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technology VOLUME 7 ISSUE 2 > APRIL 2010
MAGAZINE
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Media Production Management Delivery
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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)2-9332 2221 Fax: +61-(0)2-9332 2280 Mob: +61-(0)414-671-811 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com Sales & Marketing Manager: Daniela Huelsen Tel: +61-(0)410 880 557 Email: dh@broadcastpapers.com
Design & Layout: Crunch Design Tel: +61-2-9310 5393 Email: greenroom@ crunchdesign.com.au Printing: Pegasus Print Group 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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Also see C+T in PDF at www.content-technology.com VOLUME 3 > ISSUE 5
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04 NEWS Singapore Reforms TV Sector, Freeview NZ Adopts MHEG-IC, South Oz DTV Dates, Armsworth Moves to Playroom, Madison Adds Sanders and Harrington, De Rosa Joins Video-8, Magna Snares Alderton, Bridge Break-Up Gives Birth to OnAir and Broadcast ONE, Harris Appoints Gencom.
44 POST-PRODUCTION Oriental Post Tackles Workflow with DVS, Oktobor Boosts Colour with Baselight, Post at NAB, Production Asset Management by Avid.
10 TAKING STOCK Klotz Digital Sold, SGI Buys Copan Systems, Avid Acquires Blue Order, News Corp buys into Rotana Group, Digistor Takes 100% of DBD, H-Digital Becomes Division of Techtel, and The Secret to Success!
52
DIGITAL SIGNAGE D-Signage with Sony at the Sydney Opera House.
54
BROADBAND IPTV & ONLINE TiVo and Caspa with Hybrid TV CEO Robbie Minicola.
16 IN CONVERSATION UK Channel FIVE CEO Dawn Airey. 18 NAB CONFERENCE PREVIEW
58 RADIO Digital Radio, Keeping an Ear Out at NAB.
<< 68 For more information: australia: Free Call 1800 648 628 new Zealand: Free Call 0800 100 755 www.sennheiser.com.au/ct Follow us: twitter.com/Sennheiserau_nZ
48 STORAGE & ASSET MANAGEMENT 1-Perf? Oldest Film Made in Australia, NAB DAM Solutions.
60 AUDIO Dolby Unveils Surround 7.1, Vale Simon Leadley, NAB Soundbites.
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22 3D – THE THIRD DIMENSION 3D Soccer in Germany, The Problems in Post, 3D at NAB.
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CONTENTS
28 ACQUISITION JVC Teaches NZ a Lesson, Lateral Linking Powers Up with Blueshape, FujiFilm in Hurt Locker, IMovix Teams with Vision Research on Slo-Mo, Videocraft Puts Magic into Children’s TV, NAB Camera Preview.
36 NEWS OPERATIONS Robots Behind News at Nine, Zspace Makes News on Seven, NYTimes.com and the News Evolution. 40 SPORTSCASTING GlobeCast Australia Takes Vancouver too the World, ‘Gold and Cold’ – Winter Olympics Coverage.
68 TRANSMISSION, SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION, T&M MediaHub – the Playout Centre Tour, Seven Selects Signiant, DTV Parental Lock, Community TV on Digital. 76 CONFERENCES, EXHIBITIONS, ROADSHOWS 77 C+T SHOP, C+TV’S GUIDE TO ONLINE INTERVIEWS, plus CLASSIFIEDS 78 OFF-AIR What Happens on Tour … gets Printed Right Here. 80 BABBLING BROOKS Gerry Brooks – The Saviour of British Rock!
Editor’s Welcome
A Free View of Freeview
+video
By Phil Sandberg Freeview
Australia has been putting together the final pieces in the puzzle of digital terrestrial switchover with the announcement of a comprehensive online TV Guide on the Freeview website to make it quick and easy for viewers to look up details of programs featured on free-to-view TV. The Freeview online TV Guide was designed and built by McCann Sydney, with the data solution supplied by HWW, an Australian provider of TV Metadata. It is this metadata which will power an actual on-screen Electronic Program Guide (EPG) which Freeview says is currently in the final stages of development. Once this is in place, it will certainly be easier for viewers of terrestrial digital TV to navigate between the various old and new channels on offer, but there will still be much to do with the MHEG-IC interactive standard to enable capabilities in the realm of Foxtel’s iQ PVR. But, will this be compelling enough to counter the might of what has become an international incubator lab in the form of News Corporation? With HD channels now running on most of its operations, the organisation is now taking on 3D broadcasting with the launch of a UK pub service via Sky, followed by direct to home later this year and trials of 3D soccer coverage by Sky Germany. Given most of its broadcasting arms, including Foxtel, operate similar infrastructure, can it only be a matter of time before Foxtel follows suit. We shall see.
Le Central Bar, Paris Casino, Saturday April 10 from 7.30pm until Late. Brought to you under a generous users-pays sponsorship scheme provided by C+T*, all Aussies, Kiwis and Honourary Types are invited to share a drink and a chinwag. * i.e., You Buy Your Own Drinks. The C+T Team will see you there (except for myself and my wife and I are having a baby). Email Daniela Huelsen via dh@broadcastpapers.com to signal your intention of attendance. Enjoy the Show and Thanks for Reading Phil Sandberg Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com T: +61-(0)2-9332 2221
NAB AUSSIE KIWI NIGHT Long have the two great nations of New Zealand and Australia shared a rich common heritage which includes cricket, rugby, being dumped on the wrong Turkish beach by incompetent Brits, distinctive flag designs and a disdain for French nuclear activities in the South Pacific. It is with the latter in mind that we announce the Annual NAB Aussie Kiwi Night will be held at:
Visit www.content-technology.info 2 Editor’s Welcome
Catch up on the behind the scenes action at IBC 2009 and much more with C+T’s Online Video at our brand new C+T web site. Also on the Site: • Whitepapers • News and product information from 27 C+T blog sites • Events to calendar
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2010 Deadlines
• Recruiting/Staff Management • Recruiting/Staff Management
March/April2010 May/June 2010VolVol7 7Issue Issue3 2 Editorial/Advertising Bookings – April February 2nd,24th, 2010 2010 Ad Material – April March 27th 1st May/June 2010 July/August 2010 VolVol7 Issue 7 Issue3 4 Editorial/Advertising Bookings – April June2nd, 21st2010 Ad Material – April June27th 25th July/August 2010 Vol2010 September/October 7 Issue Vol 47 Issue 5 Editorial/Advertising Bookings – August June 21st 20th Ad Material – August June 25th 27th September/October 2010 November/December 2010VolVol7 7Issue Issue5 6 Editorial/Advertising Bookings – August October20th 15th Ad Material – August October27th 22th November/December 2010 Vol 7 Issue 6 For more information,Bookings – October 15th Editorial/Advertising visit www.content-technology.com or call Ad Material – October 22th +61-(0)2-9332 2221 or +61-(0)414 671 811. For more Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com information, visit www.content-technology.com Sales enquiries: dh@broadcastpapers.com or call +61-(0)2-9332 or call +61-(0)410 2221 880 or557 +61-(0)414 671 811. Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com Sales enquiries: dh@broadcastpapers.com or call +61-(0)410 880 557
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Singapore Reforms TV Sector
The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has revised the country’s Media Market Conduct Code (MMCC 2010) to include the incorporation of an additional ‘Public Interest Obligation’ to enable mandatory cross carriage of exclusive content in the pay TV market. The new Public Interest Obligation requires qualified pay TV licensees to cross carry each other’s content that is acquired or renewed on an exclusive basis on or after 12 March 2010. According to an MDA statement, “Almost all content in the pay TV market in Singapore is acquired on an exclusive basis. This widespread use of exclusive contracts has led to a high degree of content fragmentation and is rare in international markets. Furthermore, pay TV retailers typically pay a premium for exclusive rights to content, resulting in higher content acquisition costs. “By requiring cross carriage of exclusive content, content will be made available across more pay TV retailers. Consumers will no longer require multiple set top boxes or have to switch pay TV retailers just to enjoy exclusive content. This will facilitate greater consumer access to pay TV content, and shift the focus of competition in the market from an exclusivity-centric strategy to other aspects such as service differentiation and competitive packaging and pricing.” The MDA says it will be consulting key industry players on the implementation of the cross carriage measure, but expects operators to conform to the cross carriage rules by 1 September 2010. As the measure is prospective, it will not apply to existing exclusive content. The MDA has also expanded the scope of the MMCC 2010 to facilitate the coverage by more media players of Events of National Significance previously available only to free-to-air TV and radio licensees. The MMCC 2010 also requires the dominant media players to provide all media licensees, which now include smaller media players, with the ability to purchase advertising capacity to promote their media services on reasonable and nondiscriminatory prices, terms and conditions. New regulations have also been introduced to ensure that media players do not unfairly engage in anti-competitive practices. Visit www.mda.gov.sg
Freeview NZ Adopts MHEG-IC
Freeview NZ has adopted the MHEG Interaction Channel (MHEG-IC) from the D-book 6.1 as part of an upgrade to its MHEG Country Profile that will allow hybrid services to be provided. Freeview NZ – which has been operating as a platform since early 2007 and has used MHEG since launch on both its satellite (DVB- S1, MPEG-2, SD) and digital terrestrial services (DVB-T, MPEG-4, SD/HD) – says that the MHEG-IC is the key reason it is upgrading its profile. Tim Diprose, Technology Manager with Freeview NZ, says, “We believe hybrid IP and broadcast TV technology is the future and is also relevant right now. To have high bandwidth HD mainstream shows broadcast via DTT and niche, catch-up and other on-demand content delivered over IP really makes sense. The New Zealand government has announced plans to roll out ultra-fast broadband to 75 per cent of New Zealanders and this will further support these hybrid platforms and applications.”
4 News
TVNZ to Launch Channel on Sky NZ
TVNZ will launch a new TV channel on pay operator Sky’s platform in June. The new channel, named TVNZ Heartland, will be New Zealand’s first channel with 100% local content and will be available to all subscribers to the SKY basic package. Chief Executive Rick Ellis said “We’re delighted to be entering the pay TV market in partnership with SKY TV, as a complement to our free-to-air business. SKYs enthusiasm for the idea has given us an opportunity to build a commerciallyviable channel that will bring first class New Zealand content to a big audience. Without the SKY pay platform, this project would not have gone ahead.” Visit www.tvnz.co.uk and www.sky.co.nz
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SBS, Sky NZ Beef Up HD with Quantel
Sky Network Television Limited, the New Zealand satellite broadcaster, has purchased an extensive Quantel Enterprise sQ server-based production system as part of a major investment which will make it the pre-eminent source of HD content in New Zealand. Live and close-to-air production of sports, sports highlights and news, as well as highly post-produced promotions for sports events, movies and general entertainment output will all be handled by the Quantel system. The Enterprise sQ system replaces an amalgam of legacy systems with a single, integrated production centre where every journalist, producer and editor has instant access to all stored material for viewing, shot selection and editing. The system is capable of handling HD and SD media alongside each other, and has a total of 1200 hours of HD workspace. This supports 48 sQ View applications, 18 sQ Cut fast-turnaround desktop editors, 17 sQ Edits and two sQ Edit Plus workstations for heavy-duty compositing work. The installation follows an order from SBS, Australia’s national multicultural and multilingual broadcaster, for the supply of three Enterprise sQ server based HD production systems for its operations in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. The Enterprise sQ systems will handle SBS’s considerable in-house news, sports and current affairs programme production needs. Scheduled to go on air by mid 2010, the Quantel systems will help SBS complete a total refresh of all its video production engineering facilities, helping the broadcaster transition to a multiplatform, multi-resolution future. Sydney is home to the largest installation, with 800 hours of shared HD/SD storage and 33 of Quantel sQ View and sQ Cut journalist desktop editors as well as four sQ Edit and four sQ Edit Plus craft editors. Also connected will be four Apple Final Cut Pros, which share exactly the same workflow as the Quantel editors. Quantel Mission provides a full raft of media asset management facilities to every workstation. Melbourne and Canberra will each be home to a smaller Enterprise sQ server system, each with sQ Cut and sQ Edit workstations and a single Final Cut Pro. Visit www.quantel.com
Regional South Oz to Switch to DTV
The Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has confirmed that regional South Australia and Broken Hill in north-western NSW would switch to digital-only television on 15 December 2010. “The switchover to digital TV in the Spencer Gulf, Riverland, Mt Gambier and southeast South Australia, and Broken Hill regions is part of the progressive switchover to digital TV around Australia by 2013,” Senator Conroy said. Senator Conroy has made determinations for switchover in regional South Australia and Broken Hill on 15 December 2010, Sunraysia on 30 June 2010, in Brisbane and Perth on 30 June 2013 and in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney on 31 December 2013. Visit www.digitalready.gov.au
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Madison Adds Sanders, Harrington
Madison Technologies has appointed two new Senior Account Managers for its Broadcast and AV division. Michael Sanders joins the Madison team in the Melbourne office, and Simon Harrington in Brisbane, to complement Madison’s existing capability and capacity in servicing a wide range of broadcasting and audio visual integrator clients. “I’m very pleased to welcome Michael and Simon into Madison and our Melbourne and Brisbane offices,” said Ken Kyle, Broadcast and AV National Manager at Madison Technologies. “Their expertise and experience in broadcast and AV products adds significantly to our ability to better serve and advise our clients both here, in Brisbane, and nationally. We are very excited about the new additions to our team, particularly at a time when many of our clients are seeking a wider range of quality products and solutions to be delivered on time and within budget.” Visit www.madisontech.com.au
Armsworth Moves to Playroom
The Playroom has announced a new management structure and appointment of Craig Armsworth to the position of Head of Technology in a move to support its expansion into digital platforms, including IPTV. The appointment comes after a period of strong growth for The Playroom, with the company securing a number of wins with major media and entertainment organisations, including The Movie Network Channels and Cricket Australia. Armsworth brings to The Playroom over 20 years experience working for companies such as Turner Asia, Disney, Sony Pictures as well as local broadcasters and media companies in Australia most recently Magna Systems and Engineering. As Head of Technology, Armsworth will play a pivotal role in shaping The Playroom’s technological direction and strategy. Working closely with Tom Kennedy, Head of Digital, and Jo Bickerton, Head of Operations, Armsworth will be responsible for defining new services, delivery models and strategies to support the company’s push into digital platforms. Visit www.theplayroom.tv
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De Rosa, Hanson Join Video-8
Further to their continuing expansion in the Australian market, digital media migration specialists Video-8 Media today announced that they have recruited Rick De Rosa as their new Sales Manager and Abbe Hanson as receptionist. De Rosa was previously with Next Media and is responsible for new business in the areas of DVD, CD and Blu Ray authoring, duplication and replication, tape transfers, pro media sales and digital asset management digitisation and archiving projects. De Rosa said, “Video-8 is an excellent company with lots of opportunities. I see particular growth in the areas of tape to file transfers and digital asset management solutions. I am very pleased to be working with such a great team.” Abbe Hanson joins Video-8 as full time receptionist also dealing with customer service enquiries and completed projects ready for delivery. Visit www.video-8.com
Fairlight Boosts Management Team
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Fairlight has announced the appointment of Rachel Verity as its new Financial Controller. Verity is a highly experienced finance professional with a double degree in Accounting/Finance and Economics and a postgraduate Diploma in Corporate Governance. Prior to joining Fairlight, she spent 17 years with GEA Colby, a large international technology business with a strong focus on product development. Visit www.fairlightau.com
Alderton Joins Magna
Dave Alderton has joined Magna Systems and Engineering as its new Technical Sales Engineer. Alderton joins Magna with a wealth of broadcast industry experience, most recently with Video-8 Media, where he was Head of Technology and instrumental in winning Digital Asset Management projects with organisations including the NRL, Beyond, TVN and Tourism Australia. Whilst at Video-8 Alderton also designed and installed their Media Factory digital asset management solution which comprises a Front Porch Digital DIVArchive system, Anystream Agility ingestion and transcoding tools and Magna Systems’ own Media Pilot web interface. Alderton’s role as Technical Sales Engineer includes supporting Magna’s sales, supply, installation and integration of products for the broadcasting and media industries across the Asia Pacific Region. His key responsibilities include bid and tender support, customer/partner presentations, network design and configuration proposals and helping to evaluate new products and the suitability of new technology solutions for clients. Visit www.magnasys.tv
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News 7
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OnAir Solutions Launches
OnAir Solutions has launched as a distributor and supplier of high quality equipment to the Australian broadcast market. Industry leading manufactures APT, Audemat and Ateme have already signed their local distribution rights to OnAir Solutions. Run by Chris Dredge, formerly the National Sales Manager at The Bridge Networks, OnAir Solutions uses sophisticated “case tracking” software to ensure complete customer satisfaction. “OnAir Solutions has set out to be a distributor that serves both the best interests of the customer and the manufacturer. With shared infrastructure allowing us to trade from day one, we are delighted that APT, Audemat and Ateme all saw value in OnAir Solutions. We already have an extensive industry knowledge and we are pleased to be able to start a business that is outcomes driven.” OnAir Solutions is a division of well established Broadcast and IT service provider Dingbat Technology and utilises Dingbat’s existing infrastructure. Dingbat’s extensive experience in System Design, Integration, Installation, Commissioning and Cut-over provides a natural extension to the sale of the products. Visit www.onair.com.au
AVC Joins Axia’s Axis
Axia Audio will expand its presence in the Pacific Rim and Europe through an expanded distribution agreement with AVC Group (www.avc-group.eu). AVC, a major systems integrator serving much of Eastern Europe, will represent Axia Audio products in that territory as well as through its offices in Australia and New Zealand. “AVC Group has been extremely successful with their promotion of Axia in Australia and New Zealand,” says Kirk Harnack, Director of International Sales for Telos, Omnia and Axia. “We look forward to the increased opportunities our expanded partnership will bring.” “AVC will shortly be breaking the ‘100 studios’ mark for Axia installations in Australasia,” says Simon Jackson, Sales Manager for AVC’s Auckland office. “Axia changes so many paradigms that we sometimes jokingly refer to our sales engineers as ‘Livewire Evangelists’; they don’t so much sell to customers as convert them. That’s the kind of passion our guys have for this product, and AVC is glad to be helping Axia convert the world.” Visit www.AxiaAudio.com and www.avc-group.com.au
Leaps from Bridge to Broadcast ONE
With contracts, distribution agreements and people in tow, Darren Kirsop-Frearson has left his position as Managing Director of The Bridge Networks to form a new company, Broadcast ONE Pty Limited. The move follows the 2009 sale of the Macquarie Bank’s Communications Infrastructure Group, including Broadcast Australia and its subsidiary The Bridge Networks, to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. According to Kirsop-Frearson, “Broadcast ONE will take over the responsibilities of product supply, maintenance and warranty from The Bridge Networks, leaving them to concentrate on system integration and defence force projects. “The good news is that I have been able to secure the major product agencies, including Harris, from TBN and also negotiated on-going supply contracts with both TBN and Broadcast Australia. “There are a couple of other Bridge Networks people coming along including Philipp Nigsch who is an ex-Harris top end engineer.” Kirsop-Frearson says he’d also like to hear from manufacturers who need “good, hungry, representation in the region”. Call +61 423 024 778 or email dkf@BroadcastONE.com.au
8 News
Harris Appoints Gencom as Distributor
Harris Corporation has named Gencom Technology Ltd as an international distributor to extend the company’s reach into Australia and New Zealand. As part of the agreement, Gencom Technology will represent the interests of Harris Broadcast Communications on a non-exclusive basis in the region and provide local service and support for Harris clients across the territory. Gencom Technology will handle the distribution of Harris video processing and distribution products, NEXIO servers, Videotek test and measurement devices, and graphics and multiviewer solutions. “We have worked with Harris for a number of years and wanted to formalize our relationship and strengthen the overall offering for the company in Australia and New Zealand,” said Ray Sanders, CEO, Gencom Technology Ltd. “We are able to complement the existing local Harris offices and provide an extended level of service and support by using staff who are not only well-versed in both broadcast and IT, but also have a real understanding of the local broadcast and entertainment industry and what is required to drive business growth regionally.” “Our global strategy has been to expand our broadcast business by collaborating with local distributors as a means of strengthening our presence in specific regions, developing a closer understanding of local trends and driving stronger relationships with customers,” said Joe Khodeir, vice president of sales, Harris Broadcast Communications. “Our collaboration with such a well-established and respected company like Gencom Technology will enable us to achieve these goals. This relationship will further enhance our local resources so we can better meet the needs of regional customers who are investing in technology and facility upgrades or transitioning to digital and HD infrastructure.” Visit www.harris.com and www.gencom.com
New Head Office for Videocraft
Videocraft has moved its Melbourne head office and warehouse to a new location. According to Managing Director James Taylor, “148 Highbury Road is convenient for our clients and offers far better facilities. We have a bigger warehouse and a state of the art showroom with full cabling and fibre networks throughout. This means we can demonstrate more complex systems in fully working configurations, there is far more functionality in the showroom and we can replicate actual workflows to precise customer requirements.” The new Melbourne HQ also has a streamlined rentals division with faster equipment deliveries and pick-ups. Taylor added, “We completely refurbished and revamped the building. It feels new, crisp, clean and efficient. All our main areas of acquisition, live studio production, post production and distribution are well represented and clients can see now see demos taken to a much higher level of detail. There is a large dedicated area for camera and editing systems with full test facilities and also a new training room. The installation of cabling and the server areas are all of broadcast quality and in full display. We truly believe this is one of the best showrooms and demo areas in Australia and welcome all customers old and new to come and experience it.” Videocraft’s new head office and showroom is located at 148 Highbury Road, Burwood, VIC 3125. The phone number, 03 9885 9666, remains the same. Visit www.videocraft.com.au
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Taking Stock
taking STOCK
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UnitedScreens Media Acquires Klotz Digital Klotz Digital AG has been acquired by UnitedScreens Media AG. In association with the acquisition, the companies have also entered into agreements securing the future financial support of Klotz Digital AG. The agreements are intended to contribute to the long term stabilisation of the company, and to insure its further economic growth. Klotz Digital manufactures a variety of digital audio mixing consoles, the VADIS AudioMedia Platform, and Varizone systems for music distribution, paging and safety announcement installations. UnitedScreens Media AG was founded in September 1999. Its business idea is to combine information, entertainment and advertisement and bring it to the consumer out-of-home due to most modern technology. UnitedScreens Media AG developed the trade mark POPScreens, an audiovisual advertising and information concept at the Point of Purchase (POP). The company’s headquarters are located in Munich’s Media location Unterfoehring. Dr. Andreas Gruettner has been appointed as
the new Klotz Digital AG CEO, with the intention to take the company to a new era and direction. He is taking over from Thomas Klotz, who has resigned from his position with immediate effect. Dr. rer. nat. Andreas Gruettner >> >> New Klotz has been acting CEO Dr Andreas as an independent Gruettner. entrepreneur, investing his own private equity since 1993. He has a highly renown reputation in restructuring companies. Throughout the years, he has acquired and accompanied 18 companies, and has taken a multitude of interim management positions. Currently Mr. Gruettner is a member of the supervisory board of Gebrueder Rhodius GmbH
SGI Buys Copan Systems SGI (NASDAQ: SGI) has purchased substantially all the assets and assumption of a limited number of liabilities of COPAN Systems, Inc., a provider of high performance storage archive solutions for real-time access to long-term persistent data. SGI acquired the assets with the goal of expanding SGI’s storage portfolio to include a highly scalable, energy efficient enterprise Massive Array of Idle Disks (MAID) platform. COPAN storage solutions are designed to allow customers to access Disk-to-Disk and Virtual Tape Library (VTL) capabilities for costeffective management of large data environments. With the acquisition, SGI will be able to offer an expanded portfolio of purpose-built, innovative, massively scalable high performance storage
products. Specifically, with the COPAN platform, SGI will be able to offer new storage technologies that target Persistent Data storage. The platform is designed to decrease the cost and complexity of storing and managing extensive volumes of long-term information in data-rich organisations. COPAN’s assets were purchased in a private foreclosure sale from COPAN’s secured creditors. The purchase price was approximately $2 million in cash. SGI did not assume any debt of COPAN in the acquisition and assumed a limited number of liabilities. COPAN’s offices in Longmont, Colorado, will be retained, and SGI intends to hire select COPAN employees. Visit www.sgi.com/copan
Liberty Divests Itself of J:COM Japan Liberty Global, Inc., has completed a previously announced sale of its subsidiaries that directly or indirectly, including through certain trust arrangements, hold its 37.8% ownership interest in Japan’s Jupiter Telecommunications Co., Ltd. (“J:COM”) to KDDI Corporation, the second largest wireless operator in Japan. Liberty Global received approximately ¥362 billion ($4.0 billion at the applicable rate) in cash and is entitled to receive the anticipated final 2009 dividend of ¥490 per share attributable to its interest in J:COM that is expected to be approved at the March 2010 J:COM shareholders meeting. Including both the proceeds received upon the sale and the anticipated dividend on its attributable 2.6 million shares, Liberty Global expects to realize gross proceeds of approximately ¥363 billion ($4.0 billion at the applicable rate). Visit www.lgi.com.
10 Taking Stock
& Co. KG, a notable German company, with a turnover of €3100 million per year and a staff of 400. Furthermore he benefits from a long standing business consultant experience at McKinsey & Company Inc. The takeover strategy will on one hand support the company’s market position and also initiate innovations to strengthen its competitiveness. Mr Gruettner identifies the company’s main potential for growth in the international PA market. He also plans to boost Klotz Digital AG’s position in the industry, and to increase its economic efficiency. “Even if we will not instigate drastic strategic changes at Klotz Digital AG, we now have a solid new base for the company’s future development due to the UnitedScreens Media AG take over,” says Dr. Gruettner. “Klotz Digital is now equipped with a solid financial platform and a new management, initiating important impulses for business performance improvement.” Visit www.klotzdigital.com
Avid Buys Blue Order In a press release pitched more as product news than an acquisition announcement, Avid says it has expanded its Interplay media management family ”based on the acquisition of Blue Order, which transforms the current production asset management (PAM) solution into a full media asset management (MAM) solution.” With the Interplay product family as its foundation, Avid has unveiled its Integrated Media Enterprise framework, built around three components: An open media catalog – leveraging technology from the acquisition of Blue Order; A rich media repository – providing customers with integrated access to rich media across all parts of the organization; and, a modular, open architecture – integrating ingest, production, archive and distribution operations. Established in 2001, Blue Order was set up in Germany, the UK and the US as wholly owned subsidiaries of German hardware and software company tecmath AG, growing out of tecmath’s Content Management System Division (CMSD) whose research work included image analysis, pattern recognition and compression. Neither the terms of the acquisition nor ongoing arrangements for existing Blue Order customers and distributors have been announced. Visit: www.avid.com and www.blueorder.com
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Broadcast Product Solutions The Secret to Success! Media Staff & Strategy by Karl Jansson* What is it?
OK, firstly let’s just can the idea that success equals $’s, because there are many successful humanitarians who are not financially blessed. Simply, ‘Success’ is the passion, drive and commitment to excel in something that others aspire to. So what is the secret to success? Most will say it’s different for everyone, as everyone is individual. Correct. However, we all have a common set of denominators that allow us to move around safe fully and with control to ensure we survive to see another day. The seven sensors provide that for us, and from a memory base of sensory experiences we’ve learnt not to place our hand on a hot stove or stick a safety pin into a 240 power outlet. These are the personal experiences that keep us from harm’s way and from frequent visits to hospitals, dentists and possibly a psychologist! Now, I’m not using this as a measure of success, it’s a given measure of normality we expect, so nothing different there, although it’s a different set of experiences for everyone. Completing a Degree, or completing a course is a personal goal that is achieved to assist you along your career path, so this is a measure of success. But how do you increase that level of satisfaction to a point that you naturally become successful in everything you do? How do you become that person everyone aspires to, wants to be around, and desperate to learn your secret? That most powerful feeling of attainment is when you mix in unmeasurable amounts of passion into something your heart drives you to do. It’s the most powerful drug on earth and the payout is called ‘Success’. You must have the want, need and drive to truly become successful. The interesting thing about this drug is that it’s contagious!
How do I find a Drug Dealer!
For those of you who have just turned the page to this article and your eyes have locked onto this sub title ”How do I find a Drug Dealer” best start at the top, because from here on it gets real interesting. Yes, it does cover the most powerful drug on earth, and it’s described in the above section. (See you back here shortly) For everyone else... we are driven by unconscious
Communicating knowledge is different than communicating success. If you have to tell someone how successful you are, then you are not. This is not what drives or inspires others. Lead by example.
triggers in life such as this sub-title above that sometimes control our behaviour. Understanding why we stopped and looked is something we can only ask ourselves. Why is it important for me to know this? It has consumed your time, so you should know why. When you see common threads appear across numerous landscapes, you can then manage time consuming distractions. It maybe a colour, theme, sport, whatever it is, you need to accept it or discard it quickly. It works! Try it for a few weeks and keep mental notes.
Your toolbox!
Ok, you will need some tools along the way the path to success so here are a few. The first is from the above item on unconscious triggers. Don’t be an unconscious trigger happy time waster! The second is that most of us are born symmetrically similar. We are born with two ears and one mouth. Use this as your ratio in life, whether it’s dealing with clients, colleagues, family or friends. Listen twice as much as you speak. It doesn’t mean you need to be a different person, just adjust the ratio. Ok, if you are transacting knowledge, it’s important to know that you have the best currency conversion rate. How? Be a good listener and act like a good listener. Knowledge is the currency of success, so make sure you’re in the black not the red.
Success is seen, not heard. You don’t need to tell everyone as you’ve left the pool that you’ve just won a race, let them see the water you leave on the path behind you, and they will know by the stride of your walk. It becomes important to change our physical body language from that of a deflector to that of a receiver, much like a satellite dish. Use appropriate body language to that of your receptors. Body language, a reflection of you. Our faces contain most of the receptive equipment in our bodies, so it is only natural that we should tilt our faces towards the channel of information. A second skill is to use the other bodily receptors besides your ears. You can be a better listener when you look at the other person. Your eyes pick up the non-verbal signals that all people send out when they are speaking. By looking at that person, your eyes will also complete the eye contact that they are trying to make. When you have established eye and face contact with them, your face moves and gives the range of emotions that indicate whether you are following what they are saying. By moving your face to the information, you can better concentrate on what the person is saying. A good listener will stop talking and use receptive language instead. Listen with your face If you pick only one of the above five tools and trial it over a week, you can be guaranteed that as simplistic as it may seem, it will challenge your consciousness to a level where you become more productive and noticed. I’d welcome any success stories. Forward them through!
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Karl Jansson is General Manager of “BroadcastJobz.tv” and “J-Curve Broadcast Recruitment Consultants”. Email: corporate@BroadcastJobz.tv Web: www.broadcastjobz.tv & www.jcurve.tv
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Read the Blog Online at www.broadcastjobz.info 12 Taking Stock
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Taking Stock
News Corp Buys Into Rotana Group Alwaleed Bin Talal, operates one of the largest TV networks and ad sales operations in the region and owns the largest Arabic film library. Additionally, it has built the leading record label in the Middle East, managing many of the most popular artists in the region and controlling the biggest Arabic music catalogue. Rotana also operates an expanding radio network and a wide array of digital services. James Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive, Europe and Asia, News Corporation, said “A stake in Rotana expands our presence in a region with a young and growing population, where GDP growth
is set to outstrip that of more developed economies in the years ahead. Rotana is a leading player in the Middle East and we look forward to working together.” Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal said “We are delighted to have this partnership with News Corporation. As one of the world’s most global media companies, it has an unrivalled record in developing businesses at scale around the world. This investment will strengthen our existing relationship, building Rotana’s presence across the region and expanding its reach to the Arab Diaspora around the world.”
Intelsat Reports Growth Intelsat S.A., a leading provider of fixed satellite services, has reported results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2009. Intelsat S.A. reported revenue of $620.8 million and a net loss of $97.0 million for the three months ended December 31, 2009. The company also reported Intelsat S.A. EBITDA, or earnings before net interest, gain on early extinguishment of debt, taxes and depreciation and amortization, of $454.0 million, and Intelsat Luxembourg Adjusted EBITDA of $488.9 million, or 79 percent of revenue, for the three months ended December 31, 2009. Intelsat S.A. also reported revenue of $2.5 billion and a net loss of $781.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2009. The net loss includes non-cash charges of $499.1 million incurred in the first quarter of 2009 for orbital location impairments.
