Content+Technology ANZ May-June 2020 by Content+Technology

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Soap Helps Overcome COVID-19 ... page 10. REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 04 NEWS Netflix and Support Act Launch

48 CLASSIFIEDS

Positions Vacant, Work Wanted.

COVID-19 Fund; Digistor and Leostream Manage Remote Workflows; PAT Brings Dream Chip Cameras; Gersh Productions Gives Adam Hills a ‘Leg-Up’; New HQ for FUJIFILM; Neighbours Plots Path Through Pandemic.

FEATURES 12 ACQUISITION Nick Matthews ACS

Cinematographer of the Year; Sydney Aquarium Streams with Panasonic; 4K, 8K and HDR Solutions from Fujifilm; Sony to Expand VENICE and FX9 Cameras; Ross Updates Camera Motion System.

16 SPORTSCASTING Fox Sports - Back in the

Game with Rugby League; NRL Drafts Dalet and Bitmovin to Power OTT; Kiwi Sport Back with Innovation at Sky NZ; A Day Not at the Races.

22 NEWS OPERATIONS TVU Mobile Backpack Transmitters a Game Changer for Oz Cameraman; Viz Engine 4.1 Re-Imagines Rendering; Ross Launches Voyager V4.0; Dejero Launches Solutions for Remote Production.

28 POST-PRODUCTION Lightstorm Boosts

44 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

Production Techniques on Avatar; Unreal Engine 5; NVIDIA Omniverse; Nagra, Avid Enable Forensic Watermarking for Editing Workflows.

ADVERTISING MANAGER: Adam Buick Mob +61 (0)413 007 144 adam@broadcastpapers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lucy Salmon Mob +61(0)412 479 662 production@broadcastpapers.com DESIGN & LAYOUT Wide Open Media Mob +61 (0)419 225 348 www.wideopenmedia.com.au PRINTING: SOS Printing, Sydney

32 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD OTT a Silver Lining

for Silver Trak; Rohde & Schwarz Enhances SpycerNode; MOG Announces Support for ProRes Formats; Frame.io v3.6 and Transfer App Beta; FileCatalyst Partners with Dropbox.

36 AUDIO Studios 301 Opens Up; Deluxe

Launches One Dub; CEDAR Cambridge v13; SSL Delivers S300 Broadcast Audio Console; AMS Neve Mic Pre-amp; AI Tool Analyses Samples and Loops.

41 RADIO ARN Launches Dynamic Audio

Advertising; Australian-designed AES67 Remote Monitoring Solution; GatesAir and StreamGuys Translate GPIO Triggers into Streaming Metadata.

44 CONTENT DELIVERY Feeding Binge: Under

the Hood of Australia’s Latest SVOD Launch; How to Get Your End-to-End OTT Service Online Fast; IP Roll-Out Continues at Nine.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All material in Broadcastpapers’ Content+Technology Magazine is protected under Australian Commonwealth Copyright Laws. No material may be reproduced in part or whole in any manner without prior consent of the Publisher and/or copyright holder. DISCLAIMER: Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility for omissions or mistakes made within, claims made or information provided by advertisers.

What do you see? With the Sony FX9, a whole lot more. Thanks to its full frame sensor, the FX9 captures an astonishing level of detail, giving you a creative freedom you never thought possible. And with S-Cinetoneâ&#x201E;˘ that offers alluring facial tones, enhanced Fast Hybrid AF that track subjects with unprecedented speed and precision, and Dual Base ISO for stunning images in any light, you simply have to see it for yourself. Scan here for simply gorgeous footage shot on the Sony FX9

EDITOR’S WELCOME

Staying the Course! By Phil Sandberg

Which brings me to the ‘new normal’ versus the ‘old ideologies’. There is no doubt Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison should be applauded for the country’s response to the virus, especially after the debacle of the bushfire season, but like all of us, his Government needs to acknowledge that many things will never be the same. There are times when governments simply need to intervene in the economy. As we have seen in the USA and the UK, blind adherence to a free market approach to everything has not helped the national interest during this health crisis.

ersburg

This is especially true of the army of freelancers in this industry who have done it particularly hard and who, because of the impermanent nature of their profession, have fallen between the cracks when it comes to Government support. These are the people who keep the content industry going and they will need our support going forward.

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We should also thank our fellow citizens, the bulk of whom did their bit to help bring the virus under control.

Then there is the Australian Government’s attitude toward the creative industry in general. I get it that there probably aren’t that many LNP voters in the sector, but for the Prime Minister to say, “What you’re watching on television is your business. Not going to create one job”. Now, while this was said in the context of commenting on the pulling of racially offensive content from screening services, it demonstrates the dismissive attitude this Government has towards the creative industries in Australia – last year, the words ‘Arts’ was erased from Ministerial portfolios with the responsibilities for the sector buried in the Department of Infrastructure. 23:00

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Kudos should also go to the various local, state and national Governments across Australia and New Zealand for putting the measures in place which have seen the suppression of the COVID-19 virus (again, I say caution should remain), because it could have been a lot worse as we have seen in those jurisdictions where authorities didn’t take this health issue seriously – or worse, used it as a political tool to bludgeon their opponents.

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Our gratitude should firstly go to our health workers who have put themselves, and their families, in the firing line – and who may be called on again, though hopefully they will not.

the supporting infrastructure for these taxsubsidised, off-shored blockbusters. With that in mind, kudos should go to the Australian Greens for passing a motion in the Senate calling on the Government “to require tech giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Stan to back and fund Australian-made stories”. Netflix, to its credit, has chipped in to support local production workers (see page 6). As much as I have become sick of hearing the phrase, we are all in this together, and we need to not only stay the course, but support each other because this is the beginning of a new “story”, not the end of an old one. And, don’t forget if you want to place a Work Wanted ad with us, just email me at papers@broadcastpapers.com. It’s free. 03:00

THE SUN HAS PEEKED its face through the clouds. While caution remains, as it should, COVID-19 restrictions have begun to lift throughout ANZ and green shoots are starting to show.

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

If Government Ministers think it’s important to get a photo-op with cast and executives from the latest Marvel production, they should perhaps focus more of their attention on the local industry which provides much of

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2020 C+T DEADLINES

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AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND EDITION

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Hong Kong Mumbai

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ASIA EDITION

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The C+T (Time) Zone.

AUGUST-SEPEMBER 2020 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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NEWS + PEOPLE

Netflix and Support Act Launch COVID-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund STREAMING GIANT NETFLIX and industry organisation Support Act have announced the creation of a new COVID-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund to help the hardest hit workers in the television and film industry due to the production shutdowns caused by COVID-19 across all of Australia. Netflix will donate AUD$1 million to Support Act to launch the fund. The grant is available to the most vulnerable below-the-line, run-ofshow and casual employees in the screen sector who cannot work due to the near global production shutdown. Workers such as assistants, coordinators, technicians and operators from different production departments like camera, sound, music, art, make-up,

costume design, locations and transportation, among others, many of whom are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis, will be eligible to apply for the AUD$1000 one-time benefit. In addition to the Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund, Netflix is also making a donation to Support Act to assist its ongoing provision of crisis relief services to musicians, crew and music workers; and its mental health promotion activities which are now also available to arts workers across Australia. Clive Miller, Support Act CEO said, “The Board of Support Act

recognises the huge impact that COVID-19 has had on production personnel across all of the creative industries, and the strong alignment that exists between the music industry and the Screen Arts. We congratulate Netflix on this initiative and we welcome the opportunity to partner with them to help deliver these funds at this extraordinary time of need.” Myleeta Aga, Netflix Director of Content for SEA and Australia, said: “We’re grateful to be able to work with Support Act to establish the Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund. We want to help those in the Australian screen industry who most need financial assistance, especially

casual workers hit by the current crisis.” The creation of this fund is part of an announcement Netflix made in March to set up a USD$100 million fund for those whose jobs have been affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has since been increased to $150M. Netflix’s donation to Support Act, as well as to other organisations around the world (including India, Japan, UK, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Columbia), is part of the $30 million of the hardship fund that will be dedicated to providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew across the broader film and television industry in the countries. Visit https://bit.ly/3fgeTct

Digistor Partners with Leostream to Manage Remote Workflows LEOSTREAM, RENOWNED FOR managing complex remote workflows from single-paneof-glass admin consoles, has announced a reseller agreement with Digistor for the ANZ region. This will allow Digistor to provide customers with enhanced virtualisation and remote access solutions across Australia and New Zealand. Leostream pioneered technologies such as a patented physical- tovirtual machine converter and a virtual machine controller, which evolved into the enterprise

Leostream Connection Broker. Today, it is a central component of thousands of enterprise IT environments around the globe. Launched in 2018, Leostream 9 embodies over 15 years of Leostream research and development in supporting customers with hosted desktop environments including VDI, hybrid cloud, and high-performance workstations. With native support for vSphere, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, HPE Moonshot System, and the world’s most

robust connection management and remote access feature set, Leostream customers can manage their entire IT environment all from within the web-based Leostream 9 platform. “We are fortunate to work with one of the region’s most trusted and respected solutions providers for the biggest names in broadcasting and post-production” said Robert Ewanouski, VP Business Development, Leostream. “The Digistor and Leostream solution offers a scalable platform to

manage environments and provide access to users, no matter where they are doing their work.” “In today’s current market we are seeing a big demand for remote workflows, as setups become larger and more complex, we need the likes of Leostream to manage these connections,” said Andrew Mooney, Managing Director Digistor. “We are very pleased to partner with Leostream and are already seeing the opportunities this facilitates for our clients.” Visit www.digistor.com.au

NEWS + PEOPLE

Dream Chip and PAT Partner for Small Form Factor Cameras

GERMAN MANUFACTURER Dream Chip Technologies GmbH and Professional Audio & Television Pty Ltd (PAT) have announced a partnership for Australia and New Zealand. Dream Chip has long been known as the leading manufacturer for small form factor cameras for special applications. Its ‘ATOM one’ range of cameras has provided viewers with pictures inside of hockey goals, reality shows and many other places where a standard broadcast camera would either be too intrusive or space would just not allow it. Dream Chip has managed to develop a product range of cameras, which not only impress based on their size, but provide broadcast quality

pictures – even underwater. Dream Chip recently released the ‘ATOM one SSM500’ a super slowmotion camera, which offers up to 500fps at 1080i50 and can record on its internal memory chip or be integrated into an EVS workflow. As well as the ATOM one family of small footprint professional cameras, Dream Chip is also behind the highly successful Barracuda range of low latency H265 Codecs via 4G/5G, WLAN or Gigabit Ethernet, offering up to 5 bi-directional SDI ports, supporting interlaced and progressive video

formats as well as AAC and PCM audio streaming. All Dream Chip products are designed and manufactured in Germany, offering the highest manufacturing quality to their customers worldwide. Dream Chip Director of Sales Worldwide – Stephane Ducobu is excited about the new cooperation. “I think we have found the right representative for Dream Chip’s broadcast product range in Professional Audio & Television,” he says. “PAT tick all of the boxes – they have the local presence, service and support and are

involved in some of the largest broadcast projects in ANZ. Their technical expertise, as well as service and support, is second to none and we are looking forward to expanding our market reach in Australia and New Zealand with PAT.” Professional Audio & Television’s Managing Director – Patrick Salloch enthused, “I am delighted to welcome the Dream Chip product range to our offerings in Australia and New Zealand. Their cuttingedge technology fits perfectly into our portfolio, offering our customers yet another world leading German broadcast product.” Visit www.atom-one.de and www. proaudiotv.com.au

IN BRIEF MAGNA SYSTEMS & ENGINEERING has signed a channel partner agreement with VideoFlow, the secure video delivery over IP specialists and will now represent and sell all VideoFlow products and solutions in and across Australia.

converting legacy interfaces like ASI to IP, connecting to multiple services with each using different video protection protocol and when you are missing features that complement your current live broadcast over IP solution.

Magna group CEO Matthew Clemesha said, “Securing video delivery over IP networks is business-critical for any broadcast operation and VideoFlow’s solutions in this area are second to none. When broadcasting over public networks you need tools to protect your environment from cyber threats to ensure uninterrupted service 24/7 and VideoFlow Digital Video Protection (DVP) and Digital Video Gateway (DVG) products ensure secured and reliable broadcast-quality video over any IP network.”

The DVP software is also an ideal choice for live broadcast over any IP network and for live stream and network monitoring.

VideoFlow’s DVP/DVG integrated firewall blocks any unauthorised traffic from entering the DVP/DVG, while encrypted virtual private network (VPN) tunnels eliminate both eavesdropping and hacking. The DVG software is suitable 23:53 C&TVB440.pdf 1 25/05/2020

for live broadcast over any IP network including over the internet,

Matthew Clemesha concluded, “With Magna and VideoFlow you can now choose from a variety of software options and appliances with preloaded DVP or DVG software to fit your exact operational needs. Your solution can be softwareonly, appliances with pre-loaded software, software in the cloud, or any mix of your choice.” Visit www.magnasys.tv/videoflow and www.video-flow.com ----------------------------------------------JANDS PTY LTD, the distributor of audio, lighting and staging solutions in Australia and New Zealand, has announced a distribution partnership with Blustream, an Australianowned solution for advanced HDMI distribution in the residential and commercial markets.

Jands will distribute Blustream’s complete portfolio of HDBaseT and HDMI technology through their well-established Australian dealer network that spans commercial markets such as integrated systems, performance spaces, education and hospitality. Visit www.blustream.com.au and www.jands.com.au ----------------------------------------------BARCO AUSTRALIA has appointed Australian distributor World’s Best Technology Distributors (WBT) for its portfolio of projectors and AV technology. Barco’s range of ProAV solutions such as fixed installation projectors, image processing solutions, LCD Video Wall platforms, and wePresent, a wireless presentation system, will enrich WBT’s existing portfolio and offer partners and end-users a range of advanced projection solutions. Barco will have access to WBT’s local network and logistics facilities with offices and warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Visit www.barco.com and www. wbtd.com.au

MIDWICH AUSTRALIA, the specialist trade-only audio-visual distributor, has announced an Australia-wide distribution partnership with neodigital signage software platform, OMMA Sign. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Istanbul, OMMA paves the way for clients to have control over their displays and share their message in real-time. It is adaptable, programmable yet simple and infinitely scalable digital signage solution that meets the everchanging needs of clients in a variety of sectors including retail, education, corporate and commercial. OMMA answers a very immediate need to minimise the physical interaction between POS personnel and customers, with a remote ordering facility via QR code scan – working with the customer’s mobile device – interacting with the OMMA platform. As a cloud-based product, OMMA is available now via subscription from Midwich Channel Partners. Visit www.midwich.com.au

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NEWS + PEOPLE

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NEWS + PEOPLE

Gersh Productions Gives Adam Hills a ‘Leg-Up’ from Melbourne YOU’RE A UK-BASED production company with a high-profile, Friday night comedy/current affairs programme. COVID-19 travel restrictions have stranded your Australian host in Melbourne. How does the show go on? The answer for Open Mic Productions, the team behind Adam Hill’s The Last Leg – Locked Down Under, screened on Channel 4 and the ABC, was a socially distanced hook-up from said host’s tiny, and tinny, garage. According to Andy Gersh of Melbourne-based Gersh Productions, it was a project which understandably presented many challenges. “We were approached by Open Mic to come up with a solution to deliver Adam back to the UK,” says Gersh. “Obviously, around the COVID guidelines we were only able to have Adam in the garage because it’s only a 3 metre by 3 metre garage, so that required us to set up a mobile production facility in a caravan out the front of Adam’s house using two Panasonic remote cameras in the garage. “The only people in the caravan were myself and my wife, Kelly, who was doing the autocue, and I was doing sound and cameras and all the technical. Autocue is her normal job, so it just worked out that way and it was very good for all our COVID guidelines that we’re from the same family. Normally on a show like this we’d have lighting guys, sound guys, cameraman, floor managers, broadcast engineers, etc., being a live show, but with all the guidelines it was just the two of us doing this show. Another challenge facing Gersh Productions were the acoustic “properties” of the Hills family garage. “There’s a tin roof on Adam’s garage so as soon as it rains all you hear is the rain,” says Andy Gersh, “so we had to come up with a solution that would basically dampen the rain so it didn’t hit the tin roof in such a way that it made such a noise. I tried different materials and came up with a caravan outdoor annex flooring that actually passes water through but still dampens the sound of the rain hitting the tin roof. We were in a 3 by 3 garage which sounded like a big box, so we used sound dampening materials around his garage to make it sound better. We also erected a 3 metre by 3 metre pop-up marquee in front of Adam’s garage so we could use it to rig lighting and rig the wideshot camera to shoot the full garage.”

NEWS + PEOPLE

“We obviously had challenges with using a lot of power at his house, so we installed a UPS across the technical power in the caravan just in case we lost power, which we did one night, and it didn’t matter because we were protected with UPS power so everything just kept going. We also used LED lighting in the garage to reduce power consumption.”

Production on the Friday night live show into the UK programme began rehearsals from about 3am Melbourne time with host Adam Hills rehearsing in his garage using Autocue. It was a gruelling time of day to be working, and also being mindful of noise and movement to not wake up all the Neighbours. Two LiveU LU600 units were used for

When the talent is being a little distant. Comedian Adam Hills [and dog] with Andy and Kelly Gersh of Gersh Productions in the “studio” of The Last Leg – Locked Down Under.

transmission of the broadcast quality pictures and sound to the UK where they were switched in with live footage being shot from two other London homes. The team used LiveU and Skype to view graphics, and vision of the UK-based comedians on monitors on Adam Hill’s set. Skype was also used to feed Autocue back to London so the UK production team could see where he was up to in the script live. A small monitor under the camera also ran Zoom so Mr Hills could see the UK comedians in almost real time. While not required to do so, the Zoom platform also served as a backup video and audio source in the event of a total power failure. “One of the challenges with using LiveU broadcast units is that there’s a one and a-half second delay for us to get the pictures and sound back to the UK,” says Andy Gersh. “Then there were the two comedians in the UK as well, so that was another 1.5 second delay by the time those UK comedians went back through the BBC studio, so you’re looking at up to over 3 seconds delay. “From the very first production meeting I said, ‘That’s just not going to work. Comedy’s all about the guys bouncing jokes off each other’, so we had

to come up with a solution to get the delay down as much as we could. “What we did is we used telephone lines and telephone hybrids so that the guys almost heard each other in real time, but we didn’t obviously want the telephone quality audio to go to air. So, we still used the LiveU units for the broadcast pictures and sound and we used the telephone hybrids for the guys listening, so they could still hear each other and react in almost real time, and the end result was almost no delay. “LiveU is about using bonded 4G technology. Now, I hadn’t really used it before so I was quite sceptical because I’m used to using traditional SNG satellite paths or fibre. Really impressed with LiveU, and can’t wait to use it again. “This is a way that we can basically transmit live from anywhere, anywhere that’s got 4G coverage, which is huge. Normally we’d have to rely on setting up the satellite truck and the costs associated with that, so this is really finding a way in these times.” Visit http://gershproductions.com.au

New Macquarie Park HQ for FUJIFILM Australia

IN BRIEF

VIDEOCRAFT’S SYDNEY OFFICE has moved to new premises at Unit 1, 78 Reserve Road, Artarmon, NSW 2064. The Sydney Rentals and Sales team can be contacted from 9am to 5pm via (02) 9462 8600. Videocraft staff are available outside these hours by special appointment. The online store www.videocraft.com.au is open 24/7 with both delivery and click and collect options available. ----------------------------------------------THE AUSTRALIAN MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY (ACMA) is proposing to “remake” the Broadcasting Services (Primary Commercial Television Broadcasting Service) Declaration, which is due to sunset on 1 October 2020. The declaration is required under the Broadcasting Services Act, and sets out the ‘primary service’ for each of the commercial TV networks in a licence area. The declaration formally sets out the ‘primary service’ for each of the commercial TV networks in a licence area. A primary service

has special obligations compared to other services. These relate to: content; captioning; media diversity; and other responsibilities. The ACMA is seeking views on the proposals in its consultation paper. Visit www.acma.gov.au ----------------------------------------------AUSTRALIAN STREAMING SERVICE STAN has announced it has extended its partnership with consumer electronics manufacturer Hisense. As part of the new agreement, Stan will have a dedicated button on all new Hisense VIDAA OS Smart TV remote controls, making it the first local streaming service to secure this position. Consumers will be able to access Stan with one click. The Stan remote button, along with increased promotion of Stan content on Hisense’s VIDAA OS platform, will be featured on a range of the 2020 Hisense Smart TVs which will be available to purchase from August. Visit www.stan.com.au

FUJIFILM AUSTRALIA has moved its headquarters from Old Pittwater Road in Brookvale to Suite 2, Levels 1 and 2 of 54 Waterloo Road in Macquarie Park, NSW 2113. The company’s camera repair and optical device service centre will remain at its existing Brookvale location and all service booking procedures remain the same. FUJIFILM Australia General Manager – Recording Media, Optical Devices and Industrial Products, Marc Van Agten, said, “The Macquarie Park building will be our new flagship HQ and it is very much best in class. It offers a high-tech hub that’s closer to many of our customers, an improved working environment for staff with modern facilities and the very latest IT infrastructure.” According to Van Agten, FUJIFILM Australia’s new HQ offices’ environment both complement and provide added impetus to the company’s continued growth providing an excellent working environment. The new office has also allowed the company to employ a more efficient use of space through an improved and modern fit-out and office layout, which will positively impact the company’s overall efficiency. FUJIFILM’s new office is also a modern, green-rated building with good use of light and this bright and open work environment is a practical expression of the company’s “Open, Fair and Clear” company culture. Macquarie Park is the largest business hub outside Sydney CBD and with its proximity to the bulk of FUJIFILM’s customer base, provides ongoing benefits including convenience and efficiency for all of FUJIFILM’s customers. For Optical and lenses, contact: Simon Becker via simon.becker@fujifilm.com T: +61 2 9466 2790. M: +61 429 400 133. For Recording Media and Industrial Products, contact Jeff Brown via jeff.brown@ fujifilm.com T: 02 9466 2732. M: +61 419 771 249. Main reception – 1800 226 355. Visit www.fujifilm.com.au

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In a Crisis, Everybody Needs Good Neighbours Fremantle Media, the custodian of iconic Aussie soap Neighbours, has played a major role in the formulation of COVID-safe production protocols. Phil Sandberg talks with CEO Chris Oliver-Taylor. Can you outline that model?

