TVTech 503 - November 2024

Welcome to the November 2024 issue of

I T ’ S A L L I N W H E AT N E T- I P

THE INTELLIGENT NETWORK

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Environmental Spotlight

GREEN GOALS Promoting sustainability in Media & Entertainment

equipment guide test/qc & signal monitoring/ video monitors

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contents

November 2024 volumn 42, issue 11

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For M&E, Saving Money While Saving the Environment Is Not Either/Or

Raising awereness is almost as challenging as adopting sustainable practices

By Phil Rhodes

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FAST, AVOD Driving New Ad Tech Options

The challenge of matching viewers with the right ads

By Dave Cohen

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Five Years Later, Has 5G Lived Up to Its Promise?

The high-speed connectivity standard continues to drive change in live production

By James E. O’Neal

20 AI Technologies Weren’t

equipment guide

Born Yesterday

AI has been a source of speculation, observation (and entertainment) for more than a century

By Karl Paulsen

22 TV’s Persistent Sound

Issues Aren’t Fading Away

It’s time for action on shaky home setups, keeping voices in sync and better sound standards

By Dennis Baxter

24 Meeting the Challenge of

Sustainable Transmission

Reaching indoor antennas requires more power, offsetting efficiency gains made by today’s solid-state technology

By Doug Lung

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user reports test/qc & signal monitoring/ video monitors

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• TAG Video Systems • Actus Digital

in the news

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eye on tech

34

people

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ATSC 3.0’s Evolving Role in Emergencies As residents of the southeastern U.S. recover from the one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we’re reminded of the vital role broadcasters play in keeping residents informed of the latest forecasts, evacuation routes and government resources available to them.

For today’s consumer, who relies mostly on their mobile device for the latest news and information, the evidence that cellular systems continue to come up short when surviving the elements of hurricanes is obvious. In North Carolina—the state hardest hit by Helene—for example, nearly 80% of cell sites were out of service immediately following Helene.

Avid readers of this magazine are well aware of the advantage broadcasters have when it comes to providing reliable communications during natural disasters so we won’t repeat them here. And while the broadcast infrastructure is far more secure than cellular, it’s safe to say that residents in the hurricanes’ paths (tried to) rely more on their mobile devices than their TV sets to get the latest news updates (until the cell networks went down).

What role does NextGen TV play then? While TV stations that have deployed 3.0 are slowly rolling out new services such as on-demand and 4K/HDR, the additional features that make EAS so much more compelling are still in development and are not yet widely deployed. And until NextGen TV can find a pathway to mobile devices in the U.S., broadcasters’ emergency alerting capabilities will continue to be mainly restricted to the TV set in the home (which becomes useless when the power goes out).

However, 3.0 is helping to advance emergency services behind the scenes. In a project initiated by PBS North Carolina, a proposal to use 3.0 to provide a text-based Device Solutions’ in North Carolina protocol that would provide instant alerts to first has developed a handheld ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast paging receiver to responders’ pagers and help reduce delays in providing receive emergency communications follow up alerts has received widespread praise and data via ATSC 3.0 public TV broadcast industry recognition and is currently undergoing testing. transmission towers.

So while more than 75% of U.S. households are now within reach of a NextGen TV signal, most of the services and features that distinguish the standard from its predecessor have yet to be widely deployed. However, like the recent interest in using 3.0 as a backup to GPS (the “Broadcast Positioning System”) as well as the developments in using it to help first responders better communicate during emergencies, we continue to see how 3.0 is being used in ways we may not have considered when it was first conceived.

Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com

Mike Demenchuk Joins the TV Tech Team!

Credit: Device Solutions

The TV Tech family keeps on growing! This month, we welcome Mike Demenchuk as the new content manager of TV Tech, taking on that role after serving as content manager of Broadcasting+Cable and

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Multichannel News since 2017. Mike joined the staff of Multichannel News in 1999 as assistant managing editor and had served as the cable trade publication’s managing editor since 2005.

Welcome aboard Mike!

Vol. 42 No. 11 | November 2024 FOLLOW US

www.tvtech.com x.com/tvtechnology CONTENT Content Director Tom Butts, tom.butts@futurenet.com Content Manager Michael Demenchuk, michael.demenchuk@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer George Winslow, george.winslow@futurenet.com Contributors: Gary Arlen, James Careless, Fred Dawson, Kevin Hilton, Craig Johnston, Phil Rhodes and Mark R. Smith Production Managers: Heather Tatrow, Nicole Schilling Art Directors: Cliff Newman, Steven Mumby ADVERTISING SALES Managing Vice President of Sales, B2B Tech Adam Goldstein, adam.goldstein@futurenet.com Publisher, TV Tech/TVBEurope Joe Palombo, joseph.palombo@futurenet.com SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE To subscribe, change your address, or check on your current account status, go to www.tvtechnology.com and click on About Us, email futureplc@computerfulfillment.com, call 888-266-5828, or write P.O. Box 8692, Lowell, MA 01853.

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in the news

Michael Malone, Long-Time ‘B+C’ Editor and Reporter, Dies at 55 Michael Malone, a long-time reporter, editor and content director at TV Tech sister brands Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and NextTV, died Oct. 19 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after a long illness, surrounded by friends and family.

Malone, 55, joined B+C in 2005 as deputy editor, covering the local TV station beat. He later became B+C’s programming editor. He was named content director of the three Future Media & Entertainment titles earlier this year and led the brands until they ceased publication on Sept. 30.

A five-time finalist for the Jesse H. Neal Award for excellence in journalism, in addition to his day-to-day coverage Malone wrote B+C’s “Local News Close-Up” profiles and hosted the podcasts “Busted Pilot” and “Series Business.” The Hawthorne, New York, resident and 1991 graduate of The University of Rhode Island was also a prolific freelance writer, with bylines in publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and New York.

He was an active member of the Television Critics Association and attended numerous TCA critics tours. A talented, creative and witty writer, in addition to his 20 years at Broadcasting+Cable and his other journalistic pursuits, Malone also had a handful of published books under his belt.

Malone was born in New Jersey on Sept. 3, 1969. He is survived by his wife, Susan, his two children, Gavin and Charlotte, his mother, Shelly Malone, sisters and brothers-in-law Nancy and Jim Dempsey, Kate and Brian Burke, Eileen and Jim Baker, and eight nieces and nephews.

He was also fondly remembered by colleagues. “Mike Malone was a gift to the newsroom,” Mark Robichaux, former editor-in-chief of B+C and Multichannel News. “His relentlessly dry wit and lively writing fueled his colleagues, and his recent rise to editor, a role he so richly deserved. His loss is heartbreaking to all of us who knew him, but his legacy lives on in the stories he told and the lives he touched.” ❚M ❚ ichael Demenchuk

Credit: Future; NAB Show

Sinclair, Nebraska Public Media Launch Free Virtual Channel Hosting in ATSC 3.0 In an important milestone in the rollout of new streaming services and programming for connected TVs using NextGen TV, Sinclair and Nebraska Public Media have announced the launch of the first free “Broadcast-Enabled Streaming TV” (BEST) Channel in Omaha, Neb. As a result of the launch, Nebraska Public Media’s PBS and local programming is now hosted on KPTM, Sinclair’s Fox affiliate in Omaha, as a free, virtual channel in addition to its other programming offerings. Nebraska Public Media’s virtual channel delivers programming in high dynamic range (SL-HDR1), significantly enhancing video quality for viewers.

BEST channels are transmissions that provide programming directly over-the-air to smart TVs using the NextGen broadcast data channel capacity of a host broadcaster.

Viewers with NextGen TVs can view and se-

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lect the channel in their programming guide and access the channel seamlessly over the internet.

The launch builds on the March announcement by Sinclair and America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) that Sinclair would provide carriage of APTS member stations for free in markets where Sinclair has deployed NextGen Broadcast Service (ATSC 3.0) and a public television station has not.

The launch in Omaha is the first under this arrangement, which will help public stations roll out NextGen TV services. “We are proud to be the vanguard in offering this unique service to our Omaha viewers,” Peter Clowney, chief operating officer for Nebraska Public Media, said. “Our partnership with KPTM will help ‘prime the pump’ for full NextGen Broadcast Service as the national rollout of this technology continues.”

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❚ George Winslow

NAB Show New York Attendance Tops 12K The 2024 NAB Show New York wrapped up on Oct. 10, with the NAB reporting that the two-day event attracted more than 12,000 attendees, some 250 exhibitors, 50 of which are first-timers, and 20 new product launches. The numbers were similar to the 2023 show, which attracted 12,231.

Held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Show’s Q4 timing provided a pivotal opportunity for professionals to explore end-of-year purchases and prepare strategic decisions for 2025, organizers said.

NAB Show New York continued to attract growing enterprise audiences, including government agencies, higher education, finance and more, the NAB said.

“NAB Show New York is where professionals across all industries come to connect, explore new technologies and make key business decisions,” said Karen Chupka, executive vice president and managing director of NAB Global Connections and Events. “With Q4 being such a critical buying season, this event allows attendees to finalize their budgets and set the stage for 2025. Our exhibitors provided the tools and solutions that will shape content creation, distribution and monetization in the coming year.”

The 2025 NAB Show New York will take place at the Javits Center, Oct 22-23. ❚ Tom Butts

in the news OPINION

Credit: Getty Images; Stainless

The Wisdom Of Having Multiple Layers couldn’t help but think back to Back in the early 1980s when I the FCC panel put together in the started my career, I worked for a aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, publisher who was fond of telling terror attack, which among other potential advertisers that it didn’t things took down the broadcast make sense to carpet the same tower atop the North Tower. room twice.

One key point of the panel was His point: all things being equal, that the presence of multiple buying ads in two or more magalayers of mass communication zines targeting the same audience in New York City—TV and radio was wasteful. In many ways, his broadcasters on other towers, caargument was logical.

Phil Kurz ble TV and satellite TV—ensured But that’s not always the local residents could continue to receive news case. Often, multiple layers actually come in and emergency information despite the loss handy. Just ask anyone who works outside for of the broadcast tower. a living, a skydiver or even an astronaut. In I also couldn’t help but think about the DTV certain situations, having multiple, redundant tuner mandate that originally excluded smaller layers can mean the difference between pain sets, but later was revised after Hurricane and comfort or even life and death.

Katrina when a post-hurricane investigation Or ask Dan Gitro, an amateur radio operator by the agency revealed just how important in Mooresville, N.C. For his article “How old portable TV sets were in helping the public tech is being used to remotely help in wake of stay informed following the disaster.

Helene,” QCNews.com reporter Steward PittSo here we are again. While cellular crews man asked Gitro why ham radio is important in today’s modern world of communications.

“The key difference is technology fails, and we have seen that in this situation,” Pittman quotes Gitro as saying about the role of amateur radio.

Gitro and fellow ham radio operators stepped up in a big way in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, relaying vital information and messages to loved ones from family members in areas stripped of cell service. work to restore service in hard-hit areas, Even as Elon Musk was preparing to step amateur radio operators—some transmitting into the breech with Starlink service to help, and others receiving and relaying vital inforham radio operators were on the air doing all mation—stepped up with “old tech” to make they could to assist. a difference.

