TVBEurope by Ed Miller

Inside: 3D special focus, IT Workflow, NAB Sneak Preview

TVBEUROPE

Europe’s television technology business magazine

www.tvbeurope.com

MARCH 2009 £5.00/€8.00/$10.00

Sky News: Twenty years of striving to be first and accurate

Making the news look new February marked the twentieth anniversary of Sky News. Much has happened over two decades, both in the world and in the television environment. Philip Stevens takes a look at recent developments within the Sky News operation

Antelope in action: “Our deflickering solution analyses each field and corrects the differences of each individual field in realtime,” according to Felix Marggraff

Catching an Antelope Sports OB By Andy Stout Ever since Eadweard Muybridge was hired in the late 1880s to prove if a racehorse lifts all four feet off the ground when in full gallop (it does), high-speed photography has been part of the lexicon of film. Increasingly though as it has moved off celluloid and into the digital arena, it’s now part of the lexicon of television as well. And while the first ultra highspeed units, those operating around 1000fps, tended to need some extensive post processing to clean up the images, now the images are available to OB directors as instantly as any other camera hooked into their EVS networks. LMC LiveMotionConcept’s Antelope HighSpeed camera system is a case in point. In development since 2006 and first making a name for itself at Euro 2008 last year, it is essentially a Vision Research Phantom HD camera capable of capturing 720p images at 1500fps, and 1080i/p at 1000fps,

to which LMC has added its own technology to embed it better into the broadcast space. “The camera itself hasn’t been modified, but many different peripherals have been added for conversion and data transportation,” comments LMC CEO, Felix Marggraff. “We use high quality converters to transport the signal over fibre. The camera Continued on page 4

3D TV and NAB If Europe is to develop its own stereoscopic 3D market it will need a native skills base offering engineering, production and finishing expertise that matches anything in LA. Our very first TVBEurope 3D TV Special, a 12-page section starting page 20, attempts to get that particular European ball rolling. And also this issue, our very first NAB 2009 Show Preview! Read about dozens of new products and upgrades planned by vendors for Las Vegas, from page 33.— Fergal Ringrose

Back in February 1989 there were many who thought that a rolling news channel originated in the United Kingdom had little chance of survival. Audiences for satellite television channels were sparse and the concept of 24 hours news was alien to the European market. However, the sceptics were proved wrong and Sky News celebrated two decades of broadcasting on February 5. “Sky News has established itself as an innovative force in the world of news broadcasting,” says associate editor Simon Bucks. “It now provides news to around 145 million people in 36 countries in Europe alone, with distribution across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.” He continues, “alongside being one of the leading 24 hour news channels, skynews.com is one of the fastest growing websites in Europe. Sky News is also available on mobile phones, on desktops, on UK rail platforms and Virgin Atlantic flights.” Of course, Sky News looks much different now from its appearance in 1989. In particular, the presentation has become more creative and adventurous. Gone is the previous ‘normal’ presenter at desk scenario covered by the traditional four cameras. Around four years ago, a new 750sqm studio and new room was launched

Sky News active: “Rolling news will reach out to all platforms. Just as important, it will be utilised on new platforms that don’t currently exist,” says Sky News Head of Technology Steve Bennedik

in which 12 Thomson cameras, including two mounted on cranes, can be found. To coincide with the twentieth anniversary, this innovative studio has been upgraded. “It is not unusual for sets for television

programmes to be changed every three years or so and we see our look as something to evolve constantly,” explains Simon Buglione, creative director at Sky News. Continued on page 3

India: +91 124 435 4107

sales.in@digital-rapids.com

TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LY S I S

Making High Def work CONTENTS HD Masters conference set for June 23-24

Step up to HD: Sony is encouraging DVCAM tape users to move to high definition with the launch of its DVCAM for HDV media. Combining the advantages of DVCAM tape with the quality of high definition, DVCAM tape for HDV offers the convenience of one familiar format for SD or HD shoots. DVCAM tape for HDV bridges the quality spectrum between DVCAM and Digital Master Tape. First time HD users can take advantage of 720p HD recording at a video bit rate of 19Mbps or 1080i HD recording at a video bit rate of 25Mbps. Improved RF output using Hyper Everticle IV (HPE IV) magnetic layer technology provides a high error rate margin for less dropouts and better picture stability.

www.sonybiz.net

Making the news look new Continued from page 1

“In addition, we wanted to make better use of the space with more connection to our newsroom, while updating the overall look to provide a cleaner, more modern feel.” This continued integration of studio and newsroom presented Buglione with the biggest challenge. “Creating a real working environment is very hard. Sky News operates a barrier-less newsroom so what you see in the background is actually what’s happening. This is far better than adding a controlled ‘fake’ background via screens or chromakey that is to be found elsewhere.’ He states that part of the Sky News brand is “production impact” and use of bold lighting and graphics, for example, is far less conservative than that of the competition. The upgraded studio incorporates mainly design changes – a process that took a year to plan, three months to build and a five-week on-set implementation. Buglione states that there are no significant new technology innovations as this part of the operation had a substantial overhaul in 2005 and the equipment installed at that time still stands up to scrutiny today. He continues, “We’ve taken the opportunity to improve the video newswall presentations used by presenters to expand on a story or to communicate with www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

By Fergal Ringrose SDTV/HDTV compatible; and just 1% HDTV only. There is a big gap between European broadcasters’ intentions for the future and the day-to-day reality of current operations. That gap is the continuing raison d’etre for the HD Masters conference. Maybe you are not planning for an HD build-out in 2009;

The HD Masters brand is synonymous with European high definition quality, innovation and technology. That’s not a marketing blurb, that’s the challenge we set when we sit down with SMPTE and the BKSTS each new year to construct the coming HD Masters conference programme. This year, our high definition conference will be held on June 23 and 24 in central London. HD Masters is the European event for excellence in high definition production, infrastructure and delivery to the home. We have introduced a new strapline this year, ‘Making High Definition Work’. This is designed to encapsulate our twin targets of (a) delivering content highlighting successful HD strategies, productions, technologies and businesses across Europe and beyond, and (b) clearly targeting those elements of the HD environment that have yet to be overcome and putting them to work for delegates and for their businesses.

We will be tackling issues such as 1080p/50, MPEG-4 AVC, HD DTT spectrum, multichannel audio, HD streaming and stereo 3D opportunities. Our case studies will solve problems involving reference displays, studio codecs, 5.1 audio, HD/IT workflows, and the never-ending problem of equipment interoperability.

The European Broadcasting Union surveyed its members in the first half of 2008 and asked them, ‘Are you planning to install new HD studios?’ The answers were Yes 89%, No 11%. The EBU also asked, ‘Of your studios how many are SDTV/HD compatible, how many SDTV only and how many HDTV only?’ The answers: 93% of all EBU broadcasters studios were SDTV only; 6%

that’s understandable. But if you are not actively planning for a fully HD produced, operated and delivered future then you are placing your future business in jeopardy. That’s why HD Masters exists, and it’s why we’ll be working hard to bring you the best-ever conference content line-up for June 23 and 24 2009.

correspondents and reporters out in the field.” The revamped studio allows directors to achieve far more variety with their camera shots — and throughout the day 360 degree views of the newsroom with a range of different presentation positions are available. Finally, it also provides a new home for the Jeff Randall Live and Sunrise with Eamonn Holmes programmes.

definition television and, significantly, HD online. Alongside the SD coverage on the regular Sky News channel, a high definition alternative was shown on Sky Arts HD. Bennedik is enthusiastic about the importance of the technology. “We wanted to capture the magic and scale of the event, including the speech and the massive anticipated audience around the globe for this historic occasion. And we did this by offering, for the first time, the highest quality pictures, both for those viewing in high definition on their televisions, but also for those watching Sky News’ live streaming online. Our aim was to produce pictures that were so good, that viewers would feel they were among the crowd.” To achieve this result, Sky News worked with various organisations to provide the broadcast video, and with Level 3 Communications to stream the event online. Bennedik goes on to report that one of the main challenges was the balance between relying on satellite and fibre delivery. “We wanted this to be experimental, to learn lessons in best practise. But we also needed to be absolutely sure we had a secure base for programming. In the end we worked with three providers, plus accessing the EBU HD pool feed.” This multi-faceted approach enabled Sky to cover various locations in Washington. “It was very complicated,” concedes Bennedik. “The diagram drawn up to show the locations, paths from Washington and New York into MCR, how they were rout-

ed and treated, and where they ended up, was a work of art!” He admits that HD streaming was something of a gamble because of uncertainty of user experience. “I’d seen a presentation of how it was used at the Democratic National Convention and it looked terrific.” But Bennedik need not have worried – the streaming proved a resounding success. “The pictures were beautiful and it was well received by reviewers and the TV technical forums. I think this is the way forward, but obviously it could be expensive. I am sure the big boys like Microsoft have got their eyes on this developing technology, and if they can offer quick and easy access without complicated download, digital rights management, and at cheap costs, then I think it’s got a great future. Maybe it will attract premium advertising because people will stay with it longer. That’s unproven territory.” So with that success behind him, what does Bennedik see as the challenges ahead? “There will be more competition, with greater expectations from within and outside the industry. There will be more platforms to feed and supervise. One challenge is constant: making sure we are first, and making sure we are accurate.” In light of the far-reaching changes over the last 20 years, he is reluctant to forecast what will be happening in 2029. “Anyone who says they can tell you what rolling news will be like in 20 years is deluded. The pace of change is so fast, predicting five years ahead is difficult enough.”

Making the most of technology Although new equipment does not form part of the upgraded studio, Sky News is still pushing forward in the area of technical innovation in other parts of the operation. “On the broadcast front, we are preparing for a tapeless, high definition and possibly 3D world,” maintains Steve Bennedik, head of Technology at Sky News. “This is an environment where broadband delivery becomes more prevalent and in which rolling news will reach out to all platforms. Just as important, it will be utilised on new platforms that don’t currently exist.” Bennedik believes that the advent of more powerful, sophisticated devices in people’s homes and offices will allow broadcasters to stream content to a variety of screens. “People will invite rolling news into their social networking experience, and personalise this news to form a blend of shared information and comment.” As part of that multi-platform concept, Sky News provided coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama in both high

1-8 News & Analysis 6 The IT workflow File-based operation will be driver for TVBEurope through 2009 writes Fergal Ringrose

8 DVB not enough Heather McLean pulls no punches on the mobile TV outlook in her Mobile World Congress review

10-18 The Workflow 10 NOS production

www.hdmastersevent.com

Ferry Kesselaar, NOS, tells us of a system overhaul to give journalists access to stored media

12 User-friendly HD Videe’s new Unit 10 can really be described as state of the HD OB art, reports Mike Clark

18 High expectations German facilities provider Nobeo has commissioned its first truck. Philip Stevens takes a look

20-31 3D TV Special 20 20 3D to the home Some experts are predicting a home rollout within five years. Is that correct? Nicola Brittain finds out

24 3D last chance? Is the movie industry producing enough stereo 3D to satisfy demand? Colin Birch asks the questions

26 3D masterclass A scientific approach to providing the home market with a good technical 3D base. George Jarrett reports

33-44 NAB Preview Our first look at the many products and upgrades that will be launched by exhibitors at NAB 2009

45-46 The Business Case 45 A new deck Guest Opinion: Mark Ostlund tells us where to store content so that it can be easily retrieved

46 Business on air Vendors and broadcasters still don’t understand the station in a box concept. Dick Hobbs explains all

TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S

Remotely suitable from Panasonic 10-bit 4:2:2 camcorder claimed as ‘world first’ Panasonic has introduced what it claims is the first “affordable” 10-bit, 4:2:2 camcorder. The new AG-HPX301E costs €9,500 (£8,500) list and can record high definition using the AVC-Intra codec at 50 or 100Mbps, as well as DVCPRO HD (plus 50 or 25Mbps SD). “It’s a quantum leap forward for Panasonic,” becoming the first of its broadcast cameras to use MOS sensors (three), said UK Marketing Manager Marc Irwin at the BVE show. The rest of its range uses CCDs. It is a multi-format and multi-region, “use anywhere for anything camera,” he added. Independent filmmakers will be able to shoot at 1080/24p or 25p and can fit 35mm primes via an

adaptor, while broadcasters get “a camera that shoots HD D5 quality for under €10k.” He believes that the street price could be as little as £7,000 including colour viewfinder, 17x HD Fujinon lens and body. Factoring in the cost of ownership and its five-year warranty, he claimed “it’s an amazing package,” and that the quality of the pictures matches anything within 10-15k. With two 64GB P2 cards it can record continuously for at least 2.5 hours. Some broadcasters say that 1/3-inch sensors are not good enough for use on HD productions, but Irwin maintains that “the pictures will tell you” and that they will stand comparison

People on the move Jet Omoshebi has joined Ascent 142’s creative team to work on drama and feature output. Omoshebi joins from Pepper Post where she was senior colourist. Her recent credits include work on BBC dramas Cranford and Life on Mars. Prior to Pepper Post, Omoshebi worked as a colourist at the Moving Picture Company, Complete Video, SVC Television and Digital Film Lab. In addition to Omoshebi, Dan Chuter is also moving from Pepper to the Ascent Group as marketing manager answering to Sally Reid, VP Marketing & PR. The Associated Press has named Henrik Eklund as director of Digital Partnerships and Distribution for EMEA, based in Stockholm. Eklund is a former CEO at Kamera, a leading mobile and online distributor.

Catching an Antelope Continued from page 1

already has a HD video out which provides all TV and film formats, and the purpose of the conversion is to allow the people in the OB truck to receive this signal. That’s why we need those HD videoFibre-HD video converters. “The operator also needs to control the camera, which is done through a proprietary protocol that we encapsulate in an Ethernet protocol sent over the fibre thanks to other HQ embedded converters. We also use conversion for audio — we have up to eight channels — and PAL video return. We have also developed our own software app which is way more flexible for live 4

Jet Omoshebi, Ascent 142

On April 1 Jan Eveleens will join Axon Digital Design as CEO. He joins from Grass Valley Nederland where he served for seven years as general manager TV as well as capable of changing major settings deep inside the camera,” says Marggraff. Perhaps even more crucially than that, the company has come up with an algorithm that eliminates the vexed problem of flicker in realtime. “Antelope records so many frames per second and so many details that everything becomes visible, including sometimes what we don’t want to see, flickering for example,” explains Marggraff. “Our deflickering solution analyses each field and corrects the differences of each individual field in realtime. It makes it the only high-speed camera on the market that is capable of eliminating flicker, and helps us work under lower light conditions with still some good quality. We have done productions under low light conditions as 600 Lux.” Add in a mechanical and optical adaptor that enables the unit

By David Fox

with video from 1/2-inch sensors. “There is not a significant amount of difference.” He doesn’t envisage a smaller version of the 301 in the near future. The HPX171 covers that area, but it doesn’t shoot AVC-I because current AVC-I encoder boards take up too much space, which will have to wait for the development of smaller, integrated chips. However, the 5.9kg shouldermounted 301 is compact compared to Panasonic’s HPX2100 or its VariCams. The HPX301E can also be used as a studio camera. It is equipped with a remote control terminal for use with an optional remote control unit and some studio remote control systems. Power consumption is 18 Watts.

Lawo goes skiing: OB company ACE Prague has specified a Lawo mc256 console for its newest OB vehicle, which debuted recently at the Nordic Skiing World Championships. The new truck, ACE 06, is the company’s first HD vehicle, joining a fleet of seven OB trucks which cover a variety of projects from large sports and entertainment events to smaller indoor sporting competitions. Although it has a selection of digital audio consoles in the fleet, this is the first time that ACE Prague has chosen the mc256 . In a further stage of equipping, ACE Prague is likely to add full VST plug-in integration with Dolby E, enabling storage of plug-in parameters in snapshots and productions.

www.panasonic-broadcast.com

www.lawo.de

Image Capture Systems. Before that Eveleens was General Manager at various Philips divisions and he holds a degree in computer science from the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands. Clear-Com Communication Systems has announced the appointment of Ahmed Magd Eldin as regional sales manager for the Middle East, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. Rainer Lorger has been appointed to the newly created position of general manager Sales & Marketing at DEV Systemtechnik. Until now these tasks have been handled by DEV General Manager Joerg Schmidt. Front Porch Digital has recruited Nick Lim as regional sales manager for the Middle East. He will report to Rino Petricola, senior vice president, Front Porch Digital. Litepanels, a Vitec Group Company, has welcomed Barry Rubin as its new director of Worldwide Sales.

Rubin brings with him 30 years of experience in the industry at Ikegami, Philips Broadcast, IDX and Schneider Optics. Norbert Hölzle has been appointed CEO at ND SatCom. The new chief executive takes over from Padraig McCarthy who served as an interim CEO since September 2008 and will

continue as SES ASTRA CFO. Test and measurement manufacturer OmniTek has strengthened its team by hiring industry veteran Dave Bourton as production manager, responsible for all aspects of customer fulfilment. Joining VFX developer The Foundry are Michael Bailey in the role of director of sales worldwide; Schel Kuehnert, who becomes the new director of sales for the Americas; and Tom Cowland, who takes on a customer-facing role as plug-ins product manager. At Vinten Radamec Alan Jones has been appointed commercial projects manager to lead the Robotics Customer Services and Support teams. Graham Jarrett is the new Robotics NPD (New Product Development) programme manager. And leading the team is Alan Platt, Head of Robotics, who will drive a challenging business plan to increase market share with new products.

to use standard broadcast lenses, not to mention broadcast and film specific models, and you have an impressively powerful unit that has not only provided images for numerous commercial spots but covered live sports as diverse as boxing and billiards. A recent outing was at the World Handball Championships in Croatia in January. Handball

and football productions tend to use the camera at around 750fps, mainly due to the constraints of fitting in replays during limited pauses in the live action. For a sport such as ski-jumping they’ll boost that up to 1,000fps, and golf — thanks in part to taking place in normally excellent light conditions — will go all the way up to 1,500fps.

Intra spective: Marc Irwin with the new Panasonic HPX301

Henrik Eklund, Associated Press

Handball and football productions tend to use the camera at around 750fps, mainly due to the constraints of fitting in replays during limited pauses in the live action might not have the same high profile as ball games played with other parts of the body, but it’s a fast, furious and dramatic sport that’s perfect for the type of slo-mo shots the Antelope can provide. According to Marggraff, handball

LMC had four mobile HD production trucks supporting four Antelopes at the championships, one to cover each court, piping their feeds into the Alfacam-supplied OB fleet (though, of course, when there is

space they can be rigged like any camera channel direct into a truck). “We were using Canon J86x and 100x lenses and the cameras were connected via fibre and recorded the clips in native 1080i, which was the official format for the WC,” explains Marggraff. “The replays went straight to air, as well into the EVS network which was used by various major national TV broadcasters. SportFive as host broadcaster also decided to use the live pictures off the camera.” The Antelope features 16 or 32GB of onboard RAM, and the images can either be played directly out of this or piped via an EVS XT network. “We normally supply the slo-motion as an HD video signal,” says Marggraff, “but sometimes the client requires AVI Files or RAW TIFFs. Anything is possible as everything is native.” www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

The new DeckLink Studio has SD/HD-SDI, loads of analog connections, down converter and more for only €545! Turbocharge your creativity with DeckLink Studio, the SD/HD broadcast video card that costs hundreds of dollars less than SD solutions! With SD/HD-SDI and enhanced analog connections, DeckLink Studio connects to a massive range of equipment such as HDCAM, HD-D5, Digital Betacam, Betacam SP and more! More Video Connections! DeckLink Studio includes 10 bit SD/HDSDI, component, composite, S-Video, 4 ch balanced analog audio, 2 ch AES/ EBU, reference, RS-422 deck control and a built in hardware down converter. High speed 1 lane PCI Express gives you more HD real time effects and supports advanced video formats such as ProRes(Mac), DVCPro HD, JPEG, DV, HDV playback and even 10 bit uncompressed capture and playback!

Built in SD Keyer DeckLink Studio includes a built in internal SD keyer that lets you layer RGBA images over the live video input. You can also use the included Photoshop plug-ins for broadcast graphics! DeckLink Studio also supports external SD keying with key and ﬁll SDI out. Windows™ or Mac OS X™ DeckLink Studio is fully compatible with Apple Final Cut Pro™, Adobe Premiere Pro™, Adobe After Effects™, Adobe Photoshop™, Fusion™ and any DirectShow™ or QuickTime™ based software. DeckLink Studio instantly switches between, 1080HD, 720HD, NTSC and PAL for full worldwide compatibility.

Hardware Down Conversion For monitoring, you’ll love the built in HD down converter that’s always active on the SD-SDI, S-Video and composite video output connections. The built in hardware down converter lets all video outputs remain active in both capture and playback mode, and in all HD video formats! Instantly switch between letterbox, anamorphic 16:9 and center cut 4:3 down conversion styles.

Decklink Studio

€545

Learn more today at www.blackmagic-design.com

TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S

TVBEUROPE

Europe’s television technology business magazine

EDITORIAL Editor Fergal Ringrose tvbeurope@mediateam.ie Media House, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland +3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799 Editorial Consultant George Jarrett Associate Editor David Fox United States Correspondent Ken Kerschbaumer Contributors Mike Clark, David Davies, Richard Dean, Chris Forrester, Carolyn Giardina, Jonathan Higgins, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, Farah Jifri, Ken Kerschbaumer, Heather McLean, Bob Pank, Adrian Pennington, Nick Radlo, Neal Romanek, Philip Stevens, Andy Stout, Reinhard E Wagner Digital Content Manager Tim Frost Publisher Joe Hosken

ART & PRODUCTION Production Editor Dawn Boultwood Production Executive Phil Taylor

SALES Group Sales Manager Steve Grice steve.grice@ubm.com +44 (0)20 7921 8307 UBM Ltd, Ludgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UR Business Development Manager Alex Hall alex.hall@ubm.com +44 (0)20 7921 8305

US SALES Michael Mitchell Broadcast Media International, PO Box 44, Greenlawn, New York, NY 11740 mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv +1 (631) 673 3199 Fax: +1 (631) 673 0072

JAPAN AND KOREA SALES Sho Harihara Sales & Project, Yukari Media Incorporated sho@yukarimedia.com +81 6 4790 2222 Fax: +81 6 4793 0800

CIRCULATION UBM Information Ltd, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 9EF, UK Free subscriptions www.subscription.co.uk/cc/tvbe/mag1 Controlled circulation +44 (0)1858 435361 Fax for all journals +44 (0)1858 434958 Printing by Headley Brothers, The Invicta Press, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH

© United Busienss Media Ltd 2009. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. TVB Europe is mailed to qualified persons residing on the European continent. Subscription rates £64/€96/$120. Allow 8 weeks for new subscriptions and change of address delivery. Send subscription inquiries to: Subscription Dept, United Business Media Ltd, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 7BR, England. ISSN 1461-4197

What’s so special about the TV broadcasting process?

