Meet the next-generation HD and 4K platform in Live Production Switchers. The new Sony XVS-G1 with its hybrid architecture and all-new 4RU processor is designed to deliver high-speed realtime processing. And with its new web-based application you can now enjoy remote access to a powerhouse of features with a PC, laptop or tablet.
• 4 new control panels with 1 M/E or 2 M/E configurations and up to 16 or 24 source button layouts
• Up to 4M/E, 48 inputs and 24 outputs in HD/1080p mode or 2M/E, 24 inputs and 12 outputs in 4K(UHD) mode can be configured by adding optional I/O boards
• Optional graphics processing unit provides built-in clip player, 3D digital multi-effects, extra still logo keys and new multi-viewer functionality
• Up to 16 web browsers connected simultaneously for multi-menu, multi access setup or remote operation
03
NEWS+PEOPLE
DNEG Launches Sydney Studio for George Miller’s “Furiosa”; Gravity Media Dives in for FINA Swimming Championships; Heartbreak High Reboot Graded Using DaVinci Resolve Studio;Innovative Production Services Fits Out New Broadcast Truck with Ross; People on the Move. 12 CAMERAS & LIGHTING Shooting Russell Crowe’s Poker Face; New FUJINON Broadcast Zoom Lens; Canon Releases EOS R6 Mark II and Boosts Broadcast and Filmmaking LineUp; and more.
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SPORTSCASTING Gravity Media Expands Partnership with Cricket Australia; Sportradar Captures Live Fielding Data for T20 Cricket; World Rugby Acquires Rugby Pass Website from Sky NZ; Akamamai Delivers NRL Grand Final for 9NOW, plus Tackling the creative challenges of HDR.
22 NEWS OPERATIONS SBS Expands News Offering; Viz Mosart Unlocks Switcherless Studio Workflows; LiveU Boosts Matrix IP Cloud Distribution Service; Cloud-Native Broadcast Graphics Production from disguise; EtereNunzio Newsroom Graphics Player.
26 POST-PRODUCTION
ARC EDIT and ARC FILM Upgrade with Digistor; Avid Technology product evangelist Craig Wilson talks cloud and more; New FX and Transitions for Continuum 2023; Maxon on Fire with Upgrades; Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Elements 2023; DaVinci Resolve Tackes Social Media, AI for Audio, and iPads.
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THE CLOUD Memnon Launches in NZ to Help Preserve Nation’s AV Heritage; SGO Upgrades Mistika Workflows; Object Matrix and Resilio Optimise Content Collaboration; Cloud Storage Savings Calculator; SymplyTRANSPORTER On-Set Data Appliance; Sonnet Thunderbolt Reader for AJA PAK Media; and more.
Telos
Alliance Powers Processing for SCA; ABC Radio Returns to Marshall Islands; Hybrid Measurement System for Metro Radio; 2WAY FM Goes OnAir with AEQ; Radio Module for Marquee Ad Instructions Platform; Driving In-Car Sound with Dolby, Apple, Universal and Mercedes-Benz; and more.
Seven Set to Redefine Content and Delivery; Encoding Optimisations for Video Game Live Streaming; Reports of the Death of Linear TV are Greatly Exaggerated; Bitmovin Dives Into Green Streaming; 25G Uncompressed Video Transport via SMPTE-2110; Dante Brooklyn 3 AV Networking Module.
WITH THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS STREAM of bad global and economic news across all media, it is worth noting the patches of sunlight against the gloom and doom.
Screen Australia’s recently released 32nd annual Drama Report showed an all-time high expenditure in Australia on scripted screen production of AUD$2.29 billion, made up of a record spend on Australian titles of $1.51 billion, plus $777 million spent on foreign productions. Overall, the $2.29 billion was spent across 162 drama screen productions that commenced production or post production in Australia in 2021/22 compared to $1.94 billion spent across 163 productions in 2020/21. The increase was driven by a record spend on Australian theatrical features ($786 million up from $495 million last year), as well as a record spend on Australian subscription TV and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) – for which number of titles, hours and budgets have tripled from 2020/21. Spend on Free-to-air (FTA) TV and Broadcast Video On Demand (BVOD) drama, and children’s drama across TV and VOD platforms also increased from last year, but has not returned to previous highs in either category.
Spend on foreign Post, Digital and Visual effects work (PDV) in Australia also hit a new record of $335 million, and spend on foreign titles that shot in Australia dipped from its record high last year but is still well above the 5-year average. On a state by state breakdown, New South Wales set a new record of spend in the state, with over $1 billion and 45% of the national share, and Victoria also achieved a record high with $556 million (24% of the national share). Collective spend in the Australian Capital Territory,
Northern Territory and Tasmania also set a new record, more than tripling from last year’s $18 million to $57 million in 2021/22, or 2% of the national total.
According to Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason, “Hitting well over the $2 billion mark is an incredible milestone for our sector, and it’s truly a bumper year for Australian scripted content –to have local productions make up 66% of this spend is extraordinary. Distinctly Australian stories continue to captivate audiences here and overseas, with Heartbreak High reaching the top 10 on international Netflix charts, and shows from Bluey to Bump taking the world by storm.”
“This is a unique year for feature film, with several high-budget Australian projects starting production including Dr George Miller’s Furiosa which are bringing significant economic and creative benefits. However the number of Australian films that went into production has decreased. It’s no secret that the content landscape across film, television and online has changed and viewing habits are continually evolving. This is most evident in the reduction in films being produced for theatrical release, the shift in drama spend from television to online platforms, and the increasing spend on premium drama.
“We have more to look forward to next year with the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and the sequel to Godzilla Vs Kong. Australia has also made a name for itself in PDV, with projects including The Flash and The Marvels undertaking work here, and we’re thrilled to see this part of the sector growing to record highs.”
And then there’s the news that Amazon’s Advertising-based Video on Demand (AVOD)
service, Amazon Freevee, and production company Fremantle have announced that, despite a finale being screened this year, iconic Australian series Neighbours will be returning to TV with a brand-new series to begin filming in Australia next year. For the the full Drama Report, visit https://www.screenaustralia.gov. au/
Highlighting the growth in online platforms, market analyst firm GlobalData has predicted subscription video on demand (SVoD) service revenue in Australia will increase at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9 percent from $2.2 billion in 2022 to $3.4 billion in 2027, driven by a healthy growth in SVoD subscriptions and unique SVoD households, as well as a steady rise in the average monthly revenue per unique SVoD household.
With Disney+ surpassing Stan to become the second largest SVoD player, behind Netflix, in terms of subscriptions in 2021, GlobalData’s SVoD Forecast (Q3 2022), reveals that SVoD subscriptions in the country will increase at a CAGR of 7.7 percent over the forecast period, in line with the accelerating cord cutting trend among traditional pay-TV viewers and their migration towards on-demand video services. All of which, hopefully, will lead to greater investment in local production going forward. Keep safe, thanks for supporting us throughout 2022, and look after each other,
Phil Sandberg – Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com +61(0)414671811
INTERNATIONAL VISUAL EFFECTS (VFX) and animation company DNEG, in coordination with the New South Wales Government, has outlined plans for a new VFX and animation studio in Sydney. The new studio, which will be located in Pyrmont is slated to open in early 2023 and will have a total capacity of up to 500 seats.
DNEG has also confirmed that its new Sydney studio will lead the VFX work for George Miller’s Mad Max prequel Furiosa.
“The opportunity to collaborate and partner with filmmakers of the calibre of George Miller, whose work I love and respect, is the driving force behind everything that we do,” said DNEG CEO and Chairman Namit Malhotra. “Extending our filmmaker-focused approach to a fourth continent and building a substantial and sustainable presence in Sydney that allows us to engage with Australia’s talented and experienced creative leaders, artists, technologists and production crews, marks another milestone in our mission to bring the very best VFX and animation services to filmmakers all over the world.”
George Miller’s Furiosa is a return to the dystopian world he created more than 30 years ago with the iconic ‘Mad Max’ films, this time with a standalone action adventure revealing the origins of characters from Mad Max: Fury Road. Furiosa is being produced in Australia by Miller and Oscar-nominated producer Doug
Mitchell and stars Anya Taylor-Joy alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke. The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures production in association with Village Roadshow Pictures (US) and is due to premiere in 2024.
“I have been amazed at how proactive, engaged and focused DNEG has been in ensuring that George and I have the visual effects team we need for this movie,” said producer Doug Mitchell.
“I am especially excited to collaborate with DNEG to create the visual effects for Furiosa in our home state of NSW, as we wrap what we believe is the biggest production ever filmed in the State. I’m looking forward to this and many future collaborations with Namit and his team.”
DNEG Sydney will be a full service VFX studio, leading on complex VFX projects for film and episodic projects, and will also be home to a new studio for DNEG Animation, the animation studio behind Kid Cudi’s animated love story Entergalactic for Netflix.
Academy Award and BAFTA-winning VFX Supervisor, Australian Andrew Jackson, has relocated from DNEG London as Creative Director for Sydney. Jackson was Production VFX Supervisor for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet., which earned him an Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects. Prior to that, Jackson received an Academy Award nomination for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road. He has most recently completed work as Production
VFX Supervisor for Nolan’s forthcoming biopic Oppenheimer.
“DNEG is leading the charge when it comes to supporting some of the most creative and visionary directors in the industry, and together we are creating groundbreaking, innovative and inspiring VFX and animation work,” said Jackson.
“I am thrilled to take up this position at the new DNEG Sydney studio, and to be back on home turf, working once again with George Miller following our work together on Fury Road.”
One of DNEG’s first hires for the new studio is VFX Supervisor Dan Bethell, who joins from Rising Sun Pictures. Bethell is serving as DNEG VFX Supervisor on Furiosa, having previously received a Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road. Visit https://www.dneg.com
SWIMMING AUSTRALIA and Gravity Media, provider of complex live creative production and media services, recently confirmed an over-arching and complete broadcast technology and television production partnership that will see Gravity Media create and deliver all-screens coverage of the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) across Australia and multiple international territories.
Melbourne hosts the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) across 13-18 December 2022. More than 800 athletes from 180 countries will compete in the Championships.
Gravity Media Australia has been appointed as the “host” broadcast company for the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m). As part of the partnership, Swimming Australia and Gravity Media are accessing internationally acknowledged camera and broadcast and production technologies designed and developed by Gravity Media.
Beyond providing all broadcast technologies and as “host” broadcast company, Gravity Media has also been appointed by Swimming Australia as the television production company
for the Championships, creating, producing and delivering the complete television production of the Championships for the world.
Gravity Media Australia will produce coverage across the six days of the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) and create and deliver the complete “turn-key” television production that will take audiences across the world closer to the action and tell the stories of the athletes, the Championships and Melbourne as the host city.
The Championships will be broadcast to a global audience across multiple international broadcast and content delivery platforms including the Nine Network in Australia.
Swimming Australia CEO, Eugénie Buckley said, “Swimming Australia is very pleased to have Gravity Media as a partner for the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Melbourne next month.
“As hosts we want to maximise the opportunity to present our sport in an innovative way, which is why we are happy to have Gravity Media on board as they share our vision and are working hand in hand with us.”
Saul Shtein – Director, Production and Contentat Gravity Media said, “It is a significant undertaking for Gravity Media and we thank Swimming Australia for entrusting us with the complete television production for the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).
“We look forward to producing a world-class coverage and delivering the full scope of Gravity Media’s internationally regarded and acknowledged capabilities across broadcast technology, technical and facilities provision, and importantly the complete television production, in capturing every moment.”
Visit https://www.gravitymedia.com
SYDNEY-BASED COLOURIST Fergus Rotherham used DaVinci Resolve Studio and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel to grade the new series “Heartbreak High,” a reboot of the classic 1990s Australian drama series.
“Heartbreak High” ran from 1994 through 1999 and was one of the world’s most popular high school drama series. The new series airs globally on Netflix.
The series, directed by Grace Otto, Adam Murfet, Jessie Oldfield and Neil Sharma with Simon Ozolins and Drew English as directors of photography, completed production and post production in Australia. Colourist Fergus Rotherham was brought in to help create the look of “Heartbreak High,” which included finding a new modern image while still paying homage to the show’s original feeling.
Rotherham is an experienced freelance colourist who has worked on a large number of commercial, TV and film projects around the world since first learning DaVinci Resolve Studio in 2014. Post production for “Heartbreak High” was completed through Blue Post in Sydney.
“DaVinci Resolve was used on ‘Heartbreak High’ even before cameras started rolling. It started with early discussions with Simon and Gracie where we worked out how to create a nostalgic look with a modern take. We wanted to retain some grit and texture from the original while bringing through some new colour to give it a playful contemporary edge. From there, Simon and I spent time in pre-production designing a show LUT on Resolve,” Rotherham explained.
Following production of each episode, Rotherham would start to work on the grade and prepare it for delivery in 4K HDR Dolby Vision. He relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio’s numerous management features and time saving efficiencies to focus on the craft of colour correction.
“Resolve is incredibly efficient, and the ability to set the administration rules and use the same node structure on each episode saved a lot of time throughout,” he said. “Also features such as curves, stills management, timeline sorting and the ability to record from multiple sources simultaneously are incredibly powerful when working at such pace.
“I also used the HDR grading wheels heavily throughout the show to retrieve detail or adjust the contrast curve. Split screen was another tool we often used to compare scenes and make sure the look was the same throughout each episode. It also gave us a great storyboard of the look that was developed.”
Rotherham also relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel to maintain consistency throughout each episode while working at a fast pace. He explained: “As a freelancer I use the Resolve Micro Panel more frequently than the Advanced, however, for series or feature work
that master in HDR and require a trim pass for the deliverables, I find the Advanced Panel’s trim controls save a lot of time during the process.”
“One tool that I did keep coming back to for the series for speed was the shared node. I used this in conjunction with the append node for selected clips, which I had mapped to my keyboard. This allowed us to efficiently try new ideas or tweak a scene in a matter of seconds,” he continued. “We also used a variety of OFX plug-ins built in Resolve to achieve disorientation in scenes or enhance lighting setups to elevate a narrative beat, as well as the odd clean up with patch replacer.”
“Heartbreak High” is streaming now on Netflix.
Visit https://www.blackmagicdesign.com
any panel, anywhere
D2N – TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS now supporting the entire range of Calrec products and services. www.d2n.com.au www.calrec.com +612 9837 6748 or sales.aus@d2n.com.au
GOALPOST PICTURES has announced that Kylie Munnich joined the company in the new role of Chief Executive Officer following her recent departure from Screen Queensland, which she headed for three years.
Goalpost Pictures is one of Australia’s leading independent producers of feature films and TV drama. They are currently in postproduction on the major television series BLACK SNOW, for Stan and Sundance Now, starring Travis Fimmel, and the Amazon Original movie FIVE BLIND DATES for Prime Video Australia, directed by Shawn Seet, starring Shuang Hu and Tzi Ma, and their feature film CARMEN, a co-production with France’s Chapter 2, starring Melissa Barrera, Paul Mescal and Rossy de Palma and directed by Benjamin Millepied, had its World Premiere at the recent Toronto International Film
Festival. The company’s founding partners are Rosemary Blight, Kylie du Fresne, Ben Grant and Cass O’Connor.
Kylie Munnich has 30 years’ experience in film and TV distribution, development and financing, having worked for a number of major US studios and independents, in Australia and the UK.
In October 2019, Munnich became CEO of Screen Queensland, leading the organisation through its biggest period of growth. At the screen agency, she oversaw the biggest production spike in the state’s history, against the backdrop of the pandemic.
Prior to Screen Queensland, Kylie worked as a Scripted Sales and Co-Production Executive for Seven Studios, Australia. Before that, she was Senior Vice President
AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL INDIGENOUS TELEVISION (NITV) has announced the appointment of two senior Indigenous leaders to key roles overseeing the commissioning of content and channel operations, with Marissa McDowell and Rhanna Collins stepping into new roles within the team.
Marissa McDowell, a proud Wiradjuri woman, has been appointed Head of Commissions for NITV. She joined NITV as Commissioning Editor in early 2021, and has recently been acting as the head of the commissioning team. She will manage NITV’s distinctive and diverse content slate including documentaries, drama, entertainment and children’s programs, reflecting, exploring and celebrating First Nations stories.
Her appointment comes as NITV prepares to deliver its biggest ever original commissioned content line-up over the year ahead, including the latest ground-breaking children’s show, Barrumbi Kids, currently being screened in communities across the country ahead of a broadcast premiere on NITV on 18 November. During her time with NITV, Marissa has been overseeing the delivery and development of a wide range
of NITV projects, including recent documentaries Black Empire, Sistas in Mining, and Un-Locked, part of the Curious Australia initiative, and documentary series, Our Law.
Rhanna Collins, a proud palawa woman who first joined NITV in 2014, takes on a new position in NITV’s leadership team as Head of Business and Operations. She will play a key role in coordinating key operational activities for the channel including, supporting the continued growth and evolution of NITV.
Collins steps into the position after most recently leading NITV news and current affairs where she oversaw daily news output and weekly current affairs show, The Point. She led the team during a period which included the COVID-19 pandemic, when the importance of the trusted national news service NITV provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities was amplified. She also oversaw the launch of Australia’s first all-Indigenous breakfast TV show, Big Mob Brekky, as part of NAIDOC Week in 2020, and which has continued to be a highlight of the SBS network’s NAIDOC celebrations.
Visit https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv
for Distribution AsiaPacific for Sonar Entertainment overseeing sales for premium drama series such as Tom Hardy’s TABOO and Pierce Brosnan’s THE SON for the AsiaPac region.
Munnich returned to Australia in late 2016, after five years in London to take the Sonar role. Her most recent role in the UK was as Director of Drama & Comedy for Sky Vision (now Sky Studios), a role she held for two years. At Sky Vision she was responsible for acquiring scripted content for Sky’s international sales. As well as working with Sky’s in-house commissioners for scripted series. During her tenure, Sky Vision secured series such as BRITANNIA, RIVIERA and FORTITUDE.
Previously, Munnich was Senior Vice President UK, Ireland and
Africa for Sony Pictures Television. She joined Sony in 2005 as Vice President of Distribution for Australia and New Zealand. She moved to Sony’s London office in 2011 to take up the Senior VP role. Visit https://www. goalpostpictures.com
SCREEN QUEENSLAND has announced the appointment of Courtney Gibson as the organisation’s incoming Chief Executive Officer. Ms Gibson is one of the screen industry’s most experienced executives, having been CEO of two state screen agencies and held leadership roles with multiple Australian broadcasters and production companies.
Ms Gibson has held roles including Executive Head of Content Creation and Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy at ABC TV, Programming Production Executive at Nine, Commissioning Editor of Documentary at SBS, Director of Programmes at Endemol Australia and Managing Director of Jungle Entertainment, as well as serving as CEO of Screen NSW and the South Australian Film Corporation.
Ms Gibson said she was thrilled to be joining the Screen Queensland team.
“Queensland is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to screen production, and it’s a state that really has it all — leading local producers, postproduction companies and games
developers, longstanding and extremely successful international partnerships, highly skilled crews, spectacular locations and leadingedge studios up and down the state, all underpinned by the best incentives in Australia,” Ms Gibson said.
“I look forward to working with the Screen Queensland team and all its partners to support and attract even more production and to develop a new generation of Queensland screen makers, with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander key creatives and crew.”
Visit https://screenqueensland.com.au
FOR-A has appointed Robert Shen as regional sales manager for South-East Asia and Oceania. He joins from EVS Broadcast where he was responsible for the Axon product lines in control, monitoring, routing and video processing.
Originally trained as a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer in radar and communications with the Republic of Singapore Air Force, he subsequently achieved a degree in computer science and an MBA from Curtin University. Since then, he has spent two decades in the broadcast industry with a number of leading vendors and gaining expertise in IPTV and OTT, master control and newsroom automation, quality control and turnkey television installations.
“Robert brings not just a great understanding of modern broadcast technology, but a
well-known presence across South-East Asia,” said Kazuya Eguchi, senior manager for overseas sales and marketing at FOR-A. “This is a major market for us, and in line with our philosophy of progressing hand-in-hand with our customers, based on mutual prosperity, it is important that we have a strong local presence. Robert is a key appointment for us.”
Robert said, “I have known FOR-A and its products for a long while, and I am excited to be able to talk to people across the region about how we can deliver value as they maintain the highest standards while modernising their technology. FOR-A is known for the quality of its designs and products, and I look forward to the challenges of expanding our presence here.”
Robert Shen will be based in Singapore
Visit https://www.for-a.com
FOR THE THIRD TIME in a row, Australia’s tm stagetec systems has received a distributor award from audio technology firm DirectOut. The Australian company now has the full set of DirectOut trophies having previously received awards for Distributor of the Year and Outstanding Sales Performance. This year, it has received the `PRODIGY of the Year´ award for being one of the distribution companies which not only performed best in terms of PRODIGY modular audio converter sales, but also for the different applications and markets where these products have been installed.
Treva Head, Managing Director of TMS, said the company was thrilled to receive another prize from DirectOut.
“We feel very honoured in receiving our third award, Prodigy of the Year! It’s an absolute dream
working with DirectOut, and the PRODIGY series has been a game changer for our customers. So to be receiving this award is special. As our business in Australia and New Zealand continues to grow, it’s exciting to see all the new products and feature updates DirectOut continues to make, and we look forward to continually pushing the boundaries of the technology together.“
Visit https://www.directout.eu and https://www.tm-systems.com.au/
AMBER TECHNOLOGY has announced the appointment of Nathan Brady as its new General Manager for Integrated Solutions. Nathan will replace the current General Manager Richard Neale, who is retiring from the business from 1 January 2023. Nathan commences with Amber Technology in November to facilitate a managed and comprehensive transition.
Nathan joins Amber from CMI Music and Audio, where he was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing since 2018. Nathan had been with CMI for over 16 years in total, across multiple sales management roles in both Sydney and Melbourne during his tenure.
During his time at CMI, Nathan achieved sales success, nurtured, and enhanced supplier relationships, and managed a successful team across several disciplines. Nathan’s experience, industry knowledge and enthusiasm will see him making a strong, long-term contribution in both the specialist residential and commercial markets across Australia and New Zealand. Nathan will be relocating to Sydney to take up this senior leadership position with Amber Technology.
Amber Technology Managing Director Peter Amos commented, “On behalf of the Amber Technology Board, management, and staff
I would like to thank Richard Neale for his dedicated service to our business for the past seven years. Under Richard’s leadership our Integrated Solutions team has solidified its position in both the Australian and New Zealand markets, building our brand portfolio, our market presence and nurturing our customer relationships.
