TV Tech 500 - August 2024

Welcome to the August 2024 issue of

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LIGHTING REFLECTORS • THE MATURING CLOUD • 2024 ELECTION COVERAGE

www.tvtech.com | August 2024

equipment guide cameras and lenses

Ethics & Enablement The pros and cons of AI in media & entertainment

contents

Vol. 42, No. 8 | August 2024

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18 AI Makes It a Whole New World

Will your next news anchor be an AI avatar?

By Bob Kovacs

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M&E’s Embrace of AI Dampens Potential for Damage Mitigation

Amid the hype, industry struggles to establish guidance and guardrails

By Fred Dawson

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Coverage of 2024 Campaigns Illustrate the Value of Local Broadcasters aim to prove their reputation as the ‘most trusted’ source

By David Cohen

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IBC Show to Focus on AI, Business and Tech Innovation

equipment guide user reports

IBC CEO Michael Crimp previews the upcoming gathering

By Jenny Priestley

22 A New Take on Reflectors:

Cine Reflect Lighting Systems The need for better tools has inspired lighting innovation

By Bruce Aleksander

24 Cloud Maturity in the Organization

Risks in a cloud service are identified and summarized in this month’s installment

By Karl Paulsen

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in the news

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cameras & lenses • Hitachi Kokusai • JVC • Canon • Ikegami • Marshall

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eye on tech

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people

Cover Credit: Getty Images

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Fear and Loathing Over AI I have a confession to make: I used AI in writing this column. Heck, we used AI to produce and print this magazine.

AI is everywhere these days and as broadcasters, we are very familiar with the concept, which used to be called “automation.” The more technical among us like to refer to it as “machine learning,” and while that does represent much of where the technology still is these days, the explosion of generative AI apps—the type characterized by ChatGPT and the variety of text-to-image or text-to-video apps saturating the market today—are making AI a reality for consumers worldwide.

We’ve seen a rapid acceleration of technology over the past decade with the cloud and IP revolutionizing how content is produced and distributed.

The quick acceptance of remote production was accelerated by the pandemic, but because the development of AI technology is exponential, it blows away any previous experience the media and entertainment industry has had with integrating such technology into our professions. AI is forcing us to make decisions faster and with perhaps more impactful consequences than ever before.

There’s a certain amount of apprehension when it comes to using AI for content creation that comes from uncertainty. On the one hand, it’s a great catalyst and enabler of accelerating (there’s that word again) production and simplifying the process of adding new features (immersiveness, accessibility, etc.). On the other hand, it could threaten our very livelihoods unless we learn to use it responsibly. But who decides what’s a “responsible” use?

Back to my opening statement: Was your reaction to my admission negative? I hope not, since I’m assuming our readers are more tech savvy than the general public. But the negative response is instinctual, given that so many people still view AI in the guise of a “Terminator” type dystopian future.

In his column in this month’s issue, my colleague Phil Kurz discusses his reaction to a YouTube video narrated by an AI voice. I’ll admit that my first reaction upon viewing such videos was quite negative as well but perhaps it’s because it was so easy to spot. A year from now, Phil and I may very likely not be able to do so.

Like any market sector, M&E likes certainty and AI’s emergence threatens that certainty. Hollywood hit the picket lines last year over (among “Next Stop Paris,” the first AI generated movie, hits the other things), AI, and organizations screens this summer. such as the NAB and SMPTE are working to both help protect copyrighted content and standardize processes. But they can only do so much when the threats are real and warrant immediate attention.

By the time you read this, the first AI-created movie from TCL Studios will make its debut online and on the TCLtv+ streaming app. Initial reviews are what you would expect, with one publication calling the trailer “embarrassingly bad,” and “soulless.” I’m sure TCL expected that but somone had to go first. The fear over AI comes with uncertainty, projects like this bring out the loathing.

But as with AI-generated YouTube videos, which will continue to improve, the ability to detect whether or not content is produced by AI will become more challenging. For our industry that still matters, but will the consumer care?

Vol. 42 No. 8 | August 2024 FOLLOW US

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P.S.: Last month, TV Tech and our sister brand TVBEurope collaborated with Caretta Research on a comprehensive online survey asking our readers about their thoughts on AI in M&E. Look for a special report on the results in an upcoming issue!

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in the news

NAB Challenges FCC Ownership Rule Changes may own in a particular The National Association of geographic market,” the Broadcasters last month filed its brief continued. “The rules initial brief in its challenge to the are premised on the notion Federal Communications Comthat broadcasters could mission’s local radio and teleexert disproportionate vision ownership restrictions. influence by shaping news The NAB is challenging a and entertainment options.

FCC Order from December of But that idea is a relic from 2023 that retained most existing a bygone era—before the ownership rules and tightened NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt emergence of the Internet, some others as part of the smart phones, social media, and streaming. ownership rules in the FCC’s quadrennial In reality, broadcasters today struggle to review of ownership rules for 2018. The FCC keep pace with rapidly proliferating audio is required to justify the ownership rules and video platforms that are steadily every four years. The 2022 review is ongoing. taking audience share and advertising “These consolidated petitions challenge dollars. Instead of making it harder for the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcasters to compete, the Commission broadcast ownership restrictions, including should have modernized its outdated rules its decision to increase the regulatory because they are no longer justified.” burden on industry in what Congress In the December Order, the FCC retained intended to be a deregulatory exercise: existing ownership caps and clarified its the Commission’s periodic review of its approach to situations where one of the top broadcast ownership rules,” the brief filed four TV stations acquired the programming by the NAB, Zimmer Radio, Beasley Media of another top four station in a market Group and Nextstar Media Group argued. and moved it to a LPTV or a multicast “The Local Television and Radio Rules channel. As a result of the Order, the FCC retain and even tighten decades-old will no longer allow the programming to be restrictions on which—and how many— transferred to an LPTV or multicast station. television and radio stations broadcasters

Streaming Jumps to a Record 40% of TV Viewing in June The shift to streaming passed a new milestone in June, when time spent streaming hit 40.3% of all TV viewing, a record according to Nielsen’s The Gauge. In sharp contrast to streaming, which gained 1.5 share points compared to May, broadcast slipped to a 20.5% share and cable fell to a 27.2% share of total TV viewing.

It’s typical for traditional linear TV to exhibit a lull in viewership during the summer months, and both broadcast and cable recorded fairly sharp declines in their share of TV usage in June, Nielsen reported. The broadcast category lost 1.8 share points and cable fell by 1.0 share points, bringing the two to a combined 47.7% of overall TV this month.

The wildcard for traditional TV as networks move into July and August is the Summer Olympics, whose widely covered quadrennial events have historically drawn

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sizable audiences across both broadcast and cable networks, the researchers noted.

Across streaming platforms, four notched double-digit usage growth including Disney+ (+14.8%), Tubi (+14.7%), Netflix (+11.8%) and Max (+11.0%), all with 20% or more attributable to younger viewers. Additionally, most streaming services exhibited shares that were near or equal to previous platformbests, while YouTube and Tubi both set high watermarks with 9.9% and 2.0% of TV, respectively, according to Nielsen.

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study: Consumers Hitting Spending Limits on Streaming As streaming companies continue to ramp up prices, a new study from Hub Entertainment Research addresses an increasingly central issue: How much are consumers willing to pay for video services and what kinds of content might convince cost-conscious consumers to spend a little more money? With so many platforms and abundance of content from which to choose, what’s worth paying for?

One key takeaway of Hub’s annual “Monetization of Video” study is that consumers are already running up against the limits on what they are willing to spend and are already feeling the bite of inflation. Even so, the survey found that some features and content may drive additional spend from consumers.

The study found that consumers feel maxed out on the cost of TV, with the average respondent estimating they are spending $82 a month on TV content, very close to what they say is the maximum they’d be willing to pay ($87). That indicates that consumers have already cut back from their 2023 monthly spending of $85 a month.

But the survey also found that the more expensive ad-free services are “stickier” than cheaper (or free) ad-supported ones.

Despite the plateau in overall spend, people paying extra for ad-free services consider them more valuable and are more loyal. Cheaper ad-supported and FAST services like Pluto and Tubi have helped to fill the gaps for people tapped out on spending, but loyalties to those services may not be as strong. In comparison, subscribers to ad-free services are significantly more likely to say they’ll still be using that service a year from now.

In addition, the survey found that while price matters, consumers are willing to pay for the right features and content.

in the news OPINION

Finding The ‘Boun-dairies’ For AI In Media viewers—has steadily improved I was getting my dopamine rush the over the years and is successfully other day scrolling through some deployed by stations ranging from YouTube Shorts when the narrathe smallest groups to the largest. tor clearly pronounced the word Then there is Channel 1, which “boundaries” as “boun-dairies,” has demonstrated AI-generated with the first syllable sounding anchors and reporters in a like the word for a person, place 22-minute promotional video and or thing but beginning with “b” plans a streaming newscast this and the second sounding like the year. BBC’s Chris Stokel-Walker’s place where milk cows work.

Jan. 26, 2024, article, “TV channels It’s a pretty safe bet the narration Phil Kurz are using AI-generated presenters was AI-generated with a textto read the news. The question is, will we to-speech algorithm. But calling attention trust them?” is an excellent summation. to the mispronunciation isn’t intended as a Indeed, will we trust them? At this point, gotcha aimed at the technology or the creator the question is open, but I suspect many of the content. Rather, it’s a sign of just how local news directors will resist using AI good this technology has become. If it were anchors and reports for the same reason not for the exception my ear registered in the many elected to step back from virtual news form of “dairies,” I would not have thought sets. Sure, there was concern about what to twice about the authenticity of the voice. do if the engine driving the virtual set failed YouTube itself has begun requiring and left talent in front of a green screen. content creators “to disclose content that But what was of more concern was building is meaningfully altered or synthetically a newscast of what was supposed to be the generated when it seems realistic.” It seems real thing—in other words, the reality of what in this instance the synthetic voice made is happening in their local markets to the best no meaningful difference to the content, so of their ability—in a computer-generated, no harm, no foul and no warning label. i.e., “fake,” environment. That idea simply But what about television content, especially rubbed many news managers wrong.

