Content and Technology Asia May June 2014

PP: 255003/06831

ASIA VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2 MAY / JUNE 2014

MEDIA + PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY

SHOOTING

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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2 MAY / JUNE 2014

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

Cover Story – Shooting 4K

18 REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 03 NEWS Ideal Buils FOX Singapore Facility, Korean 4K First, LiveU Boosts Indian Elections, Hong Kong Broadcasters Choose Snell

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47 CLASSIFIEDS AND EVENTS Features

FEATURES 10 BROADCASTASIA Exhibition Preview 18 ACQUISITION 4K Gets the OK, New Cameras From Sony, Panasonic and Blackmagic

22 SPORTSCASTING Broadcasting the IPL,

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Glasgow 2014 Diaries Chapter 9, IOC Considering Olympic TV Channel

26 NEWS OPERATIONS SBS Uses TVUPack in Indonesia, TVB Transforms with Sonaps, Media Beach Puts the Bite on the Business of News

33 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD SGL Brings Flash Workflow to Korea and Indonesia, Archival Disc Standard, Front Porch Digital at TV18 India

37 AUDIO HARMAN at Media Prime Malaysia, Calrec in Korea, Logitek Releases JetStream Plus

41 TRANSMISSION KVM Matrix Switches in the Broadcast Environment, Designing and Supporting Fibre

30 POST-PRODUCTION Animal Logic Makes Everything Awesome for The LEGO Movie, V-Ray 3.0, DFT Launches Scanity HDR

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CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY: ISSN 1448-9554 PP:255003/06831 Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd (ABN: 34 095 653 277) PO Box 259, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300 Australia www.broadcastpapers.com

SUB-EDITOR: Keith Ford Tel: +61-(0)430 432 437 keith@broadcastpapers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lucy Salmon Tel: +61-(0)412 479 662 production@broadcastpapers.com

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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

Free-to-Air Transmissions?

By Phil Sandberg MUCH OF THE DISCUSSION AROUND the future of television has focused on viewer habits, new devices, Gen Y, binge viewing, Internet disruption and the death of appointment TV, but what about the policy and budgetary agendas of Governments?

According to the paper, “There is a debate emerging about the potential for internet protocol TV, or IPTV, potentially combined with satellite, to provide a potential long-term alternative to DTT delivery. This is because IP delivery is becoming more important as viewers use on-demand services and because of the potential future demands on the spectrum used by DTT.”

The UK regulator Ofcom has issued a discussion paper around changes in that country’s use of the 700MHz (UHF) band and what it sees as an evolutionary path for what it calls FTV (Free-to-View) television.

The paper does say, however, that a number of criteria that would need to be satisfied for a mass market move from DTT to IPTV to be realistically considered. These include:

“Based on our analysis of the market we believe that there are two key challenges for the free to view element of the DTT market: connectivity and improving picture quality.”

The regulator sees two potential options for addressing those challenges, which it says are not mutually exclusive:

Ofcom says that while it cannot exclude the potential for radical changes in IP-rollout, consumption habits and technology, its “base case view remains that DTT will continue to be an important delivery technology for free to view TV over the next decade. We do not currently expect a full switch-off of DTT until post 2030, unless there was significant policy intervention to support a more aggressive timetable for change.”

You can find the paper at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/ consultations/700MHz/ftv/?utm_source=updates&utm_ medium=email&utm_campaign=ftv Let me know what you think.

Thanks for Reading Phil Sandberg Editor/Publisher

 providing more channels and services over IP through hybrid/DTT products.

ersburg

c) Quality of experience: significant work is likely to be needed to understand how to ensure networks are sufficiently capable and resilient to replicate the quality of experience currently delivered over broadcast networks.

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“Nevertheless,” the paper sates, “any fall in DTT penetration is, in our view, unlikely to be significant enough to undermine the policy goals achieved

by FTV, particularly since many viewers may in any case choose to switch to Freesat. Furthermore DTT stakeholders are able, either individually or collectively, to take various steps in order to prevent such a decline.

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Ofcom engaged consultancy firm Mediatique to consider the possible impact on DTT platform penetration of greater consumer demand for HD content.

They found that should this materialise, DTT penetration could fall following a change of use of the 700MHz band as a result of it having less choice of HD services than other TV platforms.

b) Take-up of IP capable consumer equipment: whilst falling prices will bring more IP capable equipment into households, there is likely to be a sizeable minority of people without IP capable equipment.

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The regulatory body has released proposals to make the 700 MHz band available for mobile broadband from 2022, or possibly up to two years earlier. The proposals involve moving parts of DTT (temporarily allocated to support the transition to MPEG-4/DVB-T2 standards) and Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) services to other frequencies.

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It paints a future of free television being delivered via IPTV platforms and even moots the switch-off of Digital Terrestrial Television sometime after the year 2030.

a) Availability and take-up of superfast broadband: the UK Government’s current plans will make superfast broadband available to 95% of the population by 2017. This would need to be complemented by driving takeup of these services.

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The paper is significant because it comes at a time when governments are looking to ease budgetary pressures (through spectrum auctions) and because many policy makers take their lead from countries such as the UK.

papers@broadcastpapers.com T: +61 (0)2 4368 4569

 upgrading broadcast compression and transmission standards.

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

FOX INTERNATIONAL CHANNELS, the international multimedia business of 21st Century FOX and Asian pay TV network, has selected Ideal Systems to design, build, and integrate the studios and production systems at its new broadcast facility in Singapore’s Fusionopolis. FOX International Channels has partnered with Ideal Systems for a variety of services including the technical design, build, and integration of the new studios and their associated systems. FOX International Channels will also utilise Ideal Systems’ studio design services for HD set designs.

In parallel with its broadcast systems integration services, Ideal Systems offers a TV studio and set design team headed by designer, Frederic Leung. This team has built a reputation as one of the best studio design teams in Asia, having designed and built many award-winning studios and newsrooms in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and India. As well as providing the technical design of broadcast studios, Ideal Systems’ studio team designs, manufactures, and installs HD studio sets for a turnkey TV studio service.

“This is a great project for Ideal Systems because it brings our technology team and our studio design team together to create a seamless customer experience from technology and design to delivery,” said Fintan McKiernan, CEO of Ideal Systems Singapore.

Visit www.foxinternationalchannels.com and www.idealsys.com

Korean 4K First with R&S THE KOREAN BROADCASTING SYSTEM (KBS) has been using Rohde & Schwarz transmitters and T&M equipment since April to broadcast 4K programming using the DVB-T2 transmission standard.

South Korea’s biggest public service broadcaster has been broadcasting in 4K quality from Seoul using R&S THU9 high power transmitters. The project also includes the R&S SCV8302 low power transmitter, which delivers 600 W in DVB-T2 mode. It was installed on a tower situated on Namsan mountain, in the middle of Seoul. A 5kW R&S THU9 high power transmitter went into operation on Kwanak mountain in May. KBS selected the R&S ETL TV analyser from Rohde & Schwarz for testing and the R&S DVM400 digital video measurement system for monitoring.

Rohde & Schwarz is the world market leader for DVB T2 broadcasting and T&M equipment. This experience played a crucial role in the broadcaster’s decision. Rohde & Schwarz transmitters have already proven successful for T DMB and ATSC broadcasting in South Korea.

According to Rohde & Schwarz, THU9 transmitters offer a wide range of possible configurations that they can fulfill almost any requirement.

They are future ready as they can be upgraded at any time.

Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com

NEWS + PEOPLE

Ideal Systems to Build FOX International Singapore Facility

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NEWS + PEOPLE

Glinvad MD for TC Group China TC GROUP HAS ANNOUNCED it has appointed Peter Glinvad as Managing Director of TC Group China. Originally from Denmark, Peter Glinvad has been working and living in China for 12 years. His in-depth knowledge of the Chinese culture and fluency in the language are a golden opportunity for TC Group China to have the best of both worlds. Drawing from experience in general management and as the Chairman of the Danish Wind Energy Group – China, Ginvad brings a wealth of knowledge to the position.

TC Group China has recently been incorporated as a WFOE (Wholly Foreign Owned Entity) and moved to a new, larger office facility in the Chaoyang District. Along with these changes, as well as the steady release of innovative products and an ongoing improvement of operations, Peter Glinvad will be leading TC Group China onto an accelerated growth path into the future.

TC Group China is the sales and support company for TC Group, encompassing the TC Electronic, TC-Helicon, Lab.gruppen, Lake, and Tannoy brands, as well as the worldwide distributed brand Dynaudio Professional.

Visit www.tcgroup.com

Expanded Role for Nelson at Turner TURNER INTERNATIONAL ASIA PACIFIC has announced that Phil Nelson has been appointed Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Southeast Asia Pacific and North Asia.

Previously responsible for strategic planning and North Asia, Mr. Nelson now has operational oversight for the commercial functions of Turner’s business in Southeast Asia Pacific in addition to Japan and Korea. Reporting into him from these three regional areas are Tom Perry, Ron Lee and Robi Stanton, respectively.

Commenting on this elevation, Asia Pacific President Ricky Ow, said, “In his new role, I am certain Phil will enable us to optimize our brands and operational efficiency. With his experience of the media business in Asia Pacific, Phil’s role at the heart of Turner’s commercial operations will undoubtedly put us in a stronger position for future growth. His expanded remit will allow us to identify even more new opportunities across the region.”

Mr. Nelson joined Turner Asia Pacific in 2010 as the Head of Business Development responsible for business and corporate development as well as strategic planning across all Turner businesses throughout Asia. In 2013, his role was expanded to include the North Asia business.

Visit www.turner.com

FREMANTLEMEDIA ASIA has announced the

’S D RL T O S W FIR

Landy COO for FremantleMedia Asia HEVC UltraHD

appointment of FremantleMedia North America executive Michelle Landy to the newly-created role of Chief Operating Officer as the company steps up its investment in Asia.

NEWS + PEOPLE

Reporting to Managing Director Paul O’Hanlon, Michelle joins FremantleMedia Asia with a decade’s experience with FremantleMedia across two continents. In her previous New York-based role as SVP Legal & Business Affairs, she was responsible for a range of commercial deals and brand extension/licensing matters related to television, digital and lifestyle brands and properties. This included consumer products, technology (interactive/digital/new media), integrated marketing, sponsorship and promotions, live events and gaming, as well as original digital content, brand representations, acquisitions and new business ventures.

BCA #5D2-01 [Gencom]

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Born in Australia, Michelle began her career as a lawyer, and worked at FremantleMedia in London before moving to the U.S business. She has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Monash University in Melbourne.

General Dynamics Mediaware is a pioneer in the domain of compressed video processing. Visit us on the Gencom Booth at Broadcast Asia 2014 to see our range of HEVC-enabled technology in action.

FremantleMedia Asia Managing Director Paul O’Hanlon said, “Our Asian operation is going from strength to strength and continues to evolve at great speed with shows like X Factor Around the World, Got Talent, Idols and Take Me Out, just to name a few. Michelle is an outstanding executive.

Her invaluable global experience will be a great addition to our Asian operations.”

We can maximise your investment in compressed digital video delivering your viewers a state of the art digital experience.

Michelle’s appointment is effective on June 23 and she will be based in Singapore.

Our video solutions are ready for HEVC whenever you are. www.mediaware.com.au

Mediaware

Visit www.fremantlemedia.com

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5/06/14 12:28 PM

HK Cable TV Names Vincent Ma as COO

Harrow Heads Digital Vision APAC Sales

HONG KONG CABLE TELEVISION LIMITED has announced the appointment of Mr Vincent MA as Chief Operating Officer, effective on 1 June 2014. He will assume operating responsibility for subscription services, network and customer service.

DIGITAL VISION continues to strengthen its presence in the Asia Pacific region with the appointment of Pete Harrow to the role of Head of Sales for APAC, based out of New Zealand.

Chairman & CEO Stephen T H Ng welcomed Mr Ma’s appointment, adding that his profound experience in and strong knowledge of the local telecommunications market would enable him to contribute greatly to the Company.

Pete rejoins the Digital Vision team after a 10 month interval, during which he worked as a freelance colourist. His projects included the feature film Ambrosia, music videos for bands including Sons of Zion, Dead Beat Boys and The No Problemos, and commercials for Pump water (a Coca-Cola brand) and Yates garden sprays. Prior to this Pete was Head of Sales at Digital Vision for two years, driving sales in the APAC region.

After taking up the CABLE TV appointment, Mr Ma will continue to hold the position of President of Wharf T&T Limited, a fellow Wharf Group subsidiary.

Visit www.i-cablecomm.com

Ray Sanders Leaves Gencom INDUSTRY STALWART and former Gencom CEO, Ray Sanders, has

Kelvin Bolah, CEO, Digital Vision, said, “We’re very pleased to welcome Pete back to the Digital Vision team. He is well known across the region and his first-hand knowledge and experience of production and post-production make Pete an ideal evangelist for Digital Vision tools.”

announced he has left his role as VP Business Development at the company effective May 16.

Ray joined Gencom in 1987 as a Sales Engineer before becoming General Manager of the NZ division in 1990. Sanders was CEO of Gencom for 14 years before the company was bought by Broadcast One in May last year.

Announcing his departure, Sanders said, “After more than 27 years the time has come for me to move on from Gencom. Throughout this period I have seen the company grow from a small NZ based organisation, to a larger company spanning more than half the world. It has been a rewarding time for me but the success is totally due to the assistance from both my Gencom colleagues and the customers and partners among you.”

Visit www.digitalvision.se

Visit www.gencom.com

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NEWS + PEOPLE

Integrated Production Switchers for Live Production

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NEWS + PEOPLE

ASIA NEWS CHINA IMAX CORPORATION and TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Ltd. have announced a joint-venture partnership with Wasu Digital TV Media Group (WASU) as part of their IMAX TCL home theatre initiative. One of five operators approved by the state to deliver multimedia content to the home, WASU will license and distribute IMAX-enhanced Hollywood and Chinese current theatrical and other content to the IMAX-TCL premium home theatre system.

AFGHANISTAN PAKISTAN’S Pashto entertainment channel, Pashto 1, has commenced broadcasting on AsiaSat 7 at the orbital location of 105.5 degrees East. This channel serves the large Pashto-speaking population in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and other regions covered by the satellite’s C-band footprint.

INDIA NEW DELHI TELEVISION (NDTV) has migrated its satellite uplink infrastructure from MPEG-2 to a complete MPEG-4 multiplechannel-per-carrier (MCPC) chain based on Thomson Video Networks’ ViBE EM4000 HD/SD encoder, NetProcessor 9030 MPEG processor, XMS network management system, and Granite Sentinel DTV monitor. The new MCPC chain replaces ageing SD MPEG-2 equipment and provides an HD-ready platform to support NDTV’s future technology requirements.

HONG KONG HONG KONG TELEVISION Network Limited is at loggerheads with the SAR’s Communications Authority (OFCA) over a proposed change to the transmission standard it seeks to use to provide mobile TV services.

HKTV has advised OFCA that it proposes to change its transmission standard from the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) standard to Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB) used by HK’s incumbent free-to-air TV licensees).

OFCA has advised HKTV that in doing so, it would require a broadcast licence. HKTV disputes this.

THAILAND TRUEVISIONS, Thailand’s leading cable and

NEWS + PEOPLE

satellite television operator, has selected live media transport solutions from Nevion to meet the needs of its expanded HD offerings.

Nevion worked in partnership with Thailandbased broadcast equipment provider Strong Brothers 1961 to provide the infrastructure needed by TrueVisions. The solutions include Nevion Flashlink multiplexers and VikinX routers.

SINGAPORE SINGAPORE’S Media Development Authority is working with industry to put together national data on media consumption across all audio-visual content platforms, including broadcast TV, online and mobile, beginning with a trial in 2015 An integrated national data system is envisioned that measures local media consumption across all audio-visual content platforms, including broadcast TV, online and mobile, or in short “Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Data”.

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5/06/14 3:02 PM

JAPAN PIKSEL, the provider of video monetisation software and services, has announced a partnership with J-Stream, Japan’s largest content delivery network, to become an official reseller of the Piksel Video Platform and white-label it as J-Stream MediaLize.

TAIWAN TITV, the semi-government-funded organisation dedicated to Taiwan’s indigenous peoples is using Ross Video’s MC1 Master Control Switcher in its new Taipei City facility, which successfully went on air on January 1, 2014.

“The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model of Piksel’s Video Platform means that our customer base can quickly and affordably reach their audiences with video, while at the same time influencing the evolution of the platform according to the way they use it,” said Satoru Miyama, Corporate Senior Officer, CDN & ASP Business Unit of J-Stream.

MALAYSIA PAY-TV OPERATOR Astro is using a Volicon Observer Enterprise video monitoring and logging system to enable off-air logging for more than 200 channels. Focusing on key points in the transmission path, the Volicon system monitors and logs incoming and outgoing feeds in a variety of formats.

INDONESIA CINEMAXX, a new exhibitor under Lippo Group in Indonesia, has selected Barco and GDC Technology as its technology partner for its digital cinema deployment. The deployment features the supply of digital projectors from Barco and a wide range of digital cinema equipment and services from GDC Technology, including servers, Theatre Management Systems (TMS), Network Operations Center (NOC) as well as total system integration support.

Lippo Group plans to roll out 300 screens this year and at least 1000 screens over the next 5 years.

NEW ZEALAND

AUSTRALIA PAY TV OPERATOR Foxtel has announced that its Foxtel Play service has made its debut on PlayStation 4 (PS4) following a recent launch on PlayStation 3 (PS3).

PlayStation owners can view Foxtel’s content by downloading the Foxtel Play app using a registered PlayStation Network (PSN) account.

in Auckland, has selected a fully integrated, turnkey, high-definition broadcast production solution from Grass Valley to outfit its new facility. It includes: GV STRATUS for ingest, editing, content aggregation, logging, transfer, and playout; LDX Flex and LDX Compact cameras, two Karrera Video Production Center switchers each with K-Frame, K2 Summit media servers, a 1024×512 Trinix NXT digital video routing switcher, a Jupiter routing control solution, CommandCenter broadcast system control software, and HD K2 SAN storage.

NEWS + PEOPLE

NZ LIVE, a new start-up broadcast facility

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5/06/14 3:02 PM

NEWS + PEOPLE

Elemental Powers Kansai TV 4K ISDB-T Broadcast

TV5 Thailand Takes ENENSYS OneBeam

ELEMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES has announced that Kansai TV, a leading commercial broadcaster in Osaka, has used Elemental video processing to encode 4K content in high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) for terrestrial broadcast delivery over ISDB-T to an Ultra HD TV. The off-air demonstration took place during a 4K educational event hosted by Kansai TV and system integrator CTCSP.

ENENSYS has supplied its OneBeam solution to Thai TV5 for its DVB-T2 digital terrestrial TV network. The network optimisation system comprises: T2 Gateways, IPGuard Seamless Switches and T2Edge local adapters for Thai TV5 in Bangkok.

The new DVB-T2 network has launched with transmitters in the cities of Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai and Songkhla with TV5 providing two multiplexes delivering a total of 14 TV channels.

Additional transmitters will be commissioned over the next 18 months, providing terrestrial TV reception to 95 per cent of Thai households.

The end-to-end demonstration signals readiness for real-time Ultra HD broadcasts of World Cup 2014 using the transmission standard. Unlike other digital transmission standards, ISDB-T covers television, radio and data services. It drives efficiencies by enabling terrestrial TV and mobile terminal broadcasts over a single transmitter.

ENENSYS T2 Gateways and switches are installed at the Bangkok headend, with distribution to transmitters over satellite and IP links. The ‘must carry’ requirement in Thailand means that the terrestrial TV channels must also be broadcast on DTH free-to-view satellite within the Kingdom.

This ENENSYS OneBeam solution enables the DTH satellite service to be used to feed the DVB-T2 transmitters.

During the demonstration, original Kansai TV content featuring the 2014 Osaka International Women’s Marathon was transmitted by very low power from an indoor UHF antenna with 64QAM modulation to a receiving antenna licensed for the demonstration. Elemental encoded the content in 4K/HEVC at full frame rates for transmission at 14.5Mbps over ISDB-T to a decoder for display on a Toshiba Regza Ultra HD TV.

ENENSYS T2Edge units at each transmitter site build the T2 multiplexes for transmission, enabling Single Frequency Network operation of transmitters. The T2Edge also implements the Emergency Warning System, replacing all normal TV programmes with an emergency TV service under the control of the disaster coordination centre in Bangkok.

“With World Cup 2014 around the corner, pressure is intensifying to realise successful 4K OTA broadcasts,” said Keith Wymbs, chief marketing officer for Elemental. “We are thrilled that media leaders such as Kansai TV are using Elemental video processing to tap into the high quality of 4K to bring sports fans’ experiences to a whole new level.”

The was supplied through Loxley Public Company Limited.

Visit www.ktv.jp/en/tv.html, www.ctc-g.co.jp and www.elementaltechnologies.com

Visit www.enensys.com

LiveU Boosts Live Reporting for Indian Elections LIVEU HAS ANNOUNCED that hundreds of LiveU units have been deployed by India’s top broadcasters and online media to boost their live reporting of the Indian General Elections, said to be the world’s biggest elections. LiveU units have increased newsgathering capabilities for India’s top broadcasters such as ANI, Network 18, Times Now, Aajtak, ETV Network, News Wire Services, GTPL, Bansal News, TV9, Jaya TV, Sun TV, Zee Network, and others.

“We needed to increase our coverage capabilities during the Elections.

LiveU, our preferred vendor since the emergence of cellular bonding, responded immediately with the fast delivery of equipment. Supported by the local Lamhas team, we’ve been able to transmit live coverage of the campaign around the country with ad hoc interviews and press conferences. Both LiveU and Lamhas have proved to be trusted partners at this critical time.”

To meet the demands of the campaign trail, increased numbers of LiveU units have been provided to customers around India on a long-term and short-term basis. Lamhas Satellite Services Ltd., LiveU’s local partner in India, is providing onsite service and support nationwide.

An important part of the deployment has been LiveU’s new smaller, stronger LU500 uplink unit offering optimal video performance and reliability in a lightweight unit, weighing less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs). The LTEready LU500 is compatible with Indian networks.

