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Behind the Camera with Kate Cornish... page 14. REGULARS 04 EDITOR’S WELCOME 06 NEWS+PEOPLE Sky Racing Captions with
46 INDUSTRY FOCUS
ENCO and PAT; Paramount+ Launches in Australia; Community Radio Plus is Coming; Soccer’s Dolan Warren Awards Go Virtual; People News.
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FEATURES 11 ACQUISITION John Seale Shoots George
30 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Telstra and BASE
16 SPORTSCASTING Telstra Sells DSNG-
34 AUDIO Point Source Audio and the Sound of
22 NEWS OPERATIONS 6 News – Cub Reporters
39 RADIO SCA Invests in AI and Machine
Miller Film with FUJINON Premista; Behind the Camera – Kate Cornish; New Blackmagic Studio Cameras; ARRI Unveils Hi-5 Intelligent Hand Unit.
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Globecam Business to Gravity; Oz Sports Fans Prefer Online Viewing; On the Field with Grass Valley; Connecting with D2N; GWS Giants Aim for Glory with Ross’ Piero.
Leading the Pack; Polygon Labs and Meteomatics Boost Weather Data; Mobile Viewpoint UltraLink Encoders; Imagine Unveils Nexio NewsCraft; Dalet CubeNG Boosts User Experience.
26 POST-PRODUCTION Animal Logic Offers
Open-Source USD Scene; Beyond Content Opens New Suite in Adelaide; FilmLight Colour Awards; EditShare Boosts FLOW and EFS; Zero Density Reality Engine 4.26; DPP and SMPTE Update IMF.
Media in APAC Cloud Alliance; GB Labs, Archiware Partner on Data Protection; Insys Cloud-based Multi DRM; Quantum Boosts ActiveScale; Seagate and axle ai Collaborate. Aussie Gardening; Mandurah Performing Arts Calls on Pliant; The P.A. People Celebrates 50 Years; Clear-Com’s Arcadia Central Station; plus Reference Monitors.
Learning; Oz Smart Speaker Use Grows; Ad Revenue Objectives with Marketron; BE Digital FM Audio Processors; Upgrade for Tieline Gateway Codecs.
42 CONTENT DELIVERY Community Television
Heads Upstream with CTV+; Xytech Systems - the Scaling of Efficiencies.
42 CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY ISSN 1448-9554 PP:255003/06831 Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd (ABN 34 095 653 277) PO Box 165 Surry Hills, NSW 2010, Australia www.broadcastpapers.com PUBLISHER: Phil Sandberg Tel +61 (0)2 4368 4569 Mob +61 (0)414 671 811 papers@broadcastpapers.com
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EDITOR’S WELCOME
Changing of the Guard By Phil Sandberg
ersburg
begins in October.
And while 6 News, Ticker and Ausbiz represent the future, the past is facing an ongoing crisis. Writing recently on the Inside Story website, Ray Edmondson, former Deputy Director and present Curator Emeritus of the National Film and Sound Archive, citing what he calls a “generational memory loss”, Edmondson points out that the National Film and Sound Archive employs onefifth fewer staff than it did a decade ago.
In the words of Ray Edmondson, “We need to
He says, “Attention and resources have had to be increasingly focused on large-scale digitisation: the NFSA holds by far Australia’s largest collection of at-risk magnetic tape formats but also needs to make the wider collection accessible in the digital form that is now expected. Nor is this a one-off: with standards constantly evolving, digitisation and file maintenance is an unending process. Collections are permanently on life support.”
Back at the old school, Sky News Australia, with the exception of its free-to-air deals with WIN and SCA, remains behind the Foxtel subscription paywall. While maintaining a credible daytime news service, its after-dark morass of tired opinion programming has the relentless partisan
activities, along with a jettisoning of materials no longer seen as falling within the scope of its While the NFSA received a Federal Government $5.5 million funding boost for digitisation in 2020, it is hoped that new Chief Executive Officer, Patrick McIntyre, whose experience includes the role of Executive Director of the Sydney Theatre Company, will breathe some new life into the NFSA’s collection of old formats when his tenure
remember why the NFSA is as essential now as it was in that visionary moment of creation in 1935.”
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Refreshing it is then to see the emergence of actual schoolkids reporting straight news in the form of 6 News (see page 22). Also available via YouTube and social, but with fewer resources than their older siblings at Ausbiz and Ticker, 6 News has all the professionalism and passion required to grow into a service to be reckoned with. Founder Leonardo Puglisi and his team are definitely ones to watch.
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Both have taken on the new age of news with streamlined workflows and a no-barriers, multi-platform approach to distribution which is resulting in new and younger audiences across a multitude of devices.
The result, he says, is a decreasing circle of NFSA
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Then there is Ausbiz, the business and finance channel headed by Kylie Merritt, also a graduate of Sky News having held the positions Commercial Director and Digital Operations Director. It, too, is available via the web, apps, connected Samsung TVs, and on 7Plus. 16:00
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Last issue, we featured Ticker, the news channel founded by ex-Sky News Australia journalist, Ahron Young. Already available via its website, YouTube, social media, Apple TV, the App Store, Google Play, and others, Ticker has just signed a partnership which will see ticker NEWS become available across all iHeartRadio Australia platforms, including app, desktop, smart speaker and car play.
air of a group of bitchy schoolkids, continually trying to score some arcane political point or other.
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FOR SOME, THE RECENT PASSING of legendary Nine newsreader Brian Henderson (see page 10) signals truly the end of an era in news broadcasting, but newsgathering and news presentation and consumption continues to evolve with new technology and, more importantly, new players.
Thanks for reading Phil Sandberg – Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com +61(0)414671811
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 ABU DIGITAL BROADCASTING SYMPOSIUM Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings: Ad Artwork: For more information www.content-technology.com +61-(0)414 671 811 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com
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DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor Introducing a new generation of fast editing by combining the cut page with a custom edit keyboard. DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor is designed in conjunction with the cut page to make editing dramatically faster. You get physical controls that make the experience faster than software only editing. The machined metal search dial with soft rubber coating allows accurate search and positioning of the timeline. Plus trim keys allow the search dial to be used for live trimming, which is faster and more accurate!
Intelligent Edit Modes
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The search dial is very large and has a weighted feel so it can be spun fast to move up and down the timeline quickly. However the search dial is more than this, simply press one of the trim buttons and it transforms into a large adjustment knob for real time, precise trimming! You can select various trim modes with your left hand and adjust the trim with your right.
The sync bin lets you do multi-cam editing by searching through all your media and showing you any matching clips to use as cutaways. It makes multi-cam editing fast! You can select cameras simply by pressing the number on the keyboard. Or you can hold down the camera number while spinning the search dial to paint the cutaway into the timeline directly! It’s so fast!
Source Tape for Scrolling Clips
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In the old days, editing using videotape had the advantage of all media being on a tape that could be scrolled up and down so you could see all your shots! Now the cut page has a modern version of the videotape called ‘source tape’. Simply push the source button and use the search dial to scroll through all the media in your project! Plus, the current clip is highlighted live in the bin!
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Cut page editing functions are intelligent and take advantage of the speed of a keyboard. They use the ‘smart indicator’ in the timeline to work out where to insert, so you don’t always need to place in or out points to do an edit! Each time you edit, the cut page saves time by staying in the source tape. It’s much faster as you can keep browsing, throwing clips into the timeline!
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NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com
Sky Racing Captions with ENCO SKY RACING, THE PROVIDER of multi-venue, multi-channel race and sports broadcasting, has adopted ENCO’s enCaption4 systems to assist in captioning its content with teletext following a successful two-month trial. A pioneer of satellite television in Australia, Sky Racing transmits to more than 5000 outlets across Australia, and into 51 countries around the world via satellite, cable, mobile and digitally over the internet. Sky Racing, which broadcasts more than 160,000 races each year also has a reach into more than two million Australian homes. ENCO’s enCaption4 is an appliance which uses speech-to-text services, automatically generating captioning which is inserted into Sky’s vision. Using enCaption4, Sky Racing can provide near real-time, live captioning to its hearingimpaired audience any time.
enCaption4 uses ENCO’s latest enhanced speaker-independent deep neural network-based speech recognition engine to closely inspect and transcribe audio in near real-time. To assist with difficult language and extraordinary horse names, Sky will be working with ENCO’s personalised dictionaries to assist with recognition and accuracy. The latest generation of enCaption4 also offers an offline file-based mode for automatically captioning pre-recorded content, it can immediately produce captioned content in a number of different captioning file formats. For the past few months, Sky Racing, ENCO and Professional Audio & Television, ENCO’s exclusive distribution partner in Australia and New Zealand – have been engaged in a proof of concept at Sky Racing’s Frenchs Forest HQ to test ENCO’s
speech-to-text technology to ensure it was not only meeting Sky Racing’s requirements, but also fulfilling Sky’s current legal obligations set by ACMA (Australian Communications & Media Authority) when it comes to closed captioning.
ENCO provided a solid demonstration and immediately agreed to implement the OP47 standard required for teletext in Australia. The support from ENCO and their local representative Professional Audio & Television has been outstanding.”
Tabcorp’s Head of Media & Broadcast Technology Dennis Dovale said: “I have been familiar with ENCO and their various software solutions for many years. When we were searching for a technology solution that would meet our captioning requirements,
ENCO’s President Ken Frommert was delighted with the news: “It is great to see our technology being deployed at Sky Racing in Australia. We thank Sky Racing for their trust, and we are looking forward to supporting them into the future.”
IN BRIEF VIACOMCBS AUSTRALIA and New Zealand has announced the appointment of Liz Baldwin as Senior Vice President, Head of Streaming. Liz was previously General Manager, Digital, a role she has held since February 2016 and was responsible for the company’s digital strategy including the live streaming and on demand service 10 Play. She joined Network 10 in March 2015 as Digital Executive Producer. In the newly created role, Liz will continue to oversee the digital business for 10 Play, but also manage the digital strategy for the new streaming service Paramount+. She will continue to lead ViacomCBS’ growing digital and streaming team. Liz will report directly to Chief Operating and Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand, Jarrod Villani.
NEWS + PEOPLE
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Visit www.proaudiotv.com.au
MALCOLM WELDON has joined D2N Technology as broadcast support IP engineer. Weldon is known in the industry for being a highly-skilled audio and electronics engineer with over 40 years’ experience in a broad range of broadcast production and operations settings. Most recently, Weldon enjoyed success with SKY Racing Australia where he was promoted from research and development manager to senior engineer and
then chief engineer technology integration in a tenure spanning over 22 years. Weldon’s day-to-day role includes being the first port of call for support across all of the brands D2N represents including Simply Live, Sienna, TVU, Kiloview and AIDA, amongst, others and encompasses software, firmware and hardware support. He will also liaise with manufacturers regarding future firmware versions, beta testing and sandboxing before D2N release new and upgraded solutions to market. He will also work with MD Jason Owen to enhance the company’s overall product knowledge and undertake site surveys. Email Malcolm. weldon@d2n.com.au -----------------------------------------------------------SCA HAS APPOINTED Scott Muller as Head of Content Insights. Muller will lead the delivery of researchdriven, practical, and relevant insights across all SCA’s audio assets to SCA’s Content Leadership team, to drive innovative and engaging content creation for SCA’s listeners. He will work closely with SCA’s Research team, SCA iQ, to distill data and research into meaningful insights, with the “goal of informing key content decisions to achieve programmatic excellence” across the Hit and Triple M networks and LiSTNR.
Hybrid Powerhouse For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com
XVS-G1 Switcher Processor
Meet the next-generation HD and 4K platform in Live Production Switchers. The new Sony XVS-G1 with its hybrid architecture and all-new 4RU processor is designed to deliver high-speed realtime processing. And with its new web-based application you can now enjoy remote access to a powerhouse of features with a PC, laptop or tablet.
ICP-X1124/X1224 Control Panel
For more information, please visit
NEWS + PEOPLE
• 4 new control panels with 1 M/E or 2 M/E configurations and up to 16 or 24 source button layouts • Up to 4M/E, 48 inputs and 24 outputs in HD/1080p mode or 2M/E, 24 inputs and 12 outputs in 4K(UHD) mode can be configured by adding optional I/O boards • Optional graphics processing unit provides built-in clip player, 3D digital multi-effects, extra still logo keys and new multi-viewer functionality • Up to 16 web browsers connected simultaneously for multi-menu, multi access setup or remote operation
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NEWS + PEOPLE
Paramount+ Launches in Australia PARAMOUNT+, WHICH LAUNCHED 11th of August in Australia, is available online at ParamountPlus.com.au and on mobile and connected TV devices via the Paramount+ app on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, and Android devices, Google TV and other Android TV OS devices. The service will be accessible on Apple TV channels on the Apple TV app, as well as through Google platforms and devices (Android devices, Google TV and other Android TV OS devices), Fetch TV, Telstra TV, Sony Bravia (Android TV) and Amazon Fire TV. Liz Baldwin, Senior Vice President, Head of Streaming, ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand, said, “We are excited to launch Paramount+ on such a broad range of platforms. “We are thrilled to allow subscribers to enjoy the mountain of entertainment available on Paramount+ in as many places and on as many devices as possible, across Apple, Google, Fetch TV, Telstra TV, Sony Bravia and Amazon Fire TV devices.” Scott Lorson, CEO Fetch TV, said: “Fetch has experienced tremendous success on the strength
of our ‘All your entertainment, easy’ proposition. We are thrilled to be launching the highly anticipated Paramount+ to our content offering and expect strong take-up of the service by our subscribers eager to access the broad range of premium entertainment it offers.” Nathan Gumley, Home and Entertainment Executive, Telstra TV, said, “We’re excited to be a Paramount+ launch partner. Paramount+’s huge range of content adds to the fantastic streaming experience on Telstra TV, providing Australians a simple way to find and watch the best in global and local content all in one place.” Aki Hosoda, Head of TV Australia, Sony, said, “Sony Australia is excited to showcase world
class entertainment from Paramount+ on our Bravia Android TV’s. The addition of Paramount+ reinforces our commitment to delivering the latest high-quality content to our growing customer base in Australia.” Priced at AUD$8.99 per month for a monthly subscription or $89.99 for an annual subscription, new subscribers will have access to a free seven-day trial. Visit www.paramountplus.com/au
Community Radio Plus is Coming THE COMMUNITY BROADCAST ASSOCIATION of Australia (CBAA) is calling for expressions of interest from member stations who would like to be included in a community radio industry app. Launching later in 2021, Community Radio Plus will be a one-stop shop for listeners to hear community radio, right across the country. It
aims to feature every community radio station in Australia and champion the sector’s rich and diverse content to listeners everywhere. The app is being developed by All In Media which has worked on apps for the ABC, SBS, Commercial Radio Australia, the BBC and the UK Radio industry. It will feature live radio, podcast/catch up
shows and the ability for listeners to discover new stations and content. According to the CBAA’s Manager of Online Products & Services, Andrew Morris, “This app will be a game-changer for the sector - the first time the entire sector is available in the one place.” Visit www.cbaa.org.au
Soccer’s Dolan Warren Awards Go Virtual with Grabyo FOOTBALL/SOCCER UMBRELLA organisation the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) recently presented the most prestigious achievements in the A-League and Westfield W-League this season with a brand-new, virtual 2021 Dolan Warren Awards night using Grabyo. The event, which was hosted by Claudio Fabiano and Fox Sports Australia’s Victoria Slater, allowed fans to watch the event from anywhere in the world and interact with the awards ceremony in real-time. The night culminated in the announcement of the top awards; the Julie Dolan Medal and the Johnny Warren Medal.
NEWS + PEOPLE
Production company I Want It Yesterday produced clips and a recording of the event, using Grabyo’s cloud-based live production platform, Grabyo Producer, to play it out ‘as live’ to a global social audience.
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The production team used Grabyo Producer’s playlisting functionality to queue multiple clips and VOD assets to play out throughout the broadcast. This allowed the small team to prepare an engaging live event with dynamic graphics and overlays ahead of time, freeing the team to focus on facilitating interaction with the audience. The APL was able to keep fan engagement high for the awards in its new virtual format. Its
digital team utilised Grabyo’s integration with audience participation platform Never.no to maximise fan participation. Fans could engage with the awards show throughout the evening, with social comments displayed over the broadcast in real-time. This gave fans a more immersive experience, making them feel part of the night even if they couldn’t be there in person. Grabyo’s cloud-native platform allowed the production team to work fully remotely, collaborating from multiple locations.
Westfield W-Leagues Facebook pages, My Football YouTube channel, and the My Football Live App.
“We knew that delivering the 2021 Dolan Warren Awards was going to be different and present some new challenges” comments Rob Nolan – Director, Marketing & Data, APL. “Working with local production company I Want It Yesterday and Grabyo allowed us to go above and beyond in this new, virtual environment. We saw lots of direct engagement with fans and the reception was fantastic.”
“It is a real honour to be chosen by the APL to manage the creative and delivery of such a prestigious event in the Australian football calendar. Such a premium event deserved to be underpinned by a leading technology and Grabyo’s cloud-native production tools were our first choice” adds Joey Ferrone – Creative Director, I Want It Yesterday. “Creating the event virtually gave us new and innovative ways of delivering the broadcast, whilst allowing football fans and creators to feel part of the celebrations.”
The event was streamed to the A-League and
Visit www.grabyo.com
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE DIGISTOR has appointed Norah Boyle as Senior Engineer, joining the Digistor Services team. Over the past 15 years, Norah has been working as the Lead Engineer for a Sydneybased VFX software distributor. During this period, Norah worked predominantly in the M&E space where she provided support, implementation and training on a diverse range of technologies, including Media Asset Management (MAM), Production Asset Management (PAM), SAN and NAS storage solutions, Backup and Archive solutions and Project Management software. During this time, Norah also led a plethora of complex and challenging projects. Some notable examples include successfully implementing and configuring the MAM archive front-end for Tennis Australia; successfully working with customers to implement MAM workflow automation; successfully providing implementation and ongoing PAM system support for a major broadcaster; and successfully implementing, training, and supporting MAM for an Australian government statutory authority. Norah said, “I have known and worked alongside Digistor on several projects and technologies over the years and am excited to be joining the team. I really enjoy working closely with customers and helping them achieve positive outcomes from the technology solutions they have purchased.” Visit www.digistor.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SBS AUSTRALIA has announced the appointment of Davide Schiappapietra as Head, Language Content in SBS’s Audio and Language Content (ALC) division. Reporting to David Hua, Director of Audio and Language Content, in his new role Davide will be responsible for the ALC division’s content strategy and output in over 60 languages across multiple platforms including radio, podcasting, websites and social media. As Head, Language Content he will also provide leadership, professional advice and mentoring to the team of Program Managers and other content leads within ALC. Visit www.sbs.com.au
NEWS + PEOPLE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------IPTV SOLUTIONS provider Tripleplay has announced the appointment of Dipak Lean to the role of Technical Support Engineer as first line technical support for customers across Australia and New Zealand. Based in Melbourne, Dipak joins Tripleplay with a strong IT and systems background from over 15 years’ experience in technology-oriented businesses, with a focus on direct customer liaison, trouble shooting and issue resolution. Visit www.tripleplay.tv
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TECHSTORM, ONE OF ASIA’S SBS has announced the appointment of Emily Griggs as its new Head of Entertainment and Food. As part of SBS’s Unscripted commissioning team, Emily will oversee SBS’s diverse commissioned entertainment and food shows. She joins SBS from BBC Studios where she was Head of Development and Content and oversaw development and production of various shows, including SBS series’ Mastermind and Celebrity Mastermind. Visit www.sbs.com.au
Vale Brian Henderson LEGENDARY NINE newsreader and host of long-running 1960s music programme, Bandstand, Brian Henderson has passed aged 89 after being diagnosed with kidney cancer. Peter Costello, Chairman of Nine, said, “Brian Henderson was the best of the best, he was iconic. The ultimate professional and the trusted face of television news for generations of Australians. “Hendo was not just a much-loved newsman he also brought modern pop music to generations of Australian teenagers through his hosting role on Bandstand. “He was trusted, he had a warmth that he brought into the living rooms of millions of Australians. He will be deeply missed but his giant legacy and contribution will live on in the DNA of Nine.”
worked with him and learn from him,” added Darren Wick, Nine’s Director of News and Current Affairs. “He was the biggest star in a 9News team that boasted the biggest names in journalism – Laurie Oakes, Liz Hayes, Georgie Gardner, Ken Sutcliffe, Peter Harvey, Robert Penfold, Peter Overton, Leila McKinnon, Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic. “He was the epitome of credibility, reliability and clarity. He set the standard that we aspire to live up to night every night of the week.” Visit www.nine.com.au
“Hendo was much loved and idolised by everyone of us lucky enough to have
SMPTE’s METexpo Postpones Again THE AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH PACIFIC Section of SMPTE (the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) has announced a further postponement of its METexpo exhibition and conference until March 15-17, 2022. According to Paul Whybrow, SMPTE Board Chair for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Islands, “The pandemic is currently disrupting many of us across Australia and in the South Pacific just as we thought we were all heading in a good direction to all meet again in person. “The key thing for us at SMPTE is that we want to ensure all our members and friends have a safe and enjoyable time at METexpo. Given the current challenging conditions in Sydney, we have made the decision to move our event to early next year, so you can feel confident and comfortable in coming to our show and conference. “We are still really excited about our packed conference program, which includes several new and exciting features. A huge thanks to our presenters who are locking in for March 2022. With rapidly rising vaccination levels, the talk of a growing list of travel bubbles and the community confidence of a positive start to ‘22, we believe we have made a choice that you will be very happy with.”