TV news? While many uses of AI promise great I suspect the same news cultural bias—at things in news, such as enriching metadata least in many local U.S. newsrooms—will be thereby making digitally stored content a major obstacle to AI-generated anchors searchable on an unprecedented level, those and reporters. The uncanny valley is real, that could directly touch viewers warrant careful and all it will take are a few “boun-dairies”consideration before committing to them. type missteps—whether audio or video—to AI-based closed captioning for live content unleash the bull in the news china shop. like news—something that directly touches Channel 1 AI-generated news avatar

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LABF to Honor Hearst With Broadcast Preservation Award The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation has announced that Hearst Television will be honored with the 2nd Annual Library of American Broadcasting Foundation’s (LABF) Excellence in Broadcast Preservation Award in recognition of the company’s outstanding dedication and commitment to preserving broadcast history.

The presentation will take place during the Annual “Giants of Broadcasting” luncheon celebration, Nov. 12 at Gotham Hall in New York.

The honor is awarded to an individual, organization, or company, who exemplifies the essence of preservation and collection within the broadcast industry.

“Hearst is leading the way in preservation among media companies across the country,” said LABF co-chairs Heidi Raphael and Jack Goodman.

“Their commitment and dedication to preserving important moments in local and national broadcast history across the entire company for future generations to follow for years to come is truly exceptional. It is truly a privilege to be able to honor them for this outstanding work.”

Hearst Television is a national multimedia company with 35 owned or operated TV stations, two radio stations, and digital properties in 27 markets. Reaching 24 million U.S. television households, Hearst Television delivers local and national news, weather, information, sports and entertainment programming via every available content-delivery platform. Hearst Television is a division of Hearst, one of the nation’s largest global, diversified information, services and media companies, whose diverse portfolio also includes ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; 24 daily and 52 weekly newspapers; digital services businesses; and more than 200 magazines around the world.

For more information on purchasing tickets and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Event Producer BJ Corriveau at bjcorriveau@giantsofbroadcasting.org.

ai technology

AI Makes It a Whole New World Will your next news anchor be an AI avatar?

By Bob Kovacs

Aldous Huxley’s classic novel “Brave New World” is a science fiction thriller set in a murky future with a highly ordered society. While Huxley and other sci-fi writers tended to focus on futuristic societies and novel personal interactions, they didn’t quite predict the mix of technology that we have today.

Yet the recent creation of artificial intelligence systems that can create new audiovisual content from just a written description is the brave new world that we face in the film and television industry.

Like any other technology, it is used by people—some of whom are good, some are bad, and most are a mix in which it is hard to separate the difference.

People in the industry, from the smallest players to the biggest moguls, are watching AI and expecting big changes. One of the biggest is Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of Dreamworks and the former chairman of Walt Disney Studio, who recently participated in a Bloomberg-sponsored forum.

“I don’t know of an industry that will be more impacted than any aspect of media, entertainment and creation,” Katzenberg said. “In the good old days, you might need 500 artists and years to make a worldclass animated movie. I don’t think it will take 10% of that three years from now.”

MULTIMEDIA BUILDING BLOCKS One application that can create graphics— or a whole family of graphics—from written content is called Lore Machine. Although it is predominantly for graphics and not

Channel 1.ai will launch later this year with all AI-created talent and sets. This is one of the AIgenerated “anchors” who discusses Channel 1.ai in the network’s demo.

moving images, it can create a graphical story based on a few sentences of description.

“Lore Machine is a web application that transforms story text into multimedia adventures,” said Thobey Campion, founder

CONCERN OVER ETHICS

“In the good old days, you might need 500 artists and years to make a world-class animated movie. I don’t think it will take 10% of that three years from now.”

JEFFREY KATZENBERG, DREAMWORKS

Thobey Campion, founder of Lore Machine

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children’s books, RPG games and video.”

Campion said that Lore Machine is the first AI system to achieve multimedia generation at story scale, and that it can transform still imagery into 5- to 10-second videos.

of the Los Angeles-based startup. “At the helm of Lore Machine, a writer can enter natural text like a novel, a screenplay, a resume, song lyrics or a blog post, and generate galleries of imagery, animation and audio all with persistent character, location and art styles. These multimedia building blocks can then be assembled into every audiovisual story format imaginable, including multimedia articles, graphic novels/manga, presentations,

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Ethics are a major concern regarding AI in the film and television industry. In other words, how do we prevent an AI system from creating content using the likeness of wellknown people, or using copyrighted content?

For example, with an AI system capable enough, it could create scenes from the latest Jack Reacher novel using an on-screen person that looks an awful lot like Tom Cruise. And that is just the tip of the iceberg that we can discuss in a respectable trade journal—let’s leave the 90% that’s below the surface unmentioned for the moment.

Lore Machine has safeguards in place to maintain originality and prevent ethical problems, Campion said.

“Lore Machine is BYOL: Bring Your Own Lore,” he said. “That means the first thing a user does is enter original text, which ensures original authorship. The ‘Preset Palace’ is filled with ethically trained image models that [prevent creation of certain content scenarios]. Over the course of the next several months, we are releasing some styles in partnership

ai technology with artists that cost extra money. All of those proceeds go to the artists.”

Further, Lore Machine is not simply a one-click creation tool, Campion said.

“It’s a workflow that requires many decisions to get to your outputs, which in turn ensures sufficient transformation,” he said.

AI has already been visible to television viewers around the world, including in North America. However, it is entirely possible that you didn’t recognize that AI was at work.

“One visible way in which AI is being used in broadcasting, particularly during sports events, is through content enrichment features such as real-time statistics and graphic overlays,” said Alex Rouxel, senior project manager for data and AI at the European Broadcasting Union. “AI algorithms analyze the game in progress and provide instant statistics.”

GUIDING WHAT THE VIEWER SEES Furthermore, broadcasters use AI behind the scenes in ways that ultimately guide what the viewer sees.

“AI is used in content recommendation systems that analyze viewing habits and metadata to personalize content suggestions for viewers,” Rouxel said.

“This increases user engagement without being visible on the screen.”

It’s impossible to say where AI might take us several years from now, but Rouxel has some thoughts on broadcasters’ use of AI in the near future.

“Broadcasters are likely to increasingly use AI for automated video editing and enhancement, speeding up the production process by quickly sorting and editing footage,” he said. “Editing can be tailored to the audience on the social networks where the content is posted.”

Alex Rouxel

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This use of AI is to consume the same treating it as though it news broadcast, in is an assistant that will each country’s native tirelessly work on projects language. I don’t know if that actual people could that is wonderful or scary, do. It is valuable work that but it is mind-blowing. frees up creative people to Channel 1.ai promises do more creative things, that its news will be ROY FOLKMAN, CINESYS.IO but it is not the sort of AI sourced and delivered that might take creative in accordance with work from creative people. accepted news reporting So is creative work by standards and verified creative people safe from by real journalists. the challenge of AI? However, what is to stop “AI is going to bring some organization with on the greatest change more nefarious goals in the history of the from delivering bogus media industry,” said news polished up with a Roy Folkman, director pleasant AI sheen? It’s of technical sales for all too easy to imagine CineSys.io, a Houstondozens of competing based systems integrator AI newscasts in every specializing in digital language, with “onmedia. “The only way camera talent” racing we are going to be to pander to the lowestable to navigate the common denominator. overwhelming changes To learn more about brought on by AI is Channel 1.ai and form through thoughtful your own opinion, visit Roy Folkman and respectful www.channel1.ai. exchange of ideas.”

As I write this, no one In an online presentation in March, can predict exactly how AI will affect the Folkman made his point about changes industry. It is certain that any limitations in the film and television industries with put on it by corporations or governments a simple end title graphic that showed will be quickly either ignored or bypassed. all the components of the film being Clearly, any government or well-funded created by AI. He went on to say that he entity can create something along the lines and many others value human creativity, of Channel 1.ai. And not every government and that actual art created by actual or well-funded entity has the best intentions humans will always have a place. toward our fellow earth dwellers.

As a content creator myself, I am curious about how generative AI can help me CHANNEL 1.AI visualize the stories I have in my head. I Later this year, a project called Channel already use AI-powered software to improve 1.ai will begin news broadcasts using AIresolution, and make videos and photos gathered information and delivered by better looking. (In fact, I used AI-driven AI-generated “talent.” Calling itself “a new software to improve the clarity of a couple personalized global news network, powered of the photos associated with this article.) by generative AI,” Channel 1.ai has a demo Generative AI, if I could get a handle on that looks uncannily like a first-class news it, could let me tell a story that I could not operation, using “talent” that mixes the right otherwise tell using the basic tools I have. amount of attractiveness with the gravitas The next five years look to be very we expect from news anchors and reporters. exciting—or nerve-wracking for some—with The lengthy Channel 1.ai demo shows respect to the use of completely AI-generated off one of the benefits of AI: It can deliver content. I am convinced that it will be an the news with the same “on-camera talent” eye-opening experience for all of us. l in any language. The demo has one of the anchors speaking in English, then what I assume is perfect Greek, Tamil and Filipino.

Bob Kovacs is a long-time television engineer, Even Walter Cronkite couldn’t do that. video creator and writer. You can find him on It could be possible for the entire world YouTube at youtube.com/bob%20kovacs.

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“AI is going to bring on the greatest change in the history of the media industry.”

ai ethics

M&E’s Embrace of AI Dampens Potential for Damage Mitigation Amid the hype, industry struggles to establish guidance and guardrails likenesses of radio and TV personalities that spread false information, and other uses of deepfakes that make it hard to distinguish between truth and fiction.

As the disruptive forces unleashed by “I have seen the harm inflicted on local artificial intelligence engulf the media and broadcasters and our audiences by Big Tech entertainment industry, the prospects giants whose market power allows them to for minimizing the potential for harm are monetize our local content while siphoning growing less certain by the day. away local ad dollars,” LeGeyt tells TV Tech.

Not that there isn’t an immense amount of “The sudden proliferation of generative work going into mitigating the dangers on the AI tools risks exacerbating this harm. To part of station groups, networks, distribution address this, NAB is committed to protecting affiliates and industry organizations. But the unauthorized use of broadcast content those efforts parallel an exuberant industryand preventing the misuse of our local wide embrace of AI that’s driving cost-saving personalities by generative AI technologies.” efficiencies, enhanced user experiences Along with pursuing Congressional and monetization to new heights at an action, NAB is deeply engaged in accelerating pace. fostering self-governance.