Piyush Gupta, Operations Director and CTO – Broadcast, Network 18, said,

Visit www.liveu.tv and www.lamhas.com

Video compression for the world’s most

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valuable content

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Nagoya FM Antenna Goes to Air INTER FM, owned by Kinoshita Management in Tokyo, specialises in music FM broadcasting for foreigners in Japan. Recently, Inter FM selected RFS as the supplier for their latest expansion, broadcasting “Interwave Nagoya” with call sign JOCW-FM on 79.5 MHz. “Exciting for us because we were selected over traditional Japanese antenna suppliers such as DKK, Furukawa C&B and Sumitomo Electric,” says incountry sales manager George Sakai. “And a challenging project because of the high entry barrier to this market due to the number of strong local antenna suppliers.”

At Nagoya, the transmitter signal is split in the RFS 1-5/8” six-port switch frame with two outputs feeding the RFS 606L- 8U4111 antenna to produce 32 kW ERP at full power. The antenna utilises eight panels of the Australian Band 1 606L design fabricated in galvanised steel, with a 16-way distribution system, and Flexwell 3/8” air cable. Due to the Japanese channel spectrum allocation, this antenna can operate in the Japanese FM frequency band.

The Nagoya antenna is horizontally polarised and has dual inputs accepting 12 kW average power at the top of the two main feeders.

Visit www.rfsworld.com

Hong Kong Broadcasters Choose Snell SNELL HAS ANNOUNCED that it continues its growth in the Hong Kong and mainland China market, with organisations including Hong Kong HDMobile Broadcast (Video Channel) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) choosing Snell technologies such as the Kahuna 360 production switcher and IQ modular infrastructure to produce and distribute extremely high-quality content, more efficiently than ever before.

choosing equipment, we were looking for the highest quality and reliability.”

HK Video Channel chose Snell’s Kahuna 360 in order to support its expanding production facilities, including the largest OB facility in Hong Kong. Kahuna 360 offers multi-format operation, allowing SD, HD, 1080p, and even 4K sources to be used seamlessly within the same production while delivering multiple output formats of SD, HD, 1080p, and 4K.

“When we selected IQ modular, we thought about the quality, features and reliability because we have to ensure the picture quality is good before we distribute to all viewers,” said TVB Executive Engineer for the Master Control Room, Vincent Kwok. “Features like the roll call monitor facility, which helps create schematics of a path and quickly alert operators to any interruption of video or audio so that they can take action, is important to maintaining excellence in daily operations.”

“Snell’s hardware is like the fingers on our hands,” said HK Video Channel COO Stone Lee. “Our aim is to provide top quality, top service to our clients, which include broadcast companies, record companies, and show producers, so in

Visit www.snellgroup.com

NEWS + PEOPLE

Custom Control - Broadcast Asia - OL.ai 1 5/6/2014 3:51:31 PM

TVB selected Snell’s IQ modular infrastructure to provide the backbone for its facility upgrade, which included all of its MCR facilities, production and news studios. Specifically, the technology update was designed to support a transition to full-HD production for higher-quality content, and IQ modular includes specific capabilities that are vital to TVB’s content production.

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PREVIEW The 18th International Digital Multimedia & Entertainment Technology Exhibition & Conference

www.Broadcast-Asia.com/visitor-pre-registration

Catch a Glimpse of the Latest Technological Leaps at BroadcastAsia 2014 Social media, OTT and multi-platform screening are some of the key trends to watch in 2014.

Fuelled by a steep increase in consumption of data and entertainment on mobile devices, consumers now seek reliable and seamless services on the go; and the industry is responding with a proliferation of cutting-edge solutions such as social TV and second/multi screens that help them stay connected in an evolving digital world.

BROADCASTASIA2014: COVERING ALL FACETS OF THE BROADCASTING VALUECHAIN The application of these technologies will be intertwined throughout the BroadcastAsia 2014 exhibition and conferences from 17th to the 20th of June at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore. Visitors will not only get to experience the convergence of technologies, they will also get to unlock new business pathways with access to networking with major global industry players.

They will be able to observe how broadcasters, pay-TV operators and online video and content service providers are working together to connect the audience through the latest technologies.

Technologies such as 4K/UHD, OTT, multi-screen and multi-platform streaming enhance the viewer experience in ways not possible before. For instance, broadcasters using 4K cameras can now provide higher quality images to viewers.

Mr Calvin Koh, Assistant Project Director from show organiser, Singapore Exhibition Services says, “With the broadcasting industry facing challenges from emerging technologies, BroadcastAsia will gather the industry to discuss these opportunities and issues, as well as showcase the infinite business potential the new technologies can bring, especially in the Asian region. Highlighting 4K, second/multi screens and OTT, among other prevalent trends, is an example of how we continue to introduce new elements into the event and move the industry forward.”

BROADCAST ASIA

“The broadcasting industry is in an exciting state of flux at this time, especially with the addition of the second screen experience. Instead of seeing OTT and other Internet technologies as the competition, broadcasters have the opportunity to see these as enabling them to reach a higher level of play, through an intimate connection with their target audiences,” comments Mr. Olivier Heurteaux, Senior Vice President, APAC, EVS. EVS will be exhibiting at BroadcastAsia2014, and Mr. Heurteaux will present a case study on ‘Sportscasting – How to Monetise Content for Second Screen Success’ on the 18th of June, Day 2 of the conference.

Aside from EVS, exhibitors who have confirmed their participation include Coship, Dalet, Dayang,

DB Broadcast, Elber, Envivio, Gospell, Imagine Communications and GatesAir, NEC, Orad, Pace, Pilat Media, Playbox, Quantel, Ross Video, Screen Systems, Skyworth, Telestream, Thomson Networks, Toshiba, VIZRT, Wasp3D and Wohler.

“By 2016 the Asia Pacific Region is forecasted to become the single largest market for 4K TV, accounting for 42 per cent of total world 4K households. The Asia Pacific Region, being a hub of consumer electronics producers mainly in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan are pushing to market new 4K TV as replacements for old HD ones. Films are already being shot in 4K and sports events are now testing 4K productions with the Brazil 2014 World Cup being a big trigger,” says Mr. Joel Lamdani, President Asia Pacific, Orad Hi Tec Systems Ltd.

“Content companies from Terrestrial, Pay TV and Streaming IP companies are also gearing up for the distribution of this 4K content and Orad is in the forefront of this technology. Orad’s already is the market leader in providing leading TV stations in the Asia Pacific with it 4K technology for large video displays providing them with true 4K and 8K video & graphics technologies for their large display walls. At the same time Orad is also positioned to provide its leading 4K virtual studio, real time graphics system and video servers all in true 4K supporting 1080p,” adds Mr. Lamdani.

INTUITIVE CONVERSATIONS ON THE RIGHT BUSINESS MODELS Comprising keynotes and specialised industry sessions, the BroadcastAsia2014 conferences are a knowledge transfer hub and networking platform for attendees to debate and discuss critical upcoming trends such as disruptive technologies

in the broadcast and digital media market landscapes, industry risk factors and models for success that will enable companies to ride these trends and remain profitable.

BroadcastAsia2014 International Conference will delve deep into OTT as well as the role of social media in the future of TV, whilst the Creative Content Production Conference 2014 will focus on content creation and distribution, and the technical aspects of 4K. An insightful series of conference tracks will cover the latest disruptive technologies that enable companies to increase eyeballs, with specialised tracks on Asian audiences and strategies for success in Asia. Experts from EVS, Media Prima Digital, MediaCorp, Nielsen and Sony will present case studies and share their thoughtprovoking ideas at the conferences.

Noting that OTT services are gaining greater traction in the US and Europe, Ms. Lam Swee Kim, Group General Manager of Media Prima Digital thinks that Asian operators and broadcasters need to provide OTT services to reach not only a wider target audience, but also for sustainability because content consumption is now expected to be multiscreen. Recognising that there are challenges such as getting the ‘buy-in’ of management to adopt an OTT strategy and setting up a robust OTT platform that is able to cater to the broadcaster’s needs, Kim believes that having good content will work anywhere – be it the traditional broadcast or OTT platforms.

“OTT is driving business growth in the Asian broadcasting industry and with new players emerging from different areas across the region, it is an extremely crucial time for us to learn from one another and unanimously develop OTT video services. BroadcastAsia will educate visitors and participating businesses alike, while providing the ideal opportunity for us to draw focus to our target audience, plan our investment options and prepare for the challenges that expanding the OTT market may bring,” says Ms. Lam Swee Kim, Group General Manager, Media Prima Digital.

Kim will be presenting a case study at the conference on ‘How OTT is driving business growth in broadcasting’ on 17 June, Day One of the BroadcastAsia2014 International Conference.

Visit www.broadcast-asia.com

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www.asperasoft.com moving the world’s data at maximum speed

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©2014 Aspera, an IBM company. All rights reserved.

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PREVIEW

Dalet Adds AmberFin to BroadcastAsia Showcase THE DALET DIGITAL MEDIA SYSTEMS’ (Stand 5A5-12) BroadcastAsia 2014 product showcase features the latest release of Dalet Galaxy, Dalet’s enterprise media asset management (MAM) platform, and the newly acquired AmberFin iCR family of products.

Dalet Galaxy is an enterprise MAM platform offering a powerful framework for system integration, advanced BPM capabilities, and multi-site content production and management tools. It is the foundation for productivityenhancing workflow solutions: Dalet News Suite (news), Dalet Media Life (program preparation,

production and archiving), and Dalet Radio Suite (radio). These solutions along with Dalet Brio, the company’s flexible, high-density, high-performance broadcast server based on IT hardware, and Dalet News Pack, the turnkey package for managing small to mid-size newsroom workflows, will be on display.

AmberFin iCR products, which include ingest, transcode, standards conversion and Unified Quality Control (UQC), range from applicationspecific modules to enterprise-level solutions, offering best-in-class image processing technology. Shown for the first time at Broadcast

Asia is the AmberFin iCR version 10 release.

Landmark features include the Adaptive Cadence Corrector (ACC), a software-based system for correcting mixed cadence material back to 24p film and progressive HD video within filebased workflows, as well as a new Transcode Farm Controller that significantly increases the flexibility and versatility of a multi-node transcode environment, bringing improved resilience and robustness while simultaneously enabling cost savings through more versatile network licensing capabilities.

Visit www.dalet.com

Miller Introduces Cineline 70 Fluid Head and Air Tripod Systems MILLER CAMERA SUPPORT EQUIPMENT introduce its Cineline 70 Fluid Head, as well as its Air Tripod System range, which includes the Air Alloy System (3001) and Air Carbon Fibre System (3005), to the Asian market for the first time at Broadcast Asia 2014 (Booth 4D2-21).

The Cineline 70 Fluid Head is ideal for use on feature films, documentaries and highend television commercial productions that require heavy payload, frequent re-rigging and a diverse range of lenses and cameras.

The heavy-duty fluid head offers advanced precision fluid drag control with soft starts and smooth stops and diagonal drag transition. For easy setup changes during and in between takes, its counterbalance systems with ‘allin-one-location’ rear-mounted controls allow users to capture the big picture. Additionally, its extended sliding range promotes fast rebalancing of the rig when lenses are changed, resulting in weight distribution shifts.

ScheduALL Highlights Connectivity SHOWING AT COMMUNICASIA 2014 (Stand 1R3-09), ScheduALL Connector enables global trading and selling across the broadcast and transmission industries, and boosts resource and inventory sharing within enterprises.

BROADCAST ASIA

ScheduALL has built partnerships with the world’s largest media businesses and ScheduALL Connector unifies them in a global network.

The company will also highlight their new self-provisioning booking portal. Utilising a web-based interface, the booking portal allows customers to book transmission feeds in realtime through a provider’s ScheduALL system.

Visit www.scheduall.com

Constructed of corrosion resistant alloy, the lightweight Cineline 70 Fluid Head offers dual side mounts for monitors and accessories, as well as an assistant’s box front mount and is set to accommodate industry leading cameras, including Arri, Sony, RED, and Canon.

It additionally features an Arri-compatible sideloading camera platform.

Miller’s premium Air Tripod Systems are lightweight travel companions for professionals who are shooting both videos and photos in rugged, outdoor conditions. Both systems are compact, versatile and durable. Each system consists of an Air Fluid Head, offering professionals authentic Miller fluid head pan and tilt technology, and a variant of the Solo 75 2-Stage Tripod. The Air Fluid Head, composed of genuine metal, comes with two positions of selectable counterbalance and a dual pan handle option. Both systems have the ability to support payloads ranging from 2.5kg to 5kg.

The Air Alloy System (3001) consists of the Air

Fluid Head and the Solo 75 2-Stage Alloy Tripod, which is designed for the single operator. The Air Carbon Fibre System (3005) consists of the Air Fluid Head and the Solo 75 2-stage carbon fibre tripod, which is purpose-built for professionals who desire to work with the most lightweight camera support technology.

Visit www.millertripods.com

Snell Show Live TV and TV Everywhere Innovations SNELL SHOWCASE innovative solutions and demo key new technologies that span its entire product portfolio at BroadcastAsia 2014 (Stand 5D3-01). Featuring two distinct demonstration areas, Live Television and TV Everywhere, the booth will be staffed by product specialists..

In the Live Television area, Snell will be showcasing the Kahuna 360, an advanced and flexible production switcher offers concurrent multi-format operation, allowing SD, HD, 1080p and even 4K sources to be used within the same production and deliver multiple output formats.

Making its regional Asian debut, the Kahuna Maverik modular-based control surface for the Kahuna 360 switcher range combines flexibility with quick, clear, reliable control for every type of studio and mobile television programming.

Snell’s KudosPro signal processing platform boasts high processing density (up to four channels of conversion in 1RU) and offers high-

quality frame-rate and format conversions at a low price point. Performing 3Gbps, HD, and SD standards conversion (frame-rate conversion), as well as up-, down-, and cross-conversion.

The TV Everywhere area within the Snell booth will include Snell’s ICE channel-in-a-box, which provides twice the 2D or 3D graphics capability within a standard 2RU system. It provides integrated loudness control for compliance with international regulations.

Snell will showcase updates to Momentum, its media asset management and workflow automation solution. New features include an HTML5 browser-independent interface to give users the broadest choice possible among web browsers, optimise processes and minimise time.

The scalable Alchemist OD software from Snell is engineered with content owners, post-production facilities and playout service providers in mind.

Visit www.snellgroup.com

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PREVIEW

Magna Systems Demonstrates 4k, OTT and Cloud-Based Solutions THIS YEAR’S BROADCAST ASIA witnesses Magna Systems and Engineering demonstrating its systems integration expertise across 4K acquisition, management and broadcast, file-based workflows, multiplatform, OTT, and cloud-based solutions on stand 5B2-02.

Principals sharing Magna Systems and Engineering’s stand at Broadcast Asia include FileCatalyst, Media Excel, Front Porch Digital, XOR Media, Telestream, Digimetrics, ChyronHego, TVU Networks, and TAG Video Systems.

FileCatalyst Direct is a point-to-point file transfer solution, which means that unique features are available by installing the FileCatalyst Server and FileCatalyst client-side options. As FileCatalyst is at both endpoints this provides a superior file transfer experience.

ChyronHego’s Mosaic is a tightly integrated turnkey platform that scales to fit most graphics production, technical requirements and budgets. An ideal solution for demanding traditional or automated production workflows, Mosaic operates in combination with ChyronHego’s iSQ multi-playlist controller or a third-party automation playout interface.

Telestream’s Vantage provides a complete family of video transcoding and workflow automation solutions that enable file format conversion, device interoperability and workflow orchestration for multi-screen, OTT, broadcast, cable, and IPTV distribution, as well as production and archiving.

Digimetrics’ Aurora 5 file-based QC is the next generation of automated file-based QC products that represents a significant leap forward for file-based quality control. Aurora 5 is the first file-based QC product to have the ability to dynamically allocate threads across a user-specified number of CPU cores, enabling performance and scalability in high density virtual and blade environments.

The TVUPack TM8200 offers broadcasters, videographers, and camera crews the world’s smallest, lightest mobile wireless 3G/4G/ LTE uplink solution available in a backpack.

With TVUPack TM8200, camera crews can capture and transmit live HD video from more locations while using fewer data cards.

XOR Media’s MediaServer G (MSV-G) is a HD/ SD switchable play-to-air video server that internally delivers video playback as well as rich branding graphics. The system features 2D/3D design and play-out that provides tickers, subtitles, crawls, full scene anti-

aliasing, scoreboards and credits. MSV-G also supports importing files from Maya, 3D Max and Lightwave.

Media Excel sets the standard for adaptive bitrate multi-screen video transcoding solutions. From the head-end to the edge and through the cloud, the company’s n-Screen solutions power live mobile TV viewing for more than 18 million viewers daily in the USA alone.

Front Porch Digital is a leader in solutions for migrating, managing, and monetising media content. Operating on site and in the cloud, the company’s purpose-built software employs the latest technologies to deliver truly flexible and scalable media workflows.

TAG Video Systems specialises in broadcast monitoring and delivery products including their MCM-9000 Series multi channel monitoring and mosaic solutions which monitors both for errors on the transport layer and on the payload layer and creates highdefinition mosaic for control room including overlays of errors, audio bars, channel names and channels properties. TAG Video also have their MBC-7000 Series, MTS-3000 Series, MCR-6000 Series, and their MCT-1000 Series.

Visit www.magnasys.tv

ARGOSY “IMAGE” EQUIPMENT RACK Designed specifically for the broadcast industry, the new Argosy IMAGE equipment rack range incorporates a variety of features to help simplify installation and maintenance whilst minimizing roll out costs. These include:

on request • Available in standard heights: 42Ru, 45Ru & 47Ru and depths: 800mm, 900mm, 1000mm.

• Knock outs in lid for easy cable entry • Flexible design allows easy customization • Fast turnaround

See A r Broad gosy at cast A Stand s no 5E ia, 2-01 Britis h Pav ilion

SERVING THE BROADCAST INDUSTRY CABLES CONNECTORS PATCH PANELS MDUs RACK SYSTEMS FIBRE/HYBRID CABLES ROUTERS VIDEO ACCESSORIES

Argosy products are available from stocks at locations in the UK, UAE, India and Malaysia

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ARGOSY UK tel: +44 1844 202101 Malaysia tel: +603 7956 7422 www.argosycable.com e: sales@argosycable.com

BROADCAST ASIA

• A full range of accessories • Flat pack option available for easy shipment • Standard colour “Argosy Black” – other colours available

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PREVIEW

Clear-Com Presents Latest Intercom Solutions CLEAR-COM brings its latest intercom and infrastructure solutions to Stand 5D3-02 at BroadcastAsia 2014.

Highlights on the stand include the new ProGrid, the fibre-based infrastructure system enabling users to transport and distribute audio, intercom, video signals and control data; and two new HelixNet partyline user devices that expand the digital network partyline platform.

ProGrid is based on the open AES3 and AES10 (MADI) standards, providing fibre-based transport, routing and format conversion as well as distribution of audio, intercom, video signals and control data with full management and diagnostic capabilities over the Optocore and SANE platform. Clear-Com also offers the BroaMan MUX-22 video distribution device, which further broadens the company’s capabilities to provide scalable, protocol independent transport of up to eight 3G/HD/SD-SDI video signals in each device.

Two new user devices and a new mounting unit were recently added to the HelixNet line. The HRM-4X Remote Station provides the intercom functionality of the Main Station but without powering the system or housing interfaces, and is therefore a more compact unit. The Remote Station provides access to four simultaneous channels of intercom communication, plus program audio.

The HKB-2X Speaker Station receives four channels of intercom communications simultaneously over a single cable, and is able to monitor all four and communicate on any two of those channels at any given time. The user can also receive and monitor a separate level-controllable program feed.

S-Mount is an attractive yet durable mount that enables the Speaker Station to be used in portable applications. It can be surface mounted or set as a desktop, and is adjustable to suit the user. It includes a DC Power connector and XLR-3M and XLR-3F Powerline Intercom Ports for easy connection.

The new units, added to the existing HMS-4X main station, the HBP-2X HelixNet beltpack and several interface modules, round out the HelixNet digital partyline offering.

Visit www.clearcom.com

Harmonic VOS Revealed at BroadcastAsia 2014 DURING BROADCASTASIA 2014, Harmonic Inc. demonstrate

BROADCAST ASIA

Harmonic VOS, the company’s new software-enabled platform for deploying a its virtualised media processing architecture. VOS unifies the entire media processing chain from ingest to delivery, providing operators with increased operational flexibility, scalability, and efficiency. Operating in IT data centre environments, VOS can scale up or down to accommodate peaks in demand, based on capacity and functional requirements across all video services.

As part of the VOS demonstration, Harmonic will showcase the Electra XVM virtualised media processor, the industry’s first software-based, fully converged, broadcast-ready media processing platform and the first product to leverage the broad capabilities of VOS. Integrating realtime encoding, high-quality branding and graphics, and transport stream playout for broadcast and multiscreen services, Electra XVM offers unparalleled function integration, increased operational flexibility, and unlimited scalability.

Visit www.harmonicinc.com

New DISTILL Metadata Management System FRONT PORCH DIGITAL will demonstrate DISTILL, its new metadata management system that eliminates the cost and confusion of managing metadata and associated standardisation during BroadcastAsia 2014.

DISTILL makes it simple to capture, process, manage, and retrieve critical metadata, ensuring that almost any metadata created at any stage of the content lifecycle can now be easily and effectively managed.

Representing a new approach to metadata management that meets the difficult design goals of integration, flexibility, and simplicity, DISTILL allows media professionals to work with the tools they prefer while ensuring that any user with the proper permissions can leverage critical metadata wherever and whenever required. DISTILL is designed to insert into digital workflows, where it makes use of the on-demand partial object restore capability of the Front Porch Digital DIVArchive content storage management (CSM) system and its cloud-based counterpart, LYNX, to enable the specific retrieval of the original artefact from any connected Front Porch Digital system. Robust SDKs from Stretchr, which is closely integrated with LYNX, ease integration of the metadata store with existing applications such as enterprise media asset management systems.

Downtime can be a problem for just about any business, but losing the data altogether is disastrous. LYNXdr, Front Porch Digital’s private-cloud hosted disaster recovery and business continuity service, ensures file safety and zero downtime. Moving to the cloud can reduce the total cost of ownership of digital asset management for content owners, which in turn increases ROI. As part of an overall media asset management solution, LYNXdr controls costs because users pay only for what they use when they use it. Off-site data backup to virtual machines is much less costly than on-premise physical servers and allows for instant increases in storage capacity with minimal or no effort from the IT team.

Also, by consolidating operations, media organisations can cut capital and operating expenses to reduce overhead.

LYNXdr offers a secure, off-site backup capability by ingesting and managing content electronically or from datatape to key strategic regional cloud locations. Additionally, there is no cost increase as the technology evolves, which means users can realise even more value from their assets.

