TM Broadcast International 23, July 2015

Editor Javier de Martín editor@tmbroadcast.com Editor in chief Jesús Carrillo director@tmbroadcast.com Key account manager Cristina Feduchi international@tmbroadcast.com Creative Direction Mercedes González design@tmbroadcast.com Editorial staff press@tmbroadcast.com Administration Laura de Diego Marga Quevedo administration@tmbroadcast.com

Summary

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Editorial

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PAN SHOT

InfoComm 2015

4K & Live Production Equipment and Projects

New technologies in Live Sports Production TM Broadcast International #23 Jul 2015

TM Broadcast International is a magazine published by Daró Media Group SL Centro Empresarial Tartessos Calle Pollensa 2, oficina 1 28290 Las Rozas (Madrid), Spain Phone +34 91 640 46 43

Published in Spain

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TourGigs provides AV and Archiving for Shaky Knees/Shaky Boots Festivals

Editorial

Key to success for technology in broadcasting relies on technologies that are standard and easily integrated.

Broadcast and audiovisual market has a wide range of equipment levels, from very cheap to very expensive, many of these devices cannot be changed easily by amortization. This concerns mainly to big broadcasters and big outside broadcast companies.

4k is gradually standardizing and integrating into companies workflows, we strongly believe that is in the right direction and the 2016 Olympics Games will accelerate its implementation without any doubt.

Where we see problems is in IP technology for broadcast environments, each manufacturer is doing developments without taking into account the rest in a race to reach the "miraculous" equipment, and that's not a good idea because if it’s not a standard it will not be successful.

We recommend manufacturers to talk in order to reach agreements , or everything will be much slower.

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Alchemist OD turnkey solutions released Snell announced that its Alchemist OD format and framerate converter is now available as a choice of fully configured, Snell-supported turnkey solutions, as well as continuing to be available as software-only.

Forbidden chooses IT Services Specialist to represent Forscene in France

The new turnkey systems combine Snell’s industryleading media processing software with carefully selected, state-of-the-art hardware to deliver outstanding performance and reliability out of the box.

There are two choices of hardware configurations for Alchemist OD – Professional and Enterprise. The Professional package utilizes high-performance commodity components to create a highly cost-effective conversion solution for standard use; the Enterprise package incorporates enterprise grade components for heavy 24/7 usage, including data center applications.

With additional features such as ECC memory, redundant power supplies and increased CPU processing power as well as the option to install a high speed host bus adapter, the Enterprise solution enables fast connectivity to remote NAS/SAN storage. Both systems are delivered in a versatile 4U chassis and come with Windows Server 2012, enabling support for the Apple ProRes family of codecs.

“Everyone who sees the quality and flexibility of Alchemist OD software is instantly convinced,” said Jeremy Courtney, Business Leader – Snell On Demand.

“However it has become clear that some customers prefer to avoid the time and hassle of choosing the hardware and configuring the system themselves – as well as keeping the expertise on hand to put things right in the event of hardware problems. Our new Alchemist OD turnkey solutions answer this perfectly; they are fully configured and certified by Snell experts, ready to go right out of the box and both the hardware and software are supported by Snell. It means the customer can get on with their business secure in the knowledge that they have the highest quality, most reliable and best supported file-based converters in the business.”

Forbidden has signed an agreement with Parisbased IT services company Image In Network to distribute Forscene, Forbidden's professional video editing software, in France. The agreement, one of a series of new partnerships in Forbidden's strategy to expand Forscene's market share, makes Image In Network the first Forscene reseller in France.

The recent trend in the media industry has been to move away from proprietary broadcast hardware in favour of workflows based on standard, lower cost IT. Image In Network has capitalised on this trend by focusing its IT services and expertise on the media industry. The company has provided IT infrastructure and support to production companies, post-producers, and advertising agencies in France for almost 10 years, with involvement in projects such as movies "The Hunger Games" and "The Artist," and sports broadcasts including French soccer and Formula One auto racing.

"Advances in technology are continuing to transform post-production and change the equipment that our clients need," said Fabien Illide, president of Image In Network. "We believe that collaborative editing in the cloud is the next major industry shift and that Forscene offers significant benefits, particularly to productions with large teams in different locations."

"By offering cost-effective IT solutions with a specialised media focus, companies like Image In Network are perfectly positioned to serve the media industry going forward," said Jason Cowan, director of business development at Forbidden.

"These qualities, as well as their ability to provide assistance on the ground and in the French language, make Image In Network an ideal choice to support and grow Forscene's French client base."

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BCE redistributes FremantleMedia’s Britain’s Got Talent on a global scale Based in Luxembourg, Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) is a European leader in technical services for the media market. With Europe’s largest distribution platform and state-of-the-art tools, BCE is able to deliver content to many destinations in a short time frame following a cost-effective workflow.

FremantleMedia, one of the largest creators and producers of entertainment formats in the world, needed a solution to redistribute its flagship live program Britain’s Got Talent to media partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania within a 24 hour time frame.

UK based Production/ Postproduction house, BCE used its file-based high speed content distribution system, Movie2Me (www.movie2me.com) with its cloud-based postproduction content management system, MediaCMS.

reception of the files to their distribution to the multiple partners, including all the transcoding tasks and metadata enrichment”, comments Xavier Thillen, Head of Production and Postproduction at BCE.

“With our Digital Media Operations, we are able to deal with international queries in a very short time frame keeping costs as low as possible,” comments Claude Dublin, International Traffic Manager at BCE.

The clean versions of Britain’s Got Talent were then transcoded into the destination channel’s format and were redistributed within 24 hours to the media partners in 11 countries using Movie2Me or the customer’s preferred file-based technology (FTP, etc.)

To do so, BCE used its Digital Media Operations services.

Overseen by the traffic team, the files were QC’ed (quality checked) and cleaned from any UK broadcaster signage, erasing bumpers, commercials and infotainment.

For the reception of the programmes from FremantleMedia

“The MediaCMS automates the postproduction workflow from the

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“Using a file-based delivery system is much more cost-effective than using the existing satellite systems, even if their footprints cover all the regions,” comments Sascha Quillet, Technology and Project Manager at BCE.

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Dejero's Founder and CTO, Bogdan Frusina, to Present at SMPTE Australia Conference & Exhibition Dejero announced that Bogdan Frusina, the company's founder and chief technical officer, has been selected to present a paper at the upcoming SMPTE Australia Conference & Exhibition (SMPTE15). On Wednesday, July 15 at 3:45 p.m., Frusina will present "Looking to the Cloud for Multiscreen Video Contribution Management" as part of the conference's "IP Delivered Contribution" track.

"Today's broadcasters are constantly challenged to reliably deliver low-latency, high-quality video to multiscreen audiences on-air and online," said Frusina. "In this session, we'll describe a powerful solution that centralizes the management and routing of contribution content and online publishing services in the cloud, enabling live feeds, remote transmissions from bonded wireless transmitters, and network feeds. Acting as a type of virtual subrouter, this solution integrates into a wide range of broadcast, IP-based workflows and gives the operator a single dashboard for managing contribution assets — thereby offering a powerful toolset for distributing low-latency, high-quality live content across multiple delivery platforms."

With the theme "Persistence of Vision — Defining the Future," SMPTE15 will take place July 14-17 in the Hordern Pavilion and Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park, Sydney. The three-day conference and four-day exhibition will focus on linking the cutting edge of development with practical solutions for problems facing today's media industries. In the keynote presentation, Netflix director of global content partners operations, Chris Fetner, will discuss the global media marketplace and the technologies shaping decision-making and growth at Netflix.

Dejero will be exhibiting at SMPTE15 with Digistor in stand D-12, and will offer demonstrations of its solutions at the show.

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VITEC Manager of U.S. Operations to Present CTSCertified Training on IP Video Distribution and Monitoring at InfoComm 2015 VITEC announced that the company will host a CTScertified manufacturer training session at InfoComm 2015 in Orlando, Fla. Presented by VITEC Manager of U.S. Operations Pascal Barthares, the session titled "IP Video Distribution & Monitoring — Systems Design and Implementation" will explore the upcoming technologies and opportunities of IP-based media distribution systems. The session will take place on June 18 at 8:30 a.m. in room W305A at the Orange County Convention Center.

During the discussion, participants will gain insights into today's trends and best practices for delivering, managing, and viewing IP-based video within contemporary enterprise and campus environments.

The presentation will also outline how to evaluate customer sites as well as determine network suitability for both IP multicast and unicast video distribution. In addition, the session will explain how to configure network components for multicast support such as IGMP snooping, and perform system verifications by creating sample channel playlists while checking channel selection and playout on TVs.

"As facilities turn to IP-based video delivery infrastructures, system administrators and content providers are looking for ways to more effectively manage deployments without compromising quality, flexibility, and ease of use," said Barthares. "I look forward to exploring the tools, systems, and benefits of today's successful IP-based installations in order to give technology specialists, system engineers, and project managers a fresh look into more effective processes for system implementation, management, and design. In doing so, it will offer attendees Renewal Units towards their CTS qualifications."

As VITEC's manager of U.S. operations, Barthares oversees VITEC activities and IT requirements across the U.S. marketplace. With more than 10 years of experience with the company, he also manages installations within government and enterprise applications and leads training sessions on IP-based video deployments. Barthares is based in Atlanta and holds a Master of Engineering degree from EFREI.

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SGL speeds up archive and retrieval of high-res material in Avid ISIS environment SGL has introduced Direct Connect for use within the SGL and Avid ISIS shared storage environment. Direct Connect allows users to quickly transfer high resolution material providing significant benefits when working with longer form content.

The advent of HD, 4k and 8k formats has made a huge difference in terms of clarity of image but the sheer size of files can cause bottlenecks, reducing transfer times and hindering system performance. Now, using Direct Connect, clips or sequences over several GBs in size can be archived and retrieved significantly faster, as can shorter clips with

high bit rates such as HD trailers and commercials.

“Traditionally content passed between SGL FlashNet and Avid ISIS is sent via Avid’s archive provider. In the past when file sizes were smaller this worked well but for high-resolution file-based content this method has some performance implications. Direct Connect enables FlashNet to connect directly to the ISIS storage system using 1/10 GB Ethernet,” explains Lee Sheppard, SGL’s Director of Product Management.

SGL has partnered with Avid for the past 11 years and the companies continue to deliver solutions that are required by

today’s modern broadcast facilities.

SGL FlashNet, the engine that drives Avid Interplay Archive, provides customers around the world with an integrated MAM/PAM archive solution. Built around a clustered architecture, which allows virtually infinite scalability, FlashNet provides Avid users with an archive regardless of size, from the smallest TV station to the largest network operation.

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Telestream brings New Professional Visual Inspection and QC Capabilities to Switcth TelestreamÂŽ announced that the latest version of Switch now includes new professional visual inspection tools to create affordable QC workflows for post production and video professionals. New features include external preview to AJA video hardware products that turn any PC or Mac into a professional QC workstation; new professional Audio Meters with loudness monitoring; support for new export formats and extended caption support. Telestream is also announcing Switch Plus, an enhanced version of the awardwinning media player that allows media professionals to play, inspect, and transcode their multiformat media for just $49.

"Switch is the industry's only cross-platform player that includes extensive format support, full captioning playback, deep audio inspection (including loudness monitoring), as well as export, and distribution capabilities. It is a powerful and affordable visual QC tool that replaces the multitude of players, inspectors, analyzers and converters that broadcast and postproduction professionals have been relying on to do their jobs," says Barbara DeHart Vice President Desktop Business.

Switch is now available in 3 versions: Switch Player (free), includes basic player and inspection functionality; the all new Switch Plus ($49) for video editors

and post-production professionals who need to play, inspect, and fix their media; and Switch Pro ($295) for professionals who need features to play, QC, fix and deliver their media. All 3 versions can be downloaded at www.telestream.net/switch.

The new Switch Plus includes all the features of Switch Player and adds playback support for HEVC and MPEG-2 on Windows, AC3 audio, as well as extensive caption and subtitle playback support, so that users can easily playback secondary caption files to verify timing and accuracy. Caption support includes CEA-608 & CEA708 captions, as well SCC, DVB, TTML (iTT and SMPTE-TT captions) and WebVTT, SRT and STL subtitle files. Switch Plus also includes Audio Meters to display true-peaks and momentary loudness values as well as the ability to make changes and export to a new file (MPEG-4, QuickTime MOV and MPEG-2 program

streams and transport streams).

The latest version of Switch Pro includes all the features of Switch Plus and adds additional playback support for DNxHD, DNxHR and JPEG2000 files. Switch Pro also adds a loudness panel that calculates gated (BS1770-3) and ungated (BS1770-2) loudness; as well as external preview output enabling support for HDMI/SDI hardware output via AJA devices to preview and quality check final files. This makes Switch Pro ideal for customers who are looking for an affordable option to visually QC their files on a professional calibrated broadcast monitor. AJA video hardware products supported include: KONA 4, KONA 3G, TTAP™, Io 4K and Io XT. "For content creators doing critical visual QC, the combination of Switch and AJA provides a powerful low-cost solution that turns any Mac or PC into a high-quality visual QC workstation," says Nick Rashby, President at AJA.

