Content+Technology ASIA - March-April 2019 by Content+Technology

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ASIA MARCH/APRIL 2019

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Make an appointment to meet with one of the Magna Systems team at NAB 2019 by contacting your local Magna office today. Sydney +61 2 9417 1 1 1 1 Auckland +64 9520 1582 Hong Kong +852 2563 4453 Jakarta +62 8181 43923 Singapore +65 6282 3613 sales@magnasys.tv www.magnasys.tv

VOLUME 15 ISSUE 2 MARCH/APRIL MARCH / APRIL 2019 2018

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Cover Story Encompass Digital Media... page 46 REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME

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03 NEWS BNC Malaysia Equips 24-Hour

News Studio with Ross Video, Brightcove to Buy Ooyala’s OVP Business, CCTV Looks to Grass Valley for 4K and IP, SK TelecomSinclair Broadcast in Joint Venture, KT Corp Unveils 5G Services, NAGRA Protect kbro Taiwan, People Moves.

FEATURES 10 STANDARDS The MPEG Ecosystem by

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Etere Powers Workflow for Vietnam’s Dong Nai Radio & TV, Quantum Xcellis Appliance, New Media Management Solutions.

POST-PRODUCTION Lightworks 14.5, HDRmaster 8K Toolset, Boris FX Sapphire 2019, and more.

Leonardo Chiariglione, MPEG Chairman

MEDIA BUSINESS A Bruising Brexit for

British Broadcasting?

14 ABU-DBS 2019 Preview. 17 ACQUISITION Sony VENICE Presses Flesh

with Bad Mothers, new cameras, lenses and accessories from Sony, Panasonic, Fujinon, Blackmagic, Atomos and more.

AUDIO World First for Sony Hi-Res

Microphones, DPA Mics Appoints New Filipino Distributor; New technology from Comrex, PreSonus, DirectOut, Tascam, Studio Technologies, Sennheiser, Neumann, and more.

20 SPORTSCASTING Youku-NFL Team Up

to Bring American Football to China, New Era for Australian Open Tennis Coverage, eGG Network Partners with Telkomsel, Ideal Integrates Bluefish444 and Adobe for Live Sports, Blackmagic on Point with Japanese Darts Coverage.

NEWS OPERATIONS Pakistan’s Dunya

News Upgrades with Pebble Beach, Asiaworks Adopts Sachtler for ENG, Vizrt Powers China’s SBS News, MetraWeather Graphics for All Seasons, PPTV HD Thailand Invests in Octopus.

40 RADIO Indian FM Networks Deliver with

GatesAir, Nanjing Radio Connects with NTP, RØDE Microphones Powers Podcasters.

CONTENT DELIVERY New SE Asia-Oz Subsea Cable, ATEME Boosts Vietnam’s VSTV K+, GatesAir Supplies Exciters for Gold Coast DVB-T2, Encompass Digital Media the New Direction.

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EDITOR’S WELCOME

Voice Shouts Down 5G – for Now By Phil Sandberg 5G IS ON THE MOVE. Right throughout the APAC region, telco providers are either planning or rolling out services while governments and regulators look to phase out older technologies and free up spectrum.

• Despite the early hype, adoption rates of VR headsets in developed markets have remained flat year-on-year at around 6 per cent of households and have even dropped in some key markets such as the UK. AR applications in fashion, gaming and various enterprise sectors are more advanced at this stage

• Alongside the smartphone, the range of connected devices (and therefore internet access channels) is now greater than ever. The average US and UK household, for example, now owns six connected devices - from TVs to consoles to emerging categories such as smart speakers

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• Smart speaker ownership rates have nearly doubled in developed countries over the last 12 months. For example, 16 per cent of US households now own a smart speaker, compared to 9 per cent a year earlier. Amazon and Google continue to dominate this sector, together accounting for 85 per cent of sales units worldwide

The DPP has been compiling annual reports on the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) since 2010. This year’s report highlights the arrival of voice-led content voice search as the most significant development at CES 2019. According to DPP Managing Director and author of the report, Mark Harrison, “Google assistant integration into smart displays was widespread at CES 2019. In short, most smart TVs now work with some combination of Apple, Amazon or Google voice search, as well other proprietary voice solutions. This contextual voice-led content search takes consumers one step nearer publisher-agnostic content platforms of the kind we have seen in news and music.” Another significant trend highlighted by the DPP was the emergence of out of home environments as technology rich spaces suited to ubiquitous media. w“There are a range of public spaces - from airports to shopping malls, leisure resorts to sports stadiums - that are really well suited to the introduction of the internet of things (IoT), AI, robotics and automation. And they will all need a supply of media,” says Harrison. “This is going to prove a very active market for technology and media companies over the next few years.” 03:00

• The smartphone is now a nearly ubiquitous consumer technology; almost 90 per cent of consumers in developed countries own a smartphone, with an average of 2.5 smartphones in every US household

Meanwhile, according to UK-based Digital Production Partnership Ltd (DPP), the most significant technology coming out of CES for media companies was ‘Voice’.

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Among the key findings from the 2018 GSMA Intelligence Consumer Survey: 16:00

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GSMA Intelligence released two new reports at CES 2019. ‘The Future of Devices’ focuses on the global adoption and changing uses of smartphones into the 5G era, plus the growing popularity of smart speakers and other emerging consumer device categories, while ‘5G’s Great Expectations’ examines what consumers are anticipating from the first wave of 5G network and device launches.

• Only one in four consumers (25 per cent) expect 5G to deliver ‘innovative new services’, and only 20 per cent believe 5G will usher in a new era of devices

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According to Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, the research and consulting arm of mobile operators’ association, the GSMA, “We are at the start of a new era of consumer devices that is being driven by advances in immersive reality and AI, creating a strong consumer appetite for products such as smart speakers and an important new battleground for the major tech players. And, while smartphones remain the dominant consumer technology, device vendors and operators are looking to 5G to unlock a new chapter in the smartphone growth story - even though our research suggests there is still work to do to convince consumers of the benefits of the move to 5G.”

• More than half of consumers in developed countries (54 per cent) expect 5G networks to deliver faster speeds, suggesting that early 5G promotional activity will focus on network speed as a key differentiator (versus 4G) - but it is not clear if consumers will pay a premium for faster speeds

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The technology and its applications were certainly front and centre at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas. But, just as with 4K and 8K broadcast services, consumer anticipation for 5G isn’t quite at the level witnessed with previous iterations of technology.

The future, it seems, is full of bandwidth and the barking of orders. Perhaps, it’s closer than we think.

Thanks for reading Phil Sandberg – Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com +61(0)414671811

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NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com

THE BERNAMA NEWS CHANNEL, also known as BNC, is a 24-hour international news and current affairs television network owned by the government news agency in Malaysia. With a reach across Malaysia and the wider region, the satellite and IPTV-based channel airs news programmes that are related to local and international business, lifestyle, sports and entertainment. BERNAMA News Channel operates from its headquarters at Wisma Bernama in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. It also has bureau offices in all states in Malaysia, as well as correspondents in Jakarta, Singapore, New Delhi and Bangkok, and stringers in Washington D.C., Sydney, London and Khartoum. It is available on Astro Channel 502, unifi tv Channel 631, MYTV 121, iflix, YouTube, and can be watched online via https://bernamanewschannel.com. As well as its TV channel, Bernama also operates Bernama Radio which transmits 24-hours-per-day in Klang Valley, Johor Bharu, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. Apart from news bulletins, the channel’s other programmes include the English-language BERNAMA Today, The Nation, and the Malay-language flagship programmes Ruang Bicara featuring current affairs related content, and a morning show NINE11. Other programmes include Jurnal Bernama; a news magazine, a travelogue show Turun Padang and 1001 Destinasi Malaysiaku, and Salam Dari Jakarta, an exchange news magazine programme with Indonesian national news agency, ANTARA Following the twin decisions to build a brand-new studio at its HQ in Kuala Lumpur and to increase the amount of live content being broadcast by the channel, BERNAMA turned to local sales partner UXERA Sdn.Bhd and Ross Video for advice. “Broadcast professionals love working with live content”, says Hakimi Zuffrida bin Mohd Zain, Chief Operating Officer at BNC. “It’s exciting and brings energy and freshness to our program schedule. However, live content has traditionally

been expensive and can sometimes be unpredictable. Ross is known for offering great value and the company’s expertise in live production was an important consideration when choosing a technology partner”. Following consultation with Ross and the team at UXERA, BNC purchased a range of solutions including the innovative and multi-awardwinning Ultrix routing/AV platform, the Graphite – Ross Video’s all-in-one switcher/graphics/audio solution (for a dedicated mobile production flypack) – and several seats of XPression Prime, the 3D real-time graphics solution. According to BNC’s Engineering specialist Wan Anuar Bin Wan Jusoh, the new products are having an impact. “Our engineers and technical teams have been able to manage and operate the Ross equipment with little difficulty and the Ross technical support team have always been on-hand to guide us when needed. Thwe mobile production flypack has already proved its worth, enabling us to cover more news and live events more efficiently.” COO Hakimi Zuffrida bin Mohd Zain also points to improved ROI as a measure of success. “It’s still early days but we’re pleased to see that BNC’s revenue is on the uptrend slightly since we started working with our Ross products, and we’re seeing new clients coming to BNC to enquire about live coverage and new shows, which is very positive.” Andrew Tan, Director of Sales for Ross Video in APAC, said, “With increasing pressure on Capex budgets, broadcasters need technology partners who can deliver more value, and that’s a core part of Ross Video’s DNA; we’re here to help deliver solutions to the creative, business and technical challenges content creators face every day.” Visit www.rossvideo.com

NEWS + PEOPLE

BNC Malaysia Equips 24-Hour News Studio with Ross Video

NEWS + PEOPLE Brightcove to Buy Ooyala’s Online Video Platform Business BRIGHTCOVE INC., A LEADING PROVIDER of cloud services for video, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the online video platform (OVP) business of Ooyala, a provider of cloud video technology. Brightcove is acquiring Ooyala’s OVP technology, including video content management and publishing platform Backlot, Analytics, Live, and its underlying IP and associated patents. As part of the transaction, Brightcove will acquire substantial portions of Ooyala’s engineering, support, and sales staff, including the company’s operations in Guadalajara, Mexico. Brightcove intends to take on all customer, reseller, and partner relationships utilised by Ooyala’s OVP business globally. “Ooyala has tremendous global customers who understand the power of video and its ability to transform business and reach new customers,” said Jeff Ray, CEO of Brightcove. “This transaction, which includes immediately growing our highly skilled and committed global workforce, accelerates our ability to deliver faster innovation and deeper support for all customers. We also will increase our market reach and further strengthen our ability to secure new business in key target markets. We look forward to welcoming Ooyala’s OVP customers and ensuring a smooth transition and a world-class experience for them.” Over the past 15 years, Brightcove has developed the most sophisticated online video platform in the market with solutions supporting media, entertainment, marketing, and enterprise spaces. Aspects of Ooyala’s technology will be integrated into the Brightcove platform to provide a more robust global offering for all customers. “As Brightcove disclosed in its February 13 earnings announcement,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO of Ooyala, “we have agreed to sell our online video

platform (OVP) business to Brightcove. We know our OVP clients will continue to be provided outstanding service by the excellent Brightcove OVP team. With this transaction we’re ushering in an exciting new chapter for our company, as we continue to focus and expand on Ooyala’s flourishing workflow and media-asset-management solutions, centered around our highly successful Ooyala Flex Media Platform, which continues to grow rapidly and is serving an expanding roster of film and TV studios, networks and broadcasters globally. “We hold our customers’ success as paramount. Selecting Brightcove further demonstrates this commitment and ensures they will receive a world-class experience. Brightcove is doing amazing things in the OVP market, and we are pleased our customers will work directly with the market leader.” The transaction, expected to close in the first half of 2019, follows October’s 2018 management buyout of Ooyala from chief investor, Telstra, after the Australian telco had written off the value of its investment, and December 2018’s sale of its Ad Tech division to US-based addressable TV advertising systems company, INVIDI Technologies Corporation, for an undisclosed sum. In May 2017, Ooyala filed a lawsuit against Brightcove Inc. In the lawsuit, Ooyala alleged that Brightcove had engaged in deliberate and willful misappropriation of proprietary trade secrets including customer contact lists, confidential sales pitches and pricing, marketing plans and corporate strategies to undermine and exploit Ooyala’s business dealings and sales efforts for Brightcove’s benefit throughout Latin America. The case, however, was voluntarily terminated on October 25, 2018. BMO Capital Markets acted as exclusive financial advisor to Brightcove on the acquisition. Visit www.ooyala.com and www.brightcove.com

China’s CCTV Looks to Grass Valley to Power Transition to 4K and IP CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION (CCTV), the predominant state television broadcaster in the People’s Republic of China, has selected Grass Valley to power its transition to 4K UHD with leading-edge IP infrastructure and workflows. CCTV now benefits from an end-to-end 4K UHD IP-equipped studio that supports production and playout for its wide array of free-to-air and paid channels. Hou Jia, Team Leader of the E16 technical crew, CCTV, said, “It was imperative for us that the transition to 4K UHD be as smooth as possible with minimal disruption to our service. Not only has this project been a huge success, but it is a massive step forward for our network and our viewers. We are committed to excellence, pushing the boundaries to deliver outstanding viewing experiences to our audiences.”

NEWS + PEOPLE

The end-to-end solution includes four LDX 86N 4K UHD cameras, a 3 M/E Karrera production switcher with the GV K-Frame X engine, two GV Node IP routing and processing nodes, two GV Convergent IP/SDI router control and configuration systems and 39 IPG-3901 plug-and-play IP/SDI modules. The new infrastructure and workflow give CCTV the scalability and flexibility needed to deliver 4K UHD content without compromising on the speed and efficiency of its production process.

“Having the best technology that enables our production teams to be more creative and innovative is central to our approach. Grass Valley’s expansive production suite has surpassed our expectations; the fast, intuitive workflow and robust architecture give us the means to work smarter and deliver better content,” commented Jia. The new installation manages both CCTV’s IP and SDI workflows with vertically accurate switching, as well as integrated video and audio processing. SDI and IP routing can be transparently managed on a single, familiar interface, while bidirectional IP/SDI conversion ensures seamless transition between formats. “The speed at which broadcasters transition to 4K UHD will vary, but to ensure consumers see minimal disruption to services, any transition must be swift and as seamless as possible,” said Somu Patil, Vice President of Sales, APAC, Grass Valley. “This means working with the right technology provider that understands their business and is able to make such a transition in a way that is right for their needs is critical. This is exactly what we provided for CCTV.” Visit www.grassvalley.com and www.cctv.com

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NEWS + PEOPLE

ASIAPACIFIC NEWS

THAILAND THE THAI PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE (Thai PBS) achieved over 730 million social video views in 2018, an increase of over 100 million from 2017. The broadcaster partnered with Grabyo, a cloud-based video production platform, and has been able to create and distribute real-time video clips and produce live streams delivered directly to an array of social, mobile and web-based platforms. Visit www.grabyo.com

VIETNAM VIETNAMESE TELCO VIETTEL will trial 5G mobile technology under licence around the country over the next 12 months. Ha Noi and HCM City will be the first two cities to test Viettel’s 5G. Users will not be charged during the test period. Rival carrier MobiFone has also applied for a test licence. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information & Communications will licence 4G frequencies and plan for switch-off of 2G and 3G services.

SINGAPORE THE SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT is amending the country’s Copyright Act in an effort to support creators and users of video content. This will include new enforcement measures to deter retailers from profiting from providing access to content through unauthorised sources such as TV boxes (also known as illicit streaming devices — ISDs) that enable access to pirated TV channels and video-on-demand content.

INDONESIA INDONESIA’S STATE-OWNED BROADCASTER, TVRI, has chosen Etere ETX-G for its MAM for graphics capabilities and graphics playout integration with Airsales system. Etere ETX-G is a 4K-ready professional commercial graphics playout software that enables SDI-support, real-time previews, instant addition and deletion of graphics before playout. TVRI leverages Etere ETX-G to manage its graphics playout with Etere Airsales integration for an integrated and accurate invoicing process.

NEWS + PEOPLE

Visit www.etere.com

JAPAN

KOREA

DURING ITS SEVENTH VISIT to Tokyo,

KOREA EDUCATIONAL Broadcasting System (EBS) has deployed Interra Systems’ BATON file-based QC solution and Content Corrector in its Seoul facility to streamline quality control (QC) operations. Transitioning from an entirely manual-based QC process, EBS is using BATON for QC for all content prior to playout. EBS is also utilising Interra Systems’ BATON Content Corrector to detect and correct loudness issues automatically, guaranteeing compliance with Korea’s audio specifications.

in December, the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission declared that the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee is on track to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Olympic Agenda 2020’s “the New Norm” has resulted in a total savings of USD$4.3 billion. This has included a reduction in the size of the International Broadcast Centre (IBC).

Visit www.interrasystems.com

HONG KONG HONG KONG-BASED I-CABLE Communications Limited and Guangdong CableTV Network Co. Ltd have announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement under which the two companies will foster collaborations in the areas of resource utilisation, business development, technology and programme production. The two companies will jointly tap the Mainland and Hong Kong markets and form a sustainable strategic partnership.

AUSTRALIA SINGTEL-OPTUS’ 5G ROLLOUT momentum continues to build with the announcement of a new live 5G site in Sydney’s north-west. The site is one of 50 sites to be built by Ericsson across Sydney and Melbourne during 2019 as part of Optus’ multi-vendor 5G rollout. Using Ericsson’s 5G RAN equipment, the site has achieved a working end-to-end solution based on 3GPP standards, utilising third-party customer premises equipment (CPE) test device on Optus’ 3.5GHz spectrum with a channel bandwidth of 60MHz. Optus plans to deliver 1200 5G sites across the ACT, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia by March 2020.

PHILLIPINES

Visit www.gatesair.com

NEW ZEALAND SKY NZ CUSTOMERS CAN NOW download content to view when they are offline thanks to a new ‘Download to Go’ feature on the SKY GO App. While connected to the internet, users can browse a selection of TV series and movies based on the channels they subscribe to and download content directly to their mobile or tablet to watch at a later time. The SKY GO App offers content in SD. Customers can download up to 25 titles at one time, which expire after 30 days.

NEWS + PEOPLE

GATESAIR, with local partner Composite Technology, recently supplied a Maxiva ULXTE liquid-cooled transmitter with PowerSmart Plus technology to Broadcast Enterprises and Affiliated Media (BEAM). The compact singlerack configuration includes dual Maxiva XTE exciters with automatic switching to maximise redundancy, stability and uptime.

NEWS + PEOPLE SK Telecom, Sinclair Broadcast in ATSC Tech Joint Venture KOREA’S SK TELECOM AND SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP, one of the largest TV broadcasting companies in the U.S., have announced the signing of a joint venture agreement to develop and commercialise broadcasting solutions based on ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. The two companies will jointly fund and manage a joint venture company within the first quarter of this year. Through the joint venture company, the two companies plan to actively provide ATSC 3.0 standards-based solutions to all U.S. broadcasting companies and seek other opportunities globally. ATSC 3.0 is the latest version of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard (adopted in North America and South Korea). It will support several advancements including mobile viewing, 3D television, 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD), high dynamic range (HDR), high frame rate (HFR), and wide colour gamut (WCG) picture quality, as well as immersive audio. The commercialisation of broadcasting solutions based on ATSC 3.0 will enable services such as personalised advertisement and in-vehicle terrestrial TV broadcasting and map updates. It will also support two-way communication between broadcasting companies and user’s smartphone/vehicle/TV by recognising user’s personal IP address. The two firms have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with audio technology developer Harman which will see the three companies collaborate on building an advanced automotive platform based on ATSC 3.0 to enable drivers to experience in-vehicle HD terrestrial TV broadcasting, secure firmware updates, HD map updates and V2X certificate management via terrestrial digital broadcasting facilities operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group throughout the United States. “SK Telecom will work closely with Sinclair Broadcast Group to gain leadership

in the next-generation broadcasting solutions market in the U.S.,” said Park Jung-ho, President and CEO of SK Telecom. “Sinclair is excited to partner with SK Telecom, a wireless technology leader, to explore and commercialize solutions that optimize the economic value of our spectrum, our broadcast infrastructure, our programming ventures and our emerging OTT platforms. Bringing these assets together in a converged broadcast/broadband platform environment will be a significant value multiplier,” commented Chris Ripley, President and CEO of Sinclair. The companies intend to unveil their automotive platform and related equipment and services for the first time at the NAB Show in Las Vegas in April 2019. Visit www.sk.com www.harman.com and www.sbgi.net

KT Corp Unveils New 5G Services WITH A FULL LAUNCH OF ITS 5G NETWORK scheduled for March, South Korean telco KT has been touting its new service offerings at the recent Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland. KT recently unveiled a world-first 5G bus in downtown Seoul during a promotional event. In the 5G-connected limousine bus, passengers experienced various Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) services available from the company’s GiGA Live TV. GiGA Live TV is a wireless network-based, next-generation service that does not require separate terminals such as a smartphone. Bus passengers could experience high-quality immersive media services from GiGA Live TV, which are available through a 5G mobile hotspot (MHS) picking up signals from

nearby base stations. On January 27, KT successfully live-broadcasted K-pop group Wanna One’s last concert, attended by more than 25,000 fans, on its HD IPTV service, Olleh TV. The broadcast was delivered through set-top boxes and mobile devices, using the 5G network. KT successfully demonstrated the world’s first 5G trial services during the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in February 2018. The company, in December last year, held a historic ceremony to commemorate the start of its commercial 5G network. The full-scale, official launch is coming in March. Visit https://corp.kt.com/eng/

IN BRIEF KENTH ANDERSSON has started a new position as Director of Sales APAC at Broadpeak. He was formerly Vice President Sales & Head of APAC with Net Insight. Broadpeak designs and manufactures video delivery components for Content Providers and Network Service Providers deploying IPTV, cable, satellite, OTT and mobile services.

NEWS + PEOPLE

INSIGHT TV, one of the world’s largest UHD broadcasters and producer of native UHD HDR content covering action sports, entertainment, and lifestyle, has announced it is the launching its content in China on the BesTV platform, provided by Shanghai Oriental Pearl (Group) Co., Ltd. The distribution deal was facilitated by Shanghai Mych Technology Co., Ltd. (Mych Tech), Insight TV’s new partner in the region. Visit www.insight.tv

THAILAND’S NATIONAL BROADCASTING and Telecommunications Comission (NBTC) has approved October 31, 2019, as the date for shutdown of the county’s 2G mobile network. According to the NBTC, the shutdown will increase efficiency for network operators and open the door for 5G wireless broadband service by 2020. Operators are expected to migrate their 2G users to 3G and 4G services. Provincial governments will assist in informing 2G users of the move. Visit www.nbtc.go.th ADOBE HAS ANNOUNCED James McCready, President of Adobe Japan, is expanding his role to lead the company’s operations in Japan and Asia Pacific (APAC). McCready joined Adobe in April 2018 to lead the company’s Japan business, based in Tokyo. Prior to joining Adobe, he was VP of APAC and Japan at Dell EMC. Visit www.adobe.com/au

COMREX HAS APPOINTED Sue Gilks as Director, Asia-Pacific. Sue will work with distributors in the region to support existing customers and further develop the markets. Over the last 30 years Sue has served as a senior manager in the international broadcast arena with a number of world leading technology companies including DTC (formerly Cobham Security and Surveillance division) Tandberg TV, Motorola, and Sony. Visit www.comrex.com RADIO FREE ASIA (RFA) has hired veteran journalist Matthew Pennington as its new Managing Director for Southeast Asia. Pennington, an award-winning former Associated Press (AP) reporter, will oversee RFA’s coverage of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. As MD for Southeast Asia, he will work closely with the directors of four language services to manage daily and long-term operations of RFA Vietnamese, Khmer, Lao, and Burmese. He will report to RFA’s VP of Programming, Parameswaran Ponnudurai. Visit www.rfa.org ELGEN KUA HAS been appointed to a new position as Corporate Communications Director at South China Morning Post SCMP. He was previously with Singapore-based sports rights agency MP & Silva in the role of Director, Marketing & Communications (APAC). BRAJ MOHAN SINGH has started a new position as Regional Editorial Head at Eenadu Digital. He was previously Head of Digital Media with the Dainik Savera Group. Eenadu Digital is are one of the largest multi-lingual digital platforms in India with a base of around 4000 reporters across the country.

NAGRA Protects 4K UHD, Android Pay-TV for kbro Taiwan NAGRA, THE PROVIDER OF CONTENT PROTECTION and multiscreen television solutions, has extended its content protection partnership with Taiwanese cable operator kbro to include the service provider’s new 4K Ultra HD service delivered over a hybrid cable and OTT network. A NAGRA customer since 2009, kbro has deployed NAGRA Connect in 2018 on top of the existing NAGRA conditional access and OpenTV OTT backend platform and will enable kbro to fulfill the most rigid content protection requirements, including early release content. NAGRA will also secure the operator’s 4K Ultra HD services on Android TV in 2019.

service and upcoming Android TV deployment,” said Stéphane Le Dréau, Senior Vice President of Sales for APAC at NAGRA. “Our content protection solutions enable kbro to fulfill their commitment to content providers and ensure the integrity of premium 4K Ultra HD content as well as content in all forms, on any network and any device. We look forward to supporting kbro as they grow their service.”

“As a leading supplier of content protection solutions, NAGRA has a proven track record in delivering robust security solutions that are endorsed by the studios and protect businesses from piracy,” said Alex Hsieh, Chief Technology Officer at kbro. “As such, NAGRA was the clear choice to secure this deployment, which represented a minimal upgrade to our existing platform and gives us the peace of mind that our 4K content investment remains secure.

NAGRA Connect is a converged CAS/DRM client solution for connected settop boxes and smart televisions, protecting broadcast, IPTV and operatorcontrolled OTT, and leveraging an adaptive security paradigm to protect any content, on any network and any device. NAGRA Connect complies with MovieLabs’ Enhanced Content Protection (ECP) requirements for 4K Ultra HD content and leverages the MediaCAS API to blend into the Android TV client ecosystem, a feature broadly supported across the security clients of NAGRA and Conax product lines.

“We are delighted to expand our partnership with kbro and secure their new 4K

Visit https://dtv.nagra.com and www.kbro.com.tw

EditShare Names Menon Sales Director SE Asia leadership positions at Avid Technology, Primestream and Apple. Menon also held technical positions at Real Image.

A technically savvy business development manager, Menon has developed media strategies for India’s largest broadcast and content companies including Viacom 18, Network 18, Times Now, Sun TV, and Republic TV, bringing vast technical understanding as to what it takes to power critical media workflows.

“EditShare has gone far beyond the traditional workflow solution and is meeting the needs of much more complicated, larger scale applications,” comments Menon. “Broadcasters and media companies today simply cannot offer the same programming or add OTT to survive. They have to drive contemporary media strategies to engage and grow viewership. This requires a new approach to the media foundation and an immense level of flexibility. I look forward to engaging these media businesses and pioneering new workflows with EditShare innovation.”

