TVB Europe 64 - May 2019 by Future PLC

Intelligence for the media & entertainment industry

MAY 2019

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW!

MAY 2019

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CONTENT

A CAVALCADE OF CONTENT

ince we last met, two major companies have confirmed their intention to launch video on demand services later this year. Apple finally confirmed their plans to enter the media and entertainment industry with the launch of Apple TV+ (although they didn’t tell us exactly when they’ll be entering the market), while Disney confirmed its SVoD will debut to subscribers in the US on 12th November. For consumers, the emergence of new players in the SVoD market will mean even more content to choose from - although at a price. Of the two, I would say Disney has more chance of hoovering up the cash as it intends to launch with pre-existing IP: The Mandalorian, set in the Star Wars universe, spin-offs for Marvel superheroes Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Vision, and even Tom Hiddleston’s super villain Loki; and Disney+ will become the streaming home of The Simpsons, thanks to Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. There are rumours Apple might offer its content to existing customers, which would certainly help get eyes on the screen. But it remains to be seen if that’s true. As always, new entrants into the streaming market means new opportunities for technology vendors. How are those services delivering their content to viewers? Which CDN will they use? Where will the content be stored, in the Cloud, on prem, or both?

Editor: Jenny Priestley jenny.priestley@futurenet.com Staff Writer: Dan Meier dan.meier@futurenet.com Graphic Designer: Marc Miller marc.miller@futurenet.com Managing Design Director: Nicole Cobban nicole.cobban@futurenet.com Contributors: George Jarrett, Philip Stevens

Will Disney or Apple deliver content in 4K, with Dolby Atmos, will they branch out into interactive programming, a la Black Mirror: Bandersnatch? There are many questions to be answered over the coming months. Also since we last met, the media technology industry has decamped to Las Vegas for NAB Show. This was my first visit to NAB and I found it really inspiring to meet so many colleagues and learn about the new technology coming into the industry in the coming months. You’ll definitely be reading all about it here!

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This month, we are celebrating the annual music fest that is Eurovision! Whether or not you’re a fan, you have to admit the live show is always a spectacular production. Philip Stevens talks to head of production Ola Melzig about staging one of Europe’s most popular programmes. Plus, George Jarrett meets Pluto TV’s European MD Olivier Jollet to discuss the streamer’s recent acquisition by Viacom; and Dan Meier visits Red Bee Media’s new R&D Lab. n

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JENNY PRIESTLEY, EDITOR

TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 3

IN THIS ISSUE

MAY 2019

10 The need to lean back George Jarrett asks Pluto TV’s Olivier Jollet how its acquisition by Viacom helps the business

18 What happened in Vegas

Jenny Priestley reports back from her first NAB Show

20 Going for a song Ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest, Philip Stevens looks behind the production of the broadcast

26 Highlighting the best in sport

Reuters Sport VP Rob Shack on the changing landscape of sports coverage

31 Uncharted waters

AP’s Sandy Macintyre tells Dan Meier how the organisation broadcast live from under the sea

42 Wild about wildlife

Philip Stevens meets head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit Julian Hector

50 Driving into storage

Quantum’s Jamie Lerner talks to Jenny Priestley about the company’s work around driverless cars

53 A sound investment

58 Over the top and through AI to big data’s house we go

Tinopolis head of sound Gareth Evans discusses the studio’s SSL audio upgrade

Qligent COO Ted Korte explores the insights offered by AI and machine learning

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Making History: Preserving the past and the present with digital transformation By Grant Caley, NetApp CTO, UK & Ireland

s the traditional world of broadcast media digitally transforms, what happens to the programmes we love – and will they be lost in the datasphere as streams of fresh content rolls in? In a word, no. With increasingly sophisticated data management, broadcasters can not only archive thousands of hours of programming, making it available to fans around the world, they can make it available within minutes. As human beings, the desire to preserve our culture is fundamental and the digital revolution might mean saying goodbye to hardcopies, but content will be more widely available and accessible than ever before. Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the UK’s much-loved children’s show Blue Peter and to celebrate the BBC digitised every episode. Bringing new meaning to the iconic catchphrase “Here’s one I made earlier…”, the move goes beyond our innate penchant for nostalgia, it underscores precisely how our favourite shows can stay relevant. Moving with the times, ensuring another 60 years is on the cards for tomorrow’s children – simply put, digitally transforming. More than 50,000 episodes have aired since Blue Peter began in 1953 and it is something of an institution. However, the show has staved off competition from popular YouTube channels, maintaining its original values while embracing its own digital transformation. By digitising all episodes of Blue Peter, the preservation and continued enjoyment of these culturally symbolic shows is ensured for generations to come – and the historians beyond. But what does this kind of undertaking require? Over in Israel, Galatz Radio digitised 90,000 hours of radio pro-

gramming – dating right back to 1950 – in its quest to pass down its cultural history and traditions. With 56 per cent of the country tuning into today’s broadcasts, the station’s digital transformation journey, involving the transference process from tape to digital, was seen as more than just a labour of love, but a step towards cultural preservation for the nation. The passing down of cultural history and traditions is found in every culture, the world over. Storytelling, song, and paintings are just a few of the ways civilisations have preserved their heritage. But Israel draws on a unique resource to preserve its history and educate future generations: Army Radio, or, in Hebrew, Galey Tzahal, is the radio station commonly called Galatz Radio. In 1950, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) established Galatz Radio to communicate military messages and bolster morale with three to four hours of programming each day. In 1993, IDF expanded programming to 24 hours per day when it added Galgalatz Radio for music and current events. Today, over half the country tunes into the two stations, and past programming is regularly used in both educational and cultural settings. “We had over 90,000 hours of programming on tapes, and we use those programmes every day,” explains Yitzhak Pasternak, vice president of technology for Galatz Radio. Over time, using the programming on tapes became time consuming, cumbersome, and risky because the tapes are fragile. “It took too long to find and carefully load the tapes to re-air them. And those tapes were our only copy. We needed to preserve the data, make programming

‘The desire to preserve our heritage through digitisation might mean a heavy-lift ‘back-of-house’ job, but the results can mean more than archiving.’ 06 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

OPINION AND ANALYSIS accessible, and get a backup strategy in place.” In 2008, Galatz Radio embarked on a digital transformation to better serve existing listeners and reach new audiences. The transformation included digitising its archives and moving them to a Cloud storage infrastructure. The three-year process secured the archives and decreased the time to access previous programming from weeks to minutes. “Digitising 130,000 hours of programming took three years. 90,000 hours were on fragile quarter-inch analogue tapes, so the process was careful and time consuming,” affirms Pasternak. “It was a complete success, and today, everything on both stations is recorded digitally and stored in the Cloud.” The digitising project also prepared the organisation for migrating to the Cloud. “IDF bought space with Microsoft Azure, and I knew that’s where we wanted to move Galatz Radio. Potential cost savings were a big driver for us.” Now that Galatz Radio has migrated to the Cloud, it is easily able to access its archival materials at any time. “We pull from the mirror site, which is also our primary backup

and recovery site,” says Pasternak. “Now, we are looking to make all our programming available to the public via our website. We want to make our recorded history available to anyone in the world.” The desire to preserve our heritage through digitisation might mean a heavy-lift ‘back-of-house’ job, but the results can mean more than archiving – but reconnecting with previously old ‘black-and-white’ film moments. Last year, to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, old footage from a 1964 documentary series The Great War was revived using 21st Century technology to digitally restore and colourise. The result was Peter Jackson’s film They Shall Not Grow Old, which hit the big screen, opening up the debate as to whether this was simply a documentary, or a digital work of art? There are many ways that digital transformation can bring important content into the 21st Century. With data-driven innovations, we can do more than disrupt and invent, we can preserve and celebrate our heritage – building greater connections with a shared heritage. After all, what is the future without its past? n

‘With data-driven innovations, we can do more than disrupt and invent, we can preserve and celebrate our heritage.’

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OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Monitoring and metadata By Erik Otto, CEO, Mediaproxy

roadcasting has changed considerably in the last 20 years, both for broadcasters themselves and manufacturers. Technology was previously dominated by ‘the box’, hardware that would perform a specific function or task. Connected to other boxes it formed part of an overall system that could be run and monitored by human operators looking after a few linear channels. This combination of hardware and software was needed to ensure that everything in the broadcast chain worked as it should, not an easy thing to achieve because video is complex and difficult to make work reliably. The reliance on baseband and bespoke equipment, made for a rigid infrastructure meant it was almost impossible for the user to create something customised for their specific needs. With the advent of IP inputs it has become feasible to use commercial off the shelf (COTS) equipment such as computers and servers developed for the IT industry, with the network interface card (NIC) effectively becoming both input and output spigot. This allows the software to be decoupled from the hardware for an installation designed not to rely on dedicated components. At the same time the broadcast landscape was undergoing significant change in terms of distribution and consumer technology. Satellite TV had already brought many more channels, but digital terrestrial took the capacity for multiple services and added better picture quality combined with interactivity. Streaming and OTT services have gone even further, doing away with the traditional linear broadcast approach and making programming available on a wide variety of devices and platforms. Digital transmission had already made individual monitoring of channels by eye and ear impractical, but OTT and streaming meant yet more content and sources to keep track of. This resulted in the new challenge of ever-expanding scale, with the potential of new channels being established quickly for a proliferation of emerging consumer platforms. Now that modern IP standards such as SMPTE ST 2110 have been ratified for broadcast production that enables OTT and streaming distribution, it is incumbent on broadcasters and manufacturers alike to implement methods of monitoring and correcting the many streams carrying video and audio content. The human operator

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is not obsolete but software compliance, monitoring and analysis programs such as LogServer, developed by Mediaproxy, provide an efficient and effective ‘first defence’ for traditional broadcasters and the new generation of OTT, on-demand and streaming services. It enables technicians to turn around incidents very quickly using comprehensive software tools that adapt as the technology and requirements evolve. An important component in all this is metadata. The more information about the media and transmission that can be provided, the better experience and greater control over viewership. This includes audience measurements using audio watermarks and targeted or geo-fenced ad insertion for OTT. Metadata associated with video files has become the standard way to identify programmes. It also stores information that describes the content and how it was set up, enabling analysis programs to compare material in the distribution chain to the original and identify any deviations or anomalies throughout the entire post production process. Predefined metadata parameters are also important in searching for material, using As-Run Logs, merged documents or files detailing when something was transmitted on a particular channel. The reality is that traditional monitoring approaches do not directly relate to OTT streams. They are different and require another approach to monitoring. Broadcasters also forget that they are now playing in a ‘civilian’ environment as well as a professional one. Everyone has let go of their streams to allow the likes of Google, Hulu, Fubo and Sony PlayStation to redistribute them. The end result is that broadcasters are trying to work out how to make sure end users are still able to watch their content with reliable quality and commercials are tracked for playout verification. This dilemma is not going to go away quickly. The number of OTT streams is only going to increase and keeping track of them all as they go to a wide range of platforms is going to be daunting. The best approach is to have a unified system for monitoring compliance and identifying any problems on both linear and OTT distribution chains. It’s really going to be the only way to survive in the multi-format world of the future. n

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Sound advice for creatives By Greg Gettens, head of broadcast factual sound, Molinare TV & Film

orking in the media industry the number one question I inevitably get asked from family and friends is “How can I upgrade my home viewing experience?”. There’s 55 inch, 65inch, LED, OLED, HD, 4K, 8K (Sony have even just created a colossal 16K TV screen), Dolby Vision, HDR, 8-bit, 10-bit... the seemingly endless lists and myriad choices available can lead to all manner of confusion. The answer is simple – the best way to upgrade your home viewing experience is with an amp and a set of speakers. TV speakers vary hugely in their ability to deliver a good listening experience - so pound for pound even an entry level amp and set of speakers or soundbar will be a drastic improvement over the majority of builtin efforts. Those who have followed this advice have been astonished by the results. Why? Because sound is at the very least 50 per cent of a programme. It can open up a whole new world in the home viewing experience that viewers previously never knew existed. A good soundtrack can elevate a programme to the greatest of heights. It can convey time, space, location, even the temperature of the pictures being viewed. It can also affect viewers in both a psychological and a physiological manner through both the choice of sounds and the dynamics of the soundtrack. Unlike picture, sound is not constrained to the viewing area – it can infiltrate your lounge and surround you in a way that only pictures could dream of, especially with the advent of surround sound and immersive audio formats. Imagine the classic scene from any horror film – you know the jump scare is coming, and when it does, most people will squeeze their eyes shut or look away – very few people will put their fingers in their ears. In the same vein, a static shot of a house can be transformed through sound. On the most basic of levels, is it a nice neighbourhood? Are there birds singing in the trees, lawnmowers mowing and the sounds of dogs barking and kids playing? Or is it more uncomfortable than that, with heavy traffic, angry car horns, planes flying overhead and the sounds of distant sirens? So why should creatives and content providers be

concerned with sound? Well for the very reasons listed above. In the same way that sound can open up a whole new world in the viewing experience, the appreciation of sound by producers and directors can have a similar effect in the creative process. A good understanding of how sound can be used and manipulated in both production and post can be hugely advantageous for filmmakers in realising their ambitions for their projects and elevating the end result to the next level. High-quality sound, once restricted to the large budget productions of feature films, is now expected, indeed required, across all levels of production in both the drama and more recently the factual genres. With these higher quality requirements comes the need for more time and thought to be given to the audio post production of their projects. High-end feature documentaries are now requiring a full dialogue editorial, sound design, Foley and even ADR to bring them up to the levels expected by both viewers and distributors. “Foley? In a documentary?!” You better believe it! There are also ongoing trials being conducted in the field with multi-pattern microphones to capture multichannel audio on location to enhance and assist in the creation of an ‘immersive soundtrack’. Broadcasters and streaming services are also fully aware and on board with the importance of sound in their productions. Alongside the technological advancements in pictures there is a quiet revolution taking place in sound with Amazon, Netflix and Sky now requiring Native Dolby Atmos mixes as a delivery requirement. The overall aim is to provide the viewer with a high-quality, truly immersive soundtrack across all programme genres no matter what device they choose to view content on. This request for native Dolby Atmos from streaming services coupled with the higher quality requirements from a programme’s soundtrack is changing the traditional workflows in sound post from both a technological and creative point of view, so an understanding and appreciation of these new workflows is essential for content producers. Having a “sound plan” from the very beginning is therefore an essential part of production. n

TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 09

FEATURE

THE NEED TO LEAN BACK George Jarrett talks to Pluto TV European MD Olivier Jollet about being a part of Viacom and the immense value of being free to consumers

iacom’s recent acquisition of Pluto TV for $340 million makes it an independent subsidiary of a global media empire active in 180 countries, and one of the best bits of business Viacom president and CEO Bob Bakish has ever pulled off. Pluto delivers 100+ channels and thousands of on-demand movies in the US, working with over 130 content partners, and it has the proud stat of 12 million monthly users. To get a fuller picture of the master of free streaming, TVBEurope spoke to Olivier Jollet, who joined Pluto TV in 2016 as part of the acquisition of the German OTT service Quazer, of which he was co-founder. He is now managing director, Europe for Pluto TV. A view of the acquisition could be that even Viacom could not have instigated and repeated what Pluto TV has achieved for the money paid. How does Jollet summarise the respective benefits for both parties? “It is a perfect match, and a fantastic success story for us. We share exactly the same visions and have complementary assets. And we can help Viacom build its OTT business and its direct to consumer business. At the same time there are all the assets it is bringing in the balance – the structure of a big corporation,” he says. “It is a fantastic help for Pluto, which is essentially still a start-up.” “There are many free areas for Pluto where we can massively leverage the fact that we now belong to Viacom, and the first one is the content,” he adds. “It is obvious

10 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

when you run an OTT service, it is all about content. Viacom is a fantastic licensor, and it has many thousands of programme hours that have not been licensed to some of the streaming services. “They have fantastic brands like Paramount, and Channel 5 in the UK, and it is obvious we are going to benefit from all the Viacom assets. We are currently working out what we may bring and what Viacom brings,” Jollet continues. “We are going to keep our strategy, which is working with everybody in the industry, focusing on launching new thematic channels, and increasing massively the quality and quantity of the content available on our platform.” How often does Pluto TV get asked to put up experimental or short-term event-linked channels? “The pop-up channel is a trend. Being a digital service you can play with that, which is the beauty of digital versus broadcast. Traditional and very conservative broadcasters find that change is a big process to manage, but a digital service can launch a pop up channel because something happened yesterday,” says Jollet. When it comes to specific content what did Pluto TV do in the UK, for example? “We launched a lot of very famous series, like Unsolved Mysteries, which had been popular 20 years ago. And we build the pop-up channels around those cult series. People in the UK are watching that kind of content like crazy, because we play with the nostalgia of users.”

TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 11

FEATURE

“There are many free areas for Pluto where we can massively leverage the fact that we now belong to Viacom, and the first one is the content.” OLIVIER JOLLET

LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING YOU KNOW It is easy to wonder how, as a start-up, Pluto TV became successful so quickly. Did CEO Tom Ryan see something that nobody else had latched onto? “When Tom and Ilya Pozin founded the company in 2014 the vision was to build an impact product in the OTT world. It was like bringing a linear driven product in the age of on-demand, and bringing a free product in the age of subscription,” explains Jollet. “At first nobody believed in us, but we have a product that looks like something you know – the EPG which your family uses. “You grew up with TV and channels, and we wanted to take the best of television, add some digital elements and a new way of creating content. This manoeuvre has been proven right,” he adds. “We have the best product and want to prove that linear has a future. Everybody was saying linear TV is dying, but whilst we are fans of TV we are making it in a different way.” Pluto TV could claim to have recreated the TV landscape, but it could not recreate international media cultures. “In the USA it is completely different to Europe, because free television does not exist in America. The average household payout for pay-TV is a lot of family dollars, and way more expensive than what we see in Europe,” says Jollet. “It was an interesting market when we were founded in the US, because we said we wanted to launch a free TV product. For Europe we need to find a new approach because free TV is there and it is still very strong.” The trick of re-inventing what has existed whilst addressing a more digital-driven audience, the same consumers that left television behind, is Pluto TV’s A game. “TV is still working very well, but more for the older audience,” says Jollet. “People want to consume more than in the past because access to the watching experience is easier than ever before with Facebook, Instagram, Pluto, Netflix, plus terrestrial TV. You are confronted by a viewing experience on an hourly basis. “One of the key challenges in the OTT world is how to distribute to users and how to engage with them,” he adds.

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Pluto TV is an app sitting on over a dozen of the top industry platforms, so will it catch the contagious bug of commissioning its own content any time soon? “It is not part of the strategy, and there is a very simple reason for that,” says Jollet. “There is still so much content available in the market, which has not been monetised on any OTT platform. That’s the beauty of what we do. “We need a lot of content that’s for sure, because we are trying to target every single niche. But there is no shortage of content,” he adds. “The advertising supported business in the OTT world has always been like a bad boy of the industry, and the big studios did not want to give their content to an ad-supported platform. They preferred to sell their rights to Netflix or to television, either free or pay-TV.” Then the mindset changed as commercial wisdom won through. “People started to realise that the revenue expectation of ad-supported business can actually be incredibly high, and that is a huge game changer,” says Jollet. “In order to make a great product you need great content, and content does remain king. There are a lot of rights that are held back by big broadcasters, which are not monetised, or they sit in back catalogues. “Our ambition at Pluto has always been to entertain the planet. From day one we strongly believed that we were building an international product, and that there is a place for a lean back product in the OTT world,” he adds. “We have managed to be super successful because we have over 12 millions users of our English spoken offering.” Pluto TV launched local content services in the UK and Germany, and it is looking to address the massive Spanish speaking communities in the US. Most of its audience is watching in the living room on connected TV devices. “It is obvious that the Spanish language content will open new doors for Pluto and Viacom, but we cannot comment on any further language related expansion,” says a grinning Jollet. “What is really strong is that we are creating an inventory, combining the power of TV and a quality of adverts which is similar to what you have on TV.” Jollet is talking about digital measuring and targeting capacity and combining the best values of two worlds.

FEATURE “That opens brand new doors for advertisers. What people usually forget is that they are the biggest losers from the evolution of TV. They used to have mega buck budgets for TV, but the ratings are going down and then down,” he says. “Advertisers still have their budget, and they are thinking ‘where should I invest, should I go digital or should I go mobile?’ But the potential impact of mobile campaigns is not the same as a TV campaign,” Jollet adds. “There is an interesting phenomenon currently in the market when it comes to what kind of targeting or personalisation capacities we have. Actually, the content is not personalised yet, although we do have a couple of interesting projects in hand. But our ad breaks are personalised.” THE CHALLENGE IS TO EDUCATE Jollet believes that the most important thing here is not having the technical capacity to do targeted ads. “Most important is the creation of the spots. One of the key roles in the commissioning has to be taken by the advertising agency: it needs to be creative when it comes to what kind of concept it wants for OTT and mobile exposure,” he says. “Everybody in the industry needs to work together to make this a big market, and it starts at the beginning with the agency working with marketing people, then with the media agencies, and then the publishers.” The value chain will soon work well once it considers market expectations that OTT advertising will create $80 billion worth of revenues within three years. It then starts to be as big as TV ads. Jollet is not impressed with the way people have optimised their ad campaigns to be played on YouTube, cutting them shorter and shorter. “In six-second commercials you cannot tell a story, you cannot communicate the USP of a product. The challenge is to educate because this OTT inventory of targeted ads could be high value,” he argues. “We are not about six-second ads. We are talking about TV ads with digital targeting capacity. If you want to address a specific audience we can do that for you. But TV was not able to do this because everything was based on programming structure.” Pluto TV has partnerships with TV networks, film studios, digital media outlets, and publishers, the last group being a fast-growing sector. “What is difficult is being able to build the platform,” says Jollet. “All these big publishers, especially the premium ones, face the challenges of identifying a digital strategy, deciding where to put their content, and deciding whether to produce content, but the most important

question they must solve is, where can I find my audience? “There are strong synergies, but what probably won’t work is if every single publisher and media outlet starts to build their own platforms,” he adds. “All the big media houses are trying to get a big part of the cake that is the TV budget, but it is not that easy.” A SYSTEM THAT ADBLOCKERS CANNOT RECOGNISE When Pluto TV built its system it solved the issue of buffering around ad delivery. Jollet pinpoints two elements. “You don’t want the half a second of black screen between content and ads. That is a killer,” he says. “That is the reason TV is still better than any other linear platform. “The first part is the user experience, and the second is creating a system that ad blockers cannot recognise. There is no system that can block the Pluto TV ads because it is stitched into the stream.” Pluto TV’s tech team gave it one big card – being free. “It is important, especially in the world we are living in. People start worrying about having multiple subscriptions, so the willingness to pay is now limited,” says Jollet. “Being a digital service, everything is Cloud for us, and it makes content stream delivery to our 12 million users easy, and it also makes the international roll-out much easier.” Streaming is an easy way to cruise into 4K. “We are living in a world where technology is a part of our society, and every new technology is helping in certain ways to make the world better and to make business better,” says Jollet. “But the technology does not mean a media player is going to be successful. The most important thing is to understand how to use the technology, and how to build a product. We created an ecosystem which is making the consumption of content easier for consumers, and this is the reason a lot of services don’t survive. They forget the users.” n

“Technology does not mean a media player is going to be successful. The most important thing is to understand how to use the technology, and how to build a product.” OLIVIER JOLLET

TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 13

FEATURE

SURROUND

SOUND Jenny Priestley meets 1.618 Digital founder, Oliver Kadel

PICTURED TOP RIGHT: Oliver Kadel

14 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

liver Kadel has worked with some of the world’s best known brands in his career, including the BBC, Discovery Channel, John Lewis, Samsung and Google. After starting out as an audio engineer and sound recordist, in 2014 he founded 1.618 Digital which offers immersive and spatial audio solutions for 360-degree video, interactive VR/AR media, mobile applications and intelligent audio branding. Kadel supported himself through college picking up any work he could find within audio, which gave him the opportunity to work in the live sound industry, music industry, studio and on location. “Towards the end of my degree I started being involved more and more with film productions, working on location sound, and recording music for film scores. I was gradually building my portfolio, my skills and experience,” he explains. “In the early days of my career I was involved in all kinds of sectors within the audio industry,” says Kadel. “It was all just a bit messy and I felt a need to stay organised and give myself a bit of a brand and online presence and I just wanted to consolidate all of the things I’d been involved with, so I decided to put it all under one umbrella.”

Thus, 1.618 Digital was born. Based in Hackney Wick in East London, the company works primarily in spatial audio. Kadel describes it as a boutique company embracing the evolution of new digital media. “Our focus is on innovation around immersive audio for new formats, which include virtual reality, augmented reality, 360 video and the whole plethora of experiences that converge in different formats and different types of media. “We still work in traditional productions as well, such as short films, documentaries, branded content, advertising, gaming, content for social media and mobile. Occasionally we work on art installations or music projects. There are so many things it’s hard to put us into one category.” Kadel says he expects audio for augmented reality to continue to develop and advance in 2019. “There’s a lot to unpack when you talk about audio for augmented reality,” he admits. “If you think about virtual reality you are essentially immersed into some kind of metaverse, so a complete replacement of your actual physical environment. The key difference when you compare that with augmented reality is that you are interacting with the real world, a real space. So if you’re in the real world and there’s lots of

FEATURE noise and buzz where you are, the audio would have to be superimposed on top of what’s happening around you. “The majority of augmented reality content is assembled or implemented in a game engine, something like Unity, for example,” Kadel continues. “So if an augmented reality experience or demo involved a flying object, you would implement something that generates sound live or like a pre-rendered asset into the game engine, and then assign it to the moving object. Then depending on the platform, be it a smart device or an AR headset such as Magic Leap, you have to use headphones, for example AR One by Sennheiser that offer a Transparent Hearing feature, or if it has in-built speakers you would hear the sound coming from the small speakers that are placed right next to your ears. There are so many innovative applications of using augmented and mixed reality, using it for training, education, military, medical applications, situational awareness, music, entertainment, gaming, the list goes on. We’re just scratching the surface.” One of 1.618’s more recent projects is Common Ground, an immersive journey into the history and legacy of one of the most controversial housing estates in Britain, the Aylesbury Estate in Walworth, South London. The Estate is currently undergoing demolition and a regeneration programme. Darren Emmerson from East City Films won a commission through CreativeXR to fund a film about the concrete monument and the history of social housing in the UK. “What’s unique about this project is that it’s a documentary which involves photogrammetry and loads of 360 footage,” explains Kadel. “You have sections of linear film where you essentially just follow the story and listen to the interviews, and then also the interactive scenes where you are immersed into a particular location, which was captured through a high number of still images and reconstructed into a 3D model later on in post production. “So, you might be able to open a door, push the lift button or pick up a spray can. It’s a new way of storytelling where you’re combining the linear with interactive.” The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April and will also be shown at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June. “The reviews we’ve had so far have been amazing, people have been completely immersed in the story.” The production process for recording the audio for Common Ground was similar to the methodology used for production audio for traditional film. Kadel and his team were working on set with a crew and capturing production audio, and then carrying out traditional post production such as dialogue editing. He used ambisonic microphones and mono microphones like booms or discreet lavalier, assembling the audio in post production. “It’s mainly about people, it’s mainly about the interviews, capturing the soundscape of that place and conveying that in an authentic way,” he explains. “The difference is that because it’s 360

we have to work with ambisonics and that enables us to capture 3D audio, which is essential for head tracking for 360 videos. Then obviously we do 3D audio post later on as well. “In terms of the sound design and music for Common Ground, it’s non fiction, but it’s very stylistic, and in some moments quite hyper-realistic in order to enhance the message and create some drama and suspense,” continues Kadel. “When it comes to the interactive scenes, I suppose the method is very similar to what you would typically do for a game. You implement audio assets in the game engine and make them behave and interact in a particular way. The whole project was done in 3rd order ambisonics where we essentially mixed the soundtrack across 16 channels, which greatly adds to the envelopment and spatial audio resolution in general.” Kadel is obviously very passionate about immersive audio and the possibilities it holds for content creators. Asked why, he admits it’s a tough question to answer: “I was really lucky to be involved with spatial audio production at such an early stage of my career. I experienced the difference compared to traditional formats, which are still very relevant and very powerful, but what I started to realise was that new age formats can really introduce a whole level of engagement, of immersion, of interactivity. “It just takes whatever you do, be it storytelling or some kind of practical application, to that extra level and it’s exciting, engaging and memorable as a result. The real world is so immersive, and so visceral as we experience it in everyday life. So with digital content, whatever the nature of the content is, the audio needs to either enhance it or be as compelling as the actual world.” n