Visit www.fpdigital.com

EXSET Bring DMS Value Added Service Ecosystem to CommunicAsia DMS 2.0 IS THE second iteration of Exset’s DMS Value Added Service ecosystem to help monetise digital broadcast platforms and digital switchover in emerging markets and will be shown at CommunicAsia 2014. DMS bridges the gap between technology and value-added services, creating digital television platforms that offers great value added services that can be monetised where previously impossible. DMS 2.0 boasts a host of backend and onscreen advances to make it easier to use for operators while providing more powerful and modular monetising opportunities.

DMS 2.0 Publisher benefits from a what-you-see-is-what-you-get GUI and tight workflow management for its users. Users can access the database from anywhere and with the right levels of access in place, can update TV content instantly using the template design that automatically constrains data uploading. For example, images may be restricted to small file sizes to ensure a perfect service for viewers while providing an easy management system for operators and advertisers.

Visit www.exset.com

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RAI Amsterdam Conference 11-15 September | Exhibition 12-16 September

Experience IBC

Your essential guide to the current and future direction of the electronic media and entertainment industry.

IBC Conference The only peer-reviewed non-commercial conference for the global electronic media and entertainment industry. Over 300 of the highest calibre international speakers and industry thought-leaders provide visionary keynote sessions, panel discussions and master classes.

IBC Content Everywhere Europe A unique event that covers rich media production, devices, apps, digital marketing, social media, content personalisation, big data, cloud services, second screens, investment and much more.

Features include the Hub in Hall 14, IBC Cloud Solutions and IBC Workflow Solutions.

IBC Awards A high-profile ceremony that celebrates excellence throughout the industry. Awards include the International Honour for Excellence, the Innovation Awards, the Exhibition Design Awards and the Best Conference Paper Award.

www.ibc.org IBC, Third Floor, 10 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1BR, UK t. +44 (0) 20 7832 4100 f. +44 (0) 20 7832 4130 e. info@ibc.org

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IBC Rising Stars An innovative programme of curated special events and mentoring aimed at young professionals taking their first steps in the industry.

IBC Leaders’ Summit An exclusive, invitation-only event providing toplevel discussion of strategic issues and powerful networking opportunities for the industry’s most influential and visionary people.

Future Zone Featuring the very latest developments from corporate and academic R&D labs around the world, the Future Zone is one of the first places to explore the new technologies that could go on to shape the industry in forthcoming years.

IBC Big Screen Experience A 1,700-seat cinema equipped with the very latest in state-of-the-art projection and audio technology, hosting free to attend conference sessions, Big Screen movies and exhibitor product demonstrations.

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PREVIEW

NETIA Highlighting Radio-Assist NETIA WILL HIGHLIGHT an array of new product features and functions that not only streamline the sharing of content among production sites, but also enrich the use of metadata in media asset management.

The company will showcase enhancements that improve users’ multimedia production capabilities, as well as their mobile and remote production workflows. NETIA also demonstrate its ability to integrate complex production ecosystems and simplify the publishing of content and data to the second screen.

Also at BroadcastAsia, NETIA showcase the integration of its new multiple-device interface for audiovisual media management with its well-established Radio-Assist radio automation solution via a secure cross-platform web-based interface. This integration enables journalists and field staff to use virtually any mobile device – laptop, tablet, or smartphone – and operating system (iOS, Windows, and Android) to gain remote access to the NETIA Radio-Assist database. From there they can search, browse, ingest, edit video and/or audio, segment the

video, and insert a logo or subtitle, and then export and publish the content on social networks.

With this portable, lightweight interface, broadcasters gain a powerful tool for multimedia content creation. The new NETIA web-based interface not only enables convenient content editing and repurposing of professional branded multimedia, but also automates publishing to key social media outlets.

Visit www.netia.com

Calrec Showcasing Summa FOR THE FIRST TIME at BroadcastAsia, Calrec will showcase its Summa audio console.

Summa, originally called Callisto, was rebranded in April 2014. The Summa console is designed for broadcast professionals who need a straightforward solution for producing creative and engrossing broadcast audio, but not all of the resources offered by Calrec’s Apollo and Artemis consoles.

Designed to ensure intuitive operation in live broadcast applications, Summa simplifies complex workflow tasks, such as creating mix-minus feeds, with an intuitive GUI suitable

for a broad range of operator levels. Users control the console via a 17-inch multitouch screen inspired by familiar tablet technology.

The high-resolution display provides elegant controls and a clear presentation of information.

The console’s other large displays are fully configurable to display bus, output, and loudness meters, and they feature dedicated metering, routing, and processing information for each fader.

“BroadcastAsia is Asia’s leading event for the broadcast industry attracting an international audience. We look forward to showcasing our

new Summa console at the show this year and look forward to the feedback from our customers and partners in the region,” said Graham Murray, Regional Sales Director, APAC, Calrec Audio.

Visit www.calrec.com

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Aspera to Showcase Cloud Leadership and Aspera Drive

Riedel Adds to MediorNet THE MEDIORNET FAMILY of real-time networks

ON WEDNESDAY THE 19TH OF JUNE, Michelle Munson, Aspera co-founder and CEO, will share her expertise in cloud-based workflows in a presentation on how media and entertainment leaders can leverage the cloud to transform digital workflows. The presentation will examine how cloud- and hybrid cloud-based ingest, processing and distribution pipelines can be built to deliver strategic advantages. Munson will also present a case study on how the success of UEFA’s hybrid cloud approach for Euro 2012 inspired new content distribution methods for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

BROADCAST ASIA

Aspera will showcase a complete portfolio of high-speed data transfer software and automation solutions for the broadcast and media industries, including its Aspera On Demand cloud solutions and Aspera Drive, a new high-performance file sharing and synchronisation solution.

The Aspera high-speed transfer platform-asa-service now supports IBM SoftLayer, Google Cloud Platform and OpenStack, in addition to Amazon Web Services and Windows Azure.

The Aspera software platform integrates with cloud-based storage, accelerating the transfer of content at any distance. This includes

embedded capabilities for content security, user authentication, browsing and access control across all major cloud and enterprise storage platforms. Organisations now have access to the broadest set of infrastructure choices as more digital media workflows migrate to the cloud.

Aspera Drive is a new powerful and easyto-use high-performance file sharing and synchronisation solution for the Windows and Mac desktop. Built on the Aspera FASP technology, Drive breaks all the enterprise barriers of conventional desktop drive and sync products, combining secure remote browsing, high-speed transfer, and synchronisation of any size data from the user’s file explorer to any content storage location, giving the enterprise a breakthrough alternative to the commodity consumer cloud file sharing services.

Aspera Drive is powered by Aspera’s latest high-performance digital delivery platform, which unifies all of the file sharing and package sending capabilities into a web application tier that deploys in conjunction with Aspera high-speed transfer servers on premise or in the cloud.

Visit http://asperasoft.com

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has been expanded with the addition of the 2-RU large-scale MediorNet MetroN core router. In enabling Riedel’s networked approach to signal distribution and routing, the new MediorNet MetroN provides a real-time routing capacity of 64x 10G ports. During BroadcastAsia 2014, Riedel will demonstrate how, with these capabilities, the new frame can function within a larger MediorNet installation.

Riedel will also present the MN-ST-AL-2, the company’s new MediorNet expansion card for Studer consoles. The MN-ST-AL-2 card provides two ports, each with redundant interfaces, for connecting Studer mixing consoles via the Studer A-Link protocol. In this way, the consoles become an integrated part of the entire signal distribution infrastructure. Users can gain up to 384 channels per connection and realise significant costsavings while continuing to utilise the flexibility and signal quality of MediorNet. Routing of the audio stream is handled by the MediorWorks control and management software via drag-and-drop programming. Additional routing adjustments can be performed via Pro-Bel commands or the new EMBER+ remote control protocol in MediorNet. The card supports all Studer Vista 5 and Vista 9 consoles, as well as OnAir 3000 consoles.

Visit www.riedel.net

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60 years has taught us a lot...

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See us at BroadcastAsia Booth 4D2-21 incorporated user feedback, introduced industry leading enhancements, utilised space age technology components, meticulously hand assembled all our products but...

it still comes down to how does it feel?

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ACQUISITION www.content-technology.com/acquisition

4K Gets the OK in the Big Durian WHILE MUCH HAS BEEN MADE of Hollywood blockbusters being shot in

sweltering heat, with a quarter of the movie shot at night.

4K, film makers in the Asia-Pacific have also been dipping their toes in the higher resolution waters of digital cinematography.

“I was amazed by the capabilities of the Canon EOS C500 camera with the Codex Onboard S Plus Recorder,” says Nugros. “This combination allowed us to record moments with a rich range of colours, in very minimal light when necessary.”

Adriana was the first movie in Southeast Asia to be captured, output and displayed in 4K. This major Indonesian production, dubbed “an adolescent DaVinci Code”, drew leading local filmmakers, including director Fajar Nugros and cinematographer Yadi Sugandi, who chose a 4K RAW workflow, using Canon EOS C500 cameras with Codex recorders.

The story follows a young Don Juan who meets a cute girl at the National Library in Jakarta. To meet her again, the boy must solve a series of puzzles, designed by the girl, involving Indonesian history and culture. The script gave the filmmakers opportunities to showcase Jakarta’s rich history and tourist sites. Locations included the National Monument Tower, National Museum, Jakarta Old Town and the colourful Jakarta Fair.

“To wrap 200 pages of script into 120 minutes of screen time was a massive challenge,” says Fajar Nugros, who had made several previous films using the Canon EOS C300. “Director of Photography Yadi Sugandi helped me give every scene a dramatic feel and a filmic look.“ PT Datascrip, Canon Indonesia’s local division, provided cameras and lenses. Prior to the shoot, the filmmakers travelled to Singapore to gain a more thorough understanding of the C500, the Codex system, and the 4K workflow directly from Canon and Codex representatives.

Building on the ergonomic design of Canon’s previous EOS C300 camera, the EOS C500 features a Super 35mm, 8.85-megapixel CMOS image sensor, DIGIC DV III Image Processor and a range of recording and output options specifically for 4K and 2K image acquisition.

The EOS C500 offers two forms of 4K origination - productions can dynamically select DCI (SMPTE 2048-1:2011 standard) or the alternative television-centric Quad-HD (SMPTE 2036-1:2009 and ITU-R BT.1769 standards) source image formats - and output a selection of 4K, 2K and HD digital sampling formats. The Canon RAW output is delivered to external recording systems via built-in dual 3G-SDI ports. Dual uncompressed HD-SDI out ports supports external live monitoring. HD or 2K content can be written to dual onboard CF cards simultaneously to provide proxy video for offline NLE systems.

The is weather-resistant Codex Onboard S Plus Recorder, meanwhile, weighs only 2.4lbs/1.1kgs and can record ARRIRAW, Canon Cinema RAW, uncompressed HD or wavelet encoded HD material - plus audio and metadata - onto a removable, solid-state Capture Drive. With a Codex Media Station or Vault, shots can be delivered from the Codex Capture Drive in multiple industry-standard formats.

Sugandi says the combination allowed him to be brave in his lighting.

“People know me as a person who appreciates God’s light,” he says. “In 30 years behind the camera, I’ve made many films with just available light. For Adriana, we used an appropriate amount of additional lighting. My courage was bolstered by the large sensor technology in the camera, and even more when I saw uncompressed Canon RAW giving me the full spectrum of colours, even in low light.”

The prime lenses were Canon Cinema Lenses, which are compatible with EF mounts.

“About half the film was done on a 30-300mm Canon zoom lens,” says Yadi.

“This lens delivered the perfect contrast and sharpness – not too harsh. Fajar is known for sudden location moves, so this lens helped me adapt.”

Ultimately, the low light capability of the C500/Codex RAW workflow saved costs on the production.

“We didn’t need a huge amount of lighting equipment, as the sensitivity of the digital sensor, natural ambience and exposure worked well,” Sugandi says. “And, of course, shooting with a minimal lighting package has the virtue of being inexpensive.”

On a practical level, the movie was designed with extensive handheld camerawork, so ergonomics and portability were important.

“The handheld C500/Onboard S Plus Recorder rig was simple to operate and transport, which was very helpful,” says Sugandi. “There are many flashback and slow-motion scenes, so we needed quality and flexibility to take into the DI. Recording 4K RAW uncompressed on Codex was the perfect choice.”

The 4K files were captured by Codex in Canon RAW format and immediately transcoded to ProRes 422 LT. Offline editing was done by Cesa David Luckmansyah, and Technicolor Bangkok conformed the 4K RMF files prior to final colour correction.

Sugandi says the 4K workflow improved the overall quality of the final production.

“We saw a significant difference in image quality between the 2K DCP and the 4K DCP,” he says. “And, perhaps more importantly, 4K gave us more creative freedom.”

Nugros agrees. “I’ll definitely use the C500 and Codex Onboard S for my next film,” he says.

Adriana premiered at theatres across Indonesia on October 31, 2013.

More than half of the movie was shot at exterior locations, often in

Visit www.canon.com.sg

ACQUISITION

BRAVE LIGHTING

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ACQUISITION

Sony Camera Updates and New Releases SONY HAS ANNOUNCED PXW-X180 Handheld Solid-State Memory Camcorder and the PDW-850 XDCAM HD 422 camcorder, as well as updates to the F5 and F55 4K production cameras.

The PXW-X180 is the latest addition to the XDCAM Series. Ideal for broadcast and professional video production applications, it features three 1/3” Full HD Exmor CMOS sensors and a newly developed 25x optical zoom Sony G Lens with 26 mm wide angle.

The multi-use PDW-850 shoulder-mount camcorder incorporates newly developed 2/3-inch CCD image sensors and combines high performance and low power consumption in a lightweight form factor. High-quality imaging (with a signal-to-noise ratio of 62 dB) and excellent mobility make it ideal for use across a wide range of news reporting, documentary and general production environments.

The PDW-850 is essentially an updated version of the PDW-700 and the F800. The new sensor provides an improved signal to noise ratio, and new processors to reduce power consumption.

Sony says it is committed to the optical disc format. Countless other cameras and manufacturers are working with memory cards, but the optical disc format remains popular due to low cost, ease of storage, and less data wrangling required at the end of a shoot.

The F55 and F5 cameras continue to evolve, enabling wider applications. A prototype of an ENG/EFP style shoulder buildup kit planned to be available in spring 2014, was showcased at NAB that optimises the cameras for single-person documentary style shooting and live production work.

In keeping with the company’s commitment to continued development, the onus has been put upon enhancement and upgrade paths for existing cameras, rather than ditching older models in favour of the new. Version 4 firmware for example, added a number of features including cache recording, enabling capture of the last 15 seconds previous to the record button being instigated.

Sony PXW-X180 Handheld Solid-State Memory Camcorder

The PXW-X180 records in MPEG HD422 at 50 Mbps, as well as XAVC Intra and Long GOP, which enable 10-bit sampling for high-definition recording of high quality pictures. The camcorder can also capture in MPEG HD420 at 35 Mbps, AVCHD and DV formats.

As well as recording on professional SxS memory cards, the camcorder can record on XQD cards, SD cards and Memory Sticks by using optional card adaptors. Providing easy selection of a variety of recording formats and recording media, the camcorder is ready to support a wide range of video production applications.

The PXW-X180 is the first Sony professional camcorder to feature a new variable neutral density (ND) filter. This new device has been developed to electronically control density and enable continuous setting adjustment from 1/4ND to 1/128ND with simple dial operation. Using the filter in conjunction with different iris and shutter speed settings, depth of field and brightness can be adjusted. This allows the use of shooting techniques such as slow shutter shooting in daylight and other bright light conditions.

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The PXW-X180 is aimed directly at the journalist camp, and will take the place of a number of cameras in the current range. It offers a new wide angle 25x Sony G zoom lens, which is the longest lens for a camera in this class. There are also independent rings to control the focus, zoom, and iris, which from an operational point of view is much nicer than fiddling with knobs or requiring changes via menus.

A wireless LAN module is included to enable the use of wireless functions.

Easy, one-touch operation is all that is required for wireless connection to a smartphone or tablet, which can then be used to confirm the framing of the shot set-up, monitor recording and operate the camcorder by remote (including lens angle setting/white balance adjustment/iris adjustment, etc.). Using separately sold mobile routers and other mobile devices also allows transmission of files after shooting.

Sony continues to develop camcorders that deliver the high image quality and ease of use required by professionals for recording everything from news footage and documentaries to corporate and education productions.

Sony PDW-850 XDCAM HD 422 Camcorder

In addition to the cameras’ current XAVC, RAW, MPEG-4 SStP and XDCAM HD capabilities, development of an option board implementing major HD nonlinear editing codecs is in progress.

With collaborative support provided by Apple, the F55 and F5 will be enabled to employ the ProRes codec, expanding the cameras’ creative potential and workflow flexibility. This advantage allows the F55 and F5 to be very straightforward choices for users of Apple Final Cut Pro. In addition, the F55 and F5 will implement Avid’s DNxHD format. The two companies’ collaboration has so far proved workflow integrity with a successful track record of XAVC and XDCAM workflow development.

Through Sony’s implementing of DNxHD, the collaboration enters into a next level.

Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com

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ACQUISITION

Blackmagic Design Announces URSA

from Canon, Zeiss and more. Both of these models include the large Super 35 sized global shutter digital film sensor.

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN has announced Blackmagic URSA, a new high end

The URSA Broadcast B4 model, available late 2014, features a broadcast video Ultra HD sensor and B4 lens mount used in broadcast. The URSA HDMI model has no sensor and its lens mount is replaced by a “cheese plate” of mounting points and a HDMI input, allowing any third party camera to get the benefit of the URSA camera body features.

Because the sensor and lens mount assembly can be changed, customers can choose EF or PL lens mounts, or even a broadcast video sensor with B4 mount, then upgrade the camera in the future.

Blackmagic URSA is designed to be used on high end feature films, commercials, episodic television production, documentaries, electronic news gathering, music videos and more. When used on jobs with a large crew, customers can easily dress the camera with high quality cinema lenses, rails, follow focus, matte boxes and more.

Each area of the camera has been divided into separate DOP, camera assistant and audio engineer workstations. The DOP station features a 10-inch fold out on set monitor and separate 5-inch screen for settings, camera status and scopes. The camera assist station features a separate screen for camera settings, status, and scopes. An audio station features audio meters, controls, and audio connections.

Blackmagic URSA has a 4K sensor, global shutter and a wide 12 stops of dynamic range. The large Super 35 size sensor allows for creative shallow depth of field shooting and high resolution Ultra HD. 12 bit lossless compressed Cinema DNG RAW and Apple ProRes allow for easy post production workflow with minimum storage requirements.

The Blackmagic URSA features a modular camera turret that can be replaced by removing 4 simple bolts. The camera turret includes the sensor, lens mount and lens control connections and can be upgraded in the future when new types of sensors are developed. There are currently 4 models to choose from, URSA PL supports PL mount lenses and URSA EF supports EF mount lenses

The goal when developing the URSA was to build a camera that had all the cooling capacity for higher frame rates, and a large on set monitor, as well as built in scopes offering everything required built into the camera itself. Apparently the problem with spending so much money building in such incredible accessories is that they become outdated as sensor technology quickly moves on. With the URSA you can upgrade the sensor simply by bolting on a new sensor and turret URSA workstation zones (clockwise from top): assembly, when of course, camera assistant; audio engineer; new sensors are developed. director of photography.

Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

Panasonic Releases PX270 and GH4

to 800kbps. The camcorder also offers legacy recording in DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV.

PANASONIC HAS RELEASED the AJ-PX270, the company’s first P2 HD

Professional interfaces include HDMI out, HD/SD-SDI out, 3G-SDI out to support 1080 60p video output, genlock in/video out for multi-camera operation, timecode in/out, USB 3.0 (host), and USB 2.0 (device). The PX270’s three 2.2M pixel MOS sensors deliver a horizontal resolution of 1000 TV lines; the camcorder achieves high F11 (59.94Hz)/F12 (50Hz) sensitivity and produces excellent images.

handheld camcorder with AVC-ULTRA recording. Panasonic has also released the LUMIX DMC-GH4 – a new DSLM camera for commercial photographers and videographers.

The camcorder is both smaller and lighter than previous models, but delivers on many of the features that you would find in larger cameras. It has three 1/3-inch full high-depth MOS sensors with latest low-light capabilities and wide dynamic range.

A newly designed, compact, 22x zoom lens offers a wide 28mm to tele 616mm (35mm equivalent) zoom range. The PX270’s three manual operation lens rings — zoom, focus and iris — provide a comfortable manual control similar to interchangeable lenses, but without the need for actual lens changes.

The camera also has a powerful codec set. It will do everything from 800kbits through to 200Mbits full production quality and simultaneously record those onto the MicroP2 cards in the back allowing users to dual record top line production quality and also a base band proxy. In addition to recording, the two streams can also be screened live.

The camera has two streaming functions, either by 3G or 4G or LTE. It will allow live streaming of breaking news from the rear of the camera via dongle with less than one second delay. Also included is the option for to FTP footage back to the newsroom.

For applications where file size is critical, such as for wireless feeds, the camcorder incorporates a choice of AVC-LongG quality levels, including AVC-LongG50, AVC-LongG25 and AVC-LongG12. These 10-bit, 4:2:2 sampled codecs (LongG50/25*) record in much smaller file sizes, saving storage cost and transfer time while maintaining equal or better video quality to existing legacy codecs.

Addressing the need for high-speed file exchange, the PX270’s highresolution AVC-Proxy encodes in parallel with higher bandwidth production formats, enabling fast, efficient offline editing, at bit rates from 6Mbps down

The LUMIX DMC-GH4 DSLM hybrid camera, meanwhile, provides 4K video recording, as well as offering outstanding still image quality and responsiveness, backed by features to support serious commercial editing and production (DSLM stands for Digital Single Lens Mirrorless. DSLR, which does use a mirror, stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex).

Video capabilities offered by the camera include ultra-high-bitrate 4K (100 Mbps) and Full HD recording (200 Mbps); global frame rates, allowing professionals to shoot for overseas markets; and Variable Frame Rate for slow and fast motion shooting at up to 96 frames per second in Full HD. A new optional interface unit ensures high performance when connecting to professional external monitors and recorders.