His 20-year career in media technology includes business development

Visit www.editshare.com

NEWS + PEOPLE

EDITSHARE, THE DEVELOPER OF intelligent scale-out storage, AQC and media management solutions, has announced that business development expert Sundeep Menon has joined EditShare as the Sales Director for South East Asia. A skilled media enterprise strategist, Menon will be responsible for defining the business development strategy across all sectors of Media and Entertainment, supporting EditShare market expansion which saw more than 30% growth in 2018.

TECHNICAL STANDARDS www.content-technology.com/standards

The MPEG Ecosystem By Leonardo Chiariglione, MPEG chairman

Introduction An ecosystem is composed of elements variously interconnected and variously dependent on one another. Standardisation is a particular type of ecosystem. Purpose of this article is to analyse the elements of the MPEG ecosystem and their relationships. Standardisation in the past In days long bygone, standardisation in what today we would call the “media industry” followed a rather simple process. A company wishing to attach a “standard” label to a product that had become successful in the market made a request to a standards committee whose members, typically from companies in the same industry, had an interest in getting an open specification of what had to be until then a closed system. A good example is offered by the video cassette player for which two products from two different companies, ostensibly for the same functionality – VHS and Beta – were approved by the same standard organisation – the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) and by the same committee – SC 60 B at that time. Things were a little different in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) where ITU-T (then called CCITT) had a Study Group where the telecommunication industry – represented by the Post and Telecommunication Administrations of the member countries, at that time the only ones admitted to the committee – requested a standard (called recommendation in the ITU) for digital telephony speech. ITU-T ended up with two different specifications in the same standard: one called A-law and the other called µ-law. In ITU-R (then called CCIR) National Aministrations were operating, or had authorised various entities to operate, television broadcasting services (some had even started doing so before WW II) and were therefore unable to settle on even a limited number of television systems. The only thing they could do was to produce a document called Report 624 Television Systems that collected the 3 main television systems (NTSC, PAL and SECAM) with tens of pages where country A selected, e.g., a different frequency or a different tolerance of the colour subcarrier than country B or C.

format to another when speech moves from one environment (country, application etc.) to another. If there were only the 10 points listed above do not make the MPEG process would not be much more complex than the ITU’s. The real difference is that MPEG does not have the mindset of the telecom industry who had decided A-law – µ-law digital speech 50+ years ago. MPEG is different because it would address speech digitisation taking into consideration the needs of a range of other industries who intend to use and hence want to have a say in how the standard is made: Consumer Electronic (CE), Information Technology (IT), broadcasting, gaming and probably more. Taking into account so many views is a burden for those developing the standard (actually, not necessarily) but the standards eventually produced is abstracted from the little (or big) needs that are specific of individual industries. Profiles and Level allow an industry not to be overburdened by technologies introduced to satisfy requirements from other industries that are irrelevant (and possibly costly) to an industry. Those who need the functionality, not matter what the cost, can do it with different profiles and levels. Exploring the MPEG ecosystem Figure 1 colourfully depicts with how MPEG has succeeded in its role of “abstracting” the needs of client “digital media” industries currently served by MPEG. The figure does not include other industries, such as genomics, that MPEG has begun to serve. Figure 1, however, does not describe all the ecosystem actors. In MPEG-1 the Consumer Electronics industry was typically able to develop by itself (or

MPEG

Standardisation, à la MPEG Not unaware of past failures of standardisation and taking advantage of the radical technology discontinuity, MPEG took a different approach to standardisation which can be expressed by the synthetic expression “one functionality – one tool”. To apply this expression to the example of ITU-T’s A-law – µ-law dichotomy, if MPEG had to decide on a standard for digital speech, it would 1. Develop requirements

Fixed telco network

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Figure 1 – MPEG and its client “digital media” industries.

2. Select speech samples to be used for tests 3. Issue a Call for Proposals (CfP) 4. Run the selected test speech with the proposals 5. Subjectively assess the quality 6. Check the proposals for any issue such as complexty etc. 7. Create a Test Model with the proposals

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

8. Create Core Experiments (CE)

9. Iterate the Test Model with the results of CEs 10. Produce WD, CD, DIS and FDIS The process would be long – an overkill in this case because a speech digitiser is a simple analogue-to-digital (A/D) converter – but not necessarily longer that having a committee decide on competing proposals with the goal of accepting only one. The result would be a single standard providing seamless bitstream interoperability without the need to convert speech from one

found it more convenient to develop) the technology needed to make products that used the MPEG-1 standard. With MPEG-2 this was less the case. Today the industry implementing (as opposed to using or selling products based on) MPEG standards has grown to be a very important element of the MPEG ecosystem. This industry typically provides components to companies who actually manufacture a complete product (sometimes this happens inside the same company, but the logic is the same). MPEG standards can be implemented using various combinations of software, hardware and hybrid software/hardware technologies. The choice for hardware is very wide: from various integrated circuit architectures to analogue technologies. The latter choice is for devices with extremely low power consumption, although with limited compression. Just about to come are devices that use neural networks. Other technologies are likely to find use in the future, such as quantum computing or even genomic technologies.

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Figure 2 – MPEG, its Client Industries and Implementation Industries.

Figure 3 – The MPEG process.

Figure 2 identifies 3 “layers” in the MPEG ecosystem, and the arrows show their relationships.

elements of the MPEG ecosystem are in italic).

Client industries in need of a standard provide requirements. However, the “Implementation layer” industries, examples of which have been provided above, also provide requirements. The MPEG layer eventually develops standards that are fed to the Client Industry layer that requested it, but also to the Implementation layer. Requests to implement a standard are generated by companies in the Client industry layer and directed to companies in the Implementation layer who eventually deliver the implementation to the companies requesting it. Conformance testing typically plays a role in assessing conformance of an implementation to the standard.

2. The MPEG Requirements Competence Centre develops requirements by interacting with Client Industries and Implementation Industries

Figure 2, however, is not a full description of the MPEG ecosystem. More elements are provided by Figure 3 which describes how the MPEG process actually takes place. The new elements highlighted by the Figure are 1. The MPEG Toolkit assembling all technologies that have been used in MPEG standards 2. The MPEG Competence Centres mastering specific technology areas and 3. The Technology industries providing new technologies to MPEG by responding to Calls for Proposals (CfP). In the early days the Implementation Industries did not have a clear identity and were largely merged with the Client Industries and Implementation Industries. Today, as highlighted above, the providers of basic technologies are well identified and separate industries.

1. MPEG receives a request for a standard from a Client Industry

3. MPEG issues CfPs (Calls for technologies in the figure) 4. Technology Industries respond to CfP by submitting technologies 5. MPEG mobilises appropriate Competence Centres 6. Competence Centres, coordinated by MPEG, develop standards by selecting/adapting existing technologies (drawn from the toolkit) and submitted technologies 7. MPEG updates the toolkit with new technologies It should be clear now that MPEG cannot be described by the simple “Standards Provider – Client Industry” relationship. MPEG is a complex ecosystem that works because all its entities play the role proper to them. Dividing MPEG by Client Industries means losing the commonality of technologies. Dividing MPEG by Implementation Industries makes no sense, because in principle any MPEG standard must be implementable with different technology. Dividing MPEG by Competence Centres means losing the interaction between them. Conclusions

Revisiting the MPEG process

MPEG is a complex ecosystem that has successfully operated for decades serving the needs of the growing number of its component industries. As much as you would not allow a child to open a toy with complicated gears inside just to see “how it works”, industry should not allow apprentice sorcerers to undo this wonderful ecosystem called MPEG.

Using Figure 3 it is possible to describe how the MPEG process unfolds (the

Visit https://mpeg.chiariglione.org

Association Formed to Develop 8K A GROUP OF THE WORLD’S LEADING display technology brands came together at CES 2019 to form a new industry organization: The 8K Association (8KA). Founding companies include leading panel supplier AU Optronics (AUO) along with consumer electronics giants Hisense, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics and TCL Electronics. Panel supplier Samsung Display has also joined the 8KA. This international group of leaders recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form the non-profit organization to advance their common vision and mission. Specific goals of the organization include: • Promoting 8K TVs and 8K Content to consumers and professionals • Helping educate consumers and professionals about the 8K ecosystem • Helping secure 8K native content for members • Encouraging service providers (especially OTT) to develop 8K offerings • Facilitating communication within 8K ecosystem to help with commercialisation • Developing initial technical requirements for 8K input signals • Developing initial 8K TV categories and minimum specifications for image quality The organisation will work on developing the entire value chain for 8K with an initial focus on supporting the early commercialisation and adoption of 8K TVs. Visit www.8kassociation.com

AIMS Creates New Working Group Focused on Pro AV Market THE ALLIANCE FOR IP MEDIA SOLUTIONS (AIMS) has launched a new Pro AV Working Group tasked with promoting the adoption of one set of mediaover-IP protocols for the professional AV and installed systems market. AIMS has appointed David Chiappini as chair and Scott Barella as deputy chair of the new working group. The AIMS Pro AV Working Group will define an open-standards approach to addressing the pro AV world's move toward IP media. The group's efforts will be based on evaluating and recommending existing standards and specifications from AES, AMWA, VSF, SMPTE, IEEE, and IETF that already have been broadly adopted by the media and entertainment industry, incorporating pro AV-market-specific features including security, HDCP support for protected content, and IO control. The anticipated result of the Pro AV Working Group's efforts is a flexible, future-proof method for meeting the video, audio, and data requirements of current and future pro AV solutions. David Chiappini, the new working group's chair, is vice president of research and development for AIMS member Matrox. Scott Barella, who is CTO at PESA, also serves as the AIMS Technical Working Group deputy chair. Visit www.aimsalliance.org

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TECHNICAL STANDARDS

Implem. Industry2

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MEDIA BUSINESS Moves in the business of content + technology

www.content-technology.com/mediabusiness

A Bruising Brexit for British Broadcasting? WITH JUST WEEKS LEFT ON THE CLOCK for the UK’s hitherto shambolic exit from the European Union, broadcasters have been enacting contingency plans to deal with what they were assured would not come to pass – a no-deal BREXIT.

Even if it eventuates For broadcasters, that its signatories are bound by the the main impact is quarter-century old framework (with none on those who use of them contesting the UK as a base its validity), the ECTT for delivering does not cover ondemand operators, channels into EU mainly because these did not exist in 1993. countries. The first commercial VOD service in the UK, rolled out by Kingston Communications, was not launched until 1998.

While it will retain a sizable presence in the UK, Discovery Networks is moving its European pay-TV channels to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Turner and NBC Universal have applied for German licences and even the BBC is looking at Brussels or Amsterdam to relocate its international channels. Yes, that’s right, the British Broadcasting Corporation. For broadcasters, the main impact is on those who use the UK as a base for delivering channels into EU countries. Prior to 29 March 2019, UK-based broadcasters and video-on-demand providers are covered by the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) (Directive 2010/13/EU) which sets out a “country of origin principle”. This means audiovisual media service providers are only subject to the jurisdiction of one EU country. Up until March 29, a broadcasting licence issued by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, would be valid in the whole of the EU. The provider therefore need only comply with Ofcom rules, regardless of where the licenced service is received within the EU. If there is no Brexit deal before March 29 covering these operators, the country of origin principle will no longer apply to services under UK jurisdiction as the UK would be classified by the EU as a third country. There are a number of criteria for determining which country has jurisdiction over a broadcast or VOD provider. These include “establishment criteria”, i.e., where the head office and/or editorial decisions for a service are taken, and “technical criteria” relating to the location of satellite uplinks employed by the provider, or the use of satellite capacity related to an EU country.

MEDIA BUSINESS

A revised version of the AVMSD was adopted in November 2018 and is to be implemented by EU countries by August 2020.

The revised rules strengthen the country of origin principle and extend the European audiovisual rules to video-sharing platforms (such as Youtube). They are designed to ensure better protection of minors against harmful content, and include stronger rules against hate speech and public provocation to commit terrorist offences. They also seek to enhance the promotion of European works, ensure more flexibility in television advertising and reinforce the independence of audiovisual regulators. The independence of audio-visual regulators is also reinforced in EU law by ensuring they are legally distinct from their respective governments and functionally independent from the government and any other public or private body. So, where does this leave UK-based broadcasters and VOD operators? Well, the UK Government has pinned its advice to broadcasters on a 25-year-old convention. Back in 1993, the UK and 20 other countries signed

According to the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport guidance, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, “The ECTT does not provide for freedom of reception for video-on-demand services, and so providers of these services will need to comply with the requirements of AVMSD for jurisdiction.” the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT). Signatories to the ECTT include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Today, the Council of Europe mainly operates as a human rights body, advocating “freedom of expression and of the media, freedom of assembly, equality, and the protection of minorities.” The original ECTT guaranteed freedom of reception between the parties and set out that parties to the Convention must not restrict the retransmission of compliant programmes within their territories. However, for EU signatories and their dealings within the single market, the current AVMSD takes precedence over the ECTT. Also, the ECTT does not have the same enforcement mechanisms as the AVMSD. There was a standing committee to resolve disputes, but this has not met since 2010. In February 2011, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe endorsed proposals to discontinue work on trans-frontier television. Despite this, the guidance from the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport states, “In the absence of the AVMSD regulatory framework, the ECTT framework continues to apply and may have increased relevance. The 20 EU countries that have signed and ratified ECTT will be required to permit freedom of reception to services under UK jurisdiction (how this right is given effect in each country may depend on national law and how the ECTT has been implemented locally). In turn, the UK would be required to permit freedom of reception for services which originate from EU and non-EU countries that are parties to the ECTT.” The guidance says that details will be “confirmed in due course” regarding the seven EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Sweden) that are not signatories to the convention.

Logically, this would involve video-on-demand services having to establish operations in the EU. The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport also acknowledges that, should ECTT continue to apply (as it insists it will), operators may need to have two or more licences – an Ofcom licence, and licences for those EU countries not party to the ECTT. As well as Discovery, NBC Universal and Turner, other firms facing the impact of BREXIT include A+E Networks, Disney and Fox. In December 2018, the Commercial Broadcasters Association (COBA), which represents these broadcasters (among others), warned “In the weeks prior to the UK hitting a cliff edge, the UK’s £1 billion international broadcasting sector will have no choice but to implement contingency plans in order to be able to still comply with EU law post-BREXIT. Hundreds of UK-based channels that are received in EU countries will be forced to find alternative arrangements, including securing broadcast licences from regulators in the remaining EU Member States before the end of March, so that they will have legally valid EU broadcast licences once the UK is no longer part of the single market. This will entail restructuring their European operations to support those new licences and comply with EU law requirements.” While an eleventh-hour BREXIT deal may yet be struck, the damage to Britain’s broadcast sector – and, one imagines, to many other industries caused by uncertainty has already been done. It remains to be seen whether the UK will remain a hub for international broadcasting or a mere spoke. For more, see https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/broadcasting-and-video-on-demandif-theres-no-brexit-deal/broadcasting-and-videoon-demand-if-theres-no-brexit-deal

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

PREVIEW 4 – 7 M a r c h 2 0 1 9 , R o y a l e C h u l a n , Ku a l a L u m p u r

DBS Masterclasses to Focus on Creating Great Content HOW TO USE THE LATEST TECHNOLOGIES to create exciting content will be an important focus at the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium in March. Interactive masterclasses will be staged throughout the symposium on three topics: mobile journalism, immersive virtual reality, and using the latest broadcast quality cameras. The symposium takes place in Kuala Lumpur on 4-7 March. An award-winning South African journalist, Viasen Soobramoney, will conduct full-day masterclasses on mobile journalism on 4, 6 and 7 March. He will look at how to create engaging content and professional videos using a smartphone. Eight masterclasses on virtual reality, showcasing state-of-the-art storytelling and content creation, will take place over the course of three days, 5-7 March. Jointly presenting them will be Funique VR and HTC Vive. Each session will last about 50 minutes. The masterclass on broadcast camera setup, operation and techniques will focuses mainly on the skills needed to operate new, broadcast quality HD/UHD cameras. An expert from Iran, Mohieddin Moradi, will conduct it. He is a video engineer in

the research and development department at Iran’s national broadcaster, IRIB, and an instructor at IRIB University. The symposium will also feature a three-day exhibition, four days of workshops and a three-day conference. The exhibition is open to the public free of charge. Visit http://dbs.abu.org.my

DAB+ Means Business at ABU-DBS WORLDDAB IS THE global forum for digital radio, facilitating the adoption and implementation of digital broadcast radio based on DAB/DAB+. This year, the organisation is Principal Sponsor of the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium.

• Broadcast or 4G/5G?

Other speakers will include: • Aaron Alphonso, Macquarie Media Ltd;

WorldDAB will host a DAB+ workshop during ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium on Monday 4 March from 13:30 - 16:30.

• Connected vehicles and what broadcasters need to do to ensure their place in the digital dashboard – covering hybrid radio, voice activation, 5G, metadata & metrics. • DAB+ developments in the Asia Pacific region – including Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

• Do Anh Duc, Voice of Vietnam;

There will be an opening welcome and special announcement from WorldDAB Vice-President and Chair of the WorldDAB Asia Pacific Committee Ms Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia. Taking place in the Tun Sri Lanang 1 meeting room at the Royal Chulan Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, topics covered in the workshop include:

ABU 2019 PREVIEW

• DAB+ business case studies: GfK, public and commercial radio broadcasters.

• International DAB+ update, European legislation and the latest DAB+ technical development. The DAB+ Business Case Studies will include: • Private broadcaster perspective: Grant Blackley, Southern Cross Austereo; • Public broadcaster perspective: Cath Dwyer, Australian Broadcasting Corporation; and • What distribution is best for the business? The technical business case: Dr Les Sabel

• Deb Hishon, GFK Australia; • Kathryn Brown, Commercial Radio Australia; • Lindsay Cornell, BBC; • Nick Piggott, RadioDNS; and • Bernie O’Neill, Project Director, WorldDAB In the ABU-DBS Exhibition, attendees will be able to meet representatives from key supply-chain and technology companies on the DAB+ pavilion. WorldDAB members GatesAir, Paneda, Factum Radioscape, AVT and Xperi will be showcasing their DAB+ technology and solutions, and offering advice and support in launching DAB+.

Virtuoso Performance from Nevion

Factum Radioscape at the Leading Edge of DAB+

BOOTH 39 AT THIS YEAR’S ABU-DBS will see Nevion, the provider of virtualized media production solutions, spotlighting its software-defined media node, Virtuoso. The platform handles video and audio processing, transport adaption, protection, monitoring and switching, SD/HD/3G signals, 4K/UHD and HDR processing, slo-mo and HFR encoding, stereoscopic 3D, 2K cinema and encryption. The company recently announced that a leading Japan-based global video transmission company had chosen Virtuoso for 4K/UHD broadcast contribution with TICO encoding. The solution is being used to transmit 4K/ UHD signals from sports and entertainment venues across the country to broadcasters’ central facilities. The company is also using Virtuoso’s SMPTE ST 2022-7 based protection, Seamless IP Protection Switching (SIPS), which allows signals to be transported across two separate paths simultaneously to ensure signals are not disrupted if problems occur along one of the paths.

EXHIBITING IN THE WORLDDAB Pavilion at ABU-DBS, Factum Radioscape recently supplied Thailand with its first national DAB+ head-end system, ENMUXA. A fully redundant encoding, multiplexing and monitoring system has been installed in the capital, Bangkok. A software-based virtualised system will enable studios to send their audio over IP to a centralised location for encoding, multiplexing and distribution. ENMUXA is also capable of encoding MPEG2-TS from satellites, an option that might be utilised during expansion. The architecture will also encompass the Output Manager, a newlydeveloped switching software enabling an automated assembly of identical EDI streams from all available system components. This offers the broadcaster the optimal output distribution and in turn, provides the listener with a better audio experience. The entire broadcast chain will be monitored and validated utilising products from Factum Radioscape’s unrivalled OBSERVA range. The OBSERVA range has already been adopted by national broadcasters including the UK, Australia, Italy and Switzerland. Visit www.factumradioscape.com

Visit https://nevion.com

ABU 2019 PREVIEW

Ideal Systems – Taming the Cloud IDEAL SYSTEMS’ RESIDENT CLOUD GURU, James Taylor, will deliver two talks at ABU-DBS this year. The first, entitled “Cloud Broadcast – The Next Technology Wave: Why Cloud is important for Broadcasters”, will explore the latest cloud advances in broadcast architectures. Topics will include design patterns for adaptable cloud based “content workshops” and 3rd generation playout technology based on a faster than real-time “render-ahead” approach than revolutionizes linear playout operations and represents the most significant change to linear origination since the introduction of file-based playout. According to Taylor, “Cloud providers and the ‘tech’ industry have been quick to talk about the virtues of cloud technology. We are all very familiar with the buzzwords ‘agile, scalable, devops, CI/CD, dynamic, pay as you go’, and the promises of market advantage by being ‘early adopters’, but how does this translate into meaningful system designs? How can the new disciplines impact the day-to-day lives of broadcasters? This talk looks at a two practical design patterns for applying cloud technology in the broadcast domain to increase efficiency and

choice. This talk looks at several cloud-enabled hybrid topologies, based on the topics discussed in the ‘Why Cloud is Important for Broadcasters’ session.”

James Taylor, Head of Cloud Services, Ideal Systems.

operational elegance.” The second talk, entitled “Cloud Integration: Getting to cloud via Hybrid”, will explore pathways to leveraging hybrid topologies to provide a rational and economically viable pathway to the cloud with particular reference to the advances in systems architectures that are possible due to render-ahead workflows and massively scalable content workshops. According to James Taylor, “For many domains the choice is simply cloud or on-premise and hybrid systems are limited to shared identity and web/application server access. Broadcasters find that hybrid systems are, in fact, the de-facto

The talk will include content analysis and triage pipelines for content ingress, exploring a practical solution for content triage ‘in-flight’ using pay-as-you-go services to hybridise a workflow without a fixed system, instead using “infrastructure as code” to deploy and destroy project specific workflows. It will also explore how render-ahead workflows allow for entirely new paradigms in hybridisation with massively parallel cloud rendering delivering segmented, broadcast-ready content to the edge, as well as realising a globally scalable playout solution with ‘infinite’ redundancy and resilience. According to Fintan Mc Kiernan, Ideal Systems CEO for South East Asia, “These talks will be of particular interest to any broadcaster or service provider looking to stop the bifurcation of OTT and linear and, instead, embrace a single unified approach to provisioning content across all mediums of consumption.” Visit www.idealsys.com

Mediagenix Streamlines OTT and Broadcast ON BOOTH NO.40 at the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium, MEDIAGENIX will be highlighting its WHATS’ON workflow solution for broadcasters and OTT operators alike.

strategic decisions. Sports events even more so, given the astronomical sums involved. “And there are the complex underlying rights and restrictions, royalties and participations. Millions of consumption records a month need to be digested for intricate revenue share calculations to give distributors, platforms and talent what is theirs by right.”

Managing Director for MEDIAGENIX APAC, Johan Vanmarcke, will also be delivering a presentation during Session 6 on Wednesday, 6 March, entitled “OTT & Broadcasting: streamline your operations and manage the big picture with WHATS’ON”. According to Vanmarcke, content distribution is no longer about filling linear channels with content. “It is about streamlining your content supply chain and getting your content to the right audience in a way that gets you the most value for money,” he says. “Viewers increasingly turn to the Internet where social media and OTT services are prolific in offering a wide range of content. This triggers media companies to take a closer look at the content they can offer. What rights do they have on the content? What distribution platforms

are available and through which technique can they serve their business goals best with each title? Maybe it is on a premium pay service, or on Facebook or YouTube, maybe on a linear channel or by selling the content to another company. “Blockbusters, vintage series and movies, gameshows and soaps, old content or new, all require a different approach, with the highest operational efficiency, immediate insight into availabilities, and instant information to make

“WHATS’ON, the solution by MEDIAGENIX, helps you reinvent your business and content ecosystem with a single tool to manage your content supply chain, from planning up to distribution. Our solution can either support this entire workflow, or as a central system driving content/rights/media/ EPG/finance workflows complemented with niche applications. The result is that you can efficiently run your mix of OTT and Linear business, while keeping an eye on the big picture.” Visit www.mediagenix.tv

NOA Brings Archiving Expertise to ABU-DBS AV DIGITISING AND ARCHIVING SPECIALIST NOA GmbH is gearing up for its participation in this year’s ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium, held March 4–7 in Kuala Lumpur.

focused requirements into a broader perspective

“We are delighted to attend ABU-DBS for several reasons. Firstly, to meet our existing customers in the Asia-Pacific region and introduce our archiving technology to new partners and prospects,” said Christophe Kummer, Managing Partner of NOA. “Secondly, we will have the opportunity to share our expertise on industrial digitization during one of the focused workshops. Finally, we are looking forward to enjoying conversations on preserving legacy archive.”

in light of operation cost cutting, and building

Visit www.noa-archive.com

Bruno Burtre and Abderrahmane Bessaih will be representing NOA at this year’s symposium. Exhibiting on booth number 7, the company will highlight its archiving expertise and solutions. Burtre will present a paper during Session 6 on March 6 from 11:30am-13:00pm. During his speech “Digital Transformation - Workflow Enhancement, Media Management and Cloud Integration,” Burtre will take a look at the key points involved in today’s industry AV digitization

NOA’s Bruno Burtre (right) and Abderrahmane Bessaih.

projects. He will discuss putting optimization-

ABU 2019 PREVIEW

optimized playout formats that are ideal for implementation now and in the coming years.

ABU 2019 PREVIEW

ENENSYS and TestTree Bring Illuminating Solutions AT THIS YEAR’S ABU-DBS, ENENSYS will be participating at ABU DVB 2019 presenting the ‘OneBeam’ Single Illumination solution that optimises satellite distribution networks combining DTH and DTT services, Targeted Content insertion that allows broadcasters to monetize their content with local advertising, TeamCast satellite and terrestrial modulators/receivers and TestTree high performance RF and TS test & monitoring solutions. Also, with the recent acquisition of Expway, ENENSYS will introduce how to optimise delivery of live video services over LTE broadcast using FeMBMS technology. Colin Prior, APAC Sales Manager (pictured) will also be speaking in the conference on “Optimising TV Distribution combining DTT/DTH broadcast and OTT”.

Based in Rennes, France, ENENSYS Technologies is a designer and manufacturer of innovative professional equipment for the global Digital Video Delivery and Broadcast industry. For 15 years the Group has delivered innovative solutions to broadcasters and network operators enabling them to optimize the distribution and delivery of their content. The group companies are market leaders in solutions for optimizing, securing and monetizing DTT networks in particular. Its solutions are in use at more than 400 customers worldwide under four brands - ENENSYS Networks, TeamCast, TestTree and Expway. Visit www.enensys.com.

Sony Enhances Workflow, MAM and Cloud Integration SONY RETURNS TO ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium this year, highlighting the latest technologies and solutions that continue to redefine the content creation industry. The company invites attendees to visit Booth 32 and 33, between 4 to 7 March, to experience its latest professional offerings that “provide the industry what they need to go make tomorrow a reality, with total peace of mind”. According to Sony, the myriad benefits of going digital in a wide range of environments serve as huge motivation for business owners and content creatives to further enhance productivity and efficiency of workflows. However, the need for long-term management, archiving and retrieving data-heavy assets efficiently has become a pressing issue.