“We are delighted to be welcoming Nathan Brady to continue Richard’s work with the Integrated Solutions team and look forward to his contribution in this senior leadership role.”
Visit https://www.ambertech.com.au
TRIPLE M SYDNEY has announced that Laura Bouchet (pictured) has been appointed as Assistant Content Director for the Sydney station, as well as retaining her role as Executive Producer on The Rush Hour with Gus, Jude and Wendell.
As Bouchet takes on the additional role, Owen Davies becomes producer on The Rush Hour working alongside Bouchet. Bouchet has spent 17 years in the radio industry, beginning her career on Street Teams and working in producer roles. In 2021, she was promoted to Executive Producer of 104.9 Triple M’s Breakfast show. Davies joined SCA in 2021 working in DAB production before moving to the studio desk for Triple M’s cricket coverage and
then joining the Australia Today team.
In addition, Dannielle Martin is making the move to Sydney to take on the role of Executive Producer of 104.9 Triple M’s Breakfast show, MG, Jess and Pagey. Martin joins the Sydney team from 92.5 Triple M Gold Coast’s Breakfast show with Flan, Ali and Spida. Her radio journey started more than 12 years ago in Wollongong where she worked in promotions, announcing and producing, and moved to Queensland and the Sunshine Coast, before joining Triple M on the Gold Coast.
“Laura’s passion for working with talent and producers has been the cornerstone of her leadership, and she now brings her considerable skillset to drive and help shape station strategy
THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has welcomed the reappointment of Ms Nerida O’Loughlin PSM as Chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for a two-year term.
Ms O’Loughlin has extensive experience in communications and media policy and regulation and is well respected across the sector. Her reappointment provides continuity as the ACMA works with the Government and industry to deliver critical communications and media services for all Australians.
In her time as Chair, Ms O’Loughlin has overseen a reshaping of the Authority to improve its responsiveness, the strengthening of consumer safeguards, establishing the Scams Telecommunications Action Taskforce, and supported the rollout of 5G mobile infrastructure through spectrum allocations.
Ms O’Loughlin has led the ACMA into new areas of regulatory effort such as work on misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms, online gambling and media diversity. Ms O’Loughlin also led the ACMA in supporting the media and
ALASTAIR CARRUTHERS SAYS he is “honoured and delighted to be a part of the screen sector” as he takes up his new role as the NZFC Board Chair.
“It’s an exciting and dynamic time in the industry and New Zealand is bursting with talented storytellers through film. The screen sector is a vital and growing part of our economy and maintaining its strength is one of the Board’s key roles,” he says.
Following his first board meeting, his immediate priority is to begin the recruitment process for a new Chief Executive.
Carruthers is a company director and the cofounder of Homeland (a restaurant and cooking school in Auckland). He is a board member of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, Cornwall Park Trust, Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum, Ringa Hora Services Workforce Development Council, and the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Board. He has been Chair of the Allpress Espresso group, Co-Chair of the Te Papa Foundation, Chair of Creative NZ and the Arts Board, and a member of supervision boards for the Transport and Statistics Ministries. He has also participated on a Ministerial policy task force concerning philanthropy and taxation.
and execution across all dayparts and platforms at Triple M Sydney,” Triple M Content Director, Rex Morris said.
“Owen throws up his hand for any opportunity to further his knowledge. His willingness to learn has seen him flourish under Laura’s tutelage on our Drive show. We’re also thrilled to welcome Danni to Breakfast after her excellent leadership on Triple M Gold Coast.”
Visit https://www.southerncrossaustereo.com.au
communications sector through the COVID pandemic to ensure it continued to deliver at a critical time for Australians.
The Government says it looks forward to continuing working with Ms O’Loughlin and the ACMA to support the contribution of the communications and media sectors to an inclusive, connected, productive and creative Australia.
Visit https://www.acma.gov.au
Alastair is a former council member and interim CEO of Unitec. He was Commissioner of the official NZ exhibition at the 2017 Venice Biennale of Art, and has over 20 years’ prior experience as the CEO of two leading NZ corporate and commercial law firms.
He has been an executive producer of two feature films, and was awarded a CNZM for Services to Arts governance in 2014.
Visit https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/
your shipping costs and everything else. Also, the more you can put into a single box, it simplifies maintenance and troubleshooting. It allows you more flexibility to get productions up and running more quickly.”
So, this approach suits the world of remote production or REMI?
“Yes. It’s been wildly successful in areas like that, but even in a fixed facility, it’s a good thing. When you go into a traditional equipment room and you have two or three rows of racks, if that can be streamlined down to one or two racks, there’s pretty substantial savings in day-to-day operations.”
What are the advantages of a Hyperconverged approach versus the cloud?
As versatile as a smartphone, Swiss Army Knife, or Batman’s utility belt, Ross Video’s one platform/endless configurations approach, Hyperconvergence, is not just changing facilities and workflows, but the way production professionals are evolving their businesses.
According to Todd Riggs, Ross Video’s Director of Product Management for Hyperconverged Solutions, “It’s basically combining what were formerly multiple independent products into a unified software-defined package that works together.
“An analogy we like to use is that of a smartphone. When you think about what you and I used to carry around on a business trip, you’d have your Garmin, Tom Tom GPS to get around, your laptop, maybe one or two cameras, etc. Now, most people just carry around a smartphone and it’s got everything you need in a single device and it’s unified in terms of a workflow, an ecosystem.
“What we’re doing at Ross Video is moving that type of thought and that type of workflow into the production area.”
Do production functions then become apps on a platform?
“That’s really what it is. What’s driving this for us is the components we are using are becoming more capable. The way we used to design, let’s say a multi-viewer, or signal processing for video and audio, the way you would build out those cards or platforms, there would be a lot of different chips that would get thrown down and a lot of different
ways we would build out the signal flow of that particular product.
“What’s happening now is some of the devices, the chips, whether it be FPGAs or CPUs, etc., they are actually becoming more and more integrated with what they can do. What that allows us to do is we can create products and they can be a lot of different things, or they can have features added to them because the components we’re using are a bit more powerful and a bit more flexible. So, we can use a common hardware platform to perform multiple functions and those functions can be done by adding software licenses or changing a firmware load or something of that nature.
Traditional functions that you would expect in a production environment - video and audio routing, signal processing, monitoring, some multi-viewers, switching, mixing, etc - can all be done from a common platform. It provides a tremendous amount of capability with a very simple form factor and gives users a lot of capability and flexibility.”
Could you call it a multifunction appliance approach?
“Yes, that is a good way to think about it. It can be as feature-rich or as limited as you may want. The pieces that we are building on give us the ability to change it, so over time, because of that, it can be something different. This is one of the core things that Ross, as a company, is really focused on. Instead of very specific applications, specific products, because these products can do different things, they can change as a business changes and if you are using it for one job now, it could be something different in the future.”
What range of functions are up and running now?
“Some of the traditional functions. We’ve got your video and audio routing systems, which are the core of a facility. We’ve got multi-viewers, all kinds of signal processing for video. We’ve added audio mixing recently. We’ve added production switchers as well. Those are the big blocks - and there’s more coming.”
What savings does this approach deliver?
“It’s pretty substantial. When you think about the high end, you’re talking about a dozen racks or more shrunk to less than a rack. You’re going from about 10,000 cables down to a couple of hundred. In terms of power, the power savings alone are massive. So, when you start to talk about cooling, weight, moving equipment around with trucks or flypacks etc., there’s a tremendous value. The less it weighs, the more efficient you are in terms of
“Well, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. At Ross, we have different tracks of development we are working on. One is an on-prem product portfolio, and that’s really where Hyperconvergence fits. Obviously, there’s incredibly low latencies, there are a lot of efficiencies there. But, we are also very focused on cloud, and I think the right answer to this is that even going ground-to-cloud or cloud-to-ground, you are going to need an on-prem platform. You’ll need to get content in and out, to and from the cloud and that’s where these technologies can actually work in tandem. Because this platform can do so much, you’re really maximising the value of this on-prem hardware. Where we want to go, as a company, is a unified interface so these technologies can work together.”
You’ve already applied Hyperconvergence to Ross’ Ultrix Router.
“When we launched Ultrix, it had some of these features in it already, but over the last little bit we’ve started adding more things. You’ve seen, recently, the ability to have our mid and large production switchers - Acuity and Carbonite, for instance - integrated into the Ultrix platform. One of the nice things about the Ultrix platform is it’s all UHD native. So, when you start to think about adding more products, you’ve got a UHD platform that can handle multiple signal transports, whether it’s SDI, or SMPTE 2110, etc. You have access to multiple different transport types, and then you can add more of these functions into the box, which expands the Hyperconverged portfolio. So, Ultrix is key to it as we move forward.”
And, what is on the roadmap going forward?
“The roadmap is very full. When you think about where we are as an industry and what Ross makes, there’s a lot of things we do. There is a need for more and more processing, video and audio processing, specifically. There is a need for more transport types.
“Ross produces a wide range of solutions. Cameras aren’t going into something like this, there are a lot of other technologies in a production and playout environment that could provide real value as part of a hyperconverged platform and work as a single, unified system. There are real workflow benefits from this Hyperconverged approach where you’re not dealing with disparate products and I think it really has resonated within the industry.”
Visit https://www.rossvideo.com/
OVER ITS 25-YEAR HISTORY, Innovative Production Services (Innovative) has had experience in all aspects of live production including bands, theatre, TV, art, and performance, but large corporate events had become their mainstay heading into 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything very rapidly. Large events were gone for a long time, so the company had to adapt and to help them do this, they turned to Ross Video.
As Innovative director, Jeremy Koch, explains, “We set up a trial studio in our factory that quickly moved into a 750m2 professional sound stage. We loved this new studio world and our gear had to step up in certain areas to match the standards that not only our customers were used to at Innovative, but what our staff and contractors were used to. So, we purchased a Ross Carbonite Black SOLO (split system) for our studio, The HUB. This little powerhouse was amazing, especially for its size. One of our leading contractors was always raving about Ross as well, so we knew we were on to a good thing.”
After 18 months in the studio world, a new opportunity presented itself to Innovative. This opportunity had the potential to be a real gamechanging way of doing studio broadcast work and also live hybrid events – the purchase and fit out of a broadcast truck. This was a dream opportunity for Innovative as it was something they had been pondering for years.
Koch continues, “Whatever we chose needed to work with our current workflows and also allow for upgrades and changes as required. Flexibility is key and Ross gives us this. The other thing Ross
and solutions for their new truck.
Koch adds, “We wanted something that would work for us now and into the future. This was probably the single biggest thing that led us to Ross and in particular the Ultrix Carbonite. The truck has a need to offer ultimate simplicity and compatibility, not only in the physical domain but also in the mental domain. We wanted it to be easy to understand, use and troubleshoot for our staff and contractors. Starting with 12G-SDI now means that everything works instantly for us and it’s a known signal format for all of our team. It offers immediate benefits especially when it comes to supporting 4K workflows. Also, with the Ultrix system, if and when we need to jump to ST-2110, we can by simply swapping out an IO blade – and that’s pretty cool.”
According to Koch, the Ross products and solutions easily met all of their key requirements by offering the upgrade path they were looking for and more.
He says, “This is not just in the Ultrix either. The Ultritouch Panels all get updates to allow new functionality. The TouchDrive panel gets these, too. It’s so good to see Ross actively developing and working on their products and pushing those updates to their customers.”
The first two tests for Innovative’s new truck featuring the Ross equipment were at major events for IBM Think and TEDx Sydney. At IBM, the truck was in full live event mode where it was the technical hub of the entire show. All cameras came back to the truck as they would in a typical broadcast truck, but that’s where the similarities ended.
As Koch explains, “We also ran all playback for the show such as videos, audio stings and presentations from the truck. All of the outputs for the live event were also fed from the truck. This includes projector SDI feeds for the main screens, foldback monitor feeds, side of stage monitor feeds and lighting monitor feeds. The main broadcast live stream of this event also ran from the truck. On
this event, besides handling the main switch of all cameras and content for both the screens in the room and the live stream, Ross Ultritouch panels with Dashboard switched all the KVM stations. The two graphics positions relied heavily on these touchpanels and this was a great success.”
TEDxSydney was where the truck got to focus purely on a broadcast role. It was quite an involved broadcast event with many moving parts and dynamic personalities that made this one of the more demanding events Innovative work on every year.
Koch adds, “This was also the first year we had handled the broadcast directly on our own. The reliability and flexibility of the Ross gear allowed us to do this with confidence and that is a big thing considering the direction we are heading in.
“The one thing that has been critical to the success of these projects is the control of the KVM system. The Ross Ultritouch Panels with Dashboard have been a critical part of how this works and how successful it is. We use custom commands and scripts from Ross dashboard buttons on the Ultritouch panels to control what PC or Mac you are controlling in the truck. It really is fantastic to see this working so well and so integrated into the truck. You can also control the lighting in the room you are currently in from
750m2 professional sound stage.
new studio
your Ultritouch panel.”
It’s clear that Koch is not just a fan of his new Ross equipment, but of the Ross team in Australia, too, as he points out, “We like the ethos of the company. The fact that the service and commitment we get from Kyle Le Roux and the Ross team here in Australia is just so fantastic means we don’t need to look elsewhere.”
Visit https://www.innovative.net.au and https://www.rossvideo.com
“ We set up a trial studio in our factory that quickly moved into a
We loved this
world and our gear had to step up in certain areas to match the standards that not only our customers were used to at Innovative, but what our staff and contractors were used to.
Aaron McLisky, ACS, and for Academy Award winning director, co-writer and leading actor Russell Crowe, shooting the psychological thriller Poker Face came down to two things: achieving a modern look that maintained a painterly quality as well as choosing the right aspect ratio that captured the ensemble cast in a single frame, so they went with Cooke Optics Anamorphic FF, according to McLisky.
Aaron had come to the project late in its development as director Russell had also just come on board and was in the process of amending the screenplay. Originally set in Miami, Russell was working to reimagine the story in his home town Sydney, Australia. After a brief chat with Russell, Mclisky began working on a look book to reimagine the film with Russell’s vision in mind. Russell referenced a lot of historical Australian painters such as the atmosphere of Clarice Beckett to the modern abstraction of Ben Quilty.
“I wanted an image that wouldn’t look too clean... but softer and atmospheric,” said McLisky. “I looked at a lot of different anamorphics, and at the time the Cooke anamorphic full frame was relatively new in Australia, but becoming more readily available.”
“As someone who started on the Cooke S4s early in his career, I really appreciated the Cooke Look plus its pleasant skin tone and build quality. It just so happened that Warren Day and Video Australia (VA Hire) in Sydney had a set of the anamorphic full frame lenses that I could test. I took them to our main Poker Room set at Fox Studios Australia for some in-depth testing. When Mclisky projected the tests in a theatre with Russell, they both could see the qualities they desired. “The way the sharpness, contrast and falloff made it feel very painterly instantly connected with Russell and myself. We had to go with Cooke.”
Video Australia (VA Hire) would provide McLisky with three ARRI Alexa Mini LF cameras (shooting 2.39 at 4.5K open gate for 4K DCI distribution) and three sets of Cooke lenses, including every Cooke Anamorphic/i FF available from VA: An A camera set consisting of the Cooke Anamorphic/i FF 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 85mm MACRO, 100mm and 135mm. The B camera set with the 40mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm. Plus a C camera set with a Cooke 35-140mm Anamorphic/i Zoom and Cooke S7/i FF sphericals for pick-ups, shot by Jules O’Loughlin, ACS, ASC.
“That 85 macro is just fantastic and became the lens of the shoot,” said McLisky, who utilised the lens as a macro and straight 85mm prime. “As we came in for a close up, Russell would say ‘big head, bigger head,’ he wanted the camera close. Being able to move from 5 feet to an eyeball ... Russell loved that. Being able to use the lens in that way meant we could get a lot of those intimate shots very quickly. The 85mm as well as the 135mm were the primary lenses, and I also loved the 50mm and 75mm for the wider dialog
sequences.”
With all of these anamorphic lenses, it begs the question, why the Cooke S7/i FF spherical lenses for the C camera?
As McLisky explains: “The C camera was mainly on the 35-140mm Cooke anamorphic zoom for principal photography, but for pickups, Jules used the S7s.”
That, of course, brings up the issue of matching the sphericals to the anamorphics.
“You can’t tell,” said McLisky.
“That’s why everything was Cooke and it made me incredibly happy, although I was a bit nervous when putting the lens package together. But instinct told me that the Cookes would all match with the Cooke Look and how each lens would react to the production design. When it came to the grading, it was very easy to create a consistency between the cameras. They married together perfectly.”
The production design, as well as the LUTs created with colourist Jamie Hediger, were all based on conversations with Crowe, according to McLisky. “Russell wanted a deep red and black theme throughout the film referencing the playing cards and his private art collection – a lot of the art in the film is Russell’s personal art. Jamie looked at Russell’s art to inspire the LUTs.”
One challenge on the set was having a director who was also the leading actor.
“Russell is an intelligent and seasoned filmmaker who’s worked with the best of the best,” said McLisky. “But for anyone this would be a difficult challenge, with script amendments, location changes and design changes ... it’s a lot, not to mention COVID. Russell drew on his wealth of knowledge and experience to steer the course.
“Working with Russell was inspiring, as he is very articulate and clear about what he wants. For example, Russell was adamant about us using three cameras. His experience with multicam films gave him a sense of comfort – to be capturing the scene as a stage play and to allow for flexibility of performance and safety in the edit.
As you might imagine, Poker Face isn’t so much about the game as it is about the people who play it. But how do you shoot a poker match that’s not really about a poker match, but the people?
To that end, Russell shot everyone else first
to “quarterback” the scene and then he shot himself, according to McLisky.
“He’ll do two takes of himself as he directs himself in his head. And then when he’s in the scene I’m the only one watching all three cameras – with the /i Tech being incredible in the sense that I could monitor everything technical from each camera as well as the performance. In addition, Russell had a monitor on set so that he could see the scene from within the scene.
McLisky looked at a lot of modern poker matches that use lipstick cameras, but Russell wanted Poker Face to be less modern and more cinematic and classical. “The entire set was lit with mainly practical LED sources with modern fittings in the room, but I had to create a top light for the poker table so it looked like a room in a billionaire’s home and not at a casino. For that, I used an 8x8 fully controllable softbox, hidden above a removable ceiling piece, so when shooting the table in close we could soften the faces and the rest of the room would just fall away.”
A final benefit of Cooke’s i/Technology for McLisky was in post.
“There’s VFX in certain scenes ... extensions and lots of clean ups. But with all the lens data readily available, I was never asked to provide anything because it was already there. That makes things go so much smoother.”
Visit https://cookeoptics.com/ and https://www.vahire.com/
CANON HAS ANNOUNCED
launch of the EOS R6 Mark II fullframe mirrorless camera which offers 40fps, low-light AF, 4K UHD movies and 6K RAW external device recording, all built on the RF Mount.
Using DIGIC X processor technology, as well as the camera’s new 24.2 megapixel CMOS sensor, the EOS R6 Mark II supports Dual Pixel CMOS AF II.
The EOS R6 Mark II can track subjects keeping them sharp as they move through a scene. It recognises people, vehicles and animals. With advanced eye tracking, users can specify which eye (left or right) should be given focus priority. If eyes can’t be detected, the camera focuses on the face in shot. If a person turns away, their head continues to be tracked, and if the head isn’t visible the camera will track the body.
he EOS R6 Mark II boasts up to 8-stops of coordinated control image stabilisation. Using the combined IS, optical and in-body – it can shoot long exposures, handheld with extreme clarity and sharpness. Photographers can also capture the ambience in very low light conditions, focusing in light levels as low as -6.5EV, and the ability to shoot up to ISO 102,400.
The EOS R6 Mark II can shoot continuously at up to 40fps - with 20fps and 5fps options with electronic shutter – and up to 12fps mechanically. The new sensor reduces rolling shutter, allowing the camera’s electronic shutter to be used to freeze fast-moving objects.
Additionally, the EOS R6 Mark II records action before shooting starts, with 0.5 second preshooting in RAW Burst mode. The RAW Burst mode shoots continuously at 30fps for up to 191 frames, recording every image in a single CR3 file; all with AF tracking. Individual images can be extracted from this roll using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software, or in camera, and saved as individual JPEG, HEIF or RAW files.
The EOS R6 Mark II can use the full width of the sensor to shoot 4K 60p UHD, with simultaneous Dual Pixel CMOS AF II focusing. All 4k footage is created by oversampling the sensor’s 6K output. The EOS R6 Mark II outputs 6K RAW via its HDMI output, which can be recorded on an Atomos Ninja V+ recorder in ProRes RAW.
Creators can activate movie pre-recording mode of 3 or 5 seconds. When on, video is continuously streamed through the camera in standby enabling the capture of action even before you press record.
The EOS R6 Mark II features longer recording times with over 40 minutes of oversampled 4K 60p recording or up to 6 hours at 4k 30p (with the previous 29.59 maximum individual clip recording time removed).
The EOS R6 Mark II can output slow-motion footage with AF support using Full HD at up to
180fps. During movie shooting, False colour can be used as a guide to exposure adjustment. Users can also employ HDR support via PQ, as well as Canon’s Canon Log 3. When used with supported lenses, the EOS R6 Mark II also uses focus-breathing correction.
With updated Bluetooth v.5 and Wi-Fi (5GHz), the EOS R6 Mark II connects to smartphones and networks allowing high-speed file sharing and FTP/FTPS/SFTP transfer. The camera can also be remotely controlled using the Camera Connect and EOS Utility apps, tethered to a PC, Mac or smartphone via Wi-Fi or high-speed USB-C. The EOS R6 Mark II also supports automatic transfer of image files from the device to the image.canon cloud platform.
The EOS R6 Mark II can also be used as a webcam on PC and Mac computers running video-call apps such as Skype, Zoom and Teams, without having to install additional software.
The EOS R6 Mark II features a multi-function shoe with a next-generation interface to enable a new series of Canon accessories to be used including the newly launched SPEEDLITE EL-5. These accessories can be used without the need for cables, and in some cases without batteries.
The camera’s high-resolution 3.69M dot EVF offers a crystal clear view when taking photos or video, as it refreshes at 120fps – alongside this, EOS R6 Mark II has inherited the Optical ViewFinder view assist feature from the EOS R3, providing a natural-looking display retaining detail in shadows and highlights, with good visibility in dark areas and gradation.
The EOS R6 Mark II is also compatible with the same LP-E6NH batteries and BG-R10 battery grip as the EOS R6, but with the benefit of battery life being increased by approximately 50% when using the LCD screen.
