TECH Technology and technique for production, post and playout
August/September 2013
Tech that changed TV Industry experts pick their 25 top products, page 18
A marathon not a sprint: all the OB providers for The Tour of Britain Page 7
A rundown of who will be unveiling what at this year’s IBC trade show Page 29
Technicolor colourist Dan Coles on the kit he uses to grade top drama Page 38
A leading documentary-maker puts the Pocket Cinema Camera to the test Page 46
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CONTENTS
Inside this month AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2013
NEWS & VIEWS
18
05 LEADER From old to new, taking stock of the kit that changed TV
07 THE BIG PICTURE Tackling the Tour: the Tour of Britain OB providers
08 NEWS The latest products and news from across the industry
14 IN MY VIEW Donna Mulvey-Jones on adopting new technology
IN-DEPTH 18 TOP 25 The products that changed the way we make TV
24 COMUX Under the bonnet of the local-TV playout operation
29 IBC PREVIEW Who’s showing what at the annual tech fest
34 SKILLS GAP Colleges and business join forces to train young talent
WORK 38 MY OFFICE Dan Coles on the kit he uses to grade high-end TV
40 PROFILE
44
24
Ian Brotherston on Ericsson’s aims and objectives
TOOLS 42 PRODUCT ANATOMY Panasonic’s AK-HC3500A
44 MOST WANTED Jigsaw24’s Jamie Allan on the in-demand products
46 TESTED Blackmagic’s latest camera is put through its paces
40
48
INFORM 48 ASK THE EXPERTS How to deliver to the DPP’s file spec
55 GUIDE TO All you need to know about LTO
58 POST SCRIPT Arqiva’s Daniel Cherowbrier on his top tech
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August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 3
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BROADCAST & PROAV IT’S YOUR WORLD
LEADER
From the editor ISSUE #11
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To learn more about the latest production and post-production techniques and cutting-edge kit, sign up for our Production and Post Forum, which takes place on 23 and 24 October. Turn to page 32 for more information. EDITORIAL Broadcast TECH Editor George Bevir, 020 3033 4207 Broadcast Editor Lisa Campbell Production Editor Dominic Needham Group Art Director, Media Peter Gingell Contributors Michael Burns, Balihar Khalsa, Adrian Pennington, Andy Stout, Will Strauss SALES Senior Account Manager Sonya Jacobs, 020 3638 5057 Group Commercial Director Alison Pitchford, 020 3638 5058 Conference Director Charlotte Wheeler, 020 3638 5063 Media Business Insight, 101 Finsbury Pavement, London EC2A 1RS. Broadcast TECH is published by MBI, publisher of Broadcast
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 5
NEWS & VIEWS
he eagle-eyed among you will notice that we’ve given Broadcast TECH a bit of an overhaul, adding a few new sections and generally sprucing the magazine up a bit. We hope you like it. It’s approaching two years since we launched Broadcast TECH, but even in that short time so much has changed, from the continuing move towards end-to-end file-based workflows, to the rise of the cloud and 3D being usurped by Ultra HD as the future format of choice. With so much change, we thought it was time to take stock and attempt to answer the question: which product has had the biggest impact on the way TV is made and delivered? It’s a big question, and one that because it is so subjective, is almost impossible to answer – but the industry experts we consulted have given it a damn good go. We haven’t ranked the products they chose in order of importance – that’s your job. And we also want you to tell us which products you think are missing from the list. You can make sure your voice is heard by visiting broadcastnow.co.uk/ techfacils or tweeting #TechTop25. With IBC lurking just around the corner, it’s almost time to focus on what’s next. As you’re pacing the halls of the RAI, ask yourself this: how many of the products on show in Amsterdam would feature in a similar list in 10 years’ time? george.bevir@broadcastnow.co.uk
Taking content further Making great content is tough Distributing it shouldn’t be Visit Globecast at IBC Booth 1.A29 C
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The Tour of Britain: riders sprint up Guildford’s cobbled high street during the final stage of last year’s Tour
THE BIG PICTURE
NEWS & VIEWS
The Tour of Britain An OB marathon not a sprint For this year’s tenth anniversary Tour of Britain, 19 cycling teams will battle it out over 650 miles. Last year, the Tour was shown on 14 channels in 124 countries to more than 288 million homes; Tour organiser Sweetspot is expecting higher ratings this year. Century TV, which produced the last six Tours, will once again provide live coverage and daily highlights, all in HD. In the UK,
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
ITV4 plans to show two hours of live coverage and one hour of highlights on race days, while British Eurosport will show a total of 16 hours live and 37 hours of highlights. Belgian firm Videohouse, which also worked on this year’s Tour de France, will provide RF links and OB trucks for the event. Three cameramen on motorbikes supplied by Williams Moto will shoot the
action close up. The camera kit, including large-lens and super-slow-motion cameras to capture footage of the riders as they approach the finish line of each stage, will also come from Videohouse. ➤ The Tour of Britain runs from 15-22 September, starting in Peebles on the Scottish border and ending in London
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 7
PRODUCT NEWS IBC SPECIAL
NEWS & VIEWS
Sony upgrades XDCAM with wireless adapter Sony has released a new wireless adapter for its XDCAM range of cameras. The CBK-WA100 adapter connects to a camera and allows XAVC proxy files to be created and then saved on an SD card in the adapter. From the adapter, proxy content and the original highresolution content can be uploaded via 3G/4G/LTE/Wi-Fi to a broadcast station, on-premise server or to a cloud environment. A tablet or smartphone can be used to control the CBK-WA100. It allows users of XDCAM camcorders to remotely log metadata and review content without having to connect a monitor to the camcorder. “Wireless connectivity is critical for streamlined production between the field and studio,” said Sony Europe Professional Solutions strategic marketing manager Fabien Pisano. “Also, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are commonly used in every professional application, including
Maxon Cinema 4D Maxon will give a European debut to the latest version of Cinema 4D at IBC. Release 15 (R15) of the 3D software platform includes features such as bevelling for modelling efficiency, interactive kerning for advanced 3D typographic control, and ‘team render’, which allows for rendering across networks within the Cinema 4D interface. Hall 6 Stand C19
Technicolor Px39
Sony XDCAM: users can now remotely log metadata and review content ENG and EFP. Combining these two capabilities results in a new workflow for the future.” The adapter is compatible with Sony’s full line-up of XDCAM camcorders and field gear. It also works with products that have an HD-SDI output. The wireless adapter will be available in October.
Sony has also announced some additions to its line-up of Optical Disc Archive solutions: the new ODS-D77U and ODS-D77F drive units, which run at speeds up to a maximum over 1Gbps, and expandable PetaSite library units ODS-L30M, ODS-L60E and ODS-L100E. Hall 12 Stand A10
Eyeheight unveils compliance software Eyeheight will introduce the latest addition to its range of broadcast signal compliance software at IBC. The new ComplianceSuiteAPP is a plug-in legaliser for Adobe’s Premiere Pro editing software. The software also includes a safearea generator and a graphic measurement toolset. It enables users to verify and conform content from within their Premiere Pro graphic inter-
IBC IN BRIEF
face before it is submitted to a filebased quality control system. The legaliser is designed for use with high-end video source files used for broadcast content production. It supports any combination of file formats and source colour-space available in Premiere Pro. ComplianceSuiteAPP can perform composite, RGB, RGBplus-Y and simultaneous composite-plus-RGB legalising with
8 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
Technicolor will demonstrate its HEVC-equipped kit with the launch of two new HEVC devices: the Px39 HEVC Media Server and the Px36 mobile set-top box. The Px39 is the company’s first HEVC media server. Using a Broadcom chipset, it will support HEVC 4K/p60 Ultra HD video. Hall 13 Stand MS4
Harmonic ProMedia Harmonic will showcase its ‘glass-to-glass’ integrated broadcast and multiscreen solutions. Its HEVC-ready ProMedia family of multiscreen solutions will be demonstrated and its Ultra HD reference footage will be available for testing interoperability with HEVC clients. Hall 1 Stand B20
user-adjustable soft clipping at high and low thresholds. Colour-space conversion allows accurate limiting to ensure gamut compliance while keeping the full gamut available for creative use. The safe-area generator provides a range of broadcast safe area markers covering all the requirements for SD, HD and 2K, including 16:9 and 14:9 requirements in SD.
Codex Review
Hall 8 Stand B97
Hall 11 Stand G30
Codex will give a European debut to the Codex Review module for its Vault media management system. Review Module allows Vault to be connected to a calibrated monitor so that camera original material can be viewed at the highest resolution. It also contains a colour pipeline, including support for ACES.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUND-UP
NEWS & VIEWS
Vitec boosts Videocom with swoop for Teradek Vitec Group has acquired California company Teradek. The wireless HD video device manufacturer, which makes products such as the Cube encoder, will form part of the Vitec Videocom division. Teradek’s wireless HD products are used in broadcast contribution and distribution, video production, webcasting and digital cinema. Vitec said the deal was in line with its strategy “to bring forward innovative products and solutions that improve its customers’ operational efficiency”. Vitec Videocom chief exec Matt Danilowicz said: “Whether it’s a cinema director seeking an on-set monitoring system, an ENG journalist transmitting from a challenging environment or a videographer live-streaming a client’s ceremony, Teradek’s products will provide an affordable solution for customers’ wireless transmission requirements.” Teradek employs 60 people. Founder Nicol Verheem will join the Vitec Videocom divisional management team as part of the acquisition. root6 ad 65hx186w AD
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Quantel brings in ex-Avid CTO Quantel has recruited former Avid chief technology officer Tim Claman to its US division. Claman joined the manufacturer this week in the same role. He will act as a bridge between the US and the UKbased R&D team. Quantel R&D director Simon Rogers said: “Having a CTO of Tim’s capabilities based in the US will ensure we stay as close to our customers’ needs and aspirations as possible.”
Harris makes two senior hires Harris Broadcast has made two senior appointments, with Steve Foreman recruited to the role of president of global operations and services and Jeff Liening appointed senior vice-president of global sales operations. Foreman joins Harris from Texas Pacific Group, where he held the position of senior adviser for seven years. Liening, meanwhile, has been recruited from Genband, where he was most recently senior vice-president of global sales operations.
Cube encoder: Teradek’s products will ‘provide an affordable solution’ “This is a major step forward for Teradek that will expand our reach, fuel our growth and enhance our focus on product innovation,” he said. “We’ll benefit from the resources and reach of Vitec Videocom and will embrace the opportunity to work alongside some of its other market-leading brands.” Danilowicz said: “We’re strengthened by the power of the
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‘This will enhance our focus on product innovation’ Nicol Verheem, Teradek brands that operate under the Vitec Videocom umbrella and are delighted that Teradek will contribute to our unbeatable range of solutions around the camera.”
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FACILITIES NEWS ROUND-UP
NEWS & VIEWS
BBC S&PP exits central London in post shake-up BBC Studios and Post Production is to pull out of its central London facility after just 12 months as part of an overall shake-up of its post-production division. The facilities firm moved into its Charlotte Street base at the start of the year, but BBC S&PP chief executive Anna Mallett said it would exit the premises after judging its current business model was “not commercially viable”. It will retain its post capacity at Elstree and continue to provide post-production for EastEnders and Holby City, but from 2014 it wants to move to a “project-based, client-tailored post model”. BBC S&PP will post-produce BBC1’s upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Stepping Out from Charlotte Street before it exits the premises on 1 January. Around 12 staff are thought to be affected by the changes. It is now in talks with an unknown number of production companies and broadcasters about taking on their post-production work as a managed service.
IN BRIEF Films at 59 gets DNA Films at 59 has installed StorageDNA’s DNA Evolution archive system in Bristol, which allows the post facility to move content from hard drives and other storage onto LTO tape via automated processes. “The benefits include the ability to quickly archive the high-res media and conform directly from the LTO tape,” said operations manager Stuart Dyer.
