TV Tech 513 - Spet 2025 by publications

Welcome to the September 2025 issue of

What 5G Can Do For Broadcasters

[Host] Featuring AI Speaker ID. Redeﬁning Automated Captioning. Again.

Public Broadcasting On the Ropes

After decades of criticism from opponents, Congress made good on its threat to end federal funding for public broadcasting in July, voting to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The decision represents the biggest threat to the future of public broadcasting in an era when we need it more than ever.

Republicans rolled out their usual justiﬁcations for such decisions based on their quest to cut “waste, fraud and abuse.”

“We’ve got to look at all aspects of the federal budget and ﬁgure out where we can root out waste, fraud and abuse, to put this country on a more sustainable ﬁscal path. We just can’t sustain where we are,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

The fallout from this unprecedented action has been disastrous for public broadcasters. Shortly after the vote, the CPB, which Congress authorized in 1967 to disperse funds for public radio and TV, announced that it was shutting down. CPB told its employees Aug. 1 that most of its staff positions will end with the close of the ﬁscal year on Sept. 30.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,“ CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”

The fallout didn’t end there. Last month, PBS announced that it would have to cut its budget by 21% as a result of the end of federal funding. In addition, CPB announced it is shutting down its Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) grant program because it can no longer absorb costs and manage the program.

Congress had appropriated approximately $1.1 billion for CPB for the next two ﬁscal years, a minute fraction of the federal budget. That pales in comparison to the estimated billions wasted as a result of the disastrous DOGE campaign earlier this year, when the federal government had to rehire employees, settle lawsuits, etc. So much for rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse.”

But let’s face it, this was never about that and all about trying to make politicial points and stiﬂe an independent voice that millions of Americans have relied on for decades. And let’s not forget public broadcasters’ important role in advancing broadcast technology—now all of that will be lost because of politics. With an American public that consumes mindless—and polarizing— social media for hours on a daily basis, the diminution of an important independent, educational and informational resource doesn’t bode well for future of our culture.

Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com

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Vol. 43 No. 9 | September 2025

ATVA Warns FCC That Pay TV Faces ‘Onerous’ Costs for ATSC 3.0 Carriage

The American Television Alliance has told the FCC the transition to NextGenTV/ATSC 3.0 would impose “onerous” costs on one of its members—DirecTV.

The pay TV and telco industrybacked association detailed its concerns about the transition and its conversation with the FCC Media Bureau in an Aug. 12 letter. One major problem, the group told the FCC, is that DirecTV’s current satellite receivers can only handle the current ATSC 1.0 signals; the other is that the satellite provider does not have the capacity to carry both 1.0 and 3.0 signals.

“First, DirecTV subscribers have millions of set-top boxes that are not designed to receive an ATSC 3.0 signal, and replacing all such equipment would be cost-prohibitive,” the letter noted. “Second, satellite carriers reuse frequencies many times, designing ‘spot beams’ to deliver local broadcast signals to different markets throughout the country. Those spot beams have been allocated sufficient capacity for current carriage requirements in specific local markets and cannot be repointed. Thus, they have no capacity left for carriage of an additional ATSC 3.0 signal from each station.”

The letter acknowledged the ATSC is developing a standard for MVPD distribution of ATSC 3.0 signals, including over fiber, and that it has developed a “candidate standard” for converting ATSC 3.0 signals, including those delivered over fiber, into formats used by MVPDs.

However, the ATVA said it is no longer working with the ATSC, “because of what MVPDs view as the domineering and uncollaborative behavior of the broadcast representatives in the Working Group.”

“For a nationwide provider like DirecTV, the question of who bears such costs is critical,” the letter explained. “ATSC 3.0 receivers compatible with DirecTV’s system now cost roughly $8,000 per feed (i.e., primary and multicast feeds). Since DirecTV now carries more than 1,800 feeds nationwide, the total cost to purchase receivers would approach $15 million. Moreover, there is currently very limited supply of such receivers, so if there were a sudden spike in demand the price would only increase.

“And, again, these costs would bring with them no benefits whatsoever for DirecTV’s subscribers because DirecTV will only be able to provide an ATSC 1.0 feed to customers,” the group’s letter said. “Thus, by definition, every dollar DirecTV must spend on the ATSC 3.0 transition is a deadweight loss. Imposing such costs on DirecTV would be onerous, while spreading the cost among the nation’s nearly 1,500 broadcast stations would not only yield a much more manageable financial responsibility for each entity but also place the costs on the parties who stand to reap the benefits of the ATSC 3.0 transition.”

“The development of the A/370 candidate standard, while still in progress, could provide a technical specification under which a ‘native’ ATSC 3.0 signal could be converted into formats that MVPDs would be able to use (for DirecTV, this is a 1.0 version of the ATSC 3.0 signal),” the letter admitted. “Even if successful, however, this technical capability would not answer the key question for DirecTV—i.e., who bears the costs of the equipment necessary to do this conversion and the delivery of the downconverted signal to the MVPD.

FAA Considers New Newsroom Drone Rules

The Federal Aviation Administration has asked for public comment on updating regulations governing the use of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs).

On Aug. 7, the FAA released a notice of proposed rulemaking called “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations.” That notice does not specifically address news operations, stating simply that newsgathering falls into a category called “aerial surveying,” which also includes videography and photography.

“This action proposes performancebased regulations to enable the design and operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at low altitudes beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and for third-party services, including UAS Traffic Management (UTM), that support these operations,” the FAA said. “The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 directs the development of this proposed rule.

“This proposed rule is necessary to support the integration of UAS into the national airspace system (NAS),” it added. “This proposed rule is intended to provide a predictable and clear pathway for safe, routine, and scalable UAS operations that include package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, civic interest, operations training, demonstration, recreation, and flight testing. TSA proposes to make complementary changes to its regulations to ensure it can continue to impose security measures on these operations under its current regulatory structure for civil aviation.”

Comments on the NPRM are due Oct. 6.

Recovering the Mojo

Maybe it’s because I still remember being a little boy, going to the movie theater and watching “Dr. No” with my dad. For whatever reason, I’ve enjoyed James Bond movies ever since, and I’ve taken special delight in Mike Myers’ tongue-in-cheek spoofs of the franchise.

That’s probably why my mind immediately went to Austin Powers’ immortal words to actress Kristen Johnston, the Russian hit woman: “I’ve lost my Mojo!”—not once but twice—while recently scrolling through YouTube Shorts.

Phil Kurz

The first time involved TVU Networks. The company is pitching its IP transmitter—the same one or similar to the one it has sold to broadcasters for news and sports contribution. This time, however, its target market is content creators and video podcasters.

The next was a YouTube Shorts ad for Adobe Firefly, the company’s generative AI platform that makes generating images and video fast, easy and inexpensive.

For a long time, highly priced technology played a significant gatekeeper role, separating those who could afford to create and distribute video to the public from those who couldn’t. In the 1980s, when I started covering this business, a Quantel Paintbox-Harry-Encore combo ran upwards of $1 million. An ENG truck—the only functional equivalent of an IP transmitter I can think of—could cost $100,000 or more.

But as with all other things technology, prices have fallen and performance has risen. As a result, the barrier to entry has diminished to the point where it’s nonexistent in many instances.

Distribution technology has fared no better when it comes to broadcast mojo. For quite a while, broadcasters had a lock on mass distribution. Even with the rise of the “500-channel universe” that seemed so unimaginable decades ago when I first heard the term in a college lecture hall, broadcasters, through regulation and negotiations, found a way not only to survive but thrive.

NewsOn From Sinclair

But streaming services, connected TVs, tablets, smartphones, the internet and online video platforms have upset that apple cart with potentially devastating consequences for broadcasters.

An April Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) report tells the story: digital video advertising is on pace to account for 58% of the TV/ad spend this year, compared to linear TV, which will fall from 48% of the total last year to 42%.

Of course, many other qualities that separate broadcasting from the 162 million content creators in this country alone. Local news, sports, weather and traffic reporting come to mind. Here, too, the number of competitors has climbed as the barriers to creating content evaporate. But at least local broadcasters maintain a leg up, especially in terms of trustworthiness.

A May 2024 report from Pew Research found 71% of Americans say their local journalists do “a good job of reporting news accurately.” That’s a real strength local broadcasters must play to to set themselves apart.

Another is leveraging their resources, including content, personnel and organizational, to compete effectively in the FAST and digital video domain. On the network level, there’s Pluto TV, Tubi, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+. Local station groups, such as Gray Media with Local News Live and Big 12 Studios, Scripps with FAST versions of diginets like Grit and Laff and Sinclair with FAST versions of its Comet and CHARGE! are in the game as well.

The most important, however, may prove to be developing new revenue sources like commercially available datacasting services for U.S. businesses better served by a one-tomany data distribution architecture than wireless unicast transmission.

Fortunately, unlike Powers—who needed a time machine to retrieve his mojo—broadcasters possess competitive advantages and opportunities they can leverage to rekindle their magic.

Zeam has acquired the local streaming news service NewsOn from Sinclair in a move that will strengthen Zeam’s local and hyperlocal news offerings.

The deal was announced the same week Sinclair said it would embark on a comprehensive review of its assets and broadcasting business. Financial terms of the deal weren’t announced.

NewsON provides a nationwide selection of local news from 285-plus TV stations, giving viewers access to live and on-demand local news. In addition to providing streaming technologies and services to a large number of clients, including live local broadcasts on Paramount+, the NFL, Amazon, Apple TV, Roku, Hulu, Fubo and hundreds of other apps and websites, CEO Jack Perry and his team also launched hyperlocal streaming service Zeam in 2024.

Zeam currently features streams from hundreds of local stations and has partnerships with such top local broadcast groups as CBS, Gray Media, News Press & Gazette, Morgan Murphy Media, Tegna and others.

The NewsON stations will be integrated into Zeam’s core streaming service, while NewsOn will continue as a standalone service called “NewsON. Powered by Zeam.”

As a result of the acquisition, Zeam will now feature local streams covering every U.S. measured market.

“With NewsON coming under the Zeam umbrella, we are not only shaping the future of local broadcast journalism, but also reinforcing its essential role in American communities,” Perry said. “Through our joint resources, we are setting local broadcasters up for a future beyond linear.”

“NewsON has been an important resource for connecting viewers with trusted local news from across the country,” said Kevin Cotlove, executive vice president and chief digital officer, Sinclair. “We’re confident that under Zeam’s leadership, the platform will continue to support stations and strengthen the value of local journalism.”

