion of Social Media

32

FEATURES

18 24

IBC PREVIEW Exhibition Preview 3D – THE THIRD DIMENSION Mistika’s Deep Sea Challenge, 3D Video Conferencing, Wireless Camera Package

26

ACQUISITION F65 Goes to HollyShorts, Red Apple’s ALEXA Plus Purchase, Canon shoots The Wiggles, Sony in the Snow, Prototype Panchro Lens

46 32

SPORTSCASTING Olympic Sets, Switch’s

CEDAR at the National Library, Loudness Processing

FOXTEL App, New AFL Studio by Videocraft

38

NEWS OPERATIONS AP’s HD Transition, RTÉ’s New Mobile Journalist Kit, Mosart Enhances Automation

42

POST-PRODUCTION Blackmagic Buys Cintel Assets, Deluxe Acquires Part of Omnilab, Blockbuster’s in the Pipeline, Mountain Lion Wrap-Up

57

TRANSMISSION DVB-T Network in Cambodia, Techtel Partners with Harris, Studiotech in Australia, Rohde & Schwarz Joins the Headend

36

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)2-9211 8205 Fax: +61-(0)2-9211 8208 Mob: +61-(0)414-671-811 papers@broadcastpapers.com

SUB-EDITOR: Keith Ford PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lucy Salmon Tel: +61-(0)29211 8205 production@broadcastpapers.com DESIGN & LAYOUT: Wide Open Media Tel: +61-2-9690 2835 info@wideopenmedia.com.au PRINTING: Pegasus COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All material in Broadcastpapers’ Content+Technology Magazine is protected under

Australian Commonwealth Copyright Laws.

No material may be reproduced in part or whole in any manner without prior consent of the Publisher and/or copyright holder.

DISCLAIMER: Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility for omissions or mistakes made within, claims made or information provided by advertisers.

EDITOR’S WELCOME

Master of Your Domain?

By Phil Sandberg

REMEMBER THE WEB 1.0? It was an online wild west complete with land grabs, a gold rush and cyber-squatters. It was, of course, all about domain names. Register the right one and you could sell it (often to the real world owner of the name), or attract funding, go public and realise your “exit strategy” all without an actual business model. Then, around the turn of the millennium, that bubble burst. Well, it could all be about to happen again, this time on a whole new level, a top level if you will.

.DIGITAL

Dash Park, LLC

.DISH

Dish - DBS Corporation

.DOWNLOAD

dot Support Limited

.DVR

Hughes Satellite Systems Corporation

.ENGINEER

United TLD Holdco Ltd.

.FILM

Google; Outer Avenue, LLC; and Motion Picture Domain Registry Pty Ltd

.MEDIA

Tucows TLDs Inc.; Grand Glen, LLC and Uniregistry, Corp.

.MOBILE

Amazon EU S.à r.l.; Pixie North, LLC; and Dish DBS Corporation

Now the number of gTLDs is set to explode. In June, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) revealed who had applied to administer which gTLDs under its new program. There were some 1,930 applications. Meaning there were 1,930 organisations who applied to administer a new dot-suffix and determine who could and could not register a domain name using that suffix.

.MUSIC

seven applicants including Amazon and Google

.STUDIO

Namesphere Limited; and Spring Goodbye, LLC

As our story on page 51 details, the European Broadcasting Union has applied to become the custodian of the .radio gTLD. While there are other applicants for this gTLD, it could mean that anyone wishing to register, say, www.kylesandilands.radio will have to be approved by the EBU or its agent.

.TECH

six applicants including Google

.THEATER

Key GTLD Holding Inc; and Blue Tigers LLC

.VIDEO

four applicants including Amazon

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) have traditionally included the com, info, net, and org domains. Nowadays domains such as biz and pro are also considered generic. In fact, the entire group of domains that do not have a country designation is still often referred to by the term generic TLDs.

Is this a source of concern? Perhaps not, but there will be bunfights, and how will the EBU decide who is eligible for Europe.radio, or even Australia.radio?

Other potentially contentious gTLDs and applicants include: .ABC

American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

.AUDIO

Holly Castle, LLC; and Uniregistry, Corp.

.BLOG

Nine applicants, including Charleston Road Registry Inc. aka Google

.CAMERA

Atomic Maple, LLC

.CHANNEL

Google

.CLOUD

Seven applicants, including Symantec and Amazon

.ONLINE

six applicants including Tucows

.PRESS

DotPress Inc.

.PRODUCTIONS

Magic Birch, LLC

On the lighter side, there were three applicants for .SUCKS, and when the machines do enslave the human race, we know they’ll be good looking because .MATRIX had only one applicant - L’Oréal cosmetics.

The formal period for public comment on applications has been extended to 26 September 2012. Visit www.icann.org Thanks for reading Phil Sandberg Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com T: +61-(0)2-9211 8205

2012 C+T DEADLINES ASIA-PACIFIC EDITIONS OCTOBER 2012 VOL 1 ISSUE 1

Bookings: Ad Artwork:

September 14, 2012 September 17, 2012

DECEMBER 2012 VOL 1 ISSUE 2

Bookings: Ad Artwork:

October 29, 2012 November 5, 2012

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND EDITION NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 VOL 9 ISSUE 6

EDITOR’S WELCOME

Bookings: Ad Artwork:

2

Landing in October

October 19, 2012 October 25, 2012

FOR MORE INFORMATION www.content-technology.com +61-(0)2-9211 8205 or +61-(0)414 671 811 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com Sales enquiries: papers@broadcastpapers.com +61-(0)2 9211 8205

NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com

Pilat Picks Damien Thomson for GM Australasia PILAT MEDIA GLOBAL PLC (AIM: PGB) has announced that Damien Thomson has joined the company as general manager for Australasia. In his new role, Thomson will manage all operations throughout the AsiaPacific region and will be based in Sydney.

Prior to joining Pilat Media, Thomson served for more than four years as managing director, Asia-Pacific, for Facilitate Digital, an Australian supplier of digital media workflow systems and ad trading software platforms.

Prior to that, he was general manager, New Zealand, for Facilitate Digital.

Visit www.pilatmedia.com

Gebus Takes on Tascam for CMI CMI HAS ANNOUNCED the appointment of Wayne Gebus as Tascam Brand manager for CMI Music & Audio throughout Australia.

Wayne has had extensive experience in sales and marketing of AV and electronic products including a strong background in consumer electronics and photographics with such companies as Sony and Ricoh.

According to CMI, “We feel Wayne will bring a wider expertise to CMI and aid in Tascam sales and marketing in Australia and he is looking forward to working with you to assist in further developing Tascam Sales.”

Visit www.cmi.com.au

Magna Restructures Team For Growth In Asia MAGNA SYSTEMS AND ENGINEERING has opened a new office in Jakarta and restructured its senior management team as part of major systems integration growth plans across Asia. In addition, after eleven and a half years with the company and the end of his 3-year contract as CEO, David Bowers has moved back into the operations and engineering side of the industry.

Magna Executive Chairman, Robert Clemesha, said, “This is a very exciting time for Magna Systems and our clients as we are changing our structure and ramping up operations in order to keep our Asian growth plans on track.

With David Bowers moving on, our new Group Systems Architect, Barry Pegg, joins the senior management team. Barry sits alongside newly promoted Matthew Clemesha, who now takes on the role of COO and the responsibility for

all group finance and administration. Stephen Clemesha expands his role as Group Sales Manager with the addition of our new Jakarta office and I continue as Executive Chairman of the entire group.”

With the senior team bolstered and more additions to staff in the pipeline, Clemesha also outlined the company’s plans to open a wholly owned subsidiary office in Jakarta, adding, “Even more exciting news comes in the form of our soon-to-open Jakarta office.

We have had a presence in Indonesia for some time but with the volume of work and in order to maintain the high levels of service in our Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney and Auckland offices, it was best for our clients in the region that we open a dedicated office.”

Visit www.magnasys.tv

ADDERLink INFINITY dual allows you to build a flexible infrastructure, the likes of which have not been possible before.

Locate computers anywhere you like, share connections to computers, watch the interactions others have with computers, share control, collaborate, switch computers, and more.

The ADDERLink INFINITY range is also the first of its kind to allow multicasting across your network.

The ADDERLink INFINITY dual interfaces USB peripherals such as the keyboard, mouse or graphics tablet, together with DVI for the video display, over a layer 3, standard gigabit ethernet network, on copper or fiber.

NEWS + PEOPLE

• Dual Link DVI • Dual Head DVI

4

• Dual IP Carrier Type (copper & fibre) • Fully compatible with ADDERlink INFINITY and A.I.M. management interface

Jamie Ambrose Heading C.S.I. DELUXE AUSTRALIA, a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc., announced the appointment of Jamie Ambrose to the position of General Manager of its Sydney-based Caption and Subtitling business, Captioning & Subtitling International Pty. Ltd. (C.S.I.).

Ambrose has 15 years’ experience in the broadcast industry, most recently heading up The Post Op Group, a large post production facility based in Sydney. Previously he held several pivotal roles with Avid Technology, most recently in Singapore running the Asia Pacific customer success operation.

Visit www.captionandsubtitling.com.au

New Director for Australia’s NBN Co Board NBN CO LIMITED has announced the appointment of Brad Orgill to the board of NBN Co, as well as the reappointments of current Deputy Chair, Ms Diane Smith-Gander, and Director, Ms Siobhan McKenna.

Mr Orgill has extensive experience working in global financial markets, spending 22 years at the UBS Group before retiring in 2008 as Chairman of UBS Australia. Following his retirement from UBS, Mr Orgill chaired the Australian Government’s Building the Education Revolution Taskforce.

He represents the Commonwealth on the Queensland Reconstruction Authority Board, and is a member of the Regional Development Australia Fund Advisory Panel.

Visit www.nbnco.com.au

Share

Observe

Control

SmartView Duo is the perfect compact SDI rack monitoring system for post production, broadcast or live events. It features two beautiful 8” LCD screens which can be remotely adjusted via ethernet. It even includes tally. What’s more, it easily handles SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI video formats.

Greater SDI compatibility You can rely on SmartView Duo to support multiple SDI video standards, including SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI formats. It was designed to meet the needs of both broadcast and post production professionals. On top of this, it supports advanced video formats like 1080p HD and 2K SDI.

SDI monitoring everywhere you need it SmartView Duo lets you build your own master control room to monitor all cameras for live production. Use it in editing desks to display all your video sources. Incredibly compact, it’s also great for broadcast vans. You can even install SmartView Duo into portable monitor racks to build lightweight flyaway kits.

Intelligent Ethernet control Forget about using little screwdrivers in an attempt to match all your monitors. Now you can conveniently adjust and match every monitor remotely from your laptop or desktop. Simply connect SmartView Duo to your ethernet network and use the included Mac or PC software.

Mount it anywhere in racks SmartView Duo can be mounted anywhere in equipment racks, even in the extreme top. That’s because SmartView Duo rotates completely upside down for optimum viewing angle. It will instantly sense the screen rotation and automatically flip the images without any need for adjustment.

SmartView Duo

755

$

Learn more today at www.blackmagicdesign.com/smartview

NEWS + PEOPLE

ASIA NEWS

CHINA STAR CHINA MEDIA LTD and Puji Capital Limited have formed Puji Star Media Co., Ltd. based in Shanghai, China, for the development of international TV content for the STAR platform in China and other investment opportunities.

Tailored for Chinese viewers, the venture will invest in internationally inspired TV content with particular interest in the Americas/ Hollywood, Europe, Japan, and Korea, among others.

Visit www.pujicn.com

INDIA YOU SCOD18, a leading cable TV MSO in Mumbai, has installed Thomson Video Networks’ ViBE VS7000 convergent video platform to launch HD channels and OTT services to customers in the Mumbai area.

YOU SCOD18 Networking Pvt Ltd. is a joint venture between YOU Broadband & Cable India Ltd. and leading cable TV distributors in Mumbai. It offers high-speed data, voice, and video services to residential, corporate, and SME customers in 13 of India’s major cities, with a head end located in Mumbai.

Visit www.thomson-networks.com

THAILAND THE GOLDENDUCK GROUP has helped TrueVision Plc., Thailand’s largest cable television provider implement Dolby Digital Plus, the audio codec that includes surround sound Dolby Digital while offering extended capabilities for evolving content delivery systems, such as those offered through True’s new multichannel audio set-top boxes.

Visit www.goldenduckgroup.com

MALAYSIA ITV GRANADA has unveiled plans to broadcast the channel in HD on MEASAT-3 from September, for viewers across Asia and the Middle East.

Augustus Dulgaro, SVP Asia Pacific, ITV STUDIOS Global Entertainment, comments, “With this increased ease of access for our channel distribution partners, ITV Granada viewers will now be able to enjoy the benefits of our improved services, at the highest possible quality.”

NEWS + PEOPLE

Visit www.itv.com

6

SINGAPORE DIGITAL TV, free-to-air broadcaster MediaCorp, will transmit all its seven free-to-air channels digitally by December 2013. Channels 5, 8, Suria and Vasantham will be available in HD by 2013, while the remaining will be broadcast in SD in end 2013 and will migrate to HD in 2016.

Singapore plans to switch over fully from analogue TV to digital free-to-air TV by 2020, in line with ASEAN’s agreed timeframe for making the transition.

Visit www.mda.gov.sg

JAPAN NTT COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION has launched its Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), a 40 Gbps, ultra-low latency undersea cable connecting major cities in Asia. ASE has launched with a total carrying capacity exceeding 15 terabits per second (Tbps), a total length of about 7800 km, and is designed to withstand earthquake and typhoon damage Visit www.ntt.com

KOREA HONG KONG THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT has announced that the Chief Executive in Council has accepted the recommendation submitted by the former Broadcasting Authority (BA), and approved the application for renewal of the domestic pay television programme service licence of TVB Pay Vision Limited (TVBPV), for a validity period of 12 years from February 23, 2013, to February 22, 2025.

SOFTWARE GENERATION LTD (SGL), a leading provider of content archive and storage management software for media and entertainment, has announced a partnership with one of South Korea’s principal digital archive solutions providers.

From its headquarters in Seoul, storage specialist PetaData will represent SGL’s entire product portfolio.

Visit www.sglbroadcast.com

Visit www.coms-auth.hk

INDONESIA BROADBAND AND PAY-TV operator PT LinkNet (First Media ) has launched the First Media Digital Media Recorder, making it the first PVR service in Indonesia.

The HomeCable pay-TV network also delivered the first HD service in Indonesia and currently has 21 channels including a 3D channel. The PVR service was launched at ‘The Residences at Dharmawangsa’, a premium apartment development in Jakarta.

Visit www.firstmedia.com

NEW ZEALAND

VIZRT LTD. has announced that the Company has signed a deal worth US$1 million with Channel Seven Australia for the implementation of broadcast graphics products in six of their stations.

GENCOM TECHNOLOGY has launched Gencom Distribution, a new standalone division within the organisation, to specifically promote and support the channels, dealers and reseller network for its portfolio of products.

Channel Seven Australia had been looking to replace outdated graphics system it had been using in each of it’s Capital City stations.

Gencom National Sales Manager, Noel Oakes, said, “In addition to JVC Professional, we also represent some of the industry’s leading brands including Anton Bauer, Broadcast Pix, Datapath, Doremi, Ensemble, Hualin and Playbox.”

Visit www.vizrt.com

Visit www.gencom.com/distribution

NEWS + PEOPLE

AUSTRALIA

7

NEWS + PEOPLE

Burgess Under Control at AMX AMX HAS ANNOUNCED the addition of Kim Burgess to its team in Australia.

Kim comes to AMX with broad industry experience including event production, control system programming with AMX Dealers and most recently, a role with the Queensland Department of Justice & Attorney General.

In his new role, Kim will be involved in many aspects of the AMX operation including AMX University training, events, product management & development, and the support of new and existing customers with RMS deployments and ensuring they achieve maximum return on their RMS investment.

Kim will initially be based at AMX’s Queensland HQ in Southport but will be moving to Victoria in early 2013 to support the Southern Region team servicing Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania as a local representative of the AMX Technical Response Group (TRG) based in the Port Melbourne office.

Visit www.amx.com

Dalet Expands Business Development Team DALET HAS NAMED three industry professionals to key managerial roles. Yoann Poizeau has been named Business Development Manager for the Asia Pacific region (APAC), Christophe Almeras becomes Business Development Manager for packaged solutions and Anthony Le Palud assumes the newly created position of Director of Customer Support.

Industry expert Yoann Poizeau has 10 years experience in sales and product management with Netia, and will be based in Singapore.

Christophe Almeras will be based in Paris where he will focus on bundling Dalet technology into packaged solutions directed to the Dalet partner/ reseller chain and smaller customers. Prior to joining Dalet, Almeras worked for Grass Valley, as Business Development Manager EMEA and most recently as Key Accounts Manager in France.

Anthony Le Palud brings nearly 15 years experience in high-level managerial roles, providing professional services for a wide range of video, audio, broadcast, film and studio products.

His prior positions with Thomson and Grass Valley included the management of large international teams responsible for systems integration and for servicing major support contracts.

Visit www.dalet.com

New Director for Australia’s NBN Co Board NBN CO LIMITED has announced the appointment of Brad Orgill to the board of NBN Co, as well as the reappointments of current Deputy Chair, Ms Diane SmithGander, and Director, Ms Siobhan McKenna.

Mr Orgill has extensive experience working in global financial markets, spending 22 years at the UBS Group before retiring in 2008 as Chairman of UBS Australia.

Following his retirement from UBS, Mr Orgill chaired the Australian Government’s Building the Education Revolution Taskforce.

He represents the Commonwealth on the Queensland Reconstruction Authority Board, and is a member of the Regional Development Australia Fund Advisory Panel.

Visit www.nbnco.com.au

New Chief Executive for the ARRI Rental Group

Techtel Appoints Colthorpe in NZ TECHTEL HAS APPOINTED David Colthorpe as Regional Manager for New Zealand. Based in Auckland, David will provide local representation for Techtel’s customer base across the country.

Colthorpe brings a wealth of knowledge to Techtel, having worked in various roles with Sony

over the past 24 years, most recently as Sales and Marketing Support Manager at Sony Australia New Zealand. David recently played a pivotal role in the very successful roll-out of Sony’s SI and business solutions initiative in New Zealand.

Visit www.techtel.tv

Capon Heads Digitisation at Silver Trak SILVER TRAK DIGITAL has announced that

Capon said, “The difference between what

industry veteran Rod Capon has joined its team to head up its in-house digitisation department.

Capon brings with him over 28 years industry experience in a plethora of areas including digitisation, duplication, authoring and asset management to name a few.

Silver Trak Digital is offering compared to other companies is the sheer level of expertise and depth of knowledge we have in taking care of every possible type of legacy format.”

Visit www.silvertrak.com.au

NEWS + PEOPLE

Dubsat Looking Sharpe

8

DUBSAT HAS ANNOUNCED their latest hire with the appointment of Jake Sharpe as Sales Director.

Having previously worked as VP USA & The Americas and Head of Retail for BEAM.TV and later, CEO and Founder of cloud-based media distribution and management platform

AdCast, Sharpe has worked with advertisers, creative and digital agencies, broadcasters and production companies to upload, transcode and deliver broadcast media content on a local and international scale over many years.

Visit www.dubsat.com.au

ARRI HAS APPOINTED Martin Cayzer as Chief Executive of its global network of camera and lighting rental operations.

In this new role, Cayzer will have global responsibility for ARRI’s diverse rental businesses and service capabilities, with plans to extend global reach, grow the customer base and enhance market leadership.

Prior to joining ARRI, Cayzer served as Managing Director of Panavision Asia Pacific for 13 years, responsible for its own operations and third party distributors throughout the region. He has thirty years experience through roles in a number of industry organisations in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

Visit www.arri.com

TAKING STOCK Moves in the business of content + technology

www.content-technology.com/mediabusiness

Connecting Entertainment Connected Entertainment , what is it? Does it exist? If so, how will it shape the content production and delivery industries in years to come? C+T asked six luminaries for their thoughts.

“We’ve defined it a lot this year, and we’re still doing more research, and I think recent AC Nielsen research that came out gave us a lot of insights into what people are doing with their devices.

“I’ve been going to a lot of forums overseas in Europe, the BBC, and Samsung UK and ESPN and all these guys over there who are doing companion apps, and education.

“Not so long ago, BBC launched a companion app to talk with the Antiques Roadshow show, where you could bid together with the consumers on the show and then have a group cast amongst tablets and play games as to what you think the bid’s going to be.

“So, in a nutshell we’ve broken up into entertainment being family entertainment. So, your VOD, your catch-up TV, lifestyle, social, health, education, smart home and then bring all that together as a converged solution.

“It’s health, it can be home monitoring, it can be in your backyard and bringing down a screen via your tablet, which then streams content from your capture TV service from your TV via the cloud onto your screen in the backyard.

“Entertainment can’t be defined. It’s about those different pillars, and then looking at the devices that are together, smartphones, tablets, separate boxes, service gateways, video gateways, and then cloud, and then TV. So, that’s how we’re looking at it in a nutshell.”

PERVASIVE ACROSS A RANGE of devices, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s iView is arguably the country’s most successful televisionbased app. According to Sally O’Donoghue, Manager, iView and Internet Broadcasting with the ABC, “If you were to go by a generic definition provided by Google, entertainment is something that provides enjoyment or amusement. But, I think that’s quite limiting in the term of connected space because it excludes things like entertainment, commerce, education, information, local services, and communication services.

And, I think the lines are being blurred between entertainment services and all of those other add-ons really.”

TAKING STOCK

“If I take a human view, I might think about it from the perspective of something that’s a little more social, so I want to be able to enhance my multimedia life, my TV life in particular, by tapping into the power of my social networks, and enhancing the entertainment experience that I have. So, words that come to mind are things like social TV or recommendations or, products like Miso, so there’s two kind of strong ways, or different ways that you can think about it.

“I come from a device background, so I’m thinking about it at the moment from a device point of view. Another way I can think about it is from a human point of view.

“For me, I want my TV to work any place, any time. And, I’m also human, I’m a social animal so I want to be able to use the power of my social networks to tap into interesting things that might be happening at that moment in time, with the entertainment that I’m currently experiencing. So, it’s so broad, I think we’ve got multiple definitions, and this happens if you’ve worked in technology, we just invent phrases, morph the technology and the product matures.”

“From a device point of view, as a customer, I want to be able to share my content, my multimedia life across a range of devices anytime,

For Evan Manolis, Group Manager AV at Samsung Electronics Australia, Connected Entertainment links more than just audio and video content.

For Sandra Davey, Country Manager Australia for Netgem, Connected Entertainment can be looked at from a number of angles.

10

anywhere, any place. You then see it referenced as to be anywhere.

