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… page 18 Australian Open Tennis
REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 46
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INDUSTRY FOCUS
48 EVENTS+CLASSIFIEDS
FEATURES 04 NEWS Patrick Delany Named New Foxtel
CEO, MediaHub Moves Into Next-Gen Broadcast and Data Services, Technicolor to Establish VFX Centre in Adelaide, Kordia Boosts Media and Broadcast Division, NSW TAFE Goes VR with Page 2, Murder Calls for Sony F5 Camera.
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12 TAKING STOCK Business as Usual for Ooyala.
14 ACQUISITION Christmas Down Under
with Blackmagic, New Fuji Service Centre, Panavision Millennium DXL2 Camera, Blackmagic Introduces URSA Broadcast, ARRI Launches Large-Format Camera System.
18 SPORTSCASTING Remote Production First for NEP, Gearhouse Aces Remote Production for Seven, Gold Coast Diaries, Winter Olympics.
24 NEWS OPERATIONS Seven Reinvents TV
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28 POST-PRODUCTION Flame Delivers for
Unreal VFX, FFI Invests in Silver Trak Digital, Illoura/Method Merge, New Post Solutions.
32 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD World
Broadcasting Unions Cyber Security Recommendations, TMD, Mediaproxy Partner on Compliance, NSW to Subsidise Cyber-Security Training.
36 AUDIO FOX SPORTS Australia Adds Second Calrec Artemis, First Audient Heritage Console for Australia, NAMM 2018 Hits the High Notes.
40 RADIO Southern Cross Austereo Rebuilds Queensland Studios, Frontier Digital Radio Sales Exceed 45 Million, Call for Receiver Legislation, SCA Redefines the Art of Commentary Capture.
43 CONTENT DELIVERY Yospace and Seven
Partner on Addressable TV, StingRay RF Over Fibre at Royal Randwick, Magna in Control with BFE, Embrionix Appoints Amber.
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EDITOR’S WELCOME
Too Much Choice? By Phil Sandberg
FOR YEARS NOW, WE’VE BEEN TOLD that viewers want individually-tailored experiences, that they want to watch whatever they want whenever they want, that they want it on multiple devices. But, do they? Ooyala recently released its ‘State of the Broadcast Industry 2018’ report, which maps out the challenges for content creators and distributors as they strive to maintain and grow audiences in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. The report, which draws on Ooyala’s own data and analysis as well as research conducted by other organisations, delves into consumers’ frustrations as they navigate a world in which there may be simply too many choices.
• Bundling – Skinny bundles are gaining traction. Look for more bundling experiments in 2018.
At the same time, mobile viewing will continue to explode: surveys predict that mobile video viewing will account for 75 percent of mobile data traffic by 2022, per Ericsson. The Ooyala report identifies several areas of focus by content distributors as they seek to attract and maintain share of view. These include: • Format experimentation – Content delivery services are experimenting with formats, such as vertical video or mobile-specific content series, to optimise the TV anywhere viewing experience.
• Original Content – Though some viewers are saying “too much content,” creators are attracting viewers with a combination of originals and exclusives, the budgets for which will continue to soar. Consequently, distributors will have less patience for the time it has traditionally taken to build audiences and may be quick to cancel shows.
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In the longer term, however, it is consolidation that will come into play where even Netflix should worry about the likes of Amazon. The retailing/streaming/ web hosting giant has the ultimate virtuous circle of audience metrics. Time will tell. But, if you can sell the book, commission the series and gather data from viewing habits, you are already ahead of the pack. 01:00
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And yet amid all this abundance, Millennials also indicate they are not completely satisfied with their current OTT services. Consumer frustration, Ooyala predicts, will drive improvements in the OTT experience: streamlined authentication, better content curation, personalisation and easier search and discovery.
• IP technology – Traditional television companies – broadcasters and cable programmers alike – are going all-in on IP technology, focusing on the related metadata which providers believe will drive critical advances in every area of video delivery.
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Research underscores that viewers are embracing content anywhere, on any device. However, it also indicates that Millennials, arguably the key demographic for streaming services, are already overwhelmed with the plethora of options – estimated by Park Associates to include more than 200 OTT services in North America alone are in operation; 49 percent of viewers saying there are now too many TV programs from which to choose, according to Hub Entertainment. 15:00
• Social media – Major social-media platforms, including Facebook (with an estimated $1 billion content spend next year), Twitter and Snapchat – all grasping the growing role of video online – are jumping into the streaming pool with big investments in long- and short-form video.
Of course, consolidation continues among content technology providers with the news that Snell Advanced Media (SAM) is to be merged with Grass Valley following its purchase by GV parent company Belden. While details are still emerging, it is another example of rationalisation that will, no doubt, continue into the future. Thanks for reading Phil Sandberg – Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com +61(0)414 671 811
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THERE’S MORE TO MEDIAHUB Ideal Systems Buys T HIPKABroadcast N M E ESystems TS THE IDEAL SYSTEMS HAS ANNOUNCED it has acquired Singapore based IPK Broadcast Systems, a systems integrator, distributor and supplier of broadcast, audio-visual and communications equipment. The acquisition will see the staff and daily operations of IPK move to Ideal Systems’ new larger Singapore offices by the 1st of November. Established in 1982, IPK Broadcast Systems has built up a successful business and reputation providing technology solutions for the radio, television and multimedia industries in the ASEAN region. After the move in November, Peter Tang and Tan Kim Poh, who have run IPK since 1999, will remain for a period of time as advisors to Ideal Systems, ensuring a smooth transition of IPK’s business and to ensure there is no disconnect or disruption to the sales, marketing and support services for IPK’s existing customers, while key IPK staff will join the Ideal team in Singapore. “This is a highly strategic deal for Ideal Systems in South East Asia as it consolidates our position as the leading Broadcast Systems integrator in Singapore while creating value by catalysing the growth of our new commercial A/V division across the region. We gain some fantastic new experienced staff
SES Video Expands APAC Team TWO NEW SENIOR APPOINTMENTS will bolster SES Video’s growth strategy and enhance support for the evolving needs of video and media customers in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific video market. In an announcement by SES, SES Video has welcomed to the fold experienced industry professionals Yew Weng Soo as Vice President, Sales & Market Development and John Huddle as Director, Market Development, for Asia-Pacific. Yew Weng Soo brings more than 25 years of industry experience to his new role at SES Video, driving business strategy, commercial activities, and the creation of new, value-added solutions for customers in Asia-Pacific. Yew
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right when we need them, and also gain access to a number of new technologies which will allow us to serve existing customers better and provides us with some new products, customers, and services,” said Fintan McKiernan, CEO of Ideal Systems South East Asia. [L-R] Peter Tang, IPK; Fintan Mc Kiernan, Ideal Systems; Kim Poh Tan, IPK. “We have enjoyed running IPK and keeping it profitable and debt-free over the years. We’re delighted that Ideal Systems are incorporating it into their business. With fourteen offices across Asia, Ideal’s larger regional reach will provide stronger support for our existing customers, and their better economies of scale will provide more opportunities to grow the business further,” added Peter Tang, MD of IPK Broadcast Systems. Visit http://idealsys.com and www.ipk-broadcast.com.sg previously helmed media service provider Globecast’s Asia business, where he assumed responsibility for setting its strategic direction and managing business development. He has held a range of senior sales, marketing and business roles with satellite operators Intelsat and Loral CyberStar, and communications solutions provider Verestar. John Huddle is tasked with developing new business opportunities across the region and driving strategic relationships and ventures with key stakeholders, including customers, governments, regulatory bodies, vendors and service providers. In a career spanning 15 years, Huddle has led regional market development and driven customer engagement strategy for satellite operator Intelsat and mobile satellite communications company Thuraya. Visit www.ses.com
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NEWS + PEOPLE MediaHub Moves Into Next-Gen Broadcast and Data Services IN A MOVE WHICH PROPELS MediaHub to the next level in terms of its offering to the broadcast, telco and IT industries, the company has unveiled its new list of services which will underpin its strategy and growth moving forward. MediaHub CEO, Alan Sweeney explained, “Broadcast playout has been at the centre of MediaHub’s offering since the day we launched. Now the company has changed to meet the ever-increasing and diverse needs of the key industries we serve – broadcast, telecommunications, IT, education and commercial organisations. As a result, we offer seven key services which can standalone or be MediaHub CEO, Alan Sweeney. combined in any configuration to suit any of our customers’ requirements.” The services now offered by MediaHub include XcodeHub enabling the automatic transcoding of content from one format to any other, StreamHub for the streaming of channels to OTT services, PresHub, MediaHub’s historic core business and the playout of linear channels, FibreHub, providing connectivity services using the company’s core fibre network throughout Australia and New Zealand, ArkHub for data archive, MAMHub for all things Media Asset Management related, and coming online in January 2018 ExchangeHub, enabling efficient content delivery. Two of the key areas within the range of services where MediaHub has particularly strong offerings are XcodeHub, and StreamHub where their major clients include Fox Networks Group (FNG) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
MediaHub provides several advanced services associated with transcoding, such as automatically closing up multiple segments into one contiguous part or remapping audio to different channels. It’s a similar story with MediaHub’s streaming services as the company offers more advanced services including seamlessly replacing elements from the original channel, such as commercials, with alternative content on the newly created stream. Sweeney continued, “XcodeHub and StreamHub are particularly strong and effective solutions that we provide multiple clients with now. Part of their efficiency comes from the fact that all of these services are manufacturer agnostic. They have all been developed and proven in-house, use the very latest technology from around the globe enabling MediaHub and our clients to be well ahead of the curve. Needless to say, if you are broadcaster, content creator, IT company, data centre user, or indeed any organisation that creates, moves and stores data, then MediaHub has services you can use to make your operation more effective and efficient immediately.” With the company now offering the market so many key services all under one roof Sweeney added the icing on the cake as he explained, “Mid-next year all of MediaHub’s services will be accessed easily and promptly from a central client web portal. There will be no unnecessary layers of engagement. You will merely log in, choose the services you require and action them.” Visit www.mediahubaustralia.com.au
Patrick Delany Named New Foxtel CEO NEWS CORP HAS ANNOUNCED that FOX SPORTS Australia Chief Executive Officer Patrick Delany will become the Chief Executive Officer of Foxtel, succeeding Peter Tonagh, who successfully led the company during its crucial merger negotiations. Mr Delany has led FOX SPORTS Australia since 2011, during which time its coverage of sports has expanded dramatically, now delivering more than 10,000 hours of live action every year, including every game of NRL, AFL, Super Rugby, A League Football, F1 and Supercars. A former lawyer with leading Australian law firm Gilbert & Tobin, Mr Delaney began his career in television in 1998, at Southern Star Entertainment where he successfully revitalised and relaunched the Lifestyle Channel, Channel [V], Music Max and The Weather Channel for the Foxtel and Austar platforms. In 2002, Patrick was appointed as Director of Digital at Foxtel, playing an instrumental part in the rebirth and reinvigoration of Foxtel as a digital product, while reshaping its consumer proposition. In 2005, he was appointed as Executive Director of Content, Product and Delivery at Foxtel
where he introduced innovations including Foxtel iQ, Mobile Foxtel, Foxtel On Demand, HD, 3D, Foxtel on Xbox and Foxtel on T-box services, as well as Foxtel’s availability on Virgin Airlines. In 2011 he became CEO of FOX SPORTS. During his seven years at FOX SPORTS he has significantly increased audience, profitability, expanded the digital footprint and overseen the introduction of new technologies, including in-play cricket helmet cameras in 2012 and user-generated content into live broadcasts. FOX SPORTS Australia will be led by Mr. Peter Campbell in his current capacity as Chief Operating Officer. Mr Campbell joined FOX SPORTS Australia last year after four years as General Manager of Media and Broadcasting at the AFL. Visit www.foxtel.com.au
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NEWS + PEOPLE Technicolor to Establish VFX Centre in Adelaide TECHNICOLOR HAS ANNOUNCED plans to establish a 500-person visual effects (VFX) centre in Adelaide, South Australia. Technicolor will establish ‘Mill Film’ in Adelaide – a AUD$26 million 3000-plus square metre visual effects (VFX) studio. The initial focus for Mill Film will be delivering VFX for major film studios and streaming services, with a later expansion into emerging opportunities in virtual and augmented reality. Mill Film will comprise an Adelaide Centre of Excellence and VFX Academy, together accommodating 500 people – ranging from technologists to artists – when running at full strength within five years. In December last year, the SA State Government announced a newly expanded Post Production, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) rebate to foster new business development for large-budget PDV film productions that use VFX in blockbuster films. The rebate scheme is designed to bolster the local industry and attract new companies to South Australia and, in doing so, grow the broader digital capabilities of the State. Technicolor’s Chief Executive Officer, Frederic Rose said, “The Government
of South Australia has recognised the potential of the State becoming a destination for global VFX work, and importantly, has created an environment where the industry can be successful. “We picked Australia as an opportunity for expansion because it provides an ability to engage with a pool of proven creative talent; work with leading universities; and build on a modern and mature infrastructure that is critical for working on high-end VFX projects. “Investment Attraction South Australia worked with us to provide a complete investment package. The State Government’s 10 percent PDV rebate, stackable with the Federal Government’s 30 percent incentive was an opportunity too good to ignore. “Investment Attraction South Australia has made connections for us across the whole ecosystem to ensure our success in the State. They made it an easy decision to come to Adelaide, and I think it will become a global VFX destination once the secret gets out.” Visit www.safilm.com.au and www.technicolor.com
Kordia Boosts Media and Broadcast Division KORDIA NEW ZEALAND has initiated a revamp of its media and broadcast division, including its leadership, as the company seeks to maximise on growing opportunities in the media space. Kordia Group CEO, Scott Bartlett, said the renewed focus will ensure the company is well placed to fully embrace the digital change that is sweeping the media landscape globally. “We’re seeing the emergence of new technologies and platforms, and embracing these is central to our vision for our media division, and the growth of our business. “The domestic broadcasting market is going through a period of change – this change is a good thing for New Zealand as we’re now seeing a layering of new services in the market. We’re particularly excited to see the emergence of new players such as Choice TV and look forward to the arrival of Radio NZ Plus; and what this new service will mean for vibrancy of the broadcasting industry,” said Bartlett. As part of its renewed focus, Kordia plans to invest in a range of new technology, including Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) and next-generation Cloud for Digital Playout – something the company hopes will have a positive impact on the New Zealand media eco-system by making it easier for local content creators to share and distribute content.
To help drive its renewed focus, Kordia has initiated several key appointments. This includes the appointment of seasoned industry expert Dean Brain Kordia Head of Media, Dean Brain. to the newly created role of Head of Media. Dean brings with him more than 35 years of broadcast experience, and was previously Head of Content Services at Kordia for 12 years. Kordia’s existing Content Services division will be renamed Kordia Mobile Media, better reflecting the company’s expanding offering in transmission, linking, data and connectivity, web-streaming services and more. Other key changes include the appointment of Mark Johnston to the role of Media Sales Manager. Shane Clements takes on the role of Operations Manager, while Audrey Campbell will assume the role of Business Development Executive based out of Kordia’s Auckland office. Visit www.kordia.co.nz
NSW TAFE Goes VR with Page 2 SYDNEY-BASED VIRTUAL REALITY and video production company, Page 2, has announced the launch of The Chaos Game, a Virtual Reality experience developed for vocational education provider TAFE Digital, launching through TAFE Connected Learning Centres (CLCs).
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The Chaos Game is a gamified cybersecurity experience, based on the continuous challenges and threats faced in defending a typical corporate computer network. Players are handed a suite of tools, and asked to defend their network from a variety of threats – with an ever-increasing difficulty curve. As well as this Defense mode, The Chaos Game also includes an Attack mode – giving players a separate set of tools and asking them to attempt to compromise the network in question.
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Page 2 has developed a number of different versions of the game to ensure maximum accessibility. The showcase experience was designed for Room-Scale VR – using HTC Vive headsets in dedicated play spaces at TAFE CLCs. Additionally, Mobile VR (GearVR, Google Daydream) as well as WebGL versions were designed to ensure all students have an opportunity to play.
All development work on The Chaos Game was carried out in-house at Page 2’s Sydney VR studio – from assets generation and gameplay design, to application development and deployment. Page 2 has been providing bespoke digital content creation services to corporate clients for fourteen years. “TAFE NSW recognises that VR can immerse students in safe, realistic learning that prepares them for industry far more effectively than chalk and talk ever can” said Des Osborn, Content Hub Manager for TAFE Digital. “User testing [of The Chaos Game] showed an immediate desire for uptake – students loved the presence and function of the elements in the VR world and commented on how great the experience is.” “The key features and outcomes we were after, we got.” continued Des. “TAFE NSW and Page 2 felt more like a cohesive team working towards the best possible outcome for TAFE NSW students, rather than merely a business supplying us with a service and end-product.” Visit www.page2.com.au
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Tim Hawkins using his Sony F5 on the set of Murder Calls.
instruments were the Filmgear 1.2k and 400w HMI’s and often the BBS LED flyer. This style of shooting could not have been achievable with any other camera I’ve owned. The dynamic range of the F5 gave us so many more opportunities that we seized upon. As a result, I found myself getting braver and braver as the shoot went on, shooting darker and darker.” Hawkins pushed the IE ISO rating really hard trusting the idea that ‘if it looks good in the viewfinder/monitor it’ll be fine in the grade’.
Murder Calls for Sony F5 Camera MURDER CALLS AUSTRALIA, a dramatised crime documentary that uses phone calls associated with the crime to tell the stories, was commissioned by Channel Nine Australia through ScreenTime. It was a unique show to say the least and, according to the Tim Hawkins, co-DoP on the production, their choice of a Sony F5 to shoot the show proved to be a good move in more ways than one. Hawkins explained, “Having spent the previous six months shooting shows like Todd Sampson’s BodyHack and Real Housewives of Sydney on my Sony F5, I was looking for something different to really try and see how far and hard my F5 could be pushed. I’d been speaking with my buddy Jay Hanrahan who shot HBO’s Big Little Lies and we’d talked extensively about how it was shot in really low light often in what he described as near dark locations. With this in mind I was keen to see how the F5 would handle similar low light situations and if it could match or beat other cameras in the market. At that point, I got the call from my DoP mate Matt Koopmans asking me if I’d be interested in shooting the Sydney-based episodes of Murder Calls, so my chance to see how far the F5 could go became reality.” Hawkins was up to the challenge and spent a good deal of time talking through the complexities of the Murder Calls series with Koopmans. He added, “I was relieved when he talked me though the camera, camera settings and lenses he’d been using. Matt’s also is a Sony F5 owner and obviously it’s the camera of choice for such a job. We shot all the dramatic reconstructions for Murder Calls on the Sony F5 at 75 frames, the camera was in cine EI mode S-Log 2, using a LUT in the field. I also used a Movi M5 gimbal for stabilised shots with a Sony A7S Mkii in S-Log 2 on it. I used prime lenses throughout the shoot. The shooting style Matt set was impressive, but I was really confident in the gear we’d chosen and confident of an equally good result.”
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Shooting dramatic reconstructions is nothing new for Hawkins, but Murder Calls was the first time he had shot in this form on the F5.
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He continued, “The camera natively is very fast and has huge dynamic range and mixed with my very fast prime lenses we were able to shoot in very low light giving us the look that director Kieran ’Spud’ Murphy was looking for. We had a mantra on Murder Calls – shoot the shadow. As a result, I tried to never use key lights and everything was backlit. If there was key lighting it was always practical. We placed backlights for every scene and my main lighting
He added, “More broadly speaking, the more I shoot in Cine EI mode the more my belief and trust builds on a good viewfinder mixed with and a reliable LUT. Do I use waveform monitoring? Yes, but nowhere near how I used to. I do still often flick up a waveform but more and more I find myself trusting my camera, my eye and my viewfinder. I’ll say it again, when shooting Cine EI on Sony cameras, if it looks good in the viewfinder it’ll be there in the grade.” Hawkins got some great feedback from the show’s on-line colourist who was really happy with the flat S-Log pictures they delivered noting how little noise there was in the really dark scenes. He continued, “I know S-Log 3 is all the go right now but I do find it gets a little noisy when pushed in low light situations. When it came to pulling up those dark pictures shot at the F5’s native 2000 ISO the colourist had no problems matching my viewfinders Exposure Index.” Murder Calls was a fast-paced drama with a small crew of no less than ten people who all pitched in getting the job done. Their daily routine would often involve three locations per day shooting multiple scenes. Often scenes were prepped in one room of a house while Hawkins was shooting in another. He explained, “My gaffer and camera assistant were constantly working ahead of me prepping a scene while I was shooting a stabbing or some other heinous crime in the adjoining room. We literally rolled from one scene to the next with Jacky, our 1st AD, juggling locations as she pushed to keep the team producing. Having my F5 set up the way I do gave me a huge speed advantage as often it was a run and gun style of drama unit. We didn’t have the time to muck around with large camera changes. I couldn’t let my department slow the shoot up and the F5 delivered. It didn’t miss a beat.” The drama on Murder Calls Australia had a clean, disconnected abstract feel to it. Often the drama was unfolding in the background or off to the side of a frame. Sometimes the faces of the actors were not shown at all or gave implied movement to a scene. Hawkins concluded, “We were trying for powerful imagery but sometimes Spud wanted to break the style for added effect and introduce an in your face POV shot, something the F5 is perfect for. Murder Calls was a great series to be a part of. The Nine Network and SceenTime pulled together some great talent to produce more entertaining home-grown content. These smallish budgeted series are keeping many people employed in Australia and let’s hope they continue into the future. I have to say, being able to use a camera like the Sony F5 to get the kind of results we did goes a long way towards ensuring they do.” Visit www.sony.com.au or www.sony.co.nz
Māori TV Goes HD, Launches New HQ
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at 433 East Tāmaki road, South Auckland. The new HQ was launched in a ceremony attended by NZ’s Minister for Māori Development, Hon Te Ururoa Flavell, and other Members of Parliament, iwi, local community representatives, schools and industry partners. The day began with dawn karakia (greetings/prayers) – Te Tā i te Kawa – led by local kaumātua (Māori elders).
Intelligent storage for real-time media production
Chairman of the Māori Television Board, Georgina te Heuheu, says the opening has been an important opportunity to celebrate the new facilities with the south Auckland community is - asthe well as key stakeholders, including thesoftware-defined newly Avid NEXIS™ world’s first and only storage platform that enables true formed Te Mātawai organisation which represents iwi (Māori nation/tribe) and storage virtualisation forMāori any(the media application, delivering unmatched flexibility, scalability, Māori interests in the revitalisation of te reo Māori language). platform strategy. We will continue to invest in a range of digital offerings and control, andtheextensibility. “Our role of normalising Māori language and culture, taking it into the platforms alongside our traditional linear platform. This ensures that Māori homes of all New Zealanders via multi-platform devices – supports the Television is delivering to the needs of all New Zealanders, whenever they language revitalisation efforts undertaken by Māori language communities, want, wherever they are, and by whatever connected device they choose to nationwide,” said Ms te Heuheu. “Our new building has a modern layout, providing collaborative working spaces for staff. It provides the space and flexibility to encompass new platforms and technologies to support Māori Television’s purpose of revitalising te reo Māori in a fast changing digital environment. The building provides value for money, has access to arterial routes and to the airport and proximity to Māori communities and facilities.” Māori Television has also launched High Definition transmission as part of its multi-platform strategy. The project is funded by a dedicated Budget 2016 allocation of NZD$10.6m.
use,” said Ms te Heuheu.
