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04 NEWS+PEOPLE SoundCloud Buys
Singapore Music AI Firm Musiio; Ross Expands in Singapore; Mo-Sys and Ideal Systems Partner; TVU Enables Mediacorp Remote Commentary for SE Asian Games; CTS and Ideal Systems - Navigating the Cloud; People on the Move.
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08 BROADCASTASIA 2022 - PREVIEW 16 CAMERAS & LIGHTING Keisuke Imamura
Goes 12K with Blackmagic; MRMC Partners with Cgangs; ATOMOS NINJA Supports OM SYSTEM ProRes RAW; Quasar Science Rainbow Series LEDs; Dream Chip AtomOne mini Zoom; IMAX to Build New Film Cameras; 4K Ultra HD Camera from Hitachi Kokusai.
21 SPORTSCASTING Riedel Takes SDI-to-ST
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2110 for Japan’s TIPSTAR; Astro Renews Premier League Rights; Sporting Codes Score with NFTs; Wi-Fi Screen and Video Sharing for Venues; Managing bandwidth in remote production; Multi-Camera Control Sports App for Review and Replay; CloudNative Live Video Production from Chyron.
26 NEWS OPERATIONS Korea’s WOW TV News Centre’s New HOME with Lawo IP; Etere’s Nunzio Newsroom Software; Vizrt Graphics Now on GV AMPP; LiveU’s Ingest Cloud; IBM and The Weather Company Expand Max Velocity; AutoIntegration of Stringr Live News Feeds with TVU; AccuWeather’s Weathershow Creator.
30 POST-PRODUCTION ‘Writing With Fire’
30 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
Finished with DaVinci Resolve Studio; Lightworks In-Edit Video QC; Christie and Lightstorm Push Boundaries; Colorfront Turbo-Charges Dailies; Mistika Enhances Boutique and Ultima; Autodesk Invests in RADiCAL 3D AI Motion Capture; Cloud-Native Editing from Qvest; EditShare’s FLEX for Cloud Editing; New Cintel Scanner Light Source.
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34 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Planetcast
International Launches Free Disaster Recovery; New Blackmagic Cloud Store; Cinedeck Cloud Ingest Solutions; MAM and Shared Storage Bundle from Quantum; Dreamstime Copyright Infringement Tracker; Etere Transcoder Adds Transwrapping; Starfish Simplifies Antipiracy Protection.
38 AUDIO, RADIO, PODCASTING Malaysia’s
Radio IKIM Upgrades to DHD SX2; NZ Govt to Boost Pacific Shortwave Radio; New Standard for Loudspeaker Measurement; RØDECaster Pro II; AI-Powered Dialogue Cleaner; Solid State System T Broadcast Platform; Cloud Remote Contribution from Comrex; New NUGEN Audio Analysis Suite; ENCO Remote Radio Automation; Wireless Mics from Sony; Broadcast Mics from DPA; Wheatstone Mic-to-TX Virtualisation.
43 CONTENT DELIVERY Mongolia’s
Univision Taps Viaccess-Orca for IPTV; LG U+ Picks Media Links for 4K UHD; Grass Valley Supports NDI with GV AMPP; Cinegy Highlights Real-Time 8K; Mediaproxy Brings LogServer Upgrades; Dielectric Introduces FM Pylon Antenna; Tightrope Media Distribution Server; Firstlight Media Joins Google Marketplace. of Frankenstein’s Monster!; Pay-Per-Use for Mediaproxy LogServer; Tellyo Stream Studio.
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EDITOR’S WELCOME
Connecting Past to Present By Phil Sandberg
FOR MUCH OF the last decade, those morallyambivalent geeks at the MetaFaceZuckerVerse have been focused on the mobile device, and on video. Indeed, they seemed to pick the trend while many pundits opined the demise of the traditional television set. According to market analytics company Statista, the number of mobile phone video viewers worldwide grew from 1.43 billion to 2.33 billion from 2016 to 2021.
and desktop losing more market share.”
LEGACY BROADCASTERS
As detailed in Innovid’s 10th annual Global Benchmarks Report, 2021 saw CTV surpass mobile as the channel with the greatest share of global video impressions, with nearly half (46%) of all video impressions, up from 40% in 2020. Meanwhile, mobile declined from 43% to 39%, showing that consumers continue to flock to streaming devices to consume content.
Now, however, there is somewhat of a countertrend on the rise. While it’s not exactly the return of the traditional television set, it does have a similar form factor in the shape of the connected TV.
Some of the report’s key takeaways and findings include:
Of course, the traditional home of traditional broadcasters has been the traditional TV set and, and while most linear free-to-air broadcasters have embraced the app world for both linear and catch-up services, there remains the problem of visibility in the crowded (and global) app marketplace. With the remote controls of many CTVs featuring short-cut buttons to international streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, localised providers could be forgiven for feeling lost in the app shop.
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According to Jessica Hogue, GM Measurement and Industries with online advertising technology company Innovid, “CTV devices are now the most dominant platform for video ad impressions. As more consumers have transitioned to streaming, advertisers are shifting spend to the channel, and we expect that trend to continue with mobile
• North America led the pack on CTV impression share by region, with 48% of all video impressions attributable to CTV, followed by EMEA and LATAM (22%), then APAC (11%). • U.S. CTV campaigns reached, on average, just over 9% of the 95 million CTV households that Innovid serves, highlighting a massive runway for advertisers when it comes to CTV reach. • The study showed a low level of ad frequency, on average 4.08 exposures, indicating considerable leeway for advertisers to reach new households without risking oversaturation. For the full report, visit https://info.innovid. com/2022-global-benchmarks-report/
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One solution to this issue is “Predominance”, the legislated prime positioning of traditional broadcasters’ apps on the UI of connected television sets. It is an approach championed by industry groups such as Australia’s Free TV. According to Free TV Chairman, Greg Hywood, without urgent action on Prominence, “Australians risk not being able to find live TV channels and broadcaster video-on-demand content services on new Smart TVs and other devices. That’s why we have been calling this the most critical issue in media regulation.”
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• Every vertical increased their video contribution to CTV ads in 2021 with Travel leading the way with 63% of CTV video impression share, followed by Auto (60%), QSR (58%), CPG (52%), and Retail (51%).
The source of this counter-trend has, like many recent trends, been the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on the movement of people. Both helping and helped by the rise in streaming services during the pandemic, connected TV has produced somewhat of a renaissance for the widescreen in the lounge room. 16:00
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While mobile phones have been long described as the computer in your pocket, connected TVs are the phone on the stand or the wall of your living room. While they lack SIM cards or the ability to make calls through a phone network, many CTV sets enable users to make video calls and are compatible with a wide range of entertainment apps.
• While global video saw year-over-year increases across all devices, CTV grew at over two times the rate of mobile and desktop, landing CTV as the device with the greatest share (46%) of global video impressions.
If enacted, it is a move that will, no doubt, come under challenge, but it is one way of preserving local voices. Time will tell.
Keep safe, thanks for reading, and look after each other, Phil Sandberg – Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com +61(0)414671811
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NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com
People on the Move VINCENT TANG has taken on the position of Senior Engineer at Ideal Systems in Singapore.
JAYANTA SAHA has been appointed Manager Broadcast at Network18 in Delhi, India. He previously served in Assistant Manager and Deputy Manager roles with Planetcast Media Services Limited.
“We are delighted to welcome Vincent Tang to IDEAL Systems Group in Singapore as Senior Engineer. Vincent has over 20 years broadcast engineering experience formally at The Walt Disney Company, Encompass Digital Media, Inc. and StarHub,” said Fintan Mc Kiernan, CEO at Ideal Systems (Singapore).
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Vincent’s previous roles include Senior Project Engineer with The Walt Disney Company, Broadcast Engineer with Ascent Media (now Encompass Digital Media), and Master Control with Singapore Cable Vision.
RAY MARTIN has started a new position as Head of Technical Services and Post Production at ITV Studios Australia. Ray has 20 years of experience in technical/operational management in the broadcast industry, including OB facilities, broadcast networks and post production facilities. Heading up his own broadcast consultancy, Be Loud Pty Ltd, Ray has worked extensively in Australia and Southeast Asia on reality television projects, the Southeast Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games. His previous roles
----------------------------------------------------------------RAMESH BABU has assumed the position of Chief Operating Officer at Benchmark Broadcast Systems in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. His previous roles include CTO at Benchmark, VP Integration & Deployment at KIT digital, General Manager Technology at Benchmark.
HANUMANTHA RAO has been promoted to Senior Director of Sales for South Asia at TVU Networks. He was previously Sales Director with the company and has also held the position of Chief Engineer with Zee Media Corporation. -----------------------------------------------------------------
include Head of Services - APSB with Astro in Malaysia ----------------------------------------------------------------STANLEY PENG has taken on the position of Manager, Live Broadcast Production, at Riot Games in Singapore. He previously served as VP of Innovation and Technology with IO Esports and was Co-founder & Technical Director with KELI Media & Entertainment in Shanghai. He also served as Deputy Technical Manager, Video (DVTM) with Olympic Broadcasting Services during the Tokyo Olympic Games. ----------------------------------------------------------------JOE CHO has joined Vizrt as Customer Account Manager for the South Korean market. He previously held the role of Regional Sales Manager, South Korea with Ross Video. “There will be lots of challenges ahead,”says Joe, “but I won’t be worried as there will be customers and friends and business partners and Vizrt working together as a team to build the changes desperately needed in this region based on the value and vision of Vizrt SDVS(Software Defined Visual Storytelling) products and solutions.”
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Camera Tracking and TrackFreeTM
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SoundCloud Buys Singapore Music AI Firm Musiio SOUNDCLOUD HAS ANNOUNCED exclusive, live and free coverage of the acquisition of Singaporebased, music industry artificial intelligence and machine learning company Musiio. Musiio’s technology focuses on B2B audio reference search (AI that can “listen” to music), automated tagging, and playlisting tools for the music industry. By “listening” to more tracks than a human could ever comprehend and identifying characteristics and patterns, its AI allows users to better predict success, which in turn, can increase their ‘hit-rate’ and revenue. Musiio will become core to SoundCloud’s discovery experience and help to identify
talent and trends. “SoundCloud hosts more music from more creators than any platform on the planet. Acquiring Musiio accelerates our strategy to better understand how that music is moving in a proprietary way, which is critical to our success,” says Eliah Seton, President of SoundCloud. “We are honoured to partner with Hazel and Aron and welcome the absolutely brilliant team of innovators at Musiio to the SoundCloud family.” Based in Singapore and founded by British CEO Hazel Savage and Swedish CTO Aron Pettersson, Musiio was founded in June 2018 and was recently named one of Fast Company Most Innovative
Companies for 2022. Savage and Pettersson will remain an integral part of operations, coming on board as VP, Music Intelligence and VP, AI and Machine Learning, respectively. SoundCloud will fully integrate Musiio’s employees who will retain their positions. “SoundCloud is not only a legendary household name but also an artist forward business that I believe is the future of the new, holistic music industry,” said Hazel Savage, CEO of Musiio. “I am incredibly proud that after four years of building Musiio we are now part of SoundCloud.” As part of SoundCloud, Musiio will continue to operate as a B2B company, servicing our existing
Hazel Savage, CEO of music industry AI company Musiio.
clients and open to new clients for our Tag and Search AI products. Visit https://musiio.com/
Mo-Sys and Ideal Systems Partner Across Asia, Middle East MO-SYS ENGINEERING, the developer of virtual production (VP), remote production and image robotics solutions, is working with Ideal Systems to drive forward the adoption of virtual and augmented reality production in broadcast across Asia and the Middle East. Ideal Systems has been a leader in media solutions for more than 30 years. From its head office in Hong Kong, it brings a wealth of experience together with a presence in 10 countries. It provides consultancy, design, integration, installation and continuing support for many major names in broadcasting, media production and technology. Mo-Sys has driven technologies for and
augmented production for 25 years. Pioneers in camera tracking with its StarTracker system, and in camera robotics, the company can now deliver turnkey systems through its VP Pro graphics systems. Mo-Sys has been instrumental in the extensive use of real time augmented reality and virtual studios in broadcast, and in the growing use of LED walls and LED volumes for movie production and for live events. “The production of outstanding content is a global business,” said Philippe Vignal, director of sales and business development for Mo-Sys. “It is vital for us that we work with the best possible sales partners, to ensure our groundbreaking innovations are seen by all the key
players. Ideal Systems is the perfect partner for us, as they have the broad reach across broadcast throughout EMEA and Asia.” Jim Butler CEO of Ideal Systems added “MoSys is a very impressive company. Its camera tracking and virtual production technologies are recognised by the biggest names out there, and they have very interesting cuttingedge developments in image robotics and remote production. The whole team is excited to be working with Mo-Sys and to be able to offer our customers new revolutionary solutions.” Visit https://www.mo-sys.com and https://www.idealsys.com/
NEWS + PEOPLE
Ross Expands Customer Experience Centre in Singapore
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ROSS HAS ANNOUNCED the opening of a new and expanded Asian regional headquarters and customer experience centre in Singapore. The new facility, which is 50% larger than the previous Singapore office, will enable Ross to demonstrate the entire portfolio of solutions, including virtual set, augmented and extended reality environments, as well as facilitating training sessions, seminars and workshops, be they online, on-site or hybrid in nature. The office will also act as the hub for technical support across the region and, in conjunction with the Ottawa team, enables Ross to provide 24/7 worldwide technical
support coverage for customers. “I’m delighted that we’re now able to cut the ribbon on this expanded facility,” notes Senior Vice President – Global Sales, Oscar Juste. “This investment reiterates our commitment to the region and will also help underpin our continued expansion across Asia. There is no doubt that our region has felt the full brunt of the pandemic this year, but I’m very proud of the fact that Ross has continued to invest and recruit throughout. This new office has been designed with hybrid working patterns in mind but will also enable our partners and customers to get valuable hands-on experience with our
products and solutions once we return to a more traditional style of meetings and events. Our message to partners and customers in the region is very clear – at a time when other manufacturers are withdrawing from the region or reducing their footprint, we’re investing, we’re growing and we are here for customers with the industry’s widest range of high impact, high-efficiency production solutions.” Contact Ross Video (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., 351 Braddell #03-06, Singapore 579713 Email: solutions@rossvideo.com Visit https://www.rossvideo.com
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TVU Enables Mediacorp Remote Commentary for SE Asian Games TVU NETWORKS, the provider of cloud and IP-based live video solutions, has announced the first high-profile deployment of its TVU Remote Commentator cloud-based remote commentary platform in the Asia Pacific region. As the official sponsor of the 31st Southeast Asian Games and the technical partner of Mediacorp, Singapore’s largest national media group, TVU provided the solution,TVU Remote Commentator, to enable live, remote commentary with announcers in different countries, synchronised to furnish a natural, conversational effect. At the SEA Games, the TVU Remote Commentator proved the ideal cloud platform for collaboration of multiple commentators in multiple remote locations on a single production. For the Philippines vs. Timor-Leste TVU Remote Commentator solution schematic for Mediacorp’s coverage of the 2022 Southeast Asian Games. men’s football match, for instance, Mediacorp created a live conversation for SEA Games of Mediacorp. “It’s quite stable and “TVU’s deployment of IP media infrastructure at between commentators at the IBC in Hanoi and at user friendly. We foresee using it again soon.” the Southeast Asia Games proves that cloudMediacorp TV headquarters in Singapore. Using based workflows are the new standard for TVU TimeLock auto sync technology ensured that TVU Remote Commentator, each announcer was large-scale, global live events, “ said Liming Fu, the audio and video of all commentators were able to see the live game video, hear each other’s commentary, and hear audio from the stadium synced with the main video feed, regardless of VP for APAC Sales of TVU Networks. “The TVU – all live and in sync. The result was a discussion network latency or distance from the event. TVU ecosystem provides the high quality of traditional that was as easy and natural as if they’d been Timelock provides wireless, untethered remote broadcast, with the flexibility of infrastructuretogether at the event. production. free, cloud-based broadcasting over the public Commentators conducted remote commentary TVU’s web-based audio mixer allowed audio internet. Our easy-to-deploy, SaaS modular from Sydney using TVU Remote Commentator operators to manage all commentator feeds solutions like TVU Remote Commentator create for several events, including the Women’s with level control, recording, mute/unmute, additional enhancements, delivering not just Synchro 10m Platform (https://www. and audio channel mapping for outputs. broadcast-quality audio but also languageyoutube.com/watch?v=JJGq548LxxU) and Localised commentary feeds could be routed to independent channels for localised coverage Men’s Tanding (https://www.youtube.com/ separate audio channels, or separate outputs – even when the event and commentators are in watch?v=sLAgac0v9fY). could be created for each channel. Beyond live different places of the world.” productions, TVU Remote Commentator can also “This is our first time using TVU Remote Commentator,” said JunJie Lee, Technical Head be used to upload files for recorded voice overs. Visit https://www.tvunetworks.com
Finesse Expands Media Localisation with OOONA Integrated
Finesse is entering the next phase of its growth by expanding its services to include translation work in multiple Asian and European languages. The company delivers diversified media services that enable content owners, content creators and service providers to produce, manage and repurpose media with increased efficiency and at lower cost. With offices in the US and the UK, and with production centres in India, Philippines and Indonesia, Finesse subtitles over half a million minutes of video per year, as well as offers transcription, localisation and creative services to media and entertainment, and corporate clients. “It is a great time to be in the video localisation
market, as audiovisual content is expanding globally,” says Rajnish Babbar, CEO of Finesse. “The security OOONA Integrated offers has been indispensable to our growth as we target some of the largest content owners and language service providers globally. In the last few months we have transitioned our workflows and processes to the OOONA platform which has quickly become the backbone of our operations.” “We have long been known for our ability to provide top-notch template creation services for media localisation workflows,” adds Alex Keller, VP, Business Development at Finesse. “With the increased demand in the sector, we started offering localization in all Indian languages that are native to us. We have now expanded to other Asian languages plus some European ones.” “We needed to scale up quickly as we were constantly adding new workflows and new resources to our pool, and we needed to do
so in a streamlined fashion,” explains Babbar. “We were also looking for ways to increase our staff’s productivity in terms of project scheduling and execution, and also with respect to the subtitling task itself. OOONA not only offers a great management platform to work on but has integrated other offerings that allow it to stay ahead of the curve with respect to spotting of media files and language automation which we have wanted to try out for a long time.” “Finesse needed a reliable, scalable and state-of-the art solution that would allow it to focus on what it does best, which is to service its clients,” says OOONA co-founder and CEO Wayne Garb. “We are proud to be its partner and help it grow at this exciting time for the market.” Visit http://finesse-services.com/ and https://www.ooona.net
NEWS + PEOPLE
OOONA, THE PROVIDER OF professional management and production tools for the media localisation industry, has announced that Finesse Services has selected the OOONA Integrated platform.
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NEWS + PEOPLE
CTS and Ideal Systems - Navigating the Cloud COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS is a division of Comcast Cable that provides media and entertainment technology to content providers, operators, and advertisers. The company recently announced a strategic alliance with leading APAC integrator, Ideal Systems which sees Ideal acting as a strategic reseller of Comcast Technology Solutions’ CTSuite portfolio of products and services. Comcast Technology Solutions’ CTSuite portfolio includes Cloud TV Suite, Direct-to-Consumer Suite, Live Linear Suite, and VideoAI. “Our whole mission is to bring Comcast technology to the outside world,” says Bart Spriester, General Manager, Content & Streaming Providers at Comcast Technology Solutions. “Comcast spends billions of dollars a year on technology, research and innovation, and much of that technology, of course, we use internally in our companies - Sky, NBC and Comcast - but a lot of it is applicable and good to use for media and entertainment and MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) companies around the world. And so Comcast Technology Solutions’ whole mission is to bring that to the world, and some of that innovation.
NEWS + PEOPLE
“We have a lot of customers in the content provider market space where we do video processing for them, whether it’s SCTE markers on content, whether it’s direct to consumer streaming, whether it’s CDN, helping them deliver their content across various markets with CDN technology, or we also have advertising customers where we help process and define and place ads, where there is contextual advertising.
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“Ideal is amazing,” adds Bart Spriester. “They are authorised to sell our cloud TV suite, which includes our cloud video platform and our direct to consumer suite. They also can do our live linear suite which includes a new product that is new that we launched this year called Video AI which is our artificial intelligence solution to help with contextual advertising, binge watching and different things. And we love Ideal because they are the region’s largest broadcast and media system integrator and they are focused on what we are focused on,
which is highly reliable broadcast media, house of worship and large corporate and government accounts, and they are kind of the premier name in the region for these types of customers.” According to Fintan Mc Kiernan, Chief Executive Officer – South East Asia, “”By working with Comcast, it does two things. It allows Ideal Systems to use Comcast Technology Solutions modules within our cloud solutions, and it also allows Comcast Technology Solutions to leverage our engineering skill set and footprint within Asia to deploy their solutions to their customers, so it’s a double whammy in that respect. And it also fills out our offering in the cloud space so, realistically, as a systems integrator typically we’re technologically agnostic, but in the cloud space we actually have our own IP which is the Alice platform which has become quite mature. It’s been deployed for a few years now. At Encompass Digital Media there’s hundreds of channels on-boarded on that system. We’re a few versions in. “The majority of the Alice framework is exactly that. It’s a framework, it’s an integration framework that allows other modules to be brought in and it allows workflows to be created, complex workflows to be created in the cloud. And that speaks to where the broadcast market is, vis-
à-vis cloud migration, somewhat accelerated by Covid which changed a lot of the perceptions of broadcast operators about the risk tolerance for new technologies because they had to move bloody quick because they had to get remote productions into place, they had to figure out how to run PCRs and MCRs without a reliance of people being in them. “What we’re seeing now, we’re getting into the next phase which is not just moving systems into the cloud, but moving workflows or pretty much the entire sections of business moving into the cloud. But that’s not as easy as it sounds. When you move your archive into the cloud, or you move your automation, or your playout, or your MAM into the cloud, it’s typically a one vendor operation with one cloud player. But when you start moving entire workflows and entire systems into the cloud, then you’ve got multiple players, potentially multiple clouds, mixtures of cloud, hybrid cloud and on-premise and then suddenly you realise that, actually, the same issues you had in the broadcast hardware world you have in the broadcast cloud world. How are these all going to work together? Whose responsibility is this part? Whose responsibility is that part? And that’s where Ideal comes in.” “There are a lot of operators that need an IP streaming ecosystem,”
says Bart Spreister. Maybe they are wireless operators, maybe they are cable operators, or maybe they are IPTV operators that want a managed service, a video offering, a SaaS space offering for their consumers “We run our infrastructure on public cloud infrastructure and, in fact, we’ve been serving video on the public cloud infrastructure in Singapore for probably over three years now, which is quite good and improves the quality of experience because you don’t have latency from using, say, maybe a data centre up north in Asia or down south in Asia, different things, so we’ve been using the public cloud infrastructure and are quite well-balanced across the region. The technology is ready because we’ve been able to do micro service technology with Kubernetes containers and we are able to do DR capability across the region. We can provide a high-quality, good experience for any of our customers.” Join Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) and Ideal Systems, Tuesday, May 31, at 3 p.m. SGT, for the inaugural CTS Connects Tech Summit hosted live and virtually from Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Visit https://hopin.com/events/ virtual-cts-connects-tech-summit
Streaming is on a meteoric rise in APAC Flexible tech is essential for growth. Join us for executive insights into: • Strategy • Technology • AI/ML for video
TRANSFORM STREAMING & LINEAR TV WITH THE CLOUD
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MAY 31 | 3 PM SGT | VIRTUAL EVENT
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Broadcast Asia 2022, 1 - 3 June 2022, Singapore
www.broadcast-asia.com
TVU Networks to Showcase Remote Production and Channel Playout TVU NETWORKS, the developer of cloud and IP-based live video solutions, will exhibit at BroadcastAsia in Singapore, 1-3 June, 2022. The company returns to the show with a wide range of their Cloud- and IP-based solutions within official reseller Magna Systems and Engineering’s Stand 5E1-01 in the Singapore Expo Center. The centrepiece of the display will be TVU’s RPS (Remote Production System) family of REMI solutions for multichannel remote production over the public internet, along with TVU Channel – the new infrastructure-free 24/7 solution which was highlighted at NAB 2022. “Deploying remote production in the cloud has never been an easier decision,” said Liming Fu, Vice President, APAC Sales, TVU Networks. “We’re looking forward to showcasing our powerful TVU ecosystem to our clients and colleagues at Broadcast Asia in June. The powerful TVU Channel was created to enable cloud-based playout for the world’s largest broadcasters. And now it offers any organisation browser-based control to quite easily build and manage channels. Thanks to TVU’s overall modular, building block approach, broadcasters can trial new models for business monetisation quickly and easily.” The TVU RPS Link Encoder is the 5G REMI solution in the broadcast industry delivering frame-accurate, multi-channel production over the public internet using integrated IS+ for reliable transmission. Compatible with the TVU Producer 3.0 cloud-based live video production platform, it allows broadcasters to leverage existing studio infrastructure for production while reducing personnel and equipment on location. Available in 4- and 6-channel versions, TVU RPS Link Encoder synchronises multiple live video sources over 5G/LTE networks, delivering the same high standards as a traditional broadcast setup. It’s ideal for capturing live sporting events, concerts and festivals, worship services, talk shows, and press conferences, regardless of size, transmitting them anywhere across the
globe. RPS supports up to eight live video feeds, sending up to six live full HD transmissions and receiving two highquality video feeds, along with support for return audio feeds and up to 16 channels of audio per SDI input. It also facilitates bi-directional IFB management to ensure quick and easy VoIP intercom between the studio and the field. HEVC/H.265 optimises data use, with sub-second latency over the public internet. It features channel priority management in case of bitrate drop and can aggregate up to two separate links on the codec for increased bandwidth and redundancy. Secure and encrypted VLAN tunnels enable perfect multi-channel synchronisation between studio and remote teams for frame-accurate, genlocked live production. TVU Channel enables users to launch and schedule continual live and VOD programming from a simple web browser. The infrastructure-free, cloud-based solution can be used for playout via a traditional television channel, to an OTT or pop-up channel, or for distribution directly to social media – all at the same time and without any added infrastructure. Not just for TV, TVU Channel is ideal for radio stations, newspapers, magazines, houses of worship, universities, amateur sports leagues, law enforcement, and government agencies. The cloud-native TVU Channel can be quickly deployed without complicated configuration or extensive training. Building and managing channels is as easy as using a calendar, with a browser-based interface accessible through
any smart device, from anywhere in the world with Internet access. Since users don’t need to be located at a physical studio, TVU Channel can even serve as a backup master control in case a physical studio is not accessible. TVU’s RPS Link Encoder and TVU Channel both integrate seamlessly with other modular products in the TVU Networks ecosystem: • TVU Producer for multi-camera live IP video production. • TVU Partyline for broadcast-quality cloud collaboration. • TVU Remote Commentator for events & live sports broadcasting. • TVU One for 4K video transmission and live streaming encoding. • TVU Server for dedicated live video streaming. • TVU G-Link for 8K point-to-point IP video transmission. • TVU Rack Router for 5G with gigabit internet for professional broadcasts. • TVU Nano2 Router for portable, affordable 5G-ready wireless transmission. • TVU IoT Router for best-in-class high-speed internet connectivity from anywhere. Visit https://www.tvunetworks.com
Ideal Systems - from NDI to the Cloud
BROADCAST ASIA
IDEAL SYSTEMS will be expounding the virtues of NDI and cloud-based workflows on booth F51-09 at this year’s BroadcastAsia.
