TM Broadcast International #100, December 2021 by Daro

NEWS - PRODUCTS

Titular noticia Texto noticia



EDITORIAL TM Broadcast International has reached issue 100. To celebrate this achievement we have prepared a very participatory special issue in which we have directly involved many of the people who have been indispensable in achieving this milestone. We are not referring only to the editorial team, to which we are truly grateful for the work carried out during these 100 months, but also to you, our readers, and our clients, of course. This issue is dedicated to all of you. We begin this issue with the many congratulations that have reached our oﬃce. Thank you all for your moving words. We hope to be with you for at least another 100 issues! We could not forget all of you who have contributed on some occasion in our magazine. You have done so by means of your experience and testimony about the realities that you face every day at work. For this reason, we wanted to ask you about the future of television. Thank you for your cooperation.

Editor in chief Javier de Martín editor@tmbroadcast.com

And then you can enjoy a special feature about IBC 2021. This year was going to be the reunion, but it could not be carried out due to the pandemic-related complications that are current today. Even though the fair was not held through personal attendance, IBC Digital have hosted the spirit of this market through their online platform and the major brands that make up this sector have also launched news on these dates. We have compiled the most important ones for you. A fair that has indeed been held under normal conditions is the BITAM Show 2021. It is a fair for the broadcast and audiovisual sectors in Spain and the Spanish issue of this magazine has organized technical conferences where highly relevant companies such as Telefónica and RTVE, have shared their views on topics much in vogue such as 5G or IP infrastructures. An extensive report covers the most relevant information and opinions given in these sessions. Again, thank you all for staying with us. We are proud of what we do and we will continue here to always provide you with the best information on our market.

Creative Direction Mercedes González

TM Broadcast International #100 December 2021

mercedes.gonzalez@tmbroadcast.com

Key account manager Susana Sampedro ssa@tmbroadcast.com

Administration Laura de Diego

Editorial staff press@tmbroadcast.com

Published in Spain

administration@tmbroadcast.com

ISSN: 2659-5966

TM Broadcast International is a magazine published by Daró Media Group SL Centro Empresarial Tartessos Calle Pollensa 2, oficina 14 28290 Las Rozas (Madrid), Spain Phone +34 91 640 46 43

One hundred months of watching and listening to the media This issue is the 100th of our international broadcasting industry magazine. Thank you all for your congratulations. It has been a hundred issues full of work, dedication and success. We wish to continue growing together with you.

SUMMARY 14

NEWS The future of TV Throughout 100 issues we have been telling your stories We have shared your experiences with the world, addressing changes and updates on the infrastructures of your televisions, radios, production companies or digital multimedia content platforms. All the challenges that you encountered and, much more important, the way you had to overcome them, have been published on our pages. Now, some of you tell us what you think about the future of television.

In person IBC: Third Time Lucky Finally, the on-site IBC is cancelled. Days after the announcement of renunciation to appear in person at the fair by the world’s leading companies, the organizers announced that the development of the fair would not be normal, once again. However, presentation of products is still going on and many new products have been announced during all these months.

TM Broadcast Technical Conferences at BITAM Show 2021

5G: Accelerating Hyperconnectivity By Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales.

Case study 5G Racing ahead with a world first sportscast broadcast using shared spectrum

NEWS - PRODUCTS

LiveU expands its live production platform with the launch of Air Control, a cloud solution for live production workflow orchestration Built for broadcasters as a human-centric oﬀering, Air Control enables organizations to better choreograph live production workflows. This collaborative solution eliminates the need to settle for not-fit-forpurpose technologies, fragmented workflows, and inflexible operational models to accommodate evolving production needs while ensuring the highest quality and reliability. “Air Control’s disruptive concept is poised to transform the control room, unlocking the potential of the broadcast industry once again as LiveU did 15 years ago. Air Control streamlines and simplifies the production workflow by connecting everyone involved in the production including engineers, editorial, anchors, reporters, announcers, and guests using a single platform,” said Ronen

Artman, VP Marketing at LiveU. “Air Control removes risk and complexity by replacing general-purpose, consumer-based video conferencing solutions with a robust broadcastgrade orchestration and transmission tool, leveraging LiveU assets and giving production crews a complete solution to manage all of the human elements of a live remote production.”

providing a cost-eﬀective

Air Control was designed from the ground up for the broadcast industry,

tablets they use daily,

solution to address production budgets, challenges, and overall needs. As part of LiveU’s cloud platform, Air Control removes the need for additional computers, servers, or hardware as well as the need to use consumer software in the broadcast workflow. Instead, teams can simply work with the devices, laptops, phones, and while benefiting from a professional service. 

NEWS - PRODUCTS

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

Sky Deutschland trusts on Rohde and Schwarz gear to deliver 24 UHDp50 channels playout directly.

Rohde & Schwarz has recently integrated its latest version of its R&S VENICE media server and R&S SpycerNode intelligent storage solution to Sky Deutschland. VENICE system provides scheduled recording, clip transforms and playout, integrating with Rohde & Schwarz shared storage, SpycerNode as well as certified third-party systems. This solution oﬀers support for 4K Ultra HD signals, using either single link 12G SDI or quad link 3G SDI (incl. 2SI option), and is also capable of SMPTE ST-2110. SpycerNode leverages High Performance Computing

(HPC) file systems for high scalability and full redundancy with even the smallest unit. The broadcaster has invested in six new VENICE units, along with a new SpycerNode, delivering a total of 24 channels of scalable centralised and external storage capability as well as support for UHDp50. The upgraded workflow handles ingest to VENICE and transfers files directly into SpycerNode, allowing the Sky Deutschland team to access and edit growing files, pull out clips for highlights packages and

“Consistency and quality are the bedrock of our brand and two things we pride ourselves on. As we meet our viewers’ demands for higher volumes of richer content, having a rock-solid 24/7 channel playout workflow that can meet our evolving needs is a must have,” said Christian Barth, Director of Production Platforms & Playout at Sky Deutschland. “Rohde & Schwarz has a clear understanding of our requirements and with this new generation of VENICE and SpycerNode, we have all the scalability we need now, and in the future. This upgrade also gives us the redundancy necessary in our playout environment.” In addition, Rohde & Schwarz VSA (Virtual Storage Access) technology is being deployed at Sky Deutschland and provides fail safety and seamless redundancy for all R&S applications for ingest and playout. 

NEWS - PRODUCTS

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

The fourth season of “Star Trek: Discovery” had been shot on Pixomondo’s LED stage equipped by Brompton Technology

Brompton Technology has deployed virtual production equipment to the VFX team at Pixomondo regarding Star Trek: Discovery production. The new season is the first one produced in virtual production stage, equipped with a Pixomondo’s large volume LED. Pixomondo’s Toronto stage is a 70’ x 30’ horseshoeshaped volume equipped with ROE Visual Black Pearl 2.8mm (BP2) LED panels

for the walls and ROE Visual Carbon Series 5.77mm (CB5) panels for the ceiling, each with Brompton Tessera SX40 4K LED video processors. The volume also features OptiTrack motion capture cameras to handle multi-camera tracking, and the LED walls are fed CG content in real time from Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. Pixomondo also recently opened the Stage 6 virtual production volume for

short-term engagements in Toronto’s Port Lands district; and the world’s largest LED stage in Vancouver, with 23,000 square feet of stage space, which is currently being used to film Netflix’s live action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender.’ All three of Pixomondo’s Canadian stages are built in partnership with rental company William F. White International Inc.

NEWS - PRODUCTS

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

Royal Media Services upgrades fourth station to Lawo AoIP Following the successful installations of Lawo mixing consoles and IP infrastructure at other RMS radio stations, a new 12-fader crystal console has now entered service at Nairobi-based Radio Citizen. Project management and installation was carried out by Lawo system integrator BYCE Broadcast.

features such as AutoMix

first Lawo mixing console;

hands-free mixing and

Radio Citizen serves the

crystal consoles are now

AutoGain one-touch

most widespread audience

in service at Radio Citizen’s

mic gain controls. Lawo

in Kenya, with progamming

VisTool GUI-building

sister stations Ramogi FM,

broadcast nationwide over

software comes standard

the 14-station Royal Media

with crystal, providing

Services network. Radio

touchscreen graphical

“It is exciting to watch as

Citizen is highly respected

controls that may be

Royal Media Services sets

for their thoroughly

customized to tailor

the pace for the adoption

researched news and

workflows even further.

of broadcast IP technology

education programs

crystal consoles employ

provided in Sanifu, the

in Kenya,” says Cynthia

the open-source Ember+

standard Swahili dialect.

remote control protocol for

Odari, Head of Business

crystal consoles have proven extremely popular thanks to their cost-

operation of automation and other broadcast software.

Inooro FM and HOT96, also headquartered in Nairobi.

Development for BYCE Broadcast. “RMS were our very first client in Kenya, and we thank them for their continuing trust in us,

eﬀectiveness, clean intuitive

RMS, Lawo and BYCE

design, and standards-

Broadcast began their

and in Lawo — a decision

based RAVENNA / AES67

relationship in 2017, with

which keeps proving to be

networking, and advanced

the installation of their

right!”.

NEWS - PRODUCTS

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

BBC Studioworks to manage the new Kelvin Hall studio in Glasgow (Scotland) to produce there. Drawing on our decades of expertise and unrivalled customer service, we will help grow the local workforce to deliver more local productions and support the continued development of sector-specific skills in Scotland.”

Tim Davie, Director General, BBC. Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Aﬀairs and Culture. Andrew Moultrie, CEO, BBC Studioworks. Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council. Iain Munro, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland.

BBC Studioworks is going to operate the new TV studio at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. BBC Studioworks wants to open additional studios across the UK, and is in direct response to growing demand to make more TV shows in Scotland. The studio will open in autumn 2022. It is designed with 10,500 sq. ft. and it has been co-funded by the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council. The facility will be multicamera, oﬀering completely

updated gallery suites and ancillary areas including dressing rooms, a green room and oﬃces to meet the needs of production. “Glasgow is a key creative hub, laying the foundations for our expansion outside London,” said Andrew Moultrie, CEO, BBC Studioworks. “Kelvin Hall provides much needed purpose-built studio space in Scotland, meeting growing demand from broadcasters, production companies and SVODs alike

“Today’s announcement that BBC Studioworks will be the tenant operator of Kelvin Hall is fantastic news for the city,” said Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council. “BBC Studioworks will draw on their wealth of experience in the industry to develop Kelvin Hall as an important and attractive film and television location, continuing Glasgow’s rise in this sector. Kelvin Hall will be a nationally significant production facility that will enable productions and jobs to stay and grow in the city, further driving the development of our thriving creative industries, and adding to Glasgow’s economic growth.” 

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

STV (Sapporo Television) implements Riedel MicroN as a core router in distributed AV network Sapporo Television Broadcasting Co. Ltd. has recently deployed equipment from Riedel. The gear consist on 17 MicroN media distribution network devices with two MetroN core routers as part of a MediorNet extending across two control rooms, broadcast master control, news editing, and other areas of the station. The broadcaster has also deployed Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom system. “In selecting the MediorNet system for our core facilities, we were cautious at first, but after extensive evaluation, we were convinced that the advantages of MediorNet would prevail,” said Mr. STV is the first Riedel customer in Japan to use the MicroN media distribution network device as a core video router.

Yasutaka Tashiro, Manager of the Technical Operations

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

Department at STV. “MediorNet offers a very innovative and effective way to build a system. It also met all our requirements and is cost-effective. In actual operation, we have taken full advantage of MediorNet’s functions, and we feel that the selection was justified.” STV has become the first Riedel customer in Japan to use the MicroN media distribution network device as a core video router. The broadcaster opted for MediorNet network with the MetroN and MicroN devices instead of traditional baseband router and a video-over-IP router. The MediorNet system offers processing functions, MADI input/output options, and redundancy that contribute to overall system flexibility and reliability. STV is using the Riedel infrastructure to aggregate video resources from inside and outside the broadcast station and make them readily available to various departments as needed. Within the MediorNet AV networking infrastructure, MicroN can serve as a breakout box for a MetroN router and extend connectivity beyond the fiber I/ Os to any type of video and audio I/O required. Connecting 17 MicroN devices with a few optical cables, STV figured the devices as a single, large-scale video router. With their integrated video processing functions and MADI input/ output, the devices enable a smart device design/configuration in the control room. 

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

CP Communications keeps pace with IP-based transmission technologies for TCS New York City Marathon CP Communications provided live coverage – featuring direct feeds of the professional athlete races – at the 50th running of the TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 7 using IP encoding and bonded cellular solutions. It also managed the event’s Virtual Media Center (VMC) for remote journalists. Film 45, in partnership with New York Road Runners, produced the five-hour live broadcast for ESPN2 and WABC-TV, and a threehour live World Feed for international broadcasters. CP’s HD21 mobile unit served as the central hub for managing the production’s 30 inbound and 20 outbound video signals (including 14 feeds for the VMC). All inbound IP streams were decoded and converted to HD-SDI for distribution. CP also handled paint control for 14 cameras covering the race, which hosted approximately 25,000 runners across all five boroughs of New York City.