Grass Valley played an instrumental part in relocating the broadcaster to its new premises. Māori Television’s Head of Technology and Operations, Mark Bullen, said, “High Definition is part of the evolution for Māori Television. So, if we look at our other free to air broadcasters in TVNZ and Media Works they’ve all been high definition for quite a long time now, so this is an opportunity for Māori to come up to the same level, same playing field.”
Mrs te Heuheu says the upgrade will give viewers a crisper and sharper picture on par with other major New Zealand broadcasters.
Māori Television was first launched on 28th March 2004 in Newmarket,
“This has been an important stepping stone in the progression of our multi-
Visit www.maoritelevision.com
Auckland. Its Māori language channel, Te Reo, was launched in 2008.
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NEWS + PEOPLE
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NEWS + PEOPLE Kim Williams Appointed Chairman Thomson Reuters Founders Share Co THE THOMSON REUTERS Founders Share Company recently announced that former Foxtel chief Kim Williams has become the Board’s permanent Chairman as of the 1st of January, 2018. He has been a Founders Share Company board member since 2016 and currently serves as the interim Chairman. The Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company acts as a guardian of the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Created in the midst of World War II in 1941, the Trust Principles apply to the entire Thomson Reuters business and are designed to preserve its independence, integrity and freedom from bias in the gathering and dissemination of information and news. Truly global in reach, Founders Share Company board members are represented from six continents and over a dozen countries. Williams has held a number of executive leadership positions in the arts, entertainment and media industries in Australia and internationally,
including Chief Executive at FOXTEL, News Corp Australia, Fox Studios Australia, the Australian Film Commission, Southern Star Entertainment and Musica Viva Australia, as well as a senior executive at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He is a former Chair of the Sydney Opera House Trust, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Film Finance Corporation amongst a large roster of Australian commercial and cultural enterprises. He serves on a number of Australian boards including as a Commissioner of the Australian Football League since 2014. Kim Williams was appointed as a member in the Order of Australia in June 2006. Visit www.thomsonreuters.com
Annabelle Herd Appointed COO for Network Ten NETWORK TEN HAS ANNOUNCED the appointment of Annabelle Herd to the new role of Chief Operating Officer, reporting to Chief Executive Officer, Paul Anderson. Ms Herd was previously Network Ten’s Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs. Her new role covers a range of business functions and is effective immediately. Mr Anderson said, “Annabelle has been responsible for leading Ten’s corporate position in a complex media landscape. She is a strong and trusted leader and has the qualities for this position, both now and into the future. I am delighted that she has agreed to take on this new role.”
Ms Herd joined Network Ten in July 2004 after an extensive career in policy, regulatory affairs and government relations in both commercial and public sector roles. Before Network Ten, she spent four years as Senior Adviser to Federal Communications Minister, Senator the Hon. Richard Alston. She also worked in government relations for Virgin Mobile Australia, and led copyright policy and advocacy functions for Australian and international industry peak bodies and through a secondment to the Federal Attorney-General’s Department. Visit https://tenplay.com.au
Adobe Appoints Scarr for Cloud, Cronin for Resellers ADOBE HAS APPOINTED Damon Scarr to the new role of Head of Ad Cloud Sales for Asia Pacific (APAC), and has also announced that Philip Cronin will join Adobe to lead partner engagement, including the launch of a Partner Reseller Program in the region. Following four years leading the development and expansion of the Adobe Partner business in APAC, Scarr will take on responsibility for the enterprise sales go-to-market strategy and growth acceleration for Adobe’s Ad Cloud business across the region. As media consumption increasingly shifts to mobile devices, Adobe says that delivering relevant customer experiences is a key focus for brands across APAC. With deep integration into Adobe Experience Cloud, the company says Adobe
Advertising Cloud is positioned to deliver personalised advertising experiences at scale. Cronin, meanwhile, brings extensive corporate experience to Adobe, including 18 years with Intel, four of those years as Director for APAC and Japan, where he worked closely with Fortune 500 companies and partners. Most recently he was a Director at eClipse Innovation, a business consultancy focused on delivering business and sales strategy, change management, advisory, marketing programs and innovation solutions for businesses in APAC. Cronin is an advisor to Australian and international governments and has served as Chairman of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA). Visit www.adobe.com/au/
Kimbal Riley to Become Vista Group CEO VISTA GROUP INTERNATIONAL, the provider of cinema management, film distribution and customer analytics software, has announced that Kimbal Riley will take over as Group CEO from Murray Holdaway. Mr Holdaway, who co-founded the company in 1996, will take up the position of Chief Product Officer (CPO) for Vista Group, and will continue in his role as an Executive Director on the Vista Group board. The move is part of a succession planning process designed to deliver a seamless transition within the business. Mr Riley has had an extensive career in senior executive roles in the IT and Services industries in New Zealand and overseas. He joined Vista Group four years ago, with the past two years as CEO of Vista Entertainment Solutions (VES), which is responsible for the largest proportion of the Group’s revenue. He has been focused on building scale in the business and under his
leadership VES has grown its global footprint by an additional 20 markets, extending its reach to more than 80 countries. VES has continued to sustain over 20 percent revenue growth per year under Mr Riley’s leadership and has been the high growth driver that has helped to open additional international market opportunities for other businesses in the Group. The change in leadership is effective from the 3rd of April 2018, when Mr Riley becomes Vista Group CEO and Mr Holdaway its Chief Product Officer. Visit www.vistagroup.co.nz
NEWS + PEOPLE
Commercial Radio Oz Appoints Jaime Chaux Head of Digital
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PEAK INDUSTRY BODY Commercial Radio Australia has announced the appointment of Jaime Chaux to the position of Head of Digital.
Strategic Development Kath Brown, with a specific focus on DAB+ content initiatives for metropolitan and regional members.
Chief Executive Officer of CRA, Joan Warner, said Mr Chaux would develop the industry’s approach and strategy across the digital space including responsibility for the all-of-industry RadioApp, podcasting strategy and policy, social media, DAB+ content and other emerging areas of multiplatform innovation.
Mr Chaux has held a variety of senior roles in radio and is currently Content Director of Southern Cross Austereo’s on-demand audio digital network, PodcastOne Australia. He previously worked on secondment with CRA on the development of RadioApp, which launched in late 2016.
Mr Chaux will also support CRA’s DAB+ digital radio team, led by Head of
Visit www.commercialradio.com.au
Mr Chaux takes up the new role in March.
On the Move
Creative Leadership Additions for RSP
TIM DOUGLAS has started a new position as Technical Account Manager at Ooyala. He was previously Project Manager - PAM Production Asset Management System at Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia.
OFF THE BACK OF A SUCCESSFUL collaboration on last year’s ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, Rising Sun Pictures has announced that Tom Wood has
GRAHAM LEWIS has commenced a new position as Broadcast Engineer at WIN Television. He was previously Senior Broadcast Engineer at Sky News.
joined the team as Creative Director. Tom started his career at Cinesite in the 1990’s, before progressing to Visual Effects Supervisor at MPC on such films as ‘Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets’, ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. In 2008 Tom
MARK GROOBY has started a new position as Regional Sales Manager, APAC at Rycote Microphone Windshields Ltd.
went independent to supervise ‘Prince of Persia’ and ‘Mirror Mirror’, before being nominated for Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Visual Effects on ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ in 2015. Tom’s creative leadership will enhance RSP’s growing supervisory team, with RSP also recently securing Malte Sarnes as VFX Supervisor and Julian Hutchens as CG Supervisor. Malte boasts an impressive resume, most recently coming from Pixomondo where he supervised work on ‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage’, ‘The Promise’, ‘After Earth’, ‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘Game of Thrones’. Julian Hutchens returns home to Australia after eight years with Framestore, where he served in a variety of roles including CG Supervisor on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Legend of Tarzan’, Head of Lighting on ‘Paddington 2’, ‘Blade Runner 2049’, ‘Arrival’, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2’, ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’, and Lighting Supervisor on ‘Paddington’.
Visit https://rsp.com.au
TIM NUGENT is now Head of Media & Production at North Queensland Toyota Cowboys. He was previously the team’s Media.
RICHARD WRAY has started a new position as ANZ Country Sales Manager at Avid. He was previously Sales Director - APAC at Conviva. MICHAEL KENNEDY is now MCR & NOC Manager at MediaHub Australia. He was previously Network Operation Coordinator at MediaHub. CRAIG WILSON has commenced a new position as Editor - Think Tank at ITV Studios Australia. He was previously Editor - Family Food Fight Series 1, Episode 5 & 14 at Endemol Shine Australia. ALAIN BACH has started a new position as Technical Sales & Support Production & Post at Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd. He was previously Technical Sales / Technical Support / IT Admin at A2Z Technologies Ltd. WILL MUNKARA-KERR is now Country Manager Australia & New Zealand at ATEME. He was previously Technical Director Asia Pacific at Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services. MARK DARNAY has started a new position as Hardware Solutions Specialist at NEXTGEN PTY LTD. He was previously Operations Support Technician at Cutting Edge.
Professional Audio & Television presents
IP SEMINAR 2018 WITH INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKERS
Join Product Managers and IP Broadcast Specialists as we discuss case studies, network design, overarching control, PTP and the DO’s and DON’Ts of SMPTE2110. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn and discuss IP broadcast system design with highly experienced specialists who have played a significant part in some of the largest IP broadcast projects in the world.
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Monday 5th March - 9am to 6pm
Wednesday 7th March - 9am to 6pm
Friday 9th March - 9am to 6pm
RYDGES WORLD SQUARE 389 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000
RYDGES MELBOURNE 186 Exhibition St, Melbourne VIC 3000
RYDGES AUCKLAND 59 Federal St, Auckland 1010 NZ
Register your interest - This is a FREE EVENT, however places are limited so register now to secure your place! Email admin@proaudiotv.com.au to take part in this one day event in either Sydney, Melbourne or Auckland. Strictly limited numbers. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea provided.
NEWS + PEOPLE
“…and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Rob Siltanen
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TECHNICAL STANDARDS TAKING STOCK Moves in the business of content + technology
www.content-technology.com/standards www.content-technology.com/mediabusiness
AIMS Interop at VidTrans17 DPP Guide to Connectivity Ooyala to Focus on Video Player, Shows Viability of SMPTE 2110 Write-Down Services for Production Workflow Segments Following MEMBERS OF the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) recently contributed to an interop session, which was sponsored by Video non-cash impairment and write down the carrying value of its 98% of Ooyala, Services Forum (VSF) and concluded at VidTrans17 in Los Angeles, which its showcased US-based intelligent video business, to zero.2110 standard and AMWA the viability of the draft SMPTE IS-04 ascompletion a carefullyof architected IP initiative. Following its impairment testing process for the half year ended FEBRUARY SAW AUSTRALIAN TELCO Telstra announce it expects to make a
31 Leading Dec 2017, said it expected recognisetook an impairment charge of upTelstra to VidTrans17, 19 AIMStomembers part in VSF-sponsored
interoperability testinggoodwill at the Fox center in The Woodlands, AUD$273 million against andtechnical other non-current assets in its results The testing it was the first timetoa Audit and forTexas. that period to writewas theunprecedented, company value as down to zero (subject significant number of participants specifically on interoperability Risk Committee and Board review andfocused approval). of the SMPTE ST-2110 drafts. Approximately 21 vendors, 19 of whom
In awere statement, Telstra Group Technology,transmit Innovation Strategy, AIMS members, wereExecutive able to successfully andand receive from
Stephen Elop, without who is also Chairman of theto Ooyala Board, said or “There are three each other major adjustments their equipment the network. key parts of the Ooyala business – ad tech, OVP (video player) and a workflow
Following the testing event in Texas, 12 AIMS members exhibited their draft SMPTE ST-2110 systems in the interoperability session and we will therefore seek ways to exit that part of the business. at VidTrans17. The results were on display, and the progress thus far “Importantly, do seepositive a futureconsensus in the other core parts of theand Ooyala business generated we strongly between vendors attendees alike. – video player and the workflow management system.” management system (Flex media logistics). Ad tech, has not performed well
The“We’re announcement a predictable Telstra-bashing, along energized sparked by the success of thisround latestof round of tests, so we’re
ready to getover backOoyala’s to worklong withterm renewed vigor, ” said Michael Cronk, with concerns future. But, what does the write-down AIMS mean board for chair. members are very active in supporting and actually the“AIMS company?
implementing the draft SMPTE 2110 standard. We are thrilled that testing to date is both showing excellent progress toward interoperability it isand business as usual. providing great data for further improvements. There will be future interoperability and tests, which makes” this exciting forday all “For our day to dayevents operations, it means nothing, saysan Davis. “Fortime day to who support a common industrywe standard, as it was whenplayer SDI first operations we sell three solutions; sell OVPmuch and Flex, the video and Interoperability will remain theatkey, those who obviously get involved theappeared. media logistics, nothing changes there all. and As for ad tech, we'll will reap the benefits of new workflows and solutions.”
According to Steve Davis, Ooyala’s General Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan,
still maintain it for our customers, but they're looking to sell that unit of the
New additions to from the AIMS membership include business which was an acquisition thatroster Telstra madeBridge in 2014 or '15. The Technologies, Clear-Com, Solid Stateand Logic, Juniper Networks, Atos, name of the company was Videoplaza, Videoplaza became our ad tech Leader, Encompass Digital sonoVTS. solution and that's what theirMedia, lookingand to sell off.
Visita http://aimsalliance.org “We're multimillion dollar company, none of that changes. It's a write-down on the Telstra books. It's an accounting practice and they did it for their reasons and we have nothing to do with it, they decided what to do, plus it's completely
THE DIGITAL PRODUCTION PARTNERSHIP (DPP) recently published the first ever guide to help producers find the right kind of connectivity for their business. ‘The DPP Survey Report: Connectivity Supply to Production’ helps producers to identify the kind of connectivity provision appropriate to their needs, with an indication of costs and type of service. “Our previous research with production companies has revealed that many still rely on inadequate broadband connections, and don’t always feel they understand the alternatives,” says DPP Managing Director, Mark Harrison. “So, we have conducted some research, and sought the advice of DPP Member companies, to pull together a user-friendly view of what the market offers.” The survey report considers the needs of different sizes of production company, and whether the connectivity they need is for general office use, for working with video, or out on location. The needs of media production companies are unusual when compared to other sectors. The workload can expand and contract dramatically, and this makes for huge variations in the bandwidth required. Video files are also much bigger than the files being transferred by most other industries. “There is no doubt connectivity suppliers find the media production community difficult to serve,” says Harrison. “But, provision is getting Ooyala General Manager for Asia-Pacific & Japan, Steve Davis. better all the time and now might be the right time for producers to Despite thethe ad-tech sidethey of the business being overshadowed by”the likes of explore benefits could get from professional supply.
Google, Ooyala’s video player and the media logistics segments look set to ride
‘DPP Survey Report: Connectivity Supply to Production’ is the fifth in the DPP’s Survey Report series, and follows on from the ‘2016 Survey “In Report the AsiaConnectivity Pacific regionand especially, we're leading the world in percentage Production’ , which shared eye-opening DPP of mobile growth, ” says Steve Davis. “We think that's only going to continue research into how production companies view their connectivity services. - the rise of VR/AR, so virtual reality and augmented reality. One of the big the growth in mobile video and virtual reality.
predictions for us is VR will finally become more mainstream because you have Visit www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk events like the Winter Olympics coming up and then the World Cup and VR is going be a bit part of that, so looking good.
Eurofins, Samsung to Develop HbbTV App Test Centre “One of our customers is Intel that we're helping them drive through their business as usual. Eighteen months ago, they took the first write-down.
TAKING STOCK TECHNICAL STANDARDS
Nothing changed 18 months ago. Inhas fact, we're growing the OVP Flex EUROFINS DIGITAL TESTING announced it willon develop anand HbbTV
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360° viewing andtest VR-type viewing for theinOlympics. This is going mainstream initially build the centre at its office Bristol, UK. This test centre will
application testchurn centre co-operation Samsung testing side. Customer is in down, growth iswith up, we're reallyElectronics happy withfor how the
and is going to get bigger from there. So, it's kind Applications of like the year of VR by takethis responsibility for testing and validating HbbTV provided
HbbTV Applications on HbbTV TVs. company is growing, but this is aenabled Telstra accounting practice and it's their
isapp probably going(who to happen. artificial intelligence will continue to grow, developers might Also, be broadcasters or other parties) and will work
‘HbbTV Applications’ include interactive applications that deliver additional perogative to do the write-down. ”
with these app developers machine learning, analytics. to define the scope of the testing required. This
functionality such as video-on-demand and are designed to run on TVs According to Davis, existing ad tech customers will be supported “One hundred compliant with the HbbTV specification. As the lead supporter, Samsung will per cent”. provide the initial TV platforms for conducting the compatibility tests. These “It is business as usual. Nothing debug changes. You which know how long can take to platforms include an enhanced mode allows theit gathering of additional data tosodiagnose issues. Samsung provide technicalWe'll find a proper suitor, nothing changes at all withwill thealso ad tech customers. assistance the program to assist apptodevelopers to run theirand applications continue to to support them and continue build out the product everything. Samsung TVs. Ion mean, literally nothing changes in the interim.”
willNAB, ensure that thewe're HbbTV applications themedia HbbTV specification “At everything talking about isconform the new to Flex platform. The
Eurofins, which has offices in Belgium, Hong Kong, Poland and Sweden, will
Visit www.eurofins-digitaltesting.com and www.hbbtv.org
and function correctly on real, deployed devices from the market leading brand.
upcoming new release, Flex media platform, is going to be completely unique in the marketplace, having an integrated media logistics platform running in a
The integrated agreementOVP between Samsung Eurofins allows the growth fully platform. That's and the Flex product fullyfor powering live of and the Test to include more in due course – including VOD in anCentre automated fashion anddevices it just doesn't exist anywhere. ” those from other manufacturers – to further extend the testing capabilities.
Visit www.ooyala.com and www.telstra.com
TAKING STOCK
AUSTRALIA IN THE 1980s. It was the time of Hawke-Keating, of Mad Max, Crocodile Dundee, and a veritable Cambrian explosion of technology companies formed in the wake of Rank Australia’s departure from the Antipodean market. Divesting on a high, Rank left behind it a trail of acquisitions and management buy-outs resulting in such industry names as Bytecraft, Quinto Communications, Film Lab Group and, celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2017, Amber Technology. Taking the professional audio and motion picture product lines, Amber Technology hit the ground running with a staff of around 20 and a revenue stream derived from maintenance and warranty support contracts. According to Managing Director, Peter Amos, the next step in the company’s evolution was a move into consumer electronics. “There was a company called Hiphon. They were the Onkyo agents. They got themselves into trouble. We bought it from the bank and the receivers, and took over the stock and the business, and that was our foray into consumer electronics,” says Amos. “The second milestone would have been that we had a very stressful couple of days where the Linter Corporation, Abe Goldberg, had a little problem as a business and that meant that we lost our guarantor for our facilities and the bank looked at us and went, ‘hmm’. Fortunately, we were going okay so they said, ‘okay, you can stand on your own two feet’, but suddenly when you lose your guarantor, that’s a bit of a nerve racking time.” The company continued on and, as technology changed, it looked to adapt. “It’s a continual reinvent yourself game,” says Amos. “If you stand still, you die. We looked at other opportunities to spread the load within the corporation and the next opportunity which came along was Fairlight. A lot of people within the Amber Group - David Hannay who was the Managing Director at the time we all came from manufacturing backgrounds. So, we had the opportunity to manufacture something, a world class product.
“[In 1989] Fairlight had just gone through their second administration and their life was very interesting. We went to the State Bank, purchased financial property and all the rights and everything that went with it, trademarks, the whole she-bang, and then we went to the auction with [Fairlight CoFounder] Kim Ryrie in tow and we purchased what we needed to start up the manufacturing operation again and it became very evident what we were up to at the auction. I think Tony Vaccher from Audioloc, because he was a big Fairlight user, and a few others realised, they twigged about an hour into the auction, that we were starting it up again and came around and asked us and we said, ‘Yeah, we’re starting up. We’ve got Kim and the gang and off we go’. “All of the users stopped bidding because they were only going to buy bits to keep their machines going. So, we were then against others in the room who were either suppliers to the old Fairlight trying to redeem their stock and a lot of those stopped as well because we were paying more than they were expecting because we needed certain things. The poor old auctioneers got themselves in a very interesting pickle because he didn’t know what had happened because suddenly he was starting to get reasonable prices and then it just hit the floor. He stopped the auction and he had a chat to a few people, and he had no choice but to carry on because it was a liquidation sale of the assets. It was a fascinating day. Quite emotional from the point of view that I had X-amount of money in my pocket and that’s what I could spend, and I had to get enough to build the first run of machines. “We were building Series 3 synthesisers because the MFX digital audio work station didn’t exist at that stage, it was just a pipe dream in someone’s head. We purchased enough material from the auction to be able to start it up. We put it in an old derelict building out at Ultimo and away they went. And Fairlight is, I suppose, in my career of 30 years and Amber’s career of 30 years, the most exciting thing to do because it was core manufacturing. We then built a new platform, the digital workstation and MFX range, built up to Series 3. And, the guys that were involved in that and the talent in that place was just staggering. They were so talented, the ideas and what they did. It was a world-class product,
The new DaVinci Resolve 14 is now up to 10 times faster with new editing tools, full Fairlight audio post production and new multi user collaboration tools! Soft ware DaVinci Resolve 14 .................. Free Download DaVinci Resolve 14 Studio ........................$419 Hardware DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel..................$1,385 DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel....................$4,155 DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel ........ $41,445
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TAKING STOCK
DaVinci Resolve 14 is a new revolution in post production! The world’s most advanced editing and color correction soft ware is now up to 10 times faster, includes an entirely new audio post production suite, multi user collaboration tools, and dozens of new filters and effects, including amazing face refinement tools! With DaVinci Resolve 14, it only takes a single click to switch between editing, color and audio. It’s like getting 3 high end applications in one!
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ACQUISITION
ACQUISITION Blackmagic Delivers Christmas Down Under
www.content-technology.com/acquisition
THERE’S A NEWLYWED COUPLE - one is American, the other is Australian. Like many couples, they argue. They end up in Australia for Christmas. The husband goes missing. The wife embarks on a search mission around Sydney and, in a series of comic episodes, befriends an Aboriginal tour guide and a YouTube-famous, Uberdriving millennial before tracking her husband down via social media. Described as a “big ensemble film” by producer Adam Horner, Christmas Down Under, due for release in 2018, was shot in just 21 days in multiple locations around Sydney and suburbs, including the legendary Rooty Hill RSL Club. “We had locations everywhere,” says Horner. “We had a whole lot of internals, but we also had a lot of externals. We shot a scene at Bondi Beach, we shut down a part of Circular Quay for the day and shot down there, basically every single location in this movie kind of looks like a postcard of Sydney. It's all Opera House and Harbour Bridge background.” Central to the three-camera shoot was Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini Pro. For DoP Maarten “Fish” Talbot, it was the first time he had used the digital film camera on a production. “I've never used them before, so it was going in blind,” says Talbot. “I actually had a really low expectation of it, but it just kept ticking all the boxes as we were going along. They're just a good little workhorse. “Also, the buttons were like physical buttons. I wasn't going into menus and going through all the kind of stuff on board the camera. A lot of the time they were out in direct sunlight which we weren't really set up properly for, so having the buttons, we just pressed and then know that we had the right settings. It was good.” Taking advantage of URSA’s ability to change lens mounts, Talbot and his fellow camera operators settled on an EF mount for Canon cine lenses. “Because of the low budget, we just went with what we could get,” says Talbot. “So, it just worked out well that everyone had the same lenses, so we were just pretty much swapping. There were two or three people who had all the same for the lenses, so we just made up a kit with that.” One area where Talbot was surprised during shooting was that of storage, concluding that bigger is not always better.