No one among the many industry leaders “Our technology team is calling for corporate policies, working closely with these industry standards and new innovations to equip government regulations that local stations with the best would establish guardrails tools to integrate into their against misuse of AI question operations,” LeGeyt says. the wisdom of maximizing Of course, with whatever the AI upside. “We certainly help NAB and the various welcome AI innovations standards organizations that enhance operational can provide in developing efficiencies and localism, tools and standards, it’s up enabling stations to better to broadcasters to execute, serve their communities,” notes Deloitte’s Libin. “The says NAB president and burden is on broadcasters CEO Curtis LeGeyt. to organize, monitor and regulate themselves, HYPE AND UNPROVEN then focus on industry EXPECTATIONS standardization,” he AI dominated the 2024 NAB This chart from a SmithGeiger 2024 survey of 2,036 adults aged 18–64 representing says. A “clear governance Show, bringing to light benefits the general population in the United States shows the demographic breakdown among respondents towards the use of AI in the media. structure and ethical impacting everything from guidelines” are essential, creative to production, encoding, as is “rigorous and continuous testing.” hearings and taking a preliminary look at a packaging, distribution, advertising, and handful of bills. anything else where data analytics comes Nobody is more focused on the need for into play. But with the guardrails coming IN THE NEWSROOMS legislative action than LeGeyt, who has had together slowly on a learning curve impeded A big part of self-governance is centered in a front-row seat at two Senate hearings on by hype and unproven expectations, broadcast newsrooms. Fostering such efforts AI issues. During an appearance before a the situation calls to mind scenes from has been a top priority at the Radio Television Senate Subcommittee in January, the NAB old westerns that left moviegoers on Digital News Association, the first national president highlighted examples of AI-related the edges of their seats watching good journalistic association to issue guidelines on abuses in three major areas of broadcast guys trying to stop runaway trains. news outlets’ use of AI, according to RTDNA industry concerns, including copyright As Deloitte managing director Judah president and CEO Dan Shelley. infringement, misuse of AI-generated Libin notes, AI adoption, including the use Issued a year ago, the guidelines focus

By Fred Dawson

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of large language model (LLM) generative AI tools that exploded into prominence two years ago, is proceeding at “a pace that far exceeds the speed at which our societies and regulatory frameworks can adapt, creating significant gaps in our understanding and governance.” Making matters worse, Libin adds, the technology poses “profound ethical and societal dilemmas, from the creation of deepfakes to the inherent biases in AIgenerated outputs.”

When it comes to formulating laws relating to AI, those dilemmas are especially daunting for a Congress locked in electionyear combat. Unlike in Europe, where the EU Parliament has passed the “AI Act” with final approval expected by year’s end, Congress has made little headway beyond holding some

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ai ethics egregious biases by using reference material in facial recognition, it’s also important to be transparent about the unavoidable biases that arise from cultural disparities.

The blending of ethical and performance issues in bias assessment is just one example of how addressing ethics and performance is really two sides of the same coin, Yves notes. “I have yet to see a requirement related to ethical AI that isn’t also a requirement of rigorous AI practice,” he says.

This is reflected in the dozens of standards and policy framework initiatives identified in the AI task force report that are underway at ISO-EPS, IEEE, ITU, W3C and other organizations.

It’s an impressive list, but there’s obviously a long way to go, especially when it comes to setting the ethical Yves Bergquist frameworks on which performance standards must be built.

SMPTE’s report spells out the challenge: “While stakeholders in the development of this plan expressed broad agreement that societal and ethical considerations must factor into AI standards, it is not clear how that should be done and whether there is HUMANS IN THE LOOP yet sufficient scientific and technical basis Such views pervade discussions about to develop those standards provisions.

AI in industry leadership circles, leading Moreover, legal, societal, and ethical many to suggest rank-and-file fears of job YVES BERGQUIST, ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY CENTER considerations should be considered by losses are overblown. Ironically, the hype specialists trained in law and ethics.” factor is contributing to job security.

How fast the industry gets to having real webinar with Jenkins and Walls, Yves says In this Wild West tableau, rampant guardrails will greatly depend on how big research shows that the true capabilities of hype is wreaking havoc with broadcasters’ the perceived risk becomes, which “will help AI systems in the vast majority of cases “are and everyone else’s efforts to put AI to to drive decision making about the need for a fraction of what they’re trying to advertise.’ good use. “One thing that drives me nuts specific AI standards and standards-related When it comes to getting to the truth of what is the amount of hype we’ve seen in the tools.” How much comfort can be gained from can be done, “not enough people talk about past two years,” says Yves Bergquist, a realization that the scarier AI gets, the more how hard this is.”. director of the AI & Neuroscience in likely we are to act is debatable.

Jenkins notes AI-assisted facial recognition Media Project at the Entertainment But even that modicum of relief from is one example of where AI isn’t living up to Technology Center (ETC). “Keeping humans anxiety is yet to be found when it comes a widely accepted 85% performance standard. in the loop is extremely important.” to reducing the alarms generated by the “People go into using AI Yves is co-chair with AMD threat posed by “deep fakes,” in which thinking it’s going to save us fellow Fred Walls of the task AI is used to create alternative audio and a lot of money,” Jenkins says. force on AI standards and video that doesn’t represent reality. When “Most of the time, the reason media mounted by ETC and asked about progress toward creating it fails to deliver is there isn’t the Society of Motion Picture tools capable of identifying professional enough time put into figuring and Television Engineers. caliber deep fakes, Walls replies that while out what it can really do.”

Earlier this year the task efforts to develop such tools abound, force produced what SMPTE the pace of deep fake AI development President Renard Jenkins calls SOCIETAL AND ETHICAL is such that it “will be really hard to tell “the most comprehensive CONSIDERATIONS if something is a deep fake or not.” document looking at both One of the most daunting Taking it all into account, we the technical side as well as tasks involves identifying can only hope that the old Western the impact and the ethical biases that are inevitably analogy holds to reel’s end, when the and responsibility areas of built into LLM models. sound of screeching brakes signals the this particular technology.”

While part of the challenge good guys have saved the day. l Participating in a recent involves eliminating the most Dan Shelley on how AI is used in newsgathering, editing and distribution with attention to ensuring accuracy through contextual and source validation, avoiding violations of privacy and maintaining clarity when AI is used to modify content. The association says newsroom policies should also keep faith with audiences, informing them of AI usage with assurances that everything is reviewed for adherence to journalistic principles by journalists.

Things are moving in the right direction. “There are infrastructures in place with experts thinking hard and acting very carefully when it comes to testing and implementing AI technology in local newsrooms,” Shelley says.

But staffing up with AI specialists is just part of the labor-intensive aspects of keeping AI on track. Everyone involved in news broadcasting has a role to play, underscoring the fact that, as Shelley stresses, “no matter how good AI becomes, it will never replace human intellect and the sensibilities to produce the best results obtainable.”

“One thing that drives me nuts is the amount of hype we’ve seen in the past two years. Keeping humans in the loop is extremely important.”

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

15

election coverage

Coverage of 2024 Campaigns Illustrate the Value of Local Broadcasters aim to prove their reputation as the ‘most trusted’ source

By David Cohen

“The expectation from our viewers is they want the information they want and they’ll make their own analysis,” said Michael Fabac, vice president of content and station promotion for the News-Press & Gazette (NPG) Co. and its 10 stations in the Midwest and western U.S. “Leading up to the election, we’ll use an analyst more for explanation of complex topics, less so for a debate between ‘Opinion A’ and ‘Opinion B.’” The path to the White House runs through Scripps country, according to Christina Hartman, vice president and head of Scripps News, the company’s global news

country’s standing on global issues. In fact, according to Insider Intelligence | eMarketer’s Forecast from January 2024 estimates that total spending this cycle will be up nearly 30% from 2020, eclipsing $12.3 billion nationally.

“I am excited about the idea that people really care about this… there seems to be a little less apathy. Maybe I’m hoping this election really does matter and I’m hopeful that we MULTIPLATFORM COVERAGE can also keep people focused on those down One way local TV news outlets are looking ticket races because that touches them even to keep pace with demand for more and more than the presidential race does.” more insights—in local, state and federal Kim Saxon, news director at WANF in races—is by increasing focus on their Atlanta, responsible for news programming streaming platforms. Gray Television has at three local stations owned by Gray stations in 113 markets, most of which Television, along with the Atlanta News First have affiliated national networks that cover streaming service, understands the federal races broadly. that the heightened interest “We have strong local news during the 2024 election cycle coverage in our 113 markets and represents an opportunity to we offer a 24/7 look at local news have a big impact. Like any across the country via our Local news pro during this season, she News Live streaming platform,” doesn’t intend to squander it. said Lisa Allen, vice president “Everyone knows how of Gray’s Washington bureau. important Atlanta and the “On election night, you’re going state of Georgia were in the to see what voters are thinking last presidential election, so in Nevada, who’s on the ballot the stakes are a little higher in Wisconsin, what people are here,” Saxon said. In 2020, thinking in Vermont. We’re using Georgia was the site of the our national footprint to go back historically controversial, tight to the good old days focused on presidential race and two U.S. local reporters in every single Senate races that required runoff NPG standardized its stations on the Inception newsroom solution from Ross that pivotal market and swing state.” elections. “It’s really a needle Technology advancements simplifies the sharing of content through its Horizon interconnection system. we have to thread. If we cover will surely play a part in how the politics in the election, it can absolutely organization that combined Newsy with its news organizations look to keep audiences be a great way to build trust with viewers local news organizations now covering a informed and win eyeballs, wherever—and and give them information they need.” presidential election for the first time in 2024. on whatever device they’re watching.

“We not only have a significant geographic Notable is the work being done to get footprint, but a really meaningful presence more thorough and reliable polling data to HUMAN EXPERTISE from an expertise standpoint,” Hartman accurately and efficiently project winners.

To get a sense of how local broadcasters said. “We’re taking a real issues-based and As a reaction to the growth in mail-in and are covering this year’s campaigns, TV Tech people-based approach. Being present in absentee ballots, Scripps News will partner talked to news producers and network news these local markets with highly connected with Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), which uses management from around the country. Almost reporters means that we can bring to air technology to lower the cost of collecting universally, the theme was consistent—trust the voices of real, connected authorities.” election data while also increasing the the experts on the team to provide the most This election cycle is sure to have speed. DDHQ claims they were first to call complete, unbiased information possible. heightened interest especially given last both the 2016 and 2020 presidential races.

Despite the enormous growth of softwaremonth’s shakeup that saw Vice President “The traditional method of race calling based workflows, increased newsroom Kamala Harris replace President Biden as the had relied on large teams of stringers automation and use of the cloud to increase potentia Democratic candidate—along with positioned across the country,” Scripps’ compute and distribution capabilities, it’s the broad uncertainty about the economy and the Hartman explained. “I would never human expertise that remains in the spotlight.