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According to Fintan Mc Kiernan, Chief Executive Officer – South East Asia, “We’ve got lots of our NDI partners that we’ve been working with, so we’re showing a number of NDI solutions, proven solutions and then we’re talking about what’s happening in the cloud. And our key cloud partners are obviously people like Comcast, Grass Valley with GV AMPP, albeit we’re adjacent to the GV stand so that makes that kind of easy as well. But we’ve got some very large GV cloud deployments coming up with GV AMPP which
we’re working on right at the moment as well. Yes, I think the nice thing about pretty much everything that’s on the booth at the moment it’s everything that we are deploying, have deployed and are deploying more of, but it’s all quite new as well. “”Almost everything on the booth is something that either didn’t exist or we hadn’t deployed or tested or even used at the last in-person show, so the world has moved on quite a bit in three years. So that makes it interesting and, having come back from NAB, the excitement of really kind of meeting people again and
seeing the new technology, but there’s a really perceivable jump forward in technology in that kind of Covid window actually. And I think Covid is part of the push, like I said, into the cloud and NDI, like everything that was done remotely and that really pushed NDI as well. You really had to have a pandemic to change the mindset of broadcast technologists which has played out already, so to speak.” Visit https://www.idealsys.com
Mediaproxy LogServer Features at BroadcastAsia MEDIAPROXY WILL BE bringing its LogServer IP logging, monitoring and analysis system to BroadcastAsia 2022 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. From 1 to 3 June, visitors to Stand 5L2-01 can see demonstrations of features including support for SMPTE ST 2110, NMOS and SCTE Adinsertion. LogServer is designed to run entirely in software, providing reliable logging and monitoring of program output to ensure it meets broadcast compliance standards and regulations. It can integrate seamlessly with cloud, virtual or on-premises workflows, providing support for video, audio and real-
time data from sources including 4K, HDR, 10bit, HEVC, TSoIP, SMPTE 2110, Zixi and SRT. Introduced in 2001, LogServer has been continuously developed and upgraded to ensure it is able to meet the changing requirements of broadcasters, streaming services and playout facility operators. Among the latest ground-breaking features are advanced clustering of decentralised systems on IP networks, including the cloud, and a new interface platform intended to simplify configuration at scale. This brings a new era of distributed access, setup and configuration throughout an entire organisation, enabling a presence both locally
and globally. Through ongoing development, LogServer offers sophisticated and flexible monitoring that is now crucial in the smooth, efficient operation of broadcast and media services today. This guarantees that LogServer is able to work with a wide range of distribution platforms and technologies, including Next Gen TV, IP-driven workflows and cloud migration, delivering the monitoring and logging functionality necessary to both comply with regulatory demand and deliver the quality of experience expected by viewers. Visit https://www.mediaproxy.com
Interra to Showcase Content QC and Monitoring Solutions
Interra Systems’ ORION-OTT is a comprehensive monitoring solution for live and VOD streaming. The solution is deployable in the cloud or on-premises. Recent enhancements to ORION-OTT include ad-insertion monitoring, Dolby Vision and HDR support, visual trending for QoS and QoE metrics, CPIX-based DRM integrations, and new audio/video quality checks. In addition to ORION-OTT, Interra Systems will demo its ORION solution for real-time monitoring of linear channels in an IP-based delivery infrastructure. New features include support for monitoring of contribution stream formats (SRT/RIST), enhanced video dropout detection, and a wider range of audio quality checks (i.e., audio jitter, true peak levels, audio clipping, and stereo pair absence). Part of the ORION product suite, ORION 2110 supports the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, providing Asia-Pacific broadcasters with a future-proof, end-to-end monitoring solution for assuring exceptional video quality in an IP distribution environment. Key product features include redundancy and NMOS integration, monitoring of IP-related parameters such as jitter and packet loss, scrambling control checks, DAI custom checks for ad-insertion monitoring, support for monitoring SCTE-104 ad signalling, and exportable reports and video thumbnails. OCM (ORION Central Manager) provides enterprise-wide visibility of video by enabling central management of multiple ORION linear and ORION-OTT setups present at the same or diverse geographic locations. By providing a consolidated, single-screen view of both linear and OTT workflows, OCM makes error detection and isolation faster and more efficient. OCM’s new features include smart tools and exportable reports for channel performance and alert trending; scheduled tasks to export reports; the capability to add comments, root cause, and resolution to alerts and to define maintenance downtimes to ignore unnecessary alerts; REST APIs to
assure seamless third-party system integration; quality reports with daily and monthly channel availability; as well as outage analytics. As the media industry’s pioneering ML- and AI-enabled automated QC platform, BATON addresses the most rigorous QC standards for quality and compliance. Recent updates to the BATON platform include major 4K and MJPEG enhancements, new audio/video quality checks for complex content, OAR watermark and enhanced Cinavia watermark checks, IMF Application 2 Extended, PSE for HDR, enhanced foreign language support in the BATON UI, and support for Dolby Atmos, FLAC audio, and more. In addition, Interra Systems’ BATON Media Player offers improvements in loading and playback performance of 4K content. Interra Systems’ QC suite of products includes AI/ML-based tools such as BATON Captions and BATON LipSync to replace timeconsuming and expensive manual processes with faster, more accurate machine-assisted solutions. BATON Captions is an automated solution for all captioning-related needs, allowing broadcasters and media professionals to address requirements from caption generation to QC, auto-corrections, reviewing, and editing for the global distribution of media. At BroadcastAsia 2022, Interra Systems will demonstrate BATON Captions with new support for next-gen format-specific checks, subtitling, stand-alone subtitle files for QC, recaptioning, exporting captions in MCC (MacCaption Closed Caption) format, and adding tags for tasks. BATON Captions features cutting-edge machine learning and automatic speech recognition technology. BATON LipSync leverages image processing
and deep neural networks to detect audio and video sync-related errors. Capable of performing facial detection, facial tracking, lip detection, lip activity detection, and speech identification, BATON LipSync provides a comprehensive report of all lip sync issues. Using BATON LipSync, available content can be checked in any language, independent of the region and area. The solution also supports the majority of industry formats and can be seamlessly integrated into any existing content processing workflow or used as a stand-alone application. Interra Systems’ VEGA Media Analyzer (VMA) is an industry-leading analysis platform for standards compliance, debugging, and interoperability of encoded streams. VMA supports new standards such as Dolby Vision, Apple ProRes, VVC, HEIF, over and above AV1, HEVC, H.264, MMT, HLS, MXF, VP9, VP8, MPEG2, MPEG-DASH, JPEG-2K, ISM, and PCAP. A new addition to the VMA platform – VEGA Vista – enables media companies to receive or deliver video using the MPEG-2 transport stream format. The innovative analyzer can be part of automated workflows and offers granular-level customization of parameters and checks. Comprehensive reports provide deep visibility into MPEG-2 TS streams and help with root-cause analysis for a few errors that can cause transmission or audio/video quality problems. Visit https://www.interrasystems.com
BROADCAST ASIA
TO HELP OTT service providers, content producers, and aggregators in the Asia-Pacific region ensure the highest-quality content for viewers, Interra Systems will showcase its innovative, award-winning QC and monitoring solutions at BroadcastAsia 2022.
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Magna Systems Showcases IP Ecosystem and Cloud Solutions MAGNA SYSTEM’S stand 5E1-01 at this year’s Broadcast Asia, part of Asia Tech x Singapore tech festival, will demonstrate its unwavering support for the industry by featuring the very latest, cutting-edge IP ecosystem and cloud-enabled products and solutions. The Magna stand will also be demonstrating a complete SMPTE ST-2110 IP workflow under EVS’ Cerebrum control and orchestrated by the new Cerebrum IP-Core SDN. Further, all IP sources on the stand will be monitored by the TAG Video Systems MCM9000 monitoring solution.
any hefty investments on high performance storage hardware – whilst maintaining seamless integration with the NLE software of your choice.
As Magna Systems Director Sales and Operation (Asia), Patrick So, explained, “Broadcast Asia has always been and continues to be a very important event for Magna Systems and our customers in the Asia Pacific region. To demonstrate our commitment to the industry and how we’ve grown since the last show, we will be demonstrating and showcasing IP ecosystem and cloud-enabled products, technology and solutions from many of our key partners including Alibaba Cloud, Chyron Graphics, Enensys, EVS, Quantum, TAG Video, Telestream, TVU and VideoFlow. We will also have experts on hand to demonstrate and explain the full IP ecosystem on our stand.”
As So mentioned, EVS MI will bring its Cerebrum broadcast control system along with the Neuron network attached processor and all solutions on the stand will be integrated and all under the control of the latest Cerebrum broadcast control system. Critically, its cutting-edge SDN, Cerebrum IP Core, will control all IP flows in the network, while EVS’ Neuron will provide all processing and conversion.
Walking around the Magna stand and kicking off proceedings will be cloud connectivity and workflows demonstrated by Alibaba Cloud. By using the Alibaba Cloud Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) studios can leverage the highly elastic and low TCO cloud-based desktop service that supports industry standard NLE software such as Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve to transform on-premises workflows into a full cloudbased workflow. Alibaba Cloud will also demonstrate how, for hybrid cloud environments, Lucidlink, a software storage service together with the Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS), can maximise a user’s ROI by transforming their existing on-premises workstations into a 4K/8K capable NLE platforms without
Next to Alibaba Cloud will be ENENSYS demonstrating their IPGuard-X automatic changeover switch for ST2110 and TSoIP environments whilst running as a software application on COTS servers. ENENSYS will also demonstrate TestTree StreamProbe, their comprehensive software-based monitoring system for TSoIP, OTT, VoD and ST2110 content, including SCTE-35 analysis.
Quantum will showcase H4000 Essential, its all-in-one appliance that integrates Quantum CatDV media asset management and Quantum StorNext 7 shared storage software on the award-winning H4000 storage platform. The H4000 Essential provides highly available shared storage and automatic content indexing, discovery and workflow collaboration for small creative teams. It does not require specialised IT skills to support, can be up and running in minutes and offers unique features that integrate media management and storage so these teams can spend more time creating and less time searching for content. Then Telestream will be demonstrating its Telestream Content Management solution, providing efficient asset lifecycle management for media content and helping organisations reduce costs by making the most effective use of a variety of storage technologies. Telestream will also be presenting the latest versions of DIVA and Kumulate with a new disaster recovery and
business continuity package to ensure media asset Magna Systems Director Sales integrity and Operation (Asia), Patrick So. and availability. Alongside this will be the latest update on Vantage Media-Processing and Workflow Automation suite for transcoding, captioning QC and live streaming. Finally, there will be a demonstration of Telestream Cloud, the highly scalable and flexible cloud-native platform for professional-grade services on transcoding, QC and speech-to-text transcription services based on a pay-peruse model. Last but by no means least on the Magna stand at Broadcast Asia 22 is TVU who will be demonstrating its latest cloud and IP solutions that are reinventing the media supply chain. Attendees will experience multi-awarded hands-on demos of TVU Channel, a 24/7 cloud-native broadcast solution with full SCTE ad insertion and FAST Channels, the emergency offsite remote master control and dedicated OTT Channels. TVU will also showcase a TVU outstanding transmission solution combining with TVU Cloud SaaS including TVU RPS (5G REMI remote production), TVU One ,TVU Anywhere, TVU G-Link, TVU Router, TVU Producer, TVU Partyline, TVU Remote Commentator, TVU Replay, TVU MediaSource and TVU Search. Magna’s stand at Broadcast Asia 2022 will have live working demos of all its showcased products and solutions and have product experts at hand for anyone requiring more in-depth analysis and discussions. Visit https://www.magnasys.tv
Wohler to Show New iVAM 1U 12G Monitor
BROADCAST ASIA
REPRESENTING THE official launch of the product within Asia, Wohler will be exhibiting the latest addition to its 12G in-rack monitor range at BroadcastAsia.
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Based on the existing i VAM 3G products, the new iVAM1-12G (1RU) offers a lower cost and lower height 1U option to Wohler’s flagship 2U iAM-12G-SDI. Where 12G processing is required without the need for Dolby ATMOS decoding, this latest addition offers all the options available on the current iVAM-3G models, and more. With a depth of 5.5-inches the product ships standard with two 12G/3G/HD/SD-SDI inputs with selected SDI out, a pair of analog inputs
and outputs, an HDMI output, loudness measurement and phase indication. Also included are network capabilities to manage the unit remotely, including viewing meters and other monitoring information.
adding two additional 3G inputs to 3G
Additional signal options include: AES3 inputs, MADI, ST-2110, ST-2022-6, and audio over IP. Processing options include Dolby decoding for SDI and AES3, as well as 2110. An upgraded output routing feature is available too.
– and include 2110-30 primary and secondary
The iVAM1-12G features space for any one of up to three option cards, including the newly released SFP-Option Card, which is now available for iVAM and most iAM products,
and also benefits from a TOSLINK (SPDIF)
products, or two 12G inputs to 12G products. Other option cards provide Audio over IP – available in either Dante or Ravenna formats RJ-45 ethernet ports, enabling hitless (redundant) 2022-7 monitoring; an analog option card offers a further eight balanced inputs and outputs on DB-25 connectors connector. Visit https://wohler.com
IP PROBING AND MONITORING
EMERALD 4K AND HD KVM OVER IP
VIRTUAL STUDIO PRODUCTION
BROADCAST CONTROL, SDN AND NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND MEDIA PROCESSING NEXT-GEN PLAYOUT ACROSS ANY PLATFORM
INTELLIGENT MONITORING PLATFORM
LOW LATENCY SECURE VIDEO TRANSPORT ACROSS ANY IP NETWORK
POWERFUL REAL-TIME 3D GRAPHICS
Magna’s IP ecosystem. Connecting you with the Cloud. Technology moves way too fast to be locked into an IP ecosystem solution from a single manufacturer that doesn’t quite tick all your boxes. Magna can help customise a cloud-ready solution for you that works just the way you need it to. With our trusted partners, using only quality products that adhere to the latest standards including SMPTE 2110 and NMOS, we deliver flexible, future-proof solutions for broadcast media and telcos alike. Whether it’s for studio, control room, playout, editing or transport, there’s a Magna solution that works for you.
www.magnasys.tv
empowering innovation Sydney
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Auckland
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Hong Kong
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Jakarta
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Singapore
BROADCAST ASIA
Come and experience the IP Ecosystem at Broadcast Asia Hall 5 Stand 5E1-01 Singapore Expo 1 to 3 June 2022
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Viaccess-Orca Showcases TV Platform AT BROADCASTASIA 2022, Viaccess-Orca (VO) will showcase its TV platform featuring the VO Secure Video Player and offering advanced capabilities such as Targeted TV Advertising, analytics, and TV monitoring. The company will also showcase innovations in content protection solutions and Anti-Piracy Services. VO’s solutions are open, flexible, and compliant with the full ecosystem, enabling operators in the APAC region to quickly adapt to the evolving TV landscape while keeping premium content safe. At BroadcastAsia 2022, VO will showcase Targeted TV Advertising on its powerful TV platform. VO’s service delivery platform, together with content protection and DRM capabilities, a multiplatform player, customisable TV apps, analytics, recommendations and more provides operators and service providers with an endto-end solution for delivering outstanding viewing experiences. A key highlight on the platform will be VO’s AI-based Targeted TV Advertising solution that revolutionises the monetisation of firstparty usage data. Driven by AI analytics, VO’s advanced TV advertising solution enables service providers to accurately segment audiences and activate the segments by leveraging its partner Smart AdServer’s advertising platform to maximise revenues.
At BroadcastAsia 2022, VO will also showcase its Secure Player, a multiplatform media player for premium content, highlighting how it optimises the delivery of live video content by supporting: Multiview - Support for multiview allows end users to observe the same event from different camera angles and select the primary view they want to watch for increased viewer engagement. Watch Party - Watch Party enables sports fans to watch live or on-demand sports matches on any screen while simultaneously interacting with a viewer group through video chat for a more engaging and immersive viewing experience over 5G. Evolving video piracy is a universal concern. At BroadcastAsia 2022, another key highlight will be VO’s Anti-Piracy Services, a fully customisable set of security services that includes AI-based dynamic watermarking, monitoring, and legal investigation into piracy for both live and on-demand content. With
VO’s trusted and proven Anti-Piracy Services, operators can safeguard their brand, premium content, and revenues. VO’s Anti-Piracy Services prevents pirates from hacking the content distribution chain from the service delivery platform to the end-user device. It’s particularly crucial for live sports content. Live Demos VO will showcase its technologies in action through live customer deployments. A key highlight will be how customers are using VO’s TV platform to deliver personalised TV experiences on every screen, improve viewer engagement, and increase revenue. Visit https://www.viaccess-orca.com
RTW Audio to Display TouchControl 5 RTW HAS EXPANDED its focus on visualising audio in broadcast, production, post production and quality control to now also comprise monitor control. In fact, RTW is no newcomer to monitor control, as it has a long history of providing advanced monitor controller devices that are still in use at many broadcast stations. However, the focus has been on metering in recent years, but the company now makes monitor control a focal area as well with the introduction of TouchControl 5.
easily integrate with Dante® and AES67. On top of that, with the touchscreen it was an obvious bonus to also offer a selection of our world-class metering solutions as options that you can add either from the start, or as your needs grow along the way.”
TouchControl 5 can be experienced first-hand at the StageTec Asia booth (5H-106), which is part of the German Pavilion at Broadcast Asia 2022.
TouchControl 5 Connectivity
BROADCAST ASIA
TouchControl 5 is a monitor controller and audio meter with an intuitive user interface and a small footprint that preserves valuable desktop real estate, featuring a 5” touchscreen, as well as a rotary knob that also functions as a push button for easy access to dim or mute functions. The screen layout can effortlessly be customized by the user via a browser-based application, and TouchControl 5 is able to control up to 32 AoIP audio channels, making it compatible with audio formats from mono to immersive within a Dante® audio network.
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“We are very happy to once again take on monitor control with an updated and relevant product designed specifically to manage audio channels on an IP Audio network,” says Andreas Tweitmann, CEO of RTW. “No doubt, there is a huge demand for monitor control solutions that are able to naturally and
The connectivity is kept smooth and simple, yet it provides a wealth of options. On the rear panel, a single ethernet port provides both AoIP connection, as well as PoE (Power over Ethernet). Further, a studio-grade microphone input with phantom power and a similarly high-quality headphones output is available. The mic input could be used for adding a dedicated talkback microphone, but if preferred, TouchControl 5 also features a built-in microphone. Finally, an analog line out connection makes it easy to add a pair of external speakers in case they are not already connected via AoIP. Licensing Landscape Right out of the box, TouchControl 5 comes with basic 4×4 Level Control, Simple Fader, 2×2 or 4×1 Control and on the metering side Basic PPM with True Peak and Phase. The optional license structure was chosen in order to make the solution as flexible and scalable as possible, without forcing users to have
features they may not need. For example, for dedicated monitor control features, the Monitoring license is available, featuring Downmix, Source Select with A/B Comparison, Speaker Select, Calibrated Monitoring (using the internal microphone or manual set), SPL Readout, Solo, Cut, Swap, Phase, Mono, Dim, Mute, Test Tone Generator, Talkback, Presets and Headphones and Line Out enabling. Finally, the TouchControl 5 feature set can be expanded further by adding the Premium Metering license, which includes PPM and True Peak Metering, PPM Scales (TouchMonitor style), VU meters and British PPM. More licenses will become available over time, keeping TouchControl 5 ahead of the curve and continuously increase flexibility and customizability. Visit https://www.rtw.com/en/home.html and https://stagetecasia.com/
Explore
SOLUTIONS FOR
STORYTELLERS
at BroadcastAsia 2022 Join Dell Technologies to explore solutions that span a range of workflows from storyboard to screen including hybrid and multi-cloud, 8K finishing, broadcast virtualization, cDVR, VOD, game development, cybersecurity and more.
Learn more at dell.to/media
BROADCAST ASIA
Booth # 5G3-01
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Vislink Presents AI-Driven Production and Content Delivery VISLINK WILL BE SHOWCASING its latest feature-packed solutions for automated, AI-driven remote production; end-to-end, unified all-IP workflow solutions for live news, sports and event production at Broadcast Asia 2022, being held from June 1-2, 2022. Vislink and Mobile Viewpoint team members will be onsite at booth 5J3-14. Vislink’s chief AI offerings include IQ Sports Producer, a live sports production and streaming solution that provides highquality, economical video coverage for both professional and grass-roots sports, and vPilot, an AI-driven studio content production system that creates professional productions easily and affordably without a camera operator or director team. A multi-camera AI production can deliver a richer and more immersive production than may be possible using a single camera. Vislink’s automated production systems feature the industry’s most advanced AIpowered action-tracking technology that has been developed and extensively deployed by Mobile Viewpoint. They combine premiumquality camera systems, including the Stellar Cam and HCAM wireless camera systems for sideline reporting, and professionalgrade remote production technologies that leverage Vislink’s 50-plus years’ heritage covering prestigious live news and sports events. The result is a comprehensive, highly cost-effective technology platform that enables the production of sub-Tier 1 sporting events with video quality and production
values equivalent to Tier 1 event coverage – all without the need for onsite staff. The company will also showcase its new Quantum-LinkMatrix unified wireless camera workflow, which brings together COFDM wireless camera systems and bonded cellular/5G roaming camera systems into one single managed solution. By integrating the two production workflows into one video source and configuration management platform, live event production teams can efficiently manage content capture from all types of wireless systems and bring advanced capabilities to REMI productions. This includes being able to send wireless camera feeds directly to YouTube and social media accounts, as well as enabling remote control of Quantum functions from anywhere in the workflow. In addition, Vislink will demo its new AeroLink downlink solution, an aircraft-based unit that supports IP-based, fully bi-directional data transmission, allowing aerial newsgathering teams to capture every moment of the events and action unfolding on the ground. Leveraging its field-proven experience supporting demanding military and public safety operations, Vislink is providing the broadcast and ENG market with advanced video quality, robust connectivity, and extensive distribution to all broadcast and cloud platforms. It is a lightweight, fullfeatured 4K or 2 x 1080p 60 HEVC digital dual encoding video downlink solution built to address the demanding requirements of
Vislink’s Mobile Viewpoint Stellar Cam.
airborne operations. It incorporates Vislink’s dual-encode HEVC technology to deliver superior-quality video, reduced bandwidth for seamless, extended geographical coverage and support for multiple video services over the same signal. AeroLink can be deployed as part of Vislink’s Airborne Video Downlink System (AVDS) for a complete ground-to-air solution that includes the Quantum and other Vislink central receivers. Visit https://www.vislink.com
Actus Digital Demonstrates Intelligent Compliance and Monitoring ACTUS DIGITAL, the compliance logging, quality monitoring and alerting, content repurposing, and automatic and AI-based workflow solutions company, will showcase the new Actus 8.0 intelligent monitoring platform at BroadcastAsia 2022.
BROADCAST ASIA
Actus Digital’s platform provides broadcasters globally with an expanded range of intelligent monitoring capabilities. The Actus platform is deployed by leading AsiaPacific broadcasters, including MediaCorp in Singapore and MediaHub Australia, recording hundreds of channels for compliance monitoring, as run log integrations, automatic ad detections, loudness and SCTE monitoring, and clipping with metadata.
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“The Actus 8.0 platform includes additional workflows and automation, added to our award-winning compliance logging and monitoring platform,” said Sima Levy, CEO at Actus Digital. “For Actus, it is not just about providing customers with a reliable, enhanced compliance logging solution, but to ensure they are benefiting from a complete solution enhanced with more workflows they need, benefiting from the hardware and media they already have, saving costs and increase efficiency, such as advanced clipping, metadata generation, and complete content repurposing. At BroadcastAsia 2022, we will highlight how our award-winning platform supports more unique AI-based workflows and use cases for news, ad sales, digital
media, asset management, and research teams within TV and radio stations.” The new Actus 8.0 platform includes Actus Synchro, an enhanced recording-multiviewer with QA monitoring and compliance logging, and support for standards such as IP, SDI, HDMI, DVB, ASI, SMPTE ST 2110/2022-6/20227, SRT, NDI, HLS, MPEG-DASH, to address applications for TV, radio, Multichannel Video Programming Distributors, and more. Offering engineering innovation and advanced features for a diverse range of use cases, the all-in-one platform features: Compliance Logging: Actus View for recording any input type, subtitles, CC, audio languages, etc., including loudness management, real-time alerts on audio and video issues, missing metadata, multiviewer, and TS analysis. Digital Media: Actus Clip Factory Pro empowers digital media teams to perform quick manual or automated clip editing, social-media publishing, and VOD content creation. News Teams: The Actus 8.0 platform helps news teams to improve programming and ratings by showing ratings graphs next to content from competitors, including keyword alerts. The Actus 8.0 platform also provides collaborative bookmarking and note sharing for news and talent development. Ad Sales: Ad sales teams can maximize
revenues with Actus AdWatch for automatic ads and content detection to perform competitive ad analysis, ads verification, and improve sales pitches to prospective advertisers. Asset Management: Actus Light-MAM increases the value of media archives, allowing users to create and enrich metadata via automated metadata extraction. With AIbased metadata generation, users can create a metadata-rich asset library from scratch and/or integrate with existing MAM systems. Radio: Radio broadcasters benefit from quality monitoring and alerting dashboards that enable the monitoring and control of thousands of distributed radio stations through a single interface. Media operators Engineering and Operations: Actus RVM (Remote Video Monitoring) on the Actus 8.0 platform allows media operators to dial into set-top box channels at geographically dispersed headends and hub sites to troubleshoot issues in real time and verify if local ads were inserted and timed correctly, all from a single interface. Actus will showcase its enhanced platform at BroadcastAsia 2022, taking place June 1-4 in Singapore, at booth 5F3-05. To meet with Actus in person or online during the show, visit https://actusdigital.com/ events/broadcast-asia-2022
Broadpeak Showcases Superior Video Streaming AT BROADCASTASIA 2022, Broadpeak will highlight how pay-TV operators, content providers, and OTT players can provide a compelling video streaming experience to subscribers with the company’s future-proof CDN, cloud DVR, multicast ABR, and other new advanced streaming solutions. “Video streaming consumption in the APAC region is accelerating, and consumers have expectations for a high quality of experience on every screen,” said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO at Broadpeak. “At BroadcastAsia 2022, we look forward to showing our customers how they can address the evolution happening in the video market. Using Broadpeak’s CDN technologies, operators can easily adapt to the requirements of the video streaming landscape today and in the future to improve video quality of experience and boost monetisation.” Key Highlights at BroadcastAsia 2022 Will Include: Future-Proofing Video Delivery With an Open, Dynamic, Elastic CDN Architecture At BroadcastAsia 2022, Broadpeak will demonstrate how its Advanced CDN is futureproofed for video delivery by leveraging an open, dynamic, and elastic architecture. Broadpeak will also demonstrate how the new steering center of its Advanced CDN makes it a context-aware CDN and allows operators to control which CDN features are being used for each session with a very fine granularity based on the request characteristics. Resolving Traffic Issues With Open Caching An active member of the SVA Initiative, Broadpeak will demonstrate how implementing
an in-network, open caching system can solve traffic problems and enable cooperation between content owners and payTV operators, resulting in a more compelling experience for subscribers. Improving Scalability for Live Multiscreen Video Delivery With Multicast ABR Broadpeak’s nanoCDN brings scalability and low latency to the live multiscreen video delivery environment. During the show, attendees can stop by the Broadpeak stand to see how nanoCDN benefits video service delivery and supports the latest trends in live sports rights acquisition and streaming, with real-world examples. Simplifying Video Streaming – New broadpeak.io SaaS At BroadcastAsia 2022, Broadpeak will showcase broadpeak.io, its new software as a service (SaaS) that streamlines video streaming. Broadpeak’s new API-based platform offers content providers, pay-TV operators, and OTT service providers an easy, fast, and reliable way to deliver advanced streaming services to their subscribers. Demos will focus on blackout service, virtual channels, and ad insertion applications. Boosting Monetisation With Targeted Ad Insertion
At BroadcastAsia 2022, Broadpeak will showcase its first-class targeted ad insertion solution for delivering advanced streaming services to subscribers. With Broadpeak’s solution, operators can monetise live, cloud DVR, and VOD content on every screen. Broadpeak’s BkYou ad insertion solution includes fast offline ad transcoding, robust security and anti-fraud, and server-side ad insertion capabilities with detailed client-side reporting. By bringing the efficiency of mABR for linear distribution together with the level of personalisation that ABR natively enables, Broadpeak’s ad insertion solution enables operators to implement targeted ads on the main screen, where it matters most economically. Visit https://broadpeak.tv
Crystal Vision Brings IP/SDI Video Processing Solutions
One of the products making its Asia debut is the M-CLEANIT – an IP/SDI profanity delay software app designed to prevent the broadcast of unwanted or offensive video or audio material. The M-CLEANIT is perfect for preventing expletives, obscene gestures, wardrobe malfunctions, bloopers, competitor mentions, coughing fits or technical problems from making it to air – whether regulations insist on protection of content or the organisation wants to control exactly what is
broadcast. To give the operator time to react, the M-CLEANIT allows an IP or SDI live content stream to be delayed by up to 600 frames (24 seconds in 1080i50), with the cover options including clean switching to two different video sources or a web page, blurring the video, showing black or blue or colour bars, muting individual audio channels and switching to another audio source. With intuitive control from a smart button box, separate reaction controls to event and restore and a fixed multiviewer output allowing the operator to monitor everything that is happening, the M-CLEANIT’s flexibility allows it to be fully customised for any workflow. Crystal Vision’s chroma keyers have always been popular in Asia and the show attendees will be able to see the new M-SAFIRE realtime chroma keyer software app – the industry’s first IP chroma keyer which can also be used with SDI, or with both IP and SDI simultaneously for hybrid systems. The M-SAFIRE offers Crystal Vision’s best picture quality to date, with a noise-free key as well as numerous tools to optimise the picture including advanced clip processing, colour correction, edge shrink, colour spill processing, lighting compensation and shadow processing. The M-SAFIRE’s two quad split multiviewers facilitate setup by allowing four
of the processing stage signals to be viewed simultaneously along with the ability to zoom into any area. The key can be faded up and down, while internal and external masks can be used to force areas of foreground or background – making it easy to linear key a logo or add virtual objects or sports graphics. The M-SAFIRE offers enhanced system timing features, including reference redundancy, PTP as a timing source option and up to ten frames of delay on both the input and output. Other Crystal Vision IP/SDI software apps being shown on Stand 5K1-10 include the M-KEY linear keyer, M-WEBKEY web page keyer, M-PIP picture-in-picture device, M-VIVID video delays, M-COCO-2 colour corrector and M-SAFESWITCH-2 fail-safe routing switch. Based at Whittlesford near Cambridge in the UK and providing a full range of interface and keyers, Crystal Vision helps people transition through a range of technologies – from SD to HD and from HD to IP. Visit https://www.crystalvision.tv
BROADCAST ASIA
VISITORS TO BroadcastAsia 2022 will have the opportunity to see Crystal Vision’s best-ofbreed IP/SDI video processing software apps for the MARBLE media processor hardware on Stand 5K1-10. The functionality offered by these apps includes chroma keying, linear keying, video delay, profanity delay, colour correction, legalising, picture-in-picture and fail-safe switching. The apps can work with IP (ST 2022/2110), with SDI or with both IP and SDI at the same time – making them perfect for mixed SDI and IP installations as well as fully IP or fully SDI environments. Crystal Vision – whose stand forms part of the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilion – will also be explaining how the software-based MARBLE platform makes it easy to create custom products to solve problems using SDI or IP video.
