TV Tech - 0464 - August 2021

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contents

August 2021 volumn 39, issue 8

14 18 28 10

How Broadcasters Thrive In an OTT World

18

Lighting for Performer Flexibility

Streaming dominates television but can local stations adapt quickly enough?

By James Careless

Freedom of movement and proper exposure go hand in hand

By Julia Swain

14

Keeping an Eye on Things

20

Multiviewers evolve with adoption of IP, demands for more remote work

By Kevin Hilton

Audio Monitoring: Adapting Quickly to Changing Tech

Vendors respond to advances in immersive, cloud

By Steve Harvey

16

‘Gauging’ Viewer Data for OTT

Nielsen offers clearer picture of how viewing habits are changing with new metric

By Frank Beacham

22

High-Availability Storage System Considerations

How to make your system flexible enough to deal with fast-changing conditions

By Karl Paulsen

4

editor's note

6

in the news

24

eye on tech

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editor's note

It’s an OTT World, Even for Local Broadcasters Having covered this industry for more than two decades, I well remember the hype of the dotcom era at the turn of the century including the crazy prediction that every website could potentially be a TV channel (despite the fact that most consumers were still on dialup). Online video was in its infancy and it wasn’t until broadband became more commonplace that the reality of streaming began to catch up.

The launch of YouTube in 2005 prompted jokes about cat videos but Google saw much more than that and scooped it up fairly quickly—they saw its potential before many of us did. The combination of improved compression and the availability of wider bandwidths both in business and in the home helped spur advances that finally brought Netflix as a streaming service to be taken seriously around 2010.

It was around that time that a new term was becoming better known: “over the top,” the concept of streaming media via broadband connections, the “top” being the traditional cable service that had a new competitor to deal with.

It took less than 10 years for OTT to become a dominant force in delivering TV to an ever widening array of devices, from the traditional TV set in the home to tablets, smartphones and PCs; and thereby redefining television. Although currently the majority of consumers still view TV via traditional cable and satellite, those days are numbered, especially as the pandemic of the past 18 months spurred increased interest in on-demand binge watching.

Where does this leave local broadcasters then? While cord cutting has resulted in a resurgence of viewing free over-the-air via antennas, that trend will only go so far. The future of television is OTT and has been for awhile now. Services such as VUit and Sinclair’s STIRR are helping local stations integrate into the OTT paradigm and there’s some optimism that advertising dollars will follow, according to Rick Ducey, director of BIA Advisory Services in this month’s cover story.

“OTT ads targeting local viewers will be worth $1.3 billion in 2021,” said Ducey, “We see this amount almost doubling by 2025 to about a little over $2.4 billion. This offers a significant opportunity for TV station groups to monetize this demand.”

And then of course there’s NextGen TV, which is now available in nearly three dozen markets and rapidly expanding. Improved RF coverage is an important element of ATSC 3.0 but even moreso, the ability to combine broadcast with IP is really the “secret sauce” that will hopefully optimize local broadcasters’ ability to compete in the OTT space.

But content is still king and local broadcasters will continue to thrive—regardless of the platform—if they stay true to their central mission: to provide a reliable and trustworthy source of news and information to their local communities. Nothing is stopping anyone outside the local broadcast environment from attempting to compete on that front, but it's local broadcasters’ long history of providing unbiased news coverage, as well as community outreach and partnerships that will secure that legacy.

Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com

WELCOME BACK This month we welcome back an old friend of TV Tech, Frank Beacham.

Long-time readers will remember Frank’s long history with TV Tech and he never minced words when it came to expressing his opinions (and he still doesn't). We all remember Frank’s comprehensive coverage of the events of 9/11 and how the New York broadcasting community recovered from that tragedy. A lot has happened since Frank last wrote for us so we’re looking forward to his unique take on the rapidly changing landscape that is television today.

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Vol. 39 No. 8 | August 2021 FOLLOW US

www.tvtech.com 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 Senior Content Producer George Winslow, george.winslow@futurenet.com Contributors: Gary Arlen, Susan Ashworth, James Careless, Steve Harvey, Kevin Hilton, Bob Kovacs, Adrian Pennington and Mark R. Smith Production Manager Heather Tatrow Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban Senior Design Directors Lisa McIntosh and Will Shum 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.

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in the news

update Here are some of the most recent developments regarding the transition to ATSC 3.0:

Deployments • Baltimore: WMAR-TV (Scripps), WBALTV (Hearst), WBFF (Sinclair), WNUV (Cunningham Broadcasting), and WMPT and WMPB (Maryland Public Television).

• Charlotte, N.C.: WAXN-TV and WSOCTV (Cox Media Group), WJZY-TV (Nexstar), WBTV-TV (Gray) and WCNC-TV (Tegna).

• Little Rock, Ark.: KATV (Sinclair), KTHV (Tegna), KARK-TV and KARZ-TV (Nexstar) and KLRT-TV (Mission Broadcasting).

• Orlando, Fla.: WRBW-TV and WOFL-TV (FOX Television), WFTV-TV and WRDQTV (Cox Media), WKMG (Graham Media), WESH-TV and WKCF-TV (Hearst) and WUCF-TV (University of Central Florida).

• Phoenix: Deployments have expanded to 11 stations: KASW and KNXV (Scripps); KSAZ and KUTP (FOX Stations); KPHO and KTVK (Meredith), KTAZ (NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo station is finalizing its service availability by the end of the summer), Arizona PBS’ KAET (Arizona PBS), KPNX (Tegna), KFPH-CD and KTVW (Univision).

• Sacramento, Calif.: KOVR (CBS O&O), KCRA-TV and KQCA (Hearst), KTXL (Nexstar), KXTV (Tegna) and KUVS (Univision).

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CTA: NextGen TV Set Shipments Expected to Exceed 2M in 2021 The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) predicts rapid growth of the retail sales of NextGen TV-capable sets in the U.S. his year, estimating that shipments will increase nearly sixfold to 2.1 million units and retail revenue from NexGen sets will hit $3.9 billion, a 425% spike.

The predictions are part of the CTA’s projections for tech-related U.S. retail sales, which it believes will hit a recordbreaking $487 billion in 2021, a 7.5% pop from 2020 thanks to “unprecedented” consumer demand.

Demo Highlights Educational Potential of NextGen TV As concerns grow over the educational problems due to the lack of internet access among many students, the Nationial Associaton of Broadcasters recently teamed up with Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science and Fincons Group to demonstrate a prototype showing how ATSC 3.0 signals could be used for remote learning, providing students with educational materials via their TV screens without relying on broadband access. The ATSC 3.0 broadcast was received in the home by a separate receiver from Sony that connected to an NVIDIA Shield, allowing the data to be stored locally so students can have access to it.

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Carlyle To Acquire LiveU HACKENSACK, N.J.—LiveU has been acquired by the global investment firm Carlyle from Francisco Partners, which took a majority stake in LiveU in 2019. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2006, LiveU is a pioneer of bonded cellular technology-based live video technologies that are widely used by major live broadcast news networks and sports content owners around the world. It currently has more than 3,000 customers in 130+ countries, the companies reported. While owned by Francisco Partners it crossed the $100 million mark in annual sales.

“We’re excited to partner with Carlyle as we look to expand LiveU’s global footprint and service offering,” said Samuel Wasserman, CEO and co-founder of LiveU in a statement. “This is a significant milestone for LiveU and represents a strong vote of confidence in our business.” z George Winslow

Congressional Committee Leadership Awarded Inaugural Dingell Award WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Leadership Foundation presented the inaugural John D. Dingell, Jr. Award for Excellence to Sens. Jon Tester

(D-MT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Reps.

Mark Takano (D-CA-41) and Phil Roe (R-TN1, retired) during the 2021 Celebration of Service to America Awards. The televised event premiered July 10, 2021, on broadcast stations nationwide.

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in the news OPINION The John D. Dingell, Jr. Award for Excellence recognizes members of Congress who epitomize the late congressman’s dedication to public service and his bi-partisan work to pass legislation.

Sens. Tester and Moran and Reps. Takano and Roe were honored for their work to pass legislation to provide mental health resources for veterans—the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act and the Veterans Comprehensive Prevention, Access to Care and Treatment (COMPACT) Act. z TVT Staff

Wheatstone Doubles Down on Manufacturing NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone is making a million-dollar investment in large component buys and new factory equipment that will help double production in its New Bern factory where all Wheatstone and Audioarts products are made.

“Manufacturing in-house lets us respond more quickly to changes and gives us much

better control over a volatile supply chain,” commented Matt Wilson, Wheatstone’s production manager. “By maintaining high inventories on components and investing in additional machinery, we are more than able to meet our customer requirements well into and past 2022.”

The new additions to its 52,000 squarefoot factory floor include a second multi-axis CNC mill and a larger-format brake press to keep up with the production demand for precision metal work. An additional surface mount machine also will be added to increase the production quantity and quality of the circuit boards used in Wheatstone consoles, Blades and audio processors. z George Winslow

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‘Depressing’ ‘Concerning’ Compensation

O

to SFNs, to name a few—will be ne reader sounds off chief engineers. on the results of an Of course, some will say IT proengineering salary fessionals are the answer. Maybe, survey and reveals but if you talk to broadcasters, it trouble ahead. won’t take long until they bring up It took about a day to get an the cultural differences between insightful response from one the two and how those differences former TV chief engineer to my play out in keeping a station on story in mid-July on the just-reair 24/7. leased salary survey of broadcast Even if the differences can be engineers from SBE (story below).

Phil Kurz smoothed over, there’s a bigger The headline of my story was: problem with relying on IT professionals.

“Average TV Chief Engineer Salary ApproachNamely, broadcasters will be competing with es $80,000.” Reading it, however, revealed huge industries for IT talent to keep things the true annual average was $77,122 and the humming. median was $70,000.

Presumably, to compete, broadcast“[T]his revelation is both depressing and ers must compete in terms of salary and concerning. Being a former chief engineer, benefits. According to the Bureau of Labor and speaking for myself, I eventually came Statistics the median salary of those working to the conclusion that it was not a sustainin computer-related professions was $82,860 able profession for several reasons,” the per year. That, by the way, was the average email said. five years ago.

Among them, being a chief is “not conduI tend to agree with the observations of the cive to a consistent family life,” ‘[t]he hours former chief engineer who responded to the are generally unpredictable” and most chief salary survey story. engineers are “the first responders when it “I have believed for a long time that the comes to transmission/off-air issues,” he industry will come to a reckoning in regard to wrote. finding and keeping the right people for these Some in station or group management roles,” he wrote. “…[T]here are twice as many might be tempted to take a dim view of this engineers retiring as there are entering the reader’s analysis, but that seems shortsighted. profession.”

