TV Technology 497 - May 2024

Welcome to the May 2024 issue of

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NAB Show Wrapup 2024

M&E’s largest event examines impact of AI on media’s future

NAB Show’s AI Battle: Ameca vs. The Loop

To the surprise of no one, artificial intelligence was the standout of the 2024 NAB Show, much like the 2023 gathering. AI was everywhere on the show floor as well as in the conferences and organization of the show itself. Although in our industry, we envision AI as the “magic sauce” that will help make our workflows more efficient, accelerate, enhance and simplify content creation, and help consumers discover programs, AI at the NAB Show was also presented in human form with “Ameca,” promoted as the world’s most advanced AI robot who addressed the opening session of the show. (Fortunately the androgynous life-size figure was not dressed in a smart TV anchor-style business suit.)

I didn’t get a chance to see the presentation, but I did catch her (or its) encore performance in the press room, where Ameca responded to what is the first question on everyone’s mind: “When do you believe we’ll get to the point where AI can design itself?” In response, Ameca replied (in a British accent of course, to emphasize its sense of authority and wisdom) that while society is still a ways away from that point, it did caution that “an AI that can design itself is one step away from an AI that doesn’t need humans at all.”

My award for best use of AI at the show, though, wasn’t in the LVCC halls themselves, but underground, between the Central and West Halls: The Loop. After attempting to walk from North Hall to West Hall last year, I realized that, with time the most valuable commodity at the NAB Show, I better opt for a quicker alternative. I quickly came to enjoy the two-minute Tesla rides that whisked me to my destinations.

What’s not to like about The Loop? The cars are clean, drivers attentive and polite and in a town where long lines are everywhere, the wait times were minimal. There were hardly ever any lines and there was never any question of which bay the cars ended up—and that’s all because of the use of AI in managing the er, “carflow.”

So while the industry is in the throes of an AI revolution, with many promises still to come, my vote for best use of AI—for attendees trying to make the best use of their time navigating the show—was The Loop. Next challenge? The Starbucks line in Central Hall.

Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com

Vol. 42 No. 5 | May2024

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Ameca the AI robot (probably the first robot ever to sport an NAB Show badge), with her handler, Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig, answering questions from the press.

Elon Musk’s Tesla Loop was a lifeline for timechallenged attendees.

NBCUniversal Launches Personalized, Hyperlocal Services via ATSC 3.0

In a major step forward in the broadcast industry’s move to ATSC 3.0, NBCUniversal announced last month that it is launching personalized broadcast experiences through its NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) overthe-air channels on NBC- and Telemundoowned stations in four markets.

The new experience, which automatically launches when viewers tune into a NextGen TV over-the-air channel, is now available on NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations in the New York (NBC 4/WNBC and Telemundo 47/WNJU), Los Angeles (NBC4/KNBC), Philadelphia (NBC 5/ WCAU) and Miami (NBC6/WTVJ) and Telemundo 51/WSCV) markets.

Additional NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations, which are part of NBCUniversal Local, will soon deploy the new application in major media markets across the nation, NBCUniversal said.

Created in partnership with Fincons, Ease Live (an Evertz company) and Pearl TV, new features include the ability to restart programs when joined in progress; hyperlocalized elements integrated into the "Today" show; and access to personalized weather information—including radar, forecasts and meteorologist reports—and severe weather alerts.

The experience also provides expanded and enhanced access to content, including clips, full episodes and alternate programming from NBC and Telemundo’s local and national news, sports and entertainment shows and events, NBCUniversal said.

Tom Butts

Station Groups Announce Investment in ATSC 3.0 Software Platform

Several broadcast station groups have formed an advocacy to invest and promote the advancement of RUN3TV, a software suite for ATSC 3.0 that takes advantage of the format’s IP architecture to offer a wide range of advanced options, including DVRtype features as well as emergency alerts and ad personalization.

The companies— Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Hearst Television, Tegna and The E.W. Scripps Company— are members of Pearl TV, a consortium of broadcasters, manufacturers and NGOs that was formed at the dawn of the ATSC 3.0 transition when it launched six years ago. They have been among the most proactive station groups in deploying and promoting ATSC 3.0. Specific financial terms of the

investment were not disclosed.

ATSC 3.0 has been launched by more than 91 stations in 40 markets, bringing the advanced broadcast standard to within reach of more than 75% of U.S. households. Pearl says it expects that number to grow to more than 200 stations in 53 markets by the end of 2024.

The broadcast group investors will lead the funding to accelerate the commercial launch of the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority (A3FA), the driving force behind the RUN3TV platform. Pearl TV says it expects additional broadcast groups to become involved in the future. Progress Partners is the exclusive financial adviser for Pearl TV and A3FA initiative.

Tom Butts

Scripps News Taps Ad Fontes Media to Rate Content for Reliability and Bias

Scripps News has hired Ad Fontes Media, a tech company that rates the news for bias and reliability, to audit its national news.

The agreement is part of the network’s commitment to providing accurate, nonpartisan journalism and comes at a time when advertisers are struggling to filter through a deluge of low-quality journalism that can pose brand safety risks.

Ad Fontes uses human analysts paired with AI technology to rate over 10,000 news and informational websites, TV shows, YouTube channels, and podcasts on bias and reliability, plus over 100,000 articles each day in near real time.

“Scripps News’ unbiased, factbased journalism is what sets it apart from misinformation, AI-manipulated content, and clickbait that has flooded the information ecosystem,” said Kate O’Brian, president of News. “The partnership with Ad Fontes Media will ensure that readers and advertisers can be confident in the reliability of our award-winning work.”

Scripps News scores in the middle— in terms of bias—on Ad Fontes’ Media Bias Chart. It is also rated high for reliability, in the “Reliable Fact Reporting and Analysis” category, the companies reported.

The agreement with Scripps News will allow for Ad Fontes to undertake a more granular audit of content across Scripps News’ TV and digital news portfolio using Ad Fontes’ twotiered system. The company’s news rating methodology combines 60 highly trained human raters—one third of whom are self-identified as leftleaning, one third center-leaning and one third right-leaning—who work in teams of three. Their state-of-the-art AI news rating tool has been trained on four years of human rating data, the company said.

George Winslow

ATSC 3.0 Datacasting Comes Of Age

Important 3.0 developments at the 2024 NAB Show point to near-term revenue from datacasting.

The 2024 edition of the NAB Show will be remembered as a turning point in the effort to make ATSC 3.0-based datacasting a profitable proposition.

Sinclair Broadcast Group advanced its goal of monetizing spectrum from datacasting with the announcement of its Broadspan datacasting platform (see p. 25). AT&T Business was on the show floor in the ATSC booth discussing a significant upcoming trial of 3.0 datacasting that will lead to a Q4 2024 commercial launch for business clients, and a new venture, Peak3, informed public broadcasters at Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) TechConnect one day before the show about its efforts to sell 3.0 datacasting services to Internet of Things (IoT) customers.

DATA VERIFICATION

Phil Kurz

130Mbps and 250Mbps, respectively, such a comparison misses the point.

“It’s apples and oranges,” said Ripley. “When we say 9Mbps, that covers an entire geography…. multiply that by the number of people it covers, you’re going to get very, very big numbers in terms of total capacity.”

AT&T JOINS ATSC

The new Broadspan platform gives businesses a way to distribute data over the air to any device with a 3.0 receiver. Leveraging the broadcast core network Sinclair announced at the 2023 NAB Show, the platform enables customers to plan, order and validate delivery of their data. “They [customers] can immediately visualize network availability and order distribution tailored to their needs with a full picture of the path their data will take through the network,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley during the company’s NAB Show press conference.

Initially, Sinclair is making Broadspan available in the 30-plus markets where it is serving as the 3.0 host station; however, the company wishes to work with other broadcasters to grow the service, he said.