WITH A HISTORY SPANNING some 35 years, Neighbours has become an institution in Australia and abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom. As the COVID-19 pandemic began to create uncertainty around the show’s 2020 production schedule, the UK’s Channel 5 took the step of rationing episodes, pulling back from its usual daily programming. According to Fremantle CEO Chris Oliver-Taylor, audiences slid accordingly with some slots losing up to 750,000 viewers. “They just disappeared,” says Oliver-Taylor. “And then the minute the show went back, they all came back. And I think that the sunshine, the escapism, the wonderful storylines that you can put into Neighbours and soap operas, I think were needed. And we’re very proud that the show has got back and running and is doing its job for audiences in the UK and Australia.”

“A lot of it is common sense. And we have a couple of things where we have an advantage again, apart from a big cast and being a soap, we also have our own studio complex, so we have six studios in [the Melbourne suburb of] Nunawading, we have our own back lots, so the external complex and we don’t need to go into the city to shoot or into a shopping centre to shoot, which many other dramas do, so we’re pretty self-contained. We therefore closed the set to anyone, including me, who is not essential, and that includes writers, that includes the accounts team, that includes some of the coordinators, people who were needed but not essential, so no one could go on set. “At the immediate time, it was no one goes on unless it’s absolutely mission-critical. You’ve got to be almost a camera operator, a make-up artist or a cast member. It’s really kind of down to that, the core people needed to make the show. And we did that to stop people coming

NEWS + PEOPLE

As restrictions in Australia began to be introduced, the cast and crew of Neighbours were faced with a “scare” in the form of a make-up artist who had been in contact with an outside individual who had Social distancing while shooting Neighbours. tested positive for COVID-19. While the make-up artist tested negative into the sets. Australia, as we know, wasn’t for the virus, the entire team was consulted locked down totally, so there’s risk the minute resulting in a resolution to continue working you leave the set. But, we can minimise it as once management had ensured the set was best we could. We then employed a full-time safe. However, another scare and another layer nurse, and the nurse has the obvious protocols of shutdown measures leading up to the Easter in place, but also the authority in place. We did break lead management to take the decision to temperature checks every single morning, so no down tools. one could come into the site without having a

“We had three and a half weeks off in total and, in that time, we redesigned the entire studio complex that we work on and the rules of how we would operate,” explains Chris Oliver-Taylor. “That got us to just after Easter, but we’d worked through the process where the crew wanted to work, the cast wanted to work, but they expected us, with them of course, to build a model that allowed them to work legally and safely, which we then did. That’s how we got to where we were.”

Fremantle Media CEO Chris Oliver-Taylor.

between the four, so they’re completely closed off, they’re actually done with tape and cones and things, so you physically could walk in, but you’re not allowed to. Everyone’s got a lanyard with their colour, so if you’re on a studio crew, maybe you’re on a blue lanyard. If you’re in post, you’ve got a pink lanyard. And you’re not allowed to go into the other area, not at all. And that includes the Exec Producer, Jason, who has to stay in his own area. And the same for the cast, so the only thing we’re allowed to do is, on a Friday afternoon we have minimal cast crossover, but for the rest of the week, everyone is in their own team and they cannot meet. We do rehearsals via Zoom. We do director’s calls via Zoom, even though they might be in the building. We do heads of department meetings via Zoom. Each of the teams has their own make-up, their own costume, they have their own cast, of course, for those particular storylines. And then, as you’d imagine, we apply all the health and safety things that you see in a shopping centre or anywhere else, including sanitisation, doors are all left open, everything’s cleaned down, deep cleaned every single day.

check. If their temperature is above 37.5, they’re asked to go into a high temperature bay in their car and wait 10 minutes, and we go again. And if they’re over still, they’re sent home. The nurse may give them some of the advice, but they’re immediately sent home and stood down until they are well.

“We can track where everyone’s been, so we know where they’ve been in the building, so if we do, and we expect someone to get the virus at some stage as the country opens up, I guess that’s where government is moving us towards, so we expect, like the flu, we’ll get a breakout. But, we’re hopeful that that outbreak happens in one area, that we know exactly who it is, where they’ve been and we can just close that area down, deep clean, follow whatever the guidelines are at the time, and then the rest of the site can keep working. That’s what we’ve done.

“Inside the building, it’s split into four quadrants effectively. We have a studio side, we have a location side, we have a management area and a post-production area, and no one can go

“We moved extras from the set pretty much. I think there’s two extras that we’re using. No deliveries are allowed on site, they have to go to our guard house and then they’re disinfected

network. We just finished shooting a show called Farmer Wants a Wife for Channel 7 and every cut and delivery to the network was done via Zoom technology. Everyone has access to this quality of Zoom, but for our networks, what we would do is we’d have to count them down – one, two, three, press play, and then everyone would then play their own local version. We found very early on, if you start playing cuts across tech, it just didn’t work, it just became glitchy, so it became local and we count down, all press play together and then watch and then get back online. We found ways to go back to some old school tech solution using modern day tech.

Neighbours set with high definition monitor “window”.

and then there’s a phone call made. It’s all very, very carefully controlled. And it’s day by day, as these things always are. And I can see the odd reminder being sent from our team to the crew with please remember that if you arrive before the nurse, if you get to work before the nurse is there, your call time, you’ve just got to wait. You can’t go in the building. There’s these things that you can see are just reminders that go on about human behaviour.”

shot, and it’s all digital. And we’ve never done that before, but it looks really fantastic and it means we have less people on set. We still get a sense of scale. I think there’ll be the odd thin scene that we would love to have more people in, but we’ll just have to live with that, but not many. And for the most part, the creative has not been interrupted.

“But, I find the ability to talk to an audience now via this kind of technology has been unbelievable. It’s just, I think for a country like Australia, where we are a bit isolated normally, we now have the same access to our American and British writers, producers, directors, networks as anyone else does, all as a result of tech. I think it’s pretty amazing and, in a way, thank god this happened now and not 10 years ago when we would have been on dialup and no video.”

Have you been approached for advice by other production houses?

“Yeah. Everyone’s contacted us in different ways. From things like the New York Times running a piece and a BBC and Channel 10 did pieces, so kind of mass media audience focused magazines and television shows. We’ve also “We’ve been evolving our use of green screen had lots of our producers domestically and on Neighbours as well. Again, it just gives us locally talk to us, so we’ve been involved with Have these measures affected your storylines? better control of location, so we can start to the Australian Radio, Film and Television School cheat a few scenes without having to leave the to help them develop their protocols for return “There’s two things editorially that we’ve had to compound of Neighbours. There’s a point where do; one is intimacy, so we can’t have intimate to work. We’re not the only ones. Many others we’ve already considered – I don’t think we’d do scenes. So how do we do that? Obviously things have, Endemol Shine Australia have, because it yet – would we green screen Ramsay Street? like kissing and things that are obviously out they kept MasterChef running throughout the of bounds, but how do you time as well. And we’ve been direct scenes which imply fundamental, I think, in just intimacy? How do you shoot giving some reassurance to COVID-Safe Guidelines and associated resources things differently, which our market that you can do are available on the Screen Australia website: means that people look this with the right show. Not closer together? We can use https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/production-during-covid-19 every show can. We made those tricks of camera work [prison drama] Wentworth, and directing. and that is not back yet, but “Second is large gatherings. we’ll get it back soon. But most shows can That’s normally a kilometre or two away from Very hard to do, or impossible, any large get back and you’ve just got to follow these our site and it’s fundamental to the story of gatherings, but very hard to do even small size protocols. We shared that widely. Neighbours. But we’re only there normally once gatherings on Neighbours currently because a week on a Monday or so to shoot our cast, “We just went in broad and wide, lots of our we’ve banned extras pretty much, so we’re so can you cheat that by using green screen? own IP, but we just felt it was better to release using some of our crew to double up, which our We’ve been doing trials of that, and I think we’ll stuff and say this is how we’ve done it and then union has been amazing with and helped us continue to do so as we look to find ways to be we’ve worked closely with all the government with that, understanding why we’re doing so, a bit more self-sufficient. And, if we do end up organisations to help them get their guidelines minimising risk to everyone. We’ve removed in a lockdown again – let’s hope we don’t – that out. I can see where Neighbours is heavily built a few parties and weddings and things that we can then lock ourselves into a non-locationinto those plans, as is the New Zealand model, we can just push down our production order. based show. as is MasterChef, as is some of the UK stuff. And then we’ve shot scenes in different ways And what about the post production side? We’ve been very fulsome with what we’ve done. to, again, make it look as though there’s more people. I think it’s a good thing to do. I’ve spoken to two “We use a mixture of our tech. We used Zoom or three international broadcasters about what in Australia and Teams as our two main forms “And, then we’re using tech. We’re using digital we’ve done and presented to their exec team of communication, video conferencing every screens in windows now, where we’ve plate about how we’ve done it, in the way that I’ve single day around our companies and then just shot extras and we’ve got a hospital scene explained to you, shared in documents as well. keeping everyone joined up. And then from where we’ve now used a digital screen to What we want to do as a production community there, it’s been using what kind of technology extend the length of the corridor by double, it is get back.” looks like double, with extras walking back in can we use to ensure we can get cuts to our

ACQUISITION & LIGHTING www.content-technology.com/acquisition

Nick Matthews ACS Named Australian Cinematographer of the Year THIS YEAR’S FUJINON FUJIFILM Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) National Awards was different. Not held as a physical event, it was Zoomed as so many awards, exhibitions and other events have been this year. That said, many things remained the same with Ray Martin AM the host and MC and ACS National President Ron Johanson OAM ACS as always very much on hand to help things along. When all was said and done, Nick Matthews ACS won the Milli and was named Australian cinematographer of the year for his work on Hotel Mumbai. He also collected the Gold Tripod for features budgeted above $2 million.

the looks on the faces of the various recipients. So rewarding, especially for me as the President of this august Society. We all look forward to the coming year and to holding next year’s awards in person again.”

ACS National President Ron Johanson OAM ACS said, “The National Awards is the pinnacle for the ACS members, and there is nothing better than the reward you receive by being recognised by your peers, it is without doubt, the best pat on the back you can receive. Heartiest congratulations to Nick Matthews and all the nominees and the recipients. As always our deepest thanks go to FUJINON FUJIFILM and all our ACS sponsors without whom the society wouldn’t be able to carry out the work it does.”

• John Bowring ACS TV Station Breaks & Promos - Gold Tripod: Tony Luu ACS – The Voice promo

Other winners on the night included Caleb Ware ACS who collected the documentaries award for By the River, Zoe White ACS won the drama series or telefeatures prize for The Handmaid’s Tale and Katie Milwright ACS who won the dramatised documentaries award for Guilty. In the features budgeted below $2 million category Joshua Flavell ACS received the Gold Tripod for Pimped and Chris Bland ACS got the award of distinction for Locusts. Industry legends Dion Beebe ACS, Roger Lanser ACS and John Wheeler ACS were inducted into the Hall of Fame and Robb Shaw-Velzen ACS won the Ron Windon Award. ACS National President Ron Johanson OAM ACS concluded, “It is such a great thing for me to witness the ACS Awards at every level and see

The full list of Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) 2020 National Award winners includes: • CineKids - Gold certificate: David Szasz – Ship Out • Student Cinematography - Gold certificate: Michael Filocamo ACS – A Bird With No Legs

• Music Videos - Gold Tripod: Kieran Fowler ACS – Guy Sebastian ‘Choir’ • Syd Wood ACS Local & National News - Gold Tripod: Arron Hage ACS – Snowy Mountains fly fishing (Seven Network News) • Neil Davis International News - Gold Tripod: Joel Lawrence ACS – The Battle for Hong Kong • Current Affairs - Gold Tripod: Tom Bannigan ACS – Foreign Correspondent, The Oasis (ABC) • Entertainment & TV Magazine - Gold Tripod: Chris Lewis ACS – Burringurrah

• Dramatised Documentaries - Gold Tripod: Katie Milwright ACS – Guilty • Short Films - Gold Tripod: Carl Robertson ACS – Ascendant • Serial TV & Comedy Series - AD: Judd Overton ACS – No Activity series 2 episode 8 • Drama Series & Telefeatures - Gold Tripod: Zoe White ACS – The Handmaid’s Tale series 3, episode 11 – Liars • Feature films budgeted below $2 million - Gold Tripod: Joshua Flavell ACS – Pimped

• Corporate & Educational - Gold Tripod: Lincoln Williams ACS – Evolve Skateboards

• Feature films budgeted above $2 million - Gold Tripod: Nick Matthews ACS – Hotel Mumbai

• Documentaries - Gold Tripod: Caleb Ware ACS – By the River

• Ron Windon Award - Robb Shaw-Velzen ACS

• Ron Taylor AM ACS Wildlife & Nature - Gold Tripod: Edward Salter ACS and Daniel Hunter ACS – Hostile Planet (Jungles: Bats vs Crocs) • Commercials – Local & Regional - Gold Tripod: Campbell Brown ACS – Running Bare • Commercials – National/International - Gold Tripod: Tim Tregoning ACS – Rural Fire Services – Have a Plan

• Hall of Fame - Dion Beebe ACS, ASC; Roger Lanser ACS; John Wheeler ACS • Milli Award - Nick Matthews ACS – Hotel Mumbai To view the full Zoomed 2020 FUJINON FUJIFILM ACS National Awards go to: https://vimeo. com/418288835 Visit http://www.cinematographer.org.au

FUJIFILM Bolsters Service Centre with Special Lens Check and New 4K Equipment

ACQUISITION

FUJIFILM AUSTRALIA’S Brookvale service centre in Sydney has long been considered one of the most state-of-the-art facilities of its kind. Not content with the status quo FUJIFILM have further bolstered the centre during these challenging times with the latest equipment and a special lens health check offer.

FUJIFILM Service Centre manager James Thomson explained, “FUJIFILM Australia has invested heavily in new specialist test and adjustment equipment to support our award-winning lenses and that includes a new specialist 4K projector for better focus adjustment and a custom, multi-type projection bench which fits around the projector. This is the only one of its kind outside of the FUJINON factory in Japan and now allows us to have a focus point so accurate it’s beyond the capability of the human eye. To further help our

customers we are also offering a special custom lens health check that covers every aspect of the lens’ mechanical, electrical and optical operation and includes a full lens clean and detailed report for just AUD$199.” FUJIFILM’s lens engineers bring decades of experience to their service centre including the ability to fix optical products from high-end binoculars to broadcast and cine lenses. James Thomson concluded, “There’s no denying that these are uniquely challenging times but, that said, there are still positive things that can be done for the equipment we use and that’s why we are looking to further support our industry with this

special lens health check offer. As a lot of us are experiencing downtime and working from home at the moment, now is the ideal time to have the health of your lens checked and verified by a professional FUJINON lens technician. All you have to do is send us the lens and then our engineers will provide you with a full lens health check and report. If necessary, we can then address any issues and your lens will be returned to you looking and working like new.” To take advantage of this special lens health check offer contact Simon Becker on 0429 400 133 or at simon.becker@fujifilm.com or Tracy McConnell on 02 9466 2791 or at tracy.mcconnell@fujifilm.com

ACQUISITION & LIGHTING

Sydney Aquarium Live Streams with Panasonic SEA LIFE SYDNEY AQUARIUM recently teamed up with Panasonic to live stream some of its amazing sea creatures – allowing viewers to experience marine magic in high definition from the comfort of their home. Sea Life used the Panasonic X2000 video camera to create a virtual aquarium – live streaming a diverse range of marine and terrestrial life, via its Facebook page. With an audience of over 127,000, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium sought to brighten up newsfeeds and educate fans both young and old – from watching fascinating animals get fed, to spontaneous moments such as a dugong getting a belly rub, or taking advantage of the opportunity to listen to expert aquarists and have questions answered live on video. Richard Dilly, General Manager, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, explained: “We may have temporarily closed our doors to the public – but we wanted to give people a closer experience than ever before, whilst also providing families who are stuck indoors, with resources, materials and fun topics to talk about. Working with Panasonic, we are able to bring the vibrant underwater world to life on screens big and small around Australia. We are thrilled that our viewers can dive into our world and enjoy uninterrupted, professional quality live streams at the click of a button.” Powering the underwater display is Panasonic’s X2000 video camera, a convenient, ‘plug and play’ solution for SEA LIFE. The camera is able to connect to Wi-Fi and directly live stream content online in HD quality, without the need for extra equipment. Other features include 4K recording, high resolution audio, a wide–angle + zoom lens and face detection. Emma Malik, Supervisor – Animal Training & Guest Interaction, Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, said: “Lighting and poor sound quality are two big issues we have when filming in the aquarium. Having a professional set up like Panasonic’s X2000 has meant we are able to produce better quality live streams then just using our mobile phones.” SEA LIFE has also launched Tank TV – a 24-hour live stream using Panasonic’s AW-UE4 pan-tilt-zoom camera which is moved to showcase different areas of the aquarium. Guests can connect at any time for experiences such as the ‘Day and Night on the Reef’ exhibit. On a business level, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium was aware of the importance of remaining front of mind and using new and innovative methods to do so. They had previously looked into streaming, but renewed focus when it became apparent that COVID-19 restrictions meant they would be unable to do what they did best – give customers in person experiences at the aquarium. With aquarium curators having little video experience, Panasonic worked with SEA LIFE remotely during installation to host video training and provide tips and tricks for camera use and was on call to handle any tech questions. Having seen the benefits in terms of reach, Richard Dilly expects live streaming will continue even as the aquarium re-opens its doors.

Visit https://www.facebook.com/sydneyaquarium and https://business.panasonic.com.au

ACQUISITION

“The ability to live stream has been massively engaging not only for our guests, but also for our teams – we’ve been telling our aquarists for years that they are the stars of the show, and all of a sudden they’re hitting internet fame talking about their favourite subjects! We have found a new medium and a new way of achieving our purposes – you can’t come to us? No worries, we’ll come to you!”

ACQUISITION & LIGHTING

4K, 8K and HDR Solutions from Fujifilm FUJIFILM HAS ANNOUNCED the development of two new 8K broadcast zoom lenses, both capable of producing dynamic 8K ultra-high-definition images. The FUJINON HP66X15.2ESM (HP66X15.2) box lens reaches the world’s longest 8K focal length of 1,000mm while also featuring the world’s highest zoom magnification of 66x. The FUJINON HP12X7.6ERD (HP12X7.6) is a portable lens covering a range of 7.6mm to 91mm, the world’s widest 8K angle of view at 93.3 degrees. The HP66X15.2 and HP12X7.6 ultra-highdefinition (UHD) lenses feature bayonet mounts targeting three 1.25” sensors for ultra-high 8K resolution. This is bolstered by Fujifilm’s unique multi-layer coating (High Transmittance Electron Beam Coating), which boosts the rate of light transmittance, making it possible to deliver vivid colour reproduction, as well as high dynamic range (HDR)-based rich tonal gradation. In addition to using aspherical and fluorite elements to effectively control various types of aberration, both lenses have a nine-blade aperture for natural bokeh and are equipped with 16-bit encoders. The HP66X15.2 also features the latest high-performance optical image stabilization mechanism to make 8K production at long focal lengths rock steady. Both lenses can be used with the latest generation of focus accessories to achieve the advanced level of focusing precision that 8K demands. The 8K series from FUJINON is now comprised of seven lenses designed for two camera formats. The 8K 1.25” Three Sensor BayonetMount Series includes the HP66x15.2ESM box lens, the HP12x7.6ERD portable lens, the HP7.5x8.5SM box lens, and the HP11x22.5SM box lens. The 8K PL Mount Series includes the SK3x12SM portable lens, the SK7.5x19.7SM portable lens, and the SK20x35ESM box lens. FUJIFILM has also announced two new advanced features - ARIA and RBF - that can be used with many of its 4K and 8K ultra-highdefinition (UHD) broadcast lenses. ARIA stands for Automatic Restoration of Illumination Attenuation and RBF refers to Remote Back Focus. Both new features will operate with several of Sony’s latest series of 4K UHD cameras.

ACQUISITION

The ARIA technology works through a sharing of lens design characteristics and positional metadata between the FUJINON broadcast lens and the camera. In the optical design of broadcast lenses, engineering trade-offs must be made to provide desirable zoom ratios at usable size and weight. As a result of these compromises, two major optical phenomena have always existed. The ARIA feature eliminates both.