Why bring this up to readers in the teleI wonder what other “old tech” in new vision industry? Besides the fact that many clothing might one day help millions upon TV engineers are amateur radio operators millions of people with mobile phones receive themselves, the real reason speaks to the life-saving information in an emergency— importance of layers in communications. even when the cell networks go down.

Reading about the ham radio operators, I

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Stainless Will Cease Operations Stainless, which has provided towers and structures for thousands of broadcasters and other businesses since 1947, will cease operations.

President Gregg Fehrman said parent company FDH Infrastructure Services has decided to discontinue the brand, which it acquired nine years ago.

“The company plans to auction off all field equipment. In addition, FDH ownership is looking to sell off all historical data on its projects over 77 years,” he wrote in an email to Radio World.

Fehrman says “60% of the [Stainless] personnel have moved on, with the remainder around until the end of the month.” He said his last day with the company will most likely be in early November.

The company cites its involvement in 15,900 projects spanning from 1947 to the present, covering over 7,250 Stainless-built structures and more than 900 towers built by others.

In the email to its customers announcing the decision to cease operations, Stainless says ownership will “sell either copies of the documentation or exclusive rights for the same documentation on each tower number. Information will not be parsed. If copies are requested, the whole file/history will be released for each tower project number. Ownership will also entertain selling all project and standards data together for one purchase price,” the email stated.

Interested parties can reach out to Fehrman at gregg.fehrman@fdh-is.com.

Stainless was founded in 1947 by Walter L. Guzewicz, Henry J. Guzewicz and Richard J. Eberle, according to its website, and built its first tower in Philadelphia for radio station WJMU. ❚ Randy J. Stine

cover story

For M&E, Saving Money While Saving The Environment Is Not Either/Or Raising awareness is almost as challenging as adopting sustainable practices

By Phil Rhodes

It’s easy to get the impression that the film and television industry has largely picked the low-hanging fruit of sustainability.

LED lighting is both an environmental and a financial boon: reduced trucking, crew, generator and fuel costs have never been a hard sell to line producers. Moving beyond that, though, takes new ideas—especially given the current economic circumstances.

People at every level of production have their part to play, but those who make a living hauling lights around back lots are often aware that the ability to have nice things comes from the very top.

Matt Rivet, partner at Altman Solon, a consultancy focused on media and tech, works with corporates—from studios to broadcast and cable networks to streaming services—and all the tech that supports them. He also supports investors in media companies and assesses the commercial merits of said investments.

“Generally speaking, I think there’s a shift toward sustainability, broadly," Rivet says.

“The most obvious place that everyone goes is energy consumption. It feels like it’s a place where there is a very obvious way—quick wins is where it’s at. The other things are waste, water, how you buy, where you buy from.”

Taking popular new ideas and making them part of the solution can help take the sting out of change, Rivet adds. “One of the things we highlight in our report is travel mileage.

Virtual production can potentially be one of those things that helps reduce the amount of travel that needs to be done.”

15-25% less emissions.” The embodied carbon of a high-end virtual production stage, of course, is far from zero, but it can be amortized over multiple productions.

The hugely varied tasks required of film and television production have always made coordination difficult.

“Media and entertainment is inherently disparate,” Rivet Matt Rivet reflects. “People are going to various places doing various things, and it’s hard to consolidate. We’d love to, but it’s just not practical … in our data, there’s a lack of awareness of benefits of sustainability.

Sixty-eight percent of folks said that’s why they hadn’t prioritized sustainability. Fiftysix percent said there was not enough of an incentive, or high up-front costs.”

“Media and entertainment doesn’t have to be a first adopter,” Rivet points out. “Other industries will go there. The future here will likely be some level of moderate change over

some period of time.”

Even so, that time may not be now or next week.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that M&E companies are under a lot of financial stress," Rivet says. “They’re looking for opportunities to improve efficiency and save on their cost basis. And I do believe, if you model it out, there’s a long-term benefit for sustainability because it will create some savings. The push and pull is that they can be interested in doing those things, but they have to balance that against the realities of operating their business.”

THE BUY-IN Ben Stapleton, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council California, has seen firsthand how critical boardroom-level support can be. Even with that support, Stapleton counsels that getting the most from any sustainability initiative often means more than

VIRTUALLY OBVIOUS Sony Pictures, Rivet relates, has run the numbers on at least one kind of production.

“This is not analysis we did—it’s Sony Pictures’ Greener World initiative,” he says.

“They compared two productions with scenes that were shot on location and in a VP studio.

“The comparison in terms of the overall emissions was quite stark. I don’t know the exact numbers but it was something like

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According to a recent survey from Altman Solon, energy consumption and types of energy and water consumption were the top sustainability concerns among M&E companies.

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cover story a simple equipment exchange.

“It’s about working these ideas into the production from the beginning, not as an afterthought,” he says. Generators are an example … people use generators and run cables, it’s expensive and dangerous and creates a bunch of carbon. You can just distribute the power into smaller batteries all around the production, save money on wiring and have a safer set.”

Broadening the scope of sustainability efforts beyond energy doesn’t necessarily mean they need to become expensive, Stapleton continues.

One concept involves direct reuse of resources such as the lumber used to create often short-lived sets.

“Waste is clearly an important area," Stapleton says. “How do you approach material reuse, prop reuse? It’s not just creating new props and backgrounds. There’s a ton of waste that comes out of that process—how is that waste managed? Yes, it is a sustainability principle to figure out how we can reuse, but it’s also going to be cheaper to reuse.”

Again, though, the imperative to make that happen needs support throughout the organization. “Part of the challenge is—let’s say—you’re someone who’s managing the set design and the props,” Stapleton adds. “If you don’t have buy-in from the person who’s handling the financial and operations side, they’ll come to you and be like: ‘What are you doing here? That’s not how we handle things.’

If people have been [trained] and understand why these decisions need to be made, they can approach it differently. It doesn’t add cost and delay.”

Credit: Sony

MOVING TO THE GRID Mark Thornton, a London-based lighting technician, has enough experience at the sharp end of film production to put him in a good position to assess new ideas. The knowledge that electric mains flow beneath most city streets—often just feet away, but inaccessible—led Thornton to get involved in a project to provide access to that power at key locations.

“I was contacted by Film London who were talking about putting this mains post into Victoria Park,” Thornton recalls. “They’d already done most of the work on it, so I got involved in a consultation group and said the place where it is is brilliant, but here’s some suggestions for the box itself. I suggested a few ideas of how to manage it, being a remote location away from Film London’s base and not something they’d normally do.”

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Virtual production has often been cited as among the “greenest” technologies for broadcasters and studios.

Power drawn from the grid will usually be cleaner—and certainly quieter—than power that is generated on-site.

“That was the whole point of it being at Victoria Park,” Thornton adds. “They had a lot of fairgrounds and live events, concerts.

They were trying to make sure people were able to use the post—actually it’s a rather large box—rather than bring in generators. The issue is not only sustainability and environmental

“M&E companies are under a lot of financial stress. They’re looking for opportunities to improve efficiency and save on their cost basis.”

MATT RIVET, ALTMAN SOLON

impact, it’s also noise. Even when we go on the route of having battery generators, we have to charge them somewhere. The idea is that a production could go to Film London and say, ‘We have a 25kW battery pack that we’d like to charge up on a regular basis’ and it’d be up to them to charge a cost.”

RULES IN THE WAY That sort of idea requires no new technology and comparatively little investment; as so often, the barriers are administrative. Here, Thornton refers to another idea that seems to combine high

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utility with low inconvenience, but which has found itself enmeshed in red tape.

“One of the ideas is that we get access to EV charging points. There is a company that makes towable batteries … they use the Tesla power packs and the brains so they can go and use the Tesla supercharger—but if you do that in central London, it doesn’t have a [license plate], so it doesn’t have an account.

“It’s the rules that seem to be getting in the way,” Thornton muses. “The infrastructure is technically possible but there’s someone with a pen somewhere who says you can’t do that. As an industry, we’re doing pretty well, moving toward LED light sources. The physics is not going to change, but if you look at the wider country, there’s a lot of renewables, wind power, wave power, as soon as they start phasing out all the natural gas … There’s a really good web site called Gridwatch that I’ve used quite a few times to highlight where the [U.K.'s] energy comes from, and the closer natural gas gets down to zero, the better off the country will be.”

While those big-picture issues are addressed at a societal level, Thornton points out, there are still some very accessible avenues to explore. Particularly, he proposes one very general principle which will be painfully familiar to people experienced with single-camera drama—and talismanic of the drive for sustainability as a whole.

“There’s a bit of people not knowing what they want,” he concludes. “It’s about planning—right across the board, from personnel management to kit ordering to logistics. If we were able to plan, if someone up the food chain made a decision early in the process, we could plan better. The problem we have as an industry is everyone leaves it to the last minute.” l

ad tech

FAST, AVOD Driving New Ad Tech Options The challenge of matching viewers with the right ads

By Dave Cohen

As content creators, aggregators and distributors continue to finagle their respective paths around the constantly changing video consumption desires of global audiences, the race to monetize content, and engage audiences with relevant advertising might be getting some much needed help from the ad tech vendors.

Part of the need for advanced technology solutions is driven by the tremendous growth in ad-supported streaming, whether via free ad-supported television (FAST) channels or ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) tiers offered by subscription services like Amazon

household 30 times may not Prime and Netflix. More and more be any more effective than channels and options for viewers delivering that message five have created an interesting times.” dilemma—there’s way more ad inventory available than there is supply. For companies relying BALANCING ACT on programmatic ad models Addressable advertising to fill this inventory, the user inventory available on experience must be considered. subscription services and other “With traditional linear TV, media offer the ability to match the measurement we’re still ad content with very specific looking at is ratings,” said Imagine Communications CEO viewer demographics, but a Steve Reynolds, president of careful balance has to be struck Steve Reynolds Imagine Communications. “But, to maintain brand quality and ‘ratings’ has started to evolve into ‘reach’ avoid doing more damage than good. and ‘frequency’ and pacing of advertising.

“We’ve always had good tools for managing Delivering the same message to the same frequency and pacing in the linear world,

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ad tech said, “[Using AI] you can now do realtime identification of new spots to insert advertising in backdrops that we couldn’t do even this time last year. Every year we get better and better at being able to identify the piece of content. And the better we can identify the user, the better you can target Harmonic’s VOS360 Ad SaaS revolutionizes live sports streaming with inthe materials they stream advertising through server-side insertion of formats like double-box want to see.” and dynamic L-bars, enabling the strategic positioning of ads during highand low-action moments during a live sports stream.

In fact, recent improvements in AI’s ability to analyze video content has opened but we’re now seeing our customers’ need to up a number of unique opportunities for bring those capabilities into the Connected engagement and new revenues.