“There were a few shots where we used slow motion, and with the amount of RAW slow motion we were using a lot of card space,” he says. “We thought that bigger cards would be the better option, but they didn't write properly. We did some research and found out that smaller card sizes actually write better, they're more suited, they're recommended. But, that's not a camera issue, more like a lack of research. We really needed to shoot like we were shooting on film, whereas a lot of the time we would just hit record treating the card space like it was replaceable, which it is.” “It was an insane amount of files,” adds Horner. “One of our major challenges on this was data wrangling, just because there was so much. And, even after having conversations with our DP and our director, ‘Treat it like film’ – we're digital here, but we're 4.6K lossless. We were running through a pretty substantial amount of hard drive space here and I actually clocked up close to about two times the amount of footage I was expecting to have. Just because we were rolling pretty much all three on everything. A/B cam would be getting close ups of the actor or whatever and then C cam would be roaming, getting little details and all this kind of stuff. So, it was all stuff that we needed and a lot of the time we'd be shooting with A/B cam while C cam was getting ready on the Steadicam or something like that. “With data, we honestly just had tables of Macs just backing those C file cards up as quickly as we could, and backing them up drive to drive, it was an absolute nightmare. We actually had four laptops going at one point, just to keep up with the cards, just so we could keep shooting.” “It was all a balancing act,” adds Talbot, “but by the end of it we started to get a nice rhythm down with, especially as we didn't roll until we actually marked it.” “They're just easy to use cameras,” adds Producer Adam Horner. “A lot of these more professional cameras, there's some little issues with them. We just always run into various issues and there's always a problem with some of the third-party stuff. Whereas, with Blackmagic, it's all basically built by Blackmagic, so you plug it all in and it works, it's quite nice.” Christmas Down under is scheduled for release in late 2018. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
Fujifilm Fujinon Opens Service Centre FUJIFILM FUJINON HAS OPENED its new service centre in Brookvale, NSW, and to celebrate the event are offering a specific and custom-tailored fixed price lens health check for customers.
ACQUISITION
Fujifilm Australia General Manager – Recording Media and Optical Devices, Marc Van Agten explained, “Fujifilm Fujinon has a unique offering as far as service is concerned. Combined our lens engineers bring decades of experience to the centre and the ability to fix optical products from high-end binoculars to broadcast and cine lenses. To celebrate our new facility we are offering a fixed price lens health check that covers every aspect of the lens’ mechanical, electrical and optical operation and includes a full lens clean and detailed report.”
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centre focuses clearly on quality, efficiency and flexibility. It also enables us to continue our offsite servicing as we have done regularly for customers including SKY NZ and Australia’s Parliament House where last year alone our technicians spent over eight weeks performing preventative maintenance service work.” As part of the service centre build, Fujifilm Australia invested heavily in new specialist test and adjustment equipment to support its Cabrio and 4K lens range, including the installation of a Spatial Frequency Response (SRF) adjustment jig and senior distance calibration tools.
The brand new facility houses state of the art equipment used to repair not only a full range of optical devices but also the company’s high tech medical ultrasound products.
The new service centre took six months to complete and is double the size of the previous centre with the additional room now used to house all of the company’s new equipment and to allow for more test and servicing bays.
Fujifilm Service Centre Manager James Thomson added, “The new service
Visit www.fujifilm.com.au
ACQUISITION
See The World Come Alive With the Sony family of system cameras
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ACQUISITION
Discover our line-up of live broadcast and studio cameras. Ideal for shooting live events or in the studio, the wide range of cameras are built on Sony’s record of innovation and reliability.
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ACQUISITION
Panavision Millennium DXL2 Camera
Leader Boosts 4K HDR Waveform Monitor
PANAVISION’S MILLENNIUM DXL2 8K, large-format camera is designed as the heart of a complete imaging ecosystem incorporating Panavision’s optics and camera architecture, the RED MONSTRO 8K VV sensor, and Light Iron color2 science (LiColor2).
LEADER ELECTRONICS HAS LAUNCHED a major addition to the feature set of its LV5490 4K high dynamic range waveform monitor. The instrument now provides full direct support for ITU-R BT.2408-0 ‘Operational practices in HDR television production’. Published in October 2017, the ITU document provides initial guidance to help ensure optimal and consistent use of the Hybrid Log-Gamma and Perceptual Quantizer techniques specified in ITU-R BT.2100.
“The Millennium DXL2 8K camera system was conceived with the goal of maximum creative control from the moment of capture through delivery and display,” says Michael Cioni, senior VP of Innovation at Panavision and Light Iron. “Panavision’s vast inventory of advanced large-format and anamorphic optics combined with RED’s MONSTRO imager expands what’s possible, allowing filmmakers to create radically inventive and powerfully cinematic images, customised for the needs of the project and the vision of creative teams.” The RED MONSTRO 8K VV sensor in the DXL2 offers 16-plus stops of dynamic range with improvements in image quality and shadow detail, a native ISO setting of 1600, and ProRes 4K up to 60 fps. Images are presented on the camera in log format using Light Iron colour science. An integrated PX-Pro colour spectrum filter custom-made for the DXL offers a significant increase in colour separation and dramatically higher colour precision to the image. Built-in Preston MDR, 24v power and expanded direct-to-edit features are also standard equipment on the DXL2. An anamorphic flare attachment (AFA) offers a convenient, controllable method of introducing flare with spherical lenses.
The LV5490 4K/HDR waveform monitor supports preconfigured settings to ensure the reference levels are correct for both PQ and HLG production. A 75% HLG or 58% PQ marker is also displayed automatically on the waveform monitor graticule. This represents the reference level, enabling the vision engineer to ensure that any object placed at the centre of interest within a scene occupies the appropriate signal range and that sufficient headroom is reserved for specular highlights. Also now added to the LV5490 is system gamma Optical-Optical Transfer Function functionality for HLG and Sony’s SRLive for HDR production technology.
DXL2 cameras are available now to rent exclusively from Panavision on a worldwide basis.
Leader’s LV5490 offers 4K, UHD, 3G, HD and SD test and measurement features in a half-rack-width by 4U portable unit with a full high-definition 9-inch front-panel monitor. It provides all the capabilities needed to implement the full potential of high dynamic range in both HD and UHD. Signal displays such as video waveform, chroma levels, colour vectors, bar-graphs, noise, video patterns, quad-3G phase, data tables, camera picture output, colour chart, multichannel audio levels and surround-sound vectors can be viewed simultaneously in a user-customisable layout. If a specific element requires detailed attention, this can be selected quickly for viewing at higher resolution or full-screen. The Leader CINELITE HDR toolset also comes as a standard feature of the LV5490, allowing easy assessment of relative exposure and overall luminance during production. A focus-assist option allows highly accurate on-set adjustment of camera focus to match the ability of 4K and UHD formats to handle very precise image detail.
Visit www.panavision.com/dxl
Visit www.leader.co.jp
New to the DXL2, LiColour2 streamlines the 8K pipeline, smoothly handling the workflow and offering convenient and quick access to high-quality RAW images, accommodating direct to edit without delays.
ARRI Launches Large-Format Camera System ARRI HAS UNVEILED A COMPLETE large-format system. Based on a largeformat 4K version of the ALEXA sensor, the system comprises the ALEXA LF camera, ARRI Signature Prime lenses, LPL lens mount, and PL-to-LPL adapter. It is also compatible with existing lenses, accessories, and workflows. Featuring a sensor slightly bigger than full frame, ALEXA LF records native 4K with ARRI’s best overall image quality. Filmmakers can explore a large-format aesthetic while retaining the sensor’s natural colourimetry, pleasing skin tones and proven suitability for HDR and WCG workflows. Versatile recording formats, including efficient ProRes and uncompressed, unencrypted ARRIRAW up to 150 fps, provide total flexibility.
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“The larger ALEXA LF sensor has the same optimal pixel size as other ALEXAs, resulting in a 4448 x 3096 image,” says Marc Shipman-Mueller, ARRI Product Manager for Camera Systems. “This doesn’t just add definition, it creates a whole new look - one that is truly immersive, with a three-dimensional feel. The various recording formats and sensor modes make this look available to all productions and satisfy any possible deliverable requirement.”
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Accompanying the ALEXA LF camera are 16 large-format ARRI Signature Prime lenses, ranging from 12 mm to 280 mm and fitted with the ARRI LPL mount. While the Signature Primes exemplify state-of-the-art optical precision, they render organic, emotionally engaging images, gently softening and texturising the large format. A fast T-stop of T1.8 facilitates shallow depth of field and the smooth focus fall-off gives subjects heightened presence in the frame. The ARRI Signature Prime lenses are lightweight and robust, due to the magnesium lens barrels, and feature LDS-2, ARRI’s next-generation Lens Data System.
Optimised for large-format sensors, the new LPL lens mount has a wider diameter and shorter flange focal depth, allowing the ARRI Signature Primes and all future large-format lenses to be small and lightweight, with a fast T-stop and pleasing bokeh - a combination of features that would not be possible with the PL lens mount. The LPL mount will also be available for other ARRI cameras and is being licensed to third-party lens and camera manufacturers. Although the camera, lens mount, and lenses are new, full compatibility with existing PL mount lenses and ALEXA accessories is a cornerstone of the system’s design. A PL-to-LPL adapter offers backwards compatibility with all PL mount lenses, whether Super 35 or full frame. The adapter attaches securely to the LPL lens mount without tools, allowing crews to rapidly switch between PL and LPL lenses on set, and offering cinematographers an unlimited lens choice. Stephan Schenk, Managing Director of ARRI Cine Technik and responsible for the business unit Camera Systems, said, “Providing compatibility with existing lenses, camera accessories, workflows, ARRI Look Files, lens metadata, and software tools makes it easier for crews to work with ALEXA LF on set and for rental houses to incorporate it into their inventories.” The first ALEXA LF cameras will be shipped at the end of March 2018. The initial set of four Signature Prime lenses (35 mm, 47 mm, 75 mm, and 125 mm) will be shipped in early June 2018. The remaining lenses will be available over the course of the year. Visit www.arri.com/largeformat
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Blackmagic Introduces URSA Broadcast BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS ANNOUNCED Blackmagic URSA Broadcast, a new high end, professional broadcast camera designed for both studio programming and live production. URSA Broadcast works with existing B4 broadcast HD lenses, can be used for both HD and Ultra HD production, features a 4K sensor, extended video dynamic range, traditional external controls and buttons, built in optical ND filters, dual CFast and dual SD card recorders, and much more.
The B4 lens mount and matching sensor on URSA Broadcast enables wide depth field, so broadcast customers can shoot without constantly chasing focus. The lens mount features high performance optics with spherical aberration correction specifically designed to match the camera’s sensor. The ű” mount lets customers use existing HD lenses or Ultra HD lenses. Because B4 lenses are par-focal and have an extremely wide depth of field, images stay in focus when zoomed in and out. That lets camera operators work faster because they don’t need to change lenses or refocus between close up, medium and wide shots. URSA Broadcast also supports full electronic B4 lens control so customers can adjust focus, iris and zoom using the camera’s controls, or remotely from an ATEM switcher or ATEM Camera Control Panel. In addition, the standard B4 lens mount can be swapped with optional EF, F and PL mounts so customers can use everything from inexpensive high quality photographic lenses all the way up to large cinema lenses.
Blackmagic URSA Broadcast puts control buttons, switches, knobs and dials on the outside of the camera, giving customers direct access to the most important camera features. The controls are laid out in a logical order that makes them easy to remember so operators can use the camera without having to look at the buttons, hunt through menus, or take their eye off of the action. URSA Broadcast also features a high visibility LCD status display which shows important information such as timecode, shutter and lens settings, battery, recording status, and audio levels. URSA Broadcast features both dual C-Fast 2.0 recorders and dual SD/ UHS-II card recorders. Both types of media are standard, non-proprietary, inexpensive and readily available at most computer and camera stores. Customers can record 10-bit broadcast quality DNxHD 220X, DNxHD 145 or ProRes files with metadata, making it is easy to integrate URSA Broadcast into existing broadcast systems and workflows. URSA Broadcast can even record lossless 12-bit CinemaDNG RAW files for high quality programming and post production. With dual slots for each media type, URSA Broadcast gives
URSA Broadcast features a high quality, 4K image sensor and a new extended video mode with better dynamic range and colour fidelity. The sensor is designed for both HD and Ultra HD, producing images with fine texture and detail, accurate skin tones, vibrant colour and high dynamic range. The images from URSA Broadcast have been designed to be used without additional colour correction. This makes editing faster. The high-resolution sensor is a huge advantage, even when working in HD, because it enables sub pixel image processing and superior anti-aliasing, resulting in super sharp images.
customers redundant recorders and non-stop recording. When the first card is
URSA Broadcast includes a compact, handheld magnesium alloy body that’s durable and light enough to use anywhere. There’s an external high visibility LCD status display for viewing critical shooting information, a foldout touch screen for reviewing shots without needing an extra on-set monitor, professional connections such as 12G-SDI, XLR audio, built in high quality stereo microphones and more. In addition, every control on the camera has a redundant backup, including the power, so if anything should go wrong in the field, the camera can still be used.
balanced XLR audio with phantom power, and timecode/reference input. A
URSA Broadcast also features built in neutral density (ND) filters with IR compensation for quickly reducing the amount of light that enters the camera. The ¼, 1/16th and 1/64th stop filters are specifically designed to match the colourimetry of the camera and provide additional latitude, even under harsh lighting conditions. That means camera operators can use different combinations of aperture and shutter angle to achieve shallower depth of field, or specific levels of motion blur, in a wider range of situations. The IR filters evenly compensate for both far red and infrared wave lengths to eliminate IR contamination. The ND filters are true optical filters with a precision mechanism that quickly moves them into place when the ND filter dial is turned.
full, recording automatically continues onto the next card so the full card can be swapped while recording continues on the other. The camera features multi rate12G-SDI connections for video output and return program feed input. Both connections automatically switch speed so they work with all HD and Ultra HD formats up to 2160p60 over a single cable. In addition, URSA Broadcast features HD-SDI monitoring out, 2 LANC inputs, 12-pin Hirose connector provides analogue and digital broadcast lens control for powering and controlling SD, HD and Ultra HD lenses. There’s also a 4 pin XLR 12V DC power output and HD-SDI monitor output that can be used with Blackmagic viewfinders or any third-party viewfinders and monitors. Customers can also add a Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder or a large 7-inch Blackmagic URSA Studio Viewfinder. There are microphone mounts, standard V-Lock and Gold battery plates, optional lens mounts and more. The Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converter, Blackmagic Studio Fiber Converter and ATEM Camera Control Panel will let customers create a complete broadcast camera chain. The fiber converters let customers extend their cameras and power them from up to 2km away using industry standard SMPTE fiber cables. It includes 1 Ultra HD camera feed, plus three HD return feeds, common live camera controls with multiple channels of talkback, and standard television industry talkback headset connections, all in a compact IP video-based design that allow it to be connected and controlled from a live production switcher. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
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URSA Broadcast is two cameras in one, a field camera for ENG and programming work, as well as a professional studio camera. URSA Broadcast is also designed to work with existing broadcast equipment and systems. For example, users can employ their existing B4 HD and Ultra HD lenses with URSA Broadcast. URSA Broadcast records onto inexpensive standard SD cards, UHS-II cards and CFast cards, and records 1080i or 2160p video into standard .mov files, with .mxf to be added in future updates. URSA Broadcast records using DNx145, DNx220X or ProRes, so video doesn’t need to be copied or transcoded.
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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide
www.content-technology.com/sportscasting
Australian Open: Gearhouse Aces Remote Production for Seven By Brad Watts
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THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS TOURNAMENT holds a special place in the hearts of Aussie sports lovers. Part of the world’s ‘Grand Slam’ tennis circuit including the French, Wimbledon, and US Opens, for a fortnight during the middle of summer, international tennis stars battle it out in Melbourne amidst the relentless Australian heat. It’s not only hot on the court. Behind the players and umpires are hundreds of support crew and media professionals ensuring the coverage is delivered to Australia and the rest of the world. Channel 7 holds the Australian broadcasting rights for the Australian Open. It’s a top-shelf-ticket event for the broadcaster that has previously always captured and broadcast the event from on-site at the Tennis Centre in Melbourne Park. This year Channel 7 stepped away from tradition and housed its production team off-site at Melbourne’s Docklands precinct utilising remote broadcasting I spoke with Ian Stokes from Gearhouse Broadcast, project manager for the build of Channel 7’s Australian Open remote broadcasting centre. Brad Watts: What prompted the idea to move the broadcast centre away from the action at Melbourne Park? Ian Stokes: “Channel 7 and Gearhouse have partnered for the Australian Open as a Remote Production this year. With the advances in technology and after a lot of testing it made sense for the station to move the tennis production away from the Melbourne Park Tennis Centre, and build one facility that could handle both the Australian Open, along with the lead up events to the Australian Open. December through to February is now entirely covered from the Remote Broadcast Centre, it makes sense with the multiple events to build it into one facility.” Who was responsible for specifying the remote system? “Gearhouse and Channel 7, there was myself and three others who managed the build from the Gearhouse side. I oversaw the build, with Danny Riess and Adrian Jenner looking after audio and fibre systems. Gavin Romanis oversaw the project and team at a high level and was key in the partnership negotiations.” How long did it take to put together? You’re dealing with a new set of issues when compared to an on-site broadcast. “It all happened from early October. There was to-ing and fro-ing for a good couple of months, and then the physical build of the facility took around two weeks with a week handover. Adrian at Gearhouse tackled getting feeds in and out of each venue, then once they reached a venue, I tackled how to integrate them into a control room atmosphere for production. Danny tackled how they would need to land in a production environment for audio. The way Channel 7, Channel 10 or Channel 9 work are all very different, so you can’t simply land a signal in one area and make it work. It needs to work for each team’s production regime.” Was the only prompt the economics? I understand the Remote Broadcast Centre was possible because of the IP infrastructure.
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“The Remote Broadcast Centre was made a reality through Net Insight and the Nimbra 688 frames providing the encoding and decoding of the feeds between the venues. We have deployed two Nimbra 688 frames at each venue, with a diverse fibre ring between the RBC [Remote Broadcast Centre], Melbourne Olympic Park and 7BCM, Channel 7’s master control for Australia.
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“With regards to planning for the fibre transport in particular, Adrian Jenner would work with Techtel [Australian distributors of the Nimbra systems] on the overall design. I would work with Channel 7 on how many feeds we needed in and out of each venue, and based on that feeds list, Adrian would work with Techtel to design a system that could encapsulate that many feeds down a small amount of fibre. The two companies (Gearhouse and Techtel) have been working together with a view to remote broadcast production previously, so we’ve tested this out quite comprehensively already.” With such an aggressive schedule, I’d imagine cooperation between each party is paramount. “Well as it turned out, Nimbra was the a very solid system to work with. Net Insight were very forthcoming with help and providing a solution that worked
for the companies involved. So to elaborate on that, we would collaborate with Techtel in Australia and Net Insight in Sweden to create a working system to cater to our needs. The amount of feeds that were required, SDI video out of Melbourne Park in particular, was a huge collaborative effort. There were also a number of MADI and Ethernet paths between the venues. Without the cooperation between Net Insight in Sweden, and Techtel and Gearhouse in Australia it’d be an insurmountable undertaking. All our Nimbra systems came ex-Sweden, but down the line I can see Gearhouse working much more in-depth with Techtel. This has proven to be a very solid solution, so we will continue to work with them.” How many feeds are we looking at? “There is mixture of SDI video, ethernet and MADI, to get from venue to venue. All up, there are approximately 80 HD SDI video feeds, 6 MADI and a number of 1G and 10G ethernet paths. We have chosen to use a mixture of uncompressed and JPEG2000 compression on the video paths.” Six MADI lines full? “Full. Chock-a-block. With regards to audio, we have multiple MADI feeds from the Tennis Australia Host Broadcaster plus we’ve got a studio and three commentary booths at Melbourne Park which we need to service, so there’s a lot of audio involved.” How fat is the fibre umbilical cord between each site? Is that your network or are you piggybacking on someone else's? “We have two fibres in running clockwise and two fibres running anti-clockwise, both of which are dark-fibre put in by Vocus, and we purpose that fibre with two CWDMs at each location. That ends up providing us 120 gigabits of bandwidth – within that we can then fit video feeds, networks between sites, and all the audio feeds.” Continues P19 >>
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There’s no reduction in facility compared with a traditional on-site broadcast? “Not at all. So, this whole floor is taken up by us. We have seating for 56 background personnel from Channel 7, all connected to their own corporate network. We have extended out the corporate network for Channel 7 through the Nimbra transport, so these guys can all log in as they would back at any Channel 7 facility and everything feels normal. There are Reidel Artist 128 frames on-site here and out at Melbourne Park. The frames are trunked so we can talk across the fibre transport to Melbourne Park as if you were just talking to someone in the next room. There are also communications from 7BCM to both RBC and Melbourne Park. There is a separate EVS network across to Melbourne Park ingesting and pushing content over a 10G network back to the RBC. The Technical Director at RBC can look after the Hitachi cameras at Melbourne Park – he can actually control the cameras at Melbourne Park from here. It’s business
as usual. Plus we’re not forced to fit into the event infrastructure, which makes logistics easier for us.” In other words, this is the way forward in terms of remote broadcast and sportscasting? “With a ‘production hub’ model there are greater efficiencies compared to a traditional on-site facility. The fact we can use this facility to cover two series of events speaks for itself. When you consider the number of people involved and the cost of relocating everything between events it’s a no-brainer. As discussed we’ve got a studio for the Australian Open Series and the Australian Open as required. Two birds with the one stone. We’ll be working alongside Techtel with this model for the foreseeable future. It’s game, set and match as far as we’re concerned.”
AO – The Story Behind the Logo A FOCUS OF THE ENTRY to the Australian Open Festival in Birrarung Marr, the AO logo was brought to life by Sydney’s The P.A. People. According to Chris Dodds, Managing Director – The P.A. People and lead designer of the AO logo project, “Our solution was based on a stainlesssteel space frame structure, similar to the construction of an airframe. Each of the 440 pieces of stainless steel was laser cut and folded from one of 230 separate patterns and then assembled in our workshop with a combination of bolts and rivets. The fabrication did not rely on a frame per se – rather, a combination of flat 3mm panels and lateral spokes or ribs provided the structural integrity required. We chose stainless steel to provide a durable and elegant surface for the logo over time.” The side surfaces are a combination of grey tinted polycarbonate and a specially imported acrylic diffuser, selected to enhance the look of the 1,900 triple-chip LED pixels that surround the body of the AO logo. The 3.9mm pitch outdoor LED screen was accessible from the front of the unit for maintenance, while the server and interconnections were accessed through lockable rear hatches. The assembled screen is some 3.2m high, almost 7m long and 850mm deep. It weighs some 2.5 tonnes. The system is designed to fit in its own
20-foot high cube shipping container, incorporates its own media server and sound system and is complete with its own stage. Visit www.papeople.com.au
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It’s Gold in the Cold for Panasonic at Winter Games AS A TOP SPONSOR for the Olympic Games and Official Worldwide Paralympic Partner, Panasonic will provide a wide range of solutions to support the staging of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018) and XII Paralympic Winter Games (PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games), which will mainly be held in PyeongChang County, Korea. Through cooperation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the PyeongChang Organising Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG), and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), Panasonic is supplying AV equipment to the opening and closing ceremonies, competition venues, and broadcasting locations. Panasonic has been a TOP sponsor since the Olympic Winter Games Calgary 1988, and the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of its sponsorship. The company provided solutions using its latest AV equipment and projection mapping technologies as its core technology for the opening ceremony to assist with the staging of both the opening and closing ceremonies. Panasonic also supplied around 80 PTRZ31K/RQ32K high-brightness compact 30,000-lumens class projectors, AV-HS6000 Series Broadcast Grade 2ME Live Switchers, plus a full line-up of AV systems to the Olympic Stadium to support the staging of the opening and closing ceremonies. Panasonic also instaledl 42 LED video screens and video systems in the competition venues, giving a total screen area of 1640m². Panasonic’s RAMSA brand line-array speakers provided on-site audio at four venues: the ski jumping and snowboard venues, Yongpyong alpine skiing venue, and Gangneung Olympic Park. In addition, trials of a multi-video distribution
system and 360°cameras were conducted as part of initiatives toward the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. Panasonic’s P2HD broadcast camera system was chosen as the recording platform for PyeongChang 2018. Other broadcasting equipment used included the AJ-PX5000G camera recorder featuring AVC-ULTRA codecs to the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC). Since the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992, the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 is the 13th Olympic Games in which Panasonic’s digital technology is used as the official recording format. In all, Panasonic AV equipment supplied to competition venues, athlete villages, press centre, and official live sites included: • LED large screen display systems – 17 venues, 42 screens, approx. 1640m2; • Professional audio systems – 10 venues. • Projectors for ceremonies – 80. • Projectors – 154. • Security cameras – 1079. • Camra recorders – 20. • Multiformat live switchers – 16. Panasonic broadcast equipment supplied for the International Broadcast Centre and broadcasters included: • HD recorders – 50. • Camera recorders – 50. • Monitors – 1000.