The IT broadcast workflow By Fergal Ringrose The central theme running right through the heart of the Broadcast Video Expo in London last month and also the IABM vendor conference back in December – unbeknownst, perhaps, to both organisers and attendees at both events – was the file-based broadcasting challenge. Whether planned or unplanned, it seemed like every meeting at BVE ended up discussing issues concerning tapeless operation, whether in content creation, storage, playout, repurposing, infrastructure, transport or delivery. These discussion topics are being created by the marriage of the IT industry and the live broadcast process. Among the vendors present at the IABM event, some saw it as a no-brainer that not only would television broadcast processing move from being a proprietary video-centric environment to a fully IT-based environment, but that broadcast processing would actually become a subset of the IT business. And a rather small subset at that. Apple’s The NAB Las Vegas learning experience: Do we really need to European Business Development Manager ‘learn again from zero’ in transitioning to the IT broadcast workflow? Dave Cockle told us “the IT business continues to spend in excess of $25 billion on R&D per annum; that’s about “In the broadcast industry we’re all proud of our know-how,” the value of the entire broadcasting industry – the whole thing, Rey added. “We’re at the top of the [technology] pyramid. Users soup to nuts.” have great difficulty in accepting that they need to learn again We all know IT-based operation is more reliable, cheaper and from zero. It forces everyone to be humble – and that’s not easy!” flexible than dedicated broadcast hardware. And given that the Wow. Do we really need to ‘learn again from zero’ in transiworld of digital content is going IP, network and file-based, why tioning to the IT broadcast workflow? How do we marry broadwould you want to prepare material in any other way? cast and IT worlds under software control enabling an advanced In general, the vendor community wants this IT shift to hap- media workflow that drives new business models? How do we take pen. They really don’t want to continue to make “hand-made advantage of file-based operation by making it interoperable and chocolates” for each and every customer, as Avid Consulting’s integrated? How do we digitise workflows whilst reducing operaBusiness Director Michele Romaine so vividly described broadcast tional expense? How do we remove cost from the mechanics of project fulfillment. Even if the realtime nature of television pro- producing and delivering television? cessing puts unique pressure on operating systems, vendors don’t These are the big questions that will drive our industry coverage want to have to customise every facility and every installation. through NAB 2009; into our May TVBEurope issue featuring ‘IT Workflow Special’ and Media Asset Management; through the and our partnership with the IBC; and on towards the “The IT business continues to spend in excess of summer industry events we are planning for autumn/winter 2009.

$25 billion on R&D per annum; that’s about the value of the entire broadcasting industry — the whole thing, soup to nuts” — Dave Cockle, Apple

OmniBus CTO Ian Fletcher said “as a vendor, you’ve got to build a product and not a project. The customer’s first action should not be to try to change it. We want to sell products and not projects. This is where we can learn from the IT industry, who can provide complex projects on open-standard platforms.” MAC Consulting’s Ted Taylor (a former ITN technology director) said, “You can’t do everything in broadcasting on a PC. I’m sorry guys, you can’t! You need to have a marriage. It’s horses for courses. “And I don’t think there’s a typical broadcaster any more,” said Taylor. “If you introduce IT technology to the live areas like news and sports, there will be headaches. It is changing now, with dual power and ruggedised construction, but in the past IT equipment just wasn’t built to those kinds of tolerances.” And EVS General Sales Manager Henri Alexander said, “the marriage exists already – they’re not separate disciplines any more. The most difficult thing is to transfer the broadcast skills to the IT guys. For us the broadcast skills are the most important.” A huge part of the IT broadcast workflow challenge is this seeming culture clash between IT-trained people and ‘traditional’ broadcast operational and engineering people. Jaume Rey, director of the Professional & Broadcast IT Systems Business Unit for Panasonic told the IABM event, “If you want to go ‘TV by IT’, the business model and the workflow changes. No-one doubts the solution exists; but the most challenging part is changing the mindset of the people. “We should know; we’ve been trying to change the mindset for years! For the last four years we have hired only IT people. But if you actually put them in charge, at the first u-turn they will crash the car. They don’t know where they are coming from. Why are broadcast and IT different? Us and them: it’s not right or wrong, just different.

Best wishes to Grass Valley On an entirely separate note, everyone in the broadcasting community is aware that Thomson recently announced its intention to sell the Grass Valley business. Subsequent to that announcement, Grass Valley Business Division Senior VP Jeff Rosica sent out an explanatory briefing note to the trade press. In it Rosica said “over the past few months, Thomson has taken the opportunity to regroup all of the related businesses – including content production, facility infrastructure, network distribution, and transmission related product areas – under the Grass Valley brand, and a single, proven leadership team. Grass Valley is a solid business with exciting opportunities for the future. “Specific to Grass Valley,” Rosica wrote, “we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. No other major company in the history of the broadcast television industry has continuously held leading market positions for several decades, let alone remained committed to serve the industry for 50 years…This is an unmatched achievement, and such business continuity and longevity in the market wouldn’t be possible without the standard setting technology, innovative products and solutions, as well as the tireless passion and commitment that everyone at Grass Valley holds for the business and our customers.” It is always a shock to find your business division up for sale, for whatever reason. In the current economic climate it’s a double whammy; an undoubtedly worrying time for everyone connected to the Grass Valley group. But in that regard it was heartening to see a release on March 5 announcing that Fox ‘has placed a multimillion dollar contract with Grass Valley for a massive, high definition K2 Media Server installation as part of continued enhancements to its file-based, HD network distribution infrastructure’. Clearly Fox has continuing confidence in the GV brand; and I don’t believe there is anyone in the broadcast technology business worldwide – even their close competitors – who would not offer the Grass Valley folks best wishes in their current efforts to transition, survive and thrive in the future under a new ownership. www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

Access the Middle East. Create business. Create return. twofour54 is the region’s premier centre for content creation. Based in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital, twofour54 provides an integrated, state-of-the-art environment that enables organisations to create quality content across a number of platforms, including film, broadcast, digital, gaming, publishing and music. twofour54 tadreeb Offering over 200 media industry courses helping your people to deliver success for your business.

twofour54 ibtikar Media industry funding and support for new businesses and individuals with creative ideas and passion for success.

twofour54 intaj Providing state-of-the-art studios, equipment and experienced technical support for your film and TV production needs.

twofour54 tawasol Delivering integrated solutions to effortlessly setup your business in twofour54.

Now working in partnership with some of the world’s major content creation companies,

twofour54 is open for business. Find us. Join us. Create with us. t. +9712 401 2454 twofour54.com

TVBEU R O PE N E W S & A N A LYS I S

Heather McLean reports from last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

DVB-H is “not enough” for mobile Show Analysis Mobile TV was not a central theme at this year’s Mobile World Congress. After several years in the spotlight, slow rollout of the technology, a continuing lack of an obvious business case, plus current market conditions that are putting paid to expensive rollouts, have moved the focus elsewhere. Yet all is not lost for mobile TV. It is hovering in the background and was still an interesting topic of conversation in Barcelona, after more recession-busting areas such as social networking, open source platforms, app stores, convergence of mobile and fixed line, femtocells and smartphone wars had been discussed. On where mobile TV is going, Neville Meijers, senior vice president and general manager at Qualcomm MediaFLO Technologies, commented that no single mobile content delivery mechanism can satisfy the needs of all consumers, therefore a unified content discovery experience, drawing upon the advantages of streamed, downloaded, sideloaded and broadcast content, will heavily influence the next wave in mobile TV services. He added that 3G streaming video services already provide content variety and allow the user to consume user-specified content when convenient, while downloaded and side-loaded content serves the user need to view

A mobile world: “DVB-H isn’t really matching user behaviour,” said Harmonic’s Thierry Fautier

favourite programs when a network is not available. He added: “Broadcast mobile TV services provide instant gratification for mass market programming for broad consumer populations, including live events like the Olympics and the Super Bowl, as well as breaking news. An immer-

sive mobile TV service which combines different delivery systems would allow consumers to watch high quality broadcast mobile TV, while simultaneously using interactive applications for voting, rating and chatting about the content. Furthermore, by profiling users, content can be recommended to

the viewer, an approach used successfully by companies such as Amazon and Netflix. Continuing, Meijers said: “Central to creating valuable delivery methods is recognising that consumers not only want their content platforms to be invisible, but also personalised and customisable. People want to be able to access mobile TV content instantly and seamlessly, with live broadcasts, videos, and interactive chat all in one place.” Professor David Crawford, spokesperson for MediaFLO, said the standard’s recent acceptance by ETSI and the resultant air interface specification has given MediaFLO credibility in Europe. MediaFLO can no longer be seen as just a US-based standard now that ETSI is behind it, he said. “This gives MediaFLO a place on the European stage,” claimed Crawford. “It has credibility as a European standard now, and puts the standard on a level playing field with DVB-H.” He continued: “It will be interesting to see whether we end up with multiple mobile TV standards in Europe. DVB-H has the advantage of being established but there’s always a problem in coming first, in that someone will come along with something better as you become the one to beat, and now DVB-SH and FLO have come along. Yet there is room for all these standards to exist together.” However, some companies have gone the opposite way, claiming

that there is no need for DVB-H or MediaFLO-based systems at all. Thierry Fautier, director for telco solutions at Harmonic, said: “We are convinced we need to change the way we deliver video content to the end user. Catch up TV is the way forward. Users can have all their TV shows, time shifted, ready to view on their mobile phone; there’s no need for DVB-H or MediaFLO. “Operators will eventually be able to monetise mobile TV over existing networks using HSPA on 3G,” continued Fautier. “DVB-H is dying by itself, not because of regulation, but because services run on it are not attractive for the end user; it’s not enough. “DVB-H has a lot of challenges, and it isn’t really matching user behaviour. People are used to video-on-demand. The end user on a mobile phone wants to watch TV when they want to; scheduled TV is a 1970’s concept.” Fautier stated that true scalability for his company’s concept of mobile TV services will not become truly scalable until 4G networks are readily available, but that it will fill the pipes for operators and will therefore monetise the networks. “You can’t monetise a network without traffic. If operators don’t do this, end users will just go to content providers’ and broadcasters’ websites, and bypass the operator that will just become the dumb pipe. Companies can continue to look at DVB-H if they want to, but there are other easy ways to do mobile TV,” he summed up.

EVS makes play for studio By David Fox Sports replay specialist EVS has spread out from live action to near-live and pre-recorded studio production with its new XS production server and Insio multicam ingest software, launched at the BVE show. It already has customers, such as one Spanish broadcaster, using its existing XT2 servers to produce a soap opera, and decided to launch this new Silverline range to make it quicker and simpler to use for studio productions,such as game shows, political debates, talk shows, or series drama. “Silverline is dedicated entirely to studio applications. Our Blueline [including the XT2 server and LSM software] is mainly for live productions,” explained Sebastien Verlaine, marketing manager. “We started to realise that our servers and our technology could be used in studio applications, 8

Silver service: EVS’ new Insio touch screen interface

and from there we saw that certain requirements were a little bit different than live production. Therefore we adapted our technology for these needs, for fast turnaround between shooting and editing. “We wanted to be able to improve the production work-

flows in studio environments, and have a perfect integration with post production tools from Avid and Apple. These needs are a bit different from sports broadcasting,” he said. “Insio is a very user friendly tool,” using a touch screen (something EVS hasn’t offered before), with such features as an on-screen jog wheel for reviewing scenes, and automatic transfer to post. The XS is a 4-channel server optimised for recording multiple audio and video feeds, with instant control and multi-channel playback. It supports multiple SD or HD codecs with native support, such as IMX, Avid DNxHD and Apple ProRes 422, for faster and easier media exchange with post production. Integration of Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD codec is planned for later this year.

The pride of Wales: Outside broadcast company Omni Television recently turned to broadcast solution specialists Gearhouse Broadcast to kit out its new high definition unit. The broadcast package included 12 Sony HDC 1500 camera channels, a Sony MVS 8000 SD/HD vision mixer, a mixture of JVC, Genelec and Vutrix quad split monitors, BEL delay units, a Pro-Bel matrix package consisting of Sirius, Aurora, Cygnus and Morpheus equipment and an audio package comprising Sennheiser MKH-416s and MKH-70s condenser mics, Coles commentator lip mics and Wohler audio kits. The new Omni truck works on Heineken Cup Rugby, EDF Cup Rugby and international rugby. It will be used on the Welsh Snooker Open, BBC Music’s Singer of the World in May and the Nickelodeon Choice Awards in September.

www.evs.tv

www.gearhousebroadcast.com www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

NEED TO MOVE VIDEO AND AUDIO SIGNALS AROUND OR BETWEEN FACILITIES? AROUND THE WORLD? HARRIS HAS YOU COVERED. NetVX™ Video and Data Networking

Solution Highlights

Move media anywhere faster. With H.264 encoding coupled with distributed statmux capability, NetVX™ easily handles the most intense bandwidth challenges.

• H.264 HD/SD audio and video encoding

6800+™ Modular Platform

• JPEG 2000 video encoding

A cost-effective video networking solution built on the industry’s most comprehensive and versatile modular platform.

• Statistical multiplexing

OPTO+™ Fibre Optics

• Fully SFN capable and proven, over ATM and IP

Compact, cost-effective ﬁbre solutions for moving uncompressed video, audio and control signals in, around and outside of your facility.

• Transport video and data services over the same links

An efﬁcient video networking solution doesn’t have to be complicated. Your simplest and smartest connections begin with Harris.

• MPEG-2 HD/SD encoding and decoding

• Networking (IP, ATM, DS3/E3, OC-3/STM-1)

• HD/SD uncompressed transport • CWDM multiplexing for ﬁbre density

To learn more, visit www.broadcast.harris.com/networking Europe +44 118 964 8200 Sales.Europe@Harris.com

UK, Israel, Africa +44 118 964 8200 Sales.Europe@Harris.com

Southern Europe +33 1 42 87 09 09 Sales.Europe@Harris.com

North, Central, Eastern Europe +49 89 149 049 0 Sales.Europe@Harris.com

Middle East +961 322 2054 Sales.MiddleEast@Harris.com

Harris is the ONE company delivering interoperable workﬂow solutions across the entire broadcast delivery chain with a single, integrated approach. Business Operations • Media Management • Newsrooms & Editing • Core Processing • Channel Release • MEDIA TRANSPORT • Transmission

assuredcommunications ®

www.harris.com

Broadcast Communications • RF Communications • Government Communications Systems • Harris Stratex Networks

TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W

NOS sports production workflow Overhaul of journalist access to stored media

By Ferry Kesselaar

Asset Management Sports production is an area where there is a constant search for improved presentation, much of which revolves around the packaging of non-live material to provide context for the live action. Ready access to stored material and efficient handling of logging, searches, browsing, selection and retrieval are key requirements for a modern sports production system: with them in place, producers and journalists have the tools to create lively and informative coverage that can establish their channel as the one to watch. NOS (The Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation) set out in 2005 to create a state-ofthe-art facility for its news and sports operations as part of the CyberNOS project. Important project aims included the preparation for HD broadcasting, and the project involved the creation of three new studios equipped for SD broadcasting. After a successful roll out of the news operation at NOS, the system is currently in a final testing phase for NOS Sports prior to full implementation in the coming months. Under the umbrella of an OmniBus system, other CyberNOS components include a central media management area where all incoming feeds are ingested simultaneously to Avid, Profile and IPV

this might trigger the sending of a task to the ingest room to ingest some new clips or to the graphics room for the graphics work: but all these sub-tasks are held together under the one master task.

Automated workflows

CyberNOS central media management area where all incoming feeds are ingested simultaneously to Avid, Profile and IPV WM9 browse

WM9 browse. The use of devices is dynamically allocated with up to 24 simultaneous lines being recorded at any time. Feed recordings are scheduled for recurring sports feeds or can be triggered manually by the media operators. The large staff numbers at NOS meant we needed to provide widespread access to the stored media and give journalists the ability to create as much of each project as possible without having to call on specialised services such as archive operators and edit suites. To achieve this, we installed OmniBus G3 desktop software on each of our 300 iNews stations, and this provides embedded workflow functionality from within the iNews environment so that journalists can

browse the entire collection of material on the servers and in the archive and access task information content. There are an additional 25 OmniBus G3 desktops dedicated to fulltime use by archivists, ingest operators and sports loggers. There is a significant amount of custom designed task-driven workflow on the system to facilitate the most efficient use of resources. Typically at the start of the day a producer or journalist might decide to make a package and that starts the process at the journalist’s desktop within the Avid iNews environment. Placeholder clips can be created in the system and any associated tasks will be linked with them: depending on the type of project,

As part of the process journalists or producers at the iNews desktops can be automatically assigned tasks for making shot selection edits using content being ingested during the course of the day or from the DIVA archive. After selecting the material they want and marking edit points, the saved shotlist is passed through for Avid editing. The system automates the partial restore to get the required material out of the archive and move it to Avid and the project arrives for editing with all the shot selections that were created on the journalist’s desktop. After editing, the comple-

ted package is published to the playout server ready for broadcast under control of the OmniBus studio automation system. Workflows manage the rulebased automatic archiving, either directly into the Front Porch DIVA system or, if necessary, putting clips into a task list for an archivist to process (for example by adding metadata). Archivists working at the dedicated stations can use the extended metadata functionality to add to the standard metadata for clips as well as logging data for sports events, either live or on the browse copy. The logged shots are then put through very quickly to the Avid editors. The high degree of automation the system creates in these taskbased workflows means that additional services will not add to the administrative overhead. The 24/7 online news and sports service is a

After a successful roll out of the news operation, the system is in a final testing phase for NOS Sports prior to full implementation in coming months

case in point. We have built automated workflows to export clips to the online system, and we also export files to the Netherlands national archive – this is a statutory requirement – for long-term storage. This is a two-way process, since it may be necessary to re-import from the archive, so we have created workflows to support this too. The system also allows us to export files for use by NOS radio. The end-to-end workflows central to the CyberNOS system will allow any journalist to browse and select content from anywhere on the system with powerful search tools that give them instant access to metadata and very quick access to browse files: this means we can accelerate the creation of packages for sports coverage very substantially. By bringing together all our production departments under one system we also benefit from completely open access: a news journalist can make use of archived sports material, and vice versa – something that was previously very difficult while each department had its own separate tape-based archive. Ferry Kesselaar is technical manager at NOS The Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation 10

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W

Videe’s new Unit 10 can really be described as state of the OB art

User-friendly high definition Videe, a broadcast and production facility company based in the north-eastern Italian city of Pordenone and with branches in Venice, Palermo, Bologna, Milan and Madrid, recently launched Unit 10, a new state-of-the-art HD OB truck. The 12m vehicle’s cutting edge technology includes a Miranda Kaleido-X multi-image display system, a Lawo mc2 66 digital audio console, up to 16 Sony HD1500 cameras, Riedel digital intercom, Dolby E and Pro Logic II and more. Mike Clark reports Bruno Mercuri, partner, president and sales manager of the company that he founded 20 years ago, explains the reasoning behind the ambitious Unit 10 move in a period in which a lot of companies are tightening their belts and purse-strings. “Our company is now part of the large Mediacontech group and in recent years our policy has been to offer high-profile all-round market coverage. For example, as well as designing and building our own OB and satellite production vans, we also build them for third parties, as well as assembling flight-cased systems for coverage of reality shows by Italian broadcasters in various parts of the world. Our decision to build the new HD truck – which targets the foreign market — was based on requests for F1, classical concerts and soccer coverage, the last of which we cover for Sky, using the truck’s Dolby facilities.” Apart from the stylish décor, the first thing that catches the eye on boarding is the main production area’s monitor wall, with its eight 46-inch HD-LCD Clarity screens (two more are in camera control and another in the audio

“The system includes all the UMD services, tally management, graphics, timing of all kinds, etc. It enables you to tailor screen layout exactly as required,” says Luigi Nespolo

area). The truck’s multi-image display system can present 96 video inputs across the screens (camera, satellite and external OB vehicle feeds, VTRs, AVS recordings, etc) and the firm’s in-house designer Luigi Nespolo explains, “The system, chosen after tests carried out with our technicians, greatly facilitates operators’ work, as it includes all the UMD services, tally management, graphics, timing of all kinds, etc. Since 4:3 and 16:9 productions still have to live together, it’s the perfect solution for handling both and optimising the display area, as it enables you to tailor screen layout exactly as required. “From an economic point of view too, all the additional equipment necessary if we’d used a

CRT system would have meant the same financial outlay, if not higher. Miranda’s Kaleido-X convinced us because it didn’t limit us as far as availability of outputs was concerned. Thanks to a plugin card, we connected the two onboard systems and use them as one – in fact at the moment, we’re using twelve outputs.” An equally interesting aspect of the unit is however absolutely invisible, as Videe decided to use fibre optics to transport everything: video, audio, control and even power. The Lawo console enables mic preamps inside the venues being covered to be remote controlled via MADI. Four remote Lawo frame racks available for connection to the truck are fitted with

HD/SD-SDI router, with the same modus operandi as the audio setup, with a frame rack with video cards, embedder, de-embedder and everything else. If we’d opted for dedicated audio cables, in the event of a cable problem, they would have been hard to replace, but this set-up ensures we always have spares and – if the worst comes to the worst — a normal Lemo camera cable can be borrowed from another broadcaster. “The advantage of this system is that we power the frame racks with a supply fed directly from our UPS, thus avoiding a reliance on on-site power, risks of voltage problems, etc. – one example that comes to mind is for coverage of alpine ski contests, where a power supply on the slopes isn’t easy to find.” The use of multi-view display is also a strong point, as it enables customisation not only according to the type of production, but also according to directors’ requirements, even moving the Sony MVS-8000G production switcher control panel — mounted on runners under the desk –- horizontally, to suit those preferring to sit in the centre rather than to the right. The blank desk panel enabling this can also be replaced by another equipped with an external 32 crosspoint M/E module with

“In the past, a complete EVS unit was sometimes ‘wasted’ on highlights work; but EVS has come up with IP Director which is a very interesting feature” — Luigi Nespolo cards for Riedel Artist intercom, thus enabling each remote rack to have not only analogue and digital inputs and outputs, but also four intelligent intercom panels. Nespolo continues, “We decided to transport power via fibre too, using a standard camera cable. All our Sony HDC 1500 cameras use cables with Lemo connectors, so our OB van can also use them to connect the Lawo remote racks and for video signal transport. We use Harris’ Platinum 128x128

relative transition module for directors who prefer to share the work with another operator alongside, or even to do a personalised version of the production. Utmost flexibility and userfriendliness is also found in the slomo area, where great care was taken with the ergonomics, as Nespolo worked in the past as a replay op. “I was aware of the problems involved, such as having the images too far Continued on page 14

THIS IS OUR NEW MODEL With our selection of new modules you can keep your options open, knowing your test and measurement equipment has a future proof upgrade path from Analogue, through SD, HD to 3Gbps... knowing your investment has been well placed.

