TVB Europe 86 November / December 2021

Intelligence for the media & entertainment industry

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

HOW 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY IS BRINGING THUNDERBIRDS CREATOR GERRY ANDERSON BACK TO THE SCREEN

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CONTENT

Celebrating strong women!

Editor: Jenny Priestley jenny.priestley@futurenet.com Graphic Designer: Marc Miller Managing Design Director: Nicole Cobban nicole.cobban@futurenet.com Contributors: Kevin Hilton

O

ne of my favourite duties as the editor of TVBEurope is putting together our daily newsletter. My colleagues will tell you I have a real passion for tracking down stories from a social media post or a rumour I’ve heard.

I think it stems from my time working in a broadcast newsroom where we had to get the latest news on-air as quickly as possible. I also think it’s because I’m inherently nosey, so I love finding out something and telling everyone else about it (but I can keep a secret when required).

I feel very lucky to have a job that I love and one that gives me a real sense of achievement.

But, there are certainly times I question myself and that’s why Rise’s recent report about ‘Women in Leadership’ really made me stop and think. It revealed that three quarters of women in media tech have experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their career. In an industry that already poses challenges for women I found that figure to be extremely shocking. If we want a rich, diverse industry (and I believe that we do), then we need to encourage every woman to believe she has a future in media technology.

I’ve written before about the importance of mentors and encouraging the people we work with throughout our careers, and I really do believe that is vital. So, I’m delighted Carrie Wootten, managing director of Rise, has written for us this issue about how we can all help our industry encourage more female leaders.

Released earlier in November, Sky’s latest original film The Colour Room (pictured) is about a female leader in the shape of Clarice Cliff, who had grand designs on the pottery industry back in the 1920s. Director of photography Denson Baker tells us how he used colour to bring Clarice’s world to life on screen.

And, as you may have noticed, this issue goes behind the scenes of a new documentary about Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson. It was fascinating to talk to producer Benjamin Field about how he’s using deep fake technology to enable Gerry to tell his own story on screen. The programme sounds really interesting and I can’t wait to see it! n

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TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 03

MEDIA, ENTERTAINMENT AND TECHNOLOGY: WE’VE GOT IT COVERED

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IN THIS ISSUE

NOV/DEC 2021

6 Supporting female leaders

Rise managing director Carrie Wootten on

how the industry can support its female leaders

12 Restored memories

Kevin Hilton explores how the demand for

vintage TV series and films continues to grow

20 Stand by for action!

12

Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted producer/ director Benjamin Field tells Jenny Priestley how the production is using deep fake technology to bring Gerry Anderson back to the screen

24 How AI and metadata are driving compliance

By Hiren Hindocha, CEO of Digital Nirvana

37 Inside The Colour Room

Cinematographer Denson Baker shines a light on his work on a new film about pottery designer Clarice Cliff

42 More from the virtual frontier

In part two of our look at virtual production in broadcasting, we talk to leading technology providers and facilities about how programme makers are using the new techniques available to them

52 Looking back, moving forward

20

54 Meta-morphosis

37 www.tvbeurope.com

Vizrt CTO Gerhard Lang discusses the ways in which the pandemic has helped remove obstacles from the adoption of the cloud and remote production

Jenny Priestley aims out to find out more about the metaverse, and what it means for the media and entertainment industry

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 5

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Supporting female leaders

By Carrie Wootten, managing director, Rise

O

ne of the key questions that Rise has been asking throughout 2021 is, ‘how do we support more women to reach senior leadership roles?’ We know that the majority of C-level positions are occupied by men and that women earn significantly less than men too. So how does the industry change the dial and ensure there are more female leaders?

One of the standout headlines from our recent Women in Leadership Report is on imposter syndrome; which is a sense of an individual doubting their skills, talents, or accomplishments and thinking they are a ‘fraud’. A staggering 75 per cent of our respondents said that they experienced this, which is not surprising but extremely sad and disappointing to read. At Rise, we anecdotally see this fed back to us on a regular basis, with it being one of the most talked about traits. Inherent in imposter syndrome is a lack of confidence; in speaking up, in believing that your voice and opinion matters, that you’ll be taken seriously and that you are right in the decisions you make. Imposter syndrome and a lack of confidence can often sound cliched, and something that is also perhaps out of date and out of touch with the working world, but the starkness of this statistic highlights that it couldn’t be more relevant for women working in our sector in 2021.

Imposter syndrome can come in many guises, with those perfectionists struggling when projects don’t quite work out or people believing they must be experts before they speak up on a subject. Often, addressing imposter syndrome openly can be a key factor in barriers being broken down and confidence being built within teams and leaders themselves. Learning that not everyone feels comfortable 100 per cent of the time and that everyone feels challenged, can ensure that others can feel more positive and able to learn and grow from their own experiences.

This means creating an environment where questions can be asked openly without fear. If leaders frame the challenges they face, and that their teams face, as opportunities, this can be a chance for everyone to learn, which leads to empowerment and a strong sense of worth and, of course, confidence.

Directly related to this is the fact that two-thirds of our respondents would class themselves as risk takers, of which the flip side is, of course, failure. Naturally, perhaps, leadership lends itself to risk taking as you make the final decisions that directly impact the trajectory of a business; especially when working in a technology industry that experiments, innovates and reinvents itself every day.

We need to ensure we create environments that lend themselves to building this attribute more and supporting younger women to think

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more openly about a pro-risk approach to their work. This can be achieved through framing projects as pilots, so there is leeway to push the boundaries and refine processes, as well as creating a comfortable space in which to make mistakes, to learn and to support those less sure of themselves. We need leaders to be more open and transparent about failures and the positive outcomes that come from experimentation too. We might also like to look at risk related questions in interviews as women progress through their careers; it might not be as explicit as ‘are you a risk taker?’, and shouldn’t be looked as a qualifier for a role as a risk-taking appetite can be coached. But asking questions around learning from mistakes and their takeaways from these situations can provide a clear indicator of this particular aspect of leadership.

One of the most complex findings in the report is surrounding education, with 77 per cent of respondents reaching at least a degree level qualification. The report highlights that access to higher education and obtaining degrees is significantly more challenging for diverse communities, and yet, it seems the industry is extremely attached to degree level qualifications within senior roles. However, nearly everyone I have spoken to about this statistic has been quite clear that a degree isn’t necessary; a passion, a drive to learn and absorb knowledge, as well as teamwork and communication skills, are much more critical to success and progression. This is welcome news when looking at ensuring we create a more diverse workforce, in particular with the intersection between gender, ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds. But the juxtaposition between these two facts is clear and the industry needs to have more clarity around what it requires and what qualifications and education is needed to secure a leadership role. If degrees aren’t relevant, then we need much more transparency on this. If they are still relevant, how do we ensure that more diverse communities have access to this education? The Rise Up Academy is striving to address this, and diversity within the sector more broadly, but as an industry we need much more discussion on the importance of qualifications and what they mean to people’s career pathways and likelihood to reach leadership positions.

The report provides a critical insight into what we as an industry can do to support more women into senior roles, whether this is through mentoring, clarity on qualifications, encouraging a more pro-risk appetite or transparency around traits such as imposter syndrome.

We need to be bolder in shouting, ‘we’re all learning, every day’. As Baroness Michelle Mone OBC pointed out recently: “The biggest risk you can take is not to take any risk at all... The more risks you take, the more chances you have at achieving greatness.” n

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Why dynamic, elastic CDNs are the future

By Nivedita Nouvel, vice president of marketing at Broadpeak

T

he content delivery network (CDN) market remains highly competitive as the use of streaming services grows across the world.

According to Up Market Research, the video streaming market is expected to grow at CAGR of 21 per cent between 2021 and 2028.

Alongside the growing demand for streaming services, the need for robust CDNs has come into even sharper focus, coupled with an increase in volume of content, a rise in the demand for higher-resolution video, and the ability of CDNs to reduce bandwidth by using caching, thus reducing the risk of service interruptions or diminished quality.

CDNS ARE EVOLVING TO MEET NEW VIDEO DELIVERY DEMANDS Video delivery patterns are changing, which is directly impacting CDNs. One of the biggest changes we are seeing is that the majority of broadcasts are migrating to adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming technology. When all content is delivered via ABR, it will cause an unprecedented load on networks. Static operator CDNs, which are the prevalent model today, will need to adapt. Making CDNs more dynamic and contextually aware will enable network resources to be managed based on actual usage.

The other key transformation we are seeing in the video industry is an increase in direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming. TDG predicted that by 2022, every major TV network will have launched a DTC streaming service. That prediction is becoming a reality. Many content owners today offer their own video streaming service without going through a network service provider aggregation platform.

The rise in DTC streaming services will accelerate the phenomenon of network capacity reaching its limits. Moreover, DTC streaming will limit network optimisations that only address operators’ aggregated content.

Moving forward, CDNs need to be open to third-party content.

To thrive in today’s video distribution environment, content owners and network service providers require a solution that will ensure a high quality of experience (QoE) for video services while keeping the rise in network costs under control.

HOW TO MAKE CDNS FUTURE PROOF There are a few ways that CDNs can be adapted to address the issues mentioned above. First, it’s important that the CDN is open. Content providers need access to CDN optimisations; this feature should not solely be limited to network operators. A CDN that integrates APIs,

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including SVA open caching, will ensure that third-party content can be managed and monitored from the operator network.

To be future-proof, CDNs must also be more dynamic. Ideally, operators should be able to dynamically deploy new caches where they are most needed at the moment. Real-time analytics gathered from all points of the network, down to the player level, and A/B testing play a pivotal role in this process. Having a centralised and operation-friendly user interface is also critical, as this will enable operators to dynamically add and fine-tune new features.

Finally, the CDN needs to be elastic. CDNs deployed at the PoP level or at the edge assure superior granularity and deep caching. Edge deployments must comply with the 3GPP MEC standard and 5G. With an elastic CDN, content owners can organise infrastructure resources, utilising them where they are most needed in the network.

NEW BUSINESS AND CONTENT MONETISATION OPPORTUNITIES There are commercial benefits to be gained by embracing a future-proof CDN that is open, dynamic, and elastic. This type of solution creates new relationships between internet service providers (ISPs) and content owners, opening up next-gen business models and content monetisation opportunities for both parties.

With an open, dynamic, and elastic CDN, network service providers can optimise their infrastructure investments while improving the quality and control of their video distribution, even for third-party video content. For content providers, the type of CDN described above guarantees an optimum QoE, reduces delivery costs, and offers good streaming conditions to more users, increasing the eligibility of their service. Video streaming consumption, especially direct-to-consumer offerings, will continue to grow. Unfortunately, the static design of traditional CDNs leaves content owners and network service providers ill-equipped to deliver a superior QoE to viewers across all screens. CDNs need to adapt and reinvent themselves.

Using an advanced content delivery network featuring an open, dynamic, and elastic architecture, the industry can cope with the revolutions happening in video distribution. Open, dynamic, and elastic CDNs create a mutually beneficial relationship for content owners and network service providers. n

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 07

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Looking back to protect the future of wireless audio

By Stuart Moots, director pro audio, Shure UK

H

indsight is always useful when looking back to improve upon past events, so let’s roll back to the summer of 2012 when the UK was united around the success of the Olympics and the incredible show that the country put on the world stage.

At the same time, the digital switch over for TV was taking place across Europe, a process which allowed the clearance of the 800mHz UHF spectrum to prepare for the rollout of the 4G mobile networks.

What a year 2012 was: the Olympics, more channels and shows providing over-the-air HD TV, plus our smartphones were about to get a lot faster and deliver even more content.

Roll forward to May 2020 and Ofcom in the UK cleared the 700 Mhz UHF spectrum for the introduction of 5G networks. At the same time similar regulatory bodies across Europe are either starting or ending the same process.

We now have the ability to deliver even higher quality content at higher speeds across a wide range of platforms – from live music to theatre to film production to Olympic-sized broadcasts – surely this is a good initiative? Well, yes and no.

In the UK, any wireless operator within those sectors falls under Ofcom’s regulations for Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE). As PMSE users we have access to that UHF spectrum and share it with Digital TV (DTV). Since 2012, we have lost almost 50 per cent of the usable space spectrum that we have for wireless audio to make content for delivery across a huge range of platforms, including the mobile phone networks. Prior to the end of 2012, the UK and EU had access from 470–790 Mhz. Looking back to 2012, it would be almost impossible to deliver an Olympic-sized broadcast event using the same wireless equipment in the spectrum we have available today. It’s somewhat ironic that as the demand for content increases its growth is what constrains those that produce said content for those platforms. More smartphones equals less space for PMSE use.

We are never going to lose the smartphone in our pocket, and nor should we have to, so how do we as PMSE users continue to co-exist and share that reduced space? Is digital wireless the answer? The short answer is yes. Digital wireless microphones allow us as operators greater use of that spectrum. Advanced RF modulation schemes offer higher channel counts due to efficient

08 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

use of spectrum which also brings added benefits, such as greater transmission distance using lower power, encryption and much higher audio quality.

It will be of no surprise that mobile phone manufacturers switched to digital networks in the early 1990s as they saw that more users and a finite amount of spectrum would require a more efficient delivery method than what analogue offered. The present and near future appear to be addressed with the adoption of digital wireless but what of the longer term?

As mobile users, streaming platforms and expectations increase, so too do production values and channel counts. The 5G networks are already here delivering premium quality content faster than ever before; streaming 4K events to smartphones will no doubt become the norm. Is 5G the answer for PMSE users? It certainly could be an option; the pipeline is big enough to deliver the content, the ability to use the UHF spectrum efficiently lends itself to suggest so. It will take some serious investment from manufacturers and if that is a viable option then how do we access those networks? Do the mobile phone operators become the gatekeepers of 5G, is it the regulatory bodies like Ofcom, or does the answer lie elsewhere? One thing that is certain will be how visible we as PMSE creators are.

In 2004, BEIRG (British Entertainment Industry Radio Group) formed to address the consequences of the Digital Dividend Review in the UK. Made up of manufacturers and content creators from within the industry, BEIRG was responsible for ensuring that PMSE had a voice during the spectrum auctions and proved how vitally important it is to ensure that PMSE has access to that space. It was 2015 when the World Radio Conference announced the intention to change the use of the 700Mhz Spectrum. By May of 2020, Ofcom had completed that switchover in the UK. The next World Radio Conference takes place in 2023; we can speculate what might be on the agenda for that conference so let’s use that hindsight to our advantage this time. As audio professionals, we know it’s important to stay up to date with the latest technology and how best to adapt that but even more so now: ensure you are visible as users, ensure your wireless is licensed and educate those who aren’t yet aware and we will continue to deliver the great content we are renowned for. n

#ICYMI

ICYMI TVBEurope’s website is a hive of exclusive news, features and information about our industry. Here are some articles you might have missed…

MAJOR SHAKE-UP AT GRASS VALLEY AS CEO TIM SHOULDERS LEAVES THE COMPANY

ARENA TELEVISION CEASES TRADING Arena Television, one of the largest independently owned outside broadcast providers in the United Kingdom, has confirmed to TVBEurope that it has ceased trading.

The company informed staff and freelancers of the news on 10th November and has since deactivated its website and social media accounts.

A spokesperson for Arena said no further details would be announced. Arena, which officially launched in 1988, was a key part of the UK’s outside broadcasting industry, working with numerous clients across sport, news and other genres. n https://bit.ly/3HoE5fF

The senior management team at Grass Valley has undergone a major shake-up with both CEO and president Tim Shoulders, and Marco Lopez, GM of live production, leaving the company.

Louis Hernandez Jr, CEO of parent company Black Dragon Capital, will now lead the company. In a statement sent to TVBEurope, Neil Maycock, Grass Valley’s CMO, said: “Grass Valley has recently simplified its organisational structure in order to accelerate the focus on the Company’s GV Media Universe (GVMU) strategy. The changes will enable the company to capitalise on the strong market response to the GVMU and make investments in its awardwinning product suite. We thank the outgoing executives for their support in managing the transition from Belden.” n https://bit.ly/3Dhrtos

HOW DATA FROM THE PGA TOUR COULD HELP DRIVE FORMULA ONE’S TV COVERAGE Rob Smedley, data director at Formula One, has revealed how he takes inspiration from other sports as F1 looks to enhance the TV viewing experience.

Speaking at a special event hosted by AWS featuring both Smedley and Andreas Heyden, EVP digital innovations at Bundesliga, TVBEurope asked if the pair look at other sports to see how they are engaging with viewers.

