Content+Technology Asia Dec-Jan 2013-14 by Content+Technology

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ASIA VOLUME 1 ISSUE 6 DECEMBER 2013 / JANUARY 2014

MEDIA + PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY

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VOLUME 1 ISSUE 6 DECEMBER 2013 / JANUARY 2014

Also see C+T in PDF at www.content-technology.com

Cover Story – ABC TV: 40 Years in China

26 REGULARS 02 03

EDITOR’S WELCOME NEWS SES, AsiaSat and Speedcast Donate

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TAKING STOCK Avid CEO Louis Hernandez Jr., Harris Buying Imagine, Market Share! Do You Want More?, Financial Results in Brief

CLASSIFIEDS AND EVENTS

Satellite Infrastructure to Philippines, Australia Completes Digital TV Switchover

FEATURES 16

ACQUISITION Bangladeshi Freelancers Win Big, Forever Group Adds More Sony, Panavision’s New Digital Lenses

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD TV5 First in Philippines for Front Porch, New iCR from AmberFin

SPORTSCASTING ABS Builds IBC for SEA Games, NEP Buys Global TV, Glasgow 2014 Diaries Chapter 6

AUDIO FutureWorks Gets Dolby Premier Certified, RTW at Astro, Vale Ray Dolby,

NEWS OPERATIONS AP’s Digital Archive

RADIO New WorldDMB President, Product Releases, From the Judges’ Bench

TRANSMISSION New Broadcast Centre for Lào Cai, 4K UHDTV Opportunities, Transmitter Eﬃciency

of Middle East, TV NOW Picks Grass Valley, Reporting on China 40 Years Ago

CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY: ISSN 1448-9554 PP:255003/06831 Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd (ABN: 34 095 653 277) PO Box 259, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300 Australia www.broadcastpapers.com PUBLISHER: Phil Sandberg Tel: +61-(0)2-9211 8205 Fax: +61-(0)2-9211 8208 Mob: +61-(0)414-671-811 papers@broadcastpapers.com

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POST-PRODUCTION Pablo Rio in China and Korea, Oz VFX on Wolverine, OS X Mavericks

[Cover photo: ABC TV reporter Paul Raﬀaele in Tiananmen Square, 1974, outside the Forbidden City, now known as the Imperial Palace (photo by Cecilia Raﬀaele).] [Contents photo: Photo by Jane Hutcheon]

SUB-EDITOR: Keith Ford PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lucy Salmon Tel: +61-(0)29211 8205 production@broadcastpapers.com DESIGN & LAYOUT: Wide Open Media Tel: +61-2-9690 2835 info@wideopenmedia.com.au PRINTING: DAI Rubicon, Singapore COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All material in Broadcastpapers’ Content+Technology Magazine is protected under

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20/12/13 1:59 PM

EDITOR’S WELCOME

Analogging Oﬀ By Phil Sandberg RECENT RESEARCH from the International Telecommunications Union shows that there were an estimated 1.4 billion households globally with at least one TV set by end of 2012. The ITU says that the world has witnessed a “massive shift from analogue to digital television”, with over 55 per cent of those households around the world with a TV now receiving a digital signal of some variety compared with just 30 per cent in 2008. In the so-called developed world, an estimated 81 per cent of total households with a TV now receive a digital signal. But the digital switchover is also moving forward apace in the developing world, where the number of households receiving digital TV almost tripled in the four-year period from 2008 to end 2012, reaching 42 per cent. With the end of 2013, the Australian broadcast industry reached the end of another era – that of analogue broadcasting. After almost 13 years of dual analogue/digital free-to-air broadcasting, the country finally unplugged from the past to embrace the all-digital future. Through the remarkable, cooperative eﬀorts of broadcaster, receiver manufacturer, Government and community stakeholders, Australia has made the adaptation to a new eco-system that will deliver wider innovation going forward – including the use of Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV). With the final metro markets making the switchover, the next step is to manage the restack of spectrum, allowing capacity previously used by analogue services to be made available for other wireless-based services, including broadband Internet.

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THOSE LESS FORTUNATE The 24-hour news machine is in a constant state of bingeing. When it gets its teeth into a story, it chews and chews and chews, but when it moves onto the next meal, those issues it was covering with such tenacity are often forgotten, but still remain. Let us hope that is not the case with the recent typhoon disaster experienced by the Philippines. While many in our industry have done what they can, there is still much rebuilding to do and much should be done to keep attention focused on this tragic situation. Nearly 8000 people were killed or remain missing after Typhoon Haiyan struck the country. It caused more $US12.9 billion damage and destruction, with more than a million homes wiped out by storm surges. The Philippines Government’s rehabilitation plan outlines a need of $US 8.17 billion over a four-year-period until 2017, so every little bit will count. Donations can be made via the Philippines Red Cross at www.redcross.org.ph Lastly, we’d like to thank everyone – readers and advertisers alike – for your support of C+T Asia over the last 12 months and we wish you all the best for 2014 and beyond. Thanks for Reading Phil Sandberg Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com T: +61-(0)2-9211 8205

Regionally, Australia joins Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and South Korea in having made the switchover (South Korea still maintains some analogue transmitters directed at its Northern neighbours), while other countries are well on their way to completing the process – China (2015), Hong Kong (2015), Indonesia (2017), Philippines (2015), Thailand (2020) and Vietnam (2026).

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While some talk of 4K and even 8K transmissions, the foreseeable focus for countries making the digital transition will be on HDTV, something that makes sense in terms receiver availability and the current state of broadcast production and transmission delivery technology. One step at a time …

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SES, AsiaSat and Speedcast Donate Satellite Infrastructure to Philippines SATELLITE COMPANIES SES S.A. AND ASIASAT, along with satellite teleco provider SpeedCast, have donated satellite and service capacity to enable NetHope, a consortium of 41 non-governmental organisations around the globe, to re-establish communication links to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Haiyan – one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall – swept through six central Philippine islands. The typhoon claimed thousands of casualties and destroyed up to 80% of structures in its path. Re-establishing communications links has been vital. By utilising the 36MHz capacity on SES’ NSS-11 satellite donated by SES and the uplink services and ground infrastructure provided by SpeedCast and AsiaSat, NetHope will be able to provide Typhoon Haiyan survivors access to information directly. The services and infrastructure will also support a number of other relief agencies and NGO’s working in-country. “Damage to critical telecommunications

infrastructure has made disaster relief and rapid assessment of the situation diﬃcult. Given that it may be weeks or months before terrestrial infrastructure is up and running, satellite connectivity is vital in providing immediate communication needs. SES is pleased to donate satellite capacity to support the people of the Philippines during their recovery from this terrible disaster,” said Elias Zaccack, Senior Vice President, Commercial Americas at SES. “SpeedCast, SES and AsiaSat are providing vital aid directly to the areas that need it most with the help of NetHope. Since the Typhoon hit and we activated our response services, NetHope is now able to assist the relief eﬀorts with communication services that can reach the most remote parts of the country,” said Pierre-Jean

Beylier, CEO of SpeedCast. “AsiaSat is pleased to take part in this initiative by offering uplink services from our Tai Po Earth Station. This effort in cooperation with our partners, will establish communication links needed to assist Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts in the Philippines,” said William Wade, President and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaSat. Visit www.ses.com, www.speedcast.com and www.asiasat.com Donate to the Philippines Red Cross via www.redcross.org.ph

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Australia Completes Switchover to Digital TV At a circle -closing ceremony in the TCN9 transmission room, former Nine engineer Peter Cox, who was present at the 1956 launch of television in Australia, turned oﬀ the network’s Sydney analogue transmitter leaving black on the monitors and snow on an old, wall-mounted 4:3 JVC TV set.

A final warning to get yourself a digital receiver.

NEARLY 14 YEARS after the launch of the first DVB-T broadcasts in Australia, the country has completed its transition digital-only television with the final switching off of analogue signals in Sydney, Melbourne and remote central and eastern Australia. Sydney and surrounding areas officially switched off analogue TV services on December 3 at 9am AEDST, followed on December 10 by Melbourne and surrounding areas, and remote central and eastern Australia.

According to Peter, the event was nostalgic, but the analogue era was one that had to come to an end, citing the improvements in picture quality that come with digital transmission.

entertainment-venue operator in Thailand, has announced that it is expanding its number of 4K screens across the country. SF Corporation has targeted to go fully digital by early 2014, enabling it to showcase a more diverse range of content and reach out to a bigger group of moviegoers. The plan involves progressively converting its current film projection systems to 4K digital cinema projection systems from Sony, with over 200 out of its 252 screens to be 4K-capable by early 2014. In August 2011, SF Cinema screened Thailand’s first 4K movie using Sony’s SRX-R320P projection system, and since then it has never looked back, recently adding Sony’s SRX-R515P 4K projection systems to its smaller-sized screens.

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“Our upgrade to 4K has allowed us to screen a bigger range of movies, and this has translated handsomely for us. With Sony expanding its suite of 4K solutions, we now have greater flexibility and cost savings in choosing the right system for our cinemas,” said Suwat Thongrompo, CEO of SF Corporation. “There is a great harmony between what Sony 4K means and what SF Cinema delivers to its audiences, which is an immersive and premium cinema experience,” said Motomi Saito, Managing Director of PSAP and Head of Digital Cinema Division, Sony Electronics Asia Pacific. “With the quickening momentum of 4K technology, this investment by SF Cinema will ensure that it stays ahead of the industry for the benefit of all cinema patrons in Thailand.”

appo for t Asia direc expa netw Quiet at last, the NEC analogue transmitter at TCN9, Sydney.

The Sydney switchover area also included a total of over 1.7 million households, as did the Melbourne switchover region. Government estimates at the end of September reckoned 94-95% of Australian households had converted to digital. The remote central and eastern Australia switchover area included 87,900 households in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory. Visit www.freetv.com.au

Sony 4K Cinema Expands in Thailand SF CORPORATION, a leading cinema and

Meanwhile, Thailand’s Major Hollywood Cinema has acquired eight units of Sony’s SRX- R515P 4K digital cinema projectors, to replace its ageing film projection systems as part of a shift to go completely digital by the beginning of 2014. With 33 screens in and around Bangkok, the integrated multiplex cinema chain has decided upon Sony’s 4K digital cinema solutions to provide for its audiences, and extend its capabilities to showcase a broader range of movies due to the burgeoning amount of 4K content. “We are excited to bring the astonishing magic of Sony’s 4K to our audiences. The choice was clear right from the start. There are no rivals to match Sony’s 4K Digital Cinema solutions,” said Navin Nouamjit, General Manager, Major Hollywood Cinema. “We invested in eight units, and we are very pleased with the bright and clear projection, as well as the low cost of running them.” “We are very pleased to partner Major Hollywood Cinema in their quest to bring the most immersive entertainment experiences to their audiences,” said Motomi Saito. “With our 4K and 3D digital cinema solutions, we want to help cinema operators diﬀerentiate themselves from competitors, keep running costs to a minimum and generate new revenue streams with 4K and 3D movies. More importantly, we partner cinema operators like Major Hollywood for the long term to help them meet their evolving needs as a competitive cinema chain.”

A man who has seen it all – former Nine engineer Peter Cox was tasked with turning oﬀ the network’s analogue signal in Sydney.

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VidiGo Covers SE Asia with Techtel THE TECHTEL GROUP has signed a premium partnership agreement with VidiGo to provide their clients with new technologies to improve production eﬃciency and enhance viewing quality. The Techtel Group will be covering the S.E. Asian region out of its Singapore oﬃces.

“We considered Techtel’s knowledge of the market and its ability to deliver solutions paramount in our decision to align with it in this broad region,” commented Reinout Lempers, Vidigo CCO. Techtel has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, whilst Techtel (S.E. Asia) covers Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia and Vietnam out of its Singapore offices. David Elsmore, group CEO said, ”The Techtel Group has a long and strong history in all facets of television and radio broadcast and the rapidly evolving telco and CDN segments. VidiGo provides a unique software platform of automation and integration to the expanding radio and broadcast industry. Our objective is to present their unique set of solutions to the region enabling new cost effective workflows tailored for the unique operational needs of broadcast for radio, television and internet programming.” Visit www.techtel.com.sg and www.vidigo.tv

Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com

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Wohler Names Andy Stanton Head of Sales Asia-Pacific WOHLER TECHNOLOGIES has announced the appointment of Andy Stanton as Head of Sales for the company’s monitoring product line in the Asia-Pacific region. Stanton will handle Wohler’s direct sales activities while strengthening and expanding the Wohler dealer and integrator network across Asia-Pacific markets. “Andy is both well-known and well-respected in the broadcast industry, and he joins our sales team not only with a strong foundation spanning broadcast, post, and new media sectors, but also with a remarkable depth of experience working in Asia-Pacific markets,” said John Terrey, Vice President Sales at Wohler. “He understands how to capitalise on new business opportunities in this area while maintaining and expanding relationships with existing customers. We believe he will be a valuable addition to our worldwide sales team.” Stanton began his career as an engineer at the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1975 and has since worked in broadcast,

Pocock Joins Telestream in Asia

postproduction, and new media enterprises. Much of his business experience has focused on bringing new solutions and technologies into the Asian marketplace. In sales and management roles with companies including OmniBus systems, Odetics Broadcast, Discreet Logic, and Abekas, Incorporated, as well as his own consulting firm, ITS, he has focused on building business opportunities for leading-edge technologies in Asian markets, on establishing and training the distributor/channel network in these regions, and educating the customer base as to the value of media technologies to their business models.

TELESTREAM has announced that Brian

Based in Thailand for more than 20 years, Stanton has experience working in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Australia, China, Korea, and Japan.

“It is a pleasure for me to join a company that is not only so well respected in Asia, but also held in such high esteem throughout the industry,” said Pocock.

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Pocock has joined the company as Regional Sales Manager for ASEAN, ANZ and greater China with responsibility for the company’s enterprise product business. “I’m pleased to announce that Brian has joined our sales team in Asia,” said George Boath, VP of International Sales for enterprise products at Telestream. Pocock brings years of international broadcast systems experience to Telestream. He ran news systems at South African Broadcasting Company (SABC) for many years. Later, he focussed on system sales in EMEA and Asia/Pacific for companies such as Avid, Quantel, and Grass Valley.

Visit www.telestream.net.

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ASIA NEWS CHINA TELESTE AND ELEMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES,have announced the deployment of a live digital TV video processing system for Gansu Broadcast and Television Network, Inc. The integrated solution, delivered by Shanghai OTEC Technology Co Ltd., enables the Chinese regional operator to manage 85 local CATV sub operators and 100 channels from a single system.

INDIA VENDHAR TV, a new Tamil-language general entertainment channel serving India’s Chennai region, has deployed two Snell Kahuna multiformat production switchers to drive its news and entertainment programming. Vendhar TV installed a two-M/E Kahuna switcher in its news studio to support its four daily 30-minute news bulletins, together with a one-M/E switcher in the program studio for live production and postproduction of a wide range of entertainment programs.

MALAYSIA STAGETEC ASIA has sold eight RTW TM7 TouchMonitors to Astro Production Sdn. Bhd. The TM7s were equipped with several software modules, including: the SW20001, SW20002, SW20004, SW20005 and SW20006 units. The company wanted to monitor its audio levels consistently. The company will use the TM7 TouchMonitors to ensure that all of its production facilities, including its fleet of OB vans, are using the metering and analysers with uniform loudness levels across its facilities.

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SINGAPORE

INDONESIA

AUSTRALIA

SINGAPORE BROADCASTER MediaCorp

INDONESIA’S NEWEST satellite television

PAY TV OPERATOR Foxtel has launched

SKY

has discontinued its Teletext analogue service which provided general information on news, stock prices, airport, weather and other textbased information.

provider, IMTV (PT Indonesia Media Televisi), a Lippo Group company, has selected NAGRA’s conditional access technology to secure the content being delivered over its network. IMTV oﬀers a combination of pay-TV and freeview channels with a focus on local and localised content and aimed at the growing middle-class population in Indonesia. NAGRA MediaAccess is being used to protect the operator’s premium content.

closed captioning of selected on-demand movie services, greatly increasing the choice of captioned content available.

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Mr. Philip Koh, Managing Director for Convergent Media, MediaCorp said, “Given the antiquated technology, the availability of alternative sites for information and the declining usage of Teletext, we have decided to discontinue the service and channel resources to newer services to better serve our customers and reach a wider audience.”

Foxtel now captions the vast majority of new release movies aired across the 14 On Demand movie channels, plus instant access On Demand movies to iQ subscribers. Over 90% of these films are now released the same day as DVD. In addition, Foxtel now captions around half of the free on demand content access via the ‘Featured’ section of iQ and My Star set top boxes.

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JAPAN JAPANESE FASHION post-production facility, INFAS.com, has bought a Quantel Pablo Rio 4K and Pablo Rio 2K to support its increasing demand for 4K production. The Pablo Rios will spearhead its planned move into 8K production and in the future will be connected via second generation Genetic Engineering. INFAS.com provides S3D and 4K post production services on commercials for leading fashion houses, music videos, feature films and TV programs.

“One of our new employees lost three relatives in the disaster, which is very sad. “As such, we’ve put a message out to our global team that any member of staﬀ makes a donation to the disaster, IMD will also match that donation. “The industry here seems to have really banded together. Majority of Post Houses, especially welovepost and Optima Digital have opened their doors 24hrs to accept relief goods, medicine, water, blankets, clothes for victims. “TV Stations are also raising a lot money, especially ABS-CBN, GMA and TV5. TV5 raised 30 million pesos in a telethon, which was great to see.”

Joshua Rea, APAC Market Development at IMD

Pic by Bruce Reyes-Chow www.aboyandhiscamera.com

“Today, death toll continues to rise as more helpless bodies are found under debris, by the shore, along the road… those who survived are struggling to live, continually seeking help for food, clothes and shelter. Endless and outpouring support and donations from everywhere keep going on but rehabilitation of the aﬀected areas will take a while. Filipino solidarity is once again put to test but our strong faith to the ONE up there will help us fight and survive …”

Jay Fuentes, Vice President , GMA Network, Inc.

NEW ZEALAND SKY HAS HANDED BACK analogue UHF licenses to the NZ Government in favour of deploying ultra-fast broadband services. SKY’s Chief Executive Oﬃcer, John Fellet, said, ”At SKY we are backing ultra-fast broadband to play an increasingly important role in the future to deliver quality video content to our customers. “We examined several potential uses and business cases for this spectrum, but have concluded that between satellite and ultrafast broadband our business needs will be met. It is not necessary to convert our analogue licenses to digital.”

“During the storm, we lost some fly-away facility for our remote coverage on the onslaught. We lost transmission capability on the hardest hit, Tacloban station, but we were eventually able to restore it. “Our CSR group under the ABS-CBN Foundation (Sagip Kapamilya) is continuously exerting effort in collecting and accepting donations from everybody with the help of other government agencies and other NGO’s for the repacking and delivery of said goods to the affected areas. “Both us, technical group and creative group have worked hand in hand to mount telethons among other activities to help in our little way and gather donations for the benefit of those affected.”

Arvin de la Vega, Head, Post Production at ABS-CBN Donate today at www.redcross.org.ph

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PHILIPPINES – TYPHOON HAIYAN/YOLANDA

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TC Group Appoints New MD for Chinese Division THE TC GROUP HAS APPOINTED Owen Xing as Managing Director of its Chinese division, TC Group China. Owen Xing, 34, has held managing positions in the music and audio industries for more than a decade, which makes him a perfect match for TC Group China operating out of Beijing in the MI, install, touring, broadcast and production markets. Further, Owen Xing has a background as a guitar player and composer. “I am pleased to welcome Owen Xing as our new managing director in China,” says Anders Fauerskov, CEO of TC Group. “With his background in the industry, I am confident that he will be the right person for cementing our presence in China even further and take the business in our market segments to the next level.” “I am very excited to be joining TC Group China,” says Owen. “I have been familiar with the brands of TC Group as well as its line of products for years

New President for Turner APAC INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION EXECUTIVE, Ricky Ow, will join Turner International as President of Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific eﬀective in January 2014. Most recently Executive Vice President & General Manager for Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks Asia, Ow will lead Turner International’s portfolio in APAC, based in Hong Kong. “We are delighted that Ricky is joining us and look forward to the leadership and wealth of international media experience he will bring to one of the most strategically important areas of Turner International,” said Gerhard Zeiler, President of Turner Broadcasting System International. “His vast experience in the region, his successes in launching and establishing channel brands both locally and regionally, his experience in local content production, as well as his deep understanding of sales and marketing, make him the ideal choice to lead our business in the Asia Pacific region.” “I am very excited to join Turner and it is an honour to work with Gerhard and the team that has built some of the most valuable media brands in the world including CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network, Pogo and Turner Classic Movies,” said Ow. Visit www.turner.com

Digital Vision Boosts APAC Tech Support DIGITAL VISION continues to strengthen its presence in the Asia Pacific region with the appointment of Felipe Muraca to the role of APAC Application Specialist and Engineer, who will be based in Melbourne, Australia. The hire marks a return to Australia for Felipe, who worked at Avid Australia from 1994-2004 as a Product Specialist. In 2004 he moved to Spain where he joined Trigital S. A. as a Product, Post-Production and DI specialist. He also ran the Digital Film Department, specialising in products such as Digital Vision Nucoda, DVS Sytems and MTI Film.

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In 2008 Felipe joined Telson Servicios Audiovisuales S. A. as a Postproduction Coordinator and Workflow Design and Application Engineer for the company’s Nucoda Film Master grading suites where he supervised the implementation of a tapeless workflow for native digital camera material. Kelvin Bolah, Managing Director, Digital Vision, said, “Our APAC customers will benefit greatly from Felipe’s technical expertise and industry experience, and his appointment is an important addition to the Digital Vision team as we continue to grow in this key region.” Visit www.digitalvision.se

and I strongly believe that the company has a great future in China as well as the rest of the world.”

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TC Group China was established in 2002 and has been led by the former Managing Director, Robin Hu, from the start. “I would like to thank Robin Hu for his great eﬀorts in growing the Chinese market for us over the past 11 years. He virtually took it from being non-existing to becoming one of our most important markets. I wish him the best of luck in his future career,” says Anders Fauerskov.

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Visit www.tcelectronic.com

SpotXchange Names APAC MD

VIDEO ADVERTISING PLATFORM, SpotXchange, Inc. recently named Matt Von der Muhll as the Managing Director for SpotXchange Asia Pacific. Von der Muhll was only recently promoted to the role of Country Director for SpotXchange, Australia, in January, and his rapid rise to a new leadership role reflects the continued growth and expansion SpotXchange is experiencing in Asia Pacific.

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Von der Muhll joined SpotXchange as Director of Media Partnerships in 2011 where he was responsible for growing publisher and strategic partnerships in the region. Under Matt’s direction, SpotXchange has accelerated its revenue growth such that Asia Pacific is SpotXchange’s fastest growing region with first half 2013 revenue growing over 70%.

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“We are delighted to promote Matt into this new leadership role within the company,” said Mike Shehan, CEO of SpotXchange. “Under his direction in the last two years, SpotXchange has achieved terrific growth in the region and we’re just getting started. The Asia Pacific markets represent enormous opportunity for SpotXchange and we firmly believe Matt is the leader to drive our success there.”

Prior to joining SpotXchange, Von der Muhll held positions at marketing and media companies such as Responsys, Adconion Media Group and CC Media. He will continue to manage SpotXchange Asia Pacific from both Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.

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PESA Hires Bin as Marketing and Sales Manager for China PESA, RECENTLY ANNOUNCED Lou Li Bin has joined the company as Marketing and Sales Manager for the company’s Beijing oﬃce. He is responsible for sales and marketing eﬀorts for the company’s product lines in China, and will also provide support for regional trade shows and conferences. A graduate of Beijing Broadcast Institute, Bin has worked in the broadcast industry for more than 20 years. Most recently, he served as vice president at VTRON Technology, where he helped the company land its first business deal with China broadcasters. He has also handled marketing and sales for Miranda, Grass Valley, and Sony in China. “We are very pleased to welcome Li to PESA,” said John T. Wright, PESA Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development. “With his industry knowledge and channel partner relationships, we are confident he will be able to increase sales across China.” Visit www.pesa.com

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ST Teleport Picks Grass Valley for Multichannel Delivery ST TELEPORT, the Singapore-based full-service satellite communications solution provider, has installed the Grass Valley GV Edge integrated playout system with K2 Edge playout nodes to cost effectively manage and deliver HD channel content across Asia. Using a single K2 Edge playout node, ST Teleport will be able to create, expand and streamline its multichannel system in a simple, resilient and scalable way. “With the promising opportunity of growth in media content, it’s important for us to expand our offerings and add new channels to stay competitive,” said Dennis Wong, Managing Director at ST Teleport. “We were looking for a playout solution that would give us metadata management across all of our channels as well as multichannel language control. GV Edge met this requirement head on, and we can now seamlessly add new channels and deliver exceptional content with optimal operational efficiency.”

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SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL (SSL) and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) have announced the signing of a construction agreement for a high power, multi-mission satellite, AsiaSat 9, to be used for television broadcast, private networks and broadband services across the Asia Pacific. The satellite is expected to be launched in 2016.

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Designed to operate in C, Ku, and Ka-band, AsiaSat 9 will be located at 122 degrees East Longitude where it will replace AsiaSat 4. Visit www.asiasat.com and www.ssloral.com

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THE HONG KONG COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY has endorsed an application by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited for amendments of their Fixed Carrier Licences on sharing the Multiple Frequency Network (MFN) for digital terrestrial television services.

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Under the temporary arrangement, eﬀective up to 30 November 2015, TVB can use an additional 1.5 Mbps capacity in the MFN multiplex for the broadcast of its Pearl and Jade channels in high definition format. Visit http://corporate.tvb.com

seven free-to-air TV channels will be broadcast in digital (DVB-T2 format). In addition, four out of the seven channels – Channel 5, Channel 8, Suria & Vasantham – will be broadcast in HD while the remaining three channels – Channel NewsAsia, Channel U and okto – will be upgraded to HD by 2016. Residents in the Bukit Batok area are the first in Singapore to receive these channels with coverage expanded to all residential homes over the next two to three years. Analogue TV broadcasts will continue alongside the digital TV signals for at least another two years. Visit http://mediacorp.sg

GLOBECAST HAS ANNOUNCED it has signed a contract with China Central Television (CCTV), the state broadcaster of China. Under the agreement, Globecast will deliver CCTV-français, the network’s French-language channel, on the SES-4 platform to West African viewers as part of Canalsat, a package of more than 130 channels, radio stations, and services.

