Content+Technology February 2014

PP: 255003/06831

VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2014

MEDIA + PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY

www.content-technology.com

TVC PRODUCTION GOES ABOVE & BEYOND

SPORTSCASTING

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VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2014

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

Cover Story – Shooting Through the Stratosphere

16 REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 04 NEWS NEP Buys Global TV, Grass Valley Merging with Miranda, 50 Years of Spectrum Films

45 CLASSIFIEDS AND EVENTS 46 OFF-AIR 48 TIME SHIFTER Whoozat!: Behind the Scenes of World Series Cricket- Part 3

10 FEATURES 12 BROADCAST SUMMIT Summit Preview 16 ACQUISITION Shooting Through the Stratosphere, Blackmagic for Spiderbait, F55 on Lah Lah

20 SPORTSCASTING Telstra and Ericsson

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Trial LTE, Glasgow 2014 Diaries Chapter 7, Winter Olympics

26 NEWS OPERATIONS Quinto and Evertz on the Beach, 4K Video Wall from Orad, Kompas TV Upgrades with GV Stratus

30 POST-PRODUCTION cineSync Used for Gravity, Mistika Used for The Hobbit, New Io 4K from AJA

33 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD Silver Trak Takes Media Room Live, EditShare Releases Flow3, Fujifilm LTO Hits 100M

35 AUDIO DiGiCo Goes to College, RTS to Videocraft, RTW to PAT, DVS Clipster on The Hobbit

38 RADIO Radio Adelaide Given Special Treatment from DAD, Lexus Drives Digital Radio

41 TRANSMISSION Sky NZ Upgrades to Largest Router in Southern Hemisphere, TV Fights Back - HbbTV

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

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

Australian Commonwealth Copyright Laws.

No material may be reproduced in part or whole in any manner without prior consent of the Publisher and/or copyright holder.

DISCLAIMER: Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility for omissions or mistakes made within, claims made or information provided by advertisers.

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EDITOR’S WELCOME

We’re Not Appy at C+T...

By Phil Sandberg

BY NOW, YOU’LL HAVE NOTICED that the C+T web site has a brand new look. Undertaken by Wide Open Media, it is based on a “responsive design” template. What this means is that in most cases (and I say “most” because nothing is 100% on the Internet), the content and layout will automatically adapt itself to the screen size and device of the end user.

+ The need for ongoing investment to keep up with operating system changes, often across different devices;

Tellingly, a former colleague of mine polled the advertisers and agencies who book into his magazine as to how many of them were working on creative to run in iPad or tablet-based publications. The total, none.

At C+T, we have a lot of discussion about reducing “points of resistance”, i.e., those points in the engagement process where one barrier or another leads to reader churn. Whether it is the advertiser-supported, free, printed magazine that turns up on your desk, or the weekly email in the InBox that points to our new responsive web site, we believe in making that connection between readers and content, and readers and advertisers, as open and hassle-free as possible.

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We also kept a watch on our counterparts at other publishing companies noting the different approaches and mixed results of their entries into the app realm. Issues of demonstrated nominal return on investment and readership figures aside, the app approach is plagued by:

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It would be like a free-to-air broadcaster paying royalties from ad revenue to a transmitter builder, or a pay TV operator giving a fibre optic cable manufacturer an ongoing slice of subscriptions.

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Then there were developers who would build you a proprietary app and also expect a slice of your ongoing download revenue - after Apple had taken its bite.

+ The search process for apps largely takes place within the app stores themselves, so you need potential new readers to be trawling the app stores for content like yours and not the latest Angry Birds update (I know that’s so 2010, but you get the picture).

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To get your app on Apple’s app store (this was prior to the rise of Android), you had to pay Apple its fee before it went through their approval process and then, if you were charging for downloads, also forego about 30% of that price to Steve Jobs’ fruit empire.

+ The fact that in-app content is not indexed by search engines, thus making it impossible to for anyone to find your content, especially new readers; and

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Some years ago here at Content+Technology we began playing around with a number of phone app authoring platforms. Mostly drag and drop using the browser as a UI, they allowed you to bring in RSS feeds from a website, bring in your YouTube channel and badge it all with a logo.

both time and motivation to undertake this;

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What this enables is free and immediate access to our content to anyone who wants it on whatever device they want to use. There are no downloads, no updates and nothing for the reader to think about. Combined with our weekly email newsletter (sign up here), it is a powerfully simple means of connecting our readers with content and advertisers.

Open standards have served the industry we serve very well. You buy a TV or radio, pay TV subscription or cinema ticket and you don’t have to think too much about how you get the content. You just enjoy it. We’d like to think we’ve learnt something from this approach and we look forward to your feedback.

Thanks for Reading

+ The certainty that 100% of your print readership will not transition to a digital-only magazine app, and that those who do will not all use the same type of device; + The certainty that you will lose readers along the way because you are pushing responsibility for distribution onto them and they have to have

Phil Sandberg Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com T: +61-(0)2-9211 8205

St. Petersburg Moscow

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2014 C+T DEADLINES

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AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND EDITION

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MARCH-APRIL 2014 VOL 11 ISSUE 2

Editorial Submissions: Ad Bookings:

‘ASIAPAC’

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ASIA EDITION MAY-JUNE 2014 VOL 2 ISSUE 2

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FOR MORE INFORMATION www.content-technology.com +61-(0)2-9211 8205 or +61-(0)414 671 811 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com Sales enquiries: papers@broadcastpapers.com +61-(0)2 9211 8205

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Jakarta

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NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com

US-Based NEP to Acquire Australia’s Global TV INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST SERVICES company NEP Group Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Australianbased GTV Holdings Pty Ltd from Catalyst Investment Managers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The transaction brings together US-based NEP and Australia’s Global Television, uniting two of the world’s most experienced and successful television technical services companies.

live sports and light entertainment and is the clear leader in the Australian television market.

Together, NEP and Global Television offer a much broader pool of expertise, resources and facilities and extends NEP’s services worldwide, adding significant value for our clients and partners who work internationally.”

“We are especially pleased that Global is now part of an organisation that shares its passion for great television and outstanding client service,” added Global Television CEO, Keith Andrews. “This is a great outcome for Global’s clients, staff and partners.”

+ Staff – “People make the difference, not gear.

Australians have a fantastic reputation world wide. Ours are world class and will contribute to a big resource pool.” + Global TV’s host broadcaster focus, which has been brought to bear on events such as the Commonwealth Games (India, Glasgow) as well as 2014’s G20 meeting in Queensland.

Andrews believes this experience will allow NEP to target 2nd and 3rd-tier events.

Global will remain an independent operating entity based in Australia, led by Keith Andrews and his executive team.

Keith Andrews told Content+Technology he foresees synergies for the two organisations in the following areas:

+ Combined with Global’s top-tier fleet of outside broadcast and studio facilities, NEP will offer over 70 High-Definition (HD) outside broadcast units; several HD Flypacks; studio facilities in Los Angeles, New York, London, Cardiff, Sydney and Melbourne; thousands of plasma, LED and projection video display solutions; as well as a large team of industry-leading engineering and technical experts.

NEP CEO, Kevin Rabbitt, says, “Global Television has an outstanding reputation for excellence in

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

Visit www.globaltv.com.au and www.nepinc.com

NEP Group Inc owns a portfolio of brands in the broadcast services sector.

NEP is majority-owned by private funds managed by Crestview Partners, with a significant ownership stake held by NEP’s management team.

Global Television has worked with NEP over the last four to five years on various major projects including the 2011 Presidents Cup Golf.

Griffith Film School Chooses ARRI ALEXAs THE GRIFFITH FILM SCHOOL has been a premium education provider for film education for over 30 years, with some of Brisbane’s most notable filmmakers the school’s alumni.

Recently, The Griffith Film School was looking to upgrade its high-end cameras to compliment the newly implemented Master of Screen Production program and as such they turned to ARRI Australia for two ALEXA digital camera systems.

Griffith Film School Studio Supervisor, Brett Wiltshire, explained, “We have been keeping an eye on the camera market for a while. We follow industry lead, and the ALEXA has acquired a

ch Australia Sell, Integrate and the complete range of Evertz and Products

considerable following and the respect of the international and local industry.

“An additional bonus is that the ALEXA also fits in with our existing post production infrastructure.

Most of the competitors were 4K and our post workflow is all 2K. The image quality of the ALEXA is excellent, so we feel we have made a wise investment.”

The Griffith Film School purchased two ALEXA digital camera systems, taking advantage of ARRI’s special pricing for educational institutions.

Visit www.arri.com.au

Griffith Film School Studio Supervisor Brett Wiltshire with new ALEXA camera.

AUSTRALIA Pty Ltd

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NEWS + PEOPLE

Ketels Joins Cutting Edge Melbourne CUTTING EDGE has appointed Bronwyn Ketels as Senior Post Producer in its Melbourne studio. Bronwyn joins Cutting Edge from Method Studios, where she worked on many high end TVC campaigns.

Prior to this, Bronwyn spent 10 years with London’s The Farm Group.

“I’m excited by what Cutting Edge is doing, not only in Melbourne, but nationally,” Bronwyn said. “They have momentum, they’re investing in the best people and the creative product is world-class. I’m thrilled to be here and am already getting stuck into some exciting projects.”

Visit www.cuttingedge.com.au

Dyer Moves to Studiotech STUDIOTECH AUSTRALIA has announced that Gareth Dyer has joined the company from Grass Valley. He will provide Studiotech Australia and its customers with strong IT expertise.

“It is exciting times at Studiotech, since we are now enjoying solid growth and support from a large number of customers, whilst we continue to expand our staff levels. I am confident Gareth will fit right in and naturally adopt the company’s Vision and Mission,” stated Studiotech Australia’s Managing Director, Michael Bentsen.

Visit www.studiotechau.com

FremantleMedia Hires New Exec Creatives

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FREMANTLEMEDIA AUSTRALIA and Asia Pacific CEO Ian Hogg has announced two executive creative appointments.

Jonathon Summerhayes has been appointed to the key creative role of Director of Programming, overseeing the creative and production processes for all of FremantleMedia Australia’s (FMA) entertainment and factual programming, reporting to Hogg.

In addition, Beth Hart, will move to Australia to join FMA as Director of Television Content. Hart will report to Summerhayes.

Summerhayes has enjoyed critical and popular success as an Executive Producer with FMA, most recently with The X Factor. With Summerhayes at the helm, The X Factor has had four consecutive years of ratings growth. Prior to The X Factor, Summerhayes was Executive Producer of The Biggest Loser and Co-Executive Producer of MasterChef.

Summerhayes has been with FMA for seven years.

At FMA, Hart will focus on new and existing entertainment brands, such as Got Talent, Dancing With The Stars, Grand Designs, Recipe to Riches and The Apprentice to ensure that FMA continues to tell fresh and compelling stories.

For the past three years Hart has been the Senior Executive Producer of the UK’s successful and ground-breaking The X Factor. During this time Hart also held the position of Deputy Head of Entertainment with Thames / SyCo Productions. Prior to this Hart was an Executive Producer at UK production company ITV Studios for five years running huge entertainment hits I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Hell’s Kitchen.

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WOHLER TECHNOLOGIES has announced

announced the appointment of two senior media executives. The two new appointments are:

the shift of Jhonny Maroun to the new role of APAC director of sales for the RadiantGrid business line.

Rob Hurst joins as Sky’s Executive Producer – Racing. Hurst has deep experience in television broadcasting, having worked at Channel Nine as an Executive Producer from 1981 to 2012.

Maroun has held sales management positions with Wohler since 2011. In his new role within the company’s APAC operations, Maroun will be responsible for growing new business for RadiantGrid products in the region, as well as for increasing the range and breadth of the company’s channel partner relationships.

Susan Panelli has commenced as Sky Racing’s new General Manager – Communications and Technology. Panelli has a strong background in digital technology and international business. She was most recently FOXTEL’s Head of Product Delivery.

Visit www.wohler.com

AmberFin’s Smith Moves to EMEA

Nicolaci Joins Adimex as Sales Manager

AMBERFIN, the developer of file-based media ingest, transcoding and quality control solutions, has announced the appointment of Adrian Smith as its Vice President Sales in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY and media solutions distributer, Adimex, has appointed well-regarded industry veteran Frank Nicolaci as Sales Manager to oversee sales and channel management for ANZ.

Smith is relocating to Europe after serving as the company’s VP Sales Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore for four years, he was responsible for business development and direct account management in the region. In the EMEA region, Adrian Smith will head up AmberFin’s sales management, channel management and business development activities.

Visit www.amberfin.com

Frank will work closely with broadcast and professional AV and ICT resellers and integrators to build upon existing relationships and develop new business opportunities for Adimex’s broad product portfolio that includes leading brands for Cinema and TV production, storage and workflow management.

Visit www.adimex.com.au

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NEWS + PEOPLE

Grass Valley to be Sold to Belden, Merged with Miranda BELDEN INC. (NYSE: BDC), a global developer of end-to-end signal transmission solutions, has submitted a binding offer to purchase privately held Grass Valley, a leader within the broadcast market, for US$220 million.

The binding offer is subject to consultation with Grass Valley’s foreign labour works council, after which Belden will enter into a definitive agreement. Grass Valley provides innovative technologies including production switchers, cameras, servers, and editing solutions within the mission critical applications of broadcast customers.

Following close of the acquisition, Belden intends to merge the operations of Grass Valley with that of Miranda, which was purchased by Belden in 2012. This was followed by the integration of Telecast Fiber Systems as a Miranda brand and the acquisition of captioning software provider Softel.

“We are extremely excited to have Grass Valley join the Belden family.

By combining Grass Valley and Miranda, we will create the broadcast industry’s largest and most complete portfolio,” said John Stroup, President and CEO of Belden Inc. Visit www.grassvalley.com, www.belden.com and www.miranda.com

Bridge Networks NZ Expands to Sth Island THE BRIDGE NETWORKS (TBN), the Wellington, New Zealand, headquartered provider of RF Transmission, Linking and Satellite Services to NZ, Australia, SE Asia and the Pacific Islands, is to open a new Technical Service Centre facility in Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island.

The new facility will become the heart of TBN’s technical services business and will host all the test and measurement equipment along with the trained TBN technical staff. The facility is to be utilised to service, repair and maintain a range of RF related equipment including Xicom satellite amplifiers and the Vislink range of microwave radio, satellite transmission and wireless cameras.

By complete coincidence, The Bridge Networks –South, Technical Service Centre can be found in Nelson at 111 Bridge Street.

Contact Mark Patton via mark.patton@TheBridgeNetworks.com

Ross’ Carbonite Passes the Test at Falls Festival TASMANIAN COMPANY, MEDIA IMAGING, put Ross’ Carbonite Production Switcher to the test in December at the Falls Music and Arts Festival in Marion Bay, Tasmania. Running during the three day festival, Carbonite fed two video screens, recording devices, using almost all outputs.

Media Imaging also used and relied on the DashBoard Control System during the festival – much like a second ME. By assigning Aux, outputs and content, DashBoard made managing content very easy as well as system monitoring, leaving panel to control main operations.

“I researched intensively for the features I wanted, needed and could afford, more so how easy it is to upgrade parts and features In the future. In Australia we have a great dealer and Ross support team, so I was able to bounce question after question off them until I came to my final decision,” said Derek Philipson, Director, Media Imaging.

Media Imaging’s new Ross Carbonite 1ME, 16 input Switcher is used in a mobile environment and moves between Aurora Stadium where it is used regularly for Cricket and Australian rules football, as well as events outside of the stadium.

Visit www.rossvideo.com

Techtel Signs with VidiGo THE TECHTEL GROUP has announced it has signed a premium partnership agreement with VidiGo to provide their clients with new technologies to improve production efficiency and enhance viewing quality. With its head office in Sydney, the Techtel Group will be covering the S.E. Asian region out of its Singapore offices.

“We considered Techtel’s knowledge of the market and its ability to deliver solutions paramount in our decision to align with it in this broad region,” commented Reinout Lempers, Vidigo CCO. “Our customers depend on the expertise of independent partners like Techtel to provide end-to-end services, from consulting and integration through to ongoing technical support.”

Techtel has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland covering the geographically diverse Australia and New Zealand market region, whilst Techtel (S.E. Asia) covers Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia and Vietnam out of its Singapore offices.

Solutions in the VidiGo range include: VidiGo Studio Automation, VidiGo Visual Radio, VidiGo Graphics, and the newly released Social Media Hub. Visit www.vidigo.tv

Magna and Dalet in New Partnership

NEWS + PEOPLE

MAGNA SYSTEMS AND ENGINEERING has forged a new partnership with Dalet Digital Media Systems in Australia. The two companies, who have already had a long association, have renewed their agreement for sales, support, test, and R&D, which includes Magna custom-building a dedicated Dalet test lab at its Chatswood headquarters.