TV (CTV) world,” Reynolds continues. “The In the past several years, major events, targeting enabled by programmatic systems especially sports, have begun including new works great. sponsorship opportunities during lulls in “The problem is it’s almost too perfect—to game action (think “Playing Through” during the point where advertising can become NBC’s golf coverage). Capitalizing on this ineffective if it creates negative viewer trend, Sportradar, a data and insights company perception,” he adds. “To counteract this, we’ve focused on sports analytics and betting, offers taken the traditional business rules we’ve an API to broadcasters that pushes real-time applied to linear TV for years, like frequency, game information that triggers on specific category separation and brand safety rules and game events. Productions can use this data incorporated them into what we describe as a to automatically run branded graphics to broadcast-quality digital ad server.” celebrate a big home run or touchdown.

The system exemplified in this scenario AI promises to take this type of “in game” is designed to make life easier for engagement even further. broadcasters and distributors transitioning “We use AI to create a transcript of the from traditional selling of ad inventory to commentaries coming from sports broadcasts,” converged selling of linear and digital ads. explained Jean Macher, senior director, global This transition is on-going, but it’s not new.

SaaS solutions at Harmonic. “We then feed In fact, according to a recent report from that text into OpenAI to come up with a the Interactive Advertising Bureau, “2024 summary and highlights of the live action.”

IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy This solution, currently still in Report,” three-quarters of CTV advertising development, will be able to autonomously is already bought programmatically, much create catch-up packages and highlights of of it transacted through systems offered by big plays during the game, offering further suppliers like Imagine, Operative, WideOrbit, opportunities for audience engagement.

Boostr and many others that simplify the Moving forward, the company hopes to sales process and drive revenue growth. capitalize on GPT 4.0’s next-gen capability to natively analyze video content.

WHAT’S AI GOT TO DO WITH IT? “Now that the AI is able to understand Technology is being applied to do more the notion of the passage of time and make than simply create efficiency. Despite the inferences based on that content, the hope apparent imbalance between inventory is that if you combine the video analytics supply and content available to fill it, there together with the audio analysis, you could are significant efforts to introduce new types achieve decision-accurate inferences,” of inventory—ones with greater opportunity Macher explained. “This workflow would then for branding and viewer engagement—many feed actionable metadata into the company’s of which are leveraging AI. VOS 360 platform to provide contextually In a recent interview with IBC365, accurate ad spot opportunities.”

BroadView Software President Micheal Atkin

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THE AUDIENCE IS STILL THE THING With all of these moves toward creating additional, and more relevant opportunities for brands to engage with audiences, regardless of the platform, it would stand to reason that the entire business model has been reimagined.

Unfortunately, that’s not really the case.

“The need to be able to make dynamic ad decisions thanks to addressability—and now we’re doing unicast addressability—[has led to] new products coming along like ad servers, like Imagine’s Surefire,” Reynolds said. “But it’s not a fundamental change to the way things are done. The business model still hasn’t changed because advertisers still want to buy audience.”

The battle for improved brand engagement and action associated with this engagement is being fought on the frontlines like never before between agencies/brands and the folks with multiplatform inventory available.

“What we have to do,” Reynolds added, “is flip it 90˚and start thinking about the value of the inventory. There’s premium inventory and there’s non-premium inventory. People need to wrap their heads around optimizing the premium inventory on the basis of price and delivery value while optimizing the nonpremium inventory on the basis of utilization and getting the highest yield possible out of it.”

Advertisers are seemingly open to the idea of new ways to engage and improve the impact of the impressions they’re getting.

“Dynamic brand insertion is something we do to insert the brand directly inside the video content,” Macher described. “Sometimes called ‘virtual product placement,’ we can create a placement opportunity where you’re going to see a bottle with a specific brand or a billboard with a specific message. We can use AI to analyze the video programming and find those placement opportunities in advance and then dynamically—and frame accurately—stitch that alternate content that now includes the brand placement into the program.”

Fortunately for those trying to balance market pressures like this, a wide range of tools are available to make this process both easier and more efficient. Leading crossplatform digital ad servers such as Google Ad Manager and Freewheel work closely with other industry suppliers to ensure the products used to manage the sales process are smoothly integrated and ready to help ad sales folks sell more, instead of wasting time on administrative tasks.

This improved communication between the supply side and demand side leverages advanced tech that should lead to a more efficient system that takes everyone’s needs into account. l

wireless connections

Five Years Later, Has 5G Lived Up to Its Promise?

The high-speed connectivity standard continues to drive change in live production

By James E. O’Neal

It’s been five years now since the wireless carriers began rolling out 5G connectivity.

Claims—sometimes exaggerated—about its possibilities were rampant then, including better steering of scalpels in robotic surgeries, downloading of HD feature-length movies in milliseconds, alleviating traffic jams, and obsoleting human control of automobiles.

Not all of these glowing promises have come to fruition, and only time will tell if they ever will. One thing about 5G is certain, though, and that’s its much-less-hyped impact on TV broadcasters and content producers. Although bonded-cellular video trans-

mission arrived a decade ahead of 5G’s rollout and has done a lot in terms of freeing remote telecasts from conventional connectivity, broadcasters—in general—agree that this fifth iteration of wireless broadband is living up to the promises that accompanied it.

WHAT IT BRINGS TO THE TABLE “We have spoken for several years now about the impact that 5G has made to bonded cellular,” said Dan Pisarski, chief technology officer at LiveU. “A key example is what is called ‘deterministic latency,’ where the changes in the in-air protocol called ‘New Radio,’ or ‘NR,’ in 5G, use a much more fixed latency compared to LTE [long term evolution, a term used to describe earlier broad-

band wireless technology].

Pisarski observed that 5G’s utilization of new spectrum allocations provides “a much more complete workflow for users,” allowing such enhancements as two-way intercom capability, video return feeds, robotic camera control and more.

“This ensures that a team deployed with a LiveU unit is a full-capability remote team, communicating, reviewing and interacting with remote management—not just ‘shooting video,’” he said A notable example of how 5G is impacting live sports coverage happened last summer when NBC Sports was able to add more 5G cameras to more holes at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., site of the 2024

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wireless connections KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. This was due to the scalability of T-Mobile’s 5G portable private network, according to Chris Melus, vice president of product management at T-Mobile’s Business Group.

“Broadcasters loved that they could get super-fast, fiber-like speeds without the wires,” he said, adding that 5G can provide “glass-toglass latency that averages under 100 milliseconds, enabling full-4K 60 fps resolution.”

As an added bonus at the tourney, T-Mobile also rolled out another 5G-based enhancement for spectators in the form of real-time player data delivered to smartphones. The app provided such information as radar trajectory of golf shots, 3D imagery, views of greens and more. “Broadcasters have found tremendous value in the ability to integrate 5G into their remote production suite of tools because of 5G’s ability to efficiently bring fans more high-quality content without the burden of wires,” Melus added.

latency it’s possible to deliver a better viewer experience even more seamlessly.”

In recalling coverage of the event’s opening ceremonies, which took place along a 6 km (about four miles) portion of the River Seine, Jim Jachetta, chief technology officer at VidOvation, observed that 5G made all the difference in capturing closeup footage of athletes aboard the scores of boats.

“Olympic Broadcasting Services, in partnership with Haivision, utilized over 200 Samsung S24 Ultra smartphones equipped with Haivision’s MoJoPro mobile camera apps… [to provide] HDR video feeds via a dedicated 5G network supported by 12 5G cells mounted on bridges,” he said.

uninterrupted coverage of the sailing events regardless of the boats’ location.”

IS IT REALLY ALL THAT?

Since its introduction, bonded cellular has been quietly displacing conventional microwave and satellite links to deliver news and other live feeds. When the first bonded-cellular gear appeared, 4G (with anticipated data rates of perhaps 100 Mbps), was just beginning to roll out, and 3G with its low Mbps (or even high Kbps) throughput was still the norm.

Fast forward to 2024 and the availability of 5G networks across most of the United States has greatly expanded, with about 60% of the population within the reach of a 5G signal.

We asked several broadcasters if it really was making a difference in their field operations.

The answers were something of a mixed bag.

“I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference between 4G and 5G,” said Pete Sockett, Capitol Broadcasting Company’s director of engineering and operations, who’s based in the Ra5G AT THE OLYMPICS leigh-Durham, N.C. area. “It may have helped 5G also made a big splash at the 2024 some with connectivity, but it’s hard to say.”

Olympic Games in Paris, allowing broadcastDAN WILSON, WPSD-TV Dan Wilson, chief engineer at WPSD-TV in ers to provide coverage of events in ways that Paducah, Ky., had a different response. “Since would not have been possible previously, and Jachetta added that history was made in we switched to 5G we’re able to get shots that taking both in-person and video spectator coverage of another water event, the Marwe could never get before,” he said. “With 5G enjoyment to new heights. seille sailing competitions. “A standout it’s even better and easier to get shots. Before 5G was key for France.tv to be able to cover achievement was the creation of the world’s 5G, the shots might pixelate and a reliable the torch relay across 1,600 km (about 1,000 first sea-based private 5G network,” said transmission was ‘iffy.’ Once 5G hit, that went miles) of France from May to July, according Jachetta. “This network, which featured 5G away.” to Matt McEwen, vice president of product at antennas on large catamarans, enabled live Wilson noted that his station was still TVU Networks. video transmission from rapidly moving getting used to 5G, as it’s only been available “In the past, a large-scale moving event boats. The 5G network’s flexibility allowed it in the Paducah area for the past half-year or like this would have required helicopters and to adapt to various sailing courses, ensuring so. He also commented on the impact 5G’s planes to receive and relay the video signals reduced latency was having on being captured by the mobile WPSD’s remote operations. cameras,” he said. “Utilizing “The low latency is even both public and private 5G inbetter than I thought possifrastructure allowed France.tv ble,” he added. “We’d gotten to transmit the mobile signal accustomed to a minimum without aerial support, saving three-second delay. Now it’s a 92% of the typical costs. If such second-and-a-half or even just a workflow were not possible, a second. This has gotten us alFrance.tv simply would not most back to analog microwave have been able to produce nine days in terms of delay. It’s a real weeks of live torch relay covergame changer.” age due to budget constraints.”

David Ostmo, regional engi“5G has absolutely transneering director for the Sinclair formed how we now cover Broadcast Group, and based in large-scale events like the SumSan Antonio, noted that while mer Games in Paris,” said Sukh5G has perhaps increased the vir Grewal, sales account mancomfort level in bringing in ager at Dejero. “These events remotes via bonded cellular, it demand real-time, high-quality hasn’t been a complete panacea. coverage from multiple locaA T-Mobile 5G-connected broadcast camera equipped with the latest Sony-PDT1 “We were making pretty extions and angles. With 5G’s transmitter captures every shot from T-Mobile’s Signature Hole at the 2024 KPMG tensive use of LiveU technology higher bandwidth and lower Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.

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“Since we switched to 5G we’re able to get shots that we could never get before.”

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disaster such as a hurricane or tornado, and cellular networks could be destroyed,” he said.

“This is especially in tornadoor hurricane-prone areas.”

Ostmo observed that as microwave/sat trucks “age out” and are retired, there will always be a need for microwave and two-way radio linkage from the field that’s independent of common carriers.