There are a couple of key takeaways from the Broadspan announcement. First, Sinclair already has a taker for Broadspan. Content delivery network Edgio will use the platform to deliver data over the air that supplements internet streamed content from OTT subscription services to give viewers access to 4K video. Second, the excess bandwidth available on Sinclair’s 3.0 host stations available for Broadspan is 9Mbps for delivery to stationary receivers, said Ripley. While at first glance that may seem paltry when compared to median U.S. mobile and fixed broadband speeds of

On the floor in the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, AT&T Business was full of surprises. The first was that the company joined the Advanced Television Systems Committee within the past two months. It is interested in using ATSC 3.0 as a business solution for wireless data delivery, said Cy Smith, founder and CEO of CY Networks, which recently has been hired by AT&T Business to provide engineering services related to 3.0 datacasting.

CY Networks makes a small, portable ATSC 3.0 receiver called Caros>>l (pronounced Carousel) that can receive and parse a 3.0 data stream and offers support for linear, real-time

as well as non-real-time datacasting.

The second surprise is AT&T Business this summer will launch a pilot program using 3.0 OTA data delivery to Caros>>l receivers for digital signage applications at its own retail locations—rather than fiber circuits or 5G, said Smith, adding that if all goes as expected AT&T Business will launch a 3.0-datacasting service for businesses before the end of the year.

AT&T Business is talking to “OTA Wireless”—the E.W. Scripps-Nexstar Media Group datacasting venture—about securing 3.0 bandwidth and is “hoping to work with everybody that wants to work with us” to secure bandwidth, said Smith.

IOT POTENTIAL

Peak3 also sees the potential of 3.0 for datacasting and has raised venture funding to become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to provide data IoT solutions for enterprises, said Alp Sezen, Peak3 CEO, who spoke at PMVG TechConnect.

Peak3 has inked a deal with Sinclair for 3.0 bandwidth and is weeks away from signing a deal with OTA Wireless as well, said Sezen, who was at the conference to find a way to work with public broadcasters as well. The company already has customers that will soon deploy, including a June rollout in Seattle and another that will launch later in Denver, he said.

IoT customers do not care about whose network is used to deliver their data; they simply care that their IoT devices can receive that data when it’s transmitted. “We feel we can do that on a national basis [leverage ATSC 3.0]” he said.

Sezen noted Peak3 has overcome a pricing impasse that made its launch difficult. The problem stemmed from the newness of 3.0 datacasting. Broadcasters, fearing they were leaving money on the table, were reluctant to assign a value to their 3.0 bandwidth available for datacasting. The solution proved to be a revenue split that would assure broadcasters their capacity was optimally priced.

Together, all of these developments demonstrate ATSC 3.0-based datacasting isn’t just technically possible, but more importantly that it is a viable, new revenue source that will benefit the bottom line of broadcasters.

CY Networks was in the ATSC booth at the NAB Show demo-ing its Caros>>l compact portable NextGen TV receiver. (L to R): Kris Brus, Niem Dang, C.Y. Smith and Jay Costales

NAB Show Welcomes Creators to Las Vegas

With more than half of attendees attending for the first time, show evolves to meet demands of the new media landscape

By David Cohen

The National Association of Broadcasters welcomed the industry to its annual extravaganza last month in Las Vegas. The sights and sounds were similar to previous years, but the question asked by many attendees, perhaps more than ever, might have been “what, exactly, is a broadcaster?”

NAB itself suggested the significance of the changing content creation and distribution landscape when it announced that more than half of the 61,000 pre-registered attendees were first-time visitors to the event.

For many exhibitors at the show, this is a welcome sign of the times.

Stan Moote, CTO of the International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers, a trade association for broadcast and media suppliers, spoke to dozens of members throughout the event. “As I’ve talked to our members, they’re saying they’re getting between 40–60% leads of people they’ve never had before,” Moote remarked. “From that standpoint, they’re very happy.”

Certainly, the creator economy, which NAB acknowledged this year with a dedicated exhibit floor destination and over 100 sessions during the conference, has changed how technology solution providers look at the market.

Let’s take a look at some of the key trends exhibitors and attendees alike were discussing at the show.

AI FOR THE WIN

In the days and weeks leading up to the show, industry insiders, vendors and media alike seemed unanimous in the opinion that talk of AI would win the day. Nearly 200 conference sessions referenced the technology in their respective descriptions and more than 200 exhibitors promoted AI in their directory entries. After spending four days walking the show floor and talking to attendees and exhibitors, it seems the buzz about AI may have already transitioned to the

excitement level of mere table stakes.

“There’s no question AI is incorporated into many products—but it just simply isn’t the main thing,” said Moote. “AI is powerful, but simply saying your product leverages AI isn’t really that significant. The important thing is how you’re leveraging it.”

Along those lines, the show floor featured exhibitors using AI for everything from generative techniques in content creation through more efficient ad serving technologies for linear programming and Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) channels.

Perhaps the most exciting display of AI at the show was an exclusive appearance by Ameca. Developed by Engineered Arts in the UK, Ameca is an autonomous, AI-powered humanoid robot that can answer questions tossed its way and perform tasks, such as draw pictures, on demand.

At its (her?) first public appearance at

NAB Show, Ameca caused quite a stir, but not necessarily for the reasons her creators anticipated. When asked by an interviewer when “AI will reach the level where it can design itself,” Ameca replied, in part, “An AI that can design itself is one step away from an AI that doesn't need humans at all.”

Maybe some more programming is required.

AI wasn’t the only advanced technology showcased at the event. Other burgeoning capabilities, such as virtual and augmented reality were featured around the show floor, as well. One notable example was in the Grass Valley booth in Central Hall where the company featured an early tech demonstration that used Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset to power a version of its AMPP vision mixer.

It’s early days for this type of functionality, but one couldn’t help feeling like a character in a Christopher Nolan sci-fi flick, dipping into the potential of these truly “virtual” production controls.

CLOUD WAS EVERYWHERE

It seems like just a few years ago that there was still some questions as to how critical the cloud would be to broadcast workflows. Well, a visit to just about any booth on the NAB Show floor would tell you those questions have been answered.

Concerns about security, throughput speed

More than half of the estimated 61,000 attendees were at the NAB Show for the first time, according to NAB.

and latency that prevailed pre-pandemic have quickly been allayed by the allure of workflow flexibility and potential cost efficiencies.

AWS once again anchored the West Hall boasting dozens of partner demonstrations of workflows from live production to automated playout—all featuring cloud-native applications. Not to be outdone, Google Cloud also had several key partners make announcements at the show, including Amagi, a leader in streaming broadcast and FAST channels, who announced pre-show that they had achieved 30% growth on Google Clouddeployed channels in the last six months.

FAST channels have been among the most anticipated topics leading into this year’s event. As streaming platforms continue to tweak their subscription models and jockey for market position, the rise in popularity of ad-supported programming fills a need. In addition to Amagi, exhibitors throughout the convention center promoted their solutions for FAST to deal with everything from AdTech to simplified playout.

Backlight, and Wurl announced a partnership at the show they say provides “superior programming, CMS and OTT management, distribution, and monetization capabilities for large and mid-market video publishers in the FAST and vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributor) ecosystem.” Dozens of others, including AWS, MediaKind, Yospace and Harmonic talked about the importance of maintaining quality and improving ad relevancy as the lines between linear television and streaming continue to blur.

NEXTGEN TV PROGRESS

The NAB’s primary mandate is to advocate for over-the-air broadcasters and this group has some exciting tech of its own to tout these days. Earlier this year, it was announced that the latest OTA standard from the Advanced Television Systems Committee is available in over 75% of U.S. households. ATSC 3.0, which enables a high-bandwidth, feature-rich service under the NextGen TV brand that’s set to provide 4K, high dynamic range and advanced audio capabilities free, with compatible NextGen TV devices.

In addition to this alternative for cordcutters, ATSC 3.0 is also being applied for the high-speed movement of data. During the show, Sinclair introduced its new Broadspan datacasting platform. Partnering with CDN provider Edgio, Sinclair unveiled the unique opportunity to test the promise of ATSC 3.0’s capabilities. According to an announcement, the new platform can “deliver a true 4K

“AI is powerful, but simply saying your product leverages AI isn’t really that significant. The important thing is how you’re leveraging it.”