The TV industry is undergoing a period of “…[W]ith new life being breathed into what accelerated and profound change in its core seemed to be ‘legacy’ technologies, such as RF, technologies, and the people who will help SFNs, etc., it will make this issue even more shepherd it through these transitions—baseapparent in the not-so-distant future.” l band to IP, ATSC 1.0 to 3.0 and the Big Stick

Average TV Chief Engineer Salary Approaches $80,000 INDIANAPOLIS—Findings from a new salary survey of broadcast engineers and technologists revealed that the average annual salary of TV chief and staff engineers across all U.S. markets is $77,000.

The finding is part of the Society of Broadcast Engineers’ (SBE’s) sixth annual compensation survey, which was conducted April 1–June 15. The survey further reveals the median annual salary among the same group stood at $70,000.

“The SBE Compensation Survey garners interest from SBE members and non-members,” said SBE President Wayne Pecena. “We provide this information as a service not only to our members, but the industry. We appreciate the support of those who participated in providing data.” z Phil Kurz

streaming tv

Capturing OTT eyeballs is why the Sinclair Broadcast Group has launched FAST OTT platforms STIRR (120-plus channels of local news, sports, entertainment and movies) and NewsON along with building ATSC 3.0 test transmission sites.

How Broadcasters Thrive In an OTT World Streaming dominates television but can local stations adapt quickly enough?

By James Careless

OTTAWA—Rather than being an industry killer, OTT (over the top) streaming media is boosting viewership for broadcast television, with the biggest benefits being enjoyed by local TV stations and their ownership groups.

The reason? Free advertiser-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms such as VUit are attracting more viewers to local stations both within their Designated Market Areas (DMA) and outside of them.

“We have plenty of examples of TV stations that are getting 30–40% of their total viewership from outside their DMAs,” said Kevin Dunaway, VUit’s vice president of affiliate relations and content development at VUit, an OTT platform for local TV broadcast stations.

Capturing OTT eyeballs is why the Sinclair

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Broadcast Group has launched FAST OTT platforms STIRR (120-plus channels of local news, sports, entertainment and movies) and NewsON (access to local Sinclair U.S. news/ sports casts worldwide), along with building ATSC 3.0 test transmission sites.

“Our core mission as a company is embodied in the phrase, ‘Connecting people to content everywhere,’” said Scott Ehrlich, Sinclair’s senior vice president of growth networks and content. “These days, everywhere includes digital devices and—increasingly— connected TVs.”

COMPETING WITH THE GIANTS The reason TV broadcasters are thriving on OTT is because their stations offer something that Amazon and Netflix don’t, namely online access to local news and sports.

“Live local news is something that TV

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Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA Advisory Services

streaming tv broadcasters really do well,” said Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA Advisory Services.

“Meanwhile, there is a real appetite for local sports among viewers, even if they’re not in the market where this coverage is being broadcast. Collectively, superior coverage of local news and sports is what people associate with broadcast TV, and why they are now seeking this local content on the web.”

The broadcast television industry’s migration to ATSC 3.0 will improve its position in the competitive OTT market as well, according to Richard Friedel, executive vice president of engineering at Fox Television Stations and a member of the ATSC board of directors.

“ATSC 3.0 is the portal to the merger of OTT and OTA, and it’s just going to provide a better consumer experience,” he said.

LEVERAGING THE POWER OF LOCAL Available at iOS and Android app stores and most major streaming platforms, the VUit OTT platform works on a simple business case: Local stations provide VUit with feeds, which the company distributes to

“ATSC 3.0 is the portal to the merger of OTT and OTA, and it’s just going to provide a better consumer experience.”

RICHARD FRIEDEL FOX TELEVISION STATIONS

Being carried on VUit has allowed Heritage Broadcasting’s CBS/FOX affiliate in Cadillac, Mich., to substantially boost viewership to the station’s newscast, attracting both local viewers who have trouble receiving broadcast signals and outsiders who want to see what’s happening in northern Michigan.

the web for free. The money made from web ads inserted within those feeds are then split between VUit and its member stations.

“Most VUit stations have a local geo-fenced channel and a national channel,” explained Dunaway. “The local channel is where they can stream local news and sports, plus any programming that they have local rights to. The national channel is usually focussed on local news, sports and any other content that these stations produce and own themselves.”

This “power of local” on the web is nicely illustrated by Heritage Broadcasting in Cadil-

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streaming tv lac, Michigan, a CBS/FOX station that is home to 9&10 News. Being carried on VUit has substantially boosted viewership to the station’s newscast, according to 9&10 News Director Daniel Firnbach, attracting both local viewers who have trouble receiving broadcast signals and outsiders who want to see what’s hap-

vertisers’ desires to reach viewers of this content—and their willingness to pay for the privilege.

Based on BIA’s own projections, “OTT ads targeting local viewers will be worth $1.3 billion in 2021,” said Ducey, “We see this amount almost doubling by 2025 to about a little over $2.4 billion. This offers a significant opportunity for TV station groups to monetize this demand.”

This increase in local OTT ad buys is part of a fundamental repositioning in overall media purchases, Zellmer said. “At every level—local,

regional, national—TV ad budgets are being reallocated, readjusted and reevaluated,” he told TV Technology. “This is because OTT offers addressable, targetable audiences that broadcasters have never had access to before.

This new component is really attractive to advertisers.”

To respond to this OTT opportunity, many station groups have set up in-house sales divisions such as Sinclair’s Compulse OTT and the FOX Television Stations’ FLX. Premion performs the same function for majority owner Tegna and minority owner Gray

Life in the FAST Lane: A Look at Fast

by Variety Intelligence Platform

Richard Friedel, executive vice president of engineering at FOX Television Stations and a member of the ATSC board of directors

pening in northern Michigan. VUit’s boost is so significant that this channel now sends news crews to cover OTT-only events during off-hours, so that it can air more ads on VUit. “Being on VUit really helps us with local ad sales,” said Firnbach. “It also makes it easier to attract sponsors for promotional events, since they get exposure both locally and globally on this platform.”

Sinclair has also taken direct control of FAST OTT content distribution through STIRR and NewsON. “The tagline we’ve been using is, ‘Streaming TV from your local TV station for free,’” said Adam Ware, Sinclair’s vice president and general manager of national networks and platforms.

FOX Television Stations has also taken control through its own FAST OTT channels.

“One of them is LiveNOW from FOX, which offers ongoing streaming of breaking live news across the country,” said Jeff Zellmer, senior vice president of Digital Operations for FOX Television Stations. “The other is FOX SOUL, which is a channel dedicated to Black viewers.

Our local FOX stations are also streaming on their own web and app platforms.”

ADJUSTING AD STRATEGIES TO CAPITALIZE ON OTT

For those wondering where free advertiser-supported streaming TV (FAST) fits in the “Brave New World” of OTT, the Variety Intelligence Platform (VIP+) report “Life in the FAST lane” offers some useful insights into this medium. It was written by Gavin Bridge, senior media analyst at VIP+.

As of a year ago when the article was published, the FAST online roster includes LG Channels (LG), Peacock (NBCUniversal) Pluto TV (Viacom/CBS),

Redbox Free Live TV, Samsung TV Plus, STIRR (Sinclair), The Roku Channel, TiVO (TiVo), Vizio and Xumo (Comcast), among others. They are mainly watched on connected TVs or TVs with web-connected devices like Roku.

“FAST has come to mean the free linear streaming channels that you can find on the web,” said Bridge. “It’s literally like watching over-the air broadcast television in that you pick a channel and whatever’s on that channel at that time is what you watch, including ads.” What makes FAST different from over-the air is that FAST providers can theme the channels using genres based on older content or specific shows like “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Based on Variety Intelligence’s data,

The availability of local broadcast TV content on OTT meshes nicely with ad-

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FAST channel viewership is growing. For instance, Pluto TV added 10.4 million viewers in 2019 (up from a total of 12 million in 2018) and an additional 1.8 million more in the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, Xumo added 4.5 million monthly viewers from April 2019 to February 2020, bringing its total to 10 million.

Looking at the most popular FAST services (in early 2020), Bridge came to the following conclusions. Going from the top down, “Curation remains a differentiator for Pluto,” he noted in his VIP+ report. “Pluto currently curates 80% of the channels on the service... this has been one of the reasons for Pluto’s success.” Meanwhile, “Xumo’s growth may in part be due to a strategy of adding more connected TVs and devices as distributors.”

“Roku’s overall strategy is to sell as many devices and to power as many smart TVs as possible in order to have the largest available audience to monetize,” Bridge noted. “STIRR is a compelling option for catching up on local news and weather, and enabling Sinclair to still sell local ads.” As for Samsung’s TV Plus? “The main purpose of TV Plus is to create an ongoing revenue stream from TV sets [aside from sharing viewing information] for Samsung, so it’s unlikely that other TV manufacturers would offer it on their systems.”

An updated report is anticipated this fall. z James Careless

streaming tv

BIA projects OTT ads targeting local viewers will be worth $1.3 billion in 2021 and almost doubling by 2025 to about a little over $2.4 billion.

Television, according to Premion President Tom Cox. “One of the real benefits of working with OTT in conjunction with linear TV is OTT can bridge the gaps caused by cord-cutting and other broadcast TV audience losses,” he said.

“OTT allows advertisers to address consumers who can’t be reached by traditional OTA signals.”

SHOPPING FOR HORSES The flexibility inherent in OTT allows broadcasters to offer advertisers opportunities that weren’t possible prior to streaming video. A case in point: “Our Texas Sinclair stations in San Antonio and Abilene have a local advertiser in the live horse auction business,” said Ware. “So our stations worked with the client to develop a 24/7 television channel

[STIRR Channel 251] called the ‘Horse Shopping Channel.’”

In the same vein, broadcasters can spin up niche FAST channels whenever viewer demand exists for them, then shut these channels down when it drops. This is what Sinclair has done. It has spun up limited-run OTT channels covering 2020’s urban unrest, the 2020 national elections and COVID-19.

The common theme expressed by everyone interviewed for this article is that OTT is good for the broadcast television business. “There was the initial fear among many broadcasters that OTT would cannibalize TV audiences,” Ehrlich said. “But this hasn’t proven to be the case: OTT serves a different audience at a different time and in a different way than broadcasting does.”

The advertising and audience expansions made possible by OTT underline why broadcasters of all sizes need to add this platform to their distribution channels now. “If they haven’t, they’d better real quick,” said 9&10’s Firnbach. “Smart broadcasters understand that the content is their currency—and that they need to expand where it’s being offered any way they can.” l

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content monitoring

Evertz multiviewer systems installed at the master control and playout areas at the WarnerMedia–Turner Broadcasting Techwood

Keeping an Eye on Things Multiviewers evolve with adoption of IP, demands for more remote work CUSTOMIZING THE WORKFLOW

By Kevin Hilton

LONDON—The screen has been and always will be both the symbol of television and the means of watching it, however on both the viewing and production sides, displaying TV pictures has changed considerably in the last 20 years, when CRTs reigned supreme. While the consumer market has diversified into smaller screens on mobile devices, broadcast operations have evolved rapidly thanks to the multiviewer.

