TV Tech - 0476 - Aug 2022

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Protecting Your Livelihood What to look for in data security solutions

equipment guide cameras & lenses

contents

August 2022 volumn 40, issue 8

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Audio Monitoring in Today’s Complex Media Environment

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New wave of equipment helps broadcasters cope

By James E. O’Neal

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Understanding Data Protection Basics and Assessment

Tegna’s D.C. station hopes ECO9 ‘will be a standard setter’

By George Winslow

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‘Pillars of integrity’ can help you understand key issues in data protection

By Karl Paulsen

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Too Many Formats? Not a Problem for Today’s | Multiviewer Video monitoring solutions are about much more than just the picture

By Kevin Hilton

WUSA9 Debuts Groundbreaking Eco-Friendly Live Truck

An Affliction of Our Time: Fake Information Researchers are working on ways to determine original or fake

By Frank Beacham

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IBC Upbeat for Its Return to Amsterdam Organizers optimistic about getting back to in-person meetings

By Tom Butts

For more news analysis, trend reports and the latest product and tech information, visit www.tvtech.com.

equipment guide

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editor’s note

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in the news

user reports cameras & lenses • Blackmagic Design • Sony • Hitachi • JVC • Panasonic

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eye on tech

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people

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editor's note

Image credit: David Sarnoff Library

100 Years of Broadcast History Long-time readers of TV Tech are familiar with our resident historian James O’Neal, a veteran broadcaster and former Technology Editor for TV Tech. James will be the first to admit that he lives and breathes broadcast technology and has spent most of his life implementing, documenting, and helping to educate our industry about the evolution of radio and television over the past century.

While there will always be some debate about when broadcasting officially began, (purists point to the 1830s and Samuel Morse’s invention of Morse Code while others refer to the launch of KDKA in 1920), the passing of legislation regulating broadcasting in late 1921 is also seen as an inflection point in its history (domestically speaking). The year 1922 was when radio broadcasting exploded in our country, with more than 500 radio stations on air by year’s end.

That was also the year that radio was introduced in the White House and the first presidential radio address.

Late last year I asked James if he wanted to write a monthly column on the history of broadcasting and of course he was happy to oblige.

Since January, James has chronicled the events of the past 100 years, highlighting the advances and challenges facing the broadcasting indusJames O’Neal try that led to what we have today.

Over the past seven months, James has helped us understand the impact of historic events, most of which weren’t characterized as “historic” until years later: • In May 1947, 75 years ago, television’s long-running “color war” was beginning to take shape, with RCA showing off an “all-electronic” color television system just a couple of months after the FCC’s rejection of the 16-MHz-wide field sequential color system proposed by CBS. • July 1941, 81 years ago, the first TV commercial aired, following the FCC’s “full commercial authorization” for the handful of stations then on the air.

• In March 1972, 50 years ago, shipments of “America’s first home video cartridge recorder-playback machines” began. These “Cartrivision” first-gen VCRs were color-capable and manufactured in Richmond, Ind. These are just a few of the many nuggets of historical information that James has imparted over the past seven months and we’re looking forward to seeing what other notable events or tech introductions he will write about in the coming months.

Broadcast history is a labor of love for James and his affection for the technology is readily apparent in his monthly columns and in his daily life—after all, how many other broadcast engineers do you know who have built a working replica of the 1947-vintage, small-town radio station where he began his career?

Look for James’ monthly columns in our daily SmartBrief newsletters or just search The Bulova Watch Co. was first to tap “broadcast history” on tvtech.com. television’s advertising potential with sponsorship of WNBT’s July 1, 1941 sign-on and sign-off test patterns. The company continued to buy station ads as seen in this very early live studio commercial. (Photo credit: The David Sarnoff Library)

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Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com

Vol. 40 No. 8 | August 2022 FOLLOW US

www.tvtech.com twitter.com/tvtechnology CONTENT 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, Craig Johnston, Kevin Hilton, Bob Kovacs, James O’Neal and Mark R. Smith Production Manager Heather Tatrow Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban Senior Design Director Cliff Newman ADVERTISING SALES Vice President, Sales, B2B Tech Group Adam Goldstein, adam.goldstein@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 Nielsen Expands YouTube Measurement

update

Deployments Boston: WCRN-LP (Intrigue TV) Fresno-Visalia, Calif.: KNSO (NBCUniversal-Telemundo), KGPE & KSEE (Nexstar), and KFRE & KMPH (Sinclair) Greenville, S.C.: WLOS (Sinclair), WSPA-TV (Nexstar), WHNS (Gray), WYFF (Hearst) and WMYA-TV (Cunningham Broadcasting) San Antonio: KABB (Sinclair), WOAI (Sinclair), KMYS (Deerfield Media) and KCWX (Corridor Television) Shreveport, La. : KPXJ and KTBS (KTBS LLC), KSLA (Gray), KMSS (Mission Broadcasting), and KSHV and KTAL (Nexstar) Fresno’s KMCF-LD to Launch Ch. 6 Franken FM on ATSC 3.0 KMCF-LD Channel 6 in Fresno, Calif., has launched NextGen TV on VHF Channel 6 and expects to offer a full-power FM service at 87.7 on the radio dial. Once approved by the FCC, the hybrid service from the Cocola Broadcasting-owned low-power TV station would be among the first in the nation to offer a so-called “Franken FM”—TV stations that offer audio services via the 87.7 MHz audio carrier— enabled by ATSC 3.0.

Fresno-based Cocola said “an early start on securing the equipment and FCC permission” allowed the company to be one of the first in Fresno to launch ATSC 3.0 and added that, unlike its full-power counterparts currently offering ATSC 3.0, it will broadcast in 4K. “Programming for KMCF will be 4K productions including super high-definition NASA programming,” the company said in a statement. “There is a limited supply of 4K programming available at this time but with the launch of ATSC 3.0 now, Cocola Broadcasting will be able to add new 4K programming as it becomes available.”

The “Franken FM” would broadcast the signal of Fresno’s KJOI—known as "Your All Time Favorites"— through Channel 6. The FM signal doesn’t require special equipment but to watch the video portion of ATSC 3.0 requires a TV, tuner box or DVR designed to broadcast the upgraded signal to take advantage of the audio and video improvements. z Tom Butts

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NEW YORK—Nielsen is expanding its cross-platform measurement of YouTube across computer, mobile and connected TV devices so that media buyers can more accurately compare audiences to linear TV. The launch of Nielsen FourScreen Ad Deduplication is also a foundational step towards deduplicating audiences across devices, services and platforms in Nielsen ONE, the company’s forthcoming cross-media measurement platform designed to deliver comparable metrics across screens and various stages of the media

lifecycle, the company said.

The Nielsen Four-Screen Ad Deduplication adds CTV to existing computer, mobile and linear TV deduplication to its Total Ad Ratings product to help media buyers more accurately measure the fourth screen by delineating linear television and CTV inventory.

This is noteworthy, Nielsen said, because YouTube accounts for over 50% of ad-supported streaming watch time on connected TVs among people aged 18+ in the U.S., according to Nielsen Streaming Platform Ratings.

George WInslow

Richard Friedel Receives NABA International Achievement Award TORONTO—Richard Friedel, retired Fox Television Stations EVP for corporate engineering and immediate past president of the North American Broadcasters Association, was honored with the NABA International Achievement Award during the organization’s virtual annual general meeting.

The award recognizes a person who has served the broadcasting industry beyond the scope of their professional roles. It recognizes those who have given their time, leadership and talent to create industry consensus on current critical issues and fostered a collegial approach to problem solving, knowledge sharing and common understanding in their own country, region and in global forums.

“Richard’s collaborative approach and his innate belief that broadcasters share many common challenges led to common solutions and practices in one of the most intensely competitive industries in the world,” says Michael McEwen, NABA director-general. “This is why he is always

greeted warmly and his participation well received by colleagues in Europe, Asia and indeed around the world—a reflection on his success as a NABA leader.”

In addition to having a distinguished career beginning with NBC, then moving to ABC/Capital Cities and finally to Fox for 25 years, Friedel has been involved with NABA for more than 25 years, been a longtime member of the Advanced Television Systems Committee— including multiple stints as ATSC Board Chairman, served as a member of the IBC Council, was a DPP leadership contributor in the U.K. and has been a consistent presence at the NAB Show.

“I am really honored with this recognition. NABA is an important part of my life, but so many people involved in NABA are friends or long-term colleagues of mine and to have you bestow this is all the more meaningful,” said Friedel when accepting the award.

Phil Kurz

in the news OPINION

Lessons From Leawood: The Tornado of June 8

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The young man who cuts my grass and lives EAWOOD, Kan.—As tornados go, it about a block closer to the twister’s path, heard was rather puny. Then again, a piece of the alert on his phone and the county’s sirens. debris striking someone at 100 mph— He went outside to take a look, determined it the wind determined for that particular wasn’t a false alarm, went inside and headed EF-1 twister—could kill or cause severe injury. to the basement. He reports losing But this column isn’t about the cellular and internet service right tornado per se. Rather it’s about about then. the experiences of some of the I have learned a few lessons from people in my hometown during this experience that might benefit the event, public safety warnings broadcasters. First, the time of and NextGen TV. day an emergency happens plays First some basics. The tornado a huge role in the effectiveness of formed at about 1 a.m., roughly efforts to warn the public. If people seven miles west of my neighborare asleep, some will keep right on hood in the city of Lenexa, Kan., sleeping. and traveled east along a major Phil Kurz Second, when a mobile phone thoroughfare. By the time it got frequently goes off with an Amber Alert to about a half mile from my house it was no warning—something that seems to happen wider than 125 yards. Continuing east into in spurts about possible abductions many Missouri, the twister traveled along a path from miles—its effectiveness as a tool to convey a Kansas City, Mo., to the northeast side of a warning wanes. It becomes background noise major interstate intersection called the “Grandand is easily ignored, especially when someone view Triangle” where it dissipated. No deaths or is sleeping. injuries were reported.