Visit https://www.canon.com
FUJIFILM HAS ANNOUNCED the development of the FUJINON HZK25-1000mm (HZK251000mm) broadcast zoom lens, which the company says boasts the world’s highest 40x zoom and the world’s longest focal length of 1000mm.
The HZK25-1000mm is a boxtype broadcast zoom lens in the dual format, supporting two types of large image sensors. It can be mounted on cameras equipped with the Super 35mm sensor or the even larger sensor equivalent to 35mm full frame. The lens achieves optical performance which exceeds 4K. It also facilitates the use of cinema cameras which is becoming increasingly common in the broadcast industry, offering cinematic visual expressions such as shallow depth-of-field for beautiful bokeh in live coverage of sporting events and music concerts. The HZK251000mm is due to be released in the spring of 2023.
Today, in the broadcast industry, cinema cameras equipped with a sensor larger than the industry’s mainstream sensor are increasingly used in live coverage of sporting events and music concerts, amidst the growing needs for immersive cinematic
expressions involving the use of bokeh and high dynamic range. However, cinema camera lenses are optimised for shooting movies and TV commercials, and therefore have a smaller
supporting two types of large sensors. The lens normally works with the Super 35mm sensor, and also supports a sensor equivalent to 35mm full frame by way of activating the built-in expander to expand the image circle by 1.5 times. It offers the added benefit of maintaining the same angle of view in both sensors.
which is uncommon in the broadcast industry. For these reasons, there has been a demand for a high-magnification zoom that supports a large sensor and can be operated in the same way as box-type broadcast lenses.
The new HZK25-1000mm is a broadcast zoom lens that uses optical technology, nurtured over many years, to deliver the world’s highest 40x zoom and the world’s longest focal length of 1000mm. It is designed in the dual format,
On the wide-angle side, the lens provides F2.8 aperture, enabling cinematographic visual expressions with shallow depth-of-field and resulting beautiful bokeh. The use of large-diameter aspherical lens and fluorite lens controls various forms of aberration thoroughly to achieve optical performance which exceeds 4K. The lens maintains the operation of broadcast lenses involving zoom demand and focus demand even when mounted on a cinema camera. It can also be used with a variety of existing accessories. Furthermore, the lens features an imagestabilisation mechanism based on FUJIFILM’s unique “ceramic ball roller” system to accurately compensate for on-set vibrations and wind-induced movements for operation stability.
Visit https://holdings.fujifilm.com
ZIXI HAS ANNOUNCED a partnership with Marshall Electronics to integrate Zixi’s Software-Defined Video Platform (SDVP) into Marshall’s lineup of IP cameras. Zixi’s SDVP manages the delivery of live broadcast-quality video over any IP network.
Marshall cameras feature PTZ and zoom capability with extended zoom ranges of 20x and 30x optical range, resolutions up to 3840x2160p60 and HEVC video encoding while simultaneously supporting output to 12GSDI and up to three concurrent Zixi feeds over IP. Marshall cameras now include native support for full Zixi-enabled delivery with compatibility extending to all Marshall Broadcast and Pro AV-over-IP solutions.
All standard IP camera versions can be loaded with the Zixi-enabled firmware allowing existing Marshall operators to easily add Zixi support to their cameras, unlocking premium connectivity support and direct integration with the full suite of capabilities in the SDVP.
Supported IP camera models include CV355-30X, CV42030X, CV620, CV730 and the top level CV730-BHN/WHN platforms, allowing users to deliver live video utilising the performance, interoperability, resilience and security that the SDVP enables. Operations teams can flexibly deploy Zixi Broadcasters, which can ingest the Marshall Camera Zixi feed and provide real-time content quality analysis, live impairment detection, and low latency processing including live transcoding and protocol conversion. Zixi also enhances reliable transmission with support for bonded delivery over diverse networks such as 5G, LTE and unmanaged internet and hitless failover that reconstructs a single coherent transport stream from multiple time aligned sources.
Visit https://zixi.com and https://marshall-usa.com
LOWEL BLENDER XL LED softlights, known for their tunable narrow flood beam are now available in a complete three-light kit. Up to four times the brightness of traditional 1×1 panels – each compact 98 CRI/99 TLCI light may be dialled to an infinite choice of colour temperatures for diverse uses. The handy kit comes with stands, umbrellas, and switchable power in a single case, ready to go.
Each Blender light features 12 cool white/ daylight and 12 warm white/tungsten, LEDs with individual 45°optical lenses for pleasing output. Dual rotary knobs let users intuitively control cool (6000°K) and warm (3000°K) white channels to independently ‘blend’ colour temperature and full range dimming. For softer lighting with more spread, each fixture includes a professional drop-in Diffuser.
The Blender XL3 Light kit includes 3 Blender fixtures. For international power, included are 3 Switching (U.S. and EU) Power Supplies with a D-Tap power cable to operate anywhere using standard, high-capacity batteries for long run times. For support, included are 3 Uni-Dual Light Stands. Two included Tota-Brella Umbrellas (1 silver, 1 white) add more light control, and it all fits into the Slim Lightbag soft case.
Visit https://tiffen.com
CANON HAS STRENGTHENED its cinema and broadcast offering with a suite of products. This includes the CINE-SERVO 15-120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/PL (CN8x15 IAS S), Canon’s latest 8K CINESERVO lens for a broad range of productions; the EU-V3, a modular expansion unit for the EOS C500 Mark II and EOS C300 Mark III cameras; a Cinema EOS firmware update; and the DPV2730], a 27-inch 4K professional reference display that may seamlessly fit into workflows of broadcasters and filmmakers.
CINE-SERVO 15-120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/PL (CN8x15 IAS S)
The CINE-SERVO 15-120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/PL (CN8x15 IAS S) supports Super 35mm and FullFrame sensor cameras, making it suitable for a range of cinema and broadcast productions. With its versatile focal range from a wide 15mm, up to a telephoto range of 120mm, the lens can further extend up to 180mm via the built-in 1.5x extender. To support future productions, 8K optical performance can be maintained across the full focal length, providing consistently high image quality across the entire frame.
The CINE-SERVO 15-120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/ PL (CN8x15 IAS S) features Canon’s warm colour science, matching the existing range of Canon’s cinema lenses – and an 11-blade aperture, producing a beautiful, round bokeh. Offering outstanding optical performance – and breathtaking image quality for HDR, 4K, and 8K productions – the lens supports EF mount communication and advanced metadata capture with support for Cooke /i Technology. The PL mount version of the lens is also the first Canon CINE-SERVO lens to enable both ZEISS eXtended Data (XD) communication and Cooke /i Technology. Featuring the same 16-bit encoder found in Canon’s broadcast and existing CINE-SERVO lenses, which provides accurate lens position, zoom, focus, and iris metadata, the information and communication functions between the lens and camera are paramount for VFX, virtual, and cinema productions.
The high-end CINE-SERVO 15-120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/PL (CN8x15 IAS S) is available in both EF and PL mount, featuring a powerful and detachable servo motor drive unit.
For studio and live production use, the EU-V3 expansion module for both the EOS C500 Mark II and EOS C300 Mark III has a 4-pin XLR DC power input for constant power to both the expansion module and the camera body – no need for external batteries to power the devices.
The EU-V3 also offers an SDI return video feature, allowing real-time monitoring of a live broadcast feed from a production switcher. The return output destination can be selected from the VIDEO, EVF-V50, MON/HDMI, and SDI-OUT terminals. The EU-V3 also enables Tally support to alert the camera operator and the subject being captured. Both SDI Return video and Tally functions are essential for informing camera operators and their subjects of when their camera feed is live and the current status of the production.
The lens focus position can also be displayed onscreen when using the EU-V3 – with compatible
broadcast and CINE-SERVO lenses via 12-pin serial communication.
The Focus Position Meter, which users can choose to display along the top or right side of the screen, allows users to register multiple focus positions on a distance scale and highlights when the focus is achieved during manual operation – such as when selecting the finish line for a race.
The EU-V3 can be combined with the CINE-SERVO 15120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/ PL (CN8x15 IAS S) lens on the EOS C500 Mark II and EOS C300 Mark III cameras.
A new Cinema EOS Firmware update has also been introduced to strengthen the capabilities for the live production market for both the EOS C500 Mark II and EOS C300 Mark III cameras. Key updates include:
• Implementing XC protocol: integration into multi-camera solutions, supporting direct control via RC-IP100 remote camera controller (sold separately) and ethernet connections.
• Strengthening of AF features: 120p / 100p AF support, alongside face detection during Slow and Fast Shooting Mode.
• Audio 4ch display: the audio level display will show all four audio channels when this mode is selected.
• New accessory and lens support: allowing the EOS C500 Mark II and EOS C300 Mark III camera to work perfectly with both the CINESERVO 15-120mm T2.95-3.95 EF/PL (CN8x15 IAS S) lens and EU-V3, as well as support for the Flex Zoom series of lenses.
An advanced professional 4K HDR monitor, the DP-V2730, has a 4K UHD display engine and 1000 cd/m² full-screen peak brightness, with Canon’s local dimming technology giving an ultra-low black level of 0.001 cd/m². An option for both filmmakers and broadcasters, the DP-V2730 has a 27-inch screen that achieves high brightness with minimal noise, which is ideal for both on-set and post-production environments, and meets
Dolby Vision certification standards and EBU TECH3320 user requirements. The DP-V2730 features monitoring tools such as a waveform monitor, histogram, frame luminance monitor, RGB parade, and more.
The DP-V2730 has an HDMI input and 12G-SDI terminals (4x Inputs and 5x Outputs) capable of delivering 4K60P 4:2:2 10-bit or 4K30P 4:4:4 12-bit signals, for integration into multiple workflows. The DP-V2730 can also easily be linked to a compatible computer, tablet, or smartphone plus multiple Canon Displays (via a LAN connection) with the Remote Control Web UI. This touch-optimised interface provides live image viewing, detailed signal information and direct control over inputs, monitoring tools, and settings. A paid licence is required to activate this feature. Users can also access 4-way SDI input switching via a paid upgrade that supports various workflows, such as sending an output feed to a director’s monitor, external recorder, or live streaming solution.
Visit https://www.canon.com
GRAVITY MEDIA, the provider of live creative production and media services, and Cricket Australia has confirmed an expanding broadcast and technology partnership to deliver coverage of cricket across FOX Sports, Kayo and the Cricket Network.
This summer of cricket will see Gravity Media in partnership with Cricket Australia crisscross the country to broadcast 22 matches in the Marsh One Day Cup, 35 matches in the WBBL, WNCL Final, the Sheffield Shield Final, the Australia A v West Indies tour match in November and the GGXI v Pakistan Women’s Match in January.
Gravity Media’s partnership with Cricket Australia has expanded dramatically over the past five cricket seasons.
In 2017, Gravity Media’s first summer of cricket with Cricket Australia saw coverage of WBBL matches and today encompasses complete outside broadcasts for WBBL, Marsh One Day Cup, International Tour Matches and the Sheffield Shield Final.
Working closely with Cricket Australia and FOX Sports, Gravity Media will access its fleet of state-of-the-art high definition outside broadcast trucks, and new remote broadcast
production technology to deliver in excess of 350 hours of coverage over the coming months.
According to Dan Allan, Content Manager Broadcast at Cricket Australia, “Over the past five seasons, Gravity Media have proved themselves to be an integral part of the Australian Summer of Cricket. The Gravity team have overseen the growth of WBBL to a fullseason television broadcast product and delivered everincreasing quality across all our domestic competitions.
Cricket’s standing as Australia’s favourite sport owes a lot to the knowledge and dedication Gravity have demonstrated throughout, and we look forward to continuing our partnership into the future.”
Nigel Naseby, Business Development Manager at Gravity Media Australia, said: “All of us at Gravity Media Australia value our close working partnership with Cricket Australia. It
THE ICC MEN’S T20 WORLD CUP in Australia has seen the first use of live fielding data captured using an innovative cricket data collection tool developed by Sportradar Sportradar is the official data supplier for the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tool has helped to bring cricket fans closer to the global sport through a higher level of engagement and understanding of the third discipline of cricket as matches happens.
The first in the world to collect and code comprehensive fielding data and standard batting and bowling statistics, the product captures up to 80 data points per ball bowled and at the lowest latency in market. The data is used to power ICC’s fanfacing website and official mobile application.
In addition, the data can be provided via bespoke feeds to media outlets and broadcasters globally to help shape and broaden live commentary with deeper insights.
Through Sportradar’s proprietary tool, cricket boards around the
world can tap into deep analytics for teams, as well as power match centres and assets with in-depth cricket data. With highperformance analytics available on players’ fielding abilities, the process of player selection and rankings in the future will be more comprehensive.
Sportradar’s Sam Taylor, Managing Director, Strategy, Sports Solutions said: “We are committed to delivering innovation and technology to help grow the sport and are thrilled that these gamechanging new features are being used for the first time at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
“The value of faster, deeper data to sport and its fans is well established, we are extending our pursuits to pinpoint the insights that have a meaningful impact on the game and thereby the knowledge, engagement and enjoyment of the audience. We look forward to sharing the outcomes and benefits with our cricket partners worldwide.”
Visit https://www.sportradar.com
is a significant technological and production crew commitment for Gravity Media across this summer. Working closely with Cricket Australia, we will continue to evolve and develop our allscreens coverage including the introduction of new broadcast technologies designed to deliver Cricket Australia and its broadcast partners a seamless and compelling coverage of cricket across the coming months.”
Visit https://www.gravitymedia.com
SKY NEW ZEALAND has agreed a wide-ranging deal with World Rugby that secures exclusive rights to premium competitions, including Rugby World Cups, for seven years. Under the deal, World Rugby will acquire RugbyPass, and the two parties have agreed a joint approach to the production of exclusive programming, particularly in the women’s game.
The rights agreement includes every men’s and every women’s Rugby World Cup, the new WXV (international women’s fifteens competition) and the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series between 2023 and 2029.
Sky Chief Executive Sophie Moloney said: “This agreement secures exclusive access to all of World Rugby’s premium competitions for many years, and we are thrilled to be able to offer them to all New Zealanders on the Sky Box, our streaming services and free-to-air.
“This significant deal also sees World Rugby acquiring RugbyPass, the established destination for rugby fans across the globe with
comprehensive rugby news, analysis, shows, podcasts, live match statistics and results. In the last two years RugbyPass has focused on building its audience and network business, and it is an exciting transition for the RugbyPass team to step into the World Rugby family, and to work with World Rugby to deliver on its strategic mission to grow the sport globally.
World Rugby Chief Executive Alan Gilpin added: “RugbyPass is an established destination within rugby in terms of the audience footprint it generates on its own channels and, with our combined support and access to content, is perfectly positioned to grow exponentially, providing the platform to accelerate rugby’s advancement in key markets.
“We are excited by this unprecedented deal and its potential to unify a very fragmented rights environment.”
Visit https://www.sky.co.nz/
THE 2022 NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE (NRL) Grand Final on 2 October, which saw Penrith Panthers beat the Parramatta Eels, drew a record average streaming audience on 9Now of 389,000 viewers – up 7% year-on-year – making it the highest ever live streaming audience for an AFL or NRL Grand Final in Australian TV history.
Nine’s relationship with Akamai began in 2014, with the CDN operator providing video delivery and storage, and live event support for major events such as the NRL. Using its range of streaming solutions, Akamai assists 9Now, Nine’s catchup and streaming service launched in 2016, with video workflow, delivery and security.
According to Akamai’s MD & Regional VP ANZ, Chris Gibbs, “The NRL Grand Final is probably one of the most highly anticipated sporting events, and it’s essential that we deliver high quality to that event. Live video footage can be delivered into the home, it can be delivered onto the handheld device. And what we want to strive for is to be able to do that consistently, high quality, and deliver that safely.
“Our team spend an inordinate amount of time in preparing to deliver that premium product for the Grand Final. And we prepare and test the entire environment end-to-end. We use our broadcast Operations Centre, and that’s been used to provide eyes on glass, real-time event support to ensure that we’re consistently delivering that superior quality to the viewers. And, above all, we were genuinely delighted to be able to contribute to making the NRL Grand Final one of the largest live sporting events in Australian TV history.”
C+T: A challenge in streaming live sport are those spikes in audience numbers. How do you prepare for that?
“Throughout the course of the year we prepare and plan for events such as the NRL Grand Final, and the many other sporting events that we host here in the regions. And we make sure that wherever a viewer is, around Australia, whatever
device that they’re using, they get that superior, visually engaging personalised experience all the time. And to deliver that to customer expectations, we’re continually analysing, optimising, and accelerating their experience on whether it be a mobile delivery, or whether it be on the web. And, obviously, around Australia there can be some residential connectivity and bandwidth issues.
“We powered and protected the 2022 NRL Grand Final. And we have unmatched capacity of any provider around the world, where we have capacity of over 300 terabits per second. We’ve got the world’s largest edge delivery platform with over 4200 locations, and upwards of 1400 networks that span across 135 countries, so with that it’s the largest edge delivery platform. We see more and more what’s happening on the internet, and we can adjust and optimise the delivery mechanisms that we have to deliver content at a superior value back into our media partners and their viewers.”
Looking at the content chain, the Grand Final takes place at Sydney’s Accor Stadium. The outside broadcast provider delivers feeds to Nine, the Nine Playout Centre (NPC) then sends the final programme to Akamai, and you distribute it from there?
“That’s correct. The whole intent and purpose for us is to deliver a low latency, high quality product to the users. We take it from Nine. We distribute it to our Edge Network. And obviously then it goes out to the particular device that’s being used by the viewer at that particular point in time. And in our Broadcast Operations Centre we’re actually always taking a sample of the viewer experience and whether you’re using a handheld device, whether you’re using a web experience, we can actually see the viewer experience on multiple different platforms, so we’re making sure that we can optimise that user experience depending on the platform being provided. We’ve got the majority of the user experiences covered, whether it be Android or
Apple, or variants in-between in the various operating systems that are supported there, and the various devices that are supported.”
You mentioned Akamai’s Broadcast Operations Centre. How would you compare it to a traditional broadcast network operations centre?
“It’s a great question. And I think the answer to that is around size and scale. We could be in a situation where we’re supporting up to 55,000 enterprises around the world. And at any one time we may be handling multiple events across multiple time zones through our Broadcast Operations Centre. The Broadcast Operations Centre that you and I might be familiar with would be surrounding that one particular event at that one point in time, so we’ve got to scale across multiple events, multiple geographies, multiple time zones, and multi-layers of content being provided from various sources. The complexities and the degree of complexities are exponential compared to what you would actually get in your traditional one media provider Broadcast Operations Centre.”
And where is it located?
“It’s located in Cambridge in Massachusetts.” Are there any issues with latency with regard to that?
“No, I’m pleased to say that we drink our own champagne when it comes to solving that problem.”
And what about ad insertion?
“Nine utilises our video delivery and storage solution. Part of that, obviously, is the support for live events, and we assist 9Now with video workflows such as ad insertion, delivery, and security with support across their streaming solutions, and it’s solutions such as AWS Elemental that 9Now, and many of other media providers, use to specifically handle the ad insertion. We support the environment around solutions such as Elemental.”
What viewing patterns came out of this Grand Final?
“It’s probably fair enough to say that the crescendo, in terms of the Nine experience, they had some pretty good entertainment upfront, and then you see the peak of the viewer population starting to expand during that time. We more than adequately had the viewership covered, and the amount of traffic that we needed to support. We were typically more than double the expected forecast of that.
“Interestingly enough, Penrith and Paramatta, put your allegiances to one side of who you wanted to win, but I think the viewers probably voted and said, ‘hey, half time, we’re pretty much done’, and we probably would have seen a drop
AN INCREASING NUMBER OF European broadcasters are investing in HDR production and distribution. They recognise that, to audiences, it makes an obvious difference — HDR is a means of attracting and retaining viewers. Data shows that consumers see HDR as having a big impact: bigger, perhaps, than 4K. It may be that we will see the practical choice of 1080p/HDR as a dominant format — it is much more cost-effective than the jump all the way to 4K HDR, for basically the same audience impact.
HDR is already commonly used in cinema/drama production, where the concepts of colour management are well-established, and the standard edit software platforms are HDR-compatible. The challenge comes in live production — particularly live sports. This is the genre that always drives innovation in broadcasting, because of the stakes involved (expensive rights and giant audiences) and the existing technical challenges (e.g., camera shading for sunlight and shadows in the same scene).
Television production isn’t just about relaying the exact scene to the viewer. Producers and networks may also apply their
own specific “looks” — driving their unique brand value, while also showcasing the added dynamic range and colour gamut. Frequently, they will apply custom LUTs tuned to create the look they want.
The main cameras are routinely “shaded” by trained professionals to provide the matching and to supervise the output quality. But a large sport shoot will involve many other cameras, i.e., POVs, stump cameras in cricket, goalmouth cameras in football.
In HDR, the inter-mixing of these SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) sources into the HDR production is disruptive if not managed — these signals must be processed to match the look of the main signals as closely as possible.
On an outside broadcast, where desk space is limited, any additional colour shading must fit into the existing workspace and operator footprint. Imagine has worked on innovative solutions to address this issue — collaborating with Cyanview to enable their control surface for colour manipulation, as well as with many other operational control systems to support our SNP UHD/HDR processing engine.
Creating a consistent production
TRACAB, a Chyron brand, has announced the launch of its TRACAB Horse Tracking System (HTS) which uses advanced satellite tracking technology via GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and real-time radio communications systems to improve data quality, accuracy, and latency in delivering key metrics from live horse races.
TRACAB HTS improves upon existing radio frequency (RF)based systems by providing faster metrics, delivered with less than 150 ms latency and is scientifically proven to provide centimeter accuracy.
TRACAB HTS marks the next leap in the company’s continual innovation, taking its expertise developed in association football and professional soccer and applying it to the world of horse racing.
TRACAB HTS is a complete
tracking system built on three key components:
• Lightweight (100g) wearable transponder tags;
• Base stations that receive GNSS data from the tags; and
• The cloud-based TRACAB Gateway server that processes and outputs live, real-time data for broadcasting and betting.
• TRACAB HTS can be deployed quickly and easily at a track or venue to support races with as many as 40 horses per event.