The company also reported Intelsat S.A. EBITDA of $1.4 billion and Intelsat Luxembourg Adjusted EBITDA of $2.0 billion, or 79 percent of revenue, for the year ended December 31, 2009. “2009 was a record revenue year for Intelsat, reflecting the continued strength of the fixed satellite services sector. Our growth was fueled by the diverse capabilities of our global network, which provides critical infrastructure for network services, media and government customers,” said Intelsat CEO, David McGlade. “In 2009 we signed a number of significant customer agreements that reflect our strategic goals of expanding direct-to-home neighbourhoods for regional service providers, being the commercial satellite services supplier of choice for military operations and providing bandwidth for telecom and data service providers. These
Digistor has ‘100% Stake’ in DBD Queensland-based creative industry specialist, Digital By Design Pty Ltd, has announced that Digistor Pty Ltd has taken 100% stake in the company to provide stability and growth opportunities Digital By Design Pty Ltd has been involved in the provision of integrated solutions for animation, broadcast and video production since 1990. The company specialises in the provision of solutions which include Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment products including 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Motion Builder, Mudbox, Autocad and associated plug-ins. In February, Digistor Pty Ltd completed the purchase of Digital By Design as an operating business with a view to expanding its operations while maintaining Digital By Design’s existing customers, staff, products and operations. Digistor has broad market coverage and an unequalled track record in delivering and integrating complex
14 Taking Stock
solutions comprising hardware and software. “Digital By Design is highly regarded in creative market segments and with the added resources and locations of the Digistor Group there is significant potential to grow their market share over the coming twenty-four months and beyond,” said Digistor Group Managing Director, Andrew Mooney. “The recent appointment of Digistor as Autodesk’s ‘Systems’ partner dovetails very nicely with DBD’s expertise with Autodesk and the Animation products specifically, allowing the Group to offer complete Autodesk solutions to the market.” Although sporting a new ABN, Digital By Design will continue to operate without interruption. All staff are retained and customers will continue to work with the people they know. Some back-end accounting, marketing, fulfilment and administration functions have been moved to the Digistor Group head office in Sydney. Visit www.dbd.com.au
agreements increased our revenue backlog from $8.8 billion at year end 2008 to $9.4 billion at year end 2009.” “The year was also an important period in Intelsat’s longer-term strategy to refresh and upgrade fleet capacity in targeted regions,” McGlade continued. “We have successfully launched three satellites since November 23, 2009 that will provide growth capacity for our customers, while enabling us to move replaced satellites to other locations in our network. Combined with other strategic moves, such as our recent acquisition of the ProtoStar 1 satellite, which is expected to enter service as Intelsat 25 in the second quarter of 2010, we continue to enhance what we believe is the world’s premier satellite fleet for the benefit of our global customer base.” Visit www.intelsat.com
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H-Digital Becomes Division of Techtel
Recognising the need to strengthen its foundations and resources, and broaden its offerings and customer base, H-Digital has joined forces with Techtel. H-Digital has been providing hardware, software, training and consultation to the Video, Post and Film market in Australia and New Zealand since 1992 while Techtel is a leading independent broadcast technology systems specialist, providing dedicated hardware and software to the Australian, New Zealand and S.E Asian broadcast communities. The move sees H-Digital (now a division of Techtel) gain access to a team of support professionals and a portfolio of products that for a long time has been predominantly aimed at the broadcast production and playout market. H-Digital will relocate its office and showroom to 26 Whiting Street, Artarmon, NSW. Their website www.h-digital.com.au retains its role as the hub for all things ‘post’. Visit www.techtel.com.au
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News Corporation has reached an agreement to buy a 9.09 per cent stake in Rotana Group, the Middle East media group. Under the terms of the agreement, News Corporation will acquire newly-issued shares in Rotana for $70 million. The company has an option to increase its stake to 18.18 per cent in the 18 months following completion. The acquisition extends News Corporation’s presence in fast-growing Middle East markets in partnership with one of the region’s strongest media companies. Rotana, which is owned by HRH Prince
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Taking Stock
Taking Stock
Channel 5: High Definition’s New Dawn Australian Broadcasting Summit keynote Dawn Airey, CEO, FIVE (UK) talks to Paul McCann. While the BBC is based in sprawling multi-site, multi-city locations and Channel 4 and ITV have glittery glass office blocks, Five, the “challenger brand” of British broadcasting, is housed in a non-descript building squeezed next to a branch of the Body Shop in London’s West End. It is an unshowy HQ perfectly suited for a publisher-broadcaster that has no studios of its own and which has always had to fight tougher and work harder with fewer resources than its competitors. It’s an underdog position that its founding programme director and current chair and chief executive Dawn Airey seems to relish. Airey, who returned to the channel in 2008 with a mandate to reinvigorate it creatively and commercially, is already assured her place in the annals of British broadcasting for having famously, and succinctly, defined the channel when it launched as being devoted to the “Three Fs” – that is: “films, fucking and football”. Five was launched in 1996 into a narrow band of Britain’s last available terrestrial broadcast spectrum. A chunk of frequency that the country’s big advertisers had convinced the then Conservative government should be used to break ITV’s stranglehold on commercial airtime. It had a lighter public service remit than other UK terrestrial broadcasters and built audience share with canny marketing and PR, intelligently stripped programming slots, including movies at 9pm every night, some good value footballrights acquisitions, a sprinkling of late-night smut (one of the “F”s), youth-targeted programming and lots of American imports. In recent years it had started to chase an older, male demographic with acres of programming about big machines or “When Buildings Collapse”-style factual docs and several history strands. “When I left five six years ago it was a channel whose audience share was growing and it had a relatively youthful profile. In the intervening years it matured, it got older, but also in terms of demographic. When I returned there was a creative renewal challenge. We needed to remember what our strengths were; we did things differently, we had a different tone of voice and we were aimed at a younger audience.” The solution was more factual entertainment and entertainment 16 Taking Stock
shows as well as better promotion and scheduling of the existing roster of American shows. That was the creative challenge. However Airey’s return to Five also coincided with the biggest downturn in advertising revenue UK and global television had ever seen. Five watched revenues drop by around 25 per cent in 2008. “The first year to be honest was about commercial survival. We were looking at an enormous loss of money.” Airey instigated an efficiency review that saw around a quarter of the station’s 290 staff axed and the programme budget cut by 25 per cent. “We did it really fast and we took the company with us. It was painful, but our commitment to the staff was that we were going to do it deep, we were going to do it properly and we weren’t going to come back and do it again.” And it wasn’t just in-house that efficiencies were made: “The terrible state of the economy last year forced all broadcasters to look at the cost of production and cost of production has been forced down, without question – we’ve all done it. With our new contracts with suppliers we’re getting the same quality on screen for about 20 per cent less money, right across the board. To balance our books we reviewed every single process, every single contract, not just with content suppliers but also for toilet rolls, stationery, everything.” An additional possible route to efficiency savings lies in merging Five with another broadcaster.
The channel, which is wholly owned by the European broadcasting and production giant RTL, which also owns FreemantleMedia, spent some time last year in what were ultimately fruitless merger talks with financially troubled UK public service broadcaster Channel 4. “We’ve all been talking to each other,” says Airey. “Everyone has been talking to everyone else. We’re very good in British broadcasting at pulling up the duvet and saying ‘do you want to get into bed’, and then getting under the covers and getting cold feet. But I have not a scintilla of doubt there will be consolidation, because it makes sense to everybody concerned. And it will happen, I suspect, in the next 18 months.” Short of a full merger, other partnerships are also on the cards. Currently the channel sells its own airtime in-house. “We are 8.5 per cent of the advertising market, without question consolidating with another advertising point could make sense. Not to the point of using our scale for leverage [with advertisers], but, to be frank, simply for synergies and savings to be had in running an ad sales house.” The other partnerships Five has been pursuing are about new sources of revenue rather than making cost savings. In December the channel did a deal with Google to make its content available on YouTube, in return for a share of advertising; it signed a deal with online gaming company NetPlay to turn over some of its late night airtime to a casino programme that you bet and play along with online; it is making its rights to live European football available via an iPhone App and has joined with the BBC and ITV, as well as internet service provider BT, in Project Canvas. Canvas is the plan to deliver broadband-connected television to the British living room. Canvas will offer viewers a new electronic programme guide with access to both linear and video-on-demand, webbased content and HD, while offering Five potential commercial applications such as internet based advertising, micro-payments and subscription to payTV services over the internet. “Project Canvas is IPTV and the revenues it will deliver you is subscription video on demand, so it is catch-up, it is transactional for whatever’s been in the broadcast stream or whatever you might want to put
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on there. I mean you might want to preview series, for which the viewer pays the equivalent of a magazine subscription. Where there are programme brands that viewers love, why don’t we give them separate content that they can only get online, so you buy up to five or six episodes that are just yours. There’s an exploration to be had about a subscription approach to specific shows, not to a whole service, you don’t have to sign up to a movie channel, but you can sign up to a particular show for a certain number of episodes.” All of these partnerships are about monetising Five’s inventory of content in any way it can. “We were losing money in late night, and this is a commercial operation and so we had to think what else can we do with that spectrum. The deal with NetPlay gives us a minimum guarantee and a share of the upside and it’s working well. Google have given us a big minimum guarantee and we have to get a certain volume of users coming in and watching their longform content. In the first month there was a million views and we’d like a lot more, but it’s early days.” “We are increasingly doing these commercial partnerships because that is where we are going to be making our margins. It costs £1 million pounds a week simply to put out a blank screen, that’s the cost of spectrum and the cost of transmission, this is a big fixed cost business, so we’re looking to be as commercial as we can be, particularly with the fringes of the schedule.” “The thing that I believe fundamentally in is get your content out to as many people as possible: increase your reach and work out how to monetise it. That’s always been the business of television – how do you monetise eyeballs? So the more people who interact with your content, the more the potential there is, in theory, to make money from it. You have to work harder in this new world to engage viewers and get value out of them.” Through all this slicing, dicing and monetising of Five’s output through a multiplicity of distribution channels, Airey believes that broadcast brands still have a strong future and that content owners won’t reign supreme. “You read a lot about disaggregation of the distribution platforms, that the producers, the studios, will go straight to the consumer and say ‘get your movie or whatever at this distribution point, you don’t need to watch it in the broadcast stream and we’ll keep all the revenues’. The reality is that the broadcaster’s brands are still incredibly powerful brands and resonate incredibly well and are still favoured portals of choice. And so it’s about extending the brand and you extend it across other distribution platforms that can be owned by a Google or a Microsoft, it doesn’t really matter, you just have to get your content out there and it comes from a brand that has certain brand values that viewers know and love.” “I don’t subscribe to the demise of broadcasters because all these other models are about incremental revenues on the main commissioning and broadcast stream. Television is expensive to produce and what we haven’t yet seen from these new models is sufficient monies being committed up front or on
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a subscription model to fund long-form content. It’s still the broadcasters that are the most effective and efficient ways of producing and delivering long-form content, and then it goes into the long tail of a multiplicity of distribution platforms.” Despite the claims of some big thinkers, selling in the long tail is not a cost-free proposition. “Technology usually brings benefits and cost savings, but equally we are having to invest a lot more in functionality in getting our content out on multiple platforms. Canvas is an expensive proposition, but we absolutely have to do it to hold onto the business that we have.” The same, however, is not true of 3D broadcasting. “I don’t say no, but for the moment we’re focusing in providing an HD service, which we don’t currently provide. We’ll get HD up and running before we go down 3D.” This will also give the channel time to discover if consumers who have only just forked out for a HD television set are remotely interested in spending again to get 3D. A new source of revenue for British broadcasters - but an old one elsewhere - is being touted following the UK government’s announcement of its plans to relax the ban on product placement on television. “Product placement is incredibly powerful,” says Airey. “And it is frankly ludicrous that in the UK that you don’t have well known brands in broadcast telly.” However she doesn’t think it will necessarily be the solution to British commercial television’s current financial woes. “The view that if there’s more ways for advertisers to get their message across it means they’ll spend more money is a little naïve. What they’ll do I suspect is shift money out of spot and into product placement. And there will be an interesting battle with the producers, because myself, as a broadcaster, will say that ‘product placement only has value if it’s
broadcast and broadcast is my business, not yours’.” And it’s a business Airey clearly has some aptitude for. In an environment of job and budget cuts, to say nothing of ever-increasing broadcast and multi-media competition, Five, with its digital offshoots, Fiver and Five USA, was the only suite of British channels to see its share of individual viewers rise during 2009. It was only up from 6.09% to 6.12%, but was an increase nonetheless. It didn’t hurt Channel Five’s performance that this year has also seen other British broadcasters making recession-era cutbacks and, as she puts it “falling off the cliff”. Nevertheless, it was exactly the kind of scrappy, “challenger brand” performance that has made Airey so indelibly linked with Five’s success.
FIVE’s HD Pie in the Sky UK terrestrial broadcaster Five and pay operator Sky have announced the launch of Five HD, a high definition version (HD) of Five which will show programming that has been made in high definition. Five HD will start broadcasting to more than 2 million Sky+HD homes in July. Five becomes the 42nd channel to commit to joining Sky’s HD line-up, following news that ITV 1HD, Sky News HD, Sky Sports HD 4 and Hallmark Channel HD are all to launch in the months ahead. Sky is aiming to have 50 HD channels by Christmas. Sky recently standardised its set-top strategy by automatically offering a Sky+HD box to anyone joining Sky TV, and all new and existing customers can receive the box for free when subscribing to the Sky+HD channel pack for the first time. The Sky+HD box not only provides access to HD service and Sky’s HD electronic programme guide (EPG), but later this year it will also offer customers access to a broadband-enabled VOD service and Sky 3D, Europe’s first 3D TV channel. Sky intends to launch Sky 3D to pubs and clubs in April before reaching residential homes later this year. Visit www.bskyb.com and www.five.tv
Taking Stock 17
NAB Preview
Conference Preview
“ inspiration. partnership. support ”
Covering a Broad Spectrum Despite the buzz surrounding 3D, online video, social networking and other new technologies ‘wowing’ consumers, the traditional concern of managing spectrum bandwidth should be top of the list for canny broadcasters at this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas (April 10-15). The push by governments across the globe to enable “National Broadband Networks” will inevitably impact on free to air broadcasters. As these new networks are rolled out to bridge perceived social, economic and national security gaps, they will inevitably need radiofrequency spectrum and something will have to give. Having navigated the transition to digital free-toair TV, albeit in a delayed fashion, the US National Association of Broadcasters is now facing up to the impact of “Broadband as National Infrastructure” following the lodgement with the American Congress by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the “National Broadband Plan”. Scheduled to speak at NAB2010, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said “The National Broadband Plan is a 21st century roadmap to spur economic growth and investment, create jobs, educate our children, protect our citizens, and engage in our democracy. It’s an action plan, and action is necessary to meet the challenges of global competitiveness, and harness the power of broadband to help address so many vital national issues.” According to an FCC statement, “A looming shortage of wireless spectrum could impede U.S. innovation and leadership in popular wireless mobile broadband services. More useful applications, devices, and content are needed to create value for consumers. And, the nation has failed to harness broadband’s power to transform delivery of government services, health care, education, public safety, energy conservation, economic development, and other national priorities.” The Plan’s call for action over the next decade includes the following goals and recommendations: • Connect 100 million households to affordable 100-megabits-per-second service. • Affordable access in every American community to ultra-high-speed broadband of at least 1 gigabit per second at anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and military installations. • Ensure mobile innovation by making 500 megahertz of spectrum newly available for licensed and unlicensed use. • Move adoption rates from roughly 65 percent to more than 90 percent.
18 NAB Preview
US Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski.
• Bring affordable broadband to rural communities, schools, libraries, and vulnerable populations by transitioning existing Universal Service Fund support from yesterday’s analog technologies to tomorrow’s digital infrastructure. • Promote competition across the broadband ecosystem by ensuring greater transparency, removing barriers to entry, and conducting marketbased analysis with quality data on price, speed, and availability. • Enhance public safety by providing every first responder with access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable public safety network. According to the US National Broadband Plan, the FCC currently has “only 50 megahertz in inventory, just a fraction of the amount that will be necessary to match growing demand. More efficient allocation and assignment of spectrum will reduce deployment costs, drive investment and benefit consumers.” The recommendations on spectrum include: • Make 500 megahertz of spectrum newly available for broadband within 10 years, of which 300 megahertz should be made available for mobile use within five years. • Enable incentives and mechanisms to repurpose spectrum to more flexible uses. Mechanisms include incentive auctions, which allow auction proceeds to be shared in an equitable manner with current licensees as market demands change. These would benefit both spectrum holders and the American public. The public could benefit from additional spectrum for high-demand uses and from new auction revenues. Incumbents, meanwhile, could recognize a portion of the value of enabling new uses of spectrum. For example, this would allow the FCC to share auction proceeds with broadcasters who voluntarily agree to use technology to continue traditional broadcast services with less spectrum. • Ensure transparency of spectrum allocation, assignment and use through an FCC-created
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spectrum dashboard to foster an efficient secondary market. • Expand opportunities for innovative spectrum access models by creating new avenues for opportunistic and unlicensed use of spectrum and increasing research into new spectrum technologies. In short, the FCC’s Plan calls for the reallocation of 120 MHz of broadcast TV spectrum. Commenting on the plan, NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said “We were pleased by initial indications from FCC members that any spectrum reallocation would be voluntary, and were therefore prepared to move forward in a constructive fashion on that basis. However, we are concerned by reports today that suggest many aspects of the plan may in fact not be as voluntary as originally promised. Moreover, as the nation’s only communications service that is free, local and ubiquitous, we would oppose any attempt to impose onerous new spectrum fees on broadcasters. The NAB has called “particularly problematic” an assumption by some US Government agencies that a lack of spectrum is the key impediment to increased competition in broadband. “There is no necessary nexus between allocating additional spectrum and increased broadband deployment and use. Many countries with higher broadband usage rates than the United States have less spectrum allocated for broadband purposes,” said the NAB in a statement. Regarding the prediction of increased demand for mobility, technical speed and HD video, NAB noted that mobile digital TV, offered by local TV broadcasters, provides consumers with “real-time, high-quality video on-the-go.” “Point-to-multipoint broadcasting is simply a more efficient way to deliver mass-audience video content to the public than wireless point-to-point technology, and it is more immediately deployable,” it said.
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NAB Preview
Government Use of Broadcast Tech Harris
Corporation
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Howard Lance will be a keynote speaker at the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas. In a morning session titled “Dual Utilisation of Broadcast Technology for Industry and Government” on Wednesday, April 14, Lance will discuss >> Harris Chairman Howard Lance. how the integration of government and commercial technologies can create “cross-over” applications that benefit both sectors. In his NAB Show address, Lance will focus on how commercial broadcast technology has increased the performance and reduced the price of military equipment for many intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications – including the use of consumer technology by government and defence leaders to help homeland security, warfare and peacekeeping efforts. For example, technology initially developed for commercial broadcasters has led to solutions that enable the military to capture, store, retrieve, analyse and disseminate hundreds of thousands of hours of video they receive from unmanned aerial vehicles and ground sensors. This cross-over use dramatically improves the military’s ability to provide soldiers with better situational awareness on the networked battlefield. Additional capabilities and applications are also in development. Lance will further describe how Harris, a global leader in communications and information technology, has leveraged its own large-scale investments in commercial and military sectors to better serve both markets. Lance was appointed president and chief executive officer and elected to the Board of Directors at Harris in 2003. He was also appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Visit www.nabshow.com
3D, VFX, New Ventures at Content Theater NAB’s Content Theater will feature screenings, presentations and discussions highlighting the latest developments in 3D content, digital production technologies and advances in producing non-fiction content. Monday April 12 will feature Trends in Stereoscopic 3D Content including Live action, Sports, CG, Animation, and Conversion from 2D to S3D. Sessions include: • ESPN: Scoring a Field Goal in S3-D Sports • ”Alice in Wonderland”: Turning Fantasy into Motion Picture Reality • ”How to Train Your Dragon” - A Case Study
20 NAB Preview
NAB Preview
Fun & Games in Las Vegas The NAB Show will for the second consecutive year feature a series of sessions focused on video games as an increasingly popular and integral part of the digital entertainment landscape. Three sessions on Wednesday, April 14 at the NAB Show in Las Vegas will delve into video gaming’s convergence with other major media, international growth and the influence of women in the expansion of the industry. Topics include the integration of video games, feature films, mobile applications and social networking, as well as new opportunities to generate revenue, share content and leverage new technologies. Moderator Megan Gaiser, president & CEO, HER Interactive will lead a discussion among panellists including Reto Bodmer, founder & COO, Evolved Games; Sebastien de Halleux, cofounder, Playfish and Dale Strang, CEO of Viximo. Globalisation has had a tremendous impact on the industry from the massive popularity of casual games in Asia, to leading innovations in development from the U.K. and India and financing partnerships across Europe. Industry veteran Dale Strang will lead a discussion on growth opportunities in an increasingly global market. The afternoon session is part of the new Broader-casting Conference and features Daniel Kim, CEO, Nexon Games and Sean Malatesta, CEO, Indiagames. She’s Got Game: Exploring the Rising Importance and Influence of Women in Interactive Entertainment. Representing more than 45 percent of the video game market, women are the fastest growing segment of the business. A panel of leading game developers and industry experts will discuss the impact of women on the production, marketing and commerce of video games. Topics include exploring revenue and branding opportunities by developing and marketing video game content that focuses on interests of women and girls and reflects them as primary characters. Moderated by Belinda Van Sickle, president, GameDocs and chair of Women in Games International, the session features Jennifer MacLean, CEO of 38Games; Kellee Santiago, president, That Game Company and Megan Gaiser, president & CEO, HER Interactive. Visit www.nabshow.com
Tuesday, meanwhile, covers the Evolution of Digital Production Technologies and looks filmmaking with new, high-end cameras, from large format capture in outer space to the latest in HD camera technologies. Directors, producers, cinematographers and other film artists share a wealth of creative ideas and practical knowledge, illustrating with footage and tales from the field. Sessios include: • Hubble 3-D: Filmmaking in Outer Space with IMAX Technology • PGA/ASC Camera Assessment Series: Illuminating Digital Cinema Cameras and Digital Cinematography Wednesday covers Advances in Non-fiction
NAB Launches ‘Post Pit’ on Show Floor The 2010 NAB Show will debut a new digital video workflow presentation stage, complete with a networking lounge and series of mini sessions, which will be held on the show floor in the South Lower Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center The Post Pit brings together user groups and individuals who use post-production and other digital story-telling software and hardware products on display at the NAB Show. Produced in partnership with Final Cut Pro User Group (FCPUG) Network SuperMeet, fxguide, Digital Production Buzz and Future Media Concepts (FMC), Post Pit will offer attendees and exhibitors an interactive experience in which to showcase creative content, while top talent take the stage to share tips and tricks to aid digital video creators and editors in navigating the various tools used in the trade. Some of the presenters include Ted Schilowitz of RED Camera Company, post guru Scott Simmons with tips on editing a Canon 5D multicamera concert, and Taz Goldstein of HandHeldHollywood.com who will focus on the top five iApps and hardware every filmmaker needs. A networking lounge within Post Pit will provide an intimate space for attendees to meet with other content professionals, see interactive demonstrations and mingle with a broad representation of vendors including Adobe, Avid, AJA Video, Blackmagic Design, Canon, GenArts, Inc., The Foundry and JVC. Post Pit will also feature networking receptions during the day and after hours. For media professionals looking for the latest in technical training and certification, the NAB Show also offers a complete educational experience through the Post|Production World (PPW) conference, April 10-14. In its 6th year at the NAB Show, PPW offers the latest in production and postproduction techniques and technology from top professionals. Sessions are taught by published authors, certified instructors, and industry experts who share best practices and the latest innovations. PPW focuses on emerging technologies like DSLR video, tapeless acquisition, and motion control 3D. Participants can also explore end-user certifications and exams for Apple and Avid software.
Programming and Production From the depths of the Oceans to the vast expanse of Outer Space, Natural History Programming takes viewers to the most exciting locations in the Universe and helps to teach while providing unmatched levels of entertainment. Wednesday’s Content Theater sessions will examine some of the most innovative and groundbreaking programming in the marketplace. Sessions include: • Explorer: 25 Years • Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking • Advanced Undersea Imaging and Visualization: Sharing the Secrets of Neptune’s Realm Visit www.nabshow.com/2010/education/ content_theater.asp
NAB Show Career Day
TCFTV Chairs Gary Newman and Dana Walden.
Left: Steve Church, CEO, Telos Systems. Right: ATSC President Mark Richer.
20th Century Fox TV Takes the Stage
Engineering Achievement Awards
The NAB Show has announced a keynote conversation with the chairs of Twentieth Century Fox Television (TCFTV), Gary Newman and Dana Walden. Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Flint will moderate the Keynote Conversation with Walden and Newman, which will centre on how they have built Twentieth into a leading provider of TV blockbusters while navigating the challenges and opportunities facing media companies today. The panel will take place on Monday, April 12 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. Walden and Newman were named presidents of TCFTV in 1999 and were promoted to chairmen of the studio in 2007. Together they have led the studio to unparalleled success across all media, from broadcast and cable television to syndication, mobile, broadband and beyond. Walden and Newman recently delivered three of the biggest hits of the season to Fox and ABC with Ryan Murphy’s “Glee,” Seth MacFarlane’s “The Cleveland Show” and Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd’s “Modern Family.” Their “Sons of Anarchy,” co-produced with FX Productions, exploded in its second season to become the No. 1 rated series among young adults in all of basic cable. Overall, the pair has been hugely instrumental in building TCFTV into a leading supplier of blockbuster television programming.
Steve Church, founder and CEO of Telos Systems; and Mark Richer, president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), have been named 2010 recipients of the NAB Engineering Achievement Award. The awards will be presented at the NAB Technology Luncheon on Wednesday, April 14 during the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Church, this year’s recipient of the NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Radio, is the founder and CEO of Telos Systems. A former radio group engineer, Steve designed the world’s first studio product using digital audio technology in 1984. In 1993, he introduced the first use of the MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) technology in a broadcast product. He is co-inventor of the Livewire technology, which employs a linear audio-over-IP means of routing and transmitting audio signals. Considered an authority on telecommunications and audio coding, Church has authored many papers on broadcast technology and written chapters in the past two editions of the NAB Engineering Handbook on broadcast telephony. Richer, this year’s recipient of the NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Television, has led the ATSC for the last decade, navigating the complexities of the transition from analog to digital broadcasting. Before joining ATSC, Richer spent 16 years with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), eventually serving as vice president of engineering and computer services. He also served as chairman of the working party on system testing and evaluation for the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service.
The NAB Education Foundation, in partnership with the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) and Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), will host their annual Career Day in the Las Vegas Hilton Ballroom C on Wednesday, April 14 during the 2010 NAB Show. Sponsored by Edge Technology Services, Career Day will provide students and job seekers with the opportunity to meet with media industry professionals. Career Day will include a Career Advising and Career Services Center. The Advising Center will provide job seekers with one-onone career coaching led by Cindy Weiner, a certified coach and consultant, focusing on topics such as resume critiquing and effective networking tools. Additionally, this year’s Career Day will include several informative sessions at the Career Services Center. These sessions, titled Understanding and Presenting Your Biggest Assets: How to See YOU to an Employer, Taking Risks in Your Job Search, Open Highways and One Lane Roads: The Journey from Unemployment to Well Employed and Social Networking your way to a Job, will discuss career advancement strategies. Designed for experienced professionals, college students and entry-level job seekers, Career Day will include professionals from a variety of broadcast and media companies, including Bonneville International, CNN/ Turner Broadcasting, Entercom, Hubbard Broadcasting, PBS Las Vegas, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and The Star Radio Group -- WFLSFM Fredericksburg, VA/WWUZ-FM Bowling Green, VA/WVBX-FM Spotsylvania, VA. Recruiters will be on hand to answer questions from anyone interested in job opportunities and internships within the media industry. Admission is free, and open to both registrants and nonregistrants of the NAB Show. Visit www.nabshow.com.
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NAB Preview 21
The TheThird ThirdDimension Dimension
- Stereoscopic Production & Exhibition
German First for Soccer in 3D The first soccer 3D-HD-Live-Production in Germany was staged on March 14 with 120 selected guests shown the top game between Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburger SV (HSV) live and in 3D-HD in Munich on behalf of Sky Germany. Altogether six 3D Stereo Rigs from P+S TECHNIK were applied in Leverkusen: Four Heavy Duty Standard Rigs and two Freestyle Rigs mounted on Steadicams. Satisfied faces could be seen after the final whistle when the audience took off its 3D glasses. According to Andreas Dasser, Managing Director of P+S TECHNIK, the company’s new Freestyle Rig, used on the sidelines of the match, opens the realms of camera movement for stereoscopy for the very first time. The Freestyle Rig is especially designed to offer a maximum of creative choice for camera movement in 3D production. By using patented Carbon technology, also used for Formula 1 race cars, the best combination of load capacity, weight, stability and form was achieved. “As innovation leaders we are proud to have made possible the very first German football Live-3D-HD-
Panasonic 3D Camcorder Panasonic Corporation will release its professional, fully-integrated Full HD 3D camcorder in 3Q 2010. The company will begin taking orders in April. Further announcements are expected at April’s NAB show. In Panasonic’s Full HD 3D camcorder, the lenses, camera head, and a dual Memory Card recorder are integrated into a single, lightweight body. The camcorder also incorporates stereoscopic adjustment controls making it easier to use and operate. The twin-lens system adopted in the camcorder’s optical section allows the convergence point to be adjusted. Functions for automatically correcting horizontal and vertical displacement are also provided. Right and left Full HD video streams of the twin-lens 3D camcorder can be recorded as files on SDHC/SD Memory Cards enabling a file-based workflow. Visit http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/3d/
22 The Third Dimension
>> >>
P+S TECHNIK’s Freestyle Rig fitted with two Sony PMW-EX3 camcorders and LCD monitor.
Make it Real
Transmission with our 3D Stereo Rigs,” said Andreas Dasser. “Thereby, we prove the new Freestyle Rig’s excellent performance during live sports and live news productions to broadcast.” Designed for constant equilibration, the rig always keeps camera weights in perfect balance when wireless adjusting the stereo base, particularly when mounted on a steadicam system. Integrated motors for stereo base and convergence adjustment optimize weight and are compatible with available wireless remote control systems. With this, the Freestyle Rig is not only ideal for digital stereoscopic 3D movie productions, but especially also for the production of stereoscopic 3D live images. A wide range of professional lenses and cameras up to a 7 kg per camera setup can be carried by the Freestyle Rig. A range of ergonomic mounting accessories prepare this rig also for shoulder, crane and dolly use. The live production of the 3D HD signal in Leverkusen was carried out by TopVision on behalf of Sportcast. The responsibility for the transmission was with HD Sat Communications.
Integrated Twin-Lens FULL HD 3D Camera Recorder
Burberry in 3D GlobeCast and UK production company Nineteen Fifteen successfully deliver British fashion label Burberry’s Autumn/Winter 2010/11 womenswear show live to parties in Paris, New York, Tokyo and Dubai during London Fashion Week. This was the first time a fashion event was broadcast live in 3D around the globe. The audiences, with the help of 3D glasses, experienced the show in high-definition. GlobeCast uplinked the 3D feed to Eutelsat’s W2A satellite from its HD SNG located at the Chelsea College of Art, where the Burberry show took place. For the broadcasts in New York, Paris and Dubai, a GlobeCast truck at each location downlinked the feed and decoded it for projection, ensuring that the image layers and audio were synchronised. The feed was also distributed to the NSS6 platform by Satlink, GlobeCast’s Israeli partner for reception in Tokyo. Visit www.globecast.com and www.nineteenfifteen.com
The world’s first*1 integrated twin-lens 3D camera recorder for professional use. In the Panasonic new full-HD camera recorder, the lenses, camera head, and a memory card recorder are integrated into a single, lightweight body. This is much less expensive, smaller, more portable, and easier to maintain than the current professional 3D systems. The twin-lens system adopted in the optical section allows the convergence point*2 to be adjusted. Functions for automatically
3D Swede From boutique Swedish camera house Ikonoskop comes this binocular beauty, the A-Cam3D shoots 2 x 1920 x 1080 pixels stored as individual files in RAW sequences saved in DNG format. The A-Cam3D features a 91.5mm distance between the optical axis and weighs just 2.8kg, including memory cartridge and battery. Ikonoskop will build you an A-Cam3D to order. Visit www.ikonoskop.com
correcting horizontal and vertical displacement are also provided. Conventional 3D camera systems require these adjustments to be made on a PC or an external video processor. This new camera recorder, however, will automatically recalibrate without any need for external equipment, allowing capturing 3D image immediately. Right and left full-HD video streams can be recorded as files on memory cards, ensuring higher reliability than on other media. Eliminating moving parts helps to significantly reduce maintenance costs. Users also enjoy a fast, highly productive file-based workflow. *1: As an integrated twin-lens 3D camera recorder capable of recording full-HD video to its memory card. As of January 2010 (based on our investigations). *2: The point at which the left and right-camera lenses’ optical axes converge. Specifications and functions are subject to change without notice.