10 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

“At Formula One, especially in the area of data and fan engagement, I think we’ve still got an awful lot to learn. We’re still on that journey.

It’s kind of a sleeping giant and we’ve just got to make sure that we navigate through the waters correctly, so therefore there’s lots of different sports that we take inspiration from,” said Smedley. n https://bit.ly/3qGfdu6

BEST IN MARKET 2021 AWARDS THE WINNERS Future’s 2021 Best in Market Awards winners were decided in early November, with seven winning entries from the TVBEurope brand category November saw Future announce the winning entries from its Best in Market Awards (previously Best of Show at the 2021 NAB Show) which recognise innovation and excellence in new, recently introduced products and solutions for the professional broadcast media market.

A judging panel of professional users, journalists, and Future brand editors pored over the nominations which were separated into three brand categories: TVBEurope, Radio World, and TV Tech.

Here, we take a look at the winning entries from the TVBEurope category.

BLACKBIRD: BLACKBIRD Blackbird says that it is “the world’s fastest, most powerful professional cloud video editing and publishing platform”.

Blackbird enables remote editing, providing access to video content for the creation of clips, highlights and longer-form content to multiple devices and platforms.

The platform provides productivity and efficiency benefits for any enterprise organisation working with video, and supports the carbon reduction goals of the media production industry due to its “ultra green technology”.

BOLAND MONITORS: X4K31HDR5-OLED BROADCAST MONITOR The largest of Boland’s new X-4K OLED monitor series, the 31” model features a 10 bit panel and processor, with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio that “guarantees ultra

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deep black levels”. The 4K signal is delivered via 12G and 3G SDI (single or quad link), HDMI 2.0, and Sfp (2110) inputs. The monitor offers numerous scopes and audio metres, 3D LUTs, time code, markers, and multiple aspect functionality. All firmware updates are completed in-field using USB, and all X-4K Series models include VESA mount holes on the rear in addition to a desktop stand. The X-4K OLED monitor series is also available in 21” and 26” sizes.

CLEAR-COM: STATION-IC VIRTUAL DESKTOP CLIENT The Station-IC Virtual Desktop Client is a Macand Windowsbased software application, which is now available for LQ devices as well as Clear-Com’s Eclipse Digital intercom Matrix.

Full integration with the wide variety of LQ interfaces offers channel-based routing which allows Station-IC to connect to ClearCom’s Encore Partyline systems and any other intercom, or audio, system via four-wire.

It is designed to be quick to deploy with a straightforward configuration process and minimal network configuration.

ROSS VIDEO: ULTRIX ACUITY Ultrix Acuity is a “hyperconverged” production platform that takes routing, audio mixing, MultiViewers, trays of frame syncs and audio embedders/de-embedders – all solutions that have traditionally filled multiple equipment racks – and compresses them all down to a single 5RU chassis.

ICYMI It is designed for use in outside broadcast vehicles and mobile units and one of its main calling cards is its cost efficiency: “expensive power, cooling, maintenance, and support costs are significantly lower”, says the company.

SMALLHD: SMALLHD 22” OLED 4K PRODUCTION MONITOR SmallHD’s 4K OLED colour reference monitor is its first lightweight 4K monitor equipped with a feature set that “finally enables critical monitoring of 4K images, both on-set and in the colour suite”.

The hardware design is built around the Small4K™ Video Processing Architecture, which provides eight 12G-SDI and two HDMI 2.0 ports, all of which enable 4K signal processing. Housed in a unibody, milledaluminum chassis that includes 36 individual ¼-20” mounting points along the top and sides, the OLED 22 is a lightweight 9.3-lbs/4.2kg.

TERADEK: SPARK 4K Spark 4K is Teradek’s response to the growing demand for practical and high quality video transport solutions; a demand it says has been exponentially driven by the Covid-19 pandemic as schools, churches, and businesses turned to live streaming events to stay engaged.

The company says that Spark 4K enables production crews to elevate the quality of their events, but it reduces set-up and breakdown times, and improves the overall dynamic of the viewer’s experience.

TELOS ALLIANCE: TELOS INFINITY VIRTUAL INTERCOM PLATFORM The Telos Infinity Virtual Intercom Platform (VIP) is the alliance’s first fully featured cloud-based intercom system. It delivers “sophisticated comms virtually”, making cloudbased media production workflows available on devices such as smartphones, laptops,

desktops, or tablets. Users can use third-party control devices, such as Elgato’s Stream Deck, to control Telos Infinity VIP. Key components are seen in its performance, scalability, ease of integration, and operational/ cost efficiencies. n

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 11

FEATURE

At a time when streaming platforms are offering huge, on-demand libraries of films and television series, the appetite for vintage TV series and old feature films continues to grow. Something that, as Kevin Hilton reports, has helped create a small but healthy market for restoration technology and expertise

Talking Pictures TV founder Noel Cronin examines a film in the programme The Footage Detectives, with host Mike Read in the background

12 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

FEATURE

LEFT: Connie Booth and ‘Lumberjack’ Michael Palin in Monty Python’s Flying Circus BELOW: Anna Chancellor and Colin Firth in a scene from the 2020 HDR restoration of Pride and Prejudice

L

overs of classic/cult TV series and old feature films are well served by specialist labels such as Network, Arrow, Studio Canal and the BFI, whose aim is to offer something that is better than people remember. Not only should the new DVD or Blu-ray Disc (BD) releases look good on modern HD or 4K screens but they should also be the most complete version. For more general viewers in search of televisual nostalgia, niche outlets such as Talking Pictures TV, Drama, ITVs 3 and 4 and, most recently, BritBox, offer a wide array of old British films, cop shows, comedies and dramas that were lauded in their day.

Ensuring this sizeable and fairly voracious audience is not disappointed by dull pictures lacking in colour and with muddy sound, the labels and channels rely on a small but dedicated segment of the post production market for not only restoring the films and programmes but also finding them, or their component parts, in the first place. Those offering these services vary from full facilities to oneperson operations, many of which are run out of the owner’s home.

Silver Salt Restoration is fully focused on archive TV and film work, with premises in west London featuring a Spirit 4K datacine and Arriscan for scanning and transferring original material; the Digital Vision suite of tools to fix and restore pictures; and Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve colour grading system. The facility was opened in 2017 by ex-employees of Deluxe Restoration, including former head of department, Mark Bonnici.

Now a partner in Silver Salt, Bonnici comments that there has been a renewed interest in restored programmes and films since the company was founded. “People realised that there is quality content

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out there and it can be got at for a relatively good price,” he says.

“There is demand because streaming platforms need content and there is the quality aspect as well, with viewers having HD or 4K TVs with Dolby Vision HDR.” Silver Salt works on restorations of feature films, including many owned by Studio Canal. These include The Deer Hunter, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and, most recently, the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers. On the TV side, the facility has been working with the US arm of BritBox, restoring two classic British period dramas, Brideshead Revisited and the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

The former was shot on 16mm film and the latter on Super 16, both of which had to be processed to produce 4K HDR versions for the US market. “We graded them in a different way to how they had been before,” Bonnici says. “The colours were very dowdy and English.

Now, we grade something of that era in the way we think they should look, so that the costumes and scenery can be seen properly. It makes a real difference.”

Dealing with the original film can be a painstaking and difficult procedure. The joins made during editing may have deteriorated over time and perforations can shrink. Both of these have to be checked and repaired if necessary. As Tim Emblem-English, who runs transfer company The Flying Spot, says, no one wants the film falling apart during transfer. “As well as checking the joins, film is cleaned before it

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 13

FEATURE

ABOVE: Donald Sutherland in a scene from Don’t Look Now after its restoration

BELOW: Iconic sketches from Monty Python’s Flaying Circus

goes on the telecine machine,” he comments. “I use a Cintel Mk III 422, which dates back to around 1988.

It has a unit for reducing blemishes; using that I am able to isolate speckles and spots. Once it’s been cleaned up, the film is graded using Digigrade, which was a standard BBC unit.”

Emblem-English works for Talking Pictures TV on a regular basis and is also authorised to handle material held by the BFI archive. Much of what he works on for Talking Pictures is 16mm, with some 8mm, and includes documentaries, industrial films, home movies and some ‘lost’ TV programmes. Among these is No Hiding Place, a police crime drama produced by AssociatedRediffusion between 1959 and 1967, episodes of which have been recovered and are now being televised.

“The quality varies a great deal,” Emblem-English says. “Some are pretty pristine but others are damaged or have had bits chopped out.” If material is still in need of attention after being passed through the telecine and its repair tools, Emblem-English hands it over to film services company, The Mechanical Cinema.

This operation largely specialises in repairing 16mm equipment but also owns a Snell Archangel Ph.C-HD real-time restoration, which is able to fix scratches and problems with stability, dirt, noise and flicker.

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Another boutique operation is SVS Resources, run

by Peter Crocker. Much of his work is for BBC Studios, restoring programmes such as Doctor Who for DVD release. Crocker observes that in the early 2010s, a time when streaming really began to take off, there was a “crisis of confidence” in physical media, with many in the business thinking the market for it would die out. “I never thought that was the case,” he says. “Physical sales have now polarised between big blockbusters and the specialist collectors’ market for comedy, horror, art house and science fiction.”

This has continued to provide work for Crocker, who focuses on the restoration process and receives material that has been transferred elsewhere. He describes his equipment set-up as “several powerful computers, both PCs and Macs, with high-end standard software plug-ins”. These include the HS Arts DIAMANTFilm Restoration programme, which Crocker uses for most of his work. While much of his work is for DVD release, Crocker also gets involved in broadcast projects, including for BritBox and the BBC. A project that led to many people in the UK broadcast industry getting involved in restoration was the 1995 video re-release of the 1983 Doctor Who adventure The Five Doctors. This boasted updated visual effects, a Dolby Surround soundtrack and ten minutes of material that had been removed from the original cut. The producer and videotape editor on this project was Paul Vanezis, who has since gone on to oversee the reconstruction and general cleaning up of many other TV programmes.

Notable amongst these is the 2019 reissue of Monty Python’s Flying Circus for Network.

The Norwegian Blu-ray Edition features the most complete versions of many episodes since their original broadcast with the video upscaled from standard definition. “Programmes can be future-proofed by having them in 4K because it means they can be put on streaming services,” explains Vanezis. “But there were some worries about whether a new release of Python would recoup its money because a previous boxset had

FEATURE been available for a long time. We decided a new version should get under the skin of the material and not be about accompanying documentaries but give people things they hadn’t seen before.”

Some episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus were re-edited for various reasons during the early 1970s.

Not all of this excised material was still held by the BBC, which meant that Vanezis had to carry out a lot of “detective work” to piece together what he describes as a “jigsaw” of sketches and animation. Much of the latter had been kept by its creator, Terry Gilliam, but finding the missing live action sequences proved trickier.

The search took in the existing episodes, which had been digitised on to D3 in the mid 90s, to negatives and film copies that were held by others, including American broadcaster ABC and the Python’s [Gilliam’s] own archive. All this material was pieced together and restored at Network’s in-house facility.

If a programme or a specific sequence no longer exists on a professional format, restorers will have to resort to any one of a number of domestic videotape systems.

Among those specialising in this work is Rob Collis, whose clients include the Kaleidoscope Archive, which collects programmes and other TV material thought lost.

Items can be held on early open reel video formats such

as Sony CV2000 from the ‘60s, to EIA interchangeable systems, and then Philips VCR (video cassette recording) in the ‘70s, which were superseded by Betamax and VHS come the ‘80s.

“Once we get into the late ‘70s and the ‘80s, most programming was kept by the broadcasters,” says Collis. “But there are still some things, like adverts and continuity, which were not recorded by the TV companies but which are considered culturally significant.” When transferring this material, the tapes are sometimes baked to stabilise the oxide backing for playback and transfer. But Collis says around 50 per cent of domestic tapes need to be cleaned, something he does using a dry lubricant while running the tape through a machine, as much as they need baking. Another problem is poor quality recordings caused by “wonky aerials”, something Collis solves by using the Neat Video noise reduction system.

The results of such attention to detail and timeconsuming research are certainly appreciated by fans of classic series. And it certainly justifies the devotion shown by viewers at the time who knew what they were watching was important, even if, back then, television was frustratingly ephemeral. Now it is (almost) fully restored and here to stay. ■

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TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 15

FEATURE

WHY AI AND MACHINE LEARNING ARE A MUST IN THE PAY-TV WORLD

By Alain Nochimowski, chief technology officer at Viaccess-Orca

A

d spending is predicted to increase by 125 per cent in the connected TV market by 2024, and AVoD is on a similar track for market growth, with forecasts estimating a 120 per cent increase by 2025. As a result, a growing number of operators are diversifying their services with addressable TV offerings. As operators dip a toe into the addressable TV market, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-based targeted ad solutions can be a valuable tool for maximising monetisation.

BENEFITS OF AI/ML-BASED ADDRESSABLE ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS Targeted advertising is a monumental opportunity for operators to enhance their revenue, as advertisers are reportedly willing to pay up to three times more for a targeted advert versus a traditional TV ad. With TV data aggregated via AI and ML, operators can present multiple ads to different audiences in parallel, including individual households and viewers. Targeted ads make the television experience more personalised and relevant for viewers as well as more lucrative for operators and advertisers, attracting local and niche advertisers that were previously out of reach.

There are several targeted ad approaches that operators can take. One path is replacing ads in linear primetime content. In addition, operators can serve ads within their app UI, catch-up TV content, promotions, and freemium services.

DIVING DEEP INTO DATA To effectively deliver targeted ads, operators must collect a massive amount of TV consumption data pertaining to what viewers are watching, the apps they are using, the device type they’re on, the category of content they like, and more. Viewership data is key to understanding audience preferences, and it is extremely valuable.

Viewer consumption data is solely owned by the operator; so it has a high potential for monetisation. Operators can also collect fine-grained information, such as clickstream data, to gain insights into what viewers are clicking on and their behaviour within the app. Data about how the system is performing is also advantageous, as it allows operators to catch security and service anomalies.

By applying AI algorithms to raw data, operators can extract all kinds of useful information for audience segmentation purposes. AI/ML

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system models are trained and retrained in order to ensure that the targeted ads chosen for audiences are relevant. It’s important that the data exposes audience segments rather than specific individuals because advertisers are looking to invest in a certain demographic of the viewership.

AI/ML-based systems can also help operators reduce churn and identify viewers that can be converted from freemium to premium services. With AI, operators can spot customers that are likely to churn and apply mitigation techniques to keep the revenue stream flowing.

PITFALLS AND BEST PRACTICES It’s critical that operators choose a unified, targeted TV advertising solution. An end-to-end system will bring efficiency to the delivery of targeted ads, allowing operators to serve all audiences from all sources, including local, global, and online advertisers.

Viewers’ privacy is another essential factor to consider when launching addressable TV. The arrival of the GDPR legislation has changed the economics of data. Due to GDPR restrictions, operators must collect data with a specific use case in mind and cannot collect data without the consent of viewers. Operators need a targeted advertising solution with tools for protecting viewers’ data in compliance with GDPR and other privacy-related legislation. Viaccess-Orca’s targeted advertising system is a good example of a solution that includes an embedded consent management system and techniques for assuring secure and anonymised personal identifiers transmission throughout the entire targeted advertising ecosystem.

The business model for pay-TV is evolving. At one point in time subscriptions were operators’ only avenue for revenue, but today’s business model is hybrid, including addressable TV offerings. To fully monetise their TV services, operators must deploy a solution that supports all business models including linear TV, catch-up TV, NPVR, VoD, and in-app UI for freemium and premium services.

With an increase in viewing options, an ever-expanding sea of content, and new business models emerging, it is more important than ever for pay-TV operators to capitalise on the opportunities for monetisation. AI/ML-based targeted advertising solutions can help operators make the most of data to monetise their offerings as well as retain and increase the number of the viewers. n

DISCOVER A NEW REALM OF REMOTE CONNECTIVITY WITH DEJERO

A

s the world continues to become more interconnected and mobile, more broadcasters and production companies globally are prioritising the transition to IP, embracing the cloud to live stream events across multiple platforms and reach new audiences.

In order to successfully live stream events, companies need rock-solid connectivity to securely send high-quality, low latency video over a wireless network. Because if you want to work in the cloud, you need to be connected to it.

