TV Technology - 0451 - July 2020 by Future PLC

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NextGen TV Deployment Picks Up Steam BY JAMES E. O’NEAL STEAM, PAGE 10

➤ Cloudspotter’s Journal

Major market stations take to the air

Infrastructure as Code —page 27

➤ Equipment Guide

Master Control/ Routing & KVM Switchers —pages 29-32

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Workers at the DigiCAP facility in South Korea test the app developed for Sinclair that allows companion content to be sent along with mainstream programming at the SBG Las Vegas ATSC 3.0 broadcast operation. Testing and delivery of the specialized app was all done remotely, obviating the need for travel by the team.

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www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

TUNE IN TO TVTECHNOLOGY.COM Check out our latest “Guide to Remote Production” under the Resources tab.

JULY 2020 ➤ TVTECHNOLOGY.COM ➤ VOLUME 38, ISSUE 7

NEWS

INSIGHT

NextGen TV Deployment Picks Up Steam Major market stations take to the air

Live and Wired for Sound! Inside Audio, Dennis Baxter

FCC: Broadcasters Can’t Use Vacant Channels for ATSC 3.0 Commission resolves various petitions, issues in ATSC 3.0 transition

Cloud and IP: Live Streams Beyond 2020 The key to building a highly profitable and scalable live media engagement ecosystem

Police Abuse of the Media: ‘Enough Is Enough’ Law enforcement’s treatment of press during protests called ‘unprecedented in recent times’

How Did the Lockdown Impact Video Production Workflows? Media companies are using intelligent network solutions and the cloud to respond to the challenges

What HDMI 2.1 Could Mean for 8K, HDR When will the standard become available?

Business Management Systems Adapt to ‘New Normal’ COVID-19 put many of the trends on the fast-track 27

Lighting a Path Back to Production Home studio demands, product evaluations top list for lighting vendors

The Basics of Infrastructure as Code Storage Technology, Karl Paulsen

Has Theatrical Distribution Finally Collapsed? With venues still shut down, new releases are going OTT only

Vizrt Demos Virtual Production Capabilities Demo showed capabilities of software-defined production, IP transport

Miking and Mixing ‘Maisel’ Capturing the sound of the Big Apple from a half century ago

EQUIPMENT 31

EQUIPMENT GUIDE

33 Classifieds 34

User Reports—Control/Routing & KVM Switchers Gunterman & Drunck, Blackmagic, NewTek

Product Showcase

Marketplace

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4 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

What Is ‘Broadcast Internet?’ A

4TOM BUTTS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF tom.butts@futurenet.com

t the 2019 NAB Show, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr was enthusiastic about the potential for ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV)—particularly the IP element—urging broadcasters to take advantage of its poten-

tial applications. “It’s important that the FCC authorized broadcasters to start experimenting with ATSC 3.0, giving you the freedom to innovate—a freedom that your competi-

the digital TV transition—the use of excess spectrum for supplementary or ancillary services, in addition to traditional video programming,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “ATSC 3.0 can be used to deliver innovative new services related to automotive transportation, agriculture, distance learning, telehealth, public safety, utility automation, and the Internet of Things, to name a few, not to mention others we haven’t even dreamed of. Our goal should be to ensure that the market—not outdated rules—determines which new services and technologies will succeed.”

Vol. 38 No. 7

July 2020

www.tvtechnology.com FOLLOW US twitter.com/TVTechnology CONTENT VP/Global Editor-In-Chief Bill Gannon, william.gannon@futurenet.com Content Director Tom Butts, tom.butts@futurenet.com Content Manager Terry Scutt, terry.scutt@futurenet.com Content Producer Michael Balderston, michael.balderston@futurenet.com Contributors Gary Arlen, Susan Ashworth, James Careless, Gary Eskow, Steve Harvey, Craig Johnston, Bob Kovacs and Mark R. Smith Production Manager Heather Tatrow Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban Senior Design Directors Lisa McIntosh and Will Shum

public safety datacasting. Coupling that with advanced approaches to content selection and curation will solidify broadcast television’s role in supporting public safety in our communities,” he said a year ago. Lynn Claudy, senior vice president of technology for NAB and chairman of the ATSC noted that while the concept may not be new, the opportunities are. “The internet is different now than when we first started talking about datacasting,” he said. “We didn’t have the Internet of Things, that didn’t mean anything even 10 years ago—and LTE didn’t exist and 5G certainly didn’t exist,” he said.

ADVERTISING SALES Director of Sales, Media Entertainment & Tech Laura Lubrano, laura.lubrano@futurenet.com SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE To subscribe, change your address, or check on your current account status, go to www.tvtechnology.com and click on About Us, email futureplc@computerfulfillment.com, call 888-266-5828, or write P.O. Box 8692, Lowell, MA 01853. LICENSING/REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS TV Technology is available for licensing. Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities. Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw licensing@futurenet.com

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tors and many others in the tech sector already enjoyed,” he said. “And when I think about the ways that broadcasters can use that freedom to innovate, one use case stands out to me: ATSC 3.0 as a new and competitive ‘broadband pipe.’” This is the one of the first times I had heard of the new standard being described that way but it made sense. A year later, Carr announced at the ATSC’s virtual May meeting that the FCC would take action on updating ownership rules that could have hindered broadcasters’ ability to deploy such services. Last month, the FCC unanimously approved new rules that allow a broadcast TV licensee to lease spectrum to another broadcaster (including one in the same geographic market) or to a third party for ancillary and supplementary service without triggering the FCC’s broadcast attribution or ownership rules. The commission also said it would consider revising other relevant rules to help promote the service. “This fulfills an unrealized promise of

NAB said it “appreciated” the FCC efforts to “provide greater regulatory certainty.” “Broadcasters are excited about innovative applications this standard makes possible, in addition to the standard’s ability to unlock the next generation of television service for our viewers,” the association said. But what is “Broadcast Internet” anyways? In short, it’s datacasting, a concept that is almost as old as the DTV transition itself. Public TV has been partnering with local, state and federal government agencies to broadcast data for years. (And after all, DTV in its purest sense, really is datacasting). The potential for expanding such services under ATSC 3.0 are enormous and R&D has been going on now for years. John McCoskey, chief operating officer for SpectraRep, which has been working with public broadcasters on datacasting is excited about the possibilities. “The onset of NextGen TV greatly enhances the capacity and opportunities for

Integrating “Broadcast Internet” into an evolving communications landscape is crucial to its success. Already, broadcasters like Sinclair are researching ways to make NextGen TV and 5G work together. Claudy agrees, particularly because it is one to many, but one way only. “In order to have that convergence you must have integration between broadcast and broadband because pretty much that’s where the return path is going to come from,” he said. “And broadcasting will shine most in the asymmetrical environment where most of the data is coming downstream to viewers, not upstream from viewers.” Broadcasters are in the very early stages of deploying NextGen TV so plans for Broadcast Internet will probably take a back seat to the more important task of getting the signal on the air and the devices in consumers’ hands. But if the industry and the FCC can work together to reduce red tape and advance the technology, it could become a very lucrative and valuable public service. Stay tuned.

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IN THE NEWS ➤ FOR MORE INSIGHT AND INNOVATION VISIT TVTECHNOLOGY.COM

WASHINGTON—Mike Gravino, managing director of the Next Gen TV Coalition, died May 30, succumbing to pancreatic cancer after entering hospice care. Gravino, a champion of low-power television who advocated for the rights of the LPTV community in Washington, D.C., was influential in winning $150 million in repack funding for lowpower operators. In April 2019, Gravino announced the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition, founded six years earlier, would be called Mike Gravino the Next Gen TV Coalition, with a new mission set on “leveling the playing field” for independently owned and operated TV broadcast licensees. In March 2018 he formed Airwaves USA, an LPTV brokerage. “This one man gave so much for so many for years and we are better for it,” said John Terrill, president of the National Translator Association. Gravino also drew praise from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as a strong advocate “with an endearing charm” for the LPTV community, and FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly, who called him a “powerful force.” —Phil Kurz

Most Viewers Pay Less Than $50 Per Month on OTT WASHINGTON—When it comes to setting a budget for streaming services, most consumers cap their investment at $50 or less per month, according to a survey from Visual Objects. The survey showed that 73% of consumers paid $50 or less for streaming services every month; 20% spend more than $50 per month. A correlated effect of this is that 76% of consumers pay for just three or fewer streaming services—50% pay for two to three and 26% pay for one. Only 16% said they invest in more than three streaming services. In fact, according to Visual Objects’ survey, more people are on the lower side of the scale. The survey revealed 39% of people pay between $11 and $25 per month, while 26% pay $26-$50. Visual Objects believes this could present a challenge for new streaming services like HBO Max and Quibi as they go up against the likes of the more established Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, which hold large market shares. Compounding this is the presence of the coronavirus pandemic, which could be impacting consumers’ budgets. —Michael Balderston

FCC Diversity Committee Acknowledges Systemic Racism WASHINGTON—The FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment have acknowledged the presence of systemic racism in communications, media and technology. “Recurring racial violence and hostility against

the Black community, compounded by the disparate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color, have lain bare the ages-old social, health and economic inequities and systemic racism that continue throughout the country,” the ACDDE said.

The ACDDE, which is made up of diverse professionals from the industry, public interest group and associations, has a primary objective to develop, recommend and implement policies, practices and processes for universal broadband, diverse workforce and suppliers, and ownership opportunities for people of color in the communications, media and technology industries. The committee said it will work with the FCC on these goals, but have also encouraged members of the public to engage with it on these issues. —Michael Balderston FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment

Photo credit: FCC

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IN THE NEWS

NAB: FCC Regulatory Fees Approach ‘Unfair,’ ‘Unlawful’ WASHINGTON—The FCC’s approach to Fiscal Year 2020 regulatory fees for broadcasters is “patently unfair and likely unlawful,” ignoring the impact COVID-19 is having on the industry, according to comments filed by the NAB. This is in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that requires the commission to collect $339 million in regulatory fees for the fiscal year. While the amount is the same as last year, the proposal would see many broadcasters have to pay increased regulatory fees for the second consecutive year, per NAB. The NAB says that the FCC has failed to adequately explain the basis for these fee increases, which in turn hinders the ability of the stakeholders who pay the fees to provide meaningful feedback to the proposal. The organization points out that President Trump has issued an executive order to regulatory agencies to address the economic effects of the pandemic and examine ways they can waive, modify and/or extend regulatory requirements that may impede the economic recovery. “We urge the commission to use its authority to help alleviate broadcasters’ financial burdens by—at the very least—suspending regulatory fee increases or allowing broadcasters to pay their regulatory fees in installments over a period of six to nine months,” the comments read. —Michael Balderston

Comcast Pledges $100M for Social Justice, Equality PHILADELPHIA—Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has announced a $100 million, multi-year plan that the company will enact in an effort to “fight injustice and inequality against race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or ability.” Roberts says Comcast will commit $75 million in cash and $25 million in media over the next three years. This will be in addition to continuing contributions to organizations supporting underrepresented communities through the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and social impact groups, per Roberts. Craig Robinson, NBCUniversal’s executive vice president and chief diversity officer, is leading the efforts, coordinating with business leaders across Comcast, NBCUniversal and Sky to build programs, allocate resources and partner with national and local organizations. Each of the companies will be tasked with creating sustainable programs within their business and soliciting ideas from employees. Comcast’s plans focus on five key areas at the onset: social justice, its employees, awareness & education, digital equity and small business opportunity. “We know that Comcast alone can’t remedy this complex issue,” Roberts said. “But you have my commitment that our company will try to play an integral role in driving lasting reform. Together, we hope to help create a more equitable, just and inclusive society.” —Michael Balderston

SMPTE 2020 Says ‘Game On’ to Remote Experience WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has announced its SMPTE 2020 Annual Technical Conference will take place as a “remote experience” when it gets underway in November.