Visit www.stteleport.com and www.grassvalley.com.

SES S.A. HAS ANNOUNCED the successful launch of the SES-8 satellite from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. SES-8 features up to 33 Ku-band transponders (36 MHz equivalent) and will be co-located with NSS-6 at the orbital location of 95° east to provide growth capacity over Asia-Pacific. The spacecraft’s high performance beams will support the rapidly growing markets in South Asia and Indo-China, as well as provide expansion capacity for DTH, VSAT and government applications.

VIDEO FIELD RECORDER MANUFACTURER ATOMOS has announced new Distributors for Taiwan and Hong Kong. The company has appointed Cheng Seng Trading Co., Ltd. as its distributor throughout Taiwan. The Cheng Seng Group has over 300 dealers and shops in Taiwan and has set up dealer networks in every Chinese province. Meanwhile, Shriro (HK) Ltd will act as the Atomos distributor for Hong Kong. The company has played a leading role in the distribution of high end equipment for photography and cinematography in Hong Kong, Macau and China. Visit www.atomos.com, www.chengseng.com and www.shriro.com.hk

(VTV) to supply two high-power broadband antennas, one for VHF Band III transmission, the other for UHF. Both antennas will provide coverage of Can Tho, the fifth largest city in Vietnam, and the largest city in the Mekong delta. The deal follows a major 2011 order for ten Jampro DVB-T antenna systems. Visit www.jampro.com

REDWOOD TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS (RTS), the new company for former Masstech Vice-President, Brad Redwood, has been appointed to represent Object Matrix storage throughout the Asia Pacific region. MatrixStore, the nearline storage platform from Object Matrix, fits into any workflow from linking clips in Avid to providing a secure platform for video on demand oﬀerings. Email Brad Redwood via Brad@redwoodstech.com or telephone +612 9456 0026.

U-LIFE, a home shopping television network based in Taiwan will use

“This is our first collaboration with ST Teleport, and we are excited to assist the international service provider’s business oﬀerings in simplifying their TV channel delivery for its media clients,” said Stephen Wong, Senior Vice President, APAC, Grass Valley. “With the implementation of GV Edge, ST Teleport can manage its channels through a unified platform, and it is the benefit of ease and eﬃciency achieved through the platform that helps broadcasters stay ahead of the competition.”

JAMPRO ANTENNAS has been awarded a contract by Vietnam Television SINGAPORE BROADCASTER MEDIACORP has announced that all of its

GV Edge integrates several components for a full playout service. It enables ST Teleport to secure centralized control over its playout management by combining all the necessary functions of playout – including media playout, advanced channel graphics, and asset management – into one cohesive system.

BLOOMBERG TV has announced it has entered into a partnership with former Malaysian Minister and founder of ntv7, Dato Sri Mohd Eﬀendi Norwawi’s Encorp Group. Bloomberg Television and Encorp Group will cooperate to create the first business news channel in Malaysia in 2014.

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Etere MERP to improve its operations and add two more playout channels. At present, ETERE manages the playout of its five cable channels. U-Life is planning to expand storage system through the addition of two Harmonic Mediadeck video servers. Visit www.etere.eu

20/12/13 1:59 PM

TAKING STOCK Moves in the business of content + technology

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www.content-technology.com/mediabusiness

Louis Hernandez – Avidly Everywhere In early 2013, Louis Hernandez was named CEO of Avid. C+T caught up with him to discuss the changes implemented since then.

LH Before I actually took the CEO position, I was a consultant to the company, really looking at their strategy, and that allowed me to get to know the company, its products and also get to know many of the customers more intimately, so we did a lot of research during that time on what was changing within our industry, where the pressure points were, where the pain points were within the industry, and that all led to the announcements that we made at IBC.

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C+T What were those pressure points? LH The good news is rich media consumption is going up, humans have basically decided that that’s the better form of communication and so it’s going up in almost every industry, not just media companies. The digitisation of the connection between creating content and the consumption of that content allows you to bring these people together closer, faster and more powerfully than before, and that creates a whole set of opportunities and a set of challenges.

HARRIS BROADCAST HAS SIGNED a definitive agreement to acquire digital video solutions provider, Imagine Communications. The transaction, subject to customary approvals and closing conditions, is expected to close in January 2014. The Imagine Communications acquisition strengthens Harris Broadcast’s portfolio, particularly enhancing its OTT, mobile video and multi-screen TV Everywhere capabilities, while furthering interoperability of technology and systems from both the linear and non-linear TV viewing worlds. “Many of our content originator customers have been adding services for OTT and TV Everywhere, but have had to do so with bifurcated systems for linear and non-linear services,” said Charlie Vogt, Harris Broadcast CEO. “This acquisition enables Harris Broadcast to take a leadership position in the OTT and TV Everywhere market, while laying the foundation for the first true software defined integration of sales, scheduling, automation, playout and delivery across both linear and non-linear content distribution networks. Additionally, through this acquisition, we will expand our R&D and innovation initiatives, strengthen our encoding, transcoding and ABR market position, and increase our total global addressable market.”

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Imagine Communications’ approach to TV Everywhere transcoding utilises softwares that run in a virtualised blade server environment, consistent with Harris Broadcast’s long-term vision for product development focused on software and commercial-oﬀ-the-shelf hardware. Imagine solutions serve digital broadcast markets as well as emerging applications such as TV Everywhere, Network DVR (nDVR), Internet/Mobile Video and IPTV. “Harris Broadcast’s new leadership team, end-to-end technology and industry leading platforms ideally complement and significantly expand the possibilities for our cutting edge TV Everywhere capabilities,” said Richard Stanfield, Imagine Communications CEO. Visit www.harrisbroadcast.com and www.gores.com

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MediaCorp, SiTF Enter Trade Show Market SINGAPORE BROADCASTER MEDIACORP and the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) have announced a joint venture to produce Singapore’s first ‘prosumer’ technology trade show called The Stage debuting in 2015. The Stage will be Southeast Asia’s first “experiential platform” which is mooted, designed and driven by the technology industry players to showcase their new and innovative technologies for home, work and play – cutting across devices, services and applications in the ultimate ‘prosumer’ experience. The three-day trade show in 2015 at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre will target over 250 exhibitors in various sectors including audio and visual, connected home devices, digital imaging/ photography, telecommunications, electronic gaming and music, robotics, computer hardware and software, lifestyle electronics and automotive electronics. Visitors to The Stage will be taken through a multi-faceted experiential technology showcase. There will be live demonstrations of new technologies and product launches. Alongside the exhibition, there will be a conference featuring keynote presentations and panel discussions from thought leaders. The Stage will feature a headline concert with celebrities adding pizzazz to the event. Eddie Chau, Chairman, SiTF, said, “The Stage is going to be Asia’s first event which is driven by industry players together with Singapore’s foremost established broadcast and media company. It shall provide participants the experience that companies yearn for its users and it is an excellent platform to showcase/launch new products. I am very excited with our partnership with MediaCorp.” Visit www.thestage.asia

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SERVING ON THE AVID BOARD for almost six years, Louis Hernandez had a head start on most people in his position. Elected lead director two years ago, he says he has “more history” than your average CEO.

Harris Broadcast to Acquire Imagine Communications

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Some of the challenges are it also has lowered the bar on content creation, which increases competition for revenue and for viewership, listenership etc. It has also, I think, caused a fusion of the content side of these production houses and the distribution side. I was speaking to a board of one of the largest media companies in the world and one of the vice chairmen said that their number one issue as a company is how to think about managing their operations. Where these two sides used to have to co-operate, now they have to integrate because it’s all digitised. Avid, historically, has participated on the creative side, but the pressures are really across the entire enterprise now. In the beginning Avid re-imagined how to create content. It now has to re-imagine how to connect that content to the consumer more efficiently. The other thing we observed is that there’s a lot more pressure on optimising the value on an asset. This is why metadata and MAM systems, etc., become so much more important, because we have to be able to access, quickly and easily, these assets. The goal for doing this is to repurpose, to optimise the value, ultimately is optimise the yield rates on this content you’ve invested in. That’s why it’s so critical. So the need for great content that is inspiring is still there, as well as the need to be more efficient in creating it and the need to optimise its value. That means protecting it and then optimising it. And those are basically the three things that have informed Avid Everywhere. Essentially it’s attempting to address those biggest issues in one single integrated system that provides the efficiency of a common platform that anybody can share, including third parties or competitors, but with the flexibility to tailor, through applications, to meet your specific needs, in either an on premise or on demand. C+T How would you characterise Avid’s approach to media asset management as opposed to what everyone else is doing? LH Avid has historically been on the creative side, but now we’ve announced a series of modules for the monetisation of those assets, protecting the assets, repurposing the assets, enabling multiple channel and device distribution at the click of a button. The key, though, is instead of having different vendors, it all sits on the same platform so it’s much more efficient, and if you do want a third party vendor, our connectivity tool will work for them as well. So it should be the efficiency of a common platform and the flexibility to pick and choose. If you take this enterprise-wide approach, you can imagine that you want to access not each application, not your MAM system and then your Pro Tools and then whatever, you want to access the platform. Once you’re on the platform and you’re authenticated, any of the applications that your company has available would be available to you: both your MAM and your composer, editorial all the same. You’d want to edit during the creative and monetisation process. We’ve announced things like an automated ingest tool that we’ll be launching and metadata standard, tying into the MAM system for somebody else’s, and then two marketplaces, so that you could take from your MAM selected assets that third parties may need to work on during production or monetisation that you can post in an encrypted way, only available through authentication keys, so that you can at a very low cost share assets with other folks. So when we think about MAM, we think it’s a mistake simply to look at a point solution. We think you have to look at it in the context of the overall enterprise-wide system. C+T Do you see this approach as enabling those at the smaller end of the market to become part of the “enterprise”? LH Exactly. So, at the simplest level, think about a world where there’s people who have ideas to create content for the enjoyment and pleasure of another person. Avid just wants to bring these people closer more efficiently, more powerfully, whether or not you’re an individual or a large organisation. The power of the platform is that, much like an IOS, everybody shares a common tool and you pick and choose the modules that are relevant to you: so a large media company will want the entire connection; maybe an independent professional would want the public marketplace, the editorial tool, a shared MAM system perhaps, and that’s it. Other people would want the protection module, the distribution module, they would want the analytic tool that allows you to understand who and how it was consumed, all on the same platform. So you really can tailor it to your needs. C+T Can you outline the Avid Customer Association?

LH Its been called the largest, most ambitious global collaborative media network in the world, because literally every one of our clients are invited to attend. There’s a global board, and we announced some of the founding members from some of the largest media companies in the world. There’s seven advisory councils run for and by our clients but paid for and administered by Avid, and we feel that because all these changes are going on and the amount of investment we’re making, we need to work more closely and more inclusively than ever, and that’s what this is designed to do. The first annual global meeting we announced is going to be April 4th and 5th, the two days before NAB starts, where all of our clients around the world will descend in Los Vegas to talk about best practices, to talk about standards, to talk about strategy, to talk about metadata standards, and they will be the first to view the Avid Everywhere modules. C+T During your career, you’ve had a focus on start-up companies. What can start-ups teach our industry? LH From my vantage point with what I can do as a technologist is when I look at industries, it’s what can I do to create more stability for this industry and allow them to contribute more to our social stability. I know it sounds high minded but that’s actually how I start. And so when there’s an industry going through a lot of transition, typically, technology is a good enabler to solve a lot of the gaps that get created by changes – and by the way, it’s a wonderful time to be a technologist because people are more accepting now, versus when I started, of the benefits that technology can bring, where they were more sceptical, I would say, before, it’s a great time right now to be a technologist. Avid is really about connecting people in ways that make their lives better. In the process, I hope it brings economic and social stability, and so that’s really where I start, and then I have to get on the ground, that’s on the road 80% of the time to really talk to the community: what exactly are your problems, what are your needs, and that’s where Everywhere came from. Visit www.avid.com

Results in Brief TVNZ HAS REPORTED an After Tax Profit of NZ$14.4 million for the year, $0.4 million ahead of its Statement of Intent forecast. Television advertising revenue dropped by $6.6 million (2.1%).

BRIGHTCOVE INC. (NASDAQ: BCOV), has announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, delivering solid third quarter results highlighted by 29% growth in total revenue compared to $22.1 million for the third quarter of 2012. Subscription and support revenue was $26.5 million, an increase of 23% compared with $21.5 million for the third quarter of 2012. Professional services and other revenue was $2.0 million, compared to $568,000 for the third quarter of 2012.

ERICSSON (NASDAQ:ERIC) reported that sales for comparable units, adjusted for foreign exchange, increased 3% year-on-year and declined -2% QoQ. Sales amounted to SEK 53.0 b, down -3% YoY. Operating income, including JV, increased to SEK 4.2 (3.1) b. Operating margin, including JV, was 8.0% (5.7%). Net income increased to SEK 3.0 (2.2) b. EPS diluted was SEK 0.90 (0.67) and EPS Non-IFRS was SEK 1.31 (1.04).

*SINGAPORE’S MEDIACORP ANNOUNCED an operating profit of SD$25.7m on total revenue of $621.3m for the year ended 31st March, 2013. Both earnings and revenue were weaker than the previous year on account of a weak advertising market, as well as investments in capabilities and new product lines. Net profit was $55.7m, which includes a gain on disposal of investment of $28.6m.

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TAKING STOCK Moves in the business of content + technology

www.content-technology.com/mediabusiness

Market Share! Do you want more? Media staff & strategy by Karl Jansson I was speaking with a client the other day as he was reflecting upon employing more staff but was hesitant to do it as he wasn’t sure about the market. Some of his questions were along the line of, “Should I try and capture some of my competitor’s business by employing more staff so that my company can reach more new customers whilst improving our position with current customers?” Good question!

SURE, AS A CONSULTANT in the business of identifying the best broadcast professionals in the market today, I could certainly present a brilliant short list for him, but it’s pointless unless I have his full commitment because this was an investment that had to pay off for his sake as well any new staff member he brings on board. Although employing staff is normally based upon skills and experience, you should also look at what inspires the potential incumbent as well. Any new staff member has expectations, a career path and more importantly a family or potential commitment that relies upon their pay cheque and any personal goals they may have, so any new appointment needs to be intentionally long term. SO HOW DO PEOPLE INFLUENCE MARKET SHARE? Regardless of whether you want to improve your servicing of current accounts or bring on board new ones, the potential success will depend upon a human somewhere along the way, not a robot. Sure, new products will increase sales but it takes a team to engineer and design it. So when you read the following recommendations, bear in mind the human factor, both on the supply and buyer sides.

YOUR CUSTOMERS 1. Gone are the days of leaving a voice mail with “I’ll come back to you within 24 hours”. The world is Twitter-eﬃcient, so check out the response from your competitors, then improve upon both the time and method. 2. Use customer’s ideas. As common sense as this sounds, you’d be surprised how the market is INTERPRETED, rather than LISTENING to it. Know what your customers want both now and in the future. 3. Sell more to existing customers. Ok it may include quantities, but more importantly should be through new products or after market applications as a result of actioning point 2 above. 4. Look back at inactive accounts and ask the why they don’t buy anymore? Use a new approach because let’s face it, you probably invested a lot to bring them on board in the first place. Plus if there are any grievances, you need to re-establish a degree of good will before negativity leaks onto the market.

MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS

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1. If you’ve been using direct mail as your primary marketing tactic, try using other channels like television, radio, online or print advertising with high quality industry magazines such as this magazine, C&T! Also experiment with diﬀerent marketing and selling channels like cold calling, loyalty programs and social media marketing. 2. Target a new market segment. Look at whether you are targeting the buyer’s level from a point of delivering your message in their language. Are you targeting the executive or engineer? Not only the language but also the method of delivery! For example, online forms of marketing will usually target technology based individuals. 3. Look at diversifying existing products or services to open up new opportunities. This is probably the most economical and time eﬃcient way to refresh your range, whilst new developments continue to evolve unhindered to a targeted release date.

YOUR COMPETITORS When you review your market share you’ll come across direct, indirect and phantom competitors. Direct competitors are the businesses who offer the same product or service as yours to the same customer base. Indirect competitors are other business who offer a similar service, but which is not in their core business model, and phantom competitors are either unrelated events or businesses which can affect your business. For example, when a competing manufacturer announces new products, some consumers will hold their buying decision. As the business owner, you’ll have very little control over a phantom competitor. Make a list of these companies and place them into the above three competitor categories. Keep an eye on them spec building products for specific customers. If your competitor has cut back to working 9 to 5, then it could be a good time to snap up some valuable staff by offering them an interesting and flexible workplace, with flexible hours. Set up a SWOT committee (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) and review your own as well your direct competitors. Work on fact not opinion, so wherever possible try and experience your competitor from a customer’s perspective. Sometimes the easiest way to get more customers is to simply buy them. Watch for competitors that are up for sale and purchase their customer lists.

LIMITED CASH FLOW? If your company lacks sufficient resources for effective marketing and distribution, you might consider a strategic alliance with a larger company. The influx of cash might allow you to fund aggressive attempts to seize market share from negotiating better deals with your suppliers. Then you can lower your prices significantly to lure customers from competitors. Although you may have limited cash flow you may be rich in ideas and expertise so become the industry expert in the services you offer, and what the other businesses are offering. Find out what your competitors are offering and offer more services, or better services. Taking a consultants position with customers could develop additional business. The above is just a broad brush approach to how to increase your market share but hopefully it has been useful in the short term as a stimulus. Feel free to contact me directly if you need any additional information. Karl Jansson is MD of “BroadcastJobz.tv”, a new Global website for the broadcast and new media communities seeking work or employers seeking industry specific professionals. Contact: Karlj@BroadcastJobz.tv or Mbl: +61 (0)408 274 413

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TECHNICAL STANDARDS www.content-technology.com/standards

ATSC Finally on Road to Next Level THE U.S.-BASED ADVANCED TELEVISION SYSTEMS COMMITTEE (ATSC) has received detailed technical proposals for the Physical Layer of

and proposals enabling a smooth transition from existing systems for both broadcasters and consumer.

the ‘ATSC 3.0’ broadcast TV transmission standard.

A series of meetings was held in October where each respondent was asked to give tutorial presentations to the ATSC Specialist Group evaluating the proposed systems.

Expected to move to ‘Candidate Standard’ status over the next two years, ATSC 3.0 will be designed to include higher capacity to deliver Ultra HighDefinition TV services, robust reception on mobile devices and improved spectrum eﬃciency. “These highly technical proposals are thoughtful, innovative and professional. While a wide range of technologies were proposed by respondents, there’s some commonality among many of them. Submissions are very detailed, and generally each of the submissions is hundreds of pages in length. They reflect the thinking of the best minds in the broadcast industry, and we salute the many engineers and business people who have already invested significant resources to develop technologies for ATSC to evaluate,” said ATSC President Mark Richer.

ATSC 3.0 DEFINED The ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer will define the modulation and error coding technologies to provide a foundation for the next terrestrial broadcast system. A primary goal of the ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer is to provide TV service to both fixed and mobile devices. Multiple types of TV receivers, including fixed devices (such as traditional living room and bedroom TV sets), handheld devices, vehicular screens and portable receivers will be considered in the work on ATSC 3.0. Spectrum eﬃciency and robust service will be key areas of evaluation. Increased data rates to support new services such as UltraHigh-Definition services will be considered. Robustness of service for devices operating within the ATSC 3.0 service area should exceed that of current ATSC systems and that of mobile phone and other wireless devices. Consideration will be given to technologies

MPEG Tackles Dynamic Range Control THE MOTION PICTURE EXPERTS GROUP (MPEG) has selected

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

technology for program level and Dynamic Range Control (DRC) from submissions that were received and evaluated in response to its Call for Proposals issued at its last meeting. This new technology and corresponding standard, which is expected be issued in January 2015, addresses industry demand for high-quality dynamics compression and regulatory requirements for loudness control. The selected proposal includes a codec-independent DRC that is designed to work with all MPEG audio codecs and will be extended during the standardisation process to work with the MPEG-H (ISO/IEC 23008-3) 3D Audio standard. The DRC oﬀers various new feature such as improved DRC gain resolution, flexible configuration, and decoderside modifications of the DRC eﬀect. Time-domain and sub-band domain DRCs are also supported. The program level control supports loudness normalisation, which includes dynamically compressed and down-mixed audio. An amendment to ISO Base Media File Format (ISO/IEC 14496-12) that is currently in progress will also be extended to support the DRC standard by providing support for not only the new DRC features, but also to support other important related areas such as loudness measures. Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org

“We expect ATSC 3.0 to reach Candidate Standard status in the first quarter of 2015, with a final standard for member vote later that year. A final standard is possible in 2016,” Richer explained.

FUTURECASTING Early developers of ATSC transmission technology, Harris Broadcast and LG Electronics’ R&D subsidiary, Zenith, have proposed as their candidate for the ATSC 3.0 physical layer a system they call ‘Futurecast Universal Terrestrial Broadcasting (UTB)’. The Futurecast UTB System is designed to increase data throughput by 30% while maintaining reception coverage and to improve multipath performance (compared with the current DTV standard) for fixed and portable TV reception. For mobile TV reception, Futurecast UTB includes energy-saving features for consumer receivers and enhanced indoor TV signal penetration due to flexible coding choices. Advanced modes also deliver high data rates or very robust transmission capabilities. In addition to increased data capacity and improved robustness, the Futurecast UTB System includes error correction coding and signal constellations. The system’s optimised pilot patterns promise enhanced performance over traditional OFDM modulation approaches. The system supports single-frequency networks and/or multiple transmitters, and its use of a single RF transmission’s flexible physical layer profile assures optimum quality of service. The extensible system is designed to support evolution to future broadcast systems even beyond ATSC 3.0. Visit www.atsc.org , www.lge.com and www.harrisbroadcastlive.com

Access Demonstrates Enhanced Support for DLNA CVP-2 Standard ACCESS CO., LTD, recently demonstrated its NetFront Living Connect solution for ‘studio confident’ media sharing supporting the new Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) Commercial Video Profile-2 (CVP-2) guidelines during the DLNA Members meeting held in Hawaii. The CVP-2 guidelines were developed by the DLNA in conjunction with the service providers to improve the digital delivery of movies and network television to the home. The CVP-2 guidelines enable secure playback across multiple devices while providing advanced protection for the copyright owners and content providers. This standard allows operators to leverage standardised technologies such as HTML5 remote user interfaces (RUIs), HTTP adaptive delivery and authentication, on top of its already available DTCP-IP-based link layer protection, to stream premium content into homes. CVP-2 also includes new 3D Media formats, ‘diagnostic’ and ‘low power’ mode capabilities to improve the service delivery to the customer. Support for CVP-2 will be available in Access’ NetFront Living Connect Technology Component and NetFrontTM Browser NX 3.0. Access’ approach enables operators and middleware companies to choose relevant functionality for their activity. The solution can be deployed on multiple devices, including Video Gateways, STB, Smart TV’s, Video Player devices, tablets and smartphones. Visit www.access-company.com

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TECHNICAL STANDARDS

Cinegy First for AMWA MXF AS-11 Certification CINEGY HAS ANNOUNCED it is the first company to be given oﬃcial certification for MXF AS-11 by the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA). The AMWA is best known for its work on AAF (Advanced Authoring Format), MXF (Media Exchange Format) and most recently also FIMS (Framework for Interoperable Media Services). The MXF Application Specification 11 (AS-11) is a set of rules that constrain MXF for a specific application like a common broadcast playout format. AS-11 is a vendor-neutral subset of the MXF file format for the delivery of finished programming by or from producers and program distributors to broadcast stations. It also defines a minimal core metadata set required in all AS-11 files, a program segmentation metadata scheme, and permits inclusion of custom shim-specific metadata in the MXF file. UK leading broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 formed the Digital Production Partnership (DPP – www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk ). AS-11 was created specifically at their request as the mandated, common distribution format. Broadcasters around the globe are also in discussions about adopting AS-11 as well. Originating in June 2012, the AMWA Application Specification AS-11 MXF Program Contribution enables the processes of file exchange to become simpler, allowing content providers to create one version for delivery rather than many. Visit www.cinegy.com and www.amwa.tvv

MPEG Media Transport Final Draft MPEG HAS ANNOUNCED the MPEG Media Transport (MMT) standard has been promoted to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) status. This standard enables the eﬃcient delivery of emerging types of services in heterogeneous environments such as hybrid or multiscreen. MMT inherits technical advantages of the MPEG2-TS standard, such as a self-contained multiplexing structure, strict timing model and reference buﬀer model in the emerging IP environments. At the same time, this standard delivers the flexible splicing of content, name based access of data and AL-FEC (application layer forward error correction) enabling multiple Qualities of Service within one packet flow. This standard also supports the carriage of MPEG-DASH segments and MPD for uni-directional environments such as broadcasting. MMT will be formally referenced as ISO/IEC 23008-1 in ISO/IEC. Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org

New Edition of AVC MPEG HAS ANNOUNCED several amendments to ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding have been finalised at its 106th meeting including: ‘3D-AVC’ – which carries video texture of an AVC high profile compatible base view along with one or several depth maps and allows more eﬃcient compression of additional views, such that the bit rate of either multiview or multiview-plus depth representations can be further decreased; ‘Multi-resolution frame compatible’ (MFC) – which enhances framecompatible stereo formats to full resolution by encoding a very compact diﬀerence signal; and ‘Additional Colour Space and Tone Mapping Descriptors’ – which enables signalling of metadata as needed e.g. for wide-gamut chroma formats. Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org

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ACQUISITION

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Bangladeshi Freelancers Take Sony Impact Gong at Rory Peck Awards NOVEMBER 20 saw the announcement of the 2013 Rory Peck Awards for freelance cameramen and camerawomen in news and current aﬀairs at a packed event hosted by Christiane Amanpour of CNN and ABC News, and James Mates of ITV News, at London’s BFI Southbank. Taking out the Sony Impact Award were Bangladeshi freelancers Soumen Guha and Dipak Chandra Sutradhar for “Hazaribagh: Toxic Leather”, produced by Wild Angle (WA) Productions for Public Senat, Ushuaia TV and La Locale. The Sony Impact Award honours the work of freelance cameramen and women in news or current aﬀairs that examines humanitarian or social issues. Soumen and Dipak pretended to be filming a commercial for a French leather company to gain access to the giant slum of antiquated tanneries in Hazaribagh on the outskirts of Dhaka. A European film crew who tried to film there

earlier were arrested and expelled and the rushes were destroyed. This film provides clear evidence of the appalling, squalid conditions for the half a million workers in the factories. Soumen started as a photojournalist for the English newspaper Daily Life. He has covered many Live TV broadcasts in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India including major sporting events in football and cricket for networks such as ATN Bangla, Nimbus Sports and ESPN Star Sports. He has also worked on studio talk-shows and documentary films. Dipak started his career as a cameraman after taking film courses run by the BBC World Service Trust and the Worldview International Foundation. Since then he has worked on documentary films, cultural programmes, talk shows and sports events. His work for ATN Bangla took him on locations in Bangladesh, and abroad to Malaysia, UAE, China and Nepal. Another Bangladeshi freelancer, Al-Emrun Garjon, was a finalist for the Rory Peck Award

Forever Group Expands Use of Sony HXC-D70 Cameras FOREVER GROUP, a Myanmar-based television and radio broadcaster, has invested in additional units of Sony’s HXC-D70 HD/SD system camera to boost its studio operations, bringing its total number of HXC-D70 cameras to 17 units. Through this acquisition, Forever Group brings high quality productions in both standard definition and high definition to its channels, which are some of the most-watched in Myanmar. Forever Group has also implemented Sony’s XDCAM format to streamline its workflow and produce very high quality HD recordings at a bit rate of 50Mbps using MPEG 4:2:2.