The Increasing Use of 5G For Live TV Production

From private to hybrid, advances in cellular connections enhance coverage

By Phil Rhodes

Moving live pictures from place to place was once a feat so spectacular that the European Broadcasting Union invented the Eurovision Song Contest contest, which has become so well-known that not many people realize its name derives from the continental broadcast distribution system of the same name.

As so often, though, the sheer R&D budget of consumer electronics has almost trivialized the once-tricky, and several generations of cellphone technology have been winning work from geostationary satellites so much that the sight of a dish on a truck has become a rarity.

According to Daniel Pisarski, chief technology officer at LiveU, contribution via cellular networks for broadcasters is at more than 90%. “I’d probably even go a little higher there—there’s a lot of customers who still roll the van and load all the equipment in it—and they use bonded cellular,” he says.

That approach is LiveU’s day-to-day. “LiveU has used cellular as a primary form of transmission for 15-plus years, all the way back to pre-3G in the first rounds of development, through 4G, 4G LTE and five years ago when 5G was launching,” Pisarski adds.

The market, Pisarski suggests, has achieved a degree of maturity. “It’s now become finetuning, rather than the big changes we saw for the last 10 years,” he says. “We just launched an eSIM in LiveU IQ … we already have a four-camera unit. Can I plug in two monitors? Can I see the studio feed in the field?”

When IP networking is involved, Pisarski says, remote computing inevitably beckons. “That’s led us to focus on the cloud side,” he says. “You could have a vision mixer. We have a full-time recording feature that records every feed that can run in the cloud or on-prem. We have expanded on that because customers have said, ‘Can you help me more with my workflow?’ ”

PRIVATE 5G

The attractive idea of private 5G has sometimes been limited by technology built for long-term infrastructure rather than weekend events. Andreas Mohnke, business integration manager at Riedel, was involved in the company’s recent acquisition of private 5G specialists MECSware and the Easy5G system. “They’re reducing the complexity of setting up a 5G network very nicely,” Mohnke says. “When you set up a 5G cellphone network, normally it’s up to 3,000 parameters; Easy5G has 30.”

Mohnke describes that private network as “a

wireless layer—you need an internet backbone to transfer the data. These base stations are connected over Ethernet. Then, anything that can plug in a SIM or an eSIM can play, and only these devices are allowed to play … it’s like a kind of hardened and more secure Wi-Fi.“

Range and bandwidth inevitably depends on the vexed issue of spectrum allocation, Mohnke says. “It depends on which band you’re allowed to distribute the signal,” he says. “The licenses you have for the frequency equal the amount of throughput you can do. We had a match-day test in Germany, which was fully crowded with 80,000 people, and we had a realistic throughput of 200 Mbps, bidirectional.”

Such numbers, Mohnke emphasizes, are often several times what public infrastructure can achieve—although gaining access to the spectrum can require experience. “We have a team which is very experienced in dealing with authorities,” he says. “The Europeans are facing some friction. But we see now a little movement in [harmonizing spectrum allocation] in all EU member states.”

At NAB Show in April, Verizon introduced a new mobile Private 5G Network framework designed for live content production, working with one of the world’s largest tech companies, according to Josh Arenberg, Verizon’s global leader of media and entertainment.

“Verizon has been collaborating with NVIDIA on a portable, environmentally controlled setup that enables broadcasters to manage dozens of camera feeds with intelligent video prioritization,” he says. “The AI tools work in tandem with human broadcasters to automatically highlight key moments, streamlining the production process and enhancing viewer engagement.

“Ultimately, we see the innovation around 5G and broadcasting as a single, converged ecosystem that blends the efficiency of broadcasting with the interactivity and personalization of 5G,” Arenberg adds. “5G already supports current industry use cases and it will only continue to improve. Innovations such as network slicing unlock endless possibilities for content delivery.”

Globally, 5G seems to be gaining traction with even the largest events. “The coronation

Riedel successfully debuted its Easy5G network and RefCam Live integration during April’s Bundesliga “Der Klassiker” match between FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

remote production

in the U.K. was done with 5G by BBC,” Mohnke adds. “We met two wonderful guys—and we had intense, technical, deep discussions—at the EBU workshop in Munich recently. We’re all driven to see 5G be a success story. It’s good to be in contact and to talk to one another.”

GOING HYBRID

Meanwhile, field equipment is increasingly able to blend 5G with other ways to connect. Mark Horchler, product marketing director at Haivision, describes the symphony of hardware and software that makes all this possible. “We’ve always done a bit of both,” he says. “Technically, we’re selling hardware products, but it’s [a lot of] software—all of our products you can access via web browsers, and last year we introduced our cloud platform, Hub 360.”

The clear intent here is to find a way to leverage all available infrastructure as required, Horchler says. “We have a range of bonded cellular transmitters, our MoJoPro app, and receivers,” he says. “All our transmitters have bonded cellular. We have several mobile modems and also they have Ethernet outputs as well, so you can connect the LEO satellite by Ethernet to the modem.”

That makes for flexibility and efficient use of available networks. “We had a French company covering people running up Mont Blanc,” Horchler recalls. “They were using cellular networks up to a certain altitude where there’s no coverage, then they’d use Starlink. So we’re seeing a hybrid 5G and LEO, which is not the same as traditional C-band but that has become useful for a lot of use cases.”

END-TO-END PLATFORM

Moving video over 5G—or an IP network running on any other transmission layer—will always require some amount of protocol. Zixi began as a protocol with broadcast in mind, although the success of 5G and IP in general has beckoned much more.

“Now, we’re a full platform with analytics and a lot of application-level features,” Phil Abbott, Zixi’s senior solutions architect, says. “The platform and the protocol are kind of symbiotic. We’re a network protocol, we wrap video streams [but] now have extra features for transcode and various video processing at the core.”

Making network transport of video practical has always demanded a concerted effort to make the technology usable. For crews in the field, time and appetite for network engineering is limited. “We’re making it all work for them so they can just use it,” Abbott confirms. “Can you dial in, say, the MTU on the server level of a protocol? Yes, your most savvy of engineers

can, but the point is, we’re making this work for customers to leverage 5G, to leverage our protocol.”

The enthusiasm is clear, and Abbott adds that Zixi is continuing to innovate. “The CTO is the inventor, so we still have the brain behind the platform thinking up ways to make the protocol more resilient … but our features are video features—our ability to switch streams, to transcode,” he says. “And Zixi is extremely lightweight; we can run on a Raspberry Pi. People want to put the full broadcaster software on very lightweight compute—and you’re sending a handful of camera feeds? That’s nothing. And we’re doing a lot of testing with Starlink, with 5G, K-Band satellite.”

new fiber—they’ve probably put in real 5G,” he says. “As soon as you get to the outskirts you don’t get that. What is the telco’s return on investment? They rolled out 4G, and they hadn’t returned the cost of that before standing up 5G. They can’t charge us more because we won’t pay more, so how do they do that?”

Much of this capability is built on fundamentals that might not exist but for the mass market, although constructing devices capable of implementing them all in a broadcast workflow is a challenge in itself.

Sukh Grewal, connectivity solutions specialist for Dejero, explains the company’s evolution. “Technically we’re a software company,” he says, “but we had to build the hardware, because … there’s not many manufacturers that can build multi-modem video transmission devices.”

That hardware will always be dependent on the available network, and Grewal warns that services sold to the public can be inconsistently described. “In the U.S., they’ve rolled out

One solution is to wait for the telecommunications providers to do the right thing. Grewal echoes the view, though, that private networks offer more certainty. “Tier-one sports will still use satellite trucks, and they’ll have our kind of tech as a backup,” he says. “[We can] take a 5G network and blend a Starlink, or we can do just Starlink if we want to. The BBC used [private 5G] for the queen’s funeral and we’ve done it for golf events. We stood up a private 5G network and put in two private 5G network SIM cards, and two public networks, and we were able to blend. We can set it up in two or three hours. It’s as plug-andplay as possible.”

Having made various types of radio networks feasible, the industry now seems set on making it easy, and 5G—at various levels—has made even public infrastructure sufficiently capable to play a big part. Perhaps the key innovation, though, is the option to hop between networks to optimize bandwidth, cost or both—all conveniences which make it easy to forget what live remote contribution once required. ●

Phil Abbott, senior solutions architect for Zixi

Haivision’s 5G gear is being used to capture soccer action at the Sports Complex of Claude-Robillard in Montreal.

Broadcasters Up Engagement Factor With Football Fans

Behind the scenes, distribution conflicts intensify

By Fred Dawson

A football season unlike any other is taking shape in a conflicted broadcast environment where big-game producers are delivering unprecedented viewing experiences digitally as TV station owners count on the sport’s popularity to help them weather a weakened ad market.

The challenges were highlighted by The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger during an early August earnings call, when he discussed the now-launched ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming service, which encompasses all content delivered over the seven ESPN cable

channels and online assets, including ESPN+.

While stressing that Disney views what it’s doing with ESPN as part of its TV business, Iger acknowledged, “the features and functionality of the ESPN app will have more on them or in the app than obviously any linear channel can provide. It will really be a sports fan’s dream in terms of everything they’ll be able to do and watch on that channel.”

ESPN-NFL DEAL

Adding to the drama, the NFL and Disney also announced a landmark deal that, if approved, would give the league an unprecedented 10% stake in a media partner in exchange for

ESPN’s takeover of NFL Network, with the addition of more games and other benefits. A taste of what’s in the offing on the ESPN service, which launched Aug. 21, can be found on the NFL+ streaming service, which remains under the NFL’s control, delivering all its games, but is available in the deal with ESPN for bundling with the latter’s streaming service.

It happens that the advanced in-game betting, personalized fantasy team features and other data-rich enhancements available on NFL+ are supported by technology from Genius Sports, which has also been supporting features on ESPN+. While declining to go into details of what his company is bringing

The New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Chargers played an NFL preseason game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., on Aug. 10.

to the new streaming service, Matt Fleckenstein, chief product officer at Genius Sports, says the arc of development on ESPN and NFL+ is parallel.

Specifics are “just a question of whether we’re working directly with NFL+ or ESPN,” he says.

The Genius BetVision app—a single-screen display of betting options supported by all the major sports-betting books, with video lagging just two to three seconds behind real time—is an especially noteworthy example of game-changing aspects to what ESPN might be offering.