The first optical phenomenon is F-Stop, or exposure ramping, at the telephoto end of the zoom. Currently, this effect can be seen when the lens zooms from wide to telephoto, as it loses exposure beyond a specific focal point. This ramping curve is part of the lens design and is consistent among all serial numbers of each model. With ARIA turned on from the camera

remote control panel (RCP), The FUJINON HP66X15.2ESM, with an 8K focal length of 1000mm and zoom magnification of 66x. the lens transmits achieving fast, tack sharp images with a the known focal length position from internal response speed as fast as 0.45 seconds and 16-bit encoders and the F-Stop/exposure boasting an outstanding capability in tracking ramping curve. In turn, the camera introduces a moving subject. The lens also features the the appropriate amount of gain to seamlessly company’s proprietary image stabilization counter the darkening of the image, resulting in mechanism and a 107x ultra-magnification consistent exposure level throughout the zoom zoom that covers focal lengths from 8.4mm to range of the lens. 900mm (1800mm with 2x). The second phenomenon is known as relative Among its features are High Dynamic Range illumination, a result of all lenses being slightly (HDR) and vivid colour reproduction. In addition brighter in their “sweet spot” at the centre than to using aspherical and fluorite elements to at the edge of the image. In instances when effectively control various types of aberration, this is visible, it is often referred to as corner the company’s multi-layer coating (High shading or portholing. Again, here, the relative Transmittance Electron Beam Coating) boosts illumination characteristic of the lens is known the rate of light transmittance, making it and consistent between all serial numbers of possible to deliver vivid colour reproduction, as a given model. With ARIA turned on, the lens well as HDR-based rich tonal gradation, even communicates with the camera, providing under bright sun or at dusk. relative illumination data throughout the full FUJIFILM has also debuted the FUJINON range of the lens, which then corrects the UA125X8BESM (UA125X8), a 4K-compatible corner shading, giving the picture a consistent, broadcast lens with a zoom ratio of 125X. flat illumination from the centre to the edges of the image.

RBF (REMOTE BACK FOCUS) All broadcast lenses require a calibration of the lens to the camera sensor to ensure proper performance. This calibration, commonly known as back focus, may require adjustments at various points due to factors such as a significant temperature fluctuation. This manual adjustment is typically performed locally by a camera operator or technician, often in an OB van at sporting and entertainment events, There are many instances where it is challenging or impossible to adjust the back focus from the lens due to the nature of the setup, for example, when it is being mounted on a helicopter, SkyCam, robocam, or other location with limited accessibility. Most of FUJINON’s 4K and 8K broadcast lenses feature what is known as a “Floating Back Focus” system, whereby a servo motor is used when setting back focus. The new RBF feature is operated solely by the video operator in the OB van or control room via the camera RCP and does not require that anyone be at the camera position. FUJIFILM has also debuted the updated FUJINON UA107x8.4 AF (Advanced Focus) 4K broadcast lens, the world’s first 4K box lens that features the Advanced Focus function. The UA107x8.4 AF incorporates a newly developed phase-detection auto focus sensor,

The UA125X8 box lens covers a focal length from the wide-angle of 8mm~1000mm, with an F1.7 aperture. It is now the longest and widest 4K field lens for Ultra HD applications in the FUJINON UA series, designed for unparalleled 4K performance imaging from today’s new 4K 2/3” cameras. The new lens uses the company’s proprietary optical technologies to achieve vivid colour reproduction and high contrast, producing video with rich gradation using HDR (high dynamic range). The UA125X8 also boasts advanced 4K-compatible optical performance, imageresolving capability and rich gradation of tones. It also has high-performance optical image stabilization, nine-blade aperture for natural bokeh, and is equipped with 16-bit encoders. The UA125x8 employs the latest High Transmittance Electron Beam Coating (HT-EBC) resulting in richer colours and greatly improved blue response and transmittance. HT-EBC, coupled with Fujifilm’s exclusive Aspheric Technology, reduces ghost and flare, and increases light transmission. A proprietary anti-fogging design minimizes lens fogging and reduces downtime due to moisture. Visit www.fujifilm.com.au

ACQUISITION & LIGHTING

Sony to Expand VENICE and FX9 Cameras SONY WILL EXPAND the capabilities of its digital motion picture camera VENICE and FX9 full-frame camcorder in 2020. The firmware upgrades build on the two platforms’ image capture and colour science. VENICE delivers more monitoring options with high frame rate and FX9 expands shooting as well as recording capabilities for content creators. Since its launch in 2017, VENICE has been used to capture more than 200 theatrical, broadcast, cable and streaming releases, including HBO’s “The Plot Against America” and 16 other series premiering in March and April 2020. Regular firmware and hardware updates have been key to the wide adoption of VENICE. Version 6.0 of VENICE firmware allows importing of Advanced Rendering Transform (.art) files that improve monitoring picture quality and viewing options on-set. These .art files can be generated by Sony’s RAW Viewer software, from users’ own 3D LUT files. Additionally, Sony is collaborating with Technicolor, and their award-winning colour scientists to create a new “look library” for the VENICE camera, which will be available online as a resource for creatives wishing to quickly access some of Technicolor’s premier established looks inspiring by their cinematic history. Another enhancement in VENICE Version 6.0 firmware is the ability to shoot with a second user frame line. This enables cinematographers to take advantage of VENICE’s large sensor size

to shoot for both horizontal and vertical distribution within the same composition. VENICE Version 6.0 features also include: • Expansion of HFR Capabilities – up to 72fps at 5.7K 16:9 and 110fps 3.8K 16:9, which simplifies post-production of slow-motion especially for TV drama workflows that require quick turnarounds. In addition, up to 72fps at 4K 6:5 imager mode for Anamorphic lens operation. • Improved 3D LUT monitoring – 3D LUT look can be fed to camera viewfinder • Gyro information in metadata – camera’s Tilt & Roll data can be referenced by VFX teams On the other hand, FX9 was launched in 2019 to bring full-frame imaging to “run-and-gun,” documentary, and independent productions. Employing the form factor, ergonomics and workflow of Sony’s FS7 and FS7 II cameras, FX9 brings colour science from VENICE, and auto focus (AF) technology from Sony’s interchangeable lens camera, Alpha, to creatives desiring a small camera footprint. Version 2.0 of FX9 firmware supports 4K 60p/50p recording through oversampling from a 5K cropped area of the 6K full-frame sensor. Version 2.0 also enables output of a 4K 16-bit RAW signal to an external recorder with the optional XDCA-FX9 accessory. This additional

Sony’s VENICE digital motion picture camera.

bit depth beyond the camera’s internal 10-bit recording is ideal for projects requiring more intensive post-production. Additionally, FX9 Version 2.0 firmware will expand the camera’s operability with Eye AF technology and touch screen operation for focus control and menu setting on the viewfinder: FX9 Version 2.0 features also comprise: • 180 fps full-frame HD recording • 4K (4096×2160) DCI recording • Ability to load user 3D LUTs • HDR shooting function recorded in Hybrid Log Gamma Version 6.0 of VENICE firmware is planned for release in November 2020, and Version 2.0 of FX9 firmware is planned for an October 2020 release. Visit https://pro.sony/en_AU/

Ross Video Updates Camera Motion System

Ross has launched a new inverted S2 Lift for the Furio SkyDolly ceiling-mounted rail-based robotic camera system. Based on the floormounted Furio solution, Furio SkyDolly provides dramatic and dynamic camera motion shots from above, offering exciting creative options with safety and security at their core. The S2 Lift adds silky smooth elevation to these dolly shots – with up to 48.3cm (19”) of vertical lift – and has been designed to handle net payloads of up to 30kg (66lb), easily supporting a full-size camera and prompter. The two-stage lift mechanism limits flex and minimizes sway, and the linear rail design ensures SkyDolly can be used in virtual set and augmented reality applications. The Furio SkyDolly delivers a visual impact that was previously only available with a jib, now with the benefits of automation.

as well as keyframed moves. Keyframed Moves enable movement through a complex motion path across a studio floor in addition to synchronous pan/tilt and lens control. Motion Director makes both automated moves and manual intervention better, allowing operators to trim trajectory (aka ‘in-flight bumping’) and dilate time (live adjustment of preset or move duration) while maintaining natural movement. MotionDirector dramatically improve the smoothness and versatility of Cambot XY pedestals, and all existing Ross units will be field-upgradable – no changes to hardware are required. The full firmware update will be available without charge in July 2020 to customers covered by an extended warranty program.

Ross has also extended the latest MotionDirector motion control algorithms that were introduced for Furio rail-based systems at IBC 2019 to Cambot XY floorroaming pedestals. MotionDirector’s complex mathematical algorithms offer more natural movements with perfectly synchronized axes

Finally, Ross has announced the release of a new free control system for Furio and CamBot Pan/Tilt heads and Pivot PTZ Cameras. This control system is a new plug-in to the Ross DashBoard control system, and enables access to all major PTZ functions. Operators can store, recall and manage their robotic presets, and

Ross Video Furio SkyDolly with S2 Lift.

all axes are controllable on-screen without the need for a physical joystick. Key settings such as joystick limits, color balance, exposure and streaming settings are all accessible. For the Ross PIVOTCam, and Furio and CamBot pan/ tilt heads, this plugin is being offered at no cost. The PTZ plugin allow a mix of cameras and supports various Sony BRC models for a modest licence cost. Visit www.rossvideo.com

ACQUISITION

ROSS VIDEO HAS INTRODUCED several updates and enhancements to its range of Camera Motion Systems that are designed to boost live production creativity.

SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Fox Sports - Back in the Game with Rugby League By Phil Sandberg LATE FEBRUARY-EARLY MARCH 2020 and the transition from summer to winter sports was in full swing. The National Rugby League was two rounds into its competition, there had been one round of AFL, the A-League soccer was approaching its finals, and cricket was nearing the end of its season. Then, as China’s COVID-19 outbreak grew into a full-scale global pandemic, there came the shutdown. “All live sport came to a stop,” recalls Steve Barnes, Outside Broadcast Manager with Fox Sports Australia. “The live productions are our bread and butter at Fox Sports. Without the live sport it had a huge impact on us, as it did the rest of the community. And, in terms of the business, we had to make the decision to stand some people down until there was some sort of clarity of a timeline and a resumption. So, like everyone else, we were very very affected by that. A lot of full-time staff, but also freelance and part-time staff were affected by that. Lots of companies who supply graphics or various production enhancements for Fox Sports, the outside broadcast suppliers like Gravity or NEP were also very hard hit. Not only with sport for them but, you know, the shiny floor shows as well. “So, across the board it was very difficult. In terms of programming we had no large sport, obviously. There was a push to restripe some archive material in terms of fresh commentary. Just to have a bit of fun with that. We did open up our studio shows to live chats via Zoom or Microsoft Teams or Skype or FaceTime with players and coaches to populate the studio shows. So, it certainly was the age of interviews in someone’s loungeroom, which was fine.”

SPORTSCASTING

The NRL is back. We’re looking at the resumption of some of the other codes. What have you been doing to get ready for that?

“Fox Footy will work very closely with the AFL. They’ll be seeing how we go with the NRL It’s a very different game to shoot, so you will see empty venues, and they can’t really avoid that.

“As a company, we’ve enforced some pretty strict protocols in terms of health and safety within our own office buildings - whether at Fox Sports in Artarmon or Fox Footy in Melbourne. We knew it was coming in terms of a restart, particularly with the NRL who had the very ambitious restart of May 28. At the time when that was first proposed, people were very sceptical, but we weren’t. We were right behind it. So, we started working right from the start in terms of, ‘Okay. How does this work in terms of social distancing, health and safety, welfare of the staff – the casual staff, the players, everyone at a venue. What changes do we need to make to our normal and broadcast procedures?’ “We had a pretty good start with rounds 1 and 2 of the NRL before the shutdown. We actually did take it very seriously early on in terms of

Steve Barnes, Outside Broadcast Manager with Fox Sports Australia.

keeping our distance from players or coaches, making sure they weren’t handling microphones that we had been passing around, making sure we weren’t going up and tapping players on the shoulder for an interview. There were people who were assigned certain duties and stuck to those duties. It was all well-structured, I suppose, prior to the shutdown. “Now, we’ve had the time to actually go a little bit deeper and we’ve had full cooperation with, not only the NRL and the other sporting codes, but the other broadcasters as well. Whether that’s Channel Nine or whomever. We all want to see the same thing. So, we’ve actually all been working quite closely together to review the venues and the operating procedures on the day to make sure that nothing is at risk. We had quite a lengthy meeting with the NRL to work through their match day protocols. They’ve assigned certain people to be their COVID Coordinators - testing temperatures on arrival of all staff, making sure that they’ve stuck to the social distancing protocols when they arrive in the venue and gathering their equipment from the broadcast truck or heading to their various camera positions. “And then just making sure they understand it that, within venues, the NRL have actually designated what they call ‘Clean Zones’ which is anywhere where players basically go - dressing rooms, tunnel to the field, and field of play. That’s the Clean Zone. And then the rest of the venue is ‘Venue Zone’ and we’ve worked with the NRL to designate some of our staff as Clean Zone personnel. There’s about eight of them. So, they have the okay to be along the sideline of the playing field whilst the rest of the staff are Venue Zone. So, you know, people in the truck or replay operators or whatever it is.”

The Clean Zone personnel, they’re mostly production people? “They’re camera and audio operators mostly. Camera operators, audio operators, and floor manager; the Clean Zone people. “I think it’s a 60-page booklet that the NRL produced for their match day protocol and we’re more than happy to abide by those. It’s been in conjunction with us. So, we all want to achieve the same outcome here.”

How has that impacted on set up times? “We’re allowing an extra hour or so [on the first] weekend. We’ll certainly put a lot more time into the planning process. But, funnily enough, because we’ve been restricted with the number of venues that are being used at this time – in Sydney it’s only Central Coast Stadium, Bankwest Stadium, and Campbelltown Stadium, for example – we can more or less keep in place a >>continues p18

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lot of the cabling that we need, and dressing room cameras. Things that we’d normally pack up after an event we’ve basically got agreement now to leave that in place for the duration.

the NRL has an agreement with NEP to facilitate that for them. We’ve got a remote camera set up there so we can see the decision-making progress.”

“So, there’ll be time saving there. So, in the actual set-up, not too bad. It’s just making sure that certain deadlines are met. We always had a production handover. Two hours prior to kick off we would have all equipment, all personnel in place so we can run through checks. Working with the NRL we’ve moved that to a three-hour period and the NRL has asked that any equipment that’s in the Clean Zone, whether it’s corner cameras or dressing room cameras, are well and truly in place three hours before and totally wiped down and clean so that no broadcast technicians are in those areas when the players arrive so as not to cause any cross contamination. So, yeah, it’s just the planning and the making sure that people understand that the deadlines are the deadlines and there won’t be any flexibility there.”

So, at each individual venue, we’re not going to see a reduction in camera positions?

NEP and Gravity Media, have been going down the remote production path for a couple of years now. Has that helped things or has this whole situation accelerated that? “I’d say it’s accelerated that. We have embraced it and we’ve been doing the remote production for a couple of years now with NEP - and Gravity also has their set-up as well. We’ve embraced it for NRL, AFL, Rugby, and A-League. And we’re very happy with the quality and also the cost efficiency that gives us. And as it turns out with this current situation it probably has accelerated that use in terms of we’re very happy that the Director, Producer, Replay Operators, Graphics Operator, Director’s Assistant, Stats Person, are all located centrally and properly socially distanced in the large control rooms, rather than having to travel to a venue and sit in a very small truck which would pose quite a few issues for us. We’ve dodged some very tricky situations with those smaller vans by utilising the remote sound production at the hubs.”

But trucks are still going to the venues? “Oh yeah. We’re mostly using IP trucks for the interstate venues. They’re still going to venues but, if it’s an IP truck back to the hub, basically it’s the camera operators and audio, the CC operators and the Technical Director who are in the truck. Everyone else is back in the central hub which has been good.

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“The other important part is commentary. So, we are put in a situation where it’s not advisable to travel commentators to interstate locations. So, where at all possible, we’re using local people. If that’s not possible there will some downstream commentary and I don’t think anyone has a problem with that in the current climate. It’s something that was coming and quite possibly has accelerated the downstream commentary booth.”

The NRL has its “bunker” for video adjudication. Is that operating as before? “Yes, it is. The Bunker is in operation again this season. That’s something

“No, the only difference in terms of production for us is the lack of crowd, the atmosphere. There was some work done prior to the shutdown with the various sports bodies in terms of the PA at the venues doing a little more work, pumping in music or suitable sound effects or something that gave a little bit of atmosphere and perhaps a little bit of excitement to the players themselves. Heading into the rebooted NRL, now we’re certainly looking at camera positions in terms of trying not to highlight the fact that there are a lot of empty seats around the field of play. “What we’re looking more at is – even with corner cameras - a slight elevation so you’re not capturing so many empty seats in the back of shot. We’ll give that a go, but we’re just trying to be genuine in our coverage. People know that there’s no crowd there. “But the sound effects through our sideline microphones have been quite outstanding because you’re hearing the slap of the tackles. “We will try some audio features in this first round, add some very subtle crowd atmosphere under some of the matches just to see how that sounds. Whether that feels right, we’ll give people a choice though. They can either choose between two different channels on Fox Sports.”

Was any thought given to populating the stands virtually? “It was given some thought, but we want to genuine in our production. We did look at it, but technically it’s difficult. It’s not something that you could generically do like a video game. Every venue is different. You know, the cameras are moving and – whether panning or tracking - and it involves its own technical challenge. So, it was talked about, but we never seriously looked at that.”

That’s the NRL. So, the other codes and the cricket, where do you stand with those? “Fox Footy will work very closely with the AFL. They’ll be seeing how we go with the NRL. It’s a very different game to shoot, so you will see empty venues, and they can’t really avoid that. “We’re working currently with Cricket Australia on a schedule for next season. We haven’t really got down to any sort of production guidelines for cricket at this point. It’s more getting a realistic schedule that will allow international teams to compete. So, whether that initially is just New Zealand, that’s all under discussion. I think the ultimate ambition is to get India over here for a series of test matches starting in December, something like that. But, you know, it’s probably going to be a very different world by that time of year.”

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NRL Drafts Dalet and Bitmovin to Power OTT DALET AND BITMOVIN have announced a new collaboration that improves preparation and accelerates delivery of OTT content for broadcasters, sports leagues and teams, brands, and other media-rich companies. The first organization to take advantage of the new technology partnership is Australia’s National Rugby League (the NRL). The workflow integration, which features the advanced media logistics of Dalet’s Ooyala Flex Media Platform and Bitmovin’s blazing fast encoder technology, provides the NRL with the flexibility and agility to fully optimize their OTT strategy. Deep integration through the Dalet and Bitmovin open APIs enables them to expand existing offerings into new markets and geographies at scale; engage fans through multiple services such as VOD, apps and subscriptions; and augment revenue opportunities thanks to better visibility across their production and distribution operations. “Dalet’s Ooyala Flex Media Platform, deeply integrated with Bitmovin’s encoding, player and analytics offerings, redefines the economics and the experience of OTT video distribution for brands like the National Rugby League,” states Stefan Lederer, CEO, Bitmovin. “Viewers will be delighted with higher quality and a more diverse range of content. Streaming costs are drastically lowered through better use of bandwidth. With greater transparency across the operations, media organizations are able to make smarter decisions about legacy and future content and video reach.”

“Both our solutions are developed on the principle of openness and provide sophisticated automation for business scalability. This approach empowers our joint customers like the NRL to build integrated solutions and remain in total control of their asset life cycles,” comments Lee McMullan, Market Director - Multiplatform Distribution, Dalet. “Efficiency through automation and asset tracking enables digital and marketing teams to tap into archives, orchestrate content preparation, scaling distribution of rich content to a wider audience.” Branching off the NRL is NRL’s Digital division; creating, producing, archiving and live-streaming hundreds of hours of content to NRL’s official website, NRL.com, and the Telstra NRL Official app on smart devices as well as the Telstra TV OTT device. NRL Digital’s underlying media technology also powers the 16 clubs and two states, as well as NRL operational websites and mobile applications content delivery, enabling better fan and members content experience online. The combined Ooyala Flex Media Platform and Bitmovin solution made it easier for NRL’s staff to build ad-hoc workflows that could better tap into their rich inventory and distribute more editorial content, imagery and video across the NRL’s websites and mobile applications. Ooyala

Kiwi Sport Back with Innovation at Sky NZ THE SKY NEW ZEALAND TEAM spent the last few weeks of the country’s COVID-19 lockdown planning for the best way to bring domestic premier sport back with a difference, and June 14 saw the broadcaster introduce some of those innovations during the Investec Super Rugby Aotearoa match between the Blues and Hurricanes. “‘Never waste a crisis’ has been front and centre of our planning for a couple of months,” said Tex Teixeira, Sky’s Chief Content Officer. “We’ve been working with our key sports partners on using the extraordinary circumstances to freshen up the way we deliver our favourite sports, on top of some of the great stuff we’d already introduced before the pandemic hit town.

SPORTSCASTING

“One of the first things we’re introducing is ‘Sky Sport Player Cam’. Often a feature in football overseas, Player Cam means dedicating a specific camera to a key playmaker for the duration of the match – highlighting their work-rate and skill as they move around the field or court. Viewers can follow their player on a separate Sky Sport channel and have a unique perspective and commentary for the game.