This technology has made a discernable difference to studio galleries, OB trucks and playout centers, not only in terms of layout—with only a few screens replacing banks of older style monitors—but also in how operations are carried out. More sources can be displayed in a gallery or OB vehicle and more outputs can be monitored in master control rooms (MCRs) by only a few operators.

As John Mailhot, chief technology officer for networking products at Imagine Communication notes, multiviewers are now “the design standard” for facilities, with the previously ubiquitous walls of discreet monitors nowhere to be seen.

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“Equipping a facility is now more cost-effective with multiviewers,” Mailhot says. “But requirements are different in different parts of the workflow. You’ve got replay, playback and then camera shading, which might have multiviewers to keep an eye on everything and then one or two ‘real’ monitors for fine-tuning. The need is to make sure that each professional involved in the production can see what they need to see, because the more sources there are, the more the need to get in front of them.”

In the past, monitors displayed pictures while other functions were carried out around them. But as Martin Jolicoeur, strategic product manager for Grass Valley, notes, “It is becoming harder to talk about the multiviewer by itself.”

This, he explains, is nothing new and started to happen when multiviewers first appeared.

“Both at the user level and the product level, the expectation is for more than just seeing images,” he said. “[Multiviewers] are working in conjunction with tallies and [other] tools. In the past multiviewers worked with switchers or routers and this is something that is not changing as we make the move to cloud and software-based technologies.”

As part of this, GV has a multiviewer component in its AMPP (Agile Media Processing Plat-

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form), a SaaS (Software as a Service) system that provides cloud connectivity for a range of broadcast applications. Jolicoeur says this was accelerated by the need for desktop-based multiviewing, which grew substantially during the Covid-19 pandemic. This allows remote access to the multiviewing system in MCRs, where GV’s Kaleido-IP is used for on-premises operations (as well as in studio galleries and OB trucks).

Suzana Brady, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Cobalt Digital, comments that remote control is a must for off-premises operation of multiviewer systems.

“It’s also crucial to have the ability to bring back the multiviewer output to a remote operator,” she says, “so a multiviewer at the station or studio is combined with a streaming encoder to provide a low-latency feed over the internet that can be accepted by a computer, phone or tablet. We are additionally seeing a trend towards software-based multiviewers for streaming but they are typically not as feature-rich as hardware units.”

THE UBIQUITY OF IP IP is increasingly the norm for both on-prem and remote working, covering all forms of

content monitoring that need to be monitored in resources and practically today’s multichannel world, unlimited scaling.” it is no longer practical Today’s leading mulfor MCR operators to tiviewers are designed view each channel on to monitor SMPTE ST individual screens.

2022-6 and ST 2110 Monitoring by exception video streams, which is becoming the norm, have standardized sigwith penalty boxes on nals and distribution for multiviewers only activatbroadcasting. They are ed when a fault is detected. also, as Ketan Patel, prodThis is a much more efficient uct manager of multiviewer way of monitoring and also uses solutions at Evertz, observes, the operators’ time and experalso going beyond their origiSuzana Brady, senior vice tise more effectively.” nal display role. president of worldwide sales and Broadcasting has broadened “Multiviewers remain a marketing at Cobalt Digital in scope over the last decade, tool for visualized video, with streaming running in audio and ancillary parallel with linear transmission. This has data analysis,” he says, “but as called for new techniques and technologies, broadcast continues to evolve, something illustrated by the development of the need for more advanced the multiviewer. That evolution looks set to and specialized monitorcontinue as broadcasters and OTT platforms ing features continues look for new forms of content and revenue, to grow. Some of these including esports production. new requirements equipment but increas“The rapid development of complex, multiinclude monitoring for ingly multiviewers. An layered production environments is challengregionalized freeze and illustration of this is the ing vendors to adapt and respond with agile, black detection, lip-sync recent installation at Red scalable and cost-efficient technologies that monitoring, loudness Bee Media’s U.K. facilities fit the needs of this type of production,” says monitoring and more.” in London and Salford. The Kevin Joyce, Zer0 Friction Officer at TAG Video Multiviewers are now esprevious SDI-based moniSystems. “On the multiviewer and monitortablished in MCRs at broadcast toring infrastructure has been ing side, most gaming productions require centers and playout facilities, replaced by an IP multiviewer Stephan Türkay, senior the ability to work in the cloud, customizable which handle multiple channetwork based on the Rohde & product manager for media interfaces for dispersed workforces and, of nels of both linear TV and OTT Schwarz Prismon system. infrastructure, Lawo course, the ability to monitor signals from services. The trend is for fewer This was possible, says Anproduction to delivery and ensure operators at the MCRs, with complidreas Loges, vice president of media techthe highest level of quality for ance monitoring software used nologies at R&S, because of the technology’s maximum engagement.” to display images only when a “software-defined approach,” which allows Issues like this are among problem is detected. Known for a hybrid platform supporting SDI and IP a growing number of as "monitoring by excepsignals in both SMPTE ST 2022-6 and ST 2110. technological challenges tion," this technique is Lawo, a leading proponent of IP now the now not-so-humble used increasingly on the produces a multiviewer alongside its audio multiviewer faces in the distribution side, with console and video processing/networking near future. As Mailhot multiviewers working products. Stephan Türkay, senior product at Imagine concludes, in conjunction with manager for media infrastructure, comments there is a “plethora” of specialist software. that the pandemic has pushed the adoption of video formats to deal with Compliance system IP even further, with the format now defining and that only continues to developer Mediaproxy protrends in multiviewers. grow. duces its own multiviewer, the “IP technology delivers on flexibility, “We are seeing the beginnings Monwall. CEO Erik Otto explains scalability and being totally agnostic, [making of HDR, which will blossom in that the Monwall was developed it] inherently compatible with any requested John Mailhot, CTO, Imagine the next five years,” he says. on the basis of the emerging trend broadcast format and connecting endpoints Communications “Related to that is the scaling up for software-based interactive no matter how far they are apart physicalof UHD, which will pose a design displays, with the aim of allowing ly,” he says. “Native IP multiviewers have challenge for multiviewers because it’s four live streams of both broadcast and OTT sources practically become state-of-the-art technoltimes as much data and we can’t take the HD to be displayed and monitored. ogy, with software-defined processing and approach and just make [the displays] bigger.”

“It works in conjunction with our LogServer distributed architectures. They fully embrace With all this happening, multiviewers are monitoring platform to display any faults,” he the benefits of IP technology and allow for a certainly something to watch. l says. “Because of the large number of outputs leap in dynamic management of processing twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

15

media tech

'Gauging' Viewer Data for OTT Nielsen offers clearer picture of how American viewing habits are changing with new metric

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had saved on DVR. t was at the 1995 NAB Show “The past year has categoricalthat I interviewed Rob Glaser ly shifted the television viewabout a new technology that ing landscape. Even as people his company, RealNetworks, begin to dive back into their was introducing to broadcasters pre-pandemic activities, based at the show. It was called RealAuon the changes many made to dio, the first “streaming” of audio enable streaming coupled with media over the internet. the variety of newly introduced The idea of delivering audio services, we expect people to programming over the internet keep sampling and exploring was so new to me at the time EXPERTISE their options," said Brian Fuhrer, that it took a lot to wrap my head Frank Beacham senior vice president of product around this totally new concept. strategy at Nielsen. "Maybe just Interestingly, that interview I did as importantly, as production ramps back back then with Glaser for this publication up, new content will enter the space, driving was his first, and in later years, he called on additional traction.” me first at press conferences because he felt I The streaming share is increasing rapidly. brought him good luck due that interview in It was at about 20% in 2020, Nielsen said. the beginning days of his company.

In 2019, it was about 14%. It could go up to Within two years, Glaser announced about 33% by the end of this year, Nielsen RealVideo, the video version of streaming predicts. media. Though it hiccupped and sputtered Netflix and YouTube are the streaming at first, video over the internet clearly had a leaders, the research firm said, with each capfuture. turing six percent of total TV time. They are trailed by Hulu (three percent), Amazon (two NIELSEN PLAYING CATCHUP Fast forward to the present—26 years later.

Streaming media, with all the kinks worked out, has gotten so popular and works so well that it threatens both broadcast and cable television. How do we know that? Nielsen, the TV measurement company, finally—after years of trying—is now able to measure streaming viewership.

Nielsen recently announced that it now has a new metric that it says allows it to make percentage comparisons of how many people are streaming programs on their home TVs vs. how many are watching traditional cable and broadcast channels. Viewers are still spending more cumulative time watching TV the old-fashioned way—but streaming is gaining percent) and Disney+ (one percent). fast... very fast.

Nielsen calls its new measuring metric This spring, Nielsen reported that 25% of “The Gauge.” It comes in addition to its the time American viewers used their televiprevious method, which relied on audio-recsion sets to watch broadcast programming, ognition software included in Nielsen devices while 39% watched cable TV. However, 26% that are now in 38,000 households across the watched streaming services. This number country. Again, both metrics measure only comes with an important caveat: it does not what is viewed on home television screens include tablets or smartphones, which are and does not count what is watched on very popular with the younger demographic. phones, tablets or laptops. This means the Another nine percent of the time, viewers percentage statistics are low. used their TV screens for things like video For The Gauge’s streaming stats, Nielsen games or watching programs or films they

Streaming media, with all the kinks worked out, has gotten so popular and works so well that it threatens both broadcast and cable television.

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measured about 14,000 households through hardware that watches internet traffic as it passes through a router. Until now, Netflix was not impressed with Nielsen’s measurements. With The Gauge, however, that opinion has changed. “They’re thoughtful people;

Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks

they’ve been doing this for a long time—I assume it’s pretty good,” Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-CEO told The New York Times. “They have incentive to be accurate.”

Netflix’s approval comes as a boon for Nielsen. For months, the research firm has been under attack by executives at traditional media companies who have accused it of undercounting television ratings during the pandemic, when most viewers were stuck-athome.

'ANTIQUATED METHODS' This spring, David Zaslav, president and chief executive officer at Discovery, who is in line to lead a media giant if its merger with WarnerMedia is cleared by regulators, called Nielsen’s reporting methods “antiquated.”

Nielsen acknowledged some undercounting because of difficulties related to the maintenance of devices in some Nielsen homes during the pandemic.

TV networks and distributors represented by the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) are calling on the Media Rating Council to suspend accreditation of Nielsen’s national rating service, since the undercounting of

media tech

homes during the pandemic.