“There are so many innovative applications of using augmented and mixed reality. We’re just scratching the surface.” OLIVER KADEL TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 15

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IMPROVING ADVERTISER ENGAGEMENT IN SPORT Virtual Replacement Technology enables brands to target specific live audiences and offer more targeted, relevant messaging, says Ross Hair, managing director, Supponor

ED perimeter systems have traditionally been installed to allow brands, sponsors and advertisers to create valuable associations with sports, clubs and leagues to promote their products and services to highly engaged audiences. Increased global demand for live sport has vastly increased the attraction of TV visible signage alongside the field of play as a platform for global brand reach, which is especially valuable to increase the value and impact of team and league sponsorship activation. Top tier sports remain one of the few remaining live broadcast phenomena, making it hugely valuable for any brand looking to reach a large audience of passionate fans in real-time. While this has generated millions of pounds and euros for rights owners, it has sometimes reduced the relevance of the messaging, both to fans in the stadium and at home. Until recently, in-stadia messages have necessarily been fairly generic in trying to appeal to a globally sold sponsorship, a potential negative for both the rights owner and brand promoter. Uptake of virtual replacement technology is on the rise. Developed by companies such as Supponor and used by some of the world’s most forward-thinking sports rights owners, a revolution in sports advertising is on the horizon. Virtual replacement technology is multi-feed, and therefore can be scaled to many feeds in linear, or unlimited feeds in OTT. Available inventory can be multiplied and highly targeted, increasing overall value and engagement for both brands and fans. Virtual overlays of existing advertising are now seamlessly integrated into the broadcast environment, carrying activation messages specific to the region and fans viewing them. Global sponsors can reach a global TV audience but drill down to highly

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specific messages for individual regions or demographics. The same inventory can be sold to multiple regional sponsors to address their specific markets of interest. Importantly, local regulatory compliance can be assured when advertising, for example, alcohol or gambling without affecting other regional regulatory rules. Virtual replacement technology is not only about TV but can be integrated into OTT or video streaming platforms. New sports broadcast entrants such as DAZN and Eleven Sports are investing millions in buying up regional live sports rights. OTT provides a direct connection to a viewer, with data allowing increasing awareness and insight. This data provides the fuel to allow virtual, hyper-targeted messages directly onto the perimeter advertising boards of the games being watched. Using virtual replacement technology, an interactive message can be delivered direct to the device, with clickable ‘calls to action’. Whether live in-play betting odds, personalised for the individual or ‘Hey

Joe, it’s nearly half-time, click here to have your favourite pizza delivered in time for the break’… the possibilities are endless. Equally, the same tools can be used to overlay traditional in-stadium physical areas with more dynamic and varied content, such as live social media feeds or statistics from the game. Virtual replacement technology is gaining momentum, with many European football leagues and US sports federations including the NBA, NFL and NHL deploying virtual solutions. In Germany’s Bundesliga, it is used for all of Borussia Dortmund’s home games and many of its away games. In Spain, La Liga deploys the technology for the away games of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. The FA and ITV have begun to use it for England internationals, while many Premier League and Championship clubs are investing in virtual-enabled systems ready for future exploitation. The benefits for rights-holders, brands and audiences alike are clear to see. 2019 promises to be a busy year for anyone involved in virtual replacement technology. n

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WHAT HAPPENED Jenny Priestley reports on her first visit to NAB Show

’m not sure anything quite prepares you for your first NAB Show. Certainly not the warnings about the amount of walking you’ll do, or the Las Vegas weather, or the late nights. Having returned, and sort of recovered, from my first trip to both NAB and Vegas I’m not sure those warnings quite prepared me for the madness of running around the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Of course my experience of NAB is very different to most people. While most vendors might get the chance to step off their stand and have a look at what their colleagues within the industry are up to, I spent my time running from South Hall to North Hall via Central and back again. Returning to London I felt energised (despite the jetlag), and thoroughly enjoyed spending my time talking to colleagues in the industry. Trade shows are great learning experiences and NAB 2019 was no exception. The main topic of conversation, it seemed to me, appeared to be around Cloud. American broadcasters and content owners appear to have embraced Cloud more than their European counterparts, who seem to be sticking to a hybrid of on-prem and Cloud as they wait to see who will be the first to move completely to the Cloud. As Brick Eksten, CTO, playout and networking solutions at Imagine Communications put it, European broadcasters are in “a race for third place. Noone wants to be first.” However, according to Dominic Harland, CEO and CTO of GB Labs, the term hybrid is completely useless: “I think it’s one of those terms that’s very open to interpretation.” GB Labs has been offering customers Cloud integration with its on-prem storage for six or seven years. “The question is, do content owners want to use the Cloud as an archive, are they using it as nearline storage, or are they hybriding their online storage to the Cloud,

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are they using the Cloud as a shuttle area or a common area? There’s a whole variety of ways in which it could be defined. I’m being a bit flippant but I know that a number of people are saying the latest buzzword seems to be hybrid storage. Well we’ve been able to do that for a very long time, and so it’s just really how you want to be able to use that.” Does Harland agree that the American media and entertainment industry has embraced Cloud more than its European counterpart? “I get mixed reports from different territories,” he says. “There are customers who perhaps

have said they don’t want to use LTO tapes for archiving anymore, why am I buying storage for my facility that I have to power and I have to cool when I can just put it in the Cloud? They’ve made considerable investment in placing data into various Cloud solutions for archive purposes, and what I hear from a number of them is that they actually realise that their archive is worth money and because it’s worth money, they actually need to access that. That’s when Cloud can in most instances become quite costly. But by moving it away from on-premise, content owners suddenly realise that while it’s great that they’ve got online storage, they’ve no longer got archive storage, so when they download it, they’ve got to put it somewhere. Then there’s the choice of do you put it online, or put it on some sort of nearline, and then have to move it to online? So it can create more issues potentially.” So while the industry continues to discuss where to store its content, I’m off to rest my weary feet. Roll on NAB 2020! n

FEATURE

IN VEGAS FilmLight showed a reboot of the Blackboard 1 grading control panel. The company says it has better screens, bigger tablet and simpler connectivity.

Switch Media’s MediaHQ product suite provides broadcasters with flexibility to manage and assist in the delivery of content for both online distribution and traditional broadcast.

disguise previewed the latest update to its production toolkit, Extended Reality (xR), which can deliver augmented and mixed reality within studio environments. The company was running demonstrations showing a preview of how the xR platform improves several aspects for production, including talent immersion, interaction with CG elements, real lighting information on actors and real objects.

Speechmatics and Tedial demonstrated their technology partnership. Speechmatics’ ASR technology has been incorporated into Tedial’s live sports solution, SMARTLIVE, enabling operators to search for comments made during a sporting match or live event; automatically create file locators.

In a NAB Show first for the company, Grass Valley hosted a live esports competition bringing attendees face-to-face with exciting live gameplay and professional gamers. The live esports production environment at the booth replicated an end-to-end production workflow. Capturing the action were Grass Valley’s LDX 86N Series cameras, 2M/E GV Korona K-Frame V-series production switcher, the Ignite automated production control platform to drive the switcher, and a T2 4K digital recorder/player to archive the daily competitions.

Sennheiser and Solid State Logic (SSL) debuted their cooperation within the framework of the AMBEO for VR partnership programme. SSL’s S500, S300 and TCR System T broadcast mixing consoles will now feature onboard AMBEO A-B conversion for the Sennheiser AMBEO VR Mic (pictured).

Vinten introduced its all-new FH-155 — a robotic/manual pan-and-tilt head designed to support heavy payloads in broadcast studio settings. The FH-155 is the industry’s first pan-and-tilt head with an option for a fully integrated StarTracker module, offering an absolute-reference tracking system for floor-roaming pedestal combinations.

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FEATURE

GOING FOR

Philip Stevens notes the scale of preparations for the world’s biggest music show PICTURED ABOVE: The all-important Green Room where contestants awaittheir scores Photo credit: KAN - the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation

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his year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) will take place in Tel Aviv between 14th and 18th May. It is the third time Israel will host the contest, having previously staged the event in 1979 and 1999. The host broadcaster is KAN, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. The first ESC was held on 24th May 1956, when just seven nations took part. This year, 41 countries from Europe and beyond will participate at the Expo Tel

Aviv site located in the north of the city. The main show will take inside Pavilion 2, which occupies an area of 50,000 square metres and rises to a height of 20 metres. The Green Room – the key broadcast area after the stage – will be located in Pavilion 1. For head of production Ola Melzig, this will be his 15th ECS and his other credits include The Commonwealth Games and Nobel Prize awards.

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A SONG

“We have been working on this year’s production since an initial meeting last August,” he reports. “Then in September we started putting together some of the elements and by October activities really began to take off. In reality, the time between each contest is very tight when it comes to staging the largest music event. At that early stage people come up with all kinds of ideas about the show, some are more difficult than others, but we try to cater for as many requests as possible.” Melzig says that there will be 225 operational staff

involved in the production, although a total of 1,600 is needed for all stages of the event - especially when the various delegates start arriving on site. DESIGN DECISIONS Working alongside Melzig is stage designer Florian Wieder whose creativity was seen at the 2015 and 2017 Eurovision Song Contests. “Before we can get to looking at lighting, cameras and sound, we must finalise the stage design,” states Melzig.

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FEATURE were placed in a virtual studio within the venue for testing. On 15th April the lighting was moved into the main arena. To ensure nothing will spoil the contest, all the lighting requirements – like most other operational features including signal distribution – are duplicated.

PICTURED ABOVE: The arena is being prepared for the Song Contest. The triangular lights are a main feature of this year’s event Photo credit: KAN - the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation

PICTURED RIGHT: The hosts for this year’s contest (left to right) Assi Azar, Bar Refaeli, Erez Tal and Lucy Ayoub Photo credit: Eyal Nevo

“This year we are incorporating numerous triangular shaped LEDs into the stage design. This is a very interesting layer - and the first time we have used that in Eurovision. The triangle has a very symbolic value here, so it resonates well in Israel. The design for the whole arena also had to take into account that seating was needed for an audience of around 7,500.” Once the design was signed off, lighting could begin and that is the responsibility of Dakar Azulay and Ronen Natjar. Prior to the start of rehearsals, the lighting rigs

PRODUCTION PERSONNEL When it comes to production, Melzig is working with a team with vast amounts of experience. KAN’s executive producer Zivit Davidovitch comes to the Contest with experience in a number of genres and the production of live events such as the World Cup, Miss Israel and finals of reality shows on Israel’s Channel Ten. Assisting Davidovitch are a number of producers with responsibilities for various elements – such as the ‘Eurovision Postcards’ introducing each country’s participant – that surround the live production. These video packages were all produced locally when each participant was invited to Israel earlier in the year. Offline editing was carried out using Avid, while the online was completed with DaVinci. KAN’s TV and show producer, and deputy executive producer is Yuval Cohen, whose history includes head of programmes and development at Israel’s Channel Ten. He has been in charge of the Israeli adaptation of The Voice (as chief director and editor), has edited Dancing with the Stars for three years, did the Israeli Eurovision National Selection in 2010 (Harel Skaat) on Channel 2 (Reshet), and has worked on numerous live events. “As well as directing the live output, he has been shaping the whole show for some time,” says Melzig. “He has to find the hosts and work on the narratives. Basically, the show is in two parts - the contest itself which involves showing each participant or participants in their threeminute slot. But then there’s the legacy - all the content that wraps around those three minutes.” PLANNING PROCEDURES Each country has provided Cohen with a video of the performance of its entrant to enable camera angles to be decided prior to rehearsal. At the same time, any lighting and wardrobe requests are submitted, along with microphone requirements. In this way, all departments

“The show must be fully professional and I doubt if there is any other show in the world that has so much rehearsal time.” OLA MELZIG 22 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

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in Israel can start their preparations long before the delegates arrive. “It’s important to get these elements sorted early, as once rehearsals begin, time is limited and there is only a small window of opportunity when it comes to making changes.” Those rehearsals started on 23rd April. Prior to that date, two producers had choreographed each act using stand-in performers. The full production of the rehearsal was recorded and sent to each participating country. This enabled the delegates to see how their particular song will be performed on stage, and allows time for comment. These rehearsals ran for three and a half days. “The next stage was show rehearsals where the hosts go through their contributions, including the all-important voting sequence,” reveals Melzig. “And then on 4th May, the actual artist rehearsals start. This takes us to 12th May, with dress rehearsals beginning the following day.” He adds, “We rehearse a lot! The show must be fully professional and I doubt if there is any other show in the world that has so much rehearsal time.” CONTROLLING THE OUTPUT A total of 23 cameras will be used for this year’s production - 17 in the main auditorium and six in the Green Room. These will include a drop camera above the stage, two cranes and two camera rails. The microphone count comes to 232. The output will be controlled from an NEP Visions OB truck equiped with a Grass Valley Kayenne vision mixer and Lawo mc2 audio console. Graphics come from Vizrt. “One of the key elements in the production is the use of Cuepilot,” emphasises Melzig. “This is a dedicated software package that allows the production team to

test and plan vision mixer edits, and provide cues for performers and stage staff. This is a product that was originally designed for Eurovision.” When the director has prepared his scripts on an online platform, they are uploaded to a server that controls the vision mixer. Because CuePilot runs on the same timecode as lighting, pyro and operation, it allows the director to script in sync with these disciplines. During rehearsals, it is easy to change the parameters to meet developing requirements. “This is extremely helpful when we receive feedback from the delegations who have seen our rehearsals. They can refer to shot numbers, camera number and duration by using the timecode. That data is superimposed on the file that is sent to each participant. They might suggest that, say, shot 15 should change to shot 16 two seconds earlier in the song because the artist will be doing a particular action,” explains Melzig. “It also means the lighting director can say to the camera director that at this timecode we are doing this really dramatic change and we need to see it in wide shot rather than a close up of the performer.” The system also allows fast-changing shot sequences that no human vision mixer could physically achieve. “Nevertheless, we do have a ‘real’ vision mixer because that’s our redundancy of the system,” explains Melzig. “All the camera operators have an iPad, so they have their shot lists – although they still have the director to provide his input. We have used Cuepilot on five or six ESCs and it is extremely reliable and it helps enormously.” He concludes, “It really helps to achieve precise cutting with repeatability and allows us to do the totally professional job that viewers and delegations expect.” n