Luckily, the promise of reliable connectivity anywhere is what Dejero is built on. Dejero delivers an array of bespoke connectivity solutions for live video transmission and resilient internet access to wirelessly connect personnel in temporary or fixed locations, vehicles, or devices — two solutions incredibly useful for any organisation making the transition to remote, virtual, or cloud production.

What sets Dejero apart is their Smart Blending Technology — technology that intelligently blends connections from multiple providers including 3G/4G/5G cellular and portable satellite, along with broadband connectivity from Wi-Fi and Ethernet, to form a virtual ‘network of networks’ and provide organisations with connectivity they can count on.

This network resiliency — built by combining diverse connectivity paths into a single service — is particularly important as more organisations become increasingly aware that relying on a single IP connection could leave a crucial live stream vulnerable to packet loss, bandwidth fluctuations, or worst-case scenario: downtime. By dynamically and intelligently managing the fluctuating bandwidth, packet loss, and latency differences of the individual connections in real-time, Smart Blending Technology seamlessly redirects packets and maintains session persistence if connections degrade, or are lost.

In other your words, your live stream won't be interrupted.

In order to provide this level of robust connectivity (and the peace of mind that accompanies it), Dejero has been equipping customers with their GateWay network aggregation devices — designed to deliver

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reliable connectivity for general-purpose applications including voice, video, and data while in nomadic or mobile environments, and add wireless connectivity to fixed locations. The GateWay delivers enhanced reliability, expanded coverage, and greater bandwidth.

Tasked with live streaming a Guinness World Record attempt outdoors with limited internet connectivity, to YouTube, and not wanting to leave the production and connectivity vulnerable to network outages or possible congestion, Montreal-based multi-media production company Scratch Takes chose the Dejero GateWay. “You really want to make sure your entire event goes live and reaches the audience. If you have any sort of poor connectivity, it’s almost like it’s all for nothing,” says John Castillo, technical director. The GateWay impressed Scratch Takes with its power and flexibility. “From the customer service to the ease-of-use, to the reliability, it all went extremely smoothly.”

The 6-modem GateWay combined available cellular connections to create a network so reliable, it integrated into their portable workflow as if it were a wired connection. “It felt as though we were connected to the venue’s fixed network, it’s essentially the same as having a tethered connection,” remarks Castillo.

Scratch Takes traditionally offers services catered for musical production from fixed venues or studios, but the Dejero GateWay opens up a new realm of possibility when it comes to live streaming outdoor events or from venues with limited connectivity. The ability to tap into such resilient internet connectivity from Dejero provides customers, like Scratch Takes, with the confidence to take on new projects and offer services to a broader client base, marking the beginning of a new era in remote production.

An unstable connection can bring your production to a halt.

Consistent and reliable internet connectivity is essential and unlike consumer LTE cellular hotspots or failover solutions, Dejero unlocks a new realm of remote possibilities for production companies and live events teams, delivering the resilient wireless internet connectivity needed for limitless creativity. n

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 17

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FEATURE

SOUNDING GOOD! TVBEurope goes behind the scenes at The Voiceover Gallery’s new Soho studio

T

he Voiceover Gallery (TVG) is one of the UK’s leading voiceover studios, providing its clients with voice, language, and sound services. In September 2021, it launched a new Soho-based studio, whilst simultaneously bringing its subtitling division inhouse for the first time, allowing TVG to offer a “faster, higher quality and impeccable service”.

Marylou Thistleton-Smith founded TVG in 2004 after a career in broadcast media with both the BBC and London Weekend Television. The company started from humble beginnings in her home basement studio in Manchester on a ProTools MBox, a second-hand microphone and a four-day ProTools course.

In 2006, she employed a sound engineer, and in 2008 moved to commercial premises in Manchester which housed a five foot by five foot WhisperRoom sound booth imported from the US, surrounded by insulated walls a foot thick.

In 2009, the company opened offices in London, merging with Foreign Voices in 2010 before fully acquiring the company in 2013. The Voiceover Gallery grew again in 2015, as it acquired Articulate Voices in London and Candy Studios in Manchester. The acquisitions included their premises, portfolio of clients and voices, increasing TVG’s roster to over 1,000 artists covering more than 90 languages.

INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY The new Soho studios provide access for both clients and voice artists, enabling faster turnaround of projects in the spacious studio suites. They were designed and fitted by

18 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

studio build and sound experts Miloco, with high quality audio and client experience being the key objectives.

Each studio is fitted with Esmono booths to ensure consistency in sound across the business and is Source Connect certified to accommodate flexible working arrangements. When voice artists enter the recording booth, audio engineers work closely with them to ensure they are set up correctly, adjusting the mic to the right height and area, prepping them and ensuring they don’t move their head whilst performing to avoid any inconsistencies in the voice recording.

FEATURE

Inside The Voice Gallery’s studios

After recording a successful take, the engineers can then begin applying their expertise in equalisation, de-essing (removing excessive sibilance) and compressing. At TVG, this process is usually done within an hour of the recording, with up to six sessions being completed each day.

James MacDonald, audio engineer at TVG describes the workflow and technical components: “All of the hardware and software we use to record voices is the most up-to-date available; from Neumann mics which offer a rich, transparent and consistent sound, to the Pro Tools audio recording software, as well as the Presonus audio interface.”

The company believes its continuously improving workflows and broadcast quality equipment is what sets it apart from competitors.

WORKING FROM HOME (STUDIO) With more voice artists working on a freelance basis but not having the space to create a home studio, TVG has invested in a ‘Self Op’ recording studio for voices to hire for their own work. Also fitted with Source Connect, this provides a home-from-home studio that is already proving a popular place for artists to work.

Additionally, TVG has fully integrated the subtitling division into its Manchester studio. “By centralising all of our services, our clients can expect quicker turnaround times, better quality and impeccable accuracy,” says Thistleton-Smith.

TRANSLATIONS AND SUBTITLES The technology utilised by TVG enables the company to take on largescale projects, using a number of different pieces of equipment and skills to meet its objectives. Adstream, the international marketing agency,

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came to TVG for support in delivering a worldwide advertising campaign for one of their global tech clients. Their project, for International Women’s Day, involved providing translations and subtitles for a video in 33 different languages. TVG was provided with a script, a list of languages and a time-sensitive turnaround of 48 hours. Drawing on its network of native speakers, the company worked with industry experts to ensure that each version of the translation was true to the original format, while still reflecting local language nuances. The team of translators applied their localisation knowledge to both the script and subtitles, where for both, the client expected them to sound natural and organic in each language.

THE FUTURE The ever-demanding and competitive marketplace within the localisation and translation industry is now guiding TVG to invest more in technology and create streamlined and innovative audio and studio services. “Along with our new in-house subtitling division to complement our diverse range of foreign services, we are building a portfolio to meet the everincreasing needs of our client base,” Thistleton-Smith explains.

“This industry is on a growth trajectory, placing TVG in a strong position to be part of that growth. We have come through the pandemic with a robust team and infrastructure to support the 33 per cent revenue growth in the last 12 months and expected 20 per cent growth in the next 12 months,” she adds.

“The Voiceover Gallery has always been trusted to provide a reliable, friendly, and flexible service that meets the needs of our clients. Now more than ever we are taking our responsibility seriously to be the voice, language and sound provider of choice.” n

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 19

FEATURE

Setting up for the opening sequence of the documentary

Image courtesy of Memoir Multimedia

Benjamin Field, producer/director of a new documentary about Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, tells Jenny Priestley how the film is using deep fake technology to let Gerry tell his remarkable life story on screen for the first time

C

urrently in post production, Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted is a new BritBox documentary about the life and career of the man behind the likes of Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and the iconic Thunderbirds.

While the documentary is about a man whose creations became a staple of kids’ TV in the 1960s, the producers are using very modern techniques to bring Anderson himself to the screen. Over 20 hours of

20 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

audio recordings are being combined with deep fake technology to enable Anderson to tell his incredible story on screen.

Produced by BritBox UK, The Format Factory and Anderson Entertainment, the film is the brainchild of director/producer Benjamin Field, and somewhat surprisingly its origins began on a social networking platform. “Initially, Jamie Anderson and I met over a crap curry at MIPCOM back in 2018. We didn’t know each other particularly well, and

Images courtesy of Memoir Multimedia

FEATURE

Jamie Anderson tries to position a Thunderbirds puppet for the documentary’s opening sequence

Producers Jamie Anderson (left) & Benjamin Field discuss how Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted came into existence

he’d posted something on LinkedIn, and I thought, ‘do I message him and say I want to make a documentary about your dad? Is it a bit naff ?’” explains Field.

“I emailed him and said, ‘do you fancy doing a fairly in-depth documentary about your dad?’ Those emails can go one of two ways,” Field admits. “Normally, in my experience, you either get ignored for months or you get an immediate response. Jamie emailed me back

immediately and said ‘I’ve got ten minutes now if you want to chat’.

I think we were actually on the phone for about an hour and ten [minutes]. And at the end of it he said, ‘I just want you to know I’m really selective about the people that I work with’.”

The pair then continued to speak every day for the next week about next steps and how they could bring Field’s idea to the screen. “Jamie had it in the back of his mind that he wanted to do something with this

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TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 21

Images courtesy of Memoir Multimedia

FEATURE

Interviewing New Captain Scarlet director, Mark Woollard about his relationship with Gerry Anderson

The first take of the first deep fake segments. Additional graffiti/artwork by Gemma Sealey

DoP Ash Connaughton setting up for the filming of the deep fake segments

B-Cam operator Daniel Lobo waits in between takes of the deep fake segments

22 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

archive that he had but hadn’t found a route for it, and when I proposed the show, and then proposed the deep fake, he was exceptionally welcoming of the idea. Jamie is a producer on the documentary, but the drive was definitely from The Format Factory, and it comes from a place of general personal interest and great love of the brand,” says Field.

Having Anderson on board has been “exceptionally important” notes Field, adding that it helped the production team gain access to interviewees they may not have otherwise reached. “Jamie’s team at Anderson Entertainment have been wonderful, they’ve done a huge amount of research for us. There’s an element of the show that I’m really looking forward to, when people realise what we’ve done. It’s so lovely.

The show itself is very emotionally charged. We’ve got David Graham, the guy who played Parker, in floods of tears at the end of his interview.

We’ve interviewed John Taylor who used to work with Gerry, he’s now 100 years old. They all speak with such warmth and such passion.

There’s a researcher that Jamie has, Chris Dale, and he is incredible.

And I can’t tell you why he’s incredible because it’ll give away what we’re doing; but he’s incredible!”

Having used one social networking site to kick the project off, Field then turned to another to help pitch his idea of using deep fake technology to allow Gerry to tell his story on screen. “It probably took about two or three days of conversations before I realised that this audio archive was the way in, and to date this point for you, I think it was the day that the second deep fake Tom Cruise thing on TikTok came out [March 2021]. I showed that to Jamie and explained that it wasn’t Tom Cruise. I also spoke to Chris Ume, the guy behind the @deepTomCruise account, about the possibility of collaborating and he was just in the middle of setting up his own company, so it wasn’t the right time for him.

“The reason we went for the deep fake is that we had 25 hours of audio archive but no visual materials to go with it. We did discuss doing puppets, but Jamie told me categorically that if I suggested doing puppets again, the ghost of his dad would haunt me for the rest of my life because Gerry hated puppets! He used to call them his little b****rds. That’ll be included in the documentary!” Field laughs.

The problem with using deep fake is that it’s still a very new technology. So far, it’s only occasionally on screen having been used by the likes of The Crown and Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas Message in 2020 when ‘The Queen’ spoke about trust and fake news. That meant it was difficult for Field to find other companies that have achieved what he’s aiming for. “Ideally, you want to learn from other people’s mistakes, but I think in this instance people will be learning from our mistakes. We have some controls in place to minimise mistakes, and I don’t know how much we’re going to have to use them,” says Field.

To put it simply, the team at The Format Factory are using AI to teach the computer what Gerry Anderson’s face looks like and place that over the face of Roly Hyde, the actor ‘playing’ him on screen. “We then tell the computer to swap Gerry’s face onto Roly’s face, but it doesn’t just take the face and put it on it, it redraws it,” Field exaplins. “So it says if Roly’s smiling then Gerry’s face would look like this. It does that for every frame, and we’re shooting 24 frames per second, so you can begin to imagine how big that journey is and what the processing time is. That’s all fine, except for the fact that it can only mimic; it can’t learn what lips

Image courtesy of Chris Thompson

Image courtesy of Memoir Multimedia

FEATURE

The hand of Gerry Anderson (or Roly Hyde) Image courtesy of Chris Thompson

Image courtesy of Chris Thompson

33 minutes of deep fake lip syncing was assisted by IPmedia’s teleprompter

Benjamin Field (left), Roly Hyde and Jamie Anderson outside Double Lodge at Pinewood. The gates were opened for the first time in nearly 20 years for Hyde to walk through as part of a reconstruction

Roly Hyde lends his body to Gerry Anderson’s deep fake walking towards Heatherdon Hall at Pinewood Studios

look like to make a certain sound. We’re actually using 32 minutes of audio from those 25 hours of archive and it has a lot of pauses!

Gerry loves a pause, so Roly had to lip sync for 32 minutes and every single word had to be bang on. We had an autocue set up that had all of the erms, errs, pauses, etc, and we had to go through all of those. We did 51 shots in two days and it was quite the process! In terms of things that can go wrong, there’s obviously a huge area where we don’t know how much we can re-time, and we’ve done certain things to allow for that.”

Field is working with deep fake specialist Christian Darkin on ensuring his vision is realised on screen. The pair worked together in 2012, creating a video of Chris Moyles ‘dancing’ with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise for Children in Need. “This isn’t our first foray into digital resurrection, it’s just that the process has changed. Before, we had to Match Frame 128 seconds against 372 seconds at 25 frames per second and it was a hell of a job. I would never, ever want to do it again!” he states.

“In a way this is easier because AI does an awful lot of the Match Framing for you. Where Chris Ume is in luck is that there’s quite a lot of high resolution 4K material of Tom Cruise for an AI to learn from. With Gerry Anderson, everything is SD and it may as well have been shot on

a potato! The AI only has a certain level it can learn to which means it’s not going to spit out 4K.” He continues, ”We told the AI to learn what Gerry’s whole head looks like, and then we’ve done another pass where we told it to look at what just his face looks like. So we’re actually doing two passes, and his face is layered on to another deep fake of his head, and generally that is working quite well at the moment. But the AI also does its own mask of what it thinks the head looks like. It gives you a square box, it’s like a canvas; Gerry’s face is in a canvas, and that’s tracked. Then you can ask it to do an AI mask so it cuts out the bits it doesn’t think are relevant. It very frequently gets that bit wrong and you end up with half an ear missing.”

The film will be released on BritBox on 14th April. “We chose that release date because it is Gerry Anderson Day on BritBox. They did it earlier this year and it went really well for them, so we said we will have the film ready for that day. I’m not that worried,” explains Field.

The whole process has been a huge learning curve for Field and his team, as he readily admits: “I think we are now probably as advanced as any other company doing this at the moment, even to the point that I’m wondering who the next person we can do this with will be.” ■

“Ideally, you want to learn from other people’s mistakes, but I think in this instance people will be learning from ours” www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 23

FEATURE

HOW AI AND METADATA ARE DRIVING COMPLIANCE

By Hiren Hindocha, CEO, Digital Nirvana

F

or modern media organisations that store immense volumes of content, AI-driven metadata generation has become an essential capability. Replacing less comprehensive (and more costly) manual logging with automated transcription and video intelligence gathering, organisations can generate and organise a wealth of metadata that informs faster, more extensive searches for richer, deeper content repurposing. Metadata captured by various AI-driven analyses also facilitates rapid execution of key tasks in the area of compliance, be it meeting financial or contractual obligations around royalties for actor appearances or adhering to various markets’ differing standards for acceptable content (in audio and video).

HOW AI-GENERATED METADATA TRANSFORMS PRODUCTION In the case of production workflows, AI can come into play right from the start. At a news network, for example, a speech-to-text engine can be used to analyse incoming feeds and automatically generate both a transcript and a brief description for each piece of content. With near-instant access to self-describing feeds, producers and editors can more quickly find the clips they need to tell a story, and gain time for the more creative aspects of bringing a compelling story to air.