Speed and precision are the hallmarks of the DMC-GH4’s still imaging performance: including high-speed burst shooting at 12 frames per second (AFS) at full resolution, supported by a 40-shot buffer for RAW images; Contrast AF with DFD (Depth From Defocus) technology, for faster, more accurate focus at 0.07 seciii and improved continuous focus; max 1/8000sec shutter speed; an OLED LVF and monitor offering higher resolution and greater precision; and the ability to process RAW photos in-camera.

It has professional features that you would find on many broadcast cameras; including zebra patterning and time code. It has time code REC RUN and FREE RUN all built into it without any extra on the basics.

The DMC-GH4 is compatible with 22 LUMIX G digital interchangeable lenses, the most offered by any DSLM manufacturer, as well as providing access to 46 Micro Four Thirds lenses.

Visit www.panasonic.com

ACQUISITION

digital film camera built to handle the ergonomics of large film crews as well as single person use. URSA has multiple accessories built in, including a 10-inch fold out on set monitor, large user upgradable Super 35 global shutter 4K image sensor, and internal dual RAW and Apple ProRes recorders.

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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Broadcast Solutions Clears the Boundary for IPL YOU COULD SAY BROADCAST SOLUTIONS has a full dance card.

Founded in 2000, the company has grown to become a global supplier of HD outside broadcast equipment and crews with offices in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UK. As Broadcast Solutions worked towards the completion of the ICC (International Cricket Council) World Twenty20 competition in Bangladesh in early April – broadcast in 5.1 surround for the first time – it was also preparing to move its cricket coverage from Bangladesh to the UAE and India to cover the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Alongside the IPL, Broadcast Solutions was also handling golf tournaments in Malaysia and Indonesia, a football cup tournament across two venues in Vietnam, a badminton tournament in India and a further cricket competition in the West Indies. Directly after these events, the company relocated to Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in June and July, while readying for the Asian Games in South Korea during September and October.

Broadcast Solutions recently added new Lawo mixing and routing systems to its inventory.

The story begins with a contract secured in 2013 to provide production facilities for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 editions of the IPL to serve clients including STAR Sports, Ten Sports and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). For the first tournament, the company fielded nine OB kits and purchased three Lawo mc²56 digital broadcast consoles with HD Core technology for this purpose. A further six Lawo systems used at this event were hired for the job.

This year, Broadcast Solutions provided all broadcast facilities – including cameras, EVS, comms systems, audio systems, video engineering equipment, vision mixers and the engineering crew – for the three venues in the UAE and the eight venues in India used in the tournament. In addition, the company has purchased six further Lawo mc²56 16-16C-0 consoles with HD Cores and DALLIS system I/O. Broadcast Solutions’ sports services are based on flyaway OB systems, which enable individual production environments to be set up anywhere in the world – regardless of how complex the requirement. Since it has been relying

APAC Expansion for beIN SPORTS 1 BEIN SPORTS HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of its third channel on

SPORTSCASTING

SkyCable, strengthening its offering of top football content in highdefinition on the Philippines’ biggest cable television provider. The launch follows that of beIN SPORTS 2 & beIN SPORTS 3 Premier League, which were launched last October on SkyCable beIN SPORTS 1 will broadcast an extensive bouquet of live football all year round, featuring the Barclays Premier League, the Italian Serie A, Bundesliga, French Ligue 1, Scottish Professional Football League, Major League Soccer (MLS), the Brazilian national league (Paulistao & Brasileirão), the English Football League Championship, and major cup tournaments such as the FA Cup, Coppa Italia and the Coupe de la Ligue, as well as National team friendlies including the England and Italy sides. Fans can also look forward to club content such as Arsenal Football Club, Liverpool TV and Spurs TV, the Milan Channel as well as top football magazine shows. beIN SPORTS also launched earlier this year K-Vision, Indonesia’s newest pay-TV platform.

Visit www.beinsports.net

on Lawo systems, these have been deployed at the IPL 2013, domestic and international cricket matches in India, the Hockey Indian League and this year’s ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh.

Explaining the choice of Lawo mc²56/HD Core systems, Alex Prüstel, Broadcast Solutions Deputy COO (Singapore), highlights the flyaway nature of their operation, “We need a solution that gives us a surface that is not big, but allows access to all functionality of the system along with a router system that allows remote access via external controller, and at the same time, full access to the router from the surface. We also need to produce 5.1-surround audio without any additional effort and/or equipment. In addition, we must be able to take productions from one system to another, even when the hardware configuration is not the same, and we require operational functionality that is almost self-explanatory, so we can use cricket specialists who might be not familiar with such complex systems.”

“Using the system as router and mixing system gives us high-quality surround capabilities,” he adds. “It’s a good experience.”

On top of these requirements, the systems must also allow for later expansion, if it should be required for other productions, and be absolutely stable. Weight and size were also taken into account, as these affect shipping/production costs.

“After we finished the ICC World Twenty20, we directly began production of IPL 2014, which will be held in UAE and India,” Prüstel says. “We will use eight Lawo units – seven mc²56 consoles and one mc²90 – to make sure that we do deliver the same high quality from each venue.”

The first leg of the IPL tournament was played in the UAE, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, and the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, before moving to India for its second leg and the grand final. This involved setting up production facilities in a further seven or eight venues.

“As cricket production needs a lot of know-how about the match, Lawo allows us to use fewer operators (mixers) and move them around the venues,” Prüstel explains. “This ensures that we produce all matches to the same level of quality and at the same standard.”

The Lawo mc²90 console used was provided by a rental company in Abu Dhabi in an OB truck. “This truck is a former TV-Unit truck, which is still the only one in Western Hemisphere with such a big Lawo system,” says Prüstel.

As well as the Lawo audio systems, Broadcast Solutions has begun using a number of Lawo’s V_pro8 to provide an 8 x 8 video matrix and 384 x 384 audio matrix, and cost-effective SDI embedding/de-embdedding.

Visit www.bsgroup.tv and www.lawo.de

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SPORTSCASTING

IOC Considers Olympic TV Channel AS PART OF OLYMPIC AGENDA 2020, a strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering the launch of an Olympic TV Channel.

A feasibility study for the channel is being undertaken by Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and a Working Group has been announced which will make recommendations on the proposed channel. The Working Group is to be chaired by Thomas Bach, IOC President, and will include:  Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, President of the Olympic Council of Asia;  Willi Kaltschmitt Lujan, IOC Executive Board Member;  Gian-Franco Kasper, President of the International Ski Federation (FIS);  Richard W. Pound, Chair, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS);  Francesco Ricci Bitti, President of the International Tennis Federation; and  Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, OBS Board Member.

Experts advising the Working Group will include Manolo Romero, Vice-Chair of OBS and Gary Zenkel, President of NBC Olympics and President of Operations & Strategy, NBC Sports Group.

The group will meet in June around the occasion of Olympic Day, and its findings will be presented to the IOC Executive Board (EB) in July. The findings will then be discussed at the Olympic Summit later in the month, which will be attended by all the key stakeholders of the Olympic Movement.

The contributions will then be presented to the IOC commissions in September, before being discussed again at an EB meeting in October. The refined proposals for Olympic Agenda 2020 will then be presented for discussion by the whole membership and approval of the IOC Extraordinary Session in Monaco on 8 and 9 December 2014.

AUSTRALIAN PAY TV OPERATOR Foxtel has released an app designed to bring out sports fans’ inner all-star. The Foxtel All-Stars Highlights Reel App lets users take centre stage alongside some of their favourite sporting heroes in a personalised sports video montage.

The App allows users to blend profile pictures and home videos into an “action-packed” FOX SPORTS reel complete with pre-set sound tracks and voiceovers. The app is supported by foxtelallstars.com.au, the online destination for football and netball fans, which features All-Stars Academy photo galleries, profiles on winners and a portal where fans can register their interest in the next round of the Tim Cahill and Liz Ellis Academies. Users may also upload their personal clips to the Foxtel AllStars website to share with friends and family.

“Every weekend, all throughout Australia, thousands of kids can be found taking part in grassroots sport,” said Foxtel’s Executive Director of Sport, Ben Buckley. “These budding all-stars receive mountains of support from parents, friends and relatives in all corners of their communities. The Foxtel All-Stars Highlights Reel App lets them capture their special sporting moments, add a splash of FOX SPORTS shine and share them with these dedicated loved-ones.”

The App features footage and themes from the Socceroos, A-League, Australian Diamonds and ANZ Championship. People can further personalise their content by choosing their favourite A-League or ANZ Championship team, input their local sports club, nickname and pictures and videos from their personal library.

Visit www.itunes.com.au/appstore

SPORTSCASTING

Visit www.olympic.org and www.obs.tv

Foxtel Marries Viewer Content, Pro-Footage

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SPORTSCASTING

The Glasgow Diaries: Chapter 9

By David Bowers A glorious Glaswegian spring has sprung – at last! On my stroll to our project office this morning it seems even the weather has been swept up in pre-Games spirit, with both city and skies turning on their best.

WE HAVE JUST PASSED THE 100-DAYS-toOpening Ceremony milestone and accordingly are at ‘R4’, the fourth and final release of drawinvgs and associated documentation.

IBC and venue BTOCs and CCRs.

Two years worth of drafting and planning encompassing venue overlay drawings, timelines, sport schedules, access routes, cable containment paths and compound layouts for cabins and Outside Broadcast vans – and that’s just for starters – are about to be made available to the engineering managers and supervisors of our venues, venue technical managers (VTMs) broadcast telecommunication operation centres (BTOCs) and commentary control rooms (CCRs), as they will be responsible for the broadcast delivery in their respective areas during the Games.

In all there are some 150 racks of equipment covering the IBC, venue telecommunications cabins and commentary control areas.

At the same time we will let these managers and supervisors know about the procedures and electronic documentation that will allow them to access our online information portal.

R4 release also takes us officially into the build stage of our 121-week project schedule.

Just arrived (blessedly on time!) and in place at the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) are our three massive sea-container shipments from Sydney containing the ‘fly away’ portion of the

We’ve been able to track their eight-week sea voyage through the marvellous vesselfinder website.

SVGTV’s IBC engineering project manager, Jim Tinker, and IBC engineering manager, Terry Manley, have been overseeing the IBC, BTOC and CCR design and construction for the last 18 months, taking learnings from the Melbourne 2006 and Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and building on that experience for Glasgow.

Jim and Terry, along with the rest of the Australiabased engineering team, are due here at the end of April to breathe life into the cables and equipment, supervising their installation and commissioning.

As the IBC-housed systems are progressively put in place we are beginning phased in situ testing of the equipment that will be the backbone of the IBC studios, control rooms, monitors, switching centre and ancillary facilities.

Our fibre contractor meanwhile has just completed the first round of cable lead-in work

and this week we conducted our first successful test connection to the outside world.

We’re using single mode fibre for BTOC and CCR inter-connections to both keep weight down and also provide bandwidth flexibility to scale individual systems as required.

We have standardised our optical fibre termination to LC-style connectors for uniformity and to allow diverse patching if we have any issues.

Having our own fibre infrastructure at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, which traverses five venues, also gives us maximum flexibility to accommodate multiple simultaneous events and venue changes.

Overnight venue transitions – such as those taking place between Boxing and Netball in the SSE Hydro - would not be possible without our ability to re-route our own fibre circuits, including dedicated circuits for rights holder broadcasters (RHBs), within the required timeframe.

Communications and data handling flexibility will also allow our RHBs to cover the Games in the way that best suits their objectives.

Australia’s Ten Network for instance has announced 24-hour-a-day coverage across their two broadcast channels, TEN and ONE, all up more than 260 hours of television.

They will also offer eight dedicated digital channels on their TENplay website, so Aussie viewers can watch their favourite events and athletes anywhere, at any time.

Broadcast lighting is a key element of exceptional television pictures and venue lighting consultant David Lewis has just arrived to commission the broadcast lighting overlay for Hampden Park, the Athletics venue.

SPORTSCASTING

Among his other priorities is the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, which highlights some of the lighting design considerations that need to be accommodated.

The facility has been refurbished and expanded with temporary seating for the Games. This means the type, location and layout of the lighting had to be enhanced, too.

The existing lighting angles produced reflections from the central row and the far side of the additional seating opposite the main cameras, which can bounce directly into lenses and cause flaring,

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SPORTSCASTING similar to a star filter, as this diagram illustrates: A further consideration is the low roofline, which makes positioning lighting grids a challenge.

The designs accordingly take into account ceiling height and pitch as well as water reflection from the main and warm-up pools: a veritable orchestra of light positions and angles that will result in clean, clear pictures from anywhere in camera range.

Although it’s full-on for our ever-expanding

project team the Easter long weekend provides a little time to plan a welcome day for the Aussie engineers’ arrival next month.

Not only will it be a good Sunday excursion for our ever-expanding project team but it will also give them a taste of the extent to which Glasgow is preparing to welcome the world in July.

Our plan is to take a cruise from Spiers Wharf up the Forth and Clyde Canal to the historic Stables Pub at Glasgow Bridge, Kirkintilloch.

Built in 1812 to serve the boat crews using the Forth and Clyde Canal, this little piece of Glaswegian heritage is as welcoming today as it would have been 200 years ago, with visitors and locals soon to converge on Glasgow for the XX Commonwealth Games.

David Bowers is head of engineering and technical operations for SVGTV, which holds the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Host Broadcast contract.

Fox Sports Introduces Antelope Pico for A-League Final

A-LEAGUE FANS were able to see last Sunday’s grand final like never before with the Fox Sports innovations team introducing a special mini “ultra motion” camera to the coverage.

The innovations team responsible for bringing FoxKopter, Zings stumps, and ref and corner post cam to the Australian sports broadcast landscape, teamed with Gearhouse Australia to import a specialty mini-ultra motion camera called an Antelope Pico. The camera has been used for a UEFA Champions League match between Manchester City and Bayern Munich and in Bundesliga action in Germany.

While Fox Sports producers have access to ultra slow motion cameras they are usually much larger. The small size of the Pico, which was mounted on a pole cam behind the goal, allows

vision of angles never before seen in Australian football coverage.

Todd Procter, Head of Innovations and Outside Broadcast Special Events, said the team ran this camera around 350 frames per second (14x faster than a normal broadcast camera), capturing all the goal mouth action and replaying key moments.

“I can’t wait … this will produce some really magnificent moments in broadcast television,” Procter said before the game.

Visit www.foxsports.com.au

EVS Debuting XT3 Media Server THIS YEAR’S BROADCASTASIA will see EVS Sports debut the enhanced XT3 media production server with built-in proxies, 4K zooming, live multi-angle review, and enhanced tools that can transform live sporting events. EVS’ LSM Connect touch-based tablet application enables clip and playlist management, while Epsio FX allows the insertion of simple graphics and effects.

EVS’ C-Cast Xplore web-browsing interface provides access to live multi-camera recording feeds and clips on XT servers, giving production

teams unprecedented capability to work remotely, enhance content on the fly and reduce the number of onsite production personnel.

EVS Media will highlight enhanced ingest for mastering and archive, including any file type ingest with the OpenCubeHD/SD server for streamlined file-based, multi-format workflows that comply with all standard formats. The filebased server provides an extended range of codecs and format support comprising H.264 AVC, XAVC, JPEG 2000 and MXF 4K. EVS Media will also present its latest closed captioning and

subtitling solution, which includes S346M or .ssc/. mcc generation ingest.

EVS News will debut XS NewsFlash, a compact, cost-effective end-to-end solution that provides smaller newsroom environments with full production capabilities. Based on the robust XS server for ingest and playout, XS NewsFlash provides everything from file and feed ingest, metadata and quick-turnaround virtual editing to disaster recovery and fast-breaking news playout.

Visit www.evs.com

The New Grass Valley at BroadcastAsia innovative live production, news production and playout technologies on Stand 5B3-01 at BroadcastAsia 2014.

“BroadcastAsia 2014 is especially exciting for Grass Valley this year as it’s our first as part of the Belden family,” said Stephen Wong, Grass Valley’s Vice President, APAC. “Visitors to our stand will see that our solutions portfolio provides them unparalleled benefits from production through delivery – allowing them to tell better stories, to a wider audience, across many platforms while optimising their operations using new techniques, such as cloud technology and IP connectivity.”

Grass Valley’s LDX XtremeSpeed 6X ultra slow-

motion camera – one of four recent additions to its LDX range – is an easily integrated, highspeed live production camera based on Grass Valley’s proprietary Xensium-FT CMOS imager, which delivers superb picture quality, high sensitivity and high dynamic range for a wide variety of production applications.

K2 Dyno Replay System (consisting of the K2

The LDX WorldCam multiformat camera system will also be demonstrated in conjunction with the Copperhead 3404K camera-mountable transceiver. The Copperhead 3404K requires only two strands of fibre-optic cable to carry all bi-directional signals, including four 3Gb/s HD/ SDI paths, from camera to truck or control room.

will also be key components of Grass Valley’s

The advantage of Grass Valley’s LDX cameras is that they operate in tandem with the company’s

Dyno S Replay Controller and K2 Summit 3G Production Client), which provide playback at any speed from 0 to 200 percent, expanding replay storytelling options. Market-leading GV STRATUS Nonlinear Media Production Tools BroadcastAsia 2014 replay solution demo.

GV Director is an integrated nonlinear live production centre that simplifies live production switching while offering far more in terms of producing and delivering creative live content across multiple distribution platforms.

Visit www.new.grassvalley.com

SPORTSCASTING

GRASS VALLEY WILL EXHIBIT its range of

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NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations

SBS Uses TVUPack Mobile on PM Visit to Indonesia HAVING PURCHASED seven TVUPack 8100 mobile wireless 3G/4G/LTE uplink backpacks from Magna Systems for its news and current affairs teams, SBS has been putting them to use covering events including Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s recent trip to Indonesia, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, and the recent bush fires in southern NSW. SBS’s TVUPacks are based in their Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra studios for use by SBS and NITV reporters, with one pack also in London.

SBS Director of Technology and Distribution, Noel Leslie, said, “The TVUPacks allow for greater mobility, access, and immediacy in our reporting. For instance, when SBS was covering Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s visit to Indonesia, the packs gave our reporters immediate access to cover each event and remain in contact with SBS back in Australia.”

Leslie added, “One of the great things about using the TVUPacks is that we can manage them remotely from Master Control. In this way we can check levels and optimise settings to get the best quality. If the broadcast isn’t live we can adjust the delay and latency to improve the signal. If it’s going out live we use the lowest latency and always the best bit rates. 4G is always preferable to 3G but we can also use a combination of 4G and 3G cards if necessary as this boosts the bonded system the TVUPack uses. SBS Master Control also allocates and monitors the TVU receivers and can confirm when all is OK to start the broadcast. Most of the time the TVUPack solution performs quite brilliantly.”

In addition to the Prime Minister’s trip to Indonesia, SBS also used the TVUPacks during the recent NSW bush fires – something that could have been potentially problematic due to the lack of cellular coverage.

SBS purchased local SIM cards for this trip, meaning the reporter could file from each location instantly without needing satellite licences or any satellite time, as they only had to rely on cellular availability. The Canberra TVUPack and receiver were used, augmenting the other fibre kit SBS had for the trip. The camera crew on the ground supplied the signal to SBS back in Australia, which was then distributed out to all the other Australian networks via Telstra’s DVN SWISH network.

Leslie explained, “There was very little cellular signal but SBS was able to remotely manipulate the signal to and from the TVUPacks to such a degree that we could get a more than acceptable feed. There is also the added advantage of Master Control being able to change settings rather than requiring the cameraman to do it, as this means they can concentrate solely on getting the footage SBS needs. The TVUPack has a status screen so the camera operators could see the changes we were making during the bush fires, without it affecting their operation of the pack.”

SBS uses the TVUPack 8100, a 3G/4G/LTE uplink solution for cameras with industry standard SDI and composite connections. The TVUPack 8100 is often used by broadcasters such as SBS to solve the common challenge of covering live breaking news from locations that are difficult or costly to access using traditional ENG technologies.

TVU has also developed TVUAnywhere, an app that enables broadcasters to transmit quality live footage when a TVUPack isn’t available. SBS used the TVUAnywhere app innovatively to broadcast footage from one of the yachts in the last Sydney to Hobart race.

Visit www.magnasys.tv

NEWS OPERATIONS

TVB Transforms Newsroom Operations with Sonaps SONY HAS ANNOUNCED the successful implementation of its

from live events, tape-based acquisition, disc-based media or solid-state

MediaBackbone Sonaps network production system and MediaBackbone Ensemble content and storage management system within the newsroom infrastructure of Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), a leading commercial television station in Hong Kong.

memory-based media, raw content shot by TVB’s camera crews can now

TVB and Sony first embarked on this newsroom transformation project towards the end of 2012, in addition to a planned upgrade of TVB’s production equipment to High Definition (HD). TVB also required filebased operation, increased flexibility and storage, more workstations and an integrated library system. TVB undertook a thorough investigation of systems on the market and eventually selected Sony, as the MediaBackbone Sonaps system was able to address those requirements. A phased migration approach ensured that the challenges of migrating from an SD system to a total HD tapeless workflow were overcome without affecting TVB’s daily operations, and Sony’s engineers were also deployed to ensure that TVB’s staff members were fully trained in various aspects of the day-to-day operations of the system.

their central storage.

Following the implementation, TVB has successfully transformed the overall workflow of its newsroom – from ingest, editing, playout to archiving – and fully migrated to a file based workflow using XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX formats. The MediaBackbone Sonaps system accepts a wide range of inputs including commonly-used acquisition formats like MP4, AVC-Intra, WMV, MPEG-2 Long GOP, DV and AVI, therefore whether

be uploaded directly to TVB’s Sonaps central storage from an ingest terminal or Sony HD non-linear editor (NLE) – XPRI-NS. Even from remote sites, TVB’s crews can easily upload vital news content via the Internet to “In the ever-changing world of production technology, there are certainly many challenges faced in newsroom management. It is critical for broadcasters to implement a workflow that works practically and not just technically, and newsroom managers should ideally have an end-to-end workflow which covers all the steps through to delivery,” said Mr. Norihisa Mizuno, Head of Broadcast & Content Creation Solutions, Professional Solutions Company (PSAP), Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited.