With nearly all major pro and college football games now available on streaming services, the stakes couldn’t be higher for the broadcasters whose distribution via cable, satellite and OTA accounts for the lion’s share of the football audience. As they’ve done before, station group owners in their latest earnings reports cited football as a significant counterforce to economic headwinds impacting ad revenues.

During Sinclair’s Q2 earnings call in early August, Chief Operating Officer Rob Weisbord, acknowledging the overall advertising environment “remains rough,” said that with “larger buys coming down the pipeline … we’re cautiously optimistic as we move through the summer months into September with the return of college football and NFL.”

Building on the popularity of football, Sinclair has launched four podcasts devoted to college football programs at Ohio State, Alabama, Texas and Notre Dame, and “will shortly be announcing a landmark events and media partnership” devoted to “producing original content and brand activations,” says Chris King, Sinclair’s vice president of investor relations. This will include a “nationwide tailgate tour during the upcoming college football season” and an exclusive event at February’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., he said.

SCRIPPS’ SPORTS STRATEGY

E.W. Scripps also touted the importance of football to its second-half expectations following first-half revenue performance that was down just 2% from levels reached in a national election year, marking a “best-of-class” performance that tied “directly back to our sports strategy,” according to Chief Financial Officer Jason Combs. While “there’s a lot of hesitancy out there” in the overall second-half advertising picture, Combs voices “optimism around our ability to monetize football as

it starts to kind of roll back in here.”

One aspect to that optimism relates to Scripps Sports’ longstanding relationship with the NCAA Division I Big Sky Conference, which consists of 10 full and two affiliate member universities in eight Western states. The contract with the Big Sky, renewed for another five years in March, makes Scripps responsible for producing and broadcasting at least 12 conference games a year over its seven Montana stations involving either or both of the state’s conference members, Montana State and Montana University, James Raffety, Scripps Sports senior director of sports production, says.

“The features and functionality of the ESPN app will have more on them or in the app than obviously any linear channel can provide.”

BOB IGER, DISNEY

Scripps is generating coverage that “brings big market, big production to FCS [Football Championship Subdivision] football,” Rafferty says. And Scripps also benefits from the fact that the Big Sky relationship runs deeper than basic game production, he says, with the broadcaster acting as league supporter in event productions like the annual Big Sky Hall of Fame banquet and the Media Day season kickoff. It’s a relationship that goes to the heart of Montana culture with the broadcast of the annual “Brawl of the Wild” showdown between MU and MSU, which

Rafferty says draws the biggest statewide audience for any TV program other than the Super Bowl.

LOCAL TIES

Many other station owners benefit from relationships they’ve built with colleges at regional and local levels, in some cases enabling game coverage not supplied by the national networks and, in others, resulting in ancillary programming with games broadcast nationally.

Gray Media, for example, is leveraging multiple university partnerships with its launch of regional sports networks, says Robert Folliard, the station group’s senior vice president of government relations and distribution.

“This is a strategic initiative for the company to get into local sports where there’s a ton of advertising and sponsorship opportunities,” Folliard says. “We provide the only platform that can get them into every home.”

On another front, Gray with six other partners in the NextGen TV Pearl TV alliance will be broadcasting college and NFL games in HDR-enhanced 4K, marking a major advance in viewing experience over what consumers typically get through cable and online services. With FCC Chair Brendan Carr voicing enthusiasm for NextGen TV, it looks like “all signals are a go” for expeditious transition to ATSC 3.0, Folliard says, which means TV stations will be in a much stronger position to hold football fans with the combination of superior signal quality and OTA access to interactive game playing and real-time betting.

Nobody is doing more than Fox Sports to keep all its boats afloat, including the new Fox One DTC streaming service, by delivering superior viewing experiences across all affiliated TV and digital outlets. On the big home screen, whether NFL games are delivered via pay TV, OTA or online, Fox is tapping things it introduced at this year’s Super Bowl to enhance the lean-back experience, says Michael Davies, executive vice president of field operations at Fox Sports.

“We’re looking at picking up where we left off,” Davies says. He cites wider use of things like dual SkyCams, Lidar technology for nonobstructive on-screen placements of AR-embellished graphics displays and officials’ Hawk-Eye play-review systems to help commentators with real-time analysis. At some point, Fox Sports anticipates embellishing some NFL broadcasts with output from field-based 180-degree cameras that Fox partner Cosm has deployed to support immersive off-site theatrical viewing of game action. ●

ESPN+ content is part of the new ESPN app, launched on Aug. 21.

Focusing on the Future

IBC CEO Mike Crimp talks about how IBC2025 is driving innovation and collaboration

By Jenny Priestley

For any trade show, innovation is key. An exhibition and conference will always attract visitors, but what keeps them coming back year after year is the ability to see something new. The team at IBC have made this central to their planning for this year’s show.

In recent years, IBC—which takes place at the RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 12-15—has reflected the ongoing changes in the media and entertainment industry, introducing three central pillars across the whole show: innovative technology, changing business models and people and purpose. As the industry faces numerous challenges, such as the macro environment or trade tariffs, the theme of IBC2025 is “Shaping the Future.”

“We felt that where IBC has always been successful is bringing people together to be able to actually see technology, talk about technology, experience it and move the debate forward,” IBC CEO Mike Crimp says. “So this year, the overall theme is really about shaping the future at a time of dynamic change.”

Crimp hopes IBC2025 will be a collaborative environment where the industry can thoroughly examine not only new technologies but also innovative ideas. He believes broadcasters and vendors are eager to work together in this way, and IBC has a strong reputation for enabling such interactions.

DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY

One of the biggest disruptors within the industry right now is generative artificial intelligence. This is leading to new entrants in the vendor space, bringing products and services that aren’t just applicable to the media and entertainment industry, but to other markets. “It’s something that IBC had seen for a while, and we’ve tracked that through our ‘Content Everywhere’ experience,” Crimp says.

“We’ve seen at other shows, such as Mobile World Congress, how they can serve different verticals. So in terms of finding these companies, we’ve been much more, shall we say, hunter-gatherer than we perhaps were before.”

This move will be reflected within the new Future Tech Zone in Hall 14, where attendees can meet companies they may not be

“IBC2025 isn’t the old-school trade show where you kind of lean on your stand and wait for someone to come past. It’s not just buyer/seller, the whole value chain has to interact with each other.”

MIKE CRIMP, IBC

familiar with. “We’ve almost seen it become a trend where people come to IBC and have quite a lot of interaction discussing what they found in the corner or down the alley or in the little 10-by-10 stands.”

Crimp sees these opportunities as a way for IBC itself to be disruptive and lead to things “being done differently,” enabling companies that haven’t traditionally exhibited at the show to enter the media and entertainment market.

“IBC2025 isn’t the old-school trade show where you kind of lean on your stand and wait for someone to come past,” Crimp says. “It’s not just buyer/seller, the whole value chain

has to interact with each other. We tried to embrace that as much as possible by creating things that people would think about rather than just receiving information.”

AWAY FROM THE EXHIBITION

There’s always plenty to see at IBC Show, not least the conference, which takes place alongside the exhibition. Without giving anything away, Crimp promises this year will cover a “wide church of content and sessions” with senior executives discussing some of the industry’s current themes.

“We’ve kind of stirred that up with some more creative people and some people who might just want to challenge the conventional view,” he adds.

Other key features include the Innovation Awards, celebrating industry advances in five categories, such as content creation, social impact, and environment and sustainability. Winners will be revealed on the Sunday of the show.

The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Program has continued to grow since its introduction in 2019. It offers both vendors and their customers the opportunity to work together in the creation and design of a service, whether that be around master cloud control, ultra-low latency live streaming at scale or creating a framework for generative artificial intelligence, as featured in some of this year’s projects.

“What’s happened is that the vendors see it as an opportunity to not sell a finished product, but to get broadcasters and streaming companies invested in that idea, literally invested because sometimes they’re sharing IP,” Crimp says.

“It’s kind of moved into being something of a ‘club’ whereby the CTOs and the vendors work together, and they get together for dinners and meetings and so on,” he continues. “It’s got to the stage where the Accelerator projects almost point the way for the direction that the buying market is looking.”

While the Accelerator program has proven its worth to the industry, Crimp describes it as a “significant sign” that IBC is also delivering on its promises. “If you look at the sandwich board of brands that are involved, it is enormous. It is so impressive.” Visitors can check

out this year’s Accelerators in Hall 14’s Future Tech Zone.

One idea that is being revived for IBC2025 is a Hackathon. The show is teaming up with Google on a challenge that will be revealed

to everybody at the same time. Without giving away any details, Crimp describes it as “dead central to the themes happening in the industry at the moment.” Teams are invited to take part in the two-day event; each is in-

vited on stage to pitch their solution and the winners receive a prize. Crimp sees the Hackathon as an opportunity for IBC to deliver on its “people and purpose” pillar, engaging with the next generation of engineers. “It will be really, really interesting to see if a group of hackers can create what they’re going to be asked to create in two days.

“It will also be in the Future Tech Zone in Hall 14. We want to make that hall a destination, so that people will go in there and be in the right frame of mind to be talking about innovation. I think the Hackathon could be really, really interesting, and something which we might be able to build on for the future. It is one of the things I’m most excited about, because I think it’s going to bring in a bit of a new audience. It’s going to show different ways of solving problems. Again, IBC is using our relationships to stage innovation.”

Essentially, innovation is what IBC2025 is all about. Asked to sum up the show in three words, Crimp says: “Innovation, fun, collaboration.” Roll on September. ●

Registration for IBC2025 is now open. More details are available at show.ibc.org.

The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Program offers vendors and their customers the opportunity to work together in the creation and design of a service.

Cleveland’s Rocket Arena—home to the NBA’s Cavaliers and AHL’s Monsters— recently installed an Evertz ev670-X30 multiviewer.

Multiviewer Capabilities Expand With IP, Cloud Advances

Faster processing, increased bandwidth bring more flexibility, efficiency

By Tom Butts

Monitoring audio and video content in today’s increasingly complex media environment requires more flexibility than ever. Fortunately, broadcasters’ adoption of IP and the cloud have brought that flexibility to a more reasonable integration level and price point.