TEST, MEASUREMENT, MONITORING AND SOFTWARE BASED QUALITY CONTROL INSTRUMENTS!

• • • • • • • •

MULTI-AWARD-WINNING go to: ourawards.tv 3Gbps, HD, SD Composite, Embedded audio, AES/EBU.... MODULAR FlexiScope Options go to: flexiscope.tv • EYE pattern with measurement and monitoring. See Hamlet at NAB • Test signal generator with measurement and monitoring. 20-23 April 2009 on Booth N1312 • Measurement and monitoring. HAND-HELD PORTABLE go to: microflex.tv RACK-MOUNT go to: digiscope.tv or monitorscope.tv STAND-ALONE go to: monitorscope.tv SOFTWARE with PSE* Filters go to: vidscope.tv or reel-check.tv 3Gbps, HD, SD HAND-HELD TSG** go to: axiom3g.tv

Awarded at IBC 2008 for the Protean Axiom 3G

Awarded at NAB 2008 to FlexiScope for Option 3 ®

EXCELLENCE IN VISION

All FlexiScope modules can be user installed into all instrument chassis, including DigiScope, MicroFlex and MonitorScope. UK Free Phone: 0500 625 525 *PSE, Photo Sensitive Epilepsy. **TSG, Test Signal Generator E-Mail: sales@hamlet.co.uk Web site: www.hamlet.co.uk

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

We make the most innovative, reliable and proven video and audio desktop and converter solutions for the post-production and broadcast industry. Whether you need an SD/HD solution for your Mac or Windows system, or stand-alone conversion gear, we've got you covered.

For the Mac.

For the Rack.

IoHD—Capture & Play HD and SD in Final Cut Studio 2—with Hardware Support for Apple ProRes 422

FS1 — Universal SD/HD Audio/Video Frame Synchronizer and Converter. (front and rear panels)

Desktop Solutions

Converter Solutions

Imagine true broadcast-level HD editing in places you never

It’s a multiformat world, and the new FS1 brings it all

thought possible.

together... at a breakthrough price.

Io HD, paired up with Apple’s MacBook Pro and Final Cut Studio

Turn SD into HD, HD into SD, or HD 1080 into 720 (and vice versa),

2, gets you a no-compromises HD editing suite wherever you

with FS1’s hardware-based 10-bit up/down/cross-conversion.

want to work. One FireWire cable to the Mac is all you need to work with full-resolution 10-bit 4:2:2 HD and SD video, using the powerful new ProRes 422 codec from Apple, uniquely integrated directly into Io HD’s hardware. Add in Io HD’s 10-bit up/down/cross conversion and unmatched video and audio connectivity, and you’re seamlessly working in any format you want, anywhere you need it... in a portable, professional package.

www.aja.com

Embed and disembed audio. Mate analog and digital. Video. Audio. HD captioning. Whatever. FS1 not only interfaces to all of your equipment, but also with your facility via its LAN-based web-server and SNMP monitoring. Push a button, or talk to it from across the web. Put FS1 in the middle of your facility, and see how it makes nice with your gear, your multiformat needs, your engineers... and your budget.

TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W

NEWS IN BRIEF Sony to Turkey TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) has selected Sonyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s XDCAM HD422 technology as part of a move to tapeless operation. The deal will see Sony Professional supply 30 PDW-700 HD camcorders, 12 PDW-HD1500 HD recorders and eight PDW-U1 portable XDCAM Professional Disc drives to the Turkish broadcaster. The equipment will be used across TRTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seven broadcast channels for its news programming. www.sonybiz.net

3D Storm at BVE NewTek Europe premiered 3PLAY, the new HD/SD 3-channel slow-motion instant replay portable system, at Broadcast Video Expo 2009 last month. The demo consisted of 3PLAY being put into use at an NBA Development League practice during NBA All-Star Week, in Phoenix. The presentation, which included shots of the NBA D-League practice and interviews with NewTek and NBA executives, was streamed using the TriCaster portable live production system. The 3PLAY multi-standard (PAL/NTSC) instant replay system will be available in Q2 2009, starting at â&#x201A;Ź19,995. www.newtek.com

Blackmagic displays a three-card trick By David Fox Blackmagic Design has introduced three new low-cost HD/SD I/O cards, and ditched its SD-only line. Its newest card, the revamped DeckLink HD Extreme, was launched at Broadcast Video Expo in London. It retains all the features of the original bestselling model (including SDI, HDMI and analogue component connections) and adds Dual Link 4:4:4 SDI at 3Gbps (for full resolution 2k feature film editing), plus a new hardware down converter for simultaneous HD and SD playback. The price remains the same as the previous version at â&#x201A;Ź775 or ÂŁ715. Also new is the DeckLink Studio, designed to replace

User-friendly high definition Continued from page 12

away to realise that one camera gives a better view of the game than another. There are currently two 6-channel EVS HD/SD X[2] disc recorders on board with XFile[2] and a third will be purchased soon.

($ AND 3$ OPERATION DUAL FRAME SYNC UP CONVERTER DOWN CONVERTERS CROSS CONVERTER ASPECT RATIO CONVERTERS COLOUR SPACE CONVERSION APERTURE CORRECTORS CHANNEL VIDEO PROCESSING CHANNEL AUDIO PROCESSING VIDEO DELAY AUDIO DELAY TEST PATTERN GENERATORS AUDIO MATRIX USER MAPPED VIDEO OUTPUTS X CH DE EMBEDDERS X CH EMBEDDERS

Pick a card, any card: Blackmagicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Westland goes to Extremes at BVE

standard definition cards, with connections for older analogue equipment plus SD and HDSDI. It offers â&#x20AC;&#x153;HD and SD at SD-only prices, including hardware down conversion to SD,â&#x20AC;? switchable between letterbox, anamorphic 16:9 and centre cut 4:3 modes, explained Simon Westland, Blackmagicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s EMEA sales manager. It includes independent connections for SDI, analogue component, S-Video and composite video, as well as improved audio connectivity, with up to six channels of digital audio for surround sound monitoring, or four channels of analogue audio, as well as eight channels of SDI audio. It has a built in SD keyer,

so that RGBA graphics can be keyed over the SDI input in standard definition. The third new PCI Express card is the DeckLink SDI, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smallest and most affordable SDI-only card,â&#x20AC;? claimed Westland. It costs â&#x201A;Ź325/ÂŁ285 and offers 10-bit SD/HD-SDI capture and playback, plus black burst/HD tri-sync reference input, RS-422 deck control, and eight channel embedded SDI audio. Westland believes that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the new cards really redefine the DeckLink brand,â&#x20AC;? and are just the first of a whole raft of new products Blackmagic will reveal this year.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The EVS machines offer numerous advantages. If the operator has a keyboard, mouse and the VGA setup screen, he has an interactive clip list at his disposal, but some are still to be seen taking notes of goals, timing, etc. on a piece of paper which, as well as taking up precious time, distracts his attention from the game,â&#x20AC;? says Nespolo. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the past, a complete EVS unit was sometimes â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wastedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on

highlights work, but EVS has come up with IP Director, a very interesting feature, which we are one of the few â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if not the only â&#x20AC;&#x201D; OB teams to have in Italy. This PC-based interface with two monitors allows operators to view clips and create a highlight playlist while the 6-channel EVS units continue their slo-mo work and, thanks to the gigabit network, operate as if they were a single unit. Highlights can then be

played out using IP Director to control the EVS units.â&#x20AC;&#x153; Asked for the distinguishing feature of the truck, Nespolo with a (rightful touch of pride) concludes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a concentrate of the latest technology. There arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t many up to this standard, as a lot of the HD vans are in fact upgraded SD units, and some still have CRT monitors. So they have to face the problem of handling 16:9 and 4:3, whereas ours is truly native HD.â&#x20AC;?

www.blackmagic-design.com

2+ #

4HE TYPICAL EMOTIONAL OUTBURST FROM ENGINEERS WHEN REALISING THE SPACE TIME AND MONEY THEY COULD HAVE SAVED USING THE NEW 06$ &,%8#!2$

/<1;7HFKQLN $* %URDGFDVW 7HOHYLVLRQ (TXLSPHQW

4WO INPUTS FOUR OUTPUTS AND WHATEVER YOU NEED IN THE MIDDLE

WWW LYNX TECHNIK COM

&OR MORE INFO VISIT WWW LYNX TECHNIK COM

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

Rethink enterprise class routing Now that NVISION Inc. is part of Miranda, we can offer NVISION enterprise class routers. Simply put, they provide absolute dependability, with power supply, controller, and crosspoint redundancy. They’re fully scalable to 1152 x 1152, using 3Gbps (1080p/3D) and HD/SD/ASI. More importantly, they offer rich integration with our interfacing, master control and monitoring systems. It’s time to rethink what’s possible.

Rethink what’s possible

w w w.miranda.com/nvision

Discover a new species.

NAB, Las Vegas April 20 – 23, 2009 Booth C7116

www.fujinon.de

Fujinon’s new HD lenses will win you over with flying colours: the value-priced ZA series. Three new models have been specially designed for the latest generation of 2/3" HD cameras. Convincing and uncompromising optical quality: the ZA22x7.6 telephoto lens, ZA17x7.6 standard lens and the ZA12x4.5 world’s widest-angle lens are sure to win you over. It goes without saying that they all display proven Fujinon robustness, superior image quality and all DIGI POWER functions for optimum handling and perfect pictures. Fujinon. To see more is to know more.

Medical

The Fujinon ZA series ZA22x7.6 ZA17x7.6 ZA12x4.5

FUJINON (EUROPE) GMBH, HALSKESTRASSE 4, 47877 WILLICH, GERMANY, TEL.: +49 (0) 21 54 9 24-0, FAX: +49 (0) 21 54 9 24-290, www.fujinon.de FUJINON CORPORATION, 1-324 UETAKE, KITAKU, SAITAMA CITY, 331-9624 SAITAMA, JAPAN, TEL.: +81 (0) 48 668 21 52, FAX: +81 (0) 48 651 85 17, www.fujinon.co.jp

CCTV

Machine Vision

Binoculars

TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W

From conflict zones to finance summits, a new SNG van

Have HD, will travel

Compact production area featuring Miranda Kaleido display, Pro-Bel Pyxis routing, Panasonic switcher and Clear-Com intercom

By Mike Clark Founded in 1993 by veteran cameraman Pino Mella, Romebased Image Unlimited has built up an enviable roster of news clients, including the BBC, Germany’s ARD, Sky News, Austria’s ORF, Associated Press, CBS, Fox News, ABC and Reuters. But as Mella explains, “We do a bit of everything, from documentary projects for RAI, History Channel, BBC and WDR to shooting Star Wars footage in Tunisia, music events such as the MTV awards and other types of shows. We do a lot of SNG work abroad and have been in Iraq and Afghanistan — where we were the first satellite dish in there for the BBC with a flyaway set-up, which was quite an adventure!” As well as a feed point, fully equipped live studio and editing facilities in its HQ overlooking the Vatican, the company has a flyaway system and another SNG van. Although IU has been shooting documentaries and sports events in HD for some time (with Sony HDW750 and Panasonic P2 cameras), the decision to fit out a full HD SNG unit (based on a Mercedes Sprinter) was taken after turning down requests to transmit in HD. As Mella says, “this €500,000 investment was a calculated risk, as none of our potential competitors were able to provide this type of service. As well as not having the top grade technology we’ve put into our van, other similar units require a support vehicle in order to transmit, so we’re much more flexible and completely independent, which ensures lower production costs.” Umberto Majorca, the technical member of the company’s www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

three-strong team (the third is Gloria Muzi), explains the firm’s specific equipment choices. “Apart from actual image quality, our Miranda KaleidoAlto-HD multi-image processor means less rack space and a lighter load than conventional set-ups and, thanks to its 10 auto-sensing HD-SDI/SDI/ analogue composite inputs, puts 10 video signals at ops disposal on the TV Logic 46-inch moni-

tor. The Pro-Bel Pyxis 46 multiformat router also features autosensing on signal input and handles any type of signal without any problem. “At the G7 coverage for Associated Press News, we were able to handle any kind of signal from the clients who’d booked their feed through APN. A Japanese broadcaster came along with NTSC, another with a composite signal and so on, and we were able to view them immediately. With such a wide client roster, we must be able to handle any format.” As far as IU is concerned, Tandberg is a top name on the satellite market, so two €5,788 encoders and two RX 1290 receivers were integrated, as were two e2v Technologies StellarCool 400W uplink amplifiers. “They’re used in military satcom applications, so their reliability, sturdiness and ability to ensure perfect operation at all temperatures are hard to beat.” Audio mixing facilities are courtesy of a Yamaha O1V console, chosen for its on-board delay, EQ and compression facilities (other brands would have required outboard units), but mainly because — thanks to its MY card — an AES EBU output is fed to the Miranda embedder, providing an SDI signal complete with audio.

The van’s sleek EasySat 150 three-axis 1.5m antenna by Italian manufacturer Temix is a Eutelsat, Intelsat and Asiasat compliant unit combining easy one-man operation with a servo-quality DC motor and integral gear box for azimuth/elevation drive. The van has a Panasonic AVHS 300 multi-format switcher and cameras are provided according to specific requests. The powerhouse is a Fischer Panda 7kW generator, chosen for its reliability, light weight and acoustic insulation. The new van’s first outing was for AP, at the G7 finance ministers’

meetings in Rome in February and future high profile work on the date-sheet includes coverage of the UEFA 2008-09 Champions League finals at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico. “Other key sports events are being discussed,” continues Mella, “but we have literally begun this week – the van hasn’t yet been officially presented to the industry and press. A couple of BBC technicians came down to see it and were very favourably impressed so, even if the overall situation is very difficult at the moment, we are confident of a good return on our investment.”

Live Sharing visit us at Two heads are better than one, and with the latest advancements to EVS’ hardware and software, sharing ideas is easier than ever before. The XT[2]’s media transfer and exchange capabilities, now with standard gigabit Ethernet, allow you to exchange your clips, live feed and associated metadata with the most popular post production tools. A new dual media sharing network offers you the best combination of reliability and speed. Thanks to the open architecture and the scalability of all EVS software and hardware, you can add more tools to your workﬂow wherever and whenever you need them. Are you ready to share?

NAB 09 Booth C9508

For more information go to www.evs.tv

TVBEU R O PE T H E W O R K F L O W

High expectations for HD truck German facilities provider Nobeo has recently commissioned its first high def truck. Philip Stevens takes a look at the entertainment-led vehicle From its nine studios in the German city of Hürth, Nobeo produces a raft of high profile programmes for a variety of broadcasters, including the German and Austrian versions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Post production is another important domain of Nobeo. The company operates more than 40 suites for video editing, plus a number of audio post production facilities. The company’s operations were further expanded in 2007, when it acquired FilmPartners Deutschland, Cologne, an organisation that provides ENG and EFP camera crews and post production facilities. Alongside studio and post production commitments, OB projects are becoming increasingly important for Nobeo. In recent years, the company has delivered major show and music events such as the casting tours of Deutschland sucht den Superstar and the concert of Franz Ferdinand in Berlin. “In 2005 Nobeo was among the first companies in Germany providing high definition outside broadcasts,” explains Hacik Koelcue, the company’s OB sales manager. “Since then many other HD productions have been carried

Nobeo, provides additional insight into the choice of equipment. “We chose the Lawo mc266 with 56 faders because of the mixer’s high flexibility and performance. With complex live productions and music events in mind, its fail-safe HD-Core Nova73 with 8192 x 8192 routing capacity and approximately 994 x 942 cross points gives us 192 DSP channels. The technical design of the audio control allows for two completely independent mixes in Dolby E. Furthermore the mc266 is very common in many trucks — so audio engineers are used to working with this desk.” In addition, the audio control room features peripheral equipment such as the Lexicon 960L multichannel digital effects system, TC 6000 mastering, Urei compressors, a DNS 1000 noise suppressor and 64-Track Sequoia HDRecording. The SpotOn audio playback system designed by Sigma Broadcast provides multiple stereo and 5.1 surround sound outputs and a variety of trigger setting options. Amann goes on, “In fact, we have incorporated many pieces of standard equipment that all musicians like to use — because we enjoy seeing the smiling faces of the mixing people!” Overall, the area has been built to provide complete audio isolation by using the suspended ‘box within a box’ method to reduce any acoustic and mechanical interference.

Comprehensive comms Considerable thought went into the design of the production area — including the provision of massaging armchairs for show producers

out, especially concerts including those of Till Brönner, Herbert Grönemeyer, Seal and Manowar.” These early high definition productions were managed using outsourced units, but late last year Nobeo commissioned its own HD truck. This 16.5 by 4-5m vehicle was built by Akkermans in the Netherlands, with technical service being provided by sono Studiotechnik, from Munich. However, in light of the world’s current economic conditions, was this considerable investment a wise move? “When planning the truck we couldn’t foresee a crisis,” admits Koelcue. “Nevertheless we are

convinced that nobeo 1 will be successful – in fact it already is! It has unique capabilities and is in strong demand.” He continues, “The main focus of the truck is entertainment, but its flexibility allows any kind of production. The considerable demands of entertainment and concert productions mean that we have given the audio and communications of nobeo 1 special prominence. Unlike other OB Trucks nobeo 1’s audio control and production area feature fully-fledged ITU standard calibrated Dolby 5.1 speaker arrays to front and rear.” Guido Amann, head of Engineering Department at

As already mentioned, communications has had a high profile in the build of the new truck. “The Riedel Artist 176 x 176 means we can produce the high performance combined with maximum flexibility,” says Amann. “The system consists of Artist 128 and Artist 64 mainframes connected through fibre, with both being equipped with redundant CPUs and power supplies. Reliability is achieved because the PSUs and the CPUs are all hot swappable.’” When it came to selecting vision equipment, Amann went for a mixture of manufacturers. “We selected the Sony MVS 8000 vision mixer because of the way that model performed in our studio 6 – the first HDTV studio in Germany – and it made sense to stay compatible. Similarly, we have used Thomson cameras in our studios for many

years and that influenced our choice of the GVG LDK 8000.” The technical specification for the truck reveals 16 cameras as standard, yet Amann says that more can be accommodated. “With 16 cameras we are able to handle 80-90% of the productions in Europe. However, the biggest project of Nobeo 1 so far was the last TV Stock Car Crash Challenge that was broadcast live on ProSieben. We produced this coverage with 18 broadcast and 12 on-board cameras.” Beyond the technical equipment, Nobeo devoted much thought to the interior design of the truck. “Clients who have used Nobeo’s HD and SD studio control rooms continue to enjoy the same ambience, operational comfort and amenities on location when working with nobeo 1,” says Hacik Koelcue. “In addition, we were very active in listening to producers and directors who had worked in other trucks, and who told us what improvements could be made.” As a result of that input, high value was set on the ergonomic design of the configurable monitor wall. Furthermore, the production areas include the provision of comfortable chairs for the director and other staff — and even massage armchairs for producers! Koelcue admits the layout is ideally suited for entertainment productions, but emphasises that it is very flexible in order to meet the needs of sports programmes. For example, nobeo 1’s equipment tender provides an additional space that serves as an additional production area, Slowmo, edit suite, second audio gallery or can simply serve as a production office. “We can freely swap workplaces depending on clients needs,” says Koelcue. Despite the financial restraints being imposed by some broadcasters, Koelcue is upbeat about the future for the vehicle. “According to various research reports the revenues in the TV advertising market will go down 1-5% in Germany in 2009. On the other hand 2009/2010 is the starting date for HDTV with the German public broadcasters. Considerably more HD material will be produced. There we see opportunities for nobeo 1, especially as the public broadcasters do not have enough HD OB trucks of their own at their disposal.”

Increase your productivity signiﬁcantly. With tailor-made solutions for your DI infrastructure.