PICTURED ABOVE: Ola Melzig is head of production and this is his 15 th Eurovision Photo credit: Shira Horowitz

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GREENLIGHTING RED LAB Dan Meier checks out the buzz surrounding Red Bee Media’s new lab space

nside Broadcast Centre in West London, Red Bee Media has boosted its flexibility and capability with the installation of the Red Lab, a spacious, simplelooking room containing a meeting table, a whiteboard, monitors and a state-of-the-art control desk. Sat in the Red Lab, the company’s head of product management for playout services, Richard Cranefield, describes the reasons for its creation: “Our customers over the last few years have been asking us to be a bit more flexible, a bit more agile, a bit quicker to bring services to market and to be more open to change what those services look like.” Previously the company has run separate operations for each broadcaster it services, with separate technology stacks for each of them. This has traditionally made, for instance, changing the number of channels in a service difficult when those services are being built out of big appliances and when those operations are siloed. “So our ambition was to move to a much more platform-based way of working where all customers are serviced in exactly the same way for different types of service,” Cranefield explains. “And that has meant building new operational spaces that are large enough to

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accommodate desks with multiple customers in them, but also to change the back-end technologies that we use so that rather than building our playout systems out of appliances or big servers that we get from the technology vendors, we do it entirely in software - essentially a private Cloud.” In the last 18 months, Red Bee Media has figured out how to run a complicated stack of playout technologies purely in software, partnering with third-party vendors for automation platforms, playout devices, multiviewing and compliance recording, and deploying those systems in software. “And to do that using uncompressed video,” Cranefield adds, “which means that we’re still working at the highest quality we can - the latencies are very short, which you don’t get if you compress video.” This led to the creation of the Red Lab, which Cranefield describes as “an open common room” for solutions architects and broadcast engineers to use the whiteboards, monitors and meeting table. “We’ve really pushed back on people treating it like a meeting room and booking it out on the whole,” he notes. “What it’s intended to do is allow people to be able to test ideas they

FEATURE might have about how we improve a service, to practise or design change requests that customers have asked for.” These requests would previously been dealt with on a purely theoretical level, as the physical infrastructure was delivering the service live. “I couldn’t touch the thing,” explains Cranefield. “Based on what I know, this is how we would change the service - and then you have to get agreement from the customer that that’s what they wanted to do, and then execute a kind of mini project, to make that change on that live system without taking it off air. “Now that we’re in a software world, actually, that becomes completely different,” he continues. “If we have a load of software that is running that primary service, we can duplicate it onto a test platform. And then the engineers can play around with it as much as they like and break it and fail.” Once they’ve established the best way of executing that change, it can be agreed with the customer. “So the way our engineers are going to have to work is very different, both as we build this platform and then once we’ve got customers on it,” says Cranefield. “We can have broadcast engineers or operators come up with an idea about a way that they think we might be able to improve the service in some way or improve the way our operators are working, and come to this room.” The private Cloud infrastructure allows those operators to spin up automation systems or compliance recording systems and experiment with them in the Red Lab. “If an operator said, ‘I think that it’d be really cool if all of the monitors were in portrait mode rather than landscape,’ they can come in here and try it, and see whether that thesis holds up.” The desk itself is the fourth or fifth version that’s been tried, Cranefield says: “The first version we put in was too deep. It looked great on the drawings, but once an operator sat and was working at it, they realised that they couldn’t actually reach the touch screens. We have reshaped the top of the desk a number of times to make sure that ergonomically it’s correct. So this is a good example of us using this space to refine the operational tooling, and we can refine that user experience here. And then once we’ve got this desk right, then we know, ok that’s the operational experience we want to build and then we’ll replicate that in the production environment.” Standardising a generic playout environment and deploying copies of that environment also contains a cost incentive, as Cranefield explains: “It’s still astonishing if you look at the economics of an old-fashioned playout deal, of all of the money that was spent over say, the five years of that deal, probably about 25 per cent of that was in the project effort of getting those channels up and online to air - and that cost was amortised over that five-

year deal. So if we can reduce the cost of deploying new channels, then that is a much smaller cost that’s amortised over however long that channel happens to be on air. So that’s another way for us in this lab environment to help customers meet those price challenges.” So what are the next steps? “We’ll be doing a lot of refinement of the operational workflows in here, testing the scaling and the auto deploy stuff - we want to get it down to being able to deploy a new instance of channel infrastructure within eight hours,” says Cranefield. “To give you some kind of idea of perspective of how much of a shift that is, if we were to add another channel to one of our broadcasters that we’re already servicing using appliances and SDI and the old ways of working, we would typically expect to take 400 man days of effort between a customer saying, yes I’ll have that channel, and me saying, here it is, it’s on air.” Cranefield also notes that the project was undertaken by the company itself without being pinned to a specific customer deliverable. “By that I mean, we didn’t have an idea and then wait for a customer project to land that would then fund that idea,” he explains. “Because had we done that, we probably would have abandoned a lot of our ambitions early on in the project. We would have had a customer breathing down our necks saying, come on guys, you’ve got to get this thing on air. So we would probably have not got as far as going software only; we would have got to IP, but would be deploying infrastructure or appliances or something to make that work.” He continues: “We were able to take a much more focused, product-centric approach to delivering this with an ambition of ‘this is where we want to be, that’s what our core offering needs to be, and this is what we need to get there,’ and only in the later stages to then start sharing it with customers and talking about bringing customers onto the platform - but doing it in a way that they’re coming onto a generic productised platform that they will all benefit from, rather than building something for one customer then trying to adapt or pretend that it’s market relevant to other people.” For Cranefield this is about being proactive with Red Bee Media’s customer base through constant communication, understanding their needs and approaching them with solutions: “We and many other service providers used to be reactive because everything was so unique to every customer, you couldn’t develop a proposition for one and then reuse it because actually how you would implement it for every other customer will be different. It’s about understanding what the market wants, what problems are out there that need to be solved and developing compelling solutions to those problems that are valuable to multiple customers.” n

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HIGHLIGHTING THE BEST IN SPORT By Rob Shack, vice president, Reuters Sport

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ports coverage is changing. More than ever before, we’re finding that leagues, clubs, associations and event organisers are taking control of their own content. Organisers can be Federations, Teams, Leagues, Tours, individual events, and the agencies that represent them. For the purposes of this article, let’s oversimplify and refer to them as “leagues” knowing that they self-identify and can be organised with great diversity. When we ask why leagues are producing so much more than before, we see a variety of interrelated factors driving this trend. When you look at them together, it’s hard to imagine how every league in the future wouldn’t have a unit that works and functions a lot like a multimedia sports newsroom.

BELOW ARE SOME OF THE CATALYSTS WE FOUND TO BE DRIVING THIS MOVEMENT: 1. Leagues spent millions to capitalise on social. Over the past 5-10 years every league has needed to invest in and develop a social strategy to capitalise on the popularity of sport on those platforms. Many developed content strategies that were social first but have realised that actually it’s not everything, and now seek to make the most of those investments through broader and more diverse distribution of that content via more traditional channels.

Leagues are plugging the holes created by the shrinkage of independent newsrooms. Sports desks are not immune to the pressures to reduce cost in the face of falling ad revenue. Leagues are stepping in to create coverage of their events to ensure fans can follow all their action, not just the events independent newsrooms can justify covering. Gaming revenue is growing. It turns out that gap is widening from both sides as integration gets tighter between leagues and the gambling industry. Leagues have greater incentive to serve that constituency, often with events that don’t warrant mainstream coverage but pull their weight through the gaming audience. Again, the leagues find themselves incentivised to create coverage themselves. Sports fans want more personal, authentic content, that only leagues can produce. Modern fans want to see athletes sharing personal stories, inside jokes, and having real conversations. They have an aversion to watching the traditional press conference, which too often feels staged and choreographed to be as inauthentic and ‘safe’ as possible. Event organisers have found themselves in a unique position to capture or create more fun, off the pitch content that gen z sports fans want, and news organisations can’t realistically produce at scale.

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Leagues are seeing a bright light at the end of the online tunnel. Traditional TV sport distribution has developed organically over the past 80 years into a very lucrative but also ungainly web of rights deals. They come with restrictions that can limit innovation, and very shallow audience data. Increasingly organisers are finding the more predictable, controlled, and transparent business OTT and online platform partnerships offer them are more satisfying. These services are most successful when games are supplemented with news coverage, interviews, etc. which the leagues are producing for them. It will be a while before those gargantuan and complicated broadcast contracts take a back seat to digital distribution for top leagues, but if this trend continues it might not be quite as long as you think because… Leagues are making it a priority to get to know (and cross-sell to) fans directly. Front offices are combining customer data from ticket sales, merchandise sales, online viewing and social engagement to develop CRM systems that aim to categorise and keep track of all fans. Data from content consumption can be a key piece of this puzzle (see #5). With better data on fan behaviour, leagues can cross-sell their services more efficiently and create content that is measurably better at achieving specific goals. Most leagues have global expansion plans. Breaking into a new market, often across a

language barrier, to a land where news coverage does not generally prioritise your sport is a lofty goal shared by almost all leagues. This creates an incentive for leagues to create content fans in these regions can use to stay connected. Sponsors expect a lot more than just a bit of signage. They want to see their products being used organically in the context of the sport. They want to activate in creative ways, especially on social, and they want to measure everything they can. As the sponsorships continue to become more valuable and complex, sports bodies will be under pressure to find new ways to prove those sponsors are getting value for their money. The news content created by leagues provides another platform for sponsorship activation that can range from simple to innovative.

If most of these trends continue, leagues will have incentive to develop more comprehensive files of news style content for their fans and I fully expect those newsrooms to start surpassing some more sophisticated broadcast and digital news publishers on the maturity curve, at least in their chosen domain. In these trends, there are new opportunities for traditional media companies to partner with leagues in new ways. At Reuters we’ve expanded what was a more regional sports agency globally – Action Images – to help leagues benefit from our traditional media know-how to create, monetise, and distribute their own news content globally. If you’re at a sports desk and this new competition is making you queasy, don’t reach for the Alka-Seltzer just yet. There is one big catch for the purists out there. Everyone knows this content is always going to at least come with some perceived bias. The leagues will openly admit they have an agenda in creating this content; the fans know it instinctively. We won’t read many negative opinions on questionable coaching decisions, bad behaviour off the pitch by athletes, the latest front office scandal or labour disputes in league-generated content. That’s still squarely the role of independent media, and readers will always seek and value balanced coverage for the competitions they love most. n

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FEATURE

FUTURE’S MADE OF VIRTUAL REALITY Dan Meier meets Satore Studio founder Tupac Martir

’m standing in a hotel room some 10 storeys high above a busy street, trying to remember who I am. Except I’m not. I’m in a warehouse in Bermondsey wearing a VR headset, and I can remember my name (although I’m a little hazy on my age). This is one of the “rooms” in Satore Studio’s unfinished Cosmos Within Us project, a VR experience about Alzheimer’s directed by Tupac Martir, the studio’s founder and creative director. “Almost two years ago, I think it was June 2017, we were sitting in the studio and we realised that we wanted to do a different type of piece,” Martir tells me. “So by this point we had done a VR piece for Dior, we were in the middle of finishing a dance piece within VR. But we wanted to create something that was a bit more narrative, and try to explore different ways of telling stories. So as we were looking around for concepts, I started thinking about the idea of loss; loss of a loved one, the loss of memory. “At the same time, in a really freaky type of thing, the story developer found this story about a woman who just lost her father. And she’s a scientist, so she took the ashes into the laboratory, thinking that when she put them under the microscope what she was going to see was grey. To her surprise and everybody else’s, when she looked in what she saw was an entire cosmos.” This got Martir thinking about memories existing as a kind of “inner cosmos.” He explains: “We are indented in other people’s memories, and therefore even though I might be gone, I will always exist as long as someone can remember me and as long as I can survive in the memories

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of others.” Based on this idea, the Satore team unveiled a proof of concept in Amsterdam in 2017 for an installation that would involve live actors, real decisions and memories. “In VR you can allow people to be in spaces for longer than they should be, allowing you to create and generate memories,” says Martir. “So let’s say you go into the installation, you’ll have a series of memories that will be created.” The first virtual room contains various hidden sounds that you can hear by getting close to different elements, so each individual who enters the space will find different sounds, thereby creating the effect of memory. “We’ve integrated into the script some of the frustration that happens to someone who has Alzheimer’s; trying to remember a name, trying to remember certain elements that happened three days ago,” he continues. “Because we are playing with memories, it means that we’re using different techniques and different styles in every single scene, because let’s be honest, your memories are not the same from when you were four years old to when you were 22, to what you did last week.” One of the rooms is known as the “memory dome”, featuring 70 or 80 video memories of the character as an eight year old and his sister as a four year old. “We’ve been recording with these two pairs of children, who are not brothers and sisters, they’re just actors that we found, and every three months we go and record two days with them,” says Martir. “So we’re creating real memories of them playing together and going to the beach, and having

FEATURE

“We’re trying to give a new set of tools and elevate the language that can be done within broadcast.” TUPAC MARTIR a party, and going to dinner, and going to the farm, and so we are creating these true memories.” “It took us about 10 months to write the script, which is quite unheard of in VR,” Martir continues. “Because originally when we were writing, we were also understanding the technical side and the visual side of things.” I ask if he can see further applications for all this technology. “There’s a lot, thankfully,” he laughs. “I’d be shooting myself in the foot if there wasn’t!” Since opening the studio in 2011, Martir has been heavily involved in technology (he actually started coding at the age of six) to the point that he needed to open a dedicated tech branch last year - Satore Tech. “I was able to convince Sergio Ochoa to leave his company and come and join us in this this joint venture,” he says. “Nowadays between both of the companies we are 26 people across four countries, so quite a diverse group; whereas at the beginning we were looking at being more lighting designers and video designers, now we have still have lighting and video but also set people, costume people, renderists, 3D generalists, coders, developers, R&D, graphics people, architectural people. So it’s branched out to quite a healthy environment in which it’s a crosspollination of ideas.” One idea for this mixed reality technology revolves around mobile and broadcast. “We’re currently doing

two videos for a band. When we got commissioned, we came back and we said, ‘Sure we’ll do them but we won’t do them for normal video, we will make them all interactive,’” he recalls. “The best experience you can have is to see it on mobile or to see it on a headset; that’s when you’re really going to see the true video that you want to see, which all of a sudden appeals to a different generation that wants to see videos that way… why not give them the possibility of exploring the video to more than what’s just on the camera?” Martir adds that this isn’t about trying to destroy one medium, but trying to enhance it: “We’re trying to give a new set of tools and elevate the language that can be done within film, within broadcast. We’re not going to reinvent a hundred years of this thing; we’re here to try to give other DoPs, other directors, other creatives, new tools that they can use so that their stories can actually be better.” In terms of an immersive experience, the elements from Cosmos Within Us that Martir shows me feel like being inside a thoughtfully designed video game, thanks to the attention to detail of Martir (who started out as a painter) and his team. The illusion of standing in that hotel room, rain drumming against the window and cars rolling past on the street below, is not one I’ll be forgetting. At least not any time soon. n PICTURED LEFT: Concept art for Satore’s Cosmos Within Us project