Prime Focus upgrades
Strictly Come Dancing: next series will be the last at Charlotte Street Mallett said the shift had come about following a review. “Post-production in its current form is not proving to be commercially viable for BBC Studios and Post Production,” she said. A building adjacent to the Charlotte Street premises is to be redeveloped from early next year, which Mallett said had compounded the situation. The Charlotte Street assets, comprising nine Avid Media Composer offline suites, eight
Avid Symphony Nitris DX finishing suites, an Avid Pro Tools 5.1 audio suite and a Flame Premium VFX suite, will be split between the company’s Elstree and South Ruislip sites. BBC S&PP moved into Editworks’ old premises on Charlotte Street in January, after the BBC decided to quit Television Centre. It will return to TVC after the site has been redeveloped. BBC S&PP is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC.
Prime Focus has upgraded 30 of its Avid Media Composer seats to version 7 with Mojo DX interfaces. The Soho post facility is also investing in three Avid Symphony Nitris systems. “Having Avid tech at the heart of our facility means clients will have a faultless experience,” said Rowan Bray, managing director at Prime Focus UK.
Dock10 recruits Riley Dock10 has made Emma Riley head of business development. The ex-Sunset + Vine head of production technology will join the MediaCityUK-based services provider in September.
VFX duo join LipSync
Ex-Sumners staff establish Core Post A group of ex-Sumners employees have teamed up to launch a postproduction company in Salford. Former Sumners head of sound Tony Greenwood, senior editor Matt Brown and finance director Kate Mather are joint shareholders in Core Post, which is due to open at the end of September. Greenwood and Brown will be joint managing directors and Mather will be finance director. Lucy Swann, who was front-ofhouse manager at Sumners, will
be facility manager, while dubbing mixer Emily Nuttall is also set to join the company. All were made redundant by Sumners earlier this year when its Manchester operation closed. Builders are fitting out Core Post’s premises in a two-storey, 15,000 sq ft building in Metroplex Business Park near MediaCityUK. “It’s as near as we could get without actually being in MediaCityUK, which wasn’t financially possible,” said Greenwood. “It
12 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
took several months to sort out the lease, but we were determined to have this building.” The facility will have two online suites equipped with Avid Symphony and Da Vinci Resolve, as well as two dubbing suites kitted out with Pro Tools and Icon D mixing desks, with Genelec monitors. Four offline suites will run Media Composer 6.5. Greenwood said the installation of a dedicated grading suite would depend on demand.
LipSync Post has recruited VFX supervisor George Zwier and VFX producer Paul Driver to its visual effects department. Zwier joins from Double Negative, where he has worked on film projects such as Thor: The Dark World, while Driver joins the post firm from Cinesite, where he worked on 300: Rise Of An Empire and Jack Ryan. LipSync head of VFX Sal Umerji said: “George has worked on some of the most challenging VFX sequences seen in recent years and our team will learn much from his experience.”
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IN MY VIEW
‘Paying for things on a monthly basis gives us the ability to scale up or down according to need’ Donna Mulvey-Jones
NEWS & VIEWS
Remote working: Maverick TV’s Stephen Fry Out There
Change is in the air TV’s move to the cloud will be driven by choice rather than forced from above, says Donna Mulvey-Jones. To get there, we need to demonstrate the benefits for producers in terms of flexibility and reduced costs
A
s an industry, it felt as if we went HD almost overnight. That change was ultimately forced by broadcasters asking for content to be delivered in HD. In effect, they told us which cameras we could use, which in turn dictated our workflows. That radical change was driven by technology rather than any creative need. There’s always a lot of talk about new technology but much less attention is paid to how we handle change; it’s important to look at how it affects people. As a production company, the most important thing for Maverick is the media we create. When we shifted to file-based workflows, there was understandably a fear of pressing ‘delete’ and clearing memory cards once rushes had been ingested. And then there was all the complicated new jargon. Getting people on board when we moved away from tape was the real challenge. Everyone has now settled in and these file-based working practices are normal – but we’re only just over it.
14 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
The next big change in working and mentalities will be the shift to the cloud from local storage, rather than any move to higher-resolution formats. Ultra HD won’t change much about the way we work – apart from the need for more storage and bandwidth – so it’s less people-related, but the cloud will have an impact. As well as the remote-working opportunities, the joy of the cloud should be the ability to scale. One of the fundamental arguments in favour of adopting cloud-based services is the ability to reduce capital expenditure in favour of operational expenditure. It’s particularly attractive to production companies because of the project-by-project nature of the industry; not everyone has the luxury of making large capital investments, so paying for things on a monthly basis gives us the ability to scale up or down according to need. Companies like Forbidden, with its FORscene video platform, already offer this but some of the more established companies don’t. Avid is hopefully starting to listen but if I want to use Avid’s Interplay Sphere platform, I have to buy a set number of licences.
During one particular month I might have 40 edits and the following month much fewer, but I don’t want to buy for the peak figure because it’s not sustainable. A pricing model where we can pay for something on a monthly basis suits us, and we are not alone – it’s similar for post houses that might win large, one-off jobs. There has to be more flexibility in pricing. In some respects, dealing with change in an industry so reliant on freelancers can be easier because people are always moving around and they know they need to be employable and ready to take on the next job. But it’s still important that people understand why we make certain technology choices. Where the move to tapeless was almost forced, the real drive to the cloud will only happen through choice, and only when people are aware of the creative and financial benefits. ■ Donna Mulvey-Jones is head of post-production and facilities at Maverick TV. She is taking part in the ‘Managing Change at Production Level’ discussion at IBC on Monday 16 September at 2pm
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
DENMARK
Danmon completes HD studio for TV2 Danmon Systems Group has completed the installation of an HD news studio at the Odense headquarters of Danish PSB TV2. The studio is in a large gallery with the main presentation sets at one end and the weather presentation area at the other. Camera facilities include three robotic pedestals and a Steadicam system. Production of daily news programmes is co-ordinated via an LSB Virtual Studio Manager and Mosart news automation system. “Mosart uses a template-based structure,
which provides the security and predictability essential for our news service,” said TV2 head of development Kjeld Skovlund. The set features an 11-metre interactive screen, illuminated by Barco projectors. The fit-out included Grass Valley’s Kayenne vision mixer, two Studer Vista audio control desks, Miranda multiviewers, Gunterman and Drunk KVM systems. TC Electronic audio interfaces, Genelec stereo and surroundsound monitors, Miranda glue, plus Omneon and EVS studio servers, have also been fitted.
NEWS & VIEWS
SOUTH AFRICA
CS2 Systems builds 14-camera OB truck C2S Systems has designed and built its sixth OB truck for South African broadcaster SuperSport. The vehicle will be based in Nairobi and used for sports events across East Africa, particularly league football. The Mercedes Axor 26T rigid-chassis truck was built as a double-expander and has been fitted with Sony PVM-1741 monitors, Tektronix WFM-5000 Waveform monitors, and a touch-screen router control designed by C2S Systems. It also includes a Sony DVS-9000 3ME Vision
Mixer, 12 Sony BVP-E30 Camera Channels, two Grass Valley LDK SD Super SlowMotion Cameras, four robotic mini-cams and three EVS XT2 replay units. Jonathan Lyth, systems manager at C2S Systems, the integration arm of WTS Group, said: “The truck needed to be ready for an upgrade in a few months’ time, so we built a system that would allow that to happen with minimal disruption. We fitted the truck with an HD-ready system so additional equipment could simply slot into place.”
RUSSIA
NTV-Plus installs Artemis and Calrec kit Russian satellite service NTV-Plus has installed two more Artemis Beam consoles and a Hydra2 router core in its Moscow studios. The new kit will enable NTV-Plus to produce 5.1 surround sound and share consoles among its four studios. NTV-Plus installed two 48-fader Artemis Beam consoles. These come with Calrec’s Hydra2 audio routing capabilities, which enable the desks to communicate with each other. The satellite company also purchased
16 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
a standalone Hydra2 router core. Oleg Kolesnikov, chief technology officer at NTV-Plus, said: “Being able to route audio signals and share consoles across all of our studios gives us complete redundancy. We also no longer need a back-up console in each studio in case of failure, which saves us money and down time.” NTV-Plus became Calrec’s first customer in Russia when it purchased its first two Artemis Beam desks last year.
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COVER FEATURE
The game-changers Broadcast TECH canvassed industry experts past and present for the top 25 products and innovations that have changed TV. Will Strauss reveals the winners, starting back in 1956 and through to the present day
accommodate the constant re-reading to generate the next line or frame of video,” says Root6 head of systems integration Phil Crawley. “Without Dynamic RAM [below], there would have been no picture-in-picture, no timebase correction, no standards conversion and no digiscan telecines.”
Quantel DPE 5000 (1978) The DPE 5000 was the first fully specified Digital Video Effect (DVE) system. “Along with previously available slides, resizes, squishes and zooms, it allowed you to rotate the picture,” explains Evolutions operations director Owen Tyler. “You could also enjoy a dazzling palate of mosaics, trails, strobes and split screens, and for the really brave, a tumbling cube.”
GEC-McMichael ACE Standards Converter Ampex VRX-1000 (1956)
SMPTE Timecode (1975)
Originally designed as a time-shifting device for US broadcasters, the VRX-1000 (above) was the first commonly available video recorder. Later renamed the Mark IV videotape recorder, the VRX-1000 was introduced at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago. Charles P Ginsburg, who led the Ampex research team, described the Chicago demonstrations as “like dropping a bombshell on the broadcasting industry”. CBS Television City in Hollywood was the first broadcaster to use the device when it aired a delayed Douglas Edwards With The News.
A digitally encoded signal that is recorded on videotape to identify each frame by hour, minute, second and frame number, timecode has transformed TV production. The original standard, C98.12-1975, was developed in collaboration with the American National Standards Institute. “Unsung, unsexy, but crucial,” says consultant Hugh Waters of Waters Technical Services. “Without timecode, the electronic television production industry we know today simply couldn’t have existed.”
Mostek MK4096 Dynamic RAM chip (1973) An enabling technology, Dynamic RAM made digital video devices possible. “For the first time, these chips were fast enough to
(1981) Cost-effective standards converters, based on a BBC invention, allowed US television series and sport programming to be delivered, as video to the UK, and vice-versa. “Before the ACE and converters of this type, entertainment and sport shows were acquired with two entirely separate rigs: one 525 lines and one 625 lines,” says David Klafowski, joint managing director at The Farm Group. “Tell the kids today and they wouldn’t believe you.”
Ampex VRX-1000
Mostek MK4096
SMPTE Timecode
Quantel DPE 5000
ACE Standards Convertor
1956
1973
1975
1978
1981
Timeline
18 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
TOP 25
Fuji 250asa (1981) The advent of faster, more sensitive film stocks (below) in the early 1980s – not just from Fuji but also Kodak and Agfa – combined with higher-speed lenses gave cinematographers greater options. “Instead of being limited to studios, we could embrace shooting on location,” says freelance DoP Stephen Murphy. “We could also utilise more available light and light larger areas with the same size of lighting package. Using naturalistic, soft light sources became much more practical and work began to take on a more cinematic visual style.”
AMS Audiofile (1984) The first hard disk-based digital recording, editing and playback system “set both picture and sound post on the road to digital”, says Pinewood Studios Group special projects consultant Dennis Weinreich. “Other systems with greater elegance and integration followed, but when AMS showed the prototype for the Audiofile, no one could have realised its impact.” Halo chief exec John Rogerson agrees: “I don’t think anyone would argue that it sounded better than tape, but the concept was revolutionary, offering flexibility and greater speed. With the AMS Neve Logic mixing console, it was a truly formidable bit of kit.”
DaVinci (1984)
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) director of technology and innovation Simon Fell remembers the impact Quantel Paintbox (below) had when it launched: “For the first time, digital painting work with dedicated hardware was affordable.”