Metrics captured and delivered by TRACAB HTS include:
• Timestamps for distance and sectionals
• Global coordinates (latitude, longitude, and height)
• Local coordinates (X, Y, and Z)
• Speed
Near future development will also see Inertia Measurement Unit (IMU) outputs including
from a large footprint of sources and delivering the artistic vision of the director in HDR are the primary objectives. But it is also critically important to translate that HDR look back into SDR — the way the vast majority of today’s viewers will see it. Responsibility for these translations is complex; the camera shaders and technical directors must consider how their fantastic HDR scenes will look in SDR, and the eventual translation downstream at the network hub must be done the same way it was “checked” on the truck.
Video processors and converters are found at many steps along the production pipeline, and as these productions shift into HDR, all these processors must be HDRcapable to preserve the signal fidelity — sometimes including custom LUTs and productionspecific adjustments. All while fitting into the rack space, power, and other operational requirements of what is already in place.
At Imagine, we have been working on HDR with broadcasters and production companies for years, delivering UHD/HDR capabilities to operations as diverse as QVC Japan and the NFL Network in the USA. That has meant many conversations about HDR and colour space conversion, even as
the production industry has been trying to standardise on how these HDR workflows should work.
Flexibility is key, as there are many aspects of HDR production that are not yet settled or agreed among the production professionals, so our HDR processors must be able to adapt to the needs and wants of each user.
Major broadcasters are continuing to study how HDR affects viewership, with a focus on the practicalities of delivering productions at the right cost. The next wave of broadcasters coming into HDR all benefit from this accumulated knowledge and experience.
With the right technical infrastructure enabling consistent HDR delivery even within established SDR workflows, the scene is set for increased deployment of HDR into more live event productions.
Visit https://www. imaginecommunications.com
factors such as acceleration and deceleration, as well as event detection including gallop indicators such as step counts and changes in step frequency. Broadcasters can leverage TRACAB HTS to present real-time metrics such as horse position, speed, and acceleration with modern graphics. Venues, tracks, and horse racing federations can use TRACAB HTS to drive
the adoption of automated production and robotic cameras. Betting companies can use highly accurate race data from the system to generate new ways to play. Finally, TRACAB HTS gives horse owners and trainers detailed reports including heat maps, speed, and performance with historical data as a reference. Visit https://tracab.com
off of the audience participation. Not anywhere near as expected, but folks did come back for the final five or 10 minutes of the half. Obviously, the closer the result the better it is. And you’ll typically see a ramp up right in the last 10/15 minutes as the score gets tighter. And some of the prelim finals, and final series that we went through, we saw examples of that as well.”
And post-match, you also play a part in catch up options audiences?
“Most definitely. Video on Demand, so if they want to play the last five minutes, or a pivotal part of the game, they can go back and they can snapshot that five minutes. It could be the last two minutes of the half or something like that. Or, God forbid, if there is a send-off or something like that, typically your spotlight goes, and that Video on Demand capability is something that the 9Now audience use significantly.”
During a game of that magnitude, how much of an issue is residential connectivity?
“For those CDN providers that I guess have a single point of presence, maybe in the capital cities or something like that, the dependency on the bandwidth and the connectivity to residential areas and/or remote areas is a significant issue. And this is, once again, where our Edge Network comes into play. As I said, 4200 locations, 1400 networks across 135 countries. We’ve got a significant percentage of the Australian population covered. And whilst we can’t cover for every single permutation, or every single network connectivity issue, we find that we’re able to provide something that is consistent, something that is at that premium high quality video experience. And the feedback we
get back from our media partners is pretty positive and, again, that’s why they choose Akamai to partner on these large scale events.”
Many sports broadcasters have 4K viewing options. Has scaling up for that been a challenge?
“We’re partnering with a couple of our media providers and we’re having a good conversation with them around what events can we do - free-to-air 4K, for example. And for us, given our network capacity, our scale, and our reach of our Edge Network, we’re able to sustain that and deliver against that consistently. What it does though, it highlights that, especially around free to air, that there may be some consumers that might have a legacy device that doesn’t adequately support 4K, so they are challenges that some of the providers need to contemplate, do we need to have a 4K channel and a non-4K channel, for example, in that particular case. Because what we’re trying to do is build an experience for multiple consumers and make that deliverable to whatever device that they’re handling.”
How would you compare this year’s Grand Final to previous events you’ve worked on?
“For us, this is – and I don’t mean to trivialise it – there was a seven per cent uptick in viewership which is
great. I love seeing more audience participation back into events. It was a sell-out crowd as well as the digital audience being greater, so that’s a really good thing for sport in Australia. And I think that’s a constant theme. We’ve come out of the pandemic, where in lockdown there were no live spectators allowed at these events. We were handling those events. We’ve now come into a post-pandemic world where we’ve got these events, and maximum viewership, whether it be the AFL Grand Final, NRL Grand Final, T20 Cricket, or FIFA World Cup, we’re getting more and more eyeballs on the content.
“And that’s a really cool thing. But what it tells us is, and the conversations that we have with our media providers, how can we set ourselves to be able to consistently deliver that superior quality of content to the providers, ensuring we deliver that consistently over - whether it be a one hour event, could be the Australian Open tennis across a two week period, or it could be the FIFA World Cup which goes over a four week period. We’ve
Broadcast Solutions and EVS have announced the launch of the VAR Kick-off Pack, a turnkey system specifically designed for federations and football associations starting their Video Assistant Referee (VAR) journey.
The VAR Kick-off Pack includes a full-featured EVS Xeebra multicamera review system for video refereeing football matches as well as a simulator and an optional set of cameras to train Video Assistant Referees and Replay Operators. “Many football associations face a double challenge: not only do they have to start their VAR journey
with FIFA, but they also need to urgently certify their referees for international competitions,” explains Nicolas Hans, partner at Broadcast Solutions Africa and Middle East. “That’s why we’ve designed in partnership with EVS this turnkey pack which includes both technology and training.”
The VAR Kick-off Pack comes standard with training and coaching services to help federations bootstrap their Implementation Assistance and Approval Programme (IAAP) as defined by FIFA and IFAB. The system ships in six flight cases: two racks of active equipment and
four trunks for logistics. The two racks power the Video Operation Room (VOR) and the Referee Review Area (RRA). The RRA rack is deployed next to the pitch and feeds a monitor for on-field reviews by the referee. It also connects the wireless Intercom of field officials to the one used by video referees. The RRA is connected to the Video Operation Room where EVS Xeebra servers record camera feeds and make these available for review.
“EVS Xeebra is unique in that it’s a single turnkey solution that meets FIFA Quality Programmes for both video assistant referee technology and virtual offside line detection,”
got to be able to do that, and they’re the things that we’re constantly asking ourselves. We test that on a regular basis. And then when the event’s on we’ve got a Broadcast Operations Centre providing that proactive, eyes on glass, real time support to ensure that we’re consistently delivering to that goal.
“If you take a step back, a small subset of our ANZ customers should give you a flavour at some of the events that we’ve got coming up. We’ve got Nine, KO Sport, 7West Media, SBS, so you look across that and you align yourself to the Australian Open. We’ve got rugby. We’ve got the NRL. We’ve got the AFL. You’ve got the cricket in the various flavours, T20 limited overs, and the test match cricket. You’ve got the FIFA World Cup, women’s and men’s FIFA World Cups. We’re crossing a full gamut of large sporting events.”
Visit https://www.akamai.com
explains Nicolas Bourdon, Chief Marketing Officer at EVS. “It’s a showcase of our commitment to FIFA standards.”
The Broadcast Solutions VAR Kick-off Pack is modular: it comes with a set of cameras that can be deployed around the pitch and connected to the RRA during training sessions; It includes one or more EVS Xeebra servers to meet the requirements of host broadcasters during competitions; It is available on-demand and can be shipped and delivered in as little as 100 days.
Visit https://evs.com
SBS HAS FURTHER EXPANDED its dedicated multilingual news channel, SBS WorldWatch. The service now includes bulletins in major South Asian languages Gujarati and Malayalam. Nine new programs in English have also been added across the wider SBS network on SBS and SBS VICELAND, also available on SBS On Demand.
SBS WorldWatch launched in May 2022 as a free-to-air channel dedicated to providing Australians with access to news from around the world in languages other than English featuring bulletins from leading international broadcasters. The channel expanded SBS’s international and multilingual news offering, ensuring SBS audiences are better served than ever before, including with SBS عربي News (SBS News in Arabic) and SBS 中文 News (SBS News in Mandarin), SBS’s own news programs broadcast in prime-time each weeknight serving the diverse Arabic and Mandarinspeaking communities of Australia.
The launch of the channel has also enabled SBS to significantly add to the number of international news bulletins across the network with SBS WorldWatch adding two new international news bulletins in Gujarati and Malayalam from Indian Public Broadcaster Doordarshan (DD).
These two bulletins have been added to better serve Australia’s evolving news audiences, as speakers of Gujarati have increased by 54% since the 2016 Australian Census, and speakers of Malayalam by 48% over the same period.
On average, SBS WorldWatch reaches more than 450,000 viewers per month.
Director of News and Current Affairs, Mandi Wicks, said: “With the launch of SBS WorldWatch, the SBS network has undergone broader rescheduling of our multilingual TV news across the network, now offering 66 news bulletins from 49 different broadcasters in 36 languages other
than English, and 20 in English.
“SBS WorldWatch gives free-to-air and SBS On Demand audiences more coverage and choice than ever before. It’s great to see audiences’ positive response, which is reflected in the channel’s steady growth.”
SBS continues to bring leading international news bulletins in English across other channels on the network. Eleven new programs now feature on SBS and SBSVICELAND as well as being available on SBS On Demand, with SBS VICELAND adding Fiji One News; Te Ao with Moana from New Zealand’s Māori Television; CBC’s The National, from Canada; APTN National News from Canadian Indigenous network, Aboriginal People’s Television Network; TRT World Newshour from Turkey; Indian Country Today news from USA Indigenous network, IndiJ Public Media; and ABC Nightline from ABC America.
SBS has also added ANC’s
VIZRT HAS ANNOUNCED the release of Viz Mosart 5.1, the latest update to its broadcast studio automation solution, unlocking switcher-less workflows through the new Engine Switcher for Viz Mosart. Drawing on the power of Viz Engine, Engine Switcher unlocks the automated production of graphics-centric content and automated scene-based switching without needing a discrete, dedicated switcher.
Through Engine Switcher, entire shows can now be designed as a graphics scene – including video switching – offering simplicity for the journalist by defining show content in the rundown with powerful preset scenes while automating the production with Viz Mosart.
For decades, broadcasters have been forced to bend their studio workflows around a single piece of hardware. Dedicated traditional video switchers consume significant power, space, and specialist expertise – increasingly premium resources.
Inspired by developments made during Vizrt’s recent collaboration with German news broadcaster,
WELT, and their vision for modern storytelling, Viz Mosart’s Engine Switcher provides automated control of switching functionality directly in the graphics scene. This unlocks powerful and automated production workflows with scene-based switching, providing unique transition flexibility that cannot be easily achieved with a traditional switcher, including automated SDI and SMPTE ST 2110 source switching, clip playback, transitions, DVEs, and rendering of 3D graphics in an integrated and software-defined solution. NDI® source switching will be supported in a future release.
According to Philipp Kern, Senior Director, WELT, “The best thing we’ve heard is users saying there’s no difference between a real video switcher and the Vizrt [Engine Switcher] software. It’s incredible.
The journalists have more direct responsibility for the show, and it gives the day-to-day production more possibilities when putting the show elements together.”
“By controlling the unique switcher capabilities of Viz Engine, we’ve raised Viz Mosart to a new level of efficiency and flexibility for
graphics-centric productions. Each show’s entire look and feel can now be defined in the graphics scene, with dynamic video transitions and graphical elements being handled seamlessly as part of the same automated composition,” adds Andy Newton, Senior Product Manager for Viz Mosart, Vizrt.
With Engine Switcher removing the need for a discrete video switcher and unlocking unique switching and transition capabilities, production consistency and quality are increased, while the complexity of the production chain is reduced – keeping setup
The World Tonight from The Philippines; BBC News at 10; DD India from India Public Broadcaster Doordarshan and a weekly show from APAC Network, a Brisbanebased Asia-Pacific news start-up.
Central to the SBS WorldWatch offering are SBS’s flagship halfhour nightly news bulletins in Mandarin and Arabic, produced in-house, serving the two largest non-English language audiences in the country.
Executive Producer of SBS WorldWatch, Paul Williams, said: “Six months on from our launch of SBS WorldWatch we’re pleased with how viewers are engaging with the new content, and we will continue to build and adapt our offering to best meet our growing audiences’ needs.”
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/ channel/SBSWorldWatch
and running costs under control, reducing environmental impact, and maximising the operational bandwidth of the production team – without compromising on graphics quality, automation, or video flexibility.
In addition to Engine Switcher, this release introduces HTTPS and FTPS security protocols to further bolster Viz Mosart’s security, adds additional 3rd party device control for routing, audio mixing, and audio playout, and various bugfixes.
Visit https://www.vizrt.com
COMPLEMENTING ITS LiveU Matrix
IP cloud video distribution service, LiveU has unveiled its new Matrix Transceiver with up to four flexible in/out SDI feeds, designed for maximum versatility for switching between live video distribution and contribution. The new rackmount unit enables broadcasters and content producers to share and receive high-quality, low latency live feeds simultaneously to, and from, global destinations as part of a single workflow. With encoding and decoding combined in the same device, users can easily change from inputs to outputs on the fly.
Enhancing the LiveU Matrix functionality, the Transceiver rackmount device provides a highly flexible and cost-effective solution for existing and new LiveU customers. No pre-configuration is required, and everything can be managed remotely via software using the LiveU Central unified management platform. Power
consumption and carbon footprint are reduced by combining both the encoder and decoder into a single 1RU.
Trusted by leading broadcasters and content providers worldwide, the LiveU Matrix ensures missioncritical resiliency, leveraging the LiveU Reliable Transport (LRT) protocol for high-quality live video distribution – inside or outside the organisation. Customers can manage an exponential number of live feeds and share them with a global audience. With the LiveU Matrix Global Directory, users have access to over 5000 LiveU customers worldwide, growing their distribution capabilities.
Amir Kamzel, VP Product, LiveU said, “We’re constantly looking at innovative ways of optimising the workflow for news, sports and other markets while expanding our live video capabilities. Providing built-in flexibility, the LiveU Matrix Transceiver reduces the
need for multiple encoding and decoding devices with a dedicated distribution and contribution solution. Users can dynamically choose the optimal combination of sharing and receiving SDI channels, supporting up to four simultaneous feeds. We listened to our
DISGUISE’S POLYGON LABS acquisition has delivered what the company is calling “the ultimate solution for broadcast graphics production”. Developed with Polygon Labs –which was acquired by disguise earlier this year – the solution is made up of the Porta 2.0 cloud app and px hardware. Together, they enable broadcasters to seamlessly create, control, and collaborate on real-time graphics directly from a web browser. Porta 2.0 and px will automatically match studio lighting conditions to graphics, manage tracking, control LEDs and more, all in one place.
“Porta’s real-time data-driven graphics workflow will significantly accelerate your xR and AR broadcast production,” says Grigory Mindlin, Broadcast General Manager at disguise. “That’s why we developed the new Porta and px. With them, anyone can work on an extended reality production collaboratively, making everyday Unreal Engine graphics a simple operation. Team members can edit dynamic content on
the fly, create playlists, and modify Unreal parameters, such as light values, as well as trigger d3 timeline cues to synchronise physical and virtual lights.”
With Porta 2.0 and px’s template features, creatives also have more flexibility. Users can easily build templates of Unreal Engine graphics including text, images, 3D objects and trigger commands – all without the need for blueprints or coding. Templated graphics only need to be created once to then be used across multiple projects. Templates can even be stacked into playlists so that all graphics appear at the right time.
Additional benefits for customers include:
• Stress-free remote working – No matter where they are, creative and operational teams can collaborate on virtual sets and 3D graphics production remotely with a webbased interface accessible on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.
ETERE HAS INTRODUCED a brand new Etere Nunzio graphics player that plays content from both live and recorded video, with the option to insert graphics in the playout directly.
Etere Nunzio Graphics Player enables newsroom playout for live and recorded media. It integrates the option to insert graphics in the playout directly while the software supports live sources from SDI
and NDI sources, eliminating the complexities of multi-format deliveries.
News producers can insert graphics in the playout directly from the same interface, achieving a seamless performance and high efficiency. Media files can also be played on a secondary output, for instance, a monitor behind the anchorman.
Etere features an automated
customers and directly addressed their broadcast requirements with a multi-purpose solution, helping them to simplify their operations and widen their reach for their video content.”
Visit https://www.liveu.tv
• Real-time data integration – Porta 2.0 and px customers also have access to Ipsum, Polygon Labs’ centralised data aggregation, curation, and playout control platform, enabling integration with third-party APIs, databases and files for real-time graphics. Ipsum and Porta are connected so that you can use your data in Porta or directly in Unreal Engine.
• Built-in disguise support – Anyone using Porta 2.0 and px can easily connect their system into disguise’s augmented and extended reality solutions.
Porta 2.0 is available as a SaaS subscription. Visit https://www.disguise.one
start for live inputs that play immediately after a previous event and allows minimal manual interventions.
Key features include:
• Intuitive interface with presets
• Preview media files with graphics before playout
• Play from live sources, including SDI and NDI
• Automated start for live inputs
• Skip feature
• Edit and preview the EDL of graphics within a video asset
• Enable secondary output, for instance, send a media file to a monitor behind the anchor
Visit https://www.etere.com
CHYRON’S VERSION 1.8 of PRIME VSAR merges the cutting-edge graphics of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 with Chyron’s built-forbroadcast design, editorial, and live production capabilities to simplify virtual production. Enhancements in PRIME VSAR 1.8 offer simple, unfettered access to Unreal Engine 4.27 and its extensive design features, alongside new built-in production tools that reduce the time, skill, and effort required for key tasks such as chroma keying, trackless camera control, and virtual scene creation.
“PRIME VSAR is unique in its ability to simplify and de-skill the process of virtual production, and Version 1.8 continues that tradition of simplicity,” said Mathieu Yerle, senior vice president of strategy, Chyron. “This release offers simplified assets, control interfaces, and newsroom workflows that make it easy to bring graphics to life in a live production environment. Even more important, it constitutes a unique approach to Unreal-based virtual production. PRIME VSAR 1.8 provides an exceedingly intuitive driver’s seat and dashboard from which to drive the Unreal Engine to create stunning, lifelike graphics.”
Like previous versions, the 1.8 release builds upon PRIME VSAR’s easy-to-repurpose graphic assets, template-based workflows optimised for producers and journalists, and straightforward
control interfaces for live virtual production. Highlights of the new release include the following:
PRIME VSAR 1.8 supports the latest and final release of the Unreal Engine 4 Series, ensuring access to all of the features and enhancements that Epic Games has implemented over the years.
The 4.27 release includes valuable features for virtual production, such as optimizations to GPU Lightmass that allow users to bake in light sources and create photorealistically lit Unreal scenes faster and with less strain on hardware.
Cleanly bringing green-screen talent into an Unreal virtual scene is a notoriously difficult task. Chyron has enhanced PRIME VSAR 1.8 with a new API layer that powers a new chroma keyer interface for blending green-screen talent with a virtual scene. From this straightforward chroma keying interface, users can set chroma key values, refine and fine-tune key passes, monitor all components of chroma key outputs, and easily save and load presets for different environments. Users can access the interface on local in-studio systems or as an HTML-5 interface from anywhere via web browser, which in turn supports running VSAR productions in the cloud.
PRIME VSAR 1.8 brings the Mercury Trackless Camera control interface into the CAMIO MOS-integrated newsroom environment. Previously,
CAMIO offered control over scene and graphic elements in PRIME VSAR. Now, from any newsroom computer system, whether local or online, producers can easily queue up all their virtual camera moves within a PRIME VSAR scene. With PRIME VSAR, producers can control the entire virtual production using the newsroom interface they are most comfortable with.
Chyron has added more easyto-repurpose scene elements to the PRIME VSAR 1.8 graphics library to give users more template-based design options in a scene. For instance, the new Billboard With Shadows effect for trackless camera shots within PRIME VSAR 1.8 makes it easy to create scenes with dynamic light and object shadows. Plus, a new AB Switch Wall Actor template offers straightforward creation of freeform wall meshes for presenting videos and images with simple AB switch playlist
TERADEK HAS ANNOUNCED an alignment with Sony Corporation that will provide an integration between Sony’s Camera-ConnectCloud Portal (C3 Portal) and Teradek’s Prism Flex and Serv 4K.
Sony’s C3 Portal, a camera-tocloud gateway service designed for professional news gathering and file-based production, now natively integrates with Teradek’s 4K HDR encoding solutions.
Any operator will be able to upload video files directly from Sony’s cameras on location to the edit suite using the C3 Portal through Teradek’s encoders. This opens the door for camera crews, editors, producers, and even clients to assist in creating content remotely and in real-time on the cloud.
With this new integration, journalists can effortlessly live stream breaking news to the
air, web, and social media simultaneously with sub-second latency. Planning metadata gives teams the assurance that the day’s stories are tagged properly when received by the station.
This marks the second integration between Sony and Teradek, following a file upload linkage from Teradek’s encoders to Sony’s Ci Media Cloud that enables film and broadcast teams to effortlessly review, edit, and deliver proxy files.
Another key feature in this integration is that Teradek devices will automatically detect when the camera is recording, triggering
functionality.
Other key enhancements to PRIME VSAR 1.8 include an upgrade from Matrox HAL 9.6 to Matrox 10.2, with the latest driver offering native support for NDI signal connectivity.
Additionally, the solution’s new API layer implementation lays the groundwork for simplified and custom control interfaces in future PRIME VSAR releases that further de-skill virtual production. Built on the gRPC protocol, the same foundation used across the PRIME Platform and Chyron LIVE to power simplified interfaces, this new API layer implementation brings Chyron solutions closer to a common content-control interface across all aspects of live production.
Visit https://chyron.com
a local recording on the encoder that will instantly be uploaded to Sony’s C3 Portal after the recording finishes.
Prism Flex is Teradek’s tabletop H.264/H.265 encoder/decoder that provides live and point-topoint streaming to any destination
in up to 4K HDR. Serv 4K is an all-in-one production streaming solution that unites next-gen hardware with simplified UI to easily manage and share 4K HDR image quality in real-time.
Visit https://www.teradek.com
ARC EDIT IS ONE OF Australia’s most successful and forward-thinking facilities. Along with ARC FILM it boasts 13 premium Avid offline suites, an SDR and HDR/Dolby Vision colour suite and screening theatrette with audio monitoring in stereo, 5.1 and 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos plus three Flame online/VFX Linux rooms available across Sydney and Melbourne. There are two 1Gbps connections at both sites, along with Colorfront remote-session technology. Recently the company moved Sydney premises and expanded their technology offering. For that they turned to Digistor.