“We are thrilled to deliver an immersive, world-class experience to our community around the world and we encourage each of you to think of this as YOUR SMPTE 2020—regardless of where you live,” the association said. SMPTE says that the remote experience is eliminating the traditional barriers of travel, accommodations and scheduling conflicts, while also offering an interactive experience with learn-

ing and networking opportunities for a “broadly accessible and truly global conference.” This is another major conference that has opted to go the virtual route in place of a traditional physical conference this year, following in the footsteps of NAB and IBC. SMPTE made no mention of the coronavirus pandemic in its official announcement, but SMPTE Executive Director Barbara Lange mentioned it during a video on the remote experience; the other conferences cited the pandemic as a key reason to go virtual. The theme for this year’s conference is “Game On,” and a full day will be focused on the convergence of esports/ gaming and media technology. The virtual environment that attendees will have access to is expected to include a main conference hub, meeting rooms, theater space for sessions and an exhibition hall with private meeting space. Attendees can create their schedule based on their interests and schedules, SMPTE says. The SMPTE 2020 Annual Technical Conference will be held Nov. 10-12. For more information, visit 2020.smpte.org. —Michael Balderston

SMPTE Updates IMF Standards WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers have released several revisions of the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standards documents that have grown out of IMF Plugfests and feedback from those who use the standard in content versioning, packaging and delivery. The changes are aimed at ensuring compliant implementations, adding features, resolving conflicts among various provisions and improving consistency for IMF users. Revisions include: • Changes to SMPTE ST 2067-2 IMF Core Constraints, which include added support for IMSC 1.1 timed text, added support for Forced Narrative timed text sequences and definition of asset identification for Sidecar Composition Map assets. Audio Virtual Tracks have been made optional. • SMPTE ST 2067-3 IMF Composition Playlist has been modified to include more CPL Markers. • SMPTE ST 2067-5 IMF Essence Component was altered to eliminate a conflict with a provision in ST 2067-201. • The ST 2067-21 IMF Application #2E has been revised so that it incorporates the provisions of both ST 2067-20 and ST 2067-21, consolidating provisions from SD to UHD formats for IMF mastering with JPEG 2000. • Free downloads of the newly published documents are available from SMPTE. —Phil Kurz

10 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS STEAM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

WASHINGTON—ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV)—got off to a flying start early this year, with the first TV sets for U.S. consumers being displayed at CES in January and rollouts across the country set to go like a line of dominoes set in motion. Then came the pandemic. We’re now halfway through 2020. Has the scramble to maintain some sort of normalcy in TV station day-to-day operations pushed the plan for wide-scale deployment of this new breed of television to the wayside, or is it continuing to track? “There was a slight delay, but it was not a serious delay,” said Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair and president of the company’s NextGen TV arm, ONE Media. “Things are back in gear now.” The starting gun fired on May 26 with the launch of NextGen TV in Las Vegas with network affiliates owned by Sinclair, Nexstar and Scripps. The stations, Sinclair’s KSNV NBC and KVCW CW affiliates, Nexstar’s KLAS CBS affiliate and Scripps’ KTNV ABC affiliate, are sharing a single 6 MHz channel and transmitting from Sinclair’s tower on Black Mountain outside the city.

ATSC President Madeleine Noland

The launch marks the first full-power, multistation commercial deployment of NextGen TV in the country. BitPath, formerly Spectrum Co., led the planning and coordination efforts to put the stations on air. On June 16, Sinclair’s WPGH (Fox) and WPNT (MyNet) and Hearst’s WTAE (ABC) began broadcasting 3.0 in Pittsburgh. Aitken said Sinclair stations in Salt Lake City and Nashville were fully on schedule for rollouts, with more waiting in the wings. “We have a succession of stations lined

WKAR’s Media Innovation Lab

up to go this year,” Aitken said. “I think a total of 17 or 18 stations are scheduled to launch. We’re tooling along as fast as we can, and we’ve worked around some of the encumbrances of Covid-19.” GROWING LIST ATSC President Madeleine Noland, while acknowledging some slowdown in 3.0 rollout, praised industry efforts in moving the transition as far along as it’s gotten already. “I know that some markets—for example, Las Vegas—were going to launch before NAB in order to be up on the air in time for the NAB Show, which, of course, was disrupted by the coronavirus,” said Noland. “But we’re pleased that Las Vegas is now on the air. I’ve been very impressed with broadcasters’ ability to move the ball forward even during this pandemic. I know it’s slowed them down and I know it’s been hard with the ad revenues [declining], but they’re doing it. “Right now, we have seven markets with ATSC 3.0 on the air and we have an additional three markets that have filed for their FCC licenses, and a fourth market which has been announced, but they haven’t actually filed for licenses yet. Not counting that last market, one in every seven households in the U.S. is going to have ATSC 3.0 very soon.” Noland reported that work on finetuning of the 3.0 standard and enhancements to it continues within the ATSC organization, with planning teams exploring such areas as automotive applications, intertower communications, new codecs, core network technologies and even companion devices to enhance the television viewing experience via touchscreens. Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer at NAB, also

acknowledged the pandemic’s impact, but remained upbeat. “Broadcasters remain committed to deployment, but there will be some unavoidable delays due to the coronavirus,” said Matheny. “Broadcasters are taking steps to minimize these delays, and I think the launch of NextGen TV in Las Vegas is a great example of the commitment to deployment, and we’ll see other major deployments this year. I applaud Nexstar, Scripps and Sinclair—who all compete in that market—for their collaboration to launch NextGen TV.” NOT JUST FOR SHOW With the difficulties in moving installation crews around, getting necessary equipment in place, and other impediments, will deployments this year be just

“Las Vegas got launched without a single person from the team being directly deployed.” —Mark Aitken Sinclair Broadcast Group bare bones, akin to lighting up the “stereo” light on an FM tuner while still transmitting monaural content—or will there be something new and different for those who bring home a NextGen TV set? Aitken says it’s the latter as far as Sinclair is concerned. “We’re following our ‘MO’ so to speak,” he said. “In every market that we deploy,

we’ve got a robust channel that’s supported by the SL-HDR1 standard. For us, this is very important. If folks want HDR, this is the way we’re going to give it to them. “Also, we’ve been developing and successfully deploying broadcast app extensions. In Las Vegas we have the ability to do notifications in the subpart of the AEA&I [advanced emergency and alerting and informing] part of the signal. This allows us to send additional companion content that uses the A/344 interactive layer, the ‘browsing environment’ of the NextGen TV standard. We’ll be doing this in every market as deployments advance. People are used to this companion content in the environment of the internet in our OTT services and we’re bringing some of this OTT flavor to OTA.” GETTING IT DONE REMOTELY Aitken also observed that the Las Vegas rollout was not hampered by travel limitations or other restrictions. “Las Vegas got launched without a single person from the team being directly deployed,” he said. “We did everything remotely, meaning either literally remotely through IP tunneling into the facility and doing setups, [or] and in some cases instructing the skilled hands of engineers on site.” Joe Turbolski, vice president of sales at Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark LLC, noted also that putting 3.0 in operation is easily accomplished once the decision is made within a market about carriage of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals. “The actual technology implementation and service turn-on is likely the simplest part, at least for a group like CDS [Comark Digital Services],” said Turbolski. “The good news is that many of the new functions required to start an ATSC 3.0

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS service can be virtualized and thus ‘installed’ remotely without ever having to set foot on a customer’s facility.” Turbolski is also very positive about 3.0 “buy in” by broadcasters and consumers alike. “I do believe that the market will have achieved critical mass on several fronts including broadcasters rolling out their initial ATSC 3.0 services and availability of several options for reception of new NextGen TV services. The future for NextGen TV is definitely bright for broadcasters, equipment suppliers, and most importantly consumers.” Turbolski observed that if the ATSC 3.0 rollout could somehow have been completed before the pandemic struck, consumers would have been better equipped with 3.0-enabled distance learning/interactive content applications, the freeing up of internet bandwidth by offloading video services, and enhanced emergency alerting functions for getting essential information to citizens.

explore potential public broadcasting applications.” Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and general manager at WKAR Public Media, said the lab has been focusing on educational interactivity use cases, a campus alerting solution, developing scenarios about what public broadcasting fundraising might be like in a NextGen TV environment, as well as the addition of supplemental resources to broadcast offerings. “Since the launch of the NMIL, we’ve been particularly focused on tapping the

celerate the industry’s evolution toward next-generation broadcast and OTT television systems.” Members include BitRouter, DigIT Signage Technologies, Digital Alert Systems, Enensys Technologies, Hitachi Kokusai Electric (including Comark and CDS), Triveni Digital and Verance. Chairman Edward Czarnecki noted that “forward-thinking companies are exploring how to leverage new technology areas like ATSC 3.0” and said the organization would encourage collaboration and pro-

‘BROADCAST INTERNET’ Noland said the FCC has been proactive on NextGen TV this year. “FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has coined a new term, ‘Broadcast Internet,’ which is focusing on the data delivery ca- ATSC 3.0 signal availability, both on-the-air now and planned soon within the United States pabilities of ATSC 3.0,” said Noland (see related article, p. 4). “Rulemaking within potential of “Curious Crew,” a children’s mote innovation among members. “Alliance members will help shape the the FCC has always been focused on the science program produced by WKAR,” airwaves as television service transmis- she said. “Along with the educational con- advanced information solutions that are sion systems. With broadcasters now tent of the show itself, WKAR offers “Curi- part of next-generation TV,” said Czartalking about providing data delivery ser- osity Guides,” comprised of supplemental necki, calling the new organization a “true vices, the commission is examining the content, tutorials, and other instructional gamechanger for the industry.” existing rules broadcasters operate under material. [These] have been available on our website, but we wanted to see if we GETTING ATSC 3.0 INTO THE HOME to see if they still apply. Putting ATSC 3.0 on the “We’re excited that the air achieves nothing withFCC has recognized the out NextGen TV sets, and capabilities of the system Covid-19 or no, receiver and how it might be used manufacturers haven’t been in the marketplace, and is sitting still since announcseriously considering how ing their U.S. models at the these use cases could be January CES. impacted by the regula“We began shipping these tions that exist today. We new 2020 LG OLED TVs in congratulate the FCC for March,” said John Taylor, looking into these topsenior vice president of LG ics and for understanding Electronics USA. “Not surwhat the capabilities of prisingly, most sales to date the ATSC 3.0 system are. Shoppers will find this Samsung NextGen TV model available in both “brick and have been online, although There’s been great support mortar” stores and on several e-commerce websites. brick-and-mortar store sales from the FCC for this new could bundle these resources with the are expected to rise starting this summer technology.” broadcast to be accessible on any device, as the economy begins to reopen. “While I can’t share specific sales data as well as facilitate real-time feedback and EXPLORING ATSC 3.0’S POTENTIAL for competitive reasons, I’m pleased to data collection.” IN PUBLIC BROADCASTING report that sales have been pretty strong Michigan State University’s WKAR-TV given the current environment. For LG, has been on the ATSC 3.0 bandwagon A NEW 3.0 GROUP EMERGES Indicative of the interest in NextGen ATSC 3.0 is in our higher-end 4K and 8K for some time now, even establishing the NextGen Media Innovation Lab (NMIL) TV’s future, the “NextGen Video Informa- OLED TVs, so NextGen TV capability is in conjunction with the school’s College tion Systems Alliance” was launched last just one of the reasons people are buying of Communication Arts and Sciences to month with the goal of helping “to ac- them. We’re seeing evidence of consumer