Quantel Harry (1985) Quantel’s digital editing and visual effects compositing system Harry (right) made the impossible possible. “Harry was the first real hard-disk-drive frame-storage device,” says Framestore founder Mike McGee. “It enabled true multilayered compositing of images, typography and animation. The fresh,
Fuji 250asa
Quantel Paintbox
AMS Audiofile
DaVinci
Quantel Harry
1981
1982
1984
1984
1985
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August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 19
IN-DEPTH
Quantel Paintbox (1982)
“Programmable colour correction changed the way we light, shoot, edit and present images,” says Waters. “Although there had been several programmable colour-correction systems available for a while, they were all quite limited. It was probably the one built by VTA Technologies, a post house in Florida, that had the biggest impact and whose legacy lives on as the DaVinci Resolve. I believe it was the first grading system to have a multi-vector secondary colour correction and adjustable ‘windows’ that could be graded independently.”
sharp and textured images we were able to produce were previously only available to graphic artists working in print.” From that point, it became practical to combine animation with live action, replicate actors in a scene, extend sets and integrate green screen. “Many other tools evolved from the Harry concept,” says Deluxe chief operating officer Lesley Marr. “Notably the Quantel Henry product used on the famous Guinness surfer commercial. It influenced VFX in movies and, along with CGI software developments, helped to shape the way post has developed.”
TOP 25
Sony DVR-1000 (D-1) (1987)
IN-DEPTH
The first practical digital video recorder, the D-1 was capable of recording individual luminance and colour difference signals. “For the first time, we had digital 601 and 422 images recorded without compression or loss,” says Fell.
MPEG Digital Compression (1988) The Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) isn’t a manufacturer, but rather a body from which some key technology standards have emerged. Without it, however, TV and online distribution as we know it would probably not exist. “MPEG digital compression systems enabled the introduction of digital TV and led directly to today’s multichannel world,” says Arqiva broadcast and media technical design director Tony Mattera. “These systems, pioneered by NTL in the early 1990s, continue to be developed. With the improvement of MPEG2, and now H.264, multiple SD and HD channels can be transmitted in the space once occupied by a single, analogue service.” Or, as Red Bee Media chief technology officer Steve Plunkett puts it: “Multichannel digital television, HD, file-based workflows and IP-based distribution simply wouldn’t be possible without continuous improvements in video-compression algorithms.”
Avid Media Composer (1989) Other companies may have been first to market with computerbased nonlinear editing, but it was Avid that made it ubiquitous. In April 1989 at NAB, Avid/1 (eventually renamed Media Composer) was unveiled. Using an Apple Mac II plus dedicated Avid hardware, it allowed the creation of a detailed list of edit points rather than a rearrangement of the original source material. It liberated television editing. “At the time, Lightworks was possibly the better technology, but Avid pulled ahead by making Media Composer universal,” says Neil Hatton, freelance post-production and management consultant. “It was marketed as ‘change your mind without losing your mind’, a reference to the ability to reorder and recut to your heart’s content. People took to it straight away.” Evolutions’ Tyler agrees. “Anywhere in the world an editor or producer can find an Avid cutting room and be entirely at home,” he says. It even helped change the shape of production teams, according to Alias Hire managing director Mike Smith: “You used to have VT editors, assistants, tape ops and runners. Now you have an edit system connected to a server with terabytes of already ingested footage, a dual screen, mouse and keyboard and a built-in vision mixer all in a small room. And one editor.”
Photorealisitc RenderMan (1989) Pixar’s legendary CGI rendering software RenderMan was release commercially as Photorealistic. “Through being able to create new experiences, limited only by imagination, that need nothing more than computers and a few talented people, it made a profound contribution to TV and film,” says Mediasmiths chief technology officer Steve Sharman.
Satellite (1989) Some innovations are so small you can’t even see them. This is not one. “In 1988 there were only four channels,” recalls BSkyB chief engineer, strategy and architecture, Chris Johns. “Then, in 1989, [thanks to satellite broadcasting] the choice was doubled overnight.” And that was just analogue – then came digital satellite broadcasting in 1998. “Digital and the expansive bandwidth allowed the cost of channels to drop and the breadth of broadcast content to the home to expand at a huge rate,” adds Johns. Satellites had an impact on TV in other ways too. The first piece of satellite news gathering – the signing of the Channel Tunnel agreement in 1987 – changed how TV news operated. “It made it possible to deliver live TV reports from anywhere in the world,” says ITN director of technology Keith Cass. “We still see innovation in satellite technology changing the face of television.”
Sony DVR-1000
MPEG Digital Compression
Avid Media Composer
Photorealisitc Render Man
Satellite
1987
1988
1989
1989
1989
➡ 20 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
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COVER FEATURE
Steadicam (1990s) Although invented by Garrett Brown in the 1970s and widely used in features, it took a while for Steadicam (below) to infiltrate TV. “By the time ER came around in the mid-1990s, the infamous walk-and-talk shot had become a staple TV drama technique,” says Murphy.
Digital Betacam
(1994)
Digital Betacam (Digibeta) was the first tape format robust enough for TV production. “It enabled productions to shoot in the field in high quality,” says Channel 4 broadcast development engineer Shane Tucker. “It also allowed post-production to be much more creative and, of course, was a reliable delivery and interchange format that’s still used almost 20 years on. The transition to file-based workflows hasn’t been as immediate as expected, which is largely down to the success of Digibeta.” “[Digibeta] gave videotape some aesthetic value and made both shooting and editing more flexible and creative,” explains BBC North controller of production Mark Harrison. Prime Focus broadcast managing director Rowan Bray believes Digibeta was symbolic of the move to digital. “There were a few bits of kit that took us on that journey,” he says, “but the change from Beta SP to Digibeta was the one where we had to look at the whole acquisition and editing path and convert to digits throughout.”
Tektronix Profile (1996) “The broadcast video server enabled true multi-channel broadcasting, which was never possible using tape,” says C4 chief technology officer, broadcast, Kevin Burrows. Sold to Grass Valley Group, the Profile (above) became one of the cornerstones of the broadcast industry’s transition to digital.
EVS LSM (1994) Tapeless workflows have improved the scope of live television, thanks in part to technology such as EVS’s first live slowmotion product, the HCT2, a RAM-based video recorder that allowed for instant slo-mo replays. “Tapeless working has influenced what’s possible on-site at an OB, from the massive impact of EVS on sport to pushing footage to an on-site edit and pulling the finished packages back for instant broadcast,” says Arena Television head of engineering Gareth Wildman.
Apple Final Cut Pro (1998) The latest incarnation of Apple’s non-linear editing system might have caused some consternation among professional users, but the first iteration of the “high-street” editing software “demystified post-production – for good and ill”, says Harrison.
Steadicam
EVS LSM
Digital Betacam
Tektronix Profile
Apple Final Cut Pro
1990s
1994
1994
1996
1998
Timeline
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TOP 25
Dolby E (1999)
Arri Alexa (2010)
A method for squeezing six audio tracks into the space normally occupied by two, thus allowing the easy transmission of 5.1 surround sound to domestic viewers.
The move to HD, in particular to HD cameras, sent ripples through production, affecting everyone, including editors. “In my experience, the Red One changed things as it opened the door for HD cameras to be used on BBC drama, and now the Arri Alexa seems to have taken over,” says editor Kristina Hetherington. DoP Gavin Struthers adds: “When the BBC stated that S16mm was no longer broadcast quality, television went entirely digital almost overnight. The Alexa was born from this sudden move away from film and, in a way, has Red to thank. However, I think the Alexa has had a bigger overall impact on British television. It has been superbly marketed, it has a simple user interface coupled with an easier post workflow, it has the advantage of Arri’s vast array of film accessories – and it generates beautiful images.”
Sony DSR-PD150 (2002)
Nucoda Film Master (2003) In the 1980s, grading a one-hour TV show went something like this: feed edited A+B 16mm film reels onto two telecine machines; load EDL into grading desk; activate power on two large pumps that fill the telecine gates with perchloroethylene fluid to fill in cell base scratches; start grading.
And that was just the support act. When the gig started in earnest, you had to deal with leaking fluid, drifting colour, dust and more. The modern-day process is far simpler and instantaneous, according to colourist Vince Narduzzo, pointing to the Nucoda Film Master. “Film has pretty much become digits,” he says. “Apart from the occasional computer crash, we can concentrate on grading pictures with extraordinary levels of
Over to you… This list was compiled with the help of some senior figures from across the broadcasting industry, but with so much kit to choose from, you might not agree with our panels’ choices. Is there a glaring omission from our list? Tell us what you think should have been included and
manipulation compared with the steamdriven telecine suite.”
Canon XF305 (2010) The Marmite of the camera world. “Love it or hate it, this camera changed the industry,” says freelance TV cameraman Mark Moreve. “There had been issues with other small-form cameras, but the XF305 ticks all the boxes.”
vote for the piece of kit that you think has had the biggest impact on TV at broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils, or Tweet your suggestions to @Broadcast_TECH, making sure you include #TechTop25. The full list of industry experts who contributed to this list can also be found at the website.
Dolby E
Sony DSRPD150
Nucoda Film Master
Arri Alexa
Canon XF305
1999
2002
2003
2010
2010
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August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 23
IN-DEPTH
Cheap digital video (DV) cameras, particularly the Sony PD150 (above) and before it the Sony VX1000, changed what we see on television, spawning whole sub-genres. But while they liberated the filming process, allowing an operator to record for long periods, for example, there were knockon effects. “A new job, the self-shooter, was created,” says freelance online editor Ian Brown. “After that, the indiscipline of shooting hour after hour of meaningless content, only to create the story in the edit suite, began to slowly creep its way towards ruining what used to be a professional medium fielded by craftsmen.”
WORKFLOW
Putting local TV on the map The latest incarnation of local TV is better placed to succeed than its predecessors – but if it is to do so, the independent multiplex operator at its heart will have a big part to play, writes Will Strauss
19
LOCAL T V: THE LICENSEES ETV YourTV Blackpool & Preston
GTV
Grimsby leads the way
Made in Tyne and Wear
Glasgow
Grimsby-based Lincolnshire Living will be the first station to go live in November, with the rest likely to follow in 2014.
Number of local TV stations launching in Phase 1
Edinburgh
NvTv
Made in Leeds
Newcastle Belfast
YourTV Manchester
Liverpool Sheffield
City TV
Notts TV
Grimsby
Nottingham
Broadcasting
Oxford
Made in Cardiff
L
24 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
London
Cardiff
London Live
Bristol
Made in Bristol
ocal TV is back. Again. Popular in the US and Canada, community-based broadcasters have rarely succeeded in the UK. But this time around, things could be different. Ofcom has awarded licences to broadcast local programming to an initial 19 cities via an independent multiplex operator on a dedicated channel on an established, easyto-receive network: Freeview. With a decent position on the EPG (channel 8) and a robust audience measurement system planned, local TV in the UK may finally have a future. If there is to be long-term success, multiplex operator Comux (owned in equal
Mustard
Norwich
Birmingham
Map shows licence locations and Comux playout centre
Lincolnshire Living
Leeds Preston Manchester
Bay TV Liverpool
Birmingham Science Park Aston’s Innovation Birmingham Campus
SLTV/ Sheffield Live
Southampton
That’s Solent
Brighton & Hove
That’s Oxford
measure by the local television licensees and managed by Canis Media) will have a huge role to play – not only in making sure that technically everything works, but also in helping to ensure that the already lean localTV business models are commercially sustainable by aiding the licensees in avoiding some of the high costs usually associated with broadcasting. In January this year, five months late and following a competitive tender, Comux was handed a 12-year licence under which it will build and operate the technical platform for the broadcasting of local TV. Its main job is to take licensees’ QC-checked,
Latest TV
Ofcom-compliant, TX-ready content and ensure it is played out, in keeping with each licensee’s schedule, to an encoded multiplex, and then onto the transmitters and out to the public.
