EUROPE
TVTechnology WWW.TVTECHNOLOGY.COM
BROADCAST • PRODUCTION • BROADBAND • SATELLITE • MOBILE £3.80 I Volume 31 I Issue 4 I July-August 2013 See Professional Video and Audio Monitoring Solutions from Decimator Design on page 7
Content
Delivery
The Evolving Mix of Broadcast & Broadband
Oliver Gold, Freelancer
Broadcasters & OTT
Waves or Web? Why Broadcast Matters
CONTENTS /// Content Delivery Evolves EDITORIAL Editor Mark Hallinger Tel: 1 301 467 1695 Email: mhallinger@nbmedia.com Executive Editor Marguerite Clark Editorial Director Paul McLane Tech Editor Craig Norris Contributing Editor James Careless Contributors Ann-Marie Corvin, Kevin Hilton, Phil Reed NEWBAY MEDIA LLC CORPORATE President and CEO Steve Palm Chief Financial Officer Paul Mastronardi Controller Jack Liedke Group Circulation Director Denise Robbins Vice President of Web Development Joe Ferrick PUBLISHER Steve Connolly Tel: +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 Email: steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk ADVERTISING Sales Executive Sharifa Marshall Tel: +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 Email: sharifa.marshall@intentmedia.co.uk European Sales Director Graham Kirk Tel: +44 (0)1223 911224 Email: g.kirk@audiomedia.com U.S. Midwest, New England & Canada Vytas Urbonas Email: vurbonas@nbmedia.com U.S. West Pete Sembler Email: psembler@nbmedia.com U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, US Classifieds & Product Showcase Michele Inderrieden Email: minderrieden@nbmedia.com Hong Kong, China, Asia/Pacific Wengong Wang Email: wwg@imaschina.com Italy Raffaella Calabrese Email: rcalabrese@broadcast.it Latin America Susana Saibene Email: susana.saibene@gmail.com TV Technology Europe (ISSN: 0887-1701) is published seven times annually by Intent Media. ©2013 by Intent Media. All rights reserved. Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London, N18LN, England
I remember about 15 years ago when video streaming was new and often consisted of still pictures. When the picture would freeze up, the computer ‘buffered’ or did whatever it needed to do to more-or-less make video delivery over a broadband or (shudder) dial-up network possible. Ambitious industry types said ‘terrestrial broadcast is dead’ and started to use the phrase ‘content delivery’ in place of the wonderful word ‘transmission.’ I remember my transmission columnist a few years later wrote something to me about how eventually ‘it would all be on WiMax.’ WiMax, however, seems to have settled in to two niches: It’s been used to rapidly deploy WAN networks in disaster zones, and it has established a foothold in markets that have no history of cable networks. Apparently, there are more WiMax networks in Latin America and Africa than in Europe and the US combined. I guess it’s still evolving … Today, I’ve used the phrase ‘content delivery’ on the cover of the issue where we focus on ‘transmission’ issues. Truth be told, I think this could have happened about 5 years ago. Sometimes technical evolution moves in fits and starts and sometimes it revisits established technologies. One example of terrestrial transmission (radio or TV) retaining quite a bit of value is discussed in Wesley Dodd’s good opinion piece on page 26. Emergency WiMax networks have their place, but battery-operated transistor radios are probably a hotter commodity than smart phones in the wake of a disaster. Another sign of the resilience of terrestrial is sadly the result of the low-growth economy much of the world is mired in. According to the
folks at GfK, who publish The Home Technology Monitor, the number of US TV households relying exclusively on over-the-air reception has grown for the second year in a row and stands at about 19%, up from about 14% as recently as 2010. I remember when ‘cable penetration’ hit 66% in the US, and how many started dismissing terrestrial around that time. Few broadcast-only homes reported Internet service connected to their TV set; cost-cutting was the impetus, and GfK speculated that the proliferation of multicast channels and the quality of digital broadcasting was also a factor. Maybe we are doing something right?
... As mentioned in this space last month, for the third year in a row, the IBC2IBC charity endurance bike ride will leave the IBC offices in London for a roughly 300 mile journey to Amsterdam’s RAI Exhibition hall. This year the ride will take place over three days rather than the two it took last year, and the 1-day edition for the inaugural ride back in 2011. This year’s three day ride will take place from Friday, Sept. 6 through Sunday, Sept. 8, with a bus ride back to UK on 9 September. There is still time to sign up to do the event, and if you’re reasonably fit a 3-day ride is quite manageable with some training tweaks in the 6 weeks before the big event. Yes, right when you’re doing all your IBC prep! Riders will be raising money for a chosen charity (mine will be VICTA and The Vision Charity). Details of the ride can be found at www.ibc2ibc.com Mark Hallinger, Editor
Free subscriptions are available to professional broadcasting and audio visual equipment users. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome for review – send to Mark Hallinger at the feedback address.
4
TECH NEWS: OVER-THE-TOP
PRODUCTION
8
TECH NEWS: TRANSMISSION
12
TECH NEWS: 8K AT NAB
14
BUYERS GUIDE: TRANSMISSION, TRANSMISSION MONITORING, MULTI-SCREEN, & TRANSCODING
Production Director Davis White Design & Production Manager Adam Butler Email: adam.butler@intentmedia.co.uk Production Executive Jason Dowie Jason.dowie@intentmedia.co.uk Designer Jat Garcha jat.garcha@intentmedia.co.uk
Craig Norris says OTT is good news for broadcasters
Davide Moro gives an analysis of transmission trends that emerged from DVB World
How can 8K be transmitted? Davide Moro on NHK’s answer from their NAB demo …
User reports, and product news …
22
SHARPSHOOTER
A chat with young London freelancer Oliver Gold
July-August 2013 I TV Technology Europe
3////////////////
TECH NEWS ///
Broadcasters & the OTT Bandwagon /// Craig Norris says OTT is clearly a big win for consumers, but what about broadcasters? op the cork off the champagne bottle! Crack open the barrel of sake! Roast a turkey for the whole family! Pray to express gratitude to The Almighty One! Within the guidelines of your own culture, do whatever is socially acceptable and traditionally appropriate when some kind of big win needs to be celebrated. What big win is there to celebrate? We should celebrate the fact that the long-standing oligopoly that controlled retail distribution of television entertainment has officially ended. That’s a very good thing indeed and entirely worthy of celebration, because the oligopoly has NEVER satisfied our desire for a wider choice of content. That isn’t to say that the oligopoly harboured some kind of malicious intent to frustrate us. Their failure to satisfy our needs stems mostly from the limitations of the technology that they had available to them. Radio frequency spectrum is a very finite resource, under an ever increasing demand. Our technical achievements in improving the efficiency of spectrum utilization have been admirable. But in reality, the demand for a greater diversity of relevant TV content has grown at a rate far beyond the ability of the oligopoly to even comprehend, let alone fulfill. TV broadcasting via radio frequency modulation, whether on terrestrial, cable or satellite networks, does not have the capacity to deliver a wide enough variety of content to match the complex multitude of interests that exist in the TV viewing population. But now, thanks to OTT services, consumers of television entertainment finally have the freedom and ability to explore and find a seemingly infinite amount of content that //////////////// 4
Screen Systems has developed a method to encode, store and display high-quality subtitles with served video playback.