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CAMERAS & LIGHTING Keisuke Imamura Takes Hip-Hop 12K with Blackmagic BLACKMAGIC DESIGN has announced that renowned Japanese Cinematographer Keisuke Imamura used the URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film camera to shoot hip hop artist C.O.S.A.’s music video “Mikiura feat. KID FRESINO.” The video, shot at a fishing port in Japan’s Mie Prefecture, was captured mostly in the early morning and at sunset using only natural light, and was then graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio. Imamura is a cinematographer who has worked in a wide range of genres, including feature films, TV dramas, commercials, and music videos. He has worked on numerous music videos for artists who have dominated the charts and commercials for major companies. Set in the town of Mikiura, which is the title of the song, the music video is a message from the chaotic present to the future. “The idea was not to make a conventional hip hop music video but to go to Mikiura, the place C.O.S.A. loves the most, with KID FRESINO and film the two of them in a documentary style,” Imamura said. The setup of the shooting was very simple. Imamura used only an URSA Mini Pro 12K, handheld and with no lighting. “The footholds were not good and the places where I could stand were quite small, but I wanted the footage to be more like a documentary, so I shot handheld. The shooting itself took all day from sunrise to sunset, but I didn’t shoot much during the daytime as I
thought a nostalgic feel would be better suited to the song, so I mainly shot in the morning and evening,” explained Imamura. The music video was graded at ARTONE FILM using DaVinci Resolve Studio. Imamura continued: “The most important thing for me is to keep the original tone acquired at the shoot. The basic idea of grading for me is to achieve things through grading that were impossible to achieve on set. The grading went smoothly without any problems. Even though it was shot with only natural light, I could create the tones I wanted.” Imamura has been using Blackmagic cameras since he was studying film at university. “When I was a college student, the first Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Pocket Cinema Camera were released, and I used them a lot. At that time, Blackmagic was the only option that I could afford and yet allowed me to shoot nice pictures,” said Imamura. “Blackmagic cameras have a unique tone, and I even shot some films with the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera model to get the 16mm film tone look. The URSA
Mini Pro 12K still has the similar unique tone, but it is refined, so you can use the URSA Mini Pro 12K or the older models depending on the projects and scenes. “Blackmagic cameras definitely raised the level of creativity for my generation. Blackmagic Design keeps upgrading their cameras, but still maintains a price range that young people can use, which is great. There is a definite trend that if the younger generation uses Blackmagic cameras, they will also use them when they become professionals. A majority of the viewers of this music video are also young people, and I hope that these people appreciate the quality of this camera through this music video.” Visit https://www.blackmagicdesign.com
MRMC Broadcast Partners with Cgangs International MARK ROBERTS Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon company, has added Cgangs International as regional reseller for the APAC region. MRMC says the partnership with Cgagns represents an exciting time for the company as it seeks to further embed its solutions within virtual and studio production in Singapore and beyond.
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
“From the first conversation with Cgangs I was really impressed by their extensive technical knowledge. This makes them a unique partner,” comments Paddy Taylor, MRMC’s Head of Broadcast. “They have a level of understanding that is rare amongst most resellers and integrators, and as we progressed in our discussions over a number of months, their insistence on understanding our kit and their passion for their projects made the decision to become partners an easy one.”
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MRMC’s range of broadcast robotic heads, rails, and studio arms allow creative and engineering teams to add something extra to the way that their content is captured, whether that be exceptional speed, precise, repeatable moves,
smooth and natural capture, or remote control and operation. A highly regarded specialist in virtual production workflows, Cgangs has been providing a range of support and implementation services to broadcasters and brands such as StarHub, Mediacorp, RedBull and Sport Singapore to name a few. “As the move to virtual production picks up pace, our customers are requesting more dynamic camera movement to add to the ‘wow’ factor to their productions” explains Alvin Lim, Business Development Director, Cgangs International. “With all our projects, we aim to deliver the highest quality service and training. MRMC’s robotics range integrates seamlessly into modern studio productions and adds unique value that leaves a lasting impression.”
Asia with support from Cgangs 1st – 3rd June at Expo Singapore, stand 5K1-03. Visitors to the show will be able to see MRMC’s Automated Subject Tracking solution, Polymotion Chat, in action alongside its QRS rail, designed to add movement and interest to PTZ image capture.
MRMC Broadcast will be attending Broadcast
Visit https://www.mrmoco.com/
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
ATOMOS NINJA Supports OM SYSTEM ProRes RAW Over HDMI ATOMOS’ NINJA V and NINJA V+ now support recording of Apple ProRes RAW over HDMI for the OM-1 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera from OM SYSTEM. The NINJA V/V+ will record 12-bit ProRes RAW video at the DCI 4K standard up to 60fps. The HDR display of the NINJA V/ V+ provides an accurate preview of the image from the OM-1. The device offers the ability to choose
between HLG and PQ (HDR10) standards to suit individual requirements. The five-inch touchscreen provides access to a range of software tools including waveforms, false colour, check focus, framing guides, LUTs and image magnification. ProRes RAW clips recorded from the OM-1 will support White Balance and ISO adjustment sliders
in Apple Final Cut Pro. The ProRes RAW format gives filmmakers latitude when adjusting the look of their images and extending brightness and shadow detail, making it ideal for HDR workflows. Both ProRes RAW, and the higher bandwidth, less compressed ProRes RAW HQ are supported. Manageable file sizes speed up and simplify file transfer,
media management, and archiving. ProRes RAW is fully supported in Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer along with a collection of other apps including ASSIMILATE SCRATCH, Colorfront, FilmLight Baselight and Grass Valley Edius. Visit www.atomos.com
Quasar Science Rainbow Series LEDs QUASAR SCIENCE has announced the launch of its latest linear LED lighting range for motion picture and content creation. The Rainbow 2 and Double Rainbow tubular LED lights create intense, realistic lighting with multiple individually controllable pixels, delivering highquality white light and saturated colour that work in the tightest of spaces thanks to their sleek lowprofile shape. The slim Rainbow 2 (R2) is available in three lengths (2-, 4- or 8-foot) featuring a single row of 10, 24 or 48 pixels, while the Double Rainbow (RR) is uniquely configured with two rows of pixels totalling 20 or 48 across two sizes (2- or 4-foot) for a beautiful and powerful light that
produces more realistic animation enabling an artistic workflow like no other lights available. Quasar Science’s research into the physics and control of light has developed a colour engine that produces dramatically more accurate colours and control. Both the RR and R2 luminaires feature Quasar’s RGBX Spectral Science Color Engine (RGBX SSCE) using more than one quintillion diode combinations, producing greater than one billion unique colours. Another industry first is the Spectrum Control feature which grants the ability to choose the spectral quality of any colour point the lights can produce. 100 percent
on this parameter gives the optimal spectrum for that colour, and 0% gives the spikiest RGB-only spectrum. Networking capabilities for today’s data-heavy productions are addressed with new Rainbow Series communications hardware. Rainbow fixtures accept every industry-standard wired and wireless protocol including DMX, CRMX, W-DMX, Bluetooth, sACN and Art-Net, providing advanced networking architecture with no need for additional data boxes,
receivers, or transmitters. The R2 has a built-in ethernet node, expanding data versatility while the RR is equipped with both an ethernet node and a network switch. Visit www.quasarscience.com
Dream Chip Announces AtomOne mini Zoom
The zoom functionality has been designed to facilitate more effective shot reframing – making the camera even more effective for deployment in unusual and creative locations. The base aperture stands at F1.6 – 2.9mm, providing for a wide angle 130° shot, and allows for the frame to be reduced to a 66° angle shot at 9mm. With such a miniature size, the
camera can be added to a range of locations without being obtrusive or interfering in the action; for instance. Production teams are able to maintain full creative control over all elements of a shot, as the AtomOne Mini Zoom maintains full iris control on a remote basis and can be colour matched with other cameras in the production setup using multi matrix colour support. The net result is immaculate, crisp, high-quality images which creatives can use to enhance their productions. The decision to add a zoom functionality product to the already extensive AtomOne range – which includes super-slow motion and underwater models – comes from the success the original product
met with in the market, and recognition that enhancements would yet further extend the range of applications for which the camera is suitable. The process was undertaken both as a result of ongoing innovation within Dream Chip and consultation with existing customers – resulting in a product that is both responsive to the needs of the broadcast market, but also pushes the expectations of what can be achieved. The new AtomOne mini Zoom is also notable for its camera housing, which not only uses materials selected specifically to give a robust structure and sleek look, but also moves all points of connection within the housing to reduce the risk of connection fatigue or failure. This is particularly important due
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to the fact that the miniature size of the camera means that it is often deployed in challenging conditions where there is a high risk of impact or vibration. In addition to the Zoom function, Dream Chip have partnered with Bradley Remote in order to add the potential for pan-tilt functionality, turning the AtomOne mini Zoom into one of the smallest PTZ cameras on the market. Not only beneficial in the sports market, this adds potential to the camera in fields outside of broadcast – creating opportunities for much more discrete AV recording in commercial, entertainment, religious and educational settings. Visit www.atom-one.de
FOR OUR ADVERTISING RATES AND OPTIONS Contact Adam Buick adam@broadcastpapers.com or +61 (0) 413 007 144
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
DREAM CHIP has released the new AtomOne Mini Zoom camera, a miniature camera that now introduces zoom functionality. With dimensions of just 60x80mm and a weight of only 267g, the camera delivers crystal clear images, working on a rolling shutter basis with a 1/2.5-inch sensor, and allowing for resolution of up to 1080p60.
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CAMERAS & LIGHTING
IMAX to Develop New Fleet of Film Cameras IMAX CORPORATION has begun development on a new fleet of next generation IMAX film cameras – building on its more than fifty-year legacy of innovation to meet growing demand for its technology among a broader and more diverse group of filmmakers and artists. In cooperation with Kodak, Panavision, and FotoKem, IMAX will develop and deploy at least four new film cameras over the next two years – growing its existing fleet of film cameras by 50% – with the first new camera being put into use by late 2023. The Company is working with the world’s most accomplished filmmakers and cinematographers, including Jordan Peele and Christopher Nolan, to identify new specs and features for the prototype
development phase already underway. The next release filmed with the current generation of IMAX film cameras and KODAK 65mm film will be Jordan Peele’s Nope, hitting screens on July 22, 2022, while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is currently shooting with IMAX Film Cameras. “As IMAX grows as a global platform for entertainment and events, we want to offer more filmmakers, storytellers and artists the opportunity to create with our unrivalled end-to-end technology,” said Megan Colligan, President of IMAX Entertainment. “From our connected global network to IMAX Enhanced for the home, the IMAX Experience provides a more expansive creative canvas than ever, and these new film cameras will enable a new generation of creators along with those who
already love working with the cameras a better way to unlock the power of IMAX.” New and improved features being explored for the new IMAX film cameras include a quieter design and a number of usability enhancements. IMAX’s existing fleet of cameras and lenses are also undergoing major upgrades as part of the program. Several industry partners are also joining IMAX in the initiative to strengthen the global and future support of its film cameras. • Kodak will offer enhanced technical support and manufacturing of the 65mm film stock.• Integrated, fixed-cost face recognition. • Panavision will continue to provide a global network of service and maintenance for IMAX
camera productions worldwide along with new tools and technical support for the cameras. • FotoKem will work alongside the IMAX camera and post-production departments to improve production • Kodak will offer enhanced technical support and manufacturing of the 65mm film stock. IMAX film cameras feature a proprietary 15 perf horizontal 65mm frame size. They are ideally suited for productions destined for IMAX theatres capable of presenting film in the 1.43 aspect ratio. The use of IMAX film cameras and 1.43 aspect ratio is a creative choice made wholly by filmmakers, who today are further aided by IMAX’s ‘Filmed for IMAX’ program. The program enables filmmakers
to maximise the full potential of The IMAX Experience throughout testing, production, and post-production – so they may maximise the unique immersive nature of IMAX cinemas. Used in documentary filmmaking since 1971’s North of Superior, IMAX film cameras have been to the deepest depths of the oceans, the top of Mount Everest, and launched into space more than any human being. In 2008, The Dark Knight became the first Hollywood title to use IMAX film cameras – the first of fourteen Hollywood blockbusters to do so, ranging from 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens to last year’s No Time to Die. Visit www.imax.com
4K Ultra HD Camera from Hitachi Kokusai
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
HITACHI KOKUSAI Electric America. used this year’s NAB Show to announce its second-generation 4K Ultra HD broadcast and live production camera system, the SK-UHD7000. It is the successor to the SK-UHD4000 4K studio and field production camera.
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The SK-UHD7000 incorporates three 2/3-inch, global shutter CMOS image sensors with native 4K resolution, enabling pristine capture of 3840×2160 Ultra HD (UHD) video. A new prism design with expanded spectral range fully complies with all international colorimetry specifications and enables superior colour reproduction. The high-performance sensors and new prism combine to enable full-range BT.2020 UHD Wide Colour Gamut (WCG) capture. A dual 4K and HDTV workflow supports separate controls for Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) High Dynamic Range (HDR) and standard dynamic range (SDR). Sensitivity of F11 at 59.94 frames per second enables high-quality acquisition in limited
lighting, while a signalto-noise ratio (SNR) of 62dB provides ultra-quiet images. Advanced digital processing technology and a wide array of image refinement tools enable precise tailoring of the accuracy and look of productions. Operational features such as focus assist and viewfinder zoom make it easier for users to perform critical focus at 4K resolution. The SKUHD7000’s powerful new processor also provides plenty of headroom for additional functionality in the future. The SK-UHD7000’s streamlined, one-piece camera chassis has a low center of gravity and presents a light load on the camera person’s shoulder for easy handheld video acquisition. As a full-featured, broadcastclass system camera, the SK-UHD7000 provides integrated prompter power, video monitoring, and intercom connectivity at the camera body; a motorised, optical ND filter turret; and a lens mount that does not require a mechanical or optical
adapter for standard B4 interchangeable lenses. Full-bandwidth, uncompressed, native 4K signals are transported from the SK-UHD7000 camera head to the new CU-UHD7000 camera control unit (CCU) via SMPTE 311M hybrid fibreoptic cable over distances up to two kilometres. Single-link, 12G-SDI connectivity also provides 4K output directly from the camera head, while integrated HD downconversion offers 1080p, 1080i, or 720p output for multiformat
production applications. Embedded audio is available on all SDI outputs and as listen-channels on the intercom connections. A trunk data interface supports video transport and control of TCP/IPcapable devices connected directly to the SK-UHD7000 camera head, enabling applications ranging from robotic movement and IP-based
prompting to VR/AR 3D space positioning. The new camera also retains compatibility with existing Hitachi control panels and third-party control systems. Visit www.hitachi-kokusai. co.jp
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
Marshall’s Global and Rolling Shutter Cameras with Genlock
The CV568 and CV368 POV camera models offer a 1/1.8-inch Global Shutter 3.2MP sensor and 25% larger pixel size, for ultra-fast, low latency capture even in low light environments. The CV568 Miniature HD Camera is built into the same miniature sized body as other Marshall CV503/CV506 cameras, and have rear panel protection, interchangeable M12 lenses, secure locking connections and remote adjust/match features. The CV368 Compact HD Camera follows the same body design as the CV344/
CV346 cameras with slightly larger CS mount lens type and a wide variety of variable and fixed lens options available. The CV568/CV368 models pack a much larger, more powerful Global Shutter sensor with Genlock (signal-sync), producing crystal clear images. Global shutter improves performance in fastpaced action, racing and movement to reduce motion blur, lean or distortion within the field-of-view. Global shutter sensors perform better in these environments as all pixels are exposed simultaneously. The Marshall CV566 and CV366 Genlock POV cameras are built around the Sony 1/2.8-inch CMOS solid-state rolling shutter image sensor featuring 2.2 Megapixels and Tri-Level (Genlock) Sync feature, which is next generation performance on the company’s POV cameras. Both cameras deliver exceptional video performance from a micro sized body through 3G-SDI and HDMI. The next generation Sony sensors provide clear HD images with true colour
IO Industries Launches New Video Recorder – Rodeo IO INDUSTRIES recently announced Rodeo, an ultra-compact, rugged, video recorder, designed for RAW recording from high-performance video cameras. Rodeo is ideal for demanding applications such as volumetric capture, 4D face/body scanning, motion analysis and industrial trouble-shooting; and is an excellent choice for multicamera setups. Rodeo’s performance specs are impressive. Its video interface is CoaXPress 2.0, the standard popularly used in newer generation scientific and industrial cameras utilising large format image sensors with high data rates. Rodeo’s FPGA-based lossless compression engine delivers an effective recording rate of 2GByte/ sec (camera output) to an internal SSD (up to 2TB).
application software is optionally available to Rodeo users. This software provides live video monitoring, video download, recording control and access to camera settings. An optional SDK is available for developers. Rodeo is compatible with a broad range of cameras made by IO Industries and other camera manufacturers. Contact IO Industries for questions about camera compatibility. Key Features: • Camera Interface: CoaXPress 2.0 (Quad CXP-3/5/6 and Dual CXP-10/12). • Recording Performance: 2GByte/s camera output. • (assuming 18.5 percent compression is achievable).
Features include a precise multicamera shutter and timecode synchronisation with accurate time-stamping. Rodeo’s 10GbE copper/fibre interface connects to a network switch for PC control and monitoring, providing the scalability required for setups with 100+ cameras. Rodeo’s SDI video output provides a secondary path for low-latency live monitoring over SDI infrastructure.
• Camera Compatibility: Cameras from IO Industries and third party manufacturers.
IO Industries’ StudioCap-VC
Visit www.ioindustries.com
• Storage Media: Internal 2TB SSD. • Control Interface: 10 Gigabit ethernet. • Mechanicals: 60.2mm (W) x 62.0mm (H) x 130.4mm (D). 670g. • Compatible Software: StudioCap-VC.
even in low light (0.01Lux) and the ability to switch to night mode (0.005Lux) where IR light wavelengths can be captured. Both allow users to choose HD resolutions up to 1920x1080p (progressive), 1280x720p (progressive) and 1920x1080i (interlaced) with a selection of frame-rates up to 60fps. All four cameras’ tri-level sync allows multiple cameras to be plugged into HD workflows already in sync (genlock), which enables seamless transitions between cameras with minimal amount of delay. Tri-level sync runs at a higher frequency making the signal sync more accurate and more seamless. Marshall also exhibited its CV-PTHEAD Micro Pan/Tilt Mount Head for its miniature camera line. The CV-PT-HEAD is compatible with all
Marshall CV500 series cameras as well as Marshall’s CV344, CV346, CV366, CV368 and CV355-10X. The CV-PT-HEAD body is less than 3.5-inches tall and less than 2-inches wide creating one of the smallest P/T footprints available. The CV-PT-HEAD comes with an IP65 weatherproof rating, which means it is dust-tight and protected against water under pressure from any angle. There is a built-in camera power supply delivering a constant 12V to the camera socket as well as camera control data. Visit www.marshall-usa.com
AJA Ki Pro GO v4.0 Firmware AJA VIDEO SYSTEMS’ v4.0 firmware for its Ki Pro GO multi-channel H.264 recorder delivers enhanced playback and control functionality to give users more flexibility in the field. This free update introduces thirdparty file playback support alongside a host of new settings improvements that help ensure more seamless setup and operation across production, post, and proAV environments. Features include: • Intuitive playback of .mp4 files originating from supported third-party applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer and Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve. • Ability to set each device to generate 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 B-frames individually on each channel for smaller file sizes. • New alarm functionality that makes it easy to clear outdated alerts after errors are corrected.
• Updated REST API that enables remote device shut-off. “Modern production and proAV environments demand flexibility in the field, especially when recording multiple simultaneous HD and SD video feeds, and we designed Ki Pro GO with this in mind. Ki Pro GO users have expressed a desire to play out H.264 files generated within their NLE applications on Ki Pro GO, which this update enables. Ki Pro GO v4.0 firmware is an extension of our work and continued commitment to helping professionals get the most out of their gear,” said AJA President Nick Rashby. Visit www.aja.com
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
IMARSHALL ELECTRONICS recently announced its CV568/ CV368 Global Shutter Cameras with Genlock and CV566/CV366 Rolling Shutter Cameras with Genlock. These new POV cameras feature the latest in sensor technology, with the CV568/CV368 Global Shutter Cameras having a 1/1.8inch Global Shutter 3.2MP sensor and the CV566/CV366 Genlock POV cameras are built around the next generation Sony 1/2.8-inch CMOS solid-state rolling shutter image sensor.
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CAMERAS & LIGHTING
Sony Expands Imaging Options WITH THE INTRODUCTION of its new HDC-3200, Sony says it is building out its portfolio and filling in the gaps with a more affordable 4K system, ensuring users have an option that provides everything they need, without paying for capabilities that aren’t required. The HDC-3200 is a fibre-based, cost-effective system camera that shares many of the features common to Sony’s HDCseries including a 2/3-inch type 3CMOS image sensor with global shutter, 4K and HDR and support for numerous signal formats. The HDC-3200 is compatible with the existing lineup of Sony viewfinders, large lens adapters and IP transmission systems. It is planned to be available in May 2022. Sony is also introducing two new large lens adaptors, the HDLA3505 and HDLA-3501. The robust HDLA-3505 can be used with the HDVF-EL70 and HDVF-EL75. It has an LCD panel that allows for assignable settings at the press of a button and simple monitoring via SDI Input. The HDLA-3501 complements the new HDC-3200, providing a cost-effective 4K system. It is designed to operate with the HDVF-L750 viewfinder and enables easy access to the camera head while supporting rear panel operation. Both options offer Sony systems cable-less interface and instant attachment to and detachment from the camera. It is planned to be available in June 2022.
CAMERAS & LIGHTING
In addition, Sony’s PVM-X series 4K, HDR monitors available in 18-, 24- and 32-inch sizes, will see new enhancements with the Version 4.0 firmware release scheduled for August 2022. New features include two new optional licenses to support signal conversion and 3D LUT Output. Timecode and audio output capabilities will also be added to the enhanced monitor output. The firmware will also feature in monitor display, parallel remote and chroma up as well as support for closed captioning.
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Thanks to the success of the original VENICE, Sony has expanded its Cinema Line with the introduction of the flagship VENICE 2 camera. The VENICE 2 features a new 8.6K full-frame CMOS image sensor, internal X-OCN and 4K Apple ProRes 4444 and 422 HQ recording with a smaller body. It has an impressive 16 stops of dynamic range, extreme low light capability, highlights that roll-off, and natural skin tones. In addition, the VENICE
2 has a Dual Base ISO of 800/3200, eight stops of built-in ND filters, and is now shipping. The HDC-F5500 system camera with Super 35mm 4K CMOS global shutter image sensor also enables creative expression with a cinematic look. Featuring shallow depth of field, high frame rate capability of 4K 120fps, and the ability to seamlessly systemise with other Sony system cameras, it has been used on marquee sporting events and the most influential motion picture and music awards events, among others. To complement its imaging solutions, Sony is updating its UWP-D fourth generation wireless microphone series: the URXP41D dual channel receiver and convenient UWP-D27 pack. The new portable receiver offers simplified functionality, userfriendly features, and digital audio interface via the SMAD-P5 MI (Multi Interface) shoe adapter, compatible with many of Sony’s camcorders. In addition, Sony’s flagship PXW-Z750 4K HDR shouldermount camcorder has been embraced by the reality community. It was recently selected by CBS’s Survivor, alongside additional models including the FX6, for a total of nearly 50 of Sony’s cameras. Connecting and Managing Networks Through the Power of IP Sony is building out its portfolio of solutions that allow content creators to design, deploy and manage environments that are on-premise, across a geographical region or in the cloud. Nevion, a Sony group company’s VideoIPath media orchestration platform recently announced it is adding broadcast control including tally distribution, salvos, alias naming, endpoint grouping and destination monitoring.This enables simple, cost-effective support for the complete production lifecycle, ideal for managing IP-based broadcast facilities, virtual
routing, production trucks and mobile units. Additionally, the update adds support for Sony’s NS-BUS IP-based management protocol to the extensive list of equipment interfaces already compatible with VideoIPath, including Sony hardware panels and connection management to Sony’s SDI-IP converters and XVS series switchers. Sony also offers a powerful solution for production orchestration and facilities management: Live Element Orchestrator
freedom, flexibility, and efficiency on set.
Meanwhile, camera-to-cloud capabilities enable more freedom and flexibility for efficient productions from the field or front lines. Sony’s next generation camera-to-cloud solution, C3 Portal (C3P), offers cost-effective file operations by tightly integrating Sony acquisition devices and remote operations. C3P enables remote camera control, remote file access and secure, efficient transfer of files to Ci, or the destination of your choice. C3P’s new mobile app enhances the file transfer process through the use of cameras and mobile devices. Flexible metadata workflows support custom and automated metadata tagging of camera clips, resulting in simplified search and identification for fast content retrieval.
Combined with the Sony VENICE camera series, these technologies allow content creators to enjoy consistently accurate and flexible colour matching between the camera and wall and incredible resolution and dynamic range that creates realistic images.