Olympic Broadcast Services: the ‘Van Guard’ of Games Coverage OLYMPIC BROADCASTING SERVICES (OBS) became one of the biggest importers in Korea in the lead up to the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. In total, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) contracted 10 suppliers to provide 38 broadcast vans and auxiliary trucks – 36 from Europe and two from China. The broadcast vans made their way to Pyeongtaek Port south of Seoul by container ship from Antwerp, Belgium, and Shanghai, China, respectively. Freezing temperatures resulted in a number of the vans arriving with dead batteries on 24 January, but thanks to the excellent work of the port authorities and mechanics, the vehicles and their cargo were eventually offloaded to undergo customs clearance. The next day, the drivers, who flew in from Europe and China to deliver the vans to the Olympic venues, were given a police induction session on the peculiarities of Korean driving. On the morning of 26 January, the broadcast vans made their way in four separate police-escorted convoys to the venues, the first starting at 06:30. A coordinated effort by the drivers, the port staff (who selflessly extended their hours to aid the operation), Motorpool drivers (who helped guide the broadcast van drivers), and the police helped the trucks reach the venues without issue. In addition to the broadcast vans, OBS secured three local trucks to provide 4K UHD support, and seven light-production units – five from the United States to
cover Curling and the press conferences at the Main Press Centre (MPC) and two from France to cover the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as the Medal Plaza Victory Ceremonies. “Moving such a large number of broadcast vans around the globe is always a pretty big undertaking, one that requires the seamless coordination of a number of stakeholders, in particular the suppliers and local authorities, each one with its own culture and particular intricacies,” said Stefanos Kourelas, OBS Chief Financial Officer. “We are extremely pleased that once again this pretty unique and extremely sensitive operation from a risk management point of view went very smoothly.” For the PyeongChang Games, OBS produced approximately 5000 hours of coverage (including both High Definition Television - HDTV and Ultra High Definition UHD material), which consisted of around 850 hours of live Olympic sport competition (including selected official training and Ski Jumping trial jumps), supplemented by coverage from the Multi Clips Feeds (MCFs), the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the Medals Plaza Victory Ceremonies,12 beauty cameras, the Olympic Channel News (OCN), digital content (including Virtual Reality) and other additional production material. Visit https://www.obs.tv
Korean Students Learn from OBS Broadcast Experts THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES PyeongChang 2018 saw, once again, Olympics’ host-country students given the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Broadcasting Services’ (OBS) Broadcast Training Programme (BTP).
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A total of 650 Korean graduate students were successful in securing Games-time paid positions on offer for PyeongChang 2018.
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In order to facilitate the recruitment of students, local partnership agreements were made with 12 universities from Seoul and surrounding cities: Sejong University, Myongji University, Ewha Womans University, George Mason University – Incheon Global Campus, SUNY Korea – Incheon Global Campus, Ghent University – Incheon Global Campus, The University of Utah – Incheon Global Campus, Seoul Women's University,
Baekseok University, Namseoul University, Hanseo University, and Hanyang University. “For more than three decades, the BTP has played a fundamental role in inspiring new generations of sports broadcast professionals around the world,” said Juan Canadell, OBS Head of Human Resources and Crewing. “With this programme, OBS is truly creating a lasting legacy in every Olympic host country long after the Games. For many, this work opportunity at the Olympics alongside the Host Broadcast team will pave the way towards a successful career in the broadcast industry – something we are particularly proud of at OBS.” Visit https://www.obs.tv
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Adelaide Oval, KOJO Boost Game Day Production with Ross Video THE ADELAIDE OVAL REGULARLY plays host to cricket matches, two Australian Rules football teams, soccer games and live concerts and events. KOJO, the company responsible for all game day production, was asked by the Adelaide Oval to further develop the stadium control room (which includes the Carbonite production switcher and XPression graphics suite from Ross) by adding XPression Tessera – the latest addition to Ross Video’s line of realtime graphics products and workflow tools. Suited to sports scoreboards, ribbon boards and studio video walls, Tessera enables users to link together multiple XPression engines to create seamless output of scenes across large or irregularly assembled display panels. Frame-accurate, non-tearing recall of graphics and clips across any section of the display is made possible with XPression’s new Multi-Engine Sync technology, enabling incredibly dynamic animations and transitions. Tessera was first seen in the world’s largest and most expensive sports venue – the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atalanta, Georgia – which features a ‘halo’ screen running around the perimeter of the retractable roof. Commenting on the Adelaide install, Stephen Lord from KOJO highlights control as being a key factor for the production team. “Andrew Daniels, CEO of Adelaide Oval, gives us a simple brief, to deliver a world class fan experience,” said Lord. “As existing Ross customers, we were aware of the Mercedes-Benz stadium project and after a thorough review of platforms we identified Tessera as an incredibly powerful way for us to run ribbon boards and integrated experiences at Adelaide Oval. Our creative team are constantly pushing the boundary of what is possible so the challenge for us was always going to be how we could get the best set-up and control for our production team. “Fortunately, we received a great deal of support from the Ross team
who worked with us to create custom control panels in DashBoard, Ross Video’s open platform facility control solution. As a result, we’re now using DashBoard to control a number of different devices in addition to Tessera and we’re very pleased at how easy the system has been to setup and configure. Sports is a competitive market and we’re always looking for innovative ways to improve the game day experience and draw more people into the stadium. Products like Tessera help give us an edge and that’s great for us, the stadium and all the sponsors associated with the events we run.” Amanda Leighton, Ross’ Director of Sales for Oceania, understands the commercial pressures facing sports content producers. “Sports venues understandably focus on ROI and want to maximise the value of each live event they host,” said Leighton. “This puts pressure on everyone to be more creative, to work more efficiently and to make the biggest possible impact with the live audience. Ross is responding to those creative, business and technical challenges and it’s no surprise that our global footprint in sports production has grown so rapidly in the last 12 months.” Visit www.rossvideo.com and http://kojo.com.au
Professional Audio & Television presents
IP SEMINAR 2018 WITH INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKERS
Join Product Managers and IP Broadcast Specialists as we discuss case studies, network design, overarching control, PTP and the DO’s and DON’Ts of SMPTE2110. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn and discuss IP broadcast system design with highly experienced specialists who have played a significant part in some of the largest IP broadcast projects in the world.
Sydney
Melbourne
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Monday 5th March - 9am to 6pm
Wednesday 7th March - 9am to 6pm
Friday 9th March - 9am to 6pm
RYDGES WORLD SQUARE 389 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000
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RYDGES AUCKLAND 59 Federal St, Auckland 1010 NZ
Register your interest - This is a FREE EVENT, however places are limited so register now to secure your place! Email admin@proaudiotv.com.au to take part in this one day event in either Sydney, Melbourne or Auckland. Strictly limited numbers. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea provided.
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“…and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Rob Siltanen
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The Gold Coast Diaries – Chapter 8 By Jeff Coleman 5.50 PM, MONDAY 8 JANUARY 2018 – HOST BROADCASTER HQ, BUNDALL, QLD I glance at my computer screen clock, thinking it might be time for a midafternoon coffee, to find the day nearly over. My first day back in the office after Christmas has not only been fast but productive: as colleagues are just beginning to trickle back to work the relative quiet has allowed me to plough through progress reports and updates from the NEP Host Broadcaster’s Sydney-based engineering team. Aside from 10 days over the Christmas and New Year holidays they’ve been working continuously for months at the company’s brand new warehouse facility in Homebush, Sydney, progressing our Gold Coast 2018 ‘Commonwealth Games in a Box Approach’, which the compressed timeline for access to the venues and International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) at Games-time requires. As NEP did for Glasgow 2014 and Delhi 2010, the broadcast infrastructure for the GC2018 IBC and venues has been designed and pre-built remotely, and will be delivered to site factory-commissioned and ready for service. Systems integration was completed at the ‘Games Integration Lab’ a couple weeks ago, as were the ‘boxes’ – being the broadcast technical operation centre (BTOC) racks for the competition venues and also the IBC broadcast equipment room (BER). Most of the 17 competition venues require at least one (and some up to three) of these BTOC racks, so we are building 16 racks in all across 13 venues The team are now fine-tuning wiring, testing and tweaking before breaking down and packaging the kit for shipping to the Gold Coast – a process that will take a couple weeks. When reassembled and deployed in early March it will form our broadcast network backbone. The final build coincided with our IBC Manager, Ben Taylor, taking up his role in mid-October. With the tight six-month program he’s hit the ground running. Ben has previously worked as a broadcast engineer, followed by a lengthy stint as operations manager with an Aussie-based uplink provider. His background and availability at just the right time have been a real plus for our team and this project. And demonstrating the wide talent net we’ve cast, Ben brings to four the number of full-time ‘virtual local’ staff, who live in Brisbane and commute to the Gold Coast each day, working with me. Meanwhile our meetings on the Opening and Closing ceremonies are increasingly frequent as the producers are close to finalising their plans for the spectacles. Each discussion gives us better understanding of their vision and how they want to achieve it, allowing us to adapt our cabling and engineering plans to suit. In conjunction with these meetings I’ve been back up on the roof of the Meriton apartments – where our visiting staff (‘FiFos – Fly In, Fly Out’) stay – to do a final survey for one of our four beauty cams. It offers a bird’s eye view of the Main Stadium as well as a sweeping 270-degree panorama of Broadwater, Surfers Paradise, the western hinterland and northern coast. Our site surveys were ongoing right up until Christmas and will continue for the next few weeks. In November we re-surveyed the Gold Coast Aquatics Centre and looked at the throws cage at Runaway Bay, the site of an existing training facility and likely to also serve that purpose for the athletics competition. On a return survey of the Gold Coast Hockey Centre we visited a mock up of the hockey goals to determine the best way to mount the goal cameras and plan the cabling from mount positions. We’ve had greater clarity for our site surveys following the visit of NEP Australia’s radio frequency guru, Buddhi Fonseka, in late October. Armed with Buddhi’s spectrum analyser and his immense experience we toured the various venues, taking special interest in Currumbin, Southport-Broadwater, Nerang and – of course – the Main Stadium to determine the existing RF challenges that might affect our coverage.
SPORTSCASTING
Before I log off for the day I send an email to Ross Smith, one of NEP’s Brisbanebased technical managers to confirm our catch up tomorrow with Christian Letford, the Coordinating Technical Manager for the mountain bike trails event.
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NEP Australia radio frequency gurus, Buddhi Fonseka and John “JG” Galea.
Walking out to my car I text my wife and arrange to meet her and our son at Broadwater beach 40 minutes from now. We had fabulous road trip up from rural Victoria late last week and they’ve spent the past few days getting oriented on the Gold Coast and preparing for first term at a new school while I got back into work mode. Anticipating our swim in the perfect 23°C water following my run, I think how lucky visitors and locals alike are to have all this to enjoy. As we are living virtually opposite the beach, I expect my son and I will be enjoying the surf together every day and wonder how I’ll ever prise him back to the big city again. Jeff Coleman is Head of Engineering and Technical Operations for NEP Australia, Host Broadcaster of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. This is the eighth in a series of reports for Content +Technology in which Jeff outlines the 26-month project’s objectives, critical path and milestones. The GC2018 Host Broadcaster – led by NEP Host Broadcast with the support of production partners the Seven Network and Sunset+Vine – will deliver the event television and digital broadcast to rights-holding broadcasters around the world from April 4-15, 2018: all up some 1,100 hours of live television..
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AUGUST 7-9, Darling Island, Pyrmont.
SPORTSCASTING
NEP Delivers Live-to-Air Uncompressed HD Remote Production NEP AUSTRALIA HAS DELIVERED the world’s first live-to-air, uncompressed high definition (HD) remote production using SMPTE 2110 in conjunction with FOX SPORTS. FOX SPORTS recent broadcast of a Hyundai A-League match between Brisbane and Perth held at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium was produced and directed 920kms away in Eveleigh (Sydney) using NEP’s new permanent centralised production facility, The Andrews Hub. Live uncompressed HD signals from 10 Sony HDC 4300 4K/HD cameras at the venue – including high frame rate cameras – were sent to Sydney via NEP’s new countrywide Distributed Production Network (DPN), with a fully redundant network at 50Gb/s. A comprehensive HD video conferencing system enabled the ‘split’ production environment in which all program production staff – including the director, vision switcher, audio director, graphics and replay operators – were based at the Andrews Hub Sydney control room. The final program was then delivered to FOX SPORTS via IP for broadcast. NEP Australia’s Director of Technology, Marc Segar said, “This is a milestone for the broadcasting industry and ushers in a completely new way of bringing live television to air. “Never before has a broadcaster received a program ready to put to air via uncompressed video and SMPTE 2110 transmitted over such a long distance in a 100 percent internet protocol (IP) facility. “Last night’s event proves that broadcast technical professionals can now work across many locations using modern communication tools to maintain a team approach – regardless of distance. “We thank our FOX SPORTS colleagues for sharing our vision of the future of live event broadcasting and look forward to delivering their tier-one ball sports in this way from now on.”
FOX SPORTS Australia’s Head of Technology, Steve Edwards, said, “Our partners at NEP have done a great job not only in building these world class, state of the art, all-IP facilities, but also in working with our production and technical teams to enable the next generation of sports broadcast production. “Their willingness to embrace the newest IP technologies and emerging IP broadcast standards has been the key to success so far.” Last night’s Hyundai A-League match marks the start of NEP’s plans to cover up to seven concurrent events from its centralised Andrews Hubs at Sydney (Eveleigh) and Melbourne (Southbank), beginning in early February 2018 with the start of the AFL and NRL seasons. Visit www.nepgroup.com.au
Gearhouse Comms for Mountain Bike World Championships THE 2017 UCI MOUNTAIN BIKE World Championships was the 28th
Doherty continued, “One of the real wow factors with this event was the
edition of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. As in 2016, the
integration of broadcast and event comms at the Emergency Control Centre
championships in the various disciplines were held at separate events. The
(ECC) where our event comms team provided a network of communication
world championships in cross-country and downhill were held recently in
panels and UHF radio channels to service the entire event. This included
Cairns and Gearhouse Broadcast provided the broadcast, event comms and
Queensland Police and Ambulance services, downhill and cross-country
post production solution.
marshalls, security, transport and athlete services. Our broadcast team also installed a routable monitoring system in the ECC that allowed these groups to monitor broadcast cameras on the track in the event of emergency, of which there were several including one that was critical, without interruption to the broadcast.” According to Doherty it was Gearhouse’s professionalism and consistent delivery of a high-quality product that really won the day as he added, “The fact that our broadcast, comms and post didn’t miss a beat particularly impressed the client. They also enjoyed only dealing with one company across many platforms as that minimised communication and the onsite footprint.” For the post production part of the event television services company Editrix was commissioned to produce daily highlights packages for UCI and HyperActive Broadcast were in turn engaged to provide the edit facilities which consisted of two Adobe CS6 edit suites with EVS IPLink integration to nearline storage within the overall Gearhouse outside broadcast. HyperActive Broadcast MD Andy Liell added, “IPLink provided seamless and nearline and it also provided fast turnaround and simple push back of
the event in 2016 and identified areas then where we could improve for the
packages for replay from the EVS. I’m glad to say from the client’s point of
2017 world championships. These consisted, primarily, of integrating the
view everything went really well. The integration with the EVS was excellent
HyperActive Broadcast post production and Gearhouse Broadcast Event
and UCI were extremely happy with the quality of the programme produced.
Comms sides of our business into the overall OB and production.”
The real value-add we brought was the fact that we were able to deploy the
In total, for the 2017 event, Gearhouse Broadcast provided 45 camera
latest, integrated Adobe and EVS tools to improve the workflow and speed up
positions, a full event comms solution across the entire event and a
transfer times, improving overall turnaround for the client and the event.”
HyperActive Broadcast edit facility.
Visit www.gearhousebroadcast.com/au
SPORTSCASTING
integration for editors to easily search for content on the EVS nearline servers Gearhouse Broadcast OB Supervisor Marcus Doherty explained, “We covered
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NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations
Seven - Reinventing Television with Vizrt
more responsibility operationally up the line. Effectively producers and journalists are now able to be in direct control of what goes to air, either correctly or incorrectly. Remember, Operations expectation is 100 per cent. Producers and journalists have learnt that the hard way.
By Phil Sandberg “CAN BROADCAST TELEVISION SURVIVE the transition from traditional technology to the ITbased future and can broadcast television survive at all, given the media landscape today?” That was the question posed by the Seven Network’s Andrew Anderson at the recent Vizrt Open House, held in Sydney. It is some 40 years ago since the Seven Network Head of Broadcast Operations walked into Channel 7 Melbourne as a 16-year-old apprentice technician. Colour was three years old and TV was 21. “Television in those days was simple,” Anderson says. “There’s still nothing like broadcast television but unfortunately the audience has changed over the years and is now distracted by other forms of entertainment and content delivery systems. Some people say television’s dying. I don’t think so. “Television needs to reinvent itself through innovation and creativity. Perhaps television just needs to know its place, which was once the king of the home and now is just one of the alternatives. “Seven’s got a split personality. We’re a TV broadcaster first and we’re transitioning to being a TV platform. Our Mission Statement is, ‘To deliver engagement and value through powerful story telling.’ We’ve already broken live streaming records. We continue to stream out 42 television channels across the internet 24/7, in fact right across this country. “Streaming is on the up and we’re actually going on that journey on both television as well as on the OTT platform. Our OTT platform also has addressable advertising. That’s an Australian first for a broadcaster. We’ve already seen an uptick in sponsors since we turned that on. From an OTT perspective I guess you could say we’re building it so that they will come. “At the end of the day television broadcast remains the cornerstone of our business and whatever we do and whatever we make each day, we have to do it more creatively and for every platform.” According to Anderson, the aim of any TV content operation today is to remove duplicate work on a piece of content and automate any process that’s repetitive, and in a way that doesn’t reduce the creative output. “Those are the tools that actually get our focus,” he says. “Seven has been successful in some areas and unsuccessful in others. Sometimes everyone’s so busy using poor workflows, there’s actually no time to fix them. “Our successes are Viz Mosart. Viz Mosart’s in all of our newsroom operations. The projects removed audio directors, Viz operators in all of our control rooms and camera operators in most of our studios. The added benefit – which the finance guys love -- the added benefit is the fast start up and prep time required for breaking news operations and in fact Viz Mosart has also enabled
“Our broadcast playout operation in Melbourne is the role model for the removal of duplicate operations on content. This is especially true because when it comes to catch-up and VOD content, there’s very little difference between the preparatory tasks of broadcast and those for the reuse on those platforms. Our social media activities, though, are quite interesting. The workflows in our news content creation are broadcast-centric, making the reuse for our social media folks very cumbersome and frustrating. This is because of the transcoding and file movement that’s required and they just get stuck in bottlenecks. “Strangely, the best content for social media is finished stories with intros and graphics, and that’s exactly what we’ve put on the platform. Our social media folk use this thing called SnappyTV. SnappyTV are part of Twitter and SnappyTV presents our OTT streams back to our social media folk so that they can click our on-air content and post it to Facebook and Twitter, funnily enough. But, it’s a free service and that means it’s unreliable and when it goes down, there’s big trouble in all of our newsrooms. So, we face the dilemma of fixing that problem by actually investing in our own systems that will replace this free service. The Network currently uses 24 Viz engines for channel branding in its play-up centre, and has 22 engines across its news and Sunrise control rooms right around the country. “That breaks down to four engines per control room,” says Anderson. “The folks at Sky News think that’s way over the top, but we kind of like the redundancy. We’ve got various hubs, content pilot and we’ve got five Viz Mosart Operations and soon a Viz multiplayer in Melbourne, and maybe even more of those. “We also run a three-person Viz operation section within our Seven design department here in Sydney and, I have to say, it is the absolute way to go. It’s the builder and controller of all of our graphics at SWM and it is really a good set-up. “Right now, we’re investigating a way to consolidate and automate our library operations here in Sydney with a view to doing something that makes sense for the creative folk while also reducing our library operational costs. “So, back to the questions. Can broadcast television survive the transition from traditional technology to the IT-based future? Yes, I think we can. Can broadcast television survive at all given the media landscape today? Yes. I think we can. The future is people, not technology.”
TVNZ Unveils 17 Metre-Long Screen for News Studio TVNZ HAS UNVEILED 17 Metre-Long Screen for its revamped News Studio. The massive screen is made up of 175 LED panels all powered by Viz Engine to create a seamless image. Crews from New Zealand’s TVNZ have been working through summer to get the new technology up and running in time for the return of the “Breakfast” show on Monday, 22 January.
NEWS OPERATIONS
Content for the new screen, along with the entire live production is being driven by Vizrt’s automation system, Viz Mosart. The system allows a single operator to control the screen, cameras, video, transitions, and other live production operations.
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TVNZ isn't revealing the cost of the 2.5m-high screen, but does say it's a major investment in modernising its news coverage. TVNZ's Head of News and Current Affairs John Gillespie says: "This is a major change to the way 1 NEWS presents its flagship news and current affairs content - it's a real leap forward with immersive graphics in a contemporary new studio setting. The centrepiece is our massive new new video wall. "Storytelling is at the heart of these changes. As New Zealand's most watched
news, we want to bring you our stories in the most informative and visually impactful way possible.” He said the move will be followed by the introduction of new augmented reality graphics from Vizrt. Visit www.vizrt.com
NEWS OPERATIONS Go Live Like a Pro www.content-technology.com/newsoperations
It’s never been more affordable to Mediacorp Powers Up EVS Workflow deliver professional, broadcast quality live video streams from anywhere. THE NEWS WORKFLOW AT MEDIACORP’S new media campus in Singapore includes a deployment of EVS technology on a huge scale. The EVS technical infrastructure at the campus includes technology for ingest, management, editing and output of content. There are six XS production servers ingesting content which are managed by several IPDirector live production asset management systems while ten Ingest Funnel applications allow for electronic newsgathering (ENG) crews to ingest additional content from camera cards.
themselves using one of the 170 workstations installed in the newsroom with EVS’ Xedio CleanEdit.