Birmingham playout To do this, a playout centre is being constructed at Birmingham Science Park Aston’s Innovation Birmingham Campus, with help from systems integrator TSL (see box right). Warwicknet will provide network services to connect the Birmingham operations centre with both the local TV stations and the transmitter sites.
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COMUX
Sharing content “By doing that we are able to buy and manage a larger network, which has a much lower cost on a per-license basis, and we can enable licensees to share content and facilities,” explains Hall. “It starts to open up a very significant new way of looking at how you make local television successful, because you are not talking about isolated broadcasters who only have easy access to their own content. You start talking about licensees being able to share even live events if they want, because of the nature of the network.” As public money expenditure plans go, it should stand up to scrutiny. “It provides a very focused and targeted use of the state aid,” says Hall. “It will ensure that for the whole 12 years we have the licence, local television stations can come and go without massive infrastructure and investment costs being repeated throughout the term. It would cost local television as a whole significantly more if we had not taken this approach.” With the design in place, the heavy lifting starts – a job originally cited as a 12-month project that has now been truncated to significantly less. “We did not get the licence award announcement until the very end of January 2013, so time has been an issue,” says Hall.
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The Comux set-up
‘I am confident we will launch in November but the gaps for breathing in our project plan have been removed’ Ed Hall, chief executive, Comux Alongside delays to the awarding of the operator licence itself, Comux has had two major negotiations. First, agreeing the £25m of the BBC’s licence fee that has been put aside to cover infrastructure costs (a further £15m is being made available for content subsidies over three years, with the BBC getting first dibs on rushes that it can then use for its own news output). And second, the digital terrestrial transmission services agreement with Arqiva, the type of contract that is usually reserved for the largest broadcast organisations in the country. With the BBC Trust only publishing the details of the state aid funding agreement in July, will Comux hit its deadline? “We entered into some interim agreements with Arqiva very early on, so we were able to start the work,” says Hall. “We have drawn down a large amount of money from the BBC’s grant and we are signing contracts, which in some cases we were negotiating for five or six months.” All being well, stations will start to go live in November, with Grimsby’s Lincolnshire Living the first to take the DTT leap and the rest likely to follow in 2014. Hall says: “I am confident that we will launch in November but as I have said to all the licensees, those nice gaps for breathing that were in our project plan have been removed. If we do not hit one of our deadlines, we will only be missing it by weeks, not months or years as some other projects in this kind of space have done.”
While each licensee will be responsible for its own production set-up, Comux will get the content from A to B, providing playout and scheduling tools, the lines in and out, the multiplexing and transmission, and some training and support. It will also offer a range of optional paid-for services, including a fully redundant, fully mirrored, off-site playout server and asset management or rights management modules within the scheduling tool (which is being provided as part of the Comux baseline contract). The network operations centre may only be SD but kitting it out it is still a major project. Systems integrator TSL was recruited to help Comux hit its truncated deadlines. “We have got to constantly bear in mind that everything we do has to be scalable within a live environment of potentially up to 40 channels,” says TSL solutions architect Russell Trafford-Jones. There are other challenges too, says TSL director of systems David Gunn: “Comux and their operators need to have a clear view of what they want the system to do because it is so customisable that we can do everything – almost down to making the tea.”
The Kit Content management and workflow Evertz Mediator Facility control Evertz Magnum and VistalinkPro (plus Vue touchscreen interface) Scheduling Phoenix 7 Zeus Service Information/EPG data Nevion SI Manager Delivery Format IMX30 (to be confirmed) IP Speeds 50Mbps (bi-directional) Transmission Arqiva Connectivity Warwicknet Networking (except inter-site) Techex Output SD
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 25
IN-DEPTH
Arqiva will provide the principle transmission services, including network access and managed transmissions, with Comux using Arqiva masts, power supplies and new antennas on transmission sites. It sounds straightforward but finding an optimum way to get content to air went through various manifestations. “We started off with the idea that we would link each licensee site to each transmitter,” says Comux chief executive Ed Hall, who is also chairman and chief executive of Canis Media. “However, when we looked at the cost of each licensee putting those lines in themselves as an individual purchaser, it was incredibly expensive. It made us think about our plan a little more carefully.” So Comux went back to the drawing board, examining how best to link the licensees to 27 physical transmitter sites (including relays). The conclusion was a centralised operation with all content multiplexed in one location and then sent on by IP to transmitter sites.
ADVERTORIAL
‘More partner than supplier’ When WRN Broadcast needed a scalable and resilient storage platform to facilitate 20 new channels and cross-site file transfer for its latest customer, PixIT Media (formerly Candit Media UK) had the answer
F
ounded in 1992, WRN Broadcast is a leading international broadcast managed services company that offers a range of services to its global client base. The company has seen consistent, yearon-year growth since 2010 across its comprehensive range of content management, playout, delivery and archive, and storage services. Meanwhile, there is a continued drive to develop and improve the services it offers across television, radio and IP, which recently saw the company launch a unique OTT delivery service. WRN Broadcast’s clients include MTV, VH-1, Zuku HD and Zuku SD, and Nickelodeon. WRN Broadcast recently partnered with a new broadcast client to handle the transmission of 20 music, entertainment and movie channels. This required a dedicated near-line
content store to support 40 Grass Valley K2 playout servers. With frequent up-to-the-minute programme changes and 24/7 broadcasting, the solution had to be extremely reliable and capable of handling concurrent access from all playout servers.
Scalable solution Operators at the London-based facility would also need to edit content in Rhozet WFS directly from the storage to make any necessary corrections prior to transmission – at the same time that the playout servers were loading content. And with an increasing amount of content and the possibility of more channels being added, there was a requirement for a highly scalable solution with consideration for the potential impact concurrent transfers can have on network performance.
26 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
Above: WRN Broadcast’s MCR 1 at the Londonbased facility; right: a content management team work on the scheduling of content, which can be stored in the company’s dedicated broadcast data centre (far right)
With a fast turnaround required, WRN Broadcast considered an offthe-shelf ZFS-based solution. “We liked a lot of the data management and performance features that come with ZFS,” says WRN Broadcast chief technology officer Dave Travis. “As a modern broadcast managed services provider, we try to look outside of the more traditional storage and network solutions, buy smart and pass on any savings to our clients. However, the scalability and failover options with ZFS were too limited for our availability and growth requirements. We also had quite a challenge finding a storage supplier that could design a solution with our specific network in mind.” WRN Broadcast approached PixIT Media, a provider of highly scalable, enterprise scale-out
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PIXIT MEDIA
Advertorial by
storage solutions for content creators and distributors, to propose a bespoke storage architecture to meet its requirements. “We knew PixIT Media’s broadcasting customer base was limited but the outstanding work it has done, particularly in the post-production market, just couldn’t be ignored,” says Travis. “PixIT Media was able to come in and review our entire workflow, examine our network efficiency and offer a resilient and scalable solution that met our needs down to the exact stream count.” PixIT Media provided WRN Broadcast with a cost-effective dual-head scale-out NAS solution powered by PixIT Media’s enhanced version of the GPFS file system developed exclusively for the media and entertainment market and underpinned by server, storage and networking hardware from Dell. PixIT’s Scale-Out NAS allows WRN Broadcast to reliably aggregate multiple Dell R720 servers and entry-level MD3200 storage arrays into a single, highly resilient content store that could be quickly expanded up to multi-petabyte level, as future requirements demand, with a linear increase in performance.
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‘PixIT Media offered a scalable solution that met our needs down to the exact stream count’ Dave Travis
To eliminate the oversubscription problems that are common in filebased workflows, PixIT Media also provided redundant Dell Force10 S60 1/10Gb network switches. The Dell Force10 S60’s industryleading port buffering capabilities ensure that the 1Gb connected Grass Valley K2 playout servers are not oversubscribed with IP traffic from the 10Gb connected Pix:SN heads. By eradicating the risk of oversubscription, PixIT Media could guarantee endto-end performance that would otherwise lead to unpredictable network speed and interruptions to the overall workflow.
Cloud storage An additional benefit was the builtin Pix:CACHE cloud-storage technology, which has given WRN Broadcast the ability to offer its customers ‘drop-box’ style functionality for moving assets between sites. “Pix:CACHE has greatly improved the ease and speed of file transfer direct from our customers and straight into the WRN Broadcast content repository. Once the customer is finished with a content piece, all they have to do is drag the file into a local CIFS share
and it’s instantly available for playout at our facility” says Travis. Pix:CACHE accelerates and overcomes WAN latency problems by caching assets at the remote site and immediately parallelising the transfer of data to the central facility. Travis continues: “And because Pix:CACHE is included with the overall cost of the licence, we have been able to significantly reduce our expenditure on the traditional WAN acceleration technologies.” “Overall, the PixIT Media solution has been outstanding,” says Travis. “Data integrity, scalability and performance were the three primary criteria for the solution and PixIT Media answered the brief perfectly.” What does the future hold for WRN Broadcast and PixIT Media? Travis concludes: “The level of support and expertise we’ve received from PixIT Media has far exceeded our expectations – it has been more of a partner than a supplier, which is exactly how we work with our clients for the very best results. Its first-class solution and single point of contact support services means we’re excited to see how PixIT Media could help as we continue to expand our service offerings in the future.”
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 27
Enter
Now!
Broadcast TECH launches its hunt for the most talented under 30s working with technology We’re looking for nominations for the brightest talents, with a proven track record of ambition and success. The winners will be invited to a prize-giving ceremony on 20 November and celebrated in the 21 November issue. If your peers, staff or freelancers have been producing outstanding work over the past 12 months, now is your chance to show your appreciation.
Entries are sought in the following categories Sponsor
● VFX
● Sound Technician - Production
● Engineer
● Colourist
● Runner
● Lighting Technician
● Sound Technician - Post
● Producer
● Online Editor
● Special Achievement
● Camera Operator
Closing date 27 September 2013 Email events@mb-insight.com now to request your entry form NB: nominees must be under 30 on 21 November 2013
IBC
Ultra HD takes centre stage 4K technology will be the big story at this year’s IBC. Michael Burns takes a peak at some of the new products set to be unveiled at the Amsterdam trade show – and its packed schedule of conferences Production
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils facils
IN-DEPTH
A 4K version of the XT3 production server is being introduced by EVS (Hall 8 Stand B90). As well as enabling instant delivery of multicam footage to second screens and live slow motion in Ultra HD resolution, the company claims it offers greater flexibility and advanced workflows. In terms of multiscreen delivery, EVS is introducing a workflow engine for high-speed news file ingest, editing and multiplatform delivery, which enables content gathering from sources including smart devices and social media. It is also presenting improved multicam streaming capabilities (up to 12 HD streams per server) for the XS media server. On the Grass Valley stand (Hall 1 Stand D11), non-linear video editing tool Edius 7 is making its debut. A collaborative system for news and studio environments, it includes support for real-time 4K editing, as well as software integration with third-party input and output hardware from Blackmagic and Matrox. Evertz (Hall 8 Stand B40) is introducing a suite of 4K/Ultra HD live workflow tools, including compression, routing, processing and conversion, monitoring and a unified control system. It’s also showcasing new features for replay system Dreamcatcher, including 4K zoom and Mosaic, which enables real-time, simultaneous viewing of different camera angles. Cinegy (Hall 7 Stand A30) will be introducing its 4K product line, comprising a multiview monitoring solution, called Cinegy Multiviewer, and Cinegy player, a broadcast video player for local or network use that supports 4K Sony XAVC.