STAN MOOTE, IABM

experience to viewers, by supplementing streaming over the internet with over-theair data. This takes advantage of the unique capability of ATSC 3.0 to converge broadcast and broadband seamlessly. Broadspan’s ability to deliver the extra bits to the customer over the air is a game changer.”

MEDIA TECH SUSTAINABILITY

NAB Show attendees were also able to explore the impact their work has—and will have, on the ecology. The “Sustainability in Media 101 Workshop, “produced by Media Tech Sustainability Series (the brainchild of industry veterans Lisa Collins and Barbara Lange), provided discussion and workshops about the ways content creators and distributors can reduce their carbon footprints and adjust workflows to improve the impact their work leaves on our world.

Kate Ford, PR strategist and content developer at industry firm Jump PR said, “We’re at the start of this journey and it was truly inspiring to be in a room with so many knowledgeable people … for years companies in industries across every sector have been focused on growth and profit without a real focus on how that growth affects the climate. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and regulations are fast developing to ensure businesses are accountable for their environmental footprint.”

With the Las Vegas Convention Center under construction, visitors to the show had to replace the North Hall with the South on their itineraries. The North Hall will return for the 2025 show with the Central Hall closed for construction. Next year's event is scheduled for April 6-9. l © NAB

David Cohen is president of Pinpoint Consulting LLC, a firm that specializes in improving executive-level communications and assisting in brand transformations.

NAB Show’s Cine Central track for cinematic technology were prominent in the outside exhibit area.

Stan Moote

NAB Chief LeGeyt Urges Broadcasters to Partner on AI to Battle Misinformation

Robot Ameca makes a splash, gives attendees a unique glimpse of artificial intelligence evolved,” he said.

By Michael Malone

The NAB Show Welcome session started with Shira Lazar, founder and CEO of “What’s Trending,” teasing the appearances of NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt, Nexstar Media Group Chairman Perry Sook and AI robot Ameca, among others.

“She is ready to get into it with you all,” Lazar said of Ameca.

Sook saluted the nearly 1,300 companies at the show. “The NAB Show is all about storytelling, and broadcasters are the heart and soul of storytelling,” he said.

The industry “strives and thrives” on collaboration, Sook added, and NAB Show is a perfect opportunity for them to share ideas.

Adrienne Bankert, special projects anchor at NewsNation, sat with LeGeyt. LeGeyt spoke about what makes local broadcasters unique,

including being in the communities they report on. That allows them “to report in a way that’s very relatable,” he said.

It is LeGeyt’s mission to help local broadcasters find the resources they need to successfully do their jobs, he said, battling against the likes of big tech and outdated regulations in Washington. “We’re delivering on that but we need to make sure that policymakers and regulatirs in Washington understand how rapidly the marketplace has

“NAB Show is all about storytelling, and broadcasters are the heart and soul of storytelling.”

PERRY SOOK

The topic of artificial intelligence came up, and LeGeyt said no company can master its many nuances on their own. “We need to share the best ideas,” he said.

LeGeyt called misinformation and disinformation “a massive, massive problem” and urged broadcasters to work together and “put democracy above the interests of any individual company.”

LIFE OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY

As much as he’s battling in the Beltway, LeGeyt said he learns the most about broadcasting outside of Washington. “When you go out and see the profound impact stations are having in communities day in and day out, that is inspirational for me,” he said.

He also spoke about recent victories for a legacy technology: AM radio. When automakers said they would remove AM

Adrienne Bankert, special projects editor at NewsNation, interviews Curtis LeGeyt, NAB president and CEO.

from new automobiles, listeners fought back, addressing lawmakers directly and sharing their experience with the medium.

LeGeyt noted how Democrats and Republicans worked together on legislation designed to keep AM playing in automobiles. That prompted Bankert to say, “There’s hope in America, around AM radio, of all things.”

Bankert and LeGeyt stepped offstage, making room for Daniel Anstandig, CEO and co-founder, Futuri Media, and robot Ameca. “Our audiences are not only ready for AI, but they’re expecting us to use AI,” he said.

He shared a study that revealed how people trust in AI more as they learn more about it.

“Humans and AI are actually better together,” he said. “Audiences expect that media companies are going to use AI.”

LeGeyt came back out to ask some questions, including one about whether AI could lead to job loss. Ameca brought up the invention of the calculator and asked who in the room wanted to return to the days of no calculators.

“New jobs will also be created” as a result of AI, Anstandig said.

Next up were Jack Goodman and Heidi Raphael, co-chairs of the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation, presenting the 2024 Insight Award to Soledad O’Brien, founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions and host of “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien.”

“For decades, Soledad O’Brien has been a tireless truthseeker,” Goodman said. “She sheds light on some stories that matter the most,” Raphael said.

O’Brien mentioned her 37 years in television. “I feel so lucky and so grateful to have a rewarding career,” she said. “I do not take this responsibility of educating people about the stories that matter — I do not take that responsibility lightly.”

After the presentation, Michael Smith, president and CEO of Bravo Mic Communications, said LeGeyt’s words gave him confidence in broadcasting’s future. “I’m very optimistic about the future and very optimistic about what Curtis is doing on Capitol Hill,” he said. “He’s very articulate and engages people very well.”

Dedrick Russell, WBTV Charlotte executive producer of community content, was struck by Ameca’s appearance—and by O’Brien’s. “I still have questions about what [AI] means for job security,” he said.

He was pleased to see O’Brien, who he called an inspiring journalist, get the Insight Award. “Can Ameca replace Soledad?” he asked. “No.” l © NAB

Shira Lazar, CEO of What’s Tremding, with Soledad O’Brien. winner of the 2024 Insight Award.

Ross Video Marks 50th Anniversary with Launch of Latest Solutions at 2024 NAB Show

Ross Video proudly celebrated its 50th anniversary by debuting its latest innovations at the 2024 NAB Show. The company’s expansive 10,000 sq ft booth showcased over 40 cutting-edge live production solutions, along with exclusive sneak peeks at future products.

One of the event’s standout introductions was Artimo (pronounced art-e-mo), a revolutionary studio robotic camera solution. Artimo combines innovative robotics with fluid, unrestricted motion, offering unparalleled flexibility and creativity to users.

Additionally, Carbonite Code was unveiled, a software-based production switcher optimized for NDI workflows. This pioneering technology integrates the trusted performance of the Ross Carbonite series with the speed and efficiency of NDI video transport, offering a new level of operational fluidity.

Ross Video also launched Raiden, a cuttingedge weather graphics solution designed to revolutionize storytelling in newsrooms. Powered by Ross Video’s award-winning XPression, Raiden integrates data gathering,

processing, and visualization tools to create captivating weather and climate content.

The spotlight also shone on Hyperconverged solutions, with the introduction of Ultristream and Ultriproc3DLUT Ultrix Licenses. These offerings promise to streamline workflows and enhance efficiency by providing streamlined multiviewer access and advanced color processing capabilities, ultimately raising the bar for live video production quality.

In addition to these releases, Ross Video showcased several innovative workflow solutions - from the Mosaic Ultra Video Image Processor to the award-winning Quorum 2.0 with Multi-Room Support. But that’s not all. For more details on these groundbreaking technologies and to experience insights from Ross Video’s leadership, don’t miss Ross Video’s exclusive Keynote presentation featuring CEO David Ross.

cloud & AI

AWS Expands NAB Show Presence

Show attendees took an up-close look at what the cloud and Gen AI can do

By Phil Kurz

If there remains any doubt that the cloud and artificial intelligence are transforming the workflows that drive the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry, Amazon Web Services actively removed them at the 2024 NAB Show.

Television broadcasters—especially newsproducing stations and networks—got a firsthand look at how the AWS cloud offers an alternative to brick-and-mortar newsrooms and production control rooms.