SpycerBox

DVS – passion for perfection

www.dvs.de

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

playKast or a plain old video server? A video server is just a single function PC playKast has SMART technology and ON-AIR in it Single system Multi-functional Automated playout and branding Reliable operation and support

automated playout solutions

Top of the range PC

T +44 (0) 845 0942 612 E sales@on-air-systems.com W www.on-air-systems.com So be a SMART buyer and make your CEO and CFO happy by presenting them with a cost effective, environmentally friendly option when you propose your next playout solution.

If you are not already representing ON-AIR, join us in helping your customers make the right choice. playKast from ON-AIR – the only true “channel in a box” automated playout system

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

Stereoscopic 3D to the home Over the last two years, stereoscopic 3D to the home has been transformed from a theoretical possibility into a probability, with some experts predicting roll out in less than five years. Is that the correct timeframe? Nicola Brittain talks to European 3D leaders about how to follow the lead of the Hollywood studios Content producers, broadcasters, encoding specialists, and screen manufacturers are all engaged in developing 3D solutions to the home. Their motive is clear: 3D films gross three times that of 2D films at the cinema and the TV industry is looking to capitalise on this demand. Similarly, there is a drive from Hollywood’s big players to make more from its 3D films and between 50% and 60% of its revenues come from nontheatrical sources. In December 2008 BSkyB held a 3D demo day in which it broadcast 3D content, including footage from the Ricky Hatton versus Juan Lazcano fight, using its existing HD infrastructure. BSkyB’s head of product design and innovation Brian Lenz said, “We thought the demo and the resulting press would help engage 3DTV manufacturers, and spur the industry on to make more content. This was a reason for us going public.” BSkyB used standard encode techniques incorporating MPEG4 and traditional satellite modulation technology to multiplex two streams shot for the left and right eyes and transmitted the combined signal via the HD transmission path to the Sky+HD set top box. The feed was then decoded by the 46-inch Hyundai LCD screen. The interlaced screen transmits 540 lines to each eye with odd lines viewed by one and even viewed by the other. Sky’s Chief Engineer Broadcast Chris Johns said, “Although each eye only sees 540 lines, the two pictures vary slightly, and the brain’s ability to combine the two unique images means the experienced resolution is closer to full HD than SD.” There are many ways in which a TV can decode an image but BSkyB adopted one

that was compatible with the 50/60Mhz transmission rate of its HD infrastructure. Other companies working on broadcast transmissions include France Telecom, which is currently looking to simultaneously trial 3D coverage with its HD French premier league soccer coverage. Last May it broadcast the Roland Garros tennis tournament in 3D. The content was transmitted over a 3D live broadcasting channel using MPEG-4 compression and sent via its fibre access channel and its usual set top box. Japanese broadcaster NHK began transmitting daily 3D content via its channel, BS11, last April. The broadcaster uses a similar infrastructure to that demonstrated by BSkyB, in that it multiplexes the two streams into one that resembles an HD stream in bandwidth. Satellite transmissions specialist Arqiva has also participated in several demonstrations and head

Chris Johns: “The brain’s ability to combine the two unique images means the experienced resolution is closer to full HD than SD”

of product development Arqiva Satellite and Media Scott Rose said, “Wherever a broadcaster can transmit HD, it can also transmit 3D. What’s important is the business case, and most will

want to re-use their HD architectures for 3D — particularly as they are likely to be only a couple of years into their depreciation.” Although most broadcasters will physically be able to transmit 3DTV, some have a better business case than others. The platform most likely to be able to monetise 3DTV would be pay TV using a bandwidth-rich transport system such as satellite, or fibreto-the-home.

Display alternatives

Part of BSkyB’s ongoing 3D trial involved hit show Gladiators which airs on Sky One

3DTV can be viewed on several different types of screen, but can only be viewed on conventional 2D screens in Analyph format, which uses red and cyan colours to create the 3D effect. Disney, which has committed to producing all its future feature films in 3D, transmitted its Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds 3D movie over the Disney Channel last October and 787,000 viewers tuned in. An alternative to Anaglyph is Colorcode which was used on

MuxXpert – Real-Time Multiplexing Redefined • Exceptionally flexible and cost-effective software-based approach • Re-multiplex live Transport Streams and local content from disk • Automatic PSI and DVB-SI extraction, re-generation and insertion • Runs on a standard PC with all DekTec input and output adapters • Adaptation of PIDs, service IDs, tables, descriptors, etc.

NBC in the US at the beginning of February to broadcast a 3D preview of the big-screen animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens on NBC. This replaces old redcyan Anaglyph with an amberblue colouring. Most commentators believe however that Anaglyph doesn’t compare with 3D stereoscopic technology in quality. BskyB’s Lenz said: “Anaglyph can make the colours look washed out and it would not be the type of service we could offer on a premium channel.” TV sets that have been manufactured to show stereoscopic 3DTV are not yet widely available but most manufacturers have developed or are developing solutions. Arqiva’s Rose said he believes 2009 will be a watershed year for these products. He said: “We should start to see the beginnings of a consumer market before the end of the year.” There are some solutions available now, but they are limited. Around 2 million 3D ready DLP rear projection TVs have been deployed in the US market but the solution only accepts a TV signal from a PC and sales are dwindling. Plasma TVs are well suited to 3D according to Chris Chinnock from the 3D@home consortium, and Samsung and Mitsubishi launched models internationally last year. Speaking at a 3D session at Broadcast Video Expo he said: “Manufacturers can easily clean up the phosphers and tweak the electronics slightly to 3Denable their sets. Most are likely to do so in the near term because it is an inexpensive process.” LCD 3DTV’s are more difficult to manufacture. There are several approaches, with the Micro-pol, available from Hyundai, JVC and others being closest to market. This technology is currently prohibitively expensive however, with a 42-inch Hyundai set costing approximately £2,200. The numerous display standards are a big hurdle for manufacturers looking for a route to mass market. There are approximately 15 different ways of presenting 3D feeds including raw interleaved, checkerboard, sideby-side, page flipping or front sequential, over under and 2D+ depth. Many of the standards bodies in the field are helping to Continued on page 22

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

J^[ m_Z[ij Wd]b[" j^[ X_]][ij peec hWj_e WdZ j^[ X[ij efj_YWb f[h\ehcWdY[

8Vcdc :jgdeV C#K#! 7gdVYXVhi EgdYjXih 9^k^h^dc! I]Z CZi]ZgaVcYh IZa (& % '% *)*-.%* ;Vm (& % '% *)*-'%( ZbV^a ikegdY5XVcdc"ZjgdeZ#Xdb

I]Z cZl 8Vcdc =?&)Zm)#( higZiX]Zh :C<$:;E id i]Z a^bîh! egdk^Y^c\ jcg^kVaaZY heZX^ÒXVi^dc VcY eZg[dgbVcXZ ^c îh XaVhh# Lî] îh )#("+%bb [dXVa aZc\i]! î h^bean XdbW^cZh i]Z l^YZhi Vc\aZ :C< aZch ^c i]Z ldgaY lî] i]Z W^\\Zhi oddb gVi^d ^c îh XaVhh# 6cY ^[ i]Vi ^hcÉi Zcdj\]! ndj XVc YdjWaZ î id &'%bb lî] djg 'M ZmiZcYZg# I]Z =?&)Zm)#( Vahd ]Vh ]^\]Zg gZhdaji^dc! b^c^bôZY ÓVgZ! Y^hidgi^dc VcY \]dhi^c\# >ih dei^XVa eZg[dgbVcXZ ^h ZkZc hjeZg^dg id îh egZYZXZhhdg! i]Z =?&&Zm)#,W! l]^X] ^h gZVaan hVn^c\ hdbZi]^c\# >iÉh ZVh^Zg id jhZ! idd Ä i]Vc`h id V bdgZ XdbeVXi YZh^\c VcY V fj^ZiZg Yg^kZ jcî# Hd l]ViZkZgÉh bV`^c\ i]Z cZlh! l]ZgZkZg îÉh ]VeeZc^c\! i]Z cZl 8Vcdc =?&)Zm)#( lâa bV`Z hjgZ ndj ValVnh \Zi i]Z [jaa e^XijgZ# ;dg bdgZ ^c[dgbVi^dc! eaZVhZ k^hî mmm$YWded#[khef[$Yec%JL#FheZkYji%FheZkYji%>@'*[n*$)$Wif

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

NEWS IN BRIEF

Stereoscopic 3D to the home

rapidly between left and right eye so that each eye sees the full 1080 x 1920 frame) such as that being championed by Panasonic which plans to market its own full HD 3D 1080p television in 2010. This display would support Blu-ray 3D which requires a 100-120fps playback (120Mhz). The product is likely to see roll out before broadcast 3DTV, but could end up ruling a broadcaster with a 50/60Mhz transmission out of the game.

Continued from page 20

Silex into ORF With the installation of a workspace management solution Silex Media has finalised a three-stage project at Austria’s public broadcaster ORF. The scope of the project was a centralised storage and production system with networked editing seats. The first two steps, consisting mainly of hardware installation and setup, were realised by SGI. For planning and implementation of a workspace management solution SGI and ORF chose Silex Media. One of the main requirements of ORF’s production team was to allocate a flexible amount of editing space over a specific period to a project in order to collect and edit material for the production of broadcast contributions. To efficiently manage the storage allocation and to simplify the booking of free storage areas a workspace management solution had to be integrated. This solution is based on two modules, a backend and a frontend. The storage consists of two standard Linux NAS servers providing capacity to Liquid Blue editing stations via SAMBA. The data management is based on the middleware Hydrogen Lifecycle Management (HLM) that stores all essences and metadata for a project. www.silexmedia.com

MOG’s Blue solution MOG, a provider of MXF-based solutions, has announced a partnership with workflow and MAM specialist Blue Oder, to integrate MOG’s filters in Media Archive, Blue Order’s enterprise media asset management platform. By choosing MOG’s DirectShow filters, Blue Order has access to a flexible tool with high performance that allows the playout of any kind of MXF files, both high resolution and proxy and the decoding of all operational patterns, including OP Atom. “We have been working with the experts from MOG for a while,” said Ulf Genzel, chief sales officer for Blue Order. “Now that more and more customers wish to have direct ways to utilise their MXF-based material in Media Archive, it was high time for us to establish a closer relationship with the MOG team.” www.mog-solutions.com

determine which are the best of these standards for broadcast television and other platforms, SMPTE, ISO and IEEE and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).are just a few of them. Commentators believe it will take at least two years to find a suitable standard. Most of the consumer displays in the medium term are stereoscopic 3D in which the viewer watches the screen using active or passive glasses. But manufacturers and broadcasters alike believe that autostereoscopic is the long term goal for 3DTV. This is content that does not require the viewer to wear glasses. Several autostereoscopic screens are currently being used such as Philips’ WowVX, but only in the business sector with digital signage and retail displays for example.

Way forward?

Disney transmitted its Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds 3D movie over the Disney Channel last October and 787,000 viewers tuned in

Over the long term the best solution for all is likely to be a screen standard that can accommodate several different inputs thereby allowing 3D from premium broadcasters as well as free to air, IPTV operators, HD/SD and BluRay content to run through the same technology. If as 3D@home’s Chris Chinnock predicts there will be approximately 28 million 3D and 3D ready TVs in the market by 2012 — and if standards bodies have been able to steer a sensitive but objective path for the market between now and then — uptake

specific requirements of 3D. Satellite operator Hispasat joined the I+D 3DLive project in February to study new technologies for compression and transmission of 3D. The project is co-ordinated by Spanish telco Telefonica whose IPTV service Imagenio is currently working with manufacturer Philips to create a 3D VOD proof of concept. There are therefore many issues that the industry must iron out before 3DTV is commercially

will depend on the availability of quality 3D content. As BSkyB’s Lenz said, “It is working out how best to create content that excites us most.” And beyond the industry’s current technical obstacles is that genuinely exciting proposition — immersive and engaging 3D content to the home.

Encoding and compression Standards bodies are looking at other parts of the transmission chain too, particularly in the areas of encoding, transcoding and compression. Manufacturers such as 3Ality and Sensio have gone to market with encoding solutions, but Arqiva’s Rose said “most products are still in their early stages.” Although demonstrations have used existing compressions standards, work is being done to update these according to the

“Wherever a broadcaster can transmit HD, it can also transmit 3D. What’s important is the business case” – Scott Rose, Arqiva viable. One is likely to be how to create a standard or standards that rules out the fewest number of players. One example of a standard that could rule many broadcasters out of the market would be a super high definition ‘frame interleaved encode’ (a screen that alternates

UK proposes universal broadband By Adrian Pennington The centrepiece of the UK government’s plan to roll out countrywide broadband is a proposal that every home should have internet access by the 2012 Olympics, at speeds of up to 2mbps. The Digital Britain report calls for universal broadband, to connect the 40% of UK homes without connection, and suggest this would be delivered by a combination of mobile and fixed-line phone operators.

The ambition throws up immediate questions of funding. The existing costs of universal service obligations (USO) fall on BT and Hull-based KCom, both of which are required to ensure that every UK household has access to a telephone line capable of supporting a 28.8kbps dialup connection. BT and Virgin Media are planning superfast fixed-line broadband networks based on optical fibre (Virgin is already

rolling out 50Mbps broadband) but they will only cover about 50% of the population. Some public subsidy is also likely but wireless (Wi-F) and mobile broadband providers are also being called on, particularly to deliver to rural areas where fixed line connectivity is more costly. The report noted that mobile broadband would in future be as fast as fixed line internet connections are today, through

new ‘fourth generation’ mobile services, which will be offered using part of the radio spectrum that will be freed up during digital switchover in the run up to 2012. To achieve that the report urged mobile operators to resolve their dispute over spectrum, which is preventing them from offering wireless broadband nationally. O2 and Vodafone had objected to a 2007 proposal by communications regulator Ofcom, that they give up some of their most valuable spectrum so it could be used by rivals Orange and T-Mobile.

The past can be copied. The future needs innovation.

LV5380: big where it counts ● High quality 8.4” screen: calibratable colour temperature 6,500K / 9,300K ● Compact 315 x 147 x 85 mm, 2 kg ● Dual-link connectivity ● Dual auto-detecting SDI inputs ● Compatible with 20 HD-SDI/SD-SDI formats ● Fast-access control panel ● Optional TVBEurope award-winning Cinezone software ● Front-panel USB for easy data storage elQuip BV Leader Broadcast Master Distributor - Europe +31(0) 40 2645345 info@elquip.com www.elquip.com

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

One name says it all.

Real Broadcast Network (RBN), the leading global provider of live, multi-format, media services - featuring ViewCast® Niagara® systems.

With more than 300,000 Osprey® video capture cards deployed globally, ViewCast® sets the standard in the streaming media industry. ƵŝůĚŝŶŐ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ůĞŐĞŶĚĂƌǇ ƋƵĂůŝƚǇ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ KƐƉƌĞǇ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐǇ͕ ǁĞ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞ ƚŽ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌǇ ůĞĂĚŝŶŐ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶƐ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŚĞ ƚŽƉ ďƌŽĂĚĐĂƐƚĞƌƐ͕ ŶĞƚǁŽƌŬ ƐĞƌǀŝĐĞ ƉƌŽǀŝĚĞƌƐ͕ ĂŶĚ EƐ ůŝŬĞ ZĞĂůEĞƚǁŽƌŬƐΠ ƌĞůǇ ŽŶ ĞǀĞƌǇ ĚĂǇ ƚŽ ŵĞĞƚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŵŽƐƚ ĐƌŝƟĐĂů ǀŝĚĞŽ ĐŽŶƚĞŶƚ ĚĞůŝǀĞƌǇ ŶĞĞĚƐ͘ KƵƌ ĂǁĂƌĚͲǁŝŶŶŝŶŐ EŝĂŐĂƌĂΠ ĞŶĐŽĚŝŶŐ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶƐ ƌĞͲƉƵƌƉŽƐĞ ĂŶĚ ƐƚƌĞĂŵ ǀŝĚĞŽ ƋƵŝĐŬůǇ ĂŶĚ ĞĂƐŝůǇ ʹ ŝŶ ŵƵůƟƉůĞ ĨŽƌŵĂƚƐ ʹ ĨŽƌ ĂŶǇ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ǁŝƚŚ ƉƌŽĨĞƐƐŝŽŶĂůͲŐƌĂĚĞ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ͘ ŶĚ ŽƵƌ ^ yΠ ƐŽŌǁĂƌĞ ƉƌŽǀŝĚĞƐ ƐŝŵƵůƚĂŶĞŽƵƐ ƌĞŵŽƚĞ ŵĂŶĂŐĞŵĞŶƚ ŽĨ ŵƵůƟƉůĞ EŝĂŐĂƌĂ ĞŶĐŽĚĞƌƐ ŽǀĞƌ ƚŚĞ ŶĞƚǁŽƌŬ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ Ă ƐŝŶŐůĞ͕ easy-to-use interface. ůĂŝŵŝŶŐ ǇŽƵƌ ƐƚĂŬĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŐůŽďĂů ĚŝŐŝƚĂů ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ƉůĂĐĞ ƌĞƋƵŝƌĞƐ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶƐ ǇŽƵ ĐĂŶ ĐŽƵŶƚ ŽŶ͘ ŶĚ͕ ǁŚĞŶ ŝƚ ĐŽŵĞƐ ƚŽ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƟǀĞ͕ ŶĞǆƚ ŐĞŶĞƌĂƟŽŶ ƐƚƌĞĂŵŝŶŐ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶƐ͕ ŽŶĞ ŶĂŵĞ ƐĂǇƐ ŝƚ Ăůů͘

sŝƐŝƚ ƵƐ Ăƚ E ďŽŽƚŚ η^>ϲϬϮϬ

Learn more at www.viewcast.com/TVB h^ ϴϬϬ͘ϱϰϬ͘ϰϭϭϵ | ƵƌŽƉĞ͕ DŝĚĚůĞ ĂƐƚ͕ ĨƌŝĐĂ нϰϰ ϭϮϱϲ ϯϰϱϲϭϬ ©2009 ViewCast, Inc. All rights reserved. Osprey®, Niagara®, and Niagara SCX® (and design)™ are registered trademarks of ViewCast, Inc. 3701 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 300 Plano, TX 75075. RealNetworks® (and design)™ is a registered trademark of Real Networks, Inc.

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

3D: Third generation or last chance? With box office draws at a premium, animation and CG dominating, and horror films, sport and other ‘alternative content’ the main liveaction to offer, is the movie industry producing enough stereo 3D to satisfy demand? Analysis by Colin Birch If cinemas are to upgrade their digital screens to 3D, and if we are to spend our hard-earned cash on 3D TVs — never mind persuade our families to don active shutter glasses at home — we need content to suit all tastes. Are producers, directors and DoPs embracing the format? Is the technology available to help them produce stereo 3D costeffectively? Can we expect to see the explosive growth in stereo 3D that many are predicting?

According to the MarketSaw website (www.marketsaw.com), there are 38 stereoscopic movies scheduled for release in 2009-2010, or roughly one every two to three weeks. Perhaps as many again are either under wraps, or still at the ‘rumoured’ stage. Apart from James Cameron’s Avatar, A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey, G-Force with its live-action animal ‘stars’, half a dozen new horror films and a re-released, ‘dimensionalised’ horror ‘classic’, courtesy of 2D to 3D conversion specialists InThree, the scheduled releases are either animation or CG, with some Hollywood ‘names’ voicing. Why aren’t more live action features being made in 3D? Many big-name directors still like to work in a way that’s familiar

3Ality Digital production: The company's Head of Production Ted Kenney says "the longer you let 3D live in the frame, the more information the viewer receives"

Many big-name directors still like to work on film, not touching any form of digital cinematography, whether 2D or 3D. “It’s like asking an oil painter to switch to a light pen,” suggests Dave Monk

Paul Chesney: “Growth is organic, and we’re getting what the studios and producers feel audiences want”

and has served them well. That means shooting on film, and not touching any form of digital cinematography, whether 2D or 3D. “It’s like asking an oil painter to switch to a light pen,” suggests Dave Monk of the EDCF (European Digital Cinema Forum). “Film directors are steeped in their art.” These directors consider shooting digitally as making video, and inferior to film, no matter what

anybody tells them. “The big players in the community are the most reluctant to change a winning formula. Some people get it in a micro-second; young guys like Robert Rodriguez, with no baggage,” says Monk. Cinematographer Geoff Boyle, whose 3D credits include Thomas Jane’s The Dark Country, which is released in late 2009 and Devil’s Commandos, which is scheduled for 2010, thinks,

“producers are scared of past blips [with 3D]. Every 20 years it comes and then it goes.” Boyle says directors and DoPs can also be scared off by the choices involved when switching to a new and unfamiliar shooting format [3D]. These are mainly decisions about camera configurations and shooting style, which includes lens choice.