• Three days of conference and exhibition, with two social events open to all • A full day for the screen industry across business, production and post • Business of Media panels featuring thought leaders from the ABC, SCA, Nova, Deluxe, Seven Media, Telstra, AWS, SPA and more • A full day dedicated to the craft of audio, aimed at mentoring sound practitioners • The Women in M&E and their Allies breakfast • SMPTE METexpo awards • Global insights from our SMPTE keynote events • An Innovation Hub showcasing startups and innovators from Fishburner and others • Partner events with the Sydney Video Technology Meet Up and SVGW Visit www.metexpo.com.au
Media and Entertainment Tech Ex
The rescheduled event will feature:
ICC Sydney, Darling Harbour
EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE REGISTRATION OPEN NOW!
ACQUISITION & LIGHTING www.content-technology.com/acquisition
John Seale AM ACS ASC Shoots George Miller Film with FUJINON Premista and it matches up with our signature primes. The lens is clean without being sterile.” In recent years, there has been an uptake of cinema cameras equipped with large-format sensors capable of delivering high-quality and richly-expressive footage. When shooting with prime lenses, it is often necessary to change lenses depending on the scene, and there is a growing demand for zoom lenses capable of shooting high-quality footage John Seale AM ACS ASC using the FUJINON Premista 19-45mm wide-angle zoom lens on the that requires less replacement.
The film, which stars Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba and Kaan Guldur, is the story of a scholar, content with life, who new George Miller film Three Thousand Years of Longing. encounters a Djinn who offers her three immediately impressed with the new 19-45mm wishes in exchange for his freedom. lens due to it being able to compliment the fullTheir conversation, in a hotel room in Istanbul, leads to consequences neither would have range of the ARRI sensor. expected. “It’s a light lens,” says Seale. “It’s got a lovely More details about the film can’t be published at the moment due to non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality, however the story about how this lens ended up on Seale’s camera can. Seale loves zoom lenses. He’d heard about the Premista 19-45mm and Miller wanted one particular, very specific shot for his new film. A shot that required great technical expertise. The shot had been storyboarded and designed using previsualisation software and Seale wanted to try out the new lens just for this shot. Despite the lens being rare and in high demand, when FUJIFILM heard that it was Seale who wanted it, one was immediately flown to Sydney. Miller’s new film was shooting on multiple ARRI Alexa Large Format cameras and Seale was
cinema look with a softer edge.”
It is one of very few lenses that not only supports large-format sensors but also delivers outstanding high resolution, natural and beautiful bokeh and rich tonality with high dynamic range. Perfect for Miller’s new film, which features a lot of interior Technochrane choreography flowing through rooms, going from wide-shots to extreme closeups. Originally the production had the lens on loan for three days, however after using it for a short time Seale and Miller decided to keep it for the entire production. “We’ve shot well over 50% of this movie with the lens,” says A-camera focus puller Ricky Schamburg. “The zoom cogs are precision perfect,
ACHTEL 9x7 Camera Hits U.S. Market
AUSTRALIA-BASED digital cinema equipment maker ACHTEL Pty Limited has announced that XM2 PURSUIT, a specialist in aerial and groundbased camera platforms, is to offer the company’s 9x7 high-end cinema camera for rental in the U.S. market.
The 9x7 cinema camera features global shutter and has unmatched low-light capabilities and colour accuracy. Designed to replace multi-camera arrays and 70mm film, the 9x7 specifically targets high-end VFX, VR, Giant Screen and IMAX productions. Advanced motion control and post workflows combine to provide new opportunities for film makers.
The 9x7 camera can be rented with a range of accessories and lenses as well as the integration of state-of-the-art stabilised platforms and operated via manned aircraft, vehicles and drones. XM2 PURSUIT will provide end-to-end management from planning and execution through post-production, all of which ensures seamless coordination and results catered to each project’s needs. The 9x7 captures images with unprecedented detail using uncompressed raw format with recording bandwidth of up to 10 GB/s approximately 30 times more than traditional digital cinema cameras can achieve. According to
“It’s hard to find good full-frame lenses for the large format cameras,” says Seale. “But this lens achieves an astonishing level of edge-to-edge sharpness.” Schamburg adds that Miller’s visual effects team were thrilled with the lens too. “Metadata!” he exclaims. “The FUJINON lens speaks fluently with the ARRI technology, saving potentially thousands of dollars in postproduction.” The FUJINON Premista 19-45mm is a compact and premium-quality wide-angle zoom lens, developed with FUJIFILM’s optical technology nurtured over many years. It joins the 28-100mm and 80-250mm lenses in the Premista series giving the industry unparalleled choice in high quality, large format zoom lenses. This article originally appeared in Australian Cinematographer magazine. Visit www.fujifilm.com.au
Pawel Achtel, ACS, director of Achtel Pty Limited, 9x7 footage is like a ‘thick negative’ offering superior colour range and accuracy even in difficult lighting conditions. The 9x7 camera is available with variety of lens options and mount systems including LPL, PL and Panavision. XM2 PURSUIT is a collaboration between XM2 and Pursuit Aviation with offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, London, the Gold Coast and Melbourne. See our interview with Pawel Achtel ACS on the launch of the 9x7 at https://bit.ly/3xppria Visit www.xm2pursuit.com/contact and www.achtel.com
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RARELY WOULD A CAMERA LENS generate so much buzz, but such is the case with the new FUJINON Premista 19-45mm wide-angle zoom lens. One of only two in the world at the time, it was recently used by Australian cinematographer John Seale AM ACS ASC – the Academy Award winner for Best Cinematography in 1997 for his work on The English Patient – on the new George Miller film Three Thousand Years of Longing which recently wrapped production in Sydney.
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ACQUISITION & LIGHTING
New Blackmagic Studio Cameras BLACKMAGIC DESIGN has announced a new family of Blackmagic Studio Cameras for live production. The new cameras include features such as light weight, carbon fibre, reinforced polycarbonate bodies and large integrated 7-inch touchscreen viewfinders for easier transport and setup. With digital film camera dynamic range and colour science, the cameras can handle difficult lighting conditions while producing cinematic images. The sensor features an ISO up to 25,600, suitable for dimly lit venues. Other features include talkback, tally, camera control, builtin colour corrector, and Blackmagic RAW recording to USB disks. The Blackmagic Studio Camera features gain from -12dB (100 ISO) up to +36dB (25,600 ISO) so it’s optimised to reduce grain and noise in images, while maintaining the full dynamic range of a 4K sensor. The gain can be set from the camera, or remotely from a switcher using the SDI or ethernet remote camera control. The colour corrector, with 13 stops of dynamic range, can also be controlled from the switcher. The sensor features a resolution of 4096 x 2160 and all models support from 23.98fps up to 60fps. Blackmagic Studio Cameras feature MFT lens mounts. An optional focus
and zoom control allows users adjust the lens from the tripod handles. The large 7-inch high resolution screen’s overlays show status and record parameters, histogram, focus peaking indicators, levels, frame guides and more. Users can even apply 3D LUTs for monitoring shots with the desired colour and look. The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro model has SDI connections that include talkback. The talkback connector is built into the side of the camera and supports standard 5-pin XLR broadcast headsets. All models feature HDMI with tally, camera control and record trigger, and are compatible with ATEM Mini switchers. There are also headphone and mic connections, and 2 USB-C expansion ports. The advanced Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro model is designed for broadcast workflows so has 12G-SDI, 10GBASE-T ethernet, talkback and balanced XLR audio inputs. 10G ethernet allows all video, tally, talkback and camera power via a single connection. The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro model supports connecting cameras via a single ethernet cable. The ethernet includes all camera video, program return feeds, tally, talkback, camera control and also power.
The high-speed USB-C expansion port allows customers to record to external disks or connect to a wide range of accessories. Plug in an external USB flash disk and the camera can record high quality 12-bit Blackmagic RAW files for later editing and colour correction. Blackmagic Studio Cameras include built in microphones which are shock and wind resistant. There is also a 3.5mm audio input for connecting video camera microphones as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Pro model includes two-channel balanced XLR inputs which support +24 dBu line level and have an ultralow noise microphone pre-amplifier with P48 phantom power alongside an equivalent input noise (E.I.N.) of -131 dBV(A). That’s followed by two 117 dB high dynamic range
analogue to digital converters. When not powered via Ethernet, all models have a common 12V DC locking power connector so the cable won’t be accidentally pulled out. Meanwhile, Blackmagic’s Studio Converter has a large power supply that adds PoE power to the ethernet cable. Optional zoom and focus demands can be added to turn affordable photography lenses into broadcast lenses. The focus and zoom demands have USB-C connections and work with all Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K models. Each zoom and focus demand has two USB-C ports, so users can daisy chain them then connect to the camera with a single USB connection. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
ARRI Unveils Hi-5 Intelligent Hand Unit THE ARRI HI-5 IS A NEW wireless camera and lens control hand unit central to ARRI’s fifth-generation Electronic Control System (ECS). Together with a new radio system, new intelligent batteries, smart focus rings, and an iOS app, the Hi-5 is designed to boost on-set connectivity, simplifying complex tasks for film crews.
ACQUISITION
Typically, the Hi-5 will be in the hands of a focus puller or 1st AC. Features include ARRI’s proven ergonomic design, a touchscreen interface based on a camera GUI, and the new ARRI ECS Sync App for easier lens file management and software updates.
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The Hi-5 also includes swappable radio modules. With an often congested 2.4 GHz ISM band and different frequency regulations in different countries, the ability to exchange radio modules allows crews to choose the module that best suits each shooting location. ARRI will release three radio
modules in the 900 and 2400 MHz ranges, using direct sequence and frequencyhopping spread spectrum technology to cut through interference. Together, they cover a multitude of shooting situations with a significantly improved, robust and long-range radio link, while ensuring backwardscompatibility with existing camera equipment. As technology evolves, even more modules can be added. Pre-marked focus rings now communicate directly with the Hi-5 hand unit, being instantly
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is displayed on the Hi-5 screen. Meanwhile, a new Tail Slate Mode prevents the user from stopping recording before capturing a tail slate on shots that need it.
the unit down, and their capacity
Visit: www.arri.com/hi-5
lens focus scale. Batteries for the Hi-5 are ARRI products, based on the NP-L interface; they can be
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ACQUISITION & LIGHTING
Behind the Camera: Kate Cornish Kate Cornish’s love of film started while growing up next door to a video rental store on the New South Wales Central Coast where she would consume hours of behind-the-scenes DVD bonus features and commentaries. INTRODUCED TO PHOTOGRAPHY in high school and, with family encouragement, she began to enter various film festivals, shooting her productions with semi-pro cameras such as Canon’s 60D, before winning a Robin Anderson Scholarship with the Sydney Film School. More recently, early 2021 saw Cornish shooting a branded documentary for Pedestrian TV, Absolut Vodka and the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, taking in regional centres throughout Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland. “We shot with a couple of [Panasonic Lumix] GH5 cameras and some cine lenses,” says Cornish. “It’s a documentary series where we travel to a bunch of regional towns around Australia. We are visiting LGBT people in these regional towns and exploring how their town accepts them. For the most part, they are accepted, but obviously it is a rural town and there are a lot of conservative people that live in those towns and I think the point of the story is really to find joy and hope in these places and to shine a light on these unknown communities that no one might know about.” Is everything shot on memory sticks, then pulled together later? “Yeah. I’m not editing it. They have some editors in-house at Pedestrian. There are two shooters. One is permanently at Pedestrian and I’ve come in as the second shooter. We’re both shooting at the same level and working together as a team, but you just need two operators for this kind of thing, especially for a lot of stuff that is in-situ. It’s a bit of an observational documentary style, so you just need two camera angles at a lot of points to make sure you capture the action. But, visually, it’s going to be so beautiful. I’m really excited because obviously these towns are remote and you’re seeing stunning landscapes, but also the characters are really interesting and we’re talking to their families, and they’re a host of characters as well. And then you’ve got the town and the community. “But, it’s very run and gun a lot of the time. It is scheduled like a strip schedule, like okay, we know we’re going to go to Hannah’s house and talk to her here, and then after that, we’re going to go to the town and shoot B-roll, but that’s kind of it. You’ve got to think on your feet and improvise and try to make it look as beautiful as possible, and also sometimes work with a schedule that doesn’t allow for the best light. ‘We’re going to shoot town B-roll at 12.00pm when the sun is right up in the sky’. I’d really love to shoot the town B-roll at 6.30pm or maybe 7.00. ‘Nope. We’ve got to do this then’. So, how do I make that look pretty? You try your best.”
ACQUISITION
What gear do you have in your kit?
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“It really depends on the budget. And it also depends on the type of job. Like, okay, for
Cinematographer Kate Cornish.
example, I’ve shot a lot on the [Canon] C500 Mark II recently. And that’s been for a couple of music videos and also, I have been shooting a content series for Spotify, which is on the C500 Mark II. And that camera works because, for those jobs specifically, just because it’s a nice hybrid between something that’s run and gun, but also delivers a very high production quality. “I can’t do without my phone because I like to use two apps in particular that really, really help me and not just on set, but also during pre-production when I’m location scouting. I use an app called Artemis Pro, which is an amazing director’s finder and it allows you to input any camera you want in the system and any lens kit you want, so whether you’re shooting on an ALEXA, any RED camera, any Canon camera, Sony, etc., and it takes into account the field of view or your sensor size, and then you can pair any lens kit with it. “When I’m on a location scout, I’ll take a bunch of photos at my widest focal length and my longest focal length and it will help me be able to story board and figure out what I can and can’t do in the space. Likewise, when I’m on set, it saves time, instead of saying to the AC, ‘I think maybe we should change lens to maybe the 50mm’, I just whip out the app and put the 50ml on with that camera and go, ‘Hmm, is that the frame I want? Actually, I think I want something tighter. Okay, let’s try the 85mm’. It saves so much time.
“Another app that I love using is called Sun Seeker, which essentially just shows you the trajectory of the sun and you can look at it in 3D space with the camera on your phone. If you’re location scouting and you’re at the location, you can also input a projection in terms of saying that you’re going to be shooting August 13th at 6.00pm, you can input that into the app, and it’ll show you in 3D space where the sun’s path will be at that time and that date. That is so useful for me. There’s two things I can’t live without. Could you talk about your experience with Canon’s EOS C70? “The C70, I’ll be super honest, I’ve only used it once on the video that I shot of [Australian singer] Kim Churchill. I really did enjoy using it. I feel it was kind of the perfect, I guess it was the perfect camera for what I needed to shoot in that moment. Like just its form factor and size first of all, the fact that we had multiple cameras shooting, we needed to match them all. And the fact that it had internal Natural Density filters because that’s something I’m getting really sick of, having to screw on an ND filter on my lens, especially when I’ve been shooting this documentary, I’ve been shooting majority with a variable ND on my lens on this GH5 and it doesn’t really matter how much you spend on these physical NDs, they’re always going to give a terrible magenta hue to the image. And I find that with something like the internal ND in the C70, you don’t see any kind
ACQUISITION & LIGHTING
“ It’s really the person behind the camera and how they use those tools. And if you have a vision and a dream, just use anything that you have in your arsenal.
“Actually, I did take out the C70 a couple of Kate Cornish on the Set of the ‘FLUSH’ music video for Ecetera Etcetera, a contestant from RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under. Camera Specs: C500 Mark II; Canon Cine Primes; 25 + 50 fps; 6K RAW; ISO 800; 5600k. evenings before I shot the Kim Churchill video, just to give it a burl and don’t know. I think in some spaces, maybe yes. guess there’s an overwhelming feeling, and I’m test it out and I shot my friend walking around not going to say all women feel like this, but I I want to be super careful with how I talk about Newtown at like 7.00pm and just getting that definitely felt like as a woman, I had to try twice this topic because I don’t want to ever seem like sunset into dusk into night-time, to just have or three times as hard to prove my worth, or to I’m saying ‘Oh, I’m a woman and that makes me a look at the dynamic range and also the low prove my knowledge, because it was assumed special in this way or it makes me incapable of light performance and how it rendered colours that I just didn’t know as much as the men getting a job or something’. I don’t want to be on skin tones during that time. And I was so around me.” like that. But, I think just logically, if you look at impressed with the results out of this tiny statistics and you see the percentage of women What advice would you give to aspiring DOPs camera. I love playing around in DaVinci resolve, in the ACS versus men, well you can see that then? but you could honestly have just thrown a 709 there’s obviously quite a large gap there. “Oh my god, just do it. Just shoot it and don’t LUT on the footage and have called it a day if There are a lot of beards. feel like you have to ask permission to do so. you really wanted to because it looked so nice. That would be my advice. Honestly, gear is “But, they’re lovely beards. They’re lovely. For “The vision of the director for the Kim Churchill so accessible nowadays. Look, you can shoot me, I’m seeing now a lot more women feel more clip was for it to be very intimate, very close, to amazing stuff on your iPhone. I saw this film confident younger, in their younger state than feel like you’re right there in the space with him. that someone shot on their iPhone 11 the other I was when I was 20, 21 and trying to teach And that’s why there’s so many closeups and day on YouTube and I thought to myself, oh myself or figure things out. I felt like, half the also on a wide lens, so you can go quite close to geez, that’s really good. I always emphasise to time, I definitely felt a large sense of imposter him instead of on a long lens far away. people, when they ask me on my Instagram and syndrome. I still do. I’m trying to speak really “We also shot with some Pro-Mist filters they say, ‘Oh, what camera did you shoot that objectively and not put any subjective opinions screwed on to our lenses because we wanted with?’, and they never acknowledge the person on this, but I just would say that we can focus to achieve a really nice, soft look. Some people behind the camera, they always talk about the on the fact that there are less women who are hate that, some people like how that looks. It’s tools accredited as cinematographers than men, but all subjective. But, I think we achieved definitely “I love being techy and I love talking about that. I I think what I’m trying to focus on right now what we set out to achieve in terms of the initial can talk about that ‘til the cows come home, but is making women who are younger than me, vision.” at the end of the day, amazing tools does not even older than me, interested in learning about make a perfect film. It’s really the person behind Compared to when you started, do the same cinematography, I really would love to create the camera and how they use those tools. And if challenges still exist for up-and-coming DOPs, and a space for those people, and I am working you have a vision and a dream, just use anything particularly women? on creating a space for those people to feel that you have in your arsenal.” like they can ask questions without feeling “I don’t think it’s like that now as much. Maybe I’m saying that from a place of privilege, but I
like they’re going to be looked down upon. I
Visit http://katecornish.net/
ACQUISITION
of colour cast, it doesn’t really affect the colour of the image at all from my experience grading it.
