TVBE March 2014 digital edition

www.tvbeurope.com

Europe’s Television Technology Business Magazine

March 2014

Coronation Street: a half-century of broadcast

Forums:

Italy’s WeFly takes off

NAB Product Preview

Systems Integrators and Loudness

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News & Contents NT Live delivers 4K War Horse

By Holly Ashford NATIONAL THEATRE Live (NT Live) will present the world’s first live 4K theatre broadcast, War Horse, working in partnership with Sony, Creative Broadcast Solutions, NEP Visions and Links Broadcast.

War Horse will be broadcast on 27 February 2014 to cinemas across the world. The broadcast will be shown in Sony 4K at the Curzon Cinema in Chelsea, London, and the theatre production will be projected using a Sony projector.

Creative Broadcast Solutions (CBS), with NEP Visions will work with Sony, using its F55 Super CineAlta cameras equipped with Fujinon Cabrio lenses to capture the performance. NEP Visions will provide the technical infrastructure and expertise to take the 4K content from camera to satellite, as well as recording and broadcasting a simultaneous HD version. www.creativebroadcastsolutions . com www.linksbroadcast.com www.ntlive.com www.sony.co.uk www.visions-ob.com

Next TV speakers announced

By Neal Romanek TVBEUROPE HAS confirmed the first round of speakers for its Next TV Summit on 11 June at London’s BAFTA theatre.

Next TV is the UK’s premiere conference for alternative media delivery, including VoD, OTT and IPTV. Next TV’s line-up will include Ashwin Navin, CEO of Samba TV and founder of BitTorrent, the largest filesharing network in the world; Edward Lee, VP content acquisition at streaming video powerhouse Roku; Mary Ann Halford, managing director, media and entertainment, at FTI Consulting; Jens Richter, former managing director of Red Arrow International and now CEO of Fremantle Media; Patrice Slupowski, VP digital innovation and communities at Orange; Charlotte Hargreaves, SVP marketing and business development at DRG/Modern Times Group, and Ashley MacKenzie, founder and

CANON HAS made its entrance into the production display market with the launch of the DP-V3010, a 30-inch reference display specifically designed for colour grading and 4K video production.

The new display, together with Canon’s Cinema EOS System, offers an input-to-output solution for 4K digital cinema and wider

Canon's DP-V3010 4K reference monitor

1-13 News & Analysis File delivery made…simple?

George Jarrett attended a recent DPP forum and discovered that striving for simplicity can be very complex 6 14-19 Loudness Forum Philip Stevens seeks the views of a number of industry experts about the niggling question of Loudness 14 20-25 The Workflow The HDR revolution The UHD debate revolves around getting a richer picture to viewers with implications for capture, post and retail.

Adrian Pennington reports 20

(Clockwise from top left): Patrice Slupowski, Ashley MacKenzie, Edward Lee and Mary Ann Halford CEO of leading digital rights management agency Base79.

TVBEurope publisher Steve Connolly said, “With a line-up like this, Next TV is becoming the must-attend connected TV conference in the UK. These speakers are leaders in one of

the most rapidly developing sectors of the industry. And we’ll be making even more speaker announcements in the coming weeks.”

Next TV Summit early bird tickets are available at www.nexttvsummitlondon.com.

Canon unveils 4K display

By Holly Ashford

Contents

video production workflows.

The DP-V3010 has been designed to deliver 4K resolution alongside accuracy in colour reproduction.

The display is powered by a custom-developed image processor designed and manufactured by Canon.

A 10-bit panel driver works with the processor to enable the display of 1024 gradation levels

for each RGB colour to deliver gradation characteristics across all content types.

Kieran Magee, director of professional marketing, Canon Europe said: “We’ve listened carefully to the needs of the market throughout the development of the display to deliver an exceptional product suited to even the highest quality productions.” www.canon.co.uk

27-33 Systems Integrators Forum Systems Integrators from across Europe discuss topics that affect their business, by Philip Stevens 27 34-43 The Workflow The word on the Street Philip Stevens walks one of TV’s most famous streets and reviews the history of the long-running soap, Coronation Street 37 44-48 NAB Product Preview The first of our two-part show preview, offering a glimpse of what to expect next month 44 49 The Business Case A new Avid for a new era Neal Romanek talks to Avid’s Tom Cordiner about the company’s new trajectory 49 50 Cloud for Broadcast Hard edges in the cloud In the second part of this cloud computing feature, Miranda’s Ian Fletcher goes deeper into the issue of cloud tools for broadcasters 50

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News & Analysis

EDITORIAL Acting Editor Neal Romanek neal.romanek@intentmedia.co.uk

The big broadcast conversation partnerships. The BVE seminars, as usual, attracted standing room crowds, and, not blinded by the flash-pow of another new product debut, conversation on the stands was free to address the bigger issues.

TVBEurope’s contribution to that conversation expands this year with three major industry events. Our two popular conferences, BeyondHD Masters and IT Broadcast Workflow, will return in June and July, respectively. We are also introducing a new event this year, Next TV Summit London

— modelled after last year’s successful Next TV summits in the US. We’re happy to announce in this issue the first round of industry heavyweights who will be speaking.

Looking ahead, our April issue will be covering what’s beyond HD, with a 4K focus and part two of our NAB Product Preview. In May we’ll have a look at satellite and an in-depth look at audio for broadcast, and June will feature our Summer Of Sport OB Focus. We hope you’ll join the conversation.

Digital Biscuit: where tech meets art

creative requirement. We’re not just selling a bunch of technology, we are interested in the creative arts and finding technology to adapt it. At the end of the day, we all care about lovely images on screen.”

He notes that the biggest trend in the last couple of years is a reduction in the cost of technology. “Tech gives access to creativity to a broader range of people. Improvements in image quality, speed of drives, processors at an affordable price are fuelling creativity.”

Dave Hughes, head of telecine at post production house Windmill Lane, knows first hand how much technology can support the creative process in post production. “At last year’s event, I gave a talk about grading, but it’s not easy to convey without having the kit to demo. People think the image only is captured on camera, so it’s nice to see DPs asking us, finding out how to get the best out of what they want to shoot no matter what camera they use.”

Windmill Lane and FilmLight jointly demonstrated FilmLight’s Baselight PLUS and Slate in the Kinoplay area. “We combine the Truelight colour management system with the grading tool, to handle mixed formats and give clients the best result. And because every job has an element of VFX these days, we can control how files go to a VFX house or artist to ensure what we deliver is what we get back.”

FilmLight attended the event for the first time this year and was delighted to note that Baselight was used by Peter Doyle at Technicolor-Postworks NY to grade the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which premiered in Ireland on the opening night of the event.

By Neal Romanek AFTER ANOTHER successful BVE in London, all eyes are now on NAB. And in this issue we feature part one of our NAB Product Preview. There weren’t many product launches at BVE — most companies want to keep their powder dry till NAB — but the consensus among vendors was that the show was a great networking event.

The dearth of announcements seemed to work to BVE’s benefit, opening up some space to get back to the basics of exchanging ideas and building

Neal Romanek

Last month’s Digital Biscuit event served up a weird and wonderful menu for TV technologists and creatives alike.

Monica Heck reports THE DIVERSE line-up at Dublin’s second Digital Biscuit show meant a visitor could experience the latest camera technology and attend a technical masterclass, before hearing from movie marketing specialists, The Einstein Couple, who just finished work on Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, or learning how neuroscience informs design with Neurosketch co-founder, Carlos Velasco.

What emerged from this melting pot is that technology is there to support art, first and foremost. Nobody knows this better than ARRI, which chose to showcase its AMIRA documentary camera for the first time since its announcement at IBC2013.

“ARRI is going back to its roots in documentary filmmaking,” said Milan Krsljanin, director of group business development at ARRI, showing off the camera. “High frame rate is very important for people doing natural history type work. AMIRA, like ALEXA, can go up to 200fps with full picture quality and no compromise. It’s built around the same sensor as ALEXA.” AMIRA fills a gap between high-end motion-picture cameras and consumer-type DSLR solutions. Milan demonstrated how the “lighter, smaller, faster, cheaper” sister of ARRI’s flagship ALEXA could be used straight out of the bag by a single person on location.

ARRI chose Digital Biscuit to show off its AMIRA for the first time since IBC2013 And crucially, the camera is built on FPGA chips, which makes it highly upgradable.

The creativity/ technology balance While the shooters were being gifted technology to help them work their magic in the field, Brian Gilmore, head of production at Irish animation studio Brown Bag Films was stressing how technology had transformed animation and made his job easier.

Brandishing hand-painted cells of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as an illustration of the hard work of yore, he hailed the advent of technology in the animation space.

“I spent many a day painting those. Traditional hand-drawn animation involved an image xeroxed onto acetate or clear plastic, then hand-painted. It was laborious, time consuming and restrictive.”

Gilmore gladly witnessed a change in the 90s, with the advent of digital ink and paint systems,

followed by 3D animation. Yet some independent studios, like Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, only moved from paper to digital in recent times, during the production of Song of the Sea, which was previewed at the show.

This sequel to the award-winning The Secret of Kells benefited from technology to faciliate pan-European file-sharing and collaboration.

However, Gilmore warned against an industry driven solely by technicians and leaving animators behind. “People can lose sight of the final goal, which is to entertain an audience. A three-year-old doesn’t care what software you’re using, they want to be entertained, so a balance between technology and creativity must be struck.”

Tech gives access Kevin Moore, director of Eurotek Ireland and Digital Biscuit exhibitor, concurs.

“Broadcast infrastructure is our main market, but we come to it from an understanding of a

Staff Writer Holly Ashford holly.ashford@intentmedia.co.uk Managing Editor Joanne Ruddock jo.ruddock@intentmedia.co.uk Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England +44 207 354 6002 Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington Associate Editor David Fox USA Correspondent Carolyn Giardina Contributors Mike Clark, David Davies, Richard Dean, Chris Forrester, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett, Heather McLean, Bob Pank, Nick Radlo, Philip Stevens, Reinhard E Wagner Digital Content Manager Tim Frost Office Manager Lianne Davey Head of Design & Production Adam Butler Editorial Production Manager Dawn Boultwood Senior Production Executive Alistair Taylor Publisher Steve Connolly steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk +44 207 354 6000 Sales Manager Ben Ewles ben.ewles@intentmedia.co.uk +44 207 354 6000 Sales Executive Richard Carr richard.carr@intentmedia.co.uk +44 207 354 6000 Managing Director Mark Burton US SALES Michael Mitchell Broadcast Media International, PO Box 44, Greenlawn, New York, NY 11740 mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv +1 (631) 673 0072 JAPAN AND KOREA SALES Sho Harihara Sales & Project, Yukari Media Incorporated sho@yukarimedia.com +81 6 4790 2222 Fax: +81 6 4793 0800 CIRCULATION Intent Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 9EF, UK FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS tvbe.subscriptions@c-cms.com Subscriptions Tel +44 1580 883848

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News & Analysis Predicting success or failure Away from the production process, one of the more intriguing interactions between creativity and technology came from Epagogix. CEO Nick Meaney introduced the company as an ‘antichrist to the creatives’ that uses expert process and artificial intelligence to predict the success of scripts at the box office and permit evidencebased decision-making.

Targeting the bean counters of the big money, big risk Hollywood business, Epagogix transferred the TV analysis process to film, codifying, breaking down and scoring scripts before feeding the result into a neural network that forecasts success or failure of the script before big money has been poured into it.

“It’s a collaborative thing,” said Meany. “The creative vision is needed and we help them make the best of it.”

File delivery made... simple?

George Jarrett attended the DPP Forum “File Delivery Made Simple” and discovered that striving for simplicity can be very complex current story of file creation and delivery, and they all typified the wonderful support it has garnered from its national broadcaster membership.

The eyes have it

IPTV museum To round off the event, the ultimate happy marriage between art and technology took the stage in the form of Ikono TV. This specialty TV station delivers art to the living room.

The station, which has not yet been monetised, can be live streamed and has been available for three years through IPTV boxes in Germany and France and in the Arab world through satellite.

Markevitch says it took time to acclimatise the art world to the concepts of rights management and streaming.

“Most museums think they are super-modern because they have a website. I knew nothing about broadcasting but I wanted to make art as popular as music, which had radio as a medium.”

Harrison: “We are facing a very big moment In October — British broadcasting goes digital” FISHERMEN HAVE their friend, and so do content producers. The Digital Production Partnership (DPP), not satiated by creating the AS-11 delivery standard, has developed an undeniable drive that is taking it into many associated areas where it can push for and set more standards, reduce others down to producerspeak bullet points, and offer people guidance in how to prosper in the file-based world.

DPP’s increasingly sophisticated bi-monthly forums attract large knowledge-hungry audiences from both the production and post sectors.

At the most popular forum yet, staged at Channel 4, DPP chair Mark Harrison (currently seconded to the BBC encoding programme) said: “We are facing a very big moment in October — British broadcasting goes digital.

And we only have a couple of dots to join in the form of programmes to finish and deliver.

“When we created AS-11 we didn’t recognise we could be the body to make the whole change process much simpler,” he added.

The DPP attracts a mixed ability group, so it runs sessions for the person who knows least.

It put up eight people to tell the

Andy Tennant, technology director at ITV Studios, and DPP training collaborations head, covered technical standard and metadata issues from the standpoint of what producers must consider when they need to deliver an AS-11 file. Firstly, it will take longer to generate and deliver than a tape ever did.