is of interest and relevance to them. Traditional broadcast television providers of both the free-to-air and pay variety now have to join the queue for our attention and patronage. The free-to-air and pay TV broadcasters are no longer the exclusive gatekeepers controlling our access to quality TV content. What a change! In engineering terms, the empowered television content consumer in this new era can enjoy an order of magnitude improvement in “signal to noise” ratio. I don’t refer to electrical noise or electronic signal in that statement. I use the term in a simpler sense. To me, ‘improved signal to noise ratio’ means simply that we get more of what we want, and less of what we don’t want. What evidence can I cite in support of the above proclamation? How about some samples of recent headlines in the television industry news? Here are just a few:
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
TV broadcasters are getting on to the OTT bandwagon. They must. How? “Netflix Unveils Plan to Replace Broadcast Television.” Netflix is an OTT service provider. They are doing what broadcast television could do if they had the will, but so far haven’t, which is to make the content library available online so we can all browse it and watch what we want, when we want, from where we want. “Netflix Has More Subscribers Than HBO.” That’s a remarkable example of how a relative newcomer can become a significant competitor to a well-established pay TV broadcaster. It proves that things can happen fast. “Disney's ABC to start first streaming of live broadcast shows.” Disney's ABC network will become the first U.S. broadcast network to stream its
shows live online through an ongoing service called WATCH ABC, reported Reuters as this story went to press. Viewers will be able to watch live ABC programs online or on mobile devices by downloading the WATCH ABC app. “Over Half of Adults Watch Video on Non-TV Devices Weekly.” So says Leichtman Research Group in a report about a survey of US adults. It means that a lot of people are finding content over the Internet and watching it on their PC, Mac, smartphone, games console or tablet device on a regular basis. “Streaming Media Players to Top List of Internet Connected Entertainment Devices.” That means Apple TV, Roku Box, and the plethora of cheap Linux media player boxes are surpassing the number of BluRay players that are connected to the web. I suppose that we should also include all the so-called “smart TV” LCD/plasma receivers in that list of streaming media players. I >
TECH NEWS /// hope we agree soon on a generic name for a TV with a built-in browser and Internet connection, because “SmartTV is a Samsung trademark. My vote is for a name like “connected TV” – but if past trends continue, the popularly adopted name is likely to come from the computer industry and the term “TV” is likely to disappear from the vernacular when we start recognizing that any new flat screen TV set with voice and gesture control and a built-in browser and an Internet connection and “apps” is in fact nothing more than an “übertablet”. So there it is – I might as well just register that trademark right now. Personally, I consume most of my television content via the Internet. Only a minority of the TV content I consume is via live broadcast over RF or cable. Dare I say it - I’m a fan of OTT video services, and I’m not alone in my enthusiasm for the concept. The proof of that statement lies in this next headline: “Broadcasters Predict OTT Will Boost Their Revenue by 50 Percent.” Thank goodness the broadcasters are waking up! I was awoken to the merit of OTT services about 5 years ago, before the term OTT had been invented. It was a small company based in Melbourne, Australia who woke me up. They were demonstrating full screen OTT video streaming on their booth at CommunicAsia in Singapore. Their name is Vividas. They are still around. I wrote about them in an article in this magazine at that time. I even presented a paper at the following year’s BroadcastAsia conference. Then I presented a paper about them at the SMPTE conference in Sydney. I introduced Vividas to several broadcasters in the region. And nothing happened. (There goes my credibility.) Broadcasters are like big ships. They need a lot of time and a lot of space in which to make a turn. If I had been the decision maker in a TV station at that time I would have run with that Vividas technology and today my station would be leading the world in OTT services. But I dream. I do have clients who are decision makers in TV stations, and sometimes they hire me to work on hypothetical scenarios for consideration by the Board of Directors. And strangely enough, //////////////// 6
they expect me to know everything about anything. The successful consultant doesn’t have to know everything. He or she only needs to know a lot about the current hot topic. And OTT is the hottest of all the hot topics right now. So I’ve been watching, and taking notes. Google is pretty clever. They saw it coming. That’s why they bought YouTube in the early days before the rest of us woke up to the billion dollar possibilities of OTT. Google also subsequently bought Widevine to get their http streaming technology. But YouTube is not without its competitors. Discerning video content owners and producers often prefer to use Vimeo as their OTT publishing platform. Vimeo provides a much higher video image quality in comparison to YouTube. Vimeo is for connoisseurs. The discerning video publisher and the discerning video consumer will often be found hanging out in Vimeo rather than YouTube.
I might as well register the trademark on “über-tablet” now. But at the end of the day, somebody has to pay for all these services and high quality platforms. And the publishers of the video content need to generate revenue. Hence, Vimeo’s new “On Demand” pay per view platform which follows a similar business model to stock photo agencies which are set up in a way that allows the content producer to keep the larger share of the revenue. Vimeo is a place you can go on the web to watch great content any time you like. A lot of it is free, put there by artists who just want to share their work. Other content you can pay for, and at USD5.99 is very good value for money. I just checked the Vimeo web site in case there was something else I should mention in this article, and I spotted the On Demand availability of a documentary titled “Trashed” which stars Jeremy Irons and has a musical score by Vangelis. Now I’m rushing to finish this article so I can watch that documentary. As a consumer, there is such a great sense of freedom in knowing that the programme I
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
want to see will be there waiting for me when I am ready to watch it. I don’t have to enter into a subscription contract. I don’t need a set top box. I don’t have to set up a timed recording. I don’t even need a TV set. I don’t need to be at home. That’s freedom! Thank you, Vimeo. Thank you to you too, YouTube. BROADCASTERS & OTT: HOW? TV broadcasters are getting on to the OTT bandwagon. They must. But the big question that I suppose my editor wants me to address is: How? Okay, so we own some content which is streaming on the airwaves synchronously all day every day, and we have a back catalogue of older content that we’ve accumulated over decades of operation. Each will be handled separately and differently. The live broadcast content that is currently on-air via some kind of synchronous DVB or similar RF platform needs to be sniffed in its baseband form at the output of the playout server or master control switcher, and transcoded and packetized on the fly (in real time) to become an Internet Protocol data stream. That IP stream is then fed to a web server as a content source for a window in a web page that your viewers can visit. Talk to companies like Digital Rapids to get the details about on-the-fly encoding and streaming. For OTT, the real time IP streaming video isn’t omnipresent in the viewer’s geographical environment like RF airwaves emanating from a transmitter. The IP stream is treated as a file by the code in the web page that your viewer will visit. When a viewer visits your web page, an FTP transaction occurs in order to download the contents of the page to the viewer’s browser. Page content like photographic images and graphics will be downloaded as jpeg files or gif files and then assembled on the screen. Text will be freshly rendered in the required fonts and colours by the browser itself. The content in the streaming video window on the page will be opened as a file by the browser, but it will seem to be a kind of endless file. The streaming doesn’t stop until the viewer clicks the “stop” button or exits the web page.