“This is the best year we’ve had for coverage, with 98 percent coverage of the course,” said Frank Rafka, senior RF tech manager for CP Communications. Beyond video, all internal communications were handled by CP through the Unity IP-based intercom system managed on-site in HD21. Crew members – from camera operators to more than two dozen spotters on bicycles across the course – kept in contact via Sonim XP8 ruggedized smartphones. CP’s proprietary Unity Talent mic system was used for all on-course talent and interviews, providing a local mix for IFB, talkback, and on-air audio using the cell phones through a Dante audio interface. Race overage included footage from two helicopters, four smart cars and two motorcycles. Two cars featured robotic cameras on Black Arm stabilization systems, as well as Dream Chip POV

cameras for on-camera talent coverage. There were also three remote production sites on the course, each supporting a handheld and jib camera. The sites featured two Mobile Viewpoint UltraLinkAir H.265 encoders, Mobile Viewpoint playout servers for confidence feeds and additional communications equipment. The VMC was built on CP’s FastReturn platform, a remote production workflow solution that provides content security and extensive user

NEWS - SUCCESS STORIES

management. While the

essential in creating a

streaming solution – which

technology has been in

positive experience for

features a PTZ camera and

place since 2019, CP has

viewers tuning into the TCS

tripod along with a video

improved its low-latency

New York City Marathon in

encoder, return monitor,

performance as the

more than 180 countries

and UltraLink-Air bonded

importance of remote

and territories around the

cellular transmitter for

production has grown.

world,” said Trina Singian,

reliable connectivity with

“With so many people living in a Zoom world, latency has become less and less acceptable,” explained Allen Harris, lead IP and bonded cellular specialist for CP

Head of Media & PR, NYRR. For the TCS New York City Marathon, CP used the raw camera feeds from the NEP program production and integrated the footage into

Communications.

four multi-viewer streams

“During these times,

diﬀerent professional

enhancements and increased accessibility to industry-leading technologies, such as

so journalists could follow runner groups and the international broadcast. “We built the ‘looks’ in our HD21 production

those provided by CP

truck using Grass Valley

Communications, are

multi-viewers, encoded the streams with Videon VersaStreamers, and pushed those video streams to cloud servers where we hosted the Virtual Media Center,” Harris recalled.

Zoom and other video collaboration platforms to enhance the virtual experience. Harris controlled the system remotely. Approximately 40 journalists were active in the VMC during the livestream of the postrace top finishers press conference, asking questions through the Zoom Q&A feature. CP utilized its Mobile Viewpoint bonded cellular solution to share live video signals between the production truck and physical Media Center. The company installed playout servers in the Media Center, which

A virtual professional

received copies of the live

athlete media availability

feeds of the professional

during race week was

athlete races from the

hosted via Zoom. CP

production truck that were

used its CamSTREAM

displayed on large screens

Collaborate all-in-one

for the in-person press

remote production and

attendees. 

OPINION

THE FUTURE OF TV

Broadcaster’s dixit: the future of TV Throughout 100 issues we have been telling your stories We have shared your experiences with the world, addressing changes and updates on the infrastructures of your televisions, radios, production companies or digital multimedia content platforms. All the challenges that you encountered and, much more important, the way you had to overcome them, have been published on our pages. We have told your success stories about our shared passion: technology related to the creation of multimedia content. And thanks to you, today we are celebrating our issue 100. We could not forget everything you have given us and, therefore, we oﬀered you this space so that you were give us your opinion on the future of media. Once again, thanks very much you all.

OPINION

CBC Radio Canada Answers by Alexandre Dugas, Project Leader Infrastructure & Media Services at CBC/RadioCanada What would be, technologically speaking, the perfect television infrastructure? It’s a virtual infrastructure, with almost no physical devices, that automatically scales based on demand, depending on our content and production needs; it can be quickly deployed to “capture” and distribute content, wherever that content is being produced, whether at home or abroad. It’s also an infrastructure that is coupled with a BI [Business Intelligence] system to allow for the dynamic production, management and sale of content. At CBC/Radio-Canada, for example, the same infrastructure used to cover the

Olympic and Paralympic Games — as we did for Tokyo 2020 and will do again for Beijing 2022 — can also be used to cover breaking news from across Canada or anywhere around the world. The infrastructure is available on demand, wherever and whenever we need it. What technological change will bring about a new revolution in broadcasting? I think it’s the shift to digital and the move to IP, which is an enabler for a faster software transition, — something that my colleagues discussed in a TM Broadcast article earlier this year. We’re not just a radio and television broadcaster anymore — we’re a digital media company that is serving Canadians on whatever platforms they’re using, whether it’s on social media, through our websites, CBC.ca and Radio-Canada.ca; through our video streaming services, CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV; or through our audio apps, CBC Listen and Radio-Canada OHdio.

THE FUTURE OF TV

OPINION

Disney Answers by Jon Edwards, Vice President Media Platforms Engineering at Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution Technology Business models are changing. How does television as we know it have to evolve to survive? The rise, proliferation and maturation of streaming platforms have definitely changed the viewing experience and have met the promise of meeting the consumer where they want to engage their content. This has fundamentally changed and drawn starker lines on the traditional, linear television experience – but that linear experience is very much intact. The linear experience of live sports, live entertainment, news, and local programming have actually flourished – especially where we ensured they were equally proliferated on digital platforms. The consumer can engage with live linear experiences on a variety of platforms with quality

and persistence – made possible by implementing key technologies and performance monitoring like our traditional platforms. The business model has irrevocably changed – where our technology used to be focused on one to many or business to business – we have shifted that model over the years to our digital service providers. This change meant a shift in focus that is direct-to-consumer in scope – so we needed to likewise shift technology and approach. Looking to

the future, we know that broadcasters will all need to keep the consumer squarely in mind. We know that live experiences or eventbased viewing is critical to engage the consumer in real-time, at the highest quality and without impairments. The good news is that evolution has already occurred. Technologists need to continue this progression by minimizing latency of the stream to the consumer and continuously providing performance and quality and experience enhancements. This ensures that real-time

THE FUTURE OF TV

OPINION

engagement with our consumers will always be desired and available. What should be the role of television in society? The role of television today is to (still) provide engaging, real-time and communal experiences that cannot be replicated on any other platform. Not ironically, this brings television full circle and back to its foundation – giving that live or event-based communal experience to a wide audience as it happens. platform experience a What technological change will bring about a new revolution in broadcasting?

success – expanded viewing

Technology will drive the next revolution of broadcasting with technologies that drive latency and increase persistency of quality to viewers no matter how they consume it. The tenets of broadcast has always been that real-time experience with both persistency and quality – the future will be no diﬀerent. However, we have a lot to borrow from what made the streaming

rich metadata to enhance

options like preferred audio or language, quality options to suit your experience, the experiences, dynamic ads and experience, etc. In the end, if we can provide the options that streaming platforms have established, that will make for a seamless experience for the consumer when they want to pop out from binging a series and straight over to a live event – they have all of the same options available to them.

5G, cloud, IP, virtualized production... will we ever see a world without wires? If the pandemic has done anything for broadcasters it has pushed and accelerated a world without wires by shifting how we coordinate, assemble, execute and distribute television – we had to virtualize every aspect of the pipeline to accommodate working from home and minimizing dependency on site. All of the wireless, cloud and virtualized toolsets were all brought to bear to continue getting content

THE FUTURE OF TV

out to our consumers. Broadcasters were not able to ‘stop’ what they do in getting news, eventbased or live experiences delivered – there was no luxury to pause. Luckily, we have been implementing and exploring these technologies before the pandemic – and the tools themselves scale very nicely to accommodate what we needed. Because these tools are extensible and flexible we only needed a matter of days or weeks to work around the restrictions of a pandemic. It definitely changed how

we normally do things, but broadcasters are resilient and always have an eye on how to get the best possible outcome to the consumer. In most cases, the content and the experience did not skip a beat – but only because of an industry that has historically known how to shift and adopt quickly with technology. What would be, technologically speaking, the perfect television infrastructure? “Not withstanding any current technological challenges, the perfect

television infrastructure would ultimately ensure that the consumer receives what they want, when they want it, no matter what service or device. That said, the perfect infrastructure would ensure close to zero latency, passing the highest quality from the camera to the viewer, provides zero disruption and instant failover, align all pertinent metadata to the end-point, provide dynamic ads that target the interest of the consumer, and provide engagement and other enhancements that further the experience.

OPINION

ITV Answers by Vinay K. Gutpa, Principal Solution Architect (OTT Media & Broadcast) What technological change will bring about a new revolution in broadcasting? The way that traditional broadcast happens, is going to start diluting in a few years. Traditional broadcasters are competing with really fast-based OTT providers or totally digitalfirst companies which are going to create a lot of pressure on how the broadcaster sustain the viewership in the future and how do they innovate. A lot of innovation will happen on the old broadcaster’s infrastructure. It has been very expensive for broadcasters to run and operate in the data centers and they will start going and moving to the cloud. And the business model will change as well, instead of having something like a 24/7 channel and running 18 or 22 DTT free-to-air channels, we will be more OTT-driven.

In future, I feel like in the middle layer and in distribution, problems are solved, cloud adaptation has happened and the big concern will be related with the broadcaster changes. I’m very excited about the tons of work which is happening or which the companies like AWS and Google could oﬀer. They’re talking about how flexible it could be: they could upload a link straight into the cloud and, from there; you could get a feed and distribute it across the web. That kind of tech will become very interesting for a broadcaster.

happens here will be a

Nevertheless, before the actual full switch-oﬀ

that will be interesting to

hybrid world. For some time broadcast over the DTT would continue but at the same time the OTT will catch up. That phase will continue up to eight years probably, and that is why the perfect broadcasttechnology infrastructure is hybrid, I think. When all the user migration is completed we will have entered in the new world. It will be interesting if there will be broadcasters who doesn’t embrace the power of cloud or the shift happening. What happens to them? We don’t know but watch.

THE FUTURE OF TV

MEDIAPRO Answers by Emili Planas, CTO and Operations Manager at Mediapro Business models are changing. How does television as we know it have to evolve to survive? Traditional broadcasters, those that we also call linear channels, are going to decrease in number. This will especially aﬀect those theme channels with ‘canned’ programming. The contents on these channels are consumed much better through VOD. The rest of the general channels, news, sports, with more live broadcasts, will continue to lower costs since the audience scattering will

continue to increase and therefore advertising revenues will also continue to be distributed between new and old ‘broadcasters’. What should be the role of television in society? Nothing new; entertain, influence, train, provide culture... What technological change will bring about a new revolution in broadcasting? We are going to see the most immediate step with the expansion of nextgeneration UHD-HDR and audio content. But the biggest breakthrough will be the evolution of production based on IP technologies, since it allows

streamlining and producing more and better content. Oﬀshoring production is allowing collaborative models that, if we are able to make them evolve positively, can add a lot of value. We will see how systems based on Artificial Intelligence will allow great customization of the content delivered to end users. This will allow us to more easily receive contents that may interest us the most, while advertising campaigns will be able to focus even better on specific users. Nowadays we are already generating live football match signals with diﬀerent billboards depending on the geographical area to which the specific production

OPINION

is intended, but in a few

category). IP connectivity

What would be,

years we will see the same

allows us many capacities

technologically speaking,

football match online, with

that are increasing year

the perfect television

specific billboards for each

by year. It is an evolution

user. 5G, cloud, IP, virtualized production... will we ever see a world without wires?

that allows us to produce on virtualized systems, in a public, private or mixed Cloud that we can access by cable (fiber optic) or wirelessly (4G-5G, Wifi,…).

infrastructure? An easy-to-use, ecological facility, flexible to production demands, with predictable costs, hyper-connected with the Media industry, with

With fewer cables, maybe.

High wireless capacity

Without cables, surely not

enables new production

and universities; agnostic to

(especially if we consider

methods, but it won’t cover

regulated standards and, as

fiber optics within the cable

everything.

always, highly reliable.

Talent and with schools

THE FUTURE OF TV

OBS Answers by Sotiris Salamouris, Chief Technology Oﬃcer at OBS

than we are doing, and this is a trend since the beginning of the TV coverage of the Olympic Games. That density is the goal of the technical

What will be the future of broadcasting? What we do know is that the trend will continue and that it will consist of more IP, more cloud and, along with them, more remote. All of these improvements have to

infrastructure and this is where IP helps and the cloud helps tremendously. More and more broadcasters are starting to be as flexible as possible in their own operations. This means that also more and more things will have to happen remotely for them.

do with supporting more content creation

Again, video and audio over IP and the cloud

density. Because the need is always there,

are critical. This will be the evolution of the

we will always need to create more content

overall trend.

OPINION

SVT Answers by Adde Granberg, Chief Technology Oﬃcer and Head of Production Business models are changing. How does television as we know it have to evolve to survive? We need to focus on the end user, adopt to them and not to the industry… TV are going from being big in a small industry to be small in a big industry.. We getting closer to IT the TV…. We need to create workflows that adepts to the quality of the product at the point of end user. I see clearly that the entry of smartphone started to democratise the tv technology. From a technology used by proud experts to regular persons… that democratisation for real, that’s what we facing now.

the full story from more perspective. Give stories that are here and now as well entertain end educate. What technological change will bring about a new revolution in broadcasting?

What should be the role of television in society?