The LiveU Solo offers multi-modem, one-touch streaming directly into Facebook Live, YouTube and other popular social platforms. “The scale of the technical facilities that have been implemented at our new Mediacorp campus is beyond anything we’ve done before,” said Norraine Yusof, SVP of Campus Technology Development at Mediacorp. “The technology we’ve installed for the newsroom, from ingest to playout – and the support and training we receive from EVS – was key to ensure our workflow operates seamlessly for our journalists and technicians.”
Incorporating LRT™ (LiveU Reliable Transport) and available in 2 Models:
The core of the infrastructure relies on 42 XTAccess transcoding and transfer engines and eight additional servers supporting the IPDirector and Xedio applications across the network. At the heart of the system is EVS’ XStore SAN storage – a 492TB system which has the capacity to store 12,000 hours of high-resolution or 20,000 hours of low-resolution content. The solution deployed for the newsroom incorporates 280 Xedio Cutter applications which give users the ability to create a story framework for editors to pick up and edit using the IPLink for Adobe plugins which facilitates easy access to content within the network. Journalists can also edit content
- HDMI (LU-SOLO-HDMI) - SDI + HDMI (LU-SOLO)
Once content is completed, another five XS servers take care of the playout of the programmes from the news production control room. All of the workflow’s 12 XS servers – whether for ingest or playout – are interconnected with a high-bandwidth media sharing network using two XHub3 systems from EVS. “Mediacorp didn’t want an infrastructure of disparate elements. The EVS-centric workflow that’s been delivered is a complete production chain – from start to finish,” said Olivier Heurteaux, SVP APAC at EVS. “By planning and rolling out a workflow in this way, the company’s production crews, journalists and editors have an easy to operate production workflow that outputs the highest-quality content possible.” Visit https://evs.com
Dejero CellSat Blends Cellular and Satellite Connectivity On-Demand DEJERO HAS ANNOUNCED a partnership with Intelsat. The collaboration provides broadcasters with a new blended cellular and Ku-band IP solution for live television coverage from remote locations. Dejero CellSat leverages Dejero’s network blending technology to combine cellular connectivity from multiple mobile network carriers with Ku-band IP connectivity provided by Intelsat. This gives CellSat users the required bandwidth and greater confidence to go live from virtually anywhere. If the bandwidth available from cellular connections dips due to network congestion or other factors, CellSat automatically blends in Ku-band IP satellite connectivity to boost bandwidth to the requested level for the live shot.
marketplace and we are thrilled to be working with Intelsat to make this possible.” The Dejero CellSat solution communicates with the satellite terminal autoacquire system to simplify the satellite connection process. There is no need to schedule satellite time, saving crews valuable time and removing the constraint of broadcasting within a certain time window. In addition to managing the fluctuating bandwidth of individual cellular connections, CellSat software dynamically allocates satellite bandwidth for optimal performance.
The LiveU Solo is your affordable solution to consistent and high-quality live streaming over the Internet. Telestream Announces Auto-Transcription Platform TELESTREAM HAS ANNOUNCED Timed Text Speech, a new file-based autotranscription service for subtitling and captioning workflows. Using speechto-text technology, artificial intelligence, and the speed of cloud-based processing, Timed Text Speech instantly creates a text transcript of a video and populates it directly into a captioning project with the correct timing so that each phrase is displayed at the right time. To be shown for the first time at IBC2017 on stand 7.B26, Timed Text Speech dramatically saves transcription time by allowing operators to review the instantaneous transcription results while the speech engine is processing the rest of the video program. Timed Text Speech is suitable for content creators who need to produce captions and subtitles for time-sensitive content that must be aired on TV or the Internet with short turnaround times, as well as short-form content such as promos that require captioning. It also offers a time-efficient solution for captioning service companies looking for new tools to speed up their service, and a cost-effective and easy-to-use automated transcription option for
pa c i f i c
Dejero CellSat is available in the United States and Canada, with rollout to other regions planned for 2018. Visit www.dejero.com and www.intelsat.com
corporations, government organisations and educational institutions wishing to bring captioning in-house. “With Timed Text Speech, users can easily upload media files directly to the services portal. Because they only pay by the transcription minute, there is no wasted expense for idle transcription resources. When combined with the Telestream MacCaption/CaptionMaker closed captioning software, Timed Text Speech becomes part of an all-in-one transcription and subtitling/captioning tool that allows users to easily transcribe, transcode, convert, troubleshoot, modify, and deploy caption data alongside video – regardless of the delivery platform,” explained Giovanni Galvez, Product Manager for Captioning and Subtitling at Telestream. Available in early October from Telestream and its global network of resellers,
Timed Text Speech currently works with English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, www.pacificlivemedia.com and Spanish language video content; Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin are +61 2 8458 planned for0701 a later release. Visit www.telestream.net sales@pacificlivemedia.com
NEWS OPERATIONS
“We are addressing the dilemma that broadcasters face about which video transport assets to deploy to a news story or live event,” explained Bogdan Frusina, founder of Dejero. “By taking advantage of cellular and satellite connectivity, CellSat offers high reliability to our customers, with the convenience of procurement, network management, billing, and support from a single vendor. This is a package that is currently unmatched in the
The Dejero CellSat solution includes pre-certified encoding and receiving equipment, network blending software, connectivity services to the CellSat network, cloud management, and 24/7 technical support. Most satellite vehicles with existing Ka-band or Ku-band satellite equipment can be upgraded for compatibility with Dejero CellSat.
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NEWS OPERATIONS
Techtel Pioneers Australian Legislative VOD Market TECHTEL WAS RECENTLY SELECTED by an [unknown] Australian State Government to build the country’s first digital, file-based video-on-demand service for parliamentary proceedings. Techtel’s solution was based on the design from consultancy firm, Australian Systems Integration, and installed midway through 2017, giving rise to a new front-runner in legislative broadcasting in Australia. Parliament members, broadcasters, and journalists from around the globe are now able to remotely log-in to a secure online portal from Actus Digital, where they can view the live feed of proceedings or search for past material, then transcode and download the footage from either house of parliament in both high and low resolution. Prior to the installation of the new system, the state parliament had no in-house video recording capability. Journalists can search for material based on a range of metadata fields, such as the speaker’s name, date range, bill subject matter, party and electorate. By comparison, journalists interstate are either required to record the parliamentary material themselves or request specific content if they know exactly what time the material they require was recorded. Techtel’s parliamentary broadcast solution is based around the Telemetrics suite of camera control solutions, including custom development by the USmanufacturer that gives the in-chamber clerk unprecedented control over the live-to-air output. The purpose-built Telemetrics Clerk control panel is designed for non-technical users and provides the clerk with the necessary tools to enable or disable the various output signals when necessary, as well
The broadcast facility also features TVLogic monitors, LYNX Technik’s yellobrik DAs and converters, Spectra Logic Verde NAS storage, Apantac signal processing equipment, Panasonic’s AVHS450E vision switcher and highlycustomised desks from TBC Consoles. The install is now complete following technical handover of the system and training of staff. Techtel will provide ongoing support for the parliament’s production systems. Visit www.techtel.com.au and www.australiansystems.com.au
SBS Unveils New Look and App for SBS News
TVU NETWORKS AND MAGNA SYSTEMS have bolstered their on-ground support resources in Australia and New Zealand with the introduction to the local team of TVU Networks Sales Manager, Dave Demmocks. Mr Demmocks’ role is to work with and support Magna and TVU’s clients and prospective clients by using all of the company’s resources and information direct from TVU’s HQ.
SBS HAS REFRESHED its news portfolio, launching SBS News with increased capabilities across its broadcast and digital platforms, and a bold new look, bringing its range of news platforms together under the SBS News banner. A new SBS News app has also been released to give audiences greater access to news from Australia and around the world.
Demmocks said, “By being on the ground in Australia and New Zealand I bring specific resources to help sell and support TVU products. I will also help stimulate parallel markets such as sports, public safety and education alongside Magna’s traditional broadcast-related markets.”
“In a time when trust is more important than ever, we want Australians to know they can continue to rely on SBS News to deliver the highest quality, most trusted news from around the country and the world across our television, radio and digital platforms.”
According to Demmocks, by boosting resources on the ground the ultimate aim is to create and implement as many benefits for customers as possible. “We will be giving even more information about the products, taking more input from customers and using that to help drive the direction of products moving forward. Working in parallel with Magna is a great combination.”
The SBS News app will offer a more natural user experience, intuitive navigation, and greater personalisation capabilities, with push notifications to keep audiences up to date with breaking news. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.
Visit http://magnasys.tv
NEWS OPERATIONS
The cameras, vision mixer, and lower-third graphics can operate in three different modes; fully automatic, semi-automatic or manual, which can be adjusted based on operator availability and house mode, whether it be question time, estimates, and so on.
Magna Systems and TVU Networks Bolster ANZ Resources
With Demmocks helping and providing additional support whenever an wherever possible, and with Magna handling all the sales related activities, Demmocks sees a bright future for both companies in Australia and New Zealand.
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as providing them with visual monitoring of the final live program output on the panel. In the control room, the Telemetrics RCCP-1 panel gives the director control of a number of Panasonic AWHE130 HD PTZ cameras which were painted custom colours to match the building interior, ensuring compliance with building heritage-regulations in the 134-year-old building. The Telemetrics system is also responsible for triggering graphics that it automatically generates and updates on-the-fly as a result of full integration with the parliamentary Hansard reporting. The project also represents the first time that Telemetrics has controlled audio levels as they are received over IP into the BSS virtual audio mixer.
The new SBS News brand will span SBS World News, Insight, Dateline, The Feed, Small Business Secrets, and SBS’s news website. The brand refresh reflects SBS’s continued commitment to quality, in-depth news and current affairs from Australia and around the world. Improvements to the network’s digital platforms aim to make SBS’s news and current affairs content more accessible to audiences. SBS Director of News and Current Affairs, Jim Carroll said, “We’ve given SBS News a new look and new capabilities to reflect SBS’s digital-first strategy which puts audiences at the heart of everything we do.
Upgrades to SBS News website include streamlined navigation with enhanced streaming capabilities to support video news. The new SBS News website is optimised for mobile, tablet, and desktop. In broadcast, the SBS World News TV bulletin has also been refreshed, with a new logo, graphics and set. Host, Janice Petersen will bring Australians the news from the updated set from 6:30pm on SBS. Visit www.sbs.com.au
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AUGUST 7-9, Darling Island, Pyrmont.
NEWS OPERATIONS
NEWS OPERATIONS
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POST PRODUCTION www.content-technology.com/postproduction
Flame Delivers for Unreal VFX ENABLING TECHNOLOGY IS A TERM that has a special meaning for Flame artist and VFX supervisor, Doron Man. After more than 15 years working for post-production companies in Israel, Canada and the US, he has taken advantage of the power of desktop computing to start his own company Unreal VFX, and work from home in Sydney. Having started out in the late 90s with million-dollar, SGI-based Flame equipment he is now able to use a 12 core Mac Pro platform with a 20TB RAID to power Flame, Autodesk’s advanced 3D visual effects software. “It’s been a dream of mine to work from home and with the rapid advances in desktop computing it has become possible so I’ve taken the opportunity to invest in my own Flame system,” explained Man. Setting Up a Solution “I met my Australian wife and came to work in Queensland where I began thinking about the possibilities of working from home. I got to know the Digistor team when they were supporting the Post Lounge in Brisbane and they helped to design and build a Flame system for me that was an affordable proposition. Digistor put it together and then bench tested it so all I had to do was take it home and fire it up. It’s amazing how much computing has changed – it’s a different world today and my logic is to use this to my advantage by being able to offer directors and clients my creative abilities without the overheads of a large post house. “I’ve talked to a lot of directors and producers and everyone is trying to save money while wanting the best look they can get,” said Man. “Flame is the entertainment industry’s default visual effects tool and every director knows that when they are sitting with a Flame operator they can be as creative as possible so now I can offer them real bang for their buck. “Autodesk Flame is by far the best compositing box I have worked on. The biggest advantage is that Flame enables you to be intuitive in the creative process and it lets you create complex shots relatively fast. The fact that it is so fast changes the creative process in the sense that you can experiment a lot more in a given time and decide what path to take. I think that sets it apart from the rest of the products that are out there.” By thinking outside of the box Man has already completed projects for broadcasters and companies that can see the value in Unreal VFX. “Sure, it’s a risk, setting up any business is a risk but it’s a calculated risk. For many years I’ve been nurturing projects, engaging with directors and
agency creatives from initial concept right through to final delivery and I believe my experience and Flame system is an attractive proposition.”
Unreal VFX supremo Doron Man.
Digistor Service “Doron looked at other visual effects software but concluded Flame was the fastest toolset to creatively bring projects to life,” said Digistor sales consultant Olivier Jean. “The beauty of Autodesk subscription systems is that they also offer clients the flexibility to quickly update and expand by easily integrating other tools such as 3D Animation packages. So Unreal VFX is ready for any future developments. And naturally it includes support options so Doron is covered 24/7 for any technical hiccups whenever he needs it.” Digistor is an Autodesk Gold Partner specialising in Media and Entertainment and Creative Finishing and has received numerous Autodesk sales and service awards. Visit www.digistor.com.au and www.unrealvfx.com
FFI Invests in Silver Trak Digital and Australian Post Industry IN A MOVE WHICH REPRESENTS a significant boost to the Australian production and post-production industries, Film Finances Inc (FFI) has made a major investment in media management and facilities company Silver Trak Digital and its parent company Buff Dubs.
POST PRODUCTION
FFI is one of the world’s leading providers of completion contracts to the entertainment industry, which offer assurance to the financiers of film, TV, mini-series and online media content. Founded in the 1950s, FFI has issued contracts on approximately 1,700 productions – last year over 50 in Australia alone – with gross budgets in excess of US$17 billion. These include Oscar winning films such as 12 Years a Slave (2013) and La-La Land (2016).
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As Silver Trak COO Christian Christiansen explained, “FFI’s investment in Silver Trak is an amazing boost for the Australian production and post production industries as it will help generate work and productions across the board. From Silver Trak and Buff Dubs’ point of view we are very much continuing in the same vein providing media asset management through Media Room and a full range of broadcast facilities including encoding, transcoding, media duplication and mastering. There will also be a significant investment in Buff Dubs Productions. “Over successive decades FFI has grown globally to become a trusted, iconic brand at the centre of the film industry. This investment means Silver Trak
can support all of our clients even more comprehensively than before with the backing of FFI and help create new opportunities for new clients too. The investment also represents a key milestone in FFI leveraging its core completion contract business into a broader ancillary service business in order to serve the growing needs of its customers.” With offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Silver Trak and Buff Dubs have grown quickly through their ability to process media content of any description and transform, reproduce and aggregate it in the various formats demanded by its clients. This has helped them to secure preferred provider and vendor status with some of the world’s leading media platforms, including Netflix, Apple and Google, as well as gaming platforms including PlayStation and Xbox. Steven Ransohoff, CEO of FFI Holdings, said, “2017 saw FFI make a concerted expansion as we broadened our business to serve the wider needs of our entertainment industry clients. As with our recent investment in Pivotal Post and EPS-Cineworks, Silver Trak and Buff Dubs bring valuable expertise and customer relationships to FFI. Their vendor relationships across consumer media platforms such as Netflix, Apple and Google are particularly exciting opportunities for FFI as we help our clients reach new audiences with their content.” Visit https://silvertrak.com.au
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT
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POST PRODUCTION
AJA, Avid Team On Avid Artist | DNxIP Interface AJA VIDEO SYSTEMS HAS ANNOUNCED that it has collaborated with Avid to develop Avid Artist | DNxIP, a new hardware interface option for Avid Media Composer users that supports high frame rate, deep colour and high dynamic range IP workflows. Avid Artist | DNxIP is a Thunderbolt 3 equipped I/O device that enables the transfer of SMPTE standard HD video over 10 GigE IP networks, with high-quality local monitoring over 3G-SDI and HDMI 2.0. Based on the new Io IP, Avid Artist | DNxIP is custom engineered to Avid’s specifications, and includes an XLR audio input on the front of the device for microphone or line level sources. Avid Artist | DNxIP leverages the power of Thunderbolt 3 to facilitate simple, fast HD/SD video and audio ingest/output from/to IP networks. It features dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for daisy chaining, and two SFP+ cages for video and audio routing over 10GigE IP networks. The portable, aluminium encased device also supports SMPTE 2022-6 uncompressed video, audio and VANC data over IP, as well as SMPTE 2022-7 for redundancy protection. Avid Artist | DNxIP feature highlights include: • Laptop or desktop HD/SD capture and playback over IP across Thunderbolt 3. • Audio input for analogue microphone to record single-channel 16-bit D/A analogue audio, 48kHz sample rate, balanced, using industry standard XLR. • Backwards compatibility with existing Thunderbolt hosts.
• SMPTE 2022-6 and 2022-7 I/O. • Dual 10 GigE connectivity via two SFP+ cages compatible with 10 GigE SFP transceiver modules from leading third-party providers. • Two Thunderbolt 3 ports for daisy chaining of up to six Thunderbolt devices • 3G-SDI and HDMI 2.0 video monitoring. • Audio I/O: 16-channel embedded SDI, eight-channel embedded HDMI, four-channel analogue audio in and four-channel audio out via XLR breakout. • Small, rugged design suited for an array of production environments. • Downstream keyer. • Standard 12v four-pin XLR for AC or battery power. Visit www.avid.com and www.aja.com
Blackmagic DeckLink 8K Pro with Quad Link 12G‑SDI BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS ANNOUNCED DeckLink 8K Pro, a new high performance capture and playback card featuring four quad link multi rate, bidirectional 12G‑SDI connections to allow real-time high resolution 8K workflows. This new DeckLink 8K Pro breaks new ground in high quality as it supports all film and video formats from SD all the way up to 8K DCI, 12‑bit RGB 4:4:4, plus it also handles advanced colour spaces such as Rec. 2020 for deeper colour and higher dynamic range. DeckLink 8K also handles a massive 64 channels of audio, stereoscopic 3D, high frame rates and more.
DeckLink 8K Pro is built into an easy to install eight-lane generation 3 PCI
The combination of higher resolution, a larger colour space and higher dynamic range means that DeckLink 8K Pro is suitable for editing, colour and high end visual effects work.
production workflow that lets you master full resolution high dynamic range
DeckLink 8K Pro supports capture and playback of 8- or 10-bit YUV 4:2:2 video and 10 or 12‑bit RGB 4:4:4. Video can be captured as uncompressed or to industry standard broadcast quality ProRes and DNx files. DeckLink 8K Pro lets customers work at up to 60 frames per second in 8K and supports stereoscopic 3D for all modes up to 4K DCI at 60 frames per second in 12‑bit RGB.
Express for Mac, Windows, and Linux workstations. Customers get support for all legacy SD and HD formats, along with Ultra HD, DCI 4K, 8K and DCI 8K, as well as Rec. 601, 709 and 2020 colour. DeckLink 8K Pro is designed to work seamlessly with the upcoming DaVinci Resolve 14.2 Studio for an incredibly seamless editing, colour and audio post projects in full 8K resolution. In addition, DeckLink 8K Pro also works with other professional applications such as Final Cut Pro X, Media Composer, Premiere Pro, After Effects, ProTools, Nuke and more. There’s even a free software development kit so customers and OEMs can build their own custom solutions. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
POST PRODUCTION
External GPU Devices for Graphics Acceleration
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SONNET TECHNOLOGIES HAS INTRODUCED a new connected external GPU (eGPU) device, the eGFX Breakaway Puck, a portable, high-performance eGPU for Thunderbolt 3 computers that delivers accelerated graphics, and provides multidisplay connectivity leveraging AMD’s Eyefinity technology. With a Puck connected, a user’s computer can deliver accelerated frame rates in popular graphics-intensive games, and boosted GPU acceleration for pro video applications.
charge the computer,
Sonnet will offer two Puck models, the eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 560 and eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 570, enabling users to select the device best suited to their needs. Each Puck model measures 15.2cm wide by 13cm deep by 5cm tall, features one Thunderbolt 3 port, three DisplayPort ports and one HDMI port, and supports up to four 4K displays in multimonitor mode.
With an optional VESA
When GPU acceleration is needed on the road, users can conveniently pack an eGFX Breakaway Puck along with a notebook in a backpack or computer bag. The Puck connects to a computer with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable and, for added convenience, also provides 45W of power delivery to power and
a multimonitor stand, leaving a zero footprint on the desktop. The kit also
enabling many users to leave their computer’s power brick behind. On the desktop, the Puck has a minimal footprint. mounting bracket kit, the Puck can be attached to the back of a display or the arm of includes a 0.5 meter DisplayPort cable to help reduce cable clutter. Visit www.sonnettech.com
POST PRODUCTION
RE:Vision Effects Announces RE:Lens for FCP X and Motion.360 RE:VISION EFFECTS HAS ANNOUNCED RE:Lens, a plug-in set for 360 (equirectangular) and fisheye workflow, is now available for Apple Final Cut Pro X and Motion. Shoot with a superfish lens on a single camera and convert the video to Latitude-Longitude format suitable for use with all major 360° viewers. With the proper lens and camera setup, RE:Lens eliminates stitching panorama projects. RE:Lens includes spherical stabilisation to address the problem of shaky or poor quality camera motion. This includes hand-held video or video captured while in movement, whether walking or attaching the camera to a motorcycle on a bumpy road. When working with 360 VR or fisheye footage, traditional in-camera or post-production stabilisers do not work well, or at all on this type of footage. RE:Lens presents a solution that works directly in spherical space, with no need to break up the sequence in six cube faces or do 2D tracking of reference points. It even works directly on stitched 360° VR sequences. The UI is simple – you press ‘Track’ and the sequence is analysed and a more stable sequence is produced. For more control, RE:Lens provides the ability to select frames that are ‘keys’, and stabilisation is performed smoothly between selected key times. RE:Lens can also use moving-average (non key-frame) motion smoothing to stabilise fisheye sources as usually done with a regular stabiliser.
Mocha VR with Stereo 360° Support for Adobe Immersive Video MOCHA VR, DEVELOPED BY BORIS FX, now offers stereoscopic 3D enabled post-production tools for 360/VR video creators. The Mocha VR point release (5.6) adds a powerful new workflow to the plug-in bringing stereo-optimised planar tracking, masking, horizon stabilisation, and object removal tools to Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe After Effects CC, and key tools within Adobe Creative Cloud. Mocha VR 5.6 is a free update. The new stereo 3D workflow supports most 360° formats, including top/bottom, side-by-side, and dual stream, and also includes improvements to the Reorient Module for advanced image stabilisation to reduce VR motion sickness.
With RE:Lens you can create new looks with your 4K, 6K and 8K cameras that were previously not possible. For example, work with a professional DSLR fisheye lens to capture large-resolution super-wide shots, and then produce pleasing sports, landscape or architectural video that you could not normally generate from a single camera. When you straighten your video shot with a superfish lens (220-280°) you can animate camera rotations and zooms in post, providing greater flexibility when directing the viewer’s attention. Even create two separate virtual views using a single camera. RE:Lens Features for FCP X and Motion
• Convert super fisheye clips to a 360° panoramic video in a single step without the need for stitching software. • Stabilise 360° VR and fisheye footage directly, with easy-to-use workflow. • High quality filtering options. • Option to automatically soften or sharpen in the appropriate places. • GPU acceleration. Visit http://revisionfx.com
AJA Delivers FS-HDR v2.0 Software
AJA RECENTLY RELEASED v2.0 software for its FS-HDR converter/frame synchroniser, for real-time HDR transforms and 4K/HD up, down, crossconversion. FS-HDR v2.0 software introduces intuitive new parametric controls that allow users to fine tune the look of final transforms in FSHDR, and adds support for camera formats Sony S-Log3 S-Gamut3 Cine and S-Log3 BT.2020. FS-HDR v2.0 brings 17 new controls to FS-HDR, including 12 for colour correction (red, green, blue and master controls for lift, gamma and gain), one for colour saturation, two for input formats (Log look and SDR softness), and two to adjust the volume of HDR in the output signal and ambient light compensation. Each control is accessible via FS-HDR’s front panel, a browser, or REST interface, and settings can be stored to a preset for recall later or copied to other FS-HDR units.