For Sony Australia’s Content Partnership Manager, Consumer Product Marketing, Sharon Ashworth, it is still early days if you look at the consumer perspective.

“They’re still getting their head around actually connecting their device, how those devices interact with each other, what’s available on those individual devices. What’s the differences between those devices, how they’re actually going to manage their accounts. Is it one account that they sign up, multiple accounts that they sign up? There’s all these starting points.

“Then, if we look at the content partners themselves, they’re at ground zero a lot of the time. They’re thinking I haven’t got my digital content ready, what formats do I need, how am I going to host it? There’s so many starting points that we’re yet to jump over, that all of those exciting things that we’re ready to look at are not actually the starting point for the majority of people that I think are going to be involved in the connected entertainment conversation.”

Sharon’s colleague, Paul Colley of Sony Network Services agrees.

“I think Sharon’s right. My view of connected entertainment is that it means nothing, it means Continued page 14 XX

TAKING STOCK

A New Religion Looms!

Media staff & strategy by Karl Jansson Politics, sex and religion will either start, carry or finish a conversation in a divisive way!

But, if you are attending a place of religious worship then you would expect religious discussion to be present. This (discussion) probably also applies to only one of the other two, but you get the idea.

WHILST A NUMBER OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION regards themselves as religious, it’s interesting to note that within the last decade, both the believers and the non-believers have joined forces to support another Religion that is gaining momentum beyond anyone’s expectations. It has captured our faith and devotion, and because of that we spread the word so we encourage followers to join us.

So what is the Religion? It’s called the church of “Social Media”. Now just think of it for a minute. It has the elements of attracting and keeping new followers, and can even convert others.

Well, Wikipedia’s explanation is: “Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values.”

Ok, whilst a part of the statement say’s it’s a “Cultural System”, it is definitely different to a “Social System”. However we can say that the “Church of Social Media” brings both systems together and so it’s best placed to be called a Sociocultural system.

Now that the explanation is out of the way, it is totally different to other Religions, because this one carries a silent but lethal strain. It’s particularly dangerous because in it’s guise as a tool to reach out and touch individuals, it has the ability to detain you with a vice like grip, in real time. You feel like you can’t seem to disengage yourself from a conversation, or conversations.

There are many factors as to why this happens.

I’ve found that there are a few social terms emerging that can influence this behaviour. Because we chat in type format, rather than convey our conversation vocally, the conversations are generally shorter in content and because of that, the intent can often be misunderstood or purposely directed.

AMYGDALA (THE REPTILE BRAIN) The Amygdala is described as the primitive part of the brain. It’s part of the system involved in emotional reactions. It’s how we interpret situations that determine our emotional reactions. Put simply, two people could perceive the same situation differently, hence create a different reaction.

It’s become common place on the social media network for individuals to innocently react inadvertently to what they believed to be the comment directed at them.

HOSTILE BAIT This is a term used by those who intentionally create a medium in order to de-rail someone in conversation.

Hostile bait is the term given to a conversation that is purposely constructed in order to “get a rise from someone”. It’s the bait that sets a person off. It is purposely constructed to destruct, so when the bait is taken, the returned comments are showcased within the social network with a purpose to destroy a reputation, or lower their social standing.

TAKING STOCK

Probably the most prominent for business is:

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CSR (CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY) “The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of

Politics, Sex and Religion

the public sphere who may also be considered as stakeholders.”-Wikipedia The Social Media network is totally different to the internet browser, where you would normally seek information like being in a library, but now the library has your friends, family and colleagues standing around you whilst you look up stuff! In business it’s far too easy to lock yourself in time with pleasantries and chat, only to find yourself behind in your day-to-day commitments.

Sure you can justify Social networking for situations such as seeking out potential employees, but is that the mainstream responsibility you have to your employer? How much time is devoted to searching out multiple social sites that are growing in number, and then digging deep into them all, taking out memberships, paying at times a fee, just to be there?

Could you be better placed working at a level within your business providing a roadmap within policies to move ahead, and meeting budgets?

Most would say, “Yes”. Ok, but what alternatives are there?

The answer is to outsource, as you would with engaging a cleaner to clean your premises, a plumber or an electrician.

There are external recruitment professionals dedicated to keeping up the registrations to existing, new and pending social sites, and what’s more, their employer encourages them to do so. This is where they live, eat, breath and network.

In addition, some Recruitment professionals, like myself, are dedicated to their profession through a specific market. We manage a comprehensive network that’s always up-to-date and globally fresh.

Let’s face it, you wouldn’t engage a handyman to undertake an important piping job, when you could engage a plumber. Engage an industry based professional, not a generic recruiter, and you’ll definitely see the difference in the quality and timing of employees appointed to your company, long term! Dedicated industry recruitment professionals know when to avoid the pitfalls of the social network and when to switch into Search mode in order to discretely approach targeted professionals within your competitors.

Karl Jansson owned and managed “J-Curve Broadcast Recruitment”. He has since merged his business within “Interlogic Placements” at North Sydney.

Contact: karl@interlogic.com.au or 9922 2711 or 0408 274 413

TAKING STOCK WW Continued from page 10

nothing to a customer. It’s an industry term that we get lost in, to be honest with you. We miss the customer in the discussion.

“I think Sharon’s point is exactly right, at the end of the day the customer is ‘I want, and I can’. I’ve never ever heard a customer talk about, ‘check out my connected TV’, it’s ‘hey I can get Facebook, I can get Twitter, I can get ABC’ or whatever it might be, but they don’t say check out my connected TV. So, it’s about what I can do as a customer, and I think it’s important for the industry not to get lost in ‘connected entertainment’, rather let’s get lost in what the customer wants to do.”

“And that’s what was so great about the ABC,” adds Sharon Ashworth. “They started really early, made it really simple, put it places where viewers just more or less stumble across it. And then, everything that they could want was there, so it enticed them immediately, unfortunately not everyone’s in a position like the ABC because they don’t have to be commercial, but there really is a great case study in the ABC and how they’ve actually positioned themselves and how they’ve grown in the market, as their customers understanding has grown, the possibilities have grown.”

According to the ABC’s Sally O’Donoghue, however, “We do have our own complexities to deal with in that we’ve grown so quickly. Audio support is a huge consideration and with every platform that we make Iview available on, there’s a level of audience support that we need to meet really, and it’s quite intensive.

“And then, that’s notwithstanding thinking about the compatibility of video formats with devices, and DRM linked devices and those sorts of complexities as well, it’s a tricky one. And future-proof, where you start to install something that you can then grow, and can keep some consistency.”

But, future proofing is something that can’t be done says Netgem’s Sandra Davey.

“You just can’t. I saw it happen with the web, I saw it happen with mobiles, I saw it happen with early TVs, I saw it happen with set top boxes and I’m seeing it happen with connected entertainment and multi-devices. The beautiful idea of create once, distribute or publish many doesn’t exist.

TAKING STOCK

“I think the tools are getting better. Each time we go through this, the tools are getting a

14

little smarter, and the systems are getting a little more sophisticated in terms of managing, video management systems, that might be installed at Telstra or Comcast or what have you. But, the hurdles and speed humps from a consumer point of view, from a technology point of view, digital rights managements, they’re exactly the same as the speed humps I saw in the mobile industry. We’re going to have them every time we hit the bend with something new.

I wish humanity had collective corporate memory, because we have all of us been through this three or four times. We don’t remember a way to move us forward faster the next time.”

“And it’s a hard proposition,” adds Sony’s Sharon Ashworth. “When you’re talking to a content partner that wants to know what they need to budget, what the return on that investment is going to be, how far that’s actually going to take them, how much does that cost them over there.

It is a difficult conversation to have.”

“Mum and dad on the T-Box still don’t know they can rewind live TV,” says Sandra Davey. “The idea of pausing – I know we’ve had Foxtel for 10 years and they’ve done a lot of good, well IQ’ s only been around for seven years. The idea that I can record and I don’t have to appoint with you anymore …

“T-Box is targeting middle Australia and not the Foxtel customers, and these people are still grappling with the very basics of, ‘I’ve got a PVR, I can record, oh my God, pause live TV’, that freaks them out. So, we’re constantly coming back to the perspective of the customer has real importance.

“We do overly complicate. These are words that we use in our industry, occasionally you see them sneak out in a brand, in a marketing campaign, but they’re really industry terms.”

Adding another angle, Matt Kossatz, VP Australia

& New Zealand, Accedo Broadband, reveals the findings of his own small survey.

“I asked two people last night, when you’ve think about connected entertainment, what do you think? They just gave me a completely different perspective. For them, the best they came up with was live gaming, that’s entertainment connected, I do something with my Xbox where I might have an avatar and might be battling a avatar in real time, and I’ve got a social network going on. So, that was their definition of connected entertainment.”

More in our next issue.

With a conference and exhibition focused on the multi-platform, multi-screen content business opportunity for broadcasters, content owners, CE manufacturers, brands and platform operators, Connected Entertainment (November 21-22, Melbourne Convention Centre) will provide a unique regional forum where providers of the latest technologies, services and solutions can meet with senior level executives, demonstrate capability and expertise and form important relationships.

For sponsorship and exhibition enquiries, contact John Pozoglou on +61 2 8908 8505 or email johnp@acevents.com.au Visit www.con-nect.com.au/entertainment

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SMPTE Announces Publication of BXF 2.0 Document Suite THE SOCIETY OF Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has announced the publication of the BXF (Broadcast eXchange Format) 2.0 suite which streamlines interoperability and information exchanges between business and media management systems vital to broadcast and new-media operations.

exchange. The BXF suite provides a standardised approach for the exchange of schedule, as-run logs, content metadata, and content transfer instructions between systems across broadcast and new-media operations, including servers, editors, traffic and billing, sales and scheduling, automation, and digital asset management equipment.

With clear and specific mapping instructions for sharing and exchanging business data and on-air content across digital media workflows, the SMPTE BXF suite provides standardised, single timeline-based support for ensuring accuracy amidst dynamically changing content — right up to the time viewers see it.

The updated BXF 2.0 XML schema and documents is available for purchase and subscribers from the store section of the SMPTE Digital Library.

The BXF 2.0 suite includes several backward-compatible enhancements to the existing BXF schema set to ensure scalability and future proofing for broadcast and new-media operations. These include additional support for sponsored secondary events, reuse of house numbers, enhanced multi language support, and the ability to communicate currently airing, previous, and upcoming events. The SMPTE BXF Working Group (34CS-10) is already focused on BXF 3.0, including efforts to expand support for a broader range of media facilities with enhancements, such as digital rights management.

The BXF suite of documents is a messaging protocol used for information

Visit www.smpte.org

MMT Reaches Committee Draft Milestone

Standardising M2M Communications

DURING ITS RECENT 101ST MEETING, the Motion Picture Experts Group

SEVEN OF THE WORLD’S leading information and communications

(MPEG) reached the first formal milestone of the development of MPEG Media Transport (MMT, ISO/IEC 23008-1), as a part of the MPEG-H project suite.

technology (ICT) Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) have launched a new global organisation to ensure the most efficient deployment of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications systems. The new organisation, called oneM2M, will develop specifications to ensure the global functionality of M2M.

MMT supports emerging multimedia applications demanding efficient delivery of coded media content over packet oriented delivery networks using Transport Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) over Internet Protocol (IP).

MMT has been designed to provide features such as: delivery of coded media using more than one delivery medium concurrently; logical packaging structure and composition information to support multimedia mashup applications enabling multiscreen presentation; seamless and easy conversion between the format for storage and the format for delivery; cross layer interface to facilitate communication between the application layers and underlying delivery layers; and format of signalling messages to manage the presentation and optimised delivery of media.

MMT is expected to reach Final Draft International Status (FDIS), the final stage of ISO/IEC standard development, in July 2013.

Meanwhile, the High Efficiency Video Coding standard (HEVC, ISO/IEC 23008-2) has reached the stage of Draft International Standard (DIS), the next formal stage towards its completion.

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

The specifications developed by oneM2M will provide a common platform to be used by communications service providers to support applications and services as diverse as the smart grid, the connected car, eHealth and telemedicine, enterprise supply chain, home automation and energy management, and public safety.

HEVC will be finalised by January 2013 for approval of the first edition of the standard.

The initial goal of oneM2M will be to confront the need for a common M2M Service Layer, which can be readily embedded within various hardware and software, and relied upon to connect the myriad of devices in the field with M2M application servers worldwide. With an access independent view of end-to-end services, oneM2M will also develop globally agreed-upon M2M end-to-end specifications using common use cases and architecture principles across multiple M2M applications.

Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org

Visit www.onem2m.org

The new draft standard shows significantly better compression than the current AVC standard (Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10), particularly for the case of high resolution video, where the bit rate savings can be as large as 50% or more for the same visual quality.

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At a meeting in Bellevue, Washington, major ICT SDOs — the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) and the Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan; the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the USA; the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA); the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI); and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea – formally launched oneM2M.

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IBC 2012 PREVIEW Get Connected at IBC The IBC2012 Conference, to be held between 6 – 11 September 2012, at the RAI in Amsterdam, is set to bring together business leaders and opinion formers to debate, discuss and analyse the latest technological trends, innovation and strategic thinking.

IBC ATTRACTS OVER 50,000 professionals from more than 160 countries and combines an internationally renowned conference with a first class exhibition featuring the latest media technology innovation. The IBC Conference also attracts influential professionals in their field who deliver insight through a series of conference sessions, master classes and panel discussions.

With over 300 speakers and more than 60 sessions, this year promises a line up of keynote speakers that includes: Mike Darcey, COO BskyB; Roger Mosey, Head of Olympics, BBC London 2012; Brian Sullivan, CEO, Sky Deutschland; and Miles Young, CEO, Ogilvy & Mather. Together they will lead discussion on the hottest topics affecting the industry, including Connected TV; the Cloud; Social Media; Sport; Transmedia Broadcast Delivery and Workflow, enabling delegates to evaluate challenges and formulate a roadmap for the future.

The Conference Programme is structured around three distinct pillars; the Business of Broadcasting and Media, Content Creation & Innovation and Advances in Technology. Delegates can target specific areas of interest via these carefully constructed Streams alongside the free Industry Insight sessions. The conference is designed to allow Delegates to build their own programme by selecting the sessions most relevant to them, ensuring they benefit from the content tailored to their requirements.

IBC 2012 PREVIEW

The IBC Conference offers the opportunity to maximise networking with hundreds of professionals gathered in one place for just a week to meet and share experiences. A key benefit of the Conference is the chance to interact with people from all types of organisations and discuss the lessons learned from dealing with shared problems.

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ESPN is recognised for enhancements to its coverage of Grand Slam tennis.

Developed by Orad with support from Hawkeye and Spidercam, the system analyses, processes and presents a huge amount of data fast enough for commentators to illustrate key points as each match progresses.

TV Globo Network in Brazil is shortlisted for its in-house development Vate.

Vate memorises shots set up by the director and operators during rehearsals, then prompts them with the sequence of shots during a live broadcast.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT Turner Sports Central is recognised for its new asset management system, developed in house with technology partners including Dalet Digital Media, EVS, Stainless Code, Active Storage, Quantum and NetApp, which tracks, logs and retrieves 27,000 live recording hours of content from more than 6,000 individual events, each with around 300 live logged highlights.

NASCAR has recently created a new and powerful high definition replay system, developed with Telestream in association with Promise Technology and Quantum, which gives operators and officials instant access to any part of the content from any camera angle.

Visit www.ibc.org/

One of the biggest system integration projects undertaken in recent years supported the launch of Sky News Arabia in May of this year. The build, by TSL, features some of the largest monitor walls ever constructed.

Technology partners included ScheduALL, Miranda Technologies, EVS and Broadcast Bionics.

IBC INNOVATION AWARDS

CONTENT DELIVERY

The shortlist of finalists for the IBC2012 Innovation Awards reflects the changing nature of the television industry, honouring innovations from imaginative new ways of engaging viewers in sport to giving consumers faster, more intuitive and more flexible access to content.

CBS Sports Network turned a radio sports talk show based in Louisiana into a television programme produced live from its control room in New York. Four HD robotic cameras are operated from 1,500 miles away with the feeds sent over conventional IP paths, using technology developed by VidyoCast.

There are three categories in the IBC Innovation Awards: for projects in Content Creation, Content Management and Content Delivery, the Judges’ Prize, along with the winners in each category, will be announced at the IBC Awards Ceremony, to be held on Sunday 9 September at the RAI, Amsterdam.

ITV in the UK has completed a trial of a personalised content replacement system, to insert content tailored for different users on different platforms seamlessly into live streaming outputs. The technology developed by Yospace works in close collaboration with ITV’s Snell playout automation.

“What was once a television industry has now blossomed into a world where creative talents make content which engages with and excites audiences wherever they are, whatever device they have to hand,” said Michael Lumley, Chair of the IBC 2012 Innovation Awards judging panel.

DIRECTV has developed a new Home Media Center, which provides a central server and delivery into multiple rooms. Technology partners included Pace, Broadcom, Entropic Communications, Jethead Development, and Samsung.

CONTENT CREATION Broadcaster FX UK wanted to enhance its audience’s experience of ‘The Walking Dead’ and Red Bee Media has developed not just an app but, using technology from Civolution, a means of linking it to the television programme, whether it is a live broadcast or from a DVR.

Last is a development for Channel 4 in the UK, which allows the Microsoft XBox 360 to access the on demand service 4oD. The app, developed by KIT digital with technology partners Microsoft, Red Bee Media, Akamai, 24/7 Realmedia and Metabroadcast, allows the full range of XBox and Kinect controls to be used, including speech and gestures.

Visit www.ibc.org/awards

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IBC 2012 PREVIEW

Definitive Pocket Guide to IBC2012 THE IBC2012 MOBILE APP provides you with everything you need to maximise your time at IBC. Highlight features includes a searchable exhibitor list; complete exhibitor profiles; searchable IBC2012 Conference Programme; build your own conference schedule through favourites and add notes about each session; latest news from IBC fed directly to the app; information about the exhibition; and an overview of the conference pass options and prices and travel and contact information.

Other features coming soon to the app include maps of the fourteen halls throughout the RAI, hosting a “locate me” feature and pinpoint drop from an exhibitor profile, and integration of conference sessions in to your phone’s calendar.

Visit www.ibc.org/mobileapp

IBC Launches Rising Stars Programme WHILE IBC DELIVERS the IBC2012 Leaders’ Summit, it is paying equal attention to the industry leaders of tomorrow. Rising Stars is an informative, informal and entertaining introduction to the primary issues impacting electronic media and is designed to encourage and inspire more students, newcomers and young professionals into the business.

The free event features specifically designed sessions, tours of the exhibition guided by experts, networking opportunities with entrepreneurs, and a chance to impress potential employers.

The Rising Stars Programme includes a full programme of sessions, specifically designed to offer the chance to learn more about the industry, network with peers, and meet potential employers.

The programme will also allow the opportunity to meet some inspirational entrepreneurs and hear

their insights into the industry, obtain a unique view on all the latest trends and opportunities from 3D to Social TV, and network with other creative, business and technology professionals from across Europe.

There is also a Rising Stars Club Room for attendees to store their stuff, relax between sessions, rest their feet and grab a drink.

The programme includes free entry to all fourteen halls of the exhibition and the Industry Insight conference sessions, access to all of the IBC feature areas – IBC Big Screen, IBC Connected World, IBC Production Village, Workflow Solutions Village, Future Zone and the IBC Awards Ceremony, a guided tour of the show with an industry expert, and there will be a host of freebies to grab along the way.

Visit www.ibc.org/risingstars

Ground-Breaking Research at the IBC Leaders’ Summit BENCHMARK DATA QUANTIFYING the active base of connected TV in Europe along with unique insight into the response of consumers to connectivity are highlights of a report to be presented exclusively to delegates at the IBC2012 Leaders’ Summit – Smart Connections.

hear insights that they will want to discuss with peers behind closed doors and in an environment highly conducive to productive conversations.”

The independent and proprietary findings are the product of a year-long series of industry discussions blended with quantitative research undertaken in key European countries, curated and assessed by Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications team. This research will be unveiled at the invitation-only IBC Leaders’ Summit which will take place on Thursday 6 September at IBC 2012.

The report underpins a premium event of strategic knowledge exchange and influential debate by and for Europe’s electronic media elite and is modelled around four themes. In ‘The Connected Television Future’ delegates will hear forensic analysis of the rate at which Connected TV’s are penetrating homes, learn of the impact both now and in the future of buying and viewing behaviour affected by connected devices and understand the technical impediments to the connected world.

In exclusive video footage for IBC, Paul Lee, Global Director, Deloitte Research, Technology, Media and Telecommunications explains, “What makes the IBC Leaders’ Summit so distinctive is the superlative content and the networking from world class speakers making some of the biggest decisions in the sector. Delegates will

‘New Content Economics For Connected Platforms’, examines the critical nexus between the cost of content and its likely commercial success. Deloitte explore how content economics varies by genre in a digital age and how consumer’s high expectations of quality can be met. There is a fresh perspective on

the role of traditional TV, asking not just why traditional broadcast viewing is considered a digital dinosaur but arguing for the continued primacy of the schedule and the implications this has on user experience and business case.

Supported by first class research, Deloitte will compare the current purchasing power of tech giants with the cost of specific premium content to gauge the potential and desire of companies like Google or Facebook to compete with broadcasters for prized assets. The reasons why technological innovations such as PVRs, on-demand or social networks have bolstered traditional TV are also evaluated in ‘The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth.’

Delegates will also carry away stimulating blue-sky predictions on the impact of tomorrow’s technology on content creation and consumption where virtual reality, UltraHDTV and retina displays will challenge their views of the future.

Visit www.ibc.org/leaders

IBC Honouring NHK Research Organisation IBC HAS ANNOUNCED that the highest honour it

IBC 2012 PREVIEW

bestows, the International Honour for Excellence, will this year be presented to NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories (STRL). Japanese public service broadcaster NHK has been foremost in developing new techniques and technology for broadcasting since its formation in 1930.

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The IBC International Honour for Excellence is presented each year to an outstanding individual or organisation who has fostered or contributed to the relationship between technology and creativity in the broadcast, movie or media industries.

Having recently celebrated its 80th anniversary, NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories has been at the forefront of research in broadcasting technology, working on both practical solutions to current issues and visionary

future technologies. NHK STRL pioneered high definition television as we know it today, including the development of plasma displays.

It has recently been awarded an IEEE Milestone Award for the world’s first direct to home satellite broadcast service in 1984.

Among its many current strands of research is Super Hi-Vision, its implementation of high resolution broadcasting which offers a screen resolution 16 times greater than today’s HD, together with 22.2 channel immersive surround sound. NHK STRL engineers are working on the complete chain, from high resolution high speed CMOS cameras through recording and transmission equipment to screens and projection displays. It is also addressing the second screen, helping a consortium of broadcasters launch

an experimental service, Hybridcast, which synchronises content on a tablet with the programme on television.