New Cobham dealer Ontario Soluciones S.L. (www.ontariosoluciones.com), based in Madrid, has been appointed by Cobham as the Official Distributor for Wireless Broadcast Solutions in Spain and Portugal. With a massive presence on the international military and security markets, Cobham offers also to the Broadcast market his leading technology for wireless solutions, COFDM links and Mesh IP networks. Recent Cobham HD Nano Transmitter and HD NanoVue add now additional UAV applications to the Broadcast industry.

The agreement with Ontario Soluciones S.L. will boost Cobham's presence in Spain and Portugal, offering a reliable partner for electronic news gathering, outside broadcast, motor and extreme sports coverage.

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Globecast launches Premier Sports HD on Sky Platform

Quantel/Snell Welcomes Rafael Castillo, Industry veteran, to drive Latin America business A very successful leader across Latin America for over 20 years, Rafael served most recently as VP of Latin America with SeaChange International, and previously with Grass Valley for more than 18 years, including seven years as SVP, Latin America.

Juliet Bayliss

Globecast announced that it has been chosen as the content delivery service provider for Premier Sports HD, the new HD channel from Setanta Sports’ UK operation Premier Sports. The channel will launch on the Sky platform on 20 July.

Globecast has a longstanding relationship with the broadcaster and already provides uplink and satellite capacity for existing SD channels Premier Sports and Setanta Sports Ireland, also available via the Sky platform. The channel will be added to Globecast’s extensive HD portfolio, with the company providing the uplink and satellite capacity on Astra 2G for the new Premier Sports HD offering. The contract win follows from the renewal of the capacity contracts for the broadcaster’s Sky SD channels Mickey O’Rourke, CEO Premier Sports said, “We’ve had a longstanding relationship stretching over 20 years with Globecast, and they already handle our two SD channels. Globecast was already familiar with our business and asking them to help us launch our HD channel was just a logical step in our relationship. HD is something that there’s a real demand for from sports fans; the expectation is that watching a game on TV is as close to being there as possible. That’s what we’re trying to deliver with the addition of Premier Sports HD.” Juliet Bayliss, Sales Director, Content Distribution at Globecast, added, “We’ve been working with Premier Sports/Setanta for many years now, so we’re delighted that they have chosen us to help launch the new HD channel. There’s a real demand for HD channels and we’re seeing a growing uptake amongst our client base and we’ve provided uplinking and capacity for several HD channels in the recent months.”

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“Rafael brings to the company an excellent technical background, deep knowledge of the marketplace and strong relationships he has developed throughout the region,” said Russ Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas.

“Rafael’s innovative management skills yield highly successful sales organizations and will effectively address our customer and partner needs in Latin America.”

“It is a great honor to be leading Quantel/Snell business within Latin America and the Caribbean region,” said Rafael. “The Quantel/Snell portfolio of solutions provides our customers with the right tools to significantly improve efficiency of content production and drive distribution across multiples models and platforms. During Cine Expo Video we intend to show customers a good sample of the solutions we offer.”

Rafael will support our regional channel partners at the Cine Expo Video show in Mexico City June 16–19. Quantel/Snell solutions on display will include studio/sports/news production, workflow automation, routing systems, signal processing/conversion and integrated distribution and playout.

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Net Gains for XPression at Roland Garros 2015 Ross Video has enjoyed a working relationship with panEuropean sports broadcaster Eurosport since early last year and the Ross XPression platform now powers all of Eurosport’s graphics content across 54 countries, in 20 different languages. For tennis fans, these last two weeks on Eurosport have been particularly enjoyable as the French Open – the second grand slam tennis event of the calendar – has served up its usual mix of drama, upsets and thrilling play.

This year’s coverage from the Roland Garros stadium in Paris has a slightly different look and feel, and Eurosport has been taking advantage of XPression’s 3D and augmented reality capabilities to create some incredibly creative and eye-catching content that complements the live tennis. ‘The Coach’ – a twice-daily segment in both English and French where a top tennis coach analyses the playing style of one of the day’s competitors – has drawn particular praise for its use of innovative onscreen graphics that seamlessly blend with the physical set.

Commenting on XPression, Eurosport’s Head of Graphics

Richard Lievre notes that simplicity and creativity have both been key factors for the channel: “We needed to evolve from our previous graphics system and we felt that XPression would be the right platform for us; it’s been easy to adopt, simple to use and augmented reality has opened up a great many creative possibilities for our team”.

Patrick Jeant, Head of Post Production at Eurosport, agrees.

“XPression allows us to work with one single graphics package across all of the different domains within Eurosport where graphics are required – set up once, deploy everywhere. We’ve been one of the

first broadcasters in France to use Ross’ augmented reality solution and we’re looking forward to building on the excellent content we’ve produced at the French Open tennis”.

The XPression family of real-time motion graphics systems, clip servers, workflow tools and purpose-built software applications deliver complete solutions for the most demanding tasks. Perfectly suited to news, sports, elections, entertainment, branding, touchscreen, social media, virtual sets, or augmented reality applications, XPression is used by many of the world’s leading broadcasters to make their content more engaging and creative.

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CTV Outside Broadcasts Relies on Bluebell Opticom to Make More Efficient Use of Dark Fibre Bluebell Opticom Ltd. announced that European mobile broadcasting company CTV Outside Broadcasts has installed a customized fibre multiplexing system designed by Bluebell into one of its outside broadcast (OB) vans. The new system makes it possible for CTV to increase its use of the preexisting fibre infrastructure at an event location and decrease the amount of fibre it has to lay. At the same time, the Bluebell solution gives CTV the flexibility to add to or reconfigure the system as needed for different applications, and the ability to recover a signal should the on-site fibre core fail.

"We wanted to increase our utilisation of dark fibre cores — particularly when we're running low on fibres or when faults appear — whilst reducing the number of cores we have to rig for a production. We already own a lot of Bluebell equipment and have a valued history of working with them to create fibre solutions that overcome our many challenges, so I had complete trust that Bluebell would

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deliver just what we needed," said Hamish Greig, technical director at CTV Outside Broadcast. "We're currently using Bluebell's custom solution for golf, and it has proven so successful that we'll be purchasing at least one more system. Eventually we plan to use it across our complete range of productions — sport, entertainment, and reality — wherever we use dark fibres."

CTV first used the system in March at the Hassan II Golf Trophy in Morocco and has since been using it primarily on golf courses, many of which have existing fibre networks that CTV can now tap into easily. Even though the BC364 cards are used to satisfy a specific application now, they are flexible enough to be modified and built upon for different functionality and different applications later.

CTV's compact, customized Bluebell solution consists of eight BC364 cards inside two BC160 frames. The cards are configured to serve as an optical multiplexer that lets CTV run four cameras down just two cores of fibre instead of the eight fibres that are usually required. The system can be expanded to link 16 cameras and also provide remote signal-status monitoring. In addition, the system allows for wavelength remapping in the event of the failure or loss of a fibre core at the venue — an especially important capability in live sports broadcasting.

"CTV are a prime supplier of sports OBs and are contracted by the European PGA Golf Tour, so they will benefit greatly from more efficient use of dark fibre," said Paul McCann, managing director of Bluebell Opticom. "This system lets CTV leverage preinstalled fibre, which is much more convenient for mobile production crews than rigging and striking their own cable.

And the beauty of basing the system on the BC364 card is that it's a building block that can be reconfigured to serve many purposes, so CTV gets maximum scalability to cover all kinds of events."

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Director/Cinematographer TJ Derry Adopts AJA CION for Commercial Production In a new spot directed by Toronto-based director and cinematographer TJ Derry, an elaborate photosynthesis experiment proves that Scotts EZ Seed fertilizer helps grass grow almost anywhere, including a basement. Shot on CION at 4K in ProRes 444, with time-lapse footage captured on multiple Canon DSLRs, the spot showcases the beautiful cinematic images from the CION camera on a low light set.

Derry and his crew first designed and built the EZ Seed set in a studio, which they dressed as a basement. The set was lit mainly using practical lights, and augmented with skirted china balls to keep a base ambience in the room. Using CION with the older style Zeiss Super Speed MK2 primes, they shot almost wide open with very minimal light, and Derry was impressed with how good the footage looked and the low noise of the image.

“I couldn’t believe how well the CION footage came out and how little noise there was; it was very cool and a great example of the filmic look the camera can produce,

to shoot with it in almost any circumstance as long as they can light their shots. I’m really sold on CION, and can’t wait to see what other enhancements AJA has in store with its next firmware release,” said Derry.

even in low light,” explained Derry.

Derry also had a positive experience with how the footage looked in post production, “My colorist was impressed with how good the image looked when we blew it up, and how much latitude we had with the picture coming off the CION when we were color grading,” he continued.

“CION allows me to do everything I would normally do when I shoot commercials and videos; I haven’t found anything I can’t shoot with it yet, it just requires lighting. In the film stock world, there wasn’t ever 1250, 1500 or 2000 ISO, so cinematographers who came from the film era will get it, and be able

CION’s ergonomics also simplified run-and gun-style shooting for Derry who has been shooting and directing for almost ten years. “Shooting handheld with some of the Canon and RED square box cameras can be difficult; they’re really hard to rig to balance on your shoulder and I, or my operator, get a sore back after a day of shooting with one. The CION is lightweight, balanced and the form factor is great. I can hold it comfortably on my shoulder and run around town,” concluded Derry.

View the EZ Seed commercial here and learn more about TJ Derry and his work by visiting www.tjderry.com . Derry is currently working on several other commercial projects with CION, including a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese campaign. He is represented for commercials by Studio M in Toronto.

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Artel Video Systems names Mike Rizzo as President

ChyronHego announces SHOUT™ Metrics for Pointand-Click Social Media Polling ChyronHego announced the launch of SHOUT™ Metrics, an all-new extension for the company's SHOUT social media application. SHOUT Metrics provides broadcasters with deep and rich data analysis on Twitter data feeds — for instance, the number of Tweets per second during a specific news segment, an audience poll on a local or national political race, or a live sports event.

Artel Video Systems announced the appointment of Mike Rizzo as president and CEO. Rizzo joins Artel with more than 20 years in executive management positions.

Prior to joining Artel, Rizzo provided strategic consulting for small to mid-sized businesses and private equity firms focusing on CEO support, leadership succession, M&A advisory, corporate strategic planning, international expansion, and ESOP transition. Before consulting, Rizzo was president and general manager of the North American unit of Cylon Energy. He served 18 years at Schleuniger Inc., most recently as North American president and managing director, and previously was Schleuniger's vice president of sales and marketing.

"This is a great opportunity and exciting time to be a member of Artel's management committee," Rizzo said. "With its established leadership in the broadcast industry, combined with the recent acquisition of the Communications Specialties Inc. portfolio, Artel is primed for growth and is expanding its offering to meet the evolving needs of its customers. I look forward to using my experience to accelerate significant growth in revenue and share value for Artel's employeeowners."

"We are excited to be adding Mike to our executive leadership team. His experience with employee-owned companies and proven success in running highperforming companies is critical to Artel as we continue to anticipate a high level of growth over the next few years," said Richard Dellacanonica, Artel chairman of the board. "Our industry is dynamic and changing, and having a member of the executive management team with Mike's history of accomplishments is crucial in ensuring our continued success."

Dellacanonica will continue to be actively involved in Artel as chairman of the board and leader of sales operations.

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"In today's instantaneous, 'always online' world of social media, broadcasters are in a unique position to gain insight into what is resonating with their audiences," said Johan Apel, president and CEO, ChyronHego. "With SHOUT, broadcasters have a powerful yet easy-to-use tool for airing social media conversations quickly and creating instant buzz around a broadcast. And now, with SHOUT Metrics, producers, reporters, and other social media curators can normalize Twitter data to engage fans in real time or simply learn more about viewer demographics."

Ideal for news, sports, and entertainment, SHOUT is ChyronHego's easy-to-use social media editor that works with any of the company's graphics systems — including the Lyric™ graphics creation and playout solution — to build online communities from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtoo, and RSS feeds. In addition, Mass Relevance subscribers can insert data streams directly into SHOUT. Designed especially for Twitter, SHOUT Metrics normalizes Twitter data for visualization using ChyronHego's Advanced Data Object. Simply by pointing and clicking, users can easily link the Twitter data to Lyric scenes to create compelling graphs and charts without the need for scripting.

SHOUT Metrics' power can also be tapped outside of Twitter. Users can create customized manual campaigns, using their own polling data, to quickly visualize charts and graphs in real time.

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American Society of Cinematographers Re-elects Officers The Board of Governors of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has reelected its slate of officers for another term. Continuing to serve in their roles will be Richard Crudo as president; Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson as vice presidents; Matthew Leonetti as treasurer; Fred Goodich as secretary; and Isidore Mankofsky as sergeant-at-arms.

Crudo will serve his sixth term as president. In addition to the last two years, he fulfilled the role from 2003 through 2006.

The members of the Board, elected in May by the organization’s active membership, include: John Bailey, Bill Bennett, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Fred Elms, Daryn Okada, Lowell Peterson, Robert Primes, Rodney Taylor and Haskell Wexler.

"I am humbled to once again have the opportunity to serve this great organization,” said Crudo. “As we start to close in on our 100th anniversary, we will continue to honor the intents of our founders by protecting and promoting the interests of the cinematographer.