“Editors and artists using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects can enrich and extend their 360/VR toolset with Mocha VR,” said Chris Bobotis, Director of Immersive at Adobe. “Mocha VR is a welcome addition to our Immersive toolset.” Mocha VR is available as a plug-in for Adobe’s immersive workflows. Purchasing options include: full license, annual subscription, and upgrade from Mocha Pro 5. Visit www.borisfx.com
“With HDR and WCG a continuing focus for many broadcast, production, post and ProAV professionals this year, we’ve been collaborating with FSHDR customers to develop new features that make it easier to achieve the desired look for each transform, while also offering support for the tools they prefer to work with,” said AJA President, Nick Rashby. FS-HDR is a 1RU universal converter/frame synchroniser for real time HDR transforms as well as 4K/HD up/down/cross conversions. Fusing AJA’s production-proven FS frame synchronisation and conversion technology with video and colour space processing algorithms from the Colorfront Engine, FS-HDR matches the real time, low-latency processing and colour fidelity demands that broadcast, OTT, post production and ProAV environments require. FS-HDR offers two modes for signal conversion, and allows users to also convert a range of camera Log formats to HDR broadcast standards as well as to/from BT.2020/BT.709. Visit www.aja.com
POST PRODUCTION
“Many VR creatives now want to work in stereo 3D to deliver more immersive video experiences. However, working in these new formats is inherently difficult and time consuming for post-production,” stated Ross Shain, Chief Product Officer, Boris FX. “The new Mocha VR 5.6 stereo workflow uses planar tracking analysis on ‘both eye views’ to solve camera disparity and simplify advanced post tasks such as camera rig removal or stabilising shaky footage. Adobe users can apply Mocha VR as an effect to track, mask or clean up directly on stitched mono or stereo 360° footage with reduced manual key-framing for efficiency and time savings.”
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM World Broadcasting Unions Release Cyber Security Recommendations FOR SEVERAL MONTHS DURING 2017, the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) worked together to develop the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) Cyber Security Recommendations for Media Vendors, Systems Software and Services, a set of cyber security recommendations intended to create a dialogue with media vendors and broadcast organisations to achieve more consistent and effective compliance with cyber security requirements.
• Controls – where the media vendor shall support the security updates for all third-party components, as well as address issues around malware, OS and runtime environments, Internet connectivity, USB/CD/DVD drive/port functionality, as well as provide best practice recommendations for thirdparty services used, including cloud services;
Based on the original work by the EBU and NABA Member cyber security groups, these recommendations reflect the performance aspirations of both organisations with respect to cyber security.
• Network configuration.
The WBU recommends that its union members, and media companies in general, apply these cyber security recommendations when designing, procuring and implementing their systems, software and services. Categorised as either critical, important or best practice, the recommendations cover areas such as: • Communications where a media vendor should immediately release information and offer support in the event of a security weakness in its product; • Authentication – where a media vendor's systems, software and services must integrate with centralised authentication services, and support password policies;
• Provision of comprehensive documentation; • Encryption support; and Commenting on the document, the WBU Technical Committee Chairman Simon Fell stated that “it is important that broadcasters reinforce the need for cyber security with their vendors. By working together through the WBU we can achieve a global reach and present common recommendations to industry partners.” The WBU Cyber Security Recommendations document is supported by NABA, the EBU and sister unions including the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), and the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB/AIR). The document will be circulated to the unions’ members, as well as posted online on their corresponding websites. For more information and to view the document, visit: http://bit.ly/2GDf0OU.
TMD, Mediaproxy Partner for Fast Access to Compliance Archives TMD, THE PROVIDER OF asset and workflow management systems for digital and physical assets, has partnered with Mediaproxy, the developer of software-based IP broadcast solutions for compliance, monitoring, and analysis, to create a practical and efficient integrated content management workflow solution. Mediaproxy develops compliance recording systems for broadcasters worldwide, and was recently chosen by U.S.-based Cowles Company for logging and monitoring of its KHQ, KNDU, KNDO, KULR and KFBB television stations across Washington and Montana. Mediaproxy LogServer has been deployed by Cowles to capture, log, and monitor 14 of its television channels over IP. Once logged and stored in a proxy format content can be retrieved for review using the intuitive Mediaproxy LogPlayer.
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
The same technology is now being used to provide a lightweight but highly functional recording of extended content, such as major sporting events and legislative proceedings. The partnership with TMD allows content, typically off-air programme recordings and metadata captured by Mediaproxy LogServer, to be automatically added to the TMD Mediaflex-UMS database.
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The result is Mediaflex-UMS driven software-defined workflows which will utilise Mediaproxy recorded content and metadata. Mediaflex users are also able to locate Mediaproxy assets by searching Mediaflex: our customers are now able to search through continuous broadcast compliance logs and off-air recordings to find specific content, references, and metadata to be used with all the power of Mediaflex workflows. “As software-defined workflows grow in importance, we are focusing on creating technology partnerships with other market leaders to enable us to deliver highly functional, seamless solutions,” said Carlton Smith, CEO of TMD. “Mediaproxy is not just a market leader, but an innovative thinker in how technology can support advanced solutions and this is a great opportunity for us to collaborate.” Erik Otto, CEO of Mediaproxy, added “Integrating LogServer with MediaflexUMS offers many possibilities enabling customers to benefit from the power and flexibility of a unified solution. Partnering with TMD and their market leading asset management solution allows us to take on new and exciting challenges.” Visit https://mediaproxy.com and www.tmd.tv
Signiant Given Thumbs Up by Digital Production Partnership SIGNIANT INC, DEVELOPER OF intelligent file movement software, has announced it has received the ‘Committed to Security’ mark from the Digital Production Partnership (DPP), demonstrating its ongoing commitment to best cybersecurity practices for both production and broadcast environments.
apply appropriate security functions, such as authentication, authorization, data integrity, data confidentiality, and non-repudiation,” said Ian Hamilton, CTO, Signiant. “We are delighted to receive the DPP’s Committed to Security mark which clearly demonstrates how seriously we take cybersecurity issues.”
Launched in October 2017, the DPP’s Committed to Security Programme is designed to help suppliers demonstrate their commitment to security best practice and offers a common framework that shows their customers how they are addressing cybersecurity.
“We're delighted that Signiant has been awarded the DPP’s Committed to Security mark for both Broadcast and Production,” says DPP Managing Director, Mark Harrison. “They are part of a rapidly growing community of companies who hold the DPP Security mark. It demonstrates Signiant’s clear commitment to cybersecurity best practice, and to playing their part in building a more secure media supply chain.”
“Signiant customers trust our technology to move their most valuable assets, so we take every precaution to secure each layer involved in file movement. A strong understanding of the ever-evolving threats enables us to effectively
Visit http://www.signiant.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Seagate Launches High Density Enclosure SEAGATE HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of the 5U84 high-density enclosure built with a next-generation operating system that together delivers performance, capacity and reliability. As with any technology, it is critically important to create layers of protection when it comes to data storage. Using next generation data protection technology, Seagate’s Advanced Distributed Autonomic Protection Technology (ADAPT) can eliminate up to 95 percent of performance degradation during a disk drive rebuild when compared to traditional RAID solutions, meaning the 5U84 is essentially ‘self-healing’. The technology disperses data across multiple drives, allocating more resources to rebuilds, thereby reducing the time needed, minimising the risk of a data unavailability issue and giving the end user uninterrupted access. The 5U84 system packs up to 1.0 PB of raw storage capacity into a single chassis, which is designed to occupy only five data centre rack units. Hosting 84 drive bays that are rigorously tested to function with 8, 10, and even 12TB drives, the product density of the 5U84 allows for a large quantity of data to be stored in a smaller space.
Key features include:
• 5U rack-mount enclosure stores up to eight petabytes of data per rack. • Efficient power conversion. • Up to 84 3.5-inch SAS hard disk drives or solid-state drives per 5U enclosure. • Drawer design provides extremely high density per rack unit. • Easy access to hot swap drives. • Expansion capability up to 336 drives. • Dual 12Gb SAS I/O modules with integral data path redundancy for high-availability. • Dual controller configuration that supports multiple chassis, which lowers SKUs and complex configuration issues. • Ultra-high performance of 600K IOPS at 1ms latency for 2U24 AFA configurations at 1ms latency for near instantaneous access to data. Visit https://www.seagate.com/au
NSW to Subsidise Cyber-Security Training NSW DEPUTY PREMIER and Skills Minister John Barilaro has announced that the growing threat of cyber-crime and the potential shortage of skills to protect against it has led the NSW Government to offer subsidised training in cybersecurity for the first time. According to Mr Barilaro, cyber-crime costs Australia up to $17 billion a year. “We recognise there’s a serious need for cyber-security experts in the field, which is why the NSW Government has decided to subsidise the Certificate IV in Cyber Security for eligible students. “With the growing threat of cybercrime impacting everyone – from individuals being scammed over email to global institutions being hacked – there’s an urgent need for people with the skills to protect our digital lives and businesses.
“Demand for cyber security services and related jobs is forecast to grow by at least 21 percent over the next five years according to the Federal Government’s employment projections,” Mr Barilaro said. Mr Barilaro said that with the subsidy, eligible students could save up to 75 percent on the full cost of the Certificate IV in Cyber Security, normally priced at $8100. “The Government’s decision to add this course to the NSW Skills List, through Smart and Skilled, is another example of how we’re supporting people through Vocational Education and Training (VET) to skill up for the jobs of the future,” he said. Visit www.industry.nsw.gov.au
150 years of moving images. What’s happening now?
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IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY, moving images were a new thing. Now they’re everywhere. Not just movies. TV came of age in the 1950’s. Now the internet is doing the same thing. Global revenue from movies, TV and video is around US$300 billion every year, and growing. As TJ McCue writes for Forbes, ‘We have shifted to a “video first” world. …we are building a world that does not include a lot of reading, but watching.’ That shift means change for everyone in the business of moving images. New technologies, new distribution channels, new competitors. You see it around you, you hear random anecdotes and statistics.
The Moving Images Moving Landscape survey is an initiative of Preferred
But what’s really happening? It’s hard to get a clear picture.
three decades. Company services include a climate-controlled archive for
• Who’s creating what kind of content? • What’s happening to budgets and funding? • How is distribution and promotion changing?
Media, who have been helping broadcasters, film producers, agencies and brand advertisers look after their film and video content for over traditional media formats in addition to state-of-the-art cloud-based digital asset management. For more information visit preferredmedia.com.au
• How are people managing the explosion of content being produced? Here’s your chance to find out! The Moving Images Moving Landscape survey will provide a comprehensive picture of how Australia is creating and delivering content, from movies, to TV, to mobile ads. Take the survey now, and we’ll send you a copy of the final report, absolutely free. Find out what’s happening in the moving image industry. Take the survey at preferredmedia.com.au/survey-2018 The survey takes about 10 minutes and all answers are strictly confidential. Only aggregate data will be released.
MOVING IMAGES MOVING LANDSCAPE Find out what’s happening in the moving image industry. Take the survey at
preferredmedia.com.au/survey-2018
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
• Where are the opportunities for content – now and in the future?
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
TMD and EditShare Collaborate on Production Content TMD RECENTLY INTEGRATED its technology with media and entertainment storage specialist, EditShare. TMD is now certified to connect to the EditShare File System (EFS), allowing Mediaflex-UMS to search, index and retrieve all digital assets located on the EFS cluster. “Many of the world’s post production operations rely on EditShare storage solutions,” said Justin Elkerton, Head of the Partner Programme at TMD. “This integration will give them the benefit of Mediaflex’s software-defined workflows combined with EditShare’s live networked storage platform for a more flexible and operationally efficient solution.” In order to provide high performance as well as enterprise-class resiliency, EditShare uses its own file system, EFS. Visible to Mac, Windows and Linux clients, EFS allows the storage environment to scale infinitely while maintaining a single namespace. Tailored specifically to the needs of media users, EFS delivers up to 20% bandwidth gains within a facility versus standard networking protocols like AFP or Samba. It also provides a shared storage environment where multiple editors can work on the same project simultaneously, using Avid, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Lightworks and more. With this new partnership, TMD’s Mediaflex asset and workflow management can mount directly onto the EFS storage platform, allowing Mediaflex’s softwaredefined workflows to move content on and off the platform and between EditShare media spaces. Automated workflows can ensure content is restored from archive or moved from other storage tiers and presented at the right workstations. Projects can be tracked, and finalised material can be transferred for transmission or transcoding. “Providing an open platform for integration has been at the core of EditShare’s shared storage philosophy since it was first introduced in 2003, commented Bill Thompson, EditShare Storage Product Manager. “Users will be delighted with the workflow efficiencies offered through the seamless integration of MediaflexUMS and EditShare. Equally as important, facility owners will appreciate the ability to improve existing systems performance and maximise the return on their investment.” Visit www.tmd.tv
DataFrameworks and Object Matrix Team Up DATAFRAMEWORKS AND OBJECT MATRIX have launched a new file and object storage solution. The solution enables management of petabytes worth of digital content throughout its lifetime. The partnership combines DataFrameworks’ ClarityNow file management software with Object Matrix’s MatrixStore, object storage software that provides protection and governance for the lifetime of any digital content. This combination gives users an easy overview of their archive and provides the ability to manage petabytes of otherwise unstructured digital content data across both Object Matrix MXFS (MatrixStore File System) file and S3 object interfaces. Jonathan Morgan, CEO of Object Matrix, said, “Organisations today are drowning in unstructured data. The resulting complications are especially pronounced in industries with a high dependence on technical based workflows, such as media and entertainment. This solution is aimed at addressing these challenges and the impact of escalating storage costs, workflow inefficiencies and increased operational expenses.” The solution from ClarityNow and MatrixStore enables users to determine what, when, and where to archive. It therefore reduces both the operating and capital costs connected with managing large amounts of high-resolution workflow and rich content across complex storage environments. In addition to allowing customers to appropriately tier data across the infrastructure, the combined solution allows businesses to provide higher levels of service to internal users while automating many of the routine tasks associated with data management. “Our combined solution provides a ‘single pane of glass’ view of data, regardless of the file or object storage location,” said Will Hall, DataFrameworks CEO. “Together we deliver advanced file manag ment efficiencies by optimising petabyte scale data management across the storage infrastructure.” Visit https://dataframeworks.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Nexsan Upgrades Unity Storage with ATTO
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NEXSAN AND ATTO TECHNOLOGY RECENTLY announced that ATTO 16Gb Celerity host bus adapters (HBAs) are now certified with Nexsan Unity storage platform. This latest system enhancement will address the growing need for high-performing scalable and secure storage to support exponential data growth from a variety of workloads, including high resolution 4K/8K video editing, high-performance computing and data warehousing.
ATTO Celerity HBAs provide users with rapid access to storage and retrieval
Nexsan’s Unity is the first unified storage platform that combines enterprise NAS and high performance block storage, PLUS a fully integrated private cloud with Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS), Mobile Access, Multi-site Sync, and a Secure Active Archive client in a simple to manage and secure system. This solution combines this functionality into a single product, at a single price, allowing organisations to have less to manage and lower overall costs.
HBAs with Nexsan’s high performing hyper-unified storage platform users
“We’re seeing an increasing number of customers interested in high performance throughput for their demanding applications,” said Gary Watson, CTO, Nexsan. “ATTO is the leader in providing world-class HBAs so we’re pleased to be able to offer these options to our customers.” ATTO 16Gb Gen 6 Celerity host bus adapters deliver high-performance connectivity solutions for the most demanding storage environments, enabling users to achieve the ultimate in I/O performance for real-time and transactional applications. Available in low-profile single-, dual-, and quadport versions, and providing throughputs of up to 6,400Mb/s per channel,
of critical information when using high bandwidth cloud applications and storage intensive applications such as backup, database transactions and rich media. ATTO CEO, Tim Klein, also weighed in, saying, “We are elated to be working with industry leading partners like Nexsan. By pairing our Fibre Channel are provided a complete solution to meet or even exceed the connectivity standards necessary for data intensive environments.” Celerity 16Gb Fibre Channel HBAs feature ATTO MultiPath Director and Advanced Data Streaming (ADS) latency management technologies for the fastest, most reliable connection of servers and workstations to storage in physical and virtual environments. Celerity HBAs are compatible with all leading operating systems, and are complemented by a full suite of easyto-use, GUI-based diagnostic, monitoring and management tools to ensure optimal performance. The 16Gb HBAs support Linux, Mac, Windows, FreeBSD, and illumos environments. Visit www.nexsan.com and www.atto.com
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Quantum Unveils Scale-out NAS for Demanding IP-Based Workflows QUANTUM RECENTLY ANNOUNCED a new Xcellis Scale-out NAS solution that delivers the highest levels of storage performance and scalability in a costeffective, ethernet-based appliance. Powered by Quantum’s StorNext shared storage and data management platform, the multiprotocol, multiclient Xcellis Scale-out NAS system unites robust media and metadata management with performance – three times better than that of competing NAS systems – with scalability to support content creators’ collaborative workflows and ease their transition to an IP-based infrastructure. Addressing Workflow Pressures and the IP Migration High-resolution, high-volume media workflows such as collaborative 4K editing and visual effects creation demand extreme performance and scalability from the underlying storage infrastructure. To meet this challenge, content creators have traditionally utilised high-throughput SAN solutions. Quantum’s Xcellis Scale-out NAS stands alone in its ability to deliver the performance and scalability previously available only in a SAN to all-IP workflows. In addition, Quantum enables users to configure an Xcellis solution with both scale-out SAN and NAS. Specific benefits of Xcellis Scale-out NAS include: • Increased Productivity in all-IP Environments: Featuring a converged architecture that saves space and power, continuous scalability for simplified scaling of performance and capacity, and unified access to content, Xcellis systems boost productivity in collaborative media environments by integrating the most important components of workflow storage into a single hardware solution. • Cost-Effective Scaling of Performance and Capacity: A single Xcellis Scaleout NAS appliance performs at least three times better than that of the market’s next-best NAS offering. An Xcellis cluster can scale performance and capacity together or independently to reach hundreds of petabytes in capacity and more than a terabyte per second in performance. When deployed as part of a multitier StorNext infrastructure – which can include object, tape and cloud storage – Xcellis Scale-out NAS can cost as little as 1/10 that of an enterprise-only NAS solution with the same capacity. • Lifecycle, Location and Cost Management: The Xcellis Scale-out NAS platform leverages more than 15 years of data management experience built into StorNext software, which provides automatic tiering between flash, disk, tape, object storage and public cloud. Copies can be created for content distribution, collaboration, data protection and disaster recovery. • Integrated Artificial Intelligence: Xcellis is the industry’s only storage appliance that can integrate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to enable users to extract more value for their assets through the automated creation of metadata. The system can actively interrogate data across multiple axes to uncover events, objects, faces, words and sentiments, automatically generating new, custom metadata that unlocks additional possibilities for the use of stored assets.
For example, videographers who want to capture footage in the field can now streamline on-set workflow thanks to the second product offering from Seagate’s partnership with DJI, the world’s leading manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, which looks to advance data solutions for the UAV ecosystem. The new LaCie DJI Copilot is a complete backup on-set solution, enabling drone users to quickly ingest and review content in full resolution without a PC. This allows creatives and consumers to playback, copy, and manage drone footage from their mobile device without the hassle of leaving the field or booting up a computer. Users can connect and reference the built-in screen to initiate direct file transfer from an SD card to LaCie DJI Copilot – without the need of a laptop or a mobile network. The Copilot BOSS (Back-up On-Set Solution) app allows users to playback video in full resolution as well as manage and organise files with a mobile phone or tablet, and a built-in power bank recharges mobile devices. With 2TB of storage, the LaCie DJI Copilot enables users to store up to 65 hours of 4K 30fps video footage and 20K+ RAW photos. Another challenge facing mobile users is extending the storage and battery life of smartphones. For consumers in China and Indonesia, owners of Android devices can extend battery life and capacity of a smartphone or tablet with the Seagate Joy Drive. Whether consumers are on their morning commute or out with friends, the Seagate Joy Drive enables them to access videos and other content anywhere, without the need for a Wi-Fi connection or cellular service. Available in China this March, the Seagate Joy Drive is available in a 1TB capacity. Meanwhile consumers can keep their files in motion with the Seagate Fast SSD – a flash drive that teams a 540MB/s transfer rate, with shockresistance and USB-C connectivity. Users can backup or sync their content using Seagate’s Toolkit software. The Seagate Fast SSD will be available in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities. Data security is a growing concern with mobile devices. Consequently Seagate is introducing an addition to its line of LaCie Rugged drives – the LaCie Rugged Secure. Built to withstand extreme conditions, the Rugged Secure is the first drive to include hardware encryption using Seagate Secure technology. Disconnection of Rugged Secure from a computer will automatically lock the drive, and will remain password-protected via Toolkit software. And for creative professionals and enthusiasts looking to try out the latest graphic design and video editing software from Adobe Systems, an expanded partnership between Adobe and Seagate now provides limited-time, no-cost access to Adobe’s latest applications bundled with Seagate and LaCie drives. Two offerings available immediately include two complimentary months of the ‘Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan’, which features the new cloud-based photo service, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC – across the full range of Seagate Backup Plus and LaCie Porsche Design devices, as well as packaging a complimentary month of the ‘Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan’.
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
SPACE!
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCED A RANGE of new products at the recent CES 2018 conference, designed to equip the world’s mobile population with solutions that solve challenges faced when creating, processing and accessing data on-the-go.
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Seagate Offers New Mobile Data Storage Solutions
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AUDIO Digital soundwaves
www.content-technology.com/audio
FOX SPORTS Australia Adds Second Calrec Artemis Console FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA HAS ADDED a second Calrec Artemis digital audio console at its Sydney headquarters, replacing a Calrec Zeta console that has delivered audio output since 2008. The Artemis went live on late last year with a pre-recorded UFC preview show followed by “Just for Kicks,” a liveaudience football entertainment show on FOX SPORTS 501. The decommissioning of the Zeta and then installation and commissioning of the Artemis took less than 48 hours by a team assembled by FOX SPORTS Australia Broadcast Projects Engineer Mick Gergos. The show files were prepped and checked beforehand, so when show time arrived, the operators pushed up the faders and were off without a hitch into very familiar territory. “When it came time to upgrade to a new console in our main broadcast facility, the Artemis was an easy choice. Since we already work with the same desk in our other studio, adding a new Artemis guaranteed a smooth transition for our crew,” said FOX SPORTS Australia Network Head of Audio Antony Koveos. “We effectively mirrored and networked the facilities by adding Dante cards in both studios and the intercom system. This has given us a high-capacity intercom interface that extends to the outside world and is now available on our outside broadcast network. “Through our years of experience with the Zeta consoles and previous Calrec compacts, we’ve become accustomed to the core feature set, outstanding reliability, and quality of Calrec products — especially the sound quality. In a world of many look-alike, me-too products, it is very easy for the uninitiated to be swept away by marketing promises and sales hype, and it’s become even more difficult to find the essential operational functions and features. Simple things like the quality of faders, switches, and knobs, as well as logical, instinctive, and comprehensive monitoring and metering, are other requisite areas many fail to appreciate, but that really stand out on Calrec desks.”