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election coverage

THE TOOLS Ensuring that even the smallest, local stations have access to breaking news of regional or national importance is also a growing priority for networks and station groups. No news outlet in the country wants viewers to have to hop to another station to hear about something big that’s blowing up social media. Cloud connectivity and digital communications ensure this type of content sharing is simple and instant, right? You might be surprised. Organizations we talked with have a wide range of solutions to this problem.

NPG standardized its stations on the Inception newsroom solution from Ross that simplifies the sharing of content through its Horizon interconnection system. Gray stations use BitCentral’s Oasis platform in its stations to facilitate simplified content sharing.

Scripps and Gray have also supplemented vendor systems with homegrown solutions, specific to their unique needs, such as realtime alerts from each market’s coverage.

Still, sometimes doing things the

old-fashioned way through word of mouth or email is the most effective.

Such tactics may not work so well when dealing with one of the biggest potential threats to election coverage: disinformation or misinformation created by Generative AI. “The rising prevalence of deepfakes

Insider Intelligence | eMarketer’s Forecast from January 2024 estimates that total spending this cycle will be up nearly 30% from 2020, eclipsing $12.3 billion nationally.

make it increasingly burdensome for both our newsrooms and users to identify and distinguish legitimate, copyrighted broadcast content, from the unvetted and potentially inaccurate content being generated by AI,” NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt told Congress earlier this year.

Everyone agreed that specific workflows and policies were either developed or in development to ensure they’re eliminating the likelihood of so called “deepfakes” from making it on their air.

Scripps’ Hartman, who co-chairs her company’s AI governance committee said, “We stood up a disinformation desk to be really well-positioned to debunk disinformation—in other words we want to look at what appears to be intentional misinformation. And we have to very transparently illustrate how we know what we know. We’re looking for technology partners in deepfake detection.”

In a campaign and election cycle that’s so important to TV news professionals and the entire country, it seems that getting the best information on the air is a more complex puzzle than ever. l

Credit: istockphoto

prioritize being first over being right, but we think it’s possible to be both.”

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | XXXXXXXXXX 2024

17

show preview

IBC Show to Focus on AI, Business and Tech Innovation IBC President Michael Crimp previews the upcoming gathering

By Jenny Priestley, TVBEurope

The 2024 IBC Show runs Sept. 13–16 at the RAI Amsterdam. TVBEurope Content Director Jenny Priestley recently talked with IBC President Michael Crimp about what to expect.

in media and entertainment. As AI rapidly evolves, and technology pioneers and media companies move beyond the experimentation stages to real-world applications, we are providing a central hub to showcase how AI is impacting our sector’s future. We know that media brands and tech providers are looking to step beyond hype cycles and talk about real, proven use cases.

three project streams: Generative AI in Action, AI Audience Validation Assistant, and Changing the Game: Predictive Generative AI, which set out to pioneer new, real-world use cases of AI within media production.

The aims include improving creativity in storytelling, deepening audience engagement, and harnessing real-time predictive analytics to personalize live sports viewing. The projects are being powered by world-leading innovators including Verizon, the RAI, ITV and Vodafone, among many others.

TVBEurope: What are the key themes of IBC2024, and why have you chosen them?

TVBE: What will we see in the AI Tech Zone?

Michael Crimp: We have three core themes MC: The AI Tech Zone, powered by European which form a thread that runs through Broadcasting Union, will act as a focal point all aspects of IBC2024, including the IBC TVBE: How are new technologies like AI for AI providers, content creators and solution Conference, the show floor theatres, new bringing new exhibitors and attendees to IBC? vendors showcasing how AI can meet specific show features and partner initiatives taking MC: Leading-edge innovation across industry needs. On the AI Tech Zone Stage, place at the RAI. They are: Transformative areas such as cloud, AI, 5G, XR and Technology, Shifting Business Models, immersive tech are expanding both IBC’s and People and Purpose. exhibitor and visitor bases, as media We’ve kept these key pillars in place and entertainment draws on new and to maintain a structure and help visitors emerging technology segments. Over 150 navigate their show experience, with first-time exhibitors will be in attendance each theme representing a critical focus at this year’s show. With continued area for the industry. Transformative convergence between broadcast and pro Technology has always been at the AV sectors, we’re also hosting a new AV core of IBC and is exemplified by Speed Pitch Event—in partnership with the innovation on display across our the AV User Group—to enable technology exhibition halls and through the IBC providers to showcase their latest Innovation Awards, Technical Papers innovations with non-media audiences Programme and the Accelerator Media across retail, finance and other sectors.

Innovation Programme.

Similarly, IBC has always championed More than 43,000 attendees visited the 2023 IBC Show at the TVBE: The immersive tech space has industry evolution as the media RAI Amsterdam. expanded into two halls this year. How will technology sector has had to adapt that be reflected in the Conference program? its sponsor, Wasabi Technologies, will lead a amid changing consumer behaviors, new MC: Immersive tech is one of six essential session which will look at how advanced AI ways of working, and challenging economic topics covered in the content program at algorithms automatically tag content libraries conditions—making Shifting Business IBC2024, with Conference sessions from with rich metadata for a range of uses. Over Models an essential theme that impacts industry leaders including, “How are games at the AI Networking Zone, sponsored by every conversation at the show. The People impacting the media ecosystem?” and “What DOT Group, the media and entertainment and Purpose pillar is just as pivotal, enabling community can connect and engage around AI the entire IBC community to play an active does human-machine collaboration mean for issues and meet some of the most innovative role in positive change, including attracting the future of content and creativity?” These players championing AI in media. and retaining the next generation of talent sessions will cover the evolution of immersive and fostering skills development, improving technologies like AR, VR and metaverse while TVBE: Tell us more about IBC’s first AI Media sustainability and promoting diversity, exploring cutting-edge interactive content Production Lab. equality and inclusion. experiences of the future.

MC: Alongside showcasing new products and pioneering AI thought leaders at IBC2024, TVBE: This year’s show features an AI Tech TVBE: What are the aims of the Conference we want to play an active role in fuelling Zone. Why did you choose to highlight AI in that this year? its development via our hugely successful way?

MC: The IBC Conference provides an exclusive Accelerator Media Innovation Programme.

MC: AI is everywhere in the industry, and deep-dive into the most pressing market The AI Media Production Lab project covers is demonstrating hugely exciting potential issues and trends in media, entertainment, and

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show preview coming to pitch ideas this year.

One particularly exciting project within such a major global election year is “Design Your Weapons in the Fight Against Disinformation,” championed by the BBC, CBS News, Associated Press, Channel 4 and Al Jazeera amongst other leading media companies. The project aims to help news organisations address the challenges and abuses of disinformation and misrepresentation in media—working to establish real-world solutions and effective interventions to combat fake news and strengthen content authentication processes.

technology—sharing fresh insights, sparking change, and connecting people. This year, we have a hugely exciting line-up of speakers and key thinkers from major organizations, including Sky, Orange, Virgin Media O2, BBC Studios, WPP, BEIN Media, Olympic Channel, Viaplay, Paramount and ITV.

TVBE: Why are the Accelerator Projects that have been running over the past few months so

Michael Crimp

important to IBC? MC: Bringing together dynamic media and technology pioneers to address the critical industry challenges of today and tomorrow is at the core of everything IBC stands for. The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme has built huge momentum since its inception in 2019, and we have seen more major media players from around the globe than ever

TVBE: What do you hope attendees and exhibitors will take away from IBC2024?

MC: IBC2024 is an opportunity for attendees and exhibitors alike to play an active role in redefining the future of media technology, and experience new innovations coming to life. Business models and consumer trends are evolving at breakneck speed—IBC2024 is the place to be if you want to stay ahead of the curve and seize new opportunities. l For more information, visit www.ibc.org.

Credit: istockphoto

TVBE: What are some notable speakers?

MC: We have over 325 speakers lined up across an expanded content offering so there really will be a session for everybody.

The IBC Conference kicks off with Benedict Evans, the internationally renowned media and technology analyst who has worked with Orange, Channel 4 and NBCUniversal, giving a keynote on “Navigating a Changing Media Landscape.” For those interested in sports entertinament in this year of huge sporting events, “Olympics 2024: Technology to broadcast beyond expectations” will look at tech developments that are transforming coverage of the Olympics and raising the bar in live sport production and distribution.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | XXXXXXXXXX 2024

11

eye on tech | product and services Blackmagic Design Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive

Canon PTZ Firmware Upgrade

The new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is being billed as the world’s first commercial camera system designed to capture Apple Immersive Video, a new storytelling format for Apple Vision Pro that leverages 8K, 3D video with a 180-degree field of view, and Spatial Audio. Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive and a new version of DaVinci Resolve that supports Apple Immersive Video for Apple Vision Pro will be released later this year.

Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive features a fixed, custom lens system pre-installed on the body, which is designed specifically for Apple Immersive Video. The sensor delivers 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye with pixel level synchronization and an incredible 16 stops of dynamic range, so cinematographers can shoot 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content to a single file. z www.blackmagicdesign.com/

AI-Media LEXI Captioning/ Transcription Tool

Avid Avid Huddle

Mediaproxy has integrated AI-Media Technologies’ recently launched LEXI Recorded self-service captioning and transcription platform into its LogServer compliance monitoring system.

Previously Mediaproxy’s LogServer was integrated with AI-Media’s iCap cloud network.

The LEXI Recorded cloud service—the latest addition to AI Media’s suite of tools launched earlier this year—is file based and designed to deliver fast turn-around captions for VOD along with transcriptions and translations of broadcast output. LogServer now works with LEXI Recorded, providing outputs from its logger/recorder that are taken into the AI-Media system for captioning, translation and transcription purposes. z www.ai-media.tv/

Bitcentral Fusion Gateway Fusion Gateway, a new bestin-class cloud offering from Bitcentral, bridges the gap between media asset management and artificial intelligence tools, enabling Bitcentral customers to harness new opportunities for content discovery, automation, and increased efficiency and sets the table for more creativity.

As media libraries grow larger, managing them has become more complex, expensive and time-consuming. Fusion Gateway’s cloudbased solution overcomes those hurdles by seamlessly integrating third-party AI tools with Bitcentral’s ecosystem, unlocking new possibilities for customers to improve speed and productivity, allowing them to rapidly create, distribute, and monetize high-quality video.