As production environments evolve, the role of multiviewers continues to expand, according to Ketan Patel, product manager, multiviewer systems for Evertz. “Today’s multiviewers must handle a wide variety of signal types—compressed and uncompressed, IP and SDI—and operate seamlessly across both on-prem and cloud infrastructures,” he says.

With more operations adopting the SMPTE 2110 IP protocol, demand is increasing, Patel added. “Evertz has deployed over 600 SMPTE ST 2110 systems globally, many of which feature our high-density ev670-X30-HW-V2 modular platform and the ultra-high-density PREFEX multiviewer system.”

Michael Demb, vice president of product

strategy for TAG, agrees that having flexibility across both cloud and on-prem is paramount in today’s multiviewer platforms.

“Multiviewers are evolving from passive displays into active operational hubs, central to how media teams manage software-defined workflows today,’ he says. “As infrastructures decentralize and scale dynamically across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments, multiviewers like TAG’s are becoming the front line for real-time insight, signal integrity validation, and workflow control.”

SAVING MONEY

Budgetary pressures are also driving broadcasters’ demands, and whether they’re deployed in a full-cloud scenario or hybrid onprem, multiviewers are becoming more versatile, according to John Mailhot, senior vice president, product management, at Imagine Communications.

“Operational and cost efficiencies are top of mind in today’s dynamic production operations,” he says. “Whether signal processing is done in the cloud or on-prem, the multiviewer plays a critical role in enabling operations

teams to make fast, informed, content-critical decisions.

“A robust multiviewer system allows operators to quickly identify and resolve issues in real time—ultimately enabling the team to manage more signals across more productions,” Mailhot adds. “As a result, multiviewers will continue evolving from passive display systems to active enablers of efficient, scalable media operations.”

Erling Hedkvist, sales and business development for manifold, says his company’s platform can provide the best of both cloud and on-prem worlds.

“One of our big differentiators is that our customers get the flexibility of software and virtualization but with the performance of dedicated hardware that the live production industry demands,” he says. “This gives them subframe latency and uncompressed, high-quality processing but also a service-based architecture where they can spin services up and down on-demand and that is self-healing in case of an underlying hardware issue.”

Hedkvist touts the “secret sauce” of manifold’s cloud-based live production system:

monitoring trends

“The underlying design of manifold CLOUD is built around a shared memory architecture,” he says. “Media is first written into memory, allowing multiple services [such as multiviewers, format converters, color correctors and codecs] to access and process that data directly rather than relying on traditional signal paths. This architecture decouples processing from format and frame rate, as services work on pixel data in memory.”

LOWER LATENCY

Monitoring live production often requires making split-second decisions, something that remains top of mind when dealing with latency. Suzana Brady, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Cobalt Digital, says that even though the company’s UltraBlue SW-MV multiviewer is implemented in software on a PC platform, “it was designed with latency in mind.”

“For baseband inputs, the latency is around three frames to a screen, and less than that for a streaming output,” she says. “Scalability is provided by the PC platform, from lowercost units for simple multiviewers to large platforms for units with lots of inputs and heads. There is a full-featured modern API to ease integration in complex workflows.”

The importance of integrating softwarebased multiviewing into live production platforms has been demonstrated through the flexibility offered by the cloud and IP, according to Evertz’ Patel.

“All [Evertz] platforms are designed to be part of a unified system, enabling operators to build highly dense, format-agnostic monitoring solutions across 3G, UHD, compressed and uncompressed feeds,” Patel says. “Whether it’s for native IP, hybrid or SDI workflows, users can scale according to their operational requirements without compromising quality or latency.”

When it comes to the variety of high-resolution formats, including HDR, vendors have adopted a format-agnostic approach and upped their processing power.

Chris Scheck, head of marketing content for Lawo, says the efficiency of the company’s HOME Multiviewer—available as a standalone solution and as part of Lawo’s HOME Apps ecosystem—is architected to consume less power, making monitoring more efficient.

“In combination with a .edge Hyper-Density SDI/IP Gateway and Processing unit, which can simultaneously receive and output SDI signals and generate smaller-resolution versions of video input signals, the HOME Multiviewer can be used in a so-called intelligent workflow that uses no more than the absolutely required amount of network bandwidth

for each PiP [picture in picture], based on its size, thus ensuring that the input bandwidth never exceeds the output bandwidth,” Sheck says, adding that such proxies are important when operating in a bandwidthrestricted environment.

“UHD streams, for instance, comprise a lot more data than is needed for a small PiP; not having to downscale such PiP footage therefore means that fewer CPU cores are needed to process the information,” he says. “The allocation of the relevant proxy to each PiP/tile is handled automatically while the multiviewer head is being configured with the intuitive theWALL app.”

NEW FEATURES

as their customers are.

TAG is actively exploring the potential of adding AI as part of its long-term innovation road map. “We’re engaged in early-stage development to evaluate how technologies like Multimodal AI and agentic AI could support operational efficiency, simplify workflows, and enhance the monitoring experience,” Demb said, adding that “any future capabilities will be designed to augment—not replace—human decision-making, and to serve the real-world needs of our customers.”

While multiviewing continues to evolve, vendors are continually adding new features that take advantage of the flexibility offered by IP and the cloud.

At IBC this month, Mediaproxy is introducing Instant Replay for live incident review along with the ability to monitor HTML content directly within mosaic outputs. Designed to streamline the process of incident investigation, Instant Replay allows broadcast operators and engineers to instantly review incidents that occur during live broadcasts.

“Being able to have high-quality instant replay within our ecosystem of monitoring tools will significantly reduce the time it takes to investigate and clear on-air incidents,” says Erik Otto, Mediaproxy CEO. “The addition of HTML data panels in both our interactive server-side multiviewers further underline our commitment to solving real-world problems for customers today.”

Lawo is taking its HOME Video Monitor app out of the facility and making it more accessible to operators, according to Scheck.

“With its HOME Video Monitor app, Lawo is about to launch a solution that allows users to monitor video feeds on their laptops and mobile devices, which is extremely useful for busy operators who quickly need to check something on their way to a different location,” he says. “While this may not be a replacement for a full-blown multiviewer, it may be practical for certain workflows.”

WHAT ABOUT AI?

Vendors are taking the same cautious approach towards implementing artificial intelligence into their multiviewing platforms

There are no immediate plans for manifold to integrate AI into its multiviewer line, the company says. In fact, “we recently signed a significant contract with a major U.K. broadcaster that explicitly prohibits the inclusion of AI in the deliverables,” Hedkvist says. “[This is] a clear sign that there’s still hesitation among Tier-1 customers when it comes to unsupervised AI in live production workflows.”

Scheck concurs that the jury is still out when it comes to adopting AI.

“Lawo’s HOME Multiviewer comes equipped with a flexible logic system for alarm and tally functions to allow users to catch errors in a timely fashion and remain in control,” he says. “Whether AI could play a part in this is certainly worth investigating, even though a deterministic approach based on algorithms and real-world experience may be hard to beat for some time to come.”

Scheck adds that some operators are taking multiviewing to another level.

“One of our customers now operates OB trucks that are no longer equipped with multiviewer walls; the screens have been replaced by Apple Vision Pro headsets,” he says. “From what we have heard, getting used to them was rather straightforward, and operators in those trucks like the thrill of working with flexible cutting-edge tools and increasingly consider multiviewer walls as somewhat ‘old-school.’ ”

Nevertheless, all the bells and whistles being added to multiviewers don’t take away the essential role of the technology, according to Cobalt’s Brady.

“We don’t see the fundamental role of multiviewers changing in live broadcast, their purpose has remained consistent since the early days of television,” she says. “What is changing is the scale, quality, and accessibility of multiviewing in modern, software-defined infrastructures.” ●

Suzana Brady, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, Cobalt Digital

KVM Evolves for an IP and Cloud-Based Media Future

These control systems play a growing role in increasingly complex productions and operations

By George Winslow

As broadcasters and producers deploy IP, cloud and artificial intelligence technologies to more efficiently produce and deliver content to multiple different platforms, KVM systems are helping them revamp their operations and tap into the benefits of newer technologies.

In the process, KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) systems, originally conceived of as a simple way to control multiple computers, are undergoing a rapid transformation, adding capabilities and tools designed to help producers and broadcasters manage increasingly large operations, handle higher-resolution content, control large remote productions and oversee

complex arrays of devices, networks and processes relying on IP and cloud workflows.

“In both the AV world as well as the broadcast world, there is a definite move towards IP,” says Mark Hempel, head of product management at IHSE, which has launched the Draco XStreme KVM extender product line that uses the JPEG XS codec to provide cutting-edge performance.

In some cases, as they expand their footprint to play a more central role in controlling large operations, KVM tech providers are also playing in the same space as video platform providers such as Akla, which uses artificial intelligence to seamlessly merge streaming video, monetization and broadcast workflows in the cloud. This increasingly blurs the lines between KVM products and other technologies while also providing

new competition for a variety of tech providers.

“We live in a SaaS world,” Matt Smith, chief evangelist at Akta, said. “All our tools are cloud-based and our customers can access them from anywhere. They can program channels, edit programs and publish FAST channels. They don’t need to remote into a box and leverage KVM technologies to monitor and manage their operations.”

IP, CLOUD IMPERATIVES

The transition to IP infrastructures continues to be one of the major trends driving many of these changes. “Everyone is moving over to IP,” says Thomas Tang, president and founder of Apantac, which offers a variety of solutions, including its openGear OG KVM over IP, for

remote workflows

users making that transition. “Every time, there is a new facility or they are replacing the infrastructure, they are going IP.”

Adds Catherine Koutsaris, product marketing manager at Matrox Video: “The transition to IP has transformed expectations for KVM systems Legacy KVM switchers are increasingly viewed as outdated. They’re proprietary, often expensive and difficult to scale or configure without vendor-specific training. By contrast, IP-based KVMs can run over standard network infrastructure, allowing users to scale and adapt the system as needed. This flexibility is one of the biggest drivers of growth in the market, enabling more efficient, customizable, and interoperable installations.”

Leo Bull, chief revenue officer at G&D North America and VuWall, said the move to IP is part of a larger effort by broadcasters and other M&E companies to create more efficient workflows and break down old operational silos. “There’s a lot of value in unification of disparate, formerly disparate, systems and solutions that provide an administrative team to be able to control multiple silos of equipment,” he said. “Merging that together is a big, big trend.”

KVM providers are also offering users more choices in terms of how they transition to IP.