interest through a growing number of online inquiries about NextGen TV.” NextGen TV set manufacturer Samsung is also staying busy in the 3.0 arena. “We’ve been continuing to work with CTA on NextGen TV Certification for Samsung TV sets—all of our 2020 8K models (T Series) have been certified,” said Dan Schinasi, Samsung Electronics America’s director of product planning. “We’ve also extended our work with CTA, collaborating with several broadcast organizations to align on widespread rollout this year.” Schinasi said that Samsung is also developing NextGen TV training materials and programs for its retail salespeople and is working on enhancements to current 3.0 products with an eye to the next generation of U.S. sets. “While it’s too soon for us to comment on 2021, we can say that new features will roll out as broadcasters enhance the features of their broadcast apps,” he said. “We anticipate that many of the enhancements will be backwards compatible with 2020 NextGen TVs.” WHAT’S NEXT? Anne Schelle, managing director of the Pearl TV consortium, is also upbeat about NextGen TV’s progress this year, and described some of the ongoing projects within her organization. “While the coronavirus may have temporarily slowed down deployment of ATSC 3.0 across the country, Pearl and its members remain focused on building out as many next-generation TV stations as possible,” said Schelle. “Our focus, along with the other organizations involved with the Phoenix Model Market, continues to be building out the basic next-gen television service offering that will be launching in markets throughout the country with ATSC 3.0. Pearl members have more than 750 local stations that they own and operate. That’s a very significant part of the American broadcasting industry that is working together toward the goal of deploying ATSC 3.0 as fast as we can. “One of our key responsibilities at Pearl is to translate our experience at the Phoenix Model Market into actionable things that a station can learn from as they plan for an ATSC 3.0 transition. That’s why we’ve been constantly updating the ‘Host Station Manual,’ a comprehensive guide that numbers over 160 pages of information [available for download at pearltv.com]. It’s been updated seven times already, most recently to add a section on the ‘Packager,’ a critical component in the next-gen TV broadcast chain.” Schelle concluded: “This is a very complex transition, and we can only be successful if we share, learn and collaborate.”

12 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

FCC: Broadcasters Can’t Use Vacant Channels for ATSC 3.0 Commission resolves various petitions, issues in ATSC 3.0 transition BY JOHN EGGERTON WASHINGTON—The FCC has resolved some major outstanding issues in its framework for a transition to the ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard, which will allow for higher-definition pictures, targeted ads, interactivity and “Broadcast Internet.” The commission last month declined to allow vacant in-band channels to be used for ATSC 3.0 deployment, which

SIMULCASTING RULES The item provides guidance on how the FCC will evaluate waiver requests for processing of its simulcasting rules--the ATSC 3.0 signals are not compatible with current sets, so the FCC is mandating a transition period in which ATSC 1.0 signals must also be broadcast, either by the station transitioning or another station in the market with which it has struck a deal. The FCC retained sunset of that mandatory simulcasting at 2023, which means cord-cutters will have to get new sets or adapters by then. The commission is allowing for an expedited simulcast waiver for stations who don’t have an available broadcast partner and a presumptive waiver for noncoms with no viable partner. The FCC is requiring TV stations to broadcast in both ATSC 3.0 and the current ATSC 1.0 standard during a transition period since viewers can’t receive the new transmissions without a new set or adapter and, unlike the digital transition, there is no government money for subsi-

“[T]he agency is setting a day by which households nationwide could have to replace their televisions in order to continue to watch broadcast programming. That means the FCC is planning to make consumers shoulder the cost of this transition—and that’s not right.” —Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC broadcasters sought but computer companies opposed because they want to use those channels for wireless broadband. That came in a Report and Order resolving various petitions for reconsideration of its NextGen TV order and “other matters” related to local simulcasting rules, use of vacant broadcast channels and the “significantly viewed” status of “Next Gen TV stations” (the FCC has adopted broadcasters’ rebranding of ATSC 3.0).

dizing adapters. The FCC is also putting a “soft” 60day shot clock for action on waiver applications, which FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly said landed in about the right spot in terms of making sure the FCC acts expeditiously. The FCC also concluded that the “significantly viewed status” of a station conveys if the ATSC 1.0 signal is transmitted by another station.

PATENT PENDING In a victory for broadcasters, the FCC rejected a petition by NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, that the ATSC 3.0 standard must be licensed on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) basis. But the FCC said if a patent issue arose, “it will consider it and take appropriate action.”

the package. By failing to follow history here, FCC is conferring special status on those who hold key patents without requiring fair terms in exchange.” Commissioner Geoffrey Starks was generally supportive, but also had a number of issues. He said the FCC missed the mark by suggesting, rather than mandating, that broadcasters would be fulfilling their duty to keep viewers with older sets connected by making a free ATSC 3.0 converter available. He said the FCC should mandate, as a condition of a simulcast waiver, that a broadcaster do so. He also said the order did not adequately address the concerns of smaller MVPDs who would have to upgrade to ATSC 3.0 for stations that got waivers from the ATSC 1.0 simulcast mandate. Starks would have preferred no 2023 sunset, but said he appreciated the FCC’s commitment to revisit marketing conditions before allowing those plugs to be pulled. He also joined with Rosenworcel and O’Rielly in applauding leaving vacant channels open so that “other existing and valuable users of TV band spectrum, including wireless microphones and white spaces devices,” would not experience interference.

Brendan Carr

O’Rielly supported declining to allow for vacant channel use for simulcasting during the transition period, citing the need to keep those “white spaces” open for wireless broadband (Mirosoft’s Airband Initiative is a notable example). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, another fan of white spaces for broadband, also said she was pleased the agency had declined to authorize vancant channels for ATSC 3.0 so those channels could instead be used to “help bring broadband to households that are among the hardest to reach and most difficult to connect.” She was not a big fan of keeping the 2023 cut-off for simulcasts. “[T]he agency is setting a day by which households nationwide could have to replace their televisions in order to continue to watch broadcast programming. That means the FCC is planning to make consumers shoulder the cost of this transition—and that’s not right.” She also wanted the patents to be on a RAND basis. “When the agency adopted the ATSC 1.0 standard, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms were a part of

Geoffrey Starks

“By recognizing the enormous challenges some public television stations would face in finding simulcasting partners, particularly those with transmitters located in remote, often isolated areas, the FCC is ensuring that these stations have the flexibility to pursue the public service benefits of ATSC 3.0 in a way that best serves their local communities and ensures that their viewers have access to the one-of-a-kind services in education, public safety and civic leadership provided by local public television stations as they transition to NextGen TV,” said America’s Public Television Stations, which had sought the presumptive waiver.

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS

Cloud and IP: Live Streams Beyond 2020 The key to building a highly profitable and scalable live media engagement ecosystem It’s no secret that internet content delivery has been on the rise for some time, and although commodity internet has presented plenty of opportunities for broadcasters that need to deliver high-quality content reliably and with negligible delay, it has also led to some challenges. For example, achieving the right balance between cost-effective streaming and the best-quality viewing experience is easier said than done. Margins are also coming under immense pressure as media enterprises adapt to changing content production workflows and audience acquisition processes. This explains why building a highly profitable and scalable live media engagement ecosystem is the top business priority for more than two-fifths (41%) of media enterprises over the next 12–18 months, according to a recent Ovum industry survey and report in partnership

Daviles/Getty Images

BY MIKE FLATHERS

with IBM Aspera, Delivering Cost-Effective Premium Live QoS at Scale “Anywhere, Everywhere.” READY FOR CHANGE The current live-streaming environment is in need of change. The world of

TV and video services is fragmented and very competitive, so implementing differentiated content strategies are essential in order to achieve average revenue per user and per advertiser (ARPU and ARPA) targets. This pressure is driving premium con-

tent owners to acquire niche media assets. The Ovum report found that 12% of enterprises expect their live content repositories to be worth more than $5 billion by 2023 (up from just 1% in 2018). In terms of specific industries, 19% of social networks, 16% of sports franchises and 14% of digital service providers are planning to hit the $5 billion milestone in three years’ time. Furthermore, live content is continuing to become a core tool in engaging today’s digital users. This is forcing enterprises to focus on key performance indicators related to economies of scale, such as cutting costs and increasing efficiencies. Reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of premium content delivery via remote production is a leading business objective for 71% of enterprises. Nearly 80% of enterprises are dissatisfied with their existing live media transSTREAMING, PAGE 15

Sports won’t be on pause forever.

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14 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

Police Abuse of the Media: ‘Enough Is Enough’ Law enforcement’s treatment of press during protests called ‘unprecedented in recent times’ NEW YORK—On May 27, Dymanh Chhoun of WCCO Minneapolis was teargassed while reporting on protests in that city; on May 29, police shot pepper bullets at Kaitlin Rust of WAVE Louisville while she was covering a protest of the shooting death of Breonna Taylor there; and on May 29, Minnesota State Patrol officers arrested CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his news crew in Minneapolis live on-air while on the same day, in the same city, freelance photographer Linda Tirado was hit in the eye with a tracer round. She posted to Twitter on May 30: “Hey folks, took a tracer round to the face (I think, given my backpack) and am headed into surgery to see if we can save my left eye. Am wisely not gonna be on Twitter while I’m on morphine. Stay safe folks.” And that is only scratching the surface of the 300-plus documented incidents (at press time) that the Freedom of the Press Foundation called “freedom violations” by police and protesters against the journalists covering the nationwide protests, both peaceful and violent. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz apologized for the CNN arrest after it went viral, and said journalists must be given space to tell their stories. “You see incidents of [police] pushing the press [and protesters] and you say, ‘Where are we, and who are we?’” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at one of his daily briefings. He said police must protect public safety and themselves, but that police abuses of power are also a fact. “And people are saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ ” JOURNOS IN THE CROSSHAIRS The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the majority of the incidents appeared to involve police, though protesters have also appeared to target media workers, including Fox News crews chased and assaulted in Baltimore and Washington. And journalistic organizations were looking for more than apologies. In a letter to Walz, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said there had been improvements since that apology, but that even one assault or arrest when the police know it is a journalist is too many. It called for the release of all arrests and interactions with police so the public could evaluate whether or not the conduct was legitimate. And in an un-