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FEATURE

UNCHARTED WATERS

Dan Meier dives into live underwater broadcasting with AP’s Sandy Macintyre

he Associated Press (AP) recently completed a live broadcast from 200m below the surface of the Indian Ocean, a pioneering feat that unsurprisingly brought with it a fleet of technical challenges. So what inspired the newsgathering organisation to take the plunge? Sandy Macintyre, global video news VP, explains that Nekton founder Oliver Steeds approached the company a year ago with the idea of filming a deep sea research mission. “The first question I asked was, how much of it could we do live?” recalls Macintyre. Steeds responded that not only could parts of the mission be broadcast live, but “untethered live” - ie. without fibre optic cable. “Previous underwater filming in real time has obviously been on a fibre optic cable to a certain depth,” Macintyre explains. “But being able to work with submersibles that could roam more freely and not be tethered could probably mean that

you could get to places that you wouldn’t previously have been able to get to; it was a new technological boundary. So that was quite interesting to me.” After all this was not Macintyre’s first time broadcasting live underwater; 25 years ago he was working at ITN and worked on a Loch Ness Monster hunting programme that did involve cable. “It was fun to do but it didn’t tell us very much and it was obviously quite tethered. So the idea of being able to be untethered sort of appealed,” he says. The other appealing aspect of the project was to do with climate and technology, something AP has placed at the forefront of its mission. “Here was a really good example where you had the marriage of a climate story and a technology story on something that was truly of global interest, on a topic which would also attract young audiences,” says Macintyre. “I think what finally clinched it for me was when Oliver said to me, ‘look we’ve got better

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FEATURE Another technical challenge was where to put the correspondents from TV channels all over the world, and how to transmit their interviews with the scientists. Macintyre describes using codec supplied by LiveU “to effectively create a kind of surface to subsea internal audio loop”, bringing the audio from, for example, Sky’s UK studio onto the boat, feeding it into this audio loop and sending it back again. “And then in terms of transmitting the video from the boat, Inmarsat put a couple of tracking antennas from the marine antenna range on the boat, which obviously track with the satellite even if the boat moves, and that has allowed us to do pretty robust communications with very, very little latency.” Macintyre explains that this Inmarsat satellite tracking technology was first deployed in the news industry in the second Gulf War. “At the time we all thought, ‘Wow, that’s groundbreaking.’ And interestingly, the reaction of both people who work for AP and other broadcasters and digital publishers that we’ve been dealing with on this, there’s no sense of wonder anymore about that kind of technology, that’s just taken as bog standard; of course you can get a signal from a boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean live. “There has still been a bit of a sense of wonder about how you can do it 100 or 200m down,” he continues. “And I think that’s pushed the boundaries of video creation, as well as these guys pushing the boundaries of science, and in a way that was also part of the attraction - that we want to be pioneering, we want to be in the forefront of trying new things to be better storytellers. And we believed that there was a story to tell that the world needed in a place that nobody’s ever been to before. So that was really from that perspective the perfect marriage.”

maps of the Moon and Mars than we have our own sea bed.’ And we suddenly thought, wow, actually this could really be going to places that nobody’s been to before and seeing things nobody’s seen before and deploying the new technology to do that in real time. This is way too good to turn down. So that’s how we got on board.” THE LIVE AQUATIC Sonardyne then provided the transmitter-receiver setup, which emits LED light from the submersibles to a depresser that trails underneath the mothership. The depresser is lowered as the submersibles get deeper allowing for constant reception, then the picture is sent back to the ship on a cable. “What that’s allowed us to do is obviously get very close up to submerged mountain ranges, get in amongst the coral, and not worry about trailing cables blocking the submarines, which has been quite a different way to tell the story.”

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SURFACE TO AIR The cameras used were a combination of GoPros and Panasonic 270s, as well as those native to the submarines supplied by Teledyne. “We’ve got the ability to put five live cameras into a broadcast at any time, two on each submersible; one facing externally, one facing internally towards the pilot and the scientists,” says Macintyre. “We also had a remotely operated vehicle which is working on a fibre optic cable, which gives us that fifth camera for the wide shots showing what the subs are doing. And then above deck we’ve put in about seven cameras, which are a combination of handheld and remotely operated, to be able to watch the deployment of the subs.” Most of the broadcast was produced in HD, with 10 additional non-live “science cameras” on the sub used to take measurements. “A couple of those are 4K, including one that the guys called “bait cam”, which is a single standalone cable that’s dropped to the ocean bed, has a motion sensor, sits there for about six to 12 hours and any

FEATURE cable behind you you’re worried about getting it caught on rocks or mashed up between the submarines. It’s quite a ballet to keep the submersibles in a position so they’re not swept away by a current - and sometimes it’s worked, and sometimes the broadcast has broken up occasionally. But thankfully, the major moments where we wanted it all to come together, it’s come together.”

time something comes to take the bait the motion sensor triggers the thing,” says Macintyre. The broadcast was used by 59 broadcasters around the world on the first day, as Macintyre explains: “29 of them used sections of it live, and subsequently we’ve been doing various stories on tape and some other live days. Nekton had a bit of a news story where the remotely operated vehicle that they were using as part of their science and data gathering was lost on the ocean floor, and we had a couple of days of the recovery operation for that which we’ve been doing live. That was also used by 20 or 30 broadcasters around the world.” TRIALS AND CRUSTACEANS This project hasn’t been without its trials and tribulations, according to Macintyre: “This technology is massively untested from a broadcast perspective. Sonardyne work with the oil and gas industry, but the needs of the oil and gas industry for subsea inspection and work is massively different from having to keep a live broadcast on air. This area has never been mapped beneath 30m, so we really have no idea as we get down there what it is that we’re going to see, and also what the impact is going to be and where the currents are going to come from.” Being untethered proves its value in this scenario, given the fragility of the ecosystem and the disruptive potential of cables. “The second point is just freedom of movement,” adds Macintyre. “Because obviously if you’re trailing a

REPORTING WITH A PORPOISE What then has AP learned from the project? “If you want to be pioneering, and you want to push live broadcasting to the next level, you have to take calculated risk - and by that I don’t mean any risk around health and safety. In fact, we’ve had to mitigate an awful lot of what we would do, given the choice, because we have to put health and safety first,” notes Macintyre. “But I think taking people on that very honest journey where they share in the experience, and making it as interactive as you can, has been a really good, transparent, open learning experience and certainly speaks to all the ethical principles of our organisation in terms of being totally open about what you’re doing and how you did it.” The data collected from Nekton’s mission will be made open source and fed into the Ocean Tool for Public Understanding and Science (OcToPUS) database. “It’s a kind of large ocean data storage and analysis platform, which will harvest information from about 98 billion global data points, which over time will lead to practical application such as informing and improving ocean policy, public engagement and management,” explains Macintyre. “Nekton has six individual voyages and dives over the next three years, and at the end of it, with all the information that they’ve gathered, that information will inform a State of the Indian Ocean summit in 2022. “So this is reporting with a purpose,” he continues. “Like all good journalistic endeavours, there has to be a point to the story. We as a global news organisation have a responsibility to push the boundaries. In a world which has spent the last few years arguing as to whether there is or is not climate change, the only way that I think we can report that is to go with people who are gathering data, and that data will in turn inform the scientific community and from then on the world community as to what is really happening.” n

Photo credits: Nekton Mission

“We as a global news organisation have a responsibility to push the boundaries.” SANDY MACINTYRE TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 33

Intelligence for the media & entertainment industry

SUPPLEMENT

AUDIO AND VIDEO MONITORING FOR IP NETWORKS

ADDRESSING THE IP FOR AUDIO A

udio should not add to your worries when making the transition to IP and operational processes should not be compromised. Rather, the transition to IP should allow for new efficiencies that can be implemented in ways that are both intuitive and familiar. Whilst the transition to IP is certainly allowing for new efficiencies in operation, and for new business models, it is by no means a guarantee of increased revenues. So, as ever, the expectation remains for customers to do more with less, and to reach more and more consumers across multiple platforms with the same or fewer staff. A key challenge for any audio solution is to create and present an operational experience that is both simple and intuitive, regardless of the method being used to carry audio throughout a broadcast facility. The transition to IP infrastructures, coupled with the need to do more with less, only serves to increase the importance of being able to address this challenge. At the very least, operators needing to manage and monitor audio within

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an IP infrastructure need a set of quick and easy-to-use controls, made available by a friendly and intuitive control interface that will allow them to monitor and manipulate audio in the same manner that they have grown used to when working in traditional SDI environments. When considering an IP audio monitoring device, its basic functionality, such as the need to display audio levels, present audio metadata, support Dolby audio formats and to monitor audio loudness, remains much the same as when using an audio monitoring device to monitor audio presented as an SDI, AES, MADI or Analogue source. Similarly, the very nature of the tasks an operator will need to perform remain all too familiar. Does the audio meet the required standards for audio levels and audio loudness? Is the audio in the correct format â&#x20AC;&#x201C; mono, stereo, surround? In the case of a multi-lingual feed, are the correct languages present and on the correct audio channels? Are audio channels in phase? Is the audio in sync with the video? And of course, is the audio free of noise, distortion and audible artefacts? n

SUPPLEMENT

WHY IP IP technology has rigorously followed Moore’s law which states that computer processing power doubles approximately every two years

n the 1990s, when television first did SDI, standard definition video was at 270 Mbit/s, which doesn’t sound like much these days. But back then, IP systems only could pass 1 to 10 Mbit/s. So, the television industry has had to develop its own standards and chipsets. Today, IP can easily handle uncompressed digital video, and 10 Gbit/s, 25 Gbit/s, and even 100 Gbit/s nodes in standard switches can be bought economically. Right now, the rate of ‘bandwidth per port’ progress being demonstrated by the IT industry is far outstripping those made available by the broadcast industry using the Serial Digital Interface. Those manufacturers who have been traditionally responsible for the manufacturing of SDI infrastructure are now being challenged by the bandwidth on offer by

COTS switches from IT manufacturers. The SMPTE 2022-6 standard has already allowed early adopters to deploy IP infrastructures and to begin realising the benefits of doing so, whilst the more recent arrival of the SMPTE 2110 suite of standards is now making the adoption of IP infrastructures an even more attractive proposition for those requiring an essencebased approach. Whilst the primary purpose of TSL’s audio monitors is clearly to monitor audio, our customers have told us that they also value the ability to monitor video as part of our audio monitoring offering. As well as providing confidence monitoring, the ability to monitor video is clearly vital when an operator needs to check for issues such as lip-sync. n

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SUPPLEMENT

ST-2022-6 VS I

t’s all very well proposing that we climb on board and take advantage of increasing port speeds, but understanding the industry standards is paramount when considering using IP to carry uncompressed video and audio. With ST-2022-6, just over 76 per cent of the original SD-SDI signal is active video. The rest is auxiliary data and TRS (Timing Reference Signals). ST-2110 removes TRS and its associated blanking to save bandwidth and uses PTP (Precision Timing Protocol) as the basis of timing. As IP is format agnostic, ST-2110 has the potential to deliver boundless opportunities - for example, video could be processed in the studio at the same time HDR metadata is processed in the public Cloud. ST-2110 also allows for more intelligent and economic use of bandwidth across a network. For example, there’s little point in having an audio console subscribe to multiple 1.5 Gbit/s HD video streams using SMPTE ST-2022-6 when all it needs are 2110-30 audio streams. For many customers, particularly those involved in production and live production, SMPTE ST-2110 offers clear benefits over ST-2022-6. However, not everybody is involved in production or live production and so for those customers, continuing to use SMPTE ST-2022-6 going forward may well prove preferable.

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IS NOW THE RIGHT TIME TO TRANSITION? ● Your business relies on attracting and retaining subscribers as well as advertising revenue. In order to be competitive, you must continually provide content in the highest quality available, which means being able to provide the best services to your subscriber base, which in turn may mean being able to provide content in new formats such as UHD, HDR, WCG and Virtual Reality. An IP infrastructure supporting ST-2022-6 and/ or ST-2110 can provide this technical agility without requiring ‘fork-lift’ infrastructure changes. ● You’re a speciality sport broadcaster, who needs to add extra channel capacity for the duration of a major sporting event. Not having to permanently expand your existing physical infrastructure would be a huge advantage. Using IP and moving some services to the Cloud could prove to be the most cost-effective route here. ● A regional news broadcaster has typically upgraded their technology every 10 to 20 years. From SD to HD and now to the prospect of UHD, the costs involved in adopting an IP infrastructure could far outweigh the benefits. n

SUPPLEMENT

A BIT ABOUT CONTROL IN

raditional SDI broadcast infrastructures place the router at the core of the plant which is then controlled using an external router control system, this is what the IT industry would typically call ‘Out of Band Control'. Early IP deployments maintained the concept of Out of Band Control but as the SDI router had now been replaced with an IT switch, Out of Band commands were instead issued directly to the broadcast devices connected to the switch, rather than the switch itself. Using IGMP, these ‘edge devices’ could then request

which flows they subscribed to, as directed by the Control System. Whilst the ST-2022-6 and ST-2110 standards are helping to ensure compatibility and interoperability between IP edge devices from different manufacturers, these standards do not address the control paradigm. This is where AMWA’s NMOS specifications are helping to address this very control paradigm with IS-04 allowing device discovery and registration, IS-05 providing device connection and management and not forgetting IS-07 for event and tally management. n

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SUPPLEMENT

ST-2022-6 & ST-2110 B

roadcasters require tools that have been specifically built to address the requirements of customers needing to monitor uncompressed SMPTE 2022-6 and SMPTE 2110 sources, equipped with 10Gig/E interfaces for direct connection into COTS IP fabrics, whilst retaining the following functionality, even when working with ST2022-6 and ST-2110 uncompressed IP sources: ● Video Confidence monitoring of ST-2022-6, ST- 2110 uncompressed IP and 3G/HD/SD-SDI sources directly on the front panel. ● Comprehensive Loudness Monitoring, complete with Histogram display. panel, including the MAC address of the PTP source. ● Full monitoring (including Metadata) of Dolby encoded sources (PAM2-IP only). As well as featuring 10Gig/E interfaces, the unit should also be equipped with Primary and Redundant 1Gig/E Dante/ AES67 ports, whilst also maintaining 3G/HD/SD-SDI, discrete AES and Analogue I/O connectivity, making it suitable for use in both IP and non-IP infrastructures and helping customers transition to IP with ease. Connection into ST-2022-6 and ST-2110 COTS IP networks should be made possible through the use of optional SFP+ modules, allowing customers looking to transition to IP to do so at a pace that suits them without having to replace their entire Audio Monitoring Unit.