That’s the very simplistic description, but in reality there are complexities. The complexities stem mostly from the need to overcome the vagaries of the telco’s network in order to maintain some degree of continuity in the Internet Traffic. It’s about managing the apparent Quality of Service so that the viewer’s enjoyment isn’t interrupted by frequent stopping and resuming of the video. Talk to companies like Elemental about the end-toend streaming platform. Elemental handled live streams from the London Olympics to Foxtel in Australia. Talk to companies like Pixelmetrix or Bridge Technologies about monitoring and troubleshooting the IP network. As for the back-catalogue, you could just encode your programmes in the library then upload them to YouTube or Vimeo. But to manage the total ‘product’ as a service with all the other business aspects of rights management, billing and customer relationship management and other ways of monetizing the service, it’s better to create your own web site for the purpose. For free content, the best example I know of is the online archives for the “Landline” programme (rural magazine style news content) in Australia. See www.abc.net.au/landline/ archive.htm For a commercial online archive or paid VOD service, see the Vimeo On Demand example at vimeo.com/ondemand For a broadcaster online archive example with payments required by the viewer, see www.foxtel.com.au/internettv A lot of this messy IP web stuff is sometimes outside the comfort zone of a TV station. So in some cases they outsource the service to expert subcontractors, or in other cases they partner with some very high profile experts who bring other added value to the product – like Nine Network in Australia with Microsoft (ninemsn.com) and Seven Network with Yahoo! (au.tv.yahoo.com). I think I’ve exceeded my word count again. But more importantly, I want to get back to Vimeo and watch that “Trashed” documentary. Bye for now, and see you at IBC, perhaps. ///
Tech News ///
Could Germany Quit DVB-T? /// By Davide Moro ould Germany quit using DVB-T? That spectre was raised at DVB World 2013, the DVB Project’s annual convention and exhibition. It was held in Madrid on March 11-13, 2013. This possibility was outlined by Dr. Ulrich Reimers, head of the Radiocommunication Department at Germany’s Braunschweig University. He made his case on the second day of the event during the session,"Beyond the Second Generation" of DVB standards. Dr. Reimers began his talk innocently enough. “In Germany, classical terrestrial TV still uses DVB-T, with a market penetration going from 3 percent to 25 percent according to the considered Land [province],” he said. “The rest is cable and satellite.” Dr. Reimers then dropped his bombshell. “After an internal debate about moving to DVB-T2, due to spectrum uncertainties in January, 2013, RTL – the most important German commercial broadcaster -- announced that they will stop broadcasting DVBT in 2014; at the end of May 2013 in the Munich region,” he said. “Other commercial broadcasters will decide by the end of March and may follow RTL. This way, the DVB-T audience even in the metropolitan areas will only receive public broadcast programs.” To retain access to Germany’s commercial broadcasters, “It is then possible that terrestrial audience will migrate to cable, satellite and/or IPTV, and the number of DVB-T customers will probably decrease sharply,” said Dr. Reimers. Should this come to pass, "Eventually, even the public broadcasters will have to ask themselves: 'Is DVB-T still economically viable?'” he asked. “Why paying the huge //////////////// 8
operational cost due to terrestrial broadcasting when only a neglectable share of the audience is watching to it? It would be much more business effective driving that marginal share to satellite.”
asked if, in a possible future world with no terrestrial television, could LTE in unicast mode be the solution of choice for delivering media content to people; not only in metropolitan areas but rural regions?
Dr. Ulrich Reimers
Dr. Reimers pulled together his devastating conclusion: “So my opinion about DVB-T2 in Germany is? Forget it. And when Germany decides to quit terrestrial broadcasting, can you imagine how other countries will start puzzling? 'Well, Germany did it, so why shouldn't we do the same? It saves money!’" But that was not all: "As a consequence, the "classical" terrestrial television could suddenly disappear, hauling mobile TV too to vanish,” Dr. Reimers said. “The relevant spectrum would be freed up for different uses, and the entire costs for maintaining towers and infrastructures would be carried on by radio broadcasting alone. Will radio be able to bear the entire amount of that?" Everyone was literally shocked by Reimers's statements, probably because they sounded so genuinely logical. Now the time to provide some constructive answers had come. In this vein, Dr. Reimers
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
Unfortunately, his researchbased conclusion was no. Even LTE could not succeed in bringing live TV to tablet PCs and similar devices in an era where classical terrestrial TV no longer existed. Delivering 7.5 Mbps to 20 concurrent users per square kilometre for 50 percent of the locations would require not only 140 MHz of spectrum and an intersite distance of 2500 metres (not so easy to get
Russia and India will significantly boost global demand for T2 receivers.
outside metropolitan areas), but also devices featuring antennas with 10 dB gain. In response to this scenario, the Braunschweig University is working on a ‘Tower Overlay over LTE-A’ model, in which DVB-T2 as an LTE-carrier plays an important role. By using the DVB-T2 Future Extension Frames, it will be possible to time multiplex DVBT2 broadcast content and LTE P2MP services with variable resource allocation, up to the point where no broadcast content remains, Dr. Reimers said. After Dr. Reimers’ devastating look at DVB-T’s future prospects, DVB World delegates were polled about the chances of other countries dropping DVB-T domino-style, should Germany do so? About 80% of the audience said "yes," the domino effect will likely take place. This startling session was in contrast to DVB World 2013's first day, when the mood was positive and upbeat. After a deeply specialized masterclass about HEVC coding
DVB Project Chairman Phil Laven welcoming delegates
>
Tech News /// principles and techniques, DVB Project Chairman Phil Laven officially opened the event by reviewing DVB’s progress. "Speaking about satellite and cable delivery, the market was able to make its own choices, with nearly no external pressures, and the choice of the market has definitely been one of the DVB standards," said Laven. "In 2011, about 68% of digital broadcast receivers (worldwide, IPTV excluded) featured one or more of the DVB standards.” “DVB-S2 is a clear big hit, and developments are in progress about DVB-S3,” he continued. “Coming to cable, DVB-C and -C2 are largely deployed everywhere.” Unfortunately, Laven noted, the reality of politics often means that terrestrial DTV standards are not chosen by broadcasters, but those in power. “Being a political decision, various items can be on the decision table,” he said. “We had, and still have, to face strong competition by the Japanese standard ISDB-T,” he added. “The Japanese ... pretend ISDB-T is 'almost the same' as DVB-T2. It's once more worth reminding that, under the same receiving conditions, ISDB-T is
capable to deliver a 21 Mbps stream, while DVB-T2 can deliver 40 Mbps. It's a strange definition of 'almost the same'!" As for the DVB-T2 set-topbox market? In Laven's opinion, Russia and India will significantly boost global demand for T2 receivers. This should result in a large availability of models and possibly a noticeable price drop around the world. Lieven Vermaele, EBU Technology & Innovation Director, and David Wood, EBU Technology & Innovation Consultant, discussed possible future trends and strategies for broadcasters in a growing digital economy landscape Future digital trends and strategies for broadcasters were next on the table. “The future will be like a restaurant kitchen,” said Vermaele. “We will have to mix, match and use so many ingredients, most of them really new: which will be the roles of broadcast and broadband in that scenario?” “Broadcasters now rely on their assigned spectrum, but will there be enough space in the future for these fast tracks?” Vermaele continued. “Will there still be fast tracks? And, in [this] case, who will pay for them?" As for the impact of non-