Third, layering warnings from broadcast, I was out of town at the time, but my wife remobile phones and public sirens increases the ports being sound asleep when a warning tone chance that some members of the public, like emanated from her smartphone. Groggy, she the lawn guy, will receive a warning and take assumed it was an Amber Alert, which too often it seriously. In his case, two forms of warning comes in waves about events far away. She then prompted action. rolled over and went back to sleep, not hearing Fourth, it’s human nature to want to confirm Johnson County’s tornado sirens—although the legitimacy of an emergency warning like my they functioned properly. lawn guy did by walking outside. John Lawson, Across the street, my neighbors say they executive director of the AWARN Alliance, on slept through the entire event and didn’t several occasions, has pointed out to me that learn of it until the next day. Next door, the one of the first things people do when they neighbors heard the sirens and headed to the receive an emergency alert on their phones is basement.

to confirm that it’s real. Typically, they ping a website or call someone to confirm the legitimacy of the warning with the same smartphone. When thousands of people do this in a small footprint they are likely to overwhelm the nearby cell tower with traffic.

As for ATSC 3.0 at this point, it goes without saying that 3.0 advanced emergency warnings can “wake up” NextGen TVs in the homes of people living in the path of a tornado or some other emergency. I suspect that doing so stands a better chance of getting the attention of people as they snooze.

With this capability comes a weighty responsibility for broadcasters however. In an era of cost-cutting and workflow efficiency, will they have someone—not necessarily the station meteorologist—present or who has a hardened link back to the station from home at 1 a.m. to take advantage of this capability and warn people of an impending threat?

Lastly, waking up sets and targeting warnings based on geographical coordinates is great; however, if the public doesn’t own a NextGen TV or, worse yet, owns one and does not know about these capabilities and how to enable them on their end, what good are they?

Broadcasters must waste no time educating the public with PSAs and even by meeting with the people directly in their communities at civic gatherings to inform them of the advanced emergency warning capabilities of NextGen TV. Doing so is fully consistent with broadcasters’ public service obligation—not some self-serving promotional undertaking. It could also save the lives of someone they love. l

Robert (Bob) Ross, Longtime Senior CBS Engineer, Has Died NEW YORK—One of the most highly regarded broadcast engineers of the last thirty years, Robert (Bob) Ross died on June 19.

Ross, who served as senior vice president, East Coast Operations, CBS between 1998 and his 2017 retirement, received many industry honors including induction into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for his 45 plus years of work in broadcast engineering.

Ross worked for 45 plus years in all areas of broadcast engineering. In 1977, he joined Westinghouse Broadcasting as an engineer at WBZ-TV and continued with Westinghouse for

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19 years working at WJZ-TV and KYW-TV. Before the CBS/Westinghouse merger, Ross was the vice president of engineering for Group W Television Stations and after the merger, was the vice president, operations and engineering, CBS Television Stations.

“The CBS family was saddened to learn of the passing of our esteemed colleague and friend Robert Ross," CBS said in a statement. "Over his illustrious career, his incredible skill and accomplishments kept the Network at the forefront of technology and a leader in the broadcast business. Simply put, Bob was a brilliant engineer who will be dearly missed.

We send our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

George WInslow

audio quality

Nugen Audio’s VisLM audio monitoring system

Audio Monitoring in Today’s Complex Media Environment New wave of equipment helps broadcasters cope

By James E. O’Neal

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Some of us can remember when audio was regarded merely “as the poor step-child of video.” There was but a single channel to look after, and it passed muster if it met the aural equivalent of “it looks good leaving here” and the transmitter operator didn’t complain about carrier over-deviation.

But that was then, and this is now. Television audio in the 21st century is anything but a simple “step-child” that doesn’t need to be watched that closely.

MULTIPLE FORMATS Start with the increasing plethora of formats, according to Mike Waidson, application engineer at Telestream.

“Gone are the simple days of analog audio—we must now deal with digital PCM with one-to-many channels,” Waidon said. “These audio channels are distributed in multiple ways.

Sometimes the audio is embedded in SDI. But it is now also carried as an audio stream in IP. To further complicate matters, the carriage in

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multiple file formats, whether uncompressed or compressed, is a common occurrence.”

Berny Carpenter, audio product manager at TSL, agrees. “With the evolution of audio delivery formats, we have seen audio channel counts gradually increasing, particularly for marquee content, such as high-profile sports events,” he said. “What was stereo became 5.1, and now we’re seeing the next generation of audio

“People are consuming content in such a wide variety of environments, on such a wide variety of equipment, so in my opinion our biggest challenge is making sure the audio always translates.”

FREDDY VINEHILL-CLIFFE, NUGEN AUDIO

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delivery formats for broadcast which cater to immersive and personalized audio, including Dolby Atmos and Fraunhofer’s MPEG-H. “The signal formats used in productions have gradually changed too,” he added. “Within the last two decades, SDI has gone from 1.5G (HDSDI) to 3G, and now 12G is becoming more and more common.”

Like so many media tech solutions these days, “one size does not fit all” anymore, according to Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe, Nugen Audio product specialist.“People are consuming content in such a wide variety of environments, on such a wide variety of equipment, so in my opinion our biggest challenge is making sure the audio always translates. You want the dialog to be intelligible regardless of whether someone is watching on their laptop on a train using inexpensive earbuds, or watching in a home cinema with a finely tuned 7.1.4 setup.”

MEETING THE CHALLENGES A common denominator in designing today’s professional audio monitoring gear for television is flexibility—the ability to expand or otherwise change monitoring capabilities

audio quality can upgraded to meet evolving needs,” he said.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON…

Larry Schindel, senior product manager of TV Solutions at the Telos Alliance

Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe, Nugen Audio product specialist

as operations grow and requirements are added. Capability for updating existing capabilities or for unlocking initially unneeded features is also a big plus.

“Being able to future-proof an investment is obviously appealing for broadcasters, enabling them to reduce CAPEX and add capabilities to a product only if it is required at a later date,” said TSL’s Carpenter. “TSL’s audio monitors include connectivity options and software features as upgradeable items.

The PAM-IP supports upgrades for both ST 2110 and Dante IP connectivity, whilst our SAM-Q range offers optional MADI connectivity and loudness functionality. All of these can be purchased with the unit, or retrospectively applied.”

Larry Schindel, senior product manager of TV Solutions at the Telos Alliance, is also an advocate of upgrading via software changes.

“Unless a monitoring unit is a basic stereo, analog, ‘speaker in a box’ type of unit, the modern monitoring devices are digital, sometimes even being a ‘PC in a box,’” Schindel said. “The nature of these digital devices today is that they are meant to be updated as new features are developed.

All Telos Alliance units are designed to be updated as new software-based features are

added and become available.”

Nugen’s Vinehill-Cliffe observed that product “agility” is not the only benefit derived with software-driven monitoring.

“The ability to work faster than real-time with software tools, Nugen’s VisLM or LM-Correct, for example, is also a major advantage,” Vinehall-Cliffe said.

“As it stands, our full Loudness Toolkit bundle already supports 7.1.2 audio, and this is also true of Halo Vision. Anyone who owns VisLM, LM-Correct or ISL v2.0 and above can already upgrade to v2.9 for free. Many of our updates are free, and even when issuing a paid update we offer discounted upgrade paths for existing owners.”

In addition to monitor future-proofing, Wohler CEO Makarand Karanjkar described another “plus” that can come with software architecture: increased functionality within a single “box,” something that’s especially welcome in crowded racks found in smaller control rooms and production vehicles.

“The rapid evolution of signal types, whether Dante, Ravenna, ST2110, ST2022-7 or Dolby ATMOS, coupled with various mezzanine compression formats like JPEG2K for backhauls, or HEVC for distribution, is driving the need for multifunctional hardware, with software that

The SAM-Q series from TSL is representative of the new breed of devices designed to accommodate 21st-century audio monitoring requirements.

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As ATSC 3.0 broadcasting continues to roll out, it brings with it additional requirements, even one for which a standard has yet to be developed. “We anticipate the need to support multiple audio codecs for ASTC 3.0, and our iVAM series of products are well equipped to support emerging technologies like Dolby AC4 in the future,” said Wohler’s Karanjkar “With the additional height channels and personalization objects in next-generation audio formats there is more to measure than ever before.” said TSL’s Carpenter. “As an example of how TSL can help broadcasters with this requirement, the SAM-Q range allows for up to eight simultaneous programs [each up to 9.1.4] to have loudness measured, logged and a downmix can be monitored through the unit itself.”

Telos Alliance’s Schindel notes that for broadcasters moving to ATSC 3.0, audio monitoring specifically for the advanced broadcast format may not be necessary.

“Most broadcasters who are launching ATSC 3.0 services today are doing a simple simulcast of what’s on their ATSC 1 service, so other than wanting a monitor which can decode Dolby AC-4… there isn’t much new that they need, yet,” he said. “Dialog Enhancement is an inherent part of Dolby AC-4, so really any AC-4 decoder should be capable of supporting this function, but looking forward, broadcasters will want monitors that support Dolby Atmos and personalized audio which ATSC 3.0 is capable of supporting.”

“The challenge for the broadcaster is to deal with another compressed audio format, AC-4,” said Telestream’s Waidson. “While this offers… the ability to carry multiple streams with more audio channels, it requires equipment to support these formats.”

Nugen’s Vinehill-Cliffe noted that some of this equipment has yet to be developed.

“It’s great that the ATSC 3.0 spec includes support for object-based audio,” he said. “But currently there is no standard for calculating or measuring the loudness of object-based audio, which poses a problem. Once a loudness standard has been developed… broadcasters will need monitoring tools which can support the new standard. This is something which we at Nugen are looking towards tackling.”

Television audio monitoring has certainly come a long way from one simple VU meter. Perhaps it’s fitting to resurrect an old saying and add a corollary: “There’s no rest for the weary—articularly if you’re an audio monitor designer.” l

storage technology

Understanding Data Protection Basics and Assessment ‘Pillars of integrity’ can help you understand key issues in data protection

P

rotecting your data is a lot operations in a new light as nearlike your security practicly all industries—including enes. But legacy applications tertainment—are being disrupted are no longer sufficient in by entrants who are attracting this evolving digital transformacustomers away from their tion era. Some say now is the time otherwise non-digital businesses. to move on from old-school tools These new entrants can include for data-management and look “bandits” whose mission is to to new means for their data-procapture this data and exploit its tection solutions. This concept value for themselves, including depends in part on how you and the illegal sale of that data or the EXPERTISE your organization view data as a ransoming of its usage by anyone, Karl Paulsen valued commodity. especially its owners.