Key features and benefits include: AI-driven content enrichment; customizable workflows; scalability and flexibility; and seamless integration with Bitcentral’s Core News system. z https://bitcentral.com/

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Canon’s new firmware update for its PTZ cameras offers new features and improvements for the CR-N700, CR-N500, CR-N300, CR-N100, CR-X300 PTZ cameras, RC-IP1000 controller, and the Remote Camera Control Application. Enhancements to the Auto Tracking Add-On Application result in smoother, more natural pan tilt movement, and algorithm improvements to help maintain tracking of the desired subject even when crossing paths with others.

Also available is “Auto Tracking Lite,” a free version of Canon’s Auto Tracking application that provides the same smooth and precise auto tracking experience as the paid version, but without some of the advanced customizations in the full licensed version. z https://www.usa.canon.com/

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Avid’s new Avid Huddle is an SaaS solution that gives post-production teams the ability to collaborate and accelerate content review and approvals.

Editors using Media Composer | Ultimate, Media Composer | Enterprise or Avid | Edit On Demand in a hybrid environment can now easily share high-quality media during a live Microsoft Teams meeting with Avid Huddle. Remote reviewers can collectively view, discuss and comment in real time from anywhere as if they were working in the same room. Editors can launch a Teams meeting safely from Avid Huddle without leaving Media Composer. This enables Teams participants to review content with full confidence that it is secure and protected z www.avid.com/

Imagine Communications xG Linear New features and improvements to xG Linear v2,6—Imagine’s ad management platform for MVPDs in North America— include xG PlacerPlus, which is designed to help the many media organizations that rely on xG Linear to reduce ad placement times by up to 90% and utilize inventory more effectively to boost revenue and profits. xG Linear is an enterprise-level ad management solution that empowers MPVD operations with proven ad placement tools, copy management, schedule optimization, and real-time visibility.

Deployable as an on-prem or cloud-hosted platform, xG Linear easily integrates leading ad tech partners through open APIs and scales seamlessly to 10,000 headends to match the volume and complexity of any growing sales operation. z https://imaginecommunications.com

eye on tech | product and services Vizrt Viz Trio Go Pixotope Software Release v24.1.0 Pixotope’s new 24.1.0 software release includes the full integration of Unreal Engine 5.4, which opens up the ability to design motion and production graphics directly in Pixotope. With this integration Pixotope now offers a full broadcast graphics solution for simplified and streamlined augmented reality (AR), virtual studio, extended reality (XR) and character generator (CG) workflows with Unreal Motion Design.

In addition, this release features an arsenal of innovative updates designed to empower broadcasters with the tools to enhance creativity and reduce complexity in virtual production workflows. The result is that it is easier and more efficient than ever for broadcasters of all sizes to push the boundaries of immersive storytelling to grow and retain their audience to drive new revenue opportunities. z www.pixotope.com

Viz Trio Go is a new out-of-the-box 3D graphics creation and control tool that combines compact hardware with the Viz Trio graphics control application and Viz Engine,Vizrt’s graphics platform that enables complete graphics production via NDI workflows. Viz Trio Go enables broadcasters to create high-quality visuals easily regardless of budget and technical expertise.

The plug-and-play solution accelerates time to air and seamlessly integrates with existing workflows, reducing the need for extensive training or additional personnel.

It comes with free customizable graphics packages modeled on the graphics of top sports and news broadcasters. Templates are easy to modify using the Viz Artist 3D motion graphics design tool. For news, Viz Trio Go comes with a free course created by Viz University that’s accessible the minute the machine is turned on and covers Viz Trio software, Viz Engine and Viz Artist. z www.vizrt.com

ARRI Hi5 SX Wireless Camera/Lens Control Hand Unit ARRI’s new single-axis Hi-5 SX wireless camera and lens control hand unit can be upgraded with greater functionality via an optional software license. Joining the company’s three-axis Hi-5 unit, Hi-5 SX shares the same form factor, offering an ergonomic design that makes it comfortable to operate. The weatherproof, hard-wearing Hi-5 SX brings the company’s dependable control of most lenses on any camera and is priced affordably, ARRI said.

The Hi-5 SX’s large display is easy-toread and its intuitive touchscreen interface is based on the camera in use. ARRI offers swappable radio modules, enabling crews to select the right one for any shooting location or to conform to different regional RF regulations. The new control unit is compatible with all existing Hi-5 licenses, such as the Cinefade, RED camera control and Focusbug licenses. z www.arri.com/en

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

21

lighting technology

A New Take on Reflectors: Cine Reflect Lighting Systems The need for better tools has inspired lighting innovation

Credit: The Lightbridge

M

can be fitted onto standard light uch like Darwin’s stands and grip equipment. natural selection, The current reflector sizes the world of lightrange from 7 cm X 7 cm (2.75 ing occasionally inches), best suited for tableintroduces new variations to top work, up to 100 cm X 100 existing tools and practices. cm (39.37 inches), which is One such evolutionary step has roughly the same size as legacy updated the humble reflector. reflectors. Levels of diffusion Using lighting modifiers, range from a mirror-like relike reflectors, is as old as phoflection to a “super white” in tography itself. Everything EXPERTISE five graduated steps. Reflectors from bedsheets to scraps of BRUCE can be used alone or in combialuminum foil have been used ALEKSANDER nation for the desired effect. to redirect light. Reflected Reflective lighting systems provide light remains an extremely useful tool. several real advantages over more conIn the era of slow film stocks and insenventional direct lighting methods in sitive video cameras, using reflectors was some situations, but the technique all about getting an exposure on shaddoes takes some getting used to. owed faces. On-camera talent probably Anyone around large windows has witfelt like they were being assaulted, rather nessed the natural flow of light throughthan illuminated, by light. But today our out a room. Light bounces off the floor, imaging tools are more sensitive, and ceiling, walls and objects in a way that lighting techniques have been refined. suffuses the space with light well-beyond the area near the window itself.

REFLECTED, RATHER THAN DIRECT That’s the nature of actual sunlight.

As with many advances in the indusSunlight and sky light originate from try, necessity, along with frustration, a great distance away, so that the light are often the mothers of invention. This desire for better tools has inspired an innovation in reflective lighting.

Award-winning Austrian Cinematographer Christian Berger AAC, and his gaffer, Jakob Ballinger, wanted a less-confining method of lighting; one that was efficient and permitted more freedom of movement for the actors within a scene. Out of this desire grew a method of lighting that used reflected, rather than the usual direct lighting. This was the genesis for new reflective lighting tools.

Gaffer Jakob Ballinger went on to refine the resulting reflectors and bring them to market as the founder and CEO of The Lightbridge.

There are now several manufacturers (including Dedolights Lightstream, Godox LiteFlow, and others) that have emulated the kits offered by The Lightbridge.

Using only reflected lighting Reflective lighting kits typically consist from outside a confined area, this of an assortment of reflector sizes with demonstration room appears naturally varying degrees of diffusion. The reflectors illuminated. have specialized mounting hardware that

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that reaches us is relatively unaffected by the inverse-square law. The result is that the exposure remains consistent over a large area. That imparts an even brightness that close-in lights can’t match.

INVERSE-SQUARE LAW Without delving too deeply into the inverse-square law (which states that the intensity of light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance), brightness changes dramatically when you move towards or away from a nearby light source.

Reflectors make the inverse-square law work to our advantage by increasing the throw distance from light to subject, thereby reducing unwanted changes in exposure.

Light rays become more parallel the farther away the light source is. The more parallel the light beams are, the less impact the inverse-square law has on changing the exposure over distances. That makes reflected lighting behave more like natural light, allowing it to spread throughout a space with a more consistent intensity.

And in doing so, the production lighting looks and acts more like natural light.

That ability to nudge the inverse-square

lighting technology law is a major advantage when working in small spaces, where conventional lights have to be relatively close. Therein lies the advantage provided by these reflectors.

SMALLER FOOTPRINT

Cinema Reflect Lighting Systems (CRLS) reflectors come in various sizes with varying degrees of diffused reflection.

While parallel beam fixtures are often quite large, using them in conjunction with reflectors actually takes up less space than conventional lights. The large lights can be set up out of the way (even outside of the rooms), while their beams are focused on the slim reflectors that actually light the scene.

The reflectors themselves have a small footprint, so they can fit into spaces that wouldn’t accommodate a conventional

Bruce Aleksander invites comments from those interested in lighting at TVLightingguy@hotmail.com.

Credit: istockphoto

The process of lighting with reflectors is more additive than subtractive, compared to direct lighting. In practice, you tap into the beam of light with a reflector to diffuse and redirect the light where desired.

The reflected beam of light, even when diffused, holds a relatively tight pattern.

That, in turn, reduces the number of flags needed to contain the spill light. The result is that using reflected light results in a smaller footprint of equipment because there’s less spill to “clean up” with flags.

Although any focusing lighting fixtures can be brought into play with these reflectors, parallel beam fixtures are particularly well-suited to the purpose. Among them are The Orbiter Beam by Arri, Dedolight’s Parallel Beam Intensifier, Mole-Richardson’s Molebeam, PANI’s Panibeam and Godox’s BeamLight. All of these have extremely narrow (roughly 5°) beams of light.

fixture. Because light levels remain more consistent throughout a broader area, less time is spent adjusting the lighting to compensate for movement within the set.

Reflected lighting systems provide a useful solution that works in places where direct lighting can come up short. This approach may not lend itself to large TV studio sets or “man on the street” news pops, but for maximum flexibility in locations where you want a low equipment profile, this is a great tool to have in your kit.

In the right hands, using reflectors imparts a quality of light that doesn’t appear so obviously lit by artificial means.

It’s almost like a magic trick, enabled by finagling the inverse-square law with a look that appears to arise naturally.