Everything will change…. The technology can be used by everyone… That’s a game changer. As well that we will focus on the quality at the end point. Adopting OTT technology at the productionstage, that is really interesting. We are right now developing production workflow with OTT ideas and technology. Really interesting and new thinking.

Telling great storys, make stories for real in a professional way in good quality. Give the audience

5G, cloud, IP, virtualized production... will we ever see a world without wires?

Without any doubt…. YES. Redundant wireless solutions. Ofcours, at some stage in the chain we need some GPU power etc connected with som wires… But at the endpoints, place of recording, place of “directing” and enduser will be without wires. What would be, technologically speaking, the perfect television infrastructure? Will it ever be… But a workflow that’s adopt standard used by IT and not broadcast… focus on end user quality based on time between camera and enduser. Live or recorded…. We need to rethink the we we now production right now… And build the the perfect infrastructure based on non TV standard equipment……

THE FUTURE OF TV

ViacomCBS Answers by Gustavo Embón, Broadcast Operations Director at ViacomCBS Business models are changing. How does television as we know

important thing is not to consider other businesses as competition from broadcast TV, but rather that all current content distribution platforms, including broadcast TV, can complement and boost/ promote each other.

it have to evolve to survive? Business models change all the time; evolving is always the key, and that’s always been our motto. Free-to-air networks have a huge reach and are integrating perfectly into this new ecosystem. The

What should be the role of television in society? In addition to being a sustainable business, Broadcast TV must have the role of informing, entertaining, and communicating dynamically, always following the demand of the majority of viewers who watch it in each location. Free-toair programmers need to have the sensitivity of understanding what kind of content people want to consume. What technological change will bring about a new revolution in broadcasting? Augmented reality could be a new revolution in our industry, because we can use it not only to generate fascination in the audience but also in advertising to

increase revenues. 5G, cloud, IP, virtualized production... will we ever see a world without wires? Definitely, all these technological advances add value to distribution platforms, but if we are talking specifically about free-to-air broadcasters, the cloud playout will optimize the control of global transmissions and will notably help to consolidate the disaster recovery scenarios from TV stations. What would be, technologically speaking, the perfect television infrastructure? Basically a modern TV station should contemplate being able to share all its media quickly and safely between its areas, wherever they are around the world. In addition, the infrastructure must support multiplatform distribution. For example, at ViacomCBS we are focused on what we have called “Digital First”, promoting the presence of our content on all digital platforms.

IBC 2021

In person IBC: Third Time Lucky The holding of the quintessential European

In 2020 the staging of the fair was

trade fair for the broadcast market had

automatically ruled out due to the impact of

been long time coming during these two

coronavirus. On the other hand, throughout

editions that did not take place. Here is a

2021 there has been a great deal of

retrospective:

uncertainty about the holding of the event.

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The pandemic has given no respite and, unfortunately, Covid-19 is aﬀecting the city of Amsterdam and other parts of northern Europe. As a result, major players in the international market have been informing the global audience in dribs and drabs about their intentions to cancel physical attendance to the show. The reasons have been clear in all cases: although there is a strong desire to meet again, there are also many health concerns for not doing so yet. The organizers of the world’s fair announced by mid-November, with only about fifteen days to go until the oﬃcial opening of the fair, that the IBC would be held as planned and that the organization would take the necessary measures to ensure that the safety of every visitor and exhibitor would be fully guaranteed. However, and quite paradoxically, the Dutch government was organizing and implementing a national health crisis situation with measures such as restrictions on

leisure and hospitality, perimeter closures and, even more surprisingly, a ban on meetings of more than four people during those days. Despite these indications from the government, the IBC was still going forward. On this occasion, were the companies, not the Dutch government or the IBC organizers, who decided not to risk spreading the disease again and to bring about, once more, a new situation of over-saturation of the global healthcare system, with all that this implies. The major players in the international market have been informing the global audience of their intentions to cancel their physical attendance to the fair. The reasons have been clear in all cases: although there is a strong desire to meet again, there are also many health concerns for not doing so yet. Finally, the on-site IBC is cancelled. Days after the announcement of renunciation to appear in person at the fair by the

world’s leading companies, the organizers announced that the development of the fair would not be normal, once again. The IBC organizers announced in a press release that they had listened to the community and, with great regret, were cancelling in-person participation. However, presentation of products is still going on and many new products have been announced during all these months. The most important broadcast trade fair in Europe has been held in its digital version and here you will find a list of the most important novelties presented:

Adder The new AdderLink Infinity 2102 (ALIF2102) oﬀers new features, including a smaller form factor transmitter and DisplayPort connections. It is available as a transmitter and receiver. The latest updates to the ALIF2000 series provide increased control, flexibility and choice for customers when it comes

IBC 2021

Adder ALIF2000 series

to connectivity, with the current DVI version being joined by DisplayPort connections. Support for video resolutions up to 2560x1600 allows users to visualise their data with pixel-accurate image quality, while multiple audio configurations provide greater implementation options. The new, compact form factor means that three ALIF2102 transmitters fit into 1U of rack space. It also saves energy, using up to 50% less power than its predecessor. John Halksworth, senior

product manager, Adder, said: “The ALIF2000 series

Dzofilm introduces two new lightweight full-frame zoom lenses.

has been a trusted and proven IP KVM [keyboard video mouse] solution for our customers for many years. It’s at the heart of thousands of KVM systems around the world. Our customers expect connectivity choice and migration options that reflect the ever-changing landscape of their networks and workflows, and the ALIF2102 solution does just that. Not only that but the new ALIF2102 is compatible with the existing ALIF2000 series products, which means customers can migrate at their own pace.”

Dzofilm The company introduces two new lightweight fullframe zoom lenses. The Catta 35-80mm T/2.9 and 70-135mm T/2.9 cover the most widely used focal lengths and complement its existing Vespid full-frame prime lenses. The 35-80mm weighs just 1.53kg, while the 70-135mm is under 1.6kg, partly due to the use of polycarbonate and glass fibre in the shell. Each lens has a 16-blade iris, which is claimed to produce round, smooth bokeh with a natural

IBC 2021

E mount, but RF, L, Z, and X mounts are available, with EF and PL mounts coming next year, which can be changed via a quick-release interchangeable mount.

Zero Density The company Zero Density announces Traxis talentS. The product is an AI-powered markerless stereoscopic talent tracking system that can identify the people inside the 3D virtual environment without any wearables. transition of image, with a close focus distance of 74cm or 76cm for the 35-80mm and 70-135mm respectively. The lenses have been designed to exhibit imperceptible breathing during racking focus.

talentS extracts the talent’s 3D location from the image with utmost precision. It sends the tracking data to Reality Engine to create accurate reflections, refractions, and the virtual

shadows of the talent inside the 3D space. The product is able to work 24/7 continuously without any interruptions. Data is sent through industrystandard FreeD protocol and integrates with the Reality ecosystem and any other FreeD speaking platform. Traxis talentS can be utilized in other applications besides virtual studio, such as augmented reality in sports and live events. For example, with talentS AR graphics for statistics can be enhanced above a boxer during a live boxing game. It can also enable robotic lights to track a specific dancer during live performance automatically.

The zooms can be fitted with a 77mm detachable front filter, but also have a plug-in rear filter, useful for adding ND, UV, Streak or Mist filters. The lenses cover an image circle of 43.5mm, for use with most full-frame sensors. The lenses are fitted with an

Zero Density announces Traxis talentS.

IBC 2021

Vislink and Mobile Viewpoint Vislink releases Mobile Viewpoint BaseLink 5G, a bonded cellular and 5G mobile encoder for remote production and live streaming applications. The latest in the BaseLink range supports up to six 5G modems to maximise available bandwidth and oﬀer video streaming. It features two Ethernet ports to expand in-venue connectivity options, access to wide-band internet for production crews, and direct connection to cloudbased content storage. It also oﬀers increased local storage within the unit, allowing store-andforward of high-resolution video content. BaseLink 5G also supports the latest video GPUs that will power the next generation of encoders capable of delivering sub-second delay and virtual zero latency applications. Mickey Miller, CEO of Vislink, said: “BaseLink 5G is ideal for broadcasters and content creators everywhere who want a

professional live streaming solution that can be set up and deployed easily and at relatively low cost. These users have an everincreasing need to generate high-quality live video to stay competitive, but don’t always have the means to produce and stream their own unique content. The BaseLink 5G product allows any content owner to become their own online streaming platform, as well as distributing to YouTube and other platforms.”

Calrec’s Assist web interface allows operators to mix entire shows from their home or other locations and provides comprehensive control for Calrec’s Apollo, Artemis, VP2 virtual production engine and Type R IP core.

Calrec

Calrec’s modular Type R and Brio consoles are also being used for remote working. Type R is an expandable and flexible IP

Calrec is presenting at this IBC edition its solution for remote working. Calrec Apollo.

Assist also provides control for the RP1 Remote Production core. RP1 enables broadcasters to mix live events either on dedicated Calrec hardware or via Assist from a remote facility.

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mixing system for small TV and radio stations that uses Assist to mix in the cloud and provides facilities for up to three independent mixers to hang oﬀ one system core, while the compact Brio Duet and Medley consoles are fully loaded with dynamics and delay on every path and include a huge internal router, multiple monitor outputs and comprehensive built-in I/O.

Angénieux Angénieux exhibits two full-frame Optimo Compact Zooms, a 21-56mm T2.9 and a 37-102mm T2.9. These are designed to complement the existing Optimo Ultra 12X and the Optimo Prime Series lenses and to enable full frame coverage. They have a zoom ratio of 2.7x, with a 60cm close focus distance and a front diameter of 114mm. Both are compact and lightweight (the initially available 37-102mm is 235mm long and weighs 2.6kg), including a precise, ergonomic focus ring with scale rotation of 310°, with

Medialink MDP3020 Max.

user-changeable focus marking rings (imperial or metric). They can cope with extreme shooting environments with a temperature range from -20°C to +45°C. The lenses come with a PL mount and support Cooke /i metadata via an external connector.

Medialink The new MDP3020 Max, which Medialink presents at this year edition of the IBC, is a standalone edge device with configuration support for JPEG-XS compression. The MDP3020 Max encodes/decodes video, audio and data content for carriage over wide area IP networks. It is designed primarily for use in live remote production environments where economical, highest contribution quality IP media conversion and transport robustness is essential.

It can be configured to support four 1080P video channels using JPEGXS compression, which achieves bandwidth reduction ratios of up to 10:1 and beyond. In addition, MDP3020 Max supports JPEG2000 compression. It can be deployed at the edge of an IP WAN network. The MDP3020 Max is housed in a half-1RU footprint. Dual 1GbE or 10GbE trunk interfaces supporting ST 20227 Seamless Protection Switching as well as frame synchronisation come as standard, as do dual ‘hitless’ 1G/10G data ports.

Caton Caton presents multiple solutions related with its CatonNet Video Platform (CVP), which provides broadcast-grade media transmission services, at IBC 2021.

IBC 2021

control surfaces and IDS device drivers across these past months.

A foundational element of the CVP service, the Caton Transport Protocols (CTP) is showcased at IBC. Developed from the previous CatonEngine, CTP comprises a series of IP transmission technologies developed to ensure stability, quality and security for video, media and other data transmissions, CTP utilises more than 30 inbuilt algorithms and deep learning approaches to smooth and mitigate network challenges. Patented dynamic error corrections to recover from data loss are another headline benefit of CTP. Further underlining the range of its current solutions, Caton Technology showcases two encoder/ decoder products: Caton Prime, which is designed for 4K production, and Caton Live, which is geared towards HD. Both

devices have the ability to switch between encode and decode functionality, making them ideal for remote production of live events and other production scenarios where space and workflow eﬃciency are critical. In addition, Caton Live is suitable for non-broadcast applications such as conferencing due to its small form-factor and low cost.

The products released are the 1- and 3-row versions of the popular UReady 2RU universal control surface. Featuring a total of 18 and 54 buttons respectively as well as Densitron’s X86 CPU architecture and an Intel Premium Processor N Series (N2400) with 1.1 GHz and 4GB RAM. Also on display from the UReady range will be a version of the 2RU universal control surface with an embedded ARM processor and the 4RU 19” rackmount ready TFT display with capacitive touch.

Densitron

Globecast

Densitron showcases announced a partnership with Gravity Media to support customers at next year’s at the trade fair.

Globecast highlights two key developments at IBC2021: live 4K playout; and significant updates to its sport-oriented Managed Cloud Network with the launch of version 2.0.

The IDS platform remains the cornerstone of the company’s range and continues to expand its reach in broadcast and media applications. But the company has also been extending its lines of

At IBC 2021, the company unveils 4k live channel cloud playout capabilities Using a cloud service provider alongside its own in-house cloud MAM,

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Orchestrator, Globecast now allows its customers to take full advantage of cloud OPEX models for live 4K playout. This includes creation of pop-up channels. Globecast has also significantly enhanced its Managed Cloud Network (MCN) solution, tailored for sports broadcasters and rights holders, with the launch of version 2.0. Globecast MCN allows customers to add value to an event to which they have bought rights by facilitating cloud-based distribution of additional content. It means affiliates can air content specific to each affiliate without the additional cost of more fibre or satellite capacity. Version 2.0 now includes integration direct from the venue site to affiliates, removing any connectivity hurdles, providing a complete endto-end solution. Through Orchestrator, customers have access to controlling which affiliates receive specific content based on rights purchasing. It also includes support for the SRT (Secure Reliable

Transport) protocol alongside existing Zixi protocol support. Also, Globecast has worked across 2021 on its remote production oﬀering and has developed a range of remote production and commentary services. The company, with its global connectivity solutions supports remote productions of all types. Recently, Globecast announced a partnership with Gravity Media to support customers at next year’s Football World Cup.