Technology in its infancy Boyle is enthusiastic about new, lighter and more portable stereo rigs that are in development, literally being invented to meet cinematographers’ needs to shoot 3D in all manner of situations. To create the perception of depth, the correct interocular (or interaxial) distance

News and Entertainment

New applications and solutions for the demanding and changing Broadcast world – ﬁxed and mobile microwave links, wireless camera systems, cellular receive city centre networks, satellite uplinks and IP data transfer. Professional broadcast equipment and support services for news, sports and Outside Broadcast. Quick set up, effective operations and superb performance for 24 hour live news, sensational sports and creative camera work. Secure Communications from Vislink. UK: +44 1923 474060

Middle East: +971 4886 5226

Singapore: +65 6248 4676

USA: +1 978 671 5700

www.vislink.com

between lenses is essential, and adjustments to the stereoscopic convergence have to be precise so we are able to pick up all the visual cues we need to enjoy the 3D effect. We will see new, more compact cameras with much smaller lenses that are configured in pairs to work like our eyes, and developments in software encoding that make the stereoscopic effect smoother and more comfortable. Boyle’s style uses light and movement rather than stereoscopic effects to create the 3D illusion. He believes the results are more realistic, but he admits using lots of fast tracks and pans goes against the prevailing style. This style can create frame edge errors that would probably make audiences feel sick if they weren’t fixed in post production. However, if the action is riveting, he believes you can get away with breaking frame edges, which would normally destroy the stereo illusion. Other cinematographers prefer to limit the amount of movement in the frame and use ‘depth grading’ to create the three dimensional illusion. Animated films like Dreamworks Animation’s Shrek and Pixar’s Toy Story were given volume using light. It was a big step. Monk points out that these films were “born out of cyberspace”, as they relied on no physical assets. This way of making animated films was driven by one primary goal, to tell a story better. “The live action community is primarily interested in storytelling, Does the new [stereo3D] medium and the new technology that accompanies it enable you to tell a better version of the story?,” asks Monk. “Studios have a responsibility to push 3D,” says Boyle. “Directors and DoPs will adapt, just as they did with widescreen, sound and colour. Shooting 3D should be routine. It is in danger of being left behind, though, as filmmakers who should be getting excited about it get put off by the cost and the time involved.” Red’s Leader Of The Rebellion, Ted Schilowitz, says “connect with the talent, but don’t interfere with creative choices,” adding that Red don’t think about how filmmakers use their cameras. They build them and make them available and leave it to the users to do the rest. Schilowitz thinks the mavericks will pick 3D up soon enough (“The days of 3D being looked at as a gimmick are over”), but he doesn’t necessarily see it as being a limited to purely linear filmmaking. For him, gaming could provide more impetus than movies. Ted Kenney is head of Production at 3D production company 3ality Digital, and was the man behind the camera for the groundbreaking live transatlantic interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

Alliance Media, cautions against trying to artificially accelerate the pace at which stereoscopic content is introduced into the market.? For him, 20 films in 2009 (“3D’s first proper year”) feels about right. Nor is he concerned about the diet of animation, horror and ‘alternative content’. 3D is in its infancy. “Growth is organic, and we’re getting what the studios and producers feel

audiences want”, a view shared by 3ality’s Kenney. Chesney reminds us that the 3D films released so far have generated more revenue than the 2D versions (Beowulf stands out), and that the model whereby films play for a lot longer in a small number of 3D cinemas is working. Schilowitz reminds us that drinks brands Pepsi and Sobe gave away thousands of pairs of 3D glasses

ahead of the 2009 Superbowl so viewers could watch a trailer of Dreamworks Animation’s forthcoming stereo 3D release, Monsters vs Aliens on TV at half-time. Both Kenney and Schilowitz are also both quick to mention that the US comedy spy hit Chuck was transmitted in 3D in the US on Superbowl Sunday, February 2. So, will we look back on 2009 as the year stereo 3D began to take off?

The content appears to be coming through steadily. Cineworld proudly announces it has ‘more 3D screens than any other cinema’ in the publicity for Bolt in 3D, and, if the stories are to be believed, companies like Sky have successfully tested stereo 3D over their existing HD infrastructure [see page 20]. The prospects are good. It’s the pace of development that is crucial.

Lawo AG | Rastatt / Germany

at IBC2008. Kenney thinks the studios are to some degree in crisis right now, and that they are less likely to try a new format like 3D on films that have to succeed. He believes producers and directors want to shoot 3D, but it has to be “the right property, at the right time. With every emerging technology there’s a period of nervousness. Avatar is being met with lots of expectation. In one to two years, we’ll see more mainstream movies in 3D. Right now, there?s a lot going unsaid.” Kenney says there’s a new cinema language with 3D, one that involves lots of nuances and subtleties. “The longer you let 3D live in the frame, the more information the viewer receives. It’s not a small, narrow language.“ He also points out that the visual language will mutate as different directors use 3D in new ways.

Scarlet 2/3-inch ‘Brains’ set up in a 3D stereo configuration, with RED 3D interocular platform, RED mini-Primes, RED BombEVFs, REDhandle and RED Top Mount

We may see entirely new genres develop as a result. For Kenney, it’s a bit like the transition to HD. The more people were trained on it and exposed to it, the more popular it became. Everything 3ality does is based on what TV camera and film camera operators already know, things that are familiar and comfortable and allow them to work the same way they’ve always worked. He rejects the suggestion that A-Listers who work in front of and behind the camera are put off by 3D. 3ality has done tests with a least ten of each at the start of 2009 and Kenney confirms they seem to enjoy the experience. He’s optimistic about stereo 3D’s future, and currently has at least six budgets for stereo 3D productions on his desk. Studios are looking at their archives to find suitable properties for conversion to help things along. Jeffrey Katzenberg’s enthusiasm for the format is helping, but “just doing 3D is not enough. It has to be perfect,” warns Kenney.

Because your programs don’t look like this anymore: the new crystal. crystal – welcome to digital broadcasting. Now there’s a mixing console that is just as innovative as you! Its perfect ergonomics are impressive, its ease of use will reassure you, and its stylish design will excite you. The new crystal offers a range of intelligent features that will guarantee the most efficient workflow both for on-air operation and in the edit suite. But best of all, this convincing console is not just exceptionally attractive to users – it will also please your budget. Find out more about the professional start into digital broadcasting at www.lawo.de

Pace of development Arts Alliance Media equips, installs and maintains digital cinemas throughout Europe. It also distributes, manages and promotes ‘alternative content’ and masters films for digital presentation. Paul Chesney, who was until recently VP of Business Development at Arts www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

Experience the crystal live at the Prolight + Sound 2009 Frankfurt, April 1– 4, Hall 8.0, Booth B11

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

Scientific approach to providing the home market with a sound technical base

A stereo 3D production masterclass for Europe By George Jarrett If Europe is to develop its own stereoscopic 3D market it will need a native skills base offering engineering, production and finishing expertise that matches anything that LA in the service of Hollywood can muster, starting with the availability of many more shooting rigs to rent or buy. To that end good quality conferences, workshops and tutorials will be vital motivators, so it was a pity that sponsors outnumbered the delegates for Peter Wilson’s incredibly detailed recent Pinewood event ‘The theory and practice of stereoscopic production (3D movies) and complementary sound techniques’. This was a two-day journey through the minutiae surrounding 3D production, and the way the human sensory systems will perceive it happily. The trainers who shared the tutorial duties were Wilson himself, technical bard John Watkinson, Dr Bernard Harper from the School of Psychology at Liverpool University, and cinematographer Kommer Kleijn. Armed with blue chip support from the UK Film Council and Skillset, and with sponsorship backing from the likes of Arri Media, P+S Teknik, Quantel, Codex, Snell & Wilcox and Xpand, Wilson will be able to repackage and hone down what he produced for another event. He was already planning a tutorial on digital cinema mastering. The purposes behind the 3D event were clearly defined, to target experienced people looking for re-training. “The Hollywood studios rushed into 3D and broke loads of the DCI rules they had set for 2D, such as 16 foot candles,” said Wilson. “This workshop is without dogma. We will follow a more fundamental, scientific approach so we can give the home market a good technical base.” His sidekicks would detail the relevant principles of human image and sound perception,

Why is 3D so hot? First, because Lucas, Cameron, Zemeckis, Jackson and Rodriguez need new toys to play with…

explain the clues that are important for depth perception, and show why the correct interocular distance is essential for realism. “We will also describe what causes the major defects in stereoscopy and how to avoid them, explain why the grammar of cinematography may be different with stereoscopy, and list the processes needed in stereoscopic post production,” he said. “We will move on to how the ears extract directional clues from sound, and to stating why timing accuracy is important to sound images,” he added. He also promised some alternative approaches to surround sound production, and a session on why cinema and TV audio are so different.

The eye is not a camera Bernard Harper presented the sessions ‘Introduction and history of stereoscopic production and psycho-visual theory’, and

offered basic ground rules that are worth learning parrot fashion in the way we might recall Archimedes Principle. He started his first module by offering three reasons for 3D being so hot. First is because Lucas, Cameron, Zemeckis, Jackson and Rodriguez need new toys to play with. Second, filmmakers need to be ahead of the audience in standards, technology and innovation. Third is the fact that stereoscopic imaging is perceptually superior to 2D. Harper focussed on human vision and how it works, using fabulously detailed images depicting the anatomy of the eye, a plan view of the optic nerves and the visual cortex, and pathways of our vision system. “The eye is not a camera. Vision involves the sampling and creation of a visual memory,” he explained. “We extrapolate scenes based on experience (and)

create an interpretation based on sampled data. “Visual sensation refers to the light falling onto the retina. Visual perception refers to the interpretation of the sensory information coming from the eye,” he added.

and shade, linear perspective, occlusion, relative size, textural gradient, aerial perspective, motion parallax, proprioception and retinal disparity. Harper produced diagrammatic explanations of all of these cues, and it is proprioception, the sense of awareness about the position of elements of our body, that enables us to touch our nose with a finger with our eyes closed. He moved on to cover the various forms of parallax, which in its fundamental form superimposes L and R images and lets us define the relationship of objects in a scenes in terms of retinal disparity. We experience zero parallax when the two views of an object are exactly superimposed. “You will perceive the object to be located in space at the surface of the display. This is given the special name of zero parallax plane, and it is an important point of reference for all stereo imaging,” said Harper. Positive parallax happens when the right eye location of an object is to the right of the left eye’s location for it. “It will be perceived to be behind the surface of the display screen. It will be perceived to be at the location where two views converge,” he said. “Negative parallax, the magical part of 3D, happens when the right eye sees an object

Telephoto lenses can be the real killer of 3D. You might get retinal rivalry if you don’t use telephotos with great care” — Bernard Harper Harper moved on to consider depth cues, and humans use a variety of methods for deriving depth information from any images we see. “Some 5-8% of the population do not have full binocular vision, but just about everyone can perceive depth,” he said. “Most depth cues are monocular, requiring only one eye.” The typical 2D depth cues he had in mind were light

shifted to the left of the location seen by the left eye. The brain interprets the object as appearing at the inter3d tv special of the left and right views, in front of the surface of the screen as if floating in space.” And then there is divergent parallax, and the issue of inter pupillary distance. “There is a biological limit to the amount of positive parallax an image may have. The eyes must never be required to diverge beyond parallel; that is, the R and L location of an object must never be displaced by more than the distance between the eyes of the viewers,” Harper said. The origin of the ‘Cha-Cha’ technique lies in Talbot’s photos for Wheatstone — a single camera shot followed by another at a distance of 65mm — and today this method is used to capture images as if from each eye. “Images are captured as if staring straight ahead,” said Harper. “Another approach Continued on page 29

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

On track, on vision We’ve always had an eye on the future – a strong vision for

providers to deliver the Individual TV Experience

where the TV business is going and the technologies

and generate subscriber and revenue growth with

it needs to succeed. With our Emmy award-winning video

next-generation DTH, IPTV, VOD and personalized

compression and on-demand solutions, and the latest

advertising solutions.

in content management systems, we’ve built a strong YLW\[H[PVU MVY RLLWPUN V\Y J\Z[VTLYZ ÄYTS` VU [YHJR

Our new collection of visionary papers will give you all the information you need to build your individual

Now as part of the Ericsson group, our vision is deeper

journey into the future of TV. Share our vision,

and broader as we enable all television service

visit www.tandbergtv.com/vision.

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

ditions — he cited Kate Winslet’s renown as the ‘fat actress’. This phenomenon will largely vanish with the coming of 3D because objects occlude less background and appear thinner. The one exception will be parallel axis 3D. “2D is not the accurate medium of record it is assumed to be; there will always be levels of distortion,” said Harper. “In 3D we have a

chance. The other big subject is camera to object distance – changes in distance will lead to changes in perceived weight.” He ended with a firm proposal regarding inter-pupillary distance. Many 3D fans seem to think 65mm is right. “It averages out with children so why not Continued on page 30

Kommer Kleijn with test rig: “A lot of cheating has been done with distance, but no more. Avoid this if possible because you need to change the interocular”

Stereo 3D production masterclass Continued from page 26

for capturing 3D images is to use converged optical axes — the ‘Toe-in’. The point where the optical axes converge establishes the zero parallax plane. There is a controversy in 3D production, between parallel and convergent.” Everyone knows that all elements along a horizon will have a divergent parallax, but Harper had an interesting take on this. “Theoretically we could place the zero parallax plane at the horizon and thus have the entire image located in front of the screen, but there are limits to the amount of convergence a viewer can

tolerate,” he said. “In general, the skilled 3D photographer will place the zero parallax plane at the centre of interest and will not create elements with too much negative parallax.” Harper’s ground rules start with convergent Ortho-stereography and parallel Ortho-stereography. The first, with a life-sized image will give a very accurate reproduction of the size and depth of the original scene, for a viewer at or near the ideal viewpoint. The other offers so much more: it gives very good reproduction under most circumstances, can be modified and shifted to control on-screen separations, and the raw images can be integrated easily into CGI composites. “When you pull focus you have to converge,” said Harper. “Un-natural stereoscopic disparities

Stereoscopic 3D: the language behind the imminent gold rush By George Jarrett Stereoscopic 3D introduces a great range of new terminology, and creative restrictions. In some ways, it means going backwards to go forwards. For this reason, we need common international terminology and the understanding that making things like zooms work requires a new level of expertise. Our Interocular, the distance between our pupils, averages out between 63/65mm. The (camera rig) Interaxial is the degree of separation between the L/R lens axes. When the interaxial is smaller than the human interocular, objects seem larger than in reality: if wider, objects appear unnaturally small. Top specification mirror rigs can take the interocular down to zero, by overlapping. Stereopsis: Human binocular depth sense.

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

Camera convergence: Involves the toe-in, using converged optical axes. These, in combination with the chosen Interaxial, align along the Zaxis, at, behind or in front of the point of interest. As observed by experienced 3D producer Phil Streather at IBC, “The more you converge on a point of interest, the further away on the Z-axis that object moves.” Excessive camera convergence can result in Keystoning (vertical misalignment), which can be fixed in post with corner pinning. Shooting converged: Vastly more popular than shooting parallel, maybe because of vastly heavier finishing costs in post production. Camera convergence is the principle mode of shooting converged, but some systems feature converging lenses. Shooting parallel: Camera axes are always parallel to each

(parallax) will lead to 3D effects on screen that are unlike direct vision and can lead to eye-strain. This is the result of a mismatch between the natural and the presented. “Reducing the lens interaxial separations can have perceptual benefits and reduce the likelihood of retinal rivalry. Telephoto lenses should be used in parallel and at small interaxial separations like 60mm,” he added. “Telephoto lenses can be the real killer of 3D. You might get retinal rivalry if you don’t use telephotos with great care.”

The fat and thin of 3D Harper’s second module covered Sexual Dimorphism in Photographic Portraiture. This was about the flattering of male talent and fattening of female talent under identical photographic conother, with a set Interaxial. ‘Side-by-side’ rigs may have had their day (apart from miniaturisation) because mirror/split beam rigs now dominate the market, despite light loss issues. Positive Parallax: The right eye object location is to the right of the left eye location for the object. Images are perceived to be behind the surface of the display screen. Negative Parallax: The L and R object views juxtapose. Consequent images appear to sit in front of the screen plane, floating in space. The Depth or Parallax Budget: The matched values from the maximum acceptable negative parallax in the foreground, to the maximum positive parallax in the background (that result a comfortable viewing experience). Depth Range describes the distance in camera space between those points. Ghosting: Perceived cross talk that looks like a double exposure due to cross image leakage. Bad 3D quickly causes headaches.

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

Continued from page 29

accept 60mm as standard? The adult average is 63mm, and in proposing 60mm you would only get a slight dwarfism that would not be noticed by the eye,” Harper suggested.

In our heads John Watkinson presented three sessions, with the titles of ‘Introduction to Human Perception’, ‘Sound for 3D Cinema’, and ‘The Cinematographic Aspects of Stereoscopic Techniques’. In the first he warned, ”If you don’t understand the human visual system you have no chance of success. The eye is nothing like a camera, bar the lens. We create a 3D model of our surroundings in our head.” Watkinson looked in detail at Foveal and peripheral vision and the fact that our colour vision is not absolute due to the rotating earth. Noting that the light off TVs is brighter than what we see in cinemas he identified the poor brightness of current 3D as something we endure under subconscious stress. One of his main planks was a call for the industry to review frame rates, the point being that ghosting needs to be addressed. He concluded by saying, “3D will throw up all the artifacts that could be hidden in 2D. It is not horrible, it is the only way to reproduce reality.” Harper observed that with the help of “clever stuff ” good work

could be created at 30Hz. Kleijn observed that, “24Hz with stereo will be dire. We need to put pressure on the industry for higher frame rates.” At the start of his audio module, Watkinson observed, “If we don’t put more science in we are lost. When engineering uses science it progresses further. “Developments in the human auditory system (HAS) have been ignored. We will get conflict if we go to 3D without addressing the audio issues. Everything said about stereoscopy relates to the human visual system,” he added. The criteria for the HAS exist in three dimensions – frequency, time and space. The first things we process are the clues, and the delay is significant. Watkinson then reviewed the functions of each part of the ear, right down to the Basilar Membrane, which vibrates in a different place according to pitch. The key fact is that the ear cannot hear above 20Hz. Banging on about no distortion in stereophony he said, “The ear works in different domains depending on what we are trying to do. When dealing

Quantel Pablo: “We cannot do anything about the interocular, you have to get that one right. It’s all about persistence and training,” said Quantel’s Mark Horton

“What is the unit of accuracy of sound images? There isn’t one,” he added. “By not measuring it, we can pretend everything is alright. The specs though are inadequate.”

“Hi-Fi has descended into a squalid pit of pseudo science, and unless we learn from those problems there is the risk that the sound for 3D will also be sub-optimal” — John Watkinson with transient/event type sources it starts working in the time domain. Don’t destroy the time domain at any stage during production; time domain information is our clue to the size of things and any impairment will impair realism.

Of the issues concerning Sound for 3D Cinemas, Watkinson said: “The audio illusion must also be better and must agree more closely with the visual stimulus. Hi-Fi has descended into a squalid pit of pseudo science, and unless we learn from

those problems there is the risk that the sound for 3D will also be sub-optimal.” One key issue he raised concerned an old cherry. “The accuracy required for lip-sync could be even higher than in HDTV,” he said. “In 3D cinema, the key extra parameter is depth and changing depth must cause a correspondent change in the timing of the sound as well as more subtle changes such as the direct-toreverberant ratio.”

Limited experience Kommer Kleijn had already worked on nine 3D projects, so he was the ideal person to front the Practical Capture module. On the issue of finding a camera rig or a

EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF CONVERGENCE A new era of intercom innovation has dawned, where traditional and next-generation technologies form a flexible hybrid network, making impossible production workflows possible. Party-line, digital matrix and wireless: traditional technologies you have come to trust for mission-critical communication, are now able to interoperate with a new mode of IP server communications, known as I.V. Core, to bring you endless capabilities. Unlimit Your Choice with Clear-Com

www.clearcom.com

DIGITAL MATRIX

PARTY-LINE SYSTEMS

DIGITAL WIRELESS

IP COMMUNICATIONS

Stereo 3D production masterclass

savvy cinematographer, he said there are difficulties. “Systems are prototype or ustom built, and most likely they are linked to particular companies,” he said. “Amongst cinematographers there is limited experience, and it is not easy to find independent advice. All projects need good collaboration between the stereographer and the director. “If you find your DOP you have to ask about experience, credits, and what cameras he/ she wants to use. I hope 3D will develop into a creative art, but for now 3D stories have to be 2D compatible,” he added. The secrets are to write and design for 3D, record excellent images, and avoid high contrast and ghosting situations. Kleijn ran through Europe’s rig options, starting with the Binocle rig and the Mini DV, ‘prosumer’ and professional versions designed by Alain Derobe and sold through P+S. Only one of the three P+S versions was available, and Kleijn cited stability and reflection issues in his review. One big issue is the loss of 1.5 stops of light, and he noted that specific grip solutions are often required. Considering the plusses and minuses of the over/under rig systems he said, “Small, reliable, stable, fast in use, and there is a wide choice of camera bodies, but there is very severe light loss, a fixed interocular, limited lens options, and those lenses are not easily available.” Parallel HD bodies offer the plusses of miniature potential, stability, reliability, speed, outor-the-box use, and no light loss. “But,” said Kleijn, “there is no low interocular, no off-the-shelf availability, and the lens choice is bad.” He moved onto visualisation on the set, which starts to fall down with the poor choice of 3D viewfinders. He was working with a single eyepiece and had to use a www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE 3 D T V S P E C I A L

specially adapted visualisation screen to check alignments when not operating the shot. Kleijn mentioned CGI in one context. He said: “A lot of cheating has been done with distance, but no more. Avoid this if possible because you need to change the interocular.” The demo set up featured Sony HDCAMs working via an Arri/P+S rig, a Snell & Wilcox Kahuna vision mixer, and the visualisation screen. Kleijn explained: “I would not converge on set, and I need to consider if I want to move the black borders to satisfy a 2D version.” Asked about 3ality’s rigs, he said: “They are more sophisticated than anything we have in Europe, but they are more sophisticated than required – mechanical pieces of art.” Kleijn had cracked the passing of metadata from the rig for post applications. Wilson explained the presence of the Kahuna. “The filters that do the manipulation need to be very precise or you get insertion loss. You program the DVE to do the manipulation in realtime and bring the two pictures together,” he explained. “The Kahuna has a lot of assignable DVE tiles, and you can assign those to different inputs.” The aspect ratio converters can be assigned to handle simple camera moves, and the keystone converter can do more – correcting the camera directionally. Wilson and Watkinson have ambitions for live 3D presentations. “If you put a system together in an artful way, you can get a good result, and then use the Quantel 3D system in post,” said Wilson.

you reduce the resolution,” said Horton. “Convergence also gives you a key stoning effect, but we can fix that in post with corner pinning.” The real answer regarding convergence and parallel is simply to “shoot correctly”. Horton added: “Parallel is safer but more costly in post. Convergence can be done quickly, but it is effectively lost time.”