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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide
www.content-technology.com/sportscasting
Telstra Sells DSNG-Globecam Business to Gravity Media Gravity Media, the global provider of complex live broadcast facilities and production services to content owners, creators and distributors, has acquired Telstra Broadcast Services’ DSNG (Digital Satellite) fleet, its speciality Globecam miniature camera business and associated Radio Frequency Links. GRAVITY MEDIA CURRENTLY operates in Australia from Sydney and Melbourne, providing Outside Broadcast trucks, studios, production & content related services and post-production facilities. This acquisition will complement its existing Outside Broadcast fleet in Australia as well as its UK-based speciality cameras division. The acquired DSNG fleet is the largest in Australasia with 10 satellite uplink vehicles and three satellite flyaway uplinks. The units have enhanced uplink power and ensured resilience/duplication of critical equipment and power designed for operation from remote locations. The Globecam specialty cameras unit is renowned for its technical innovation, including NetCam on all four Grand Slam tennis tournaments in 2018, and Live JockeyCam around Australia in 2019. In 2021, Globecam returned to providing Onboard Live Camera solutions for Supercars Australia, in concert with Gravity Media. Clients for the two units include all the biggest broadcast networks and organisations in the world. The engineers transferring to Gravity Media as part of this transaction are well versed on live sport, entertainment and events, including major political symposiums, sporting tournaments and games. John Newton, Founder & CEO, Gravity Media, commented: “Enhancing Gravity Media’s broadcast services with the DSNG and Globecam businesses and teams from Telstra Broadcast Services is a logical extension of our highly regarded outside broadcast, production, studio and hire operations in Australia, Europe, the USA and around the world. Gravity Media and Telstra Broadcast Services often work side by side, so the synergies are well and truly there from the past, present and in the future.”
Andreas Eriksson, Head of Telstra Broadcast Services, commented: “Leading innovation in broadcast services is a value both Telstra Broadcast Services and Gravity Media share. We are pleased to have found a new home for the DSNG and Globecam businesses and will work productively with Gravity Media in the future, including for Occasional Use projects live via satellite. This will include ongoing, daily liaison between the DSNG fleet and Telstra Broadcast Services’ Broadcast Operations Centre as well as our bookings team. Together we will ensure seamless ongoing supply to our valued, multi-year, contracted DSNG clients.” John Newton concluded: “Both Gravity Media and Globecam have long-established and successful relationships with Supercars Australia. Bringing them together this year has led to immediate innovations to In Car cameras for the benefit of Supercars race teams and fans. Our development roadmap for our In Car camera systems will take them beyond anything currently offered globally, putting Supercars ahead of other motor racing categories – we look forward to capturing even more exciting racing sound and vision for Supercars.” Visit www.gravitymedia.com
Two-Thirds of Aussie Sports Fans Prefer Online Viewing OVER TWO-THIRDS of sports fans in Australia now want to watch sport exclusively on streaming services, according to Grabyo’s new 2021 Sports Video Trends Report. Grabyo surveyed over 15,000 consumers across 14 countries, to identify the video viewing and purchasing habits of global consumers. It found that over one third of consumers are watching sport regularly across broadcast and digital platforms.
SPORTSCASTING
The report’s findings show sports fans are growing impatient. Suggesting that fans either expect more sport to be available on streaming services in the future, or may choose not to watch live sport if it is only available through broadcast TV subscriptions.
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In 2019, Grabyo found that 53% of global sports fans that pay for video services were planning to cut the cord and switch to streaming
exclusively by 2024. In 2021, 45% of fans are only paying for streaming services. By 2026, Grabyo’s report suggests that the pay-TV market will only have a 28% customer share of global sports fans. Sports fans are not yet abandoning broadcast TV subscriptions entirely because of the lack of sports available on streaming services. The likes of Kayo Sports and Stan Sport carry a variety of live sport in the Australian market, but 58% of fans report they will not cut the cord because not enough content is available without a broadcast TV subscription. The report also finds that among those Australian fans who would switch to streaming exclusively for sport, 36% would pay up to A$10 per month for a dedicated service, while 38% would pay up to A$25 per month.
Globally, 79% of sports fans report they are ready to switch to online streaming only for sport. These findings reflect a global trend of consumers adopting streaming services in favour of broadcast TV subscriptions, which has been accelerated by stay-at-home safety measures during 2020. This led to consumers across age demographics experimenting with streaming services and being convinced by their value. Grabyo reports that half of global sports fans surveyed are over 45 years old. Since 2019, the report finds that broadcast TV subscriptions have fallen 9% among global sports fans, while online streaming subscriptions have increased 41%. The report also finds a high demand for free-to-access sports content across social media, which is beginning to rival broadcast TV and streaming platforms for attention.
With over half of Australian sports fans using social media platforms to access content, 66% want to see more live sport broadcast to social media, while 50% want more instant highlights and social videos. “Broadcasters and media rights holders across sport must act fast to align their video strategies with what consumers are asking for”, comments Marcello Fabiano, Head of Australia/New Zealand at Grabyo. “The growth of services such as Kayo Sports, Stan Sport, and Optus Sport prove there is a huge appetite for sports streaming across Australia. Sports properties must keep looking forwards and evolve their offering. Attracting younger viewers and growing the reach of all sports is paramount, and the blueprint for doing this is becoming clear.” Visit https://bit.ly/2TQWdLm
SPORTSCASTING
Grass Valley Goes Live with New SDI/IP Solutions Grass Valley’s new LDX 150 camera.
GRASS VALLEY SAYS it is reinforcing its deep commitment to providing the media industry with tools for creating the highest quality content by releasing three new SDI/IP production solutions for cameras, switchers, and replay. The company says the new top-ofthe-line tools not only provide the best images available, they also reduce complexity with a common workflow regardless of the format(s), simple set up for any UHD/3G/HD resolution, and massive I/O scaling for today’s multilayered video world. These new product introductions benefit from the very latest in IP and 4K UHD technology, ideally suited for live productions. Grass Valley’s solutions are behind the biggest live events, including DORNA’s coverage of the FIM MotoGP World Championships and Gravity Media’s coverage of a major European soccer tournament. “We recognise that our customers are facing a huge demand for premium content like 1080p HDR or 4K UHD, while at the same time trying to manage the complexities of developing that content,” says Marco Lopez, general manager of Live Production at Grass Valley “Everything we develop at Grass Valley seeks to balance those requirements of enabling the best in live media production while making it simpler and more manageable to create. Grass Valley’s SDI, IP and cloud-native portfolio ensures our customers can continue to produce the exciting live content for which they are known. We are extremely proud to bring these latest enhancements to market and look forward to the live productions they will be part of.” The GV K-Frame XP Standard Video Production Center joins the Grass Valley switcher family to give users complete flexibility to operate in any format, from HD to 4K UHD 2160p, and offers the largest I/O footprint in the industry with 192 x 96 I/Os in IP, SDI or both. The full raster video processing provides a maximum of nine M/Es, each with six keyers, and 16 optional 3D iDPMs for any production. Show files are compatible on all K-Frame engines and, of course, all Kayenne,
Karrera and Korona control surfaces can drive the new XP. The LDX 150 camera, meanwhile, brings triple speed UHD with global shutter and Wide Colour Gamut (WCG) acquisition on a NativeIP backbone. The new Xenios imager, paired with the global shutter, means best sensitivity with increased sharpness in fine structures and life-like images, a wide dynamic range in HDR, an improved signal-to-noise ratio and additional depth of field, even in low light conditions. It also offers built-in JPEG XS compression that can be natively streamed over IP with no additional CCUs or server boxes.
The LiveTouch 2000 replay and highlights system.
Grass Valley’s replay and highlights system. The latest version is an ultra-high density video server that offers up to 12 UHD/24 HD channels in 3RU - providing one of the best channel densities of any replay system. An intuitive interface makes instant replay workflows quick and easy, in HD or UHD, suited for studio and sports applications.
Lastly, LiveTouch 2000 is the next generation of
Visit www.grassvalley.com
formations to improve team performance and positional awareness. Updates to Version 9 bring added speed to the creation of high-quality visuals, giving users a near-live experience that’s a game-changer.
move along with the athlete. The process takes just seconds and a few clicks. Future editions of the software will incorporate Tracab’s worldleading tracking data – certified by FIFA – to add precision and open up further opportunities for analysis and visualisation.
Coach Paint 9
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TRACAB, A BRAND OF the ChyronHego family, has announced the release of Coach Paint 9, a major new release of the company’s sportsagnostic sports analysis and coaching software that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and XML data to drive increased user efficiency as well as a broader – and expanding – feature set. Offering a newly redesigned user interface (UI) and updated user experience (UX), automated player tracking, and automated content creation tools, Coach Paint 9 empowers coaches to generate richer visuals and deeper analysis more quickly and easily.
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Fitting smoothly into any workflow or operating system, Coach Paint gives clubs, teams, and coaches the ability to visualise players and
A complete overhaul of the Coach Paint UI and UX employs broadcast-grade graphics to give the software a more polished look and feel that resembles a professional television production. Individual tools within the software have likewise been updated with an aesthetic that invites and facilitates user interaction. Now supported by AI, the automated player tracking feature in Coach Paint 9 has been streamlined to the point that users need only drop a pin on a player to attach graphics that
An enhanced 3D Formation Tool within Coach Paint makes the most widely used video analysis tool in professional sports even better. Tracab has not only updated the Formation Tool with richer features, greater flexibility, more automation, and better quality in terms of look and feel, but also made it possible for coaches to save that work for further use. Visit www.tracab.com
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Comms: the Next Evolution COVID-19 AND ADVANCEMENTS in remote production have also hastened advances in comms technology resulting in more options for broadcasters and production companies. According to Jason Owen, Managing Director of comms system supplier D2N – Technology Solutions, “Reality TV and sport are probably the two areas where you’d say that as the tech gets smarter there’s big opportunity there for those guys to do some really cool stuff with comms. “If you think about your standard broadcast, whether it be an outside broadcast for football, or whether it be a reality shoot for your Big Brothers, it tends to be quite encapsulated onsite. It tends to be a bit of a bubble. Not much goes on outside, but there actually is quite a bit that goes on off-site, and they’ve typically relied on mobile phones to connect those remote teams. Whereas what you’ve got now, is you’ve got lots of options to connect all those remote teams into one. “Instead of just having the phone, you’ve now got full remote panels that you can control routers, and control all sorts of external devices, back at a central hub to send feeds back to you. That’s something we’re seeing in the intercom space. In the two-way radio space, very similar. We represent the Hytera brand in Australia. They now spend more money on their R&D for push-to-talk over cellular than they do on your traditional two-way radio base because they can see that that’s where the market’s heading. For us, that’s given us opportunities with security teams that are supporting events and large broadcast projects, reality TV projects where they’ve got teams deployed all over the country, or it could be at different units within a state or a city.”
Owen says hardened 4G-enabled two-way radios are also more robust than their consumer phone handset counterparts. “Typically, they’re a far more hardened device. If you imagine your iPhone or your Samsung, $2000 mobile phone, an IP68-rated Mil-Spec mobile phone is going to handle far more drops and knocks, and far more wet weather than any mobile phone. They’ve got a dedicated push-totalk button on the side of them, whereas your mobile phone doesn’t. You’ve got the hardware look and feel of a two-way radio, but you’ve got the advantages of a broadband device in your hands, and that’s how the radio manufacturers talk about it. They talk about narrowband and broadband. Narrowband being your typical UHF channels, 12.5 kHz channels, and you’ve got your broadband device which is actually a 4G-enabled device to allow you to do far more things. You’ve got the broadband advantages of being able to integrate your email, being able to integrate apps to manage your workflow. They’re the type of things that we see as game changers over time.” Another advantage of 4G-enabled devices is the ability to employ GPS.
Jason Owen, Managing Director, D2N – Technology Solutions.
Perth and say, ‘Can you add another channel to these six devices?’ It takes me about three minutes, and the devices are done. Again, another advantage over your traditional two-way radio. Yes, you can do over the air programming with two-way radios, and absolutely those big networks do that, but I think I would find that, at scale, I would probably be able to beat them to the race every time, in terms of the complexity of what they’ve got to do, versus what I’ve got to do.”
“GPS is one that comes by default,” he says. “It’s all licenced-based. You can pay a licence fee, and we give you GPS access on the map. You can see all of your devices. You can click on one and talk to it individually. You can drag a circle around ten of them and talk to all of them, or you can have a button to talk to everybody in the country. The advantage there is that your talk groups are completely customisable, the devices are programmable over the air.
“When you look at that at scale, if you think about a production company that has a shoot with three other units running around the city, guys running talent back and forth from each site, running material back and forth, they’re the type of jobs that I think it’s a great opportunity to showcase how we could do that with some 4G and traditional two-way on-site. Give them a GPS console, so they can see where their runners are, they can see them in live time, and know and go, “He’s been stuck at that site. Let’s reroute that guy.”
“Right now, if I had my customer ring me in
Visit www.d2n.com.au
D2N Joins Forces with SimplyLive FURTHERING ITS EXPANSION in the local market, D2N has joined forces with SimplyLive, the maker of intuitive, flexible and scalable multicamera production systems. Based around the company’s ViBox servers, SimplyLive takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG, Canal+, and more.
SPORTSCASTING
The new partnership will see D2N become a value-added reseller and system integrator for
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SimplyLive in Australia. According to D2N MD, Jason Owen, SimplyLive’s ideal customer is a medium-sized broadcaster or production company who are always looking for kit that will lift the quality of their production, keep their costs under control and give them broadcast quality. “At D2N,” he says, “we deal with all the major OB and production companies in Australia and the second-tier operators, of which there are hundreds. With the SimplyLive solution there is also a huge opportunity for sporting federations to improve their adjudication process. They can do this, easily, by making multiple camera angles available in a very easy to use GUI, so operators can quickly review decisions either in-play or
post-match. In short SimplyLive adds significant value but at a fraction of the cost of their competitors’ solutions.” SimplyLive also offer what Owen describes as, “the big all-in-one production” which gives clients vision mixing, audio mixing, graphics and slo-mo replay all in a single or multi-user touch screen GUI. He says, “There’s more though as they also offer Ref-Box which is used by multiple sports for match adjudication and all of their systems scale from 4-channel up to 16-channel with HD and UHD. They can be run on-site, on your premises or in the cloud so they are super flexible too.” Visit www.d2n.com.au and www.simplylive.tv
SPORTSCASTING
GWS Giants Aim for Glory with PIERO MARKING THEIR TENTH SEASON in the AFL it’s fair to say the GWS Giants have come a long in a relatively short time, amassing over 30,000 members, making the finals series four times and winning at least one game in each of their September campaigns. But when it comes to analysing the longest strides and the highest leaps there is one tool that has played an important part in the club’s journey and that is Ross Video’s PIERO. “We came into the AFL ten years ago and the draft system enabled us to pick up some very talented young players,” comments Mitch Hanrahan, the club’s Head of Analytics. “My predecessor brought PIERO to the club in 2015 because he felt it would give us an edge. I’m not saying we felt we had something to prove against the more established clubs and teams, but we were trying to build a squad of players and a backroom team at the same time, and you need every advantage you can get your hands on. Ultimately, any club is judged on its results. Our players and our club have matured over the years, and we’ve had successes as well as a few bumps in the road, but PIERO has really helped with the development of our squad.” The coaching teams at the GIANTS are broken down into three: forward line, backline and midfield. “We hold regular meetings with the full squad and then smaller meetings with the individual
coaches,” adds Hanrahan. “PIERO is used at every meeting to discuss the most important plays and tactics. There’s no doubt that the animations are extremely impactful and really help the coaches get their message across. Sometimes we even place virtual mottos and messages on to the grass just to make the players think about what we’re looking to achieve. It’s an amazing tool. “In 2019 we reached the Grand Final and lost. That was tough, but we want to be playing at that level and competing for silverware every season. The 2020 and 2021 seasons have obviously been very different because of the pandemic and there’s been a lot of disruption, so I feel like I’ve already got one eye on 2022. We’ll use PIERO to analyse our pre-season games next March in addition to the league matches and we’ve also started to capture footage from our training sessions. The quest for improvement never ends! “We’ve come a long way in the last decade and so has PIERO. I remember that calibration of the system used to take me a few minutes – it
doesn’t help that not all Aussie Rules fields are exactly the same size – but it’s now down to a fraction of that. I’ve also seen a big step forward in the quality and variety of the animations, and we’re now using these to help market and promote the club. The media team love the animations because we can create ‘plays of the week’ or showreel content and that’s all very helpful from a commercial perspective. PIERO has been a great asset for us in terms of developing the players, building the expertise of our coaches and backroom team and helping us grow the club commercially. The relationship with Ross has been terrific and I’m convinced PIERO will be helping us back to a Grand Final very soon!” Visit www.rossvideo.com
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SPORTSCASTING
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NEWS OPERTAIONS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations
6 News Chief Presenter Leonardo Puglisi prepares to shoot another bulletin.
6 News: Cub Reporters Leading the Pack
It is one of Australia’s newest news outlets, it has a team with an average age of just 17, and it is scooping the big boys all over YouTube and social media. By Phil Sandberg
NEWS OPERATIONS
INITIALLY STARTED in Melbourne as a passion project in 2019 by Founder and Chief Presenter Leonardo Puglisi, 6 News hit its stride in 2020 with what Puglisi describes as “the biggest story of my lifetime”, Coronavirus. During 2020, the 6 News team grew to eight reporters, including Sydney, Melbourne and regional journalists, a political reporter, and even a U.S. correspondent.
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“We have a bulletin each week,” says Leonardo Puglisi, “Sunday nights at 8 p.m. eastern time. Now, contrary to what some people think, it isn’t a week in review or anything like that, it is 100% the latest news from stuff breaking overnight. We have covered stories that literally happened that morning, the US election results, for example, when it was called for Joe Biden days after the actual election day on the Tuesday. So, we are fully committed to the latest news. We also have a brand-new political show, Press Gallery, which is at 8 a.m. on Thursdays and that’s really just instead of having to wait for the Sunday morning shows, like Insiders and Outsiders. You can actually get the latest news as it’s happening in the middle of the week and we are doing a few new segments, too, that are different to what
you see. And, the other shows we really have, they are all non-frequent. We have a podcast, 6 News Now, which is more casual, and we are doing our long-form interviews also in podcast form, but also on YouTube, called Uncensored. So, all of these shows can be seen on either our YouTube channel or our website, 6newsau.com.” How would you put a typical bulletin together? Leonardo Puglisi: “We do a lot of script writing. We just have a Twitter group chat where we all connect to ask who is free this week or what do we want to cover. That’s if it’s a standard news week. If there is something big happening or we know something big is going to happen, we’ll obviously put our resources there. A lot of script writing for as long as possible, then we start filming. Usually, it is Saturday. I’m filming the bulletin in presenting. Our reports can come through any time, depending on what they are. For example, we have Darby who brings up the latest [COVID-19] case numbers on Sunday morning, but we also might have a long-form report that could have been prepared a week earlier. So, the editing goes on right up until a few hours before we air. So do the social media promos. And, of course, we have graphics, like
a ticker, depending on which time of the year it is, which will always have absolutely up-tothe-minute. That is put together so incredibly close to when we are airing it’s not even funny. So, we’re fully committed to the latest news.” You’re using mobile phones to capture the video against a green screen?
“So, we are fully committed to the latest news. We also have a brand-new political show, Press Gallery, which is at 8 a.m. on Thursdays and that’s really just instead of having to wait for the Sunday morning shows, like Insiders and Outsiders.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s modern phones, they are fully HD 4K, so why go out and get a camera? We can film, we can go on the spot, that is where all our reporters get their vision from and we’re against a green screen. It can be changed to a bit of a black screen if we want a kind of promo, like a 60 Minutes-style, and we can also have a white screen if we’re
continues p24>>
NEWS OPERATIONS
Polygon Labs Takes Meteomatics Weather Data
POLYGON LABS, THE PROVIDER of interactive data applications and visual branding, is partnering with weather data service company Meteomatics AG to enhance Polygon’s Ipsum Weather for a robust weather data analysis tool. The partnership aims to give users a higher level of weather and data analysis and generate more informative and engaging weather reports.