Dalet Digital Media Systems General Manager – Asia Pacific, Tomer Azenkot, said, “We are delighted to have renewed our agreement in such a major way with Magna Systems and Engineering. There are significant opportunities across Australia for Dalet’s media asset management (MAM), TV newsrooms and radio automation solutions, and Magna is the ideal company to partner with us in these projects.”

Dalet has seen significant growth globally over the last few years, something Azenkot puts down in part to the company’s relationships with experienced

systems integrators.

Azenkot added, “Magna’s dedication, experience and commitment to our products and the local market really is second to none and we expect to announce some exciting news about upcoming projects we’re working on together very soon.”

Magna Systems Group Engineering Manager, Barry Pegg, said, “We are very happy to have renewed and deepened our working partnership with Dalet in Australia and see the test lab we’re building as a focal point for our future projects together. We are also adding significant resources to ensure all Dalet products and systems are serviced and supported in the most comprehensive way possible.”

Visit www.magnasys.tv and www.dalet.com

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NEWS + PEOPLE

50 Years of Spectrum Films

By Keith Ford Fifty years is a long-time in any business, let alone one that has gone through as many changes as the film industry. Even the term ‘film industry’ is antiquated in the modern world of digital acquisition.

Despite this, Spectrum Films has been a fixture of the Australian post-production scene since 1964.

FOUNDED BY HANS POMERANZ, Spectrum is a company that wears its heritage on its sleeve. It isn’t just that the walls are plastered with posters from decades past, but the common areas are decorated with the now redundant equipment that was once the lifeblood of the business.

Not only is 2014 the Golden Jubilee for Spectrum, it is also a period of transition. After 13 years at the company, Chief Technical Officer Mike Honey is retiring. However, joining the fold from a stint as Director of Broadcast Operations at Foxtel is Adam Scott, coming onboard as General Manager.

“We do a lot of broadcast, so part of the appeal of getting Adam in, is that he has film and broadcasting abilities. For predominantly the last 12 months it has been all broadcasting through here. We’ve been in business since 1964 - 50 years. We’ve done over 500 films,” said Josh Pomeranz, Managing Director of Spectrum.

keeps the productions coming back for more and more.”

High-end TV drama has been in something of a Golden Age since The Sopranos hit screens in 1999. HBO has been leading the charge with the aforementioned mob series being followed

by The Wire, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Rome, Game of Thrones, and the recently launched True Detective, to name just a few. Other networks in the US have followed suit with shows such as The Shield, Sons of Anarchy and Justified on FX; and Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead on AMC. Networks understand that audiences expect their dramatic fare to be well produced and impeccably made. Budgets have to accommodate quality post-production and TV can no longer get by on a lower standard than film.

“When you think about, and I think this is something that will happen here, when you look at the high end drama that is coming out of the US or UK, in the last number of years, it is really good. A lot of the Hollywood actors are

[L-R] Naomii Sinclair, Business Manager; Josh Pomeranz, Managing Director; Adam Scott, General Manager; and Rob Puru, Chief Technical Engineer

particularly in the realms of training staff through their internship program. Spectrum has multiple intakes of both local and international interns every year, even during recent economic down turns when many companies abandoned training in favour of short-term goals.

“We want them to have such a great time here that they do want to naturally come back to us and refer their friends,” said Naomii Sinclair, Business Manager at Spectrum. “They are in the industry, they’re on the ground, and us being so busy now in our offices and at events, we don’t get to have that ground coverage, whereas these guys all do. It’s wonderful for us.”

NEWS + PEOPLE

“We’ve done The Great Gatsby, The Wolverine, we’re doing A Place to Call Home. It’s really to expand services there now, barriers to entry have come down, so it’s value adding and bringing on additional services to the business, like grading, finishing, deliverables and on set Networks understand that audiences expect their data match, that we are going to dramatic fare to be well produced and impeccably bring into the business. I think made. Budgets have to accommodate quality postAdam is the right guy to do this.”

“When you look at a guy like Martin Connor. He started here when he was 19 in Tech Support for Spectrum. He walked through the door and Dad gave him a job and he’s now cutting The Railway Man,” added Pomeranz. “People see that and the transition, so it’s a great process that we’ve got.”

production and TV can no longer get by on a lower “My background is post-production and editing; a lot of TV. I got standard than film. involved in film post-production in New Zealand which was fantastic, and I think being involved during When looking to the future, and that period of time was when Spectrum hopes there will be at least another now looking at doing those shows,” said Adam. going from film acquisition to digital acquisition “Whether that’s for cable in the US or Netflix or 50 years of it, Adam Scott sees an expansion of was really starting, and seeing that sort of whatever, they’re investing their time to do this, services while maintaining quality of service as transformation within a facility,” explained Adam. and they look spectacular, when you think about the way forward.

“We had to deal with massive amounts of data, House of Cards or Game of Thrones. These are and it’s growing. We’ve been doing some tests “Further into the pre-production and more on set, high-end productions. But even Downton Abbey recently with Red Dragon. These are big files, that could mean setting the colour look upfront, and things like that, it’s like a million pounds an 6K files, and lots of them. That’s exciting to be working with the DOPs to make sure that the episode. That is some serious coin. I think when part of a facility that wants to expand and grow way things look and look up tables and colour you look in Australia, when you look at House in that area, for TV drama, and feature film work. science is all done upfront to save them all that Husbands and A Place to Call Home ; these are And now a lot of TV drama, such as A Place to Call hassle down the track,” Adam explained. “Work high-end polished shows too.

Home, shoot on these same cameras. with the productions on the data management “We hit the ground running when we first moved “All the editorial for series 1 and 2 of A Place and backups, and all that right upfront. Then bring here, because we did five series of Farscape, to Call Home has been through Spectrum. So it all back into the post-production. The colour which was 22 episodes, and I think that was $2 dealing with that and getting that into an Avid grading, the deliverables and DCPs for cinema million an ep.

That was a pretty large budget for environment is something that we do, and we release, things like that.” back in 1998,” added Pomeranz. do it really well. I think that’s the key to it, is that the technology backbone and that pipeline that

Spectrum is also a company looking to the future,

Visit www.spectrumfilms.com.au

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING SUMMIT 2014 PREVIEW

www.content-technology.com/standards

Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit The Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit (formerly the Australian Broadcasting Summit) has been the meeting place for the industry’s head honchos since it began in 2002.Each year, the who’s who in broadcasting get together at this, the only event of its kind for TV, radio and digital content platforms in Australia.

Summit Agenda DAY ONE – MONDAY 24TH FEBRUARY 2014 9:00

Opening remarks from Chair – Gretel Killeen, Journalist, TV/ radio presenter, Communications Specialist

9:15

Regulator’s Address – Business models & partnership

Richard Bean, Deputy Chair, Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA)

9:40

Keynote Industry Address – Multi-screen mania: what’s the future of the broadcasting business model

Richard Freudenstein, CEO, Foxtel

10:10 INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE – The golden age of screen entertainment

11:00 Morning tea and exhibition viewing 11:30 International Keynote – TV with friends: harnessing and influencing audience behavior, at scale

FOLLOWING EXTENSIVE RESEARCH AND CONSULTATION with delegates, it was decided that the event name no longer adequately represented what was being covered by speakers, given that traditional, linear broadcasting is being challenged and disrupted by the improvement of online capabilities.

Nick Grudin, Global Director, Partnerships, Facebook (USA)

12:00 Panel Discussion – Is schedule TV dead? Can VOD complement existing TV business models?

And so, 2014 will see the event revamped and updated for the multiplatform digital age.

The battle of the broadcaster versus the web-caster intensifies: traditional linear content distribution and consumption v’s binge watching and serial downloading – who will win? Is schedule TV dead? Can all these content outlays co-exist?

The Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit will focus solely on the challenges and trends of broadcasting content, in the age of the multiscreen, digitally savvy audience.

Panellists: John Steedman, CEO, Group M Australia Andrew Maiden, CEO, ASTRA Jimmy Storrier, General Manager, Zeebox Australia

12:45 Networking lunch and exhibition viewing

The business of broadcasting is changing and the two day conference will provide industry stakeholders with a chance to gain insights, hone strategy and enhance their business model in line with move away from traditional linear broadcasting.

Speakers at this years summit will include CEOs and GMs from leading companies and industry bodies, such as: Foxtel, Group M, Zeebox Australia, ASTRA, IAB Australia, Brand New Media, Free TV Australia, Mi9, Evolution Media Group, and Base79, as well as a number of other experts in their respective field.

Following the close of Day 1, there will be a networking drinks function that is being sponsored by Facebook.

THE BROADCASTING TECHNOLOGY STREAM This hugely popular stream is back with a full-day of what will be a concise yet comprehensive overview of the technical operational challenges and trends being faced by the network’s technologists, as they navigate a rapidly changing tool base and infrastructure landscape.

ABS 2014 PREVIEW

Paul Lee, President, ABC Entertainment (USA)

Following extensive research with past delegates and market stakeholders, it was found that this content is best suited to its very own one-day conference, where the technical and engineering minds behind the country’s TV and radio networks, can come together to look at the changing market from their unique perspective.

From HbbTV and 4K, to cloud based broadcasting, outsourcing, public facing infrastructure, mobile application implementation, workflows, efficiency and operational standards - attend this stream for a round-up the issues and developments changing the machinery of broadcasting.

Visit www.acevents.com.au

1:45

Panel Discussion – Driving and monetising digital growth

Panellists: Alice Manners, CEO, IAB Australia Ben Rolleston, Vice President of Commercial & Business Development, Viacom International Media Networks Australia/New Zealand (VIMN) David McGrath, Director Commercial Operations Digital, DMG Radio Perry Smith, CEO, Brand New Media

2:30

The role of HbbTV and related technologies in next generation Broadcasting

David Price, Head of TV Business Development, Ericsson (USA)

3:00

Social is changing the game: platforms altering the viewing experience and landscape

Jimmy Storrier, General Manager, Zeebox Australia

3:30

Afternoon tea and exhibition viewing

4:00

Meeting them halfway: the consumer driven content experience

Rebekah Horne, Chief Digital Officer, Network Ten

4:30

The new living room: connecting the consumer, connecting the content and changing the viewing scenery

Evan Manolis, Head of Content Smart TV/AV, Samsung Electronics Australia

5:00

Companion experiences for TV: the audience evolution

Caroline Casey, Director of Product and Audience, Yahoo!7

5:30

Closing remarks

5:45

Networking drinks function

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ABS 2014 PREVIEW

Speaker Snapshot: David Price

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Addressing the role of HbbTV and related technologies in next generation broadcasting, David Price sees HbbTV as a viable enabler for terrestrial broadcasters to not only generate new revenues, but introduce functionality traditionally associated with cable technology.

I DO SEE FREE TO AIR BOXES having IP connectivity - for a number of

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Another interesting thing, especially given its local significance, is LTE broadcast.

Telstra has taken a really early adoptive stance and is moving out aggressively.

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You can ensure that there is good security if you are putting some high value content down there on a purchase basis. You want to ensure that no one is hacking into that and taking it off the device and making copies of it. Twoway IP connectivity is a secondary benefit for that.

I think we have had a lot of false starts in that world over the past 10 years with DVB-H and MediaFlo and things like that. This looks like it could actually stick, simply because there are no special handsets required and you’ve got a standard base solution which doesn’t require a lot of upgrade to the existing infrastructure, and very importantly it uses existing spectrum. It doesn’t have to have its own special spectrum.

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Where do you see things standing globally for HbbTV in terms of standardisation?

But, LTE really leaves mobile broadcasting in the hands of incumbent Telco companies, doesn’t it?

reasons. As soon as we have got Free-to-Air boxes with IP connection you have got all kinds of interesting new revenue options.

You’ve got, of course, the buy button so you can get that movie, or if you take it free - remember 70% of On Demand is still Free on Demand - but then free rolls, especially targeted free rolls, can really come into their own and then you’ve got the other things with that two-way connectivity.

I think there are a number of pieces to the puzzle. Obviously, the first thing is Yeah, it does, but the people who own content can add value to their content the encoding. I think everybody is agreed that our HEVC is the way forward rather than just flowing out to the when everything becomes conventional networks and it can much more mainstream. HEVC actually be an incremental revenue is a mature technology in that stream, because if you own the That’s the reason why you have got to have adaptive the specification is already a content you are not going to give it year old. I do see HEVC as being bit rate solution element. It’s part of your solution. away. one cornerstone of the centre You have to be able to continue to engage the viewer So, things like close-up shots in a standard that is needed. without buffering or freeze framing. That’s what cricket match, or pictures of the cockpit The second one is MPEG DASH view of a driver in a Formula One. If adaptive bit rate capabilities do for you.

(Dynamic Adaptive Streaming you are there and you’ve got the rights over HTTP) which is an interesting to do the filming and you own the one because it hasn’t got a lot of rights to distribute that filming, then traction yet, certainly not been having LTE broadcasts adds another publicised, and yet it is a very pretty important opportunity for revenue gathering. viable alternative to HLS (HTTP Live Streaming).

In particular, the common scrambling capabilities, so that you can actually commonly encrypt.

Outside of mobile, what minimum infrastructure should a country have in place to deliver these services, to guarantee a satisfactory user experience?

That means you can have a pipe delivering broadband services, broadband TV to load the boxes, but the pipe could be sublet, if you like. The Sony channel could be managing their keys, the HBO guys could be using their keys, and they are using a common encryption but they still have control over the key management. That is something you can’t do in HLS, but you can do in DASH and I think that’s a key differentiator.

There has got to be a realisation. You can’t have one size fits all. The people in the inner cities are going to, probably because of shorter loop lengths on DSL, etc., enjoy higher data rates, and probably incur higher costs. But, that means they probably will be able to enjoy some of the higher end-user experiences, the 4K and certainly HD as their experience.

Then there’s HbbTV, which is a subset of the open IPTV forum specifications which we have pioneered. So we are actually happy that that has happened, that we’ve got the subset called HbbTV and HbbTV in turn has gone out and said they want DASH as the adaptive streaming format.

Today you can put a movie on H.264, at high definition, I am talking about a movie, nothing really that difficult with not a lot of action, shots and fast motion, but just a conventional movie, you can probably do that. I think you probably need to have, at least for high definition, something around to 3-6 MB/second.

ABS 2014 PREVIEW

So they are starting to coalesce their standards and I see this year is going to be a critical year for it coming together with some flagship deployments using just standard based solutions to provide hybrid services.

I also make reference to HTML5 in this as well, because it is possible now in the connected TV world to have browser-based viewing, but HTML5 allows you with video and audio tags to be able to embed. You don’t need to have plug ins or anything else, it is there in the browser.

So if you’ve got a browser in the TV which a lot of TVs do have, then if it’s got HTML5 capability then it’s going to come as just another device like all the other devices, tablets, mobile phones, laptops and things like that.

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That’s the reason why you have got to have adaptive bit rate solution element.

It’s part of your solution. You have to be able to continue to engage the viewer without buffering or freeze framing.

2:

That’s what adaptive bit rate capabilities do for you. DASH I think is the best thing, because it’s a standards-based approach and is a better solution than anything out there to date.

3:

I just believe, and Ericsson always believes, that standards will win out, because proprietary solutions will inevitably try to optimise for one particular entity, rather than being the necessary compromise needed to be universal.