ACQUISITION

With a population of around 60 million, Myanmar is witnessing a dramatic change in its country. While many of its TV programmes are still broadcast in standard definition, TV stations and production houses in its capital Yangon and other major cities, are quickly embracing high definition to meet the demands of its viewers. “The D70 is both suited for indoor and outdoor productions. With its easy data transfer, small bit rate and ease of use in post-production, the D70 works very well within our workflow,” said Mr. Pyae Phyo Han, Head of Resources of Forever Group. “The only way we can give our viewers the best is to keep pace with the latest in broadcast technology.”

for News. Garjon’s entry, Bangladesh Factory Collapse, was commissioned and broadcast by Associated Press and covered the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse – Bangladesh’s worst industrial accident. Other Award winners included: + The Rory Peck Award for Features: Olly Lambert for Syria: Across the Lines; + The Rory Peck Award for News: Aris Roussinos for Ground Zero Mali: The Battle of Gao + Martin Adler Prize for contribution to local newsgathering: Idrak Abbasov, Azerbaijan The Rory Peck Trust was set up in 1995 in memory of freelance cameraman Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1995. The Trust is totally independent and relies on contributions from corporations, trusts, foundations and individuals to carry out its work. For the complete line-up of winners and their videos, visit https://rorypecktrust.org/ Awards/2013/Award-Winners

Study Cites Importance of Learning on Film Nicholas Oughton of Griﬃth University, QLD, Australia, recently conducted a study of top film schools around the world in an endeavour to reveal why many universities continue to teach film acquisition, and wish to continue doing so long into the future. His report was presented at the CILECT Conference in Argentina in September.

“Producing such a diversity of content certainly provides a myriad of challenges for any broadcaster,” said Chris Grey, General Manager, Broadcast & Content Creation Solutions, Professional Solutions Company (PSAP), Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited. “Apart from possessing the foresight to invest early in high definition equipment within Myanmar, we’re pleased that Forever Group has also chosen to work with the XDCAM HD422 format within their existing infrastructure, to enhance their workflow and produce high-quality programming for viewers in Myanmar.” Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com

Oughton set out to find answers to a series of questions, including how many film schools currently teach on film globally; why they teach on celluloid; how long they plan to continue their current formats; why some may have stopped; and what their thoughts are on what the future may hold, in addition to other information. Oughton surveyed 146 film schools from 58 countries across the world. Based on the evidence gathered, Oughton summarises, “[There is] the notion that learning cinematography when using a film camera and celluloid acquisition encourages the development of rigor, precision, discipline, craft, intuition, economy, previsualisation and imaginative thinking, aesthetics and communication. … In addition, there is the preservation and longevity of historical moving images to consider.” Visit www.cilect.org

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ACQUISITION

AJA Ki Pro Mini Scores Checkmate for Computer Chess

RETRO-INSPIRED INDIE FLICK ‘Computer Chess’ received an enthusiastic response from audiences when it debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Set in the 80s and directed by Andrew Bujalski, with cinematography by Matthias Grunsky, the film follows a cohort of young geniuses in a computer chess tournament as they race to design a program incapable of human defeat. To achieve a surreal aesthetic that transports audiences back in time, Grunsky captured the film using a tube camera from the 70s, converted the black and white analogue signal from the camera to SD using an AJA D5D Mini-Converter and recorded the SD feed in Apple ProRes HQ with an AJA Ki Pro Mini.

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“The tube camera possesses a certain magic in how it reacts to light and contrast; trying to shoot with one of today’s top-of-the-line cameras and recreate the same eﬀect in post would’ve been near-impossible. A big challenge was figuring out how to get this older camera to communicate with digital technology from this decade,” Grunsky said. “Ki Pro Mini came up quickly in our thought process, because of its simplistic nature, compact size and ProRes recording capabilities. It was vital to getting our film into a present-day format; I don’t think any other device would have worked as well for this project.”

To obtain a black and white analogue signal, Grunsky shot the film using a Sony AVC 3260 tube camera with a modern-day Panasonic monitor attached, which replaced the camera’s original viewfinder. He and his crew then used a time base corrector to stabilise the signal coming from the camera composite and fed it through an AJA D5D Mini-Converter, which has since been replaced by the new V2Digital Mini-Converter. Recording the SD feed in ProRes HQ with the AJA Ki Pro Mini, the team backed up the footage from the CF cards onto hard drives in one of the hotel rooms next to the set during shooting days. Once filming wrapped, the drives were used in post on

an Apple Final Cut Pro workstation for editing. Impressed by the ease-of-use and solid performance of the Ki Pro Mini, Grunsky concluded, “The Ki Pro Mini is an aﬀordable, reliable device that gave us an added feeling of safety for recording. It never gave us any trouble and was so easy to operate, which was definitely refreshing, especially when working with an older camera that posed several risks.” Since earning an Alfred P. Sloan designation at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013, Computer Chess has been featured in several other prominent film festivals around the world. Visit www.aja.com

Panavision Unveils Primo V Lenses Optimised for Digital PANAVISION HAS INTRODUCED a new line of Primo lenses, the Primo V series, specifically designed to work with today’s high-resolution 35mm digital cameras. “Panavision’s unmatched optical expertise and high-quality manufacturing capabilities have now been brought to bear on lenses adapted for digital cameras,” says Kim Snyder, Panavision’s Chief Executive Oﬃcer. “We’re focused on providing cinematographers with the best tools to tell their stories with vision and creativity. With the industry’s ongoing transition to digital capture, we want our customers to know they can continue to trust Panavision to bring innovative, world-class solutions to the marketplace.” The Primo V lenses are designed to bring the look and feel of Panavision Primos to digital cinematography, using the lens elements from existing Primo lenses, long an industry standard for top cinematographers. Primo V lenses take advantage of specific design adaptations

to work in harmony with digital cameras, maximising image quality while delivering Primo quality and character. “Cinematographers tell us that the hyper-sharp sensors in today’s digital cameras can result in images that are harsh and lack personality,” says Panavision’s VP of Optical Engineering, Dan Sasaki. “That’s one reason why there’s so much emphasis on glass these days. The Primo V lenses bring the smooth, organic flavor of Primo lenses to the high fidelity digital image. Our philosophy is to take what cinematographers love about the Primos, and update them for the digital world.” Digital cameras require additional optical elements including low-pass and IR filters that increase oﬀ-axis aberrations. ND filters are sometimes part of the chain. Primo V lenses have been re-engineered to correct for this. Patent pending modifications eliminate the coma, astigmatism, and other aberrations introduced by the additional glass between

the lens and the sensor, while preserving the desirable imaging characteristics of the Primo optics. The resulting image appears more balanced centre-to-edge. The Primo V lenses are compatible with any digital camera equipped with PL or Panavision 35 mount systems. They cannot be used on film cameras. The internal transports and mechanics of the Primo V lenses will retain the familiar Primo feel. Since the Primo V lenses retain the essential Primo character, imagery from Primo V and standard Primo lenses will intercut well. A set of Primo V primes will include 14.5, 17.5, 21, 27, 35, 40, 50, 75, and 100mm focal lengths. “Filmmakers have embraced Panavision Primo lenses since their introduction 25 years ago,” notes Snyder. “Now the classic Primo look has been refined and optimized for use with the latest generation of 35mm sensor digital cameras.” Visit www.panavision.asia

ACQUISITION

From the onset of production, Bujalski and Grunsky were confident that the tube camera would facilitate the distinct look they had envisioned for the film. Cognisant of the complications that could arise from using such an antiquated camera, they began building a workflow around it. Throughout the design process, one of the largest hurdles proved to be finding a method to record footage that would be compatible with today’s standard NLEs.

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Panasonic Releases New ENG Camcorder and Memory Card Recorder

SON based on networking and IT operation. Panasonic is also releasing the AJ-PD500 memory card recorder. This P2HD recorder supports network-based workflow while interfacing with conventional broadcast systems. It’s the first recorder to provide microP2 card slots together with ordinary P2 card slots.

COMBINING HIGH-END IMAGE QUALITY with cost-eﬃcient operation, Panasonic’s new AJ-PX5000G ENG camera recorder meets the new needs of broadcast workflows for the networking age. In addition to conventional P2 card slots, the AJ-PX5000G is the first camera recorder to oﬀer microP2 card slots, which dramatically reduce media costs. Recording codecs start with AVC-Intra and include, again for the first time in a camera recorder, the AVC-LongG50/25 codecs with low-bit-rate operation and Full-HD 1920 x 1080, 4:2:2, 10 bit image quality. Even longer record time is possible by using AVC-LongG12 (8 bit 4:2:0). Dual codec recording is also possible with low-bit-rate and high-quality AVC-LongG6 codec (Full-HD 1920 x 1080), for breaking news, though not available at realease. In the near future, the AJ-PX5000G

will also support the AVC-Intra200 codec for visually lossless images that approach the level of uncompressed master quality. Featuring the newly developed 2.2-megapixel 2/3-type MOS image sensor, this advanced camera recorder achieves high F12 (59.94 Hz)/F13 (50 Hz) sensitivity and excellent images with an S/N ratio of 62 dB. More near future enhancements to the AJ-PX5000G, which comes with 3G SDI/HDMI terminals as a standard feature, includes enabling progressive full frame 1080/60p (59.94Hz) and 1080/50p shooting. Operation will also possible using AVC-Proxy images. A wired/wireless LAN connection will enable metadata input and playlist editing, while a 4G connection will eventually allow proxy files to be transferred to a network server, contributing to a smoother ENG workflow

Convergent Design Ships Odyssey7Q CONVERGENT DESIGN recently began shipment of the first production units of its new flagship product, the Odyssey7Q, a full-featured 7.7” OLED monitor and video recorder.

ACQUISITION

A comprehensive set of monitoring features is included: Waveform, RGB Parade, Zebras, 1:1 Pixel Zoom, Focus Assist (Peaking), Vectorscope, Histogram, LUT Support, False Color and more. The 7.7’ OLED has a 1280×800 RGB pixel array, wide colour gamut, and 3400:1 contrast, with virtually no motion blurring and true blacks. Bluetooth LE supports simple remote control through iPhone and Android apps. As a recorder, Odyssey7Q supports a range of recording formats. Uncompressed RGB HD video is included, with compressed HD video soon to be added in a free firmware update. For RAW capture, ARRIRAW (4:3 and 16:9), Canon 4K Raw and Sony FS700 2K RAW are available as purchase or rental options. New 2.5-inch Premium SSD media supports read/ write bandwidths in excess of 500 MBytes/sec per drive, enabling Canon 4K Raw at 60 fps on a single recorder. The Odyssey7Q also features a Multi-Stream

monitoring mode, which allows up to four HD Video signals to be input and displayed simultaneously in quadrants onscreen or switched between in full-screen view. A purchase or rent record option (Multi-Stream HD) allows up to four HD Video feeds to be recorded to simultaneous individual files, or even to allow a ‘live-switch’ edit be captured. A range of battery accessories, mounting options, and sunshade, are available to support the Odyssey7Q. While Convergent Design has significant preorders for the Odyssey7Q, it is on target to fulfil all current orders before the end of 2013. Visit www.convergent-design.com

Recording codecs from the AVC-ULTRA family include AVC-Intra100/50 and AVC-LongG, which appears for the first time in this model, ensure high-quality images and low-bit-rate (50/25/12/6 Mbps) operation. Lower-rate AVC-Proxy recording enables previewing, metadata input, and playlist editing (soon) over a network. In addition to handling DVCPRO HD/DVCPRO50/DVCPRO/DV codec recording, optional functions will support AVC-Intra200 codec recording in the near future, with images and sounds that approach uncompressed master quality, and AVCHD playback. The 3U half-rack size unit houses a wide range of interfaces, including Gbit Ethernet LAN, USB 3.0 (HOST), parallel remote, and RS-422A, while easy use is assured by JOG/SHTL/ MENU dial operation. AC/DC power operation enables versatility — from outdoor use to mounting in an OB van or studio installation — for a wide range of broadcast applications. Visit http://pro-av.panasonic.net

miniCASTER Releases Beam for Film and Live TV MINICASTER BEAM is aimed at the film and television live production sector. The WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) technology makes it possible to transmit uncompressed HDTV and video data up to 1080p in the license free 5GHz band and non line-of-sight, thus produces a high quality real-time video stream. With this technology miniCASTER oﬀers a new freedom of range – distances up to 100m can be covered with a latency of less than 1ms. The transmitter is connected to the camera; the RX-device is connected to an external monitor. More freedom of movement is provided by the small and light design – with substantially lower weight than previous systems. The modules mount on cameras and to set using 3/8-inch screws. The miniCASTER Beam comes as uni- or multicast device. The unicast solution allows up to four diﬀerent camera signals to be transmitted simultaneously, the multicast device allows up to four viewers getting the camera signal called the ‘directors view’ at the same time. Visit www.minicaster.com

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ACQUISITION

Sony Launches New NXCAM HXR-NX3 SONY HAS ANNOUNCED the HXR-NX3 handheld HD camcorder, the latest addition to the NXCAM line-up. Perfect for the professional videographer, the HXR-NX3 combines Sony’s imaging technology with the ability to connect with other devices such as smartphones or tablet computers, with built-in WiFi technology allowing the camcorder to be controlled remotely. Sony’s Exmor 3CMOS sensor system with three 1/2.8” sensors provides a 1920x1080 Full HD effective pixel count. As a result red, blue and green light are independently and accurately captured by separate image sensors, contributing to high resolution, high sensitivity and wide dynamic range that creates extraordinary natural colour reproduction. A newly developed LSI that includes advanced noise reduction and several distortion correction technologies handles image processing, allowing clear, low-noise recordings to be captured, even in low light. Sony’s G Lens delivers a wide zoom range that offers a 28.8mm angle of view at the wide end, with a 20x optical zoom range that will easily cover most shooting situations. In addition, the newly developed LSI contains leading-edge 40x “Clear Image Zoom” technology, which offers 1152mm focal length with virtually the same quality as optical zoom. The LSI also includes advanced noise reduction and several distortion correction technologies to handle image processing and deliver notable improvements in image quality. The HXR-NX3 records video in AVCHD 2.0 format, which includes 1080/50P, for smooth, natural subject motion. 50i and 25p modes provide playback compatibility with Bluray players. The HDMI connector provides uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 while shooting and allows users to record images to 3rd recorders.

As well as imaging capabilities, the HXR-NX3 can connect with other devices to be controlled remotely or transfer footage. iOS and Android smartphones or tablet computers can be used to remotely control the HXR-NX3 through a WiFi connection and video files can be transferred from camcorder to smartphone. Remote control features include: + Monitoring of camera material on the smartphone display + Record start/stop + Zoom + Iris + Touch AF (Auto Focus) function The HXR-NX3 is capable of light MP4 file simultaneous recording. MP4 (720p, 3Mbps) is a network-friendly file that can be transferred wirelessly from the camcorder to a smartphone or tablet computer with the PlayMemories Mobile smartphone application. Once transferred, the MP4 file can be uploaded to a cloud server, social media, video share site and other platforms. The HXR-NX3 also has a leading edge NFC (Near Field Communication) chipset, which allows users to establish a WiFi connection simply by touching an NFC-compatible smartphone or tablet computer on the camcorder. “The HXR-NX3 is designed to be the ‘go-to’ camcorder for filmmakers working on corporate, event, wedding and education videos – people who require high quality performance, fast turn-around and ease of use, said Chris Grey, General Manager, Broadcast & Content Creation Solutions, Professional Solutions Company (PSAP), Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited. “With features such as remote control and

wireless transfer of video files, users will have unmatched speed and flexibility in their projects. We’re also confident that the MP4 function will be valuable to online journalists who need to share their clips as quickly as possible.” The HXR-NX3 also comes with a number of additional features for versatility when shooting and to minimise the need for additional equipment. The camcorder can capture footage in both slow and quick motion in full HD quality, with 2x slow motion and 50x quick motion easily achievable. Dual media slots allow simultaneous recording to two SD memory cards in ‘Simul’ mode, while ‘Relay’ mode switches recording automatically to the second memory card when the first is full. The two cards can also be controlled independently from two recording buttons. The HXR-NX3 will be available in Asia Pacific from January 2014 onwards. It will come in two versions – the HXR-NX3 E32 (PAL) and HXR-NX3 E23 (NTSC), and comes with a 2 year warranty only through authorised Sony dealers. Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com

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Blackmagic Releases RAW Recording for Pocket Cinema Camera BLACKMAGIC DESIGN HAS RELEASED Blackmagic Camera 1.5 software, which adds new 12-bit Log CinemaDNG RAW recording to the Pocket Cinema Camera. Blackmagic Camera 1.5 update is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website. The new Blackmagic Camera 1.5 software update adds CinemaDNG RAW file recording so customers can now capture super wide dynamic range in a single file. Wide dynamic range RAW image recording allows users to capture the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows simultaneously, capturing more of the scene than is possible with a regular video camera. CinemaDNG RAW files give users incredible freedom to be able to adjust the exposure manually during colour correction with DaVinci Resolve.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera uses the open standard lossless compressed version of CinemaDNG RAW. CinemaDNG RAW lossless compression works in a similar way as a ZIP file where the RAW files are compressed during recording without the loss of any part of the image, so all images retain the same quality when they are decompressed. High quality lossless CinemaDNG files are fully compatible with DaVinci Resolve 10 for colour grading and editing workflows. Lossless CinemaDNG RAW files are an open standard however not all video applications can open them, although those that can are increasing all the time. With the 1.5 update, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera gives customers the choice of recording CinemaDNG RAW or high quality

ProRes 422 (HQ) in video or film mode. Cinematographers can simply remove the SD card from the camera, insert it into a laptop or computer, open the file and immediately start editing or colour correcting media in any location. “Adding CinemaDNG RAW recording to the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is incredible,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “It’s amazing that we are now able to record the highest quality RAW images on such small SD cards! We think customers are really going to enjoy the extended creative flexibility that colour grading wide dynamic range RAW files will bring to their productions!” Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

ACQUISITION

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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

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ABS Builds Broadcasting Centre for Myanmar SEA Games US-BASED SYSTEMS INTEGRATION firm, Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS), was selected as the premier AV technology provider for the International Broadcasting Center (IBC) for the recent 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Myanmar. More than 1000 media personnel covered the games, and ABS was on location for more than three months preparing for the event. Held every two years, the SEA Games include participants from 11 countries and serve as pre-qualifying contests for some track and field events for the Olympic Games. More than 4000 athletes competed in more than 30 sports at the event held in 29 venues across Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon, Mandalay, and Ngwe Saung. In conjunction with Asia Mega Link, a telecommunications company based in Yangon, ABS was tasked with designing, building, and supporting video and audio for the media in all venues. ABS also produced HD coverage of all athletic events, as well as the opening and

closing ceremonies. Each venue included an area for stand-ups, a ‘mixed zone’ for interviews with athletes, and pre-determined ENG camera positions with wide views of the field of play. ABS and Asia Mega Link installed bi-directional fibre links between each venue and the IBC, which was based in the Maniyadana Jade Hall in Nay Pyi Taw. The IBC featured a three-camera TV studio with control room. Other services available included SD and HD satellite uplink/ downlink, equipment rental, and daily highlight video packages available for each sport and each day. Grass Valley was the premier provider of technology for the SEA Games, providing LDX series cameras and GV STRATUS nonlinear media production tools. “Myanmar is an emerging country, and the SEA Games will help introduce its people and culture to much of the rest of the world with brilliant HD imagery,” said Mark Siegel, president of ABS and director of technology for the SEA Games. “ABS is

company NEP Group Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Australianbased GTV Holdings Pty Ltd (Global Television) from Catalyst Investment Managers. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction brings together NEP and Global TV, uniting two experienced and successful television technical services companies.

BLA Inside the SEA Games International Broadcast Center.

very pleased to be working with Asia Mega Link to help make this event a success for members of the media who will be on site.” Visit www.advancedbroadcastsolutions.com

NEP is one of the largest broadcast and live event service companies with operations across the US, UK and Brazil, and supporting thousands of events annually around the world. The acquisition of Global Television further expands NEP’s presence into Australia and Asia.

SPORTSCASTING

NEP CEO, Kevin Rabbitt, said, “Global Television has an outstanding reputation for excellence in live sports and light entertainment and is the clear leader in the Australian television market. Together, NEP and Global Television oﬀer a much broader pool of expertise, resources and facilities and extends NEP’s services worldwide, adding significant value for our clients and partners who work internationally. We are excited to work with Global’s CEO Keith Andrews and his management team to continue to grow their business.” Global facilitates the majority of premium live sport produced and broadcast in Australia, and the most-watched live entertainment programs. Six of 2013’s highest-rating television shows were Global projects.

“We are especially pleased that Global is now part of an organisation that shares its passion for great television and outstanding client service,” added Global Television CEO, Keith Andrews. “This is a great outcome for Global’s clients, staﬀ and partners.” Global Television has worked closely with NEP over the last four to five years on various major projects including the 2011 Presidents Cup Golf, where the two companies became familiar with each other through mutual client NBC. “The two organisations know one another well and I can confidently say we have similar cultures based on providing superior service to our clients,” added Andrews. “On behalf of the Global team, I thank our board of directors and Catalyst for their confidence in Global and their support as we’ve grown the company to its current level.” Keith Andrews told Content+Technology he foresees synergies for the two organisations in the following areas:

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Common technology resources such as EVS units, specialty cameras and flight kits;

Staff – “People make the difference, not gear. Australians have a fantastic reputation world wide. Ours are world class and will contribute to a big resource pool.” Global TV’s host broadcaster focus, which has been brought to bear on events such as the Commonwealth Games as well as 2014’s G20 meeting in Queensland. Andrews believes this experience will allow NEP to target 2nd and 3rd-tier events such as the Cricket World Cup, Presidents Cup Golf and the Netball World Cup. Combined with Global’s top-tier fleet of outside broadcast and studio facilities, NEP will offer over 70 High-Definition (HD) outside broadcast units; several HD Flypacks; studio facilities in Los Angeles, New York, London, Cardiff, Sydney and Melbourne; thousands of plasma, LED and projection video display solutions; as well as a large team of engineering and technical experts. Visit www.globaltv.com.au and www.nepinc.com

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Global has also achieved international recognition for its technical expertise in host broadcasting, partnering with production companies and broadcasters to win major contracts, including the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and G20 Summit in Brisbane 2014. Global will remain an independent operating entity based in Australia, led by Keith Andrews and his executive team.

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US-based NEP to Acquire Australia’s Global TV INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SERVICES

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Carrier Identification for Football World Cup THE SATELLITE INTERFERENCE REDUCTION GROUP (IRG) has launched a campaign to achieve Carrier Identification (CID) implementation on all video carriers for the Football World Cup in 2014. The Satellite Interference Reduction Group (IRG) works to reduce satellite frequency interference. It comprises three main working groups, covering Carrier ID, Intentional Interference, and VSAT interference. The Group’s membership is comprised of satellite operators, users, uplinkers, service providers, equipment vendors and other organisations with a stake in

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The initiative was first announced during the IRG Annual Conference in Rio de Janeiro in October. The announcement followed the success of a similar campaign leading up to the London Olympics, where half of the carriers had ID. This resulted in very few instances of interference, and the hope is that the industry can take it one step further in time for the Football World Cup in 2014. “We are entering the challenging part of implementing CID,” commented Martin Coleman, Executive Director, IRG. “We have

the ETSI standard, fantastic, but now the hard work begins! Building the system, databases and processes, and ensuring widespread implementation and getting the users to turn CID on!” The Space Data Association and Analytical Graphics Inc. showed the first demonstration of the prototype CID database at the recent IRG conference in Brazil. The creators are now encouraging feedback and input from the industry in order to build the final working database. Visit www.satirg.org

Under-17 World Cup Switches onto ATEM BLACKMAGIC DESIGN’S ATEM Production Studio 4K was deployed during the 2013 United Arab Emirate (UAE) U17 World Cup as part of a live production workflow in the six host nation stadiums. Organisers approached Pulse Middle East, a provider of audio visual and lighting solutions, to not only design and install the new system, but to also provide technical and operational support throughout the world championship. Coverage of the World Cup’s 52 matches was filmed by up to 12 HD cameras at each venue. HD-SDI signals were fed into an OB truck where the material was composited on a vision mixer and the clean program feed was used to meet each of the host venues’ in-stadium match-day video requirements. Four separate down converted HD-SDI program outputs were taken from the OB van and fed into

the stadium’s ATEM Production Studio 4K and composited using the ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel. “Output one was a mixed program feed of the on pitch action, while the second output covered the stadium, capturing the supporters’ reactions as the games unfolded. The stadium’s production team then produced its own mixed program output, which was played out on the stadium’s giant LED screens in 16:9 650i50,” explains Rami Haber of Pulse Middle East. The production team took a further two program outputs from the broadcaster, which were used for the television screens throughout the stadiums’ concourse, hospitality suites and press commentary positions.