Deliver multi-cam live productions on-demand
Meteomatics AG develops meteorological software products, processing and providing weather data and consulting work. It provides incredible detail and accuracy with weather forecasts downscaled to 90 meters and up to fiveminute temporal resolution. Through the partnership, Ipsum Weather connects to Meteomatics’ data feed and builds up a database of point data, image data and model data. The data is then curated inside Ipsum, where the meteorologist can make updates (such as a change of temperature or a weather condition). Ipsum Weather connects to the Vizrt live production ecosystem to provide this curated weather data to the newsroom and control room graphics, and the graphics are played using Viz Engine or Unreal Engine as full screen, AR or VR graphics. Ipsum Weather is Polygon Labs’ weather data feed aggregation and visualisation platform, which aggregates data feeds from weather service providers, including point data weather conditions, forecasts, isobars, satellite and radar imagery. It takes full advantage of the Vizrt live production ecosystem from the newsroom to the control room. The combination of Vizrt’s innovative Flexible Access Suites and Polygon Labs’ Ipsum subscription services delivers a powerful, flexible template-based graphics solution. Visit www.polygonlabs.us
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Mobile Viewpoint UltraLink Encoders
MOBILE VIEWPOINT HAS ANNOUNCED the combination of its two enterprise encoders under one name: the UltraLink. The original WMT Airlink model will be become the UltraLink-Air, and the original UltraLink will become the UltraLink- 4K. Both units will offer all the functionality required of a modern-day backpack bonded encoder including 4K, 5G, RCP, video return, IP hotspot, multichannel inputs as well as hybrid connectivity options (IP, cellular and satellite) as well as supporting up and coming LEO connections such as Starlink. Mobile Viewpoint with UltraLink will offer the most feature rich and reliable encoders available for media and security streaming applications. The new UltraLink product line comes with: Internal modems including options for 5G; Adaptive bitrate control; eight audio channels; IP hotspot functionality; H.264/H.265; RCP/Tally control; Full HD Return Video by SDI; a free, feature rich remote management platform; Cloud debonding and remote web-based management; Compatibility with the Starlink satellite platform; 10 connections including 8 mobile cellular connections, Wifi and LAN. The UltraLink product line consists of: • UltraLink-Air: Multicamera, one, two or four camera inputs
Go live from anywhere.
With this new branding, Mobile Viewpoint says it will future proof all encoder investments with rich technical features to meet evolving operational demands for applications such as live streaming, remote (sport) production, news gathering and encrypted applications for surveillance. Visit www.mobileviewpoint.com
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NEWS OPERATIONS
• UltraLink- 4K: four x 3G and/or one x 12G 4K inputs
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NEWS OPERATIONS >> continued from p22
looking for some promo photos. We don’t have a news desk or anything, it’s a portable table. I’ll be honest with you, it’s nothing special, but it’s what the people see on air that’s really what matters. “We have a teleprompter. It is an iPad rested on a bit of plastic and some glass and I’ve got another phone that controls it. So, it’s the same as normal teleprompters, except I’m controlling it and its, again, utilising this modern technology because why go out and get something expensive when we have the devices and, again, it’s what they see on air that really matters to us. How do you conduct most of your interviews? Is it via platforms like Zoom? “Yeah, it is always Zoom. I’ll usually just try to reach out via Twitter DMs or email. Twitter seems to be the fastest way, even with some MPs. I’ll say ‘I will email you these questions’. I’ll set up a time - it does have to be post-4 p.m., unless I’m on school holidays, purely because of school. Weekends, while I can do any time, it’s usually not the best option. No-one wants to work on a weekend, and I’m producing and editing 6 News. “We may go to in-person interviews eventually in our studio. The green screen, half of it is not used so we can have an absolutely wide set up. We’ve got the microphone equipment for it, but until then, I’m happy doing it over Zoom.” How do you cut the bulletins together? “I use iMovie. Now, it’s the most basic software, but it’s free, it works, but to make it include the graphics, they are all entirely created by myself in a number of platforms. They are not actually bought or in iMovie. And we’ll just use a simple chromakey effect to layer it over and it looks as professional as what you see on the main channels, I think. Again, it’s basic software, but what’s important is that it gets the job done. I may move to things like Adobe, of course, we’re going to move on to that eventually.” You have a U.S. correspondent and a rural correspondent as well. Given the big networks are centralising more and leaving out the regions, what’s your take?
NEWS OPERATIONS
“Well, I think that’s very unfortunate. We’ve been covering a lot of the cuts in regional media. We broke the story about WIN News merging their bulletins in Victoria and Queensland, which was really unfortunate. But we’re expanding in the regions. Now, while we could 100% get one of our reporters to do any old story about any place, it’s not that easy to talk to people on the ground. Some regional areas, we all know about this, NBN, even here in Melbourne it’s terrible, but it’s easier when you actually have someone on the ground to get these stories. Our rural reporter, he was covering the launch of Sky News regional and he was able to look at some of the impact it may have on communities because it is a widely debated topic, but he’s actually on the ground there so he understands it.
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“In terms of the US, well, I think we may be one of the only news outlets here in Australia who has a US correspondent who is American. You know, you hear his American accent. He’s in South Carolina, not New York or San Francisco
or Washington, and he’s there, he talks to people on the ground. He does interviews with people that Australians would not know, but he has a pretty wide audience, I think, and he has been great on social media capturing that audience, especially on platforms like TikTok. He’s been able to get traditional news reporting and put it in a way where TikTok viewers, who we all know have a pretty low attention span when it comes to watching long videos, can fully enjoy. So, the only parts we’re centralising are things like producing and social media. We’re all doing a bit extra, but in terms of actually reporting on the ground, we are widely expanding.” What do you think of the morphing of news into opinion, and journalists interviewing journalists? “I think the morphing of news and opinion, it’s a tough subject. I watch straight news bulletins. I watch the opinion shows. I watch both because I like to get a wide perspective, I like to see what people are talking about. It’s tough because if 6 News ever became a network, and that’s a wild thing. Twenty-five years, who knows? Especially online, but we would want opinion hosts because they get views clearly, but you have to stay to the facts as well. You can say, ‘Oh well, look at this, this is the latest news poll, it shows that Scott Morrison is bad and I think that’s down to his handling of that’, whereas on a straight news bulletin we’ll be saying that he’s down, there have been criticisms, here’s what our opinion host told you. So, yes, opinion hosts, I think they are entertaining, I’ll tell you that, but if you start making up lies, then, no, because we will have our guests say whatever they want, uncensored views here, but we are not going to let them lie and that is plain and simple. We will fact check, and that’s something we pride ourselves on.” Have you found your age to be an impediment in securing interviews and being taken seriously? “In terms of securing interviews, I don’t think so. They have all been 100% respectful. A lot of them, the only way I’m able to DM them is if they follow me, so they clearly know I’m younger. They’ve all been pretty respectful, especially people like the managers of politicians. They have been really respectful entirely.
“On social media, it can be a bit tough, but, again, most of them are fully respectful. There’s a few groups of trolls who don’t like to think that way, but that’s what the block button is for, isn’t it?” Is sponsorship, advertising a consideration?
““In terms of the US, well, I think we may be one of the only news outlets here in Australia who has a US correspondent who is American. You know, you hear his American accent.
“Sponsorship is 100% a consideration. I can promise you this to any potential sponsors, we will not change our editorial policies and we will not cave, we will not do these little puff pieces for sponsorship. We’ll mention your name at the start of our shows, we’ll do all that, but we are not going to let go of our editorial principles. We’ve got, again, viewer sponsorship, it’s only $4 a month which is pretty cheap compared to some newspaper subscriptions or online newspaper subscriptions. So, yes, sponsorship is always an option, but, again, no matter who sponsors us, who doesn’t sponsor us, you’re going to see the same coverage.” How do you see 6 News evolving?
“Who knows? We could be running 24/7 in five years. I don’t know right now, but, again, look to the future. You want to stay with us because the future of 6 News is looking bright and it’s going to be more news and we always trial things over the big holiday break in summer. We’ve trialled extra bulletins and we look at what works and we look at what doesn’t work and it’s going to expand, I can promise you that, and by the end of the year I reckon we will get a full set of 10 reporters, maybe even a dozen, and a lot of extra production and a few exclusive interviews are coming up, too. So, it’s going to be a bright future for 6 News, I will tell you that. Visit www.6newsau.com
NEWS OPERATIONS
Imagine Communications Unveils Nexio NewsCraft IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS is introducing what it says is a powerful new approach to newsroom production content access, management and multiplatform delivery. With the launch of Nexio NewsCraft, Imagine says it is bringing to market a high-value, remote-friendly, all-in-one news production solution that enables organisations to work smarter and more efficiently – ensuring every news story gets to air quickly no matter where operators are located. Nexio NewsCraft provides a feature-rich and intuitive toolkit in a single, highly automated environment that streamlines news production from ingest and preparation to playout and delivery over multiple platforms. Based on proven open standards throughout, Nexio NewsCraft operates seamlessly in hybrid SDI/IP architectures, interfaces tightly with newsroom computer systems (NRCS) via a fully implemented MOS interface, and allows access to systems onprem, in the field or from home. Nexio NewsCraft incorporates best-of-breed components in highly integrated, virtualised software for implementation on premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid architecture. The solution combines the field-proven performance and reliability of MOS-enabled Nexio production servers and IOX shared storage with the modern, easy-to-use GUI and best-in-class media management capabilities of the EditShare FLOW family. Multiple software tools can be layered on the
server architecture, giving wide and fast access to content and empowering journalists by removing technical and operational constraints wherever they access the functionality. As needed, artificial intelligence tools like automated metadata extraction can be added to facilitate increased productivity and monetisation of assets. As a system purpose-built for speed, Nexio NewsCraft enables crash recording to be started with a single button on the control screen; scheduling a recording is as simple as dropping an event in a calendar. No matter how the content is ingested, material can be played out or edited within seconds of recording starting. Smart, flexible UIs simplify operators’ tasks in-facility or in remote collaborations. Simple browse controls in the journalist’s workstation allow basic newsroom tasks like topping and tailing and shotlisting and logging, all through intuitive web user interfaces. Where more sophisticated editing is required, Nexio NewsCraft is fully integrated with popular third-party tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and
DaVinci Resolve, ensuring fast access and seamless content flow from ingest to delivery and transparent sharing of projects between editors. For broadcasters already using Imagine’s widely Nexio servers, the newsroom functionality can be simply layered on top. For media production companies looking to a new approach to news content management, Nexio NewsCraft can be cost-effectively implemented with resources scaled directly to their operational needs. For any news operation, the Nexio NewsCraft solution’s COTS-hosted, software architecture makes it easy and affordable to scale channels and storage with no system downtime and provides a futureproof migration path to IP, UHD and the cloud. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com
Dalet CubeNG Boosts User Experience for News Graphics
Fully integrated across Dalet Unified News Operations, Dalet CubeNG leverages the Brainstorm real-time graphics engine to deliver rich 2D and 3D branding as well as engaging visual storytelling across broadcast, social and digital channels. The scalable, enterprise-level graphics solution is used by leading broadcasters including Euronews, Mediaset and Teleticino, and now features customisable work spaces that allow users to manipulate graphics in real time during a live show. The update also adds support for working across multiple sites to allow broadcasters to create distributed graphics workflows across all their centres of operation. All Dalet CubeNG capabilities, including new features are available both on-premises and in the cloud: • New customisable button
boards: Users can customise their playout workspace with curated graphic templates that can be triggered on the fly. This allows operators to interact with the live graphics to visually tell more complex stories, keeping audiences informed and engaged. • Computer graphics (CG) items can now have a shortcut ID: The new Dalet CubeNG quickplay shortcut lets users quickly trigger the playout of a CG. • Trigger advanced interaction with graphics: Users can animate graphics like bar charts to show changes in election results over time or zoom in on a map to show exactly where a pandemic has spread. This visually summarises detailed data and unknown reference points to simplify stories and keep audiences informed. According to Jérémy Krein, Product Manager, Dalet CubeNG. “Our latest release of Dalet CubeNG brings users time-saving tools to enhance unscripted live news with
compelling graphics elements. Users can animate charts, maps and other elements on the fly, enhancing the overall news commentary.”
studio or across several. New APIs allow broadcasters to automate the creation of CG playlists across the enterprise.
The solution also introduces new capabilities that enable better collaboration across multisites, multi-studios and remote productions with under-the-hood file-based optimisations that ensure scalability and redundancy. Broadcasters can centralise graphics playlists for multiple playout locations. Each graphics playlist can be configured to play in one specific
“A strategic component for this release was the support for enterprise operations,” says Jérémy Krein. “Some of our customers have more than 20 locations, so rather than looking to deploy in each separate location, a centralised solution made much more business sense.” Visit www.dalet.com/tools/cube
NEWS OPERATIONS
DALET, THE TECHNOLOGY AND service provider for media-rich organisations, has announced key updates to its Dalet CubeNG platform, the company’s graphics solution for news workflows.
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POST PRODUCTION www.content-technology.com/postproduction
Animal Logic Offers Open-Source USD Scene for Education
Animal Logic’s Group Chief Technology Officer, Darin Grant, has announced the open-source release of USD ALab, a fully realised USD Scene that aims to encourage further collaboration and exploration by the wider community. UNIVERSAL SCENE DESCRIPTION (USD) is a framework for interchange of 3D computer graphics data, created by Pixar. As an early adopter, Animal Logic began transitioning its Sydney and Vancouver studios to an end-to-end USD based pipeline during production on Peter Rabbit in 2017 and completing with Peter Rabbit 2 in March of 2020. As was evidenced with its 2017 open-source project AL_USDMaya, Animal Logic continues to be motivated to promote broader USD adoption through the release of USD ALab to serve as a reference for many USD Concepts. “We believe USD to be a foundational technology for our industry and broader communities, and we encourage the release of open-source assets to educate and inspire others to conduct their own exploration,” said Grant. While open-source data sets currently exist, USD ALab is the first real-world implementation of a complete USD production scene. It is a full scene description from global assets through to shot outputs, including referencing, point instancing, assemblies, technical variants, global assets and shot-based overrides. “There are two downloads available, including guiding documents and two sets of textures,”
explains Supervising Assets TD, Jens Jebens. “The first download contains the ALab scene assets themselves, derived from our production assets and conformed for compatibility to allow them to load in any tool which supports USD. The second download is an optional extra, a ‘production rendering Texture Pack’, which delivers 4K OpenEXR textures with udims for production style rendering.” “In addition to the USD assets, we’ve included documentation that showcases some new ideas and concepts from our experience using USD, including the idea of render procedural definitions, an extremely useful concept that we have not seen in USD to date,” added Grant. “We hope that this combination provides the starting point for future contributors to showcase their own ideas for discussion, promotion, and hopeful adoption.” “The ALab concept was born from Animal Logic’s Art Department,” notes Head of Production Technology, Aidan Sarsfield. “The brief was for
something “Uniquely Animal” and the team came up with a great story that revolves around a secret backyard shed, inhabited by a mad scientist of sorts. The resulting asset suite draws on the unique aesthetic that you’ll find in our studios, and there’s also some fun easter eggs in there that link back to 30 years of Animal Logic’s branding.” USD ALab is also the first asset set to adopt the Academy Software Foundation’s asset licence. Animal Logic wanted to allow for the broadest use of these assets to promote education, training, and demonstration by students, studios, and vendors. The USD ALab data set is hosted on Animal Logic’s website courtesy of Amazon Web Services and is now available to access via http://animallogic.com/ usd-alab
Beyond Content Opens New Post Venue in Adelaide SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S BEYOND CONTENT has launched a new post production space in Adelaide. Named the Frederick Theatre, the facility is designed to “deliver a premium grading and mixing experience that remains costeffective for content producers”. Located in Frederick Street in the southwest of Adelaide’s CBD, the Frederick Theatre is equipped with: • High Spec’d 5k iMac, with Davinci Resolve Studio, and Avid Pro Tools. (Avid Media
Composer upon request). • Professionally calibrated LG CX 77″ HDR OLED client monitor • SmallHD 1703 P3X reference monitor for broadcast/cinema grading • Yamaha HS8 studio monitors for sound mixing/reviews • Davinci Resolve Micro Panel • High-quality, colour-neutral lighting (CRI 98) throughout, with TV bias light for balanced contrast perception
• HomePod mini, for voice-controlled music and lighting • Unlimited 1Gbps broadband internet – part of TPG 10GB Adelaide Fibre-Optic Network • Additional desk for producers, directors or assistant editors • Beyond Content says the Frederick Theatre will also feature an HDR grading monitor with Dolby Vision workflow in Davinci Resolve + Surround speakers with Dolby Atmos. Visit https://beyondcontent.com.au/frederick-theatre
FilmLight Launches Global Colour Awards
POST PRODUCTION
FILMLIGHT, ONE OF the industry’s leaders in colour management technology, has launched a new global competition honouring colourists and the art of colour worldwide.
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The awards are being organised with the cooperation of the American Society of Cinematographers, Imago (International Federation of Cinematographers), and CSI (Colorist Society International), and are open to colourists using any grading technology. Winners will be announced at EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2021
in Poland. In 2021, its inaugural year, the programme features four categories: colourist in a theatrical feature; colourist in a non-theatrical or television series production; colourist in commercials or music videos; and the most innovative use of technology to achieve a creative result. The awards will be decided by a jury made up of noted cinematographers and other industry creatives, with the first member of the jury just announced: Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated
cinematographer Danny Cohen, known for his versatility in crafting stories such as Les Misérables, Disobedience, Room, London Road and This is England. Entries are open through September 15. A shortlist will be announced in October with winners revealed in November at EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2021. Visit https://filmlight.awardcore.com or email colourawards@filmlight.ltd.uk.
POST PRODUCTION
EditShare Adds Portable Rich Web-Based Capabilities to FLOW and EFS EDITSHARE, THE PROVIDER of collaborative media workflow solutions, has released its Q3 technology update with improvements to the way customer access, monitor, and configure FLOW and EFS. Moving away from ‘thickclient’applications towards portable, rich web-based user experiences, EditShare solutions boast ELK analytics monitoring and reporting, HPE optimised FLOW production nodes that accommodate productions of all sizes as well as set the stage for larger multilocation and enterprise workflows with enhanced EFS media synchronisation and FLOW Services Scaling. “EditShare solutions aim to deliver a rich web-based experience that enables customers to create amazing content together, anywhere,” commented Sunil Mudholkar, Vice President of Product Management, EditShare.. “This release is another leap forward. We have built a multi-location
foundation on a scalable, resilient architecture that offers customers new ways to collaborate. It provides an unparalleled web-based remote production workflow experience for productions of all sizes. We are excited to bring these capabilities to our customers and support their ability to work where they want and with their tools of choice.” Operating similar to a CDN, the optimised EFS multi-location data transfer capabilities leverage best in class, open software solutions to provide transparency over asset movement, enabling users to prioritise transfers across multiple locations with easy to define business rules. Paving the way for scalable, resilient enterprise workflows, FLOW Scan Scaling Service enables distributed processing in parallel, letting users run multiple scan instances across storage tiers. Optimised for HPE, new FLOW Production Nodes now come in Light, Standard and XL, supporting small to enterprise workflows,
enabling customers to right-size configurations for their productions. Popular open-source ELK analytics lets customers easily visualise important data to proactively maintain the health of their FLOW and EFS installations as well as ensure that all systems are running at optimal performance. EditShare Connect is now available for Linux expanding cloud workflows. Other recent enhancements to EditShare’s FLOW solution include NDI and H.265 Scan Support; Group Permissions with Support for Projects, Metadata and Channels; Forced Logout from all FLOW Clients; Metadata and Mapping, including support for import of .mxf/.r3d file samples for mapping configuration, and support for import and mapping of sidecar XML to non-video files, such as still images; Video Previews Available for Real-time Preview of SDI/NDI; Integration with Mobius Vision AI - Facial Recognition; and Support for the latest Archiware Release.
Further EFS enhancements include: • View user group membership in the sidebar. • View and search media spaces to which each group has been assigned. • Add and remove groups to and from media spaces. • Support for exporting any table view (e.g., the list of spaces and users) as a CSV file. • Support for legacy operation of a single group for all active directory accounts. • View summary of real-time read and write bandwidth data to manage user traffic and prioritise bandwidth for high priority tasks. • Default speed for EFS background operations is 20X faster, making the system more efficient when adding a new storage node. • Ability to immediately utilise replication goals for new media spaces without rebooting. Visit https://editshare.com
DPP and SMPTE Update the Interoperable Master Format THE DPP HAS COLLABORATED with SMPTE on the publication of a new pair of SMPTE Recommended Disclosure Documents for the Interoperable Master Format (IMF), resulting in adoption by the BBC. The aim of these publications is to provide increased efficiency to broadcasters and online content providers when mastering and exchanging content.