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Panasonic Australia Phone: (02) 9986 7400 Email: broadcastsales@panasonic.com.au Web: www.panasonic-broadcast.com.au
The TheThird ThirdDimension Dimension
3D: Fix it in Post? With an added dimension comes added complexity. By Paul McCann. Described best as a realistenthusiast when it comes to 3D, Ralston Humble, director of Pablo Post, based at Pinewoood Studios, has been working on 3D post production for several years. His CV includes work with respected 3D IMAX producer Phil Streather and the award-winning film Bugs! for digital 3D cinema. In short, he has been doing it long enough to recognise the difficulties the new format is throwing in the way of post houses. Yet he is still an enthusiast for 3D: “People involved in 3D at the moment are doing it from passion. When I moved into stereo, I realised that the people who were shooting beautiful stereo images were the same people who took care over shooting HD images. The worry is that 3D will become gimmicky, and everything will be in negative space, in other words in front of the TV. Producers and directors get it, but clients just think 3D is the stuff that comes out in your face. It’s not. We’re not really interested in that. The majority of 3D should be a window; it is about depth, a slight bulging. About a new sense of the image, it’s not about everything being out the front of the screen.” Andy Bellamy, a stereographer at UK systems provider Jigsaw agrees that while there is massive interest in 3D from a technical point of view, new types of questions are starting to be asked. “I am now having meetings about the aesthetics of 3D. About bringing 3D to drama; about ‘what does 3D do to a film?’; ‘What does it do to the emotions that are generated by what you’re watching?’; ‘What does it do in the live sports arena?’; What do you gain?’ ‘What’s the point artistically?’” But where Bellamy is totally bullish, Humble points out that before you even get to arguments about how much negative parallax to put in your 3D production, you simply have to make sure your footage works and won’t just give your viewers a headache. “There are lots of issues with imaging,” says Humble. “If you think about a mirror rig, there are two cameras on that rig so you are basically dealing with a two-camera shoot. It’s very complex to have two cameras, which haven’t been designed to shoot stereo, sitting on a rig. So when you capture the two images from them 24 The Third Dimension
>> >> Ralston Humble, Pablo Post UK,
“The majority of 3D should be a window.”
and sort out those images in post, it will double up your complexity. “It sounds simple, but on a shoot people tend to look at the two images combined and they don’t check that both 2D images separately from each camera are in focus and are aligned. In post the first thing we have to do is check that the timecodes are in sync, because no matter how well you try on the shoot, they are different cameras and they will get out of sync, so in post you have to re-find a sync point, where from there on you know they are perfectly in sync.” The next regular job for a 3D post house is checking the vertical alignment of the two images that have come from the two cameras on the shoot. “The vertical alignment of the images should be pixel-perfect,” says Humble. “But, because of the complexity of the shoot, the time available and whatever else goes into a shoot, you find when you get back you have to adjust the vertical alignment to match the images.” In addition to vertical and timecode syncing, the two-camera rigs using mirrors and beamsplitters add their own new level of problems with light flicker and flaring issues being created by the mirrors and glass - issues that appear in different places on the two images because of the different aspects of the cameras. Rotoscoping on each image individually will touch the flaring out, but it all adds to the time and complexity of the 3D post production, says Humble. And at that stage, the post house is still essentially
working on two sets of rushes before moving on to actual 3D post techniques. “The next thing we have to do is depth grading. In post we have the capability to move 3D images into and out of the screen, because what we find is a stereographer might have decided, at the storyboarding stage, where he wants his negative and positive space to be, but when he comes to view the rushes he changes his mind because the order of shots have changed. We have to be able to change the depth balance, but while also handing off smoothly between scenes, to ease in and ease out of negative and positive space, so that the eyes of the viewers don’t have to deal with sudden cuts between depths.” All these added levels of complexity are, of course, adding costs to the post process for 3D. But no one seems quite sure how much. “It’s pretty unknown,” says Humble. “As a facilities company we would try to quote by looking at the script, looking at what cameras are being used and at how competent are the guys using the rigs - have they used stereo rigs before?” Humble’s concern is that as 3D production spreads – and kit hire companies provide more of it to people who’ve never used it before, post houses will be the ones trying to fix mistakes made in the shoots and will have to absorb the costs. “My worry is that all the money in 3D budgets is going to the production side to get the rigs and the lenses, because they’re real assets, and everyone always thinks post-production is just ‘computers’. But when we’re dealing with stereoscopic images, it’s actually about very skilled people spending many, many hours on the images and I don’t want to be in a situation where I am subsidising the whole process.” Some estimate that minimum costs for post houses could be 50 per cent higher for 3D than for 2D until there is further automation of the workflows and processes involved in 3D. “Quoting is going to be a big issue,” says Humble. “A lot of production companies are going to do deals with facilities companies, and they’re going to try and package together and try to win 3D business and it’s going to be pretty unknown. Making money out of 3D is a possibility for post houses only in the future. And even then it’s probably a maybe.”
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LDK 8000 ELITE The TheThird ThirdDimension Dimension
SOME THINGS YOU HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE.
Polecam embraces 3D HD at NAB Responding to rapidly increasing demand for 3D HD video content, Polecam (Booth C7933) announces that its 3D-Narrow pan and tilt head is to be supplied as standard with all new systems, with the option of choosing the new 3D-Wide head. “The 3D-Narrow pan and tilt head allows extremely realistic stereoscopic content to be produced from mini HD cameras positioned side by side on a Polecam jib,” comments Polecam founder and Managing Director Steffan Hewitt. “From NAB 2010 onward, the standard pan and tilt head sold with Polecam systems will be capable of holding a 3D camera pair. The Polecam 3D-Narrow head attaches directly to all standard Polecam rigs. It is optimised for normal studio shooting and close-ups where it is desirable to match normal human eye spacing. A levelling plate with three fine-adjustment verniers allows each camera to be exactly matched in height and forward angle. Setup is quick and easy, conforming with Polecam’s strategy of ensuring high mobility and operational efficiency.” Polecam’s optional 3D-Wide head allows the distance between cameras to be extended so that full 3D impact can be achieved even in long-shot. The 3D-Narrow and 3D-Wide heads both retain the freedom to achieve sweeping 3D HD sequences that, for the viewer, almost amount to flying. Visit www.polecam.com
3D Mixers, Monitors from Panasonic Panasonic Broadcast continues its launch of 3D related product with its NAB debut of a low-cost HD/ SD/ 3D HD digital A/V mixer and 25.5-inch 3D LCD production monitor. The new AG-HMX100, a low-cost HD/SD/ 3D HD digital A/V mixer supports multiple camera workflows, from production, to corporate A/V projects, to wedding and live events. The HMX100 offers an array of interfaces including four HD/ SD-HDI inputs/outputs, two HDMI inputs and two analogue composite inputs. Additional connections include a DVI-I input for computer use, two DVI-D outputs (PGM and Multi-Viewer), a microphone input, dual aux in and audio outputs, a headphone jack, as well as connections for genlock, GPI, RS232C and tally output. In addition to the ability to mix embedded audio from HD/SD-SDI camcorders and other and sources, the HMX100 offers eight XLR and two RCA connectors for line level audio inputs, as well as embedded audio output and two channels of analogue audio out. The HMX100 mixer will be available in June at a suggested list price of US$5,800. Meanwhile, Panasonic’s new BT-3DL2550 25.5inch 3D LCD production monitor with full 1920 x 1200 resolution is designed for 3D monitoring in the field. The BT-3DL2550 provides a durable, production-tough LCD panel package with dual HD-SDI and DVI interfaces and a ruggedised frame complete with green and red tally lamps on the front panel. It also has an embedded audio decoder on board (through its headphone jack), time code display, closed caption (through video input only) and the audio level meter display of up to eight channels. The 3D monitor can connect directly to Panasonic’s full HD 3D camcorder and other 3D cameras via HD-SDI inputs and NLE systems via its two HD-SDI or DVI-D inputs. It displays 3D content using an Xpol polarising filter, so content can be viewed with polarising (passive) 3D eyeglasses. It switches from Left to Right image display, overlay, Left and Right two window display and 3D. The BT-3DL2550 3D production monitor will be
26 The Third Dimension
3D Field Fibre Transport System MultiDyne (Booth C7637), a provider of fibre optic-based video and audio transport and routing solutions for broadcast and pro A/V applications, will introduce a new Lightbox 3D field fibre transport system at this year’s NAB. With the explosion of 3D in the broadcast industry, MultiDyne has reconfigured its popular Lightbox solution to serve this growing market. MultiDyne’s new Lightbox 3D addresses the unique transport needs of 3D production while maintaining the unparalleled ruggedness and configurability of the standard Lightbox. The Lightbox 3D provides a natural evolution path for crews looking to stay ahead of the game when purchasing new 3D-ready equipment. With more signal paths for HD video, audio and data, the Lightbox 3D can be configured for even the most complicated 3D shoots. Fully customisable and offering virtually any signal configuration, the Lightbox 3D can also be linked via tactical fibre cable to the MultiDyne DVM-2500, HD-1500, HD-3000 and HEMC-4000. Providing a high-quality signal throughput and the opportunity to integrate almost any solution from the MultiDyne product line, including the new DVI-6000 and COMMS-2000 products, the Lightbox 3D system offers users endless possibilities and flexibility. Further, the Lightbox 3D solution is equipped with an extremely rugged case, making it highly weatherproof for outdoor and remote location broadcasting. Visit www.multidyne.com
There’s no mistaking the look produced by the Grass Valley™ LDK 8000 Elite Multi Format High Definition Camera. With three 9.2-million pixel native switching HD-DPM+™ CCDs, 14-bit A/D sampling, 34-bit digital signal processing resolution and, with WorldCam support for 1080p50/60, this
3D Over IP Solutions T-VIPS (Booth SU 6721), a global leader in professional video contribution and distribution solutions, has announced that it will expand its market presence through the NAB launch of new 3D, JPEG2000-based video transport, ATSC and video processing & switching solutions. “3D and IP are going to be the major talking points at NAB and we have the right feature set to be very successful in both areas,” said Johnny Dolvik, CEO, T-VIPS. At NAB 2010, T-VIPS will be demonstrating its full range of video processing and transport products including: - the US debut of the TVG450 video gateway - a range of ATSC ready video processing and management products - the IP enabled CP525 cMUX product - 3D over IP video gateways. Visit www.t-vips.com
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multi-purpose yet highly affordable camera produces a picture so stunning that it will have you looking twice.
For more information, please visit www.grassvalley.com/ldk8000_elite Back To Contents Page
It’s Gotta Be A Grass! Visit us at NAB 2010 Booth SL106
Acquisition
Shoot. Edit. Share.
Postcards from the Edge
Now faster with Sony NXCAM and XDCAM EX.
ACQUISITION
Waikato Institute Learns Lessons with JVC The Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) is one of New Zealand’s largest Institutes of Technology/ Polytechnics and a leading provider of high quality, vocational and professional education in the Waikato region. With seven campuses throughout the region and a history spanning more than 80 years, Wintec is an integral part of the region, serving the needs of students, employers and the wider community. One of Wintec’s more popular courses is Moving Image. John Mandelberg, Wintec’s Coordinator/Tutor Moving Image at the School of Media Arts, already had some experience with JVC ProHD cameras having previously worked with both GY-HD101E and GY-HD200E models. He said, “I really liked the ProHD cameras and that helped when we did our research as I knew what I could expect. We also tried every other manufacturer’s comparable products evaluating cost versus functionality. This included reading assessments given by top DOPs, for example the ones who shot the ‘24’ TV series and the JVCs really stood out from the crowd. I particularly liked the fact that you could fit prime lenses.” As Wintec is an educational facility Mandelberg had to be very careful about recommending a new product if the cost of media was going to be prohibitive for students. He explained, “Again, the JVCs won against their competition. We looked at the JVC GY-HM700E
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3rd year Wintec Moving Image students shooting a short film called Long Weekend directed by Tom Horton.
and the fact that it uses low cost SDHC cards was a real bonus. I already had two 720p cameras which were great but with the upgraded GY-HM700E I could now also shoot in native .mov, quickly transfer into Final Cut Pro and back up to DVD so easily.” As Wintec’s Moving Image courses include editing Mandelberg saw real advantages with the fact that the GY-HM700E (and its sister model the
GY-HM100E) could record files directly to solid state media in the native format used by Apple’s Final Cut Pro editing system and in XDCAM-EX format for use with other editing systems. Mandelberg said, “There is big value in being able to shoot to edit straight away. Also the students really enjoy the over cranking and under cranking possibilities for slow-mo and sharper crisper movement you get with the GY-HM700E. It’s also very easy to import into After Effects.” The GY-HM700E cameras were sold to Wintec by JVC’s NZ dealer Gencom Technology. Mandelberg said, “Gencom brought a few different cameras down for us to test and put through their paces and as we found out, the JVCs won in terms of cost, functionality and future proofing. Gencom were very helpful. In total we purchased six GY-HM700E with Fujinon lenses which makes eight cameras in total with our existing GY-HD101E and GD-HD200E models.” According to Mandelberg the GY-HM700E will form the basis of the Moving Image course’s training for the next few years. He concluded, “This year the GY-HM700E is the only camera used on the Moving Image course – it’s that good. We are also looking at studio cameras, as we are building a studio and the JVC’s are again very high on the list.” Visit www.jvcpro-australia.com
Lateral Linking Powers Up with Blueshape Magna Systems and Engineering recently provided Blueshape batteries to RF specialist Lateral Linking Broadcast to use in their broadcast microwave links, wireless cameras and broadcast communications at three high profile golfing tournaments across Australia. Lateral Linking Broadcast Managing Director Greg Roberts explained, “After a long association with another manufacturer we wanted to trial the Blueshape batteries to see just how good they were in a real life situation, rather than just a test environment. So we really put them through their paces in harsh environments and I’m happy to say they performed very well indeed.” Lateral Linking used the Blueshape BV210 battery packs capable of 210Wh and part of the Blueshape V-lock battery range which is designed and manufactured in Europe with the highest energy density in terms of Wh per unit weight or volume.
28 Acquisition
Blueshape BV210 battery packs are also encased in flame retardant plastic for additional safety. Roberts continued, “The big problem at sporting events is getting significant run time from the batteries so as not to interrupt production. The Blueshape batteries gave us this and much more. In fact they ran for an extraordinary amount of time giving us
longer runs on air and far less chance of failure at a crucial moment.” The Lateral Linking team used the Blueshape batteries at the PGA Golf Championship in Coolum, The Australian Open in Sydney and The Australian Masters in Melbourne won by world number one Tiger Woods. Roberts concluded, “On the Masters, our set-up included the transmitter, camera and battery all connected as a single unit so each cameraman was a true one man portable operation. All of the camermen said the Blueshape batteries performed very well indeed. From our point of view, as they are V-lock batteries they integrate into our current systems easily, their chargers are interoperable and there is no need to change any of our existing infrastructure. All-in-all I can’t speak highly enough of the Blueshape batteries and we will definitely be buying some more in the future.” Visit www.magnasys.tv and www.lateral-linking.com.au
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From the African savannahs, to a home-grown documentary, there’s no better way to capture your story than with Sony NXCAM and XDCAM EX camcorders. Featuring the latest in file based technology and a choice of recording media* (SxS, Memory Stick, and SD) for direct interfacing, you will experience faster workflow and easy connectivity with peripheral devices. Along with longer recording times and a range of advanced creative features such as Slow and Quick motion, customised picture profiles and gamma curves for superior image reproduction, NXCAM and the new additions to the XDCAM EX range will change the way your stories are shot, edited, and shared.
HXR-NX5P (1/3 - inch)
For more information email us at production.au@ap.sony.com *Recording media compatibility is dependent on model.
PMW-350 (2/3 - inch)
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PMW-EX1R (1/2 - inch)
sony.com.au/production
rentals
knowledge
sales
workflow design
system integration
Acquisition
FujiFilm in Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq war drama “The Hurt Photo Courtesy of Summit Entertainment. Locker” was triumphant at the 82nd Academy Awards, winning six Oscars including best picture, director, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing and writing (original screenplay). The movie about a US Army bomb disposal squad in Baghdad was shot exclusively on 16mm Fujifilm ETERNA 500T 8673 and ETERNA 250D 8663 negative stocks and follows the success of last year’s best picture and cinematography winner, Slumdog Millionaire – also shot on Fujifilm motion picture film stock. The Hurt Locker also led the winners of this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Navicella’ - Venezia Cinema Award. The film also Arts (BAFTA) awards, handed out at London’s featured at the Toronto Film Festival, where it was Royal Opera House. The film took the honours for listed as being among the ‘top 6 picks’ of the festival. best film, best director, original screenplay, editing, Director of Photography from The Hurt Locker, cinematography and sound. Barry Ackroyd BSC explained more about the film, The film has also won several other prestigious “Director, Kathryn Bigelow, approached me because awards including the Signis Award at the 65th Venice she’d seen my work on United 93 and her brief was International Film Festival, the Arca Cinemagiovani to make the film as visceral as possible. I tried to bring Award (Arca Young Cinema Award) for ‘Best Film my experience to the project; I’d done documentaries Venezia 65’ (chosen by an international youth jury); on explosives before. We went to shoot in Jordan and the Human Rights Film Network Award; and the ‘La
Moving Specials!
it was like mad dogs and Englishmen because we shouldn’t have been out there in that heat. We created long time lines where each scene was a story in long, continuous takes. I got heat stroke; in fact everybody got sick. We shot, even the night scenes, with four cameras on Super 16 and it was almost entirely hand-held. There’s an almost classic structure to the film, but we tried to make it look very dynamic and real. It was a phenomenal crew and we were so lucky to have some great operators. We’ve also shot masses of coverage – a 100:1 ratio. Fujifilm should be very pleased!” Fujifilm itself also received an Academy Award from in the Scientific and Engineering category. The award was given in recognition of the significant picture quality and workflow improvements made possible in the moviemaking process through the development of Fujicolor ETERNA-RDI, the first motion picture film in the world designed specifically for use in converting digital image data to negative film. Visit www.fujifilm.com/products/motion_picture/ index.html
Sony HXRNX5P Starter Pack
Panasonic HPX302 Camcorder Kit
$5,950
$12,900
inc GST
inc GST
Avid Media Composer V4 Software Pack Receive 2 FREE Audio Monitors!
$2,995
inc GST
I-MOVIX, Vision Research Team on Ultra-Slo-Mo I-MOVIX has announced an ongoing partnership with Vision Research to provide a line of ultra-slow-motion solutions for broadcasters. Collaboration between New Jersey-based high-speed camera manufacturer Vision Research and I-MOVIX has already produced the new SprintCam Vvs HD system. Combining the renowned quality and usability of I-MOVIX’s SprintCam technology and Vision Research’s Phantom v series camera range, SprintCam Vvs HD operates at frame rates from 25 to 2,700 fps in 1080i50 or from 25 to 5,800 fps in 720p60, and provides instant replay at native HD resolution and image quality. “Working with I-MOVIX allows Vision Research to continue to focus on what we do best — building digital high-speed cameras,” said Rick Robinson, vice president of marketing, Vision Research. “Over
the past few years, these cameras have seen growing use in ultra-slow-motion applications for broadcast. We’ve added some features to the cameras to make them more appealing in the broadcast market, but rely upon partners like I-MOVIX to help provide a true ‘broadcast ready’ solution.” Specially designed for live broadcast use, SprintCam Vvs HD can be specified in a standard camera version or optimized for shoulder-mounted portable shooting, providing an outstanding level of convenience and creativity in ultra-slow-motion action. Some of the new features include a dual output allowing the camera operator to shoot and record at the same time, segmented memory, a replay variable speed function for setting up speedramps in playback to seamlessly transition from live action to super slow-motion and back), and
integration of both live- and replay-view on the viewfinder. “Our relationship with Vision Research extends the range of choices available to customers seeking an industry-leading ultra-slow-motion system,” said Laurent Renard, CEO of I-MOVIX. “Vision Research’s latest-generation Phantom camera delivers very high performance and is the camera-of-choice for many broadcasters and filmmakers. Now customers will be able to use Phantom as part of a fully integrated and easy to use broadcast-ready SprintCam system. The SprintCam Vvs HD is available for sale as a fully broadcast-integrated out-of-the-box product or, for those who already own a Phantom camera, as a customized full broadcast integration solution.” Visit www.i-movix.com
After 16 years we have moved to a bigger and better Melbourne showroom! Our new showroom is open from 10 March, 2010 at 148 Highbury Road, Burwood VIC 3125. Come and check out our new showroom and take advantage of these fantastic opening specials.
ARRI Premieres Alexa Digital Camera ARRI has unveiled the working prototype of ALEXA, its new digital camera system, to over 200 of the industry’s most respected Directors of Photography at the AFC (Association of French Cinematographers) annual event, Micro Salon. In a packed auditorium DoP Frank van Vught presented the concept and design of ALEXA, along with the latest material shot with ALEXA.
The ALEXA is based on the ARRI designed, fully encapsulated CMOS sensor, which offers a base sensitivity equivalent to 800 ASA, low noise and a latitude that exceeds 13 stops. However, ARRI says the main advantage of ALEXA will be an easy workflow which will be announced at NAB. Visit www.arridigital.com
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Panasonic HPX302A Camcorder Kit
Avid Media Composer V4 Software Pack
Sony HXRNX5P AVCHD Camcorder Sony NPF970 battery 32GB Sandisk Ultra SDHC card (up to 10 hours record time) Kata CC193 carry case
AG-HPX302 P2 HD/SD 1/3” 3MOS camcorder Rode NTG-1 Shotgun Mic 32GB E series P2 card IDX PV2 V-lock battery plate Call for bonus deal on a Fujinon wide angle lens!
Purchase Avid Media Composer v4 Software pack for our special price and receive a pair of M-Audio Studio BX5A Deluxe audio monitors, worth $550, for FREE!
Special Price
Special Price
Special Price
$5,950 inc GST
$12,900 inc GST
$2,995 inc GST (SAVE $300)
These Moving Specials are available at all Videocraft stores.
VC10201/C&T
30 Acquisition
After the presentation, a series of hands-on demonstrations of the ALEXA were given to top French DOPs, Bruno Delbonnel (AFC, ASC), Eric Gautier (AFC), Denis Lenoir (AFC, ASC), and Michel Abramowicz (AFC). The ALEXA is the first model in a new generation of digital cameras, suitable for features, television dramas, commercials and pop-promos.
Sony HXRNX5P Starter Pack
melbourne 03 9888 8511 sydney 02 9436 3050 canberra 0406 423 428 Visit our website at www.videocraft.com.au
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Acquisition
Videocraft Puts Sparkle into Magical Tales
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William the Wizard & Sparkles the Fairy make magic.
After the success of their recent TV series Larry the Lawnmower (aka Larry), according to production company Ambience Entertainment’s producer on the show Monica O’Brien, there were only two things that were guaranteed for the company’s next project ‘William & Sparkles’ Magical Tales’, “The XDCAM workflow we developed for Larry and using Videocraft for the equipment and support!” Magical Tales is a series aimed at pre-school children where the audience is invited into the world of Sparkles the Fairy and William the Wizard. Magical Tales consists of 46 x 30-minute episodes to be aired on Channel 9 throughout March and April, Monday to Friday at 3.30pm. Monica O’Brien explained, “The workflow we developed with Videocraft for Larry was not only unique but incredibly efficient. We had a couple of extra challenges with Magical Tales though, which meant that process had to be further expanded.” One of the main differences was that Larry the Lawnmower was based around a single camera drama workflow whereas Magical Tales was to use a multi-camera ‘switching live to tape’ workflow. “In addition to the change of workflows we also shot Magical Tales at Down Under Studios in Mount Kuringai, a great location but with no OB set-up for multi camera shoots,” added O’Brien. “I went straight to Videocraft and asked if we could do a multicamera switching show on XDCAM HD and if we could set up our own mini production system at the studio as they had no OB facilities.” Liell and his team proposed Videocraft’s unique Fly Away Production kit. “Or Mobile Production System as it’s also known,” said Liell. “The system is all based around the Panasonic AV-HS400 HD/SD Vision Switcher and literally comes in one portable roadcase. The real beauty of this system is that it acts as a hub allowing up to an 8-camera set up and clients can use any camera in the Videocraft range from the PMWEX1 XDCAM EX camera and Panasonic HPX302s to the SONY HDC1500 studio
32 Acquisition
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Videocraft supplied cameras and Fly Away Mobile Production System on the set of Magical Tales.
cameras. The system is easy to configure with colourcoded connectors, has a lot of flexibility and is used in many configurations. The Panasonic AV-HS400 accepts a variety of video and PC input options and up or down converts and scales the signal to suit the programme format. In this instance we even fed the electronic slates from director Ian Munroe’s MacBook Pro straight into the switcher and it all worked perfectly in HD.” The Videocraft Fly Away system allowed a three XDCAM HD multi-camera set up with the on-set Technical Director controlling all three cameras. In addition director Ian Munroe was able to switch the live camera feed which was also being recorded. “This meant we went into post with a rough cut ready to go and with the ability to re-edit it with
individual camera feeds,” said O’Brien. “It’s also the first time Ambience has used the XDCAM HD workflow in this configuration, and it was seamless. Utlising Sony’s XDCAM transfer application, we were again able to transfer the files faster than realtime into Final Cut Pro to deliver a fast-turnaround offline cut which really pays dividends, especially in post.” Ambience used PDW700 and PDWF800 cameras which, according to O’Brien, did the job perfectly. She added, “We controlled and pointed cameras as we went. We then recorded to the PDWHD1500 XDCAM deck that we bought from Videocraft for Larry and also recorded ISO to each camera, which is an efficient and affordable alternative to traditional triax or fibre studio cameras and ISO VTR machines. At the end of the day’s shooting we got a main switched master tape which was 90% fit for broadcast, however having all that extra coverage from the ISO recordings on XDCAM makes it much faster to find the shots you need to finish it off.” Omnilab Media’s CornerPost facility provided the post-production workflow by embracing the Final Cut Pro-ProRes offline path utilising the file-based workflow directly off the XDCAM Professional Disc media. This allowed them to work in ProRes reducing storage requirements without compromising image quality. Then, instead of re-ingesting all tapes at conform, CornerPost did a direct playout to HDCAM and XDCAM masters for audio playout. O’Brien added, “We used the low cost PDWU1 XDCAM disk drive from Videocraft for ingest. Normally you need one Digi Beta deck at the studio and one at the post house which equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in kit. With our XDCAM workflow the deck is in the studio and the disk drive was at CornerPost for a fraction of that cost. There was no need to colour grade as the cameras were matched and painted by the CCU operator at the studio which also meant that we could turn an entire episode around in 48 hours including mastering out to XDCAM HD and HDCAM. We even pulled promotional stills off the HD footage as the quality was so good!” Andy Liell added, “In addition to the Fly Away full multi-camera production system we also supplied tallies, intercom, camera control, video distribution technical and production monitoring. Ambience is very forward thinking in terms of efficiencies so we were very pleased to be able to help them achieve exactly what was required in terms of working within their budget and timeframe.” Monica O’Brien concluded, “As a producer you want things to be as easy and painless as possible. In the case of Magical Tales, Andy and Rentals Manager Nick Gleeson showed up, installed the kit within two hours and we started shooting by the end of the day. The fact is, by using this type of workflow and expertise, shooting in HD is simply not expensive any more and by using Videocraft it’s also problem free.”
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JVC’s new GY-HM700E camera. Now, you can have it all. The GY-HM700E camera creates native QuickTime files at 35 Mbps, 25 Mbps or 19 Mbps for editing in Final Cut Pro and MP4 compatible files for editing on virtually every other major NLE system. Dual card slots allow you to store up to six hours of continuous HD recording on inexpensive, readily available memory cards. Simultaneous recording on high-speed SxS media is also possible.*3 In addition, JVC’s proprietary codec delivers broadcast-standard compression for superb picture quality up to 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 1080i and 720p. You can also count on professional optics and standard features like a bayonet lens mount, a new Canon HD lens, three progressive CCDs, a new 1.22 megapixel LCOS viewfinder and a large 4.3-inch LCD display. Weighing just 4.6kg*4, you’ll find the GY-HM700E is perfectly balanced with the ergonomic design sought after by professionals.
Talk to the Pros at JVC and check out the new ProHD GY-HM700E camera. Call 02 93708967 or visit www.jvcpro.com.au
Dual Format Recording OR
© 2009 JVC. Model pictured is the GY-HM700UXT with optional Anton Bauer battery. All trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective proprietors.*1 Play back compatibility not guaranteed on different types of products due to variation of supported recording mode. *2 MP4 is the compliant file format used on the XDCAM EX.™ *3 SxS is a flash memory card designed for professional video cameras with a high-speed PCI Express interface. *4 A. Weight calculated using camera, Canon 14x lens, viewfinder, microphone, KAMR100G SxS recorder and adapter, and battery. B. Model pictured GY-HM700E with optional SxS recorder and battery.