Visualising Vibrant New Worlds Virtual production has transformed the worlds of broadcast and cinema by offering new ways to bring the virtual and physical worlds together in real-time. This revolutionary technology combines cinema cameras, LED displays, and game engine technology to increase
Sony’s Crystal LED B-series has been custom designed for virtual production. The B-series is scalable, available in a 1.26 or 1.58mm pixel pitch, and allows productions to build LED volumes to the size and resolution that meets their needs. With incredible brightness, each panel features the anti-reflection coating, 170° wide viewing angle, and a wide colour gamut.
To better serve the virtual production community and other emerging markets such as eSports, Sony recently launched a dedicated group that brings together the expertise and resources from across Sony’s imaging business to help identify and solve customer needs, while developing new standards. Additionally, Hawk-Eye has introduced the first iteration of its new solution, Hawk-Eye Replay, a product suite that serves as a high-performance, cost-effective, remote clipping, replay and highlights solution. Following the success of Every Shot Every Hole, Hawk-Eye’s award-winning golf production technology, this new offering combines with the company’s optical tracking and data platforms to create a powerful production solution. https://pro.sony/
SPORTSCASTING Riedel Converts SDI-to-ST 2110 for Japan’s TIPSTAR Sports-Betting RIEDEL COMMUNICATIONS has announced that mixi Inc. — a leading Japanese social networking service — has recently deployed the compact Riedel MediorNet FusioN 6B gateway within the video production workflow for its sports-focused AI-controlled TIPSTAR online sports-betting solution. As part of an end-to-end automation system for the live streaming of bicycle and auto racing events held 365 days a year at venues all over Japan, the FusioN 6B is converting SDI signals to the SMPTE ST 2110 format while providing a fibre optic connection between mixi’s Tokyo-based datacenter and its production studio. The MediorNet Fusion 6B deployed by mixi is a versatile stand-alone gateway that can be configured with a selection of inputs and outputs from Riedel’s range of SFP I/O modules, as well as with a variety of processing apps, to deliver the signal processing capabilities mixi requires. The bulk
gateway is capable of creating up to eight gateway conversions for HD/3G signals — or up to two UHD signals — and is equipped with two fibre links that can be configured at 10GE or 25GE data rates. The Fusion 6B units are in mixi’s datacenter, where fully redundant H.265 bicycle and auto racing event feeds are transmitted from 48 different racetracks around the nation. The incoming feeds are decoded into baseband signals and edited in real time with mixi’s Breezecast system, which creates highlights and adds captions. The baseband signals are then converted to the ST 2110 format by the Riedel Fusion 6Bs and sent to mixi’s MOANI system for conversion to WebRTC. In addition, the devices’ fibre links allow mixi to connect its datacenter and production studio via two fibre optic cables, each at 100Gbps. “We did our due diligence and explored a number of solutions to provide baseband-to-ST 2110 conversion for our TIPSTAR
service. With its space-saving design, low cost per port, and ease of management, the FusioN 6B was an easy choice,” said Taichi Sato, Infrastructure Division Development Operations Network Development Group at mixi Inc. “With the gateway in our workflow, we’ve realised a fully automated video streaming system that greatly lowers the cost of deployment by dramatically reducing the number of operators required.” “By utilising advanced AI capabilities to optimise its online platforms, mixi is firmly at the forefront of technology,” said Vincent Lambert, General Manager for Japan and South Korea at Riedel Communications. “The addition of a full IP system to complement those capabilities
allows the company to automate 95 percent of its betting, race management, and video production workflow. Not only does this lower costs, but it also frees up AI skills that mixi can transfer to other areas of operation, allowing the company to focus on creativity and expand its service offering. We’re proud to have our MediorNet FusioN 6B at the heart of the system and can’t wait to see what mixi introduces next.” Visit https://www.riedel.net
Astro Renews Premier League Broadcast Rights Through 2025
Euan Smith, Group COO and CEO TV, of Astro said, “2021 was a big year of sports, but 2022 promises to be even more exciting for sport fans in Malaysia. We are delighted to announce that Astro has successfully renewed exclusive Premier League broadcast rights in Malaysia for the next three seasons from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We would like to thank the Premier League team for choosing to put their trust in Astro again, continuing our successful, long-standing partnership with the League. “The Premier League is one of the world’s top and most exciting football leagues, and under the terms of the new deal, Astro will continue to provide the most premium viewing experience for all 380 matches of the Premier League in HD and selected matches in 4K UHD. Sports fans also get exclusive supporting content, interviews and pitch side coverage, as well as invitations to attend exclusive viewing parties with our football
pundits, contests with exciting prizes, exclusive merchandise and money-can’t-buy experiences as part of Astro Rewards.” Paul Molnar, Premier League Chief Media Officer said, “The Premier League is pleased to continue our excellent partnership with Astro, and we are very happy that they view our League as a vital part of their live sports offering. They will be an outstanding home again for the Premier League over the next three seasons and we look forward to working together to showcase the League to new and existing fans throughout Malaysia.” Say No to Piracy Euan Smith also welcomed the Malaysian Government’s recently passed Copyright (Amendment) Act 2022 that now recognises streaming technology as an avenue to infringe copyright. “As we continue to improve on our services and technology, piracy deeply hurts our ability to keep serving Residential customers and Commercial Enterprises,” he said. “We are working closely with the authorities, industry players and content partners in combating piracy and strongly encourage
Astro SuperSport hosts Adam Carruthers [left] and Reem Shahwa flank Euan Smith, Group COO and CEO TV, of Astro at the Premier League announcement.
all Malaysians and Commercial Enterprises to say no to piracy, and only watch live sports on legal, high-quality platforms. “The amended Act sees the introduction of new streaming and linking-related offences including a law against those providing or sharing access to an online location containing pirated works. It provides an avenue for the
authorities to go after those who facilitate copyright infringement by manufacturing, importing, selling, or hiring any streaming technology, as well as commit piracy and technology offences, with a hefty fine of up to RM200,000 or imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both.” Visit https://www.astro.com.my
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ASTRO MALAYSIA Holdings Berhad has successfully secured exclusive Premier League broadcast rights in Malaysia for the next three seasons from 2022/23 to 2024/25.
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Sporting Codes Score with Non-Fungible Tokens IN A FIRST FOR AUSTRALIAN cricket, Rario, creators of the world’s first Cricket NFT platform, and NFT marketplace design and development firm BlockTrust have signed an official licencing deal with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association that will see digital collectible NFTs (non-fungible tokens) from Australian cricket and play-to-earn virtual gaming made accessible to over one billion cricket fans globally. Using eco-friendly blockchain technology, the multi-year exclusive CA/ACA partnership will introduce NFTs to cricket fans, with the aim of creating a new fan engagement tool. Non-fungible Tokens are unique representations of real-world assets (for example, trading cards), made ownable and tradeable using blockchain technology. In the case of cricket, the NFTs range from cricketing moments to player images.
Traditionally collectibles have only featured still images, whereas NFTs can also show the full story of a sporting moment by featuring officially licensed broadcast vision. According to Rario, the engagement possibilities are vast, from providing collectibles that introduce fans to the history of the game, gaming experiences that allow collectors to play games against each other around the world (which over 100 million cricket fans already do), to trading card sets that act as visual coaching tools for children starting out in the game. Rario NFTs can be purchased on their marketplace in packs just like traditional trading cards. Collectors can purchase them on the Rario Marketplace, a platform to buy, trade and sell Rario NFTs to build up collections of favourite cricketing moments from the history of the game or own the complete set of cards of favourite
players. Rario is a Singapore-based company founded in 2021 by Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot. Rario also produces NFT series for the Hero Caribbean Premier League, Lanka Premier League, Abu Dhabi T10 League and Legends League Cricket, Lanka League. Meanwhile, Adelaide-based start-up Muse Frame has announced a collaboration with AO Metaverse, the virtual platform of the Australian Open tennis tournament, which will see it supply customised digital frames to enable the display of AO Artball non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Muse Frames are the first Australian digital frame exclusively manufactured to display nonfungible tokens (NFTs). They are able to display stills, video and sound, and come in 10.1-inch (HD resolution), 21-inch (4K), 32-inch (4K), and 55-inch (4K) frame sizes. The Muse Frame is a sleek display custom built for NFTs and collects,
verifies and showcases NFT art in a way smart TVs or devices around the home cannot. The smart frame and Muse App features an easy QR code ownership verification process and their secure storage network only imports the art asset itself to the collection, while the token stays locked safely in the owner’s digital wallet. The software has been designed to handle multiple digital wallet integrations by connecting to over ten digital wallets including Metamask, Trust Wallet, and Ledger Wallet. Users can also mint their own pictures and designs into NFTs directly from the Muse App to their desired digital wallet. Once minted on the Muse app, their NFT can be displayed on their Muse Frame or sold on an NFT marketplace. Visit https://nft.cricket.com.au or https://rario.com/ and http://www.museframe.com.au/
disguise Enhances Production Workflows DISGUISE, the visual storytelling platform and market leader in extended reality (xR) solutions, has launched its latest software release, r21, unlocking improved functionality of its Designer software interface and RenderStream workflows, as well as introducing new tools for managing colour workflows. The release promises enhanced performance of the disguise software for productions across all of disguise’s wide-reaching
industry applications, from live shows to virtual productions, broadcasts and fixed installations. r21 introduces a suite of new features to its core software interface, allowing its diverse range of users, which include workflow specialists, screens producers, creative designers and technical producers, to work with disguise more efficiently. The release also brings significant improvements to disguise’s RenderStream infrastructure – a
core element within its workflow that integrates the disguise hardware, software, content engines and camera tracking to deliver seamless productions. Finally, r21 also includes new features that improve colour management within the disguise workflow. Colour management is at the core of every production, so with help from the disguise colour insider group, the team took a closer look at its existing colour workflow end to end
and developed new features that enable colour grading with accuracy, while also introducing support for widely used colour formats. disguise r21 is available to download for free from disguise’s homepage and available in seven languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. Visit https://www.disguise.one/
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Wi-Fi Screen and Video Sharing for Venues
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IDEANOVA TECHNOLOGIES, a developer in the digital rights management and app security arena, has announced Intouch Nearcast, a new feature that enables viewers of streaming video content to share screens and videos in areas with little or no Internet connection. Initially developed for in-flight entertainment (IFE) applications, Intouch Nearcast leverages IdeaNova’s streamlined screen and video sharing platform for local video plays where only local Wi-Fi is available. IdeaNova created Intouch Nearcast as a new way to use
WebRTC technology to customise multi-camera and secure recording features around the world, much as its proprietary web conferencing product, Intouch, does. IdeaNova has developed Intouch Nearcast to meet the unique requirements of the aviation industry to screen share and video share content with passengers. Screen sharing, which usually consists of static content only, must leverage a different protocol than video sharing. Attention had to be paid to optimal utilisation of bandwidth to ensure smooth and uninterrupted presentations to viewers. The platform is delivered
on a scalable and portable docker configuration, suitable for quick installation on any hardware. While the initial deployment is with the aviation industry, other industries are likely to take advantage of this product. Event venues or government/military organisations that either do not have access or limited Internet access can benefit from Intouch Nearcast. Live music, sports, or corporate presentations can overcome crowded bandwidth issues. “Our team worked hard to combine powerful features for Intouch Nearcast, such as
combining multiple video sources and high-quality video sharing, with an easy-to-use browser UI. The web UI can easily be integrated onto an existing web application or site,” said Janne Pelkonen, CTO of IdeaNova. “On the server side, the system scales down to even low-end Arm-based servers. We use optimal video codecs for efficient bandwidth usage and can adapt to even the strictest firewall configurations.” Visit www.ideanovatech.com/
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Managing Bandwidth in Remote Production Remote production is a very attractive proposition, with many practical benefits. Even if we were to put aside necessary health implications and social distancing, there are big environmental benefits in reducing the number of people travelling to events. By Stephen Tallamy, CTO, EditShare REMOTE PRODUCTION is a very attractive proposition, with many practical benefits. Even if we were to put aside necessary health implications and social distancing, there are big environmental benefits in reducing the number of people travelling to events. The challenge is to provide sufficient connectivity to allow all the production and post production teams access to the content in a timely manner, within what may be constrained bandwidth. This means working with tools to maximise productivity while minimising the amount of data that needs to be moved. The first step is to organise the raw footage. Whether the main server is at the remote sports event, at the broadcast headquarters or in the cloud, it makes sense to make the initial shot selections on the server, rather than transferring everything to the edit workstation, particularly if the editor is also working remotely. To achieve the absolute minimum of data transfer, particularly if you are working in Ultra HD resolution or higher, your software
should allow you to create a shot list or even a rough cut on the server. Only the required content plus handles then needs to be transferred to the editor. This will have two benefits: the editor gets the material faster so can start working sooner, and there is less material to work through which boosts productivity. The second step is to minimise the size of each clip. Editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro are designed to bring in full resolution clips, but generally work with proxies which are generated internally. In remote editing, it makes sense to create the proxies on the server then transfer the smaller files to the editor. This is a big saving on bandwidth. The EditShare solution offers two sorts of proxy: the “streaming proxy” which is an MPEG-4 file tailored to be lightweight for internet delivery; and the “editing proxy” which is in H.264 or ProRes, and supports multiple audio tracks for maximum flexibility in post. These solutions work with all popular edit workstations. Many popular software packages allow you to readily switch between proxy and full resolution versions
of the content if available.
where it is needed.
Proxy resolution versions of workin-progress can also be sent to producers for checking. They can tag comments to timecodes and return the messages to the editor.
To achieve the maximum boost in productivity, there needs to be good integration between the editing and server management software tools. All editing platforms now offer a degree of open integration.
There are two routes to finishing the project, which will depend on the nature of the job. For a prestige project, the editor will want to see the final version in all its full resolution glory. That means relinking to the original footage. Smart software will only download the parts of the project you need for the final conform. Where speed is of the essence, which is common in sports and other live events, then you want to avoid the time taken to transfer full resolution clips out to the editor, then transfer a very large finished file back again. The solution is to upload the EDL to a remote renderer, or Adobe Media Encoder, hosted on the server. The EDL is, of course, a relatively tiny file so is transferred virtually instantaneously. Conversely, the server has heavyweight processing power so conforms the finished version very quickly, and the finished file is
Probably the most open is Adobe Premiere Pro. This allows us to implement an EditShare window within the edit platform, so the editor can carry out all of these tasks – from pre-selection and proxy generation to producer collaboration and relinking and conformation – without leaving the familiar environment. The real benefits of remote production are realised when everyone is working where they are most efficient. Media can now be readily moved over IP networks and the open internet, but such file transfers place demands on bandwidth, and that can slow workflows. Smart solutions minimise this bandwidth and time overhead, allowing the production team to deliver the best results, as quickly as possible. Visit https://www.editshare.com
Onyx-IP Encoder and Decoder from DBS
The Onyx HEVC is a broadcast-quality H.265 encoder, offering compression ratios on video resolutions up to 4K UHD. It is suitable for remote production applications over leased lines or satellite, handling 4 HD or 1 UHD feed with ultra low latency. According to Richard Lane, Broadcast Engineering Lead at Domo Broadcast Systems, “Onyx encoders can stream across dual networks using a variety of IP formats including SRT, at
bitrates of up to 120Mb/s. If one network should fail, the transmission will still make it through the other. So, viewers get to see the action in closer to real time, and broadcasters reduce the risk of dead air by having a back-up transmission path.” The use of ST2022-7 technology at the decoder ensures glitch free recovery from network errors or path failover. For legacy systems and satellite modem connections, the Onyx encoder is equipped with ASI inputs and outputs. “Transmitting over IP can add security risks — we know broadcasters don’t want to risk having their
valuable content stolen,” adds Lane. “The Onyx takes care of that. Broadcasters can employ built-in encryption mechanisms, such as AES over SRT or BISS, to protect their content.” The Onyx’s quad mode allows four HD inputs to be synchronised and encoded with end‐to‐end latencies as low as 40ms. This high‐density and low‐latency encoding is ideal for coverage of live sporting events. Visit https://www.domobroadcast.com
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DOMO BROADCAST SYSTEMS (DBS) has announced the Onyx-IP family of encoders and decoders. Featuring low latency and allowing for video to be transmitted down two different paths, the Onyx is designed for live sports coverage and remote production.
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Multi-Camera Control Sports App for Review and Replay TVU NETWORKS has announced a multicamera control sports app that enables officials to instantly review play during games and for producers to include that live video within their coverage. The app is part of an overall modular, microservice-based building block approach from TVU Networks, with the cloud-based production platform TVU Producer providing management of camera inputs, live feeds, audience interaction and audio mixing.
revolutionised the way replay is handled in terms of ease of operation and within a fully realised cloud workflow.”
Called TVU Replay, the app has two modes – Review and Replay. The Review mode enables officials and coaches in game to immediately ‘review’ any close call from their phone or tablet. Replay provides all production elements necessary to output clips to any device. The app is as simple to operate as any smart phone interface.
“By replacing purpose-built replay hardware with a video game controller, we’re opening up the door to a new, potential talent base,” added Shen. “This is just another example of innovation through listening. We’ve heard from customers about the challenges they face and the roadblocks to doing what they want, how they want. The old way is just that, the old way. Our cloud solutions are available today.”
“We’re introducing TVU Replay in response to customer feedback,” said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “We’ve been speaking with various collegiate conferences and their need for a nextgeneration review solution. Everything we do is in response to solving customer challenges. With our devops culture, we quickly and easily built a solution that’s versatile for a variety of applications. We’ve created a tool set that has
Frame speed in Replay and Review can be controlled with your fingers on the touchscreen of a phone or tablet or using a video game controller for a laptop.
TVU Replay is suitable for sports teams, sports leagues, broadcasters and production companies. In addition to Replay, TVU recently demonstrated
its latest in cloud and IP solutions that are reinventing the media supply chain during NAB 2022. Experience hands-on demos of TVU Channel, a 24/7 cloud-native broadcast solution with: full SCTE ad insertion, FAST Channels, emergency offsite remote master control and dedicated OTT Channels. TVU also showcased REMI remote production and the latest in aggregated 5G cellular IP transmission with support for 8K. Visit /www.tvunetworks.com
Cloud-Native Live Video Production from Chyron CHYRON HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of Chyron LIVE, an end-to-end, cloud-native live video production platform with highend switching, graphics, clips player, replay, telestration, and asset management capabilities. Bringing in live camera feeds through a variety of transport protocols, Chyron LIVE makes it easy for a team or a single operator to deliver a stunning live production on the fly. LIVE comes with dedicated interfaces for each production role and ensures all user sessions are synchronised to allow for true collaboration. Production crews can be fully distributed and operate from anywhere in the world to put together an incredible show from a universally accessible cloud control room. “Our objective is to bring a Chyron-grade, cloud-native live video production platform to everyone,” said Chyron CEO Ariel Garcia. “With
a basic computer or tablet and a standard internet connection, anyone can produce a broadcast-quality show on demand – just paying by production hour.” From anywhere with an internet connection, via the convenience of a simple web browser, users can access the Chyron LIVE platform to cut/mix live sources, adjust audio levels across all feeds, play out PRIME-quality graphics packages, create unlimited multimedia playlists, and produce live replays with telestration. The Chyron LIVE interface is easy to operate, either with complete touchscreen control, traditional computer mouse-and-click control, or external control devices. “With Chyron LIVE, we’re making the tools of a top broadcaster affordable and accessible to all levels of production,” said Chyron Senior Vice President of Strategy Mathieu Yerle. “From a user standpoint, we’ve taken these professional
production tools – production switcher, CG, clip server, replay, telestration – and built them into a full web interface that will be easy to use for broadcast veterans and live production newcomers alike. Chyron LIVE’s ease of use and flexibility of deployment is going to empower content creators to wow their audiences.” Visit https://chyron.com
Driving Fan Engagement at the Venue
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VARIANT SYSTEMS GROUP has released Envivo Ribbon, an intuitive fan engagement solution that enables live event venues to drive any resolution LED display with real-time and pre-rendered content at near infinite pixel resolutions. Envivo Ribbon is a fan engagement live production solution that enables users to drive over 16 million broadcast quality pixels to video walls and LED displays with dynamic and engaging content.
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Building on the intuitive user interface of Envivo Replay, Envivo Ribbon further expands the live event production offerings first introduced with Envivo Studio with a story-telling tool to keep
fans engaged in every aspect of the live event at all levels of visual stimulus. Integrated with a limitless number of real-time data sources, content can be dynamically presented with immediate score updates, engaging statistics, timing information, and other relevant and engaging data. Adolfo Rodriguez, Co-Founder and CEO at Variant Systems Group stated: “Envivo Ribbon incorporates the rich knowledge the company and its founders have of live production workflows with the intuitive and powerful user interface infrastructure introduced five years ago in Envivo Replay to provide customers
with the most powerful live production and fan engagement product in the market.” Visit www.for-a.com and www.vsglive.com
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AI-Driven News and Sports Production from Vislink VISLINK RECENTLY showcased its latest solutions for automated, AI-driven remote production for live news and sports at NAB 2022. Vislink’s chief AI offerings include IQ Sports Producer, a live sports production and streaming solutionVislink AI Image vPilot and SportsProducer March 2022b that provides high-quality, economical video coverage for both professional and grass-roots sports, and vPilot, an AI-driven studio content production system that creates professional productions easily and affordably without a camera operator or director team. Vislink automated production systems feature the industry’s most advanced AI-powered action-tracking technology that has been developed and extensively deployed by Mobile Viewpoint. They combine premium-quality camera systems, including the recentlyannounced StellarCam, HCAM wireless camera systems for sideline reporting,
and professional-grade remote production technologies that leverage Vislink’s 50plus years’ heritage covering prestigious lives news and sports events. The result is a comprehensive, highly cost-effective technology platform that enables the production of sub-Tier 1 sporting events with video quality and production values equivalent to Tier 1 event coverage – all without the need for onsite staff. For content owners, this opens up access to new revenue streams by automatically producing a wide range of events that may have been previously unprofitable to cover due to onsite production team costs. Alternatively, the multi-camera AI production can deliver a richer and more immersive production than may be possible using a single camera. Including the vPilot AI studio production system allows engagement-building elements such as expert opinion and match analysis to be added to the program. This helps content rights holders
expand viewer counts and engagement levels and deliver a better return on event coverage. These events can be distributed to audiences across numerous channels, including social media, OTT platforms, CDNs (content delivery networks) and as live playout for broadcast TV. “Content owners are always looking for creative ways to monetise their content and distribute it using the widest range of available channels,” said Mickey Miller, CEO of Vislink. “Using our AI-automated production systems, any team, association or other content owner can now profitably capture and stream live games at levels of video quality simply not available on other systems. We provide outstanding opportunities for increasing audiences and fan engagement, and innovative subscriber and advertising options – even with limited budgets or production resources.” Visit www.vislink.com
FOR-A Expands Slow Motion Solutions FOR-A CORPORATION is expanding its focus on live sports production with the introduction of the SMV-ONE, an HD slow-motion visualiser, which creates smooth slow-motion footage from live or archived video. Plus, the FT-ONESS4K 4K ultra slow-motion camera has also been upgraded with colour matching presets with other companies’ cameras, an advanced workflow, and integration with EVS servers. SMV-ONE HD slow-motion visualiser A cost-effective alternative to standard replay systems, the SMV-ONE allows the creation of slow-motion video while recording live sports coverage. Housed in a compact 1 RU chassis, the SMV-ONE supports 1080i or 1080p HD-SDI video and up to 20x slow motion. Its unique precision interpolation technology enables smooth, slow-motion video between the virtual images it generates and source frames. The SMV-ONE is controlled through included remote control software or via an optional remote control unit. In addition to slow motion playback at various speeds, it offers play, pause, rewind, fast forward, and skip back functions. The camera connects to the
SMV-ONE via an HD-SDI cable, and up to four cameras can be connected in an optional configuration. Beyond sports production, the SMV-ONE can be used to repurpose past surveillance video or other recorded material as slow-motion video for training. Plus, with control via LAN, it can also be used for remote monitoring of factory assembly lines. Already in use worldwide on a variety of projects, the FT-ONE-SS4K now offers an advanced feature set that includes a dual 2/3-inch CMOS sensor system, which delivers improved performance and versatility for live sports and feature film production. Its imaging system can achieve up to 1000fps high frame rate with high sensitivity and high density. FT-ONE-SS4K ultra slow-motion camera With its B4 lens mount, the compact FT-ONESS4K works with industry standard box lenses and does not sacrifice brightness like cameras that include a PL lens mount and require a lens
conversion adaptor. The camera also delivers simultaneous live 4K Ultra HD output and super slo-mo playback output, so it can be included within a conventional camera workflow. Based on user feedback, the FT-ONESS4K supports an advanced slow-motion workflow designed to integrate within existing production environments. With its pre-configured colour matching presets, the camera integrates easily into a production using standard speed cameras from other manufacturer. Plus, the camera now links directly to EVS servers for easier, smoother playback. Visit www.for-a.com
Field Zoom Lens for 4K Broadcast Cameras
Canon’s new UHD-DIGISUPER 122AF features a zoom range of 8.2 mm at the wide end and 1000 mm at the telephoto end—a 122x zoom ratio, the world’s most powerful zoom range for AFequipped field zoom lenses for 2/3-inch sensor
4K broadcast cameras. What’s more, the lens employs a built-in 2x extender that allows users to increase the zoom range two-fold, realising a 16.4 mm focal length at the wideangle end and a 2000 mm focal length at the telephoto end. Alongside the new lens, Canon will also release two new focus demand models for AFequipped lenses used with HD or 4K broadcast cameras. These accessories enable focus control and provide a variety of powerful support capabilities, including the ability to switch between three sizes of AF frames, move the AF frame within the screen, AF mode switching, and
three different focus curve modes. The UHD-DIGISUPER 122AF, FDJ-S31 and FD-S41 will be available in early July 2022. Visit https://sg.canon
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THE UHD-DIGISUPER 122AF is Canon’s new flagship field zoom lens for 4K broadcast cameras, and the company’s first to include built-in AF. With the addition of AF with highspeed and high-accuracy subject tracking, this new lens enables capture of immersive, high-resolution video, thus meeting a wide range of needs at on-location 4K workspaces such as sporting events, concerts, etc.
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NEWS OPERTAIONS OPERATIONS Korea’s WOW TV News Centre has New HOME with Lawo IP AFTER YEARS OF PREPARATION to relocate its broadcast centre, South Korea’s WOW TV, an affiliate of the Korea Economic Daily business newspaper, recently completed a major step in transition to a fully 12G-based UHD broadcast organization: Installation of Lawo AoIP equipment, including two mc²56 MkIII production consoles, an A__UHD core platform, and A__line Audio-over-IP Nodes. The equipment was provided by Lawo partner Dongyang Digital (DYD). According to Jin Woo Lee, WOW TV’s Technical Director, “The WOW TV channel broadcasts live for more than 16 hours daily, providing various economic, stock and business information. Because of this, the reliability and redundancy of all systems weighed heavily in our decision. We also performed a comparative review with products from various manufacturers, and Lawo’s mc²56 mixing console received high scores for excellent features such as LiveView, Automix, and its intuitive control surface layout. We chose Lawo products based on all of these factors.” Control rooms A and B on the building’s 11th and 12th floors are each equipped with 32-fader mc²56 MkIII audio production consoles, which have native support for SMPTE 2110, AES67/ RAVENNA and MADI audio streams. In addition
to multi-user operation, AutoMix, upmix, downmix, these consoles include audio-follows-video functionality, integrated 3D/immersive mixing tools, and parallel compression. The required HOME and MCX servers for the installation are hosted in the equipment room on the 11th floor. Lawo’s IP Easy functionality, based on the HOME management platform for IP broadcast infrastructures, makes IP setup as easy as analog with features like automatic detection and quarantine routines. Along with processing functions provided by the console’s own processing engine, Waves SuperRack SoundGrid integration provides operators with access to Waves’ extensive plug-in selection of real-time signal processing — no additional screens or control devices required. “IP-based media operations are the future,” says DYD’s Jea Gyu Park. “Networking all broadcast devices and solutions, locally and over a
wide-area network, provides our broadcast customers with the flexibility needed to stay at the cutting edge. Lawo has the infrastructure to make this happen. We have been a Lawo partner for five years, and their products and solutions have always fit the customers’ needs for flexible, efficient workflows. They just deliver more quality with less cost! And it’s always a pleasure to work with the knowledgeable Lawo engineers.” Visit https://www.lawo.com
Nunzio Newsroom Software from Etere ETERE NUNZIO transforms news broadcast with an all-new graphics insertion capability that streamlines the creation and delivery of lower thirds, graphics, and news tickers without any external graphics inserter. Etere is ready to drive your newsroom to a new level of efficiency with the latest release of an integrated graphics inserter for Etere Nunzio Newsroom. As part of a new release of enhanced features, Etere Nunzio Newsroom allows an effortless insertion of lower thirds, news graphics, and news tickers, without having to incur large Capex costs for underutilised graphics hardware.