“This is a year of news, especially in the U.S. with the elections,” said Tracy Geist, global head of Industry Marketing for Media & Entertainment, Games and Sports at AWS. “We are really focusing on the newsroom in the cloud, from production all the way through distribution and consumption.”

In the West Hall lobby and a glassenclosed production control room in the AWS booth, attendees saw firsthand how AWS in partnership with NVIDIA, powered the NAB Show LIVE news desk—a traditional rundown-oriented news presentation—on the cloud.

REMOTE PRODUCTION

In the mornings, production control shifted to the Broadcast Beat Studios in Florida to demonstrate how the cloud could be used to produce rundown-centric newscasts from a remote location.

A separate booth demo built on the news focus with the cloud as the centerpiece of story-centric news workflows. Rather than simply producing the content for a newscast rundown, story-centric workflows focused on collaborative story production for distribution via social media, mobile, websites and linear newscasts.

The story-centric workflow at the AWS booth featured SaaS tools running on the company’s cloud, including a story-centric newsroom solution from Dina, a production

asset management system from Mimir and an HTML5-based graphics solution from Viz Flowics.

Some 80 AWS partners participated in the company’s focus on newsrooms and the other five targeted M&E solutions in the booth, including broadcast, live production, content monetization, media supply chain and data science and analytics. Many of them highlighted how generative AI fits into the overall media equation, said Geist.

“Tech for tech’s sake is not as interesting as tech that actually is driving real value,” said Julie Souza, global leader, Strategic Business Development, Sports at AWS. “Gen AI is driving operational efficiencies so that creative people can be freed up to do more of the great things they do best.”

Learning Lounge where about a dozen companies demonstrated their solutions in standalone pods. The site also offered an area for attendees to network and a theater where partner companies, their customers, thought leaders and AWS offered daily presentations on different implementations. The Learning Lounge focused on the technical aspects of the cloud, offering an environment conducive to education.

AWS Partners participating in the village and lounge included: Amagi, Anypoint Media, Arc XP, Ateliere, Bedrock Streaming, CSG, Datazoom, EPAM, GlobalLogic, Imagine Communications, IMDb, Irdeto, JW Player, M2A, MASV, Merapar, Stringr, Tagboard and Veritone.

In the South Upper Hall, the AWS Generative AI Golf Experience gave attendees a chance to tee off from many iconic golf courses. AWS worked with Full Swing, the official simulator partner of the PGA TOUR, to power the company’s golf simulator experience.

After taking their swing, attendees could design their dream golf holes with AWS generative AI tools and walk away with customized golf posters.

The booth’s Builder Zone not only gave visitors a peak behind the demos to see the specific AWS services and components powering them but also the chance to have some fun at the AWS Generative AI Playground where they got hands-on experience building Gen AI apps with Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q and PartyRock.

BEYOND THE BOOTH

The 2024 edition of the NAB Show was the biggest to date for AWS, and the company made its presence felt beyond its booth, said Geist.

Near the booth, NAB and the company put together the AWS Partner Village and

Those looking to level up their careers in the M&E industry during the #GALSINGEAR CONNECT half-day program, also had an opportunity to hear from a leader at AWS, which is sponsoring the event.

Samira Bakhtiar, general manager of Media & Entertainment, Games and Sports at AWS, delivered the program keynote.

The expanded presence of AWS at NAB Show was no accident, said Geist.

“If we look back as we were going into last year, we were talking about how we were going to double down on M&E as a company and as a business,” she said. “That’s exactly what we have done for 2024 and exactly what people are seeing throughout the convention center with our presence in so many places.” l © NAB

Golfer Alastair Soutar, Director, Batcam, tees off in the AWS Generative AI Golf Experience

Biggest Events Deserve the Biggest Screens, IMAX Says

Company is collaborating with NBC to bring Paris Olympics opening ceremony to theaters in 4K

By Tom Butts

The Olympics is the world’s biggest sporting event, so doesn’t it deserve to be shown on the world’s biggest screens? That was the subject of “Going for Gold: How IMAX Will Stream an Awe-Inspiring Viewing Experience for the Olympics Opening Ceremony” in the Connect Zone Theater yesterday.

NBC’s 4K broadcast of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics will be simulcast live in more than 150 IMAX theaters nationwide in 5.1 audio on July 26. Rick Young, senior vice president, head of global products at LTN, led a discussion with IMAX representatives Greg Ciaccio, vice president,

post production, Original Content and Image Capture, and Vikram Arumilli, senior vice president and general manager, Streaming and Consumer Technology, about the company’s work on the production.

HOW IT STARTED

IMAX has collaborated with NBCUniversal on a number of projects, including the film “Oppenheimer,” and Ciaccio said discussions about bringing the opening ceremony to IMAX theaters started “at the CEO level.”

“We try to pick very special events and this isn’t going to be your typical opening ceremony,” Ciaccio said. “It’s not going to be a bunch of athletes walking around a track. It’s going to happen on the Seine, and it’s going to

be an amazing visual spectacle, and we feel like it really fit in well with what IMAX stands for.”

Young discussed LTN’s work with NBC’s Olympics coverage, including the network’s “Friends and Family” features with the athletes and their relatives that arose during the past several games, when the pandemic prevented many family members from attending. “The Olympics is always about a bigger story than just the competition at any given time,” he said.

Beyond the Olympics, IMAX is involved in a variety of projects bringing live events to theaters. Ciaccio discussed the impetus behind its live concerts, such as IMAX’s presentation of a Brandi Carlile concert and its impact on audiences.

“We try to be pretty selective in the things that we do,” he said. “I think anybody in this room would love to be at events like the Olympics, right? So if you can’t actually be there in person, this is really the next best way to experience this.”

IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIPS

Arumilli emphasized the importance of IMAX’s industry partnerships in bringing more live events to its theaters.

“IMAX doesn’t have rights to content, so we work very closely with different partners,” he said. “The fundamental rationale behind live content in IMAX theaters is that there’s a ton of unutilized capacity in our theaters … In a good year, we’re maybe in the mid-teens on utilization of our seats, so even if you bring that up by a half-percent, there’s a significant dollar unlock that we have there. So we’re open to new ideas. We’re always talking to different partners, but it’s got to fit what IMAX stands for.”

Young noted that 4K has impacted viewer expectations, and expansion of the format is encouraging competition among media providers. “The volume of 4K is growing and there are more and more experiences across a lot of different platforms,” he said. “A lot of platforms — whether on the virtual MVPD or the traditional pay-TV side or even on the streaming side — are looking to differentiate themselves with 4K.”

With the increasing desire to view live events beyond the living room, Ciaccio said IMAX is best positioned to bring immersive experiences to viewers.

“We don’t want to be like you’re watching it on a big TV,” he said. “People are getting bigger TVs at home and they’re getting better experiences at home, so we need to keep the theatrical side of it as big or bigger than it ever has been.” l © NAB

(Left to right): Greg Ciaccio and Vikram Arumilli, IMAX, and Rick Young, LTN.

Generative AI Helps Sports Players Up Their Fan-Engagement Game

NFL, PGA Tour and AWS panelists spell out their playbook for best use of AI, machine learning

By Phil Kurz

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and machine learning (ML) are transforming how sports leagues connect with existing fans, attract new ones and engage viewers more deeply in games.

That was the chief takeaway from “How Generative AI Is Changing the Game” panel session during the 2024 NAB Show.

Aaron Amendolia, deputy chief information officer of the NFL, and Scott Gutterman, senior vice president of digital operations for the PGA Tour, discussed the many ways their leagues are putting Gen AI to work to enhance the product. Joining them were Matt Wood, vice president of artificial intelligence products, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Julie Souza, AWS global head of sports. Kaylee Hartung, sideline reporter for Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football,” moderated.

MEET FANS WHERE THEY ARE

Fans are excited about what AI brings to game production, Amendolia said. “I think that’s the important thing — meet your fans where they are and bring those experiences consistently, accurately [and in] real time,” he said. “Everybody wants everything to happen in real time today, so you’re bringing that data, that overlay and that insight straight to where the fan is.”