Application DPP (JPEG2000) will replace SMPTE TSP 2121-4, first launched by the DPP and the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) in 2019. In addition, the DPP has published updates to a range of Recommendation and Guidance documents for users of IMF, including significant updates to Recommendation DPP003 Carriage of AMWA AS-11 Metadata in IMF. Also updated is the DPP’s guide for media organisations exploring the impact of adopting IMF, DPP005 IMF Operational Guidance.
SMPTE RDD 59-1 IMF Application DPP (ProRes) represents a significant update to the document it supersedes, SMPTE TSP 2121-1. It introduces a number of updates based on user feedback, and simplifications to ensure it’s easier than ever to implement. In parallel, SMPTE RDD 59-2 IMF
increased automation of the content supply chain, as well as removing duplication when creating, storing, and processing multiple versions of content. As a result, media companies can deliver significant workflow and cost efficiencies. The efforts of DPP member companies to advance the use of IMF are now having a broad reaching impact. The latest major adopter is the BBC, which now requires all post-produced UHD content to be delivered using IMF. It will move to the newest version of the DPP’s IMF Delivery Requirements using RDD 59-1 this year.
SMPTE RDD 59 IMF Application DPP enables
Visit www.smpte.org and www.thedpp.com
• Nvidia DLSS support which is capable of boosting rendering performance by more than 100% depending on user settings. • New Broadcast Graphics project templates are included in this new release for utilising Reality Engine in on-air graphics workflows. Zero Denisty’s new RealityEngine Ampere hardware platform is also supported. The real-
time graphics hardware platform uses the latest generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPU and Nvidia RTX A6000 GPU. Designed and built inside the Zero Density R&D lab, RealityEngine AMPERE is aimed at the specific needs of Virtual Studio and Broadcast Graphics applications and workflows.
Zero Density Reality Engine 4.26
Visit www.zerodensity.tv
Join over 9,000 industry professionals who receive our weekly e-newsletter visit www.candt.me POST PRODUCTION
ZERO DENSITY HAS ANNOUNCED the release of Reality Engine 4.26, the company’s real-time broadcast compositing system enabling real-time visual effects pipelines featuring video I/O, keying, compositing and rendering in one single machine. Reality Engine 4.26 comes with new features and improved rendering performance. New features include:
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POST PRODUCTION
Ricochet Revolutionises Spline Animation in Cinema 4D Cinema 4D scene or even within models. Ricochet pre-calculates the entire path of the splines, so there is no need to guess where it will end up or wait for the timeline to play every frame.
ROCKET LASSO is a team of 3D artists and coders who bring a combined 20 years of experience developing plugins for Maxon’s Cinema 4D. The team has worked on movie titles and credit sequences including
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Dumb & Dumber To, and Krampus. The team’s new plugin, Ricochet, behaves like a particle system for splines by automatically animating splines to “ricochet” around a
Users can have splines bouncing around forever by setting the Rate, Surface Alignment to wrap them around objects, or they can dynamically fill volumes of any model or space over time with Growth. Spline segments can be colourised with built-in random colour, greyscale, or driven by MoGraph Effectors. Cinema 4D’s Matrix object can be used as the basis to create as many Ricochet
origins as you want and Fields to drive the advanced interactions with Ricochet’s parameters. According to Rocket Lasso, Ricochet opens up whole new design possibilities for creating complex webbing with ease, to generate animated sweeps, hair, create Mesh Volumes, FUI effects, plant growth, and more. Ricochet supports all Cinema 4D rendering engines, including Sketch and Toon as well as 3rd party renderers. Ricochet is compatible with Cinema R20 and greater on Windows and macOS. Visit https://rocketlasso.com
disguise Boosts Real-Time Content Rendering Maxon Announces Universe 4.0 DISGUISE HAS UNVEILED its new rx II hardware release featuring a faster and more powerful GPU. According to the company, the new rendering node unlocks 40% more graphics processing power than its rx predecessor to reliably render larger and higher quality scenes in real-time engines such as Unreal Engine, on any display canvas and across any industry application. The new rx II enhances disguise’s existing cluster rendering solution, which has been engineered to split the processing power of highly detailed or large-scale real-time scenes across multiple rx render nodes. By splitting up content processing power, each individual machine is only given what its GPU can control. Each render node operates as part of a bigger cluster, allowing for a unified image that is, in reality, the product of multiple machines.
any requirement for manual calibration. The rx II currently sits together with disguise’s vx as a hardware bundle. Connecting the two hardware units is disguise’s proprietary RenderStream protocol, available through disguise’s latest r18 software release, ensuring smooth realtime streams from the powerful rx render node to the state-of-theart vx media servers. The disguise rx II further enhances real-time rendering via 10-bit HDR processing. Users can scale their production while using any render engine, create photorealistic backgrounds and assets and leave it to rx II to deliver pixel-perfect graphics to the screen with minimal latency. Visit www.disguise.one
The rx II also makes integration more easily achievable - working with leading render engines and key hardware like LED panels and camera tracking systems without
MAXON HAS ANNOUNCED the availability of Universe 4.0. This latest subscription-only release features ‘Electrify’ for creating electrical effects on images, footage, and logos, ‘Texturize Motion’ for blending animated textures with footage for sketchy, stop motion looks, and ‘Analog’ for simulating dynamic analogue retro-TV-styles, noise, interference, and CRT effects.
Shimmer effects can be added with an animated matte texture.
These new effects include 100+ presets. Universe 4.0 also takes advantage of Apple‘s latest Metal technology for optimal GPU performance on Mac. With improved Premiere Pro and After Effects integration, users will notice performance improvements. Additionally, 140 new presets have been added for Array Gun and Typographic contributed by Motion Designer, Laura Porat. The presets are themed around three categories: Sci-fi, Minimalistic and Trendy/Retro.
With Analog users can simulate a multitude of colour, noise, interference, and CRT effects to recreate classic television video effects. Simple settings like Phase, Filter, Temperature offer complete control to create a wide variety of looks. Basic scan lines, CRT dots, and squares can be added for a realistic CRT projection as well as screen curvature, reflections and more.
Electrify adds sizzling lightning effects to images and footage by using source image contours to generate electrical effects, Fractal Noise sources to create custom patterns without image contours or select both options at the same time for maximum shock value.
With Texturize Motion users can choose from a library of 14 high resolution animated textures to blend into existing footage for sketchy, stop motion looks. Rotation, scale, and position jitter controls are integrated to add additional custom shakiness. Artists can even add custom textures.
Universe 4.0 runs on Windows and macOS, and includes over 92 tools for: Adobe After Effects CC 2019 or later; Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2019 or later; Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.5 or later; Apple Motion 5.5 or later; Avid Media Composer 8.2 or later; Magix VEGAS Pro 14 or later; and DaVinci Resolve 14 or later. Visit www.maxon.net
Adobe Connects with NDI 5
POST PRODUCTION
NDI, A VIZRT GROUP brand, recently unveiled NDI version 5 allowing production personnel to connect to any device, in any location, anywhere in the world – and transmit live video to wherever they are. With NDI 5, physical studios can connect to studios in the cloud and remote video production effectively becomes local.
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NDI for Adobe Creative Cloud enables editors and producers to bring Adobe Premiere Pro into their local live production workflows and collaboration for review and approval. With NDI 5, these workflows open up beyond the local area network so editors and artists can use NDI for
live production and collaboration across multiple offices and locations – including their homes. “The ability to send video over NDI to anywhere in the world over an internet connection is a huge step forward for creatives,” said Sue Skidmore, Head of Partner Relations for Adobe Video. “With NDI for Adobe Creative Cloud, video professionals and creators can collaborate more closely as they create and shape visual stories – regardless of their physical location – speeding up and streamlining workflows.” The NDI 5 SDK and NDI Tools are free downloads available at http://ndi.tv
POST PRODUCTION
OptiTrack Launches Motive 3.0 Motion Capture Software
Designed for use alongside OptiTrack’s tracking cameras and featuring a new skeletal solver, Motive 3.0 helps users navigate difficult tracking situations with heavy marker occlusion, delivers precise real-time tracking, and allows users to efficiently capture accurate data and produce visually compelling CG content. Additional enhancements include tracking more than 300 rigid bodies simultaneously using active and/ or passive markers, precision finger tracking with integrated Manus VR gloves, and anchor markers to aid automated calibration and comprehensive marker labelling. Motive 3.0’s new Quantum Solver consistently delivers high quality tracking even under the most difficult circumstances. Large numbers of rigid bodies or skeletons are tracked with extremely low latency and solved with a high degree of precision, even in challenging tracking situations with significant occlusion, resulting in less clean up and faster turnaround times.
With Passive and Active Tracking Support, motion is tracked in real-time using either passive reflective markers or OptiTrack’s signature pulse active markers, or both simultaneously. Additionally, Motive 3.0 supports Manus gloves for enhanced tracking in performance capture and VR applications. A redesigned UI allows Motive 3.0 users to visualise and change hotkey and mouse assignments, making navigation between viewports fast and intuitive. Motive mouse binds mimic those of the user’s favourite 3D software and can be used to fully customise workflows through Python or C# scripting. Users can also integrate Delsys EMG systems via digital connection using Trigno Avanti sensors. All signals are seamlessly
synchronised and recorded in Motive 3.0. All major force plate manufacturers, including AMTI, Bertec and Kistler; and data acquisition (DAQ) devices are supported by reference clock synchronisation, and the setup of eSync, force plates and DAQ devices can be done quickly and easily. Motive 3.0 also offers an extensive library of predefined marker sets which have been scientifically and clinically validated for movement tracking. OptiTrack has improved Motive 3.0’s Continuous Calibration feature, which automatically
monitors and maintains system calibration for trouble-free system operation. Motive 3.0 also integrates with real-time streaming applications, including Unreal Engine, Unity3D and MotionBuilder for performance capture and Virtual Production, and STT Insight, Visual3D and TheMotionMonitor for Human Movement studies, and supports custom interfaces created using OptiTrack’s Motive API (Motive without a UI for rigid body tracking), the free Camera SDK (direct camera control), and the NatNet SDK (network streaming). Visit: https://optitrack.com/software
Boris FX Continuum FCP Plugin Collection
Autodesk Maya Redesigns User Experience
BORIS FX’S Continuum FCP 2021.5 delivers a new simple yet powerful workflow that allows Final Cut Pro editors to quickly add Hollywood-style film, lighting, and title effects to promos, indies, and documentaries.
AUTODESK MAYA has been given a new update which overhauls the user onboarding experience. Whether artists are new to Maya, learning 3D, or getting up to speed with the latest update, Maya features an improved and personalised start-up experience, interactive tutorials, and a comprehensive tool for easily navigating the UI.
According to Boris Yamnitsky, president and founder, Boris FX, “Each included effect is GPUaccelerated, comes packed with drag and drop pre-sets, and can be previewed, applied, and customised directly within the new FX Editor interface. Continuum FCP 2021.5 gives FCP editors the ability to quickly test out stunning film looks and effects in seconds.” Product highlights include: 90 cinematic effects: GPUaccelerated, HDR-compliant, include OCIO colour management tools; colour grades developed by leading colourists and named after Academy Award-nominated films; Film stocks based on physical scans from renowned film stock developers; Realistic lens flares;
Optical filter emulators; Gobo pre-set library; Light rays and glows; Lighting & photographic gels – the digital equivalent of the Kodak Wratten photographic lens gel system; FX Editor; Texture generator with 100+ customizable textures; and Titling & lower thirds with 20+ drag and drop autoanimating title templates. Continuum FCP 2021.5 is available as an annual or monthly subscription, permanent license, and upgrade options with plugin host application support for FCP and Motion. Continuum FCP 2021.5 runs seamlessly on Apple M1 computers with native M1 support coming soon.
A personalised start-up experience gets artists up and running faster, featuring a new and easily navigable welcome screen that connects artists to learning content, communities, documentation, and recent projects.
Customers on current Continuum FCP subscriptions or upgrade and support plans receive a free update to Continuum FCP 2021.5.
A new search feature saves artists time by making it easier to find tools, commands, and scene objects. Artists can also now add personalised keywords to tools and commands in the search engine, making it easier to customise workflows.
Visit www.borisfx.com
A new gamified interactive
experience comes pre-loaded in Maya and teaches first-time users the basics of 3D and Maya’s UI, including navigating a scene, and moving, rotating, and scaling objects. Additional tutorials on modelling, animation, lighting, and shading are available for artists to download on AREA. Advanced users can also take advantage of a reusable framework to create customised interactive tutorials to share with new team members, students, and the wider creative community. For more advanced users, the new Quick Tour provides a walkthrough of Maya’s most useful concepts and tools in two-minutes. Each step includes a link to detailed documentation, allowing artists to go more in-depth on features as needed. Visit: www.autodesk.com/ products/maya
POST PRODUCTION
MOTION CAPTURE SOLUTIONS and technology provider OptiTrack has released Motive 3.0, a rebuilt version of its low latency performance capture and motion tracking software.
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM Telstra and BASE Media Forge APAC Cloud Partnership
Following on from its establishment of Telstra MediaCloud, Telstra Broadcast Services has inked a deal with UK-based BASE Media Cloud to offer the APAC market what it is calling “an impressive range of native cloud-based services”. TELSTRA BROADCAST SERVICE’S (TBS) move to expand its cloud services has been a decisive one. In June this year it announced that it had acquired MediaCloud Pty Ltd; at a stroke, dramatically ramping up its cloud-based services, particularly in the fields of streaming, playout, and delivery. Now it has followed that up by greenlighting a sales partnership with BASE Media Cloud (BASE) that effectively adds a full range of cloud-based media services to its offering; allowing it to provide a cloudnative workflow from ingest, cloud storage, file transfer and asset management through to virtual post-production and file delivery. TBS will initially roll out the service to the Australian industry, with plans for expansion to the rest of APAC following soon after. BASE is one of the originators of the new breed of subscription services companies that has been set up to take advantage of the move towards the cloud, offering multicloud managed media solutions to the industry since 2015. In the six years it has been trading, the company has doubled in size year-on-year; leveraging organic growth to establish an enviable position in the UK market with strengthening footholds on both the US east and west coasts. BASE’s list of cloud subscription customers includes BBC, ITV, Formula E, Little Dot Studios and LadBible Group. BASE and TBS call the partnership a “winwin for both companies”. BASE is able to expand its offering first into Australia, and then into the wider APAC market leaning on Telstra’s expertise in the area, while TBS is able to provide a suite of tailored remote working services – comprising cloud storage, file transfer, transcoding and cloud-native asset management through to virtual Adobe editing, custom Artificial intelligence and content distribution SaaS services. All of this can be white-labelled and offered as part of its established Telstra MediaCloud package to Telstra customers.
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Foakes says that the ‘secret sauce’ that has gained BASE its success to date is that it knows how to launch, manage and support workflows seamlessly across multiple cloud platforms, as well as manage costs of those services once they go live, giving customers a single provider experience. BASE also owns the IP for many of the custom integrations it deploys and has invested in the network topology and technical partnerships required to make the cloud cost-effective for media companies. This, says Foakes, is what enables customers to save on some of the more well-known gotchas of cloud deployments, such as egress fees and API call fees, as well as removing the headache of dealing with multiple cloud providers through a single interface. Initial interest in the TBS-badged cloud services is, so far, coming from the fields of remote editing and content management, where it offers cloud-based Adobe postproduction services and production asset management. Several joint RFPs have already been undertaken by TBS and BASE that look specifically at moving postproduction services into the cloud.
Interest in cloud-based workflows, already at high levels, has only intensified in the wake of the pandemic. Where the new partnership between the two companies gains potential traction in the marketplace is that the desire to implement the cloud is balanced by the fact that doing it well, and doing it cost-effectively at scale, is not as easy as it seems.
“Editing and post services are just the start of what we can do with BASE though,” comments TBS’ Paul Slowey. “Because we can now deliver complete end-to-end workflows, we’re going to be able to offer the market a more fullyfeatured cloud consultancy service than before. We incorporated over 60 cloud experts with the MediaCloud acquisition, and BASE’s expertise can plug into the already established Telstra Purple team, giving us the capacity to cope with digital transformation and cloud-migration projects of any size.”
“Many RFPs going out right now are about remote working, cloud-based asset management and storage,” comments BASE
“One of the reasons why the collaboration with TBS is so Important is because cloud is
FROM POSTPRODUCTION TO DELIVERY
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Media Cloud’s founder and Managing Director, Ben Foakes. “Companies that have legacy investment in on-prem are starting to gradually bridge across to hybrid or go full cloud. But, one thing we’ve seen is that a lot of big broadcasters and big media brands have tried to do cloud themselves and struggled. Many have chosen a direct partnership with a big cloud provider and found that keeping on top of engineering, cost control, software development and governance is hard; it becomes a neverending investment. So, we’re seeing an increasing trend towards outsourcing to specialist firms like BASE.”
GROWTH IN THE CLOUD
only as good as your connectivity,” says Foakes. “Telstra supplies the networking and infrastructure, and we bring additional value in adding a Software-asa-Service subscription layer onto its network, coupled with our mediafocused cloud expertise.” Meanwhile, connectivity consistently advances to improve the service. TBS’ Paul Slowey says the company is in the process of constructing an on-ramp to the various clouds; with the aim of bridging its digital video networks with the public internet to provide telco-grade connectivity into public cloud providers. “We have the volume and scale to build on innovative solutions that weren’t available to TBS until recently,” he says. “Areas of focus that have now been given the greenlight to move forward with.”
“BASE is one of the originators of the new breed of subscription services companies that has been set up to take advantage of the move towards the cloud, offering multicloud managed media solutions to the industry since 2015.
Visit http://telstra.com/broadcastservices
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Iconik Unveils Warnings, Metadata Subcategories and Proxy Rez Control SMART MEDIA management solution, iconik has been updated to enable users to work faster and have more control of their data. Enhancements in the latest version include the addition of warning labels, metadata subcategories, and the ability to change proxy resolutions and bitrates. With warning labels, users can add warnings around usage restrictions, rights expirations, or other important factors to individual assets. These can be added in iconik or via the iconik API to trigger warnings from thirdparty solutions. The warnings appear at the top of the assets and enable users to very quickly see all the limitations associated with each individual piece of content to avoid any accidental infringements. With the metadata subcategories feature, only the most important data will be shown for an asset or collection. Stripping out irrelevant fields makes it much easier and quicker to get to the relevant information.
The latest version also offers users the ability to choose to view high resolution proxies. Low resolution proxies help save on bandwidth, but at those times when high resolution is required, users can now adjust those settings to determine resolution and bitrate needed in the transcoder settings. Visit www.iconik.io
GB Labs, Archiware Partner on Storage and Data Protection THE LATEST RELEASEGB LABS and Archiware have announced integration between the GB Labs storage platforms and the Archiware P5 data management solution to deliver maximum security for ongoing and completed productions. Customers now have the flexibility to choose from different storage devices for backup and archive such as disk, LTO tape and cloud storage.
corruption and any other mishaps. The scheduled automatic Backup is the best way to keep files safe. The optimised restore process hands any file back identically to continue with production (including xattributes, ACLS, etc.). P5 Backup works with disk, tape and cloud storage to provide maximum flexibility and fulfil any requirements. Encryption is available for both transfer and storage.
GB Labs storage platforms, such as SPACE, Echo and FastNAS, allow content creation teams to collaborate on files and projects for increased productivity and creative freedom. These products give Mac, Linux and Windows users simultaneous access to projects using 1 to 100Gb network connections. Moving data between tiers of GB Labs units is optimised by the CORE OS intelligence to increase workflow efficiency.