David Kenny, Nielsen CEO, said The Gauge is an attempt to give a clearer picture of how American viewing habits have changed, one that better accounts for how people flip back and forth between broadcast, cable and streaming services.

“To the consumer, she’s got her remote control, and she’s moving from live sports over to news down to streaming, and back around,” Kenny told the Times. “We need to bring the whole industry together to a comparable way of looking at this.”

Over the years—as Netflix and others took hold—Rob Glaser and his RealNetworks lost exclusive control of the streaming media revolution. His original business model was based on selling the server software. Early competitors, including Apple and Microsoft, started giving that software away, causing Real’s server sales to falter.

However, don’t feel bad for Glaser, whose company is still thriving today. RealNetworks, based in Seattle, is now a provider of artificial intelligence and computer vision-based products. The company also provides subscrip-

tion-based online entertainment services and mobile entertainment and messaging services.

It is safe to say now that Rob Glaser has established a pioneering position in streaming media and his name will go into the history books of television broadcasting. It has been a remarkable run that took only about a quarter of a century for his technology to change the way we watch television. l Frank Beacham is an independent writer based in New York. City.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

17

lighting technology

Lighting for Performer Flexibility Freedom of movement and proper exposure go hand in hand

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moved about the sets during each ome projects call for a lot scene. All of this allowed for a of flexibility in a space so natural environment without that subjects can move having to stop so much and deabout how they wish. A sign more specific frames where large area will need to be lit and actors are a bit more boxed-in controlled without the danger of within shorter moments. seeing units. Subjects will need the freedom to move about the space while always being exposed BALANCING AMBIENCE properly.

On a recent project I worked on, A famous and brilliant example two musicians gave a real-time live EXPERTISE is the Amazon Original film performance that had to be capJulia Swain “Honey Boy,” where Natasha Braitured with three cameras in a large er, ASC, had to light with bulbs studio space. The performance and units that were all on DMX and could be was shot against windows that faced east and, dimmed and controlled remotely as actors having only a short period of time with the

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artists, the time of day that was best for the shoot was important to know. Balancing the ambience coming through those windows with the intensity of the units inside was crucial as once the artists were in front of the cameras, there would be no time to make adjustments.

At one point in the song, one of the perfomers moves from a standing microphone to an organ. Though general placement and marks were indicated for each of them, it was a live performance and so called for giving them the ability to move around freely. With that in mind and then analyzing the space, units were placed in various areas to allow for this and the most powerful lights that could fit in the room were chosen.

lighting technology

Artist at the organ now in a different light

Artists against windows but keyed with tungsten light

For starters, a Hudson Spider was placed as a soft toplight to provide ambience and key them from overhead in their main performance position. A LiteGear LiteMat 4 was rigged high and frontal to supplement the key and provide more of an eye-light. Hudson Spider practical lamps provided by the location were also placed as highlights in the frame and were effective in providing ambience among the background elements.

KEY ON TALENT PROFILE A LiteMat 2L was placed above and behind the organ for the second half of the performance, so when the artist moved over, the Spider became a key on his profile and the

Balancing the ambience coming through those windows with the intensity of the units inside was crucial as once the artists were in front of cameras, there would be no time to make adjustments.

2L was now his backlight. Astera NYX bulbs were placed in the sconces on the walls so that they could be dimmed and their color quickly changed. There was talk of potentially wanting them to pulse during the take so changing their frequency was also possible if desired.

Everything was controllable via an app except for the LiteMats so keeping their ballasts close was important in case intensity or color temperature needed to change.

Lastly, Creamsource Vortex 8s were outside a couple windows in case we happened to roll

early with more daylight and wanted to give it direction. They ended up not being necessary, but were placed just in case. All cameras were set to a white balance in between tungsten and daylight, favoring daylight because of the windows they were facing. As a result, all the units were slightly cooler than true tungsten so the two temperatures were not competing too much.

Minimalism and large units tend to be a goto for most jobs if space allows, but specificity is always important. There may not be specificity in the blocking of subjects, but being able to know how much space you can light and with what will be advantageous.

Ultimately, giving freedom to those in front of the camera can make for a better product overall and allow for more to be discovered on the day in terms of performance. Lighting technology has supported this idea of being flexible in the moment as we are able to control units remotely and have a large variety of different units at our fingertips. l Julia Swain is a cinematographer whose work includes films such as “Lucky” and “Speed of Life” alongside dozens of commercials and music videos. She continues to shoot on a variety of formats, seeking to create compelling visuals for every story and brand. She can be reached through TV Technology.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

19

audio quality

TSL SAM-Q SDI

Audio Monitoring: Adapting Quickly to Changing Tech Vendors respond to advances in immersive, cloud

By Steve Harvey

LOS ANGELES—The adoption of software-based platforms over recent years has ushered in a new era for audio monitoring device manufacturers and their customers.

One significant benefit is the ability to adapt to changing standards and workflows, which is enabling monitoring product developers to prepare for the transition to wider adoption of immersive audio and, potentially, cloud-based production.

“We can react to changes in the industry without needing to develop a whole new hardware platform every time,” Berny Carpenter, audio product manager for TSL Products, confirms. TSL’s SAM-Q SDI is a good example, he says. “That’s very much a model where we will be able to deliver continual software updates.”

Monitoring object-based immersive audio

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formats including Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H can be challenging, especially where loudness measurement is concerned. According to product specialist Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe at Nugen Audio, “At the moment that’s not really feasible. The official guidance from Dolby, last I checked, is that you should create a 5.1 downmix and do the loudness measurement on that.”

That being said, “Our loudness software— VisLM, LM Correct and ISL—all operate in 7.1.2,” he says. “That’s what would normally be used for a Dolby Atmos bed track.” Nugen aims to ultimately support 7.1.2 in all of its relevant products, he says.

UPDATING STANDARDS Indeed, as Makarand Karanjkar, CEO/CTO of Wohler Technologies, points out, there is an ITU standard for immersive audio configurations such as 5.1.2: ITU-R BS.1770-4. “Our

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iAM-12G monitor with Dolby Atmos option implements this standard,” he says.

Monitoring Dolby Atmos requires a decoder, of course, which is not included in RTW’s TouchMix devices, according to Thomas Valter, the company’s product management and marketing director. “However, this doesn’t seem to be an issue, as the customers that use TouchMonitor for immersive formats always provide discrete signals through Dante, Ravenna, AES67 or ST 2110.”

Linear Acoustic’s senior product manager, Larry Schindel, reports that the company has been focusing on Dolby Digital Plus JOC (Joint Object Coding) and AC-4 codecs. “But we do have confidence monitoring built into some of our products. With AC-4, we’re able to decode that out to full-on 5.1.4, PCM,” he says.

With increasing deployments of ATSC 3.0 nationwide, the demand for monitoring audio for NextGen TV is accelerating, but it could be

audio quality broad range of control protocols, he also notes.

“We see an increasing interest in being able to control stuff remotely,” Wohler’s Karanjkar reports. “We see more happening in that space and are in the midst of launching new products in the next couple of quarters that are all enabled from a web perspective.”

Wohler already has an MPEG product popular with content aggregators and distributors that enables an operator to remotely decode and solo an audio or video channel from a stream. “So some products are already forward-looking and enable you to monitor in the cloud,” Karanjkar says.

some time—if ever, perhaps—before broadcasters go beyond a basic immersive bed mix.

For the moment, Schindel says, immersive audio is essentially channel-based, with objects limited to carrying alternate languages, and that’s well within current loudness measurement capabilities. “You can measure the loudness of the bed mix and each dialog [object] and match those well,” he said. If the dialog measures right and you have a decent mix, then it’s going to come out right.”

Thomas Valter, product management and marketing director, RTW

Larry Schindel, senior product manager, Linear Acoustic

Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H got a boost worldwide in July during the Olympic Games.

Schindel, on the phone from Tokyo, says, “This will be the first Olympics where OBS will deliver immersive audio,” supplying Rights Holding Broadcasters with discrete 5.1.4 PCM feeds from 42 of the competition venues. “I’m sure that’s going to help adoption.”

“We have quite a strong presence at the Tokyo Olympics,” RTW’s Valter reports, “where TouchMonitor is being used to measure immersive formats.”

“People are discovering one of the big challenges is that the existing infrastructure in the cloud doesn’t do PTP native, so there are challenges in terms of timing,” Wohler’s Karanjkar says. “And there’s the associated cost of going into the cloud.”

Linear Acoustic’s Schindel has discussed cloud operation with a number of customers.

“Migrating to the cloud is more expensive than they originally anticipated,” he says.

Consequently, he says, some broadcasters are reverting to servers at the plant. “Coming from a broadcast background where redundancy is everything, there’s something to be said for having some on-prem hardware.”

MOVING TO IP But as the industry has been discovering during the transition to IP workflows, it’s not necessary to adopt new technologies wholesale from capture to transmission. Control, for instance, is a piece that can be moved to the cloud right now, enabling remote operation of processing at a distant location.

Carpenter, at TSL, says, “There’s an abstraction between the equipment that is doing the processing and the control interface itself. If you can separate those and give people greater choice, that’s a good thing.” TSL supports a

Marakand Karanjkar, CEO/CTO, Wohler

For some manufacturers, though, the more immediate focus is on helping customers transition to AoIP workflows, via a variety of protocols. “The AoIP formats are getting more and more popular, with Dante being the frontrunner,” RTW’s Valter says. “ST 2110, which is supported by two of our models, is also slowly picking up.”

For its part, Schindel says, Linear Acoustic is keeping an eye on how ST 2110—potentially, the one protocol to rule them all—is being adopted and deployed. Because, as he notes, “Being a hardware manufacturer, there are costs involved in supporting all these different formats.” l

ACCELERATING REMOTE PRODUCTION As has been well documented, the pandemic hastened the move toward remote and cloud-based workflows across the production chain as broadcasters raced to find ways to keep programming on the air during lockdown.

Yet it’s still early days for true cloud-based or virtualized audio flows, which are currently supported by just a few products, including Telos Alliance’s iQs virtual console and Infinity Virtual Intercom Platform (VIP) and Grass Valley’s AMPP audio console.

Call for Entries for the 2021 Best of Show Awards TV Tech is inviting all 2021 NAB Show exhibitors to nominate their new products for our annual Best of Show Awards. You can also nominate your company for a Booth Design Award as well.

The 2021 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, Oct. 9-13.

Entry deadline is Sept. 23.