Our Active and Associate members are the best people in the world at

what they do; by their efforts the ASC will remain the industry's standard bearers for many decades to come."

In its entire history, the ASC has never been as busy as it is right now. Its quarterly Master Class series has set the highest standard for education and is regularly sold out in advance. Other efforts include its Student Heritage Awards, Breakfast Club seminars, panel discussions by their Education and Outreach committee, the Friends of the ASC membership, and the org’s ongoing committee collaborations with other industry participants vital to the image-making process. Perhaps most notable is the ASC Technology Committee, which has proven unique in its ability to shape the standards and practices of digital cinematography.

Crudo is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serving on the Executive Committee of the Cinematographers Branch as well as the Sci-Tech Committee. In addition, he has chaired and cochaired the ASC Awards for several years throughout the past decade.

Born and raised in Brooklyn,

New York, Crudo began his film career as an assistant cameraman.

As a director of photography, he has shot a wide range of feature, television and commercial productions. Among his feature credits are Federal Hill, American Buffalo, American Pie, Music From Another Room, Outside Providence, Down To Earth, Out Cold, Grind, Brooklyn Rules and the upcoming Addicted. He has also directed several independent features.

ASC was founded in 1919. There are 340-plus active members today who have national roots in some 20 countries. There are also 150 associate members from ancillary segments of the industry.

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Volicon Strengthens Global Presence, Naming Paul Higuera Senior Director of Sales and Opening New U.K. Office Volicon announced the appointment of Paul Higuera as the company's senior director of sales.

Higuera will head up the new Volicon office in Gloucestershire, U.K., where he will be responsible for growing the company's business and strengthening customer relationships throughout Europe.

"In addition to being a very experienced technical sales team manager, Paul has a strong track record in developing and building new and existing business and channels," said Russell Wise, Volicon's vice president of global sales. "We are confident that through this experience and expertise, as well as his commitment to internal team development, Paul will play a pivotal role in driving continued gains in sales growth and customer satisfaction."

Higuera joins Volicon having most recently served as sales director at ARG ElectroDesign, where he oversaw all corporate sales activities for the manufacturer of media network and interface products for the broadcast and telecommunications industries. He earlier held the role of vice president, global sales, at Digital TV Labs, a leading specialist in media and device testing. Higuera's extensive experience in the broadcast industry includes roles as sales director, EMEA, for companies including Comtech TV and Envivio, and head of business development at Dawson Ltd. He earlier held both sales and engineering roles at Tiernan, an MPEG-2 codec manufacturer, and served as technical team leader of DVB operations at Matsushita Electric U.K. In his new role at Volicon, Higuera reports directly to Wise. The new Volicon office established and overseen

by Higuera is located at Unit 9, Cirencester Office Park, Tetbury Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 6JJ, United Kingdom.

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Datos Media Technologies announces distribution agreement with Panasas® Datos Media Technologies, a Madrid-based provider of products, systems and supporting services for the broadcast and multimedia production market, announces a distribution agreement with data storage specialist Panasas®.

"We are very pleased to be adding Panasas' pioneering solutions to our product roster," says Tomas Nielsen, General Director of Datos Media Technologies. "We are confident these will add useful features and facilities to our customers' production ventures. Panasas understands the needs of the markets we address. Panasas' focus on high-capacity storage makes its products well suited to a wide array of applications. We look forward to demonstrating these solutions to our current and potential customers."

"Datos Media is a great addition to the EMEA Panasas reseller network," adds Martin Eves, Panasas' Vice President of Sales – Europe, Middle East & Africa. "The Datos team's extensive knowledge, specifically in production, archiving and audiovisual content delivery, augmented by their complete range of system design and installation services, will be significant assets when representing our company in the Spanish media and entertainment market."

Panasas ActiveStor® hybrid scale-out NAS storage solutions are optimised for highly demanding data workloads in enterprise and research environments such as media and entertainment, life sciences, energy, government, manufacturing and universities.

Now in their fifth generation, ActiveStor solutions leverage the patented PanFS® storage operating system to accelerate workflows and simplify data management through the use of a single global namespace and non-disruptive scaling. ActiveStor also offers triple-parity, per-file software RAID data protection for exceptional system-wide reliability that scales linearly with the size of the solution.

JUL

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2015

Riedel supplies robust communications solution to dock10 for Live Broadcast of U.K.'s ITV Leaders Debate Stepping once again into the political arena, Riedel Communications supplied a robust communications solution for the ITV Leaders pre-election debate, held April 2 at MediaCityUK. During the live broadcast event, leading broadcast and production facility provider dock10 used the Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom system and MediorNet real-time media network to enable flexible, reliable transport of video, data, and communications signals to the three main broadcasters — Sky, BBC, and ITV — as well as to the Media Hub Centre hosting more than 300 other members of the global press.

"Riedel's MediorNet real-time network came into its own during this event, offering valuable flexibility, reliability, and stability throughout an exciting, actionpacked day that was full of surprises," said John O'Shaughnessy, head of technology operations at dock10.

"With such a dependable solution

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underpinning signal transport, the dock10 technology team could deliver all that was asked of it on a very demanding day."

In addition to serving as the regular production facilitator behind popular U.K. television programs such as "The Voice" and "Dragons' Den," dock10 provides MediorNet real-time media links to ITV and BBC, as well as The Pie Factory production base at MediaCityUK. For the ITV Leaders debate held in advance of the U.K.'s May elections, dock10 was able to use its campus-wide fiber connectivity to link all areas across MediaCityUK and enable transmissions to and from a host of broadcasters. The MediorNet CWDM option enhanced this capability and offered increased capacity that ensured flexibility and reliability in signal delivery.

The ITV Leaders Debate main program was produced at HQ1, dock10's 12,500-square-foot studio.

ITV news pool feeds, providing

pictures to the world's press, were coordinated from another dock10 studio gallery, HQ3. dock10 deployed one MediorNet at the Piazza in front of the studios to provide video, data, and communications to Sky, the BBC, and ITV at their OB positions in front of the building. A second MediorNet system was deployed in the Media Hub Centre, which housed additional press, and enabled additional broadcaster live feeds.

"Our MediorNet and Artist systems have been engineered to provide the versatility and quality critical to live broadcast events of all sorts, from sports and entertainment to the political arena," said Paul Rivens, U.K. general manager at Riedel Communications. "We have worked closely with dock10 on a variety of high-profile productions, and the company once again made the most of our gear to support an important event leading into the U.K.'s 2015 general.

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2015

EVS enriches the fan experience at Wembley Stadium’s FA Cup Final EVS has partnered with EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company, to provide fans at Wembley Stadium with enriched media content over 4G Broadcast for the first time.

During the FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Aston Villa on Saturday 30 May, content was distributed via EVS’ FanCast solution to dedicated media points around the venue, enabling fans to get access to exclusive replays and highlights.

EVS’ FanCast solution used the EE 4G network – the fastest in Europe – to deliver replays, highlights and live camera feeds to the mobile app available inside the stadium. EVS’ FanCast comprises an XT3 live production server, IPDirector content management suite and the cloud-based multimedia distribution platform, CCast.

facility to ingest feeds from the stadium’s 30 cameras. These included five Super Slow Motion and two Ultra Motion cameras, which captured the match’s action at an extremely high frame rate.

The ingest of these cameras’ output requires robust facilities to assure of the quality of the feed.

wherever they are. EVS has been a

Matt Stagg, head of video at EE and founder of the Mobile Video Alliance, said: “Momentum is growing around 4G Broadcast as companies from mobile, broadcast and content industries recognise how it can finally be the way to more efficiently deliver a truly great TV experience to large numbers of mobile viewers. This wasn’t possible with 3G, but it is part of the 4G roadmap and we’re investing in this innovation to give customers a great mobile video experience,

EVS, said: “Live broadcasting has

fantastic technology partner during this project, constantly innovating to bring us new ideas, new solutions and new features that wow our customers.”

Laurent Petit, vp products at changed immeasurably. Today, live production solutions must be more agile and efficient to deliver creatively enriched content to a range of multiple devices. EVS solutions, like FanCast, allow our partners to enrich live multimedia content and create an immersive experience to generate a return on that emotion.”

FanCast brought in key moments from the game from host broadcaster BBC via Arena TV’s OB trucks in the television compound. It then distributed this content to a mobile app specifically developed by EVS partner Intellicore – winners of the first ever C-Cast APPlied challenge – which was available in dedicated areas of the stadium.

Input Media, one of Europe’s leading sports production companies, also provided a match day big-screen service for the final using EVS technology. An XT3 production server ingested feeds from the BBC’s host OB facilities to quickly and efficiently turn around replays. These were played back for audiences to watch on the stadium’s 13 by eight metre big screen.

The BBC acted as host broadcasters for the match with Arena TV’s OB services also using a number of XT3 servers in the

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2015

Cuescript announces addition of camera support Granderath to its German distributor network CueScript has named Camera Support Granderath (CaSu) a distributor of CueScript products in Germany and Austria. Effective immediately, CaSu will distribute all CueScript products, expanding the availability and visibility of the company’s products in Germany/Austria.

Established in 2008 by Florian Granderath, an expert in camera support and grip equipment, CaSu’s mission is to be the distributor and supplier of the film and broadcast industries’ most highly regarded equipment brands.

In 2015, CaSu joined forces with Michael Bucher, a long-time Vinten employee, to represent industry leaders, including Cartoni and

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CueScript.

“Camera Support Granderath has partnered with CueScript on the strength of its commitment to mastering innovative products in the market, dependable distribution and first-rate customer service,” said Michael Bucher, Prompter Specialist and Sales Manager of CaSu. “We currently serve all public and private stations in Germany, the major rental houses and large production companies.

Through this partnership, we can offer our prestigious customers access to CueScript’s prompters.”

“Given CaSu’s knowledge of the broadcast market, it was a natural fit to make them our latest distribution partner,” says Brian

Larter, Managing Director of CueScript. “We are proud they will be supplying our gear alongside other top products in the industry to their customers in Germany.”

CaSu will distribute CueScript’s full line of products, which includes the flagship CSM line of LED High Brightness HD-SDI Prompter Monitors (available in 15”, 17” and 19” models) with the new CS CueNumber double digit cue light, geared toward a range of live and studio productions. Additionally, the company’s EMC line (available in 15” and 17” models) designed for education, middle market and corporate applications. Also on offer, Cue-iT software, Premier, Production and News.

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2015

Globecast delivers every all the main action from Roland Garros Globecast was once again central to the coverage of this year’s French Open from the iconic Stade Roland Garros via services for MP & SILVA, the international media rights company.

As the second major of the year, following on from the Australian Open, Roland Garros is considered the pinnacle of clay court tennis.

Globecast provided contribution and European satellite distribution services for coverage of the tournament. In total, more than 1400 hours of feeds were transmitted over the 15 days of the tournament.

For this year’s tournament, Globecast provided an end-to-end service, including encoding (HD MPEG 4), contribution and distribution services. Live signals from each of the seven main courts at the stadium, as well as the international Super Signal of daily highlights and a number of unilateral ad hoc signals, were provided to MP & SILVA. Globecast also handled the aggregation and multiplexing of two muxes (one with

signals from four courts and the other comprising three), an SCPC signal for the international Super Signal and the daily highlights. The latter was via its UK facility.

Contribution was supported via two fully redundant fibre paths; signals were fed through to Globecast’s national switching centre at Serte, Paris then on to the London teleport at Brooksman Park for satellite uplink. Globecast provided a full 72 Mhz transponder on Eutelsat 7B to maximise the reach of the distributed content.

The entire project was set up and managed by a dedicated team of Globecast staff, including four senior engineers and project managers to handle set up, pretournament tests and the provision of service for all the duration of the event. During the tournament, an additional team from the Serte MCR was assigned to the project.

A range of value-added services also formed part of the package delivered to MP& SILVA. These included bookings, help desk and customer support for Licensed

Rights Holder Broadcasters. These services were supported by Globecast’s Booking and Operations teams in Italy, which also provided constant monitoring of all the feeds via the Globecast Teleport in Rome.

Alessandro Alquati, Managing Director of contribution at Globecast, said, “Being involved in such an iconic event like Roland Garros is always an honour. As with every major tournament, there is the drive to deliver bigger and better coverage each year and this is what we helped MP & SILVA provide to its broadcast customers.

However, a project of this size and magnitude is not without its challenges. The main challenge we had to face was implementing the service and beginning transmitting in a very short time frame. These were minimised due to the breadth and depth of our offering; we were able to provide a one-stop service covering everything from encoding to fibre links through to satellite capacity and uplinking as well as provide a team of specialist staff to support the whole event.”

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JUL

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2015

Dutch broadcast provider equips new OB with Lawo Systems Dutch outside broadcast service provider United, headquartered in Hilversum/The Netherlands, has installed a Lawo mc²56 audio mixing console as the centerpiece of its new OB16 truck. The move sees the company follow a series of other broadcasters and production companies operating multi-camera outside broadcast (OB) and studio services in adopting Lawo technology, giving Lawo’s mc² consoles a 70% share of OB vehicle operations in the European market. Local distributor, LDM Audiovisual Systems, based in Lint/Belgium, made the delivery and has carried out the console configuration for United.