As ARC EDIT co-owner, Joe Perkins, explained, “We undertook a big move from Darlinghurst to Alexandria and as part of that move upgraded our technology facilities and offering. We chose to deal with Digistor as we needed the reassurance of a company who had significant expertise along with comprehensive and reliable support options. Part of the move was also to officially set up a new dedicated film company, ARC FILM.”
Perkins added, “Digistor and their key account manager, Olivier Jean, helped us acquire another two Avid NEXIS high-performance NAS bringing our total to four. In truth, most long form projects require their own dedicated NEXIS and workflows, so this very much was a key requirement. We also used Digistor to rebuild and upgrade the server room in our new Alexandria facilities. Digistor’s expertise was key in building a dedicated 25GB fibre network that could comfortably handle 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision files in our DI, Online & VFX departments. We also signed up for the Gold Digistor Customer Assurance Plan for ongoing peace of mind.”
Digistor is an Avid Elite Solutions Partner with expertise across the full range of Avid solutions including integration with other post software such as Blackmagic Resolve and Autodesk Flame plus networking and storage infrastructure.
ARC FILM’s Sydney studio contains five premium Avid offline suites and four large support rooms comfortable enough for multiple assistant seats or production spaces.
It’s fair to say that ARC EDIT and ARC FILM can handle, manage and work with almost any kind of footage and format.
Perkins continued, “As our editing solutions doubled to number over 30 Avid offerings, Digistor also built us a 10GB Ethernet network which further helps our entire operation run smoothly and seamlessly.”
Within their commercial workflow, their editors typically work off a NEXIS Pro, then send media and AAFs to Colour and Online Editorial before they are mastered out.
Perkins explained, “For the most part TVCs have an SDR workflow but we have spent a lot of time and money also installing and establishing an HDR workflow that can seamlessly handle longform requirements.”
As a result of their investment ARC EDIT is one of the only market leaders able to colour Dolby Vision (HDR) workflows and monitor the audio in 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos simultaneously.
This intentional technology-based approach also means that all ARC EDIT can grade and finish all kinds of traditional, online, social and digital productions.
Perkins said, “We put a great deal of thought into our technology offering. As a result, amongst other things, we are able to offer HDR finishing for commercials, do all kinds of VFX jobs with
BODY Ausfilm is celebrating the results in Screen Australia’s drama report highlighting foreign production spend in Australia for post, digital and visual effects (PDV) work in 2021/22 reached a record high of AUD$335 million.
Foreign spend on PDV-only titles rose to an unprecedented high of $335 million from 57 titles in 2021/22, an increase of 22% from the previous year and an incredible increase of 189% over the last five years, a testament to the talent and reputation of Australia’s screen businesses and
a direct result of the Australian Government’s permanent 30% PDV Offset.
In the last five years, Ausfilm PDV membership has increased by more than 52%, demonstrating the potency and growth of the sector and the opportunities these businesses see from international productions.
“This is a phenomenal result for Australia’s film and TV services businesses, and proves the success of the Federal and State incentive programs.
I congratulate all Ausfilm members on their success.
multiple looks and feels and handle every size and shape of production.”
It’s clear that Perkins along with fellow coowners Peter Sciberras and Drew Thompson ASE, share the view that only the best technology and the best technology partners will suffice at ARC EDIT and ARC FILM.
Perkins concluded, “Avid is the most perfectly built and truest tool that a storyteller can use, hence our significant investment in Avid. Resolve is also another solution that’s making serious strides in the industry with more and more people moving to use it. Our relationship with Olivier and the Digistor team is an incredibly important one. They are reliable, knowledgeable and offer very good service and support. This in turn helps ARC EDIT and ARC FILM be the best we can be and stay at the leading edge of innovation when delivering results for our clients.”
Visit https://www.digistor.com.au
This investment illustrates that Australia continues to offer a highly skilled workforce and expert screen sector services and infrastructure. Australia is now well placed to continue to build on this momentum to secure an ongoing and consistent pipeline of production which will support sector-wide growth,” said Kate Marks, Ausfilm CEO.
Some of the foreign productions that undertook post, sound, music and visual effects work only in Australia include: Ant Man and the Wasp, The Gray Man, ObiWan Kenobi, Being the Ricardos
and The Lincoln Lawyer 2.
Total spend on foreign shoot and PDV-only titles totalled $777 million in 2021/22. Spending on foreign titles that were filmed in Australia reached $442 million, above the 5-year average and directly attributable to the globally competitive suite of Australian and State government screen tax offsets and grants on offer. International productions that commenced filming in 2021/22 include: Ticket to Paradise, La Brea 2, Nautilus and Young Rock 2. Visit https://www.ausfilm.com.au
We’ve made it easy for you to store, edit, and manage video from literally anywhere. By removing complexity, our innovative products improve production workflows and free media professionals to unleash their creativity. Go on.. you deserve a break!
Find out more: editshare.com
Call Digistor today on 02 9431 6000 or visit digistor.com.au/editshare to discuss how EditShare solutions can work for your team or to arrange a demonstration. enquiries@digistor.com.au
WHILE THIS YEAR’S IBC Show in Amsterdam saw the return of attendees filling up the show floor, the Avid Technology booth was spartan in contrast being the first time the company had eschewed shipping pallets of equipment in favour of demonstrations in the cloud.
According to Craig Wilson, Product Evangelist with Avid Technology, “I think that really chimed with the other exhibitors. There was a lot of remote and distributed working technology, there was a lot of technology for working in the cloud and, obviously, hybrid type workflows as well.
“We showed some examples of what we call media production in the cloud. And really that’s running a fully cloud-hosted system. So, we have our media central production management, newsroom management, asset management, our Avid Nexis storage, Media Central Cloud UX, and Media Composer - all running in the cloud, able to access and work really from anywhere.
“At IBC, we also debuted a new app in Media Central Cloud UX, called Media Central Acquire, and that’s an app for controlling ingest devices, such as Media Central stream, which is what we use for IP ingests from say SRT or RTMP sources, and also for fast serve ingest, as well for more traditional line feeds coming in.
“Also on the news side, we had a big focus around what’s called Media Central Collaborate. Now this is another app, it’s webbased, runs on Media Central Cloud UX, but is also available in Media Composer, and on mobile, and also in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite as well. And it’s a way of project planning, story tracking, providing updates, sharing content together as well. And there’s a big focus from us around that.
“On the post production side, there were three key things that we showed. One was what’s called Avid Edit on Demand. Edit on Demand is, again, a cloud-hosted system. And for this, it’s Media Composer and NEXIS running in the cloud, so it doesn’t have the asset management. It’s really a solution for post-production houses where basically you can spin up an entire system, use it for when you need it, it’s available through subscription, and then spin it down when you don’t. It’s kind of ideal for short term productions where you just perhaps need some extra capacity to do something as well.
“We also showed a tech preview of Avid NEXIS Edge. Now it’s important to recognise the difference between what Edit on Demand is and what NEXIS Edge is. Edit on Demand, entirely cloud hosted. NEXIS Edge is I’ve got my NEXIS storage on prem. I’ve got a traditional broadcast facility or post production house. I’ve got my NEXIS on Prem, but I want to enable people to connect remotely and have a new workflow of proxies.
“Then the final thing, we also showed some new workflows between Media Composer and Pro Tools. And that’s an exchange where in Media Composer I can actually export out a Pro
Tool session that users in Pro Tools can then import in, work with, and then send back:” While there is a ubiquitous quality to cloudbased workflows, Wilson says different end users are at different places in their adoption.
“We have some very, very large customers who have embraced the cloud, who are using it in daily production, and they’re bringing together global teams to do a lot of work,” he says. “I would say at this point that’s a relatively small proportion. I think the majority of people are still really trying to assess exactly where the cloud fits into their workflows. And one of the things is if you simply take what you’re doing today and replicate that in the cloud you may not get all the benefits that you could potentially get from a cloud-type workflow.
I think the majority of our customers just now are testing out what makes sense. They’re obviously testing out from an economic perspective what makes sense as well because there’s no point in doing something in the cloud if you’re just going to do it for going into the cloud. And it has to have perhaps business efficiencies, it has to enable you to deliver more content, it has to make economic sense. And I think a lot of people are still trying to work that out.
“I think the security of the cloud has been better established now, so I don’t think people are looking at that necessarily as a barrier. It’s much more I think now around that economic case of what makes sense for us to use in the cloud. And
I think a lot of people are looking at hybrid workflows. Perhaps we have our production capacity in the cloud, but we’re still going to have our studio facilities, for example, they’re still going to be on prem. I think the closer you get to live perhaps the more you want to wrap your arms around some kit that’s physically in the space for you. I’d say it’s a progression. I think the pandemic changed a lot of people’s perceptions of course about the value of remote and distributed working. And I think the reality is that people have made investments in on premise equipment, and they want to sweat those assets. They want to get the best value from them. I think what we’ll see in the next few years is, as equipment cycles come up for renewal, I think there’ll be a much bigger focus on do we go to the cloud, do we work in a private data centre, do we stay on prem, and what do we do?”
And, this is where Avid’s local Australian partners are important in delivering Avid’s solutions effectively.
“Avid is a large organisation,” explained Craig, “But we do rely on our partners to help work with us and continue to deliver for our customers, whether they’re in news, or in post, or in whatever part of the market they are.”
Australian Avid Elite Reseller, Digistor has been at the coalface of delivering Avid integrated solutions for over 20 years and is well-versed in helping customers analyse their existing workflows, tools, and storage to propose and to deliver optimum Avid solutions – whether on-premise, cloud or hybrid. The company works with customers ranging from small, independent production companies to broadcasters and multi-nationals operating with far-flung teams.
“We have worked with customers to implement Avid | Edit on Demand in post-production to support remote editorial workflows,” explained Andrew Hogan, Technology Sales Specialist at Digistor. “In addition, we’re working with customers as they investigate their own cloud-hosted Avid environment that will scale and support teams globally.”
The forthcoming release of NEXIS | EDGE will further increase the versatility of Avid storage solutions and enhance remote working capabilities and opportunities for Digistor clients. The company is actively engaging with clients across Australia to evaluate the benefits, practicality, and costs of cloud enabled solutions, so that they can make informed decisions to suit their specific requirements.
Once the appropriate Avid solution is determined Digistor’s Avid certified team of engineers provide installation, configuration, and support services with on-going support contracts.
“Digistor’s close working relationship with Avid is critical in providing the best outcomes for our customers, and having access to Digistor’s skilled local engineers, both on-site and remote, completes the picture,” stated Andrew.
Visit https://www.avid.com https://www.digistor.com.au/avid
“We have some very, very large customers who have embraced the cloud, who are using it in daily production, and they’re bringing together global teams to do a lot of work
BORIS FX’S original flagship suite now features over three hundred effects, over forty transitions, and more than five thousand drag-and-drop presets to jumpstart creativity. Host applications include Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Blackmagic Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Foundry Nuke, and VEGAS Pro.
New features include: The BCC+Atmospheric Glow effect delivers instant drama, mystery, or nostalgia on otherwise flat scenes. The multi-faceted glow effect produces photoreal results and includes automatic flicker, lens textures, rays, and smoke options.
The Transitions Unit adds 10 wipes, rolls, and swishes to give editors a rapidly expanding cutting toolkit. Includes BCC+FilmRoll, BCC+SwishPan, BCC+SwishPrism, BCC+SwishGlow, BCC+SwishWarp, BCC+LinearWipe, BCC+RadialWipe, BCC+RectangleWipe, BCC+VignetteWipe, and BCC+TextureWipe.
Particle Illusion features a significant performance boost with combined calculation and render speed increases of up to 50% depending on OS, hardware, and project specifics.
An upgraded interface provides a simplified user experience with easyto-understand property controls. Additional functionality includes improved 3D model handling.
Continuum’s popular BCC+FilmGlow effect adds a secondary glow option that enables users to generate multiple independent glows with full control over each element.
Title Studio adds support for Blackmagic Resolve on Mac and improved handling of missing fonts when moving titles and templates between platforms.
The BCC+Light effect, which includes over 800 presets, adds a seamless texture option with wrap and reflect properties.
Continuum 2023 adds 250+ presets to the
MAXON, THE DEVELOPER of professional software solutions for editors, filmmakers, motion designers and visual effects artists, has announced several updates to the company’s product line.
Cinema 4D introduces a brand-new feature – Pyro allows artists to emit smoke, fire and explosions from any Cinema 4D object or spline and quickly simulate the effects on the GPU or CPU. Smoke density, fire temperature and more parameters can be controlled to art-direct the simulation.
Thanks to Pyro’s seamless integration with Cinema 4D’s Unified Simulation System, Cloth and Soft Bodies can be set ablaze and fan the flames.
Cinema 4D’s new integrated RS Camera makes it even easier to get the perfect shot, thanks to intuitive physical camera controls and Redshift effect settings. A new sensor fit option makes it easy to render with overscan or adapt compositions for various aspect ratios.
With the new Radial Symmetry artists can interactively model anything round by defining a number of slices and offset.
Viewport preview of Redshift materials was improved, with support for animated textures, ramps and colour correction nodes.
Support for procedural polygon selections and vertex maps on generators has been improved and now also includes support for field-based point and edge selections.
Forger continues to bring the comprehensive modelling capabilities of Cinema 4D to iPad with the addition of Symmetry modelling.
Mirror models in Forger with symmetry in this new release for a modelling experience on the iPad closer to what Cinema 4D offers on the desktop.
The latest version of VFX introduces the first full version of Real Lens Flares. With Schmutz and Diffraction, users can make a lens look grimy and add rippling effects to each lens flare reflection element.
Dozens of new presets as well as base lens prescriptions have been added to Real Lens Flares.
Schmutz makes a grimy lens sparkle in the light that is reflected off of the glass, letting the user
choose from multiple different textures. Diffraction happens as light bends around the edge of an aperture, adding a rippling effect in our reflections, while subtly softening the render.
Trapcode 2023.1 offers a completely refreshed and upgraded user interface for the Particular curves and colour gradients as well as new emitter block presets for Form behaviours and improved performance.
Particular’s new curve and colour gradient UIs make it easier than ever to control and art direct the look of particles. Strong inspiration was drawn from Cinema 4D so Maxon One users will feel right at home using them.
Four new Form behaviour presets were added to the Designer’s emitter block inside of Particular to speed up the creative process.
Several improvements have been added to the migration of older projects as well as improved Bounce physics.
Drastically enhanced interactivity with the Curve Pencil tool allows users to get desired results more quickly while having better control over your curve, thanks to Curve Multi-point selection, improved Curve Point Location controls and more.
Users can now save, load and share their own custom Curve and Gradient presets.
Redesigned Colour Gradients provide a more responsive experience, greater precision and flexibility in gradient creation.
Maxon continues to deliver valuable Capsule assets that subscribers can use as a creative kickstart. Artists can now easily compose a product shot with the new Backdrop Primitive.
A new Square Star Spline and FUI Ring Spline create a variety of crosshair and reticule shapes for FUI graphics.
An updated Cineware for Unreal integration now supports Cinema 4D 2023.1 and Unreal Engine 5.0.3. Easily import C4D files into Unreal and make changes without leaving the engine environment.
Visit https://www.maxon.net/en/
versatile plugin collection. The curated presets can be used as it or easily customised based on project needs.
BCC+ filters and transitions are GPUaccelerated on Apple M1, Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD graphics processors, and certain effects can see up to a 50% performance improvement over previous versions.
Visit https://borisfx.com
ADOBE’S PHOTOSHOP Elements 2023 and Premiere Elements 2023 include all-new features designed to make creative photo and video editing simple for users at any skill level. The new releases incorporate new Adobe Sensei AI-powered features to enable intuitive, streamlined editing, and offer step-by-step Guided Edits that everyone from beginners to advanced users will appreciate. Going beyond the desktop app, Elements 2023 also offers a connected experience with new web and mobile companion apps (English-only beta) that ease on-the-go photo and video access, viewing and sharing.
Some of the new features in Elements 2023 include:
AI advancements for photos and videos let users add Moving Elements to photos then save in social-ready formats including MP4 (videos) and GIFs (animated photos); Artistic Effects inspired by popular art styles let users transform entire video clips with one click.
Updated creative content including new backgrounds, patterns and skies.
New collage and slideshow templates. The ability to add the illusion of depth in photosCreate with Peek-through Overlays.
100 new audio tracks in Premiere Elements. New mobile companion app (English-only beta) to upload to the cloud.
Use the new web companion app (Englishonly beta) to share and view edited photos and videos, and create photo collages and multimedia slideshows.
Visit https://www.adobe.com
ANNOUNCED DaVinci Resolve 18.1, a major new update that adds support for editing in vertical resolutions such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram TV, as well as automatic locking of individual timelines within bins for multi user collaboration.
The update also adds DaVinci Neural Engine enabled AI dialogue leveller and AI voice isolation tools to the cut, edit and Fairlight pages as well as vector keyframing for Fairlight automation curve editing. Fairlight grid support has also been added allowing customers to position clips on a grid based on timecode or musical tempo.
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 also makes projects imported from ATEM Mini ISO projects easier to edit for customers, with audio now attaching to the video clips.
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 lets customers produce, export and post work quickly and easily on TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook shorts, Instagram TV and more. With added support for social media vertical resolutions such as 1080 x 1920, customers can choose square and vertical resolutions directly in project settings making it faster to setup a timeline to produce videos. Collaboration with other editors at the same time is also easier with the new timeline locking operation. This automatic operation prevents two users selecting the same timeline by locking it to the first user without the need to lock the whole timeline bin. Multiple editors can now work on different timelines in the same bin at the same time.
For audio, DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1 adds new AI based voice isolation track FX so customers can remove loud, undesirable sounds from voice recordings. By adding DaVinci Neural Engine enabled voice isolation to the cut, edit and Fairlight pages using a new DaVinci Neural Engine AI based core effects process, customers can isolate dialog from background sounds in a recording, eliminating everything else from moderate noise to aircraft and explosions leaving only the voice. Voice isolation is perfect for interviews and dialogue recordings from noisy locations.
The built in dialogue leveller track FX in the inspector processes and smoothes dialogue recordings without the need for tedious level adjustments on clip gain or automation curves. Controls include real time scrolling waveform display, focus presets and three process options which allow customers to easily achieve natural sounding results. With the new vector keyframing of Fairlight audio automation curves, customers now have the ability to graphically enter, edit, trim and nudge keyframes with standard tools. Plus, there’s a new automation editing view which allows for faster and simpler management of curves and keyframes. DaVinci Resolve 18.1 also adds Fairlight grid support so
customers can position clips on a grid based on timecode or musical tempo.
Editors now get a faster and smoother editing experience in this update with improved project importing when using ATEM Mini, so that audio is now attached to the video clips automatically making imported projects much easier to edit and helps improve workflows. DaVinci Resolve 18.1 adds DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor functionality to the edit page, including multicam switching, audio level, trim in, trim out and more! Plus, customers can use these functions in conjunction with the search dial for even more speed. There’s also support for subtitle track presets and per-track formatting rules. This means customers can now adjust individual settings for each subtitle caption, including font and style while retaining the track setting for size and background.
For Fusion users, customers can speed up their workflows with added support for magic mask in the Fusion page. The magic mask palette uses the DaVinci Neural Engine to detect animals, vehicles, people and objects, tracking their movement in a shot. Now customers can produce these clean travelling mattes directly in the Fusion page to add effects to characters or stylise the background. Plus, customers can now search for common keywords and categories for more than 200 tools. With this smart search functionality customers can filter the list without knowing the exact tool name to quickly find and apply tools to their visual effects.
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 also adds support for Dolby Vision 5.1.0 cinema trims, so customers can adjust the brightness levels of their high dynamic range images to optimise them for both cinema and television audiences. Customers can now also scale the DaVinci Resolve user interface incrementally to optimise the resolution for their specific Window or Linux display making it much easier to see the fonts on all aspects of the interface.
There are also significant performance improvements with multiple tools. Updates to
the internal processing result in up to 10x faster Text+, 5x faster stabilisation, face refinement tracking and analysis, 4x faster spatial noise reduction, better playback performance with large node graphs and improved Blackmagic RAW decoding on Apple silicon.
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 update is available now for download free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.
DaVinci Resolve for iPad
DaVinci Resolve 18.1 follows the release of DaVinci Resolve for iPad. Optimised for MultiTouch technology and Apple Pencil, DaVinci Resolve for iPad features support for cut and colour pages providing access to DaVinci’s image technology, colour finishing tools and latest HDR workflows. And Blackmagic Cloud support allows creators to collaborate with multiple users around the world. DaVinci Resolve for iPad will be available in Q4 2022 from the Apple App Store as a free download, with an upgrade to DaVinci Resolve Studio for iPad also available as an inapp purchase.
With optimised performance for Apple Silicon, DaVinci Resolve delivers 4x faster Ultra HD ProRes render performance on the new iPad Pro with M2. HDR is also supported for customers using an 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M1 chip.
Creators can send a clean feed grading monitor output to an Apple Studio Display, Pro Display XDR or an AirPlay compatible display. This lets customers use the external display to quickly create grades on set or colour correct clips in post production directly from their iPad.
The new DaVinci Resolve for iPad will open and create standard DaVinci Resolve project files which are compatible with the desktop version of DaVinci Resolve 18. Supported file formats include H.264, H.265, Apple ProRes and Blackmagic RAW, with clips able to be imported from the iPad Pro internal storage and Photos library, or externally connected iCloud and USB-C media disks.
Visit https://www.blackmagicdesign.com
MEDIA PRESERVATION and migration services provider Memnon is set to commence work on a major project with New Zealand’s archival agencies to digitally preserve the people’s audiovisual (AV) heritage collections held by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, The National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand. The project was titled Utaina by Ngā Taonga, which translates as ‘load the precious freight on board’, and has received more than NZD$40 million in government funding to protect the nation’s precious sound and video recordings held by the heritage organisations.
As the archival migration partner for the nation’s audiovisual collection, Memnon has built
a state-of-the-art audiovisual preservation facility in New Zealand to meet the needs and requirements for the Utaina project. Managed by Ben Whitney, Director of Production and Operations New Zealand, the Memnon team are working to preserve important historical archives that are at risk of deterioration despite being stored in climate-controlled vaults. The new Memnon facility in Wellington has created job opportunities and is fully staffed by local talent. New roles are expected to open as the facility ramps up and offers similar services to other agencies, institutions, and private companies, in NZ, the Pacific and the rest of Australasia.