P5 Archive migrates finished projects and their assets to disk, tape or cloud to preserve them for the long-term. Finding files at a later date is easy with its MAM-like features, customisable metadata fields, thumbnails for still images and proxy clips for videos. Combined search and visual browsing functionality help to locate files when they are needed for re-use, reference and monetisation. Full LTFS integration (ISO/IEC) provides import, export and archiving on LTFS tapes and the system makes it easy to catalogue and include existing third- party LTFS tapes into the P5 Archive.
With Archiware’s P5 now able to run natively on GB Labs devices, the latest CORE.4 OS allows users to configure the P5 client via the integrations tab to access files on GB Labs storage products for backup and archive. The integration provides an efficient way to protect production and provide business continuity. The P5 platform offers flexibility in configuration, setup, storage and policies. The synergy between the two systems also means production is protected in multiple ways. P5 Backup protects ongoing production against accidental deletion, file
Both P5 Backup and P5 Archive support LTO tape drives and tape libraries from all vendors. When using multiple drives, throughput can grow (and almost multiply) with each drive added though P5´s drive parallelisation feature. For maximum security and offsite storage P5 offers tape cloning to create two identical tape sets with two LTO drives. visit www.gblabs.com
INSYS CLOUD MULTI DRM, a fully cloud-native digital rights management licensing server for video streaming from Insys Video Technologies, is now available in AWS Marketplace. Insys Cloud Multi DRM is a secure, scalable, and serverless architecture based on AWS cloud for users of AWS Media Services. It provides a single source for secure content playback on various devices. API integration enables rapid adoption of the major DRM systems, including Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay, and Microsoft PlayReady. It supports the Common Encryption (CENC) standard via MPEG-DASH, allowing all DRM systems to be used within a single stream. Insys Video Technologies enables smooth and secure interoperability between DRM and video processing and packaging offerings, thanks to integration with the Secure Packager and Encoder Key Exchange
(SPEKE). This includes AWS Elemental MediaPackage and AWS Elemental MediaConvert, the services which allow to secure the live and VOD content by using DRM systems and prepare it for broadcast and multiscreen delivery at scale. SPEKE is a royalty-free open-source API specification that defines the standard for encrypted communication between video encoders, transcoders, origin servers, and digital rights management (DRM) system key servers for live and on-demand streaming video. This means that video content is protected from illegal redistribution throughout the media lifecycle. Insys Cloud Multi DRM offers an unlimited number of licenses and autoscalable architecture with 24/7 monitoring and support. It can be launched within a day thanks to the serverless cloud-native infrastructure. Visit https://insysvideotechnologies.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Cloud-based Multi DRM
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Quantum Boosts ActiveScale to Tackle Unstructured Data QUANTUM CORPORATION has launched a new release of its ActiveScale object storage software which is designed to reshape the way organisations store, manage, and extract value from their growing stores of unstructured data. ActiveScale 6.0 software delivers unlimited scalability, and consistent performance at any scale without compromising data availability, durability, and security. The software is now available as a subscription on qualified platforms, including the new ActiveScale X200 platform, a simplified and converged system platform that delivers high-density, high-capacity storage in a small footprint. The new ActiveScale 6.0 software provides unlimited expansion of capacity, processing, and object count, making it easy to grow and manage massive data. With ActiveScale, organisations can seamlessly expand compute, networking, and storage resources for consistent
performance at scale with no performance tuning or rebalancing required. A two-layer software architecture optimises flash and disk resources, employing real-time heuristics to dynamically place data across all system resources in parallel for maximum efficiency and balanced long-term performance. This is in direct contrast to other object storage solutions that employ static or deterministic data layout policies that directly lead to hotspots and rebalancing tasks that overwhelm the system as it grows. Quantum’s ActiveScale X200 object storage platform is a new, simplified and converged system platform, benefitting from the latest generation of high-density, high-capacity server technologies. Within a standard datacentre rack, as compared to the previous generation platform, an X200 three-module ActiveScale object storage cluster now supports: 78% greater storage density (14.6 petabytes raw); up to 7X
greater sustained throughput (up to 51 gigabytes per second); and 6X more objects (30 billion). These greater capabilities reduce overall system footprint and simplify deployment in both large and small configurations. When scaling out with the new platform, capacity, performance and object count are unlimited, creating a unified system cluster that grows to exabytes of capacity and billions of objects. Current ActiveScale customers benefit with the ability to easily expand their existing ActiveScale clusters with the new platform. The ActiveScale X200 joins the recently announced ActiveScale P100E3 entry object storage platform. With the expanded portfolio, ActiveScale systems can be deployed from hundreds of terabytes to hundreds of exabytes and beyond. Visit www.quantum.com
Seagate and axle ai Collaborate for “Smarter Media” SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY and axle ai have joined forces to provide complete solutions not only to store, but also manage and provide instant user access to many terabytes or petabytes of video content. The new collaboration is centred around the Seagate Lyve edge-to-cloud mass storage platform, designed to offer a coherent data storage architecture extending from on-premise removable media through industry-leading cloud storage-as-a-service (STaaS). Axle ai’s software is a browser-based front end that can be used across multiple storage devices and services, making it easy for media teams to remotely search and manage their content from anywhere. Seagate and axle ai have entered into a broadranging solutions agreement where a full
range of Seagate products and services will now be offered by axle ai in conjunction with their own media indexing, tagging, and search software. These joint solutions include: Seagate direct attached SSD, HDD, and RAID solutions; Seagate’s Lyve Mobile solutions; and Seagate’s Lyve Cloud STaaS. Each configuration includes an instance of axle ai 2021, the company’s browser-based remote media search software. The software includes a browser front end allowing multiple users to tag, catalogue and search their media files, as well as a range of AI-driven options for automatically cataloguing and discovering specific visual and audio attributes within those files. For example, audio tracks can be automatically transcribed, with the resulting transcript immediately searchable
in the timeline; likewise, axle ai provides face recognition with integrated training for new faces over time. The modular nature of the system supports additional plug-ins for object and logo recognition, and identification of sports highlights. The software can be used to create distributed team workflows for storage pools that would otherwise be siloed and hard to search. The software also includes a range of plug-in panels for Adobe’s Creative Cloud application suite software, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe AfterEffects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign. These panels allow creative team members on any Mac or Windows laptop to directly search, access, and download media files wherever they are located. Visit www.seagate.com and www.axle.ai
PallyCon Unveils Robust Distributor Watermarking PALLYCON, a provider of Multi DRM and content protection solutions has launched Robust Distributor Watermarking to deter and combat premium content leaks in the distribution process.
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
Approved and audit passed, the solution protects the pre-release assets of original content owners, broadcasters, post-production houses and content aggregators by securing video content from proxy deliveries and leaks at every step during the post-production workflows.
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Offering both visible and invisible watermarking options, it protects content creators, studios and content owners from potential leaks by applying distributor watermarking, enabling them to trace the point of leak back to the particular department or third party responsible for leaking the content. PallyCon’s distributor watermarking for B2B streaming allocates a unique identification to each copy designated to different content
aggregators and OTT platforms and matches it with the leaked video asset. The solution is resilient against various attacks like compression recording, collusion and reencoding etc., showing a solid deterrent against leaking. The solution supports mezzanine file formats (like ProRes and XDCAM) and interfaces easily with third-party workflow management. The Distributor Watermarking Service is a premium addition to the suite of PallyCon content protection, warehousing and forensic watermarking technologies designed to secure and guard apps and developers against various breaches and content piracy. Visit https://pallycon.com/ distributor-watermarking/
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM
IP MEDIA INFRASTRUCTURE has reached a NEW GALAXY.
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AUDIO Digital soundwaves
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Point Source Audio Captures the Sound of Aussie Gardening Australian location sound recordist Christopher MacGregor became the first customer to embrace Point Source Audio’s Lavalier Switch Kit – a two-inone lavalier and on-ear miking tool kit. ITS VALUE BECAME INSTANTLY apparent with the included Embrace earmount put straight to work miking an active TV host of an Australian gardening show. “The gardening host I work with is often performing quite physical tasks so for some years, I’ve been concealing the microphone into his mop of curly hair using wig and hair clips,” explains MacGregor. “This takes time and often requires readjusting throughout the shoot. So, when the Point Source Audio Lavalier Switch Kit became available, I thought, ‘that’s going to make life so much easier.’ I’ve probably got a dozen different methods of mounting lav mics and this has added another great option.” The Lavalier Switch Kit delivers the company’s best-selling waterproof omnidirectional lavalier microphone that transforms into two wearing styles and three different colour options to help audio technicians meet the ever-changing conditions of miking talent. A large assortment of clips and windscreens accompany the Lavalier Switch Kit to offer traditional and inventive mounting options. MacGregor’s instinct has proven accurate as the Embrace microphone configuration has already
served on three successive shoots with the presenter. “It has made things a lot easier to manage,” he states. “I’m no longer constantly going up and fiddling with the talent’s hair and having to put the clips back in! Also with his role, it’s very physical – he could be digging holes with a spade, sawing stuff, using secateurs, cutting branches, very physical stuff; so the Earmount, in particular, does a really good job at holding everything in place and that’s definitely improved my workflow.” Perhaps most importantly, the talent has also been happy with the change MacGregor has made. “He really likes it as well; he found it so comfortable that he forgot he was wired up,” reveals MacGregor. “He says it’s just the right fit for him as the old miking solution can pull at his hair when I’m putting the clips in. He was really positive about it.” “It’s particularly good for miking [people] with plenty of long hair,” he continues. “Often, when you’re trying to find the right way to place a mic on them, it can be a bit creepy for them. But Embrace limits the invasion of personal space, which is good. It’ll definitely become a part of my kit in the field.”
While the Embrace mounting solution first attracted MacGregor to the Lavalier Switch Kit, he is also pleased by the IP 57-rated omnidirectional 4mm lavalier. “I think the Point Source Audio lav is a good mic,” he states. “It’s going to give me kind of an extra audio piece that I can deploy.” Now familiar with the advantages of the Lavalier Switch Kit to location sound mixers, MacGregor concludes: “I think Point Source Audio has really hit the mark with Embrace. I like the idea that they don’t float about – they stay on mic as the mic is always aimed to the mouth. So, it’s got a lot of positive points for me from a sound recording perspective.” Visit www.point-sourceaudio.com
Mandurah Performing Arts Centre Calls on Pliant Technologies WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, also known as ManPAC, is a national leader in the curation and presentation of quality arts and cultural experiences that appeal to local artists and the community as a whole. Head of Staging Ciaron McCormack relies on Pliant Technologies MicroCom XR digital wireless intercom system to provide production staff with a dependable communication solution to put on ManPAC’s high-quality events.
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“As head of staging, it’s my responsibility to make sure everything is organised for our clients so that their production runs as smoothly as possible, both on and off the stage,” says McCormack. “Pliant’s MicroCom XR, paired with the brand’s SmartBoom headsets, allows me to provide the crew with the tools they need for clear communication between the front of house and backstage areas.”
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At ManPAC, the wireless users of its eight MicroCom XR packs include the audio and lighting operators, stage manager, flyman, mechanist, follow spot operator, front of house manager, and bar manager. MicroCom XR helps to ensure that all aspects of a production are executed as planned, with a coverage zone that reaches
from backstage to front of house and beyond. For McCormack, there was a variety of features that made it clear that MicroCom XR was the perfect choice for ManPAC. “The lightweight, compact design of the MicroCom XR beltpacks immediately stood out to me, as it seamlessly clips on to staff members’ clothing without being bulky or getting in the way while they move around the theatre,” he says. “Plus, it’s super easy to use and the price was ManPAC’s Clint Gerard, Dylan Conroy and Ciaron McCormack. fantastic compared to other products.” easy to just flip up the boom arm when you want In addition to the benefits of the MicroCom to mute yourself, and then flip it back down when XR beltpacks, McCormack finds the flip-up microphone muting option on the SmartBoom you’re ready to talk - it helps us to be even more headsets to be a huge benefit to their production efficient in our flow of communication. Thanks workflow. to Pliant’s MicroCom, we can continue to put “There’s a lot to like about MicroCom XR, but the on the exceptional performance quality that the talk/mute function built into the SmartBoom Mandurah community knows us for.” headset was a selling point for us,” he adds. “With Visit www.plianttechnologies.com and their exceptional audio quality, the headsets pair perfectly with the calibre of the intercom. It’s so https://nas.solutions
AUDIO
MKE 400
Record with confidence. Sometimes, good just isn’t good enough. Enter the MKE 400, an on-camera shotgun microphone that combines portability and performance and sheds a whole new light on the way we capture audio for our video. Features that were traditionally accessories—like a windscreen and shock-mount—are now fully integrated and perform better than ever, freeing up space in your camera bag and on top of your camera itself.
AUDIO
www.sennheiser.com/mke-400 #CreateMore
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AUDIO
The P.A. People Celebrates 50 Years
It all started in the early 1960s in a garage in suburban Enfield, NSW. What started back then as Christian Sound (incorporated as CS Services) has grown into The P.A. People – one of Australia’s most well-respected and diverse Professional Audio and AV solution providers. THE COMPANY WAS FIRST incorporated on 2nd July 1971. Back then, the company was focused on the needs of the local church, schools, government and community events. Professional audio was in its infancy, and the company resorted to the manufacture of many of the products it needed, ranging from multichannel mixing consoles and amplifiers, through to the now iconic range of PEM self-powered portable loudspeakers. Installations in Sydney Churches and schools numbered
Series including the Australian Opera and the Symphony under the Stars, a contract it held for the next ten years. The company’s approach was based on a larger version of its Bose trees. A Concert Production arm was born and thrived for the next ten years. In 1990, the company ventured into the world of Concert Touring systems with the purchase of a Turbosound TMS3 system powered with custom-designed Australian Monitor amplifiers. The system was selected for their Australian Tours by the world’s elite
as Vocia with the Creative Audio business eventually sold to Biamp Systems in 2008.
Systems Integration
The 1990s also saw The P.A. People move into larger scale systems integration, including the delivery of loose equipment and control room infrastructure for the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, and the expansion of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. And then, along came the turn of the century, and with it the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In 1997, The P.A. People successfully tendered for the supply and installation of the sound system for the new Olympic Stadium in Homebush. Under the watchful eye of US consultants, the company developed the design to suit Australian conditions and commissioned the system prior to the opening of the venue in 1999. Since that time, the company has operated the system for every event at the Stadium, upgraded the system on three major occasions, and serviced and maintained the systems throughout their life.
Event Communications Sydney 2000 Olympics: What was expected to be a one-off event has become a “very significant” part of the business.
in their thousands through those times, and it is still not uncommon to find an installed speaker cabinet in a Church with the CS trumpet logo attached.
artists including Gloria Estefan, Diana Ross and James Taylor. The company eventually chose to exit the touring/concert space in 1995.
The Company thrived and continued to develop unique solutions to sound reinforcement challenges well before commercial solutions were available. Large scale three-way loudspeaker cabinets were designed to provide sound reinforcement for a crusade at Randwick Racecourse, and the original ‘Bose Trees’ were created to provide a novel rigging solution for indoor and outdoor spaces.
The late 1980s saw the product manufacturing arm of the business develop into a wholly-owned entity, Creative Audio. Based in Brisbane, the business initially continued the production of mixer amplifiers and portable loudspeakers and then moved into the development of digital message storage and the ConcertCom range of intercom products. Creative Audio also became adept at creating custom audio solutions, including audio teaching systems for the Schools of Distance Education (Schools of the Air) in Queensland, and the replacement of the Stage Management Systems for the Sydney Opera House. The Company also created the Control Matrix audio paging system in the early 2000s. Control Matrix was the predecessor of the paging product now known
After some time, the Company adopted ‘the p.a. people’ as a by line under the CS Services brand, which around 1981 evolved into the adoption of The P.A. People as the company’s trading name.
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Concert Production
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In 1985, the company secured the contract to provide the sound systems for Carols in the Domain and the Sydney Festival Concert
Product Development
The P.A People’s involvement in the ‘best games ever’ also included sound systems installations for the Aquatic Centre, the RAS showgrounds and the Velodrome; the site-wide PA systems in Sydney Olympic Park; the contract to deliver the entire temporary AV package for the ‘non-competition’ Venues; along with the Communication Systems for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and the majority of the Sports Venues. According to Chris Dodds, Managing Director of The P.A. People, “What we had expected would be a once off event has now become a very significant part of our business. Out of the remnants of our Concert Productions business quickly rose what is now known as our Event Communications department. With five Olympic Games and countless other national and international events behind us, The P.A. People’s Event Comms team are known as one of the significant providers of large-scale Production Communications systems on the world stage.”
Innovation
The Company continues to be an innovator in the provision of venue
Chris Dodds, Managing Director, The P.A. People.
infrastructure across Australia. It has worked in over 15 of the country’s major sports venues and countless theatres and performing arts spaces, designing and installing audio systems, production communications, stage lighting, IPTV systems, LED screens and video production equipment. Recently The P.A. People re-entered the audio production market with the acquisition of a significant inventory of Bose ShowMatch cabinets and Linea Research amplification. The systems have been deployed for corporate events in the International Convention Centre and for the opening of the Woman’s T20 Cricket World Cup, as well as regular support of the Sydney Kings basketball and Sydney FC football teams. There have been many other significant projects along the way: the Communications Package for the Sydney New Year’s Eve’ fireworks, the Audio and Radio systems for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne, and the design and fabrication of the iconic 3m high ‘AO’ LED logo for Tennis Australia.
People
According to MD Chris Dodds, however, a trademark throughout the company’s history has been its people, its customers and suppliers. “Many of the folk who grace our industry today cut their teeth with or at The P.A. People,” he says, “and we are proud of the legacy these folk have created – and there are some 200 of them that have worked for us in a full time capacity, not to mention hundreds more in a casual capacity. A big ‘thank you’ to all who have worked with and for us – the company is clearly better for your contribution. “To our customers and suppliers – we literally would not be still here after 50 years without you. It is our intent to continue our celebrations of this significant milestone throughout the second half of this year, and we look forward to engaging with each of you throughout that period.” Visit www.papeople.com.au
SUPERIOR. PORTABLE. WIRELESS. AUDIO
On location. In the field. Or at the studio. Wherever production takes you, the ADX5D lets you capture clean, clear audio with standard slot-in portability.