Perhaps the biggest problem with 5G right now, according to Ostmo—whose responsibility extends over Sinclair stations spread over several states in the south-central portion of During the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, Olympic the U.S.—is lack of solid covBroadcasting Services, in partnership with Haivision, utilized over 200 Samsung erage.

S24 Ultra smartphones equipped with Haivision’s MoJoPro mobile camera apps “Where it’s available, we get to provide HDR video feeds via a dedicated 5G network supported by 12 5G cells a more robust connection and mounted on bridges. better throughput,” he said.

“But it’s not available everywhere. In San microwave and satellite trucks, he felt that it Antonio, there’s good coverage in the city and WHAT ABOUT TRUCKS? was important to retain a backup to cellular, not-so-good coverage as you go further out.

Ostmo noted also that while his organizadespite the claims made for 5G. “We need There’s not any advantage in Nebraska.” l tion had eliminated some of its conventional the ability to broadcast after a large natural prior to the 5G rollout,” said Ostmo. “It may be a little more comfortable trusting a football game to 5G than to 4G. We’re always concerned about a secondary link with microwave or satellite at an important event.

We’ve lost live shots at large events using only bonded cellular. There was a strong signal when we were testing, but then the video was poor with pixelation when we went on the air.”

He noted that in this respect, 5G has made things better. “Where it is available, we get a more robust connection and better throughput,” he said, adding that 5G was also enabling more elaborate field productions than could be undertaken before its deployment.

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Credit: Samsung / Getty Images

wireless connections

ai outlook

AI Technologies Weren’t Born Yesterday AI has been a source of speculation, observation (and entertainment) for more than a century

Credit: John S Lander/Getty Images

T

with the almost inexplicable use of the AIthe word coined in a Czech play in hose with any degree term being applied to anything and elevated to circa 1921. of following in media— false-impressions and/or mistrust.

Most early robots were social media and relatively simple, either steamotherwise—have likely or pneumatic-powered for the been trying to understand what COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE: MACHINE most part. Some robots could this “new” technology known by ‘LEARNING’ OR ‘THINKING?’ make facial expressions and the term “artificial intelligence” Philosophically, the meaning of the words even walk. In 1955, the film really means, where it was derived “machine” and “think”—when connected “Forbidden Planet” featured from, where it is headed and or used together—make it difficult to avoid the robot character with AI-like whether it yields another level of the conclusion that both the “meaning” and capabilities and by 1963, a “real” risk (human or otherwise). the “answer” to the question “can machines EXPERTISE robot (played by Ray Walston) In 1956, a small group of think?” are one in the same. Definitions should KARL PAULSEN debuted in the CBS sitcom “My scientists gathered for the not be developed just by adding another Favorite Martian,” and anchored the idea of a Dartmouth Summer Research Project on question into the answer. more “human-like” robot with a personality Artificial Intelligence—this is often said to be Current AI solutions are often developed and a purpose. the birth of this field of research. Succeeding by repeated sampling and analyzing Between 1950 and the mid-1950s, interest semiannual conferences on AI research have closely related solutions, and then making in AI really came into being. Publications by continued from that point forward. adjustments to the testing results (via scientists would create proposals that would Fifty years later, to celebrate its anniversary, algorithms) in such a way that the solution is consider the question, “Can machines think?” more than 100 researchers and scholars again developed by “honing in” on (i.e., sharpening) The first part of this consideration should met at Dartmouth for AI@50, a conference an answer that will not result in relatively begin by defining the meaning of the two formally known as the Dartmouth Artificial ambiguous words. terms “machine” and “think.” We note that this Intelligence Conference. This conference In Alan Turing’s work “Computer not only honored past and present Machinery and Intelligence” (which accomplishments, but also helped seed eventually became known as “The ideas for future AI research.

Turing Test,” circa the 1950s), experts Organizer John McCarthy, then a could begin to use the methodologies to mathematics professor at the college, said measure computer intelligence. Given that the conference was “to proceed on the computers were essentially construed to basis of the conjecture that every aspect of be intelligent, another term was suggested learning or any other feature of intelligence (machine learning) and adopted to make can in principle be so precisely described the phrase a bit less ambiguous while that a machine can be made to simulate it.” leaving the solution set robust enough Professor of Philosophy James Moor, the to allow improvements on the intended director of AI@50, said the researchers conclusion without leaving the actual who came to Hanover, N.H., 50 years ago solution “ambiguous.” thought about ways to make machines From observations like these, the term more cognizant and wanted to lay out a “artificial intelligence” was coined and over framework to better understand human time came into popular use. Today, if AI’s intelligence. meaning is thrust into a search engine, Attendees of that workshop became the one might find the answer to be “a set of In 1929, Japanese professor Makoto Nishimura built the first Japanese robot, named “Gakutensoku” (meaning “learning initial leaders of AI research for decades. technologies that enable computers to from the laws of nature” His robot could change its facial Many predicted “machines as intelligent as expression and move its head and hands via an air pressure perform a variety of advanced functions”— humans would exist within a generation.” ambiguous to some degree, but still mechanism. relatively understandable. consideration is today commonly referred to as 100 YEARS HENCE machine learning (ML)—a critical part of the Even before the Dartmouth AI Research THE IMITATION GAME primary element(s) in AI. projects, as early as the early 1900s, there was In 1950, Alan Turing explained in In the early years, AI-definitions could media created that centered around the idea “Computer Machinery and Intelligence” a have been framed to reflect the normal use of artificial humans. Scientists of all sorts proposed means to test machine intelligence of the words “artificial” and “intelligence,” began asking, “might it be possible to create an through an artificial game called “The but such a seemingly narrow attitude can be artificial brain? [sic]” Some creators even made Imitation Game.” The game uses three players, dangerous—a position we are facing today some versions of what we now call “robots,” each isolated from one another, one of whom

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ai outlook first “learning program” completed in 1955, which was later demonstrated on television in 1956.

Rote learning (“rote” being a memorization technique that involves repeating information until it Is remembered) and other aspects of Samuel’s work strongly suggest the essential idea of temporaldifference learning—that the value of a state should equal the value of likely following states. Samuel created this “learning by generalization” procedure which is used to modify the parameters of the value function to approach a testable and useful conclusion to the end, without ambiguities.

The entire fundamental basis for AI (i.e., “generative AI”) is built from this very simple process. Today, generative AI can be used to solve problems and can now even create new

content such as images, videos, text, music and audio.

When applied to other practical purposes, it can be used to reduce costs, personalize experiences, analyze risk mitigation and be applicable to sustainability. However, there are drawbacks, as in any technology.

Shortcomings may be the results are not accurate, may be biased (per the slant put into the testing algorithms used, may violate privacy or may infringe on copyright.

We’ve covered a bit of ground on this historic introduction and methodology summary, and in the future, we’ll dive a bit deeper into risk and management of AI— especially when it is applied widespread and uncontrolled. l Karl Paulsen is a recently retired CTO and has regularly contributed to TV Tech on topics related to media, networking, workflow, cloud and systemization for the media and entertainment industry for more than 25 years..

He is a SMPTE Fellow with more than 50 years of engineering and managerial experience in commercial TV and radio broadcasting. He can be reached via TV Tech.

IBM AND CHECKERS If the computer can imitate the replaced (in this case female human) elements; then ultimately by demonstration this drives the answer to the other (initial) question “Can Machines Think?”—the computer becoming the artificially intelligent “female” player.

Historically, a computer scientist named Arthur Samuel starting around 1952 developed a program to play checkers, which is the first recognized computerized application to ever “learn” the game independently.

Samuel’s programs were played by performing a “lookahead search” from each current position, essentially using the data to intelligently “predict” and test the outcome for all the remaining steps which might—or would—be played out by the pair of opposing players. Samuel first wrote the checkersplaying program for the IBM 701 and had his twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | November 2024

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Credit: Pictures from History/Getty Images

is an interrogator. The interrogator attempts through questioning to find out the gender (male or female) of the other two players.

Interrogation is done in written (textual) form only so that voices do not give away the obvious answer.

Questions continue until a conclusion is drawn about who amongst the two players is who, i.e., who is male and who is female.

This kind of testing is not unlike what happens in a modern AI environment—whereby questions are posed and answers (“data”) Alan Turing collected until sufficient information can point to an appropriate conclusion (aka an “answer”) to the problem.

In Turing’s game, which later became “The Turing Process,” the next step changes the players somewhat by replacing one of the two “human players” (say the woman) with a machine (“computer”). The computer is then charged with simulating the substituted female human player.

Now the interrogator is challenged to find questions which can be answered honestly and accurately by both the initial (male) human or substitute (female) computer—and then from the data collected, determine which is the computer by using sufficient data and developing a proper conclusion.

inside audio

TV’s Persistent Sound Issues Aren’t Fading Away It’s time for action on shaky home setups, keeping voices in sync and better sound standards A quality microphone should be part of every home-based TV journalist’s studio setup.

Credit: Getty Images

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nother year has passed lighting and “raccoon eyes” were and it seems there has not a good look for television. been little progress Quickly, light rings and the toward improving the occasional background lighting sound of television, plus there on the bookcases or guitars were are the same old problems with adopted, so the viewer could microphones, compression, see the subject’s faces and how synchronization, audio-followcool they were by what they read video and ATSC standards. or did. Most news stories could With COVID-19 came the exist without a fuzzy portrait of proliferation of stay-at-home a talking head but when speech EXPERTISE journalism, principally with intelligibility becomes a problem, so-called experts who seem DENNIS BAXTER what’s the point?. to fill time and echo the thoughts of the studio commentators. The UPGRADE THE HOME STUDIO occasional off-microphone talking head was Every home journalist should have a kit tolerable, but with over four years of this that includes lights, a real microphone, practice, I find this unacceptable and very earbuds or headphones and an audio unprofessional. interface for the computer. The lapel The computer is a wonderful all-in-one microphone is often the first choice because streaming device with automatic gain of its small size, but that size also makes the control for poor lighting and some level of microphone more omnidirectional. Thus, bad sound, but someone decided that poor it picks up more room clutter than a larger

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diaphragm microphone with more directivity that picks up the desired voice and less room tone. Obviously, the art director would rather not see the presence of a large microphone, while the sound person wants better and closer sound capture.

Earbuds or headphones may be a bit of a stretch for the home journalist, but sometimes you can hear the audio return from the network if the sound from the computer is too loud. Finally, an easy improvement for the serious home journalist would be some sound treatment to reduce the sound bouncing around a big room with pretty books and a guitar in the background.

Every day, I am shocked at the misuse of audio compression across virtually all networks. How often have you heard the audio level drop dramatically and then recover a few milliseconds later? Audio compressors have an attack time and a release time that govern the function of sound compression.

inside audio

inexperienced sound mixer, I remember that I don’t need audio-follow-video until I uncut a couple of cheerleaders who had a camera in their face and heard about it from the director. AFV—audio-follow-video, even in its most basic form—is better than “uncut” sound.

My final two pet peeves have proven more difficult to tame and are beyond the control of the audio practitioner: lip sync and standards. Every year, I write about lip sync, but there seems to be little progress toward implementing a solution—probably because there are so many places for the sound to get out of sync.