Since commencing in mid-2022,
SGO HAS RELEASED an upgrade of its Media Management, Transcoding and Delivery solution Mistika Workflows, adding several new features to further optimise content delivery processes and Metadata Management.
One of the major emphasis of the latest developments are intelligent functionalities facilitating endto-end metadata integration in the trending post-production workflows.
“Efficient and meticulous metadata management has become the industry standard and requirement for every (post) facility delivering content to OTT platforms or major distribution companies,” comments Miguel Angel Doncel, CEO at SGO and the “brain” behind Mistika Workflows.
“The newly integrated set of dedicated features provides the users with absolute control
to completely automate and customise their metadata management tasks.”
Maintaining relevant metadata throughout the whole post pipeline, or even modify and add the details to the metadata file, such as production team, scene or recording information.
The ability to export the metadata to an XMP or CSV format, unlocks the communication with other post software, such as DaVinci Resolve or Silverstack.
As a complement to fully automated metadata management, a new token system has been added to the Name Convention. This smart tool enables the creation of dynamic name conventions and paths based on the file’s metadata. Users can select among several different tokens, such as resolution, colour space or framerate.
the initial phases of the project have seen the successful installation of specialist equipment and the recruitment of industry experts. A significant milestone was achieved last month at the facility, with the ceremonial arrival of the first Group 2 assets from the National Library for assessment and digitisation/migration. The project is expected to be completed in 2025 and will include the preservation of approximately 350,000 original AV items provided by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, 106,000 from the National Library, and 10,500 from Archives New Zealand.
“The playback equipment necessary for digital preservation is becoming obsolete,” said Jessica Moran, Associate Chief Librarian, Research Collection, National Library of New Zealand. “The general age-related decay of these collections makes it progressively difficult and expensive to maintain, so it was critical that we found a digitisation partner who could help preserve our cultural heritage for generations to come.”
Memnon CEO Heidi Shakespeare.
“We’re deeply honoured that the nation has instilled its trust in us and chosen Memnon as its partner to help preserve the peoples
taonga (treasures),” said Heidi Shakespeare, CEO, Memnon. “We’re excited to have officially touched down in New Zealand and look forward to working closely with the nation’s archival agencies to protect hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable cultural assets for the future.”
To acknowledge the project teams and the partnership with Memnon that has started the biggest mass AV digitisation project in the world, a celebration event was held on 17 November in Wellington. Attendees heard from New Zealand Ministers Hon Jan Tinetti and Hon Kiri Allan, Chief Executive Honiana Love from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, National Librarian Rachel Esson, and Memnon CEO Heidi Shakespeare. Visit https://www.memnon.com
Media management is another big focus of this latest release, introducing new features that further facilitate delivery processes. With the new Smart Conform filtering, Mistika Workflows is now capable of exclusively conforming the files that have been used in the final edit, filtering from XML, EDL or AAF files.
Media can now also be classified by extension, with the ability to add/remove the extensions by the user’s preference.
Additional features allowing the manipulation of media have also been added to Mistika Workflows. 3D LUTs can now be applied to your media automatically, being generated in Mistika Boutique or in any other program. With the framing node you’re now able to automatically apply any of the framing operations to your media,
including resolution change, transform, re-scale and crop. This version of Mistika Workflows also includes render farm integration, currently supporting Deadline. RND support has also been added, opening unlimited ways of its implementation and facilitating the automation of the repetitive tasks. For example –users can save a specific stitch they performed in Mistika VR or Boutique as an .rnd file and then batch apply it to as many files as needed. The same philosophy applies for the VFX, Color Management and other tasks. Several new features for virtual production and immersive media workflows include automatic stitch refiner feature, STMaps application and 7th Sense integration.
Visit https://www.sgo.es/
OBJECT MATRIX, a provider of object storage solutions to the broadcast and media industries, has partnered with Resilio, a data synchronisation and file delivery solutions provider for global enterprises and media companies.
The combination of Object Matrix with Resilio provides users with the ability to rapidly synchronise files whilst ensuring that access to their media assets is secure, efficient, and simple. This is a critical aspect for broadcast and media organisations who are operating in a fastmoving, highly competitive digital environment where every second counts.
Resilio Connect securely unifies the edge, core, and cloud, enabling IT to gain control of globally distributed assets, automate data management, and accelerate transfer performance by up to 20x over conventional tools, across any location and network. Resilio’s real-time P2P file replication is popular with post-production professionals as a solution to sync massive files – for example 4k and 8k videos, interactive media or video game developer builds and more – with partners and remote offices, plus empowers the new generation of dispersed remote-work teams.
Integrated with Object Matrix’s MatrixStore
object storage solution, users can access their content securely from anywhere, at any time.
With built-in security, analytics, and intuitive interfaces, MatrixStore delivers operational efficiencies, full digital content governance, and multiple media-based workflows.
The partnership provides organisations in the broadcast and media industry with the ability to automate, visualise, and accelerate file delivery 10x faster across any server environment, whilst benefiting from a secure way to store their media archive.
Mark Habberfield, Global Sales Engineer at Object Matrix commented: “Resllio adds great end user functionality to the MatrixStore Cloud S3 interface, providing fast, intelligent, media syncing to secure, feature rich MatrixStore. Having a similar customer focused mindset makes for easy collaboration between our teams.”
DATACORE SOFTWARE has announced it has partnered with Symply, a developer of highspeed digital storage solutions, to create a new media-optimised, easily transportable on-set appliance. SymplyTRANSPORTER, powered by DataCore Perifery, is a highly scalable, flexible, and secure object storage platform, simplifies content capture, preprocessing, categorisation, searchability, and seamless content integration into a facility’s DataCore Swarm or SymplyPerifery, as well as movement of content to other archive systems or primary storage. Utilising the new appliance, organisations and users in the media and entertainment industry can quickly and securely capture and transport content from the field and on-set locations to their in-house facilities.
“SymplyTRANSPORTER is the answer to the growing demand for on-set and remote media workflow appliances that offer capabilities beyond portable RAID arrays,” said Abhijit Dey, Chief Product Officer at DataCore. “As media workflows continue to evolve and capacities grow, RAID rebuild times for re-preparing for field use and the inability to host applications on-set, hinders efficiency and greatly slows down production. Our solution enables faster, safer, and more efficient transport of media content with state-of-the-art data protection and exclusive capabilities such as categorisation and searchability.”
SymplyTRANSPORTER is ideal for content creators and owners, including post production facilities, independent producers, and studios that produce content remotely. The appliance allows users to safely store and transport content, add metadata, and seamlessly integrate assets into larger facility storage faster and easier than using common hard drive and SSD-based arrays, with no time
wasted in rebuilding and re-preparing RAID arrays. Automated pre-processing capabilities on the SymplyTRANSPORTER solution save users significant time and effort, eliminating the need for expensive, complex servers and other hardware.
The appliance includes the new DataCore Perifery Panel for Adobe Premiere Pro. The Perifery Panel streamlines content access for SymplyTRANSPORTER users on Adobe Premiere Pro. SymplyTRANSPORTER also leverages third-party software applications to automate key workflow tasks such as content preprocessing, categorisation, and provisioning, maximising on-set data collection.
“We’re excited to expand our partnership with DataCore,” said Keith Warburton, CEO at Symply. “Just like our SymplyPerifery media-optimised appliance for facilities, SymplyTRANSPORTER leverages the power of DataCore Perifery next-generation object storage to streamline the process of bringing content shot on-location back to the facility for editing, saving media organisations valuable time and money.”
The plug-and-play lightweight appliance is designed for portable operation and comes in a NANUK waterproof case, offering missioncritical protection, trouble-free transportation, and ease of use. The media appliance will be available in December 2022.
Visit https://www.datacore.com
Josh Sargent, Vice President of Partnerships at Resilio said: “Moving and syncing large media files is a daily challenge for creative and postproduction professionals. Object Matrix is an inspiring innovator in this ecosystem and has a reputation for delivering robust solutions for mission-critical data. We’re excited to integrate Resilio with Object Matrix to bring our ultra-fast and scalable peer-to-peer file synchronisation technology to the innovative MatrixStore platform.”
Visit https://object-matrix.com
ATELIERE CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, a developer of media supply chain solutions, has made available a free-to-use cloud storage savings calculator that allows content creators to visualise the potential cloud storage reduction and cost savings by deduplicating video using Ateliere’s technology. Many of today’s content creators produce multiple versions of media projects and titles to meet localisation, compliance and other distribution requirements. Storing the duplicate media can account for additional terabytes of unnecessary cloud storage expense. Ateliere’s cloudnative media supply chain solutions offer a deduplication feature that can reduce cloud storage footprints for most content creators by 70 percent or more, resulting in significant financial savings.
“At a time of record inflation, the cost of everyday expenses has gone up. In spite of this, our customers have been able to cut cloud storage costs significantly by using Ateliere to eliminate the duplicate media files stored in their content libraries and archives,” states Eric Carson, Chief Revenue Officer, Ateliere. “The cloud storage savings calculator gives content creators a way to accurately estimate and visualise their cost savings when they switch to Ateliere to manage their content.”
Users can break down storage figures by total hours of content, episodic and feature information, and number of alternate versions. Easily understandable bar charts clearly show cost savings by the AWS tier of storage used. For large media companies, savings could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
Visit https://ateliere.com/deduplication-calculator/
SONNET TECHNOLOGIES RECENTLY announced the SF3 Series – AJA PAK Media Pro Card Reader, the latest model in its family of professional media readers. The SF3 Series –AJA PAK Media Pro Card Reader features dual card slots and a dual-port 40Gbps Thunderbolt interface, and ingests files captured to AJA PAK Media SSD cards, which were developed for use in the latest AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G, as well as the Ki Pro Ultra and Ki Pro Ultra Plus 4K/UltraHD/2K/HD file-based recorders and players. The Sonnet card reader is compatible with all Thunderbolt 4 computers; all M1, M2, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra Mac computers; and all Thunderbolt 3 Mac and Windows computers. “As project timelines across the production chain continue to tighten, the ability to quickly ingest files originating from AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G and other Ki Pro Ultra recorders is paramount to staying on schedule. The Sonnet SF3 Series – AJA PAK Media Pro Card Reader provides a unique dual-slot solution with Thunderbolt connectivity that gives professionals more flexibility and speed in the field,” said AJA President Nick Rashby. The SF3 Series – AJA PAK Media Pro Card Reader ingests footage from all PAK Media cards up to their maximum supported speeds. Designed for demanding workflows, Sonnet SF3 Series card readers are built with rugged
aluminium enclosures and dual 40Gbps Thunderbolt ports, enabling users to stack and connect as many as six readers in a daisy chain to their computers through a single cable and ingest footage from four, six, or more cards simultaneously.
AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G recorders enable up to four channels of simultaneous 1080p at 60 fps recording (or 4K at 60 fps recording in single-channel mode) while utilising codecs up to Apple ProRes 4444 XQ or Avid DNxHR HQX. One SF3 Series – AJA PAK Media Pro Card Reader can ingest files simultaneously from two cards at up to 1,030MB/s, cutting ingest times in half (or better) compared to any single-slot reader available. Because Sonnet PAK Media card readers utilise dual Thunderbolt ports to support daisy chain connections, users can connect three readers to their computer to exploit the 2,800MB/s of PCIe bandwidth Thunderbolt provides and ingest six PAK Media cards.
The Sonnet SF3 Series – AJA PAK Media Pro Card Reader is the only dual-slot PAK Media card reader available. Professionals working with multiple types of media or in a small
FANTOM DRIVES recently announced VENOM8, the company’s high-performance portfolio of NVMe solid state drives for high throughput gaming, virtual reality, 4K/8K video production, and business applications. The new drive models are available in 1, 2 and 4TB drive capacities and feature easy installation with PCIe, Gen 4, Gen3, Gen2, and Gen1 motherboards.
According to Fantom Drives, the VENOM8 Solid State Drive line with PCIe Gen4 x 4 interface is one of the fastest solid state drives available in the consumer market, with industry-leading read and write speeds. In addition to the above listed motherboard
compatibilities, VENOM8 models also offer plug-and-play compatibility with PlayStation 5 gaming consoles. Using the latest 3D TLC NAND technology, the VENOM8 line provides video/ audio professionals, gamers and business professionals with the highest performance solution possible to run the most intensive games and software.
Features of VENOM8 Drives Include:
• Hyper performance read/write speeds up to 45X faster than hard drives, 13X faster than SATA SSDs, and 2X faster than previous generation M.2 NVMe drives.
ATTO TECHNOLOGY has announced its hardware and software fully support the latest operating system from Apple, macOS 13 Ventura.
All ATTO adapters, software, and utilities have been tested with Apple devices that use both Apple and Intel silicon to verify compatibility and were subjected to thorough performance
evaluations to ensure they operate at the highest level with macOS 13. Data density and complexity typify most workflows. The same technology from ATTO that Hollywood studios rely upon is equally effective across all industries.
Products in the ATTO portfolio supporting macOS 13 Ventura
workspace can conveniently stack multiple SF3 Series – AJA PAK Media, SxS PRO X, CFexpress / XQD, RED MINI-MAG, and CFast 2.0 readers in the same footprint and connect them all to a computer through a single Thunderbolt cable, which is game-changing. Support for simultaneous multi-card ingest allows users to complete the process without swapping cards and in much less time with single-slot readers, and then return the cards to use for recording. For applications that require gear to be mounted in equipment racks, Sonnet SF3 Series readers include threaded mounting holes to support installation in a standard rack shelf, enabling side-by-side mounting of two readers in 1U of rack space. Visit https://www.sonnettech.com
• Simple installation and compatibility with PCIe, Gen4, Gen3, Gen2 and Gen 1 motherboards.
• Fast PC and console gaming load time performance with deep gaming library capacity. Load games faster than a stock PS5 SSD drive and store over 100 directly playable games with the 4TB VENOM8.
• Future-proof SSD storage integrated with 176-Layer 3D NAND technology and SK Hynix DDR4 DRAM Cache. VENOM8 is equipped with TRIM support, SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), APST, and LDPC ECC algorithm.
include:
• ATTO Celerity 32Gb/s (Gen 7 and Gen 6), 16Gb/s (Gen 6) and 8Gb
Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) with ATTO MultiPath Director.
• ATTO ExpressSAS GT 12Gb SAS HBAs.
• Thunderbolt enabled ATTO ThunderLink adapters.
• High reliability with 3000 TBW endurance, 1.6 million hours of MTBF, and an extended 5-Year warranty.
• Military-grade data security with End-to-End Data Path Protection and AES 256-bit encryption.
Available VENOM8 models include:
• VM8X10: 1TB Drive – UPC: 749656173378
• VM8X20: 2TB Drive – UPC: 749656173385
• VM8X40: 4TB Drive – UPC: 749656173392
Visit https://www.fantomdrives.com
• ATTO FastFrame 10/25/40/50/100GbE SmartNICs.
• Software including ATTO 360 Tuning Software, ATTO Xtend SAN iSCSI Initiator, ATTO ConfigTool, XstreamVIEW, Express NAV and QuickNAV. Visit https://www.atto.com
WITH MORE THAN 45 radio markets and over 160 radio stations with 24-hour layout, SCA has been using AoIP technology from Telos Alliance since 2009. Consistently moving and transitioning teams across 45 radio markets, SCA has been able to manage, structure, and support measures across all broadcasts into their main Sydney, Australia building.
Telos Alliance’s R&D department has worked closely with SCA in developing the systems and methods to turn SCA into Australia’s most diverse entertainment company with audio reaching over 95% of Australians. SCA’s new studio transformed their streaming capabilities. They combined the audio power of more than 3,000 pieces of Telos Alliance equipment from xNodes, Axia Consoles, Pathfinder Core and more with SCA’s own new visual capabilities, which evolved their radio broadcast and media production.
The ability to transition into a new phase with ease is part of why they continually choose Telos Alliance to help them create, innovate, and lead radio broadcast and entertainment media. SCA boasts an unrivalled portfolio of Australian multimedia brands such as Triple M and Hit Network; they own and operate 99 radio stations across FM, AM, and DAB+ radio.
SCA also operates LiSTNR, Australia’s free audio destination for consumers, housing radio, podcasts, music and news. They also broadcast 93 free-toair TV signals across regional Australia, reaching 2.7 million people each week–all with the help of Telos Alliance equipment and team.
According to Dan Jackson, SCA
Head Of Engineering, “We’ve been a massive advocate of AoIP and the Telos products, it’s really change our organisation, its changed how we can structure and support, just prior to covid and we’ve centralised our entire support team into Sydney and that was only possible because of AoIP and the Telos products.
“In our audio on demand spaces, the spaces without the radio consoles, we are utilising Pathfinder Core panels that integrates in our lighting systems, signage system and
ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA will be heard in the Republic of Marshall Islands for the first time in more than five years.
Under a new Memorandum of Understanding, ABC Radio Australia programs will be carried on the Republic of Marshall Islands’ national broadcaster, V7AB.
ABC Managing Director, David Anderson, said the new partnership is a first step towards the aim of establishing a full FM radio service in RMI: “Radio is a critical information source, especially where communities are scattered and remote. This initiative is an expression of
the ABC’s commitment to Pacific audiences.”
Head of ABC International Services, Claire Gorman, acknowledged the support of the Australian Embassy in Majuro for brokering the agreement.
“The ABC is delighted to renew our relationship with RMI audiences and contribute to building links between Australia and countries across the Pacific,” she said.
Ms Gorman said ABC Radio Australia covers issues across Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia.
“We will be sharing a curated selection of
Radio & Audio has announced that a new hybrid audience measurement system for the GfK metropolitan radio surveys will be introduced from Survey 1 in March 2023, The enhancement will see the radio ratings produced using audience data collected from predominantly electronic diaries and live radio streaming data obtained from station web server logs and the GfK Sensic tagging system. The streaming data will be verified by data collected from panels of respondents wearing GfK’s MediaWatch wearable meter and will be
scientifically integrated into the radio ratings dataset.
According to CRA, the Radio360 system is the most significant investment and change to the radio audience measurement system in Australia since ratings began.
CRA Chief Executive Officer, Ford Ennals, said the new approach would provide more robust and granular listening data for agencies and advertisers and enable a deeper view of the size of the streaming audience.
“We will launch the new radio measurement system from Survey 1 next year in March. This
a Fusion engine to manage all those space from an audio perspective, all from an iPad on a Pathfinder Core panel that way there’s no computer screens no controls, you can take the desk out and put a couch in.
“We’re a big user of Pathfinder Pro, moving to Pathfinder Core has been a challenge but the flexibility and use of the panels are perfect and exactly what we need.”
Visit https://www.telosalliance.com/
programs made for, with and about Pacific communities. This agreement will extend access to ABC Radio Australia’s high-quality radio content across the region.”
Programs under the agreement include the flagship regional current affairs Pacific Beat and programs about gender empowerment, disaster preparedness, sport, music and general interest.
ABC Radio Australia programs can be heard on V7AB Radio Marshall Islands on AM Radio at 1098 kHz.
Visit https://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia
will be the first iteration of the new hybrid methodology and we will work with GfK to continue to develop and explore further enhancements.
“We also plan to provide additional information on podcast listening by including podcast consumption questions into the lifestyle questionnaire that is part of the diary. These insights will provide information such as podcast listening frequency, time of day and other data,” he said.
Visit https://www.commercialradio.com.au
RADIO 2WAY is an Australian community radio station founded in 1986, serving the Port Macquarie Hastings Council region on NSW’s east coast, with a very varied content and a focus on local information and local music.
Traditionally, 2WAY FM has worked with analogue material, but the station’s management has decided to modernise its studios with digital technology and has opted for the AEQ CAPITOL IP console as the heart of the system. In the choice of such important equipment, due to the characteristics of the installation and the operators, they were looking for equipment that would offer the maximum audio quality with the latest digital technology available, but always guaranteeing a very userfriendly operation.
2WAY FM’s original set-up included a series of balance amplifiers connected with a tangle of cables that no one currently knew very well, so the station members felt they had limited knowledge of how to replace the studio equipment. At that point 2Ways FM approached one of their colleagues Mr Ross Wheeler (of Radio Tank FM) who recommended the services of Broadcast Components, AEQ’s local partner.
After analysis with 2WAY FM, it was decided that starting from scratch was perhaps the best option for the station. This allowed the station to have a complete digital solution, minimise cabling and also prepare the studio for future. Broadcast Components were able to use some of the station’s existing equipment, which
helped to keep the build within budget.
Broadcast Components assisted the station, travelling to the site for the installation. All existing analogue equipment was dismantled, new ethernet cable was installed and the digital studios began to come together.
AEQ CAPITOL IP console was the choice for studios 1 and 2 due to its configurable 8-channel faders that are more than sufficient for the stations’ requirements. This desk also easily integrates existing CD players into the stations with the help of the handy Twinmatch. Adding an AEQ Netbox32 allowed for convenient audio switching both from the studios and from the air. Together with a presence switch, they work very well with the DANTE solution. Finally a 542APC processor was added, packed with features including RDS, 5-band processing and audio quality analyser to take the sound of the stations to the next level. Completing the installation with loudspeakers, HD280 headphones and individual level controls for each presenter and guest.
GAGL IS A CLOUD SERVICE for remote contribution from Comrex. Gagl allows between one and five users to send and receive audio from computers and smartphones. Each user receives their own mix-minus to hear other connected guests, and the Gagl audio is delivered to a Comrex hardware codec (such as ACCESS or BRIC-Link, usually in a studio). All participants can hear other participants and the codec “sends” audio back to them.
Participants can connect and send audio by simply clicking a link using any common web browser. Gagl is designed to be used with consumer grade equipment, so contributors only need a device and a headset to get on the air. Gagl uses the Opus audio encoder, with a bit rate that delivers both voice and music in excellent quality. Gagl also delivers audio directly to a Comrex codec with all the stability enhancements, pro-grade audio connections, and features that hardware codecs
THE NT-USB+ FROM RØDE is a professional USB microphone that makes capturing studio-quality sound simple. Building on the legacy of the legendary NT-USB with next-generation features, it excels in a wide variety of
applications, from recording music to podcasting and streaming.
Delivering pristine audio quality with ease of use, the NT-USB+ features: a studio-grade condenser capsule with tight cardioid polar pattern; ultra-low-noise, high-gain
AEQ CAPITOL IP is an 8-channel fixed configuration Digital Audio mixing console. In CAPITOL IP the implementation of IP connectivity is based on a single module of 16 input and 16 output channels, incorporated in its core. One of the main qualities of AEQ CAPITOL IP is the wide input capacity available: 4 mic/line, 12 analogue, 4 digital stereo AES/ EBU (AES3), 2 digital stereo USB, 2 optional telephone lines, and optional digital multichannel audio links; 16 AoIP channels over two Ethernet connectors or 64 MADI channels input over optical fibre.