JVC Australia NSW/ACT 02 9370 8841 VIC/TAS 03 8756 7933 QLD/WA/SA/NT 02 9370 8967/8817 www.jvcpro.com.au Back To Contents Page
Acquisition Acquisition?NAB Preview
LCD Monitors & Micro HD Camera Penta (Booth N1023) will be introducing its new product family of HD2line LCD monitors at NAB this year, the HD2line Pro. The new monitors will deliver even greater accuracy in meeting the growing needs of broadcasters and production companies for color accuracy and monitoring. Lux Media Plan HD 1200 Micro Camera As exclusive representative of the Lux Media Plan product line of high-end specialty cameras in North America, Penta will be introducing the Lux Media Plan HD 1200 remote-control high-definition camera system. This micro-sized camera is one of the smallest HD cameras available and is designed to capture the excitement and intensity of sports and concerts as well as expand the opportunities for filming within tight spaces. It delivers impressive performance and robust features in a small housing with progressive resolutions up to 1080p and can be controlled remotely over long distances. Visit www.penta-web.com
Mini Joystick Control Camera Corps to launch New Mini Joystick Control at NAB Show 2010 Shepperton-based Camera Corps, a global leader in robotic camera control systems, has chosen the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas for the worldwide launch of its new ultra-compact Mini Joystick Control. Mini Joystick Control is compatible with all Camera Corps and Egripment pan and tilt heads, including the award-winning Camera Corps Q-Ball. “Mini Joystick Control was developed for applications such as commentator- camera control or for outside-broadcast vehicles where desk space is often very restricted,” comments Camera Corps’ founder and Managing Director Laurie Frost. “It is extremely easy to use and ideal for fast-response onair operation. The joystick and control buttons have the same tactile responsiveness as those on our fullsize controller, including fully adjustable pan, tilt and zoom speeds and reverses. Zoom is controlled by rotary twist of the joystick. Up to five separate heads can be operated from a single panel. Reverse settings and control speeds for each of the five channels can be stored in non-volatile internal memory.” “The standard Camera Corps audio data communication system is employed to allow unlimited operating distances between Mini Joystick Control and the remote heads,” adds Technical Director Jim Daniels. “Each of the five channels has its own red and green cue/ tally light switch. Individual channels can be locked to prevent inadvertent alteration of presets. Focus can be remote-adjusted manually or switched between manual and automatic when used with cameras that support these features.” Mini Joystick Control operates from 9 to 18 V DC power adapter or battery. Total panel dimensions are 190 x 140 x 110 mm. Weight is 400 g. Visit www.cameracorps.co.uk
34 Acquisition/NAB Acquisition Preview
Acquisition/NAB Preview
Lights and Batteries
Robotic Camera Systems Shotoku Broadcast Systems (C 8615), a well-established leader in both manual and robotic camera support, will present a compliment of high-capacity control panels at NAB 2010 with a series of new features including SD/HD support, wide screen layout, and customisable display options. Shotoku will also target single-operator productions with a uniquely small but high-precision unit. The panels will be shown alongside the Company’s Orchestra Camera Management System, now available with an integrated live-video touch screen option, its flagship TRP-100 fully robotic studio pedestal, and its full range of robotic and VR sensor Pan/Tilt heads. TR-T Touch Control system, the latest generation touch control panel capable of controlling both Shotoku and third party robotic cameras systems, is now also available in 16:9 widescreen configuration making it ideal for use in HD studio environments as it integrates with most HD/SDI routers. The high-resolution widescreen VGA touch screen uses the latest seamless glass Acoustic Pulse technology to provide exceptional accuracy and durability over many years of intensive use without ever needing recalibrating. Further enhancements to the system include a completely configurable screen layout supporting 16 cameras, able to be controlled by a single operator position, and displayed in any configuration to suit the particular requirements of the program. TR-HP Hot Panel The very latest control panel from Shotoku, the TR-HP, offers a uniquely small footprint while maintaining high-precision joystick control. The three-axis joystick and rotary control knob enables the operator to make perfect on-air movements of pan, tilt, zoom and focus. With up to 12 assignable, LED-illuminated keys, several switch functions are also available. TR-S High Capacity Flexible Control Panel The flexible Type-S is a high capacity remote control panel that expands to support up to 16 camera channels making it ideal for even the largest parliament, legislature, or TV studio systems. New setup facilities enable key features and performance characteristics to be modified from the control panel itself. The Orchestra Camera Management System (CMS), a powerful and leading solution for the automation of remote camera control will be demonstrated with an integrated live-video touch screen option for the first time at NAB. Using real-time video images of the meeting room, an operator may command multiple broadcast cameras to acquire shots of a selected speaker or area of interest simply by touching the relevant area on the live video “spotter camera” image. Shotoku will also demonstrate its full range of robotic pedestals and VR sensor Pan/Tilt heads together with a new compliment of manual equipment including a Head and Tripod system, Fluid Head, and TwoStage Pedestal. Visit www.shotoku.tv
Ultra Slo-Mo I-Movix (Booth C4644) will exhibit new products and developments in its industry-leading ultra-slow-motion range, used by top sports broadcasters, documentary crews, movie makers, and commercials producers around the world. SprintCam Vvs HD I-Movix will launch SprintCam Vvs HD, a new ultra-slow-motion system for live HD broadcast production. Featuring the outstanding quality, performance and usability of SprintCam technology, SprintCam Vvs HD operates at frame rates from 25 to 2,500 fps (up to 100 times slower than the live action) and provides instant replay at native high-definition resolution and image quality. Two versions of the SprintCam Vvs HD are offered: a standard camera version, or optimised for shouldermounted portable shooting, providing an unprecedented level of convenience and creativity in ultra-slowmotion action. The SprintCam Vvs HD system comprises: the latest generation of high-speed HD camera; an operational control panel providing real broadcast quality color matrix and control of frame rate choice; a slow motion remote allowing the user to select a video sequence and instantly replay it with an HD-SDI output for live broadcast or storage on any SDI recorder for a later use; and the camera control unit, providing control of the slow-motion instant replay, camera control, and data interface between camera, EVS server, or SDI recorder. SprintCam V3 HD — New Features I-Movix will show a new version of the SprintCam V3 HD, with enhanced functionality including image capture at frame rates of between 150 to 2,000 fps (6 - 80 times slower than live action) and instant replay in high definition (1080i resolution). First launched at the 2009 NAB Show and renowned for its unique combination of outstanding image quality; light sensitivity; flexible broadcast integration; and easy, out-of-the-box operation, SprintCam V3 HD’s enhanced feature offering now includes: simultaneous capture and record; built-in intercom; integration of live and replay views in the viewfinder; segmented memory; a more compact 2U camera control unit housing; flexible EVS Multicam integration; auto-clip to enable mark-in to mark-out replay from the camera control unit; a digital lens interface for better iris and lens switch control; and added flexibility in the viewfinder interface to accommodate either Sony CRT or Grass Valley. Visit www.i-movix.com
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Anton/Bauer (Booth C6025), a brand of The Vitec Group, is celebrating its 40th anniversary and will showcase its full product line at NAB, with special debuts of the Tandem 150 Modular Power System and its new ULHM-LED and EledZ LED light solutions. A highlight of the show for Anton/Bauer will include the unveiling of an advanced new 120 watt-hour battery with a 10 amp draw for even longer run times. With unique new features for maximum power-saving, this battery can be stored for years without losing capacity. Making its NAB debut, the Tandem 150 Modular Power System brings users more power supply options during on-location or outdoor shoots. Weighing just one pound, the Tandem 150 unit is the smallest and lightest charger and oncamera power supply available on the market. This fully automatic system functions by separating the Gold Mount device (QR-TM) from the power supply (PSU-150), allowing a user to simultaneously charge
a battery and power a camera. When a 75 watt draw is exceeded, the system automatically stops charging and performs solely as a 150 watt power supply. When the camera is turned off or the load is reduced below 75 watts, the Tandem 150 system instantly resumes normal operation, as a simultaneous charger/power supply. Users can operate the system
from the AC Mains at 100 to 240 volts AC or 50-60 Hz. The Tandem 150 system also provides ultimate flexibility for shoots in isolated areas, with two unique methods of charging - the award-winning Anton/Bauer Solar Panel or a vehicle power outlet. Anton/Bauer’s EledZ and ULHM-LED lights will be making their first NAB appearance at this year’s show. Developed by Anton/Bauer with sister Vitec group brand, Litepanels, these LED light modules complement Anton/Bauer’s existing UltraLight Series and ElipZ battery systems. Both lights are designed to maximise HD camera battery run time by successfully cutting down the total power consumption of a user’s lights. A 3200k filter is included with each light, allowing for quick changes to properly match colour temperatures. The LEDs provide heat free and flicker free soft light of 5600K, ideal for many applications while consuming very little battery power. Visit www.antonbauer.com
LED Luminaires Gekko Technology (Booth C3743), a world-leading manufacturer of high-efficiency LED lighting systems for film and television production, will be introducing two major additions to its range at NAB. Designated kazia 50 and kazia 200, both are hard-source LED luminaires based on Gekko’s kleer-colour light engine, with variants for film and television as well as entertainment. “The kazia 50 and 200 offer film and television lighting directors and cameramen precise tuneable whites and dimming under local or DMX control,” explains Gekko Technology Managing Director David Amphlett. “As well as tuneable whites in the 2,900 to 6,500 K range, the entertainment version can also produce millions of other colours. The capacity of the lamp to generate high quality whites reduces the need for multiple sources with different capabilities.” The kazia 50 is comparable in output brightness to a 400 W tungsten fresnel lamp-head yet consumes only 50 W of electrical power. The kazia 200 has a similar brightness to a 1 kW tungsten source whilst consuming only 190 W of power. Like all Gekko LED luminaires, the kazia 50 and 200 generate far less heat than more traditional fixtures. Both use unique colour-feedback technology which ensures consistent colour temperature quality as ambient conditions change or the unit ages. Colour temperature accuracy also remains constant as the light is dimmed. Visit www.gekkotechnology.com
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Acquistion/NAB Preview 35
News Operations
news OPERATIONS
Sydney-based creative studio zspace recently worked alongside Australia’s Seven Network on two largescale projects that ran simultaneously in production. zspace played an integral role as a ‘one stop shop’, creating the new look Seven News that premiered in early February. The project required zspace to Design and Build the entire graphics package in Vizrt (3D realtime graphics software) that consisted of over 200 pages/scenes to be created. The brief was to take the existing package and push it in a bold new dynamic direction, while maintaining a level of sophistication to reinforce Seven Networks reputation as market leaders in News & Current Affairs. From start to finish, this was all achieved (including going live on-air) in a very tight three weeks. This required the zspace team to hit the ground sprinting from the get go in order to design the entire package from scratch and have it built and tested in time for a smooth national roll out on Monday 8th February for the various News bulletins (11:30am, 4:30pm and 6pm). In order to ensure a smooth roll out was guaranteed,
zspace had an on-site broadcast implementation team working around the clock, based over at Seven Networks Martin Place studios. Tony Fox, Head of Graphics - News and Current Affairs, Seven Network said “It is not often that a design company is asked to deliver a broadcast
Network News brand design package only to find that three weeks out from the client’s on-air deadline, the brief had changed radically, from developing an evolution of an existing brand, to a complete and radical revolution. “zspace performed with a dedicated and passionate understanding of Channel Seven’s needs and to their credit were able to supply the designs for sign-off, pre production and Deko including the installation of the Viz animation elements all inside the three week window allowing us time to rehearse and importantly make our start of survey deadline. “It is their ability to understand our total spectrum of broadcast needs which enabled them to react quickly and with an honest and open integrity to resolve issues successfully that rose during design and implementation, and importantly assimilate effortlessly into our own environment during the project.” In addition to the Seven News roll out, the zspace team were required to build the new look (in Vizrt) for the Seven Network’s ‘Sunrise’ morning show. Visit www.zspace.com.au
Robots Behind News at Nine
When TCN-9 in Sydney decided to rebuild Studio 3 as a high-definition news studio, part of their requirement included a multiple installation of robotic camera heads. Magna Systems Product Specialist David Clemesha explained, “The team from Channel 9 came to us with their requirements for the new news studio and we suggested the Cambotics 520PT as the perfect solution. The 520PT has an offset tilt axis which greatly reduces the need for awkward counter-weights, while its 32kg load capacity easily accommodates large teleprompters. We did a full demo for the team and they really appreciated the smoothness, speed, precise control, and on-air move quality of the 520PT.” The demo also included the Cambotics touch screen user interface and Tekskil Studio prompters. Clemesha continued, “We showed the team the Cambotics User Interface which is a networked Windows PC based system used to control Cambotics robotics devices. The Cambotics Ethernet architecture is engineered for reliability, redundancy, flexibility and future expansion. Fewer boxes are required increasing reliability and simplifying installation. The UI also has a redundancy feature which allows for a
36 News Operations
fully redundant system configuration just by adding a second control point. The UI makes setting up a shot as easy as selecting a camera, framing a shot using joysticks and a focus knob then storing it by touching the screen. It appears as a thumbnail image and recalling it is just one simple touch away. The Tekskil Studio prompter is a rugged, lightweight LCD prompting system with improved brightness and contrast integrated with custom extruded, lightweight aluminium frame rails and docking hardware. The Tekskil Studio prompter also offers the industry’s only no-tools-required assembly for speedy setup in the studio. All in all the Channel 9 team were very pleased with the complete solution.” Studio 3 had one further design requirement - the
robotic heads were to be controlled by Sony ELC studio automation software. “This meant we had to do full testing to make sure that the Sony digital cameras and lenses would be able to be controlled using just one cable” explained Clemesha. “Once that was confirmed and after another full demo in Magna Systems’ demonstration and training room the deal was signed and the equipment delivered for installation and configuration.” Network Manager Broadcast Technology for Nine Network Australia, Charles Sevior said, “We discovered Cambotics robotic heads and pedestals at NAB a couple of years ago. We were delighted when Magna Systems took up the agency, so that we would be assured of excellent ongoing support and engineering assistance. The Cambotics touch screen UI and Tekskil Prompter solution proposed by Magna was the best available and the one that most closely suited our requirements. David and the team at Magna had a very good understanding of our needs for the new studio. I was very happy with Magna’s level of sales, service and support and am pleased to say the robotic heads and studio prompters are all working very efficiently.” Visit www.magnasys.tv
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© 2009 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, the Avid logo, Deko, iNEWS, Interplay, Sundance Digital are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Zspace Makes News on Seven
Avid HD news will save you money Explore These 10 Ways: Increased productivity from staff and systems
Broadcast Automation Sundance Digital : Keep the drama on the screens, not behind the scenes ®
Reduced editing suite time and costs More web-based revenue, same headcount Money-saving system consolidation Advanced third-party integration Support for more formats, workflows & users Dedicated, expert support teams Smarter storage management Lower production control costs Avid-quality and assurance These are just the beginning. To get an in-depth look at our Top 10 list and to learn more about how Avid can save you time and money, contact your local Avid reseller or visit www.avid.com/HDEconomy. Back To Contents Page
Newsroom Computer Systems iNEWS : Connect to newsroom production, communication and control ®
On Air Graphics Deko : Get the graphics power, integration and speed you need ®
Production Asset Management Interplay : Wherever you are, there it is. Gain the workflow advantage ®
News Operations
News Operations
Changing Times for Online News NYTimes.com
is the world’s largest newspaper website with more than 20 million unique monthly visitors. Marc Frons is Chief Technology Officer for Digital for the New York Times. His role involves product development and technology for NYTimes.com and other Times-branded digital properties, along with strategic input into other websites owned by the Times, including About.com, regional newspapers, and Boston.com. Until recently, Frons had been tracking the growing importance of social media and the future of news and information sites. “We decided to announce that we were going to start charging for content on NYTimes.com,” says Frons. “So, social media’s still a major theme but it’s impossible to discuss that without the mention of the paid model and the implications in that for the future of news. Paid content obviously has huge implications for news sites. “Until now most of us have believed that the best and probably the only way to succeed was by attracting as vast an audience as possible. And, to do that, you needed to be free. So how do we achieve that goal if all of our content is locked behind pay walls? “To answer that question I think we have to start from the premise that the future of quality journalism hinges on achieving the right balance between advertising revenue and subscription revenue. We think both are essential. And that strategy is really embodied in the innovation and the collaboration of the journalist, the technologist and the business executives throughout the Times.” NYTimes.com launched in 1996. Like a lot of other sites, it featured content that was originally created for the newspaper. “We just sort of shovelled it online,” says Frons, “almost as an afterthought. Nobody was going to pay for that online.” Twelve years later there are eight platforms for users to consume NYTimes content encompassing print, online and mobile. “The devices themselves, the user experience and, in many cases, the audience, are all very different,” says Frons. “Some are paid right now, some are free, some are free if you subscribe to the print product, but there are many more ways to distribute our content. And more will be coming very soon.” This year will see NYTimes launch an HTML5 version of its site on the new Apple iPad. According to Marc Frons, “It’s what we and many others consider to be a revolutionary device. We had a big advanced look at it and we sent
38 News Operations
<<
Marc Frons, Chief Technology Officer, NYTimes.com
All news is data and all data is potentially news
a team of developers out to Cupertino to work on our iPad app. It’s going to have offline reading capabilities. It’s really a platform that gives us exquisite topography, beautiful video, interactivity and graphics. The app takes full advantage of the iPad’s ability to render both portrait and landscape modes, dynamic page layout. “It’s really the best of print and web, print and digital in one package. To me it’s the first device that captures the portability, the convenience and the readability of print in a digital format, so it’s both very scary and very exciting for anyone who has a newspaper in a digital business. “For us the business model of this new app is still not set and we’re still deciding actually which content we’ll make available at launch but we expect it to be a paid app once the iPad platform matures.” Frons sees the technology as one that expands the possibilities for online journalism and what it means to be a news organisation. “In many ways,” he says, “the Times has been
preparing for the iPad and devices like it for several years.” Part of those preparations has been assembling a technical team which now numbers more than a hundred software developers and interactive designers who sit side by side with editors and reporters in the newsroom. “That collaboration, in my view,” says Marc Frons, “has produced an astonishing array of digital journalism, new ways of telling stories and interacting with our audience and really new ways of monetising content as well.” Some of the fruit of this editorial/programming collaboration has included an interactive game demonstrating the perils text messaging while driving, an interactive map of polluted water sites in the New York metro area allowing readers to search for polluted water sites near their communities, and a user-generated interactive word-train showing responses to the election of Barack Obama. Frons says that over the past two years NYTimes has embraced content sharing, reader participation, and social media on a number of platforms by sharing content on social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as its own social network, TimesPeople, which has nearly 600,000 active registered users. The plan is to expand TimesPeople into a news sharing network, under the name NewsPeople, which can be accessed as a traditional website or via a JavaScript-based browser toolbar. The company is also planning to work closely with Facebook. “We just see this is a kind of a new way people apprehend news and get news and share news and actually read it,” says Frons. “For some people, the Facebook wall becomes their de facto homepage. So, we as news sites really have to take advantage of that and think that through.” The Times was also one of the earliest adopters of Twitter as a distribution network. Today it has more than 200 Twitter feeds and upwards of 6.5 million followers. “In the newsroom itself,” says Frons, “we’ve created these Twitter lists, over 200 of them, generated Twitter feeds to help readers make better use of Twitter as a news and information source and we’re sort of blending that with our content.” The NYTimes team is also pioneering new ways for its readers to join the conversation such as an interactive series of virtual rooms to discuss issues such as the US healthcare debate, and photo submission and display tools. “Having captured our readers’ attention through
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search and social media, the challenge for us and other news sites has been how to continue to engage them once we have their attention. Engagement I think after all is that key metric for sites hopeful that their paid models, and their advertising models for that matter, will be a success. “It only makes sense in the paid world that people are more likely to subscribe to a product they use more often than one that they visit infrequently. So, engagement is the most important measure of how essential we are to our readers’ lives and at the Times we’ve started experimenting with many new ways to display and filter content to give our readers the most relevant and up to the minute news.” These initiatives include: Times Wire, a customisable near real-time news feed offers users the latest news and opinion from the site. The addition of real-time web elements such as Twitter feeds and blog posts that relate to stories published. Times Skimmer which functions like a desktop application in a web browser and allows readers to scroll through and customise the presentation of content with a click of a mouse. Presentation forms include headlines appearing as a refrigerator magnet. Times Reader, an Adobe AIR application which gives readers the readability of print with instant access to the web. The application has a sevenday archive of content as well as the latest news. Specialty applications such as a congressional legislation tracker. “It’s worth noting that these innovative applications are as compelling to advertisers as they are to readers,” says Frons. “We have what we call an innovation strategy around advertising where our technologists and our ad teams get together and brainstorm new products and think of new ways to engage readers and then market those to advertisers. “So a lot of these have had six-figure sponsorship at launch and have gone onto more than recoup their development cost. It’s been a great strategy for us. And, of course, we’ve extended our reach on all the major mobile platforms. Traffic to our mobile sites has more than doubled and continues to grow at an astonishing rate. “We have a saying at the Times that all news is data and all data is potentially news. So, a lot of our applications were made possible by a decision to really sort of try to treat our content as data. To do that we built a services-based technology platform, relied on a series of content and APIs or application program interfaces and, at first, these APIs were just used by our internal developers, they developed Times Skimmer and Times Wire and all these other things. But, then about a year ago we decided to open this up to the outside world and we said, well, it’s our content but we’ll give our external developers keys to this content. “So, the idea is to really leverage their passion
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>> iPad ready: a demo of NYTimes.com's digital newspaper reader with interactive crossword. and creativity to build compelling applications with our content, apps that we might not have thought of ourselves.” Today, NYTimes has 11 APIs, including an article search API which points visitor back to the NYTimes website. “It takes structure data such as movie reviews and recipes and restaurants and it exposes that in formats that make it easy to build applications, to combine data, to combine them with external APIs like Google Maps. “We have a robust developer network,” says Frons, “a blog written by developers for developers to have an in-depth developer community. We’ve got tools that make it easy to build the APIs and use them. And I think the results have really surpassed our expectations with 11,000 registered users. It’s really a small army of software developers when you think about it - and more than 100 useful applications on sites ranging from small public libraries to Apple. com. “Now, we don’t really have a breakout hit just yet but that’s not the point because we believe that just as we’ve tapped into the passion of our readers for user regenerated content, you know we can think about the passion and creativity of developers as well.” But, breakout hits can help pay the bills and, according to the NYTimes.com CTO, the key is engagement. “I think, you know, it’s obvious that an engaged audience is really essential and we work really hard to do that,” he says. “We really think that these engagement efforts have paid off. NYTimes.com has overtaken WSJ.com for the most time per visit spent on a news site. It is a key metric. Certainly, the social sites are much higher but as we become more social-like we expect engagement to increase. “So, finally, with such a compelling story to tell and online advertising beginning to come back it’s better to ask well why are you guys charging? The truth is when we really looked at it, we really can’t succeed through online advertising alone. It’s too big a burden to place on the organisation online. So, we really spent the past year thinking about how can we optimise? How can we find a balance
between subscription and advertising? “We looked at the three models for online paid content - subscriptions, one time purchase and micro-payments. We pretty much rejected micropayments because it really hasn’t proven itself to co-exist with an advertising model. This whole idea that people are going to pay by the chunk just as they buy songs on iTunes just hasn’t got much currency. “In the end we decided on a metered approach where we ask our users to pay only after they’ve accessed a certain number of articles per month. We haven’t figured out exactly how many yet, we’re sort of working on that. Readers accessing the Times through search and social media sites on the other hand will get the first clip free and maybe more than the first clip free depending on how work those platforms. So, that ensures wide distribution of our content through the internet. “We haven’t decided where we’re going to place that paid wall and we may elect to experiment how we can best achieve the optimal balance of traffic that we can monetise through advertising versus subscriptions. “And we haven’t really announced a price yet either. But we think it’s the most flexible system, right and the best chance of developing a robust dual revenue stream preserving our advertising business, maintaining scale and influence on the web. It’s also the most flexible approach because we can move that wall around and we can figure out different models, protect and unprotect certain content. “I think it’s one that encourages our most loyal readers to subscribe while we continue to access audiences through search and social media. “This is a bold undertaking for us. I don’t think it’s a model for every newspaper out there but we believe be successful because of the quality of our journalism, the innovative story-telling techniques that we pioneer, the interactivity of our site, the growing engagement of our audience, our aggressive use of social media to reach out to people to figure out how they’re really reading news today and how they want to read it and the growing engagement of our audience.” Visit www.NYTimes.com
News Operations 39
The new Axia IP-Intercom™ System.
Sportscasting
(Go ahead. Talk amongst yourselves.)
SPORTSCASTING
The new Axia IP-Intercom System. TM
(Go ahead. Talk amongst yourselves.)
GlobeCast Oz Beams Vancouver to the World During the Vancouver Winter Olympics, GlobeCast Australia, in consultation with Olympic Broadcast Services and Sky New Zealand, crafted a solution that would deliver Sky NZ’s unilateral needs, whilst establishing a successful platform for onward distribution to Europe, Asia and the Americas – to more than 50 takers in all - including broadcasters such as ESPN, European Broadcasting Union and Asia Broadcasting Union members, and to sports agencies such as IMG. Coverage was carried in both HD and SD, on multiple simultaneous channels. “This is the single biggest overseas deployment for global event delivery by GlobeCast Australia,” according to GlobeCast Australia Chief Executive Mike Lattin. “Whilst we work daily with major global broadcasters and events, it was quite humbling to be entrusted with an event that occurs once every 4 years and requires 24/7 transmission to every corner of the globe for two full weeks. GlobeCast Australia was moving an Olympic News Channel feed non-stop as well as live coverage of the various events. In all, it was an 8 channel multiplex. Project Director for the bid and delivery was GCA Commercial Director Andrew Nealon whilst the Project Managers were DSNG Director Greg Littrich - on location with a team of GlobeCast Australia engineers in Vancouver - and Operations Manager Peter Doueihi in the GlobeCast Australia Broadcast Centre in Sydney. The team put in place two completely diverse fibre routes from Vancouver to Sydney, one with SingTel and one with TATA. In addition, the teleport, fibre and satellite resources of GlobeCast Australia were employed. And a specific lease was taken on AsiaSat5 to supplement GlobeCast Australia’s permanent lease on AS5. The incoming fibre signals were being turned in the broadcast centre to AS5 and back to the northern hemisphere on fibre. Other major sporting coverages for GlobeCast Australia in 2010 so far have included all five major tennis tournaments around Australia in January, the Tour Down Under, Rugby 14s across South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and V8 Supercars from the Middle East. Project Director Andrew Nealon had the vision to put together the global delivery solution for the Winter Olympics. He notes that with major improvements in latency in recent years, moving signals around the globe can be customised to the most economical solution and that could well mean a signal moves to the southern hemisphere before being sent back smoothly to the northern hemisphere, as has 40 Sportscasting
>> >> Engineering Manager James Moody and Operations Manager Peter Doueihi in the GlobeCast Australia Sydney Broadcast Centre.
>> >> GlobeCast Australia’s team in Vancouver [L-R] engineer Chris Wright, Project Manager Greg Littrich and engineer Scott Long. Fourth team member not pictured: Matthew Pryer.
occurred with the Winter Olympics. Other parts of the GlobeCast Group picked up the signals from GlobeCast Australia to take responsibility for delivery over Europe and the Americas. Planning for the event including not only fibre redundancy arrangements, but also a Disaster Recovery scenario involving transmitting via DSNG units direct from the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Vancouver in the event of a critical failure at any crucial point in the network delivery plan. This DR plan was not required. Project Manager (Vancouver) Greg Littrich said a range of reputable equipment houses supplied the infrastructure to mount the encoding platform and racks including: Codan for routers, Talia for amplifiers, Evertz for amplifiers and monitoring, Marshall for monitoring panels, Tandberg for encoders, decoders and processors, Adtec for multiplexing and Ipitek for ASI conversion. Once equipment selection was made, three equipment racks were designed to order and accommodated the equipment into the desired configuration. The system was soak-tested for a further few weeks before shipment. During construction,
consideration was given to size and weight as once complete the entire system was to be shipped via air freight to Vancouver. The first two of the GlobeCast Australia 4-man crew arrived in Vancouver on 27th January and set about re-connecting the racks and equipment. All equipment powered-up without failure, so contingency time was used for additional testing and triple-checks prior to the full end-to-end fibres and satellite leases becoming operational on 7th February for successful delivery of the Games.
EQUIPMENT MAKE, MODEL & PURPOSE:
* Codan – NK-MD34 SD/HD Router used to route both input sources and monitoring of SD/HD SDI video and ASI. * Codan/Talia – E310 series SD SDI distribution amplifiers used to distribute input and monitoring SDI video sources. * Evertz – 7700 series HD SDI distribution amplifiers used to distribute input and monitoring SDI video sources. * Evertz – VIP32 Duo Multiviewer used to provide single-screen monitoring of multiple sources. * Marshall - V-R902DP-AFHD dual 9? HD/SD LCD monitor panels (x4) and 1 x V-R201P-AFHD 20? HD/SD LCD monitor used to view video sources at all levels (input, local-loop and return). * Marshall - AR-DM2-L Audio Monitor Bridge deembeds HD or SD audio to listen to any selected source. * Tandberg – E5714, E5720 & E5782 (HD) 18 x encoders all redundantly configured (1:1) with auto fail-over ASI switches between each pair. * Tandberg – TT1220, TT1260 & RX1290 (HD) 17 x decoders (15:2 redundancy) monitoring local encoder loop-back and return ASI feed of Asiasat5 downlink from Sydney. * Tandberg - TT6120 2 x Transport Stream Processors to split the total mux output into 2 x ASI streams for the Disaster Recovery scenario. Total mux output needs to be split for DR because the single ASI payload is too large for a single DR DSNG’s to uplink. * Adtec – DTA-3050 multiplexers configured in 1:1 redundancy with an additional “cold spare” in the rack. Combine/multiplex the multiple encoder ASI outputs into a single ASI transport stream. * Ipitek – MSP-110 network adapter units configured in 1:1 redundancy convert the ASI input from the mux into light for the handover to fibre. Visit www.globecast.com.au
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Now hear this •
Where there’s a wire •
If you can hear it, you should be able to record it, edit it, or get it on the air. If you can talk to it, you should be able to cue it and feed it mix-minus IFB. Anything else is tin cans on a string. IP-Intercom puts no barriers between your broadcast audio and your communications channels. Unlimited full-bandwidth access to any studio, news or sports venue, office, hallway, broom closet or latrine — if that’s what you’re into. Talk and listen to individuals or groups hands-free, with no echo or feedback.
Gab On
The advantages of IP and Ethernet – low cost, easy installation and maintenance, efficient infrastructure – are a given. IP links everything, and now this includes your intercom system. Installation is a simple single-click connection. And you can expand it like breeding rabbits. Plug as many stations into your switch as you want and add on from there. Then start talking. And if you move to a new location, no biggie — just pick up the gear and take it with you. IP-Intercom is portable so there’s no expensive hard-wired custom-cable multi-pair infrastructure mess to deal with.
Buzz Off •
Don’t have an Axia system? That’s OK. You can still save money, increase efficiency, and decrease the hard-wired infrastructure hassle by choosing IP-Intercom. It’s a stand-alone system with I/O that will accommodate multiple consoles. But if you do have an Axia system, you’ll get more operational goodies like seamless console integration with these nifty drop-in modules. We’re just sayin’.
Gab Off • We believe only Hula dancers should need their hands to talk. Broadcast communications ought to be natural and hands-free. That’s why the Axia Intercom incorporates Advanced Echo Cancellation by Fraunhofer Labs. It literally eliminates open-mic feedback without speaker muting. Just open a channel and start talking. You can use your hands for more important things, like endorsing checks, signing autographs, or Wii bowling.
Plays well with others •
The last thing you need during a breaking story or transmitter failure is hum and buzz getting between you and the guy you need to talk to. Like all Axia gear, our intercom system is completely digital inside and out. Other systems try to make you think they’re digital by piping their analog signals over CAT5 cables, but we think that’s a bit like putting an abacus app on an iPhone.
Touch that button •
So you’ve gotta be a genius to use it, right? Actually, any acne-challenged intern with an index finger can operate this system with ease. The web interface makes setup simple. Sharp, high-contrast OLED displays are easy to read from anywhere in the room. And our clever callback feature makes sure you'll never miss a call, no matter what you're doing. Come to think of it, that intern doesn't even need a finger.
Intercoms Everywhere • Axia SoftCom software allows anyone with a networked computer to have a virtual intercom station. Just think: you'll never again lose track of who's where when you need them to get on-air or get you coffee.
We hear you •
As always, Axia has free 24/7 technical support, 365 days a year (the loneliest support team on earth). And our warranty is the most comprehensive in the industry – 5 years parts and service. (Really, you should call the technical support guys once in awhile just to say hi.)
Family ties •
In the world of Axia audio products, think of IP-Intercom as the talkative little brother. It’s an integral part of the family, so of course it links with existing Axia networks and consoles. Just connect to the Ethernet with one RJ-45 cable and the intercom is ready to play. In fact, the intercom audio is ready to go directly to air. Or you can feed IFB board audio to intercom callers. The possibilities are endless. © 2010 TLS Corp. Axia, IP-Intercom, Softcom and Element are TM TLS Corp. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders.
Distributed by AVC Group Tel.: 1-800-631-728 Email: sales@avc-group.com.au
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Matrix: terminated • Imagine a digital intercom system with no central matrix. Actually, don’t bother. We’ve already built one that saves on cost, installation time, special plug-in cards, and space. It’s real plug and play that works every time — even when you need to add a station, or reconfigure the ones you’ve got.
AxiaAudio.com
Sportscasting
Sportscasting
ARX Grand Slams the Web Darren McKenzie from the Melbourne, Australia based production company “The Loft Productions” used ARX’s USB-DI USB Digital to Analogue transformer isolated interfaces at this year’s Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. Darren described the USB DIs as being ideal for the “on air play out” from the commentators computers and audio feed located in the Pit commentary position below court level. The transformer isolated outputs ensured noise free performance when connected to the complex broadcast audio system used at the Open. The commentary was streamed via the USB DIs to the “Tennis Radio Network” and then upstreamed globally though the world wide web to an estimated on line audience of around 2+ million tennis fans. Visit www.arx.com.au
EBU Awards T-VIPS Winter Gold
The European Broadcast Union (EBU) deployed T-VIPS CP541 Seamless Monitoring Switches to provide error-free transmission of Winter Olympic footage to EBU members. Eurovision, the EBU’s Operation Unit managed the contribution links between the Whistler winter Olympic facilities, the Vancouver International Broadcasting Center (IBC) and onward to Brussels, Zurich and Geneva POPs. After extensive testing ahead of the event, the EBU installed a number of CP541 Seamless Monitoring Switches at the reception points at the Vancouver IBC, Brussels, Geneva and Zurich. The CP541s were managed and controlled by the Eurovision team in Vancouver and Geneva
Visit www.arx.com.au
Vancouver News Centralised with Harris Harris Corporation provided an end-to-end HD broadcast solution for the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium’s suite of assets during its coverage of the recent Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The Harris ONE solution featured a variety of Harris graphics, servers and editing, networking, processing, branding and test and measurement equipment. The Harris system allowed the Consortium to centrally receive, manage and create program elements and distribute them to multiple stations across Canada.
The Harris package for the Consortium’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Games included Nexio Amp advanced media platforms and NewsForce HD/SD production platforms, which were used to build video clips for news and other programs. Harris NetVX video networking systems and Inscriber G7 integrated SD/HD broadcast graphics were also central to the system. A variety of fixed and handheld Harris Videotek test and measurement solutions were used to monitor video and audio signals live from the venues, assuring signal integrity and compliance with national broadcast standards.
Harris also supported the Consortium’s online coverage of Vancouver 2010 with a backup control solution for FTP file transfer during digital coverage of the Games on CTVOlympics. ca and RDSolympiques.ca. The system was comprised of Nexio Remote software, which monitored and controled channels on Nexio servers over a local area network, and the Nexio PlayList event-sequencing application, which enabled clips to be selected from the Nexio database and arranged in any order for frame-accurate transmission. Visit www.harris.com
Tieline Delivers Gold at Winter Games Tieline Technology’s i-Mix G3 was relied upon by the US television rights holder at the Winter Games in Vancouver to broadcast live IP audio from events into the homes of millions of Americans. The i-Mix G3 supplied live high fidelity commentary audio as part of the “Pure World” coverage of a range of events. Australian Audio Engineer Al Craig was on the ground in Vancouver, Canada setting up the codecs. “The Tielines are remarkable,” he said. “I have used them at every summer and winter Games since 2004 and they are extremely flexible and allow for a fair degree of customization depending on the needs of the production.” The codecs were used to send high fidelity
42 Sportscasting
bidirectional stereo IP audio over Ethernet connections and they provided highly customised communications to each announcer at the venues. All codecs also support sending audio over 3G wireless, POTS, ISDN, X.21 or satellite connections if required. Each i-Mix G3 codec was been completely preconfigured prior to its deployment at each venue and could be fully remote controlled from the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Vancouver. Using Tieline software, Al Craig could connect his laptop at the IBC to the internet and ’shake hands’ with any unit and use a virtual mixer to control the mic pre-amps or adjust settings, create connections and even interrogate the line quality of the connection.