“We chose to work with Sony as they were able to fulfil our specific news production requirements. In addition, Sony’s system offers more storage hours in HD, the bandwidth supports more HD NLE with file-based export, plus file-based import and XDCAM ingest. Another benefit of using MediaBackbone Sonaps is that the scheduled tasks are highly automated with ingestion,” said Mr. Lam Chun Wing, Chief Engineer, Broadcasting Department, TVB. Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com

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NEWS OPERATIONS

JVC Expands ENG Live HD Streaming

AFP Launches New Multimedia Platform

AT THIS YEAR’S NAB, JVC took another step forward with the launch

AFP HAS LAUNCHED AFP Forum, a new multimedia platform which makes the news agency’s entire production output of text, photo, video and infographics available on one site. With over 6000 news items posted per day in six languages, AFP Forum brings together its old download platforms for photo, text and video (ImageForum, AFP-Direct and VideoForum respectively) on one multimedia platform optimised for all uses: written press, websites, television, mobile content, content providers, public screens, institutions and more.

A dedicated editorial team curates thematic folders, retrospectives, anniversaries and “best-of” features daily in six categories: news, the economy, sports, celebrities, features and fashion.

The platform is centered around a completely customizable userexperience with an optimized search-engine, geolocalized browsing, shared features with other users, and a multimedia alert system by email to stay on top of all the breaking news.

AFP’s archives are also available on the platform, with over 40 million documents from the 20th and 21st centuries comprised of analyses, news reports, biographies, retrospectives, portraits, historical archives and more.

AFP Forum is available for all new clients and will be progressively rolled out for existing clients starting in the Middle East and the Maghreb, followed by France and the rest of the world.

Visit www.afpforum.com 1

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20:30

The 3-CMOS cameras with interchangeable Fujinon 20x autofocus zoom lenses also deliver HD (and SD) imagery, even in low light conditions.

Shooter-friendly features include dual SDHC/SDXC card slots for recording footage in a variety of native file formats, four-channel audio with two XLR mic/line inputs, 4.3-inch LCD monitor and LCOS colour viewfinder, HDSDI and HDMI out, and genlock and time code terminals for multi-camera setups. The GY-HM890 also includes an HD/SD-SDI Pool Feed input for increased ENG flexibility. Plus, for studio or multi-camera field production, it accommodates JVC fibre or multi-core camera modules and is compatible with JVC’s full range of components and accessories.

At the 2014 NAB Show, JVC also launched its Professional Streaming Services, a cloud-based news management resource to complement its ProHD cameras with built-in IP integration. Anchored by the new ProHD Broadcaster server powered by Zixi, the new service makes it easy and affordable to deliver live HD content delivery for Web and broadcast facilities. Available as a physical server or cloud-based solution, Broadcaster receives live HD video from compatible JVC camcorders (including the GYHM850, GY-HM890 and upgraded GY-HM650), transcodes the signal for a variety of delivery platforms and provides reliable transmission of the signal.

Visit http://pro.jvc.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

C+T, Dalet, C+T-BCA-June14.pdf

of its GY-HM850 and GY-HM890 ProHD shoulder-mount cameras, which significantly expand the streaming and file transfer capabilities of the GY-HM650. Both new cameras feature a built-in streaming engine with FTP and 4G LTE connectivity to allow live HD transmission directly from the camera without being attached to external bonded cellular solutions. A built-in processor with proprietary algorithms, advanced content aware error correction and JVC’s new Advanced Streaming Technology (AST) maximise bandwidth, provide real-time feedback of streaming status and compensate for up to 30 percent packet loss to ensure reliable transmission.

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NEWS OPERATIONS

Media Beach Puts the Bite on the Business of News

By Phil Sandberg

Australia’s Seven West Media, in conjunction with US developer VideoShip Enterprises, has launched Media Beach, an online portal designed to challenge the traditional news agency model of Reuters, AFP and the like, as well as encourage the wider dissemination of news content from the Asia Pacific to the rest of the world.

ANNOUNCED BY SEVEN WEST MEDIA’S GM of News and Public Affairs, David Porter, at this year’s Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union symposium in Kuala Lumpur, Media Beach will allow: + Broadcasters and freelancers to upload video and other content to make it available for sale via auction, etc., across different territories; + Customers to purchase that content via credit card or PayPal; + Broadcast organisations to use the platform as an “internal” contribution network. Users can manage a private network of logins around a cloud storage solution, for easy upload and download from members and non-members alike; + Automatic transcoding of incoming files ready for HD/SDI playout as needed; + The management of user generated content from non-professional sources; and + Near-live upload of content from phones and tablets via an app for Android and iOS. Media Beach users will also have access to graphical weather content from NZ-based MetraWeather. This will include dynamic, ready-to-play weather flights and news clips, specific to the user’s location from expert meteorologists and technologists. Other content partners are expected to be announced in the future.

According to David Porter, the Seven Network has found that the demand for news content has exploded over the last six to seven years with its news output growing by around 60 percent.

Media Beach’s Colin Grimes (left) and David Porter.

“There are a number of key drivers,” he says. “Firstly, news content is very cost efficient. Once you have got your cost base in place, to produce an extra hour of news is actually quite cheap compared to sports rights and programming. It is also very fresh which is important because the programmers are having more and more difficulty with the big US studio shows like Revenge and The Black List - mainly because a lot of them are being downloaded earlier and viewed.

“The programmers are finding it harder and harder to control their schedules. So, they are looking to news to provide content which people might not have seen before, they want to watch it now, they don’t want to watch it later on their PVR, and they want to see local and good international news.

“The other driver of this massive growth is online, in that news drives online traffic. That is certainly the experience of our online partner, Yahoo.

They are very keen to get more and more news content that they can put online on Yahoo and bring in traffic to then monetise the other parts of their site.”

According to Porter, the problem for news producers is that while demand for news content has increased, in most cases there has not been a corresponding increase in resources or staffing.

“We are controlled very tightly as a cost centre and there is a lot of pressure on us to produce news very efficiently,” he says. “We think we have the right amount of staff to cover Australia, but what we really want is better access to news internationally.

“That market is generally controlled by the big agencies you would be aware of, who generally charge quite large amounts to subscribe and what we have been thinking is why can’t we exchange news with fellow members of the ABU, but also internationally, and just buy the news that we want.

NEWS OPERATIONS

“After all, we have all moved to a platform of file-based workflow. A news story is really just like any other file. There is no reason why we can’t share it on a story by story basis as we have it. So we have been working with Videoship who, in turn, work closely with the big US networks on this sort of technology and we have come up with Media Beach.

“Media Beach is the first true platform for broadcasters to exchange content. That content can be stories or even live streams. There is a lot of interest in all of our regions at the moment, in South East Asia, because we have big picture stories, we have got emerging economies, upcoming elections, so there is a lot of interest, but we had trouble getting news out of our region, due to the limited number of upload facilities. This is the first real platform for us to exchange news on a story by story basis and get news out to the rest of the world.”

The Media Beach contributor UI allowing users to designate price and rights for their content.

Seven West Media’s partner in the venture, VideoShip, was established in 2004 by veterans of the data broadcast and cable industries. The

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NEWS OPERATIONS company builds enterprise video workflow and distribution systems and has offices in Ottawa and Dublin, as well as a Network Operations Centre situated in Atlanta. Videoship’s clients list includes NBC, Telemundo, CBS, Raycom Media, CNN, and Comcast. Comcast uses a Videoship-developed ad delivery platform which handles over 60 percent of all ad spot delivery in the US. According to Colin Grimes, Director of Business Development with Videoship, the technology backend behind Media Beach has borrowed from systems the company has built with larger networks in North America.

“We tried to incorporate as many features as we could into Media Beach to facilitate any sort of operations with broadcasters,” he says, “as well as smaller operators, global networks, freelancers, production houses. It’s a multi-tiered, scalable solution for anyone in the media industry.

“The features that we have included are designed to make this more than just a website where people can throw content on and try to buy it off each other, of which there are many websites like that right now in the world.

“By focusing on video and incorporating our technology, because of its scalability, this is something that people can use. It is a platform that has enough cutting edge technology and features to be appealing to a very large international network, or national network, but also you can have a smaller, easier to use, scaled down version for local networks, and then very basic emailing and video transfer accounts to members who just want to contribute content.

“That would be your streamers, freelancers who aren’t going to purchase anything. They don’t need big complicated content delivery network with transferring capabilities. All they want to do is put up their video as soon as they can and have their account set up to receive funds every time a video is sold.”

Some of the features incorporated in the Media Beach platform include modified TCP IP-based acceleration designed to prevent a network being bogged down in the way a traditional TCP IP transfer would.

“An analogy I use,” says Grimes, “is it’s a lane of data being pushed in and waiting for a response for it to continue. It’s slower because it’s one lane of information being sent. Well, Videoship has come up with the way to turn that into multi-lane highway. So, it is fast and it optimises bandwidth regardless of location or device, desktop being used.”

WORKFLOW Media Beach currently has data hubs in Singapore and in North America.

For redundancy, additional hubs in India and in Europe will be rolled out over the next year.

In terms of workflow, contributors to the platform log in and go to either “The Market” to make their footage publicly available, or “The Video

Centre” if the organisation they are working for is using the Media Beach platform as a content distribution network.

Files are uploaded via Videoship’s accelerated file transfer technology.

Along with video upload, other types of files can be associated with the footage, including images, audio, text documents, and even software.

If the footage is made publicly available on the Market by a freelancer, for example, the contributor then determines the conditions of its distribution, including regional availability, specific members, continents, etc.

During the process, the contributor would also enter in their name, and an expiry date when they wish the story to be removed from the system. Each member is allocated 1Tb of storage. Stories that reach their expiry date are automatically deleted from the member’s storage allowance.

While entering the cost and uploading the story, the contributor also has the option to designate that story as an auctionable item. They can put it on auction, enter the amount of time they want their auction to be open for, in hours, and even run different auctions of the same content for different regions.

Once the video upload is complete, a series of stills are generated - one for every three seconds of video. The contributor selects and image and this becomes a “poster” advertising their story. The interface then creates a distribution list of their story, and the story is placed on the Marketplace as being available to everybody.

Potential buyers can browse the Marketplace to find stories, or be alerted through an email which allows them to preview the video directly from the email. Previews are available in various resolutions.

The Media Beach platform will accept and transcode most media formats.

“We use top of the line transcoders in our transcoder farm,” says Grimes.

“Most or all popular media formats are accepted. On top of transcoding and technical capabilities, we have included a couple of other ways of receiving content, for general content aggregation, that we found to be really sought after, to include as many content acquisition methods as possible under one platform.

“We also offer hosted upload pages for each member where nonmembers can upload video into the member’s Video Centre and internal network. This could be for temporary uploaders who are from outback locations or can’t log into their account for whatever reason, or if they want to put something out to transfer some content and want to receive some video from as many people as possible, so User Generated Content.

“There’s also a mobile app that has been designed to get mobile video to the newsroom as quickly as possible in a high quality format. We didn’t go down the route of trying to send live video from the mobile using systems like LiveU. Instead, we have designed it so files upload from your mobile device as you are recording, as the file is being created, and finishes shortly after it is done, and it is very quickly available in the newsroom on the video news server.”

According to Seven’s David Porter, “Our friends at Videoship have developed a fabulous platform. You can bring down content into your workflow, into your right codec, and with accelerated file transfer maximise your bandwidth, so that if news is happening now you can get it now and not wait for the file to download over minutes and hours. It comes as quickly as your broadband connection can offer.

“We think that there will be a net demand for content from this region overseas. We get a lot of interest from Europe and North America, for content for our region. We think that [APAC news organisations] will all be net sellers to those regions. So, the more we can work together there is a mutual benefit to us developing a large volume of content that we can not only trade amongst ourselves, but sell to overseas and create new revenue streams.”

Purchasing a story.

Visit www.mediabeach.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

“With the system you can create your own content delivery network, within your own business, so that if you have multiple locations you can put servers around your different locations and move content around very quickly without relying on a video network supplied by a third party. To be able to move content around within your network very cheaply is a massive advantage.

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POST PRODUCTION www.content-technology.com/postproduction

Animal Logic Makes Everything Awesome for The Lego Movie

By Keith Ford Prior to the release of the fun and inventive animated film ‘The LEGO Movie’, few would have guessed that a cinema experience centred on the blocks could possibly be amongst the biggest movies of the year. However, having grossed north of $450 million worldwide so far, that’s exactly what has happened.

A GREAT DEAL OF THAT SUCCESS can quite rightly be attributed to the work of Sydney-based Animal Logic. Animal Logic was responsible for the entire animation process, working closely with the directors and LEGO themselves.

In charge of wrangling the different departments of Animal Logic into a shared pipeline is CG Supervisor Aidan Sarsfield.

“You can imagine we have animators, we have assets teams, we have lighters, we have effects guys, we have all sorts of different people and they all require different inputs and outputs for their different departments, and my responsibility is to get them all talking together and working together to create a very fluid and creative environment,” explains Sarsfield.

“It’s really important that you enable them to just do their thing. You want an animator to just animate; you don’t want them to worry about the rigs and the technical side of things. You want them to just do their fun stuff, and the same goes for every department.”

POST PRODUCTION

‘The LEGO Movie’ is a film that wishes to stay as close to its heritage as possible. This doesn’t

just mean using some characters that have been licensed over the years in building sets or video games, though they are there. Nor is it simply in the idea of play and structured creativity that forms the backbone of the films message. It is embedded right down to the framework within which they developed the movie. Settings are created in a way that is plausible and real, truly as though it were a stop-motion fan made film writ large.

based approach, so there was a lot of things that we bolted into our regular processes and procedures that involved specifically catering to bricks and some of the more specific problems that they pose.”

“At the front end we were actually using LDD (LEGO Digital Designer). That is a publically available Lego piece of software that you can download from the Internet and it’s specifically for building Lego models. It controls connectivity between bricks and it’s got the brick library, so anyone who is out there can go and download that and start building stuff,” said Sarsfield. “All the way down the pipe, we’ve got Maya, XSI, Houdini, Nuke, all sorts of different packages, but the thing that really brings it all together is all our proprietary software.

“Creatively, everybody was very, very specific about wanting to make this a brick film. This wasn’t going to be one of those LEGO properties where you’ve got bendy characters and you have sort of large swathes of the environment that are built out of big chunks of geometry that clearly aren’t bricks. This was always going to be about making bricks and making it look like it was really made out of Lego and that really was like the biggest challenge,” Sarsfield added.

“The biggest difference between any of the other projects that we’ve done and this project is the fact that we really focussed on building a brick

Everything that can be seen in the movie could theoretically be made with physical LEGO bricks if someone had the time and inclination, a feat that was incredibly important to everyone involved.

Animal Logic was so intent on getting it right that they had LEGO bricks strewn throughout the building that the animators could tinker with to get a feel for actually using LEGO. They even sent models to LEGO in Denmark to check for structural testing.

“We did have a pretty tight collaboration with LEGO Denmark. So there was some of the designers - because when you’re building something in CG and we’re animators and we make animated films, we don’t really care about the structural integrity of a LEGO model, but when we started to work closely with LEGO in Denmark and their designers, they would often take some of our designs and rework them to a certain extent to give them that structural integrity, which also adds another level of realism on some of these key designs,” explained Sarsfield.

Co-director Chris McKay was chosen specifically for his background in stop-motion animation, having directed for both ‘Robot Chicken’ and ‘Moral Orel’, but didn’t have any experience working with computer animation. That’s where Rob Coleman came in.

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POST PRODUCTION “I came in almost a year later so the team was pretty well in place, but Zareh (Nalbandian, Animal Logic CEO) had asked me to get involved to help lend some leadership to the animation group, to be here because McKay had not worked in computer animation before. I have supervised some big shows and computer animation and because a lot of people that we were working with had also worked with me here in Sydney on Happy Feet 2, so I had knowledge of people skills,” said Head of Animation, Rob Coleman.

“The effects guys did a lot of test simulations that involved how the bricks would move if you were doing stop motion and Grant spent a lot of time reviewing them and the different types of bricks that we used and also things like having them fade off,” said Sarsfield. “So in usual simulations you have things reduce in size and there’s the materials change, all that kind of stuff, and we had to make a mapping between what you’d expect to see in reality and what you’d do if you were doing it in stop motion with bricks.

“So the brief and spec to us they wanted to create the best - the biggest brick film ever done, they wanted to stay true to the LEGO minifigs and the LEGO bricks, so it was working with the team to find a style of animation that looked like it was done in stop motion, but was actually done in computer animation. McKay certainly gave tons of input on films that he liked that he’d seen previously, brick films that we could look at on YouTube and then his actual approach, if he had done it in stop motion, what would be the things he’d do. Like carving out the hole to its shoulders so we could shrug the shoulders or carving away the centre post for the neck so that we could actually have them tip their heads forward and back, which they can’t do if we stay true to it.”

“There’s lots of things like explosions and water and those kinds of things where the colour will change, but in very specific increments that are based on the actual brick palette to reduce opacity and things like that. Grant spent a lot of time with the effects guys simulating water and doing tests.”

“There’s a lot of things in there that we did develop was how to vary the connectivity and what types of bricks do you use and there’s a lot of tech involved. They’re all legitimate LEGO bricks, but we developed a lot of tech to enable us to fill those volumes with different types of bricks and change the way that their colours work and all that kind of stuff, and that went all the way through the pipe down to effects and connectivity and how the different bricks go together,” explained Sarsfield.

“Some of the other stuff, too, that you might notice when you look at those things is the connection between the bricks is often not perfect. The way that the bricks stack, if you were to do like a regular animated film with LEGO, it would all look mathematically perfect with every single brick sitting comfortably on top of each other. We spent a lot of time making sure that there was an inaccuracy and there was a certain tolerance between the bricks that put little gaps in there that were random and made it look sort of real, like somebody had built it and not pressed it together properly.”

“We deliberately, by the way, made decisions about everything in Lord Business’s office. We had different settings than out in the wild west for example because his world is perfect,” added Production Designer, Grant Freckleton. “We still kept a little bit in there to keep it looking real, but less gaps.”

There are then all sorts of decisions made about the other elements that add to the overall feel of a film such as this. Elements such as water and smoke bring all sorts of new problem to bear.

High-end Post-production System -

From HD to UltraHD and 8K Colour Grading Stereo 3D VFX Finishing DCP DI HFR

In use to render the movie was Glimpse, a system created in Max Liani’s spare time.

“Max Liani, who was the lighting supervisor on ‘Walking with Dinosaurs 3D’, as a hobby, just for fun was making some render engine just, you know, on weekends,” explained Freckleton.

“It was originally just designed as a way of previewing lighting more so than actually rendering itself, so ‘Dinosaurs’ was all rendered in RenderMan, but the lighting artist would preview their lighting set ups using real time rendering and it was CPU based, it wasn’t GPU based like a lot of real time renders and it was really, really fast and really, really efficient. So we ended up embracing that initially as a sort of hybrid system, I guess where Glimpse, from what I recall, was doing a lot of the reflections.”

Broadcast Asia, 17 - 20 June, #5K6-06, Singapore

“Coming off the back of ‘Dinosaurs’ we’d seen the potential for that and basically what we thought was we would take Glimpse and we would make it a ray accelerator for PRMan and it would be purely to do with raytracing,” adds Sarsfield.

“PRMan, historically, has only just moved into raytracing. I mean, one of the biggest issues that you have with LEGO is geometric complexity, all of the bricks have internal detail, all this kind of stuff and PRMan struggles with that when you’re doing raytracing, so we thought we were going to take Max’s technology and introduce it as a ray accelerator. As it turned out, we got in there and we started doing it and then thought we’re actually going to take it a lot further than that.”

“Max and Luke Emrose turned it into a primary renderer and it started to produce incredibly efficient results. We got to the point where animation layout effects, we were using Glimpse as the primary renderer to do all our reviews,” concluded Freckleton.

Visit www.animallogic.com

POST PRODUCTION

One of the most impressive ways that the Animal Logic team stayed true to stop motion animated films and the tactile experience of playing with LEGO is in the imperfections. It ranges from the weathered ‘80’s space guy Benny all the way through to varying degrees of separation between bricks, specifically to add plausability to the movie.

“There’s lot of little decisions there. Depending on the scene we might choose to make it look like real water, but render it out of LEGO bricks. If it was a slightly more stylised scene, sometimes we would try and make it look like cartoon water made out of LEGO bricks. Then there’s a lot of decision making about how many layers of blue do we have in there and when does it get too messy, when does it hurt your eyes in stereo when it’s whizzing through the screen in slow motion blur, so it was a lot of trial and error and a lot of thinking about it in the effects department iterating.”

MISTIKA

B e a u t i f u l l y C r e a t i v e Te c h n o l o g y

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POST PRODUCTION

V-Ray 3.0 for 3ds Max

Given the V-RAY treatment. “Level10” by Toni Bratincevic.

CHAOS GROUP’S V-Ray

DFT, A LEADING PROVIDER of high-end film and digital post

3.0 for 3ds Max includes significant optimisations to the ray tracing core, Brute Force GI, Progressive Path Tracing, Reflections, Refractions and more are running up to 5x faster; while the new Progressive Production Renderer brings a new era of fast set-ups and quick iterations.

production solutions that preserve, manage, and deliver high quality images, is announcing the global launch of its new state-of-the-art, SCANITY HDR film scanner at NAB 2014. As well as the SCANITY HDR scanner, DFT will be showcasing its concept “Wet-gate” solution.

V-Ray 3.0’s new interface comes in three UI modes (Basic, Advanced, and Expert) which can be selected to match an artist’s preference.

The new V-Ray toolbar includes Quick Settings with dropdowns for production-ready presets for common uses like Archviz Exterior, Archviz Interior, and VFX. Settings for Quality and Shading Rate can be fine-tuned with easy-to-use sliders.

V-Ray 3.0 offers improved Subsurface Scattering (SSS) including options for object-based and ray traced illumination, faster hair rendering speeds (up to 15x), viewdependent tessellation that automatically smoothes hair curves, and a dedicated Skin Shader with layered reflections. Now with UDIM and UVTILE support, it’s even easier to move MARI and Autodesk Mudbox assets into V-Ray. Visit www.v-ray.com

Forbidden Technologies Update FORscene NAB 2014 has seen Forbidden Technologies showcasing enhancements to FORscene, including an iOS version of the product.

The company also showed integration with deltatre’s Magma graphic system.

POST PRODUCTION

New Enhancements to FORscene include the addition of highresolution proxy; edit interface upgrades, including the Record Timeline Patch Panel and improvements to trimming, audio editing, and publishing tools; increased account and user customisation for saving keysets and interface layouts; half speed playback capability for improved logging and transcription; new site manager interface with increased management tools; cloud upgrade to support new file formats; and server Lite improvements for remote news workflows.

A new iOS version of FORscene will enable users to log, edit, and publish from FORscene on any iOS device with an internet connection — making FORscene among the most accessible professional postproduction services available.