“In our file-based world, metadata is absolutely mandatory. It must be delivered with the file, meaning that some of the paperwork that historically appeared after transmission needs to be brought forward,” Tennant said.

Typical of what the broadcaster would provide (and expect back) is the production number. Producer provided metadata should include a brief synopsis. Checking was Tennant’s third big subject. He asked: “How can I be confident as I learn this process that what I have got in terms of my file is something that has a reasonable chance of getting to a broadcaster, and on air?” The answers are on a helpful DPP checklist that starts with editorial sign off.

Tennant warned: “You cannot insert edit on file yet, so as you step through this process bear in mind that if you need to make a change, and you are in the process of completing your file, you are back into your edit and starting the process again. This makes final eyeball checks really important.”

The last chance saloon Andy Quested, head of UHD technology at the BBC, locked onto the new emphasis on eyeballing. The eyeball review is a modern notion for the file exchange era, and it starts with setting up a screening room, and cutting out the bad habits of using computers or proxies to give final nods.

“It is a chance to sit down with a specific (DPP) check list.

Don’t make the assumption that someone else is going to check it; that’s not going to happen anymore,” said Quested. “The review is the last chance for the producer, directors, DOP, production manager and editor to watch a programme, with the criteria of passing it technically.

“The contract says produce, make and deliver a transmittable programme, so it has always been there. This is about handing the responsibilities back to the producer, and actually allowing much more leeway for editorial interpretation,” he added.

It is not the editor’s responsibility to approve content for transmission, but if a file is rejected it bounces right back to the NLE. “The producer has to sign the certificate to say it has been checked and reviewed,” Quested said.

“The audience will decide if a programme is good or bad,” he added. “That is what has been happening in radio for 10 years.

There is audience/producer and that’s how it should be.

We are just going to reiterate what we all know anyway: this is not rocket science, it is about gut feeling.”

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DPP’s increasingly sophisticated bi-monthly forums attract large knowledge-hungry audiences from both the production and post sectors

News & Analysis NEWS IN BRIEF New loudness solutions from NUGEN Audio BVE2014 saw the UK debut of the NUGEN Audio MultiMonitor.

MultiMonitor is NUGEN’s loudness and true-peak monitoring software that offers up to 16 individual loudness and truepeak meters to monitor mono, stereo, and 5.1 formats for up to 96 individual audio channels.

This standalone software provides real-time monitoring in full compliance with global loudness regulations and standards.

Also shown at BVE were the NUGEN Loudness Toolkit and Complete Loudness Solution, plug-in collections offering loudness metering, logging, correction and more. www.nugenaudio.com Host Broadcaster selects Avid for Sochi Avid’s broadcast solutions have been chosen by the Host Broadcaster to power the production workflow for the Winter Olympic Games. An integrated Avid workflow allowed the host broadcaster to manage thousands of hours of content captured at multiple sites and instantly make it available to Rights Holding Broadcasters in Russia for multi-device delivery to viewers around the world. www.avid.com

Fail every programme The subject of automated QC and PSE fell to ITV technology strategist Rowan de Pomerai.

Gone are the days of tape world QC with a person in a dark room armed with waveform monitors, audiometers and several monitors. Technical measurements are all wrapped in software processes.

“We can analyse files, preferably in faster than realtime, and give you the results to review, and to take into your human reviews too.

It would give an inclination of particular areas you have to watch out for,” said Pomerai.

One problem is people wanting to create their own QC device and QC workflows — that will fail every programme. Pomerai said: “Buy any QC product. But turning on all the tasks and plugging it in will fail everything.

The reason is that you can test so many things, and set so many parameters. Tuning this to test the right things is really difficult.”

This is where and why the DPP has looked at the fantastic QC definitions created by the EBU, and produced an intelligently shortened set of must dos.

“This goes through all the tests that the DPP thinks need to be done on a finished programme, and what the thresholds and tolerances are,” said Pomerai. “The idea is that vendors will be able to help us

with setting up profiles for their QC devices.”

This will give producers a minimum baseline. In “real English language” the DPP explains mandatory tests for things that must be passed, and editorial and technical warnings.

Photosensitive epilepsy is another area where the DPP has tested and approved various devices.

“Broadcasters will not be running a full QC on files certified as passing the DPP process. What we will do is basic file integrity checking, and there will be a spot

metadata. Tucker looked at the vendor support of AS-11.

“Some are not currently providing full AS-11 files, but can provide the raw essence,” he said. “So you can do most of your work and you would import that valid essence file into the DPP metadata app and wrap in relevant metadata.

“There are many implementations of AS-11 out there, and when considering products, one question you should ask yourself and the vendor is, How intuitive is the UI? Some products

Do an anti-virus check John Wollner, head of technology at BBC North and Nations, covered the issues around delivering files to broadcasters. It is about connectivity, the transfer mechanisms across that connectivity, security, file integrity and notification.

Wollner reviewed all the plusses and minuses of the internet, managed and direct service connections, and said that USB hard drives and LTO data tapes are verboten. His first

“How can I be confident as I learn this process that what I have got in terms of my file is something that has a reasonable chance of getting to a broadcaster, and on air?”

Andy Tennant, ITV check by the play out director to make sure it is the right bit of content,” said Pomerai.

Validate prior to wrapping Shane Tucker, a development engineer at Channel 4 and DPP metadata app project manager, talked about the creation and export of a DPP AS-11 file, which is an AVC Intra 100Mbs file wrapped in with metadata and delivered as a single MXF file.

This MXF file has descriptive editorial, technical and structural

just present you with 60 fields and say, there you go, enter it.”

There is little validation, and you might end up tapping in data already entered in your NLE. Do the fields drop down and offer options, or are they blank?

Re-populating fields can lead to mistakes. The answer is validation.

“Look at validating prior to wrapping. As there are a lot of metadata fields, it is quite easy to make the odd mistake and have metadata not matching the essence,” said Tucker.

like, after doubting FTP and the cloud, was third party accelerator tools.

“Security is the key issue.

Bear in mind that broadcasters are receiving tens of thousands of files every year,” he said.

“They do not have the time to manually check every file.

We will use automated processes, and if there is any noncompliance we will reject it.

“Do an anti virus check, because to broadcasters the worst nightmare is a virus in their system.”

Encryption is the key, but things to note include the fact that using other things like checksum might add delays to transfers. Neither the DPP app nor the DPP XML schemer will support checksum.

So what trips people up?

“The AVCI class 100 codec for DPP is the SMPTE specification not the Panasonic spec. There is no debate or argument,” said Wollner. “The audio channels have to be BWF not AES, and that is another thing tripping people up recently. Audio channels have to be individual tracks (for HD).”

The third party accelerators provide notifications, a function that can be automated, and Wollner used (Signiant) Media Shuttle to demonstrate the ease with which files can be sent.

“Our children’s TV department get suppliers to deliver stuff using Media Shuffle,” he said. “As a test we got a supplier in Toronto to send a completed programme that was 38GBs. A 40-minute asset, it arrived in 38 minutes.”

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News & Analysis NEWS IN BRIEF AJA releases lo 4K software update AJA Video Systems has released its v.10.5.1 Mac software driver package for Io 4K. The software upgrade adds 4K/UHD high frame rate support to AJA’s device for video I/O, customised for Thunderbolt 2 technology and 4K workflows. The upgrade adds Io 4K support for 50, 59.94 and 60fps capability at 4K and UHD resolutions.

The v10.5.1 software also adds new format support into the AJA DataCalc desktop app, along with overall performance and format support enhancements to Io XT, Io Express, T-TAP, and the current KONA lineup of capture cards. www.aja.com Panasonic to launch ‘cloud ready’ camera Panasonic is set to launch its first handheld ENG camera with wireless connectivity. The AJ-PX270 removes the need for traditional video uplink, making it suitable for the live stream and freelance news gathering market. The camera enables a wireless production workflow via LAN, with additional 3G/4G/LTE application from Autumn 2014. The P2 HD handheld camera recorder has integrated AVC-ULTRA recording, offering a range of recording bitrates. www.panasonic.com Sennheiser introduces HDM Pro technology Sennheiser has introduced new technology to its HD25 headphone range, with the aim of helping to protect users’ hearing against noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), and improving reproduced sound quality.

Sennheiser Solutions is the first company to market LimitEar’s HDM Pro device, which enables sound levels to be adjusted dynamically to reduce the impact of NIHL. The HDM Pro device changes users’ sound levels through the day to ensure that their exposure to reproduced sound stays within legally defined limits. www.limitear.com www.sennheiser.co.uk

A quality threshold Kevin Burrows, CTO of broadcast and distribution at Channel 4, and DPP technical standards lead, looked at what happens to files once they are at the broadcaster.

This is a nonlinear process full of side processes and lots of individual workflows going off to other platforms.

Focusing on linear broadcast and keeping things simple, Burrows said: “The file would be available to broadcast depending on the timing. The metadata would have been entered or extracted within the conditioning and scheduling systems, so whoever is scheduling that programme will know where the parts are and how long it is. They put it into an automated schedule driving the play out server.”

There is an option. If the broadcaster cannot play out in the AVC file format at any time, there is the potential for a transcode, but this incident will be rare.

“It takes quite a long time to get something in place.

We are seeing some quite big improvements in some of the Long GOP versions of AVC, and we have to start somewhere in terms of standardisation,” said Burrows. “At least then we have a quality threshold.”

Waiting for Insert editing The strict procedures for recalling files were explained by Bill Brown, head of media standards at ITV. Editorial and technical corrections are more problematic in the file world, and you must replace original versions.

“Obviously if you send a file to a broadcaster or a play out provider you have not got a clue of how many times that file has been copied. So if you do not change the version when you alter the content either technically or editorially, you increase the risk of the wrong content going out with all the ramifications,” said Brown.

“The first stage if you must make a correction is to contact

Tennant: “In our file-based world, metadata is absolutely mandatory” your broadcaster (media management department or programme planning) and get permission. Once you have consent, you go back to the beginning editing station. Once corrections are done, you have to

linear tape suite and made a quick correction,” he said.

“In the file world we still don’t have any means of insert editing, so we have to go way back to the first stage of the process.”

your dynamics. Start to bring some nice fidelity into it,” said Metcalfe. “If you deliver R 128 compliant content it will go right through to the TX chain.”

Another EBU spec with lots of numbers required more plain English. “You measure the entire asset and there is the target loudness of -23, and that’s what you have to hit. If not correct, you simply move the whole mix up or down, give it attenuation and gain, until you get the correct value,” said Metcalfe. “There is confusion around tolerances on target loudness, but R 128 is the letter of the law. That said, most broadcasters have a built in tolerance anyway. Tolerance is built in for live content.”

The EBU PLOUD group is looking at adding a tolerance, and at loudness range.

“The other thing you have to ensure is that there are no peaks in the audio above -3dB; the reason is if it is intended to go to a further compression codec such as Dolby Digital. The more you push it to zero, the greater

“There is confusion around tolerances on target loudness, but R 128 is the letter of the law. That said, most broadcasters have a built-in tolerance anyway. Tolerance is built in for live content” Garry Metcalf, Sky re-enter the metadata, re-wrap the file, re-evaluate and QC it.”

Brown cited the questions around this subject: how close are you to TX, how good is your connectivity, how quickly can you transfer files, what are the limitations in terms of the workflow at the play out provider that is sending this file back to you, and how long will it take them to re-process the file content and get it onto servers.

“We have all known the days when we just dived into a

The letter of the law Garry Metcalfe, a broadcast design engineer with Sky, covered the must-adhere-to subject of the EBU R128 loudness specs. These are essentially a measuring method modelled on how the human ear responds to frequencies at different loudness levels. The result is measuring the average sound of an entire asset.

“There is no opportunity to be louder anymore. You are much better starting to open up

chance of creating artefacts when you data reduce something,” said Metcalfe.

He ended by pointing at a major benefit. “If you are doing long form content it is arduous to measure it and find you have not hit the target loudness. It can be much more efficient to use a package and create your mix. The software will measure the content and calculate the offset that is required and automatically shift it to the correct loudness target.”

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12 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com March 2014

People on the move

By Holly Ashford

Mark Burton named MD dock10 appoints new of Newbay Media Europe non-executive chairman TVBEUROPE PARENT company NewBay Media has announced that Mark Burton has been named managing director of NewBay Media Europe, Intent Media. Burton most recently led Incisive Media’s Insurance Group as its group publishing director, where he was responsible for a wide portfolio of magazine, digital, and event properties.

“Mark is an accomplished media executive with an impressive track record,” stated Steve Palm, CEO, NewBay Media. “He is the right person to further develop our magazine, digital, and event capabilities and aggressively grow our European business. I am excited to have him join our team.”

At Incisive Media, Burton managed a portfolio of brands that included Post, Insurance Age, and Insurance Hound.

Mark Burton, Newbay Media Europe During his time at Incisive Media, Mark was instrumental in launching new, data-driven digital products, expanding the Insurance events portfolio into new territories, and gaining substantial subscription growth through digital corporate licenses.

“NewBay’s depth and breadth in the markets it serves

offers a unique opportunity for growth and expansion,” said Burton. “I am looking forward to working with the team to build on the success of the current products, and delivering the best service we can to our customers.

This is an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.”

MALCOLM WALL has been appointed as the new nonexecutive chairman of dock10. Wall’s long career in the global media sector includes being CEO of Abu Dhabi Media and holding senior roles within Virgin Media, United Business Media and various ITV companies. Most recently, Malcolm led a joint venture for Pinewood Studios in China.