David Wood, EBU Technology & Innovation Consultant, and Lieven Vermaele, EBU Technology & Innovation Director linear viewing? Vermaele stressed that non-linear viewing is growing impressively, but since the overall level of viewing is growing as well, the total percentage of broadcast
are doing now,” Vermaele declared. “We have to find the most appropriate way to drive broadcasting and broadband complementing themselves, not fighting one against the other,"
A wise picture from the presentation by Lieven Vermaele viewing time should remain unchanged in the future. "PVR, VOD and timeshift viewing should be 17 percent of overall viewing time by 2020," he added, "and according to figures by Screen Digest the break-even [point] between unicast streaming and true broadcasting will be at 16,000 viewers". This said, "We have to defend our spectrum and our frequencies much more than we ////////////////10
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
illustrating his point with images of two donkeys tied together. Indeed: If Dr. Ulrich Reimers is correct, defending the DVB-T spectrum could become a titanic issue, should Germany quit DVB-T broadcasting and other countries follow suit. Clearly, after DVB World 2013, all eyes are on Germany’s commercial broadcasters, to see what they do next. ///
NEWS /// 4K Via Satellite ATLANTA, Georgia Intelsat and Ericsson have announced the successful demonstration of a true 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD), end-to-end video transmission over satellite to Turner Broadcasting’s facilities in Atlanta, Ga. This was the first transmission of a UHD signal over satellite in North America, and the demonstration proves that the satellite delivery chain can accommodate the next-generation signals as soon as broadcasters are ready to offer them. During the demonstration, Intelsat’s Galaxy 13 satellite delivered a 4:2:2 10-bit, 4K UHD signal at 60 fps, which resulted in an immersive viewing experience. The 100 Mbps video feed was encoded and decoded in real time by Ericsson, using its AVP 2000 contribution encoders and RX8200 receivers, capable of 4K UHD operations as well as HD and SD contribution at the highest quality. Newtec provided the modulation and demodulation hardware, featuring Clean Channel Technology, and the satellite downlink antenna was provided by Turner Broadcasting.
An earlier test between Newtec and satellite transmission provider PSSI Global Services, which was conducted in preparation for the UHD demonstration, achieved 140 Mbps over a 36 MHz transponder on Galaxy 13 to a 4.6-meter antenna.
Virgin’s MPEG-DASH Trial COLOGNE, Germany UK multiservice provider Virgin Media has deployed Harmonic's ProMedia Suite for a trial of the new Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) protocol. Utilizing Harmonic's ProMedia Live real-time transcoder and ProMedia Package stream packager in its innovations research headend facility in London, Virgin Media can deliver more efficient and cost-effective high-quality broadcasts to TVs, PCs, tablets, smartphones, set-top boxes, and other IP-connected devices. A live demo of the MPEG-DASH workflow was showcased at the Harmonic stand at the ANGA COM 2013 trade show.
Dale Barnes, director of advanced technologies and innovation at Virgin Media said, "As part of an integrated headend solution, Harmonic's ProMedia Suite optimizes multiscreen delivery by eliminating the need to separately encode, encrypt, store, and transport each piece of video content to ensure compatibility with multiple HTTP delivery formats. The demo at ANGA COM highlighted the operational efficiencies achieved by implementing an MPEG-DASH-based workflow for next-generation multiscreen services converging on one ABR format, and unifying multiscreen delivery for tablets, PCs, and smartphones, in addition to set-top boxes and Smart TVs."
July-August 2013 I TV Technology Europe
11 ////////////////
TECH NEWS ///
NHK’s 8K at NAB 2013 /// By Davide Moro AB 2013 was all about 4K, but 8K (or Super Hi-Vision) is, of course, a world apart. Japanese broadcaster NHK proved this point when they brought 8K to the convention in Las Vegas. To say the least, the demonstration was definitively striking. For instance, the 22.2 sound was not some idle boast, but really is something. It gave a feeling of involvement that
Technicians, who always focus on the medium interface rather than on the content, may finally be free to take their magnifying glasses off, relax and enjoy the show. 8K will make them normal people again. TRANSMISSION IN 8 MHZ The question at NAB 2013 was, how much bandwidth is needed to broadcast an 8K program? And again NHK had another
NHK 8K display at NAB 2013
8K SHV 22.2 speakers diagram went beyond any simple technology and went directly into the guts. It was pure emotion and not something – however accurate it might be -that spoke to the brain and only later had to be converted into a feeling.
8K MIMO example The 8K images also were unbelievable, pushing themselves over the edge of "possible." Every detail was so clearly and sharply defined that you could focus indeed on the whole. ////////////////12
remarkable answer, demonstrated using the MIMO orthogonal polarity transmission mode: Just 8 MHz. Time for a technical explanation: MIMO (multipleinput and multiple-output) refers to the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance. In MIMO systems, a transmitter sends multiple streams by multiple transmit antennas. The transmit streams go through a matrix channel which consists of all the paths between the transmit antennas (T1, T2) at the transmitter and receive antennas (R1, R2) at the receiver. The receiver gets the received signal vectors via the multiple receive antennas and
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
decodes the received signal vectors into the original information. As you can easily understand, there is serious mathematics underlying this relatively simple definition, and we'll skip it for the sake of simple reading! The result: MIMO offers significant increases in data throughput and link range without additional bandwidth or increased transmit power. It achieves this goal by spreading
The question at NAB 2013 was, how much bandwidth is needed to broadcast an 8K program?
8K MIMO transmission diagram
the same total transmit power over the antennas to achieve an array gain that improves the spectral efficiency – more bits per second per hertz of bandwidth -- and/or to achieve a diversity gain that improves the transmission resilience to external perturbations. If I had not seen it I would not have believed it, but the demonstration was right there to see, and everything worked live. With a 4096 QAM modulation – you read that right -- and MIMO mode you get a usable bandwidth of 92 Mbps per 6 MHz channel (Japanese standard). With the HEVC and 8 MHz channel, this figure is likely to be just one single channel. ///
USER REPORT ///
BUYERS GUIDE: OTT & TRANSMISSION; TRANSCODING & ENCODING
Upgrading an OTT Pioneer
Hege Kosberg
/// By Hege Kosberg
V 2 is the largest commercial television station in Norway, and in 2002, we became the first broadcaster in the Nordics to launch an over-the-top (OTT) video service. That service, the award-winning TV 2 Sumo, went on to become Scandinavia's largest online video enterprise and spurred steady growth in the Nordic "TV Everywhere" market. TV 2 Sumo offers a comprehensive library of TV 2 programs that users can view live and on demand using their platform of choice, so viewers can see what they want wherever, and whenever they want it. Even better, the platform offers instant live-to-
with an easy, flexible payment system. Just as important, the platform had to deliver HD and SD content with a high level of technical quality to any screen. Finding no tool that satisfied our comprehensive needs, we set out to develop the platform on our own. This development eventually became the Vimond Media Platform. Upon creating the solution, TV 2 then spun off Vimond Media Solutions as a separate, independent company that would be able to continue developing and supporting the platform over time. And so began the partnership between TV 2 and Vimond Media Solutions, a partnership that continues innovating to this day.