3:

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ABS 2014 PREVIEW

DAY TWO – TUESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2014 Stream A: Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit 9:15 Industry Body Address

Julie Flynn, CEO, Free TV Australia 9:45 International Keynote – Orchestrated Media : Threats and Opportunities where TV and the internet collide

Richard Kastelein, TV Innovation Expert, Futurist, Publisher and Founder, TV App Market, TV Hackfest 10:30 Creating the future of media - online

Mark Britt, CEO, Mi9 11:00 Morning tea and exhibition viewing 11:30 Facebook and TV ratings: a new way to market to TV audiences in the days, hours & minutes that matter

Brent Annells, Head of Telco, Tech & Entertainment, Facebook (ANZ) 12:00 Panel Discussion – The marketer’s choice: TV and radio ad spend and opportunity for 2014

Panellists: Adam Ballesty, Marketing Director, Diageo Australia Andrew Moore, National Marketing Manager, Suzuki Australia 12:40 Creating/Monetising Branded Bontent with Editorial Integrity

Vanessa Stoykov, CEO, Evolution Media Group 1:15 Networking lunch and exhibition viewing 2:15 Panel Discussion – Measuring audience responses in the newly connected world: mining big data for big returns Panellists: Richard Kastelein, TV Innovation Expert, Futurist, Publisher and Founder, TV App Market, TV Hackfest Steve Weaver, Network Research Director, Nine Network Danny Bass, Chief Investment & Intelligence Officer, Group M 2:45 Driving local content and innovation: opportunities for growth

Matthew Deaner, Executive Director, Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) 3:15 Networks of the future: doing more with your content online

Kristen Bowen, Manager Content Partnerships, YouTube Entertainment Liz Sweetland, General Manager Australia, Base79 3:55 Closing remarks and end of conference

Steam B: Broadcasting Technology Stream 9:15

9:30

Opening remarks from Chair Phil Sandberg, Owner & Editor, Content & Technology Magazine TV fights back – HbbTv Trevor Bird, General Manager - Group Technical Services, Seven Network Limited 10:10 The changing field of live sport broadcasting – evolving for multiple platforms

Soames Treffry, Director of Television & Commercial, Global Television 10:50 Morning tea and exhibition viewing 11:20 Achieving agility and flexibility in a changing business landscape

Kelly Ferguson, CIO, Mi9 Rachel Thorley, Head of Content Operations, Foxtel, Charles Sevior, CTO, EMC² 12:00 Supporting the new media value chain: building with the audience in mind

Matt Costain, Technical Director Online & Emerging Platforms, SBS 12:40 Networking Lunch 1:40 Alternate production in the multi-screen domain: increasing broadcasting efficiency

Jason Tuendemann, Chief Technology Officer, Network Ten 2:20 Scaling up to task: improving public facing infrastructure at Southern Cross Austereo (SCA)

Mike Crothers, Head of Digital Technology, Southern Cross Austereo 3:00 Your audience is data: building a data-centric business model that crosses platforms

Scott-Bradley Pearce, Head of Technical Strategy, Brand New Media 3:45 Final remarks and close of conference

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ACQUISITION www.content-technology.com/acquisition

Shooting Through the Stratosphere

By Keith Ford

Cutting Edge was recently tasked with creating Sony China’s latest commercial, thought up by M&C Saatchi Tokyo, which features a group of skydivers falling from the stratosphere whilst changing the lens of a Sony A7R camera.

THE TVCS WERE DIRECTED by Cutting Edge’s Jeff Gaunt, with the company’s post team, including Compositor, Ant Heberl; Senior Editor, Kerry Farrell; and Senior Sound Designer, Ross Batten, all chipping in.

Nobu Yamamoto, Creative & Strategic Planner of M&C Saatchi Tokyo, said, “To bring this creative to life, we needed an accomplished partner. And it was the team at Cutting Edge, spearheaded by Jeff Gaunt, who were nothing short of outstanding in making this all a reality. With their considerable expertise, and with great passion and professionalism, they expended all of their efforts to achieve a magnificent end result. We hold Cutting Edge in exceptionally high regard and we are more than grateful to have worked with them on this great opportunity provided by Sony our client.”

along the same lines as that,” explained Sparkes. “The fact that they chose to shoot it all in the air, and not go down the path of doing any free fall shots in the studio, is what really knocked us out.”

Essentially any shoot can be dangerous and things often go wrong, but when you are shooting while falling from around 5km above sea level it is even more important to keep safety in mind. Sparkes follows a mantra of “by being the best, we will be the oldest”.

“I operate with a safety officer, hands on safety officer all of the time, for virtually all of our shoots and sequences,” said Sparkes. “Because it’s a way of ensuring that we get through a day without any injury, which by the way we have been filming for 25 years and there has not been an injury on our set.”

Safety also played a role in camera choice for the shoot, as weight can be an important factor for a jump. That’s only magnified when the weight is all focused on the head and neck.

“Well, we can jump anything that we want, but the Red has high frame rates and a damn sharp high quality image. It’s a compact package. When we strip it down to the minimum, being the camera, the grip, battery power supply and the lens, and a card, it’s actually quite a compact device. It’s about as big as, and a little bit heavier than, 6 stubbies of beer,” Sparkes explained.

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“The concept demanded visual authenticity, and shooting from the dizzying heights of 15,000 feet was necessary to fully encapsulate Sony China’s narrative,” said Gaunt. “Visually, we focused on showing a world from a different perspective. The A7R is about possibility, and it being a world first, we alluded to what you can do.”

When it came to actually shooting the free-fall footage, they had no choice but to hire Shane Sparkes and his freefall cinematography associate Rob Douthat.

Sparks has been filming as he skydives for more than a quarter of a century, and has become renowned as the go-to guy in this unique space, thanks in large-part to the 1991 Sky Surfer TVC that he shot for Coca-Cola.

“The Coca Cola Sky Surfer was a very big job that I shot in Broken Hill for the Sydney Film Company and McCann were the agency at the time. The great thing about that job was that the brief was that all of the shots have to be real.

None of them can be studio created. The free fall shots in the Sony ad run

Blackmagic Takes the Spiderbait AUSTRALIAN ROCK BAND Spiderbait’s shot its new music video with Blackmagic Cinema Camera by Toby Angwin, a Melbourne based director.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera was also used as a B camera on the shoot, with DaVinci Resolve 10 used for colour grading.

ACQUISITION

“For the ‘It’s Beautiful’ music video, the band wanted the song to speak for itself with pure imagery that helped portray the transcendental sound, so we shot three puppets walking around downtown Melbourne finding beauty in everything they see,” explained Toby. “As it was my first time working with puppets, I couldn’t predict how long it would take to shoot. And instead of hiring a camera, it was more affordable to purchase the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, which I had my eye on because of its compact size, RAW shooting capability, 13 stops of dynamic range and affordable cost.

“Our schedule was crazy because of the unpredictable weather, but because I owned the camera, I could film extra pickups whenever the weather allowed or just because I wanted to. Soon, I stopped filming extra

pickups because I needed them to make the music video and instead, because I wanted to make the music video better,” said Toby.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera’s small size was helpful in getting shots in extremely tight spaces that were too small for even the compact Blackmagic Cinema Camera. “The puppets were so small that we had to get down extremely low for some shots. The Pocket Cinema Camera was perfect and could get shots in really tight spaces,” said Toby.

Once in post, Toby relied on DaVinci Resolve’s tracker and Power Windows to achieve the perfect grade, and he also took advantage of version 10’s new tools, such as new online editing features and OpenFX plug-ins, to help streamline his workflow and the finishing process.

“I needed to make one or two edits, and it was so handy to have that functionality right there in DaVinci Resolve,” said Toby. “Also, having the Sapphire plug-ins meant I could give the footage a little sparkle at the end without having to go through another step.”

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Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

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ACQUISITION “Climbing out of an aircraft is a huge strain on your upper body, particularly your neck and climbing out with wind and everything. You’ve got serious wind blowing on you and when your parachute opens and carrying that camera around under canopy and then landing with it on your head, your upper body is taking the whole load. Your neck and your jaw, everything from your shoulders up, it’s a load and it’s increased a lot,” he continued. “The problem is that when we open our parachutes you can routinely be hit with a 4 or 5G load, which means for a moment, if you’ve got 5kgs on your head, and you get hit with 5G’s, then you’ve got 25kgs.”

Throughout the TVC there is a number of still images that are actually shot using the subject of the shoot: the Sony A7R. “We shot with a Red Epic, however one of the important things about the brief was that being an advertisement for China, they’ve got laws regarding authenticity and censorship, and you can’t simulate a product,” Sparkes explained. “We couldn’t pull frames off the 4K Red material and alluding that the camera took this shot. The still frames that are presented in the television commercial are shot with the product itself. We basically had to shoot both Red and Sony A7R cameras. The slow motion 4K images were shot on Red and the still frames shot concurrently with Red were the Sony product itself.”

One of the most impressive qualities of the TVC, as well as being one of its most unique, is the stillness of the shots. Typical freefall footage found in movies and TV is frenetic and fast-paced, often trying to convey a sense of panic. This could not be further from the images Sparkes and his team shot.

“We wanted to have the guys appearing to be floating in space, with minimum movement. The way of achieving it is basically looking at it from

a different view, with a different perspective of how we are going to fly. We flew close, steady and with the guys. We didn’t fly fast and randomly; we flew our bodies in a smoother way, which is pretty important from a shot steadiness point of view,” Sparkes said. “You can quite often have the jerky cinéma vérité style up in the air, but what we pride ourselves on is being able to deliver steady images at normal speeds, where the sort of things you would expect to see with normal DP putting on a tripod. We step towards the steadiness side of things.”

In order to get all of the footage necessary to bring the creative vision to life, Shane and his team had to make a total of nine jumps over a two and a half day period. Due to the need for very specific lighting conditions there was only two opportunities a day with the right conditions: the hour of light each side of sunrise and sunset. Allowing only two jumps in each time frame.

“We did the sunset on a Friday, which was basically a test. That was a test when we finally got all of the wardrobe and everything together, and a rehearsal,” said Sparkes. “About the third or fourth shot in the advertisement was photographed within the first 3 seconds of us shooting the job, which was really nice to get on the horse and go straight away.

“In total the team did 9 jumps, but with cloud and poor light, the ad was cut really from about 6 jumps between 2 cameramen,” he concluded.

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ACQUISITION

Lah Lah’s Adventures Shot on Sony F55 in 4K 2014 WILL SEE A NEW children’s TV series called Lah Lah’s Adventures air on the Seven Network and Ceebeebies. The show was shot exclusively with Sony PMW-F55 4K cameras and the man responsible was Mick Jones, Director of LitUp Digital & Rusty Gate Films.

Jones explained, “When the Lah Lah’s Adventures production came up there was some discussion around shooting the show in 4K resolution due to the fact that it was a green screen live action/animation production.

This would give the compositors and animators more freedom for resizing elements closer to the foreground without compromising the resolution. So I started looking at options for 4K acquisition.”

Lah Lah’s Adventures will be finished in HD but

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after several discussions with the animation post house based in Canada, Jones decided to acquire the show in 4K.

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Jones said, “For this show I enlisted the services of my good friend and colleague Bruce Logan ASC, as a green screen advisor. We had a limited budget and needed to be able to get an amazing key.”

“We were both blown away by how sensitive the F55 camera was,” he added. “Compared to other green screen shoots we had worked on, we could use a fraction of the light. We did extensive testing of the different gammas, ISO and shutter combinations in order to find out what would work best for the compositors.”

Jones concluded, “I recently updated the firmware to Version 2 which allows for 120fps

shooting onto the SxS cards in HD resolution. It looks amazing and again, I found it quite simple to dial in and flip between regular frame rate and HFR on the side screen hot keys.”

Visit http://pro.sony.com.au

New Pro Wireless Mic System from Sony WITH COMPACT PROFESSIONAL CAMCORDERS more widely used for electronic newsgathering and field production applications, Sony’s new UWP-D wireless microphone series delivers the right combination of form and function for pro shooters.

The UWP-D series components are small and lightweight, making them suitable for a range of field production needs.

The UWP-D series uses new hybrid digital processing technology to deliver high quality sound.

This technology performs signal processing by digital companding, with transmission handled by conventional analogue FM modulation.

The new series employs wide frequency coverage, with a wide band of up to 72 MHz coverage available. As a result, this frequency agility allows users to select from a broader range

of operating frequencies. An Automatic Channel Setting mode lets users perform channel scan and channel setting functions easily. The Clear Channel Scan function detects unused channels and IR Sync enables easy channel setting by sending information from the receiver to the transmitter by infrared communication.

Visit http://pro.sony.com.au

Sony Launches New NXCAM HXR-NX3 SONY HAS ANNOUNCED the HXR-NX3 handheld HD camcorder, the latest addition to the NXCAM line-up. Perfect for the professional videographer, the HXR-NX3 has built-in WiFi technology allowing the camcorder to be controlled remotely via tablet and smartphone.

In addition, the newly developed LSI contains 40x “Clear Image Zoom” technology, which offers 1152mm focal length with virtually the

same quality as optical zoom.

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S N www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Telstra, Ericsson Conduct Live Stadium Trial of LTE Broadcast JANUARY 31 SAW AUSTRALIAN telecommunications provider, Telstra, successfully complete a live demonstration of Ericsson’s LTE Broadcast solution in a stadium environment.

Three dedicated streams of content – live coverage, highlights and statistics – of the Australia vs England “T20” cricket match were broadcast to participants. By using a specially designed application and an LTE Broadcastenabled device, participants were able to select the content of the most interest to them.

By broadcasting a single stream, LTE Broadcast allows an unlimited number of enabled users in the broadcast areas to receive popular content, ensuring a high-quality user experience while making the most efficient use of spectrum. In environments such as stadiums and public venues, where subscriber densities can reach extremely high levels, broadcasting content is the best way to deliver a consistent and reliable user experience.

TEN Goes Mobile from Sochi with Switch Media NETWORK TEN HAS BROUGHT the Winter Olympics to mobile devices with help from Australian developer Switch Media. The Sochi 2014 On Ten mobile app, gives all Australians access to live coverage and exclusive content from the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Switch Media have built the app, which allow viewers to watch the Games live and in Catch Up mode on their iOS and Android devices.

The app features eight simultaneous live streams, including all of the action live as broadcast on TEN and ONE, as well as six dedicated live streams straight from Sochi. Switch Media’s Apps include a 30-minute DVR window that allows viewers to rewind up to 30minutes of an event while streaming it live. All Olympic events are available as catch-up, with a unique highlights function that allows users to jump to key moments.

SPORTSCASTING

The XXII Olympic Winter Games is also available via tenplay.com.au, which hosts six dedicated 24-hour live streams. Content is also available via tenplay Xbox 360 and Xbox One, tenplay iOS, tenplay Windows 8 app and Sony Bravia IPTV app.

Network Ten Chief Digital Officer, Rebekah Horne, said, “Our strategy is to bring Network Ten’s content to people anywhere, any time and on any device, and the XXII Olympic Winter Games is no exception.”

Visit www.tenplay.com.au

Mike Wright, Telstra Executive Director for Networks, said:, “This trial proved that the LTE Broadcast solution worked effectively in a stadium environment. Instead of requiring around 2GB of data per user to stream one content channel of the game, we were able to serve all LTE Broadcast users, with three concurrent streams requiring a total of around 6GB for the entire broadcast, which clearly demonstrates an efficient use of spectrum. This outcome has great potential to provide new services to attendees at sporting or other entertainment events and to lift the user experience to a new level.”

Without LTE Broadcast, each user would receive an individual data stream for the content and the quality would be dependent on the number of users in the cell area.

Håkan Eriksson, Head of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand, said, “LTE Broadcast provides a great opportunity for mobile operators to drive

new revenue streams for premium entertainment video services over LTE and meet increasing consumer demand for exceptional quality video experience. Together with leading industry partners in standardisation and ecosystem development, we will ready commercial deployment for the mass market, optimising the use of existing spectrum and networks.”

Visit www.ericsson.com

Network TEN Talks Up Olympics with RTS, Magna RECENTLY NETWORK TEN had a requirement to expand their talkback systems in Sydney and Melbourne in order to better service their new morning programming and Winter Olympics commitments.

Network TEN Senior Systems Design Engineer, Leo Blanda, explained, “Our RTS Telex talkback system was full using the original 8 I/O cards. We needed more ports for future requirements, therefore we bought four 16 I/O cards. We also expanded IFB circuits in both Sydney and Melbourne studios and added four comms ports to Manly for new breakfast show commitments. We then also added six pre-listen per studio mic sources to the RTS system.”

Magna Systems has a long history of supplying RTS Telex talkback systems to Network TEN, something Blanda and his team were keen to continue.

Blanda added, “Magna let us know what options were available and recommended the best products that would fulfil our needs.

These eventually totalled four 16 I/O cards and a Trunkmaster 2000 for Sydney while ATV in Melbourne purchased a 16 I/O and 16 I/O RVON cards for IP VOIP connectivity.”

The four 16 I/O cards are now being used to expand the TEN RTS frame for the network’s

increase in production requirements at both studios and their facility at Manly while the Trunkmaster, 16 I/O and 16 I/O RVON cards have been used at ATV Melbourne for Winter Olympics commitments.

Blanda added, “The Trunkmaster will manage the RTS systems at ATV, TEN and Sochi and will eventually manage RTS systems around the network. We are very pleased with our purchases and with Lucas Bohm’s sales, customer support and knowledge of the product all of which made the decision to purchase very easy.”

Visit www.magnasys.tv

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The Glasgow Diaries: Chapter 7

By David Bowers Returning to Glasgow for my final winter before the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Stepping out of the airport terminal to hail a cab, the sky is grey and wet but so predictable for this time of year that I both love and take it as a promise of brilliant Scottish summer weather come Games time in July.

ON THE DRIVE TO OUR PROJECT OFFICE I’m struck by the stark outline of bare tree trunks lining Glasgow Green, where the Marathon and Cycling races will take place.