Each codec was programmed with an individual profile that was written and managed by Al and which contained code to allow each unit to know “who” it is, “where” it was and “what” it was supposed to do. “The units are very rugged and simple to use and because I have complete remote control there are no network technicians required on site; only 2 announcers and a production assistant are at each venue,” Craig said. “They sound amazing and it is testament to their reliability that no maintenance has been required on any unit in the last 6 years.” The i-Mix G3 and other Tieline codecs will be on display at NAB 2010 on booth C157. Visit www.tieline.com
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using a T-VIPS Connect Management system. “The EBU have a strict requirement to provide the highest possible service level on our transmissions to our members and customers. A true seamless redundancy contribution solution is therefore critical to our business. We selected the T-VIPS CP541 Monitoring Switch for our Olympic transmissions since the CP541 is one of the few monitoring switches on the market that has demonstrated full seamless operation. T-VIPS have a reputation for high reliability and they were a natural partner for us for his important event,” said Puiu Dolea, Head of Resource Management, Eurovision. “Our engineers were really impressed with the T-VIPS solution, not only does it provide
truly seamless switching, but it does it with the flexibility and robustness necessary for content that’s going to be watched by millions all over Europe. We’re confident that the CP541 is one of the best seamless switches on the market.” The CP541 monitors the two incoming Transport Streams for any errors based on TRT101-290 parameters, and in the event of an error in the main backhaul line it seamlessly switches to the back-up connection. The system went live two weeks before the games started and has demonstrated high reliability from that point onward. Visit www.t-vips.com
Phone with “Football TV” At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telegent Systems and Brightstar Corp announced a partnership to bring a low-cost handset that delivers live, free-to-air broadcast TV to Latin American and African consumers prior to this summer’s 2010 football World Cup in South Africa. Brightstar’s Avvio 505 device, which incorporates Telegent’s free-to-air analogue mobile TV receiver, will provide consumers on the go with an affordable way to view the football matches. “With the Avvio 505, we are delivering a
model designed to appeal to sports fans in the Latin American and African markets,” said Jaime Narea, vice-president of Brightstar’s Idea to Consumer Division. “In these markets, consumers have a passion for football, and all eyes will be on the events unfolding real time this summer in South Africa. The combination of voice and TV in a lowcost handset is very compelling for consumers who want to follow the matches live, whether they are at work, home, or on the road.” The Avvio 505 adds further appeal for the sports
fan as the handset is designed with the customised colors and flags of those countries participating in this summer’s football event. In addition to voice, SMS, TV and FM radio, the device features a 2.0 inch screen, measures 43X101X13.3mm, and delivers 240 minutes of continuous talk time. The TV and FM radio features, enabled by Telegent’s mobile TV receiver, provide consumers with one-button mobile access to live, free-to-air analog television and radio broadcasts. Visit www.telegent.com
Polecam Goes Ultra-Mobile at Paralympics Videographers with disabilities can now shoot professional-quality content using the Polecam transportable video production jib thanks to an extraordinary new device developed at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Using the CanAssist Polecam Power Chair, a physically-challenged cameraman can keep pace with people and objects in motion. It is an easy-to-operate system for recording activities such as documentaries and sporting events. “We embarked on this project after being approached in 2009 by Vancouver film-maker Joe Moulins,” explains Darcy Lane, Hardware Manager at CanAssist. “Our engineers have equipped a motorised wheelchair with an eight-foot Polecam boom arm and pan-tilt head. Steven Cayer, a 17-year-old undergraduate with cerebral palsy, became one of the first to use the CanAssist Polecam Power Chair when he produced a video report on the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. He has since continued this activity covering the Paralympics.”
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A Grade 12 student at Burnaby Mountain Secondary School, Steven Cayer controls the chair’s movement with his right hand, manipulates a
joystick that adjusts the camera’s angle with his left, and changes the camera’s height by blowing into a sip-and-puff device that raises and lowers the boom arm. A Toshiba 1080i HD camera attached to the Polecam rig can be elevated from ground level to a height of six feet. A high-definition LCD monitor attached to the Polecam Power Chair gives the operator a live view of the shoot. The camera control unit, custom electrical control box and a 1080i flashram recorder are mounted at the rear of the chair. Polecam MD Steffan Hewitt said “I thought it was a great idea and was very happy to donate one of carbon-fibre booms, a pan-tilt head, joystick-based control unit and HD monitor. I also rang a camcorder manufacturer who were happy to donate one of their Compact Flash systems and Toshiba who kindly donated an HD camera. CanAssist did the hard work of integrating it all into a practical system.” Visit www.canassist.ca/polecam and www. polecam.com.
Sportscasting 43
Post Production
Post Production
post PRODUCTION
Autodesk Aims for 2011
Oriental Post Tackles Workflow with DVS Bangkok-based Oriental Post has chosen highend products by DVS to enhance its DI and data management capabilities. While the SpycerBox SAN enhances the facility’s data management and the connection between various clients, Clipster serves as the missing link within the workflow thanks to its real-time conforming, realtime processing of RED files, and faster than-realtime DCI Mastering. Due to its unique hardware platform and the specially developed hardware accelerator, Clipster can decode and de-mosaic RED RAW files in full quality at 4K 12 bit RGB mode in real-
time. RAW data can be directly displayed, edited in the timeline and played out in parallel in 4K. Furthermore, Clipster now enables the generation of DCI Masters in 3D - the DI workstation merges left eye and right eye image data, creating a stereoscopic video track in the timeline which can be edited as regular video material. With SpycerBox, high-resolution projects can be transferred quickly and reliably. All workstations can access the SpycerBox not only as a SAN system, but also as a NAS (Network Attached Storage). Oriental Post benefits from a highly powerful storage in a 5 HU chassis that offers direct
access from different workstations. The fast data transfer between the single workstations and the SpycerBox results in considerable time savings for editors and colourists. “With Clipster and SpycerBox we have invested in superior cutting-edge technology that completes our DI infrastructure and helps us meet our customers’ requirements,” says Bobbie Wong, President at Oriental Post. “We’re very pleased with our choice of DVS technology to tackle the latest demands of DI post production.” Visit www.orientalpost.co.th and www.dvs.de
Oktobor Boosts Colour with Baselight Auckland-based visual effects and animation studio Oktobor has launched a new colour suite, designed by colourist Kenny Gibb, complete with the latest Baselight 4 colour grading system linked to a SAN. According to Kenny Gibb, “The layout devised ensures everyone is close by during the grading session and can assess the images being created via the best monitor available on the market today. We have been able to install the latest Grade 1 Barco LCD - a first for any facility in New Zealand.” Oktobor’s new Baselight 4.1 is the latest state of the art colour grading platform available and providing colourists and directors with new, unique solutions for image manipulation. Gibb added, “Baselight has been designed
to be at its most productive for multiple workflows. All decisions are captured in a database allowing instant access to any image and the ability to work with all input and output resolutions as a conformed sequence within a single timeline. Every action can be modified via the Blackboard control surface until the last possible moment, then delivered via our fibre network to our finishing suites immediately. “Crucially our acquisition of Baselight means we can provide tapeless workflow colour grading for any image medium including film, Red, 5D and Phantom. Baselight also incorporates Truelight, providing colour-accurate delivery emulation on any grading display.” Oktobor have also invested in a new 45Tb smart
SAN linking the Baselight by fibre to a major back up library which protects and stores all media and data. The SAN delivers realtime 2K into the company’s fibre network which also distributes it in realtime. This now allows common and shared workflows between the Baselight system and Flame suites, with Baselight acting as an integration between 2D and colour. It is also 3D capable. Gibb said, “Our colour department now operates more like Flame or Motion and Design where the artist designs and grades a look from the planning stage of a project, allowing creatives and directors to show their clients the look early in the production process. This applies across TVCs too.” Visit www.oktobor.com
Milestone NAB for EditShare EditShare (NAB Booth 4725) will show new features in its Flow, XStream and Ark product lines. EditShare Flow incorporates key production features for optimising the media recording and preedit process with ingest, logging, browse, search and asset-tracking capabilities. New Flow Features, include: - Edit While Capture feature. Flow now supports two approaches to this feature – files that continuously expand right in your NLE timeline, and “chunking,” which produces fixed-duration clips that go together. - File-Based Ingest offers versatile media transfer and transcoding options that support a wide range of XDCAM and P2 workflows.
44 Post Production
- Real-time Logging and Custom Metatdata Templates. - Flow Scan catalogues and manages clips captured outside of Flow and stores on EditShare servers. - Avid and Final Cut Pro Sub-clip Creation lets you create subclips during or after ingest, then drag-anddrop them directly into Avid and Final Cut Pro bins. - EditShare Asset Management lets you track assets across all EditShare systems. Storage and XStream Series Highlights, include: - Extreme Scalable Architecture (ESA) means that expanding your storage to 200 Terabytes involves purchasing additional expansion servers and plugging them into the network. - High bandwidth DI workflows include optimisations
for multi-user 2K and HD DPX media. - EditShare Project Sharing lets Final Cut Pro and Avid editors work in the same project simultaneously.
EditShare Ark Highlights, include: - Media Asset-Tracking - Archive media, bins, and sequences with metadata intact, ensuring quick searches for online and near-line tiered archives. - Multi-format Support - Automated and manual backup or archive P2, XDCAM and other filebased media. Visit www.editshare.com
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Autodesk, Inc., has announced the latest versions of its Digital Entertainment Creation software for 3D modelling, animation, effects, rendering, compositing, digital sculpting and 3D painting. The 2011 versions offer new features and enhancements that help accelerate workflows and improve interoperability, helping artists to maximise their creativity and optimise their productivity. Autodesk has also launched new versions of Autodesk Kynapse and Autodesk HumanIK game development middleware, focused on improving ease of use. Autodesk Maya 2011 features an invigorated customisable user interface, enhanced tools for character animation including non-destructive live retargeting, high-performance display of large scenes in the viewport, new 3D editorial capabilities for pre-visualisation and virtual production workflows, integrated colour management, asset structures for pipeline connectivity and improved rotoscoping. Also, Maya 2011 is now available for Snow Leopard, the 64-bit Mac OS X operating system. Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 features a new nodebased material editor and a hardware renderer that provides near production quality results 10 times faster than traditional rendering techniques. It also offers a full-featured compositing system, based on Autodesk Toxik technology, as well as enhanced tools and workflows for creating and texturing models, animating characters and viewing high-quality images interactively.
Autodesk Softimage 2011 introduces new rendering and animation tools that help artists create more complex, high-quality characters and effects in less time. The software offers a new advanced shading architecture and editing environment, an innovative rigging paradigm with support for kinematics in ICE (Interactive Creative Environment), and automated lipsynching in the Face Robot facial animation toolset. Autodesk Mudbox 2011 delivers new tools for helping deform and pose models. It also offers new image adjustment brushes and blend modes for paint layers, Vector Displacement map extraction, the ability to create higher-quality turntables, and enhanced file transfer with Maya and Adobe Photoshop. Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 now offers improved interoperability with Maya 2011 and 3ds Max 2011 and integrates more smoothly and reliably into production pipelines. Skinning and blendshape deformations are now calculated on the graphics processing unit (GPU) for improved performance. The in-viewport experience is significantly more interactive, and playback is many times faster, further enhancing the software’s capabilities as a real-time virtual production system. Autodesk FBX 2011 asset exchange technology helps facilitate higher-fidelity data exchange between Autodesk software and certain third-party applications. The open format provides new support for additional third-party and proprietary applications. In addition,
Digital Vision for NAB At NAB Digital Vision (Booth SL3709) will showcase the past 12 months of product development including key software releases such as 2009.1 for the Nucoda and Phoenix platforms. Releases include: * Nucoda Film Master for image enhancement and colour grading for film and television content; * Stereoscopic grading toolset, versatile monitoring option and leading edge workflow; * RED Support, including RED Rocket hardware accelerator card allowing users high-speed decode and debayer of R3D media; The latest RED SDK gives users the ability to work with the new Flut Colour Science and footage captured using the Mysterium-X sensor. In the area of Avid workflow with Unity ISIS and Interplay integration, Digital Vision will demonstrate: * Native and non destructive open EXR and High Dynamic Range grading; * Telecine machine and picture control; and * Native camera support for an increasing array of digital cameras including: Arri, Silicon Imaging and Vision Research. The Phoenix toolset for image media restoration, repurposing and re-mastering now features: * Restores film and tape content for DVD, Blu Ray, VOD or mobile media platforms; * Archives content from film or tape to be stored at
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games developers using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 will be able to import FBX files directly into the Unreal Editor. Developers can now use the Python programming language to integrate FBX technology into pipelines not based on C++. These new products will also be available as part of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites. The suites offer a choice of either Maya 2011 or 3ds Max 2011, and include MotionBuilder 2011 real-time character animation software, as well as Mudbox 2011 digital sculpting and 3D painting software. Meanwhile, Autodesk HumanIK animation middleware is a run-time solution for full-body inverse kinematics and retargeting that enhances existing animation systems, allowing characters to interact dynamically and realistically with their environments. Autodesk HumanIK 4.5 improves ease of use with an artist friendly integration into the Unreal Engine and a Characterization plug-in for creating and validating characters in Maya. Lastly, Autodesk Kynapse 7 Middleware is a world leading, production-proven artificial intelligence solution that has been used in over 100 games. This high-performance AI engine supports complex dynamic 3D pathfinding, spatial reasoning, team coordination, and automatic data generation. Kynapse 7 is easier to use, with new pathdata generation, improved tuning and profiling, simplified integration and configuration, as well as off-the-shelf behaviours. Visit www.autodesk.com.
Multiple Technologies from Singular
>> >> Nucoda 2009.1 from Digital Vision. any format up to 2K; and * Enhances and transcodes file-based media for redistribution on multiple delivery platforms. Meanwhile, DVO is a software toolset for enhancing, restoring and converting image media available on the Nucoda and Phoenix platforms. NAB will see a preview of the next-generation of grain reducer tool, which features completely new algorithms including grain characteristics analysis for automated grain reduction, new motion estimation engine and a new innovative spatio-temporal filter. Lastly, Turbine distributed processing combines the reliability and scalability of a render grid with the performance of a computer cluster. It adds CPU power to the Nucoda Film Master and Phoenix workstations, improves render times and multiple file exports to ensure on-time delivery. Visit www.digitalvision.se
Singular Software, developer of automation applications for post-production, will be exhibiting at the Plug-in Pavilion at NAB. Singular Software will be showcasing its flagship product, PluralEyes, alongside brand new product releases in multi-camera and DSLR editing workflow technology. Singular Software will also be highlighting the latest PluralEyes version 1.1 release, which includes support for Apple Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas Pro and an array of new features for managing multi-camera, multi-take, and dualsystem audio productions. In addition to exhibiting on the show floor in the Plug-in Pavilion, Singular Software will be exhibiting at the 9th annual Apple Final Cut Pro SuperMeet, to be held at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas on April 13th, 2010 from 5:00pm to 11:00pm. Each year, the Las Vegas SuperMeet aggregates well-known Adobe, Apple and Avid editors, digital content creators, and HDSLR filmmakers from around the globe to explore the latest industry trends and innovations. Visit www.singularsoftware.com
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Post Production/Whitepaper
Post Production/Whitepaper
Access Media Anywhere, Anytime
Production Asset Management (PAM) Systems Facilitate Efficient Collaborative Workflows and Boost Productivity
Low-Res Encoder
46 Post Production/Whitepaper Production
archiving) of broadcast workflows. This is great for transferring finished assets between playout servers and archives. It’s not so helpful if your station needs to quickly grab breaking news footage while it’s still being recorded. Then combine it with interviews shot earlier in the day along with reference archival footage—all without having to round up tapes, trust you’re working with the edited versions of various clips the producer signed off on, and worry about accidentally using the same clips more than once. For real-time, collaborative workflows that encompass all stages of content creation, a new breed of asset management technology has been developed that takes MAM systems to a deeper production level. Production Asset Management (PAM) systems with rich media databases that work with shared storage systems to let you manage clips, sequences, render files, pre-comps, still image and motion graphics files complete with alpha channels and layers, voice-over files, multitrack soundtrack files, sound effects and so on—at a multitude of resolutions, for multiple workgroups in production and non-production roles. PAM systems understand and track the complex, changing relationships between these assets and hide this complexity from the user, allowing them to focus on collaboration and creativity. PAM systems integrate directly with production tools such as NLEs, newsroom computer systems and production servers. Like PAM systems, MAM systems may include transcode, transfer and archive functions, but a PAM system supports those functions as they relate to real-time production workflows. Another important difference between MAM systems and PAM systems is that PAMs are designed to respond to user interaction in real time. All this helps streamline the content creation process because: • Users can locate the right media faster because it’s online, searchable and provides immediate access • Version control ensures that production elements are current and synched, so team members don’t waste time shifting through out-of-date materials • Editors, producers, assistants and journalists can swiftly and effectively contribute to stories and projects at whatever stage in the workflow their participation is needed • Management and other stakeholders can review and pre-select media in user-friendly UIs, which reduces editing time. Expenses can be lowered because: • Stories and projects take less time and fewer people to create • Resources can be more efficiently utilized and consolidated or pooled
Media usage can be maximized across an entire station group because it’s easy to find and access. Currently some PAM systems offer some degree of location-independent capabilities. The Avid Interplay 2.0 platform leverages wide-area network (WAN) technology to give users anywhere, anytime access to all content. WAN workflows mean that workgroups don’t need to be in the same facility or even on the same continent to collaborate. This opens up all sorts of possibilities—a producer in Beijing could browse clips from a central ingest hub in London, pull selects and suggest in- and outpoints for the editorial team housed in Atlanta. Or, a journalist can peruse multiple sites for story material from her desktop. Production assistants in another city can log this mountain of footage in shifts. And the producer who happens to be in yet another city attending a meeting can browse the clip library remotely using a secure WAN client, assemble a rough cut on his laptop and hand it off as an EDL to editorial for finishing, all with smallfootprint, desktop tools and without leaving the Interplay environment. News environments are prime examples of operations that can benefit greatly from locationindependent workflows. During momentous events, these operations are bombarded with new material at tremendous velocity. Depending on the size and type of organization, you could have a lot of people gang-tackling the media and writing different stories at the same time. As raw footage is winnowed down to a smaller number of useable clips, all of the team members need to know the status of those clips on a momentto-moment basis. PAM systems update asset status dynamically, which increases productivity in the edit suite and throughout production by providing a constant view of project activity. Knowing that they’re working with the most current version of an asset saves time and reduces errors and rework while making it easier for others to contribute and collaborate effectively and efficiently. Automatic conflict management lets users know when an asset has already been used, while asset oversight can notify of potential misuse of protected assets. Authorization controls prevent unauthorized access to restricted assets, such as footage of minors or copyright material. WAN workflows don’t need to be confined to the production process. For example, the parent network’s legal department can be vetting clips for unauthorized appearances of trademarked products as sequences are completed.
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Assist Instinct
Unity
AirSpeed Multi Stream
High Res Clients link to High Res video & uncompressed video
MC/NC Storage and Management
Acquisition
Not long ago, revolutions were televised. Nowadays, they’re televised, webcast and twittered. Keeping pace requires broadcasters and media companies to confront an array of complex challenges. More content than ever is being created in the field and in studios. Newsrooms and other fast-paced content operations need up-to-the-minute access to clips, scripts, and archived materials regardless of where they’re created or stored. Workgroups scattered throughout a facility and around the world need to contribute to multiple versions of projects and stories that are tailored to address different local and national markets. Version control and metadata tracking is essential to maintaining productive, error-free workflows. Additionally, content needs to be delivered in multiple formats, bit rates and resolutions for viewing across all of the major platforms, including broadcast, web and mobile devices. But advertising revenues have been spiraling downward, putting pressure on broadcasters to cut costs, increase operational efficiency, maximize ROI on any new purchases and develop new revenue streams. In other words, broadcasters need to do more with less. To meet these challenges, broadcasters are reinventing the way they create and aggregate content. In the United States, for example, there’s renewed interest in central casting—running multiple TV stations from a single master control hub. Other station groups have experimented with variations on that idea. For example, playing local content from a local video server, but getting other content from a central hub. Another model employs a full staff during primetime and lets a single master control operator run multiple TV stations after midnight, when advertising revenues are at their lowest. With fewer people and a desire to consolidate as many functions as possible comes the need to develop more coordinated, efficient and inclusive workflows that facilitate collaboration across every segment of broadcast operations, from planning through delivery to billing, legal and archiving. Effective collaboration of this sort, particularly in fastturnaround news and high-volume television production, relies on shared access to media. Media Asset Management (MAM) systems are typically implemented to help a facility store and wrangle creative assets such as video, audio, stills and text. MAM systems provide the ability to manage and browse content archives, as well as handle basic transcoding and file transfer functions. MAM databases may understand basic relationships between assets; i.e., a MAM database knows that myvideo.wmv and myvideo.mxf are the same asset. What it can’t do is tell you that myvideo.mxf is referenced in four sequences and was created using 30 essence files. MAM systems typically integrate with the transmission chain (playout servers, automation,
Low Res Clients link to MPEG4 video & compressed audio
Interplay Engine
Source
By Jim Frantzreb, Senior Market Segment Manager for Broadcast, Avid.
Post Production/Whitepaper
Transcode Delivery Stream Publish
User Applications
WAN clients OSX and Windows
Stream Server MPEG4/QuickTime /compressed audio
1 MB/sec connection
Transport Services
Anatomy of a Production Asset Management platform
Avid Interplay is a standardized, yet flexible solution. Its components consist of user tools, system applications and media services. The Avid Interplay 2.0 WAN workflow starts with acquisition. Avid AirSpeed multi-stream ingest/playout servers or supported third-party servers are used during the acquisition phase of production. As full-resolution footage is ingested, 1-Mbps QuickTime MPEG4 low-res proxies that utilize the H.263 codec are automatically generated and sent to an Avid Unity media network for workgroup access. The Interplay Engine handles secure administration of media storage and management tasks and gives individual contributors, project teams and departments search capabilities and revision control. The Interplay Access client runs on PCs and Macs and works in conjunction with Avid editing workflows tools—Media Composer, NewsCutter, iNEWS Instinct, Symphony Nitris and Pro Tools systems. Interplay Access gives users three viewing modes: browsing, logging and shot-listing. Search results can be displayed in a variety of ways and let users see how assets and elements relate to each other. This makes finding shots and sequences easy. Interplay 2.0 customers can use Final Cut Pro and Avid editors in an Interplay environment. Avidto-FCP, FCP-to-Avid and FCP-to-FCP file exchange is facilitated by the Automatic Duck plug-in, XML metadata, plus QuickTime MXF and AAF export. Interplay manages and tracks Avid projects as well as over 100 media and non-media file formats, including Adobe Photoshop and After Effects layered files, TIFFs, AIFFs and so on. The Interplay Assist client lets producers, assistants and others log incoming feeds, so edit suites are free to focus on cutting footage. Keyboard shortcuts can also be used to describe clips. The Interplay Transcode service can be triggered automatically in the background or directly by the user in their interface of choice to create high-res or lowres versions of media assets as needed. Encoding takes place in the background. When a sequence is sent to a playback device, all of the essence files are gathered and any material not already at the target resolution is automatically transcoded. Another service called Interplay Transfer handles
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processor-intensive media transfers. Unlike MAM systems, which simply move finished files from point A to point B, Interplay Transfer automatically gathers the myriad bits and pieces that make up a sequence and rewraps the media as needed. It also checks the destination to see whether the media already exists at that location, and if so, skips redundant elements. All this takes place in the background, so media and metadata can be handed off without interrupting editing or other creative work. The Transcode Mixdown service flattens sequences and expedites creating master clips. Editors and Interplay Access users can trigger the Interplay Archive service, which provides intuitive archive and restore capabilities as well as easy-touse search and retrieve tools. Project metadata is used to intelligently track assets. Users can browse an archive from any Interplay site, and then transfer just the required material in whatever format is required using Interplay Delivery.
An open, extensible PAM platform
The Interplay 2.0 Web Services API can be used to extend Interplay’s functionality. The API exposes essential functions to third parties, so Interplay can be seamlessly integrated with existing automated workflows and existing MAM systems. Key functions exposed by the API include: • Folder navigation, listing, ownership and permissions • Asset check-in, retrieval and deletion • Metadata input and retrieval • Searching • Locator management • Sub-clip creation • Headframe management • User and Group management Avid reports that over 60 of their partners and customers are using the API to customize the Interplay platform. Production asset management systems give broadcasters and media companies the tools they need to meet the challenges of fast-paced, highvolume production, maximize their ROI, lower costs and boost productivity. Remote, real-time media access and version tracking opens the door for highly efficient, collaborative workflows that aren’t tethered
to a specific facility or location. Producers can browse media, review and approve clips and leave comments for editors. Assistants can log footage from anywhere. Journalists can quickly search remote or local media storage sites, select and transfer clips in the right format to incorporate into the story from in the facility or on a laptop in the field. And business administration teams can get the information they need, when they need it, regardless of where they’re located…. In short, comprehensive, integrated production asset management accelerates workflows, increases efficiency and boosts the bottom line. * Jim Frantzreb may be reached at james. frantzreb@avid.com. Visit www.avid.com/products/Interplay/index.asp
Definitions
Essence file: Term used to describe elements contained in an MXF file, such as video and audio. Media asset management: Broadly defined term for tracking and managing media assets and metadata. Metadata: Structured data that describes the characteristics of an asset. Metadata wrappers: Industry standard file formats, specifically MXF (Materials eXchange Format) and AAF (Advanced Authoring Format), offer a way to exchange media and metadata between applications, systems and vendors. Production asset management: Nextgeneration media asset management in which media assets and metadata, as well as the relationships between them are managed and tracked. Proxy file, proxies: Low-resolution representation of a higher-resolution asset. Proxies facilitate faster handling and editing, as well as streaming over lower bandwidth connections. Shared Storage: Refers to digital data repositories or a cluster of storage devices that many people can access. WAN, wide-area network: Any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional or national boundaries.
Post Production/Whitepaper 47
Storage & Asset Management
storage &
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Earliest Film Made in Australia The earliest
known surviving film made in Australia has been found and restored to the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra. The film Patineur Grotesque (or the Humorous Rollerskater), is believed to have been shot in late October 1896 by Lumiere cinematographer Marius Sestier just days prior to the 1896 Melbourne Cup Carnival. The film is one minute long and the action takes place in the centre of the frame. A man in costume and on rollerskates performs for a gathering crowd. The discovery of two films made in Australia by frères Lumiere representative Marius Sestier in 1896 is a tale in itself. In 2005 Coralie Martin, an intern of the National Film and Sound Archive’s (NFSA) Scholars and Artists in Residence program assessed the NFSA’s holdings of frères Lumiere films against the holdings of the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC) in France. Coralie identified two films made in Australia by frères Lumière representative Marius Sestier in 1896 which were not in the NFSA’s Collection. The NFSA undertook negotiations with the CNC for copies of the films and they arrived in May 2006. One film was from the Melbourne Cup Carnival series shot in Melbourne in 1896 and was added to the titles already held. The other was of a burlesque (comic) roller skater also made in 1896, but was unknown to NFSA curators as there has been no previous mention of this film in Australia. Film curator, Sally Jackson, began a project to research Patineur Grotesque and in the process has gathered much new information about Marius Sestier’s time in Australia, in India and his life in France. This work will culminate in a monograph about Sestier, the man who brought cinema to Australia. Until recently only 19 Australian films were believed to have been made by Sestier, four in Sydney and 15 in Melbourne. With the discovery of Patineur Grotesque, we now know that Sestier shot a total of 20 films in Australia, eight of which survive.
THE LUMIERE FILM FORMAT
The NFSA has 10 original films in its collection that were shot using the proprietary frères Lumiere 35mm film format. Obsolete since the early 1900s,
48 Storage & Asset Management
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
it is made of cellulose nitrate, is 35mm wide and has a single circular perforation on each side of the picture. The film travelled through the projector at between 12 and 14 frames per second (fps) (today’s fps is 24fps). The rate is inconsistent as the process was manual not automatic as it is today. While Patineur Grotesque itself was in excellent condition, the nature of the Lumiere format has made preservation work on other films difficult as special tools need to be built and standard equipment needs to be modified to copy and preserve the film. There were three different versions of this format before it was phased out in the early 1900s. It was replaced with the standardised format of 35mm with four square perforations each side of the frame. Before it is copied, a Lumiere film undergoes a rigorous repair process. This is a time-consuming procedure that is necessary to ensure that the film will withstand the pressures of copying. Due to fragility, some films may only survive one run through the copying process. Therefore, the repair work needs to be of the highest quality. To be able to preserve the original format of a Lumiere film, today’s printers need to be adapted with specially manufactured printing plates and gates. Then the film is moved through one frame at a time to capture the image as it is transferred
to modern day film stocks and transferred to other mediums – digital or whatever the future holds. The task of constructing specialised equipment to accommodate rare film formats is not unusual for the NFSA, however, adapting film copying equipment to run the unique Lumiere format had never been done before in Australia – in fact only a handful of other institutions in the world have successfully done it. Once a Lumiere film is repaired, it is put through the printing process. Printing involves making a copy of the original film on a new piece of film. The original copy is then stored in the NFSA’s world class preservation facility to extend its lifespan as long as possible. To run the film through a printer the transport mechanism or “gate” must be modified to accept Lumiere or what is more commonly known as single perforation film. The printed film is then photochemically processed. The result is a copy of the film that can be either projected in theatres or transferred to video or digital format. See Patineur Grotesque online at http://aso.gov.au/titles/historical/patineurgrotesque/clip1/
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Storage & Asset Management/NAB Management Preview
Pilat Manages Rights and Media Pilat Media (Booth N5812) is helping broadcasters maximise their revenues while remaining rights compliant with a stand-alone centralised rights management system, based on proven IBMS features and technology. This new product covers a complete set of services for asset lifecycle management from production through distribution — applying centralised rights management, contract management, deal management, and asset finance. With the new advanced rights management system, users can record contractual terms and assign rights to centrally log and manage the consumption and distribution terms for all acquired or produced content, both long form and short form, across all types of services. A comprehensive application programming interface (API) enables integration with third-party systems including linear scheduling systems, on-demand storefront management systems, Internet content management systems, media asset management systems, and even content sales and affiliate management systems. Expanding the company’s commitment to building scalable and responsive file-based operations, Pilat Media is introducing an advanced set of automation system interfaces based upon BXF standards, initially for OmniBus automation systems. The highly dynamic Web service interface handles the synchronisation of schedules, playout, and plant routing between IBMS and automation systems to enable just-in-time changes up to airtime in file-based operations. IBMS acts as the central hub for orchestrating all programming and advertising changes, collecting as-runs, managing media, and re-routing live feeds. This new interface brings the broadcaster unprecedented flexibility to react to dynamic changes in content scheduling, resulting in new advertising booking opportunities and faster make-goods. Visit www.pilatmedia.com
ArtiSAN Storage
SAN Solutions (BOOTH SL2327) will showcase the company’s new ArtiSAN Storage Platform and ArtiSAN Application Platform at NAB 2010. Designed for small workgroup media production environments, the new ArtiSAN Storage Platform is configured with either 450GB SAS drives, 600GB SAS drives, or class-leading 2TB SATA drives, all in a compact, 16-slot, 3RU enclosure. All RAID formats are supported including RAID5 and RAID6. ArtiSAN Storage Platform offers enterprise-class features such as 4 x 8Gb Fibre Channel host ports, active-active controllers, global hot-sparing, dual redundant power supplies, automatic call-home break-fix repair, and three-year, 24/7 on-site support plans. ArtiSAN Application Platform Available in a compact 1RU or 2RU enclosure, the new ArtiSAN Application Platform is a specifically customised configuration, uniquely suited for media applications. The ArtiSAN Application Platform is suitable for transcoding and distribution applications; audio normalisation processing; media logging and scripting environments, media gateways; media NAS environments; and media indexing. ArtiSAN Application Platform configurations can be deployed as standalone appliances or integrated within small workgroup or large enterprise SAN or NAS environments. Featured ArtiSAN Application Platform sponsors at the 2010 NAB Show include Radiant Grid and Linear Acoustic. Visit www.sansolutions.com
Business Solutions Suite Alongside its OnAir BMS platform, SintecMedia (Booth N5816) is introducing its scalable suite of business solutions for media companies. OnTrack is a powerful Media Business Intelligence (BI) tool providing decision support tools, especially designed for TV. OnTrack’s strategic solution assists in keeping media businesses on track using decision support technologies and multi-dimensional analytics, to maximise revenues. OnTrack brings together dynamic data warehousing, efficient ETL, customised analysis and various on-demand data views to manage all media information created by the organisation. OnTarget is an interactive Airtime optimisation product whose advanced mathematical algorithms perform booking and placement of spots and promotions. OnTarget enables the network to maximise revenue potential while addressing various constraints ranging from product separation to daypart limitations. Media companies may use OnTarget to create multiple scenarios by modifying goals and relaxing various constraints. OnTarget is designed to optimise multiple campaigns and across multi-channels. OnRequest is an innovative platform for supporting and encouraging the monetisation of a media group’s non-linear business. In the new media world, On-Request creates new revenue streams. Meeting the requirements of multiple alternative distribution platforms, it provides a unified and accessible warehouse for all programming, scheduling, ad sales and planning to increase the efficiency of business operations and maximise opportunities. By exploiting the value of content across multiple delivery platforms, it facilitates developing non-linear, multi-platform broadcasting services to open new markets. Vist www.sintecmedia.com
50 Storage & Asset Management/NAB Management Preview
Storage & Asset Management
Collaboration Tools OmniBus Updates iTX At the 2010 NAB Show, OmniBus (Booth N3722) will be showcasing the latest version of iTX, offering more than 130 new features designed to further enhance the outstanding flexibility and power of the industry’s leading platform. New features include advanced aspect ratio control with AFD insertion; BXF schedule import; enhanced CG capability and closed-captioning functionality; support for copy guard data insertion; additional bit rate support for Dolby D (AC3); enhanced support for Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive; Nielsen audio watermarking insertion; support for a wider range of media formats; scheduled automated routing functionality; support for native FCP format and ideasunlimited.tv’s content monitoring application, ContentProbe; RSS reader for use as a data source in iTX CG tickers; schedule preview control; sequence insertion for ad-hoc insertion of break sequences into live events and long-form programs; MPEG-2/H.264 IP streaming; V-Chip data insertion and serial control of up to eight VTRs. Format-independent and bit-rate-agnostic, iTX allows broadcasters to mix both media formats and resolutions in the same schedule. Compressed video files such as MPEG2, MPEG4 (H.264), DV25/50 and Windows Media — as well as wrapped formats such as MXF and QuickTime — are all supported in their native form and decoded by iTX during transmission. Broadcast HD, SD and lower bit rates can be mixed within a single schedule and are automatically up or down converted by iTX. Live sources can be scheduled, mixed and branded along with recorded content. Broadcasters who need to transmit radio channels alongside their other services can use iTX for playlist scheduling and playout from the same integrated system. Playlists can either be built within iTX or taken from an external system. iTX supports a wide range of audio formats and allows the inclusion of audio transitions and voiceovers. This highly responsive platform is ideal for use in a live environment for playing out news clips and jingles. iTX can equally be used for Internet TV and streaming delivery applications. In use by the industry’s largest IPTV provider and powering services to more than a million IPTV subscribers, iTX provides all the capabilities needed to produce a highly crafted transmission stream, including video/audio transitions, logo insertions, voiceovers, and two-dimensional DVE moves for squeeze-and-tease effects. It creates extra revenue opportunities by enabling the insertion of advertising based on schedule time, cue tones, GPIs, SCTE 104 DPI or manual triggering. Visit www.omnibus.tv
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ScheduALL (Booth SL4420), the leading Enterprise Resource Management software provider to the global broadcast and media industries, will showcase its full range of collaboration-themed products and services at NAB 2010. Products include ScheduALL’s ERM Appliance, a wide-area collaboration technology allowing organisations to instantly book resources from any other ScheduALL system, and a revolutionary cloud-based application that delivers access to basic ScheduALL functionality via .NET/Silverlight technology. The ERM Appliance connects disparate ScheduALL systems, creating an unlimited community of trusted partners that dramatically improves efficiency and boosts profitability. Using the technology, businesses can now view, book and manage projects with resources anywhere within the partner network, enabling greater degrees of collaboration and connectivity throughout the vendor supply chain of content creation, management, and distribution.