CNN

BY JOHN EGGERTON

CNN’s Omar Jimenez was arrested by police live on-air

usual move, the CPJ’s board sent an open letter to governors, mayors and the heads of law enforcement agencies demanding they stop police assaults on the press. President Donald Trump has long attacked journalists as dangerous “enemies of the people,” leading to his being branded (while a presidential candidate) by the CPJ as a threat to press

them to GREATNESS!” Joel Simon, executive director of CPJ, suggested the problem goes deeper than an incessantly attacking chief executive, though he has likely made a bad situation worse. In a piece for the Columbia Journalism Review, Simon said the volume and severity of the attacks on journalists during the protests have no prec-

“The reality is that aggressive, militarized policing across much of the country, combined with a growing number of protesters who are hostile toward traditional media, has made covering protests an increasingly dangerous assignment.” —Joe Simon Committee for Freedom of the Press freedom “unknown in modern history,” as well as an ongoing threat to journalist safety. The president was doing nothing to tamp down that inflammatory rhetoric during the protests, tweeting that the media were fake and slanted and corrupt and accusing them of inciting the violence. He tweeted on May 31: “The Lamestream Media is doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy. As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through

edent in recent memory. But he said that ascribing blame to the president’s antimedia rhetoric was too easy an answer. “The reality is that aggressive, militarized policing across much of the country, combined with a growing number of protesters who are hostile toward traditional media, has made covering protests an increasingly dangerous assignment,” he said. Another contributing factor has been a decline in local media and the longstanding relationships between police and familiar beat reporters who had cre-

dentials that allowed them to cross police lines, Simon said. But the president doesn’t get off the hook. “While Trump didn’t make covering U.S. protests dangerous, he has made the situation worse,” Simon asserted. “It is certainly possible that the president’s anti-media rhetoric has emboldened local police, who are attacking and arresting journalists at a pace not seen in recent history.” STANDING TOGETHER The CPJ has worked with other journalists’ organizations to send letters to police and law-enforcement agencies. They have already issued an open letter calling for police, mayors and governors to “halt the deliberate and devastating targeting of journalists in the field.” Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, told a Society of Professional Journalists webinar audience that there is “probably not an African-American journalist in the country who has not been the victim of racism” or had an interaction with police or knows someone who has, so they are covering a story that impacts them personally. So while they are wearing their journalism hat, African Americans can sometimes be the target of law enforcement officers. The NABJ took an informal survey of its members and heard back from ENOUGH, PAGE 16

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IN THE NEWS STREAMING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

port solution deployments. This is primarily because the increasing fragmentation of media consumption between traditional and nonlinear models is increasing the cost and inefficiency of traditional content delivery routes. Many current live media transport solutions have poor public network interoperability and lack unified collaboration, testing and visualization capabilities. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see that IP is currently the fastest emerging delivery route—a trend that will become more prominent in the years to come. LOOKING FORWARD Two key trends are converging to shape the future of live content streaming: increasing cloud adoption and the growing role of agile live media transport over IP networks. According to the survey, cloud will emerge as the leading deployment mode by 2023, driven by the need to control

Next, is the growth of IP networks. Embracing this technology will enable businesses to safeguard profitability and extend the reach of their content by building horizontally and vertically

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multiple screens. This is where embracing IP networks will make a big difference. For example, it will help provide the cost savings that many enterprises are currently struggling

rently standing at 32%), this will guarantee premium QoS/QoE with negligible pre-buffering, packet loss and round-trip delays. The final piece of the puzzle involves the adoption of diverse media production workflows (e.g. remote), which will help premium content owners improve both their audience engagement rates and ARPU. When combined with cloud-based live media transport over IP, it will also enhance real-time collaboration, reduce time to market and ensure more efficient media asset management. With the market more competitive than ever before, following these steps will empower broadcasters and media companies to transform their workflows and spearhead the future of TV and video streaming.

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16 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

How Did the Lockdown Impact Video Production Workflows?

that must be reliably received within a very low-latency time frame. Handling real-time applications over the internet requires further processing than is available within the internet’s simple core. By using intelligent network architectures, media companies like Fremantle can gain universally accessible, secure, and highly reliable video transport services. When combined with a fully managed service offering and critical technology to workaround inevitable and frequent internet choke points, it becomes possible for live video to be transmitted over an IP network to any location in the world with the same reliability and broadcast quality of satellite service.

Media companies are using intelligent network solutions and the cloud to respond to the challenges

“American Idol” went remote to finish its 18th season.

are just some of the ways media companies have adapted their production workflows. OVERCOMING LIMITATIONS This year Fremantle North America, the producers behind “American Idol,” had to get very creative to keep season 18 afloat after having to suspend filming because of the most challenging production conditions in the show’s history. To keep with social distancing rules, Ameri-

ENOUGH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

96 journalists. Forty-two percent had been threatened by police, 10% had been arrested and 10% had been physically harmed, she said, adding, “It’s been a rough time.” Where do journalists go from here? Among the key takeaways from the webinar: News outlets need to focus more on putting the news in context. Reporters can’t be everywhere, which is becoming the province of “citizen journalists” with cellphones. Instead, they need to add the context and history of racial inequality, which leads to another key: More diverse newsrooms with journalists who view the struggle from a different lens, having lived the struggle and the context. A contributing factor to the disconnect between the police and journalists doing their jobs also has to do with the cutbacks in local news, which means the police are not as familiar with the reporters covering the story. And sometimes it is not so much targeting of the press as indifference to whether someone is a report-

can Idol Productions set up the remaining contestants with home production packages that used iPhones to film and transport video to a production facility over the internet. The internet is increasingly becoming a prominent method of video transmission. However, IP-based transmissions can pose several challenges for media organizations because of the networks within which they operate. This is especially true with live and real-time video

ADVANCED CONTENT ACQUISITION CAPABILITIES Over the years the NFL Draft has become one of NFL’s most fan-facing events. However, with the COVID-19 lockdown in place, it was no longer possible for the NFL to have its hyperengaged fans physically present at the show. So the NFL did this year’s Draft virtually, by bringing in nearly 500 usergenerated fan feeds. As shown with both the American Idol Productions and NFL Draft, consumer products like smartphones now have cameras with the capacity to film high-quality content, adjust white balance, and autofocus. Experts agree that user-generated content (UGC) will continue to become a more prominent part of programming. In fact, analysts from IHS Markit estimate that the number of citizen journalists will increase by 145% each year, from now until 2025, and with LOCKDOWN, PAGE 17

er or not if the police are moving a skirmish line and the journalist is the impediment. One factor that has contributed to the prominence of the debate over police treatment of journalists and protesters is that cellphones have been capturing the evidence, as was the case with the killing of George Floyd that prompted the protests. Former Associated Press journalist Jesse Holland said the time to talk with police is now, before the next protest, and to ramp up training for Kaitlyn Rust of WAVE Louisville found herself in the line of tear gas fire. both police and journalists to try Tucker also advised broadcasters to be careful with and keep both sides safe. their language. Too frequently, she said, she heard reTucker agreed that outreach is important. She said porters talking about “peaceful protests turning vionews managers should be reaching out to law enforcelent,” when the reality was that the peaceful protesters ment all across the country saying, “This is what is had gone home and the violence was coming from happening to our reporters.” Police officials need to looters. The distinction is important, she said, and not talk to their officers and penalize those who violate doing so “is insulting to those protesting injustice.” the rights of journalists, she said.

CNN

A number of major video productions have managed to continue successfully despite having their workflows disrupted by COVID-19 and the restrictions lockdown measures enforce. One of the main reasons some producers endure is because their teams have been able to adapt to working in the “new normal” by utilizing a combination of emerging technologies and time-tested IP transportcv solutions. Yet these are not simply band-aid solutions, but instead are examples of an acceleration in the evolution of production workflows taking place across the media and sports industries. This transition to IP infrastructure has exposed new capabilities not available through traditional satellite and is proving to be a framework on which to build solutions that will overcome the challenges facing the media industry today, and in the future. Reliably transporting video over the internet using intelligent networks, harnessing cloud solutions to enrich video acquisition, and working with machine learning applications to curate content

Image credit: ABC

BY JOSEPH HOPKINS

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS

What HDMI 2.1 Could Mean for 8K, HDR When will the standard become available? BY JAMIE CARTER, HENRY ST LEGER NEW YORK—What is HDMI 2.1? The new standard for HDMI connectors was confirmed back in November 2017, but has yet to trickle down into mass-market television hardware. When it does though, it will mark a big step for both the AV industry and the home viewers wanting to get the most of their TV series, films, broadcasts, and gaming consoles. When High Definition Multimedia Interface (or HDMI) first arrived on the scene, everyone rejoiced at no longer having to use bulky SCART connectors, or those confusing component video cables, ever again. Instead HDMI offered high definition video with a connector that was just a little bigger than a standard USB plug. Over the years the HDMI standard has seen continuous improvement, with extra features being added as the needs of televisions have changed. HDMI 2.1 is the next step in that process. The headline feature here is support for 8K content at 60fps, but there are also a number of minor features that add

LOCKDOWN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

the aggressive rollout of 5G, live video transmissions will continue to grow exponentially. Cloud-based footage ingest gives producers of news, sports, esports, or entertainment shows the capability to

Experts agree that user-generated content (UGC) will continue to become a more prominent part of programming. acquire content from unlimited concurrent live feeds from multiple sources. This can include professional cameras, encoders drones, mobile phones, and online sources including RIST, RTMP, RTSP, MPEG-TS, WebRTC, SRT, HLS and MPEG-Dash. WebRTC applications are particularly important because they remove app dependency, enabling anyone to con-

up to a much more capable standard such as support for Variable Refresh Rates, Dynamic HDR and Quick Media Switching, which should make it faster than ever to change between the devices attached to your television. Here’s a rundown of everything

that’s due to arrive with the new standard:

tribute live video to production without the need to install an app—an aspect that is crucial in urgent and time-critical situations. When combined with talkback/IFB functionality, this feature can be used for remote interviews, call-ins, getting voices live from the scene by switching the program to the on-site mobile reporter, remote talent, fans in a football stadium or even a citizen who is in the vicinity of an incident.

leveraged for signal searches, highlighting scaling ingestion and ease of use during production scenarios, and demonstrating exception-based monitoring and resolution scenarios. As streams from multiple inputs are ingested, they become available in a collated into a browser-based master control room with a continuous playback multiview. In addition to being recorded, every frame can be indexed, making live sources searchable, to find the best out of the mess. Using location or other ML inserted metadata (like objects detected in frames), content creation is simplified for the editorial teams as they can filter contributors and explore sources by configured inputs such as professional cameras, mobile contributions, and geolocations. Production managers could, for example, use such technology to narrow down on team-specific or even athlete-specific feeds from a raft of incoming contributions, both professional and user-generated.

OPTIMIZED PRODUCTION WITH MACHINE LEARNING As broadcasters continue this transition to live video over IP networks, especially when combined with cloud-based live signal acquisition to unlock an unlimited number of sources, they will find a treasure trove of content. However, managing several hundred live fan feeds like the NFL Draft, or thousands of citizen journalist feeds, the sheer volume can become overwhelming for any production team to manage. Luckily, machine-learning applications, running on cloud-based infrastructure, can simplify mass content acquisition by automating manual tasks in the video workflow. These APIs can be

RESOLUTION AND REFRESH RATES The new HDMI 2.1 cables will allow faster refresh rates, including 8K resolution video at 60 frames per second and

Joseph Hopkins is senior vice president of Business & Corporate Development at LTN Global.