When the team returns from leave they will do the final wiring, testing and adjustments before breaking down the kit and documenting it for export.

How little people realise those trees will soon erupt magnificent green canopies, making for fabulous television pictures along with radio frequency challenges!

The packing process will take around a month and the equipment will then be loaded into three, forty-foot containers for the sea journey from Sydney to Glasgow in February.

Accordingly, high on my new year to-do list will be accompanying the team surveying the Marathon, Triathlon, Road Race and Mountain Bike courses to go over our RF coverage plans – nothing can be left to chance.

Once re-assembled, these units will form the backbone of the broadcast network that will deliver the XX Commonwealth Games.

I’m back in Glasgow after a two-week break in Prague and, before that, a month in Sydney overseeing the final off-site build that my Global Television engineering colleagues have been progressing over the past nine months.

Project director Andrew Quinn and I have been a relay team, he minding the fort over Christmas and me taking over from today.

It’s a good time to do so as our 12-strong group of Aussie-based design engineers, wire benders and logistical support staff has now broken for the traditional Aussie summer holidays.

They’ve been working continuously on the design and pre-build of the ‘fly away’ portion of the broadcast telecommunications operation centres (BTOC) and commentary control rooms (CCRs) for the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and competition venues.

Each of the 22 venues requires at least one (and some up to five) of these systems, so there are 28 in all to build, encompassing some 135 equipment racks.

SPORTSCASTING

Our system is completely HD digital video and AES-standard audio, from content acquisition to transmission. This will ensure faultless pictures and sound for our rights-holder broadcasters (RHBs) while also providing maximum flexibility for them to repurpose content for their individual needs.

Following lengthy scoping, planning and design, installation in Global’s warehouse on the southern fringe of Sydney’s CBD began last August. It has been something of a logistical challenge as the equipment is spread across 150 racks ranging from 10 to 45 rack units in height.

To interconnect the equipment upon arrival, we have so far installed 180 km of cable and terminated 18,000 connectors in the venues and IBC – and those figures are increasing daily.

In addition, we are holding at least 23 kilometres of stock in reserve to complete the inter-connect to the RHBs. Not surprisingly, our Host Broadcaster project office is also expanding (again!) as we welcome our newest colleagues and enter the 22-week Operational phase on our critical path.

Our team will further treble in size by June when we become fully functional at the purpose-built IBC at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, four weeks before the Opening Ceremony.

It is now just shy of a year since I took up my role in Glasgow. The break – my first since starting – has been a chance to not only recharge after a non-stop 11 months but also reflect on how much the Host Broadcaster team achieved last year.

M

We are right where we should be on the critical path, even given inevitable surprises along the way – a credit to the diverse group of professionals working on the Games’ biggest contract, and one of Scotland’s largest-ever projects.

Everywhere you go in Glasgow, a sense of expectation and excitement is building. Not even the short winter days can dampen it.

I turn the key to the door of my flat, drop my bags and boot up my computer in anticipation of a full day ahead.

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

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Snow Business for NBC Olympics

Gl On

Always the largest rights holder at any Olympics, the 2014 Winter Games saw U.S. broadcaster NBC descend on the Russian city of Sochi like, well, an avalanche.

GLO AUS

OB services provider (and new owner of Australia’s Global Television) NEP were selected to provide mobile broadcasting facilities and specialised engineering management services to NBC Olympics during its production of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

NEP DEPLOYED five mobile broadcasting units and two flypacks from its NEP Visions facility in the U.K., as well as all required equipment and engineering staff, to supply feeds to NBC Olympics from several key Olympic venues and events. These included the Fisht Olympic Stadium for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the Bolshoy Ice Palace and Shayba Arena for ice hockey, the Iceberg Skating Palace for figure skating and short track speed skating, and the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park for freestyle skiing and snowboarding events.

In addition, NEP provided operational and technical management to the engineering staff at the venues as well as the broadcast centre.

ChyronHego was selected to provide 12 Lyric PRO-powered Mosaic XL on-air graphics systems to NBC Olympics. Lyric PRO offers support for Windows 7 64-bit playout, native support for stereoscopic 3D, scriptless transitions, and touchscreen-enabled graphics. The software is standard on ChyronHego’s Mosaic platform.

Miranda Technologies was selected to provide a wide array of Densité modular signal processing, iControl control and monitoring solutions, and Kaleido multiviewers.

NBC used Miranda’s solutions to help manage and prepare the huge number of signals the Broadcast Operations Center received from the various venues. Using Miranda’s new Streaming Media Encoder (SME) card, NBC created a closedcircuit IPTV monitoring system to view critical signals from any location equipped with an IP or WiFi connection. The production of NBC’s telecast, as well as feeds provided for all of

NBCUniversal networks and worldwide partner broadcasts, were managed using a series of Miranda infrastructure components, including the Densité XVP-3901 up/down/cross converter.

Broadcast signal feeds were controlled by NBC operators using critical information powered by Miranda’s iControl automated monitoring and Kaleido multiviewers.

Kaleido-X units were used to drive displays in multiple environments, including the Operations Center, control rooms, and monitoring rooms, while Kaleido-X16 and KMV units were used for other applications, such as smaller-scale monitoring workflows and for providing thumbnails for web streams.

For the seventh straight Olympics, NBC Olympics again turned to ScheduALL’s software and services group to orchestrate the logistics of people, equipment, locations, and transmission feeds from Sochi.

ScheduALL manages critical information such as video router assignments and satellite uplink scheduling, and automatically passes the information to downstream systems to facilitate on-air coverage for each feed.

its video contribution and distribution systems to NBC Olympics. Ericsson provided a range of its video processing solutions and advanced modular receivers, enabling NBC Olympics to deliver high quality, reliable HD broadcast to millions of viewers.

Tektronix was selected to provide video test and network monitoring. Beginning with the production at the sporting venues in Russia, Tektronix provided WFM5200 and WFM7200 waveform monitors for on-site camera set up, and verifying gamut signal quality and integrity. NBC Olympics backhauled contribution quality feeds through several service providers to their facilities in the US. To verify the compressed video signal quality at each end of the transmission, they used Tektronix Sentry family of video quality monitors.

Once again, NBC Olympics selected Harmonic’s MediaGrid shared storage and Spectrum MediaDeck integrated media playout server systems to support a ‘highlights factory’ in which staff based at the broadcaster’s Stamford, Conn., facility had access to event footage captured in Russia, created highlights clips, and then made them available to mobile devices and computers.

Snell was selected once again to provide its Alchemist Ph.C-HD standards converter to NBC Olympics, who used the Snell system for frame rate conversion from 50Hz to the 59.94Hz U.S. television standard. In all, NBC Olympics used 25 Snell converters, the majority of were Alchemist Ph.C-HD units. Of these, several were outfitted with the FileFlow option to enable seamless input and output of broadcast file formats.

Harmonic MediaDeck video servers recorded as many as 25 incoming venue feeds as both XDCAM-HD at 50 Mbps and H.264 low-resolution proxy. These systems also gave Stamford personnel independent control over 60 channels of local ingest. Each recording’s proxy was replicated in near real-time on a 480TB Harmonic MediaGrid storage system connected via two 10-Gigabit circuits to a second 384TB MediaGrid installed at the Stamford facility.

Meanwhile, Ericsson was selected to provide

Visit www.nbcsports.com

Fujinon Supplies Lenses for Sochi Games

SPORTSCASTING

FUJIFILM’S OPTICAL DEVICES division Fujinon is a major supplier of lens technology to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at the winter resort Sochi in Russia.

Fujinon have supplied a wide array and quantity of high-definition lenses including the Long HD EFP telephoto lens XA88x8.8BESM-TK; Long HD EFP telephoto lens XA101x8.9BESM-TK; HD EFP telephoto lens HA42x9.7BERD-U; and HD ENG Wide angle lens HA14x4.5BERD-S, all of which

A team of Fujinon Technical Engineers is at the 2014 Winter Olympics for the entire duration of the event in order to provide onsite support for its optical products. Fujinon provides this service to all of its clients at major sports and entertainment events around the globe.

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Globecam Brings Viewers Onto the Pitch GLOBECAST AUSTRALIA’S internationally recognised Globecam brought viewers onto the cricket pitch and into the action at the 2013/2014 KFC T20 BigBash League.

Commissioned by Network Ten for the 2013/14 season, Globecam Helmetcam and Globecam Umpirecam were used in 21 of the 35 KFC T20 Big Bash League games.

A finalist at the 2013 IBC Innovation Awards for Globecam Helmetcam, Globecast GLOBECAM Helmetcam at the 2013/2014 KFC T20 Big Australia has since Bash League. Photo courtesy of Globecast Australia. used feedback from Umpires on the field to reconfigure the smallest cameras of their kind, immediately transmitting vision and sound.

Using the very latest in low latency digital link technology in various forms to suit the application, from short range, low-powered miniature links to the more traditional 2GHz microwave link technology, Globecam pictures are transmitted live and in HD directly from the field-of-play. A diversity antennae and receiver system located on the camera deck within the grandstand receives and decodes the pictures for integration with the Outside Broadcast production.

Visit www.globecast.com.au

Global TV Gears Up with DirectOut Professional Audio Technology has announced the supply of the largest DirectOut Technology system ever purchased in Australia by Global Television. The new system was delivered to Global’s facility in Mascot and is being employed for a large international event early in 2014.

Global’s Technical Services Director, Marc Segar explained, “We decided to go with Direct Out for our audio distribution on Big Brother in 2012 and were on-air 24/7 for 3 months without a single issue. Based on our experience, we designed HD 9’s audio area around various Direct Out processing units and this has now extended to larger projects. Value for money, flexibility and build quality are really important when we are looking for solutions and equipment needs to be adaptable for a variety of different projects during our busy schedule.”

The delivery consisted of more than 20 M1k2 MADI routers and more than 25 ANDIAMO.XT SRC’s, which use DirectOut analog and AES breakout panels to connect comms and other broadcast equipment to the fibre infrastructure of the overall system. Global TV also chose DirectOut EXBOX.64’s as MADI format converters.

DirectOut Technology’s CTO Stephan Flock commented, “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to supply Global TV with such a large system, which will be used on various international and local applications and will be added to an already impressive list of projects and installations for DirectOut internationally and in Australia.”

Visit www.proaudiotechnology.com.au

pure energy The New Neumann KH 310A Three Way Studio Monitor is in a class all of its own.

With state of the art technology, the KH310A delivers cutting edge performance and extreme accuracy at surprisingly high reproduction levels .

The result is a sweet spot that only Neumann can deliver.

For more info on the Award Winning Neumann Range, or details of your nearest stockist, call 1800 648 628, email sales@sennheiser.com.au or visit neumann.com

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NEWS OPERATIONS www.content-technology.com/newsoperations

Quinto and Evertz on the Beach with TEN SET IN THE SURROUNDS of Sydney’s northern beaches, Network Ten’s new breakfast show, Wake Up, broadcasts live every morning from Queenscliff Surf Lifesaving Club. With the assistance of local Evertz distributor Quinto Communications, the Ten Network have deployed SPG, routing, modular, and multiviewer technology from Evertz, to deliver this new show.

Located in a unique beach house site, an Evertz 5601MSC Master Reference Signal Generator and Master Timecode generator locked to GPS has been deployed along with Evertz 1200DD and 1201DD rack mount digital clock displays to provide all reference signals, HD test signals, and accurate time for the new remote studio.

Multiple video feeds from Wake Up, arriving back at the Ten Pyrmont headquarters are synchronised to the Pyrmont plant using Evertz 7746FSE-HD high definition frame synchronisers. Video routing is handled by an Evertz Xenon HDSDI/SDI video routing switcher and an Evertz 7867VIPA24-DUO Multiviewer has been deployed for Multiview monitoring of up to 24 HD video sources on two large flat screen displays to handle the additional signal monitoring requirements for the new show.

team faced some unique challenges on this project creating from scratch a new beach house studio, right on the ocean front, in a hostile salt water environment, linked back to their main Pyrmont facility and capable of producing two hours of live television daily. All of this was achieved within a very short timescale that is a real tribute to the team that put it together.”

Quinto Technical Sales Manager, Mike Ellis, commented, “The Ten technology

Visit www.quinto.com.au

Orad Releases 4K Video Wall Solution ORAD HAS RELEASED Morpho 4K, a powerful, yet affordable real-time 4K video wall solution. Using Orad’s canvas concept, Morpho 4K outputs can be arranged in different aspect ratios and layouts according to the shape of the video wall. The resolution can range from 3840 x 1080 in the 2 x 1 setup, to 3840 x 2160 in the 2 x 2 setup, and 7680 x 1080 in the 4 x 1 setup all from a single Morpho 4K station.

Unlike traditional video wall processors, Morpho 4K offers both real-time graphics and video capabilities from a single system. All on-screen elements (tickers, videos, animated items, etc), remain synchronised across the whole of the video wall, with no tearing visible on any

sections of the output. As all content is displayed in real-time, it is possible to make last minute changes to the content, or to send new data to the graphics in order to make updates on-air.

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Morpho 4K can accept up to four HD or four SD live video insertions, as well as video clips in most industry accepted formats, which can be mapped to different graphical elements on the video wall. All of these video elements then become an integral part of the graphics and are not overlaid as ‘picture-in-picture’ objects, and with just two frames delay, they can be used for live link-ups.

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Indonesia’s Kompas TV Upgrades Newsroom with GV STRATUS INDONESIAN BROADCASTER, Kompas TV, has selected GV STRATUS

NEWS OPERATIONS

nonlinear media production tools from Grass Valley for its newsroom operation upgrade. Kompas TV selected to upgrade because the scale of their news and sports production has increased from three hours per day to more than eight hours per day. With this increased production scale, Kompas TV opted for GV STRATUS as it met the broadcaster’s requirements for a more reliable system that provides a faster turnaround on news and includes shared storage and collaborative workflows. GV STRATUS will be used with K2 Summit 3G production clients, K2 SAN production storage and EDIUS Elite multiformat nonlinear editing software.

“GV STRATUS allows us to work in a truly nonlinear fashion,” explained Harya S. Pratama, Vice President of Technology, Kompas TV. “We now have a new working area for ingest and archive purposes so that all users can have access at the same time soon after our ingest process begins. Plus, the open nature of GV STRATUS allows integration with our existing newsroom computer system, ENPS, which is a huge benefit to us.”

GV STRATUS is a complete software-centric platform that provides Kompas TV staff with tools for ingest, editing, content aggregation, logging, transfer,

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and playout, and enables a ‘create once, publish everywhere’ workflow.

Kompas TV will also use GV STRATUS in tandem with EDIUS to provide editing functionality across its newsroom operations, with seamless integration K2 SAN production storage.

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A key benefit of GV STRATUS is its full compatibility with the MOS protocol, which allows it to interface with and take programming instructions from most newsroom computer systems including ENPS, iNEWS, and Octopus. GV STRATUS also provides users a choice of mainstream craft editors: Grass Valley EDIUS, Apple Final Cut Pro 7, Adobe Premiere, and Avid Media Composer.

“The newsroom market in the Asia-Pacific region is very important to Grass Valley and we’re pleased to supply Kompas TV with our GV STRATUS solution to help with their increased news production workload,” commented Stephen Wong, Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific, Grass Valley. “We’re especially excited to show broadcasters in the region how GV STRATUS can meet the growing challenge of investing in technology for the future while maximising efficiencies, especially when coupled with existing newsroom systems, to fully maximise the value of their technology investments.”

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AzzuroCam Production System MAGNA SYSTEMS AND ENGINEERING is now representing the AzzurroCam Production System in Australia and New Zealand.

AzzurroCam is a high quality HD/SD live shot system that offers complete remote control of cameras, audio, lighting The AzzurroCam system touchscreen. and IFB from an easy to use touchscreen and joystick. Ideal for insert studios, news bureaus, in-home studios, sports arenas, financial institutions and corporate AV departments.

AzzurroCam comes complete with a 1080i/720p/SD switchable robotic camera (SD output selectable: anamorphic or centre cut), four-input audio mixer with two Senheiser MKE-2 lav mics (expandable to eight or twelve input), three Lite Panel instruments with standard DMX protocol, a single line digital hybrid IFB with talent amplifier and earpiece, cordless headset phone and touchscreen controller for local or remote control via an IP connection.

Magna Systems and Engineering Group Engineering Manager, Barry Pegg, said, “The AzzurroCam system is both clever and powerful with many uses across many industries. The touchscreen controller allows the operator to control multiple locations from a single unit and provides low-res video and audio meters and store/recall camera presets on-screen. There’s also IFB dialup control and easy to understand red/green status lights which tell you when you’re ready to go on air. As an added bonus all hardware and software can be customised for a user’s specific needs.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND STREAMWORKS INTERNATIONAL have renewed their contract to provide live streaming of AP’s content to AP Video Hub. AP Video Hub enables online publishers with limited editorial resources to quickly access and create rich online content, which increasingly includes live streams.