As with any new technique, working with reflectors may feel a bit odd at first— but the natural quality and consistency of usable exposure provided by this style of lighting make it worth exploring. l

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

23

cloudspotter’s journal

Cloud Maturity in the Organization Risks in a cloud service for 2023 are identified and summarized in this month’s installment

M

ture was fragile, and the outany organizations comes were minuscule, if any. still operate without a defined cloud strategy or even a CULTURALISM cloud skills plan to follow. This, Your organization is likely very among others, poses chalgood at what it does, but sees and lenges to the users who wish hears about the cloud, about AI or to take the best advantages of ML, and yet can’t see how or why the newest emerging trends of it might be advantageous for the cloud and multi-cloud services. team—likely because no one on According to Pluralsight, as the team knows about those terms EXPERTISE many as 70% of organizations or how they might fit into their KARL PAULSEN struggle to drive “customer valown structure or day-to-day life. ue” in the cloud. Of those 70%, Well, my friends, get ready more than 50% say they have half or more of for a change because those previous three their infrastructure in the cloud. And ironterms (AI, ML and cloud) are well-integratically, another 49% say they are “actively ed into this new world and are making huge moving more of their data” into the cloud. inroads into the next generation of tactics, The question becomes, without the needed strategies and operations right now (not next resources that are essential to keeping the year or the next quarter, but right now!). wheels on the bus going round and round, One of the first steps in approaching how long will it be before a potential head cloud maturity is to change/shift the culture on collision with cloud and business can be in the organization. Many (around twoexpected? And what can, should or must we thirds) of these organizations put an embe doing to cut the potential risk down? phasis on technical training of their teams, This isn’t any longer about “migration” ignoring the elements associated around (to the cloud), it’s about the “rapid accel“cloud native” learning company-wide. eration of and the adoption of many new Cloud is a culture with its own language, services” that depend on and leverage the cloud. But a surprising percentage of these leaders don’t have a strategy, plan or approach on how to achieve these targets.

its own “speak,” its own management, and its own sales approach. Perhaps this is why the whole concept of artificial intelligence is so challenging. The public is asking our government to place limits on things that even they (the rule makers) don’t live, breath or speak about daily. This has got to change, starting on the ground floor.

CLOUD LITERACY According to findings used in the research of this article, only about 15% of most organizations’ team members understand or know much about cloud terminology. However, more than 40% of the IT team members of those organizations surveyed have a sufficient technical understanding of cloud to aid in supporting a transition to the “new world.” A surprising amount of the IT staff and leadership staff possess a high degree of cloud understanding, with almost 75% of the IT staff being either cloud-certified or are learning cloud.

This puts the burden clearly on the educator’s communities and in getting everyone up to speed, just like learning reading, writing and arithmetic. This is priority one!

POLICIES, TACTICS AND ISSUES

MOVING FROM TACTICAL TO STRATEGIC Cloud maturity is a hypothesis that takes the steps of implementing the “mechanics” of cloud and moves it to a more focused, lean and effective methodology of making the cloud work without overtaxing the team or the budget. Using an ad hoc tactical approach may resolve short-term issues, but it doesn’t work for the long term.

In some circumstances, leaders have become so focused on the technology of the tactical approach that they forgot to see the forest for the trees.

Prioritization was lost, struc-

Fig. 1: Tactics and issues in cloud implementation as described in the “Policies, Tactics and Issues” section.

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August 2024 | www.tvtech.com |

Last year (2023) security was described as the “the number one challenge” and the area with “the largest skills gap.”

Most searches on cloud needs will start with security being the top issue. The other positions cloud users and administrators should look to include (see Fig. 1): • Compliance: ISO 27001 is the international gold standard for information security management. It proves the strength of your security posture to prospects and customers in global markets. Achieving ISO 27001 certification can be time-consuming and expensive.

• Performance: Cloud performance tuning is the process of optimizing the speed, efficiency and reliability of cloud-based applications and services. It requires a combination of technical

cloudspotter’s journal skills, analytical tools and best practices to identify and resolve bottlenecks, errors and resource wastage.

• Reliability and Availability: Availability in cloud computing is a crucial aspect of reliability, focusing on the accessibility of services to users. It indicates the percentage of time that a cloud service is operational and reachable.

• Data Breaches: Are numerous, avoidable and can be mitigated by following suggested practices in this and other documents related to security and best practices. The largest (top) in the amount of exposed data was the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in October 2023, where a threat actor using the alias “pwn0001” posted a thread on Breach Forums brokering access to identification and passport details (including names, addresses and phone numbers) of 81.5 million citizens of India.

• Lack of Expertise: Covered in part in this article, the cloud and IT skills shortage is apparently damaging organizational land-

scapes and is expected to impact businesses in critical areas such as not meeting financial targets, increased exposure to security risks and digital transformation delays.

• Security: Four top areas of concern include (1) Unmanaged Attack Surface; (2) Human Error; (3) Misconfiguration; (4) and Data Breach.

• Multiple Cloud Management: A set of tools and procedures that allows a business to monitor and secure applications and workloads across multiple public clouds. Ideally, a multi-cloud management solution allows IT teams to manage multiple clouds from a single interface and supports multiple cloud platforms (such as AWS and Azure) as well as new tools like Kubernetes.

• Portability: Portability and interoperability relate to the ability to build systems from re-usable components that will work together “out of the box.” A particular concern for cloud computing is cloud onboarding—the deployment or migration of systems to a cloud service or set of cloud services.

• Control and Governance: Is a set of rules and policies adopted by companies that run services in the cloud. The goal of cloud governance is to enhance data security, manage risk and enable the smooth operation of cloud systems.

As one can tell, cloud management tools for success are not unlike those found in many IT administration practices. The topics are broad, and the tool sets available from service providers are vast. The best advice this can provide will be to ensure the organization has a structure and an aligned forum inside the leadership to start today on a foundation and a plan to be ready for the “now” in cloud.

Seek a consultant or a professional who understands the prospects, needs and has the capabilities to drive forward the cloud maturity needs for the entire organization. l Karl Paulsen is the retired CTO from One Diversified LLC. He has 50 some years of experience in broadcast media technologies and is a regular contributor to TV Tech in the fields of cloud, media, IP and AI. He can be reached at karl@ivideoserver.tv.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

LSU Covers Sports Action With Hitachi Kokusai Cameras USER REPORT

We now use 19 Hitachi Kokusai camera systems equipped with Canon lenses for our various events and plan to buy more as our budget allows.

By Lee Scioneaux Director of Broadcast Operations & Live Events LSU Athletics

BATON ROUGE, La.—As a top public research university, Louisiana State University is also well-known for sports, especially NCAA Division I football. As a member of the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference (SEC), our LSU Tigers consistently rank high among college football teams. We have also won recent national championships in baseball (2023), women’s basketball (2023) and gymnastics (2024).

SEC schools like LSU that want their athletic events carried on ESPN’s digital SEC Network platform must contribute their own live video streams to the network. Since ESPN wants the flexibility to put the games on either their digital or linear platforms, SEC schools must utilize video facilities—such as cameras and video control rooms—that meet ESPN’s strict broadcast quality standards.

THE HITACHI KOKUSAI LEGACY Since the launch of the ESPN SEC Network in August 2014, we’ve continually upgraded our video facilities, centrally located in the campus administration building, to produce broadcast quality live sports. We recently bought two new Hitachi Kokusai Z-HD6500 multiformat HD cameras, each packaged with a CU-HD650 camera control unit (CCU) for shading. We also plan to acquire a few more Z-HD6500 camera systems this summer as our budget allows.

Our confidence in the Hitachi brand is buoyed by our 10 years of experience with their older camera systems, including nine SK-HD1300’s and eight SK-HD1200’s that remain in use. We now have 19 Hitachi Kokusai camera systems equipped with Canon lenses. Our Hitachi cameras have given us tremendous peace of mind because they’ve just been incredibly rock-solid, despite Louisiana’s typical heat, humidity and rain.

We also built four control rooms, which are regularly in use, and often have two or more control rooms running in tandem. One produces the SEC network feed, while the others produce video for the venue’s big screen displays.

The control rooms can share the same camera sources, and they’re directly connected via fiber—using MultiDyne fiber network components—to our sports venues across this expansive campus. These include our 102,000-seat Tiger Stadium for football, Alex Box Stadium for baseball, Maravich Assembly

Center for basketball, gymnastics and volleyball events, and Tiger Park for softball.

EASY TO MIX We like that we can easily mix footage shot by our different Hitachi camera models, especially for replays and highlights. Once our shaders set a certain video look, all three camera models can maintain those settings without drift.

The cross-compatibility of our Hitachi cameras with CU-HD650 CCUs gives us the operational flexibility we need to rapidly reconfigure our equipment complement according to our production requirements.

All of our Hitachi cameras produce vivid imagery and the Z-HD6500s especially provide excellent light sensitivity, which is beneficial when moving between different indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. Hitachi’s Global Shutter feature, available in our Z-HD6500 and SK-HD1200 cameras, is also something we often leverage to accurately capture fast-paced sports action.

Considering the speed of a baseball from the pitcher to the catcher or being hit by the bat, the global shutter produces artifact- and flicker-free imagery that holds up well, especially for slo-mos and replays.

I work with my colleague, John Schiebe, director of television operations for the SEC Network, to coordinate production schedules and juggle resources to effectively produce hundreds of LSU sports broadcasts and events annually. The reliability, flexibility and performance of our Hitachi camera configurations help our pretty lean staff save time, maximize resources and handle a bigger workload. l Lee Scioneaux is director of broadcast operations and live events at LSU Athletics.

Reach Lee Scioneaux at scioneaux@lsu.edu and John Schiebe at jschieb@lsu.edu.

For more informtion about Hitachi Kokusai products, contact Kenneth Cyr at kenneth.cyr@hitachikokusai.us or visit www.hitachikokusai.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Filmscape Chicago Livestreams With JVC PTZ Cameras USER REPORT

By Gary Adcock Executive Director Filmscape

CHICAGO—Filmscape is an educational, not-for-profit organization focused on helping residents in the Chicago metro and surrounding areas who want to pursue careers in film and television. With such a broad market in the Midwest, our goal is to grow and benefit the film and television community through engaging conferences that provide knowledge for working behind the scenes in the industry. We specialize in educational content covering all things production and film.

To livestream our Filmscape 2024 sessions in June to viewers at home through our YouTube channel, we utilized three JVC PTZ cameras–one KY-PZ510WU and two KY-PZ400NWUs, which were managed by the RMLP100U camera controller.

to remote viewers and provide the necessary impact through a sharp, clean image with the best possible technology—which is what Filmscape is all about.

One thing we were fascinated by was JVC’s auto-tracking feature in the 510 Series cameras, which we utilized throughout our presentations. The speaker was able to walk around the stage and speak to attendees without having to worry about whether or not they were in the shot.

We found that the auto-tracking feature simplified the process for the film crew, as they did not have to manually track an individual speaker on stage—the tracking system on the camera efficiently followed the presenter. This provided a more-intimate connection that gave our livestream viewers a more in-person experience.

MORE PRODUCTION SPACE Having PTZs placed strate-

gically around the room, out of the way of traffic, gave us a much larger space to work from.

We no longer had to lose those seating positions for the cameras; we were actually able to add seats in this environment.

Our staff was also impressed with the fact that JVC cameras made it possible for the operator to connect to a computer and livestream directly to our YouTube channel. The information was also preserved for on demand viewing. The simplicity of the built-in technologies of the JVC cameras, such as the ability to connect over Ethernet and control them in multiple ways, is amazing to me. These features allowed the camera operators to perform at a higher level, and that’s important.