Visit https://www.2wayfm.com.au https://broadcastcomponents.com.au and https://www.aeq.eu
provide. The simple user interface makes it easy for users with any level of technical experience to use. Gagl could be used as the hub for a news program or for a morning radio show to support multiple simultaneous contributor connections. Because it offers low latency, it’s appropriate for call-in talk radio. Gagl could also be used to allow a single contributor to connect back to the studio from a computer or smartphone.
Gagl works with Comrex hardware IP audio codecs including the AES67-compatible ACCESS NX Rack IP audio codec and ACCESS MultiRack multi-channel IP audio codec as well as the BRIC-Link series.
Gagl subscriptions are available for $35.00 USD per month or $350.00 USD per year with a free 14-day trial.
Visit https://www.comrex.com
Revolution Preamp; APHEX audio processing accessible via RØDE Connect, RØDE Central and RØDE Reporter; high-power headphone output with zero-latency monitoring and versatile controls; USB-C connectivity with high-
resolution analogue-digital conversion; detachable pop filter and desktop stand; class-compliant USB output that works seamlessly with computers, smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android).
Visit https://rode.com
Contact Adam Buick adam@broadcastpapers.com or +61 (0) 413 007 144
AFTER WHAT THE COMPANY says has been more than three years in development, audio manufacturer RØDE has launched a streaming and gaming division, RØDE X, dedicated to developing high-performance audio solutions specifically for streamers and gamers.
According to the company, the new division employs a dedicated streaming and gaming R&D department appointed to developing a brand-new product line, of which the first three products are now available worldwide: UNIFY, a virtual mixing solution custom-designed for streaming and gaming, and two new professional USB microphones – the XDM100 dynamic USB microphone and XCM-50 condenser USB microphone.
“We are incredibly excited about the launch of RØDE X,” said RØDE CEO Damien Wilson.
“For more than three decades, RØDE has been the go-to audio brand for the world’s creators. We have made it our mission to provide professional audio solutions to musicians, filmmakers, podcasters and broadcasters.
Listening to and learning from creators is what we do and has led to the development of groundbreaking products like the VideoMic, RØDECaster Pro and Wireless GO. Now we’re doing the same for streamers and gamers.”
The hero of the RØDE X launch range is UNIFY. Designed to be the ultimate audio software for streaming and gaming, UNIFY consolidates functionality that would otherwise require multiple applications into one easy-to-use solution. This includes routing and mixing up to four USB microphones or other audio devices and up to six virtual audio sources (including game, chat, music and browser applications) in one intuitive interface; creating independent sub-mixes for different outputs, including your livestream, headphones and chat; adding studio-grade audio processing to your microphone channels; triggering on-the-fly sound effects; multitrack recording and more. The software comes free with all RØDE X products or is available for purchase as a monthly or yearly subscription for use with any other USB audio product.
Alongside UNIFY in the range are two brandnew microphones: the XDM-100 and XCM-50. The XDM-100 is a professional dynamic USB microphone that delivers rich, broadcast audio ideal for streaming and gaming. It features premium circuitry with RØDE’s ultra-lownoise, high-gain Revolution Preamp and high-resolution 24-bit/48 kHz analogue-digital conversion.
Its studio-grade dynamic capsule and tight cardioid polar pattern offer excellent clarity with superior rejection of room noise and keyboard or mouse clicks, and it comes with a high-quality pop shield and shock mount for mitigating unwanted pops, knocks and bumps. A high-power headphone output provides flawless zero-latency audio monitoring and playback, complete with hands-on level control and microphone mute functionality.
The XCM-50,meanwhile, is a professional condenser USB microphone also optimised for streaming and gaming. It delivers highly detailed voice reproduction with incredible warmth and presence thanks to its full frequency response. It, too, features a high-power headphone output complete with a level control and mute button, and an internal pop shield and capsule shock
mount provide protection from pops, knocks and bumps. The XCM-50 comes with a desktop tripod and features an integrated 360-degree swing mount for flexible mic positioning.
Both microphones feature powerful internal digital signal processing (DSP), which can be unlocked using UNIFY. This allows you to add advanced APHEX audio processing to your voice – including a compressor, noise gate, highpass filter, and the legendary Aural Exciter and Big Bottom effects – with full granular control over every parameter for crafting your own signature sound. Together, UNIFY and a RØDE X microphone offer a complete audio solution for streaming or gaming with the full capabilities of a professional broadcast studio.
These products are the first in the RØDE X range, with more slated for release in 2023 and beyond.
“The launch of RØDE X marks an exciting new era for RØDE,” said Damien Wilson. “In addition to these two incredible microphones and UNIFY, we have a suite of groundbreaking products currently in development that are going to shape the future of audio for streaming and gaming. This is just the beginning.”
Visit https://rodex.com/en
SONY ELECTRONICS’
Audio Division recently announced a new microphone for home studios, the C-80, a unidirectional condenser microphone ideal for vocal/ voice recording, instrumental recording, vlogging, webcasting and podcasting. This new product inherits the technology of Sony’s C-800G and C-100 microphones.
Utilising the microphone capsule derived from the C-100 and a two part metallic anti-vibrational body structure used in the C-800G, the C-80 inherits the essence of these two industry standard models.
Dual diaphragm configuration suppresses sonic changes with distance (proximity effect) and allows more
stability in the vocal recording process.
‘Noise Elimination Construction’ developed for the C-800G/C-100 prevents microphone body acoustic vibration, resulting in low noise and clear sound.
Sonic Characteristics of the C-80 include:
• Tight and rich mid-range capture provides a vocal sound with a clear core and presence, allowing vocals to stand out even when mixed with other instrumental sounds.
• Realistic reproduction of
the characteristics of an instrument, such as the sound of guitar strings and the resonance of the body.
• Natural and clear vocal recording is achieved by suppressing boomy low frequencies and noise when close to the microphone.
The C-80 joins Sony’s lineup of professional audio products including the MDR Series of headphones, wireless microphone systems, and portable field recorders.
Visit https://pro.sony
MARQUEE, THE AUSTRALIAN-DEVELOPED seamless advertising instruction platform for the media industry, has announced the launch of a radio module, designed to manage the advertising instruction process for radio campaigns.
The radio module allows media agencies, advertisers, creatives, and media owners to communicate and apply client campaign instructions via an intuitive, integrated, realtime platform that provides visibility over every stage of the process.
The radio product follows the launch in 2021 of Marquee’s television module. According to the company, the television module has been a great success with leading agencies and prolific advertisers using the platform to communicate thousands of campaigns.
The Marquee platform is an Australian first and fulfils the need for a critically important final step in the campaign management process between agencies, advertisers and media owners. Marquee provides a single source of truth, connecting all parties to de-risk and create substantial efficiencies for all parties, by up to 75% versus the old labour-intensive process.
Marquee was established by former Network 10 Head of Ad Operations, Tracey Iskander, who saw first-hand costly campaign errors in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. She was joined at Marquee by co-founder and Commercial Director, Murray Burden, previously the Commercial Director of Adstream (now Extreme Reach), the creative logistics company.
“We decided to launch Marquee from our
previous experience of witnessing the labour intensive, pressure cooker and cumbersome process of materials instructions. The volume of information is relentless, with many people to communicate with, many moving parts and significant margin for costly errors. Marquee is a digital transformation solution that improves the process for all parties,” Iskander said.
Murray Burden said: “Following the great success of our TV launch last year, we are excited to now launch radio, again allowing the industry to streamline a very complex process for radio campaigns with a seamless, centralised platform. We have big plans to launch our solution in other media sectors and introduce further enhancements in the near future.”
According to SCA Head of Revenue Operations, Donna Lennox, “The uniformity of Marquee’s radio product is really a great initiative. We receive various instructions from agencies and clients in various formats and, as a result, there is a lot of deciphering that needs to happen. Marquee provides our teams with the consistency and standardisation that is so helpful in this dynamic and fast-paced environment.”
PHD National Head of Investment, Joanna Barnes said: “A significant amount of time and expertise is spent on campaign strategy, planning and buying – and ensuring these messages are delivered in market with accuracy and timeliness is critical for advertisers and agencies. PHD constantly looks at ways to automate and innovate to ensure our teams remain focussed on solving our clients’ business challenges. Marquee successfully connects all
Starcom Investment Director, Penny Gordon, said: “At Starcom, we are always reviewing ways in which we can drive operational excellence and how we use technology to streamline workflow for our clients. We recognised that Marquee was leading the way in terms of being an innovative solution around automated material instructions. To date, our teams have had positive feedback in terms of process and time saving which ultimately benefits our clients.”
The radio module is now available on Marquee. Visit https://www.marqueeio.com
The Bluetooth Gadget is the modern way to connect phones, tablets and computers. Eliminate the messy cables and adapters and the annoying whine of digital ground loops. Equipped with AAC and the virtually-lossless APTX codec algorithms, the Bluetooth Gadget always chooses the best possible codec for the connected device.
IT IS NOW OVER A CENTURY since the first commercially available radio receivers for cars began to find their way into the horseless carriages of the day, and since that time both audio engineers and producers have checked their mixes against the in-car listening experience.
The latest development for “mobile boomboxes” is a collaboration between Mercedes Benz, Apple Music and Universal Music Group (UMG) which builds upon the integration of Dolby Atmos immersive audio in the optional Burmester high-end 4D and 3D sound system offered in Mercedes Benz vehicles with the latest MBUX generation.
With this new audio standard, UMG is enabling its recording artists to base their song approval process on how the final mix sounds in a Mercedes Benz and introduce the seal “Approved in a Mercedes Benz” as a gold standard of sound. UMG additionally plans to set up a studio environment in Sindelfingen, Germany, based on its Capitol
Studios’ Studio C, a major global reference music studio for Dolby Atmos mixing.
For the first time available natively in a non-Apple device, the native integration of Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos from Apple Music makes music available in Dolby Atmos easily accessible for customers of Mercedes Benz and Apple Music alike.
While the Burmester Premium 3D sound system already offers a premium listening experience, the Burmester High-End 4D sound system uses speakerlike resonators featuring sound massage with surround speakers integrated into the seats.
The Burmester high-end 4D sound system includes: 31 speakers, including six 3D speakers that emit their sound from above, 4 near-ear speakers in the front seats, an 18.5-liter subwoofer; 8 sound transducers (two per seat); 2 amplifiers; and 1750 watts power.
Apple Music’s Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos now available natively in-vehicle for the first time
AEQ XPEAK SUPPORTS up to 28 user terminals in different formats: desktop, rack, wired belt-pack, wireless belt-pack, and PC application. All terminals interconnect with maximum operational flexibility and without the need for a matrix.
XPEAK interconnectivity is very simple, even if the devices are in different locations, via WAN or Internet access. If a user panel is configured to work remotely, when switched on it will search and find the rest of the system’s user panels within the network, being ready to work in a few seconds.
Its wired user terminals have Bluetooth and USB connections, admitting all types of headsets (headphone/microphone combinations) with these interfaces and facilitating connection with smartphones and PCs.
Stationary user terminals have 8 keys and the belt-packs 4 keys. The keys are arranged on two pages, doubling the number of users or user groups each panel can interact with.
If not used in a XPEAK system, these units can work as user panels or terminals in large systems with
COMREX’S BRIC-LINK III is a true codec, offering a full-duplex stereo encoder and decoder in each box. A jitter buffer manager is incorporated that automatically balances delay and stability, dynamically increasing and decreasing delay based on network performance. BRIC-link III offers a wide range of encoding algorithms including stereo and mono linear mode, FLAC modes, AAC/HE-AAC modes, Opus, G.722 and G.711.
BRIC-Link III features a new, more powerful processor for improved reliability. BRIC-Link III also features enhanced front panel indicators, including four buttons
which will trigger contact closures by default and configurable for auto-connections to other Comrex IP audio codecs.
BRIC-Link III is compatible with all other Comrex IP audio codecs, including the ACCESS codec line as well as older BRIC-Link models.
BRIC-Link III also works with Gagl, a new service now available for purchase for audio contribution. Gagl turns any Comrex IP audio codec into a hub for up to five remote participants.
Like other BRIC-Link codecs, BRICLink III includes CrossLock VPN technology, Comrex’s proprietary
Mercedes Benz drivers who are already subscribed to Apple Music will gain immediate access to an ever-growing selection of songs and albums available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.
UMG actively encourages its artists and record labels to produce music mixed in Dolby Atmos immersive audio. As part of the agreement, Mercedes Benz will provide UMG with vehicles equipped with the Burmester high-end
AEQ Conexia or Crossnet matrix. They can also be integrated into the simple AEQ Easynet Party-Line Systems.
Other features include:
• A Terminal can work in different locations and subscribe to different virtual networks, to participate in different remote productions.
• The system can be expanded temporarily or permanently via the cloud.
• It has the same operational flexibility as an AEQ matrix system working on a “peer to peer” basis, without a matrix.
sound system for creative and technical assurances, with the aim for UMG to ensure its music receives the seal “Approved in a Mercedes Benz”.
Dolby Atmos will first be available in the Mercedes Maybach S Class, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as well as the EQE, EQE SUV, EQS and EQS SUV.
Visit https://www.dolby.com
• Supports 4-channel Party-Line operation to minimise setup effort.
• Stationary panels can be connected in the most convenient way, with an IP switch or in “Daisy Chain”.
• Users connected to a panel can be coordinated while receiving the audio of the production they are developing.
• Bluetooth connection with a smartphone or audio with a walkie-talkie system will allow coordination outside the system with remote users.
Visit https://aeq.es/xpeak
suite of reliability tools. In addition to bonding technology, CrossLock also includes a Redundancy Mode for mission-critical applications. BRIC-Link III can take advantage of HotSwap, meaning that users can set a 4G/5G modem as a backup connection to only be engaged when the primary internet fails, providing an extra layer of reliability.
Customers can also choose to purchase an optional one-time licence per codec to utilise SwitchBoard, a private server that Comrex maintains which allows for easy connections between IP codecs.
BRIC-Link III features a userfriendly HTML-5 based interface. BRIC-Link III is also built with a compact chassis, so it’s easy to fit into a studio set-up. A dual rack kit accessory is also available.
BRIC-Link III is built for multiple modes of operation, including BRIC-Link normal (UDP), HTTP (Streaming Server, Icecast/ Shoutcast, Multistreaming), RTP, TCP, IP Multicast & EBU 3326/SIP mode for compatibility).
Visit https://www.comrex.com.
Seven West Media is set to redefine the Australian broadcast model in 2023 with changes to ad delivery and personalisation, gamification of the BVOD user experience, and even a new free-to-air channel.
THE FIRST PHASE of the Seven Network’s new digital and broadcast converged trading platform, CODE 7+, will take flight in 2023, providing Australian advertisers and agencies with faster, more effective and easier buying across the screens of Seven.
Announced last year as the network’s largest-ever technology transformation project, CODE 7+ is a new, advanced converged media planning and campaign tracking solution, which transforms and enhances Seven’s successful audience automation solution, CODE 7, making it the future of total video audience buying in Australia. According to the company, the second phase of the rollout of CODE 7+ will start next year, revolutionising BVOD trading in Australia and making 7plus an even more powerful platform for advertisers. In 2024, the full total video audience delivery system will launch.
In a global first, Seven will bring together the technologies of both Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, and Imagine Communications, a leader in video infrastructure, advertising systems and workflow management solutions.
CODE 7+ will also be underpinned by the new industry total audience measurement VOZ, along with data from Seven’s market-leading audience intelligence platform 7REDiQ, to unlock better results and dynamic campaign deliveries that will maximise outcomes.
With CODE 7+, advertisers and agencies can leverage Seven’s reach of 18.5 million viewers a month. Whether its broadcast or digital, metro or regional audiences, brands can weave their message throughout Seven’s content viewed by millions of Australians each week.
Seven West Media Chief Revenue Officer, Kurt Burnette, said: “We’re excited to introduce CODE 7+ to the digital media community next year, offering more automation, reduced turnaround times and improved
processes to get campaigns live fast and making them even more effective.
“We have listened to our client and agency customers to carefully understand what they need most – not just now but into the future – to effectively invest with us to reach and engage with their target audiences. We have worked with them to co-create what we believe will be the best total video trading platform in the world.
“The next stage of CODE 7+ will provide our clients and agency partners with more certainty on delivery through the very latest improved optimisation engine, with increased addressability and targeting capabilities on their way,” he said.
“The integration of VOZ total audience data will also be a huge boost to CODE 7+ and for marketers by helping them identify opportunities, maximise reach and exploit digital viewing behaviours in a modern video ecosystem across Seven’s powerhouse content.
“By combining advanced technology from global-leading vendors with Seven’s marketleading audience intelligence platform 7REDiQ, CODE 7+ is the future of total video audience trading, designed to make it even easier for brands to reach
Australia’s biggest audience on Seven, all at the push of a button,” Mr Burnette said.
The Seven Network will supercharge its FAST (free adsupported streaming TV) strategy with the launch of more exclusive themed channels on 7plus in 2023.
7plus is currently home to more than 40 FAST channels which offer audiences a linear viewing experience with a curated selection of globally recognised channel brands and premium content from across the Seven Network and 7plus.
In 2023, 7plus will launch additional premium FAST channels, with more advanced targeting. Alongside Seven’s program line-up and library of exclusive online-only premium content, Seven says 7plus is set for its biggest-ever year in 2023.
7plus’ FAST channel technology works by tapping into the Channel Assembly feature in AWS Media Elemental MediaTailor, to dynamically mine Seven’s cloud-based program catalogue, generating virtual live-streaming channels.
This technology is combined with real-time consumption data from Seven’s audience intelligence platform, 7REDiQ, allowing 7plus to
launch channels that target both the valuable audiences that clients want to reach, and the categories and programs that consumers want to see.
With 7plus, Seven West Media says it has taken its existing suite of shoppable solutions to the “next level”, with Australia’s first API-based tool, which delivers of hundreds of different creative advertising assets to audiences in real time. Using 7Shop alongside 7REDiQ, brands can personalise their product or promotion to audiences based on gender, location, time of day or their interests.
To provide brands with even better access to shopper insights, Seven has also entered into an exclusive partnership with Visa, giving marketers the ability to access market-leading consumer purchasing insights from over 50 categories and use them across 50 new shoppable segments.
Brands can also use 7Shop to directly communicate with onscreen audiences via email, push notification and in-app integration thanks to a new click-to-contact feature. The new feature enhances marketers’ ability to drive meaningful connections with qualified consumers, helping them save offers or discounts to
redeem immediately or at a later date.
Driving even more powerful results and an enhanced viewer and advertising experience, 7plus has fully integrated Amazon Personalize, powered by artificial intelligence, for real-time personalised content recommendations and dynamic, personalised design on the 7plus platform.
Creating a stickier environment for brands to connect with viewers, Seven says this technology will make content more relevant and discoverable on 7plus, driving increased audience engagement through a personalised user interface.
Every single user will receive content recommendations, a personalised homepage and program carousels, and even personalised show art based on their on and off-platform behaviour.
Seven West Media Chief Digital Officer, Gereurd Roberts, said: “Our FAST channels have streamed over 300 million minutes so far in 2022 and have been a driver of growth for 7plus, as people embrace the ‘leanback’ experience of watching a curated, scheduled channel.
“Our incredible personalisation technology, considered the benchmark globally, will also drive further audience engagement on 7plus, as we use AWS technology to further enhance our user experience and cement 7plus as the leading free streaming service in Australia.
“Viewers are watching more content than ever before, and there is more content available than ever before, so helping our audiences find curated content that matches their specific interests has never been more important,” he said.
Seven West Media National Sales Director of Digital, Nicole Bence, said: “In 2023, we are focused on delivering the viewing experience of the future and growing 7plus through incredible levels of personalisation, shoppable ad innovation and new, data-driven FAST channels.
“Our new personalisation technology uses custom machine learning models that deliver highly personalised recommendations to viewers and create highly addressable audiences for brands to connect with. This is something no other Australian-based BVOD competitor can match.
“For our clients and agency partners, this means aligning their brands alongside the vast library of 7plus premium content that is customised to the individual user in the
most impactful and targeted way. This improves the overall customer journey and delivers the best experience for our audiences and advertisers,” she said.
“Combined with our exciting new shoppable solutions, Visa partnership and powerful first party data insights from 7REDiQ, Seven is providing a powerful opportunity for brands to get closer to their target audience
7plus, taking our premium, personalised user interface to the next level.
“With Aura, 7plus can converge interactive virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, and integrate social feeds and e-commerce easily into both live and on-demand content, bringing a new and exciting dimension to our leading sport and tentpole programming.
than ever before.”
7Plus to Gamify BVOD Viewing
Seven West Media has also announced a strategic investment with Australian media gaming and technology business, Aura, to deliver what it says is game-changing engagement across its BVOD service, 7plus.
The investment will also see Aura’s next-generation technology integrated into 7plus, creating an unrivalled immersive experience that places Seven’s streaming service at the forefront of digital innovation in Australia.
Aura uses video game technology that can stream content. Its immersive platform supercharges the screen experience for viewers and advertisers with an interface that is completely interactive.
Operating like a video game, Aura’s advanced technology will take the user and ad experience to the next level by aggregating content, data, social and transactional capability into one environment, allowing the viewer to take full control of the experience.
Functionally on 7plus, Aura will allow viewers to easily switch between different interactive options – including alternate camera angles, e-commerce, free-to-play games, live statistics and more – without losing the live primary feed, creating a “sticky” environment that keeps audiences engaged for longer.
Seven West Media Chief Digital Officer, Gereurd Roberts, said: “Aura is globally recognised and its unique technology will redefine the content experience for Australian audiences through
“Aura have worked with some of the top tier sporting codes around the world. For Seven’s unbeatable sporting schedule – which will include full digital rights to the AFL from 2025 – this technology gives us the potential to deliver viewers the opportunity to access stats during events through live data visualisation, purchase merchandise while watching, change camera angles in real-time, chat with other fans and so much more, all without leaving the action,” Mr Roberts said.
Seven West Media Chief Revenue Officer, Kurt Burnette, said: “Aura is a disruptive digital player that will help marketers grab and hold the attention of younger audiences who have moved away from passive viewing and have grown up dual screening and in full control over what they watch, whenever they want. Its Twitch-style features will allow interactive elements that brands can use for different advertising and sponsorship opportunities.”