Whether fans are watching TV at home, using an app on a digital device or they’re at the game with their smartphone, Amendolia said, the NFL wants to meet them where they are and enhance their experience. “There’s just a step-function change in the type of problems you can solve using artificial intelligence and machine learning,” Wood said.

The sheer amount of data artificial intelligence can mine to find valuable insights is beyond what humans can do, according to Wood. When paired with the steps AWS has taken to make machine learning easy to use — with no requirement for data-science expertise — the benefits of Gen AI are brought to many more users, he said.

“Generative AI makes managing those

[media] assets far easier and far faster than ever before,” he said. “Whether you’re dealing with very complicated data, understanding data … that comes from different sensors [in] different locations [and] from cameras and sensors in the ball and [on] players. … You don’t necessarily want humans to have to sit and watch all of those in order to be able to understand what’s going on inside every single scene.”

The NFL began using Next Gen Stats running on the AWS infrastructure in 2017. The league collects the data from low-latency sensors worn by players. “We use this, actually, to run the game and help describe the action on the field for everyone who’s making decisions around the game,” Amendolia said.

In 2019, Next Gen Stats helped power the NFL’s health-and-safety initiative. “AWS has been a transformative aspect of our infrastructure and our data platforms and we keep building on top of that,” Amendolia said.

MORE COMMENTARY

Gen AI will also play a key role in helping the PGA Tour scale up its audience, Gutterman said. At the Players Championship four years ago, he said, the tour launched “Every Shot Live,” an effort to “show every single shot from first drive to the last putt.”

To make that happen, the PGA Tour offers fans 48 commentary-free streams on Thursday and Friday, 24 of which are

available simultaneously. “They are basically the natural sound,” Gutterman said. “You can hear the players.”

The tour relies upon statistics from its AWS tech stack to keep fans informed between shots. “But what we would really love to be able to do is have commentary on every single shot,” he said.

There’s no desire to hire two commentators for each of the 24 streams, he said. “That’s just not achievable … [but] with the emerging Gen AI technology and AI commentary technique, [the tour can explore] what more … it can do to drive those individual streams,” Gutterman said. Language-translation algorithms could also help the PGA serve its broadcast partners around the world. “If a network wants to see Hideki Matsuyama in Japan, we want to make sure we can deliver to them in Japanese as well, too,” he said.

The NHL last month broke new ground by producing a hockey telecast entirely on the AWS cloud. That virtual production workflow wasn’t just noteworthy from a technology point of view, Souza said.

“I love the fact [that] if that NHL game … had been produced terrestrially, it would have emitted 205 metric tons of carbon dioxide,” she said. “To counteract that, you would have to plant 34 trees and let them grow for 10 years. So, at scale, there’s a real impact environmentally.” l © NAB

(From left): Moderator Kaylee Hartung of “Thursday Night Football”; Matt Wood, AWS; Aaron Amendiola, NFL; Scott Gutterman, PGA Tour; and Julie Souza, AWS.

SBE Elevates Three Members to SBE Fellow

The Fellow honor is the highest membership level in the organization

By Tom Butts, TV Tech

The Society of Broadcast Engineers has elevated SBE members Andrea Cummis of Orange, NJ; Robert “RJ” Russell of Magnolia, Del.; and Conrad Trautmann of Trumbull, Conn.; to the membership rank of Fellow. The SBE Board of Directors elected them at

its meeting on April 13.

The Fellow honor is the highest membership level in the SBE. Candidates are nominated by their peers and must have made significant contributions to the broadcast engineering field or the SBE.

Since the SBE’s founding 60 years ago,

89 members have been honored with the Fellow rank.

All three were recognized during the SBE Membership Meeting held April 15 during NAB Show. They will also be recognized at the SBE National Meeting, which will be held in September in Madison, Wis.l

Conrad Trautmann

Andrea Cummis

RJ Russell Credit: SBE

political ad spend

Economic Outlook Highlights 2024 Broadcast Advertising Trends

Industry analysts say video is where the money is

By Elle Kehres

During the NAB Show economic outlook session “TV and Radio: Identifying Opportunities and Concerns,” three industry analysts dug into how the political year will shape local advertising, how radio and smaller-market stations can tap into video, and what events impacted 2023 spending and will influence the 2024 forecast.

BIA Advisory Services released its 2024 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast for the broadcast industry on April 13. During the Sunday session, Nicole Ovadia, vice president of forecasting and analysis at BIA, broke down some of the key findings.

The data represents nationwide ad spending in all 210 TV markets and 253 radio markets. Ovadia said local advertising is expected to be up $172 billion, or 9 percent, from 2023 to 2024. This growth over 2023 will in part be driven by political spending as the November election draws nearer.

While inflation continues to be a problem, Ovadia says political advertising spending will bolster the industry, bringing in $11.1 billion in 2024, as compared to $9 billion in 2022 during the midterm elections.

“Truly red and truly blue states will still see a significant rise in money spent,” said Ovadia. “The political year is positive in general and we are expecting interest rates to come down.”

ELECTION YEAR BOOST

Justin Nielson, principal analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, shared some of his own 2023 observations and forecasts for 2024.

While ratings and core advertising for many TV groups dipped in 2024—in part due to the actors’and writers’ strikes, which finally came to an end in November—Nielsen said TV can expect a big boost from the election year, as well as a few notable, high-profile sporting events.

He said the Olympics in late July will be particularly beneficial to boost advertising spending, in addition to the creation of

the USL Super League; a new first-division professional women’s soccer league, which is slated to begin play in August 2024.

S&P’s own U.S. 2024 Advertising Forecast shows an expected 0.7 percent, or $15 billion, decline in radio revenue. Like BIA, while S&P expects moderately improved advertising in legacy media, such as linear TV and radio, it will not be until the second half of 2024.

Despite more radio-specific hurdles, like staying relevant in the car dashboard or strengthening AM radio’s reach, Nielsen said he sees opportunities for tying digital and live events into radio’s advertising space.

"The political year is positive in general and we are expecting interest rates to come down."

“Radio ads are predominantly local,” said Nielson. “Radio’s lower ad cost and return on investment will continue to make its advertising relevant.”

VIDEO FOR RADIO

Speaking of economic growth opportunities, Rob Babin, executive vice president of radio at Cox Media Group, said video will present a growth opportunity for the broadcast industry — whether that means further tapping into social media or translating everyday audio/web content to share visually.

Ovadia agreed, saying: “Video is where the money is at. It is the future of your smaller-market radio growth.” She said video can serve as a “low-cost extension of your advertiser’s brand.”

“You are the original influencers,” said Ovadia. “I believe we are connected to our communities in a way no one else can be.” l

© NAB

From left: Justin Nielson of S&P Global Market Intelligence, Nicole Ovadia of BIA and Rob Babin of Cox Media Group discuss political spending and advertising opportunities this election year.

Sinclair Launches Broadspan Datacasting Platform for ATSC 3.0

Tom Butts, TV Tech

Sinclair announced Sunday the launch of a new datacasting platform for ATSC 3.0. The “Broadspan” datacasting service was developed in partnership with CDN provider Edgio to enable businesses to distribute files, updates or video over-the-air to any device with a 3.0 receiver, including cars, TV sets or mobile devices.

Datacasting via ATSC 3.0, which combines broadcast with IP—has been one of the earliest ways broadcasters can monetize 3.0 and Sinclair’s announcement marks a major step in its evolution. “Broadspan isn’t just a gamechanger,” said Eric Black, Edgio CTO.

“It’s a paradigm shift in defining immersive entertainment.”

The service will be available from Sinclair stations broadcasting ATSC 3.0 in 43 markets, but Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said other station groups are welcome to join. With ATSC 3.0 now available to about 75 percent of the United States, Ripley noted that as more stations deploy the standard

in additional markets, the result will be a nationwide 3.0 datacasting network.