Storage systems and data The industry needs more help. products are a small part of the overall It goes without saying that one of the new data-protection ecosystem. In recent times, sets of challenges to IT-professionals includes some have claimed that so-called “legacy dafinding sufficient workforce to support a ta-protection products” are little more than growing set of digital requirements through costly insurance. Up and coming new (and the employment of its current (or newly current) solutions can now help you address hired) staff while continuing to protect the the most important aspects of data protecvery assets that they manage or administer. tion and help mitigate the complexity of Tools are available to aid in data protection, keeping your data safe. Knowing the basics is but it still requires proficiency and expertise imperative when establishing a path towards in configuration and implementation of these data protection. new and usually advanced tool sets. The education and proficiency of these personnel are critical to securing the integrity of the data DISRUPTION IN A NEW LIGHT that they support.

The IT teams of today must look at their

PRESERVING DATA IS CRITICAL TO YOUR COMPANY’S SURVIVAL Data is the lifeblood of any industry that uses digital technologies for its activities. It doesn’t matter what the business is or if it supports only a single entity or a myriad of other smaller segments within a global entity.

Preserving your data is critical to survival, hence the IT industry must select from a multitude of products marketed to support and preserve this precious commodity.

Data protection is an essential function of enterprise IT management irrespective of the size or scale of the organization. As with any product you pay for, the intangible is almost untouchable until you need it, so let‘s first start by understanding what is meant by data protection.

For several years, storage solution specialists and vendors have recommended users include certain purpose-built commercial appliances in your storage architecture. Some of these legacy products were built to duplicate (clone, snapshot or other) and make available all your data sets in a quickly assessible, easily managed system that “auto-magically” would restore lost data from an independent archive platform with no losses or degradation in productivity.

In actuality, these appliances or solutions were found to be a non-foolproof solution for maintaining data integrity, with the need, rationale and understanding of the requirements becoming a “missing link” in the overall solution set. As will be detailed later in this article—knowing about your data and the infrastructure it works within is a great first step to data assessment and protection methodologies.

BEST PRACTICES AND ASSESSMENT

Fig 1: The five core elements in a DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment) are similar in part to security practices but focused on data storage for the organization.

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One of the suggested best practice approaches to ascertaining the validity or value of your data protection program is to do a

storage technology Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA).

This practice describes a process designed to “identify risks arising out of the processing of personal data and to minimize these risks as far and as early as possible.”

DPIAs are important tools for negating risk and for demonstrating compliance with things such as General Data Protections Regulation (GDPR) especially in those areas or regions with strict adherence to data integrity and preservation where GDPR is required by law. Those companies who must comply with GDPR are likely well aware of the data-protection requirements with many guidelines and practices published widespread.

Automated processes include those principles, which are outlined in ISO 27001—the compliance document for international standard certification describing how to manage information security. ISO 27001 Certification demonstrates that your organization has invested in the people, processes and technology (e.g., tools and systems) to protect your organization’s data. ISO 27001 provides an independent, expert assessment of whether your data is sufficiently protected.

PILLARS OF INTEGRITY As an outline to assess if your organization is at least thinking in the right direction, the following elements are considered the “pillars of integrity” and can help you understand key issues in data-protection (Fig. 1).

First, know where your data is stored or located, as well as how to retrieve it during compromising conditions. Second, understand the sensitivity of the data you have

Data is the lifeblood of any industry that uses digital technologies for its activities. stored, the importance of the data to your business and the likely business impact should this data be unavailable or compromised to unauthorized parties (including the public). If the data should be modified or corrupted, know how to and what it will take to recover or restore that data.

KNOW HOW YOUR DATA FLOWS Third, owners should be knowledgeable in the prevention of unauthorized access and/ or data transfer. This concept is aided best when you know and understand where, and how, data flows in your system and elsewhere (including the cloud). Unprotected environments are one of the biggest culprits to data loss and include not just the storage itself, but all those services that might have access to the data or involve interchanging that data, such as email, accounting systems, e-commerce solutions, backup and such.

Fourth, know and carefully manage the identities of all individuals who have access to the data. Determine if the right identities (both machines and persons) are permitted access and determine who should not have access to the data. Assess all third-party suppliers, partners and understand to what level they have access

to the data including when, for how long, what kind of visibility they have to other sub-systems and similar security level concerns.

And finally, know what controls are being used to protect your data. Are those systems operating as designed and are they operating effectively? Are there stop gap methods that will immediately cease all access should any compromise be detected? Do you have your data backed up on premises or in the cloud or both?

THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE Today, there are two broad ecosystems that support data management—on-premises and in the cloud. The ongoing global “digital transformation” (see sidebar for a descriptive definition) is witnessing a monumental shift from on-premises workflows to those that include and/or are migrating to the cloud. Organizations today are highly focused on the digital experience and think they have a good understanding of their customers’ digital experiences.

IT decision makers (ITDMs) see an urgent shift towards focusing on consumer’s digital experiences. Such experiences are just like security, which now requires investments in technologies, applications, people and customer access to any and all information.

If you follow best practices in security and policy, likely you’ll be amplifying the integrity of your data using similar practices. l Karl Paulsen is chief technology officer at Diversified and a frequent contributor to TV Tech in storage, IP and cloud technologies. Contact him at kpaulsen@diversifiedus.com.

Digital Transformation by Definition Defining the Digital Transformation (aka “DX”) is complex and broadreaching—best identified by example with no generally agreed upon fundamental definition.

Essentially, DX involves how organizations and governments are changing their mode of operation in order to improve service delivery, be more efficient and effective in their designs, and achieve objectives such as increased transparency, interoperability and citizen satisfaction.

During the pandemic, many organizations were not ready for the digital transformation. Since then,

these organizations have attempted to capitalize on modern technology architectures bent on adding flexibility and agility to expand their competitive advantages amid the disruptions and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As some found out, any road to a digital transformation is seldom in a straight line. Results from expert interviews and reports indicate that “an amazing 40% of those organizations who commenced an all-out digital transformation initiative failed to achieve the desired business outcomes.” z Karl Paulsen

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2022

15

monitoring displays

Too Many Formats? Not a Problem for Today’s Multiviewers Video monitoring solutions are about much more than just the picture Foxtel and Magna Systems and Engineering in Australia recently deployed an IP monitoring solution from TAG Video Systems that monitors over 2,000 sources across multiple sites with all types of IP signals.

by Kevin Hiton

LONDON—For an area of broadcast operations that changed little over the course of TV technology history, the monitoring display has experienced a rapid pace of development in a relatively short time period. From a passive monitor based on, first, the cathode ray tube and then LED or similar technologies that was able to only show one image at a time, it is now the multiviewer, showing multiple images at once. Not only that, it is able to perform more functions than just displaying pictures.

This has made multiviewers an increasingly crucial element of master control rooms (MCRs) at broadcast and playout centers, providing tools for compliance logging and checking, among other things. On top of these, as Ryan Wallenberg, vice president of engineering for Cobalt Digital, observes, the growing trend is for these units to accommodate a multitude of signal formats simultaneously.

“More multiviewers are going hybrid, allowing for a mix of SDI, uncompressed IP SMPTE ST 2022-6/2110 and compressed MPEG2, H.264, HEVC, J2K and JPEG-XS,” he says.

MIX AND MATCH The ability to mix and match formats also

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extends to image quality and resolution.

Wallenberg adds that new viewing systems can accept both HDR and SDR, with the capacity to convert to a common format for mixing SDR, HLG, PQ and SLOG3 and then switch to the required monitor format. “There is still lots of demand for 3G signal monitoring but with UHD output for higher quality output vs. 1080p output resolutions,” he comments.

“UHD for inputs is more common in Europe and China than in the U.S.” Today, it is unlikely that people are able to buy a display that is not UHD, according to John

Mailhot, CTO for networking products at Imagine Communications. “In a mobile there’s usually a requirement that they have to do UHD but it often involves a trade-off,” he says. “It could be having fewer replays if they are working in UHD. The vehicle will be set up differently for different events with varying workflows and probably not run everything in UHD.” Something that Mailhot considers is becoming the minimum requirement—”table stakes” in his words—is 1080p but in HDR. “I think there’s going to be an interesting amount of broadcasters who produce that as their prima-

At the 2022 NAB Show, Evertz introduced its NEXX UHD/4K 12G-SDI router, which offers an integrated, software-enabled multiviewer with more than 30 pre-configured layouts.

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monitoring displays thousands of channels with human eyeballs is unreasonable,” which explains why probing, monitoring analysis, alarming and logging have become the norm.

“Visualization is still important,” he says, “and our Adaptive Monitoring allows any number of channels to be monitored but only those needing eyes on them in penalty boxes to be visualized.”

MOVE TO IP AND CLOUD

“In the multiviewer world we’re really starting to see people asking about HDR more than they used to.”

JOHN MAILHOT, IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS

ry format and then turn it into 1080i or SDI or other things for distribution. UHD is four times the bandwidth but adding HDR to an existing workflow is a much easier lift and arguably more impactful. In the multiviewer world we’re really starting to see people asking about HDR more than they used to.”

FLEXIBILITY IS KEY Ketan Patel, product manager of multiviewer solutions at Evertz, observes that customers are now looking for three main things in multiviewers: density, format flexibility and advanced features.

“Density of solution in terms of rack space and power are key for applications like OB trucks,” he says. “The number of inputs and outputs per RU is a metric everyone is trying to maximize. Unfortunately, we don’t have one format or standard across the broadcast chain, so flexibility is a big issue with all facilities.

“Ideally, people want to have a singular platform that can monitor the incoming contribution feeds, the production/in-facility signal flows and the distribution feeds,” Patel added.

“Monitoring is then visually showing the video and audio bars, the health of the video, the audio and key items such as SCTE triggers.”

Because of this, Patel continues, multiviewers are no longer merely for visualizing video/

audio/data sources as multi-images on displays; they’re real-time probes for those sources.

“The probes are also not just concerned with the video/audio/data but also the transport protocols and bandwidth,” he said. “This synergy has become more important as facilities have many more signals to monitor and not enough eyeballs to watch them all.

“We developed the concept of monitoring by exception when customers found their operational staff were fatigued looking at hundreds of images for potential alarms,” he added. “With our ‘penalty box’ feature we can designate an area/display where only signals that have alarms appear so operators can focus on resolving those issues.”