To help smooth the upgrade path to IP while maintaining very low latency, high-quality video, IHSE has introduced its new Draco EXtreme line, including the Draco vario XS DisplayPort 1.2 Extender Series, which uses JPEG-XS.

“This gives us a very high-performance codec with regard to real-time and high-quality imaging,” Hempel says. “This will also help interconnect with IP interfaces and provide more seamless integration with broadcast signals.”

WORKFLOW SHIFTS

Another major trend driving important changes in KVM technologies is the move to cloud-based workflows. “Recently, we have seen leading broadcast organizations adopting new virtual production technology to streamline workflows and reduce postproduction overheads,” John Halksworth, senior product manager at Adder Technology, says. “This change allows for real-time adaptations to occur, reducing the requirement for re-recording and improved decision-making timelines. A shift towards virtual production also sees an even bigger requirement for remote collaboration, and this is a key area that Adder continues to support its customers in achieving.”

These transitions come as KVM systems

“The transition to IP has transformed expectations for KVM systems.”

CATHERINE KOUTSARIS, MATROX VIDEO

continue to be applied to a wider array of operations that connect an ever-growing amount of devices.

“KVM used to be just little desktop switches,” Tang at Apantac says. “Now, every mobile truck has a KVM switch, whether it is a physical switch or KVM-over-IP system, because more and more computers are involved with all the graphics, scoreboards and other capabilities.”

Adds Matrox Video’s Koutsaris: “KVM technologies are an increasingly essential part of control-room design, including in content-production environments. Nearly every control room can benefit from an IP KVM setup, whether to declutter operator desks by removing physical machines, reduce noise and heat, or centralize computer access for better security.”

Other use cases involve more traditional applications like postproduction, broadcast operations and remote production, making KVM widely used in TV, film and streaming industries, Koutsaris and others say

G&D’s recent acquisition of VuWall provides a more unified hardware and software platform for managing larger, more complex operations from a simplified user interface, Bull says. “That means that the team administering this environment don’t need multiple control interfaces to manage their entire video ecosystem in this environment,” he says. “They can do that from a single interface.”

Like many parts of the M&E industry, AI has emerged as a hot topic

for KVM providers, particularly in cases where such solutions are used to control and manage larger operations or distributed productions, and in cases where KVM systems are deployed in cloudbased or virtualized environments.

AI RESULTS AND REALITIES

This has led to KVM solutions competing with providers of AI-powered video platforms or getting integrated into operations that also use large, AI-powered video platforms.

Smith at video platform provider Akla notes that its AI-powered technologies have produced “tangible, measurable results” for clients like the NFL, TelevisaUnivision’s ViX streaming platform, Fox Television Stations, Nexstar Media Group and others, producing efficiencies that have dramatically reduced headcounts. In one case, the user reduced staff from 60 people to five.

Akla has also approached AI as a foundational technology, not an add-on, for its platform, which provides centralized asset management, cloud-based processing, live channel scheduling, AI-driven video editing, server-side ad insertion, georestrictions and multiplatform capabilities. “It allows people to be more efficient than they have ever been,” Smith says.

Others highlight the promise of AI while cautioning that many existing KVM solutions provide great efficiencies.

“Adopting AI capabilities in a KVM network must drive customer value in the first instance,” Adder’s Halksworth says. “Organizations use KVM to access and control critical information, and it’s essential that any development or innovation around AI is reliable and trustworthy. AI has the capability of being very influential going forward, and we have a lot of learning to do to know how to best deploy its abilities. For example, leveraging AI in some way to detect system issues and suggest resolution paths for a user is just one example of implementing AI that adds customer value.”

Similar caution can also be seen with the transition to IP and cloud-based workflows. “There is always a little bit of a trade-off when you make these transitions,” IHSE’s Hempel explained. “There are people who’ve made up their mind and just state they want to go IP, without really knowing what the impact is. Personally, I would like to see more customers … making a decision based on what suits their requirements best. … Depending upon their needs, it can be an IP system, a proprietary system or a mix of both.” ●

John Halksworth

Wading Through the Chaos Of Making Live Television

A

look ahead

to the next era of audio production

There’s a moment in fly fishing when you spot a new bend in the river for the first time. The current moves differently here. It’s deeper, faster, with little eddies and pockets where something might be waiting. Standing there, you realize that finding success is more than just showing up. You have to read the water, pick the right fly and cast just right.

Like a river, a live broadcast is in constant motion. The pace changes from slow stretches to sudden bursts and the flow

can turn without warning. Cameras have to be in position before the play unfolds. The replay team has to grab the perfect angles in seconds. Graphics have to update in an instant. The audio mix needs to capture the roar of the stadium without drowning out the announcers. A single missed cue can ripple through the entire show. As a technical manager, I’m the one watching the whole current, making sure every part of the system is moving in harmony.

I’ve seen just about everything that can

happen on a live production: power failures; cables going bad; graphics systems locking up moments before going to air. The challenge isn’t just fixing the issue; it’s doing it without breaking the rhythm of the show. In fly fishing, if a tangle forms in your line mid-drift, you don’t freeze or throw your hands up. You work it out quickly and get back to fishing before you miss your window. Broadcasting is the same way.

KNOWING WHEN IT’S FLOWING

When a crew is in sync, the production takes on a rhythm you can feel. Everyone knows their role, but more importantly, they

ERIC ZORNES EXPERTISE

know how their actions affect the people around them. A camera operator frames a shot with the replay team in mind. An A1 rides the crowd noise just right so the announcer’s words cut through. The coordination is almost invisible to the audience, but to those who live and breathe production, it’s the difference between simply getting the show on air and creating something that pulls people in.

Technology has reshaped the craft in ways that were hard to imagine when I started. We’ve gone from analog boards and fixed-truck setups to IP-based workflows, 4K resolution and fully remote productions. Some of those changes have made life easier. What used to take hours of patching can now be done with a few clicks. But new tools bring new kinds of problems. The day you assume everything will work perfectly is the day you get blindsided.

BEING THERE

Nowhere has that evolution been more dramatic than in audio. Today, it’s about creating an immersive, almost cinematic soundscape. Viewers expect to feel like they’re in the building, on the field, even inside the huddle. That means capturing more than just the obvious. It’s not enough to hear the crack of the bat. You need to hear the chatter from the dugout, the sharp intake of breath right before the pitch, and the eruption after contact.

We’ve seen a huge shift toward spatial audio and object-based mixing, where sounds aren’t just panned left or right, but placed in a three-dimensional space. For sports especially, this opens up new ways to tell the story: The mix captures the full story from the quarterback’s calls, the sideline voices and the crowd’s energy, all working together to bring the game to life. It’s not just a mix, it’s an experience.

Microphone technology has also advanced in ways that make a difference on every show. From wireless lavaliers that give athletes mobility without losing clarity to mics that can survive being buried in ice without compromise, the tools we have now let us grab sound that would have been impossible decades ago.

Wireless reliability has improved dramatically, but with that comes the challenge of managing dozens of channels in a congested RF environment. That’s a part of the job the

The future of broadcast audio is going to be shaped by two competing forces: the drive for evergreater immersion and the demand for leaner, more remote-friendly workflows.

audience never sees, but it’s as critical as any camera angle.

FLEXIBILITY IS EXPECTED

As productions get more complex, so do the expectations for flexibility. IP audio networking has given us the ability to route and reroute sources anywhere in the world in real time. That means an A1 mixing from a facility hundreds of miles away can have the same control as they would in a truck on site. It’s efficient, but it also demands a higher level of planning. If there’s a hiccup in the network, it’s not just an inconvenience—it can take your entire show down.

The future of broadcast audio is going to be shaped by two competing forces: the drive for ever-greater immersion and the demand for leaner, more remote-friendly workflows. On one side, you’ll have technology pushing us toward hyperrealistic sound environments that rival live attendance. On the other, you’ll have budget and logistical realities pushing productions to do more with less resulting in fewer people on site, smaller crews and more automation. The winners will be the teams that can balance both without losing the soul of the show.

For me, the audio side has always been about authenticity. You can have the sharpest 4K picture in the world, but if the sound doesn’t match the moment, the emotional impact is gone. The excitement of a game-winning play comes alive when the sound matches the energy of the moment. Like reading a river, capturing that moment is a mix of skill, preparation and instinct. You can’t always predict when the big fish will strike or when the perfect crowd swell will happen, but you can be ready for it. ●

Eric Zornes brings over a decade of experience to live sports broadcasting, specializing in technical management and audio production. His goal is to keep every show seamless, organized and engaging for audiences. In his free time, he travels the country with his wife and son, enjoying hiking, family time and fishing whenever he can.

He can be reached at eric@milemarker8productions.com.

The author introduces his son to a new wave of audio technology.

eye on tech | product and services

DJI

Osmo 360

DJI’s Osmo 360, the company’s first foray into 360-degree cameras, delivers the sharpest photos possible on the market with 1-inch, 360-degree imaging, according to DJI. It is the first 360 camera to shoot ultra-high-spec 8K/50 fps 360-degree video, and is the only 360 camera that can shoot continuously for 100 minutes in 8K/30 fps.

Chyron PAINT 10.1

PAINT

10.1 offers enhanced visualization tools, advanced annotation capabilities and expanded calibration support for both mainstream and emerging sports formats. With sharper graphics and improved workflow efficiency, broadcasters and analysts can deliver clear, detailed telestration for a wide variety of events, from NCAA football and NFL matchups to growing formats like three-on-three basketball.

Lawo HOME 4.0

HOME 4.0, the latest version of Lawo’s IP-native management platform, includes architectural improvements, streamlined licensing and greater operational flexibility. Lawo’s HOME software platform manages and secures IP-based media infrastructures. Built on cloud-native, containerized microservices, the platform allows users to connect, configure and control all Lawo HOME-native devices and ecosystem partners as well as NMOS-compliant third-party equipment.

Specially designed for 360-degree capture, the Osmo 360’s industry-first square HDR image sensor maintains the same 360-degree image field as a traditional 1-inch rectangular sensor, while eliminating the unused area of traditional rectangular sensors. This results in 25% more sensor utilization, as well as outstanding image quality and lower power consumption, all in a compact, lightweight camera body.

❚ www.dji.com

Improved annotation capabilities in this release include a text tool that provides transparent background support, allowing operators to easily add clear, readable player labels and tactical notes without blocking critical elements on the playing surface. The new linked matchup cursor simplifies the visualization of player matchups and strategic zones by clearly connecting opposing players.