The desk’s core is housed in its own rack and integrates its own DSP with a Nova73 compact core, which is also a large audio router – making the audio mixing console is a very advanced system controller.

The router is equipped with MADI, allowing the simultaneous transfer of up to 64 audio channels over a single fiber-optic link. This signal capacity has reduced the wiring that would otherwise be required in the vehicle, and eliminated much of the conventional assembly and soldering.

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The truck’s Riedel Artist Intercom System is connected to the Lawo audio distribution architecture via MADI, providing high-quality audio throughout. In addition to the mc²56 consoles, LDM installed L-S-B’s Virtual Studio Manager (VSM) in OB16. This software provides overall control for central automation of all systems in the vehicle, integrating the video, audio and intercom router, and also the multi-viewer. The operators at the 15 different workplaces can select their specific visualization. The system’s buttons are LCDs that dynamically display signal labels – with the VSM control system, these can be set, saved and recalled for any situation eg. changing the order of the cameras. Previously, this required changing the setup and re-configuration, plus renaming the tally signals. Now this can be programmed centrally, making the workstations very flexible. Even though the vehicle is with United LSM could, if required, configure the system from any location.

The digital infrastructure of the unit provides a high degree of flexibility, required less cabling and offers many more possibilities than

a ‘conventional’ setup. This means that productions that used to require several days of preparation and rehearsal can now be scheduled tightly, and completed in a single day. This required a different approach and interior design of the vehicle.

LDM also supplied its new Lawo V_pro8 video processing and routing unit for the installation. The V_pro8 has eight 3G HD-SDI video embedders and eight processors, and sample rate-converters, as well as an 8x8 matrix with extensive video processing capabilities.

United provides full-service broadcast facilities and ranks among the top three largest service providers in the Netherlands. It operates several TV OB vans, ranging from small vehicles to a large satellite OB van, capable of 30-camera production. The camera department produces major sporting events, and has worked on football events including the European Championships and World Cups, the Olympic Games, game shows, music concerts and other live events to be mastered by multicam.

JUL

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2015

RTW expands TM3 Series functionality at Broadcast Asia 2015

RTW is unveiling firmware version 3.5 for its TM3 TouchMonitor series at Broadcast Asia 2015 (Stagetec Asia, Stand 5E6-01). This software update enables RTW fully-licensed TM3 series and Smart Series products to experience the company’s latest loudness solutions, including the expanded feature set and display of the Loudness Chart instrument.

RTW protects the investment of its customers. For that reason, the company offers software bundles for any previously purchased TM3 series products to enable the use of firmware 3.5, and future versions.

This provides current RTW TM3 customers with the same full feature set as TM3 Smart series users. Existing TM3 devices convert with the listed software bundles to the corresponding device of the Smart category: TM3 with TM3-SWB1 or TM3-6CH with TM3-SWB2 effectively becomes a TM3 Smart, while the TM3-3G with TM3-SWB3 is the same as a TM33G Smart. These upgrades are presented at very competitive

prices.

The Loudness Chart instrument is used to display the progress of a measurement (TP, M, S, or I value over time) as a line or colored area under the curve on a coordinate system with selectable time range.

Additionally, the tolerance range can be displayed as a corridor. A dynamic line will show the position of the Relative Gate in relation to the “I” value and an additional bar graph for the display of the current “I” loudness value can be selected.

Further, when the corresponding software bundle has been installed, future instruments and functions can be added via firmware update automatically. RTW plans to add the following classic TouchMonitor instruments as part of forthcoming software upgrades for all TM3 units: RTA (Real-Time-Analyzer), SSA (Surround-Sound-Analyzer) and VSC (Audio-Vectorscope).

The TM3 and TM3-3G Smart Series products incorporate the company’s Devicer DC1 software, which allows users to personalize

and adapt existing presets to their needs, and create several configuration sets with different presets that can be uploaded to the devices. Ideal for editorial offices, edit suites, control rooms and other applications requiring easily readable, out-of-the-box loudnesscompliant level control, the Smart Series handles analog or digital stereo signals. The TM3 can control up to six channels of digital signals and the TM3-3G can send up to 16 SDI audio signals to eight AES3 outputs.

Along with PPM and true peak instruments, the TM3 Smart and TM3-3G Smart offer single-channel and summing bargraphs, loudness range, loudness chart and numerical display instruments for loudness measurement, with supported loudness standards including EBU R128, ITU-R BS.1770-3/1771-1, ATSC A/85, ARIB, OP-59, AGCOM and CALM Act. The devices’ moving-coil instruments display stereo signals with different scales and modes (PPM, VU, loudness, BBC).

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JUL

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2015

Thomson Video Networks' Multi-Screen Solution to Drive Next-Generation IPTV and OTT Service Thomson Video Networks announced that FPT Telecom, one of Vietnam's top three telecommunications providers, has deployed the award-winning ViBEÂŽ VS7000 multi-screen and HEVC encoding system to drive the upcoming new release of its IPTV and FPT Play app, the company's popular IPTV and OTT video service. The VS7000 system provides a common nextgeneration platform for encoding both IPTV and multi-screen services to help FPT maximize available bandwidth, minimize costs, and increase revenues from FPT Play.

comprehensive evaluation of several solutions, but none could match the robust capabilities and high-quality video of the ViBE VS7000 from Thomson Video Networks."

"For the newest generation of our IPTV and FPT Play service, we needed a reliable and flexible encoding platform that could provide advanced processing features such as mosaic, logo insertion, and text crawl," said Vu Anh Tu, chief technology officer, FPT Telecom. "We conducted a

Deployed at the FPT operations centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the ViBE VS7000 system replaced aging IP streaming equipment originally installed in 2007 to support FPT's first IPTV service. Powered by Thomson Video Networks' MediaFlexOS video operating system, the ViBE

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FPT Telecom operates four tier-3 data centers to provide broadband Internet, cable Internet, and IPTV services to subscribers in 59 Vietnamese cities and provinces.

Launched in 2013, the FPT Play mobile app has been downloaded and installed over 2,000,000 times.

FPT Play offers SD and HD channels, as well as integrated entertainment features such as music videos and television series.

VS7000 software runs on a stateof-the-art HP C7000 blade server for maximum reliability.

"Just as in many countries, the demand for OTT video services in Vietnam is huge and growing rapidly. FPT Telecom was one of the first to offer OTT services through FPT Play, and the company is continuing to raise the bar with the upcoming new release of the service," said Tony Berthaud, vice president, APAC sales and services, Thomson Video Networks.

"In choosing our ViBE VS7000 to drive its new convergent platform, FPT understands what's needed for a successful and profitable OTT service — namely, the ability to provide a consistent and highquality viewing experience across all platforms and devices while also conserving bandwidth and maximizing operational efficiencies."

JUL

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2015

Merging Technologies Distribution changes new partners in Sweden and South Africa reflect the changing market Merging Technologies is proud to announce the formation of a new company to support its sales and technical support in Sweden.

Merging Sweden took over distribution of the Merging professional products line at the beginning of May. The force behind this new operation is Kjetil Laukholm who has been supporting sales in Sweden for some time now. The move to become the full distributor was a logical conclusion, given his experience with the Merging brand. He has been a Pyramix user since the days of Version 3 and has a long experience of recording all types of music for major labels such as EMI and Sony. He has also recorded orchestral scores for games like Spiderman and Assassin’s Creed.

He has also worked on many Scandinavian movies with composers Lorne Balfe, Nicklas Schmidt, Anders Bagge, Nils Petter Ankarblom and Clarence Öfwerman. Kjetil will be working with other local Pyramix and Ovation specialists to ensure that regional and relevant product expertise is being cared for.

Dealers are also being appointed to promote the Networked Audio Interfaces to a wider market.

track audio recording and production solutions, their expertise now also incorporates multi-screen visual productions.

The close integration of Merging products with PENMAC’s visual platforms ensures a solid synergistic solution for projects requiring very high definition visual content coupled with very high definition audio delivery all perfectly synchronized into one control platform. This strategy reflects the global increase in sophisticated and immersive spectaculars and events and perfectly mirrors one of the main directions that Merging has been following with its Ovation Audio Events Sequencer. PENMAC has also close contact with major broadcasters in the region and is able to promote the full range of Merging products to this vertical.

Kjetil Laukholm commented; “My focus is to improve the responsiveness and technical support for Merging customers in Sweden. My colleagues and I have been customers for many years so we know what is needed in today’s competitive market.”

Malcolm Finlay, sums it up in this way; “We started with Ovation without really understanding what else Merging could offer. Now we know, we feel confident we can significantly expand the user base for Merging in South Africa. They have some great products at a variety of price points that appeal to our client base.”

Shortly after ISE 2015, the South Africa distribution was switched to PENMAC; a company with particular expertise in live events and A/V installations. This company was also well known to Merging because of Ovation sales that had been made with Dataton’s WATCHOUT Multi Display System.

Headed up by Malcolm Finlay, PENMAC’s South African roots have led them across their country, but they have also gained extensive international experience supplying compelling audiovisual solutions to satisfied clients. Established in 1998 and primarily supplying multi-

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JUL

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2015

Tedial provides Doordarshan with fully-integrated MAM and archive solution Tedial has announced a major sale of its Tarsys enterprise MAM system to Indian public service broadcaster, Doordarshan. The Tedial system, installed at Doordarshan’s Kolkata facility provides its operators with core and browser-based desktop media tools as well as a fully integrated archive system, able to scale in volume and throughput. The Tedial archive will connect to Doordarshan’s sites in other regions as well as its central archive in Delhi. The installation was carried out by Tedial’s Indian partner MediaGuru.

Doordarshan provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional India and overseas through

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the Indian Network and also Radio India. As well as delivering a fully equipped archive, Tedial’s Tarsys MAM will enable Doordarshan to ingest its existing U-matic, Betacam SP, DVCPR050 and XDCAM HD422 programme content stored on tapes and optical disc media, into the system in both high and low resolution formats. Tarsys is fully integrated with 30TB of HP Online Storage and a 48-slot HP LTO6 tape library as well as Tektronix Cerify QC for automated quality control of file-based content.

It enables operators at the facility to browse, catalogue, search and store content via the Tedial webclient.

Ashish De, (Director Engineering), Doordarshan says,

“The Tedial MAM system provides us with an integrated archive that is fully scalable enabling us to expand the system, as and when the time comes. Tarsys was recommended to us by MediaGuru following a rigorous tender process and we are very happy with the system.”

Esther Mesas, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Tedial adds, “We’re delighted to announce this sale to Doordarshan in conjunction with MediaGuru. Our unique media IT architecture, core software modules and API can be configured to create the most efficient and flexible media processing and archive systems available in the industry.”

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2015

ČT24 choose Quicklink Skype TX for broadcasts ČT24 have recently chosen the Quicklink TX solution in order to broadcast quality Skype transmissions within the Czech television channels group - Česká televize. ČT24 is the first and only Czech television which provides 24-hour news coverage and it is the most watched 24-hour news television in Europe.

Martin Roztočil IT manager of Czech TV describes the reasons for choosing the Quicklink TX: “It is very simple to use. We had a great experience using the Quicklink LNG software, so we wanted to try another product from Quicklink. We were looking for another Skype

product because we were using standalone PCs with the standard Skype client. So there was a PC, Matrox device for SDI output, external sound card... a lot of devices and lot of potential errors....... Now we have only one 1U piece of hardware“

Martin explains: It’s been really easy to use .The Quicklink TX has given us better call management as a broadcaster, including the ability to switch resolutions on the output and improved return audio sound“.

Quicklink TX is a device designed for use in Television production studios and other professional environments that enables you to send Skype calls as SD/HD-SDI video with embedded or balanced analogue audio, providing exceptional call quality in HD video format

MNA appoints working group chairs The Media Networking Alliance has announced the appointment of chairmen for its Technical and Marketing Working Groups, nominating Kevin Gross and Will Hoult to the respective positions.

Kevin Gross is founder of AVA Networks and a leading independent consultant to AV equipment manufacturers and systems designers. He is a pioneer in media networking, having previously conceived and developed the CobraNet transport protocol for high-quality audio over Ethernet networks. He also helped build the first configurable DSP system and developed early DAW products.

As an AES fellow he is a recognized expert at the intersection of real-time media and networking, and has contributed work to multiple standards bodies, including the IEEE, where he participated in AVB development, and the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Within the AES, he leads the group that produced the AES67 standard. On taking up the chair of the MNA Technical Working Group, he stated, “The technical activities of the MNA, as with everything the MNA does, will focus on adoption of AES67. Technical activities that can improve adoption include development of implementation resources, technical education initiatives and technical collaboration among AES67 technology providers to assure interoperability. Any ongoing standards work on AES67 will continue to be spearheaded in the AES Standards Committee. Right now, everyone is focused on creating awareness and clear understanding of the published standard."

Will Hoult is a graduate of the University of Surrey’s Music and Sound Recording course. He has spent a number of years as a member of the marketing team at Focusrite Audio Engineering, promoting a diverse number of products; prior to which he worked at Avid Technology. Today he oversees Focusrite’s audio-overIP product strategy and roadmap. He also continues to perform as a musician. Speaking on his appointment as chair of the Marketing Working Group, he said, “With the acceleration of the adoption of audio-over-IP technology, both by manufacturers and end-users, there is a distinct requirement to ensure inter-compatibility between different platforms. AES67 provides the best opportunity to make this a reality. I very much look forward to working with the MNA to help promote the adoption of AES67.”