Paul Briscoe, chief architect for TAG Video Systems, agrees that “monitoring hundreds or

Stephan Türkay, senior product manager of media infrastructure for Lawo

A trend that Briscoe says TAG is also following is towards “pure software/IP-based monitoring platforms,” which will lead to the cloud. “That enables deployment in ground, cloud or hybrid scenarios on a global basis,” he explains. “Such a capability is almost infinitely scalable. Another important trend is integration with third-party systems, so we support open standards to enable orchestration and control interoperation with the widest array of other systems.”

At Lawo, senior product manager of media infrastructure Stephan Türkay says the company is “absolutely moving to a cloud future,” with IP-based multiviewers being a prime candidate for that transition.

“Operational staff require multiviewers to be as low latency as possible,” he comments, “which can be tricky to achieve in an off-premise cloud deployment. We anticipate there to be an application-specific mix of deployments—on and off premise—as well as software and hardware technology to host the multiviewer function.”

Türkay adds that with the shift of traditional workflows for both production and playout to the cloud, there is the growing need to monitor signals as natively as possible. “Customers want to avoid the costly transcoding and transport costs of bringing signals back to the broadcast facility for monitoring using a traditional multiviewer,” he says.

While the general perception is that multiviewers will be installed in galleries or MCRs and cover the whole wall, Darren Gosney, technical sales manager for EMEA at Blackmagic Design, observes there is a growing realization that standalone screens can be placed anywhere in a broadcast or playout center.

“If they feature loop-throughs of each of their inputs, they can be located anywhere in the production chain,” he explains. This means different departments can each have a dedicated configurable unit in their space and the signals can be passed through to other parts of the facility, even being re-clocked to extend the signal distance further.`` Certainly a move on from the inert, dumb screens of the past. l

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2022

17

sustainability

WUSA9 Debuts Groundbreaking Eco-Friendly Live Truck Tegna’s D.C. station hopes ECO9 ‘will be a standard setter’

by George Winslow

WASHINGTON—Tegna’s WUSA9 CBS affiliate serving the Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) region, has debuted ECO9, a new low-emission live truck that the station is billing as a first for the U.S. broadcasting industry.

ECO9 was conceived by WUSA and built by engineers at Frontline Communications as part of a larger effort by WUSA9 and Tegna to deploy more eco-friendly technologies.

“Our environment matters, and we’ve committed to making a positive impact through our work, which includes today’s introduction of ECO9,” explained Richard Dyer, president and general manager, WUSA. “ECO9 might be the first of its kind, but we hope it will be a standard setter as we begin testing its capabilities here in the DMV.”

ECO9 was conceived by WUSA and built by engineers at Frontline Communications as part of a larger effort by WUSA9 and Tegna to deploy more eco-friendly technologies.

‘TRADITION OF INNOVATION’ Working to reduce greenhouse emissions that create climate change, “is a big, big undertaking for each of us individually but also from the business community,” added Dyer. “We use live trucks in our business and those vehicles have an impact on our environment, so we started asking ourselves how we can use the tradition of innovation we have here at Tegna to innovate in a way that would have a positive impact on the environment.”

One example of that innovation was the design and development of the DMV’s first storm-chaser truck about six years ago, a project that provided valuable experience for the new ECO9. Rob Gibson, WUSA9’s director of technology and operations said that they began thinking about how to design a new eco-friendly live truck last year.

Traditionally live trucks have had to leave the engine running to power broadcast equipment with special alternators or work from generators, which makes live trucks an obvious starting point for deploying environmentally sustainable technologies.

To reduce that carbon footprint, Gibson

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initially started talking to the engineers at Frontline Communications about an all-electric truck.

“We fairly quickly figured out that an all-electric platform just wasn’t going to work,” Gibson said, adding that crews on deadline for a story might have to find a charging station and wait an hour for everything to get charged up before they could get back to work. “We really didn’t want them to run out of power in situations like that, so we pivoted to a hybrid platform.”

“I asked Frontline [Communications] if they could build a hybrid platform and they said `yeah, we’ve been using the technology in other applications for government agencies, fire trucks, etc.,’” Gibson added. “They just hadn’t done it for a broadcast truck.”

The resulting ECO9 is built around a 2022 Toyota Highlander XLE Hybrid.

MORE INTERIOR SPACE In terms of the broadcast technology, the design builds on WUSA9’s experience with launching their live weather truck, Gibson said. “We took the lessons that we learned on

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The hybrid ECO9 truck runs on a state-of-the-art rechargeable lithium-ion battery system (Li-ION batteries) with supplemental charging from solar panels, which allows ECO9’s broadcasting technologies to operate continually for six hours after the truck’s engine has been turned off.

that vehicle which is now six years old. We dropped what we didn’t like and improved upon it so the reporter sitting in the backseat has more room.”

The new ECO9 truck is equipped with three cameras: two fixed internal cameras from Marshall and a 360-degree external camera from Rugged CCTV. To deliver video back to the station, the truck uses Dejero EnGo and a 5G wireless router from Inseego, which gives them very low latency.

“What is groundbreaking. Is to have the opportunity to make another vehicle kind of in the mold of the one that we built six years ago, but improve on it from both a user standpoint and to make things much more

sustainability eco-friendly,” Gibson said. “In this case, what really makes the truck different is its battery. It’s the power solution. That’s where we took a step forward. Maybe 10 or 12 years ago, specialized alternators started replacing the generators [to power the equipment] and I don’t really think there’s been much of a change since.”

POWER SUPPLY The hybrid ECO9 truck runs on a stateof-the-art rechargeable lithium-ion battery system with supplemental charging from solar panels on the roof. That allows ECO9’s broadcasting technologies to operate continually with the truck’s engine turned off for six hours.

More specifically, the truck uses an lithium-ion battery called a LiFePO4 battery, which includes a chemical compound that makes it one of the safest batteries on the market.

Commonly used in mobile phones, RVs, boats and golf carts, this battery is also the ideal choice for ECO9 as it is expected to handle more than 5,000 cycles and can discharge close to zero and recharge.

“We use live trucks in our business and those vehicles have an impact on our environment.”

RICHARD DYER, WUSA

The batteries were supplied by Battleborn Batteries.

With solar supplemental charging, ECO9 allows for trickle charging during the day while it is out in natural light.

The power management system from Victron Energy regulates the shore power charging (aka “campervan hookup”), integrates the trickle charge from the solar panels and vehicle alternator, and converts the DC to AC to supply the power to the rack.

“When we first gave Frontline [Communications] the list of equipment for the truck, we were able to calculate that at full load, just on battery, you’d be able to do six hours without the engine on,” Gibson said. “The average live shot in local news is maybe at the most, two-and-a-half hours, so you have the power to fire up the truck, edit the story and send it back without having to have the truck running. The engine does not have to sit there idling for hours.”

ECO9 was also made possible by Washington Area Toyota Dealers who are serving as launch partner and exclusive sponsor.

To view a video of the launch, Google “ECO9” and “video.” l

media tech

An Affliction of Our Time: Fake Information Researchers are working on ways to determine original or fake

W

ed as an opportunity for anyone e learned long ago on earth to have a global library that technology is at their fingertips. It did that, a two-way street. but—as with most technology—it History has shown had another side. In addition to that the greatest technological changing our culture, the World innovation of each era always has Wide Web became a vast wastea dark side. Gamechanging inland of ads and a conduit to ventions such as the automobile, disinformation representing the personal computer, smartphone worst of human nature. and the internet proved this to be true.

EXPERTISE Today, our networked culture ORIGINAL OR FAKE? Frank Beacham faces a serious new challenge— Many think it is too late for fake news or disinformation. the internet. The cat is out of the Yes, the era of Walter Cronkite is definitely bag, so to speak, and we’ll never go back to over. Today, you cannot believe what you a more united, cohesive society. However, see or read. some scientists are now trying to fix what the We are now living in the “Wild West” of internet wrought. It won’t be easy now that disinformation, where anyone can say anyanyone can acquire cheap tools to build deep thing, no matter how outrageous or untrue. fake video and photos.

The saddest part is too many people believe One international project trying to fix the this stuff. That was proven at the U.S. Capitol fakery problem—called Dissimilar—is at the on Jan. 6, 2021.

Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in BarceWhen Tim Berners-Lee invented the World lona, Spain. It also includes academics from Wide Web in 1989, his invention was heraldthe Warsaw University of Technology (Poland)

and Okayama University (Japan). The researchers are working on ways to differentiate original and fake multimedia content by combining techniques from digital forensics analysis, watermarking and artificial intelligence.

“The project has two objectives: first, to provide content creators with tools to watermark their creations, thus making any modification easily detectable; and second, to offer social media users tools based on latest-generation signal processing and machine-learning methods to detect fake digital content,” said David Megías, a lead researcher.

It’s a great irony that the same artificial intelligence that brought deep fakes to the world is now being used in an attempt to eradicate them.

We know that the rise of social media goes hand-in-hand with the increase in disinformation. Artificial intelligence made it easier to tamper with videos and photos, turning them into fakes so good that most people cannot tell the difference from the real thing.

When video and still images are combined and superimposed using artificial intelligence with advanced voice technology, the montages can look and sound like the genuine person or thing. Using this technology, known public figures can be made to say outrageous things.

PUBLIC TRUST

Credit: Getty Images

People of different cultures perceive information in unique ways. These perceptions are being gauged by the researchers in a range of places and cultural contexts to incorporate individual idiosyncrasies when designing the solutions.

“This is important because, for example, each country has governments and/or public authorities with greater or lesser degrees of credibility,” said Andrea Rosales, a UOC researcher. “This has an impact on how news is followed and support for fake news. If I don’t believe in the word of the authorities, why should I pay any attention to the news coming from these sources?

“This could be seen during the COVID-19 crisis: in countries in which there was less trust in the public authorities, there was less respect for suggestions and rules on the

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media tech

“Each country has governments and/or public authorities with great or lesser degree of credibility. This has an impact on how news is followed and support for fake news.” handling of the pandemic and vaccination,” Rosales added.

A problem is people can watermark and protect disinformation as well as truthful information. I can easily see these disinformation-prevention tools being used to protect fake news from fraudulent players.

Sadly, we live in a society where huge numbers of people have developed into “disinformation cults” where facts don’t matter.

They choose to block out information they don’t believe. This is a result of the internet

—ANDREA ROSALES, UOC

creating niches of personal interest. What was originally conceived as a widening of available accurate information has resulted in distortions of the facts.

Cheap artificial intelligence tools give huge power to those who would abuse them.