“Linking those markets and stations to allocate data capacity efficiently among potential data customers is essential in establishing broadcasting as a competitive data distribution platform,” Ripley said. “Broadband provides the means to easily use that network. As the ATSC 3.0 transition proceeds, and that network expands, broadband will only become more appealing

Edgio CTO Eric Black (L) and Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley

Verizon, AWS and the NHL Demo 5G-Enabled Cloud Broadcasting

Evertz Introduces Co-Pilots for DreamCatcher BRAVO Studio Platform

Mark Hallinger, TV

Tech

Verizon Business, following a recent multi-faceted technology partnership renewal with the NHL, is using NAB Show to demo a new 5G-enabled cloud broadcasting system at booth W2042. The demo will include a simulcast of live feeds provided by the NHL.

Running on AWS Wavelength Zones, a mobile edge compute service that delivers ultra-low-latency applications for 5G devices, this system promises to reduce the speed from content capture on ice to broadcast from seconds to milliseconds, Verizon said at a Sunday press event.

Together with AWS, the NHL produced its first-ever live-to-air cloud broadcast of the Carolina Hurricanes vs. Washington Capitals game on March 22. The NHL broadcast the game through AWS Elemental MediaConnect, a transport service for live video, giving the league the scale to maximize centralized production crews in the league’s offices

and production headquarters. Additionally, because of the rapid delivery that cloud efficiency can drive, the league can streamline content distribution to social media channels and new platform partners to create enhanced fan experiences.

“Live cloud production empowers the NHL to produce high-quality content from virtually anywhere and at practically any scale, using the optimum combination of resources,” said Julie Souza, global head of Sports, AWS. “The speed of Verizon 5G unlocks new opportunities for the continued adoption and deployment of live cloud production across sports and beyond.”

Grant Nodine, NHL senior vice president, Technology, said the benefits of the system went beyond the obvious cost and sustainability benefits of remote productions. “This is all about super-serving our fans,” said Nodine. “Expediting content delivery from the cloud allows us to find innovative ways to create content and design experiences for the fan.” l © NAB

George Winslow, TV Tech

Evertz unveiled a host of products, including new AI-powered, data-driven co-pilots for Evertz’ DreamCatcher BRAVO Studio, the company’s all-in-one production platform.

The launch of the two new co-pilots Metadata and Highlight Factory, which automatically create clips, playlists and stories using AI, marked a notable addition to the capabilities of the BRAVO Studio and highlighted the importance that artificial intelligence (AI) will be playing during the show in production technologies.

Mo Goyal, senior director of International Business Development and Live Media Production, also discussed a number of other tech trends and detailed a host of new solutions that will be on display at the show.

Thrse include a Software Defined Video Networking solution to help broadcasters transition to or expand all-IP infrastructures using SMPTE ST 2110 and NMOS; a new media processing platform, the RFK-ITXEHW-DUO; the addition to JPEG XS to its NEXX Processing and Routing Platform with the new NEXX-IO-JXS card; and advances in its satellite ground infrastructure solutions and other technologies.

Goyal said that Evertz has been deeply involved in the industry’s migration from hardware to software and to cloud-based solutions in its work for Discovery and other companies. As part of that transition they have expanded their software and services business with SaaS offerings that allow users to quickly launch new channels. l

© NAB

(L to R): Joe Zaller, Devoncroft; Tom Zimmerman, Verizon Business; Julia Souza, AWS; and Grant Nodine, National Hockey League

Mo Goyal

Headline Headline

New Products Help Ross Video Celebrate 50 Years

Dek

Mark J. Pescatore, Systems Contractor News

Ross Video used its Saturday-evening event to provide a short retrospective of the company’s 50-year history, followed by an overview of its extensive new product offerings at NAB Show.

CEO David Ross reported that despite the pandemic, inflation and other market uncertainties, the company has doubled in size over the past five years and experienced its 32nd consecutive year of growth. He also announced the acquisition of Bannister Lake Software, which will add HTML5 graphics creation and improve automated workflows of data feeds for the XPression graphics engine.

Among the new product highlights is Raiden, the company’s data-driven weather

graphics solution. Powered by XPression, Raiden allows stations to build their own look and feel for weather content with 3D maps, customized annotations and more. The system features a web-based story creation tool and offers seamless integration with various data sources for more accurate forecasts.

Acknowledging the growing presence of NDI in the broadcast space, Ross unveiled Carbonite Code, a software-based 3 M/E production switcher that supports 30 NDI inputs and six NDI outputs. It features a 48-channel audio mixer, three multiviewers and four chromakeyers, and is compatible with the company’s TouchDrive control surfaces.

Ross also introduced Artimo, a freeroaming robotic camera system for broadcast studios. The unit itself allows a

range of jib-like movements, from groundlevel to overhead angles. Plus, with its integrated LiDAR sensing technology, it offers intelligent navigation around the studio. l © NAB

Ross Video founder John Ross (L) was on hand Saturday night to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary with his son and current CEO, David Ross.

Mat Leland, VP special projects, 4 Wall, and Jeroen Hallaert, VP of production services, PRG, join Bromptom Technology CEO Richard Mead.

Brompton Unveils Processing Technologies, Partner Program

New Gen 3 tech now supports 8K, AVoIP, 2110 and IPMX

By Wayne Cavadi, Systems Contractor News

Brompton Technology came to Las Vegas with broadcasting in mind, unveiling LED video processing technologies and its Panel Manufacturer Partner Program.

“We have a position in broadcast applications, and that’s the real focus for us at NAB Show this year,” Brompton CEO Richard Mead said at a Monday press conference. “At our booth, we are demonstrating oncamera workflow using our framingmapping technology as well as our custom markers feature.”

But it was the new “Gen 3 range,” built on the latest Agilex 7 FPGA technology from Intel, that captured the attention of attendees. Mead introduced the first product in the Gen 3 range, the 8K Tessera SQ200 processor. Built off the SX40, the SQ200 (200 is the output bandwidth, making

it 20 times more powerful than its predecessor) delivers the same core features and is backwards-compatible with existing Brompton-powered LED panels, but now supports 8K and 4x4K workflows with native support for AV-over-IP protocols such as SMPTE ST2110 and IPMX. The SQ200 is just the first of several planned products in the Gen 3 range.

“We’re very excited about our new Gen 3 processing,” Mead said, “but processing is not much use without high-quality panels to use it with. Our business model is to build long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with panel manufacturers.” Mead went on to introduce the Panel Manufacturer Partner Program, welcoming the first Diamond Parter, founding member of the program, and longtime collaborator Roe Visual to the stage.

“Together, we set the standard in live-event production and broadcast and I’m sure we’ll continue to do so.”l

© NAB

show shots

SteadyGum’s founder Pablo Carrasco Brioso and his skeleton counterpart pose with the company’s camera stabilizer — advertised to minimize user fatigue up to 80%.

Matthew Montoya of Aputure demos the Electro Storm CS515 RGB LED Monolight for Chris Bazzoni, head lighting director for Fox.

Headline Headline

Chyron Weather Part of Client-Centric Focus

Dek

Jon Lafayette, Broadcasting+Cable

Chyron, a company whose name is synonymous with on-screen graphics, showed off its new weathercasting products at the NAB Show.

Chyron Weather offers compatibility with public and private data providers and visualization tools that can be utilized by novice newsroom staffers, but has features that meet the requirements of experienced meteorologists, the company said at a press

standpoint,” said CEO Mike Truex. He said that in order to do that, the company has to grow revenue and grow its customer base, which enables it to up investment on research and development.

In 2023, Chyron increased its customer count by 11 percent and its R&D investment, including artificial intelligence, was up 13%.

Live sports is another area where Chyron is focusing.

Nikole McStanley, product portfolio director, said Chyron worked

closely with NBCUniversal on its package of Big Ten football games.