Rami explains further, “Although Ultra HD 4K wasn’t a requirement for this World Cup, all of the stadiums involved expressed an interest in retaining equipment once the tournament had drawn to a conclusion. That’s why it was important for the live production workflow to support SD, HD and ultimately 4K formats.” Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

Riedel Sponsors Monash University Formula SAE Team ensure safe and eﬀective testing and racing of the team car.

combating radio frequency interference.

RIEDEL COMMUNICATIONS HAS ANNOUNCED it is sponsoring Monash Motorsport (MMS), a team of students from Australia’s Monash University that each year designs, builds, tests, and races an openwheeled formula-style race car in the renowned Formula SAE (FSAE) series. Using two-way Motorola radios and headsets supplied by Riedel, MMS team spotters, engineers, and drivers communicate with one another to

“The radios provided by Riedel have been fantastic, and the reception is clear and crisp,” said Areeb Hassan, Business Team Leader and Suspension Engineer for MMS. “We haven’t had a single issue with the gear and have had no need to contact Riedel for support, but the company has been very helpful and accommodating. We look forward to expanding our use of the communications system to enable the reception of valuable live telemetry data from the car and for competition updates during the endurance event.” MMS competes in the FSAE design competition, which includes more than 500 universities from around the world. The team is currently ranked second in the world and has won the FSAE Australasia Competition for the past four years. Having completed their latest car, the M13, the team has been testing and validating their design in preparation for the Australasia

competition in December as well as a series of high-profile races in the U.K. and Germany in 2014. MMS was an early pioneer of the use of aerodynamics in FSAE, with its 2002 car being one of the first cars in the competition to feature wings. The M13 has been designed with a much more aggressive aerodynamics package, boasting some of the largest front and rear wings in the competition, as well as the use of an undertray. The team designed the M13 using CFD modeling and has physically validated it in the Monash Wind Tunnel. “The MMS team is an innovative and inspiring group of students that has achieved remarkable results in the FSAE Series, and it’s a pleasure to support their eﬀorts by providing the reliable, high-quality communications equipment so critical in live test and race environments,” said Cameron O’Neill, Solutions Manager at Riedel. Visit www.riedel.net

SPORTSCASTING

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SPORTSCASTING

The Glasgow Diaries: Chapter 6

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By David Bowers

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Life is meant to be a continual learning experience, and sometimes sharing knowledge enhances your own in unexpected ways. This happy truth has come back to me several times in recent weeks as we develop the Host Broadcaster legacy program. AS PART OF THE Host Broadcaster Training Initiative (HBTI), with the Organising Committee and leading Scottish universities and colleges, we are creating real-life work experience opportunities for up to 200 media students. A young person entering the broadcasting industry simply couldn’t have a better start than time at the coal-face of such a major event. Already the sense of anticipation from students is clear, and they have not been shy in sharing their views on what they’d like to see from the Games coverage and how they can contribute – even though roles haven’t even been advertised yet. It has been an eye-opener to see the diverse means by which these digital natives prefer to get their news and information, and what they expect from content providers. Their enthusiastic input has been refreshing to those of us who’ve been round the traps before as we look to make the most of every channel. We’re aiming to match young people with jobs that suit their aspirations and skill sets. And towards that goal, industry partnership organisation Creative Loop is connecting us with key educational institutions to identify students with the potential and passion to make the most of these opportunities. Placements will span the gamut of Host Broadcaster activity – from production to technical/engineering – and be situated across a range of Games venues including the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and Main Press Centre (MPC). While the roles will be junior they will be closely supervised by senior Host Broadcaster team members, giving students fantastic experience of how a major live television event is put together. It will be a real-world introduction to the TV business and will help trainees make their way into the industry once they complete their studies.

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Logging is one area where students will gain experience. It’s used widely throughout the TV industry and is a backbone operational skill that trainees may yet be aware of. The ability to quickly and accurately grab and tag material, add key words, and archive footage to make it readily available to production teams, is highly sought after. Experience in this area could open the door to skilled, well-paid jobs once students enter the workforce.

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Meanwhile trainees who show interest and ability in EVS replay will see material they handle transmitted internationally as part of the Host Broadcaster feed.

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There will also be openings for vision mixers, camera and sound assistants, and junior director and producer assistants. The MPC will oﬀer particularly cutting-edge experience as we’re basing three remotecontrolled cameras there to capture multiple daily media conferences. A senior producer/trainer and students based at the MPC will direct these press briefings from an island. And rather than build a stand-alone control room at the MPC, these cameras will be connected by fibre to the IBC, where they’ll be manned and remotely switched by a senior camera operator assisted by three students.

The Merchant City precinct of Glasgow, which will host outdoor concerts during the Games.

audiences. To that end, giving our RHBs maximum flexibility is key, and witnessing our young colleagues’ media habits has reinforced how important it is to accommodate multi-platform viewing. This is why our advanced content archives at the IBC will be mirrored in high and low resolution, allowing RHBs to remotely access and prepare content for play-out in either format.

I’ll be speaking to students about sports broadcasting over the coming weeks. And in the interest of sharing the love, I volunteer Chris Farmer, our Host Broadcaster audio/commentary system control manager, to give a similar talk in the new year.

I’m looking forward to working with the students who take part in our program. Having digital natives alongside us reinforces how consumers – particularly younger people – actually use new communications channels and what they expect from them, and will help us bring the Games to the broadest possible audience.

Our goal as Host Broadcaster is to make the best possible pictures and sound we can, so our Rights Holder Broadcasters (RHBs) around the world can knit them into their own coverage for their home

David Bowers is head of engineering and technical operations for SVGTV, which holds the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Host Broadcast contract.

SPORTSCASTING

UK Regulator Prepares for Glasgow Spectrum Demand UK REGULATOR OFCOM HAS PUBLISHED

wireless technologies by broadcasters.

its final plans for ensuring that the spectrum demands for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games are met. Nearly 3000 accredited media will descend on Glasgow between 23 July – 3 August 2014 for the Games, bringing with them an unprecedented need for spectrum.

To meet the extra demand during Games time, Ofcom has developed a plan to secure additional capacity. This will be achieved in three main ways:

Demand will be fuelled by the increasing use of

+ By borrowing spectrum on a short-term basis from public sector bodies, such as the

Ministry of Defence; + Ensuring that civil spectrum is used eﬃciently by making unused frequencies available.

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+ Using spectrum that is available without the need for a licence.

Visit www.ofcom.org.uk

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SPORTSCASTING

Six Cities Bid for 2022 Winter Games

Harris Builds New Playout Centre for TEN Sports in India

THERE HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in the number of cities bidding to host the Olympic Winter Games, with twice as many joining the contest for 2022 compared to four years earlier.

HARRIS BROADCAST has completed the build out of a major broadcast production facility for TEN Sports, a leading sports channel in Asia. The new production playout centre and studio went on air in mid-September 2013.

Six cities have bid this time: Almaty (Kazakhstan), Beijing (China), Krakow (Poland), Lviv (Ukraine), Oslo (Norway), and Stockholm (Sweden).

“We were looking for a major upgrade of the TEN Sports facilities which included migration to full HD production and playout, advanced file-based media workflows and an interface to massive archival and retrieval systems,” said Mr. Amitabh Kumar, CTO of Zee Group. “The assignment was very challenging as it involved the migration of hundreds of thousands of hours of content from legacy systems that had to be interfaced to diverse broadcast equipment.”

As part of the assistance the IOC oﬀers bid cities, the six applicant cities will be invited to participate in an observer programme tailored to their needs during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Meanwhile, a delegation from the International Olympic Committee has concluded a successful Orientation Seminar with representatives of Tokyo 2020, including the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Hakubun Shimomura, who is also responsible for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games for the National Government; Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose, and Japanese Olympic Committee President and IOC member, Tsunekazu Takeda. The two-day meeting, which came a week ahead of IOC President Bach’s and Coordination Commission Chairman John Coates’ first visits to Tokyo, and two months after Tokyo’s election as host of the 2020 Olympic Games, helped the Japanese organisers to successfully negotiate the crucial transition phase, as well as allowing them to get a flying start preparing to deliver the Games over the next seven years. ll

Visit www.olympic.org.

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Rugby’s McConnell New IOC New Sports Director THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE has appointed Kit McConnell as its new Sports Director. Mr McConnell currently holds the position of Head of the Rugby World Cup and RWC Tournament Director at the International Rugby Board. In his 10 years with the IRB, he has assisted with the delivery of three successful Rugby World Cups. His responsibilities ranged from the management of the RWC Board, stakeholder relations and RWC event delivery to the management of the RWC tender processes and the development and implementation of all RWC-related strategies, including the redevelopment of the eventdelivery, commercial and financial models. Mr McConnell is no stranger to the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement. From 2000 to 2002, he was the IOC’s Manager of Sport Operations, where he was responsible for the coordination of sport planning with organising committees and relations with international federations. Before that, he coordinated the planning of all sports, including relations with each respective international federation for the Sydney 2000 Organising Committee. Mr McConnell brings great expertise to the IOC in the area of planning, managing and delivering major sporting events and has strong ties to the International Federations. He will succeed Christophe Dubi, who will take on the role of Olympic Games Executive Director next year. Mr McConnell will take up his post in early 2014. Visit www.olympic.org

The installation centres on Harris Broadcast’s playout automation system, together with multiple servers, its media asset management and online storage systems. The technical infrastructure also includes Harris Broadcast routers and multiviewers, as well as signal processing and distribution hardware. Visit www.harrisbroadcast.com

MP & Silva Launch Daily Sports News Show for StarHub MP & SILVA HAS BEEN APPOINTED by StarHub to produce a daily sports news show called SuperSports 360, which started on 10 October 2013. SuperSports 360 is the first locally produced sports news show that will air on Singapore’s new free sports channel SuperSports Arena, available to all households in Singapore with an activated cable point. Beatrice Lee, MP & Silva’s Asia-Pacific Managing Director, said, “As one of the region’s premier sports media agencies, MP & Silva is delighted to lend its expertise to ensure the programme will be produced in the highest international standards.” Lee Soo Hui, Head of Media Business Unit, StarHub, said, “With their expertise in sports television production, we are proud to be working with a committed partner in MP & Silva. Their professionalism and ability to deliver a world-class sports show, combined with a keen understanding of the local sports scene and knowing what the modern sports fan wants, were qualities that we wanted in a partner.” Visit www.mpsilva.com

HK Kickoff for beIN SPORT SPORTS BROADCASTER BEIN SPORT has partnered with TVB NETWORK VISION (TVBNV) for the launch of two new sports channels in Hong Kong with a strong line-up of football and sports content in highdefinition. beIN SPORT’s launch on TVBNV in November also marks the first time the broadcaster is offering a comprehensive line-up of sports. The partnership has also seen beIN SPORT being packaged with the newly launched TVB Sport channel, which will be the only channel in Hong Kong to broadcast all 64 matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The launch in Hong Kong highlights beIN SPORT’s rapid expansion in Asia, following July’s kick-off of three beIN SPORT channels in Indonesia. Nasser Al Khelaifi, Chairman of beIN SPORT, said, “Asia is a very important market for beIN SPORT and we hope to continue the pace of expansion as we seek new opportunities for growth.” Felix To, TVBNV CEO, said, “We are thrilled to partner beIN SPORT, and are delighted to have such a compelling bouquet of sports content under one channel brand. Our goal is to serve sports fans with the best high-definition coverage that pay-TV can provide, and we aim bolster TVB NETWORK VISION’s brand presence with such a stellar variety and quality of sports.” Visit www.tvbnetworkvision.com and www.beinsport.tv

SPORTSCASTING

The strength of the field, which includes a strong mix of both traditional and developing winter sports markets, highlights the keen interest cities around the world have in the Games and the lasting benefits and legacy they can bring to a region.

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NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations

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Australia Network Expands Its Reach in India AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION CHANNEL, the Australia Network, will be available to an additional 25 million viewers in the Indian sub-continent later this month. Following an agreement recently signed between the ABC and India’s public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, Australia Network will be delivered Direct-to-Home (DTH) via satellite on DD Direct, operated by the Doordashan television service – a division of Prasar Bharati. To mark the launch of the new service, the ABC’s agenda-setting panel discussion program, Q&A, broadcast live from Delhi on Monday 18 November. Also, ABC International has launched a new website for India, AustraliaPlus. com/India – the new digital home of the best of Australian content covering arts and culture, business, education, health, lifestyle, news and current aﬀairs, science, sports, technology and travel. The website oﬀers content in both English and Hindi, as well as an Indian news feed from Doordashan. The website’s launch closely follows the introduction of ABC International’s Chinese mobile phone App into the China market last month. “As 2013 nears an end, we are seeing an enormous growth in the sharing of content between India and Australia through a number of channels,” the CEO of ABC International, Lynley Marshall, said. “Our partnership with Doordashan means that Australian content will find a whole new audience in India. “What is also exciting is that through our new Indian website, as well as closer connections being developed with some of India’s leading media companies such as The Times of India and New Delhi TV, there is significantly more opportunity to share ideas and produce content that is relevant to audiences in both countries. Examples of this are projects already in pre-production such as the marking of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign and a cricket series highlighting the best from our shared archives.” Ms Marshall said the initiatives reflected the growing demand for more information about contemporary Australian life, the growing connections in business, education and tourism and the people to people links. Australia Network is currently available in key metropolitan markets across the Indian sub-continent via a number of regional cable and satellite television operators. Visit http://australiaplus.com/India

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AP Unveils Digital Archive of Middle East Footage THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS LAUNCHED a fully digitised archive of video footage from, about, and relevant to, the Middle East and North Africa. This innovative new product, AP Instant Middle East Archive, includes more than 60,000 news stories from 1900 to the present day sourced from AP Archive, the film and video archive of the AP, as well as from the world-renowned British Movietone News archive. New coverage is added every day from AP’s video newsgathering activities around the world. “This product is simply the finest visual document of the history of the Middle East and North Africa,” said Alwyn Lindsey, AP’s director of international archives. “It is a must for any news organisation that is serious about covering the region.”

AP Instant Middle East Archive is part of a suite of new products that have emerged from the AP’s eﬀorts to digitise its vast news archive and enhance a platform that allows easy viewing and downloading of AP’s footage in broadcast quality. Other new oﬀerings include, AP Instant Library, Instant AP News and AP Instant British Movietone Archive.

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AP Instant Middle East Archive charts the history of the region, documenting such key events as World War I and II, the crisis in Palestine and the founding of Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict, war in Lebanon, revolution in Iran and both Gulf wars.

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It also includes more recent footage from the Arab Spring, the upheavals in Egypt, and the Syrian civil war. Significant events that took place outside the region are also included, such as the Camp David peace accords, the 1972 Olympics in Munich and the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Among the personalities featured prominently are Lawrence of Arabia, King Idris of Libya, King Faisal of Iraq, Golda Meir, Moammar Gadhafi, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran. The economy of the region is also covered extensively, as well as the development of the oil industry and the rise of the Gulf States. Other areas of interest include the arts, religion, culture, entertainment and sports. Visit www.ap.org

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AFP to Distribute INA Video Archives

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AS THE NEWS UNFOLDS, France’s INA (National Audiovisual Institute) content will be selected and made available to AFP's international clients via the VidéoForum platform that markets the videos of AFPTV and its partners. First television appearances of major figures, key events, historic locations, shots illustrating economic or technological upheavals, scenes from everyday life, interviews with celebrities from the world of the arts and entertainment: these are some examples of relevant images that will enable AFP's international clients to bring additional insight to their coverage.

with AFP’s international commercial strength, we are confident that this new oﬀering, to be launched in the very near future, will be a success.”

AFP Chairman and former INA Chairman, Emmanuel Hoog, said, “This new stage in our partnership will enable AFP to oﬀer its international clients video content enriched with a historical perspective. With INA’s expertise in the area of audiovisual archives and the quality of the content on oﬀer, combined

For several years, INA has been distributing AFP’s news archives via Inamediapro.com, the world’s largest online digital archive bank, to both media and non-media clients.

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Visit www.afp.com and www.institut-national-audiovisuel.fr/en/home

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INA Chairman, Mathieu Gallet, said, “This new agreement is very much in line with INA’s strategy of reaching out to all audiences by distributing its content as widely as possible. For Ina it is an opportunity to reinforce its position in international markets where AFP has a very strong presence; at the same time, our collections complement what AFP has and enable AFP to propose a richer oﬀering to is clients.”

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ChyronHego Releases Channel Box 2, Version 5.0 CHYRONHEGO HAS RELEASED a new version of Channel Box 2 software for its channel branding and promo system. With new architecture and a host of new features, Channel Box 2 Version 5.0 oﬀers a faster and easier way to deliver branding elements such as headlines, sports scores, financial data, weather reports, snipes, social media commentary, and automated promos. Version 5.0 represents a major software upgrade and is localised in thirteen languages including Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish. Users can accelerate design time to air with tools such as the Scene Designer with a dynamic real-time canvas, and an Advanced Data Object tool to point-and-click data to air. Also new in Version 5.0 is an asset validation and quality control system to ensure error-free scenes, and an embedded C# development environment leveraging the latest .NET Microsoft technology that allows for interactive control panels. Visit www.chyronhego.com

Second ‘TV on Wheels’ Now In Publication NEP'S CTO, George Hoover, and co-author Jim Boston have published the second edition of their book, ‘TV on Wheels: The Story of Remote Television Production’. First published in 2002, ‘TV on Wheels’ covers the history, planning logistics, operations, and technology that define the remote broadcasting industry. This edition is also available as an e-book. “George is revered in the industry and he’s literally written the book on remote broadcasting. We congratulate both George and Jim on the new edition of ‘TV on Wheels,’ truly the definitive book on this exciting and complex world.,” said Kevin Rabbitt, CEO, NEP. Based on the success of the first edition in the education market, Hoover and Boston anticipate a large percentage of the book sales will be to college and university broadcasting technology departments. To that end, ‘TV on Wheels’ has been redesigned with a more academic focus. A percentage of the proceeds from sales of ‘TV on Wheels’ will go to the Sports Video Group’s Sports Broadcasting Fund, established in early 2012, which oﬀers financial assistance to those in the sports broadcast production community and their families who may face illness, death, or disaster. Visit www.nepinc.com

Astrium Announces Skywan 5G Satellite Modem Platform ASTRIUM, the world’s second-ranking space company, has announced the launch of Astrium Services’ next generation Skywan 5G satcom modem. The Skywan modem family is a satellite communication platform for customer centric networks. It is a bi-directional MF-TDMA plus DVB system that supports voice, video and data applications. The Skywan modem family is part of ND SatCom’s product range. The next generation Skywan 5G brings new benefits to its network operators. Total cost of ownership is significantly reduced thanks to the fact that only one type of device is needed for all roles in the network. Skywan 5G enables star, mesh, multi-star or hybrid topologies with communications-on-the-move (COTM) support. No matter what type of network is requested, the hardware design of Skywan 5G reliably fits all existing topologies within the VSAT realm. Each unit can act either as a hub or master station. Geographical redundancy of the master station is already built-in. The device is so

Brainstorm Supports Octopus Newsroom BRAINSTORM MULTIMEDIA'S latest version of BrainNews now supports Octopus Newsroom systems. BrainNews is a scalable, MOScompatible, template-based system that integrates graphics into news environments, allowing journalists and producers to customise and combine pre-defined 3D graphics within their news workflow without the constant input from graphics departments.

flexible that the customer can change the topology at a later point, use the unit for other networks or even split or pool networks together. Peak IP rates on LAN ports up to 20Mbps in transmit and receive direction is supported to cover current demands for network speed. Measuring in at only 1RU, the Skywan 5G is the smallest hub device on the market that can also support its outdoor equipment using its own power supply. It oﬀers the option of being either mounted in a rack or to be used as a table top device. A Skywan 5G network requires no standard hub but enables highspeed communication between remote network sites. With Skywan’s meshed network topology support, connectivity can be established between any two stations in the network with a single satellite hop. Up to 20Mbps bi-directional communication is supported by the TDMA system. Visit www.astrium.eads.net

Ofcom Research Into UK News Consumption OFCOM HAS PUBLISHED RESEARCH into news consumption across the four main communications platforms: television, radio, print, and online. The report examines the consumption of news content, and attitudes toward that content across diﬀerent platforms.

The integration into Octopus Newsroom Systems allows Octopus’ clients to run BrainNews into their workflow. This allows clients to use BrainNews and Aston 3D-based graphics and templates, which can be chosen and called by journalists to edit details, incorporate these graphics into their rundown lists, or even use the BrainNews Controller to send them to air, using the Octopus environment.

The report then details various findings relating to the consumption of news; the sources and platforms used, the perceived importance of diﬀerent platforms and outlets for news, attitudes to individual news sources, and with this, an overview of local media consumption. It also provides details of Ofcom’s cross-platform news consumption metric – ‘share of references’.

According to Héctor Viguer, Brainstorm’s Engineering Director, “BrainNews is a flexible product that integrates with the most common Newsroom systems, and following this strategy we are very pleased to announce its integration with Octopus Newsroom, one of the most significantly growing newsroom systems there are.”

The research draws on a variety of data sources, with the primary reference being a news survey commissioned by Ofcom and conducted by Kantar Media in April 2013, comprising an omnibus survey of 2,862 people across the UK, including boosts of 350 in each devolved nation.

Visit www.brainstorm.es

Visit www.ofcom.org.uk

NEWS OPERATIONS

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Reporting on China 40 years ago: Restrictions, Frustrations and Reading Between the Lines

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By Paul Raﬀaele

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In early October 1973 I flew to Hong Kong on my way to setting up the first ABC bureau in Peking the Chinese capital city now known as Beijing.

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China was still embroiled in the Cultural Revolution, a violent countrywide rebellion inspired by the then-demigod Mao Tse-tung, where many thousands died and millions were

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imprisoned. CHINA HAD VIRTUALLY CLOSED ITSELF oﬀ from the world for a decade. No tourists were allowed and only a handful of foreign journalists were permitted to be based in Peking, compared to more than 1,000 today. I was excited to be the first Australian journalist ever to be based in Mao’s China and at the same time nervous at the prospect of being cut oﬀ in Peking from the familiar outside world.

A brilliant, dedicated man, Ma was in charge of the section that handled the few resident foreign correspondents. There were no Americans and I was the only foreign broadcaster - which meant no BBC.

Today, China welcomes thousands of tourists and business people daily, but on that autumn day in 1973 only six of us had permits to enter China, the Middle Kingdom. The other five were diplomats.

Ma was all smiles that first day and on every day that my despatches were “positive” on the subject of the new China. But when I transgressed the oﬃcial truth he instantly changed to a scolding headmaster bent on correcting the errors of his latest pupil.

THE CONFUSION OF ARRIVAL CREATES BUREAUCRATIC PANIC At Lowu station I walked past a British soldier cradling a sub-machine gun and began the 100-step journey across a covered bridge separating China from Hong Kong. I felt like a character in a John le Carré novel. At the other end I could see a Chinese soldier gripping an AK-47 in front of a giant red and gold wall painting emblazoned with a revolutionary saying: “We have friends all over the world”. I remember wondering if it was a welcome or a warning, or both. The morning was hushed as I reached the end of the bridge. There were few people about. It was Shenzhen, a quiet fishing village with just a few hundred inhabitants and a single two-storey building housing the immigration and customs departments. Now, it is home to several million people, and a role model in China’s astonishing expansion into a world-beating industrial powerhouse.

I remember a conversation with Ma during the row that erupted when the ABC showed Antonioni’s documentary film of life in China. The Chinese government hated it and put pressure on the ABC not to show it. Soon after it was broadcast, I asked for permission to travel in the countryside. Ma looked at me as much in sorrow as in anger and remarked: “Mr Raﬀaele, how can I give you permission for such a journey when I can’t guarantee your safety from the masses? They know the Australian Broadcasting Commission has shown the Antonioni film against our express wishes. If they catch you, they might even go as far as to stone you.” Ma went on to become China’s ambassador to Great Britain and then China’s eminence grise in Hong Kong following the 1997 takeover. I enjoyed our verbal jousting immensely.

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After a three-hour train ride through rural China followed by a flight, I arrived at Peking airport. No one was there to meet me.

One of the most memorable events took place a few weeks after I set up the bureau in Peking.

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My earlier cables to the foreign media section of the foreign ministry seemed to have been overlooked. I stood beneath a giant portrait of Mao while a caretaker arranged for a taxi to come and get me.

To the strains of a Chinese military band playing Click Go The Shears, Gough Whitlam, the first Australian prime minister ever to visit China, emerged from his jet to a rapturous welcome by thousands of colourfully dressed Chinese.

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The taxi took me to the Hsin Chiao Hotel in the middle of the city, originally built to house Soviet advisers who had long gone. The reception desk was empty but the taxi driver roused the manager from his bed.

Hordes of girls in traditional costumes screamed rehearsed phrases of greeting, competing with a score of bands and innumerable fluttering red and gold banners.

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Bewildered and increasingly frantic, he explained that all visitors to China were tabulated, tagged and sorted into their respective slots with welcoming oﬃcials at the airport, taxis and hotels allotted to greet them on arrival.

From the airport the parade of big black limousines passed down the broad Chang An avenue, past the Forbidden City, cheered on by the many thousands of Chinese shouting eternal greetings to their Australian friends.

Manifestly, that had not occurred in my case.

Such was the expertise of the Chinese propaganda machine that our reports, unhindered by any of the usual technical and bureaucratic delays I would later experience, dwelt fulsomely on the great and eternal spirit of friendship between China and Australia.

An hour’s voluble telephone conversations and a succession of shadowy bureaucrats produced oﬃcial recognition that I truly existed and so I was finally given a key to a room in the almost deserted hotel.

NEWS OPERATIONS

Paul Raﬀaele (just over shoulder of female translator) during then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s visit to China.

WHITLAM’S VISIT INSPIRES WELL-REHEARSED RAPTURE

OFFICIAL HANDLER WARNS: ‘THE MASSES MIGHT STONE YOU’

Few of us would ever know that the same eﬀusively choreographed welcome would be turned on the following week, with an appropriate musical accompaniment, for an African dictator whose amusements included feeding his enemies to his pet crocodiles.

The following morning I presented myself to Ma Yuchen, who was to be both the delight and blight of my life for the next 18 months.

On that first day of the visit, at the welcoming banquet in the Great Hall of the People, Whitlam and all of us were introduced to the charismatic premier Chou.

It gave me entrance to a small room which for the next eight months was to be both home and oﬃce for me and my wife, who arrived a few weeks later.

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NEWS OPERATIONS

Then, we listened in amazed delight as the band of the People’s Liberation Army band played a stentorian version of On The Road To Gundagai.