This abuse now happens routinely, and it will be hard to stop. Prevention tools like those being developed at UOC can certainly help legitimate content providers, but they

won’t stop disinformation if the masses believe it.

Dan Gillmore, who teaches at the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, advises readers to “create an internal speedbump.”

“Say to yourself… ‘Just wait a minute,’” before believing anything on the internet, said Gillmore. “Skepticism, especially with highly sensational titles, is key.” He advises people to corroborate stories before believing them as fact.

Developing these critical evaluation skills, however, will have to come from good media education, which is very rare in today’s schools. Only when users of the internet are taught about the realities of disinformation and how to detect it, can we begin to tackle the problem.

“Information is only as reliable as the people who are receiving it,” said Julia Koller, a learning developer. “If readers do not change or improve their ability to seek out and identify reliable information sources, the information environment will not improve.” l Frank Beacham is a writer based in New York.

ibc show preview

IBC Upbeat for Its Return to Amsterdam Organizers optimistic about getting back to in-person meetings

By Tom Butts

AMSTERDAM—The last time the M&E industry gathered here in Amsterdam, the word “zoom” was more likely to describe a lens than a new form of virtual meeting. And given that the show went through numerous stops and starts over the past several years because of the pandemic, the mood heading into the 2022 IBC Show, Sept. 9–12 at the RAI, is one of optimism and a sense of purpose.

Although the show is well known for shining the spotlight on the latest industry trends through its conference sessions, this year the exhibition is getting a lot more attention than before, perhaps because “virtual expos” are an inadequate substitute for the real thing. IBC President Michael Crimp agrees and thinks attendees are eager to get back to business.

“There’s a hunger for the expo; expo space demands have been high and have outstripped our cautious approach to it,” Crimp said. “We’ve even seen customers who had a digital value proposition package with us shifting back towards expo again, because there’s just an excitement about networking with people.”

Better than expected attendance at the NAB Show and similar recent trade shows also didn’t hurt when it came to assessing the potential success of IBC. “[The shows] are seeing solid, not spectacular attendance,” Crimp said. “There was an enthusiasm for networking and the benefits of meeting face to face—that’s what we heard about NAB [Show], so my congratulations to Chris Brown and their team.”

Trade shows are notoriously expensive undertakings for attendee and exhibitor alike and a three-year gap between events can lead to sticker shock to those used to attending free virtual events. Crimp says IBC has taken steps at controlling costs for this year’s show.

“We have significantly reduced the cost of attending the conference—that’s a third of the normal cost,” Crimp said. “So we’ve concentrated on not just the cost there but the value of providing other things. We have negotiated

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“I certainly think we’re going to have a strong U.S. audience from everything that we’re seeing.”

MICHAEL CRIMP, IBC

with the hotels to reduce their prices, which are actually about 9% cheaper than in 2019.”

HIGH EXHIBITOR DEMAND The number of exhibitors is now up to 850 but organizers think it could potentially reach 1,000 by showtime. “We’ve seen a crazy amount of demand over the last six months,” IBC Director Steve Connolly noted during a press conference in late June. “We’ve surpassed our initial expectations and are thrilled with the levels of enthusiasm and engagement among exhibitors and visitors for this year’s show.”

However, attendance figures are more difficult to estimate, he said.

“In terms of in-person attendance, it’s harder to predict, especially when you look at other trade shows at the beginning of the year and how much of their final registration comes through in the last three weeks,” Connolly said.

“However, to give you some kind of guideline and mathematical formula, when we had 55,000 square meters of space, we had 53,000 visitors. I would expect our final square meters [of exhibit space] to be around about 35–36,000 square meters, so following that trend, you can expect some numbers around that.”

The show already has seen the return of one major exhibitor that had originally announced that it would not exhibit at live shows in 2022—Avid disclosed in late June that it would exhibit at this year’s show, after assessing the recent success of in-person shows.

In an interview with Peter White of the IABM, Avid President Jeff Rosica

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characterized the change as “an evolution of our decision.”

“I think as we saw the market improve and the situation improved with COVID and countries started opening up, I think we started to realize that with the feedback from our customers that it’s probably time to start getting back to some of the major trade shows,” Rosica said.

Regarding COVID-19 protections, IBC will follow current EU COVID-19 protocols, which are minimal at this point. Unlike the rules leading up to the 2021 show, which was eventually cancelled, a COVID-19 entry pass is no longer required and social distancing and masks are no longer compulsory.

However, Crimp cautioned that IBC will monitor safety protocols and will change them if needed. “If medical advice is to do differently, we will introduce them so you can imagine we’ve got a ‘Plan B’ and ‘Plan C’ in place,” he said.

With COVID-19 still having a large global presence, Crimp thinks the geographical makeup of attendees will be slightly different than in the past. “I certainly think we’re going to have a strong U.S. audience from everything that we’re seeing,” he said. “Europe will be strong of course, including good attendance from the U.K. I guess there are questions around Asia and specifically around China, which we’re keeping a close eye on but they are only a small part of our audience.”

TWO-DAY CONFERENCE In terms of the conference agenda, the show’s theme is “Designing the Future Together” and will focus on the current and future trends that have emerged since the 2019 show—many of which were advanced by the pandemic.

“During the pandemic there was this kind of acceleration in lots of various areas, in particular, remote production,” Crimp said, adding that in parallel, this has impacted workflows, now more likely to be cloud-based. “There are [conference] sessions on things like cloud media workflows, but it takes on a different perspective than in 2019 because of what we’ve been through and the fact that it’s actually become more of a norm for some people now.”

Other topics will include AI, virtual production and a focus on hybrid broadcast/OTT models in the show’s “Future of Linear” session, for example. “We’ve IBC Show guest speakers include Renard Jenkins, SVP, Production Integration and Creative Technology Services at Warner Bros. Discovery.

ibc show preview got these different ways of consuming where traditional broadcasters in the OTT space are all looking at different ways of monetizing their content,” Crimp said. “So I think there will be some thinking about what those hybrid business models look like going forward.”

Confirmed headline speakers during the two-day conference include: • Eddie Drake, Head of Technology at Marvel Studios • Anthony Guarino, EVP, Worldwide Technical Operations at Paramount Global • Renard Jenkins, SVP, Production Integration and Creative Technology Services at Warner Bros. Discovery • Michael Wise, SVP/CTO, Universal Pictures

• Lewis Smithingham, SVP of Innovation at Media Monks • Raymundo Barros, CTO at Globo • Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer at ZEE5 Global

FOCUS ON TRENDS AND INNOVATION New this year is the free “IBC Changemaker sessions,” hosted by IBC’s Partners’ Programme, which bring together industry trailblazers such as RISE, Albert, MovieLabs, HBS, Soho Media Club to explore topics such as raising equality, advancing sustainability and mental health awareness—as well as the latest thinking in creativity and technology.

Also featured is IBC’s Partnership Pavilion and free-to-attend IBC Owner sessions, which

Show organizers are seeing high demand for exhibit space at this year’s IBC Show

will enable attendees to engage with and gain insights from the six leading international bodies behind IBC: IABM, IEEE BTS, IET, RTS, SCTE, and SMPTE. Other free-to-attend sessions include panel discussions, product demonstrations and case studies presented on the Content Everywhere Stage in its new purpose-built home in the expanded Hall 5.

A four-day program will cover live streaming and VOD; achieving low latency; content discovery and recommendations; audience engagement; monetization models and ad tech; software development strategies; and device fragmentation.

A new addition to the show is the Showcase Theatre in Hall 12, which will feature live demos, masterclasses and thought-leadership insights on key trends and opportunities from leading technology providers such as Accenture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), EVS and Zixi. The Innovation Stage in Hall 2 will feature thought leadership speakers and other sessions.

The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme returns, bringing together pioneering media companies and leading edge technology partners as they collaborate to solve real-world challenges and drive advances across a range of areas, including cloud production, 5G, AI and Volumetric Video.

Also returning is the IBC Accelerator Project of the Year Award 2022, voted by an independent jury of media and innovation peers, with the award announced after IBC showcases have taken place.

To register for the show, visit show.ibc.org. l

The ‘IBC Manfesto’

days,” he said. “The impact was compounded by the fact that the cancellation was so close to the show. We learned an important lesson regarding the speed of comms and the channels.

In the weeks leading up to the 2021 IBC Show—which was “In response, IBC has set up a small Advisory Group scheduled for early December—an increasing number of exhibitors plus the IABM to ensure that we are able of exhibitors announced cancellations, leading to to assess market sentiment more easily and respond rampant speculation about whether the show would more quickly in future,” Crimp added. “This process go on as planned. Despite reassurances for COVIDis working really well. A monthly—or more frequent safe protocols from the IBC and the city of Amif necessary—COVID status report is published on sterdam, the show was eventually cancelled just IBC’s show site. In addition, after two years of cantwo weeks prior to the event, leading to exhibitors IBC CEO cellation, IBC was keen to publish its refund position incurring unrecoverable costs.

Michael Crimp for 2022 to allow exhibitors to plan with comfort. These This lead the IBC to survey its exhibitors and develop actions are the core of the manifesto and underpin the a better plan to keep all parties informed and provide a individual commercial negotiations with each IBC customer. robust feedback channel. The result was the “IBC Manifesto,” in “The Advisory Group meetings have gone very well and other which the organization admitted that its “actions and position did feedback we have had from across the industry is extremely not resonate with the industry, especially exhibitors.” encouraging. The results can be seen in the levels of exhibitor IBC CEO Michael Crimp explained how uncertainty over commitment to IBC2022—really positive momentum, including COVID-19 led to the communication breakdown with exhibitors: exhibitor bookings that were beyond our expectations.”

“The incredibly swift rise in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID in Amsterdam meant that IBC2021 moved from ON to OFF in seven ❚ Tom Butts

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23

eye on tech | IBC product previews MediaKind

nxtedition

The centerpiece of MediaKind’s stand at IBC 2022 will be a live, end-to-end streaming experience, using eSports-style car racing game simulator pods to create real-time live video content for all on-booth and partner demonstrations. Visitors can explore how MediaKind’s media technology solutions enable broadcasters, content owners, telcos and service providers to stream live without limits at scale and learn how the company is transforming audience engagement, personalizing services and enabling new monetization models for all content across all screens.