He went on to leave a series of key tips, starting with the commercial fact that the images might end up on a silver or white screen and viewed through different glasses technology from the likes of Xpand and Dolby. “If you are a colorist, you need to think what kind of system it will be eventually shown on. Another critical factor is screen

size. Stuff created for the small screen will ghost on big screens. The other way round, you will lose 3D,” Horton said. “We cannot do anything about the interocular, you have to get that one right. It’s all about persistence and training the cameraman beforehand and reaching the comfort zone over time,” he added. “We (Quantel) are simply

taking someone’s good ideas and finessing them, or taking production problems and fixing them.” This was very much a European event, but Hollywood sat in the shadows right to the end. Asked about where subtitles will sit in 3D movies, Wilson said: “The studios are still trying to decide what plane to put them on.”

Paying a price in post Quantel staged a hugely impressive fix-it-in-post demo fronted by Mark Horton, who avowed that the big thing in stereoscopic 3D is sport. With 3ality producing a live sportscast of an NFL game 12 hours earlier, the point was well made. “One issue is that the action moves, the camera moves, and the background doesn’t refresh fast enough. Problems, but 2D has the same issues,” he said. “It is the same problem, but more of your brain is involved. “The big trick in post is that you are shafted,” he added. “If material comes in converged, the key advantage is less post. If the content is parallel it requires more post: with every single shot you have to do the convergence, and this is time and money. You also lose some resolution.” If the operators/artists fiddle too much with parallel sourced content, they could incur double imaging problems, but both parallel and convergence bring issues to the finishing stage. “Talking convergence, we can move things into space, but we are paying a price. Use zooms and www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEUROPE N A B 20 0 9 S N E A K P R EV I EW

NAB 2009 SNEAK PREVIEW This year Quantel can be added to the list of major vendors pulling out of NAB. And with travel budgets tightened across the board, less Europeans than ever will actually travel to Las Vegas next month. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why we believe our NAB Sneak Preview is more important than ever: this is your first look at the cleverest innovations being lined up by over 50 vendors attending the show â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whether you get to see them virtually on the web or live on the show floor! Part Two of our NAB Product Preview will follow in April issue. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Fergal Ringrose

Matrox for the Mac New box streamlines FCP workflow Matrox Video Products Group is launching Matrox MXO2 Rack, a new version of the Matrox MXO2 I/O device for the Mac. The 2RU-sized Matrox MXO2 Rack is designed for broadcast news operations, OB vans, and other environments where equipment must be rackmounted. It streamlines editing workflow with Apple Final Cut Studio on Mac Pros and MacBook Pros, providing broadcast-quality input/output, monitoring, and up/down/cross conversion. Users

can benefit from file-based workflows with support for XDCAM, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, and P2 without transcoding. In addition, they are not limited to using a single codec as with some other I/O devices on the market. In HD for example, Matrox MXO2 Rack supports a variety of codecs including ProRes, ProRes422 HQ, DVCPRO HD, and uncompressed 8- and 10-bit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first version of Matrox MXO2 was a big hit at NAB winning four prestigious awards

By Fergal Ringrose and sales have exploded since it began shipping this summer,â&#x20AC;? said Alberto Cieri, Matrox sales

Analog Way to present 20 Image converter and presentation switcher maker Analog Way will celebrate in 2009 its 20-year anniversary, and will be present at NAB. Analog Way will showcase for the first time in the US the Di-VentiX LE (ref DVX8032), a new dual scaler multi layer high resolution mixer. This is a multii layer switcher with universal analogue and digital input/output and full high resolution digital processing. It offers numerous live effects including PIP, downstream keying and chroma key as well as a multi layer mixer operation mode. In this mode, Di-VentiX LE uses one output as a preview and the other, the Main output, for the audience. The Preview allows 100% view of what the Main output will display. Thanks to its full frame and logo memory, the Di-VentiX can display four layers; two live sources, one frame and one logo. Live layers can be customised. SL7423

FPFQĂ¸RPĂ¸Â? Â&#x2014;Ă¸Â&#x20AC;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2021;Ă¸ MOFIĂ¸ Ă¸Â¨Ă¸Â&#x201A; Â&#x2C6; LLQEĂ¸ Ă¸Â&#x192; >IIĂ¸Â&#x2020;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2014;Ă¸

World launch for the Q-Ball Camera Corps has chosen the National Association of Broadcastersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Convention as a launch platform for the innovative new Q-Ball HD remote camera system. The Q-Ball is designed for outside broadcasting, reality shows and studio productions. It allows programme producers to obtain video in full HD quality from practically any location, day or night. The Q-Ball incorporates 10 x zoom optics (5.1 to 51 mm) and smooth-accelerating pan/tilt motors in a sturdy fully weatherproof aluminium sphere with a diameter of only 115 mm. It can be used upright or inverted without need for any structural reassembly, allowing very fast installation and de-rigging.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Q-Ball is the most comprehensively equipped high definition minicam system available today and a major advance on anything that has gone before,â&#x20AC;? said Laurie Frost, managing director of Camera Corps. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The camera is based on our HD MiniZoom which we used in very large numbers to televise sporting events during the Summer 2009 Games in Beijing. They matched extremely well with larger and far more expensive HD cameras. The Q-Ball can be used under practically any studio or exterior lighting conditions. An infra-red option also delivers pictures in total darkness under infra-red light.â&#x20AC;? C7642

Observe colour grading: Inspired by its success in control panels and user interfaces, da Vinci will unveil Impresario, the next generation for coloristsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interaction with motion picture images and video, at NAB. Driving the full range of da Vinci colour grading systems, the breakthrough Impresario control environment empowers colourists to customise, control, and perfect their colour decisions. Visitors to the da Vinci booth will have the opportunity not only to observe colour grading on the Impresario, but will be encouraged to actually put their hands on and test drive the latest innovation from da Vinci. As da Vinci marks 2009 with the official delivery of Impresario to customers, the company also will show the evolution of its control panels. Colourists who cut their teeth on da Vinci panels of old can take a trip down memory lane to tap on the keys of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s venerable panels. SL3314

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

and marketing director. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With Matrox MXO2 Rack we are building on that success. We listened to our customers and are now delivering Matrox MXO2 Rack to meet the needs of broadcasters and post facilities who require heavy-duty, rackmountable gear with more audio inputs and outputs.â&#x20AC;? SL3814

Ă¸ Ă¸ Ă¸ Ă¸Â?

1SFNBEF $BCMFT

#VML $BCMFT

Â¨Ă¸ Ă¸Â¨

"DUJWF $PNQPOFOUT

)FBEQIPOFT

.PEVMBS 4ZTUFNT

1SFNBEF $BCMFT

0&. .BOVGBDUVSJOH

Ă¸

%JTUSJCVUJPO 4ZTUFNT

TTTÂ&#x2019;PLJJBO@>?IBÂ&#x2019;@LJ Ă¸Ă¸ĂšĂş J? RAFLĂ¸Ă¸N FABLĂ¸Ă¸N OL>A@>PQĂ¸Ă¸N BAF>Ă¸ B@EKLILDVĂ¸Ă¸N F F FKCLÂľPLJJBO@>?IBÂ&#x2019;@LJ

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

NEW 2kW unit

Monitoring for mobile: At the NAB Show, Wohler will unveil three new products in the RM LCD video monitoring series. The new RM-2443W-2HD is 2RU in height, incorporates four widescreen LCDs that measure 4.3 inches in size, and features 480x270 resolution with 16.7 million colours. The RM-3270W-2HD is a 3RU system featuring two 7-inch widescreen LCDs, each with 800x480 resolution and 16.7 million colours. The RM-4290W-2HD measures 4RU in height and incorporates two 9-inch widescreen LCDs with 800x480 resolution and 16.2 million colours. Ideal for use in mobile trucks, news and transmission control rooms, and duplication and post production facilities, each new RM series dual-interface LCD rack includes two auto-sensing HD/SD-SDI and analogue composite inputs with support for embedded audio, eight-channel audio meters (VU and PPM), and display features including ANC timecode, in-monitor UMD, tri-color tally with interfaces to TSL and IMAGE VIDEO systems, H/V delay, underscan, safe area markers, and aspect ratio and blue-only support. N1103

Fresnel Innovation Now available is the new tungsten 2kW version of the Photon Beard Studio Fresnel, joining the 1kW and 650W models introduced recently.

By Fergal Ringrose The Digital Rapids C2 media delivery framework streamlines the transfer of media files between multiple distribution and collaboration points. Working with other Digital Rapids solutions as part of complete media distribution workflows, C2 combines exceptionally fast transfer speeds and reliability with network mesh topologies, parallel transfers, simultaneous send/receive and receipt verification for outstanding efficiency when distributing large media and files to multiple recipients. A new software version for StreamZ and StreamZHD systems will be featured at NAB, further closing the gap between broadcast television operations and new distribution platforms while continuing Digital Rapids’ tradition of easy upgradeability to support new formats, features and distribution opportunities. The new TouchStream live video streaming appliance will make its NAB debut. Ideal in the field, on a desktop or in a rack, TouchStream delivers Digital Rapids’ live streaming quality and reliability in a self-contained appliance. For multichannel, enterprise-class live streaming operations, the StreamZ Live family of

Part of Photon Beard’s ongoing R&D program of innovative, energy efficient lighting products, the complete range of new fresnels were shown for the first time at IBC 2008. The new Fresnels offer Photon Beard’s customary dependable design and construction together with an innovative application of lamp technology and optical design. They are made from aluminium extrusion and aluminium sheet for low weight and compact size and are designed to run at a lower surface temperature than other similar products with cast bodies. Please contact us for full technical information.

encoders brings the output quality of Digital Rapids’ systems to a dedicated live streaming platform. Supporting distribution channels from IPTV to webcasting and mobile video, multiple StreamZ Live encoders can be combined with the Digital Rapids Broadcast Manager live encoder management software for centralised control, automation, monitoring and fault tolerance. A new version of Broadcast Manager will debut, featuring enhanced enterprise deployment capabilities, SNMP support and more. A new version of the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager distributed media transcoding software will be showcased, featuring expanded format support, enhanced enterprise integration capabilities and direct support for leading third-party Quality Control (QC) analysis tools for automated verification of output files. Scalable from small transcoding farms to enterprise level operations, Digital Rapids Transcode Manager provides centralised management, job monitoring, failover and intelligent load balancing, increasing production volume and reliability while reducing operational costs. SL6213

Red One Handle for NAB

www.photonbeard.com Se e

NAB - us at Centr 8042 al Hal l

Photon Beard Limited Unit K3, Cherry Court Way, Stanbridge Road, Leighton Buzzard,Bedfordshire, LU7 4UH, United Kingdom.

Tel: +44 (0)1525 850911 Fax: +44 (0)1525 850922 info@photonbeard.com 34

New media files flow through Digital Rapids

By Adrian Pennington Anton/Bauer is debuting its QR-RH RED One Handle for the RED camera at NAB. Designed by Anton/Bauer, in conjunction with leading camera rental company Fletcher Camera & Lenses, the new QR-RH RED One Handle features Anton/Bauer’s signature Gold Mount, which gives the ability for multiple mounting and the ability to mount the red drive in various locations. It also allows the opportunity to attach various accessories, including Israeli arms, video monitors and Steadicam plates, to the camera’s handle via 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 tapped holes. The QR-RH RED One Handle’s tape hook provides tape measure attachment for camera focus. Its tape clip extender allows the matte box on the lens to

conveniently remain on the camera throughout set up, therefore saving valuable set up time. Providing ease of use and flexibility, its integrated Anton/Bauer Gold Mount allows for various battery positions and optimum weight distribution. C6201 www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

New DeckLink magic for NAB Serious HD upgrades planned by Blackmagic Design At NAB Blackmagic Design will be in Booth SL10820 and will showcase its three newest DeckLink cards: DeckLink HD Extreme with Dual Link SDI, DeckLink SDI and DeckLink Studio launched earlier this year. The new DeckLink HD Extreme replaces the previous model DeckLink HD Extreme; DeckLink Studio and DeckLink SDI replace the entire Blackmagic Design standard definition product line while also adding high definition support, at unprecedented low costs. These are the most affordable video capture cards: DeckLink HD Extreme is US $995, DeckLink Studio is only US$695 and DeckLink SDI is US$395 The new DeckLink HD Extreme with Dual Link SDI is a more powerful version of the original DeckLink HD Extreme card. It has all the features of the original model, which it replaces, plus now adds Dual Link 3Gbps SDI for 4:4:4 quality and a new hardware down converter for simultaneous HD and SD playback at the same time. The new DeckLink HD Extreme is the world’s first capture

New range of heads: The Vector 750 studio and OB full facility camera head recently chosen for the restyling of the popular UK show The XFactor features Vinten’s unique counterbalance technology that instead of using springs or cams exploits the centre of gravity of payloads up to 75kg (165.3lbs), dramatically simplifying camera balancing. Supporting payloads up to 120kg (264.5lbs), the advanced Vector 950 Active camera head communicates realtime positioning data to the SHIFT-IS stabilisation systems of Canon DIGISUPER 100AF and DIGISUPER 86AF long-field zoom lenses. By combining Vinten’s TF drag control with infinite perfect balance adjustment, the effort required to command a heavy payload remains constant, predictable and minimal. The unique Quattro fourstage pedestal offers effortless steering, maximum rigidity and easy positioning, and is available in studio (Quattro-L), OB (Quattro-OBL) and small base (Quattro-SL) versions. In addition Vinten is showing Osprey Light, the top quality lightweight pedestal for small studios. C6028

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

card to feature SDI, HDMI and analogue component, NTSC, PAL and S-Video capture and playback,

By Andy Stout

combined with Dual Link 3Gbps SDI technology, and hardware down conversion,

DeckLink Studio features SDI and enhanced analogue connections: SDI, analogue component, S-Video and composite video, Plus, it has a built in hardware down converter and an incredible

four channels of balanced analogue audio, eight channels of SDI audio and two channels of AES/EBU digital with sample rate converters. DeckLink Studio lets you move between SD and HD workflows. For a broadcast strength solution, DeckLink Studio also has RS-422 deck control and blackburst and tri-sync reference input.

When it comes to your digital content workflow, one company gives you the

Power of Choice.

Accelerate and customize your digital workﬂow with the platform that enables best-of-breed solutions. The power of choice is yours with Omneon. Only Omneon delivers a complete content platform optimized for your digital content workflows. Our comprehensive portfolio of media servers, active storage and applications accelerate your workflow – eliminating bottlenecks and improving efficiencies. And Omneon’s heritage of innovation and commitment to service is unmatched across the industry. If you’re looking for a scalable, flexible and reliable digital content platform, the choice is clear: Trust Omneon.

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

NEWS IN BRIEF

Harris ramps up 3G

Streambox for news

By Andy Stout

Streambox is announcing for the NAB show the release of the hybrid Streambox SBT3-9500 HD/SD encoder for IP-based newsgathering and video transport. The solution enables broadcasters to perform live and file-based newsgathering, video transport, and acquisition in HD and SD. The SBT3-9500 is integrated into one lightweight and portable solution, making it ideal for encoding mission critical video over low-cost IP networks such as 3G, WiFi, WIMAX, and the Internet. The versatile HD/SD encoder is typically deployed to field crews for low data rate newsgathering. It features two hours of battery life, and it can also run on a car battery. The encoder works with the breadth of Streambox’s video management and play-out systems. The file-based solution simplifies and streamlines the broadcast workflow from video file upload to video management and play-out. SU14413

At NAB Harris Corporation will introduce new 3Gbps/HD/SD/ ASI fibre distribution amplifiers (DAs) in several configurations for its 6800+ modular core processing platform. The new line of DAs enables both fibre and coaxial distribution, as well as built-in automatic changeover upon primary signal failover. Harris 3Gbps-capable fibre DAs provide broadcasters with

single-channel transceiver, dualchannel fiber transmitter, dualchannel fibre receiver, and dualchannel fibre receiver with dual fibre transmitters per channel. All of these DAs offer the balance of inputs and outputs in standard coax. Key features include support for 3Gbps/HD/SD/ASI, reclocking, low-power consumption, ASI compatibility on all outputs, and broadcast-quality performance that exceeds SMPTE specifications.

The DAs use SFP (small form-factor pluggable) interchangeable fibre cartridges, which allow the user to swap cartridges to change wavelengths or expand into optical at a later date. The DAs are ideal for distribution applications requiring a mixture of mediumhaul and medium/long-haul signal paths, such as within a multifloor facility or across metro-type distances.

Eyeheight bows three at NAB By Andy Stout Eyeheight’s UD-2 (pictured) is an up/down converter with threefield temporal processing and 3:2-pulldown frame-rate conversion. Like all Eyeheight multidefinition products, the UD-2 is compatible with the 18 video standards currently in use across 525/625, 720p, 1080p and 1080i. Advanced video noise reduction features enable overall noise and artifacts associated with DCT compression to be minimised. NAB sees the NAB launch for eyeCon, which allows PC-based

control of any module in the Eyeheight FB-9E intelligent chassis. Integral diagnostics provide instant assurance that the module under interrogation is fully operational. If

an error is detected, holding the cursor over the red status light reveals information such as loss of source video. The Ethernet interface allows device communication and control

“All of the new Harris 3Gbps fibre DA modules reside in the high-density, cost-effective 2RU 6800+ frame, and enable broadcasters to reap the benefits of the broadcast-quality performance inherent in the 6800+ series platform,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. “Broadcasters can now choose from a full complement of true DAs with fibre I/O, and gain the benefit of optical input/output for 3Gbps/HD/ SD/ASI distribution today, or easily expand into optical distribution when ready.” www.harris.com

via intranet or internet, giving the ability to check a compatible Eyeheight product anywhere in the world via TCP/IP link. Also set for US launch is the LE-2MD, the smallest and most powerful legaliser in the Eyeheight range. It is compatible with all commonly-used signal standards from 525 and 625-line SD up to 720p and 1080i HD. Structured as two internal independent legalisers in series, the LE-2MD can be configured to operate in composite and RGB domains simultaneously, including conformity to the 75% chroma settings commonly used in the USA, Japan and Australia. SL7409

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

Miranda stirs NVision into NAB product mix By Fergal Ringrose

PlayBox is opened by Fox PlayBox Technology, now powering over 6,500 SD, HD and DVB TV channels worldwide, is showcasing its new expanded range of playout capabilities at NAB 2009. The PlayBox Technology unattended automated remote playout solution, nicknamed ‘FoxBox’ and developed in conjunction with Fox International Channels Italy, enables the full operation and monitoring of distant broadcast playout using public internet as the link for all content delivery, control and monitoring. Customisable to fit user requirements, single and multi-channel operation and full equipment redundancy are available. Rather than offering only unbranded generic feeds, the PlayBox automated remote solution enables full localisation of content branding including commercials, station IDs, multilingual audio, subtitles and graphics, as required. This allows low-cost worldwide local playout from any network operations location. The pioneering NewsAir newsroom computer system, now

Catch the BMS distance As a leader in wireless digital microwave technology, providing innovative products for the television, broadcast and video industry, BMS, Broadcast Microwave Services Europe, will contribute to the NAB event, presenting its most powerful and flexible SD/HD equipment for wireless transmitting and receiving. The new DR 4524 is meeting the demands of the industry and will complete the successful standard receiver range of 2-Way-Diversity and 6-Way-Diversity DVB-T receiver technology, for use in mobile applications. Its newly designed slim and space-saving dimensions allow for use in tight environments, like edit suites and OB-Vans. BMS Europe’s new Fibre receiver will cover long distances, without any loss and allows wireless camera control. And the Frequency range has been enhanced to the 7GHz band and runs now from 400MHz up to 7.5GHz. www.broadcast-microwaveservices.com www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

available from PlayBox Technology, offers the benefits of both performance and a new level of cost-effectiveness for newsroom operations. The NewsAir NRCS can provide journalists with a networked collaborative environment that includes features such as news archive, chat, a phonebook and aggregation of agency news, as well as operation over the internet, that can work either separately or integrated with video facilities. The PlayBox Metus MAM media asset management system can be the heart of a small TV station or a large broadcast center where MAM is required to organise and manage the assets of single or multichannel operations, as well as other supported content for the business operations of many diverse organisations PlayBox Metus MAM is available as a stand-alone solution or working with PlayBox Technology ingest, playout and branding systems for all areas from production and post through to TV broadcasters and multi-channel playout centers. SU10410

At NAB, Miranda Technologies will be highlighting its new NVision series of enterprise class SD/HD/3Gbps routing switchers, which provide rich integration with its interfacing, master control switching, and monitoring ranges. Miranda’s new line of routers has been introduced following its recent acquisition of NVision, the routing and master control specialist based in Grass Valley, California. “The NVision range rounds out Miranda’s product line-up. We can now offer facility wide solutions

spanning interfacing, routing, master control, graphics and playout, as well as multi-viewers and facility monitoring”, said Michel Proulx, CTO at Miranda. “However, this is not just about offering a wider portfolio of products; we will be delivering unrivalled integration across our ranges. This will result in more streamlined hardware and lower costs, along with enhanced operator productivity from improved control systems.” NVISION offers a complete range of routers with sizes from 16x4 all the way up to 1152x1152, with many specialised flavours

and form factors for specific routing applications. The largest routers in the range are the NVision 8500 enterprise class routers, which offer the ultimate level of robustness. They also provide unmatched signal path integrity for improved return loss and cable length performance. They offer scalability up to 1152x1152 video inputs, using ASI/SD/HD and 3Gpbs (1080p and 3D stereoscopic) video and digital audio. The ultra-compact NVision 8288 truck routers are claimed to be ‘the world’s smallest large routers’, and are available in sizes up to 576x576. These modular routers are half the size and weight of comparable routers, and also consume half the power normally required. This makes these SD/HD/3Gbps routers ideal for both flypack and truck applications. SU2807