Malcolm Wall, dock10 “I am delighted to development of the business.” be working with the dock10 Mark Senior, chief executive management and shareholders,” of dock10 said of Wall: “His said Wall. “The team have extensive experience and achieved a great deal in a very contacts will be enormously short space of time. I look helpful as we look to the future forward to working with them strategic growth of dock10.” in the next stage of

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 13

People on the move

By Holly Ashford

A+E Networks has hired Viviane Paxinos as senior director of advertising sales. In this newly-created role, Paxinos will lead the ad sales operations at A+E Networks UK and is responsible for shaping the company’s strategy for ad sales growth, both in the UK and across their international territories. Paxinos has over 15 years of media and advertising experience with companies including Viacom and Comcast.

Andrew Pons has been appointed

by Exset as its global director for sales and marketing. Pons has been with the company for nearly two years, and has had many years’ experience in the TV business, working at Pace, SysMedia, Electronic Farm and Harris. Alex Borland, CEO, Exset, said: “We’re delighted that Andrew has been promoted to this new role within our team. With his wealth of experience across our markets, we know he’s the right person to help drive us forwards in what are exciting times for Exset.”

Net Insight has announced management changes, with the aim of becoming a more sales and market oriented company. The management team will be comprised of; Fredrik Tumegård, CEO; Thomas Bergström, CFO; Per Lindgren, CTO, SVP business development and founder; Stig Stålnacke, SVP global sales; Peter Sergel, VP new segment sales; Anna Karin Verneholt, VP marketing; Martin Karlsson, VP portfolio management; Ulrik Rohne, VP research and development, VP service acting; and Marina Hedman, VP HR.

NUGEN Audio has announced the appointment of Simon Kerr as chief marketing officer. Kerr will oversee the company’s global marketing strategy and will manage NUGEN Audio’s newly opened North American office. Kerr lectured in video production at Leeds Metropolitan University, and before joining NUGEN Audio, worked at Canon USA. Tim Waller has joined Prime Focus as senior colourist. Waller has three decades of experience grading film, commercials and broadcast. He previously worked at Molinaire where, over seven years, he completed over 70 films and countless TV dramas.

He joins Prime Focus from Envy. re:fine has announced two appointments in the form of Christos Glaridis as head of operations and Anna Connolly as head of QC. Glaridis brings 15 years’ media experience to the company starting his career as a runner in Soho’s VTR and working his way up to technical director for Dubbs-Eyeframe (now Premiere). Most recently Glaridis was technical manager of post production at PERFORM Group.

Connolly’s career in QC started at Sky, later moving to Technicolor as QC supervisor.

Lee Sheppard has been hired

by SGL as director of product management, overseeing the company’s global product strategy.

“I’m very excited to embark on this new stage of my career at SGL,” said Sheppard. “I’m looking forward to continuing to drive the SGL product roadmap

Andrew Pons

Simon Kerr

Exset

Nugen Audio

Christos Glaridis

Tim Waller

re:fine

Prime Focus

forwards, working with existing and new customers.”

Signiant has increased its sales and support staff to meet growing global

demand for its products. Recent additions to the global team include Jonathan Lunness, sales director; James Mansfield, regional sales

manager; Jamie Lakin, key account manager for EMEA; and Steve Gibson, who joins the solutions architecture team. All are based in the UK.

14 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com March 2014

Loudness Forum

Shout out for loudness

In this Forum, Philip Stevens seeks the views of industry experts about the niggling — sometimes baffling — question of loudness

THE QUESTIONS surrounding loudness don’t want to go away.

Several European countries have adopted the Technical Delivery Specification for Loudness, but is it working? Are there problems implementing the standard? Where next on this thorny issue? Some people in the industry seem happy to discuss the matter — others are reluctant.

We’ve brought together professionals closely involved with the topic who are happy to air their views. They are (in alphabetical order) Kevin Burrows, CTO broadcast and

distribution, Channel 4, and DPP tech standards lead; Florian Camerer, senior sound engineer, ORF — Austrian TV and chairman EBU group PLOUD; Tim Carroll, CTO The Telos Alliance/ Linear Acoustic; Bob Nicholas, director business development EMEA at Cobalt Digital; Mark Pascoe, senior technical marketing manager, Dolby Laboratories; Steve Plunkett, CTO, Red Bee Media; Peter Schut, CTO and SVP of R&D at Axon; Richard van Everdingen, broadcast and audio consultant.

Last October saw all UK national broadcasters accept the DPP’s Technical Delivery Specification on Loudness standards.

Although early days, have any significant issues come to light since the implementation of the standard in the UK? Burrows: Nothing major, but there are some learning points, such as trust your audio skills and your ears, set your monitoring levels with care to help you hit the right loudness balance point, try to stop using PPMs as soon as you can — this will take a little longer in post, but should be more than offset by a reduction in the time wasted by reworking rejected

productions — and finally, applause at the end of performances can catch you out on live programmes if the rehearsals had none!

Camerer: No significantly different issues compared to other countries have arisen. The UK has the advantage of being able to draw on the experience of several other European countries and so should avoid

Kevin Burrows, Channel 4; DPP the most common pitfalls. One approach is similar to France where the tolerance for live is initially +/- 2 LU, and for tape or file-based delivery is +/- 1 LU. This is looser than in R128 — it will be tightened later, but an understandable step to facilitate the transition. Also, R128 is not demanded yet, it is still encouraged.

Nicholas: The standard is still in the process of implementation and it is as yet too early to be able to have a view of any potential issues.

Plunkett: There has been a growing consensus that loudness is best dealt with at source, as the solutions that work on the live outputs of a channel don’t generally produce optimum results. Production companies are already expected to satisfy various technical and qualitative measures related to their programming, so this has been an expected and inevitable development. At the moment, everyone is familiarising themselves with new tools and procedures, but no major concerns have been identified.

Schut: There are always problems implementing a new standard and this is no exception. The biggest problem is that it is a complex exercise.

Only if the producer of the sound is aware of the loudness requirements will you get good results. Anything that needs to be corrected afterwards — and especially legacy material — will have reasonable to poor results. Also the different formats that need to be supported and the complexity of R128 advice for all different platforms does not help.

TVBEurope 15

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

By releasing the loudness spec, we have now standardised the loudness ranges together with tolerances for pre-recorded and live programmes” — Kevin Burrows, Channel 4, DPP

Loudness Forum

How is the UK faring compared to other European broadcasters?

Camerer: The BBC has a head start in the UK because the average level has always been around -23 LUFS. There have been outliers, of course, but the principal production methods don’t have to change. BskyB has been doing loudness normalisation for years, so they have no issue whatsoever. I think the UK will generally catch up with the more loudness advanced countries in Europe quickly.

Carroll: In my opinion, quite well. Again, many broadcasters were far ahead of recommended practices, such as EBU R128 and other regulations, as they found that satisfying the viewer is simply good business practise.

Nicholas: The UK is certainly somewhat behind some of the primary European markets.

France and Germany are leading the way in terms of implementation of R128 recommendations on loudness measurement and control. The continuing poor economic climate in the rest of Europe is affecting the ability of broadcasters in those most severely hit areas to implement corrective measures.

Plunkett: The UK has historically been one of the more active implementers of loudness control at the point of

broadcast, which ironically has perhaps slowed the impetus for R128 adoption to date.

However, the work of the DPP will bring the UK to the forefront of adopters by the end of 2014.

Who, in your opinion (without naming specific companies), is the worst offender in the whole loudness debate?

Burrows: The industry with the largest challenge in this area is the pop music recording industry where hypercompression is commonplace and often extreme.

Carroll: Anyone who does not realise that traditional metering like PPM or VU must take a secondary role to proper ITU-R BS.1770 loudness metering and EBU R128 recommended practices. This list is thankfully becoming smaller every day.

Bob Nicholas, Cobalt Digital normalisation. It is always difficult to convince someone who starts from the opposite direction. I see examples where this negative opinion is based on a wrong application of loudness normalisation.

Consequently, before anyone can experience the advantages, and before a fair discussion about this is possible, it must start with a proper preparation, application and evaluation.

Florian Camerer, ORF — Austrian TV; PLOUD Nicholas: The worst offenders could possibly be defined as those advertisers who still try any dubious engineering practices to circumvent the recommendations and appear louder than the preceding content. Some broadcasters also could be included as they may consider that, as they do not carry advertising, they are exempt from loudness issues on programme transitions. Apparently, they do not consider interstitials as being

“Only if the producer of the sound is aware of the loudness requirements will you get good results”

advertising, although they are invariably generated by the same agencies that prepare conventional advertising material and usually to the same internal engineering practices. van Everdingen: Some people are fundamentally opposed to the use of loudness

Peter Schut, Axon

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TVBEurope 17

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Loudness Forum Has the implementation of EBU R128 made any difference to working practices in UK studios and post houses?

Burrows: Yes it has, and has resulted in much more education and training to adapt to the new ways of dealing with sound mixing, production and monitoring.

Initiatives like the BBC Academy training programmes have really helped the production community understand the new ways of working needed. The DPP has been pro-active in setting up workshops where audio loudness has been properly debated and concerns aired.

Camerer: The UK is still a hybrid loudness/PPM6 world.

So initially there might be more different mixes to satisfy different specifications.

Working practices change similarly in other countries.

Mixers rely more and more on their ears — hopefully, they have done so anyway — but now they have a meter that corresponds with what they hear. If average loudness levels have been different from the new target level of -23 LUFS, the listening level has to be adjusted accordingly — up if you have mixed louder, down if you have mixed softer. Forcing

Peter Schut, Axon oneself to mix to target through adjusting the listening level is the primary tool to success.

Nicholas: There has certainly been a change in approach in UK studios and post houses as they are all now aware of the nature of a loudness meter.

They are also coming to terms with the fact that proper implementation of it should not have an adverse effect on the dynamic range of their productions.

The standard provides two parameter requirements — loudness figure and dB True Peak.

When a standard for loudness range is introduced, will this make a difference to working practices?

Burrows: By releasing the loudness spec, we have now standardised the loudness ranges together with tolerances for pre-recorded and live programmes. In terms of the two parameters you have listed, these refer to the overall programme loudness, and the Maximum True Peak. The latter of these, the Maximum True Peak values, are proposed as guidance only, together with examples as they can vary.

Examples would be uncompressed music or gunshot sounds. This is a change to working practices compared to using conventional PPMs, as these only looked at average peak values, but it will be provide a much more subjective measurement.

Nicholas: This will only affect working practices in as much as new compliant metering will need to be implemented. Other than that it could be compared to the period when digital audio came into use and engineers had to get used to the idea of a relative 0dB level — which was actually different depending on which country you were located.

The only major issue to get used to on a loudness meter is that what you are seeing indicated has already happened as the process is based on integrated measurement.

Schut: Sure, as they both have a very different outcome to the end sound and level. van Everdingen: I would advise against a restriction for loudness range (LRA), especially regarding drama series and films, or it must be recommendation for something in the area of not more than 22 or so, just as a safety precaution.

A limit on a lower LRA means that some drama mixes that can be transmitted on television without any problem, need to be compressed just to comply with a certain number. What I found in my own research is that excellent mixes with good

speech intelligibility and a consistent voice level close to programme loudness can have very high LRA figures up to 22 without causing a problem, not on the low and not on the high level side. Bad mixes on the other hand, tend to ‘improve’ to a certain extent by compression.

This leads to the trend that good work is penalised because of the shortcomings of bad work.

Other bad mixes that include annoyingly loud modulations can still have a relatively low loudness range. A limitation on LRA is, in that case, not able to prevent that — which can lead to even lower restrictions later on. The current LRA measurement is meant as an indicator for an audio mixer. To use it as a strict restriction in programme delivery documents

Richard van Everdingen, broadcast and audio consultant

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TVBEurope 19

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Loudness Forum Plunkett: The loudness measurement on a down-mixed stereo audio can be significantly different than that measured on the discrete surround version, especially where there is a great deal of correlation between the channels as they are summed together. It is therefore important to check the loudness post down-mix and for sound supervisors to understand the possible consequences.

Schut: There shouldn’t be other than that some video formats require different levels. van Everdingen: There can be loudness differences between multichannel audio and the down-mix. This is also affected by down-mix parameters such as the Centre and Surround down-mix levels. In practice, the down-mix level will fluctuate a bit if the

Steve Plunkett, Red Bee Media is tricky. Currently, the PLOUD group is doing research to ascertain if the LRA measurement can be slightly optimised so that some specific mixes that have a high LRA number correlate better with the human perception. Even if it comes to an improved LRA measurement, extensive testing is required in my opinion before it is recommendable to use a certain number as a restriction, especially if this number is chosen relatively low.

Are there special considerations when downmixing from Surround to Stereo using the Loudness standard?

Camerer: Unfortunately, it is not possible to predict the loudness of a down-mix from surround sound to stereo, judging only from the downmix parameters. This is due to the

What is the next development on the Loudness issue?

Burrows: We are not currently planning any changes to the UK DPP Loudness specifications published last year, but we will monitor progress and if through experience we identify any areas requiring optimisation, we will consider making minor adjustments to the spec. In the meantime we will continue with our industry training and collaboration initiatives.

Camerer: Loudness normalisation in radio is the logical next step. There are a few differences and many things in common with TV. Once loudness normalisation is established in radio, it will have a strong impact on music production too, together with streaming services becoming more and more loudness normalised, for example, iTunes Radio.