Demos will include examples of live content acquisition applications, including media workflows and media processing in cloud contribution; at-home/remote production workflows; content replacement for targeted advertising distribution; all-IP workflows; and live event pop-up video streaming and monetization. Booth visitors will also get a chance to win a prize by participating in the “Track the Ads” challenge. z MediaKind will be in Stand 1.D09.

Broadcast microservices specialist nxtedition will demo its agile and digital-first platform that places storytelling at the heart of the production workflow, allowing even small teams to create and deliver highly compelling content fast, first and accurately. By creating a densely feature-rich microservice ecosystem, nxtediton has consolidated sophisticated tools like planning, NRCS, ingest, MAM, graphics, streaming, studio automation and digital publishing into a platform that removes engineering and puts storytelling at the center of the process.

Each member of the team has context-aware access to exactly the functionality they need within the single unified GUI, ensuring all their tasks are intuitive and primarily handled by simple drag and drop features. This ensures lightning speed as content comes in, is turned around and pushed out without losing time switching to other applications. The speed and productivity gains from this approach ensure nxtedition clients are always the first notification on a viewer’s device. z nxtedition will be in Stand 7.A08.

Artel Video Systems

Rohde & Schwarz

At IBC 2022, Artel Video Systems will feature products that simplify broadcasters’ shift to hybrid IP/ SDI and all-IP operations and offer hands-on demonstrations of the SMART Multimedia Delivery Platform in DigiLink/ InfinityLink configurations and the award-winning SMART Multimedia Delivery Platform in openGear (SMART OG).

Artel will show how its SMART platform enables different functionalities on the installed hardware system as needed just by selecting software icons. The company will also show one SMART implementation running J2K compressed video and another (the SMART OG) running JPEG-XS compressed video so that attendees can appreciate SMART’s ability to support different personalities on the same hardware module. z Artel Video Systems will be in Stand 1.C99.

Rohde & Schwarz will spotlight integrated end-to-end media workflows and software-upgradable transmitters during IBC 2022. At its stand, the company will offer multiple live demos of its platform-agnostic studio production, playout and transcoding capabilities to underscore its support for customers with a clear migration path from SDI through IP and the cloud.

R&S’s Pixel Power division will demonstrate its studio production, post-production, delivery and distribution solutions with the agility to adapt to changing market dynamics. Pixel Power will feature playout, branding and automation workflows on the show floor via the AWS public cloud and also demo its on-premise solution. A portfolio for playout and transmission suites with integrated, software-defined, virtualizable R&S PRISMON monitoring and multiviewing is now available in one system. z Rohde & Schwarz will be in Stand 7.B21.

Cinegy

LiveU

At IBC 2022 Cinegy will showcase its portfolio of 8K and cloud-optimized solutions, including booth demos of Cinegy Air PRO, Cinegy Capture PRO, Cinegy Multiviewer, Cinegy Convert and Cinegy Archive, within which the Daniel2 codec is an integral part. Visitors will see first-hand how Cinegy solutions simplify workflows and allow production teams to work smarter and more efficiently.

As an early adopter of the open source Secure Reliable Transport protocol, Cinegy has SRT baked into its technology, including the license, which removes any concerns about whether users have the legal right, proper subscription, or adequate bandwidth to deploy the software.

At IBC LiveU will show its end-toend cloud-based video production workflow for the first time with easylive.io, which it acquired in May. With the integration of easylive.io, LiveU now offers a complete solution for live contribution, cloud production, orchestration, ingest and distribution. LiveU will also present its cloud-based solutions in the context of sustainable live production.

LiveU will also feature its native 5G live contribution and distribution solutions, including its multi-cam LU800 5G production-level field unit, compact LU300S 5G video transmission solution and production tools using its LiveU Reliable Transport (LRT) protocol. z LiveU will be in Stand 7.C30.

z Cinegy will be in Stand 7.A01.

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eye on tech | product and services Blackmagic Design ATEM SDI Switcher

Blackmagic Design has introduced a new family of portable ATEM SDI live production switchers with professional 3G-SDI connections. Fast and easy to set up, the new ATEM SDI family of portable production switchers is powerful, offering standards converters on all inputs, a built-in Fairlight audio mixer with 6-band parametric EQ compressor and limiter on all inputs, internal DVEs, chromakeyers and professional transitions.

Priced starting at $345 and available from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide, the new switcher family includes the ATEM SDI and ATEM SDI Pro ISO models with four SDI inputs and the eight-SDI-input ATEM SDI Extreme ISO model. Each offers re-sync on every SDI input. A USB port works as a webcam to connect video to computers.

The Pro and Extreme models feature builtin streaming. z For more information, visit

www.blackmagicdesign.com

Avid

Anton/Bauer

Avid‘s new NEXIS F-Series media server family leverages enterprise-class hardware, including faster storage controllers, disks and network connections, for enhanced performance and support for media projects requiring a greater number of files to be managed. NEXIS F-Series was designed to support evolving media workflows in which large teams of media professionals work offsite by delivering secure, remote access to media and metadata across flash, online, nearline, cloud and archive storage.

Also new is Avid NEXIS | VFS, a virtual file system that enables deployment of NEXIS storage on premise, in the cloud or as a SaaS solution and makes it possible for editors, VFX specialists and other media creators to collaborate from anywhere. Avid NEXIS F-Series and NEXIS | VFS file system are available on a subscription basis via the company’s newly announced NEXIS | FLEX purchase plan for media companies transitioning to an OPEX mode. z For more information, visit www.avid.com

Anton/Bauer has expanded its Dionic 26V series of cinema batteries by working with ARRI to develop a new range of B-Mount batteries, chargers and camera plates for cinematographers, rental houses, and content creators using such cameras as the recently launched ARRI Alexa 35. Just like Anton/Bauer’s existing 26V Gold-Mount Plus solution, the native 26V B-Mount Li-ion batteries offer up to 240 watt-hours of reliable, safe, and efficient power. The Dionic native 26V range now includes 98-Wh and 240-Wh batteries and quad chargers in B-Mount or Gold-Mount Plus options, plus a range of mounting plates for connecting to industry-leading cameras and LED lighting fixtures.

The Dionic 26V B-Mount Charger offers rapid charging for B-Mount 26V batteries, charging the 98Wh battery in around 1.5 hours and the 240Wh battery in around 3.5 hours, a sharp contrast to competing dual-voltage or “regulated” 26V batteries that take up to three times longer to charge. z For more information, visit www.antonbauer.com/en/

NEXIS F-Series

Dionic 26V Series Cinema Batteries

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Capturing News at KNN With Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2s USER REPORT

By Zak Holman Director of Photography Key News Network

LOS ANGELES—Capturing breaking news coverage with gear that allows me to deliver high-quality results while meeting my tight deadlines is a top priority for me. Since 2009, I have been shooting this type of content for TV and print publications in the Los Angeles area and over that time, I’ve covered some of the most compelling incidents in recent history and work with an incredibly talented team of professional photojournalists at Key News Network (KNN), covering breaking, live, and overnight news in California and other top U.S. markets.

Recently we added several Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 cameras paired with B4 ENG

lenses into our workflow to capture and supply footage ranging from house fires, physical rescues, homicide investigations, to protests, and more. Our content is also made available on KNN’s YouTube channel and the online site “News Break.” On average, we deliver more than 100 news stories a month, so quality of footage, reliability, and ease of use are key.

DYNAMIC RANGE Thanks to the URSA Broadcast G2s’ 13 stops of dynamic range and low light performance with dual gain ISO, we’ve been able to capture incredible shots with rich detail. All footage is currently captured in 4K, but it’s great to know we have the ability to shoot up to 6K if need be, because of the camera’s 3 in 1 design—a 4K production camera, 4K studio camera, or 6K digital cinema camera.

With the URSA Broadcast G2s, we are no longer at the mercy of Mother Nature or concerned about bad conditions when out in

Zak Holman and the news teams at Key News Network use several Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 cameras to deliver more than 100 news stories a month.

the field. There have been instances when I think the conditions won’t allow us to shoot, but I’ve been proven wrong. This is a brilliant feeling of freedom as a photographer when I’m able to produce beyond what my eye can see. For example, when capturing a physical rescue with a dark subject area and harsh direct lighting for illumination is no longer an issue due to the cameras’ dynamic range.

My team and I can also film in adverse situations far more clearly than before, which is a huge difference not just for us, but our clients as well. A standard house fire or physical rescue shots look cleaner and clearer. As we come into brush fire season in Southern California, I know I can rely on the URSA Broadcast G2s to capture clear visuals that the community needs to stay informed and safe.

The cameras have also integrated seamlessly into our workflow—our photographers simply grab the cameras and start using them thanks to their intuitive design and the easy-to-navigate Blackmagic OS.

READY FOR ACTION Because we’re on call to cover what is happening at any given moment, we need to be prepared at all times. Having gear like the URSA Broadcast G2s that we can just pick up and start using is very important for us.

A slow boot-up time by seconds can be the difference between getting or missing the shot. All cameras are paired up with the URSA Viewfinder and URSA Mini Shoulder Kits, giving our team flexibility.

Incorporating the URSA Broadcast G2s into our workflow has been a game changer. Not only does the gear keep up with our demanding work at a quality that never disappoints, but the company’s support team is also incredibly valuable. To me, Blackmagic Design will continue to be our “eyes” as we capture the world around us for a long time to come. l Zak Holman is the director of photography at Key News Network and is based in Los Angeles.

He can be reached at 323-455-4187 or info@ keynews.tv. For more information on Key News Network, visit www.keynews.tv.

For more information on URSA Broadcast G2 cameras, contact Blackmagic Design at 408954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Game Creek Taps Sony’s HDC-F5500 Cameras to Enhance Live Productions USER REPORT

By Riley Helsen Director, Client Solutions Game Creek Video

HUDSON, N.H.—Game Creek Video is a leading media production services and facilities provider that offers technical and logistical expertise behind the biggest events in sports and entertainment. Game Creek’s live events customers are constantly seeking new ways to engage with their audience and enhance the story.

The most recent result of that pursuit is the look of the shallow depth-of-field camera.

Commonly referred to as “the cinematic look,” this style of capture has increased in popularity and helps an audience know where to direct the eyes. Shallow depth-of-field has been adopted in television and movies, where productions rely on cameras like Sony’s fullframe VENICE to achieve this new form of expression.