Nominate your product at https://future.swoogo.com/nab21

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

21

storage technologies

High-Availability Storage System Considerations How to make your system flexible enough to deal with fast-changing conditons

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observable latency in placing, torage expectations in retrieving or acting on the data high-profile or misstored on those systems. sion-critical environments command continuous and uncompromised CONTINUOUS DUTY performance with at least 99% REQUIREMENTS uptime (i.e., less than 1% downHA-storage systems support time) irrespective of all the other functions such as host softassociated operational conditions. ware-based solutions in clustered Achieving this conformance is servers with continuous duty. As accomplished in part by creata comparison, motors with “conEXPERTISE ing—and maintaining—a number tinuous duty” specifications mean Karl Paulsen of conditions that support the the motor is capable of continustorage and all its associated parameters. ous operation at its rated power with a temWhen the storage system is continuously perature rise within the specified insulation operational, highly resilient to any faults, temperature. Such motor specifications are and is self-correcting with no single points described in IEC 60034-1:2010. HA-storage of failure (SPOF)—then the storage system is provides similar performance metrics yet will defined as having “high-availability” and is differ based upon HDD or SSD devices. otherwise known as “HA-storage.”

For hard disk drive (HDD) storage, the HA-storage is but just one component of corollary of continuous duty references the high-availability systems, as will be explained drive rotation, typically cited as the conin this article. stant angular velocity (CA), which effectively

CATEGORIES AND COMPLIANCE Business conditions often will dictate the level and need for storage systems with capabilities outlined in the example description above.

Varying types of HA-storage have definitive diversity including the types of storage, capabilities, redundancy, resiliency, system offerings, scalability, and of course, pricing.

Size and capabilities are characteristics that place HA-storage into various perspective, such as specified for small- to medium-based business (SMB) categories and operations.

In high-performance media and entertainment (M&E) environments, much of the storage utilized may require high-availability functionality. Applications including news content ingest, graphics, live production and editorial workspaces demand “instantly-available” data from storage systems that pose no latency in storage placement or retrieval.

Minimal latency in HA-storage infers there is no perceivable difference in live or real-time storage applications when compared against off-line or non-real-time operations. Effectively, HA-storage is instantaneous with no

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Ceph overview depicts the five dæmons and their association with the object storage ecosystem as may be deployed in a high-availability storage system for large-scale distributed file systems.

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means a drive spins at a fixed rate (RPMs).

High-performance hard disk drives have performance characteristics, which are grouped into categories known as access time and data transfer time (i.e., “rate”). For HA-storage, this specification is only a portion of the overall performance expectation.

SSD HIGH-AVAILABILITY STORAGE For solid state drives (SSD), that is, drives without rotating magnetic mechanisms, the HA-performance dimension takes on a differing perspective. Some of the relevant HA-system specifications and benefits include “triple replicated storage,” which deals with the independent and secure replication of the data on a per-gigabyte basis.

In a block storage application, the system may utilize Ceph, an open source, software-defined and distributed object storeand-file system providing high levels of performance, reliability and scalability. Ceph employs five succinct dæmons, a program or set of programs that run in the background and without any direct control from a user.

(For more about Ceph, see Fig. 1) Additional HA-SSD benefits include

Fig. 1: Internal structure of Ceph, an Object Storage Ecosystem

storage technologies self-healing capabilities, 100% SLA uptime, the ability to have “uncongested” server-storage connectivity and global support where applicable.

Providers of high-availability storage solutions build their architectures on multiple cluster-based infrastructures. When the HA-storage is relegated to those systems, clusters will consist of multiple hardware servers (nodes) that collectively operate in high-availability modes. Such models exhibit zero downtime, instantaneous bypassing time, no downtime during maintenance or support, and instant hardware upgrades in a transparency model that the end users do not sense or experience.

impinges on the high-availability factors since additional data manipulation time may result in latency, which in turn reduces performance. There are always tradeoffs in developing an HA-storage architecture. Linux is one environment where active-passive storage operations are usually applied to mitigate the risks of data corruption. Such applications are typically applied to all the servers in a system to avoid other conflicts that might compromise either the data integrity or the system performance.

HIGH-AVAILABILITY SOLUTION COMPONENTS

When looking for high-availability options in small-to-medium business (SMB) applications, system Fig. 2: Example of a scalable, high-availability (HA), cluster-based storage system, which might be found in SMB or enterprise applications architects should explore all MEETING CONDITIONS the components in the sysOF OPERATIONS HA generally ensures that if a server node tem, including applications, operating system, Additional command or secondary services or a path to the storage system goes down physical and virtual machine (VM) servers, (e.g., failover, data replication, snap shots) (expected or unexpected), nearly 100 percent adapters and NICs, network (LAN and SAN) considered as “conditions of operation” are of all the data requests can still be addressed switches and their associated storage systems absolutely appropriate in HA-storage and its and served. for any potential single point of failure (Fig. 2). associated computer storage architectures.

Multiple layers of a storage-deployed HA storage arrays should expect at least Devices associated with network storage or solution may be independently or collectively two controllers to support continuous opappliances will often require HA-storage as configured for high-availability. One of these erations should one controller be lost. For “conditions for operations.” Such additional elements is the management of the logic voldisaster recovery (DR), HA-storage requires features generally include redundant network umes (LV), which may or may not already be a a complete secondary storage system to hold (i.e., a “RED” and a “BLUE” network topology) part of the particular suite of storage solutions critical data and business application needs with features including multipathing drivers and capabilities. Varying degrees of system should the primary storage system go offline. or associated storage adapters. In actuality, management also become value propositions Often, by replicating data to another storsuch features may be applicable to storage for selecting one provider versus another. age system at another site, such issues are systems for entry and/or midrange storage— prevented. Fig. 2 shows a simple, but typical both of which may include HA systems. For overview for a collection of nodes and associthose large-scale systems, these conditions DATA CORRUPTION PREVENTION ated HA-storage caches. become mandatory.

In a “logical volume” HA configuration, the system is generally built as an active-passive model. Here, a single server only accesses PHYSICAL RESILIENCY TOTAL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE shared storage one at a time. Generally, this Typical storage systems employed in M&E When opting in for an HA-solution, don’t is considered an ideal approach, as some of solutions are nearly always built with features just look at the storage-solution sets as the the other advanced features, such as snapincluding redundant and hot-swappable only top-level priority. HA-performance is acshot and data deduplication, may not be power supplies, dual controllers, dual system complished by examining the “total solution” supported in an active-active environment, drives (usually SSD) and multiple-variable and acting appropriately “across the board” to i.e., when more than one server accesses the cooling fans. Other well-recognized data-cenrwweach the highest level of applications and same shared storage. In this active-passive tric services may include support for snapavailability, especially at scale. Data storage model, a dæmon prevents corruption of both shots or data deduplication. Some of these components are just the start; remember the the logical volume metadata and the logical services depend upon the operational model, total or overall equation when looking into volume itself. operating system and the organization’s high-availability systems and applications. l When multiple machines make continuous security requirements. or overlapping changes to their shared storage The primary idea behind high-availabiliKarl Paulsen is Diversified’s chief technology officer and a data sets, there is a potential risk that some ty is rather straightforward and simple, “… frequent contributor to TV Tech in storage, IP and cloud technologies. Contact him at kpaulsen@diversifiedus.com. corruption may occur. Mitigating such issues eliminate any single point of failure (SPOF).” twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

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eye on tech | product and services Gemini MAM Aveco’s next generation Gemini MAM is designed for on-prem, cloud and hybrid operations. Gemini manages media and AI-enriched metadata, plus timeline annotations describing any frame or segment of an asset, utilizing speechto-text transcription, subtitles, or markers (e.g., soccer goals) utilizing secure HTML5.

Assets are under control across all types of storage—in the cloud, NAS and SAN, video servers, as well as LTO and non-spinning disk archives—and Gemini offers an easily scalable architecture. An integrated frame-accurate proxy video editor works together with popular NLEs and online rendering services to optimize news and production workflows. In addition, Gemini provides users with more creative power to assemble news stories and packages without having to deal with separate and more complex systems. For redundancy, Gemini MAM server components use a multinode architecture. z For additional information visit gemini.aveco.com.

Planar CarbonLight VX Series

Interstellar Ross Video's Interstellar is a browser-based remote production platform that enables content creators to blend traditional working methods and onsite personnel with remote talent and contributors. It is available in three editions based on the number of remote studios, concurrent users and SDI inputs.

The heart of the platform is the 1RU Interstellar Streaming Gateway that provides connectivity between SDI and WebRTC transports. Once configured, the Streaming Gateway is controlled by the Interstellar UI. Supporting 720i, 1080i and 1080p, the Gateway can receive and decode four WebRTC streams, sending these out over SDI, receiving and distributing one incoming SDI stream to the four contributors. The hardware can manage up to 16 audio channels per stream and supports the OPUS and H.264 codecs. z For additional information visit www.rossvideo.com/signal-processing/interstellar-streaming-gateway.

August 2021 | www.tvtechnology.com |

Panasonic has added three new products to its DECT Digital Wireless Microphone system: the WX-SR204 4-channel wireless microphone receiver; the WX-SE200 Expansion Receiver; and the WX-SM410 cardioid condenser lavalier microphone.

Panasonic’s new WX-SR204 4-channel wireless microphone receiver efficiently connects four wireless microphones with the same footprint as the current WX-SR202 2-channel receiver. The WX-SE200 Expansion Receiver allows a commercial integrator the ability to add up to 4 additional Panasonic wireless microphones to a 4-channel system by efficiently leveraging the antennas connected to the new WX-SR204.

The WX-SM410 cardioid condenser lavalier microphone is designed to accommodate education institutions that wish to distribute personal lavalier microphones to each instructor. z For additional information visit na.panasonic.com/us/audio-video-solutions/professional-audio.

JVC PTZ Cameras

The new Planar CarbonLight VX Series line of LED display solutions are optimized for virtual production (VP), extended reality (XR) and broadcast display applications on film and movie sets, in broadcast studios and at entertainment venues.

The CarbonLight CLI VX Series supports hanging, wall-mounted, free-standing and curved LED video wall installations. It features HDR support, improved thermal management and uniformity, precise, flexible color management and a wide color gamut for greater color compatibility, including up to DCI-P3 color space with the Planar CarbonLight CLI VX1.9 model. The displays also include a high LED refresh rate (3840Hz) to support smooth motion and offers frame rates ranging from 24Hz to 144Hz to ensure compatibility with various camera settings. z For additional information visit www.planar.com/products/ledvideo-walls/carbonlight.

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DECT Digital Wireless Microphone System

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JVC Professional Video's three new PTZ Remote Cameras are the first JVC PTZ cameras to offer 4K streaming, NDI|HX and SRT capabilities.