NEWS OPERATIONS
The enhanced Etere Nunzio Newsroom allows better personalisation and greater flexibility in the visual aspect of news reporting. It features an advanced graphics editor with an intuitive drag-and-drop feature for journalists to insert lower thirds, news graphics, news tickers, and logos into the story editor. The lower thirds provide essential information and context to the broadcast on the screen. In addition, they enhance a news broadcast, especially a live one. Etere Nunzio is also the perfect solution for every screen format.
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Etere Nunzio Newsroom provides all the software tools needed to develop a story from the initial idea to the final broadcast, all from a single interface. It features the software tools that enhance collaborative remote working newsrooms. Etere connects cross-department workflows and enables organisations to collaborate better, reduce
repetitive tasks and work more efficiently. The graphics editor integrates in a highly automated newsroom environment. Etere Nunzio Newsroom’s softwaredefined architecture is easy to implement and completely scalable to the broadcasters’ needs. Journalists can select the templates and populate them with content. Drag and drop to insert the graphic file into the news story. Once completed, they can run a quick preview from the same interface and send the news story to playout. News editors can also repurpose news assets and graphics for social media or a repeat broadcast with direct access to the centralised database.
as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Youtube directly from Nunzio interface. • Real-time updates. • Supports MOS-compliant Teleprompters. • Flexible and scalable production workflow.
Etere Nunzio Newsroom Key Features:
• Fully configurable data model.
• Integrated graphics editor to create/edit/ insert lower thirds, news graphics, and news tickers.
• Sophisticated rights, search, and communication tools.
• Manage complex stories with multiple video elements such as video files, live streams, graphics, and secondary media files concurrently.
• Supports Dante audio for superior audio quality.
• Supports Newtek NDI.
• News tickers to create custom carousels.
• Connects cross-department workflows.
• Supports E-paper and website upload.
• Collaborate better, reduce repetitive tasks and work more efficiently.
• Add/update playlists from social media such
Visit www.etere.com
NEWS OPERATIONS
Tag Metadata and Auto Record with LiveU Ingest Cloud LIVEU RECENTLY launched its automatic recording and story metadata tagging solution for cloud and hybrid production workflows. LiveU Ingest enables users to process video content faster by accelerating story metadata association, while cutting production costs. With the increasing amount of live content, manual processes create bottlenecks in production workflows. Automation tools speed up this process and enable the reallocation of human resources. LiveU Ingest automatically records every piece of live content while applying the
respective metadata generated by the NRCS (Newsroom Computer System). Storage costs are reduced because content is filtered and trimmed before being transferred to the MAM (media asset management) system, ensuring that only relevant content is moved. With all video feeds instantly accessible over a cloud web portal, field crews and production teams can view, trim, download, and publish the assets online from anywhere. Samuel Wasserman, CEO and Co-founder, LiveU said, “We are proud to offer our latest innovation for cloud production
workflows, strengthening LiveU’s overall position in the cloud. LiveU Ingest provides concrete benefits, helping production teams to manage their content more efficiently, while giving them peace of mind to never miss a thing! Customers are looking for ways to increase viewership and build their business by expanding their reach. Ingest makes this possible, accelerating the time to convert assets into digital media so content can be published quickly across multiple platforms. As it’s all done in the cloud, it fits easily into an existing remote production (REMI) workflow.
We’re already getting excellent feedback from customers who are using Ingest for cloud-based news and other productions.”
“Graphics are the most powerful tool a visual storyteller has access to, and engaging, realistic graphics add visual quality and explain complex concepts in seconds – adding immeasurable benefit to the audience and the customer. Now even more storytellers can access and use our innovative, creative graphics tools from within the AMPP system,” states Gerhard Lang, CTO at Vizrt.
To further showcase its commitment to cloud capabilities, Grass Valley also recently joined the NDI ecosystem and now has access to NDI’s Advanced SDK which enhances AMPP apps with a bandwidthefficient NDI|HX, or NDI|HX3, plus parallel access to a high number of video sources over remote networks and cloud connections.
As a hybrid cloud workflow solution, LiveU Ingest is powered by the LiveU cloud video platform and seamlessly integrated with LiveU’s end-to-end contribution, distribution, and orchestration solutions as well as other production systems and tools. The solution fits into any production set-up and is easy to implement with minimal ramp-up required. Visit www.liveu.tv
Vizrt Graphics Available on GV’s AMPP
“The GV Media Universe is all
about giving our customers access to the world’s best capabilities using our world class workflows – and Vizrt graphics provide our customers with premium graphics across any live production they wish to use them on. We are proud, and excited to see what our customers achieve using first-rate Vizrt graphics,” says Sydney Lovely, CTO at Grass Valley.
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NEWS OPERATIONS
VIZRT AND GRASS VALLEY have announced that Viz Trio, powered by Viz Engine, can now be added as a module in the Grass Valley AMPP system for cloud-based live production and playout. Using the integration customers will be able to easily and smoothly access, connect and deploy the Vizrt graphics playout tool via Grass Valley’s AMPP.
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NEWS OPERATIONS
IBM and The Weather Company Announce Max Velocity Expansion THE LATEST INNOVATIONS to the Max Platform, Max Velocity and Max Alert Live, were recently unveiled by IBM and its subsidiary The Weather Company in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas. Like it did over a decade ago with its first real-time weather graphics rendering system, The Weather Company aims to transform the broadcast industry with Max Velocity, a new browserbased video storytelling tool designed to allow media clients to create high-quality digital content quickly and easily from any environment for publishing across platforms. The new tool, available now, helps accelerate storytelling, combining templatebased video creation with weather data, interactive mapping and streamlined person-to-person interviews. The browser-based technology allows users to publish the videos from a remote live shot, the studio, or while working from home – anywhere with an internet connection. It is built on top of Max Cloud, a modern, hybrid cloud platform designed to help broadcasters collaborate at scale and increase their content output. “Our customers want to work from different environments and leveraging cloud-based workflows can help make that possible with Max Velocity. It addresses today’s evolving needs of the media industry to report from any location utilising high-quality weather graphics expected by audiences, while keeping their infrastructure and assets protected,” said Joe Fiveash, vice president of strategy and media
solutions, IBM’s The Weather Company. “As part of IBM, we have the experience, investment and expertise to provide powerful tools at scale. Station groups can use this type of innovation to help realise operational efficiencies, as well as create more content that can potentially be used to help generate advertising revenue.” The availability of Max Velocity on the secured and highly available Max Cloud helps drive increased collaboration among station groups and disaster recovery that the security and scalability of IBM Cloud can deliver. Max Velocity is engineered to enable broadcasters to: Expand and improve storytelling capabilities – Max Velocity’s easy-to-use interface allows team members, or even a sponsor, to create videos quickly whenever and wherever they choose without needing specialised skills or professional hardware. Publish from anywhere – Stories can be told from a browserbased device (i.e., laptop, tablet or mobile phone) while at a local school or even at the county fair – anywhere with an internet connection. To add interviews or outside perspective, external experts using a tablet or mobile device can also be brought into the story from remote locations with the click of a button.
Optimise resources and teamwork – Using Max Velocity, station resources, whether in the same city or across the country, can help produce weather content when needed, especially during severe weather events. Potentially drive digital revenue – Creation of video content using Max Velocity can potentially be used to generate advertising opportunities across digital and broadcast platforms. The integrated remote interview component allows for quick and easy production of native advertising content. Educate viewers with climate change content – Thanks to a new collaboration with Climate Central, a nonprofit news organisation that shares independent climaterelated video by its scientists and science reporters, Max Velocity provides quick access to engaging content to help tell deeper climate and weather stories.
In late June, Max Alert Live, the newest component of the alerting platform, will debut to help keep audiences informed and safe by notifying them of disruptive weather events. The solution will utilise the familiar Max user interface and cloudbased technology, so alerts can be managed from anywhere with an internet connection. Once available, broadcasters will be able to match their current on-air look with modern graphics that dynamically adapt to the changing weather to convey the urgency of the emerging threat. By directly integrating data from the National Weather Service (NWS), Max Alert Live will have the ability to automatically trigger messages that scroll across the bottom of the screen when predetermined weather alerts are issued by the NWS. Visit www.ibm.com
NEWS OPERATIONS
Flowics Expands Support with Assets Library for Flowics Graphics
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FLOWICS HAS ANNOUNCED a major new feature for the Flowics platform – the Assets Library. The Assets Library is a new cloud-based repository for all creative assets, integrated into the Flowics platform giving distributed teams a common place to store and share the assets in their Flowics Graphics projects, thereby improving the workflow and increasing collaboration for users working remotely. Graphics teams usually have an assortment of assets they use repeatedly, such as background
images, image sequences, animated logos of a show, or a collection of country flags or sports players that are used across different graphics packages. With the Assets Library, graphics artists using Flowics can upload their files once, reuse them anytime, share with their team, or share with external collaborators with granular control of permissions. It eliminates the need to upload the same file over and over when building graphics with Flowics and the need to use complementary tools from third
parties to centralise creative assets. Based on the success of initial beta testing with select customers, the first release of the Assets Library will be automatically enabled for all Flowics Graphics users right before the 2022 NAB Show. Flowics will make the feature available for customers of the Second Screen and Middleware modules in a future release. Storage limits for the Assets Library will vary by subscription plan.
Library, creative and production teams will no longer need to share their assets through external tools. Now, all collaboration happens directly in Flowics. The result is a streamlined workflow and better management, control, and visibility of the assets across all of their projects,” said Flowics CEO and founder, Gabriel Baños. “This is in line with our vision of equipping producers with the best tools to streamline their productions and allowing all team members to collaborate remotely in a cloud environment.”
“With the new Flowics Assets
Visit www.flowics.com
NEWS OPERATIONS
AccuWeather Unveils Weathershow Creator System ACCUWEATHER RECENTLY announced the introduction of the Weathershow Creator and Display System, which will enable meteorologists to significantly upgrade the effectiveness of their weather presentations and help local stations deliver a superior weather broadcast with motion, interactivity and unique capabilities. Weathershow Creator stands alone as the latest must-have system for local TV stations, with all the data needed to produce a sophisticated and highly rated weather show quickly and easily. Weathershow Creator is a major advancement in weathercast technology and was recently on display for live demonstrations at this year’s NAB show. The display system is the only allin-one interactive weather system that includes all the information a meteorologist needs to create a complete weather presentation, including advanced radar, satellite imagery, data and on-air graphics that are automatically updated with up-to-the-second severe
weather information, so when stations are on the air, they show the latest data, often ahead of the competition. Weathershow Creator display system can stand alone or complement existing weather systems, delivering greater interactivity and more movement and motion than is available with other systems. While engaging the viewer through transitions and the dynamic nature of the presentation, this display system allows multiple scenes to be displayed simultaneously, giving meteorologists the ability to easily pivot between them and adjust their on-air weather segment quickly when actual conditions change with up-to-thesecond, real-time updates from a single touch to the screen. Weathershow Creator’s unique capabilities include six live HD video inputs and dozens of video feeds and the highest level of street labelling, providing the ability to zoom into a neighbourhood with greater localisation, detailed mapping magnifying the level of local detail for a highly personalised viewing experience as well as
the most sophisticated and advanced telestration tools to give broadcasters the control and ability to highlight what is on screen. “We are thrilled to showcase this advanced dynamic weather show and display system, Weathershow Creator, along with our highly popular StoryTeller+, at NAB, and we invite stations to come by and experience these tools, so we can show them all the unique capabilities our solutions offer for a better weather show,” said Keith Ackers, Senior Account Executive of TV Systems and Partnerships.
“These superior tools will surely elevate every weather show performance.” Stations do not have to participate in the AccuWeather Brand and Forecast Partnership, a marketby-market arrangement for exclusive use of the superior AccuWeather forecast and powerful AccuWeather brand, to purchase Weathershow Creator. However, AccuWeather is offering additional exclusive capabilities for those stations who do or choose to participate in the partnership. Visit www.accuweather.com
Zero Density Launches Real-Time Graphics Learning Portal ZERO DENSITY has announced the launch of a new online learning platform for creators of real-time broadcast graphics and virtual sets, ‘Zero Density Academy’. Featuring more than 50 in-depth video lessons, Zero Density Academy enables broadcasters to learn future-proof skills and
earn a globally-recognised certification – all for free. “When we released our Reality software, we were the first to make high-end compositing happen in real-time, live on broadcast,” says Faraz Qayyum, Head of Academy at Zero Density. “We’ve since helped clients
like Fox Sports, The Weather Channel, and Warner Media to enhance their virtual studio production workflows with Reality ecosystem which enables them to deliver photorealistic immersive experiences to their global audience. We then made Reality Engine freely available
on our website, where it’s been downloaded tens of thousands of times. Now, we are taking the next step: sharing all we know about creating immersive broadcast graphics by launching Zero Density Academy.” Visit www.zerodensity.tv
TVU NETWORKS has announced the automatic integration of curated live news feeds from Stringr on TVU MediaSource – its AI-based platform that allows anyone to download or stream raw feeds in real time. With its team of over 120,000 videographers, Stringr delivers live news content from the U.S. and internationally. TVU MediaSource delivers breaking, live news such as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and feeds from the U.S. Capitol Hill attack on January 6th, 2021; Tokyo’s Summer Games, and the closing ceremonies for Expo 2020 Dubai. Including live Stringr feeds within TVU MediaSource strengthens TVU Network’s overall efforts to expand the
availability of content for story creation. “This integration is a powerful way to provide our customers with more live content, without additional equipment or staffing costs,” said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “Including Stringr feeds within TVU MediaSource and within our larger TVU ecosystem streamlines the entire remote production workflow – from story editing through to live broadcast. Customers can search for content within MediaSource and pull that video immediately into their stories and broadcasts.” Subscribers to the TVU MediaSource platform’s RSS feeds will receive notifications when a new event begins for even greater ease of access on the TVU
platform.
building content.
“This is an important partnership for live news creators,” said Lindsay Steward, CEO and Co-founder, Stringr. “With our network of videographers covering breaking news 24/7 and the powerful TVU MediaSource AI engine’s ability to locate footage in real-time, this integration will save news producers time and resources while empowering them to cover even more local news.”
The Stringr Remote Video Sourcing solution is the first step in creating a complete remote production (REMI) workflow for any newsroom by providing access to the world’s largest videographer network so broadcasters can get news video faster than any other solution. Stringr enables media organisations to source video footage – original HD b-roll clips, live feeds and professional video content – all in real-time. With Stringr’s remote video sourcing options, producers can cover more news stories, from more locations, without having to send a crew onsite.
As a part of TVU MediaSource, TVU Search allows users to clip and download content from live feeds from any location using simple and robust clipping tools. Producers can select and use any desired text from TVU Search’s speech recognition to start
Visit www.tvunetworks.com
NEWS OPERATIONS
AutoIntegration of Stringr Live News Feeds into TVU MediaSource
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POST PRODUCTION Oscar Nominated Writing With Fire Finished with DaVinci Resolve Studio BLACKMAGIC DESIGN has announced that the Oscar nominated film for Best Documentary Feature, Writing With Fire, completed post production using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, colour grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software and DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panels. This included colour correction, online editing and managing the films’ various delivery needs. Writing With Fire is a documentary directed by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas that tells the story of Khabar Lahariya, India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women. The film shows how, in a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, Khabar Lahariya’s chief reporter and her two fellow journalists broke traditions and redefined what it means to be powerful. Mumbai based Bridge PostWorks provided post production for the film. Industry veteran Sidharth Meer, whose credits include dozens of films and TV shows such as Badhaai Do, Cobalt Blue and Eeb Allay Ooo!, graded and provided online editing and conforming. “‘Writing With Fire’ is a very compelling, inspiring, and powerful story about journalism and our democracy. The primary goal we set for ourselves when we started the project was to make sure the audience would feel a sense of time and place. We didn’t want it to have a ‘look’ in the traditional sense or for the images to be so strong or overbearing that they would draw the audience out of the story,” Meer explained.
The film was primarily shot over four years in Uttar Pradesh, an Indian region that has extreme climates and incredibly colourful paints for the interior and exterior of homes. Shots for the film were a mix of talking head interviews and footage of the three reporters in action. DaVinci Resolve Studio was able to adjust each shot to maintain a look that focused on the subjects and not the intense colour and lighting of the backgrounds. “Cinematographers Sushmit Ghosh and Karan Thapliyal captured footage brilliantly. However, because of the extremes in colour of the paint and backgrounds, light had a tendency to bounce off walls and affect skin tones. With DaVinci Resolve, we used its primary tools to get a good balance of skin tones while retaining the colours of the surroundings. Once we balanced the image, we just needed a tiny bit of colour boost,” he continued. “We ended up using pretty much Resolve’s entire primary toolset to help match all the different material and make it look consistent, no matter how and when it was shot.”
Beyond colour correction, Meer relied heavily on DaVinci Resolve Studio’s editing and delivery tools. The film had a large amount of conform work, which included instances of super imposed titles and graphics, separate looks for material that had originated on smartphones, and clips that had to look like webpages from YouTube with video playing within them, which had their own subtitles. Meer explained, “It was the edit and deliver pages where Resolve really shone for us. The initial material we received had to be conformed to exactly match the offline and be organised in a way that would be easy for us to locate things later. All of this was made possible by Resolve’s easy conform tools, as well as being able to have multiple video and audio layers for all the various elements and having the ability to grade them
individually if required.” Writing With Fire was shown in theatres and at dozens of online film festivals, on top of having to be delivered to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for an Oscar. “Resolve allowed us to deliver the various versions of the film, easily turning layers of text, graphics and audio on and off without creating multiple timelines and keeping track of grades on all of them. Every single deliverable from the main DCP in 5.1 surround sound down to compressed versions for the web were rendered through DaVinci Resolve,” he said. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
Lightworks 2022.2 Delivers In-Edit Video QC
POST PRODUCTION
LWKS HAS ANNOUNCED LWKS has announced that the Lightworks video editing software platform has amplified and enhanced its pro editing features. The company says the new release ensures Lightworks is: “the optimum tool for importing, editing, finishing, and for the first time ever, quality checking and delivering perfect projects every time.”
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A new behind-the-scenes integration with Lightworks sister software, QScan, gives editors a powerful, world-first ‘in-edit video
QC’ workflow. Being able to automatically QC clips on ingest and sequences on the timeline allows video professionals to automatically detect issues such as video levels, missing audio, photosensitive epilepsy triggers, loudness levels, digital dropouts and more, directly in the edit. Unique to Lightworks, this built-in QC functionality ensures all media projects will be finished perfectly to specifications every time.
Apple ProRes certification, reimagined 10-bit editing from import to export, quick conversion import LUTs and brand new scope functionality. These tools cover the entire pro editing experience from first import to final delivery and allow production professionals to natively create high-quality content across all major operating systems, saving time during the creative storytelling process.
Other major enhancements in Lightworks 22.2 include official
Peter Lambert, LWKS CEO, commented: “This new release is
a big step forward for Lightworks and has the potential to change the way we all edit with innovative new content creation workflows that help remove the barriers to a truly professional editing and creative storytelling experience.” The new Apple ProRes integration will allow content creators and post-production professionals to natively create high-quality ProRes content regardless of their OS and save time during the creative storytelling process. Visit www.lwks.com
POST PRODUCTION
Christie and Lightstorm Entertainment Push Boundaries of Cinema IN A PARTNERSHIP that spans 16 years, Christie and Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc., filmmaker James Cameron’s production company, collaborated to bring enhancements to theatrical display capabilities for 3D, HFR digital cinema for Avatar and the much-anticipated Avatar 2. Known for his creativity and development of cutting-edge technologies to push the frontier of cinematic storytelling, Cameron used Christie cinema projectors as a key part of realising his vision. The partnership began in 2006 with an agreement to share know-how and technological
innovations that would help to propel the future of immersive, cinematic experiences, which has included providing Lightstorm Entertainment with Christie’s newest projection systems as well as support. “Over the years, we’ve worked closely with the team at Lightstorm,” explains Brian Claypool, executive vice president, Cinema, Christie. “With our range of Xenon and RGB laser projectors with Real|Laser technology, Lightstorm has been able to review footage at various stages of production, to ensure the final product looks as intended on the
big screen.” Part of Lightstorm’s production process includes a Christie 4K, HFR capable projector installed into a “pod,” used to review footage as it’s filmed on set. Additionally, Lightstorm has Christie projectors installed in multiple postproduction environments allowing Cameron to work on creating the final images to be used in the film Avatar 2. “Christie has been a good partner. We’re using their projection systems at all our production sites, in the US and New Zealand,” says James Cameron. “Wherever I am, I can view progress on my films
in high quality stereo 3D, just as the audience will see the movies in theatres when they come out. This is essential to our working process.” “Lightstorm’s partnership provides us the feedback that we, as a manufacturer, use to continue to stay on the cutting-edge of digital cinema technology,” says Claypool. “We’re thrilled that our technology is supporting Cameron, and the team at Lightstorm Entertainment, to push the boundaries of the cinematic experience on a film that is sure to bring audiences into theatres.” Visit www.christiedigital.com
Colorfront Turbo-Charges Dailies COLORFRONT, the developer of highperformance dailies/transcoding systems for motion pictures, OTT, broadcast and commercials showcased super-accelerated capabilities and more expansive DCP/IMF mastering toolsets across its product lines, plus a pioneering technology integration with Frame. io’s Camera to Cloud workflow initiative, during NAB Show 2022. Colorfront Dailies systems have excelled in feature and high-end TV production for over a decade, due to powerhouse performance and the continual implementation of cutting-edge capabilities. Thanks to engineering collaborations with Apple, Express Dailies 2022 is optimised to leverage extreme performance from the new Mac Studio M1 Ultra workstation, and was shown processing SDR and HDR footage simultaneously, with output to Apple XDR displays, making this combination an attractive and cost-effective proposition for those involved in dailies operations. Express Dailies 2022 has also been updated to support the latest native camera formats,
including Red V-Raptor 8K VV, Sony Venice 2 8.6K and improved performance for Blackmagic Design 12K RAW. Express Dailies 2022 was shown processing footage shot by DP Claudio Miranda ASC at 8.6K on Sony Venice 2 to different SDR/HDR deliverable formats. Additionally, Colorfront has significantly upgraded the colour pipeline capabilities of Express Dailies 2022, powered by a newlyoverhauled Colorfront Engine. Chief amongst these is support for the latest ACES 1.3 Academy Metadata (AMF) and Common LUT (CLF) formats, which together with seamless integration to Express Dailies’ Parametric Look Modification Transforms (LMTs), provide a full ACES-compliant pipeline from set to dailies to finishing. Colorfront’s On-Set Dailies 2022 has also been updated with the same support for ACES and the latest camera formats. Colorfront’s R&D team has also been working closely with Adobe company, Frame.io, to integrate its products into Frame.io’s Camera to Cloud enterprise, and Express Dailies 2022 was showcased as part of this initiative on the main showfloor at Frame.io’s Booth.
Over the last decade, Colorfront Transkoder has been adopted by Hollywood studios, OTTs and post-production facilities worldwide as the ultimate tool for DCP/IMF mastering. Colorfront has ensured Transkoder has maintained this position by continually adding customer-driven features. Continuing its long and fruitful collaboration with Dolby, Colorfront has updated Colorfront Transkoder 2022 to export Dolby Vision HEVC, using the Dolby Encoding Engine, and has added support for the latest Dolby Atmos immersive audio processing, plus Dolby Vision Live Creation developed for televised events. Dolby Vision IMF mastering is boosted with brand new support for HTJ2K (High-Throughput JPEG 2000) and ISXD (Isochronous Stream of XML Documents) dynamic metadata track file support. Output formats have been extended to include SMPTE 2.1A DCP. On the audio side, Transkoder 2022 now features loudness analysis/reporting, enabling users to check thresholds on content, plus improved multichannel-to-stereo audio mix-down tools. Visit https://www.colorfront.com
Mistika Enhances Boutique and Ultima
“In this latest version we were focusing on developments that are contributing to an enhanced integration of Mistika Boutique and Ultima with trending (post) production pipelines – Onset, Review, VFX, Color Management and Delivery. In addition, we have
made some enhancements that improve the communication with other post-production softwares,” shared Adrian Gonzalez Diaz, Mistika Boutique Product Manager. A new development presented in this latest release is the Automatic VFX Versions Management. This new intelligent feature allows you to import VFX shots or even several different versions of them in just a few simple clicks. Communication with compositing softwares such as Nuke has been greatly
improved by adding a ST Maps Import and Export feature, which provides all the stitch information including geometry and optical data. Enhanced Export option has been added to LUT 3D, providing the possibility to export it from the entire colour corrector or just from a specific stack, such as FX or UniColor. Conform functionality has been greatly improved by adding Smart Import Media option, only importing the shots needed, and not all the media.
Colour Management has also received significant improvements, adding new colour curves to UniColor and ACES 1.3 support. Important new functionalities of this latest ACES release include invert ODT, enhancing Motion Graphics, Animation and CGI workflows and a new Gamut Compression algorithm dealing with the “blue fringe problem”. Finally, XAVC and ProRes formats now include the option to embed Colour Metadata in the render. Visit https://www.sgo.es/
POST PRODUCTION
A NEW RELEASE of Mistika Boutique and Ultima is now available to all their users, introducing powerful new and revised features that will boost collaboration with other software applications and work environments.
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POST PRODUCTION
Autodesk Invests in RADiCAL, AI-powered 3D Motion Capture AUTODESK HAS ANNOUNCED an investment in RADiCAL, the New York-based developer of a born in the cloud, AI-powered 3D motion capture solution. This investment marks the latest move by Autodesk toward what it says is democratising end-to-end production in the cloud for content creators, and builds on the recent acquisitions of Moxion and LoUPE. Through its collaborative real-time platform, RADiCAL democratises 3D motion capture, human virtualization and analysis at massive scale. RADiCAL’s proprietary AI combines modern deep learning strategies, human biomechanics, and computer graphics to estimate, track, and reproduce skeletal joint rotations in 3D from a single conventional video feed. From videos to metaverses, this data can be used to automate the animation of 3D characters and avatars. Requiring no special hardware, training or custom coding, RADiCAL’s cloud-based
solution removes the barrier to entry typically associated with 3D motion capture and character animation, making the technology accessible to everyone, everywhere, at any time. Aspiring professionals can use its powerful AI to start creating engaging animated characters and hone their skills for more advanced 3D animation work.
to working with RADiCAL to extend the sophisticated AI engine powering its solution to put collaborative real time motion capture capabilities in the hands of additional professional creators. As we continue to build out our vision for cloud-based content-creation, partners are key to driving innovation.”
Content creators around the world, including facilities and educational institutions such as Aircards, Surreal Events, Savannah College of Art & Design, Full Sail University and others are already using RADiCAL to incorporate motion capture into their projects at scale. This investment from Autodesk will fuel RADICAL’s efforts to further advance its market-leading AI to serve a growing community, and support professional animation and VFX workflows.
“We have deep roots in media and entertainment technology development, and many of us are long- time users of tools like Maya and 3ds Max,” said Gavan Gravesen, founder & CEO, RADiCAL. “We’re thrilled Autodesk is supporting our mission to become the market standard for fast, accessible, and advanced 3D motion capture. This investment will help us expand the capabilities of our AI, scale our cloud infrastructure, and uplevel collaborative editorial features for the film, television and games markets.”