The new connectivity solution provides sizeable efficiency gains by enabling organisations to easily collaborate on projects, delivering maximum visibility, utilisation and ROI on resources of all types. Meanwhile, ScheduALL’s new cloud-based application allows individual contractors/freelancers to collaborate on projects with the industry’s largest enterprises in real-time. Using any device with a browser and Internet connectivity, businesses can make system-to-system bookings on the fly eliminating the time and confusion often associated with telephone exchanges or e-mail messages. Version 1.0 of ScheduALL’s cloud application will be free to consumers and delivered using an “AOS” (Almost Open Source) model, to enable the client community to help shape functionality. The ScheduALL suite of products also delivers extensive satellite and terrestrial bandwidth configuration tools for easy-to-read graphical transmission path scheduling and control over multiple business and technical variables. ScheduLINK
leverages sophisticated logic checks to avoid multiparameter conflicts, technical mismatches, and double bookings. Additionally, ScheduALL’s new Circuit Selection module provides path management tools for terrestrial IP networks. Media Management and Workflow Solutions ScheduALL Media Manager provides tools to organise and track media assets by incorporating metadata, including workflow decisions, creation costs, source elements, and asset locations, into a robust repository system. Weave, the processbased scheduling component, enables task-based scheduling, faster work-order/process creation via reusable drag-n-drop templates, enhanced forecasting, budgeting and reporting within the project workflow spectrum. Together, both products can be integrated with a digital asset management system to provide a very powerful and efficient workflow environment. Visit www.scheduall.com
Transcoding with Advanced Media Workflow RadiantGrid Technologies (Booth SL2327) has announced that it is one of the first transcoding companies to support the Advanced Media Workflow Association’s (AMWA) AS-03 file format. As part of its support of the AS-03 format, RadiantGrid’s Closed Captioning Management Module will also now be supporting SMPTE 436M Closed Captioning. RadiantGrid will be debuting these new platform capabilities at this year’s NAB. AS-03 was developed in a partnership between AMWA and PBS as part of a subproject of PBS’ Next Generation Interconnection System (NGIS), the Non-Real-Time Program File Delivery Project (NGIS-NRT). AS-03 is a constrained sub-set of the MXF standard and allows interoperability with editing workflows and video playout servers from AMWA members such as Avid, Grass Valley, Omneon
and Harris. RadiantGrid was asked to join AMWA to develop a means of transcoding files to AS-03 delivery format. “AS-03 is a version of MXF which is used for the playback of finished programming in a server environment,” says Brad Gilmer, executive director of the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA). “The specification was driven by PBS, which needed a rock-solid way to distribute programs to PBS-member stations. RadiantGrid’s support for AS03 fits perfectly not only into the workflow envisioned by PBS, but also fulfills the goals of the AMWA in enabling networked media workflows.” Since RadiantGrid combines multiple isolated processes under one platform, including closed caption management, broadcasters are able to more quickly and efficiently manage their content. PBS is the first to implement RadiantGrid’s AS-03 support into its workflow for its NGIS-NRT initiative. AS-03
MXF files are prepared using the RadiantGrid Platform to transform the video essence data into MPEG-2, the audio essence data into PCM and AC-3 and ancillary (closed caption) data into SMPTE 334M and SMPTE 436M VANC structures, which are muxed into the AS-03 MXF container format. In the case of PBS, these AS03 MXF files are then delivered to PBS member stations over satellite. With RadiantGrid’s Closed Captioning Management Module, broadcasters are able to extract closed captioning from media sources and insert closed captioning back into the transcoded output file. This is done concurrently along with other transcoding functions as opposed to having to put them into another program once complete with other processes. Visit www.radiantgrid.com
Enterprise Traffic Management Broadcast Traffic Systems (BTS) (Booth N4019) will introduce an RIA-enhanced version of its Enterprise broadcast traffic management system. Designed for terrestrial, cable, satellite and IPTV broadcast networks, Enterprise is a scalable application containing all the modules and features needed to manage traffic scheduling and advertising sales. Modules can be combined to meet current operational requirements and added as business develops. “Rich Internet Applications are ideal for use with Internet-connected remote-hosted systems,” explains Craig Buckland, Technical Director of BTS. “With RIA at the front end, Enterprise can deliver a highly intuitive and pictorial user interface while retaining fast performance. RIA also adds the ability to run within a web-based infrastructure. Adding RIA to Enterprise
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brings significant extra benefits in terms of reduced implementation time and simplified training. The serviceoriented architecture inherent in RIA also gives customers
and third-party solutions-providers the freedom to configure and create their own interfaces to other systems.” BTS Enterprise with RIA is available on Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems and is compatible with the Microsoft SQL server, Oracle and MySQL databases. The RIA functions are accessible on in-house networks as well as over the Internet. All that is needed on the client side is a browser. Some BTS customers have already already begun writing RIA extensions to the BTS Enterprise system. Miranda Technologies has used BTS web services to help automatically build transmission menus. Visit www.bts.tv
Storage & Asset Management/NAB Preview 51 Storage & Asset Management
Reading Matters
Digital Signage
digital SIGNAGE
D-Signage in the House Installing technology around Australia’s most iconic building without disturbing its aesthetic character is no light undertaking. So, when it came to modernising signage around the Sydney Opera House, the administering Trust turned to Sony and a solution that would blend in with the existing environment. According to Les Boros, Product Marketing Manager Display Technologies with Sony Australia, the Opera House management wanted to replace static posters, menu and information signs with dynamic displays, as well as provide monitors for views of theatre performances during ‘lock-out’ periods. In terms of the posters, Boros says “the idea was that they would replace a number of their static posters with the more dynamic signage. Given that it allows them to be a lot more dynamic with their messaging, they can change things, they can customise it, they can tailor it to tours Adjacent to the entries at the Opera House, there is a dynamic sign located, near the main entrance, another near escalators up from the Opera Bar and a series in a passageway off the Opera Bar leading to public lifts. “The idea of this particular product is that it’s a ruggedized product, so it’s a bit unique to us,” says Boros. “It’s designed so that there are no ventilation holes, it’s completely internally cooled. The advantage of that is that it can be used in environments that are exposed to dust or moisture, without obviously ingesting any of that and doing any damage to the electricals. The other advantage it’s got toughened glass. It’s been installed in an Opera House casing and that’s for the aesthetic, that’s so that it stays in with the aesthetic look of the static posters here. “The panel itself has a ruggedized aluminium frame, so it’s designed to take a fair amount of punishment. It’s a fairly rigid rugged type panel, designed for environments where you wouldn’t ordinarily put a display device. “The other thing with this product, having the internal cooling, is the advantage it has when you put it in portrait mode. Generally with most panels, the ventilation system goes from the bottom to top when they’re in landscape mode. If you’ve got a normal panel facing in portrait mode, the airflow is going to be fairly restricted. If it’s subjected to high humidity or any instance where there might be a build up of heat, then you know you’ll find that the fans will be working overtime and it may even shut down. “That’s not the case with this product, because it 52 Digital Signage
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doesn’t have any external ventilation whatsoever, so it’s completely internally cooled and it uses heat sinks to draw heat out of the back of the panel, to keep that optimum temperature. So whether you put it in this mode or whether you put it in that mode, it’s going to operate the same life expectancy.” In the Western foyer of the Opera House, no less than 14 screens are used for the ticketing, cafe and bar areas. “It’s basically information display as well as advertising events that are happening and public direction as well,” says Les Boros. “So, it’s something that this establishment hasn’t done electronically in the past, and they’re finding that it hasn’t done anything to ruin the aesthetic of the establishment. “Obviously, it’s quite an old building and a historic building but integrating technology into it has its own challenges and we’ve been able to do that successfully and also utilise the benefits of up-to-date technology that can help streamline their business and make sure that the customers that come through here get better value for experience - and possibly even sell some shows as well.” Content for the Opera House D-Signage network is
controlled via an IP-link to Sony’s Ziris software-based content management system running on a server at nearby Customs House (across from the south side of Circular Quay).
Australasia’s ONLY Dedicated Digital Signage Conference & Expo
Sydney Convention Centre, July 20-21, 2010
Be Seen on the
Fourth Screen!
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Content management is template-based and any element can be changed instantly. “If you’ve got a mistake on the screen,” says Boros, “that can be changed. If they know what’s happening in advance, it can be set up, even for a weekend, scheduled, and then it just happens. The system knows when to start, when to stop and then if you want to get in and change anything, you can do that, adds to the dynamic nature of it, but the ability to schedule content and have it come on whenever you need it, and switch off is also very important.” The Ziris system also has the ability to address screens on an individual basis. “Ziris is essentially a product that was developed by Sony in Europe,” says Les Boros. “As of last year, Sony Corporation sanctioned the product for use, globally, for marketing globally. Ziris Professional 5 is being used at the Opera House. That essentially allows you to utilise up to 10 layers of content on the screen, including sophisticated distribution and management and scheduling of all of that content, so it’s powerful. “It is essentially a digital signage product, but being a software based product, has its advantages, because then you can integrate it with existing hardware infrastructure. So if your environment has existing hardware infrastructure, this product will suit you quite nicely. And, it’s scalable, so you know you can have quite a number of different sites utilising the product.” A cut-down version, Ziris Lite, is also available. “The other part of the Ziris family is Ziris Canvas” says Boros. “Ziris Canvas is essentially a video wall system, so again it’s a software based product, so it’s based on the Ziris Professional system but it utilises the PlayStation 3 hardware to deliver the content to screens and the advantage there is, you’ve got the powerful cell processor in the PS3 and also the high resolution graphics, so you’re talking one PlayStation 3 console attached to a screen, you’re looking at a native resolution of 1920 by 1080, for one screen. So, if you’ve got a wall of it, it’s pretty amazing.” Visit www.sony.com.au
Digital Signage World Australia 2010 is an exhibition of the world’s leading D-Signage solutions providers alongside a world-class, applications-focused conference. Digital Signage World Australia 2010 where innovation is showcased, solutions are found and experience is passed on. Truly a business and technology show, DSW is the only event that brings together end-users from all the key vertical markets and the advertising industry, all eager to engage with the entire digital signage value-chain. Participating companies include: - NEC, JVC Professional, Dynamic Visual Systems, NetComm and TouchScreen Solutions.
Visit www.terrapinn.com/2010/digital/ Digital Signage 53
More Than Just I/O
Broadband & IPTV
Broadband ONLINE &IPTV
The Hybrid Approach Robbee Minicola, CEO of Hybrid TV, Talks to Phil Sandberg. Hybrid
Television
Services
(ANZ) is the exclusive licensee of TiVo products in Australia and New Zealand and, more lately, creator of CASPA On-Demand. The business has recently restructured to support the expansion of services, which will take Hybrid TV from being purely a TiVo licensee to a Video on Demand and interactive service provider in its own right. The restructuring includes the promotion of Michael Glendinning, formerly the GM of Finance now the Chief Operating Officer; Brad Wilson, formerly the GM of Content and Services is now the Chief Technology Officer; Tim Boys, formerly the GM of Marketing is now the Chief Marketing Officer. The leadership team also includes Rebecca Blasina, Head of Corporate Affairs who leads all PR activity and the Hybrid SmartStreet Project (www. hybridsmartstreet.com.au) - a research project to explore the consumer demand side of high speed broadband adoption and the content and services associated with such adoption. The restructuring follows the introduction of TiVo 320 which doubles the storage of its predecessor and includes a home networking package. According to Robbee Minicola, CEO of Hybrid TV, “It does three things, it’s really simple - it allows me to take my own pictures, my own video, home video files as well as my own music files and put them up through the TiVo to watch on my big television, instead of cramming everybody around my little iTouch or my computer to see new baby photos, it can all be right up there on the big screen. “The second thing it does is all my free to air recordings that I have on my TiVo device, it enables me to automatically have them transferred from my hard drive on my TiVo to my PC, and also automatically compress them from my PSP, my iPhone and my iTouch. “Then the third thing it does, if you have two TiVos in the home - one in the living room, one in the bedroom - in the bedroom I can actually open up the hard drive and see everything on the hard drive of the TiVo in the living room.” C+T: And what about CASPA, your “bits business”? RM: “Traditionally our business model and our
54 Broadband & IPTV
raison d’etre was to get people to buy a TiVo unit and spend money to then have that TiVo unit in the home. And once they bought the unit, yes we serve them great services and games and fun things, but the reality is, is that was the end of our retail relationship with the consumer. “Prior to the first of December we were basically a licensee, a vessel, to carry TiVo from the US to people in Australia/New Zealand. But what we’ve been working hard on is developing our own proprietary platform that would deliver, on demand, movies, TV and music into people’s homes through the TiVo device with a view to also offering services as well as that core content. “It’s called CASPA which stands for CASPA for Content and Services Platform Asia. All of the customers across Australia will see on their TiVo central page CASPA on demand. And when they click on that they’ll automatically be able to see this world of entertainment that they can have on demand. “Right now, access to CASPA is either through pay as you use or pay per view, or free. What will happen down the track from about April 2010 is we’ll introduce advertiser funded content. So, the free content will disappear, it will all become advertiser funded, but there will be more advertiser funded content. “In Australia, pay per view reaches saturation very quickly because either a lot of people don’t feel comfortable with the proposition or they can’t afford it. We know that our unique selling proposition with the TiVo device is that as long as CASPA can give you a good portfolio of great content, advertiser funded, Australians will choose to watch an ad before paying $1.95 to watch an episode. “The other great thing about CASPA is that when people go onto it and they see it on the screen, they don’t have to register their credit card to start using it. Basically they just go in, dive in, check it out, explore it. Anything that’s free they just download it and start watching it. When they decide to start buying content, then yes they go online, they register their credit card. It doesn’t charge them any money, so they’re just simply registering their credit card and creating a PIN. “When they go onto CASPA through the TiVo, while they’re watching, if they decide they want to watch a movie, it’s then that they decide to top up
their CASPA wallet for 10, I think, 10, 20 or 50 dollars. So the consumer is always in control. They can watch free ad infinitum, or they can decide at some stage to pay per view and it’s always … the way we look at it is you get the best of free to air.” C+T: You’ve been involved in broadband trials in Tasmania. How is that progressing? RM: “We’ve been working very closely with the Tasmanian government. Tasmania has pretty much the greatest amount of experience and understanding fibre. In Australia, our broadband is delivered over copper and the concept of the national broadband network is to switch that over into fibre optics. What we know is that there is a direct correlation between people’s VOD behaviour based on whether they have a very high speed connection and an unlimited capacity versus a very slow speed and a capacity that they’re dealing with currently. So, what we wanted to do was test in homes was does consumer behaviour change because people actually have this high bandwidth? “The CASPA service that we developed is about growing that with a future into the National Broadband Network to prove that broadband entertainment and services can happen on the one thing that is ubiquitous in this country, and that’s the television. And, through the one thing that most people know how to use, and that’s their TV remote. “So the first bow of what we’re dong with the Hybrid Smart Street project is creating awareness of what NBN is, and making that awareness personal to individuals versus the greater good of the country, it’s down at the personal good to the individual. “The second thing we’re doing is demonstrating how the television can do more than watching television and that it is a simple interface. And the third and equally most important thing we’re doing in this research study is understanding how an advertiser can play a role in bringing services to consumers because the advertiser model works.” C+T: With the Tasmanian set-up, what sort of performance difference do you see? RM: “The first thing to note is that if you’ve got over 50% of the broadband connected people at 512 kilobytes or less, what we’re starting with in Tasmania on the fibre network is 4mbps, which is anywhere from eight to 16 times more than what the Continued on Page 56
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Broadband & IPTV
Broadband & IPTV
Broadband & IPTV
Continued from Page 54 majority of Australians are experiencing now with their internet. “What we’ll do over the 12 months is we’ll increase that dial, we’ll increase it from 4mbps, we’ll go up to 25, we’ll go to 50, then we’ll get to 100. And 100 is the baseline of what the NBN will deliver. At 100mbps, that’s 400 times faster than what most of the households have right now, or the majority of the households have in Australia.” C+T: Where does CASPA’s advertiser supported model fit in with the traditional free to air model which is already under pressure? RM: “I think what’s happening is that people are looking at multiple means to communicate their message and their ethos out to the consumer. We’re two-thirds owned by the Seven Media Group and one third owned by Television New Zealand. Because we have those core relationships, we have the trust of advertisers already through Channel 7, through Pacific magazines, through Yahoo 7. So, I don’t think that it’s about there’s advertising less now in the market. I think there’s actually more in the market but what people are asking is how can I make sure that there’s even more value added to my air time? And that’s through interactive advertising, that’s through if I’m say sponsoring Desperate Housewives and I’m Unilever, how can I sponsor the entire back catalogue of all the seasons of Desperate Housewives through CASPA. I think that that’s an extension of free to air and it’s a very valuable one.” C+T: The VOD programming - how is that managed? RM: “Our platform is basically our proprietary UI in service, but our back end is Tandberg Ericsson system, and we’ve worked very close with Tandberg to get this very unique proposition into the market. That’s the infrastructure to deliver the content. “Then we’ve got Internode which is basically our vestibule that holds all of our content on the pipe network which enables us to deliver content through other ISPs in an unmetered fashion. If we actually had that content delivery network hosted purely within Internode, or say an Optus or a Telstra, it would mean that every other ISP would have to pay that participating ISP to get the content to their customers. By putting it up on the pipe network, it makes it a near zero cost proposition for other ISPs which is why we’ve got Primus on board as an unmetered partner obviously in addition to Internode. And we’ve got just recently iiNet. That puts us at over 20% of the market that is providing unmetering. So you’re not basically taxed to download. “ C+T: And do you see that including Telstra? RM: “When we launched in New Zealand we didn’t launch with consumer electronic retailers like we did in this country. We understood very clearly the trouble that we had trying to get major telecommunication carriers to do unmetering for us. We met up with Telecom New Zealand and they have about 60% broadband market share.
56 Broadband & IPTV
Live HD Streaming
And we basically engaged in a partnership with them of exclusive retail opportunity in exchange for unmetering. “What we’ve experienced is that when we sell through a Telecom operator, immediately people get the broadband side. And immediately people buy into the broadband proposition of CASPA because they think well hey I got this because it’s unmetered. “Now take that picture and come over to Australia and I’m still shaking my head going okay, no, it’s not going to work because these operators here are looking at their own broadband proposition, their own on demand story and, of course, they want to protect their broadband proposition. “Why? Because they’re going to do that unmetered and everybody else has to be metered through their service. It’s my personal opinion that the way businesses need to run in the future is based on the network effect, not on a monopolistic approach because I would rather people gravitated to my product because we were good at what we did and we gave people good value, instead of they were forced to use my product because they were tied into a contract with me. “That’s kind of where our position is in Australia is we just keep plugging along with the iiNets and Internodes and iPrimuses and Little Atom internet and eventually the word will come across.” C+T: So what does the future hold for Television? RM: “The future I think is that prime time television is going to become more powerful than ever. News and sport will become more powerful than ever. The reason why prime time will be very powerful into the future is because it informs the masses. For me, the theatrical release window of a movie informs the masses of the tail consumption of movies, whether it’s DVDs, whether it’s on demand, how well something performs in the theatre determines how it
performs there and after, in the main. “When we look at how things are going to perform in television content with long tail TV content, prime time will influence that. It always has, but it’s actually going to influence it more because as people have multiple options outside of prime time to enjoy content, they’re still looking to prime time TV to learn and to understand and explore new content opportunities. “Why is VOD Grey’s Anatomy so popular or Desperate Housewives? It’s not popular because it’s a great show. It’s popular because it was popular in free to air television on prime time and the masses watched it. That’s what created the demand. “News in free to air becomes tremendously valuable because as I can move to a plethora of on demand content, I’m not keeping up to date with the pulse of what’s happening in my country or in fact in the world. So news propositions and free to air become immensely more powerful. Sport, I mean we’re a lucky country, anti-siphoning. I go to New Zealand, in order for me to watch their national sport I have to have pay television to do that. “When we talk about what’s not going to be valuable in the future, it’s going to be long tail linear delivered content. Why, why would I pay $120 a month to watch Will and Grace, Will and Grace, Will and Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond, Will and Grace, Will and Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond? They’re out of season order, they’re out of episode order, I have to watch and I flip across. It’s basically junk food TV. I want sequential on demand delivery of my content. And, if I can get that and I can pay as I use or more importantly it’s advertiser funded, bring it on. I’m not going to pay for long tail linear content. Visit www.mytivo.com.au, www.mytivo.co.nz, www.hybridtv.com.au, www.hybridsmartstreet.com.au
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Digital Rapids (NAB booth number SL6010) has unveiled the StreamZHD Live ABR encoder, an Adaptive Bit Rate streaming system which encodes and streams live HD and SD content. StreamZHD Live ABR supports the Dynamic Streaming capabilities of Adobe Flash Media Server; adaptive HTTP streaming to Apple iPhone mobile devices, and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming to Microsoft Silverlight powered viewing experiences. StreamZHD Live ABR is also easily extensible to support additional adaptive delivery technologies, such as Adobe’s upcoming HTTP Dynamic Streaming (announced as Project Zeri). Adaptive bit rate streaming enables higher-quality viewing experiences with television-like continuity and reliability on the Web and mobile devices. StreamZHD Live ABR creates multiple output streams at varying bit rates and resolutions from the input source. As the content is delivered to each viewer, the chosen adaptive delivery technology automatically switches between these streams to deliver the best possible quality based on the viewer’s current network and local system conditions. The results are consistent, uninterrupted viewing experiences up to HD quality even under dramatically changing network connectivity and playback conditions. Combinations of up to seven HD and SD streams can be output simultaneously in real time from a single StreamZHD Live ABR unit. StreamZHD Live ABR can output streams up to full 1920x1080 at 30fps in the H.264 compression format – including simultaneous 1080p and 720p outputs – and up to 720p with VC-1 compression. Multiple StreamZHD Live ABR systems can be synchronized to encode the same source for adaptive streaming applications requiring a greater number of simultaneous streams. A single StreamZHD Live ABR unit can also create outputs for multiple platforms – such as the Web and iPhone – concurrently. Adaptive bit rate technologies also minimize the initial viewing delay typical with earlier streaming methods, providing fast start-up times approaching the immediacy of traditional television. The historical approach of content providers offering streams in two or three tiered bit rates for the viewer to select between – often with poor results under changing conditions or if viewers over-estimate their capabilities – is also no longer necessary. Viewers simply start viewing from a single engagement point, with the adaptive technologies managing the bit rate dynamically. Advanced video pre-processing features including motion adaptive deinterlacing with pixel-level analysis and video noise reduction deliver superior visual quality with the most efficient use of bandwidth in the compressed result. Video adjustments and graphic overlay enable refinement of incoming sources and the addition of branding to output streams. Multiple StreamZHD Live ABR encoders can be combined with the scalable Digital Rapids Broadcast Manager software for enterprise-class management, automation, scheduling, multi-channel monitoring and failover. The new StreamZHD Live ABR model is now shipping. Full adaptive streaming capabilities are also available in Digital Rapids’ StreamZHD multi-format, live and on-demand studio encoders. Visit www.digital-rapids.com
Vividas, GlobeCast Bank Webcast
Vividas Asia Pacific and GlobeCast Asia provided the expertise and technology to deliver the recent live webcast of the Commonwealth Bank’s 0360 Economic Vitality Report. The live broadcast feed was provided by GlobeCast Australia and delivered over fibre to GlobeCast’s LA facility. From there GlobeCast Singapore picked up the fibre feed, and using Vividas’s propriety webcasting software, the live broadcast was encoded and uploaded to the internet providing a high quality live webcast. Watch the archive at http://melb.vividas.com/CBA_ webcast/
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Broadband & IPTV 57
THE ORIGINAL BROADCAST MEDIA
RADIO
A division of Dingbat Technology
Radio Industry Releases First Digital Data The first official data relating to digital radio broadcasts in Australia has been released by Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), showing six months after the consumer launch of digital radio in the five state metropolitan capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, there are 449,000 people listening to digital radio in an average week, around 104,000 digital radios in the market and 80% of people who own a digital radio would recommend it to a friend. The Digital Radio Industry Report released by CRA includes data from the official radio industry audience measurement survey company, the Nielsen Company, consumer electronics market research company, GfK, and market researcher, the Hoop Group. Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer, Joan Warner said “The market information in the Digital Radio Industry Report has exceeded the industry’s initial expectations. Initial predictions were up to 50,000 receivers sold in the first 12 months. Permanent high power digital radio services have only been on air for a short time and we are very pleased with these initial results. “The report gives us a basis on which to work for the continued marketing, promotion, development and growth of digital radio across Australia.” The main findings from recent consumer research commissioned by CRA show: • 63% of Australians are aware that DAB+ digital radio has launched in Australia • 38% of people in metropolitan areas are likely to purchase a digital radio in the next 12 months.
• 80% of people who own a digital radio would recommend it to a friend • 69% of people who own a digital radio believe it has delivered on expectations • 74% of people are willing to spend between AUD$50-$200 for a digital radio device • 71% of digital radio owners purchased for the digital quality sound Platform of listening was introduced to the industry’s radio audience measurement system in January 2009 to track listening on analogue radio devices, DAB+ digital radio devices and via the internet. In Survey 1, 2010, in an average week nearly 95% of people in the five state capital cities listened to radio. Of those, 3.7% people listened to radio
via the DAB+ digital radio platform and radio listening via the internet was 4.2%. Radio listening on the internet attracted a slightly higher cumulative audience (504,000) than digital radio but the time spent listening on the DAB+ digital platform is higher at 8 hours and 16 minutes each week, compared to the internet listening at 5 hours and 31 minutes. “We have to remember digital radio is a new technology, the internet has been available as an alternative way to listen to broadcast radio for many years and already digital radio time spent listening is greater than time spent listening via the internet platform,” Ms Warner said. The report also shows that radio broadcasters have launched up to 16 new DAB+ only services in each market. Of all the people listening on the DAB+ platform, 20% were listening to the new DAB+ only stations launched by broadcasters. “This industry data is obviously being made available very early in the life of digital radio but the industry is keen to ensure that data in relation to digital radio was measured from the outset of the technology so that we can look back in ten years and see how far we’ve come,” Ms Warner said. “There are areas for further work like the introduction of digital radio into all cars as standard and the roll-out of digital radio to regional areas so all Australians can access this great medium. The industry will work hard to ensure these next steps come to fruition.” The Digital Radio Industry Report can be downloaded from www.digitalradioplus.com.au
Introducing OnAir Solutions OnAir Solutions is a new distributor to the Australian broadcast market and provides superior representation to a select group of manufacturers. Our focus is on solving customer needs, technical knowledge of our product and advanced product support. Unlike many new companies, OnAir Solutions has no ramp up time to be fully operational at all levels of Sales, Support and Logistics. From day one, OnAir Solutions has been providing quotes, taking orders, processing payments, managing freight, testing received equipment and supporting this equipment using sophisticated “case tracking” software to ensure complete customer satisfaction. OnAir Solutions is delighted to announce it has launched with three market leading manufacturers.
2010 ACRA Entries Now Open Entries are now open for the 22nd Australian Commercial Radio Awards. This year will see a new category introduced to the awards - Best New Digital Radio Format. According to Commercial Radio Australia, as metropolitan stations around the country have now rolled out permanent digital services, this award has been designed to recognise innovation and achievement in this area. The awards are designed to recognise excellence in all areas of radio broadcasting
including news, talk, sport, music and entertainment. All 33 award categories are peer judged, with judging panels comprised of industry members. Winners are awarded in each category across three divisions: metropolitan, provincial and country commercial radio stations. The Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs) are held annually by Commercial Radio Australia. The ACRAs, previously known as the RAWARDS were first held by FARB in 1989. Each year the ACRAs are held as part of the RadioFest weekend
in either Sydney, Melbourne or the Gold Coast. The ACRAs is the pinnacle event in the RadioFest weekend, which also includes the National Radio Conference and the New Artists 2 Radio Showcase. The Australian Commercial Radio Awards will be held on Saturday 16 October at Crown Casino, Melbourne. All 2010 ACRA Entries must be received by 5pm, Friday 14 May 2010. Visit www.commercialradio.com.au/acras
Innovative, Audio Codec’s for IP and Telecom Networks.
Innovative products for radio and television broadcasters to manage and monitor their services.
High Quality MPEG4 Encoding for Contribution and Distribution with a Universal Decoder (fully interoperable).