SDNsquare SDNsquare announced, IBC 2021 related, the release 1.9 of their GRID

network controller: a Software Defined Network controller which guides data-stream paths and creates predictable, low latency flow to optimize network performance and management. GRID facilitates configuration of an IP infrastructure in a way that is both modular and scalable. The updates include additional support and configuration for a range of switches, extended approaches to visualization and monitoring, improved performance for large networks and increased API-based interoperability. As well as extending the switch support oﬀered through GRID to a greater

IBC 2021

number of Arista Mellanox and Netgear switches, other switches which are not yet supported can still be configured within the system.

cache calculation time for large networks consisting of more than 100 switches has been significantly improved.

The system is enhanced with an ability to backup and restore from preconfigured snapshots, as well as downloading them for oﬀ-site backup. Addition of a partner API allows for GRID to be used as a middleware engine integrated into user workflows, though the intuitive WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) GUI that ships with the system.

Bridge Technologies launches VB440. Built as a monitoring solution for IP and SDI/IP-encapsulated production environments, the VB440 delivers ultralow latency analytics of compressed and uncompressed data to provide creatives and technicians alike with the deep insight they need to ensure error-free delivery of live and recorded broadcast from any remote location. This solution will allow production professionals to monitor and visualize both HDR and SDR production outputs from anywhere in the world using only an HTML5 browser.

In terms of improvements made in the field of reliability and monitoring, a new deterministic switch memory model has been added - enabling more extensive QoS settings, and alternative flow paths, flow overview and bandwidth usage have been visualised in order to facilitate improved debugging, along with the addition of a range of search and filter options. Finally, in terms of overall functionality and performance, the path

Bridge Technologies

The B440 starts from the point of being able to identify the type of coded stream coming in, be this HLG, PG, S-Log3, or a number of other standards, either through manual setting or through automatic recognition

from ancillary data or NMOS signalling data. The user is then able to access any of the existing wide range of waveform scopes within the VB440 and apply them to this HDR stream. In addition though, the Graticule has been adjusted to accommodate the needs of HDR more comprehensively, including not only IRE but NITs graticules, as well as an ability to adjust Graticule sensitivity. What is most fundamental about the HDR capabilities of the VB440 is its ability to give a visual preview of an HDR output image through a non-HDR compatible browser. This is achieved by converting the specific codings of the HDR image into the sRGB colourspace of the browser.

Aeta AETA Audio Systems, a company which manufacturers audio and IP codecs, is presenting ScoopyFlex. The solution consists on a portable codec on a docking station that performs as a fullfledged commentary unit.

IBC 2021

units: one light device for mobile use and another one for commentary applications. That’s now changed with ScoopyFlex and its docking station, and this significantly lowers the cost of gear for broadcaster.”

PlayBox Neo

The solution is compatible with functionalities as 5G capability, embedded Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as two mobile network connections, stereo streams and HD voice. ScoopyFlex has autonomy of up to eight hours and the devices can house three SIM cards and manages recording, editing and video tasks. Also, it oﬀers a second mic to help ensure optimal sanitary conditions that protect both reporters and guests during interviews. Connected to a docking station, ScoopyFlex oﬀers

three mics, additional audio I/Os and a redundant AES67 connection, as well as a second ethernet port, battery recharge and, intercom buttons. “With ScoopyFlex, we oﬀer the quality and tradition of our flagship product, Scoopy, in a new modular version that enables users to benefit from the unit’s advanced features and versatility, allowing them to craft timely and compelling remote broadcasts,” said Yann Vonarburg, General Manager of AETA Audio Systems. “In the past, to achieve this, station staﬀ would have to have two

The company shows the European debut of its latest-generation broadcast playout system. The solution is designed to handle every element of the content management process from ingest, pre-production and scheduling to transmission. It is fully modular, it oﬀers broadcasters the flexibility to choose between hardware-based, softwarebased, cloud-based or hybrid operation on any scale from a single regional or thematic channel up to a global network. The service that is fully new is the Capture Suite. It is designed to speed up the ingest workflow of television networks, postproduction facilities and playout service-providers. Operators gain the ability

IBC 2021

PlayBox Neo playout system.

to control multiple ingest channels across multiple servers. Functions such as input selection, ingest presets, file-naming conventions, assignments and auto-transfer can be performed quickly and easily from a single web user interface. Features include a web-based multiviewer with blackframe and freeze-frame alarms plus loudness audio level monitoring as well as manual, scheduled and compliance ingest modes with automated input switching. Content can be now edited in Adobe Premiere and Grass Valley Edius Workgroup 9+ while ingesting. MXF and TS files being ingested are available

for immediate playout via AirBox Neo-20 automation without having to wait for the ingest process to complete.

Clear-Com Clear-Com brings latest product releases are Arcadia Central Station, FreeSpeak Edge Base Station and Station-IC Virtual Desktop Client. “During the world’s hiatus from in-person shows, Clear-Com has developed several new products that we are eager to share with our partners, customers and end-users, face-toface,” said Chris Willis, VP of Sales.

Arcadia Central Station is a scalable IP platform that integrates wired and digital wireless partyline systems along with third-party Dante devices in a single rack unit. Arcadia was designed for a broad range of applications, including OB production vans, broadcast studios and wide-area campus broadcast. The FreeSpeak Edge Base Station is an IP base station that supports the full range of FreeSpeak digital wireless intercom solutions including 1.9 GHz, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, as well as third-party Dante devices. Designed for quick deployment, users can be up and running with a transceiver and two

IBC 2021

beltpacks in less than 5 minutes. Station-IC Virtual Desktop Client as born out of the success of the Agent-IC mobile app and brings the same UI to any Windows or MacOS user desktop Connecting to Eclipse® HX IP-capable matrices or LQ® Series IP Interfaces, Station-IC can extend communications access to any remote location.

LiveU LiveU launches its Air Control system. It is a cloud-based broadcast orchestration solution. It has been developed for the broadcast sector and for live transmissions and is part of the LiveU platform. Air Control has been designed as a natural replacement for the most common video conferencing systems, which, according to the manufacturer itself, were not designed for broadcast environments.

professional multimedia content. The cloud solution acts as a live streaming and orchestration layer in the system, while providing teams with the tools to manage all the human elements.

under one orchestrated platform.

The video and audio hosted on the platform is based on LiveU’s dedicated audio and video protocol, LRT. The platform integrates with the production system whether local, remote or in the cloud. The solution connects the control room, talent and field equipment to the technology infrastructure available in your organization (video, audio, communications, teleprompter, connectivity, LiveU solutions, etc.) all

Magewell

LiveU’s Air Control is a software-based solution adaptable to any type of device: laptops, phones and tablets.

The company showcases Magewell Cloud, Ultra Encode, and diﬀerent implementation of NDI and SRT protocols on diﬀerent solutions. The Magewell Cloud management software provides centralized configuration and control of multiple Magewell streaming and IP conversion devices plus stream management

Magewell Cloud, Ultra Encode

Air Control functions as a single collaboration solution for everyone involved in the production chain of

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features including protocol conversion and SRT relay. The solution can run on a cloud hosting platform or on-premises server. Ultra Encode family oﬀers systems integrators and video professionals an encoding solution for applications ranging from live streaming and remote contribution to IP-based production. Ultra Encode supports H.264, H.265, and NDI®|HX encoding plus a wide range of streaming protocols including SRT, RTMP, RTMPS, RTSP, and HLS. It can be combined with Pro Convert NDI encoders and Pro Convert multiformat decoders with third-party production tools in interoperability.

Elements The company is introducing a file system to the Media and Entertainment industry – BeeGFS. Developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Center for High Performance Computing and designed to power supercomputers, BeeGFS will enable the industry to build highly eﬃcient cloud and on-premise storage

Elements is introducing a file system to the Media and Entertainment industry – BeeGFS.

environments and benefit from Ethernet workflows with cloud possibilities. Another novelty is the availability of download Media Library as an AAF file. This feature, together with our existing EDL and XML support allows users to easily import Roughcuts into softwares as Avid Media Composer, Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Support for external transcoders has been added, which means that customers can now use Colorfront Transkoder or Telestream Vantage to generate proxy files for the Media Library. Anonymous sharing links can now be sent. The links

can be password protected and can, if required, take the user straight to the download while skipping the UI. Other improvements include the possibility to render a subclip into a physical file, an updated Rough-cut Editor interface, excluding certain folders from Media Library scans and much more.

Mediaproxy Mediaproxy highlights upgrades to its industry leading LogServer logging, monitoring, and analysis system. LogServer works entirely in software, designed to log and monitor program output

IBC 2021

to ensure it is compliant with broadcast regulations. It fits into cloud, virtual or on-premises workflows and supports video, audio and real-time data from a variety of sources used in broadcasting today, including 4K, HDR, 10-bit, HEVC, TSoIP, SMPTE 2110, 2022-6, Zixi and SRT. The new features include advanced clustering of decentralized systems on IP networks including cloud, as well as a brand-new pooled interface platform to simplify configuration at scale. “Compliance has drastically changed over the years. It’s become an intrinsic part of both engineering and business. Our customers

recognize our strong and continued commitment to providing the best engineered solution, comments Mediaproxy chief executive Erik Otto. “The ever-increasing demands on modern compliance loggers to scale across IP networks challenges us to constantly stay ahead of the curve.”

Mediagenix Mediagenix, provider of the Media Business Management Platform WHATS’ON, launches “FFWD to Data Value” programme. It connects data assets across the content supply chain advanced BI and AI capabilities that visualize and optimize content ROI. Unified workflows around

Mediaproxy highlights upgrades to its industry leading LogServer logging, monitoring, and analysis system.

content, rights and planning make for a end-to-end content supply chain that reduces both operational costs and hidden supply chain waste while maximizing Content ROI. The new WHATS’ON HIVE platform now extends the WHATS’ON core principles into the cloud by streamlining all workflows into a shared process controlled by continuous deployment. It helps media companies become more agile in the face of rising content costs and everchanging viewer demand. The WHATS’ON HIVE products include: Content Cockpit, visualizing content ROI by providing real-time intelligence on content performance and audience engagement; Strategic Planning, allowing the long-term allocation of content across platforms to match supply and demand; Content Curation; Metadata portal, allowing collaborative enrichment and leveraging automated ingestion from internet platforms; ARTIST, the suite of augmented intelligence solutions facilitating ratings-

IBC 2021

optimized automated scheduling; and Integrated online marketplace, leveraging the agility of online marketplaces to sell and acquire content.

VSN VSN unveils its range of remote and collaborative working solutions at IBC 2021. The devices are VSNExplorer MAM, VSNExplorer Exchange, and VSNCrea. Also, VSN demonstrated the solutionwide application of cloud collaboration tools. This

solution is capable of being integrated across all major remote storage providers, as well as the addition of SaaS pricing model. VSN has been integrating AI functionality into its range in order to ease and automate complex, timeconsuming and repetitive tasks. This capacity has now been expanded and refined within VSNExplorer – VSN’s MAM solution – with the addition of ‘DataBinder’, a tool which aggregates the results provided by AI engines in a single location

VSN unveils its range of remote and collaborative working solutions.

allowing users to undertake cross-check and adjust and correct metadata as required. Other improvements within the core VSNExplorer product include the VSNExplorer Exchange content hub, which has undergone renovation in order to allow users control over the way that they access and manage assets and subscriptions through the creation of ‘Exchange Points’ directly within the UI. Related to media production,

IBC 2021

Adobe Premiere has been integrated directly into the VSNExplorer PAM (Production Asset Management). Another major addition is VSNCrea, VSN’s Broadcast Management System, which has been designed with remote HTML5 access and full VSNExplorer integration.

Aviwest Its video contribution platform enables broadcasters to capture and deliver live 4K, multiHD, HD, and SD video over multiple unmanaged IP networks, including bonded 5G/4G cellular, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and satellite links. PRO460: at IBC2021, Aviwest showcased its flagship 4K UHD on-themove bonded 5G/4G transmitter. The PRO460 supports 4K UHD and multicamera workflows for up to four high-resolution, fully frame-synced feeds, delivering outstandingquality video and high performance. It oﬀers a high-definition video return (up to 1080p50/60) and is available for

Aviwest RACK400.

confidence monitoring or teleprompting. The solution also supports full-duplex intercoms and innovative data bridging for remote camera control, tally light management, or control of any IP connected device during a live event. Housing six globally compliant 5G modems and custom antennas to ensure high-speed transmission, the PRO460 provides transmission over any network (i.e., cellular, satellite, IP leased line, or the public internet), ensuring low end-to-end latency, down to 0.5 seconds, thanks to AVIWEST’s two-time Emmy Award-winning SST (Safe Stream Transport) technology. RACK400 Premium: the RACK400 video encoder. Designed in compact half 1U form factor supports

4K UHD and multicamera workflows, with up to four high-resolution, fully framesynced feeds. As a remote production encoding solution, the RACK400 oﬀers all of the features needed to ensure maximum eﬃciency from a central facility. The encoder enables perfect video sync between multiple cameras for seamless camera switching in the studio, video return to the field for confidence monitoring, full duplex intercom between field crews and studio operators, and data bridging for remote control of cameras, tally light, or any other IP device during a live event.