During production of a reality TV show, dozens of cameras capture perhaps ten or 20 times the amount of content that will be used in the end product. Rather than task staff members with logging all of that video, the company can use AI-enabled tools to apply facial recognition and object recognition, as well as speech-to-text processing, to generate metadata automatically that effectively tells producers and editors who is in a scene, where they are, what they’re saying, and more. With this information in hand, the production team can jump into editing much more quickly and deliver a finished product ready for broadcast.

THE CASE FOR AI IN COMPLIANCE The explosion in streaming services worldwide has made it much easier to export content for viewing in other countries, but most content requires preparation for global distribution. AI and machine learning (ML) can be applied to content to detect information that may require editing in order to comply with regulations in certain markets. Automated analysis of

24 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

video using object recognition can significantly reduce the time needed to find and edit scenes with alcohol or smoking, for example, so that content aligns with regional preferences or regulations, and can be monetised more broadly, quickly, and cost-effectively.

Ongoing innovation in the realm of AI and ML continues to expand the analytical capabilities available to media organisations. Automated language translation is just one example of a technology that has improved immensely in recent years and is becoming readily available for incorporation into the latest tools for content creators and distributors. Digital Nirvana brings expertise in media to make the power of AI and ML available and easily applicable to broadcast and production workflows.

BUILDING BETTER CONTENT PRODUCTION PIPELINES Market demand for original content these days is massive, and the rise of content consumption on social media and streaming video services has created a world in which creative endeavours are richly rewarded.

But those endeavours are gated by various essential processes within the typical production and distribution workflow. AI and ML bring radical efficiencies to today’s content production pipelines. As broadcasters and streaming services automate or enhance operations with AI-generated metadata, they are positioned to address consumer demand with even more content, from a broader array of content creators, and to do so more quickly.

The media industry already benefits from highly capable generalpurpose processing engines. Going forward, these engines will give way to specialised and customised engines dedicated to different types of content such as news, sports, drama, etc. To further improve accuracy, engines will grow even more specific, and address the scenarios unique to a narrower category, such as a particular sports league.

While AI and ML will evolve and grow ever more valuable in supporting content production, they only deliver on that promise when they are built into easy-to-use tools and solutions engineered to support media workflows. The exciting news for content producers is that they do have access to such products today, and to the expertise of trusted vendors in implementing AI and ML – and the metadata they yield – to the greatest advantage. n

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LIVE STREAMING SPORTS AT EVERY LEVEL

f the last year has taught us anything about sports, it is that online streaming is the future. The closure of sporting venues and pubs caused some 33 per cent of UK football fans to make the move to live internet streaming (according to OLBG), while a YouGov poll in July found that 43 per cent of people are uncomfortable about returning to live events. For disabled and at-risk supporters, access to live streams is essential. Research by British charity Level Playing Field revealed that 86 per cent of disabled supporters expect football clubs to provide live streaming services, if government guidelines prevent vulnerable people from attending matches.

The past few months have shown this new world of live streaming to be no mere pipedream but already well underway, bringing niche and lower-level or local sports to wider audiences than ever before.

From sailing to mountaineering, events previously considered impractical to broadcast are now being made available live online.

Even local events such as school fixtures have become fair game, thanks to the cloud-based remote production technology that has developed rapidly over the last two years.

A SEA CHANGE IN BROADCASTING By partnering with Dazzl for cloud-based live production, Dejero has successfully enabled sports streams from the furthest corners of the planet. The new partnership tested the waters at the Solitaire du Figaro sailing race, traditionally a challenging championship to broadcast since it covers 1,830 miles of Europe’s roughest waters. French production company Sea Events called upon the two companies to provide coverage to 30,000 viewers on Facebook Live.

Using a combination of drones, iPhones and a Dejero EnGo mobile transmitter, Sea Events seamlessly covered various stages of the race

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between France, Ireland and Spain. Stationed on board the company’s ‘production’ boat, the EnGo allowed them to send high-quality live video to the Dazzl cloud server with latency as low as 0.8 seconds.

The transmitter is designed to withstand harsh environments and uses Dejero’s ​​Smart Blending Technology to create a resilient internet connection, even at sea. The technology aggregates multiple networks from different providers into a single “network of networks”, ensuring continuous connectivity with built-in redundancy.

“When using EnGo we don’t need to worry about the movement and positioning of the boat in order to gain the best view points, no matter how far away we are from the coast,” says Sea Events CEO Erwan Riquier. “We don’t even have to think about switching to different network carriers or constantly finding the most reliable network when we cross borders or worry about patchy coverage.” The cloud-based set-up also eliminated the need for a traditional control room and the associated costs of wiring and installation, with production, editing and commentary handled in the Dazzl app.

LIVE STREAMING CROSS-COUNTRY Back on land, Dejero and Dazzl facilitated uninterrupted coverage of two notoriously rocky alpine races: the Dynastar X3 Courchevel Triathlon, and the Torgon Trail. The French/Swiss border previously proved a troubling production environment owing to fluctuating network coverage, snowy terrain at high altitude, and the six-hour duration of each race. French station TV8 Mont-Blanc enlisted Dejero and Dazzl’s contribution and production capabilities to ensure live video from both races was seen by more than 100,000 people across Vimeo, YouTube and TV8 Mont-Blanc’s linear TV channel. The EnGo 260 combines six cellular connections from multiple mobile providers so operators never

© Image courtesy of Christophe Breschi/Alexis Courcoux

CASE STUDY

Capturing the action at the Solitaire du Figaro

© Image courtesy of Alexis Courcoux

CASE STUDY

© Image courtesy of @TrailTorgon

On the Torgon Trail

have to worry about losing connectivity when crossing borders, making it easy-to-use in a remote location such as the Alps.

“The Dejero system provided the delivery of stable footage, at the level of the finish line in particular, switching seamlessly from French to Swiss networks depending on availability,” explains TV8 Mont-Blanc president Pierre Boucaud. “Dejero is a real plus for broadcasters, as it guarantees that we have top quality images to ingest live. Despite the fact we were filming in France, the EnGo worked perfectly on the Swiss networks too, with three of the six SIM cards integrated. It is completely stable and guarantees live streaming everywhere without any problem. I’m deeply convinced we need this tool for everyday live streaming integrated in our working process.”

MAKING HISTORY A different type of highlands were the basis of a very special live stream this summer, which saw Dejero team up with Canadian multimedia production company Scratch Takes to stream a world record attempt.

The 45th annual Montreal Highland Games saw Jason Baines set a new Guinness World Record of 161 caber tosses in one hour, as seen live on the Games’ YouTube channel via Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology. In order to overcome the local network congestion, vulnerability to outages and lack of access to fibre, Scratch Takes deployed a Dejero GateWay M6E6 network aggregation device to combine multiple connections from three local cellular providers.

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“A stable connection was our primary concern at the Highland Games,” says Scratch Takes producer Caylamina Roberts. “We had a preconceived idea that Dejero would be out of reach but after weighing up our alternatives, we found Dejero to tick all the boxes.

Not only did the GateWay offer everything we needed in terms of connectivity, it was surprisingly affordable, and the personal customer service was impeccable; it was refreshing dealing with real people who truly understood our specific needs.”

These cases point towards a bright future where fans can watch their preferred sports live, from around the world, and not just the major sports leagues and events covered by traditional broadcasters. If anyone embodies this vision it is Miguel “Mikel” Ángel Roldán, the Spanish climber who recently scaled the Naranjo de Bulnes to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Having been diagnosed with ALS three years ago, Mikel’s 500m rock climb was streamed across numerous social media platforms. Local production company JTM Broadcast employed the Dejero EnGo and Cloud Server to transmit live video to Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, as well as to a large screen located in Roldán’s home town.

“This accomplishment by Mikel was about transcribing the suffering and difficulties presented by such an ascent for an ALS patient in a very real way, so when the project was presented to me, I immediately reached for my Dejero equipment to address the live broadcasting requirements of the task,” says JTM Broadcast RF engineer Javier Trifol. “It took us little time to set up the equipment at base camp just one day before the event, with the help of a Guardia Civil helicopter. Blessed with clear blue skies, Mikel took on the ascent the next day. Everyone was ecstatic at the end of the programme. It was an immense success.”

LIVE AT EVERY LEVEL The same technology makes live streaming possible for sports leagues and events at every level. When The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, was unable to host audiences for its popular sporting events due to Covid, the administration found the Dejero LivePlus mobile app ideal for transmitting live, low-latency video over smartphones. Instead of having to move switchers, cameras and power cables from the swimming pool to the football field, a single Dejero WayPoint 104 receiver and four LivePlus apps maintained the signal across the 100-acre campus and the games were streamed directly to the school’s online athletics channel, Lovett Network.

“Although social distancing was a driving concern at the time, we immediately realised that the Dejero gear could be set up in a fraction of the time versus our traditional set-up, and since then we’ve realised that Dejero’s LivePlus app has opened up a whole new world of opportunities to our students, and the school as a whole,” adds Lovett Network coordinating producer Jim Claussen. “I can see this technology paving the way for not only live high school sports, but for live lower-tier sports, to produce affordable, high-quality live streaming to online audiences.”

No matter the specialisation of the event, level of the league or harshness of the location, streaming removes the obstacles to enjoying live sports, enabling broadcasters, clubs or even students to scale the heights that once looked insurmountable. n

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FEATURE

THE JOURNEY TO THE CLOUD

By Damien Montessuit, SVP global sales, MediaKind

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n recent years, TV operators have been in a highly reactive mode, constrained by a lack of alignment between their short-term incentives and long-term goals. They have faced multiple concurrent disruptions: migration to the cloud; media supply chains; the consumer shift to directto-consumer services; and significant generational changes in consumer viewing behaviour. For a period defined by baby steps, TV operators are being forced to react dramatically, rethinking the types of services they offer and how they provide them.

Looking further back, TV operators have long sought to satisfy their TV customer’s needs with engaging and compelling media offerings. But reliably delivering high-quality content and meeting the expectations of millions of subscribers is no mean feat. In addition to the existing pain points and disruptions, delivering a consistent, modern streaming experience at scale remains a technological challenge.

HEADING TO THE CLOUD The good news is that TV operators can do just this and more by shifting their digital media supply chains to the cloud. The transformation from on-premise to the cloud enables TV operators to go beyond their existing offerings and rapidly launch new services and innovations in their platforms without the time and resource restrictions typical of current offerings. The flexibility to quickly take new services to market and build-in new user functionalities drives the global adoption of streaming and cloud-first approaches for video consumption.

TV operators can manage their media operations entirely in the public cloud or through hybrid on-premise solutions, such as Azure Stack. These choices remove the current fixed-function infrastructure and facilitate the rapid creation of new infrastructures. However, these benefits come with their own hurdles, and TV operators need the technical expertise and cost management to elevate their media offering.

Analysts unanimously predict wholesale adoption of cloud-native technologies across public, private, and hybrid infrastructures. Cloudnative deployments are soaring across all sectors; 88 per cent of companies have now adopted Kubernetes, and 74 per cent use it within enterprise production environments, according to a recent StackRock inc report. ABI Research also predicts telco cloud revenues to triple between 2020 and 2025, reaching $29.3 billion.

While the public cloud is often regarded as the sweet spot for digital transformation, the cost analysis when considering these different deployment options has contributed to a slower adoption for some companies. Public cloud solutions are generally seen as quicker and more flexible yet appear more costly than many on-premise or appliance-based solutions.

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To fully understand the cost of the cloud, TV operators should undertake a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis covering the entire cost structure. They must consider a range of factors to accurately compare the outlay of running dedicated infrastructure versus running software in the public cloud. These include hardware, infrastructure, cooling, services, redundancy, licences, upgrades, and some services costs. Egress costs from the public cloud to consumers have long been a particular point of focus, but the use of hybrid cloud technologies can significantly offset these. Once a fair TCO calculation has been made, it becomes clear that a good share of public cloud costs is actually ‘hidden’ compared with on-premise models.

In fact, public cloud solutions are becoming more cost-efficient by the day.

Quortex research found a consistent decline in public cloud costs of 15 per cent year-on-year between 2013-2020. This trend will continue to support the move to cloud-native software approaches.

The ongoing consumer migration to streaming platforms has led to a recalibration of how TV operators build and market their media services, motivated by a closer alignment with internet-based technologies. Through these technologies, TV operators can explore exciting opportunities to aggregate new types of content under one roof, such as gaming, news, and interactive social media. They can harness innovation faster and launch new offerings to their subscribers. This refocus aligns with cloud-native technologies, enabling the decoupling of legacy dedicated infrastructure approaches. This means TV operators can turbo-boost the speed and scale of their digital evolution while enabling flexible hybrid deployments.

BRING ON THE SAAS Public cloud migration brings a natural extension to existing software-as-aservice (SaaS) media deployments. However, its adoption requires a different mindset as its functionality and operation differs significantly from other deployment models. SaaS models move away from the traditional multivendor ‘best of breed’ approach, embodying a single-vendor managed service that offers on-demand resourcing and price models to suit the operator’s needs and demands.

Regardless, TV operators are increasingly making this shift to adapt to the realities of today’s market and to future-proof their business models. The value of SaaS and its media use cases includes live events as-a-service, direct-toconsumer services, and disaster recovery.

The public cloud introduces a host of exciting new experiences for the consumer and vital business models for TV operators. Opportunities presented by choosing streaming-based components and workflows are core to the future of our industry. TV operators are prime candidates to reap their rewards and ensure they’re positioned front and centre for the future of media. n

Intelligence for the media & entertainment industry

SUPPLEMENT

INTEROPERABLE DIGITAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEMS

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INTEROPERABLE DIGITAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEMS

By Emilio L. Zapata, founder, Tedial

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n the M&E industry it’s common practice to utilise various applications on a daily basis. There is no single application or platform that covers all the business needs of a company no matter how comprehensive it is. In fact, in the M&E market we use specialised tools for the different functions of the business, and this multitude of applications forms the technological ecosystem of the company.

A digital ecosystem is the collection of technology solutions that a given company uses to run its business and how these solutions connect with each other. The term ‘ecosystem’ describes not only what tools we are using, but also how they interact with each other.

A digital ecosystem is also defined by the depth and breadth of potential collaboration between a set of providers: each can offer a part of the solution or contribute a required capability. The power of the digital ecosystem is that no single provider needs to own or operate all the components of the solution, and that the value generated by the digital ecosystem is greater than the combined value that each of the providers could contribute individually.

Executive leaders (C-suite) around the world agree that current business models will be unrecognisable in the next five years, with digital ecosystems as the main agent of change. Digital ecosystems are transforming supply chains, whose competitive advantage comes from ecosystem orchestration to coordinate (choreograph) people, tasks, relationships, applications and systems.

Successful digital transformation requires decoupling the data layer (metadata and media files) from legacy IT, so that companies are not

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forced to modernise their systems, reducing costs, minimising risks and shortening times. If we manage to integrate legacy IT with the rest of the systems/applications of the digital ecosystem, we will accelerate the digital transformation of the company. With this strategy, new digital services can be added to the ecosystem more quickly while companies update their legacy IT. BUILDING AN EFFICIENT DIGITAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEM We define the digital media ecosystem as a set of connected digital media services that enable business users to fulfill multiple needs on a single platform. For a digital media ecosystem to be fully functional, all its elements must be connected. Ensuring that applications are properly integrated is a big challenge, so we need integration software to bridge the gaps between applications and work with an efficient software ecosystem, where applications work well together and communicate in real-time.

Currently, each media application or system has a specific public API, which offers different methods of accessing the data. What happens if we want the digital media ecosystem to be integrated with different AI tools?

What if we need X applications integrated in the post production area and another Y applications for news? We will have a backlog of integrations of the different APIs and a maintenance nightmare.

The reality is that digital media ecosystems are made up of an increasing number of applications and, therefore, APIs are no longer the solution but the problem. How to solve the problem of APIs? If we build an abstraction layer, a common interface, a one-to-many similar integration

SUPPLEMENT for each class of media applications (AI, automation, MAM, NRCS, PAM, traffic, transcoders, etc.) and the management of video-centric operational capabilities (SAN / NAS, object store, cloud store, etc.), then it would be possible to design, build and run workflows without having to know everything about internal methods, APIs, field names or other database query protocols. This would be in line with the current need for interchangeable integrations, which are becoming increasingly necessary as customers do not want to be ‘limited’ to a few providers.

By reducing the burden of API integration, providers can devote their energy and resources to new and better customer experiences and deeper collaboration with partners to drive the future. In this vein, the introduction of the NoCode paradigm is causing software vendors to rethink their application design, to abstract complexity and keep things simple for users.