IBC 2012 1,440 companies 51,000 attendees 30,793 visitors 20,198 exhibitors 35% claimed to be managers or heads of department 41% said they were responsible for recommending purchases
Cameras Only a few manufacturers have revealed the devices they will debut in Amsterdam. Panasonic (Hall 9 Stand C45) is showcasing its AK-HC3500A studio camera, which incorporates a 2/3-type 2.2 million pixel 3CCD for high sensitivity of F10 at 1080/59.94i and F11 at 1080/50i. It also includes dynamic-range stretch functions as well as scene file settings. Red’s (Hall 7 Stand H37) 6K Dragon sensor is set to make an appearance in the form of upgraded Red Epic and Scarlet models. On the Sony stand (Hall 12), there will be a lot of interest in the PMW-300 camera, as well as the CBK-WA100, the new wireless adapter for XDCAM models. This connects directly to a camera and allows XAVC proxy files to be created and saved on an SD card in the adapter, which then uploads the proxy content and the origi-
nal high-resolution content via 3G/4G/LTE/Wi-Fi. Cooke Optics (Hall 11 Stand D10) is presenting new additions to its miniS4/i lens range, which at 40mm and 65mm focal lengths are aimed at high-end drama and documentary use. The company is also introducing a new lens test projector designed for today’s fast lenses.
Capture and storage 4K is also likely to dominate the Matrox stand (Hall 7 Stand B29), which will feature the company’s Mojito 4K, a quad 3G-SDI, 4K video monitoring card supporting frame rates of up to 60fps. Sonnet (Hall 7 Stand G02), meanwhile, will be demonstrating Thunderbolt 2 technology in its Echo Express III Thunderbolt-to-PCI Express Card solutions, which come in desktop and rack-mount chassis versions. Sony (Hall 12) is showing its u expanded Optical Disc Archive
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 29
IBC
systems, which include two drive units running at more than 1Gbps: the USB 3-powered ODS-D77U, and ODS-D77F, which features a highspeed fibre channel connection. Cinedeck (Hall 10 Stand F39) is launching version 4.2 of its software, which is set to position its dual-channel RX and quad-channel MX file-based recorders against traditional tape decks in editorial and post-production, and increase the versatility of the recorders in digital cinema and broadcast workflows.
IN-DEPTH
Post Post-production is another area that has thrown its weight behind 4K. Colorfront (on the AJA, Tangent and Sony stands) is previewing 4K and Ultra HD capabilities across its new product range, including On-Set Dailies 2014 and Transkoder 2014. Quantel (Hall 7 Stand A20) is showing new software for its Pablo Rio colour-correction and finishing system. Equipped with three Nvidia Tesla Kepler K20 GPUs, Pablo Rio can now deliver more than 20 layers of colour correction at 4K at full resolution in real-time, or around 50 layers at 2K. Running on AJA Corvid Ultra, Pablo Rio can handle real-time 4K 60fps productions. Still in 4K territory, SGO (Hall 6 Stand A11) is highlighting enhancements to its Mistika DI and Stereo 3D post system. Mistika Post Version 7.4 offers ACES-compliant colour-grading tools, with expanded real-time power to route and combine colour selections across any number of layers. Bespoke filters can be created from any combination of effects and there’s a new Shape Tracker for one-click control of shape, stabilisation and motion-smoothing functions, as well as improved DCP creation tools including 60fps HFR support. Adobe (Hall 7 Stand G27) is showcasing more than 25 new features for video products in its subscription-based Creative Cloud range, including Premiere Pro and
Clockwise from left: IBC 2012 production village show floor; Adobe Premiere; Cinedeck RX Prelude. Also on show is Adobe Anywhere for Video, a real-time cloudcollaboration service for facilities. Avid (Hall 7 Stand J20) will be revealing major enhancements to its Media Enterprise solutions, while Pro Tools 11 and Media Composer 7 will also make their debuts. As well as the latest releases of its high-end software solutions, the Autodesk (Hall 7 Stand D25) stand will host guest presenters and announce the winner of the Flame Award, which highlights the work of VFX artists using the software.
‘A highlight will be Thursday’s keynote at 1.45pm from Twitter UK general manager Tony Wang’
Conferences As usual, the IBC conference sessions highlight some of the newest ideas in advanced media technology, including two Cutting Edge sessions on Thursday 12 September about HDR video production issues (11am) and streaming immersive images (3pm). The latter will feature a prototype system handling the transmission of 8K content through hybrid broadband/ broadcast networks. It’s also a hot topic at 11am on Saturday, with The Great Quality
30 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
IBC debut: Sony’s ODS-D77U drive unit
Debate asking if broadcasters can afford to go beyond HD. Ultra HD remains on the agenda for Sunday, with SMPTE hosting a session at 8.30am looking at what HEVC brings to Ultra HD, followed by another on Ultra HD at 11.30am. Multi-screen activity is another burning issue and an IBC conference theme in From Broadcast to Multicast: Collision, Casualties and Challenges. A highlight will be Thursday’s keynote session at 1.45pm from Twitter UK general manager Tony Wang, who will discuss the company’s secondscreen advertising deals and TV ratings analysis, as well as its plans for the future of broadcasting. The Second Screen and Social Innovations discussion panel at 11am on Friday will feature interactive programming pioneers and big players in multiplatform engagement. Meanwhile, Show Me the Money: Where is the Value in Second Screen Content? at 3.30pm on Friday will discuss who is set to reap the financial rewards from the technology. On Saturday, The Art & Science of Multi-Platform Commissioning at 11am will examine how new technologies can alter the way programmes are commissioned and developed.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
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Gordon Buchanan Wildlife cameraman & presenter, The Polar Bear Family & Me, Lost Land of the Tiger
Allan Cubitt Writer/producer, The Fall
Vanessa Berlowitz Series producer, BBC NHU, Frozen Planet, Planet Earth
Patrick Irwin Executive producer, The Fall
James Hawes Director, Doctor Who, Merlin, Enid
James Strong Director, Broadchurch
Nick Curwin Co-founder, The Garden 24 Hours in A&E, One Born Every Minute
Matt Gray DoP, Broadchurch, Vera
Thomas Urbye Senior colourist & creative director, The Look, Top Boy, Accused
Ronald Grauer Supervisor, Benuts, Parade’s End
Olly Lambert Producer/director, Syria: Across The Lines
Rowan de Pomerai Technology strategist, ITV
Jezza Neumann Director, Poor Kids, Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children
Will Cohen VFX producer, Doctor Who, Sinbad
The Fall
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Broadchurch
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Ben Anderson Filmmaker, This is What Winning Looks Like, The Battle For Bomb Alley, Top Boy, Dead Set
David Klafowski Technical director, The Farm Group
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Anne Morrison Director, BBC Academy
Gub Neal Creative director, Artists Studio, The Fall
Kate O’Connor Executive director, Creative Skillset
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IN-DEPTH
SKILLS GAP
Bournemouth University: Peter Truckel (back) with students
Preparing tomorrow’s talent With post and visual effects firms complaining of a lack of skills among people coming into the industry, Balihar Khalsa looks at some of the partnerships and training initiatives that aim to plug that gap
C
oncerns about a lack of quality and talent in technical sectors of the TV industry have been apparent for some time. In 2010, Nesta, an organisation that promotes innovation in the UK, advised the industry on how best to harness existing talent and make the UK a leader in VFX and the games industry. But its video games and visual effects skills review also highlighted how VFX companies were having to recruit from abroad, and the failure of universities and colleges to equip students with the right skills and knowledge. It’s a view that appears to be shared by sections of the industry. Over the past few years, educational establishments and industry players have come together to address some
of those concerns and create new training initiatives. Already this year, Pinewood Studios and the BBC have announced initiatives to help plug the skills gap. The BBC, with support from ITV, Channel 4, Red Bee Media and Arqiva, wants to train 100 graduatelevel apprentices over the next eight years as part of its Technology Apprenticeship scheme. The trainees will get traditional broadcast engineering training, as well as an understanding of software development and managing IP networks. Elstree University Technical College (UTC), which is opening this month, will begin the process of equipping tomorrow’s talent with the skills they need at an even earlier age. Elstree UTC is the only
34 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
‘UTCs need industry partners to point out where skills shortages exist’ Moira Green
one of 12 UTCs around the country to combine creative training with technical tuition. Elstree UTC principal Moira Green describes Elstree Studios managing director Roger Morris as “one of the driving forces” behind the college. She says: “UTCs need industry partners to point out where skills shortages exist. Roger is on the board of governors and he has introduced me to the likes of the BBC, ITV, Sony, Canon and Harman Studer so that we can discuss their needs.”
Early starters The centre is expected to take on 600 students aged 14-19 and train them in the technical skills, trades, crafts and technologies that support the entertainment, film, television,
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SKILLS GAP
Lack of resources The problem, Appleton believes, is that universities don’t have access to the same resources as industry. “While it’s certainly possible to advise, we as an industry move quicker than any university can, so they will always be left behind, to a certain degree,” he adds.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
Acquiring skills: Bournemouth University students
In January, post firm Clear Cut Pictures set up a four-week training course after technical director Jess Nottage identified a lack of awareness about the post industry among college leavers and graduates, with a particular lack of knowledge in areas such as editing and engineering. Nottage says that because new starters can be expected to deal with quite complex technical problems, he set up a structured training programme that now runs every quarter. “It’s an introduction to video and audio that is really important so the trainees know what they are talking about and understand the theory. It includes things like formats, codes, metadata and also touches on cameras. We blow their minds in the first week with a lot of information,” he says. Appleton’s view that the industry will always move quicker than a university or college is echoed by Peter Truckel, director of the VFX Hub at Bournemouth University, who engages in discussions with the
‘We as an industry move quicker than any university can, so they will always be left behind’ Mat Appleton, Envy
industry to better understand how to improve the curriculum he teaches. Truckel is also director of the inaugural BFX Festival, which has been launched with the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) and is supported by Creative Skillset and Bafta. Truckel describes BFX as “a great way of integrating industry and academia.” One of the main strands of BFX is a competition that asked students to make 30-second sequences using animation or VFX under the guidance of representatives from Double Negative, MPC, Cinesite, The Mill, Framestore and Hibbert Ralph Animation, which have provided a mixture of face-to-face and online feedback. Through this and constant dialogue with the industry via twiceyearly meetings in Soho, Truckel believes students can gain an up-todate overview of the industry. Only by maintaining this flow of information from facilities to colleges and universities will the skills gap decrease.
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 37
IN-DEPTH
theatre, visual arts and digital communication industries. One of the employer partners is Elstree Studios, which is based just down the road from the college. Companies at the facility’s production village will offer UTC students project-based work experience and work-placement opportunities. Another studio that has forged ties with an HE college is Pinewood. Its alliance with Amersham and Wycombe College has resulted in a commitment to explore the creation of a centre of excellence. The aim is to provide students aged 16-24 with hands-on experience through apprenticeships, and the training will concentrate on VFX skills such as 2D, 3D, animation and rigging. For the past eight years, Envy Post head of client services Mat Appleton has been visiting colleges and universities to give students an opportunity to talk to someone who is already in the industry and to ensure curriculums contain the right information. As a result of his experience, in 2009 the Envy Academy was established. Appleton describes it as “the outreach arm of a functioning post house”, and says the aim is to give students a vocational flavour of what it’s like working in one. One of the things new entrants often lack are ‘soft skills’, such as the ability to communicate clearly with others. Of the technical capabilities of college-leavers, Appleton says: “I don’t expect people to have all the skills to hit the ground running at full speed. When we recruit, I always opt for someone with a good base level of education that we can build on with our in-house training.”
MY OFFICE
THE LOOK “A month before picture lock, I met with director Coky Giedroyc and director of photography Zac Nicholson. We had a timeline of key scenes and setups they knew they would use, so we graded those clips and experimented with some different looks. It meant I was very familiar with the material before we started the grade. There is more tension in What Remains than your typical crime drama, so we wanted to create a sinister feel for the block of flats where the story takes place, with an atmosphere of edginess and darkness. It almost has a film noir style to the piece, with lots of shadows and a real sense of mood that we enhanced in the grade.”