Don’t hesitate to contact OnAir Solutions with your enquiry 58 Radio
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Radio
Radio
Netia Enables Radio to Stream Video At NAB 2010 Content management and delivery company GlobeCast and subsidiary Netia (Booth SU3502) will demonstrate its entire Radio-Assist 8 range of digital audio automation software, highlighting its two new modules, CamDirector and Workflow Engine. The company will also illustrate the tight integration between Radio-Assist and Netia’s Manreo asset management system. Equipped with a broad range of tools for end-to-end multimedia workflows, this latest version of Netia’s Radio-Assist 8 software suite now extends beyond traditional broadcasting, allowing users to prepare publication at an early stage of the workflow. At the 2010 NAB Show, Netia will demonstrate for the first time its unique and innovative CamDirector, a new Radio-Assist module that brings direct camera control and automated video switching to the company’s Radio-Assist 8 suite of digital audio automation software. With this capability, radio broadcasters can create live, switched programs for
Automation, Transmission, Social Networking from BE Broadcast Electronics (BE) (NAB Booth C1628) is showcasing new versions of its low-power STX LP FM transmitter and new centralised management tools for its studio automation system. In addition, the company will show new applications for its data management platform and metadata capabilities for its logger application. The BE NAB line-up includes: STX LP Low Power Scalable FM Transmitter, a lightweight, low-power, solid-state transmitter scalable from 1 kW to 5 kW and comes with built-in exciter, an emergency backup controller and IP connectivity. At a third the size of other transmitters in its power class, the STX LP is based on the robust power amplification design found in BE’s C and S series transmitters but utilises newer proprietary combiner technology. New AudioVault FleX Tools. The AudioVault FleX digital automation system now includes distributed asset management and integration tools to synchronise schedules and inventory
broadcast, streaming, or podcast. Using automatic voice detection, CamDirector enables complete automation of the production of in-studio interviews and special on-set events by triggering the switching of cameras according to the speaker and microphone currently in use. Radio Assist 8 now also incorporates the new Netia Workflow Engine, designed to allow media companies to easily choreograph their own workflow. Netia Workflow Engine facilitates and harmonises
across multiple sites. BE will also demonstrate an expanded segue editor and new user interfaces for personalised screens customised for show or talent, plus true IP networking for connecting multiple studios into a single operation. New Media Apps for TRE Message Manager Software Suite. BE’s Message Manager suite marketed under The Radio Experience (TRE) brings to NAB several new functions for RDS, HD Radio, Internet and even Twitter. BE will be demonstrating Trecast, a new tool for creating instant unscheduled messages such as weather warnings, news alerts, or even live contest details to be delivered instantly to a single station or group of stations. These messages can be archived to a message clipboard for immediate access by announcers at any time, and from any station in the network for redistribution on RDS, HD Radio, the Web or Twitter. New social network tagging capabilities giving listeners the ability to receive a station’s now playing data as well as earmark songs for purchase through the station’s social networking feeds such as Twitter and Facebook. Compatible with BE’s AudioVault and most other major automation systems, TRE
exchanges between all existing applications found in a broadcast environment. Meanwhile, Manreo 2 offers an open, scalable architecture along with all the tools needed to simplify the cataloging, indexing, accessing, and distribution of media. Manreo 2 is designed to maximise productivity gains in asset management and the use of rich media, which in turn can be repurposed and published to platforms such as Web portals and mobile devices. The solution supports all industrystandard formats, ingesting content, generating browse proxies, enriching media through speechto-text functionality, and providing easy access to media. Manreo 2 now incorporates the new Netia Workflow Engine as well as Netia’s Hypercast Warehouse set of archiving tools, a flexible platform entirely dedicated to media asset management. This powerful archiving manager at the heart of the system interfaces with acquisition, production, automation, and storage applications. Visit www.netia.com and www.ssd.com.au
messagecasting software enables operators to schedule text messages in much the same way they would schedule music, with a complete set of tools for generating and tracking advertiser, as well as promotional messages. At the heart of the TRE Message Manager system is its ability to interleave artist and song title information embedded in automation files along with text data generated internally or imported from a third party, such as a weather or traffic service. New Metadata Capabilities for Audio Logger. The AudioVault digital automation system for capturing, analysing and archiving audio and video from just about any source, now includes Podcast, PPM, RDS and other metadata capabilities. It can now import PPM data and display the minute-by-minute audience graph together with program information imported from the play-out system, providing a critical analysis tool for making program decisions. The logger is compatible with all major automation systems and can be purchased as a standalone application or integrated into the BE AudioVault digital media system. Visit www.bdcast.com
Remote Broadcasts Over IP Zephyr/IP is an advanced IP codec that brings Zephyr audio quality to broadcast remotes that use public Internet connections. There are several different models for studio and field - including Z/IP Mixer, the newest portable with a built-in mixer for grab-and-go remotes. Z/IP is simple to set up and use, employing a network of distributed Z/IP Servers that allow Zephyr/IP users to easily find each other behind firewalls and NATS. Z/IP can also connect to calls from PBXs that use the SIP standard. A large, colour display shows users their connection’s routing across the globe. Z/IP broadcasts use Agile Connection Technology from FhG for state-of-the-art loss detection and concealment, dynamic buffering and adaptive bitrates to detect, analyse, adjust and correct any signal variations — ensuring clean, clear broadcast-quality audio with the lowest possible delay. Visit www.Telos-Systems.com
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Radio
“Radio-All-In-One”
The WorldCast Systems Group, comprising broadcast brands APT, Ecreso and Audemat, has a 1-Band version of the Audemat Digiplexer 2/4. The “Radio All in One” range is well respected amongst radio broadcasters for delivering many savings and efficiencies. It does this by combining key functions such as audio processing, RDS encoding, stereo encoding, audio back-up and I/O remote control into a single 1U chassis. Recognizing that the majority of stations will perform their main audio processing operation at the studio site, the new 1 band unit has been specifically designed for transmitter site operation. It combines all the traditional features of a “Radio All in One” product with only final limiting and Automatic Gain Control on the Audio Processing side. Typically a broadcaster would have to purchase between 5 and 6 separate pieces of equipment to achieve what the Digiplexer 2/4 performs in a single 1U case. Should a broadcaster’s requirements change, the Digiplexer 2/4 can be upgraded from 1 Band to 2 or 4 Band option by means of a software upgrade. Visit www.worldcastsystems.com
iPad radio application
With early adopters eagerly lining up to order Apple’s new iPad as it ushers in a revolutionary genre of technology use, StreamTheWorld, a technology and services company serving online broadcasters, has announced that it will launch a new radio application tailor-made for the pioneering tablet computer. “StreamTheWorld will unveil its native iPad application at the 2010 NAB Show,” said Jean-Philippe Gauthier, Vice President, Product Management & Development. StreamTheWorld provides streaming technology and services to online broadcasters. StreamTheWorld’s fully integrated solutions—including User Experience, Advertising, Media Delivery and Management, and Analytics—meet all our customers’ broadcast and content needs. All earlier iPhone and iPod Touch applications developed by StreamTheWorld, which have already been downloaded over a million times, will be available for the iPad. Combining the capabilities of a laptop and a smartphone, the iPad lets users read books and newspapers, surf websites, do email, listen to music, share photos, watch videos, and much more. “The iPad is another smart, nimble, groundbreaking product from Apple,” said Jean-Philippe Gauthier, “and it will appeal in particular to heavy content users. In keeping with StreamTheWorld’s commitment to provide a topnotch user experience for our customers, we are pleased to have developed this application for the ‘dream device’ that has kept the radio industry in North America and Europe abuzz for months now.” Visit www.streamtheworld.com
With genuine dual drive recording, the feature-packed new HHB CDR-882 DualBurn delivers twice the performance in the most demanding live and studio CD record/replay applications. And unlike consumer-derived technology, the CDR-882 is designed from the ground up with a massive steel chassis, robust IDE CD-R drives and audiophile circuitry to ensure uncompromised sound quality and long-term dependability.
• DiscSpan seamless recording across 2 or more discs • DualBurn simultaneous recording on 2 discs • High speed disc duplication • Industrial strength design and build quality • Professional cueing and seamless track increments
CDR-882 DualBurn: The ultimate CD recorder
Sound4 Becomes Axia Partner
Sound4 (www.sound4.biz), a maker of multi-band PC-based audio processing cards for HDFM, DAB, DRM, DMB and WebRadio broadcasting, has become an Axia Audio partner with plans to integrate the Livewire AoIP standard into SOUND4 products, the first of which will be an 8-channel voice processor launching at NAB 2010. Livewire is the IP-Audio networking standard which utilises Ethernet to provide an easy way to route and share audio and logic throughout the broadcast plant. “Everyone agrees that IP-Audio is the future. There are already more than 1,500 studios around the world powered by Axia Livewire networks,” says Axia Vice-President Marty Sacks. “Broadcasters and equipment manufacturers are increasingly discovering the power and flexibility of audio networking.” Visit www.AxiaAudio.com
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For your nearest authorised dealer in Australia: Free Call 1800 648 628 email sales@syntec.com.au | www.syntec.com.au New Zealand: Free Call 0800 100 755 email sales@syntec.co.nz | www.syntec.co.nz Radio 61
Audio
AUDIO Dolby Unveils Dolby Surround 7.1 << <<
Dolby’s CP750 Digital Cinema Processor – will be upgraded to 7.1 Surround.
The US ShoWest 2010 cinema conference and exhibition has seen Dolby Laboratories announce it is working with Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios to deliver a new audio format, Dolby Surround 7.1. Disney and Pixar have stated that Dolby Surround 7.1 will be launched in select theatres with the release of Toy Story 3 in 3D this June. “For 40 years Dolby has not only provided content creators with the tools to create a more realistic audio experience, but has also enabled the exhibitor to deliver audiences the ability to experience the content as the creator intended,” said Page Haun, Senior Director, Marketing, Cinema Market Segment, Dolby Laboratories. “The release of Toy Story 3 in a discrete 7.1 mix will raise the bar for movie theatre owners and their patrons.” Dolby Surround 7.1 brings a more exciting sensory experience to audiences for 2D and gives content creators control over audio placement in a theatre when mixing 3D movies. The ability to compose audio with visual elements of 3D allows content creators to immerse the audience deeper into the movie with dramatic realism. Dolby Surround 7.1 provides content creators four surround zones to better orchestrate audio channels in a movie theatre environment. The four surround zones incorporate the traditional Left Surround and Right Surround with new Back Surround Left and Back Surround Right zones. The addition of the two Back Surround zones enhances directionality in panning 360 degrees around the theatre. Dolby Surround 7.1 format comprises 8 channels of audio and has the following channel layout: • Left, • Center, • Right, • Low-Frequency Effects (LFE), • Left Surround, • Right Surround, • Back Surround Left (new), and • Back Surround Right (new).
62 Audio
In order for cinema exhibitors to deliver the new format, Dolby will be providing Dolby Surround 7.1 playback capabilities in the Dolby CP650 and Dolby CP750 digital cinema audio processor lines. At ShoWest, Dolby demonstrated to exhibitors a discrete 7.1 mixed demo reel of past Pixar movies to showcase the advanced audio solution. Following ShoWest, Dolby says exhibitors will be able to access the content to test and demonstrate in their theatres. The 7.1 announcement follows that of a collaboration between Dolby Laboratories digital music service provider Omnifone to introduce the multi-platform digital file format Dolby Pulse into cloud-based music services for mobile, PC, in-home, and in-car streaming and downloading. Omnifone is Dolby’s first customer to use the pre-processing and encoding tool Dolby Media Generator to encode its entire global catalogue of over 6.5 million tracks into the Dolby Pulse format. Dolby Pulse combines the efficiency of High Efficiency AAC (HE AAC) audio coding with Dolby’s quality and audio expertise, ensuring an optimal combination of quality, efficiency, and integrity of content. Part of the MPEG-4 standard, HE AAC offers rich, premium sound at low bit rates, making it ideal for bandwidth-constrained applications. The Dolby Pulse system adds true Dolby metadata capability to the efficiency of open standard HE AAC. Dolby Media Generator is a software solution for the generation and delivery of digital content to multiple devices and platforms across both fixed and mobile networks. It is able to encode audio content in the highly efficient Dolby Pulse format with excellent audio quality at a low bit rate of 48 kilo bits per second (kbps) and can deliver good quality audio at bit rates as low as 24 kbps, delivering one audio bitstream for net connected TVs, set-top boxes, mobiles, PCs, and in-car and internet based services, as well as multiple embedded services. Visit www.dolby.com
Loudness Control... From Production to Transmission
NHK Goes International with Fairlight
Only Linear Acoustic – the leader in television audio control and QC – has the solution every step of the way from content creation to transmission:
Television post-production facility NHK International has installed a three-bay Fairlight Constellation console in its MA1 studio and a Fairlight Xynergi Media Production Centre in studio MA2. Both rooms have also been equipped with PyxisHD video. NHK International creates foreign-language versions of programs and documentaries produced by Japan’s main broadcaster NHK. The aim of this work is to enhance mutual understanding between Japan and other countries, to promote goodwill and to contribute to improving standards of broadcasting. Commenting on the upgrade, Mr Watanabe, Chief Audio Engineer at NHK International, says: “We chose Fairlight CC-1 technology because we wanted to ensure file compatibility with other NHK studios and with newer file formats. We also wanted to maintain the ability to use data from our previous system.” Mr. Watanabe adds that Fairlight’s compatibility with high level VTR equipment is proving to be a significant advantage. NHK engineers also like Fairlight’s dedicated keyboard and the strong editing features, which are ideally suited to postproduction work. Visit www.fairlightau.com
Production/Ingest: ITU-standard Loudness Metering and Correction with at-a-glance indication of current and program-length loudness. Upmixing to maintain surround field and center channel presence with perfect downmix compatibility. In-plant: ITU Loudness Metering and Audio Monitoring, with flexible routing, switching, decoding and de-embedding.
Transmission: Loudness Control and Metadata Management that stops listener complaints while maintaining “Hollywood approved” production values on the latest surround systems.
Get it Right in the Mix: Loudness Monitoring That’s Truly Useful Evolved from extensive field research during high-profile events, the new Linear Acoustic LQ-1000 Loudness Quality Monitor shows you everything you need to know to mix to the new recommended practices for loudness control. Think of it like an audio speedometer: one quick glance and you can get back to driving the mixing desk. With the LQ-1000, current loudness, target loudness and peak level are clearly indicated with an intuitive combination of large numbers, bargraph meters, and a loudness histogram. Color is used to display the loudness comfort zone: blue if too quiet, green to yellow within target and red if too loud.
Axon’s Linear Synapse Axon’s modular infrastructure and communications system Synapse will be enhanced with DTV audio loudness management and stereo to 5.1 upmix algorithms designed by Linear Acoustic. In order to fix inconsistent DTV audio loudness (or the so-called ‘loud commercial problem’) Linear Acoustic developed the Aeromax 5.1 channel loudness and dynamic range control algorithm and the UPMAX upmixing algorithm with AutoMAX-II. Now, Axon will incorporate these functions into its Synapse modular system on two different platforms. Axon will show this new module at NAB2010. The built-in loudness control, upmixing and metadata control make it the ideal choice for high-quality and seamless surround sound experience for viewers. Control of all parameters will be available through Axon’s monitoring and control software Cortex. The new unit will accept 4 pairs of PCM audio to handle two-channel to 5.1 channel audio programming and a bypass input. Multiband, multistage loudness control and selectable upmixing can be applied to the input audio resulting in smooth, consistent audio that can be 5.1 channels all the time. Visit www.linearacoustic.com and www.axon.tv
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Get it Right on the Air: Television Audio Controlled AERO.air or AERO.one in your transmission chain – just before the digital encoder – automatically monitors loudness range, adjusting it to keep the audio comfortable for the viewers at home, not too loud, not too soft. It prevents commercials from blasting out of the set, keeping you legal. And AERO provides seamless and automatic upmixing of local plant audio from stereo to surround so your transitions from network to local don’t collapse the sound field or your viewer’s interest. Both AERO.air and AERO.one offer optional HD/SD-SDI support and integral Dolby® Digital (AC-3) encoding. AERO.air – fully-featured for the major local station or cable/satellite network. AERO.one – simple, cost-effective solution for single programs or backup paths.
Sounding great and staying legal doesn’t have to be complicated.
Booth SU8125
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Audio
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Audio
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‘Computer Whisperer’
from Sony
Vale Simon Leadley, 1956–2010. In late February, the industry lost one of its leading practitioners in the area of audio with the passing of Simon Leadley - Technical Director, Chief Engineer, Editor and a Founder of Trackdown Studios. Of his many qualities, those that marked Simon out in the professional sphere included a willingness to innovate and embrace new technologies, and a way he had with people around him that was both instructive and supportive. A fitting testament to the way in which Simon had touched so many lives was the overflowing crowd at his memorial, held in Trackdown’s Orchestral Scoring Stage next to Sydney’s Fox Studios. As well as the dozens of people linked in via video hook-up from a studio in Los Angeles. I first met Simon in the early 1990s working on the now-defunct Sonics magazine. He had written a regular column for the publication for a number of years and would often drop in personally to deliver his copy. His cousin Marcus also contributed to the magazine. At Simon’s memorial, Charles Tetaz of Digidesign/ Avid admitted to me that, as a fresh-faced newcomer to the industry, he had collected Simon’s columns in a scrapbook and was in awe the first time he actually met his guru. However, Simon was much more than just an audio genius. As the slideshow at his memorial attested, he was a more rounded human being than a lot of us can claim to be. A teenage monster film, rock guitarist shots (with long hair and John Newcombe moustache for historical context), moments in the studio, numerous skiing trips, friends and family – all painting a picture of a life well lived though one that should have been longer. Of course, those who were closest to him knew him best of all. At the memorial, Tim Ryan, Senior Music Engineer and Editor at Trackdown, said “Simon was like a brother ... he had a knack of taking you under his wing, showing you the ropes and then leaving you in his wake, each time knowing that you had learned, progressed, and were ready for the next challenge. “He leaves the world a better place than he found it, and wouldn’t we all like to have that legacy? He reached out to so many people in his too, too short life, and it is beautiful now that so many people are reaching out to him.” A friend of Simon’s for over 40 years, Trackdown 64 Audio
Co-Founder Geoff Watson said, “Simon had a gift and he was more than willing to share it. And, of course, there was Simon the friend. Simon and I have been on many adventures together. “In fact our catch phrase for all our trips, journeys and business ventures was, it’s always an adventure. These have ranged from carefully planned and executed girl luring strategies, which were exclusive to our 20s, to how to get the broken truck to the gig - it’s easy, let’s push it - to ‘hey, let’s set up a 16 track studio in Greg Hutching’s basement’.” Watson recounted an episode from the first recording studio the pair set up – The Studio in Oxford Street Sydney - where “a new-ish band called INXS” were due to come in and record some demos. Lacking the $10,000 needed for a new reverb, Simon built one for $800. “This is the essence of Simon the technician,” said Watson, “the can-do attitude underlined with ‘I think this can be done smarter’. Without Simon we would not have Trackdown today, and where we’re standing is a testament to that.” Watson went on to read an email from Hans Zimmer, composer for such films as Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Dark Knight. “I’m so sad for Simon,” said Zimmer. “I don’t really know what to say. You know how fond I was of him and how I thought he was better than anyone else I ever worked with by a mile. I will really miss him.” These sentiments were echoed by composer Peter Robinson and, via email, director Roger Donaldson, both of whom worked with Simon on feature film “The Bank Job”. “He’s one of the finest, if not the finest music editor I’ve ever worked with,” said Robinson. “He showed me so much about the computer side of things and just kept life fun and, you know, a consummate professional.” “Simon, your sense of humour and upbeat spirit as well as your enormous talent and dedication will be much missed by those who knew you,” wrote Donaldson. The following was written by Geoff Watson in tribute to Simon. Simon Leadley was one of Australia’s leading audio and music for film craftsmen. He was a founder of Trackdown Digital, now a world renowned orchestral recording facility in Sydney. Simon was a “Computer Whisperer” who had a sixth sense for how to do
things smarter and break through many of the outmoded conventions in his field of expertise. Simon Charles Anthony Leadley was born in Henley on Thames, UK on October 28, 1956. He came to Melbourne, with his parents, brother and sister as Ten Pound Poms. When he was seven his family moved to Sydney. He attended Vaucluse Boys High School and then UNSW, studying electronic engineering. He played rock guitar in a number of local bands, touring the country. It was when he set up one of Sydney’s first recording / rehearsal studios in Oxford Street in 1976 that his career path began to really take shape. This small, three man business quickly evolved into one of Sydney’s premiere contemporary music rehearsal/demo studios with clients such as INXS, The Divinyls, Midnight Oil, Icehouse, Do re Mi, to name just a few. The next step for Simon was to create Sydney’s first half inch 16 track recording studio underneath Hutchings Keyboards in Bondi Junction. This studio became the recording home of a significant proportion of the Sydney independent music fraternity. It also became one of the first studios in Australia to master their albums using digital technology. Simon then moved his focus to film and TV audio and music. This began with a move to Camperdown where Simon introduced digital technology to Australia’s largest children’s animation production company, Yoram Gross Films. He started with sound and soon had almost all the studio’s processes running digitally – this helped increase Yoram Gross’s production output five-fold. This time also saw Simon driving the audio for animated versions of Blinky Bill, Flipper and Skippy. It was 1998 when the Australian live action film industry truly recognized Simon’s extraordinary skills. He was asked to set up a music for film division at Australia’s leading feature film audio production house, Soundfirm, at Sydney’s Fox Studios. Over the next ten years Simon was music editor for films such as Dark City, Master & Commander, Happy Feet, The Bank Job, Australia and Moulin Rouge for which he received a Hollywood technical Oscar (AKA an MPSE Award). The pinnacle for Simon was the creation of the Trackdown Scoring Stage at Fox Studios. This room has become recognized as one of the five best orchestral recording rooms in the World. It has been
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Leadley’s “Pinnacle”, Trackdown Studios, Sydney.
a favourite home for music groups as diverse as the Sydney Symphony, the ACO, The Whitlams, John Mayer, The Angels and many more. Simon was also a keen snow skier and bike rider, having completed many Sydney to the Gong rides as well often being spotted on the black runs on the Australian and New Zealand slopes. Simon Leadley passed away on February 24, 2010 from cancer. He is survived by his partner Kerry, his brother Phillip, sister Sally and father Tony. Simon requested that donations in his name be made to the Department of Oncology at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. For details, email elaine@trackdown.com.au - Phil Sandberg
MPEG Personalises Audio
The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) recently completed work on the MPEG Spatial Audio Object Coding (SAOC) standard. MPEG SAOC (ISO/IEC 23003-2) is an advanced technology for the efficient distribution of audio combined with features for personalization and interactivity. With SAOC, any number of audio objects may be distributed over one mono or stereo stream, enabling user interactivity (for example, changing the volume and position of any audio object) in any low bandwidth application. The versatility of the technology makes it possible that the same SAOC content can be played back on any device – stereo, surround or headphones (Virtual-3D) or can even be decoded with a non-SAOC device. SAOC serves as the basis for many different applications based on the identical core technology, of which interactive audio remixing (e.g. Karaoke) and highly flexible and efficient communication solutions are the most prominent ones. A new application format standard, Interactive Music Application Format (IMAF) (ISO/IEC 23000-12), has also been finalised. The Interactive Music Application Format is an example of using SAOC to implement a personal music mix application. IMAF specifies how to combine multiple audio tracks mixed during the music production process with additional information to create a well-defined content format that facilitates storage, interchange, management, editing and, most importantly, interactive presentation of music for a personalized music mix. For example, with IMAF the vocal, keyboard and/or drums from a track can be emphasized to customize the mix to the tastes of a particular user. IMAF also enables users to publish the control information for their recomposed music content, enabling others with IMAF to experience their musical arrangements. Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/hot_news.htm
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The Professional Choice From wireless and wired microphones to versatile A/V mixers offering integrated control with a variety of projectors - Sony’s comprehensive range of pro audio solutions offers an assurance of reliability, quality and consistency. With a host of systems and accessories to choose from, together with proven performance in broadcast, production and AV applications, it’s hardly surprising that Sony’s pro audio range is the professional choice.
PCM-D50 Linear PCM Recorder The latest addition to Sony’s family of portable audio recorders, built rugged and compact to withstand the demands of any environment. • 96kHz/24 bit, virtually noise-free recording quality • 4GB internal Flash Memory, plus expandable Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo™ slot for up to an additional 4GB
www.sony.com.au/production proaudio.au@ap.sony.com 1800 017 669
Audio 65
Audio Audio/NAB Preview
Omnia Cuts Coded Audio Clutter
Omnia Audio (Booth C146) is continuing to offer its existing users of Omnia A/X a free upgrade to the processing and encoding power of Omnia A/XE throughout NAB 2010. Capable of processing multiple audio inputs for a variety of applications, bitratereduced and linear, Omnia A/XE runs in the background as a Windows service for 24/7 operation and can be fully-managed and configured remotely with a web browser. One instance of A/XE can process multiple audio inputs, encode each input in multiple formats and send each to multiple servers, allowing users to reach the largest listener audience. Users can encode directly to MP3 or AAC, feed a Shoutcast-style or Windows Media Server in the MP3 format, or stream to Adobe Flash clients through a Wowza Media Server. Omnia A/XE can also be paired with third-party encoders such as Adobe Flash Live Encoder, Windows Media and Real. Using the included virtual audio cable driver, A/XE can accept audio from other applications on the same PC without needing to go through a physical sound card. The virtual audio cable driver also allows A/ XE to feed the processed audio to other applications on the same PC. In addition to the virtual audio cable driver, Omnia A/XE also includes a license to the multi-channel version of the Axia IP-Audio driver. Customers that have a Livewire installation can use the Axia IP-Audio driver to read or write audio directly from the network without the need for hardware audio cards. A/XE offers the high-quality processing and feature set that customers expect from Omnia. These features include adjustable wideband AGC with a three-band compressor/limiter, EQ and low-pass filter, and a precision lookahead final limiter to prevent clipping. Visit http://omniaaudio.com/axe
66 Audio/NAB Audio Preview
Audio
Linear Fader Controller Sound Devices (Booth C1354) introduces its latest accessory for its 788T Digital Recorder, the new CL-9 Linear Fader Controller at NAB 2010. With the addition of the CL-9, the already powerful 788T becomes a complete mixing/recording system, perfect for audio capture in sound-forpicture, broadcast and music-oriented productions. Acting as a dedicated mixing surface for Sound Devices 788T, the CL-9 is a compact, linear fader controller that features enhanced monitoring. The CL-9 is equipped with eight 100mm ultra low-latency linear faders and rotary input trim controls with ring LED metering for fast, smooth and precise critical gain changes. When a CL-9 is connected, the 788T gains a sweepable, single-band parametric EQ for each of its eight inputs with variable frequency, gain and filter Q. Additionally, the CL-9 adds input pan to the 788T. A wide range of 788T menu-based controls are accessible with the convenient knob controls on the CL-9, such as output level control of the six outputs, dedicated L/R and Aux 1/Aux 2 output level controls, track-record enabling for each of the 12 record tracks and one-touch soloing of inputs or tracks. Bus-powered by the 788T, the CL-9 is connected by a single USB cable. Additional monitoring features are available by connecting the headphone output from the 788T to the CL-9. The 788T can also be connected to a Mac OS or Windows computer running Sound Devices’ Wave Agent File Librarian. When in the Metering Mode of Wave Agent, all 12 record tracks and 788T time code values can be remotely monitored with available record and stop controls. Visit www.sounddevices.com
Audio Receivers with Metadata Zaxcom’s (Booth C154) new ERX1 and ERX1TCD encrypted IFB bodypacks receive high-quality digital audio, timecode, and metadata from any IFB transmitter in the Zaxcom TRX series. Each unit’s LCD shows timecode and current scene and take metadata in real time, with a hold button for script supervisors. The ERX1TCD additionally has a built-in timecode reader/generator and output to jam digital slates continuously, preventing timecode drift between Deva/Fusion and the slate. The ERX1TCD version also can delay received audio signals to allow production staff to match various monitors precisely to the audio. The ERX1 and ERX1TCD both contain a 1-kHz frequency-adjustable notch filter to eliminate the transmission of tone from the mixing console. Meanwhile, ZaxNet is a 2.4-GHz RF network for the distribution of remote control signals, timecode, IFB audio, and metadata for production sound. It wirelessly links Zaxcom’s Deva/Fusion, digital recording wireless systems, encrypted IFB receivers, and compatible digital slates into a single system for audio recording and metadata distribution. The ZaxNet signal is generated by Deva/Fusion and broadcast via an IFB100 on a 2.4-GHz signal. The IFB audio, timecode, metadata, and wireless remote control commands are then received by the ERX1, ERX1TCD, and TRX series digital wireless units. With ZaxNet, production teams have the ability to replay and remix audio from transmitters, creating a virtual multitrack playback and re-record system. ZaxNet is available for download for all current Zaxcom hardware via a free software update. Finally, Zaxcom’s QRX100 four-channel RF audio receiver inputs four channels of audio from up to two Zaxcom stereo or mono digital transmitters to capitalise on cameras that record four or more discrete audio channels. The QRX100 will then
Reducing Audio Fluctuations Virage Logic Corporation has announced the availability of its new Sonic Focus Adaptive Volume audio volume normalising software. Adaptive Volume normalises audio levels of movies and music to reduce the need for frequent volume adjustments by the consumer and thereby enhances audio performance in consumer electronics. It has already been licensed for use in PCs, phone applications and USB peripherals. Unlike other normalisation techniques, Virage Logics Sonic Focus Adaptive Volume employs a predictive algorithm based on human perception of loudness. Adaptive Volume seamlessly adjusts the audio level when switching among DTV programs, movies, music and voice, both reducing uncomfortable loudness and boosting soft audio content. For example, Adaptive Volume detects and corrects any volume fluctuation between a digital television (DTV) program and a commercial advertisement. Adaptive Volume also adjusts PC audio when a user transitions from a VoIP call to watching internet based content, a DVD or Blu-ray movie or listening to music. Consumer electronics manufacturers can implement Adaptive Volume with the full range of Virage Logics Sonic Focus audio enrichment products to shorten time-to-market and time-to-volume of products that give consumers unsurpassed audio enjoyment. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) can also benefit from using the Sonic Focus product mastering tools and audio enrichment IP provided by Virage Logic. These unique tools allow companies to customise audio quality and the magnitude of the volume normalising effect, thus optimising the whole audio chain, including audio transducers, speaker cavity and industrial design. This entire tool set provides companies with the ability to produce the very best audio quality and consumer experience in end products such as DTV and PCs. Visit www.viragelogic.com.
Audio
Tune in to the comprehensive
pro audio range from Sony
Automatic Digital Mic Mixer
output these received audio channels as both analog and AES digital formats, with audio quality that can only be matched by a hard-wired system. This unique interface allows broadcasters to record all channels from four-channel ENG cameras quickly and easily. The QRX100 doubles as a timecode receiver, with an optional video sync/ SMPTE timecode output and an optional integrated IFB transmitter. Other Products on Display at the 2010 NAB Show, include: • RX992 recording wireless transceiver for boom/ parabola • Stereo Digital Wireless systems • Deva hard-disk audio recorders • Fusion solid-state audio recorders • TRX family of digital wireless recording systems • ZFR audio recorders • Mix-8 and Mix-12 mixing control panels Visit www.zaxcom.com
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AKG has released a new microphone mixer that automates the mix to deliver worry-free audio for installed sound customers. The DMM 422 is a processor-controlled automatic digital mixer with four balanced microphone/line inputs and two stereo AUX inputs. The new product uses a mixing algorithm to automatically create a balanced mix output – ideal for low-maintenance installed sound applications. The DMM 422 has a mixing algorithm that automatically allocates gain among the system microphones. A special noise detection function and the “Noise Sensitive Threshold” algorithm prevent accidental activation of input channels. To compensate for level differences or any other obstacle, the DMM 422 incorporates a dbx compressor/limiter, which provides clear and pristine sound quality to an array of applications. Each channel has switchable gain (Mic/Line, Mic-Lo/Mic-Hi) and switchable phantom power and every input is equipped with an incremental level control, including LED level and peak hold display. The auto-mixing and ducking function can be enabled/ disabled for each microphone and AUX channel individually, providing a huge amount of flexibility. The DMM 422 has an expansion connector to cascade multiple mixers in a bigger system and a control I/O is located on the rear panel, providing logic inputs and outputs to control external devices. The DMM 422 comes in a rugged 19” housing with an integrated power supply unit, one recording output via two RCA connectors and one master XLR output. The mixer can also be remotely controlled via logic in/outs with a D-Sub connector. Visit www.akg.com
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The Professional Choice From wireless and wired microphones to versatile audio/ video mixers and recorders - Sony’s comprehensive range of pro audio solutions offers an assurance of reliability, quality and consistency. With a host of systems and accessories to choose from, together with proven performance in broadcast, production and AV applications, it’s hardly surprising that Sony’s pro audio range is the professional choice.