4K at 120 frames per second—and it’s that second feature that will be the real selling point for gamers and home cinema geeks, at least at first. “We’ve increased resolutions and frame rates significantly,” Jeff Park, director of marketing at HDMI Licensing, told TechRadar at CES 2017, adding at the time that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were going to be a driver for 8K TV content. “NHK [Japan’s national public broadcaster] is going to push 8K120 as an actual broadcast stream, and many consumer electronics manufacturers want to hit that target, so we’re laying the pipe to give the industry flexibility. It’s practical stuff.” Although it’s about keeping HDMI at the bleeding edge, HDMI 2.1 can actually go ever further, supporting resolutions as high as 10K at 120Hz—though that kind of capability is a while away from being supported on commercial sets. DO I REALLY NEED 8K ANYWAY? You may be skeptical of whether you even need 8K-capable hardware and connectors. And maybe you don’t: most content you’ll be watching on your TV will be in SDR or HD, and the industry is still adjusting to the flurry of 4K capable sets released to market. Isn’t this all preemptive? Even if 8K TV isn’t on your radar, though, HDMI is looking ahead to its uses in VR, says Park. “8K content will have to follow, but it’s not all about linear content these HDMI 2.1, PAGE 19

18 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

Business Management Systems Adapt to ‘New Normal’ COVID-19 put many of the trends on the fast-track BY MICHAEL BALDERSTON WASHINGTON—COVID-19 came down on most of the world like a freight train, and as a result, how we deal with our lives—professionally and personally— have had to change nearly as quickly. That rapid process of change is not about to skip the TV industry, and in this instance, how business management systems continue to evolve. Whether their primary objective is helping broadcasters handle advertising and traffic needs via the management of metadata, providers have focused their attention to a number of key processes that have been brought about by current events. GOING REMOTE Since mid-March, the majority of work forces have been keeping up with their day-to-day tasks from home. Many were unaware of just how the process would change for them.

Steve Reynolds, president, Imagine Communications

“There weren’t a lot of people, a lot of our customers, that were talking about how to sustain a 95% ‘work-from-home’ posture,” said Steve Reynolds, president of Imagine Communications. In response, Imagine has been making much of its business management platform suitable for distributed use, whether via the cloud or possibly as a managed service. But it was still a change that people had to get used to.

Myers also had a number of customers questioning how best to handle operations remotely. They, like Imagine, had previously developed the capability and have been further developing it with its ProHost 2.0. While being able to fully integrate with all systems inside a given media facility, an edge device makes ProHost 2.0 available accessible anywhere, according to Mike Tirrell, CTO for the Westfield, Mass.-based provider of radio and TV management software. What many users have been surprised to learn during this time is how little their work has actually been impacted because of the work-from-home orders, and in some cases, how more efficient they are. As a result, a return to the office and the type of previous operations pre-COVID doesn’t feel as urgent. “I think there are a lot of companies now that are looking at what they can do with managed services and what they can do in the public cloud as being not just a business continuity plan but indeed being the primary plan for how they want to run their business moving forward,” said Reynolds. COMPETING AGAINST DIGITAL When it comes to advertising, TV has long been one of the predominant platforms for companies to spend on. But digital has emerged in recent years, and with the ad market severely impacted by COVID-19, the gap between TV and some of the big digital players like Google and Facebook is becoming clearer. Still, media companies should be taking this time to find ways to reassert its powerful position in the ad world. “The premium television companies possess [digital’s] value, but their execution systems, the way they run their businesses, has grown to be very siloed—one platform stack on top of the next,” said Lorne Brown, CEO of Operative, a provider of automated advertising software. “The TV market … needs

Imagine’s XG Gamplane serves as a single location platform providing info and access to supply and demand info for ads, as well as audience insights.

to modernize their tech stacks in order to compete in this new marketplace and unlock their value.” The dominant theme these days is programmatic advertising, which Myers’ CEO Crist Myers defines as, “making sure that the right programming is meeting your audience.” Although it is becoming more widespread in recent years, the development of the ATSC 3.0 standard will give broadcasters new tools to better target specific segments of the population, Myers’ Tirrell explains.

“I think what we’re seeing with COVID-19 is a decade of trends in 18 months.” —Lorne Brown Operative While digital has gotten out in front with programmatic, WideOrbit has developed “MarketPlace” and “Programmatic Digital” to help remove barriers to TV’s full use of the technology, like transactions, according to Mike Zinsmeister, CRO for the San Franciscobased provider of business management systems for M&E. Brown, however, doesn’t see programmatic having the biggest potential for business management systems. In-

stead he is more focused on creating multifaceted systems that combine a number of different needs of users. BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER In our review of business management systems for M&E a year ago, we discussed how combining the different facets of business management into single platforms was underway. That approach has only increased in the current environment. “It all comes back to this concept of having a unified infrastructure,” said Brown from Operative, whose flagship cloud-based AOS is designed to help media companies integrate the various aspects and platforms of their business and allow them to sell it in ways buyers want to consume it. Nearly all of the companies we spoke with have these types of products, whether they are for full system operation, or focus on the many different aspects of a single function like advertising. WideOrbit has its Unified Sales Suite to connect buyers and sellers through a single, easy platform. The latest version of Myers’ ProTrack, 7.0, features a variety of services for managing, publishing and more. Imagine’s XG Gameplan gives users insights into supply and demand aspects, as well as audience and other facets. “I think that what we’re seeing with COVID-19 is a decade of trends in 18 months,” said Brown. Providers and users just have to try and keep up.

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS HDMI 2.1 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

days—it’s about VR,” he told us. “VR is targeting very high resolution and very high frame rates, and one of the targets the industry is talking about for VR applications is 8K at 240 Hz.” That’s actually not in the HDMI 2.1 spec, but it’s achievable in the next spec, said Park, who thinks it’s even possible that some broadcasters could even skip 4K transmissions entirely and gun straight for 8K. You have been warned. GAME MODE VRR HDMI 2.1’s Game Mode VRR feature is about anything involving real-time interaction. The VRR stands for Variable Refresh Rate, which means less image lag, stutter and frame tearing similar to the effect achieved by FreeSync and GSync on the PC platform. This is great news for gamers, because HDMI 2.1 will enable a 3D graphics processor to render and display images in real time, which will result in more fluid gameplay and greater detail. Once again, this will find its biggest use in the world of VR. “VRR means no lag and a more immersive experience that you need for gaming, whether it’s traditional gaming or a cinematic ‘on the rails’ VR experience,” says Park. “An increase in fidelity is needed to make VR truly immersive.”

“We’re carrying so much data now—we’ve gone from 18 Gbps in HDMI 2.0 to 48 Gbps in HDMI 2.1.” —Jeff Park HDMI Licensing

While it’s no endgame, HDMI 2.1 will bring convincing VR experiences closer. “But it will have an immediate impact on all gaming applications,” adds Park. “Whether it’s 480p gaming or 8K, it doesn’t matter—you’ll get that immediate feedback and interaction with HDMI 2.1.” Another feature that will bring big benefits for gamers is Quick Frame Transport (QFT), which promises to reduce latency—great news for fast-paced games or online multiplayer.

WHAT IS DYNAMIC HDR? Given the growing popularity of HDR, HDMI 2.1 bringing Dynamic HDR is perhaps the biggest news for home cinema aficionados. Essentially it means that the very finest values for depth, detail, brightness, contrast and wider color gamuts can be sent to your TV on a much more nuanced basis. “Today, HDR is done by taking av-

ing title) offering 48Gbps bandwidth for sending uncompressed 8K video, with HDR, over a HDMI 2.1 cable. So why do we need a 48G-rated cable? “Because we’re carrying so much data now—we’ve gone from 18 Gbps in HDMI 2.0 to 48 Gbps in HDMI 2.1,” says Park. “Today we have ‘standard speed’ and ‘high speed’ HDMI cables, and 48G will be related to that.”

Over the years the HDMI standard has seen continuous improvement, with extra features being added as the needs of televisions have changed. erage values for HDR across an entire movie, so while you still get some benefit, it doesn’t apply to each scene perfectly,” says Park. “Dynamic HDR enables the HDR metadata to be applied as precisely as frame by frame, or more practically, scene by scene.” Frame by frame HDR would be massively time-consuming to produce, but scene by scene is feasible. Either way, HDR is about to be given a whole lot more impact. WHAT IS EARC? It’s not all about TVs, either; soundbars, AV amplifiers and other audio equipment will also benefit from HDMI 2.1—though it will mean upgrading all of your equipment. For the last few generations, HDMI cables have had an Audio Return Channel (ARC), which means audio can be sent both ways between a TV and audio gear. This essentially enables a display to send its own audio—perhaps from a built-in Netflix app—to a soundbar or surround sound system, bypassing its own speakers. Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) is nothing more than a simple update to keep pace with changes in audio codecs, specifically to include the new object-based audio codecs, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. “eARC ups the bandwidth significantly,” says Park. “Previously you were limited to two-channel PCM or legacy Dolby Digital or DTS audio, but with eARC that reverse channel can now support much higher bandwidth audio including Dolby True HD, DTS HD, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and other object-based audio at much higher bandwidths.” WHAT IS A 48G CABLE? This is about defining a new specification of a HDMI cable’s speed, with socalled 48G cables (for now just a work-

Ditto the compliance tests that each HDMI 2.1 cable will have to pass in order to be labelled as such. Backwardscompatible with earlier versions of the HDMI specification, and able to be used with existing HDMI devices. WHICH TVS COME WITH HDMI 2.1 ALREADY? As of 2020, HDMI 2.1 is starting to creep into the high-end ranges of today’s

major TV brands. Many of these sets only feature one HDMI 2.1 port (with two or three HDMI 2.0 inputs alongside), as with Samsung’s Q950TS 8K QLED, new for this year. All of Samsung’s 4K QLED sets this year will feature one HDMI 2.1 port, which means you’ll have some options. Others are being more generous with their support, with the LG CX OLED featuring four HDMI 2.1 ports—though at 10-bit 4K/120 Hz passthrough rather than the full 12-bit. This shouldn’t really affect your picture onscreen, given that the CX only has a 10-bit panel anyway, though it’s worth noting that there are other LG TVs that support the full 12-bit HDMI, such as the ZX OLED. Most 4K TVs in 2020 won’t feature HDMI 2.1, though, and it will likely take another couple of years before its usage is more standard. Sony’s brand-new A8H OLED, for one, has no HDMI 2.1 ports, despite Sony’s gaming arm launching the 4K/120HZ-capable PS5 console later this year. This article originally appeared on TechRadar.

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20 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

Lighting a Path Back to Production Home studio demands, product evaluations top list for lighting vendors BY TOM BUTTS

BB&S Tobi Sali with BB&S Lighting said that his company moved operations to employees’ homes and worked hard to maintain a consistent and reliable point of contact and support for their customers. “I kept my office open two or three days a week. I was always available 24/7 on the phone and on the website,” he said. “And we were handling orders. Our warehouse in Las Vegas stayed open the whole time.” Since BB&S products are manufactured in Denmark, Sali said they took extra precautions when taking deliveries. “When we got a shipment in from Copenhagen, we would isolate it for four or five days before it ever got opened,” he said. “We added an additional week of it sitting there sprayed with alcohol to make sure that we didn’t have any problems.” For the NAB Show, BB&S was going to debut its Compact Beamlight BiColor (CBL), a lighting unit that offers a range of 2,700–5,700 degrees K and 98 TLCI.