“Demand for live content from digital platforms has increased rapidly since AP launched the first live coverage service a decade ago in 2003,” said Sue Brooks, director video transformation at AP. “Online audiences increasingly expect broadcast-quality footage, so it’s essential to guarantee a high superlative experience."

AP Video Hub’s live service provides a 24-7 stream of breaking news, as well as access to pre-planned news events. Video Hub customers have benefited from AP’s live coverage of major stories, including the election of Pope Benedict XVI and the birth of Prince George.

“As a leading news source trusted to deliver breaking global events to a committed international audience, delivering the AP Direct service into AP Video Hub represents mission critical live broadcasting at its purest,” Streamworks International CEO, Ray Mia, said. ”There is no room for error here. No excuse for poor performance. You simply can’t interrupt footage from a warzone and then use SLAs to argue that the downtime represents a reasonable level of service.”

Available through customisable desktop, online and mobile interfaces, the streaming solution allows uninterrupted feeds to be delivered in multiple bitrates - including high-definition - and distributed to multiple content providers to ensure efficient global reach and guarantee stable delivery.

Visit www.ap.org and www.streamworksint.com

NEWS OPERATIONS

Visit www.magnasys.tv

AP and Streamworks Expand Live News Streaming

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cineSync Used to Complete VFX for ‘Gravity’

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played a key role in a globe-spanning VFX pipeline for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. Charting the lonely quest of an astronaut (Sandra Bullock) to survive after her spaceship is crippled, the film received ten Oscar nominations.

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Framestore, principal VFX vendor on Gravity, tasked Australia’s Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) with completing a spectacular reentry sequence. From their facility in Adelaide, RSP was able to integrate with Framestore via cineSync. With cineSync as a remote collaboration tool, distributed post-production teams can work closely regardless of locations and time zones.

In fact, cineSync was used for remote review on all of the movies nominated for Best Visual Effects this year, including The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Iron Man 3, The Lone Ranger, Star Trek Into Darkness, as well as Gravity.

The film’s climactic scene shows Bullock’s character, astronaut Stone, attempting reentry into earth’s atmosphere. RSP completed 17 shots for this sequence. Using Framestore’s pre-vis for reference, RSP worked with director Cuarón, executive producer Nikki Penny and Tim Webber, VFX supervisor at Framestore, to craft and deliver the 2.5-minute sequence.

“We came up with technical and creative solutions through talking to Tim and Alfonso,” said Tony Clark, VFX supervisor and co-founder of RSP. “These conversations required a large number of cineSync sessions, usually including various reference clips of elements they wanted to include in the reentry scene.”

For the scene, RSP created stereoscopic, all-CG shots that included the space station and reentry module, plasma and flame effects surrounding

Eyeheight Used for “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!”

EYEHEIGHT LE-2M LEGALISERS and CC-2M colour correctors have contributed to the successful production of the latest I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here series, broadcast on ITV in the UK and channel 3e in Ireland. Eyeheight legalisers are also being used during the German follow-on series Ich bin ein Star – Holt Mich Hier Raus! which is currently being transmitted by RTL. Both series are created in 1920 x 1080 HD at a jungle camp in Australia.

The Eyeheight LE-2M auto-detects incoming SDI or HD-SDI video and applies the appropriate legalising format. It then ensures that incoming signal video is held within the required broadcast colour-space parameters. Six user memories plus common presets are provided.

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Additional legalisation features include automatic luma overshoot and undershoot suppression together with luma and chroma gain, black level adjustment, hue rotation, adjustable clipping levels and soft-clipping-knee levels. An ‘out-of-gamut’ indication feed displays overshoot or undershoot severity and shows the user where on the picture any signal correction is being performed.

Eyeheight’s CC-2M colour corrector allows independent real-time adjustment of red, green and blue component levels, master gain, lift, gamma and hue. A preview output provides a configurable split screen showing processed and unprocessed picture.

Visit www.eyeheight.com

the descending vehicle, the violent destruction of a space station, earth environments, atmospheric effects, parachutes, and panoramic matte painting.

“It’s always great to work with a local VFX house, but these days, with communications as advanced as they are, it’s getting easier to work remotely,” said Webber. “On Gravity we worked with Rising Sun, literally at the opposite end of the world from our base in London. This was made significantly easier using cineSync. It is tried and tested software that has been such an integral part of so many films that it’s almost synonymous with remote working.”

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“As the VFX industry continues to grow worldwide, we are seeing how facilities are constantly discovering new means to do better, more inventive work, with tight timelines and, in some cases, shrinking budgets,” said Cospective’s Rory McGregor, product manager of cineSync.

Visit www.cospective.com

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Frankie Helps Trizz Move Toward the Virtual Studio FRANKIE, THE BROWSER-BASED video review tool from the maker of Cospective, is a part of a new globe-spanning workflow created by Trizz to produce its innovative commercial campaigns. From its headquarters in Barcelona, Trizz uses Frankie to collaboratively develop spots with producers, agencies and clients from the U.S., Europe and Asia.

With Frankie, creatives and post-production teams can now operate as “virtual studios,” employing the best talent regardless of location, and communicating with their clients on an ongoing basis, wherever they are based.

Chris Vulpi and Oriol Puig, who co-founded Trizz in 2009, have identified inefficiencies in the VFX and post industry and applied a more streamlined, workable model to their business.

“Our philosophy has always been to bring the best talent into our projects, whether it’s around the corner here in Barcelona or across the ocean,” said Vulpi, executive producer at Trizz. “In the same way, we are able to share what we offer at Trizz to our clients, wherever they are.”

Trizz taps into the specialist pool of talent in Barcelona and brings people in on occasion from L.A. or London, but its need for remote collaboration with distant artists continues. Vulpi has learned that, regardless of studio size, the management of the design and postproduction workflows is extremely important, requiring tools like Frankie that facilitate remote collaboration.

“We have some clients who tell us that they’d rather work with us on Frankie than go to the studios, even if around the corner,” said Vulpi.

Visit www.cospective.com/frankie

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Park Road Post Use Mistika to Grade The Hobbit SGO’S MISTIKA DI COLOUR GRADING post systems form the core at Park Road Post Production, and were utilised again in epic fantasy film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in The Hobbit Trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.

Mistika’s involvement at Park Road included supporting on-set services and screening HFR digital dailies, all the way through to the DI online, stereoscopic work and final grade for the film.

The facility boasts purpose-built state-of-the-art DI theatres for both high-end 2D and stereoscopic finishing work, supported by Mistika 4K/ Stereoscopic master systems combined with dedicated finishing suites with matching SGO technology and shared storage for speed and fluidity between their online editors and colourists.

Supervising Digital Colourist for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Trish Cahill, worked with a team at Park Road alongside Lead DI Colourist Vickie-Lynn Roy, using Mistika’s world-leading colour grading toolsets to complement the second film’s darker and richer narrative as the company head through Middle-earth toward both Erebor and, of course, Smaug – the dragon brought to life by Benedict Cumberbatch and the VFX team at Weta Digital.

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“At Park Road, we are inspired by filmmakers who share our constant desire to push storytelling tools forward. That motivation allows us to deliver worldleading results for our clients which never let technology take the lead, but which give us compelling colour grading tools with which to achieve a director’s vision. The Mistika is simply a great asset creatively and technically, and is at the core of our work on this incredible production,” said Cahill.

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Vickie-Lynn expands, “Beyond the look development undertaken prior to the final online sessions, such as the variable ‘lens’ effects built entirely in the Mistika, we were able to effortlessly fold in highly technical requirements

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. (Photo: Warner Bros.)

for specific shots – such as deep mattes, themselves mathematically driving complex grade and stereo effects – all on the same platform, and all the time running critical stereo work in parallel with the ongoing look refinement, as the team headed towards the final delivery.”

Lead Stereographer, Meetal Gokul, explains, “The interaction of grade and stereo is so often underestimated, so at Park Road we work in parallel – with any screening format, 2D or 3D, available for review at any time. The stereo toolset in the Mistika was definitely used to its fullest for the second film in the Trilogy, and as always my team’s focus is on an incredible 3D experience which drives the story forward. This film is amazing, and the Mistika continues to provide exactly the right platform to service productions of any scale.”

Visit www.parkroad.co.nz and www.sgo.es

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Mastering Excellence The award-winning CLIPSTER® DI workstation is the perfect solution for any DI workflow.

This workstation provides online editing of film data, conversion to various output formats, color correction and even film restoration. CLIPSTER® can handle any level of resolution - SD, HD, 2K and 4K. Even demanding visual effects may be used without causing delays in your workflow, since the majority of the DI workstation‘s features are processed in real time.

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Quantel GE2 Delivers

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QUANTEL HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of Genetic Engineering 2. GE2 is Quantel’s second-generation shared storage solution for post that delivers new levels of flexibility, performance and productivity for Quantel Pablo Rio colour and finishing system users. The original Genetic Engineering transformed the efficiency of many post houses; GE2 will do the same for today’s multi-resolution post world.

GE2 enables instant sharing of high-resolution jobs between suites giving users total flexibility to move jobs at a moment’s notice. Crucially, each GE2 connected Pablo Rio has guaranteed real-time performance whatever the other suites are doing – even at 4K. GE2 is great for facility scheduling as it makes it possible to take on short notice jobs. It allows multiple suites to teamwork on tight deadline jobs and enables more suites to get involved when a job suddenly needs more resources. GE2 enables up to four Pablo Rio systems to share the same GenePool storage. Third party systems can read and write to GenePool storage via the GenePool Gateway. Pablo PA also connects to the GenePool Gateway to handle back-office tasks, ensuring that the frontline Pablo Rio systems spend the maximum time on client-facing work.

There is a huge range of potential GE2 configurations, which means that GE2 systems can be tailored to meet individual facility’s workflow requirements.

For example, the GenePool shared storage can range from 18TB to support a two-suite HD production requirement, to almost 400TB – more than enough for even multiple simultaneous 4K or 6K Red Dragon jobs.

“The number one issue facing post houses today is workflow, and Genetic Engineering 2 delivers the kind of flexibility and productivity they need to compete in a market where clients demand quality and speed in equal measure,” said Quantel Sales Director, Martin Mulligan.

Visit www.quantel.com

Matrox Adds to Mojito 4K Card MATROX VIDEO HAS ANNOUNCED the availability of 10-bit H.264 intra-frame rendering with the Matrox Mojito 4K quad 3G-SDI 4K video monitoring card for use with Adobe Premiere Pro CC on Windows platforms. Matrox Mojito 4K enables realtime monitoring and output of video footage at resolutions up to 4096 x 2160 and at frame rates up to 60 fps (4Kp60).

POST PRODUCTION

“With the Mojito 4K card, Matrox leads the way in 4K postproduction with Adobe Premiere Pro CC, providing the only solution that offers 10-bit H.264 intra-frame rendering for a complete end-toend 4K delivery workflow,” said Wayne Andrews, product manager at Matrox. “Until now, all renders were done at a maximum resolution of 1080; Mojito 4K lets users ingest, edit, render and export in full 4K.”

By AJA VIDEO SYSTEMS HAS ANNOUNCED availability of Io 4K, an evolution of its popular devices for professional video I/O, updated and customised for Thunderbolt 2 technology and the latest 4K workflows. Io 4K connects to any Thunderbolt 2-enabled device such as the new Mac Pro, and offers an additional Thunderbolt 2 port for daisy-chaining other peripherals in supported workflows.

Io 4K offers a broad range of professional video and audio connectivity, supporting the latest 4K and UltraHD devices. AJA’s conversion technology allows realtime high-quality scaling of 4K to 2K and UltraHD to HD. Io 4K seamlessly integrates with leading broadcast, post-production and delivery tools such as Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Creative Cloud, Avid Media Composer, AJA Control Room, Telestream Wirecast 5, and more AJA was one of the first out of the gate with support for Thunderbolt with their Io XT and T-TAP products. Thunderbolt 2 enables unprecedented high-resolution workflows for video professionals.

“There has been so much anticipation for the Mac Pro from video professionals whose workflows truly stand to benefit from its incredible power,” said Nick Rashby, president, AJA Video Systems.

“Io 4K not only represents a new evolution in our video I/O devices, it is also the first product to market showcasing AJA’s new product design aesthetic while still embracing our commitment to performance, reliability and support.”

Visit www.aja.com

Etere Integrated Captioning in MAM ETERE HAS ENHANCED its subtitles management capabilities, an easyto-use enterprise software designed to enable any broadcaster or media company to freely produce their own subtitles (e.g. movies subtitles, news captions, etc.) with multi format import and export.

Etere Subtitles Tool offers the chance to migrate from a complex standalone captioning system into a fully software based solution that use all the resources of MAM, able to simplify subtitle handling thanks to a key set of features, including: + User-friendly interface to produce your own subtitles + Import and export subtitles in all major standard formats + Full support for Unicode characters

+ SD, HD and 3G-SDI connectivity per SMPTE 259, 292 and 424/425M Level A and Level B mapping

+ Simultaneous preview of multiple languages

+ 8- and 10-bit YUV output at all resolutions and frames rates

+ Automatic playout of subtitles from IT-based servers

+ Up to 16 channels of SDI embedded audio support

Etere Subtitles Tool can eliminate the need to always handle several captioning files or burning captions into video, a centralised database storage will make your subtitles better organised, safer, and immediately available for automated workflow tasks (e.g. playout, delivery, etc.).

+ Single ¾-length PCIe card with five full-size BNC connectors + Highly optimised Adobe Mercury Transmit plug-ins for Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe Prelude CC and Adobe SpeedGrade CC Visit www.matrox.com/video and www.newmagic.com.au

+ Facilitated translation of subtitles between languages

Integration with Etere Workflow ensures full compliance with your subtitling requirements, executing automatic workflow actions to make subtitled media available in the right place in the right format.

Visit www.etere.eu

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Silver Trak Digital Takes Media Room Live

By Keith Ford Silver Trak Digital has released a new service called Media Room, designed for enhanced media storage, management and delivery from any web-connected device around the globe. Having only gone ‘live’ on January 1, 2014, Media Room is already being used by a number of clients.

“12 MONTHS AGO we realised our clients wanted to work ‘around the clock’ in an international arena, wanting services outside our normal working hours of 7am – 8pm. At that point the concept of giving our clients Silver Trak Digital on their desktop came up,” said Christian Christiansen, Managing Director of Silver Trak Digital.

In order to create this vision, Silver Trak brought in Steven Marcus, who had previously built Evos, a web based media sharing and collaboration tool designed for the BBC. Having had the experience of creating this service, he was the perfect man for the job.

On the original intent of Media Room, Christiansen explained, “The idea was that we wanted to build basic redundant storage on LTO. We wanted clients to be able to come in through a secure web portal, search and view content as well as access the technical metadata through online Baton reports stored in Media Room as well. We wanted clients to be able to securely invite people to come in and view their content; and we wanted them to be able to send proxies as well as the high res assets utilising an infrastructure built on the Aspera platform.”

On the Silver Trak roadmap is a forthcoming module that gives the ability to attach unstructured data, such as PDFs and jpegs and then send that content along with the assets via a simple to use Delivery Room. This module will also allow users to use Media Room as a replacement for publicity DVDs enabling users to “skin” various parts of Media Room. Silver Trak expects this module to be ready in late February. There is also a dailies/rushes module for the production community on the horizon as well as a module allowing users to store any type of file in Media Room.

“Most of our clients are either distributors, broadcasters, post production or production companies. Across these groups of clients there are obviously different needs and with Media Room we wanted to satisfy everybody,” added Christiansen. “In March we hope to finish module 3, which brings to Media Room the ability to transcode or HD frame rate convert files prior to delivering them anywhere in the world. So we’ve got all the technology.

We’ve got storage; we’ve got Aspera and we have put in Orchestrator.”

The inevitable cliché when talking about any sort of cloud connected sharing system is the ‘beach scenario’. While it is probably unlikely that a user would actually take their iPad to the beach and share files, the point is that with Media Room, internet connectivity permitting, they could.

Perhaps the more likely scenario is home use. The ability to sit on the couch watching TV and simultaneously create a Delivery Room and invite distributors from around the world to come in and view their assets is certainly an attractive prospect.

The Media Rooms themselves can be configured however the client wishes, with the ability to have multiple rooms for a company and different access for each department, or have overlapping access for specific individuals.

While in the Media Room technical details can be viewed, as can the flag history, and Baton QC reports can be downloaded.