Ooona OOONA presents at the trade fair the full range of OOONA’s media localization management

IBC 2021

and production tools. “Our strategy from OOONA’s inception nearly a decade ago has been to be the go-to resource for the entire media localization industry,” comments OOONA CEO, Wayne Garb. “We are continually refining the OOONA platform and adding new features that our users ask for. Our focus on the needs of our customers has made us the global company we are today.” Timed text specifications for the Japanese market are much more intricate technically than for any other language. Text is displayed vertically as well as horizontally, ruby characters and bouten marks need to be positioned precisely, a combination of full-width and half-width characters is customary, and alphanumeric text has its own set of rules. “Support for Japanese timed text editing was the last piece of the puzzle for us to be able to serve the entire media localization market,” adds OOONA Tools product manager Alex Yoﬀe.

Further enhancements include features that aim to facilitate the day-to-day work of localization staﬀ. The OOONA mobile app allows project managers and translators to manage urgent and live work scheduling remotely and intuitively. It is available on all OOONA Integrated accounts. “Viewing orders and assigning work has never been simpler,” says Maya Venturero, OOONA Integrated product manager.

Digital Nirvana The company shows the capabilities of its Trance cloud-based transcription, captioning, and translation workflow and had highlighted the updates to MetadataIQ, its SaaSbased metadata-generation platform, and MonitorIQ, an AI-driven compliance logging and monitoring tool. Digital Nirvana Trance: Trance is a web-based application for the automated generation of transcripts, closed captions/ subtitles, and translations for content localization. The solution is built in artificial

intelligence and, also, allows custom preset capabilities. Trance provides automated translations in more than 100 diﬀerent languages, as well. MetadataIQ: it is a SaaSbased oﬀering from Digital Nirvana that automates the generation of speech-totext and video intelligence metadata for Avid PAM/ MAM users. The system provides metadata enrichment of Avid assets by applying machine learning and AI to create transcripts of video content. The solution automates the entire process of metadata generation, including transferring video assets from Avid and ingesting the metadata as markers along with the asset. MonitorIQ 8.0 is the new version of the company’s AIdriven compliance logging and monitoring tool that integrates with its Media Services Portal. MonitorIQ allows operators to record, store, monitor, analyze, and repurpose content. Natively recording content from any point in the video delivery chain, from distribution (SDI) to consumption

IBC 2021

Digital Nirvana.

(OTT and STB), MonitorIQ enables broadcasters to collect and use knowledge about their broadcast content to meet a wide range of regulatory and

and export caption files with amazing accuracy using automatic AI-based formatting,” said Hiren Hindocha, CEO of Digital Nirvana.

broadcast community is that automation and eﬃciency are key for today’s workflows. We look forward to sharing with IBC attendees how MetadataIQ can simplify and automate metadata generation, and how Trance can create

PCoIP Ultra Gateway: The Emerald GE is the first solution to enable multiple users to connect simultaneously and control a virtual machine (VM) just

compliance requirements. “What we hear from the

Black Box Emerald GE

Black Box Black Box presents KVM solutions for centralized control rooms and remote production for optimization and secure remote access. These new additions to the Emerald product family are being launched this December:

as they would a physical system. The device has incorporated PC-over-IP (PCoIP®) and PCoIP Ultra technology to support VM sharing. ZeroU DisplayPort Transmitter for Emerald Unified KVM: it works with any Emerald receiver

IBC 2021

Black Box products.

to give users a desktop experience anywhere on a TCP/IP network. The transmitter supports fullHD DisplayPort video up to 1920 x 1200 and requires 40 Mbps of bandwidth for 1080p video. Black Box Emerald VUE Video Processor: it is a new KVM Switch that addresses broadcasters’ need for advanced 4K image processing and system switching with instant responsiveness. The device enables the operation of multiple DisplayPort computers from a single console while gives simultaneous monitoring of four video

sources spread across two screens. The video processor delivers 4K60 image quality and allows users to arrange windows either freely on the screen or in preconfigured screen layouts. Also, it support the switching between sources via keyboard, API or GPIO. All of these devices work with the company’s Emerald KVM-over-IP Extension and Switching solutions as well as with the Black Box Boxilla Management System. Black Box Emerald Unified KVM platform gives broadcasters and other users flexibility and network security essential to extension and switching.

Boxilla KVM Manager provides an interface for monitoring Emerald system performance, configuring proactive security alerts, checking on real-time device status and identifying active devices, connections and users, as well as their current bandwidth usage. Black Box MCX AV-OverIP Distribution: MCX distributes and extends zero-latency 4K video and audio to an unlimited number of displays or a video wall over a 10 GbE infrastructure. The device allows AV and data payloads to exist on the same IT network.

IBC 2021

“As interest in IP workflows,

for Telestream Cloud, said:

inspected not only for

virtualization and remote

“As more media workflows

the highest visual quality

work continues to rise,

move to the cloud, it’s

but also for standards

we are extremely excited

imperative to have a

to introduce our first-in-

comprehensive QC strategy

compliance.

the industry PCoIP Ultra

that resides where the

The new Telestream service

gateway, which adds VM

media is being processed.”

also checks content before

sharing to our solution oﬀering with essential functionality, security and reliability,” said John Hickey, Senior Director of R&D and KVM Systems at Black Box.

Telestream

Cloud Qualify is designed for broadcast engineering and operations personnel and addresses content traversing the media pipeline in both directions. For media ingest and

it is sent to archive with frame-by-frame video analysis. The service oﬀers a RESTful Open API for integration into media supply chain workflows as well as a user-friendly UI.

post production, it allows

The Qualify service also

Telestream launches

users to normalise content

supports ABR/IMF and HDR

Cloud Qualify. The service

across all their workflows.

media formats as well as

is a cloud-native quality

For output and delivery,

many other common video

control service that

it enables content to be

codecs and containers. 

combines technology from three key Telestream

Telestream Cloud Qualify.

acquisitions (Vidchecker, Aurora and Telestream Cloud) optimised for cloud workflows. It is based on the Telestream Media Framework and is a filebased QC service that can run on a customer’s cloud provider of choice. Tim MacGregor, senior director, head of strategy and product development

BITAM SHOW 2021

TM Broadcast Technical Conferences at BITAM Show 2021 BITAM Show is the audiovisual and broadcast fair of reference in Spain. This meeting point is a perfect showcase for the commercial and conceptual novelties of broadcasting. For this reason, the Spanish issue of this magazine organizes each edition a series of technical conferences where the experiences that create the present of the broadcasting sector are discussed and shared and a vision is offered on the technology that will change broadcasting forever. Companies such as Telefónica, RTVE or Vizrt have offered their opinion on issues such as 5G, IP infrastructures or HDR, and here you will find all their ideas in this regard.

SPONSORS

NDI

NDI: a protocol for the whole world NDI is a video protocol that is free and freely accessible to everyone. After this consideration, the speakers at the talk: Roberto Musso, Product Manager at NDI, and Pablo Herrero, Head of Business Manager for EMEA at Vizrt; clarified that there are two downloadable SDKs for the protocol’s latest version: “With regards to NDI 5, a basic SDK that has certain functions can be downloaded, as well as another premium SDK for which they charge royalties.” The issue of NDI business models, as this is a proprietary protocol from Vizrt-NewTek company and outside the public domain while also shared by industry players, was one of the aspects more thoroughly discussed throughout the talk. But first, a bit of history.

Roberto Musso, Product Manager at NDI, and Pablo Herrero, Head of Business Manager for EMEA at Vizrt.

As phrased by Pablo Herrero, “NDI has been alive since 2015.” It had already been around for some time, but 2015 was the year in which NewTek gave it that trade name. The origin is, as has been advanced, in NewTek. They invented a protocol for sharing video between their own machines. Soon its essence became much more global in a world that was increasingly turning towards full interconnection. At this point, NDI began to grow as an interoperable protocol

that served a community around it, always having pragmatism as the primary aim and the ambition to make life easier for operators. “Producing video about audiovisual events should be simple”, as Pablo assured, and this idea continues to exist in the minds that make up the NDI business unit, because, despite being part of the Vizrt group, it works completely detached from the parent company and it is totally independent of your business model. NDI is designed to work in a

BITAM SHOW 2021

normal network, “like the network that can exist in any building”. As of 2015, NDI 1 was launched, but it was during 2017 when NDI 3 was launched, a protocol with capable of supporting control over PTZ cameras, tallies, camera control or metagraphics. In addition, many other third-party tools have adopted the protocol. A year later, Microsoft adapted NDI into the Skype application and that meant a growth never before seen by its developers. As Pablo Herrero stated, “it also meant that during the pandemic videoconferences would be used normally and with an acceptable quality for the broadcast environment.” Later, in 2019, Vizrt bought NewTek and in the same month of September NDI 4 was launched. On this occasion, the possibility of using NDI as a codec and recording the relevant signal was oﬀered. 2021 saw the launch of NDI 5. The main novelty is that now the protocol works beyond a local environment (LAN) and can be used

in an open environment (WAN). This means that NDI can operate on multiple networks. On the one hand, some degree of control is lost, but on the other the possibility of connecting local networks or connecting your own local network to the Internet or to other networks is achieved. This has been the development of the protocol over the years. But another subject that was mentioned repeatedly and one that raised great interest during the conferences was the idea that the protocol belongs to a specific owner. This feature, for many an indication that the protocol has a strong commercial load, was seen as a major advantage by the lecturers. The first step was to explain that NDI had been an annex to NewTek until 2019. Later, and after the acquisition of the company by Vizrt, they decided that to continue expanding the protocol throughout the world -since one of the main goals with NDI is that it be used by all the environments where

a camera can exist- NDI needed its own space and its own identity. And therefore, separate from what Vizrt or NewTek may do. According to Roberto Musso, “approaching all markets where a camera is involved is a huge advantage over other IP video protocols; of course we can be influenced by large broadcast players such as Vizrt or NewTek, but we also have to listen to other markets that are not so influenced by them. It is also important to note that the company controlling NDI is not only paying attention to the needs of the community of partners or manufacturers that use it, but it is also important for them to listen to the user community. “There is a Facebook community with 28,000 followers. NDI’s roadmap directly involves what people want. We always listening to users because the core of NDI is the people who use it “, commented Pablo Herrero and he went on to state that thanks to ownership of this protocol they can

NDI

react faster than other competitors,” because users can determine our path and we can react quickly as we own the technology”. Another topic that was discussed was the transition from SDI to video over IP. The NDI protocol is greatly advantageous because it adds to the simplicity of the SDI cable the most important feature of video over IP: bidirectionality. In addition to already having the network -as it works properly in any 1 Gb network environment- NDI can move those signals by interconnecting everything and nothing special needs to be done for these devices to be connected, and “that’s why I love the NDI’s pragmatism” joked Pablo Herrero. But then a problem arises, “that we need to embrace compression if we want to move signals through these network environments.” The broadcast industry has always been reluctant to compress broadcast signals, and that is why SMPTE 2110 is a protocol for video over IP designed

BITAM SHOW 2021

for the uncompressed broadcast industry, but in order to make this protocol pragmatic compressing it was required. The speakers present explained what compression standards NDI has and ensured that the compression used obeys the norm that “NDI compresses the capture in the most eﬃcient way possible so as not to need compression along the rest of the route”. In the case of HD, the normal procedure is to use a compression rate of 150Mb/s, similar to the XDCAM 50 formats or to a DVCPRO 100. In the same context, NDI is closer to a PRO-RES file. In the case of 4K, the signal has a load of around 300Mb/s. If we make a quick calculation in a 1 Gb network -taking into account other parameters that also load the bandwidth-, only six signals can fit and, as Pablo Herrero stated, “with six signals you can’t do anything.” On the other hand, in addition to the benefits provided by NDI compression over a common network

environment, another great advantage that was highlighted regarding NDI refers to a multicast environment. Natively, NDI is unicast and yet another main goal of the company is to get users move away from the multicast environment because it is complex. The major novel features of NDI 5 were discussed afterwards: it supports encoding and decoding in an environment of cheap chips, ARM CPUs; Reliable UDP -which is a flow control protocol designed to work over “unknown” networks-; Audio Direct: for working with audio over a virtualized environment without the need for synchronization, as this tool manages to transmit multi-channel audio sources that maintain synchronization between channels; NDI Bridge: for connecting a local network to another or to many others, whether private or public, such as the Internet; NDI Remote: basically, a way to send signals and share them between diﬀerent users. This tool can work to add one more source

remotely and -according to the speakers- its evolution will tend towards the creation of an intercom. These tools respond to the same idea that supports the growth of NDI: pragmatism and omnipresence. Its developers want NDI to have millions of users around the world and enable them to set up audiovisual transmission infrastructures in a matter of five minutes. For this, the business model is clear. It is a free SDK because people, both users and manufacturers, can do whatever they want with it, even patent products or tools that work better than those that NDI has developed based on the protocol, but charging royalties for it. Nowadays, NDI has gained a truly important foothold in the broadcast world thanks to ease of use and availability, but it is also beginning to be everywhere and the goal that whenever there is a camera connected to a network, it will be a NDI camera, is getting closer every day. .