Cineo’s new reflex r15 uses cooling techniques similar to that used in the computing industry, according to the company.

The company has also upgraded its Area 96, adding a fan and upping the output, according to Sali. “It’s about 10–15% more output than an ARRI 360 Sky Panel at less money,” he said. CINEO Cineo had planned on launching the ReFlex, a production-oriented 15A, 125,000 lumen LED-based hard light, according to Rich Pierceall, vice president

Photo courtesy of Biden for President

WASHINGTON—Like almost every other part of our industry, suppliers of professional lighting have seen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on manufacturing to customer support. And with industry trade shows cancelled for the foreseeable future, vendors are having to improvise the way they market, support and sell to their customers.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s home production studio

of LED operations for the NBCUniversal-owned company. “All productions have gone on hiatus so we’ve delayed the launch and instead we’ve been doing a series of beta tests to customers to basically try to get a more refined product,” he said. “So, that’s how we’ve been spending the time in terms of that product that we were going to release at the NAB Show. And so we’re anticipating releasing that product probably by the end of July when production comes back.” Although production may be on the way back, many installation projects have been put off for now, he added. “We found that most capital relighting projects have been postponed,” he said. “So, we anticipate fewer projects that were scheduled to be green-lit, even in the second half of 2020, to be pushed into 2021.” With trade shows cancelled for the foreseeable future, Pierceall said he personally thinks the dynamic of the events will be changed. “This is an interesting test period, how can we effectively market products without relying on trade shows, which is something that lighting people really rely on to bring out new products and to show people how things work,” he said. In terms of future product development, Pierceall says R&D continues to be an important focus for the company. “We’ve spent a considerable amount of time looking at things like VR, which is going to be a bigger thing in production than we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “And we’re looking at how can we do more with less in terms of smaller crew sizes and automation and control.”

ARRI Business has been steady for ARRI despite current events, according to Jason Inouye, technical sales representative for the company. When the lockdown started, “a lot of marketing executives reached out, telling me they needed to get cameras for marketing TV shows, commercials, but couldn’t have anyone in front of talent because of social distancing,” he said. “So we developed this remote solution where we can bring in our ALEXA mini LF camera system, or any of our ALEXA AMIRA camera systems, and be allowed to use cellular network bonding to send a stream out from the camera and it could be recorded offsite somewhere.

BB&S recently launched its new Compact BiColor Beamlight, available in single and 2x2 versions.

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS A remote start would trigger the camera as well from anywhere in the world. “Then people wanted to remotely control the lighting. And so you can use our camera through this box as an access point to actually put your SkyPanels through there as well, and then control the lighting system via IP,” he added. Integrating IP control capabilities to its cameras and lighting equipment has been standard for ARRI for a while now, according to Patrick Schulze, lighting systems application engineer. What products are now most in demand for home studios? According to Schulze, it’s ARRI’s SkyPanel series. “The S30 and the S60 would be the most popular version for home studios and remote locations where you don’t want to have somebody in the space,” he said. “If it’s in the talent’s home, it could be something that could just be set up and all controlled remotely through IP.” KINO FLO Kino Flo, which has a large presence in both film and television has had an “up and down” spring, according to Scott Stueckle, sales manager for the Los Angeles-based lighting provider. “More people are lighting themselves as they have migrated back to their homes or to office spaces that are depleted of crew people or lighting people,” he said. “We’re still doing a number of two- and three-light kits for those markets. We’re also doing a lot of work with CNN, QVC, HSN, all those types of companies, broadcast

Kino Flo diva lite 21

news, small web studios. We’re still doing a fair amount of those in two ways, fulfilling old orders that were in the system, but also quoting a lot.” Stueckle says they’ve seen increased interest in the company’s diva light series. “The diva light 21 is an LED version of our older, more established legacy diva light fluorescent systems. And it’s being used quite a bit for studio, location and interviews,” he said. After the NAB Show was cancelled, Stueckle said it gave the company the opportunity to review its new products rather than launching them outright.

“We were going to introduce a new ribbon light line of products; they’re the only five-color ribbon lights in the market,” he said. “They’re designed with the same firmware and LED emitter technology that we have in our other fixtures, so it allows you full compatibility. You don’t have any drop off in colors or any drop off in white light quality when you’re using our ribbons and they all have individual control. “We also have a new individual controller for our tubes that allows you to run up to eight tubes individually in different kinds of pixelation sequences and so forth,” Strueckle added. “But I’m not showing that until people come out and start doing business again. So in the process, we’re refining those, improving those, adding features, just trying to time it for when business comes back into play. We’ll go ahead and probably have a new version, compared to the one we would have shown at NAB—we’ll probably have a more evolved version and that will probably show starting July or August.” As TV and film production begins to resume, Stueckle said the process will be similar to what is being seen in public health efforts as well. “When the stay-at-home orders and essential business orders were passed down, it was like a light switch essentially went from ‘everything on’ to ‘everything off,” he said. “Coming back into it, from what I can see here in Hollywood, it’s like they’re ‘dialing it up’ a little bit and then they ‘dial it back.’ “It’s going to be a slow incline, I think, as we return to the set.”

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22 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

Has Theatrical Distribution Finally Collapsed? With venues still shut down, new releases are going OTT only

The success of “Trolls World Tour”—in addition to VOD movie sales increasing by a whopping 67% in March—will be difficult for other studios to ignore.

“The Hunt” and “The Invisible Man”— when the films’ theatrical runs were cut short due to pandemic-caused theater closures. Each movie was available to rent on major transactional platforms including Vudu and Amazon Prime Video for $19.99. THE GOOD KIND OF B.O. Historically, according to an Ernst & Young study commissioned by the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), movies with longer home release windows bring in nearly $2 million more

MGM

WASHINGTON—Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, nearly all major movie theaters in the U.S. were shut down by midMarch, with a minimum closure time of six to 12 weeks. The closures have forced many studios to delay the release of big-budget films, most notably summer blockbusters expected to make hundreds of millions in box office revenue. MGM’s “No Time to Die,” Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film, was one of the first major films to receive a brandnew release date—previously slated for an April 2020 release, it’s now expected to premiere on Nov. 25, 2020. While many studios have followed suit in pushing the release dates of their films by just a few months, such as Disney’s live-action “Mulan” (pushed from May to July) and Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow” (pushed from May to November), others have delayed film releases by an entire year, notably Universal’s “Fast & Furious 9,” which originally had a May 22, 2020, release date but is now expected to premiere on April 2, 2021. However, some studios have used theater closures as a unique opportunity to experiment with direct-to-consumer and premium video-on-demand (PVOD) models, offering consumers the opportunity to stream first-run films from the comfort of their couch at a higher cost than an exhibitor’s movie ticket. Universal was one of the first studios to drastically consolidate the home release window for three of its films—”Emma,”

Universal

BY DANIEL TOY

MGM’s “No Time to Die,” Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film, was one of the first major films to receive a brand-new release date—previously slated for an April 2020 release, it’s now expected to premiere on Nov. 25, 2020.

in revenue (i.e., a film with a theatrical run of 100 days that’s home-released after 98 days will rake in less revenue than an identical film with the same 100-day theatrical run that’s home-released after 108 days). So does it actually make sense for studios to jump on a PVOD release right now, while we’re all cooped up at home over delaying the theatrical release by a few months to a year? Well, Universal seems to think so. After releasing its film “Trolls World Tour” straight to PVOD on the day it was expected to be released in theaters, Universal—according to a Wall Street Journal report—netted more revenue in just three weeks from home rentals of the film than it made from five months of domestic box office sales from the first Trolls movie. That’s $100 million in gross sales in less than a month without the help of theater ticket sales. The success of “Trolls World Tour”— in addition to VOD movie sales increasing by a whopping 67% in March—will be difficult for other studios to ignore, and Universal is betting on it not being a fluke, either. “The results for ‘Trolls World Tour’ have exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability of PVOD,” Jeff Shell, film chief at NBCUniversal, said in a statement. “As soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats.” Not at all surprisingly, Shell’s excite-

ment to bring Universal movies to both theaters and PVOD in the future has led theater chain executives to express their disappointment and anger, as the planned disruption to the established theatrical window could negatively impact their business when theaters reopen. “This radical change by Universal to the business model that currently exists between our two companies represents nothing but downside for us and is categorically unacceptable to AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest collection of movie theatres,” CEO and president of AMC Entertainment, Adam Aron, said. “Going forward, AMC will not license any Universal movies in any of our 1,000 theatres globally on these terms.” Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi, while not as quick to announce to press any future changes to licensing deals with Universal, also expressed his disappointment, saying, “We believe the exclusive window is important to the theatrical experience, and are careful about undue change to that.” Cineworld, which owns Regal, also responded to Shell’s comment, saying, “We will not be showing movies that fail to respect the windows.” With AMC expecting Q1 losses of up to $2.4 billion on write-downs, and Cinemark’s Q1 revenue down 24% from 2019, the executives’ frustration with Universal isn’t wholly unwarranted—when theaters THEATRICAL, PAGE 24

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS

Vizrt Demos Virtual Production Capabilities Demo showed capabilities of software-defined production, IP transport BY PHI KURZ BERGEN, Norway—Vizrt pushed its online demonstration of what softwaredefined production coupled with IP transport over the internet can do during its weekly VizrTV webcast by bringing together live on a virtual set three people separated from one another by thousands of miles. Chris Black, head of brand and content, at Vizrt in Bergen, Norway; Gerhard Lang, Vizrt CTO in Vomp, Austria; and Andrew Cross, president of R&D for the Vizrt Group, in San Antonio, went live June 10— each from his own green-screen studio. To bring the three together, Matrox Monarch Edge encoders in San Antonio and Bergen converted video to SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) protocol IP streams, which were transported via the public internet to the studio in Vomp. There, the recently announced Viz Engine 4.1 rendered the virtual set with Black, Cross and Lang keyed in using the Viz Engine’s Fusion keyer, said Lang. The demonstration was similar to another the company made in early May. This particular demo, however, included a third live

“The power… in software-defined solutions is the flexibility and the ability to… output any kind of format to any kind of standard that has its place in the broadcast market.” —Gerhard Lang Vizrt participant some 4,000 miles away. “You think we have some complex science fiction-type setup, but we really don’t,” said Cross, who noted the conventional nature of the green screen studio and the public internet connection be used to transport IP packets to Vomp. “[B]efore this technology was available, you would have needed a dedicated line to get this quality of stream with the very low latency required here—from San Antonio back to Vomp or from Bergen to Vomp,” said Lang. Instead, the demo relied on SRT pro-

(L to R): Chris Black, Andrew Cross and Gerhard Lang on the set of Vizrt’s demo.

tocol IP transport. “One of its strengths is it has encryption and can be used on [the] public internet with error correction as well,” he said. “So, we are really able to do that over any kind of line that connects your [Black’s] office, San Antonio’s office and our office.” During the demonstration, Black asked Cross about using NDI (Network Device Interface) protocol. (In spring 2019, Vizrt acquired NewTek, where Cross was president and CTO and developed NDI.) The NDI protocol was in use moving video around the San Antonio studio before being encoded as SRT for transport to Vomp, Cross noted. The use of both IP protocols helped to demonstrate the hybrid world in which video production today exists, he said. Lang added that the set up could have as easily included SMPTE ST 2110 protocol sources or SDI sources converted to IP with a gateway. “Nothing should prevent you from using whatever format, whatever signal type, whatever cable type you want to use,” said Lang. “The power… in software-defined solutions is the flexibility and the ability to… output any kind of format to any kind of standard that has its place in the broadcast market.” During the demo, each participant took a turn showing his native setup, including the green screen, before returning to the virtual studio view. Audio and video appeared to remain in sync throughout. One difference between the demo of the virtual live interview and an in-person live interview was the slight pause between one participant asking a question and another answering—something viewers expect when, for instance, an anchor is speaking to a correspondent in

the field, but would appear foreign when speaking to someone else in the studio. Still, the demonstration successfully underscored what is possible when software-defined production, IP transport and the public internet are creatively combined. The next logical step is lever-

aging virtualization and the cloud. While the Viz Engine is not new to virtualization, and this week’s demo “theoretically” could have been done in the cloud, there remains the issue of synchronizing in the cloud the tracking data from all of the cameras that makes it possible to seamlessly meld the real and virtual worlds, said Lang. Among the most important takeaways from this week’s demo, said Cross, was showing the flexibility software brings to the production process. “I think a lot of people talk about cloud as being the thing. But it is not. Software affords the flexibility to produce your shows anywhere and then start bringing together all of the pieces you need to build out new shows, new workflows—and that’s the power,” he said. “And it’s IP that connects all of this together to give us workflows and make shows in ways that we’ve just never been able to do before.”