A Fox Deportes anchor reports from an elaborate home broadcast setup during the early days of the pandemic.

crowd and the poor audio person often does not know when the director will cut to that handheld. Most directors will argue that that is not the case, but in my 40-plus years of live sports mixing, I have heard more than once, “Ready camera two, ready camera four—take camera seven.” What?

Since the beginning of outside broadcasting, the video switcher has been capable of switching camera tally lights and microphones on and off. As a young,

TOO FAST, TOO FURIOUS

Every day, I am shocked at the misuse of audio compression across virtually all networks.

Dennis Baxter has contributed to hundreds of live events including sound design for nine Olympic Games.

He has earned multiple Emmy Awards and is the author of “A Practical Guide to Television Sound Engineering” and “Immersive Sound Production – A Practical Guide on Focal Press.”

He can be reached at dbaxter@dennisbaxtersound. com or at dennisbaxtersound.com.

Credit: Boston Globe/Getty Images

Live television production is fast and furious and it can be challenging to get the right microphone fader up at the right time and to the correct level when the director is bouncing all over the place with more cameras than they know what to do with. College football is the worst, because the handhelds are close to the

I know you have seen programs where the content is out of sync and the commercials are in sync, and I know you have seen live content where different elements within the show are out of sync. Golf is the worst!

Finally, the ATSC needs to adopt—and the FCC needs to mandate—immersive sound as the audio standard. We probably would not have immersive sound because we probably would not have had surround sound if the ATSC and FCC had not selected the latter as the sound standard in ATSC 1.0.

I have covered all these issues on several occasions in these pages, including things the ATSC could endorse—for a long time now. l

Credit: Dejero

A quick attack time is often undetected until a slow release time seems to keep the audio levels too unnaturally low for too long.

Conversely, a quick release can make the audio sound like it is pumping up and down, electronically controlling the sound levels.

My preference is to limit the audio peaks to not distort the program and to use your fingers and ears to find the right balance.

Before there was compression or limiting, there was mixing.

STAYING IN SYNC

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rf technology

Meeting the Challenge of Sustainable Transmission Reaching indoor antennas requires more power, offsetting efficiency gains made by today’s solid-state technology

Credit: Getty Images

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One thing I discovered early in my career was that having some power at higher elevation angles is important in areas with mountains, as the signal will diffract over the edge of the mountain to the area behind it only if there is sufficient power hitting the top of the mountain.

Rather than compromise on the elevation pattern, it may make sense to look at the azimuth pattern to determine if a highergain, more-directional pattern will reach the population centers. Consider where population growth is occurring: Revisiting areas around Orlando, Fla., this month, I saw new subdivisions full of houses in areas that were vacant land when I was doing measurements there two years ago.

Assuming we don’t want to give up elliptical polarization or a wider elevation pattern and can’t sacrifice coverage in some areas with a more directional azimuth pattern, is there anything else we can do to reduce the transmitter power required?

Another option is to improve the efficiency of the transmission line. This will have little impact on short towers but at Channel 30 with a 2,000-foot line, the difference is significant. A 6 1/8-inch, 50-ohm line will require 88.6 kW of transmitter power into the line to have 50 kW at the antenna, compared with 79.2 kW for a 7 3/16-inch, 75-ohm line. In addition to power savings, the lower power may allow use of a smaller transmitter, offsetting some of the cost of the larger line.

TRANSMITTER EFFICIENCY When comparing transmitter efficiency, is the quoted efficiency for the amplifier alone, the entire transmitter, or the transmitter and cooling systems? All components should be

esigning transmitter 100% more power for circular sites for sustainability polarization. can be a challenge.

This month, I’ll offer ANTENNA AND LINE some tips on items to consider EFFICIENCY when upgrading old transmission There are a few ways to reduce facilities or building new ones. the required transmitter power.

Today’s solid-state transmitters One is to use a higher-gain using LDMOS (laterally-diffused antenna; that however, increases metal-oxide semiconductor) antenna size and directivity. devices and Doherty amplification Increasing elevation gain results EXPERTISE are more efficient than in a narrower beamwidth that will DOUG LUNG yesterday’s tube transmitters. reduce signal strength in some However, at many stations that gain areas. Even if a narrow elevation in efficiency has been offset by the need to pattern and its electrical and mechanical put more radio frequency (RF) signal in the beam tilt are optimized for the coverage area air to reach indoor antennas. and terrain, if the tower In most urban and suburban areas, it or antenna flexes, that High-power, solid-state transmitters use many is unusual to see outdoor TV antennas. pattern will shift. amplifiers and require Reaching indoor antennas and antennas in Distant viewers in combiners, which require attics requires more power. Adding vertical the direction of the tilt reject loads such as this polarization takes additional power—up to may lose the signal. unit from Spinner.

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rf technology

When comparing transmitter efficiency, is the quoted efficiency for the amplifier alone, the entire transmitter or the transmitter and cooling systems? All components should be considered. these loads are cooled will affect transmitter efficiency. Normally, there is no power into the load, but if an amplifier fails, the load must be able to handle the reject power immediately without burning up.

Spinner and Dielectric sell loads designed to operate with minimal cooling power until RF is applied. If liquid cooling is used for the load, the heat exchanger can be placed outside, reducing heat in the building when the load is in use. Air-cooled loads with thermostats to control the cooling fans require no power when there is no RF into the load, but will add heat to the building when in use.

How much heat does the transmitter generate and where does it go? Some transmitters use liquid-cooled power

Fig. 1: This chart from Rohde and Schwarz shows how decibels and power can affect a transmitter’s modulation error ratio (MER).

supplies, so the heat goes outside. Others use air-cooled power supplies that put heat into the transmitter room and add fan noise.

BEYOND EFFICIENCY Besides efficiency, sustainability includes environmental impact. Many transmitter sites were designed with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) using a large string of leadacid batteries to keep the equipment in the transmitter facility running in the event of a loss of utility power until the generator starts, usually 15-45 seconds. That was important with tube transmitters, as it could take 15 minutes for an amplifier to warm up after a power loss.

Today, if utility power is stable and the transmitter is solid state, consider whether a full-sized UPS is needed. If it is only required for outages, having a smaller UPS connected only to the equipment that requires time to start up after a power outage, like computers and the transmitter exciters, may be sufficient. The solid-state amplifiers will return in seconds after power is restored.

If power is unstable, prone to brownouts or frequent dropouts, a flywheel UPS may make more sense than a battery-based UPS. Though noisier, it requires less maintenance and no hazardous material is involved.

Lithium batteries are more compact and last longer than lead-acid batteries, but may not be suitable for locations where fire is a possibility.

What about a solarpowered transmitter site?

I could see this working for LPTV or translator sites.

While it would be difficult to find space for a sufficient number of panels for a high-power transmitter at most mountaintop or building sites, it could be an option for owners of sites with large guyed towers with lots of land under the tower. It probably wouldn’t work in areas with snow or lots of cloudy days and, if not grid-tied, the solar power capacity and battery storage would have to be designed for the worst-case scenario.l I’m interested in hearing your ideas for sustainable TV transmission! Email me at dlung@transmitter.com.

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Credit: Rohde and Schwarz

considered.

To achieve maximum efficiency, transmitters use adaptive pre-correction to obtain more power from an amplifier with less DC input power. As efficiency increases, the amplifier will generate more distortion and the output signal’s signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will increase, even with pr-correction in the exciter.

If transmitter power consumption is a concern, consider allowing worse SNR. In the past, an SNR of 27 decibels was considered the minimum acceptable level. With today’s transmitters, an SNR of over 30 decibels is easy to obtain. Poor SNR will impact coverage, but once the ratio is in the mid30-dB range, any additional improvement in SNR will have little if any impact on coverage and may not be worth the increase in power consumption.

A chart from a Rohde & Schwarz report (Fig. 1) shows the impact in dB and power on modulation error ratio (MER), which is related to SNR. The paper refers to COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) but results will be similar with 8-VSB (vestigial sideband modulation). The “falloff level” is the required receiver threshold, so 16 dB above a 15-dB “falloff level” matches a 31 dB MER. High-power, solid-state transmitters require many amplifiers and these require combiners, which require reject loads. How

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TriCaster Mini S is an entry-level, software-only solution for content creators and smaller productions. It offers robust IP connectivity, 4Kp60 streaming, and integrated TriCaster Graphics powered by Viz Flowics as standard. With TriCaster Mini S, users can live-switch video, leverage virtual sets and special effects, mix and record audio, publish to social media and web stream. z https://www.vizrt.com

Grass Valley ACE-3901 Grass Valley’s new ACE-3901 Next Generation 12G Modular Agile Computing Engine and XIP-3911-GRID firmware for the XIP Modular Processing Platform offer a higher level of processing power and density for media companies migrating from SDI to IP workflows.

The ACE-3901 modular processor delivers the highest IP input/ output density in the market, offering up to 400Gb IP bandwidth per module and up to 256 12G-SDI or 384 3G-SDI gateways within a single 4RU Densité frame. The new XIP-3911-GRID firmware addresses a critical pain point in SaaS applications running on traditional COTS servers, which continue to be limited by their PCI expansion slots, often restricting SDI inputs/outputs to just 12 or fewer signals. The XIP3911-GRID provides an SDI gateway interface directly to AMPP GRID leveraging FPGA modular hardware, enabling a single 1RU server to handle up to 128 AMPP GRID signals, a more than tenfold increase in capacity. z www.grassvalley.com

MediaKind, Skreens Technology Multiview Live Event Streaming Solution

November 2024 | www.tvtech.com |

ARRI Ensō Prime Lens Series ARRI’s new Ensō Prime lens series are designed for corporate and commercial content creators and owneroperators at earlier stages of their careers. The small, portable and versatile lenses deliver exceptional images in almost any conditions and provide a smooth, balanced native look that can be tuned with Ensō Vintage Elements, which attach to the back of the lenses to achieve different looks with a single, cost-effective lens set.

The core set of Ensō Prime lenses includes 18mm, 24mm, 32mm, 47mm, 75mm and 105mm lenses and the Ensō Vintage Elements Kit. Close focus is a standout feature of the lenses with a magnification ratio of 1:4 on most focal lengths, equivalent to a 10-inch close focus on the 32mm—only 3.7 inches from the front element. z www.arri.com

ENCO DoCaption EN848

MediaKind and Skreens Technology have launched an advanced Multiview solution that enhances live-event viewing experiences. It combines Skreens’ content compositing technology with MediaKind’s MK.IO streaming platform to offer broadcasters, operators, OTT service providers and content owners the ability to deliver multiple simultaneous video feeds, giving viewers more control and flexibility in how they watch live content.

The solution allows audiences for sports, esports, or live events to toggle between multiple camera angles or streams, enjoying a personalized viewing experience on any device. Key features include: enhanced viewer experience; cross-platform support; seamless deployment; and a pay-as-you-go model. z www.mediakind.com

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Lawo has added 10 new processing apps to its HOME Apps platform. All run on the same HOME Apps platform and can be configured and shared among locations using Lawo’s HOME management platform.