Pharos working for a promotion At NAB Pharos is set to announce a new mechanism to improve graphics workflow and playout for multichannel promotions. Pharos Event Templates tie the graphics preparation workflow to playout and delivery when using Pharos Mediator and Pharos Playtime. Event Templates simplify the creation and delivery of complex secondary events such as ‘coming up next’ graphics, credit squeezes and promotions. Frame-accurate markers can be added at any stage in the Mediator workflow to assist graphics design and trigger promotions during playout. These are co-ordinated by Pharos Mediator

Pharos Event Templates use frame-accurate markers that simplify promotions and delivery

and Playtime into a single business process, greatly reducing the risk of on-screen errors when scaling up for multi-channel and multilanguage expansion. Cross-channel promotions can also be managed using Event

Templates where both schedules are changing. Mediator’s powerful transfer management underpins Event Templates by managing all file transfers between central storage and any number of thirdparty graphics playout devices. Pharos’ Russell Grute said, “Pharos Event Templates are compatible with third-party graphics creation tools and standalone server and graphics airchains as well as the increasing number of channel-in-a-box graphics servers. The playout system complexity can be reduced and main/backup changeover is greatly simplified.” SU 8902

NAB 09 Booth C9508

For more information go to www.evs.tv

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

EVS to unveil new server and TV production software Insio toolbox for shiny floor TV show workflow Following worldwide launch at London’s BE show in February, at NAB EVS is introducing both XS, a new 4-channel video production server, and Insio, its latest software application for pre-recorded TV programmes. XS is part of the new Silverline brand, a new EVS brand developed

to satisfy the needs of near-live and pre-recorded studio productions. The XS video production server guarantees a reliable and flexible transition to tapeless production in a studio environment. Built on the unique EVS loop recording, the new XS server is optimised for the recording of

Under wraps: New iteration for Mediornet fibre transport By Fergal Ringrose Riedel modestly suggests it will present the industry’s next generation of fibre optic signal

transport solutions at this year’s NAB exhibition in Las Vegas. The Riedel MediorNet will be the first step into a new age of fibre-based

By Fergal Ringrose multiple audio and video feeds, as well as instant control and multichannel playback operations. Exclusively available in four channels, the new XS server offers multiple SD and HD codec configurations with native support, such as IMX, Avid DNxHD and Apple ProRes 422 for faster and easier realtime signal transport solutions for multi-channel HD video, audio and data. It will establish a complete new approach to broadcast production infrastructure. Riedel will also introduce its new Acrobat Digital Wireless Intercom range to international markets. With the Riedel Acrobat system it is easy to use licencefree, full-duplex, wireless communications intercom for broadcast, security, industrial and theatre applications as well as sports and cultural events. Acrobat takes a completely new approach to wireless communications, pushing it beyond the limits of existing wireless intercom solutions. The Acrobat system allows the operation of an unlimited number of wireless beltpacks and features both partyline and point-to-point communications, digital audio quality and no interference with radio microphones or inear-monitoring. www.riedel.net

media exchange with post production. XS guarantees perfect integration with third-party tools, so that files can easily be exchanged in any type of production workflow. Based on its powerful networking capabilities, XS makes recorded media instantly available across the production network for simultaneous preview, rough editing, archiving, playback, or post production. Insio, meanwhile, is a new software application engineered for pre-recorded programme production. Combined with any EVS production server, Insio offers producers the perfect toolbox for controlling each production phase of pre-recorded TV programmes, including the control of multiple

recording feeds, instant review, clip management, metadata creation, clip transfer and feed streaming to post. Michel De Wolf, senior broadcast workflow specialist at EVS, said: “The main objective when designing this new software was to offer producers a genuine tapeless solution that enhances and speeds up studio production workflows, but remains easy to use and integrates perfectly with existing post production infrastructures. We are proud to have been able to achieve this with Insio, an integral part of our new Silverline brand, and which should inherit a good reputation from EVS’ proven expertise in the live production environment.” www.evs.tv

OmniBus makes NAB NEWS By Andy Stout Developed in consultation with some of the major names in news broadcasting, OmniBus iTX NEWS provides a speedy and responsive solution for today’s rapidly evolving multi-format news

environment. iTX NEWS has multiformat capabilities, allowing users to ingest and edit together SD and HD sources easily and combine them in the same playlist with non-broadcast material, such as security footage and user-generated content, with realtime format conversion and rendering of effects. The iTX architecture streamlines the output of multiple versions of the same playlist for SD, HD, Internet streaming, mobile TV and other platforms, with automatic transcoding and distribution of content. iTX BCP is a specially configured variation of iTX designed for business continuity (disaster recovery) applications that includes media replication, fully redundant mirroring and remote operation after evacuation. This lightweight solution sources content automatically from existing video servers, transferring content as required to a remote location, where an iTX playback engine interprets the transmission schedules to provide a parallel service. It includes an automatic service for the insertion of evergreen content to fill schedule gaps for which content is not available, such as during live events. iTX On-Demand is a new version of iTX that greatly simplifies the process of creating VoD material by allowing broadcasters to transmit conventional channels and save VoD-ready content from the same iTX workflow and hardware, without having to re-ingest or reformat material explicitly for VoD use. SU5417 www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

ClipJockey and Dynamics Media on NAB floor

S4M files for Microsoft S4M’s ClipJockey (pictured) supports the daily processes carried out in control rooms. At the same time, it enables migration into a file-based environment. The tool corresponds to a scope of features that amongst many others is provided by VPMS, S4M’s video production management system. The difference: as a stand-alone solution ClipJockey focuses on core workflows in control rooms and covers the special needs of TV broadcasters and (post) production companies regarding ingest and playout functionalities. For instance, MOS-enabled news formats can be carried out tape-

only possible in a tape-based context. In doing so, a multichannel link feature supports key-fill applications and multi camera productions. As a partner at the Microsoft stand Cologne-based S4M will also showcase Dynamics Media, an all-in-one broadcast management system based on Microsoft’s business management solution

Microsoft Dynamics AX. Dynamics Media is a ready-todeploy system that consists of two modules: Dynamics AdSales concentrates on air time sales tasks and traffic management, whereas Dynamics Broadcast enables licence, material and asset management, as well as program planning. www.s4m.com

THE STANDARD HDTV CONNECTOR

less. Likewise, the pre-production of magazines may be accomplished without tapes. Especially

to that end, S4M has developed the add-on mode allowing the same comfort that hitherto was

On display: RTW loudness RTW’s new Loudness Family, with its SurroundControl, SurroundMonitor, and DigitalMonitor, now includes an integrated loudness display conforming to the ITU BS.1771 guideline as a standard feature. With this line-up, RTW now offers easy-to-use solutions for monitoring the loudness of stereo, multichannel, and surround signals in a wide range of applications, as a complement or an alternative to conventional peak meters. Users can select integrated loudness measurement, as per ITU BS.1771 for stereo signals, as an alternative to the usual peak meter bar graphs. This feature can be activated quickly and easily via suitably programmed presets. RTW has completely overhauled its SurroundControl

RTW 30010 front with screen 31900

family, including the only 8channel systems for professional production, post production, and broadcast that control, monitor, and analyse surround sound utilising RTW’s unique Surround Sound Analyser. Developed by RTW, the Surround Sound

Pro-Bel’s brave new NAB route A fresh page in router design will be turned at NAB with the unveiling of a brand new router incorporating a raft of technological firsts. With an optional touch-screen user interface, the new 3Gbps (1080p) router from Pro-Bel will offer an ideal mix of video and audio routing modularity with optional SFP 3Gbps fibre all accommodated within a cost effective design.? The large-scale, multi-format router is easily expanded up to 1152x1152 simply by linking two frames via multi-way cables without the need for any external splitters or combiners. Further capacity is added by linking further frames, even when the system is in use. The frame architecture has also been designed to incorporate a new breed of high www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

performance processing input and output modules. The first of these will be a de-embedder/embedder that passes embedded audio signals from all inputs to an internal 9216x9216 TDM (time-division multiplex) audio crosspoint, so allowing users to effortlessly route, shuffle and process any embedded audio signal on any input to any output. For further flexibility, the frame can be fitted with AES input and output modules to directly link into the embedded audio routing architecture. Both video and audio switching inside the router is fully redundant using a unique new architecture developed to provide complete reliability without incurring a price premium. SU12710

Analyzer is the ‘house’-shaped display known throughout the industry because of its easy-toread, visual manifestation of overall sound, including loudness and sound pressure level, phase correlation, and level differences among channels. The SurroundControl 31900 is designed for audio studios and fits in a 19-inch, 1-RU case, while the SurroundControl 31960 is sized as a half 19-inch, 3-RU rack-mountable module for use with standard 19-inch installation racks for waveform monitors in video studios. The Remote Display 30010, a dedicated 8.4-inch VGA monitor featuring function keys situated below the display screen, further enhances the ergonomics of the SurroundMonitor 11900.

3K.93C HDTV connection system • Professional broadcast’s preferred choice • Hybrid configuration - 2 fibre optic contacts - 2 power contacts - 2 signal contacts • Conforms to standards : ARIB / SMPTE / EBU • Over 20’000 mating cycles • Cable assembly service • Sony Green Partner

www.rtw.de

Browsing for Avid SGL, claimed to bd still the only integrated archive solution currently sold by Avid for the Avid Interplay nonlinear workflow engine, will also have a fully functional, fully integrated Avid Interplay on its booth at NAB. SGL’s FlashBrowse II is a client-based web tool with attributes that allow FlashNet users to capture simple metadata and archive and restore media from many different forms of archive. Web browser based, FlashBrowse II can be used on any platform — Mac, PC or Linux. Not only can users search for content held in the archive, they can view low res proxy versions without restoring the original material from the archive. Both simple and advanced searches are supported. FlashBrowse II allows the user to search for content. SU8505

Pre-terminated contacts • No epoxy - no polish • Easy and fast assembly • Field repair kit available SEE US AT BOOTH C7433 NABSHOW - LAS VEGAS 20 - 23 APRIL 2009

Triax to fibre optic converter

LEMO SA - Switzerland Phone: (+41 21) 695 16 00 Fax: (+41 21) 695 16 02 info@lemo.com Contact your local partner on www.lemo.com

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

NEWS IN BRIEF Ross Cross Vision The Ross Vision QMD/X line of multi-definition production switchers continues to advance with an expanded feature set and the launch of Version 9.0 software at NAB 2009. The numerous v9.0 enhancements include: up to eight channels of DVE in a Single MLE, WhiteFlash transition type, expanded still-store functionality with thumbnails, animation trimming, new warps, MLE Auto Follow, memory attributes for and many more user personality features to enable the specific user preferred operation. Vision v9.0 also offers an expanded complement of device controls including newly supported devices in almost every category supported. This will be the first NAB for Ross’s CrossOver series of compact production switchers. CrossOver is designed for small studios, small mobile trucks, flight packs and linear editing. The award winning EditSet.HD package provides a fully functional linear editing solution right out of the box. Other important applications for the CrossOver switchers include master control branding in television production and live mixing to on-set monitors and iMag screens. SU1807

Grass Valley puts its best foot forward Vendor to celebrate 50th anniversary at NAB The Grass Valley K2 Dyno replay controller, coupled with the new K2 Summit production server, are both designed to help sports producers and other professionals capture live events in crystal-clear high definition resolutions and instantly play them out at variable speeds for critical analysis during fastpaced events.

Also showing are the Grass Valley LDK8300 3X HD super slo-mo camera, LDK8000 SportElite multiformat 2X HD slo-mo camera, LDK4000 Elite single format HD cameras, and the Infinity Digital Media Camcorder (with new integration of the Telecast Fiber Systems Copperhead transmission system and using the full range of 2/3-inch

Nucomm’s new Newscaster By Adrian Pennington

S.two will show its OB-1 onboard recorder with removable FlashMAG solid-state digital film magazines for the first time at NAB 2009 (SL12005). S.two’s new OB-1 answers market demand for a compact, lightweight, affordable onboard recorder that continues to reliably record uncompressed images with industry-standard DPX files. OB-1 has minimal energy requirements, records from up to four cameras simultaneously using solid-state magazines with capacities of at least 30 minutes, records two channels of balanced analogue audio, and incorporates a host of other features that combine to establish a new standard for onboard digital film recording. OB-1 provides full compatibility with S.two’s existing workflow as used on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Nucomm is introducing its Newscaster DR 2 diversity receiver at NAB. The updated model of its predecessor, the Newscaster DR, offers new features including a split box and the ability to receive UHF digital signals in the 150 to 850MHz band. Since the DR 2 can receive lower frequency UHF digital signals, the unit works with external block down converters (BDC). The DR 2 can be supplied with BDCs that can receive a wide range of frequencies from 1.99GHz to 7.1GHz, depending on customer requirements. “The architecture of the DR 2 offers communication between the external BDCs and the main receive unit, enabling the system to operate in different modes, such as wideband, tuned 1 or tuned 2 modes, providing our customers with far more flexibility

than similar systems on the market,” said RF Extreme President Stephen Shpock. The DR 2 is equipped with four RF inputs that communicate directly to the external BDCs, which form a maximum ratio combination that offers up to four input diversity receive signals. In using the external BDC, the

HDCP Compatible

Tetra VIO: New versatile “All in One” solution

> Supported formats : - HDTV up to 1080p@30Hz - TV (Standard and Progressive PAL & NTSC) - Computer up to 2048x1080RB > Large range of connectors (BNC, HD15, DVI, mini DIN 4, Cinch, RCA) > Logo insertion

From Europe, Middle East and Africa Analog Way France • Phone: +33 (0)1 6447 1603 • Fax: +33 (0)1 6447 1473 • Email: saleseuro@analogway.com • web site: www.analogway.com

Newscaster DR 2’s receive antennas can be remotely mounted at a distance from the main unit. It is outfitted with an integrated COFDM demodulator, an MPEG-2 HD/SD decoder, internal power supply, an integrated spectrum analyser and an onscreen display. C3707

Snell’s new 3G and 3D motion By Adrian Pennington

cinema lenses). More than 20 Grass Valley HD cameras will also be on display throughout the show floor at partner booths. A new version of Grass Valley Ignite software (v5.3) will be demonstrated with new features and functionality for singleoperator, multi-camera productions. Ignite HD system will be shown in tandem with the

Grass Valley MediaFUSE Content Re-purposing and Multi-distribution System. NAB 2009 will see new versions of Grass Valley’s Aurora (6.5) and EDIUS (5.1) HD editing software packages. There’s new integration with the Grass Valley K2 media servers and improved workflow for Final Cut Pro users. This includes unique integration with the K2 server at the file level with QoS. SL106

S-two images uncompressed

Looking for a multi-functional tool for your shows, presentations or Broadcast facilities?

> Universal Converter (SD, HD, PC) > High performance scaler with HD and SD deinterlacing > Analog/Digital in/outs > Audio Embedder/De-Embedder > Analog Genlock with active loopthrough > Frame Rate Converter > Up to 500% zoom > Audio delay compensation

By Fergal Ringrose

The MachHD offers high quality motion-compensated HD and SD standards and format conversion with synchronisation capability. Ideal for broadcast applications such as live news and events, ingest, and playout, the compact standards converter offers multi-rate HD/SD inputs and outputs. The unit provides up/down/ cross conversion — both within and between frame rates — along with aspect ratio conversion and colourspace conversion, complemented by AFD support. The MachHD, which is part of the Kudos Plus product family, supports embedded AES (balanced and unbalanced) and analogue audio. Its compatibility with the Snell & Wilcox RollCall control and monitoring system enables smooth integration into the overall plant infrastructure, and 3Gbps functionality will be introduced in Q2 2009. Snell & Wilcox is introducing 3Gbps-versions of standards converters and synchronisers in

the company’s Kudos Plus family. The HD CVR700 SD/HD linear frame-rate converter and the HD TBS700 SD/HD synchroniser/stabiliser give users the flexibility to transition to HD3Gbps infrastructures through a simple software upgrade, and each system supports Web updates to ensure an easy upgrade path. The company will introduce newly developed 3-D stereoscopic functionality for the Kahuna multiformat production switcher. The Kahuna’s stereoscopic enhancement makes it easier for operators to finetune the alignment of cameras, thus enabling faster and more cost-effective calibration of cameras for 3D acquisition. With these added capabilities, the Kahuna offers advanced processing that, through an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, enhances the camera’s ability to shoot, monitor, and control 3D video for live production in sports, entertainment, and other programs. SU1917

New 3G Overture: This year, Echolab’s Overture MD switcher, available with 1 or 2 M/Es, becomes more versatile with the addition of 3Gbps (1080p60) format support to its existing range of SD, 720p, and 1080i over a single SDI or HDMI input. Many production companies and broadcasters use a mix of formats, requiring a costly and cumbersome mix of outboard equipment to translate signals for the switcher. With internal analogue to digital conversion and frame sync, the Overture MD enables a compact, streamlined and costeffective production solution. The addition of 3Gbps operation means the Overture now supports the highest quality broadcast format now on the market. SU2302

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

SeaChange at SeaChange Server vendor partners with Dalet and DataDirect

HD to IP and mobile: High definition video streaming will reach a new level with the Niagara 7500 from ViewCast. Making its debut at NAB 2009, the Niagara 7500 simplifies the complex workflows associated with the transformation and delivery of high-definition video to IP and mobile networks. The Niagara 7500 features a sleek touch control interface with contextual menus that streamline and simplify the operation of this dual quad core streaming appliance. The unit features SD and HD SDI video inputs, balanced/unbalanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio, and eight stereo pairs of embedded SDI audio inputs. Users can switch on-the-fly between incoming SD and HD video, and stream in multiple bit rates and resolutions simultaneously in Microsoft VC-1, Silverlight, and H.264 Flash Live. The Niagara 7500 includes powerful video preprocessing tools such as closed-caption rendering, de-interlacing, and inverse telecine. SL12415

Through a new technology and integration partnership with Dalet Digital Media Systems and DataDirect Networks, SeaChange is bringing to market an enterprise media asset management-based workflow that improves how broadcasters produce, share and repurpose content. Built on SeaChange’s infrastructure consisting of the SeaChange MediaClient for multi-format ingest and playout; DataDirect Networks’ S2A high performance high-availability storage; and the DaletPlus enterprise asset management software; the new workflow forms a flexible solution for broadcasters and content producers

OmniTek colour definition for post pro analysis By Adrian Pennington Test and measurement manufacturer OmniTek is to show its new CIE Colour Chart analysis functionality for the OTM 1000 3Gbps waveform monitor, signal analyser and generator for the first time at this year’s NAB on booth SL5929. “The CIE colour space is the most widely accepted, interna-

tional standard way of defining colour. First established in 1931 it allows chromaticity to be defined with wavelengths in nanometers,” said Mike Hodson, president of OmniTek. “However, until now it has not been possible to measure down to this level of colour definition accurately with a video analysis

system. The CIE Colour Chart functionality within the OTM 1000 to be revealed for the first time at NAB will be available to address this need and will be particularly relevant for post production houses working in a high definition environment which need to analyse colour as accurately as possible.”

time is money…

creating news, sports and entertainment programmes. The next generation of SeaChange’s Broadcast MediaLibrary transmission server, the BMLxt (pictured) adds features and performance capabilities to the BML system. Designed for broadcasters who require a scalable, reliable diskbased central media asset library, the BMLxt features a new SAS drive-based design that improves reliability while delivering faster transfer speeds, less latency and increased scalability. The BMLxt series of servers scales from a single 3.6TB node up to a 9-node cluster providing nearly 100TB, which can be combined with SeaChange’s

By Fergal Ringrose

MediaClient (MCL) software codecs to ingest or playout broadcast-quality HD and SD channels. SeaChange continues to innovate with its groundbreaking FML200, introduced at NAB2008. The newest version of the FML200 uses (24) 64GB flash memory drives provides more channels per rack-unit than any other transmission server available today, according to the company. With no spinning disks, the FML200 is 100 times more reliable and consumes 10 times less power than spinning disk-based counterparts, mitigating failures, rebuilds, replacements and other disk-related issues. SU12009 The OTM1000 itself provides reliable, multi-format and multichannel signal generation plus comprehensive input data analysis capabilities. The system is compatible with all available single-link and dual-link SDI signals at bitrates up to and including 3Gbps. There is also the option to provide full SDI physical layer analysis, including what is claimed to be the world’s first production 3Gbps SDI eye pattern display.

www.omnibus.tv

iTX - launch new channels in weeks, not months Worried about staying competitive in today’s rapidly changing market? iTX, the world’s first fully-featured, enterprise class, software-based SD & HD production and transmission solution gives you the agility you need to survive by eliminating the cost and complexity of taking new channels and services to air.

the future starts here… www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

NEWS IN BRIEF Schedule template ScheduALL will showcase added functionality of its scheduling tool sets with a new process-based scheduling component. This new tool provides the granularity of task-based scheduling, faster work order/process creation via reusable drag-and-drop templates, and enhanced forecasting, budgeting, and reporting within the project workflow spectrum. By leveraging this new technology, users gain a greater degree of visibility across the enterprise, while reducing overhead in the creation of project workflows. Collectively, these capabilities promote greater efficiencies and increased profitability. ScheduALL has partnered with industry leaders such as TGVIngest, Tektronics-QC, and Pro Consultants-Air Management, and is also working with vendor technologies such as Media Hub from IBM, SMPTE’s Broadcast eXchange Format (BXF), and the Interactive Media Manager (IMM) from Microsoft, to provide even greater communication and management within workflow automation. SL 1606

Obscure segments Volicon will demonstrate its new Producer Module — an option for the Observer that enables broadcasters to capture and repurpose content in a variety of industry formats for outside use. The Producer provides operators with an easy-to-use platform for browsing aired content that has been recorded by the Observer and searching for and retrieving the desired video segment down to the individual frame level. The Producer then transcodes the segment into one of several industry-standard formats and automatically provides the output to either DVD, Web/FTP site, or via e-mail to the third party. SU8823

New Pipeline, Episode and Wirecast products for NAB

HD in Telestream Pipeline Pipeline HD Dual is the latest model to emerge from Telestream’s series of Pipeline network video capture systems. This 2-channel hardware encoder captures high definition video from SDI tape or live sources and encodes it in realtime to leading HD editing formats, including Avid DNxHD, Apple ProRes 422 and Panasonic DVCPRO HD. Pipeline HD Dual

encodes multiple HD and SD formats in a single device — providing flexibility in multiformat environments for users’ evolving needs. Pipeline is changing the game in live multi-camera production of sports, news, concerts and other events. The ability to edit while ingest allows immediate access to content for fast turnarounds. Pipeline is ideal for quickly creating

news or highlights packages. When used with Telestream’s FlipFactory or Episode Engine, multiple live broadcast feeds can be captured for instant transcoding to other formats. New at NAB2009 is Episode desktop encoding for both PC and Mac users. Episode Engine transcoding solutions for the Mac scale from a single server to very

high-speed distributed server clusters for time-critical needs. A new realtime video production software product for Mac and PC users was added to Telestream’s product lineup last summer when the company acquired Vara Software. Wirecast ($495) is a desktop application that turns any Mac or PC into a video studio, allowing users to quickly and easily capture live events, create and distribute content for realtime web delivery. Users can stream multiple live video cameras, while dynamically mixing in other media. SL3305

Colour display keypanel: The KP 32 CLD from RTS introduces several new features designed to enhance capability and ease of use. The intuitive graphical interface is displayed on two full-colour 4.9-inch LCD screens. The front panel also features conveniences such as two user-programmable buttons, one-touch listen volume adjustment on each of the 32 new multifunction user keys, and a backlit keypad. The KP 32 CLD can be ordered with the new, more intuitive CLD key sequences, or the Classic key sequences. The CLD series keypanels are changing the intercom experience. Common functions that used to be buried within menus are now accessible with a single touch. Like all RTS products, the KP 32 CLD is designed with expansion in mind. The frontmounted USB port and modular rear panel allow for future upgrades that will keep the KP 32 CLD on the forefront of technology for years to come. C7025

Pebble Floating on the Beach By Andy Stout Pebble Beach will present the latest developments to its flagship Neptune automation system. These include ‘floating lists’, global timers and multi time-zone support, as well as further expansion of Anchor, Pebble Beach’s own integrated media management tool. The recently introduced Floating Lists allows any channel

to be played from any physical playlist, which is then automatically routed to the right output. The system is aware of the available hardware and is smart enough to determine whether the broadcast equipment can support SD, HD or both. By enabling the sharing of playlists between channels, broadcasters can more easily manage priorities in the event of

Crystal Vision moves to sports with Playback 8G On Booth SU3102 at NAB Crystal Vision will be introducing new features for the Picturestore range — the company’s area of speciality based on solid-state fast reading and writing DRAM and permanent Flash picture storage — as well as launching its 3G HD product range.