THE CORRESPONDENT’S LOT: DECIPHERING OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS For most of the time I spent as the ABC’s man in China there was more frustration than glamour. Movement around the country and coverage of day-to-day events were heavily restricted. We were not allowed to leave the confines of the Peking boundaries without oﬃcial permission and that was very rarely ever given. We were denied access to key sources of information such as the leadership, bureaucracy and local journalists. We were forbidden from talking to any Chinese in the street and visiting local homes. But life had its pleasant and memorable moments. I often wandered through the Forbidden City, usually the only person in the huge complex and often the only person on the Great Wall when I went for a visit. My wife and I often visited the tumbledown antique shops in the historical Liu-Lichang Lane, sometimes purchasing a rare scroll, more often admiring Ching dynasty bric-a-brac.

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We tried to find out what was happening among the leadership, usually without success. We read the People’s Daily devotedly with its obscure references to historical events centuries ago which we knew to be hints of what was a titanic battle between premier Chou and Madame Mao for control of China after Mao died.

We attended the boring diplomatic functions where the more imaginative among us sprouted wild and improbable political rumours that were swiftly replaced by others. We did the best we could, our stories necessarily based on educated guesswork and half-truths, compounded on Western political logic that was more often than not inappropriate.

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My colleagues were top journalists, famed in their countries, such as John Burns of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Gerd Ruge of Die Welt, and the irrepressible Claire Hollingworth of the UK’s Daily Telegraph. Scoops at home were their bread and butter. Yet I don’t recall anyone ever filing a single scoop while I was based in Peking. There were other chances for scoops. I spent nine months convincing the North Korean ambassador to approve a visit to a country even more isolated than China.

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When he agreed I became the first Australian journalist to enter North Korea, and I was also the only Western correspondent in the North Vietnamese capital when Saigon fell in 1975 and South Vietnam surrendered to the legions of Ho Chi Minh.

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Though unforgettable, none were more memorable than that exhilarating week in Peking 40 years ago when the ABC bureau opened for business and Whitlam and his cohorts came to visit.

This article was first published on the ABCNews web site on November 4, 2013.

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and see former ABC China correspondent Paul Raﬀaele’s first television report from the Peking bureau in 1973 on the use of bicycles as a form of transportation in China.

India’s TV NOW Selects Grass Valley for HD News Operation TV NOW PLANS TO LAUNCH with a high-definition news production solution from Grass Valley. TV NOW’s new infrastructure will include three GV Director nonlinear live production systems, the GV STRATUS nonlinear media production tools, nine LDX Flex HD studio cameras, a Trinix NXT digital video routing switcher, a K2 Summit 3G transmission server, EDIUS nonlinear editing software, and HD K2 SAN storage. Together, these solutions will enable TV NOW to get news to air more quickly and without any interruptions, crucial to the running of an operation that airs programming 24/7. TV NOW, operated by the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), will deliver programming in HD to 40 million viewers across the state of Kerala in southwest India. Station management prides itself on its modern, forward-thinking approach in offering around-the-clock news that is accessible to viewers via smart phones, tablets, and other devices. “As the only business consortium to launch a brand new channel in India, it’s important for us to have the most modern technologies in place to reach our millions of viewers in a timely and efficient manner,” said Bhagath Chandrasekhar at TV NOW. “With Grass Valley’s powerful toolset at our fingertips, we will have an integrated platform that combines production tools and asset management at TV NOW so we can confidently sign-on with stateof-the-art production processes.” Offering a software-based platform for nonlinear media production, GV Director combined with GV STRATUS forms a crucial part of the production chain for TV NOW. GV Director is a multipurpose tool for live production with integrated video switching, multi-layer effects, animated graphics, and multiviewer monitoring in a single system. GV STRATUS is a set of tools in one workspace supporting ingest, editing, content aggregation, logging, transfer, and playout. Integrating with Grass Valley K2 media servers and storage, the solution offers an expandable foundation for new applications and workflows. “With TV NOW, we aim to create an exceptional television viewing experience and the only way to do that is with superior technology in place. Grass Valley’s expertise and experience in broadcast technologies made them the obvious choice for us, and we are so pleased to be working with them on this important project,” commented K.N. Marzook, Chairman at KCCI. “The broadcast market in India is currently going through a period of exciting change and is a vital part of Grass Valley’s pathway,” said Stephen Wong, Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific, Grass Valley. “We’re excited to show broadcasters how our products can not only enable them to better manage their on-air operations, but ensure flexibility for the future growth of their stations. "Our solutions integrate seamlessly with TV NOW’s installed equipment, creating a one-stop solution to reach viewers faster, with enriched quality as news breaks around the globe. It also marks the first time GV Director and GV STRATUS will be deployed in India and signifies a powerful step forward for Grass Valley’s presence in India’s growing broadcast market” Visit www.grassvalley.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

We later raised glasses of mao tai in a toast to Chairman Mao, who was one of the greatest monsters in history, directly responsible for the deaths of more than 40 million Chinese.

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POST PRODUCTION www.content-technology.com/postproduction

PRO CEN

Quantel’s Pablo Rio Helps Expand 4K in Korea and China KOREAN POST AND BROADCAST HOUSE, CJ Powercast, has purchased a Quantel Pablo Rio high quality colour and finishing system to support its move into 4K/UHD production for broadcast and multi-media applications. Equipped with the Neo colour panel, the system is being supplied via Quantel’s Korean partner, QAC Korea. Pablo Rio is Quantel’s high-quality colour and finishing system that provides a productive workflow for 2D and S3D projects. Capable of handling 4K 60p in realtime, Pablo Rio runs on high performance PC hardware and exploits NVIDIA Maximus multi-GPU technology to deliver true interactivity and maximum productivity. CJ Powercast, a division of the multi-national CJ Group, was founded in 2003 to provide production, post-production and content delivery services to CJ Group’s rapidly expanding broadcast stations portfolio. The Pablo Rio will operate alongside CJ Powercast’s existing Quantel Pablo and PA systems, allowing the creative team to share projects across systems. Mr Junho Jun, CJ Powercast Technical Supervisor and Colorist, said, “Pablo Rio’s high performance and stability will help us move smoothly into 4K 60p and 4K S3D operations. We have been using Quantel systems since 2006 and have never experienced any loss of media or data in that time. We trust the high quality and brand value of Quantel.” Quantel Sales Director, Martin Mulligan, said, “Naturally we’re delighted that CJ Powercast has again invested in its future with Quantel. Pablo Rio is the perfect fit for their continued drive to be the best and to stay ahead of developments in our industry.” China’s Zhejiang University of Media and Communications has also purchased a Quantel Pablo Rio for its School of Film and TV Arts. Pablo Rio will be used for the development of 4K and S3D television programs. Jointly funded by The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) and The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang

Eyeheight Releases Plug-in Legaliser for Premiere Pro EYEHEIGHT'S NEW BroadcastSafePP plug-in legaliser for Adobe’s Premiere Pro is now in production and deliverable. Designed for use with Apple desktop and laptop computers running OS X (Snow Leopard and later versions), BroadcastSafePP is a complete plug-in legaliser, safe-area generator and graphic measurement toolset. It enables users to verify and conform content prior to submission to any file-based quality control system, all from within the Premiere Pro interface. Eyeheight’s BroadcastSafePP can perform composite, RGB, RGB-plus-Y and simultaneous composite-plus-RGB legalising, all with user-adjustable soft clipping at high and low thresholds.

POST PRODUCTION

Users can select from an extensive range of presets, or work in custom mode, which gives full access to 15 configurable parameters. Facility administrators can assign which built-in presets are available to users, create new presets or disable the custom option. An integral safe-area generator provides a range of broadcast-safe area markers covering all the requirements for standard-definition, high-definition and 2K, including 16:9 and 14:9 requirements in SD. BroadcastSafePP supports any combination of file formats and source chroma-space available in Premiere Pro. Visit www.eyeheight.com

University of Media and Communications supports almost 10,000 full time students studying courses including film and TV post-production, special eﬀects and non-linear editing. Mr Li Jinglin, VP of Zhejiang University of Media and Communications, said, “We aim to provide our students with the best possible learning environment. We chose Pablo Rio because it not only oﬀers an immense colour correction and finishing toolset but also provides a fast and intuitive file-based workflow for 4K and beyond.” Quantel Marketing Director, Steve Owen, said, “Zhejiang University of Media and Communications has an excellent reputation as a world-leading education centre for the industry’s future TV, film and broadcasting talent. We are thrilled that such a talented group of people will be using Pablo Rio as the centrepiece of their 4K and S3D television program production research.” Finally, China’s highly prestigious Beijing Film Academy has purchased a Quantel Pablo Rio with a Neo Nano colour panel. The school’s animation department will use the system for the post-production of S3D animation films. The Academy has also purchased SynthIA, Quantel’s standalone software package that provides S3D Interaxial adjustment in post. Mr Sun Lijun, VP at Beijing Film Academy, said, “We have had Quantel systems in house for many years and we are continually impressed with their speed, user-friendliness and high quality colour, finishing and S3D toolsets. We are always looking to provide our students with the best post systems on the market and with Pablo Rio our students have the ultimate post-production workflow to maximise creativity and productivity.” Martin Mulligan, said, “We are honoured that the highly respected Beijing Film Academy has once again chosen Quantel technology for its students – some of the industry’s most promising creative talent – to develop highquality S3D content.” Visit www.quantel.com

Cospective Launches Frankie 2.1 COSPECTIVE HAS ANNOUNCED a new version of its video review tool, Frankie, is now available. Frankie 2.1 oﬀers new features, including zooming and panning, custom branding in the review interface, while also doubling storage to 20 GB. “These powerful new zoom and pan features have taken Frankie to a new level,” said Jeremy Pollard, Frankie Product Manager. “Having the option to zoom into very specific objects that need to be discussed will be a boon to project managers. Being able to isolate any component of an image will focus the long-distance conversations that they have with their team and clients.” Frankie 2.1 allows any team member to initiate a review at their convenience and save their marked-up video, including session notes that are saved as a PDF, for reference or sharing. Videos are uploaded and reviews are initiated by sending a URL to other collaborators. With Frankie 2.1, users can now zoom in for greater detail, or pan across an image to isolate critical components for review. In addition to the new features, the trial period for Frankie 2.1 has been extended to 21 days and includes a helpful sample review containing a Frankie intro video. Visit www.cospective.com

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Australian VFX Houses Sink Their Claws Into The Wolverine PRODUCED BY 20TH CENTURY FOX and directed by James Mangold, The Wolverine was filmed in Australia, and also undertook a significant portion of its VFX down under. Among the eﬀects studios to be enlisted by Fox Studios were Iloura in Melbourne, Method Studios in Sydney, and Adelaide’s Rising Sun Pictures.

ILOURA AND METHOD STUDIOS The VFX talent housed at Iloura and Method Studios, both divisions of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc., helped demonstrate Logan’s (Wolverine’s) incredible strength and his ability to heal, as well as promoting the intricate architecture of Japan. Both VFX studios had the pleasure of working with VFX Supervisor and Academy Award nominee Philip Brennan; Iloura was also able to work again with VFX Producer Jamie Stevenson. The Iloura crew, led by VFX Supervisor, Glenn Melenhorst, completed just over 100 shots for the film, including a sequence that featured a futuristic medical ‘Pin Bed’ made up of steel pins that follow the contours and movements of the patient’s body. Melenhorst, says, “The bed was a 3D animated object that posed several complex challenges due to the meticulous integration detail required with the actor across more than 60 shots.” Iloura also helped bring life to a tiny robotic medical ‘beetle’. The crew modelled, rigged and animated the 3D beetle based on production artwork and gave it an aggressive personality. Despite its diminutive size it threatens Logan in one highly memorable sequence. One particular challenge for the team involved very complex body tracking, rotomotion and FX in order to see Logan healing from severe total upper body and facial burns. The shots included full hair regrowth as Logan’s healing powers are shown to their full eﬀect before the audience’s eyes. Method Studios completed 122 shots for the feature, divided into five sequences, which included shots of metal claws, Tokyo apartments, and Alaskan and Japanese streetscapes. The scope of work relied heavily on 3D compositing and matte painting, using projected backgrounds, point-clouds and image-based modelling to bring the immersive environments to life.

The studio created a digital version of Shinjuku station platform, made views of Tokyo from Noburo’s penthouse, Tokyo downtown, as well as a large number of shots of the Yukon; most of which were set extensions or environment shots.

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“The Tokyo sequences were particularly challenging as the original shoot elements and references source were shot on public streets,” said Method VFX Supervisor James Rogers. “While they looked busy, it was a challenge to make the action work for the purposes of the film, especially in terms of continuity. We used a lot of techniques to patch the backgrounds together, in addition to perspective tricks to make them work for the studio-shot foregrounds.”

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Both the Iloura and Method teams relished the opportunity to work on the project; Simon Rosenthal, Deluxe Head of VFX, Asia Pacific said, “The project provided a great opportunity for us to showcase the diverse skills within the Australian businesses and further reinforced our position as high-end facilities.”

RISING SUN PICTURES Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) created more than 260 visual eﬀects shots for The Wolverine, helping to recreate the World War II atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, Japan. It also produced digital environments for a number of sequences, including a scene set in a snow-covered Japanese village, and combat eﬀects such as digital copies of Wolverine’s iconic claws for use in

numerous scenes involving challenging stunts. RSP’s team was led by VFX Supervisor Tim Crosbie. “RSP was one of the primary vendors on The Wolverine and they brought a great deal to the table both creatively and technically,” says VFX Producer Jamie Stevenson. “Having worked with them in the past, we knew they would be a great fit for much of the claw work, but we also felt that they were the right vendor to take on several of the key sequences that required extensive environment work as well as challenging simulations and particle effects.” For the atomic bomb attack, which occurs in an early flashback sequence, RSP artists worked from archival footage to produce a CG model of Nagasaki and the towering mushroom cloud produced by the bomb. They also created radioactive shockwaves, pyroclastic waves, and debris elements for shots showing the destruction of the prisoner of war camp where Wolverine was being held. “The view of Nagasaki, seen from across a harbour, required an extensive digital matte painting,” notes Crosbie. “We started by modelling the bomb after photographs of the actual blast but James Mangold wanted something unique and so pushed the blast into something never before seen. We were able to leverage research we had done for previous destruction effects to make an event that is much, much bigger and more immersive. It’s exciting stuff.” RSP built a detailed 3D model of the prisoner of war camp based on location in Sydney, and then blew it apart as the radioactive shockwaves roll through. One of those waves carries Wolverine through the air. He lands in a stone well where he uses his body as a shield in saving the life of a Japanese soldier. “Components of the huts and wood that fly past the camera required a fair amount of choreography and numerous iterations to get the action beats just right,” recalls Crosbie. “Equally challenging was the pyroclastic cloud - the leading edge of the explosion - which sweeps across city and the water and through the camp ripping up buildings, guard towers and everything else in its path. Our team did well.” Digital replacements for Wolverine’s claws were used in place of practical claws for scenes involving dangerous stunts. In those instances, actor Hugh Jackman wore stubs or tracking markers that served as guides for matchmoving the digital claw assets. “Philip Brennan provided us with a full HDRI set for every shot requiring visual effects, so we knew exactly what lighting was required,” Crosbie notes. “That worked extremely well. Each claw was rendered out with an option of blood stained or cleaned, so at a moments notice we could make a scene gory or safe.” Other items on RSP’s task list included adding wounds to Wolverine during some of his many fights, filling a bucket with a murky liquid that one of Wolverine’s adversaries uses to create poison arrows, massive set extensions replacing iconic Sydney landmarks with iconic Japanese structures. Artists also created a matte painting and environmental elements for a scene set in Canada’s Yukon as well as all shots of the Yashida lab. Visit www.iloura.com.au, www.methodstudios.com, www.bydeluxe.com and www.rsp.com.au

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Apple Writes its Own Rules with OS X Mavericks ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA, Samuel Augustus Maverick was a Texas lawyer, politician, and land baron. His name is the source of the term “maverick,” first cited in 1867, which means “independently minded”. Various accounts of the term’s origins hold that Maverick came to be considered independently minded by his fellow ranchers because he refused to brand his cattle. Unbranded cattle which were not part of the herd came to be labelled “mavericks”. Incidentally, he was the grandfather of U.S. Congressman Maury Maverick, who coined the term gobbledygook. Apple, for its part, has chosen to identify its new operating system with the former term, not the latter! Prompting yet another round of downloading, updating and debugging, Apple has announced its new OS X Mavericks. In a bold move, the new Operating System is completely free. The new OS iteration oﬀers 200 new features, and brings iOS applications to the desktop, including: + iBooks, which gives you instant access to your iBooks library and works across all your Apple devices. + Maps brings mapping technology to the desktop and allows planning a trip from your Mac, then sending it to your iPhone for voice navigation on the road. + iCloud Keychain, which safely stores your website usernames and passwords, credit card numbers and Wi-Fi passwords and pushes them to your trusted devices. + Enhanced multi-display support makes using multiple displays easier and more powerful, with no configuration required. + Interactive Notifications allowing you to reply to a message, respond to a FaceTime call or delete an email without leaving the app you’re using. + Finder Tabs help unclutter your desktop by consolidating multiple Finder windows into a single window with multiple tabs. + Finder Tags is a new way to organise and find files – both on your Mac and iCloud. Mavericks also includes new core technologies that boost performance and improve the battery life. Timer Coalescing and ‘App Nap’ save energy and reduce power consumption. Compressed

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memory automatically shrinks inactive data to keep your Mac responsive. Mavericks also delivers performance enhancements for systems with integrated graphics through OpenCL support and dynamic video memory allocation. Any Mac capable of running OS X Mountain Lion can also run Mavericks.

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NEW MAC PRO Taking advantage of the new operating are the new Mac Pro and MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Available in December, the new Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual workstation-class GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, PCIe-based flash storage and ECC memory. The Mac Pro has taken quite a design leap from the once traditional ‘pro’ style tower, and is built around a unified thermal core allowing the system to share thermal capacity across all its processors. A single fan draws in air and makes the new Mac Pro as quiet as a Mac mini. The result is a pro desktop machine with unprecedented performance packed into a design that’s a mere 25.1cm tall and an eighth the volume of the previous Mac Pro tower designs. Configurations include 4-core, 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon processors running at Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz. Two workstationclass AMD FirePro GPUs with up to 12GB of video memory provide up to seven teraflops of computing power and up to eight times the graphics performance of previous generations. OpenGL and OpenCL are optimised in OS X Mavericks to leverage the full computing power of the CPU and dual GPUs. Apple has eschewed the PCIe expansion platform in favour of Intel’s Thunderbolt interface which combines PCI Express (PCIe), DisplayPort (DP), and DC power into a serial signal. The six Thunderbolt 2 ports will essentially allow up to 36 high-performance peripherals, including the latest 4K displays. A self-configuring IP over Thunderbolt software feature in OS X Mavericks provides a fast link between Thunderbolt-enabled Macs. Apple has also updated the MacBook Pro with Retina display with new Intel processors, the latest graphics, longer battery life, faster flash storage, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features fourth generation dual-core Intel i5

Pr un he O th U Mavericks Inside. The new Mac Pro.

processors up to 2.6 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz. New integrated Intel Iris graphics deliver up to 90% faster performance than the previous generation. The 13-inch model can be configured with dual-core Intel i7 processors up to 2.8 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz. It will deliver up to nine hours of battery life, two hours more than the previous generation. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features fourth generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processors up to 2.3 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz. The 15-inch model includes Intel Iris Pro graphics, or Iris Pro and GeForce GT 750M discrete graphics with 2GB of video memory. The 15-inch model can be configured with faster quad-core i7 processors up to 2.6 GHz with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.8 GHz. It will deliver up to eight hours of battery life, an hour more than the previous generation. MacBook Pro with Retina display also features PCIe-based flash storage with up to 60% faster read speeds than the previous generation. Dual Thunderbolt 2 ports deliver up to 20Gbps of bandwidth to each external device, allowing users to connect to multiple displays and high performance devices, and an HDMI port oﬀers quick connectivity to HDTVs and projectors. Visit www.apple.com/au

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Blackmagic Design Releases Support for OS X Mavericks Blackmagic Design has released new software updates with full support for Apple’s OS X Mavericks. Customers can immediately download Blackmagic Design software updates, also free of charge, from the Blackmagic Design web site. The updates include OS X Mavericks compatibility and interface enhancements for the new operating system and are available for

DeckLink, UltraStudio and Intensity Desktop Video products.

software in sync with major OS updates. Our

“We’re very excited to be releasing software updates for our desktop video solutions on the same day that OS X Mavericks is available,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Blackmagic Design works hard to make sure our customers can use the latest features and up to date

to be able to easily download our software and

customers can be assured that they will continue enjoy performance improvements when they upgrade to OS X Mavericks and Blackmagic Design products.” Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

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Sony’s Professional OLED Line on a Diet SONY’S NEWEST OLED MONITORS combine lightweight, slim, and portable designs with the technology’s high colour accuracy, contrast and picture quality. The recently released PVM-A250 (25-inch), and PVM-A170 (17-inch) achieve approximate 40% reduction in depth and weight compared to previous Sony models. To achieve this svelte form factor, Sony re-engineered the entire design, from the chassis to the OLED panel module’s structure, through to the signal processing board. The result is savings in space and logistics expenses, especially important in the confines of a broadcast vehicle. Power consumption is also reduced by 9% in the PVM-A250 and 14% in the PVM-A170. Protecting the new monitors’ panel, connectors, and cabinet is a unique body design and an optional panel protection kit. The kit also helps maintain image quality by reducing outside light reflection. Other operational improvements include an I/P conversion system that delivers optimised signal processing according to input signals. Users can also upgrade the monitors via ethernet. Sony’s professional Trimaster EL OLED monitor line has expanded from master monitors to picture monitors since its first launch in 2011. The Trimaster EL technology and Sony’s uniquely developed OLED panel reproduces accurate blacks and colours, and features exceptional dynamic range and motion response. Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com

Tighter Integration & Performance for Cineware and After Effects CC MAXON has announced upgrades to Maxon Cineware, now available in the latest version of Adobe After Effects CC. The enhancements symbolise the ongoing strategic relationship between Maxon and Adobe to deliver improved integration and performance between Maxon’s 3D application, Cinema 4D, and Adobe’s software. Since the June introduction of Adobe After Effects CC, creative professionals have benefitted from the integration provided by Cineware, which establishes a bridge between the two applications, allowing users to open any 3D file that Cinema 4D supports directly within After Effects. Compositing passes can also be selected directly in After Effects for editing. This version of After Effects CC also debuted Cinema 4D Lite, a limited version of Cinema 4D integrated within After Effects. Updates to Cineware include: + Options Dialog Box – New settings are available in the Cineware Options Dialog Box allowing users to select which version of Cinema 4D (R14 or later) should be started automatically. + Rendering Enhancements – New rendering capabilities are available in the After Effects CC Cineware viewport for users wishing to use an edition of Cinema 4D other than Cinema 4D Lite, including the Physical Renderer. + Maxon’s Physical Renderer gives artists real-world camera functions for added cinematic and creative possibilities. It works with Intel’s optimised Embree Raytracing Engine, for rendering speed improvements without compromising image quality. Visit www.maxon.net

Canon Enters Pro 4K Display Market with New 30-inch Model CANON HAS ANNOUNCED the company’s entry into the 4K video production display market with the introduction of the DP-V3010, a 30inch display for professional use. The DP-V3010 features an image engine developed by Canon for display use, along with a proprietary RGB LED backlight system and an IPS LCD panel. The DP-V3010 corrects in-plane non-uniformity to achieve precise uniformity for colour and brightness. The 10-bit panel driver and image engine cooperate to glean 1,024 gradation levels for each RGB colour. Featuring an IPS LCD panel with 4096 x 2560 pixels, the DP-V3010 can display DCI 4K resolution (4096 x 2160 pixels) without resorting to enlarging or reducing processes. Additionally, with a panel aspect ratio of 16:10, the display is also suited to PC-based editing tasks such as high-resolution still-image processing and visual-eﬀects production work. When adjusting image quality, users can display sliders in the lower portion of the screen so as not to hide the image being worked on. Canon image-processing technology and the high-contrast IPS LCD panel combine to achieve a contrast ratio of 2000:1 or greater (based on the DCI standard). Ensuring the display of night-time shots and other dark scenes, the display also accurately reproduces the gradation in dark areas of the image. The IPS LCD panel and a optical design make possible a wide viewing angle. With minimal changes in colour or contrast due to viewing angle, the DP-V3010 is particularly eﬀective in editing rooms and similar settings in which multiple users may be required to check image quality. Visit www.canon.com.au

Matrox Support for Latest Release of Adobe Creative Cloud MATROX VIDEO has announced full support for the latest release of Adobe Creative Cloud software across the entire family of Matrox MXO2 I/O devices and the Mojito MAX I/O card. The Matrox editing products provide broadcast video and audio input, output and monitoring to enable traditional tape-based workflows including deck control for frame-accurate batch capture and print-to-tape. They’re also the only I/O solutions on the market enabling users to encode H.264 files for delivery to the web, iPad and iPhone up to five times faster than software alone. MXO2 devices also provide cross-platform Mac and Windows support and can connect anywhere; both Mac and PC, via Thunderbolt, PCIe or ExpressCard/34 using the same unit. Visit www.matrox.com/video

New Monitors and Firmware from Flanders Scientific FLANDERS SCIENTIFIC HAS RELEASED the 50-inch CM500TD LCD monitor and the CM250 OLED monitor. FSI’s built-in 16 channel audio level meters have been redesigned – part of the upgrade includes an adjustable peak hold feature. The previous 11-key combination to get the 3D LUT into update mode was overly complex. FSI report the update incorporates a new UDisk option in the System Menu. Just leave this set to the default (ON), and the monitor will always be in update mode. The updates will ship with all new units and are available as free upgrades for current FSI monitor owners. Visit www.flandersscientific.com

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM

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Filipino MAM First for TV5 and Front Porch

FRONT PORCH DIGITAL, a global leader in cloud-based content storage

management (CSM) solutions, announced that Philippine commercial television network TV5 has ordered a complete DIVArchive CSM system, DIVAdirector media asset management system, and DIVAgrid scalable intelligent nearline storage system to form the foundation of its digital video archive.

The purchase is part of TV5's long-term strategic plan to upgrade and improve processes and equipment. TV5, which is Front Porch Digital’s first customer in the Philippines, will integrate the system into its workflow to reduce the load on primary disk storage and to automate library functions.