“NBC Sports values the importance of enriched storytelling, so not only do the graphics have to be beautiful, but they have to be versatile and flexible for their operators to be able to quickly change things on the fly,” McStanley said. “If we hadn’t had that tight collaboration, some of those features would never have been even conceived,” she said. l © NAB

Broadcasters, Rohde & Schwarz Tout ATSC 3.0 Transmission Advances

native transmitter.

George Winslow, TV Tech

Broadcasters and transmission tech provider Rohde & Schwarz highlighted a number of advances in ATSC 3.0, (aka NextGen TV), broadcasting at a special event that featured the launch of the first ATSC 3.0-native transmitter, the new R&STE1.

During the company's press event on Sunday, Jörg Fries, vice president of broadcast, amplifier and media solutions, said the transmitter is ushering in a new generation of transmission that is both sustainable and smart, with notable reductions in energy consumption and features that made it easier to use and maintain.

Richard Friedel, board chair of the Advanced Television Systems Committee added that the launch “marks a significant milestone, not only for Rohde & Schwarz

but also for the ATSC to celebrate innovation and progress in the pursuit of excellence. We want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to their remarkable achievement. The state-ofthe-art transmitter promises not only reduced costs, but also [a reduction] in carbon emissions with a 15 to 40 percent improvement in energy efficiency — a major accomplishment.”

During the launch event for the R&STE1 transmitter, Friedel also discussed several other areas that the ATSC is working on that include the creation of a sustainability committee, its work on the Broadcast Core Network, and the personal video codec, PVC.

In separate remarks, Mark Aitken, senior vice president of Sinclair Broadcast Group and president of ONE Media, highlighted the ability of new ATSC 3.0 transmitters to open up new revenue opportunities in datacasting and other areas. l © NAB

ARRI Ups Live Commitment

Mark Hallinger, TV Tech

ARRI announced its ALEXA 35 Live – Multicam System, which it says brings the image quality of its flagship camera to a broad range of live events, from concerts and sports to game shows, house of worship productions and more.

“We’re announcing a full commitment to the live entertainment sector, and with the ALEXA 35 Live – Multicam System we’re bringing the cinematic ARRI look to live production,” said Marc Shipman-Mueller, senior product manager, Camera Systems at ARRI. “At the same time, the system is designed to seamlessly integrate in to existing live production infrastructures.”

The new system includes camera, fiber adapter, base station, remote control panel and all necessary accessories. ARRI said it provides the full functionality of a system camera while retaining the flexibility of a dockable camera setup. It combines the new camera, the new Live Production System LPS-1 (comprising a Fiber Camera Adapter and Fiber Base Station), the Skaarhoj remote control panel, and several bespoke accessories. These include the new ARRI Touchdown base and receiver plates, an adjustable monitor yoke, an extra-long camera handle, a tally light with camera ID display, a rain cover and a new, quick-fit ARRI Large Lens Adapter for rapid setup with box lenses.

Shipman-Mueller said the camera captures 17 stops of dynamic range and handles extreme lighting situations for the best results in SDR and HDR. He added that the system provides all the common live production shading controls and offers additional creative options that can give any project a fresh look. l

Marc ShipmanMueller, Senior Product Manager, Camera Systems at ARRI

Jörg Fries, vice president of broadcast, amplifier and media solutions at Rohde & Schawrz introduced the R&STE1 transmitter, the first ATSC 3.0

Headline

FOR-A’s RDS Conductor Harmonizes Multivendor Systems

Jenny Priestley, TVBEurope

During a pre-show press conference, FOR-A introduced RDS Conductor, the first-ever unique RDS (Registration and Discovery

System) solution that enables multivendor RDS to access shared resources in a manner that is highly organized.

Users have found it difficult to add new systems to an existing media-over-internet protocol (MoIP) system because the new

system’s RDS must have the same specs as the initial design or an extensive redesign of the existing broadcast controllers and RDS.

Adding new systems to an existing MoIP has been difficult to date, because the new systems’ RDS must have the same specs as the initial design, or it requires extensive redesign of the existing broadcast controllers and RDS.

“Being able to add a new MoIP system only when and where it is required, while still utilising the existing system, means that the MoIP system can be expanded in stages, making it easier to use,” FOR-A America President Satoshi Kanemura said.

Separately, FOR-A and Aveco have joined forces on an automated production package aimed at news broadcasters. FOR-A HVS Series production switchers, Insight video servers and ClassX graphics systems are tightly integrated with Aveco ASTRA Studio production automation and GEMINI media management systems in the package, aimed at midsized, small-market and public stations. l © NAB

Axel Kern, senior director, Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions of Lawo, and Satoshi Kanemura, president of FOR-A Americas

New Neoti LED Display Is Pantone Validated

Mark Pescatore, Systems Contractor News

Neoti announced that its new UHD Pro XF+ is the world’s first dvLED display to be named Pantone Validated and Pantone SkinTone Validated.

Thomas Dlugos, director of sales, OEM, for Pantone parent X-Rite, said the validations exemplifies Neoti’s strength in color technology, emphasizing the designation is an objective measurement. “This is not an arbitrary color standard,” he added.

“Color matters,” noted Neoti CEO

show shots

Derek Myers. “We know it holds immense significance in the modern world. Color fidelity is not just a technical detail. The future relies on preserving the integrity of the content displayed.”

The UHD Pro XF+ features 26-bit color depth, immersive 3D performance without viewing fatigue, and multi-image frame sync. Thanks to its sophisticated color space engine, it achieves pure black levels and gradients at extremely low brightness, making it versatile for even the most demanding ambient light environments. Plus, InfiniteColor technology ensures that true color uniformity is maintained over the life of the display. l © NAB

Neoti’s Derek Myers (L) and Pantone’s Tom Dlugos show off Neoti’s approval certificate.

Skyglass is a virtual production app for iphones and ipads. Here, local actors Alexis Dominguez and Jake Noble are placed in one of the 100 built-in, virtual environments.

Atom One has teamed up with Movicom to create an integrated camera that is used at many major sporting events, whether it be hockey, basketball or even at the Super Bowl.

JVC Professional Video

KM-IP128S Switchers

JVC Professional Video’s new KM-IP12S8 Series Connected

Cam vMix Studio Switchers, comprised of both the KM-IP12S8 and KM-IP12S8PRO, are suitable for a variety of multicamera, fast-paced applications, such as live sports and event productions. The switchers come standard with licensed versions of either the vMix 4K or vMix Pro Live Production and Streaming software, which are among the industry’s most popular production solutions. Additionally, the resolution and imagery are optimized for live programming in SD up to full 4K 60P, across an array of traditional and personal viewing devices.

eye on tech | products and services

Telos Alliance Linear Acoustic AERO

Telos Alliance’s new Linear Acoustic AERO.20, AERO.200, and AERO.2400 television audio processors are the direct replacements for the AERO.10, AERO.100, and AERO.2000 products, which are being deprecated.

The KM-IP12S8 includes the vMix 4K license and supports up to 12 NDI/SRT and eight SDI video inputs, as well as multiple output options, including 12G-SDI, 3G-SDI, HDMI and DisplayPort. Additionally, three 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports are available for NDI, SRT, Dante and RTMPS internet connectivity.

z www.jvc.com/usa/pro/professional-video

Canon Portable Zoom Lens

Canon’s new CJ27ex7.3B

IASE T portable zoom lens is designed to capture 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) image quality from wide angle to telephoto. The new lens, which features Canon’s newly developed e-Xs V drive unit, is compatible with 4K broadcast cameras equipped with 2/3-inch sensors, and offers a 7.3-197mm focal length range and a 2.0x optical extender.