“The whole idea about the media room is that it is a view onto your asset library, it’s shared by all the people that have access to the specific room, and it gives you a whole bunch of visibility into your asset library that you might not have otherwise had,” explains Marcus. “All of the assets that we hold in the cloud, in the media room, are the high bit rate assets; which basically means that we can do additional work with your broadcast files.”

Before the files ever make it into a Media Room they are QC’d by Baton, so the only problems should be from an editorial standpoint. This could include the wrong version being sent, or simply that circumstances have changed and the original file is no longer approved. If there is a technical issue, Baton will pick it up and the client can then be informed of the issue and can fix it.

“The workflow is very flexible here; we are not trying to dictate anything.

There is a flagging capability, so if you are using the established safe workflow, there is a certain set of issues that might otherwise be flagged or they should never have occurred,” said Marcus. “I think that’s what we are trying to get to here. But there may be other things, like for instance content issues that you might discover later on when someone is viewing, or for instance for a specific sale you might have a content issue you can flag and resolve the flag, or something like that.”

In order to maintain control for the client, each recipient of a delivery room invitation gets a unique, custom URL. This allows the user to track who has received the invite, who’s come into the room, and who’s viewed and downloaded their assets.

“When you create a Delivery Room you choose what the recipients can do with the links that you send them. Can you just view in your phone, iPad, android device, browser, on the desktop? Or can you download the high quality screener? Or can you download the original asset? It makes it very easy to provide people with limited access to your library,” explained Marcus.

“When you give us the high res asset, the original broadcast asset, we generate five different proxies of different screen sizes and bit rates, and

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM  Continued from Page 33 then we make them available to the system and use them in different scenarios. We take a lot of care to try to give you a good playback experience over Wi-Fi and mobile networks. If you are plugged in you will get them on a fast Internet connection and you will get the highest bit rate. We also do the HLS encoding so that playback on the IOS devices is optimised and it works pretty nicely, even on 3G.” The ease of use compared to traditional methods of content delivery is by far the biggest advantage of Media Room. File-based asset delivery is the way the industry is heading, with many already having arrived, and for good reason. Time saving alone is worth it, even before adding in monetary factors.

“You can check all your content on here to see if it’s the right file, then you can basically deliver it straight away, any time day or night. If the file is needed tonight how am I going to get that file to them within the next 8 hours? It’s impossible. I can’t get the tape out, get it cloned, get it on a courier and deliver it in time. It could be 2-3 days potentially, if it’s somewhere else

in the world. Whereas I can probably do that in 5 minutes, and probably at a fraction of the price, using Media Room,” explained Tim Creswell, Director of Silver Trak Digital and Co-Founder of Buff Dubs. “Just the courier alone from your archive storage could be as expensive as the cost of sending an entire series applying this method, via Media Room.”

One of the much discussed topics with files and file-based workflows is that there are so many file types to choose from.

“We have spent quite a few months deliberating on the best files that we should recommend people to store in Media Room. It changes from client to client and from application to application. We have to stay ahead of the trends and changing requirements, locally as well as internationally, so we can advise our clients,” said Creswell.

“But this system is file agnostic. It will hold whatever file type you want to store. It will deal with any file type; it can send any file type,” concluded Christiansen.

Visit www.silvertrak.com.au

EDITSHARE, a developer of shared media storage and end-to-end tapeless workflow solutions, has released a new version of its Flow media asset management solution. Flow 3 offers new features such as AirFlow for web-based remote access and Flow Automation for designing smart, timesaving templates that automate repetitive tasks like file copying, deleting, transcoding and archiving.

online, near-line and offline shared storage and archives.

The new Flow 3 release also features significant UI enhancements, including vastly improved cuts-only editing, enhanced drag-and-drop facilities, and support for third-party storage.

The new “AirFlow” module provides web-based access to content stored on EditShare Media Spaces and Archives with easy-to-use tools to browse, search and annotate media. Users can readily add or update metadata, markers and subclips – collaborating with other Flow users in real time.

Flow 3 features six distinct modules:

AirFlow – organise media files and permissions via the cloud.

Flow Automation – reduce time spent on repetitive tasks with customised workflow templates; automates complex file transactions and migrations.

Flow API – integrate third-party systems into the EditShare environment.

Flow Automation is a powerful workflow tool designed to automate repetitive tasks such as transcoding to/from specific video formats. The module’s Workflow Designer and Job Designer functions feature intuitive drag-and-drop tools to create simple and complex workflow templates, orchestrating Triggers, Inputs, Tasks and Filters to better manage media and increase productivity.

Flow Logger – intuitive user interface for super fast, stress-free logging.

With new Flow API, users can capitalise on the power of Flow by connecting third-party systems into the EditShare workflow. The flexible JSON-based interface provides a wide range of functionality options, from simple metadata exchanges to complete workflow processes.

Flow Browse – advanced search functionality for any media type across

Visit www.editshare.com

Flow Ingest – manage SDI and file-based ingest direct to storage. Offers “edit-while-capture” scenarios, advanced support for metadata and codecs.

Fujifilm Hits 100 Million LTO Ultrium Data Cartridges

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & DAM

FUJIFILM HAS ANNOUNCED that it has now manufactured over 100 million LTO (Linear Tape-Open) Ultrium data cartridges since its release of the first generation of LTO in 2000. This equates to over 53 thousand petabytes of data storage and more than 41 million miles of tape, enough to wrap around the globe 1,653 times.

Exponential data growth and extended retention period requirements are challenging corporations, government agencies and other organisations that are faced with limited IT budgets. As a result there is an increasing need to cost effectively store large volumes of data over long periods of time. The LTO Ultrium format; a powerful, scalable open tape storage format, meets the challenge by delivering performance, capacity and reliability while offering lower total cost of ownership compared to other technologies.

Since 2000, Fujifilm has led the development of large-capacity LTO Ultrium data tape for backup and archival applications. The most recent Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 6 Data Cartridge is based on Fujifilm’s NANOCUBIC technology and incorporates Barium Ferrite (BaFe) particles, with superior performance and longer archival life compared to conventional metal particle (MP) tape. BaFe particles are also used in the production of large multi-terabyte enterprise

system data tape, supporting the needs of various customers in diverse industries for their large volume backup and archival needs.

In January 2010, Fujifilm and IBM Corporation announced a world record in data density on linear magnetic tape of 29.5 billion bits per square inch using Barium Ferrite particles. This demonstrated the potential of a high capacity tape cartridge capable of storing 35 terabytes of uncompressed data.

Fujifilm also conducted a study that demonstrated the long-term archivability of Barium Ferrite magnetic particles, withstanding realistic storage environment simulations. Results showed no change to BaFe magnetic properties under accelerated test methods, proving its reliability to be well over 30 years.

Visit www.fujifilm.com.au

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EditShare Flow 3 Media Asset Management Solution

Fully integrated with EditShare shared storage (XStream, Energy, Field and Ultra) and archiving (Ark) products, Flow 3 is an end-to-end workflow solution, from baseband SDI and file-based ingest with transcode to asset logging, browsing and retrieval of content on EditShare media spaces and archives. Integrated production tools facilitate fast shot selection, rough cuts and preview of media with associated metadata from standard desktop systems connected to the EditShare network.

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DiGiCo Aids Next-Gen Australian Audio Engineers THE AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, based in South Melbourne, has recently invested in a 32-channel SD11 audio console from UK manufacturer DiGiCo. The tertiary music college teaches degree-level courses in Audio Production, Music Performance and Creative Industries Management. The college features two live rooms, a post-production studio and two fully-equipped labs for production and composition. When it was time to replace the facility’s existing analogue mixing console, the DiGiCo SD11 stood out as the ideal choice.

Supplied by local pro audio specialists, Soundcorp, the SD11 ticked all the boxes for the college’s Associate Dean and Head of Audio, Dr Paul Doornbusch. “Young people these days have grown up listening to digital recordings and CDs, so that’s the sound they expect to hear – whether it’s live or recorded,” he says. “The first time I heard the SD11 I said ‘Oh yes – that’s the sound!”

The onboard Stealth Digital Processing and floating point Super FPGA technology meant that the college could also dispense with the outboard gear used with the old console. Most importantly, while having enough input channels and aux groups to produce complex productions, the SD11’s compact control surface made it approachable, rather than intimidating students with a large fader and rotary control-filled surface.

Videocraft Expands RTS Talkback Fleet with Omneo VIDEOCRAFT HAS EXPANDED its extensive talkback fleet with the latest RTS ADAM-M matrix, also becoming the first company in Australia to purchase and integrate the matrix with the advanced OMNEO media networking architecture, courtesy of Magna Systems and Engineering.

Videocraft Sales Director, James Taylor, said, “We purchased an OMNEO OMI-32 card for the ADAM-M frame and OKI cards for our KP-32 keypanels to interconnect them via IP to the frame. We also purchased these cutting edge products as they integrate seamlessly with our Audinate Dante audio systems allowing us to offer multi-channel digital audio in and out over a standard CAT-5 cable. This significantly speeds up the deployment time for any comms system as it makes us up to sixty percent faster on installation.”

OMNEO is a media networking architecture for professional applications.

Using standard IP Ethernets, media products that integrate OMNEO can be assembled into networks of two to ten thousand cooperating devices that exchange studio-quality synchronised multi-channel audio and share common control systems. The new RTS ADAM OMNEO interface cards transform the ADAM intercom system into a flexible, IP-based, AVBcompatible intercom network.

Taylor added, “The ADAM-M OMNEO system is incredibly powerful and flexible and suits the many and varied talkback installations we undertake.

The system is also futureproofed as it has significant room to expand this single 3RU ADAM-M frame up to a 256 x 256 matrix using the new IP OMI+ cards.”

The RTS ADAM-M matrix provides a convenient compact unit where a large number of ports are required and space is at a premium. The design provides 128+ (256 with OMI+ cards) ports in 3RU, with full redundancy on the master controllers and power supplies. The matrix frame supports all current ADAM cards and also supports existing ADAM wiring schemes and options.

The chassis is built with low noise cooling, hot-swappable components including cooling modules and comprehensive status reporting.

Visit www.videocraft.com.au and www.magnasys.tv

Associate Dean and Head of Audio at the Australian College of the Arts, Dr Paul Doornbusch.

“It made complete sense to go with the SD11,” says Paul. “The students love it, they have seen it used in concerts, and the recall functions and FX make it really easy to show them what’s going on.”

Visit www.digico.biz

RTW Names PAT Exclusive ANZ Distributor GERMAN MANUFACTURER RTW GMBH & CO. KG has appointed Professional Audio Technology Pty Ltd as its exclusive Australian and New Zealand Distributor. RTW will join other leading manufacturers in the PAT product portfolio which predominantly caters to the Broadcasting and pro-audio markets.

For more than 45 years, RTW has accompanied the steady technological progress in the pro-audio industry with innovative instruments and technologies for visual audio monitoring in broadcast, production, postproduction and quality control.

RTW’s International Sales Manager, Arjen Hofland, said, “We believe that with Professional Audio Technology, we have found the right distributor in Australia and New Zealand for RTW products. One that is actively involved in high calibre broadcast and pro-audio projects and can provide our customers with outstanding customer service, training and pre- and post sales support. We look forward to extending our current customer base, down under, with Professional Audio Technology.”

“We are excited to add RTW to our current product portfolio and offer our customers another worldwide market leader. There certainly is great synergy between RTW’s current product range, our existing customer base and the products we already represent in Australia and New Zealand,” commented Patrick Salloch from Professional Audio Technology.

RTW is actively involved in defining binding loudness management standards, complies with the international ISO 9001:2008 qualitymanagement standard and provides made-to-measure and state of the art systems. RTW demo equipment such as the TM3 and TM7 will also be available from Professional Audio Technology.

Visit www.rtw.de and www.proaudiotechnology.com.au

AUDIO

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AUDIO

Shure Delivers Seamless Mixing for Sky News AUSTRALIAN NEWS CHANNEL, which owns

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CEDAR HAS ANNOUNCED the introduction of an updated DNS 8 Live

and operates Sky News, recently invested in eight Shure SCM820 8-Channel Digital IntelliMix Automatic Mixers.

Designed for use in speech applications including sound reinforcement, broadcasting, and recording, the SCM820 uses proprietary IntelliMix technology to improve audio quality in any application where many channels of microphones need to operate simultaneously. Multiple I/O configurations and networking options ensure analogue and digital connectivity between devices.

offering fail-safe audio bypass. The bypass is implemented in the form of hardware relays that immediately connect the inputs to the outputs in the event of a power failure or other significant disruption.

According to Rick Zecivic, Australian News Channel’s Director of Engineering & Technology, “We recently automated our studio control for our national, business and weather channels, as well as our New Zealand prime news production. The automation system we installed is called Mosart and its software controls all of the hardware you require to be automated.

+ A unique DNS algorithm with learn mode and rapid set-up per channel.

“We wanted an automated mixer to handle the levels of the microphones situated on the desks, rather than a person controlling a fader for each microphone.”

The Shure SCM820 automatically adjusts the level which is particularly useful on the Paul Murray talk show where there may be up to five panelists.

Shure’s IntelliMix technology delivers seamless activation of the best microphone for a particular talker, while attenuating microphones that are not being addressed. By minimising the number of open microphones, the SCM820 increases intelligibility and gain-before-feedback and reduces background noise.

“You can have everyone trying to talk at once but since we’ve switched to the SCM820, there is never any clipping if someone jumps in to talk when someone else is already talking,” Rick said. “Also, if someone is breathing heavily, the SCM820 automatically deals with that so you can’t hear it. The SCM820’s are undetectable, transparent in the system, working away in the background. It all works very well.”

Visit www.jands.com.au

Wireless Mic Users Get Ready for Switchover AUSTRALIA IS IN THE FINAL STAGE of realising the benefits of the ‘digital dividend’ — spectrum located in the 694-820 megahertz (MHz) frequency range — that will be used to deliver high speed 4G services from 1 January 2015. So this can happen, current users of this frequency range need to relocate to other spectrum by 31 December 2014. Users who have bought wireless microphones from responsible suppliers in the past 12-18 months are most likely already compliant.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is continuing its work to educate community groups and small businesses about the change so they have time to get ready.

“Contact your supplier to see if you can retune the equipment,” said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman. “Anyone considering buying a new wireless microphone should make sure it doesn’t operate in this 694820 MHz range.”

Since 1 January 2014, it is illegal for suppliers to import or manufacture wireless microphones that operate in this frequency range. Buyers are also advised to look for a warning label on devices that will show if it will be illegal to use them in this range after 31 December 2014.

AUDIO

CEDAR DNS 8 Now With Fail-Safe Audio Bypass

Visit http://acma.gov.au

Designed specifically for live use, the DNS 8 Live dialogue noise suppressor offers near-zero latency and is suitable for use in all live situations; not just live-to-air broadcasting. Recognising many people will want to use it where there’s no ready access to mains power, CEDAR added a standard 4-pin 12VDC input, while remote control is provided by the DNS 8 RC software that allows users to control it using laptops, iPads and other devices via common web browsers.

Key features: + Eight channels of dialogue noise suppression. + A Detail mode ideal for permanent installations. + Relay-based hardware fail-safe bypass for critical applications. + 1U rackmount with 90V-250V universal PSU and 12VDC input. + Web-based remote control for laptops, tablets, and other devices.

The DNS 8 Live (rev 2) is immediately available. Upgrades to existing units are available on a return-to-factory basis for a fee plus shipping.

Visit www.cedaraudio.com

Massenburg EQ Plug-In for Pro Tools 11

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AVID AND MASSENBURG DESIGNWORKS have announced the MDW Hi-Res Parametric EQ 5 plug-in is now compatible with Pro Tools 11. Version 5 offers AAX Native 64 and AAX DSP 64 formats, providing the flexibility to use the EQ across the entire Pro Tools 10-based product line.

According to George Massenburg, who has spent a lot of time refining this AAX 64-bit version, “The latest MDW EQ5-AAX DSP continues the MDW tradition of highest-quality, double-precision math, resulting in the highest measurable performance – the lowest artefacts of any commercially available digital equaliser. The MDW EQ user interface presents a finely tuned EQ human interface, with controls that reflect a deep understanding of the ergonomics of EQ control and use, and the expectations of what an engineer expects to hear when a knob is turned. MDW EQ controls are always easily readable and controls are easily settable.”

Visit www.avid.com and http://massenburgdesignworks.com

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Softube Console 1 to Include SSL SL4000E SOFTUBE’S HAS ANNOUNCED that its Console 1 mixer will include Softube’s new model of one of the world’s most classic mixing consoles — the Solid State Logic SL4000E. Officially endorsed by Solid State Logic, the model consists of the black knob E242 equaliser, the classic channel compressor, the musical expander/gate and the high and low cut filters from that channel. Also included is a model of the harmonics, distortion and non-linearities obtained from overdriving the SL4000E console, which can be used to add analogue distortion across the entire mix. Adding to that is Softube’s own Transient Shaper.