“The contribution to broadcasting technology made by NHK cannot be underestimated,” said Peter Owen, Chair of the IBC Council, which is the body responsible for making the award. “Their work has always been revolutionary, but equally important NHK has been generous with its efforts, collaborating with international bodies like the ITU, ABU and SMPTE, along with its contribution to global standards like MPEG.” The IBC2012 International Honour for Excellence will be presented to NHK STRL during the Awards Ceremony, to be held at 18:30 on Sunday 9 September and open to all IBC attendees.

Visit www.ibc.org/awards

IBC 2012 PREVIEW

Framework for Interoperable Media Services Takes IBC Judges’ Prize THE IBC HAS ANNOUNCED that FIMS – the Framework for Interoperable Media Services – is to receive the Judges’ Prize at IBC2012. The project is a joint initiative between the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In recent months it has celebrated both the publication of version 1.0 of its specification and its first largescale implementation, by Bloomberg Television.

With the broadcast industry moving rapidly towards file-based file exchange and production infrastructures, there was a pressing need for industry standardisation on the way that core metadata should be stored and presented.

The real benefits of file-based technology can only be realised if there is a seamless interface between the installations of different producers

and broadcasters, and between the products of different vendors.

AMWA and EBU recognised not only the immediate need for this agreement, but that it could not be imposed: it had to be agreed. So it brought together in the FIMS initiative virtually all of the manufacturers in the segment, together with a large number of broadcasters from around the world. It is this collaboration to achieve a necessary goal quickly and efficiently that IBC has chosen to mark.

“IBC values sharing knowledge above all else, and in developing practical standards so quickly, the FIMS partners had to share their knowledge if the resulting standards were going to be robust enough to be useful globally,” said Michael Lumley, Chairman of the IBC Innovation Awards.

“It is right that we celebrate broad collaboration across the industry, and I am delighted that we can honour EBU and AMWA for their efforts in driving the FIMS project, and Bloomberg on behalf of all the partners, as the pioneering implementer of the standard.”

The IBC Judges’ Prize will be presented to FIMS, along with the International Honour for Excellence to NHK. In addition, the IBC Innovation Awards, Exhibition Design Awards, Special Award and the Best Conference Paper Award will be awarded during the IBC2012 Awards Ceremony on Sunday 9 September.

Content+Technology Publisher Phil Sandberg is a member of the IBC Innovation Awards judging panel.

Best IBC Conference Paper for Glasses-Free 3D IBC HAS ANNOUNCED that the IBC2012 Best Conference Paper has been awarded to a group of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications Heinrich Hertz Institute.

Their paper looks at a critical issue for broadcasters who want to move 3D television into the mainstream: the ability to create the signals for glasses-free 3D displays from twocamera stereoscopic origination.

The IBC Best Conference Paper Award is presented each year for the paper which, in the opinion of the IBC Technical Papers Committee, best matches innovation with clarity of expression.

This year’s winners are Christian Riechert, Frederik Zilly, Peter Kauff, Jens Güther and Ralf Schäfer from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications Heinrich Hertz Institute, for their paper “Fully Automatic Stereo-toMultiview Conversion in Autostereoscopic Displays”.

The paper will be delivered in the session “Stereoscopic 3D Content and Display – Developments and Diagnoses” on Sunday 9

September at 14:00 as part of the Advances in Technology stream within the IBC Conference.

for a team of researchers like ours to be able to

The premise of the paper is that 3D television to the home will only achieve mass popularity when multiple viewers can enjoy it without the need for glasses. Current production techniques are stereoscopic, using two cameras and image chains and delivering an image to each eye using special glasses. Autostereoscopic displays – glasses-free 3D – require more than two views: at least five and preferably very many more.

“This is important, relevant work, and the detail

What the Fraunhofer paper describes is the design of an algorithm, capable of being implemented in relatively low cost hardware, which will go inside the television receiver to convert stereo 3D to the required number of multiview images, in real time.

“This is a great honour for me and all my co-authors,” said Christian Reichert, who will collect the award on behalf of his colleagues.

“Realtime conversion of stereo content to multiview for autostereoscopic displays is indeed a hot issue in the 3D community. It is a pleasure

offer solutions to such a challenging task.” of their research is impressive,” said Nick Lodge, Chair of the IBC Technical Papers Committee.

“Because of the highly mathematical nature of the work it could have been very difficult to understand, but the authors have described clearly why each stage of their algorithm is necessary, how they optimised it and how well it performs.”

“The technology is leading edge, but it is responding to a real market need, to open up the popularity of 3D in the home,” Lodge added. “The IBC Best Conference Paper Award recognises not just good science but the communication of good science and this is a worthy winner.”

The IBC2012 Best Conference Paper Award will be presented to Christian Riechert as part of the IBC Awards Ceremony.

IBC 2012 PREVIEW

London 2012 Debriefing at IBC 2012

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IN ONE OF HER FIRST PUBLIC FORUMS

the scenes at London 2012, accompanied by

post-Olympics, Barbara Slater, BBC’s Director of Sport, compares notes with an international panel of broadcasters, recounting the highs and lows, challenges and triumphs of broadcasting the world’s biggest sports event. IBC delegates will be among the first in the world to get a complete analysis of how it all went down behind

Olympics footage.

Session Participants include:  Barbara Slater, Director of Sport, BBC, United Kingdom  John Barton, Director of Sport, Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Malaysia

 Darryl Jefferson, Director, Post Production Operations and Highlights Factory Project Manager, NBC – Olympics, USA  Pedro Rolla, Global Media Director, Terra, Brazil  Producer: Neal Romanek, Media Journalist, Freelance, United Kingdom Date: 8 September 2012 Time: 09:30 – 11:00

RAI Amsterdam Conference 6-11 September : Exhibition 7-11 September

IBC2012 Discover More IBC is at the cutting-edge of new technology in the rapidly evolving electronic media industry. It couples a comprehensive exhibition covering all facets of today’s industry with a highly respected peer reviewed conference that helps shape the way the industry will develop in the future.

Take advantage of a variety of extra special features including: • • •

Future Zone showcasing the latest developments in broadcast technology IBC Connected World including demonstration area in Hall 14 IBC Big Screen providing the perfect platform for manufacturer demonstrations and the Saturday Night Movie

•

•

IBC Production Village presenting the latest camera technology in a purpose built environment IBC Awards Ceremony acknowledges those who have made a real contribution to the industry hosted on Sunday 9 September

www.ibc.org IBC Fifth Floor International Press Centre 76 Shoe Lane London EC4A 3JB UK T +44 (0) 20 7832 4100 F +44 (0) 20 7832 4130 E info@ibc.org

t w a ster o n i ter g/reg s i r g Re ibc.o w. ww

THE 3RD DIMENSION Stereoscopic production & exhibition

www.3d-day.tv

Journey to the Bottom of the 3D Sea SGO’S MISTIKA HAS BEEN THROWN into the deep end in more ways than one, being put to work on James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge documentary film project post-produced at Digital Pictures in Melbourne. The post production team at Digital Pictures face technically challenging stereoscopic imagery, a challenge Mistika, with its motion compensated pixel-based stereoscopic toolset, is tasked with handling.

The documentary film depicts how James Cameron, Academy award-winning director of Titanic and Avatar, plunged to the deepest known point in the world’s oceans, a 2,400km long scar located 11km below the surface of the Pacific Ocean called the Mariana Trench. A journey to the deepest location known to man that took place in a purpose built one-man submersible named “Deepsea Challenger”.

To document the journey, the submersible was equipped with multiple stereoscopic 3D camera systems recording to a variety of digital file formats. Cameron successfully completed the dive on 26th March this year, making history as the first person to reach full ocean depth in a solo-manned vehicle, spending up to three hours on the sea floor and documenting his experience in stereoscopic 3D. Deepsea Challenger had to protect the pilot from the extreme water pressure excerpted at 11km below the surface. The pilot was housed in a chamber measuring only 106cm across internally, so by the time they squeezed in the pilot plus all the navigation and safety systems required, there was scarcely space left for full sized stereo 3D camera rigs. Despite the lack of space, one miniature 3D rig using custom built cameras recorded the pilot’s activities at all times.

In addition to this, another set of custom 3D cameras were mounted outside the submersible on a robotic boom arm in their own pressureproof chamber, and was used to record any strange life-forms and dramatic geology.

Digital Pictures invested in an SGO Mistika and SAN system from SGO’s Australasian Reseller Partner, Mojo Media Solutions. Following a decision made at NAB 2012, Digital Pictures will use SGO’s Mistika technology as the centrepiece of its service offering for film, television and advertising projects.

Stuart Monksfield, Managing Director of Mojo Media Solutions said, “Digital Pictures have a strong brand and enviable technical and creative reputation that is justifiably world-class. I am delighted they have chosen Mistika as their finishing system of choice for the future; it’s a clear leader in the market with a unique toolset and a simple, yet revolutionary metadata-based workflow.”

According to Digital Pictures’ Technical Director, Nic Smith, said, “Post producing stereoscopic content captured under such extreme environmental circumstances was always going to present a unique set of challenges to us. Having already completed the DI on the 3D feature Sanctum in 2010, also an underwater based project, we had a good idea of what image issues we might be faced with.

“But, no one could have predicted the scale of the technical challenges presented to us on the Deepsea Challenge project. We have already successfully put shots through Mistika that you would never think could make it off the cutting room floor.”

SGO’s Mistika post production platform.

Camera crews followed the Deepsea Challenge team from the start of the project, recording over a thousand hours of behind the scenes footage including design meetings, construction of the submersible, and dive testing, as well as the expedition and main dive itself. In all, Digital Pictures are holding approximately 220TB of stereoscopic footage on their robotically controlled DAM system. A total of ten different types of cameras were used throughout the project, recording to a mix of R3D, mp4, mov, siv and other video file formats at resolutions ranging from HD to 5K. Various 2D and 3D deliverables have been specified, including a 3D IMAX version of the film, all of which are being post produced at Digital Pictures using Mistika.

According to Monksfield, “The SGO SAN is only 4RU in size and has been specified with the ability to run five concurrent streams of uncompressed 2K from a single volume, which we can further expand in the future as required. We are in the process of configuring the SAN to be visible by other client systems within the facility, so they can all work off the same media volume. ” Visit www.digitalpictures.com.au and www.sgo.es

3D Cuts Through ALSO POST PRODUCED IN 3D using the

THE 3RD DIMENSION

Mistika platform was Hong Kong Director Tsui Hark’s The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate starring Jet Li.

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A showcase of martial arts mastery, the film depicts competing groups of warriors and treasure hunters who rendezvous at a mysterious desert trading post. At 2012’s Asian Film Awards, it took out the Award for Best Visual Effects.

Photograph Courtesy of Dimension Plus & China Film Group Corporation, Shanghai Media Group, Bona International Film Group, Liangzi Group, Shineshow Co.

THE 3RD DIMENSION

BROADCAST SPORTS, INC. (BSI) a developer and service provider of wireless camera, audio and communication systems, is to demonstrate a complete 3D wireless camera package at IBC, on an integrated Panasonic 3D camera, with low delay encoding, and full camera control.

This system is designed for live sports broadcast or any other kind of live performance.

BSI uses its own dual stream mini encoder/ transmitter, which is a tiny device a little larger than a cell phone, to carry the two signals simultaneously, which ensures synchronous signals from the two cameras used to capture the pictures from the left and right lenses.

BSI has also added its own in housedeveloped UHF camera control which allows the operator to adjust the parameters of the camera and control the convergence between the left and right eyes using the manufacturer’s control panels. This means that the images from the 3D rig can be matched to the images from other cameras on the production.

Visit www.broadcastsportsinc.com

3D Video Coding From MPEG and ITU

3D Video Conferencing

A NEW COLLABORATION between MPEG and ITU-T VCEG has been started by establishing a Joint Collaborative Team on 3D Video Coding Extension Development (JCT-3V), which held its first meeting under MPEG auspices in Stockholm.

The JCT-3V is responsible for developing eďŹƒcient solutions in the field of 3D video (e.g. enhanced multi-view capability using videoplus-depth formats), which have been assessed to be mature for market adoption after several years of exploratory work performed in MPEG. As the first in a series of 3D video standards that will be developed by the JCT-3V, a multiview video-plus-depth extension of AVC is being developed.

This video-plus-depth extension has reached the status of Draft Amendment at the current meeting, and will be completed in January 2013.

At its 101st meeting, MPEG issued a Call for Proposals (CfP) for technology that will enhance 3D video service for the delivery of full resolution 3D video. They also issued a CfP on Multimedia Preservation Description Information and a new Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology that will be developed by the JCT-VC. Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org

THE RECENT INTEGRATE SHOW saw Panasonic showcase a 3D, High Definition video conferencing solution, the KXVC600 HDVC, which uses sophisticated video compression technology that allows for high definition video conferencing images over a conventional internet connection.

Panasonic demonstrated the product to Integrate visitors, by streaming 3D content from its exhibition stand to its new partner, the Australian Dental Association NSW Centre for Professional Development (ADA), who will use the KX-VC600 HDVC to access live HD video streaming for essential training.

Visit www.panasonic.com.au

THE 3RD DIMENSION

3D Wireless Camera Package

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ACQUISITION www.content-technology.com/acquisition

F65-Shot Short Selected for Hollywood Festival F65 there wasn’t much footage available and rather than just produce some standard test shots for a reel we decided to make a short film.”

Gardiner decided to collaborate with Sydneybased director Nick Kacevski and his brother and Engine producer George Kacevski, after having recently shot a TVC with the pair.

III, THE SHORT FILM SHOT by 3rd Gear co-owner Tony Gardiner and post-produced

by Engine, was in the line-up at the recently held 8th annual HollyShorts 2012 Film Festival (HSFF) at the Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. The HSFF is an annual film festival showcasing short films from around the globe and is devoted to the advancement of filmmakers through screenings, Q&A sessions and networking events.

Gardiner said, “III was shot earlier this year to show the world what our new Sony F65 camera can do. As we were one of the first to have an

George Kacevski added, “Nick came up with the idea of shooting three different light scenarios involving a beach in the early morning, a forest and a night scene. Each scene would also feature some talented performers and challenges to really put the F65 through its paces. Tony, Nick and I then pitched the idea to Calvin at Engine as we needed a production and post-production facility that would be able to handle the entire digital workflow in house.

Fortunately Calvin thought it was a great idea and we set to work.”

Over the next week Tony Gardiner and the Kacevski brothers shot martial artist Hakan Manav, contortionist Bree Robertson and dancer Traves Ross at Tamarama Beach, Coopers Park and an abandoned factory in Alexandria, taking the footage to Engine for what was to be a very fast post production workflow, even by short film standards.

Engine CEO Calvin Gardiner said, “We wanted to work on III as it was worthwhile in terms

of refining new digital workflows and future planning. More and more of the work we do is shot digitally and III in particular combined RAW, compressed and high-speed workflows – something that was quite unique.”

Sony USA has also used the short film as a promotional tool for the F65 camera on Sony’s social media sites and at trade shows.

Tony Gardiner said, “Sony wrote to us and complemented the seamless use of footage from RAW codecs and SR compressed codecs.

We really put the camera through all possible lighting conditions and it performed better than anyone could have imagined. The images are very pleasing on the eye and have a film-like grain. We knew as the first short film shot in Australia with the F65 that it would create some interest, but not even we thought it would get so much coverage worldwide and be selected for HollyShorts.”

Once at Engine the F65’s footage was ingested to Engine’s server with both RAW and SR codec footage processed into proxies via Da Vinci’s Resolve. The footage was offlined in Final Cut Pro with Calvin Gardiner overseeing the edit. The native, RAW and SR footage was reprocessed into 10-bit DPX and onlined and graded in Flame Premium.

Visit www.engine.net.au

Red Apple Takes First Bite of ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3 SYDNEY-BASED Red Apple Camera Rentals has purchased and taken delivery of the first ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3 camera in Australia and New Zealand.

ACQUISITION

Red Apple MD, Viv Scanu, said, “We’ve been looking forward to the ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3 since it was announced at this year’s NAB Show. We already had a fleet of ALEXAs and we wanted our next addition to have the 4:3 Super 35 sensor and specifically the ability to switch from 16:9 sensor mode to 4:3 sensor mode. With its built-in licenses the ALEXA Plus 4:3 is perfect for high speed and anamorphic work.”

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Shooting with anamorphic lenses results in unique images. The fundamentals of the process apply to digital acquisition in exactly the same way as they always have done to film, so long as one has a sensor that is the size and shape of a film frame and a viewfinder that can de-squeeze the compressed image.

“The ALEXA Plus 4:3 ticks a lot of boxes for camera operators and DOPs,” continued Scanu.

“With anamorphic, you want to be able to

de-squeeze the image while utilising the entire sensor. The ALEXA Plus 4:3 lets you do this while still retaining the beautiful picture quality and high dynamic range that made the original ALEXA so famous.”

The ALEXA Plus 4:3 joins the ALEXA Studio and ALEXA M, which already have 4:3 sensors and are being used on anamorphic productions worldwide.

Viv Scanu concluded, “Our clients have been asking for and waiting for this camera for some time. They love the built-in Lens Data System (LDS), its seamless integration with the ARRI Wireless Remote System and the 3D lens synchronisation function, to name a few of the many other benefits this camera brings them. The camera went out soon after it arrived on a shoot for AFTRS where it was used with Hawk V-Plus anamorphic lenses and a Codex Onboard Recorder.

From there it’s been booked for a major TVC in New Zealand and the bookings keep coming.

The fact that the ALEXA Plus 4:3 comes with built-in licenses for high speed shooting, DNxHD recording and anamorphic de-squeeze really is the icing on the cake.”

Visit www.redapplecamerarentals.com and www.arri.com.au

The Red Apple Camera Rentals team with their new ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3 camera

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For full terms and conditions and to claim visit www.panasonic.com.au/bonusmemory.

ACQUISITION

The Wiggles DoP Tests the Canon Cinema EOS C300

By David Roberts, Director of Photography and Editor, The Wiggles – ‘Surfer Jeff’ THE WIGGLES ARE A UNIQUE ACT and require a very flexible and adaptive production team. The ability to ad-lib and improvise in any given location is a high priority for the performers. So when I began looking for camera options to shoot the new title ‘Surfer Jeff ’ I knew that I needed something which could match the mobility and reliability of a small sensor camcorder, with the image quality of a motion picture camera. The Canon EOS C300 was chosen as our A-camera because it excels in the areas of handling and image quality, regardless of environment and lighting conditions.

We shot for seven days on beaches and parks up and down the east coast of Australia. There was no shortage of sand, salt and harsh sun and the EOS C300 proved extremely tough — it didn’t skip a beat.

was also very impressive. I didn’t find myself running low on battery at any stage in either production, even though we had only two batteries available.

The changes in stage lighting at the live show were not a challenge for the C300 either, as the C-log profile allows such great latitude. And I was finally able to test the higher ISO settings on some cutaway crowd shots.

These were totally usable right up to ISO 5000, so I had no hesitation in sending this footage to the USA for use in a broadcast TVC. With its superb mobility and image quality, the EOS C300 was just what I needed and I am looking forward to using it again on our next production.

To maximise speed in setup and mobility, we stripped back some of the modular components and mounted the C300 on lightweight, DSLR based jibs and dollys. This versatility allowed us to get shots that would not be possible without a lightweight camera. Then in a minute we could be back up and running on the shoulder or even hand-held using the grip. The C300 has a nice weight and balance for hand-held work, and slots into a DSLR shoulder rig very neatly.

We had already used the EOS 5D Mark II and 7D for some of our nonbroadcast content and so we had a few L-series lenses in our arsenal. For this reason we chose the EF version of the camera. We shot mainly on the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens and also used some fisheye. The clarity of the lenses really shines through with the new sensor and the MXF codec, and I was genuinely surprised by how great the pictures looked in grading. The C-Log profile left us with a huge amount of headroom in the highlights and detail in shadows. We were able to rescue a couple of shots that would have been unusable had they been shot on a DSLR, due to under and over exposure. I loved grading the footage! We also shot some green screen shots for compositing an animated opening sequence for the video and I found that the shots keyed as well as anything I’ve worked with.

We used the recommended workflow of copying from the CF card to local storage via the Canon XF Utility. We then linked the virtual volume into the Avid via AMA. Being able to review instantly and try grades and edits was a huge bonus at the end of each day. This enabled us to pick up straight away on any problems and reshoot without impacting the schedule or budget. We found that by transcoding the AMA linked media to the native AVID codec, DNxHD, after compiling a rough cut, we ended up with a much more responsive edit station. I would recommend transcoding as early as possible when working with long-form projects.

In addition to the location shoot for ‘Surfer Jeff’, I also had the chance to test the C300 at a live Wiggles concert, where it proved to be a real asset with recording time doubled. This was done simply by setting up the dual CF slots for continuous, rather than mirrored, shooting. The battery life

New Anton/Bauer Gold Mount for Canon EOS

ACQUISITION

ANTON/BAUER, a global provider of batteries, chargers, lighting and other mobile power systems for the professional broadcast, video and film industries, will debut its QRC-CA940 Gold Mount solution for the new Canon EOS C300 and C500 digital cinema cameras at IBC 2012 (Hall 11, Stand E55).

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Featuring a Super 35mm-sized Canon CMOS sensor, Canon DIGIC DV III image processor and 50 Mbps 4:2:2 codec, the EOS C300 provides cinemaquality movie capture in a modular and portable system. The EOS C500 also offers a range of recording and output options specifically for 4K and 2K image acquisition. To help streamline battery management for Canon EOS C300 and C500 users, Anton/Bauer has introduced the QRC-CA940, a Gold Mount that provides 7.2V of power to the camera via a DC connector and 14.4V on three PowerTap connectors.

“Users can expect the same secure battery connection they’ve come to rely on with other Gold Mounts using the QRC-CA940,” says Shin Minowa, vice president of marketing and business development, Anton/Bauer. “This new Gold Mount, however, will offer three PowerTap outputs where typically we only have one, allowing professionals to power multiple accessories. In addition, this particular Gold Mount was designed so that users will not have to monitor multiple batteries, therefore reducing downtime in the field, as well as the number of chargers needing to be transported.”

Anton/Bauer has designed the QRC-CA940 to be compatible with the company’s mounting bracket for 15mm or 19mm rod systems and the MATRIX Cheese Plate. It can also be adapted to third-party support systems.

Visit www.antonbauer.com

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Show Business, Snow Business, Super Slo-Mo Business Cinematographer Tim Pierce.