The current line-up now includes: HOME Multiviewer; HOME UDX Converter with HDR processing; HOME Stream Transcoder and HOME Graphic Inserter are joined by the first audio app, HOME mc² DSP; HOME Test Pattern/Test Tone Generator (TPG); HOME Color Corrector with HDR Processing; HOME Timecode Generator; HOME Delay for alignment purposes, and HOME Downstream Keyer app, which provides comprehensive keying and mixing capabilities to meet production needs and enable additional channel branding within a state-of-the-art, agile infrastructure, based on triggers issued via the VSM control system where desired. z https://lawo.com

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Available separately or as part of ENCO’s enCaption system, ENCO’s new DoCaption EN848 closed caption encoder gives customers an immediate on-prem or cloud option for fast, automated conversion and delivery of captions and translations.

The EN848 allows broadcasters to deploy the system over their IP network, with connectivity to enCaption for cloud-based captioning services such as those offered by ENCO partner VITAC. The EN848’s dual connectivity options also allow broadcasters to deploy redundant captioning workflows with immediate failover from cloud to on-prem if the network temporarily goes dark. The EN848 conforms to a broad range of closed-captioning specifications, including the encoding and insertion of CEA-608/CEA-708 and Teletext/OP47 ancillary data for standardized and legacy communication protocols. z https://www.enco.com

eye on tech | product and services Brainstorm InfinitySet Lite InfinitySet Lite is designed to provide additional flexibility, simplicity for virtual production and AR content creation at a lower price point. Optimized for PTZ cameras, InfinitySet Lite is the latest addition to Brainstorm’s InfinitySet product line and offers a streamlined interface and tool set while maintaining the same top-tier quality standards that have made InfinitySet a favorite in the broadcast and studio markets for virtual content creation.

InfinitySet Lite is designed to meet the demands of a broad range of virtual production setups—from simple to complex—and delivers exceptional performance and flexibility. By providing a more cost-effective option, Brainstorm said it aims to make high-quality virtual production accessible to more creators without compromising on performance or visual quality. z https://www.brainstorm3d.com

Ikegami UHL-X40 4K-UHD/HD 3-CMOS Camera

Digital Alert Systems, Ateme DAS EAS-Net integrated with Ateme TITAN

The ultra-compact UHL-X40 4K-UHD/ HD 3-CMOS camera is a box-style UHD camera measuring 4.7 x 5 x 4.4 inches and weighing 2.4 lbs. It’s designed for applications requiring an inconspicuous camera with uncompromised UHD performance. The head is powered locally with 12V DC (just 23W) and connects with the compact CCU-X40 via up to 6.2 miles of duplex singlemode fiber carrying uncompressed RGB raw pixel data.

Incorporating three high-quality 2/3-inch UHD sensors with a global shutter pixel architecture, the UHL-X40 captures natural images even when shooting LED screens and is clear of geometric distortion during still frame replay. The UHL-X40 achieves f10 sensitivity at 2160p59.94 and a signal-to-noise ratio of 62 dB in HD. HDR and BT.2020 color reproduction are available as standard. The CCU-X40 can output two formats simultaneously, such as 2160p UHD and 1080i HD. z https://www.ikegami.com

Digital Alert Systems and Ateme have integrated DAS’s EAS-Net device networking protocol into Ateme’s TITAN line of SD, HD and UHD encoders. The integration allows DAS’s DASDEC flexible emergencymessaging platforms to connect directly to Ateme solutions via a simple network connection, eliminating the need for added hardware or software to provide full EAS text crawl and audio capabilities across all streams from the Ateme units.

The integration is designed to be an attractive option for smaller broadcasters and those looking to implement more flexible, IP-based workflows at a lower cost, with the ability to work across all streams in the Ateme encoding systems. Users no longer need one unit per stream or multiple DASDEC clients to support this comprehensive solution. This single-interface approach reduces equipment footprints and simplifies system design. z https://www.ateme.com z https://www.digitalalertsystems.com

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (REQUESTER PUBLICATIONS ONLY) Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months

15. Extent and Nature of Circulation

1.

Publication Title: TV Technology

2.

Publication No.: 3085

3.

Filing Date: 9/27/2024

a. Total number of copies

4.

Issue Frequency: Monthly

b. Legitimate paid and/or requested distribution (by mail and outside the mail)

5.

Number of Issues Published Annually: 12

6.

Annual Subscription Price: Requester

(1) Outside-county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541

7.

Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: Future US Inc., 130 West 42nd Street, 7th Fl, New York, NY 10036-7804

8.

9.

10812

10780

7599

7533

(2) In-county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 (3) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid or requested distribution outside USPS (4) Requested copies distributed by other mail classes through the USPS

Contact Person: Shana Murik, 212-378-0448

c. Total paid and/or requested

Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office

d. Non-requested distribution (by mail and outside the mail)

7599

7833

2401

2467

of Publisher: Future US Inc., 130 West 42nd Street, 7th Fl, New York, NY

(1) Outside-county non-requested copies stated on PS Form 3541

10036-7804

(2) In-county non-requested Copies stated on PS Form 3541

Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor and

(3) Non-requested copies distributed through the USPS by other classes of mail

Product Managing Headline Editor:

No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date

Product Headline

(4) Non-requested copies distributed outside the mail

25

50

e. Total non-requested distribution 2517 XXXX Publisher: Adam Goldstein, 130XXXXXXXXX West 42nd Street, 7th Fl, New York, NY XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX2426 XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX f.

Total distribution 10025 10050 XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX. XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX. 10036-7804; g. Copies not distributed 787 XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX 730 XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX Editor: Tom Butts, 130 West 42nd XXXXXXXXX Street, 7th Fl, NewXXXXXXXXX York, NY 10036-7804 h. Total 10812 10780 XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX. Managing XXXX Editor: Terry Scutt, 130 West 42nd Street,XXXXXXX. 7th Fl, New York, NY i. Percent paid and/or requested 75.0% z For additional z For additional information, contact 75.8% XXXXXXX at 000-000-0000 or 10036-7804 information, contact XXXXXXX at 000-000-0000 or 16. Electronic Copy Circulation visit www.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com. visit www.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com.

10. Owner: Future US Inc. (Future PLC), 130 West 42nd Street, 7th Fl, New York, NY 10036-7804 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months 13. Publication Title: TV Technology 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data: September-24

a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies

1003

1005

b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies

8602

8538

c. Total Requested Copy Distribution

11028

11055

d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies)

78.0%

77.20%

17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requestor Publication is required and will be printed in the November 2024 issue of this publication.

18. Signature of Managing VP, Sales: Adam Goldstein, September 27, 2024. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

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

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equipment guide | test/qc & signal monitoring/video monitors

Texas A&M Elevates Quality Control With TAG’s IP Monitoring and Visualization Jonathan Kerr Chief Broadcast Engineer 12th Man Productions

COLLEGE STATION, Texas— 12th Man Productions is the broadcast and production house for Texas A&M Athletics. We handle all in-venue videoboard productions for Texas A&M Athletics and as part of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), we are under contract with ESPN to provide and produce broadcasts of our games.

With one of the largest football stadiums in the country and the largest in the SEC with over 100,000 fans, our responsibility to provide seamless productions is critical…and not just for football, as we produce 100+ events a year for virtually every sport.

In my role as Chief Broadcast Engineer, I oversee the technical side of live broadcasts, including the management of control rooms, equipment, and a team of 20 student engineers. At 12th Man Productions, we always try to push the boundaries when it comes to broadcast technology.

One of the biggest shifts was our transition to an all-IP infrastructure, which began in 2018 when we integrated IP gateways between our venues and the central control room for video and audio transport. Fast forward to today, we’ve become a fully 2110 IP facility at our core, allowing us to scale, innovate, and increase efficiency across the board.

Credit: istockphoto

PUSHING THE LIMITS Our first exposure to TAG Video System’s software-based IP monitoring solution came at the 2022 NAB Show, where we saw the possibilities of a system that

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Since our deployment of TAG’s software-based IP monitoring, TAG has been at the heart of our multiviewer system, handling 2110 and NDI sources for all four control rooms.

was flexible, scalable, and able to process a range of signals. We immediately jumped at the chance to test it with a virtual instance on our existing hardware, as we were already heavily into virtualization.

We put TAG through its paces and found that, despite initial concerns, there was no noticeable latency compared to our baseband multiviewer. The system had the architecture we were looking for, was budget-friendly, and highly customizable. It was a no-brainer, and we deployed our system in June 2022.

Since that deployment, we’ve been pushing the limits of what TAG can do. Currently, our system features six MCMs running on Dell servers, controlled by the MCS software on a virtual machine. TAG is at the heart of our multiviewer system, handling 2110 and NDI sources for all four control rooms. As we’ve expanded, scaling the system has been seamless—we started with four MCMs and have since added two more, adapting as our needs have grown and as we realized what

November 2024 | www.tvtech.com |

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more we could do with TAG.

TRANSCODING NDI One of those realizations came when we discovered TAG’s potential for transcoding IP signals. Initially deployed as a multiviewer, we soon realized we could transcode NDI sources into full-screen 2110 outputs. This has given us the flexibility to deploy NDI POV cameras at our sporting events, drastically reducing the complexity of our camera setups.

Now, instead of running multiple cables to each camera, a single Ethernet cable carries both power, video, and control with TAG handling the conversion to a 2110 source in our broadcast switcher. This same workflow has been applied to our graphics, where we have virtualized instances of Ross XPression that output NDI signals to TAG where it is converted to 2110 for all CGs used within our broadcasts.

The integration with Evertz DreamCatcher has also been a game-changer. Texas A&M was the first to adopt this integrat-

ed solution, which has proven invaluable for our production workflows. Timing is everything in our broadcasts, and TAG’s ability to overlay metadata from DreamCatcher has been critical.

Our control-room staff now has access to timecodes, clip IDs, clip names and playlist names, all within the multiviewer, enhancing the precision and quality of our productions.

Another major highlight has been the support from TAG. Anytime I’ve reached out, the response has been swift and effective. The support team goes beyond troubleshooting—they also educate us further on the system.

Every interaction with TAG has reaffirmed our decision to choose their solution, and if given the chance, I’d make the same choice again without hesitation. l Jonathan Kerr is Chief Broadcast Engineer for 12th Man Productions and can be reached at jkerr@athletics.tamu.edu.

More information is available at https://tagvs.com.

equipment guide | test/qc & signal monitoring/video monitors buyers briefs Interra Systems ORION Monitoring Suite for Linear/IP/Live/ VOD Streaming

Avateq AVQ1050

Interra Systems has introduced a range of comprehensive updates to improve streaming quality and monitoring efficiency for its ORION suite, designed for monitoring linear, live, and OTT streams. The new features enable easy and efficient root-cause analysis for the most common to complex errors and issues faced by operators. Additionally. ORION now includes IPv6 for automating IP address assignment and improving security with IPsec encryption.