The new 4K KYPZ400NW/NB and HD KYPZ200NW/NB cameras are designed to provide optimal streaming image quality and performance for remote production over IP and are equipped with NDI|HX and SRT streaming, H.265/H.264/ MJPEG encoding and VITC (Vertical Interval Timecode) multicamera synchronization technologies. With integrated NDI|HX technology from Vizrt Group, the JVC PTZ cameras offer a high-quality, low-latency IP video transmission standard that is ideal for streaming in an ever-evolving media landscape. A third new camera, the HD KY-PZ200W/B, provides an economical solution, without NDI|HX. z For additional information visit pro.jvc.com/prof/main.jsp.

Arcadia Central Station Clear-Com’s new Arcadia Central Station is a scalable IP platform that integrates all wired and wireless partyline systems, including FreeSpeak digital wireless solutions and HelixNet Digital Partyline. Up to 96 ports can be licensed in a single RU device and support for additional licensing of add-ons is expected in the future.

Arcadia delivers connectivity to a wide range of Clear-Com endpoints via a mix of two- and four-wire audio ports and supports connectivity with third-party Dante and AES67 AoIP devices. It also supports the full range of FreeSpeak digital wireless products, including 1.9 GHz, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band solutions. The front panel of Arcadia provides two large touchscreens with four rotary encoders to make simple, quick adjustments. z For additional information visit www.clearcom.com/arcadia-ip-intercom.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

RDM Speeds Into Virtual Production With ARRI USER REPORT

By Greg Robbins CEO & Director/Producer Chris Fanning Director of Photography, RDM

NEW YORK—In mid-2020, we were asked to concept a uniquely ambitious piece for the release of the 2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

We knew we had to come up with a creative that would meet the unparalleled quality of the S-Class itself and as we were studying unique directions for bringing the project to life, we came across virtual production.

Our team was already familiar with the concept of chroma keying and compositing, but this was our very first foray into virtual production with Unreal Engine technology. After extensive research, we developed a story that would utilize the advantages of a virtual production environment, a 32-page script going from city streets to a hedge maze to multiple surreal and otherworldly spaces.

EARTH TO THE MOON That’s the beauty of virtual production—if need-be, we could jump from shooting in the city to the moon in a matter of minutes. Not to mention the possibility of achieving an overbearing, ambitious schedule without having to worry about company moves, weather or real-world noises.

RDM works with some of the world’s largest automotive brands. We shoot car-to-car on a regular basis, in all kinds of environments and terrain. Putting together a car shoot of this magnitude that did not require speciality permitting, police and roadblocks, or shutting down

For the Mercedes-Benz S-Class shoot, RDN used the ARRI Alexa Mini with Kowa Anamorphics and all ARRI lighting for the virtual production.

bridges, roads, beaches and parks, was a welcome change of pace. We found ourselves having more flexibility over the shots, no safety concerns for the actor, and every highway and street corner in the world was suddenly at our disposal.

For the shoot, we used the ARRI Alexa Mini with Kowa Anamorphics and a sea of ARRI SkyPanels.

VIRTUAL CASE STUDY After the success of our Mercedes-Benz project, we were contacted by ARRI and AbelCine to give an interview and discuss our experience with virtual production. As one of the first groups to ever work with the technology, we returned to Vū Studio, where we shot our Mercedes-Benz piece, and put together an entirely new production to properly

showcase the workflow.

With all the lessons learned from our first experience, we were familiar and comfortable with the technology, and even developed several Unreal backgrounds ourselves. We experimented with fancier lighting setups, camera movements and new equipment, such as the Alexa Mini LF and the Signature Primes, which quickly became two of our favorite tools to work with.

Filming in large format with the ARRI cameras provides an extra level of separation between the foreground and the background, which is key in virtual production, since the volume doesn’t give you much space between the LED screen and the subject. Being able to have that amount of control over the depth of field allows you to be able to work closer to the volume and

have a lot less problems with the pixel pitch.

Shooting on LED walls presents a learning curve like any new technology, but one that is easily surmountable. It’s not going to be the right tool for every job, but if you have the right idea, the right mindset and a little technical savvy, it can open doors previously closed to filmmakers without a Hollywood-level budget. l Greg Robbins is the CEO, director and producer at RDM; Chris Fanning is the director of photography at RDM. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class piece (full) is available at https://vimeo.com/520074688 The AbelCine case study is available at www.abelcine.com To learn more about RDM’s work visit www.robbinsdigitalmedia.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Cooke Special Flare Coating Delivers a Special Look USER REPORT

By Philip Lanyon Director of Photography Cinematographer

LEICESTER, U.K.—Flare is nothing new in filmmaking. Directors of photography use it all the time. While for many it’s simply a light reflection from the lens glass, it can become an additional element to the storytelling process.

Cooke Optics has two sets of anamorphic prime lenses (super 35mm and full frame) that have their standard coating. These lens sets are also both available with Cooke’s Special Flare (SF) coating. The lenses are exactly the same, except for the Special Flare coating… and that Special Flare coating is really special.

I love the Special Flare. If you’ve never seen it or used it, you’re missing out on a great creative tool.

and contrast that enhance emotional beats in the visual storytelling. It’s not in the viewer’s face, but the impact it delivers is not subtle. That is, unless you want it to be.

While using the Special Flare lenses, I have always had great control over flare. If I want more

Worlds” also went with both Cooke Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus SF and Anamorphic/i SF.

SEE THE DIFFERENCE As I write this, you can watch “Star Trek: Picard” on Paramount+, where you can see the difference between the series

opportunity to add to their creative toolkit. Typically, today it’s gadgets—things that the camera gets attached to or that attaches to the camera or lens. But Cooke’s Special Flare coating is part of the lens. It’s integrated and controllable. I hope that you’ll grow to love it as much as I do. l

A FLARE FOR 'STAR TREK' That special coating accentuates flares, bokeh and other anamorphic aberrations. Being able to use different light sources that create a relationship and interaction between the sets and the camera—and control the amount of flare—is one reason I’ve used the Special Flare coated lenses on both “Star Trek: Picard” and, more recently, on “Star Trek: Discovery” season 4, where I served as lead director of photography on both.

Since it’s “Star Trek,” there are technology-lit environments with LEDs and harder light sources: ships, stars, space gases, control surfaces, bright point sources that bloom and glow.

I use these different practical sources to create layers of light

flare, I just use a harder light. If I want less flare, I knock down the light until I have what I want.

That’s what made the Special Flare perfect for both “Star Trek: Picard” and “Star Trek: Discovery.” It’s a natural decision for the “Star Trek” universe. So natural, that independent of the work that I was doing with both full frame and Special Flare, my colleague and mentor, Glen Keenan, who is lead DP on the newest series “Star Trek: Strange New

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Cooke’s Special Flare coated lenses were used on both "Star Trek: Picard" and on "Star Trek: Discovery" season 4.

open on a more naturally lit planet Earth and the transition to the more technological lighting of being in space.

“Star Trek: Discovery” season 4 will premiere in late 2021, while Keenan’s Special Flare work on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” will be released in 2022. In addition, there are a number of other projects that have used Cooke’s Special Flare lenses that you can view at www.shotoncooke.com.

It’s not often that DPs get the

Philip Lanyon is a multiaward-winning director of photography/ cinematographer working around the globe. With more than 30 years’ experience in the film and television industry, Lanyon works on commercials to feature films, documentaries to some of the largest television shows produced today. He can be reached at philiplanyon@mac. com.

For more information visit Cooke Optics at www.cookeoptics.com.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Capturing “Frosty” Music Video With URSA Mini Pro 12K Cameras USER REPORT

By Priest Fontaine Batten Director & Director of Photography/Producer All In Favor Productions

NEW YORK CITY—When my longtime friends Mike Stroud and Agustin White from the band Kunzite asked me to create the music video for their single “Frosty,” I was in Oaxaca, Mexico. Listening to “Frosty” at the beach made me realize that the song was flowing nicely with the surfers and skaters I was surrounded by. Agustin’s partner and co-producer on the project, Mea Woodruff, had the same thought. Woodruff is from southern California and is friends with many talented female surfers and skaters, including GRLSWIRL, a women-founded inclusive skate collective empowering people around the world through skate.

We wanted the video to showcase the authentic personalities and skills of the female athletes. I was most interested in the unique movements each was capable of and matching that kinetic energy with different parts of the song.

We simply wanted to have fun and try our best to keep up with these athletes. As part of that, we needed the right crew and gear.

COMPACT & FLEXIBLE We were joined by the legendary rollerblading camera operator Joey “Blades” Graziano, AC Jimmy Vargo and filmmaker Tristan Seniuk for help with post production.

We used two Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K cameras, one lived on Joey’s Mōvi Pro, and I shot handheld or using an Easyrig with the other. A Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro also came

When shooting inside Venice Beach Skatepark, the camera allowed us to capture the personalities of the female athletes with plenty of movements, angles and frame rates.

in handy when shooting inside Venice Beach Skatepark, as we wanted to keep the camera as light and stripped down as possible. The camera’s compact form factor allowed us to be flexible, and its built-in ND filters were clutch, as it was easy to make quick adjustments to exposure without affecting aperture.

I wanted a bit of a retro, film-like look, so I mostly used my vintage lenses with heavy diffusion on the URSA Mini Pro 12Ks. Seniuk further dialed in this look with DaVinci Resolve Studio during grading. I’ve been a big fan of Blackmagic Design’s color science for many years, and this new generation of sensor is even better. The URSA Mini Pro 12K gives a nice film-like look, plus the camera comes with a PL mount, so I didn’t have to use

any adapters for my lenses. Being able to use old Super 16mm glass while still shooting 4K or 6K was a big bonus.

SHOOTS 240FPS IN 4K The URSA Mini Pro 12K’s resolutions and frame rates were equally as impressive. I utilized different frame rates and shot at higher resolutions, so we’d have freedom in post to reframe, crop and even add zooms. The song has many unique moments and change ups, so I wanted plenty of movement, angles and frame rates for variety.

The URSA Mini Pro 12K shoots 240 fps in 4K, which is pretty insane. I captured some shots in 240 fps, which look beautiful, but Graziano and I mostly shot in 24, 48 and 60 fps, as we reserved super slow motion for key

moments. Having a second or third camera was another benefit of using affordable cameras on an indie project. Working with the Blackmagic Design cameras allowed us to keep the budget down, while still achieving a very high-end cinematic look. l Priest Fontaine Batten is an NYC-based director, DP and producer, and he owns and operates production company All In Favor Productions. Batten directs content for leading brands, such as Nike and Adidas, and frequently collaborates with artists, fashion designers and musicians on film projects. To learn more about All In Favor Productions, visit www.allinfavor.tv.