AN AUCKLAND STUDIO packed full of video and television professionals were recently treated to images from one of the first Sony NEX-FS700 cameras delivered in Australasia. The footage was shot and presented by Tim Pierce, a Queenstown-based cinematographer and director who attained his reputation capturing imagery of some of the world’s most talented athletes for major global clients, and more recently directing television commercials.

Pierce commented, “Super Slow Motion opens a new creative toolbox that allows me to highlight certain elements which are missed when action flashes past the camera at normal speeds.”

The new camera extends the line-up of Sony NXCAM interchangeable E-mount professional camcorders and is centred on a new Exmor Super35 CMOS 4K sensor, and is capable of recording up to 145 minutes of normal speed AVCHD at 28Mb/sec to a 32GB memory card.

ACQUISITION

Slowing action by any more than about half speed was once the preserve of high-end specialist cameras, but the new camera will shoot up to 200 frames per second (fps) which is 8x super slow motion at Full HD for 50Hz productions. Speeds up to 960 fps can be reached at reduced resolution.

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which encourages the widest range of third party lens adaptors for virtually any large sensor lens.

Pierce said, “Like many filmmakers I often find myself shooting action sports or documentary footage single-handedly. This is where the compact size, quick set up and convenient ergonomics of the Sony NEX-FS700 give me confidence in the audio and video configuration, leaving me free to concentrate on what is happening in front of the camera.”

Pierce finds the post process equally trouble free, with a simple import of the AVCHD footage straight into the timeline in his edit suite.

To test the low light performance of the camera Pierce shot sequences at ISO 1600 to 2000 without any noise concerns, and he warned the audience at the event that he was deliberately seeking a grainy look in his footage of artist and illustrator Bel Jones, posted on Vimeo.

Pierce said, “I have mainly been shooting at around 200 fps, in 1920 x 1080 HD. At 200 fps you get just under twelve seconds recording time offering a full 90 seconds of playback at normal speed.”

In a business sense, Pierce says the professional NEX-FS700 camera impresses clients more than DSLR. Depending on the look, he intends to make full use of it on a variety of shoots, supplementing the onboard codec with off-board recorders when requiring a broadcast quality data stream.

A bonus of high speed shooting is that handheld action shots are smoothed, a difference graphically illustrated by Pierce with handheld helicopter to helicopter footage that dramatised the tenuous grip that thin rotor blades have on the air.

Thanks to the camera’s Exmor 4K sensor, in the future the off-board recording through the 3G-HDSDI output will be boosted to 4K, a move designed to protect the value of the investment in a world where cameras are rapidly advancing.

Pierce says he has yet to try the auto focus function because his existing lenses don’t have that capacity, but points to the camera’s Sony E-mount,

Visit http://timpierceblog.com, www.sony.com.au, www.sony.co.nz and http://pro.sony-asia.com/broadcast

ACQUISITION

FUJIFILM OPTICAL DEVICES DIVISION launched the new Fujinon ZK 4.7x19 35mm PREMIER PL mount zoom lens at this year’s NAB show and saw the new lens being purchased in record quantities. The company took over 250 orders at the show with more being confirmed the following week and each week since then.

The ZK 4.7x19 features a detachable drive unit, flange focal distance adjustment and macro function, and is Lens Data System (LDS) and i-metadata compatible.

For many digital cinema camera applications, there is a need for high optical quality, features and performance in a compact and lightweight zoom design.

To fulfil this need FUJIFILM has newly developed the Fujinon PREMIER PL mount compact lens series featuring an exclusive ‘Detachable Servo Drive Unit’.

This comes as ARRI Australia announced that it was forging closer ties and making greater collaborative efforts on events and promotions with Fujifilm in Australia and New Zealand.

ARRI Australia MD, Stefan Sedlmeier, explained, “For a few years now we have had a great working relationship with Marc Van Agten and the team at Fujifilm Australia’s Motion Picture Film and Recording Media Division alongside the Fujinon team there too.”

Fujinon is ARRI’s preferred supplier of zoom lenses manufacturing their Alura range of zoom lenses, which have sold in significant numbers in Australia and New Zealand since their launch.

Fujifilm Australia General Manager of Optical Devices and Recording Media, Marc Van Agten, said, “This year will see more lenses and more cameras being sold than ever before with new models being launched and ARRI and Fujifilm supporting them together wherever possible.”

Fujifilm has also appointed A2Z Technologies as a distributor of Fujinon broadcast lenses in New Zealand.

Van Agten said, “Focusing on field and studio production means A2Z work closely with New Zealand’s top broadcasters, programme and commercial producers and government departments. As a result of this and their excellent reputation in the NZ market, we are delighted to have them on board representing Fujinon Broadcast Lenses in New Zealand.”

A2Z Technologies’ Owner, Rex Milton, added, “We pride ourselves on being knowledgeable about our products with all of our staff having industry experience in order that they can provide the best possible specialised service. Our motto is ‘Quality First’ which is why Fujinon broadcast lenses are a perfect fit for A2Z Technologies and our customers.”

Specialist security technology organisation, Vision Intelligence, has utilised one of Fujinon’s D-60 surveillance zoom lenses to watch over and guard the safety of the M24 midget submarine wreck, the only Japanese midget submarine wreck located in Australian waters, 5km off the coast of Bungan Head, Sydney.

Director of Vision Intelligence, Dr Maher Magrabi, explained, “As Fujinon lenses are seen as the benchmark in quality and reliability we always try to design them into our system solutions wherever possible – hence the D-60’s inclusion in the M24 midget submarine wreck surveillance project.”

The M24 midget submarine project came as a result of the belated finding of the wreck in 2007 by a dive team in Sydney Harbour. The wreck became part of the 70th anniversary of the attacks on Sydney and thus very important as a heritage site.

The D-60 provides Vision Intelligence with clear images across the 5km distance and enables the capture of critical video which, when integrated with a vessel tracking system, creates a valuable surveillance tool.

Visit www.fujifilm.com.au

Cel-Soft Announces Pixel-Probe Camera Pixel Analyser CEL-SOFT WILL INTRODUCE a new addition to its range of broadcastquality test and measurement tools on stand 10.C49 (Polecam) at IBC2012. Cel-Soft’s Pixel-Probe allows television cameras and programme content to be checked prior to acceptance or for postproduction analysis.

“Broadcasters have hitherto had little option but to perform acceptance tests visually,” states Cel-Soft Managing Director Robin Palmer.

“Detecting rogue pixels by eye among the 6 million RGB elements in images from HD cameras is almost impossible. Manufacturers of highquality cameras pre-calibrate each sensor, mapping the location of any defect. An offending pixel can then be masked by digitally averaging the signals from the four or eight neighbouring pixels. Cheaper cameras use no such masking.”

Palmer adds, “Our Pixel-Probe algorithm automatically generates a statistical log of every pixel, allowing a check to be made of relative response. It can then work out, over a short period of fluctuating footage from the camera, if any pixels are not working properly. PixelProbe can also identify pixels that have changed their behaviour since the previous time the camera was checked, or between different shots in post.”

Visit www.cel-soft.com

Cooke Showing Prototype 65mm Panchro Lens COOKE OPTICS will bring lenses from its three ranges – S4/i, Panchro/i and 5/i – to IBC 2012, including a prototype of a 65mm lens for the Panchro range. The company also continues to expand its production capacity with more new hires at its Leicester factory to meet increased global demand for PL glass.

“Many broadcasters around the world are switching from cameras with 2/3” sensors to those with PL mounts that give a full-frame 35mm picture, such as the Sony F3, F35 and F65, the ARRI Alexa, as well as RED and Canon cameras – and therefore they need lenses to go with them,” says Les Zellan, Chairman and Owner, Cooke Optics.

Recent high profile projects that have been shot with Cooke lenses include the Emmy Award-winning television series ‘The Borgias’ and M. Night Shyamalan’s forthcoming feature After Earth, which is the first feature film to be shot on the Sony F65 camera.

Visit www.cookeoptics.com

X10 Real Time Continuous Ultra-Motion System BEING SHOWN AT IBC 2012, the I-MOVIX X10 is the industry’s first live ultra-motion solution to deliver real-time, continuous extreme slow motion in full HD at 300 fps (or 600 fps in 720p). Developed in partnership with EVS, the X10 system is used with an EVS XT3 production server under LSM control and provides a familiar user interface and controls that any broadcast crew can use immediately, without any special training.

The I-MOVIX SprintCam Vvs HD will also be on show with new features included in the 1.2 software release, which refine and enhance functionality in response to input from the global community of SprintCam users. The new software release boasts major improvements to operational efficiency, image quality, and ease of use.

Visit www.i-movix.com

ACQUISITION

New Fujinon Lenses Selling Quickly

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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

ZSPACE Sets Standard for the Olympics

[Clockwise from top] Three of seven Olympic sets created by ZSpace for CCTV and one of two created for Foxtel.

In what was truly an Olympic marathon, Sydney-based broadcast design specialist ZSPACE created no fewer than nine sets for London 2012 - seven for CCTV5 China and two for FOXTEL Australia. The company also collaborated with Australia’s Nine Network on its Olympics opener for London 2012.

SPORTSCASTING

ZSPACE BEAT HEAVY COMPETITION from US and UK companies to win the contract for CCTV5’s Olympic sets: three in Beijing, and four in London.

The designs by ZSPACE’s Jean-Christophe Danoy were inspired by his experience working in China, the CCTV building itself, the London Olympic graphic look, and by the city of London.

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The seven sets were designed and created by the ZSPACE team, including Mark Dyson of Pitch Design, all in a very tight timeframe. With the sets being designed in Australia, and then built in both China and the UK, an international co-operation was established over three continents.

The seven sets included:  In Beijing - a multi-functioning sports hub that will continue to be used as a set after the Olympics, its design inspired by the dramatic architecture of the CCTV building;

 A slick, modern and versatile set based on the colours of the London Olympics; and  A three-way set that housed three programs using a circular pod to shoot in any direction.

With Australia’s FOXTEL broadcasting eight channels, Jean-Christophe Danoy designed two co-joined sets with a view from one to the other through clear glass to create a sense of activity. The larger set featured a curved wall of 6 x 3 frameless plasma screens. This versatile tool enabled FOXTEL to break up the screen into the eight channels, or use it as one or more screens. RGB lighting allowed the sets to change dramatically according to the sport being broadcast, and creating a look for all eight channels.

Visit www.zspace.com.au

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Gold For Switch Media MULTI-PLATFORM VIDEO SPECIALISTS, Switch Media, have announced that the London 2012 Olympics App they developed for FOXTEL’s coverage of the games via iPad and Android, registered over 150,000 downloads throughout the duration of the sporting spectacle.

FOXTEL also used Switch Media’s Video Content Management System (VCMS) to manage and deliver live and On Demand content to the tablets, as well as to FOXTEL’s new service to Samsung connected TVs. Switch Media CEO Christopher Stenhouse said, “We are delighted to have been selected by FOXTEL to develop and produce these innovative video applications. The Olympics is a great event that subscribers clearly enjoyed watching on these nextgeneration devices. Developing and producing this kind of multi-platform video solution is what Switch Media has built its reputation on and the fact that we are continuing to work with FOXTEL, a forward thinking and major regional broadcaster, makes for an exciting future in this space.”

Visit www.switch.tv

Over 100 LiveU Units Used for Daily Olympics Coverage LIVEU HAS ANNOUNCED that over 100 units have been used to provide enhanced live video coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Customers using LiveU’s technology to increase the scope of their content include NBC, Globosat, Terra, TV Record, Televisa, Uno TV and BBC News.

LiveU, along with its exclusive UK partner Garland Partners Limited, has enhanced its technology for the Olympics using QoS SIM cards. LiveU used dedicated network resources, supplied by Broadnet Communications.

LiveU’s uplink technology was deployed for the first time at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where NBC Universal used LiveU’s live mobile units to broadcast live from the Games. Since then, LiveU has been covering the world’s top news and sporting events for hundreds of customers including tier-1 broadcasters, global news agencies and online media, notably the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Super Bowl, and NBA Finals.

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Broadcasters and streaming companies alike took advantage of the HD quality coverage they were able to achieve using LiveU’s professional-grade backpack units.

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Ronen Artman, VP Marketing, LiveU, said, “This is a landmark achievement for LiveU and we’re very proud that so many valued customers recognise the power and flexibility of our technology for an event of this scale and importance.”

Visit www.liveu.tv

IOC Awards Broadcast Rights in China THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) has announced an agreement with China Central Television (CCTV) to broadcast the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014; the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016; the second Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, in 2014; and the second Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2016, in Lillehammer, Norway.

CCTV, the state broadcaster in China, has acquired the rights across all broadcast platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile phone.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “The IOC is very pleased to continue its long-term partnership with CCTV. CCTV has been a great ambassador for the Olympic values in China, and we look forward to continuing our work with them to broadcast the Olympic Games to the widest possible Chinese audience.”

“CCTV is a strong supporter of the Olympic Movement and believes in the Olympic values.

We are delighted that we will continue to broadcast the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games in the coming years,” said Hu Zhanfan, CCTV President.

Visit www.olympic.org

AsiaSat Broadcasts 2012 Olympics ASIA SATELLITE Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) has broadcast live television coverage of the London Olympic Games on multiple transponders to Asian broadcasters and viewers.

AsiaSat satellites were used to distribute live coverage of the Olympic Games provided by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) to the holders of the broadcast rights of the Games. AsiaSat capacity was also used for contributing live video feeds of broadcasting organisations reporting from the various event locations to their studios in the Asia Pacific.

Sabrina Cubbon, Vice President, Sales and Marketing of AsiaSat said, “We are very pleased to play a contributing role in the world’s biggest and most viewed sporting event, delivering live coverage of the Games from London to audiences under our footprints. AsiaSat will continue to deliver service with reliability, quality and integrity to broadcasting organisations for this exciting event.”

Visit www.asiasat.com

i-CABLE and TVB Reach Olympics Agreement JUST BEFORE THE START of the London

its rights to Asia Television Limited (ATV).

games, i-CABLE Communications Limited, Official Broadcaster of the London 2012 Olympics in Hong Kong, announced that an agreement was reached with Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in respect to free TV carriage of the London 2012 Olympics. The agreement authorised TVB to carry 200 hours of Olympic programming during the London Games on its over-the-air television platform. TVB was also authorised to sublicense

Both were free to select events to broadcast, produce their own shows and sell their commercial airtime for their Games programming which was primarily shown on TVB’s Pearl Channel and ATV’s World Channel. In return for such rights, a fee was payable to i-CABLE according to terms and conditions of the agreement.

Visit www.i-cablecomm.com

Chunghwa Telecom Chooses StreamZ Live for Olympics DIGITAL RAPIDS ANNOUNCED that Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) chose Digital Rapids’ StreamZ Live adaptive streaming encoders and the Digital Rapids Broadcast Manager multi-encoder management software to power live online streaming of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games for viewers in Taiwan.

A 14-channel deployment of StreamZ Live encoders was used to transform live, high definition source feeds of the London Olympics into multiple output streams for viewing on CHT’s HiNet hichannel Web platform. Additional StreamZ Live encoders provided redundancy for fault tolerance, while the enterprise-class Broadcast Manager software provides centralised management,

monitoring and automation of the encoders.

Clive Vickery, Managing Director, EMEA and Asia at Digital Rapids said, “For top-tier service providers such as CHT, bringing events of this scale and importance to their viewers requires robust, reliable solutions with exceptional visual quality.”

Powering applications from online and mobile video to over-the-top (OTT) services and IPTV, StreamZ Live’s output capabilities and adaptive streaming support allow for capitalisation of multi-screen content distribution opportunities, allowing content and rights owners to reach viewers on devices from tablets and mobile phones to game consoles, PCs and ‘smart’ TVs. Visit www.digitalrapids.com

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TRACE Sports Partners With Sky News TRACE SPORTS, a premier global channel dedicated exclusively to sports celebrities, will now air in Australia amid a regional expansion.

TRACE Sports joins Sky’s Multiview lineup. This ‘red button’ service, provides access to additional channels that lie ‘behind’ the main channel programming, and is activated with the push of a button.

While the world’s eyes were on London, subscribers to Sky News gained access to TRACE Sports, giving viewers the opportunity to view exclusive programmes on the relationships,

backgrounds, home lives, training and personal stories of champion athletes, as well as daily behind-the-scenes updates on all the action. Until August 12th, viewers could watch TRACE Sports’ exclusive interviews and profiles of Australian and International athletes such as Caroline Buchanan, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.

“We’re pleased to feature TRACE Sports programming as a feature of our Programming dedicated to this year’s biggest sporting event on SKY NEWS Multiview,” said Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO of Sky News.

TRACE’s ‘Sporty News’ segment, produced on location in London, gave audiences a taste of the daily action, including interviews with national squads, press conference highlights and the inside scope of how athletes let loose after their events.

“These athletes spend a lifetime of hard work, discipline and perseverance,” said James Ross, MD Asia of TRACE. “TRACE Sports gives viewers un-paralleled intimate access to their lives beyond the competition.”

Visit www.trace.tv

IN LATE JULY, Broadcast Australia switched on transmission of Nine Network’s free-to-air 3DTV 2012 Olympics trial service. Working with industry partners, Nine Network and TX Australia, the trial further tested and demonstrated free-to-air 3D TV services during the games.

The service operated for the entire duration of the Olympics, from 27 July to 13 August 2012 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide. The trial was broadcast on digital channel ‘95’ within the coverage areas; with

Group CEO of Broadcast Australia, Graeme Barclay, said, “The 3DTV 2012 Olympics trial service again demonstrates the latest innovations within terrestrial broadcasting. The vast majority of Australians receive TV using the terrestrial platform. It is therefore imperative that future spectrum policy ensures that terrestrial broadcasters can continue to test advanced concepts like 3D.”

age of the Olympic Games on the ‘Nine Network 3D Olympic Trial’ channel which was allocated specifically for the trial period. Broadcast Australia’s broadcast transmission systems supported the 3D TV signal, which was encoded using the latest MPEG-4 compression standard and utilised a side-by-side ‘frame compatible’ 3D transmission technique.

These systems were fully integrated into Broadcast Australia’s Network Operations Centre in Sydney for 24-hour monitoring and control of the 3D signal.

The service broadcast live 3D and highlights cover-

Visit http://nine.com.au/olympics3d

transmission operated through a combination of Broadcast Australia and TX Australia facilities.

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SPORTSCASTING

Olympic Free-to-Air Trial Scores 3D Gold

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SPORTSCASTING

Videocraft Builds New File-Based Studio for AFL Videocraft recently completed one of its biggest systems integration projects to date – a new studio for the Australian Football League (AFL) integrating advanced file-based workflows, virtual sets and editing suites.

VIDEOCRAFT SALES DIRECTOR James Taylor explained, “This studio build involved total integration from acquisition and ingest through to editing and playout.”

The tender, which was successfully won by Videocraft at the end of 2011, came as part of the AFL’s new rights deal negotiations were taking place giving scope for a forward thinking solution.

Taylor continued, “Essentially we walked into a green field site, something that’s pretty rare at the moment. The AFL wanted the best possible systems solution that included fitting out the studios from scratch.”

AFL Media produces content for the AFL’s website, AFL clubs, corporate partners and a variety of internal departments. According to Taylor, the new studio had to be able to accommodate this high level of demand for content creation and maintain the AFL’s high quality standards.

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Taylor added, “We built the TV studio with a full XDCAM HD acquisition workflow (any content that comes in as SD is upconverted) that included XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD 4:2:2 and a new XDSPD1000 professional media station which enables seamless card-based and optical material to be fed into the EVS network. The EVS network itself is the key part of the entire system design as the EVS servers manage all the studio recording and playout making this is a very clever and efficient system.”

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The new AFL studio designed and built by Videocraft.

Executive Producer of AFL Media, Greg Miles said, “It was critical that we built a facility that could handle not only a high volume of content but be flexible enough to cope with the future demands of the business.”

Despite being one of the largest systems integration projects Videocraft has undertaken, it came with one of the tightest timeframes the company has ever had to work with. This was combined with the systems integrator’s trickiest request – a move mid-installation.

Taylor explained, “The AFL needed to move earlier than expected so we managed moving the entire facility that was in operation into the area created for the new studio whilst simultaneously building the new facility complex logistically, but ultimately successful.”

Videocraft was responsible for everything from over 5km of cabling to building the signal routing at the heart of the system.

Taylor said, “We installed a 128x128 Ross NK3G128 router and used a combination of Ross and Blackmagic open gear distribution and glue which

SPORTSCASTING

The AFL rack room.

Master control, the real umpire’s position.

all went into open gear frames for maximum efficiency. Once this was live, we had our heartbeat.”

turnaround highlights editing.”

Videocraft integrated the signal distribution throughout the existing facility migrating incoming feeds through the new router, whilst managing the move and integrating the AFL’s existing FCP editing suites into the new facility.

Taylor added, “It was a carefully planned installation done in precise stages.

Building the studio and EVS network came first. Once these went online we moved to the next stage. Using 6-channel EVS XS and 8-channel EVS XT3 servers for ingest and logging was the biggest change to the AFL’s existing workflow. We also installed an ECS IP Director to control all the ingest, logging and playout which meant that the AFL had completely migrated from a bespoke logging system to EVS. This represented a significant, forward thinking and future proof move of their data feeds and metadata that now meant they were all scalable and integrated. The final piece in the EVS puzzle was the use of the EVS Clean Edit System which allows the sharing of media by users across the EVS network using EVS XStore NAS, enabling fast

The new studio facility designed and built by Videocraft also integrated a Ross Carbonite 2ME vision switcher with in-built multi-viewers, new Sony HXCD70 studio cameras, Sony PVM1741 OLED monitors, RTS comms with Chromus matrix and KP32 and MKP12 keypanels and Ross XPression for onair graphics and the virtual studio.

James Taylor concluded, “We are particularly proud of this studio build.

It was a lot of hard work but the result has been excellent and the client is delighted. We were lucky to be able to work with such a great, forward thinking client as the AFL to build a world-class facility that will truly stand the test of time due to its level of scalability. That said, Videocraft, with our key partners, is continuing to further develop the system and workflows for the AFL to make them even more efficient as requests for their media content continue to grow.”

Visit www.videocraft.com.au

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NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations

Associated Press Accelerates HD Transition KIT DIGITAL, Inc. has announced that its UK-based Broadcast System Integration business (formerly Megahertz Broadcast Systems) has delivered a large number of high definition upgrades for The Associated Press.

As a global news agency, AP has news bureaux in more than 300 locations around the world. In recent months KIT Digital BSI has been upgrading key facilities to HD and has completed Master Control Room (MCR) upgrades at two sites in Beijing, as well as Tokyo, Paris, Rome, Johannesburg, Moscow, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza and Cairo.

AP and KIT Digital BSI signed a framework agreement in 2011 for systems integration work in AP’s international bureaux.