GO BEYOND AUDIO MONITORING I n addition to removing the complexities of working within ST-2110 networks solutions should offer the following functionality that goes far beyond that expected from a typical audio monitoring unit: ● Packet Counters - rule out potential network issues when subscribing to ST-2022-6 and/or ST-2110 sources using an on-board packet counter. ● PTP Status - monitor PTP status directly from the front

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● Senders – Wide, Narrow and Narrow Linear senders can all be monitored. ● Essence Presets - store and recall your favourite ST-20226 and ST-2110 sources using a single button push on the front panel. ● Out-Put Routing - dedicated SDI Monitoring Outputs that allow SDI, ST-2022-6 and ST-2110 sources to be monitored externally. ● Manual Failover - Switch between COTS A and COTS B redundant networks with a single button push. n

“TSL Products’ commitment to supporting emerging IP standards such as AES-67, SMPTE 2022-6 and SMPTE 2110 gave us the confidence we needed in the PAM2-IP to provide the audio monitoring we required at RTL City. Additionally, knowing that we could deploy the PAM2-IP in our new all-IP infrastructure without being forced to change our operational workflows was fundamental to our purchase decision.” COSTAS COLOMBUS, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS AND SUPPORT AT BCE LUXEMBOURG

SUPPLEMENT

REAL-WORLD CCTV, CHINA China Central Television Network (CCTV) chose to purchase the PAM2-IP audio monitoring unit to assist with its coverage of the 2018 Winter Games being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. As the PAM2-IP offers a flexible and reliable audio and video monitoring solution capable of handling uncompressed SMPTE 2022-6 and SMPTE 2110 sources, CCTV installed it at its Beijing headquarters to better monitor the facility’s IP and 4K-based master control and live

ALL MOBILE VIDEO, USA All Mobile Video (AMV) has invested in TSL Products' advanced audio and video monitors to help with its growing TV production schedule. Now featuring seven IP-equipped, large-format trucks in the US, AMV's production fleet captures some of the most high-profile events on TV, such as the GRAMMY® Awards red carpet, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® induction ceremony and the Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop. "We use TSL's products in critical quality control positions in every production we do," said Ian Vysick, audio design specialist, All Mobile

production infrastructure. “It’s not easy to build a successful product, not to mention a successful and future-proofed product,” notes the outside production team at CCTV. “It requires that the manufacturer effectively understands the customers’ needs and balances this with technical changes occurring in broadcast environments. As IP becomes more widely adopted, we are confident that TSL Products will be able to support us with solutions that can accommodate these changes.” n

Video. "In our industry, the market and technology keep progressing, which means we have to keep moving forward as well to ensure we're delivering the best audio and video quality for our customers. Working with TSL is a guarantee that we're equipping our trucks with the best monitoring technology available." When AMV first deployed the PAM2 audio monitor eight years ago, Vysick was immediately impressed with the monitor's audio quality and ease-of-use. AMV has since added over 40 TSL audio units to its trucks, including the PAM2-IP. n

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IP Comes as Standard Our continued commitment to open standards means that our audio and control solutions will seamlessly support any infrastructure. Built on 30 years of global broadcast expertise. Seamless integration, from production to playout. Created in partnership with the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading broadcasters. Purposely designed to future-proof facilities.

PAM2-IP

MPA1 Solo SDI

Virtual Panel

Full IP-Ready Chassis The only unit in the world capable of supporting full IP workflows, from ST 2022-6 and ST-2110 with PTP, to Ember+ interface for edge device control. Designed for the most demanding and mission critical environments. Confidence Monitoring Range SDI, MADI, Dante / AES67 Mix and Solo configurations at just 100mm deep. Includes Web GUI and designed for system-wide connectivity through SNMP. Advanced Broadcast Control Gain exclusive control over resources, streamline operations and automate key functions to improve efficiencies and maintain high level production values, no matter the complexity of the underlying system.

Contact our International Sales Team today to find out more: www.tslproducts.com E.VIII enquiries@tslproducts.com I T. +44 1628 564 610 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

WILD

ABOUT WILDLIFE Philip Stevens explores the work of BBC Studiosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Natural History Unit

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PRODUCTION AND POST

he mission statement of the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit based in Bristol is “To be the number one wildlife content producer in the world, giving a voice to nature and new perspectives on the wonder of the natural world and our relationship with it.” There would be many who agree that it has fulfilled – and is fulfilling – its undertaking. But how did this world-renowned unit start? “The unsung hero of the NHU is Desmond Hawkins who founded the unit in 1957,” states Julian Hector, head of BBC Studios NHU. “At the time he was the head of the BBC services in the West of England. He was inspired by Sir Peter Scott, who founded the (now) Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire, and who presented some early programmes made by the new wildlife film making unit. The NHU has remained in Bristol and is 61 years old!” Hector read Zoology at university and went on immediately to work for the British Antarctic Survey studying Albatross in South Georgia. “When I was working in South Georgia in the early 1980s, I did some filming for one of the great ex-heads of the NHU Chris Parsons who was working on Trials of Life. I was also caught up in the Falklands War when all our mates were taken prisoner on mainland South Georgia and a handful of us were left on Bird Island for months. When eventually I was evacuated by the British forces, my story was like catnip to BBC Radio 4.” He explains that the combination of filming and photographing wildlife together with telling stories on radio steered him away from being a research biologist and into the world of wildlife programme making. Hector believes that most channels and platforms are working to increase their natural history content. He says that audiences love the wonder of the natural world and, increasingly, our relationship with nature. To meet that need, the NHU is working closely with many broadcasters at the moment.

SAVING THE RESOURCES But showing the spectacle of the natural world is only part of the story. “Conservation is a huge part of our production and thinking and always has been,” emphasises Hector. “Our two recent big landmarks Dynasties and Blue Planet II had conservation embedded in the storytelling. Other recent programmes, yet to be broadcast, like Earth from Space and First Year on Earth, say a great deal about our relationship with nature. In March we broadcast Blue Planet Live which, as an editorial driver, had the health of our oceans at its heart. Staying with live, Springwatch and Autumnwatch are both science programmes, conservation programmes and blue chip all in one.”

The NHU sees its work as a continuation of the Reithian values (Sir John Reith was the first general manager of the BBC). His concept was to use broadcasting as a way of educating the public. With that in mind, education about the natural world is a huge part of the unit’s endeavours. There is a strong feeling that the NHU has a global public service remit that includes a responsibility to both liberate the stories from the natural world and also to tell stories about the human relationship with nature. Since April 2016, BBC Studios has been able to produce programmes for all broadcasters. The NHU won BBC Studios’ first international third-party commission and is currently making The Red List for Discovery, which explores some of the world’s most endangered species and the incredible conservationists trying to protect them. “Storytelling innovation helps us keep at the very boundary of immersive and emotional narration, which gives our education remit huge power. Technical innovation helps us keep the audience very close to the wildlife we’re portraying, all to offer new perspectives and memorable stories,” says Hector.

PICTURED ABOVE: Julian Hector

SUCCESSFUL SUBJECTS Hector goes on to cite projects he views as particular successes in the drive to ‘save’ the planet. “Blue Planet II has been viewed by over a billion people worldwide and not only did the plastics campaign generate a huge resonance, but also did the very existence and fragility of the life hidden beneath the waves. “Dynasties brings awareness amongst the millions that have watched it so far about how little space is available for the natural world. Springwatch and Autumnwatch serve a national audience in the UK, with strong conservation messages. Those are but three titles amongst many.”

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PRODUCTION AND POST

PICTURED ABOVE: Blue Planet had conservation embedded in its storytelling

Of course, nature can be brutal. How does the unit decide if a segment is too ‘gory’ to use? “Hunting behaviour and other violence in the natural world is commonplace. Whether it be feeding behaviour or dominance activities, we always want to show this in the context of a wider story, often about an individual,” explains Hector. “The narrative tension is important here, so audiences understand the depth and meaning of the behaviour. It is not good enough just to show violence without context. If you have context, you do not need to see much of the violence or its aftermath.” As a rule, NHU crews do not intervene in the course of nature while shooting is taking place. Last year the unit made headlines when a crew stepped in to save some penguins from freezing to death with their chicks. How does Hector respond criticism of that ‘intrusion’? “Cameramen and women, together with the directors, do not intervene in the natural course of events unfolding

before them. They are there to document the truth. On very rare occasions crew might intervene. The penguin story was one in which crew made a call during their nine-month stay in the colony and they filmed their intervention. We broadcast what they did. It would have been right also to have done nothing. The team felt they didn’t do anything to enhance the survival of one individual over another - they were making a judgment about allowing animals to return to their colony.” THE FUTURE Hector clearly believes there remains a strong appetite for the work of natural history producers, but how does he see these programmes looking in five to 10 years time? “I suspect future programmes will look more intensely at smaller precincts, making heroes out of new species and examine even more closely how we share the space with the natural world.” n

“Technical innovation helps us keep the audience very close to the wildlife we’re portraying, all to offer new perspectives and memorable stories.” JULIAN HECTOR

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PRODUCTION AND POST

Philip Stevens looks at natural history production from an Austrian perspective PICTURED ABOVE: The vaquita - smallest and most elusive whale on Earth © Richard Ladkani

ounded in January 2011, Terra Mater Factual Studios (TMFS) is the new home of the former production team of Universum, ORF’s Natural History Unit. Based in Vienna, the company is a subsidiary company of Red Bull and specialises in factual production and distribution for cinema, TV and multimedia platforms. It works with a wide range of broadcasters including NatGeo Wild, Smithsonian Networks, Thirteen/ WNET Nature, PBS, ABC Australia, BBC, UKTV, Arte, France Télévisions, NDR, SRF, SWR, WDR, Discovery

Asia and Mediaworks. So, the content is widely viewed, but what does an acclaimed production company see as its responsibility when it comes to helping alleviate the planetary existential crisis that is frequently mentioned today? And what are the challenges in meeting that responsibility? “Both questions go hand in hand,” states Sabine Holzer, head of Specialist Factual, TMFS. “Daily, we are confronted with the crisis our planet is facing. Bees, insects are disappearing and many species are on red lists. As a

‘Much of TMFS’ content is shot in UHD and although they are not yet producing in 8K, it’s definitely on the radar.’ TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 45

PRODUCTION AND POST PICTURED RIGHT: A single wood ant measures around 3mm, but looks like a giant amongst the moss © Martin Dohrn

production company, we do see it as our duty to portray these struggles, to raise awareness and also to give those a voice that helps in preserving our planet, our environment, nature as we know it. I’d like to name two productions of the present and recent past that highlight this thought: Sea of Shadows and The Ivory Game.” She says Sea of Shadows was a dangerous assignment. Mexican drug cartels and Chinese traffickers joined forces to poach the rare totoaba fish in the Sea of Cortez – but their methods threaten to destroy virtually all marine life in the region, including the most elusive and endangered whale species known as the vaquita. “Brilliant scientists, high-tech conservationists, investigative journalists, courageous undercover agents and the Mexican Navy – they all put their lives at risk in front of our cameras to uncover the net that’s been spun, a net that needs to be unravelled to save the Sea of Cortez. As a result, just after the world premiere at Sundance Festival, where the production was honoured with the prestigious Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, the Mexican government contacted us to find out what we had learned during our investigations.” That programme’s

predecessor, the multi-awarded feature documentary The Ivory Game, had a similar impact. After its global Netflix release, in-depth discussions about poaching and ivory trade engulfed the media. By the end of 2017, China had finally banned the illegal ivory trade. THE CHALLENGES Holzer continues: “One of the more challenging programmes in our portfolio was our science and nature production David Attenborough’s Light on Earth. A great deal was shot in very low light, and specially built and adapted cameras were used to achieve the awe-inspiring shots that stand out in this film. On a very different technical level, we have films like our three-part blue-chip natural history series Okavango coming up, that sport a lot of data to wrangle. Shot over years in the finest 4K, you won’t believe how many terabytes of data we’re speaking of!” With such a portfolio already, are there subjects that have not been covered that TMFS would really like to include? “Having already covered The Moon – Our Gateway to the Universe and The Sun – Inferno in the Sky, we’re quite excited what’s waiting for us in the neighbouring galaxies,”

“The current growth of online channels makes it possible to experiment with runtimes, formats and styles. There’s no end to the possibilities!” SABINE HOLZER

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PRODUCTION AND POST reveals Holzer. “And if that’s not possible soon, we’re still very curious as to what undiscovered species are living right among us and which are discovered on a daily basis.” TECHNICAL TRENDS When it comes to the technical side, TMFS prefer to employ RED, Phantom and Alexa cameras. These choices are based on the fact that the cameras are easy to handle in challenging situations. According to Holzer they produce fantastic images, while their high resolution and high bit rates make them perfect for achieving the quality shots that the unit regards as its standard. She states that even though smaller cameras may seem the easier-to-handle choice, the quality of shots ranks higher than the size of the equipment. “We sometimes adapt the cameras for our unique demands. We have already mentioned the low light level shooting for David Attenborough’s Light on Earth, but for Attenborough’s Ant Mountain, we had to get really close to the ants to make our protagonists shine. This was achieved by a unique complex camera system - aptly named ‘Frankencam’ - and specially developed deep-focus lenses. A decade of research and development went into the cinematography – and the effort was absolutely worth it!” She says that aside from ever-improving battery run

times, any improvement that helps capture low-light situations are always welcome. “Twilight still holds many mysteries!” When it comes to editing. Avid and Premiere are the preferred option, while archive material is under the control of Axle and Archiware P5. Much of TMFS’ content is shot in UHD and although they are not yet producing in 8K, it’s definitely on the radar. LOOKING AHEAD So, how does Holzer see natural history programmes looking in the years ahead? “There’s a strong tendency to produce films that put more focus on conservation issues, as these are problems that concern us all and shouldn’t be put aside. We also expect to see natural history shine in different formats over various outlets – the current growth of online channels makes it possible to experiment with runtimes, formats and styles. There’s no end to the possibilities!” She concludes: “Being able to put the sometimes unexpected, often surprising and nearly always wonderful corners of our planet into the limelight and bring to our audience’s attention not only the obvious, but also the mysteries of nature means that we have absolutely the best job in the world!” n

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PICTURED ABOVE: Sabine Holzer

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TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 47

FOCUSING

PICTURED ABOVE: PortaCam Lite in action

ON CONTEXT

Jenny Priestley talks to John Holliday, managing director of Globelynx, who wants broadcasters to not just focus on content, but also on context

nyone who watches the news on a regular basis, or produces, knows how important talking heads have become. As well as someone live at the scene, it’s often key to have an expert offering analysis around the story. The problem is, those experts can’t always make it to the studio in order to appear in quality. More and more we’re seeing talking heads appear via Skype or even FaceTime. but UK-based fixed-camera network company Globelynx is offering an alternative.