Carroll: I believe this issue of tolerance has to be handled before processing is increased just to hit a metersatisfying result.

Nicholas: I would predict that the next development in the loudness issues would be that all developers and vendors agree on the method to convey clear indications of whether a piece of audio content has been measured to a known standard and whether it was compliant. If processing has been applied that should also be indicated. This indicator should be able to be read by all consumer devices to prevent ruinous multiple loudness corrections being applied to a piece of content. It would be advantageous if such a process were also able to handle the advent of object-based audio that is now getting a lot of attention within our industry.

Pascoe: The EBU PLOUD group now have other platforms firmly on their radar; radio and cinema being amongst them. While the technical solutions for measurement are

“I found in my own research that excellent mixes with good speech intelligibility and a consistent voice level close to programme loudness can have very high LRA figures, up to 22, without causing a problem”

different influence of the level of the surround channels, as well as the use of divergence — ‘bleed’ — of Centre signal into left and right. The more surround-heavy content you have — applause, for example — the bigger the loudness difference of a stereo downmix will be. There is no single solution to that. Best practice is to transmit two separate mixes, both loudness normalised — and not to rely on an automatic downmix at the consumer’s end.

Carroll: Downmixes can cause slight loudness variations which are completely programme dependent. This is why some of the regulations enacted throughout the world have a tolerance of +/- 1 to 2dB. Having zero tolerance may result in additional — and unnecessary — processing whose only goal is to satisfy a meter. This needs to be watched carefully as heavier processing is an easier and less expensive answer for compliance versus remixing but can often lower quality.

Richard van Everdingen, audio consultant multichannel programmes are loudness normalised. The broadcast station can check content in the ingest stage to prevent tricks being applied that make the down-mix unreasonably louder, for example in commercials. There is, however, also another way to work around the issue. In the Netherlands, the main stations use simulcast audio on cable networks. There is a dedicated stereo service and a separate service for multichannel audio.

Dependent on the playback configuration, the viewer can choose the stereo or the surround service on IDTVs and set-top boxes. This offers the possibility to optimise both, independent from down-mix and up-mix issues.

now in place, lack of industry consensus is most likely to be a barrier to adoption.

Plunkett: If we do a good job of introducing R128, the next development should be that loudness disappears as an industry and viewer concern.

Let’s hope that we can do so.

Schut: I would expect some improvements in automated correction algorithms from different vendors. Implementing improved metadata where signals that are correct are left alone and not affected by downstream loudness controllers as proposed by Dolby. And I hope for better understanding of the problem where there is the most control — in production. van Everdingen: The group is spending time on implementation issues and is also working on radio at the moment, particularly the alignment between DAB and FM radio. www.orf.at www.axon.tv www.channel4.com www.cobaltdigital.com www.delta-sigma-consultancy.nl www.digitalproductionpartnership. co.uk www.dolby.com www.linearacoustic.com www.redbeemedia.com www.tech.ebu.ch/groups/ploud

Tim Carroll, The Telos Alliance/Linear Acoustic

Mark Pascoe, Dolby Laboratories

20 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com March 2014

The Workflow

The HDR revolution The Ultra HD debate revolves around getting a richer picture to the living room with implications for capture, post production and retail. Adrian Pennington reports IS THERE a need for an enhanced, richer-pixeled version of Ultra HD that includes greater luminance and colour alongside higher frame rate and resolution?

Tom Morrod, senior director, IHS Technology at analysts Screen IHS, says yes, arguing that higher colour data has a more meaningful impact on the viewing experience than more pixels.

“High Dynamic Range (HDR) is not an increase in transmitted colour space, but it adds colour/contrast estimates to fill the gap between the colour space that the TV can display, and the colour data from the delivered stream,” he says.

TV displays have been performing better than the signal they are fed for a while now. 8bit depth per pixel has long been

Dolby Vision is just one of the new HDR tools aimed at boosting broadcast image quality the standard for HD video, yet when today’s content is acquired at 12-bit, the signal is insufficient to store the extra information.

“When you acquire content with much higher bit depth its

quality is dumbed down on the display to 8-bit,” explains Roland Vlaicu, Dolby’s senior director of Broadcast Imaging. “If we were to change the bit depth of every pixel today to 12-bit, it would not

be compatible with any existing display system. Our proposal is to maintain a higher bit depth for every pixel up to 12-bit and 16bit — or one day even higher — from the moment of capture to

the home. We need to modify the signal to make it compatible with today’s infrastructure.”

Dolby Vision is a suite of tools applied to the colour grading process in post and to

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22 TVBEurope

The Workflow the encoding of the signal for HEVC decoders in new Ultra HD TVs. Under licence, CE manufacturers will need to integrate Dolby Vision decoding and display mapping software into their equipment. Sets from Sharp, Vizio and TCL will have that capability this year.

How Ultra HD will be presented at retail is up for debate, with the Digital TV Group in the UK hoping to avoid the confusion that surrounded the badging of hardware with the HD-ready logo.

Dolby says it expects to place a separate Dolby Vision logo on consumer equipment (and possibly on content augmented with its system) alongside a 4K/UHD/Ultra HD logo “as a clear indicator of performance and quality.

“We believe Dolby Vision is the perfect compliment to UHD,” says Vlaicu. “The combination of higher frame rate and higher resolution creates a true-to-life viewing experience.”

Display brightness is measured in nits and the Dolby Vision system can describe a

peak of 10,000nits. That’s way more capacity than the average 400nits most TVs can display, but Dolby believes that by allowing more information to flow through the chain the better the final picture quality.

Dolby has built prototype 4000nit professional reference monitors and is looking to licence the technology to begin to populate facilities. A first set of plug-ins can be expected at NAB for colour grading systems from Filmlight and Blackmagic.

The process is already in action on 25 legacy and inproduction titles. “New movies are our goal, which will then supply to OTT aggregators to stream,” says Vlaicu. “We are enabling post facilities, primarily in Hollywood, to create Dolby Vision grades with the necessary plug-ins in for colour grading software.”

“The post workflow doesn’t need modifying,” says Vlaicu.

“Today in a lot of cases, the DP and colourist will reference grade to [Dolby’s] PRM 200 monitor in Rec 709 for 100nit displays. We’d prefer that they look at the new

Dolby Vision reference display and make creative decisions that enable them to create a Dolby Vision master.

“The process is largely automatic and built into the capability of the plug-ins. With a single pass master versions can be derived for Dolby Vision, rec 709 and DCI-compliance. If the director/DP wants to finetune they can make manual decisions with the tools provided,” says Vlaicu.

Here’s Morrod’s verdict: “Extra colour is a serious improvement, but while the Dolby technology makes things ‘pop’ and look more real, the major benefit of additional colour information at transmission is the subtle shading around the edge of things — the slow and accurate transition of bright to dark — which makes things ‘look’ 3D. It’s one of the main visual cues to 3D objects in space, shading.

This can’t be ‘created’ by HDR very well, but is what makes 4K demos ‘look 3D’ — they are using additional colour subsampling to place a colour within the displayable colour-space, making it look more realistic.”

“The industry, including standards bodies like MPEG, need to set up a continuous scale and define a point below which we can term LDR (low dynamic range) and above which is HDR” Cristina Gomila, Technicolor Technicolor also bets on brightness Technicolor is working on a similar set of HDR tools and workflows and will bring two versions of its dynamic range expansion to market. The first is for high-quality legacy content from studios and will be a mix of automatic processes and artistic interactions. Initially these will feed the library of MGo, the movie rental streaming service it runs with DreamWorks and which will debut a 4K option shortly.

“These projects will be individually regraded by a colourist often with involvement of the DP,” explains Cristina Gomila, director of Technicolor’s Rennes Research and Innovation Centre. “Inverse tone mapping allows us to stretch the dynamic range of all legacy catalogue and make the images brighter for new displays.

We’ll try to stretch the range in a way that conveys the true image the DP wanted to create but in such a way we don’t want flush the user with

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UTV, BBC, HBO, Channel 4, ESPN, TV2 Norway, DELL, GSTQ Consulting, Yleis Radio, ITV, Encompass, ARTE, Associated Press, Broadcast Center Europe, Broadcast Innovation, BVE, Canal Sur, Canal+, Council of the European Union, Channel 4, Deluxe Laboratories, Discovery Communications Europe, Disney Channels, eMotion Systems, Formula One Management, Global Broadcast Summit, IABM, IBC, IMD Media, IMS Ltd, ITN Source, IveTech, Kleinhofen, Lime Pictures, MTV Networks North, NBC Universal, NRK Norway, Production Village Ltd, ProTV, Reuters Television, Radio Suisse International, root6, Sanoma Entertainment Finland, SBS Broadcasting Networks, Screen Digest, Siemens, Sound Network, TATA Consultancy, Technology and Production Center Zurich, The Audio Suite, TV4 Group Sweden, TVI, TVM Ireland, RTE, Cologne Broadcasting centre, DPP, News International, TFO, UEFA

If you are interested in sponsorship and speaking opportunities contact: Ben Ewles +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 Richard Carr +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 ben.ewles@intentmedia.co.uk richard.carr@intentmedia.co.uk Steve Connolly +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk

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“The whole HDR/high colour bit depth discussion is evolving rapidly and there are still technical problems to be overcome on the display side” — John Schuermann, Folded Space

explains Vlaicu. “The idea of enhancing the signal itself was really just an idea at the time.

Since then, we have built the technology and IP to turn this into a reality. The way we see this panning out now is that the combination of better performing displays in the form of local dimming LCD or OLED along with Dolby Vision signals that carry higher dynamic range and a wider colour gamut will enable a far superior imaging performance.”

Gomila: “If you knew you could display this greater range, would you play differently with the lighting when filming?”

maximum peak luminance at any time.

“Where content or areas of content have been clipped when represented in LDR Technicolor has some algorithms that can compensate and bring detail from brighter zones for example.

“Lost information is difficult to recover so we are going to be seeing a variety of quality depending on these algorithms,” says Gomila.

Technicolor will also licence a version of its technology to perform dynamic range expansion at the receiver, in set-top boxes or the TV. As with Dolby Vision, the enhancement can be applied to images of any resolution.

She calls for a consistent measure of what constitutes HDR to be agreed and is contributing to standardisation activities on HEVC extensions for HDR and wide Colour Gamut in MPEG, ITU-T and applications standard committees such as DVB and ATSC 3.0.

“The industry, including standards bodies like MPEG, need to set up a continuous scale and define a point below which we can term LDR (low dynamic range) and above which is HDR,” says Gomila. “There may even be intermediate range, but there should be a single agreed definition to avoid market confusion.”

She suggests that from capture to grade creatives need

to learn about how new artistic effects can be conveyed with HDR images. “If you knew you could display this greater range, the question is would you play differently with the lighting when filming? This has implications for productions being shot going forward.”

The genesis of Dolby’s technology came from IP acquired from Brightstar in 2007. The Canadian wireless technology specialist had developed the concept of local dimming in which TVs are dynamically lit by individual LEDs arrayed behind the screen, rather than by way of a single backlight.

Brightstar developed a means of creating a HDR version of regular content by extrapolating information needed to create the locally dimmed image within the TV. The idea didn’t take off because it required TV sets to become wider to accommodate the LEDs at a time when the trend was toward ever thinner units (although LED edge-lit displays which light up the panel equally are now common).

“When we acquired Brightside, the existing IP revolved mostly around the concept of direct LED local dimming for LCD displays,”

The Workflow backward compatible 8-bit Bluray disc. Newer displays and Blu-ray players with the decoding algorithm can then restore a 12-bit equivalent of the original image.

Folded Space is licensing the technology to software partners for free “to stimulate HDR content production,” it says, while charging a modest fee for it to player and display vendors.

“We are working with several CE manufacturers and major film studios to develop a 12-to8-back-to12-bit demo, but of course the current limitation is the lack of a high bit depth display to show it on or even good 12-bit video content to run through the process,” says Schuermann. “These are challenges we are working on with several CE companies and film studios, most under NDA at this point.”

He adds: “The whole HDR/high colour bit depth discussion is evolving rapidly and there are still technical problems to be overcome on the display side.

This is where Dolby is focusing part of their efforts, as a major component of what they are doing is encouraging the development of higher brightness, high bit depth displays. We have simply been focusing on the efficient delivery of high bitrate content.

“It is our understanding that Dolby’s delivery system will be proprietary and include at least two data streams that will need to be remuxed at the display. Our technology is fully compatible with current and future Blu-ray standards and can be adapted to other high-quality delivery methods such as downloads (although probably not realtime streaming, as the massive compression could adversely affect our process).”

“The whole HDR/high colour bit depth discussion is evolving rapidly and there are still technical problems to be overcome on the display side” John Schuermann, Folded Space Folded Space Technicolor and Dolby are not alone in developing this area. Video processing company Folded Space, subsidiary to anamorphic lens maker Panamorph, is marketing what it terms deep colour content encoding.

“DCE is an extremely efficient process requiring very little additional bandwidth or processing power to deliver true 12-bit equivalent colour to compatible displays,” notes business development director John Schuermann.

The company’s algorithms process original content with 12-bits and encode information about the colour detail into a

NEWS IN BRIEF Phabrix increases innovation at BVE At BVE, PHABRIX announced several new enhancements and innovations across its Sx handheld and Rx rack mount test and measurement instruments. PHABRIX has started shipping its new handheld TAG, capable of testing most broadcast infrastructures. The TAG comes complete as an analyser/monitor with support for SD and HD formats. A software option can be purchased to add 3G, a generator or optical support.