THE FOOTAGE “It seems that 95% of the high-end TV dramas we work on are shot with an Alexa. It offers ultimate flexibility in the grade and you can push it further than previous camera formats. It also has a very straightforward postproduction workflow: the native camera files from the Alexa are transcoded in our edit suites and I am then presented with a conformed timeline of DPX files, so we essentially have the raw image at our disposal. It’s flat and milky and quite low contrast but it has the range to expand and add contrast. We apply our own customised LUT (look-up table), which gets the image to a nice starting point, and I can then build up the layers for the grade. For What Remains, we tended to go for blues and greens in the shadows and we added a layer of contrast as well. We played around with muting the colours to add to the sinister feel and used shapes and vignettes to create and enhance the mood in the frame.”
38 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
THE SYSTEM “I’ve been using the Baselight for around nine months. I’ve also used Autodesk Lustre and Nucoda Film Master. They all have impressive toolsets but my preference is for the Baselight, because of the speed with which you can achieve things. It’s intuitive, everything is at your finger-tips and the support from Filmlight is very good.”
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
PETER SEARLE
DAN COLES - TECHNICOLOR
THE AUDIO “With What Remains, we kept the sound on throughout the grade; any clues you get from the soundtrack as to what’s going on in the narrative can only help. The room has Genelec speakers and 5.1 capability but I usually work with offline stereo WAVs.”
MONITORS
Top grade One of Technicolor senior colourist Dan Coles’ last projects was BBC1 drama What Remains, a four-part whodunit set in a South London block of flats. He explains how he achieved the noir-style look that gives the show its sinister edge
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 39
WORK
“The 32-inch grade one Sony CRT monitor provides a beautiful image. That’s where I work up close with the directors and DoPs. Over the past couple of months, we’ve trialled Sony and Dolby reference monitors and either seems to be a logical replacement for the CRT when its tube fails. We also have a Panasonic plasma, which is a high-spec domestic screen that producers and execs will more likely watch. It calibrates nicely to the CRT and gives a good feeling of how the project will look when it’s transmitted. I use a DK Technologies waveform monitor. It’s an essential tool; you can have waveform monitors built into the GUI on the grading system but I prefer a standalone monitor. The Baselight’s waveform is good for projects played from the system itself but once we are in the process of recording to tape, I use the standalone monitor.”
PROFILE
Making connections Ericsson is on the brink of acquiring Red Bee Media and head of broadcast services Ian Brotherston tells George Bevir why the world can no longer be divided into broadcasters and telcos
Career May 2013-present Head of UK broadcast services, Ericsson May 2010-May 2013 Chief executive, Qype April 2010-June 2012 Chairman, Premier Mobile Communications Group Jan 2009-Dec 2009 Chief executive and chairman, Dailymotion Jan 2007-Jan 2009 Commercial director, Red Bee Media Feb 2005-Sep 2007 Non-executive director, Anam Mobile Nov 1999-Mar 2007 Managing partner, Consilium Mar 1997-Nov 1999 Director international development, BT Feb 1992-Mar 1997 Divisional director, AT&T
W
hen Ericsson revealed its intention to acquire Red Bee Media in July, there weren’t too many people in the industry who were surprised. The company had been linked with Red Bee last year when it entered the UK facilities sector by snapping up Technicolor’s playout division and speculation linking the two companies continued when Ericsson launched its Broadcasting Services division at NAB earlier this year. The rumours intensified when, just a month later, former Red Bee commercial director Ian Brotherston was confirmed as Ericsson’s UK head of broadcast services. Ericsson’s core business is telecoms; the Stockholm-headquartered firm makes equipment for fixed-line and mobile operators, supplying and managing 4G kit for the likes of O2 and Everything Everywhere. It has been making compression equipment for 20 years, but only in the past four years has it moved into the world of TV playout, after signing a deal to operate Swedish broadcaster TV4’s playout services. Ericsson described the move as a strategic step for the company as the telecoms, media and internet sectors come together. Last year, it ramped up its efforts to pull those worlds even closer with the Technicolor deal, which included the company’s playout operations in the UK (in Chiswick and an ITV regional playout facility in Leeds), France and the Netherlands, along with an agreement to buy Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV software unit. Brotherston’s career has taken in a host of firms in the three sectors identified by Ericsson. A recent
40 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
story about UK newspaper The Guardian launching a dedicated channel with Dailymotion, where Brotherstone was previously chief executive, provides an example of the changing media landscape. “People are entering TV who weren’t there before and Ericsson is at the vanguard of helping them,” he says. “These new entrants are not just talking about linear TV, they are increasingly discussing IPTV and content that is consumed on tablets and phones.”
A connected world The world, as Ericsson sees it, is a connected one, and chief executive Hans Vestberg has proclaimed there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. It’s a figure that is regularly repeated by Ericsson employees, with Brotherston using it to explain why the company has ventured further into the world of broadcast. “BT Sport’s launch is a
clear demonstration that you can no longer divide the world into telcos and broadcasters,” he says. “The lines are completely blurred. Of an anticipated 50 billion connected devices by 2020, 15 billion will be video-enabled. BT is a good example in the UK, but there is also Verizon in the US. [Singapore’s] Singtel has also announced a move into content.” Brotherston, who has been with Ericsson for three months when we meet, says he has spent his time meeting customers to find out about their needs and explain Ericsson’s strategy. “Years ago, outsourcing was seen as ‘mess for less’: once you had a business that was difficult to run, you effectively passed it to an outsource provider who continued to run it – hopefully for less money. It’s completely different now; it’s a proper partnership, and we need to be more flexible with contracts and provide innovation as well. The world has changed.”
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
IAN BROTHERSTON
Clockwise from main pic: Ian Brotherston, HEVC encoder; Ericsson’s Chiswick playout facility
Ian Brotherston
One of those changes, Brotherston says, is that clients want to work with service providers who understand their business rather than “slavishly” follow instructions. “I wasn’t with Technicolor before, but I don’t think that openness has always been there because our message has been so positively received,” he says. Another change has been to introduce a managed services chief operating officer at the company’s Chiswick Park playout centre, where 2,300 hours of content are played out every day for clients including ITV. Steve Cray – given the role after working at Ericsson for 14 years – has been tasked with of making sure customers’ interests are represented inside the business. “Steve brings Ericsson’s background of managing large contracts and the rigour of discipline, process
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
and scale that comes with telecoms, but possibly hadn’t always been there in broadcasting,” says Brotherston. Scale is a point Brotherston returns to, and it’s illustrated by some key figures: the company has 112,000 employees around the world and last year generated $33.8bn (£21.8bn) in revenue. It also spends about $4bn (£2.5bn) on R&D, with 1,600 staff dedicated to media. Expertise and experience were the reasons given by Ericsson for striking a deal with Red Bee owner Macquarie to acquire the former wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC. The proposed acquisition is currently being scrutinised by the Office of Fair Trading, with a decision due by mid-September. Assuming it gets the green light, Ericsson’s broadcast ambitions will have their biggest boost to date.
Ian Brotherston on… Serving broadcasters “It’s important to provide services at both ends of the market, and we’re probably better positioned than anyone else in the market to do that. Things like playout-in-a-box and cloudbased playout are talked about but are still evolving.”
Management “My style is consensual. If you are surrounded by clever people, you have an obligation
to listen to them. My style is to use that expertise.”
IP delivery “Satellite has breadth and massive reach. Broadband, while increasingly fast in major cities, is more difficult in other parts of the country. Ericsson is one of the leaders in compression so we can help with that, but it’s a gradual migration. But for 90% of the population, in five years’ time a lot of content will be delivered over IP.
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 41
WORK
‘People are entering TV who weren’t there before and Ericsson is at the vanguard of helping them’
PRODUCT ANATOMY
Panasonic AK-HC3500A Panasonic has updated one of the cameras in its broadcast studio range. The AK-HC3500A studio camera now packs a 2/3 type 2.2 million pixel 3CCD with a sensitivity of F10 at 1080/59.94i and F11 at 1080/50i. Director of Panasonic’s imaging business division Kunihiko Miyagi said the overhauled camera offers greater picture quality, and
pledged that Panasonic would continue to grow the range. He said: “We will expand our line-up of remote camera systems and switchers, and strengthen camera portability to provide more convenient live video production solutions.” The camera contains Panasonic’s recently developed digital signal processor and, like its predecessor the AK-HC3500, includes dynamic
range stretch functions as well as scene file settings. The camera can be combined with the AK-HCU355A camera control unit (CCU) and the AK-HRP935A remote operation panel and two viewfinders to form a studio camera system. The AK-HC3500A, together with some of the units with which it can be combined, will be on display at this year’s IBC trade show.
SENSOR Images are captured by three 2/3-type 2.2 megapixel CCDs. Panasonic says that by combining a 16-bit A/D converter with 38-bit digital signal processing, the camera has a low smear level and reduced moiré.
VIEWFINDERS The camera is compatible with the AK-HVF931A, a 21.7cm type LCD colour viewfinder. It accepts 1080i or 720p video, can be switched from 16:9 to 4:3 aspect ratio and weights 2.8kg. The AK-HVF70E is a 17.8cm LCD colour viewfinder with a 1024 x 600 (WSVGA) screen. Focus assist functions include focus-in-red and pixelto-pixel.
42 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
PANASONIC AK-HC3500A
REMOTE OPERATION PANEL CAMERA CONTROL UNIT – AK-HCU355A The AK-HCU355A control unit has been designed to work with the AK-HC3500A for use in studios and in the field. It supports a range of high-definition signals, including 1080/59.94i, 1080/50i and 1080/29.97. It has a power consumption of 40W, weighs 9kg and measures 200 x 125 x 400 mm. Connectivity options include four HD/ SD-SDI lines, two analogue composite lines, waveform monitor output, and return video, prompter inputs.
The AK-HRP935A panel is a 1/4-type rack size and allows remote adjustment of AK-HC3500A and AK-HC3800 camera systems. Iris control is via a joystick.
OPERATION
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 43
TOOLS
Some of the camera’s features include a backlight on the rear operation panel, which Panasonic says makes for improved operation in darkness. Other improvements on previous models in the range include changes to the balancing. A low centre of gravity makes for “optimal weight balance”, the manufacturer said.
MOST WANTED
Top sellers Solutions architect Jamie Allan selects the five products that have been generating most interest among reseller Jigsaw24’s customers
5
1
Axle Video
TOOLS
Since Axle’s launch at last year’s IBC, we have deployed a high number of systems in companies of all sizes. With additional features such as AAF support coming soon, we’re envisaging more growth for this ‘radically simple’ asset-management system. The multi-tier approach to storage fits our view of data management with nearline and LTO integration. For anyone who needs an intelligent system, there’s no better entry point.
2
4 3
2 DaVinci Resolve 10 This grading system is packed with exciting new features such as live grading, OpenFX plug-in support, enhanced online editing, new windows, optical flow image processing and loads more. With version 10, we expect Resolve’s popularity to continue to grow.
Canon C100 and Atomos
3 Ninja combination
There is still a huge interest in large-sensor cameras and while people wait for the latest Blackmagic cameras to ship, Canon’s C100, combined with the powerful recording capabilities of Atomos Ninja, is a force to be reckoned with.
44 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
4 JVC GY-HM650 Moving the post-production processes closer to the point of acquisition makes increasing sense, and with 4G this is starting to become a reality. JVC’s GY-HM650 offers both file transfer and wireless streaming directly from the camera.
5 GB Labs Space Storage GB Labs Space Storage lets you create a shared video network for use across multiple editing platforms, including FCP 7 and X, Media Composer and Premiere. With a simple administration interface, it is easy to see why this platform is so popular.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
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TESTED
Small, but is it beautiful? Blackmagic makes some big claims about its Pocket Cinema Camera. Patrick Wells puts them to the test
Blackmagic describes its Pocket Cinema Camera as the world’s most compact Super 16 digital film camera, and there’s no denying that it’s a diminutive piece of kit. Blackmagic says the camera provides “everything you need to bring a cinematic film look to the most difficult and remote locations” and helps with situations when you don’t want to be noticed, such as protest marches or war zones. With that in mind, we asked documentary-maker Patrick Wells to put the camera through its paces.