Each site is different to ensure it meets the local needs of the newsgathering operations in the region. All are based on a number of incoming and outgoing feeds, both satellite and fibre, with facilities for monitoring, recording and editing. Each MCR has a central router that can be controlled from London. Most include camera points around the building, and some have a studio operation.

KIT Digital BSI recently completed a new HD SNG unit for AP, built at its workshops in Ely, UK. Visit www.kitd.com

EditShare Partners with OCTOPUS EDITSHARE HAS ANNOUNCED a technology and distribution partnership with OCTOPUS Newsroom, developer of advanced newsroom computer systems (NRCS). The new relationship expands EditShare’s support for MOS-compliant newsroom computer systems to include OCTOPUS6, with integration benefits such as the ability to preview from within the newsroom client video asset proxies that are stored on the EditShare Media Asset Management system.

“EditShare chose to partner closely with OCTOPUS because of its robust feature set, cross-platform Mac and Windows client support, and cost-effective licensing structure,” says Andy Liebman, founder and president of EditShare. “Incorporating the OCTOPUS6 NRCS as part of the EditShare tapeless workflow provides broadcasters with a complete turnkey, tapeless production solution for managing news content and media.”

In addition to deeper integration with EditShare’s broadcast servers, journalists can browse source material stored on the EditShare shared storage systems.

Liebman continues, “Because EditShare and OCTOPUS are seamlessly integrated through the MOS protocol, journalists using the newsroom client have direct and immediate access to content stored on the EditShare shared storage systems..”

Visit www.editshare.com

Aveco Automates News with ASTRA Studio 2 AVECO’S NEW ASTRA STUDIO 2, a comprehensive automation solution for news and studio productions is showing at IBC 2012 (Stand 3.B67). Also on display will be Aveco’s new standalone media asset management tools and the company’s regional ad insertion solution.

Aveco’s ASTRA Studio 2 enables a single operator to produce complex live newscasts and news programs. Studio 2 is hardware independent, working with various vendors’ studio equipment, allowing users to pick the switcher, graphics, and other equipment that works right for them. New journalist tools and MOS integration with most NRCS systems enable journalists to quickly take advantage of these new capabilities without needing to understand the underlying technology.

Meanwhile, the SAS family of applications provide cost-effective solutions for media asset management, browse, ingest, archive, and playout. SAS Tools provide a simple and incremental option for users just beginning their move to a file-based workflow and only need modest capabilities.

Based on the same technology used in the ASTRA Suite of Tools, SAS Tools can scale in functionality and size from a single channel shopping network to a fully functional multi-channel TV station.

Aveco’s comprehensive Disaster Recovery Solutions provide frame-accurate synchronisation between sites for seamless failover – even with last minute changes in the playlist.

Aveco also gives broadcasters the ability to promote on-air and upcoming programming automatically to both Twitter and Facebook. With this feature, programming information from a channel playlist or a program rundown can be fed to the broadcaster’s Twitter and/or Facebook account.

Aveco’s Remote Ad Insertion is a solution for Hub and Spoke or Centralised architectures that can generate additional revenue by enabling higher priced ads to be sold that are specific to viewers in different regions.

Visit www.aveco.com

Irish Broadcaster Pioneers iPad to Broadcast with Avid

NEWS OPERATIONS

IRELAND’S NATIONAL TELEVISION and radio broadcaster, RTÉ, has developed a new acquisition model for mobile journalism that uses Avid Studio for iPad.

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By deploying a mobile journalist kit, which includes a microphone, iPhone, iPad and downloadable apps, RTÉ journalists in the field are able to produce broadcast-quality footage, edit it to a professional standard and then send it straight to air.

Glen Mulcahy, production development manager at RTÉ News, says, “Avid’s solution ensures that we can not only generate content in a costeffective and very timely way but also by offering vital editing features, it

creates a wealth of opportunities for the future of mobile newsgathering.

“Avid Studio for iPad boasts features and a precision that other systems, such as Apple’s iMovie, do not offer. Not only does it allow for frame accurate editing, but its split audio editing functions mean that we can produce a professional edit on location – no matter where we are. We’re delighted with the initial results, and having already broadcast features created by RTÉ video journalist Sean MacAn tSithigh using Avid, we’ve seen the potential of this solution and are looking to deploy more kits in the very near future.”

Visit www.avid.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

Cobham Launches Mobile Newsroom COBHAM HAS LAUNCHED what it says is a new concept in fast-setup field newsrooms for major breaking stories. The new MediaMesh creates expandable networks for live production from the field, to empower users to broadcast without boundaries.

MediaMesh uses wireless technology to enable a journalist in the field to deploy all the technology required for a live broadcast. This includes a broadcast quality transmission path for live two-ways, the capability of controlling the camera remotely from the studio, file transfers and a high capacity internet connection, access to the base newsroom computer, and

cellphone access. This is managed by equipment packed into a pelicase.

For a typical story, the journalist will establish a base in a hotel room, with the camera on a balcony and a Ka-band satellite uplink on the roof.

All equipment is connected over wireless, with standard Wifi also available for the journalist’s laptop and other devices. If a dish is not available then connection with base can be over the public 3G/4G cellphone network, or via the hotel’s ethernet connection to the internet.

Visit www.cobham.com

Mosart Enhances Newscast Automation MOSART MEDIALAB AS has announced the latest enhancements to its Newscast Automation system.

Mosart Newscast Automation 3.0 has a range of new features and functions, including a redesigned graphical user interface (GUI) with full user configurability.

Newscast Automation 3.0 now also includes interfaces with Harris Nexio and Grass Valley K2 video servers; Calrec and Stagetec audio mixers; Casper, Xpression, and Pixelpower graphics; and Brainstorm virtual studio and Camerobot systems. The Mosart open-systems compatibility is also extended.

Mosart now supports eight manufacturers of audio mixers, five manufacturers of vision mixers, nine brands of video servers, nine graphics systems, and six camera robotics systems — as well as simultaneous usage

of gear from multiple camera robotic vendors.This year Mosart also launched a Virtual Audio Fader Panel that gives the director and production staff more control and a better overview of audio faders and levels.

Content repurposing/reuse and media asset management (MAM) integration are enhanced with the Mosart delivery of news as-run information to continuity control systems such as Snell’s Morpheus.

Lastly, the Mosart multi-studio solution is a software package for the larger multi-studio broadcasters and consists of Mosart Media Router and Mosart Template Sharing. The package provides sharing of resources and coordination across several control rooms.

Visit www.mosart.no

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This added bandwidth further strengthens the industry leading connection resilience and maintains the high video quality required from demanding broadcasters.

Australian LiveU users have streamed live, high quality video from places like Indonesia, Rome, Madrid, Hawaii, Canada and Israel directly into their existing servers.

No satellite or fibre required Sending content the other way, multiple broadcasters from France and India utilised LiveU to cover the Rugby World Cup and recent Test Cricket Series.

While broadcasters from the USA and New Zealand have all used LiveU for Australian based event coverage

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NEWS OPERATIONS

Ross Video Integrates New Systems ROSS VIDEO’S recent venture into robotics brings a new product line to Ross Stand 9.C10 at IBC 2012. The Ross Robotics division features two distinct lines of robotic camera systems: the Furio track based Robotic Camera Systems and the CamBot Roaming Pedestal Series.

Furio Robotic Camera Systems use a unique absolute positioning system and rail based tracking along with lift and PTZ head making it ideally suited to automated studios as well as virtual set and augmented reality applications.

CamBot is distinguished by its ability to accept payloads of up to 200 pounds (90kg) on the 700 Series pedestals.

At this IBC 2012, Ross will showcase a fully integrated virtual set and augmented reality solution using all Ross technology. A live newscast will be produced every half hour demonstrating how with a single operator and talent can efficiently deliver a highly sophisticated virtual production.

The solution combines Ross’ Furio Robotic Camera System with dynamic,

tracked on-air moves; XPression 3D Graphics Platform generating virtual set, production graphics and a live ticker with social media integration via Ross Inception; and Vision production switcher keying and mixing video, all being automated with the OverDrive Automated Production System.

The Inception social media management system provides a professional suite of tools to create, schedule, broadcast and manage media content in and out of newsrooms and promotions departments. The Inception café on the Ross stand is a place for visitors to try out the system from web or mobile applications to dynamically publish news and promotional content to popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook, YouTube and Brightcove.

BlackStorm is a production-oriented playout server designed to playback clips and graphics in a live environment. It has a unique production playlist, with clip transitions and end of clips actions.

Visit www.rossvideo.com

LiveU Collaborates with Panasonic LIVEU WILL PRESENT its expanded range of live video uplink solutions for global broadcasters, news agencies and online media, at IBC 2012.

LiveU and Panasonic will demonstrate their next-gen integrated live camera solution, utilising the LU40i video uplink device and the new Panasonic AJ-HPX600 P2 camcorder.

NEWS OPERATIONS

LiveU will present its LU70 mobile uplink unit with its second-generation internal and new external antenna arrays. Boosted by its remotely-

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located antennas, the LU70 backpack supports up to 14 cellular links simultaneously, offering strong resiliency in built-up, crowded areas and on-the-move. The LU70 includes features including: One-Touch-Live (LiveU OTL) mode with automatic adjustment of video resolutions; and point to multi-point distribution, whereby a single device can broadcast live to multiple, varied destinations concurrently.

Visit www.liveu.tv

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Blackmagic Acquires Cintel Assets BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS ANNOUNCED the acquisition of the assets of Cintel International, one of the world’s leading researchers, designers and manufacturers of motion picture film scanners.

Through this acquisition, following the liquidation of Cintel International earlier in 2012, Blackmagic Design has acquired the intellectual property and all aspects of Cintel’s entire portfolio of film scanning products. This includes all of the IP, name and brand ownership and product development rights for the Cintel diTTo and dataMill digital scanners lines, URSA, C-Reality, DSX, and Millennium telecine lines, as well as imageMill data management products.

“This is a very exciting acquisition for Blackmagic Design,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Cintel products are the most trusted names in the film scanning business, and the incredible design expertise that has been built into every one of the Cintel products is amazing.

“The film market is in the middle of massive changes and how film is used is changing every day. What hasn’t changed is the acknowledgement that film is an extremely creative way to capture images. This acquisition gives Blackmagic Design the ability to combine our vision and expertise with Cintel technology to provide the best technology for artists using film,

more efficient and affordable ways to bring film into a digital workflow, and better ways to archive and restore existing archive film worldwide.”

Service and support for existing Cintel customers will be handled by UK based Cine Solutions Ltd. and US based Cine Solutions Inc. Both are independent of Blackmagic Design and will supply replacement Cintel’s dataMill digital scanner. parts and repairs, provide expert engineering services, as well as a 24/7 maintenance help line to all users of equipment previously manufactured and supplied by Cintel International.

Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

MTI Film Appoints Storm FX as Reseller

Rising Sun Research Changes Name to Cospective RISING SUN RESEARCH has changed its name to Cospective. The company chose the new name to better represent the full nature of its current and future products and services.

MTI FILM HAS ADDED Sydney-based Storm FX Distributions to its international network of value-added resellers. Storm FX will represent MTI Film’s full product line, including its newly-introduced Cortex family of products, throughout Australia and New Zealand.

“Cospective creates innovative solutions that solve visual communication challenges,” said company CEO, Rory McGregor. “The new name and brand represent a shared perspective, which is what our products and services enable – no matter where in the world people are located.”

Debuted at NAB 2012, the Cortex family of products is designed to address the migration of files from digital capture of production elements to editorial and post bringing coherence and portability to the process of managing digital assets from the set to the screen.

The company started life as the technology division of the VFX company Rising Sun Pictures, before being spun out as a separate company in April 2000.

 Cortex::Capture serves as a viewer that can playback camera files for any production, users can set looks, add LUTs and preview material;

“The majority of our initial customers were VFX facilities,” explains McGregor. “Over the past few years, however, our customer base has broadened to include advertising, television, games and education, and we needed a new name to reflect that.”

Cospective will still maintain a strong presence in VFX and film production through its Academy Award-winning cineSync software.

Cospective is also developing solutions tailored for other market segments and will be making a new product announcement soon.

Visit www.cospective.com

MTI Film currently offers three Cortex products:

 Cortex::Convey, is a transcoding application for both on set and in the editorial room after assemblies are completed daily; and  Cortex::ControlDailies the fully featured application that in addition to all the above, allows users to sync audio to picture, apply colour, add metadata, and create all the deliverables needed for dailies.

The three Cortex products allow users to manage media from most popular cinema cameras, including those made by ARRI, Sony, RED, Canon and Panasonic. They support RAW, R3D, native DNx and ProRes recording, other high resolution imagery, as well as the latest colour management workflows, and will include ACES support in the first release.

Visit www.stormfx.com.au and www.mtifilm.com

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Deluxe to Acquire Omnilab Creative and Media Services DELUXE AUSTRALIA, subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc., and Omnilab Media have announced that an agreement has been reached whereby Deluxe Australia will acquire Omnilab’s Creative and Media Services businesses, including the brands of Iloura, Digital Pictures, Cornerpost, Flagstaff, Boffswana and PAX Entertainment.

The acquisition will deliver an augmented suite of services for Deluxe’s Australian clients including expanded visual effects, design and broadcast post production services in Sydney and Melbourne, life-cycle library management, digital asset management, file-based mastering, archiving, DVD and Blu-ray authoring.

Deluxe has significantly increased its global service offerings in digital services and content delivery over the last few years. The company’s pipeline now includes visual effects for features, broadcast programming and commercials, 2D and 3D post production services including 2D to 3D conversion from film or digital capture to digital intermediates, theatrical release (digital cinema, satellite and 35mm), and home entertainment services for every digital media platform.

“As technologies continue to transform how our movie, TV and advertising customers create and distribute content, Deluxe is well positioned for whatever the future may bring,” said Alaric McAusland, Managing Director of Deluxe Australia. “We are greatly looking forward to this talented group of people joining our terrific Deluxe team.”

Omnilab Media will retain Ambience Entertainment, The Playroom, DubSat, Adsend, The Substation and Oktobor Animation, which will continue to operate separately from those businesses being acquired by Deluxe.

“We are very pleased that we have come to an agreement with Deluxe Australia that will see these great iconic businesses continue to flourish, and we look forward to our continuing relationship with Deluxe ,” said Christopher Mapp, Managing Director of Omnilab Media. “We are very proud of our long legacy to the Australian Film, Television and Advertising Industries and look forward to an exciting future.”

Visit www.bydeluxe.com

Christopher Mapp, MD, Omnilab Media.

Alaric McAusland, MD, Deluxe Australia.

Motion Capture Systems OPTITRACK HAS EXTENDED to the high-end motion capture market

The launch marks another milestone in a year that also saw the release of the Flex 13, the world’s first megapixel mocap camera for under US$1000.

“After democratising mocap at the entry-level with our V100 cameras, and then expanding into megapixel mocap with the Flex 13, we set our eyes on large-volume performance,” said Jim Richardson, OptiTrack CEO. Visit www.optitrack.com

POST PRODUCTION

with the announcement of the Prime Series – a new family of motion capture cameras tailored specifically to large-volume capture. Offering capture volumes that extend up to 150’ with pixel-for-pixel tracking precision throughout, the 4.1 MP Prime 41 provides VFX studios, game developers, universities and labs with the tracking technology necessary for the most ambitious motion tracking and capture applications.

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POST PRODUCTION

Sponsored by

Blockbusters in the Pipeline

By Keith Ford The Autodesk Blockbuster tour aims to bring together members of the VFX industry and give them a chance to talk about their expertise, the challenges they face within the changing FX environment, and how they see the industry.

THE PARTICIPANTS FOR 2012 were Alex Kim, FX Technical Director for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) Singapore; Ian Cope Visual Effects Producer at Rising Sun Pictures (RSP); and Colin Renshaw, VFX Supervisor, and Nick Angus, Head of 3D, from Alt.vfx.

Over the last few years, the use of stereoscopic 3D in movies has increased dramatically, propelled in large part by the phenomenal success of ‘Avatar’ in 2009. Since then, film studios have seen 3D as an easy way of adding to a movies box office gross, particularly for big budget, effects heavy tentpole movies. Unfortunately for the VFX people who have to implement this, it’s not quite that simple. However, as the tech catches up and standard solutions are put in place, things are becoming easier.

“It is much, much harder. It’s probably three, four times more work.

But at the same time I think it’s getting easier in that we are starting to work it out,” says ILM’s Alex Kim. “The first few movies must be much more challenging because they have to go through, ‘What can we still do and what can’t we still do?’ But we are kind of working out.”

Rising Sun’s Ian Cope adds, “I think for us as vendors, now all this software supports the stereo. Whereas three or four years ago I was working on Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’, and that was our sort of first big stereo job, and it was cobbled together from found solutions on the internet, and I think our polarised setup was actually a whiteboard with al foil paper. So not what you think of as sort of bleeding edge effects, but now we’re got a nice 4K projector that projects stereo and we can make these calls about the stereo.”

POST PRODUCTION

According to Alt.vfx’s Colin Renshaw, giving the artist the tool they work best with produces the best results, so the software being used has to be compatible with as many tools as possible.

“We kind of want to let them dictate what they want to use rather than us say, ‘Well here’s our pipeline, sorry you’re a fantastic artist you’d be perfect for the job, but you don’t use that piece of software so, see you next time.’ We really feel like we can’t afford to be like that and you give the artist the right tool, the tool they love, the tool they’re used to, then you get the artist as they should be,” he says.

According to Kim, “Singapore’s brand new, so we’re getting people from London, Australia, all over the world and they’re not really trained in that ILM pipeline. So, to get them to start working on the shots straight away, without any training time, and we had Max artists, Maya artists, whatever they’ve been working with, so kind of giving them tools they like.”

Planning becomes all-important when talking about stereo productions, as the extra work involved goes much easier if it can be understood from the outset.

Something that these three vendors have in common is that they operate from locations that require remote working at some stage.

Post-production in general is becoming more and more dispersed around the globe, leading to changes in the way the industry works.

Kim explains, “If from the beginning they say this is going to be 3D, or even if it’s going to be done in post, if they thought about it from the beginning then when we start doing it’s like, ‘This is going to be done in post do these are the things we can’t do...’ So you plan that all the way along and it’s fine, but it’s worse when two months before wrap it’s, ‘We’ve decided this should be 3D.’”

“I think it’s really exciting,” says Alt.vfx’s Nick Angus. “I guess our attitudes are probably almost leading the way, along with maybe a few other industries. But I think of it in terms of all these guys have to drive into the city every morning to sit at a computer all day and not interact with anyone but a phone and a computer terminal when they could basically be doing the same thing from home.”

“I think they’ve learned their lessons, I think the stereo team are doing the feedback, but you know we were working on 'Prometheus' and it was no issue at all, it was just another thing that we had assembled to try and tell a story, so I think it was a really good use of stereo,” adds Cope.

“At Alt we’ve got a permanent staff member for each discipline: 2D lead, 3D lead, animated lead, modelling lead; but we triple our team, or quadruple it, just with freelance staff, and they can either be onsite or working remotely. It means that we can just do this based on a project, and it works really, really well,” adds Colin Renshaw.

In the VFX world working with multiple other vendors is a fact of life, and having tools that allow for as much interoperability as possible can be very important.

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Interoperability is becoming more of an issue internally as well, with many artists preferring to work with different tools.

“I think as an industry given that we work on a lot of shared shows with other vendors that have a tool that you can just send something to you know like the opening shot from Potter was sort of a coordination of three vendors over two or three continents so it was trying to get all those together. To actually just be able to send them a Maya scene it’s like, ‘Here you go, are you happy with stereo camera in that, ok let’s work through it,’ rather than the convoluted process that we used to have to go through,” Cope explains.

For ILM, working across time zones is even a problem internally, without the added issue of outside collaboration.

“The whole remote working thing is definitely happening in ILM as well because in Singapore the time difference is ten, twelve hours or something, so it’s basically like working for a remote client all the time,” Kim explains. “That’s kind of worked so well that ILM has the Vancouver pod and LA pod. So instead of trying to get artists to come to San Francisco or Singapore, they’re like, ‘Well it’s actually cheaper to just open a small office and we’ll get Vancouver artists and LA artists to work there and we’ll just do the whole remote thing.’”

POST PRODUCTION

Sponsored by

Avenging Angels ILM SINGAPORE IS A DIVISION of Lucasfilm Ltd. and part of Lucasfilm Singapore, along with Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and LucasArts Singapore. Since opening in 2006, ILM Singapore has worked alongside ILM in the US on feature films that include ‘Star Trek’, ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’, ‘Iron Man’, and ‘The Avengers’. Alex Kim joined ILM Singapore in 2011. He shared his experience of working on the multi-record breaking, and effects heavy, Avengers.

“From Transformers 3 we were a lot more heavily involved in everything from throughout pipelines, and for this movie we did everything from asset moulding, rigging, texturing all the tracer effects, underwater effects, digi double for Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Iron Man. All in all, we did 36% of the ILM shots, and the processing time was six months.

So, starting in September and wrapping up in March 2012, including the stereoscopic convergence time as well,” explains Kim. Six months for a project of this size is not a lot of time, even with a large number of vendors working on the film. ILM, Weta Digital, Scanline VFX, Hydraulx, Fuel VFX and many others are among those who put their expertise to use on Marvel’s epic team-up.

Even with this massive collaboration and ILM Singapore having to divide their resources between ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Battleship’, they still had 160 people working on the project, including production and artists. Throw in the San Francisco office and the number hits around 500 ILM employees hard at work.

“It was quite exciting when San Francisco got so many of the digital double

shots for Avengers. We got so many digital doubles, so many effect shots, that means that a lot of them, a lot of interesting ones, end up coming to Singapore as well, so we end up doing quite a lot of them,” adds Kim. One of the most difficult things about working on a movie like ‘The Avengers’ can be the fan Alex Kim, FX Technical Director, ILM. expectation. When working with a franchise that has been around since 1963, the expectations for a definitive on screen version of these icons can be brutally high. No character has more riding on them than the Hulk, who has largely been seen as a disappointment in his previous big screen outings.

Ang Lee’s 2003 ‘Hulk’ and Louis Letterier’s 2008 ‘Incredible Hulk’ both underwhelmed audiences’ expectations for what CGI could do for the Green Goliath. Despite the low-fi look, Lou Ferrigno painted green in the television series is just about the only version remembered fondly.

According to Kim, “Even if everything else about the movie was fantastic, if Hulk wasn’t good people would turn around and go ‘The FX wasn’t that good.’”

Hunger and the Shakes FOUNDED IN 1995, Rising Sun Pictures is a visual effects house based in Adelaide. RSP provides everything from design through to Digital Intermediate work, with some of their recent projects including the Harry Potter series, ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island’, ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Prometheus’, and the upcoming ‘Gravity’.