❚ chyron.com

HOME 4.0 introduces HOME Passes, which replace all previous HOME Core licenses. Going forward, one HOME Pass is required per actively managed device or HOME App in the platform’s inventory. This transparent and scalable licensing model enables precise planning and cost control and is particularly beneficial in dynamic infrastructures where system size may fluctuate, resulting in the need for fewer physical devices and lowering licensing costs.

❚ https://lawo.com

eye on tech | product and services

Atomos

Ninja TV

Ninja TX is a re-engineered, advanced addition to Atomos’s Ninja monitor-recorder family. Ninja TX features both 12G-SDI and HDMI 2.0 inputs and outputs as well as integrated Wi-Fi and AirGlu timecode technology. With a new industrial design, Ninja TX offers improved thermal efficiency, lower weight and enhanced portability in a 5-inch form factor.

The new monitor-recorder delivers features previously reserved for the larger Shogun Ultra. It also adds support for ultra-fast CFexpress Type B media and recording to USB-C external drives. The all-new AtomOS Linux-based OS provides faster performance, over-the-air updates and a streamlined user experience. The addition of high-performance CFexpress media enables fast RAW video capture, while high-speed USB-C adds the flexibility to record directly to external storage.

❚ www.atomos.com

Telycom

Elgato Plug-in

Telycam has added control options for its portfolio of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with a new plug-in for Elgato’s Stream Deck family of controllers. This integration simplifies live production workflows and enables users to make precise camera movements and adjustments. Elgato’s Stream Deck controllers combine precise tactile control with drag-and-drop setup, numerous customization options, space-saving form factors and an extensive third-party ecosystem. Telycam’s new Stream Deck plug-in supports a wide range of Elgato models, from the compact Stream Deck Mini to the expansive Stream Deck XL and the rackmount Stream Deck Studio. Designed for simplicity and efficiency, the new Stream Deck plug-in for Telycam PTZ cameras lets users control pan, tilt, zoom, focus and image settings. Functions ranging from PTZ controls, presets and auto-tracking to exposure settings and white balance can be assigned to the customizable LCD buttons on Stream Deck controllers.

❚ telycam.com

Ikegami UHK-X700RF

Sony Electronics PXW-Z300

The PXW-Z300 is a flagship handheld XDCAM camcorder featuring 1/2-inch 4K 3-CMOS Exmor R sensors, the latest BIONZ XR image-processing engine and a dedicated AI-processing unit. The camcorder is equipped with a professional lens system that includes three independent manual control rings. The new camcorder is ideal for a wide range of applications including news, sports, corporate, faith, events, documentary, live programming and reality, and is planned to be available by fall.

The PXW-Z300 combines exceptional image quality, a 17x optical zoom lens, and Electronic Variable ND filter with versatile operational capabilities. In addition to high-quality 4K 60p recording, it features AI-powered subject recognition for precise autofocus performance. The camera introduces a new articulating Flexible LCD Arm for adaptable capturing styles and a Side V-Mount that securely attaches smartphones or data transmitters.

❚ https://pro.sony/ue_US/home

DAS/D2D Technologies DAS-Flex

Digital Alert Systems and broadcast streaming processing specialist D2D Technologies have launched DAS-Flex, a combination of both companies’ technologies that creates a unified, resilient broadcast solution. DAS-Flex brings together Digital Alert Systems’ DASDEC-III emergency messaging platform and D2D Technologies’ Flex-series ATSC multiplexer and media keyer in a compact 2RU chassis. This all-in-one emergency alert encoder/decoder, signal switcher, media playout system and ASI-IP bridge reduces the hardware broadcasters require, simplifying workflows.

While purpose-built for U.S. broadcasters and cable operators subject to EAS/CAP mandates, the unit offers a modular design that makes it suitable for a wide range of program-distribution environments.

❚ www.digitalalertsystems.com

The UHK-X700RF wireless portable camera is a new addition to Ikegami’s UNICAM-XE product range with the same feature set, operational ergonomics, compact size and light weight as its wired sister model, UHK-X700. The UHK-X700RF is equipped with a native UHD-sensor (3840 x 2160 pixels) with a global shutter architecture designed to capture natural images even under challenging situations. The wireless camera supports UHD (2160@50 p/59.94 p) and HD (1080@50 p/i, 59.94 p/i) frame rates as a standard feature.

Like all other cameras within the UNICAM-XE family, the UHKX700RF incorporates a dual filter wheel, enabling separate control of incoming light and color temperature. Space is included to mount any desired effect filter or an optical low-pass filter to further reduce aliasing and moiré artifacts. Automatic optical vignetting correction is supported when using OVC-compatible B4 bayonet mount-zoom lenses. ❚ www.ikegami.com

Telestream Vantage AI

Vantage AI is a platform-wide evolution of AI capabilities enabling smarter, faster and more adaptive media workflows from ingest to delivery. Building on Vantage’s ability to automate complex operations, it shows Telestream’s unified approach to AI, letting customers streamline operations, enrich metadata and enhance QC while keeping full control over content, infrastructure and cost predictability. Highlights include: AI-Caption, which generates accurate, multilingual subtitles from audio with options for human-refined or fully automated delivery, preserving timing, readability and cultural nuance; AI-Speech, which creates rich, searchable metadata through transcription, content summarization and sensitive language detection; AI-Qualify, which detects lip sync issues, subtitle overlap and spoken language mismatches—problems often missed by rule-based QC systems; AI-Vision, which detects logos, scene changes and ad break opportunities to automate segmentation and streamline content repackaging; and AI-Workflow, which uses natural language prompts to create media processing workflows, accelerating production cycles while reducing errors. ❚ www.telestream.net

How Calrec Powers the Sound Of Hollywood’s Biggest Night

Paul Sandweiss

Production Sound Mixer/ Audio Director 97th Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES—Working on the 97th Academy Awards this past March as the broadcast mixer inside NEP Denali’s Summit unit was a massive but deeply rewarding undertaking. This is one of the most complex shows on television, a global broadcast with countless moving parts, and the Calrec Apollo is at the center of our workflow.

The routing alone is staggering—it includes international feeds, audience microphones, podiums, RF mics and playback elements from multiple audio and video sources. While the orchestra and live performances are handled in the music truck, those feeds are integrated into our final broadcast mix.

TOTAL RECALL

What made it manageable was the Apollo’s ability to recall last year’s setup with a single press of a button. When I walked in, Hugh Healy, our longtime chief technical engineer, loaded last year’s configuration, giving me a fully mapped session to build on. From there, I could focus on refining, adjusting levels, EQ, panning, reverbs and microphone gains, rather than reinventing the wheel.

The familiarity of the setup was a huge advantage. We’d been in the same venue for years, working with the same Calrec console, the same outboard gear and, most importantly, the same amazing team. Pablo Munguia handles Pro Tools, Biff Dawes

and Tommy Vicari mix the music and orchestra, Patrick Baltzel runs front of house, and Mike Parker and Tom Pesa manage artist monitor mixes. Many of us have been doing this show for decades and that consistency allows us to hit the ground running.

Getting ready for a show of this scale was a finely tuned process, kicking off with two intense days of technical setup, which included wiring the stage, deploying RF systems, assembling the orchestra’s space and ensuring that every microphone and audio feed synced perfectly between us, front of house, monitors and the music truck.

By midweek, rehearsals took center stage, first with standins to nail down timing and

movement, then with the actual performers to perfect everything from traffic flow to camera angles. Friday transformed into “music day,” where the orchestra and performers came together for full run-throughs of every performance. On Saturday, the focus shifted to the presenters, wardrobe checks for RF mic placements and a complete production rehearsal. After a final dress rehearsal on Sunday, the stage was set and we were ready to go live.

It was a far cry from when I first mixed the Oscars in the early ’90s, after working my way up from a maintenance engineer at Wally Heider Recording in the late ’70s. Back then, it was all analog, no Pro Tools, very few RF mics and far less I/O to manage.

The jump to digital has been

transformative. The Calrec Apollo desk handles the insane number of inputs and outputs with ease, and its layers allow me to access everything without taking myself out of the mix sweet spot. I can preview RFs and line up the next act while mixing the current one, which is critical for live television.

WATER-COOLER MOMENTS

Of course, the job isn’t without challenges. Today’s stages generate significant noise from screens, lighting elements and fans, making it harder to maintain a clean, consistent room tone. The proliferation of RF devices requires constant spectrum management. And with streaming shows reducing or eliminating commercial breaks, there’s less time to breathe between acts, which means more operators handling things silently in the background.

But it’s still a thrill. Mixing this show gave me those “watercooler moments,” the great speeches, stunning performances and elegant old-school presentation that make the Oscars special. The technology has evolved, but the goal remains the same: deliver a beautiful, seamless mix for a worldwide audience. After all these years, there’s still nothing like it. ●

Paul Sandweis, who was the production sound mixer and audio director for the 97th Academy Awards, has worked on many previous productions of The Oscars and other high profile productions. He can be reached at paul@ sounddesigncorporation.com.

More information is available at calrec.com.

With the Calrec Apollo desk, I can preview RFs and line up the next act while mixing the current one, which is critical for live television.

equipment guide | audio & intercoms

Migrate Sound Becomes Go-To for Promos With Assist From DaVinci Resolve Studio

USER REPORT

Laurent Jouvin Founder, Sound Designer and Mixer

Migrate Sound

SANTA CLARITA, Calif.

Migrate Sound is a recording and audio postproduction studio specializing in all aspects of audio production, including voiceover, dialogue, group and sound effects recording, sound designing and mixing, remote and on-the-go (OTG) recording, mix to picture (stereo and surround), copywriting, translation and adaptation.

With clients ranging from television and streaming networks to movie studios and advertising agencies, the majority of my projects include radio promos for Fox, Amazon Prime, Hallmark, Audible and more. I produce about 30 to 40 promos per year across a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, reality television and entertainment, or contest-based shows.

Sweeps are a notoriously busy time and as they happen four times a year, efficiency and ways to streamline and advance my workflow are always top of mind. I recently upgraded my studio, migrating from legacy Fairlight to DaVinci Resolve Studio for audio post just in time to tackle Fox’s February sweeps promos, which had me creating numerous radio spots for a variety of shows. Armed with the Fairlight Desktop Audio Editor and Fairlight Console Channel Fader hardware, I went to work.