The new 48-fader Artemis console is installed in Studio B. Key drivers for FOX SPORTS to add the second Artemis were the ability to link it via Calrec’s Hydra2 network to the existing Artemis in Studio A for a seamless exchange of audio signals, and the ability to add Calrec’s RP1 remote production unit to remotely control signals in the field from an Artemis surface in a studio control room. Koveos added, “The opportunity to call up any function on any panel, replicate them on multiple panels, split the surface for multiple users, and set up alternate monitoring quickly and easily are just some of the benefits that make Calrec consoles user-friendly and highly functional in an ever-changing production environment. Add to this the on-board automix, fader / function control from GPI, or external automation control, and you have a very powerful and versatile system. But we don’t just value Calrec’s advanced feature set — we also know we can count on outstanding customer support from both Calrec and our local distributor, Syncrotech Systems.” Visit http://calrec.com
First Audient Heritage Console for Australian Shores APHEK STUDIO, LOCATED AT NARARA on the NSW Central Coast, has taken delivery of the first Audient ASP8024 Heritage Edition console to be installed in Australia. Engineer Greg Dixon describes the new desk as “an incredibly well-built console” which “sounds fantastic”. As with any new studio purchase, Greg was very keen to fire up the 24-channel analogue desk as soon as he could, to see what it was capable of. So, despite being in the throes of overhauling the control room and just before dismantling his old setup, he ran a rough mix of the final song he was working on for a client. “I was wanting to hear the bus comp and particularly Retro Iron circuits, so I ran it through an EFX input and back to ProTools. Retro Iron is great. Subtle as you’d expect, but certainly added a little something,” he says. “The real surprise was the bus comp. I have an SSL clone that is a little better than the plug-in versions, so I wasn’t expecting the Audient to be noticeably different to that. I was wrong. This comp is awesome. Really open and transparent.
AUDIO
“I probably shouldn’t have been surprised as I’d already had an idea how transparent it was. I’d plugged the CD player into a pair of channels to listen to some music while working and had Peter Gabriel’s So on. I switched the comp to 10:1 and turned it on. I hadn’t noticed that the threshold was at its lowest setting and wasn’t thinking about the SSL style meters working in reverse to something like an 1176. My first thought was just that the comp didn’t have much output and it wasn’t compressing either, as the meter wasn’t moving and the sound hadn’t changed much. It turns out I had it on the most extreme setting and it didn’t sound bad.”
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“I’d been considering older, ‘classic’ consoles,” says Greg. “but there were too many issues with maintenance, heat and other limitations. Audient kept coming up as the best long-term solution for what I was wanting – a great set of preamps/EQ and lots Engineer Greg Dixon at the helm of Aphek Studio’s of pre-fade AUX sends for headphone mixes. The new Audient ASP8024 Heritage Edition console. addition of the built-in DLC to control the DAW from it is even better.” Three months after Greg’s Heritage arrived, the studio renovations were complete. “My clients have been really happy and like the feeling of sitting behind a large format console,” he says. “I also had a couple of engineers in who are used to working on an SSL. The studio they’d been using mainly tracked through some vintage Neve 1064preamps and I believe they’ve been at least as happy with the sounds they’ve been able to get through the ASP8024-HE. I know they like that everything works as it should!”
Since then, Greg has removed all acoustic treatment at Aphek Studios, repainted, replaced the flooring and built some new racks to fit around the desk, which has a built-in patchbay and Dual Layer Control (DLC).
Even now, the desk still manages to surprise him. “I’ve tried external summing in the past and didn’t feel it was any better than what I was getting with ProTools. I wasn’t sure I’d be running mixes through the individual channels on this desk for analogue summing, but I tried some last week. I’m glad I did, there is definite improvement in depth and clarity.”
The Audient wasn’t the only desk in the running, initially.
Visit https://audient.com and www.aphekstudio.com.auww
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AUDIO
NAMM 2018 - Hitting the High Notes! THIS YEAR’S NAMM SHOW was literally bigger than ever before as the Anaheim Convention Center recently went through an expansion process adding an additional 18500 square meters of floor space. That’s 4.6 acres in the old money, and ample breadth for the centre to continue hosting conventions for years to come. With around 93,000 square metres of show space there were over 7,000 brands to be investigated. While the majority of the show is aimed squarely at the musical instrument and performance sector, there was a bunch of gear on show for those of the broadcast persuasion. For a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll shizzle, NAMM rolled out the rooftop carpet for the greatest cover band in the world, Hollywood U2 – the U2 tribute band blessed by the Edge and Bono. Apparently the facsimile act knows the songs better than U2 themselves, and many a NAMM attendee was duped into thinking the Irish juggernaut had popped in to pick up a few truckloads of new gear. PROCESSING BAE Audio showcase a new 500 series EQ – the 73L. The hardware borrows its design from the EQ section of the Neve 1073 console preamp and EQ and fits it into a single lunchbox rack-space. The 73L complements the recently launched R53 3RU horizontal rack. BAE Audio also showcased its new PDI and PDIS direct injection boxes. The single and dual channel DIs feature Carnhill transformers. DAD showcased its new speaker correction software. SPQ speaker processing is a combined hardware and software addition to the Pro | Mon | 3 license for the company's AX32 audio-router and converter. The SPQ card incorporates DSP processing and offers up to 1,024 EQ filter bands that can be accessed and edited through the DADman software with the Pro | Mon | 3 license, as well as bass management system with support for sub-woofer control and matching of different speaker configurations in an immersive audio environment. After a seven year development phase, Retro Instruments released the Retro Revolver – a stereo compressor based on EMI's legendary Altec 436 compressor used during the recording of Beatles albums. The Retro Revolver promises the Altec 436 signature compression, with stereo linking, and continuously variable input, output, attack, release, and threshold. MONITORING Avantone pulled out an interesting solution with its AV10 speakers designed to replicate Yamaha’s now discontinued NS10 drivers. The AV10 MHF and MLF drivers are a direct bolt-in replacement for damaged NS10 high and lowfrequency drivers.They’re also sonically matched, unlike the originals, and can be used in conjuntion with Avantone’s NS10 tissue paper. Worthy of a salute. UK-based PMC trotted out its result6 compact nearfield reference monitor. Launched in October 2017 at the AES Convention in New York, the new loudspeaker promises ‘high resolution and detail, accurate and extended bass, consistent tonal balance on all levels and wide dispersion and sweet spot’.
AUDIO
JBL had its next-generation 3 Series MkII compact powered studio monitors on show with the revolutionary JBL Image Control Waveguide and refined transducers, the 3 Series MkII line offers stunning detail, precise imaging, a wide sweet spot and impressive dynamic range that enhances the critical listening capabilities of any modern workspace.
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Auralex Acoustics offered its new MAX portable treatment kits. MAX kits (shorthand for Mobile, Absorptive and ‘eXpandable’) allow users to reconfigure
and tune a space for a wide variety of applications, providing ultimate flexibility in configuring their room. Three packages are available: VoxMAX, EditMAX and ProducerMAX kits. Scaeva Technologies unveiled its radical redesign of dynamic audio drivers at the show. Scaeva’s ActiveMag loudspeaker replaces core components of existing loudspeakers with an active field coil and a flat panel pistonic audio transducer. By eliminating the need for rare earth magnetic materials and copper, the company has addressed numerous environmental threats. ActiveMag speakers deliver higher performance than existing technologies, and consume 50% less power at higher volumes. CAPTURE JoeCo introduced its Cello interface with 384k recording. Cello is JoCo’s first desktop audio interface, and offers 22 inputs and four outputs via USB 2.0 for both Mac and PC. Cello features include talkback and on-board monitor controls. Two microphone inputs include discrete analogue mic preamps with 80dB gain, hi-pass filter, pad, and phase reverse. Audinate showcased its Dante AVIO adapters – cost-effective endpoint adapters to enable audio connection to analogue and digital audio equipment using Dante networks. The Dante AVIO series features six new adapters including line-in and line-out analogue adapters, a bi-directional AES3/EBU adapter and a bi-directional stereo USB adapter. News gatherers would be well suited with Zoom’s H1n Recorder, Black – a compact, portable high-resolution audio recorder with 24-bit/96kHz capture. The Zoom H1n incorporates X/Y microphones for realistic stereo. MIXING Allen & Heath exhibited its new SQ series digital mixers with 96kHz XCVI FPGA engine, which brings the audio performance of the company’s dLive Digital Mixing System and crams it into a compact, cost-effective, and customisable multi-application platform. The rack-mountable SQ-5 has 16 preamps, 17 faders and eight softkeys, while the SQ-6 provides 24 preamps, 25 faders, four assignable rotary controls and 16 softkeys. Both models support up to 56 input channels via remote expanders and networking slot for optional Dante cards. The Radial MIX 2:1 two channel audio combiner and mixer is a passive summing mixer, designed to sum two audio channels down to a single mono output. The MIX 2:1 features a bookend design, and is crafted from 14-gauge steel. The Radial SAT-2 stereo audio attenuator and monitor controller is a passive stereo unit, and is suited to monitor control, line attenuation and parallel effects processing. Finally, Gig Gear LLC, maker of Gig Gloves, announced its Two Hand Touch Harness, a wearable iPad case that’s secured to the chest via a flexible harness, leaving both hands available to interface with remote mixing apps during production. So there we have it. Amongst the drumsticks, guitar strings and celebrity acts, there’s plenty of broadcast innovation traipsing in, and out, of NAMM. See you at next year’s show. Continues P39 >>
AUDIO
Avid VENUE | S6L Update with Free iOS App AVID RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the availability of a new version of Avid VENUE Software and new Avid VENUE | On-Stage iOS app for its Avid VENUE | S6L live sound system. Powered by MediaCentral, the software update and On-Stage app introduce a range of new control surface and software workflows for monitor engineers.
including access to sends as well as access to members of a mix quickly
Available at no charge to Avid’s live sound customer community, the new Avid VENUE | On-Stage app gives monitor engineers using S6L the ability to remotely control any mix from any location. This enables monitor engineers to step away from their Avid VENUE | S6L system and fine tune individual monitor mixes while walking around on stage, hearing exactly what the performers hear. The app even allows up to 16 performers to take control of their individual monitor mixes using a user interface on an iPad, iPhone or iPod.
Avid VENUE | S6L is a modular, flexible live sound mixing system that
In addition to its On-Stage app support, VENUE Software offers numerous new features and enhancements to S6L to make mixing monitors easier,
download for free from the Apple App Store.
with the new Sends on Faders button. Engineers can now also maintain the Aux, Group, Matrix, or VCA master fader position when spilling its members for better efficiency, and enjoy better visibility into VCA members in Meters view. delivers functionality for a range of live sound mixing applications, including front-of-house, monitor, broadcast, theatre, and more. Avid VENUE Software works with Avid VENUE | S6L systems exclusively and is available to download now at no charge for all Avid VENUE | S6L customers with a valid Avid Advantage Elite Live support contract. The Avid VENUE | On-Stage app is iOS 10- and 11-compatible and is available to Visit www.avid.com
Røde Releases Audio Interface PRO AUDIO MANUFACTURER, Røde Microphones, has released its first Audio
Damien Wilson, CEO of Røde Microphones added, “The AI-1 offers pro-studio
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it has ever been. With its high quality NeutrikTM combo jack input and discrete
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AUDIO
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RADIO The original broadcast media
www.content-technology.com/radio
Radio Moves – Southern Cross Austereo Rebuilds By Brad Watts LATE 2017 SAW the Australian Commercial Radio Awards held at Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. Amongst other awards, back room technical specialist nominees throughout the Australian radio industry were judged for ‘Engineering Excellence’. One such nominee, Matt Paton, supports several studios across Queensland for Southern Cross Austereo. Matt took out the Engineering Excellence gong for his solution to synchronisation, with a new slant on the humble studio clock. Not surprisingly, Matt and his team were also nominated for their exemplary relocation of the Queensland SCA facility. Moving an entire radio station is no easy feat, but for the SCA outpost the writing was on the wall. In fact, the studio walls were staring down the barrel of impending for demolition. The old station digs were built in the days preceding digital technology, and with the building devoid of natural light, and the various studios and staff areas disjointed and uninviting, it was a far cry short of a convivial workspace. So Matt, tell me how the move came about? “Well we had been in that building for, I think it was about 40 years through the various incarnations of station names. It was not a very nice building and we had 40 years’ worth of cables and stuff that had been run, you know, dangling across ceilings that were becoming really difficult to maintain. So we had done a little bit of a refresh in there in 2004, but that was with relocated secondhand gear from somewhere else. It was just becoming unmanageable. “It was an entirely analogue system, so the problems were basically stuff just failing, and we weren’t able to get parts to repair some of it anymore. From a technology point of view it was a case of ‘do we refresh this old gear, do we stay here, or do we go somewhere else’? “Funnily enough the old building was completely demolished not long after we left – they’re building a couple of high-rises in its place. So, it’s lucky we left when we did.” So when were the plans laid out? You’d obviously need a building in mind before taking the plunge. “Oh yeah, it would be two years ago that we started looking around at buildings before finally settling on one. It was a first floor and had been an accountancy firm. With the global financial crisis in 2008 it had downsized quite a bit, so they had a massive amount of area with not many people in it. They chopped their tenancy in half and shifted all their people into one half and gave us a bare floor on the other side. So pretty much a blank canvas.”
RADIO
So how do you prep for such a move?
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can be rolled out. We also utilised an entirely in-house team of engineers, which spreads the knowledge of how to build these facilities and capitalises on the existing team’s skills. “It’s all IP based audio now. So, there’s a mix of analogue and AES Axia nodes there to interface to our audio devices. In the on-air studios we used a product that Brett Kelly, one of our engineers over in Perth, our National Projects Engineer developed, which is called an HP202. Essentially it has a single ethernet cable into it and it’s got a microphone, headphone amp, line in and out, and user buttons and controls on the front of that box. That’s used for all our guest positions. “Plus we’ve made the studios more versatile. There’s three main on-air studios. Two are used all the time, with the third as a standby. You can literally walk into any studio and select what station you want it to be.” And which stations go out from the studios? “So there’s three stations that come out from here. One is Triple M, one is Hit 103.5 Cairns, and the other is Hit 97.9 which is the tablelands. That’s the adjacent market to Cairns but it slaves off the Cairns Breakfast Show. So, the programming across the day other than commercials and a bit of local voice tracked programme is the same as what Hit Cairns does.” With the Citect monitoring, what are you keeping tabs on? “Citect is a Schneider Electric product. It is actually an Australian made product. But essentially, it talks to our equipment. So in Cairns for example, I can see when the power generator’s on or offline, and see what volts are coming from Ergon Energy, and I can switch it on or off. The air-conditioning system ties back into it so we can see if there’s faults with the air-con. It also looks at all the transmission equipment – your links and your transmitters – everything basically.”
“Well we initially did a six-week technical build, with three Axia IP Audio based on-air studios, one news booth, and one production suite. The master control room houses all common equipment: the Telstra digital video network equipment, studio transmitter link, and all the office comms. All the equipment on site is IP managed, including playout, routing, security, emergency power plant, even the air conditioning. The systems are integrated into the Citect for SCADA remote control and monitoring solution, with Pathfinder managing the routing systems.”
It’s a lot to keep track of.
So you’ve upped the game considerably.
“To say the least. The new office is incredibly smart with the control we’ve got. Whereas the old one was very much living 40 years in the past.”
“Definitely – the project has really set a standard for how these installations
“Yeah I’ve got most of Queensland on one Citect system. So if power fails somewhere I’ll know. As I sit here I can see the Gladstone office is running on generator because the mains have failed. Yeah, it’s a nice central way of monitoring and controlling all of your equipment and making sure all your standby systems work.” It sounds light years ahead of where you were.
RADIO
SCA Redefines the Art of Commentary Capture ALSO NOMINATED FOR Engineering Excellence at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards was Southern Cross Austereo broadcast engineer, Phil Elzerman’s retake on the humble, yet key radio broadcasting setup, the commentary kit. Phil, can you please fill me in with what a commentary kit actually is. “Well it’s a vital communications system amongst a sporting event’s commentators and the production crew. It’s more for the bigger users, calling football or the cricket over the summer for us. You have a series of commentators, all of whom need to be able to commentate, yet at times they’ll need to cough or sneeze, or they’ll need to communicate with the producer, they may need to communicate with the station – the commentary kit looks after all those audio feeds. So they also need to be able to change where their audio is going, alongside what’s feeding their headphones. In the end we’re essentially providing them a cut down version of what the mixer’s doing, while giving them a limited subset of access so they can interact with key people.” OK, so like an easily accessible talk back unit, so they can flip over to anyone? “Yeah, exactly, and we’ve got that beyond just what the commentator is doing, our system extends to the producer and the tech producer as well. It gives them simpler limited control over the mixer, to make things easy for any on-air situation they get into. They can easily see what they need and can react quickly. The last thing they need is to be confronted with a full mix.” So, in the past, what was involved in one of these rigs hardware-wise? “In the past we used full studio grade equipment – quite expensive. Our last set of kits was a series of Klotz systems. Around that time we were installing Klotz comms gear around the country for SCA, and using those as kind of a portable mixing system with a Klotz interface and some button boxes with push buttons that went back to a GPI card. The capabilities that offered were incredible at the time, but configuring it was difficult because Klotz knowledge access is limited. So moving forward it became problematic to maintain. Our intention was to build a simpler system that could be maintained into the future without reliance on one particular brand, and using equipment that would save us money, yet provide the same functionality. To be honest, it’s become much easier with the capabilities of digital audio equipment these days.” So the cost with Klotz systems previously, was that an outlandish spend in comparison with your system? “Oh yeah, the Klotz kits I’ve seen cost up around $35,000 to $40,000 a kit. We’ve built our rig for under $10,000, all inclusive, excluding the codecs. That’s a cost that you have to wear no matter what. With our systems, if we need to replace anything you can grab what you need from a local music
shop – you don’t need to go to a made to order supplier. Plus we are using an open protocol for control – OSC (Open Sound Control) remote protocol for controlling the Behringer X32 rack units we’ve used. With OSC being open standard we can go out to anyone else using OSC protocol for IP control and configure their system to work with our software via our tablets.” So like many, you’re using Behringer X32 racks, what else is involved? You mentioned some tablets? “Yeah, the tablets are Android running an application we’ve written. So like the Behringers, something we could customise as opposed to ordering bespoke hardware. The application I wrote in normal Java for Android – it communicates via OSC to control the Behringers. But we can control other units from the tablets – we can resend call-buttons and call-lights for example, or swing down to the press conference, or in our lockerroom kits where there’s a similar call-button. It gets status from our codecs to ensure the codec is still up and operational, and then connects it. Klotz could do that stuff in terms of providing a timer for the commentators to count up, but with the Behringer X32s we control the record function – so we can record vox-pops on-site then play them back without needing to interact with the studio. The app gives us completely personalised control, and we can reconfigure it to do just about anything with any other system communicating via OSC. So apart from the control application, everything else is completely off the shelf.” And are the displays limited to buttons and faders? “Not at all. There’s toggle buttons and timers, indicator lamps for codec status. We can add anything that talks via IP or can give us a GPIO closure.” It sounds similar to a Crestron or AMX system. “Kind of, but we don’t need to pay a Crestron programmer to come in and configure everything – there is no need, and those guys are expensive. You can give this to anyone who’s familiar with an OSC device.” So, the tablets hook up via Wi-Fi? “No they’re power-over-ethernet capped, so a single cable carries power, internet and network connection to the tablets. To set it up on site we’ve had some mounts 3D printed by our colleagues in Perth. We put the tablet in its mount and run a Cat-5 cable to it, then plug it in and we’re good to go.” And long did it take to get the application up and running? “We began expanding an Android store application for it in October of 2016. The first cricket test of the 2016/17 summer was called with this, and then we rolled seven kits out by the end of February before the start of the AFL/ NRL season. It’s turned out really well for us.”
RADIO
By Brad Watts
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RADIO
StreamGuys Upgrades SGrecast Live Stream Recording Platform SAAS-BASED STREAMING solutions provider, StreamGuys, has announced SGrecast 2.0, an upgrade to the company’s cloud-based live stream repurposing, rebroadcasting, and podcast management system. Building on its proven foundation for recording radio broadcasters’ live streams and transforming them into revenue-expanding side channels and podcasts, version 2.0 adds new tools to further streamline content creation and management. The new release will be showcased at the 2018 NAB Show (April 9-12, Las Vegas), where StreamGuys will co-exhibit with technology partner ENCO at booth N3824. Foremost among new features are AudioLoggers, which enable repurposing of content on-the-fly while it is being recorded. Complementing SGrecast’s existing ability to archive content based on pre-determined schedules, AudioLoggers record streams 24/7 and automatically segment the recordings based on specific metadata in the stream, changes in stream metadata, or user-configured time intervals. For example, the AudioLogger feature can leverage metadata changes to distinguish between different programs and songs, or to detect ads within a show and create segments around them. Producers can then use SGrecast’s visual publishing interface to join related segments together, graphically place markers for dynamic ad insertion, and publish the combined result for rebroadcasting or podcasting.
SGrecast 2.0’s side-channel workflow enhancements include the separation of recording and rebroadcasting functionality, enabling changes to one aspect’s schedule or configuration even while the other is active. A side-channel’s recording settings can be edited while its rebroadcast is live, or conversely, its rebroadcast parameters can be modified without waiting for recording to complete. Augmenting SGrecast’s media players for podcasts and podcast episodes, SGrecast 2.0 allows users to create embeddable archive and single-file players for any on-demand media in the system, directly from the content management interface. Podcast management workflow improvements make it easier for users to create new podcasts without needing to immediately add content, and simplify the addition of episodes to existing podcasts. Meanwhile, an updated dashboard provides unified access to both recorded and uploaded content in a single place. Giving customers greater control of how their staff members interact with the system, SGrecast 2.0 enables administrators to define user roles and permissions. Granular authorisation for key SGrecast features enables user accounts to be restricted to specific tasks, while operators’ user experience can be customised based on their role. Visit www.streamguys.com
Axia Fusion Console Mix Engine Software v3.2
Guidelines for Broadcaster Logos in Cars
THE TELOS ALLIANCE has announced that software update v3.2 for Fusion Console Mix Engines, including the Axia PowerStation and Axia StudioEngine, is now available.
WORLDDAB AND RADIODNS have produced a set of guidelines for automotive manufacturers and broadcasters. The guidelines outline best practice for broadcasters with services on FM and DAB to supply and update brand logos, and guidance to automotive manufacturers for downloading and display of these logos. Based on open standards, the guidelines aim to provide clarity and certainty to help deliver the best radio experience to drivers. As modern automotive devices evolve, drivers are accustomed to interacting with larger format screens able to show richer visual information. With automotive manufacturers looking to improve the user experience, the use of brand logos to enhance radio service navigation becomes more commonplace, and it’s essential that logos are up to date and the correct format for the screen.
The PowerStation and StudioEngine are powerful mix engines that can be used effectively with Axia Fusion mixing consoles as a standalone studio solution or as part of a larger IP-audio network. V3.2 has several new features, most notably an automix function that is suitable for situations where you have multiple microphone faders open. For instance, during a talk show with multiple guests. Also, the addition of AES67-compliant SIP connection management for unicast allows for the exchange of audio over a high-speed managed WAN using AES67, without purchasing any additional gear.