Sky Sport Player Cam ran on the new Sky Sport Select Channel – Sky Sport 50, along with referee and match audio. For the best viewing experience, Sky recommended viewers tune

Flex Media Platform’s powerful and efficient workflow and content management capabilities orchestrated the media catalogues’ encoding, media movement and content discovery to surface near-live video to their audiences. “When working with video content from varying sources that needs to be published online (live, near-live or on-demand content), every workflow, metadata layer and media processing step adds time and complexity getting content to the audience. By combining the Ooyala Flex Media Platform and the Bitmovin solutions we have been able to reduce complexity and issues, optimising inefficient steps while successfully accelerating our online delivery workflows,” comments Quanah McBride, Head of Digital Media Operations, The National Rugby League. Visit: https://www.dalet.com/ooyala-flex-mediaplatform and www.bitmovin.com

A Day Not at the Races

into the Player Cam on a second device via Sky Go. It will now look to roll out Sky Sport Player Cam at other Investec Super Rugby Aotearoa fixtures and trial the initiative at ANZ Premiership and Sal’s NBL matches. “Other initiatives the Sky and Super Rugby teams have been working on include mic’ing up side-lined players or coaches so we can talk to them during broadcast, in game interviews with assistant coaches and introducing a new MVP award – for the player who changes the match in a fundamental way, in addition to the MOTM award,” said Teixeira. “We’ve had plenty of ideas percolating here at Sky for a while so, as we’ve had to look at changing the way we do things to get the competitions back on air, we really encouraged the codes to take a look at how we could do things differently. There are some things we need to observe as rights holders, and we also need to respect the integrity of the game and the needs of our viewers, but if we don’t try, we’ll never know,” Visit www.sky.co.nz

FOR SEVEN NETWORK sports commentator Bruce McAvaney COVID-19 restrictions meant remote broadcasting from home. According to Craig Pickersgill, Production & Technical Manager with Seven Sport, “Ordinarily, Bruce would have been at Rosehill Racecourse with the team, but in the interests of social distancing, we didn’t travel any of our presenters and had [presenter] Jason Richardson in our Melbourne Studio with [jockey] Chris Symons and [trainer] Henry Dwyer, Bruce in Sydney using TVU Anywhere on his iPad (with another iPad monitoring the direct studio output via Teradek and VLC), and [presenter] Katelyn Mallyon, again, using TVU Anywhere on her computer.” The TVU Anywhere platform also allowed producers to bring in Australian jockey Corey Brown in Sydney, and presenter Emily Bosson in New Zealand. Visit https://www.tvunetworks.com/

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TVU Mobile Backpack Transmitters a Game Changer for Australian Cameraman AS A CAMERAMAN WORKING for 7NEWS Australia, Simon Hydzik has been using TVUPacks, TVU’s mobile cellular backpack transmitters, since 2013. TVUPacks have been a daily part of his kit as a news cameraman and according to Simon, “Without a doubt, the packs have changed the way news is covered. The ability to cross live as you get off a plane, feed live pictures back from a moving vehicle or in the middle of a cyclone, all that would have been impossible with a SNG dish and a lot of planning.” In addition to the packs, Simon uses TVU Anywhere, TVU’s mobile transmitter app, on MacBook and App on iPhone. In 2017 Simon was part of a team that ran four packs and two apps for rolling coverage out of Indonesia, running Apple devices with TVU Anywhere as locked off live shots to cut between the reporters on the ground. Earlier this year, with no data cellular coverage, Simon fed pictures and crossed live using a TVUPack on Christmas Island with just an Inmarsat BGAN dish plugged into ethernet to provide all day coverage for TV Stations in Australia. The TVU Nano for Video has been a game changer for Simon. He has been using TVU Nano Video to get a second live shot from drones. According to Simon, “Since it’s a compact unit, it can be easily carried on airplanes and can be readily set up on landing without having to wait

for baggage.” TVU Nano Video offers other advantages apart from its compact size for Simon. “It’s a unit that becomes part of the camera Cameraman Simon Hydzik, with TVU Nano, at a press conference outside Police HQ, East Perth. which translates to carrying less gear around,” he says. “The BNC cables also do not get tangled and everything is powered from one source. The mobile interface also provides all the information needed. In addition, the external antenna connectors provide a high level of flexibility with its different antenna options which is perfect when traveling. As the unit is very light you can even mount it on top of light stands to increase range if one is on the fringes of cellular coverage.” Simon recently had to travel on an inflatable boat out to a cruise ship to cover the story on Coronavirus passengers. He used TVU Nano video to feed vision back and cross live. Having the smaller unit helped reduce cables getting tangled across the boat and allowed him to move around more quickly from either side of the boat. Since the ride was rough, it was reassuring to know that the camera was all that he needed to hold. “TVU understands the challenges of broadcast

Simon Hydzik filming the COVID-19 affected Artania Cruise Ship off the coast of Perth.

and its packs allow flexibility when travelling to different parts of the world to easily add extra modems and sim cards as required. When placed alongside other bonded streaming products TVU seems to be more resilient at low bandwidth.” Visit www.tvunetworks.com

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Viz Engine 4.1 Re-Imagines Rendering

VIZRT HAS UNVEILED Viz Engine 4.1, a major update to the company’s real-time graphics and video compositing platform which introduces multiple render blades, including support for game engines that allow media producers to choose which blade to use for any given job and mix and match them in the same environment.

Engine 4.0 runs in parallel with the classic Viz Engine render blade and supports ‘physically based rendering’ (PBR) plus a wide variety of photorealistic capabilities. This provides a further layer of engagement and realism, particularly to virtual sets and augmented reality graphic elements.

New in Viz Engine 4.1 is the gaming engine render blade with its first integration - Unreal Engine 4. This development supports multiple inputs, improves performance, and runs simultaneously with classic and Fusion render blades in Viz Engine to bring the latest gaming graphics technology seamlessly and quickly into functional broadcast workflows.

The updated Fusion keyer in Viz Engine 4.1 now fully supports HDR. The advanced multi-matte Fusion keyer, upgraded with 16-bit colour difference, delivers accurate keying even in the most challenging environments. The updated Fusion keyer also offers enhanced de-noising and detail preservation, edge compensation, preservation of fine details including hair and transparent objects and full colour adjustment using lift, gamma and gain.

The classic Viz Engine render blade offers 600+ plugins and a rich feature set which allows it to be integrated and employed in any kind of broadcast workflow. The Fusion render blade introduced in Viz

The new video I/O system in Viz Engine 4.1 delivers parallel processing of colour conversion, de-interlacing, and chroma keying on input streams, giving render blades more

time to compute advanced effects for improved performance. Dynamic channels functionality enables mixing of different inputs including ST 2110, NDI, and SDI in the same workflow. Viz Artist 4.1 puts even more photorealism into virtual sets and augmented reality scenes through the quick addition of post-processing effects. Furthermore, a shader development environment enables material and object shader creation along with adding post effects quickly to scenes. The Fusion shader plug-in, rendergraph editor, and shader development environment assist in creating photo-realistic effects or backdrops on videowalls and displays instead of utilizing UHD clips, by modifying pixel and vertex data. Finally, improvements to the substance shader plug-in offers added realism to scenes by allowing designers to use substances to generate textures. Visit Vizrt.com

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Ross Launches Voyager V4.0 Graphics Rendering Solution

Dejero Launches Solutions for Remote Production

ROSS VIDEO HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of Voyager V4.0 – the latest version of its graphics rendering solution for virtual studio and augmented reality applications.

DEJERO HAS INTRODUCED new short-depth versions of its 1U rack-mounted WayPoint receiver and CuePoint return video and teleprompter server to its portfolio. The smaller chassis of WayPoint 50 and CuePoint 50 make them fit for remote production vehicles where space is at a premium, and for portable flyaway kits that simplify transport and enable rapid response in case of a disaster recovery scenario or for contingency preparedness as part of a broader business continuity plan.

Voyager is based on Epic Games’ Unreal engine and, according to Ross, provides content creators with unparalleled creativity and realism when producing on-air graphics. Voyager V4.0 has been built on the latest Unreal V4.25 release (which offers internal chromakeying within the engine for the first time) and features a number of valuable enhancements. Voyager V4.0 includes support for multiple composition layers, 3D models (meshes) and garbage mattes, and also offers a new way to integrate the talent into the virtual environment. From a workflow perspective, V4.0 supports HTML 5-based MOS workflows for newsroom environments, enabling journalists to work on their stories from any browser in any location. V4.0 of Voyager comes hot on the heels of V3.1 which introduced a number of workflow enhancements, including HDR and also a new Voyager Designer License enabling designers to create on any platform or workstation and then move their projects directly to the Voyager engine for playout. V3.1 also offered creators the ability to create off-axis projection (a virtual window or portal) on a physical LED wall.

The new WayPoint 50 single-output compact receiver reconstructs broadcast-quality video transported over multiple IP connections from a Dejero transmitter, decodes HEVC or AVC, and outputs to SDI or MPEG-TS workflows. In addition to in-vehicle and portable kit installation, WayPoint 50 is suitable for stations that need just a single output for their broadcast workflow. The compact Dejero CuePoint 50 return feed server sends low-latency live program video and teleprompter feeds to on-air presenters, camera operators, and other production personnel in the field, to help them stay synchronized with central production during live broadcasts and allow them to adjust their on-camera position to account for overlays and graphics. Up to eight output feeds can be viewed on tablets, smartphones, or regular monitors.

Customers with existing maintenance contracts can upgrade to V4.0 without charge, and the latest release will be available by the end of August 2020.

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pa c i f i c APT Home Broadcast Package A Solution to Enable Radio Hosts to Broadcast From Home

LiveU Launches Production-Level Field Unit LIVEU HAS UNVEILED an all-in-one production-level field unit for live news and sports coverage. The LU800 combines multi-camera production, and high-quality video and audio capabilities, with mission-critical transmission in a native 5G unit. Designed from the ground up to unlock 5G potential, the unit offers a high quality of service and resiliency.

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The LU800 supports up to four fully frame-synced feeds in high resolution from a single unit, using IP bonding of up to 14 connections. The unit also offers high-quality video performance, with up to 4Kp60 10-bit HDR transmission for optimal colour depth and richness, as well as up to 16 audio channels for highend productions.

With the LU800, LiveU now offers a full end-to-end contribution, production and distribution solution. The unit’s multi-camera production streams are fully managed by the LiveU Central cloud-based management platform and automatically fed into the LiveU Matrix IP content management and distribution workflow. Visit www.liveu.tv

Telstra Launches 5G Mobile Broadband Device with mmWave capability TELSTRA HAS UNVEILED what it says is Australia’s most advanced 5G mobile broadband device – the 5G Wi-Fi Pro. The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro features a 2.4 inch colour touch screen which includes a data usage meter that allows users to track their data usage with ease; a gigabit ethernet connection; a USB connection to support additional devices and a 4500mAH battery (with quick charge) that offers up to 9 hours continuous battery life. The device can also support up to 30 Wi-Fi enabled devices (15 each on 2.4 & 5 GHz) and features Wi-Fi 6 technology which increases performance and reduces interference. The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro leverages Australia’s best network with access to both superfast 5G and advanced 4GX connectivity. It is also Australia’s first mobile broadband device that is mmWave ready, meaning it is future-proofed and ready to take advantage of the next iteration of 5G due to rollout at scale in 2021. “We’re always working towards the future, and today we’re announcing another huge leap in connectivity for our customers by delivering the first mmWave compatible device,” said Telstra Product and Service Design Executive Andrew Stormont. “mmWave is going to be a big part of our 5G future and with the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro we are offering customers a device that will be able to take advantage of the next iteration of 5G as soon as it arrives.” The launch of Australia’s first mmWave compatible device coincides with the announcement that Telstra now has three mmWave testing sites on the network in Australia with more to come soon. While the rollout of mmWave technology is not due to officially begin until after Government auction next year, these sites will be live and people living in these testing locations who own a Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro will be able to benefit from this new technology before anybody else. Telstra says its 5G rollout is ahead of schedule with 5G coverage in selected areas of 47 cities and larger regional towns across Australia. Visit www.telstra.com.au

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Lightstorm Boosts Production Techniques on Avatar Sequels Using Blackmagic Design LIGHTSTORM ENTERTAINMENT used an extensive array of Blackmagic products, including the Teranex AV, Smart Videohub 40×40 12G, ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K and more for its recent work during production for the “Avatar” sequels. But just as the story of the Na’vi will evolve in the sequels, so will the technology behind the films. A key element is the ability to evaluate content as it’s being shot, rather than waiting until post production. “We evaluate live camera feeds in a manner as close to the theatrical experience as possible, so we can make real time decisions on set,” said Geoff Burdick, Senior Vice President of Production Services & Technology for Lightstorm Entertainment. “This saves time during shooting, benefits Weta Digital, our visual effects vendor, and helps streamline our post production and mastering process.” This necessitated the need to view live feeds from multiple 3D camera systems, simultaneously. “In the past, we viewed live and playback material in 3D HD at 24fps,” said Burdick. “Now, we acquire

at 4K 3D, and feed through our pipeline at various resolutions and frame rates.” These include 3D 48fps in 2K and 4K, 3D 24fps in 2K and 4K, and 3D 24fps in HD. Blackmagic Design provided a unique and comprehensive product set that allowed for numerous solutions throughout the pipeline. “It was very challenging for our engineering team to come up with a signal path to enable this workflow,” said Burdick. “When incorporating new formats and techniques, it’s critical that we don’t cause a delay or disruption for any department.” Having the ability to review multiple resolutions and frame rates in real time allowed the team to remain in step with issues that may have gone unnoticed before, only to be found later in post. While Blackmagic Design played a critical role at many points along the path, one of their simplest products became a production workhorse. “What appeared to be a mundane piece of equipment, the Teranex AV, did much of the heavy lifting for us,” says the Lightstorm team.

Geoff Burdick, SVP Production Services & Technology, Lightstorm Entertainment.

perform the necessary real time conversions and image transforms our process demands. Having the ability to mix and match key pieces of equipment and having support for nonstandard formats across a very deep product line throughout our R&D and production process would allow us to see what was possible very quickly.” And in the end, how did this affect production? Not at all, which was the goal at the start.

The Teranex family allowed for a hybrid HD 24fps/4K 48fps workflow on set.

“At the end of the process,” said Burdick, “these technologies were invisible to the creative teams on set.”

“Without these products, we would not be able to

Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

Lightstorm - Lightning Speeds and Secure Storage TIM BICIO IS CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER at Lightstorm Entertainment, the production company founded by James Cameron and Lawrence Kasanoff currently working on the Avatar sequels Appearing on a recent Dell Technologies webinar, Bicio outlined some of the company’s New Zealand-based network and storage infrastructure.

gig speeds, and it just improves the entire collaboration process. It allows us to securely get them large amounts of data, they’re able to then re-deliver that data back to us on the Isilon directly, and in addition to that we also leverage ECS as a data channel for our proprietary bin sync tools which allow us to automatically share data between sites and vendors.”

According To Bicio, “We set up Isilon and ECS storage at our production facility in New Zealand and our production facility is part of a private ring network that is inclusive of Weta and Park Road Post, which is our post facility, and what we have done is while we use our Isilon and ECS for our own production purposes, we’ve carved out space for both of our partners in New Zealand to leverage our storage via Isilon’s access zones.

The Lightstorm CTO says that when the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated staff working from home, the company arrived on a plan in around 12 hours and has stuck to it ever since.

“What this allows us to do is to securely stage media and data for both companies separately, very easily on our own file system for them to access at land speeds, 10 gig speeds, 40

“I have to tell you that a lot of people look at technology as a tool and at this point we look at technology as a partner,” he says. “We couldn’t have done what we did without technology. Every day that we work from our homes we’re getting better at working from our homes. This may be one of those watershed moments where we change the way the industry works, where we create better life balance for our teams and our

POST PRODUCTION

Jellyﬁsh Production Servers

KYNO MAM

partners, and to be honest, I’m very optimistic about what we’ve done and what it means for the future of film making.” As to the future of film making technology, Bicio says “We used to talk about the ‘film industry’ and now we don’t talk about the film industry anymore, we talk about the “movie industry” because it’s no longer film, it’s all digital and as we move more and more into virtual photography and, obviously, Jim is one of the lead players in virtual photography, we’re seeing that not only are we moving towards – and we are at a hundred percent digital in terms of process but we’re moving more and more to a hundred percent virtual, right? So, that may never come but as you can see from Avatar, which was now some time ago, and Alita, which was released recently, we’re able to do quite a bit in this virtual space. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years we could do virtual capture in our garages at home.” Visit www.delltechnologies.com

P5 Archiware Archive Solutions Aruba, HPE Switches and NAS

OWC, Akitio, Sonnet, Promise Adapters - TB3, eGPU, PCIe, 10GbE, SFP+ Reseller and Systems Integrator

www.labspace.com.au

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A First Look at Unreal Engine 5

EPIC GAMES RECENTLY released a first look at Unreal Engine 5 in the form of “Lumen in the Land of Nanite,” a real-time demo running live on PlayStation 5. Although Unreal Engine 5 will not be available in full release until late in 2021, the company says, “One of our goals in this next generation is to achieve photorealism on par with movie CG and real life, and put it within practical reach of development teams of all sizes through highly productive tools and content libraries.” The demo previews two of the new core technologies that will debut in Unreal Engine 5: • Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry frees artists to create as much geometric detail as the eye can see. Nanite virtualized geometry means that film-quality source art comprising hundreds of millions or billions of polygons can be imported directly into Unreal Engine—anything from ZBrush sculpts to photogrammetry scans to CAD data—and it just works. Nanite geometry is streamed and scaled in real time so there are no more polygon count budgets, polygon memory budgets, or draw count budgets; there is no need to bake details to normal maps or manually author LODs; and there is no loss in quality. • Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes. The system renders diffuse interreflection with infinite bounces and indirect specular reflections in huge, detailed environments, at scales ranging from kilometers to millimeters. Artists and designers can create more dynamic scenes using Lumen, for example, changing the sun angle for time of day, turning on a flashlight, or blowing a hole in the ceiling, and indirect lighting will adapt accordingly. Lumen erases the need to wait for lightmap bakes to finish and to author light map UVs—a huge time savings when an artist can move a light inside the Unreal Editor and lighting looks the same as when the game is run on console.

To build large scenes with Nanite geometry technology, the Unreal team made heavy use of the Quixel Megascans library, which provides filmquality objects up to hundreds of millions of polygons. The demo also showcases existing engine systems such as Chaos physics and destruction, Niagara VFX, convolution reverb, and ambisonics rendering. In an effort to encourage developers, the company has announced it will waive Unreal Engine royalties on the first USD$1 million in game revenue. Developers can download and use Unreal Engine to build games for free as they always have, except now royalties are waived on the first $1 million in gross revenue. The new Unreal Engine licence terms, which are retroactive to January 1, 2020, are designed to give game developers an unprecedented advantage over other engine license models. See the demo at https://youtu.be/qC5KtatMcUw Visit https://www.unrealengine.com

NVIDIA Omniverse Delivers Interactivity and Collaboration

Creating visual effects, architectural visualisations and manufacturing designs typically requires multiple people collaborating across teams, remote work locations and various customer sites for reviews. 3D assets take shape using an assortment of software tools. But seamless data transfers across applications have long been the challenge for millions of artists, designers, architects, engineers and developers globally. Using Pixar’s Universal Scene Description and NVIDIA RTX technology, Omniverse allows people to easily work with applications and collaborate simultaneously with colleagues and customers, wherever they may be. For years, collaborating in visual effects has been through exporting and importing large datasets and scene files. In 2010, Lucasfilm and Sony Pictures Imageworks joined together to create Alembic, an open computer graphics interchange framework that helped multiple studios ensure consistency and accuracy when working on the same project. Pixar developed USD to provide the interchange of assets and enable collaboration on 3D scenes

that may be intricately composed from many elemental assets. With a single scene graph and consistent API, USD delivers a rich toolset for reading, writing, editing and rapidly previewing 3D geometry and shading. Omniverse benefits from the flexibility and consistency of the USD interchange format and builds upon it with synchronised workflows. Entire studio teams around the world can collaborate in real time as they create, with version control support needed to ensure production stays on track. In Omniverse, the Portals connection module unites top industry tools into a collaborative space for users to work seamlessly on real-time modelling, shading, animation, lighting, visual effects and rendering, introducing incredible new opportunities for creativity and production. Up until now, there have been two types of renderers. Real-time rendering is geared toward producing images at 30 or 60 frames per second and adheres to the lowest device targeted for use. Offline rendering focuses on delivering photorealistic final images or scenes that take hours per frame to render with a CPU. To achieve top speeds, many corners often get cut — from simplifying geometry to baking lighting and normal maps — and this can reduce image quality. To overcome this, Omniverse introduces a new type of rendering with Omniverse View. This module is accelerated by multiple NVIDIA RTX

GPUs and built for extreme scalability on arrays of GPUs to provide high-quality, real-time output, even on very large scenes. Omniverse View displays the 3D content aggregated from different applications inside Omniverse, or directly in the 3D application being used. It’s also designed to support commercial game engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity as well as offline renderers. Many industry software leaders are integrating their applications into Omniverse so artists can work collaboratively through the 3D creative process. Omniverse’s Portals is made possible by using Omniverse Kit, a software development kit that enables RTX View capability to be directly integrated into the software partner’s application interface. This gives their product an ultra-highquality, real-time, ray-traced application viewport. Since Omniverse is a software-defined platform, vendor applications can also benefit from NVIDIA RTX acceleration or other technologies, like PhysX, as soon as new features become available. NVIDIA has been working closely with companies like Epic Games, Autodesk, Pixar, Trimble, McNeel & Associates, and Teradici, with other partner announcements coming soon. Visit https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidiaomniverse-platform

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NVIDIA OMNIVERSE is a computer graphics and simulation platform that makes it possible for artists to work seamlessly in real time across software applications on premises or around the world via the cloud, is now available for early access customers in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) market.

POST PRODUCTION

Maxon Cinema 4D S22

MAXON, THE DEVELOPERS OF professional 3D modelling, animation, and rendering software solutions, has announced Cinema 4D Subscription Release 22 (S22). The next generation of Maxon’s 3D application and first subscription-only release affords customers early access to massive performance and interactivity improvements including UV unwrapping and editing tools, improved selection and modelling tool functionality, organisational licensing for volume customers and updated viewport technology with support for Metal on macOS. In addition, Maxon has boosted Cinema 4D’s pipeline compatibility with GLTF export, improved GoZ integration with Z-Brush, and support for node-based materials in FBX and Cineware. Cinema 4D S22 is immediately available for subscription customers. For perpetual license holders of Cinema 4D a release is scheduled later this year that will incorporate the features of S22, as well as additional enhancements. S22 highlights include: • New UV Workflow Enhancements, Improved Packing and Automatic UVs – Improved selection tools, visualization tools and a progressive unwrapping workflow make it much simpler to define a UV map, while new packing algorithms optimize texture resolution. A new automatic UV unwrapping option based on the Ministry of Flat licensed technology developed by Eskil Steenberg of Quel Solaar makes it easy to create a basic unwrap with minimal distortion and overlaps for baking and texture painting. • Enhanced Viewport – Cinema 4D’s new viewport core provides a framework to make the best use of graphics technology in the coming years, with full support for Apple Metal. Users enjoy a more accurate view of the 3D scene, improved filtering and multi-instance performance.