UWP Series UHF wireless microphone package Each package has a transmitter and receiver - so you’re up and running straight from the box! • Space Diversity Reception ensuring stable signal reception • Rugged and lightweight to provide reliability and mobility needed for field and venue applications
www.sony.com.au/production proaudio.au@ap.sony.com 1800 017 669 Audio 67
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Inside MediaHub
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SIGNAL DISTRIBUTION, TEST & MEASUREMENT
The Streamliner
Inside MediaHub, the ABC/WIN Joint Playout Centre. By Phil Sandberg.
MediaHub - a combination of innovative vision, state of the art technology and rapid realisation - is an autonomous joint venture company established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and WIN Television Network. Its mission: to provide a large scale, multi-client play-out facility in the southern Sydney suburb of Ingleburn. Already in operation, by the second half of 2010, the MediaHub play-out centre will be handling some 120 channels from WIN and the ABC with capacity for further expansion. Based on a track record including Channel 7 Docklands Melbourne, Sky New Zealand, Foxtel North Ryde Sydney, the UK’s ITV, and TV5 in France, Grass Valley was selected as turnkey provider the technical integration of the facility. According to MediaHub head Andrew Thompson, the timeline from initial calls for tender to commissioning has been something of a world record. “I think we’ve broken most of the world records that exist, if they did exist. The facility construction, for example, was completed two days short of a fourmonth time frame which in itself is a record. Grass Valley started their technical fit-out in November and finished in March so, again, it’s a record-breaking presentation from them as well. C+T: What other aspects of the facility are groundbreaking as far as you’re concerned? AT: “Well, apart from the state of the art technology that Grass Valley has deployed here which enables efficient operations of television play-out capability on a multi-client level which I believe is a first here in Australia, the facility itself is built to an N+1 redundancy at all levels of service. “We have four carriers coming into the building at two different geographical locations and they’re on two different loops outside. We also have an upgraded substation capability for power, A and B switchboards which give us redundancy on power supply. “UPS backup, again, N+1 redundancy and a generator system which kicks in automatically should there be a power failure from the grid, again, at an N+1 redundancy. “Air conditioning which is an important factor as well, we also have N+1 redundancy on air and watercooled air conditioning systems here. The whole facility in relation to the presentation and the computer data room is protected by a state of the art Inergen gas fire suppression system and that’s fully automatic as well.”
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staff are here as well you might find there’s 20, 25 people maximum in the centre at any one time.”
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MediaHub Chief Andrew Thompson
C+T: So, the presentation area, what’s the ethos behind the design? AT: “The design of the centre is also slightly different than most other centres. We’ve taken into consideration the human aspects, for example the play-out centre has a large glass viewing area or window where natural light from the outside can flow in so that the staff don’t feel that they’re working inside a box underground, but they can feel connected to the outside world. More importantly of course for retention of staff; if staff feel good about what they’re doing, if they’re proud to work here then they’ll stay and that of course will save us money in the future in recruitment fees. “So, basically the centre itself is designed with staff’s wellbeing in mind. We have a canteen facility as well, which has all the home comforts of a kitchen you might find in your house. “As the centre operates 24-hours a day, seven days a week, people will be here needing to prepare lunches or evening snacks or meals or coffee or whatever and they can do that here without leaving the facility.” C+T: And, how many staff will there be in total? AT: “The centre would employ around about 60 people all up. But, as it is a 24-hour a day, seven day a week operation, most of those people will be rostered on shifts. So, during the daytime when the corporate
C+T: Now, there’s plenty of space for expansion, so what do you envision one down the track? AT: “The centre’s purpose-built for expansion. The ABC and WIN will be our first clients but the centre is designed to take other clients and the facility is designed for an over-capacity. So, we have spare space in the pres area for more breakout suites, a further network operations desk and in the main data area we have a space for spare racks. “There’s also room in the data hall to actually build a space for a further four to eight racks to be put in there. The services side of the business as well is also built for expansion. We can fit another two water chillers in for the air conditioning, for example, two more cooling towers, another generator supply and two more UPS systems so that at all times when the centre reaches its maximum capacity on its client side we still have an N+1 capability.”
Presentation Area
>> >> With capacity for more channels, the presentation area is the last port of call before programme streams are sent on to MediaHub’s respective client broadcasters.
Breakout Suites
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Enabling client intervention for delivery of regionalised and/or time delayed content, Mediahub has 10 Breakout Suites (with capacity for another five).
C+T: You mentioned the data centre (Central Apparatus Room), not machine room? AT: “Well, broadcast is moving more and more into the digital age and into the area of broadcast IT and a tapeless environment, I guess you’d say, which is more than the machine rooms of the old days with the VTR systems. “We have full-fibre connectivity here so that all our contributing content will be delivered through fibre. Basically, no human hands will touch any content as it were. It’s a fully automated system and that’s where the efficiencies are gleaned from operations, whereby most of the labour-intensive or time-consuming activities of the past are now done in a fully-automated environment.” C+T: So, what is the “content-handling” process? AT: “Well what happens is that, for example, from the ABC’s point of view, we receive content from their digital media gateway which is located in Ultimo via an FTP service which reaches us here in Ingleburn. We take custodianship of that content from that point on including schedules, and from there we aggregate and process that through the centre, which may include an element of intervention, through to the main presentation area and play-out.” C+T: This will be covering ABC nationally? AT: “Indeed, all of the ABC channels, SD and HD, Continued on Page 70
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Network Operations Desk
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The MediaHub network operations desk covering [left] ingest monitoring, the recording side, lines feeds; [centre] monitoring/QS; [right] the mux area for monitoring of outgoing signals.
Central Apparatus Room (CAR)
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Andrew Thompson with Grass Valley K2 servers in the central apparatus room or CAR.
CONTENT SENT VIA FTP Back To Contents Page
Transmission 69
Transmission Continued from Page 68 up to about 32 channels in total, including different time zones.”
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MediaHub: View from the Executive Level.
C+T: And on the WIN side? AT: “On the WIN side we’re taking in all of their 32 markets and that is around about 84 channels. Again SD, HD and again, delayed time zones and with WIN, of course, it’s a commercial network and so we’ll have the addition of ad insertions for those markets as well, which will be done here.” C+T: And they’ll push their content and the advertising material in a similar manner to the ABC? AT: Indeed, from Wollongong. At the time that MediaHub takes over operational playout capacity, Wollongong will become a DR site for WIN but it will also remain an ingest position for them. Content would need to be ingested at Wollongong, and sent through the FTP to be received here at Ingleburn.” C+T: In terms of MediaHub workflow, what happens once you receive the content? AT: “Firstly, the contributing content comes into the data centre area via FTP. It goes from there either directly to a breakout suite or to the network operations desk. Simply put, the network operations desk comprises of three main activities - the ingest monitoring, the recording side/lines feed side of the network control is on the left hand side as you look towards the main pres area. In the middle you’ve got your monitoring positions, your QS, making sure that the content we receive is fit to go to air, and then checking for schedules and missing media On the right hand side of network operations side you’ve got the mux or the outgoing area, the monitoring of outgoing lines. “Either side of network operations you’ve got breakout suites and depending on schedule volatility some or all of these breakout suites will be taken into operation. We’ve got 10 at the moment. There is room for 15 and really it depends on what’s coming in, how those breakout suites are manned. “We have two dedicated suites for WIN at the moment and two dedicated for the ABC and the rest can be used as required. However, all of the suites are interoperable and can be used for any client at any time. “From the breakout suites, we go down to main pres and in the front of the presentation area we have our two clients’ screens positions installed - WIN on the left hand side and the ABC on the right. There is also space there for extra clients in presentation suite area, so that that’s been thought of in an expansion sense as well.” C+T: Once all the channels from WIN and ABC have migrated over, how many channels will there be? AT: “There’ll be about 120-odd channels at that stage. There is a possibility of further channels being required to be handled here on behalf of WIN and the ABC and we obviously have the capacity for that.”
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C+T: You’ve touched on aspects like air conditioning and power. Was being environmentally friendly a requirement for this facility? AT: “Well, as you can imagine a centre running 24-hours a day, seven days a week, needing to be at an ambient temperature constantly requires the right amounts of air conditioning and power to drive that. “But, nevertheless we’ve deployed the most efficient systems available today and one of those systems is a state of the art, what I’d call a baffle type system in the main computing area. “That baffle system goes from the ceiling to the top of the racks and creates hot and cold zones at front and back of rack. That creates a thermal flow which basically is automatic which helps to keep the room at a constant ambient temperature and saves power. “Also we have designed automatic lighting systems so that when rooms aren’t occupied the lights will go out. As soon as you walk in the room the light will come back on again. So, all of that is to try and to save as much energy as possible.” C+T: The carriers you mentioned coming in, what does that involve? AT: “We have the ability for four diverse carriers to be connected to the centre and basically we have two geographic locations for them to come into the centre to be connected. That again is a redundancy capability. At the north end of the building we have the four carriers coming in and at the south end of the building we have the same four carriers coming in. They’re connected then to a point in the main computing room. The carriers are Telstra, Optus, AAPT and Digital Distribution Australia. “We also have some redundant capability in relation to signals. We have a satellite platform as well with satellites which can receive and transmit. So, that is a redundant capability in relation to signal and to connectivity.” C+T: How would you describe the overall project management process? AT: “In relation to the build and construct of the facility, the design element was our first and foremost challenge, when we arrived here on site there was just two gigantic empty warehouses. We submitted a DA for the purpose of building this large scale play-out facility in a record time and started the on
the detailed design phase. “And, as we were designing we actually then started the building phase. So, we weren’t completely finished with the design before the building started so our over worked architects were playing catch-up most of the time trying to get the drawings finished for the builders to actually go to construction. “Nevertheless it worked fairly smoothly. It was managed very tightly, a very ambitious time-frame with tight budgetary control and I’m happy to say that the project came in on time and under budget. So well done to everyone involved. “Our main project managing group were TB&H. Our architects were Woodhead, our construction manager was WATPAC and our main power and electric suppliers were Stowe. Our air conditioning experts were Optimus, and another 32 sub-contractors and together they really excelled and delivered. “Most importantly, our turn key technical contractors are Grass Valley. We don’t see them simply as a vendor, we see them as a partner. The design was different to most other large scale playout centres in that from the beginning it was designed as a multiclient playout centre as opposed to a playout centre for one business. “That’s what makes it unique and that’s the point of difference, that this centre can handle up to four clients in its present capacity and the systems that we’ve put in place can handle those multi-client capabilities. So it’s yet to be seen but we believe that we’ve got one of the most effective playout facilities ever built. “There’s been some incredibly visionary thinking both from WIN and the ABC at senior management level to even contemplate a working relationship with these two very different broadcasters; one public, one commercial is unique. “So, from the very beginning there’s been a process of thought leadership in relation to the vision of creating the centre. From that thought process obviously there’s been a very interesting negotiation process to enable the two shareholders to get together and form an autonomous company and then to move to implement the plan, and bring the vision to reality. “So, I’d say well done to the ABC, well done to WIN for having the vision to enable the implementation of a playout centre of this nature here in Australia. A broadcast industry first never seen before.”
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Transmission
MediaHub and Grass Valley To put
the speed of the Grass Valley fit-out of MediaHub into perspective, it was September 2008 that an RFP went out for expressions of interest. The MediaHub partners were seeking an advanced concept design which included operational costings such as power consumption, space and head counts. By May 2009, after a refinement of the design and the numbers, WIN and the ABC gave Grass Valley the news that it was the preferred SI company to take the project to the next stage. Between July and September 2009, Grass Valley entered an extensive and detailed design phase, lead by Overall Architect Andrew Steele and Lead Designer Graeme Watt. September saw those designs accepted and so commenced the equipment ordering and a fit-out process which would see the facility ready to begin operations by early 2010. According to Grass Valley Australia’s Bids Manager - Systems, Ric Zattera, “It was pretty much a blank canvas that was given to the people responding to the tender. MediaHub weren’t specifying any particular type of equipment or any particular way of doing the job per se. The motivation behind the tender was to provide the specific service levels the clients required. That being said, the designs, the layouts, everything was provided by Grass Valley. The whole concept is a Grass Valley solution. “The design is based around a central presentation area which has a number of breakaway suites surrounding it. The way that we’ve been able to organise workflows, overall control is provided from a single master control and presentation area. Then, as required for different live or regionalised events (under automation or manual control), we have isolated breakout suites, all with direct eye-lines back to the main presentation area. This allows for a very flexible method of operations within the facility, and that itself facilitates the fact that Grass Valley has been able to accommodate the diverse workflows associated with both commercial and national broadcasters such as WIN and the ABC.” MediaHub will, initially, undertake a small amount of ingest with the majority taking place at WIN and ABC’s respective facilities. The ABC has established a new ingest facility at its headquarters in Ultimo, Sydney called DMG (Digital Media Gateway) which has a direct link to Ingleburn (some 45km away). According to Grass Valley’s Business Manager for Systems, Derek Allsop, most of WIN’s own content is news and local current affairs from each of the 23 WIN locations. “This content is created using Grass Valley Ignite and Aurora products and will be sent to MediaHub as SDI feeds over DDA (Digital Distribution Australia) links where it will be played directly to air. Similarly, all content from Network Nine – to which WIN is affiliated - will also arrive at MediaHub as SDI feeds and played out live or timed delayed for
72 Transmission
other markets. All other WIN produced content and all commercials will be delivered to MediaHub in a file format and stored for future use. So, at this moment in time, all ingest is file based only and quality checked automatically.” Whether sent as files and ingested on site or as SDI feeds, content makes its way into MediaHub’s CAR or Central Apparatus Area. “The CAR area is split up into common infrastructure - for the facility as a whole - and particular areas for the users,” says Grass Valley’s Graeme Watt. “For WIN and the ABC, we have individual areas for presentation infrastructure and areas reserved for head-end and carrier infrastructure, as they each have their own head end and carrier equipment. Splitting the CAR area into these groups makes it much easier for clients to manage their equipment. It makes it easier for Grass Valley to expand the system as well as ensure space is available in the CAR and presentation areas for other users. The common infrastructure is also set up in a modular way so that it’s easier to add additional users without having to make significant changes to the equipment that’s already working there.” “From ingest onwards,” says Derek Allsop, “it’s basically to play out, so we employed Grass Valley ContentShare2 (CS2) as the media manager and the overarching control system. CS2 is also the interface with the clients’ sites, to make sure that media comes across in a timely fashion. It also manages all the media that is currently on site and passes the media to the automation systems for play out. Effectively the play out system just looks after the presentation. If there’s missing media there then it asks ContentShare2 to go and find it. “There’s extensive Grass Valley product throughout, we’ve used Grass Valley K2 servers – both the classic and new Summit versions - we’ve used Grass Valley Maestro presentation switcher including the DVE and branding options, Grass Valley Trinix routers
under Grass Valley Jupiter control, and Grass Valley GeckoFlex modular; although there are specialist modular products from third party vendors.” Third-party partners include Miranda for KX multiviewers, IP-based off-air proxy monitoring through :mediaproxy, automatic file verification with the Tektronix Cerify system, Evertz for Dolby processing and some ASI decoding, Junger for audio processing, Wohler for GPI decoding, closed captioning and monitoring, Tandberg and Scientific Atlanta for encoding and compression, Cisco for the IT backbone, and finally automation vendor Snell with its Morpheus automation system. “They’ve assisted us greatly in helping some of the design engineers come up with those particular workflows and breakaway solutions that we’re providing the client here,” says Ric Zattera. “They’ve been down here, to provide the necessary support for our design engineers.” Finally, once programme content is in the automation system it goes out again via fibre to the respective broadcasters links to the numerous transmission sites across the country. Satellite connectivity provides some capacity for itinerant and for program use, but the main path connections are fibre. When asked about the choice of location, Graeme Watt said “Because most of the content arrives as files we don’t have to act as a physical gateway for distribution of tapes or take into account costs and delays in sending content by courier. While some program content does come in as live SDI feeds over the networks provided by the carriers, there’s physically no reason why this place would be at an advantage if it was closer to the city. “There have been some challenges in getting sufficient infrastructure here but they have been overcome by close liaison with the providers; sufficient power and fibre connectivity are particular examples where difficulties in timely provision were overcome by co-operation and conciliation.”
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ABE2010
Transmission
Broadcast Oz Powers Digital Community TV Broadcast Australia (BA), has assisted Television Sydney (TVS) to become the first community television service in Australia to broadcast in digital. Delivering the fully managed TVS transmission service from its Gore Hill site, Broadcast Australia is now providing coverage of the new digital program to the metropolitan Sydney area on digital channel 44. BA Engineering Systems Consultant, Doug Iles said, this project is not only the first community digital service in Australia, but also the first time Broadcast Australia is hosting multiplexing on a fully commercial basis. “Typically, we take pre-multiplexed content from the content providers for transmission,” he said. “In this instance, however, Broadcast Australia is delivering a fully managed service that involves the end-to-end encoding, multiplexing, transmitting and combining of the content feed provided by TVS.” One additional service BA is currently multiplexing with the TV signal is an electronic program guide (EPG). To meet the challenging project timelines, the company has initially employed an innovative solution using a web-hosted EPG system, which enables the EPG service to be implemented extremely quickly. The multiplex itself is also capable of accommodating additional services in the future when the longer term use of this spectrum is decided. Additionally, the solution implemented by BA has been designed to include the Freeview EPG when this becomes available later in 2010. BA is also providing a digital monitoring service to measure the integrity of the TVS broadcast signal. With the TVS digital broadcast successfully launched in Sydney, Broadcast Australia is looking ahead to digital community broadcast projects in Brisbane and Adelaide. Visit www.broadcastaustralia.com.au
Miranda Right Ingredient for Masterchef The production company Fremantle Media recently installed a customised in-house production solution for its hit show Masterchef. FremantleMedia’s Nick Parker explained, “With the scale of Masterchef we needed everyone to be able to view what was going on. Central to this requirement was a really good multiviewer. We needed a system which was versatile, compact, user friendly and powerful and we looked over many solutions on the market. We spoke to Magna Systems and they suggested the Miranda Kaleido-X16. The X-16 was a natural choice. With dual head and dual HD-SDI output, a very simple and powerful user interface and the switched HD-SDI output we could not have asked for more. We can scale the system up as required and add features, including audio, as the shows get more complex. We can also reconfigure as we go. “Sometimes we have 4 cameras and sometimes we have up to 10 cameras so the camera assists quickly plug in the cables then it’s just a simple right click or button shortcut on the remote panel to load the multi-camera layout. This is a real time saver and removes the need for an engineer to run the multiviewer on a daily basis.” According to Parker, “The decision was made to simply take the native HD-SDI 1080i signal and distribute that to up to 8 screens around the studio and production areas. With some up to 200 metres away from the control room having the HD-SDI option has been indispensable. Visit www.magnasys.tv
Seven Selects Signiant for Digital Infrastructure Signiant, Inc., the developer of content distribution management solutions, has announced that Australia’s Seven Network has chosen to implement a Signiant solution to manage an increasing amount of media as it establishes multichannel services on its digital television platform. Seven’s channels are delivered across Australia from its broadcast centre in Melbourne sourcing content from all major capital cities in Australia. The existing infrastructure for moving media, which had evolved over several years, was a combination of shipping tapes, sending video by satellite and a fibre digital video network. As the volume of media grew the workflow became increasingly difficult to manage, and Seven decided that it would be unsustainable when multi-channel services were deployed.
74 Transmission
Seven decided to implement a fibre-based system with Signiant’s Content Distribution Management (CDM) software to securely automate workflows and manage file movement across 25 sites, including Seven’s state capital offices, overseas offices, affiliates, and some external suppliers’ premises. In addition, Signiant’s Media Exchange module will be used for newsgathering. “Signiant provided us with a very comprehensive suit of products to automate our transfer of material, optimise the use of available bandwidth and improve our workflow. The increased volume of traffic can be very effectively handled for little incremental cost,” said Trevor Bird, General Manager of Group Technical Services, Seven Network. Visit www.signiant.com
exhibition
Proposed NBN Technical Standards The Communications Alliance, the peak body for the Australian communications industry, has released a draft overview of technical standards for the National Broadband Network. Titled National Broadband Network – Overview of Technical Standards, the draft identifies local and international standards and industry documents that can assist in the design and rollout of the NBN and its delivery of Layer 2 wholesale services. The paper also covers technical issues including: The relevance of the ongoing work of key standards bodies to the NBN (including Broadband Forum, Metro-Ethernet Forum, and the ITU-T); The characteristics of competing access technologies (EPON and GPON); and Standards that will assist the NBN to support IPv6 and be secure, robust, environmentally sustainable and future-proof. The paper was developed as part of the Communications Alliance NBN Project by the Technical working group. It builds on earlier NBN Project outcomes including the proposed NBN Reference Architecture and NBN Wholesale Service Definition Framework – Ethernet. The draft National Broadband Network – Overview of Technical Standards is available from the Communications Alliance website at: http://commsalliance.com.au/Documents/publiccomment
featuring the latest in digital broadcast & production technology featuring the latest in digital broadcast & production technology
Australia Looks for Parental Lock It looks like America’s old V-Chip concept will at last get a run downunder with the Australian Communications and Media Authority seeking industry and public comment on the determination of a technical standard that will make parental lock a required feature for digital television receivers. A parental lock is a feature of digital television receivers which allows controlled access to programs based on their classification, for example, G, PG, M or MA. V-chip is a generic term used in the USA for television receivers allowing the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children’s television viewing. Most 13-inch and larger televisions manufactured for the United States market since 1999 and all units as of January 2000 are required to have the V-chip technology. Many devices similar to the V-chip have been produced. According to ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman, “The ACMA will determine a technical standard in the second quarter of this year that will require domestic reception equipment used for receiving digital television services to have a parental lock capability. Visit www.acma.gov.au
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August 3-5 2010
Manly Pacific Hotel, Sydney Australia
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conferences
EXHIBITIONS & ROADSHOWS May >>FMX 2010, the 15th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games & Interactive Media 4-7 May, 2010 Stuttgart, Germany www.fmx.de >>The Internet Show New York 2010 5-6 May 2010 The Javits Center - New York www.terrapinn.com/2010/ny >>HDTV RUSSIA 2010 11-14 May, 2010 Expocentre Fairgrounds, Moscow, Russia www.hdtv-expo.ru/en/ >>AES London 2010 128th AES Convention Conference 20-23 May, 2010 Exhibits 21-23 May, 2010 ExCel London www.aes.org
June >>Dimension 3 3D Stereo & New Images Forum 1-3 June, 2010 Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris-Ile-de-France www.dimension3-expo.com >>Digital Signage Expo 2010 15-17 June, 2010 Messe Essen, Essen, Germany www.digitalsignageexpo.eu >>BroadcastAsia2010 CommunicAsia2010 Interactive DME 15-18 June, 2010 Singapore Expo www.broadcast-asia.com www.communicasia.com www.interactivedme.com >>KOBA 2010 15-18 June, 2010 COEX, Seoul, Korea www.kobashow.com
>>Internet Show Amsterdam 2010 22-23 June 2010 RAI - Amsterdam www.terrapinn.com/2010/ amsterdam >>SatCom Russia & CIS 2010 22-24 June 2010 Moscow, Russia www.terrapinn.com/2010/satcomrus
July >>Siggraph2010 Conference 26-30 July, 2010 Exhibition 27-29 July, 2010 Los Angeles Convention Center www.siggraph.org/s2010/ >>Wireless Broadband World Africa 2010 12-15 July 2010 Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com/2010/wirelessza
August >>Australian Broadcast Exhibition Sydney, Australia www.abeshow.tv >>The Internet Show Africa 2-3 August 2010 Sandton Convention Centre Johannesburg www.terrapinn.com/2010/africa >>BIRTV2010 22-25 August, 2010 Beijing, China www.birtv.com/english/
September >>Submarine Networks World 2010 1-3 September 2010 Singapore www.terrapinn.com/2010/submarine >>IFA 2010 Consumer Electronics Unlimited 3-8 September, 2010 Messe Berlin
76 Conferences Exhibitions & Roadshows
Germany www.ifa-berlin.com >>IBC2010 Conference 9-13, September 2010 Exhibition 10-14, September 2010 RAI Amsterdam www.ibc.org
October >>National Radio Conference 2010 15-16 October, 2010 Crown Casino, Melbourne, Australia www.commercialradio.com.au
>>viscom frankfurt 2010 & Digital Signage World 28-30 October, 2010 Frankfurt/Main, Exhibition Centre, Hall 3.0 www.viscom-messe.com
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November >>InterBEE 2010 17-19 November, 2010 Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan www.inter-bee.com
TRADES HOW SNAPSH OT
BroadcastAsia2010/ CommunicAsia2010 15 – 18 June 2010 Singapore Expo BroadcastAsia2010 and CommunicAsia2010, the Singapore-based media broadcasting and infocomm technology (ICT) event, will be held at the Singapore Expo from 15 – 18 June 2010. The annual event is expected to boast at least 58,000 square metres of exhibition space. Visitors to the shows this year will get to witness the latest technology innovations demonstrated by 2,000 multi-national corporations and small and medium enterprises. 33 international group pavilions will be spread across the show floor, reflecting the push by governments and industry bodies to expand their footprint into Asia. This trade event brings the a comprehensive showcase of convergent technologies for the infocomm, media and broadcasting industries to Asia. “The unique co-location of BroadcastAsia2010 and CommunicAsia2010 presents the only platform of its kind that aptly addresses the convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting and brings together business leaders, government officials and trade professionals to network, discuss critical industry issues and explore opportunities for growth,” said Mr. Victor Wong, Project Director of Communications Events from show organiser, Singapore Exhibition Services. “Digital media, mobile applications and other emerging technologies are driving traditional industry players to rethink their business models and explore cross-industry collaborations to stay relevant in this dynamic environment; our established events are well positioned to meet these needs.” Visit www.broadcast-asia.com and www.communicasia.com
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ADVERTISER INDEX Amber...............................................11 ARRI Australia....................................IBC Audio Video Consulting Group..............41 Australian Broadcasting Exhibition..........75 Avid Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd..........37 Blackmagic Design................................5 Eureka Pacific.....................................49 Digital Signage World.........................53 Fuji Film........................................ 78-79 Fujinon......................................... 78-79 GDB International Pty Ltd........................7 Gencom Technology Pty Ltd..................19 Hagemeyer -JVC Australiasia.................33 Harris ..............................................73 IRT Electronics Pty Ltd............................57 Lateral Linking.....................................77 Linear Acoustic....................................63 Logitek Australia..................................59
Lumina Broadcast Systems....................71 Magna Systems & Engineering..............13 Magna Systems & Engineering..............35 Mediaware.....................................OBC New Magic.......................................55 Grass Valley Nonbox...........................27 OB Group.........................................77 Omneon Inc.........................................3 Panasonic..........................................23 Quinto Communications Pty. Ltd...............9 Riedel Communications GmbH & Co.....21 Sony.................................................29 Sony.................................................65 Sony.................................................67 Syntec International Pty Ltd................... IFC Syntec International Pty Ltd....................61 Techtel...............................................15 Videocraft..........................................31 Videopro Business Centre.....................25
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Off-Air 79
BABBLING Brooks – The Last Word from Gerry Brooks
The Saviour of British Rock! By chance
we were watching ABC-1 recently, and caught a late-nighter called British Invasion. It was about Herman’s Hermits, a big band in the 1960’s. The archival TV clips were right up my era in Rock’n’Roll. But when lead singer Peter Noone started to talk about the New Musical Express Poll Winners’ Concert, I really sat up and watched the footage from their 1965 Concert - with amazement at the picture quality – with delight because this clip was my editing! To back up a bit – the New Musical Express (NME) was, and still is, a pop music magazine with a great following. Started in 1957, NME was Britain’s first-ever weekly to publish a Top Ten. To cash in, they launched an Awards Concert, recognising top band, top male vocal, top female vocal etc. The winners would be decided by popular vote, with all finalists to play at a gala Poll Winners Concert held at the Empire Pool, Wembley, next door to London’s famous football stadium. The Concert would run over a whole weekend, with trophies presented at Sunday’s grand finale. Enter some bright producer at the Teddington studios of ABC Television (later to become Thames TV). Why not record the whole Concert as an OB, then re-make into two 90-minute features for prime time broadcast on consecutive Sundays? So, ABC Television signed a contract for three years, 1963-65. What some bright spark didn’t realise was that the live-audio of a 1960’s band was NOT the same as their records! As soon as the tapes arrived, the senior Audio Director spat the dummy. Inferior quality: no broadcast. “Over my dead body!” were his words. Today, they’d probably kiss him bye-bye, but back then engineering and operations staff held sway. If the technicals were deficient, it didn’t go to air. And on top of management rules, UK TV Stations had the Independent Television Authority (ITA) ready to rap knuckles at the first sniff of suss standards, similar to the ACMA here in Australia. With a three-year contract at risk, the talk ran hot. It was finally agreed that all performer groups in the final edits would be brought back to Teddington Studios, re-recorded in the Dubbing Suite and
dubbed onto a transmission copy for broadcast. Now remember this was all in 405-line black and white TV recorded onto 2-inch quadruplex tape, which was then physically spliced into sequence. Electronic editing didn’t hit Britain until 1968, so doing the video was almost as complicated as audio. The two NME concerts ran over four hours each, so we had eight tapes to get into shape. Editor of the first had the pick of all the best cutaways and audience shots to build up his Show. Editor of the second 90-mins had to make do with leftovers definitely drawing the short straw! In 1965, I was the bunny with a very short straw. For some reason that year, Part One of the Poll Winners’ Concert had been edited, audio sweetened and already finalised by the time I got into the edit suite. Voila - the master tape was available, and I could delve into it for cutaway shots galore. It turned out to be a life-saver, in terms of handling the top-billing artists. These were Male Vocal winner, Cliff Richard and Female Vocal Dusty Springfield. Both had European commitments that weekend, and were only able to appear on the Saturday morning, with the hall barely half full. To build their performances up to climactic proportions for Part Two it took many sneaky grabs of cheering teenagers and audience cutaways. So guess who got a real buzz in revisiting Herman’s Hermits and this 1965 Concert? The 2010 version was eye-dazzling quality, no noise or artifacts, no drop-outs, beautifully lit and typical 4-inch Image Orthicon quality pictures. The original transmission was on 405-line second generation videotape, but this replay certainly didn’t give a hint of old kine recording. I wondered how they’d done it, so having noted the production company as “Reelin’ in the Years”, I sent off an email. Result: long talk with MD David Peck, revealing the rights were purchased from Canal Image UK, current owners of Thames TV i.e. formerly ABC Television. Seems that they’ve actually got the original transmission videotapes and transferred that material to digital and 625-line Standard Definition. That amazing clarity was no accident. You don’t get such quality from archive material just by throwing on a
tape and tossing a disk into the DVD burner and pressing record. The original recordings were made on RCA 2-inch Quad machines that were constantly maintained (babied even) with great care taken in setting up every recording and playback. Those VTRs were a complicated electro-mechanical monster, very prone to mechanical errors which resulted in distorted pictures if careful attention wasn’t paid to achieving pristine work. How well I remember the routine. Every Teddington VTR was thoroughly cleaned each time a tape touched the machine. Before recording we’d do last minute adjustments with an alignment tape, so there were no mechanical errors recorded. Heads were de-gaussed and everything was done to ensure no dust or dirt could cause drop-outs or deteriorate recording quality in any way. Every videotape was checked out pre-use by recording black vision onto the entire length of the tape and watching the replay to count dropouts. A Grade 1 tape was allowed up to 7 drop-outs per minute, Grade 2 was 7–15 drop-outs per minute. Anything over this was Grade 3, rejected and replaced. All prime time productions and any programme being edited used Grade 1 tapes. When doing tape-edits, hands-on splicing was an art, requiring a real knack to ensure no disturbance to the servos driving the head wheel and capstan. To find the vertical interval on the magnetic tape very fine iron filings were painted-on to show up the recorded pattern. After making the splice, these had to be cleaned off to the nth degree – the slightest smudge or scratch was tape-death. Even more care was needed when making a second generation copy for transmission purposes. Teddington’s VTR to-do list was tedious, timeconsuming – but now we’re seeing the payback in the playback - quality tapes that can be replayed 44 years later and included into contemporary 625-line programmes without apology. I wonder if the originators of the 405-line system ever imagined their design producing excellent results well into the 21st century. Makes me proud. Gerry Brooks is an Independent Consultant. You can reach him via email at gerry.brooks@gmail.com
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Read the Blog Online at www.babblingbrooks.tv 80 Babbling Brooks
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