The TAG has an audio toolset including full support for metadata, levels and logging of Dolby E, D and D Plus. PHABRIX also previewed its new V9 upgrade due for release end of March 2014. www.phabrix.com Front Porch Digital and thePlatform offer new cloud services Front Porch Digital has signed an agreement with video publishing company thePlatform, to offer cloudbased video publishing services to Front Porch Digital customers. The company will integrate thePlatform’s mpx video publishing system into its LYNXSM cloud-based CSM for managing media assets. This will allow LYNX users to more easily monetise assets and build new revenue streams, the company claims. www.fpdigital.com www.theplatform.com eyevis acquires IPTV specialist Teracue eyevis has acquired IPTV systems manufacturer Teracue AG at Odelzhausen near Munich. The Reutlingen-based eyevis GmbH is taking over all brands, names and patent rights, as well as staff and management of Teracue, and is transferring them into the new Teracue eyevis GmbH. The first joint products of the merger were presented at this year’s ISE in February along with eyevis’ eyeCON MetaWall 2.0 solution. www.eyevis.co.uk www.teracus.com

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“Project timescales are becoming shorter than ever as the industry finds the need to react quickly to changing market demand” — Charlie McCaw ATG Broadcast

Systems Integrators

Forum

Bringing together the integrators SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS (SIs) have seen their roles increase in recent years, and today their functions continue to expand. But what challenges will they face as 2014 progresses, what areas of technology need further consideration, and does the role of an SI vary across Europe?

These and other issues are discussed by (in alphabetical order) Kalvis Baumanis, board member of Hannu Pro; Steve Burgess CTO of Megahertz; John Cleaver, director of Dega Broadcast Systems; Gabriel Dusil, chief marketing and corporate strategy officer at Visual Unity; Charlie McCaw, head of solutions at ATG Broadcast; Kevin Moore, managing director, Eurotek Ireland; Werner Osselaer, sales and marketing manager, Studiotech; David Phillips, managing director, TSL Systems; Malcolm Robinson, director media and broadcast solutions at Broadcast Networks; Daniel Url, sales director at Wellen+Nöthen; Sebastian Wainberg, general product manager, Promovisa Spain

Apart from budgets, what are the biggest challenges you face as a SI in 2014?

Baumanis: Amount of work to be done! We have many projects for 2014. In general, they are smaller than before — but require more from us.

Burgess: In 2014, one of the hurdles we face is overcoming the length of time it takes from proposal to exchange of contracts. More and more we are finding that we have to adjust our planning and forecasting to accommodate a prolonged tendering process.

Cleaver: I suspect it will be a familiar challenge of managing resources. The recent tough climate has meant decisions are left late and timescales shortened, so getting a clear vision of what is ahead is impossible. We have to ensure that our workforce is flexible and dynamic so that we are in a position to provide a service to all our customers when they need us.

McCaw: Project timescales are becoming shorter than ever as the industry finds the need to react quickly to changing market demand. We are fully accustomed to those pressures, including the

Kalvis Baumanis, Hannu Pro ability to work alongside active network staff without disrupting their routine operations.

Moore: I think one of the challenges for 2014 is the overall level of activity. I don’t think there will be too many significant projects going ahead in our territory this year, so we may need to look to alternative sectors where we can apply our skills.

Osselaer: We hope for an economic upswing in 2014, after the down slope in 2013 where the market was impacted by continued uncertainty. In Africa, we see an increasing demand for digital transmission, while European broadcasters, driven by demand for more HD content, are focusing on multiscreen and multiformat playout systems. As an integrator we strive, in partnership with main suppliers, to focus on a long-term technological strategy by delivering complete end-toend solutions.

Phillips: The continued rapid change of technology has meant

that customers are more wary of making investments in technology at any given time in case something ‘better’ appears soon afterwards. The evolving technology also requires SIs to maintain a high level of investment in training and knowledge enhancement. Many of the large manufacturers now provide turn-key solutions which may offer price advantages, but can present limitations with regards to choice, quality and interoperability between thirdparty systems. This is where independent Systems Integrators can strongly assist.

Robinson: Understanding the varied and ever-changing challenges of our customers and being part of the solution! Our customers face new challenges every day due to changing consumer trends, the consumption of media, competition, fluctuations in revenue and shrinking budgets.

They need trusted partners to fight the battle with them.

Url: From the technical standpoint, one of our biggest challenges at the moment is being

Steve Burgess, Megahertz

Philip Stevens moderates a second Forum this month in which Systems Integrators discuss topics that affect their business prepared for changing tasks in the areas of broadcast and IT. In organisational terms, we must therefore remain flexible, with our specialists in systems integration, consulting and technology support services taking training courses more frequently.

Wainberg: In Spain the major challenge, apart from the obvious crisis that our industry is facing, is the re-distribution of frequencies as a result of ‘digital dividend’ — the government policy to allow ‘space’ for the 4G telecommunication frequencies — and the impact that this will have on the existing broadcasters.

Do you see yourself as an educator of new technologies, as well as being a supplier?

Baumanis: More and more the SI task is taking the role of educator/adviser/consultant for fast-changing technologies.

Customers want one single contact for all their needs, who also guarantees that all different parts of the system will work together.

Cleaver: I don’t think we see that as our prime task. Our customers generally know their

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John Cleaver, Dega Broadcast Systems

Charlie McCaw, ATG Broadcast

own business and the associated technology, but will rely on us to let them have the benefit of our recent experiences and investigations. We are continually addressing the issues around installing the latest equipment, but they are only doing so when looking to invest. So, in many cases, we educate each other for our own mutual benefit.

Dusil: As a trusted advisor, we propose best-in-class

products and services to broadcasters, telcos and enterprises. In many cases, we advise our clients to begin their projects with a consulting initiative. This way they will better understand their existing landscape, and a cost-efficient path to their new infrastructure.

McCaw: Definitely.

Broadcasters have less time to research changing technology than previously, and fewer staff able to attend major new-

product shows, such as NAB and IBC. Moore: Our clients look to us to help them find the best technologies for their business challenges, and this is becoming even more prevalent as the engineering resource in most of the broadcasters and post houses is being scaled back.

Url: Absolutely, yes. That is also one of the reasons why we established our own Consulting and Development unit about two years ago — and it’s been a huge success. We currently offer consulting to nearly every major German TV broadcaster and our company group also supports TV networks on the international level.

Wainberg: Absolutely. With over 35 years in the industry, Promovisa has had a fundamental role in introducing new technologies and manufacturers, which in time have became ‘core’ components of the main national broadcasters. This required, and still requires, an active role in evangelising and training our customers, as a major part of our added value.

Are there any specific areas of technology that are more in demand today than, say, three years ago?

Burgess: Broadly speaking, we have noted a rise in the use of Ka Band satellite technology in both earth stations and mobile television production units over the past three years. This is partly due to the falling cost of the technology and the efficiencies that can be gained by its deployment.

Cleaver: We find that the ability to provide comprehensive operations between sites has had the biggest impact on more recent contracts. The level of integration between systems in

multiple locations that allow data and content to be readily available wherever needed has added another level of complexity to most aspects of our installations.

Dusil: Areas of development and innovation that concern suppliers of digital video and internet streaming include support for MPEG-Dash and for Hybrid-DRM. Other areas include support for 4K UHD video. Through to the end of this decade, OTT will be the first service to showcase 4K content.

Initially, this will require effective encoding of video — to maintain a small file size and bit stream, while still maximising video quality that demonstrates 4K’s potential. This will initially require adaptive bitrate technologies, especially in regions that don’t quite have the bandwidth or latency resilience to showcase 4K’s full potential.

Integral to 4K streaming is support for H.265. As a solution provider, we need to be ready with support of both H.265 and 4K, long before the market is flooded with requests.

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Systems Integrators

Forum Werner Osselaer, Studiotech

Osselaer: We will not surprise you if we mention streaming, IP-based infrastructure and archival.

Robinson: Definitely technology which supports asset monetisation.

All customers are now trying to sweat their assets so OTT and second screen applications are a lot more visible.

Wainberg: Apart from the usual, such as Digital Archive, MAM and shared storage, we see greater demand for technologies over IP and the PAM/MAMs for small environments of, say, two to five seats.

Dusil: Throughout 2013, 4K was not on the radar for most of our clients, but we anticipate a ramp-up of requests near the end of 2014 and into 2015.

This includes both OTT and broadcast projects. For broadcasters in particular, a 4K channel commands high bandwidth real-estate — it will take up the equivalent of four HD channels, or up to 24 SD channels. At the moment, the business case is not strong enough to justify the investment. On the flip side, we anticipate that OTT providers will be the first to adopt 4K, since

“Our feedback from broadcast clients is that they are not really interested in 4K in the short term — they’ve only recently moved to HD” Kevin Moore, Eurotek Ireland

Have you seen significant interest in 4K installations?

Baumanis: Yes — from ‘big’ international players who want to be amongst the first ones! As for regional level customers — they are not so keen on 4K. The main problem is lack of real-life businessoriented production systems availability.

People understand that ‘cinema’ style 4K production is not the way to go — just mention shallow DoF, which is a problem for live sports events — and they are waiting for manufacturers to come up with systems where they can re-use part of existing equipment and operate as before.

Cleaver: Not really, there are still too many unanswered questions about the use of 4K in television. It looks fantastic as a demo, but there are a lot of practical problems in both its content and its distribution. We do find that we are being asked to look at considering infrastructure that will cope with it in the future.

delivery over the internet affords more flexibility.

Moore: Our feedback from broadcast clients is that they are not really interested in 4K in the short term — they’ve only recently moved to HD. There is some interest from the post houses, but this is largely led by the fact that that relative cost is not hugely higher than 2K. I think the OB companies are interested and will probably adopt 4K when they are doing their next refresh, if the camera systems are ready for mainstream.

Phillips: To date, there has only been a passing interest in 4K with customers seeking views on its likely success and whether to invest now.

At the moment, there are still a number of uncertainties over the technical standards and very limited methods of delivering 4K. The best practice is to consider making sure any investment now allows a future upgrade to 4K with the minimum outlay. For example, making sure the infrastructure is based on fibre-optic.

Robinson: The industry will move towards 4K content capture in a similar way it moved to HD content capture. Broadcasters may not be broadcasting in 4K to any large extent

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for a number of years, but the ability to capture images in the highest possible resolution has always been a key driver in the industry.

Url: Of course 4K installations are gaining acceptance and significance in the area of camera acquisition — especially in the scene production business. But for the majority of broadcasters 4K is, at present, only of secondary interest and therefore plays less of a role for us in systems integration, although we are keeping an eye on developments.

For example, we have already carried out a number of development projects for live television sports in collaboration with a German sports channel, including the first 4K production of a Bundesliga soccer game just over a year ago.

Wainberg: The interest in 4K technology is marginal.

It more relates to research and ‘pilot’ making than main production for broadcast. Spain is still struggling to adopt high definition as a real production/ broadcast standard.

Are there any areas of equipment design you feel need more innovation to meet current demands?

Baumanis: With new personnel entering the industry, it is increasingly important to incorporate user interface elements that are familiar to the way they interact with technology in their daily lives.

Integration of touchscreens, customisation of software and hardware interfaces and use of mobile devices into systems needs to be considered. With the increasing performance of processing, networks and storage users are looking for more systems that can consolidate various functions in a single solution.

Burgess: There is always room for equipment design to improve to meet the demands of the industry and we see the leading vendors working very hard. A

consideration when building mobile production solutions, such as OB trucks, is the need to increase density, reduce heat dissipation and lower power consumption to save running costs for the operator.

Cleaver: It is being made clear by the manufacturers that in a few years’ time we will be routing video via IP. There is currently little advantage — especially if your existing infrastructure is all SDI. It would be useful to see a clear migration pathway to the new carrier and a sensible range of equipment that can bridge the gap during, what will no doubt be, an extended transition.

Dusil: There are four main features that we believe will significantly improve the quality

David Phillips, TSL Systems of online digital video services in the next decade. First, content accessibility — today’s digital society is migrating from entertainment ownership to licensing. Once the content resides in the cloud, then millions of duplicate copies will no longer be necessary.

Secondly, content upgradability.

Once content resides in the cloud, then the idea of an upgrade path becomes a nobrainer. Thirdly, content portability — this has already

begun in the entertainment industry with the support for multiscreens. But there are still improvements to be made across different operating systems, service providers, and hardware platforms. Lastly, an engaging user interface and user experience (UI/UX). Before, during and after the movie, subscribers want to have fun.

The more they are having fun, the longer they will stay and play. The longer they stay, the more money they will spend.

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McCaw: We are watching the channel in a box business very closely as it is a logical way of expanding existing infrastructure cost efficiently.

Additionally, the way infrastructure is built for realtime signals may well change in the next couple of years, so we are watching carefully how IT standards develop.

Moore: I think the current camera systems still need a little more development for practical 4K OB applications, especially around the lenses, comms/ control, and so on. I also think there is more work to be done around the area of standardised file delivery — the DPP initiative is a great start, but more manufacturers need to commit to adopting AS-11 type workflows and making it easier for the broadcasters and production companies.