Nagra, Avid Enable Forensic Watermarking for Editing Workflows

NAGRA, A LEADING INDEPENDENT provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, has announced the launch of a new forensic watermarking plug-in for editing and collaboration workflows on Avid’s Media Composer video editing software. The NexGuard Plug-in for Editing Software allows studios, content owners and post-production houses to ensure protection of high-value assets when sharing prerelease content such as feature films or TV series with their editing department, reviewers or their creative agencies. The integration simplifies the watermarking process within the editing software while providing traceability and a strong deterrent against pre-release content leaks. Media Composer is the first non-linear editing software to be integrated with the NAGRA plug-in. “Any leak occurring on pre-released or pre-aired content has a high negative impact on revenues and marketing activities,” said Jean-Philippe Plantevin, Vice President Anti-Piracy at NAGRA. “With the NexGuard Plug-in for Editing Software, we’re able to ensure an added layer of security and traceability in editing and collaboration workflows while limiting the number of steps in the watermarking process. Content owners now have an extra safeguard in place to protect high value assets as they edit, review and approve the rough cuts or final cuts of their full feature films or TV series.” “The integration of NexGuard forensic watermarking with Media Composer brings added value to content owners to trace any leak back to the source in their editing and collaboration workflows,” said Ray Thompson, Director of Market Solutions, Broadcast and Media at Avid. “This new watermarking plug-in for editing software allows post- production teams to stay focused on creating content while providing an end-to-end media security solution.”

POST PRODUCTION

The NexGuard Plug-in for Editing Software, which works as a simple video filter, quickly and seamlessly adds a unique, robust and imperceptible forensic watermark to each copy of the content exported from the nonlinear editing software, regardless of input and output file formats.

The NexGuard Plug-in for Editing Software is supported by the NexGuard Detection Service, a cloud based forensic watermark detection service that is fast, highly scalable and fully automated, meeting the needs of content owners who require detection in conjunction with anti-piracy services. Visit http://dtv.nagra.com

• Pipeline – GTLF export, GoZ Integration and More – GLTF export offers users a flexible and efficient format for sharing 3D animations on the web and within AR applications, while GoZ integration offers a smooth workflow with Pixologic Z-Brush for advanced sculpting. Support for Nodal materials within FBX and Cineware expands the pipeline for advanced materials. • Modelling Tools Improvements – In addition to many small usability enhancements, modelling tools are faster and more robust, and better preserve mesh attributes like UV and vertex maps, thanks to a new core architecture. • Organisational Licensing Options – Volume License Customers can leverage organisational accounts within the MyMaxon ecosystem to assign licenses to individual users or groups, coupling the flexibility of floating licenses with the accessibility and reliability of Maxon’s servers. Visit http://www.maxon.net

EditShare Extends Collaborative Editing into the Cloud

EDITSHARE IS PUSHING to make collaborative cloud-based media production possible with its virtualised video editing and storage platform – EFSv. Initially running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, the open EFSv platform supports industry-standard third-party creative tools for editing, audio mixing, and grading with best-in-class security capabilities such as file auditing to propel secure, end-to-end editorial workflows in the cloud. EFSv native drivers eliminate traditional IT bottlenecks and deliver superior performance in virtual environments. And, by leveraging the EditShare RESTful API, customers and technology partners can easily automate advanced storage management workflows. “Only the cloud can bring the depth of flexibility that’s essential for today’s unusual and disruptive circumstances. Overnight, the advantages offered by the cloud have changed from being ‘nice to have’ to ‘necessary,’” states Sunil Mudholkar, vice president of product management, EditShare. “We have real-world experience successfully deploying EditShare customer workflows to run in AWS and Tencent Cloud. EFSv is the culmination of these successes.” Mudholkar explains EFSv’s capabilities, “Everything, including project sharing, editing, and bin locking, is virtualised. Users can spin up an entire virtual facility in moments, with all the computing power they need to complete real-world projects in the cloud.” EFSv packages include the workstation and GPU resources required to support teams of all sizes. The EFSv packages also include EditShare’s Flow media management and remote production workflow tools. Flow adds a control layer to virtualised storage pools, with tools to scan, log, search, and organize media, assemble story packages, and move content between object and block tiers of storage and also between cloud and on-premise tiers. Flow’s automation capabilities let users orchestrate redundant tasks and complex workflows, optimizing workflow efficiencies. The flexible EditShare pricing structure provides customers transparency with options to purchase the EFSv subscription alone or inclusive of cloud services. Visit https://www.editshare.com

POST PRODUCTION

Automated IMF Package Creation from within Adobe Premiere Pro

IMF packages are the preferred method to deliver show masters to companies like Netflix, 20th Century Studios, Disney and many others. Through the use of automated processing, editing staff can focus on the creative functions of storytelling and pacing without worrying about the complexities of the IMF delivery format. “While IMF has become the delivery format of choice for many media-services providers and production companies, Adobe Premiere Pro users need to primarily focus on the storytelling process,” said Sue Skidmore, head of partner relations for Adobe video. “Having a plug-in panel to Adobe Premiere Pro for Vantage’s automated IMF packaging workflows gives editors confidence they can deliver compliant

Zixi Partners with Blackbird for Global Live Video Editing

ZIXI, THE PROVIDER of solutions for live broadcast-quality video over IP has announced a partnership and integration with Blackbird, the cloud video editing and publishing platform that provides rapid access to video content for the easy creation of clips and highlights to multiple devices and platforms. A professional video editor developed specifically in, and available for the browser, Blackbird delivers speed, scalability and richness of editing features and video output. The platform allows users to quickly go to market, scale effortlessly and flexibly across organisations, ensure content quality and drive massive efficiencies across any enterprise organisation. This fast, powerful cloud video editing and publishing platform can be deployed in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud instances with live Zixi workflows, and enables the ability to insert branding, advertising and sponsored content for delivery to subscriber platforms. The integrated SDVP provides ultralow latency video delivery with the

IMF masters right from their Timeline.” IMF is a SMPTE standard for providing a single, interchangeable master file format and structure for the distribution of content between businesses around the world. IMF provides a framework for creating a true file-based final master. Part of the Vantage Media Processing Platform, IMF Producer automates the creation of all files required in an IMF package from a single output render of an Adobe Premiere Pro timeline. In addition to generating the primary package, editors can create additional sequences, which become supplemental IMF packages that contain different versions of audio, subtitles, edit points, Dolby Vision HDR metadata and more. “The ability to manage IMF workflows in an application like Adobe Premiere Pro is an economical and highly powerful way of managing IMF supplemental package requirements,” says Scott Matics, Director of Product Management at Telestream. “Creating

Zixi protocol, proven reliability and extensive transport, network and content quality analytics through Zixi Video Solutions stack. ZEN Master, the industry’s leading virtual control plane, allows remote users to maintain business continuity by enabling them to securely orchestrate, manage and monitor broadcast quality, low latency live video workflows from anywhere in the world. Visit https://zixi.com and https:// www.blackbird.video

IMF Packages that properly conform to specifications is a complex endeavor, and by automating the task, we ensure that humans and computers focus on the skills they are best at.” Vantage IMF Producer automatically creates well-formed supplemental IMF packages which can be sent to media management systems that can automatically extract the correct content for final distribution. IMF Producer can process up to four jobs simultaneously from Premiere Pro. Using Vantage Timed Text Flip, IMF Producer also provides full support for IMSC-1 Subtitles. The subtitle feature is required for IMF packages and is frequently missing from other solutions. Visit www.telestream.net

set up multiple computers for distributed rendering. Never before has creating a render farm for After Effects been so simple and painless. “We initially created RenderGarden for a specific project where our artists were working off-site with limited infrastructure and no ability to leverage our studio’s large render farm” explains Mekajiki and Swordfish founder, Matt Silverman. Visit www.mekajiki.com

RenderGarden Software for AE Artists

DEVELOPED BY SAN FRANCISCAN motion design studio, Swordfish, RenderGarden is a suite of tools for After Effects which takes advantage of all of the CPU cores in your Mac or PC, resulting in a significant speedup for your final renders. A typical 12-core workstation can see as much as a 4x speed increase depending on the project, and the more cores you have the more significant the speed up. In addition, RenderGarden’s muti-machine rendering functionality allows you to quickly

Facial and Body Motion Capture for Cinema 4D

MAXON HAS ANNOUNCED Moves by Maxon for the Apple App Store. The release follows Cineversity‘s facial capture app, CV-AR. Moves by

Maxon capitalises on the emerging technology of Apple’s AR-Toolkit, which enables users to capture facial motion and whole body movement, enabling artists to bring motion sequences into Cinema 4D with limited technical effort. The facial capturing app Cineversity CV-AR is still available as a separate product on the Apple App Store. However, designers who want full body motion capture are now able to use Moves by Maxon, an application that combines both technologies. Moves by Maxon is immediately available from the Apple App Store and is compatible with iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Plus, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPad Pro (3rd Generation). A separate plugin is required to transfer the captured data from your Apple device to Cinema 4D and can be downloaded for free from the Cineversity website. This plugin is only compatible with the latest version of Cinema 4D – Release 21, or later (instead of This plugin is only compatible with the latest version of Cinema 4D – Release 2, or later.). Visit www.maxon.net

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TELESTREAM, THE PROVIDER of workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring, and test and measurement solutions for the production and distribution of video, has announced Vantage IMF Producer, a Vantage option that automates the creation of IMF (Interoperable Master Format) packages from Adobe Premiere Pro, an industry leader in video editing. Using a Vantage panel within Adobe Premiere Pro provides direct access and significant workflow efficiencies for editors wishing to use Vantage’s comprehensive IMF processing and packaging.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM OTT a Silver Lining for Silver Trak C+T speaks to Christian Christiansen, COO of media supply chain provider Silver Trak Digital, about the resilience of streaming services during the COVID-19 crisis and the benefits of diversification. “INITIALLY, WHEN THE LOCKDOWN happened, we took a quite substantial financial hit,” says Silver Trak Digital’s Christian Christiansen. “We were involved – we still are involved in the DCP distribution market and we all know that the cinemas have basically been in lockdown. That business disappeared overnight more or less, or within a week. Another large part of our business was working with sporting organisations, and we are all aware of the trouble that they’ve hit with the lockdown and no sport. The initial hit was quite substantial, and was a shock to the system. “We had foreseen that changes were going to take place, and we worked for two to four weeks prior to the lockdown taking place, allowing the staff that could work from home to facilitate them to work from home. “After the initial shock, it was really business as usual. Our business was quite well diversified, and there are areas of the business that obviously have been very busy, such as delivering to OTT, AVOD, SVOD, and so forth. We’ve kept everyone busy, so that’s our offices in Australia. “In Malaysia, it was slightly different. They have had a really hard lockdown up there, and we’ve just come back and are actually quite busy with orders that we haven’t been able to work on up there. They’re still somewhat in lockdown, but everyone’s back in the office up there, and they’re actually quite busy as well. That was almost, I think, six to eight weeks that they were locked down, but all’s going well. We’ve got a new hire that started this week, and I think we’ll be really busy over the next two months up there, from what we can see.”

C+T: Besides staff working from home, what other measures have you taken to manage staff, offices, physical space? “I guess we got the ruler out, like everybody else did, and made sure that there was enough space between people. In general, we stagger work hours. The operational staff that had to come in and work in the business in the office, because of security and so forth around content, we’ve staggered their hours, and in general we tried to work with one person per room as much as we could. It hasn’t actually been so bad. I guess the biggest challenge we had was allowing all the staff to have the flexibility around being able to be at home when they were required to be at home for home-schooling, picking up kids, and delivering kids to wherever they were going. It’s been challenging in that sense to just manage to have people in the office to do the work that was required to be done, allowing people to meet their requirements at home – and that’s still, to some degree, ongoing.”

What effect have you seen on the OTT projects you’re working on?

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

“It’s been actually quite busy. There’s been a couple of platforms that’s made us really busy. I won’t mention any names, but they’ve certainly kept us busy. There’s staff that we had in Malaysia that, doing a lot of project management specifically around the Netflix work, have been able to do that from home. That’s worked out really well, and that’s kept them busy up there. In Australia, it’s been several platforms that kept us busy, and certainly we’ve seen a surge in the demand for content, for Australian content, for international platforms, and that’s been really good for us. There’s been a demand locally for Foxtel for 4K content, and that’s also kept us busy.

“Where we saw an immediate downturn in the business based on those two large sectors that disappeared overnight, I guess our business is well diversified and the other sectors have really picked up and everyone’s been busy. I’m proud to say that we haven’t had to lay off any staff, and the disruption to the business in general has been quite minimal. Yes. The initial two weeks were a bit of a shock for everyone.”

Did your clients bring in any new requirements as a result of the situation? “No, not really. A lot of the platforms that we deal with are international, so that hasn’t changed in how we get introduced to content providers and project

manage that content going to the platforms. I think that everyone in Australia has been quite positive in all the conversations that we’ve had with our clients and suppliers, is that everyone’s really been supporting each other. I think it’s certainly been Silver Trak Digital Chief Operating a goal for us to make sure that all Officer, Christian Christiansen. our clients come through this, and if we can help and support them to come through this in any way or form, whether that is reduce our cost to them, delay payments, support them with potentially free services and what-have-you, we’ve certainly been willing to do that. “We’ve been lucky, I guess, in the sense that we’ve had the Media Room platform that’s allowed us to continue working with our clients in the Cloud, and that’s been really, really worth the investments we’ve made over the years, and we have offered that to clients that traditionally has not been on the Media Room platform to use Media Room while they’ve been in lockdown at home. I’m proud to say that that platform has performed incredibly well.”

“I think that there’s been rumours that some cinema chains have been getting together and they’re actually going to get into the OTT market themselves.

How do you see this increase in OTT traffic going forward? “I can’t see it stopping. I think it’s the way of the future. I really hope that the cinemas get back because it’s a very, very different experience, and they’ll certainly have their challenges, but I think that it’s a market that’ll come back and come back strong.”

How are you guys feeling about the resumption of sport? “Good. I think that our sports clients, obviously they’ve been doing it very tough, and we’ve seen some staff that we’ve been dealing with are no longer there, unfortunately. I think sport’s going to come back, of course, and it’s going to be strong. I think the problem is we don’t know how long the tail of this pandemic will be, and the longer it goes on the harder it’s going to be for sport to come back. Sport is consumed in groups at venues, whether it’s the pub or whether it’s at a stadium or with a group of friends at home, and that’s obviously very, very challenging at the moment. The longer this pandemic goes on without a vaccine or solution, this is going to continue to hurt sport in terms of the codes getting sponsorships and television rights, and so forth. Eventually, we’ve got to get past this, we will get past this, and sport will come back really, really strong. “I think we’ve certainly done our part, I feel, to make sure that the media landscape’s not going to look that different at the other end, but no doubt there’s going to be some changes. For our size, with less than 100 staff, I think it’s been fairly easy for us to negate the problems that we’ve come up against in this pandemic, but I also know that for large media organisations, it’s been a much, much larger challenge. I hope everyone comes through at the other end, whether it’s based on business, common supports – and we worry about what’s happening in the US, of course, we worry about what’s happening in Europe. But I think that, at the moment, we’re doing really well in Australia and I think that the feedback we’re getting from our clients is that they’re all going to make it through at the other end, and that’s something I’m incredibly happy about.” Visit www.silvertrak.com.au

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Rohde & Schwarz Enhances SpycerNode Broadcast Storage System Avid Media Composer and R&S CLIPSTER. It seamlessly integrates the tools and creates its own “project mounts” for project management on SpycerNode. Access rights are assigned to users in order to guarantee content security and audit compliant software multi-tenancy. Smart linking mechanisms prevent redundant storage of assets from various projects in SpycerNode memory and sustainably reduce the storage capacity needed. In addition, rough cuts can be created quickly with the integrated web-based Preditor and then linked in the user’s preferred processing tool.

ROHDE & SCHWARZ has introduced two enhancements to its R&S SpycerNode media storage system. R&S SpycerPAM is a production asset management system that enables workgroup editing and seamless integration of various editing and mastering platforms. In addition, Rohde & Schwarz has introduced several new SpycerNode JBOD capacity extension units, which provide affordable storage capacity expansion for their other SpycerNode models. Up to two JBOD systems can be added to each of the SpycerNode 2U12, 2U24 and 5U84 systems.

all major creative applications. It makes workflows more efficient, especially for post-production companies. Managing access rights, proxy administration and avoiding multiple copies of assets are just a few of the challenges that complex productions may face. SpycerPAM addresses these issues and significantly simplifies project handling. It offers functions such as asset management, rights management, metadata management and proxy generation as well as many features that simplify collaboration such as project sharing, allowing users to focus on being creative.

SpycerPAM is a software extension of the SpycerNode storage platform that simplifies project management and integration of

SpycerPAM supports numerous production tools, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Avid Pro Tools,

According to Hannes Strobel, Vice President, Media Technologies at Rohde & Schwarz, “In SpycerPAM, we offer media specific applications to increase workflow efficiency in postproduction environments. In playout scenarios our unique virtual storage access (VSA) technology enables total storage redundancy to ensure seamless streaming without a single dropped frame. With a unique system hardware and software architecture, SpycerNode has a no single point of potential failure. And it is totally scalable from entry level to data centre set-ups. Utilising our market-leading development capabilities, SpycerNode is built to perform with constant bandwidth, low rebuild times, zero performance degradation over time and advanced self-diagnostic and healing capabilities.” Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com

Forensic Watermarking to Protect Short Form Content

MOG Announces Support for ProRes Formats

NAGRA HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of NexGuard ClipMark, a forensic watermarking technology designed to detect the source of pre-release content leaks on very short video clips, down to thirty seconds. The launch enables content owners and post-production houses to supplement existing NexGuard watermarking technologies for pre-release workflows and extend those capabilities to all types of high-value pre-release assets.

MOG TECHNOLOGIES, the supplier of end-to-end solutions for broadcasters and professional media, has announced full support of ProRes formats in all its Media Production product line.

NAGRA has partnered with industry-leading transcoder vendors to make NexGuard ClipMark available on premise and in the cloud in transcoder plug-ins. These partnerships ensure the seamless deployment into existing workflows, while leveraging the cloud-based NexGuard Detection Service for fast, highly scalable and fully automated detection of watermarks on any type of assets. NexGuard ClipMark is the latest addition to the suite of NexGuard forensic watermarking technologies designed to deter and combat leaks during premium content production, postproduction, promotion and distribution, including for direct-to-consumer services. It is a key component of NAGRA’s comprehensive line-up of solutions to guard against service and content piracy. Visit www.dtv.nagra.com

The release of products like MAM4PRO, mDECK and mxfSPEEDRAIL allows for content creators and producers to natively encode and decode high-quality ProRes content, with significantly reduced video file sizes while preserving full-frame 10-bit 4:2:2 quality. Products are now supporting Apple ProRes 4444 XQ, ProRes 4444, ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT, and ProRes 422 Proxy. These will also include high dynamic range modes HLG and HDR10 (2084 PQ) for better video experience, when available. Products supporting ProRes include: • mxfSPEEDRAIL – Professional Media Gateways • mediaCARD, mediaMOVE, mediaPLAY, mediaREC, mediaNDI • mDECK – Professional Media Decks • MAM4PRO – Digital Media Production • 4PRO mediaREC, 4PRO mediaMOVE, 4PRO mediaPLAY Visit www.mog-technologies.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

“NexGuard ClipMark is a game changer in the fight against pre-release leaks, enabling traceability of short form assets that previous watermarking technologies could not protect,” said Jean-Philippe Plantevin, Vice President Anti-Piracy at NAGRA. “While being very short in duration, most dailies, trailers and scenes extracted from proxy deliveries of full features or TV series are just as valuable as the mezzanine and master files. With NexGuard ClipMark, content owners and post-production houses have an extra tool to actively fight any prerelease leaks.”

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Frame.io Unveils v3.6 and Beta of Transfer App for Remote Workflows VIDEO REVIEW AND COLLABORATION platform, Frame.io, has announced the launch of Frame.io v3.6 (pictured above) along with a new application: Frame.io Transfer, now available in beta (pictured at bottom). Frame.io v3.6 offers new features designed to meet the fast-evolving needs of today’s remote workforce, with a particular focus on speed and security. The expanded toolset addresses demands for lightning-fast project downloads with the Frame.io Transfer app, adds enhanced and powerful security features like Watermark ID for Enterprise accounts, and continues to improve the overall collaborative experience with additional new features like iOS Offline Mode and Folder Sharing that make Frame. io the most intuitive workflow solution for video and creative teams.

Frame.io Transfer Beta for Mac and Windows Frame.io Transfer is a brand new file transfer app for both Mac and Windows. Available in beta, Transfer lets users download large files and sophisticated folder structures—even entire projects—with one click. It supports EDL and XML formats, so users can identify specific files, accelerating the process of relinking to original camera files for final conforms, color grading, or sharing assets for VFX. Transfer also makes it possible to monitor active downloads and to drag and drop to reprioritize their order. Finally, Transfer facilitates fast and secure downloads, regardless of unstable internet connections; if there’s a disruption mid-download, Transfer pauses and automatically resumes once reconnected.