Aura Chief Executive Officer, Antony Arena, said: “We are extremely excited to be working with the Seven Network to create the future of interactive entertainment and bringing our home-grown technology to Australian audiences and advertisers. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner in this market.”
Commercial opportunities using Aura and 7plus are expected to roll-out in 2023. Visit https://www. sevenwestmedia.com.au and https://thisisaura.com/
JOIN CHANNEL 7, 7MATE, 7TWO AND 7FLIX in the Seven Network, a new freeto-air channel and destination for reality and true crime, 7Bravo, will launch on 15 January 2023 as part of a partnership between Seven and NBCUniversal International Networks & Direct-ToConsumer.
Key new programs coming to 7Bravo in 2023 will include Below Deck Down Under (S1), Below Deck Adventure, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip (S1), The Real Housewives of Dubai, The Real Housewives of Miami, Love Without Borders, Southern Hospitality and Real Girlfriends in Paris, among others.
Complementing the schedule, 7Bravo and 7plus will be the free-to-air home of NBCUniversal’s portfolio of reality content, including unscripted TV franchises and series from Bravo and E!
The new channel will also be the first broadcast home in Australia for reality and true crime content produced for Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.
Further to the launch of 7Bravo, Australia’s Seven Network has entered into a new multi-year content partnership with NBCUniversal Global Distribution which will see Seven acquire all of NBCU’s scripted network and cable dramas and comedies for years to come.
Seven West Media Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, James Warburton, said: “NBCUniversal is a global content powerhouse and the creator of some of the best-known and most-loved entertainment brands in the world, across television and film. We can’t wait to bring them and much more to Seven and 7plus.”
Chris Taylor, MD, NBCUniversal International Networks & Direct-toConsumer and Distribution, Australia & New Zealand, said: “We are delighted to have established such a broad and innovative partnership with Seven West Media. This expansive content agreement will fuel both Seven’s network of channels and 7plus with iconic scripted content from our library, while positioning
Australian viewers to enjoy the best of our new network and cable product from the US, as well as our beloved feature films.”
Visit https://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au
NOT SO LONG AGO, it was thought that linear TV was increasingly a relic of a bygone era. Viewing patterns were changing across demographics worldwide as more and more people switched towards streaming services. However, increasingly it is looking like the reports of its demise have been premature. There are a huge number of individual surveys that give an equally huge number of differing results, but the metatrends of it all suggest a couple of things. First, the pandemic boosted streaming figures dramatically, even artificially, and second that the coming recession is making consumers rethink their choices when it comes to streaming services.
The result is that linear TV is not dead. In fact, if anything, it is having a bit of a renaissance.
The Media Nations 2022 report, recently published by UK regulator Ofcom, created massive headlines with its report that younger adults watch 7x less broadcast TV than those aged 65+ and that viewing across all broadcast content — that is linear channels, recordings, and on-demand — had fallen by 9% compared to 2020 and 4% compared to 2019.
“The long-term trend of decline in overall viewing of broadcasters’ content, seen over the past decade, has resumed,” it stated. There is undoubtedly a demographic fissure between different cohorts, though what is unknown is whether the ‘new’ consumption behavior of the younger generation (defined here as 16-34) evolves as they in turn grow older. Lifestyle changes caused primarily by starting families and establishing their own households tend to suggest that viewing time tends to coalesce around the large living room television once more as people age, and linear TV and its offshoots are very much a part of that experience, but there are unknowns. We lived with the model of linear TV for 60 years; Netflix has been streaming video for only 15.
The UK market is arguably the most technologically sophisticated television market in the world and is nothing if not volatile. The Ofcom report was generated from surveys that concluded in December 2021,
whereas newer research from consumer research platform Attest, estimates that the number of people watching terrestrial TV is trending up by 2.6% to reach 78.6%. Not only that, but people are watching live TV for longer, with a 1.4% increase in 4-hour-plus viewing sessions.
So what is going on here and why are we so confident that linear TV is very much a part of the future? A look at Netflix is a good place to start.
2022:
It has not been an easy year for the major SVOD players, with Netflix, in particular, having an annus horribilis of 2022 so far. It lost more subscribers, 970,000, in Q2 than it has at any time in its history, has laid off employees, and has had to put its foot down on password-sharing. It has also had to announce plans to launch an adsupported AVOD service in early 2023, with the hope that that will enable it to keep growing its user base — or at least halt the decline.
In contrast, rival Disney has experienced growth. Its combined reach (which folds in Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Starz) now stands at 221.1 million subscribers, just edging Netflix’s 220.7 million figure. However, not all is well there. It too finds itself having to launch an AVOD service (on 8 December) to maintain growth and reduce churn, and is raising prices at the same time. It also has to be pointed out that nearly 60 million of its subscribers are on comparatively low-cost plans in the Indian market, lowering its ARPU considerably across the company.
Elsewhere, Amazon, of course, famously does its own thing and treats video, even the astoundingly expensive Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, as a loss leader for its retail business. And Apple TV’s quality over quantity approach is finally starting to bear fruit, but these are not easy times for SVOD. The audience is fragmented as new services launch constantly and is being forced to chop and change between providers to find the content they want to watch.
The coming economic headwinds are only going to make it worse. In October last year, analysts from the NPD Group listed cost as the
“Live events are at the top of the list. Sport in particular, but also increasingly event-driven live TV such as reality shows that can build huge, engaged audiences during extended runs, are still the preserve of linear TV. This is where water cooler TV first started, and the audiences and the cross-cultural phenomena that can be generated as a result can be huge.
#4 reason amongst consumers for canceling SVOD services. By April that had risen to #2. Unsurprising really that the fastest growing sector in streaming at the moment is FAST, Free-Ad Supported TV, and streaming channels that effectively replicate the linear TV experience albeit for narrower niche audiences.
Where linear TV still wins If anything these mushrooming FAST services serve as onramps to regular linear TV consumption for Gen Z audiences unaccustomed to the concept of a scheduled TV channel. But there are other reasons why linear TV still remains a draw for audiences and will remain so for some time to come. Live events are at the top of the list. Sport in particular, but also increasingly event-driven live TV such as reality shows that can build huge, engaged audiences during extended runs, are still
the preserve of linear TV. This is where water cooler TV first started, and the audiences and the cross-cultural phenomena that can be generated as a result can be huge. It is no accident that the world’s biggest brands are involved in sports sponsorship. News should not be discounted either, especially in times of crisis, and news is very much the preserve of traditional broadcast services.
Targeted advertising is another key advantage. While this technology is also powering AVOD services, the reach of linear TV remains exceptional and the connected ad-tech ecosystems of the major players across Europe, and also increasingly in the US, only serve to exacerbate this.
The combination of linear TV and targeted ad tech remains the best way to reach large, engaged audiences.
And then there is the brand of the providers themselves, Trust is an ephemeral concept when it comes to commerce, but the big public service broadcasters that have been delivering linear TV to their audiences since World War II and before are part of the fabric of their individual countries. They may not always be the first choice for day-to-day programming anymore, but for major events, they are still the button that most viewers will reach for on the remote.
The numbers are still massive Finally, even if the numbers of linear TV viewers are weakening in the long run it needs to be remembered they are still sizeable. Ofcom estimates that the average video viewing time in the UK in 2021 was 5 hours and 16 minutes per day, of which by far the largest amount, 144 minutes (46%), was spent with live TV, with the rest divided between SVOD, time-shift, DVD and so on.
In other words, linear TV remains the single biggest platform when it comes to video. It might not be the only game in town anymore, but it has long endured competition from a variety of sources over the years, from cinema to VHS and now SVOD, and chances are it will be a key part of broadcast strategies for many more years to come.
Visit https://www.pebble.tv/
BITMOVIN, THE PROVIDER OF video streaming infrastructure, and Austria’s University of Klagenfurt have announced they will collaborate on a two-year joint research project worth €3.3million to develop a climate-friendly adaptive video streaming platform called ‘GAIA’. The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) will cofund the project, providing an initial €460,000 in funding for the first year.
The research project ‘GAIA’ will look to develop an adaptive video streaming platform that provides complete energy awareness and accountability, including energy consumption and GHG emissions, along the entire delivery chain. According to Stefan Lederer, CEO and Founder at Bitmovin, “With
quick action needed against climate change, our work on project GAIA with the University of Klagenfurt will pave the way for climate-friendly video streaming consumption. The funding received from FFG not only enables us to find a solution to the 306 million tons of CO2 that streaming and video processing generates and bears testament to the impactful research we have done in partnership with Klagenfurt previously.”
Previous project collaborations between the University of Klagenfurt and Bitmovin include: Evaluating the codec HEVC; Adaptive streaming over HTTP and emerging networked multimedia services; and Investigating potential new tools and
methodologies for encoding, transport and playback of live and on-demand video using the HTTP Adaptive Streaming protocol.
Project ‘GAIA’ aims to identify ways to improve sustainability and reduce energy consumption across the end-to-end video streaming chain by:
• Enabling energy awareness and accountability, including benchmarking and predicting energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across the entire delivery chain, from content creation and server-side encoding to video transmission and client-side rendering.
THIS YEAR’S IBC SHOW in Amsterdam saw IP infrastructure technology company ADVA and Cobalt Digital successfully demonstrate high-speed transport of uncompressed audio and video signals in an SMPTE-2110 environment.
Using ADVA’s Oscilloquartz timing technology, the trial network offered a simple, reliable and low-cost way to share broadcast streams in multiple digital formats at high quality. With ultra-compact, low-cost synchronisation delivered by OSA 5401 small form-factor pluggable (SFP) PTP grandmasters, the solution was demonstrated with Cobalt Digital’s high-density audio and video processing technology featuring native SMPTE-2110 support and multiple 25Gbit/s ethernet interfaces.
“This demo verifies the viability of an incredibly flexible technology for transporting video, audio and
broadcast data without the need for compression or reformatting. With Indigo, our next-generation platform, and ADVA’s unique timing plug, the trial solution delivers the highest levels of availability and quality and with an extremely small footprint,” said Suzana Brady, SVP of worldwide sales and marketing at Cobalt Digital. “ADVA’s pluggable Oscilloquartz timing device enables quick and simple deployment in a power-on and run environment. It removes the complexity of local network configurations and can support both GNSS-based and arbitrary time modes.”
Cobalt Digital’s Indigo 2110-DC01, a highly integrated factory option that includes dual 25Gbit/s ethernet interfaces and supports uncompressed 4K on the company’s 9904-UDX-4K openGear card. Support for ST 2022-7 seamless redundancy switching is incorporated for improved network
AUDINATE HAS ANNOUNCED that Dante Brooklyn 3 audio networking module is now shipping to customers. The new module is a pin-compatible replacement for Audinate’s Dante Brooklyn 2, which has been redesigned to ensure continuous availability while delivering support for current and future Dante features.
The Dante Brooklyn module family is the most widely deployed implementation of Dante, and is used in hundreds of products including mixing consoles, DSPs, and amplifiers. The new Dante Brooklyn 3 audio module is available in 8×8 to 64×64 channel SKUs, delivering ultra-low latency networked audio in a complete module supporting the complete suite of Dante audio features.
reliability as well as IS 04/IS-05 NMOS for automatic discovery and configuration. This included support enables devices to be auto-discovered by the network management and made available for interconnection. Indigo offers advanced processing with IP inputs and outputs and eliminates the need for any external gateways. When Indigo is combined with Cobalt’s 9904-UDX-4K card, a powerful and dense solution is created that is capable of natively processing HD, 3G-SDI and 4K IP streams without compromising quality. Key to the trial was submicrosecond synchronisation provided by ADVA’s accessSync OSA 5401 SyncPlug. The powerful and versatile time server with a built-in GNSS receiver is said to have the smallest footprint on the market. It complies with the latest PTP profiles for time, frequency and phase synchronisation in broadcast networks, including
• Reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions through advanced analytics and optimisations on all phases of the video delivery chain. Visit https://bitmovin.com
SMPTE 2059, for synchronising video and audio equipment over packet networks.
“Leveraging our most compact Oscilloquartz PTP timing technology, this demo shows how broadcast and media production network operators can achieve higher speeds while significantly improving efficiency. By processing natively over IP, Cobalt Digital’s platform removes complexity and significantly reduces cost,” commented Gil Biran, GM of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “High-quality video and audio transmission rely on accurate and stable timing and our pluggable device was crucial to the success of this trial. The flexibility and simplicity of our accessSync OSA 5401 SyncPlug were key as well as its ability to distribute timing to many devices from a single SFP.”
Visit https://www.adva.com and https://www.cobaltdigital.com
“With the arrival of Brooklyn 3, we’re delivering a new design that will help original design manufacturers address supply chain constraints and maintain production while delivering a product to customers that will support future Dante features,” said Chris Ware, Audinate’s Senior Vice President of Product Development. “Because this new module is a direct
replacement for earlier versions, manufacturers can begin using them in production today.”
Dante Brooklyn 3 is compatible with all other Dante devices and can be routed, managed, secured and monitored using Dante Controller and Dante Domain Manager.
Visit https://www.audinate.com
THE PROLIFERATION OF IPTV and OTT media delivery technologies have helped establish game live streaming as a major market segment, with services such as Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming experiencing considerable growth (101%, 65%, and 238% respectively, in 2020 according to StreamElements). Sports fans, as well as other live content consumers, are quickly becoming accustomed to these interactive, engaging, and feature-rich streaming experiences. So it’s little surprise that many of the core functions and attractions of the global esports market itself are now playing a major role within the broader media ecosystem, generating more than $1billion in revenue in 2020 and forecasted to hit $1.4billion by 2023, according to Newzoo.
Live event rights-holders and broadcasters are increasingly ‘gamifying’ their video offerings with greater degrees of social interaction and mixed media experiences to take their fan experience to the next level and to capitalise on opening new revenue opportunities. The NBA, for example, has trialled replacing live-action video with game simulation through NBA 2K, a series of basketball simulation video games emulating the sport. Several motor-racing leagues, including SRO Motorsports and Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series, also successfully tested switching real races to esports during lockdown with professional drivers racing in simulated cars. Viewing numbers at times matched that of the sport itself, and the latter continues to stream live this year despite the return of the live-action sport. As video game live streaming continues to soar and expand into the broader entertainment sphere, new questions of how to optimise and adapt the encoding strategies for efficient game content coding arise.
rendering engine (as opposed to being captured by an optical/ electronic camera/sensor), video game content is characterised mostly by presenting plain and smooth color gradient areas, sharp and well-defined objects (e.g. with text and graphics), no spatial, temporal, or cross-component noises, no focus or motion blur, and low average motion complexity over time, but with possible high complexity motion bursts (such as a first-person shooter game).
Nonetheless, gaming videos streamed over the internet can vary largely in encoding complexity. With popular online streaming pastimes such as role-play, adventure, action, board games, and massive multi-player games, the encoding complexity varies considerably depending on the level of action and players involved. These are all major considerations for broadcasters and content owners when building their own gamified video streaming services. They can adopt a range of specific encoding strategies, including rate control, adaptive quantisation, in-loop filtering, and motion estimation, which all target improvements in compression efficiency and density/encoder run-time for signals with such characteristics. They must also weigh up the relevance of video compression standards in a video game context, such as HEVC or Versatile Video Codec (VVC), which include specific coding features to compress screen content.
input content requires less computational resources, more encoding tools can be enabled to maximise compression efficiency. If the content complexity increases computational requirements, some encoding tools may be disabled or restricted to guarantee real-time constraints.
This approach guarantees maximised compression efficiency and computational resource usage but requires ranking each encoding tool and parameters relative to its compression efficiency to computational complexity ratios. Since the impact of each tool is dependent on the input video characteristics, AI is used to estimate the impact and cost of each tool. This is based on the input image characteristics in real-time so that the encoding tool providing the largest compression efficiency gains is prioritised if resources are underutilised. In contrast, the ones that provide the lowest ratios are disabled if required.
considerations for gamified video offerings
Video games can take on several different formats across various devices and refer to interactive games running on electronic or cloud media platforms. Game content signal characteristics differ significantly from ‘natural’ video content, which is commonly compressed and transmitted through various media delivery services such as live broadcast, broadband, IPTV, or OTT. Being computer generated using a
Gaming content-aware encoding MediaKind has performed extensive investigation and testing for identifying and designing relevant coding toolset and encoding strategies to best compress and stream video game content. The possible complementary solutions include encoding optimisation techniques on top of standard feature set (as available in AVC or HEVC), extension of the coding tool set with new normative tools specifically designed for screen content (as available in HEVC SCC extension and VVC), and/or leverage on ML-based contentaware encoding method for coding tool set adaptation. For the latter suggested solution, an artificial intelligence (AI) driven method was proposed to optimise the video encoder configuration according to the input signal characteristics, specifically designed for real-time encoding applications according to the available resources. If the
To validate this content-aware approach for video gaming, a comparison was made to a reference case where encoding tools are dynamically enabled in a fixed order, independent of the input content, and designed to maximise the compression efficiency of natural content. Both configurations were run in the same computational resources, and only standard encoding tools were included in this evaluation. It was observed that the content-aware approach achieved compression gains of 7.4% in H.264 and 6.9% in HEVC (average bitrate saving for the same SSIM quality score) by simply prioritising encoding tools with a larger impact while encoding video game content.
With traffic for live video game streaming and the related esports market growing, understanding the possible encoding optimisations and normative tool sets to best compress and stream game content is key to delivering an optimal streaming experience. Distinguishing the signal
characteristics of game content compared to natural content is the first step towards optimising video game live streaming encoding. From this knowledge, practical examples of relevant encoding strategies can be tested and put into commercial models for broadcasters and content publishers to trial.
The media industry remains at a trial stage regarding video game streaming optimisation, albeit with significant progress and exciting tests and use cases emerging by the day. By utilising and combining complementary techniques, broadcasters, content owners, and service providers can significantly improve the coding of video games in practical video streaming solutions, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in enabling live streaming experiences.
Visit https://www.mediakind.com
“Live event rights-holders and broadcasters are increasingly ‘gamifying’ their video offerings with greater degrees of social interaction and mixed media experiences to take their fan experience to the next level and to capitalise on opening new revenue opportunities.
Curating a strong reputation over its 30 years, Cutting Edge is a leading provider of post production and technical services in the advertising, features & television industries. The technical arm of the businesses; Cutting Edge Technical Services (CETS) is a leading provider of technical solutions within the media industry with an internationally established reputation of high calibre delivery and problem solving. From rigging and logging the latest reality TV series to supplying equipment for the education sector, CETS is a far cry from your typical technical environment.
You will be the face of CETS in Sydney. This is a hands-on role and you will manage client relationships and represent CETS as the Senior Post Production Engineer. You will maintain positive client relationships with an extended focus on business development opportunities.
Key responsibilities:
• Plan, install and maintain Post Production and hire equipment
• Identify technical issues and repair faults
• Act as support technician on client projects
• Assist in designing and testing new workflows
• Create detailed technical diagrams of system and workflow designs
• Identify opportunities for growth in the Sydney Post Production market
• Provide advice and technical support to operational team members
• Assist with installation of equipment software updates
• Manage logistics (packaging of equipment, loading boxes)
• Operational tasks (lifting PCs, monitors, AV equipment)
• Perform maintenance of equipment as required
• Prepare and update equipment allocation functions
• Track equipment moves and update the inventory database as required
Qualifications, knowledge and experience:
• Experience in the Film and Television industry as an Engineer
• Excellent Avid Media Composer knowledge
• Strong ability to problem-solve
• Extensive production and technical knowledge
• Strong sense of client service
• Equipment installation and repair knowledge and experience
• Experience in the creation of technical drawings
• Experience managing projects
• Outcome driven and highly efficient
• Ability to operate autonomously and in a team environment
• Strong sense of personal responsibility for task completion
• Highly energetic and people orientated
• Strong written and verbal skills To be successful in this role
You will be a proactive team player and a people person with a can-do attitude! You are passionate about the feature film and television industry and get thrills from supplying sound IT leadership and support.
You thrive when leading a team from the frontline and using your leadership skills to assist in driving the team to success. You will be open to learning the relevant systems to reflect the constantly changing and developing field that is technology.
Apply via hr@cuttingedge.com.au
About us
Videocraft is an industry-leading sales and rentals company providing innovative solutions to the broadcast television and production industry. This role is perfect for someone with a passion for the industry who is ready for new challenges and ready to lead. Videocraft Group is going places and this is a great career opportunity for the long term.
Responsibilities:
The purpose of the role is to ensure the smooth fulfilment of rentals jobs along with building relationships with new, existing and previous customers
Proactively engaging with the market including identifying upcoming rental opportunities and following up enquiries promptly and professionally with the team
Quoting jobs, providing equipment advice to customers, and taking bookings
Supervising preparation, cleaning and testing of equipment and checking on return
Transport logistics management including ensuring that equipment gets to where it needs be on time Training, mentoring and supervising staff and ensuring a quality first culture
Client support relating to user or technical problems
Creating documentation and helping to continuously improve company processes and procedures
The successful applicant requires: Passion for and aptitude with the industry technology and equipment Sound computer skills and familiarity with Microsoft products and ideally Rental Point software
Proven ability in customer service roles – a hands-on role in rentals or operational environment in the film and TV production industry, outside broadcast, or with a reseller would be a great advantage
Fitness, enthusiasm, an outgoing personality and a desire to succeed Ability to work autonomously and as part of a team
Exceptional organisational and prioritising skills, and attention to detail
Current driving licence
A ‘can do’ attitude, making things happen when it doesn’t seem possible! Recent experience in a similar role or recent relevant product knowledge would be a distinct advantage, although we will consider applicants with
customer service experience who can demonstrate genuine passion and aptitude with this equipment and industry.
A salary designed to attract the best candidate will be available. Location could be Artarmon or Burwood. Please send your resume and cover letter to rod.coleman@videocraft.com.au
An incredible opportunity for you to join the ESA family.
Pay details: Annual salary/Pay range ($AUD) 120 – 150K
Job description
• High level of knowledge & experience with Microsoft Windows & Mac OS environments, including Microsoft Office & Google suites.
• Proven ability to operate Avid Media Composer & install suites & software.
• Full knowledge of existing Post Production techniques, workflows & shared storage systems.
• Ability & experience with training staff.
• Calm, organised & methodical approach to work.
• Ability to multitask & work unsupervised.
• High focus on customer service, with a proven ability to interact with clients in a calm & courteous manner.
• Excellent communication skills, written & verbal
Apply via email to Lesley.kelleher@ endemolshine.com.au