Visit www.softube.com

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Park Road Takes Hobbit into Atmos Sphere with DVS Clipster WHEN THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), premiered in December 2013, the new Dolby Atmos standard added another dimension to the experience of sound, alongside stunning images.

Dolby Atmos allows for precise sound event positioning in the auditorium, complimenting the High Frame Rate (HFR) 3D images. The full three dimensional experience was brought to life at Park Road Post Production, mastering both HFR-3D at 48 fps and immersive Dolby Atmos sound, all on the DVS CLIPSTER. Dolby Atmos takes into account each venue’s unique configuration; the powerful and sophisticated sound mix is adjusted to each and every cinema.

Instead of assigning audio tracks to discrete channels, 64 objects are available and are freely positioned spatially within the auditorium. Thanks to an intelligent decoder box, sound events are rendered and distributed to the required number of speakers. Thus, Dolby Atmos enhances quality and performance of the surround speaker installation.

master a 3D HFR DCP with incredible speed, but has now bought Dolby Atmos mastering within the same platform.”

Bernhard Reitz, Head of Product Management at DVS, added, “It is a true honour to once again have played a role together with Park Road Post in the The Hobbit Trilogy. It is a stunning testimony of how CLIPSTER is being used for both high frame rate mastering and exquisite DCP creation. We feel very proud that we can once again pioneer with CLIPSTER by including Dolby Atmos in our system. This will undoubtedly add an exceptional dimension of sound on top of a breathtaking image quality to the audience.”

Visit www.dvs.de and www.parkroad.co.nz

On the production side, the audio (dialogue, music and effects) is fed into the Dolby Rendering and Master Unit (RMU), this allows flexible rendering for different configurations. The final package is then fed into the DCI mastering pipeline, headed by CLIPSTER. The CLIPSTER generates the final DCP or, to be more precise, the various versions of DCPs required by Park Road. CLIPSTER’s powerful feature set allows creation of a variety of versions, within a very short timeframe. CLIPSTER masters the material in high quality at 48 fps in 3D – plus the respective Atmos track.

Ian Bidgood, Technical Director at Park Road Post, said, “Again, DVS has proven themselves to be the invaluable partner we have become accustomed to.

We were extremely happy to continue our innovative partnership that was started on the first part of The Hobbit Trilogy. Once again, DVS’s significant advancements in the CLIPSTER platform along with their absolute willingness to innovate and push the technological boundaries has not only helped to

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. (Photo: Warner Bros.)

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RELIABLE & CRYSTAL-CLEAR “Finally an affordable wireless Transmitter and Receiver system with greatly improved output power (100mW) giving you a wonderful range.“

David Epstein AUDIO2VIZUAL

—

The Sennheiser 2000 Series lets you concentrate entirely on the picture because you know the sound capture is reliable and crystal clear. The EK2000 Camera Receiver is equipped with a frequency scan feature of up to 3000 frequencies in up to 75MHz switching bandwidth for optimum flexibility. With the added benefits of a user friendly interface and a backlit display, the EK2000 makes sure you capture every moment.

For more info, freecall 1800 648 628 or sennheiser.com.au

AUDIO

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RADIO The original broadcast media

Le www.content-technology.com/radio

Radio Adelaide Given Special Treatment from DAD

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Founded by the University of Adelaide in 1972, Radio Adelaide was the first community radio station in Australia. Today, it is staffed by more than 400 volunteer broadcasters. As well as broadcasting on 101.5FM, the station is also streamed live online.

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A complete audio playout, automation and control system for radio, ENCO’s DAD has over 10,000 installations worldwide and is used by broadcasters such as CNN, ESPN, NBC, and Radio and Television Hong Kong (RTHK) which has 140 DADs in one network.

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According to ENCO CEO Gene Novacek, Radio Adelaide saw the system on the PAT stand at SMPTE 2013 and “fell in love with the interface, the look and feel of DAD”. However, the broadcaster had a unique set of customised tasks it would need to address before committing to the system.

“I said right out of the box it won’t do that, but it is easy for us to modify and we like making changes to it, because some changes that you want, down the road somebody else might want too,” says Novacek. “We don’t really create custom DADs, we just keep increasing the capability of DAD so people can do whatever they want with it.”

Radio Adelaide ordered 30 of the PC-based DAD workstations – one for each of the station’s five studios and another 25 workstations for its volunteer workforce.

“This was the kind of difference that we haven’t encountered too much of,” says Novacek. “We’ve done plenty of community radio, but we’ve not seen a station with 400 volunteers that each use the system and have no knowledge of how a system works.

“Normally, when you train people they can train themselves, but if you get a volunteer walking in to do a show, it is very easy and, you know, push this button, and push this button and you are doing something. They don’t want to learn DAD. They might volunteer for just a half an hour a month at this place so they don’t have the time to commit to learning something like everything about the nuances of DAD. “The challenge coming in here where it’s a University environment, lots of volunteers and it needs to be customised in a way that makes it really easy and simple to just walk up to it and push a button and start doing something. You can do that out of the box, but there were additional requirements here that there is data that is very specific to Radio Adelaide.

RADIO

“Whatever database you use to keep track of music, you’ve got the typical things like the title, the artist, the album, the genre, the production date, the composer. In DAD, there are probably 67 fields of data. That wasn’t enough for Radio Adelaide. What they wanted was very specific, like was it recorded in South Australia? Is it indigenous? Is it Australian music? So, they had this list of criteria that they needed to categorise and classify their data with.”

In terms of ingest workflow, Radio Adelaide maintains two music libraries – one for classical music and one for “everything else”. Using ripping workstations, staff will rip tracks from CD. If it’s a registered CD on the internet, the titles are automatically extracted. Staff then mark the specially created fields as they relate to genre/format.

[From Left] Darren Van Schaik (RA), Alan Liddelow (PAT), Deborah Welsh (RA), Eugene Novacek (ENCO), Anthony Gibbs (RA), Nick Brown (PAT), Patrick Salloch (Pat)

When it comes to the volunteers, they find a workstation out of the 25 available. Once switched on, the workstation will ask which programme the volunteer is associated with. After logging in, the volunteer has access to a “mini-library” of audio elements for use in their show. Elements can be any piece of audio – song, recorded interview, etc, but limits are placed on the number of elements allowed in any particular show’s mini-library. Elements, such as .WAV files, can also be imported via thumb drive. Elements that are 14 days old are automatically purged. Permanent elements such as theme songs can be exempted from purging. To put programs together, the DAD workstations are also equipped with content creation software such as Adobe Audition, NewsBoss, etc.

The DAD system will play out programming to conventional transmitter link and/or encoders for streaming. There are also options for remote access via PCs, tablets or smart phones.

“The staff at Radio Adelaide are busy,” says Gene Novacek. “They’ve got a lot of stuff to do, so we automated just about everything they could imagine. So now the staff can focus on what they have to do – ingest the material, train the volunteers, make sure the stuff is running, instead of becoming a slave to a ‘cool’ automation system.”

Happy with the experience at Radio Adelaide, Novacek says the lessons learned and the modifications made will flow through to other DAD customers “Those customisations are now available to our 10,000 users,” he says. I don’t like to say customisation, because it’s not really that way. When I made the changes to DAD those changes are available to everyone. I don’t maintain a DAD for Radio Adelaide as being different to the one that I give to CNN. So that was the challenge and I wanted to make sure that it went smoothly.”

Visit www.proaudiotechnology.com.au and www.enco.com

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Lexus Drives Digital Radio CAR MANUFACTURING IN AUSTRALIA may be dead, but Lexus continues to lead the country’s luxury car market in digital car radios, both for wideranging vehicle fitment and numbers sold. Since becoming the first luxury brand in Australia to provide DAB+ digital radio as standard fitment to a model, Lexus has sold almost 8,000 vehicles with the technology. Lexus also offers the most expansive range of luxury vehicles fitted with digital radio.

support of digital radio. We’re all spending more time in our cars and 36 per cent of commercial radio listening last year was done in the car. We’re pleased Lexus drivers can experience more stations, digital quality sound and scrolling text on DAB+ digital radio,” said Commercial Radio Australia CEO, Joan Warner.

DAB+ is currently available on all Lexus models, from the CT 200h hybrid hatchback to the flagship LS sedan, and is standard fitment on the majority of the Lexus range. The DAB+ digital radio system enables Lexus customers to access a greater number of radio stations and digital content, as well experiencing enhanced sound quality.

“Our cars are offered with the latest in technologies such as hybrid drivetrains, so naturally DAB+ digital radios are available across the entire range,” said Lexus Australia chief executive, Sean Hanley. “The high quality Lexus car stereos, as well as the premium Mark Levinson units offered on a number of our vehicles, deliver even better sound quality when paired with digital radio.”

“The commercial radio industry is very grateful for their initial and ongoing

Visit www.digitalradioplus.com.au

FM Signal Monitoring with MPX Power Measurement AUDEMAT HAS ANNOUNCED a new upgrade to its Goldeneagle FM platform for signal monitoring of multiple FM channels.

Administrators can now assign multiple users to a list who can be notified in the case of alarms via SNMP, email, phone or text.​

The Goldeneagle FM Signal Monitoring platform is capable of performing real-time, ITU-compliant MPX power measurement without stopping its standard monitoring activities. The systems can be easily configured to trigger alarms and notify operators immediately of any out-of-tolerance results.

This latest upgrade offers compatibility with MasterView 2.0, which means you can now see exactly what is happening at your transmitter site from any Internet-enabled device.

Real-time graphs display critical readings such as ITU.R SM1268-2 compliant cumulated MPX, MPX peak, MPX power (ITU BS-412-9) and MPX spectrum.

Users can also now access overview alarm information via the front panel.

LEDs on the front panel alert users to the presence of an alarm and the LCD screen provides details of the alarms and the programs affected.

Visit www.worldcastsystems.com

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RADIO

Graphite Three Console from Klotz Digionomics KLOTZ DIGONOMICS says it has designed the new Graphite Three to accommodate radio as the fastest media and the one that can react the most quickly with the console offering a central platform in­tegrating all radio production control operations within one single control surface.

The Graphite Three console is a powerful tool controlling audio in a standalone radio studio as well as in networked radio facilities. The console’s integrated PC runs Windows OS and can be connected to any Ethernet LAN. Audio over IP, high speed fibre optic interfaces and all important audio formats as well as high­quality microphone pre­amplifiers in combination with best possible EQ, dynamics and other digital signal processing features make the Graphite Three ideal for 24/7 operation.

The Graphite Three is also the first radio console with 1/3 cut touch­screen monitors in a low­rise audio control surface and is available with 4 to 32 faders.

“With the new Graphite Three we offer to open up the console for third party software, have comms with the audience and control video content for applications like social media,” said owner, Thomas Klotz. “The Graphite Three is a very innovative console that can be programmed by anyone with knowledge of CSS and HTML so there is no need for costly audio engineers.”

Visit www.magnasys.tv

Allen & Heath XB-14² Console DESIGNED FOR A BROAD RANGE of applications from small radio or internet broadcast studios, to hospital radio, university radio, community radio and larger studios with multiple rooms, the XB-14² is equipped with a wealth of features specifically for broadcasters.

XB-14² builds on the original XB-14 with both featuring Telco inputs for telephone callers, mic fader start sensing for external connection and internal automatic muting of the speaker outputs, stereo channel start/

cue outputs for transport control, multiple headphone outputs, and an additional stereo bus (Mix B).

The renewal model adds a stereo Audition bus, a variable high pass/low pass filter on the Telco channel, a new external monitor input level control, enhanced pre-amps for lower noise and higher bandwidth, and the stereo inputs have more gain and routing options.

Visit www.tag.com.au and www.allen-heath.com

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www.content-technology.com/transmission

Sky NZ Upgrades to Largest Router in Southern Hemisphere NEW ZEALAND PAY TELEVISION SERVICE SKY recently underwent a major technology upgrade which saw Magna Systems and Engineering supply and install the largest router of its kind in the southern hemisphere at SKY’s Auckland headquarters.

Magna Systems and Engineering NZ Sales manager, Keith Brewer, explained, “SKY has been using NVision routers as their main switching solution since their major SBC (Sky Broadcast Centre) rebuild in 2006. They had four NVision router systems (a Network Operations Router, Production Router, Studio Router and Lab/test router) working flat out but due to the rapid growth of their services, Network Operations and Presentation had been approaching a point where they were unable to expand the routers simply by installing additional cards. Essentially, they were full with no room for any additional expansion so a major router upgrade was required.”

Due to the size and complexity of the router installation, SKY needed a solid router that they could rely on to maintain control of their growing, complex facility plus versatile, operator friendly control panels. The broadcaster knew that the Miranda NVision Routers had proven very reliable over many years.

Brewer continued, “Although SKY needed initially only to expand their Net Ops router to 876 crosspoints, they also wanted to allow plenty of room for future expansion. Replacing router systems is not an easy undertaking, and thus they needed to future-proof themselves as much as possible. The 3G-ready NV8576-Plus which offered a maximum of 1152 crosspoints fitted the bill perfectly. The added bonus with these routers is that their cores are

Hostworks Selects Digital Rapids for New Live Streaming Service

3G compliant so should SKY require this functionality in the future they can enable it by simply upgrading their HD-SDI I/O cards.”

In addition SKY required timecode and machine control switching upgrades.

They previously used small individual switchers to take care of these functions but now wanted to amalgamate these signals into a single router.

The broadcaster also needed to significantly expand both their production and studio routers.

According to Keith Brewer, “At the centre of the Magna offering was the NV8576-Plus router with its maximum of 1152 crosspoints and easy upgrade pathway to full 3G signal capability. In addition to supplying the router Magna was able to offer the option of incorporating the old and soon to be replaced Network Operations NV8256-Plus router into SKY’s existing Presentation and Studio routers. This gave the benefit of expanding the routers and maintaining a common control system without the requirement for additional hardware purchase.”

In all, SKY purchased an NV8576-Plus router populated to 876x876 HD-SDI, an NV5128 populated with 64 RS422, data ports and 32x32 timecode, an NV8144 populated with 72x72 DH-SDI for lab use, two NV967 dual redundant NV9000 control systems and multiple NV9462 LCD control panels to augment their existing control panels.

The project, one of the largest of its kind, also saw the Magna team assist in the presale, configuration and technical design of the router system.

Visit www.magnasys.tv

Tourist Promotion Sets Streaming Record AT THE HEART of a recent “Remote Control Tourist campaign” were two

AUSTRALIA-BASED DIGITAL SOLUTIONS PROVIDER Hostworks has selected Digital Rapids encoders for the new Hostworks Media Foundry live streaming service.

Hostworks has a long history of delivering live and on-demand content for major entertainment and enterprise brands. With the continued growth of online viewing, Hostworks continues to expand the services it offers for online media delivery. For the Hostworks Media Foundry service, the Digital Rapids encoders transform live HD or SD inputs into both live streams and file-based outputs in multiple formats and bit rates to reach audiences on devices and screen sizes ranging from smartphones to ‘smart’ TVs. Installed at a key satellite downlink facility owned by Hostworks’ parent company Broadcast Australia, the encoders are used for live 24/7 streaming and ad-hoc live events. Outputs are delivered via the Hostworks Content Distribution Service (HCDS), enabling adaptive bit rate live and on-demand distribution from high-capacity infrastructure located in multiple geographical locations.

“A key factor in our selection of Digital Rapids was the very responsive support provided by their team, who were able to provide solutions to a number of specific requirements,” said Mark Heppleston, Media and Broadcast Manager at Hostworks. “The Digital Rapids encoding platform has enabled us to develop and launch new high-quality services for live adaptive bit rate HD video streaming, while Digital Rapids’ support and expertise have helped to save us time and bring our services to market with efficiency, precision and a fast turnaround.”

Visit www.digitalrapids.com

innovative pieces of equipment from live streaming specialists Teradek.

The promotion, carried out on behalf of Tourism Victoria, presented a world first in terms of the amount of live streaming that was performed over a five day period. Central to the promotion and responsible for the live streaming aspect was Grant Harper and his company Livestream Australia.

Harper explained, “The campaign involved four Remote Control Tourists (RCTs) roving around Melbourne for eight hours a day over five consecutive days. The RCT were commanded by Twitter tweets and Facebook posts from all around the world and asked to explore every facet of Melburnian life.

To accompany them they had an HD camera, two professional mics and a Teradek Bond cellular bonding solution.”

The point of view cameras and mics were mounted on the RCT’s helmets enabling them to interact fully with all the people they met and to become the eyes and ears of the people sending in requests via the web.