24 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

IN THE NEWS

Miking and Mixing ‘Maisel’ Capturing the sound of the Big Apple from a half century ago BY STEVE HARVEY

A FINE ART Happily, he and Mathew Price, CAS, the show’s production sound mixer, have their routine down to a fine art. “Mat records great material both from a lavalier and a boom. I can’t work with one without the other; they both need to gel together,” says Bochar. “My dialogue editor, Sara [Stern], will do a lot of tweaky stuff knowing I’m going to need to hear all those consonants. It’s smartly done and it makes my life a lot better. We end up with lovely live performances, and a very wonderful live track that Mat’s recorded for me.” Dialogue may be the “God track,” as Bochar calls it, but there’s a lot going on in the background, too. “When they hired me to do the pilot, Amy said she didn’t want it to ever sound like a standard TV show. There weren’t going to be a lot of quiet moments, but if anybody did take a pause, she wanted to make sure that it was filled. As long as we can still hear what she wants us to hear, she wants everything else to be busy and lively.” “This is definitely the most challenging show I’ve

THEATRICAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

finally reopen, they’ll have a difficult enough time recouping losses as it is without the added potential loss of customers to PVOD rentals. BEYOND THE PANDEMIC The pandemic-caused shuttering of theaters is only the latest shoe to drop for the age-old practice of convening folks in public spaces to watch movies. In fact, it has only accelerated the already eroding theatrical window. These days, movies are available for streaming sale and rental, and SVOD smorgasbord video, quicker than ever. According to the aforementioned Ernst & Young study, the average theatrical run in 2012 was 102 days. By 2017, it was down to just 94 days. And while the average home release window in 2012 was 112 days, it winnowed to just 85 in

Phto credit: Phillipe Antonello

NEW YORK, N.Y.—It used to be that one page of screenplay equaled one minute of screen time. Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, creators and showrunners of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which streams on Amazon Prime, leave that rule of thumb in the dust. “Amy and Dan write episodes that are 70-some pages, sometimes 100 pages long. Imagine all those words crammed into a 50-minute show,” says Ron Bochar, Mrs. Maisel’s rerecording mixer. Bochar is co-owner of Manhattan audio post house c5, which handles all of the show’s ADR, Foley, editing and mixing work.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” often uses expansive, moving camera shots to depict the bustling world of early 1960s New York City, requiring carefully choreographed boom work and sometimes dozens of open lavalier mics.

ever mixed,” says Price, whose resume includes every episode of “The Sopranos.” It’s not just that the camera is constantly on the move, requiring carefully choreographed boom work; some episodes also involve a lot of talking characters. For some scenes, Price has had to bring in a second mixer to handle the extra tracks and radio mics, boosting his department to six people. In the show, set in the 1950s and ’60s, Mrs. Maisel is an archetypal Upper West Side Manhattan housewife

2017. Today, the theatrical window is down to 74 days. Late last year, streaming giant Netflix experimented with implementing even shorter windows with two of its movies: The Irishman had a home release window of one month, while Marriage Story’s was 27 days.

“As soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats.” —Jeff Shell NBCUniversal Other emerging streaming companies, such as Disney Plus and HBO Max, have announced similar direct-to-consumer experiments amid the pandemic. Disney has forgone a theatrical release of Artemis Fowl, which was supposed to pre-

who discovers a talent for standup comedy. As she progresses from the seedy clubs of Greenwich Village to larger venues, such as Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Bochar “world-ized” the soundtrack to put listeners into those respective spaces. “Between picking a sound for the mic that she’s speaking into, picking a reverb for the room, or sometimes multiple verbs, the whole point is to make Maisel feel as real as we can,” says Bochar. “We’re trying to be precise to the

miere on May 29, in favor of releasing the film directly to Disney Plus on June 12. And instead of an Oct. 2021 theatrical premiere of the much-anticipated filmed production of Hamilton, Disney will make it available for streaming July 3. Sony’s Charm City Kings and An American Pickle will also debut not at that theaters but on HBO Max. CUTTING MAINSTREAM OTT DISTRIBUTION OUT? This shift in how we’re consuming media has not gone unnoticed by tech companies, either. The emergence of new technology like TIKIT from XCineX proves there will be a continued interest in at-home viewing over moviegoing even after theaters reopen. TIKIT, a small square device that attaches to your TV, uses detection sensors to scan the room and identify the number of people present, then connects to Venue, its accompanying app that allows you to purchase

tickets to view first-run films, sporting events, live concerts and more based on the number of people watching. Why all the fancy new equipment when PVOD has been seemingly working just fine so far? Well, currently, firstrun films on PVOD, such as Trolls World Tour, have been available to rent for $19.99, which is fairly steep for just one or two viewers, given that the average movie ticket price in the U.S. was $9.26 last year and you won’t be watching the movie on the big screen. If you’re a family of five, sure, that price point is a bargain because you don’t have to pay per head (or wrangle the children up to go to a theater). But studios may want to release non-familyfriendly films and still make money. If technology like TIKIT gains traction, it could encourage studios to drop rental prices closer to movie ticket prices, making direct-to-consumer transactions feasible for any kind of movie.

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

IN THE NEWS reality that we’re seeing.” There is no final dub, he adds: “The mix begins at the first edit,” a workflow followed by everyone on the sound team, which includes Foley mixer George A. Lara and ADR mixers David Boulton and Mike Fowler. “A lot of the Apollo stuff sounded the way it did based on a lot of the [loop] group,” says Bochar. “We were able to position the group at various places within the Apollo, creatively, to give it depth and space. Your mind says, oh, this is big.” “I think spaces have a real psychological component when you’re viewing, even if it’s subtle and you don’t realize it,” says Price, who consequently likes to use both boom and lav mics wherever feasible. “I like to open it up as much as I can. It also gives Ron and Sara choices.” A DEFINING EPISODE Like the background sound effects, the group walla track can be dense. “There were the elderly groups taking their kids to the Apollo, which means you have two levels of group that have to work together,” says Bochar. “That episode [3.08: “A Jewish Girl Walks into the Apollo”] became the definition of what Mrs. Maisel is all about,” he says. “It had

Mrs. Maisel production sound mixer Mathew Price, CAS, and rerecording mixer Ron Bochar have their routine down to a fine art.

performance, smart social commentary, smart relationship issues, a lot of stuff that had to be balanced within the context of a normal Mrs. Maisel.” Sherman-Palladino is very detail-oriented, orchestrating some scenes for maximum effect. “During a spotting session, Amy will say, ‘The laughs are all happening in the right places, but they’re wrong. This one should just be women reacting; here, maybe it’s just a couple of girls in the background; the men would get this.’”

In response to her notes, Bochar says, “A lot of times we just recall a group and do another half a day of material. Amazon has been wonderful for allowing us to do that.” Price switched out his venerable Audio Ltd 2000 radio mics for a 12-channel Zaxcom RX12 system after season 2. He mixes to a Zaxcom Deva 16 with a Mix 12 control surface. The show’s prop department went to New York’s Gotham Sound to incorporate new Shure TL lavs into the various

vintage mics that Maisel uses at the different venues. “They became my primary source for all the standup,” says Price. “I ended up buying a Shure TL48 [TwinPlex]; I use that on Rachel almost exclusively” to match the modified standup mics. “I like the way they sound—nice and open and warm-sounding.” Further raising the degree of difficulty for Price and his team, the showrunners have insisted on live bands, especially in season 3. On the “Miami After Dark” episode, the jazz quartet was live, says Price. “And Amy didn’t want to see any mics.” While Price handled the extensive dialogue tracks, a second mixer recorded the music. “We took a bidirectional capsule and put it behind the drums, away from the camera. Then there was a plant mic above, a Schoeps capsule. We put a mic on the piano lid for the bass, and another mic under the piano for the piano. And we put a lavalier mic on the trumpeter’s sleeve,” says Price. The show is one of his career highlights, he says. “The whole cast is amazing. One reason it sounds so good is that we don’t have a whisperer or mumbler among them. And it’s such a family. It’s a happy set. Everyone’s having fun.”

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26 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

INSIGHT INSIDE AUDIO ➤ FOR MORE INSIGHT AND INNOVATION VISIT TVTECHNOLOGY.COM

Live and Wired for Sound! I

have often pondered the fact that live television is technically easier to set up and get to air today because of digital technology and fiber optics. I could not imagine under4 DENNIS taking the sound of a BAXTER golf event using what is known as “dry pair,” which was commonly used for audio connectivity just a couple of decades ago. Forget about the noise and constant maintenance, dry pair is unshielded, thin-gauge copper telephone wire and was very prone to crosstalk between the pairs. If you were lucky and had enough noise on the circuit, you may never notice the crosstalk—I didn’t and got burned, badly. In the early 1980s I came out of a recording studio and was stunned at how television audio was really noisy and low fidelity. Further, I was dismayed by some of the practices used in remote audio production, such as using dry pair for show sound and intercoms. After the “shock and awe” of learning that sound

“clean” dry-pair circuits with minimum noise and crosstalk specifications. Over time, the audio crews learned dry pair by trial and error. Dry pair at major event facilities such as at The Masters in Augusta, Ga., and the Daytona 500 track were usually permanently installed and professionally maintained by the telephone company.

sion along with intercom systems have gotten bigger, manageably complex as well as more flexible. Clearly with the digitization of all things audio and intercoms, the performance standards have radically improved and with presets and resets, everything has gotten a bit easier to set up

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE Problems seemed to arise as the TV crews started to push the envelope with large events such as golf and car racing with a system designed for low-fidelity telephone communications. A couple of years into my career, I was audio mixer for a car race taking place over a weekend at a large track in Alabama where the commentator booth was a mile away from the outside broadcast van. The network tried to save some money and the audio crew had to set up the dry-pair infrastructure. Master control room at the 2004 Summer Olympics Ceremonies in Athens, Greece

Audio routing, recording and transmission along with intercom systems have gotten bigger, manageably complex as well as more flexible.