Commenting on the appointments, Rich Zwiebel, chair of the MNA, said, “The MNA has chosen Kevin and Will to move forward the technical and marketing objectives of the MNA. The appointments and formation of these first two working groups is a milestone in the alliance’s evolution. In practical terms, it means that our technical and marketing activities to promote adoption of the AES67 standard will take on a greater momentum and significance.”

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INFOCOMM 2015

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INFOCOMM 2015

InfoComm 2015, the annual conference and exhibition for professional audiovisual buyers and sellers worldwide, held June 13-19 in Orlando was visited by 39,105 professionals attending from more than 108 countries. This represents a 5.6 percent increase in attendance over InfoComm 2015.

“InfoComm is the ideal place to make AV purchasing decisions, connect with contacts and learn principles that will boost your effectiveness,” said David Labuskes, CTS®, RCDD, Executive Director and CEO, InfoComm International®. “The marketplace strongly supports the InfoComm show, and we are grateful for the attendee support and for the innovative exhibitors who are committed to making InfoComm a can’t-miss event on the industry calendar.”

More than 5,600 seats were filled at InfoComm University™ sessions, which provided practical training and attracted the industry’s best and brightest instructors and students. More than 200 professionals sought out the new advanced class series. Attendees come to InfoComm for the diversity of courses on topics ranging from acoustics to videoconferencing. Popular courses included Future Trends, Large Scale Projection Mapping, How to Build an App and Designing Classrooms that Deliver Exceptional Experiences. Technology managers flocked to InfoComm’s Solutions Summits on UCC and Digital Signage, attracting more than 1,300 seats sold.

There were 950 exhibitors participating at InfoComm this year. Exhibitors occupied a record 515,000 net square feet of exhibit and special events space.

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INFOCOMM 2015

AJA New Mini-Converters AJA Video Systems introduced five new Mini-Converters at InfoComm 2015, the HB-T-HDMI, and the HB-R-HDMI, along with the ROI-DP, FiDO-4T and the FiDO-4R. ROI-DP provides real-time regionof-interest output to HD-SDI video from any DisplayPort enabled computer. The HB-T-HDMI and HB-RHDMI offer easy extension of UltraHD or HD HDMI signals over Ethernet cable, utilizing the industry standard HDBaseT protocol. FiDO4T (transmit) and FiDO-4R (receive) conveniently deliver up to four channels of 3G-SDI over fiber on standard LC connectors.

"The use cases for these new products are virtually unlimited--and we've painstakingly engineered these Mini-Converters to be super simple to operate, with the quality, performance and reliability that AJA is known for," said Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems.

The HB-T-HDMI and HB-R-HDMI can extend workflows in a variety of scenarios including: fixed installation AV, digital signage, live events, post production/network/studio environments and on set. Use these Mini-Converters to extend HD and UltraHD HDMI signals over existing Cat5/6 or 7 cable. These new Mini-Converters also allow for the extension of bi-directional IR and RS-232 for device control.

Key Features of HB-T-HDMI and HB-R-HDMI: -- Extend uncompressed UltraHD or HD HDMI signals up to 100m over Ethernet cable -- Support for Deep Color, 3D, EDID, HDCP -- Extends bi-directional IR and RS-232 for Device Control -- Support for PCM 2 CH, LPCM 5.1, LPCM 7.1 -- Support for Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby

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embedded into SDI output -- Easy user control via USB -- Loop-through DisplayPort connector -- 5-20VDC power via supplied international power adapter -- 5-year warranty Atmos, DTS Digital Surround and DTS-HD Master Audio -- Wide Support for VESA (Computer) formats and DVI compatibility (via adapter) -- HDBaseT Certified "4K" UltraHD Signal Extender -- Compatible with AJA DRM frame for rack installations -- 5-20VDC power via supplied international power adapter -- 5-year warranty ROI DP is AJA's newest region of interest Mini-Converter allowing high quality conversion and realtime region-of-interest scaling of computer DisplayPort outputs to baseband video over SDI. Key Features of ROI-DP: -- Convert computer signals to professional video, with region of interest scaling -- User adjustable "Region of Interest" with interactive on-screen controls via supplied AJA MiniConfig software for Mac/PC -- Frame-rate conversion -- Automatic input detection and configuration -- SDI output support for common SD and HD formats -- 4:3/16:9 conversion modes supported -- Embedded SDI audio output -- Reference input -- 3.5mm analog audio input

The FiDO-4T and FiDO-4R expand AJA's family of fiber optic converters. FiDO-4T is a 4-channel 3G-SDI to Single Mode Fiber converter, and FiDO-4R is 4-channel Single Mode Fiber to 3G-SDI. This pair of converters will allow conversion of 4K SDI using 4x 3G-SDI transport onto four fiber cables, using a single conversion box at each end. The FiDO-4T is ideal for conversion of 4K cameras to fiber.

Each channel is fully independent, so the devices can also be used for four independent 3G-SDI streams.

The FiDO-4T and FiDO-4R use LC connectors on the fiber side, with dual SFP cages. The FiDO-4T and FiDO-4R complement the recently introduced FiDO-4T-ST and FiDO4R-ST, which offer the same solution in ST connectivity.

Key Features: -- Ideal for remote 4K camera installations -- Transport of SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI over single mode fiber -- Auto-detection of video format -- All SDI Ancillary data including embedded audio is passed -- LC fiber connectors -- All inputs, either SDI or fiber, are equalized and re-clocked -- ASI compatible -- Useful for eliminating ground loop problems -- 5-20VDC power via supplied international power adapter -- 5-year warranty

INFOCOMM 2015

axle Cam Introduces Radically Simple Camera-toComputer Workflow axle Cam is a low-cost camera ingest application that streamlines the process of acquiring, organizing and sharing media from today's most popular video cameras and DSLRs. For the first time, axle Cam affordably resolves organizational issues caused by multiple file formats, bitrates, file wrappers and folder structures. The software automatically detects, imports and organizes camera media. Users are then able to instantly access, edit and share files through a simple user interface that leverages axle's radically simple media management technology. The product supports DSLRs and HD cameras made by Sony, Panasonic, Canon, JVC, Nikon and GoPro. The company is developing specialized modules to support higher-end cinema cameras, though release dates have not been announced. axle Cam is an ideal solution for news organizations, sports broadcasters, professional videographers, schools, governmental organizations, religious groups and others who deal with large volumes of camera media. It provides a simple path between production and editorial, and makes it easier to share camera media with other parties for

review and approval or collaborative editing. "axle Cam is the missing link between the camera and the computer," says axle Video CEO Sam Bogoch. "It eliminates the countless hours video professionals now spend in processing and organizing camera files before they can be used by others."

With a cost of just $995 for a twouser license, axle Cam is priced far below competing solutions, making it a compelling choice for a range of professional users. axle Cam is a comprehensive and versatile solution. During ingest, camera files are rewrapped with no reduction in image quality, and low resolution H.264 proxy versions of camera media are created for use in editorial and review. The application also features a suite of integrated media management tools, including an interface for displaying media in browsers or mobile devices, a search function for technical and other metadata, and a dashboard grid layout that makes it easy to designate sources and select actions.

"DSLRs and video cameras generate dozens of files and folders, which, for the majority of

users, are needless clutter," notes Bogoch. "It leads to more workflow steps, more errors and misplaced shots, and less time for creativity. axle Cam provides an elegant, automated solution. It cleans up incoming files, makes H.264 proxies, grabs the metadata, and displays it in a browser/mobile interface."

Media Files Supported - MOV/MP4 - Samsung NX1 H.265, any format playable by QuickTime Player or plug-ins - MXF - Sony XAVC (XAVC-L, XAVC-I) - Canon XF - Panasonic DVCProHD, AVC Intra - ProRes - MPEG-2 - DNxHD, VC-3 (when DNxHD QT component installed) - SRcam (when SRCam QT component installed) - MTS/M2TS (AVCHD) - H.264 - AC3 Audio, LPCM Audio - M2T - HDV-style M2T streams (MPEG2 video with MP2 audio)

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INFOCOMM 2015

CONNEX Wireless HD Video Link Flies at InfoComm Amimon has provided InfoComm attendees with a firsthand look at CONNEX, the company’s innovative, zero-latency HD wireless video link for UAV professionals, at the show’s inaugural Drone Pavilion presented by Stampede. The demonstration is running throughout the show exhibit days, June 17 – 19, three times a day at 9:30am, 12:30pm, and 3:30pm.

Amimon will be partnering with Xfly, an industry-leading manufacturer of multi-rotor UAVs. “We look forward to demonstrating the capabilities that CONNEX delivers to the AV industry at InfoComm’s Unmanned Systems and Drone Pavilion, said Ram Ofir, CEO, Amimon. “CONNEX’s zerolatency and ability to transmit HD wireless video up to 1,000 meters (3,300 ft.) is a real game changer for aerial video production. CONNEX enables myriad new possibilities for a multitude of video production, training and education applications across the AV industry.”

With the fast-growing popularity

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in Orlando, Florida, the Drone Pavilion will feature an enclosed cage presentation area where attendees can learn more about the capabilities of drones, and their incorporation into the AV industry.

Delivering full HD video quality with zero-latency transmission, the plug-and-fly CONNEX is ideal for broadcast, inspection, aerial photography, crowd control and other applications that require real-time control of both camera and drone.

of drone technology, InfoComm added the Aerial Robotics and Drone Pavilion to the show this year. Located at booth #7042 at the Orange County Convention Center

A robust 5GHz radio with sophisticated 2x5 MIMO and automatic channel selection (AFS) allows CONNEX to ensure resilient connectivity at all times, free from interference from UAV controls and other 2.4GHz radio links.

CONNEX’s multicasting feature supports up to four screens simultaneously while maintaining excellent HD video. The CONNEX kit includes all antennas, cables and connectors required for air and ground unit setup.

INFOCOMM 2015

Coveloz expands RAVENNA partner community Ottawa-based embedded solution provider Coveloz adds its expertise to the RAVENNA manufacturer’s community. Known for their highperformance SoM solutions for time-sensitive networking (AVB), they now have added support for RAVENNA/AES67 to their modules.

The partnership effectively expands the range of RAVENNA/AES67-enabled solutions to the international market space. While RAVENNA partners Archwave, Digigram and ALC NetworX were already offering RAVENNA/AES67 solutions of different size and performance for OEM customers, Coveloz now enables

manufacturers looking into both Ethernet-based AVB and IP connectivity to utilize the same platform.

“We are excited to contribute to a thriving partnership such as RAVENNA.” said Nestor Amaya, CEO of Coveloz. “Coveloz is in the business of providing technology solutions, and we believe that these solutions should not lock our customers inside of a proprietary box.

Ecosystems built on open standards, such as RAVENNA, align with our vision of how best to serve our customers.”

Andreas Hildebrand, Senior Product Manager of ALC NetworX

is extremely pleased to welcome Coveloz to the RAVENNA partner community. “Coveloz is the first OEM solution provider from the AVB camp now expanding its technology support into the IP realm.

Choosing RAVENNA as the basis for this step clearly underlines the supremacy of the RAVENNA technology and demonstrates the value and benefits of an open and standards-based technology approach, both for manufacturers and for end customers. By allowing building AVB or RAVENNA/AES67 networks based on the same platform, manufacturers have now an even more obvious choice on their route to implementation.”

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INFOCOMM 2015

Lawo and Waves introduce Waves SoundGrid Integration for Lawo mc236 Consoles Lawo and Waves are premiering the seamless integration of Waves SoundGrid servers with Lawo mc2 consoles at this year’s InfoComm.

As a result of the collaboration, Lawo’s mc²36 all-in-one console now provides extensive real-time signal processing in addition to its internal processing engine. The system gives operators access to Waves’ comprehensive plug-in library, allowing them to conveniently control reverbs, multi-tap delays, graphic equalizers and multiband compressors directly via the console’s keyboard and touch-screen. No additional monitors or controls are needed – which results in a clean working space and less external hardware. All plug-in settings can be easily stored and recalled with the console’s snapshots.

Mick Olesh, Waves EVP Sales & Marketing, comments: “Waves is delighted to collaborate with Lawo and is pleased to give their users easy access to Waves plug-ins on Lawo consoles. This cooperation with Lawo realizes our ongoing commitment to provide our custo-

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mers with the freedom to use Waves plug-ins in all settings and environments.”

“The cooperation with Waves is very fruitful and also extremely enjoyable. Both companies are very focused and so our R&D teams were able to achieve the integration of Waves plug-ins with our consoles in very short time”, says Christian Struck, Senior Product Manager Audio Production at Lawo.

“Lawo mc2 consoles are audio precision tools, and the Waves integration gives our customers access to Waves’ comprehensive plug-in collection. This is a perfect complement to our system, especially with regards to live and install sound applications.”