5G – Fifth-Generation Broadcasting? 5G is still a technology in the making. The major companies involved in the transmission of multimedia content through mobile networks try to envision what the exact business model may be in order to carry out this large implementation. Is it or will it be possible to transmit television online with a quality never seen before, in large format, with better resolution and together with ancillary information through the same networks that protect the now nascent 5G? This question leads to many other questions that Audiovisual and Media Engineering consultant Luis Sanz was in charge of explaining precisely in one of the most massive and highly anticipated conferences in the history of the BITAM Show.

To answer these questions and add testimonials about experiences with 5G, Luis Sanz invited representatives from all the fields involved: José Luis García Cabrera, Director of Operations at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales; Adolfo Muñoz Berrón, Head of the RTVE Broadcasting Area; Olga Arribas, Technical Director of the Murcia Region Television within the Secuoya Group; David de Frutos, Head of Video Marketing and Artificial Intelligence at Telefónica Empresas; José Antonio Aranda, Director of Innovation and Product Strategy at Cellnex; Juan Alegre, Managing Director of ISTEC, a public service company within Generalitat Valenciana (Government of Valencia); and finally, representing Product Development, Albert Donate, Director of Broadcast and Media at Rohde & Schwarz.

Is the technology ready? The equipment intended for production of professional content, such as transmission backpacks from Aviwest or LiveU, or the cameras with which the content is captured, is already adapted to these networks. But beyond this modest set of devices, as José Luis García Cabrera mentioned, “technology must strive for solutions to work from the same platform in production, contribution and subsequent dissemination”. Based on this reflection, Adolfo Muñoz, the representative of RTVE, argued that the technology is already developed, but the deployment is still

BITAM SHOW 2021

From left to right: Albert Donate, Director of Broadcast and Media at Rohde & Schwarz; David de Frutos, Head of Video Marketing and Artificial Intelligence at Telefónica Empresas; Adolfo Muñoz Berrón, Head of the RTVE Broadcasting Area; José Antonio Aranda, Director of Innovation and Product Strategy at Cellnex; Luis Sanz; José Luis García Cabrera, Director of Operations at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales; Juan Alegre, Managing Director of ISTEC, a public service company within Generalitat Valenciana (Government of Valencia); and Olga Arribas, Technical Director of the Murcia Region Television within the Secuoya Group.

underway. Regarding the future of this technology, Olga Arribas, contributed a point of view about how applications will be developed and what they will allow. The director pointed towards the democratization of processes thanks to applications such as Mojo and next-generation

mobiles: “Any citizen becomes just another journalist.” In the field of transmission, the conference featured the expert intervention of Albert Donate and the products dedicated to broadcasting of multimedia signals from Rohde & Schwarz. In Albert’s words, “it can be unmistakably said

that our technology is up and running.” To convey a signal through the 5G network, manufacturers have had to add additional calculation capacity to the exciter and implement a core to provide the signal to the network on which it has to broadcast, the fifthgeneration network in this case.

For the speakers at the table, the issue around the state of technology lies in the receivers. In fact, for everyone involved in the multimedia industry, this is the most important part as it will determine deployment time. And this is a matter that is only driven by demand. Usage experiences in 5G content production The first connection by Radio Televisión Española through 5G networks was made during 2019. It was a standalone experiment, which means that it did not need the support of pre-existing networks (in this case 4G) to be carried out. The aim of this public service is to go where the news is and broadcast it to an entire country; and in the aforementioned case, no news was not seen, nor were current aﬀairs followed. An appropriate ecosystem was created to broadcast, but it was completely outside reality. This means that the goal of 5G networks to oﬀer total coverage so that any point of the national territory is

covered, something that is currently far from being achieved. In any case, Adolfo stressed that situations in which it is possible to broadcast multimedia content through these fifth-generation networks are increasing, although they have not quite become uncontrolled environments. José Luis García Cabrera commented that pilot tests have been carried out with media companies such as TVG or CCM during the year 2021, but environments with 5G coverage are still being sought, although it is true that it is imperative “to carry out tests to see how the network behaves” is an imperative. The current state of the 5G network infrastructure “Telefónica is the operator having the largest infrastructure. On the same 4G network, using DSS technology, new generation infrastructure has been deployed and 80% of the infrastructure has been covered in the first half of 2021”, said David de Frutos

during the conference. On the other hand, there is the concession on usage rights over the 700 MHz band. At Telefónica, 5G coverage reaches up to 85% of the population, focusing its activity in towns or cities with a population over 20,000, and they plan to reach 100% of the population during the year 2025. Another case is neutral operator Cellnex. José Antonio Aranda assured during the conference that their infrastructure covers the entire peninsula with HTHP towers and furthermore they have been investing in LTLP (Low Tower Low Power) towers for ten years. The Cellnex representative wanted to emphasize that its strategy is to become a neutral operator, which means that its infrastructure is capable of hosting the equipment of other operators. “5G will promote massive densification. Both in cities and in hubs we will have more antennas,” he commented while assuring that the work of an operator like Cellnex is not

BITAM SHOW 2021

only to provide the antenna, but also to oﬀer more services to operators such as fiber, edge computing or the possibility of managing their antennae. Juan Alegre commented that his company oﬀers a public service and, therefore, their mission is to over the places that the large companies that provide infrastructure do not reach because that would entail a situation of market failure: “We have 234 towers located in places where others do not want to go, that is, in towns of less than 20,000 people in the Community of Valencia.” 5G infrastructure costs Luis Sanz presented the example of China Mobile, which shows that a 5G station costs four times more than a 4G station, while three times as many 5G stations are needed to match 4G coverage, and energy consumption is five times greater than with 4G. Taking this into account, who is going to pay for it? Adolfo Muñoz, RTVE

representative, commented

precisely called ‘slice’, in

that it is necessary for

order to be able to ensure

broadcasters to secure a

the service. This means that

slice of the cake, using the

broadcasters must have

literal meaning of one of

guaranteed data network

the services oﬀered by 5G

bandwidth, as they cannot

aﬀord to fail because a

must have a guaranteed

if we thoroughly review

network may be saturated

capacity, as we cannot take

the expenses mentioned

at times of high traﬃc. For

risks”.

by Luis Sanz, we will be

operators must count on

On the other hand, José

“accounts can be amazing

broadcasters because “we

Antonio Aranda said that

by reducing figures on bit

this reason, for Adolfo,

pleasantly surprised that

BITAM SHOW 2021

transport costs”. Of course, although expensive at the beginning, the performance of technology is much more powerful and, no doubt, both performance and the service provided are more eﬃcient. The future of 5G Broadcast One of the great topics in the debate was also developed through the idea that 5G could make the current DTT technology disappear. The diﬀerent opinions of the speakers converged on the idea that DTT is currently a very capable service and, in addition, it will help to combine the hypothetical service provided by 5G. Nowadays, according to data provided by José Antonio Aranda, “75% of the content consumed in homes is via DTT” and this will therefore remain as complementary to 5G. Beyond 5G and already thinking about 6G which -according to the data provided by Luis Sanz“will mean an incredible

experience” with latencies of 0.1 milliseconds, data transport capacities of one terabyte per second, transport capacity for technologies such as artificial intelligence, holographic communications or extended reality through bandwidths of up to 3,000 gigabytes. This ability will turn mobile phone networks into the vehicle for everything that is connected to the network. And this big change is not so far oﬀ, as the Administration foresees the allocation of 6G band to take place by 2030. For Luis Sanz it is clear, if not now, “DTT has nine years left.” Afterwards the debate shifted towards what the other speakers considered the real issue: Will linear television disappear? Ondemand consumption is widespread and, according to statistics, young audiences no longer watch linear television. Therefore, Cellnex demonstrated how its HbbTV-related services have received around five million clicks per month.

However, the members at the table agreed again over an idea, stated here by the moderator of the debate: “The need to receive information about what is happening, when it is happening, will never disappear.” For this reason, everyone argued that consumption patterns will change, but linear television will not disappear, since we all have an significant need for information that must be met. Conclusion 5G Broadcast will be the next big step that the industry takes towards bringing multimedia content to all audiences. The development is unstoppable and, although it is still in its inception due to the lack of demand, experts predict that mobile phone networks will be the vehicle for any data transmission: from the internet of things, automated control of vehicles, holographic communication and, of course, broadcasting. 

VOD RATINGS

Gold Media’s VOD Ratings. Audience data for on-demand consumption. The audience is a vital piece of information for content producers. Over time, the permanence of content on the screen depended directly on the figures that the content attained. That is still the norm today, but content is changing platforms and audiometers, at this juncture, are not able to collect this data on the new viewing platforms. There are now seven million users in Spain alone and, of course, knowing the interests and movements of so many millions of people is vital to make all business and professional decisions fruitful. Javier Vacas, Managing Partner, Asset Media, presented us with an application for analyzing and displaying results of video on demand consumption throughout Europe. It is one of the most important consumption management and analysis applications of this new audiovisual format.

Javier Vacas, Managing Partner, Asset Media.

Gold Media has its origin in Germany, and in 2017 developed a panel for analyzing this subject in regard to domestic consumption. The origin of this panel is in NetQuest company and it was developed for this assignment. The panel was based on more than 60,000 video on demand users in

Germany. The success experience in this testing period applied to a single market, led Gold Media to develop this same panel for diﬀerent countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and, in 2020, for the Spanish market. The panel allows surveys of more than half a

BITAM SHOW 2021

million people throughout Europe if we take into account the different international panels. The one in Spain has 50,000 possible respondents monthly. Each of the results offered by the panel reflects the surveys conducted between 6,800 and 7,200 recognized users. Starting in 2020, Gold Media continued working on the development of panels for different countries and that year it also worked for the Nordic countries, Poland and the Netherlands. In 2021 there are ten countries being

analyzed through these panels, which allows finetuning of consumption figures at an international level.

The results oﬀered by the

After this general background information, Javier decided to elaborate on the data relating to Spain

oﬀer a consumption

Demographically, VOD consumption is increasing, “there are more and more people who have stopped watching television, especially the younger people.” But the speaker says that this does not mean that they consume less and less audiovisual media, but that they do so on demand.

Spanish panel and which are reflected in the VOD Ratings application -freely accessible to everyoneanalysis involving all companies and all platforms that operate in our country. Data are available on subscribers of each platform, percentage of subscribers in each company, how deletions and additions evolve over time, how the content behaves over time as well as an analysis of content and platforms from a demographical point of view.

VOD RATINGS

In Javier’s words, “the panel

be deposited in our IT

decisions that involve the

allows you to research the

structure. It is in the cloud

penetration of content in a

market, its breakdown,

and can accessed through

and also user and content

a classic user registration

specific market.

behavior.” He also

and password prior to

highlighted the diﬀerent

subscription to the service.

layers of filters that users can apply on the results, such as age, gender, platform, income, location, children in the family or whether single or not.

The platform makes it possible to tell the origin of the content by making reference to the production company that has taken part in the development

Within the technical features of the panel itself -leaving aside the resultsJavier Vacas highlighted that the interface is customizable by each user in the way that each time the platform is accessed, it selects and can tell the

The times that the panel

of that specific content.

itself handles for tuning are

In this way, it is possible

monthly and the work of

to find out which

least interest each user by

NetQuest and Gold Media

production companies

analyzing each user. On

allow them to be fine-tuned

are more successful. “A

the other hand, business

on day by day basis.

very interesting piece of

profiles can be shared.

The reason why these forms of measuring audiences must exist,

information if the client interested in knowing these data were a buyer or a

panels that most and

We well know that the opinions of seven million

seller.”

users can move mountains.

himself, is that companies

Another interpretation

that oﬀer VOD content

oﬀered by the platform

of modifying the decision-

do not give their data

is that one can draw a

to others. As we can all

conclusion on which genres

imagine, the information

work best in Spain. Not only

that Amazon or Netflix can

do we have to know this

provide at a certain time

data in percentage terms,

can become interested

but also in comparative

information. Javier Vacas

terms, such as: “what

also highlighted another

drama oﬀering is available

in order to make better

of the great benefits: VOD

as compared to drama

decisions and help improve

Ratings is an application

consumption”. This is very

the content that we all

that does not need to

important when making

enjoy every day. 

according to the speaker

Of course, they are capable making of the business world involved in the production of on-demand content. Through tools like the ones Javier Vacas showed us, companies can now know their market

BITAM SHOW 2021

HDR The WOW effect The conference moderated by Yeray Alfageme, Project Leader at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), discussed what HDR has brought into our lives. This covers how the audiovisual content production processes have changed, or its adoption by audiovisual professionals, the struggle for formats, viewer perception, or the tools that are yet to come to serve a technology that, as demonstrated in the presentation, it is more spectacular for the viewer than Ultra High Definition. The session was designed by Yeray Alfageme so that all those involved in the audiovisual content production chain could contribute their experiences and opinions on this technology, one that has not yet become a standard, but which has come to this world to get firmly established and improve viewer experience. The speakers were Adolfo Remacha, former Technical Director of Movistar; Juan Luis Cabellos, director of photography; Chema Alba, colourist in Deluxe; and Luis Pavía, expert and trainer in creation of audiovisual content.