COMPRESSED VOICEOVER

Having done this for the better part of 30 years, it comes very naturally to me, but the promo is

an art that requires fine instincts and the ability to condense an entire episode of a show into 30 seconds. Producing a radio promo means capturing the listener’s attention quickly and delivering a clear, compelling message within a very short time frame, all while maintaining high audio quality and adhering to branding guidelines.

Trying to fit the entire message into less than 30 seconds gets very tricky. The network gives us creative mandates, which include phrases that cannot be cut no matter what.

DaVinci Resolve Studio’s ability to time-compress voiceover bits and soundbites from a show is a godsend. It’s done on the fly, it’s very fast and accurate and it doesn’t require the need to create a new clip.

DaVinci Resolve Studio’s AI-based noise reduction and voice isolation tools are like magic wands. Sound bites from TV shows can sometimes be noisy; with outdoor scenes comes background noise. While it makes sense on television because the visuals are there, it’s just confusing when used

for radio. Though I’ve gotten rather skilled at filtering out distracting noises manually, the voice-isolation tools have made my job so much easier.

I was a bit hesitant to upgrade my studio as my original Fairlight system was still working great, so why rush? But I realized that staying up to date with technology is crucial for my business, or any business for that matter. I wanted to make sure my studio had the latest equipment, features and compatibility within our industry, so I can deliver to my clients and stay competitive.

As a business owner, a studio upgrade needs to deliver a return on investment and give me peace of mind that it’ll start up in the morning. I don’t have the luxury of moving to another room when there’s a problem with the one I’m working in. If my studio is down, my business is down. So, the most important thing to me is reliability and support, which comes seamlessly with Blackmagic Design. ●

Laurent Jouvin is founder, sound designer and mixer for Migrate Sound, a recording and audio postproduction studio specializing in audio production, including voiceover, dialogue, group and sound effects recording, sound designing and mixing, remote and on-the-go (OTG) recording, mix to picture (stereo and surround), copywriting, translation and adaptation. He can be reached at laurent@migratesound.com More information about Migrate Sound is available at migratesound.com

For more information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

I recently upgraded my studio, migrating to DaVinci Resolve Studio for audio post just in time to tackle radio promos for Fox.

Audinate Group Dante AVIO Install Adapters

Tailored for the Pro AV market, the Dante AVIO Install series of adapters are available in 2-channel analog input and output versions and designed for seamless integration into installed Dante-enabled systems.

With Euroblock connectors, installationfriendly mounting options and excellent audio performance, these adapters empower installers to deploy high-quality audio systems with confidence and ease. In addition, the Dante AVIO Install series of adapters are designed to bridge the gap between analog audio equipment and Dante-enabled systems, ensuring effortless interoperability, scalability and high performance. The compact, powerover-Ethernet (PoE)-powered devices offer sample rates of up to 96 kHz, 24-bit audio resolution, and ultra-low latency for crystalclear sound quality.

www.audinate.com

NUGEN Audio DialogCheck

DialogCheck is a real-time dialogue clarity metering plug-in designed for use in film, TV/radio, streaming, podcasting and game audio production. The latest solution objectively measures how intelligible the speech within a mix is, offering clear insight into how understandable dialogue will be for real-world audiences regardless of playback environment or listener attention.

DialogCheck features more than a dozen interface tools aimed at supporting engineers, such as a real-time bar meter, historical graph, statistical readouts and distribution view, which help identify and address areas where dialogue may be unclear. At its core is Fraunhofer IDMT’s Listening Effort Meter, a validated algorithm that assesses intelligibility using speech recognition and psychoacoustic modeling. By visualizing listening effort, it enables more informed mixing and postmix evaluation. www.nugenaudio.com

Clear-Com

Arcadia Central Station

New software updates for the Arcadia Central Station include support for the full Clear-Com product ecosystem, enabling connectivity across Clear-Com products as well as thirdparty Dante/AES67 devices. The latest enhancements include support for V-Series IrisX Panels and flexible port allocation. Users can now connect up to 32 V-Series IrisX panels directly to Arcadia, enabling high-density keypanel workflows traditionally reserved for expensive and complex matrix systems. Port allocation flexibility also lets operators balance HelixNet digital party line and I.V. Direct connections as needed, for the flexibility to suit almost any workflow.

Arcadia’s robust architecture supports nearly any operating environment, on analog XLR, IP networks, or fiber, and accommodates wireless across 1.9-GHz, 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz spectrums.

www.clearcom.com

Studio Technologies Model 348 Intercom Station

The Model 348 Intercom Station is a desktop unit that serves as an audio control center for production personnel for over-the-air and streaming applications, including live sports, news and entertainment events. It provides eight independent talk and listen channels compatible with Dante audio-over-Ethernet networking technology.

The unit supports connection of a gooseneck microphone as well as a broadcast- or intercom-style headset that uses a dynamic or electret (DC-powered) microphone. For flexibility, both 5-pin female XLR and 3.5-mm TRRS connectors are provided. The Model 348’s channels can be part of virtual party lines (created using compatible digital matrix devices) or used directly in point-to-point intercom implementations. It can be used locally or as part of a remote production workflow.

www.studio-tech.com

equipment guide | audio

CineLive Taps Lawo mc²56 Console for Immersive Audio

USER REPORT

Zack Pittman Founder/CEO CineLive

ROWLETT, Texas—Specializing in high-end events, CineLive covers everything from multicam live music shows to one-day events for Netflix Live, Amazon Music, etc., and “the three-letter networks,” to red carpets for big film studios, captures for theaters, corporate as well as creative YouTube events in cinematic 4K HDR and immersive audio.

We designed the audio suite of our truck to be flexible for typical broadcast applications, multicam shoots, corporate events, etc., and there is absolutely nothing that our Lawo mc²-based mixing system cannot do. It is part of the HOME platform that sits at the heart of our infrastructure.

LICENSED FOR 256 CHANNELS

Every freelance engineer who sits down at our mc²56 desk acknowledges that it sounds superior, even for the simplest of shows, like stand-up comedy with audience mics. We recently had our lowest channel count ever, with 20 channels for a movie release. In this high-value project, everything had to shine, and we delivered. For festival shoots, on the other hand, we often use 18 cameras and 196 audio channels.

We’re licensed for 256 audio channels and occasionally add temporary licenses for larger projects. Although we have a 7.1.4-capable audio suite in our truck, stereo and 5.1 still make up the bulk of our projects. My team and I took a mere two weeks to

master the mc²56 console, as its layout is highly intuitive.

While making our decision on whose audio platform to adopt, we kept looking at the bigger picture, knowing that someone else would be sitting at the console for each project. We decided against a console from a brand that supplies most OB trucks in the United States, even though some people told us that this would make it more difficult to find freelancers.

Luckily, the number of people who want to learn to work with a Lawo console has grown exponentially. Additionally, none of our clients ever objected to our console.

Before we decided on the mc²56, we A/B’d several brands that used exactly the same signals and the sonic difference was obvious. The preamps are superb and our A__UHD Core DSP infrastructure is deep and complex, yet intuitive. We use two of them for full redundancy to eliminate

any single point of failure.

We’ve also begun using the Lawo VSC software to record Ravenna streams directly to ProTools on our two Macs. Our inputs and outputs are provided by two Power Cores and a bunch of A__stage stageboxes. One Power Core is used for all analog I/O signals inside the truck, which are broken out to patchbays, as these are still mandatory for some customers.

The other Power Core is equipped with four Dante cards for our outboard equipment.

My advice to other users would be to stop clinging to the misconception that Lawo consoles are only for entertainment—we use our mc²56 for everything we do.

IMMERSIVE AUDIO

Some people think Lawo is expensive, yet for smaller outfits like CineLive, consoles from other brands cost either the same or substantially more. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t listen to the nay-

sayers: We are immensely happy with our mc²56, whose specifications and price are difficult to match. It allows us to deliver 96-kilohertz immersive audio at a highly competitive price.

Lawo immediately understood our vision for the first CineLive truck, and Tony Staires and the team were there throughout the whole process, encouraging me to take our project to the next level.

If someone tells you that something cannot be done with a Lawo console, question and doubt them, and remember that the service we receive from Lawo is simply outstanding. I have been in the business long enough to know that this is a major pro. ●

Zack Pittman, the founder and CEO of CineLive, can be reached at zack@cine.live and at 615-2859225.

More information is available at lawo.com

Lawo’s mc²-based mixing system is part of the HOME platform that sits at the heart of our mobile truck’s infrastructure.

How Riedel Bolero Changed The Way We Work on Set

USER REPORT

Craig Kief ASC, Co-founder State Media

LOS ANGELES—My company, State Media, specializes in Bolero system rentals and sales that are highly curated to the scripted film and TV, commercial, music video and documentary spaces.

For many years as a cinematographer working in scripted film, television and commercials, I worked in a niche of the entertainment industry dominated by walkies. Yet, I always found the most natural way of communicating with my department heads and sharing information, which is vital to the quality and efficiency of our work, was twoway communication.

Unfortunately, the systems we were using were limited to one, and at best two, party lines with uncomfortable headsets. Those headsets added wires to what they already wore between the walkies, which we still had to carry, and the Comtek receivers for program feed (the audio mix from the sound department, often referred to as “program audio” in other areas of production). I felt terrible having to make them wear these things and listen to lots of voices that they didn’t need to hear on a busy set.

FIRST IN NORTH AMERICA

Thankfully, I learned about Riedel’s Bolero intercom system shortly after it came out, and I wound up becoming the first person in North American scripted film and TV to buy a system. Our community had no idea Riedel existed—and Bolero

solved a number of problems we had with the systems we’d been using. With access to up to seven party lines on a belt pack, it meant that we could divide conversations up in smart ways to keep unnecessary voices out of people’s heads and share information easily when it was relevant.

For example, with a party line dedicated to the “A camera” crew, we can let the camera operator, first AC and dolly grip talk as much as they want, both in rehearsal and during a take if on the fly changes are needed to save the shot—all without anyone else having to listen to them and be distracted from their own work.

However, the biggest gamechanger for my crew has been the ability to use lightweight, comfortable, wireless Bluetooth earpieces and the integration of walkie channels into Bolero. Our shoot days are usually at least 12 hours long, and any extra ounce, slight discomfort or extra wire

adds up over time to the body. In addition, the ability to integrate program feed, “voice of god” (a term for the director or AD speaking to the crew over a loudspeaker or intercom) and the ability to integrate the walkie channels into Bolero is a massive relief for the crew. Now they only have to carry one device that can deliver all of their communication needs and it’s completely wireless. My camera, grip and lighting crew heads love being on Bolero. We can’t work without it now.