The CJ27ex7.3B IASE T delivers powerful magnification with a 27x optical zoom, ranging from 7.3mm wide angle to 197mm focal length at the telephoto end. Its built-in 2.0x extender unlocks the ability to double maximum reach to 394mm. The new lens ensures optical performance is standard across all shooting scenarios.

z www.usa.canon.com

Blackmagic Design Blackmagic

URSA Cine 12K

Blacmagic’s URSA Cine 12K digital film camera includes a new large format RGBW 36 x 24mm sensor with larger photo-sites for 16 stops of dynamic range, interchangeable PL, LPL and EF lens mounts, and industrystandard Lemo and Fischer connections. It comes with 8 TB of highperformance storage built in and also includes high speed networking for media upload and syncing to Blackmagic Cloud. The larger sensor builds on the technology of URSA Mini Pro 12K with larger photo-sites leading to 16 stops of dynamic range. The unique RGBW architecture provides equal amounts of red, green and blue pixels. This means it is optimized to deliver incredibly rich colors at all resolutions and provide the ultimate in image quality and flexibility.

z www.blackmagicdesign.com

AERO.20, AERO.200, and AERO.2400 offer the same trusted loudness control, upmixing, Nielsen and Verance Aspect audience measurement watermarking, Dolby coding, and flexible local audio insertion for EAS and text-to-speech as their predecessors, but introduce several new and important features including dual independent 3G SDI I/O paths to support 1080p signals, user-selectable metering and logging options for EBU R 128 or ATSC A/85, and an updated Windows 10 IoT operating system to provide additional security features.

z www.telosalliance.com

Sony

BRC-AM7 4K PTZ Camera

Sony’s new flagship BRC-AM7 4K 60p pan-tiltzoom (PTZ) camera model features an integrated lens and incorporates PTZ Auto Framing technology, which uses AI for advanced recognition, enabling the camera to facilitate accurate and natural automatic tracking of moving subjects. Designed for simplified high-quality video production for broadcast, live event and sports productions, the BRC-AM7 is also the world’s smallest and lightest integrated lens PTZ camera, measuring 168.7mm in width (approximately 6.64 inches), 225.2mm in height (roughly 8.87 inches), and 192.3mm in depth (about 7.57 inches), with a weight of about 3.7 kg (approximately 8.16 pounds).

The newly developed all-in-one lens is equipped with a 20x optical zoom and Clear Image Zoom, an all-pixel super-resolution zoom that allows high-magnification zooming while maintaining resolution, providing telephoto capture up to 30x in 4K or 40x in Full HD. It is scheduled to be available in 2025.

z www.pro.sony/ue_US/home

Cobalt Digital 9905-MPx openGear card

Cobalt Digital’s new 9905-MPx fully featured, multifunction 3G/HD/SD Quad-Path Up/Down/Cross Converter/Frame Sync/Embed/De-Embed openGear audio processor converts ATSC 1.0 to an ATSC 3.0-ready signal. The 9905-MPx can also convert four channels of 1080i SDR to 1080p HDR for ATSC 3.0 and support for 3D-LUTs as a standard feature for all paths with available color correction for downstream HDR systems. This way, stations can get started in ATSC 3.0 by automatically generating a 1080p HDR feed from their existing 1080i or 720p SDR feed, and later switch to a native HDR signal. z www.cobaltdigital.com

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Interra Systems

BATON QC Platform

Upgrades and new features to Interra’s BATON 9.0 engine include major framework updates (NGINX server, Python 3.x, Postgres), optimized MXF file verification, an advanced Diagnostic Tool to monitor system health, API enhancements including REST and XML-RPC, and enhancements in Auto-Expansion feature support. In addition, the solution boasts enhanced video quality checks like detection of unwanted frames, field order, video dropout, ghosting, black bars, video signal and black levels, as well as audio quality checks like Nielsen Watermarking and audio loudness, and more.

Enhancements to Interra Systems’ BATON Media Player include a revamped user interface, keyboard shortcut options, enhanced real-time playback of UHD content, and other usability improvements. BATON Captions now includes support for web-based players with rich text editing, on-prem translation support for 108 languages, SAML integration and support for timestamping.

z www.interrasystems.com

Rohde & Schwarz

R&S TE1 Transmitter

Rohde & Schwarz’s R&S TE1—the company’s first liquid-cooled transmitter design post repack—supports ATSC 3.0 and is at least 15% more energy efficient than even the best current designs, and 40% more efficient than the average installed base, according to the company. Rohde & Schwarz’s liquid-cooled transmitter technology ensures heat from the amplifiers is efficiently dissipated outside, eliminating the need for power-intensive air conditioning. The design eliminates single points of failures, and the intelligent software control layer ensures that over the lifetime of the transmitter the optimal efficiency is maintained throughout self-adaptation.

Through its unique architecture, the R&S TE1 simplifies maintenance and operation significantly. It combines high reliability with easy troubleshooting and remote support capabilities, increasing efficiency for network operators. All parameters can be monitored and controlled remotely, reducing the need for transmitter staff to be on site.

z www.rohde-schwarz.com

Ikegami HDX-500 Portable Camera System

The Ikegami HDK-X500 is designed for use across a wide spectrum of applications including pedestal-mounted studio operation, tripod-based sports coverage and shoulder-mounted location production. Features include three latest-generation 2/3-inch CMOS global shutter sensors plus automatic optical vignetting correction throughout the range of OVC-compatible B4 bayonet mount zoom lenses. Back focus of RBF-compatible lenses can be adjusted even when the camera head is in a remote location. Optimal control of ambient lighting, studio or outdoor, is supported by the same neutral-density and color-compensation dual filter system used in Ikegami’s high-end cameras. The camera’s integral digital processor provides 16-axis color correction allowing precise scene matching or to create specific effects. HLG HDR is fully supported, allowing detailed image reproduction across the entire dynamic range from bright highlights through to deep shadows.

z www.ikegami.com

MediaProxy LogServer for ATSC 3.0

MediaProxy’s LogServer media compliance monitoring solution now provides comprehensive compliance, monitoring and analysis for ATSC 3.0 streams. Mediaproxy has developed an advanced software-based technique for processing in-house packager output (STLTP) and off-air transmission (DASH ROUTE) formats including decryption (A3SA). This allows engineers to easily and cost-effectively work with those new formats using LogServer’s familiar user interface technologies for review, monitoring and real-time analysis.

LogServer also conforms to the other main standards in use by broadcasters and streamers, including SMPTE ST 2110 and NMOS (Networked Media Open Specifications), for the transport of media over IP networks, and SCTE, which covers dynamic ad insertion.

z www.mediaproxy.com

Pebble PRIMA

PRIMA, Pebble’s new platform for real-time integrated media applications, has been designed to provide a unified set of services targeting flexible deployment, security, economic scalability, and centralized management. In a new collaboration with NVIDIA, PRIMA enables Pebble’s customers to access the power of NVIDIA Holoscan for Media, enhancing their media capabilities. NVIDIA Holoscan for Media is a neutral, flexible, hybrid, IP-based platform architecture for the development and deployment of media applications.

The open-source platform is built on industry standards and APIs, including SMPTE ST 2110, AMWA NMOS, RIST, SRT and NDI. PRIMA, as part of NVIDIA’s early-access program for Holoscan for Media, will initially support a core set of applications: playout, workflow and IP management and control. The initial product set for PRIMA leverages Pebble’s core business of channel origination and consists of applications covering playout, workflow and control. PRIMA is being introduced alongside Pebble’s established range of playout solutions, and has been carefully designed to both integrate with and expand the capabilities of the existing product line.

z www.pebble.tv

Utah Scientific MAXMUX

Multiplexing System

Utah Scientific’s MAXMUX Multiplexing System allows users to combine up to 80 discrete 3G or 1.5G signals into one uncompressed 12G or 6G data stream, offering a more cost-effective transport solution for fiber applications. This system is particularly beneficial for companies dealing with high volumes of video signals, as it is designed to increase the maximum number of 3G/1.5G channels over CWDM from 18 to 72, allowing users to quadruple their utilization of previously existing fiber networks.

Housed in a compact 2RU frame, the MAXMUX Multiplexing System supports standard resolutions of 12G, 3G, HD, or 720p video signals, with refresh rates of 23.98Hz to 60Hz. It can be used with any standard input or output (I/O) device, giving users more flexibility to optimize signal transport, reduce costs, and simplify complex transport scenarios without compromising quality.

z www.utahscientific.com