In the Technology for Worship Pavilion (Booth 6878), Lawo and Waves are jointly showcasing the new Lawo mc²36 mixing consoles including integration of Waves SoundGrid signal processing and effects plug-ins in a new server configuration that supports all Lawo mixing consoles for live production

applications. A 40-fader mc²36 is being used as the FoH console for all Worship Pavilion main stage events, and six additional consoles are being provided as part of the InfoComm Training Center.

The mc²36 consoles are designed to provide an all-in-one solution for broadcast, install and live performance applications. Available configurations include 16, 24 and 40 fader models, all with built-in DSP and I/O that can be expanded with several stagebox configurations. All consoles include built-in AutoMix, dynamics processing, loudness metering, and snapshots with external offline and configuration control options, including remote connection of PCs, tablets or laptops to manage the setup and mix process. Designed to work in an IP-based environment, the consoles come equipped with the latest RAVENNA audio-over-IP technology as well as full support for AES67.

INFOCOMM 2015

Sound Devices, LLC bring a range of audio and video products to Infocomm 2015 Throughout the show, the company demonstrated a typical production setup at its booth, showcasing how its rack-mounted solutions, such as the PIX 270i, PIX 250i and 970, can improve production quality and workflow in realworld AV-production scenarios.

“We are excited to offer a small glimpse into how our products can address some common AV production challenges during our InfoComm demo,” says Paul Isaacs, Director of Product Management and Design. “Our rack-mounted solutions provide significant advantages and timesavings to production workflows, especially those without a professionally trained broadcast staff. We are also excited to preview our newest video product, PIX-E5 -- the world’s most compact cameramount, 4K recording monitor.”

Sound Devices’ 970, its first-ever, audio-only, rack-mounted solution, boasts an impressive 64 channels of Dante and MADI. The half-rack, 2U device simplifies any application that requires high quality, hightrack-count audio recording. Sound Devices’ 970 records 64-channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit WAV files from any of its 144 avai-

lable inputs. Available inputs include 64-channels of Ethernet-based Dante, 64-channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight channels of line-level analog and eight channels of AES digital. Any input can be assigned to any track. Recording up to 32-tracks at 96 kHz is also supported.

Video Devices will also preview its PIX-E Series at the show. The camera-mounted recording field monitors feature three models: the PIX-E5, PIX-E5H and PIX-E7. The series offers a full suite of precision monitoring tools, SDI and HDMI I/O. The line also has the ability to record 4K, and Apple® ProRes 4444 XQ edit-ready files to affordable approved mSATA-based SpeedDrives. All three PIX-E monitors feature compact, die-cast metal housings and an LCD display protected by Gorilla® Glass 2, making them the ideal choice for AV professionals. The PIX-E5 and PIX-E5H are presently the world’s most compact 4K recording monitors.

Video Devices PIX 270i and PIX 250i are comprehensive multichannel AV record and playback tools that deliver unbeatable quality solutions for house of worship (HOW),

corporate, live event and other multi-camera production applications. The PIX 270i and PIX 250i provide tapeless, file-based recording and playback, with the ability to access and transfer high-quality files over Ethernet. Their advanced network functionality, along with simultaneous multi-drive recording, and their ability to be controlled over IP, RS-422 and GPIO, make them ideally suited for integration into a range of AV applications.

Sound Devices, LLC designs and manufactures both product portfolios for Sound Devices’ audio products and Video Devices’ video products. Sound Devices offers portable audio mixers, digital audio recorders and related equipment for feature film, episodic television, documentary, newsgathering, live event and acoustical test and measurement applications. Video Devices proudly offers digital video recorders, and related products, that address a range of multiplesource video productions, including fast-paced, mission-critical studio applications, live sports, live events, and mobile production.

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INFOCOMM 2015

Continued Innovation Further Strengthens Telemetrics Product Line Exhibit highlights include the Advanced Presenter Tracking System (APTS), designed to make meeting room environments more presenter-friendly; the versatile RoboEye™ HD camera/robotic PTZ that delivers HD imaging and high-end robotics performance in a fully integrated, cost-effective package; and the networkable RCCP-1 Remote Camera Control Panel for unified command of camera robotics and camera shading, adding new levels of flexibility and cost efficiency to camera automation applications.

“The professional video market today demands high performance, cost-effective solutions to meet the ever-increasing complex and varied applications,” said Anthony Cuomo, President, Telemetrics, Inc. “The products we are featuring here at InfoComm meet those requirements and are further complemented with innovative functionality to provide maximum value.”

Telemetrics’ APTS robotic system operates by locating and trac-

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king a small, lightweight sensor in a defined area and allows simultaneous multiple-camera tracking of one or several presenters. It does not require line of sight between the presenter and the receiver. The system can control an almost unlimited number of robotic devices (video cameras, spotlights, etc.).

Designed for use in meeting room environments, APTS enables full automatic remote control of the camera’s pan, tilt, zoom and focus.

It is also capable of re-acquisition and 360 degree tracking which allows the presenter to walk around for more natural and relaxed communication.

The Telemetrics RoboEye™ integrated HD camera/robotic PTZ provides quality, convenience and value in an out-of-the-box package.

It features servo motors for maximum accuracy in positioning and velocity which, along with HD quality, make it ideal for use in broadcast and production applications, in virtual systems and in commercial or industrial military applications – without the need for added peripherals.

RoboEye’s advanced electronic interface includes a web server, enabling users to access video and control using a web-enabled device. Alternatively, the camera can be remotely controlled over an Ethernet connection or via RS232C/422. A USB port is also included.

RCCP-1 Remote Camera Control Panel with camera shading capability provides a flexible architecture for a wide range of networked or stand-alone camera automation applications. The RCCP-1 supports Telemetrics and most PTZ cameras as well as select broadcast cameras without CCUs. The camera shader function features access to shutter, R/G/B gain, R/G/B gamma, detail, white balance and more.

Camera control and functionality as well as control of auxiliary devices are provided through the panel’s integrated touchscreen graphical user interface for ROP controls, complemented by joystick for trim controls (pan, tilt, zoom, etc.) and special assignable knob control.

RS-232 and Ethernet transmission enable unlimited control locations.

INFOCOMM 2015

VITEC continues Leadership in HEVC Streaming Market with Portable HD/SD HEVC Decoding Appliance VITEC announced that its professional-grade MGW D265 portable HEVC (H.265) IP decoder is now shipping worldwide. The product has been showcased at InfoComm 2015 in conjunction with the company’s world-first hardware-based HEVC encoding appliance — the MGW Ace. VITEC’s portable HEVC encoding and decoding systems provides broadcasters, corporate IT, government agencies, and military units with a turnkey solution for sending video point to point or point to multipoint using half the network bandwidth previously required with H.264 systems while retaining the same video quality.

“VITEC is the first company to

bring the bandwidth-efficient HEVC compression technology into the field with our broadcast-grade encoding, streaming, and decoding appliances” said Eli Garten, vice president of product management, VITEC. “MGW D265 was designed as a portable unit to support rapid

deployment of high-efficiency video links in conjunction with our MGW Ace HEVC hardware encoder. With MGW D265, our customers can continue to receive legacy H.264 streams and also decode and playout HEVC content anywhere, anytime.”

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

If there are two technologies which lately create lot of interest in the sector they are 4K and Live Production, especially for sports. In this TM Broadcast issue we have talked with several manufacturers to bring to these pages their newest equipment and projects.

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

AJA CION Takes the 4K Spotlight at Pacific Producers Group

An appreciation for filmmaking quickly turned into a full-time gig for Shawn Serdar. Channeling a passion for the craft, he took over the reigns at Pacific Producers Group (PPG) in 2007, and the Vancouverbased production company has been thriving ever since. Operating out of Gak Studio, a video and photography studio where Serdar is Partner, PPG provides multimedia services to industrial, government, legal and commercial clients.

Favoring 4K capture for greater creative flexibility, Serdar and the Gak partners keep the studio stocked with an arsenal of 4K gear, including a new AJA CION camera.

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Before using the camera in-studio, Serdar took it out for a test-run to see if he could film as a one-man band. To his surprise, it was easier than anticipated. “I was shocked by how simple CION was to set up and operate; I could put it on a tripod with an ENG plate, release the lever and be shooting 4K ProRes 444 or ProRes 422 HQ on my shoulder in seconds. It’s a really practical and versatile camera,” he said. “CION also has built-in audio inputs, so you don’t need a separate audio recorder, and the ergonomics make it easy to handle. The camera worked perfectly in a variety of environments–indoor and

outdoor–giving me ready-to-edit footage right out of the camera.”

CION made its first PPG project debut when vitamin manufacturer Natural Factors enlisted the production company to shoot a series of promotional videos earlier this year. The project called for a green screen live-action shoot, with motion graphics to be added in post. Opting to use CION for its incamera ProRes 444 recording capabilities, Serdar explained, “With green screen production, you want to record in the codec that gives you the most color information. By recording ProRes 444 with CION, I knew we’d be able to get

4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

the highest quality color information and bit depth in-camera; it was an ideal setup.”

PPG, in collaboration with Oregon-based boutique creative agency Mountain Hut Media, set up shop at Gak to deliver a 20-minute video for Natural Factors retailers; a two minute promo for its consumers; and a handful of audio takes for radio promos. They pre-rigged and pre-lit the set; equipped the CION with an EVF and ENG Plate, Zeiss CP 2 Prime Lens and a matte box; stationed a teleprompter in front of it; began filming; and wrapped production within four hours.

“I was blown away by how great CION worked and how it sped things along; the quality of the footage also looked amazing in-camera,” Serdar shared. “We had an onset editor who was going to be our DI tech, but he didn’t need to, because we were able to transfer the footage from CION quickly with Thunderbolt 2, and use the ProRes files immediately in After Effects.”

Since adopting CION into PPG’s workflow, Serdar has seen a significant drop in the time required bet-

ween production and delivery. The improvement was most apparent while working on a shoot for another client, for which PPG captured event footage and cut it into a 5minute video montage on-site, in under an hour using a laptop.

“I couldn’t believe how quickly we

could do it, and how little color grading it involved. We’ve worked with other cameras, but often find that they’re bulky, the menus are labyrinthine and they require a ton of transcoding,” Serdar expressed.

“With CION, we’re saving about 4050 percent time on projects, because the ergonomics are great, the menu is straightforward and we can shoot and edit in ProRes without any transcoding. It’s a smart and efficient camera that delivers outstanding quality at a great price point.”

With Serdar recognizing AJA’s commitment to bring CION users new features and improvements on a regular basis, he concluded, “I also love to see AJA delivering on its promise. Prior to NAB I’d made a few suggestions for CION improvements and was pleased to see some of those suggestions implemented in the firmware announced at the show. It’s that kind of responsiveness that makes customers feel valued and keeps them coming back for more.”

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

4K is undoubtedly taking off across Europe. There has been a huge uptake in 4K production already and it’s clear that this is only going to increase rapidly.

Whilst viewers at home may not be seeing 4K delivery on their television sets, European broadcasters recognise this is the future and are making the necessary investment and changes now. It’s not out of the realms of possibility that we start to

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see 4K satellite broadcasts in the near future.

On the production front, an increasing amount of content is being demanded in 4K to ensure its quality, longevity and future re-sale value. 4K has quickly become the default resolution for acquisition, post and mastering of new productions. At Blackmagic Design, we’re seeing demand from across all markets, and now that there are

products available that fit most budgets, there are no barriers to 4K acquisition. We’re seeing independent filmmakers, major studios, broadcasting, live events all looking to produce fantastic content in 4K. 4K transmission is naturally a huge challenge for broadcasters and not one that will be easily solved. However, it is clear that there is major customer demand for 4K already, thanks to the plummeting

4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

costs of UltraHD TVs and the upscaling quality that consumers can now see in their home sets. It would be extremely difficult to pause this demand.

Distribution standards and technology standards will also influence production standards too. We’re already seeing how our 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI technology has enabled the development of products that can deliver 4K content, as well as continuing to support HD and SD production requirements.

Future proofing broadcast installations is also a very important consideration, to ensure channels are not locked into technology that will quickly date and leave facilities requiring a complete overhaul in a matter of years. With Blackmagic Design products, those working in SD and HD now, will already have access to technology that is also 4K compatible, protecting their investment.

BLACKMAGIC STUDIO CAMERA 4K

ATEM 2 M/E BROADCAST STUDIO 4K

The original concept for our Studio Cameras was for use in small, lower budget studios in corporate, AV, education and regional broadcast studios, all of which have welcomed the camera and are purchasing them in significant quantities. What has surprised us a little is the use by larger broadcaster and live AV productions. We are seeing greater numbers each month being used in new studio installations for these applications, due to its low cost, compact size and image quality. In addition, having access to an affordable 4K Studio Camera is allowing customers to deliver 4K at a lower implementation cost than HD, which is helping in the industry transition to 4k and ensuring a competitive advantage and profitability for the production.

The all new ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K lets customers create live, switched, high frame rate HD and Ultra HD programs at up to 60 frames per second.

Featuring advanced 12G-SDI technology, customers can connect the latest 2160p60 cameras using a single, standard SDI cable. The multi rate 12G-SDI connections automatically switch to 6G-SDI, 3GSDI and HD-SDI so the switcher is compatible with existing HD equipment. The ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K can be used to master programs in 2160p60 while simultaneously outputting them in HD with realtime down conversion. It’s a future proof switcher that lets broadcasters start building a library of amazing Ultra HD content, even if they need to continue broadcasting 1080HD today.