Harper continued, “Teradek supply high quality live streaming equipment and it was this equipment that was critical to the success of the RCT project. The RCT HD cameras were connected to the Teradek Bond alongside four Telstra 4G dongles and two Optus 4G dongles. As the footage was shot the Teradek Bond encoded and transmitted a 720p video signal at 2500kb/s via the two cellular mobile networks back to RCT HQ in South Melbourne in just two seconds. As soon as the content was received it was ingested using a Teradek Sputnik server which then in turn re-encoded it at multi-bitrates in HD and immediately streamed it onto the Internet using the New Livestream platform.

The entire process from acquisition to broadcast took just 17 seconds.”

Teradek is represented in Australia by distributor Blonde Robot with Livestream Australia acting as a reseller and consultant.

Visit www.teradek.com

TRANSMISSION

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TRANSMISSION

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TRANSMISSION

TV Fights Back – HbbTv

By Trevor Bird, Group Manager Group Technical Services, Seven Network

The Seven Network has seen the emergence of Hybrid TV as a huge opportunity to combine the benefits of Broadcast with the breadth of content and personalisation of the Internet. There already exist many proprietary examples of the Hybrid approach including TiVo, Telstra T-box and Fetch TV. SOME CHALLENGES TODAY arise from the fragmentation of devices and products in the “Connected” or “Smart TV” content delivery market. Manufacturer implementations are all technically different, so applications usually have to be developed individually for each platform, which has the consequence and costs associated with rapid obsolescence. Also the viewer experience using current “Smart TVs” is not optimal. Broadcast and Internet content exist as completely distinct separate services with little integration.

There is increasing evidence that the Hybrid approach of tightly integrating DVB receivers with Internet delivered content and services is a compelling proposition. This enables consumers to have a seamless experience between Broadcast, video-on-demand and live internet streamed TV. Additionally some receivers can also provide personal video recorder functionality.

Implementing Hybrid services in Free-to-Air receivers requires a commonly accepted standard so that any manufacturer can implement the functionality and the FTA industry can ensure interoperability with all service providers.

The Free-to-Air environment is a simple one. It is a standards-based, horizontal market with a history of technical reliability. The basic business model is well known and based on high quality mass marketable content delivered to a large audience.

The online paradigm is different as many business models can be exploited and the outcomes are not as easily predicted as in the traditional television environment. As Free-toAir meets this new world of innovation we must extend the notion of simplicity to the 10 foot experience, to the lounge room and provide the same level of technical reliability and consistency enjoyed throughout our history of FTA broadcasting.

WHAT IS HBBTV

TRANSMISSION

The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard is ideal for FTA broadcasters as it provides an open and business neutral technology platform that seamlessly combines TV services delivered via broadcast with services delivered via broadband. The HbbTV specification is based on existing standards and Web technologies including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB and W3C. HbbTV provides the ability to load a web browser on the TV over Broadcast content and this enables a range of video and supplementary services. The intention is not for a PC experience on the TV, but rather a lean back TV remote

control experience.

This opens up the expanse of media landscape available to our viewers. We can enter a world of virtually unlimited possibilities of delivering through a medium that is designed for individual content consumption but linked to a medium designed for mass consumption.

HbbTV 1.1 was published as an ETSI standard in 2010 and by 2011 this European standard was emerging as a well-defined method of merging broadcasting and online delivery methods and it seemed clear this standard was worth investigating. We sought a more streamlined way for our TV viewers to enjoy extensions of our current FTA offering and we had high hopes for the continued development of this already quite substantial standard.

In 2012, further research work by Australian broadcasters was undertaken and after visiting IRT in Germany we realised this method of integrating broadcast and broadband content was about to have a profound impact on our future business models. We saw how the Europeans had embraced and standardised to the best practical extent the traditional and the new delivery methods.

HbbTV 1.5 was subsequently published as v1.2.1 of the ETSI standard and this is the version adopted in Australia. The key additions in version 1.5 includes DRM compatibility, DASH adaptive streaming and access to the DVB EIT schedule information from applications.

BENEFITS Broadcasting is about to undertake a leap to allow individual choice from a position of mass market dominance to further fulfil the needs of our clients for more targeted opportunities. No longer must the viewer exit the Free-to-Air world and enter a world of proprietary manufactures applications or leave the relaxation of the lounge room and seek content elsewhere. We are on the cusp of a change in thinking, a change in the business paradigm of the FTA broadcaster.

We are entering a period that is very important for Australian TV where existing technical restrictions are to be lifted allowing contextual extensions to existing content or new product offerings altogether. It is fitting for these technology innovations to be available so soon after analogue switch off and we are excited by the May launch.

Since those earlier investigative days we have formed and developed new offerings that provide the introduction of a lean back experience to a predominately lean forward world.

In Australia we are preparing for the introduction

of TVs that could take information from the broadcast transport stream and allow the viewer to access content offerings in accordance with the URL contained with the stream. This allows the broadband offering to be contextual with the broadcast service or more generic.

No longer is the content offering to the individual viewer constrained by the broadcast spectrum occupied by the broadcaster. This broadcast spectrum is ideal for delivering content to a mass audience but is too precious for individual tastes. While the individualisation may be basic at launch, with each successive release, Seven’s ambition is to uniquely meet the needs of the viewer by gaining much greater insight into their preferences.

The HbbTV service is active on TVs when those TVs are connected to the broadband service.

When a channel is chosen a reminder tells the viewer that by simply pushing the red button they can enter a world of catch up, VOD, OTT channels, social interaction and targeted advertising.

The HbbTV consortium has brought together the experts from Broadcasting, manufacturers and the online world to ensure the product offering satisfies the norms of each sector so as not to disenfranchise any of the industries feeding this ecosystem. Through collaboration they have managed to provide a standards based approach to satisfying the needs of many.

SEVEN APPROACH Sevens approach last year was to develop a Proof of Concept (POC), a physical prototype allowing our sales, legal, business and creative experts to view and comment on the product offering. This seems simple but in fact can be quite challenging as we distil the feedback from all parties to ensure we have considered all of the possibilities available to us.

It is as challenging to reject ideas as to embrace them as we are now working in a world of endless possibility. It is easy to get carried away with exciting possibilities and let ambition take over from implementation capability.

Understanding that robust delivery of a product and planning the extensions in functionality with subsequent product releases is an important part of managing this ongoing project.

The user experience ambition is to satisfy the individual needs of consumers through a very simple interface, the TV remote control. The level of interactivity cannot be compared to that of mouse, keyboard and computer screen or even the tablet and touchscreen. The interactivity of

Continued Page 44 

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TRANSMISSION  Continued from Page 42 our offering must be more “lean back” than “lean forward” and the challenge of simplicity has to be met or we will lose the essence of Free-to-Air TV. Seven’s POC demonstrated various functions that provided a sneak peak as to where we were heading. It included analytics, VOD, linking to “over-the-top” (OTT) services and social media interaction. We are also keen on what we call “blue button rewind”, a function that allows a viewer to join a linear programmed channel late and simply press the blue button for instant rewind to the start of that show.

The program is delivered over the broadband service so the viewer does not have to wait for the catch up availability of the program and can instantaneously see the content without the need for a local PVR in their home. This function may not be available in the first release, but is an important function for later consideration.

An exciting prospect for Seven is the ability to extend our linear product offering by using broadband delivery without an obvious change in delivery technology to the viewer. Because we carry the URL in our transport stream, we can assign a logical channel number to the OTT service so a viewer can watch FTA TV and then, by selecting another channel number automatically see a linear service delivered over the broadband network. This allows Seven to provide enhancements to existing services such as streaming extra tennis courts for the 2015 Australian Open Tennis or the provision of a more permanent genre based OTT service if a need arose.

Partnering with content providers allows us to offer a more diverse product through the new service.

Healthy Me TV (http://www.healthymetv.com.au/) is an example of Seven providing our viewers with information to keep them healthy through the use of broadband delivery of health tips and advice on a number of issues. This partnering in the delivery of content is a new realm and may open up new business opportunities.

Mid-May is the launch date for the new service and at the time of writing we are finalizing the product scope so some issues are yet to be completely resolved.

FREEVIEW Although Seven has been an evangelist for the use of HbbTV in Australia it can never be successful unless the entire industry recognises the potential and supports the introduction of services. Freeview have been the industry body responsible for establishing industry cooperation and guiding the process of product definition for the introduction of the industry EPG.

TRANSMISSION

We know that the incentive is there to meet new business models and new ways to entertain our most precious resource, the viewers, but how do we make this a reality and implement in the timeframe that is reasonable?

Well the Freeview management team quickly assembled working committees to handle the various aspects of harmonisation required to give the viewer a unified experience across the various brands of TVs sold in Australia.

A key Freeview initiative is for an industry “Backwards EPG” whereby linear schedule and

catch up Internet TV are in the same Electronic Program Guide. This allows the viewer to select live or catch up assets linking to those assets within the broadcasters’ portal.

Freeview have four committees handling the various aspects of the product including Technical, Product, Standardization and a Steering group.

Through these committees, with representation from all broadcasters, an industry EPG has been developed with a look and feel that satisfies the needs of the industry. The industry EPG will seamlessly integrate with the broadcasters’ offerings allowing the viewer to transfer from EPG to broadcaster portal and back with a minimum of fuss.

HbbTV is a fairly clumsy and technical description of the service and it is hoped we will refine the marketing speak to something like Red Button TV. We need a simple message and a message that conveys how hard we are working on keeping the entire system unthreatening and easy to operate.

Manufacturer support for the service has been pleasing, particularly when they realise we are very serious about launching in May and we are working on developing product for that launch.

It provides incentive for viewers to upgrade

the standard evolves, we do want to provide functionality that can allow us the greatest flexibility from a business model perspective.

Current versions 1 and 1.5 of HbbTV use CEHTML (Consumer Electronics) browser, which is designed for display of HTML on TV screens with Javascript and CSS TV profile 1.0. This is a mature web technology that most web developers would be familiar with although there are subtlety’s to be aware of. The interfaces to DVB services with API’s to any DVB controls or information are provided by the Open IPTV forum.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is something that causes some implementation headaches but it is a very important part of our ongoing strategy if we want to be successful in the distribution of content obtained from our studio output deals.

The HbbTV standard version 1.5 includes the necessary hooks to integrate DRM and Freeview has recommended manufacturers implement either Microsoft Playready or Marlin. We are working through the implementation of these systems with both our distribution partners and manufacturers.

Seven is now extending upon the Proof of

AJ Am AR Bl

Manufacturer support for the service has been pleasing, particularly when they realise we are very serious about launching in May and we are working on developing product for that launch.

their TVs which is welcomed by retailers. Of course, the onus is on us to provide a compelling experience making that investment worthwhile.

TECHNICAL Technically the service is simply a browser in a TV and the target destination of that browser is dictated by the URL present in a part of the Service Information (SI) called the “Application Information Table” (AIT). The AIT is inserted into the transport stream at our broadcast centre and can be dynamic to be contextual with the broadcast service or static if contextual offerings are not required. Triggers in the broadcast can be carried as “stream events” that allow time accurate synchronisation with web application content.

We are yet to fully test the commercial models of contextual applications but it does open the way for much greater engagement with our sponsors if the need arises. It also allows for much greater social interaction on programs that may benefit from viewer voting or commitment to purchase calls to action.

Some aspects of the service do present technical challenges. The service is standards based and while we do not want to delay launch until

Concept and developing the first release production version for May. We will provide periodic releases with functional improvements and we are committed to a continuous regime of product releases so we can build upon our learnings and provide the best viewer experience we can.

Specifications and standards continue to evolve, with HbbTV V2.0 due in late 2014. It is expected Version 2.0 will include a TV profile of HTML5 and move away from the legacy CE-HTML browser.

Backwards compatibility will be important for existing receivers, but obviously connected TVs continue to improve at a rapid rate. The benefit of a standards based approach is ensuring stability of support for services ongoing.

As we prepare for the launch of this product we contemplate the costs to provide the service.

We realise that penetration and hence the ability to monetise the service will be limited until enough TVs or set top boxes with HbbTV capability can give us commercial scale. We know Australians love technology, but it will take some time to reach a meaningful viewer cohort.

We are prepared for this and see this early work as laying the foundations for what is a very exciting new opportunity.

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TIME shifter Whoozat! Behind the Scenes of World Series Cricket Part 3: Taking WSC on the Road

Concluding Content+Technology’s look back at the era defining World Series Cricket (WSC) is a focus on Outside Broadcasts, which were a backwater in the TV world of the early sixties. Much like in the first instalment of our retrospective, in order to understand how the cricket coverage came about we first have to look at golf.

THE ORIGINAL CH9 OB VAN, the Fernseh

you,” said Berkery

Übertrag covered the Pelaco golf tournament to claim Australia’s first live sporting telecast, a week before the ABC’s coverage of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

“The Grip (cargo) truck and the FX truck (special effects equipment) were Ford F350 vehicles, legal to 4.5 tonnes gvm. The FX van weighed in at around 5 tonne and the Grip anywhere between 5 and 6 tonne.

“The Übertrag had a colourful history for a black and white facility and remains an icon in the memories of all who served in her,” explains Warren Berkery, Technical Manager for WSC. “But after 18 years service it was finally deemed to be totally depreciated and dispatched to the resting paddock of old OB vans. The Übertrag was replaced in 1975 with the Pye van.

“The Pye van was delivered in mid-1975 and was specified to carry four LDK5 colour cameras, a thirteen input vision mixer and a 20-channel audio mixer, more technical capacity than the wildest OB production dreams circa 1974.”

Prior to 1977 cricket TV in interstate venues was covered by the local ABC OB unit tech facilities. The 1997 WSC schedule called for expanded tech facilities but only onset existed.

So interstate trucking became part of the OB discipline.

“The Pye van was constructed on a 130 horsepower Bedford school bus. The FX and grip trucks were constructed on Ford F350 petrol powered suburban ambulance chassis, but we thought they were ideal before we hit the road.

TIME SHIFTER

“We were on the road alongside 400 horsepower Kenworth and Western Star semi-trailers, and the Hume Highway was a dog-track in 1977, I can tell

“This was to be a savage learning curve in the real world of Interstate trucking. Fortune prevailed and we procured the services of a trio of interstate truckies, Ross Barlow, Bob Wimble and Teddy Miers, who along with in-house drivers Ron White and Eric Larson, lugged the gear around for WSC. “In year one they met their deadlines, evaded RTA mermaids (that was a truckie’s term for RTA inspectors) – and they got the in-house fleet to the church on time.

“Barlow, Wimble and Miers were as much a part of World Series Cricket TV scheduling as were Berkery, Crillie and Mayley. Interstate overnight trucking is now normal OB practice, and modern major OB units are built to maximum legal dimensions and weights. That was a far cry from the seventies.”

Even more challenging than the other grounds was Gloucester Park in Perth.

“As far as possible we relied on local OB units and equipment and air freighted excess equipment, including a HS 100C video disc slomo out of NZ, into Perth,” said Berkery.

“In Perth, the wicket was grown in the sandpit at

the inner field of the harness racing track, and camera stands and commentary boxes were constructed on scaffolding erected in the mid field. The system was tested Friday morning, then we de-rigged and dismantled it on Friday night for the running of the trotting gold cup, which was scheduled up against the cricket, and then we re-constructed it and re-installed it at midnight for 9 o’clock ready on Saturday morning. The last coax was connected and tested round about 8:55.”

The one-day finals were originally scheduled for play in Adelaide, but they were rescheduled for VFL Park, Melbourne, under the lights.

25,000 fans flocked to the match under lights, and the decision was made that wherever possible WSC year two would be day/night matches.

“Kerry Packer undertook to underwrite world standard lighting at the Sydney Showground.

Channel Nine engineer Bruce Robertson toured the USA studying baseball lighting,” said Berkery.

Dreading the thought of the RAS Showground could become the premier sporting ground in NSW, The NSW government intervened.

Packer, who even then had a fair amount of influence (to put things mildly), managed to persuade the NSW Labor Government under Premier Neville Wran to amend the Sydney Sports Ground and Cricket Ground Act. A new Trust was established with 12 members appointed by the Government, including Pat Hills as Chairman, and two elected by SCG members.

Packer also got the NSW Government kick in $1.2 million dollars to build the six light towers that now adorn the SCG. “Bruce Robertson continued on in his role in what appeared an impossible task, overseeing the installation of six towers and 2000 kilowatts of high intensity floodlights around the perimeter of the SCG. The impossible became the possible, and on November 24th more than 50,000 fans packed the SCG for Australia versus the West Indies,” concludes Warren Berkery.

Saying goodbye to the Übertrag van

The Pye van used for WSC

Since that night, Cricket under lights has become a world-wide norm, and cricket in all its forms has become amongst the world’s most watched TV sport.

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