Tomas Chen of Content Creation Solutions Marketing, Professional Solutions Company (PSAP), Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited, will be sharing insights about Sony's Optical Disc Archive solutions, which weathers time and elements to ensure business continuity for now and in the future. Join us at Conference Session 6, Digital Transformation – Workflow Enhancement, Media Management and Cloud Integration to find out more about the ideal solution for every storage and archive application. Visit www.pro.sony

Rohde & Schwarz – Optimising IT for Broadcast ACCORDING TO ROHDE & SCHWARZ, its products can help solve issues in many areas of today’s broadcasting and media world. With over 70 years of innovation in the field of broadcasting, Rohde & Schwarz provides top-notch solutions to broadcasters, studios, post-production facilities, cable TV and satellite providers, and system integrators/ solution providers. At this year’s ABU-DBS, Yew-jin Cheong, Director of Broadcast & Media for the Asia Pacific region (pictured), will speak on “Optimizing IT technology in broadcast” at the conference on 6 March at 9am. R&S will dive deeper into this topic during its workshop on 6 March at 11:15am where it will also present “HPC – Leading to smart storage”. On the show floor, the Rohde & Schwarz booth (22 and 23) will feature solutions to support the entire broadcasting value chain from content ingest to IP contribution.

ABU 2019 PREVIEW

Work is well underway in defining standards to guide the shift from baseband to IP formats and to create a common ground that benefits everyone in the

industry. In the first segment of the workshop featuring “Video over IP – Optimizing IT technology in broadcast”, R&S will take a look at the industry dynamics and trends that are expediting the shift to IP, as well as the advantages of IP in the broadcast ecosystem. Rohde & Schwarz has digital broadcast solutions that support SMPTE 2110 and helps facilitate the switch from SDI to IP infrastructures. In the second segment, R&S will discuss the development that led to the adoption of HPC technologies in Network attached storage and Storage access network. With content owners and broadcasters transitioning to digital file-based workflows, storage becomes increasingly important in solving users’ data access, life-cycle management, content monetization and analytics challenges. Our solutions, designed for broadcasters, studios, cable providers, and Internet-delivery networks, address these big-media concerns. Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com

Nautel Racks Up Half-Century

Etere Spans the Media Enterprise

ON STAND 18 at this year’s ABU-DBS, transmitter manufacturer Nautel will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary.

ETERE WILL BE at ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2019, Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 5-7 March 2019 at Booth 6.

The celebration is being launched with a special 50th Anniversary promotion, running through the close of the spring NAB show: any customer who places an order for a GV Series FM transmitter during that time will receive an extra 50 months of warranty on the product free.

Etere will present the latest technology and solutions in the Etere Media Enterprise Resource Planning (MERP) framework. Etere solutions are designed to be future-ready and reliable. Its architecture is fully scalable, flexible and efficient. It is capable of managing the end-to-end broadcasting and media workflows of companies.

“This adds up to over 8 years of transmission peace of mind with worldwide available parts and the industry’s #1 support team,” said Wendell Lonergan, Nautel Head of Broadcast Sales. “It’s our way of thanking customers for the confidence they have placed in Nautel transmitters and support for 50 years.” Long-time users of Nautel products are invited to share their transmitter stories with the company. Selected stories will be featured at NAB and throughout 2019. Customers who submit qualifying stories will be eligible to win prizes.

Etere MERP solutions include Media Asset Management, NRCS Newsroom, Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM), Playout Automation, Censorship, Airsales, Broadcast Management System (BMS) and Dynamic Ad Insertion. The Etere Full IP with ETX-M IP Multiviewer empowers users to leverage the benefits of IP without any traditional SDI hardware, cables or other accessories. It features full support for the use of virtual machines and cloud. It is also integrated with Etere ETX-M IP Multiviewer, a software that allows users to manage and adjust up to 9 monitors and 30 sources simultaneously.

Visit www.nautel.com

Visit www.etere.eu

ACQUISITION www.content-technology.com/acquisition

Sony VENICE Presses Flesh with Bad Mothers

Stokes explained, “I did some tests with VENICE and was astonished at how well it worked with flesh tones. The large format is excellent as is being able to work with 500 and 2500 ISO. VENICE also has some very clever functionality such as the ability to change the in-camera NDs one stop at a time up to 2.4. With all of these factors and more it became evident that only the VENICE could give us the new, fresh look we wanted to implement on Bad Mothers from the ground up.” VENICE is a cinema camera created by and for the cinematographer. It’s equipped with a newly developed full-frame image sensor meeting the needs of the film industry in pushing the boundaries of large format image capture with exceptional picture quality. Stokes continued, “The VENICE is perfectly weighted and balanced and is great for shooting handheld which makes it very easy to work with. In fact, we use two VENICE cameras on Bad Mothers along with Zeiss Supreme Primes. We mainly shoot the wider shots with a 50mm on one VENICE and a tighter, over the shoulder with an 85mm on the other. There’s a real pattern to the vision with this set up and the VENICE’s sensor responds incredibly well to whatever light comes in and how the lenses accept that light.” With the wide latitude and gamut recorded by the VENICE, Stokes’ freedom of expression is significantly expanded on Bad Mothers. The camera’s userfriendly design, clear and simple menu navigation, and a highly durable, reliable construction allows him to simply concentrate on filming, and not the camera. He added, “The VENICE gives you this lovely, silky, velvety look which is hard to explain until you see it and when you see it you can’t help but love it. When I’m using a T2 aperture there’s also a lovely fall off and look that just ‘happens’. We shoot 16-bit X-OCN LT (eXtended tonal range Original Camera Negative) as by combining 16-bit precision with surprisingly moderate bit rates, X-OCN opens up a world of new production possibilities for us. X-OCN also produces file sizes much smaller than typical camera RAW, but offers 16-bit scene linear

encoding, so we get the ultimate in tonal expression, longer record times, faster file transfers and more economical post-production.” Stokes also makes good use of the VENICE’s simple ability to change resolution to save time, money and ensure continuity. He explained: “We shoot X-OCN LT at 6K but we alternate between 6K and 4K on a daily basis as a changing the 50mm lens from 4K to 6K is the equivalent to going from a 50mm to a 33mm, so in order to save ourselves a lens change we simply change the resolution.” It’s not just John Stokes ACS who loves how the images the new Sony VENICE is creating for Bad Mothers, according to Stokes it’s the entire crew from the top down. First AC B-CAM Keir Suggett added, “The VENICE is a great camera to work with. It just works as it says it will. No fancy workarounds required. The menus are better than ever before, less cluttered and it’s easier to find what you’re looking for. The short press menu and longer press menus are a real bonus, as is the fact that the most used functions are easily accessible on both sides of the camera – which is great if you’re pressed up against a wall. It’s also good to have the read out on camera operator side so they can easily see the settings. The internal NDs and two base ISO settings are also a huge plus.” First AC A-CAM Karina Davies agrees, “Having two base ISOs is fantastic as when you’re outside in harsh sunlight you can start with 500 ISO which is great, as if you started at 2500 and you were trying to stop down you’d get to 2.4 very quickly and then have nowhere else to go. With 500 you only go up to 2.1 maximum. As John said, being able to switch from 6K to 4K is great as it’s so quick, efficient and perfect for producing this kind of TV. Having the full range of NDs also really takes the pressure off us in terms of putting glass on the front which means John has more time up his sleeve and doesn’t have to compromise on the style, look and feel he wants to achieve. We’ve run the VENICE with every accessory imaginable and it hasn’t skipped a beat. The fast changing between modes means we will see VENICE cameras used to produce a great deal more of this kind of TV in 2019.” John Stokes concluded, “The images we get are of the highest quality and yet the workflow is so simple and straightforward. There are no problems and the camera is consistent, predictable and reliable. As I said in the beginning, the best thing about the VENICE is the incredible way it works with flesh tones but overall, I just love working with this camera.” Visit www.pro.sony

ACQUISITION

BAD MOTHERS IS A NEW eight-part drama series for Australia’s Channel Nine from Jungle Productions and Filthy Productions. Starring Tess Haubrich, Mandy McElhinney, Jessica Tovey, Shalom-Brune Franklin, Daniel MacPherson and Don Hany. It explores the underbelly of modern motherhood through the prism of four very different women. DoP on Bad Mothers is John Stokes ACS and the camera he chose to shoot the series is Sony’s new flagship VENICE next generation motion picture system with full frame sensor, phenomenal colour science and user-friendly operation.

ACQUISITION

Sony Upgrading VENICE to 4K 120 fps

Panasonic 4K Camcorder Delivers Broadcast, Streaming

SONY IS UPGRADING THE CAPABILITIES of its VENICE motion picture camera system by introducing High Frame Rate (HFR) shooting, advanced remote-control functionalities and Cooke/i3 and Zeiss extended metadata support, as part of its latest firmware update. Following the recent release of VENICE’s firmware Version 3.0 and the upcoming launch of its Extension System CBK-3610XS, which was developed in collaboration with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and is currently being used to shoot the AVATAR sequels, the latest upgrade will offer filmmakers even greater creative freedom, flexibility and choice. The new optional High Frame Rate licence allows VENICE to shoot at speeds of up to 120fps at 4K 2.39:1, and 60fps at 6K 3:2 as well as up to 110fps at 4K 17:9 and 75fps at 4K 4:3 with anamorphic lenses. The new additional frame rates are particularly well-suited for drama, movie and commercial productions in 4K and 6K, as well as productions at 50/60p in 6K and VR productions using large viewing angle of 6K 3:2 in 60p. All High Frame Rates support X-OCN recording including X-OCN XT implemented from Ver.3.0 and High Frame Rate up to 60fps support XAVC 4K and ProRes recording. Additionally, Version 4.0 of the VENICE firmware will introduce: • 700 Protocol – A control protocol developed by Sony to connect VENICE to a remote-control unit (RM-B750 or ) and a series remote control panel, giving filmmakers greater flexibility in bringing their visions to life. Further expanding on the camera’s existing remote-control capabilities, the VENICE now offers paint control, iris control, recording start/stop, clip control, and more. The upgraded remote-control function also adds new workflows to extend VENICE’s use in multi-camera and live production settings, such as live concerts and fashion shows. • Support for Cooke’s /i third generation metadata Technology, /i3 and ZEISS eXtended Data technology (based on Cooke /i Technology) – Extended lens metadata can now be embedded straight into a RAW/ XOCN/XAVC file and HD-SDI output without the need for additional metadata equipment. The new function allows distortion and shading caused by supported lenses to be easily rectified, significantly reducing postproduction costs. • Further features include an extended Mask+Line setting in the Frame line set-up, selectable functions for the assignable buttons of the DVFEL200 viewfinder and pure Progressive HD-SDI output in 25p and 29p. Both the free upgrade to firmware Version 4.0 and the optional HFR licence will be available in June 2019. Visit www.pro.sony

THE PANASONIC AG-CX350 CAMCORDER provides NDI | HX connectivity. It ensures smooth video transmission and camera control over IP for live events and web distribution. The AG-CX350 has the capability to be built into larger systems, working alongside Panasonic PTZ cameras equipped with NDI | HX and the Panasonic Live Production Centre (AV-HLC100). The camera features a wide-angle of 24.5mm, with a high-powered optical 20x zoom lens and a new high-definition, high sensitivity 1.0-type 4K MOS sensor to enable 10-bit image quality and 4K (UHD) or FHD resolution recording at up to 50/60p, on to SDXC card. It also features a HLG gamma mode to support HDR image production. Featuring a high brightness, high definition LCD, the camera provides SDI/ HDMI parallel outputs for enhanced operation and usability. Weighing just 1.9kg it has the added benefits of compact size and low power consumption. A new, high-efficiency HEVC codec (LongGOP, 10-bit, 4:2:0/MOV) enables smooth playback and editing with a notebook PC or MacBook. In addition, the camera supports a streaming function for Facebook and YouTube live with compatible RTSP and RTMP protocols. The camera will also support the MXF P2 file format futureproofing it for potential broadcasting applications, enabling AVC-Intra and AVC-LongG. Visit https://business.panasonic.sg/professional-camera/

Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 Update BLACKMAGIC CAMERAS 6.1 which is a new update for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. This update adds quieter audio recording, a new pixel remapping feature, new 2:1 monitoring frame guides, improved battery performance, and more. Blackmagic Camera 6.1 update is available now as a free download from the Blackmagic Design website.

ACQUISITION

The new Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 significantly audio recording when using the built-in microphones on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. The new processing now analyses incoming audio from the dual microphones on each side of the camera to lower the noise floor, resulting in quieter recordings than possible before. In addition, latency has been reduced for audio monitoring, audio and video synchronisation has been fine-tuned, and the 3.5mm audio input selection interface is now more intuitive.

Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 also improves auto-focus performance. Auto-focus now responds quicker and more accurately so that lens hunting is greatly reduced when the camera is locking on to the focal point. There’s also a new media formatting interface that helps prevent customers from accidentally formatting media cards. Once the camera is updated, customers will need to tap and hold the media format confirmation button for three seconds before a card will be erased and reformatted. This update also includes a new in-camera calibration feature which allows customers to recalibrate pixels in the camera. Over time some pixels can change in brightness and create small variations across the sensor. The

new pixel calibration feature allows the camera to realign the light output of each pixel resulting in a smooth clean image under changing environmental conditions. Blackmagic Camera 6.1 update also features 2:1 monitoring frame guides, which is another creative composition tool for filmmakers to frame shots. In addition, new power savings and efficiency enhancements improve battery runtime by 10-15 percent and give customers a more accurate indication of remaining battery power. Blackmagic Cameras 6.1 Update Key Features: • Adds support for pixel calibration in camera. • Improves auto focus performance. • Improves signal to noise ratio performance of the camera’s internal microphone. • Improves power efficiency for improved battery life. • Adds 2:1 monitoring frame guide. • Improves media formatting user interface. • Improves audio monitoring latency performance. • Improves 3.5mm audio input selection interface. • Improves AV sync performance. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

ACQUISITION

Atomos Shinobi 5-inch 1920x1080 HDMI monitor ATOMOS SHINOBI is a high brightness 1000nit 5-inch HDMI monitor suitable for vloggers, creatives and photographers. When shooting video on mirrorless cameras and DSLRs, the Shinobi is small and light enough to take anywhere – weighing in at 200g. Shinobi shares the same HDR 1920x1080 display and colour processing found in the Atomos Ninja V monitor/recorder. With a professional 1000nit brightness screen it can be seen clearly, even in daylight. It has a pixel density of 427 PPI (pixels per inch) and is factory calibrated for colour accuracy. The polycarbonate body is lightweight and durable. It has ¼” - 20 mount points on the top and bottom to allow flexible mounting. A headphone jack on the side allows users to monitor audio from most cameras even those without a built-in jack. Clear onscreen audio level meters give users confidence that their audio is set correctly. Shinobi can run for up to six hours on a single Sony NP-F750 type battery. A clear on-screen battery gauge shows the status of the battery and when it is running low. The central position of the battery mount on the rear of the Shinobi ensures good balance when mounted to mirrorless cameras. The Shinobi has the latest monitoring features of AtomOS 10, allowing users to quickly and easily check and adjust image settings. In moments, they can magnify the image or engage peaking to check focus, pull up false colour, a histogram, zebras or waveform to gauge exposure, or add guides or markers to aid composition. The interface has clear, yet unobtrusive icons which allow the image to be the focus of attention – and with a simple swipe all the menus go away for a totally clear view. These features allow the user to really concentrate on their shot and its framing. Vloggers will especially value the flipscreen function which mirrors the image when they are filming themselves. For broad compatibility the Shinobi’s HDMI port can accept signals up to 4K (4096x2160) at 30fps, or HD video up to 60fps. The screen can also perfectly display 10+ stops of dynamic range when being used with Log or HLG HDR outputs. Atomos’ advanced colour science gives a complete range of in-built gamma pre-sets to match popular cameras when shooting Log or HLG. Creative users who want to see their Log or flat images with a creative

look applied can easily load LUTs directly into the Shinobi’s built-in memory. Simply place a compatible LUT onto a SD card and pop it into the Shinobi, then load it into one of Shinobi’s eight internal pre-set LUT memories. Once done any of the eight LUTs can be recalled immediately for speedy comparison. In addition, countless more LUTs can be kept on the SD card and loaded in when needed. The same SD card slot can also be used to install any future firmware updates. For more advanced uses the Shinobi features a new multi-tool Analysis view that simultaneously shows the image, plus waveform, histogram, vectorscope and audio-level meters. In addition, there are multiple options inside each of these tools. This give the operator a complete picture of what is going on in the image at any time. Although the Shinobi is designed primarily for smaller cameras, its features mean that users of larger cine cameras, traditional camcorders or other Atomos monitor/recorders may also find it an excellent additional monitor for their needs. It also enables operators on multi-camera shoots to have the same high quality HDR monitoring on additional cameras. If shooting Log or HLG HDR the Shinobi features the Atomos HDR engine that allows the operator to see more dynamic range on screen at once. Users simply engage a dedicated pre-set for their camera and around 10 stops of dynamic range are shown, giving an accurate representation of the image in HDR while shooting. It can also be used to give a much better indication of what the image can look like after post production. You can also connect the Shinobi to your Mac or PC for use as an extra monitor while editing – even in the field. A major benefit of Shinobi is that it can be properly colour-calibrated using free Atomos software and the X-rite i1Display Pro probe. All monitors’ colours drift over time and routine calibration ensures that the colours remain as accurate as when they originally left the factory. Visit www.atomos.com

HDBaseT Receiver MARSHALL ELECTRONICS’ HDBaseT receiver converts an HDBaseT signal to HDMI 1.4, supplying 48V power and allowing control via RS-485/232.

such as cameras or monitors, to create a simple and effective way to connect with HDMI equipment over long distances.

“The VAC-HT48-PoE-R provides optimal compatibility and fluidity when paired with Marshall cameras or any other HDBaseT equipment,” says Tod Musgrave, Director of Cameras at Marshall Electronics. “This powerful new receiver was designed to offer users a simple but direct solution in the form of a single cable, converting HDBaseT into a controllable power supply.”

The VAC-HT48-PoE-R supports DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD Audio in eight channels and passes HDCP and EDID. With easy wall mounting ability, the VAC-HT48-PoE-R can be positioned and even concealed for any kind of custom installation application. For connecting pieces of equipment over long distances using HDBaseT, the VAC-HT48-PoE offers a straight-forward solution.

Receiving uncompressed video up to 4K30 through a single CAT 6a/7 cable at 4:4:4 8-bit, 4K60 at 4:2:0 8-bit, and full HD resolutions of 1080p, 1080i and 720p, the VAC-HT48-PoE-R can be used with HDBaseT equipment,

Visit www.marshall-usa.com

Fujinon Cabrio 20-120mm Zoom Lens without Servo

The Cabrio 20-120mm is now available with or without an attached servo unit. The servo drive on other Cabrio Series lenses is interchangeable on the 20-120mm, if the 20-120 is purchased without a drive unit. Designed to be convertible between the video production and cinema markets, the Cabrio 20-120 features a flat T3.5 from end-to-end, with no ramping. It covers a S35-sized sensor (Super 35 format). Without the servo drive, it can easily accept industry-standard cine motors and matte boxes. Just as third-party manufacturers developed accessories for the FUJINON MK lenses, camera and lens support providers are offering solutions to benefit

users of the Cabrio 20-120mm without a servo. Among them, Chrosziel and Heden have designed lighter weight servo zoom motor solutions for the 20-120mm. In reality TV, camera operators often need to hold the camera for 8-10 hours a day. Saving a 20 percent of the weight of the lens is a big deal to an operator and operator and these lightweight third-party drives integrate seamlessly with Sony’s FS series zoom controllable hand grip. On the mount side, Duclos Lenses and IBE offer EF mount and multi-mount kits for the 20-120mm. The Cabrio 20-120mm is fitted with a nine-blade iris to capture the most natural looking imagery and most beautiful bokeh possible. The zoom’s barrel markings are luminous for visibility in dark shooting situations, and distances are listed in feet or meters. Visit www.fujifilm.com

ACQUISITION

FUJIFILM’S FUJINON XK6x20 zoom (better known as the Cabrio 20-120mm) is available in a version without the servo drive motor. The Cabrio 20-120mm without drive can be operated as a fully manual, parfocal, cinema zoom lens.

SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Youku, NFL Team Up to Bring American Football to China

SPORTSCASTING

YOUKU, THE ALIBABA GROUP-OWNED online video hub, has teamed up with America’s National Football League to bring digital content to China.

Youku’s sports channel is hosting highlights and behind-the-scenes stories from NFL games, including the Super Bowl, NFL Kickoff, Thanksgiving and the NFL International series. Documentary content from NFL Films around events such as the NFL Draft will also be made available. The deal with Youku is part of NFL China‘s efforts to reach what Managing Director Richard Young called a “rapidly growing fan base” in the country through strategic partnerships with media partners such as Youku. “Youku’s popularity and high-quality production will provide our fans more access to NFL action every week,” Young said.

Youku has also been broadcasting matches of this year’s AFC Asian Cup live, as it looks to expand its high-definition sports-streaming services. Running from Jan. 5 to Feb. 1 in the United Arab Emirates, the recent tournament is the biggest-ever edition, contested by 24 teams instead of the 16-team format that had been in place for the past 10 years.

The partnership is the latest collaboration between the NFL and Alibaba’s ecosystem. In 2013, the NFL launched an official merchandise store on Tmall, China’s largest B2C marketplace, to reach the more than 600 million monthly active users on Alibaba’s platforms.

It is the second major sporting event to tap Youku’s high frame-rate streaming technology, after the FIFA 2018 World Cup in June. Leveraging artificial intelligence technologies to predict movements, the Alibaba-owned online video hub livestreamed all 51 matches at 50 frames per second.

“We are proud to partner with the NFL to help grow the football fan base in China,” said Youku Vice President and General Manager of Youku Sports Content Center Zheng Wei. “We look forward to providing Chinese viewers with more outstanding content and an enhanced way to enjoy the game.”

Visit www.youku.com

To enrich the viewing experience, Youku offered a range of digital content to engage users as they watch the games, from sports commentary and fan trivia quizzes to prize giveaways.

PlayBox Neo Powers Sports Channel at UseeTV Jakarta USEETV, AN INTERACTIVE television network owned and operated by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, is using a complete broadcast playout system from PlayBox Neo to power a recently launched sports channel. The project included supplying, installing and commissioning four AirBox Neo Pro playout servers in 2+2 main and hotstandby configuration with TitleBox Neo, ListBox Neo, Multibackup Manager and SafeBox Neo options. Launched in 2014, UseeTV is an interactive television service which offers facilities such as pause and rewind viewing, video on demand and subscriber-side recording. UseeTV provides 102 channels of choice, consisting of 20 national and 81 international streams via the Internet. Viewers can watch programmes up to three days beyond the initial transmission date as well as the latest live broadcasts. “We identified PlayBox Neo’s AirBox as the ideal playout platform for this new channel which will be timeshared between Usee Sport, World Cup and Idku programme streams,” comments UseeTV’s Engineering Manager, Puthut Setyo. “AirBox Neo is space-efficient, easy to interface with third-party equipment, very intuitive to operate and flexible in terms of system scalability. The PlayBox

Neo team also did a great job in providing training with separate presentations tailored for our operational staff and the engineering team. Technical support is excellent, both from the PlayBox Neo office here in Jakarta and from the company’s corporate headquarters in Sofia.” “All four AirBox Neo servers incorporate the Pro option which allows control of third-party devices such as video routers,” adds PlayBox Neo Indonesia engineer Dandy Kurniawan. “This option has been deployed to automate the switching between the main and backup playout servers. AirBox Neo Pro also provides automation control of the TitleBox Graphics engine installed on all AirBox Neo servers. All AirBox Neo playout servers also have multichannel audio.” “Although we are seeing growing demand for our CloudAir virtual playout solution, many broadcasters still prefer the independence which comes with operating their own on-site playout system,” adds PlayBox Neo CEO Pavlin Rahnev. “We are very pleased that AirBox Neo servers have been chosen for this expansion of the UseeTV bouquet which is a rich and varied source of high grade content for UseeTV subscribers.” Visit www.playboxneo.com and www.useetv.com

Esports Channel eGG Network Partners with Telkomsel Indonesia EGG NETWORK, the Southeast Asian esports channel owned by Malaysia’s ASTRO, has partnered with Indonesian cellular operator Telkomsel to make its content available on Telkomsel’s streaming app, MAXstream. Telkomsel’s 112 million data subscribers will now be able to watch more tournaments and gaming content from eGG Network for free.

SPORTSCASTING

MAXstream is a video application launched by Telkomsel that features thousands of movies, TV shows and cartoons.

Professional League in Malaysia and Singapore, and aim to expand our tournaments to more ASEAN countries.” Crispin Tristram, Telkomsel’s Head of Digital Lifestyle said, “It has been our commitment to make MAXstream as a quality video streaming application where our customers can enjoy various digital video entertainments that suit any of their interests and needs.

Lee Choong Khay, Chief of Sports – Astro said, “We are thrilled that the esports community in Indonesia can now watch the biggest tournaments and most exciting gaming content on eGG Network, an esports channel created especially for ASEAN gamers. Together with Telkomsel, we look forward to engaging with Indonesian gamers with great content and on-ground events.

“Esports itself is having a significant growth of fans in Indonesia, hence we are very excited to have esports channel from eGG Network as our additional content on MAXstream to offer to our customers. This also proves that MAXstream will continue to grow as a marketplace for all Telkomsel’s video content provider partners.”