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

DirectOut M16 MADI Monitor

DirectOut specializes in developing essential pro audio connectivity, networking and bridging solutions for broadcast, studio, live and installed sound applications. Their comprehensive range of products is designed to build bridges between different audio worlds and make systems and formats more flexible.

DirectOut is particularly renowned for their MADI expertise and has a wide portfolio of MADI products for a variety of applications.

Their latest product offering is the M16 MADI Monitor, a compact 1U device that was developed espe-

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cially for US mobile TV production giants, Game Creek Video. Game Creek now has 64 units installed in their newest remote facility, Encore, which will be seeing major action during the forthcoming US Open golf tournament.

MI6 provides three MADI inputs and outputs, headphones out, an analog stereo line out and an AES3 output. Sixteen channels can be summed with individual levels onto a main mix which is then output via the device’s integrated speakers and other outputs. All MADI outputs carry the signal of the active MADI

input allowing several units to be daisy-chained.

MI6 is a powerful and flexible MADI audio monitoring system that delivers a 64-channel MADI signal via a single fiber link. As a result, the savings in cabling alone are enormous at every level – cost, space and weight – which makes a significant difference, especially for large-scale installations with many monitoring seats. Initially developed as a custom design, DirectOut are delighted to be able to make the technology available to all their customers.

4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

FUJIFILM World’s first 2/3” inch Fujinon 4K Ultra High Definition Television Zoom Lenses

As the gateway to light and the first element in the production chain, the lens demands the highest quality in optical performance.

Ever since the first color television content aired in 1962, FUJIFILM has pursued the development of broadcast-quality lenses for the television industry. Then, as now, our mission is to provide production professionals with ‘high-performance, high-quality’ lenses. This Fujinon lens commitment to quality has won the acclaim and trust of both the broadcasting and cinema industries. With the full-scale shift to 4K broadcasting on the horizon, manufacturers are now delivering next generation products that will

capture and transmit broadcast TV productions to audiences around the globe.

Back in 2009, the HK-Series cine zoom lenses with 8K-class optical performance were introduced. The HK-Series lenses have since become popular tools in major movie productions around the globe. In 2012, on the back of the success of the HK-Series, Fujinon launched the 4K-class ZK-Series cine zoom lenses, which are much lighter in weight. These were the world’s first PL-mount cine lenses to incorporate detachable full-servo 16-bit drive units, enabling broadcast style production (shooting) technics. Both the HK and ZK lens series have

played a major role in the 4K test broadcasts of numerous global sporting events including the Confederation Cup and last year’s World Cup. The demand for 4K video content is surging amidst a 7-fold year-onyear increase in the shipment of 4K-compatible television sets to approximately 11.6 million units last year, just in March of this year a dedicated 4K channel (CS satellite broadcasting) was launched in Japan, this should further entice other regional and global broadcasters to speed up their migration to the 4K format.

However, the broadcasting

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

industry generally uses SD/HD cameras equipped with 2/3-inch sensors, now including 4K cameras with the same sensor size such as the new camera models which had been released by Sony HDC-4300, Ikegami 4K Unicam, Grass Valley LDX86, Panasonic Varicam, Hitachi SK-UHD4000 U-HDTV broadcast cameras which all require compatible high resolution broadcast lenses with a high dynamic range that can deliver advanced ultra-high definition optical performance.

Responding to this need, Fujifilm has developed the UA-Series 2/3” 4K U-HDTV lens models UA80x9 BESM (9-720mm 1: 1.7) and UA22x8 BERD (8-176mm 1: 1.8) which have now bridged the gap between cinematic and TV industry segments. Ultra-high resolution 4K imaging demands a higher level of lens performance and Fujinon has met this with its new line-up of 4K U-HDTV broadcast lenses. Honed by decades of development and enhanced by newly adapted manufacturing methods which enable ideal configuration and positioning of lens elements for optimized performance while higher resolution is attained by Nano-level precision polishing of special aspherical lens elements.

Minimal aberrations over the entire zoom range with extreme high contrast, high dynamic range and image purity are achieved by FUJINON’s newly developed zoom group approach and floating focus system (variator/compensator).

True 4K imaging expression rich in color reproduction is realized by the increase is realized by the increased red and blue transmittance ratio which is a benefit of the HTEBC (Electron Beam) coating with the highest transmittance and lowest reflectivity ratios that can be achieved with current production technologies. The below graphic illustrates the optical performance values which can be achieved by the type and degree of coating layers which is applied to the glass (crystal) elements.

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Excellent 4K imaging quality of even distant detail is thus faithfully conveyed to the camera by elevating the optical performance in the frequency bands that carry the vast majority of imaging light. High-fidelity transmittance of ‘blacks’ to the camera is essential to imaging expression and FUJINON achieves this by increasing red and blue transmittance ratios which is a benefit of the HT-EBC (electron beam) coating with the highest transmittance and lowest reflectivity ratios that can be achieved with current production technologies.

The graphic below illustrates the optical performance values that can be achieved by the type and degree of coating layers applied to the glass (Crystal) elements.

Optical loss is hereby reduced to new extremes to achieve a pure 4K-class image which is rich in colour gamut- reproduction in conjunction with reduced aberrations; resulting in pinpoint sharpness and image clarity which can be contributed to improved MTF values. In addition, the UA-Series has integrated 16-bit encoders that can provide high-resolution lens data output including extremely accurate zoom, iris and focus data. This capability and interface promise enhanced compatibility with virtual systems for composing CG with live broadcast images.

In optics, modulation transfer function* indicates the capability of optical contrast transmission.Often the contrast reduction is of most interest and the pattern translation can be ignored. The relative contrast is given by the absolute value of the optical transfer function, a function commonly referred to as the modulation transfer function (MTF).While optical resolution, as commonly used with reference to camera systems, describes only the number of pixels in an image, and hence the potential to show fine detail, the transfer function describes the ability of adjacent pixels to change from black to white in response to patterns of varying spatial frequency, and hence the actual capability to show fine detail, whether with full or reduced contrast. An image reproduced with an optical transfer function (OPT) that 'rolls off' at high spatial frequencies will appear 'blurred' in everyday language*. A perfect lens system will provide a high contrast projection without shifting the periodic pattern; hence the optical transfer function is identical to the modulation transfer function. Typically the contrast will reduce gradually towards zero at a point defined by the resolution of the optics*.Source*:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_transfer_function

4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

Grass Valley Widespread Adoption of its 4K Acquisition Solutions

Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, announced that a number of industry leaders have committed to the new Grass Valley LDX 86 Universe switchable 4K/extremespeed HD camera to greatly enhance their storytelling capabilities.

Following on the heels of last year's extremely successful 6X extremespeed camera introduction, the LDX 86 Universe allows either 6X HD acquisition or 4K acquisition from the same camera, and is also available as an upgrade to existing LDX 86 XtremeSpeed cameras.

"The only area Grass Valley focuses on more than producing highquality, innovative products is providing the highest level of service and loyalty to our clients," said Mike Cronk, senior vice president of strategic marketing, Grass Valley.

"We are pleased that a wide range of industry leaders have committed to joining us by upgrading to our new LDX 4K/6X switchable camera. The LDX 86 Universe will help our customers stay ahead of the competition with the most advanced imaging possible."

For rental houses, this will give them one camera platform that can provide content acquisition in multiple formats; for stadium owners, it will offer even more compelling content display options; and for OB vans, it will expand their capabilities with a multi-format camera that can deliver extreme-slow motion or 4K images to best fit the storytelling needs of the event.

A growing list of Grass Valley's industry-leading customers has already committed to the LDX 86 Universe, including OB truck operators Mobile TV Group (MTVG), Lyon Video and NEP Group; rental houses Bexel, Video Equipment Rentals (VER) and Fletcher Sports; and professional sporting venues for the Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Cavaliers.

The first true 4K camera with B4 lens technology, the LDX 86 Universe represents a quantum leap in 4K sports production. Now broadcasters can shoot sports productions in 4K with no differences in depth of field, zoom range or sensitivity compared to HD cameras, retaining all the shot-framing capability and creativity they are accustomed to with HD. This combined with the fact that the LDX 86 Universe can also be used in any camera position where a normal HD, high-speed 3X or extremespeed 6X camera is required, makes the LDX 86 Universe the most versatile camera for any sports production. With one camera, now broadcast rights holders, OB van companies and rental houses can be Future-Ready, applying technology once limited to "specialty positions" to more and more camera angles.

The introduction of the LDX 86 Universe builds upon the success of Grass Valley's widely used LDX 86 high-speed camera systems, which include the LDX 86 HiSpeed 3X HD super-slow motion and LDX XtremeSpeed 6X HD/3X 3G extreme-slow motion cameras. Other new additions to the LDX 86 Series include the multi-format LDX 86 WorldCam with HD content in 1080i/720p/1080PsF and 1080p with an upgrade path to 4K and the LDX 86 4K camera with an upgrade path to the LDX Universe. More details about these cameras can be found online at www.grassvalley.com.

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

Imagine Communications Imagine drives industry transition to UHD/4K in collaboration with Sony’s Networked Media Interface Initiative Imagine Communications announced a key industry initiative underway with Sony to enable the critical transitions to Ultra High Definition/4K, and from legacy SDI to IP-based network infrastructures.

“Together with Sony, we are pleased to initiate an industry-wide adoption of the Sony’s Networked Media Interface, which resolves the issue of managing the distribution of UHD/4K signals in the network infrastructure,” said Steve Reynolds, CTO of Imagine Communications. “This embrace of Sony’s new innovation is not a result of any single vendor’s unique efforts, but instead is a collaboration of the vendor community to ensure that our media and entertainment customers can transition to the next great leap in video quality enhancements and IP innovation.”

Today’s studio cameras use one HD-SDI cable to carry a single uncompressed baseband signal that may require up to 3 Gb/s.

Since UHD provides substantial improvements compared to HD, the increased bandwidth for UHD/4K would normally require four HD-SDI cables, and replicating this massive cabling increase throughout the network infrastructure presents nearly impossible logistical challenges. To resolve this challenge, Imagine Communications supports Sony’s Networked Media Interface, a new AV over IP interface for IPbased networking that provides low latency transport of UHD/4K video,

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audio, reference, metadata and control data.

“We are delighted to work closely with Imagine Communications to ensure its end-to-end, market leading portfolio can be a catalyst for fostering and standardizing future architectures that are based on IP, open standards and interoperability,” said Tetsuya Iwamoto, General Manager with Sony. “Sony is committed to being a key driver of this important evolution in our industry.”

At its heart, Sony’s Networked Media Interface can provide a virtually lossless UHD/4K compressed stream over IP signal. Although such a signal in some cases may require up to 12 Gb/s, Sony’s technology provides minimal compression of the signal to enable it to be carried in packet form over common 10 GBEs fiber or twisted pair cabling.

“The logistical issues associated with the massive bandwidth increase required for UHD/4K are almost forcing the industry to migrate to an IP-centric network environment,” Reynolds added. “Fortunately, we have enablers that help us in this transition such as Sony’s Networked Media Interface. Add to that the new capabilities like ubiquitous 10 GBEs and 40 GBE IP swit-

ching provided by the reliable IT vendor community and other innovations like Imagine Communications’ recently announced Magellan SDN Orchestrator, and the industry now has complete solutions to enable their gradual transition to UHD/4K.” The Magellan SDN Orchestrator utilizes dynamic signal-flow connections, managing signal mappings, addressing, and translations between legacy protocols and IP. This unique, hybrid approach to SDN allows the entire bit flow to be software-defined, providing for managed workflows that support the concurrent coexistence of IP streams, files, and baseband signals. Media companies can now use familiar workflow processes and controls while also managing on-ramps and off-ramps for baseband over IP via a software control layer, significantly improving the way video is managed throughout broadcast facilities. This solution also leverages existing data centergrade COTS switching technology that allows media companies to ride the ever-improving cost/performance curve of the IT industry, avoiding the expense of installing proprietary IP switching for the sole purpose of routing baseband over IP.

4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

Quantel - Snell 4K – what’s all the fuss about?

Quantel and Snell have just released the results of a global survey into the industry’s views on 4K adoption. More than 1000 people responded to the survey from small, medium and large-scale public and private broadcast and post organizations across more than 80 countries. The result is a highly informative, real-world review of where the industry is with 4K – and where it’s going. 60% of respondents saw it

as relevant only in the future, with the majority of predictions spread across the two to five year timescale, and 6% see 4K playing no part in their future at all.

However 4K is clearly already happening in some areas of our industry – particularly in sports and live events – which is why 34% of respondents marked 4K as relevant now. Quantel and Snell already

have a number of customers actively working in 4K. In the USA, live event company LMG has been covering events in 4K for more than a year now, and in the UK, Timeline TV has just announced an all-4K OB truck to support BT Sport’s UltraHD channel, which will begin operations in August this year. Both LMG and Timeline have chosen Snell Kahuna switchers at the heart of their 4K workflows, and Timeline

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4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

has also installed a Snell Sirius 800 as its routing backbone. In Korea 4K has been recently mandated for expansion in terrestrial transmission and is perhaps the most progressive government initiative for the standard today; by 2021 they expect as many as 24 channels of 4K, depending on commercial success of course.