‘The Hunger Games’ is also a movie with a passionate fan base, though one that has never seen a visual representation of the story before. RSP completed around 200 effects shots, including the flaming outfits and the ‘muttations’.

One of the features of ‘The Hunger Games’ was the use of “shaky-cam” throughout, which is not often seen in blockbuster action movies. It raises some issues for the effects vendors that aren’t seen on other projects, but also allows for the opportunity to sneak things through.

“It’s like doing the first Harry Potter film,” says Ian Cope from RSP, “the first Hunger Games, where there are a number of books and they want to make it, Lionsgate was very keen to get it right. So, there were lots of pressures on the director that sort of flow through to us, all the way from on set going through to the post. So, things like the looks of the mutts and what flaming wings would do and what the city would be, there’s a myriad of questions that need to be answered and were sort of delayed and held and turnover was delayed.”

“As hard as it is just to track the Ian Cope, Visual Effects & Stereoscopic thing, that’s obviously one of the Producer, Rising Sun Pictures challenges, to try and feed that information into some software that will actually give you a reliable track is probably the challenge, and the rest is fairly easy to get away with because you’ve got a hell of a lot of motion to bury things under... Some of our shots were more the grand tribute parade shots, which were probably where the camera got to be its stillest, which is nice,” Cope explains.

Another Beer Please Deer

“Originally director Garth Davis, who’s a well respected, great director, in his mind he always saw this thing as completely in camera. He actually believed that we could train deer to do all of this fun stuff and I just kind of went along with that for quite a while, but secretly Nick and I were modelling deer and making our own,” says Renshaw. “When we finally turned up at the PPM it was kind of like this war room meeting where they’re like, ‘The deer won’t go in this way and they won’t do this and we can’t get permission to do this.’ I presented this little test of me feeding a CG deer in the car park at Vault and everyone kind of fell in love with it and suddenly it was like, ‘OK this is CG, this is CG, this is CG.’ So you know it just meant we could do a lot more than

Nick Angus, Head of 3D, Alt.VFX

Colin Renshaw, VFX Supervisor, Alt.VFX

ever had been boarded or ever been planned.”

“It was a good project for us to start with because it was kind of a test bed for all our new equipment and that is where I guess we started with Autodesk in that we started with systems that we knew. We went with Maya for everything because that had always been our weapon of choice,” added Angus.

POST PRODUCTION

ALT.VFX IS A BRISBANE-BASED effects studio that primarily caters for the commercial industry. After only operating for around a year, Alt’s first project, ‘Nocturnal Migration’ for Tooheys Extra Dry, has already won a number of awards. They have also worked on SBS’ ‘On Demand’ and FOXTEL’s ‘Seeing is Believing’ Olympics ad. During the Blockbuster tour, Colin Renshaw and Nick Angus spoke about the processes involved in completing ‘Nocturnal Migration’.

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POST PRODUCTION

Sponsored by

Vendors Sink Their Teeth Into Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 MOUNTAIN LION, the ninth major release of Apple’s desktop operating system, has been released as a download from the Mac App Store.

With more than 3 million downloads in the first four days of release, it is Apple’s most successful OS X release ever.

Boasting more than 200 new features, Mountain Lion includes iCloud integration, the all new Messages app, Notification Centre, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration (coming soon), Dictation, AirPlay Mirroring and Game Centre. Mountain Lion is available as an upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard for AUD$20.99 inc. GST. “People are going to love the new features in Mountain Lion and how easy it is to download and install from the Mac App Store,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” Schiller added.

New features for Mountain Lion include:  iCloud integration, for easy set up of your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Reminders and Notes, and keeping everything, including iWork documents, up to date across all your devices;  New Messages app, which replaces iChat and brings iMessage to the Mac, so you can send messages to anyone with an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or another Mac;  Notification Centre, which streamlines the presentation of notifications and provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps;  System-wide Sharing, to make it easy to share links, photos, videos and other files quickly without having to switch to another app, and you just need to sign in once to use third-party services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo;  Facebook integration, so you can post photos, links and comments with locations right from your apps, automatically add your Facebook friends to your Contacts, and update your Facebook status from within Notification Centre;  Dictation, which allows you to dictate text anywhere you can type, whether you’re using an app from Apple or a third party developer;  AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send an up-to-1080p secure stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV, or send audio to a receiver or speakers that use AirPlay; and  Game Centre, which brings the social gaming network from iOS to the Mac, enabling live, multiplayer games with friends whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Additional features in Mountain Lion include the new Gatekeeper, which makes downloading software from the Internet safer; Power Nap, which automatically updates your apps and system while your Mac is asleep; and a faster Safari browser. New features for China include significantly improved text input, a new Chinese Dictionary, easy setup with popular email providers, Baidu search in Safari, and built-in sharing to Sina Weibo and popular video websites Youku and Tudou.

Visit www.apple.com/au/

POST PRODUCTION

Following the release of Mountain Lion, a number of vendors have released updates to add support for the new OS. Among the first companies to do so were Blackmagic Design, AJA Video Systems and Matrox.

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Blackmagic Design released a series of new software updates for its products that adds full support for Mountain Lion. The updates include support for Apple’s new Gatekeeper anti malware security protection for all products.

Gatekeeper is a new security feature, which protects your computer from downloading and installing malicious software. Blackmagic Design is one of the first companies to support this new security standard from the first day Mac OS X 10.8 is available to customers. As an Apple Identified developer, when Gatekeeper is set to the default option, Blackmagic customers will continue to

be able to download software, maintaining full security protection.

“Being an Apple Identified Developer has enabled Blackmagic Design to take full advantage of the many exciting new features in Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, such as Gatekeeper, right from the very first day of its release,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. ”Our customers can be assured that they will continue to be able to easily download our software and enjoy performance improvements when they upgrade to Mac OS X 10.8 and Blackmagic Design products.”

These new software updates support all of Blackmagic Design’s products and are free for existing customers.

Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com AJA Video Systems, manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, also released a new software update supporting Mountain Lion, including Gatekeeper certification. The new v10.3.2 software is also compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and is available for AJA’s latest KONA, Io XT and Io Express products.

“We’re pleased to deliver Mountain Lion support right out of the gates,” said Nick Rashby, president, AJA. “This new OS with Gatekeeper provides users with improved protection against malicious software. AJA is one of Apple’s ‘identified developers’, allowing our software to be installed using the default Gatekeeper settings. Providing support for Mountain Lion is an extension of AJA’s commitment to giving our customers the broadest options and flexibility in their video workflows.”

The new v10.3.2 drivers are now available as a free download for all KONA LHi, KONA LHe Plus, KONA 3, KONA 3G, Io XT and Io Express customers.

Visit www.aja.com Matrox Video Products Group announced the immediate availability of Mountain Lion support for Apple Final Cut Pro X and Apple Compressor with the Matrox MXO2, Matrox MXO2 MAX families of I/O devices, and the Matrox Mojito MAX card.

“The timely release of this new Matrox driver underscores our commitment to providing the support our users need to get the most from their creative tools,” said Wayne Andrews, product manager at Matrox. “Our customers can take immediate advantage of Mountain Lion’s great new features while continuing to reap all the productivity benefits of their Matrox devices with FCP X and Compressor.”

Matrox support for other applications such as Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, Avid Media Composer 6, and Avid Symphony 10 will be validated as Mountain Lion versions of those applications are released.

Visit www.matrox.com

SPACE

Shared Network Enterprise Storage

MINI

Portable and quiet

MIDI

NANO

Transportable and quiet

Portable and quiet

For Content Creation, Editing, Replication.

For Content Creation, Editing, Replication.

For Content Creation, Editing, Replication.

For Content Creation, Editing, Replication.

Performance: 1550MB/sec XDCam 50 - 32 streams Pro-Res 4.2.2 - 32 streams Uncomp. HD - 6 streams.

Performance: 400MB/sec XDCam 50 - 28 streams Pro-Res 4.2.2 - 22 streams Uncomp. HD - 2 streams.

Performance: 800MB/sec XDCam 50 - 28 streams Pro-Res 4.2.2 - 22 streams Uncomp. HD - 3 streams.

Performance: Up to 100MB/ sec Dependant on Storage.

Raw Capacity: 4TB & 8TB.

Raw Capacity: 8TB, 16TB, 24TB & 32TB.

Raw Capacity: 16TB, 32TB, 48TB & 64TB Workgroup: Ideal for 1-20 Users.

Workgroup: Ideal for 1-8 Users.

Workgroup: Ideal for 1-8 Users.

SPACE EX and SPACE ECHO Expansion and Back Up Solution

SSD

Expandable performance

Space EX adds storage capacity and enhanced performance to your Space systems.

Demanding data rates, Content Creation & Editing

Add up to ďŹ ve Space EX units to expand your Space and Space Echo capacity to 384TB per RAID controller. Available in building blocks of 16, 32, 48 and 64TB.

Performance: 3000MB/sec XDCam 50 - 300 streams Pro-Res 4.2.2 - 250 streams Uncomp. HD - 22 streams.

Space Echo performs a critical task: fast data back-up onto a scalable, high performance RAID system for instant disaster recovery.

Fully automated data synchronisation:on and off site. A perfect open accompaniment to Space but will work with any SAN. Two 1G Ethernet (GbE) ports for direct server connections. Add up to six 10GbE ports to connect high speed servers and clients.

Raw Capacity: 4.8TB & 14.4TB. Also available as Mini SSD. Workgroup: Ideal for 1-100 Users.

Raw Capacity: 4 eSATA ports for attaching 3rd party external storage.

Workgroup: Ideal for 1-4 Users.

LTO

Expandable performance & capacity Archiving speeds of up-to 560MBs when used with your Space system Performance: Archives up-to four 1.5TB LTO-5 tapes simultaneously at full speed.

Available with 1 - 4 tape drives. High-performance uplink via 10Gbe to Space storage. Also available as Mini LTO.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Rackspace Launches Australian Data Centre RACKSPACE HOSTING has announced the launch of its first Australian data centre, located at Erskine Park in Western Sydney.

which includes existing facilities in Dallas, Chicago, Virginia, London, and Hong Kong.

The new multi-million dollar investment will support the company’s ongoing growth in Australia. Rackspace can now offer local dedicated hosting and managed virtualisation solutions to larger IT contracts looking to deploy enterprise grade private cloud solutions based on VMWare from enterprise, financial markets and government, or any other customer who prefers to keep their data onshore. The data centre also provides a launch pad for Rackspace’s own, OpenStack-based Open Cloud platform, expected to launch into the local market.

Rackspace has extended its global partnerships with a range of technology solution partners - including Brocade, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Microsoft and RedHat.

Rackspace’s Australian customer base includes News Ltd, Webjet, Pacific Brands, Kogan, Lonely Planet, and Treasury Wine Estates.

The Australian data centre is in the late stages of construction and the first customers are expected to go live in late 2012. It will include security certifications for UTI Tier III Design and Construction, with certifications planned for SSAE16, ISO 27001, ISO 14001, PCI, and ASIO Intruder Resistant once fully operational.

The Australian data centre adds to its international data centre footprint,

Visit www.rackspace.com.au

Avid and Hostworks to Collaborate in the Cloud AVID AND AUSTRALIAN Internet service provider, Hostworks, have announced a partnership to develop new concepts and services tailored specifically for the needs of the broadcast and production industry.

With media assets becoming digital and associated metadata increasing exponentially, broadcasters and media production companies are facing new challenges all the time. These include how best to manage, store and access digital assets in a flexible, scalable and secure way.

Leveraging the combined credentials of Avid in the areas of editing, storage and workflow; and Hostworks, which has earned its reputation by delivering trusted cloud-based solutions to corporate media organisations and the broadcast industry in Australia, the two organisations are exploring a system that builds on existing processes to deliver a flexible, future-proof solution to the industry.

“Hostworks has always been committed to delivering innovative, highly flexible services and prides itself on offering end-to-end hybrid solutions with a low tolerance for downtime,” said Adrian Britton, General Manager, Technology, Strategy and Innovation, Hostworks.

“The reliability and responsiveness offered gives our customers peace of mind. The infrastructure used adheres to global best practice standards and is tightly engineered and proven to handle record peak loads and offer maximum security.”

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD

Conceptually, the system will address the current environment of in-house digital asset storage and look towards a remote server proposition that is highly targeted for functionality. This will include storage and transcoding of assets in addition to providing a cloudbased hub that delivers a highly scalable, flexible processing environment that can be demand-driven.

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Rackspace has recently begun offering customers agreements under New South Wales law, which are compliant with Australia’s National Privacy Principals.

Microsoft to Power PPTV ATN MICROSOFT AND CHINESE INTERNET TV service provider, PPTV, have signed a strategic partnership memorandum to launch PPTV Asia TV Networks (ATN) platform on Windows Azure. This Internet TV service platform will offer content and service providers a new scale of business opportunities. This is also Microsoft’s first cloud-based collaboration with a local Chinese new media company.

According to the memorandum, PPTV will adopt Windows Azure as the core infrastructure platform for PPTV ATN. PPTV ATN will provide a cloud-based Internet TV solution to satisfy the growing global internet TV demand. PPTV will also continue to explore the collaboration opportunities with Microsoft on online TV, media service platform and Content Delivery Network (CDN) for its next generation domestic market needs.

“PPTV chose Windows Azure platform because of its reliability, scalability, and global availability, which can accelerate PPTV’s international expansion. PPTV ATN creates an innovative user experience, to deliver to global audience with global contents, live and VoD, across screens.,” said Chuang Tao, CEO of PPTV. Visit www.pptv.com and www.microsoft.com/china

Signiant Signs Gencom as Reseller SIGNIANT HAS ANNOUNCED that Gencom Technology will resell the entire line of Signiant solutions to film, broadcast and post-production markets in Australia and New Zealand. Gencom will add Signiant’s secure media file transfer solutions to its portfolio of software and service offerings.

According to Ray Sanders, Gencom’s CEO, “Signiant’s world-class products fit perfectly into our portfolio of leading brands, and we look forward to working with Signiant to address demand in our region for secure and accelerated file movement solutions.”

“In-house storage provisions can be limited by capacity and scalability but are also at risk due to potential technology obsolescence,” explains Charles Tétaz, Country Sales Manager, Avid, Australia and New Zealand. “We are developing a solution that will allow users to manipulate digital assets securely from anywhere, whilst still maintaining full control.”

“As we continue to develop new business opportunities across the Asia/ Pacific region, we will rely on a network of highly qualified partners such as Gencom to apply their local expertise and build brand awareness for our solutions,” said Michael Burnie, MD for Signiant Asian Pacific and Japan.

Visit www.avid.com and www.hostworks.com.au

Visit www.signiant.com and www.gencom.com

SMPTE 2012 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition THE premier annual event for motion imaging and media technology, production and operations. Join us and network with world-renowned technology thought-leaders in the motion picture studios, broadcast and distribution networks, production and post-production community, software companies, systems integrators, manufacturers, display technologies and distribution providers.

We’re all about creation, management, distribution and display of the moving image.

Room discounts available until 1st October – Book Now!

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

3-Days of highly technical sessions High-tech exhibition hall

through

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Unparalleled networking opportunities

Loews Hollywood Hotel (formerly the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa)

1755 North Highland Ave Hollywood, CA 90028 USA

Join Us – Register Today:

www.smpte2012.org

Early Bird Discounts Apply Up Until 1st August - Register Today

The SMPTE Symposium on Monday, 22 October 2012 Committee Chair: Jim Whittlesey of Deluxe Digital Cinema

High Frame Rates for Digital Cinema Add a day to your itinerary and attend this timely Symposium: Fully explore the impact of high frame rates to the entire movie system, from production to post to distribution and exhibition on the big screen. The Symposium is particularly geared toward professionals who are involved in the creation of images or working with systems that handle the images. This event will provide concrete examples and cutting edge demonstrations. You will walk away with practical knowledge that you can implement right away!

follow @SMPTEatc

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD

The Cloud as Active Archive

by Front Porch Digital

A video storage solution should allow not only for archiving and retrieval, but also for intelligent management and use of the archived data, so that the storage management solution becomes an enabler of an extended video lifecycle through multiple monetization cycles over a variety of different media and platforms, and independent of any specific technology, over an extended period of time. This is what many call the “Active Archive.”

The archive was about preservation – a retirement home for content – but Active Archive is about having content available wherever its needed, within the enterprise and beyond, in whatever format is needed.

The cloud offers nearly unlimited storage capacity and a universal environment in which to work. It is perfectly suited to this concept of Active Archive – known in the broadcast industry as a form of content storage management (CSM). True CSM is more than simply storage and retrieval. It is about interfacing with all media devices and storage technologies.

It is about offering “content-aware” content-aware” features such as transcoding, timecode partial restore, tore, and asset analytics. It is about direct integration with th business systems to link processes, resources, s, and metadata with the content repository in n fundamental ways.

Until this capability exists in the cloud, it will always fall short ort for media companies.

Can the cloud be used ed effectively to store and manage big data, such as video?

Traditional providers have focused on delivering g generic IT storage solutions and d have not specialised in video solutions. Therefore, herefore, whether due to cost or platform architecture, ture traditional solutions often appear lacklustre to media companies compared to the costs and comfort of deploying their own on-site solutions.

Also, most cloud storage services are based on traditional IT workflows, which can serve as a starting point but are far too general for video workflows and video lifecycle management. Managing video has some unique requirements that call for specialised knowledge and understanding.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD

Cloud-based CSM solutions were created with video in mind, so they provide video-centric service for a fraction of the cost of the typical cloud service.

These Active Archive cloud solutions offer cost-effective “big data” storage as well as the content-centric features of “CSM as a service.” Longevity of content is delivered by support for the Archive eXchange Format (AXF) from SMPTE, ensuring long-term accessibility, security, and protection of assets beyond any one technology or manufacturer.

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Some cloud CSM solutions are even evolving to include high-value features such as: Disaster recovery and global replication; Content distribution services; CSM as a service; Business continuance as a service; Online video publishing as a service; Elastic transcoding farms; Storage migration services; Global media asset management (MAM); Metadata mining as a service; and Hub-and-spoke distributed facilities.

The important thing to remember is that not all cloud storage is the same. Video has unique systems integration and lifecycle management requirements that even some of the big-name providers do not understand and are not equipped to handle. Managing big data effectively in the cloud is dependent upon creating file-based workflows. Certain companies have spent a decade perfecting file-based workflows, and now those companies

are taking their expertise into the cloud.

When you apply file-based workflows to the cloud, it becomes far more than just a storage center. It opens up a whole new world of working that is more productive and less expensive. Using Active Archive cloud CSM, media organisations can now take advantage of multisite networking that allows them to move content among facilities safely and efficiently without fear of loss or damage during transit.

The cloud is also a collaborative workspace for high-value parts of the workflow such as transcoding and online publishing. And, when an organization automates those actions, the process becomes even more efficient.

The implications are far-reaching. When more pieces of the video lifecycle move to the cloud, companies suddenly become free to build virtual organizations that are located wherever the skill set might be.

Many media companies are at the point of evaluating options and deciding whether to move to the cloud. Instead of thinking of every step and every application as a discrete piece of the process, it makes sense to think about the entire lifecycle of the production and what parts can be done in the cloud. Then, when looking at cloud service providers, look at what services they offer to complement the storage process. Consider these points: understands the Expertise: Finding a service provider that un all the pieces – and video lifecycle and how to integrate al has demonstrable experience doing do so in companies like yours – is critical.

Security and complian compliance: The standards that govern secur security are not written for Active Archive Ar services and CSM in the cloud, so it is no not enough simply to ask whether a provider is compliant w with a certain standar standard. It is important to understand ho how the workflow you’ve established iis going to be supported. Pick apart every process and look for vulnerabilities. Security must continually evolve to keep up with threats, so work with providers that are constantly revising their security provisions. Consider physical security (the ability to smuggle out content, etc.) and also cyber security (firewall protections, etc.).

Platform: Is the provider’s platform optimized for long-term video storage?

Does the provider have some sort of localised cache that can integrate with your local specialty system? There will always be parts of the process that must be done locally. Does it allow for onward integration with other systems?

Cost: Look at pricing for providers that are optimized for big data – as opposed to generic platforms that are generally built for small data — and compare it to the expense of doing the work in-house.

Alternative storage: For all its wondrous capability and efficiency, the cloud is never a replacement for onsite storage of principal assets. Media organizations should always have an onsite storage solution. For many organisations, a hybrid of cloud and local storage is the right Active Archive mix.

Ultimately, the cloud provides users with protection against technology obsolescence. By paying for the service, not the technology, media organizations can shift the responsibility of keeping up with technological advancements to the service provider, who is motivated to migrate to new technologies at the right time because it will lower its infrastructure cost and enable it to continue meeting service level agreements (SLAs). Video businesses can manage to SLAs, not to technology life cycles, so that costs are better contained and more predictable.

Visit www.fpdigital.com

RADIO The original broadcast media

www.content-technology.com/radio

Backing for EBU Bid to Manage .radio Internet Domain THE INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO UNION (IARU) has expressed public support for the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to manage the top level domain name .radio, to create a world-wide radio community.

Under the proposal, registration will be available via the EBU to all eligible radio representative organisations and broadcasters, Internet radios, radio amateurs, radio professionals and their respective representative organisations, as well as companies providing radio-specific products and services.

In a letter to ICANN board chairman Steve Crocker, IARU president Timothy Ellam commented, “The IARU believes that the. radio proposal submitted by the EBU provides a

unique opportunity to standardise radio domain names on the internet. The use of a specific global online name such as .radio can help create a unique space worldwide, a place where the global radio community can gather.

For its part, ICANN issued a progress report on the initial evaluation process. Applications have now been assigned to the relevant geographic, string similarity, and DNS stability evaluation panels.

“In my capacity as the IARU President, I recommend that the .radio Top Level Domain (TLD) proposal of the EBU be approved by ICANN.”

According to ICANN, many people and organisations have expressed a desire for more time to comment public. The formal period for public comment has been extended to 26 September 2012 – an additional 45 days – to meet the demand of individuals and organisations. Comments received by 26 September will be forwarded to the evaluation panels to review and consider as part of their evaluations.

“The EBU believes its application matches ICANN’s exacting criteria and best serves the collective interests of the global radio community,” EBU director general, Ingrid Deltenre, said. “These kinds of comments confirm that belief.”

The EBU has also launched an application for the TLD .eurovision, which builds on the existing Eurovision brand.

BRS Media Inc., Tin Dale LLC and Afilias Ltd have also applied to ICANN for management of the .radio domain.

Visit www.icann.org

Thai Digital Radio Delegation Visits Australia NINE DELEGATES from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand have visited Australia during August, holding technical, policy and broadcaster meetings with key DAB+ digital radio stakeholders.