Industry-setting Axient ® Digital sound and performance. Now available to audio professionals in film & portable broadcast. shure.com/ADX5D
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AUDIO
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AUDIO
Subwoofer for AES67 Environments
GERMAN STUDIO SPECIALIST Neumann.Berlin has unveiled the KH 750 AES67 subwoofer, a variation on the KH 750 DSP, which has been designed for AES67-based environments. Thanks to its DSP power, the KH 750 AES67 also provides access to Neumann’s Automatic Monitor Alignment MA 1, thus allowing for room adaptive correction of the entire monitoring system, including connected analogue Neumann loudspeakers – in amplitude and phase. The compact KH 750 AES67 subwoofer is suited for environments in which audio-over-IP in existing AES67 infrastructure is to be routed all the way to the loudspeakers in a redundant and lossless manner. Its AES67 interface allows users to address not only the subwoofer but the entire stereo system, including the speakers connected to the KH 750 AES67. Its dual AES67 audio network connections are fully compliant with broadcast standards such as ST 2110 and ST 2022-7 redundancy. At the same time, the KH 750 AES67 is also compatible with DANTE-generated AES67 network streams. Other features include a Bass Manager with four routing modes, flexible acoustical controls for a wide range of configurations and set-up conditions, as well as analogue and digital inputs and outputs, and a powerful DSP engine. In combination with Neumann’s Automatic Monitor Alignment – MA 1, which is available for Mac and PC, the entire monitoring system can be precisely calibrated to suit the specific room character. This also includes the monitors
connected to it, whose amplitude and phase frequency responses are corrected and adapted to the monitoring environment. The KH 750 AES67 comes with a 10-inch ultra-long excursion woofer featuring a powerful, extremely linear magnet system with ELFF technology (Extremely Linear Force Factor). Despite its compact dimensions, the KH 750 AES67 provides bass extension down to 18Hz. Because the subwoofer relieves the connected monitors of much of the low frequency reproduction, intermodulation distortion is drastically reduced, and the maximum sound pressure level is increased. By adding another KH 750 AES67, even larger systems may be realised. Visit https://en-de.neumann.com/kh-750-aes67
Clear-Com Arcadia Central Station CLEAR-COM HAS ANNOUNCED the Arcadia Central Station, a next-generation scalable IP platform which integrates all wired and wireless partyline systems, including the FreeSpeak family of digital wireless solutions and HelixNet Digital Partyline. The system can license up to 96 IP ports in a single RU device, with further licensing add-ons anticipated in the future, making Arcadia the intercom centre-piece for a vast range of applications best served by partyline workflows. Designed with input from Clear-Com’s extensive global live sound user base, Arcadia represents the next evolution in partyline workflows, combining digital, analog and AoIP intercom technologies into
a single integrated system. From the Broadway stage to a growing community congregation to the largest and most complex live events, Arcadia is suitable for a wide variety of applications, in part due to its flexible licensing-based model that allows future expansion. Arcadia provides general connectivity to a wide range of Clear-Com endpoints through a mixture of 2-wire and 4-wire audio ports, together with third-party Dante and AES67 AoIP devices. Additionally, it supports the full range of FreeSpeak digital wireless products, encompassing the 1.9 GHz, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and the upcoming integration with HelixNet, the industry-leading
wired digital partyline system, delivering incredible architectural flexibility with elegant simplicity for the end-user in a unique advancement for the industries we serve. The need for simple and quick adjustments to the system is reflected in Arcadia’s two large front panel touchscreens, with four rotary encoders to quickly scroll through menus or for use as a 4-way key station. The system is configured and monitored through a new, re-imagined version of Clear-Com’s browser-based CCM software featuring an intuitive interface that guides users through all steps of the process. https://bit.ly/3irbYSA
‘Fat Boy’ Reference Monitor from Ocean Way Audio OCEAN WAY AUDIO has announced its new Pro3 monitor (nicknamed ‘Fat Boy’), the latest addition to the company’s high-resolution monitor line. Despite its small size, the new two-way active monitor system delivers a frequency response of 45Hz to 20kHz and 110 dB maximum SPL between channels. Its diminutive footprint makes it perfect nearfield monitor for home, project and commercial recording studios, as well as in professional broadcast and post facilities where optimal performance is required, and space is at a premium. In designing the Pro3 monitor, Ocean Way Audio has applied the same degree of design, engineering and manufacturing expertise as found in its large-format loudspeakers, which are present in top-tier studios around the world.
AUDIO
Between channels, the frequency response of each Pro3 monitor falls within ±0.5 dB of one another. This makes for a more cohesive stereo image and a more detailed spatial response. Meantime, the low-end frequency extension delivers a flat response all the way down to 45Hz.
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dome design that delivers excellent acoustic linearity. The LF driver uses a geometrically reinforced aluminium cone with a vented cast aluminium chassis – making it able to deliver ‘high power linearity’ and perform optimally while monitoring at any level. These innovations, combined with an innovative cabinet design that delivers high-resolution audio and minimal reflections, enable longer sessions with a minimal degree of listening fatigue across the entire audio spectrum.
The Pro3 cabinet design helps achieve accurate time alignment by reducing baffle reflections and incorporates materials designed to minimise low frequency resonance. The port on the Pro3 helps optimise the woofer’s low frequency extension, while adding to the speaker’s overall sound pressure level capacity.
Ocean Way’s advanced two-way, active design means that the Pro3s can be placed flexibly within a room and deliver a uniform frequency response of 45Hz to 20kHz, and 110 dB maximum SPL between channels. The monitors’ built in overload protection provides users an added degree of confidence, ensuring system reliability for the long-term.
Meanwhile, the HF driver on Pro 3 incorporates a high definition, silk fabric
Visit https://oceanwayaudio.com/pro3-reference-monitor
RADIO The original broadcast media
www.content-technology.com/radio
SCA Invests in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
SCA has announced that it has become an early-stage investor in Australian artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning company SourseAI, which will provide content recommendations on the company’s LiSTNR app to continue to improve the user experience. SOURSEAI IS A PATENTED augmented intelligence platform that will be used by SCA to discover audience behavioural insights, listener mood states and how to power dynamic cohorts of LiSTNR users, ultimately enabling a hyperpersonalised experience across its digital audio platform LiSTNR. SCA’s in-house analytical capability will be enhanced by SourseAI, which ingests data from SCA’s systems and applies a machine learning algorithm designed to power content recommendations to users. SCA has already connected content metadata including listener topic analysis, from its investment earlier this year in local AI company Sonnant, as well as listening and marketing data to drive data-led decision making within the business. SCA will also leverage other SourseAI capabilities, such as forecasting and anomaly
detection, to understand growth across content genres, predict seasonal content scheduling peaks and troughs, and to explore changing content tastes. “The key advantage of developing LiSTNR within SCA is our ability to determine our own future, and we’re leading the market by investing in local, high performance, deep technology partnerships that can accelerate our roadmap. Our investment in SourseAI allows us to deliver a deeply personalised listening experience to consumers, based on consumption habits and context. It also enables us to gain a rich understanding of our audience’s behaviour, enabling us to continue to create market leading advertising solutions,” SCA Head of Digital and Innovation, Chris Johnson, said.
mission is to apply our patented machine learning algorithms to enhance the experience for LiSTNR audiences using a whole range of data. This includes understanding the tastes and behaviours of every single user on the LiSTNR platform. Then, using our advanced recommendations and personalisation algorithms, we can ensure the right content is surfaced in each individual listener’s feed any time they engage with the app. “Machine learning models make it possible to drive the key media metrics of frequency of engagement and time spent. By personalising the experience with Sourse, SCA will progress these metrics, resulting in a more engaged audience, and delivering improvement across both advertising targeting and yield.”
SourseAI CEO, Matt Jones, said: “Sourse’s
Visit www.southerncrossaustereo.com.au
With a modern user interface, Aquira provides real-time access to sales and inventory data, as well as a vast range of scheduling, billing and reporting options. Aquira station operators manage clients, prospects and sales team call activity.
the Sales frontend Aquira2Go, including visibility of live avails, to the platform’s digital capabilities as well as the opportunity to have our billing and accounts receivable function contained within the platform. Easy integration with our CRM, Salesforce, as well as a developed API for the RadioMatrix platform, made Aquira an attractive option. We felt Aquira was the best solution to support our ongoing innovation across the products we deliver for our commercial partners.”
ARN Takes on RCS’ Aquira BROADCAST SOFTWARE COMPANY RCS has signed the Australian Radio Network (ARN) to its Aquira traffic system service. ARN’s stations broadcast across 6 metropolitan markets to over 5 million people each week. The company has 12 radio stations and accompanying websites and social accounts in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, iHeartRadio App, iHeartRadio Podcast Network and affiliates 6IX. Aquira is a flexible traffic system designed for local and national-sized radio businesses.
Tracey Gillan, ARN’s Commercial Operations Director, said “When ARN was looking at its options for enhancement of its overall commercial operations infrastructure we were impressed with the improvements that had been made to the Aquira platform over the years. We saw significant improvements with
Visit https://www.rcsworks.com
Australian Smart Speaker Use on the Rise
“The increasing prevalence of smart speakers in Australian households extends access to radio to more places and more devices and demonstrates that consumers value audio and are open to the increasing possibilities of voice assistant technology,” she said. Twenty-four percent of smart speaker owners have three or more in their home. The average number of smart speakers in the household
rose to 1.9 from 1.7 a year ago. Sixty-one percent of smart speaker owners plan to purchase another smart speaker in the future. The study found that 42% of Australians say they currently use a voice assistant such as Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Music, including from online services and radio, is the top use case with 65% of smart speaker owners requesting this weekly, followed by asking for the weather (56%) and asking a general question (53%). 41%of users request the news. There is positive sentiment for voice assistants – 70% of users said it makes their life easier and 41% wouldn’t want to go back to life without assistants.
Nearly one in two Australians have used a voice assistant to interact with a brand, product or service or to start or complete a product purchase or repurchase. 40% of smart speaker owners say they spent less time with other technology since getting their smart speaker. Nearly half of smart speaker owners who own a smartphone said they are using voice assistants on their phone more often since getting a smart speaker. The Smart Audio report involved a national online survey of 5000 adults aged 18+ and was conducted from 19 April to 5 May 2021. The research was commissioned by CRA and TalkVia and is available to download at www. radioalive.com.au
RADIO
TWENTY-SIX PERCENT OF AUSTRALIANS own a smart speaker and, of those, 67% use it daily and 88% use it weekly, according to the Smart Audio report, released by Edison Research and Commercial Radio Australia. CRA Chief Executive Officer Joan Warner said 59% of smart speaker owners said they were listening to more audio since their purchase.
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RADIO
Ad Revenue Objectives: Best-of-breed Vs. an All-In-One Platform By Jimshade Chaudhari, SVP of Product, Marketron
WHETHER YOU’RE A RADIO/TV BROADCASTER, a podcaster, or a live-streaming channel, choosing a new revenue management and digital advertising platform can be complicated. Determining whether to get a single unified solution versus a best-of-breed integrated solution is an important one, as the deployed solution can shape all aspects of operations. In a best-of-breed approach, you have the freedom to select different products from various vendors, prioritising performance and suitability for specific use cases that make up your overall operations. Ideally, by putting these products together like building blocks, you create an integrated system in which each product excels at its job and plays nicely with other key technologies within larger workflows or operations. The all-in-one model typically involves a single platform provided by a single vendor. In this case, your business relies on this one platform to address many or all use cases. The platform won’t necessarily provide the best possible performance across every use case, but it will supply needed functionality within a comprehensive solution. With a single company providing this solution, you can simplify installation, maintenance, and support, reducing time and effort from procurement to implementation and beyond. In the end, it’s up to you and your team to decide which environment will work better for your organisation. In this article we’ll explore some of the critical factors to consider before making a commitment either way. Choosing the right technology to support your station’s operations and revenue objectives can be a complicated process. The best choice for your station may not be ideal for another. The key to making the right choice for your organisation lies in first identifying your needs and then evaluating the pros and cons of both an all-in-one model and a best-of-breed approach against those requirements. Start by examining your requirements across four key areas: features and functionality, complexity, support, and cost.
Features and Functionality
If there is a particular feature or capability that is vital to your operations, put this at the top of your requirements list. Can you afford not to invest in a best-of-breed solution for this one-use case, or can you compromise a bit (and how much?) if other factors make an all-in-one option compelling? Will you really ever need all the bells and whistles of a premium product, or will you wind up paying for tools or capabilities you never use? Figure out where in your operations you need robust features and functionality to support your business, and where you simply need a tool that will get the job done.
Complexity
How much tolerance does your business have for a complex solution? Do you have the internal resources (time and talent) to take on a role in systems integration along with day-to-day business operations? Are you willing to work with various vendors to optimise different systems? Do you want tighter control over system capabilities and configuration, or is it more important just to get a fresh and functional solution in place with a minimum of fuss? Consider timing, as well. Are you in a hurry to specify, procure, and complete your deployment, perhaps to shorten time to value? Or do you have plenty of time, or even welcome an extended deployment to complete training across the organisation? By its nature, a best-of-breed solution is the more complex option. While this can translate to more time and money, APIs are increasingly mitigating the burden of integrating products from different vendors. Adopting one solution to meet multiple needs usually requires getting a number of stakeholders on board. It can take time to convince all relevant internal resources of the merit of a particular platform as well as put the pieces in place to deploy it, such as switching off existing products and ending current contracts.
RADIO
An all-in-one solution simplifies procurement and installation, and it
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requires just one contract and licensing agreement. When product modules across the platform share a consistent user interface, training often takes less time and day-to-day tasks such as user logins and data management become more efficient.
Support
Even the nature of support differs across best-of-breed and all-in-one solutions. Would your business benefit from working with highly specialised teams backing each product within a larger integrated system? Do you need extensive knowledge and experience around a specific use case? Are you looking for a close connection with a smaller, more nimble team? If your answer to some or all of those questions is yes, then best-of-breed may be your best bet. If not, the all-in-one approach may be a better fit. Are you more interested in consolidating support into a single channel and a single relationship rather than many, even if it may mean giving up some depth of expertise? Would you prefer to navigate just one tool or process as you work to resolve issues across your installed systems? Are you comfortable working with a larger organisation, which may have more extensive resources but longer resolution times? Include all of these factors – your ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers – in your larger list of requirements as you make your decision.
Cost
Last but not least: cost. Budget is always a determining factor. The costs associated with a best-of-breed approach can mount quickly. Although individual licenses may be less expensive than those of an all-in-one platform, implementation, integration, training, maintenance, and support costs over the lifetime of each product add up.
“In a best-of-breed approach, you have the freedom to select different products from various vendors, prioritising performance and suitability for specific use cases that make up your overall operations.
By understanding the value you’ll gain from the robust features and capabilities of best-of-breed products, you can better determine if these costs are worth incurring. And, if you don’t need all of the products or capabilities you’d get in a typical all-in-one platform, you might be able to cut costs in areas you simply don’t need.
further changes.
If you choose an all-in-one platform, you likely can realise economies of scale. Being that the solution comes from a single vendor, some costs are consolidated. Again, the platform likely will be lower in price compared to a 1:1 stack of discrete products, but you run the risk of paying for functionality that you neither need nor use. If you take the time to run through your requirements in terms of features and functionality, complexity, support, and cost, you’ll be better prepared to make the right choice for your business. You’ll also be better equipped to get internal stakeholders on board. Whatever decision you make, look for a provider (or providers) that will help you optimise the solution for your operational needs. The right choice is only the best choice if it works well for your business. Visit www.marketron.com
RADIO
THE D-PRO-6FM is the new flagship audio processor from BE, with a fully digital 6-band signal path and built-in dynamic RDS encoding. It will accept L & R balanced analogue, AES/EBU, and even optionally MP3/AAC+ streams, and automatically switches in case of STL failure to keep stations on the air. The D-Pro-6FM outputs both MPX and balanced L & R, and includes software for configuring Radiotext+, CT and dynamic PS. D-Pro-6FM standard features include: • The fully digital processing chain includes a two band AGC circuit which feeds the 6-band audio processor. • Inputs include L&R analogue, AES/ EBU and optional MP3 / AAC+ streams over IP. • Outputs include analogue MPX and balanced L&R.
New Firmware for Tieline Gateway Codecs low-cost FM audio processor from BE, with a fully digital 3-band signal path and built-in dynamic RDS encoding. It will accept L & R balanced analogue, AES/EBU, and MP3/AAC+ streams, optionally, and also automatically switches in case of STL failure. The D-Pro-3FM also outputs both MPX and balanced L & R, and includes software for configuring Radio-text+, CT and dynamic PS. D-Pro-3FM standard features include: • The fully digital processing chain includes an AGC circuit which feeds the 3-band audio processor. • Inputs include L&R analogue, AES/ EBU and optional MP3/AAC+ streams over IP. • Outputs include analogue MPX and balanced L&R.
• The fully digital audio processing and RDS/MPX encoding ensures long term stability and allows easy remote software updates to implement new functions.
• The fully digital audio processing and RDS/MPX encoding with advanced DSP, ensuring long term stability allowing easy remote software updates to implement new functions.
• The included software allows quick local or remote management of all the operational parameters, and backup and restoring to disk.
• The included software allows quick local or remote management of all the operational parameters, and backup and restoring to disk.
The D-Pro-3FM, meanwhile, is a
Visit www.bdcast.com
CODEC MANUFACTURER Tielinehas announced the release of new firmware v3.02.06 supporting a range of highly anticipated new features in Gateway and Gateway 4 codecs. Major features in the release include: Support for NMOS IS-04 and IS-05 (Networked Media Open Specifications); Support for up to eight channels of digital phaselocked multichannel audio, including 6-channel (5.1 or 6.0) or 8-channel (7.1 or 8.0) surround sound streams in Gateway, or channel phaselocked streams in Gateway and Gateway 4; Dynamic range compressor and EQ on all inputs; SmartStream PLUS redundant streaming support for multi-unicast streams; and support for Euro ISDN connections. Support for NMOS IS-04 and IS-05 in the Gateway platform provides discovery, registration, and control for ST 2110 AoIP streaming. This ensures that components of a
networked media system can find each other and delivers connection management and audio channel mapping to device I/O channels. Combined with support for 16 AES67/ ST 2110-30 AoIP streams, NMOS brings a new level of interoperability and control with networked equipment throughout the broadcast plant. Support of phase-locked AoIP streaming allows broadcasters to stream live events like concerts and major sports in stereo and surround sound simultaneously, or distribute live phase-locked audio between studios or network affiliates. A 16-channel Gateway codec supports sending 2 x 6 + 2 channels of phase-locked streams, or 2 x 8 channels of phase-locked streams, or 4 x 4 channels of phase-locked streams. The new release is a free upgrade for existing customers. Visit www.tieline.com
RADIO
Digital FM Audio Processors from BE
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CONTENT DELIVERY Terrestrial, Mobile, Broadband
www.content-technology.com/transmission
Community Television Heads Upstream with CTV+ Australia’s community TV sector has been battered under Government pressure to vacate free-to-air spectrum for broadband use. Now, its two survivors – Channel 31 of Melbourne and Adelaide’s Channel 44 – have banded together to launch the next step in its evolution. By Phil Sandberg. IN SEPTEMBER OF 2014, the then Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, announced a “recast” of broadcasting spectrum policy to ensure it was “fit-for-purpose for the next wave of innovation in the media sector.” This “recast” involved public and commercial TV broadcasters moving to multiplex sharing and MPEG-4 compression. In addition, Australia’s “sixth channel” would be cleared of its community television operators. Describing the spectrum as “substantially vacant”, Mr Turnbull went on to say that “The Government believes that the best outcome for community television is that in future it uses the Internet as its distribution platform.” The “substantially vacant” spectrum was home to C31 Melbourne and Geelong, TVS – Television Sydney, 31 Digital Queensland, Channel 44 Adelaide and WEST TV Perth. They were given just over 14 months to migrate both their distribution and businesses to an online model. Despite deadline extensions, this migration did not go well. TVS – Television Sydney closed in December 2015. Meanwhile, 31 Digital Queensland ceased free-to-air television broadcasting in February 2017. It migrated online, changing its name to Hitchhike TV, before ceasing operations in 2020. Lastly, WEST TV ceased FTA broadcasting in February 2020, due to financial difficulties, though it is still active via social media and YouTube.
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According to Shane Dunlop, General Manager of Channel 31 in Melbourne, “I think there’s been two effects. We’ve lost three of the five stations. We’ve gone from being a thriving sector that’s nationwide to having two stations left, really, that have had to scratch and claw – and we’ve been 26 hours away from switch-off, at any given point - and that’s been incredibly destructive. The other side, if you’re looking for a silver lining, is that what it’s done is its forced us both to look at diversifying what we do. It’s forced us to look at what technological advances are being made in broadcasting, and it’s made us look at things like livestreaming and how we engage the community in those kinds of ways. And, effectively, it has meant that in the last seven or eight years we’ve been, I think, extremely busy in trying to reinvent ourselves, in the event that we were switched off.”