Sharing More Secure & Streamlined Remote work has brought many new challenges, not the least of which is ensuring that high-value content is shared securely. Enterprise customers

can now secure Presentation and Review Links using Login-only access, which means that only specified recipients can view Share Links. Recipients will see a list of everything that’s been shared with them in Frame.io’s new Inbox, which offers a clean and focused view that’s especially useful for busy clients or executives.

Realtime & On-demand Security using Watermark ID Also announced in Frame.io v3.6 is Watermark ID, which provides customers the ultimate layer of visible security. When any viewer presses “Play,” Frame. io completes a realtime, on-demand transcode of the video with their personal identifying information burned into every frame. A two-hour video starts playing back in less than two seconds, providing peace of mind when sending work out for review.

Folder Sharing and New Move/Copy-to Flow Finally, users can now add folders to Review Links, allowing them to easily organize and share assets across teams or projects. Any changes made to folders after they are shared are dynamically updated in the Review Link. This is especially useful for teams who produce episodic content or programming that relies on a library of media. Frame.io also made it faster, easier, and more intuitive to organize assets with an improved “Move-to” and “Copy-to” flow. With this update, Frame.io users will now be able to see all the Presentations they’ve shared and access their settings from one organized list. The display shows folder sizes so users can see which are the heaviest projects at a glance, making it

ATTO Removes Obstacles to Storage Network Optimisation ATTO TECHNOLOGY, INC., the provider of network, storage connectivity and infrastructure solutions for data-intensive computing environments, has announced that Ethernet storage networks can be fully optimized within minutes when built with ATTO FastFrame 3 Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) and managed by ATTO 360 Tuning, Monitoring and Analytics Software. Up until now, Ethernet network technology has been a challenge to optimise even for seasoned professionals, who rely on multiple tools and often multiple people to keep a network working properly.

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

ATTO has removed the complexities of Ethernet network optimisation through an integration of hardware and software. The process is simplified in such a way that a single user can manage a diverse network from a single location with a minimum of effort. This efficiency is achieved through a combination of ATTO Ethernet hardware and ATTO 360 tuning software.

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ATTO 360 Tuning, Monitoring, and Analytics Software is an Ethernet network optimization application that unlocks the full potential of networks when used with ATTO FastFrame NICs and ATTO ThunderLink Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapters. With only a few clicks from a single management panel, ATTO 360 achieves the highest possible network performance with pre-configured tuning profiles and intelligent diagnostics that identify problems before they can occur. Supporting speeds up to 100GbE and with latency as low as one microsecond(1µs), endto-end quality of service, and congestion control, ATTO FastFrame 3 NICs are ideal for collaborative creative workflows, IT applications such as data analytics, high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, hyper-converged servers, large database analysis, and other latency-sensitive high-performance applications. ATTO 360 is available for macOS, Windows and Linux. Visit www.atto.com

easier to optimize projects and storage.

Smarter Notifications Save Users Time Frame.io v3.6 consolidates notifications made on the same video within short periods of time, grouping them together into one notification. Users can filter by “Read” or “Unread,” see comment previews, and scrub asset thumbnails to easily spot what needs to be reviewed or addressed.

Go Off the Grid with iOS Offline Mode “Offline Mode” for Frame.io’s iOS apps empowers users to truly work from anywhere. Simply tap a file to make it available offline, then review and leave comments – as soon as the app comes back online, comments are automatically synced to the project. Visit http://frame.io

FileCatalyst Announces Partnership with Dropbox FILECATALYST, the developer of managed file transfer solutions has announced that it has partnered with Dropbox to bring UDP accelerated file transfer capabilities to and from Dropbox. The newly launched FileCatalyst Direct v3.8, has the added capability to connect Dropbox as an External File System in the FileCatalyst Direct server. This will allow users to transfer their files at accelerated rates, through the power of UDP. Through this FileCatalyst integration with Dropbox, users gain access to the entire FileCatalyst application suite, which offers automation, customizable/brandable web portals, ad-hoc transfers, and centralized monitoring and administration, all at accelerated speeds. “We are excited to be partnering with Dropbox to provide customers with the ability to accelerate file transfers from Dropbox.” said Chris Bailey, CEO and co-founder at FileCatalyst, “As of FileCatalyst Direct v3.8, organisations can combine the file sharing and collaboration capabilities of Dropbox with file transfer speed, monitoring, administration, and reporting capabilities of FileCatalyst.” Visit www.filecatalyst.com/dropbox

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

Quantum’s StorNext Software Makes Cloud Content More Accessible, Speeds Data Retrieval QUANTUM CORP. HAS ANNOUNCED new advancements for its StorNext file system and data management software which are designed to make cloud content more accessible, with significantly improved read and write speeds for any cloud and object store-based storage solution. The new StorNext software features enable hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud storage use cases, delivering greater flexibility for media and entertainment and other data intensive environments such as genomics, academic research, video surveillance, oil and gas and government security. Quantum recently unveiled StorNext 6.4 software. This latest version of StorNext software advances Quantum’s software-defined product portfolio strategy and extends Quantum’s leadership in managing video and other unstructured data.

New: Cloud Content More Accessible Using Self-Describing Objects StorNext 6.4 software incorporates self-describing objects to make cloud content more easily accessible, enabling new hybrid-cloud workflows. The client writes files into StorNext file system then, based on policy, StorNext 6.4 software copies files to the public or private cloud, with the option to include additional object metadata. Non-StorNext software clients and cloud-resident processes may now access objects directly, leveraging the new extended metadata.

Cloud-based Standards Conversion of UHD Video Streams

INSYNC TECHNOLOGY HAS ANNOUNCED that the company is augmenting its FrameFormer Link software standards conversion engine with support for motion compensated frame rate conversion of live video streams.

Improved Retrieval Speed from Large Object Stores Multi-threaded put / get operations improve retrieval speed to and from large object stores and the cloud. Users can expect to see a 5X to 7X performance increase with StorNext 6.4 software, depending on the size of their objects and other factors. This feature enhances performance where single stream object performance is limited.

Other Features in StorNext 6.4 StorNext Dynamic Library Pooling: This feature improves resiliency for large tape archives, enabling the use of multiple libraries for performance and redundancy, including scale-out tape with vertical libraries like Quantum’s Scalar i6 tape library. Customers can rotate file stores to different libraries to increase availability. Support for AWS Glacier Deep Archive Service: Quantum’s StorNext 6.4 software adds support for Amazon Glacier Deep Archive to StorNext’s already-robust integration with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others. Visit www.quantum.com

Facilis Shared Storage v8 and FastTracker MAM v3.5

VERSION 8 OF THE FACILIS Shared Storage System includes softwaredefined Bandwidth Priority, SSD Tiering and Multi-disk Parity:

InSync Technology is currently working with a number of SaaS partners and expects the first availability of a cloud-based integrated service for live motion compensated frame rate conversion in 3Q 2020.

• Bandwidth Priority delivers full throughput to all workstations during normal operation but prioritizes workstations to maintain greater throughput when the server enters a high-load condition. This priority setting is dynamic and can affect client performance within seconds of applying. • SSD and HDD tiering was developed to deliver dedicated speed for projects needing SSD-level performance, while maintaining a perpetual HDD-based mirror. • Software-defined Multi-disk Parity can be enabled for up to 4 drive failures per drive group, on a virtual volume-basis. This technology allows owners of aging systems to better protect their assets from data loss due to drive failure. Facilis FastTracker v3.5 media asset management software continues to advance with file movement profiles, duplicate file reporting, and a secure browser interface. FastTracker can now flush and pre-fetch files and folders from cloud and LTO locations through the Object Cloud feature, while reporting the status of archived media. Facilis Object Cloud will introduce a new Multisite Sync feature that can bring together groups of editors on the same file system across multiple locations. Using the cloud storage included with the feature, projects can be shared and linked on remote workstations, as easily as linking to a local drive.

Visit www.insync.tv

Visit http://facilis.com

The new FrameFormer Link Live tool kit can be integrated into any live production automation or workflow management platform through its open API and can support live conversion of all formats up to and including UHD/4K. It can be deployed on premises or in any cloud environment and requires CPU-only processing, which is the optimum approach when instant availability of compute resources and scalability are key. As broadcasters and service providers increasingly look to host live event production and distribution in the cloud, FrameFormer Link Live fills one of the few remaining gaps in terms of the content processing chain. “We are bringing the unique ability to apply motion compensated frame rate conversion to live UHD streams in the cloud,” said Daryl Blair, Marketing Director of InSync Technology Ltd. “This evolution of our popular FrameFormer software engine can be easily integrated into any customer, partner, or service providers’ platform for the highest-quality conversions.”

iconik Interoperability with Amazon Web Services

Iconik’s interoperability with AWS provides a seamless and fully cloud-based media management workflow from ingest to storage. At the same time iconik is able to keep all of that media well organised, making it easy to find the right versions, collaborate with other stakeholders, and distribute to multiple platforms. Users are able to house media content within Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), while being able to access, edit, and share those

same assets from within iconik. Interoperability with AWS Elemental MediaConvert allows customers to easily and reliably transcode ondemand content for broadcast and multiscreen delivery. API integration with Amazon Rekognition means that iconik can analyse assets and apply time-based metadata tags based on the detail within that content, whether that is a specific item, environment, color, or portrayal of emotion. iconik also recently announced its new Versioning feature, which enables users to update the same assets concurrently whilst tracking update history and relevant conversations regarding the media. This feature allows users to streamline content editing and management by allowing

users to effortlessly revert to previous versions. A further addition to iconik is transcription support. Users will be able to automatically transcribe assets, with the transcriptions stored in the asset, making them searchable and browsable on a time code level. Parham Azimi, CEO, iconik, commented: “We are seeing a growing demand for hybrid architecture workflows, enabling much more efficient global collaboration. We recognize that our customers are continuously pushing the boundaries by finding new ways to produce, edit, and distribute content so we built a video platform to revolutionize media management and enable the future of media discovery.” Visit https://iconik.io

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MAM

SWEDISH DEVELOPER ICONIK has launched the latest version of its hybrid architecturebased media management hub featuring interoperability with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

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AUDIO Digital soundwaves

www.content-technology.com/audio

Studios 301 Re-Opens for Selected Attended Sessions LIKE MANY OTHER BUSINESSES over the last few months, Studios 301 had been forced to limit recording sessions in an effort to monitor the health and well-being of its clients, staff and community and due to concerns relating to the COVID-19 outbreak. As its extended community continues to adapt to the strict COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, Studios 301 is now offering selected attended sessions with its engineers exclusively from one of Australia’s largest studio spaces, Studio 1. According to Studios 301 management, “These recording sessions must abide by our Studios 301 policy which directly references the Australian Government guidelines and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) health alert regarding

social distancing and hygiene. “This includes strict limits to the number of people attending a session, attendees remaining 1.5 meters apart in line with social distancing measures, and that travel to the studio must not be by public transport. Strict cleaning must be carried out on surfaces and equipment, and any attendees must wash their hands on arrival to the studio and regularly

throughout the day.” “Additionally, we encourage clients and artists to work with us remotely and utilise our online mixing and mastering services where they can.” Visit https://studios301.com

Deluxe Launches One Dub, Enabling Remote Audio Cloud Recording DELUXE ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES has announced the launch of One Dub, a remote audio cloud recording tool that brings professional, frame-accurate audio recording directly to the web browsers of voice actors, technicians and directors. A module of the Deluxe One platform, One Dub leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud technology to provide a flexible and seamless experience to creative teams, post-production facilities and dubbing studios as they acclimate to working remotely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “With a majority of the industry currently working remotely, we are leveraging cloud innovation to empower our partners to continue cultivating creativity and delivering high-quality work for clients and audiences,” said Chris Reynolds, Deluxe’s SVP and GM, Localization. “Developed

in partnership with creatives, technicians, and content owners, One Dub is something we have been refining over the last several months, and with the impact of COVID-19, we quickly mobilised to finalise it for launch to our partners. In addition to providing immediate relief to dubbing studios shifting to remote workflows, One Dub will deliver long-term benefits as a means to extend their operations and physical facilities after they reopen.” As streaming consumption rises, dubbing studios can leverage One Dub to continue production on content in the pipeline and meet increased OTT demands. One Dub enables teams to remotely work with ultra-secure streaming video playback, on-screen editable scripts and intuitive record/ edit functions in industry-standard 24bit/48khz quality. Video files accessible via One Dub are

not downloadable through the app and feature user-specific visual and forensic watermarking, along with DRM (Digital Rights Management) for optimum security. The tool does not require any additional software – collaborators receive a secure link that lets them work in a web browser with zero-latency recording. With the launch of One Dub, Deluxe will offer virtual training sessions to dubbing studios, teaching professionals how to manage the plug-and-play application. This guidance will ensure seamless integration with digital audio workstations and editing applications within existing workflows. Visit https://www.bydeluxe.com/en/one/deluxelocalization-service-stacks/

Wohler Launches 16-Channel Audio/Video Monitor

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WOHLER TECHNOLOGIES has launched a budget priced 16 channel audio/video monitor, available for shipment in July.

MADI64 (incl a fibre option), SMPTE 2110 and 2022.

The new iVAM1-1 can monitor and meter up to 16 channels of 3G-SDI audio and video, plus 2 channels of analogue audio in a compact 1u format. Utilising a single 2.4” touch screen, operators may toggle between video, meters and menus. A HDMI output allows additional monitoring of the currently monitored video source, while analogue XLR, headphone and selected 3G-SDI outputs are also included as standard.

A single 2.4” touch screen front panel utilizes mature design philosophies from previous iAM Series products, while physical front panel controls provide access to main volume, balance, and auxiliary controls to supplement touch controls. Individual audio channels may be summed, soloed or muted by touch or mechanical control, in line with functionality of previous iAM Series units (iAM MIX, iAM AUDIO, iAM VIDEO, iAM-12G-SDI).

technologies and a network interface allows for remote management while APIs allow for easy integration with 3rd party controllers – the perfect solution for any application that requires a compact and budget friendly unit for monitoring an evolving range of professional signals.

Upgrade options are available for those who want to add flexibility for monitoring AES3,

A front mounted USB port is provided for software updates to support new and emerging

Visit https://www.wohler.com/product/audiomonitoring/ivam1-1/

AUDIO

THE NEXT STAGE IN SOUND.

Axient Digital defies limitations for both RF and audio excellence. With an industry-leading 2 ms of latency*, linear transient response, and wide dynamic range, nothing gets in the way of true, pure sound. Learn more at shure.com/axientdigital *From transducer to analog output, in standard transmission mode. ÂŠ 2018 Shure Incorporated

www.jands.com.au

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AUDIO

CEDAR Announces Cambridge v13 CEDAR AUDIO has announced the availability of CEDAR Cambridge v13 – the latest incarnation of its audio restoration, noise reduction and speech enhancement system, used worldwide for audio forensics, in sound libraries and archives, as well as for premastering and in other areas where the highest processing quality is required. This update includes: • The introduction of INR, the most powerful impulse noise eliminator we’ve ever developed

capabilities to CEDAR’s spectral editor.

• Retouch 8: the next era in spectral editing

There are many occasions when you will encounter similar instances of unwanted sounds in a track – things such as hi-hat spill in a multi-track recording, over-excited sibilants and plosives in a vocal track, or even the repetitive noise caused by a piece of machinery in the background. Traditionally, one would remove these by identifying each event individually and then defining it manually prior to processing. This is very time consuming.

• The introduction of PDF reporting • Other processes upgraded for improved performance.

New Module – INR INR is a real-time Impulse Noise Reduction module that was developed as a more powerful alternative to Declickle. It digs deeper into the signal to remove clicks and noise bursts that Declickle cannot and, while its primary use is in the forensic arena, it can also be used for badly degraded commercial audio such as optical sound tracks with noisy clicks and bursts that are not recognised by other declickers. If you are working with material that contains very fast, high energy transients such as percussion and plucked sounds, INR’s transient modelling protects these during processing, retaining their energy even when heavy processing is applied. Similarly, the harmonic modelling allows INR to remove clicks and bursts accurately in the presence of harmonic signals such as music and strong tones.

Retouch 8 – the Next Era in Spectral Editing CEDAR says it invented spectral editing and still holds the patents to it. But not content to leave things as they were, it has continued for two decades to research ways to improve it, over the years making it faster and easier to use, as well as much more productive in a wider range of settings. Retouch 8 adds two fundamental new

Matching: Applying machine learning to identify problems

Match allows users to mark one of the offending sounds and then ask the machine learning algorithm in Retouch 8 to find all of the other instances within the recording. A threshold control even allows you to bias its decision making toward including more or fewer possibilities so that you can find the level that includes everything that you want to remove but precludes events that seem similar but are actually wanted signal. Having identified all of the matches, you can then eliminate them using the appropriate Retouch tool. You can process them individually, authorising and applying the chosen tool to each, or you can process all of the matches as a group, whereupon Retouch 8 will fly through the whole file in a tiny fraction of the time needed with human intervention. The increase in productivity is remarkable.

Repair: Putting the AI into Spectral Repair With traditional spectral editing, you may want to suppress or eliminate a noise, but interpolation

doesn’t work quite as well as you want, you can’t patch it, and if you attenuate the whole region you create a hole in the audio that generates an audible artefact. Using artificial intelligence, CEDAR’s Repair function can suppress the event while leaving the background untouched. Just mark the sound and some of the surrounding signal and then use the single knob to suppress it or even completely eliminate it. Unlike other spectral editing tools, only the significant signal within the region is identified and processed; all low-level signals as well as the ambience are left unaffected. Alternatively, you may have a clip in which there’s something – for example, a quiet word or some other understated sound – that you might like to bring to the foreground. Repair allows you to do this too. Just amplify the event while leaving the rest of the signal unaffected.

PDF Reporting One of the most frequently requested upgrades for CEDAR Cambridge, PDF reporting allows users to output reports as standard PDF files as well as the HTML files and XML files that can be used to generate bespoke databases and reports. This is particularly useful if you’re using multiregion processing with the reporting system as a transcription system. You can also generate individual reports for every track processed by the Batch Processor and send these to the destinations of your choice. Visit www.cedaraudio.com

Noise Suppression Plugin

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SOUND DEVICES has announced the NoiseAssist Noise Suppression Plugin for its 8-Series mixerrecorders. NoiseAssist is an advanced signal processing algorithm that reduces background noises such as traffic, generators, HVAC noise, and more. It features a simple user interface with only one adjustment, the amount of background noise to suppress.

NoiseAssist automatically and continuously monitors the background noise independently from the desired speech in the signal. There is no need to ‘learn’ the signal, as this is done automatically. NoiseAssist very accurately discriminates between the desired speech signal and background noise through proprietary advanced multi-band frequency, level, and statistical calculations. The background noise and

reverberation can then be seamlessly suppressed by a user-selectable dB level without affecting the desired speech signal. This is all done in real time with just 1 ms of latency, thanks to the 8-Series’ high-horsepower FPGA processing.

a BSEE from University of Illinois, ChampaignUrbana. Between the two of them, Steve and Matt collectively hold over 20 patents, and have several decades of experience designing audio algorithms and systems.

Up to two instances of NoiseAssist can run on any combination of isolated channels (excluding 17-32 on Scorpio), bus L, or bus R. NoiseAssist maintains the two independent audio channels’ excellent frequency bandwidth, while effectively suppressing the background noise and reverberation.

The optional NoiseAssist plugin is compatible with all 8-Series mixer-recorders running firmware version 5.00 or higher, which may be downloaded from www.sounddevices.com/ download. Firmware version 5.00 also includes support for the Sonosax SX-LC8+ Control Surface.

This algorithm is the result of two years of in-house research and development by Staff Engineer Steve Popovich and CEO/President Matt Anderson. Steve holds a BSEE, MSEE, and PhD in EE from UW-Madison and Matt holds

Visit https://www.sounddevices.com/

8-Series users may visit http://store. sounddevices.com/product/noiseassist to hear a demo of the plugin and purchase NoiseAssist for their mixer-recorder.

AUDIO

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AUDIO

Solid State Logic Delivers S300 Broadcast Audio Console SOLID STATE LOGIC (SSL)has announced the release of the new S300-48 fixed layout 48+1 fader compact control surface. Providing a muchrequested addition to the S300 console family, it can be combined with the complete portfolio of SSL’s System T consoles, remote tiles and screen interfaces, Tempest Processing Engines, and Network I/O options. The expanded console configuration is designed to integrate with larger System T installations or in stand-alone configurations for smaller broadcast facilities or OB vehicles. The S300-48 provides a larger fader count and multi operator usage in the System T S300 form

factor. Channel metering directly above each fader provides direct monitoring and control of signals on the current surface layers, with an overview providing metering of console wide signals. System T’s unique modular approach allows all surface variants to utilise the same software, providing full flexibility and interoperability across the entire range. This includes access to all features including full AoIP routing from the console, DAW control, immersive audio, Dynamic Automation, Access Control, Event Manager, Scene Automation and a fully featured onboard Effects Rack.