Creating a seamless livestream can become very complicated when you have more than 1,000 people around you while at the same time trying to run sim-

ple, efficient camera workflows with non-traditional camera placements. We are proud and honored to have the JVC PTZs to capture this event, and to join us in building our community (not only locally in Chicago, but across the Midwest); bringing film and television education right into homes. l Gary Adcock is the executive director of Filmscape. His capabilities and knowledge keep him in demand as an industry consultant and reaffirm his passion and dedication to educating a new generation of artists, technicians, and filmmakers for trade associations like NAB and PERG. He has also participated in the semi-annual TV Tech Summit. He can be reached at gary@filmscapechicago.com.

More information is available at www.jvc.com/in/pro/professional-camcorders/ptz-cameras.

Credit: istockphoto

LOW PROFILE, HIGH QUALITY The three PTZ cameras were spread out on opposite parts of the room. The KY-PZ510 was used as the primary camera to zoom in on the individual speaker, while the two KYPZ400 cameras were positioned on opposite sides of the stage for panel discussions. The low profile of the JVC PTZ cameras made it ideal for placing them in environments we might not have been able to with a traditional camera setup.

The compact construction of the cameras allowed us to mount one on a wall, put another on a large stand and suspend the third from the ceiling. This enabled us to bring our livestream

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Placing the JVC PTZs strategically around the room gave us a much larger space to work from for our livestreams. twitter.com/tvtechnology

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Canon EOS C400 Creates ‘Scary Good’ Images for Filmmaker fortunate to have access to the EOS C400 camera and Canon senior technical specialist and sales engineer Paul Hawxhurt’s expertise. He helped me shoot some tests during our tech scout to see which ISO would give us the best latitude in that space.

USER REPORT

By Christine Ng Cinematographer

THE `SCARY GOOD’ PUZZLE The first part of the “Scary Good” puzzle was understanding how far we could push the camera. There are many features included in the EOS C400 camera that I didn’t know could exist at its price point;

6K RAW FILES

With the Canon EOS C400 camera we were able to use many features that we didn’t know could exist at its price point.

and it’s also very light and small for the power that it holds.

The crew is always a huge part of the success of every project.

My gimbal operator, Nadine Martinez; my ACs, Thom Cameron, Cheryn Park, Lisa Chin; my DIT, George Robert Morse; my lighting designer Alexa Mignon; my key grip, Vinny Davino; and my costume designer, Pamela Shepherd, are all people I’ve worked with before.

I’ve developed so much trust and a shorthand with this team.

Pam and I met while working on Ziwe (Showtime) and I was always impressed with how she elevated the characters.

My camera and lighting team helped me execute every frame and every camera move. The lighting Alexa helped me create on screen really pushed the element of suspense. Lighting cues motivated sound design and

gave the actors something to respond to. Like every production, we had limited time and limited resources. The triple base ISO really allowed us to maximize the dynamic range in the camera given the existing lighting parameters at the theater.

I wanted the theater to look as elegant as it appears in person by being strategic with my exposure and adding lighting to accentuate what was already there. I was really

Ultimately, we decided setting the base ISO to 3200 and rating the ISO at 1600 was the best way to create more details in the shadows without causing additional noise. The ways we utilized lighting and camera movements to introduce our characters made the audience feel a bit unsettled. This played into building the dramatic tension throughout, creating almost an extraterrestrial presence, which was amplified by the frenetic energy of the edit, led by our editor, Emily Spiegelman-Noel.

The EOS C400 camera’s ability to record proxies in real-time while recording in-camera 6K RAW files was really helpful for the tight turn-around in post.

Our editor, Emily, was able to walk away with a hard drive of proxies to get started on the edit right away. The LUT we chose was the Canon CMT 709. We used this for our on-set monitors and this was the starting point for my DIT, George Robert, and I to create a few CDL’s for our colorist. While we were in the color grade, we made minor adjustments to help accentuate the look and feel of our film. l Christine Ng is a Hong Kongborn, New York City based cinematographer. She can be reached at ms.christineng@gmail.com and at www.christineng.com.

Credit: Canon

NEW YORK—As a cinematographer, visual storytelling, leading a team, staying on schedule, executing, and elevating my Director’s vision are some of the many things I do everyday. My problem solving skills are always working in the background. I love finding ways to maximize my resources, which was especially relevant in the production of “Scary Good,” which I shot on the new Canon EOS C400 camera, in collaboration with Canon. Problem solving is present in all my work.

“Scary Good” is a mystery/ thriller “whodunit” short film that can be seen on YouTube.

I had a unique perspective on the overall workflow, since I work in both narrative and documentary background and this time around I got to shoot, direct and help conceive the concept from the beginning.

As the camera stalks and chases a box office attendant, veteran actress, maintenance worker and backstage tech, through the historic United Palace Theatre in New York City, this two-minute film fills audiences with a level of anxiety. Culminating in ultimate relief as the group bursts out of a top floor balcony into the sunlight, it illustrates just how much storytelling relies on sound and visual cues.

More information is available at www.usa.canon.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses buyers briefs Sony HXC-FZ90 Studio Camera

Sony’s new HXCFZ90 Studio Camera System combines 4K image quality with seamless integration and streamlined live workflows. Ready for today’s live productions, the HXC-FZ90 supports HD HDR out-of-thebox and has an easy path to accommodate those looking towards a 4K (HDR) future, when needed. For ultimate flexibility, 4K capability on the HXC-FZ90 is available as weekly, monthly or permanent licenses.

The HXC-FZ90’s 4K, ⅔-inch CMOS imager and wide color gamut helps create immersive experiences; newly developed video processing techniques and high sensitivity/low noise specifications enable the HXC-FZ90 to capture high-quality images even in low light conditions.

The HXC-FZ90 also inherits multiple focus assist features passed down from Sony’s HDC-series cameras, which help camera operators easily capture clear, crisp images. https://pro.sony/ue_US

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Panasonic AK-PLV100GJ 4K PLMount Studio Camera Panasonic’s new AK-PLV100GSJ is a PL-mount 4K studio camera with a 5.7K Super 35 mm image sensor, cinema color science and the capability to be powerfully expressive thanks to its shallow depth of field and cine color science.

The AK-PLV100GSJ provides the visual beauty of a cinema camera without sacrificing live studio-camera operability.

It is fully compatible with Panasonic’ s AKUCU700/HCU250 Camera Control Unit (CCU), the AK-HRP1010/HRP250 Remote Operation Panels and AK-HVF75/AK-HVF100 studio viewfinders—users can simply replace the camera head of an existing system with the AKPLV100GSJ. https://na.panasonic.com/us

August 20242024 | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology XXXXXXXXXX | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology

Fujifilm FUJINON Duvo HZK251000mm F2.8-5.0 CineBox PL Lens

The FUJINON Duvo HZK251000mm F2.8-5.0 CineBox PL Lens (Duvo 25-1000) is a native PL-mount box lens that combines broadcast functionality with beautiful bokeh, delivering a cinematic look to live, as well as scripted, productions. The Duvo 25-1000 utilizes innovative optical design technology to achieve a maximum aperture of F2.8 and 40x zoom ratio.

This ultra-high zoom ratio lens is compatible with the large sensors of digital cinema cameras yet provides a brightness of F2.8 at the wide angle. Not only does it enable filming in lowlight environments such as indoor concerts or night-time events, but the shallow depth of field creates the bokeh that delivers the highly sought-after cinematic look. www.fujifilm.com/us

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

CDC Broadcast & Multimedia Upgrades to Ikegami Cameras USER REPORT

By Chad Heupel Broadcast Branch Chief Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ATLANTA—The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health. It has put science into action for more than 70 years, helping children stay healthy as well as helping families, businesses and communities fight disease and stay strong.

CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and domestic. To accomplish its mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects the nation against expensive and dangerous health threats and responds when these arise.

We recently upgraded the technical facilities at our Broadcast & Multimedia division to Ikegami UHK-X700 cameras as part of CDC’s ongoing efforts to refine and modernize its structures, systems and processes. We needed a camera system that could easily go from studio pedestal to tripod to over-the-shoulder operations, because the CDC does such a wide variety of programs where such flexibility is required.

outside broadcast and fully mobile applications, the Ikegami UHK-X700 incorporates a 3-CMOS optical system using a 2/3-inch sensor with a 62 dB signal to noise ratio and a sensitivity of F10 at 2160/59.94p in 4K. The CMOS sensors incorporate a global shutter pixel architecture, enabling the camera to capture natural images even under challenging situations. Still-frame replay of fast-moving objects is free from geometric distortion. The camera remains free of flash bands when shooting under strobe lights or flashes from still cameras.

Integral to the UHK-X700

is a video processor providing full support for 4K. Supported video formats and frame rates include 3840 x 2160p, 1920 x 1080p, 1920 x 1080i and 1280 x 720p, for both 59.94 and 50 Hz. A color matrix function allows precise color adjustment within the UHK-X700 with 16 axes of the color gamut that can be fine-tuned in both hue and saturation. This function works in real time and is extremely beneficial for live multicamera applications. The UHK-X700 supports the BT.2020 color space specification in 4K mode and the BT. 709 color space in both 4K and HD modes. Gamma setting is selectable and can be customized to create a specific tone.

FLEXIBLE & USER-FRIENDLY Those capabilities are important for our operations. The CDC studio performs a wide variety of video productions over the course of a standard week, from standard multi-camera studio shoots, to single camera interviews to large audience

Chad Heupel is a broadcast television engineer specializing in facility design, installation and operation. He directed six major facility rebuilding projects for the federal government, building broadcast studios and control rooms, and upgrading analog facilities digital, HD and UHD. He has also served as a freelance technical director on network broadcasts for Fox, CNBC, NBC, BET and EWTN. He can be reached at CHeupel@cdc.gov.

4K HDR READY We selected Ikegami cameras for their high video quality, operational versatility and robust build. These models fully support our current high-definition mode of production and enable us to advance to 4K UHD/HDR. Developed for studio, stage,

All-Hands meetings. So we need a camera system that is easily adapted from a fixed studio camera to a shoulder-held configuration that allows for quick audience interaction shots. The Ikegami camera system adapts very quickly, and can easily be moved from studio to studio to support our productions. No matter what the situation we use these cameras in, they reliably produce very rich, natural colors that are true to life.