“We have successfully organised three seasons of the Mobile Legends

Visit www.egg.network and www.telkomsel.com/maxstream

SPORTSCASTING

WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS SPORTS BUSINESS 30 April â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1 May 2019 | The O2, London

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Chief Innovation Officer

Chief Executive

Managing Director, Commercial Operations

Chief Operating Officer

Chief Commercial & Football Development Officer

Head of Digital Transformation

Managing Director

Chief Strategy Officer & Head of International

Chief Operating Officer & Head of Rugby World Cup

Chief Financial & Business Officer

Chief Executive

Chief Strategy Officer

Find out more at:

www.sportsprolive.com events@sportspromedia.com |

@SportsProEvents | #SPLIVE19

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OFFICIAL PARTNERS

SPORTSCASTING

Ideal Integrates Bluefish444 and Adobe for Live Sports Edit-While-Record IDEAL SYSTEMS WAS RECENTLY approached by a major football body in Malaysia to provide them with a solution to record, archive and perform shot logging for all of their competition matches. To meet these requirements, Ideal Systems needed multiple channels of SDI ingest in a single system, running on commodity hardware, to capture live feeds during the football matches, without being locked into a proprietary server platform. Ideal Systems chose to work with Bluefish444 after comparing the offerings of a number of other vendors. The company found the Bluefish444 solution worked best for these live sports requirements. Ideal settled on an Epoch | 4K Supernova S+ for the live SDI video ingest, and IngeSTore multi-channel capture software that comes bundled with it. “We have a great relationship with Bluefish444, and their products always offer the best quality and reliability,” commented Updesh Singh, Director of Technology at Ideal Systems. “IngeSTore is a very stable product and works great with minimal fuss or training.” With the primary NLE for live editing being Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Ideal Systems were confident the Bluefish444 Edit-While-Record workflow would integrate well. Having had previously integrated Bluefish444 video cards for both Adobe NLE post-production projects, and IngeSTore as a stand-alone capture and encode to shared storage workflow solution. Ideal Systems extensively trialled the combination of Epoch and IngeSTore with the BlueCodecPack licence, to ensure it was the best fit for live production editing before committing to the purchase. Ideal’s rigorous testing of the workflow from live multi-channel ingest to final NLE publishing, proved the Bluefish444 solution would deliver the results they were looking for. The Supernova S+ card and IngeSTore software provide simultaneous capture of up to four SD/HD or two 3G sources in their native resolutions, encoded in real-time to the XDCAM 50Mbps format for Adobe editors to access in a nearlive workflow. To allow editors to share the XDCAM files, Ideal Systems integrated the Bluefish444-powered workstation with SNS EVO storage for capture directly

to network-attached storage. This multi-vendor workflow solution allowed editors running on the same local network to access XDCAM files in real-time, via the Edit-While-Record features of IngeSTore coupled with Adobe Premiere Pro’s native support for growing files in the XDCAM format. Editors are able to quickly cut and mark highlights, and then publish the edited content. “The Edit-While-Record functionality of IngeSTore combined with Premiere Pro is fantastic!” says Singh. “The quality of the ingest is really amazing, and an added bonus is that we’ve reduced our operational editing time of a match by over two hours.” After a number of months of continual operation, Ideal Systems has found the solution is able to keep up with its demands during the live football matches, and expect to use Bluefish444 products again on upcoming projects. Visit www.idealsys.com and www.bluefish444.com

Blackmagic on Point with Japanese Darts Coverage THE CONTRADICTORILY NAMED Soft Darts Professional Tour Japan recently employed Blackmagic Design products in live production of its tournaments, including ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, which has become the centre of the tour’s live workflow. Production included shooting, recording, streaming to YouTube and video distribution throughout the venue of games performed on the main stage, and was also done using ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, Micro Studio Camera 4K, HyperDeck Studio Mini and Video Assist 4K. Soft Darts Professional Tour Japan is a popular dart tournament that brings in professional darts players from around the world to compete in front of a live audience. Tokyo-based production company KOKOROX Inc. was hired to produce each live event and manage live YouTube streaming.

SPORTSCASTING

To record every moment of action, two Micro Studio Camera 4Ks were installed on the main stage and for shooting players and dart boards. Feeds from the two cameras were sent to the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K for switching and graphics insertions, and then delivered to monitors around the event and captured for live streaming. Each camera also included a HyperDeck Studio Mini for recording each event, along with a Video assist 4K to record a separate clean feed with embedded sounds.

“ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K was introduced because it can create various screen layouts with Super Source. In darts live distribution, various captions such as score and player name are displayed. It is very convenient to save the caption created by Photoshop in the ATEM’s media pool. With the ATEM it is very easy to overlay subtitles without adjusting keying

settings,” said Shuta Moriguchi, Video Producer of KOKOROX. “We also use the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K in combination with an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, which lets us use macros. As soon as the athlete throws the darts, the camera control settings are set in the macro so that the camera is closer to the darts. All of this makes it possible to deliver live video without missing an important moment, since it can be intuitively switched on the panel. ”Two Micro Studio Camera 4K are shooting player and dartboards at fixed points. In sports shooting, it is important not to disturb the competition. The camera must be compact and able to withstand long time shooting, and the Micro Studio Camera 4K is a camera that meets these conditions. The tournament was held for half a day and the camera steadily moved for those 12 hours.” One of the features of the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K KOKOROX found most useful was the ability to control the two cameras through ATEM software control. “The situation at the work site is always different as we go around the venues in Japan. With Soft Darts, we were shooting with only the lighting at the venue, so colour adjustment function is essential. It is very convenient to control the focus and zoom of Micro Studio Camera 4K with ATEM software control. Adjusting colours with software is very useful,” said Shuta Moriguchi. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

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Grabyo Teams with Tennis Australia

New Era for Australian Open Tennis Coverage

CLOUD-BASED VIDEO PRODUCTION, editing and distribution platform, Grabyo has joined forces with Tennis Australia to enhance its international video content strategy and expand Tennis Australia’s reach across the globe.

FOR AUSTRALIA’S NINE NETWORK, 2019 marked the first time the former home of cricket had taken on the Grand Slam of the Australian Open tennis championships.

The Australian Open is a major highlight in the global tennis calendar, drawing huge global interest; the 2018 Open reached over 900 million homes in more than 220 territories. Using Grabyo, Tennis Australia has streamlined its digital workflows and is scaling its presence in key markets around the world, leveraging the increasing demand for live streaming and VOD on multiple platforms and devices. According to Xavier Muhlebach, Supervising Producer at Tennis Australia, “In 2019 we want to connect to fans all over the world faster and in a more personal way than ever before. Our global audience is incredibly engaged and hungry for great content, so by working with Grabyo we have created a content strategy that uniquely targets every possible market. Using this platform has given us the freedom to be creative and make great content without the concerns of distribution slowing us down.” Tennis Australia will capture every key moment by creating and sharing clips using Grabyo Studio. The platform reduces the time and resources needed to produce real-time highlights including options for while allowing custom graphics and branding – an important attribute for audiences on mobile, social and OTT. Grabyo’s Producer platform will also enable Tennis Australia to create unique broadcasts for digital fans and live stream one-hour daily shows and other content directly to social media. Live content creates a community-based viewing experience, with commenting and discussion on live video and digital-first productions driving increased engagement and more memorable moments for a growing international fanbase. Elliot Renton, Senior Director & Head of Asia-Pacific at Grabyo, said, “Grabyo is delighted to work with Tennis Australia. The team has bold and exciting ambitions to drive digital experiences as part of its international growth strategy and we are well positioned to help them deliver these. We have seen really strong engagement from tennis fans across the Grabyo platform and look forward to ensuring Tennis Australia connects with its global fan base more broadly than ever before.” Visit www.grabyo.com

For its inaugural year as host broadcaster of Australian tennis, Nine unveiled a host of new innovations designed to make the game more enjoyable for home viewers. In an Australian first, the network used 360°, Matrix-style cameras: immersive video technology that positions cameras right around the court to simultaneously capture every angle. The resulting vision gave viewers a panorama-like experience of the world’s greatest tennis players in action. In another Australian television first, Nine used cutting-edge Viz Libero technology to combine realistic 3D replays with advanced virtual graphics, giving viewers insight into controversial or tactically interesting moments of play. The technology tracked player actions, analysed their errors, and predicted their future movements. For the first time at the Australian Open, Nine also employed the use of a Wirecam to provide shots of Melbourne Park and its surrounds. The system ran almost 270 metres from the roof of Tennis Australia HQ, over Garden Square, towering across Show Court 3 and onto the outside courts beyond. OB coverage was provided to Nine by Gearhouse Broadcast Australia. Nine also employed a half-court which doubled as the network’s hosting set. The outdoor studio provided a backdrop to its hosting of the Australian Open, and was home to its Today morning show during the tournament. The halfcourt was equipped with Hawk-Eye technology so commentators could take viewers through step-by-step analysis for each day’s play. When not being used as a live television studio, the half-court was open to the public. Tennis enthusiasts were able to have their service speed measured and play half-court tennis against their friends. Players also conducted pre- and post-game interviews on the half-court, with the public able to watch on. In addition, a giant screen positioned in the half-court showcased Nine’s broadcast, providing general admission punters with a front-row seat to the premier matches. Visit www.nineentertainmentco.com.au

University Sports Federation Signs with ABU

Infosys Creates Immersive Tennis Experience

THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SPORTS FEDERATION (FISU) and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) have announced a three-year agreement. which will see the ABU Sports Network distribute broadcast content from FISU sports events throughout the Asia-Pacific region to its members.

AS THE OFFICIAL DIGITAL INNOVATION PARTNER of the Australian Open, Infosys launched a series of big data and analytics, artificial intelligence as well as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) based experiences in Melbourne Park and on AO website. This is the first year of a three-year strategic partnership that was announced in September 2018.

As the global governing body of international university sports, FISU has an impressive collection of international sports events coming up, notably the Summer and Winter Universiades. The largest university multi-sport competitions in the world, the Winter Universiade will take place in Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation from 2-12 March, while the summer edition will take place in Naples, Italy from 3-14 July 2019. This year, two emerging FISU sport properties, the University World Cups in 3×3 Basketball and Football, will also be available to ABU members.

By visiting an Infosys Fan Zone, Australian Open fans had the opportunity to play against the greatest tennis players in the world on a virtual Rod Laver Arena, watch the Australian Open live from on court via a VR headset, and shop for Australian Open merchandise and clothing, all using virtual reality and augmented reality technology at the Official AO Virtual Reality Store.

The ABU Sports Network is a platform to share and exchange audio video content from major sports events. The platform also offers an enhanced content distribution system where ABU members can freely access daily highlights and will soon offer live streaming.

Fans at home and on-site could also engage with matches in new and unique ways through the use of Match Beats. Match Beats is a refreshed way for fans to look at live tennis scores, akin to musical notes of a match. These insights let fans understand how the match flowed, where the ups and downs were, and where players were serving better and returning better. On top of this, “Infosys AI Clips” provided a recap video of matches showing key highlights in near-real-time, shared on social media.

Visit www.abu.org.my

Visit www.infosys.com

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Grabyo’s cloud-based video platform is enabling Tennis Australia’s digital and social teams to create, edit and distribute real-time video clips and live streams to multiple social and digital platforms throughout its major domestic and international events in 2019.

From January 14, the network broadcast the tournament’s matches across its terrestrial channels Nine and 9Gem, as well as its VOD channel 9Now.

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Player Tracking-Powered Stadium Adverts AT SEPARATE FOOTBALL MATCHES in Denmark and the Netherlands, ChyronHego has introduced a new solution by pairing the company's TRACAB optical tracking system and Click Effects PRIME graphics authoring system. For both matches, ChyronHego worked with competition organisers, teams, and their sponsors to create a first-of-its-kind LED perimeter-board display at pitch level that graphically tracks a player's movements, including stats such as speed and distance travelled, using real-time TRACAB data. The first competition match to host this unique TRACAB-Click Effects PRIME solution was a UEFA Nations League match between Denmark and Republic of Ireland, driven by the Danish Football Association (Dansk Boldspil-Union or DBU) and sponsored by Denmark's national lottery provider and DBU Sponsor, Danske Spil A/S. The next match was between Heracles Almelo and VVVVenlo in the Netherlands' Eredivisie league and represented the first time the technology was provided at the domestic league level. Both DBU and the Dutch Eredivisie football league are current users of TRACAB to capture player and team performance analytics. TRACAB optical tracking solutions are installed league-wide in both the Danish Superliga (where DBU play their home games in league stadia) and Eredivisie stadiums. "The idea of combining live, real-time TRACAB data with Click Effects PRIME had been discussed with some of our key sports customers for a while," said Niall Hendry, product manager, ChyronHego. "Finally, with these two productions, we were able to prove how well the two systems seamlessly complement each other and how compelling data-driven player graphics can

"Traditional rotating arena ads tend to be disconnected from the players and the action, but this solution takes sponsored graphics to a whole new level," said Teus Groenewoud, director of product development, ChyronHego. "With the cameras trained on a player and the specialized LED graphic behind him following his movements and displaying his real-time data, sponsors have an unprecedented opportunity to engage viewers and hold their attention. They can even build promotions around the data; for example, a sportswear brand could promote the player with the top speed who is wearing the brand's boots." The TRACAB-Click Effects PRIME application at the DBU match holds particular promise for the sports betting industry, considering the sponsorship by Danske Spil, Denmark's national lottery and betting organization. With football fans' huge and growing appetite for player and club statistics, betting companies will be able to present and leverage the data in new and profitable ways - and even eventually put odds on factors such as player speed and distance covered. Visit www.chyronhego.com

EBU Extends Reach of Winter Sports with FTA Coverage in China

LIVE SPORTS ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART of any Pay-TV package, and are one of the key reasons why many people have not yet cut the cord and gone exclusively over the top (OTT). However, if a Netflix-style sportsoriented subscription video on demand (SVoD) service came along, cordcutting could rise even more, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

IN JULY 2015, Beijing was elected as the host city for the 2022 Olympic

“Snatching popular sports rights away from Pay TV broadcasters will be a challenge for any SVoD platform, but the pay-off would likely be well worth the investment.”

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With the Click Effects PRIME software serving as an intuitive and integrated graphics authoring front-end, operators are able to generate and control the LED presentations without the need for specialized training or sophisticated computer graphics equipment. They can access the line-up for the match and then choose which player to assign to the LED boards.

Netflix-Style SVoD Operators Face Hurdles in Live Sports

According to Joe Dimmock, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, “Acquiring live sports rights is the biggest obstacle such a service faces. For many years, live sports have been a cornerstone of programming for many telcos and broadcasters due to their ability to attract large audiences and high ad revenues – and these companies are willing to pay premium prices to keep live sports.

be, not only for captivating fans but for creating new sponsor opportunities and revenue streams."

Winter Games, kick-starting a major initiative to build a Chinese winter sports spectator fan-base and drive participation. To support this initiative, demand for premium winter sports content on Chinese channels has increased. This season, CCTV-5 Sports Channel is the official rights-holder for SwissSki live events in Snowboard Park and Pipe and Freestyle, taking place in LAAX, Scuol, Veysonnaz and Silvaplana. The channel reaches a potential audience of 220 million households. In parallel, Eurovision Sport is making ten of the FIS sanctioned World Cup events hosted by Swiss-Ski available to CCTV-5, TenCent (China’s

There are also digital juggernauts SVoD providers would face. Social media giants Facebook and Twitter have both invested in live sports and have included sports as part of their own growth strategy. At the same time, the ever-growing Amazon Prime Video has also displayed an interest in sports, with investments in the Premier League in the UK and the NFL in the US as recent demonstrations of its live sport intentions.

largest social media platform) and the Snow and Ice Channel as news and

GlobalData expects SVoD providers in the US to also have to contend with the Disney machine due to the media giant’s ESPN+ SVoD service. Any SVoD platform would struggle to battle it out against this powerful brand, its well-established customer base and its deep pockets.

CCTV is taking particular interest in Biathlon due to the participation of

“If global sports SVoD services want to really scale their businesses and become the Netflix of live sports, they need to find a way to attract the world’s biggest and most popular sports,” says Dimmock. “The investment would be well worth it to encourage viewers to cut the cord.”

through its own TV team as part of market-familiarisation for Chinese

Visit www.globaldata.com

Visit https://www.ebu.ch

highlights, with Chinese commentary. A dedicated Swiss-Ski SINA Weibo social media account is also being instigated to provide the latest race results and information.

the Chinese national teams on the World Cup circuit this season. The International Biathlon Union is providing unilateral coverage of Team China fans as the country prepares to host an IBU World Cup in 2021, as a test event for the Olympic Winter Games in 2022.

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NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations

Pakistan’s Dunya News Upgrades Playout with Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH SYSTEMS, the automation, content management and integrated channel solutions provider, has announced that Dunya News, one of Pakistan’s preeminent TV channels, has chosen Pebble Beach Systems to upgrade its state-of-the-art playout facility. Headquartered in Lahore, Pakistan, Dunya News provides news and current affairs programming in Urdu to audiences throughout Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and the United States. The channel prides itself on using state-of-the-art technology. A long-time user of Pebble Beach Systems’ Neptune automation system, Dunya News has now upgraded its playout operations with Pebble’s flagship Marina automation. The solution is fully redundant with no single point of failure, and encompasses ingest, content management and playout functionality. The system slots into the existing device infrastructure but offers enhanced workflow and automation tools to the broadcaster. “Things happen fast in news and current affairs, and change is a constant. We needed an experienced technology partner who could deliver a flexible solution,

work with us to solve our problems efficiently, and adapt with us as our business grows. After 10 years of working with Pebble and its Neptune automation system, it made sense for us to go to them for our upgrade,” said Zubair Rasheed, Head of Technical Operations and Dunya Media Group, confirms

Pebble Beach Systems’ Marina in action at Dunya News, Pakistan.

“In selecting Marina, Dunya has a future-proof solution for its ingest, content management and playout automation workflows, and we are proud to have completed the migration from their Neptune solution with minimum disruption to their operations,” commented Samir Isbaih, VP of Sales for the Middle East and APAC at Pebble Beach Systems. Visit www.pebble.tv

Asiaworks Adopts Sachtler Flowtech100 for ENG ASIAWORKS, AN INDEPENDENT MEDIA COMPANY with locations in Bangkok, Beijing, Singapore, and Jakarta, has adopted Sachtler’s all-new flowtech100 carbon-fibre tripod for use in a wide range of demanding electronic newsgathering (ENG) and live news environments. With its stability, capacity to support a payload of up to 30 kilograms, and compatibility with all major 100mm fluid heads, flowtech100 is optimised for AsiaWorks’ heavy-duty ENG workflows.

“Since our mobile crews often find themselves in remote and challenging locations, having the right gear is essential. That’s why we’re so excited about flowtech100,” said Andrew Fisher, head of operations, AsiaWorks. “With its rugged construction and ability to support heavy payloads, the tripod is ideal for heavy-duty newsgathering. At the same time, flowtech100 is extremely lightweight, rugged, and easy to carry, and - quite honestly - it’s one of the easiest and fastest-deploying tripods I’ve ever used.”

adds stability when the tripod is used on uneven terrain Sachtler has just launched a new ground spreader that connects the three tripod legs at ground level for use on even surfaces, such as pavement. Both spreaders can be instantly removed, enabling crews to adjust the tripod as low as 26cm from the ground. “This height accommodation is one of our favourite flowtech100 features,” Fisher said. “In one instant, we can position the camera at eye level to conduct an interview, and in the next, we’re at ground level to capture a particular action shot like a kick of a ball. It means we can get dramatic ground-level shots without having to lug around an additional, smaller tripod.” Fisher applauded other flowtech100 features, such as the threaded mounting points that AsiaWorks crews use for attaching monitors and other peripheral gear, the built-in carry handle, and the magnets for securing the legs. “The fantastic feature set is what makes flowtech100 an essential newsgathering tool and really sets it apart from other tripods we’ve used,” Fisher added. “As we add this new tripod to our permanent gear inventory, I am confident that we will use it in any situation requiring us to be nimble and fast-moving, thereby ensuring we can cover breaking news and capture the exceptional footage for which AsiaWorks is known.”

In addition to the flowtech100 carbon-fibre mid-level spreader - which

Visit www.flowtech-tripod.com and www.asiaworks.com

AsiaWorks camera operators have tested flowtech100 at a variety of onlocation shoots, including coverage of earthquakes in Lombok, Indonesia; the Asian Games in Jakarta; and the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Bali. Payloads ranged from DSLR cameras to a Sony FS7 and an ARRI Amira. Exclusive carbon-fibre technology makes flowtech100 extremely strong and lightweight and yet offers outstanding torsional stiffness. Quick-release brakes conveniently located at the top of the tripod enable the legs to be deployed simultaneously, each leg adjusts automatically to the ground’s surface, saving operators from having to bend over and manually adjust multiple brakes on each leg. These are important features for AsiaWorks because much of its on-location work is filmed by a single individual who requires the ability to move quickly from location to location.

HK Cable TV Launches Greater Bay Area News Centre

The company says it is dedicated to becoming one of the leading media organisations in the Bay Area. Mr Ronald Chiu, Executive Director of i-CABLE News Limited, said, “As an international financial centre in Asia, Hong Kong plays an important role for the development of Great Bay Area. The demand for finance news and information of the regions is growing rapidly. In view of this, the GBA News Centre was established to produce quality and professional news and finance programmes to help foster information exchange among '9+2' cities. Furthermore, we will be able to keep up with the latest news in the regions with our dedicated GBA news

team and correspondents in Guangzhou to collect the first-hand information.” To keep viewers updated on the new developments of the regions, our GBA News Centre will introduce GBA Express, a prime-time news programme covering the hottest news of the day. The GBA news team will connect simultaneously with Cable TV’s news centre in Hong Kong for information exchange. The team will also work around the member cities to conduct live reporting and interviews with prominent guests to produce news reports with professional analysis. In addition, the team will produce other programmes including Bay Area Elites, a series of exclusive interviews with key figures of various industries in the regions. Another programme Here you are, Bay Area, will present viewers with the latest developments of the '9+2' cities. Visit www.i-cablecomm.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

HONG KONG CABLE TELEVISION LIMITED has officially launched its Greater Bay Area News Centre. The GBA News Centre, located in Guangzhou with correspondent from Hong Kong, is dedicated to bringing viewers with the latest news and finance information of the Bay Area as well as talks of the town in the regions.

NEWS OPERATIONS

China’s SBS Empowers News Production with Vizrt WHEN SUZHOU BROADCASTING SYSTEM (SBS), located west of Shanghai, moved to a new site in 2016, it also migrated its broadcast operations from SD to HD in the new building. The goal was to improve its on-air look and enhance the viewer experience with extensive use of virtual sets, augmented reality, 3D graphics and three new news studios, which are controlled by a Viz Mosart integrated studio automation system from Vizrt. All video, audio, lighting and other HD production equipment are controlled by a single person who operates each news studio using a tightly integrated graphics user interface that brings all of the facility’s operations and individual equipment and systems under their individual control. Virtual sets with AR graphics allow on-air presenters to tell their stories in the most comprehensive way. While maximizing the potential of all of its programmes, the Viz Mosart deployed at SBS (the first such system installed in China) helps simplify all of the technical operations required to create the highest quality images, improving time to air for its news stories and reducing on-air mistakes and operational costs. For news broadcasters like SBS, Viz Mosart puts the story in the centre of the production, removing technical complexity with a simple user interface, designed to give all necessary information to the director while giving full flexibility to operate both planned and breaking news scenarios. Other Vizrt graphics systems used by SBS graphics teams include Viz Trio, a character generation system, Viz Engine, a real-time compositing server and Viz Virtual Studio, which is used to generate the 3D and AR graphics in tandem with virtual backgrounds. All of the systems are fully compatible and controlled by Viz Mosart.

Viz Mosart boasts a variety of flexible ways to modify and edit the news story rundown list. The pre-planned order can be changed at a moment’s notice, even while a program is on air. The system allows SBS technical staff to make changes and deletions to modules inside the storyline by inserting or cancelling various modules (stories) with a simple mouse click at any time. For example, it can change CAM1 into CAM2 temporarily, while all graphics sets associated with a story remain unchanged. Virtual sets can also be changed quickly to change the mood of a late-breaking story being presented. The system is so sophisticated that even while all of these changes are happening behind the scenes, viewers never notice any unnatural disruption to their programs on air. And if one studio should go down, another can be called up in its place to continue broadcasting without interruption. Visit www.vizrt.com

PPTV HD Thailand Invests in Octopus NEWSROOM SYSTEMS PROVIDER Octopus recently announced the completion of a newsroom computeOctopus recently announced the completion of a newsroom computer system at the Bangkok headquarters of Thai television channel, PPTV HD. Founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, PPTV HD broadcasts a mix of news, entertainment, documentaries and sports, targeting the 18-35 age group.

versatile and operator-friendly way to improve production efficiency. It has proved an ideal choice for creating linear and on-demand news as well as sports coverage, and is a great improvement on what was previously a largely manual workflow.”

“We began as a linear channel transmitting via satellite C-band and cable, extending in 1080i high definition to the Thai terrestrial digital multiplex and later to online networking,” said PPTV HD’s IT Director Pitsanu Porameesanaporn. “News currently amounts to just over 30 percent of our output which is quite a large proportion for any broadcast channel. Sport occupies another 20 percent or so of our programme schedule and overlaps quite frequently into the news coverage.

According to Octopus Newsroom APAC Support Manager, Kobchai Buarod, who supervised the project, “The system is running on main and hotstandby servers and comprises a full set of available options including the Octopus Mobile app which lets reporters submit video clips, audio, still images and text from practically any location. In cooperation with Vizrt Thailand, we also integrated Vizrt CG, MAM and playout to provide an end to end solution which unites PPTV’s broadcasting and digital teams. Users are able to browse and prepare content or even turn news stories into social media publications and vice versa.

“We selected the Octopus newsroom computer system as the most

Visit www.octopus-news.com and www.pptvhd36.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

Weather Graphics for All Seasons

WEATHER GRAPHICS SOLUTIONS PROVIDER, METRAWEATHER, has launched Weatherscape Scenes, an automatically updated service which produces generic clips of weather content for on-demand purchase. For almost 25 years, the New Zealand-based company has been providing WeatherScape XT, a computer-based graphics and data management system for weather presentation, primarily for broadcast but also, for general media application. The system is used by customers in Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia-New Zealand. Also in the MetraWeather stable is Weatherscape Clip, a service which provides customised pre-rendered weather clips complete with the broadcaster’ branding. “The concept of Weatherscape Scenes is to provide weather clips on demand,” says Tom Sutherland, MetraWeather’s General Manager, Asia. “These are generic clips of weather as it’s occurring, as its forecast to occur, which are prerendered and uploaded to the Media Beach content delivery network. Users can go in and grab that content on a daily basis as they want to and make their own weather shows out of that, or they can potentially subscribe to the service, as well. “We’re providing, basically, the standard content that most broadcasters would use on a typical daily weather broadcast, which includes the forecast about rain, forecast temperature, town and city forecasts across the region, wind flow, potential storm activity from tropical cyclones and typhoons in the region. And that content is provided in three graphic styles in which the user can select and download.”

Weatherscape Scenes are generally provided as 10-second HD MPEG movies, but the system can also transcode to other formats if desired. Movies are rendered via an Amazon cloud platform using data provided by MetraWeather and then automatically updated on the Media Beach video marketplace. “There are really two types of weather data,” says Tom Sutherland. “One is observational data, which is things like observations, satellite imagery, radar data, current temperature observations and weather observations, and so on. That’s observational data, and then there’s forecast data. The observational data tends to get updated much more frequently, probably at least hourly. Satellite images get updated all the time. Forecast data gets updated typically in six-hourly blocks.” Visit https://metraweather.com/media/data-visualisation

NEWS OPERATIONS

China’s Shiyan Daily Builds 4K OB Van with Blackmagic BASED IN CHINA’S NORTHWESTERN HUBEI PROVINCE, the Shiyan Daily Media Group has rolled out a 4K OB van usin]g URSA Broadcast and URSA Mini Pro cameras, as well as a number of other Blackmagic Design products to provide a 12G-SDI 4K workflow. Designed by Wuhan Vijita Technology, the OB van uses a number of different Blackmagic Design cameras, including URSA Broadcast cameras, URSA Mini Pro and Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K. For switching, routing and conversions, they use Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K, Smart Videohub 20 x 20 and a variety of Mini Converters. Shiyan Daily Media Group is one of the first print newspaper publishers in China to have embraced digital media. Its Shiyan Evening News won the “China’s Leading Digital Media Brand” award in 2012 and has more than one million followers on WeChat - the majority of whom are from Shiyan, a prefectural level city with a population of less than four million. “We have been doing well with new media because we started it off very early. Now that the time for commercial use of 5G has been confirmed and it will be much easier to get Ultra HD sources from the mobile Internet, we set our ‘mobile and video first’ strategy and founded a dedicated video team in 2017,” said Zhiguo Gan, deputy managing editor, multimedia division, Shiyan Daily Media Group. At first, the video team created streaming content for Shiyan Daily’s new media platforms with smartphones and other simple devices, but these tools were not suitable for critical events that required multi-cam production, so they decided to procure equipment for professional live productions.