MANY MICROEFFICIENCIES

We purchased our first Bolero system purely for me and my crew to use, regardless of whether we would ever turn a profit. It was a tool that would allow us to do our jobs better. And then, by accident, it became a comms rental business in the pandemic. Since then, as more and more people became aware of the power of the system in our cinema style of production, it’s

become very commonplace. Producers who experience a crew on Bolero for the first time love it, too, because they quickly see how hundreds of microefficiencies accumulated throughout the day more than make up for the cost of the system’s rental. Directors love it because the most limiting thing for them is time and Bolero gives them more of that. ●

Craig Kief, ASC, co-founder of State Media, is a cinematographer whose work includes television series, feature films, commercials and music videos, as well as live music and comedy specials. State Media specializes in Bolero system rentals and sales that are highly curated to the scripted film and TV, commercial, music video and documentary spaces. He can be reached at statemediaservices@gmail.com and at www.statemediaservices.com.

For more information, visit www.riedel.net/en/.

The Bolero intercom system produces hundreds of microefficiencies that more than make up for the cost of the system’s rental.

BestAudio.com Relies on Pliant For Comfortable Comms

USER REPORT

Peter Erskine Freelance Audio Engineer

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y.—In my line of work, whether it’s eSports tournaments, televised boxing, high-stakes upfronts or massive events like Formula One, flawless communication isn’t optional, it’s critical. Over the years, I’ve used a variety of Pliant Technologies wireless intercom systems and headsets on a range of projects. The Pliant gear has become a goto for me, thanks to its clarity, comfort and adaptability across a variety of production environments.

I first discovered Pliant’s lightweight IEHU In-Ear Universal Fit Headset at NAB Show New York and started using it right away. The thing that really sold me was its incredible comfort, as I wear it all day and hardly notice it’s there.

CUSTOMIZED COMFORT

I had the custom ear molds made by my audiologist and sent them to custom ear-mold manufacturer Coda Room Custom Audio. I ordered one for each ear, in red and green. I switch ears throughout the day to combat listening fatigue, especially on marathon productions. It’s a small touch, but one that makes a big difference when you’re doing this for a living. The color coding ensures that I have the right one in the right ear, with no guesswork.

What I also love is how discreet and effective it is. The noise-canceling mic performs really well in loud settings,

and the headset connects via a single wire with a four-pin (or five-pin) connector. I’ve never needed or wanted to use anything bulkier since.

As a freelance audio engineer, I work with various manufacturers’ gear, as I am typically called into established workflows. The great thing about the Pliant In-Ear Universal Fit Headset is that it works with most industry-standard intercom beltpacks, and I bring it with me to every job.

I use the Pliant headset on just about everything— eSports shows around North America, televised boxing events and network upfronts, which are surprisingly complex productions packed into just 90 minutes.

On top of range and reliabil-

ity, I also require gear that can withstand long, intense days. I’m usually on comms from 7 a.m. to midnight. Even the best headset can cause fatigue after a while, especially the over-ear models I used to use.

I liked the Pliant headset so much that I bought three more and gave them to crew members as gifts. They’d always say, “Man, I wish I had one of those.” Now they do. (I told them they’d have to get their own molds, though!)

At the end of the day, a headset should be simple: It should sound good, feel good and stay out of your way. That’s what I get from Pliant. Whether it’s the MicroCom XR wireless intercom system or the Pliant In-Ear Universal Fit Headset, the company’s products are always dependable.

And when something works this well, you stick with it.

EXTENDED COVERAGE

I’ve worked in some pretty unconventional setups. One production in particular involved a show taped inside someone’s private house. The production truck was stationed more than 600 feet away, which posed a huge challenge for comms. A main benefit of Pliant is that the antennas are removable, so I was able to use a directional antenna on each side of that 600 feet to extend the coverage.

Pliant’s MicroCom XR system was deployed for this project, and because it has a wide range and multiple modes of operation, we were able to achieve the coverage we required from the house to the truck and all areas in between. We had a solid signal all the way back to the compound, and that kind of flexibility in the field makes a huge difference.

With Pliant, you get scalability, flexibility and modern features that work just as well for small gigs as they do for large-scale events. It’s a smart investment for any rental company. ●

Peter Erskine is a freelance audio and RF coordinator with decades of experience in live broadcast, sports and event production. He runs BestAudio. com and co-founded the Practical Show Tech webinar series, helping professionals stay informed on evolving comms and production technologies. He can be reached at peter@bestaudio.com

More information is available at plianttechnologies.com.

I bring the Pliant In-Ear Universal Fit Headset with me to every job.

DPA Microphones 4061 CORE+ Lavalier Microphone

DPA recently updated its line of miniature microphones to include its new CORE+ by DPA technology. Among these is the 4061 CORE+ Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone, designed for applications requiring discreet microphone placement. With DPA’s CORE+ technology, the 4061 neutralizes distortion across the entire dynamic range of the microphone, virtually eliminating nonlinear artifacts.

equipment guide | audio & intercoms

Wheatstone Virtual Strata Mixer

CORE+ provides a new level of pure, clean audio, whether recording or amplifying content, and is beneficial in unpredictable live environments with multiple mics or when the talent speaks at louder volumes. Additionally, it enhances the transparency of the entire sound image to provide more creative freedom. The 4061 CORE+ also features DPA’s new MicroLock connector, which has a newly engineered locking mechanism that offers flexibility, reliability and durability. www.dpamicrophones.com

Telos Alliance Telos Infinity VIP

The Telos Infinity VIP virtualized intercom system enables TV producers, technicians, and field operators to extend intercom capabilities to reporters, producers and remote talent, with stunning, crystal-clear audio supplied by built-in fourwire Cloud-to-Cloud and Cloud-to-Ground interconnectivity using the onboard VIP Infinity Link VoIP codec. Infinity Link supports NDI V5.5 and higher, as well as variable bitrate OPUS and Unicast AES67.

Infinity VIP extends stations’ existing AES67 or SMPTE 2110-30 compatible intercom systems outside the studio to smartphones, tablets and computers with standard HTML5-capable browsers and the dedicated Infinity VIP App for Android and iOS devices. www.telosalliance.com

Sennheiser MKH 8018

The MKH 8018 stereo shotgun RF-condenser microphone delivers a rich sense of directionality and spatial realism. It features three switchable stereo-modes—MS, XY-narrow and XY-wide—along with a push-pull transducer design. In combination with a low-tension diaphragm, this transducer design delivers remarkable sensitivity and wide frequency response, tocapture sound as authentically as possible.

Key features include: stereo shotgun capsule configuration, which captures sound with an immersive sense of directionality and spatial realism, capturing film and video production with a sense of directionality; stereo soundscapes during screenplay scenes, sporting events and spatially accurate environmental sounds, wildlife and more; switchable low-cut filter (-3 dB at 70 Hz) reduces wind and handling noise; highquality -10 dB pad that protects against overdriving and is ideal for camera mounting due to compact design; identical timbre to other 8000 series microphones for optimum aural compatibility; and more. www.sennheiser.com

Wheatstone’s Virtual Strata provides the same intuitive controls as a Strata fixed mixing console, but in a fully virtual, multitouch interface accessible from any touchscreen or laptop. Virtual Strata’ 64-channel touchscreen console provides direct connectivity into major production automation systems for a fully integrated user experience between automation and console functions. This virtual mixer is full-featured with all the mix-minus, automixing, control and routing features needed for managing audio productions independently.

AES67/SMPTE 2110 compatible and WheatNet IP audio networked, this virtual mixer has all the easy navigation and functions of a professional mixing desk, including familiar buttons, knobs and multitouch menuing for adjusting EQ curves, filtering and other custom settings.

www.wheatstone.com

INTERRA Systems BATON Captions

Designed for broadcasters and media professionals, BATON Captions is a premier solution for flawless captions and audio compliance that streamlines everything from caption generation to QC, automating caption correction, subtitling, review, regeneration and editing. Using advanced machine learning and automatic speech recognition (ASR), BATON Captions ensures precise captioning every time. The cutting-edge Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology optimizes line breaks and segmentation, delivering a seamless viewing experience. With BATON Captions, media companies can significantly speed up the caption generation, QC, and verification processes for both live and on-demand content.

BATON Captions identifies and reports any inaccuracies in captions and audio, along with compliance issues, giving broadcasters automated options for precise alignment and text corrections. BATON Captions can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, catering to the specific needs of an organization. www.interrasystems.com

people on the move

SBE

Kevin Trueblood has been elected as president of the national board of directors of Society of Broadcast Engineers. An SBE member since 2008 and formerly the board’s vice president, Trueblood, CBRE, CBNT, of Chapter 90 Southwest Florida, was elected for a one-year term, which will begin Sept. 25 at the SBE national meeting. He succeeds Ted D. Hand, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, ATSC3, DRB, of Chapter 45 Charlotte, who will serve as immediate past president.

SINCLAIR

Sinclair has named Billy Robbins as vice president of station sales operations, a newly created role. He will help lead the day-to-day sales efforts of AMP Sales and Marketing Solutions, the company’s ad-sales unit, across Sinclair’s broadcast stations to drive growth, improve efficiency and streamline operations. He will report to Sinclair senior VP and chief revenue officer Ryan Moore. Robbins most recently was VP and general manager of Sinclair’s Baltimore stations, WBFF/WNUV/WBFF.

AMAGI

Sangeeta Chakraborty has been named chief revenue officer at Amagi, a cloud-based softwareas-a-service (SaaS) technology provider for broadcast and streaming TV. Chakraborty, who will be based in the San Francisco Bay area, will lead all global goto-market functions, including sales, customer success, marketing, services and operations, Amagi said. Chakrartody comes from visual collaboration platform Miro, where she was chief revenue officer.

DPA MICROPHONES

Chris Kontopanos has joined DPA Micropones as its new regional sales manager, Mid-Atlantic. The 30-year industry veteran will oversee sales of DPA Microphones, Austrian Audio and Wisycom products in Washington, D.C., Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Eastern Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Kontopanos joins DPA from Digital Video Group, where he served as its senior broadcast account manager.