“RADiCAL’s accessible, easy to use solution appeals to up-and-coming artists and next gen content creators,” said Diana Colella, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “We look forward
Visit https://www.autodesk.com and https://getrad.co/
Cloud-Native Editing from Qvest EFFICIENT WORKFLOWS, instant access to workstations and video content via individual dashboards and limitless collaboration in the cloud: Qvest offers a new remote editing solution tailored to the current needs of broadcasters, publishers, network agencies and post-production specialists. The basis for it is the qibb integration platform by Techtriq, which enables professional media workflows in the cloud. Qvest’s cloud-native editing solution enables media professionals to edit video files in a highly intuitive and efficient way, with complete flexibility wherever they work thanks to cloud technology. The cloud management platform is as powerful as on-premises solutions and is designed for maximum flexibility. The purely digital working environment can be scaled up from one to a theoretically unlimited number of
workstations and scaled down again in a very short time. Qvest’s completely web-based solution includes comprehensive project and cost management functions as well as the relevant applications from Adobe. Thanks to PC-overIP protocol, the cloud system can also be intuitively operated by professionals working with moving images on their home screens. For example, up to 3 UHD monitors can be used per workstation, with consistently high performance similar to an on-premises workflow environment. Depending on requirements, frame-accurate video editing in real time up to a resolution of 4K is possible with the cloud architecture - scalable at the touch of a button depending on demand and workload. Automatic cloud backups prevent any data loss. The platform enables the smooth interaction and continuous integration of third-party
applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro, LucidLink, Helmut4, Teradici, and Leostream. For optimal control of resources in the cloud, data can be visualised via a dashboard to identify budget-relevant developments early on and act as needed. Qvest is a certified Adobe service partner for video and audio and uses Amazon Web Services for the cloud infrastructure. Qvest’s cloud editing is based on the qibb integration platform. The end-to-end media solution combines services with a low-code workflow editor, dashboard system and security tools. qibb thereby offers maximum flexibility, vendor independence and control of the modular media systems. The library of preintegrated applications and workflows enables fast integrations and easy maintenance in operation for professional use cases such as editing, archiving or playout. Visit https://www.qvest.com
POST PRODUCTION
Maxon Redshift Supports AMD Radeon PRO Graphics
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MAXON, THE DEVELOPERS OF professional software solutions for editors, filmmakers, motion designers and visual effects artists, has announced that artists can now use select AMD Radeon PRO graphics cards to create photorealistic images with its productionclass Redshift render engine. Redshift now offers high-performance rendering via AMD (HIP), Apple (Metal) and Nvidia (CUDA) technologies, while anyone can work with Redshift materials and rendering thanks to Redshift CPU. The AMD dedicated GPU programming environment, Heterogeneous Interface for
Portability (HIP) is designed for programming high performance kernels on GPU hardware. HIP is a C++ runtime API and programming language that allows easy migration from existing CUDA® code. This means that developers can write their GPU applications and, with very minimal changes, be able to run their code in any environment with comparable performance across platforms. Redshift also supports rendering with mixed devices like RS CPU and AMD Radeon™ PRO graphics cards, opening possibilities for individuals or studios with a variety of hardware setups – whether it is Nvidia on one
machine, AMD on another, or CPU only. To run Redshift on the supported AMD Radeon™ PRO W6800 graphics card will require the AMD Software: PRO Edition 22.Q1 driver available from the AMD website later this quarter. Redshift is also validated on the AMD Radeon™ PRO VII graphics card. Both AMD Software and Redshift support for AMD Radeon PRO graphics cards on Windows are currently in a closed technology preview and development is actively ongoing. Visit https://www.amd.com/MaxonRedshift
POST PRODUCTION
Sony Enhances Workflows in the Cloud
For post-production, Ci’s Workflow app provides functionality for a secure VFX pull workflow that enables VFX frames to be automatically delivered to VFX houses by simply submitting an edit decision list (EDL) to Ci. Productions must first upload original camera files (OCF) to Ci where preview proxies are created. To initiate the VFX pull workflow, an EDL is submitted to Ci. Ci locates the referenced OCF and converts the referenced clips to the desired output format. The generated frames are dynamically provisioned to the VFX vendor who is notified when delivery is complete. Benefits of the app include increased speed and lower
operational costs, and it helps solve common ownership and accessibility challenges. Ci’s improvements for collaboration, which can benefit editing and sports users, among others, includes in-app commenting, clipping and livestreams, which simplify the way creative teams review and collaborate on content and allows for quicker publishing to social media. Ci is also integrated with Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology to receive live streams from sports venues, allowing officials to review, mark up and collaborate on decisions in near real time, regardless of location. This workflow makes content readily available to licensees and rights holders. Additional enhancements to Ci include a Ci Mobile app on iOS and Android for viewing content and a tvOS app for screening content on Apple TV 4K, as well as more granular control of BYOS3, 6 times faster livestream ingest and Japanese localisation. Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com
EditShare Introduces FLEX for Unprecedented Power in Cloud Editing EDITSHARE RECENTLY announced it’s FLEX cloud solutions at NAB2022. This suite of media asset management and storage software solutions provides a straightforward way for businesses, large and small, to take full advantage of cloud services and workflows. FLEX reflects the powerful business trends in post today, including the migration to a ‘work anywhere’ environment, with ready access to content wherever the creative staff need to be. In adopting cloud storage and processing, it also meets the move towards an OpEx financial model, with the cloud hosting and storage fees flexing to reflect the level of business. “EditShare began leading the industry’s shift to the cloud a few years ago by expanding many of its existing core product capabilities – openness, interoperability and scale – to the cloud,” commented Stephen Tallamy, CTO, EditShare. “EditShare FLEX is the result of these investments and we’re excited to show the industry how it can greatly simplify how their teams may choose to work.” Leading the new initiatives is FLEX Cloud Edit. In its simplest form it provides media asset management, high performance software-defined storage, and virtual workstations in the AWS cloud. The real beauty of FLEX is that it provides a powerful but completely open hosting environment, so users are free to use whatever editing software they prefer.
Blackmagic Announces New Cintel Scanner Light Source BLACKMAGIC DESIGN recently announced a technology demonstration at NAB 2022, of a new high intensity light source for Cintel film scanners that lets customers get better quality from scanned film and much higher film scanning speeds.
FLEX Cloud Edit+ adds accelerated file transfer capabilities using the CloudDat transfer software from Data Expedition Inc. It also provides comprehensive workstation management using Teradici’s Cloud Access Manager, all tightly integrated into an intuitive, single-sign on EditShare environment. FLEX Cloud Sync provides synchronisation of content between local EFS arrays and archive storage with leading cloud providers. By automating backup to the cloud, EditShare FLEX Cloud Sync makes it easy to retire LTO tape libraries and gain the huge resilience and availability that major cloud providers offer. As necessary, a FLEX Cloud Edit system can be spun up using all of the content in a customer’s FLEX Cloud sync backup.
The new light source technology is much higher power than the light source used on the previous generation of Cintel film scanners. It consists of a square array of 576 high power LEDs arranged into a grid pattern, and then focused onto the film using a new light cylinder. This new design provides more than twice the silicon area for generating light and the result is much more light is directed at the film. The new light source technology allows much faster HDR film scanning. This is because the new light source is six times more powerful, and there are tens of kilowatts of power contained in the illumination flash when each frame of the film is scanned. Previously, HDR film had to be scanned at a slower rate of 10 frames per second. Now the film can be scanned at 30 frames per second. That’s up to three times faster than before.
“We continually listen to what the industry is telling us, and this is a direct response to current demands,” said Tallamy. “With FLEX, our customers can maintain full control over their working environment and the security of their content, while gaining the huge benefits of remote working and editing-in-the-cloud.
There is also a new film inspection mode. This lets customers check the condition of the film, so they can see if there is any dust or scratches. The customers simply need to press and hold the stop button and the light source will be adjusted so the light is more single direction and then dust and scratches can be seen. On the current generation Cintel film scanners, the spherical light source can not change the direction of light as it is always diffused. The light source can be fully controlled in software, which means the customer gets better control and can check the film before scanning.
Visit https://editshare.com
Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com
POST PRODUCTION
CLOUD IS INCREASINGLY important in providing secure accessibility, streamlining media workflows and facilitating enhanced collaboration. Sony’s Ci Media Cloud Services, an ecosystem of cloud-based applications built for media organisations to collect, organise, collaborate, deliver, and archive media assets, has been continuing to enhance its offerings to create a more valuable solution for several applications.
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Planetcast International Launches Free Disaster Recovery PLANETCAST INTERNATIONAL, Planetcast International, the new division of Planetcast Media Services which has a 25-year heritage in broadcast and media services throughout India and Southeast Asia, has launched a free-to-provision and free-to-maintain cloudbased playout disaster recovery service for customers, including broadcasters, video content owners, and operators. The service provides commercial revenue and brand reputation protection for broadcasters who run their own playout operations or who outsource to a third-party provider and cannot afford expensive dual redundant facilities. “Our new disaster recovery service is as close as you can get to a free lunch in broadcast technology,” says Mark Beard, Planetcast’s Senior Vice President of International. “Most Tier-1 broadcasters have disaster recovery in-place, but it more than doubles their total playout cost. For many Tier-2 and Tier-3 broadcasters, this means that they cannot afford disaster recovery, and are therefore at risk. To address these issues, we have launched our unique disaster recovery service, that has zero set-up costs and zero charges until the service is used. Even when disaster
recovery is invoked, our charges are modest and much lower than the reputation damage and financial consequences of a channel being off-air.” Planetcast International Playout Disaster Recovery solution includes three core elements. MAM.C, an always-on media asset manager that resides within the cloud and manages programme schedules and content. This is linked to CLOUD.X, a full featured cloud-based playout platform. When invoked, CLOUD.X sends content to RECASTER, Planetcast’s dynamic IP transit solution, which in turn delivers a secure internet stream to a broadcaster’s distribution provider. The Planetcast Playout disaster recovery solution is fully featured, and its core elements, including MAM.C, CLOUD.X and RECASTER, are already in use at some of the Asia largest media companies, including Disney, Star TV and Viacom, where they are used daily to playout content to billions of viewers. This service can also be used to enable the launch of ‘pop-up channels’ and cloud-based content archiving.
recovery service is currently being launched as a zero-cost insurance policy for our discerning customers,” said Sanjay Duda, Chief Operating Officer of Planetcast Media Services. “We’re already getting a high-level of interest from the major broadcasters we’ve demonstrated the service to, and for channels without disaster recovery in place, we’re excited to be taking away the existential risk of being off-air for hours or days. The fact that this service can also be used to cost-effectively launch revenue generating services such as ‘pop-up’ channels is an additional customer bonus.”
“The Planetcast International disaster
Visit www.planetcastinternational.com
New Blackmagic Cloud Store BLACKMAGIC DESIGN’S Blackmagic Cloud Store is a high performance network storage solution with four 10G ethernet connections and a parallel memory core that can sustain maximum possible transfer speeds on each 10G ethernet port, all at the same time. Blackmagic Cloud Store is network storage solution for film and television where large media files need to be shared between multiple users for editing, colour-correction, audio post and VFX work.
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
Unlike IT industry storage products that are rack mounted and have loud cooling fans, the Blackmagic Cloud Store is an elegant vertical design that’s portable. It’s also whisper quiet so it can be used on location. Internally it has an array of flash memory cards working in parallel for speed and data protection. The four 10G ethernet ports operate as a switch so customers can connect four separate computers, or they work together using ‘link aggregation’ for a 40G ethernet speed. There is also an HDMI monitoring output so customers can watch a live graphic view of the storage operating on a TV or monitor.
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The Blackmagic Cloud Store is available in 20TB, 80TB and 320TB models. M.2 flash memory cards are used for reliability, high access speeds and zero seek times. The M.2 cards are arranged in parallel RAID 5 groups
so they can operate faster than a single card. That ensures high speed combined with fault tolerance. Users can set up a local cache of their Dropbox files. This makes working much faster because files are instantly available without needing to be loaded from the internet. Blackmagic Cloud Store will constantly work to stay in sync. Plus customers can also save space on their computer by moving cached Dropbox files to the Blackmagic Cloud Store so they are accessible to everyone on their local network. Customers can even sync multiple Blackmagic Cloud Stores via Dropbox so people in different geographic locations can collaborate without latency because everyone has a local copy of the files. Simply connect a TV or monitor to see live status of the Blackmagic Cloud Store. The storage map shows a graphic representation of the memory core and where the read and write access is happening for the connected users. There are also four graphs that show customers the data transfers on the four main 10G ethernet connections. The main space indicator shows customers the capacity of the memory core and how much is currently used. The status for each Dropbox connection is also shown. It’s even possible to see connected users and the power supply status.
The Blackmagic Cloud Store has four high speed 10G Ethernet ports. With a built-in ethernet switch, each port can be plugged into a separate computer, or they can be used together for 40G ethernet. Two extra 1G ethernet ports let customers keep the 10G ethernet ports free for faster computers. Blackmagic Cloud Store has a USB-C to ethernet adapter built in and users can access it simply by plugging their computer into the USB-C port on the store. The two USB-C ports on the Blackmagic Cloud Store can be used for loading and backup of files. If customers connect a media card reader or a USB-C disk to the ingest port, then all files on that disk will be loaded into the cloud store. When customers need to change settings, customers can use the Blackmagic Cloud Store utility available for Mac and Windows. The utility also lets customers add Dropbox sync folders. Visit https://www.blackmagicdesign.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
Cinedeck Demonstrates Cloud Ingest Solutions CINEDECK DEMONSTRATED its latest cloud-based ingest solutions at NAB 2022. Since thelast in-person NAB in 2019, Cinedeck has transitioned to cloud-based solutions, which it says have been key to enabling its customers to navigate the challenges of the past couple of years, while also opening up new opportunities to improve flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, without compromising on quality. Launched in February 2022, Cinedeck CD2 makes it quick and easy for broadcasters and content producers to ingest raw footage ready for editing and distribution. The solution was launched in response to the industry need for greater flexibility over managing elements of broadcast production remotely, specifically ingest. Users can ingest using CD2 and distribute live thanks to Edit While Record and Playout While Record features. For non-live, ingested content can be scheduled using the Cinedeck multi-channel control app. It also enables multi-camera ingest and supports a wide range of input formats, including JPEG2000, XAVC, ProRes, DNxHR, 4K Multicam, and Cinedeck recorders. In addition, it supports all major input sources, such as SRT, NDI, 3G/12G and IP-2110. CD2 provides a broad selection of text metadata elements that can be burned into the video image of a file while its recording. It also provides
control of character out as an overlay on the user interface and the SDI video output and/or as a burn-in to the encoded video with fully adjustable position, size and colour. It is simple to integrate with other parts of the production and postproduction workflow because it offers a fully customisable RESTful API. Cinedeck Capture 2 Cloud makes it simple for users to carry out on demand cloud encoding of edit ready formats. Whether it’s a single input or multiple inputs, Cinedeck’s intuitive user interface will power through record sessions for NDI and SRT inputs. It supports on demand edit ready formats including ProRes, DNxHR, XDCAM, JPEG2000, XAVC and AVC. In addition, recorded media can be easily connected directly to the user’s Media Asset Management system and cloud-based storage.
based ingest has many benefits for broadcasters and content producers. Not only is there a clear reduction in hardware costs, it is also extremely flexible. Its scalability enables vendors to handle data heavy jobs without investing in costly ingest infrastructure. Added to that, when managing ingest systems in the cloud, it becomes easier to integrate with other tools and adapt workflow more quickly. In current times when there is still a level of uncertainty about what is around the corner, the ability to work flexibly is a huge advantage.”
Jane Sung, COO, Cinedeck, commented: “Cloud
Visit https://cinedeck.com
Quantum Announces New M&E Products
“What’s remarkable about the new H4000 Essential is that we’ve brought the most important capabilities of two powerful platforms – CatDV and StorNext – and taken away the complexity and time in configuring and managing them separately and setting up production workflows. The H4000 Essential is the fastest solution to stand up for a new project or a new team – whether working directly on the storage, collaborating remotely from the field, managing multiple
projects simultaneously, or all the above,” said Dave Clack, Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Software and Analytics, Quantum. “For the first time, these industry-leading technologies are in reach of small creative groups everywhere.” “Switch is a fast-moving, agile brand and experience agency for leading content and enterprise brands – our work bridges digital and brand marketing with virtual and hybrid meeting events, tradeshows, and field marketing. We have multiple projects in flight constantly across our team, so it’s important to us to have an allin-one content management and storage solution like the H4000 Essential for our fast-moving deliverables,” said Darren Temple, CEO and President of Switch. The H4000 Essential features are purpose-built for the needs of small, independent creative teams and include: • StorNext collaborative shared storage systems of starting at either 48TB or 96TB of raw storage in a compact 2U server, expandable up to 384TB with purchase of additional storage. • A highly-available dual-controller architecture.
• An intuitive out of the box user experience designed for creative professionals to get up and running quickly. • 25GbE networking connection to customer networks. • Unified StorNext and CatDV account creation with StorNextpowered SMB storage volume sharing. • StorNext shared storage operations to trigger file ingesting, metadata extraction, proxy and filmstrip creation without needing ‘file tree polling’.
Based Analytics (CBA) software for remote, proactive system monitoring. • Available archiving plugins for Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, or choice of S3-compatible storage. • The available archive plugins are a powerful way to extend CatDV’s searchable catalog as projects are completed and moved to cloud storage, yet keep them available for fast recall as needed on the H4000 Essential.
• Quantum CatDV pre-installed and pre-configured for use by up to 10 named users, including use of Adobe Premiere Pro CatDV Panel.
“We love empowering agile, creative teams with cloud storage that delivers ease, flexibility, and immediate availability when they need it. Pairing the H4000 Essential’s impressive feature set with the Backblaze B2 Archive plugin does just that – it lets customers grow and protect archives at any scale while maintaining visibility into all the content they have stored on Backblaze B2 via the powerful visual catalogs the UI provides,” said Nilay Patel, Vice President of Sales and Partnerships at Backblaze.
• Integration with Quantum Cloud-
Visit www.quantum.com
• Automatic content ingest, metadata extraction, proxy, thumbnail, and filmstrip creation. • Automatic content cataloging and indexing based on folder structure, made immediately available to all users. • Highly efficient StorNext and CatDV integration to avoid file system polling that can impact performance.
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
QUANTUM CORPORATION has announced the release of the H4000 Essential, an all-in-one appliance that integrates Quantum CatDV media asset management and Quantum StorNext 7 shared storage software on the award-winning H4000 storage platform. The H4000 Essential provides highly available shared storage and automatic content indexing, discovery, and workflow collaboration for small creative teams. It does not require specialised IT skills to support, can be up and running in minutes, and offers unique features that integrate media management and storage so these teams can spend more time creating and less time searching for content.
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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
Smart NVMe Switch Host Adapters ATTO TECHNOLOGY has unveiled the ATTO ExpressNVM S48F Smart NVMe Switch Host Adapter. The first of a new product family built on the NVMe interface specification, ATTO ExpressNVM Smart NVMe Switch Host Adapters help organisations quickly scale NVMe storage capacity to support high-performance storage server applications without sacrificing performance. They are a value add and cost-effective solution for OEMs and System Builders, providing a framework to develop enterprise NVMe storage arrays for local and distributed storage networks As organisations modernise their data centres, NVMe storage has become the next step in enterprise architectures. Yet despite its performance potential, many organisations struggle with manageability when NVMe is scaled. NVMe was designed to work over a PCIe bus where the synchronisations and command translation requirements defeat the benefits of NVMe devices when
accessed remotely. While NVMe connectivity is available on the motherboard for many servers, the lack of choices, customisation, and the number of drives able to be connected limit scalability and configuration options. These challenges are compounded with the ongoing supply chain issues which are forcing server manufacturers to limit SKUs and motherboard configurations. ATTO ExpressNVM Adapters provide greater purchasing and design flexibility options for OEMs and system integrators who choose to add these adapters to their storage solution toolkits. In turn, their customers can add intelligence to their NVMe deployments and restore key management and monitoring capabilities that are lacking from most onboard solutions. Designed for consistent and persistent latency, the new ATTO ExpressNVM Smart NVMe Switch Host PCIe 4.0 Adapters address scalability issues with the ability to connect up to eight NVMe drives
per card. They allow for scalable NVMe storage solutions and feature extensive management and analytics unrivalled by any other solution available today, including: An FPGA management engine that adds management capabilities based on proprietary ATTO eCORE technology. • Real-time alerts to manage and monitor attached drives with in-band and out-of-band analytic tools that provide a granularity not possible with other solutions. • Enterprise-ready management capabilities, including reliability statistics and capacity utilisation – all without adversely impacting performance or latency. • ExpressNVM Smart NVMe Switch Host Adapters The S48F Smart NVMe Switch Host Adapter supports eight drives and features:
• 4 x 8 internal SlimSAS Connectors. • x16 PCIe 4.0 host bus interface. • Supports all major operating systems via inbox hardware drivers. • Enhanced management driver support for Windows and Linux. • Support for multiple NVMe drive types M.2, U.2, U.3 EDSFF. ATTO enterprise software includes: • ATTO CLI Tools – For advanced topology display / configuration. • ATTO Tool Ecosystem – Similar look and feel across multiple Operating Systems. Management and analytics includes: • ATTOview analytics and monitoring – PCIe switch, NVMe drive status, NVMe drive health, NVMe drive performance. • Alerts generated by metric collection and analytics. Visit www.atto.com
Dreamstime Launches Copyright Infringement Tracker
Archiware Moves Data Between Tape, Cloud and Disk
DREAMSTIME, one of the world’s leaders in photo licensing and largest stock photo communities, has launched a proprietary copyright tracking tool, LicenseGuard. The tool will monitor, detect, and flag potentially unlicenced usages of the agency’s visual content across the Internet, using AI-powered scanning technology, visual recognition algorithms, and human review. LicenseGuard includes cease and desist mechanisms and post-usage options, allowing Dreamstime’s contributors and copyright notice recipients to resolve claims quickly and fairly.
ARCHIWARE GMBH, the provider of data management software, has announced the P5 Data Mover. The new extension will be available in the upcoming version 7.1 of the Archiware P5 data management platform.
“LicenseGuard is designed to safeguard the copyright of content creators and motivate image users to follow industry-accepted ethical practices. It ensures that copyright owners’ work is protected and
remunerated while image users can secure a carefree media usage experience with the appropriate license agreement,” Dreamstime’s CEO Serban Enache explains. The tool checks and matches images in Dreamstime’s library across the web, so all the agency’s contributors benefit from the tool for free and without specific enrolment. Dreamstime currently hosts and markets 185 million images for approximately 875,000 contributors, thus making it an extensive database for copyright tracking. Notices sent to infringers include Dreamstime’s specially designed Universal Royalty-Free and Extended licences that grant postusage permission for unlicensed media in use. Visit www.dreamstime.com
The P5 Data Mover is an extension of the P5 Archive module. It offers policy-based moving and copying of archived data between tape, cloud and disk storage. This HSM-like extension offers flexibility for any storage strategy. Data can easily be migrated or copied between storage tiers. A migration plan runs periodically and selects data according to a predefined age. This way, users can automatically move data from hot storage to cold storage
and in any direction they need. Additional features in the upcoming P5 version 7.1 cater towards data security, transfer and access. Multi- factor authentication provides an added layer of security. UNC path support enables easy access to network source and target storage. The MHL checksum manifest of LTFS archived data ensures that the source data has been saved and recovered without any alterations. New integrations with the P5 data management platform include Seagate, OpenDrives, and GB Labs. Visit www.archiware.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
Etere Transcoder Adds Transwrapping
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ETERE HAS ANNOUNCED a free upgrade included in ETERE 32.2 Etere Transcoder – a Transwrapping feature that allows transcoding without reencoding. The new feature enable users to trim a local file, capture a
network stream to a local file, or transcode a list of files in a single file of the same or different container. In this process, the software extracts data packets from a source and the same packets can be used to create new frames in the output file.
Subsequently, when the packets are processed within a single thread, they remain unchanged. The Transwrapping Technology can be used when there is no format change between inputs and outputs. The technology allows around 50 times faster
processing, and also has no quality degradation in comparison with traditional transcoding. The software update is a free release for all Etere users on a support contract. Visit www.etere.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
Kioxia Introduces 2nd Generation SSDs With PCIe 5.0 THE FIRST VENDOR to offer a drive designed with PCIe 5.0 interface technology, Kioxia Corporation recently announced it has built on this achievement by introducing its second generation SSDs. The company’s new KIOXIA CD8 Series data centre NVMe SSDs (CD8 Series) are optimised for hyperscale data centre and enterprise server-attached workloads, and utilise PCIe 5.0 interface technology, which doubles the bandwidth over PCIe 4.0 from 16 gigatransfers per
second (GT/s) to 32GT/s. The CD8 Series is now available for customer evaluation. Based on Kioxia’s 5th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology, the CD8 Series utilises a proprietary Kioxia controller and firmware, which can be customised to customer needs, and is housed in a 2.5-inch, 15mm Z-height form factor. The new drives are designed to the PCIe 5.0, Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe SSD 2.0 and NVMe 1.4 specifications, and are
well-suited to applications and use cases that include highperformance computing, artificial intelligence, caching layer, financial trading and analysis. Additional features include: • Read-intensive 1DWPD (Drive Write Per Day) endurance models targeted for hyperscale and server-centric workloads, in capacities from 960GB to 15.36TB. • Mixed-used 3DWPD endurance targeted models are available,
Starfish Simplifies Antipiracy Protection
ELEMENTS Boosts BOLT NVMe Performance
STARFISH TECHNOLOGIES, a pioneer in transport streaming processing, has added to its family of products for broadcasters and streamers. The new addition inserts watermark sequences directly into encoded media streams and were launched at NAB 2022.
HIGH PERFORMANCE media storage specialist ELEMENTS has announced a new version of its BOLTNVMe storage appliance. The new revision boasts updated hardware delivering hugely increased performance.