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Delivering Imagery on Virtual Productions With Fujinon Lenses USER REPORT

By Mark James Director of Photography 2nd Decade Productions

LOS ANGELES—Coming up in the broadcast world I learned on 2/3-inch sensor cameras. I remember making the transition into super 35 sensors and reveling in the world of cinematic images. I took my new super 35 camera to all my shoots for the directors and producers to see a side-by-side vs my 2/3-inch camera. It didn’t take long to convert clients to the new look.

What I did miss about the broadcast cameras was the range in zoom lenses. The larger a sensor, the harder it is to pack zoom range into a lens without adding massive size to the instrument. Fujinon introduced the Cabrio series to meet this need; I ordered one of the first 19-90s and still have the lens to this day.

I shot countless sports features, endless handheld for doc-style work, and fell in love with Fujinon’s contrast, color palette and sharp images. In many ways the transition to super 35 and the Cabrio shaped my career.

PREMISTA ZOOMS After adding a large format camera and primes to my equipment roster, I turned again to Fujinon for my zooms. With three lenses, the Premista series covers an enormous range of focal lengths—19 to 250mm at T2.9—delivering this flexibility with manageable-sized instruments that bring all that I need and have come to expect from Fujinon optics. The glass produces clean, stellar images with a range that doesn’t leave you wanting to punch in more or

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On a recent virtual production project, the original plan was to use primes, but I ended up shooting the entire project on the Premista 28-100.

wishing you could be wider.

We all find ourselves running out of setup time. I thought shooting larger productions would afford me the equipment, crew and resources to make shots perfect. While there is some truth to that, it’s funny that no matter the budget of the project, there will be times you have to roll before you are ready.

One of the most important factors in maximizing your images when you are on minimal time is the optics you shoot on. The Premista has delivered beautiful images for me even when I’m left wishing I could refine a scene.

JUST THE RIGHT COVERAGE On a recent virtual production project, the plan going in was to use primes. We were shooting on twitter.com/tvtechnology

an LED volume with camera tracking and UnReal Engine driving the imagery. Shooting on an LED wall is a balance of interactive and traditional lighting, colors and lensing. The production had an ambitious shooting schedule with multiple virtual “locations,” which means art department changeovers, wardrobe, loading new 3D environments and so on.

So our time to shoot out a scene with coverage was tight. I ended up shooting the entire project on the Premista 28-100, and that lens performed beautifully.

The range gave me everything I needed for coverage. The images held their contrast shooting into the wall and the optics handled the large amount of light I used to create exterior looking scenes, with minimal need for lenses that

would have added time to our tracking setups.

The Premista series is rounded out with the telephoto 80-250mm, which offers beautiful compressed imagery, and the wide angle 19-45mm, which brings the same optical quality in compact enough size that it can be used on a gimbal. They are a beautiful additional to any camera system, large format or otherwise. l Mark James is a DP whose work has been featured on a range of content from the Super Bowl to commercials. He founded 2nd Decade Productions in 2010, which produces broadcast and agency content. He can be contacted at MarkJamesDP.com.

For more information visit https://fujinoncinelens.com.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Going Wild for Sony’s PXW-Z450/ Z750 Shoulder-Mount Camera USER REPORT

By Peter Von Puttkamer Director

durable shoulder-mounted camera that is an ideal companion for shooting an outdoor adventure series where you’re constantly on the move. The latitude, visuals and colors are

possible to get with larger sensor cameras. The 46x Fujinon compact lens we had was equivalent to 2100 mm in the larger frame/ super 35mm world. What’s more, the lenses are par-focal, very

VANCOUVER, Canada—I’m an award-winning documentary filmmaker working on high-end specials and series for major networks including Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC, ITV, CBC, PBS, History and Animal Planet. My programs highlight wildlife, the environment, explorer biographies, social justice topics and more.

Given the range of extreme environments and subjects I work with, it’s extremely important to have a camera and lens that help enhance my storytelling abilities and enable me to nimbly capture unpredictable situations and subjects.

As a long-time Sony camera user, when I needed a "run and gun" camera for my DP Todd Southgate to use for our “Biggest & Baddest” series in 2019, I looked no further than the streamlined, robustly designed PXW-Z450 (and later PXW-Z750) 4K shoulder camcorder.

4K ON A 2/3-INCH CHIP The “Biggest & Baddest” series with wildlife biologist Niall McCann takes us to the world’s toughest terrain (this season, North America and India) as we seek to better understand the sometimes deadly relationship between humans and animals, in our changing world. The 4K abilities of the camera were also key. There is no other shoulder camera on the market that I’m aware of that provides the high-resolution output coming from a 2/3-inch chip.

The Sony PXW-Z750 (now with 3 chip CCD sensor) is a serious,

The PXW-Z450/PXW-750 allows you to quickly respond and easily capture fastmoving objects or slow-mo at a moment’s notice.

crisp and sharp and the camera is sensitive enough to perform well in low light.

Another area where the 2/3inch sensor comes in is providing readily available “tele-sportslenses” at a reasonable rental price, that also achieve focal lengths for the size that are im-

controllable, water-resistant and make the images pop.

In these volatile scenarios, which can include anything from tracking a polar bear, to capturing stampeding elephants or an alligator trapped in a storm drain, there isn’t a better camera than the Z750.

FOCUS ON THE SNAKE One of the greatest shots I’ve gotten with this camera was when tracking a King Cobra moving through the forest. The huge 14-foot snake suddenly came out on the path about 50 yards in front of our host. Given the ergonomic design of the camera and quick access to zoom and focus controls, my DP Todd was able to snap zoom into a closeup of the snake to establish its position, then slowly crawl back with the zoom to reveal our host speaking about the encounter. This would not have been possible with the limited zoom range, and slow controls available on most current large sensor cameras I’ve used.

With three fingers I can zoom, simultaneously rack focus and manually control the aperture with incredible precision.

The Z450/750 allows me to quickly respond and go into certain situations that I may not have been able to in the past to easily capture fast-moving objects or slow-mo at a moment’s notice. What is so great about the PXW-Z750 is its versatile ability to handle both styles effortlessly, making it a welcome addition to all of my journeys. l Peter Von Puttkamer has executive produced, written and directed dozens of international award-winning series and specials over the last 35 years, including `Biggest & Baddest,’ which is airing on Discovery Channel Networks worldwide. The impactful series explores how and why human-animal conflict is increasing due to global warming. For more information visit www.gryphonproductions.com.

For additional information visit Sony's website at pro.sony.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Pine Crest School Live Streams Sports With JVC GY-HC900 Cams USER REPORT

By Dave Burgess Director of Digital Media Production Pine Crest School

BOCA RATON & FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—Pine Crest School is a premier provider of private education. Established in 1934, the school has been educating students aged 4–18 for nearly 90 years and is one of the largest private schools in the country. We pride ourselves on offering superior curriculum balanced with immersive arts and athletics. Among the many services and programs offered to students is media production, comprising the upper school’s Pine Crest Television (PCTV) and middle schools’ Pine Crest News Network (PCNN).

In the midst of the pandemic, we ramped up our live sports production feeds in order to deliver coverage to students and families who could not attend in-person, via Vimeo, on the school’s website and social media accounts. We’ve been utilizing equipment from JVC Professional Video for more than a decade, and recently added three JVC GY-HC900 Connected Cam camcorders.

LIVE STREAMING-READY The JVC equipment gives us the ability to broadcast from the athletic field on the school’s standard Wi-Fi network through a non-dedicated access point, to which one or all three cameras can connect. That same connection then makes it possible for the control room team to see and manage the video. We no longer have to drive our truck out there and pull fiber-optic cable, and we avoid the long setup times

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typically necessary to do a production.

With enhanced streaming and built-in SRT functionality, JVC Connected Cam solutions offer us a high-end approach to online production while still working off the limited band-

relegated for the upper-school PCTV students for use with live remote broadcasting, as well as for the school’s production services team to cover events, such as ballet and sports. The design ergonomics, consistency between cameras and ease-of-use of the

cameras are very well-built, but I have seen many dropped or mishandled cameras in my time. No matter the cause, I have always had a positive experience with the brand’s service department.

It’s all very smooth and straightforward, and you have your

In the midst of the pandemic, Pine Crest ramped up its live sports production feeds using JVC Connected Cam camcorders to deliver coverage to students and families who could not attend the games.

width found within the school’s network. We love the added benefit of having the bidirectional video, communications and streaming built directly into the Connected Cam cameras. The increased quality and reduction in the amount of bandwidth needed, along with the ability to not have dropped frames on remotes, is really something; it’s very cool.

A GREAT TEACHING TOOL The new GY-HC900 cameras are also used by staff and students for a mix of ENG and live production needs. They have been twitter.com/tvtechnology

JVC equipment is a beneficial feature for the students no matter the application.

JVC has really created a truly professional line of cameras. No matter what camera you’re using, you can find the ND filter in the same place. You can find the focus buttons, white balance, gain— they’re all there. You can really teach students on one JVC camera and they will be able to pick up any JVC camera. From a teaching standpoint, that’s huge.

When it comes to student operators, another benefit of working with JVC is the company’s customer support. The

cameras back in no time. l Dave Burgess is the founder and director of Digital Media Production for Pine Crest School, supervising and maintaining three fully equipped academic studios for courses and interdisciplinary work.

A graduate of Full Sail University, with a Master’s in Education—emphasis on education media design, and the University of Florida, with a Bachelor’s in Broadcast Telecommunication, Burgess has also previously worked for various broadcast network affiliates and production firms.

For more information visit www.jvc.com.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

CFN Upgrades Studio Acquisition With Hitachi HDTV Cameras USER REPORT

By Sean Kennedy Senior Executive Producer Bryan Butler Studio & Production Coordinator Catholic Faith Network

UNIONDALE, N.Y.—The Catholic Faith Network (CFN) is a notfor-profit television organization that uses all forms of media to keep the Catholic community connected to their faith. CFN is available on Optimum, Verizon FiOS and Charter Spectrum throughout the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area, plus selected cable and satellite systems nationwide as well as streaming at www.CFNtv.org. Our programming includes live masses, talk shows and topics ranging from faith and societal issues to health and cooking.

We have been satisfied users of Hitachi cameras for many years.

With Catholic Faith Network expanding and our existing Z-HD5000 models still going strong but more than eight years old, we decided to double our roster of cameras by adding the latest and greatest HD technology. We didn’t go to 4K because we wouldn’t really be able to take advantage of the extra resolution. We broadcast in HD, but some of our carriers even still downconvert our signal to SD.

QUICK, EASY SETUP The exceptional reliability, durability and quality of Hitachi cameras were some of the key technical factors that led us to stay with Hitachi for our new purchase. Before working at CFN, we both worked for a high school sports network where we used 12 Hitachi cameras on our HD trucks. We compared Hitachi

In March, Catholic Faith Network purchased three new SK-HD1800 HDTV production cameras from Hitachi Kokusai and found the setup went seamlessly.

picture quality side-by-side to more expensive alternatives, and nobody could tell the difference.