The latest FORscene integration with the Magma graphic system from deltatre will also be on show at the booth.

Visit www.forscene.co.uk

DFT Launching SCANITY HDR

Answering the needs of its customers, DFT is launching its new HDR film scanner, which excels in the uncompromising ability to handle a range of difficult and historically-aged film issues. SCANITY HDR facilitates the ingest of difficult dense black and white materials at real-time speeds using DFT‘s new proprietary, patented tripleexposure technology. This has the advantage over traditional scanners because the triple exposure is executed once, in real-time 2K or up to 15 fps in 4K, which means that instead of slowing down the speed stays consistent.

SCANITY HDR has been shown at NAB in its pre-production guise, highlighting its new cosmetic black look finish and detailing, with the production model shipping later in the summer. The production scanner shows an LED array embedded behind the front door surface to highlight the active and current status of the scanner mode – Play, Stop and Record. SCANITY HDR will come with the additional option of the new Wet-gate solution. In this machine variant the deck plate will be pre-prepared for the required pipes and Wet-gate interconnections allowing users to add this proprietary DFT technology if and when desired.

DFT also showcased PHANTOM II, its new software transfer engine solution developed for existing SPIRIT users. This hybrid software development takes elements from both DFT’s Flexxity and Bones playout tools to produce a simple yet effective alternative to the current Bones solution.

Its aim is to provide up-to-date Spirit HD, 2K and 4K users with a new, easy to operate and cut down data transfer engine for ingesting and managing SPIRIT data transfers. This allows existing Bones users to migrate their SPIRIT data transfers via this new software engine.

Visit www.dft-film.com

Lightworks 11.5 for Linux and Windows EDITSHARE HAS RELEASED Lightworks 11.5, its cross-platform editing software, which now includes some major changes to the Pro and Free versions. The new release features some major updates to the user interface, which greatly improve the editing experience, a smarter right-click menu populated with your favourite pre-sets and FX plus greater control for playback. And now, thanks to new background tasks, editors can continue to work whilst importing, rendering and even exporting.

Completing the line-up of major new features is the inclusion of AJA hardware support, allowing Lightworks to recognise the AJA ioXT or Kona cards on the Windows and, soon to be released, Mac OS X platform.

Lightworks was used to edit Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street – demonstrating the results users can achieve with Lightworks’ editing engine. Version 11.5 is available to download on both Windows and Linux.

The new free version now allows users to import all professional and consumer video formats natively on its timeline, offering the exact same editing functionality as the professional version. However, the professional version gives editors a far wider choice of output formats, while the free version is restricted to web publication, YouTube and Facebook being good examples.

Visit http://editshare.com and www.lwks.com

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5/06/14 12:44 PM

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM SGL Brings Flash Workflow to Korea, Indonesia

Arirang TV has installed an SGL FlashNet archive fully integrated with a Geminisoft Ariel MAM system. The installation was carried out by South Korean systems integrator SBS Newstech.

The integration between SGL FlashNet and Arirang’s Geminisoft Ariel MAM system allows content delivered to-and-from the archive to easily be reformatted from MOV to MXF files.

Arirang TV produces fast turnaround, 30-minute news programmes, every two hours, 24/7 365 days per year and Korean lifestyle and cultural programmes.

As well as providing a scalable archive, SGL allows full support for LTFS-formatted archives.

This was a key driver in Arirang’s purchasing decision.

Donald Li, SGL’s Director of Sales, APAC, said, “SGL FlashNet is the ideal content storage management system for networks like Arirang TV who are producing fast-paced news

programming.

"FlashNet provides automated storage management that keeps data where it’s needed most, allowing rapid access to recent and ‘live’ content, and then automatically moving material to longer term storage as access priorities change with data age. We are delighted to announce this sale. “ Meanwhile, Indonesian television network Kompas TV has installed an SGL FlashBox as a key element of its new digital archive workflow.

Integrated with Grass Valley’s GV STRATUS production and content management toolset, SGL FlashBox provides Kompas TV with a fully integrated archive environment that delivers greater workflow efficiency by enabling users to work collaboratively and accomplish tasks in parallel.

The FlashBox installation at Kompas TV includes an HP tape library with 48 slots and two LTO-6 tape drives. A further advantage for their librarians using this combined SGL FlashBox and GV STRATUS solution is having immediate access to content following ingest from live feeds and cameras newsgathering in the field.

Content can be quickly catalogued, divided

Archival Disc Standard From Sony, Panasonic SONY CORPORATION and Panasonic Corporation have announced that they have formulated “Archival Disc”, a new standard for professional-use, next-generation optical discs, with the objective of expanding the market for long-term digital data storage.

The two companies say optical discs have excellent properties to protect themselves against the environment, such as dustresistance and water-resistance, and can also withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored. They also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve.

This makes them robust media for long-term storage of content. Recognising that optical discs will need to accommodate much larger volumes of storage going forward, particularly given the anticipated future growth in the archive market, Sony and Panasonic have been engaged in the joint development of a standard for professional-use next-generation optical discs.

These efforts resulted in the formulation of “Archival Disc”, a new professional-use next-generation optical disc standard. Both Sony and Panasonic aim to launch systems with a recording capacity of 300GB per disc from mid-2015, onwards. In addition, both companies plan to leverage their respective technologies to further expand the recording capacity per disc to 500GB and 1TB. In recent times, demand for archival capabilities has increased significantly in the film industry, as well as in cloud data centres that handle big data, where advances in network services have caused data volumes to soar.

Sony and Panasonic worked together on the development of Blu-ray Disc technology. The two companies plan to actively promote this next-generation high-capacity optical disc standard in the professional field in order to offer an effective solution for protecting valuable data into the future.

Visit www.sony.net and http://panasonic.net

into smaller segments or compilations and then sent to the tape library for intermediate archive. This means valuable material can be saved to archive without having to wait for editors or reporters to complete their edits.

This is the first SGL FlashBox and GV STRATUS installation in Asia, following the latest integration announcement between the two companies via SGL’s XML API in April last year.

According to Lee Sheppard, SGL’s Director of Product Management, “We’re delighted to announce this sale to Kompas TV, which further highlights our commitment to the Asia region. SGL FlashBox is the perfect solution for broadcasters that require an archive that delivers a fully integrated HSM system in a box.

"Partnered with GV STRATUS FlashBox further simplifies the archive workflow for Kompas TV librarians by allowing quick archive of ingested content. We look forward to meeting with visitors to Broadcast Asia 2014 to explain the workflow in detail.”

SGL will be exhibiting at Broadcast Asia 2014 on booth 5E3-02.

Visit www.sglbroadcast.com

Progress on MPEG Multimedia Archive Format RECOGNISING THE IMPORTANCE for the preservation of digital multimedia used in many different domains including cultural heritage, scientific research, engineering, education and training, entertainment, and fine arts, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) has started to work on the standardisation of the Multimedia Preservation Archival Format as ISO/IEC 23000-15.

At its 108th meeting in Valencia earlier this year, MPEG reached the first milestone to develop a standard for the preservation of digital multimedia by issuing the Committee Draft of Multimedia Preservation Application Format (MPAF).

The MPAF standard is based on many tools already developed by MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 standards and is expected to reach the Final Draft International Standard stage in early 2015.

Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM

SGL, THE PROVIDER OF content archive and storage management software for media and entertainment, has announced key sales to Arirang TV, the English-language network based in Seoul, South Korea, and Indonesian television network Kompas TV.

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6/06/14 10:32 AM

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

With Front Porch Digital, Costs Go Down and Productivity Goes Up at India’s TV18

by Piyush Gupta, Operations Director and Chief Technology Officer, TV18 TV18 IS A SUBSIDIARY of the Network18 Group, a media and entertainment company with interests in television, Internet, film, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content, and allied businesses. TV18 operates several news channels. TV18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom called Viacom18, which houses a portfolio of popular entertainment channels. TV18 has also forayed into the Indian factual entertainment space through A&E Networks | TV18, a joint venture between A&E Television Networks and TV18 Broadcast, and we also operate HistoryTV18.

With so many channels, there’s an endless onslaught of data, multiple complex workflows, and a never-ending need to fill the content pipeline.

We produce or source more than 10,000 hours of content annually across the network. We used to manage all of that content in tape libraries, but after getting more and more requests to restore from the archive, it became very difficult to meet the demand. Not only that, but managing videotapes takes significant physical space, and moving content among locations requires coordination and staff time. Also, because we needed the content to be in various formats at different stages, we were using multiple resources to convert and manage all the different recording formats.

The situation eventually became too complicated and inefficient, so we decided to go tapeless.

As part of that process, we evaluated many archiving and media asset management (MAM) products, but most of them did not provide an end-toend solution. For example, a few products were good at managing content in digital form, but they couldn’t read or write off of the LTO library. We discovered that Front Porch Digital products could do it all — manage storage servers, store and retrieve from LTO, and handle delivery — within a system that was built especially for the unique challenges of managing video data. As a bonus, Front Porch Digital has a direct presence in India, which would make for easier, timelier support if it were needed.

As a result, in 2007 we centralised our media archive using Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive content storage management system and automated tape library, and installed Front Porch Digital’s DIVAdirector MAM system to be our portal into the archive.

Digitising the tape library in DIVArchive proved invaluable because it made our content searchable, a fact that was especially important in our fastpaced news operations.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

DIVAdirector integrated directly and seamlessly into all of our existing workflows, ensuring any of the TV18 group of channels could access and repurpose any piece of content at any time, regardless of the format or workflow requirements.

For example, at our Noida station, we use Avid automation for managing news operations, whereas at another center, we use ENPS and Harris.

Both centers have different production formats as defined by Avid and Harris, respectively, and both archive their stories and other content on a daily basis. Because DIVAdirector manages the archived content, the entire library is accessible to both stations regardless of which one sent the content to the archive. Restore requests generated by a given station ensure that the content taken from the library gets restored in the format used by that particular station. Even our Web team, responsible for managing our news websites, has unrestricted access to the content, and DIVAdirector ensures that all of the team’s restore requests are delivered in Web format without any manual intervention with backend processes.

For our non-news stations, the workflow is straightforward, with content and its metadata being stored directly in the library and made available to production or transmission centers as needed through DIVAdirector. The DIVAdirector workflow helped us enormously after we added HD to our portfolio. With DIVAdirector, we can downconvert from HD to SD with no hassle.

Before using DIVArchive and DIVAdirector, we had to physically move tapes from one place to another in order for content to be available in a location other than the one that created it. If the production format at the requesting station was different than the original, the entire tape had to be ingested and

then transcoded before it was usable, which took precious time, especially for a news story that required nearly immediate turnaround.

Now, once the content is ingested into DIVArchive, users can access it via the Internet through DIVAdirector’s Web interface from any connected computer on any platform and any major browser. They can browse and preview low-resolution footage from the archive to perform various functions such as logging. And when they find what they need, they can restore or partially restore any piece of archived content in full resolution to any channel in our group at any time to create news programs.

DIVAdirector is the only MAM we use, and as of December 2013, our DIVAdirector system was managing 495,000 objects. Over time we added additional actors, additional slots, and additional workflows to accommodate new channels. Because users can preview the clips before selecting them, our production time has gone down and production quality has gone up.

Recently we upgraded our DIVArchive system to support API integration at one of our facilities, which helped us push content to the archive using our in-house application.

With DIVArchive and DIVAdirector, the whole process of archive and restore takes one-tenth the time that it used to take. Also, LTO technology requires one-fifth the space of conventional videotapes, and since LTO capacity is continually increasing, we save on the cost of physical space and infrastructure. The system has helped us build efficient workflows that have saved time and money for the company, and made us more competitive in the highly competitive world of 24-hour news and always-on content.

Visit www.fpdigital.com

SGL Showing Flash Products AT BROADCASTASIA 2014, SGL is showcasing its FlashNet content management solution designed to integrate with NRCS, MAM or automation control systems to provide improvements to workflow efficiency without intruding on users’ familiar desktop. Whether customers are looking for a single site archive system, main and back-up operation, or a hub and spoke configuration, FlashNet can accommodate their requirements with ease.

Using SGL FlashWeb broadcasters and content owners can archive material in the absence of a controlling MAM or automation system.

FlashWeb’s web UI is available on any device on the network to provide instant access to storage devices and media. The interface can be used on any platform: Windows, PC, Mac, or Linux.

SGL will also be demonstrating FlashBrowse, its archive management application. FlashBrowse can be configured to provide at-archive browse creation, automatically generating browse resolution copies of clips as the high resolution versions are archived. The FlashBrowse interface can be used to instigate restores or partial file restores directly from the desktop.

SGL is further highlighting its support for LTFS at BroadcastAsia 2014.

Broadcasters and content owners now have true interoperability between what were once disparate systems. Material can be acquired directly to disk and then drag and dropped to data tape and transported back to the facility, removing the need to re-ingest content to the archive and enabling large amounts of data to be transported and archived on a single LTO tape. This puts the archive much further forward in the production process placing it alongside the ingest element of the chain.

Visit www.sglbroadcast.com

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

The Evolution from Compliance Logging

By Erik Otto, CEO, Mediaproxy

In just over a decade, broadcast logging has evolved from a narrow compliance role to a much broader range of monitoring and revenue generating capabilities for broadcasters, cable and satellite companies. The advances made have turned loggers into highly diverse appliance for broadcasters, covering far more territory than their original mandate. The next generation of logging applications needs to be ready to cater to an even wider range of applications in the broadcast chain.

EARLY ADVANCES IN DIGITAL LOGGING Media recorded from baseband sources is essentially encoded, proxy size media. Although this meets the requirements of content compliance and covered some quality assurance, it does not offer an easy way to enhance quality of service (QoS) of the actual transmission or to access the metadata available in the original transport stream (TS). The cost of storage used to be relatively high and retaining 90 or more days of native transmission quality video and audio as required by regulators was not cost effective. In addition, network connections were not always fast enough for larger files sizes and much higher bandwidth required to stream native MPEG media. Moore’s Law over time delivered faster hardware, larger capacity servers and storage, and faster networking infrastructure.

That significantly opened up new opportunities for broadcasters.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

TRANSPORT STREAMS AS THE SOURCE Leading the way to the dawn of the second generation of digital loggers, Mediaproxy’s foresight and broadcast experience brought recording from transport stream sources to traditional compliance logging as an industry first in 2008. This allowed broadcasters to monitor, review and analyze native transmissions, and to store them on the same cost-effective local storage array in parallel with their proxy media. Engineers could now review native transmissions from the past few days to complete technical forensics to improve their services. QoS monitoring, whether live or offline, provided seamless review from local and remote locations. This technically provides customers with a path to true compliance, since baseband is not the transmission format. Also being able to perform ASI play out for sections of interest directly from an intuitive use web interface has given engineers a powerful option to replay transmission in its original format on demand.

METADATA, SEARCH AND ANALYSIS TS logging enables simultaneous recording and

streaming of up to hundreds of ASI- or IP-based channels. Metadata, such as closed captioning (EIA608/CEA708/OP42/OP47), DVB subtitles, multiple language tracks and, EGP and PSIP information, is available for advanced search, live detection and after the fact exports via extensive burn-in and transcoding features.

Adding to the Swiss army knife of logging, extensive transport stream analysis, digital program insertion detection (SCTE-35/104) and fingerprinting engines to provide random content matching and ad verification also made their way into the ever growing portfolio of the once humble VHS replacement.

GREEN IS GOOD Energy consumption and form factor is another important factor for broadcasters. Mediaproxy heavily invests in hardware R&D to offer increased channel density, storage capacity and processing power whilst maintaining the highest level of redundancy and reliability.

Hardware components are carefully chosen and undergo rigorous test cycles to support 24/7 environments. Mediaproxy offers the most power efficient and cost effective enterprise grade SDI and IP platforms in a 2RU form factor, allowing for recording up to 12 and 48 channels of logging respectively.

THE REAL COST OF COMPLIANCE Today, broadcasters have to deal with ever increasing scrutiny by their respective regulatory bodies and compliance agencies. Changes are introduced at a faster pace and sometimes suddenly to keep up with, in turn, ever increasing scrutiny by audiences around the world, extending to pressures via social media platforms. Making an investment in the right platform has become more critical than ever.

Considering the availability of a broad range of products promising to provide a suitable solution, savvy customers are looking beyond marketing hype and low price points to find the most experienced partner, who can provide a truly sustainable solution. It’s paramount to team up with a technology partner who can

react to regulatory changes quickly and deliver both robust software and reliable hardware across to span the many years of 24/7 operation of the system to ensure the investment is protected. Having pioneered in this field of broadcast for over 13 years and substantially invested in cutting edge software research and development to ensure tomorrow’s complex requirements are sustainable, Mediaproxy’s flexible LogServer platform is intrinsically built to evolve with the changing needs of broadcasters.

Logging is often seen as one of the less important parts of larger scale projects or general compliance purposes. This is certainly true from the standpoint of weighing up cost and performance of technology that provides ‘to-air’ versus ‘off-air’ services. The reality is that the modern compliance logger will be accessible by a wide range of users across various departments beyond engineering including sales, marketing, master control, company executives, etc. The exposure and consequent reliance on such a product for several applications within the station, beyond the regulatory requirement, calls for a decision that takes more than the obvious factors into consideration.

Making an investment in a product that on the surface provides the obvious features required or potentially the cheapest price point may not always be the best decision. Taking into consideration the total cost of ownership requires a more rigorous due diligence process to ensure the chosen partner practices sustainable software product development and provides the best value solution for the future. Delivering on these high expectations is Mediaproxy’s sole focus. Our constantly growing team of highly skilled software and broadcast engineers ensures that the LogServer core engine is built on tomorrow’s development frameworks to provide the most reliable and flexible technology available.

Visit www.mediaproxy.com

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5/06/14 12:44 PM

AUDIO Digital soundwaves

www.content-technology.com/audio

Media Prima Malaysia Takes HARMAN Studer Vista 1 easy-to-learn Vistonics user interface and unique functionality, with 40 on-screen rotary knobs. Using Studer’s unique Virtual Surround Panning, the operator can take mono sources and create a realistic sound field.

The Vista 1 is a transportable all-in-one digital mixing console for broadcast, live and production use, with the control surface, I/O system, DSP and power supplies all contained within the console. This makes it the ideal choice when space is restricted, such as in OB and ENG vans. The Studer Vista 1 also features a redundant PSU for peace of mind, and RELINK integration with other Studer Vista and OnAir consoles means the Vista 1 can easily share signals across an entire console network. Two expansion slots for standard Studer D21m I/O cards may be used for interfaces connecting to popular formats, including CobraNet or Aviom A-Net, Ethersound, Dante, Dolby E and MADI I/O.

Media Prima Berhad Directors of Audio Engineering, Mohd Zaidi (right) and Nur Azrin (left).

MEDIA PRIMA BERHAD, Malaysia’s leading integrated media investment group, recently purchased a HARMAN Studer Vista 1 for multipurpose usage throughout all the Media Prima companies. This was supplied by HARMAN Professional’s local distributor, Mahajak Trio Electronic Sdn Bhd, and was the first Vista 1 to be delivered and commissioned in Malaysia.

According to Mahajak Trio Senior Manager, Sales and Projects, Lee Chin Kah, a reliable, highly flexible and cost-effective solution had been required by the station and Studer represented one of the best choices, with its reputation for reliability and sound quality. The station has been using Studer platforms since starting out in 1984, when they adopted early analogue consoles.

Another key feature is the Studer VistaMix, which is also available for Vista1.

VistaMix offers a unique solution by mimicking the action of a human operator, increasing gain for ‘talking’ mics and reducing gain for all others, quickly keeping the amount of total gain constant; even when several people are speaking, a clean live mix can be created. VistaMix also offers the ideal solution for news operations when multiple mics are installed in the studio but the desk operator is not sure which ones will be used. Vista Mix switches on only those mics that are in use, with an enable function that is faster than human mixing.

According to Director of Audio Engineering, Nur Azrin, the learning curve with the Vista 1 was minimal, and the intuitive Vistonics interface and FaderGlow made it easy for the sound engineer to operate compared with other digital consoles on the market. But most importantly, he confirms, the sound quality is the best and the support is excellent.

This function is one of the features the station had been eagerly awaiting within this price range, and as a result Media Prima will be able to migrate from stereo to surround sound mixing.

“We are in the process of adding the D21m AES EBU I/O card slot on the rear of the console to expand our AES I/O channels. It takes us less than a minute for the console to recognise the new I/O’s, just by pressing the ‘Reconfig’ button on the rear of the console. It’s so user-friendly to configure. Another advantage is that the Studer stagebox can be used or interchanged between Studer and Soundcraft, since we have few Soundcraft Si Performer digital mixers — so it will save the expense of buying another stagebox,” added Mr Azrin.

In addition, they noted that Vista 1 was extremely user-friendly, with an

Visit www.harman.com

“Studer’s reputation is legendary in the audio industry and the all-in-one Vista 1 console fitted the needs of our customer perfectly, containing all the advanced features of the Vista range, including surround 5.1, within the budget,” he said.

Calrec Makes Biggest Single Sale Ever to MBC Korea MBC in its biggest single sale ever. MBC purchased a variety of consoles, ranging from a 64-fader Apollo to a 24-fader Artemis Light, to be used for TV, radio, and outside broadcast productions for stations throughout the network. MBC made the purchase as part of its move to a new, purposebuilt facility.

During the selection process, MBC’s main criteria for the purchase were the stability of the system, the configuration of the redundancy, the reliability of the company in terms of both the manufacturer and the distributor, and the quality of after-sales support. None of the competing consoles scored as high as Calrec’s for stability and reliability, and Calrec desks also got the highest technical marks.

“The technical merit of the consoles was the reason MBC chose to buy mainly from Calrec,” said Mr. Chang, CEO, AVIX Tech, Calrec’s South Korean distributor. “Many Korean broadcasters have watched MBC’s investment in Calrec consoles with a good deal of interest. We believe that this sale will influence other broadcasters and help change the way they purchase

broadcast audio consoles. We hope they gradually move away from focusing entirely on price and instead look at better-qualified equipment.”

“MBC is the oldest and one of the four major national broadcasting networks in South Korea, so we anticipate others will pay close attention to the decisions it makes about its equipment,” said Graham Murray, regional sales director, APAC, Calrec Audio. “As other broadcasters visit the facilities, hear that MBC is satisfied with the systems, and see the quality of the broadcasts, they will be more inclined to purchase Calrec desks for their own facilities.”