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The company, owned by the Press Association, recently launched its next-generation ‘TV studio in a box’ which aims to enable expert commentators to give live broadcastquality news interviews. The PortaCam Lite is Globelynx’s smallest ‘TV studio in a box’. The portable, self-operated camera system enables contributors to connect remotely with news broadcasters to comment on topical stories. Users can frame, focus and light their own shots in a location of their choice, before

PRODUCTION AND POST broadcasting over Globelynx’s platform. The system has an inbuilt encoder, HD camera with wide dynamic range capability, and supports broadcasting over WiFi and cellular networks. According to Globelynx’s managing director John Holliday, companies and organisations no longer need to build a remote studio in-house in order to get their experts on air: “The days of someone building a TV studio I think are virtually long gone, big corporate companies aren’t spending £100-200,000 on a TV studio,” he says. “You can buy a Globelynx camera much, much cheaper and it does the same job. We manage and maintain and provide a service around that.” Holliday cites a use case where the PortaCam Lite could easily be deployed and used by multiple broadcasters, bringing one or more experts to audiences around the world: “You could put the camera system in a big event, let’s say Expo Dubai 2020, the big conference next year. The camera system could be installed there and they would be able to run it off WiFi or IP and connect an expert to broadcasters without the broadcasters having to send a crew and a cameraman.” Looking even further ahead, Holliday says once 5G starts to take off, Globelynx will be able bond with SIM cards. “Currently most people just put an Ethernet cable in the back and plug it into their corporate internet, or someone could use it in their own house and plug into their own WiFi as long as it’s strong enough to get HD out of the building as it’s an HD camera,” continues Holliday. Globelynx already counts major companies such as Bank of America and Lloyds of London among its customers, as well as academic institutions including the University of Oxford, the University of St Gallen and Durham University. The company was originally targeted at financial institutions where a camera would be installed and then not move. “Then we realised we had to diversify away from just financial services,” Holliday explains. “So we grew into education, research, aviation, BA have one at Heathrow, there’s many more sectors out there. Now I’m trying to move the company away from the hardware into creating the home of the expert. Therefore the tech is basically just becoming the enabler and we’re trying to build a community where people, primarily broadcasters, want to connect to quality from trusted experts on a robust network.” As stated before, it’s obviously important for broadcasters to have expert contributions in the best quality available to them. According to Holliday, “Globelynx is a premium service, the guys from Skype describe what we do as a professional version of Skype. This is a broadcast quality camera with light and sound. Experts can be on camera in their office, they don’t have to go to the studio so it saves on productivity.

PICTURED LEFT: John Holliday

“Our value add I guess is we’re the middleman,” continues Holliday. “So if at one end of the scale you have corporates and experts and the other end of that scale are broadcasters, we’re the middleman who connects them together. We do that by basically providing them with a camera and a connection, and then we help build that relationship and clients get used to being the top of the list as potential guests for broadcasters.” “Let’s say a major event happens in London, every broadcaster in the world will want to speak to an expert, not just the BBC and Sky, but France 24, Deutsche Welle, everyone wants an expert,” says Holliday. “Our clients would all have a quality camera in their office or in their home and within five minutes they can walk down, plug in, mic up and then they’re live on TV in quality. “Back when I was on TV and working on screen, the first job was to get the pictures back as quickly as possible and on air. Those days are long gone because of the advent of mobile phones and social media. Broadcasters now realise they still have to tell the best quality picture story. But off the back of that they want to tell their viewers what does this story really mean? That’s where Globelynx fits in. All these broadcasters are going to be more focused on the analysis of news.” n

“The guys from Skype describe what we do as a professional version of Skype. This is a broadcast quality camera with light and sound.” JOHN HOLLIDAY TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 49

DRIVING INTO STORAGE Quantum Corp CEO Jamie Lerner talks to Jenny Priestley about the company’s move into driverless cars

PICTURED ABOVE: Jamie Lerner

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uantum Corp has long had a history in the media and entertainment industry for providing content producers and owners with a place to store their archive, be that on-premise, in the Cloud or a hybrid of both. With clients including HBO, Sony Pictures, Framestore and BBC Northern Ireland, the company is used to dealing with video storage. It is now starting to branch out to other industries including surgical video, satellite video, video surveillance, and autonomous cars, an area where Quantum CEO Jamie Lerner feels the company has plenty to offer: “When we first started thinking about video, we really thought about media and entertainment, so when you make a movie, you have a workflow - a camera shoots the movie or the TV

episode, it’s then ingested and put on to storage, then it’s edited and manipulated, then it’s distributed, and finally it’s archived for many years,” he explains. “What we’re finding now is that same workflow in a vehicle. Basically, a test vehicle has cameras, it has Lidar, Radar, it has all this rich data collection, and again they’re all video-like.” Quantum’s R-Series product fits inside the boot of a vehicle and stores the key data. The products are able to handle very high temperatures, very low temperatures, shock and vibration, and still collect the information. Once the vehicle enters a garage, the data is ingested into Quantum’s StorNext File System where it is edited, annotated, analysed, and often distributed to other locations in order for autonomous vehicle experts to

PRODUCTION AND POST

“Cars are turning into massive video collection and distribution sources.” JAMIE LERNER monitor what kind of drive the passenger experienced. “We are really involved in all stages of that data. The collection in the vehicle uses our R-Series product which is a ruggedised product that fits in the vehicle. It’s built on StorNext where the data is high-speed edited, annotated, analysed and then eventually it moves on to our tape products, where those autonomous vehicle drives are kept in a low-cost storage area,” explains Lerner. Currently, the R-Series is predominantly being used for testing autonomous vehicles, but Lerner says the tech is already starting to be employed in buses and trains for a combination of autonomous vehicle data and video surveillance. “The versions we have built are in 90 terabytes so they are quite large, but we have some smaller versions that would go into maybe not all vehicles, but a random sampling of vehicles to get richer data. It’s very likely that over the next several years, we will have production data collection in standard mass-produced vehicles,” he says. Of course with autonomous vehicles the backseat is turning into one of the most important content delivery areas where viewers can sit back and watch TV, sport or films. “You could have four to five people in a vehicle, all watching different TV or movies or sports,” explains Lerner. “We’re thinking of our platform for three different types of video: video for autonomous, video for content delivery, and depending on the country and the laws of that nation, video surveillance for accidents or public safety. So cars are turning into massive video collection and distribution sources.” Video remains at the heart of Quantum’s business, and since joining the company at the beginning of July 2018, Lerner has focused on video for corporate enterprise. “IT-focused storage systems do compression, they do deduplication, but neither of those work on video. They’re completely useless,” he explains. “Many of these systems protect data by replication, but video is so large that to replicate it, to store two or more copies of it, is just too expensive. At Quantum, what we’ve been developing is a set of technologies that are completely relevant for video. “So for example, when you’re handling video, you have to handle it extremely quickly and the files are huge. It takes a few hours to bring a file down from the Cloud; even just a few minutes of television could take you an hour to download to your workstation. We enable that in two or three seconds, in some cases less. We’ve developed a lot of very specialised technology for the performance

handling of video.” Quantum has also spent time developing technology that allows the content creator to track the history of their video. Their system allows the user to see when a video file was edited, what was done, when was it done and so on. “That’s something you just don’t see in corporate IT,” says Lerner. “You have a file server, and it’s got your Word doc, but it doesn’t say what was done to that word document, who did it, etc. In video, that history - whether it’s for media and entertainment or a surgical video - that rich metadata is just critical. And so what you find in our systems is a huge set of functionality that is completely purpose-built for the post production editing of video.” A lot of broadcasters are still using a kind of hybrid of the Cloud and on-premise for storage. How soon does Lerner think the media and entertainment industry will really embrace storage in the Cloud? “I think it’s likely to be a hybrid scenario for quite some time,” Lerner admits. “The reason for that is if you look at what’s happening in video the files are getting larger. It’s moving to 4K and 8K, visual effects are getting more sophisticated, the quality of the audio is getting more sophisticated. Then you add virtual reality and other formats like that and video is just getting bigger.” n PICTURED ABOVE: Quantum R-Series installed inside a vehicle

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PRODUCTION AND POST

A SOUND INVESTMENT Dan Meier asks Tinopolis head of sound Gareth Evans about the production company’s SSL audio upgrade

he UK’s largest producer of Welshlanguage programming, Tinopolis Cymru recently upgraded its audio production with the installation of a 32+2 fader System T S500 console from leading audio specialists Solid State Logic (SSL). The console (connected across three studios via a Dante network) was selected by Tinopolis head of sound Gareth Evans for its ease of use. “From the times that I had sitting in front of it at a couple of trade shows, I saw just how easy it was to get your hands on things and to manoeuvre around the console,” he explains. “Also the Dante environment is something that really appealed in a studio environment. It just gave us a lot of flexibility of I/O around the studio.” Evans saw the immediate benefit in the production of Tinopolis’ two daily magazine shows for the Welsh channel S4C, including Prynhawn Da, which features light entertainment, cookery, fashion and news items. “In the studio we’ve got quite a big video wall which gives off a lot of noise,” explains Evans. “But immediately once we started mixing on the SSL console with the inbuilt effects, denoiser and how clean the audio sounded, it was a vast improvement almost immediately.” The benefits can also be heard in musical performances that take place on these shows, notes Evans: “Quite a few bands come through on our programmes, and their comments come back to us now; whereas I suppose people don’t notice anything that’s half decent, they don’t mention it. But then if they notice a substantial difference they perk their ears up and that sort of feedback’s been immediate.” A major deployment of the SSL console will come this July when Tinopolis produces Tour de France coverage (and possibly the Giro d’Italia as well) for S4C and Sunset+Vine, as

“The Dante environment is something that really appealed in a studio. It just gave us a lot of flexibility of I/O around the studio.” GARETH EVANS

Evans describes: “We cover the Tour every day live for between two and four hours, then we’ve got a reasonably quick turnaround of a highlights programme in the night. We’ll be utilising the SSL SDI interface just to make our process that much easier for de-embedding satellite pictures coming in with audio that we can split around and feed to the relevant people who want to listen to the race radio or the French commentary or the English commentary guide tracks, that kind of thing, and then re-embed those all from the console back to the editor’s timeline. “We’ll be ingesting via Avid and AirSpeed,” he continues, “and we can just populate the tracks on the Avid timeline essentially as to how the editor requests, which will probably be our main Welsh mix on one and two and clean effects and any guides and things that they want. And then a bit of jiggery pokery for re-embedding the other end, in order for the editor to be happy - we’ll be able to do that right from the console with just a simple routing and away they go. It’s all very flexible.” Tinopolis has also bought an additional smaller console to take outside the studio. “It has a Dante option card and we’re utilising the SSL stage boxes out on the road now as well, which just gives us much more flexibility to do small OB programmes and coverage that way,” says Evans. Evans adds that the installation of the SSL console was as efficient as they come. “The installation I did along with a wire man and a couple of others,” he says. “It was a case of running Cat 6s to the studios and to anywhere we wanted to have Dante connection back into the master control room, and freeing up space in the racks, getting the hardware delivered and plugged in. It’s one of the easiest installs that I’ve done. Having not dealt with SSL before, it couldn’t have gone any smoother.” n

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PRODUCTION AND POST

ORDER, ORDER: BRINGING PARLIAMENT TO THE PUBLIC

Philip Stevens elects to go behind the scenes at the UK’s Parliament channel 54 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

PICTURED ABOVE: The gallery used for pollical programmes such as Politics Live. This studio space is shared with the BBC’s Westminster team

PRODUCTION AND POST

elevised coverage of the UK Parliament at Westminster is traced back to 1983 when the House of Lords allowed cameras into the chamber as an experiment. At that time ITN (Independent Television News) provided cameras that were controlled from an OB unit parked in the grounds of the Palace of Westminster. Six years later, that coverage was extended to the elected House of Commons, with pictures and sound provided by appointed contractors. Alongside providing content for news programmes, the coverage also saw the launch of the Parliamentary Channel, operated by United Artists Cable and paid for by a consortium of cable operators. In 1998, the channel transferred to the BBC and rebranded as BBC Parliament. “Although this is very much a niche channel, during the Brexit debates in late 2018 and earlier this year our viewing figures have been through the roof,” states Peter Knowles, controller of BBC Parliament. “New audiences were coming to the channel because they understood that the nation was at a very difficult and interesting junction of history. Many people have said to me that they started to watch the channel to get an understanding of what Brexit was all about – and the numbers were quite astonishing.” Knowles was one of the first output editors on the BBC World Service Television News and was later appointed news editor for BBC World. He was responsible for the output during the war in Kosovo and was overnight output editor for BBC Television News on the night of the death of Princess Diana. He joined BBC Parliament in 2001. IMPROVED INVOLVEMENT “When the coverage of parliamentary proceedings began all those years ago, the rules restricted the shots to little more than the person speaking at that moment,” explains Knowles. “Over time the interpretation of the rules has expanded to allow viewers to see more of what is happening in the chambers – in much the same way that a person sitting in the public gallery would be able to view the proceedings.“ Knowles says that the style of debate in the UK Parliament is the envy of many other areas of the world. “What you see in other chambers is members reading out pre-prepared speeches – and that does not make good

viewing. Our politicians, in the main, work without notes and can readily intervene in another member’s speech. A far more interesting approach.” He goes on to say that the current speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has encouraged ministers to give regular statements in the chamber or to be present to answer what are known as ‘Urgent Questions’ and this has led to increasingly lively debates which attract larger audiences. “One significant improvement in recent times is the introduction of two eye-level cameras either side of the speaker’s chair. This brings the camera count in the Commons to 10 and means there is a greater diversity of shots to make the coverage even more effective, including a speaker’s view of what is going on. It meant, for example, that during crucial votes in the Brexit debates we could see very effective close-ups of the tellers delivering the results of the all-important divisions in a way that had not previously been possible. Our television and online viewers now have a far better understanding of the landscape of the chambers and that makes watching the debates far more viewable.” The success of ‘Urgent Questions’ in the Commons seems to have inspired a similar innovation – known as ‘Private Notice Questions’ - in the House of Lords.