Blackmagic’s Studio Camera 4K is directly connected to the van with the fiber connection. All four camera feeds and two wireless feeds go into the Smart Videohub 20 x 20 router, which assigns and distributes the feeds to the ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K switcher and a backup switcher, monitors and a streaming device. According to the head of the Shiyan Daily video team, Zhenyu Zhang, the company chose Blackmagic after seeing a 4K OB van livestream a cultural heritage event in Jingzhou, and visiting Wuhan TV’s first HD broadcast studio, which was completely built with Blackmagic Design products. “In terms of advantages, when most new media and even broadcasters are still using HD products, every Blackmagic product in the van, including the camera, video router and switcher, supports 4K,” says Zhenyu Zhang. “But, the costs are still lower than that of other HD solutions. Even compared with other 4K products, Blackmagic Design could save by one third, which can be used for future upgrades, such as adding 5G transmission devices.” Zhang also noted that the versatility of each Blackmagic product brings an overall advantage to the system. “It reduces the complexity of the system, making the van smaller, easy to use and maintain. For example, on the ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K, each input includes a re-synchroniser and format converter, so we don’t need extra devices because the switcher can take in any feed in any format, be it 720p from a drone, a non-broadcast standard output from a computer, or any frame rate,” he said. “Also, both the URSA Broadcast and URSA Mini Pro can be used as a studio camera with a B4 mount or as a film camera with an EF or PL mount, which eliminates the need for more cameras. “This allows us to keep the crew small and that means lower operation costs. There are seven members in the crew, so there’d be profit if our van goes to

some small or medium events; a common large OB van has to be taken care of by a much larger crew, which means much higher costs and there’d be no profit if it goes to these small or medium events. “The smaller van gives us more flexibility. Our van is a Mercedes Sprinter, enough to house all the equipment. So, we can go to many places that large OB vans can’t go to, making us more competitive. Plus, all the products in the van are from Blackmagic Design, meaning the compatibility between each component is better than that of solutions consisting of various brands,” he said. Before the van, most of the video team members had only used small video cameras and DSLRs and had rarely used broadcast equipment for multicam productions. Just a few days after the van was delivered, they started streaming with it. “Blackmagic products offer intuitive UIs and are easy to master. We can find the functions very easily and quickly without scouring through menus. Less than a week after the first training, we did our first multi-cam live streaming for a high school military training with the van and went on live producing many other more complex events in the following two months, such as the China (Shiyan) Auto Products Expo, where there were separate venues and more screens for IMAG,“ he revealed. Zhiguo Gan, deputy managing editor, multimedia division, Shiyan Daily Media Group, added, “To adapt to media convergence trends, new media are actively exploring ways of increasing production value. Shiyan Daily Media Group started early and acted quickly and this has brought us a dramatic increase in advertising income, making us a model for many counterparts to learn from. In the past, we shared our experience in doing new media. Now that we have had our own 4K OB van, we will also share professional multi-cam production howtos with our counterparts. We believe Blackmagic Design’s products will help more media like us, leading to a healthy and prosperous media industry.” Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

The six-camera 4K OB van designed by Wuhan Vijita Technology around Blackmagic Design’s 12G-SDI products won the contract. It includes two URSA Broadcast cameras and one URSA Mini Pro, each equipped with a Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converter, which is connected to a Studio Fiber Camera Converter housed in the van using a SMPTE fiber cable that supports bidirectional transmission of video, audio, talkback, Tally and camera control.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM Etere Powers Workflow for Vietnam’s Dong Nai Radio & TV SOLUTIONS FROM MAM and playout developer Etere have been deployed to manage the end-to-end broadcast workflow of Dong Nai Radio and Television (DNRTV) in Dong Nai province, Vietnam. Etere MERP (Media Enterprose Resources Planning) solutions provide the media company with a tightly integrated end-to-end solution that is highly reliable and completely scalable. Etere worked closely with its distributor, Universal Broadcast Pte Ltd for the project. Dong Nai Radio and Television (DNRTV) Station was established in November 1976 as a media company under Dong Nai People’s Committee. It served as a communication channel for the Communist Party of Vietnam and as a citizen forum for the people of the Dong Nai province. DNRTV manages four television channels including DNN1, DN2, D3 and DN9 as well as one radio channel, FM 97. In 2017, it introduced HD broadcasting to its channels. The Etere solutions employed by DNRTV include: • Etere Media Asset Management (MAM) which managed the end-to-end process of ingest, index, storage and retrieval of digital assets and metadata. • Etere QC – software which automatically detects and marks audio and video issues including freeze frames, black frames, scene changes and audio loss on all assets’ EDL, both prior or after media operations. Users are also able to customize detection profiles and results are stored in the database using standard format. • Etere NLE integration for Etere Media Asset Management (MAM) which enables a tight integration with Non-linear Editing systems (NLEs) including Adobe Premiere Pro. It provides editors with a secured web portal for the management of media content across all major browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari. With this tool, video

editors, producers, directors and journalists are able to manage all tasks from a single integrated interface without switching screens. • Etere Executive Scheduling, a complete broadcast scheduling system that provides all the tools for the management of primary and secondary events, licensed content, commercial contracts, missing materials, imported materials and regional ad insertions. • Etere Workflow which allows operators to create and modify broadcasting procedures, operations insertions and operations sequences. Other features of this module include visual representation of every step in the workflow, execution of multiple independent actions and preparation of content for multiple screen deliveries. • Etereweb, a software solution which allows users to work remotely It serves as a digital platform which connects customers, distributors and product managers for a more efficient and collaborative workflow. • Etere Resource Management which enables the optimisation of all resources in the broadcasting lifecycle from production to post-production. Combined with real-time monitoring and assignment of resources, Etere Resource Management allows operators to track and optimise resources effectively in a coordinated and integrative manner. • Etere Tape Loan Management • Etere Ingest • Etere SNMP console • Etere HSM Tape Library Visit http://dnrtv.org.vn and www.etere.com

Quantum Xcellis Appliance for Demanding Video Workflows QUANTUM CORP HAS ANNOUNCED the availability of the latest Xcellis appliances, powered by Quantum’s StorNext file system. The new offerings reinforce Xcellis as the solution of choice to ingest, edit, share and store media content and provide an improved technical foundation for organisations to run their operations.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

According to Eric Bassier, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Quantum, “The new Xcellis offerings demonstrate the continued investment Quantum is making in its high-performance storage portfolio. Our file system is uniquely designed for video and video-like data. We’ve been honing it for over 15 years, and we are obsessed with maintaining our leadership position. These new platforms are designed to enable customers to fully realise the benefits of the features offered by StorNext.”

The new appliances are based on a next-generation server architecture that includes dual 8-core Intel Xeon CPU’s, 64 GB memory, SSD boot drives, and dual 100Gb Ethernet or 32 Gb Fibre Channel ports. The significantly enhanced CPU and 50% increase in RAM over the previous generation greatly improve StorNext metadata performance. These enhancements make tasks such as file auditing less time intensive, support an even greater number of clients per node, and enable the management of billions of files per node. Customers operating in a dynamic application environment on storage nodes will also see performance improvements. From leading post-houses to cutting-edge autonomous vehicle engineering firms, organizations are turning to the latest networking technologies to attain the most cost-effective storage solutions. With the latest 100 Gb Ethernet and 32 Gb Fibre Channel connectivity options, customers will be able to utilize the latest generation networking infrastructure between their clients and storage arrays, thereby accelerating workflows and improving productivity. Combined with StorNext’s capability to provide the most comprehensive and coordinated file accessibility over NAS, SAN, and DLC architectures, the new platform offers industry-leading architectural flexibility.

Features include: • Comprehensive, unified access across geographies: With the unique ability to provide cross-protocol locking for shared files across SAN, NFS, and SMB, Xcellis is an optimal solution for organisations that have collaborative workflows and need to share content across both Fibre Channel and Ethernet. • Unparalleled video playback performance: Quantum’s Xcellis has long been trusted to deliver the performance needed for increasingly demanding applications and higher resolution content. Now leveraging the benefits that come with an improved next-generation hardware platform, StorNext will provide even higher levels of streaming performance for video playback, with even greater reliability. • Cost-effectively preserve massive amounts of data: Xcellis appliances provide a high-performance gateway for StorNext advanced data management software to integrate tiers of massively scalable onpremise and cloud-based storage. This end-to-end capability provides a cost-effective solution to retain massive amounts of data. • Integrated data protection functionality: StorNext offers a variety of important features that ensure data-protection of valuable content over its entire life-cycle. Customers can easily copy files to off-site tiers and take advantage of versioning to roll back to an earlier point in time (prior to a malware attack, for example) as well as set up automated replication for disaster recovery purposes – all of which is designed to protect valuable digital assets. Visit www.quantum.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Korea’s LG U+ Powers “The Show” with EditShare SOUTH KOREA-BASED global electronics telco and IPTV powerhouse LG U+ has been using EditShare storage and media management solutions to produce and distribute its popular SBS Medianet music programme, “The Show,” to its valued subscribers.

LG U+ has said of the installation, “EditShare provides the exacting media infrastructure and workflow options we need to launch our new service and ensure show content is available to audiences on the platform of their choice. We look forward to a smooth rollout and successful show launch.” Collaborating with South Korean Broadcaster SBS, LG U+ is innovating content distribution and increasing subscription value-add by offering better access to high-profile shows such as “The Show.” A key component to powering this brand-new service model for LG U+ subscribers, the new EditShare media infrastructure supports a diverse range of viewing habits, from traditional TV to emerging OTT channels and platforms. Spearheading the design and installation is EditShare Partner and systems integrator, EGNet (Expert Group Network). “The LG U+ team is known for their forward-thinking approach to technology and requiring the very latest to build a world-class media infrastructure and services,” comments JS Ryu, president, EGNet (Expert Group Network). “With EditShare, they are building a robust media Mediaproxy_Ad_C+T_Asia_2019-02-04.pdf 1 4 Feb 19 6:03:53 pm

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foundation in which they can produce and broadcast programme content to a multi-generational audience. This means that the 80% of millennials who want their entertainment programmes via mobile, can have it, while others can tune in to traditional broadcasts. It’s the best of both worlds on a platform that LG U+ can grow with, making their offering even more valuable to their subscribers.” Programme content is accessible in both original and proxy formats via Flow, satisfying the production team’s search and asset management needs. Flow also provides workflow automation capabilities, allowing LG U+ to streamline repetitive and complex production and playout scenarios. QScan guarantees that LG U+ content is compliant with the distribution specifications, giving factual confirmation that content is being aired as planned. EditShare’s Regional Sales Manager, Paul Hayes, worked with EGNet to satisfy all commercial aspects. “After a gruelling proof of concept, we were able to demonstrate the many unique features of EditShare that will streamline the workflow. We were also able to provide a ‘no-single point of failure’ storage and asset management architecture, something critical for this type of production,” he said. Visit www.editshare.com

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

The advanced EditShare architecture is designed to support the unique LG U+ “omni-view” experience, offering LG U+ subscribers new camera angles not available on traditional TV or OTT viewing options. The cutting-edge media infrastructure features EditShare’s flagship XStream EFS 450 highavailability, scale-out shared storage solution with integrated Flow media asset management as the core platform. EditShare’s new AQC solution, QScan, facilitates automated quality checks on all content. In addition, eight EditShare Geevs servers, offering up to 32 channels of HD video, manage the coordinated ingest and playout of content. The connected EditShare workflow allows fans of “The Show” to select any of the 16 synchronised live camera streams for a unique viewing experience.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

EditShare QScan Speeds Automated QC EDITSHARE HAS RELEASED version 3.3 of its automated quality control solution, QScan. Powered by the QUALES AQC engine, QScan employs a single-pass analysis process which can be applied at any point during the workflow, making it an ideal automated quality control solution for media professionals across production, postproduction and distribution. QScan comes pre-loaded with AQC templates such as IMF testing and AS-11 presets. Available as a free software download for existing QScan maintenance customers, version 3.3 offers the following bump in capabilities and features: • Significant Speed Boost: The performance improvement can reach speeds up to 30 times faster when analyzing J2K UHD files. • Timecodes in the timeline: QScan users will now be able to jump to specific time codes in the timeline view by simply entering the desired TC, improving the usability of the timeline view. • Configure Thresholds in Frames or Seconds: This new capability is ideal when expecting events of a certain duration in seconds. Since the frame rate can change between files, the duration in frames would be different depending on the frame rate. With this change, the event will be triggered according to the duration in seconds, independently of the frame rate. • System Settings replaces Local Settings: The Time Zone, Character Set for the Report, and System Language (GUI) can now be configured from the System Settings menu option. • Expanded Thresholds View: QScan users can now see the number of thresholds and severity without having to expand the Parameter Groups in the Project Edit.

MOG Central Ingest System with direct ingest into Adobe Creative Cloud MOG TECHNOLOGIES, the supplier of end-to-end solutions for professional media, has announced the full integration of its central ingest tools - both for mxfSPEEDRAIL and SKYWATCH product line - with Adobe Creative Cloud. Media professionals face an extremely demanding market with the proliferation of new technologies, systems, platforms and devices. Getting the content ready with the maximum quality and on short deadlines is a must-have capability. With that in mind, MOG central ingest platform addresses media challenges and makes ingest, transcoding, scheduling, and exporting operations easier and faster. The system supports dozens of formats and is fully compliant with all editorial environments and workflows. MOG central ingest tools already provide support for growing file workflows with Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder. Now the integration includes full support for Adobe Creative Cloud. A user, whether on a standalone system or a connected network, can easily capture or ingest content, taking advantage of the MOG automation and transcoding tools to make sequences bring media into Adobe Creative Cloud apps in a single step. There is no need for additional tools or steps on the workflow: the content is immediately available for creative work, post-production, and distribution.

• Simplified License Activation: Any registered user with authorized access to my.editshare.com will be able to activate an available license directly from QScan, thus avoiding the upload of the activation file, and download of the license file.

MOG and Adobe have collaborated since 2012 to accelerate media workflows and create future-proof tapeless broadcasting infrastructures, both for SD and HD environments.

Visit https://qscan.editshare.com

Visit www.mog-technologies.com

Quantum Enhances Xcellis Scale-out Storage QUANTUM RECENTLY ANNOUNCED enhancements to its Xcellis scale-out storage appliance portfolio: • StorNext 6.2 bolsters performance for 4K and 8K video while enhancing integration with cloud-based workflows and global collaborative environments. • NVMe storage significantly accelerates ingest and other aspects of media workflows. The introduction of NVMe storage to Quantum’s Xcellis appliances offers ultra-fast performance: 22 GB/s single-client, uncached streaming bandwidth. Leveraging Excelero’s NVMesh technology in combination with StorNext, all data is accessible by multiple clients in a global namespace, making it easy to access and costeffectively share flash-based resources. Quantum NVMe storage using Excelero NVMesh with Xcellis appliances offers industry-leading performance with 22 GB/s single-client, uncached streaming bandwidth. As more organisations depend on broad collaboration among their staff to meet project deadlines and workflows extend from onpremise into the cloud, being able to effectively

manage and access data across complex, hybrid environments has become a requirement for modern file systems. Now with the ability to provide cross protocol locking for shared access across SAN, NFS, and SMB, Xcellis is an optimal solution for organisations that need to share content across both fibre channel and ethernet. With StorNext 6.2 Quantum now offers an S3 interface to Xcellis appliances, enabling them to serve as targets for applications designed to write to RESTful interfaces. Organisations gain greater flexibility to use Xcellis as either a gateway to the cloud or as an S3 target for webbased applications. Xcellis environments can now be managed with a new cloud monitoring tool that enables Quantum’s support team to monitor critical customer environmental factors, speed time to resolution, and ultimately increase uptime. When combined with Xcellis Web Services – a suite of services that enables users to set policies, adjust system configuration, and more – overall system management is simplified and streamlined. Quantum StorNext 6.2 also features new cloudbased monitoring tools, including:

• Enhanced Multi-Site Data Synchronisation – Available with StorNext 6.2, enhanced FlexSync replication capabilities enable users to create local or remote replicas of multitier file system content and metadata. With the ability to protect data for both highperformance systems as well as massive archives, users now have more flexibility to protect a single directory or an entire file system. • Bolstered Functionality for Media Archives – Organisations that provide storage as a service to departmental users require additional management tools to support their business processes. StorNext 6.2 enables administrators to provide defined and enforceable quotas, implement quality of service levels for specific users, and allows for simplified reporting of used storage capacity. These new features make it easier for administrators to efficiently manage largescale media archives. Visit www.quantum.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Next Gen Storage Solution from Rohde and Schwarz

ROHDE AND SCHWARZ’S SPYCERNODE combines enterprise-class hardware with software technology. According to R&S, it is the first storage product on the M&E market to feature high performance computing (HPC). R&S SpycerNode offers an easy-to-use interface, an HPC file system, erasure coding mechanisms and an expanded web-based device manager to simplify system configuration and maintenance.

such as single namespace, online scalability and information lifecycle management. The R&S SpycerNode stores files intelligently based on performance requirements. All R&S SpycerNode storage tiers are presented under a single namespace, which greatly simplifies file handling. The storage solution can be scaled as needed – even during operation. R&S SpycerNode provides scalability irrespective of the system size – starting with the smallest unit up to large systems.

R&S SpycerNode features IBM Spectrum Scale. The file system has proven itself in numerous HPC applications around the world. It simplifies and optimizes storage workflows, using features

The combination of a declustered array and erasure coding, in the event of disk failures, drastically speeds up rebuilding compared with traditional hardware-based RAID approaches.

Critical error conditions are detected and errors rectified immediately. R&S SpycerNode offers full redundancy even for single units, ensuring that media files will be securely and safely stored at any time. R&S SpycerNode exhibits no single point of failure – neither in terms of hardware nor software. It protects the customer’s business right from the start, no matter what the system size, thus protecting the customer’s investment. The storage solution is available in different configurations from 2U12 up to 5U84. Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Ooyala Flex Media to Support Interoperable Master Format

IMF is a file-delivery standard created by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) that reduces the number of different versions of a video file required for distribution to viewers in different markets and on different platforms around the world. Prior to IMF, thousands of different versions of a widely distributed motion picture – reflecting various combinations of subtitles, metadata, audio, formatting and other features – would be required in order to support multiple-market-segment distribution. The efficiencies offered by IMF – increasingly embraced by major studios and SVOD services – have been estimated to achieve savings of 25% or more in storage and versioning costs. “Ooyala is precisely aligned with IMF’s goals, helping content creators and distributors streamline their operations to be more profitable,” said Jonathan Huberman, Ooyala CEO. “Unlike other technology partners, Ooyala provides end-to-end support for IMF across the entire content supply chain. And with

seamless integration of existing tools into the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, we’re enabling IMF strategies for companies who would otherwise lack the necessary technology. The technology community has been listening to content providers, and we’re equipped to help them truly capitalise on global monetisation opportunities.” The Ooyala Flex Media Platform will enable an IMF workflow while still working with existing business-critical technologies. Among other features, the platform natively supports receipt of Interoperable Master Packages (IMPs) and transcodes them into renditions required for streaming to customer devices. Ooyala will provide clients IMF support across all stages of the content supply chain, addressing a range of IMF requirements from asset management through processing, distribution and digital playout. Ooyala developed the Ooyala Flex Media Platform to connect the entire video content supply chain for broadcasters and content owners, from production to profit. The Ooyala Flex Media Platform provides central workflows, shared metadata infrastructure and open APIs to integrate with existing systems and to provide a single source of truth for the content owners. Visit www.ooyala.com

Interra Adds AI and Machine Learning to BATON QC

Bluefish444 Announce Kronos Support for ICE V3

INTERRA SYSTEMS HAS ADDED NEW artificial intelligence (AI) and

BLUEFISH444 HAS ANNOUNCED EXTENDED SUPPORT for it’s KRONOS range with the upcoming Marquise Technologies ICE V3 release.

machine learning (ML) technologies to its BATON QC platform. At IBC2018 Interra Systems demonstrated BATON WINNOW, which expands the company’s globally deployed BATON QC platform with an AI/ML-based feature set for content classification and compliance. “BATON WINNOW employs AI/ML-enabled technology to recognise and tag content for classification and compliance. With our field-proven expertise in deep video and audio quality analysis, this major BATON add-on brings the complete content QC and content classification workflow tools under one umbrella and improves efficiency,” said Sanjay Mittal, VP of Engineering at Interra Systems. “WINNOW is powered by AI/ML algorithms implemented using widely adopted TensorFlow framework and state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms. With these enhancements, BATON’s feature-rich toolset goes on to save significant time and money for broadcasters.” Integrated with BATON, the new add-on can be deployed in both cloud and on-premises solutions. Based on content categorisation algorithms, BATON WINNOW classifies audiovisual content based on specified criteria, such as explicit scenes, violence, profane language, and more. In addition, it relies on user-defined rule sets to automatically check compliance and identification of content against regulations in different countries, regions, and organisations. Since streaming media content is consumed by a massive range of audiences in different regions, it is

ICE has the widest range of IMF standard support, including App. #2, 2e (Studio Profile), App. #4 (Cinema Mezzanine), App. #5 (ACES) and Academy Digital Source Master, IMF ProRes RDD45 and TSP 2121 Application DPP (ProRes). Photon is also integrated, together with numerous validation tools for IMF and DCP packages. Key features of ICE 3.0 include the support of an unlimited number of independent subtitles tracks and audio channels (sidecar files), a dual viewport for version comparison, the display of safe area and a variety of audio and video scopes. ICE also integrates with a variety of automated QC tools and can load the QC reports. “Marquise ICE and the KRONOS video hardware are a great fit for the strict requirements of 4K and HDR delivery,” said Tom Lithgow, Bluefish444 Product Manager. “Marquise ICE performs the full QC of all modern delivery formats such as IMF, and when combined with KRONOS hardware, provides support for multi-channel 4k 60P and HDR/SDR 12/10-bit SDI workflows.” Bluefish444 have worked with Marquise Technologies for a number of years, and have proven support for MIST and ICE software. Bluefish444 recently demonstrated an advanced 4K HDR quality control workflow with ICE utilising KRONOS SDI output at IBC2018. ICE is the most advanced reference player for DCP, IMF and many other formats, with video and audio monitoring soon to be available via Bluefish444 KRONOS hardware.

broadcaster workflows and regulatory compliance.

“The new KRONOS product range expands the capabilities of our products to higher levels, particularly for 4K HDR and 8K workflows. Our solutions are now able to provide the users with two separate streams of 4K using only one card, allying both cost efficiency and technical capabilities,” commented Laurence Stoll, CEO at Marquise Technologies.

Visit www.interrasystems.com

Visit https://bluefish444.com

imperative that broadcasters adopt a streamlined approach to eliminating offensive or explicit content that may not pass regulations in certain areas of the world. BATON WINNOW provides a focused approach for

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

OOYALA IS PROVIDING EXTENDED support for the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, Ooyala’s flexible and configurable content supply chain optimisation platform that automates tasks, simplifies workflows, and speeds up time-to-market for content creators and distributors. With IMF support, customers of the Ooyala Flex Media Platform can significantly reduce the costs and improve the efficiency of their multiversion, multi-platform distribution needs.

POST PRODUCTION www.content-technology.com/postproduction

Animal Logic Goes Live with HQ Trivia for Lego Animation Experience THE RELEASE OF The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part from Warner Bros. Pictures is nigh, and as part of the lead-up, Animal Logic, the animation and FX house responsible for ‘construction’ of the long-awaited sequel, and online app, HQ Trivia, teamed up for a live animation experience with host Scott Rogowsky transformed into a Lego mini-figure.

out his tongue. The broadcast originated live from Animal Logic’s Sydney studio. Animal Logic’s team of artists, technicians and animators worked closely with HQ Trivia and Warner Bros. Pictures, with the Unreal engine from Epic Games, to execute the live and interactive animation that brought Scott Rogowsky’s LEGO mini-figure to life, achieving a seamless and organic stop-motion feel that best represented the look and movement of the iconic toy characters in real-time.

The February event saw over half a million phones connected at one time to tap into the experience. The live HQ show lasted over 20 minutes and, according to Animal Logic opened doors for new possibilities in the world of animation as we currently know it.

Rogowsky wore a skin-tight, but wireless suit that included 12 sensors for virtual motion capture and a shoulder mounted facial capture rig. There was no camera used for the broadcast. Players competed live for cash and rare LEGO collectibles.

While dispensing questions, HQ Trivia host Scott Rogowsky demonstrated he was live by prompting the audience to control what he did on screen. In real-time he read the requests live and on command he winked, nodded and even stuck

Visit www.animallogic.com

Teradici Partners with Avid for Secure Remote Video Editing TERADICI, THE DEVELOPER OF PCoIP technology and Cloud Access Software, has entered into a collaboration with Avid to offer a remote video editing solution for professional editors, movie makers, and multimedia journalists. The new joint solution combines the Teradici PCoIP-powered Cloud Access Software and Avid Media Composer | Cloud VM to enable these creative professionals the ability to securely access and edit video content remotely from their private data centre or from the public cloud with low latency and full colour accuracy. “With our PCoIP-powered Cloud Access Software available with Media Composer, the loyal Avid user base now has the ability to utilise virtualized infrastructure to full potential during the creation process,” said David Smith, CEO of Teradici. “We are committed to empowering more film and editorial professionals by offering our leading remote visualization technology through valued partners. This new solution enables creative professionals to run their workflows in virtualized

infrastructure enabling effective content creation, collaboration and delivery without the security risks, inefficiencies and compliance challenges of locally managed assets.” Under the collaboration: • Avid and Teradici will jointly offer an ultrasecure, high performance solution in which Cloud Access Software enables remote access to remote Avid video editing software, Media Composer | Cloud VM, from any virtualized infrastructure • Avid will join the Teradici partner ecosystem to directly offer Teradici Cloud Access and Cloud Access Plus subscriptions to Avid Media Composer | Cloud VM customers • Media Composer | Cloud VM users will now benefit from the flexibility to access and manage their latest editing projects and workloads from any location “Top editors in the film, television, and broadcast industry rely on Media Composer to help them

deliver compelling content regardless of where they are. Avid is continuously expanding Media Composer’s features and offerings to enable editing to happen from anywhere,” said Raymond Thompson, Director Broadcast and Media Solutions at Avid. “Partnering with Teradici to include Cloud Access Software in our offering will enable Media Composer customers using specialized technology to work remotely and securely using Teradici high-performance PCoIP technology.” Avid users can now purchase using specialised technology Teradici Cloud Access and Cloud Access Plus subscription plans available through Avid and Avid resellers. Avid can also enable customer trials of the joint solution and transition from proof of concept to production. Visit https://www.teradici.com/products/cloudaccess/cloud-access-software and www.avid.com

POST PRODUCTION

HPA IMF UG Looks Beyond Time Code

AT THIS YEAR’S Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Tech Retreat, the HPA IMF UG (Interoperable Master Format User Group) announced that the first product of the group, the Best Practices Document on Timecode in IMF, is available for download. The HPA IMF UG is the first user group formed by HPA, and serves as a forum for users and implementers of the IMF family of standards. The HPA IMF UG includes more than 100 members from around the world and this first output from the user group is considered a significant milestone. IMF is an international standard published by SMPTE, and the solution for interchange of component-based audio-visual masters. The document recommends behaviour of IMF systems when interacting with SMPTE Timecode (SMPTE ST 12-1). Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Chairman of the IMF UG noted, “Timecode was

a perfect topic for the UG given its historical use in mastering workflows, where IMF excels. While storing timecode information is not forbidden in IMF, timecode is never used for synchronisation since it cannot tackle the requirements of modern component-based workflows. The Best Practice document recommends that timecode not be routinely included in IMF.” The HPA IMF UG hopes that the best practice will help adopters avoid common pitfalls when adapting legacy content to component-based workflows and IMF. Barbara Lange, Executive Director of HPA and SMPTE, noted that “The development of viable user groups is an important part of what HPA can bring to relevant industry issues. We are delighted to see the fruit of the labour of this engaged group, tackling a topic that is of direct concern to our community.” The best practice is a living document which is available free-of-charge at https://www.imfug.com/TR/timecode-in-imf/.