Calrec and regional distribution partner AVIX Tech cooperated closely on the proposal, with AVIX Tech handling the sale, installation, training, and support.

It was recently announced that Calrec Audio is to become a sister company to fellow console manufacturer Allen & Heath following its acquisition by British private equity firm Electra Partners for £14 million.

Electra had previously acquired Allen & Heath in June 2013.

Visit www.calrec.com

AUDIO

CALREC AUDIO has sold 14 audio consoles to South Korean broadcaster

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AUDIO

Audio Soars with JetStream Plus LOGITEK ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS has released the JetStream Plus, audio router with dense 240-channel AoIP networking. Occupying only 4 rack units, the JetStream Plus provides ample audio I/O for both rack rooms and big studios, and can operate multiple Logitek digital consoles simultaneously. As with Logitek’s JetStream Mini, the JetStream Plus offers high density I/O that is configurable by the user to precisely tailor audio and networking requirements with a minimum of components and with minimal rack space.

Fifteen card slots are provided for analogue inputs, digital inputs, analogue outputs, digital outputs, SDI inputs and microphone preamps. A drop-down front panel makes access to cards easy, and redundant power supplies ensure robust performance. Any size Logitek console (Pilot, ROC, Mosaic, Artisan or vMix+) can be accommodated, and up to four consoles (36 faders total) may be operated via the JetStream Plus. The JetStream Plus readily interfaces to many hard disk audio playout systems as well as TV program automation control systems. It also connects directly to the studio-size JetStream Mini, allowing users to build a fully integrated facility via IP networking with a minimum of hardware.

Visit www.logitekaudio.com

Fairlight, Quantel Bring Video to Audio Editors FAIRLIGHT AND QUANTEL have announced the release of Fairlight’s new audio post Gateway integration module with Quantel QTube.

Quantel’s QTube technology provides industry partners with direct access to audio, video and metadata held on its Enterprise sQ production systems.

QTube has a RESTful API which is available to companies such as Fairlight, and enables development of new workflows with minimal engineering overhead.

The Quantel QTube API gives Fairlight audio editing systems instant, real-time access to Quantel video compositions directly within the Fairlight software.

Fairlight’s Gateway accesses the Quantel Enterprise sQ storage, with no rendering or video file import required, providing frame accurate playback, jogging and scrubbing over a local LAN network or even over the internet.

Extensive search functions allow the operator to quickly find pending work, and import audio assets from the Quantel server with ease. At the end of the session, the final audio is laid back directly to the Quantel server via Fairlight Gateway.

Visit www.quantel.com and www.fairlight.com.au

CEDAR Audio Enforces “Retouch” Patent CEDAR AUDIO HAS CONCLUDED an agreement with Diamond Cut Productions Inc. in respect of U.S. Patent No. 7,978,862, which is commonly known as “the Retouch patent”.

Having acknowledged the validity of CEDAR’s patent, Diamond Cut Productions has issued a notice of recall for its DC8 and DCForensic8 products stating:

AUDIO

“To settle the lawsuit brought by CEDAR Audio Limited asserting claims of infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,978,862, Diamond Cut Productions Inc. has agreed to discontinue the Direct Spectral Editing feature of its DC8 and DCForensics8 software, and recall all versions of its DC8 and DCForensics8 with Direct Spectral Editing sold in the United States. DCP will no longer support the DC8 and DCForensics8 products with Direct Spectral Editing.”

Visit www.cedaraudio.com

Jünger Audio Shows Voice Processor AT NAB 2014, Jünger Audio showed its D*AP4 VAP Voice Processor – designed for engineers working in radio stations, TV production voice-over studios and feature film ADR facilities.

The unit includes Jünger Audio’s proprietary Spectral Signature dynamic EQ – a new tool that offers automatic and dynamic EQ control to balance spectral differences. By analysing incoming audio and comparing its spectrum with individually predetermined voice ‘fingerprints’, the unit can automatically apply dynamic EQ corrections to give a consistent sound.

The D*AP4 VAP also includes processing such as HP/LP filtering, versatile dynamics section, full parametric EQ and de-essing, and is designed even for non-technical radio staff such as producers and journalists.

Jünger Audio has also provided a dedicated voice leveller combined with an auto-mixer circuit to help mixed voice programs into loudness-based broadcasting on the fly. Using the optional SDI I/O card automated voice over for SDI embedded audio becomes an attractive feature of the D*AP4 VAP. Available as either an insert into a mixing desk or as a stand-alone unit, D*AP4 VAP offers interfaces that allow integration in existing environments via an AES insert. The unit can also be used with an optional analogue board that adds two high quality mic-preamps.

Visit www.jungeraudio.com

Fibre-Based Audio Distribution System AT NAB 2014 CLEAR-COM presented ProGrid, a fibre-based infrastructure system that enables users to transport and distribute audio, intercom, video and control data.

ProGrid is based on the open AES3 and AES10 (MADI) standards, providing fibre-based transport, routing and format conversion as well as distribution of audio, intercom, video and control data with full management and diagnostic capabilities over the Optocore and SANE platform.

A versatile, modular approach enables users to size the system to match the demands of a specific production and budget, and to manage future expansion. The system is also quick to set up and break down.

Clear-Com also offers the BroaMan MUX-22 video distribution device, which further broadens the company’s capabilities to provide scalable, protocol independent transport of up to eight 3G/HD/SD-SDI video signals in each device. The MUX-22 can operate with the ProGrid systems or as a standalone solution.

Visit www.clearcom.com

OnAir Solutions New Oz Distributor for Sonifex SONIFEX, the manufacturer of interface products for radio & TV has announced OnAir Solutions as its new Australian distributor.

Sonifex makes products used in stations around the world, including the Signal LED range of signs, Redbox analogue, digital and SDI interface equipment, and portable commentator mixers. OnAir Solutions will be offering the extensive range of Sonifex products for both one-off applications and integrated into larger projects.

Marcus Brooke, Managing Director of Sonifex, said, “We welcome OnAir Solutions into the Sonifex team and look forward to working together to grow the Australian market.”

Paul Dengate, Managing Director of OnAir Solutions, commented, “We have a broad range of skills to service the TV and radio broadcast markets and the Sonifex product range fits in very well with our future plans.”

Visit www.onair.com.au

ARTEMIS

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MIS

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ARTEMIS

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AUDIO

ETSI Releases AC-4 Audio Codec Standard ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute), has released AC-4, offering the flexibility to support future audio experiences. End users will be able to hear what a football match sounds like from the stands or the field, and experience sound that transports them to the centre of the action.

Benefits of AC-4 include:  Intelligent Loudness: Automated loudness management means more precise control and eliminates problems with cascaded processing.

It acts across a wide range of devices and applications (home theatre to mobile) and can be configured to align with numerous worldwide standards.  Advanced Dialogue Enhancement: End users can have control of the dialogue level in relation to other sounds in the program.  Advanced Accessibility: Service providers can deliver secondary audio in 5.1 surround without doubling file sizes or altering bit-rate.

A/V Frame Alignment: AC-4 is the first audio format allowing audio frame sizes to precisely match video frame size. This allows the AC-4 data stream to be edited/spliced at video frame boundaries and maintain synchronisation without decode and re-encoding of the audio.

Visit www.etsi.org

TC Electronic Unveils New Loudness Meter Plug-Ins TC ELECTRONIC DELIGHTEDLY announced three new loudness meter plug-ins for audio and video editing systems at NAB 2014. The LM2n and LM6n meters offer a wealth of new features including ‘Radar View’. The LM1n plug-in is a new addition and provides the basics of loudness metering while only creating a small on-screen footprint. The new LM2n and LM6n native plug-ins replace the previous LM2 and LM6.

All support the major plug-in formats, including AAX, VST, and Audio Units, even offering faster than real time off-line measurement within Pro Tools.

For large broadcast stations and production facilities, TC Electronic offers LM1n, LM2n and LM6n in a bulk version, negating the need for clumsy iLok protection. Bulk customers can readily adjust their number of licenses, and as an extra kicker, a company logo will be integrated into the interface.

Visit www.tc-now.com

NEUMANN HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of its first digital studio monitor; the KH 120 D. Based on the KH 120 A studio monitor launched in 2010, the KH 120 D sets a new benchmark of sonic quality and price-performance in the nearfield monitor market. Designed for tracking, mixing and mastering applications in music, broadcast, project and post-production studios, the KH 120 D utilises the latest acoustic and electronic simulation technologies.

Equipped with an additional BNC input for AES/EBU or S/P-DIF formats, the KH 120 D realises a completely digital workflow.

Visit www.neumann.com

Dynaudio Professional BM mkIII Monitors Revealed DYNAUDIO PROFESSIONAL displayed its range of BM mkIII monitors at NAB 2014. Dynaudio also aired (apologies) its AIR Control software for Mac, PC and Windows-based tablets.

The smaller BM Compact mkIII and BM5 mkIII models both feature expanded frequency response and SPL thanks to a combination of improvements including driver design and Class D amplifiers. Both BMS II subwoofers have also been optimised to compliment the new range of near-field monitors.

Visit dynaudioprofessional.com

RTW Introduces TM3-Primus Touchmonitor RTW RECENTLY INTRODUCED its TM3-Primus TouchMonitor range of audio meters.

Targeted at music and multimedia producers, the TM3-Primus can be used as a desktop unit offering analogue and digital audio ports. In addition, it features an advanced USB hybrid mode where a metering point in a digital audio workstation (DAW) (implemented using a specific RTW plug-in) is visualised on the TouchMonitor.

As an ultra-compact and low-cost TouchMonitor version, it is equally suited for use in minor or secondary workflows for broadcasting, music and voice recording and video editing.

Visit www.rtw.de

RTW Debuts Masterclass Plugins Series

CEDAR Launches Studio 6 Processing Suite

RTW ANNOUNCED the debut its Masterclass PlugIns range at the 2014 NAB Show. The software provides the company’s metering tools as standard-format plug-ins for Windows and OS X.

CEDAR HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of CEDAR Studio 6, which includes three new processes, and is both AAX Native and VST compatible.

Each RTW Loudness Tools Masterclass plug-in depicts audio with all relevant level and loudness values as specified by international standards.

Adaptive Limiter 2 calculates a continuously varying EQ profile that constrains the output while retaining integrity of the input, while Auto Dehiss determines the broadband noise content and removes it without the introduction of unwanted side-effects.

The RTW Loudness Tools support all standard sampling rates up to 96kHz and operate in mono, stereo and surround formats. The plug-in includes RTW’s Peak Program Meter, TruePeak, and Spot Correlator instruments and also offers all common loudness formats.

The user interface of the plug-in is based on the RTW TouchMonitor TM7 and TM9 units, and offers the same degree of functionality and clarity as the hardware models.

AUDIO

Neumann Launches Digital KH 120 D Near-Field

Visit www.rtw.com

Debuzz removes unwanted signal components across the entire audio spectrum, Declick offers better impulsive noise detection and a better interpolator, and Decrackle boasts the ability to dig into a damaged signal to identify and remove grungy crackle. It also removes many forms of buzz and some amplitude distortions from material as diverse as cylinder recordings.

Declip identifies and removes clipping in a single pass, while DNS One suppresses rumble, hiss, whistles, babble, and general background noise.

Visit www.cedaraudio.com

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TRANSMISSION Signal distribution, test & measurement

www.content-technology.com/transmission

SoftCast – the Ideal Ecosystem EARLIER THIS YEAR, Ideal Systems Group, one of Asia’s largest broadcast systems integrators, dove into the developer pool with the launch of SoftCast Technologies, a suite of downloadable solutions for broadcast television operators.

Since the launch, global digital media company Brand New Media has selected SoftCast for multichannel automation, playout, and media asset management in its new playout facility in Singapore.

The SoftCast range of products includes software modules for channel in a box; traditional automation; hybrid automation; content ingest; content playout in HD-SDI and IP; CG graphics; media asset management; newsroom computer system; live feed edit and censorship; broadcast schedule planning (traffic); and broadcast ad sales and contract management.

The modules can be used as standalone solutions or natively connected to provide an end-to-end broadcast system. SoftCast modules can be delivered internationally over the Internet and are optimised to run on standard Dell computers that can be obtained locally in the user country. The ability to use standard equipment removes any difficult import regulations that many countries impose on broadcast equipment.

SoftCast is already available in multiple languages including English, Thai, Japanese, and Chinese, and will be localised into more languages as required.

According to Fintan McKiernan, CEO of Ideal Systems Singapore, “Softcast essentially came about to address a gap that we see in the broadcast market. Since we opened the Singapore office we have had a number of opportunities in countries like Indonesia, Myanmar and various countries where import duties and tax for broadcast equipment is actually quite opaque and, in some cases, we found it very difficult to accurately judge in advance what the landed cost of broadcast equipment is - which made it very difficult doing proposals into those countries.

working on it ‘just in time’, you get a very up to date machine that is using the latest processors and so on.”

“The other thing we noticed is that as the broadcast market moves into a lot more IT-centric space, there seems to be two tiers. There is kind of entry level equipment which is highly cost effective and potentially not as robust or not as feature rich, and then there is enterprise level equipment which tends to be predominantly North American or European and by the time it gets here it is very expensive and very expensive to support and difficult to support with the majority of support coming out of North America and Europe. So, forcing Asian operators here, especially the smaller ones who don’t have large technical teams, into maintenance calls at 4pm, 5pm, 8pm, 9pm at night and so on.

“But, all of the parts are native integrated,” says the Ideal Systems Singapore CEO. “So there is no integration cost, there is no integration overhead and there is no integration lead time when an operator starts to put building blocks together. Now, that again, is a major bonus for smaller broadcasters who don’t have integration budgets, who are in the base band world didn’t have the big integration requirements because it was an SDI based band workflow, but when these guys move into the software world where APIs, soap interfaces and so on require programmatic integration rather than base band cable integration, then they’ve got expense that maybe they haven’t budgeted for or maybe they find hard to scope.

“So, against the backdrop of those two factors as contributing factors, we realised that there was a real open space in terms of a mid-level broadcast ecosystem. That’s where the market requirement for Softcasts evolved as we saw it.”

“What we are doing is offering these smaller, maybe newer, broadcasters a quicker and more cost effective route to market because we are effectively removing integration costs, if they stick within the ecosystem, but also because it is fully modular we are not pushing or we are not mandating that they stick within the ecosystem.”

“Dell is represented in every market locally,” says McKiernan. “So, this immediately gives us the opportunity to give a specification for a Dell to an operator that they can pick up locally.

“From an Asia perspective, people are buying boxes that are made from components that are made in Asia, that are shipped in a lot of cases to North America, then they are put in a factory in North America where software is installed on top of the Windows or Linux and then flown back to Asia again.

“Before these things even start life here they have been around the world once or twice and have been in and out of various customs duties as well. So, before we even start with the function of any Softcast broadcast system, we are already into the fact that it’s cheaper, better supported, easier to obtain and, typically, because the Dell components are

While Softcast is a software ecosystem, McKiernan says users can take the ingest module on its own, the newsroom module on its own, scheduling and traffic, and so on.

While designed to meet the requirements of Asian broadcasters, McKiernan says because the Softcast platform is delivered via the Internet, broadcasters from other regions could also look at its adoption.

“Our physical area of good support and coverage is where our points of presence are,” he says. “So, it is the 10 countries in Asia where we have offices, or the nearby countries. However, for example, if someone in Australia rang up and said they wanted a Softcast, we would probably look to a local partner in Australia for something like that, because its broadcast.

File types are always variable, there is always some idiosyncrasy. There is always something special in every market. So my guess is that if this takes off outside of our target geographical market, and given that by the nature of its delivery mechanism over the internet, we don’t have geographic boundaries, we would look then to take in partners if you like to work with us on that.”

Visit www.idealsys.com

TRANSMISSION

Aggregating a set of in-house technologies with that from “best of breed manufacturers”, Ideal pulled them together under a single brand to offer a “pre-integrated ecosystem” optimised to run on standard Dell PCs.

Fintan McKiernan, CEO of Ideal Systems Singapore.

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KVM Matrix Switches in the Broadcast Environment Steve Montgomery investigates the expanding application of Keyboard, Video and Mouse (KVM) matrix switches in the broadcast workflow.

A CONSEQUENCE OF TAPELESS WORKFLOW is the increasing

wired interconnection.

requirement to store and manage large data files. Large quantities of workstations and software licences are required to provide the necessary availability of applications for the many users of a studio or edit suite.

Massive amounts of digital content need to be transferred between machines so that files are available wherever and whenever they are required. These constraints, together with the large amounts of local storage, high number of workstations, multiple copies of data and application software that are required, soon result in an IT bottleneck.

A KVM matrix switch will provide near-instantaneous (millisecond) switching of single, dual and quad-head digital HD video to monitors together with analogue and digital audio and transparent, bi-directional USB2.0 data, enabling the connection of HID devices, tablets, jog wheels, memory and webcams.

One alternative option assigns computers to particular tasks and connects users’ terminals to them dynamically and only when required. On-demand connection is made through a KVM (Keyboard, video and mouse) matrix switch directly between a computer and a user’s console. Software applications and content reside on dedicated machines which are accessed by users when they need them, without being restricted to a specific workstation or location.

KVM matrix switches, such as the IHSE Draco tera enterprise range are available in modular form with a single chassis capable of managing up to 288 individual ports. Additional chassis may be added and integrated to extend the total number of available ports in a single system. With technology such as Flex-Port each port is capable of dynamic allocation as an input or output, so the configuration does not have to be set and fixed.

Ports may be copper- or fiber-connected; allowing mixed networks within a single system which satisfying the distribution needs of very large studio complexes.

This technique allows computers and storage devices to be centralised in managed CARs (Central Apparatus Rooms); the computers connect through the switch over copper or fibre cables to specific user consoles comprising a video display, keyboard and mouse. In essence, the KVM matrix switch performs on computer files the same process that the video router does on live video signals: it routes them between source and display equipment as necessary.

Fully-redundant systems can be deployed using duplicate components (power supplies, processors, I/O cards etc). Parallel paths to dual-operational extender devices can be made directly or through standby switches. Another important feature is the way a system operates in failure mode, particularly of the main switching chassis. Critical systems must continue to operate as setup with the last switch settings, rather than fail completely and blank any screens.

Users have real-time access to a computer, but rather than using a computer located near their desk, it is actually some distance away and connected by wire to their console.

Future-proof strategies are crucial within the broadcast environment to accommodate new standards. Modular design ensures support for single, dual and quad-head devices and that HD, 2K and 3D technologies are accommodated. Future 4K and beyond will be supported when used with the appropriate extender units.

Simplified switching and pre-defined connection routes, together with extensive administrator control, ensures that only authorised and, where necessary, prioritised users, have access to specific machines. Control can be managed through on-screen and web-based GUIs and by means of standard broadcast control systems.

There are a number of benefits to using a KVM matrix switch as the core of a distributed system: Computer co-location aids access – Centralising computers in an environmentally-controlled CAR maximises security and aids access for IT management. Unauthorised copying of files by means of USB flash memory devices is prevented.

One computer per application reduces equipment cost – Divorcing the computer from the user workstation means a computer can be configured and assigned to a specific task and made available as needed by a user, rather than providing the same application to several users for intermittent use alongside other programs.

General purpose studios and edit suites enhance usability - Studios and edit suites can be built for general purpose use, rather than designated to a specific task or project. The application and content effectively ‘follow’ the user around; which means that a studio or edit suite can be used by any user.

TRANSMISSION

Once an organisation has decided to commit to a distribute system of this type, there is the choice between a KVM matrix switch that provides direct connections, or a KVM-over-IP system which packetizes data and distributes it to users using the TCP/IP protocol over Ethernet.

Whilst KVM-over-IP solutions may be cheaper, they are not designed for real-time data transfer. As a result, they have a number of disadvantages that mean they are not suited to intense broadcast applications. These include high compression ratios resulting in visual artefacts, bit-stuffing and frame dropping, switching latency between tasks and packetisation transmission delay. They often use web-browsers which have their own performance problems. Interface devices (GUI and HID) devices may be incompatible and slow to respond. In addition they may overload the network unless carefully planned.

The KVM matrix switch does not suffer from these disadvantages as it routes and connects display consoles directly to computers over a dedicated, hard-

Configuration of the matrix switch connections can be achieved through a number of methods common to computer industries and familiar to all IT departments, including a graphical web interface through a Java tool, on-screen display, serial and Ethernet command stream access and even in-band keyboard operation with hot keys. Commonly-used broadcast control systems such as those from BFE and VSN are regularly integrated with KVM matrix switches to provide integrated control within the broadcast environment. The capability of the switch to provide near-instantaneous switching matches the rest of the video distribution system to align video and computer paths.

KVM matrix switches have already been deployed in many broadcast installations, including: outside broadcast and satellite news gathering (SNG) vehicles; TV and radio broadcast studios; and film and TV post-production studios.

In studios, computer consoles can be adapted and used for a range of data manipulation and information applications: playlists, file preparation and distribution, news feeds, phone-in call handling and so on.

The high speed technology offered by matrix switches enables the creation of virtual edit suites supporting a range of software-based tools including Vizrt graphics production and management packages, Avid Symphony, DS, and Media Composer, as well as DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro workstations. With this setup, the entire resources of the production house can be instantly accessible at any end-point.

As computers encroach more deeply into all aspects of high performance data processing, KVM matrix switching will become more common. In the broadcast industry this process is occurring rapidly with increasing benefits attributed to users. It is a trend that is set to grow in scope and will undoubtedly evolve with new video formats and broadcast techniques and technology.

Steve Montgomery is an independent consultant with experience in broadcast and AV video transmission technology and high-performance display technology.

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TRANSMISSION

Designing and Supporting Fibre

By Josh Simons, technical director, Argosy Fibre is now a standard part of the broadcast infrastructure. Today, most installation and maintenance engineers are familiar with fibre, although there is still concern that it is somehow more complicated to work with than copper co-ax.

I ALSO SEE A SECOND SLIGHT HESITATION in moving to more fibre. That is that design engineers are reluctant to take advantage of the full benefits of fibre. We need to move to a situation where we use fibre for what it is good at, not just as a replacement for copper.

First, we should define what we mean by fibre relevant to the broadcast industry. There is the SMPTE camera cable, which is a tightly defined structure containing a pair of fibres for the signals and a two pairs of copper, one for control and the other to carry power to the camera.

We then have what engineers are calling “tactical” fibre. This is simply a transmission medium, which can carry any signal from point to point. More specifically, it can carry a huge data bandwidth from point to point. Finally there is “dark fibre” which is installed for redundancy and for future expansion.