Phillips: There’s no doubt the quality of lenses and cameras at all price points are now outstanding. However, media asset management still remains a challenge due to interoperability and customisation

issues. Systems Integrators can offer substantial experience in the vagaries when implementing bespoke MAM systems into their operations and thus help mitigate such risks.

Are there increased calls for video over IP projects?

Baumanis: Yes, we hope that 2014 will be a video over IP year for broadcasters. At this moment there are discussions with customers and manufacturers with likely infrastructure implementations not earlier than end of 2014.

Burgess: As already mentioned, we have seen an increasing interest in Ka band satellite access requirements and much of this is driven by delivery of video over IP, especially for news acquisition.

We are also seeing an increase in

the requirement to deliver IP video over aggregated mobile phone networks. IP is gradually making inroads into the video and audio infrastructure. At first it was used in islands of post production and graphics, now it is acquisition and delivery. We are already seeing the first IP crosspoint video routers coming onto the market, and we expect this to be an increasing trend Dusil: There is a lot of traction in video over IP as clients realise that implementing an end-to-end IP workflow helps to streamline processes and reduces their processing delays. Video over IP is part of a computing evolution in the entertainment industry. As IP takes over the delivery of video to the consumer, it makes sense to investigate how it can benefit and improve workflow right from when content is first created.

Url: The demand for innovative technologies for online-based production and distribution of video content is on the rise. Cloud-based system

architectures, collaborative working, regardless of location, and intelligent web and mobile applications are supposed to enable direct interaction with the audience. With Wellen+Nöthen Venture we have already made our investment in this area and we now also have a stake in make.tv. This innovative cloudbased live streaming solution combines the functions of

classic TV van production with a high level of flexibility, enabling teams to work together regardless of where they are. In our data centre in Germany we take care of the entire system technology and IP-based video distribution for the TV channel of an international hotel chain.

Over 400 hotels on all five continents are connected to this infrastructure.

Gabriel Dusil, Visual Unity

Daniel Url, Wellen+Nöthen

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Along the same lines, do you get involved in projects involving second screen? If so, how?

Cleaver: This tends to be more about distribution, but it does mean that we are required to make more content instantly or continuously available and provide interactive systems that will include social media.

Phillips: Undoubtedly, yes.

Broadcasters need to have system designs that integrate with second screen technology. More and more consumers now use second screens. It’s vital that the media is managed by the system to allow efficient and timely delivery of content to the second screen, with correct formatting.

Robinson: Second screens and OTT delivery have become paramount in broadcasters’ minds. The method of creating, editing and publishing content to a variety of end users is now a vital element in our designs of any operation and we are working with suppliers to continue to have a key understanding of the available products.

Url: These days, classic televisions are no longer the only device for viewing TV content.

With the additional option of distributing content on internet platforms or via apps on mobile devices and tablets, broadcasters

Malcolm Robinson, Broadcast Networks

Kevin Moore, Eurotek Ireland

are able to reach exactly those viewers who are increasingly disappearing from the traditional TV sets. One project where we were able to implement second screen applications, is a new channel in Berlin. This social television broadcaster offers viewers a maximum of interactivity, while linking classical TV with mobile internet and social networks.

Do the expectations of clients with regards to the service offered by SI’s vary across different areas of Europe?

Baumanis: Honestly, not much, even if each client believes that his case is unique, more or less, expectations are the same.

Cleaver: They vary between departments in the same company. Systems integration is used to describe so many companies that provide completely different services

compared to each other, so I guess it is not surprising that everyone’s expectations are varied.

We tend to find that each customer defines what service they want from an SI, rather than the SI dictating what package is provided.

Dusil: The adoption of OTT is evolving in three main tiers. Tier one is the national broadcasters that are adopting their own OTT service. This could be as either subscription-based video on demand, transaction-based VoD or advertising-based VoD. Tier two involves regional broadcasters and content aggregators who see OTT as an opportunity to expand their traditional portfolios by distributing content over the internet. Tier three is a relatively new market opportunity in the context of OTT. Here sit enterprises, governments and corporates that have large treasure troves of video. The videos could be deployed for internal usage, for partner extranets, or to a select user group of subscribers. These libraries lie dormant, waiting for an appropriate OTT service that allows control over their subscriber base, implements strong content protection measures, and ensures content rights ownership.

McCaw: Customer expectations within the broadcast industry have become homogenous across the globe, given the extent of cross-region content exchange.

Broadcasters in every country

Sebastian Wainberg, Promovisa Spain expect their systems to be reliable, easy to operate, affordable, compact and easy to upgrade.

Our engineering team delivers both in ATG Broadcast specific projects and in partnership with our parent company Danmon Systems Group.

Moore: I think they do. In smaller countries, like Ireland, there is a tendency to expect a more complete service, including post-installation support, which actually suits us. The client and SI tend to have a greater partnership relationship. Whereas in larger countries, I believe there is a greater tendency to use the SI as a ‘gun for hire’, just for the design and installation, while maintenance post-install tends to be delivered by local companies later.

Url: As regards the Germanspeaking countries, I can say that our customers today expect a full-service provider, which also includes comprehensive customer care and services for the support of technical infrastructures. As in the case of systems integration and consulting, the prerequisite here is a high level of technical expertise.

Wainberg: Definitely. The rules of the ‘game’ change enormously from country to country. If we look at the financial environment, crucial for this industry, we find Spain’s standard payment cycle is more than 120 days. This is totally unacceptable to other regions in Europe and almost impossible to transfer, even in part, to manufacturers. Another important difference, unless we face a major broadcast project, is that the customer assumes that the consultancy service has no associated cost or are related to the ‘virtual’ strategic advantage that the privileged information could give in the case that they finally buy the system. www.atgbroadcast.co.uk www.bcnet.co.uk www.dega.co.uk www.eurotek.ie www.hannu-pro.com www.megahertz.co.uk www.promovisa.es www.studiotech.be www.tsl.co.uk www.visualunity.com www.wellen-noethen.com

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Megahertz has been building OB and SNG vehicles, and implementing fixed installations, since 1982

Systems Integrators

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NEWS IN BRIEF

The new Megahertz

Panorama chooses Fujinon lenses for Sochi Russian video production company ANO Sports Broadcasting (also known as Panorama) selected Fujifilm to supply lenses for the production of the country’s national HDTV feed of the Winter Olympics and Paralymic Games in Sochi. A total of 292 Fujinon lenses were provided to Panorama

by Sony Moscow and Broadcast Solutions. Included were 20 XA101x8.9BESM-TK telephoto field lenses, 41 XA88x8.8BESM telephoto field lenses, 24 HA2x9.7BERD telephoto ENG-style lenses, 53 HA14x4.5BERD wide-angle ENG/EFP lenses, and 54 ZA22x7.6BERD telephoto remote-controlled lenses.

The lenses were used by several European and Russian outside broadcast companies. www.fujinon.com

In late 2013, Megahertz Ltd was acquired by the shareholders of Russian systems integrator, OKNO-TV. Neal Romanek talked to Megahertz managing director Jon Flay to learn how the acquisition has affected Megahertz and what is on the company’s horizon.

What does the new ownership mean for the Megahertz brand?

The Megahertz brand is alive and stronger than ever. So much so, that we have just completed a process of rebranding OKNO-TV UK to Megahertz Ltd, a new company that combines the strengths of both, along with greater resources in terms of sales, commercial and technical expertise. Building on the solid foundations laid by Megahertz, we are expanding our international reach.

An example of this is the appointment of Igor Orlov, our new managing partner, who is a very well-known figure in the broadcast community in Eastern Europe, the CIS countries and Africa.

If the Megahertz name is being used more widely, will that dilute your core business, the systems integration you are known for?

Megahertz has been building outside broadcast and SNG vehicles, and implementing fixed installations, since 1982.

Our unique strength is that we are a real one-stop shop for large and small projects, with coach-building and specialist furniture construction provided in-house alongside design and wiring. That is definitely not going to change.

Our shareholders, OKNOTV, are also major systems integrators, which is their core business. So last year, whilst Megahertz was completing the new BT Sport headquarters in the old Olympic broadcast centre, OKNO-TV were completing projects for events such as the World Athletics Championships and with international news channel, RT. Does the Megahertz brand really extend beyond the UK? Yes, definitely. Recent projects have included satellite uplink vehicles for Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, parliamentary television in Norway, and a fleet of outside

Last year Megahertz built the new BT Sport headquarters in the former Olympic broadcast centre

“Our job will be less about rack and stack, and more about developing bespoke interfaces to get the very best out of file-based infrastructures and modern workflows” Jon Flay, Megahertz

Flay: “We are talking to our new partners and seeing where we can learn” broadcast units for Astro in Malaysia and Oman TV. While I am a relatively new appointment as managing director, we have a core team that has been with Megahertz for numerous years, so there is a great heritage in our system design and integration. We also combine this heritage and tradition with the right blend of younger fresh-thinking talent, giving us a strong team to move the company forward.

Is the systems integration business undergoing a change?

We are talking to our new partners and seeing where we can learn. In many of its major systems integration projects, for example, OKNO-

TV takes a life-cycle approach to the installation. Rather than selling a system design, implementing it then walking away, it will take over the client’s installation, and perhaps even leasing it or operating it as a managed facility, providing the engineering resources to allow the broadcaster to reduce its in-house staff.

So we are certainly reviewing everything we do, and seeing how we can best serve our clients. In the near future I am sure we will be adding new ways of working and commercial services to match the real requirements of our clients, helping them move their business case from capital to operational expenditure if that is what they want.

How are technological changes affecting SI’s?

The future of systems integration is all about staying ahead of the technical curve.

Obviously we are looking at IP infrastructures today, with new technologies like 4K production,

or Ka-band communication, coming fast.

As a systems integrator your task is to make all systems whether large or small work well, and you have to ensure that the client gets a fast return on the investment. We bring that commercial angle, that consideration of return on investment, which in-house engineers with their different mindsets would not have.

We know that a good part of that is the changing nature of the technology. Broadcast facilities will become more and more IT-centric. Our job will be less about rack and stack, and more about developing the bespoke interfaces that will get the very best out of filebased infrastructures and modern workflows.

We are not talking a transformation here, because that is not what we need.

But it is right that we take a fresh look at the systems integration business and see how we can help our clients even more effectively.

Riedel’s feat of communication for Sochi Olympcis Riedel Communications’ MediorNet fibre-based network supported the transport of HD video and audio signals, data, and Riedel Artist intercom signals for the duration of the Games. The Mass Cast deployment, including 14 transmitters and thousands of receivers and earpieces, provided support during the opening and closing ceremonies. Riedel’s modular MediorNet and MediorNet Compact systems were deployed during the Games in double-redundant rings to serve as a fibre backbone for audio and HD video (with timecode), data, and intercom signal transport within the stadium and several other venues that fed back to the IBC. www.riedel.net Sky and SIS LIVE in satellite deal Copy: SIS LIVE has signed an agreement with Sky Sports News for the provision of satellite capacity for its newsgathering operations. The four-year contract delivers 73MHz of capacity on the Eutelsat E16A satellite for the Sky Sports and Sky Sports News fleet of SNG vehicles, supplied and operated by SIS LIVE. Sky Sports will make use of this satellite bandwidth for its live coverage of weekend football matches, which are also transmitted by SIS LIVE SNG vehicles. SIS LIVE is able to provide full resilience for the Sky downlink system, using its two broadcast teleport/MCR systems which offer round the clock coverage. www.sislive.tv

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The Workflow

Moving mountains in Manchester ITV Manchester’s relocation from the city centre to nearby Salford Quays provided an ideal opportunity to reinvent the broadcaster’s post production workflow. Will Strauss reports

ITV’s relocation became an opportunity to adopt a more “elegant and flexible” way of working Noun: workflow; plural noun: workflows. 1. The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Yet television producers the world over seem to spend half their days discussing how to improve, refine, update, change or overthrow their current working practices.

The move from tape-based to digital production necessitated this and, despite complications, also provided greater freedom and the chance to reinvent the way television is made on both a creative and technical level.

One of the best opportunities to do this, of course, is when you have a blank canvas to work with: when a company, department, division or team moves office, for example.

ITV in Manchester (the artist formerly known as Granada) is a great case in point.

In 2013, when the commercial broadcaster’s northern operation moved from Quay Street in Manchester city centre to MediaCityUK in Salford, the first task was to work out how to move the North of England’s largest production facility 2.5 miles down the road without dropping a frame. The second was to devise a way of making

of discussion, in which every conceivable use of space was investigated — from edit suites around the edge of the building to a facilities island in the middle of each floor — they agreed on a design and a plan of action.

During this process, however, it also became clear that the move would be a great opportunity to adopt, as McNab puts it, a more “elegant and flexible” way of working.

“We had a rather limited budget to do all this so we couldn’t just buy a load of new stuff to put in our new building,” he says. “Where possible, we had to re-use what we had at Quay Street.”

At the same time, because Quay Street had to be kept running throughout the migration, the current infrastructure couldn’t be re-used.

Although this created something of an impasse, the potential negative was quickly turned into a positive, a challenge becoming an opportunity.

“The fact that we had to build a new one gave us the opportunity to address some of the challenges that had built up at Quay Street,” says McNab. “Due to it being an old building that had evolved over the years, there were a number of pools of

“Why do you have to edit in an edit suite?

Why can’t you edit in a meeting room if you want to? That drove quite a lot of the infrastructure decisions” Taig McNab, ITV it work more efficiently once it got there.

Both were significant challenges, not least when you consider that ITV Manchester is responsible for 800 hours of broadcast television every year.