POST PRODUCTION

HDRmaster 8K Toolset GERMANY’S FF PICTURES has released HDRmaster 8K, a standalone software toolset for Microsoft Windows 8 and 10 with several features for performing quality analysis and essential metadata tasks in HDR productions with up to 8K (7680×4320 pixels) resolution. HDRmaster 8K is the successor of HDRmaster v2 which is already in use by Ultra-HD Bluray facilities, post-production houses, studios and manufacturers worldwide.

EDITSHARE’S LIGHTWORKS non-linear editor (NLE) version 14.5 (Windows, Mac, and Linux) offers over 70 new features and 500 improvements. Topping the list of creative capabilities for the NLE is support for popular smartphone and tablet formats and variable frame rates, a new comprehensive histogram and GPU precision options for accurate colour grading, and improved third-party VFX and audio roundtripping support.

There’s a total of 10 independent analysers and modules within HDRmaster 8K, each one to fulfil an essential task: • HDR Inspector (automated analysis and calculations for Quality Control and static/ dynamic metadata). • Metadata and Signal Levels (MaxCLL and MaxFALL analysis, allowing to compare real signal and nominal values).

Lightworks 14.5 Feature Highlights include:

• Statistics (advanced frame statistics for different metrics on luminance distribution)

• Support for variable frame rates (.mov .mp4, .m4v) – Ending the need to transcode content from non-traditional broadcast cameras, Lightworks 14.5 users can simply drag files directly into your project and begin working immediately.

• Chromaticity Diagram (CIE 1976 and CIE 1931 diagram representation of the content).

• Enhanced handling of .MOD and .TOD files – Lightworks 14.5 now offers format support for JVC Everio formats via .TOD file extension. Native support for the .MOD file extension from cameras from JVC, Panasonic, and Canon.

• Heatmap (False color representation of the luminance, MaxRGB, chroma or hue values).

• New Adjustable RED R3D RAW metadata parameters – New individual clip R3D decode settings panel and projectwide R3D Decode settings improve the workflow between RED Film cameras and Lightworks 14.5. • New File Structure Support - Lightworks 14.5 now supports XDCAM HD, AVCHD, GFCAM, JVC, GoPro, FlipVideo, and Canon folder structures. It also supports Ikegami FieldPak and chunked Canon XF clips. • Enhanced Colour with GPU precision options and Histogram Graphs - Colour Grading is even easier in Lightworks 14.5 thanks to the powerful new 16bit and 32bit GPU Precision options. Users can also check colour details against the new Lightworks Histogram Graph panel.

• Color Analyzer (RAW and decoded values including Luminance values and Chroma coordinates for selected pixels). • Histogram (RGB or Luminance histograms, linear or logarithmic scale). • Oscilloscope (Pixel profile for lines or in between cursors to show detailed gradations). • Test Pattern Q/C (detailed analysis of test patches in a digital leader (delivered with HDRmaster) with pass/fail results). • Dynamic Metadata (creating and editing of HDR10+ dynamic metadata, including graphical representation and automated suggestions for values and the ability to write it to .JSON or .MP4 files). A growing number of input formats are currently supported by HDRmaster 8K. Most importantly, the software is designed to check and process encoded files for distribution to end consumers (.MP4, .TS, .HEVC, .H265, .H264). This includes video files for Ultra HD Blu-ray authoring but also supports image sequences which are commonly used prior to encoding (TIFF, DNG, DPX, Open EXR). Visit http://ff.de

Boris FX Sapphire 2019

• Export to REAPER (Lightworks Pro only) - Export Lightworks 14.5 audio compositions directly to REAPER for further editing, processing, or mixing.

THE NEWEST VERSION OF SAPPHIRE 2019 is now available. Sapphire 2019 from Boris FX delivers new creative effects to editors, VFX artists, and motion graphics artists.

• Added support for decode/encode of Cineform codecs - Lightworks 14.5 users can now transcode, render or generate Cineform proxies for smooth and efficient editing. With Lightworks 14.5 Pro, users can export directly to the Cineform.

• Lens Flare Designer has been completely overhauled and redesigned with a fully customisable UI, a new flare component workflow, and tons of new pre-sets designed by the pros.

• Support for Fusion 9 on Mac - Integration with Fusion 9 (Mac) opens up collaborative round tripping visual effects workflow for Lightworks 14.5 users. • Project-Wide LUTs – Control the look and feel of your project by adding a project-wide LUT to all your media including the exported file. • Voice Over and Mackie MIDI support for Linux users Simplify adding narratives by recording direct to your timeline and mix audio levels with the new Lightworks 14.5 voiceover tool and Mackie MIDI device. • Set Entire Range Cue Marker - Previously users of Lightworks have only been able to mark an individual frame, with Lightworks 14.5 they can mark an entire range. Lightworks 14.5 is available in either the Free or Pro version. Download Lightworks 14.5 for free now, or purchase the Pro version for a month, year or outright licence. Visit www.editshare.com

New in Sapphire 2019:

• PixelSort: A trendy, digital glitch art effect for music videos and highly-stylised looks. • WhipLash: A swish pan style effect in warp speed. Uses multiple copies of an image to travel through time further and faster. Features tons of advanced parameters for ultimate control. • Transition Pre-sets for Builder: Retro multi-colour shape wipes and organic transitions with a hand-drawn look are simple pre-sets thanks to the new Animating Shape effect inside of Builder (Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Avid Media Composer, Blackmagic Resolve, and Blackmagic Fusion only). • Mocha Essentials Workspace: Simplifies the power of Mocha with an updated interface, new magnetic spline tool with edge-snapping, a new freehand spline tool, new pre-set geometric shapes tools for easier effect masking and rotoscoping, and support for high DPI monitors. • Fastest Sapphire Ever: Improved GPU performance (NVIDIA CUDA only) with significant speed increases for some hosts. Sapphire 2019 supports popular video host applications including Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Avid Media Composer, Autodesk Flame family, and OFX hosts The Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve and Fusion, and Magix VEGAS Pro. Full license, upgrade, and subscription options can be purchased through https://borisfx.com

POST PRODUCTION

Lightworks 14.5

HDRmaster 8K is designed to allow anyone in the industry to check in detail if the HDR delivery files carry proper HDR levels and metadata. This includes tools to measure and visualise issues like signal clippings in luminance range or colour gamut. While experts will be thrilled with the wide range of features, even non-experts can use this tool immediately thanks to a feature called ‘HDR Inspector’. This pre-set is designed to automatically perform all needed tasks at the push of one button. This includes the unique feature of creating suggested static and dynamic metadata based on image analysis.

POST PRODUCTION

Blackmagic Design Products Join Netflix Post Technology Alliance BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS ANNOUNCED that it has joined the new Netflix Post Technology Alliance and that DaVinci Resolve, its professional editing, visual effects, motion graphics, colour correction and audio post production software, was chosen for three of the alliance’s four technology categories: Colour Grading, Editorial, and IMF and Media Encoding. Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini 4.6K and URSA Mini Pro were also chosen in the alliance’s ‘Camera’ category. The Netflix Post Technology Alliance is a program for manufacturers of products that generate or manage any kind of sound data, image data, or metadata from production through post. The alliance is aimed at bringing together industry leaders committed to work closely with Netflix to innovate production workflows and support creatives globally. To earn the ability to use the Post Technology Alliance certified logo, products must comply with current Netflix delivery specifications, and commit to future technical innovation and timely problem resolution. By being chosen by Netflix for alliance categories, filmmakers are assured the products meet a very high mark of quality, service and support. DaVinci Resolve is used by post professionals all over the world, and has already been used for a huge number of films and TV programs shown on Netflix, including a number of Netflix originals such as Daredevil, She’s Gotta Have It and The Ranch. “Professionals creating films and episodic shows for Netflix have to focus on creativity, quality and being able to launch globally in multiple formats. So

having a post process that is efficient, easy to use and always improving is essential. We are honoured Netflix sees that DaVinci Resolve brings that in each of the software categories of the Post Technology Alliance,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “At Netflix, empowering our creative partners is incredibly important, and the Post Technology Alliance will build a more seamless experience from production through post-production,” said Chris Fetner, Director of Post Partnerships and Integrations at Netflix. “Products that bear the logo are committed to better interoperability and faster innovation cycles, which will allow artists to focus their energy on what matters most – the storytelling.” Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

Grass Valley Delivers Ultimate Post Production Workflow with Rio GRASS VALLEY RECENTLY LAUNCHED the newest version of Rio, the online editing and post production suite, providing users with more functionality including Dolby Vision support and best-in-class file compression for increased media availability on existing storage. The latest updates in Rio v4.5.3 include: • Dolby Vision Support: Rio provides faster, more flexible workflows to support Dolby Vision deliverables. With a Dolby CMU box, timeline trim passes can now easily be made across multiple display devices with all information stored in a single XML. All parameters can be controlled from the Neo panel with frame analysis choices that result in faster workflows on projects with long timelines.

• Near Lossless Rendering: Introducing a new compression codec, based on VC-2, that enables Rio to run from 2:1 to 6:1 compressed to disk (in addition to its standard uncompressed mode). If compression is selected, and once media is compressed onto a disk, the codec is virtually lossless across multiple renders, enabling users to store additional media at the same chosen compression ratios, increasing storage capacity by factor of 2-6 times. • Canon V2.2 SDK HDR/SDR Update: With additional support for BT.2020 Hybrid Log Gamma color space and gamma curve to handle HDR and SDR in a single signal. Rio also provides added functionality with resize and debayer modes and camera name display.

• Improved Stability: The Alchemist re-speed algorithm has also been updated to provide improved stability and results. Katsushi Takeuchi, Vice President and General Manager of Editing, Japan, Grass Valley commented, saying, “With a strong heritage for pushing the industry’s boundaries for performance and creativity, Rio is a hallmark for the highest quality post production and finishing – from its real-time performance to its complete, integrated toolset and ultra-fast workflows. These new enhancements further fuel our customers’ ability to deliver stunning images at any resolution or frame-rate.” Visit www.grassvalley.com

AJA OG-Hi5-4K-Plus and OG-HA5-4K openGear Cards cameras, action cameras, or prosumer 4K video cameras to 4K/UltraHD 3G-SDI for use in professional workflows.

POST PRODUCTION

OG-HI5-4K-PLUS IS AN OPENGEAR CARD that offers 3G-SDI to HDMI 2.0 conversion for 4K/UltraHD/2K/HD/SD sources, supporting up to 60p from professional 4K/UltraHD devices when monitoring to HDMI 2.0 displays. OG-Hi5-4K-Plus generates HDR metadata in accordance with HDMI v2.0a/ CTA-861.3 and offers a simple monitoring connection from 4K devices with Quad 3G-SDI or Dual 3G-SDI outputs to compatible HDMI 2.0 displays, with two sample interleave (2SI) or square division (Quadrant) source mapping.

Designed for use in high-density openGear 2RU frames including AJA’s OG-X-FR 2RU frame, new DashBoard Software support on Windows, macOS and Linux offers remote control and monitoring of the openGear architecture and provides convenient and industry standard configuration, monitoring and control options over a PC or local network. Featuring four 3G-SDI outputs, the openGear compatible OG-HA5-4K enables high quality conversion of HDMI 2.0 video from DSLRs, mirrorless

Designed for use in high-density openGear 2RU frames including AJA’s OG-3-FR 2RU frame, new DashBoard Software support on Windows, macOS and Linux offers remote control and monitoring of the openGear architecture and provides convenient and industry-standard configuration, monitoring and control options over a PC or local network. openGear is an open-architecture, modular frame system designed by Ross Video and supported by a diverse range of terminal equipment manufacturers, including AJA. The AJA OG-X-FR is a 2RU high openGear frame which is compatible with any openGear card and offers Dashboard support for the latest AJA Dashboard compatible openGear cards. The frame has a 20-slot capacity with excellent cooling capabilities for high-density applications and compatibility with advanced openGear connectivity options for supported cards. Visit www.aja.com

POST PRODUCTION

Sony Unveils 4K HDR Monitor and TRIMASTER HX Brand SONY HAS ANNOUNCED A NEW 31-inch Grade 1 reference monitor, the BVM-HX310, which offers accurate colour reproduction and highcontrast performance that provides assurance to professional content creatives in critical picture decisions. The launch of the new reference monitor also marks the introduction of Sony’s new technology brand, TRIMASTER HX. The BVM-HX310 has been created in response to the industry’s desire to overcome the challenges of accurate picture evaluation, especially in black reproducibility. Accurately reproducing images down to individual pixels is possible, thanks to the combination of Sony’s specified and dedicated panel and its newly developed display processing technology. The new monitor is capable of reproducing 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) content, supporting industry standard brightness of up to 1,000 nits in fullscreen and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio for HDR productions. “Drawing on decades of live and post-production expertise, the BVM-HX310 is designed to provide professionals with images they can trust, helping them work more efficiently and achieve better creative focus,” explained Mr. Anthony Kable, Content Creation Group Manager, Sony Australia. “At Sony, we continuously work with our customers to offer solutions that help them overcome the challenges they face daily. The result of this process is that, together, we create innovative solutions like our new reference monitor.”

million contrast LCD panel and its unique panel controlling technology to deliver consistent picture quality, accurate colour reproduction with the deepest blacks, and provides high-contrast performance consistent with our current awardwinning reference monitor, the BVM-X300.” The BVM-HX310 hosts all major HDR EOTF and, for the first time in Sony professional monitors, 12G-SDI is supported to allow simple 4K transmission with a single SDI cable. It handles ITU-R BT.2020 colour space and HDR images with Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG), SMPTE ST2084 and 2.4 (HDR) gamma alongside S-Log2, S-Log3 and S-Log3 Live HDR for SR Live Workflow. In addition, users can load predefined Look Up Tables (LUT) based on their viewing requirements onset or in post-production thanks to BVM-HX310’s User LUT function. The existence of multiple EOTF in 4K/UHD, in addition to multiple colour spaces and RGB ranges, give rise to potential complexities in source identification. The latest 4K HDR reference monitor incorporates Video Payload ID (VPID) which identifies signal information embedded in the SDI interface to help switch to appropriate display settings automatically – minimising the potential for human errors.

Sony also introduced its new technology brand, TRIMASTER HX. HX represents the combination of both HDR (‘H’) and Liquid Crystal (Xtal) Display (‘X’) technologies. Monitors of this range offer the accuracy, consistency and quality of colour reproduction.

BVM-HX310 offers a Quad View mode, allowing professionals to view up to four customised individual display settings across the monitor in HD (including EOTF, colour space, transfer matrix and colour temperature), which was previously introduced on the PVM-X550. The mode will also support User LUT of the BVM-HX310.

“TRIMASTER HX is the new umbrella brand that incorporates Sony’s specified

Visit www.sony.com.au or www.sony.co.nz

Continuum Relaunches Particle Illusion Motion Graphics Generator FILM AND TELEVISION POST-PRODUCTION PROFESSIONALS looking to add VFX tools to their workflows get a creative boost from Continuum 2019. Continuum 2019 is the newest version of the comprehensive plug-in collection from Boris FX. New in Continuum 2019: • Particle Illusion: The completely redesigned high-end motion graphics generator (sparkles, smoke, fireworks) features a speedy real-time GPU-based engine in a simple, easy-to-use interface. Includes new professionally designed presets, a revamped searchable preset emitter library, and is included in both Continuum 2019 and the Particles Unit. • Mocha Essentials Workspace: Simplifies the power of Mocha with an updated interface, new magnetic spline tool with edge-snapping, a new freehand spline tool, new preset geometric shapes tools for easier effect masking and rotoscoping, and support for high DPI monitors. Mocha now supports point parameter tracking inside Continuum filters such as Lens

Flare 3D, Rays, and Spotlights. • Title Studio Improvements: Title Studio adds the ability to apply GPUaccelerated effects directly inside its interface along with 150+ new professionally designed templates. A new grid and guide system, onscreen text tool, and on-screen text box make titling even easier than before. Now supports 8K or higher resolution. • External Broadcast Monitor Support: The FX Browser and Title Studio now include support for external/client/broadcast monitor previews from a custom UI window. Currently only available for Blackmagic Design, AJA coming soon. • Simplified Avid Effects List: The introduction of Mocha-based parameter tracking makes most non-real time blue dot filters unnecessary. Non-real time filters have been moved into an obsolete folder to support the older legacy Continuum tracker. Visit https://borisfx.com

AJA Adds UltraHD Support to IPR-10G-HDMI • Discovery, registration and control. • NMOS. • Ember Plus (Control only).

The compact and fanless IPR-10G-HDMI Mini-Converter receives SMPTE ST 2110 over 10GigE connectivity and formats the data for output as video and audio on a full-size HDMI interface, with simultaneous analogue audio output via an RCA interface.

”We're excited to bring IPR-10G-HDMI users new UltraHD support with v1.1 firmware, as the update meets a critical need in the market, allowing professionals to output UltraHD signals across IP networks to the latest HDMI devices and displays,” said Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems.

New v1.1 firmware for the device includes:

IPR-10G-HDMI v1.1 firmware can be downloaded for free from AJA s support page. IPR-10G-HDMI is available through AJA's worldwide reseller network.

• Support for 10-bit, 4:2:2 uncompressed UltraHD (3840 x 2160p 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30).

Visit www.aja.com

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POST PRODUCTION

AJA VIDEO SYSTEMS HAS RELEASED v1.1 firmware for its IPR-10G-HDMI Mini-Converter, which enables SMPTE ST 2110 IP video/audio to HDMI. Available as a free download, the update adds support for UltraHD up to 30p and integrates new improvements for discovery, registration and control.

AUDIO Digital soundwaves

www.content-technology.com/audio

Sony High Res Mics Record World’s First 108-Key Piano RECENTLY, FOUR WORLD FIRSTS OCCURRED SIMULTANEOUSLY in the world of music and recording as Sony’s new Hi Res Series Studio Microphones, a world first in themselves, were used to record the premier of Australian composer Alan Griffiths’ new album Rare View. The performance was closely followed by a rendition of Gigue Sonata in A minor, a unique piece by Bach which has never been performed in public on a piano and all of these events were brought together on The Beleura, the world’s first 9-octave, 108 key grand piano (most concert grand pianos have 88 keys), built by Stuart & Sons in Tumut, NSW, Australia. As Sony Australia product manager David Green explained, “It boasts a gigantic nine octave range which was unheard of on the piano until now. Due to the incredible range and the immense cacophony of harmonics and high frequency overtones it takes a unique kind of microphone to fully record its range and beauty – which is where the Sony High Res 100 Series mics came in.” The recording took place at a concert held at the historic Beleura House, a venue that was formally owned by composer John Tallis. In 2014, house curator Antony Knight commissioned a 108-note Stuart & Sons piano to be installed in the house’s new pavilion. Four years later, The Beleura, named after the house itself, was delivered and commissioned. Green continued, “To celebrate this great occasion, as part of the concert Alan Griffiths, the well-known modern-day classical composer held the premier recital of his latest album Rare View at Beleura House. The original album was recorded entirely in the Hi Res recording format using the new Sony Hi Res Series studio microphones as was the performance which also featured premier musicians including Nicolas Young on piano, George Young on Cello and Dominic Prywana on violin.” The firsts didn’t stop there as for the very first time another totally unique piece of music composed for an instrument that didn’t exist at the time of composing and that was separated from it by 270 years, was performed to an audience on The Beleura. Gigue Sonata in A minor was penned by JS Bach in 1728. Bach, one of the great pillars of western music, was an exceptional musician and master of church and cathedral organs and it was for these instruments with their extended lower register that he wrote the piece that was played on The Beleura at Beleura House and, which until that instrument was created, could not be performed on a Piano Forte. The use of Sony High Res Series mics to record this historic event was no accident. In fact, it was Wayne Stuart, proprietor and head designer of the 108note piano, who specified that The Beleura could only be recorded in the Hi Res format due the incredibly high frequencies developed by the soundscape of the instrument which weighed in at 644kgs and boasted 218 strings spanning the 108 notes.

Sony’s David Green at the Beleura with the company’s new Hi-Res Series Studio Microphones

Green explained, “For the last 30 years, we have come to expect CD quality as the premium. However, with the introduction of Hi Res playback devices, speakers and headphones, for the first time in the history of music recording the microphone is actually the weak link with most commercial microphones rolling off at 20kHz whilst the Sony Hi-Res mics will recognise and pick up ultra -high frequencies up to 50kHz.” It was then the responsibility of industry expert Craig Field from Underwood Studios to record the performance with the Sony Hi-Res Series microphones in Hi Resolution audio, enabling the entire frequency spectrum of The Beleura to be faithfully reproduced. Green concluded, “The Beleura House concert was an unparalleled success. By using Sony High-Res Series mics the holistic sound of The Beleura piano was beautifully and accurately reproduced including all of the ultra-hi frequencies that are normally lost with a CD quality recording. Listeners to the recording of the concert are now able to appreciate the incredible sound of this amazing instrument exactly how the musician heard it at the time of the performance.” To hear Sony’s 100 Series High-Resolution microphone and the world’s first 108-key piano create the first-ever High-Resolution recording of the Sonata in A minor, BWV 965: VII. Gigue, exactly as Bach wrote it go to: www.youtube. com/watch?v=50OqliUquqA&feature=youtu.be Visit https://pro.sony/en_AU/products/studio-microphones

NZ Institute of Technology Goes Hybrid with Audient SPECIFYING AN AUDIENT ASP4816 CONSOLE to be at the heart of Studio A completed studio upgrades at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) earlier this year brought analogue back to the School of Media Arts’ studio after a 13-year hiatus, a decision championed by Music Technician, Brad Morgan.

better, but also be of great benefit to their learning i.e. signal flow, bussing, external inserts, I/O routing from DAW, patchbay usage, analogue mixing as opposed to in-the-box.”

According to Brad, the original studio centred around an analogue console.

“Clean microphone preamps, musical EQ, buss compression and its routing possibilities, which are really impressive for a console of this size, footprint and price.

“Its age and maintenance downtime was becoming an issue and in 2003/2004 the decision was made to go to Pro Tools HD with a Control|24. The workflow was simple and the ease of an ‘in-the-box’ solution was convenient for staff and students.

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“Fast forward 13 years and the decision to create a hybrid system taking in the best of both analogue and digital workflows was something that was welcomed with open arms. External gates/dynamics and effects racks that had been in storage for many years would now be reinstated.

“Students had experienced some level of tactile control with the previous system, but I knew that this system and workflow would not only sound

Brad goes on to list the features of the desk he’s most enjoying.

“What stood out to me were its routing possibilities,” he explains, recalling the decision-making process. “I was looking for something that could be incorporated into the current patchbay system without having to completely rewire it. Our previous console was housed in an Argosy 90 Series desk. The dimensions of the ASP4816 were similar to a Control|24 and after some planning and modifications to the desk, was sure I could make it fit.” Visit https://audient.com and www.wintec.ac.nz

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Sennheiser XS Wireless Digital Mics SENNHEISER’S NEW XS WIRELESS DIGITAL series is designed to provide musicians and videographers with an easy entry into wireless audio. XSW-D replaces the cable with sleek, compact transmitters and receivers that work on 2.4 GHz for worldwide, license-free operation. Versatile and easy to use, the series provides wireless solutions for almost every conceivable configuration and application. Transmitters and receivers can be freely combined so users can opt for a wireless link that will protect their existing microphone investments, or select one of the fully-equipped wireless microphone sets. XSW-D employs digital transmission in the 2.4 GHz range and uses the aptX Live codec. The receivers have antenna diversity; the transmitters work redundantly, transmitting all data packages twice to ensure reliable transmission. In case of interference, the transmitter and receiver will seamlessly hop to a free frequency. The audio latency remains below 4 ms. Up to five systems can be used simultaneously and they have a range of up to 75 m (250 ft). The transmitter and receiver units can be conveniently recharged via USB using the included charging cable and work for up to five hours on a single charge.

microphone that has a 3.5 mm (1/8”) mini-jack connector. All transmitters and receivers are also available separately. The Vocal Set of the series includes: • XS 1 dynamic cardioid microphone, mic clip, transmitter, receiver and USB-A to USB-C charging cable • The Vocal Set of the series contains everything needed to get started immediately: • XS 1 dynamic cardioid microphone, mic clip, transmitter, receiver and USB-A to USB-C charging cable

Operation has been made as easy as possible via a single button: Pressing the buttons on both the transmitter and the receiver will power up and automatically link the units, clicking either button on the receiver or transmitter will mute the audio signal and pressing and holding both buttons again will power the system down.

For videography, XSW-D reliably records audio directly into a video camera via the mic input. The receiver attaches to the camera via the XSW-D coldshoe mount and a 3.5 mm (1/8”) coiled cable, while the transmitter simply connects to a handheld or lavalier microphone depending on the use case and preference.

The transmitter is connected to a handheld mic, a lavalier mic or an instrument, while the receiver can be directly connected to a mixing desk, a guitar or bass amp or the mic input of a video camera respectively.

Videographers and content creators can choose between a Portable Lavalier Set complete with an ME 2-II clip-on microphone, a Portable Interview Set for use with an existing dynamic microphone, a Portable Base Set for use with an existing lavalier microphone, and the Portable ENG Set, which contains transmitters for a lavalier microphone (ME 2-II included) and an existing handheld dynamic microphone.

Presenters, vocalists and instrumentalists can choose between a Vocal Set with an XS 1 dynamic cardioid microphone, a Lavalier Set with an ME 2-II clipon microphone, and an Instrument Base Set for instruments with a 6.3 mm (1/4”) output. Also available is an XLR Base Set for use with existing dynamic microphones, and a Presentation Base Set for use with an existing clip-on

Visit http://en-au.sennheiser.com

Voice-over-IP Solution for TV IFB

DirectOut’s EXBOX.MD Adds Network Control and Dante

EARSHOT IFB, a new VoIP-based auto coupler for IFB and listen lines from Comrex, is now shipping. EarShot IFB is designed to help TV stations reduce costs and provide more flexibility for remote IFB feeds.

DIRECTOUT TECHNOLOGIES has implemented DO.Net daemon to its EXBOX.MD Dante/MADI interface to remotely access and control the entire ANDIAMO Series. The combination of an EXBOX.MD and any ANDIAMO also upgrades the popular converter series with a Dante IO.