The Ikegami operator control panels provide very quick access for the most used features, with a very logical layout. When training new staff this layout and user-friendly menu structure allow for operators to come up to speed very quickly on the functions of the panel, as well as the advanced features that really show the power of the camera system.

Finally, the ability to output 4k video directly from the camera head is very useful in those single-camera interview situations, when a Shogun recorder can not only serve as another viewfinder, but also a backup recorder for those critical interviews that can’t be reshot. l

We deployed Ikegami cameras to fully support our current HD production and enable us to advance into 4K UHD HDR.

For more information, visit www.ikegami.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

V1 Productions ‘Chopper Cops’ Shot With Marshall Cameras

Credit: istockphoto

ing ground resources.

The Marshall cameras were also used to capture some footage from the dashboard of the Sheriff helicopter looking back at the Pilot and TFO. The CV506 can capture detailed shots while maintaining an ultra-discreet miniature POV perspective without sacrificing versatility or convenience.

the deputy squad cars. Footage captured from the exterior squad cars depict the cars in motion

By W. Hulsey Smith and highlights the sheriff decals.

Founder, President Footage captured from the exte& Executive Producer rior sheriff helicopters includes V1 Productions POV from the skids that show the helicopters flying over the city, and shots of the infrared camera FORT WORTH, Texas—“Chopon the belly of the helicopter. per Cops,” an all-new docuseries The CV504-WP delivers excepproduced by SEE IT NOW Studios tional 10-bit 4:2:2 video perforand V1 Productions, recently demance from a durable aluminum buted on CBS/Paramount+. The MINIATURE POV alloy body through weatherproof 10-episode series offers an unIn addition to being used in breakout cable and flexible, inprecedented look at the Marion a similar capacity to the CV506, terchangeable lenses. The new County Sheriff’s Department’s Marshall’s CV568 miniature Sony sensors offer rich state-of-the-art helicopcolor, accurate video ters, operated by elite with improved low-light police pilots known as sensitivity and refined “Air One.” Throughout remote adjust-andeach half-hour episode, match capability. the series showcases This series would these “chopper cops” as not have been possible they utilize high-tech without Marshall. They infrared cameras and were able to have sevaugmented-reality maperal cameras on board ping to support ground without interfering units in locating and with the actual mission apprehending suspects, of the aircraft and real providing a critical “eye police work being done. in the sky.”

We have used Marshall V1 Productions, a cameras across a numTexas-based, full-serber of productions, and vice production house we will continue to use that offers television For the “Chopper Cops” Paramount+ streaming series we used a dozen different cameras from them to capture unique and film producMarshall to capture unique angles and footage in tight spaces. perspectives as we push tion, live broadcast and the envelope in documentary post-production services, has capturing the intense and often global camera with genlock defilmmaking by combining combuilt a reputation for delivering unpredictable nature of police livered synchronized, HD footage pelling storytelling with innovacompelling, humanistic stories aviation operations. critical for capturing coordinated tive technology to bring audiencthrough its unscripted and live Marshall’s CV506 camera was movements and actions within es closer to the action than ever productions as well as breathtakused in the interior of deputies’ the vehicles and aircraft. The before. l ing cinematography. cars and helicopters, including CV568 is built around an imscenes captured from the dashpressive 1/1.8-inch Sony global board of the squad cars, as well sensor with 25% larger pixels UNIQUE CAMERAS, UNIQUE W. Hulsey Smith is the founder, as the footage that was filmed and interchangeable M12 lens ANGLES president & executive producer, over the shoulder of the pilot and mount, making this the most V1 Productions. More information For “Chopper Cops,” the Tactical Flight Officer (TFO). For capable POV camera in the minabout the company is available production needed to capture these aerial police applications, iature camera lineup. at https://v1.live/. He can be content from various sources, the pilot is responsible for the In addition to the exterior reached at Hulsey@v1.live. including helicopters and the safe operation of the helicopter, of the sheriff helicopters, the deputy police cars. To achieve and the TFO is responsible for Marshall CV504-WP camera was More information is available at these unique angles in extremely law enforcement and coordinatused to film from the exterior of https://marshall-usa.com. space-conscious locations, we

USER REPORT

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relied on a selection of POV cameras from Marshall Electronics, including eight CV506 Miniature Full-HD Cameras, two CV568 Miniature HD Cameras with Global Shutter with Genlock and two CV504-WP All-Weather Micro Cameras.

The cutting-edge technology of these cameras allowed us to provide an immersive and authentic viewing experience without interfering with police work in the air or on the ground. The camera’s compact size and robust capabilities are essential for

twitter.com/tvtechnology

equipment guide | cameras & lenses buyers briefs Blackmagic Design URSA Cine 12K The Blackmagic URSA Cine digital film camera is billed as the first digital film camera with fast high capability storage built in, plus high speed networking for on set media sync. Its new large format RGBW 36 x 24mm image sensor, which offers all resolutions from 4K-12K, provides 16 stops of dynamic range.

Users can swap between PL, LPL, EF and Hasselblad lens mounts; WiFi with SRT streaming is available for remote client viewing; plus the industry standard Lemo and Fischer connections make it ideal for high end cinema production. www.blackmagicdesign.com

DJI Ronin 4D-8K camera The Ronin 4D-8K camera, is an all-in-one 8K cinema camera that integrates DJI’s revolutionary 4-axis stabilization and delivers a new pinnacle for imaging excellence. With full frame 8K/60fps & 4K/120fps capabilities and groundbreaking DJI Cinema Color Science (DCCS), this camera ensures exceptional image quality.

Natural skin tones can be captured accurately and in an aesthetically pleasing way even in complex lighting conditions. It also includes builtin 9-stop physical ND filters for precise exposure control, DL/E/L/PL/M interchangeable lens mounts for creative freedom, autofocus on manual lenses, and Automated Manual Focus (AMF) with the innovative LiDAR focusing system. www.dji.com

ARRI ALEXA 35 Live - Multicam System

The ALEXA 35 Live Multicam System is designed to bring the cinematic image quality of its flagship ALEXA 35 camera to live productions. It combines the new ALEXA 35 Live camera, the new Live Production System LPS-1 (comprising a Fiber Camera Adapter and Fiber Base Station), the Skaarhoj RCP, and a slew of bespoke accessories.

These include the new ARRI Touchdown base and receiver plates, an adjustable monitor yoke, an extra-long camera handle, a tally light with camera ID display, rain cover, and a new, quick-fit ARRI Large Lens Adapter for unprecedentedly rapid setup with box lenses. www.arri.com.

RED Digital Cinema V-RAPTOR [X] and V-RAPTOR [X] XL RED Digital Cinema’s V-RAPTOR [X] 8K VV and V-RAPTOR XL [X] 8K VV feature the acclaimed low-light performance, dynamic range, resolutions, high frame rates and form factor of its V-RAPTOR predecessor.

The V-RAPTOR [X] introduces RED Global Vision, which includes an all new 8K VV global shutter sensor, enabling innovative features including Extended Highlights and Phantom Track.

The V-RAPTOR [X] and V-RAPTOR XL [X] systems also offer increased exposure times, a further optimized optical cavity and improved audio performance. With the Extended Highlights mode, the camera can see color and detail into extreme highlights like never before, providing an overall dynamic range of over 20 stops. www.RED.com

products & services marketplace

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2024

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people on the move For possible inclusion, send information to tvtech@futurenet.com with People News in the subject line.

DONNIE GILLIAM

JOHN EARNEST

JAMIE DUNN

LLOYD BUCHER

Vislink

Wohler Technologies

Lawo

Nexstar Media Group Inc.

Vislink has appointed Donnie Gilliam vice president of operation with responsibility for driving customer satisfaction, cost reduction and working capital improvements. He joins Vislink with experience in operations and service at high-growth companies, leading operations at HM Electronics as well as serving as senior director of supply chain and materials at Clear-Com. More recently he was vice president of global operations at Spectralink.

Wohler Technologies has appointed John Earnest vice president of global sales and marketing. He joins the company’s executive management team after spending nearly 30 years collaborating with some of the world’s largest broadcasters, MSOs, DTH providers and telecom companies. His industry experience includes global sales and marketing positions focused on the IP networking, outside plant/GIS and broadcast and media sectors.

Lawo has announced that Jamie Dunn is taking on additional responsibility as “Vorstand” (member of the executive board) and deputy CEO, sharing in legal responsibility for the company. He joined Lawo in 2011. Since 2019, he held the position of chief commercial officer. The promotion means he assumes legal responsibility alongside CEO Philipp Lawo and Claus Gärtner, who joined the company as chief financial officer (CFO) and Vorstand last Novem-

Nexstar has promoted Lloyd Bucher to vice president and general manager of its broadcast and digital operations in Philadelphia, Pa., managing WPHL-TV (CW), phl17.com and their mobile and social media channels. He brings nearly 30 years of experience in broadcast management, marketing and sales to the position, having served as the VP and GM of the company’s broadcast and digital operations in Charlotte, N.C., and of WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla.

TOM FOCHETTA

JARED GRUSD

BRAD SMITH

DON DURAND

Dish Network

Gracenote

Cox Media Group

Imagine Communications

EchoStar’s Dish Network has appointed Tom Fochetta senior vice president of Dish Media, the advertising and sales division of Dish, where he will be responsible for leading the media sales organization and strategy. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the advertising and media industry.

Previously he was senior vice president of North American sales and operations for Samsung Ads, and held advanced ad sales positions at Amazon and Google.

Nielsen has named Jared Grusd CEO of Gracenote. Most recently, he served as the co-founder of Ethiqly AI, a venture-backed educational technology company that leverages AI to elevate human expression and empowerment. He previously served as chief strategy officer at Snapchat, Chime and AOL, as well as chief legal officer at Spotify and CEO at HuffPost. In addition, Grusd also held senior executive roles at Google, among others.

Cox Media Group (CMG) has promoted Brad Smith to chief financial officer. He joined CMG in 2020 as the senior vice president of finance & FP&A and has been the interim co-CFO for the last six months. He spent the last 20 years of his career in the media space at the crossroads of finance, strategy and operations, co-founding Videa, a media technology start-up. His experience also includes stints at Four Points Media Group and NBC Universal.

Imagine Communications has appointed Don Durand senior vice president of global sales for its ad tech business. He will lead the worldwide sales strategy and customer engagement initiatives for Imagine’s ad tech portfolio. Durand brings more than 20 years of experience in domestic and international media software and expertise in both global sales leadership and product management. Previously, he held positions at Pilat Media (now Operative) and WideOrbit.

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August 2024 | www.tvtech.com |

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