Hosted by Commercial Radio Australia, the Thai radio delegation was led by Colonel Dr. Natee Sukonrat, the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Commission and Vice Chairman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand.

The delegation included senior representatives from legal, policy, licensing, engineering and technology areas.

Thailand is considering digital radio and met with Australian commercial and public service

broadcasters, plus industry regulator the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), to discuss the switch on of DAB+ digital radio in Australia.

The delegation also visited the TXA Australia Artarmon tower site to inspect the DAB+ antenna, transmitters and multiplexes which are jointly owned and operated by the broadcaster consortiums and have been established to minimise the shared costs of DAB+ infrastructure.

Joan Warner, chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, said, “Australia has gained a reputation world-wide as a leader in the successful all of industry public and commercial rollout of DAB+ digital radio and we are happy to share our experience with other countries considering adopting the DAB+ standard. Our discussions with Colonel Dr. Sukornrat show that he and his team are very advanced in their planning for the digitisation of radio broadcasting in Thailand.”

DAB+ digital radio technology implemented in Australia is the standard adopted in Switzerland, Malta, Sweden, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Hong Kong. Trials are being conducted or considered in France, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia and Malaysia. China, Korea and Norway currently use the original DAB standard for radio but are considering using DAB+.

Visit www.digitalradioplus.com.au

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RADIO

SOLID STATE RECORDER

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RADIO

Radio Rivalry Put Aside for Digital Radio Celebration MORE THAN 50 different commercial radio stations plus the ABC and SBS put rivalries aside on the 24th of August and broadcast simultaneously in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide to a combined potential audience of more than 13 million people, in a massive outside broadcast to celebrate three years of digital radio.

The event saw the highly competitive commercial sector broadcasting side by side with their commercial counterparts and the public service broadcasters from 5.00 am to 9.00 am in the central city locations of Sydney – First Fleet Park, Circular Quay; Melbourne - Federation Square; Brisbane – King George Square; Adelaide – Victoria Square; and Perth – Perth Cultural Centre.

Nearly one in ten Australian households has a digital radio with household penetration forecast to reach 16% by December 2013 and 18% by June 2014. Digital radio technology, switched on in 2009, is tracking ahead of forecast.

DAB+ digital radio has nearly than 1.3 million people listening each week in the five state capitals and over 900,000 DAB+ digital radio devices have been sold. Australians in the five state capitals have all AM and FM stations on digital and up to 22 new DAB+ digital only stations playing sport, dance, chill out, country, jazz, pop and more.

Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer, Joan Warner, said, “Radio is a highly competitive industry but competing broadcasters have come together today to celebrate digital radio in Australia and the fact it’s now available in selected Toyota vehicles.

“Radio is a part of Australian’s everyday lives. People listen in the car, at work, at home, via their mobile phones, online, and now via DAB+ in increasing numbers. Next step for the industry is to make digital radio available in all areas of Australia.”

DAB+ digital radio is available in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane and work is underway on the planning for digital radio rollout to regional Australia and proposed timelines are being developed for discussions with the Federal Government later in 2012.

Toyota, the first local car manufacturer to feature DAB+ digital radio as standard in selected locally built vehicles, gave away five cars on the morning of the event. One winner in each state picked from a Camry Atara SL, Camry Hybrid HL or an Aurion V6 Presara.

RADIO

Visit www.digitalradioplus.com.au

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RADIO

HARRIS BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS comes to IBC 2012 (Stand 7.G20) with an array of new analogue and digital radio transmission products ideal for international broadcasters operating large transmission networks — and seeking to reduce network costs and complexity in the process.

Harris will unveil four new low-power Flexiva transmitter models (50, 150, 300 and 500 W) at IBC, extending its range to accommodate analogue and digital transmission network requirements. This is ideal for international broadcasters deploying multiple low-power FM transmitters across a region or country. The low-power models join a growing range that also includes several medium- and high-power options that span to from 1 to 40kW. Harris will also introduce its range of Platinum VAX Compact Class transmitters, built upon the company’s PowerSmart architecture to minimise footprint and power costs. Available in 50, 300 and 600 W models, the Platinum VAX Compact Class offers half the footprint of its predecessor at 2RU for the highest possible power density and operational efficiency. Its integrated Harris Apex M2X exciter enables simple modulation changes to support Mobile TV transmission for analogue and digital broadcast standards, including DVB-T, DVB-T2 and T-DMB. Harris will also demonstrate a new electronic data interchange (EDI) solution to support IP-based distribution of radio broadcast content over multipoint DAB transmission networks. This development enables low-cost, targeted content delivery to many transmitters across large geographic regions. An EDI module distributes content from the central headend to multiple transmitters, each with a receiving EDI module built into its Apex M2X exciter. This creates the industry’s only integrated EDI interface on the market for DAB transmitters, eliminating expensive external components.

Canberra & Darwin Digital Radio Trials Extended THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA AUTHORITY (ACMA) has extended the DAB+ digital radio trial licences in Canberra and Darwin for a further 12 months. The scientific licences, first issued in 2010 and further extended in 2011, have been extended once again to allow for further field testing and continued coverage modelling to be used by the industry and ACMA in the planning of the DAB+ rollout to other regional areas.

Commercial Radio Australia chief executive, Joan Warner, said, “The DAB+ trials in Canberra and Darwin have been led by Commercial Radio Australia with staff from the Australian Communications and Media Authority working closely and co-operatively for the ongoing development and improvement of the DAB+ technology. In Canberra, commercial broadcasters are also working closely with the public sector broadcasters.”

Visit www.digitalradioplus.com.au The company will additionally bring its recently introduced Intraplex IP Link 100 codec for low-cost, studio-based contribution to IP networks.

The codec’s Dynamic Stream Splicing option is of particular interest for DAB over IP delivery, allowing broadcasters to send many identical audio streams over the IP network for maximum signal redundancy. This offers on-air reliability traditionally associated with more expensive E1 and T1 networks.

AM, FM and other digital radio broadcasters can similarly use low-cost IP Link 100 codecs at the send and receive points of a studio-to-transmitter (STL), studio-to-studio or remote broadcast link.

Visit www.broadcast.harris.com

RADIO

Harris Expands Low-Power Transmission Options

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AUDIO Digital soundwaves

www.content-technology.com/audio

Sound Foundation for Big Brother House THE AUSTRALIAN VERSION OF BIG BROTHER has been revived, this time on the

complex technical demands it would place on the technical crew and the equipment.

Nine Network, and as well as an arsenal of inescapable camera technology, the new Big Brother House is equipped state of the art audio technology configured to capture audible sound made buy the show’s contestants.

Global’s Technical Services Manager, Milan Milenkovic, explained, “The decision was made to go with LAWO’s mc2 technology as it was the best fit for our, and the clients, technical requirements on this specific project. In addition to this, the flexibility and reliability was another factor why we decided on the mc2 56. The fact that most operators in Australia understand the LAWO technology is another big plus for us. After Big Brother, the console is most likely to be used in one of our production studios in Sydney or part of our large fly-away kit.”

Australian distributor Professional Audio Technology supplied OB and production services supplier Global Television with a LAWO 64 fader mc2 56 console with a NOVA73 HD core router, various DALLIS I/O boxes and a DirectOut Technologies M1K2 router for the telecast of the new season of Big Brother on Channel 9.

The LAWO mc2 56 mixing console, which consists of two separate fader bays, one with 48 faders and control, and the other with 16 faders, was delivered to Global’s Sydney HQ for testing and configuration before being shipped to the Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast, in preparation for the Big Brother broadcast.

Global made the decision to purchase the LAWO console specifically for the Big Brother telecast after evaluating which technology would be best suited for the project, and the

In addition to the 64 fader LAWO console, Professional Audio Technology also supplied a DirectOut M1K2 router, 4 x DirectOut EXBOX’s and 2 x BFE protocol converters to integrate the LAWO NOVA73 HD core to the Talia Vision router which Global will use.

Mr Milenkovic explained, “The DirectOut Technologies M1K2 router provided us with an additional router and extra I/O for the LAWO system, and was a fantastic addition to the already powerful system.”

Professional Audio Technology’s MD, Patrick

Philipp Hey of LAWO International [right] and Alan Liddelow from PAT during factory testing of Global TV’s new Lawo mc2 56 console in Germany.

Salloch, commented, “Of course we are very happy that Global has chosen us to supply LAWO and DirectOut equipment for such a high profile job once again. Both manufacturers were able to meet the very strict delivery timelines and we even sent our Technology Specialist, Alan Liddelow, to the LAWO factory to be present during factory testing of the system and to make sure everything was on schedule.”

Visit www.proaudiotechnology.com.au, www.lawo.de and www.directout.eu

National Library Gives History a Voice with CEDAR Cambridge archives holding huge collections, I have to keep in mind that the audio restoration process must synchronise with existing procedures as well as excel at cleaning the sound. The NLA has 45,000 hours of recordings in its oral history and folklore collection, so they not only have to be able to digitise and restore as efficiently as possible at the highest quality possible, they also need to be able to keep track of every file and its processing history.”

AUDIO

CEDAR AUDIO HAS CONCLUDED several

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years of consultation and development by completing the sale and supply of the first CEDAR Cambridge V8 system to the National Library of Australia (NLA) in Canberra. The system was installed and commissioned by Peter Orehov of CDA Professional Audio in Sydney, together with CEDAR’s Managing Director, Gordon Reid, who travelled from the UK to Canberra to train the Library’s audio engineers in its use.

Reid said, “When I’m talking to libraries and

“We’ve been talking to [the NLA’s Director of Sound Preservation and Curator of Oral History and Folklore] Kevin Bradley and his team for many years about how they work and, perhaps even more importantly, how they would prefer to work, and this has given us a firm understanding of the facilities that they need. Their feedback in 2005 was instrumental in our development of CEDAR Cambridge’s metadata facilities, and in 2008 they helped us to specify its Report Generator, which generates HTML and XML reports that fully describe what has been done to the audio, complete with parameter tables and graphics. Of course, designing, developing and testing significant upgrades such as these can take years rather than months, but they are now available for every CEDAR Cambridge system.”

Kevin Bradley added, “One big feature that drew us to CEDAR Cambridge was Respeed – it’s incredible. We have a lot of material that was recorded on tape machines built in the 1950s, and these can increase in speed in a non-linear fashion as the tape is played. With Respeed, we can make things that were previously unintelligible, intelligible. Another critical concern for us is the information regarding the processes that went into creating the audio as well as identifying the content, and CEDAR fits very nicely into our database structures.”

Peter Orehov of CDA Professional Audio concluded, “As a high-end distributor, it’s very important to us to work with suppliers who foster strong, long-term customer relationships and who understand what’s needed to support government institutions and larger commercial organisations. CEDAR continually demonstrates its competence in this area with things like its update policy, which is still free of charge, yet the company provides all of its users with new revisions of their software whenever these are released. That’s extremely rare, and hugely appreciated by our customers.”

Visit www.cda-proaudio.com

AUDIO

AT IBC2012, Calrec will showcase Hydra2’s ability to interact with third-party control and production automation equipment. To give broadcasters a sense of Hydra2’s potential as a networking solution, Calrec will exhibit its equipment in a scenario akin to how it would be used in an actual production environment.

Demonstrating the Calrec Serial Protocol will be a Ross switcher emulator in conjunction with Ross Overdrive technology, which will allow for visibility into and third-party control over a number of Calrec audio console settings such as fader position, PFL and cut control for paths on faders, routing to auxes from faders, output level control for auxes, routing to mains from faders, main output level/fader control, and LB/RB input switching for paths on faders.

The SW-P-08 protocol will incorporate a variety of third-party router panels — including Evertz,

Nvision, and LSB’s Virtual Studio Manager (VSM) — to demonstrate remote control over input-to-output crosspoint patching. In addition to direct routing of physical inputs to outputs, it can also route to and from a console DSP via Calrec’s Hydra Patchbays.

Calrec will demonstrate Artemis Light, the newest member of its Artemis family of Bluefin2/Hydra2 audio consoles, and the Apollo audio console. New for IBC2012, the Artemis Light introduces a new compact processing rack dedicated to delivering digital signal processing (DSP) and routing capabilities in a 4U enclosure. Artemis Light incorporates Bluefin2 high-density signal processing and Hydra2 networking technologies in the same scalable control surface used by Artemis Shine and Beam.

Visit www.calrec.com

DPA Highlights Broadcast Microphone Range DPA MICROPHONES is showing a range of high-quality microphones that are suited to broadcast applications at IBC 2012 (Hall 8, Stand D70). Among the products on show will be DPA’s expanded d:fine series of headset microphones and the new d:facto vocal mic that made its debut earlier this year at Prolight + Sound.

bridges the gap between live stage performances and studio recordings. Offering a natural sound, high separation from nearby sound sources and extreme sound level handling, this microphone combines a supercardioid pattern with superb definition to give high separation and true sound colour on stage.

DPA’s d:fine headset microphones provide presenters and guests with a discreet microphone solution that can’t be seen on the face. d:fine is available in both directional and omnidirectional options, in single or dual-ear designs and with long or short booms. Designed to fit comfortably, they adjust to accommodate any ear size and head shape and can be mounted on either the left or right side of the head.

d:facto has already been put through its paces on several TV shows, including Voice of Denmark, a standard format TV show broadcast in several countries. IBC visitors will have the opportunity to win one of these microphones by getting their badge scanned at the DPA stand. DPA will also be showing its light-weight range of miniature microphones.

DPA Microphones d:facto hand-held vocal mic

Visit www.dpamicrophones.com

DK-Technologies Unveils DK3 To European Broadcasters DK-TECHNOLOGIES is now offering broadcast engineers the ability to de-embed 16 channels of audio from an SDI input by using its DK3 Compact Audio Loudness Meter.

DK-Technologies has also made its StarFish surround sound display available to all DK meter users, as well as those investing in the new DK3, which makes its European debut at IBC 2012 (Hall 8, Stand E60).

The DK3 is compliant with all known loudness recommendations and has pre-sets built in to allow for EBU R128, BCAP, ATSC A/85, ARIB, ABC, AGCOM 219 & ITU 1770-2. Alongside StarFish, new software features include moving coil emulation of PPM and VU mechanical

meters with user selectable scales and a goniometer display for stereo audio. These features are also available to DK1 and DK2 users and can be installed via a free software download.

DK-Technologies will complete its IBC line up with its full range of audio and video solutions including the PT0700 Series multi-channel waveform monitor, which delivers remote access, logging, Dolby decoding, audio delay, video measurements and loudspeaker level control. DK-Technologies will also show its SPG with auto changeover, which now has GPS and SNTP options.

Visit www.dk-technologies.com

Cobalt Digital Loudness Processing and Monitoring Over IP COBALT DIGITAL will introduce the European market to technologies at IBC that provides a path to EBU R128 and CALM compliance. Among the products are LMNTS and SpotCheck. Cobalt will also demonstrate the new Blue Box Group series of throw down conversion modules, a new range of MADI cards, and both physical and virtual remote control panels.

Using LINEAR ACOUSTIC Aeromax technology, Cobalt’s LMNTS performs automatic loudness processing across many transport streams. It operates at the MPEG IP transport layer to provide a practical loudness management solution without the need or complexity of external codecs transferring between baseband and MPEG external interfaces.

Available in both IP and ASI versions, LMNTS extracts and decodes audio codec packets from the program stream, performs high-quality PCM loudness processing, and then re-encodes and re-packets the audio within its stream.

Cobalt’s SpotCheck monitors an IP, ASI, or a transmitted over-the-air MPEG stream at the transmit (emission) encode point, and provides long-term access to loudness records for all programming initiated from a broadcasting facility.

Segments can be searched via the intuitive display of loudness plots along with date/timestamped thumbnails of the actual corresponding programming, or can optionally be queried and correlated using a database relationship with the facility as-run automation list. SpotCheck pinpoints all segments that are outside of CALM/ R128 compliance, providing documentary proof should an erroneous complaint appear. Ethernet control enables integration with facility IT providing long-term logging/thumbnail storage.

Cobalt is returning to its roots by presenting a modular signal conversion line offering excellent performance, ease-of-operation, and practical installation. The series – named Blue Box Group – receives its power directly form video monitors or other equipment via USB without bulky adapters.

Cobalt’s new series of MADI embedder/deembedder processing cards opens up new possibilities in multi-channel/multi-source baseband audio routing (192 x 192 crosspoint switch). The 9374-EMDE Quad Stream SDI – AES – MADI series provides a full, unrestricted audio crosspoint that allows channel routing between any channels on up to four SDI steams, discrete AES-3id, and AES10 MADI interfaces.

Cobalt has developed remote control panels for control, configuration and monitoring of the 9000 COMPASS and Fusion3G cards. The OGCP-9000 can be used with multiple 8321 and HPF-9000 frames and cards. The WINOGCP virtual control panel via PC offers controls that mirror the abilities of the hard OGCP-9000 panel using computer mouse via Ethernet.

Visit www.cobaltdigital.com

AUDIO

Calrec Showcasing Hydra2 and Bluefin2

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AUDIO

Digigram Extends Product Ranges RTP- and N/ACIP-compliant streaming formats.

AQORD *LINK is Digigram’s new encoder/decoder/transcoder for highquality IP video and broadcast. Its applications include content contribution (point to point) from a live event to the studio, from one studio to another, from studio to transmitter, or delivery to a content distribution network (CDN). Designed for SD/HD live streaming, the AQORD *LINK simultaneously processes two video channels with a built-in storage capacity of 1TB.

DIGIGRAM WILL BE SHOWING additions to their range of IQOYA, AQORD, and CANCUN products at IBC 2012.

Extending Digigram’s range of IQOYA IP audio broadcast solutions, IQOYA *CALL/LE is a cost-effective, versatile audio-over-IP (AoIP) codec for use over standard Internet connections such as DSL lines, WiFi, and 3G. Designed for any real-time AoIP contribution application requiring end-to-end 24-bit fullduplex audio quality, this codec offers a symmetric RTP mode that allows for quick and easy setup of full-duplex connections over the Internet.

IQOYA *CALL/LE also provides interoperability with Digigram IQOYA V*MOTE, V*CALL, IQOYA *MOBILE, or any third-party IP codec supporting symmetric

CANCUN is a range of mobile USB sound cards for audio professionals and reporters. The range offers high-end performance and features with an ergonomic design that makes the cards efficient to use. CANCUN is initially available in two models: the CANCUN 442-Mic with four inputs and outputs, and a dual input/output version, the CANCUN 222-Mic. Both offer simultaneous analogue and AES I/O with 2×500 MIPS dual-core processing power.

CANCUN’s mic preamp delivers 55 dB gain, 105 dB THD+N, and a maximum sensitivity of -60 dBu. The pro-grade specification delivers analogue levels of +25 dBu maximum and guaranteed low latency of less than 4 mS on Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

Visit www.digigram.com

Jünger Audio Introduces M*AP DYNAMICS SPECIALIST, Jünger Audio, will use IBC 2012 (Hall 10, Booth D20) to unveil M*AP – the latest addition to its *AP family of audio loudness processors. The processor combines an audio monitor controller and a loudness measurement device in one unit.

Designed for quality checking surround (5.1) and/or stereo programs, M*AP can be used for live monitoring and also to ensure compliance with government regulations on loudness.

The unit comes with alarm signals that alert the operator when pre-set loudness thresholds are exceeded, and these signals can be delivered by simple GPOs and/or SNMP traps, which carry actual loudness values.

Loudness measurements can be performed over a long run, over a fraction of a program, or both. These measurements can be triggered by automation systems via GPIs or via the network – or even manually by buttons on the X*AP remote panel.

Alongside loudness measurements, M*AP also offers functionality for

DELEC Presents New Products and Features DELEC WILL PRESENT a range of new products and features of its oratis intercom and commentary systems at this year’s IBC, including two new oratis boards. The new party-line interface connects belt packs from other manufacturers to oratis and the new Dante interface enables remote devices from other vendors to be addressed directly, such as mixing consoles, audio routers or monitor speakers.

“These new products and features make our oratis systems even more flexible,” said Donald Dilocker, DELEC founder and CEO. “And they demonstrate once again why DELEC is well known for innovation in intercom and commentary systems.”

AUDIO

oratis is based on current FPGA technology and offers unique flexibility and future-proofing combined with DELEC’s renowned high reliability. oratis can be used to create compact intercom systems featuring as few as eight ports to larger installations with more than 4,000 ports accessible simultaneously..

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oratis intercom systems include three basic components: one or more matrix frames, various matrix cards, and the subscriber panels connected to them.

The quantity and configuration of components are freely definable, enabling the oratis to adapt to a multitude of applications. All components of an oratis installation are networked using managed Gigabit Ethernet.

Visit www.delec.de

acoustical QA. It has eight speaker outputs that allow for A/B checking of stereo compatibility of a surround downmix through alternative speakers, as well as via L/R front speakers.

Peter Pörs, Managing Director of Jünger Audio, says,”By incorporating 3G, HD and SD auto detection, M*AP gives users the option of dealing with all 16 channels of SDI embedded audio at the same time.”

The M*AP’s SDI board acts as an embedder as well and comes with video delay to compensate for any kind of audio delay. M*AP also features a builtin Dolby Metadata generator and an optional Dolby decoder that allows users to decode Dolby-E, Dolby-D (AC-3) and Dolby Digital plus (E-AC-3).

At IBC 2012, Jünger Audio will also be showing the rest of the processors in its *AP range and Loudness Logger, a tool that offers customers of all Jünger Audio levelling processors an easy way to monitor the development of the loudness over time.

Visit www.junger-audio.com

NOA Shows Product Advances NOA AUDIO SOLUTIONS will be showing their next round of innovation at IBC 2012 (Stand 8.D91), including an ingest tool for SD video that’s simple to use and fully integrated with NOA workflow solutions.

NOA will showcase advances in ingestLINE for transcribing media content from analogue to digital format, and mediARC, a versatile, comprehensive and effective media archive management system.

NOA ingestLINE FrameLector is the first video ingest module for typical SD material such as betacam SP. This ingest tool provides scene detection, lossless compression on open source standards, remote control and an infinitely scalable multistream parallel solution, with complete previewing.

The IBC exhibit will feature new mediARC features that give content librarians the tools they need to create metadata more rapidly and accurately. The new version of mediARC supports comprehensive Batch Editors, and materialised Links can now be edited from within one item.

Additional enhancements include document management and Single Sign-on as part of the Web Module.

Visit www.noa-audio.com

TRANSMISSION Signal distribution, test & measurement

CAMBODIA’S FIRST NATIONAL Pay Digital Terrestrial TV Platform, under the “One TV” brand name, has had its official soft launch ceremony.