For ad (DAI) monitoring, users can compare ad scheduling information with DAI markers and get alerts for propagation issues. ORION-OTT’s latest updates introduce new features like localization, certification for the latest OS, Dolby Atmos integration, and enhancements in DAI, serverside ad monitoring, low-latency streaming, and DRM support. www.interrasystems.com

Avateq’s AVQ1050 ATSC 3.0 BPS Receiver and Synchronizer synchronizes the timestamp at the transmitter site (Synchronizer mode) or to extract the timestamp and other related information from the ATSC 3.0 signal remotely (Receiver mode). It also provides all necessary RF measurements to verify the quality of the signal at the point of signal capturing and gives an engineer additional tools to ensure proper operation of the Broadcast Positioning System.

Modes of operation include BPS Synchronizer (transmission path delay estimation and adjustment) and BPS Receiver (test, validation, and characterization of BPS deployment). Supported features include: communication interface with transmission equipment and PID based feedback loop to adjust ATSC 3.0 TIP; ATSC 3.0 Bootstrap Time of Arrival measurement and bps_info update, and more. https://avateq.com

Black Box Emerald DESKVUE

Blackmagic Design SmartView 4K G3

Black Box’s TAA-compliant small form-factor Emerald DESKVUE KVM-over-IP receiver allows users to create a personalized workspace where they can simultaneously monitor and interact with access to up to 16 different preferred systems— physical, virtual and cloud-based—of their choice. All systems are displayed as individual windows on up to four 4K or curved (5K) monitors.

Users can arrange these windows in any way. Switching between systems happens automatically in the background as users perform their tasks, removing any need for manual switching commands—or even awareness of system changes. New features include locking favored system tiles and easier, faster switching among tiles, as well as an exclusive work mode and personalized on-screen layouts—resulting in a tailored workspace with the most flexible system integration and visualization landscape. www.blackbox.com/en-US

SmartView 4K G3 is designed to be the ideal video monitoring solution for broadcast and live production and is the first Ultra HD monitor that supports both 12G-SDI and 2110 IP inputs up to 2160p60. Users can switch between SDI and IP at the push of a button and the unit follows the video input so it will switch between all SD, HD or Ultra HD standards automatically.

SmartView 4K G3 includes AC and 12V DC power connections and monitoring controls such as focus peaking, H/V delay, blue only and framing guides. Users also get built in 3D LUTs for adding creative looks, converting log film gamma or handling custom HDR profiles. SmartView 4K G3 is shipping worldwide and available for $1,265. www.blackmagicdesign.com

Video Clarity ClearView w/ HDRMAX Quality Assessment With more streaming services applying the latest high dynamic range (HDR) implementations for video content delivery, Video Clarity has responded by introducing two new HDR full-reference quality metrics using HDRMAX, an independently developed set of HDR extensions to current standard dynamic range (SDR) quality metrics.

These enhancements extend the useful life of the most popular and current SDR metrics for an HDR video quality test workflow. Developed by the University of Texas at Austin Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Video Clarity’s HDRMAX now provides an HDR quality metric extension for VMAF and MS-SSIM as a standard feature in the ClearView Video Quality Analyzer. https://videoclarity.com

Ikegami HM-2460WA and HLM-1860WR Ikegami’s two new broadcast-quality monitors include the 24-inch HLM2460WA and 18.5 inch HLM-1860WR. Together with the 9-inch HLM-960WR, these new monitors form Ikegami’s 60-series broadcast HD monitor line up, all with 1920x1080 pixel resolution.

Developed from its HLM-2460W predecessor, the HLM-2460WA has a 1920x1200 pixel IPS LCD with 1,800:1 contrast ratio and 400 nits peak brightness. Features include PIP and side-by-side display, onscreen markers plus R/G/Y tally. UMD facilities are provided in addition to closed caption and VITC display. Test signals include waveform and vectorscope, dot-by-dot plus 2x/4x zoom. Audio capabilities include SDI audio de-embedding, eight-channel level metering and 5.1 down-mix. www.ikegami.com twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | November 2024

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equipment guide | test/qc & signal monitoring/video monitors buyers briefs JVC DT-V24G2Z JVC’s DT-V24G2Z is a versatile LCD production monitor designed for field, studio, and broadcast image evaluation.

It boasts a 10-bit panel with 1.073 billion color reproduction—perfect for critical image assessment. With a WUXGA resolution (1920x1200 pixels), built-in histograms, waveform displays, and zebra patterns, this monitor is like a Swiss Army knife for video pros.

Plus, it supports SDI closed captioning standards and has various color temperature settings and wide view angles of 178º.

Users can assign favorite items to convenient function keys and preset three picture settings such as gamut or gamma, and for those who need to address coherence between two audio channels, the Lissajous meter provides a useful tool to show the stereo field of a signal and possible phase issues. www.jvc.com/usa/pro/professional-video

Triveni Digital StreamScope Enterprise

Sony BVM-HX3110 TRIMASTER HX The BVM-HX3110 30.5-inch TRIMASTER HX monitor combines IP connectivity with 4K HDR picture quality, and is designed for enhanced color fidelity in color grading, VFX, broadcast, TV, film, and live event applications. Peak luminance is increased to 4000 cd/m², an increasingly common delivery requirement for many streaming services and networks.

The BVM-HX3110’s high-speed pixel response, activated by an optional license, is perfect for live sports and music productions, and pan and tilt movements are displayed with less motion blur. Multiple editors can work at one monitor with the BVM-HX3110’s expanded practical viewing angle at 45°. This improvement also enhances viewing performance of transitions from 0 to 45° and more than 45°. Advanced Anti-reflection (AR) processing reduces reflections. https://pro.sony/ue_US/

Mediaproxy LogServer

Triveni Digital’s StreamScope Enterprise empowers broadcasters to perform regional and nationwide QoS monitoring allowing them to manage quality assurance elements, view overall system status, and launch problem-solving sessions for specific faults.

The platform monitors and manages ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 streams and services throughout DTV networks to assure quality of service, FCC compliance, reduced downtimes, and viewer retention. It also provides a centralized platform for remote service monitoring and fleet management, with custom dashboards for localized markets and key personnel. The StreamScope Enterprise platform connects to Triveni Digital’s StreamScope XM ATSC 3.0 Monitor to streamline NextGen TV delivery. www.trivenidigital.com

Mediaproxy’s monitoring and analysis solutions are designed to provide seamless integration with virtually any broadcast environment and standard. Through simplified application software licensing and deployment, customers can greatly reduce investments by choosing only the components they require.

The core LogServer platform can be easily virtualized and provides seamless integration with cloud environments such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. LogServer’s flexible software interfaces integrate with existing broadcast workflows and allows solutions to be quickly customized as requirements change. With support for the latest formats and standards including 4K, HEVC, SMPTE 2022-6, SMPTE 2110, NDI, HLS, MPEG-DASH, SRT, Zixi, ATSC 3.0 and DVB-2, Mediaproxy consolidates analysis of on-air incidents, content search and ad verification via easy-to-use web browser and mobile interfaces. www.mediaproxy.com

Witbe Remote Eye Controller

Cobalt Digital COBALT UltraBlue IP-MV

Witbe’s Remote Eye Controller software empowers video service providers to control, test, and monitor their video apps running on real devices worldwide. Witbe’s non-intrusive technology can remotely monitor video services on any real device, including set-top boxes, streaming sticks, mobile devices, tablets, and smart TVs. The REC removes the limitations of traditional device testing, offering a virtual Network Operation Center where teams can monitor the live video quality their viewers receive and take control of their devices in real time when performance issues strike. With easily readable instant feedback, the REC lets providers supervise their service from one central application, accessible from any web browser. Recently upgraded with the company’s largest software update ever, Witbe’s Remote Eye Controller is a comprehensive station for all live and on-demand video monitoring needs. www.witbe.net

COBALT UltraBlue IP-MV scalable software-based multiviewer is a turnkey solution provided with four HDMI heads, or a software package to run on customer-supplied dedicated hardware. Features include support for receiving audio/video content over IP across a variety of protocols and formats with very flexible audio routing to suit every application.

The intuitive web interface supports compressed and baseband (ST 2110) IP/SDI inputs and outputs. Multiple user logins and per-user access privileges provide maximum security. Mosaic configurations feature various sizes and orientations, graphic overlays, ancillary data, tallies, UMDs and IDs. PIP configurations are easily copied and can be arbitrarily placed and rotated; setups are saved and restored. www.cobaltdigital.com

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November 2024 | www.tvtech.com |

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equipment guide | test/qc & signal monitoring/video monitors

USER REPORT Steven D. Crum Vice President of Engineering Total Christian Television

AKRON, Ohio—What began as one Christian station in the Cincinnati area has exploded into a large network of broadcast stations helping to bring the Gospel message to the world, 24x7x365. Using cutting edge technology to provide the best in faith and family television, TCT has become a powerful voice for the Gospel with a mission to “Evangelize, Educate, Entertain, and Edify.”

Award-winning TCT Network programming is distributed to nearly 40 U.S. television stations, plus many satellite/cable tv providers, and OTT devices such as iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV, Tizen, and Xbox One.

collaborative problem-solving that has proven invaluable for our geographically dispersed team.

Quality control is essential for broadcast success, and our Actus has equipped us with a powerful platform to maintain our high standards. The system’s realtime monitoring and alerting capabilities allow us to identify and address issues such as audio dropouts, video freezing, or signal degradation, almost instantaneously. This allows our team to spot irregularities quickly and efficiently, which reduces downtime and ensures our viewers enjoy uninterrupted, high-quality programming.

STREAMLINED COMPLIANCE

from a potential headache into a streamlined, automated process.

The system’s comprehensive compliance logging features allow us to easily track and document our broadcast performance and ensure we’re meeting FCC requirements across all our stations.

The peace of mind this brings cannot be overstated.

We know that we’re not just protecting our broadcast license, but also reinforcing our credibility with viewers.

While quality control and compliance were our primary motivations for adopting Actus, we’ve discovered an unexpected benefit: improved operational efficiency. The system’s userfriendly interface has increased our team’s overall productivity and helps our team provide quick assistance to our viewers and programming partners.

The centralized monitoring capabilities have streamlined our operations, fostering better communication among team

RAISING THE BAR ON QC

In the world of broadcasting, the FCC imposes rigorous regulations for several items including Closed Captioning, adherence to the CALM Act, and airing proper EAS tests and alerts.

Actus Digital has transformed our approach to compliance

At TCT, we strive to deliver high-quality Christian content to our viewers. However, as our network has grown, maintaining consistent quality and regulatory compliance has become increasingly complex.

Actus Digital has been a gamechanging solution that has revolutionized our approach to quality control and provides us with an unprecedented level of visibility across our entire network.

The Actus Multiviewer offers our NOC engineering team in Akron a real-time panorama of all of our channels nationwide, but the system’s flexibility also allows unlimited simultaneous users to access live and recorded content from anywhere, at any time. This feature enables

While quality control and compliance were our primary motivations for adopting Actus, we’ve found that the system’s user-friendly interface has increased our team’s overall productivity and our operational efficiency.

Steven Crum is vice president of engineering for Radiant Life Ministries, TCT Network. He can be reached at sdc@tct.tv or 618997-4700.

More information is available at https://actusdigital.com.