In post production, the Quantel Pablo Rio 4K color and finishing system has been working on 4K DIs for movies for several years now, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2011 at Light Iron in Los Angeles. 4K movie post is now becoming fairly commonplace

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– Interstellar for instance was posted at 4K at FotoKem in Los Angeles, also on Pablo Rio. When Sony shot the 2014 World Cup in 4K, they also turned to Pablo Rio for on-site production of 4K highlights packages which were beamed around the world for next-day showing in 30,000 Sony Stores.

4K wipes, keying and graphics capability to give TDs the same range of creative options that they are familiar with at SD and HD. As for Pablo Rio, 4K is just a stepping stone; Quantel has recently sold its first Pablo Rio 8K system – again to a company (Sony PCL in Japan) that handles large scale events.

Why does the industry turn to Quantel and Snell for 4K? Because the company has designed 4K capability into its systems alongside HD. As a result, the Kahuna switcher performs at 4K with the same interactivity as at HD, and includes far more 4K capability than other switcher on the market, offering full

In broadcast then, the immediate future for 4K is very much in the sports and live events field.

European consumers are beginning to purchase 4K TV sets in readiness. In post, 4K is well-established and here to stay – until it is overtaken by 8K perhaps!

4K & LIVE PRODUCTION

Ross Video Sports Live Production

2015 has been another important year for Ross Video. Not only has the company been celebrating its 23rd straight year of growth, but we have also launched a number of new initiatives designed to help those working in sports broadcasting.

Ross Video has been extremely active in the sports market in North America for a number of years and counts many major league football, baseball and basketball teams as satisfied customers. We also work with an enviable list of the world’s foremost broadcasters, helping them to create engaging sports content through our graphics, robotic cameras and Virtual Studio/Augmented Reality solutions. We’ve started to broaden our footprint in EMEA too; we recently announced a partnership deal that sees Ross Video equipment installed in Dublin’s Croke Park – the 84,000 capacity stadium and spiritual home of Hurling and Gaelic Football in Ireland. Other sports clubs and bodies that we currently

work with include Chelsea Football Club, Liverpool Football Club, Paris St. Germain, FC Basel in Switzerland, Spartak Moscow, Twickenham – the home of English Rugby – and the Norwegian Football Association.

For these clubs and governing bodies, Ross Video offers a range of solutions that can help them get closer to their fans, make the match day experience more exciting, make their productions more professional, creative and involving and, perhaps most importantly of all, open up new revenue streams and sponsorship opportunities.

From a production switcher to drive content on a stadium video wall right through to a full virtual solution for a dedicated production studio or virtual advertising around a stadium or arena, Ross Video can help build a solution that delivers greater fan engagement and increased attendance.

In addition to this major drive into the sports market in EMEA, two

important announcements regarding sports have been made at our last two NAB shows in Las Vegas.

Firstly, we introduced the concept of openTruck – an open blueprint for the design of smaller OB trucks that helps get around the inconsistency of equipment levels and production quality that exists in this sector. openTruck has been designed specifically for broadcasters and sports rights holders who want high quality production values but don’t want the expense of large OB trucks and, in true Ross fashion, we share the blueprints with anyone who would like to become a partner. Secondly, at NAB 2014 we announced the creation of Ross Mobile Productions – a division of the business which will not only build and supply OB trucks based on the openTruck standard but which will also customise and package sports content on behalf of TV networks and deliver it to them as a broadcast-ready product.

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INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR SANTAMARĂ?A, CANAL + SPORTS LIVE DIRECTOR What is your opinion of the upcoming technologies, such as 4K? I have a high opinion on them because the truth is, in the end, all advances and technologies can be used in a good way or a bad way.

Every development ultimately depends in our use of it. For example, for what I've seen when using 4K and the tests that we have carried out, I believe it is an important step forward and it will become the forthcoming standard, due to the amount of information in each shot, its quality and format. I think we will shortly be immersed in a revolution similar to the one that took place with HD. It seems like you are watching a painted sign, it's outstanding. Added to this, are the audio tracks and other materials that have been incorporated.

Needless to say, we find ourselves facing opportunities that we don't have now. It's always positive when used in the right way, but in a few years' time we will see how it goes. Within broadcasting, which is my sector, what I've seen up until now is that it enables getting shots of tremendous quality and definition. This will probably give rise to questions regarding the organization of sports events in a different way, since we will be able to have different types of shots and narrative, with a much more natural vision. This said we also have to remember the failure of 3D TV, with which we were very enthusiastic at first but it didn't work. My personal view is that it did not work as a result of brands' poor planning, which focused on fighting each other instead of achieving a unique format and a same way of doing things. So, suddenly we found

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We will have to wait and see how it evolves because technological developments are quite difficult, but I believe it is going to be next revolution. ourselves caught up in a war with no real development to consolidate it. On the one hand, we found ourselves facing passive glasses, which diminished quality, and on the other, active glasses that caused headaches, and so on. This lack of coordination and common understanding also applied to the professional world. It is a pity because it's something that could have been fun and impressive and, in the end, it came to nothing. The clues of what is about to come (mainly 4K) seem to be good.

There are some very interesting details such as the fact that you can see a 80-inch screen at a distance of about 1.50 meters, which means that you don't need to have a huge living room to watch a 4K screen, and you can have a unique 4K experience in a tiny living room. And I would like to emphasize that we will have to wait and see how it evolves because technological developments are quite difficult, but I believe it is going to be next revolution. We had a 4K internal seminar, with participants from the Japanese television channel NHK, and they suggested moving directly to 8K. Their idea was based on the fact that it's all about the standard definition, in the sense that the eye no longer sees the difference from there on, though that could be discussed about. Why should we embark on 4K when 8K is here now, and once developed the cost will be the same? Is 4K worth it at this point? I think it is. I believe that

we have to carry it further and then develop everything when knowing how to use it correctly, but it certainly is a very interesting and important discussion.

Would you change your UHD narrative?

Undoubtedly. As I mentioned, there was a glimmer with 3D, and probably if it were to have succeeded things would be done differently. Obviously I'm not referring to changes in TV news, but rather to basketball matches, for example. In that case, we wouldn't need to work with so many cameras to give the most realistic impression and feeling of immersion. What we do with the broadcasting of these kind of sports events is to create a workflow with 8-10 cameras, but with 3D we would only be needing 4 or 6, due to the characteristics and framing that it introduces. Thus, it enables to inform in a very different way. If 4K finally manages to succeed, which I believe it will, it's format would enable us to have high power shots. In such case, we would have to work with open productions (more general and slow motion). We would be working with more definition, enabling us to analyze movements in a much more faithful way. Besides from the extension technologies that we currently have, 4K images can be scaled as possible during repetitions, to make a move clear or to provide specific details about something. I also find this quite

interesting. Obviously, I would have to change the narrative, but I really think that it would be done easily. It's a matter of experience.

When we work with HD we already note the benefits of having much more information, but we realized that the development and planning against working in SD hardly changed, the overall number of cameras that we needed was the same. As I stated earlier, an aspect to be considered is that a 4K TV is suitable for a small living room, and it can be watched at a distance of about 1.50 meters. I would consider this to be its most distinctive feature when referring to its consolidation and it has an impact on narrative.

What is your opinion on the integration of drones?

We have been working with this for over two years now because it's wonderful. The only problem to it is legislation. It's one of those issues where bureaucracy and legislation lag behind reality. We have been able to use it in some matches, and in other occasions we have wanted to use it but the police has knocked them down because there is no real regulation concerning their use, they weren't sure if it was legal, due to approvals, etc. I understand it, but the presumed applicable law is still inexistent and it is crucial to us.

New stabilization cameras and devices are coming onto the market and they offer terrific shots. The good thing about drones is that they offer different interesting possibilities, as they can act as a

helicopter, a crane and even a steady. It is just really great. In Bilbao, when we were in charge of the Champions, we used one and we were really impressed about the shots we got with it, when using it with an average camera. Its stability, flight capability and the chance to control the drone for it to reach everywhere, all translate into achieving amazing things. You are able to get shots at the playing field level and then rise, for example. It does not replace flight shots, but, as I said, it's a mixture of many things which makes it creative and unique. I find it to be a total and absolute revolution. Nowadays, they can and they are used without problems for documentaries, for example, when shooting in a

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private property, but in public places, at present, it's practically impossible. We are still waiting for the legislation in this regard, which is a need, not only for our industry, but for anyone who needs to use them.

What would you like to implement in the future?

Lately what I really want is for shots, narratives and masters to have motion. I am giving it a lot of thought because it's something I really want to do. We are trying to figure out how to work with football and basketball cameras so that they are able to monitor moving actions, just as we see in many computer games. We want to use visuals from football videogames, and we are working on it. We are drawing closer towards coupling technical means to achieve these kinds of shots. The evolution of motion in masters is my priority, almost my obsession.

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Obviously, I would have to change the narrative, but I really think that it would be done easily. It's a matter of experience.

In the end, new generations are used to those aesthetics...

Yes, I share that same opinion. I think broadcasting needs a small change. Maybe it doesn't end up working, but I think that it's certainly the way. We are now seeing new camera mounts, supported by a sort of cablecam, but not as heavy or expensive to mount, and I would love to try them out.

What about basketball?

In basketball we've experimented at this year's Euroleague with shirt cameras, which are being used in

England at the rugby Six Nations Championship. The camera is carried in the chest of the player's shirt for melees, etc. We've put the camera on the referees' shirts and the shot is a lot of fun. The only problem that we have faced is that, due to its miniaturized design, we've had some broadcasting errors but, as I said, the shooting we get is a lot of fun. We even put the camera on the shirts of the Zalguiris' players with the acquiescence and the sponsorship of the Euroleague. These are things that we have to continue working on because I believe that

immersion shooting in sports is amazing, and can be sponsored.

Do you think that there will be special productions for tablets and other small screens?

I think that the possibility of bringing independence and customization to production is absolutely right. It's something that I desire, that catches my attention and that I really like. I see that these mobile devices work really well, regardless of the operating system. I like the Formula 1 multisignal, where you can choose to change to any of the on-board cameras. Despite the fact that the system is expensive, it adds a lot of quality with a high number of independent links. There are other systems where we can see similar things but in steaming, and therefore, quality is much lower.

The important thing here is that the viewer that opts for a Tablet has the

The important thing here is that the viewer that opts for a Tablet has the possibility to choose the camera he prefers, above quality. In fact, in mobile devices quality is on a second level. possibility to choose the camera he prefers, above quality. In fact, in mobile devices quality is on a second level. It is really interesting for the viewer to have the possibility of choosing the camera that he wants to watch on his Tablet.

Sometimes in football, people only want to watch a master shot, OK, give them that opportunity, or they may want to watch the action from the back. Plus, I think that these devices are permeating in society

and they are being used by many more people than we actually realize. For example, when broadcasting this year's San Isidro bullfighting, there was a small error in Yomvi, which did not last for long, but I immediately received messages in Twitter reporting it, even though bullfighting viewers are supposed to be quite traditional.

Therefore, it's important to look into these things.

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Now in its third year, the Shaky Knees festival showcases top tier indie and alternative rock artists. Held from May 8-10, this year’s festival featured headliners such as The Strokes, The Avett Brothers, Wilco and Ryan Adams. This year also saw the debut of the festival’s country music counterpart, Shaky Boots, held May 16-17, which featured such artists as Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley and Rascal Flatts.

According to TourGigs co founder and partner Jake Saxbe, while shooting each of the shows, the team ran 8-10 cameras across four different stages, as well as one HDMI feed from a computer for graphics, into a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K. Some of the cameras were connected to the switcher via SDI cables, with optical fiber cables running from the rest of the cameras to the video setups. TourGigs also used two Blackmagic Design ATEM Studio Converters in their AV rack to connect the cameras that used fiber to the ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K. “The 8-10 cameras that went into the ATEM switcher were connected to customized camera battery and conversion boxes that we

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built,” explained Jake. “Each box contained an ATEM Camera Converter, and we could plug any camera with either an HDMI or SDI feed into the box. The Camera Converter box let us convert the cameras to either HDMI, SDI or fiber. These boxes allowed us to quickly set up a camera almost anywhere in the venue. It was an incredibly versatile system.”

The team sent a program feed out from the ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher to the festivals’ 22x12 foot video screens, and

recorded their line cut with a Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio. To record two of the PanTiltZoom cameras, they connected two additional HyperDeck Studio recorders. Also in use at Shaky Knees was a camera mounted on a drone, and the team used Blackmagic Design Mini Converter HDMI to SDI as part of the connection to the ATEM switcher.

“What I love about Blackmagic Design’s products is that they are reliable, affordable and scalable,” said Jake. “With the ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K, we experience less latency on the IMAG screens than with other switchers. Blackmagic Design makes a lot of components that are useful and work well together. We shoot 100 shows some months, and we couldn’t afford to do this

without Blackmagic Design.”

He continued, “We are also quickly moving toward a full 4K workflow, and since we’ve been using the ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K for almost two years now to do HD moving to 4K isn’t a burden on us because the Blackmagic Design products have been capable of it all along.”

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