EarShot IFB provides telephone-based live studio program and IFB audio to field-based remote broadcasts. Up to 30 users can listen to programme

or IFB feeds by calling into EarShot IFB with a standard telephone. EarShot IFB has four audio inputs (or feeds). Two of the feeds can be alternately configured as IFB inputs. Callers can switch between the feeds using DTMF (Touch Tone) selection.

The new firmware for DirectOut’s Dante/MADI converter adds another important feature to this compact but powerful device. DO.Net is a technology based on a multicast system which transmits the control protocol within the MADI signal going from the EXBOX.MD to the connected ANDIAMO devices and allows to remotely access and control them over a local network. Once the function is activated and set, available ANDIAMO devices automatically appear in globcon and are fully manageable from the software along with all other devices connected to the same network. This feature is supported for all ANDIAMO devices independent from their hardware revision.

FieldTap uses the Opus audio decoder to deliver studio quality audio, and is available to download for free on iOS and Android.

The latest globcon beta, released at the same time, also introduces source selection (Auto/Manual) and MIDI triggering to EARS, the automatic input switching function of the EXBOX.MD, upgrading and completing this unique feature of the device.

Visit www.comrex.com

Visit www.directout.eu

For higher fidelity, the Comrex FieldTap smartphone app can be used to pull audio in studio quality.

Neumann’s First Studio Headphones NEUMANN.BERLIN, known for its studio microphones and high-class studio monitors, has expanded its product portfolio with the Neumann NDH 20, a closed-back studio headphone combining excellent isolation with carefully balanced sound image and high resolution suited to monitoring, editing and mixing tasks, even in loud and noisy environments.

The headband is made of flexible spring steel while the ear cup covers are machined from lightweight aluminium. Large and soft memory foam ear pads make the NDH 20 a pleasure to wear for long periods without fatigue. For easy transportation, the NDH 20 is foldable.w

The NDH 20’s newly designed 38-mm drivers with high-gauss neodymium magnets ensure high sensitivity and low distortion. In other words, the NDH 20 would not need a dedicated headphone amplifier; it sounds just as great on mobile devices such as laptop computers.

• Linear sound balance, like Neumann’s acclaimed studio monitors

Features include: • Excellent isolation allows working in noisy environments • Two detachable cables (straight/coiled) Visit www.NDH20.neumann.com

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• High long-term comfort, easy transportation

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High-Definition Monitoring Headphones TASCAM HAS INTRODUCED the TH-07 High Definition Headphone Monitors. A premium headphone set intended to duplicate the audio quality of highend near field monitors, the TH-07 has been tuned for full but natural bass, flat mid-range, and clear high end and is suitable for mixing, monitoring, or any audio task demanding outstanding quality. The new headphones employ custom-made 50mm drivers and offer a wide 10Hz to 30kHz frequency response and sensitivity of 100dB ±3dB. Their closed-back design allows a full bass response while blocking out most external noise. With its circum-aural design and earcups of soft, pliable leather that fit snugly over the ear, TH-07s remain comfortable over long sessions, even when wearing eyeglasses. The earcups can be rotated and angled for maximum flexibility and easy one-ear monitoring and provide substantial isolation from sounds in the outside world.

DirectOut’s EXBOX.MD Adds Network Control and Dante DIRECTOUT TECHNOLOGIES has implemented DO.Net daemon to its EXBOX.MD Dante/MADI interface to remotely access and control the entire ANDIAMO Series. The combination of an EXBOX.MD and any ANDIAMO also upgrades the popular converter series with a Dante IO. The new firmware for DirectOut’s Dante/MADI converter adds another important feature to this compact but powerful device. DO.Net is a technology based on a multicast system which transmits the control protocol within the MADI signal going from the EXBOX.MD to the connected ANDIAMO devices and allows to remotely access and control them over a local network. Once the function is activated and set, available ANDIAMO devices automatically appear in globcon and are fully manageable from the software along with all other devices connected to the same network. This feature is supported for all ANDIAMO devices independent from their hardware revision. The latest globcon beta, released at the same time, also introduces source selection (Auto/Manual) and MIDI triggering to EARS, the automatic input

The TASCAM TH-07 comes with two detachable cables. One cable is coiled and shorter for low-clutter, short-distance work and has a 1/8-inch connector; the other is straight and longer (approximately 8½ feet) and has a multi-connector that accommodates both 1/8-inch and ¼-inch jacks. Both cables have gold-plated connectors. A leather bag with a pull-tie closure protects the headphones when they are being transported or not in use. Visit www.tascam.com

RCF Group Acquires DPA Microphones RCF GROUP RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the signing of a definitive agreement for the acquisition of DPA Microphones A/S (“DPA”) from The Riverside Company. DPA, based in Allerod, Denmark, is the #1 premium brand in the high-end professional audio microphone market for the live, broadcast, theatre and studio end-user segments and is known as the undisputed quality leader in the industry, continuously pushing the boundaries with regards to performance and durability. RCF Group, with Headquarters in Italy and branches in the USA and Europe, operates under the companies RCF, AEB Industriale (dB Technologies) and EAW and is an international leader in the design, production and sale of products and solutions for professional audio and installation systems. RCF Group generates over 80 percent of its revenues outside of Italy in 120 countries. In 2017 two prominent European private equity players, Palladio Holding and Amundi Private Equity Funds, invested in RCF Group with a minority stake in order to support and enhance the group in its growth plans.

unique feature of the device.

Following the September 2018 acquisition of EAW, with its iconic history in install and touring sound, the acquisition of DPA represents a second important milestone on RCF Group’s growth path.

Visit www.directout.eu

Visit https://rcf.it and www.dpamicrophones.com

switching function of the EXBOX.MD, upgrading and completing this

Dante-Compliant Audio Interfaces STUDIO TECHNOLOGIES, MANUFACTURER OF professional audio, video and fiber-optic solutions, has introduced the Model 5412 Audio Interface and the Model 5418 Mic/Line Interface, two new Dante-compliant solutions for applications that use Audio-over-Ethernet (AoE) network connectivity.

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The Model 5412 supports analogue line-level inputs and outputs, and is available in two versions – one with eight input and eight output channels, and the other with 16 input and 16 output channels. The Model 5412 uses 25-pin D-subminiature connectors for easy interfacing with balanced and unbalanced sources and destinations. Low noise, low distortion, and high headroom are key highlights to the audio performance of this unit. Troubleshooting features, including signal loop-back and tone generation, help to ensure successful deployment and operation.

The Model 5418 allows users to connect eight analogue microphone or linelevel sources, and then output the signals in the Dante digital domain by way of an Ethernet interface. In addition, eight audio channels that arrive via Dante are converted to analogue and output as line-level signals. The eight mic/line audio inputs use standard three-pin female XLR connectors, which are located on the Model 5418’s front panel. The analogue audio input signals are converted to

24-bit PCM digital and then transported via the Dante network interface. The unit offers excellent audio performance with adjustable preamplifier gain, high-pass filters, and P48 phantom power. Control of the operating parameters can be performed locally using the front-panel push-button switches, or remotely using the management web pages or ST controller software application. A monitor section allows both visual and audible observation of the input and output signals. Both the Model 5412 and the Model 5418 are housed in compact, lightweight enclosures, which mount in one space (“1U”) of standard 19-inch racks. Power can be provided by 100-240 volts, 50/60Hz, or 12 volts DC with redundant operation supported. Both units include three Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces, two to support redundant Dante operation, and the third for accessing the management menu system. An internal web server allows fast and flexible monitoring, and configuration of many of the units’ audio and network parameters. In addition, front-panel indicators, a display, and pushbutton switches provide users with direct access to key configuration selections. Visit www.studio-tech.com

AUDIO

DPA Mics Appoints New Filipino Distributor DPA MICROPHONES HAS ANNOUNCED the appointment of Music & Audio Solutions & Services as its new distributor in the Philippines, with immediate effect and across all markets including live sound, House of Worship, broadcast, pro audio, film and theatre. Founded in 2007, Music & Audio distributes products for a wide range of manufacturers involved in the sound reinforcement and musical instrument industries. Brands such as Korg, VOX, Smarvo and Lava Cable are included in the company’s roster. Music & Audio’s philosophy is to provide premium, cost-effective solutions for the most demanding music-making and sound enhancement needs. Thanks to a strategic partnership with Audiophile Components Inc. – the largest pro audio distributor in the Philippines with a total of 70 dealers/contractors nationwide – DPA products will now be available through 12 Audiophile branches in and around Manila. Commenting on the appointment, Dominic Tsang, DPA’s APAC Area Sales Manager (pictured left), said, “We are pleased to have found an experienced partner in the Philippines and I am confident that with its solid knowledge and local expertise, Music & Audio will be able to serve our current and future customers promptly, efficiently and in the best way possible. By having Music & Audio as a partner, we are ready to expand our sales network to different market segments and capture the full potential of the Philippines.” Jun Fernandez, Managing Director of Music & Audio (pictured right), added, “DPA is a technology leader in the pro audio market and a company with a strong product development team. In recent years they have launched numerous cutting-edge products to different sectors including Broadcast, Film and Theatre.

“To offer the best audio solutions to our customers, we only sell products that we love and want to use ourselves and this is especially the case with DPA microphones. Their sound is so real and natural, which is the most important element for miking because microphones are the first part of the signal chain and the one place where you don’t want any coloration or distortion of the sound. We’re excited to be a distributor for DPA and believe that DPA’s products will generate synergy with our existing brands.” Visit www.dpamicrophones.com

USB-C Audio Interfaces PRESONUS HAS UNVEILED its Studio Series USB-C 24-bit, 192 kHz audio interfaces, with five models: the Studio 24c, Studio 26c, Studio 68c, Studio 1810c, and Studio 1824c. These complete, all-in-one recording solutions update and replace PreSonus’ first-generation Studio series and feature a USB-C connector. All but the Studio 24c include DC-coupled outputs for sending control voltages, and all five models offer MIDI I/O. USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables are provided for compatibility with most computers. Studio Series USB-C audio interfaces come with PreSonus’ Studio One Artist music production software for macOS and Windows. Studio One integrates tightly with PreSonus interfaces, configuring automatically – no need to map inputs and outputs. Users also get the Studio Magic Plug-in Suite, a carefully selected plug-in collection from the leading names in virtual instruments and effects. Suitable for home recording, mobile musicians, guitarists, podcasters, and live streaming, the bus-powered Studio 24c 2-in, two-out audio interface features two front-panel combo mic/line/instrument inputs with PreSonus XMAX-L solid-state mic preamps, two rear-panel line outputs, and onboard direct monitoring control. Designed for DJs, mobile musicians, and electronic musicians who don’t want to sacrifice build and sound quality for portability, the bus-powered Studio 26c 2-in, four-out audio interface presents two front-panel combo mic/line/

instrument inputs with XMAX-L solid-state mic preamps, four rear-panel line outputs, and a Cue Mix A/B button. Suitable for small bands, producers, and small studios, the Studio 68c six-in, six-out audio interface offers 4 XMAX preamps – two mic/line/instrument on the front, and two mic/line on the back – as well as S/PDIF I/O. Built for producers and small bands who want to record from a wide range of sources, the Studio 1810c records up to 18 simultaneous inputs and sports eight outputs and four microphone inputs with XMAX Class A mic preamps. The Studio 1824c audio interface is aimed project studios, and especially for recording full bands, including multi-channel drums. It records up to 18 simultaneous inputs and features eight microphone inputs with XMAX Class A mic preamps. Its 20 outputs offer flexible routing with zero-latency DSPbased monitor mixing and control-room integration with included Studio One Artist and UC Surface software. Visit www.presonus.com/products/Studio-Series-USB-Interfaces

Multifunction Audio Processor

PRODIGY.MP is a multifunction audio processor that shares its 2U-high compact mainframe and modular design with the PRODIGY.MC, but adds FPGA-based DSP for EQ, delays and summing matrices. This addition also offers greater flexibility in heterogenous systems and independent clocking by adding SRC capabilities. The unit has four converter slots for analog line-level, microphone input and AES3 option modules, providing up to 32 local inputs and outputs. The hardware also supports two MADI and two Network Audio options. The MADI slots are available as BNC, SC optical and SFP modules, while two optional Network Audio boards can be equipped with Dante, RAVENNA (AES67) or SoundGrid, increasing maximum channel capability to 416 inputs/420 outputs. Both PRODIGY.MP and MC can be controlled locally via a 5-inch touchscreen on

the front panel, or via globcon, a unified remotecontrol platform that allows all DirectOut devices to be managed simultaneously. In addition, PRODIGY.MP can be accessed via its integrated web server, with remote access via HTML and JavaScript-based user interface. Third-party remote-control protocols may also be added for increased system integration and signal management capabilities. Visit www.directout.eu

AUDIO

DIRECTOUT’S NEW PRODIGY.MP multifunction audio processor follows in the footsteps of its sister product, the PRODIGY.MC – a modular audio converter that spearheaded the recent introduction of the PRODIGY Series.

RADIO The original broadcast media

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Indian FM Networks Deliver with GatesAir GATESAIR, THE PROVIDER of wireless, over-the-air content delivery solutions for TV and radio broadcasters, has won turnkey FM radio contracts in India with private broadcasters Sambhav Media and ENIL. The deals comprise Flexiva FAX air-cooled transmitters, auxiliary RF equipment and rigid transmission line for 30 stations, extending GatesAir’s market-leading share of FM radio transmitters in India. Both contracts also include turnkey installation, commissioning and technical support services through in-country partner Horizon Broadcast Electronics. The Sambhav Media project covers 13 FM radio stations (two 5kW and 11 3kW sites) that the broadcaster won following the FM Phase-III auction for new private FM broadcast licenses. Each station will also receive a 1kW backup transmitter, with all sites operating in fully redundant 1+1 configurations. Deliveries are now in progress, with seven stations on the air in the Gujarat region. The project marks Sambhav Media’s entry into the radio broadcast space. “Based on our experience and knowledge of the radio broadcast market, we will only choose premium products that remove our transmission worries,” said Jagdish Pavra, Director of Engineering, Sambhav Media. “After many discussions with different manufacturers in the premium market, we selected GatesAir transmitters because of their high efficiency, smaller footprint and, most important, the redundancy within their transmission systems. We are now on the air at seven sites with GatesAir transmitters, and are very happy with their performance as well as the services GatesAir provides.” The ENIL deal covers two purchases, including 14 stations won in the FM Phase-II auction. Each will install one 5kW transmitter. The second order includes two 10kW transmitters and one 6kW model across three additional stations. In selecting GatesAir and its Flexiva transmitters, ENIL emphasized improved reliability and total cost of ownership over its previous long-term supplier as key factors. Flexiva transmitters leverage GatesAir’s PowerSmart 3D designs to reduce size, weight and power consumption. These three operational benefits were paramount to each broadcaster’s decision, in addition to the company’s

GatesAir powers Sambhaav Media’s Godhara site.

visibility throughout India. “The use of common transmission infrastructure for broadcasters in India often means that each broadcaster has limited real estate,” said Rich Redmond, President and Managing Director, International for GatesAir. “Our PowerSmart 3D architecture optimizes transmitter size and weight, enabling our customers to comfortably install Flexiva transmitters in tight spaces. Furthermore, each customer’s reliability, performance and efficiniency evaluations included electricity cost comparisons between GatesAir and competitive transmitters operating today in India. This clearly demonstrated that GatesAir would provide the best signal while reducing annual bills, and improving long-term total cost of ownership.” Redmond adds that the reputation of its partner Horizon Broadcast Electronics as a service-oriented transmission expert put GatesAir over the top in both cases. In addition to installation and commissioning, Horizon will handle all post-installation support include spare parts delivery and on-site maintenance. “With more than 400 GatesAir transmitters on the air today in India, our customers are assuredly in reliable hands with GatesAir and our partners at Horizon,” he said. Visit www.gatesair.com

Nanjing Radio Connects with NTP NANJING RADIO, ONE OF CHINA’S LARGEST regional broadcast networks, has invested in NTP Technology Penta 720 audio embedder/deembedders and 721 routing/networking interfaces at its studio headquarters in Nanjing City. Nanjing Radio is a family of radio stations transmitting via terrestrial FM and AM across the Jiangsu region of the People’s Republic of China and more widely online. Part of the Nanjing Television Broadcast Group, Nanjing Radio currently comprises 11 channels: Comprehensive News Channel (O1), Education Channel (O5), Film/Television Channel (O2), Literature Channel (O3), Lifestyle Channel (O4), Kids Channel (O7), Nanjing News (Xinwen) Channel (NJXWT), Nanjing Economy Channel (NJJJT1), Nanjing Sports Channel (NJJJT2), Nanjing Music (Yin Yue) Channel (NJYYT), and Nanjing Traffic (Jiao Tong) Channel (NJJTT). “Nanjing Radio identified the Penta 720 and 721 as the ideal way to interconnect four of its studios via audio-over-IP and MADI,” says NTP Technology Sales Director Mikael Vest.

RADIO

“Each Penta 720 includes a 1024 x 1024 multiplexer and is able to route all inputs and outputs via up to three MADI I/O connections or IP audio. Configurable from a range of optional modules, it supports eight channel AES3 I/O channels, MADI, two IP audio Ethernet I/Os and an Avid Pro Tools interface. Additional features include SDI embedding/de-embedding as well as analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue conversion.

“IP audio networking is more flexible and less costly than the traditional AES/ EBU, AES50 or MADI point-to-point distribution. The Penta 721 routing interfaces allow digital audio distribution via IP-based Gigabit Ethernet. A fullbandwidth uncompressed audio routing network can be established quickly

and easily, connecting multiple remote sites such as regional broadcast stations through a local or wide area network. The IP audio protocol used in the Penta 721 is powered by Audinate Dante technology and is compatible with Dante-compliant third-party products.” The project was negotiated via NTP’s long-standing sales partner in China, Infomedia Digital Technology. Designed for use in production studios, outside broadcast vehicles and public-event venues, the Penta 720 occupies 2U. Up to eight optional cards plus an optional mini module can be incorporated to match specific operational requirements. The range of available plug-in cards includes an eight-channel analogue input interface, eight-channel analogue output, twochannel SDI/HD/3G embedder interface, two-channel SDI/HD/3G de-embedder interface. NTP’s Penta 721 can route up to 512 channels across a 1 gigabit per second network, within a latency of less than a millisecond. Additional channels can be accommodated if the network capacity is higher. The interface is TCP/IP controlled via one or two Ethernet ports. Signal sources and destinations can be configured onscreen via any standard browser using NTP’s RCCoreV4 routing control software. Each Penta 721 chassis incorporates eight AES/EBU input/output channels plus up to three MADI input/outputs, two IP Audio Ethernet inputs/outputs and an interface allowing direct operation from Avid Pro Tools. Dedicated control software compatible with Microsoft Windows can be employed for controlling and setting up the Penta 721 on a unit-to-unit basis when less advanced operation is required. Visit www.njbg.com.cn and www.ntp.dk

RADIO

Røde Clear the Path for Podcast Producers It’s compact, it’s powerful, it’s Australian made, and it’s about to revolutionise podcasting production as we know it. Phil Sandberg talks to Daniel Woodall, Marketing Manager with Røde about the new Rødecaster Pro. FOR AROUND 15 YEARS, Australian manufacturer RØDE has been on a mission to empower the podcast producer. In 2004, the company launched the RØDE Podcaster microphone featuring USB connectivity. More recently, RØDE launched the AI-1 USB interface to give producers an easier way to connect an XLR mic into their computers. Now the company has upped the ante with the release of an integrated podcasting mixing, recording and live production console, the RØDECaster Pro.

“There’s a number of different audio brands within the Freedman Group which, of course, RØDE is largest, but Aphex has been in the Freedman Group for a number of years. This was an opportunity to leverage that brand and create synergy between RØDE and Aphex. It was very much a personal thing that Peter Freedman, the founder, wanted. He was like, ‘We have this incredible broadcast technology, the global standard in processing for radio and for voice, and we should include it.’” There are other features that set it apart from a conventional audio desk. There’s a USB input, a phone jack input and Bluetooth?

“The starting point for the RØDECaster Pro stemmed from seeing the number of questions we were getting about podcasting and the sales of podcasting microphones going up,” says Daniel Woodall Marketing Manager with RØDE Microphones. “The question we kept getting from podcasting customers was, ‘how do I do this? Once I’ve gone beyond having a single microphone like an NT USB or podcaster into my computer, how do I have more microphones, how do I record a phone call, how do I put music into my podcast, how do I make it sound good?’

“That’s right. This is all about being able to easily bring in these sources, which is what people were struggling with. Just being able to record a phone call is a real challenge for people. Allowing both Bluetooth and the cable connection to a phone to makes it super simple. The mix minus is already set up so you don’t need to do any settings or set up, all those complicated things you have to do with a traditional mixer, and the levels are all preset to be suitable for mobile phones and similar devices.

“These questions people were asking seemed like very simple questions, but there were no simple solutions out there. You needed a whole studio full of equipment and a whole lot of know-how to do what, on the face of it, is quite a simple thing. That was where it really started on, from that user feedback, and the recognition podcasting was a growing and hugely interesting media space where there was this problem that needed solving. And, so, we sat down with a white board and some coffee and started mapping out what the solution could possibly look like. And, about 12 months later, the RØDECaster Pro was launched.”

“In addition, the USB connection allows people to record their podcast to their computer if they want to do that and also bring in music or pre-recorded segments or sound effects or whatever else from their PC as well. All those sources can be mixed together very easily with traditional, full 100mm throw faders. You just sit there and get the audio balance the way you want very quickly and intuitively. It takes away a lot of the mystique and a lot of the technical aspects of connecting equipment together. You just plug it in, put your headphones on, set the faders so everything sounds nice and balanced and press the record button, it’s that simple.”

If we start with the features of the RØDECaster Pro, it’s capable of taking in four mic inputs?

There are also eight trigger pads for various stings or theme music.

“That’s right. It has our high-quality mic inputs on board. The circuitry in those pre-amps is based on the well-received AI-1 USB interface we launched last year, with a few tweaks and changes to make sure they really work well in this application. They are broadcast spec, low noise, servo-biased Class-A preamps to give you a very clean signal. There are four of these fully discrete mic amps built into the RØDECaster Pro. The unit also has Aphex technology on board.

“Yeah. Again, it’s that apparently simple thing; how do I put a music sting, ident or sound effect into my podcast? Now you have these eight pads that you can easily load a sound on to. You can either load sounds onto them using your computer by just dragging a sound file across, or you can record on to them directly. A lot of people have found that function pretty useful. For example, you can pre-record an interview such as this one directly onto one of the sound pads, then, when you’re actually presenting your podcast, you can say, ‘And earlier I spoke to so and so’, and you can press the button and play that into Continues over >>

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RADIO

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RADIO

your podcast in real time from the pad. You have that flexibility to use them either as a very traditional sound effects board, or to use them more creatively to pre-record segments or to bring other material into the podcast.” I guess that bypasses the need for separate editing software? “That was always the ambition. There are obviously some people who produce podcasts with a lot of post-production and they do a lot of editing, but typically that’s not how podcasters do it. Most actual podcasters don’t want to spend a lot of time in postproduction, they want to think about their podcast, they want to plan what they’re going to say, map out the structure of their show and then make it. They want to sit down, be creative, talk the topics they want to cover and have it finished. They don’t want to then have to spend the next two hours slaving over a computer fiddling around with an edit. “That was very much the feedback we had and that’s what we wanted to achieve with the RØDECaster Pro. You can sit down with a small amount of preparation and planning and just make your podcast very organically and have it pretty much ready to upload to your podcast platform and distribute it to the world within moments of finishing the recording.” Users will be able to upgrade the functionality of the unit via a download. Is that the idea? “Exactly. It’s a very straightforward firmware update. We have an app which you can download for free that allows you to update your firmware. We’ve released a couple of small firmware updates already but they were just to fix very small issues mostly relating USB audio compatibility. But we’ve got a much bigger update coming and that update is going to bring multi-track recording, the ability to record not just a single stereo file as the unit does today but actually to record each individual stem from each microphone, from the USB, from the two phone inputs and from the pad all as separate files. For those people who do want to do that more detailed post-production, it is, I think, is a useful feature and it’s the first big feature upgrade that we have planned.” Currently, the unit is recording audio in .wav files? “That’s correct, yes. It records a 48KHz .wav file at 24 bits resolution.” What was the reason behind that just, given that MP3 is so prevalent these days? “We wanted to make sure the quality that was coming out of the unit was full broadcast quality. We didn’t want to put in any compromises or any barriers in terms of the quality. Most streaming or podcast upload services will do the conversion for you so you can upload that .wav file and then obviously it will stream out to your listeners at whatever, MP3 or other system, is appropriate. We were just trying to make it simple. Wav is very universally recognised. Pretty much every piece of recording software or upload service will support it.” The unit records onto a micro SD card. Why pick that as a medium? “The RØDECaster Pro has onboard storage; a micro SD in the back so you can press record and use the unit completely standalone as well as or instead of recording to your computer via USB. An increasing number of cameras, phones and recording devices are using micro SD cards and it just seemed the obvious choice for this unit.” The app to download new features also gives you some control over the sounds in the trigger pads. What other functionality is coming? “One of the other areas we’re looking at is enhancing the computer app, which comes with the device. Right now, the app is a fairly straight forward piece of software. It allows you to set up the pads - to put the files on to them and to change the colours and the pad playback mode. We are looking at expanding the capability of that piece of software to include, for example, the file management capability so you can get the files on and off the SD card more easily as well as some other set-up features to configure the RØDECaster Pro from the software rather than just having to use the touchscreen.” “There are other features that a lot of people are asking about of course - mix minus on the USB, ability to manage the SD card content, etc., These are all things that are on our list for future upgrades.”

RADIO

There are audio podcasts but also video. Where’s your thinking at when it comes to video integration?

“The RØDECaster Pro was developed for podcasting. We really wanted to make something that was good for that one job. There’s a real risk if you try and make gear that suits 20 different applications, it suits 20 applications badly. We

wanted to really make this an out and out podcasting console, which is what we did. That said, there’s a lot of other styles of working which the RØDECaster Pro can be a part of; one of those is working with video and another is streaming. For streaming, we know a lot of people are already using this unit for this application. The USB out makes for a perfect streaming output and a lot of people are already using that in conjunction with possibly a video switcher. Often, they are a gaming streamer or something like that and we know that is working well. “Similarly, many people who are making video podcasts. There’s no video integration direct into this unit, but it’s a pretty straightforward process to have your webcam set up for your vision and then just take the audio out of the RØDECaster Pro by USB, or just sync it afterwards from the recorded files on the SD card.” What’s the response been from media organisations? “We have genuinely been blown away. We were very excited about the RØDECaster Pro, and quite proud of what we’d produced, to be honest. But the response has been phenomenal. We have had great responses, and not just from podcasters who are doing this at home or making a small podcast channel. We’ve also had bigger players who have commercial podcasting studios contacting us and asking if they can have them. Even the broadcast community, the radio stations, they’re using them as well. We have a number of radio stations who’ve taken delivery of them. And, down the other end of the scale, schools who are just setting up their first ever foray into this technology and they see this as something very easy to use for their kids just to use to learn how to make podcast. I suppose what’s been very humbling and very exciting for us, to not just to see the RØDECaster Pro adopted by the podcasting community; people who are already making podcasts or are somewhat familiar with the technology but it’s gone right down to those real beginners and right up through to the radio stations and professional studio outfits. To see it being accepted across such a wide range of different applications and different types of podcasters is just terrific. It’s so exciting to watch.” Visit www.rode.com

RADIO

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New Subsea Cable Between Australia and SE Asia AARNET, GOOGLE, INDOSAT OOREDOO, SINGTEL, SUBPARTNERS AND TELSTRA have announced a significant milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO subsea cable system with the completion, on schedule, of the final splicing of both the INDIGO West cable and Indigo Central cable. This marks the completion of the marine installation of both the 4600km Singapore to Perth INDIGO West submarine cable and 4600km Perth to Sydney INDIGO Central submarine cable. Commissioning of the submarine cable system has now begun, with the INDIGO cable system on-schedule and on-track to be ready for service before mid-2019.