Director Bill McCoy in OB van using six of the 12 channels of the RTS brand intercom system, circa 1988

fidelity was secondary to the director and producer headsets, I quickly realized the importance of intercoms under some difficult circumstances. Back then, in the early days of live remote broadcasting, the telephone company was usually hired to provide

duction team and network expect the A1 to make the show sound good. Sounding good is often qualified subjectively by production, but significantly the A1 is often the bridge between production and engineering. Remember most directors, producers

After setup and a full Engineering FAX, I determined to turn my attention on getting good sound. I did not detect any problems for a couple of days because the cars were always running and the noise masked the problem. But on Sunday morning, when there were no cars running, you could hear the producer talking to the announcers in my mix speakers. Unfortunately, the producer channel was crosstalking into the commentator microphones’ circuit and going over the air. The next four hours of television was the most painful experience of my professional life. Needless to say I never worked for that network again. AUDIO AND INTERCOMS Audio routing, recording and transmis-

and prepare for a live transmission. For decades I have debated the issue of whether or not communications should be lumped into the world of audio. Intercoms are the backbone of any studio facility and OB van, and clear communications and intercoms are critical to your success and the success of the production. Accordingly, communications will be a major concern to the director, producer and the engineers working on the production, and it seems that everything with a microphone and a headset is the audio supervisor/A1’s responsibility. There is a good and logical reason for this: The A1/Audio Supervisor is unique because the role is equal parts engineering and production. The pro-

and broadcast production types are not technically savvy, but they can sure tell you who they need to talk to and who needs to listen to them. Fortunately, the engineer-in-charge can help with intercoms and can make adjustments and changes in real time without distracting the audio mixer during the production. Yes, for the A1/mixer, the engineering setup has gotten physically and technically easier to accomplish, sometimes as easy as pushing a button, but one aspect of live TV remains a challenge. The audio mixers seem to be listening to more and more noise and less sound. Many people in the audio community, including me, believe that it is hard enough to mix a live event, much less have to listen to a director, producer and all the other chaos. Yes, it is easier and faster to set up all the equipment, but I have been told that it is still just as difficult—if not more so—to mix a show because of ear fatigue from poor monitoring facilities and excessive intercom usage. WIRED, PAGE 27

www.tvtechnology.com TV TECHNOLOGY July 2020

INSIGHT CLOUDSPOTTER’S JOURNAL

The Basics of Infrastructure as Code I f you are a media creation entity, you want to leverage as many potential opportunities as possible to progress through the stages of content creation. One of those is the devel4 KARL opment of a repeatable PAULSEN set of requirements, focused on specific workflow needs, such that operating in a “routine” mode is more easily achieved. The ability to customize or replicate those functioning modes is advantageous when running multiple sets of processes simultaneously or independently. Cloud services or on-premise datacenters can provide effective conduits for such opportunities; however, having to reconfigure based upon systemic changes in the infrastructure can be time consuming, complex and require specialized resources especially for routine processes and simple updates. Provisioning and managing datacenters through machine-readable definition files is the premise of what is known as infrastructure as code (IaC). Rather than supporting direct physical hardware configurations or solutions built on interactive configuration tools, IaC uses computecentric, machine language-based “files” to manage those compute processes. In a cloud-based solution set, IaC deploys resources using templates, i.e., files that are both human-readable and machine-consumable and that instruct the systems to autonomously configure their functionality virtually automatically. Cloud service providers offer such IaC solution sets as a “built-in choice”—one

that a user may use or ignore. Fundamentally, once a code template is created, the cloud system then takes those code instructions and administers them to the cloud’s resources without any further direct user intervention. Any needs for the updating of called-out resources or for replacing any of the pro-

Repeatability, with security, is achieved when the same settings are utilized in each instance of the template. Verification that a given provisioning is stable and ready to run assures that if there is a failure, the infrastructure can be rolled back to a known state without a catastrophic collapse of the components. Operations

Fig. 1: This diagram defines how Infrastructure as Code interfaces between version control, automation, APIs or servers and on toward either a cloud infrastructure or an on-premises datacenter. Code sets can be either pushed or pulled dependent upon version, update or change.

cessor chains to achieve goals is handled as a background function and essentially become a “hands off” operation. Fig. 1 depicts the workflow basics from the user through the services, whether in the cloud or in an on-prem datacenter. BENEFITS TO IAC Benefits to the applications and uses of IaC include visibility, stability and scalability. Others include security, verification, repeatability and extensibility.

WIRED CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26

LISTENING FATIGUE I remember working with a director whom I swear got paid by the word—so much so that my friend and fellow A1, Pete Addams, coined the phrase “word economization,” which translates into not giving too much information for the situation and slowing down the delivery of the message. Remember the mixer is trying to listen to the mix and make dynamic adjustments while filtering through all these distractions. Every top tier audio mixer I talk to brings up ear and listening fatigue—fatigue not only from listening to audio that is too loud, but also listening to too much. Even for a seasoned mixer who practices good volume man-

can continue or be temporarily suspended depending upon the prescribed workflows. Visibility lets the user obtain a clear reference point to what resources are being used on the account. Should something inadvertently change—such as a wrong setting or an accidentally deleted resource—the stability mechanism utilized in an IaC deployment can help resolve that change using a combination of a current or a previous control man-

agement, it is easy to let the sound pressure level creep up as the director and producer get excited and louder. Next the announcers are talking louder and the mixer is adjusting speaker levels everywhere. Soon your head is spinning as you are straining to hear everything— hence “listening fatigue.” As the live television business goes back to work, I consider an industry that has always depended on headset communications between the operators, technicians and the producers. I recently thought about headphone etiquette after I heard a news story about how people speaking loudly facilitates the spread of the coronavirus. I have worked with people who thought that the louder they talked, the better I could hear and understand them. The old analog intercom systems had a compressor so that the louder someone yelled, the softer the yell became in volume resulting in not hearing the yeller as well. Loud, compressed,

agement version. Scalability is equally important. Building a library around reusable code sets lends to the templated model, which can be easily and readily distributed to multiple services globally. Should a particular region need to ramp up for an unexpected deliverable, the closest cloud port could rapidly spin up the services and the infrastructure, based on the templates likely in use at another geographically distanced site. Users would not necessarily need to transport data to an alternate site if the repository can be brought into service in another region. Fig. 2 diagrams where templates, scripts and policies are held in a common repository, which can be appropriately relegated to each global point-ofpresence, i.e., a cloud zone or datacenter. Each of the practices can then be pushed into (or pulled from a repository) to the associated locations and functions. EVERYTHING AS CODE A similar approach is the practice of treating all the components of the solution as code. By storing configurations along with source code, in a repository and as a virtual environment, code sets can be cycled or recreated whenever needed. Even system designs would be stored as code in this model. The everything as code (EaC) model mitigates the need for physical hardware and connections to be installed for each functional activity or task. This obviously would be impractical—and impossible— in a cloud-centric atmosphere. Thus, the previously required specialized physical skill sets and designer practices are transINFRASTRUCTURE, PAGE 28

distorted intercoms equals fatigue. Additional contributors to noise fatigue are poor speaker selection and placement along with little acoustical isolation and treatment in the OB van. I have often said, you can mix the best sounding show of your career, but if the producer’s headset is mucking up, what is the producer going to remember about your show? Intercoms have been the demise of more than one audio practitioner—including yours truly. Dennis Baxter has spent over 35 years in live broadcasting contributing to hundreds of live events including sound design for nine Olympic Games. He has earned multiple Emmy Awards and is the author of “A Practical Guide to Television Sound Engineering.” He can be reached at dbaxter@dennisbaxtersound.com.

28 July 2020 TV TECHNOLOGY www.tvtechnology.com

INSIGHT CLOUDSPOTTER’S JOURNAL INFRASTRUCTURE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

formed into a code-ready environment. Native cloud applications once relegated to physical modifications have changed the entire cost model, making it easy to spin up a “virtual” infrastructure foundation regardless of location. FAMILIAR STATEMENTS Like IaC, an EaC model has similar beneficial statements. Repeatability, including the ability to move from one cloud provider to another, allows for the precise recreation of the environment that can further leverage new feature sets (such as faster performance or less cost per cycle). Tested infrastructure code can be developed, validated at scale (through compute modeling), and then directly promoted into production with the expectations, confidence and assurance it will function quickly and as designed. The fear, uncertainty and doubt factor (FUD) with respect to server configuration drift is all but eliminated. These new models can literally self-heal themselves to almost any level—including a complete redeployment should a server die or need patching for continued operability. Since the entire infrastructure is developed in code, a mirror image of the system with no crossover dependencies can be spun up the moment an anomaly is detected. Operations just keep running. INFRASTRUCTURE TOOLS For cloud solutions to be practical, they need to be dynamic. Infrastructure resources fall into that category. It is akin

to having infinite patching and shuffling capabilities without having a human actively manipulating the functionality. Each cloud provider is likely to have their own “flavor” of either IaC or EaC depending upon their feature sets.

(GUI) products to manage both cloud and virtual infrastructures and sell those products to consumers. The drawback, however, was these were essentially “constrained” (specific) services that required substantial investment in initial specifi-

Fig. 2: The code repository contains the templates, scripts and policies, which can be appropriately managed (version control management). Items are then distributed to global points-of-presence (cloud or datacenter) when updates or changes are required.

Such tool sets allow cloud customers to specify their needed infrastructure resources without having to actually understand (logically or physically) how they are interfaced to one or another. The tools further let the users allocate which resources are needed, the parameter limits (how much for how long), and how those resources should be configured to perform selected tasks and activities. In platform as a service (PaaS) architectures, users could use a particular platform’s user interface to assign or create resource sets and then manage those resources throughout its operations. In similar fashion, third-party solutions providers would make graphical user interface

cations, design and testing before they could be rolled out into service. While arguably the PaaS practice is practical once configured—and could be likely transported to various other cloud providers—the model was not as flexible. Apps required maintenance and upkeep when a systemic change in the cloud’s internal models were updated. Sometimes the changes impacted the PaaS applications and sometimes the PaaS would “self-adapt.” It was all about the type, use and applications, which were deployed at that time for that particular service. CODE EXPERTISE EVOLVES With open access to the virtual “mov-

ing parts” of the cloud, IaaS and PaaS models are changing. Where once codebased development was limited to a set of code-level experts, the new era is evolving to integrate machine learning and human-readable practices to become more prevalent and more productive. Early adopters of cloud services recognized the needs for dynamic infrastructure platforms and are now changing their internal applications to implement their own self-provisioning and configuration capabilities. For those systems housed in private (non-public-cloud) datacenters, once the user/operators learn about processes, patterns, practices and accessibility, they can eventually orchestrate their

Provisioning and managing datacenters through machinereadable definition files is the premise of what is known as “infrastructure as code” (IaC). own server structures, build their own server templates and promote the ability to update running servers without disrupting operations. Karl Paulsen is the chief technology officer at Diversified, a SMPTE Fellow, and a regular contributor to TV Technology. You may reach Karl at kpaulsen@diversifiedus.com.

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