on-demand programming as well, so viewers can go back and forth in the live stream if they prefer. The service gives us a oneon-one dialogue with our customers and enables us to bring content to market quickly. Through Sumo, we've established a direct relationship with over 100,000 subscribers, a statistic that demonstrates the power of OTT. At the time we conceived of Sumo, there was no model for online video, so we had to create one. We knew the portal would need a content management and delivery platform that enabled it not only to offer the most relevant content to its viewers, but to do so in a userfriendly, inviting environment
Recently, growth in the region's OTT video market has accelerated, and so has the competition to gain and maintain viewer loyalty. As a result, TV 2 decided it was time to give Sumo an upgrade in order to stay ahead of the competition. The new TV 2 Sumo launched in late November, 2012. We worked closely with Vimond Media Solutions to create the new Sumo, which has a completely new design featuring easy content browsing and personalized channels. The Vimond Platform has evolved quite a bit since it was first developed, and we wanted to take advantage of the platform's latest advanced capabilities that would allow end users to be the directors of their own channels.
////////////////14
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
Controlling what content they see and when they see it helps keep viewers engaged, which in turn helps us attract revenue and capitalize on our content library. For example, the Vimond Platform enabled the "My Sumo" feature (pictured), a tool that allows viewers to schedule and plan as many channels as they like with personalized content. In fact, Sumo is one of the very few Web TV portals that allows users to create their own channels, which they do by simply flagging different series, movies, or even individual episodes. The redesigned Sumo also offers plenty of other features for customizing the viewer experience, which is what makes the new Sumo particularly imaginative. Because of the ability to create personalized channels, TV 2 has made OTT TV-watching a more relaxing experience than it has ever been in the past. Instead of having to search actively for the next thing to watch, users can create their own collection of content all at once, and then simply turn it on and let it play. This element of passivity is an important part of television for people who watch it to unwind and relax -- something that before, they could have gotten from traditional TV, but not from OTT TV. The Sumo portal is built on Vimond's action-based Web framework developed on Ruby on Rails (the open source Web application framework), which
makes the portal solid and scalable without sacrificing flexibility or performance. The advanced Vimond Platform provides a comprehensive environment for managing and delivering multiformat OTT services, with full facilities for all creative, logistical, and business aspects of the operation. With its modular architecture, the Vimond Platform gives us sophisticated tools and controls for every aspect of the Sumo service, from ingest and encoding through conditional access to business intelligence reporting. The market has been flooded with a wide range of new devices since we first launched TV 2 Sumo, and it is important for us to meet our users where they are. That means accommodating the devices they use and the latest systems that power those devices. That's why we chose to implement the new Sumo design on the Web, for Windows 8, and as a set-top box (STB) application running on RiksTV Extra. It is also available on all other Sumo platforms, including iPad and the Altibox STB. By making Sumo compatible with Windows 8 and a host of new platforms and devices, we're ensuring it will keep pace with innovation in the market. /// Hege Kosberg is Director of Multimedia with TV 2 AS Norway Contact: www.vimond.com
MARKETPLACE /// 55 kW UHF MANUAL SWITCHING FOR DUAL ANTENNA SYSTEMS Delta Meccanica has designed and delivered a manual switching unit able to manage 55 kW UHF power. The power is sent to a dual antenna system, via a power splitter, and either divided in half or full power may be sent to just one half of the system by passing the power splitter. This situation may happen in case of failure/ maintenance of one of the two bays that compose the antenna system. This device may be optimized , during the final tests, to reach a V.S.W.R. better than 1.1 on the working channels. www.deltameccanica.com
S, S-2 SATELLITE MOD/DEMOD The new SaTurn OEM DVB-S/S2 satellite demodulator board from TeamCast is dedicated to the professional IRD industry. This compact OEM board offers a complete set of DVB-S/S2 features including VCM (multi-stream) and ACM; dual on-board demodulator; low power; and top class performances for 16 APSK and 32 APSK (ultra low implementation loss), providing the most efficient transponder usage. Additionally the standalone SaTurn board allows a straightforward integration into the target product, with its embedded CPU, high functional flexibility, easy-to-operate API and a future proof embedded FPGA, leading to a short time to market for IRD developers. www.teamcast.com
DIGITAL LOW POWER TV TRANSMITTERS Nautel, an established radio broadcast transmitter manufacturer, is debuting digital low power TV transmitters appropriate for low power TV broadcasting, retransmission or gap-filler applications. The series includes the 4 RU NT150, with digital power output of 2 – 150 Watts and the NT500, a 5 RU unit with digital power output of 10 – 500 Watts. The new low power UHF transmitters combine an advanced software
defined modulator with ASI, SMPTE310M and TSoIP Gigabit Ethernet inputs, LDMOS amplifier, Nautel’s AUI web interface, and both linear and non-linear adaptive pre-correction in a compact enclosure. In the NT500 a spectrum analyser and real-time MER measurement are provided, and are optional for the NT150. Operating in the UHF Wide Band spectrum (470 – 810
MHz), the NT Series products support major worldwide digital TV transmission standards. www.nautel.com
USER REPORT ///
Using Unmanaged IP for Broadcast Video /// By Hugo Silva
Nimbra VA 210 atcab is a systems operator and distributor of professional broadband and broadcast equipment in Portugal. We offer a broad range of quality products suitable for state-ofthe-art video processing for transmission over optical and wireless coaxial networks. Recently, one of our customers experienced a satellite reception system failure on a Friday afternoon with no chance of getting replacement parts until the following Tuesday. To rescue them, we deployed a Net Insight Nimbra VA 210 video appliance,
which can deliver video over unmanaged IP networks. Specifically, we installed a Nimbra VA 210 at our Satcab premises, pointed our lab antenna to receive the “failed” channel and began to transmit the signal over the Internet. This enabled the client to keep this particularly important channel in their channel line-up until the spares for the satellite dish arrived. Prior to deploying the Nimbra VA 210 in this way, there was no solution available to make such a signal recovery happen so quickly and efficiently. In the past, some of
Satcab’s customers have tried to achieve high-quality video transport over unmanaged IP. But the results have generally been poor. For example, one of our cable TV customers attempted to achieve this with a satellite decoder on a server. But because this proved to be too difficult to manage, the transmission became unstable - creating a number of unresolvable technical issues. This is the point at which we identified the need to propose a more reliable transmission alternative. And that was when Net Insight’s Nimbra VA 210 solution was first commercially deployed by us. The Nimbra VA 210 incorporates content-aware Forward Error Correction (FEC), which reduces effective packet loss and selective retransmission of unrecoverable data loss. This, coupled with clock synchronization, means it can provide the reliable quality of service (QoS) layer that our customers desire to confidently ingest content over unmanaged IP networks.