“TV5 is essentially a content creator, and we needed a reliable and expandable archive facility to support our business and to ensure fast and eﬃcient access to both the legacy material we have now and the new content that we are producing every day,” said Dan Albert S. De Padua, first vice president and head of broadcast operations at TV5. “Front Porch Digital is an industry leader with an impressive track record among broadcasters abroad, so we’re confident the DIVArchive system will help us stay competitive in a rapidly evolving media industry.”

By deploying the DIVArchive system, TV5 and its parent company, MediaQuest Holdings Inc., will be able to distribute content more eﬃciently across all of their platforms, a key factor in increasing and retaining audience share. They will also be able to respond more quickly to requests internally and from partners to make archived material available for over-the-top or video-on-demand services, for example.

“TV5 is a major television network with a long and colourful history in the Philippines, and we’re pleased to welcome the company as our first customer in that country,” said Rino Petricola, senior vice president and

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AMBERFIN, a leading developer of file-based media ingest, transcoding and quality control solutions for content owners, broadcasters, sports organisations and post-production houses, has announced the introduction of the latest version of its iCR (Intelligent Content Repurposing) software platform. Already shipping globally, version 9.7 of iCR oﬀers extended Avid integration, simplifying ingest and transcode processes within an Avid environment.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM

Simultaneously, it provides enhanced quality and throughput for mezzanine formats such as ProRes, DNxHD and MPEG2. It supports additional codecs and wrappers as well as introducing new function-specific UQC (Unified Quality Control) plug-ins. This new version of AmberFin’s iCR is the first to feature the company’s new iCR Farm products, which build on multi-format transcode capabilities of the iCR platform. They significantly increase the flexibility and versatility of a multi-node transcode environment, bringing improved resilience and robustness whilst simultaneously generating cost savings through more versatile network licensing capabilities. “We’re witnessing rapid evolutionary developments in a range of markets from digital broadcast to OTT/TV Everywhere, Internet video and IPTV. This new version of iCR is designed to cater for these market developments by providing best-in-class image processing, consistently high quality results for all video codecs and a number of unique features such as our exceptional interlace, progressive and variable frame-rate handling capabilities within the software,” commented Bruce Devlin, Chief Technology Oﬃcer at AmberFin. Version 9.7 of AmberFin iCR provides significant new functionality in a number of areas, including:

Enhanced Avid Workflow integration – AmberFin iCR now supports automated check-in to Avid InterPlay during ingest or transcode with the additional ability to create head frame thumbnails, dramatically simplifying the process of getting content into to Avid environments. UQC Updates – The AmberFin iCR platform’s UQC timeline features a number of new updates, designed to extract more data from QC analysis tool support. “As read” clip metadata with each report and an increased level of detail on QC events enable even better judgment in the QC review process. The iCR player now supports the playback of AS-02 files during ingest to reduce the time to fully ingest and QC assets in a scaled environment. Updated Codecs – AmberFin iCR now includes support for a number of new codecs and updates to existing codecs. An updated ProRes implementation has increased quality, throughput, enhanced audio channel flexibility and enabled the carriage of closed captioning – additionally ingest and transcode is now supported without the requirement for an additional dongle. MPEG2-based formats now include options for ultra-high quality encoding enabling AmberFin customers to continue to diﬀerentiate themselves with the highest quality output. Now, iCR Transcode also supports DIF files with interleaved audio and XDCAM EX as inputs to the transcode engine supporting both archived and current ENG assets. Closed Captioning – As well as carriage of captions in ProRes, iCR’s closed caption tool kit has been further enhanced to include caption frame rate conversion and flexible caption payload source selection, easing the carriage of closed-captioning through a file-based workflow. Visit www.amberfin.com

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM

AmberFin Unveils New J2K Ingest and Transcode

Etere Introduces Advanced QC for File-Based Workflows ETERE HAS ANNOUNCED a new Quality Control (QC) solution for file-

AT CCW ON BOOTH #1256 AmberFin announced a new J2K ingest and transcode solution. Called AmberFin iCR 400-J2K, the new workstation is designed to help smaller facilities and postproduction houses easily create and review J2K assets. The new solution comes with easy-to-install and configure profiles to generate media against the delivery specification. “Many media and entertainment organisations have chosen JPEG 2000, or J2K, as a high-end service master or service mezzanine and the facilities who deliver content to them have to work with their strict format requirements. This new aﬀordable and easy to use version of iCR will enable them to ingest and transcode files to J2K, ensuring the highest quality video encoding in a scalable and tightly integrated solution,” commented Bruce Devlin, AmberFin’s CTO. Visit www. amberfin.com

based workflows, a fully automatic content analysis and verification system able to meet all QC needs required in production, post-production, broadcast and distribution environments. In these days, where file-based video is the common standard for media workflows and content is being more and more ingested from different sources, encoded at different bitrates and formatted in different standards, the ability to perform automated file-based QC becomes crucial to detect several different issues that may affect the compliance of content. Etere Advanced QC takes advantage of the Etere MERP framework to make a file-based quality control available at any stage of the asset management process (capture, encoding, editing, transcoding, archiving, playout, repurpose and retrieval); ensuring the quality, compliance and playability of media content thanks to the ability of adding further supervision tasks to the QC workflow (e.g. in case of negative results). Etere Advanced QC provides myriad controls for Video (luminance, chrominance, black and freeze frames, encoding errors, frame rate, AFD, etc.), Audio (peak and minimum levels, loss, clipping, silence, loudness and level correction, etc.), Metadata (closed captions, teletext, DVB subtitles, etc.), Timecode (continuity, integrity, synchronisation, comparison, etc.) and PSE (Photosensitive Epilepsy). Etere Advanced QC supports all industry standard audio/video formats including IMX 30/40/50, XDCAM HD/EX, DV, DVCPRO 25/50/100/HD, AVI, WMV, DNxHD, Apple ProRes 422/444, H.264/H2.263 and much more. Visit www.etere.eu

MYERS HAS ANNOUNCED the availability of ProTrack v6.07, a significant upgrade to the company’s flagship software suite. Built on a more powerful SQL database management engine, the new Radio and TV versions further streamline facility workflows and incorporate functionality and userexperience enhancements such as: For ProTrack TV + New Log Manager to centralise logging tasks;

+ A Consolidated Interstitial Search screen; + Customisable Interstitial Field defaults; and

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+ Streamlined Scheduling Grid screens. For ProTrack Radio + New single or multi-channel ‘Master’ Template; + Improved As-Run functionality;

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+ Enhanced Broadcast Log toolbar; and + New Channel Groups to assign Spot/Interstitial eligibility. “Our development team incorporated numerous end-user ideas and requests; we’ve improved the workflow and made information more accessible,” said Crist Myers, company CEO and president. “Many enhancements are ‘behind the curtain’, especially the migration of ProTrack’s core architecture to a more robust and capable database structure. It’s a fundamental shift that enables more advanced techniques for growth and expansion, especially at the enterprise level. We’re indebted to the ProTrack community for their ongoing feedback, support and partnership.” ProTrack is available in both radio and television editions. It oﬀers scheduling and business management for individual, multichannel and multi-station facilities. Visit www.myersinfosys.com

Thunderbolt Station from CalDigit CALDIGIT RELEASED their new CalDigit Thunderbolt Station in November. The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station reinstates many connections that are disappearing from laptop and desktop computers, and streamlines them into a portable device. By connecting the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station to a Mac you can add three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, Gigabit ethernet, and audio I/O. “The beauty of the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station is that you can finally connect and disconnect all your peripheral devices with just one Thunderbolt cable. Whether you’re connecting external hard drives, monitors, ethernet, or audio speakers, all you have to do when heading out for the day is unplug one single cable,” said Kosta Panagos, Director of Marketing at CalDigit. The HDMI port on the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station supports resolutions of 2560×1600. It also supports HDCP playback that enables you to play content such as iTunes movies on a HDMI display. If you daisychain a Thunderbolt monitor alongside a HDMI monitor you can use a maximum of three displays, including a laptop’s built in display. The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station’s USB 3.0 ports are 5Gbs and have the ability to add USB 3.0 connectivity to your computer – useful for users who have a Thunderbolt equipped Mac without USB 3.0 ports. The station features dual Thunderbolt ports in order to daisy-chain it as part of six Thunderbolt devices. “Thunderbolt enables us to create products that consistently break new ground in versatility without sacrificing performance. The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station could not have been possible without the power of Thunderbolt” said Kosta Panagos, Director of Marketing at CalDigit. Visit www.caldigit.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM

Myers Announces ProTrack v6.

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD

FORK Ecosystem Gets Upgraded PRIMESTREAM HAS DEBUTED FORK 4.5, the latest version of its FORK Production Suite for managing the automation of complex broadcast workflows. In FORK 4.5, Primestream introduces FORK Workflow Manager 1.0, a new FORK module that makes workflows visible and enables users to conceptualise and control their production workflows in an entirely new way. FORK 4.5 also features workflow integrations with the most popular craft editors, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Avid Media Composer. FORK 4.5 also supports third party broadcast and workflow solutions with Harmonic, Quantum, Cisco, and others. Primestream has released version 2.5 of FORK Xchange Suite, an application that gives broadcasters instant cloud access to content on their FORK Production servers from any Windows, Mac, or tablet device. An add-on to Primestream’s FORK software platform for managing and automating broadcast workflows, FORK Xchange Suite 2.5 introduces the Xchange Shot List Editor add-on module, which gives editors a fast and nimble way to edit content living inside the FORK environment via a proxy with Xchange for Web and iOS. Also new from Primestream was Xchange for iPad 1.0, a professional, native iOS application that allows producers and editors to browse, edit metadata, and create annotations on content while disconnected from the production environment. Now shipping is Primestream DigIT 1.0, a server-based software application that helps broadcast, government, entertainment, and corporate IT departments monitor their broadcast IT operations. The application can monitor individual servers in addition to the FORK production environment, making it easier for IT administrators to manage broadcast-related IT activity. Facilities can monitor mission-critical servers and applications, quickly identify performance bottlenecks, prevent and recover from system failures, and reduce downtime and operational costs. Primestream FORK Logger 1.0, a module for describing content inside FORK Production Suite’s software platform for media asset management and workflow automation, is also new. The module is a powerful metadata-tagging tool designed from the ground up for logging live or pre-recorded video. The tightly integrated and configurable user interface enables content loggers to tag video quickly with defined metadata, making content searchable, ready to be filtered, and organised for viewing in FORK’s Content Navigator (MAM) — or for working with in a FORK project or rundown.

Wohler Releases RadiantGrid v8 WOHLER HAS RELEASED their RadiantGrid Intelligent Media Transformation Platform. The Wohler RadiantGrid Platform provides a consolidated software architecture that combines intensive media processing capabilities with intelligent content management fabric and workflow orchestration layers. New this year was the first version 8 series release of the RadiantGrid platform. This release contains a brand-new media processing engine that provides faster-than-real-time content transformation. This newly accelerated engine performs complete intelligent analysis of all inbound media, with the platform’s content management fabric retaining technical metadata at the container, essence, and frame levels. Wohler also has a DVM family of video monitors, including the DVM4290, a 4-RU system with two 9-inch screens; the DVM-3270, a 3-RU system with two 7-inch screens; and the 2-RU DVM-2443 with four individual 4.3-inch screens and decoders. All of the monitors provide at-a-glance monitoring of program content from MPEG-2/4 ASI and Ethernet IP streams, as well as 3G/HD/SD-SDI inputs. The Wohler AMP1-MADIe is an in-rack portable MADI monitor unit with Ethernet control and configuration, including compatibility with the Evertz MAGNUM facility control system. It can be connected in series with a 56- or 64-channel MADI stream to provide audible monitoring and metering of any eight selected MADI channels at once. It can support either multimode or single-mode fibre connections in addition to standard copper on BNC. Wohler’s new AMP1-16M dual-input SDI audio monitor provides broadcasters with high-performance monitoring of embedded audio in two 3G/HD/SD-SDI streams. The 1-RU system de-embeds and provides metering and monitoring of any or all of the 16 audio channels in the selected 3G/HD/SD-SDI stream. Wohler also has the flagship AMP2-E16V audio/video processing monitor. In addition to its top-quality audio system, it features simultaneous multiformat monitoring, quick program selection, instant stereo downmix, loudness monitoring, internal channel mixing including SDI re-embedding, audio delays, a wide variety of meter scales and ways to view meters, video, and Dolby or SMPTE 2020 metadata. Visit www.wohler.com

Visit www.primestream.com

Axle Video Supports Adobe Anywhere for Video AXLE VIDEO HAS ANNOUNCED availability of one of the first turnkey media asset management (MAM) solutions to support Adobe Anywhere for video, a collaborative workflow platform. axle Gear for Adobe Anywhere is a turnkey hardware and software system that provides automated media tacking, proxy generation, remote browsing, and review and approval for Adobe Anywhere users.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD

The axle Gear system works in real time to transparently catalog media. Through a web browser-based UI, users can browse proxies, annotate, collaborate on, review, and approve media from any location. In the Adobe Anywhere workflow, axle Gear manages the lifecycle of media prior to and after the creative process. axle Gear is compatible with nearly all file systems and media storage solutions. axle Gear for Adobe Anywhere comes as a 1U rack mount system serving five user accounts. The system includes a media management server, a proxy transcode server to make the media available to nonAnywhere clients, and axle and Telestream software modules and one year software updates and support. Visit www.axlevideo.com

Nine Installs Third SGL FlashNet SOFTWARE GENERATION LTD (SGL) continues to develop its strong relationship with Nine Network Australia (NNA) with the third installion of a FlashNet archive in the broadcaster’s post production department. The two companies have a long partnership that sees FlashNet archive systems used in NNA’s news, production and playout operations integrated with Harris Invenio MAM (news) and Avid Interplay MAM and PAM systems (production and playout). This third installation sees SGL FlashNet fully integrated with NNA’s Avid Interplay PAM and MAM systems, providing two key components to the broadcaster’s workflow. First, it will archive projects directly from the Interplay PAM system and second, it will archive long form RAW media from the Interplay MAM following ingest. The system has been installed as part of Nine’s ongoing transition to a digital workflow. Prior to installing the SGL archive, material was stored on DigiBeta tape.

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Mathew Yelavich, CTO, Nine Network Australia, says, “We’re delighted to be working with SGL again in accommodating our archive requirements for post. Our long standing relationship with SGL oﬀers the advantage of in-house support immediately and a strong understanding of deployment requirements; this meant that we could have the archive operational in a timely fashion.”

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FutureWorks Studio in India Receives Dolby Premier Studio Certification INDIAN POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY, FUTUREWORKS, has upgraded its Studio A facility in the historic Rajkamal Kalamandir Studios in Mumbai. Featuring a Meyer Sound cinema loudspeaker system, Studio A has become the first Dolby Atmos facility in India to be awarded Dolby Premier Studio Certification. “With the Studio A refit, we challenged ourselves to come up with the best sounding room we could,” says Gaurav Gupta, Managing Director of FutureWorks. “We decided that we wanted to achieve Dolby Premier Studio Certification, and for that we needed loudspeakers of remarkable clarity and response.” In evaluating FutureWorks’ equipment options,

Gupta kept returning to a positive experience he had several years ago with a Meyer Sound cinema system at Skywalker Sound in Nicasio, Calif. “I was blown away by its accuracy,” recalls Gupta. “Ultimately, it was clear that a Meyer Sound system was the number one choice, both technically and from a business point-of-view, in terms of what our customers require.” Studio A’s monitoring system includes five Acheron 80 screen channel loudspeakers and 37 HMS-10 cinema surround loudspeakers, complemented by four X-800C cinema subwoofers and two 500-HP subwoofers. System optimisation is handled by a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors. Pondicherry-based

consultancy Sound Wizard advised FutureWorks on the upgrade. “The reaction from our clients has been absolutely fantastic,” says Gupta. “They love how the room sounds, and the response and accuracy they are able to get from the new equipment. It is clear that Meyer Sound represents the future for cinema sound.” Visit www.meyersound.com

Meyer Elevates Audio for Malaysian Church

RTW Provides Audio Loudness Management to Astro Productions

SUBANG JAYA ASSEMBLY OF GOD is a fast-growing Malaysian contemporary Christian church near Kuala Lumpur. To enhance the audio quality of its celebration-style worship services, the church recently installed a Meyer Sound M’elodie line array loudspeaker system in its 750seat sanctuary. The new system was provided and installed by Danny Kinchang of First Live Sound, based in Petaling Jaya.

RTW HAS ANNOUNCED the sale of eight RTW TM7 TouchMonitors to Astro Production Sdn. Bhd. The TM7s were equipped with several software modules, including: the SW20001, SW20002, SW20004, SW20005 and SW20006 units. Stagetec Asia, a long-time distributor of RTW, coordinated the sale.

“We have certainly experienced an improvement in sound, and consequently, an improvement in the playing of the worship music team,” says Pastor Donny Tan. “The M’elodie system has brought strong positive motivation to the team, and resulted in a more professional presentation.” Twin flown arrays of five-each M’elodie loudspeakers cover the auditorium, along with four UPJunior VariO loudspeakers for out fill and centre down fill. Four 600-HP subwoofers in an end-fire directional array supply low end, while a Galileo loudspeaker management system with one Galileo 616 processor provides system drive and optimisation. “The new system also has improved speech clarity,” points out Pastor Tan. “It sounds great — there is very little need to tweak the equalisation, as everything is clear and distinct.” The front-end complement for the new system includes a Yamaha LS9-32 digital mixing console and an assortment of premium microphones from Sennheiser, DPA, Audio-Technica, and Shure. Kinchang and First Live Sound also designed and supervised the acoustical treatment for the room. Visit www.meyersound.com

The company sought a new tool that would help it to monitor its audio levels consistently. Astro purchased the TM7 TouchMonitors after demoing a few of the units during its live broadcasts. The company will use them to ensure that all of its production facilities, including its fleet of OB vans, are using the metering and analysers to have uniform loudness levels across its facility. “The TM7 TouchMonitor suits our applications very well,” says Dennis Dovale, Vice President, Astro Production Services. “In order to ensure that all personnel and operators have the same frequency, when talking about the audio loudness metering and

reading, they need a good monitoring tool such as RTW’s TM7.” RTW, meanwhile, is thrilled to make further inroads into the Asian market with this sale. “We are happy to support such a prominent broadcaster as Astro,” says Andreas Tweitmann, CEO, RTW. “The entire line of TouchMonitor audio meters was created to help engineers monitor their loudness levels easily and consistently. The fact that Astro has found our TM7 to be eﬃcient and easy to use is further proof of RTW’s commitment to oﬀering modern, innovative solutions for today’s loudness management issues.” Visit www.rtw.com and www.stagetecasia.com

AUDIO

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SEPTEMBER WAS MARKED BY the passing, at the age of 80, of Ray Dolby, the American inventor recognised around the world for developing groundbreaking audio technologies. Dr. Dolby had been living with Alzheimer’s Disease in recent years, and was diagnosed in July of this year with acute leukemia.

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Ray Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon in January 1933 and his family eventually moved to the San Francisco Peninsula. From 1949 to 1957, he worked on various audio and instrumentation projects at Ampex Corporation, where he led the development of the electronic aspects of the Ampex videotape recording system. In 1957, he received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Upon being awarded a Marshall Scholarship and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, Dr. Dolby left Ampex for further study at Cambridge University in England. In 1960, Dr. Dolby became the first American to be named a Fellow at Pembroke College. Dr. Dolby received a PhD degree in physics from Cambridge in 1961 and years later was elected an Honorary Fellow (1983). While at Cambridge he met his wife, Dagmar, who was there as a summer student in 1962. During his last year at Cambridge, Dr. Dolby also served as a consultant to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

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In 1963, Dr. Dolby took up a two-year appointment as a United Nations advisor in India, and then returned to England in 1965 and founded Dolby Laboratories in London. In 1976, he moved to San Francisco where the company established its headquarters, laboratories, and manufacturing facilities. His pioneering work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the development of many state-of-the-art technologies, for which he held more than 50 U.S. patents.

+ Grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (1995)

Dr. Dolby’s awards and honours included:

+ Berlin Film Festival Berlinale Kamera Award (2012)

+ The National Medal of Technology from President Clinton (1997)

+ San Francisco Film Society George Gund III Award (2013)

+ The Order of Oﬃcer of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by Queen Elizabeth II (1987)

Dr. Dolby also received medals from the following professional institutions:

+ Honorary Doctorate – of Science (Cambridge University 1997) + Honorary Doctorate (University of York 1999) His industry awards included: + Oscar statuette from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1989) + Oscar Class II (plaque) from A.M.P.A.S. (1979)

+ Several Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, including for the invention of the Ampex video tape recorder and his work for Dolby Laboratories. (1989, 2005)

the eve of the Audio Engineering Society Convention in Melbourne. His keynote address to the convention was entitled “Progress in Audio: The Pursuit of Perfection? Or What Else?” When quizzed about the “What Else?”, Dr. Dolby replied, “Sometimes you find audiophiles who are really quite fanatical about lower distortion, better frequency response , better signal to noise ratio, and they’re really quite zealous about this. The reality is, though, that that’s not the way progress always happens. “Once you get certain factors under control so they’re no longer obtrusive or noticeable, like distortion or uneven frequency response, then you have an asymptotic situation. You can try as hard as you want, but you’ll never make any perceptible improvement, and this is a futile exercise.

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“So, really, progress comes in other forms. I would say accessibility is an important one. In other words, how can you reduce the cost of manufacturing and distribution of these new technological developments so that more people can use them. “Many things have been improved up to a high standard. Let’s take whiskey or wine. Would you really want to improve whiskey any more than its present state of development? No. I think things levelled out in that environment a couple of centuries ago. In other words, all the bugs have

+ Audio Engineering Society (AES) Silver (1971) and Gold (1992) Medals + Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Edison Medal (2010) As a former Marshall Scholar, Dr. Dolby was also awarded the George C. Marshall Award in 2003. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the U.S. and the Royal Academy of Engineers in the UK in 2004. Dr. Dolby is survived by his wife, Dagmar, his sons, Tom and David, their spouses, Andrew and Natasha, and four grandchildren.

been worked out out of the process and the product is as perfect and as good as it can be. So, the only progress that can be made is to make things cheaper and more accessible. “It’s not worth it to spend twice as much on the process to make it just that little bit better.”

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Dr. Dolby agreed that the average listener could probably not hear or even cared about those incremental diﬀerences. “One reason it took me so long to develop C-type and SR noise reduction and S-type was my perception that A-type and B-type satisfied 99 per cent-plus of all people and to introduce a new standard just for the sake of gratifying that last one per cent seemed a bit dubious to me. But, of course, that last one per cent is the one that clamours the hardest, has the loudest voice, and eventually you have to listen to them, and that’s what caused me finally to to introduce more powerful noise reduction systems, even though I don’t think most people can appreciate the diﬀerence.” Finally, with phrases such as “Dolbying” or “De-Dolbying” having entered the lexicon of the audio engineer, the late Doctor said he he had come to terms with his name being transformed into a verb. “I’m used to it. Dolby is a very easy word to pronounce and say, and in many languages, and that’s been a factor. It doesn’t appear to have any bad meanings in any languages that we know of.”

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Stagetec Asia Successfully Promotes Sonifex Brand STAGETEC ASIA HAS been a Sonifex distributor to Malaysia and Brunei since late 2012 and has secured many sales from this promising market. Amongst those who have recently purchased Sonifex products are Kristal FM of Brunei, along with RTM, (for the Malaysian General Election event), TV3, plus new radio station U FM and many other community and local studios. David Chan, Managing Director of Stagetec Asia, said, “Our strategy to promote Sonifex through direct marketing and training has met with approval from end users who say that they are very happy with the products and their reliability. Sonifex has a wonderful portfolio which caters for many applications. As an exclusive distributor for Sonifex, we are actively supporting our authorised dealers in pursuing the sales to potential customers, while for end users, we are assisting them in term of technical service and supports.” Visit www.sonifex.co.uk

THIS YEAR’S PLASA saw DirectOut Technologies present its MADI auto-changeover switch, EXBOX.BLDS, for mission-critical performance and production systems.

TC Electronic Adds Automatic Saving of Logfiles TC ELECTRONIC HAS announced new features for its hardware units supporting the LM6 and LM2 Loudness Radar Meters and the TC Icon control software (DB6, DB4 MKII, DB8 MKII, System 6000 MKII and LM2). The user is now allowed to decide on a time interval from one hour to one week at which the logging data will be saved and organised for access and future reference. Units are connected via ethernet to a PC or Mac running TC Icon software that will pull the data automatically and save it in a folder specified by the user. Loudness Range (LRA) quantifies loudness variations inside a program or a music track, but LRA isn’t very sensitive to transient limiting and clipping happening as a result of the loudness wars in commercials and music production. Peak to Loudness Ratio (PLR) is a more appropriate measure of such squashing, which has an adverse eﬀect on clarity, intelligibility and audio quality at large. Besides from its educational value, PLR is also relevant when tailoring a track or a program to a certain amount of downstream headroom. For instance, ATSC A/85 and EBU R128 provide 22dB of headroom, while Sound Check in iTunes oﬀers 16dB of headroom. Lowering PLR further only destroys audio quality without gaining loudness on any modern platform, so users are recommended to keep an eye on this reading and save their next recording for generations to come. Visit www.tcelectronic.com

DirectOut Technologies Unveils MADI Redundancy Switch

Calrec Callisto Console CALREC’S CALLISTO is a console designed for broadcast professionals who need to produce broadcast audio, but may not require the full resources of the Apollo and Artemis audio consoles. Callisto was designed to keep the user interface simple and straightforward with a focus not just on features and capabilities, but also on user experience. Disciplined power distribution means the console is up to 30% more eﬃcient than a comparable Artemis Light. Users control the console via a 17-inch multitouch screen, with an interface that uses established finger gestures to navigate the system. Visit www.calrec.com

EXBOX.BLDS employs ‘D.O.TEC BLDS’ (Buﬀer Loop Detection System) signals to provide instant and seamless changeover between two synchronised MADI sources and connections. The freely downloadable BLDS Generator creates a .WAV file containing a low level, virtually inaudible signal which is carried in one channel of the MADI stream. Monitoring incoming connections, the EXBOX.BLDS detects the loss or corruption of the BLDS signal and instantly switches, within one sample, to the backup signal. The MADI inputs can also be selected or switched manually using a front panel push button or via four GPI (switch) inputs on the front panel. Four GPOs are also provided to deliver status to external control systems or indicators. The device can be updated with new or customised firmware via the integral USB port. Remote control of advanced features is also possible. EXBOX.BLDS will be available from December 2013. Visit www.directout.eu

Avid Introduces Dugan-VN16 Option Card LIVE SOUND PROFESSIONALS have trusted Dan Dugan’s automatic mixers for decades. Avid’s Dugan-VN16 option card oﬀers integration of Dugan’s automixing technology directly into an SC48, FOH Rack or Mix Rack-based system. The card automatically detects active mics and adjusts volumes accordingly, minimising feedback, comb filtering, and background noise. Unlike a noise gate, which can introduce distracting sonic artifacts, the Dugan-VN16 dynamically adapts to the room environment, turning up mics as people speak and turning them down when they aren’t, while crossfading channels to maintain consistent system gain. Features include: + Manage and mix up to 16 open mics reliably. + Get more system I/O flexibility with 16 channels of ADAT optical I/O. + Switch modes to employ 16 channels of automixing, eight channels of automixing and eight channels of ADAT I/O, or 16 channels of ADAT I/O. + Expand systems to handle up to 128 live mics by connecting additional outboard Dugan automatic mixers to the card. + Configure settings and mix remotely using the Dugan Control Panel software (included) or the optional Dugan Control Panel for iPad. Visit www.avid.com

AUDIO

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AUDIO

Reverb, Dynamics for Broadcast, Film, Music and Mastering

DSF-B Digital Broadcast Surround Microphone Package

TC ELECTRONIC’S ORIGINAL SYSTEM 6000 became an industry standard for reverb and dynamics processing. TC Electronic has continued to develop algorithms for the platform and today it oﬀers a range of tools for all audio professionals. In 2010, an updated MKII version was released and, based on this hardware reincarnation, TC Electronic has released application-specific versions, including the the Music 6000, Film 6000, Mastering 6000 and Broadcast 6000.