That’s about 2.5 screen hours per day.

The facility itself is involved in just about every facet of

television post production from ingest, backup, editing, graphics and visual effects to dubbing, grading, archive, QC and transmission.

To move this broadcast mountain lock, stock and barrel required serious planning from ITV technical manager Taig McNab and his chosen systems integrator root6. After months

infrastructure and it was difficult to create elegant workflows and it was tough to support.”

Work wherever, whenever The resultant new set-up is based around the mantra of ‘work wherever, whenever.’ The key to this, says McNab, was “unlocking the space from the task”, in much the same way

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 35

Compared to the old set-up at Quay Street, the new Salford facility affords a significantly better workflow and connectivity

that ‘normal’ office workers can with laptops, mobile phones and online collaboration. So, working with root6, he set about offering the same kind of choice for production staff by devising an infrastructure that allowed any technology to be used in any suite or room.

“Why do you have to edit in an edit suite?” asks McNab. “Why can’t you edit in a meeting room if you want to?

That drove quite a lot of the infrastructure decisions.”

The secret to making this work in practice was Amulet Hotkey’s zero client, a KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) technology that allows a user to access and use any of the hardware and software in the machine room from a single interface at their desk.

Originally adopted by the financial community, it enables users to access multiple systems from a single interface over a network connection without operators and, more importantly, the operating system or application being aware that it is being used from afar.

“It sends two 1920x1200 DVI displays, computer, audio and mic feeds and the USB signals over a single CAT-6 network cable,” explains McNab. “Pretty much every single computer we have in the facility is connected to this system and that means that, at the press of a button, you can select which physical machine you want to connect to without having to move rooms, or even buildings. We’ve had Avid systems physically located in Salford Quays being operated from Quay Street.”

As a result, a craft editing room within the new facility features 24-inch CPU monitors, an SDI monitor, a rasteriser display, speakers, an audio mixer, a mouse and keyboard but no computer.

Freedom indeed.

“You cannot do a grading session in the canteen”, says McNab, “but, where it is appropriate, staff can work where they feel the most comfortable and feel the most productive.”

Away from the Amulet system, the majority of the traditional broadcast infrastructure is concentrated on the fourth floor of ITV’s new offices, spanning out from the central machine room.

Included are networking, audio and video to “pretty much every room on the floor, including the meeting rooms”

plus uncompressed feeds to most of the communal televisions.

IPTV encoders are available for firing pictures around the company network while ITV’s own nationwide 10Gb network and its video circuits

for transfer and transmission can send content further afield.

Compared to the old set-up at Quay Street, concludes McNab, the new Salford facility, because it was designed rather than an

The Workflow organic topology, affords a significantly better workflow and connectivity.

With centralised hardware and the ability to route to anywhere, it is a highly adaptable and efficient facility

designed, not just for now but for the future too.

“Redesigning the infrastructure has allowed us to create a really flexible installation that will suit us for years to come,” he says.

VOD, OTT, IPTV are expanding broadcast content beyond the TV

EARLY BIRD RATE ÂŁ149+vat For further details contact: sara.mather@intentmedia.co.uk

Next TV’s formidable line-up of speakers will include:

Ashwin Navin CEO of Samba TV, and founder of BitTorrent, the largest ďŹ le-sharing network in the world

Edward Lee VP content acquisition at streaming video powerhouse Roku

Mary Ann Halford Managing Director, media and entertainment, at FTI Consulting

Jens Richter Former managing director of Red Arrow International and CEO of Fremantle Media

Patrice Slupowski VP digital innovation and communities at Orange

Ashley MacKenzie Founder and CEO of leading digital rights management agency Base79

For the full agenda and to book tickets, visit www.nexttvsummitlondon.com Broadcasters’ Solutions to Growth of TV Anywhere, VOD, OTT, & IPTV Content Reaching Broader Audiences in an Evolving Multiplatform Ecosystem Second Screen & Connected TV: Changing Viewer Habits New Products to Deliver TV Content to Gaming & New Video Device Platforms WHO SHOULD ATTEND Commissioning Editors, Technology Suppliers, Analysts, Digital and New Media Companies, Ad Agencies, Brands, Venture Capitalists, Media and Entertainment Executives, Film & TV Producers, Cable Operators, Broadcasters, Content Buyers, Content App Developers, Talent Agencies, International Content Distributors, Consumer Electronics Companies, Social Media Business Development Executives In Partnership With

Supported By

For sponsorship information contact:

For speaking opportunities, contact

Steve Connolly: +44 (0) 207 354 6000 , steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk Ben Ewles: +44 (0) 207 354 6000, ben.ewles@intentmedia.co.uk Richard Carr: +44 (0) 207 354 6000 , richard.carr@intentmedia.co.uk Louis Hillelson: + 1 917 281 4730, lhillelson@nbmedia.com

Arthur Schweitzer: +1 212 203 6273 , arthur.schweitzer@gmail.com

For ticket enquiries contact: Sara Mather: +44 (0) 20 7354 6001, sara.mather@intentmedia.co.uk

TVBEurope 37

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Coronation Street has seen many changes in its 53-year history.

Over five decades it’s grown from two to five episodes per week and seen countless technical and production advances

The Workflow

The word on the Street The new specially built external set of Coronation Street

Philip Stevens walks along one of the most famous streets in British TV and reviews the history of the long-running soap

IT’S APPROACHING 1900 hours on 9 December 1960. In the production gallery of Studio 2 of Granada Television’s Manchester headquarters, the PA to director Derek Bennett is counting down to the start of a new 13-part drama series featuring the residents of a fictitious street in the city’s suburbs. Little did anyone know that when the Granada logo appeared on screen and the now familiar strains of the theme music were heard, that Coronation Street would still be

current executive producer, Kieran Roberts.

However, the most recent of the changes has involved the production moving to a completely new 7.7acre purposebuilt studio block and exterior set located close to MediaCity UK — Salford’s production centre just outside of Manchester. Centrepiece is the construction of the actual street and surrounding buildings.

To provide a thoroughly authentic feel, nearly half of the facing bricks used to

running more than 50 years and 8000 episodes later. At its peak, well over 25 million viewers tuned in to watch the happenings of Weatherfield (as the fictitious suburb is called).

“Coronation Street has seen many changes in its 53-year history. Over five decades it’s grown from two to five episodes per week and seen countless technical and production advances, including the introduction of colour pictures in 1969, wide screen in 2002 and high definition in 2010,” states the

construct the buildings were reclaimed from a derelict Salford street. In addition, a total of 54,000 cobble stones have been laid on the new street — with these being reclaimed from Salford and the canalside in nearby Eccles.

The early days So, what is the story behind the production of Corrie (as the programme is now affectionately known)?

Marconi MkIII cameras were used on that first episode in

1960. Broadcasting in 405 lines and with lens turrets (it would be some years before zoom lenses became the norm), the camera moves had to be carefully choreographed by the director for the live show involving a large number of different sets in a relatively small studio.

Initially, the programme was shown twice a week. The Friday episode would be transmitted live, immediately followed by a recording of the upcoming Wednesday’s show. Although

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The Workflow The golden age of the Street WHEN THE soap reached its 50th anniversary, the BBC commissioned a one-off drama titled The Road to Coronation Street that revealed the story behind the humble beginnings of the programme. To do so, Studio 12 of the Granada complex in Quay Street, Manchester was briefly turned into the Studio 2 that had been home to Corrie in 1960.

“To ensure the authenticity of the era we were asked to provide equipment from our vast inventory,” explains Dicky Howett of Golden Age Television Recreations (GATV) based in Essex.

GATV was established in 1994 by Howett and colleague Paul Marshall for the purpose of providing historic film and television equipment dating back to the 1940s. Included in its equipment list are cameras, lenses, lighting, cranes, audio equipment, VTRs — even two complete outside broadcast units.

Howett goes on: “The Marconi MkIII cameras mounted on vintage Vinten HP419 pedestals seen in The Road to Coronation Street were the same type used at the

Having supplied the 1960s kit for the Coronation Street documentary, Dicky Howett acted as cameraman on the reproduction set Granada studios in 1960. We also recreated the Granada badging that appeared on the side of cameras. Even the lighting rigs used in the Coronation Street studio reconstruction were from the early 1960s. I’m a stickler for detail, and we wanted to make certain that the studio was as close to the period as possible.

We also tracked down some

Authentic equipment from the 1960s was used for the documentary, including Marconi MkIII cameras on vintage Vinten pedestals

people who worked in the studios at the time.”

Operating cameras more than half a century old is quite different from using modern technology — knowing how to revolve lens turrets, for example. In order that camera movements during the Corrie drama were authentic, both Howett and Marshall were used as ‘extras’ on the set as 1960s cameramen. “It was like going back to our early days in television.”

Howett continues: “Interestingly, some of the cameras we now own came from the Granada studios in Manchester. But everything that we own, from the smallest lens to the largest outside broadcast truck, has been carefully restored and is ‘period’ correct. And we have found there is an ongoing demand for this unique collection from production companies, not just in the UK, but also from abroad.” www.golden-agetv.co.uk

recorded on 2-inch Ampex tape, Granada set up a film camera in front of the VT preview monitor to also capture a telerecording of the early programmes.

In those early days, even the ‘exteriors’ were shot in the studio — with the cobblestones painted on the studio floor.

However, the show’s producers decided that external shots were needed for a 1967 storyline that involved a tram crash close to the Street.

That first external set was simply the previous wooden studio build which had been weather-proofed and then erected against scaffolding by the yard arches.

“The first outdoor set was on the site of an abandoned railway goods yard,” recalls the show’s creator, Tony Warren. “It

credits and location inserts were still in black and white.

The next three episodes were made in the same way, but all four were networked in black and white, until ITV started colour transmissions later that month.

As the programme’s success continued to grow and more demands were placed on storylines and production deadlines, it was decided to rebuild the whole set in a new location near to Granada’s Quay Street centre.

“Denis [Parkin — the show’s designer] finally got to build his real street in the 80s,” states Warren. “That was when Coronation Street had its own purpose-built unit. That street is the outdoor set we have used until now.”

“To build something new, whilst recreating brick-bybrick, cobble-by cobble, puddle-by-puddle, the fine detail of Weatherfield has been the most incredible experience” Jon Huddleston, ITV already had cobbles, but they slanted the wrong way. I remember it as a dank hole.

Between shots the cast could take shelter from the wind and the rain in an old Nissen hut.”

By the late 1960s, when production had moved from black and white to colour, the wooden set had become so severely dilapidated by the Manchester weather that it needed to be replaced with a small brick built construction.

The first colour episode was produced in early November 1969 using EMI 2001 four-tube colour cameras although the title credits, end

The new Street The move to the latest set has been a couple of years in the planning. “When we broke ground at Trafford Wharf Road in September 2011, ITV had already been planning our move to MediaCityUK for a significant period of time,” declares Jon Huddleston, ITV’s Manchester move project director. “But the most challenging piece of the jigsaw has been to rebuild Coronation Street — terraces, pavements, cobbles and all. To build something new, whilst recreating brick-by-brick, cobble-by cobble, puddle-by-puddle,

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The Workflow the fine detail of Weatherfield has been the most incredible experience.”

Alongside the actual ‘street’, the Corrie site consists of four studios, all dedicated to the programme. “We have a total floor space of around 33,500sqft — 3105sqm,” states Stan Robinson, technical manager, Coronation Street.

“There are two galleries, but any studio can be connected to either gallery depending on the production requirements of the day.”

Three Ikegami HDK 79 III cameras are employed in each studio, although a fourth can be accommodated, if necessary.

“Our studio cameras are equipped with Canon XJ22 box lenses, while on location the choice of lens is HJ17. We decided to use the same cameras for both studio and location shoots to ensure consistency.”

Each gallery is equipped with a FOR-A HSV 300 vision switcher. “It is a small mixer — but we do not need anything more elaborate as all the cuts are eventually made in post production,” explains Robinson.

“For audio mixing, we have opted for Studer Vista 1.

Previously, we used analogue mixers, but the move allowed us to go for a digital unit.”

Unique network That digital format has allowed Robinson to introduce a unique fibre transportation system for the signals around the site.

Based on an Optocore network structure, Robinson designed portable stageboxes that allow signals from the studios (or anywhere else on the site, for that matter) to be routed to either gallery. “There are no technical wall boxes. Each gallery has its own stagebox, and we simply wheel it to where we are shooting and plug in to our SMPTE 311M camera cable network. There are 100 SMPTE sockets distributed around the site that can be patched to Camera Base Stations or to the Optocore Router. Once connected the signals are automatically routed delivering signals, such as microphones, foldback, picture monitoring, video router control and talkback to the Studio Floor and Galleries. In effect, the whole site becomes our studio floor.”

The stagebox also incorporates the microphone amplifiers. Once a microphone is plugged into the appropriate input in the box, that source

immediately appears on the relevant fader in the sound control room.

“Another innovation is our ETC Paradigm lighting control system which allows strip lights around the studio to be

controlled by the gallery to show the status of that studio. Our studios are large, and it could be that a scene is being recorded in one area, while a set is being built in another. With several sets in each studio, the view

across the floor is severely restricted, but this lighting system ensures all areas can immediately see if the studio is in rehearsal or ‘live’ mode.”

Lighting the studio and location sets is a mixture of LED

and tungsten lamps. “We are utilising an app which allows the lighting directors to make adjustments through their iPads, if necessary. That means they don’t have to return to the gallery each time a change is required.”