There is frequently a requirement to protect content when distributing valuable media over streaming feeds. The TS Watermark Inserter is a completely self-contained application that runs on COTS hardware. The device accepts an incoming transport stream or streams (SPTS or MPTS), decodes it, adds the
watermark overlay then re-encodes to the same format and bit-rate. The watermark sequence is stored within the application and can be readily updated by the user. “This is one of those requirements that many organisations have for broadcast, IPTV and OTT,” said Peter Blatchford, CEO of Starfish. “You need to add anti-piracy protection but do not want to add a complex multi vendors solution. This is an integrated software application that does the job, seamlessly and costeffectively.” Visit www.starfish.tv
Users recognise BOLT’s advantages in delivering consistently very high performance in demanding applications right across post production, at resolutions up to 8k. Because it is a large capacity device – 300TB of highperformance shared storage in a single 2U chassis – it means data managers do not need to worry about optimising the allocation strategy for power users in VFX and grading. “We know that video professionals and post production facilities just want to get on with their creative workflows,” said André Kamps, CEO of ELEMENTS. “We originally conceived BOLT to give them the performance they need, while eliminating the tiresome business of
in capacities from 800GB to 12.8TB. • Delivers up to 1.25M random read IOPS and 7.2GB/s sequential read throughput, an improvement of approximately 14 percent over the previous generation version. • Security options include sanitise instant erase (SIE) and self-encrypted drive (SED). Visit www.kioxia.com
managing storage and moving files from disk to NVMe.” The new version of BOLT keeps the high capacity, but dramatically boosts data delivery. At 25GB/s per chassis BOLT was already 10 times faster than traditional NVMe devices. Now, thanks to an updated hardware platform, built on PCIe 4.0, it can deliver up to 70GB/s, meaning it can happily sustain a large team of demanding users. “Developments in IT technology mean that we can now give BOLT a huge speed bump, making it even better for organisations,” explained ELEMENTS CTO Heiner Lesaar. “And along with the incredible performance, it still consumes only around a tenth of the power of a regular, disk-based 300TB shared storage device. Better performance; simpler operation; good for the environment.” Visit https://elements.tv
Innodisk DDR5 Raises the Bar for Workstations workstations that push the limits of speed, capacity, and reliability in professional environments. One of Innodisk’s clients, who has already put DDR5 to the test in a meaningful way, is a global company that designs and manufactures workstations for engineering, product design, architecture, data science, and VFX. They decided to use Innodisk’s 4800MT/s 32GB DDR5 UDIMM for their workstation computers. These workstations provide the ideal match for early DDR5 adoption as they offer server-grade performance, with high-end processors, and lots of memory, in a standard PC form factor for CPU and RAM-intensive
applications like graphics, 3D design, and video editing. The client, whose end customers cover multiple industries including science and medical, film, mission critical applications, as well as manufacturing and design, was able to benefit from DDR5’s increased bandwidth, better power efficiency, and higher memory efficiency, while also future proofing the workstations they built with the latest and greatest standard in DRAM technology. The aforementioned improvements over DDR4 will allow customers to work faster, and more efficiently, while not having to worry about data loss, due to the extra layer
of protection through IC level checking that DDR5’s on-die ECC provides. Innodisk currently offers the most comprehensive range of industrial-grade DDR5 solutions on the market, including UDIMM, SODIMM, RDIMM, UDIMM ECC, and SODIMM ECC. These memory modules also include Innodisk’s other industry-focused features, such as a 30″ gold finger and antisulfuration technology that adds a protective layer to safeguard silver alloys found on DRAM modules. Visit www.etere.com
MEDIA IN THE CLOUD
INNODISK HAS ANNOUNCED a free upgrade included in the debut of its new industrial-grade DDR5 memory in workstations, which are powerful computers intended for specialised technical and scientific use cases. Bringing this new technology to market now gives early adopters the chance to demonstrate the realworld speed, and performance gains that were promised during the hype surrounding the announcement of DDR5 in 2021. Now, as Innodisk begins mass production, the new technologies that DDR5 introduced, such as double bank groups, same bank refresh, on-die ECC, and dual subchannels are being utilised in
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AUDIO, RADIO RADIO, PODCAST AUDIO Digital soundwaves
Malaysia’s Radio IKIM Upgrades to DHD SX2 Mixing Console RADIO IKIM, MALAYSIA, recently completed a major upgrade to the audio production facilities at its studio headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Launched on July 6th 2001, Radio IKIM is owned and operated by the Institute of Islamic Studies Malaysia. It was the first Islamic radio channel in Malaysia to broadcast 24 hours per day. Transmitted nationwide on FM, Radio IKIM also reaches listeners in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and southern Thailand. The project centred on upgrades to the master control room and two live-to-air studios, connected via a DHD XC2 DSP core. Installation and commissioning were coordinated by DHD’s Malaysia distribution partner Stagetec Asia in cooperation with local system integrator HD Solution. “We decided to modernise our production infrastructure after using the previous system for many years,” comments Encik Shazril Sopian, IKIM engineering team leader and the head of the upgrade project. “We evaluated a number of technical options and found the DHD SX2 to be the optimal solution. DHD systems are operator-friendly, spaceefficient and easy to integrate with third-party equipment. The sound quality is incomparably good. Our staff are very pleased with the
DHD user interface, especially the SX2 touch screens which display all the information needed to configure and control signal levels. This is particularly useful during live mixing sessions.” “The SX2 also scores in terms of attention to detail such as assignable buttons linked to adaptive labels in a dedicated display screen as well as the dust-protected faders to the individual channel bar-graphs and main output metering,” adds Advon Tan, General Director of Stagetec Asia. “The modularity of the SX2 ensures great versatility in terms of desk layout and makes relocation very straightforward. Linked to the DHD audio system is IKIM Radio’s Dante Audio over Internet facility which is managed from the master control room. Dante coding is used on the primary transmission path and AES3 on the secondary path, fully switchable. A modular mixing console designed for radio and other broadcast applications, the DHD SX2 is based on a central module with four faders plus a control section including monitoring and talkback. The SX2 series also includes a fader module with six motorised faders. The central control module gives access to the most important audio inputs and outputs. A microphone input and headphone output
are also included. Loudspeakers can also be connected directly to this unit. The fader module allows the addition of a second layer accommodating up to 16 channels. Central and fader modules each incorporate a 10.1 inch multi-touch display showing relevant configuration and operating parameters. Each SX2 unit is a standalone table-top device which can be chained with others to create a single mixing desk. SX2 features can be extended simply by adding optional licence codes to the DSP core. This allows extra faders, busses and clean-feeds. Functions such as loudness metering, profanity delay and talkback to other DHD mixers are also supported. Visit https://www.stagetecasia.com and https://www.dhd-audio.com
NZ Govt to Boost Pacific Shortwave Radio THE NEW ZEALAND Government has allocated some NZD$4.4 million in its Budget 2022 for a new transmitter for shortwave service RNZ Pacific. RNZ Pacific broadcasts into the wider Pacific on shortwave 24 hours a day, collaborating with 22 broadcasting partners across the region. Its current primary transmitter is nearing end of life, and its other transmitter has in effect already been retired. According to RNZ Chief Executive and Editorin-Chief, Paul Thompson, “The value of the RNZ Pacific service can’t be underestimated.
Our voice reaches all parts of the Pacific, at times with critical information such as cyclone warnings. During the Tonga eruption, when the undersea cable was cut, RNZ Pacific short wave was a lifeline source of information. “This investment secures a productive future for our unique voice. The attraction of the shortwave service is its robustness, and the ability to have the signal travel great distances, and achieve good audiences.” Since the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ceased its shortwave broadcasting, the only other shortwave broadcaster in the
region is Radio China. Thompson says RNZ can now start work on its infrastructure development with a new transmitter likely to take approximately 12 months to get in place subject to further project planning. Also in the NZ Government’s 2022 Budget, some NZD$327 million over three years has been allocated for a new public media entity which will see a merger of Television New Zealand with its radio counterpart, RNZ, scheduled to begin operations in mid-2023. Visit https://www.rnz.co.nz
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
AES Adopts New AES75 Standard for Loudspeaker Measurement
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THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY has announced the adoption and publication of AES75-2022, “AES standard for acoustics – Measuring loudspeaker maximum linear sound levels using noise.” The new standard addresses the need for a practical and cohesive procedure for the prediction of loudspeaker performance. AES75 is the result of extensive work by the AES Standards Committee’s SC-04-03-A Task Group, cochaired by Merlijn van Veen (senior technical support and education specialist at Meyer Sound) and Roger Schwenke, Ph.D. (Meyer Sound senior scientist and innovation steward). Predictive evaluation of loudspeaker performance based on published specifications has traditionally been challenging due to inconsistencies in both
measurement procedures and in how measured parameters are reported. “Until now,” explains Roger Schwenke, “reading an SPL number on a datasheet often inspired more questions than answers regarding test signals used and procedures for measurement. Most important to the end user is how the loudspeaker will perform with typical audio signals and whether the numbers can be compared apples-to-apples with numbers from one datasheet to another. “AES75 addresses these issues by providing a detailed procedure as well as a specific test signal, M-Noise, whose RMS and peak levels as functions of frequency have been shown to better represent typical program material. Furthermore, AES75 is designed to be independently verifiable, using analysers and microphones typically used by audio
professionals. By being independently verifiable, AES75 provides system specifiers and users a much more enforceable metric to use in quotes and architectural specs.” The M-Noise test signal is based on Meyer Sound’s analysis of hundreds of music selections spanning all genres. The procedures documented in AES75 provide measurement of maximum linear sound levels by incrementally increasing playback levels until the magnitude or coherence of a loudspeaker’s acoustic reproduction of the M-Noise test signal reaches an unacceptable state. The AES75 test procedures cover performance measurements of both selfpowered and externally powered loudspeakers. Visit https://www.aes.org/publications/ standards/search.cfm?docID=116
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
RØDE Updates Podcasting with RØDECaster Pro II RØDE HAS UNVEILED the RØDECaster Pro II, a fully integrated audio production studio for content creators of all kinds. Designed and made in RØDE’s state-of-the-art facilities in Sydney, Australia, key features include: • Ultra-low-noise, high-gain Revolution Preamps • High-performance quad-core audio engine • Studio-quality APHEX audio processing • Powerful on-board effects, including reverb, echo, robot, pitch shifting and more. • SMART pads for triggering sounds, voice effects, MIDI commands and mixer actions – eight banks of eight pads for 64 unique actions • Endless customisation, with nine individually assignable channels, onboard granular editing, fully programmable SMART pads and more. • Advanced Bluetooth connectivity with wide-band speech for ultra-highquality phone call integration and audio streaming, wireless monitoring, and more • Unrivalled connectivity, with dual USB-C interfaces for connecting two computers or mobile devices, studio-grade Neutrik combo inputs for connecting microphones and instruments, plus Wi-Fi, Ethernet and more • 5.5-inch high-definition touchscreen (with haptic feedback) and rotary encoder for easy navigation and control “The RØDECaster Pro marked a monumental step forward in creative audio technology,” says RØDE CEO Damien Wilson. “It was a truly groundbreaking innovation, the likes of which had never been seen before, and it has had a significant impact on the growth of podcasting over the last four years. When developing the RØDECaster Pro II, we went in with a similar mindset to the original: we wanted to create
something truly revolutionary once again, but this time our focus was all creators, not just podcasters. We designed it completely from the ground up to deliver unprecedented performance and complete adaptability in any creative application, from gaming and streaming to music production. And, of course, it’s still the most powerful podcasting console available. This is not simply an evolution of the RØDECaster Pro. It’s a completely new beast unlike anything you’ve seen before.” The RØDECaster Pro II is fully customisable and can adapt to any creative recording application, from livestreaming and gaming to podcasting to music production. The RØDECaster Pro II is available to pre-order and will be shipping in June. This is also just the beginning for the RØDECaster Pro II. According to the company, the quad-core audio engine unlocks huge potential for feature upgrades and enhancements, and the console will continue to evolve with future updates. The RØDECaster Pro II will be launched alongside a suite of accessories, including the RØDECover 2, a high-quality protective cover, as well as a VESA mount, carry bags, coloured cables, and more. Visit https://rode.com/rodecaster-pro-ii
AI-Powered Dialogue Cleaner LYNX TECHNIK, provider of modular signal processing interfaces, has announced its new Instant Dialog Cleaner yellobrik module, which is designed to isolate speech and dialog by removing complex background noises in live broadcasts as well as recorded audio. The IDC1411 incorporates powerful Deep Neural Networks (DNN) AI technology from Audionamix and resolves many audio challenges that arise in broadcast and professional av environments. With the help of this technology, the IDC 141 analyses audio and removes (in real-time) background noises e.g., road and air traffic, nature sounds, music and other ambient noises. This audio cleaning process separates the dialog and speech from the noises, providing a crisp audio signal that only contains the spoken word. The AI technology automatically detects the voice regardless of the surrounding noises and preserves the real integrity of the dialog, unlike other available noise reduction tools, which are often not adequate. This tool is especially useful for live broadcasts, recording, editing and mixing audio from noisy broadcast and AV environments. For example:
commentators reporting in noisy stadiums, journalists reporting news in outdoor settings and so on. Like many other yellobriks, the IDC 1411 is supported by the new yellobrik RCT 1012 Rack Controller, enabling monitoring, parameter adjustment and third party automation via an ethernet network or VPN, from any workstation. The IDC 1411 is compatible with LynxCentraal and yelloGUI, LYNX Technik’s free software applications that offer users advanced settings for yellobriks and other LYNX Technik products. Visit https://www.lynx-technik.com
Audio-First Ad Attribution Solution
“As advertising dollars increasingly flow into audio, brands need the assurance that only Veritonic’s end-to-end measurement and analytics can provide,” said Scott Simonelli, Chief Executive Officer of Veritonic. “Attribution is the perfect addition to our platform of audio research and measurement solutions, providing data-driven advertisers, brands, and agencies with the tools and insights they need to optimise their campaigns for greater ROI.”
Attribution is part of Veritonic’s suite of Campaign Performance tools which also includes Brand Lift. The preeminent combination provides companies with independent, full-funnel campaign performance data on top-of-the-funnel branding initiatives through bottom-of-the-funnel conversions and transactions. Veritonic’s Attribution solution enables users to glean actionable insights on how audio is driving action on a given landing page, including site visits, cart activity, transaction data, and more. Through an intuitive and interactive dashboard, brands can determine which publisher and specific ads had the highest impact, then use that data to optimise ad performance. Visit https://www.veritonic.com
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
VERITONIC HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of its audio Attribution solution, helping brands track and measure audio ad performance across any app, hosting platform or listening device. A key component of Veritonic’s audio research and analytics platform, Attribution helps advertisers better understand the impact of their audio creative and gain actionable insights that further the ROI on their advertising dollars.
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AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
Cloud Remote Contribution from Comrex COMREX RECENTLY showcased its newest remote contribution solution called Gagl at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas. Gagl is a new cloud service that delivers conferenced audio from multiple contributors in high-quality. Gagl allows between one and five users to send and receive audio from computers and smartphones. Participants can connect and send audio by simply clicking a link using any common web browser. Their audio is conferenced (if there’s more than one user), and delivered to a Comrex hardware codec such as an ACCESS or BRIC-Link. All participants can hear other participants, and the codec can send audio back to them. Gagl could be used as the hub for a round-robin reporting program or for a “morning zoo” radio show to support multiple simultaneous connections at once. Because it offers low latency, it’s appropriate for call-in talk radio. Gagl could also be used to allow a single contributor to
connect back to the studio from a computer or smartphone. Designed with audio quality in mind, Gagl provides stable connections with limited bandwidth. Gagl uses the Opus audio encoder, with a bit rate that delivers both voice and music in excellent quality. Gagl also delivers audio directly to a Comrex codec with all the stability enhancements, pro-grade audio connections, and features that hardware codecs provide. With a simple user interface, Gagl is easy for users with any level of technical expertise to use. Gagl works with Comrex hardware IP audio codecs including the AES67compatible ACCESS NX Rack IP audio codec and ACCESS MultiRack multi-channel IP audio codec as well as the BRIC-Link series – a sneak peak of the next addition to the BRIC-Link codec line was also featured at the 2022 NAB Show. Visit https://www.comrex.com
Solid State System T Broadcast Platform SOLID STATE LOGIC recently presented its System T production platform at the 2022 NAB Show. System T is designed to bring a new level of capabilities to both sports and entertainment production. As the demands of quality broadcast production continues to evolve in the worlds of sports and entertainment programming, Solid State Logic’s System T platform is able to serve live-to-air broadcasters, OTT/streaming services and media production houses alike with powerful, best-in-class capabilities that include sophisticated remote production and support for immersive and next generation audio (NGA) content – which is becoming increasingly common as broadcasters look to distribute higher-value content their audiences. Solid State Logic’s System T platform delivers the ultimate control and redundancy so production environments can operate flexibly, and according to their specific needs. With networked control surfaces, powerful software, intelligent I/O interfaces and sophisticated processing engines, System T
can impart a distributed and decentralised workflow – increasing teams’ ability to collaborate no matter where they are situated. System T delivers a seamless, remote production experience for production teams: • Console to console control over any network, including public internet with a VPN. • Virtualised control with SSL’s T-SOLSA System T software on a COTS computer hardware or virtual machine. • All control positions utilise the same GUI design for a unified user experience. For immersive and NGA production, System T offers powerful, best-in-class capabilities such as: • Native immersive / NGA bus formatting for efficient 3D panning.
• Ability to output immersive mixes in parallel to stereo, surround and more. • A 360° transcoder enables users to connect spatial audio microphones – such as Sennheiser’s AMBEO microphone – directly to the console. • New TE1 & TE2 engines offer scalable processing packs to accommodate the increase in DSP required for immersive. Visit https://www.solidstatelogic.com
NUGEN Audio Unveils New Audio Analysis Suite
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
NUGEN AUDIO RECENTLY demoed its forthcoming Halo Vision plug-in to attendees of the 2022 NAB Show. Designed for 3D, surround and immersive audio workflows, Halo Vision is a customisable, real-time visual analysis suite operating in up to 7.1.2 channels for the AAX, VST3 and AU formats. Inspired by the brand’s renowned Halo Upmix and Halo Downmix solutions, Halo Vision features a variety of modules that provide audio professionals with a clearer understanding of every aspect of their sound.
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Among the available tools are a Correlation Matrix, Correlation Web and Spectrum, as well as expanded versions of NUGEN’s Frequency Haze and Location Haze functions, and a True Peak meter for each channel. These modules all support mix engineers in their decision-making
and troubleshooting process, allowing them to pinpoint problem areas that might be missed using ears alone. “Halo Vision can be customised, rearranged and resized to suit any specific workflow, making it perfect for a broad spectrum of immersive sound projects, from music to film,” says Dr. Paul Tapper, CEO, NUGEN Audio. Designed to display colour-coded phase relationships between every channel, the Correlation Matrix also features a larger arched meter for more detailed analysis and anticorrelation alerts at a user-defined threshold. Additionally, the Correlation Web module shows a network of channels with an interconnecting line between each pair, which light up when the phase relationship between the two channels becomes anti-correlated.
With low frequencies at the centre and high frequencies on the outer edge, the circular Frequency Haze displays frequency content across the surround field, with channel labels in typical speaker positions. Furthermore, the Location Haze tool provides a visualisation of the perceived location of the audio, showing energy distribution across the surround field, with brighter sections indicating increases in the strength. When set to ‘combined’ mode, the Spectrum view displays a level-against-frequency graph for all channels in one spectrum, while the ‘groups’ mode groups channels into separate overlayed spectrums. Finally, the incorporated True Peak Meter provides a dBTP level meter for each channel. Visit https://nugenaudio.com
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
ENCO Remote Radio Automation Interface
WebDAD lets users remotely manage and control studio-based ENCO DAD radio automation systems from anywhere with an internet connection. Supporting remote access for everything from uploading content and modifying playlists to voice tracking, WebDAD lets users efficiently manage their operations and keep their station on-air even when personnel can’t be physically in the studio. The most visible WebDAD 3.0 enhancement is the modernised redesign of its browserbased user interface. Layout changes enable more intuitive operation and streamline workflows for key features, while selectable dark/light modes let users tailor the look to their preferences and working environment. Reactive forms retain information across interface screens, minimising the need to re-enter the same data in different sections
of the workflow. Performance optimisations also improve the responsiveness of the interface to users’ actions. WebDAD 3.0 bolsters security with more granular control over user permissions, such as the ability to restrict access to specified libraries, functions, and systems. Meanwhile, added support for third-party accessibility assistance tools improves usability for people with impairments or disabilities. Other updates include a simplified deployment model for easier installation and upgrades, as well as enhanced cross-browser support. WebDAD 3.0 is expected to be released this summer, with an easy upgrade path from current WebDAD installations to the new version. In addition to enabling remote management of on-premises DAD systems, WebDAD also serves as the user interface for ENCO’s DAD Disaster Recovery (DAD-DR) solution. A cloudbased companion to DAD automation systems, DAD-DR is always ready to take over program
UWP-D Wireless Mics from Sony SONY HAS LAUNCHED the new URX-P41D two-channel portable receiver, supporting MI (Multi Interface) shoe with Digital Audio Interface. The URX-P41D, boasts all the key features included in the 4th Generation UWP-D Series, such as improved high sound quality from Digital Audio Processing, NFC Sync for quick and easy set-up from Receiver to Transmitter and functions such as Auto Gain mode and Output level control, making the job of recording sound even easier. As part of the market leading UWP-D Series, the URXP41D will work with all UWP-D transmitters (backwards compatible with previous generations) and will be available as a stand-alone receiver and as part of a new kit, the UWP-D27, which will include two UTX-B40 Bodypack Transmitter. The URX-P41D is ideal for many users ranging from broadcast and news productions, to run and gun style interviews, or documentaries and series productions, using Sony’s XDCAM camcorders and Alpha interchangeable lens cameras. Visit http://pro.sony-asia.com
and ad playout on a moment’s notice in case of a natural disaster or critical technical failure. Providing a fully featured clone of the broadcaster’s on-premises DAD deployment, DAD-DR stays in continual synchronisation with changes made on the local DAD system to ensure that backup content is up to date and that all scheduled ad spots will run. Through WebDAD, DAD-DR users can remotely update playlists, add new content, voice track shows, and perform library maintenance even if their physical station is completely out of commission or inaccessible. Visit https://www.enco.com
PHABRIX Adds Dolby E/ED2 Decoding PHABRIX is pleased to announce the inclusion of a new Dolby E decoding and metadata analysis option in the latest release (V4.6) for its Qx and QxL Series rasterisers. The latest addition to these advanced rasteriser ranges, the PHQXODOLBY option, allows users to decode a Dolby E or ED2 Dolby Atmos audio stream routinely used in Live Broadcast applications and obtain a clear view of Dolby E metadata. The new update heralds a host of additional benefits to customers working with Dolby E or ED2 audio streams. Chief amongst these is a Dolby E decoder and metadata analyser that allows users to check the correct timing of Dolby E packets in the audio signal of an SDI or ST 2022-6 broadcast chain. Providing a clear and accessible view of Dolby E metadata, the option also makes it possible to monitor Dolby audio from any of the SDI/2022-6 embedded audio, 2110-30/-31 audio flows or AES inputs. PHQXO-DOLBY also enables metering and monitoring of the decoded audio, along with the ability to separately measure the loudness of a 5.1 or stereo 2.0 decoded program. A new ‘Dolby view mode’ is provided for the Audio Meter window which displays the eight channels of decoded Dolby E audio together with a configurable stereo 2.0 downmix, whilst the Dolby program metadata facilitates automatic
identification and configuration of the meter channels. A status display of parameters presents Dolby E source, line positioning, dialogue level and downmix program source. Decoded audio may be routed to the AES Outputs for external monitoring. In addition, users can take advantage of built-in Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) error reporting, which affords a real-time check on the creation and transfer of the Dolby E stream through the broadcast network. Moreover, for SDI and 2022-6 interfaces, a live update of Dolby E line timing is provided. Colour-coding of the line number label indicates when the line number is within the ideal range (white), within the acceptable range (yellow) or outside the acceptable range (red). Phillip Adams, CEO, PHABRIX comments: “The story of our worldrenowned Qx and QxL products is one characterised by refinements and additions, and that continues with this latest release geared towards broadcasters working with Dolby E or ED2 audio streams. With the V4.6 release they now have access to a host of decoding, metering and monitoring capabilities that will ensure their Dolby audio workflows can be managed and processed more easily and efficiently.” Visit https://www.phabrix.com
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
THE NAB SHOW in Las Vegas formed the backdrop as ENCO provided a first look at WebDAD 3.0, the next generation of its browser-based, remote radio automation control interface. The new version will feature a completely revamped architecture designed to improve the user experience while laying the foundation for future functionality and scalability.
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AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
Next-Gen Broadcast Mics from DPA AS THE RAPID adoption of live streaming continues to grow in broadcast applications, speech intelligibility remains at the forefront of all productions. In recognition of the changes in the media landscape, DPA recently released the 4097 Micro Shotgun Microphone and Interview Kit, along with two other important broadcast mic solutions, the 4466 CORE Omnidirectional and 4488 CORE Directional Headset Microphones. Based on the design of the company’s 6066 Subminiature Headsets, the new 4466 CORE Omnidirectional and 4488 CORE Directional Headset Microphones feature the brand’s 5mm round microphone capsule. These latest offerings provide the security, durability and flexibility necessary for use in broadcast, worship, theatre and corporate conferencing. With a one-size-fits-all design and adjustable boom height and length, the 4466 and 4488 headsets accommodate all head shapes and sizes. A unique, three-point gripping system (above, below and behind the ear) ensures a greater level of security, while the flexible ear hooks provide continued comfort during extended use. In addition, the new headsets share the same interchangeable cable and boom options as the 6066 Subminiature Headsets. This includes the 90-degree cable management guide at the neck. The headset frame, boom and capsule have a non-reflective surface for unobtrusiveness and ease-of-use for camera crews. With a high-quality, professional look, the 4466 and 4488 are available in black, brown and beige options.
AUDIO, RADIO, PODCAST
Featuring the same sonic qualities as the brand’s other supercardioid microphones, the 4097 CORE Micro Shotgun Microphone
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has been optimised to pick up speech from a distance. Initially designed for plant miking applications, it is ideal for miking in small spaces because of its small footprint and clear audio pickup. Additionally, when selected as part of the company’s new 4097 CORE Interview Kit, which includes a lightweight boom and windjammer, the mic enables journalists to conduct interviews from up to two metres (6.5 feet) away, making it the perfect tool for singlereporter interview applications. Featuring a lightweight telescopic boom pole and a Rycote windjammer to provide ideal conditions for outdoor productions, the kit also includes DPA’s 4099 Cold Shoe Mount, a DPA MicroDot cable and a transmitter plate. This plug-and-play solution allows singleoperator crews to quickly, easily and safely capture important news and information.
lightweight MMA-A Digital Audio Interface, the 4097 CORE Micro Shotgun becomes a complete remote recording package. The interface is a high-quality, two-channel microphone preamp and A/D converter offering mono, dual mono and stereo capabilities. Compatible with iOS devices, Mac or PC computer, the MMA-A provides crystal clear audio in a wide array of remote applications.
The sonic qualities of the 4097 CORE Micro Shotgun are particularly beneficial for placing mics in inconspicuous locations as it enables location sound experts to capture sound from anywhere on set. Used in combination with DPA boom mics and lavalieres, the 4097 Micro Shotgun becomes the final piece of a complete microphone package to meet the needs of any TV or film production.
Terminating in a MicroDot connection, the 4097 CORE Micro Shotgun can also attach directly to a transmitter and can be used with the company’s 4099 series mounts, clamps and clips for easy mounting on any surface. Most recently, DPA released the MS4099 Mic Stand Mount, a sturdy and flexible solution for mounting the 4097 onto any mic stand. Borrowed from the design of other DPA mounting options, the barrel of the MS4099 mic holder makes it quick and easy to attach or remove the microphone. In addition, the mount can be turned for vertical or horizontal use, pending application.
When used in conjunction with DPA’s
Visit https://www.dpamicrophones.com
Audient Partners with Sonarworks
Wheatstone Mic-to-Transmitter Virtualisation
AUDIENT has announced a new addition to its Creative Hub, ARC: a six month SoundID Reference Software Licence, free of charge. Further enhancing the benefits available to current Audient and EVO owners who register their products, this offer is available immediately and is available for one year. SoundID Reference software from Sonarworks helps create music that sounds great on phones, laptops, earbuds – or wherever else it’s played. It works by setting the frequency response of your speakers and headphones to be completely flat across all audible frequencies, effectively eliminating all sound colouration. This then delivers consistently accurate studio reference sound across all speakers and headphones, so users can mix with confidence and make music that sounds great everywhere. Katrina Allikas, CMO at Sonarworks says, “We’re excited to join the ARC program to offer all its members to try out our speaker and headphone calibration software for six months for free. We understand how challenging it is for creators to introduce something new to their workflow and that it takes time to adjust to new setups, therefore we wanted to offer a possibility to fully experience the difference for a significantly longer time than our regular trial. Audient and Sonarworks are all about simplifying things for creators so we hope that with this partnership we will offer more possibilities for young creators to make better music faster and with fewer technical hurdles.“
FULL VIRTUALISATION from mic to transmitter is now possible for broadcasters not yet ready to entrust their broadcast chain to a public cloud provider.
Visit https://arc.audient.com
New Wheatstone Layers introduces the entirely software-based broadcast chain from multitouch ‘glass’ consoles to backend mixing, audio processing and streaming into the transmitter or CDN provider. Wheatstone Layers is the best of both worlds, combining the scalability of enterprise servers with the deep reliability of a Wheatstone facility. • Host multiple instances from a standard IT server for several studios or locations connected by WheatNetIP audio networking. • Mix and control from your laptop, tablet or other glass or physical control surface. • Consolidate several stations and
studios into one or two servers. • Add on in an instant. Instances can be added as needed for backend mixing, FM processing and stream provisioning, processing, and metadata management. • Back up existing WheatNet-IP studios in a redundant server on or offsite. Additional physical studios are not required. The Wheatstone Layers Software Suite runs on enterprise IP servers/ computers and replaces specialised hardware, specifically standalone audio processors, mix engines and streaming appliances. New Wheatstone Layers Glass Software for the laptop, tablet or other glass surface includes control interfaces as well as full-function radio and television virtual consoles with familiar buttons, knobs, and multitouch navigation. Visit https://wheatstone.com
CONTENT DELIVERY Mongolia’s Univision Taps Viaccess-Orca for IPTV Solution VIACCESS-ORCA (VO), the provider of TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, has announced that Mongolia’s leading pay-TV operator Univision, part of the Unitel Group, will deliver its IPTV service with an end-to-end, future-proof solution from VO. Utilising VO’s Service Delivery Platform (SDP), TV Business Analytics, Content Discovery & Personalization, monitoring, customisable TV Apps, Multi-DRM, and Secure Video Player, Univision can personalise the TV experience, improving viewer engagement and maximising revenues.