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“I would agree,” says Lauren Hillman, General Manager of Channel 44 in Adelaide, “and I say that, yes, both Adelaide and Melbourne have really cemented themselves in our respective states, as a key part of definitely the television landscape, which has been really dramatically damaged over the past five, ten years. But we continue to provide a service that the
Lauren Hillman, General Manager, Channel 44 Adelaide.
commercial stations simply don’t provide. And now, even more importantly, we are able to give opportunities to those emerging filmmakers and screen practitioners, and people who are studying media, because it’s getting harder and harder for those commercial stations to actually offer those students real internships, or any kind of media experience because they’re just under resourced. They don’t have the same resources as they did ten years ago. That’s been a key part of one of our many arguments for keeping community TV on free-to-air. And, also, where is anyone going to learn the craft of working in a working television station outside of a commercial station?” With subsequent improvements in technology and business options, as well as securing a legislated broadcast licence extension until June 30, 2024, C31 Melbourne and Channel 44 Adelaide have joined forces to launch a webbased VOD option for Australian community TV viewers – CTV+. “It’s basic,” says Shane Dunlop “We upload to an AWS bucket. We use S3Bubble to encode, and we use WordPress to then establish where
Shane Dunlop, General Manager, Channel 31 Melbourne.
the content sits on the platform. As it stands, we’ll be launching with pretty modest features. There’ll be roughly about 20 programmes you can catch complete seasons of, and they’ll be from programmes produced both in Melbourne and Adelaide, but also the rest of the country. And that’s our catch-up VOD service. “You can also view something that we’ve had available for almost half a decade now, which is our linear live broadcast. Both Adelaide and Melbourne’s live broadcasts will be viewable on the platform, so we’re just aggregating those in the one place. And, theoretically, moving forward down the line, that could be a number of linear broadcasts, from not just Melbourne and Adelaide, but a variety of community broadcasters. “It also has been developed so that it can be built upon, and we can expand by having a variety of other things added to it down the line. We’re pretty happy with what we’re launching with. It’s probably the best overall package we’ve had with regards to our VOD service online. “You can cast to your TV. You can do all the things continues p44>>
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The Scaling of Efficiencies C+T Talks to Tanya Kelly, Managing Director, APAC, for Xytech Systems. By Phil Sandberg. of a subset of the large MediaPulse product, and it’s a low-cost, fast implementation subscription, cloud-based subscription resource scheduling system, and it has some incredible functionality for the price point. So it’s a very good place for customers with a smaller budget to start and then it also means that, as and when they grow, they may need a bigger system, more functionality, and it’s a very simple case of licensing to upgrade them. ScheduALL and MediaPulse are the premium products worldwide, but not everybody needs a Ferrari.”
According to Tanya Kelly, Managing Director of APAC for Xytech Systems, “Xytech and ScheduALL have been each other’s largest competitors for 30 years and so they were the perfect company to acquire ScheduALL because the customers are very similar and have similar needs. So, this works very, very well for existing ScheduALL customers that they know that the new owners of the company understand their business, understand what their needs are. So, it’s a very positive move.”
“As things stand, broadcast, ScheduALL has the lion share of the broadcasters, transmission companies, telcos in this region and transmission is ScheduALL’s strength. At the moment, what I am doing is, because there is now someone here full-time, it means I can support them better, keep their systems happy and running until and unless they want to move to MediaPulse. And they may not want to do that and Xytech is very comfortable with supporting the ScheduALL product for as long as it needs to be supported, but what they have got is a task force of ScheduALL experts and MediaPulse experts who are looking at both products and looking at how they can bring the transmission functionality from ScheduALL into MediaPulse.”
C+T: Essentially, it’s all about keeping media organisations organised? Tanya Kelly: “There’s a lot about workflow and resource management and utilisation. Certainly, with ScheduALL, when it is across an entire enterprise, we have people managing their staff resources and rostering, feeds coming in and out, what’s going to presentation, what’s got to have graphics put on it, studio shows, live shows, prerecorded shows, hostings, managing recordings on EVS and FTP files coming in, sending information to MAMs, integrating with rights management, asset management systems. It really is a key central system, or it can be if that’s how you want to use it, and also key is that these products can be as widespread across your business as you want them to, or they can just be small for one small area.” The level of adoption that end users might have. APAC territories vary in connectivity and technology adoption, so they don’t necessarily have to be in Singapore or Korea or Japan? “No. Absolutely not. And, in fact, Xytech has a wonderful product called Dash, that has the features
Who are the sorts of customers you are looking at?
What are some of the implementation issues? “MediaPulse has a lot of features that I would have absolutely killed for as a customer, and particularly things like utilisation and counting hours worked or the amount of time of a particular edit suite or studio has been used, those kinds of things are done very quickly and easily within the MediaPulse framework. Our customers tend to ask for very similar things, but every company is different, everybody has a different use case and the beauty of both ScheduALL and MediaPulse is that they are absolutely infinitely customisable to how your business wants to do it. “Certainly, one of the biggest issues I’ve had, people have been having recently is compliance with enterprise awards and making sure that people are being paid according to the awards and penalties that
they should be being paid against and that is very difficult to keep a track of because broadcasters, we don’t have nice regular shifts, nice regular hours. So it is very hard for a lot of the traditional rostering systems to be able to handle a broadcast award, but ScheduALL and Xytech have modules built in them that will allow us to cover those kinds of rules and so they are perfect for our industry. “Integration, again, is another big one to streamline workflow throughout your business, make sure that you are avoiding double entry data entry and manual errors, or just cutting down on just the general amount of boring work that has to be done. The integration capabilities of both of these systems is incredible and they can both integrate with your corporate systems, with your HR onboarding systems, or your payroll, and then it can switch your routers and your monitoring and send files to your MAM, whatever you needed it to do.” How does the platform adapt to unscheduled events such as breaking news? “You still need people to put some information in somewhere, whether that’s within ScheduALL or within MediaPulse or into another system that you’ve integrated with. That trigger has to come from a human being at some point, so if there’s breaking news somebody can make a booking or perhaps you’ve got some external system you’re integrating with and some kind of news management system, whatever it is, you create that. Again, with rostering staff, the systems have automated systems, features where you can just pick someone to put on a shift or a story, but most of the time it’s not what people want because TV people are not homogenous. So, a camera person is not a camera person in every situation, they have specialties, they have different skills, directors like working with this person, not that person, so while our systems will allow you to just say put in a booking and we’ll automatically roster it for you, most of the time that’s not what people want. They still want the human interaction, that human knowledge. And, yes, you can mark things as unbeknownst to the actual people you are rostering, you can mark things as favourites, you can put in things that say so and so likes to work with this person and
Tanya Kelly, MD, APAC, Xytech Systems.
not that person, all those sorts of things can be done, but you still need a human being to say I need to make sure that Tanya works with Phil and not with somebody else, or whatever it is.” How important have things statistics and metrics become now? “They drive every business case, so it’s very important for people to be able to get those, and one of the most important things about a system like MediaPulse and like ScheduALL is it holds that, it tells you what hours are your busiest, what are your peak times, do I need more equipment or do I need to perhaps just shift anything that isn’t live and not buy more equipment, it holds all your staff rosters and so it’s very key and that kind of utilisation, how many hours has this person worked as opposed to that person, have they had their right breaks, is somebody taking too many sick days on a Monday, those kinds of things they are all available at your fingertips and the more you use these systems and the better the data that you put in there, the more you can get out of them. What we do when we put in a new instance for someone or redo an instance for someone is we always talk to management, we always talk to finance and find out what reports they want and what information they want and we built the system with that in mind to make sure that those numbers are the ones that can be easily pulled out so people can make their business decisions better. “We have a business analysis arm and this has been built with data management in mind, pulling the data out of the relational database that is intended for scheduling and pulling all your different projects and people and whatever together and putting it into some kind of data warehouse where it is more easily manipulated, more easily used for predictive analysis. So, yes, we can look at what’s happened in the past to make a best guess, but we absolutely can do some predictive analysis, and we are very good at that. We’ve got all the smarts available to do that for you if that’s what you want.” www.xytechsystems.com
CONTENT DELIVERY
‘RESOURCE OPTIMISATION’, ‘Resource optimisation’, it’s about management and utilisation of people and technology, and it’s about workflow. When Xytech, the provider of facility management software for the broadcast and media industries, acquired its biggest competitor, ScheduALL from Net Insight earlier this year, it created a powerhouse of resource optimisation. With its MediaPulse, Media Orchestrator, Dash, Cloud and, now, ScheduALL, the company has a full suite of optimisation tools for crewing, personnel management, asset management media operations and transmission.
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CONTENT DELIVERY >> continued from p42
that you’re used to doing with your Video On- Demand platforms, and sometime in early 2022, there’ll be the associated [Android and iOS] apps that will come along as well. We’ll also look at things like Roku, and the other over the top platforms that we can get this onto.
“We just won’t be resourced to put everyone up there. We’re not the Netflix of community TV yet. That’s not to say we
“Hopefully, by the time we’re approaching Christmas, we’ll have roughly 40 programmes available, and we’ll constantly be rotating those. It’s just like the platforms that you’re used to, in that there’ll be new content, and new shows, and shows for a limited time, and there’ll be one off live offerings that we can include there as well.”
don’t want to scale up in the future,
and we want to be
Rick Hutcheson, Anil Junior Samy at Channel 44 Adelaide.
inclusive. That’s very important to us.
“And the platform isn’t going to be geoblocked at this stage,” adds Lauren Hillman. “It’s going to be open access. It’s not going to have a login. It’s free. So, it very much is the ethos of what community TV is. It’s an all-open access platform that anyone can access from around the world. While it is a modest beginning, Hillman says the service is not short on options for content and future expansion. “Between both stations, we have hundreds of programme makers, literally, that are all going to want to be a part of it,” she says. “We just won’t be resourced to put everyone up there. We’re not the Netflix of community TV yet. That’s not to say we don’t want to scale up in the future, and we want to be inclusive. That’s very important to us. “Also, when we scale up the platform, we would be looking to include lots of live local events, especially in Adelaide, we’re involved heavily in the Adelaide Fringe Festival. We’re also involved in the Bay to Birdwood which is a really unique motor vehicle event that travels through 70 kilometres. “These kinds of events really attract national coverage, and they’re events that most commonly don’t get covered by the commercial stations. It would be great in the future, also, to have those events represented on our platform to reach a wider audience as well.”
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As well as pre-produced programming and coverage of scheduled events, the two community TV stations have also provided an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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According to Lauren Hillman, “At the time, coming into the pandemic last year it was obviously Easter time, and we reached out to some of the churches, just wondering if they might have some of their services that they would like broadcast, because we know a lot of those faith-based organisations
Rick Hutcheson, Keith Gilbey, Kiara Milera, Anil Junior Samy at Channel 44 Adelaide.
already have quite good AV set-ups, and they’re recording them for their online channels anyway. “We reached out, and little did we know that we would actually get the Catholic church for their whole of Easter service, for the whole weekend, which was historic for community television. To be able to broadcast that on free-to-air was quite incredible because, in fact, I think the commercial stations did a story on it and took our vision, which again, a first for community TV. But, many other organisations like the Greek Orthodox Church, we broadcast their Easter service as well, and we’ve continued to broadcast them into this year.” “I think one of the other things,” adds Shane Dunlop, “and perhaps another disappointing outcome of there not being community TV in New South Wales, certainly in Victoria, during our second lockdown, when it got really bad for us, there was an awakening within State Government, that the traditional mediums that they were putting out COVID-safe messages on were not reaching specific communities, that they realised
that there were blind spots with regards to their strategy. And immediately, it was identified that community media and, of course, we had a very strong part in this, was an ideal platform to be looking to get those messages out in English, and in language. It was an overnight pivoting to, we’ve got to get messages on community television because they are reaching audiences that we have completely missed, and those audiences potentially, are the most at-risk with regards to the health messaging. In New South Wales, they don’t have that right now, and they’ve got a similar battle going on. And hopefully, they are, I think, doing a similar strategy with regards to community radio. But of course, how amazing would it be if they had a community TV station that had programmes that were being watched by communities that perhaps don’t absorb a lot of traditional media. This pandemic, in many ways, allowed us to show our worth, which was, I think, amazing.” Visit https://ctvplus.org.au
CLASSIFIED + EVENTS POSITIONS VACANT
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Business Development Manager • • • • • •
Melbourne location – ideally Vic, WA, SA, Tas responsibility AV Integrated Solutions – Professional and Commercial Australian Leader in Audio/Visual Products & Solutions Cutting Edge AV Collaboration and Unified Communications Great company culture with unmatched retention
YOUR NEW EMPLOYER is a standout leader in the distribution of audio-visual solutions for installation projects in Australia and New Zealand and services market segments including media & communications, live sound & production, music instruments & sound recording, residential & commercial installations, and home entertainment. With an impressive portfolio of top shelf brands, they have set the benchmark in sourcing, supplying and supporting the best customer focused solutions.
General Manager and cover Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. You will be tasked with establishing and maintaining relationships with acoustic/AV/audio consultants, Systems Integrators, government and educational institutions to promote understanding and specifications of the company’s products and brands. Your activities will also be integral in the identification and development of new business opportunities for the company’s products and brands, supporting the Account Managers with transitioning new business initiatives into general business. You will have an in-depth knowledge of the AV market gained from the industry, and the audio and visual products that are utilsed in various applications. You will have demonstrated sales and business development skills in the commerical AV market. Although you will be mainly focussed on Victoria you will also travel to SA and WA a few times per year. Please call Phil Holey on (02) 9904 4414 and 0412 311 107 and email your CV in MICROSOFT WORD.
An exceptional career opportunity awaits to join the team that proudly consists of industry experts with outstanding experience.
Please also forward a covering letter indicating your matching skills with the requirements for the role. Email both as
In your new role as Southern Region Business Development Manager, you will report directly to the Divisional
Word docs to jobs@interlogic.com.au Quote 67CT
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Sales Account Manager Location: Sydney, NSW Why work for Digistor? FOR OVER THREE DECADES, the Digistor team has been a leader in providing elegant, technical solutions to the top-tier media and entertainment organisations throughout Australia and the Pacific. If you have the skills and hunger to learn, working with Digistor’s skilled team in a flexible and dynamic environment will rapidly advance your career. Sound like a workplace for you? Then, check this position available now.
The successful candidate will: • be both energetic and motivated, with a strong desire to contribute their best to a team that prides itself on supporting each other and working collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes • be naturally inquisitive, with a desire to continually develop new knowledge and skills both autonomously and as part of a structured training program • understand the value of personal interaction in forging strong and mutually rewarding long term business relationships – Professional and Commercial • have proven experience with at least two years prior engagement in a technical sales role, ideally within the digital media industry
If you desire to accelerate your sales career with an employer working with the latest and best technology in an exciting and expanding market, this could be the role for you. Apply now by email to staffing@ digistor.com.au.
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To advertise your job vacancies across print, online and via email contact adam@broadcastpapers.com
JOIN NEP AUSTRALIA - WE ARE LOOKING FOR EXPERIENCED BROADCAST ENGINEERS YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE for engineering the most technically advanced outside broadcast trucks across multiple sporting codes and broadcasters. This is a full-time role, where interstate and international travel may be required. Working regularly on weekends may also be necessary. ABOUT YOU: You must have exceptional drive, work ethic, a positive attitude and excellent interpersonal skills. You will need to work to explicit deadlines, have the ability to pick up new concepts in a rapid manner, and work with colleagues for long periods of time.
CLASSIFIED + EVENTS
TECHNICAL SKILLS: You must have a brilliant technical mind. VSM knowledge and experience with IP technology is preferred. A minimum of two years’ experience operating a broadcast truck solo will be essential.
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WE NEED YOU! If you want to be part of a global company working on some of the biggest live and recorded television events Australia has to offer, send your CV to careersau@nepgroup.com and quote ref:BEAU. You must have the right to live and work in Australia to apply for this job. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
002 >> A-TEAM VAN, SYDNEY >>
001 >> BUMP SEASON 2 >>
003 >> GAME DAY MISHAP >>
004 >> DEMO TIME AT PAT >>
005 >> ACS CINEKIDS INTERVIEWS >>
INDUSTRY FOCUS
007 >> BUMP SEASON 2 >>
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006 >> TELSTRA BROADCAST IN TOKYO >>
008 >> TELSTRA BROADCAST SERVICES TEAM >>
009 >> MATT CHRISTIE 50TH >>
CONTENT INDUSTRY DELIVERY FOCUS
010>> MATT CHRISTIE 50TH >>
013 >> VIDEOCRAFT CLICK AND COLLECT >>
015 >> VIDEOCRAFT LIVE CHURCH STREAMING >>
017 >> VA DIGITAL HIRE BARRONS >>
019 >> VIDEOCRAFT CARPARK TESTING >>
014 >> VIDEOCRAFT LOCKDOWN ARCHIVES >>
016 >> VIDEOCRAFT LOCKDOWN OLYMPICS >>
018 >> VA DIGITAL HIRE 1ST AC STEIVAN HASLER >>
See more photos at www.facebook.com/phil.sandberg
CONTENT DELIVERY INDUSTRY FOCUS
012>> VIDEOCRAFT JEDI TRAINING >>
011>> MATT CHRISTIE 50TH >>
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CLASSIFIED + EVENTS POSITIONS VACANT ------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Broadcast Systems Engineer Professional Audio & Television Pty Ltd. Hornsby, Northern Suburb of Sydney. PAT HAS A VACANCY FOR a Senior Broadcast Systems Engineer based in the north of Sydney. We are an authorised reseller and solutions provider for brands such as ARISTA, LAWO, Densitron IDS, TSL Products, Meinberg, Mobile Viewpoint, ENCO, Boland, RTW, CyanView, Boland Communications, Genelec, Qbit, StudioHub, DSA Volgman, AngryAudio, DreamChip, NVIDIA and other leading brands. The role: The Senior Broadcast Systems Engineer role is a critical position performing end-to-end planning and documentation of deployment, configuration, testing and commissioning procedures for high-profile broadcast system projects. An intimate knowledge of IP broadcast networks is a MUST.
Typical responsibilities will include:
• Assisting Senior Management with pre sales; • Project Management, planning and documentation; • Formulation of testing and deployment plans; • Broadcast systems configuration, testing and commissioning; • Liaison with manufacturers project teams and customer stakeholders; • Co-operate with our Service & Support Department To be the successful candidate for this position, you will have a combination of project engineering experience in digital IP broadcast system environments, together with outstanding customer-facing communication skills. System integration experience is a MUST.
As the performance of this role impacts state of the art broadcast IT systems and infrastructure deployments, a minimum of 5 years’ experience in similar broadcast technology environments is essential.
The successful candidate will have the following skills:
• IT knowledge across server and networking fundamentals; • Track record of high quality, accurate documentation; • Excellent interpersonal, administrative and communication skills; • Flexibility to travel nationally & internationally as COVID restrictions are lifted; • Clean driving record and Class C drivers license We are offering the successful candidate the chance to join a very successful team of high achievers, an attractive salary package and the chance to work on some of the most cutting-edge broadcast projects in Australia and New Zealand. Apply to management@proaudiotv.com.au with a one-page cover letter explaining why you are the right person for the job and your CV. Only applicants with Australian or New Zealand citizenship or permanent Australian residency and work rights are eligible to apply.
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To advertise your job vacancies across print, online and via email contact adam@broadcastpapers.com
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Junior Technician Professional Audio & Television Pty Ltd. Hornsby, Northern Suburb of Sydney. PROFESSIONAL AUDIO & TELEVISION Pty Ltd, one of Australia’s leading broadcast suppliers, has a vacancy for a Junior Technician. This is a great opportunity to start your career in the broadcast industry and would suit someone with a passion for audio, television, electronics and IT.
The successful candidate will have the following skills and attributes: • Ideally have a tertiary education in either Media Production (ie. TV, Radio), IT or Electronics, although this is not mandatory if you have the right attitude and relevant work experience; • Be extremely computer literate including advanced skills in MS Office; • Be well organised and prepared to go the extra mile for the good of the company and your own career; • Be able to work unsupervised and stay focused on the tasks at hand; • Have the ability to multitask • Be very well presented and have a pleasant and helpful telephone manner; • Have great communications skills, both written and verbal; • Have a current driver’s license; • Be reliable, punctual and trustworthy; • Have a ‘can do attitude’ and be aware that this is an entry level position
The role will include, but is not limited to: • Keep the workshop and warehouse tidy and clean • Update the service and support issues list
• Dispatch and receive shipments • Provide customers with telephone and/or remote support and escalate matters to a senior staff member as necessary • Delivery or collection of equipment to and from customer sites • Assemble, test and dispatch demo systems to customers • Check and test demo equipment returned from customers • Assist our engineers in setting up broadcast systems for customer inspection and factory acceptance • You may be required to travel nationally and/or internationally Maintain and administer demo stock • Attention to detail is an absolute MUST
We will provide you with:
• On the job training with some of the world’s leading broadcast and AV technologies • The opportunity to contribute to some of the most cutting-edge broadcast projects in Australia and New Zealand • The opportunity to gain configuration skills relating to the products we sell, configure and install • An exciting career path within our company • A salary to match your expertise and commitment If you feel that you fit the above description, and you are willing to commit yourself to a career in broadcast, then you might be the right person to join our small team of high achievers. Write us a one-page letter stating why you are the right person for us and attach you CV. Apply to management@proaudiotv.com.au No calls and NO AGENCIES please.
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