This milestone follows the announcement in April 2017 that the consortium had entered into an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build the INDIGO cable system connecting Singapore, Perth and Sydney, with two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit. The 9200km INDIGO cable system will strengthen links between Australia and the fast-growing South East Asian markets, providing lower latency and enhanced reliability. Using today’s coherent optical technology, the cable’s two-fibre pairs will be able to support up to 36 terabits per second, the equivalent of simultaneously streaming millions of movies a second.

The INDIGO cable system will utilise new spectrum sharing technology so each consortium member will have the ability to independently take advantage of technology advancements for future upgrades and capacity increases on demand. For more, visit: • www.telstra.com.au • www.aarnet.edu.au • www.indosatooredoo.com • www.singtel.com • www.subpartners.net • www.superloop.com

GatesAir Supplies Exciters for Gold Coast DVB-T2 Field Trials GATESAIR, THE PROVIDER OF WIRELESS, over-the-air content delivery solutions for TV and radio broadcasters, has supplied its Maxiva XTE exciter to prominent Australian broadcast entities — TX Australia, Broadcast Australia, and Free TV — for DVB-T2 field trials on Australia’s Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane. Following a trial in Sydney, the capabilities of DVB-T2 have again been tested, including in an extended single-frequency network (SFN). DVB-T2 is being considered as a technology to replace the current DVB-T standard for television, which has been in operation in Australia since 2001. “GatesAir has a long history of field trial support in advance of digital transitions worldwide, and this Gold Coast initiative represents an important step in Australia’s consideration of migration from DVB-T to DVB-T2,” said Rich Redmond, President and Managing Director, International for GatesAir. “With its 4K picture quality, IP-based transmission, and superior, broadband capabilities, DVB-T2 offers over-theair broadcasters and viewers many programming advantages. This collaboration between TX Australia, Free TV Australia, and Broadcast Australia is a prime example of the innovation and first-class engineering skills within the

Australian broadcast industry.” A key objective of these field trials is to test and verify interoperability between third-party systems used in both classic transmission and SFN configurations. According to Redmond, “The GatesAir Maxiva XTE Exciter platform has already demonstrated reliable, seamless transmission performance in multi-vendor DVB-T2 installations across Europe and Asia.” This latest DVB-T2 trial originated from a Gold Coast re-transmission site located on Mount Tamborine, which is managed by TX Australia, a joint venture company of the Seven, Nine, and Ten broadcast television networks. TX Australia, which provides transmission services to a wide array of TV and FM broadcasters and networks across metropolitan Australia, has been collaborating closely with Free TV Australia, an industry body that represents all of Australia’s commercial free-to-air television licensees. Another key party to the field trials, Broadcast Australia, is responsible for delivering digital television and radio services for Australia’s national broadcasters. The Gold Coast field trial utilised the same video and audio content provided to the Sydney trial by

members of Free TV. It also sought to replicate the characteristics measured and analysed in Sydney, including assessment of the service threshold across the target coverage area when operating in extended SFN mode. TX Australia Executive Chairman Paul Mullen expressed appreciation for GatesAir’s contribution in a previous announcement. He also noted the importance of these trials for evaluating new technologies, and ensuring “the best quality content is available to the viewer.” The Maxiva XTE includes native IP inputs and a software-defined modulator for seamless transition between analog and digital broadcast standards. The XTE design eliminates the need to retrofit transmitters to enable network connectivity for next-gen TV standards (DVB-T2, DVB-T2 Lite, ATSC 3.0), giving broadcasters an out-of-the-box solution to simplify the input and output of multimedia services via a local- or wide-area IP network. The XTEdriven modulation reduces costs and power consumption by lowering wattage requirements at the amplification stage, without affecting signal strength. Visit www.gatesair.com

ATEME Brings Bandwidth Savings to Vietnam’s VSTV K+

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ATEME, THE PROVIDER OF VIDEO DELIVERY solutions for broadcast, cable, DTH, IPTV and OTT has announced that Vietnam Satellite Digital Television (VSTV K+) has deployed ATEME’s TITAN solution for its Direct-to-Home (DTH) services.

Vietnam Satellite Digital Television (VSTV) is a joint venture between VTV and Canal Overseas. VTV is the national television broadcaster for Vietnam while Canal Overseas is the foreign distribution subsidiary of France’s Canal+ Group, operating 7 satellite platforms over five continents with millions of subscribers. ATEME’s TITAN has allowed the Vietnamese operator to achieve OPEX and outstanding bandwidth savings in MPEG-2 and H.264, resulting in improved satellite transponder usage. In addition,

the solution provides the company with: • A platform that is flexible and ready for future upgrades to 4K and HEVC without complicated system changes; • High video quality at the lowest possible bitrates; and • Simplified integration and operations due to hardware abstraction and operational simplicity. “After a long time of testing with all other key vendors, we decided to choose ATEME because it offered the best video quality and the highest flexibility,” said Mr. Do Van Phuc – Technical Director at VSTV K+. “ATEME’s platform is easy to manage, very straightforward and innovative. The chosen solution not only allows us to do what we need

now (SD, HD, MPEG2, H.264) but also ensures we are investing in the future (4K, HEVC). The ATEME team was very professional and supportive throughout the process, especially during the crucial stages of deployment.” “ATEME has successfully implemented several DTH deployments in Asia and we are very proud to add VSTV K+ to our growing portfolio. As the biggest DTH operator in Vietnam, VSTV K+ is focused on providing premium content to its viewers, using the most advanced tv technologies,“ said Duc Long Nguyen ATEME Sales Director. “With ATEME’s solution VSTV K+ can now cost-effectively deliver the highest video quality across its channels.” Visit www.ateme.com

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Audinate Adds Video to Dante with AV Module AUDINATE, DEVELOPER OF the Dante audio networking technology, has announced Dante AV, an integrated audio and video-over-IP solution for manufacturers. Dante AV is a complete integrated audio and video networking solution, bringing to video all the benefits of the Dante audio over IP solution: including discovery, ease of use and integrated control. Dante AV enables complete interoperability with more than 1600 Dante-enabled audio products already on the market. Dante AV solves problems of networked video and audio synchronisation, using a single network clock for sub-microsecond accuracy. With Dante AV, audio and video signals are independently routable in a single, easy-to-use

interface using the Dante Controller software. Manufacturers can also take advantage of Dante API to customise their management user interface. Dante AV solves time alignment issues and eliminates the need for audio de-embedders in applications such as sports bars, live events and multi-zoned AV systems for perfect lip sync everywhere. The Dante AV Module supports one video channel and eight bi-directional channels of uncompressed Dante audio. The Dante AV Module is ideal for manufacturers creating 1G video-over-IP products and includes Dante control, transport and synchronisation. The architecture is completely codec-agnostic, so manufacturers can use the codec of their choice

and still get the benefits of Dante. The Dante AV Module is available with the Dante AV Product Design Suite which includes a comprehensive set of hardware documents and software to create complete, fully interoperable AV products quickly and reliably. The Dante AV Product Design Suite includes a JPEG2000 codec supporting 4K/60 4:4:4 video for visually lossless results with low latency over a 1Gbps network. Dante AV Product Design Suite also implements HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) to prevent copying of digital audio & video content as it travels across connections. The Dante AV Module will be commercially available to manufacturers in mid-2019. Visiting www.audinate.com/dante-av

Advanced Incident Management MEDIAPROXY, the provider of software-based IP broadcast solutions, has announced a partnership with Pikolo Systems, the advanced workflow automation solutions provider based in Addison, Texas. Pikolo’s ITracker, an industry leading discrepancy reporting workflow, allows broadcasters to easily manage their complex operations. The collaboration enhances the monitoring confidence levels of enterprise scale content management. Mediaproxy develops compliance recording systems for broadcasters worldwide. Its premier technology, LogServer, provides real-time compliance monitoring, reporting, and incident management of multiple channels by uniting access to all broadcast sources via IP. Once logged and stored in a proxy format, content can be retrieved for reconciliation using the intuitive HTML5-based Mediaproxy LogPlayer. The integration of LogServer, with Pikolo Systems’ flagship ITracker, will provide broadcasters with the enhanced ability to maintain accountability and

perform real-time assessment of their operations. The integration connects Incident Tracker events and alerts directly into LogServer. Users of Incident Tracker will now have direct access to recorded archives on LogServer systems. “Our software solutions are designed to help broadcast operations work more efficiently in a homogenous and collaborative environment,” said Vernon Omegah, President at Pikolo Systems. “Incident Tracker provides broadcasters the means to communicate and engage effectively despite the complexity of their operations. From local television to network and internet operations, to satellite and origination operations, our solutions together with Mediaproxy help broadcasters acquire, manage, distribute and analyse their assets.” Erik Otto, CEO of Mediaproxy, added, “Integrating LogServer with Pikolo Systems delivers unprecedented versatility to maintain the highest level of transmission service and user experience.

The ability for our customers to easily monitor and rapidly respond to any outgoing and off-air sources is vital to maintaining the highest levels of consumer experience and compliance with regulations on the multiplicity of distribution platforms and territories. Partnering with Pikolo Systems and their mission critical management tool allows us together to stay one step ahead of the evolving needs of OTT and broadcast operators and their subscribers worldwide.” Visit www.mediaproxy.com and www.pikoloinc.com

Viaccess-Orca and Technicolor Secure Android TV VIACCESS-ORCA (VO), a global leader providing OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, has teamed up with Technicolor to simplify the delivery of Android TV experiences. VO's DRM solution and its secure VO Player have been integrated on Android TV set-top boxes (STBs) from Technicolor in full compliance with the TV Input Framework (TIF). By making the plug-in for its DRM available in the media DRM format, VO ensures

seamless integration into Android TV platforms and minimizes complexity for STB device manufacturers. VO's DRM and secure VO Player solutions have been integrated on Technicolor Sapphire STBs featuring an Android operating system and Broadcom 7271 chipset. Through universal integration of its DRM on Android TV devices, VO allows for de facto support of the various Android TV apps and players, including the VO

Player. By combining Technicolor STBs, VO DRM, and the VO Player, pay-TV operators gain a fully integrated Android TV solution that is easy to deploy and that provides the highest security levels for premium video content protection. Technicolor STBs are certified for Android TV distribution with full DVB extensions, addressing both telco operators and broadcasters' requirements. Visit www.viaccess-orca.com

NDI Hardware Decoding

Decoding NDI in FPGA gives the highest possible video quality and ultra-low latency of just 1 frame from NDI input back out to baseband video. NDI Decoding opens up many more possibilities for NDI as a content distribution platform and propels

BirdDog into new markets such as digital signage, IMAG, video distribution, classrooms, and many more. According to Dan Miall, BirdDog Co-Founder and CEO, “We’ve always been able to do NDI Encoding in a single frame and now with NDI Decoding we complete our vision of NDI from glass to glass.” This release of NDI Decoding opens up new opportunities for BirdDog in the AV market, Digital Signage, Esports, and any application where a

content is needed to be routed to a screen. With PoE standard on Studio NDI and Mini one cable carries video, audio, and power so a single Ethernet cable is all that is needed. BirdDog is also developing an NDI routing application called Central which will allow users to push NDI content from any device, including encoders, laptop computers, and NDI-enabled live production systems to screens with just two clicks of a button. Central is due for release in Q2, 2019. Visit www.bird-dog.tv

CONTENT DELIVERY

BIRDDOG HAS ANNOUNCED the immediate availability of ultra-low latency NDI Decoding in FPGA via a free firmware update for Studio NDI and Mini. The firmware is available for immediate download from the BirdDog website.

CONTENT DELIVERY

Encompass Digital Media – the New Direction By Phil Sandberg Encompass Digital Media is evolving once again. Following its acquisition of UK-based Babcock’s Media Services, the global video playout and distribution provider is restructuring with a focus on greater autonomy for its regions, including North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. MARC BRUCE, formerly responsible for both the EMEA and APAC businesses, has relocated to Singapore to take up the role of Managing Director, APAC. “From a business perspective, we wanted to change the structure of the business,” says Bruce. “We wanted to go from a centralised model, where everything was managed out of North America, and really give the decisionmaking capabilities across the board back to the Regional Managing Directors. My move here coincided with taking on more responsibility. Previously I was really responsible just for the commercial side of the business, so that’s sales and any commercial affairs. My move here means that I take on the operational and engineering team and all of the support functions of the business locally here in Asia as well.”

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What form is the greater autonomy going to take?

“The important thing to us is that we still leverage our capability across the globe, so we’re the only truly global player in terms of broadcast managed services. We will be looking to install a CTO into the business and the core technology decisions, we will take guidance from the CTO and our engineering expertise on a global perspective. But, of course, if there are reasons for us to make a separate decision locally then we have the capability to take that. I sit on the executive committee of the business, so there’s a team of us that will make joint decisions in terms of technology, operational approaches, engineering approaches. But, we’ll do what’s best for the individual regions

while leveraging out our global scalability.” What are the range of services coming out of Singapore? “The core of our business is what we’ve been historically successful in delivering, that is the playout piece of our business. So, we originate over 100 linear channels from a playout perspective. And those range across big kind of international broadcasters; Discovery, beIN is a big customer for us here locally. That really kind of hit the sweet spot for us, beIN, because it’s around live sports and that’s where I think managed service really provides most of its value. But. also, some really important local players for us - TVN, WakuWaku Japan, Celestial Tiger and we’ve also just been successful in winning some new business. So, Disney have always insourced in Asia and they are in the process of outsourcing to us here in Singapore. We launch those services in April of this year. “But, as well as playout, we’ve diversified into digital services over the last five or six years. And really, the kind of big-ticket items for us in that space, including support for ONE Fight Championships, the aggregation of their signals and streaming to platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, AWS. We’re performing live capture of content, so live-to-VOD and we’re doing that for NBCU, aggregation and coding of feeds for iflix. And, on a more global basis, we’re talking to the big digital players.

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Here in Asia, we still have some post-production capability. We perform compliance. So, that’s generally legal compliance. Then we have a large studio here where local production houses use us. But also, people like 1FC use our studio as well. Asia’s Next Top Model films here pretty regularly. That’s that kind of core of our business in terms of origination of signals. And then we’ve got the distribution of signals, we’ve got a large antenna farm, very traditional distribution, satellite distribution going up to various birds that cover the region. “Also, fibre distribution as well, point to point fibre, and then protected IP distribution, as you’d expect, is a growing part of our business and makes a huge amount of sense for our customers where they are going point to point. Obviously, there’s a break point there, whereas if they’re going from one to many. Protection IP makes sense to a certain level, and then you get to a point where actually satellite delivery actually gives you most value.” The company recently announced a partnership with Zixi. How will that play out in APAC? “We’re seeing some of that play out now actually already. We’ve been requested by a number of customers, and they’ve been providing services for many customers around the globe, including Asia, for protected IP distribution. “What it does is it provides fantastic value to our customers, potentially a lower price point for point-to-point delivery while still supplying the reliability of more traditional methods of delivery. So, we’re still delivering 99.99 percent SLA and above. Important aspects there, is you know that there’s dual and redundant ISP feeds both out of our facility, which we have, but also going into the delivery point. And, we think it gives flexibility and the ability for us to spin up services very quickly and deliver that via the public internet. I don’t think anyone would disagree that utilisation of the public internet and the cost point that it provides, where it’s relevant, makes absolute sense for people in the broadcast space, as long as you’re still getting the same reliability that you’ve seen previously.” Would that also apply to the launch of OTT channels? “Absolutely. The OTT channels space is really interesting for us. I think reliability is key. And that’s where a company such as Encompass, where we’ve got that managed service capability and that broadcast background, where we really come into our own into client services. For anyone who wants to go and deliver OTT signals, it’s the fastest growing part of our business. Being broadcasters, we understand the need for 100 percent up-time. I think companies that come from a pure IT space don’t necessarily understand that, don’t necessarily have the skillset at this moment in time. But, that’s the expertise that we bring, is people on the ground that work for a global organisation so we can move signals, take signals from any point in the globe, use our backbone and our infrastructure to move them about, but then also have local regional teams that have the skills and knowledge of the local countries and regions that they’re going to, to deliver the services. Especially, as we’re seeing more sports go onto OTT “I think with episodic content, people have been a little bit more forgiving in terms of allowing latency, allowing for the wheel of death, with the buffering of the signals. We all know sports fans, in particular, they want very low latency, that’s very important to the sector. They will not accept buffering on live sporting events. They will not accept degradation of signals or dropout of signals. And, I think that’s where managed service providers come into their own in terms of supporting the broadcasters in moving to the OTT space.” What other sporting opportunities regionally you identified? Are the 2010 Olympics in Tokyo something you can take advantage of? “We’re certainly hoping so. We have some great relationships with organisations in Japan. We supply a number of services in Japan, but also support a number of services that are coming out of Japan on a global basis. I was most recently there in December working with a number of organisations over there, looking at how we can support some of those organisations using our backbone to distribute the

Rugby World Cup. But, there’s a couple of major events there we know over the next couple of years. “If you look at the Rugby World Cup, our facilities are based in Buenos Aires, London, obviously Singapore and then North America. Some of those countries will have a vested interest in the Rugby World Cup in particular, so we would love to support people with the signals coming out of Japan and delivery out to the wider world.” Talking about IP delivery versus traditional forms. Where do you see the balance of that going? “Everyone’s been talking over the last few years, even longer, about the cloud and how we can use the cloud as an industry. And, it’s something that we monitor very closely as a business. Certainly, for the playout segment of our business, the Cloud is not quite there at this moment in time from a price point and the redundancy perspective. You need several instances in the Cloud to provide the redundancy to provide from an on-prem solution. And the cost point in terms of the egress for 24/7 services is incredibly high, which means it doesn’t make it viable for us providing services to our customers who obviously want the best value that they can get for their services. But, I don’t think there’s any doubt that it will get there from a cost perspective and a reliability perspective at some point in the future. “Where we tend to use it at this moment in time and where it’s been really useful for our business is we’re delivering in particular VOD content, for that to be stored in the Cloud and then delivered directly out of the Cloud to the end point, that makes absolute sense to our business at this moment in time, gives us the right amount of redundancy at the correct cost point for our customers. “But without doubt, it will get there. Without doubt, it will be the core delivery mechanism for our businesses and broadcasters in years to come.” What about within the facility itself? How much impact do you anticipate IP is going to have? “For us, we’ve got a large antenna farm, so there will be some impact to our distribution business because, as it moves away from satellite and it moves to IP distribution, I think that’s a lower cost point for the broadcasters out there, so there’s potentially some impact there. In terms of facility wise, of course, whatever you move to the Cloud and whatever you use on the public internet, it enables you to lower your footprint in a given facility. It enables us to find efficiencies in our facility as well, in terms of aspects like cooling. And it means that actually, what we may see is a mixture of where we host our kit, so certainly in some of our regions across the globe we host both on-prem, in our own house facilities, but also in data centres as well. And where it makes sense to host in data centres, we’re certainly open to doing that, but where we’ve got the capability to host on-prem, we will take that option because it means that we have the capability in the hands on the ground to address any issues immediately as it were.” Lastly, where do you see opportunities for the business throughout the region? “For us as a business, some of the biggest countries actually in Asia, we don’t supply as many services as they’d like us to. I would certainly like for us to be able to increase our presence in some of the biggest markets, whether that’s Japan, India, Korea, Australia, New Zealand as well, we don’t do much there. My focus is going to be increasing the scope of what we provide across the region and understanding exactly how we can develop as a business. And that development will be organically via new business growth, new sales, but it may also be nonorganically and may be via acquisition to move into some of those markets as well. We’re a business that’s traditionally grown via acquisition and we’re open to that approach if it makes sense for us in this region as well. “But, certainly over the first year or so, I think our focus is going to be on organic growth. I think there’s opportunities where broadcasters really want to focus in on the core of what they do. Some of those broadcasters that currently in-source may well look to out-source over the coming 12-24 months, and we think we’re in a prime position to deliver those services in whatever region that may be.” Visit www.encompass.tv

CONTENT DELIVERY

“So, we’re servicing Amazon quite significantly in North America, with Thursday Night Football to the NFL, Major League Baseball and PGA. And we’re doing other stuff for Facebook on a global basis as well, which includes live event integration and insertion of signals and ad insertion as well, and delivery onto Facebook.

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ASIA

+ANZ

ASIA

As well as the features below, EVERY ISSUE of Content+Technology contains features on the following:  Image Acquisition  News Operations  Sportscasting  Post-Production & VFX

 Media in the Cloud  Digital Asset Management  Audio  Radio

+ANZ

 Content Transmission & Delivery  Signal Distribution  Command & Control – Automation, Monitoring, Systems Management.

C+T AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND FEATURES + DEADLINES 2019 ISSUE

EDITORIAL + AD DEADLINES

PUBLICATION DATE

PRODUCT ROUND-UP

SHOW COVERAGE

Mar-April

Editorial Submissions: 01-03-19 Ad Bookings: 04-03-19 Ad Artwork: 11-03-19

3rd Week March

+D igital Asset Management Solutions +C ontent Delivery – RF, Fibre, Wireless and more.

+P review: NABshow19 April 06-11, Las Vegas

May-June

Editorial Submissions: 24-04-19 Ad Bookings: 02-05-19 Ad Artwork: 09-05-19

3rd Week May

+ Sports Production Solutions + Drones & UAVs + OTT/IPTV/VOD Solutions

+P review: BroadcastAsia /ConnectAsia 2019 June 18-20, Singapore

July-Aug

Editorial Submissions: 17-06-19 Ad Bookings: 19-06-19 Ad Artwork: 24-06-19

1st Week July

+4 K Acquisition & Delivery Solutions + I P-based Production +C ontent Security

+P review: (SMPTE Australia) Media+Entertainment Tech Expo July 18-20

Sept-Oct

Editorial Submissions: 09-08-19 Ad Bookings: 16-08-19 Ad Artwork: 23-08-19

1st Week September

+ ENG/Newsroom Systems + Compression, Encoding, Transcoding Solutions + Radio Technology

+P review: IBC Amsterdam Sept 12-18 +P review: National Radio Conference

Nov-Dec

Editorial Submissions: 17-10-19 Ad Bookings: 23-10-19 Ad Artwork: 01-11-19

2nd Week November

+C hannel-in-a-Box Solutions +C able & Satellite Delivery +P roduction, Post & Locations round-up

+P review: Screen Forever Conference

C+T ASIA FEATURES + DEADLINES 2019 PUBLICATION DATE

ISSUE

EDITORIAL + AD DEADLINES

PRODUCT ROUND-UP

SHOW COVERAGE

May-June

Editorial Submissions: 24-05-19 Ad Bookings: 31-05-19 Ad Artwork: 03-06-19

2nd Week June

+C hannel-in-a-Box Solutions +O TT/IPTV/VOD Solutions +S ports Production Solutions + Production, Post & Locations round-up

+P review: BroadcastAsia /ConnectAsia 2019 June 18-20, Singapore

Aug-Sept

Editorial Submissions: 24-07-19 Ad Bookings: 31-07-19 Ad Artwork: 14-08-19

3rd Week August

+L oudness Solutions +C loud Solutions +C ontent Security +C ompression, Encoding, Transcoding Solutions

+P review: BIRTV (Beijing, China) +P review: IBC Amsterdam Sept 12-18

Oct-Nov

Editorial Submissions: 01-10-19 Ad Bookings: 08-10-19 Ad Artwork: 15-10-19

3rd Week October

+C able & Satellite Delivery +D igital Asset Management Solutions +O TT/IPTV/HbbTV Solutions

+P review: AVIA (CASBAA) Asia Video Summit + Preview: Broadcast Indonesia

Adv

ABE20

PHIL SANDBERG

ADAM BUICK

LUCY SALMON

PUBLISHER/EDITOR

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER

CO-FOUNDER

He has also produced the ABE2016, Sportscasting (2014-2016), and 3D-Day (2011) industry conferences.

Adam’s previous role as Manager of the SMPTE Australia Exhibition, along with strong family ties in Australia and SE Asia, has given him a unique perspective on the broadcast and content creation sector throughout the region.

Co-founder and Production co-ordinator Lucy Salmon has worked with Broadcastpapers.com since its inception. She also holds a PhD in the field of sports medicine.

Contact Phil via +61(0)414 671 811 or papers@broadcastpapers.com

You can contact Adam on +61(0)413 007 144 or adam@broadcastpapers.com

You can reach her via +61(0)412 479 662 or production@broadcastpapers.com

Phil Sandberg has spent 28 years reporting on technology issues across the Asia-Pacific. His credits include launching Content+Technology, Broadcastpapers.com, the SMPTE Australia Exhibition, Directory, and Cinema Technology Asia-Pacific.

ABU-D

Adder…

Broadc Calrec

CASBA

ABU DBS………………………………………………………………………………………..………..……….……13 BroadcastAsia /ConnectAsia……………………………………………………………………..………..…5 Chinamedia.TV …………………………………………………………………………………..………..…43 Comrex ………………………………………………………………………………………………..………..…41 Elevate…………………………………………………………………………..………..……….……4 GatesAir …………………………………………………………………………..………..……….…… 9

Ideal Systems…………………………………………………………………………………..………..……….……3 Magna Systems & Engineering…………………………………………………..………..……….……IFC Mediaproxy …………………………………………………………………………..………..……….…… 29 MetraWeather ……………………………………………………………………………………………… IBC Sony ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………OBC SportsPro OTT Summit…………………………………………………………………………………………21

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ADVERTISER INDEX

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Winning moves Go the full distance in 4K/HD HDR with the new line-up of Sony HDC Series system cameras, featuring the world’s first 2/3-inch 4K CMOS sensor with global shutter technology and IP capabilities. HDC-3500 • World’s first 2/3-inch 4K CMOS sensor with global shutter technology that eliminates the ‘jello effect’ and banding noise • Fiber, Triax or wireless transmission with the optional transmission adaptor panels HDC-3500 Portable System Camera & HDCU-3100 Camera Control Unit

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HDC-3100 (Fiber) / HDC-3170 (Triax) • World’s first 2/3-inch HD CMOS sensor with global shutter technology for pristine images with low noise and excellent sensitivity (F12 at 1080/59.94i or F13 at 1080/50i) • Wide format flexibility up to 1080/50p, with 4K available via the CCU’s 12G-SDI and Quad 3G-SDI interfaces

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