Game Creek’s entertainment and corporate events clients demand a similarly functional tool that balances creative needs with the ease of setup and quick teardown that they are accustomed to in an integrated broadcast camera system.

purchasing these cameras is their ability to move between various trucks in the Game Creek fleet in a “plug and play” fashion, using existing CCUs, SMPTE fiber and infrastructure. This allows greater flexibility to find the right solution for a project and provides a great deal of versatility. Game Creek also appreciates the fully integrated tally, intercom and return video for multicam feeds; and the motorized ND and filter wheel control—borrowed from VENICE—is a big hit.

NATIVE RCP CONTROL Additionally, the F5500 offers native Sony RCP control with full color matrix and the ability to match cameras perfectly in a multicamera environment. Game Creek has worked closely with Sony for years and owns more than 600 Sony cameras, which means the controls and menus are familiar and there’s virtually no learning curve.

Knowing that the F5500 intermixes seamlessly with the HDC-5500 inventory is a critical advantage because both can operate with the S-LOG3 Cine gamut and offer a consistent look for post-production. The ability to plug the F5500 into mobile unit CCUs and immediately have a fully integrated system with the existing video shading architecture in all mobile units adds great value to the overall fleet.

In live entertainment productions which

often include various lighting conditions and frequently incorporate LED walls, the F5500 shines. Due to the global shutter sensor, the moire effect on LED walls was minimized or eliminated, which is a great benefit. The cameras have performed consistently during outdoor keynote speeches, as well as dimly lit environments with strobe lights.

Overall, the cameras work phenomenally and are a popular request. Game Creek values the ability to simultaneously be in the HDR and SDR worlds, as many clients move toward an HDR environment or look to secure the future of their content through archive. As requests continue to grow for 1080P, 4K and HDR productions, Sony’s HDC-F5500 is a powerful tool to provide Game Creek’s customers with the latest creative technology. l In his role as director, client solutions for Game Creek Video, Riley Helsen is responsible for developing new and diverse projects and helping Game Creek’s customers match service and technology solutions with creative production needs. Riley has been with Game Creek Video since 2013 and previously worked in the engineering department as a mobile unit engineer and engineering project manager. He can be reached at rhelsen@gamecreekvideo.com.

For more information, visit https://pro.sony/ue_US/home

MULTICAMERA PRODUCTION As long-standing Sony customers, Game Creek is excited about the HDC-F5500 system camera, with a Super 35mm 4K CMOS global shutter image sensor. Game Creek currently manages 10 of these camera chains not only because clients are requesting them, but because the company believes that this is the future of larger sensor multicamera production.

One of the key benefits of the F5500 is the ability to do a true larger-sensor, streamlined multicamera production with the efficiency of a traditional broadcast camera system. The Super 35mm sensor look also gives a shallower depth-of-field than a typical 2/3-inch broadcast camera. Additionally, it uses native PL-mount lenses, giving creators lots of options for optics—there is really nothing else on the market like it.

Another important consideration when

Game Creek Video believes the Sony HDC-F5500 cameras are the future of larger sensor multi-camera production.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2022

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses

Interface Communications Optimizes Mobile Productions With Hitachi Cameras USER REPORT

By Dimitrios Lagos Operations Manager Interface Communications

FLUSHING, NY–Interface Communications was founded in 1999 to provide a higher level of mobile television production to broadcast and corporate organizations worldwide. We provide production services and engineering solutions for everything from sports and entertainment events to parades, fashion shows, and church services, with clients including the NBA, ESPN, CNBC, and Fortune 100 corporations.

Earlier this year we set out to upgrade the cameras on our 33-foot production hybrid truck Hermes to better support the work we do with the NBA, which includes coverage of pre- and post-game press conferences, events such as the governor’s meetings, and additional supplementary feeds. Our existing cameras were 1080i and used HD-SDI connectivity, but the NBA production compound uses 1080p over 3G-SDI. Adding 1080p cameras would not only avoid the need for conversions in the NBA compound, but also give us greater format flexibility with other clients.

productions with the new cameras.

The benefits we’re getting from the Hitachi cameras go beyond their great image quality—their global shutter image sensors are ideal for shooting against LED backdrops. Some of our corporate clients do announcements with LED video walls in the background and shooting against those with other cameras would drive us crazy trying to get a stable, flicker-free image, but it’s a lot easier with the SK-HD1800s. They’re also very forgiving in low light, which is particularly useful for church services.

FORMAT FLEXIBILITY The SK-HD1800s give us the flexibility to match whatever signal format is needed for any particular project and we can be up and running fast—which is crucial when we’re setting up on-site under a tight timeframe. As for reliability, we’ve had no issues at all with the SK-HD1800s, despite the beating they’ve endured from some of the crews that we use.

Our satisfaction with Hitachi Kokusai

Interface Communications selected Hitachi HDTV cameras as part of an upgrade to its hybrid truck Hermes.

COMPETITIVE PRICES Our positive experience with earlier Hitachi camera models—including the SK-HD1000 and SK-HD1200—prompted us to look at their newest HDTV camera model, the SK-HD1800.

We compared the Hitachi cameras to other manufacturers’ offerings and found the SK-HD1800s to deliver visual quality that is just as good as the alternatives but at a more competitive price point. At the end of the day, very few people can tell the difference between the SK-HD1800s and much more expensive competitors.

We initially purchased four SK-HD1800s and now have seven. We used them for the first time during the NBA All-Star Game in February and used them during the NBA Finals as well. So far, we have done about 20

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isn’t just about the cameras themselves, but also the people behind the products. Their after-sale support has been amazing. If we have an on-site problem or question, we need answers fast, but with many vendors, it can be hard to get someone on the phone. With Hitachi Kokusai, they’re always there for us.

In my opinion, for the price, you simply can’t beat the SK-HD1800s. As a small company, we have to get the most value for our money, but even if we had a much bigger budget, we would stick with the Hitachi cameras—they do what they’re supposed to do and do it well. They’re flexible enough to handle practically any project we take on, and they put out a great picture, which is what I care about most. l Dimitrios Lagos is operations manager at Interface Communications. He can be reached at dlagos@interfacetv.com.

For more information on Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, call 833-227-1658 or visit www.hitachikokusai.us.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

BAOSN Brings Sports Into Focus With JVC GY-HC500 CONNECTED CAMs USER REPORT

By Jim Petromilli Founder, President and Engineer Bay Area Online Sports Network

and we shifted to REMI (REMote Integration production). When a broadband connection is available on location and at the studio, the workflow involves simply connecting the camera LAN to the router or using built-in camera Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity. REMI allows us to send the H.264- or HEVC-encoded ISO feed from each camera directly to our BR-DE900 decoders using SRT. Setup on location is always quick and simple. The GY-HC500 can store four streaming destinations and return video (IFB) sources and with all settings preprogrammed—connecting to the internet and pressing the “Online” button is all that is needed to start a contribution-quality video feed to the remote studio.

SAN MATEO, Calif.—At the Bay Area Online Sports Network (BAOSN), our mission is to deliver cost-effective, high-definition, quality broadcasts of local high school and college sporting events online. As our tagline—“Game On—Live and Later”—says, our broadcasts are available live and then archived for several years. Any broadcast, live or archived, can be viewed by anyone for free and in order to make live events special, we cover not only the game on the field, but the cheerleaders, bands, and dance teams as well. .

Jim Petromilli believes that JVC’s 500

PRODUCE AT A HIGHER LEVEL We have used JVC cameras since we started in 2014, so when JVC introduced its 500 Series CONNECTED CAM with SRT, it was a game changer for us. The GY-HC500 camera—with its 40X lossless dynamic zoom and ability to use SRT—has allowed us to be able to play at a higher level.

Most of our games are shot in 720p, as most of our clients—both national and local—ask for it. The 40X zoom was one of the key factors that made us go with the GY-HC500.

Today we utilize four GY-HC500 CONNECTED CAMs, four BR-DE900 decoders, JVC’s professional-grade, high-performance IP decoding appliance, and two previous generation JVC cameras.

Series CONNECTED CAM with SRT has has had a visible impact on BAOSN’s sports production.

COVID SHIFT TO REMI In response to the pandemic, remote production took center stage

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Trying to purchase and learn how to use new cameras during the pandemic posed potentially unprecedented challenges for us, but the support we received from Edgar Shane, JVC general manager, engineering, and his team was incredible. They made sure we were up to speed on how best to set up and utilize our new cameras and about SRT technology in general.

Due to the pandemic, all of our training and support was done remotely over the phone, and they were incredible to work with.

You don’t necessarily think about the support component when you make a purchase, but JVC’s customer service is top notch. l Jim Petromilli is the founder, president and engineer of Bay Area Online Sports Network (BAOSN). Founded in 2014, BAOSN was originally focused on local sports, however, over time BAOSN has evolved into a regional producer of Div. 1 sports in addition to a variety of local events.

Prior to starting BAOSN, Jim spent several years in higher education implementing various instructional technologies for in-person and distance education. They are based in San Mateo, Calif. and he can be reached at petromilli@BAOSN.TV. For more information on JVC cameras visit http://pro.jvc.com.

equipment guide | cameras & lenses buyers briefs Marshall CV568 Global Shutter Camera with Genlock

Canon CR-N300 UHD PTZ Camera Designed for use in a wide-range of applications in broadcast, education, house of worship, sports, and corporate environments, Canon’s CR-N300 4K UHD PTZ camera capitalizes on Canon’s digital imaging and operational expertise from professional camcorders to deliver stunning results. In addition to brilliant 4K imagery, achieved with Canon’s CMOS sensor and DIGIC DV 6 image processor, the camera features smooth pan, tilt and zoom functionality that allows for on-air camera movement. The CR-N300 is equipped with four unique scene modes: portrait, sports, low-light, and spotlight, and it also supports IP and serial connections when using the Canon RC-P100 camera remote controller.

Marshall’s CV568 Global Shutter Camera with Genlock (signal-sync) features the latest in sensor technology and performance. Choosing a 1/1.8inch Global Shutter sensor with 25% larger pixel size over similar models creates a competitive edge with step-up performance.

The CV568’s Global Shutter sensor with Genlock enables crystal clear images time sync-ed for fast switching and improved performance in fast-motion action. The CV568 Miniature HD Camera is built into the same durable miniature-sized body as Marshall’s other CV500-series cameras with rear panel protection, interchangeable M12 lenses, secure locking connections and remote adjust/match features including Color Matrix and a suite of other settings. z For more information visit https://marshall-usa.com

z For more information visit www.usa.canon.com

MRMC ARC-360 PTZ Camera The ARC-360 PTZ Camera houses the award-winning Sony Exmor R sensor, providing the highest quality image within a precision-engineered housing.