What has HDR involved in the various phases of production? HDR causes a ‘wow’ eﬀect in any type of viewer. As Yeray Alfageme mentioned in a part of the presentation when addressing technical performance in color range and the standards that were available, “at EBU tests were carried out in which 4K/SDR images and HD/HDR images were shown to the unprepared public and everyone selected the second image as much more spectacular”. Of course, HDR “changes the way of working” as Juan Luis Cabellos pointed out, but at the same time means great progress because it is a tool for total image control. Of course, it must be taken into account that HDR has the following feature, which is crucial

HDR

Therefore, it has implied an improvement in the processing, capture and display of images. With high definition, the standard was Rec. 709 and the Ultra High Definition associated with HDR tends towards 20.20, although there are still no displays that are capable of oﬀering such color definition. “For the first time in a long time we have a better positive than celluloid does,” said the director of photography.

for anyone involved in the production of audiovisual content: “There are things that were not seen before and can now be seen.” For this reason, it is necessary to refine the staging and prepare the lighting to row in favor of HDR, because, in his own words, “it is a technology that is here to stay, as it adapts to the previous one and oﬀers more possibilities, both narrative and related to the spectacular nature of the content”, a leitmotiv that was repeated throughout the event.

The change is obvious, and we all agree that it is a perfect technology, but Adolfo Remacha assured that there are many companies that are still undergoing this change process: “It is expensive, it implies modifying many processes that are already firmly established and the technology is still at a developmental stage”. Simultaneous formats Another of the great issues around this change is the simultaneous existence of formats. For instance, Adolfo highlighted that today there is a divergence between SDR and HDR

cameras that are involved in the same production; and the option of matching contents or leaving the signal cleans is still different for each broadcaster. When you produce content, as is the case with the director of photography Juan Luis Cabellos, if you are going to do HDR you have to work for HDR. You cannot be thinking about format shuffling beforehand, “you must work towards the highest window.” And afterwards, when the content has already been created, the format of each copy will depend on the use you may want to give to that content. If we stop to think about the work of a colorist, the progress reached by HDR has made the work experience of color grading much better, but we must not forget that the standard resolution is also capable of making an image beautiful. As put by Chema Alba, “you don’t have to make the most of everything that HDR offers, you don’t have to fill a movie with neon lights and put a thousand nits on it. We must work

BITAM SHOW 2021

with coherence and have the image aligned to the story. ”. In the end it is a question of survival, as the expert Luis Pavía stated: “What happens eventually is that you find as many solutions for this problem as there are professionals involved.” Wide range of standards Another of the great diﬃculties that HDR implies for production of audiovisual content is that even today there is not a single standard on the market. There is HLG, which has been imposed on live broadcasting, HDR, HDR+, Dolby Vision, etc. and this creates many diﬃculties for the broadcaster with regards to compatibility. HLG was promoted by broadcasters such as NHK and EBU put together all the existing variants to create the standard by which it is currently governed. Achieving this is relatively simple: blacks and whites are expanded on the SDR, thus making it possible to produce an SDR signal in HDR. This standard

From left to right: Luis Pavía, expert and trainer in creation of audiovisual content; Chema Alba, colourist in Deluxe; Yeray Alfageme, Project Leader at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU); Juan Luis Cabellos, director of photography; and Adolfo Remacha, former Technical Director of Movistar.

is used on stage, but is not appropriate for fiction production. Regarding fiction, this is more complex and there are many possible suitors. Chema Alba mentioned that “we are still waiting for an HDR image standard to arrive.” Viewer’s ability to perceive Before, content was enjoyed on a more or less large screen, but now content is consumed on a multitude of devices and in countless contexts.

In addition, viewer experience is also disrupted by the panel itself. Professional content creators can devote all their eﬀorts to ensure that content reaches the viewer in the most careful way possible, but in many cases, a highly trivial aspect such as the viewer’s own TV image setup at home it is decisive to waste the HDR experience. As noted in the questions round, both broadcasters and viewers have become used during the pandemic to the fact that content can be broadcast with a very questionable quality

HDR

whenever it is of interest.

useful tools in filming, which

This fact directly clashes

have not yet been adapted

with the perfectionist

to the HDR standard. The

essence of HDR, but it also

first of these is False Color,

demonstrates the fact that

which would take oﬀ some

viewers decide and are

the cinematographer’s

is only a matter of time

able to get used to lower

workload when exposing

before it becomes the

qualities. Therefore, what

the image to be captured

next resolution standard

this fact leads to believe

to color tests. The second

is that quality formats will

for more professional

is related to the viewing

coexist in the world of

method during filming. As

content such as film and

broadcasting.

the DoP mentioned, the

Tools for HDR For Luis Pavía, there are enough tools, but what is sorely missed is integration, since some tools integrate better with others.

time has not yet come when the oﬀering of HDR monitors for viewing during shootings will be broad and consequently accessible. This diﬀerentiation is already generating problems nowadays,

Conclusion HDR, as can be seen from this text, has come to our industry to stay. It

live television. But at the same time, our industry is more open than ever to less professional formats. For this reason, both we speakers at this table, as well as the rest of the broadcast industry, predict a great hybridization of the formats to host the most

In the production part,

because on many occasions

director of photography

a director, cinematographer

varied content samples.

Juan Luis Cabellos pointed

or client are not able to see

Because let’s not forget that

out that he misses two very

the same thing.

content is king. 

BITAM SHOW 2021

IP in broadcast - Producing beyond the physical Video and audio over IP in broadcasting embodies one of the many great revolutions that multimedia content creation is experiencing. Experts compare it to the transition between linear and non-linear editing because it involves a change in culture and a modification of working models well established in the sector. With the adoption of video over IP, a switch is made from absolute control of the signals and total automation into a delocalized environment and -although strongly controllable and safe- very different from the physics of the SDI cable. IP achieves the much coveted two-way signal, simplicity of processes through complex computer systems and, of course, high transport speeds associated to very high capacities. But not everything would be a bed of roses. In addition to a change in work models, transition to IP involves a different implementation that requires training and new professional profiles, as well as IT knowledge and care when choosing the most appropriate protocols to meet goals. In order to address all these issues, Asier Anitua, Business Development Manager in EMEA and LATAM at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales, put together a discussion table made up of José María Casaos, Technical Director of RTVM (Telemadrid), an entity that has recently restructured its main production center based on IP technology; Jesús Vegas, Project Manager at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales, a professional who has participated in many television installations over IP; and Pablo Herrero, Head of Business Unit of EMEA at Vizrt, who contributed the views of the manufacturer and developer of one of the most widely used video over IP protocols in the field of multimedia content creation: NDI.

Is there still a way for SDI? IP involves a very profound process of change as to try developing it overnight. The technology has been around for five years, but the broadcast industry has not embraced it just like that. Despite this reality, IP is unstoppable and “it is here to stay.” Therefore, it was necessary to know if there are still developments in progress for a technology such as SDI and if “the cable” will soon disappear. For José María Casaos of Telemadrid, “both technologies will coexist for a while”. It is not the same to renovate an entire facility in a production

center as to renovate only one studio, “assuming all the advantages and disadvantages that this divergence may cause”. Pablo Herrero agreed with José María and pointed out that SDI development has been discontinued because “there is still much to do in IP” and “a new building [broadcast] based on SDI has not been seen again.” Quality and service are guaranteed and no debate exists any longer on this issue. This has been shown more than convincingly, since there are already many reference facilities that do work and in which manufacturers have demonstrated that they can solve the problems as they came. Transition to IP has nothing to do with the technological limitations of former times because, as Jesús Vegas witnessed through experience, “the network electronics, speed or bandwidths provide us with guaranteed transmission, and a decreased latency time allows proposing a production center based on this technology”.

Advantages and drawbacks of IP To implement a video over IP infrastructure, many variables must be taken into account. Of course, among the first ones to consider is the associated cost and consider whether the transformation will result in cost savings. With this in mind, you should also consider your own needs. In the case of the Telemadrid’s technical manager, his schedule grid is made up of twelve live hours and, “this demands operational flows and requirements in which everything has to be available,” says José María Casaos. Taking into account this specific case, and of course the evolution of formats, to migrate the infrastructure towards the IP world since could eventually become a good option, as “it is a technology for the future providing the possibility of working on 4K without actually changing anything”. IP is also agnostic and favorable to the paradigm shift that society -and, of course, broadcast- is

experiencing: “we are moving from a one-way, oﬄine world towards a two-way computing environment”, said Pablo Herrero. Time is no longer an issue, as IP currently takes as much deployment time as the implementation of an SDI project. Technology and training are also making the transition easier. Programs such as orchestrators and broadcast controllers have sprung up to deliver what IP promises to operators: “it makes life easier for them,” according to the Head at Telemadrid. “Operators continue to handle the tools in the same way they had been doing,” according to Jesús Vegas, while those who have to adapt in greater measure are the technicians who are going to coordinate, design and maintain the IP installation. This great transformation has given rise to one of the biggest disadvantages that still weighs on video over IP. “The only challenge is the fear of change,” said the Head of Projects at

BITAM SHOW 2021

From left to right: Pablo Herrero, Head of Business Unit of EMEA at Vizrt; Asier Anitua, Business Development Manager in EMEA and LATAM at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales; Jesús Vegas, Project Manager at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales; and José María Casaos, Technical Director of RTVM.

Telefónica. As we have mentioned before, we come from a very controlled, automated architecture and the idea of shifting all the entire centralized control from one studio to another through a single button, without a need to patch, continues to cause many headaches. To solve this challenge, all that is left is resort to training. Technical operators must be trained through a teaching program in which issues such as that “the video signal no longer goes through a cable -which it is multicast, takes up bandwidth- in which the sharing of lines between studios implies a bandwidth that has limitations depending on the installation”, according to Jesús Vegas, who went

on to say that what is really needed is to “come up with a systems manager role with deep knowledge in IT and capable of designing the systems, appropriate flows to migrate configurations between studios and thus serve diﬀerent formats ”.

is a perimeter defense.

Towards the end of the discussion, another of the few drawbacks that an IP infrastructure can bring today was addressed. Security, or cybersecurity in this case, is a worrying issue for many broadcasters who are considering migration or setting-up a new installation. And for this, the guests at the table already had their own solutions in place. As a representative of the broadcasters, José María Casaos argued that the best security

have to design an access

This means that the most appropriate course when facing this paradigm -according to his point of view- is to be isolated from the main network, for example the Internet. “And in the event that you need to connect, you will control strategy with users, passwords, firewalls, etc.”. The transition to IP video has many advantages and few drawbacks -the latter relative in importance and easy to address thanks to the technology and expertise shown by today’s professionals. However, the field of protocols on which to build an architecture for broadcasting over IP turns out to be a rather more complex field.

IP infrastructures have the ability to build on diﬀerent parameters to facilitate communication between equipment items from diﬀerent manufacturers. A protocol is basically a common language for communication. In environments where all devices are connected to each other it is vital that each of the devices involved speaks the same language. Currently there are many options -a feature inherent to computing- and three of them are most popular in broadcasting.

Content and quality have undergone a recent transformation. The pandemic has caused the quality standard to decline and content such as videoconferencing previously unthinkable in the television environment, have been broadcast. Thanks to this circumstance, protocols such as NDI are positioning themselves as a possible option in broadcasting since its implementation is much simpler than 2110 and the quality achieved is acceptable for today’s television.

The SMPTE 2110 protocol, a result of an international partnership that brings together experts, manufacturers and users who ensure that this ambition for unified communication is fulfilled, is the most widespread in the field of broadcasting because it oﬀers the uncompressed signal. On the other hand, other very powerful protocols are NDI -a proprietary protocol from Vizrt and NewTekwith a spokesperson at the discussion table, and SRT.

Pablo Herrero noted that each of protocol has its own environment. It is the needs of broadcasters and the decisions manufacturers make that will advance technology. José María Casaos exemplified it through his own experience: “In our station we have to take into account a multitude of formats and protocols as a result of the pandemic.” Telemadrid, as we have mentioned, is developing the transition of its production center and is basing its architecture on

Protocols

2110 that oﬀers quality, security (through network redundancy) and it will soon be much easier to install through the awaited NMOS 5 that will enable self-discovery. Both NDI and 2110 need proper configuration, IP has not yet become as simple as to be comparable to the SDI protocol in which you would connect a cable and already had an image on the monitor. Conclusion IP is here to stay. This was assumed by all members at the discussion table. Opinions were not so unanimous in the area of protocols. Not so much about which of them will become the desired standard, but about their ability to coexist. The 2110 protocol seems to prevail in top-level facilities, but from the opinion of these experts also transpired that the protocols can coexist, as they do in the IT world. We will see what happens, but no time should be wasted as there is a fast train approaching the station; it is called Cloud and it’s unstoppable. 