The project is being implemented as a joint venture between the Royal Group of Companies (Cambodia) and the General Satellite Corporation (headquartered in Russia). The key technology partner for the venture is Exset, which provided its Digital Monetisation System (DMS).

Alex Borland, CEO of Exset, said, “My team and I are delighted to be part of this historic launch of the DTT platforms, which will have a far reaching impact not only on the Cambodian Pay-TV market but also the DTT forays across emerging markets.”

Polina Patova, CEO of One TV, added, “The technology and approach of Exset towards the successful implementation of the platform has been exceptional and we felt that DMS will be one of the key drivers of our business going forward.”

“Royal Media Entertainment will be a stepping-stone and game changer in the history of Pay-TV with the implementation of the award winning DMS,” said Mr. Rahul Nehra, Global Head of Sales & Marketing, Exset.

Visit www.exset.com

ADBL Receives RTB DVB-T Project ALAN DICK BROADCAST LIMITED (ADBL) has been awarded a full turnkey project to install and commission a DVB-T television antenna system in Brunei. ADBL will provide Radio Television Brunei (RTB) with its vertically polarised 30 panel UHF DVB-T broadband antenna, along with a Constant Impedance Combiner, unitised Patch Panel Power Splitter and Rigid Line kits.

RTB is the official state broadcaster of Brunei and currently airs five television channels including the national flagship channel, an HDTV service, a 24-hour international satellite channel, and one dedicated to the nation’s Royal Islamic Mosque.

“We are extremely pleased to be chosen by Radio Television Brunei to implement this important upgrade to their nation’s broadcast infrastructure and 1st DVB-T installation,” said Barry Sugden, director of ADBL. Visit www.alandickbroadcast.com

Studiotech Group Opens in Australia THE STUDIOTECH GROUP has expanded its operations with the launch of Studiotech Australia in Thornleigh, 25 minutes north of Sydney’s CBD. According to Managing Director, Michael Bentsen, “The objective is to provide contemporary, innovative and efficient solutions, but Studiotech Australia will also sell the equipment and materials that it imports, with or without Professional Services.”

“It is very important to make clear that we will only import or use quality brands that we can support properly. Support here needs to be strong and local. Australian customers deserve support that will allow the use of not only traditional, but also new exciting technologies with a minimum of fuss,” added Bentsen.

Visit www.studiotechau.com

Harris Welcomes Techtel to Partner Programme HARRIS BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS has announced that Techtel Pty. Ltd. has joined its International Partner Programme handling Harris equipment and systems around the world. Techtel has signed a contract to become a dealer of Harris’ Videotek test and measurement, video processing, distribution and networking portfolio for customers across Australia.

“We are thrilled to join the Harris International Partner Programme and are confident that the company’s product lines will help us to deliver proven and robust solutions to our customers in Australia,” said David Elsmore, managing director, Techtel.

“This relationship is a testament to our efforts to provide our customers with easy access and the best available local support for all of our products and we look forward to working with Techtel in delivering this,” said Richard Hewitt, sales manager, Australia and New Zealand, Harris Broadcast Communications.

Visit www.broadcast.harris.com and www.techtel.com.au

VBrick Teams with Corsair for ANZ ENTERPRISE STREAMING VIDEO DEVELOPER VBrick Systems has announced it has added Corsair Solutions as a Partner to increase VBrick’s channel presence in the region. Corsair Solutions will be distributing the complete VBrick streaming video portfolio including elements to capture, manage distribute and display IP video both inside and outside the firewall.

“We are extremely excited about formalizing our relationship with VBrick Systems. Their portfolio of innovative IP video products such as the Rich Media family, VEMS Mystro and the modular 9000 series H.264 encoder will be important new products for our customers,” said Mark Lampard, Managing Director of Corsair Solutions. “We are looking forward to working with VBrick to bring their exciting new products and system solutions to the Australian and New Zealand AV market.”

Corsair Solutions will be offering the complete portfolio of VBrick products including: VEMS Mystro, VBOSS, the new 9000 Series Encoder, the Rich Media family, the Distributed Media Engine, Digital Signage as well as related elements.

Visit www.corsairsolutions.com.au/vbrick

ANTIK IPTV Opens in Singapore SLOVAK MANUFACTURER OF IPTV SOLUTIONS, ANTIK Technology, has announced the establishment of a Representative Office in Singapore. The new office provides sales and integration support to ANTIK’s clients in Asia Pacific region and is managed by Mr. Tan Kee Hau. “We are pleased to announce significant event – opening Representative Office in Singapore. The establishment of this office marks an important milestone in our company’s journeys of expansion.

Recently we notice dramatic expansion of OTT, IPTV and especially hospitality TV market in this region and this is another reason to ensure our direct presence here,” explained Igor Kolla, ANTIK Technology CEO. Visit www.antiktech.com

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First Nationwide DVB-T Network for Cambodia

www.content-technology.com/transmission

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The Playroom – a Decade of Delivering September 2012 marks the 10th birthday of The Playroom. Phil Sandberg spoke to MD Tom Kennedy.

C+T: How would you characterise The Playroom’s evolution?

TK: If you look over the history of the Playroom, it’s had good fortune of having some very solid and good clients early in its phase with Movie Network and the initial three channels. So, in ten years we’ve taken it from a fairly niche boutique new player which nobody thought had the expertise to being a very solid performing and a very solid technical business with new clients.

So, we’ve gone from three to ten channels in that time - which was always the original vision - to get to ten channels and we executed that on time.

When I came onboard it was really to look at, as we’re reinvesting in the technology, as to what was next. A lot of that was about where file-based was going to be and where the non-linear side of the business was going.

We’ve done that through a series of investments and developments, both with people and technology over the last four years and that kind of started when I came onboard with Andrew Hogg and the team who were there.

And, really, credit goes to Christopher Mapp who saw the vision for the Playroom ten years ago when Optus TV wanted out of their playout business and he saw the opportunity and put a team together and then started that journey to where we are now. And, because we invested when we did, four and a bit years ago we, I guess, have the advantage of being those early adopters in file-based delivery and be able to get to platforms very quickly - with iTunes, Fetch TV, Bigpond TV - we really had put those workflows and the hard work in four years ago.

The Playroom MD, Tom Kennedy, “

C+T: Because it’s not just TV channels, not just linear channels?

TK: No, so while we have ten linear channels we manage day in, day out, and that’s absolutely core to our business, we’ve expanded into iTunes aggregation and delivery, we’ve expanded into video on demand with Moviebox from Movie Network, we’ve expanded into IPTV channels - we’re managing the Wiggles IPTV content onto both Sony and Samsung smart TVs globally.

So, it’s taking that expertise and understanding content workflows and how to package it to those technologies and those screens, whatever that screen might be. And, of course, we’ve added as well that multi-screen flavour. We’ve been doing a lot of web formats for clients, both as an access point and as a delivery point to their customers, but now we’ve added a trans-media team with iPads and apps and looking at really where those clients want to engage with the customers and their content - which is really what the whole industry is looking at. We’re not all sitting in front of that 55-inch LED. C+T: Nor at an appointed time.

TK: Yes. And it’s no longer about that appointment viewing. So how do I make sure that my audience is getting my content when they want to watch it, then aggregate that number together? So, we’ve been really working

WTS

Lumina Broadcast Systems are proud to represent these world leaders in broadcast equipment.

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WILL- BURT

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Lumina Broadcast Systems Australia Pty Ltd, P.O. Box 1693, Lane Cove NSW 1595 Phone: +61 2 9113 0720. Fax: +61 2 8572 5285. Email: sales@luminabsa.com www.luminabroadcast.com.au

TRANSMISSION across our client base on being a bit of the innovation lab for them in helping them understand where it’s going, doing some prototyping and then rolling it out commercially as the business case makes sense.

One of the problems is when you build it and they come and you don’t get it right you’re going to get a backlash the other way if you don’t plan. The Playroom is long-term infrastructure underwriting what we do and we’re extending that out now to multi-platform and multi-screen, and some of that is not about building it all yourself. We use content distribution networks, we use cloud distribution services, we look at where’s the most appropriate things where we can add value. Not to mention our strategy and expertise as a team. We help the client get there in the end and get a business outcome that we can live with and we can all make money out of.

C+T: So, for the next ten years, what do you see that you need to do?

TK: For us, it’s about really leveraging off the work we’ve already put in and we think the last four years have set us that base bedrock that initial investment in the team and skills. Do it faster, cheaper. Everything’s about cost pressures so we need to continue to innovate and drive costs in our business as well as help our clients drive costs in their businesses. And a lot of that comes from scale. Then, it’s really about innovating, so what does that second screen content look like rather than just an non-linear video being played as a player. What’s the content integration model? How do I move that audience around? Rather than just being file-based, how do I also use some of those social video tools back in to the network so that becomes new content that gets created? It’s that issue of trying to move that audience activity and that conversation that we hear about into the product.

Do it efficiently, do it without breaching any broadcast issues, privacy issues and all the things that are run way up there in the market but do it faster, cheaper and visually more engaging.

That is the conversation we’re having with our clients now, where they see their audience integration is going and where they see their brands going in terms of the target audience and then how we can adapt those tools to get there, to more platforms. So, if we see a Hulu-type model or a Netflix model,

Across the years … C+T charted both the establishment of The Playroom and its move to current HQ in East Sydney.

we’ve had discussions with them already, we know the requirements.

We’re already seeing expansion of things like SMH TV, we know Optus is expanding various things in their deliverables and the Telcos are all starting to expand their base in that area, typically Telstra and T-box. So, there will be a disaggregation of content as well. You’ll start to see more things being ad-hoc around for various players as new devices come along I think the smart TV is the start of that because, really, that’s no different to the app market in a TV sense, being able to download the Movie Network button on your TV now. You still might be authenticating through Telstra or Foxtel, but we deliver it in a different way. It might be a different product to what you get in a ‘full subscription’, so we’re still working through those problems with our clients, which is exciting.

Visit www.theplayroom.tv

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Mediaproxy Unveiling LogServer IP MEDIAPROXY PTY. LTD., a provider of broadcast, compliance logging and content monitoring solutions, is introducing LogServer IP at IBC 2012 (Stand 7.J07).

LogServer IP offers native TS logging, MPEG streaming, and playback, as well as enabling search, playback and analysis of both decrypted and encrypted transport streams sources. It comes with Monwall IP, a next-generation multi-viewer client, providing live MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 streaming, and TS event monitoring. LogServer IP is also compliant with all loudness regulations.

It will be available as software-only or as an appliance with either 80 TB or 120 TB of RAID protected storage. Mediaproxy offers an upgrade path from either direction: owners of its LogServer or LogServer ASI can move to LogServer IP; and customers with LogServer IP can add proxy logging and encoded streaming to their platform.

Visit www.mediaproxy.com

Appear TV Goes Over The Top APPEAR TV HAS LAUNCHED multiscreen & OTT transcoding hardware solutions to reduce the complexity for broadcasters and telcos providing professional quality OTT services in a multiscreen environment. The main aim of these products is to optimise the multiscreen experience through hardware encoding and transcoding.

These products – which will be demonstrated for the first time at IBC2012 – have been launched to provide a combination of quality and reliability for OTT and multiscreen distribution.

The Appear TV multiscreen solutions have been designed to remove the issues facing operators that are increasingly finding that software-based encoding and transcoding are just not suitable for high-quality commercial OTT services. Appear TV will also have a number of additional new product launches, as well as demonstrating its full range of modular head-end solutions that enable operators to deliver professional broadcast services to millions of users around the globe.

Visit www.appeartv.com

Rohde & Schwarz Joins the Headend ROHDE & SCHWARZ has entered the market for headends with the launch of its R&S AVHE100 system solution. The R&S AVHE100 differs from conventional solutions thanks to its new architecture and redundancy concepts, with the focus currently on the DVB-T2 and DVB-T standards.

At IBC, the company will also be showcasing new transmitters based on Doherty technology and is expanding its test and measurement portfolio by adding measuring instruments that are specially designed for digital video interfaces such as HDMI and MHL. The R&S AVHE100 from is built with high-performance professional IT hardware and an R&S A/V gateway that converts legacy signals such as SDI and ASI into IP format at the system boundaries. All signal processing functions were implemented using purely software-based modules. The R&S CrossFlowIP function increases system availability and ensures seamless signal switching in case of redundancy.

The R&S TMU9 is a new, air-cooled medium-power transmitter for the UHF range. It is also the first air-cooled transmitter featuring Doherty technology to significantly increase energy efficiency, allowing network operators to reduce their energy costs by as much as 40 percent. It offers more than 50

Adder Products Ensure Broadcasters Connect THE ADDERLINK INFINITY digital KVM extender from Adder Technology will be used at IBC2012 to pipe news and information to thousands of attendees across the exhibition and conference. Adder, an official technology sponsor of IBC2012, will also be showcasing the AdderLink Infinity and the AdderLink Infinity Dual on its stand (7.B33), which will demonstrate command and control in a mock-up of a video control room.

The AdderLink Infinity solutions offer broadcasters the ability to create a flexible infrastructure, allowing a computer and user to be separated by almost any distance over a gigabit network without any loss in capabilities, reduction in video resolution, audio quality or USB latency.

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It has the capability to run any size matrix with DVI, USB, RS232 and Audio on all ports, the only limitation is the user’s network and how the traffic architecture is configured. Designed with Apple in mind, the AdderLink Infinity Dual provides dual link DVI, allowing it to support very large screens.

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Also being demonstrated at IBC2012 will be Adder’s CCS4USB FreeFlow Command and Control KM solution, which enables the operator to switch between several computers by moving the mouse to the desired screen using just one keyboard and mouse.

Visit www.adder.com

possible transmitter configurations to provide a custom, efficient solution for any application.

At booth 7.E25, Rohde & Schwarz will be presenting its studio broadcast and post-production solutions. VENICE is a media production hub that allows the existing SDI structure of a TV studio to migrate to a modern, file-based world so that broadcasting becomes more effective and cost-efficient. The new version 5 of CLIPSTER provides considerably faster DCP remastering, makes it possible to check the quality of digital movie packages and also offers an enhanced 3D feature set.

In the field of test and measurement, Rohde & Schwarz has expanded its portfolio for manufacturers of set-top boxes, tablet PCs or smartphones by offering measuring instruments specially designed for digital video interfaces such as HDMI and MHL. The R&S VTC video test centre can be used to test the functionality of these interfaces and their compliance with standards. The instrument performs protocol and A/V analyses in realtime, including picture quality analysis.

Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com

MultiDyne Optimises High-Bandwidth Signal Transmission MULTIDYNE, provider of fibre optic-based video and audio transport solutions for broadcast and pro A/V applications, will demonstrate a new pair of CWDM multiplexing solutions, the HD6000 and HD-6000-ONE, at IBC2012 (Stand 9.A06).

The HD-6000 and HD-6000-ONE systems optimise transmission anywhere SDI signals need to be trunked, offering users a compact, cost-effective, multichannel solution for extending SDI transport.

While the HD-6000 offers six HD channels over six fibres, the HD6000-ONE harnesses CWDM technology to optically combine six channels onto one singlemode fibre.

“Our new HD-6000 and HD-6000-ONE CWDM HD transport systems were designed to simplify the transmission of high-bandwidth HDSDI signals,” said Frank Jachettta, president, MultiDyne. “Using just a single fibre, users can quickly and easily transport multiple highbandwidth signals, regardless of the operating environment.”

Visit www.multidyne.com

CLASSIFIEDS SMPTE Details Panels for 2012 Conference THE SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE & TELEVISION ENGINEERS (SMPTE) has detailed a series of presentations at the SMPTE 2012 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition that will focus on fundamental, A/V-based changes to IP networks in advance of a predicted explosion in bandwidth use – as well as smart strategies for cloud migration and leading advances in file-based workflows.

SMPTE 2012 will take place 23 – 25 October in Hollywood. A special preconference symposium – High Frame Rates for Digital Cinema – will take place on 22 October.

SMPTE 2012 has scheduled presentations from the BBC, Belden, Cisco, Dolby Laboratories, Ericsson, FUJIFILM, Harmonic, Harris, HBO, IBM, Microsoft, NHK, NVIDIA, Motorola Mobility, Qualcomm, Snell, Skywalker Sound, Sony Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Technicolor, and Verizon. Also participating will be leading vision-science researchers from around the world – as well as representatives from the EBU and the U.S. FCC. Belden will describe a rewrite by the IEEE of that organisation’s Ethernet standard, designed to help audio and video devices interoperate more easily.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Japan Broadcasting Corporation will detail a modified transmission control protocol (TCP) that dynamically allocates bandwidth to news stories based on their priority rather than being forced to share that bandwidth equally, as is the case today.

Other presentations will focus on improving network performance amid a predicted explosion in bandwidth requirements, including an evaluation of the new HEVC compression algorithm; the use of modern GPUs to support RAW format 4K workflows; and a review of the SMPTE BXF standard.

what’s on IBC 7-11 September 2012 RAI Amsterdam Netherlands www.ibc.org

Advertiser Index

CASBAA CONVENTION 29 October – 1 November 2012 Grand Hyatt Hong Kong http://events.casbaa.com/ convention2012/

AC Events ..................................... 23

KVM Australia Pty Ltd ................. 4

ARRI Australia ........................... IBC

Lumina Broadcast Systems ..... 58

Atomise ........................................ 60

Magna Systems ................... 11, 30

AVID ............................................... 15

OB Group ...................................... 60

BROADCAST & MEDIA TECH THAILAND 19-21 September 2012 Impact Exhibition & Convention Centre Thailand www.install-asia.com/Thailand

NOVEMBER

Blackmagic Design ...................... 5

On Air Solutions .................. 37, 39

Canon ........................................ OBC

Panasonic ..................................... 27

CMI Music & Audio .................... 51 Digistor ......................................... 43

Professional Audio Technology ...

53

Digital Rapids ............................. 35

Quinto Communications ........... 9

OCTOBER

CONNECTED ENTERTAINMENT 2012 21-22 November 2012 Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre Victoria www.con-nect.com.au/entertainment

Eureka Pacific ....................... 21, 47

Riedel ............................................ 33

Fujifilm/Fujinon ................... 62,63

Ross Video ................................... 40

Gencom Technology Pty Ltd .. 13

Silver Trak Digital ....................... 25

Grass Valley ................................. 36

SMPTE ............................................ 49

Harris Communications ........... 19

Storm FX ....................................... 42

Harmonic ........................................ 3

Techtel .......................................... 59

IRT Electronics ............................ 16

Thomson Video Networks ..... IFC

Jands .............................................. 41

Videocraft .................................... 29

COMSYS VSAT2012 CONFERENCE 12-14 September 2012 Lancaster London Hotel London http://comsys.co.uk/wvc_main.htm

BROADCAST INDIA 10-12 October 2012 Bombay Exhibition Centre Mumbai, India www.broadcastindiashow.com SMPTE ANNUAL TECHNICAL CONFERENCE &EXHIBITION 23-25 October 2012 Loews Hollywood Hotel Hollywood, CA www.smpte2012.org

ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY EXPO 7-8 November 2012 Burbank Marriott Burbank, CA www.createasphere.com

CLASSIFIEDS

SEPTEMBER

Visit www.smpte.org AES CONVENTION 26-29 October 2012 Moscone Center San Francisco, CA www.aes.org/events/133

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TIME shifter Paralympics 2000 – A Broadcast Legacy While it lacks the same degree of hype (and scandal) of the Olympic Games, the Paralympics lack nothing in achievement and spectacle, and nor does television coverage of the event.

BACK IN 2000, 4000 athletes from over 122 countries competed over 12 days with the host broadcaster using some 300 personnel to provide coverage in conjunction with another 500-600 accredited personnel from rights holding organisations.

Unlike an Olympic Games where the Organising Committee will establish a host broadcaster organsation such as SOBO, the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) contracted these functions to Australian OB service provider Global Television and production company All Media Sports.

After the closing day of the Olympic Games, the International Broadcast Centre closed down and the MPC at Sydney Olympic Park was divided half and half between Paralympic Games press and television. While SOBO had four or five months to build the IBC, the Paralympics MMC had to come together in just ten days.

While smaller than the Olympics, SPOC’s Senior Manager for Television, Simon Thomas, said at the time, “The scale of the Paralympics compares with other big television events in Australia such as the Australian Tennis Open, the Indycar series in Queensland, the Formula One Grand Prix and the Melbourne Cup. If you measure in terms of live feeds, cameras, rights holders and general scale of activity, we’re probably bigger than all of them.”

Telstra Millennium SDH fibre network used for the Olympic Games to Global master control at the MMC, located in the former Olympic Media Press Centre. Footage was then distributed to rights holders within the MMC.

Courtside, shooting wheelchair basketball.

In addition to host broadcaster vans, other OB units were used to collect unilateral footage for rights holders such as US-based We Media, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Seven Network’s still-born cable offshoot, C7.

Rights Holders were responsible for getting signals back to their respective countries from the MMC with many making use of EBU space on the AsiaSat 2 satellite.

Instead of SOBO’s comprehensive coverage of every minute of every sport, coverage for the 2000 Paralympics was pitched more in line with the requirements of rights holders, most of whom produced highlights-type programming.

While only 25-30 rights holders had a physical presence at the 2000 Paralympics coverage was received by broadcasters in over 50 countries.

Six sports that were produced live included athletics - one for track, one for field - swimming, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, track cycling and sailing.

Covering the Paralympics for the US was We Media, headed by former CBS veteran Rick Gentile, who produced programming for Fox Sports Net, PAX TV and CBS. We Media also undertook a webcast of the games of around 100 hours over the Internet.

Most footage coming out of Games venues was in PAL analogue with SDI feeds going to some European rights holders. Global TV OB vans were present at each of the venues sending signals back along the same

INTERNET FIRST

While Internet broadcasting is now something taken for granted, at the time it was the largest scale webcast that anyone would have seen, and sitting complementary to the TV rights holders, rather than in conflict, with two or three live streams at a time.

LASTING LEGACY Coverage of the 2000 Paralympics benefited from a windfall of larger than expected rights holding fees, but rather than produce more coverage, SPOC decided in consultation with rights holders to plow the funds into extra equipment to increase the quality, not quantity, of the programming.

This resulted innovations such as extra Super Slo-Mo cameras, a 100-metre railcam in the main stadium, and extra cameras at a variety of the other live venues, such as overhead cameras at the basketball.

TIME SHIFTER

Speaking at the time, SPOC’s Simon Thomas said, “The Paralympic Games have never been covered in this way before.

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Into the turn, capturing the wheelchair racers.

“Certainly we’re not looking to what happened at Atlanta as any kind of benchmark. We’ll be raising the bar considerably on what happened there, hopefully leaving the best possible legacy for the Paralympic Games in terms of establishing it as a viable television proposition.”

And, looking back, it seems they did just that.

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