This video appliance also features reliable media delivery over a shared packet-based infrastructure. By combining reliable UDP streaming with MPEG Transport Stream aware data recovery, Satcab customers can bring broadcastquality transport for contribution over unmanaged IP first-mile connections and extend their network footprints to reach venues previously not addressable. Following this first deployment, we realised the potential in offering the Nimbra VA 210 video appliance to our many broadcast, telco, cable and service provider customers, both large and small. By selecting the Nimbra VA 210, Satcab is now able to provide a unique appliance for cost-efficient and reliable media contribution over unmanaged IP networks, which we previously could not do. ///
Hugo Silva is Satcab’s Presales Engineer Contact: www.netinsight.net
DIGITAL MICROWAVE; MULTISTANDARD TRANSMITTERS ABE’s DML series of digital microwave links represent the latest developments based on ABE’s experience in the field. These are agile, high capacity links also useable in analogue mode. The links use DVB-S2 for backhaul and contribution and carry up to 6 MPEG transport streams. Several frequency ranges are available from 5-24 GHz. The new ‘MTX’ series of transmitters/transposers/gap fillers for terrestrial broadcasting feature multistandard digital and analogue modulation with all of the advantages of digital processing. UHF and VHF RF output levels from 1W to 20KW are standard. www.abe.it ////////////////16
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
USER REPORT ///
AP Moves to File-Based Workflow /// By David Hoad The Associated Press is a global news network that delivers fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is a trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. In 2011, AP started a strategic initiative to introduce HD and file-based workflows in response to market demands. This initiative resulted in many of AP’s video technology systems being replaced or upgraded to support HD.
An element of this HD transition has been the integration of AmberFin’s iCR HD file conversion technology to AP’s infrastructure. AmberFin’s iCR systems are being deployed at AP’s video operations in London as well as in the US, and are assisting the news agency’s provision of HD file-based content to broadcasters worldwide. We selected AmberFin as our technology supplier after careful evaluation of vendors. We believe that in both upconverting to HD 50-60Hz and frame rate standards
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
conversion, AmberFin iCR represents the market’s “best in breed” platform, along with the company’s heritage in terms of its patent portfolio.
As one of the world’s leading international news agencies, AP receives news content in technically diverse formats from geographically
>
17 ////////////////
MARKETPLACE /// diverse locations. It can come from a smartphone on the streets of Cairo or a broadcast quality HD file direct from another broadcaster. AmberFin iCR will play an important role in what we call the “normalization” of content we receive. We hope to achieve significant operational benefits from the ability to accept a wide range of material and then convert this to a very small number of in-house working formats. AP has been covering the news for over 165 years, but the news industry is so very different today and, if anything, the pace of change is increasing. By investing in technologies such as AmberFin, we can keep ahead of this rapid rate of change.
TRANSPORT CHASSIS The DigiLink DL4360x from Artel is a video transport chassis capable of routing video and Ethernet traffic in native format through a unique internal cross point. By eliminating external cross connects while staying in native video or Ethernet format, the DL4360x streamlines routing and rerouting of video and Ethernet traffic, reducing operational expenses, and providing a viable solution for remote sites where immediate or timely reconfiguration is required via EMS or NMS. www.artel.com
David Hoad is AP’s director of global video technology Contact: www.amberfin.com
////////////////18
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
DIRECT ANTENNA CONTROL The Direct Antenna Control (DAC) system from Swiss firm Quattro identifies any type of malfunctioning, even partial damage, in antenna array systems. Comprising a series of sensors that are placed on each branch of an antenna’s array, the DAC system measures the direct and reflected power values of the relevant coaxial supply line compared to standard levels. Any deviations from the standard supply values of the direct power measurement indicate a problem above the sensor, explains the company. While the deviation of reflected power reveals a problem below the sensor, it says. A combination of these signals identifies the part of the antenna that has malfunctioned. www.dacsystem.ch
T2 GATEWAY; UHF SERIES The XB-T2Mi Gateway from Screen Service allows a network to reach SFN performances and a higher level of robustness. It generates a “T2-MI” stream, a sequence of T2-MI packets, which are fed to one or more DVB-T2 modulators in a SFN/ MFN network. Screen also offers its SDT ULTRA HE transmitter series, based on established technology but with a new circuit topology. It features efficiency up to 43% with a typical value around 38%, without decreasing performance in terms of modulation error rate and shoulders. Low-loss design uses state-of-the-art components and three highly efficient power supplies. The series, which can be easily tuned on all UHF Bands. www.screen.it
USER REPORT ///
From -T to -T2 /// By Marius Scheepers am responsible for the roll-out of all transmitter-related equipment and systems within the South African network infrastructure provider, SENTECH. As a stateowned company, SENTECH’s role is to provide signal distribution services for South Africa’s licensed broadcasters, and ensure that communication coverage reaches the most remote places. We originally rolled out DVBT in metropolitan areas in 2008 and, at that time, held a competitive tender process for monitoring receivers. As a result of that tender process, Audemat’s GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T monitoring platform was selected as the most appropriate for our requirements and multiple units were subsequently deployed throughout the coverage area, all performing well in the field. Because of our positive experience with these devices, when our DVB-T network was converted to DVB-T2 in 2011,
we approached Audemat to negotiate a trade-out deal with our existing platforms, purchasing a total of 45 new GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T2 platforms. The GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T2 units are enabling us to monitor our DVB-T2 transmissions at over 30 high power sites nationwide and also to conduct off-air monitoring from Control Centres at various locations throughout the country. This includes SFN monitoring. Within our network infrastructure, each GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T2 provides RF monitoring of two multiplexes and analysis of an MPEG-2 transport stream. The units also measure all relevant T2 (MPLP) parameters such as MER, BER etc. and maintain logs of measured values as well as any alarms or deviations for future analysis. The NMS software of the GOLDENEAGLE interfaces via SNMP so that all information can be incorporated into SENTECH’s entire monitoring infrastructure.