MEDIA INTEGRATION PLATFORM A Media Integration Platform is a system that provides an interoperability and compatibility framework to which different applications and systems are connected (integrated), which can be on premise or in the cloud (hybrid cloud). Applications and systems only need to be integrated with the platform, which facilitates interoperability and makes them compatible.

In other words, the dialogue between applications is carried out through the Media Integration Platform, which must meet a set of basic properties for interoperability and compatibility to be effective. These include: n Common workspace: Media files and metadata must reside in a workspace shared by the different systems, minimising media movements ensuring facilitating applications have direct access to the media n Common interface: Well-defined interfaces that allow the use of services and the extraction of information. All systems have the same methods n Common data model: All systems speak the same language n A central component that organises and coordinates a set of services, as well as information from different sources, its processing and delivery to different destinations (applications or users) n An integrated management of authentications and authorisations to access services and content In addition, the Media Integration Platform has to manage information and workflows, offering additional services such as: n Information processing for uniform management (Semantics and Ontologies) n Workflow management (Business Process Management - BPM)

n An automated notification system for users and systems n Security management (application security integration) A Media Integration Platform enables the concepts of interoperability, integration and application compatibility to facilitate the design of a powerful, flexible, resilient and future proof solution. What are its advantages? Scalability, robustness, modularity, maintainability, affordability, effectiveness, efficiency, flexibility, security and transparency.

The benefits of a digital media ecosystem based on a Media Integration Platform are multiple: n Data can be progressively released from legacy systems that are old and inflexible. In addition, the data is no longer managed by IT users and passes to business users, which is essential to prioritise and drive business use cases n New digital services can be delivered in a few weeks, even days n Faster adoption of cloud technology. Businesses can implement new solutions that were previously too complicated and unmanageable n Cost reduction with better business processes. Continuous digital transformation and the creation of a digital media ecosystem help improve the efficiency of workflows and relationships with customers and partners.

Automated data processes (metadata and media files) and increased efficiencies across the enterprise also lower operating costs n Generation of new sources of income. The integration of the digital media ecosystem creates new revenue streams and enables M&E organisations to track and analyse a wide variety of data that flows through the business. They can use this data to create new products and services with higher value With the acceleration of digital transformation, application integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is now one of the hottest and fastest-changing software categories. The integration market is quickly evolving from an IT ticket-driven mentality to a business driven one. This is why ease-of-use is so important and why a simple and NoCode automation platform is the future.

It’s clear, we must learn from the solutions and experience provided by the IT market in the development of iPaaS, which are the basis of efficient digital ecosystems. With the proven experience of more than 200 applications and system integrations, Tedial is committed to the development of a new generation of media application integration tools, in a cloud environment (private, public or hybrid). This is what the M&E market is urgently demanding: a Media Integration Platform (“NoCode iPaaS for Media”), this is where the challenge lies. n

“Digital ecosystems are transforming supply chains, whose competitive advantage comes from ecosystem orchestration to coordinate (choreograph) people, tasks, relationships, applications and systems”

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TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | III

MEDIAPRO SELECTS TEDIAL FOR GLOBAL CORPORATE MAM

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EDIAPRO is a multimedia communications group based in Barcelona with offices located around the world including Spain, LATAM, USA, Canada, France, and more. Founded in 1994, the company is Europe’s leading provider of audiovisual services, with production centres equipped with cutting-edge technology spread over four continents. Unitecnic is the systems integrator company of the MEDIAPRO group, with which Tedial has developed projects in Europe and America.

Tedial has a long-standing and continuing relationship with MEDIAPRO dating back to 2006, which has resulted in several significant projects that have been developed jointly with Unitecnic as an engineering and systems integrator. In the first project Tedial and Unitecnic assisted MEDIAPRO with playout for Spanish free-to-air TV channel, La Sexta. The second project was for a free-to-air news channel. The third project (14 years ago) was MEDIAPRO’s first HD MAM designed for sports, for GolTV and the MEDIAPRO Sports production Services.

This MAM has evolved over the years to add new functionality and provide new services. It’s currently used to archive the LaLiga Spanish football competition, as well as other major sporting events including UEFA competitions, Formula 1 and more. It was also recently used for a MEDIAPRO eSports channel UBEAT. This year the system has been

upgraded to the latest Evolution 5.5 version and the legacy LTO4 tapes migrated to LTO8. In the latest project awarded to Tedial, MEDIAPRO required a corporate MAM system for internal use within the MEDIAPRO Group of companies worldwide.

CHALLENGE: The key initial requirement for this corporate MAM system was the ability to preserve 25 years of MEDIAPRO’s legacy material and all new productions, ensuring that all content is stored with back-up systems or DR back-up in different locations. The MAM needed to become the heartbeat of the MEDIAPRO Group, integrating with, and assisting all of the broadcast technology solutions surrounding it. It also had to connect all MEDIAPRO’s existing MAMs and provide its worldwide clients with a highly flexible system because each MEDIAPRO facility in every country works in a different way. MEDIAPRO’s corporate philosophy is based on its commitment to provide clients with services adapted to their specific needs so they can work any way they desire.

Much of the legacy content is stored on old formats such as BetaCam SD 4:3. In addition to the content, MEDIAPRO also needed to preserve images for promotion, different audio languages for each piece of content, and media footage for promos, etc.

SOLUTION: MEDIAPRO and Unitecnic selected Tedial’s multisite MAM, which provides several nodes that are distributed worldwide to MEDIAPRO’s companies.

It allows operators to find and access content residing within each site and facilitate its exploitation and distribution.

To transfer content, MEDIAPRO uses a mix of public and private connectivity depending on the availability at each site. The goal is to make sure anyone in the world can receive a clip. The company has some content stored on tape, which the Tedial MAM can lift from the robot and send to the online MAM. Content required very quickly is managed using accelerators.

Every time MEDIAPRO defines a new workflow, Unitecnic together with

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SUPPLEMENT Tedial analyses which service architecture best suits their needs, whether it is on-premise hardware or cloud services. For long-term productions it’s more cost-effective for the company to use its own hardware, extending to cloud services only for peak workload. Tedial MAM infrastructure agnostic flexibility facilitates this operational process. Part of the network is used for file transfer to different sites using the MAM remotely and the company also uses the network for remote production, which it started using for LaLiga more than ten years ago.

The solution, which will continue to be adapted over many years, will provide MEDIAPRO operators with an extremely flexible workflow that enables them to easily search, retrieve and manage content. Access to the centralised database is done through the MEDIAPRO production cloud developed by Unitecnic or public cloud services including AWS, Azure and Google. This allows the company to fully maximise its important historical content that spans 25 years.

RESULTS: The first site to become part of the corporate MAM was Globomedia, a MEDIAPRO Studio company and one of the earliest content producers in Europe, based in Madrid. Globomedia is digitising its legacy content, which is allocated in the Tedial MAM. Globomedia has also migrated content from its ISID Videoma MAM to the new Tedial MAM. This site will be followed by the other MEDIAPRO Group companies worldwide.

MEDIAPRO is very satisfied with the project because of the simplicity and availability of the Tedial MAM system, and also for the Tedial service’s

flexibility and proximity. The Tedial corporate MAM system is highly flexible and can be used to manage 4K, 8K and even higher resolution content for nonbroadcast clients such as museums. The platform can easily ingest and preserve content and prepare the workflow for post-production. With the Tedial API, other MEDIAPRO Group applications are using MAM services.

What’s been more challenging for MEDIAPRO is teaching operators what they can do with this new multisite MAM network, its potential, and what they need to do to preserve the content. MEDIAPRO’s challenge now is to ensure all productions are ingested on the MAM. On one hand, this is to preserve the legacy content, and on the other producers can use the MAM as part of their workflows. Because the producers, countries and companies are all working differently it’s challenging to implement and roll it out quickly.

Providing a multisite MAM for its operators across the world allows MEDIAPRO to easily share content between sites and facilitate a fully integrated production workflow approach. The simplicity of the corporate MAM for users is such that an operator at the New York site can retrieve content stored at the Buenos Aires site as if they were situated right next door to each other. TV programmes can be created faster and with more storytelling depth because operators can pull from the different countries’ resources faster than ever before.

FUTURE: The next steps for this sophisticated project will be adding new MEDIAPRO Group companies to the corporate MAM and scaling the system with onprem/cloud infrastructure according to operational needs. n

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TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | V

THE MAM OF YESTERDAY IS THE NO CODE IPAAS FOR MEDIA OF TODAY

By Julian Fernandez-Campon, CTO, Tedial

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raditional media asset management systems (MAMs) have formed the heart of broadcast and media facilities across the world for several years. MAMs have played a key role in the transition to tapeless workflows and have enabled content owners to manipulate, manage, move and archive media as and when desired ensuring that the correct metadata, audio tracks, subtitles, transcoding, packaging, the list goes on, are added. These legacy monolithic MAM systems, which have huge amounts of functionality, have grown and adapted to meet the continuous changing needs of the industry.

These types of MAMs were silos, independent islands, they were just the equivalent of a videotape library transitioned to digital, file-based storage.

The problem is that these MAMs don’t meet the requirements in today’s M&E environment, which is much more complex than it was a few years ago. Today, content owners need solutions that meet their needs without over complicating functionality. We’re transitioning to a wider and more diverse range of software, IP, cloud and cross-platform technologies and there are more tools than ever before for every part of the workflow. This is because more and more software applications are needed, and companies have to rely on a greater number of vendors. This means that M&E companies of all types and sizes have to navigate a fragmented market and choose the applications they need for their specific workflow. Having more than 50 software applications and dozens of vendors is becoming commonplace in the M&E market. And this can be a challenge even for large organisations.

Trying to keep everything up and running and connected while software is upgraded or new tools are added is becoming an exhausting task and an unsustainable problem. Moving everything to IP may help simplify connections, but it doesn’t solve the inherent complexity of getting the different elements of hardware, software, cloud and services to work together reliably and at scale.

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THE ORCHESTRATION SECOND STAGE There have been a number of developments in recent years that have changed the media ecosystem. The arrival of the streamers saw a second stage in development. The great re-bundling of TV and the secular maturation of the global video business required MAMs to transform into orchestration platforms that instead of being the main element of the workflow, were now part of the media supply chain. MAMs began to include orchestration capabilities integrating different systems in a more or less sophisticated way, from simple XML integration, to the use of APIs. This provided progress, but the deployment of these systems took a lot of time (and pain) due to the many different integration mechanisms, proprietary APIs, storage technologies, etc. More importantly, they were extremely difficult to evolve and adapt quickly to new business requirements.

If we actually look closely at where the complexity in these workflows lies, we realise that they’re not all complex, many are linear with no code or scripting required. All that’s needed is straightforward ingesting and validating of content, creating basic edits, archiving or sending to an OTT platform and localisiing by adding additional audio tracks, for example.

However, there are also really complex workflows that might need to be implemented and for that BPM notation is required. This means designing workflows with one specific notation, which is complex, and for that we need experts.

THE NEW MEDIA PARADIGM This brings us to a new era, with a new paradigm; the Media Integration Platform or NoCode iPaaS for Media. The key to success now is replacing the monolithic systems, or multiple integrated applications, which have complex point-to-point integration, with a platform that integrates all the components and complexity of the workflows, using all the APIs and additional methods required, to read older systems. This new approach sees all the applications

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“Having more than 50 software applications and dozens of vendors is becoming commonplace in the M&E market. This new approach sees all the applications integrated within the cloud media integration platform” Julian Fernandez-Campon

integrated within the platform. This means that one change in one system will only impact in the plug-in with the platform, and not in the rest of the systems that are part of the same workflow. This is key because every individual system doesn’t need to be aware of what systems produced the results during the previous steps of the workflow. For example, triggering AI tools to analyse or read content will be normalised into the platform’s standard data model.

The MAM of yesterday is the Media Integration Platform of today.

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF THE MEDIA INTEGRATION PLATFORM The Media Integration Platform provides an ecosystem of applications and media systems out-of-the-box and enables workflow owners to design and manage process optimisation in media tasks where humans are critical to the process. It has three main pillars that make up the key elements. First, it provides a Common Workspace, which allows all the applications to be accessible to the media and not the media delivered to the applications, this is crucial. Second, it has a Common Interface, so all the applications present the same methods, this is also known as One to Many Integration. When implementing or configuring workflows, all the systems have a different API. For example, AWS Elemental is one API, and so on, and this increases if moving from one cloud to another. The third pillar includes a Normalised Data Model so all the applications speak the same language. This means that all the information that is used, to be written to the content, is in the same normalised format.

How do we build this system and what components do we need? The key enabler is a system that manages the storage and abstracts the applications that are accessing the media of the different technologies and locations, i.e. workflows don’t need to be media aware. There are many Integration Platforms in the IT world, but they focus on control and have a lack of media management capabilities.

Another key feature is to have a NoCode approach to easily implement the simple, linear workflows with a NoCode pipeline. More complex workflows can be added with an Intelligent BPM where decisions can easily be implemented with high-level scripting to access the different variables and information in the system without the need of an expert programmer. If we then include all the third-party elements, or what we call applications, which

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are part of the content supply chain, this allows efficient workflows to be implemented, which maximises the business benefits that provide prototyping and simple workflows.

If an operator wants to test a new AI tool to see how it works with the content, or test a new transcoder, or start implementing a new workflow in another location, cloud for example, it’s really easy. They simply duplicate and change the applications within that workflow. In today’s market, media companies cannot wait three to six months to create a new workflow; it has to be days or weeks at the most.

Finally, what about the MAM? Is the MAM dead? The clear answer is NO, and this is more apparent now than ever with all the current media processing requirements where component-based MAMs are needed for UHD, cameras, multiple versions, etc. But the beauty of this approach is that a MAM will be integrated as another system in the Media Integration Platform. This has several advantages as broadcasters can still use their legacy MAMs and build around new workflows easily without complex and long migration processes. n

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INSIDE THE

COLOUR ROOM Cinematographer Denson Baker tells Jenny Priestley about his work on a new film about pottery designer Clarice Cliff

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eleased in early November by Sky Cinema, The Colour Room is a British film following pottery designer Clarice Cliff as she breaks the glass ceiling and changes working practices in the 1920s. Cliff, played by Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor, is best known for her pottery designs that made her a household name.

The film is directed by Claire McCarthy and written by Claire Peate.

Denson Baker, whose previous work includes The Luminaries, Victoria, and Ophelia, not only worked on the project as director of photography but is also an associate producer through production company Denaire Motion Picture Poetry, which he runs with wife McCarthy. The pair were in London working on post production for Domina, another project for Sky, while looking for their next project when The Colour Room came along. “It was just through Claire doing a whole lot of meet and greets on Zoom calls, and she met someone who said, ‘Oh, you should meet these producers, they’ve got this really fascinating project about Clarice Cliff ’,” explains Baker.

“When Claire first described it to me I actually thought it didn’t sound particularly riveting to be honest!” he laughs. “I didn’t know Clarice Cliff, but I know a lot about her now! My opinion changed

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very quickly once I started to see a bit more of how amazing her work was and also what a fun and cheeky lady she was, all the people she’s inspired and how she just brought colour into a world of ceramics and people’s homes that had never existed in the UK before. It’s actually a really fascinating story, particularly because Claire’s vision was to not make it a dusty, musty period film. She really wanted to make something that is vibrant, youthful and contemporary and had a lot of energy to it, which the character has. Once Phoebe came on board to star as Clarice Cliff, we realised that it needed to have energy, be classy, and be really cinematic as well. We didn’t want the film to just be a TV version of the story, we wanted it to be a big screen version of the story.”

ADDING COLOUR With the cast and funding in place, conversations then turned to how the production team could bring the story to the screen in an interesting way, and the cameras, lenses and techniques they would use. “We wanted it to certainly feel like the period but have a contemporary style to it, so we shot it with Arri Alexa Mini cameras,” explains Baker. “We’ve delivered the film in 4K UHD, but I did use a set of vintage lenses which I had discovered at Arri Rental from doing various tests over the years and

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PRODUCTION AND POST

LEFT AND ABOVE: Phoebe Dynevor and Matthew Goode lead the cast of The Colour Room

from another previous project. The Zeiss Super Speeds had such a lovely quality to them, which combined with the modern sensor of the Alexa camera just had a really beautiful picture quality.”