And despite beating up those cameras while producing sports six days a week with many different operators, they withstood everything we threw at them.

In March, CFN purchased three new SK-HD1800 HDTV production cameras from Hitachi Kokusai. Setting up the new cameras went seamlessly. We built the three cameras ourselves within 45 minutes from opening the boxes to fully assembled. Local Hitachi staff helped us wire in our new CU-HD1200 CCUs in the control room and commission the cameras. We were all done within two hours and shooting just three hours later.

One of our favorite features of the SK-HD1800 is its global shutter sensor. Some of our sets are heavily monitor-based, with a 9x9 monitor wall, monitor strip and

large standalone monitor. Our studios also use many different types and generations of LED fixtures.

With earlier camera technologies we could get rolling shutter artifacts, but with the SK-HD1800s we don’t need to worry about that.

UPGRADED REMOTE CONTROL Enhanced skin tone adjustments have also been helpful when dealing with multiple people on set by letting us dial in and preset multiple skin tones. Other standouts from our upgrade include the RU-1500JY remote control units with their amazing LCD touchscreens, and the VFPBM-307 color viewfinders, which our camera operators love.

For CFN, buying Hitachi cameras is about more than just quality products. The support we get from Hitachi Kokusai is second to none and goes beyond great customer service. It really is a

relationship. They even help us with things that aren’t the cameras themselves, such as lenses and fiber, and work with us to find complementary products.

New studio cameras are a big investment for a not-for-profit organization, but our President and CEO, Monsignor Jim Vlaun, and General Manager Joe Perrone were comfortable with our choice of Hitachi Kokusai based on how they have treated CFN. You’re not just buying a Hitachi camera— you’re buying a lot more, and for the price, you can’t beat it. l Sean Kennedy (skennedy@ cfntv.org) is senior executive producer and Bryan Butler (bbutler@cfntv.org) is studio & production coordinator at Catholic Faith Network.

For more information on Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, call 833227-1658 or visit the company’s website at www.hitachikokusai.us.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

PFL Blow-by-Blow Action Captured With Panasonic USER REPORT

By Jeff Silverman Founder Inertia Unlimited

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—Professional Fighters League (PFL) is the first and only league to present MMA in the tournament format where individual fighters compete in regular season, playoffs and championship.

As the most innovative MMA

remote productions. As a result, each PFL 2021 fight card has been shot in a "bubble-like" environment at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City over a two-day period, with eight to 12 mixed martial arts matches broadcast live over ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes channels.

REMOTE PRODUCTION WITH PTZ Remote production is changing the way sports broadcasters operate and the Professional

sports. We are shooters, editors and producers, so we understand what works conceptually and practically in the harsh environment of traveling sports television.

To acquire the blow-by-blow action in and out of the cage, we supplied six Panasonic HE42 1080p PTZ cameras and two additional advanced Panasonic HD PTZ models to capture all the PFL’s exciting bouts. The cameras are controlled via a Panasonic AW-RP60 compact controller

Panasonic's AW-HE42 HD PTZ cameras captured the action for remote productions of Professional Fighters League fights.

sports league, PFL has quickly established itself as the number two mixed martial arts company in the world with distribution on ESPN networks and streaming platforms in 160 countries worldwide.

With the pandemic limiting the size of onsite crew for PFL productions this year in Atlantic City, N.J., the league was forced to rethink its broadcast using

Fighters League broadcasts is a prime example. For this season, the addition of Panasonic professional AW-HE42 HD PTZ cameras helped accommodate these changes.

Inertia Unlimited has been supplying cameras for PFL broadcasts since the league’s inception in 2018. Everyone who works for us has a deep background in broadcast

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with a 3.5-inch LCD screen and intuitive joystick for smooth, responsive control.

The show needed to add cameras because its announcers were not at the same location; they were delivering their commentary from their homes. The two advanced Panasonic PTZ cameras at the announcers’ homes have been remotely controlled live from our production hub in

Atlantic City, a 1,000-miles away.

And we have had extensive control of these cameras, including their pan, tilt, zoom and paint functions.

NO COMPROMISES NECESSARY Panasonic’s HE42 Pro PTZ remote cameras are designed to produce great results in a variety of applications. One of the main reasons we selected the AW-HE42 for the PFL broadcasts was because of their compact size and excellent image quality. We had used other manufacturers’ PTZ cameras in the past, but we felt we were compromising —but not with the HE42. It is a polished, high-quality camera. The pan, tilt, zoom and focus of the HE42 work very smoothly.

In the mobile unit, we have had a very efficient signal infrastructure where the data and video from the six HE42s have been combined on one fiber cable onto a network to the production truck and available from the truck to be switched live to air.

In addition to the camera's innovative design, the installation and integration of the HE42s was effortless, which has been greatly appreciated, as that has not been the case with other PTZ cameras we’ve used in the past. l Jeff Silverman is a seven-time sports Emmy winner and founder of Inertia Unlimited, best known for its specialized HD and 4K highspeed camera systems, specialty POV cameras and robotic and custom camera configurations. He has more than 30 years of industry experience. He can be reached at jeff@inertiaunlimited.com.

For more information visit Panasonic at www.panasonic. com/global/business.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses buyers briefs Grass Valley LDX 100 Series

Canon EOS C500 Mark II The EOS C500 Mark II cinema camera features a 5.9K full-frame sensor with 60p recording 5.9K and 4K (2K recording at 120p) and 15 stops of dynamic range. In addition, it has a modular design, a competitive price point, user-changeable lens mounts for more creative freedom in pairing lenses with the camera, electronic image stabilization, internal cinema RAW light recording and the new DIGIC DV 7 Image Processor.

The variety of assembly and lensing options help to make this camera suitable for a broad range of applications, from "run-andgun" documentary shooting to live television broadcasts and big-budget films. z For additional information, visit www. usa.canon.com.

A new camera platform designed to be upgradable for future needs, the LDX series is an all-in-one camera with no separate base station required thanks to Native IP. Designed to capture in detail the intensity and emotion behind fastpaced action, LDX 100 Native IP cameras use a new 2/3-inch Titan imager to capture Ultra High Definition (UHD) High Dynamic Range (HDR) images at 3X high speed. The camera can be quickly configured, is field-tested rugged and reliable with a suite of inventory management features making it easy to quickly align the camera configuration to production requirements for better cost management. z For additional information, visit www.grassvalley.com.

Canon CINE-SERVO 25-250mm T2.95-3.95 Lens The CINE-SERVO cinema lens, which is available in both EF and PL mount, is designed for 4K cameras. It features 10x optical zoom, a built-in 1.5x extender, a lightweight design (6.7 pounds) and a powerful and removable servo motor drive unit, providing broadcast-friendly shoulder operation for ENG/EFP and documentary style shooters. If offers outstanding 4K optical performance thanks to its ultra-low dispersion glass and a large-diameter aspherical lens. Combined with Canon’s optical design technology, these components work to help correct color fringing and limit chromatic aberration during operation. The lens features Canon’s warm color science and an 11-blade aperture that produces a beautiful, smooth bokeh. z For additional information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

products & services marketplace DESIGNED FOR LARGE SCALE ENTERPRISES

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Tested to work with Atlas™, Wowza®, and Adobe Flash servers Adapts MPEG-2 streams to H.264 for Hotel, Cruise Line, University, Resort feeds Grooming for OTT, Mobile and IPTV Down converter ability to convert all HD services to SD Can be configured with 2, 4, 6 or 8 GPU’s

sales@dveo.com

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twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2021

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

JOHN WARD

AJAY ARORA

NIR CANG

ARJUN RAMAMURTHY

Executive Vice President, Americas Friend MTS

Senior Vice President of Product, Commerce and Experimentation Disney Streaming

Director of Technical Operations TAG Video Systems

Global Chief Technology Officer Ownzones

Friend MTS has hired John Ward as executive vice president, Americas. Ward is responsible for managing sales and operations across North and South America. He served as CTO for iNDEMAND where he was responsible for the distribution of premium VOD and PPV entertainment to more than 200 North American TV operators. He also held positions with Fox Sports Productions, where he supervised production for Fox NFL, MLB and NASCAR coverage.

Disney Streaming has hired Ajay Arora as senior vice president of product, commerce and experimentation across the Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+ brands. Arora will oversee the commerce and experimentation team in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. He joins Disney Streaming with experience in product management and engineering, having held positions with Netflix, Audible and Amazon.

TAG Video Systems has expanded its international team with the appointment of Nir Cang as director of technical operations. Cang began his career as a sound engineer and comes to TAG following nearly 11 years with Dalet Digital Media Systems where he transitioned from QA engineer to project engineer to presales technical consultant. At TAG, Cang is concentrating on presales activities with a special focus on OTT.

Ownzones has hired Arjun Ramamurthy as its global chief technology officer. He has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and most recently served as senior vice president of technology at Twentieth Century Fox/Disney where he was responsible for setting the technology direction for motion picture and TV production, post production, digital content processing, downstream distribution and digital archiving.

DAVID SANTRELLA

ROGER BOWLEY

JEFFREY ZELLMER

LARRY TISCORNIA

NAB Joint Board Chair National Association of Broadcasters

Senior Account Manager ES Broadcast

Senior Vice President of Digital Operations Fox Television Stations

Director of Business Development VISTA Worldlink

NAB has announced the election of David Santrella, president of Broadcast Media for Salem Media Group, to chairman of the NAB Joint Board of Directors. He will take over as chairman from Jordan Wertlieb, president of Hearst Television, whose term expired. During the Board elections Perry Sook, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Nexstar Media Group, was elected NAB Television Board chair.

ES Broadcast has hired Roger Bowley as senior account manager. Bowley joins the company from AWS, where he was Elemental principal sales specialist.

In his new position Bowley will work with key clients across the company’s equipment supply, systems integration, archiving and content services business divisions to understand their needs and to develop end-to-end solutions from within the company’s portfolio of services.

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twitter.com/tvtechnology

August 2021 | www.tvtech.com |

Jeffrey Zellmer has been promoted to the top digital job at Fox Television Stations (FTS), where he is now senior vice president of digital operations. Zellmer has been with Fox Television Stations since 2007. Most recently, he served as vice president of digital marketing and strategic partnerships for FTS, a role he assumed in 2018. Before that he served as regional vice president of creative services.

NEP Group’s VISTA Worldlink division has hired Larry Tiscornia as its director of business development. He brings 21 years of experience in broadcast production, operations and professional sports leagues gained at Major League Soccer (MLS) and Soccer United Marketing. While with MLS, Tiscornia was responsible for the league’s broadcast infrastructure, guiding remote broadcast productions.