We spend a lot of time talking to broadcast installation engineers and systems integrators, and from all our research we find that the vast majority of fibre failures happen either at the connector or within a metre or so of it. This is an obvious conclusion if you think about it.

Connecting fibres means pressing the two end faces of the glass together tightly, and this inevitably creates wear. If you introduce dust or other pollutants when you connect the fibres, then the wear is even greater. The part of the cable installers handle is near the connectors, so this is the area which is most likely to get damaged.

The conclusions are obvious: minimise the number of connections (while planning for repairs when necessary); and if the cable is to be handled, choose something that will stand up to the job.

For standard installations, use a dedicated multi-core distribution cable.

This can be broken out in a termination tray with a patch panel. You can also use the high bandwidth capability of fibre to multiplex multiple signals onto a single fibre, with active devices to split them out and make them available for patching. Or you can combine the technology.

When planning the installation, assume there will be a need for expansion.

The cost of multi-core fibres is relatively trivial compared with the cost of re-engineering later, so build in plenty of extra capacity.

Fibre patch cords are readily available and cost very little. We worked with cable manufacturer Draka to develop a high-resilience cable, BendBright, which is very resistant to handling and is ideal for patch cords. They are likely to last for years, but should one fail just throw it away and replace it: the cost is negligible.

The same technique can be used for mobile and temporary installations.

The Neutrik OpticalCon system is designed to be a secure and highly

reliable connection for as many as 12 fibres in a single assembly. It is a simple push-pull connector to make rigging simple, but internally it has a very sophisticated spherical shutter that is easy to clean and guarantees low maintenance. A rugged jacket makes the cable tough for repeated handling.

Should a fibre cable be damaged it needs special skills to repair. At Argosy we have made an extensive investment in fibre optic splicing, polishing and termination equipment to provide support for our customers. We can work with SMPTE and tactical fibres in a number of jacket and connections options, to meet the needs of the installation.

To effect assembly and repairs requires high precision equipment and while we can and do take it out to the field to effect repairs, it can be expensive. There is an alternative solution, though, which again makes fibre the modern, practical solution. If the failure virtually always occurs at the connector or in the last metre of cable, make that readily replaceable.

If you are providing fixed SMPTE camera connections, in a sports stadium perhaps, then rather than running SMPTE cable the whole way, install tactical fibre from the outside broadcast connection point to the camera location. Inside sealed boxes, terminate the cable with a high reliability, telco-standard interface like LC. Then simply use a short length of SMPTE fibre from the box to the camera or to the truck. If it fails, replace it with another – it will be relatively inexpensive, can be done within moments, and will probably be cheaper than a field repair. Then return the faulty pigtail to us for factory repairs.

Fibre has huge technical advantages: it carries higher bandwidth signals over greater distances than copper. Yes, it is harder to terminate a fibre than soldering or crimping a BNC, but modern techniques mean that the connectivity is hardly a challenge. Talk to your cable supplier to get the best advice on the right choice of cable, connector and installation practice. The goal is a cable infrastructure that you can install and forget.

Visit www.argosycable.com

TRANSMISSION

It is the capacity of tactical fibre that means we should change the way we design cable layouts.

We have to try to forget the heritage, and not simply replace copper with fibre. As well as being more cost-effective, this will make for a more reliable, rugged installation.

It will also help with future expansion and the inevitable maintenance, so the cost savings are likely to continue.

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Keeping Traditional Broadcasting Cost-Effective

By James Gilbert, Pixel Power If you were to believe all the hype you hear at the big exhibitions around the world, you would think that electronic media has been utterly transformed. All the talk is about 4k and even higher resolutions, multi-platform delivery and the cloud.

MOST PEOPLE, THOUGH, still watch broadcast television, as it is transmitted. Even in the USA this is the case: the most recent research by Nielsen shows that around 90% of people – it’s actually 87% of broadcast and 93% of cable – watch television live, not even time-shifted.

There is pressure on quality, certainly, but that means migrating from SD to HD, nothing more. Audiences recognise the benefits of HD and are increasingly looking for it across more channels. They may well want 4k video, but not at the expense of changing the way they consume content.

So, the first target for broadcasters is to continue to deliver high quality content, in real time, accurately and seamlessly. Channels which have yet to migrate to HD will need to do so in the near future.

But, we cannot ignore the economic changes the industry and the world have undergone recently. That means that broadcasters have to find new ways of maximising revenues and minimising operational costs.

LOCALISATION One of the ways to boost revenues is to deliver more local content. Rather than a channel transmitting a national, or international, feed at all times, the content can be tailored more closely to the audience by means of splitting the area up.

The localised content could include covering every football team, for example. Regional news is also popular. But it could also be tailoring the output to the social, cultural and religious preferences of an area, making it more suitable and more attractive to the audience in that part of the territory.

The traditional broadcast infrastructure effectively treats each of these regions as a separate output from a playout automation system. That means more server ports, more switcher capabilities and greater complexity in the playlist preparation and management systems. The costs could easily outweigh the gains in audience.

The solution has to lie in a playout system which is simpler to implement and operate, inexpensive in capital outlay, and yet capable of high quality delivery and branding.

CHANNEL IN A BOX This technology has existed for some time now, and is widely known as “channel in a box”, because all the core functionality can be contained inside a single device. Typically, these devices contain some file-based content storage, some simple graphics capability and a control framework which ensures the right content is played out at the right time.

Early channel in a box solutions tended to be PC boards mounted in a 1U cabinet, with a video I/O board and a disk drive. While these can be costeffective, the more they rely on IT technology (which drives the price down) the less they tend to have broadcast quality and, particularly, reliability.

TRANSMISSION

At Pixel Power we took the opposite approach. We have a very powerful, very resilient graphics engine called Clarity, and we built onto that the playout capabilities. ChannelMaster delivers a channel in a box which is first and foremost a broadcast specification, high availability device.

It remains a simple, integrated solution, though. With high quality graphics already built in, the need to integrate third party equipment is removed.

Essentially, you just plug in the video output and a reference and the system is up and running.

As I write, for example, we are preparing a ChannelMaster system for Celebes TV in Indonesia. With the configuration being carried out at our factory in the UK, all we need to do is ship to the site and plug in. The simplicity of deployment is an important part of reducing the capital expenditure and therefore bringing down the cost of entry.

BRANDING Channel branding is much more than simply putting a bug in the corner of the screen. You may want to create teaser graphics for coming programmes, putting lower-thirds over the end of one programme to trail the next. You may want to create menus, rundowns and promos, based on standard templates.

But you do not want to tie up edit suites, and creative staff, doing the repetitive work that this requires. If the channel in a box solution can also deliver true broadcast quality graphics – and live graphical functionality like squeezebacks – then that is another layer of operational complication and cost which has been removed.

The sophisticated channel in a box will accept a set of rules and a set of templates, and automatically generate high quality presentation graphics.

Your on-air look should not be compromised.

SEAMLESS Alongside the reduced capital cost and simplicity of deployment, a good channel in a box system should reduce operational costs. Most obviously, it should accept and validate the playlist in a range of formats, rather than being tied to a single proprietary automation framework. If you want to give it the playlist as an Excel spreadsheet, then it should be capable of parsing it.

A more subtle consideration is file format and standards conversion. If the system can only cope with content in the target output format, then there needs to be external conversion, and a team of operators who ensure that the content is in the right format before feeding it to the channel in a box.

Again, this is operational complexity and cost that we want to drive out of the business. Better to identify a channel in a box solution that can deliver mixed format playback, and up and down conversion on the fly, with eventby-event aspect ratio correction.

The system should also minimise its impact on the network and on other systems in the operation. The standard ChannelMaster, for example, contains a local cache disk of 4TB, which means it can run for days should the link to the master asset management system fail for any reason, perhaps because it is installed in a remote centre, providing localised content away from the main playout facilities.

It also supports Sony XAVC encoding alongside MPEG-2. This native support gives broadcasters an option to move to higher efficiency compression, storing even more content on the 4TB disk without compromising quality.

DISASTER RECOVERY Another reason why the channel in a box system might be installed at a remote location is to provide a disaster recovery service for the main playout facility. The main centre could also be based on the same hardware, or it could be a traditional, multi-vendor playout automation system.

Broadcasters are increasingly valuing disaster recovery centres. Audiences are hard to win and easy to lose, and a channel off air for any length of time

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TRANSMISSION

can mean a lot of lost viewers. In a part of the world where natural disasters go hand in hand with sometimes unreliable infrastructure, it makes sense to have a remote facility to which you can switch transmissions should the main centre go down.

A well-designed system will ensure the channel in a box network at the disaster recovery site is kept topped up with the latest content and schedules, so it can take over at a moment’s notice. A high capacity internal store in the disaster recovery centre means it can be completely self-sufficient for an extended period.

RELIABILITY Traditional, linear broadcasting remains the bread and butter method of getting content to viewers and binding audiences to broadcasters. It makes sense to ensure that the playout process is of the highest quality and completely reliable, to maximise the economic benefit.

There is a huge range of choice in channel in a box systems, and it makes sense to investigate different options to see what sits best in your particular business and technical architecture.

What I would say, though, is that while the channel in a box embodies much of the future of electronic media, like file-based content, it is a core part of the traditional broadcast infrastructure, and reliability is critical.

With the right channel in a box system, you can maintain the quality of your premium channels, and bring new channels – and local variations – to air quickly and at low cost. The largely automated delivery will reduce operational expenditure, but leave you the ability to take manual control of the channel should you need to. The same functionality also allows you to create a rapid response disaster recovery site.

The result should be a flexible and powerful infrastructure which releases opex budget to help you invest in more programming and innovative services. That in turn will build your audience loyalty and, ultimately, profitability.

Visit www.pixelpower.com

COBHAM WILL FEATURE its new receiver platform, the PRORXD, which includes 1080p60 4:2:2 10-bit decoding capabilities during BroadcastAsia 2014.

Two configurations,1RU or 2RU, are each capable of decoding separate HD signals, including MPEG2 HD if required, effectively making them dual receivers. The PRORXD’s decoding algorithm has been specially engineered by Cobham to ensure full compatibility with all leading encoders.

A key benefit of the PRORXD system is that it automatically adjusts its encoding bit-rate capacity to ensure optimum picture quality by compensating for variations of ‘contention’ on IP networks. This feature is particularly valuable when using Ka-band and BGAN satellite systems.

If required, the PRORXD receiver can also act as an IP decoder using the interruptible foldback (IFB) audio input for automatic IFB for the presenter.

Cobham will also feature Nano HDTX, an ultra-miniature digital video transmitter designed specifically for POV and body-worn applications.

At its core is Cobham’s COFDM and H.264 encoding technology, which enables the transmitter to retain excellent image quality over a wireless link. Importantly, the transmitter supports composite, SDI, HD-SDI and HDMI video input formats.

The Nano HDTX’s small size, negligible weight and ultra-low power consumption have proven it to be ideal for extended unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications. For even greater range, optional lightweight, low-power amplifiers are also available.

Cobham will be on Stand 5E3-06 during BroadcastAsia 2014 Visit www.cobham.com

TRANSMISSION

Testor Lite - Broadcast Asia-OL.ai 1 5/6/2014 3:53:18 PM

Cobham to Showcase Wireless Links

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TRANSMISSION

IDC Unveils New Video Products INTERNATIONAL DATACASTING expanded its portfolio of solutions at the 2014 NAB Show in Las Vegas with the launch of new products for high performance video contribution, targeted ad insertion, and the latest video compression technologies to deliver premium content in Ultra High Definition format.

The new TITAN 3 Contribution Encoder delivers low latency encoding without requiring a proprietary decoder. It boasts a flexible internal modulator, as well as full support for all the leading audio and video formats and BISS encryption. TITAN 3 tackles the unique challenges of professional outside broadcasting and is suited for real-time critical content such as live sports.

NAUTEL WILL BE SHOWING their high-power NX transmitters, which are cost effective to own and operate, at BroadcastAsia 2014 (Stand 5G3-04).

Nautel NX 100, 200, 300 and 400 kW systems form the building blocks for higher power LW and MW systems. Using Nautel’s NXC two- to five-way combiners, configurations with outputs of up to 2MW can be configured.

Nautel transmitters feature many industry-first innovations such as IP audio I/O, Livewire support, Nautel’s Advanced User Interface (AUI), optional Orban Inside audio processing, and Omnia Direct, the industry’s first direct digital audio processor-to-transmitter path technology.

The LASER Multi Program Splicer (MPS) enables seamless content and ad insertion on multiple channels simultaneously. The LASER MPS also extends IDC’s LASER Targeted Ad Insertion Platform by integrating with existing receive-site equipment, and providing support for long-format program insertion.

Nautel offers web-compatible interfaces on all AM and FM products and a 17-inch touch screen Advanced User Interface (AUI) on NX and NV series transmitters. This control and instrumentation help engineers, save time and money. See all the new capabilities that have resulted in more than 4,000 AUI-capable transmitters worldwide.

IDC is also developing a 4K Ultra High Definition system as part of a new joint development program with the European Space Agency. The goal of the program is to enable the cost-effective delivery of live 4K UHD broadcast via satellite for distribution to the home and to digital cinema screens using the new HEVC compression algorithm.

Nautel brings its digital transmission expertise to a new and expanding line of low-power UHF TV transmitters supporting worldwide standards.

Visit www.datacast.com

New Snell Signal Assurance and Monitoring Solutions SNELL HAS ANNOUNCED new signal assurance and monitoring modules, including a media timing solution that helps broadcasters deliver greater operational efficiencies and ensure high quality media output across multiple screens. Part of Snell’s Live TV broadcast infrastructure offering, the solution can be deployed with or without existing Snell equipment, supporting fast, flexible and open technology architectures.

Snell says the signal assurance and intelligent monitoring solution answers an emerging issue for many broadcasters: how to maintain high-quality video and audio output when repeatedly processing media for delivery to multiple platforms, services and locations. This video and audio processing often puts sound and visual elements out of sync, particularly where it occurs through different workflows.

As one of the world’s largest transmitter manufacturers, Nautel applies its broad design capabilities and extensive experience to tackle even the largest medium wave deployments and integrations.

Visit www.nautel.com

Next Generation of LogServer from Mediaproxy MEDIAPROXY HAS INTRODUCED its next generation LogServer suite of products, including newly designed user interfaces.

The latest update to the flagship LogServer ASI logging and monitoring platform now includes LogJam Remote and Extract to Remote features, enabling automated transcoding and burn-in workflows to remote storage or cloud-based applications. Configuration Editor also includes several additions allowing for easily applying settings across multiple channels and enhanced configuration across transport stream sources.

Specifically, Snell signal assurance and intelligent monitoring includes:

LogServer now offers DVR/PVR-style clip based MPEG recording, suitable for competitive logging of native broadcast quality media, offering an enterprise grade solution for corporate networks, previously only available via consumer grade set top boxes with local disk storage.

Lip sync module (IQSAM00) – live video/audio timing measurement to quickly detect and correct when audio is out of sync with the action on screen, delivering continuous assurance that channel timing is correct.

ETR290 ASI priority monitoring is also available for both ATSC and DVB compliant transport streams via comprehensive native and HTML5 user interfaces available for Windows desktop and mobile platforms.

A new intelligent content monitoring module (IQHIP10) – provides in depth signal analysis of the media stream to the network monitoring system, allowing more subtle video, audio and metadata errors to be captured.

Mediaproxy’s new ATSC and DVB transport steam analyser, TSAnalyzer, features a versatile toolset for analysing a wide range of transport stream types and formats. Beyond forensics on file-based and live network stream sources, TSAnalyzer allows for connection to any LogServer ASI or IP. Once connected, extensive features for section bit rates, EIT, ETR290 as well as Closed Caption and multiple DVB Subtitles and Teletext sources is made available via the user interface.

New cost-effective quad split monitor (IQQSM00) – provides a local monitoring solution for up to four signals. Providing a single HDMI output allows integration with modern flat panel displays used almost exclusively in local monitoring applications, with a second SDI output for remote monitoring applications or server storage if required.

Monitoring by exception (RollMap) – Integrating information from all parts of the system, including the modules above, allows RollMap to display an operator friendly ‘exception-based’ view of the system so that any error alerts become instantly available. This allows rapid diagnosis and decision making, along with an in-depth history report for event tracking.

TRANSMISSION

Nautel Showing NX Transmitters at BroadcastAsia

New C&M application look and feel – The suite of RollX control and monitoring applications continues to be improved and enhanced with a choice of light or dark themes, docking panes, a more intuitive menu structure, and revised icons.

Visit www.snellgroup.com.

The latest version of Mediaproxy’s hybrid multi-viewer now supports live proxy streams generated by LogServer ASI as well as native MPEG decode in the same layout. Unlimited layout configurations allow for live monitoring of multiple Closed Captions, DVB Subtitle and Teletext streams, multi-channel audio and loudness.

LogPlayer Mobile is a native iOS 7 application for Apple iPad devices.

Unlike HTML5-based applications, which provide access to media via the built-in web browser on mobile devices, LogPlayer Mobile offers a familiar user interface and high-performance App to access recorded media and live streams.

Visit www.mediaproxy.com

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CLASSIFIEDS what’s on JUNE

SEPTEMBER

BROADCASTASIA 2014

IBC 2014

June 17 - 20 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore www.broadcast-asia.com

September 12 - 16 RAI Amsterdam www.ibc.org

COMMUNICASIA 2014

OCTOBER

June 17 – 20 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore www.communicasia.com

JULY ENTECH CONNECT July 23 - 24 Melbourne, Australia www.entechconnect.com.au

Advertiser Index Co./Last Name......................Page ABE 2014........................................47 Argosy..............................................13 Aspera..............................................11 Ateme................................................. 8 BroadcastAsia.............................. IBC Calrec...............................................39 Dalet.................................................27 Imagine Communications...... OBC

Ideal Systems................................... 3 Lynx Technik.............................. 9, 45 Magna Systems & Engineering... IFC Mediaproxy....................................35 Mediaware........................................ 4 Miller................................................17 Quantum.........................................15 Ross Video......................................23 SGO Mistika....................................31 Sony..................................................19 Techtel............................................... 5

AUGUST ABE 2014 – AUSTRALIAN BROADCAST EXHIBITION August 5-7 Novotel Manly Pacific Hotel www.abeshow.tv

BROADCAST INDIA October 15 - 17 Bombay Exhibition Centre www.broadcastindiashow.com

NOVEMBER IBC CONTENT EVERYWHERE MENA 18 - 20 November Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai www.ibcce.com

INTER BEE 19 - 21 November Makuhari Messe, Chiba City, Japan www.inter-bee.com

BIRTV August 21 - 24 China International Exhibition Center, Beijing www.birtv.com

Save the date!

ABE2014 Australian Broadcast Exhibition

exhibition

Tuesday 5 – Thursday 7, August 2014 Novotel Manly Pacific Hotel www.abeshow.tv

CLASSIFIEDS

featuring the latest in digital broadcast & production technology

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ASIA

+ANZ

MEDIA PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY

C+T AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND FEATURES + DEADLINES 2014 In Every Issue of C+T ANZ magazine: Acquisition, News Operations, Sportscasting, Post-Production & VFX, Media in the Cloud, Digital Asset Management, Audio, Radio, Transmission & Delivery, Signal Distribution, Command & Control – Automation, Monitoring, Systems Management.

ISSUE

EDITORIAL + AD DEADLINES

PUBLICATION DATE

Jan – Feb

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

20-01-14 28-01-14 04-02-14

2nd Week February

Mar-April

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

03-03-14 10-03-14 17-03-14

May-June

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

July-Aug

Sept-Oct

Nov-Dec

PRODUCT ROUND-UP

SHOW COVERAGE + Preview: Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit (Feb 24-25)

4th Week March

+H bbTV +M ulti-screen Delivery +S ocial Media + Channel-in-a-Box Solutions + Digital Asset Management Solutions

29-04-14 05-05-14 12-05-14

3rd Week May

+L oudness Solutions + Cloud Solutions

+ Preview: BroadcastAsia2014 (June 17-20)

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

23-06-14 30-06-14 07-07-14

3rd Week July

+4 K Solutions +S ports Production Solutions

+ Digital Media Expo (Melbourne, July 23-24) +A BE 2014 – Australian Broadcast Exhibition (Aug 5-7)

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork: Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

11-08-14 18-08-14 25-08-14 29-09-14 06-10-14 13-10-14

1st Week September

+E NG Systems + Encoding, Transcoding Solutions

+ Preview: IBC 11–16 September

+O TT/IPTV Solutions

+ IBC Review

3rd Week October

+P review: NABshow14 (April 5 – 10)

C+T ASIA FEATURES + DEADLINES 2014 In Every Issue of C+T Asia magazine: Acquisition, News Operations, Sportscasting, Post-Production & VFX, Media in the Cloud, Digital Asset Management, Audio, Radio, Transmission, Signal Distribution, Command & Control – Automation, Monitoring, Systems Management ISSUE

EDITORIAL + AD DEADLINES

PUBLICATION DATE

PRODUCT ROUND-UP

SHOW COVERAGE

Mar-April

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

03-02-14 10-02-14 17-02-14

Last Week February

+H DTV & Digital Transition Solutions

+P review: ABU Digital Broadcast Symposium (Mar 4-7) +P review: NABshow14 (April 5 – 10)

May-June

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork: Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

12-05-14 19-05-14 26-05-14 23-06-14 30-06-14 07-07-14

1st Week June

+C hannel-in-a-Box Solutions

+P review: BroadcastAsia2014 (June 17-20)

3rd Week July

+L oudness Solutions +C loud Solutions

review: BIRTV (Aug 27-30) +P

Sept-Oct

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

04-08-14 11-08-14 18-08-14

Last Week August

+D igital Asset Management Solutions

+P review: IBC 11 – 16 September

Nov-Dec

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork:

29-09-14 06-10-14 13-10-14

3rd Week October

+O TT/IPTV/HbbTV Solutions +M ulti-screen Delivery + Social Media

+P review: CASBAA +P review: InterBEE

July-Aug

PUBLISHING + ADVERTISING CONTACTS PUBLISHER: PHIL SANDBERG papers@broadcastpapers.com or +61-(0)2-4368 4569 +61-2-9211 8205.

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CO-FOUNDER: LUCY SALMON production@broadcastpapers.com or +61-2-9211 +61-(0)412 479 662 8205.

For artwork specifications visit www.content-technology.com

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