He continues: “I tested the uncoated version of those lenses too, which we saw had really beautiful lens flares, and I used various types of filtration. I also used Black Glimmerglass and plastic soft filters. I shot a lot of tests so that when the producers, Claire, myself and the post production team that were on site, saw images that looked the way we wanted our film to look, that became our recipe. There were a few other little tricky techniques that we tested as well. It’s the story of an artist so we wanted to have a bit of an art edge to it and have a really distinct style. And we came up with a few interesting techniques to achieve that.”

Key to that distinct style was bringing the colour of Clarice’s world to the sceen, which Baker achieved by putting coloured blooms into the image, particularly at various stages of her story arc. “We did that in various ways,” he says, “I’d aim an LED into the lens, onto the filter and

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I would get this colour bloom that would sort of give a little wash over a certain portion of the frame. We wanted to do something in-camera that wasn’t just a wash across the whole image but we could put it over Clarice or over what she’s looking at and have some control of that.

We used Rotolight quite a lot, Rotolight Titan X2s and X1s, which are fantastic lights and we could position them above the set and aim it straight to the camera. If we wanted something a little bit more subtle and precise, I had very small Falcon Eyes Mini pocket lights that I put right on the corner of the frame and controlled using my phone to just put a little colour bloom.”

GOING INSIDE Because of the economic hardships of the time, the pottery companies weren’t using much colour on their wares. One of the key sequences in the film is the moment that Clarice finally goes into the colour room, which is where all the ceramic paints are kept. “That’s when we wanted

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PRODUCTION AND POST

THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: Cinematographer Denson Baker on-set

it to be a full celebration of colour,” says Baker. “I put the little pocket light Minis on top of the camera and we had Rotolights on either side of the set. I put them into the demo colour changing mode thinking that hopefully they’ll just kind of work, which they did! I put them in the slow colour changing mode, each one was on a different time so we could have different colours coming

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through, but because there’s all these clear glasses full of the powders which she makes into paint, you could feel the colour coming from all different directions. It just worked really well and I don’t think there’s any other way we could have achieved that look other than doing that kind of technique. There were moments where it just timed perfectly, where she picked up the green paint powder and then the green light, just because of coincidental timing, came over the screen. It just all fell into place and still felt organic and hopefully doesn’t feel too contrived.”

Baker admits there was a lot of pressure on how the colour room would look when Clarice first goes inside.

“That set was also one that was a repurposing of another location that we’d shot in, so it was not complete until the day before we had to shoot. We were a little bit nervous about how it was going to look. When we started shooting and we did that first take where she opens the door, and we had a light on a boom lift, the smoke was beautiful, the flares were great, Phoebe was wonderful, and it was at that moment the whole crew had a sigh of relief like ‘this is actually going to work’.”

The film was shot entirely in the West Midlands, based out of Stoke-on-Trent and with Birmingham standing in for 1920s London. One of the hardest parts of the shoot

PRODUCTION AND POST was finding potteries that are still in good condition. “At one point, Stoke had something like 20,000 bottle kilns, but I think it’s only 50 or so now and only a few of them are actually in any decent state,” explains Baker. “We went to Gladstone Pottery and Middleport Pottery and the ones which have been made quite famous by The Great Pottery Throwdown, but we didn’t want it to look like the same place, so we really tried to treat it quite differently.

We did have visual effects that added more bottle kilns.

“Leek, which is the neighbouring town to Stoke, was a silk mill town and we found a silk mill that was actually in quite good condition that had been locked up. We were able to repaint and do a lot of work inside it and turn it into a functioning modellers’ room, the big boardroom for the pottery was shot there and we built a bunch of assets there. It was great because it meant we could have this old warehouse that we could use as a little film set and build lots of different little sets in there.”

A QUICK TURNAROUND Sky first announced The Colour Room as it went into production in March, which meant the shoot happened while much of the UK was still in lockdown. “It was at a point where there were already various well established Covid protocols and ways of working and testing. We were being tested every second day, and we were all working in bubbles as well,” explains Baker.

“That did make it challenging because we were making a film that obviously isn’t set during a pandemic. We were still trying to do scenes where we had people interacting with each other in busy potteries with lots of crowds, or on London city streets. It did make it a little bit challenging but we managed to do OK I think.”

Not only were McCarthy and Baker dealing with a pandemic during the shoot, they were also assembling an edit during production. “I’d already done some LUT (lookup table) development in prep, so we kind of had our look down pat. We had our LUTs that we liked, and so we were ready to hit the grade pretty quickly. But it was a pretty tight edit period because Sky had already set a release date. It was a case of that’s the date when it’s got to be ready, so go go go!”

As an associate producer Baker was involved in the film’s colour grading process, which he says means he gets to give his opinion more than if he’d just been the director of photography. “For me the grade starts in prep.

We did four rounds of tests, starting with which camera we would shoot with,” he adds. “We tested a variety of different vintage lenses, although we were leaning in a certain direction right from the start. Our last round of testing was in the days just prior to starting principal photography, which was with our main cast where we

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did hair, makeup and wardrobe tests, which I think is so crucial to the whole process. It meant that we kind of had a dress rehearsal for the whole crew and cast. It wasn’t like we were meeting each other on day one, it meant we had a little run at it where we could experiment a little bit and we could find the look of it together. I always find when I don’t do that on productions that the very first scene we shoot ends up being the weakest scene and we inevitably end up coming back and reshooting.

“To have had that prep was so essential. I really push for it on every production, so does Claire. It actually meant we were able to sneak a couple of shots from the testing into the final cut. Some of the shots were just beautiful, and Claire has managed to find a way to cut them into the film.”

“I’m really proud of The Colour Room,” Baker concludes, “so I’m really hoping that people love it as much as we do and appreciate Clarice Cliff ’s great story.” n

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PRODUCTION AND POST

The virtual set in Pres 2 at BBC Quay House is used for Formula E presentation

MORE FROM THE VIRTUAL FRONTIER In part two of our look at virtual production in broadcasting, Kevin Hilton talks to leading technology providers and facilities about how programme makers are using the new techniques available to them

V

irtual technologies have been regarded as, if not a novelty, at least something that is a bit out of the ordinary. As the systems and techniques for creating sets and characters that do not really exist become both more sophisticated and easier to use, the aim is for them to be a part of day-to-day broadcast production in the same way that 3D graphics and robotic cameras have become over the past 20 years.

This is illustrated by the fact that today’s virtual studios are being designed as practical spaces for making programmes, in the same way as their physical, setbound counterparts have been, rather than as an obvious statement by the broadcaster that they are using the latest technology. That was very much the case with Pres 2, a general purpose studio in Quay House, a BBC building at MediaCity UK from where BBC Breakfast, Match of the

42 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Day and regional news programme North West Tonight are broadcast.

Pres 2 was designed by Jim Mann, creative director of virtual set design company Lightwell Visualisation, and Toby Kalitowski, creative director of BK Design Projects, to exploit virtual technology and create a very flexibile space. “We created an internal environment that is almost like different presentation spaces within that volume,” Mann explains. “You can choose which you want to use and there is also a degree of adpatation within the main space. It has an external view and the background image can be changed. The first production it was used for was the World Figure Skating from Stockholm and then days later it did the US Open.”

Mann and Kalitowski feel there is a danger that creativity will get swamped by the technology, which could result in something that looks less realistic and

PRODUCTION AND POST

PICTURED ABOVE: Clogs the robot in dock10 studios’ virtual set

makes its virtual roots obvious. “A whole generation of people has been growing up with the technology,” says Kalitowski. “The Unreal render engine comes from gaming and it has been in the hands of techies, not creatives; although there is not a hard divide between the two. Jim is more techie than me but we share the creativity, between lighting and architecture.”

The move in broadcast now is to use this technology and produce something that is creative but realistic, with the studio lighting and augmented elements melding seamlessly. The discussion on how this is happening and where it might lead continues during IBC 2021’s technical sessions, both online and in Amsterdam. On Friday 3rd December, Paulo Ferreia, global sales director of live production, virtual set and augmented reality (AR) speciliasts wTVision, will discuss this in the session ‘How Virtual Sets and AR are Changing Content Production’.

An extreme example of new programme ideas that push the technologies as far as they can go right now is the singing competition Alter Ego, broadcast in the US

by Fox. This goes beyond the concept of The Masked Singer by disguising celebrity contestants, who perform wearing special suits for motion capture, as colourful, fully interactive virtual avatars. AR technology and facilties for the show are provided by real-time animation and virtual production studio Silver Spoon, mixed reality (MR) software developer Pixotope and visual production specialists lulu. Characters were created in Unreal

by Silver Spoon, with AR avatars displayed using the

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Pixotope engine. A Silver Spoon motion capture volume was installed on-set, with the performers’ faces and bodies overlayed with the character’s features using lulu’s AR compositing system. Pixotope’s technology was then used to run the completed avatars and effects on-stage.

While the avatars do not look human, they are still able to display human behaviour such as crying and sweating.

Pixotope chief executive Marcus Brodersen says that by implementing AR and virtual techniques, entertainment show producers are able to tell “completely novel stories” in ways that have not been seen before. He adds that the technologies will also benefit less elaborate programmes as well: “Within more traditional studio-based production, including news and weather, using virtual sets and in-camera visual effects can both reduce production facility overheads and greatly enhance storytelling.”

Full body motion and facial capture is being used for less humanoid characters at dock10 studios within MediaCityUK in Salford. AR technology, which can be used on both real and virtual sets, generated CLOGS the robot for BBC Bitesize Daily. This is designed to appeal to children while at the same time helping them learn.

“Motion capture technology is the best way to deliver really dynamic movement with AR characters in real time,” explains Richard Wormwell, head of production innovation at dock10. “The performance artist not only wears a specialist full-body motion capture suit but also a purpose-designed head rig that allows the deployment of

PRODUCTION AND POST facial-capture technology... to give the AR character even more personality.”

The growing interest in virtual production is reflected in the number of new facilities offering this capability that have appeared in the last few years. Kinetics in the Northamptonshire town of Corby opened its facility 16 months ago, although it has been operating in the marketing and events fields for the last 30 years.

Managing director Matt Coombe says the company believes the future of content is in the virtual space – as well as the traditional – and so is focusing on green screen productions.

Other facilities have committed to LED technology.

These include Arri, which opened an MR studio at its UK headquarters in Uxbridge in June. Based on a 343 square metre LED wall, the studio operates in partnership with NEP Live Events and is available for TV, film, commercials and event work. “Broadcasters have been using virtual production techniques with the ambition of creating efficiency in their workflows but [also] with the ultimate goal of being able to create more engaging content for the consumer,” says David Levy, regional business development director with Arri. “The most popular use of the technology in broadcast is pre-vis simulations, used in planning large sporting events or elections. For pre-recorded and live productions, they are mostly using real-time keyers/compositers for chroma studio environments and AR for physical studio set, realtime compositing.”

Another component in virtual production is often the use of robotic cameras, for both motion capture work and general studio operations. Mos-Sys Engineering was involved in the BBC Sports Olympics studio designed

by Toby Kalitowski and Jim Mann, which was realised

by MOOV TV in Studio HQ3 at dock10 and included a Mo-sys Startracker controller. Michael Geissler, founder and owner of Mo-Sys, acknowledges that broadcasting has used virtual reality for some time but comments that the progression is into more narrative genres for TV series and drama. “Up to now, virtual techniques have been used to add non-real elements to a landscape to replicate a particular time period during which a drama is set. However, more and more broadcasters are turning to virtual for drama and TV content to reduce postproduction compositing costs and minimise the need to travel to a location by simulating realistic environments in a studio As more processes are added to a real-time virtual production shoot – such as colour grading, and matching real and virtual lighting – pre-production will grow, post production will reduce and the overall production period will shorten.”

Andy Hook, technical solutions director of entertainment lighting and AV services company White

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Light, observes that although the initial outlay for facilities, including render engines and LED volumes, is expensive, producing programmes using that technology can be a lot cheaper. “When the content can be changed at the push of a button, it is easy to produce at fairly minimal cost, if you’ve got the right skill sets,” he says.

“You can reduce the amount of on-set lighting and video. We’ve got clients we’ve built virtual studios for and the footprints are tiny. They’ve got no ongoing costs of building or changing sets; they can just rebuild digitally.”

White Light developed the SmartStage extended reality (XR) system, which is used for both broadcasting and live events, including theatre. In addition to creating XR and fully immersive sets, SmartStage also has the capacity for ‘teleporting-in’ contributors from remote locations, something that became particularly useful during Covid lockdowns when people were unable to travel. “People are wanting to use this technology because you can full-body teleport into the space and stand next to somebody, having an actual conversation with a perfect eyeline, rather than guessing where they are,” says Hook. “It completely changed the game in broadcast and corporate events.”

There is a concern, however, that this kind of technology – as cutting edge and practical as it is – could make news programmes in particular appear tricksy and frivalous at a time when current affairs broadcasting is accused of being too much like entertainment. Gideon Ferber, recently appointed broadcast product director at (XR) infrastructure provider disguise, agrees that such techniques could trivialise the discussion of serious issues, even more so with the potential to place people in any location, but says broadcasting is still relatively restrained. “The use is much more conservative than other verticals,” he comments. “Sport is adventurous and entertainment is starting to push the boundaries, as is esports, but [in news] you are still trying to replicate a proper interview, with the host speaking to a virtual guest even though they are not really there.”

In the next three to five years, Ferber does not see virtual technology going away. “It will become more popular,” he says. “In the longer term, five to ten years, it will be all about how to connect all the verticals in the virtual space. It’s still a bit of a ‘blue sky’, but broadcast is adopting virtual production and is a part of it.”

Mike Ruddell, global director of business development at real-time visual effects specialist Ncam, observes that the market will continue to evolve, with broadcasters looking to make what were originally experimental virtual deployments sustainable in the longer term.

“This is where speed and simplicity of systems and fully integrated compatibility with the wider eco-system come into play,” he says. “As these improve and costs continue

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PRODUCTION AND POST

ABOVE: The CLOGS performer on-set in his motion capture suit

to fall, I expect these technologies to be deployed more widely than [just] on top tier shows and tent pole sporting events.”

Moving into 2022, Remo Ziegler, senior vice president of product management at Vizrt, predicts a continuing demand for high quality, format independent live production systems. “The quality of rendering has achieved an incrediable level of photorealism already, even if more is still to come,” he comments.

“The key moving forward is to make all this power available through better control, to have better managed assets to access in a distributed manner, quicker scene adaptations to react quickly and produce even more content [with] full adaptive control that can be easily automated.”

Plans are already in place for 2022 by some broadcasters to push what virtual can do in terms of not only creating a world but bringing several different aspects of it together. The Green Planet 5G AR Consortium involves BBC Studios, 5G network operator

46 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

EE, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, production company Talesmith, volumetric content/virtual production specialist Dimension Studio and immersive content studio Factory 42. The aim is to develop an AR experience based on the upcoming David Attenborough BBC One natural history series, The Green Planet.

This also involves GPU (graphics processor unit) developer Nvidia. The company’s media, entertainment and broadcast industry lead for EMEA, Jamie Allan, says that all types of TV programmes will be making use of virtual technology in the coming years: “We believe that nature documentaries will benefit from VR and AR by bringing people into the worlds being explored [both] at home or in touring experiences, such as the BBC Green Planet event.”

Virtual production is quite clearly well out of the R&D phase, with broadcasters looking at how far it can take them. How far that will be depends more on the limitations of human imagination than those of the technology. n

PRODUCTION AND POST

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION TAKES A LEAP FORWARD

By Michael Geissler, founder and owner, Mo-Sys Engineering

T

oday, we use the term virtual production (VP) to mean all types of virtualised content variants, from virtual studios, augmented reality and mixed reality to extended reality, and full CG. But the term was born out of using real-time photorealistic rendering and compositing to pre-visualise on-set composite shots in a monitor during green/blue screen shoots. The process was designed to avoid mistakes between talent and computer graphics, which were costly to correct in post production.

LED MAKES ITS MARK While virtual production is associated with green/blue screens, the use of LED panels to display VR sets and backgrounds allows content producers to create dynamic set design that delivers an immersive effect.

One of the earliest uses of LED panels for cinematic VFX production dates back to David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac, Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 sci-fi adventure Gravity used them with even greater sophistication to create photo-realistic space scene backdrops. But, it was Disney’s The Mandalorian, released in 2020, that accelerated the use and adoption of LED panels for on-set real-time production using photorealistic 3D graphics.