“Univision serves about 70% of the IPTV and broadband subscribers in Mongolia. To maintain our market-leading position and ensure continuous growth, we needed an innovative platform that delivers advanced television services,” said Tulga Otgonbayar, Chief Information Officer at Univision. “With Viaccess-Orca’s end-to-end solution we will be able to provide the ultimate viewing experience and adapt to our customers’ evolving needs. In addition to the outstanding technology, Viaccess-Orca is providing us with prompt, professional service through each step of the project for the quick launch of our new platform.”
VO’s TV Platform will provide Univision with service agility, allowing the operator to quickly create new services, including aggregated content offerings. It supports a wide range of addedvalue TV services and microservices including live channels, start-over TV, catch-up TV, pay per view, TVOD, SVOD, season pass, movie packages, and VOD promotions and bundles, as well as ad-supported business models, enabling Univision to expand its user base and diversify its revenue sources. Univision will utilise VO’s TV Business Analytics, along with its Content Discovery and Personalisation solutions, to deliver relevant and appealing content to subscribers based on smart algorithms. VO’s customisable TV Apps will ensure a sleek multi-screen user experience for subscribers, reinforcing the Univision branding. In addition, the operator will leverage VO’s Multi-DRM support and Secure Video Player to assure a superior TV experience, with the highest content protection on every screen. VO’s professional services team will also ensure seamless integration between its end-to-end
IPTV solution and the full ecosystem, including partners’ technologies. “With our end-to-end IPTV solution, combined with professional system integration services, Univision can deliver state-of-the-art recommendations and personalization to drive monetization,” said Philippe Léonetti, CEO at Viaccess-Orca. VO will showcase its solutions at BroadcastAsia 2022 in booth 5H3-01. Visit https://www.viaccess-orca.com/asia-techsingapore-2022
LG U+ Picks Media Links for 4K UHD Network Expansion MEDIA LINKS, the manufacturer of media over IP transport technology, has announced a new agreement with South Korean telecommunications operation, LG U+. Media Links will provide the hardware and software for LG U+ to build out its new nationwide 4K/2K/HD/ UHD media network backbone that will provide media transport services to one of Korea’s largest broadcasters, MBC-Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. The Media Links MD8000 Media over IP Transport Platform and ProMD EMS Enhanced Management Software will ensure that LG U+ can deliver highquality, low-latency video and media content to its broadcast customers within an infrastructure designed for better performance and efficiency. MBC, Korea will use the LG U+ network and Media
Links solutions to transport broadcast content to and from its nationwide network of regional stations. “We’re honoured to have LG U+ select Media Links for its extensive network upgrade,” comments Toshiyuki Naka, Media Links Senior Vice President of Asia Sales. “With the ongoing bandwidth demands and requests for new media services over IP networks, LG U+ needs to be able to accommodate its large-capacity customers like MBC with flawless bi-directional video delivery and content contribution. We look forward to continuing to serve LG U+, MBC and other leading service providers and broadcasters in the Asia Pacific region as their Media over IP transport needs evolve.”
The MD8000 media transport platform offers both equipment and network redundancy with seamless protection switching, error correction, low-latency, and bi-directional operation. The MD8000 suite of products is an adaptable solution for transporting uncompressed or compressed 4K, 2K, 3G, HD, SD-SDI video and audio, as well as data. ProMD EMS software provides the ability to provision and monitor media services, manage network activity as well as detect and isolate equipment problems. Based in Seoul, Korea IISN is providing the installation and ongoing services for the LG U+ network upgrade, including maintenance. Visit https://medialinks.com/
GRASS VALLEY ANNOUNCES that its Agile Media Processing Platform (AMPP) now provides full support for NDI, the widely adopted video-over-IP technology. With the adoption of NDI into AMPP, Grass Valley’s cloud-native production and playout platform, users benefit from a complete end-to-end integration for both on-prem and cloud workflows that cover the entire functionality required by a modern software-based media enterprise. With native integration of NDI into the AMPP infrastructure, it is now possible to route an almost unlimited number of signals anywhere in the world. The integration means AMPP provides support for full graph-based signal flow manipulation, including provision for signal telemetry, routing, multi-viewers, and remote callers. “By offering support for NDI within AMPP, we are broadening our capabilities to millions of users that need the full broadcast NDI workflow,” said Andrew Cross, CEO, Grass Valley. “Building NDI into Grass Valley’s technology aligns with our vision to help our customers as they transition to the future of media and entertainment and embrace software, cloud and IP based workflows. This integration further empowers media companies
to adopt operating models that embody choice and streamlined workflows that deliver better efficiencies, giving them the agility to produce and deliver more compelling live content.” NDI into AMPP can be used natively with all AMPP applications, including the Live Producer, Master Control Switcher and the full K-Frame production system. Audio mixing replay and full ingest capabilities are fully integrated into a single platform. Users have complete management of NDI assets with a workflow solution for scheduling, voice-over, AI and even an integrated quick-cut editor. AMPP with NDI also integrates into Adobe Premiere, with support for growing files, and Playout support of almost all media onto NDI streams is also provided. Full integration with ST2110, SRT and SDI integrations with end-to-end ancillary data and closed caption support is included. Having NDI integration into all major remote calling applications including, Zoom Rooms, Microsoft Skype and Microsoft Teams, allows media companies to have remote callers directly into any AMPP powered production.
Visit https://www.grassvalley.com
CONTENT DELIVERY
Grass Valley Supports NDI with GV AMPP
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CONTENT DELIVERY
PHABRIX Qx Series Software Adds NMOS Send and Receive PHABRIX HAS ANNOUNCED the latest V4.5 software release for its Qx and QxL hybrid IP/SDI, 4K/UHD and HDR/WCG rasterisers. The release extends and enhances the Qx Series’ existing ST 2110 NMOS toolset, adding generation and transmission capabilities for the QxL; together with enhanced configuration controls, NMOS node status overviews and access to an IS-05 JSON tree view for both the Qx and QxL. This release also provides the Qx and QxL with class leading optional PCAP utility and selectable display of either ATCLTC or ATC-VITC for mixed ANC timecode environments. The QxL now has the option for detection and analysis of 444 Extended UHD (EUHD) video formats for LED wall and graphics card applications. New features include: • A suite of AMWA NMOS tools that provide flexibility when
integrating with an NMOS controller and associate network Topology. • An updated NMOS receiver for Qx/QxL now provides much more detailed information on the state of the NMOS API to assist with the analysis and debug of NMOS interoperability. • QxL now includes an NMOS sender to accompany the 211020/30/31/40 generator with support for both 422 and 444 video formats in 2110-20. • A new EUHD option available on the QxL provides support for Analysis and Generation of UHD/4K YCbCr/RGB 444 formats in the range 47.95P – 60P. • A new, flexible 25G full line rate 4GB PCAP capture tool for QxL (10G line rate and 1GB PCAP for Qx) available as a PCAP license. The tool provides a flexible range
of options for your capture of the live IP traffic on either a single or dual Media interfaces while in 2110 Mode. • Improved remote operation, now with the ability to operate screen
capture and PCAP remotely whilst running VNC • The QxL can now both Generate and Analyse 10 and 12-bit PsF formats in ST 2110. Visit www.phabrix.com
Cinegy Highlights Flexible Support for Businesses and Real-Time 8K AS THE INDUSTRY returned to face-to-face engagement at NAB Show 2022, Cinegy demonstrated how its solutions flexibly support customers as their businesses evolve to meet shifting market demands. Visitors to the show also saw demonstrations of a range of Cinegy solutions, including Cinegy Air PRO, Cinegy Capture PRO, Cinegy Multiviewer, Cinegy Convert and Cinegy Archive, within which the Daniel2 codec is an integral part. In addition, Cinegy highlighted how it has optimised its entire product line to be 8K-ready and deployed in the cloud. One of the early adopters of the open source SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) protocol, Cinegy has SRT baked into all technology, including the license,
which removes any concerns about whether users have the legal right, proper subscription, or adequate bandwidth to deploy the software. Jan Weigner, Managing Director at Cinegy commented: “The last two years have accelerated migration to technologies – such as the cloud – but customers still need to adopt these new ways of working in alignment with their unique strategic vision. We understand that every customer is at a different point on their journey, so our highly flexible approach means broadcasters can migrate all or parts of their workflow in a way that works for their business. NAB is something the whole industry is looking forward to and we are excited about meeting customers and partners face-to-face once again.”
Cinegy Air PRO simplifies multi-channel delivery, allowing customers to run many channels with flexibly configurable features from a single unit. Cinegy Capture PRO reinvents the acquisition and transcode process, allowing operators to work with a rich client interface running anywhere on the network, and simultaneously generating all versions needed for archive, editing and remote working. Running as a service operating on commodity IT equipment, Cinegy Multiviewer displays and analyses signals from multiple sources, raising alerts for any detected signal problems. Designed to function like a network-based print server, Cinegy Convert is for performing repetitive export and conversion tasks by
printing material to predefined formats and destinations to save time that can be applied to higher value creative tasks. A media asset management solution for any organisation with an archive or productions to manage, Cinegy Archive delivers advanced logging and metadata accumulation over the entire lifecycle of the media assets, making these easily searchable and reusable, and saving time and money. Cinegy Daniel2 is the only way to play professional quality 8K streams on affordable, commodity hardware or even a consumergrade laptop. Now further optimised, the codec is ubiquitous through the software product range. Visit https://home.cinegy.com
The proliferation of channels and explosion in streaming over recent years has demanded more sophisticated monitoring as media services and playout facilities have had to accommodate a wide range of distribution platforms and technologies, including Next Gen TV, IP-driven workflows and cloud migration. In response to this, Mediaproxy continues to develop new functionality for LogServer to offer the most efficient and comprehensive monitoring technology available.
Mediaproxy’s latest developments include advanced clustering of decentralised systems on IP networks, including the cloud, plus a new pooled interface platform that provides highly optimised systems configuration at scale. This feature marks a new era in distributed access, set-up and configuration across entire organisations that have both extended local and global footprints across both on-prem and cloud.
Mediaproxy Brings LogServer Upgrades
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MEDIAPROXY returned to Las Vegas for the 2022 NAB Show to demonstrate the latest upgrades to its LogServer logging and monitoring system. These include extended support for SMPTE ST 2110, NMOS, advanced SCTE Ad-Insertion trigger monitoring and configuration across pooled clusters of distributed systems.
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LogServer is a software-based compliance platform that has been developed over the past 20-plus years to reliably log and monitor broadcast and OTT sources. This
is to ensure that sources and content across all services comply with regulations and provide a high quality of experience (QoE) for viewers, regardless of what devices they are using. LogServer is able to integrate seamlessly into any operational environment, whether on-premises, virtual or in the cloud, and supports video, audio and real-time data from a wide range of current broadcast sources, including 4K, HDR, 10-bit, HEVC, TSoIP, SMPTE ST 2110/2022-6/2022-7, Zixi and SRT.
Visit www.mediaproxy.com
CONTENT DELIVERY
Dielectric Introduces FM Pylon Antenna DIELECTRIC WILL SOON bring the high-efficiency, low windload, and reliable innovation of its broadband pylon TV antennas to FM broadcasters. Dielectric’s new FMP antennas represent the broadcast industry’s first slot cavity microstrip FM antenna product family, bringing novel benefits to high-power FM broadcasters. Benefits include multicasting, pattern flexibility, increased reliability and small tower footprint. The engineering breakthroughs include reducing the antenna Q factor, which improves the bandwidth from one to 20%; and stabilising the H:V ratio across the band. The 20% bandwidth translates to full FM band operation, which is the key goal of the FMP antenna’s design. Dielectric has also included its patented parasitic dipole, which adds a vertical component to the existing horizontal signal. This creates more pattern options for FM broadcasters, including elliptical and circular polarisation, and contributes to the substantial bandwidth increase. While Dielectric’s special pylon designs for FM radio differ from TV systems, the FMP family
carries over many traditional pylon antenna benefits including optimal downward radiation, smaller size and lower weight. For example, FMP antennas reduce the number of parts used in equivalent ringstyle antennas by more than 60%. The streamlined componentry also improves reliability over the long term as there are far fewer parts to repair or replace. The pylon design also provides broadcasters and tower crews with top-mounting options, in addition to the traditional sidemounted configurations of ring antennas. This is ideal for highpower FM stations that want a true top-mounted omnidirectional antenna. The FMP can handle input powers of 100kW and higher, which also makes the antenna excellent for combined operation of multiple stations. Dielectric’s FMP designs use full-wavelength spacing between antenna elements. This reduces the number of antenna elements required compared to ring-style designs, which require halfwavelength spacing, hence more elements, to cover the full FM band. The efficient design is also easy to scale. Antennas are built in four-layer building blocks and can
be increased to eight or 12 bays to suit higher power requirements and elevation pattern gains. Dielectric’s abilities and drive to push innovation is showcased further with the actual FMP antenna design process, which was completed in a virtual environment and then quickly built to validate the designs. This process would traditionally take years and numerous iterations of parts to develop the antenna. Dielectric recently established a team of specialised engineers to create new designs quickly and efficiently using HFSS (High Frequency Simulation Software),
which greatly accelerated the development process. “We are always looking at ways that we can bring antenna design concepts from one market to another and advance the technology for modern and future broadcast systems,” said Pelletier. “We have now adapted what was long a solution for mostly single-channel TV operations for both broadband TV and FM broadcasting, which very much differentiates our product portfolio from competitors.” Visit www.dielectric.com
FURTHERING ITS MISSION to help community broadcasters reach larger audiences on more devices, Tightrope Media Systems has introduced the new Cablecast VIO OMNI all-in-one, channel-ina-box system for multi-platform video distribution. Combining channel scheduling, playout, closed captioning, live streaming, and VOD publishing in one space-efficient server, VIO OMNI lets media organisations easily and efficiently bring their content everywhere their viewers want to see it. “Every community media organisation would love to reach viewers on every possible consumer device,” said Steve Israelsky, President, Cablecast Community Media. “However, until now, smaller centres may not have been able to implement a comprehensive, cross-platform video initiative due to limited staffing or budgets. Cablecast VIO OMNI consolidates our proven channel automation, live streaming, VOD publishing, closed captioning, and bulletin board capabilities in a single box, making it even more accessible and affordable for small operators. It’s a game-changer for single-channel community broadcasters such as
public access television stations, school boards, and municipalities providing transparency of their government meetings.” VIO OMNI’s unified ‘add once, publish everywhere’ workflow makes achieving media platform ubiquity remarkably simple and efficient. As live or file-based content is added or scheduled for the 24/7 cable channel, VIO OMNI automatically performs any required transcoding for online, mobile, and OTT delivery without any additional effort required. Categorised VOD collections publish identically across all of these platforms and can be dynamically updated with new content based on rich metadata. VIO OMNI’s turnkey web page templates let organisations present live streams, VOD clips, and program schedule in a stylish layout. With the addition of Cablecast Cloud Solutions, VIO OMNI also brings live and ondemand content to iOS and Android mobile devices; OTT platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Google (Android) TV, and social media outlets including Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Unlike proprietary video hosting platforms, VIO OMNI lets customers
retain full control of their content and won’t insert advertising or suggest third-party content. VOD chaptering lets viewers jump directly to topics of interest in long-form videos such as municipal meetings, and related documents such as meeting agendas can be embedded alongside the video player. While Cablecast VIO OMNI is deployed as an on-premises enterprise server, users can remotely manage all aspects of the system – from content scheduling to publishing and playout – through its intuitive, mobile-friendly web interface. VIO OMNI servers include SDI input and output for recording and playout alongside support for any number of IP-based
input sources including NDI, RTP, RTMP, RTSP and HLS streams. Cross-platform simulcasting of live virtual meetings and events is also available with the optional Cablecast RTMP service. Closed captions of both live and file-based content can be automatically generated for all platforms through the Cablecast VIO OMNI user interface. Intelligent speech-to-text conversion is performed using Cablecast’s cloud-based captioning engine with a usage-based billing model. Meanwhile, the tightly-integrated Cablecast CG software enables organisations to incorporate bulletin boards, crawls, and logo bugs into their channels. Visit www.cablecast.tv
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Tightrope Unleashes Multi-Platform Media Distribution Server
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Firstlight Media Joins Google Cloud Marketplace FIRSTLIGHT MEDIA has continued its drive to widen the OTT industry’s accessibility to cloud-native streaming and entertainment platforms with the announcement that Firstlight Media is now available on the Google Cloud Marketplace. The availability on Google Cloud Marketplace provides joint customers of Firstlight Media and Google Cloud with business and operational advantages that can positively impact bottom lines and reduce time to market for new capabilities. Leveraging the international reach of Google Cloud Marketplace with its fully cloud-based Gen5 architecture, Firstlight Media can
provide multiple key benefits for customers, including: • Faster access to Google Cloud development tools and storage. • Rapid deployment of the Firstlight Media OTT platform enabling customers to quickly launch new video services. • Friction-free procurement and consolidated IT spend for simpler accounting. “Delivering the fastest possible time to market and the greatest flexibility to the OTT industry is a fundamental business and technology need for OTT providers worldwide,” said Eric Goldstein, Head of Business Development for Firstlight Media. “With availability
on the Google Cloud Marketplace, we’re able to streamline processes for our customers so they can more readily reap the benefits of our agile, scalable, extensible and highly performant platform.” Google Cloud Marketplace allows rapid deployment of functional software packages that run on Google Cloud. It enables cloud procurement, a simplified buying experience and flexible payment options. Firstlight Media’s availability on the Google Cloud Marketplace will allow Tier 1 OTT providers to stay ahead of rapid changes in technology and consumer demand by enabling flexible, agile services that can be deployed
rapidly and scale for additional capacity as needed. Firstlight Media‘s platform harnesses rich data analytics, personalisation and recommendations to create dynamic, engaging services – all while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by as much as 40 percent. “We’re pleased to have Firstlight Media join the Google Cloud Marketplace to offer Google Cloud customers solutions that enable OTT providers to quickly identify and respond to new market opportunities,” said Amy Bray, Global Head, Google Cloud Marketplace. Visit https://firstlight.ai
Salesforce and AWS Deliver New Direct-to-Consumer Offering
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SALESFORCE AND AWS recently announced a customisable direct-to-consumer (D2C) offering for next-generation video streaming and monetisation that is scalable and easy to deploy. The joint offering provides content distributors with real-time viewer data and feedback to better understand how audiences interact with their content, such as where they click and pause. The partnership combines technology from both Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) platforms. It leverages Salesforce’s subscriber lifecycle management solution, powered with artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled personalisation, customer data and analytics, and AWS’s media, data, analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities. Building and scaling a profitable D2C streaming service that helps content distributors manage the customer lifecycle remains a complex task. Attracting and retaining a diverse audience while delivering consistent, highquality video content represents only a few of the challenges content distributors face today. To help alleviate some of these pain points, the Salesforce and AWS D2C offering combines high-quality video streaming technology with unique viewer data and feedback analysis tools to help content distributors deliver more personalised viewer experiences. This supports
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targeted marketing, intelligent content recommendations for audiences on a per-viewer level, configurable product bundles, and more. “The Salesforce and AWS relationship brings together a comprehensive, industry-specific media offering designed for video and live streaming services. This allows content distributors to enhance their capabilities while also helping them rapidly launch new service offerings, such as subscription packages and product bundles,” said Christopher Dean, VP and GM, Media and Entertainment and Media Cloud, Salesforce. “Together, we’re providing a rich set of scalable content tools and AI-driven subscriber journeys to further help studios, streamers, publications, and other distributors quench consumers’ thirst for personalised content.” Direct-to-consumer video subscription offering from Salesforce and AWS offers unique benefits to content distributors. The global offering provides the following features and enhancements to content distributors: • More Integrated, Personalised Experiences: Content distributors can personalise viewer experiences while driving new subscriber acquisition, generating incremental
revenues while increasing customer loyalty, retention, and support. For example, a subscription streaming service can recommend upcoming pay-per-view content, such as a professional car racing championship special. This personalises content experiences for a car-loving subscriber while integrating new content delivery models – like live streaming – on top of existing subscription services. • Increased Retention with Additional Insight into Viewer Intelligence: Content distributors can gain deeper insight into subscriber engagement with content such as clickstream actions or likes and dislikes on specific content recommendations served up to a subscriber. Access to these insights help inform marketing campaigns, ultimately helping to convert them to longer-term subscribers. For example, a fitness video service notices that a subscriber’s engagement is beginning to fade. The fitness service’s marketing team can then serve up new classes from that subscriber’s favourite instructor to drive new engagement while reducing churn. • Configurable Platform to Easily Support Innovation: Content distributors now have a view into the entire subscriber
journey and engagement with their content from start to finish. As a result, a content distributor can introduce content-driven commerce experiences and targeted ad placements to enhance their monetisation efforts. For example, a brand can place one of its relevant products on a video stream, enabling the viewer to purchase that product at the same time they’re watching a video. “As development continues, Salesforce will continue to work with AWS and inspire the industry to consider deeper integration between the subscriber lifecycle and D2C video delivery, identifying and engaging audiences to make monetisation simpler and more cost effective,” said Dean. Salesforce and AWS technologies are already helping drive innovation and transformation at some of the world’s most recognised brands – including NBC Universal – to increase customer loyalty and engagement and reduce D2C streaming service ownership costs. Together now, this combined offering will enable content distributors of all shapes and sizes to build innovative, scalable, and profitable offerings for audiences to help meet consumer demand for content. Visit www.salesforce.com
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V__ matrix vm_udx Converts in All Directions LAWO’S V__ MATRIX platform does such an appreciated job at enabling a wide range of video and audio workflows and supporting the transition to a fully IP-based environment that Lawo celebrates its fifth anniversary with a constant flow of significant software-based enhancements. The updated vm_udx application turns V__ matrix C100 softwaredefined processing blades into powerful up/down/cross converters with up to eight paths of format conversion and, additionally, up to four 3D LUT colour space conversion paths. The latest software release, available on lawo.com, adds powerful new features that make conversion workflows more effective and Lawo’s future-proof V__ matrix platform more potent than ever. In the light of a rapidly growing trend towards remote maintenance, vm_udx’s web UI allows operators to monitor which video content is currently processed by a given C100 blade. The new Live Video Preview display allows users to visualise the video content received by an SDI or IP input, or the output of a processing stage, directly in vm_udx’s web UI. In response to vm_udx user
requests, Lawo has enhanced the +hdr colour space 3D LUT conversion engine. Each of the four vm_udx paths now features top-notch tetrahedral interpolation for conversions between a variety of colour spaces. To support flexible audio workflows, vm_udx adds a range of new features. A newly designed downmix engine with 2048 monoequivalent inputs into 256 monoequivalent summing busses can be freely configured for flexible mono or stereo summing as well as dedicated 5.1 > stereo or 7.1 > stereo downmixing. The digital gain range for all audio leveling instances has been extended to support level adjustments between –∞ and +24dB. In addition, vm_udx is able to interface with a MADI environment simply by adding the optional +madi license and communicating with the SDI rear plate connected to the processing blade that hosts the Up/Down/ Cross Converter. BNC connectors can be software-switched to MADI in almost any combination. The new vm_udx release furthermore supports metadata workflows with an advanced ancillary-data handling engine. Able to handle ANC data in
2110-40, 2022-6 and SDI signals simultaneously during the conversion process, users are free to keep, or remove, individual DID/SDID contained in the ANC payload. The new +tc_gen license generates timecode flavours from PTP or other time sources and provides up to three independent generators. Generated ancillary timecode (ATC) formats, which can be embedded into TX and SDI outputs, include VITC1, VITC2, and LTC. Linear timecode (LTC) can be generated as a digital audio signal.
vm_udx app boasts advanced audio and ancillary data handling which complements its powerful up/down/cross video feature set,” said Stephan Türkay, Lawo’s Senior Product Manager Media Infrastructure. “The softwaredefined nature of Lawo’s V__ matrix ecosystem inherently means that its feature set can evolve as market requirements change. This flexible approach allows V__ matrix users to operate at the cutting edge for many years to come.”
“With this new release, the
Visit https://lawo.com
DURING THE RECENT NAB Show, Crystal Vision exhibited the latest video processing software apps for its MARBLE media processor hardware, all of which can work with IP, with SDI, or both IP and SDI simultaneously. The functionality offered by these apps – which support ST 2022, ST 2110 video and 31 different SDI standards including 1080p – includes chroma keying, linear keying, video delay, profanity delay, colour correction, legalising, picture-in-picture, and fail-safe switching. Visitors with an interest in virtual production were able to see the new M-SAFIRE real-time chroma keyer software app. Crystal Vision’s chroma keyers have always been regarded as the easiest to operate and the M-SAFIRE’s two quad split multiviewers facilitate setup by
allowing four of the processing stage signals to be viewed simultaneously along with the ability to zoom into any area. The key can be faded up and down, while internal and external masks can be used to force areas of foreground or background. The M-SAFIRE offers enhanced system timing features, being the company’s first chroma keyer to include reference redundancy, PTP as a timing source and ten frames of delay on the output as well as input. With profanity delays among the company’s most popular products in the US, Crystal Vision also demonstrated its new M-CLEANIT IP/SDI profanity delay software. The cover options include clean switching to two different video sources or a web page, blurring the video, showing black or blue or colour bars, muting individual
audio channels and switching to another audio source. To give the operator time to react, the M-CLEANIT allows an IP or SDI live content stream to be delayed by up to 600 frames, which is 24 seconds in 1080i50, 20 seconds in 1080i59.94, 12 seconds in 720p50/1080p50 and ten seconds in 1080p59.94. With intuitive control from a smart button box, separate reaction controls to event and restore and a fixed multiviewer output allowing the operator to monitor everything that is happening, the M-CLEANIT’s flexibility allows it to be fully customised for any workflow. With Crystal Vision being the company that people come to when they have specialised processing needs, other MARBLE software apps were available for demonstration. These include
two keyers designed for IP and SDI channel branding and graphic overlay applications. The M-KEY is a traditional linear keyer, while the M-WEBKEY keyer can key a web page on to a video stream for those seeking to save money along with an easier workflow. The M-PIP is a solution for IP or SDI playout applications that need one or two picture-in-picture boxes to be inserted into the main programme. Providing up to 32 seconds of video delay, the multi-channel M-VIVID range can be used to match short or long system delays in IP, SDI or mixed installations. Its Y stretches make the M-COCO-2 IP/SDI colour corrector and legaliser suited to correcting the contrast on in-shot monitors, with its built-in test pattern generator ensuring an easier workflow. Visit www.crystalvision.tv
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Crystal Vision’s IP/SDI Video Processing Solutions
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He has also produced the ABE2016, Sportscasting (2014-2016), and 3D-Day (2011) industry conferences.
Adam’s previous role as Manager of the SMPTE Australia Exhibition, along with strong family ties in Australia and SE Asia, has given him a unique perspective on the broadcast and content creation sector throughout the region.
Co-founder and Production co-ordinator Lucy Salmon has worked with Broadcastpapers.com since its inception. She also holds a PhD in the field of sports medicine.
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Phil Sandberg has spent 28 years reporting on technology issues across the Asia-Pacific.
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ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER INDEX ABE 2022...............................................................IBC Brainstorm………....……………………………………………3 Comcast Technology Solutions....……………………….....7
Dell..................……………………………………….............13 Grass Valley……………………………………………………….FC Magna Systems & Engineering……………………………..11
Mediaproxy……………………………………….................IFC Pacific Live Media…………………………………………..21,23 Ross Video.………………………………………................OBC
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