PICTURED ABOVE: Peter Knowles, controller of BBC Parliament

“People have said to me they started to watch the channel to get an understanding of what Brexit was all about – and the numbers were quite astonishing.” PETER KNOWLES TVBEUROPE MAY 2019 | 55

PRODUCTION AND POST THE TECHNICAL SIDE BBC Parliament operates from a building close to the Palace of Westminster. Largely a self-contained unit with its own broadcast and editing facilities, it shares some studio space with the BBC’s political team in the same building. Broadcast coverage of the proceedings in the chambers and the committees is handled by independent contractor Bow Tie Television, part of the NEP Group. “We take the clean feed from Bow Tie and add our captions and other graphics in our own control rooms – known as pods,” states Knowles. “These are added to the live feed, because even if the content is not live on the television channel it can be watched online through bbc. co.uk/parliaments.” As far as the TV channel is concerned, when the House of Commons is sitting, that coverage is shown live – with only rare exceptions - and the Lords and committees are played out overnight or at weekends according to schedule. The main ‘pod’ used for the Commons coverage is equipped with a FOR-A vision mixing console, Studer 1500 audio mixing console, Morpheus editor client screens and button panel, Miranda multi-viewer monitor stack, off-air monitors, a Riedel communications panel, Tektronix waveform monitor, BNCS engineering control system, and an IDS information screen showing the current published channel EPG. The proceedings are captured using Quantel servers, PICTURED RIGHT: Audio in MB1 is controlled by a Calrec Artemis mixing console

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while playout of BBC Parliament is handled by a Morpheus ICE from Grass Valley. “When you take into account that we might also be showing content from legislatures in Europe and other parts of the UK before the Commons starts, it means that BBC Parliament probably delivers more live output than any other UK channel,” says Knowles. “The live could start at 0730 and go on to past 2300 without a break. That is quite an undertaking.” As mentioned earlier, some facilities and programme output are shared with the BBC Westminster political team. This includes programmes such as Politics Live, The Andrew Marr Show and This Week. The studio is equipped with a mixture of robotic and manual Sony 1500 cameras. The gallery is equipped with a Kahuna 360 vision mixer, Mosart automation control system, Miranda multi-viewer monitor stack, BNCS

PRODUCTION AND POST

engineering control system and Riedel communications panels. Calrec Artemis mixing console along with Dynaudio Air12 monitor loudspeakers and SpotOn audio player look after audio needs, while lighting is under the control of an ETC Congo Jr lighting console. AWAY FROM WESTMINSTER Although the main focus of the channel’s activity is the Westminster parliament, coverage of the European Parliament and the national parliaments and assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are also included in the output. “We also show material from City Hall – the home of the London Assembly, the elected body which is part of the Greater London Authority.” Knowles continues: “We also have a three-hour slot every Sunday where we take C-SPAN – the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network – in the United States. This is partly a discussion programme with politicians and experts, but it is also an hour or so of the best events. This might include President Trump’s rallies – which are very

watchable - but also congressional hearings. It’s worth observing that our MPs have, to some degree, developed their style of work in select committees based on what they’ve seen in the United States.” BBC Parliament also produces a number of programmes of its own – including the history and culture of parliaments, and tours of homes associated with previous Prime Ministers. The short-form programmes are often shot by the journalists themselves and edited on the desktop Jupiter 3 system. “We have also started a popular lecture series,” says Knowles. “These lectures are based on what renowned historian A J P Taylor originated many decades ago. He would speak without notes on a variety of topics. Today, well known political commentator Steve Richards is doing the same for us. There is no prompter, no notes - he simply goes into the studio with a watch set for 29 minutes and delivers his lecture. It is brilliant and adds to the stature of this niche – but increasingly important – channel for this momentous time in British history.” n

PICTURED ABOVE: Captions are added live from the ‘pod’ used for the House of Commons coverage

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TECHNOLOGY

OVER THE TOP AND THROUGH AI TO BIG DATA’S HOUSE WE GO Qligent COO Ted Korte on how AI and machine learning can be used to prevent subscriber churn

he media delivery business has become a game of seconds. The lines have blurred between broadcast and other IP-related services for delivering media, while content creation has grown from original TV series and movies to how-to videos and social media posts. Access to content for consumers seems limitless, with digital audio and video now the preferred media for nearly all of our daily activities. With so much content being consumed for a wider variety of purposes, viewing time and audience attention spans have grown shorter, making every second count. The main contributor to the rapid expansion of content creation and consumption has been the emergence of over the top (OTT) delivery, made possible by broadband connectivity to a wide range of “connected” devices. This model gives consumers access, convenience and value that wasn’t available via traditional linear services. However, cable, satellite, IPTV and over the air (OTA) delivery will not completely disappear; each will find their place in this new media delivery ecosystem. For these providers, competing in this fragmented landscape will require a mix of traditional linear services alongside new OTT services, combined with a strong data-driven approach. Content owners maintain very little control upon turning their product over to CDNs and OTT service providers for delivery. To complicate matters, they lack insight into the viewer’s quality of experience (QoE), as more and more third-party services become part of the end-to-end solution. This vacuum of information begs for new methods that ensure a quality experience and proper measurement of viewer engagement. The aggregation of quality of service (QoS), QoE and viewer behaviour data produces extremely large but trusted data sets. By harnessing sophisticated machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to process this data, media enterprises

can glean the valuable insights needed to improve the viewer experience. Significantly, these techniques can be used to predict – in turn allowing operators to prevent – customer-impacting problems before they occur, which is invaluable in minimising subscriber churn. THE OTT CHALLENGE OTT has tremendous growth potential for the media and entertainment sector, with growth projected to exceed $158 billion worldwide by 2025. OTT delivery can provide consumers with oneto-one, personalised experiences while offering providers the ability to collect immediate feedback. To maximise this opportunity, content creators will need to determine the right content, right duration, right time and right platform to reach their audience in real time. Regardless of the end goal, though, the first question in any decision tree should be “Is the quality great?” Studies consistently place poor quality in the top four reasons why viewers abandon OTT video. And with short-form content consumption on the rise, even relatively brief problems become very noticeable – for example, imagine a five-second

‘The use of AI and ML enables providers to predict problems before they actually occur, and thus correct them before they impact their viewers.’ 58 | TVBEUROPE MAY 2019

TECHNOLOGY delay in a four-second pre-roll ad. To complicate matters, OTT is extremely difficult to control endto-end. OTA broadcasters controlled the entire chain through to their transmitters, while cable, satellite and IPTV distribution offered a single handoff both technically and commercially. The picture is quite different for OTT. Playout is moving to the Cloud via third-party providers, as are streaming service functions including transcoding, packaging and DRM. Meanwhile, multi-CDN and multiISP solutions are becoming the norm for reliable delivery and reaching consumers on-the-go. This approach enables incredible scale and speedto-market, but comes with a cost: loss of control. There could potentially be several hand-offs between separate third-party service providers, thus making a holistic, end-to-end data aggregation, monitoring and analytics system a “must-have” for a successful OTT channel. The best way to optimise OTT-delivered content is to start with high-quality delivery to a target audience, and respond to feedback in real time. To achieve this, many are looking toward new technologies – most notably, AI. ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES AI has been talked about for decades, but adoption and useful results have been a rollercoaster ride. It didn’t really become a practical reality until the Cloud, big data and IoT enabled the capture, storage and processing of vast quantities of data. Large datasets can hold a lot of potential value, but it is challenging to find patterns, trends and anomalies within them. Methods and approaches from computer science, mathematics and statistics have been joined together to extract and interpret knowledge. Approaches vary from data warehousing and online analytical processing (OLAP) to data mining and ML. Data mining is defined as the process of discovering patterns in data, either automatically or semi-automatically. This process is supported by tools and practical techniques also known as ML, which are used to identify the underlying structure of the data. Data mining techniques can be used to predict future outcomes based on historical data – for example, identifying customers unhappy with their OTT service and predicting the likelihood of them cancelling their subscription. ML can support this analysis by, for example, using clustering methods to categorise customers based on their consumption habits. There are numerous AI methods and approaches that can be used in data mining applications, depending on the characteristics of the available data and the questions to be answered. It is critical to pick the right set of tools and techniques. With the help of a data scientist, the project goals can be decomposed into subsequent tasks that can be solved by certain ML techniques. Selection of the proper model or approach requires investigation of the data, which must first be cleaned, transformed and properly ingested into the system. The path to an optimal data mining solution may involve iteratively exploring, building and tuning many models. Various off-the-shelf software tools offer graphical and conceptual support for all phases of the knowledge discovery process. This eases the daily work of data mining experts and allows a growing number of

non-experts to start knowledge discovery projects, but since every use case is unique, you will need to understand how to properly use these components. There are always factors such as exceptions to rules and errors in data that require further analysis of data and fine tuning of the models. BIG DATA AND AI IN ACTION An example of the use of AI and ML to turn big data into actionable business insights is a project that Qligent deployed with a large-scale provider. Their primary objective was understanding, preventing and reversing subscriber churn, but they needed a better understanding of their end customers’ experiences and consumption habits. Working with Qligent, the provider deployed an intelligent analytics system that supplemented data collection and mining with controlled ‘Last Mile’ probes and end user IoT probes. A big data architecture was designed to process the new and legacy data in real-time, and a workflow sequence was created to process the data. Key performance indicators (KPIs) and key quality indicators (KQIs) were developed to create both predictive and prescriptive analytics. The complex analytical computations behind the KQIs were modelled to indicate service availability. To simplify the understanding and use of the results, the KPIs and KQIs were broken down into three topological domains – the headend, the network and the subscriber – and designed such that any output metric lower than 95 per cent would trigger corrective action. By leveraging these insights, the provider realised quantifiable improvements in quality and viewer engagement while reducing support calls and churn.

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TECHNOLOGY

The Qligent analytics system currently generates approximately 20,000 predictive tickets each week across all KQIs in all macroregions. The number of tickets is expected to continuously drop as the provider’s first-line and second-line support teams use this information to optimise the performance and reliability of their network. The headend and network KQIs were initially already above their minimum target of 95 per cent, but increased another 1.4 per cent for the headend and 1.7 per cent for the network over the first six months with the help of analytics-driven corrective actions, and continue to grow. Interestingly, this seemingly modest improvement in quality was followed by an increase in concurrent subscriber usage. The provider was subsequently able to correlate that the service quality improvements attracted more concurrent viewers and longer average viewing times. Between 150 and 300 subscriber-related predictive tickets are generated by the system daily per macro-region, each representing an individual or small group of subscribers predicted to be affected by a critical fault in the next three to five days. The second-line support team investigates each predictive ticket, with a goal of preventing the fault from happening. As a result, the first-line support team saw a 6.6 per cent decrease in the number of incoming customer problem reports. Even more impressive has been an astounding 93.8 per cent decrease in repeat calls from customers about the problems detected and sent for investigation by the analytics system. Similarly, the second-line support team saw an 86.2 per cent decrease in customers calling multiple times about the same problems. This confirms the benefits of quickly determining the root cause of any issues. The analytics results also enabled the provider to create a prioritised ‘churn prevention’ list for customer service agents to proactively

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contact. Initially, the weekly-generated list had a large number of subscribers to call, with roughly 35 per cent of them predicted to have a very high probability of leaving the service. After six months, the list was reduced by over 80 per cent. Furthermore, by arming service representatives with analytics about subscribers’ preferences and past technical problems, the agents were able to demonstrate the provider’s commitment to customer service when speaking with the subscribers. Having this personalised knowledge before the call proved far more successful than generic questionnaires or robo-calls. CONCLUSIONS OTT enables an array of compelling new business models, including personalisation at a global scale. It changes everything from the size and type of content, to how content is measured and monetised. This trend also introduced new players into the media and entertainment landscape, many of whom were early pioneers in the use of the Cloud, big data and AI. Now, the new and traditional players alike are looking toward these technologies to gain a competitive advantage. Bringing these technologies together can provide media organisations with valuable insights they can use to improve their subscribers’ experience. Most importantly, the use of AI and ML enables providers to predict problems before they actually occur, and thus correct them before they impact their viewers. As seen in our case study example, early project results demonstrated a direct correlation between quality improvement and end user engagement. More viewers tuned in, watched longer, and were less likely to cancel their service after knowing their provider is staying on top of QoS and QoE issues. The only thing worse than not addressing quality problems quickly enough is not knowing about them at all. n

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DATA CENTRE

FIVE PRIORITIES FOR THE INDUSTRY A research consortium made up of Adobe Advertising Cloud, Alphonso, Sky and TVbeat have drawn up a list of five measurement, metrics and data priorities for the European TV industry

This means accommodating multiplatform and non-linear TV viewing within TAM services, along with collaboration between broadcasters to avoid fragmentation of solutions.

As broadcasters manage increasingly complex channel/digital portfolios, the roll-out of standardised audience segments could make TV more accessible to advertisers.

Many executives believe that the industry needs to do more to draw advertising budgets to TV, requiring the development of data sets and datadriven innovation.

European Broadcaster Exchange CEO Chris Le May said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Media agencies are expressing a desire for a credible large-scale alternative to digital giants, where they could invest their client budgets in brand safe and highly viewable environments.â&#x20AC;?

Support the industry by collectively investing in mentoring schemes to cultivate data and analytics professionals who understand the changing needs of broadcasters. n

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