The value and cost savings from on-set real-time productions are clear, but the value is significantly reduced if the image quality of the resulting composite shots is lower than we’re used to when compositing in post production. The broadcast and film sectors need high quality, real-time compositing in LED/XR volumes, and this requires improved LED tiles, processors, and LED/ XR servers. Missing capabilities must be added and known issues, such as Moire effects, must be minimised.

FIT FOR PURPOSE XR Mo-Sys, in designing VP Pro XR and launching its Cinematic XR initiative, set out to address the cinematic quality and functionality requirements of LED/XR for on-set, real-time production. The result is a product that is specifically designed to address the current on-set realtime quality and functionality challenges, provide a platform for unique features (e.g. Cinematic XR Focus), and to address known XR challenges, such as investment costs, expansion costs, and XR graphics delay. n

BEYOND LIVE EVENTS For The Mandalorian, Disney made use of LED panels and processors that were available to them at the time of shooting; in other words, panels and processors from the live events sector. With great skill (and a large budget) the production team was able to adapt the live event LED technology to work convincingly in a VFX environment, and with added post-processing created the look and feel that made it the most in-demand original streaming series of 2020.

As clever as this was, what was even more astute was the way the live events sector capitalised on the success of The Mandalorian with the realisation that LED volumes for VP was a brilliant way to solve the immediate problem caused by live events shutting down due to the global pandemic.

MEETING HIGH-END CONTENT NEEDS Today, with 18 months of on-set, real-time LED/XR production experience under our collective belts, the broadcast and film industries are quickly realising the need for ‘fit for purpose’ LED/XR technology. As a result, the demand for technology designed with the requirements of cinematographers and broadcast designers in mind is on the rise.

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The Mandalorian accelerated adoption of LED panels for on-set, real-time production

TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | 47

FEATURE

TELEPORT, NOT TRANSPORT Phil Ventre, VP of broadcast at disguise, and Andy Hook, technical solutions director, White Light explain how extended reality unlocks groundbreaking teleportation capabilities in broadcast

O

ver a year into the pandemic, broadcasters have unlocked new opportunities to appeal to a broader audience and meet their demands of high-quality, engaging productions. By embracing AR and CGI, networks such as Eurosport and ITV have leveraged virtual production techniques to better engage their viewers with immersive and cutting-edge content.

Virtual production, or extended reality, is one of the most groundbreaking solutions to shake up the broadcast industry in the last 16 months, removing many of the challenges broadcasters have been facing.

Developed by disguise, the leading platform for delivering live visual experiences of the highest level, extended reality (XR) technology combines augmented and mixed reality elements in a production environment to deliver spectacular real-time graphics at scale and with confidence. Integrating LED, camera tracking and real-time rendering from graphics engines like Unreal Engine, ‘disguise xR’ creates a virtual environment that is visible both live on set and directly in-camera. Using LED rather than green screen, presenters can see and interact with the photorealistic graphics without needing to study a reference monitor or pre-block a series of gestures and movements.

Extended reality production was first introduced to the public during Eurosport’s coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games out of a need to deliver a new form of immersive studio environment. Pioneering London-based technology solutions company White Light developed a solution that allowed presenters and guests to see and interact with digital content displayed in real time on the LED panels surrounding them. As a long-time partner and disguise Certified Solutions Provider, it was a natural choice for White Light to work with disguise to develop the workflow and tools required to deploy these immersive environments. The collaboration resulted in the preview of the world’s first XR solution in the Future Zone at IBC in 2018. disguise xR has since grown into a robust workflow, driven by the constant collaboration and feedback provided by a select group of disguise partners who have field-tested the workflow over the past three years. The technology powers White Light’s SmartStage, which provides turnkey solutions for clients to harness the power of disguise xR and is used around the world by broadcast, education and corporate clients to enhance their presentations.

TELEPORTING REMOTE GUESTS INTO XR A great example of the continuous innovation in production that disguise xR has enabled is ‘teleportation’. Pioneered by White Light during its initial R&D in the lead up to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, the company refined

48 | TVBEUROPE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

the solution to allow multi-cam, full-body teleportation into an XR environment. White Light used the technology extensively at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, as part of its SmartStage product range in order to help corporate clients continue to communicate effectively without travel.

White Light also showcased another collaboration with Eurosport during the 2020 US Open coverage, where the team was able to take live footage of athletes located in a remote studio courtside in the US and beam it into Eurosport’s immersive presentation studio in London, powered by disguise xR. This created the illusion that both Phil Ventre presenters and athletes were in the same space and were able to conduct face-to-face interviews, without having to fake eye lines or fix the footage in post production.

Teleporting into SmartStage allows for the content to be placed in the background LED environment so the users in the space can see and interact with the remote participant while maintaining natural eye-lines.

Another copy of the content can be placed in frontplate (augmented reality) and perfectly aligned with the background copy, to provide the best image quality in the final live output. The content is placed inside the real-time Andy Hook virtual environment and tracked to the perspective of the camera to create a believable illusion of the remote participant being in the same space as the real presenters. disguise xR allows for a full multi-camera studio solution and White Light has developed a teleportation solution which fully embraces this in its SmartStage range; allowing feeds from multiple remote cameras to be switched simultaneously with the real studio cameras.

The remote participant is able to see and communicate with the real studio presenters by watching a live stream of the studio output on a monitor placed in their eye-line. During the Covid-19 pandemic, White Light even delivered global conferences for clients with multiple guests teleporting in at the same time from different locations, and all being able to communicate in real time via SmartStage.

The teleportation solution is agnostic to the environment and hardware at the remote end. White Light has successfully teleported clients from a wide range of remote set-ups, including purpose-built green screen studios at sporting events, through to pop-up green screens in the living rooms of keynote speakers’ houses. White Light’s in-house innovations department is continuing to pioneer exciting solutions for teleportation. By further exploiting the power of its SmartStage immersive presentation environments and disguise xR, it is creating even more engaging remote collaboration experiences with some exciting new tools and turnkey solutions due to hit the market next year. n

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“I think it’s morning in the broadcast industry,” said Josh Stinehour, principal

analyst for a Devoncroft Partners, a market research and consulting firm. “Media companies are not becoming irrelevant.

Although there’s been a lot of bumpiness, people who say that media companies are dying are just embarrassing themselves.”

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TECHNOLOGY

HOW TO MAKE PRODUCTION AND COLLABORATION MORE EFFICIENT

By Skip Levens, product marketing director, media and entertainment, Quantum

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hat we call the media and entertainment industry – more truly, the community of storytellers and creatives – never ceases to amaze me. There are some incredibly talented people working on the most complex projects every day, 24/7, 365 days a year. From investors to directors, producers, cinematographers, VFX experts, to data wranglers; the industry we work in is a marvel of technological innovation and human creativity. TV shows can broadcast continuously for 24 hours, without a single break and seamlessly build packages live and send them live while talking in the presenter’s ear across the world. Many programmes manage to do so for years while still appealing to mainstream viewers and advertisers, always seeking to build their brand and strengthen their community. It’s a highpressure environment with tighter budgetary restraints each year and ever-increasing creative demands.

The stakes are even higher during key global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, which completely disrupted existing production workflows. Improvise, adapt, and overcome every obstacle became the new standard; everything was up for review and change. What works?

What doesn’t? Above all, how can we get more connected and more efficient? However, one thing that changed for the better is the uptake of consumer demand for content. This past year, global video consumption and demand for engaging, high-resolution content increased by more than 60 per cent. Video has become the new normal and the most effective means to entertain, teach, and interact with audiences, thanks to binge-worthy series, immersive movies, TV, and animations available across a range of OTT streaming services.

However, there’s no fire without smoke. This amount of new content demand on top of what already was being watched threatens networks and storage systems to the point of overload. Add tighter budgets and bigger global teams to the mix and producers are now forced to rethink how they create and deliver content.

The focus today is on how to create more flexible and dependable processes that allow production teams to keep track of raw content intake operations and access long-term archives from any location at any time. Here are my top five tips for how to reclaim the value of your content and improve collaboration processes.

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TAKE A STEP BACK AND SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE To state the obvious, content management is becoming an increasingly difficult task for production and post production studios as they take on more projects.

Creative teams struggle to locate valuable, reusable assets from prior projects, and they are frequently unable to obtain such assets in time to meet tight deadlines for new projects.

There’s an opportunity here to step back and reclaim the value of your content by improving the organisation and management of your content. This will help identify your most valuable content and your worst (you’ll want to get rid of this to save storage space!). And this is an opportunity to help you figure out how to pressure test and get ready to scale your workflows and business.

IDENTIFY WHAT YOU THINK YOU DON’T HAVE Now that you’ve identified your challenges, you can confidently build your strategy to reclaim the full value of every piece of content, alternate take, b-roll and pick-up. You can see where the bottlenecks are in your workflow and break through them. Say for example you have a ton of video content stored across multiple locations; in the cloud, on tape, and in various local hard drives. The sad reality is that you don’t know that you’re potentially sitting on a goldmine. That documentary footage from 50 years ago might be worth something to someone, most likely another studio that is willing to pay you big bucks for it! The challenge is that you don’t really know what you have until you can access it.

Determine what you have, store it in one place only for safe-keeping at low egress cost, remove any duplicates, check for potential gaps in missing content, and map out an easy way to access it.

TECHNOLOGY PROTECT YOUR CONTENT Now that you’re sitting on all this content, stored in one place and easily accessible by all team members, you need to think how to best protect it. Magnetic tape is one option and arguably the best option. The air-gapped benefit rings true to many who want to keep it away from the prying hands of cyber threat actors. But have you considered that your content itself might be vulnerable as stored? Just because you’ve archived completed projects to a tape system does not mean those files will be available forever. Hard drives fail. Warranties on external hard drives often cover only a few years. You may believe that your data is protected, yet silent flaws may render part of your content inaccessible.

Metadata loss, such as file creation dates and camera information, is almost as bad as losing clips. Take action to check, renew and restore older drive systems.

ACCESS YOUR CONTENT I touched on this earlier, but accessing content in real time in an efficient manner helps improve collaboration. For example, Quantum provided one of its premiere European-based museum customers with an asset management solution that simplifies search and retrieval of video content for creative teams while preserving an existing workflow. We presented them with CatDV Asset Management Platform and soon they began to see improvements. Streamlined migration saved them weeks of work and simplified searches on the system allowed them to retrieve

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video assets directly on the organisation’s SAN system, allowing for improved collaboration across their team.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CONTENT A studio might store files on local drives, external storage systems, or even individual hard drives, however as the projects continue to multiply, storing and accessing that content in real time becomes an issue. When you only have a few projects and clients, keeping content in several storage systems may not be a big deal. But, as your company grows, you’ll need to find new ways to organise and manage your growing number of assets so that creative teams can quickly find and retrieve what they need. To accommodate for the large volumes of content and project archives, a single workflow storage platform is required that connects all the locations and types of storage where assets are required at a click of a button. To ensure seamless content flow across storage, from NVMe or SSD to HDD, tape, or cloud, the chosen platform must allow continuous access to content and enable consolidation of raw and finished content into one platform.

As the media industry evolves so too will the challenges it faces. The creative vision and quality of content will be what defines a brand and its audience engagement. As media workflows constantly change, organisations must take appropriate action to ensure efficient and streamlined workflows are in place. With modern storage and workflow solutions, the sky’s the limit when it comes to content production. n

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TECHNOLOGY

LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD Jenny Priestley talks to Vizrt chief technology officer Gerhard Lang about the ways in which the pandemic has helped remove obstacles from the adoption of the cloud and remote production, and how the company sees the future

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s we slowly emerge from the strangest of times and bowl towards the end of 2021, it seems the perfect time to pause and take stock of all that the media technology industry has achieved. For almost two years, the industry has continued to innovate and answer the challenges set by the pandemic, all while ensuring audiences are kept informed and entertained.

One company that has supported broadcasters throughout has been Vizrt. From working with some of the biggest TV networks on the 2020 US election, to releasing new technology to help the industry to continue to move forward, it’s been a busy time for the company. But, CTO Gerhard Lang believes they’ve done well in meeting the goals set for them by their customers’ needs. “I think we did quite well in all aspects, but particularly in adapting how we develop products and install them with our customers and in supporting them to stay productive in this radically changed environment,” he says. “Certainly as a company we did quite well to help our customers to stay on-air and even help them develop their offerings further during this pandemic.

“We helped our customers cover some major events like the US election in an even more spectacular fashion than prevously. Nobody really thought that would be possible with the majority of staff staying at home and accessing facilities in a remote working environment.”

Software was key to that success, adds Lang, explaining that giving customers the ability to control technology remotely has been part of Vizrt’s offering for some time. “As long as the network is fast enough it doesn’t really matter if the control application is running on your home computer or if it’s on-site,” he states. “The fastest-growing part of the computer infrastructure really is IP and the bandwidth that is available today. So, if the pandemic had happened a few years earlier, it would have been way more difficult, but with what you have available in bandwidth nowadays all over the world it’s super easy to connect, and working on a remote system is almost the same as working at a local system, so the difference is really not that big anymore.”

Of course, it’s not only remote control that has increased in popularity during the pandemic. Remote production has also become key to many workflows. At the start of 2020, it was still a technology that was ‘nice to have’ rather than ‘must have’. That has radically changed. “I think remote production is here to stay, it’s been proven as a valid and valuable concept,” says Lang. “Whether adoption will continue at the rate that it

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has been during the pandemic or people will choose to go back to the office, remains to be seen. But it is definitely now a valid option.

“The pandemic has taught us that people have a different perspective on the size of obstacles when it comes to remote production or cloud production in light of all the advantages that you get from that,” he adds.

“Some of those big obstacles from before are now a lot smaller and easier to accept. So we take that into account and the focus on shifting quite a few of our offerings to the cloud is originating from that.”

As well as supporting customers, Vizrt has been busy developing its technology to push the industry further forward. Having acquired NewTek in 2019, Vizrt has been busy developing the technology further, unveiling NDI 5 in June of this year. “It opens so many possibilities for our customers and we think it is a very exciting piece of technology,” he says. “NDI was really for a LAN environment before, but now NDI 5 Bridge gives you the possibility to access any device on the planet. It’s bringing the power of NDI to the wide area networks, which is super exciting and, of course, it doesn’t stop there. There are still lots of areas where we can improve or where we can add functionality, and this is definitely something we will keep working on.”

Other technology developments that have caught Lang’s eye in the past couple of years include orchestration tools and services offered by the cloud providers. “There’s been a huge leap and a really good progression on the ease of use, the accessibility and the availability of all those technologies that help us get content into the cloud. Vizrt is a pretty forward leaning company and we’ve always tried to stay ahead

TECHNOLOGY

Vizrt worked with some major TV networks on their coverage of the 2020 US election

of the curve and look into technologies or possibilities that could be interesting to our customers before they really noticed it,” he explains.

“Cloud was a little bit tricky because there were some obstacles, like how to get signals in the cloud with the quality that our customers demand and with the latency that they were expecting. There were some issues for our customers that were more important prior to the pandemic than they are now, so some compromises can be made. Cloud has become more and more accepted by our customers who are looking into that area now because they see the benefits of it.”

Lang continues: “Interestingly enough, HDR is peaking again. I think that is because sport is picking up again as well, and the biggest area where HDR is really beneficial is in sports production. We’ve covered large parts of this already, but we can do way more when it comes to HDR and HDR rendering. So, we’ll be focusing on that next year.

“Live production is what we’re really good at, and one area where we want to make it easier for our customers is to employ technology that helps them to bring adaptive graphics or adaptive compositing to live production so that they can stream to whichever output device they want.

It could be a large screen high-resolution TV that you watch at home or a mobile phone with a smaller screen size, and you either watch it in 16:9 or vertical video. Whatever gets developed should adapt automatically to the output format that the viewer chooses to consume the content in.”

Talking of sport, 2022 will be bookended by two major sporting events: The Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which kicks off in November. Can customers expect new Vizrt graphics offerings in the months ahead? “Graphics is our bread and butter, and as you know, we launched Viz Engine 4 with

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that fusion render pipeline,” states Lang. “That was one of the releases we were really proud of during the pandemic, and it has a tonne of new features in that render pipeline. It not only has a super efficient and crisp way to render fonts in 2D and 3D for any kind of resolution that you can think of, but it also is the basis for everything when you’re talking about modern HDR graphics. The way that we render allows us to basically combine all the assets that are coming in, bring that into the colour space that the designer wants to work in, and then distribute them to the format of choice at the end of the production. So we’re super excited about that one, and hopefully you’re going to be seeing it used on upcoming sports events.”