AoIP functionality is further enhanced with Dante and DDM support directly in the console software. All System T and Network I/O devices simultaneously support Dante, ST 2110, ST 2022-7, ST 2059-2, PTPv2 and PTPv1. AoIP routing is available from the console software with immediate discovery of stageboxes and the ability to resource share directly from the console, leveraging the benefits of a dynamic IP infrastructure. Visit www.solidstatelogic.com

AMS Neve Introduces 1073OPX Mic Pre-amp TO MARK THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of its legendary 1073 microphone preamp, AMS Neve has brought the story full circle with the launch of the 1073OPX, a brand-new Octal Microphone/Line/Instrument Preamplifier that designed to meet the needs of the modern studio environment. The analogue and digital monitor signal path of the 1073OPX allows it to be used as a complete standalone I/O interface or as a live room remote preamp with a full, latency-free monitoring cue mix signal path. The optional digital I/O card comes with Neve’s industry-revered masteringgrade converters with up to 192kHz/24-Bit A/D conversion over USB connection. This ensures that the unit can be used as a Primary Audio Interface

to any connected DAWenabled computer, as well as Primary and Secondary Dante connectivity for Audio-over-IP applications. Key features include: • 8 Channels of remote-controlled 1073 Mic/ Line/Instrument Preamplifiers. • Exclusive Neve Marinair transformers on both the Line and Microphone input. • Remote control software can control up to 8 1073 OPX racks at a time (64 preamps!) • Automatic Total Recall of all settings. • Front Transformer-coupled Mic/Line combi input

Open-Source AI Tool Analyses Samples and Loops IN COLLABORATION WITH Dr. Scott Hawley, Physics Professor at Belmont University, Art+Logic has unveiled Vibrary, a software platform which uses machine learning to analyse short samples and loops. Its design makes it easy for producers, composers, and musicians to train their own models and classify sounds by sound, genre, feel or other characteristics, defined by users’ needs and preferences. The open-source AI tool features a helpful interface to make training algorithms accessible to anyone with a computer, internet connection, and a massive sound library.

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“Much of the technology involved is straightforward, but what is unique about us is that we built a user-friendly utility that lets people train their own AI,” explains Hawley.

Before Art+Logic embraced the project for its incubator initiative, Hawley had been playing around with algorithms and audio files for years, a hobby, of sorts, of the busy physics professor and musician. He dug into the work of top researchers using spectrograms, the visual representations of sound, as objects for algorithmic classification. It enabled him to

find and tag sounds in a massive, confusinglylabelled sample and patch library, something producers and composers often struggle with. He dubbed his experiments Panotti, named for the big-eared people of medieval legend, and eventually he took his prototypes to Nashville’s ASPIRE Research Co-op, a gathering dedicated to audio innovation. He and his fellow researchers worked to improve Panotti. There was a problem, however. Hawley’s model gave good results, but it was a pain to set up and train. Hawley imagined a better way, one accessible to audio pros, and Art+Logic helped him find it, creating a simple, attractive interface. This interface ensures Vibrary leaps past a major sticking point for many specialised machine learning projects: Domain experts aren’t data scientists, and data scientists may have no clue how domain experts use or perceive the data. Vibrary empowers audio pros to build their own AI without a data-science background. Visit www.artandlogic.com

• Rear Transformer-coupled Mic/Line D-Type connection • 80Hz High pass filter • -25dB pad • Phase flip • Smart Phantom Power control • Hi/Lo Impedance selector from 300Ω to 1.3KΩ • Separate stereo monitor path with Independent level control Visit https://www.ams-neve.com

RTW Adds SMPTE ST 2110 to TouchMonitors

RTW HAS ADDED SMPTE ST 2110 compliance to its Dante- and Ravenna-compatible TouchMonitors, the TM7 and TM9. New TM-Dante and TM-Ravenna units will ship with ST 2110 functionality, and existing owners will be able to add this option via a free firmware update. “ST 2110 is the latest standard within Audio and Video over IP and we expect it to replace SDI solutions over time,” says Mike Kahsnitz, RTW Senior Director of Product Management. “SMPTE ST 2110 is a major contributing factor in the development toward a single IP-based mechanism for the professional broadcaster. Like SDI, it carries audio, as well as video and metadata, but unlike SDI, it is based on IP technology, which makes it a true network, rather than point-to-point. Broadcast is beginning to make a shift toward a truly networked infrastructure and we obviously want to continue developing our solutions accordingly. In conclusion, truly professional audio meters are now available for broadcasters and content providers that are adopting the new IP-based infrastructure.” The ST 2110-compliant TM-Dante and TM-Ravenna meters are now available worldwide. Visit www.rtw.com

RADIO The original broadcast media

www.content-technology.com/radio

ARN Launches Dynamic Audio Advertising Technology

The technology gives ARN the capability to provide dynamically targeted advertising on AM, FM and DAB+ radio in real time, ensuring the messaging is relevant, engaging and timely. The technology was developed in partnership with A Million Ads, a developer of dynamic audio technology. ARN is the exclusive production partner of A Million Ads in Australia, having already implemented its dynamic technology across the iHeartRadio Australia app. ARN says research has shown that compared to non-targeted messaging, this new technology delivers a 52% uplift in advertisement recall, a 49% increase in engagement and a 240% increase in customer conversions. The rollout of ARN Dynamic Audio, across AM, FM, DAB+ and iHeartRadio, is part of ARN’s long-term strategy to expand and diversify its comprehensive commercial offering for clients

AES67 Remote Monitoring Solution AUSTRALIAN COMPANY CLOUDCAST SYSTEMS has launched RemotePlay, an AES67 remote monitoring solution which can be used with smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. According to the company, “During the current COVID pandemic, the ability to listen to your sources remotely has clearly come up across the world and, for a lot of broadcasters, and it was really one part of the IP domain that was untouched. There’s plenty of products out there that will do IP monitoring on-site but nothing from your home or from the comfort of your lounge.” RemotePlay sits inside a station’s IP audio network and listens to either the Session Announcement Protocol, or Apple’s Bonjour, or the Livewire Announcement Protocol, and presents users with a list of audio sources that are on the multicast domain. Users ‘subscribe’ to the multicast, then RemotePlay takes that audio and encodes it using Opus and then sends it to either a smartphone, mobile device or your desktop. The application enables engineering/technical staff, as well as content and programming-type staff, to be able to listen to their stations, particularly if they’re not in that market. Audio is streamed to browsers in real time with low latency and can be made available via the public internet if so desired.

with more personalised creative campaigns. Another key part of this strategy is the use of the interactive ShakeMe audio advertising technology which allows audiences to ‘connect’ with an ad by responding immediately to a call to action either by shaking their mobile phone or using a voice command.

Ads said, “Personalisation is the next frontier in advertising so it’s great to be able to bring it to ARN’s broadcast platforms as well as streaming and podcasts. Partnering with ARN was an obvious choice for us as they share our vision of a personalised future, driven by data and great creative that helps clients stand out.”

ARN’s Chief Commercial Officer Pete Whitehead said: “ARN’s implementation of ARN Dynamic Audio via our partnership with A Million Ads is revolutionary. Never before has a media company been able to automatically deliver tailored advertising to radio audiences in real time, but that is exactly what ARN can now do. We can help advertisers send the right message, to the right audience at the right time… in real time. This technology can be applied by ARN for any client across any industry, whether it’s a retail business who want to advertise a sale or a food delivery business who has a new menu item they want their customers to try. The increased conversion of personalised, real-time messaging is undisputed and will radically change the way we help our clients connect with audiences, through AM, FM, DAB+ and iHeartRadio.”

On the implementation of ShakeMe technology, ARN’s Chief Commercial Officer Pete Whitehead continues, “What is so exciting about the ShakeMe technology for our clients is we have removed all barriers that usually come following traditional advertising’s call to action. For example, a person listening to an ad for a new car can now simply shake their phone or give a voice command to open a website, get directions to their nearest dealership or even call the dealership directly – making it easier than ever for our advertisers to ‘close the loop’. A listener doesn’t even have to unlock their phone or look at their screen to access an advertiser’s offer. Visit https://www.arn.com.au and https://www.amillionads.com/

Steve Dunlop, Founder and CEO of A Million

CUSTOM AUDIO LISTS

USER AUTHENTICATION

PLAY CONTROL

AUDIO METERS

The app also includes a custom audio list builder which enables streams to be labelled according to the needs of the listener. For example, ‘Studio 1 program bus’ for technical staff might make more sense as ‘On-Air Output’ to programmers. Permissions can also be assigned to streams so that only authorised staff are able to gain access. The company has also developed Broadcast Profanity Delay software which allows users to run up to six Profanity Delay units on a single windows machine. Features include: expand and compress modes; censor tone insertion; email notifications with dumped audio; and compatibility with Axia, Wheatstone and

Ember+ control protocols. Meanwhile, the company’s Emergency Player is a windows-based service which allows up to six concurrent players running on a single PC. Emergency Player offers a range of features, including: built-in silence detection and audio player; Station position-er injector; Email notifications; Built-in Shoutcast Streamer for remote listening; External Control via control protocol; and Axia GPIO and Audio BlackOut which allows for special events of extended silence Visit https://cloudcastsystems.com.au/

RADIO

AUSTRALIAN RADIO NETWORK (ARN) has launched ARN Dynamic Audio which the company says is a “world-first dynamic advertising technology that delivers more personalised and measurable campaigns for ARN’s radio clients”.

RADIO

GatesAir and StreamGuys Translate GPIO Triggers into Streaming Metadata

GATESAIR HAS PARTNERED with StreamGuys to automate server-side applications in the cloud for broadcasters moving live AM/FM audio over IP networks. The technical innovation translates GPIO contact closures into in-stream metadata, enabling server-side ad breaks, program recordings and other functionality without physical intervention. StreamGuys, a provider of SaaS-based streaming and podcast solutions, will receive and interface server-side cloud services as program streams move between send and receive sites. GatesAir Intraplex IP Link codecs will provide the connectivity and audio transport between locations, with the added protection of stream redundancy and network resiliency from Intraplex Dynamic Stream Splicing software. “We are not aware of other broadcast codecs that can translate physical GPIO triggers into streaming metadata,” said Eduardo Martinez, Director of Technology, StreamGuys. “This opens a variety of new revenue models and production workflows, such as customers that want to support ad triggers or automate content publishing. It establishes a path to enhance traditional STL and satellite-based workflows in the digital domain. These solutions also provide a simpler yet secure architecture for broadcast networks receiving live feeds direct from a sports team, a remote content producer, or an at-home broadcaster.” IP Link users can flexibly configure up to eight GPIOs for triggered events within the codec’s firmware at the send location. Each built-in contact closure can be mapped with a unique, customised metadata string, and sent in-band with the encoded stream. The codec supports both Icecast and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) streaming formats with Dynamic Stream Splicing and works in conjunction with GatesAir’s cloud-based Intraplex Ascent server for added reliability. At the server side, StreamGuys receives the audio and translated metadata flow that identifies an ad break within the live feed, triggering midrolls as part of a dynamic ad insertion strategy. As metadata is used for digital signalling and switching, users can also trigger server-side program recordings and air checks. Furthermore, a delimiter function supports sending multiple contact closures to more receive locations, including streaming servers that replicate live AM/FM streams online. According to Keyur Parikh, Vice President of Engineering for GatesAir, this provides a foundation for terrestrial broadcasters to launch a new simulcast streaming service, podcast or side channel when using StreamGuys’ cloud-based SGrecast platform

for advanced content repurposing. A new auto-publishing feature within SGrecast’s Audio Logger can also reuse live ad triggers to dynamically monetize podcasts, without requiring post-production work. “Intraplex customers now have the unique ability to take advantage of cloud-based revenue-enhancing services,” said Parikh. “Built-in transcoding and transmuxing capabilities will allow our customers to use the same encoding device to generate multiple streams of the same content with different encoding and stream formats.” One example, according to GatesAir CEO Bruce D. Swail, would allow radio stations to support IP STL connections and web streaming from the same platform. “Working with StreamGuys, GatesAir has co-developed a highly configurable and extensible, standards-based solution that brings traditional trigger-based services and events into the cloud,” said Swail. “Our customers can now take advantage of advanced, dynamic server-side ad insertion and recording without added latency, and with the secure and reliable transport of Icecast streaming or redundant Dynamic Stream Splicing software.” GatesAir and StreamGuys recently co-presented “Using Contact Closures to Improve Streaming Workflows,” a special webinar exploring their joint solution and its benefits for broadcasters. It is available on-demand at https://www.gatesair.com/media-center/webinars. “GPIO contact closures are a radio industry standard for switching hardware and signaling workflows, while live-streaming media uses metadata for the same functionality,” said Kiriki Delany, President. StreamGuys. “These workflows have operated in parallel for too long. GatesAir and StreamGuys will change this by bridging the physical and digital domains with unified solutions for radio and streaming media.” Visit www.streamguys.com and www.gatesair.com

Liquid-Cooled Transmitter for FM and HD Radio

RADIO

ROHDE & SCHWARZ HAS UNVEILED a number of strategic enhancements to its THR9 liquid-cooled transmitter for FM and HD Radio applications.

With the latest version of the R&S THR9 transmitter not only are the transistors liquid-cooled but also the entire power amplifier stage, including power supplies, coupling units and absorbers. Consequently, the power amplifier stage of the THR9 has no moving parts which may break, nor can it introduce humidity and dust to the amplifier units. Rohde & Schwarz’s fully redundant liquid cooling technology generates lower electrical costs for cooling and ventilation, features a smaller footprint and offers increased reliability. The THR9 transmitter is designed for permanent reliable operation at 45°C/113°F at full output power. At 40kW output power only 1kW of heat is dissipated into the environment, so air conditioning requirements are minimal. The unit’s footprint is comparable with competitive systems that offer 20 kW less output. Importantly, the THR9 runs on architecture that is independent of Microsoft Windows for all HD Radio entities including its Importer,

Exporter and Exgine. As a consequence, users of this fully professional solution are not dependent on the availability of security patches for MS Windows for reliable efficient operation. Compared with rival manufacturers, Rohde & Schwarz’s HD Radio transmitter is significantly more robust and provides a richer feature set. For HD Radio applications, the THR9 features a new HD Sync functionality, which provides automatic alignment of the HD Radio Diversity Delay between the analogue and digital signals of a radio station. Developed by Rohde & Schwarz, HD Sync eliminates unwanted blending artifacts that can degrade the listening experience and prevent recurring and extensive time alignment procedures for station engineers. HD Sync for Exporter ensures full compliance to the HD Radio time alignment specifications, which means the analogue and digital signal time alignment is always in the permitted range of –3 to +3 samples and is fully automatic. This minimizes stress for engineers, reduces costs for station owners and enhances listener experience, especially when receiving radio in an area of weak digital but still strong analogue coverage. For optimum operation, the THR9 works in unison with the R&S RelayCaster solution, which enables the use of public internet connections for the STL (Studio Transmitter Link) of HD Radio transmitters. As a result, dedicated and expensive IP links for the feeding I2E or E2X streams are not necessary, helping radio stations to reduce infrastructure costs while not compromising reliability nor transmission quality. Visit www.rohde-schwarz.com

RADIO

IP STL Solution AVW HAS ANNOUNCED availability of the Sigmacom uncompressed EtherMPX Encoder/Decoder IP STL solution in Australia. EtherMPX is primarily designed MPX over IP applications with the linearity and latency control to make it excellent for SFN applications. According to AVW Global CTO Murray Hunt said “Providing cost effective, low latency IP STL’s for radio broadcasters is the aim of the Sigmacom EtherMPX encoder-decoder. Being an uncompressed format there is freedom from modulation overshoot present on many bitrate reduced or compression based networks. “As the link can carry left/right audio, AES3 audio or baseband/mux from a studio’s stereo generator and processor, it provides a no-compromises-

needed approach to audio transmission using cost-effective IP transport. Carry it on your WAN or IP radios.” Sigmacom Chief Engineer, Stilianos Kirkalas, suggests not to compare IP based Radio STL’s with internet audio streaming of 128kbps mp3 with 20 seconds of buffering. “The Sigmacom system is uncompressed real time audio traffic for improved quality and performance,” he says. “EtherMPX with SFN+GPS options, offers higher accuracy (+/-35nS) and is more economical (-60% in MSRP terms) compared to any other available solution in the market today.” Visit www.avw.com.au

Logitek Expands mixIT Series with 6-Fader and 12-Fader Systems Designed specifically for Radio, mixIT-6 and mixIT-12 systems include a tabletop-mounted console along with the rack-mounted JET67 engine. As with Logitek’s award-winning Helix consoles, mixIT consoles provide metering, source selection and scene selects via 7” touchscreens above the faders (mixIT-6 has one touchscreeen; two are provided with mixIT-12). On-board router widgets enable easy selection of transmission, recording or codec feeds. Controls are also provided for talkback to Studio / Remote, Monitor (control room, studio and headphone) and the console’s built-in cue speaker. A program meter simplifies operation by providing indicators for “too high / too low”, enabling at-a-glance setting of optimum levels. The included 1 RU JET67 engine provides multi-format networking via builtin AES67, Ravenna, Livewire and Logitek’s JetNet. A Dante option is planned

for later in the year. The JET67 provides multiple analog and digital inputs and outputs, mic inputs with phantom power, multiple mix-minus buses, and EQ/Dynamics control along with routing functions. Connections to/from JET67 are made via quick-wire terminal blocks. Consoles are also available individually for expansion of other Logitek console systems, which are based on the JetStream routing platform. “mixIT-6 and mixIT-12 are perfect solutions for small broadcast operations or smaller studios in a large broadcast complex, with no hidden surprises in the equipment costs,” said Tag Borland, Logitek President. “Many budgetpriced consoles require the purchase of external microphone processors, dynamics processing or even networking options. mixIT includes all of the electronic equipment needed to get on-air, offering an intuitive interface for operators while providing easy networking with other studios.” Visit www.logitekaudio.com

RADIO

LOGITEK’S MIXIT console series, the company’s budget-priced console which includes the convenience of touchscreen control plus networking, are now available in both 6-fader and 12-fader system sizes.

CONTENT DELIVERY Terrestrial, Mobile, Broadband

www.content-technology.com/transmission

Feeding Binge: Under the Hood of Australia’s Latest SVOD Launch By Phil Sandberg THE FOXTEL GROUP, through Streamotion, the company behind the Kayo Sports service, has launched BINGE, Australia’s newest on-demand streaming service. The service offers more than 10,000 hours of ad-free on demand content, and there are three pricing tiers starting at AUD$10 per month (1 stream, SD), $14 per month (2 streams, HD) and $18 per month (4 streams, HD).

customer management piece.

According to Les Wigan, Chief Operating Officer of Streamotion, the Binge journey began some two years ago with the build of the core platform underpinning Kayo Sports.

“Probably the thing that we’ve had to add to the service is things such as the things you would expect from an entertainment service, resume watching, be able to – if you’re halfway watching a show on one device when you come back from another device you can continue watching, creating your Binge lists, your Continue Watching lists. All of those things that you would expect to see in an entertainment service are things that we have to build out onto the platform into your unique profile ID, to enable you to do that. We have to add some things onto it for sure.”

“We’ve been extremely proud and we know the user feedback from that product has been really, really positive,” says Wigan. “Over the last 12 months since launching Kayo, we’ve been busy building Binge on top of that same core platform, so in terms of all the backend technology, all the subscriber management operations, customer service component of it, really has all been built off that core pillar platform and then, obviously, we’ve built our new apps and a new product experience for Binge that was much more for an entertainment SVOD service.”

C+T: What components of Kayo were you able to leverage for Binge?

CONTENT DELIVERY

“A lot of it was kind of under the bonnet, so all the video – if you think about it from the beginning of the technology stack and the whole ingest and management of content, the encoding of the video content, the playing out of all that video, from that perspective, has all been able to be leveraged off the work that we’ve done for Kayo Sports.

“So, while delivering a streaming service for an entertainment SVOD service is different to live sport, I think everyone probably understands live sport is highly complex in terms of the volume, the concurrency of sport, so we’ve been able to take the automation and the management of all that content, the ingest, the management, the encoding of all that content, and the playout of all that content all off the core capability that we built for Kayo Sports, which is all done in the Cloud, it’s all done with AWS, so we don’t really have anything on prem here. It’s all managed in the Cloud, and a lot of it is automated, so we can do it with a pretty tight team and then make that content available to our curation and concept management team, who are then publishing the content, creating the posters and the experience for you to act from that perspective. Certainly, the bottom end of the stack was all completely leveraged, and it also adds the customer service side of things, so all the customer service operations and

“95 percent of our customers never have to email or live chat with anyone. We’ve replicated that model with Binge and it’s all about making the customer’s experience seamless so if they do have an issue, which invariably does happen, they can self-manage and be back watching within minutes, not having to wait to talk to people and all of that sort of stuff.

Can you talk me through the content workflow? “We have a lot of partners who either supply directly the content, either through the live channel playout that they might have that’s coming into our playout centre or alternatively it might be delivered as SVOD kind of services. So, that content is supplied, it’s all rights managed, in terms of the rights management system that we have, so that then triggers what we’re allowed to ingest into the Binge centre if you like, into our CMS System, and then essentially what we’re then doing is taking that video content and encoding it in all the different formats and using all the compression technology that our partners have got, particularly with Amazon, to then create the formats that we need to play it out in. It could be SD, varying levels of HD 720, 1080, et cetera. That content is then encoded, then made available, and then our Content Management team then effectively creates the posters and the experience, the gateway for the consumer to kind of navigate and get into it, and the video maps to that poster and then it’s published in our Content Management system and made available via our publishers online and the consumer can then go and watch it on the device that they’re consuming it on.”

The content management system, is that a dedicated Binge CMS, or are you leveraging off what Foxtel may have? “No. We’ve probably got about 18 different systems that we use that make what Binge and Kayo Sports are, so the content CMS component of it is one component and the way we’ve built both Kayo and Binge is a very modular, agile kind of building block, so we can take

Streamotion Chief Operating Officer Les Wigan.

blocks out and replace them with other blocks. The Content Management system we use is a company called Vimond, it’s out of the box content management system for OTT services. It’s a service that we have for Kayo Sports but it’s a brand new instance that we create so if you think about the interface or the publisher, live sports have high volume coming in over peak times, so the interface that they want to use to be able to publish and move the sport around, particularly high volume concurrent sports, is quite different on an SVOD service where, given the nature of the content coming in, you can plan and you can publish things more differently. It’s the same Content Management system but we have different instances for both Kayo Sports and for Binge that our respective publishing teams use.”