THE DSF-B DIGITAL BROADCAST PACKAGE provides simultaneous digital surround and stereo soundscapes of large-scale live outside broadcast events such as sports stadiums, concert hall venues and live audience TV shows. The DSF-B package consists of a DSF-2 microphone system (DSF-2 mic and controller) and the DSF-3 digital surround processor.

+ The Music 6000 comes loaded with both the Multichannel and Stereo Reverb licenses, holding 18 algorithms. These licenses include the M5000 delay, chorus and phaser as well as hundreds of presets. Also included the Stereo Mastering license which includes MD3 and MD4 multiband compressors as well as Brickwall Limiter 2.

Key Features:

+ DSF-B Digital Broadcast package.

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+ The Film 6000 holds the Multichannel and Stereo Reverb licenses plus a new eight-channel reverb, ‘Rev8’. Each frame runs Rev8 twice, thereby comprising a true 16-channel reverb. Also new is the AM6 Annoyance Radar Meter that complies with the TASA standard. Previously, AM6 has only been available as a Pro Tools TDM plugin. Included is UnWrap HD, the LM6 Loudness Radar Meter, VariPitch8, and Toolbox 5.1. + The Mastering 6000 includes Multichannel and Stereo Mastering licenses, comprised of MDX 5.1, MD 5.1, EQ 5.1, Toolbox 5.1, MD4, MD3, Brickwall Limiter 2 and Matrix 88. The new version also comes with UnWrap HD, LM6 Loudness Radar Meter, MDW HiRes EQ (by George Massenburg), and VP8 for multichannel pitch correction and modulation. + The Broadcast 6000 comes equipped with algorithms such as LM6 Loudness Radar Meter, ALC6 Automatic Loudness Control, UnWrap HD, Dmix, AM6, plus a wide range of dynamics, EQ, and surround algorithms. Visit www.tcelectronic.com

Aluminium Sennheiser HD 25 Model Marks 25 Years INTRODUCED IN 1988, Sennheiser’s HD 25 headphones attained iconic status as the choice of music professionals the world over. Sennheiser celebrates the 25th birthday of its HD 25 headphones with the launch of the HD 25 Aluminium. Sennheiser has combined the sound signature of the HD 25 with metal earcups, lathed from single blocks of aluminium. While this gives the headphones a unique appearance it also minimises resonance.

AUDIO

The HD 25s made their commercial debut in 1988. Originally developed for outside broadcasting, featuring rotatable capsules designed for one-ear monitoring. Soon the HD 25s established themselves as a standard for sound recordings in film, broadcast and television, used by sound engineers for monitoring work. Visit www.sennheiserasia.com

+ Removes need for multiple arrays. + Generates multi-channel audio from a ‘single point’ source. + Perfect downmix compatibility with mono or stereo. + Microphone parameters controlled remotely including orientation, angle, pickup pattern and rotation. + Consists of DSF-2 microphone, DSF-2 controller and DSF-3 processor. The DSF-3 Control Application, DSF-3, adds features such as: + Snap/tilt – rear, front surround axis can be individually tilted to focus on sound sources above or below the microphone. + Variable polar patterns – front, centre and rear.

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+ Zoom Control. Visit www.tslproducts.com

Linear Acoustic UPMAX v4 Surroundfield Controller LINEAR ACOUSTIC RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the UPMAX v4 Surroundfield Controller. The compact, lightweight, and rugged unit produces 5.1 channel audio from two-channel sources and is suited for OB trucks and post-production facilities. Oﬀering AES and auto-sensing HD/SD-SDI I/O, the UPMAX v4 combines the UPMAX upmixing/downmixing algorithm with AutoMAX auto-detection for transitions between stereo and native surround input sources, and produces an upmix that is completely downmix compatible. The UPMAX v4 comes standard with a built-in ITU loudness meter, dual redundant power supplies, internal relay bypass, SNMP monitoring, and eight channels of analogue outputs for monitoring.

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Visit www.linearacoustic.com

Broadway Broadband Takes the Edge Oﬀ PRIMACOUSTIC’S one-inch Broadway Broadband panels now come with a bevelled edge finish. The bevelled finish edge replaces the square edge previously found on all one-inch thick Broadway Broadband panels. The company’s thicker two-inch and three-inch panels will continue to be available in either the square edge or bevelled edge finish. Primacoustic Broadway is a range of high performance fabric covered acoustic panels designed for use in applications where superior acoustic performance is desired and safety is of utmost concern. Made from high density 6lb per cubic foot glass wool, Broadway panels have up to six times greater density than typical foam panels for balanced absorption throughout the audio listening range. Each panel is fully encapsulated with micromesh and edges are resin hardened to assure safe handling during installation. Panels are then covered in a tough yet acoustically transparent fabric. The one-inch panels with bevelled edge are shipping now. Visit www.primacoustic.com

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RADIO The original broadcast media

Frontier Silicon’s Patrick Hannon Elected President of WorldDMB THE 19TH WORLDDMB General

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Assembly in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, saw the announcement of Patrick Hannon, VP of Corporate Development at chip manufacturer Frontier Silicon, as the incoming President of WorldDMB 20132015. Patrick takes over the leadership baton from outgoing President, Jørn Jensen of NRK, Norway. WorldDMB members also elected two Vice-Presidents: Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, and Joachim Kraus, Digital Radio Co-ordinator of ARD, Germany, as well as a new Steering Board. A recurring theme at this year’s event was the topic of Digital Switch Over (DSO), as more countries are making announcements and planning for a DSO. Keynote speaker at the event, Mark Dierikx, Director-General for Energy, Telecommunications and Competition from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs announced that the Dutch policy on digital radio includes switching off analogue radio, with a switch-off date of no later than 2023, providing certain criteria are fulfilled. Delegates also heard about the significant progress that has been made in the automotive sector with most major automotive brands now offering line-fit DAB. There was a major focus on the integration of digital radio into mobile phone handsets, a significant strategic objective for WorldDMB, which is offering technical support on a consistent user interface and coordinating initiatives in this area. Patrick Hannon, said, “DAB/DAB+ is rapidly extending its footprint across Europe. The last two years have seen significant launches in Germany and the Netherlands, and, in the more mature markets (UK, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland), Digital Switchover is now firmly on the agenda. The progress in all these territories is building significant momentum across the continent. A similar story is emerging in the Asia Pacific region, where Australia is leading the way.” Visit www.worlddab.org

Updates for JADE and EDIT from Lawo LAWO’S JADE is a powerful software tool for PC-based audio and broadcast production, which acts as mediator between audio hardware and software allowing the use of multiple audio interfaces for one or multiple audio applications without restrictions. The release of JADE 1.0.2 adds a number of handy new features, including ASIO direct monitoring support. This allows low-latency monitoring connections for ASIO devices, centrally managed in JADE environments. It adds up to four independent WDM driver instances, enabling separated audio input and output connections for applications that rely on windows audio driver interfaces. Additionally, a limited access mode now permits hiding the access to the configuration. Finally, the VST plugin host is now part of JADE Pro. EDIT, Lawo’s audio editing software, is tailor-made for radio production, bringing optimised workflows and faster user performance. The 5.2.2 EDIT release allows integration into d’accord database environments. This includes bidirectional exchange of audio files and projects, powerful metadata and marker handling, and one-click software launch. Visit www.lawo.com

Radio Has New Role, ABU Experts Contend at General Assembly RADIO STILL HAS A REAL ROLE TO PLAY in the Asia-Pacific media landscape, but not in its original form. This was the outcome of a debate at the ABU Radio Working Party meeting in Hanoi, part of the Union’s 50th General Assembly held from 23-29th of October. Industry leaders from the Asia-Pacific and around the world challenged conventional assumptions to argue whether radio was still a viable format. In a debate moderated by consultant Steve Ahern, both sides recognised radio must continue to evolve to have relevance. Speakers such as Hugh Chiverton of Radio Television Hong Kong and Voice of Vietnam’s Le Huy Nam told a packed hall at the Melia Hotel, Hanoi, that radio was still everywhere, unlike print, which was declining. But increasingly, radio was part of a suit of diﬀerent media delivering content to consumers. Opposing the proposition, the ABC’s Deborah Steele. “In the Pacific, radio is still king, but in Asia and Australia that is no longer the case, the audience wants more,” she said. Kabul Budiono, from Radio Republik Indonesia, said that in a big country such as Indonesia, where 80% of the population lived in rural areas, radio was still important but that consumption patterns are changing rapidly. The debate ranged dependent on location. From Norway, where digital radio had revitalised radio consumption, to India, where enthusiasm for radio had increased as a result of competition, and Fiji, where television was growing but radio was still paramount. Other contributors added to the debate. Norihito Saito, a Senior Producer at NHK Japan, described the importance of NHK Radio’s role in delivering safety information to save lives, despite information migrating to the Internet. Ruxandra Obreja, President of Digital Radio Mondiale, said, “We need to sell radio again, we must market the new features of digital radio to listeners and to governments.” Xia Jixuan, Vice-President of China Radio International spoke of CRI’s use of what it calls ‘micro-films’, short videos that supported radio with multimedia content. Behrouz Razavinejad, a Senior Advisor at IRIB, Iran, said radio was an important part of Iran’s culture, while in two video messages, Commercial Radio Australia’s Joan Warner, and Radio New Zealand’s Paul Bushnell, presented case studies on how to develop radio. Visit www.abu.org.my

MNB Selects NETIA Radio-Assist NETIA HAS ANNOUNCED that Mongolian National Broadcaster (MNB), the state-funded broadcaster in Mongolia, has placed an order for NETIA’s Radio-Assist audio automation suite. The digital audio automation software will be deployed for MNB Radio with the support of NETIA’s local partner, systems integrator, Career Mart. “Equipped with tools that simplify and streamline operations, NETIA’s automation software will provide MNB Radio with a straightforward and scalable solution for file-based production,” said Daria Globus, NETIA Sales Representative for Eastern Europe, Russia, and CIS countries. “By enabling a high degree of eﬃciency across the broadcast workflow, Radio-Assist also will give MNB Radio greater flexibility.” NETIA’s Radio-Assist software suites address each part of the production and broadcast workflow, allowing users to record, edit, or prepare a playlist. Visit www.netia.com

RADIO

www.content-technology.com/radio

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RADIO

Sonifex Adds Ethernet & USB to Silence Sensor SONIFEX BUILDS on its Redbox RB-SD1 unit with the Redbox RB-SD1IP – a silence detection unit with added ethernet and USB port access. The RBSD1IP oﬀers all the functionality of the standard RB-SD1 with several extra, and rather favourable capabilities. Ethernet connectivity provides the ability to control the unit via a browser based GUI. The network capabilities allow you to finely control silence level (-60dBu to 0dBu in 3dBu steps) and silence duration (1 second through to 10 minutes). You can also remotely lock or unlock the front panel controls on the unit and use either the hardware configured settings, or the web based settings. In addition to the front panel LEDs, the GUI home page oﬀers a realtime view of signal levels and alarm statuses. Using the web-browser GUI, left and right channels can be treated independently and remote relay triggers can be configured as one of many events. You can also choose to lock or unlock the use of the remote pins to control the unit, and firmware updates can be performed via the webbrowser GUI. SNMP V1 is implemented so the unit can be controlled by existing network management systems. The addition of six extra GPIO pins on the rear panel allows customisable functionality, including the use of the RB-SD1IP network interface to generate SNMP traps on behalf of other non-networked hardware. The USB interface can be used to upgrade firmware from a USB flash drive, or the flash drive can hold pre-recorded audio to play in defined circumstances, such as if both main and auxiliary signals fall silent. Visit www.sonifex.co.uk

Radio Oﬀerings from AEQ NEW FROM AEQ is the Capitol digital console oﬀering eight assignable faders, 22 input channels as standard and up to 86 via MADI. All system signals are configurable for monitoring in control, studio, CUE headphones and VU-meters and a play-out system can use the USB audio I/Os of the mixer instead of resorting to computer based audio cards. Available options include fully integrated two line digital telephone hybrids, MADI optical fibre interface, and redundant power supply. Joining the Capitol is the Bravo digital audio console, aimed at small and medium-sized radio broadcasters. The console incorporates 12 faders, four mic/line switchable channels, eight stereo double line channels, two integrated telephone hybrids, two stereo program buses, headphone outputs, stereo CUE bus with built-in loudspeakers, and onair signalling with monitoring mute. There is also AEQ Audioplus, an automation, management and play-out system for professional broadcasting. It is the latest generation of automation systems developed by AEQ and the result of over 20 years of experience and thousands of audio workstations installed. A set of applications and services that provides the necessary tools to carry out any regular task at a radio station. Finally, the TH-03EX, a digital hybrid arriving in two versions to suit one or two telephone lines, and either analogue or digital AES/EBU inputs and outputs. The two-line models include a mix-minus bus for multiplex communication while on-air or on-hold in the studio. Pressing the MPX button automatically establishes a conference between the two telephone lines. With this feature it is only required to occupy one audio feed between the hybrid and the mixing console. Visit www.aeq.eu

Ravenna Gains Inroads AS IBC 2013 OPENED ITS GATES, codec manufacturer, WorldCast Systems, signed up for Ravenna partnership. WorldCast Systems, and specifically its audio codec division, APT, elected to support the Ravenna IP-based real-time media networking technology. Nicolas Boulay, CTO, WorldCast Systems remarked, “Based on our market knowledge we believe that Ravenna has significant potential to become the audio standard not only for in-house audio distribution but also for transmitting audio over wide area networks. Ravenna’s ability to provide multi-channel audio on a single network connection combined with its realtime capabilities and inherent time synchronisation is of great interest to us as a manufacturer of multi-channel AoIP codecs.” Andreas Hildebrand, Senior Product Manager of ALC NetworX, complements, “We are pleased to see WorldCast Systems, one of the most renowned manufacturers of ACIP-compatible codec devices, joining the RAVENNA group. The massive interest of companies providing ACIP-compatible codec products just comes naturally as both protocols are based on IP using similar transport techniques.

RADIO

“While RAVENNA is designed for synchronised, uncompressed and thus fully bit-transparent signal transport with emphasis on lowest latencies in demanding applications environments, ACIP devices can cover the domain of content transport under unreliable network conditions like the Internet. Thus, RAVENNA and ACIP devices complement each other by expanding the reach of IP-based media transport from in-house to any destination in the world, and WorldCast Systems devices will provide perfect bridging between both domains.” While experiencing strong support from over 20 partner companies from the professional broadcast market, Ravenna also gained interest from SOC providers, Archwave. The company has now expressed major interest in Ravenna by entering into an oﬃcial partnership and collaboration agreement with ALC NetworX, the company behind Ravenna. Archwave provides ASIC solutions allowing manufacturers to provide I/O

capabilities in their audio products. Under the collaboration agreement, ALC NetworX transfers Ravenna implementation know-how to Archwave in order to speed-up development of a low-cost Ravenna SOC solution based on Archwave’s DM1500E / DM2500N BeBop platforms. Arie van den Broek, CEO of Archwave remarks, “For a longer period, Archwave has been investigating for a powerful and proven audio-over-IP technology for porting to our ASIC-based platforms. After careful consideration we came to the conclusion that Ravenna’s foundation on open technologies, its strong user-base in the most demanding markets and its future vision, were the deciding factors for choosing a state-of-the-art technology platform.” “By expanding the range of currently available FPGA-based highperformance Ravenna solutions with a selection of cost-eﬃcient, yet powerful ASIC-based modules, we are oﬀering customers a wide and flexible choice for Ravenna implementations, serving existing markets and unlock new market segments such as Sound Reinforcement and M.I. as well. “The collaboration with ALC NetworX will enable a fast route-to-market, while Ravenna’s standards-based architecture will retain the pathways open to support other standards like AES67 or AVB as well. We are excited about the cooperation with ALC and Ravenna partners to drive a powerful audionetworking technology to a broad market acceptance.” Andreas Hildebrand added, “We are delighted to see a growing interest in Ravenna even beyond the Professional Broadcast market. With Archwave, a company with an extraordinary market reputation in providing highly competitive SOC solutions to audio device manufacturers has joined the Ravenna community. “While Archwave’s current business focus is on price-sensitive market segments, we also expect significant benefits for pro-audio device manufacturers by lowering the entry costs through the use and integration of Archwave‘s SOC solution.” Visit www.alcnetworx.com and www.worldcastsystems.com

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From the Judge’s Bench: Bringing Big Data to Traﬃc News Since their inception, Content+Technology Publisher Phil Sandberg has served on the judging panel for the IBC Innovation Awards. Here he presents a 2013 entry that caught his eye.

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Crowd-sourcing provides the BBC with coverage for more roads extending well beyond the limits of the Highways Agency’s sensor networks. As a result, the service fulfils the needs of the BBC’s local and Network radio services delivering a reliable and accurate stream of information simultaneously and consistently across all BBC channels. It also helps BBC broadcasters provide a more detailed understanding of traﬃc conditions to their listeners going beyond journalistic observation to pinpoint the start and length of queues, deliver insight on actual traﬃc speeds as well as shifts in travel times.

THE RESULT OF OVER A DECADE of collaboration between INRIX and the BBC, INRIX Radio is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that uses crowd-sourcing and sophisticated data analytics to deliver the first traffic news service powered by Big Data. Intelligently synthesizing real-time traffic flow data from actual vehicles and mobile devices travelling along the U.K.’s roads with the journalistic incident information, the service provides the BBC with an independent comprehensive, always on source for up-to-the-minute traffic information every day. In 2012, INRIX Radio powered more than 420,000 BBC traffic and public transport reports over the radio – that’s nearly 35,000 a month!

What makes INRIX Radio traﬃc news content so rich is real-time analysis of data from hundreds of public and private sources that includes road sensors, weather, event, and incident information as well as Twitter reports and data from a crowd-sourced network of nearly 100 million vehicles and devices. By also accounting for common traﬃc-impacting factors, such as, type of road, day of week, season, local holidays, current and forecasted weather, accidents and road construction even school schedules and other unique local events, BBC broadcasters benefit from a service that is always on and tuned in helping ensure drivers get timely insight that helps them save time and avoid frustration traveling every day.

Here’s some U.K. transport statistics worth considering:

In developing the service over the years, INRIX and the BBC’s shared vision for INRIX Radio demanded it address several challenges including:

Traﬃc congestion is a large and growing problem that taxes our economies, our environment and our quality of life. In recognition of this growing problem, the BBC decided in 2000 to seek a new approach to traﬃc news reporting that would increase the quality of information as well as expand coverage to more roads and modes of transportation to help travellers better plan their trips staying tuned to news regarding accidents, service outages and other unexpected delays.

+ Support for new channels to the audience + Deliver consistency across channels + Increase the distinctiveness and quality of output

At the same time, INRIX was pioneering a new approach to understanding what was happening on the roads for the purposes of delivering better traﬃc information to drivers using sophisticated real-time analysis of data from the actual vehicles and devices that travel U.K. roads.

+ Improve the value for money provided to licence fee payers

By treating vehicles as nodes on a network, INRIX was developing a radical new approach to collecting data for the purposes of determining real-time speeds and travel times eventually leading to models that go beyond real-time traffic information to the creation of traffic forecasts based on predictive analytics. Before becoming known by the buzzwords commonly associated with this approach today, crowd-sourcing and Big Data in the transportation and traffic reporting markets was born.

Over the years, the service has evolved to address these challenges delivering the following benefits to broadcasters and their listeners:

Today, INRIX Radio represents more than a decade of collaboration between INRIX and the BBC to develop a robust yet simple to use “drag and drop” traﬃc report creation and editing tool fuelled by a powerful travel information network. By eliminating time journalists waste scouring multiple sites, chasing numerous sources, the service sets a new standard for report creation, editing and broadcasting that the BBC uses daily to deliver traﬃc and public transport service news to listeners in a matter of minutes.

Dependable, reliable traffic information - Delivering highly accurate realtime traffic information requires rapid synthesis and real-time analysis of volumes of complex data. Many factors impact traffic congestion ranging from time of day, day of week, holidays, weather, local events like concerts or football matches, accidents, road works and other traffic causing incidents. As a result, the team had to develop technologies that could not only fuse but accurately interpret data from multiple complementary and potentially contradictory sources into a single best-source-of-truth 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with no down time.

In 2012, a significant update to the intuitive Web-based interface was released. In addition to the comprehensive summary and snapshot of local conditions (including traffic speeds and travel times) detailed real-time traffic maps were added in anticipation of extra traffic expected on the UK transport infrastructure during the Olympic Games and as a response to feedback from editors and reporters.

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+ Improve quality and content to meet increasing audience expectations whilst still being fully compliant

Just as important as the ease which the service allows reporters to create their reports is the underlying content that fuels the service. In addition to information from traditional road sensors, CCTV cameras and incident reports, INRIX breakthroughs to gathering traﬃc information uses crowdsourcing to analyse real-time data from actual vehicles and devices covering more than 260,000 miles of roads in real-time nationwide.

+ Set new standards of openness and transparency + Do more to serve all audiences

Coverage for all roads and all modes – Vital to the service for the BBC, INRIX Radio helps them cover everything from highways to local roads, even unnamed roads in rural areas. It also covers all public transport modes extending to include even river ferries, the Thames Cable Car and the Blackpool Tram.

Easy to Use, Easy to Report Application – As a single source, browser based interface driven service for content aggregation and report creation, the UI provides broadcasters with a list of traffic and travels news bulletins customizable to specific cities or desired coverage areas (letting a station in the mid-lands provide updates on travel conditions for the closest airport for example) providing broadcasters with the ability to literally drag and drop these traffic news bulletins into an application that transforms the alert into a unique, scripted piece of news content with time signature in seconds. This application within INRIX Radio is complemented by pronunciation guides giving reporters across their 39 local market stations instant access to accurate pronunciation of roads and landmarks in their reports. It also now enables journalists to view traffic cameras.

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With 90 per cent of U.K. travellers getting their traﬃc and public transport news from radio and TV news reports, INRIX Radio helps the BBC deliver an invaluable service that helps U.K. travellers save time, money on fuel and frustration every day.

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TRANSMISSION Signal distribution, test & measurement

www.content-technology.com/transmission

Danmon Completes New Broadcast Centre for Lào Cai DANMON SYSTEMS GROUP has completed a green-field broadcast centre for Lào Cai Radio & Television, Vietnam. “The core of this project is in full 1080i highdefinition,” explains Bjarne Pedersen, Systems Sales Director, Danmon Asia. “The station is designed and equipped to accept, store, postproduce, and transmit content in any format and any aspect ratio. We have provided dedicated outputs for terrestrial and satellite delivery as well as streaming both via video-over-IP and to mobile viewing platforms.” Danmon Systems Group integrated a Harris file-based video production system including

Velocity craft editors and journalist proxy-file based editors and Harris playout servers. Miranda equipment was chosen for routing, graphics, multiviewers, on-air mixing and interfaces. The studio stage and news studio are equipped with Canara studio lights and light-control plus Panasonic AK-HC3500 studio cameras on Miller wheeled tripods. The cameras can be routed to EVS slow motion servers or direct to Ross vision mixers. Panasonic AG-HPX600 and AGHPX250EJ P2 camcorders are used for electronic newsgathering. Playout is controlled from the continuity suite which houses a Miranda transmission switcher,

Mongolia Goes DVB-T2 with Thomson MONGOLIA DIGITAL BROADCASTING

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(MNBC) has launched Mongolia’s first-ever DVB-T2 service, using headend systems from Thomson Video Networks. Working with Beijing-headquartered systems integrator Digital Horizon, MNBC has deployed Thomson Video Networks’ ViBE EM1000 multi-channel SD encoders and NetProcessor 9030 multiplexer and video processor with embedded DVB-T2 gateway.

By migrating to DVB-T2/MPEG-4, MNBC will now be able to broadcast up to 120 digital TV channels over five UHF transponders to maintain its number one position in the market and compete eﬀectively with Mongolia’s national satellite operator.

Installed at the broadcaster’s headend facility in Ulaanbaatar, the solutions have enabled MNBC to migrate to a DVB-T2/ MPEG-4 operation in order to accommodate more channels and increase its competitive advantage. Launched in 2007, MNBC was Mongolia’s first digital terrestrial TV network operator and is currently the market-leading terrestrial

The ViBE EM1000 encoders combine compression efficiency features and the latest pre-processing techniques to enable MNBC to offer its customers a premium viewing experience. The NetProcessor 9030 is a highly integrated MPEG-4 transport stream processor, and when coupled with the T2 gateway, provides MNBC with a versatile and powerful solution for cost-effective generation of DVB-T2 streams, compliant with all major transmitters. Visit www.thomson-networks.com

MediaCorp Toggles with Accedo ACCEDO, developer of interactive TV solutions, has been appointed by Singapore’s MediaCorp to develop multiplatform applications and solutions for MediaCorp’s interactive service, Toggle.