WIDEBAND HIGH POWER DIGITAL TRANSMITTER RANGE Thomson’s Futhura range incorporates innovative design features to guarantee operators easy maintainability and scalability, in a DVB transmitter with exceptional energy efficiency and outstanding return on investment. The UHF wideband Futhura transmitter range incorporates several advanced technologies to deliver substantial energy savings: with efficiency of up to 29 percent, and power density up to 11.6 kW DVB in a single 19-inch cabinet, the system offers operators significant operational cost savings. Futhura achieves this level of efficiency across the entire UHF frequency band, allowing networks to broadcast to all UHF frequencies with a single type of module. This ‘totally wideband’ capability means networks broadcasting across the entire band don’t need to invest in multiple types of modules to cover all of the band. The range is scalable to any required output power and adaptable to any environmental condition. With the introduction of the latest generation of Thomson exciter, the Futhura range is also fully ready for future DVB developments. The Futhura range can be supplied with a high performance liquid cooling system equipped with dual pumps, allowing convenient installations with any distance between the transmitter and the cooling system. www.thomson-broadcast.com ////////////////20
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
Each GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T2 unit is capable of monitoring up to 20 channels per receiver through RF and offers us quite detailed analysis and telemetry functionality in addition to the comprehensive monitoring abilities. The system also offers us features such as automatic channel detection and audio or video streaming. Being able to detect trends in the quality of DVB-T2 signal transmission and being proactive are crucial aspects of the service delivery expected by our broadcast customers. The GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T2 is an important tool that helps us to achieve these. In our experience,
the GOLDENEAGLE DVB-T2 units were easy to install and configure. In service, we find that measured results are recorded and presented in a clear, intuitive and logical manner. ///
Marius Scheepers, Pr Eng MIEEE is Manager of Transmitter Systems for SENTECH. He has been working as an engineer and manager at SENTECH for more than 25 years. Audemat www.audemat.com
T2 GATEWAY Nevion’s CP560 DVB-T2 Gateway provides central control of DVB-T2 and T2Lite networks, enabling operators more efficient spectrum utilization. Encapsulating transport streams in T2-MI frames to interface with DVB-T2 modulators, the T2-MI controls modulator parameters and provides the accurate timing and rate control required in an SFN. The CP560 provides flexible interfacing with ASI or IP inputs and T2-MI outputs over ASI and IP, and encapsulates MPEG Transport Streams in Physical Layer Pipe (single and multi-PLP). Easily configured through a web interface, this product also includes built-in stream monitoring. www.nevion.com
HEVC ENCODER Thomson Video Networks has developed its own HEVC compression technology for its ViBE VS7000 multi-screen video encoding /transcoding system. The VS7000 is one of the first worldwide implementations of HEVC, designed to lower operators' OPEX for delivery of a wide range of convergent TV services. The VS7000 is an "anything in, anything out" encoding/transcoding platform, powered by the company’s MediaFlex video operating system. The ViBE VS7000 receives live compressed or uncompressed TV signals or files and encodes them for convergent applications including WebTV and OTT, as well as traditional IPTV and cable. www.thomson-networks.com
MARKETPLACE /// MULTI-PURPOSE PLATFORM Cleber is new from Elber - its applications are multiple, and a user can design a custom platform. It is a flexible and modular hardware and software platform for broadcasting and contribution networks, where customers can install up to six boards with no limitations in terms of position. Based on a Linux embedded OS, the Cleber detects the presence of the boards and shows the related control interface to the user, either through web GUI and Touchscreen TFT display. Cleber
can host any combination of boards and is the control unit for Elber’s new portable link XPM. In the case of its use as a transmitter control unit, the chassis is equipped with digital modulator (DVB-S/S2 and DVB-T), upconverter and, if needed, one or more encoders HD/SD (MPEG-2 or H-264). As a receiver control unit it hosts a digital demodulator, down-converter and decoders. For DSNG applications, the chassis can be equipped with encoder(s), TS switches, modulator(s), L-band switch
HEVC, 4K SUPPORT Digital Rapids now offers an array of enhancements for the recently released Transcode Manager 2.0 automated, highvolume media processing software and its underlying Kayak dynamic workflow platform. New capabilities include support for the HEVC (H.265) compression format; 4K Ultra HD encoding; Dolby E audio decoding and more. HEVC encoding----which can reduce bandwidth requirements and file sizes by as much as 50% relative to AVC---- is now being previewed in Transcode Manager 2.0 with technology from Kayak
ecosystem partner Vanguard Video. Vanguard's 'V.265' HEVC codec will be available as a modular component integrating directly into the Kayak Platform. 4K Ultra HD distribution is also now available in Transcode Manager 2.0. www.digital-rapids.com
and upconverter to C, Ku and Ka band. Multiple ASI to IP and IP to ASI interfaces are available for convergence to a broadband network, both on fibre and copper. For satellite DVB-S2 contribution to transmitting sites in a TV or radio network, a multistream or single stream receiver is available. www.elber.it
MPEG/HEVC IRD The Kyrion DR8400 is a Universal Integrated Receiver SD/HD MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 /HEVC decoder supporting all MPEG profiles from Main to High422P including MPEG-4 4:2:2 10-bit. It is designed for contribution markets where premium quality and performance are more important than ever. Key features include HEVC support up to 1080i, SD/HD support MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 up to 4:2:2 10-bit; two built-in RF demodulators; pro MPEG FEC and BISS - 0/1/E support; IP streaming output; and an HD to SD broadcast
quality downscaler. It is an HEVC compliant reference decoder that is a future-proof platform with FPGA technology. It allows up to a 50 percent bandwidth saving with HEVC compared to MPEG-4, while the H.264 and DVB-S2 advantage can achieve up to a 50 percent bandwidth saving compared to MPEG-2. www.ateme.com
July-August 2013 I TV Technology Europe
21 ////////////////
SHARPSHOOTER ///
Seeing it Come Together NAME: Oliver Gold AGE: 22 Star sign: Taurus Hometown: Southend-on-Sea, located in Essex, UK. Current location: Wimbledon, Greater London. Languages: Only English. I did try Spanish but didn't have time to keep it up. Occupation: Self-shooter, DSLR director, and Final Cut Pro 7 editor. Education/training: I attended Southampton Solent University 2008-2011, where I studied film and television production. But I didn’t learn the real stuff until I starting working in the industry.
as the Z1-Z5 and EX3. I was amazed by the quality of this small device and had to buy one. I admit it does have some bad features, but I'm a big fan of creating that artsy cool jazzy vibe. I believe you can get that with the DSLR within a good budget, compared to most cameras out on the market.
moment I work on corporate, music and behind-the-scenes videos. Have you been busy? Since March 2013, business has been very good. Shooting where? All over London and around the country.
Does the DSLR approach have a future? It's hard to say. The market surrounding film is always changing, though if they keep advancing the DSLR then I guess it has to have some sort of future within the industry.
What was your first shooting job? My first paid freelance gig was while I was at university. That was filming a promotional video for a restaurant.
Editing rig: I work on Final Cut 7, After Effects and Magic Bullet for grading. In the long run I hope to be using Avid Symphony.
Most recent, interesting assignments? Doing a music video on Lara Smiles. I've worked on music videos before but this was the first one I had full control over. I produced, directed, shot and am currently editing it.
Current assignments. Where, doing what, shooting for whom? I'm currently freelancing around London and traveling around the country. At the
Current camera equipment you use? I'm currently using a Canon 600D DSLR with a 24-105mm lens, though for bigger
Camera experience: I've always done camera work from a young age. However, I could never have called myself a camera operator until June last year. Before then, I didn't really understand the true value of being a camera operator. Anyone can pick up a camera and start filming, but it takes a skill to know what shots you need and how you can create a story for the edit or for the editor. DSLR experience: I started shooting on DSLRs last year, before that I was using typical video cameras such ////////////////22
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
>
SHARPSHOOTER /// Hairiest/scariest assignments and why? I don't get scared on assignments, but I do get excited. I've got a big project coming up with So Solid Crew for their reunion tour at the O2. I know I have to make that amazing because I know how much business it can bring me, so I do have the pressure to deliver. How much 16:9 do you shoot? All the time.
projects I rent 28mm and 50mm Nikon primes.
freelancer is when you have a week without work
Other gear you have access to? I mainly have what I need, but am always looking to buy more.
Would you ever join a production company to stabilise your earnings? That's a tricky one: At the moment I do a lot of freelance work for collaborative media that provides me with a busy schedule of work. My target is to get onto the books on a directors' agency. For me to achieve that I need to stay freelance, as it provides me with the variety of creative shoots and personal projects such as short films.