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

Credit: istockphoto

TCT Maintains QC and Compliance With Actus

members. With everyone literally on the same page, we’ve seen faster problem resolution and a more cohesive approach to broadcasting across our entire network.

The Actus system has become an indispensable part of our quality assurance strategy, empowering us to maintain the best possible viewing experience across all our local stations. In the ever-evolving landscape of modern broadcasting, challenges are inevitable. But with Actus Digital, we’re confident in our ability to meet these challenges head-on.

At TCT, our mission has always been to spread the good news of salvation, hope, and faith through high-quality Christian programming. Thanks to Actus Digital, we’re now better equipped than ever to fulfill this mission, ensuring that our content not only reaches our viewers but does so with the clarity, consistency, and quality they deserve. l

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equipment guide | test/qc & signal monitoring/video monitors buyers briefs manifold manifold CLOUD

SmallHD Ultra 10

manifold CLOUD, a high-density ultra-low latency multiviewer, can process 1.6 Tbps in a single 1RU server by using the power of new FPGA accelerators available from multiple COTS IT vendors. It’s designed to handle the most demanding live sports, entertainment and news productions while simultaneously providing the benefits of scalability, resiliency, quick deployment and unified control. It was the multiviewer of choice for the virtualized broadcast production used in the Paris OIympics.

Its distributed architecture allows sources to be displayed on any output in any size with no limitations while still guaranteeing sub-frame latency end-to-end. In addition, every UHD source processed by the multiviewer generates a high-quality low latency 1080P proxy ST2110 stream for replay and graphics machines that otherwise have difficulties handling UHD. https://manifoldtech.tv

SmallHD’s new Ultra 10, 10-inch Smart Monitor Monitor with optional Bolt 6 integration, features up to 2,000 nits of brightness, touchscreen camera control, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, user-customizable dials, 6G-SDI architecture, and an IP54 rating in a highly mobile form factor.

As the largest SmallHD Ultra-Bright Monitor ever made, the Ultra 10 features sturdy multifunction knobs that enhance PageOS efficiency and navigation, daylight-viewable brightness, Camera ID and Tally Light Module (sold separately) for multicamera switching in studio mode, and 6G-SDI architecture for 4K workflows. Ultra 10 integrates with Teradek’s Bolt 4K and Bolt 6 wireless platforms, is designed for harsh production environments, features internal Bolt 6 antennas on RX models, optional camera control, and comes loaded with the next-generation PageOS 6 software toolkit. https://smallhd.com

Imagine Communications Selenio Network Processor SNP-MV

Bridge Technologies VB440

Imagine has introduced new features to its SNP-MV production multiviewer—one of the many products available in its widely deployed Selenio Network Processor (SNP). Recent releases add rendering for replay metadata, horizontal meters, SCTE-104, and tally support for Image Video and TSL5 protocols.

Deployed in SDI and IP production workflows worldwide, SNP-MV supports up to 36 PiPs across up to eight UHD canvases―with a full HDR processing pipeline behind every PiP―enabling content from different video formats and HDR systems to be integrated into a consistent display environment. www.imaginecommunications.com

The VB440 production probe includes a range of production tools that include— but are not limited to—HDR preview on SDR screens, a full range of colorimetry, vectorscopes and waveforms, multichannel audio with microphase, Gonion, LUFS and room meters, stereo downmix and channel isolation, as well readouts showing packet loss and jitter, media metadata, timing and deep packet analytics. It also incorporates a range of third-party integrations and support for leading AV standards.

These tools are available through a single VB440 appliance, accessible in real-time through any HTML-5 browser by up to eight users from anywhere in the world, making it particularly appealing for OB vans and anywhere space is at a premium. It can eliminate as many as 24 units of rack space, as well as countless waveform monitors, screens and control units. https://bridgetech.tv

Atomos Shinobi II

Hitomi MatchBox

Shinobi II is the latest addition to Atomos’s monitor-only line. Slimmer than its popular predecessor and with a brighter, 1500 nit touchscreen, the redesigned unit has a USB-C port, which allows it to control certain camera functions, a much-requested feature from Shinobi customers Shinobi II has sliders for adjusting white balance, lens aperture, shutter speed and ISO on more recent cameras from Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm and Z CAM. Powerful monitoring tools like histogram, waveform, false color, zebra, focus peaking and zoom make getting perfect exposure on every shot much easier. At IBC2024, Atomos announced the addition of on-monitor touch auto focus and focus subject tracking, in both photo and video camera modes, as a free update for all existing users on selected cameras. www.atomos.com

Hitomi’s MatchBox is a comprehensive test and measurement solution for broadcast environments, supporting SDI and ST 2110. This hybrid capability allows broadcasters to seamlessly transition to IP workflows while maintaining compatibility with existing SDI infrastructure. MatchBox offers precise lip-sync and latency measurement across SDI and IP networks, with the unique ability to measure timing differences between these workflows.

The system comprises a Generator, Analyser, and the free-todownload MatchBox Glass iOS app for on-location measurements.

MatchBox supports up to 4K UHD video and 16 channels of embedded or AES audio. It features advanced audio and video capabilities and a web interface for easy control. https://hitomi.tv

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equipment guide | test/qc & signal monitoring/video monitors buyers briefs Actus Digital QA Compliance Logger TV Logic LXM Series The LXM series monitors are TVLogic’s latest generation of 4K/UHD broadcast monitors incorporating innovative hardware and software solutions. The LXM series incorporates 12G-SDI Input(x4), 12G-SDI Output(x4), Reference(External Sync) input, HDMI 2.0 Input, SFP Input(x2) & Processed Monitor Output.

These new 4K/UHD monitors feature wide viewing angle IPS panel, various HDR EOTFs, Wide color gamut, 10-bit color depth, and Accurate Color Reproduction by 3D LUT support. Additionally, the LXM series monitors offer high-performance functions such as HDR-SDR Comparison, 12G-SDI Quad-View and Dual-View display, custom 3D LUT import, SFP to SDI conversion output, Processed monitor output, Waveform, Vectorscope, Audio Phase Meter, Firmware Update by Ethernet, and more. The LXM monitors are ideal for 4K live production, versatile monitoring in the studio and field location, edit suite and post-production. www.tvlogicusa.com

Actus QA Compliance Logger is scalable and custom-designed to support any and all physical inputs and IP formats required.

When monitoring multiple stations and locations, probe-points are neatly combined in an organized Alert Center with unlimited simultaneous user-access to customized Multiviewers and unique notification settings and capabilities based on each user’s role and needs.

Together with its Actus MV Multiviewer and OTT StreamWatch, the QA Compliance Logger offers 24x7 signal monitoring and quality control for immediate detection of issues and compliance with government regulations. https://actusdigital.com

Leader Electronics ZEN-W Series Leader’s next-generation ZEN-W Series, comprising the LV5600W waveform monitor and LV7600W rasterizer, incorporates a range of new features plus a Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) interface, allowing secure remote control and monitoring from a web-connected desktop or laptop computer.

The ZEN-W Series was conceived to help smooth technological migrations from SDI to IP,

PHABRIX QxP Phabrix QxP is a portable 12G-SDI, 25G ST 2110 combined waveform monitor, generator and analyzer, with mains and external DC power and a choice of V-mount or Gold-mount external camera battery plate.

The QxP offers the latest in Phabrix’s patented waveform technology, featuring a high-resolution image processing pipeline with support for deep color sources up to 12-bits, delivering all the fine detail needed for camera shading or image grading. Users can access a choice of overlay, stacked and parade display modes, with the option of multi-colored, highlighted, green or monochrome traces. https://leaderphabrix.com

HD to UHD, and SDR to HDR. The LV5600W is a 3U high half-rack-width unit with an integral 7-inch touchscreen display and the LV7600W occupies a compact 1U and incorporates SDI and TMDS monitor outputs. The ZEN-W Series supports all the T&M tools and options of the original ZEN Series. https://leaderphabrix.com

products & services marketplace

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

KARI GRUBIN

DAVID WISNIA

JOAQUIN DURO

NATHAN SPENCER

Hollywood Professional Association

NESN

NBCUniversal Telemundo

EMG/Gravity Media

New England Sports Network (NESN) has appointed David Wisnia president and CEO. He joins the company with experience at some of the most well-regarded companies in the network business, including Fox Sports, CBS and MGM Studios. Previously he was with Alvarez & Marsal, a management consulting firm, where he was a managing director, specializing in media and entertainment operations and strategy. Wisnia will oversee both NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh.

NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises has named Joaquin Duro EVP of Sports. He will lead Telemundo Deportes, the network’s sports division, as well as manage Spanish-language event coverage, including FIFA World Cup properties, the Olympic Games and NFL Sunday Night Football, among others, working closely with NBC Sports and Peacock. Most recently, Duro was SVP of AVOD Streaming and Digital for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. Duro joined Telemundo in 2014.

Netherlands-based EMG/Gravity Media has appointed Nathan Spencer the managing director of its American operations. With more than 30 years of experience he will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of EMG/Gravity Media’s business in America, including strategic planning, business development and operational management. He will work closely with the global leadership team and alongside Jamie Hindhaugh to deliver on the combined business’s U.S. objectives.

The HPA Board of Directors has announced that Kari Grubin will succeed Seth Hallen as president of HPA on January 1. She becomes the first woman to lead the organization and only its third president. Grubin is a recognized expert in technology, consultative expertise and post-production services, and has the experience and vision to drive HPA through the next phase of the industry’s evolution, the group said.

She has served as an HPA Board Member since 2020.

NICK PEMBERTON

ANDY HENDRICKSON

DEREK SCHNELL

SALLY-ANN D’AMATO

Lawo

Federal Communications Commission

Hearst Television

SMPTE

Derek Schnell has been promoted to regional director of news for Hearst Television. He will oversee news operations for Hearst’s California stations, KCRA/KQCA and KSBW-TV, the NBC affiliate in the Monterey-Salinas market, and its Albuquerque, N.M., ABC affiliate KOAT-TV. He will also be more involved in the company’s groupwide news initiatives. Since 2018 he has served as news director of KCRA-TV and KQCA-TV,’s NBC- and CW-affiliated stations in Sacramento.

SMPTE has named Sally-Ann D’Amato its interim executive director, following the resignation of David Grindle. D’Amato, currently director of events and governance liaison, has been with the organization for the past 23 years. SMPTE President Reynard Jenkins said D’Amato “has a deep understanding of the society’s operations and mission of driving advancements in motion imaging and media technology and will ensure continuity in its initiatives during a time of transition.”

Lawo has hired Nick Pemberton to serve as the company’s global partner, business development director. He will be responsible for leading the strategic and commercial development of the company’s global partner ecosystem. The 20year industry veteran joins Lawo from Avid Technology, where he led the EMEA channel partner management team. He has also held international leadership posts with Sennheiser and Harman, having begun his career as a sound engineer.

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The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has appointed Andy Hendrickson its first CTO to provide strategic and technical advice on developments and issues with respect to the bureau’s work. Hendrickson was a private-sector executive in telecom for more than 20 years. Previously, as senior director of technology at Verizon Communications, he was instrumental in the rollout of its 5G network and the engineering and operations of the Verizon Cloud Platform.

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