TRANSMISSION

Toggle is MediaCorp’s interactive service that goes beyond the television set, bringing entertainment, news and information to viewers across multiple devices. Toggle is currently available online at www.toggle.sg, as well as on Apple iOS devices.

on the Toggle service,” commented Reuben Verghese, Vice President Asia, Accedo. “Toggle is a compelling oﬀering for consumers, bringing MediaCorp’s customers a premium pay TV like experience, delivered over the Internet to popular consumer devices.”

Accedo will help MediaCorp extend Toggle to Android tablets and Android phones, as well as connected TVs. Toggle uses Accedo’s application development framework, XDK, which enables efficient cross platform development.

“Given their unparalleled experience of building world class applications and premium video experiences across every connected device, Accedo was a natural choice to partner with on this project,” commented Yoke Kong, Vice President Technology Services, MediaCorp. “Accedo is helping us create a compelling user experience tailored to the Toggle brand, compatible across a range of devices.”

“We are delighted to be working with MediaCorp

Visit www.accedo.tv

control system and monitoring. A Miranda Intuition graphics system is available in the production suites as well as in continuity. The central apparatus room is closely coupled to the continuity suite and master control room. The CAR houses equipment mainframes, the Harris servers and Miranda glue. Audio monitoring in all production suites is via Genelec loudspeakers. In addition to designing and integrating the studio equipment, Danmon provided a Screen Service 5 kilowatt VHF Band III television transmitter and an FG Wilson 550 kilowatt dieselpowered auxiliary power generator. Visit www.danmonsystems.com

Live 4K/HEVC in Japan K-OPTICOM CORPORATION (K-OPT) in Japan, has used Elemental video processing for the country’s first live 4K UHD higheﬃciency video coding (HEVC) transmission. Elemental Live systems powered real-time video streaming of the Osaka Marathon on October 27 in a K-OPT trial workflow. The Japanese telco used Elemental Live systems to provide HEVC encoding of 4K/59.94p material acquired from Sony PMW-F55 CineAlta 4K cameras located at the midpoint and finish line. Each camera was mounted with an AJA Ki-Pro Quad, which sent source content to Elemental systems via live 3G-SDI interfaces. Elemental systems encoded live content in HEVC at 4Kp30 and streamed video over K-OPT fibre networks to an NTT Docomo decoder. Visit www.k-opti.com and www.elementaltechnologies.com

Da Ai TV Streams with Digital Rapids DIGITAL RAPIDS has announced Taiwanese charity and humanities programming provider, Da Ai TV, has selected StreamZ Live adaptive streaming encoders to power live streaming online and through apps for mobile platforms. The StreamZ Live encoders transform live, high-definition source feeds into high-quality HD, SD and mobile-targeted output streams in multiple bitrates for viewing through Da Ai TV’s web portal and on mobile devices. Supplied by integrator Forevertek, the encoders are deployed in conjunction with Octoshape Infinite HD-M technology for optimised network delivery. Visit www.digitalrapids.com

TRANSMISSION

4K UHDTV Opportunities By Snell

4K UHDTV is a high-resolution picture format (3840 × 2160 pixels per frame), which is emerging as the standard for new multimedia services. It has huge artistic advantages compared to conventional SD and HD production, both for content acquisition and special effects (such as zoom), as well as archive and repurposing. 4K UHDTV offers opportunities for new service development and differentiation to broadcast and media organisations, many of which have already started experimental production and services, or announced their 4K UHDTV plans. For example, Netflix has announced plans for a 4K UHDTV movie service in 2014; BBC and Sky TV have carried out several 4K UHDTV live field tests for sports events during 2013; and Japanese broadcasters have committed to start 4K UHDTV services in time for the soccer World Cup in 2014. Standards are progressing rapidly, with ongoing work in SMPTE, EBU and others. So the relevant questions now for industry players are how much and how quickly they need to invest in 4K UHDTV technologies and equipment to match consumer demand when the new services start.

CONSUMER PULL OR MARKET PUSH? The most obvious advantage of 4K UHDTV is the much higher resolution than HDTV, which enables producers to capture much more detail in their scenes. This provides a more immersive experience, bringing to life spacious wildlife panoramas as well as offering the most detailed action at a sports game. The opportunity to capture a wider field of view enables producers greater freedom in camera placement, thereby enabling more artistic license, and hence closer engagement with viewers. With 4K UHDTV, enhanced post-production effects, such as very high quality zoom, become possible, where a viewer may concentrate on a specific part of the action chosen by the program director, or, in the case of interactive services, chosen by the viewers themselves. Currently, the main driver for 4K UHDTV comes from the display industry, where manufacturers are looking for the next exciting innovation to tempt consumers to invest in new displays. Although during 2013, there were many additions to the range of 4K UHDTV displays being offered to consumers, including those from Toshiba, Sony, LG, and Panasonic, and the prices have reduced to less than $1,000, consumer demand is still slow. In fact some analysts predict that major take-up of 4K UHDTV will not be until 2020. There are several reasons why consumers are hesitating. Firstly, many TV viewers have only just purchased HD displays so aren’t ready for

a new investment. Secondly, until the recent announcement of a small Seiki 39” display, 4K UHDTV displays oﬀered to consumers were 55” or bigger, making them impractical for many consumers’ living rooms. And thirdly, and rather importantly, there isn’t yet enough content available in 4K direct to the home or via media players for the viewer to watch. With estimates of the cost to broadcasters of creating a 4K UHDTV channel in the range of $10 million to $15 million, i.e. five times that for a new HD service, according to Deloitte, the decision to upgrade existing equipment and infrastructure will not be taken lightly. Cost will therefore inhibit the launch of 4K UHDTV services, thereby delaying purchase decisions by consumers. However, manufacturers such as Sony have launched 4K UHDTV media players, which enable consumers to view material from a hard disk. Only a limited amount of content is available via this mechanism at the moment, and only in a few geographical areas, but these types of initiatives help stimulate the market.

HOW ARE MANUFACTURERS SUPPORTING 4K UHDTV? Many broadcasters and production companies have identified the artistic opportunities that 4K UHDTV brings in terms of field of view, resolution (picture detail), sharper pictures, extended colour gamut, and improved motion portrayal (progressive scan at higher frame rates). Broadcast and media companies can use 4K UHDTV as an opportunity to create new services and diﬀerentiate their existing services. 4K UHDTV gives a stimulus to viewers to start new subscriptions. Improved quality of content

delivered to large displays in the home gives program producers new artistic scope and freedom to create stunning new material. Supporting the desire for new production capabilities are camera manufacturers such as Canon, Sony, JVC and others, who are already offering a good choice of 4K cameras. Monitoring down converters are available from Snell and others to enable easy integration of 4K UHDTV into facilities. 4K production methods are already well established in the digital cinema domain (although this is a slightly different format: 4096 × 2160 rather than the 3840 × 2160 of 4K UHDTV), and don’t require the complex rigs needed for 3D production. Snell is leading the way in 4K UHDTV Production Switching, with Kahuna 360 supporting 4K UHDTV at no price premium. Furthermore, thanks to the adoption of 4K in the film industry and for digital cinema, there are already some 4K effects and editing tools available, which combined with lower costs of data storage, make 4K UHDTV post-production feasible on reasonably powerful workstations. This enables broadcasters and media organisations to quickly take advantage as new 4K UHDTV technologies emerge. 4K UHDTV has the advantage of offering a very high quality master, which can be repurposed for different audiences. Post-production companies using Snell’s Alchemist On Demand software standards converter have already proved high quality motion compensated conversion of 4K material to different frame rates. Such tools Continued page 44 

TRANSMISSION

In the following discussion, we identify some key issues that broadcast and media organisations need to take into account when planning their transition to 4K UHDTV, which help answer those questions.

TRANSMISSION  Continued from page 43

enable broadcasters and content owners to maximise revenue from costly 4K productions. Transfer of 4K movies into screen productions can also be much simpler, due to the similar resolutions (3840 × 2160 pixels per frame for UHDTV and 4096 × 2160 for Digital Cinema). Many movie companies are scanning their back catalogues into 4K formats, anticipating new opportunities with future 4K UHDTV delivery mechanisms thereby creating new media services. Also new movies, especially those made for TV, as well as drama series, are now being mastered at 4K resolution (and above). Availability of compelling 4K UHDTV content will attract consumers, enabling broadcasters and media companies to demonstrate revenue generating service innovation. The chain to the consumer is facilitated by advanced compression technology, including the emerging High Eﬃciency Video Codec (HEVC). Both Eutelsat and ASTRA have announced the launch of a 4K UHDTV transmission capability. Eutelsat’s demonstration channel, allows broadcasters to experiment with 4K UHDTV services at 40Mbps compressed using MPEG-4, or on ASTRA at 20 Mbps. Testing by Netflix and other content owners has suggested that bandwidths as low as 15Mbps could be used for 4K UHDTV service delivery.

INVESTING IN 4K UHDTV Investing in new technology and new workflows is always accompanied by risk. In August 2012, ITU published ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020, which specifies the technical parameters for 4K UHDTV, but there remain many practical questions to consider. Firstly, the 4K UHDTV standard allows for frame rates from 23.98p up to 120p. Organisations buying 4K UHDTV equipment need to know

that the products they buy will support the full range of possible frame rates, so that they are ready for any service that is defined. However, current experiments by broadcasters at 50p and 59.94p have been very successful, so whereas content producers have the option of initial acquisition at frame rates up to 120Hz, there is a high likelihood that consumer services will be based on 50p or 60p. Moving to a new standard allows possibilities to use 10- or 12-bit colour depth. While this could lead to a much more exciting user experience, there are issues of backwards compatibility with current 8-bit systems, and at possibly 120 frames per second, it’s clear that uncompressed 4K UHDTV material has high storage requirements. Even a 30 minute 4K UHDTV@50p program at 10-bits per pixel will occupy more than 900 GB uncompressed, compared to around 90 GB for a 30 minute 1080 50i program at 8-bits per pixel. Fortunately, the costs of storage continue to decrease while capacity of storage solutions rises. In parallel, new compression methods are emerging which provide very eﬃcient encoding of video signals with minimal picture degradation. The recently completed High Eﬃciency Video Codec (HEVC) standard is just one possible codec to help reduce 4K UHDTV storage requirements. Tests with HEVC indicate that much higher compression ratios for the same picture quality are possible, compared to existing codecs such as JPEG2000 or H.264.

One study reported efficiency gains of 35% and above for HEVC compared to H.264 for entertainment applications. 4K UHDTV transmission is likely to be compressed, at least initially, as even today’s high bandwidth links to consumers’ homes have insufficient capacity to cope with the amount of data required to transmit programs. However, as improved compression technologies emerge along with more efficient transport mechanisms and higher bandwidths to the home, transmission issues will diminish over time. 4K UHDTV is a very promising new opportunity for broadcast and media organisations, and content owners. It opens up the possibility to develop new revenue streams from innovative new services, with much scope for new artistic freedom for program producers. Many elements in the equipment chain from production to consumer are already available or are in development by manufacturers, bringing the move to 4K UHDTV within the reach of many organisations. Visit www.snellgroup.com

Leader Launches Multi Waveform Monitor with Magna Systems

TRANSMISSION

LEADER HAS LAUNCHED its LV 5490 multi-waveform monitor into Australia and New Zealand with the help of its international distribution partner, Magna Systems and Engineering.

others in its class.”

The LV 5490 is a waveform monitor supporting 4K video and can display up to four channels of 3G-SDI input signals simultaneously. Of the eight total available channels, four are dedicated input connectors with cable length measurement capability; the other four channels are configurable as inputs or outputs with pattern generator functions. There is also a built-in nine-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) LCD monitor with wide viewing angle and high colour reproduction.

The LV 5490 accepts 3G/HD/SD SDI signals where the 3G-SDI signal can be dual link or quad link. With 4K video inputs in 3G-SDI (dual link) up to four systems can be displayed. In quad link 4K video inputs, up to two systems can be displayed. The LV 5490 can also display up to four SDI signals and two sets of HD-SDI dual link signals or a 3D assist function at the same time.

Magna Systems and Engineering business development manager, Lawrie Hitchens, said, “We have had tremendous interest in the LV 5490 waveform monitor. This really is a very clever product and definitely a cut above many

The LV 5490 also houses an external monitor output and SDI router function, pattern generator function and the waveform, vector and picture can all be displayed individually or in combination.

With a focus assist function, CINELITE II included as standard and an SDI signal data analysis function that allows for cable length measurement, CRC error, embedded audio error, event log, data dump and timing display, the LV 5490 multi-waveform monitor targets A&NZ broadcasters faced with increasing monitoring requirements. Visit www.magnasys.tv

TRANSMISSION

Eﬃciency the Key Factor for Broadcast Transmitters By Rohde & Schwarz Energy consumption accounts for over half of the operating costs of high-power broadcast transmitters. THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM for improving

adjusting the constellation diagram and taking advantage of the fact that the outer constellation points can be moved further outward. Adding all the carriers and changing their amplitude reduces CR. This approach does not work for rotated constellation diagrams as specified in DVB-T2.

efficiency. Today’s high-power broadcast transmitters typically consume four to five times more energy than they actually transmit on-air. Improving transmitter efficiency has a greater financial impact than simply reducing energy bills. Cost-of-ownership can be reduced, for example, and because efficient transmitters dissipate significantly less energy more of them can be accommodated in a single rack, which reduces the cooling burden and saves valuable space. Reducing energy bills also reduces carbon emissions.

Figure 1

Several approaches have been proposed to improve transmitter energy eﬃciency. The purpose of this white paper is to explore some of the technology options and give guidance for selecting the best high-power transmitter from the new generation on the market.

As mentioned earlier, an average amplifier eﬃciency of 30% leaves a good deal of room for improvement. To date, design engineers have come up with several approaches for optimising energy eﬃciency. They include:

The specific signal characteristics of COFDM and 8VSB broadcasting signals account for much of the difference between the energy required by the transmitter and the energy that is actually transmitted on-air. Both COFDM and 8VSB signals have a high average power level as well as signal peaks that must be amplified. An amplifier working at its saturation point delivers its highest energy efficiency. But the characteristics of high-power broadcast signals mean that the amplifier cannot work at its saturation point because it reaches saturation only when the amplifier is operating at peak power. It hardly needs to be said that an amplifier is less efficient when it operates at a lower power level. This relationship between average and peak power is represented by a ratio called the “crest factor” or peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). By defining the relationship between average and peak power this ratio becomes useful for analysing efficiency. Lowering crest factor values is a direct path to greater potential efficiency.

3 Algorithmic signal analysis has the potential of reducing CR by about 2%. An algorithm created by Rohde & Schwarz, for example, analyses the signal and reduces the peak values without aﬀecting signal quality.

+ Crest factor reduction, which has at least three approaches (Tone reservation, Active constellation extension (ACE), and Rohde & Schwarz crest factor reduction method) + Switched mode power amplification (SMPA) + Drain voltage regulation / envelope tracking + Doherty amplification technology Although reducing CR is the most straightforward approach, it has the complications of possibly aﬀecting signal quality and not being applicable to ATSC signalling. There are currently three solutions for reducing CR without negative impact on signal quality:

THREE ADDITIONAL APPROACHES Switched mode power amplification (SMPA) is an unproven technology in which the transistor is operated with a pulse code. In other words, the amplifier is constantly being switched on and off. In the “off” mode, zero power is required. In the “on” mode, the amplifier works with full saturation and maximum efficiency is achieved. This can lead to high efficiencies but the challenge to successful implementation of SMPA is that the normal amplitude modulated signal must be converted into a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal. This calls for very high switching frequencies that have the unwanted effect of generating spurious signals in the spectrum. These signals must be filtered out in the RF spectrum. This transforms the system into a narrowband solution, which reduces power efficiency. Figure 2 illustrates SMPA.

1 Tone reservation improves CR by targeting subcarriers without signal information – they are reserved for being switched on and oﬀ or modified. This results in a slight increase in bandwidth and improves eﬃciency by approximately one percentage point.

Because both the modulators and amplifiers must be developed for SMPA, it is the most complicated of all technologies discussed in this white paper. New transistors are also required and these have not been field-tested for broadcasting applications. The expected increase in power eﬃciency is 10% to 15%.

2 Active constellation extension involves

Drain voltage modulation (also known as

CREST FACTOR When operating a broadcast amplifier in normal class A/B mode, the amplifier’s theoretical power eﬃciency is 78%. But this theoretical figure is significantly aﬀected by the crest factor. It is widely accepted that 8 dB is an excellent crest factor value for broadcast amplifiers. Converting 8 dB to its linear value of 6 and using the formula below makes it clear that highest possible average power that can be amplified with a broadcasting amplifier in class A/B mode is just 1/6 the peak power:

Figure 2. Theoretical block diagram of an SMPA systema

Figure 1 illustrates how CR affects amplifier efficiency. The point at which the vertical line (CR = 8 dB) intersects the transistor’s characteristic efficiency curve determines the amplifier’s efficiency. Therefore, taking all losses (such as those caused by combining components) into account, an excellent average value for amplifier efficiency is 30%.

Figure 3. Envelope tracking

TRANSMISSION

Crest Factor (CR) = peak power/average power

TRANSMISSION past to 39%, thereby oﬀering energy savings of almost 50%.

Figure 4. Block diagram of a transmitter system with Doherty technology

While amplifier design has the greatest impact on energy efficiency, network operators must also consider the performance of the entire transmitter system when evaluating a high-power broadcast transmitter purchase. In addition to energy efficacy, network operators usually consider four other factors: + Space efficiency + Time efficiency in terms of operation + Service efficiency + Investment efficiency Every aspect of system and semiconductor technology has advanced since the previous generation of high-power broadcast transmitters. Network operators can take advantage of the full range of these innovations by seeking out products that are the result of extensive hardware and software optimisation. Two examples are the utilisation of LDMOS power transistors with 50 V supply voltage and new signal processing and system control concepts.

Figure 5. Doherty amplification

envelope tracking) adjusts the transistor’s supply voltage to match the respective signal. A large amount of additional hardware and software components are needed to analyse the signal, modulate drain voltage and adjust the characteristics of the transistors. These modifications increase hardware costs and reduce the power density of the amplifier. Because more components are needed, the availability of these systems is diminished. The expected increase in power efficiency is about 10% to 15%. Figure 3 illustrates the envelope tracking concept. Doherty amplification is the most effective approach to date because it has been fieldtested, is available today, and achieves superior efficiency performance. Developed by William H. Doherty in the 1930s, the technology has not been adapted for high-power broadcast transmitters until recently. The basic idea as shown in Figure 4 is to separate the amplification of peak and average power by using a main and peak amplifier and operating them separately, which results in a 10% to 15% improvement in amplifier efficiency.

TRANSMISSION

The principles are illustrated graphically in Figure 5. The main amplifier constantly works

Figure 6. Theoretical Doherty eﬃciency

in saturation after reaching the back-off point. This is achieved with load modulation. (In the illustration, the back off point is -6 dB.) Backoff is achieved using load modulation. In our example, a load resistor with double the load is used. Meanwhile, the peak amplifier does not operate (i.e. works in Class C mode) until the back-off point is reached, meaning that the peak amplifier requires no energy before reaching this point. At the back-off point, the peak amplifier starts reducing the load resistance of the main amplifier, which now provides more power but is still working in saturation. The peak amplifier further reduces the load resistance until the normal value is reached. Now half of the nominal output power is supplied by the peak amplifier and the other half by the main amplifier. Because the peak amplifier does not consume energy before the main amplifier approaches its saturation point, and because the headroom required for the main amplifier is very low, the level of efficiency that can be reached with a Doherty amplifier is 10% to 15% greater than that of a Class A/B amplifier. Figure 6 illustrates how Doherty amplification attains it high operating efficiency. Doherty technology was created as a narrowband solution with a possible relative bandwidth of about 10%. This is because a λ/4 matching line is required to handle load modulation. This operational drawback can be avoided, however, with intelligent amplifier design. Doherty technology is now used extensively in mobile base stations where it has proven itself robust and reliable. After examining each of these possible solutions for improving the power efficiency of a broadcast transmitter, Doherty technology is considered to be the best approach. Doherty technology makes it possible to improve the efficiency of a broadcast amplifier with COFDM modulation from an average 20% in the

Integrating 50 V LDMOS power transistors is not a trivial task. The system manufacturer must work closely with its semiconductor supplier to ensure that the right features are included. A matching circuit must be intelligently designed to guarantee long-term stability of the amplifier board. The RF coupling network after the transistors in the signal path should deliver minimal attenuation; and new power combiners and harmonics filters must be developed with the focus on reducing attenuation. Signal processing deserves just as much design focus as the transistor circuit itself. Power supplies should be designed with redundancy to allow the transmitter control unit to adapt dynamically to the transistor supply voltage. This capability and an automatic, adaptive pre-correction capability will boost transmitter efficiency, which is particularly important at low output power. The transmitter’s voltage regulation circuit also offers system design teams opportunities to increase efficiency. In particular, intelligent design can allow transmitter efficiency to be optimised for all digital TV standards. To manage this, the signal can be decoupled by the directional coupler at the transmitter output and routed back to the exciter where it is analysed. The exciter itself can be redesigned to deliver lower crest factors for all COFDM standards. When viewed from a cost-of-ownership perspective, space efficiency ranks second in importance to energy efficiency. The ability to pack more transmitters into fewer racks because of lower power density is just the beginning. External liquid cooling systems by their very nature require less space than air-cooled systems but intelligent design can maximise the inherent advantages. The Rohde & Schwarz R&S THU9 liquid-cooled high-power transmitter integrates Doherty technology and all of the other design concepts mentioned in this white paper. Visit www.rohde-schwarz-av.com

CLASSIFIEDS + EVENTS ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2014

what’s on

THE PRESENT MEDIA LANDSCAPE is changing rapidly in multiple

JANUARY

perspectives. Technological changes have given rise to new challenges for broadcasters especially in their investment plans, in meeting the audiences’ growing demands of delivering the content beyond traditional platforms, and in adapting towards the fast evolving transmission technology. The 2014 ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium will address how broadcasters could embrace latest developments in technology that can be used to survive and thrive in this dynamic digital media environment. The various sessions of the Symposium will address issues relating to the fragmented media market, new delivery mechanisms, quality of experience, and second-generation transmission technologies among others. There will also be panel discussions on multi-platform delivery and physical layer processing advancements. Sessions will include:

BVE February 25-27 Excel, London, UK www.bvexpo.com

INTERNATIONAL CES January 7-10 Las Vegas www.cesweb.org

MARCH

BES EXPO 2014 January 14-16 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.besindia.com

CONVERGENCE INDIA January 21-23 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.convergenceindia.org

CSTB 2014 January 28-30 Moscow, Russia www.cstb.ru

+ System Standards - New Developments and Standards + Going Beyond HD: Opportunities and Challenges

FEBRUARY

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INTEGRATED SYSTEMS EUROPE

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Advertiser Index Harris Broadcast....................... OBC Ideal Systems.................................. 3 IRT Electronics ..............................15

February 4-6 RAI Amsterdam www.iseurope.org

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING DIGITAL MEDIA SUMMIT

Visit www.abu.org.my/Event-_-dbs2014.aspx

Magna Systems & Engineering ..........................................................IFC NABshow ...................................... IBC Techtel .............................................. 5

February 24-25 Darling Harbour Sydney http://acevents.com.au/ broadcasting/index.html February 24-27 Barcelona, Spain www.mobileworldcongress.com

Load the Code To view these videos, make sure you have installed a QR code reader app on your tablet or smartphone, use the app to scan the associated QR code with your device’s camera, relax and enjoy informative the content from C+T and selected organisations.

CABSAT 2014 March 11-13 Dubai World Trade Centre www.cabsat.com March 15 Mudgee, NSW, Australia www.mudfest.com.au

CHINA CONTENT BROADCASTING NETWORK (CCBN) March 20-22 China International Exhibition Center (CIEC) Beijing, China www.ccbn.tv

FILMART

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

SNELL AND THE HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB

March 4-7 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.abu.org.my

MUDFEST SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

+ Spectrum for Broadcasting - Nexus in Regulation and Broadcasting + Embracing Technological Innovations

ABU DIGITAL BROADCAST SYMPOSIUM

March 24 – 27 Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre www.hkfilmmart.com

Marketing Manager, Harris Broadcast (UK), speaking at the recent SMPTE Australia Section Meeting on Audio Loudness, or visit: http://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCUlpcworPCM6Atu4paH1x-Q Proudly sponsored by Techtel and Harris Broadcast.

Alternatively, visit vimeo.com/67555547 recently_added/video-claudio_miranda

SHOOTING OBLIVION IN 4K WITH SONY F65

Alternatively, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz1kpNPQnxQ&f eature=youtu.be

To see the interview with Claudio Miranda ASC, scan the QR code or visit: http:// pro.sony.com/bbsc/video/ related-recently_added/ video-claudio_miranda

SMPTE LOUDNESS MEETING Scan the codes to view presentations by Glenn Carrick, Chair, Free TV Australia Audio Group, and Adam Birch, Global Product

AUTOMOBILE GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ASIA PACIFIC A video presentation by Joan Warner, CEO of CRA and Chairman of the WorldDMB Asia Pacific Committee, was shown at the recent 5th WorldDMB European Automotive Event in Hamburg, Germany. Alternatively, visit http:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=72bVJ2PABdA

CLASSIFIEDS + EVENTS

VERAMATRIX VIDEO ABS-CBN CARDLESS SECURITY CASE STUDY

ASIA

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20-01-14 28-01-14 04-02-14

2nd Week February

+ HbbTV + Multi-screen Delivery + Social Media + Channel-in-a-Box Solutions

+ Preview: Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit (Feb 24-25)

Mar-April

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03-03-14 10-03-14 17-03-14

4th Week March

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+ ENG Systems + Encoding, Transcoding Solutions

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C+T ASIA FEATURES + DEADLINES 2014 In Every Issue of C+T Asia magazine: Acquisition, News Operations, Sportscasting, Post-Production & VFX, Media in the Cloud, Digital Asset Management, Audio, Radio, Transmission, Signal Distribution, Command & Control – Automation, Monitoring, Systems Management ISSUE

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12-05-14 19-05-14 26-05-14

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