Finally, gazing into his crystal ball beyond 2022, what does Lang believe will be the next big technology that gets the industry talking?

“There is nothing groundbreaking on the horizon,” he says. “At the moment, there are lots of topics out there that people are talking about, but there is not that one outstanding thing that you could say is the ‘holy grail’ of technology.

“Look at what happened over the last few years and how much technology has been adapted and utilised in the broadcast industry; think about IP, for example, and how we are transporting content.

Artificial intelligence is another technology that can help improve production workflows, and we are utilising this already; we’ll be using it even more. I would have a really hard time pointing at a single one and saying this is what everybody will be using in the future. There are heaps of possibilities, there are many opportunities for us as a company, but also for our customers to grow their business and to make their offerings more interesting.” n

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TECHNOLOGY

META-MORPHOSIS It seems everybody is talking about the metaverse, from meta (aka Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Disney boss Bob Chapek. Adam Vahed, described as the most interesting man in the VR/AR industry, tells Jenny Priestley what it’s all about

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ou can’t go online at the moment without someone mentioning the metaverse. It’s everywhere, and it’s going to stay everywhere for the foreseeable future. If, like me, you’re struggling to understand exactly what the metaverse is, the Oxford English Dictionary describes it as “a virtual reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users”. Still none the wiser? AR and VR expert Adam Vahed, owner/CEO of interactive experiences company Apache, puts it into simpler terms: “The metaverse is a digital ecosystem that allows people to explore, connect and collaborate, typically in the form of avatars that inhabit one or more virtual worlds”.

Originally conceived as a concept in 1992 by author Neal Stephenson in his sci-fi novel Snow Crash, the idea of the metaverse

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has been around for some time; and there’s more than one! “It could be argued that the metaverse already exists to some degree in the form of collaborative VR worlds such as Sansar, or blockchain-based digital worlds like Decentraland, and even as popular console games such as Fortnite,” says Vahed. “These all embody the core concepts as laid down by Stephenson almost three decades ago, and each is forming its own thriving digital ecosystem.

“This also demonstrates that instead of a monolithic, all-consuming metaverse, there may well be multiple metaverses all vying for our attention, and all being accessed in different ways: VR headsets, AR via mobile phones, desktops and games consoles.”

However, Vahed stresses that the metaverse will undoubtedly look very different in the next decade or so. “We have all of the building

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blocks necessary to create something that could change the way we all interact in the future, permeating into all aspects of our lives across both work and play. How this manifests itself in practice might vary tremendously too,” he adds. “The big players all have their own agendas, and are racing to shape the future metaverse to suit their own particular needs in the hope of achieving ultimate control and domination. But I believe there will still be plenty of room for innovation by individuals and smaller companies too.”

The decision by Facebook’s parent company to rebrand as meta, and very publicly re-focusing its efforts around the metaverse has already sent ripples across the media industry in general. “The metaverse as a concept has entered the mainstream public consciousness with a bang, sparking a flurry of articles and commentary as we all scrabble

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to define and explain what it is and figure out how we can all benefit from it,” continues Vahed. “But once all the noise and hype settles down it will be for to the doers of this world to produce something tangible. My hope is that this will act as a catalyst to enable great things to happen, whether as a result of investment into innovative media companies at the forefront of the relevant technologies or new demands that spring from this greater awareness and interest in the metaverse that we’re now seeing.

“The media industry has always had to adapt as the world changes around it, and thankfully it has always been an early adopter of new technologies, so I think it will just be a natural progression as the metaverse starts to crystallise into something tangible,” he adds.

Vahed admits that a metaverse such as that seen in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One is still a fair way off. “Nevertheless, I do think the next five to ten years will be a very interesting time as we finally start to see some of these core technologies mature and coalesce.

“The next big technological change that I believe will be as significant as the adoption of smartphones will come about when true AR glasses finally come to market. There will be a period of time where we transition from using a device in our pocket to one that we wear, but I think that the benefits this will bring will mean that AR glasses will eventually replace mobile phones as we currently know and use them. In the meantime, we are already seeing the increasing adoption of avatars, along with the uptake in ownership of digital assets as facilitated via blockchain technologies such as NFTs (nonfungible tokens); a way of proving ownership via a digital ledger.

There is currently a lot of hype around this, but at its core I believe that the ability to buy and sell digital assets will form a fundamental part of any future metaverse.”

Vahed predicts that any shift away from today’s ubiquitous technologies such as mobile phones and the internet (as we know it now) will happen incrementally, in the same way we have moved from phone calls as a primary method of communication to text messages and now messaging apps.

“For example, I think we’ll first see the increasing usage and acceptance of avatars on systems such as Teams and Zoom as a natural progression from virtual backgrounds,” he explains. “We’ll also see increasing adoption of AR as this technology continues to mature. The shift from app-based AR to web AR over the last few years has already made AR more accessible and has reduced barriers to entry as users no longer have to wait for apps to download.

“An avatar is a perfect gateway into the digital world, providing a sense of ownership over a digital asset that invariably leads to the desire for further customisation. It’s then only a small step for people to want to use their avatar across multiple systems, becoming a manifestation of their digital selves. It’s easy to see how we could quite readily get to the point where, in the western world at least, we all have our own avatars to represent us across multiple platforms, whether it’s on conference calls, through mobile messaging, or online shopping with a friend. These are all stepping stones towards the embodiment of the concept of the metaverse where we all collaborate via a virtual world.” n

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TECHNOLOGY

SECURITY VS SPEED Nicholas Pearce, co-founder and CRO, Object Matrix, looks at the balance of content management

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any media organisations have been rethinking their storage options over the past two years. The pandemic brought with it a surge in viewing, alongside increasing audience expectations. With channels left battling to grasp the attention of viewers, creators were put under heightened pressure to deliver fresh and relevant content quickly.

As a result of this demand, media organisations needed to look for ways to optimise editing workflows, to mitigate manual tasks, and to speed up review and approval. To deliver these seamless workflows in a global pandemic, teams needed to access footage quickly and easily from anywhere. But in some cases, the requirement for speed has overshadowed the necessities of security.

THE RANSOMWARE THREAT While the move to remote working has kept the industry afloat during the crisis of a global pandemic, another crisis is looming. A recent Harvard Business Review article concluded that with “ransomware attacks up 150 per cent in 2020 and growing even faster in 2021” all sectors needed to be prepared. Even more concerning, is the everincreasing stakes for those companies held hostage, the article also highlights that the “amount paid by victims of these attacks increased more than 300 per cent in 2020”.

There are several challenges facing post production professionals in this new media landscape, from high demand through to the logistics of working on projects remotely. However, none of these challenges can cause more devastation than the combined risk of data loss that comes from ransomware, spyware, viruses, and hackers. It is crucial that media organisations take digital asset security seriously.

But understandably, many don’t have the internal resources to spend time managing complex cryptography, firewalls, and data policies.

Therefore, it is vital to have these protections built into any nearline storage that is accessed remotely by numerous users.

ADAPTING TO THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE Back in 2016, in response to a changing industry, French post production studio Atlantis Télévision began researching a storage solution that could optimise its siloed business islands, avoid manual tasks, and guarantee the durability of its legacy content.

Like many organisations, Atlantis Télévision needed to quickly adapt to the circumstances, to ensure it continued to meet customers’ expectations within the television, advertising, and film industries.

The post production company can now achieve two main goals.

Firstly, a process from acquisition of rushes to distribution of

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programmes, with a high level of security and permanent, yet controlled access for staff both on-site and remotely. Secondly, it is able to give clients immediate access to content, making it possible to deliver last-minute news programming.

MAINTAINING THE BALANCE Nowhere is the pressure to deliver content to fast turnarounds more keenly felt than when producing news programmes. Naturally, Atlantis Télévision needed to maintain a high-level of security but it also needed to ensure ease of use, both internally and for third parties. In some cases, its customers were providing access to manage their own legacy archives in order to create fast turnaround, last-minute news programmes; so the stakes were especially high.

Maintaining security alongside remote access requires built-in firewalls, data encryption and data immutability. This will protect data from being changed by ransomware attacks, or from being accidentally or maliciously deleted. Self-serve access needs to be both simple and offer a high level of protection to maintain the balance between fast-turnarounds and security. For Atlantis Télévision, as well as the internal team working remotely, there was also third-party access to consider. The company uses MatrixStore Vision, which enables quick and simple user validation, while ensuring instant access to media content via a web browser.

The move to the cloud has presented the ideal solution to social distancing requirements; allowing media professionals to work remotely and providing business continuity for the sector. But with ransomware attacks on the rise, it’s more important than ever to balance ease of access with heightened security. Systems need to be cohesive; mixed software packages that only upgrade one part of the infrastructure at a time can accidentally leave security holes in another part.

By making sure they integrate security protocols at every stage of the workflow, organisations can secure content at ingest and provide digital preservation throughout the production process. This will enable them to protect assets, whilst embracing next-generation media management from anywhere. n

TECHNOLOGY

AI FOR EVERYONE! Ralf Jansen (Arvato Systems) and Frederik Böhm (The Chainless) discuss simplifying the implementation and training of AI systems

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p to 84 per cent of all consumers use some form of AI on a daily basis. Therefore, it’s surprising to realise that less than six per cent of companies in the media and entertainment sector have integrated it into their business processes. Why is it that AI is almost indispensable in the private sphere, yet companies are still hesitant to implement it or fail to exploit its valuable potential?

This is because pre-trained AI models often sound promising on paper, but companies are unable to dedicate time and effort to do the proper training that is required to fully implement current AI use cases such as advanced computer vision, NLP, or voice recognition into the media supply chain.

Let us take computer vision as an illustration. AI applications in computer vision have made revolutionary progress in recent years.

In some image recognition tasks, they have even surpassed human performance; humans have an average error tolerance of five per cent, while some AI solutions already achieve error rates of less than one per cent. So it’s not surprising that media companies are now recognising the tremendous potential for using deep learning in their workflows.

However, AI models need training, and pre-trained models rarely offer the anticipated added value without adjustments. To give a simple example, it is important to recognise individual on-screen talent in videos, or live streams; these are unlikely to be part of a pre-trained AI’s library. This means that they cannot be captured by basic models. What we need to do, therefore, is to train the AI not only to recognise actor X, but also to be able to infer that actor X is who he is when wearing a hat or with a beard from what it already knows about them. This is generally done using a combination of sample data and expert human input; from an operator, for example, that tags different images of the actor until the AI performs the task to the same degree of accuracy (and, as we saw from the error rates data above, surpasses it).

As you may have already guessed, though, in the real world implementing and feeding complex algorithms with large training databases is not an easy task. Data must be collected and managed in a structured manner, kept constantly up-to-date, and accurately described. Then, before AI models can be created and used productively, it is essential to validate their performance with independent testing.

Finally, deploying these models and integrating them into existing media workflows is a completely different challenge and usually needs an entire team of developers.

All of this requires multi-disciplinary skills that are beyond the resources of most media companies. This is why we teamed up with media AI specialist DeepVA to create a system that can make deploying and training AI in a MAM system simple and intuitive, even for companies with no expertise in data science on hand.

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Ralf Jansen

Frederik Böhm

DeepVA provides the AI routines for media workflows, and the Arvato Systems brand Vidispine, with VidiNet, the associated VidiNet Cognitive Services and VidiCore, delivers a highly integrated MAM ecosystem. From a user perspective, in addition to managing regular media objects, the MAM user interface now also offers an integrated training application. The training data appears as searchable media objects in the same way as regular assets and can be easily found with the help of a search function and filters.

Timecode-accurate links allow jumping directly to different positions in the player, while different training ‘classes’ can be organised into datasets via drag-and-drop. Once a dataset with training data is successfully created, the AI component can be trained on the images simply by pressing a button or automated via API call. A few seconds later, the AI is available for the next analysis of images and videos.

In this way, users have both the recognition quality and the up-todateness of their system in their own hands. They can build their own individualised AI models and have several training options on hand.

The application of these models and the associated analysis of image and video files ensures more detailed and higher quality keywording and, thus, improved searchability of media data.

Overall, using AI in computer vision in the MAM system optimises workflows and can save time and costs. And this is just the start.

95 per cent of manufacturers are planning to introduce AI within the next two years, and the next goals of our collaboration include implementing this solution in other visual domains, such as in the recognition of buildings and architectural structures, in the field of visual concepts, or in brand and logo recognition. n

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THE FINAL WORD

WE NEED TO DISCUSS THE INDUSTRY’S SKILLS GAP

Sadie Groom, CEO, Bubble Agency, and founder of Rise on how the media technology industry can encourage and celebrate new talent

How did you get started in the media tech industry?

With a degree in theology, the media tech industry was an obvious choice for me (not really!), so I started my career at a PR agency for the printing industry. Back then we had to post press releases to journalists and only one of the office computers had internet connection. After the fast-paced world of printing, I worked for a couple of industry publishers in their marketing team, including launching a show called CGIX for the VFX world, before joining Avid as European PR manager and then starting Bubble Agency in 1999.

How has it changed since you started your career?

A huge amount has changed. The way we communicate and get news is now so immediate and from so many various sources. News journalism is at a different speed now, enabled by the ability to rapidly record an interview, edit and publish it on a phone. The other thing that has changed hugely is the cost of technology. When working for Softimage, we would sell licences for tens of thousands of pounds, which would have to work on computers that cost triple that. In addition, what you can do with VFX technology is incredible, especially what I see in gaming from what my son plays.

What makes you passionate about working in the industry?

Does everyone say ‘the people’? I can’t not mention what great people we have in this sector, and with Bubble we have gone into other sectors so I can testify to this. They are welcoming, generous, caring and knowledgeable.

What’s more is they are happy to impart that knowledge to people coming into the industry, as well as sharing contacts and making recommendations.

In addition, I have seen many companies come together to help their competition in times of need, which is always a good sign.

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

I would like companies of all sizes in the sector to get involved in educating children and teenagers about our space. We need companies at all levels, from broadcasters to start-up vendors and everyone in between, to provide people, equipment, and sometimes hard cash to fill the massive skills gap that we have and will continue to have.

How inclusive do you think the industry is, and how can we make it more inclusive?

It is changing but very slowly. Less than two per cent of CEOs in the sector are women, but women at the C-suite level has increased slightly. The work we have done at Rise has raised the issue of gender diversity and we continue to champion this cause as we have expanded globally. But, and it is a big but, we must see different faces on boards, speaking panels and in magazine articles, etc. How can we make it more inclusive? We all need to work on this together,

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not just to tick boxes but to know that it really does make a difference to individuals, but also to companies (and their bottom line).

How do we encourage young people that media technology is the career for them?

I think that young people feel this is a really hard industry to get into and that there are only a few jobs. We need to show them the amount of roles that are available behind the camera. With the Rise Up programme, we are going into schools and getting nine to eleven year-olds to build a TV studio and then make a game show. They absolutely love it and realise that there are many skills that they can use to work in television. Secondly, we need to appeal to what it is that interests them. Do they like sport? Did they know the range of jobs which enable you to travel the world? Do they know what a colourist does? I know the careers department at the school I attended wouldn’t have known these things, so maybe we can work with careers people to get the message out.

Where do you think the industry will go next?

At Bubble we are seeing more and more companies from other sectors, such as IT, cyber security, telecoms wanting to work in media tech; and companies in media tech wanting to work in other sectors. This is going to create a great knowledge exchange, but also bring in fresh ideas and faces to the industry.

This is something we can only benefit from.

What’s the biggest topic of discussion in your area of the industry?

For the past 18 months it has been how to promote and sell your products and services without trade shows. As the world is now opening up, the discussion is more around what ROI companies will get from attending these events; and, importantly, how to balance the workload when the sales team is working from home. This is especially important for the small to middle-sized companies because they have fewer resources but need to be clever in the balance to get things right. I certainly feel that local shows will become a lot more popular.

What should the industry be talking about that it currently isn’t?

I have recently taken on a non-executive role at Buckinghamshire New University. I don’t think enough people are talking about the worsening skills gap we have. The average age of people working in our sector is around 50 and I don’t know where our new stars are going to come from. The industry can provide more vocational training and work experience to people of all ages. We all get requests from friends whose children want to do school work experience. We need to agree to help. Give these kids a varied and fun week; really show them what a great sector this is to work in. n

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