In the launch presentation there was reference made to “killing the scroll”. How did you arrive at the UI? “We did a lot of research. We spent a lot of time with consumers asking them what they liked about the current services they use and also, where some of their frustrations were in terms of their experience. We got a couple of key messages out of it. The messages were, for a segment of the audience, the algorithms had kind of taken control of some of the viewing experience and they weren’t able to necessarily influence or direct or give feedback to say, ‘Stop providing me similar content to the show that I liked.’ We’ve got classic examples where you might get into watching something, one or two episodes of a type of drama, and all of a sudden that’s what you’re flooded with and that may not be what you want. We really wanted to be able to give customers the ability to signal to us, ‘Yeah, I want more of that or less of that’, and actually then turn that into what content we start surfacing on their Home Page. They can always go and find it if they want it through the Search and other functions.

CONTENT DELIVERY

of our stacks, everything sits on the Cloud. We’ve got a dual CDN, so we’ve got both Akamai and AWS CloudFront, so we

“We’ve just tried to lay the experience out to really showcase and break it up so it doesn’t feel like a catalogue, and then we’ve just introduced other little features, like the Surprise Me, where it’s just like, ‘I don’t know what I want to watch so give me something and I’ll just watch it’, like the channel surfing experience.

If we could turn to delivery, it’s being played out of the Cloud?

“All play out, all of our stacks, everything sits on the Cloud. We’ve got a dual CDN, so we’ve got both Akamai and AWS CloudFront, so we have high level of resilience in terms of playout. We can switch your CDN, depending on what’s happening with the CDNs, we have a highly sophisticated network operating centre, our NOC, that sits in the Artarmon campus and it’s alongside the Kayo one. So, we have pretty intense at monitoring of

have high level of

resilience in terms of playout.

all applications, not just for playout, so what’s happening on your sign-up journey, what’s happening with the access to the CMS, what’s happening with APIs that are driving your content watchlist, etcetera. We can also monitor what’s happening on the various networks of Akamai and AWS to see if you’re getting any issues with your particular Internet delivery and we can switch if we need to. “The NOC is built on a whole range of monitoring services, so there’s not one particular platform. What we’re doing is ingesting all of the APIs of all those different services and the performance of those, and then we’ve got monitoring tools that are sitting there, that’s manned 24/7, watching the performance of those, and then they start to trigger off if we start to see some issues or throttling of sign-up or something else, so we can start to dial up in the cloud more instances to give us more capacity. If we’re seeing higher volumes of current usage, we can dial things up and down, so some of it is automated, other stuff requires manual monitoring and management.”

Has the broadband infrastructure in Australia been a challenge? “I don’t think it is now. What I would say to you is when we started the Kayo journey three years ago and we started building it two years ago, there was a big question of whether the infrastructure could handle live concurrent sport at the peaks that we see. I think with all these things as more OTT services have come to the market, the NBN and so forth and the ISPs and the Telcos have really upped their game, and we very rarely see an issue with the infrastructure in terms of people’s ability to consume. I mean, there are black spots and issues do happen from time to time but on the whole, I think it’s performing pretty well.”

And what about the 5G rollout? How do you see that impacting? “I see that as a complete step change once it starts to get into the masses in terms of how content can get straight to your box from our service. The role of ISPs and all of these things becomes a very different kind of question. I think it’s a massive enabler, not just for entertainment services, but for lots of other things. I just think it’s going to open up and take away any remaining barriers that people might have with that particular home environment of consuming this type of service.”

In terms of features, what’s coming down the road? “Probably a few things, downloads to go will certainly be coming. We’re also very conscious of building out on different distribution devices, so while we’re on a lot of the mainstream devices, we’ll be certainly looking to rollout onto a number of different TV apps as well. You can certainly get Binge onto those devices through a Chrome cast or Air, a lot of them have airplay capabilities today, but it’s just removing one less annoyance factor for the consumer by getting the apps into those TVs from a distribution point of view. You’ll see the personalisation layer gets turned up more significantly once we ingest a lot of data. At the moment, we didn’t really want to go too hard on personalisation because we don’t know much about the customer, but you’ll see that building out. They’re probably three areas that we’ll focus on over the next three to six months.” Visit www.BINGE.com.au

CONTENT DELIVERY

“All play out, all

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How to Get Your End-to-End OTT Service Online Fast By Luke Durham, CTO, Switch Media THERE’S CERTAINLY NO DEBATING that we’re living in very strange and unfamiliar times. With people locked down across the world, many of us are turning to subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) as a major source of entertainment. In many ways this is good news for the industry, but it still poses challenges, as production across the board has halted and delivery costs for providers rise as consumption continues to grow. But despite these challenges, industry analysts predict that long-term SVOD will remain on the upswing at least until 2025. To meet this increase in demand, content providers need to ensure they are supplying viewers with quality content via platforms that are simple and easy to navigate. This is more important now than ever, but online video isn’t a one-size-fits-all market, and content owners are hesitant to invest in case they don’t get the return they’d expected. They’re much more aware of the risks, which has put increased scrutiny on the costs involved. And to minimise costs you have to minimise complexity; it’s a Catch 22. The challenge for companies like Switch Media is to provide services to fit budgets by simplifying complex workflows whilst meeting (and even exceeding) customer goals and expectations.

Understanding global challenges If we look back to the original television model, we know that audiences grew over time. As a broadcaster you were delivering a single channel for decades, then digital launched and broadcasters jumped to three or four channels. Now services are evolving rapidly, with audience expectations keeping pace. Viewers no longer want to wait for scheduled content but rather, they want it now, on every screen. In order to maximise revenue, content owners and aggregators not only have to maintain their current business model, they also have to make their content available online, possibly across ten or more platforms, and many different devices. This online video platform must also be managed and maintained in parallel with the traditional platform and there’s a very real danger of operating costs and complexity spiralling.

CONTENT DELIVERY

Netflix and Amazon Prime have become a benchmark, and consumers expect all their online viewing experiences to match that high level of quality. Delivering this type of service often takes a large workforce with ongoing customisation, testing and validation. Throw in advertising as the primary revenue source and the challenge increases exponentially. This makes it particularly challenging to address with an in-house team unless you are backed by huge budgets.

This means that companies like Switch Media have had to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges facing customers globally as well as a clearer view of the current variances from market to market. Some target markets – on a

geographic basis - are less evolved and have different economics in terms of monetisation. We learnt a long time ago that providing a complete end-to-end solution to a large customer is a complex process. By creating a modular product suite, we can draw on our vast experience across video workflows and provide specialist expertise in key areas. Today, a modern online video platform may consist of many different components, supplied from multiple vendors, and delivered to multiple markets. The potential for customisation is appealing, however the exponential growth in complexity doesn’t always make good business sense. Many broadcasters are challenged by bespoke integrations, coordinating vendors, the high costs of app development and increasing overheads. And second and third tier content providers who are entering the market need similar functionality to the top end providers to be relevant. But they often have much smaller budgets and a lack of experience navigating in that space.

Best-of-breed online video service The answer to these challenges is an online video platform that provides a comprehensive feature set, at a cost-effective price, without the complexity therefore enabling swift delivery. By utilising a best-of-breed solution, content providers can extend their reach, free up operational resources and adapt to the changing OTT landscape and consumer expectations.

This means they can launch an online video service quickly and easily without any kind of customisation other than adapting to their own company branding. Features include secure VOD and live streaming with DRM, a global CDN service, real time analytics reports, comprehensive metadata, high definition ABR encoding, dynamic ad-insertion and a range of ready-to-go applications across every screen. Alternately, some customers prefer to retrofit their existing application suite and still benefit from reduced complexity. Switch Media’s MediaHQ Lite provides all of this capability by drawing on key components and features from the company’s advanced MediaHQ online video platform. It maintains the lion’s share of features and value without the complexity or the need for a big budget. A costeffective, fast-to-market online video solution, MediaHQ Lite is aimed at content providers who want to push content to the market quickly and cost effectively. MediaHQ Lite includes full-featured dynamic ad insertion (DAI) integration providing uncompromised addressable ad experiences. And the simplicity of the service means that customers can get it up and running within a matter of weeks with full 24/7 technical support along the way. Like many other companies across the sector, we’re fully aware of the extraordinary circumstances that our industry is currently facing and we’re continuing to make our customers and their viewers a priority. Our main focus is streamlining processes and delivering maximum value for our customers. Consumers tend to move at an incredibly fast pace, followed by technology and then business transformation. With the current situation and growing demand for online video, it’s our aim as a business to provide solutions to address and conquer these challenges. Visit www.switch.tv

CONTENT DELIVERY

IP Roll-Out Continues at Nine Charles Sevior, APAC Field CTO with Dell Technologies, speaks with Nine’s Director of Broadcast Operations, Geoff Sparke, about the network’s new IP-based HQ in North Sydney. ACCORDING TO THE NINE NETWORK’S Geoff Sparke, the period between 2017 and 2018 was very much a tipping point in broadcast standards. “In 2017, at IBC, SMPTE 2110 standards were approved, so we were watching the clock, our plans for moving forward were very much around what we knew, which was SDI,” he says. “However, IP was something that we needed to be mindful of. Spill forward to 2018 and the choice was very clear, we needed to build this on an IP platform.”

Charles Sevior: What, for you, made it the right time to take that step into an all IP network core backbone? Geoff Sparke: “There’s so many different elements pushing us towards IP. The support functions moving forward, the fact that the vendors jumped on board 2110 from the get go and within 12 months of the SMPTE 2110 standard being ratified, they were showcasing things and making things available on a 2110 platform. So, it was obvious to us that anything that we did on an SDI platform was always going to have to ramp on/ramp off and the support life for that stuff would just disappear. All of those things merging, and us having to move and going into a brand-new, greenfield site, I think we didn’t really have much of a choice, to be honest, we had to go IP.”

Charles Sevior: You chose Qvest Media, based in Germany, to help deliver the project. Why? Geoff Sparke: “We had to look at the project and how we were going to carve it up into sections that were manageable. Of course, we’ve got inherent engineering and function here that can look after some things, and we’ve done very well over the years, but when you’re doing everything

at once, and moving onto another platform, and trying to merge silos of newsroom systems and all of the other different systems we have here for sport, and for promos, and for postproduction, we decided we’d cut the whole pie in four and went, ‘Righto, we’ve got a network infrastructure, we’ve got a news, we’ve got a post and we’ve got a live element for our studio staff.’ “Once we did that we stared at the page for quite some time and realised that news and post, which worked on different platforms here, needed to merge and we needed a partner to help us with that particular piece so that we could then focus on the live piece and the network and infrastructure which we thought we could pull off, and that’s where we sought help from Qvest Media. You need someone like Qvest who’s got connections with those vendors to be able to at least give you some help in that space.”

Charles Sevior: You’re in the construction fit-out phase, do you have many of the Qvest people, or is it a local team? Geoff Sparke: “They were due to have four or five people on the ground. They came in Q4 last year, they spent the whole time doing the high-level design with our internal teams. By that time, we’d established a very good rapport by working from home. The remote working has been extremely good.”

Charles Sevior: How has been with deliveries and obtaining core components? Geoff Sparke: “We were fortunate in the fact that we didn’t really experience any delays with respect to hardware because it was just prior to the pandemic being called. All of the building and the fitout plans are going to time. As I said, we had all the major technology hardware

Nine Network Director of Broadcast Operations, Geoff Sparke.

delivered so we really are still tracking to time for the moment. We’ve just now realised that there’s probably not going to be anymore travel this year internationally, so any of the professional services that were slated to actually come out and do the commissioning part and the training piece, we’re going to probably have to use people in-country to do that. So, we’re just going through the process of having to work that out and then also the issue of VPN and being able to give people access to their equipment for remote access-type commissioning.”

Charles Sevior: So, having an all IP infrastructure in the future makes that much more possible for Nine Network and Fairfax? Geoff Sparke: “Indeed, and we know now, as we start to actually commission these things, we understand that it’s so much easier. And I say that there’s other hard elements to it, but there’s bits and pieces that you normally struggle with which are far, far easier. Cabling, connectivity, being able to move things around, suddenly become so much simpler.” Visit www.delltechnologies.com

Grass Valley Turns Up the Power of Cloud Production with GV AMPP

The first application available for the platform, AMPP Master Control, has been on air with Blizzard since the opening of the Overwatch League 2020 season in early February. In response to the COVID-19 crisis and building off this solution set, AMPP has been an essential system enabling the esports leader to keep its Overwatch League and Call of Duty League matches live since March 28, enabling truly distributed remote production with all operators and talent working from their homes. With AMPP Master Control, Activision Blizzard Esports’ production teams can create highly configurable “virtual” master control rooms

accessible from anywhere in the world and eliminate the need for a conventional equipment room. Multiple distribution streams with separate graphics and languages for each audience region can be produced by a single operator — all from one web-based interface and equipped with only PCs, screens, and a connection to the cloud. All monitoring and local program distribution processes take place entirely in the cloud. GV AMPP allows production teams to flexibly create customisable workflows, with a variety of apps such as multiviewers, router panels, test signal generators, switchers, graphics renderers, clip players and recorders — all of which can quickly be deployed to support a wide range of workflows. Built on a microservices architecture based on five core technologies — fabric, timing, connectivity, identity, and streaming, GV AMPP enables elastic media

services and directly addresses many of the issues that complicate common IP and cloud deployments, delivering seamless network connectivity, timing and ultra-low latency. GV AMPP is the core technology powering the newly announced GV Media Universe, a comprehensive ecosystem of cloud-based tools and services designed to change the way live media is produced. The GV AMPP platform is cloud native and cloud-agnostic, while supporting the processing of video/audio both in the public cloud, in a private, on-premise datacentre, or in hybrid topologies. Visit www.grassvalley.com

CONTENT DELIVERY

GRASS VALLEY HAS LAUNCHED a new cloudbased software as a service (SaaS) Agile Media Processing Platform (GV AMPP). The solution unlocks the power of elastic compute for live sports, news, and playout workflows.

CLASSIFIED + EVENTS POSITION VACANT

POSITION VACANT

WORK WANTED -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TECHNICAL PRODUCTION MANAGER (26196)

TECHNICAL OPERATIONS ROOM OPERATOR

BROADCAST INDUSTRY PROFESSIONAL

I’m a broadcast industry professional with over 30 years’ experience. A career spanning operational CANBERRA, ACT, AUSTRALIA and engineering disciplines, sales, marketing, CANBERRA, ACT, AUSTRALIA The Hon Tony Smith MP Senator the Hon Scott The Hon RyanTony Smith MP Senator the Hon Scott Ryan The Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) business development and management. The Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) Speaker of the House of Representatives President of the Senate of the House of Representatives President of the Senate isSpeaker recruiting for a Technical Operations Room is recruiting for a Technical Production Manager www.linkedin.com/in/andy-liell-1191081 Parliament House Parliament HouseParliament House Parliament House Operator vacancy within the Parliamentary vacancy within the Parliamentary Broadcasting CANBERRA ACT 2600 CANBERRA ACT 2600 CANBERRA ACT 2600 CANBERRA ACT p: 2600 0439 135 604 Broadcasting Section, Digital Recording Services Section, Digital Recording Services Branch. e: frankdog_au@yahoo.com Branch. The Parliamentary Broadcasting section provides The Parliamentary Broadcasting section LIVE television and radio coverage of the House Dear Mr Speaker and Mr President Dear Mr Speaker and Mr President ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Broadcasting) provides LIVE television and radio of Representatives, the Senate, parliamentary FREELANCE PAINT/ROTO ARTIST/ Department of Parliamentary Services Annual Report 2018–19 Department of Parliamentary Services Annualthe Report 2018–19 coverage of the House of Representatives, committee hearings and other special events 2D COMPOSITOR Senate, parliamentary committee hearings and Iheld am pleased present the House Department of Parliamentary I amAnnual pleased to present the Department of Parliamentary Services Annual both attoParliament and other venues Services other special events held both at Parliament Report 2018–19 in accordance with section 65 of the Parliamentary Report 2018–19 Service Act 1999 in accordance with section 65 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 Currently looking for work in post production. around Australia. House and venues Australia. and section 46 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability and section Actother 2013 46 of the Publicaround Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 Freelance Paint/Roto Artist/2d Compositor. The Broadcasting Technical Operations (PGPA Act). (PGPA Act). The Broadcasting Technical Operations Control Have been working remotely on independent Control Room is responsible for the quality Room is forannual the quality control, The reporttechnical includes the annual report of the Parliamentary Librarian The report asresponsible required includes the report of the Parliamentary Librarian as required films, shorts and commercials in the UK and control, production and distribution technical production distribution Service of all Act 1999. Australia. by subsection 65(3) ofofthe Parliamentary Act 1999. by subsection 65(3) of and the Parliamentary of all proceedings the Parliament,Service working proceedings of the Parliament, working within a verythe large purpose-built Iwithin am satisfied annual performancebroadcasting statement is prepared based I am on satisfied properly the annual performance statement is prepared basedhttps:/ on properly IMDB: /imdb.to/39obhlu a very large purpose-built broadcasting facility infrastructure including 23 audio control rooms, 9 maintained records in accordance with subsection 39 of the PGPA maintained Act. records in accordance with subsection 39 of the LinkedIn: PGPA Act. www.linkedin.com/in/monty-burgess including 23 audio control rooms, 9 vision control vision control rooms and 46 remotely-controlled As required by the Commonwealth Fraud Policy, I am satisfiedrooms that As required theand 46 by remotely-controlled the Commonwealth Fraud Policy, I am satisfied that thehttps://vimeo.com/336497973 VFX reel: broadcast broadcast quality cameras. department complies with section 10 of the Public Governance,quality Performance department complies and with section 10 of the Public Governance, Performance and cameras. Email: montyburgess@gmail.com We are looking for an experienced Technical Accountability Rule 2014. Accountability Rule 2014. We are looking for a Technical Operations Control Production Manager with a working knowledge ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yours sincerely Yours Operator sincerely with a working knowledge of Room of current technologies and procedures utilised BUSINESS ANALYST AND ENGINEER current technologies and procedures utilised within the broadcasting industry. Extensive within the broadcasting industry. Experience experience as a manager and technical producer Business Analyst and Engineer with a wealth of working in a live multi-channel environment would be advantageous. experience in broadcast, online media, adtech, would be advantageous. The successful candidate will: IT and project management, having worked with The successful candidate will: major organisations in Australia and overseas. Rob Stefanic Rob Stefanic • be technically proficient in the operation of • Secretary be technically proficient in the operation of Secretary I can certainly make a difference to your broadcasting equipment; 13 September 2019 13broadcasting September 2019 equipment; organisation. • demonstrate the ability to work under pressure • demonstrate the ability to work under pressure within allocated time frames; LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3dAO2bf within allocated time frames; • demonstrate a strong commitment to client Email: pramamurugasu@gmail.com • demonstrate a strong commitment to client relations; relations; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------• demonstrate excellent oral and written • demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills; and CHANNEL SALES & SOFTWARE SPECIALIST communication skills; and • thrive in a small team environment. Previously with Adimex 2010-2020 • thrive in a small team environment. Eligibility and/or Job Specific Requirements Contact: Gianni Riggi Annual Reportand/or 2018–19 Job Specific i Annual Report 2018–19 i Eligibility Requirements The successful candidate will be required to work Mob: 0418 203113 The successful candidate will be required to work designated hours outside of normal business LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giannidesignated hours outside of normal business hours in support of the Parliament. riggi-7b720421 hours in support of the Parliament. The successful applicant will be required to obtain Email: riggg@tpg.com.au The successful applicant will be required to obtain and maintain a Baseline Vetting (Protected/ and maintain a Baseline Vetting (Protected/ Restricted) security clearance. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Restricted) security clearance. DPS welcomes applications from Aboriginal and DIGITAL MARKETING PROFESSIONAL DPS welcomes applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, mature age people, MS in Software Engineering. Torres Strait Islander people, mature age people, people from diverse backgrounds and people with people from diverse backgrounds and people with disability. Tel: +61-451-004235, disability. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ Applications must be submitted by 11:30pm Applications must be submitted by 28 June, 2020. AEST, 21 June, 2020. nikhilbondre DEPARTMENT OF PARLIAMENTARY SERVICES

DEPARTMENT OF PARLIAMENTARY SERVICES

Visit https://bit.ly/2zy2UId

Visit https://bit.ly/2UKT9xO

Letter of Transmittal from Secretary

Email: nikhilbondre92@gmail.com,

CLASSIFIED + EVENTS

ADVERTISER INDEX

Amber Technology-----------------------------------IFC

Harmonic------------------------------------------------8

Pacific Live Media------------------------------13,27

AVIA-----------------------------------------------------IBC

Jands-------------------------------------------------------37

Professional Audio & Television----------FC,19

Sony Australia--------------------------------------------3 Stagetec --------------------------------------- 43

Blackmagic Design-------------------------------------5

Labspace-----------------------------------------------28

Riedel-------------------------------------------------------21

Techtel-----------------------------------------------7,11

Blonde Robot------------------------------------24,25

Lacie-Seagate--------------------------------------- 3

Ross Video-----------------------------------------------23

Grass Valley-----------------------------------------OBC

Lawo-------------------------------------------------------17

Sennheiser------------------------------------------39

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Create Perfection Control With Ease Connect Everyone Whether you’re looking to create captivating live TV, move to an all IP workflow, playout from the cloud or simply upgrade your existing infrastructure, Grass Valley’s awardwinning technology powers an end-to-end ecosystem of reliable, open standards-based solutions that enable smart, responsive workflows, connecting your content to any audience at any time. It’s Content Your Way. Find out more at grassvalley.com