O
ne of the first things I noticed about the Pocket Cinema Camera is the lack of an articulated screen. I often use a Panasonic GH2, which has an adjustable screen, and going back to a camera that doesn’t have one makes life very difficult. Without an articulated screen you have to use the camera at eye level, so if you want to get a low shot you have to lie or kneel down, and it makes it difficult to get high shots in a crowded place. An articulated screen is also better for low-profile shooting, and if you’re shooting an interview on your own, you can check the screen without returning to the camera each time. It seems like a crazy decision not to include one, particularly for journalists running around in tricky environments.
The screen is also quite hard to see in direct sunlight. Most camera screens aren’t great, but an articulated screen would help that. Perhaps Blackmagic didn’t include one to help keep the camera small and compact, but it would only have made it a couple of millimetres larger. And the camera just doesn’t need to be as small as it is. Making it this size is a false economy; there’s no point sacrificing features just to have a small camera. But the build quality is good and it has a nice metal frame that feels very sturdy. Once I’d figured out that you need to double-click certain things the menu system was fairly intuitive and the software simple – partly because it doesn’t have many features. If the camera is targeted at those shooting in dangerous places, it really needs to have auto white balance. Not having it makes me wonder whether they consulted anyone in my industry.
46 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
‘Making it this size is a false economy; there’s no point sacrificing features just to have a small camera’
If you’re outdoors and you run into a tungsten-lit room, you might not have time to reset your white balance, which means your shot could be ruined. Having said that, with 13 stops of dynamic range the camera may have enough latitude to fix any poor lighting in post. But when you’re operating as a solo video journalist, you don’t always have time to regrade footage. The iris control is push-button instead of roller, which makes it a bit slow and quite jerky if you adjust it mid-shot. It’s a small thing, but other cameras manage to include it. The images I shot looked good, but it only shoots ProRes 422 (HQ), which works out at more than 1.5 GB of data per minute. If you’re in the field, it’s too much data to reasonably handle. Some news outlets still accept SD (although this is changing), so it seems like overkill and will give you an unmanageable amount of data.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
BLACKMAGIC
Key Stats Lens mount Micro four-thirds Sensor size 12.48mm x 7.02mm Dynamic range 13 stops Resolution 1920 x 1080 Frame rates 23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 30p Recording format ProRes 422 (HQ) Connections 1 x micro HDMI out Audio 1 x 3.5mm stereo, 2 channels 48 kHz and 24 bit Screen LCD 3.5 inch, 800 x 480 resolution Storage Removable SDXC, SDHC cards Battery Removable lithium ion providing approximately one hour of continuous recording Specifications 5.04 inch x 1.5 inch x 2.6 inch Weight 12.52 oz Price From £729
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
TOOLS
To only have one data setting seems strange; a firmware upgrade to add a lesser data rate option would help. There needs to be a setting that’s a sensible balance between meeting broadcast standards and delivering a good image that doesn’t require you to constantly buy new hard drives to store the footage. Not having any audio meters will also freak some people out. I always use a hot shoe to attach a video mic to back up my audio in case there’s a problem with my audio recorder, so its absence is a bit of a pain because you’ll need an adapter or bracket to attach an external microphone to the camera. It seems as though the camera is designed to be screwed into a rig, but when I’m working alone or in hostile environments, I tend to keep rigs to a minimum. The Pocket Cinema Camera was not everything I hoped it would be. It feels as though it is more suited for use in a studio or in controlled
conditions as a second camera for a DoP, or for use on corporate videos or for shooting short films. This camera could help to raise the production values of a shoot, but only in the right conditions. For example, it would be good to shoot a report from a refugee camp with sit-
‘The camera would be good to shoot sit-down interviews, but not for capturing actuality or filming in hectic situations’
down interviews, but it wouldn’t be so good for capturing actuality or filming in hectic situations such as a demonstration because it just doesn’t have enough settings – there aren’t enough dedicated video features. You could make it work, but why make an average camera when you can use a really good one? There is a place for this camera in my gear, but if Blackmagic added a few features, it would be a better all-round camera. Too many aspects of it create the impression that Blackmagic designed it first and then decided on a target market. n Patrick Wells has worked for Reuters, Al Jazeera, Channel 4, CNN and Associated Press in Africa and the Middle East. His film Holding The Line for Al Jazeera was shortlisted for a Grierson Award and nominated for the Rory Peck Awards
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 47
ASK THE EXPERTS
Delivering to spec
INFORM
The date in 2014 when UK broadcasters will ask for all programmes to be delivered as AS-11 files is set to be announced by the DPP at IBC. Some facilities share their experiences of adapting their workflows Andy Briers
Ian Beushaw
Head of post-production, Crow TV
Head of digital media, Deluxe Media
What do you deliver in AS-11?
What do you deliver in AS-11?
We have made a test delivery of BBC1 programme Wheelers, Dealers And Del Boys (below).
Material for Sky. ITV and C5 are also starting to request that file delivery is DPP AS-11 compliant.
What workflow have you adopted?
What workflow have you adopted?
To compare and contrast our timings and internal workflows we made two parallel tests. With the existing Avid Online media we transferred the audio mix back to the online suite and exported out DPP AS-11 via Avid v7, which features a DPP export option. That created the file without any additional processes. We also exported an Avid DNX QuickTime file and transcoded to AS-11 via Telestream’s Episode engine. We then put that file through a separate DPP metadata app. This was a clunkier process than with the Avid, which has the metadata app built in, but it worked. Both were put through our existing manual QC and transferred to the BBC by Signiant Media Shuttle. As an Avid house, upgrading to version 7 would be a natural evolution and as a bonus it comes with the DPP function. We’re evaluating which automated QC machines to buy: Root6 ContentAgent, Amberfin, Cerify and Baton.
We have designed and implemented a number of automated workflows based around an Amberfin ICR transcode farm driven by our asset management system and web-service-based workflow engines.
What’s the next stage? To emulate the automated QC checks that the file will pass through at the broadcaster. It’s not required but we are keen to make sure we are ahead of the curve. Each programme will still be eyeballed but an automated QC will check if the file is error free.
What advice would you give? The idea that your master is on file not tape can cause sleepless nights but it should be embraced. Also, understand the pitfalls and care that you need to take with file-based material.
How did you prepare? The workflows are largely unchanged. The only real differences are the kit and codec used at various stages and the standardisation of incoming file formats from UK suppliers. The aim is to only receive DPP file-based material from UK suppliers, perhaps as soon as the end of next year. The challenge comes with suppliers outside of the UK; we expect to continue receiving a wide range of file formats.
What issues arose? Simply installing the new codec into existing kit does not necessarily provide the capability. For example, real-time capture of HD material from tape to generate AS-11 files requires serious horsepower, so we have had to upgrade the hardware as well. This is less of an issue for transcoding – for example, when processing ProResHQ to AS-11 – but timelines can become unacceptably long if the existing hardware is not up to the demands placed on it. Wrangling the metadata required for the DPP MXF wrapper and XML sidecar efficiently within a high-volume workflow is an ongoing project.
What advice would you give? Carefully spec your hardware and software requirements.
The DPP file standard ■
The Digital Production Partnership is a cross-broadcaster initiative led by the BBC, ITV and C4
■
Designed for completed programme delivery
■
Based on the MXF file format, AVC Intra compression at 100 Mb/s for HD, and IMX at 50 Mb/s for SD
■
Founded on a new AMWA international standard, AS-11
■
Includes a minimum set of requirements for programme editorial and technical metadata
48 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
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ASK THE EXPERTS
Andy Beale
Matt Cleary
Chief engineer, BT Sport
Head of production, Emmerdale
What do you deliver in AS-11?
What do you deliver in AS-11?
All recorded programming generated from the BT Production Hub, which makes BT Sport the first broadcaster to be fully DPP compliant.
When Emmerdale made the move to file-based production in 2010, we chose to standardise on the AVC-Intra codec to streamline workflow, which significantly reduced complexity and improved picture quality. The move to AS-11 was about standardising the delivery process for file-based content, supported by robust metadata.
What workflow have you adopted?
What workflow have you adopted? We brought in EMC Isilon storage and Amberfin Unified QC to help us move to an AS-11 workflow. We also provided training for staff when we moved to file-based production, and that’s something we continue to do.
What challenges did you encounter? What challenges did you encounter and what’s next? The plan is to be automated. Currently, information such as programme number and audio quality is presented to operators on XML spreadsheets for writing into the specification and published to Amberfin. We’re keen to eliminate copy and pasting of metadata entirely. Manual input is where errors creep in.
Maintaining our high standard of QC procedures did prove to be a challenge. Traditional tape-based QC allows a process of visual inspection at a very late stage and takes place in real-time, which is something you don’t get with file-based workflows. We have now broken down our file-based QC into segments to allow us to inspect elements earlier in the process. That way, if there are problems with the content, it is closer to the tools required to repair it.
What advice would you give? Don’t jump into it. Build in time to try your workflow and submit files to make sure everything works. Understand what metadata you need and how to input it as there are a lot of variables that need to be checked. We are working closely with Red Bee, but implementation may be harder at post houses submitting just one file a day.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
What advice would you give? The change involves a move away from traditional ways of working and it is important to get all teams across the production process on board. So it really helps if you have people on your team who are evangelical about the technology.
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 51
INFORM
We’re working with AVC-Intra 100Mb/s files from the camera so it stays in the right format from beginning to end, without the need to transcode. Content either comes from EVS servers or from Avid after crafting and is exported to Amberfin, which transwraps to AS-11. We had to do more configuration to tweak profiles and generate the correct metadata than we hoped to get it working, but it’s fine now.
ADVERTORIAL
Going over the top Hybrid multi-regional OTT platforms offer a host of advantages, with increased flexibility and cloud services allowing for a more nimble, cost-effective set-up, says Piksel’s Andrew Gayter
A
hybrid OTT platform combines dedicated hosting and cloud infrastructure and services in a single platform. This allows operators to switch seamlessly between dedicated and cloud-hosted services, or use both simultaneously. Traditionally, when an IPTV operator wanted to launch OTT services in its regions, the operator
would deploy a complete OTT platform instance for each region. Often, the platforms don’t share common functionality and each instance may be tailored to suit a specific region’s requirements. The deployment may be in the parent operator’s region or within the sub-region. Most importantly, each instance has an associated cost in terms
52 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
Key factors for a hybrid OTT platform include: investment costs, portability and ease of use and maintenance
of licensing, infrastructure and management.
Greater flexibility IPTV operators are now demanding OTT platforms that have a greater degree of flexibility in how and where they are deployed. Many operators don’t want to make a big capital investment in a large, monolithic OTT platform
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PIKSEL
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infrastructure with multiple instances. They prefer to start small and grow using public/private cloud-hosted OTT platforms, or by having an OTT platform that can operate within its own existing infrastructure and share services between regions and clouds. IPTV operators need flexibility, agility, good value and ease of management and maintenance. It follows, then, that IPTV and telecommunications operators are quickly realising the value of the cloud. A hybrid OTT platform provides IPTV operators with flexible deployment options and reduced costs when provisioning OTT services to multiple regions.