TECHNOLOGY

By Asier Anitua, EMEA & LATAM Business Development Manager at Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales; and David de Frutos, Head of Video & AI Marketing at Telefónica Empresas

In words of our president, J.M.A. Pallete: “These are times to imagine, to think big. These are 5G times”. 5G is the technology that connects people at “hyperspeed”, both on a human and on a business level. In our professional environment -Broadcast5G is a great help for connecting, integrating and interoperating our world. One use case that has been impacted by the breakthrough of 5G is sports broadcasting, immersed in a process of change in recent years, a process that has been sped up by the pandemic, which kept viewers away from events and forced the Broadcast sector to reinvent itself. With the gradual return to normality and spectators making it back to the stadiums, the sporting event broadcasts face the task of combining technological advances -with the added value that spectators contribute- with, this is not at all trivial, the new forms consumption of sports content by fans.

TECHNOLOGY

The use of drones, augmented reality, interconnection, engagement with fans in stadiums and the need to make broadcasts more efficient in order to reach more and more different types of sporting events that are being in demand by consumers, are some of the challenges facing the sector. All this, besides, in a context of sports event broadcasts that are most of the time live, where the minimum latency is crucial, added to the prevailing trend seen in scenarios that require being wireless, without any cables or on-site technical infrastructure. In order to cope with these difficulties, companies in the broadcast world rely on technological advances that can facilitate this work, both with regards to equipment such as the transmission backpacks of Aviwest, a manufacturer basing its new equipment on the IP2110 standard -as this is emerging as the main one in IP Video broadcasting-, journalism

WITH THE GRADUAL RETURN TO NORMALITY AND SPECTATORS MAKING IT BACK TO THE STADIUMS, THE SPORTING EVENT BROADCASTS FACE THE TASK OF COMBINING TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES WITH, THIS IS NOT AT ALL TRIVIAL, THE NEW FORMS CONSUMPTION OF SPORTS CONTENT BY FANS.

with a mobile phone (MoJo or Mobile Journalism) or cloud solutions in a wide array of variants, such as CISCO network electronic switching under Cloud environments that use the 5G ‘highway’ and, most especially, EDGE computing infrastructure. 5G -for whose deployment Spain and Telefónica are a reference with 80% of the territory already covered- provides several key functionalities that will allow transforming the way in which sports events are broadcast today: • Large bandwidths: where the main novelty is an increased uplink capacity.

• Low latencies: which allow critical capabilities requiring an immediate response in order for such capabilities not to be hampered by the use of a mobile network. • EDGE Computing: related to the above issue, it means that computing capacity in the cloud is approaching the edge of the operator’s network, that is, critical applications and services will be hosted very close to the actual event site. It is also necessary to take into account, depending on the type of broadcast involved, which is the most suitable 5G band for the

event, as this technology features 3 diﬀerent frequencies: • Low frequencies: In Spain, it will be the 700 MHz band that has been licensed this year 2021 and not yet in use, although it will be the main 5G band. Its key features are a very wide dissemination, with coverage kilometers away from the antenna, and its great penetration indoors; the downside being that it is the frequency with the lowest bandwidth, as there is very little spectrum available per operator.

It will typically be used to provide support IoT devices or mass sensorization, which needs lower bandwidth for operation. • Medium frequencies: In Spain it is the 3.5 GHz band, where the reshuﬄing of frequencies between the various operators will allow greater bandwidths (with more than 1 Gbps for downloads). • High frequencies: It will be the 26 Ghz band, also known as millimeter bands due to the short distances existing between frequencies. This

will be the range allowing greater bandwidths (over 5 Gbps for downlink, and up to 1 Gbps for uplink), although its propagation and penetration indoors will be lesser and therefore a thicker or closer coverage will be required. As we have seen, 5G offers us a myriad of functionalities depending on the type of broadcast to be carried out, so it will be important to have experts on this type of architecture in order to design the best infrastructure for the events to be broadcast. Not a minor issue, in keeping with the sustainability strategy that Telefónica has set as key for the development of its services is stress the value of 5G technology as a driver enabling to minimize energy consumption, as 5G is 90% more efficient than 4G in terms of energy consumption per unit of traffic. Leading media companies, such as Telefónica Broadcast Services, an audiovisual content

TECHNOLOGY

producer, and Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales, engineering and systems integration worldwide, provide this group with the experience and know-how of broadcast clients and support developments, tests and implementations of new technologies such as 5G, remote production in the cloud or Edge computing. Based on the above and as the main player in the implementation and use of 5G in Spain -in addition to being a leader in the broadcast market- we have successful experiences in broadcasting sporting events using 5G technology, in which we have tested diﬀerent real-use cases.

Camp Nou Europe’s first stadium with dedicated 5G coverage, with augmented reality enhancing the spectator experience at home In February 2019, Camp Nou in Barcelona became the first stadium in Europe having dedicated 5G

coverage. This deployment, which took place both in the bleachers and in the VIP Box of FC Barcelona’s presidency, used Telefónica’s commercial band, which combined with a standard 3GPP network from Ericsson, allowed to test more immersive ways of experiencing sporting events from home as if the spectator were in the stadium. In this case, 5G technology allowed the 360º cameras placed in the stadium, to broadcast -in real time and with high quality- an immersive experience to any spectator at home. The combination of 5G technology, augmented reality goggles and an application developed by Telefónica in a joint

eﬀort with VREstudio and VectorPipe, allowed spectators to watch and hear the game as if they were on the field, achieving total immersion. This project is the first of a revolution that is coming, where large stadiums become keys for the broadcasting of new sports experiences: cablecams, flycams, drones, etc. will be amplified thanks to 5G and its greater upload bandwidth together with the flexibility of being able to place cameras without wiring; not to forget EDGE Computing as well, which will allow television production in the cloud, thus sparing many people the eﬀort of traveling to the event venue, which in turn results in savings and a lower carbon footprint.

A new way of watching shows in real time with virtual reality and 5G Following the previous example and in the context of the Spain’ 2020 King’s Cup Basketball Final held at the Jose María Martín Carpena Sports Palace in Malaga, Telefónica carried out a 360º live broadcast of the FC Barcelona-Valencia Basket match through 5G. In this case, in addition to the deployment of three 360º cameras at the venue, the application developed by companies VREstudio and VectorPipe and the

HTC Vive Standalone and Oculus QUEST VR goggles were used. This, together with 5G technology and its capacity to transmit upload video packets at up to 60 Mb/s upload, enabled this immersive experience of watching the game with 360º virtual reality as if vierwes were in the Martín Carpena pavilion.

A 5G stadium and automatic production with Artificial Intelligence One of the first use cases of 5G in sports broadcasting has taken place at the Abanca-Riazor stadium,

which became the venue with the most complete deployment of 5G coverage in Europe. In this case, 5G allowed the broadcasting and production of sporting events remotely and in an automated fashion, which will lead to decreased production costs, as well as allowing the inclusion of additional services such as KissCam, heat maps through augmented reality and multi-camera TV. In order to carry out these use cases, the following deployment was carried out at the Abanca-Riazor stadium:

TECHNOLOGY

• EDGE: An EDGE Computing node was deployed in A Coruña where Cinfo’s tivii solution for broadcasting and automatic TV broadcasting was hosted, which allows, thanks to Artificial Intelligence algorithms, to perform a real-time an analysis of the game, label the plays and guide and switch the cameras with the aim of generating a signal suitable for a live TV show. In addition, this installation, with Cinfo’s technology in the cloud, allowed additional use cases that enabled increased viewer participation, such as the KissCam and the augmented reality heat maps.

• Network: By means of Ericsson technology, one of the world’s first millimeter radio units on the European 26 GHz band has been used, as well as 3.5 GHz radio and 5G network cores either NSA (Non Stand Alone) or

SA (Stand Alone). • Cameras: 4K and 2K cameras connected to 5G routers that will broadcast their high-definition video streams over the mobile network, saving the usual fiber cabling in this type of broadcast.

The first 5G connection during the Basketball King’s Cup In the 2021 edition of the Basketball King’s Cup Final held at the WiZink Center in Madrid, an unprecedented event took place in sports broadcasting, as Movistar+ achieved live connections

with a professional camera connected to Telefónica’s 5G commercial network. In order to achieve this historic milestone, in addition to Telefónica’s 5G network -which provides higher speed and lower latency- a compact Aviwest AIR 320 5G equipment was used, featuring a 5G modem and video encoding

event with specific 5G coverage at the ACCIONA Open de España Spanish Open Golf Championiship held at the Club de Campo in Madrid. In this case, the broadcast was made from numerous video sources: TV cameras on the greens, latest-generation mobile sources placed spots

hardware. Accompanying the solution in the venue, EDGE Computing was used to bring about advantages such as minimizing latency, limiting service failures and reducing costs. This implementation made it possible to carry out professional broadcasting of live TV with greater immediacy and at lower cost, which favors the viability of live TV in all types of events.

Event-specific 5G coverage and drone broadcasting This October, together with Ericsson and Aviwest,

5G OFFERS US A MYRIAD OF FUNCTIONALITIES DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF BROADCAST TO BE CARRIED OUT, SO IT WILL BE IMPORTANT TO HAVE EXPERTS ON THIS TYPE OF ARCHITECTURE IN ORDER TO DESIGN THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE

that are normally hard to reach through a professional camera, and last, connected drones, one captive and the other mobile, which transmitted their video signal over 5G, thus providing fans with a new point of view. The deployment was complemented by an Edge Computing infrastructure (a datacenter at the edge of our network), with an Aviwest TV production mixer, receiving all these video feeds and launching them to the production center. Camera broadcasts over the mobile network were also carried out with Aviwest 5G encoders, the AIR-5G series. Finally, a mobile unit with 5G coverage was installed by Telefónica, which, in addition to the commercial 3.5 GHz band, broadcast in the 26 GHz band, a spectrum that was used to channel traﬃc to the internet fromthe WiFi networks deployed in places where traﬃc is

Telefónica implemented

higher, such as the press

and broadcast the first

area and the VIP area.

CASE STUDY

5G Racing ahead with a world first sportscast broadcast using shared spectrum A world first stand-alone private network for sports broadcasting using shared spectrum in the 3.8 to 4.2 GHz demonstrated the potential for private networks to provide wide area connected cameras for live events. Using a network 5G standalone design, led and engineered by the Scotland 5G Centre’s partners at the University of Strathclyde, this technology has the potential to transform the way live sport is covered and bring fans closer to the action. The University of Strathclyde StrathSDR team partnered with BT Sport, Dorna and Vislink to bring live segments to a worldwide audience from a 5G handheld camera at the Monster Energy British Grand Prix, MotoGP at the iconic Silverstone circuit. 5G networks used in this way have the potential to enhance coverage of sporting events and bring

more action to more people. Using the same technology trialled in the test bed in partnership with by Scotland 5G, the team re-created a standalone 5G shared spectrum network at Silverstone. This network covered the pit lane, paddock and starting grid, and technology partner Vislink supplied a 5G wireless camera and on-board motorcycle uplink to the 5G network. Viewers across the world saw the broadcast courtesy of the race Dorna Sports’ production and BT Sport. The successful demonstration paves the way to create more use cases for live sport. Using a private 5G network for regional football teams for example, could transform the fan experience by bringing them closer to the action, and oﬀer spectator angle camera interaction. Ultimately on-field and even on-player camera positions will be used.

This technology demonstrator also opens

“This collaboration between academia and

up ideas and future opportunities for use

industry partners is one of the enablers

by event organisers in remote and rural communities. Paul Coﬀey, Chief Executive, Scotland 5G

to help drive the adoption of 5G. This use case demonstrates a network that was first trialled in a lab based test bed and then

Centre, explains the significance of the

taken in to the field for demonstration and

broadcast for the adoption of 5G and said:

showcase.”

CASE STUDY

“5G private networks

or part of the diaspora

about the transformational

have the potential to

watching from somewhere

opportunities 5G

revolutionise how we cover

else in the world.

oﬀers to live action

live sports in the future. Remote production using 5G will be a more eﬃcient method of producing live sports and events, and

Malcolm Brew, the 5G projects team least at StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde, said:

perhaps by adding some

“We have been working

customer interaction

on 5G private network

this can improve the live

design for remote media

experience at the venue.

production alongside

Another possibility, already

broadcast partners. At

trialled in the US, is the

Silverstone, we operated on

ability to get the view of

Ofcom’s shared spectrum

the best seat in the house alongside your allocated seat.

band, which are radio frequencies set aside for public use, and were able to demonstrate this expertise

“The most exciting part

and capability in a high

for Scotland and the

pressure and real situation.

Centre’s work is perhaps the remote and rural opportunity. Private and shared spectrum 5G has the potential to make the event coverage process accessible for smaller sports clubs, teams and rural hosted events like mountain-biking and bring spectators closer to the live-action, whether they are at the event, in the town

“5G can enhance the viewer experience, while the new camera angles can bring fans closer to the action. The availability of spectrum can also transform how all fans watch and interact with each live game and can bring control of 5G networks to local communities. “We’re particularly excited

from international to grassroots sports in rural communities.” Radio Frequency Engineering Manager Noemi Lacasa from Dorna Sports, S.L, said: “It was really exciting to be part of the world’s first stand-alone 5G network thanks to the collaboration between BT Sport, Vislink, the University of Strathclyde and Dorna. “This case study allowed us to learn a lot and gain a better understanding of the future possibilities for 5G private networks in live sports broadcasting.” Strathclyde’s participation in this world first 5G live production came about through the acclaimed IBC Media Innovation Programme, a collaboration of 15 global broadcast leaders to experiment with and understand oncoming 5G capabilities. 