What useful piece of gear do you wish someone might make? That's a tricky one because you can almost certainly buy everything you need. Perhaps a DSLR that could do every frame rate. Now that would be rather cool! Best thing about your job? Everything, but there's nothing better than working on an exciting project and seeing it all come together. Worst thing about your job? The only worst thing I can say as a
What country do you most like to shoot in? I've only ever shot in two countries: England and Germany. I would have to say England is my favourite, as I'm a big fan of London as a location. What’s your taste in music? I like a bit of everything accept for mainstream and Screamo. I'm a huge fan of some of the older bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Pink Floyd, and the Doors. Favorite food? Italian and Middle Eastern. ///
Dullest assignments and why? Corporate videos. Although they can be really cool, you do get the odd one where you need to do everything in your power to stay awake.
Contact details: W: www.olivergoldfilm.co.uk E: contact@olivergoldfilm.co.uk
ADVERTISING INDEX /////////////////// COMPANY
PAGE
WEBSITE
COMPANY
PAGE
WEBSITE
ABE
27
www.abe.it
Elber srl
19
www.elber.com
AJA Video
5
www.aja.com
Gefen Systems
21
www.gefeneu.com
B&H Photo
23
www.bandh.com
IBC
25
www.ibc.org
Blackmagic Design
9,13
www.blackmagicdesign.com
Lupo Light
15
www.lupolight.it
Bridge Technologies
3
www.bridge.tv
Miranda
2
www.miranda.com
Cobolt Digital
17
www.coboltdigital.com
Opticomm/Emcore
10
www.opticomm.com
Decimator
1, 7
www.decimator.com
Volicon
18
www.volicon.com
Delta Meccanica
16
www.deltameccanica.com
Wheatstone
28
www.wheatstone.com
Digital Rapids
11
www.digitalrapids.com
Advertising Sales Representatives /////////////////// Publisher
Steve Connolly
+44 (0)207 354 6000
Europe
Sharifa Marshall
+44 (0)207 354 6000
steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk sharifa.marshall@intentmedia.co.uk
Europe
Graham Kirk
+44 (0)1223 911153
gkirk@nbmedia.com
Italy
Raffaella Calabrese
+39 02 92884940
rcalabrese@broadcast.it
Latin America
Susana Saibene
+34 607 314071
susana.saibene@gmail.com
Hong Kong, China, Asia/Pacific
Wengong Wang
+86 755 5785161
wwg@imaschina.com
Australia/New Zealand
Eric Trabb
+1 212 378 0400 x532
etrabb@nbmedia.com
US Central, New England & Canada
Vytas Urbonas
+1 212 378 0400 x533
vurbonas@nbmedia.com
US West
Pete Sembler
+1 212 378 0400 x324
psembler@nbmedia.com
US Classifieds & Product Showcase/ US Southeast and Mid-Atlantic
Michele Inderrieden
+1 212 378 0400 x523
minderrieden@nbmedia.com
////////////////24
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
Last Lines ///
Waves or Web? /// By Wesley Dodd
wo things happened on one day in March that should give anyone who relies on the Internet for entertainment and information a bit of a wake-up call. The first thing that happened was global. A huge DoS (denial of service) attack slowed the Internet around the world. In what has been described as the biggest cyberattack of its kind in history, services across the world were disrupted and widespread congestion jammed crucial online infrastructure. The BBC wrote about the issue here: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/te chnology-21954636) There were reports of effects on banking and e-mail systems, as well as video services such as Netflix and Lovefilm. It stands to reason – if the global Internet is running slowly then of course services that require largish packets of the public internet would be affected The second is less global and more localised. A fibre optic cable that forms a backbone between Europe, Middle East and the Subcontinent was cut off the coast of Egypt. It meant that millions of users faced grindingly slow Internet speeds. Of course, in some ways this shows the resilience of the Internet – with services being provided through a substitute cable in the region. Let us not forget that the Internet was developed as a many-headed hydra that could lose a server or hub and still remain active. But it is also a reminder of how vulnerable we are in an age when so much relies on the Internet. Losing the Internet can be critical for business – but for consumers at home the problem is less one of losing productive time but of losing ways to waste time. It is not exactly life or death – a few hours when you can’t watch West Wing is frustrating, but not exactly critical. ////////////////26
BUT COULD IT BE? Increasingly, we are consuming a great deal of our TV and radio services via some sort of IP connection. Indeed it is not unusual to find some houses that only have IP-based platforms.
The loss of our online services is most likely to coincide with a time when we need information the most. We may all like to watch news on our mobile phones or time-shifted on-demand, but we also like to know that the ‘old fashioned’ TV signal is still there too. Ironically, the loss of our online services is most likely to coincide with a time when we need information the most. A natural disaster, a terrorist attack, a denial of service attack or a simple cable break could slow the Internet down to a crawl or in some cases prevent access altogether. If this happens at the very time when people are relying on spreading public information, then the consequences are significant. When Hurricane Sandy blew into the West Coast of the USA last year it took out power, phones and Internet across several states. People regressed. With no access to information on-line they reverted once again to finding out about the outside world from batterypowered radio sets or TVs run by generators. Mobile phones and laptops were overnight rendered useless. Those who had forsaken telephone landlines for VoIP connections found themselves without any way of contacting the outside world. Similar stories abound after natural disasters around the world. Public informaion about places of safety, water supplies or emergency information can work as well online as via an oldfashioned radio set. But when
TV Technology Europe I July-August 2013
Wesley Dodd the Internet is down, the audience run the risk of being left in the dark. The benefit of ‘old fashioned’ transmissions (whether analogue, digital or satellite) is that they need not be affected by a localised event. This is why most countries have some kind of emergency broadcast system. In most cases this will mean transmissions via TV and radio. Of course, when the Internet goes out it doesn’t just affect the audience: It also has a real impact on the broadcasters. It is now common practice to send journalists into the field using little more than a laptop – usually running some kind of IPbased file delivery or live delivery system (Streambox is common in the USA whereas Quicklink dominates in the UK). With an outage, journalists suddenly find that filing from the field is not easy. Gone are the days when journalists carried fly-away satellite dishes. Most news organisations are now heavily reliant on public Internet access to allow them to file and contribute form the field. It can even affect broadcast infrastructure. Many news organisations use public Internet to connect video and audio live
between bureaus and their main transmission centres. Satellite connections are still there, but they are becoming the exception rather than the norm. I am a huge advocate of IPbased broadcasting and distribution and champion its advantages both in terms of flexibility, scalability and cost. But if it is to become our future, then perhaps it’s time to consider how we will get the message across in times of trouble. If nothing else, it could be time to pause and think about how our world could look without broadcast transmissions. /// Currently CEO of Celebro Media Networks (London, UK), Wesley Dodd is a media consultant and TV trendspotter with 20 years’ experience at the top of the industry. Having worked for the BBC for 15 years, Dodd was the BBC deputy news chief in Moscow. He has worked on IPTV operations and distribution around the world, recently launching the BBC’s new family of TV news products in Africa, Turkey, Pakistan and Russia.