Key factors Key factors to be considered for the hybrid OTT platform are: capital investment, operating costs and value; portability of services between mixed hosting environments; and ease of operation and maintenance. There are many large IPTV operators that supply services to multiple regions. These may be sub-regions or different geographical regions. The parent operator will provide live and non-linear programming and each region may supplement this content with its own local programming. When considering a multi-region OTT service, there are many potential issues and problems that need to be taken into consideration. One solution is to deploy centralised multiple instances of the OTT platform for each region, or have a single, multi-tenanted OTT platform
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
‘Using the cloud can reduce IT costs by up to 60% and time to market by up to 90%’ Andrew Gayter
that all the regions share. Another option would be deploying a distributed platform, with each region hosting parts of its OTT service. Unfortunately, these types of deployment aren’t always possible or desirable in terms of cost, complexity and practicality. Regions have varying requirements and degrees of capability in terms of network connectivity, hosting and operations management. Many existing OTT platforms are not designed to support multiregion services. To make this possible, the platforms are replicated and enhanced to cater for each region’s requirements. The deployment may be within the primary region or sub-region, or, more recently, within the cloud. In some cases, an operator may not want to make an initial large capital investment in an OTT platform. The operator would rather delay any investment until the commercial viability of the service offering has been validated fully by reducing subscriber churn or increasing revenue and subscriber numbers. The operator may have a marketing requirement dictating that the service be available within certain timescales (speed to market). In such cases, the operator may look at renting the necessary infrastructure and functionality by employing an OTT platform that is hosted in a public or private cloud. Alternatively, the operator may wish to utilise existing in-house or regional capabilities and extend these using cloud infrastructure and services. These two solutions are known respectively as ‘Infrastruc-
ture as a Service’ (IaaS) and ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS). Using the cloud can reduce IT costs by up to 60% and time to market by up to 90%. According to research company Gartner, spending on cloud services is expected to increase compared with other areas in the IT marketplace. In the Middle East and North Africa region, growth is expected to be greater than 20% through to 2016.
Rent first, buy later IPTV operators may make the commercial decision that for launch they will rent the services provided by a cloud-hosted OTT platform and at a later date bring an instance of the OTT platform onto their own infrastructure. The ‘rent first, buy later’ approach is becoming common among IPTV operators. Recent changes in client demand have led to a significant shift in the way OTT platforms are architected and deployed. For multiregional deployments, there are many factors to consider, such as networking, rights, sovereignty and commercial models. A hybrid OTT platform can take advantage of the types of deployment and commercial models now available. Rather than force operators to choose one hosting environment, a hybrid OTT platform provides access to alternative environments and integrates seamlessly the strengths of each without incurring unnecessary costs and complexity. ■ Andrew Gayter is senior architect at Piksel. This topic is explored further in a Piksel white paper, which can be downloaded from www.piksel.com
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 53
Trust in the Future. Trust in us.
The Fujifilm LTO UltriumTM G6 is the world’s first LTO cartridge to be produced with Barium Ferrite (BaFe) magnetic particles using Fujifilm proprietary NANOCUBICTM technology. This results in superior performance with higher signal to noise ratio, greater recording stability and longer archival life, with a super-high compressed (2.5x) storage capacity of 6.25TB and transfer rates of up to 400MB/s. BaFe is the new technology that will be used in future LTO generations and as the pioneers of BaFe tape, Fujifilm are perfectly placed to be your storage media partner.
For further information please call 01234 572 702 or email datassure@fuji.co.uk www.fujifilm.co.uk/recmedia
GUIDE TO... LINEAR TAPE-OPEN (LTO)
The ultimate back-up Despite competition from solid-state drives and cloud storage, LTO is unlikely to lose its place as the industry standard just yet. Adrian Pennington looks at why it is still the default option
Fact File Linear Tape-Open (LTO) A magnetic tape data storage technology developed in the late 1990s Main developers IBM, HP, Quantum (pictured below) LTO-6 capacity 2.5TB (6.25TB when compressed) Lifespan 15 to 30 years or approximately 260 full file passes Data transfer rate 160Mb/s
I
nsurance companies rely on Linear Tape-Open (LTO) as the ultimate back-up and many won’t underwrite productions without it. Similarly, many producers value the security of holding a master copy of their programme in a tangible format. “There is a fear of not physically holding your media and there is security in knowing that you have access to it, rather than being held out of sight in the cloud by a provider that may not be around in a year,” says Evolutions location services manager Phil Vincent. In common with other facilities, Evolutions employs LTO alongside its nearline storage while a project is in production, and supplies a tape of completed programming for a client’s long-term archive. Evolutions also uses LTO on location for rushes from multi-camera ob-docs. Unlike spinning discs, LTO does not require a constant power source
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or aircon system, making it a viable solution for long-term storage. “It’s cheap, it’s proven and it’s used across industries like banking so it has the best chance of surviving operator system and machine changes,” says BBC Studios and Post Production Digital Media Services lead technologist Kevin Shaw. Developed in the 1990s, LTO is an open standard curated by IBM, HP and Quantum, and licensed by many other vendors. LTO version 6, which was introduced last year, upped capacity from 1.5TB to 2.5TB per cartridge. LTO-7, planned for release by 2015, should accommodate 6.4TB. A single LTO-6 tape can hold up to 50 hours of programming stored in the Digital Production Partnership’s (DPP) file delivery specification. “If we did back up onto hard drive, there’s a percentage chance that the disc may not boot up,” says
‘If we did back up onto hard drive, there’s a chance that the disc may not boot up’ Phil Vincent, Evolutions Vincent. “Once you’ve finished the conform, you archive the master along with all the rushes and it’s safely on the shelf until the next time you need it.”
Multiple copies No technology is infallible and the sensible option is to archive multiple copies on multiple formats in multiple locations. Invariably, this includes at least one LTO copy held by the indie and a duplicate at the post house. Another option is to use climate-controlled vaults such u as TipTop Media in Enfield.
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 55
INFORM
LTO: industry standard was developed in the 1990s and is curated by HP, IBM and Quantum
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GUIDE TO... LINEAR TAPE-OPEN (LTO)
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
‘LTO is cheap, it’s proven and it has the best chance of surviving system and machine changes’ Kevin Shaw, BBC S&PP
“A full tape of LTO-6 would take 4.5 hours to transfer but the same volume of data via our 10GB connection would take less than half an hour. It behaves more like instant access or active archive,” says product director Ben Dair. “The service is designed to allow users to quickly tap supplementary storage capacity when their own storage infrastructure fills up.”
Data migration One of the idiosyncrasies of the LTO system is that the data needs to be migrated about once every five years to the latest version, or it risks becoming obsolete. LTO’s guardians will only guarantee reading of the previous two generations, though in practice a facility will maintain the machines required to retrieve older copies. BBC S&PP, for example, has capability to digitise archived D3 tapes originated in 1991, and for which tape heads are no longer made. Fuji says its LTO tapes (left) were the first to be produced with Barium Ferrite magnetic particles instead of metal particles, which it claims increases archival life and
means a cartridge can be read and written on more accurately on older drives. It’s a material that’s also used by other manufacturers. There aren’t many alternatives to LTO at present. HDCAM SR could be used for storage, but it’s a video rather than data format so content would need to be digitised before use. Sony’s Optical Disc Archive (ODA) is positioned as a direct replacement for LTO but it’s only just coming to market and is considered expensive – that was the reason Dock10 gave for its selection of LTO over ODA for its recent purchase of a long-term archive system. On the other hand, HDCAM SR claims longevity of 50 years, much faster access speeds and comes without the hassle of migration. “Long-term storage is always an issue but if you have 200TB of media from a show and you want to keep it on spinning disc then you will need a big rack consuming vast quantities of power and heat,” says Vincent. Balanced with the far cheaper cost of storing 70 tapes on a shelf, albeit with the requirement to migrate it and limited read/write speeds, LTO remains the only game in town.
August/September 2013 | Broadcast TECH | 57
INFORM
Being a tape, and therefore linear, format search and retrieval of specific files can be a time-consuming process. That is being eased with the introduction in LTO-6 of Linear Tape File System (LTFS), a selfdescribing XML-based file system that enables a tape’s contents to be viewed as a directory and dragged and dropped from a desktop, like other removable media such as a USB flash drive. Nonetheless, the process is too slow for use in production, which is why once found, the files are transferred to spinning disc. “The simple rule is that if you need high-resolution digital assets for online, grading or any regular interaction, you need high-performance discs. If you know you are not going to access it for a few months or years, then move it to LTO,” says Quantum product marketing manager Laurent Fanichet. An alternative being introduced this summer is Sohonet’s Media Storage platform. It’s targeted at short- to mid-term archive, back-up and project parking, and offers cloudbased storage of assets plus superfast retrieval – in effect, replacing LTO for intermediate storage.
POSTSCIPT
NEED TO...
TECH Q&A
Daniel Cherowbrier
TALKING POINT
FOLLOW
Tony Churnside
What gadget can’t you live without and why? I’ve got one of those alarm clocks that slowly wakes you up with a bright light, rather than the rude awakening of a loud sound. I’m pretty sure without that I’d be stumped.
Media technologist and all-round audio expert Tony Churnside is the technical director of the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. Whether he’s discussing the BBC’s view of object-based broadcasting or perceptive radio, he’s a mine of information for all things aural. @TonyChurnside
INFORM
WATCH
Pixar’s lighting preview Didn’t make it to Siggraph? Fear not – Nvidia has uploaded a video from the GFX event in which Pixar technical director Jean-Daniel Nahmias (below) explains how the company used The Foundry’s Katana running on Nvidia Optix technology to light Monster’s University. bit.ly/18fQsC4
When Red boss Jim Jannard announced on the Reduser forum he would be handing over stewardship of the company to president Jarred Land, he went out swinging, taking potshots at critics including Cinematography Mailing List’s Geoff Boyle (Boyle dismissed it as a “storm in a teacup”). Jannard insists he will “sink into the background”, but that would be most out of character. As his Reduser signoff states, “everything in life changes…” DIARY DATES
BROADCAST INDIA
LISTEN
Talking TV The latest edition of the Broadcast podcast includes a discussion about fixed-rig show Educating Yorkshire, which used 64 Panasonic pan-tilt remote cameras to capture the goingson in a secondary school. Secondcloud.com/broadcastnow
WHAT IS IT? A two-day conference and exhibition for senior managers in broadcast, film, audio, radio IPTV and mobile TV. Previous shows have drawn visitors and exhibitors from 34 countries and last year some 20,000 attended the show. WHEN IS IT? Wednesday 9 to Friday 11 October, 2013 WHERE IS IT? Mumbai, India WEBSITE broadcastindiashow. com TWITTER @BroadcastIndia
APPS WORLD 2013 WHAT IS IT? Now in its fourth year, Apps World attracts 250 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees, including developers, marketers, mobile operators, device manufacturers and platform owners.
58 | Broadcast TECH | August/September 2013
What do you wish you’d invented? The internet; I’m lucky enough to have grown up with the internet, but I still remember what life was like without it. Its joy is that it brings so many other technologies together and that no one person owns it. Android or iOS? I’m definitely an iOS man. I love the fact that it integrates so well with other iOS devices and because of its quite strict standards it keeps everything in check.
Speakers include BBC head of TV and mobile platforms Roux Joubert and Sky News producer Hugh Westbrook. WHEN IS IT? Tuesday 22 to Wednesday 23 October, 2013 WHERE IS IT? London, UK WEBSITE apps-world.net/europe TWITTER @Apps_World
What’s on your PVR? I recently discovered Netflix so I’m enjoying all the American dramas, rather than recording anything specific. I’m not far off finishing the remake of House Of Cards and I’m desperately waiting on a second season.
PRODUCTION & POST FORUM
What was the last app you downloaded? I recently found Station Master. The idea is that it can tell you where to get on the Tube train to align with the doors. I’ve not managed to make it work yet though – I only think to look at it after I’ve got on the train.
WHAT IS IT? A two-day event that highlights the latest techniques and kit used in production and post, with keynote speeches from leading producers, directors, VFX artists, colourists and editors, and sessions where you can get hands-on with cutting-edge kit. WHEN IS IT? Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 October, 2013 WHERE IS IT? London WEBSITE broadcast-forums.com
Daniel Cherowbrier is business manager at Arqiva and the winner of the 2013 RTS Young Technologist Award
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
WHATEVER YOUR ANGLE, WE’VE GOT IT COVERED. For more information call Soho: 0207 871 0700 East London: 0208 594 3336 Or visit us online at www.wtsbroadcast.com London | Leeds | Hong Kong
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