RADIO
“One of the most requested features for Fusion is automatic mic mixing. Multiple mics are the rule in lots of studios these days and the automix feature helps presenters focus on their show and not operating the console,” said Marty Sacks, VP of Sales, Support, and Marketing at the Telos Alliance. “Our team worked hard on developing a very capable algorithm and we’re excited to bring it to customers. This release also provides full AES67 compliance.”
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Visit www.telosalliance.com
For broadcasters, the document sets out how to provide logos over both IP and DAB/DAB+, including the correct format and defined sizes. For automotive manufacturers and suppliers, it shows how to acquire these logos and how they can be refreshed and updated. “Radio is still hugely popular in cars and must continue to offer the best possible experience to drivers as cars go digital and become connected – part of which is displaying consistent branding and content,” said Laurence Harrison, Chair of the WorldDAB Automotive Working Group. “WorldDAB has worked together with RadioDNS, EBU, and several other key industry groups to produce these guidelines and provide clarity and reassurance to both car manufacturers and broadcasters on how to work together.” “Too often in cars we see out of date or incorrect logos, or broadcasters not making the most of the screen space available – this set of recommendations will help both broadcasters and automotive manufacturers deliver the best experience to drivers and listeners,” said Nick Piggott, Project Director, RadioDNS. “The document will continue to evolve over time and we’d encourage any interested parties to get in touch if they’d like to contribute or find out more.” Visit www.worlddab.org
CONTENT DELIVERY Terrestrial, Mobile, Broadband
Magna in Control with BFE MAGNA SYSTEMS AND ENGINEERING has signed broadcast systems integrator BFE as its latest partner in the Asia Pacific region. BFE is one of the largest systems integrators and producers of broadcast control systems and panels of its kind in its native Germany.
www.content-technology.com/delivery systems into Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore, and will be responsible for sales activities as well as pre-configuration, commissioning, installation and integration of all BFE solutions. Magna staff will also train operators, engineers, operations and maintenance technicians in the use of BFE solutions.
Magna Systems and Engineering Group GM, David Blackett said, “In our opinion, BFE has the very best broadcast control systems and panels. By partnering we can now offer the Asia Pacific market something our clients in the region have been asking us about for a long time – a very real and credible option in the area of broadcast control systems.”
BFE Senior Sales Manager, Berend Blokzijl, added, “Magna is a very reputable company in APAC and has strong ties with the regional broadcasters. They pride themselves in delivering not only broadcast products and solutions, but also in taking care of local implementation and support. We are delighted to extend our partner network for BFE in the APAC region with such a well-known company as Magna Systems and Engineering.”
Magna will promote, sell and support BFE’s broadcast control and monitoring
Visit www.bfe.tv and www.magnasys.tv
Yospace and Seven Extend Partnership to Accelerate TV at Scale YOSPACE AND SEVEN HAVE EXTENDED their partnership into a long-term agreement for enabling dynamic ad insertion (DAI ) into live OTT channels at scale. Yospace’s platform allows Seven to open up online ad breaks in live OTT streams in a way that is as seamless to the viewer as broadcast television, with true one-to-one addressability at scale. The system was used by Seven for the 2017 Australian Open, during which ad breaks were editorially triggered. There has since been a full integration between Yospace’s platform and the Imagine D Series automation system that drives the broadcaster’s linear TV channels, meaning that DAI can be applied 24/7 This latest iteration of DAI was launched last year for the Rugby League World Cup, for which online streaming and resulting advertising opportunities were much higher than expected. In further evidence of the proliferation of live streaming audiences, total minutes viewed during this year’s Australian Open, for which DAI was applied across sixteen simultaneous online channels, were
StingRay RF Enhances Coverage for Royal Randwick
double Seven’s expectations. According to OzTAM, Australia’s official source of television audience measurement, 7Tennis occupied all top ten video player measurement positions during the tournament. Similar ratings are expected as Seven looks ahead to major sporting events that includes this month’s Winter Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. Clive Dickens, Chief Digital Officer at Seven West Media, said, “We’re seeing emotionally-invested viewers with a high propensity to stream. Average user sessions via web during the Australian Open were over 30 minutes.” The automation integration also allows Yospace to automatically create VOD assets, making them available to Seven’s viewers for catch-up within minutes of a live programme’s end. Ad markers in the VOD assets are retained from the live stream, allowing new advertising to be delivered whenever the catchup content is viewed. Visit www.yospace.com
Embrionix Appoints Amber Technology as Distribution Partner EMBRIONIX HAS APPOINTED Amber Technology as its sole reseller for Australia and New Zealand. Amber Technology will be promoting, reselling and supporting Embrionix solutions within the ANZ market. Embrionix VP Sales, Denis Pare said, “For more than 30 years Amber Technology has been a recognised leader in the Australian and New Zealand broadcast industry. Their team of highly experienced professionals will greatly assist broadcasters and media professionals who are increasingly facing challenges with the shift of video baseband over IP and Video. Amber’s team has the extensive experience that will provide Embrionix with the right partnership to help us expand in Australia and New Zealand.”
Five pairs of transmitter/receiver duos were mounted on the main area of the racecourse. This location provided the units with the perfect line of sight of the venues barrier stall camera to film the start of the races, as well as the presentation camera directly below. The deployment of the ETL Systems StingRay RF over Fibre units by Lumina BSA, resulted in a vast improvement in video quality, with the venue recording much higher RF levels with less noise, resulting in stable, high-quality coverage. Visit www.etlsystems.com
Amber Technology Managing Director, Peter Amos said, “We are very pleased to welcome Embrionix to our portfolio of Media Systems solutions. Embrionix brings a fresh and innovative approach to media format adaptation and processing solutions based on SFP architecture (Small Form-Factor Pluggable) that inserts directly into commercial off the shelf network switches or stand-alone units. Embrionix will help our broadcast customers to consciously make the move in the IP path.” Amber Technology General Manager, Media Systems Ross Caston further commented: “The Embrionix product range brings exciting opportunities to integrate into solutions that we provide to our customers, as well as sell the product outright. Embrionix is the perfect complement to other market leaders in our portfolio such as Avid, EVS, SAM Snell Advanced Media and Telestream, ensuring that Amber continue to be perfectly equipped to facilitate our customers steady migration to IP Infrastructure.” Visit www.ambertech.com.au and www.embrionix.com
CONTENT DELIVERY
ETL SYSTEMS PARTNER, LUMINA BSA, recently installed broadband (50-2450MHz) over fibre-links for use with wireless camera systems for the Australian Turf Club. The application used ETL’s StingRay RF over Fibre units, which are easily mountable on a pole or wall. Models SRY-Tx-B2-403 transmitter and SRY-Rx-B2-404 receiver units are housed in an IP65 weatherproof enclosure, Model SRY-ODU203, providing fibre-link ranges of up to 10km.
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CONTENT DELIVERY
Ross Adds 12G to Acuity Switcher ROSS VIDEO HAS ANNOUNCED that its flagship Acuity production switcher has been enhanced with the addition of 12G single-link connectivity and additional video processing resources. Acuity engines are built with a modular input and output matrix, to easily swap-in I/O cards that build upon the Acuity feature set. The new Acuity 12G MultiProcessing Input Module is a 20-input card that adds single-link 12G connectivity (on every fourth input) and provides independent input signal management functions. This new module offers many benefits during an HD-to-UHD migration beyond the obvious reduction in cabling: • Complete Video Processing on Every Input – every connector on the input module has dedicated processing amplifiers and colour correctors. • Handle Untimed Sources and Varied Formats – independent resources on each card ensure non-broadcast devices, external feeds, and lowerend equipment will match the system timing and video format of your production. • Legacy 1080P Level B Devices Supported – older 1080P devices use a different 3G SDI rate than modern-day equipment. The Acuity 12G MultiProcessing Input Module ensures all 1080P 3G signals are compatible with your production. • Incorporate SD & HD Equipment into UHD Productions – in mixed signal environments, the 12G MultiProcessing Input Module can convert SD/720p/1080i signals to 1080p, which the Acuity switcher can then internally convert to UHD.
• Leverage SDR Sources in HDR Productions – every input supports HDR conversion, SDR sources can be mapped to the same profile as HDR sources for a simple processing path in HDR productions. • Easily Convert Differing UHD Interconnect Methods – in Quad Link UHD mode, Acuity operates via the 2SI UHD Interconnect method. For legacy equipment that only operates in QSD (Quad Square Division), the Acuity 12G MultiProcessing input module can convert QSD inputs to 2SI format for use in your production. • No Additional Monitoring Required – every input module is built with a 20 input MultiViewer that can be sent to any output in the system, or be included in other video processor-based MultiViewers. Visit www.rossvideo.com
Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K Switcher BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS ANNOUNCED THE NEW ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, an advanced high frame rate Ultra HD 2160p60 switcher with 20 inputs, 4 M/Es and 16 ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers. In addition, the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K features 2 Ultra HD multi viewers, full 2D DVE, built in SuperSource compositing engines with four picture-in-picture DVEs, full re-synchronisation on each input, and more. In addition, Blackmagic Design has also announced a free software upgrade that adds all of the same new features to the previous ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K model. The new ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K lets users create live, switched, high frame rate HD and Ultra HD programs at up to 60 frames per second. Featuring advanced 12G-SDI technology, users can connect the latest 2160p60 cameras using a single, standard SDI cable. The multi rate 12G-SDI connections automatically switch to 6G-SDI, 3G-SDI and HD-SDI so the switcher is compatible with existing HD equipment. The ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K can be used to master programs in 2160p60 while simultaneously outputting them in HD with realtime down conversion. For keying and effects, the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K gives customers a total of 16 new advanced keyers. Users get four new ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers on each of the four mix effects rows. The new keyers feature adjustable on-screen controls for selecting and sampling a
region of colour, adjustment controls for foreground, background and edges, and chroma correction tools for spill and flare suppression. The ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K works in both HD and Ultra HD and comes with four built-in media players and a larger media pool with more memory for graphics and video clips. The ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K features 16 built in all new ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers, dynamic transitions, a powerful DVE, SuperSource multi layering, power macros, audio mixing, camera control with colour correction, and more. Every input has automatic frame re-synchronisation so users can take any source, even if it’s not referenced, and make clean switches. There are also two balanced XLR audio inputs and outputs for connecting mixers and other pro audio gear. The ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K has both an Ultra HD program output as well as a down converted HD program output, along with six auxiliary outputs for sending clean feeds out to giant screens, projectors, recorders or monitors. Dual Ultra HD multi view outputs let customers monitor program, preview and cameras on large screen Ultra HD displays. The ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K can be controlled using ATEM’s professional hardware control panels, including the new, compact ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, or using the ATEM Software Control on a Mac or Windows computer connected via ethernet. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
Software-as-a-Service Remote RF Spectrum Monitor
CONTENT DELIVERY
RF VENUE, THE DEVELOPER of antenna, spectrum analysis and RF signal management tools for the professional audio-visual industry, has announced the availability of its WaveTower software-as-a-service (SaaS) product, designed to provide system integrators and end users with a new weapon in the battle against RF spectrum interference.
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Opening up new revenue streams for RF managed services, offering greater centralised oversight of multi-venue systems, and providing remote troubleshooting and planning capabilities, WaveTower features small remote sensors which report back to a cloud-based web application, making it easy to manage radio spectrum usage across multiple sites and dramatically reduce incidents of interference. WaveTower also makes it possible to identify and circumvent longer-term problems by capturing and saving up to two months of spectrum data. This
can then be assessed remotely in order to more fully understand and plan for periods in which RF spectrum is especially congested. The web application’s 24-Hour Max Hold and Average functions make it possible to gauge overall RF spectrum activity from the previous 24 hours in a single click. Covering VHF, UHF, ISM bands and more at 25KHz resolution bandwidth, WaveTower comprises a connected-hardware platform that features small remote RF sensors called ‘Towers’ that continuously send RF scan data to the WaveTower web interface. Each of the Towers sport a BNC input, allowing it to be connected directly to any brand wireless microphone system or antenna to scan the venue. The devices also feature GPS modules to determine their location worldwide, along with a scanning range of nearly 3GHz. Visit www.rfvenue.com
CONTENT DELIVERY
Yospace and NexPlayer Help Monetise Live Streams
The companies have pre-integrated Yospace’s HTML5 SDK into the NexPlayer HTML5 player, allowing Yospace’s multi-award-winning Server-Side Dynamic Ad Insertion to be accompanied by real-time, client-side tracking. The integration also enables an interactive element to advertisements by allowing viewers to click on ads for more information on the product. The pre-integration is designed to make it easier for broadcasters and video service providers to monetise their OTT video offerings across all HTML5enabled browsers and devices and increases their speed to market. Yospace’s server-side dynamic ad insertion technology can be applied to both live and VOD streams in a way that offers excellent playback quality, interactive functionality and real-time measurement. The system enables one-to-one addressability of ads and has been proven at scale against some
Ooyala Live Brings Reliability Closer to OTT OOYALA HAS RELEASED a new set of enhancements to Ooyala Live, its solution for creation, management, delivery and monetisation of live streamed events and linear TV channels on any device. Among other developments, Ooyala Live, through a combination of real-time monitoring, enhanced support and high availability channels, can now offer content providers a 99.95 percent uptime for their video streams. “The cord cutting trend has been called a ‘revolution,’ but it might not be a fair fight until streaming services can provide increasingly reliable, consistent video quality unfettered by latency issues, stuttering, dropouts and other impediments,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “We’re seeing growing demand from some of our largest television and media customers for premium live features like those we’re introducing today because they want to provide an optimal viewing experience to consumers wherever they are, and on whatever device. This combination of enhancements to Ooyala Live will empower publishers with a fresh, out-of-the-box solution to go live in minutes, with the highest quality and reliability possible, whether it’s live-streamed content such as a sports event, or a linear TV channel.” With these new features, among others, Ooyala is delivering a simpler and more reliable live stream solution to publishers around the globe: • Ooyala Live NOC: The Network Operations Center (NOC) provides proactive 24/7 monitoring of live events and linear channels by live operations engineers to identify and fix potential issues before they impact viewers. • High Availability (HA): Designed for customers that require continuous channel availability and uninterrupted viewing, HA provides multi-region auto-failover to a secondary channel if any interruptions in the primary channel occur. • Managed Services: Ooyala runs the entire operation, offering a 99.95 percent uptime in addition to training, channel set-up and management, real-time monitoring, quality reporting of service and experience, and direct support from the Ooyala Live Ops team.
Accedo Collaborates with Google Cloud ACCEDO HAS ANNOUNCED a collaboration with Google Cloud, to provide media and entertainment companies ready access to a single, unified cloud platform to build, transform and grow their video experiences. Powered by Accedo Studio, media and entertainment companies of any size can move beyond templated apps and build customizable video experiences. They can create or update designs and navigations unique to their brand experience across multiple screens in the way that best suits their infrastructure and organization. The cloud-based UX management capabilities
Espial Adds Amazon Alexa Voice Support ESPIAL ANNOUNCED RECENTLY that its Elevate cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) video platform now features a next-generation user interface with voice control, allowing consumers to search, discover, and control live TV, ondemand content, and recordings using their voice. Compatible with all Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, Espial Elevate supports voice controls for a range of features to provide an exceptional video experience for consumers. These include quick channel changes, search, user interface navigation, trick play management, and playback of time-shift TV, VOD, and DVR recordings.
of the world’s biggest sporting events. NexPlayer HTML5 is an HTML5 player that allows video services and publishers to provide HLS and DASH streaming with an advanced feature set that includes CEA 608 Closed Captioning, TimeShifting, Multiple Audio Tracks and Multi DRM among many others. NexPlayer SDK technology is market proven, used by over 200 premium video service providers worldwide across their multiscreen OTT apps. Visit www.yospace.com
Cinegy Air Cloud Pack on Microsoft Azure CINEGY RECENTLY ANNOUNCED it is making its Cinegy Air Cloud Pack available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. The Cinegy Air Cloud Pack includes Cinegy Air PRO Bundle with Cinegy Multiviewer. Cinegy Air PRO consists of a control panel and playout engine. The control panel is a state-of-the-art interface for control of one or more playout channels connected via TCP/IP. The Cinegy Air PRO playout engine executes the playlist provided to it and renders video and audio to air. Cinegy Multiviewer enables broadcasters and production houses to receive RTP/UDP streams via ethernet and locally or remotely monitor those streams. It also features a robust analysis and alert system that detects signal problems as they occur. The-starting price of Cinegy Air Cloud Pack combines selected software plan charges plus Azure infrastructure costs for the virtual machines on which the software is run. Azure infrastructure prices may vary in light of previously arranged enterprise agreements or other discounts. Visit www.cinegy.com • Low Latency: Ooyala Live now supports the ability to stream in low latency mode and the capability to block streams also based on ZIP Code location. Visit www.ooyala.com of Accedo Studio make it easy for video channel managers and producers to tune the user experience that’s just right for every audience by configuring and testing apps in real time. Through the Accedo and Google Cloud collaboration, Accedo is able to make those experiences dynamic, enabling media and entertainment companies to adapt the video experience according to a number of different factors, based on data gathered in real-time and to ultimately better monetize and manage their content. Visit www.accedo.tv “We are excited that Espial has integrated Alexa into the Elevate video platform,” said Daniel Rausch, Vice President at Amazon. “Offering the ability to easily find content, control playback, and change channels, hands-free, will help Elevate customers interact with their favourite content in a way that is simple and intuitive – just ask Alexa.” Voice control is now available to new and existing Elevate customers via the cloud. Visit https://espial.com
CONTENT DELIVERY
YOSPACE AND NEXSTREAMING have announced an integration that the two companies say simplifies the route to market for broadcasters wishing to monetise their live OTT streams.
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CLASSIFIEDS + EVENTS POSITIONS VACANT
Now create ATTENTION SALESPEOPLE – WORK WITH THE BEST! Digistor is seeking Senior, Mid-Level and Junior Salespeople now. Join our team to work with the best and most knowledgeable colleagues, the best and broadest range of vendors and products and the best “A List” clients from across the Film, TV, Broadcast, Post Production and broader Digital Media markets. You'll build your career at a company with over 25 years’ experience partnering with our customers to provide the very best solutions and support to ensure they can get on with the job of creating and delivering!
We are looking to build on our already exceptional sales team with Senior, Mid-Level and Junior Salespeople, with the following attributes/experience:
• the ability to think laterally and demonstrate strong problem solving, time management and organisational skills
• demonstrated sales competency with at least two years’ experience in selling IT and/or technical solutions
Apart from a competitive remuneration package, including a base salary plus uncapped commission and all the support you need to achieve your best, there is also a huge opportunity for advancement, training, exposure to the best state-of- the-art products, attendance at industry events, national and international trade shows, plus much more.
• experience and/or a demonstrated interest in broadcast, post production and/or 3D/VFX workflows
• ability to conceive and apply technological solutions • exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
Interested? … it’s as simple as forwarding your details, including your resume, to staffing@digistor.com.au
What’s On MARCH
APRIL
JUNE
ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2018 5th March-8th March 2018 Royale Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.abu.org.my
NAB Show 2018 7th April-12th April 2018 Las Vegas Convention Center Las Vegas, USA www.nabshow.com
MIP CHINA 6 & 7 June 2018 Hanghzou, China www.mip-china.com
Convergence India 2018 7th March-9th March 2018 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.convergenceindia.org DVB World 2018 12th March-14th March 2018 Intercontinental Warsaw Hotel, Poland www.dvbworld.org Satellite 2018 12th March-15th March 2018 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, D.C., USA www.satshow.com/conference China Content Broadcasting Network (CCBN 2018) 22nd March-24th March 2018 China International Exhibition Center(CIEC) Beijing, China www.ccbn.cn/en/
MIPTV 2018 9th April-12th April 2018 Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France www.miptv.com
NAB Shanghai 11th June-13th June 2018 Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) Shanghai, China http://en.nabshowshanghai.com
Broadband Forum Asia 24th April-25th April 2018 AVANI Riverside Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand https://tmt.knect365.com/broadband-forum-asia/
BroadcastAsia 2018 26th June-28th June 2018 Suntec Singapore www.broadcast-asia.com
MAY PALM EXPO 2018 31st May-2nd June 2018 BEC, Mumbai, India www.palmexpo.in Cinegear Expo 2018 31st May-2nd June 2018 The Studios at Paramount Hollywood, USA www.cinegearexpo.com
CommunicAsia 2018 26th June-28th June 2018 Marina Bay Sands Singapore www.communicasia.com GSMA Mobile World Congress Shanghai 27th June-29th June 2018 Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) Shanghai, China www.mwcshanghai.com
CLASSIFIEDS + EVENTS
ADVERTISER INDEX
48
ABE2018……………………..…………………………………7
IHSE GmbH Asia Pacific…………………………………4
Preferred Media……………………………………………33
ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium………….IBC
IRT Communications……………………………………..12
Professional Audio & Television………Cover,11,21
Amber Technology………………….……………………….9
Jands……………………………………………………………..37
Blackmagic Design……………….………………………..13
Magna Systems & Engineering…………………….IFC
EMC…………………………………….…………………………5
MediaHub……………………………………………………….3
Fujinon Fijifilm………………………………………….46,47
Ooyala………………………………………………………..OBC
Stagetec……………………………………………………..39
Grass Valley…………………………………………………27
Pacific Live Media…………………………………………27
Techtel…………………………………………………….….19
Seagate……………………………………………………….29 Sony Australia………………………………………….……15
5-8 MARCH 2018 KUALA LUMPUR
ENHANCING MULTIPLATFORM 8 CONTENT
JOIN THE DBS MASTERCLASS SERIES LIGHTING & MAKEUP TECHNIQUES FOR HD AND BEYOND
Lighting and Makeup plays an extremely important part in bringing the creative process to the viewer. It helps to shape the image, to suit a desired mood or to fit the production that the scene is part of. The techniques and detailing required for these when moving from SD to HD and then to 4K are very different due to the improvements HD and 4K cameras bring. • Learn from experts the different types of lighting and how it affects makeup in SD, HD and 4K production. • Experience hands-on and practical techniques in a real studio setup. • Learn expert tips for both lighting and makeup from experienced professionals.
INTRODUCTION TO IP STANDARDS AND PLATFORM
The industry is fast moving towards IP implementation and getting the necessary standards in place to support real-time IP production infrastructure project a reality. Presented by IABM, this masterclass sessions will provides an overview of the IP terms like SMPTE ST 2110, IEEE 1588 and NMOS IS-04 to get you up to speed and how they all work together in the IP and IP/SDI hybrid environment and more.
IMMERSIVE VR MASTERCLASS
Presented by the World VR Forum, this VR Masterclass which showcases state-of-the-art storytelling and content creation in the Virtual Reality domain. The core mission of this Masterclass is to showcase VR as a true form of art to bring an unparalleled experience of storytelling and content creation. Don’t miss this opportunity to: • Learn methods for combining story structure, interaction, and user experience design in the creation of VR and AR project. • Explore how some organisations are taking the lead with this new form of VR and AR content creation and how successful they are. • Discover how VR technologies present a space beyond physical limits to create something that would not be possible in the real world to deliver content that are social, fun, smart, artistic, new, mainstream, alive and world-class.
MOBILE JOURNALISM
Smartphones are revolutionising the way journalists produce their stories and broadcast their content to audiences as broadcasters are realising the power of smartphones not just as an efficient distributing channel but also as an excellent content creation tool. Join the sessions where seasoned experts share professional tips on mobile journalism including digital storytelling skills, tools, techniques and gears to produce compelling stories with smartphones and other mobile devices.
REGISTER NOW!
5-8 March 2018 • dbs.abu.org.my
Say hello to
OTT 2.0 State of the Broadcast Industry 2018 Get the report:
go.ooyala.com/sobi2018