Designed to operate in a variety of conditions, the ARC–360 camera offers a fully remote solution for a wide range of customer applications.

The ARC-360 utilizes the latest technology to ensure reliability and performance. Built around an ARM process, the camera’s electronics are designed to be remotely accessed or upgraded, ensuring downtime is kept to a minimum. The camera can be controlled through MRMC’s Broadcast Control Panel, and the MHC and Polymotion Chat software with full CCU control. z For more information visit www.mrmoco.com

Cooke Optics Varotal/i FF Zoom Lens Cooke Optics’ new Varotal/i FF zoom lenses cover all full-frame sensors and are matched in resolution, color and fall-off to the Cooke S7/i range, providing a complete suite of Cooke full frame spherical lenses.

The focal lengths of the lenses are 30-95mm and 85-215mm respectively. The mounts can be chosen as either PL or LPL at time of Order.

The lenses also include /i Technology to record invaluable lens data, and are optimized to capture the warmth, texture and beautiful skin tones which are the hallmarks of the Cooke lenses. z For more information visit www.cookeoptics.com

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | August 2022

equipment guide | cameras & lenses

The Florida Channel Covers Capitol With Panasonic PTZ Cameras USER REPORT

By Terry Longordo Chief Engineer The Florida Channel

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—As a government-access television network housed in the Florida Capitol building in Tallahassee, The Florida Channel serves as the state’s primary source for live, unedited coverage of the governor, cabinet, legislature and Supreme Court. We are funded by the Florida Legislature and produced and operated by Florida State University’s WFSU-TV. We have always recorded every Capitol meeting, broadcasting them live or online before archiving them. However, the ability to tune in remotely became much more important during the pandemic when the Capitol was closed to the public.

In recent years, we had deployed 70 robotic cameras throughout the Capitol complex, but in 2021, it was time to upgrade the camera systems in the House and Senate chambers and the Knott committee rooms. Our outdated equipment began causing issues and failures, inhibiting our ability to provide high-quality content for at-home viewers.

part of the action with the ability to capture more close-ups of the speakers through the 20X zoom. The cameras’ seamless operation makes them easy to use whether the operator is an experienced member of the production team or part-time employee.

We also implemented Panasonic’s AVUHS500 4K/HD live production switcher, which aligns well with the cameras to streamline workflows with their easy-to-use interface and built-in PIP, viewfinder and waveform monitor.

increased now that people can watch our footage online via 18 different web channels.

We have already equipped our remote events crew with Panasonic AW-HE42 HD PTZ cameras to support their extensive meeting coverage throughout the state. So far, the cameras have cut down on setup time and reduced the number of crew members needed.

We’re excited to continue improving our broadcasts as we change out the camera technology in other parts of the Capitol in the years ahead. l

REMOTE CAMERA CONTROL

Terry Longordo serves as assistant director of technology services/chief engineer at WFSU TV/The Florida Channel where he oversees the engineering team and the transmission of the Channel to all state affiliates. Earlier in his career, he served as TV station manager at Lake-Sumter State College and as an audiovisual specialist at the University of Central Florida, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in radio and television. He can be reached at tlongordo@fsu.edu.

For more information on Panasonic cameras visit https://na.panasonic.com/us/.

In addition to deploying the new PTZ cameras, we installed single-mode fiber-optic wiring around the Capitol complex to control the cameras remotely from a central master control. This new setup, along with the flexibility afforded by the cameras, has made our broadcasts run much more smoothly.

Since deploying Panasonic PTZ cameras, we have dramatically enhanced the quality of our broadcasts, which means we’re keeping residents engaged and informed on key legislative activity. Our viewership has also

BETTER WORKFLOWS IN THE HOUSE After looking at multiple solutions, we chose to deploy eight Panasonic AW-UE150 4K 60p PTZ cameras with AW-SF300 Visual Preset Software because of their high-quality acquisition, ease of use and reasonable price points.

Our production crews have always maintained a busy schedule. While covering one live meeting, they simultaneously cover three other meetings for later viewing. When the state legislature is in session, we often capture as many as 16 meetings per day for the Florida Senate and the Florida House of Representatives, producing 2,500 hours of annual public programming. Our remote events group also covers key government meetings statewide when the state legislature is not in session.

With the UE150 cameras, one operator can run anywhere from three to eight cameras at a time. We can make our audience feel

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When the state legislature is in session, The Florida Channel captures as many as 16 meetings per day for its Florida Senate and House coverage.

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equipment guide | cameras & lenses buyers briefs ZEISS ZEISS Supreme Prime 15mm T1.8 Lens

Ikegami UHK-X750 4K-UHD HDR Studio Camera

ZEISS has added a wide-angle lens, the Supreme Prime 15mm T1.8, to complete its popular Supreme Prime series of high-end cine lenses. With the new lens, its 14-piece high-end cine lens series now range from 15-200mm and a maximum aperture of T1.5 to T2.2, covering a full range of focal lengths in demand by cinematographers. The new 15mm lens provides an extremely wide-angle view and a maximum aperture of T1.8 and like the other ZEISS Supreme Primes, covers a wide range of camera sensors and has broad compatibility with current camera models, including the Sony VENICE, ARRI Alexa (Mini) LF, or RED Monstro.

Introduced at the 2022 NAB Show, the UHK-X750 is a full studio/OB camera optimized for fixed-mount operation on a pedestal or tripod with high frame-rate capture for slow motion applications, global shutter sensors and versatile connectivity.

Designed for production studios and OB providers seeking high mastering quality, the optical front end of the UHK-X750 features three 2/3-inch CMOS UHD sensors with a global shutter to minimize artifacts when shooting LED screens or scenes illuminated with flash or strobe lighting. Full HDR/SDR support is included plus the ability to choose between BT.2020 and BT.709 color spaces as well as high framerate shooting at up to 2x speed in UHD or up to 8x in HD via the optional base station.

z For more information visit www.zeiss.com

Fujifilm FUJINON UA107x8.4AF Box Lens The FUJINON UA107x8.4AF is the world’s first 4K-compatible box lens with autofocus. Perfect for live sports coverage with the optical 107× zoom, it is also ideal for entry level and volunteer camera operators. It offers a unique optical image stabilization mechanism, vivid color reproduction and HDR-based rich tonal gradation for superior video production, natural bokeh that is achieved with 9-blade diaphragm and built-in 16-bit encoders. It offers a focal length at 1x of 8.4-900mm and a focal length at 2x of 16.8-1800mm. The lens measures 258 x 264 x 670mm (HxWxL) and weighs 26.0 kg.

z For more information visit www.ikegami.com

z For more information visit www.fujifilm.com/us/en/a

products & services marketplace

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

CLARENCE COPELAND

MELISSA CRAWFORD

ADAM WARE

KATHLEEN GERROW

President & CEO Louisiana Public Broadcasting

President & GM NBC & Telemundo Stations

SVP, Growth Networks Group Sinclair Broadcast Group

Vice President, News Director CBS News/Stations-Philadelphia

Clarence “C.C.” Copeland has been named president and CEO of Louisiana Public Broadcasting. He has 42 years’ experience in television and is a 25-year veteran of LPB, most recently having served as LPB’s acting executive director since August 2021. He succeeds long-time leader Beth Courtney. Copeland will oversee the development of new content and the application of new technologies across existing and emerging platforms.

Melissa “Missy” Crawford has been named president/GM of Telemundo 20/KUAN and NBC 7/KNSD, NBCUniversal’s local television stations that serve Spanish and English-speaking audiences in the San Diego DMA. She will oversee all station operations including news, digital, sales, marketing, community affairs and technology/ operations department. Crawford has worked at NBCUniversal Local for nearly 11 years, after 10 years at NBC 4 New York/WNBC.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has promoted Adam Ware to SVP, Growth Networks Group. Previously VP and GM of the group, he will continue to oversee the national multicast networks: Comet, Charge! and TBD, as well as digital and OTT streaming platform STIRR. Before joining Sinclair in 2014, Ware held senior management positions at networks including United Paramount Network, USA Network and Home Shopping Network, and Fox Broadcasting Co.

Kathleen Gerrow has been named VP and news director at CBS News and Stations’ local businesses in Philadelphia, including KYW-TV (CBS), WPSG-TV (CW), the CBS News Philly streaming channel and CBSPhilly.com. Gerrow is returning to KYW-TV, where she worked as a news producer from 1983–1996.

She has spent the past 26 years at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, including the last 10 years as that station’s assistant news director.

GM of WTVG Gray Television

KATHERINE POPE

BRANDIN STEWART

VP/GM of WDTN-TV Nexstar Media

MELISSA JONES

President Sony Pictures Television Studios

Nexstar Media has announced the promotion of Melissa Jones to VP/GM of its broadcasting and digital operations in Dayton, Ohio (DMA #64), including WDTN-TV (NBC), wdtn.com, and related digital and social media channels.

She will also overseeing Nexstar’s relationship with Vaughn Media’s WBDT, Dayton’s CW, under two joint operating agreements. Jones will report to Doug Davis, SVP and regional manager for the broadcasting division.

Gray Television has appointed Brad Moses GM of WTVG-TV (ABC) in Toledo, Ohio. A native of the Toledo area, the new position brings Moses back to his broadcast roots.

He worked at WTVG from 1994 to 2000, first as operations manager and then as director of creative services. He has more than 30 years of experience in television, including GM of television stations then owned by Media General in Tampa, Fla.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Savannah, Ga.

SVP & Regional Manager for Broadcasting Division Nexstar Media

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has appointed Katherine Pope its president of Sony Pictures Television Studios, overseeing all domestic scripted productions. Pope, who most recently was head of original content at Charter Communications, has held leadership roles at major networks, studios and production companies and has developed and overseen numerous acclaimed drama and comedy series over the course of her career.

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BRAD MOSES

Nexstar Media Inc. has appointed Brandin Stewart SVP and regional manager for its broadcasting division, overseeing Nexstar TV stations and digital operations in multiple markets across the country. Stewart served most recently as president/ GM of CBS 3 (KYW-TV) and The CW Philly (WPSG-TV) in Philadelphia, from 2019 through 2021, where he was responsible for the long term strategy and day-to day operations of both media businesses.

9000