The new features for MultiLogo and Clip N Key include doubling the size of the video store to 8GB, plus the addition of audio functionality and an analogue reference. Designed for branding HD or SD television stations, MultiLogo is a sophisticated modular logo keyer — a space-saving board

failures and make best use of the available resources. The management of multi-channel playout is further simplified by the addition of Global Timers which provide valuable timing information across all channels and the recently added multi time-zone support allows users to work with either local or remote time zones. Pebble Beach has added enhancements to Anchor Media Manager for further integrated archive control. Improved rules-

based media and workflow management enables broadcasters to combine large-scale, IT based storage systems with broadcast specific technologies. Mixed architectures which combine third party archive and media platforms, together with Pebble Beach’s own archive system, allow for legacy archive control by a third-party system whilst the near-line store and other media movements are being carried out by Anchor. SU11402

which provides three layers of keying from a variety of internal and external sources, including an 8GB eight-port non-volatile video store that can read six still or animated images and write two images all at the same time. Clip N Key, meanwhile, is a convenient way to add extra video sources to a mixer to enhance transitions in sports or live events programming. It allows a special clip or sting with optional associated key signal to be played repeatedly without tying up a server port. The 8GB multi-port video store can store a

number of different video clips, up to 60 seconds total in HD (30 seconds if it includes a key signal) or six times that length in SD. MultiLogo and Clip N Key now both have the ability to embed a single audio group into their video outputs. Audio data is transferred to and from the boards via Ethernet using the PC drag-and-drop software. Designed for affordable sports replay technology, Playback 8G is Crystal Vision’s latest instant replay device that can replay 60 seconds of HD video or 310 seconds of SD at a significantly lower price than the hard drive alternatives. Playback 8G has an 8GB video store and features industry standard software protocols (including Sony VTR and VDCP) to allow it to be controlled from any thirdparty hardware or software. A dedicated web page allows the broadcast engineer to choose whether to use some of the memory for embedded audio. Playback 8G will continuously record (and overwrite) until something of interest happens at which point the operator will press Stop. The last 60 seconds of recorded HD video is then available for replay, with flexible playback options available. SU3102 www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

wi si at ll b tu N e s AB ex on 2 hi st 00 bit an 9 in g d C1 10 7 Vi

W e

Why visit IBC2009? • •

Network with over 1,400 exhibitors

•

Nearly 42,000 sqm of exhibition space has already been allocated

• • • • • • • •

Industry led conference programme

Attracts 49,000+ actual attendees, from over 130 countries

FREE - Participate in the Show Floor Training areas FREE - IBC2009 Zones: IPTV, Mobile and Digital Signage FREE - Business Briefing Sessions FREE - The IBC Big Screen Experience FREE - New Technology Campus FREE - The prestigious IBC Awards ceremony FREE - New to IBC2009, Visitor Tours

the content creation • management • delivery

experience Conference 10 - 14 September Exhibition 11 - 15 September RAI Amsterdam

www.ibc.org IBC Fifth Floor International Press Centre 76 Shoe Lane London EC4A 3JB UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7832 4100 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7832 4130 Email: show@ibc.org

TVBEU R O PE N A B 2 0 0 9 S N E A K P R E V I E W

NAB eye on Phabrix By Fergal Ringrose Phabrix is launching its new Eye and Jitter Phabrix SxE portable test and measurement instrument at NAB. Paul Nicholls, Phabrix’s sales and marketing manager commented: “2008 has

been a pivotal year for Phabrix. We have opened sales channels throughout Europe, Australasia, SE Asia and the Americas. The SxA continues to gain ground over traditional bench-bound products and with the release of

the new SxE in April we predict a substantial growth for Phabrix in 2009. “Test and R&D departments now find they don’t have to share a resource they can have their own unit. The ability to add the option of Eye and Jitter to the SxA has made the investment in an SxA even more attractive.”

The development team have been working since IBC2008 toward producing a comprehensive solution required for a portable signal generator, analyser and monitor with eye and jitter at a price point not previously achievable in such a product. This has resulted in an advanced version of the SxA’s back board populated with state-

of-the-art chipsets capable of measuring both eye and jitter. Available as a fully configured Phabrix SxE, the same back board it uses can be retrofitted as an option in the successful SxA and many of the sales of the SxA have already registered an interest in the new eye and jitter option when available at NAB 2009. www.phabrix.com

Sending video and audio: New high definition video extension solutions from Gefen offer easy methods of sending video, audio and control signals both short and long distances using fibre optics, copper or CAT-X cables. By offering a variety of different signal extenders, installers can select the system that best meets their specific needs. High definition video extension of the DVI format, used extensively in computer displays, flat panels and projection systems, can be achieved using one of several sender/receiver solutions connected by fibre optics cables, including: the DVI FM-500, which extends DVI up to 1,500m; the DVI FM-1000, which extends DVI up to 300m over one fibre-optic cable; the DVI-1500HD, which extends DVI up to 500m over one fibre-optic and one CAT-5 cable; the DVI-1600HD, which extends DVI with digital (S/PDIF, TOSlink) and analogue (L/R) audio and RS-232 up to 300m; and the DVI-2500 HD, which extends DVI up to 2km. SL4205

No interactive video platform Community TV enables viewers and social communities to manage broadcast content on-air and online. Using web 2.0 applications, never.no has created TV and web broadcast applications especially for the complete high-quality broadcast integration of user submitted content. Authorised participants are invited to upload their own broadcast-quality content directly through the uploading service. Once the content is online, moderators or the participant can edit and schedule according to pre-set rules. When complete, the material is prepared and broadcast according to the user’s specified schedule. In addition to being played on air, it is simultaneously circulated to the online community, where it can be viewed, rated, and commented on. Auto Dialogue System (ADS) is an application suite for mobile, email, and IM gateways or middleware systems. It extends the capabilities of the gateway N1830 44

www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

TVBEU R O PE T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E

Where to store finished content so that it can be easily retrieved

New deck for production and post Guest Opinion By Mark Ostlund, Cache-A The increasing adoption of highperformance digital cameras that combine the quality of 35mm film and the convenience of pure digital from companies like Panasonic, Sony, Thomson, Arri, Panavison and RED has fueled a dramatic shift in the way creative professionals work. They are achieving impressive efficiencies from end-to-end file based workflows. But when the project is done and the next job is coming in, there is a glaring deficiency that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist in the age of video tape â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where to store finished content for future needs in such a way that it can be retrieved easily and with confidence. Not only is it a case of where to store it when the project is done, but without â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;source mastersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from the production shoot, it is impossible to go back to the raw footage. In this new file-based workflow, many of these professionals are using hard drives for archival storage, putting them away on a shelf and hoping that they will still work in the future. However, disks were not designed for shelf storage; they need to be spun up frequently or continuously or they may not spin up at all. On top of that, the software and OS environment that recorded the data may not exist in five to 10 years. High-end facilities can use tiered storage and large robotic libraries toward to same end, but with all of the associated higher IT staffing and maintenance costs. However, the question for the large majority of professionals is how to archive digital content in a way that is safe, easy to retrieve and cost-effective? Having worked with many leading professionals, we have seen these developments firsthand. The management team at Cache-A learned a lot from our experience at Quantum, where we introduced the A-Series Professional Video Drive to provide a critical layer of data tape storage in a professional video

storage system. This technology won many industry awards over the past four years and has been integrated into digital video acquisition, digital film and post production filebased workflows worldwide. Now at Cache-A, we have taken that technology well beyond the previous generation by carefully listening to feedback from our key partners and end users. As a result, we have built new, self-contained archive appliances for production and post production based on industry-standard LTO-4 tape that are robust, easy to deploy and that provide access to stored content well into the future without the need for special software. Cache-Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A-Series provides source masters for digital acquisition and project archives for post production by providing networked storage direct to data tape. And these appliances are not just appropriate for the end of the project when the work is finished and needs to be preserved. They can be dropped into many workflow configurations at any point in the creative process. This opens up a whole new realm of creative possibilities. Because of the cost of the new acquisition digital media (memory cards and hard disk drives), they need to be returned back out into the field to keep shooting. This has led to the evolution of new approaches to production archive workflows. Whereas it has traditionally been â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shoot (on video tape or film), edit, and then archive,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; with our archive appliances it has become â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shoot (on flash or disk), archive (for source master creation), edit, archive (project and finished piece)â&#x20AC;&#x2122;. With the â&#x20AC;&#x153;shoot, archive, edit, archiveâ&#x20AC;? workflow, the production team is assured that the raw content and the project are protected and available for access now and for repurposing in the future. In addition, because the raw footage is now stored on costeffective data tape by the Cache-A archive appliance, the expensive digital camera media can be reused over and over again rather than stored on a shelf. Also, storage on data tape

GMTV tapeless with Avid By Fergal Ringrose GMTV has invested in an end-toend Avid-driven digital workflow for its newsroom and video production operation. The Avid system replaces legacy kit and allows GMTV to redesign and optimise its workflow, while providing scalability for future expansion. The system includes four Avid Unity ISIS media network solutions with 64TB storage, plus iNEWS newsroom management system, Interplay workflow engine with Interplay Access asset management clients and Interplay Assist www.tvbeurope.com M A R C H 2 0 0 9

clients on all corporate user PCs, and over 40 editing systems and ingest stations. The system design was the result of intense collaboration between GMTV staff and the Avid Professional Services Group (PSG). The PSG constructed the entire workflow and provided training, consultancy and on-site support throughout the installation. GMTV has also invested in Avid support contracts for the entire system to ensure its long-term viability. The childrens department and promotions team have been using

Mark Ostlund: The question for the large majority of professionals is how to archive digital content in a way that is safe, easy to retrieve and cost-effective?

satisfies insurance bonding requirements that stipulate minimum footage be kept on a camera for a high-end production. As an added bonus, dual drive versions of the archive appliance can automatically and simultaneously create two backup copies of the material, adding another layer of safety and also satisfying another insurance bonding requirement for dual copies.

New physical interchange In a larger sense, the archive appliance has become the new deck, replacing the VTR as a way to create a medium for content preservation and to provide a means for physical interchange. Going beyond the VTR, it eliminates the traditional concerns that professionals have always had with video tape, such that it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include any of the metadata about the shoot (now embedded in digital media) and that it is limited to realtime streaming. Easy to use and deploy with plug and play integration into Ethernet networks, the Cache-A archive appliance mounts as a volume to Windows, Mac OS and Unix workstations, making it look like a hard drive. the Interplay-based system for 18 months. iNews was installed recently and GMTVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main programme goes live on the new system on 15 March. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The integration between the Sony Petasite, SGL Flashnet software and the Avid domain is impressive. Three manufacturers worked together to create this solution and it just works. This is a truly expandable asset that will become more and more important and valuable as its content grows,â&#x20AC;? said GMTV Head of Technology

Also, with four new interfaces â&#x20AC;&#x201D; PCI ExpressCard, Firewire, eSATA and USB â&#x20AC;&#x201C; many new media types can now be plugged directly into the appliance, enabling direct high-speed file transfers from almost any source. The A-Series LTO-4 drives hold 800GB per cartridge native, equivalent to more than 60 hours of 25Mbps standard definition (SD) or more than 15 hours of 100Mbps high definition (HD) content. Each individual editor now has direct, simultaneous searchable access to all of this metadata throughout the entire creative process. During production, key metadata is stored in a file system directory both on the appliance and on each tape. The combination of the directory and the text-based archive makes it simple for editors to find a specific file on the tape during programme production or to locate content captured by any of the cameras on any tape â&#x20AC;&#x201D; without the need for special software. Editors now have quick and easy drag-and-drop access to transfer and exchange files as well as video tape-like access to sub-clips by timecode. Every tape cartridge contains a directory of its own content, making it a self-contained asset repository that can be shipped around the world and stored for long periods of time. The drives also provide file transfers over Gigabit Ethernet at estimated data rates greater than 50MBps, allowing much faster than realtime access to most content types. A secure, future-proof solution, the data on the tape is directly accessible without any special software, enabling it to be interchanged regardless of the application or software environment that recorded it; the new A-Series systems write in the standard â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Gnu TARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; format, which allows any tape to be read on any LTO-4 drive. Mark Ostlund is vice president of Sales and Marketing at Cache-A Corporation, Morgan Hill, CA. Mark.Ostlund@Cache-A.com

;OL ; * +\HS +=0 :JHSLY ^P[O +\HS 707 HUK :LHTSLZZ :^P[JOPUN

4HE 6IDEO 0ROCESSING 3PECIALISTS

Peter Russell. It will be used to store content that is not required immediately, thus allowing GMTV to save space on the Unity ISIS while keeping all material in a tapeless environment. It will also be used for picture research and stock shots.

WWW TVONE EU =PZP[ \Z H[ )VV[O * 5() % /% !LL #OPYRIGHTS AND 4RADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED

TVBEU R O PE T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E

AD INDEX 13

AJA www.aja.com

Analog Way

Vendors and broadcasters still don’t understand the ‘station in a box’ concept

Getting good business on air

www.analogway.com 32

Anton Bauer www.antonbauer.com

Argosy www.argosycable.com

Blackmagic

www.blackmagic-design.com

Broadcast Microwve Services www.broadcastmicrowave-services.com

Canare www.canare.co.jp

Canon www.canon-europe.com

Christy Media Solutions www.christy-media.com

Clear Com www.clearcom.com

Dektec www.dektec.com

Digital Rapids www.digital-rapids.com

DVS www.dvs.de

Echolab www.echolab.com

Echostar www.echostar.com

ElQuip www.elquip.com

Evertz www.evertz.com

17,37

EVS www.evs.be

Fujinon www.fujinon.de

Hamlet www.hamlet.co.uk

1,9

Harris www.broadcast.harris.com

IBC www.ibc.org

Lawo www.lawo.de

Lemo www.lemo.com

Link Research www.linkres.co.uk

Lynx www.lynx-technik.com

Magnaglobal www.magnaglobal.com

Miranda www.miranda.com

Murraypro www.murraypro.com

Network Electronics AS wwww.network-electronics.no

Omneon www.omneon.com

Omnibus www.omnibus.tv

On AIr www.on-air-systems.com

Photon Beard www.photonbeard.com

26,38, Playbox 48

www.playboxtechnology.com

Sommer www.sommercable.com

Sony www.sonybiz.net

Tandberg www.tandberg.com

Tedial www.tedial.com

TV One www.tvone.com

Viewcast www.viewcast.com

station in a box system. It brings storage, graphics, scheduling and output inside a single PC, which is why Errington insists it is the only true one-box automation solution. Indeed, at IBC2008 he issued a challenge to the visitors and fellow exhibitors: if anyone could show him a more complete solution they could win a free holiday. He had not a single entry. “Rule one of marketing is ‘be the first’,” Errington claims. “If you cannot be the first, find a niche you can be first in. We have tried to find a niche for ourselves which is unique, and we believe that we own it,” he adds.

Guest Opinion When times are tough, it takes a well-run business to continue to thrive. According to Mark Errington, CEO of On-Air Systems, this could even be the right time for acquisitions. Dick Hobbs spoke to him for TVBEurope “Back in the late ’80s, the founders of On-Air were selling PCs and IT systems to Eastern European countries from the UK,” explains Mark Errington. “In the early ’90s they realised the same market also needed broadcast equipment, so they diversified.” A couple of years later, television station HRT in Croatia had become a regular customer. Two of its engineers left to set up their own business developing software solutions, originally graphics. The UK company worked with them to develop the first generation OnAir product: PC-based playout, the television station in a box. But the management of the time lacked a clear vision of what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. In 2001 they opened a transmission centre in London, and were simultaneously a software developer, a systems integrator and a playout provider. Resources were spread too thin, and often they found themselves in competition with their own customers. It was not a good situation. “In 2002 they were effectively acquired by a family-run large investment company, on a business plan of opening 50 transmission centres around the world,” Errington reveals. None were ever opened and, despite a deal to resell Avid equipment, On-Air Systems struggled. It was at this point that Mark Errington himself arrived on the scene. Trained as an accountant, he had previously worked in technology companies, for example running the managed services division of IP communications specialist Global Crossing. In

What is a video server?

Mark Errington: “There is a huge amount of ego in pricing acquisitions. A lot of ownermanagers see their businesses as retirement funds”

2004 he was an independent consultant, specialising in business turnarounds, which is why he was brought in. “The venture capitalists saw no prospect of recovering their investment, but did not want to go public on the situation, so they sold it direct to me in February 2006,” he says. Because he had been inside the company for close to two years he knew all there was to know about the business, so there was no need for due diligence or any other public processes. “From the time I came in as a consultant, I shut the transmission centre and pulled out of systems integration work to focus on getting the automation product right,” says Errington. “For two years we did not pursue new customers while we fixed the product and developed customer support. In late 2006 we started pitching.” The product that On-Air Systems now offers is a genuine

“We have struggled against the general level of education among broadcasters about what is and what is not possible,” he continues. “I stood up in a conference session recently and asked the other people there for their simplest, purest definition of what a video server actually is. There were plenty of contributions, but the answer is that a video server is a computer – nothing more, nothing less. It stores and manages video.” The implication is clear: if the big-name server manufacturers are actually selling computers with clever, application-specific software, why should it be impossible to create enough clever, application-specific software to provide all the functionality you need for a channel’s playout on today’s powerful PCs? So Errington cleared out what was not necessary in the business — they no longer manufacture hardware but get it from outsourced suppliers — and focussed on building the software team, still in Zagreb, and adding the functionality that is required. Every system is based on the same core software: if anyone wants a new function it is added to the development roadmap. Currently On-Air is averaging three and a half new software releases a year. “You are going to end up with two types of automation: the tra-

ditional, server-based systems, and PC-based systems,” Errington explains. “On that basis it has been good for us that people like Omnibus have been eulogising ITbased playout. “The smart thing is making it work with other things,” he added. “Isilon and Editshare, for example, are very successful. Why would I want to invent another storage system?” What comes across very clearly when talking to the personable Mark Errington is that, while he loves the industry in which he finds himself, he has not lost his analytical edge in business. “If I am not going to make money then I am not going to do it. Buying sales is not viable — cash is the only thing that matters,” he states baldly. “Businesses who are relying on bank overdrafts may find they have a real problem when the time comes to renegotiate facilities.” On-Air Systems is currently comfortably profitable, and that leads Errington to consider a bold strategy in these times. He has formed a partnership with one of the brothers in the VC company that previously owned On-Air, and he is heading to NAB this year not to sell products but to look for promising companies to acquire. “I see that there is a need for smaller, niche providers to consolidate to provide stronger businesses,” he says. But he does acknowledge that it is not going to be easy. “There is a huge amount of ego in pricing acquisitions. A lot of ownermanagers see their businesses as retirement funds and are slow to recognise that their wants and desires have to change with circumstances. “This is not remotely confined to the smaller companies,” he adds with a smile. “Publicly filed accounts can be wonderful reading. I am hoping that the next year or two will see some growing up in the industry.”