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The Workflow Careful planning With five episodes a week to be transmitted, each involving several interior sets, plus shooting on the ‘street’ and other locations, the production schedule is extremely complex.

For any given week, 15 episodes are in production.

“The three cameras in the studio will be recorded separately, but there is also a cut version from the vision mixer. An Edit Decision List will also be created. When we are shooting exteriors, two cameras are generally used,” reveals Robinson.

“By lunchtime on the first day of shooting, assistant editors will start compiling clips ready for editing.

By the end of the first day, editing will have started” Jon Huddleston, ITV Each week’s shows are considered as a ‘block’ to which a director is assigned. He or she will receive the script prior to shooting of the assigned programmes. The technical details and set allocation will be worked out and then a 12-day cycle of shooting the five programmes will begin.

Studio recordings are sent straight to an Avid 4-channel Airspeed 5000. The material is transferred to an Avid Isis 5000.

Exteriors are captured on P2 cards which are then reused once transfers and back-ups to the Avid system have been made.

“We have back-up units, and within a few seconds of ingest

The stagebox designed by Stan Robinson provides a unique fibre transportation system for the signals around the site

we have three copies of the recorded material. Even by lunchtime on the first day of shooting, assistant editors will start compiling clips ready for editing. By the end of the first day, editing will have started.

The director may visit the edit suite from time to time, but there is a day allocated at the end of the ‘block’ for him or her to review the cut versions.”

The post production area includes colour grading rooms, a voiceover booth and dubbing suites.

The move was completed earlier this year — with the first episode from the new location due to be shown in mid-March.

“It has been a hectic time,” admits Robinson, “but things have gone well and we can look forward to a long residency in our new Street.” www.itv.com/coronationstreet www.avid.com www.canon.co.uk www.etcconnect.com www.for-a.com www.ikegami.com www.optocore.com www.studer.ch

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The Workflow

WeFly: shooting up the skies Last year five Italian OB companies joined forces to become a major player in aerial live broadcast.

Mike Clark reports AFTER A test run on the World Cycling Championship in Florence (in September 2013), five Italian companies, each with in-depth expertise in a specific OB production sector, formed WeFly. Thanks to new European regulations, the group can pool its resources and take part as a single entity in tenders for important events, particularly in the sports field, where reliable airborne coverage plays a key role.

Offering turnkey HD production packages, the

WeFly’s fleet includes three helicopters, two planes, and a wide diversity of outside broadcast vehicles company comprising WeFly are: CGA, a business with planes and pilots and the necessary experience and certification for European airborne coverage; Fly Shot, owned and run by a pilot with 30 years’ experience,

providing logistical and practical organisation as well as procuring helicopters; Team TV, which is responsible for all HF/RF equipment connecting vehicles and intercom facilities (the company also provides custom

equipment able to track bikes from the helicopters and planes); Laboratorio Tevere, supplier of all equipment onboard the aircraft, such as gyro-stabilised cameras; and finally, Global Production which

coordinates facilities and production. Global also has a fleet of OB trucks that run up to a 30-camera HD vehicle.

Davide Furlan of Global Production reflects on the company’s work so far:

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The Workflow

New European regulations have allowed the WeFly partners to pool their resources for important events

“After Florence, WeFly was commissioned by state broadcaster RAI to cover one of the last races of the UCI world tour (Giro di Lombardia), and we fielded four video motorcycles, an audio commentary motorbike, a helicopter with a gyro-stabilised camera, a relay helicopter with another gyro-stabilised unit and a relay plane. At the end of 2013, WeFly was the key player at the Cortina-Dobbiaco 35km crosscountry race at the Nordic world ski championships. We covered with two snowmobiles, two helicopters, a plane and 28 ground-located cameras.”

The high-altitude platform Giovanni Braghetti, sole director of Rome-based Laboratorio Tevere, adds: “Our contribution to the services offered by WeFly consists of supplying gyro-stabilised systems for aerial footage and installing them on helicopters and planes. We also provide antenna systems for the transmission and reception of audio and video signals and put our specially equipped helicopters at WeFly’s disposal. For example,

for the World Cycling Championship in Florence, we provided gyro-stabilised HD cameras, which we installed on two helicopters (a single-engined AS350 and a twin-engined AS355), auto-tracking antennas for air/land transmission. One of the two helicopters — the AS355 — was ours and was specifically equipped for broadcast/news coverage and transmissions.”

“We supply the high-altitude platform (a pressurised turboprop plane) on which we install the connectivity equipment, enabling it to be used for radio audio/video relay between vehicles on the ground and the control room,” explains Giuseppe Ottonello, manager of Genoa-based CGA. “We use a Piper Cheyenne II, with excellent performance as far as speed and range are concerned, enabling us to stay on events’ locations for up to six hours.”

Marco Bianchi, one of Team TV’s partner/owners, describes his company’s management and coordination of all the RF signals. “We handle all communications and ground-air

audio/video transmission, as well as providing the specialist technical staff for operating the equipment aboard the airborne relay platforms. This work is done using Gig wave/Link H.264 HD systems, whereas the air-ground systems are Europe. To track the

Veteran pilot Renzo Rossi, sole director of Tuscan firm Flyshot, is also a veteran pilot who personally carries out event coverage with helicopters equipped with gyro-stabilised systems.

“Through the years — working

any type of HD broadcast in standard HD with OB vans, SNG, RF systems, graphics for live event coverage, three helicopters and two EASAcertified pressurised planes equipped with all the latest equipment for live coverage.

“Our contribution to the services offered

by WeFly consists in supplying gyrostabilised systems for aerial footage and installing them on helicopters and planes” Giovanni Braghetti, Laboratorio Tevere motorbikes, we use terminals developed in house, which integrate commercial equipment with dedicated parts built in our labs. These interface GPS receivers with UHF transceivers, each with a specific station ID, and transmit their positions at set intervals, enabling the terminals on the airborne relay units to track the transmitting stations’ positions on the ground and consequently maintain a suitable position for their reception.”

in Italy and abroad with key broadcasters such as RAI and Mediaset — I have covered motorbike races, rallies, regattas and more and built up a group of highly specialised pilots,” he says. “We organise logistics for landing, necessary authorisations, control in the operating area of the position of the helicopters, refuelling, etc.”

WeFly aims to ensure a complete turnkey package for

Global Production’s Furlan concludes: “There are few players in Europe able to field such a range of technology and professionalism, so there is consequently almost a monopoly as far as live race broadcast productions are concerned, so we decided to combine our strengths and skills, dividing the cost — and the risks! — to create an alternative that was immediately able to compete without cutting the market prices.”

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By Holly Ashford

What’s new for NAB? In just a few weeks, TVBEurope will be joining you in Las Vegas for the world’s biggest broadcast industry confab. This year’s NAB is sure to feature a lot of buzz about 4K, IP, second screen, and workflow disruption, but just as important is the show’s traditional role as an annual platform for product launches. Go to any big tradeshow between Christmas and Easter and the mantra you hear is: “We’ll be waiting till NAB to announce that.”

In the following pages, you’ll find the first of our two-part NAB Product Preview, a glimpse of what to expect next month from the big players in the business. Neal Romanek

Leader’s latest additions on show at NAB

LiveU Central

Bonded 3G/4G uplink solutions from LiveU LiveU At NAB, LiveU will demonstrate its complete range of bonded 3G/4G uplink solutions for broadcast and online media, promising to deliver a ‘one-stop-shop’ for live news, sports and event coverage.

LiveU’s LU500 backpack, LUSmart application and LiveU Central will all be on show.

The company’s new professional-grade LU500 backpack weighs 2.2lbs (1kg), and is based on LiveU’s fourthgeneration patented bonding algorithms and powered by LiveU’s multi-processor video encoding engine.

LiveU will also be presenting LiveU Central, its central management system that allows

control and monitoring of the ecosystem and content via any browser-supported device. The system includes: point-tomultipoint distribution; the LiveU Matrix for realtime previews and online management of multiple feeds for live broadcasts and social newsgathering; geo-location for each LiveU unit; and enhanced remote control.

Also at NAB will be LiveU’s mobile app for smartphones and tablets, the LU-Smart with its handheld Smart Grip; LiveU’s Xtender external antenna solution for resilient signal in extreme scenarios; and hybrid solutions with microwave and satellite technologies. www.liveu.tv SU8513

Leader LEADER INSTRUMENTS will exhibit the latest additions to its range of broadcast-quality test and measurement solutions at NAB. Leader’s LV5490 will be on show, and the FS3140 quality control software will be making its NAB debut.

The company’s LV5490 multidisplay picture and signal monitor now supports video production and transmission resolutions from 525 and 625 standard definition up to 3840x2160 and 4096x2160 4K. Equipped with four 3GSDI/HD-SDI/SD-SDI input channels plus a wide-viewingangle 1920x1080 9-inch flat-panel display, the LV5490 allows precise

matching of studio or outside broadcast cameras.

Test and measurement capabilities of the LV5490 include waveform, vector and picture monitoring, SDI signal data analysis, cyclic-redundancy-check error, embedded-audio error, event log, data dump and timing display.

Leader’s LV5490

The Leader FS3140 combines the waveform and vectorscope displays, plus automated QC software. It can be deployed on a web-based Windows server, allowing rollout across Windows, OS X or Linux environments. www.leaderamerica.com C9511

NAB debuts from Bridge Technologies Bridge Technologies “At NAB 2014 we are showing a full hand of aces!” said chairman of Bridge Technologies, Simen K Frostad.

A range of new products will be on show, including the Objective QoE solution, VB288 Content Estractor and next generation OTT Engine with MPEG-DASH support.

The company’s new QoE solution enables Bridge systems users to bring QoS capability together with QoE monitoring, running on the same Bridgetech infrastructure

and with support for QoE monitoring of regionallyinserted material.

Also new is the VB288 Content Extraction System for Objective QoE Monitoring with remote videowall display.

The VB288 delivers visual content extraction, status displays and alerts to a virtual videowall display.

Bridge Technologies’ second-generation OTT Engine makes MPEG-DASH support a core part of the user’s OTT monitoring capability, is compatible with

all Bridge Technologies 1G and 10G probes, and part of the iOS and Android PocketProbe mobile monitoring apps.

The VB273 Satellite Redundancy Switch is designed for Bridge Technologies’ new redundancy switching solution for satellite uplinks.

Also new will be the PocketProbe for Android, Version 5.0 System software with new capabilities and MicroAnalytics System. www.bridgetech.tv SU9713

March 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 45

Polecam Professional Pack gets NAB launch

Miranda opens IP gateway at NAB Miranda Miranda will use NAB 2014 to showcase its expanding IP product portfolio, along with new offerings in routing and monitoring.

The new NVISION 8500 IP Gateway cards convert and packetise realtime, uncompressed, baseband video for distribution over Ethernet networks. The introduction of IP inputs and outputs to Miranda’s NV8500 routers aims to make it more convenient for broadcasters as they look to transition from SDI to IP infrastructures.

In 2RU, the new CR6464 router features high density DIN coaxial connectors, hot-swappable crosspoints

control card, IO cards, and a dual fan cooling module. It handles all core formats including triple rate 3Gbps/HD/SD/ASI, and AES. Miranda further extends its IP-enabling portfolio with the IRG-3401 IP Gateway, a high density, bidirectional DVB-ASI/IP gateway. The card, which fits in Miranda’s Densité 3 chassis can handle up to 120 gateways in a single 3RU frame.

New and improved monitoring and control products on show at NAB include Miranda’s Kaleido IP X310, iControl 6.0 and EdgeVision 1.30. www.miranda.com N2513

MultiDyne showcase fibre-based transport solutions MultiDyne A range of fibre-optic-based video and audio transport solutions designed for pro A/V and broadcast applications will be demonstrated by MultiDyne at NAB. The Dingo supports a wide range of camera signals over a single fibre-optic cable, and is available as an openGear compatible card and as a portable, black box or as a smaller personality card for The BullDog, LiGHTBoX, and LiGHTCuBE product lines.

Now available from MultiDyne is The BullDog, a field fibre transport system. Using The BullDog, camera operators can extend the transmission distance of multiple camera signals.

In addition to transporting any camera signal over a single fibre cable, The BullDog can transport up to 8 HD-SDI signals in any direction.

Also on display at NAB will be the MultiDyne SilverBACK-4K, a cameramounted fibre transport solution that supports 4K digital television. Utilising SilverBACK-4K, users can transmit any

Polecam’s PPP natural position when operating the rig.

The new Polecam Remote Control Panel RC200 includes the protocol for the IO Industries Flare Camera enabling remote control of up to six different cameras from the one panel. The Polecam Long Head Weather Cover will also be on show at NAB. ww.polecam.com C9908

Tedial: Find it, enrich it, manage it, publish it

Multidyne The Bulldog can transport 8 HD-SDI signals camera signal over a single hybrid copper and fibre cable.

The company’s SilverBACK-II with JUICE is a camera-mounted fibre transport solution capable of transmitting any camera signal over a single hybrid fibre and copper cable. It provides users with a lightweight, remote powering system that can be integrated onto any camera. www.multidyne.com C9921

EVS showcase new production workflow solutions EVS EVS, provider of live video production systems promises to deliver its improved live, near-live and post production efficiency and enriched content capabilities at NAB. EVS Sports will showcase the XT3 media production server that now offers built-in proxies, 4K zooming, live multiangle review and 12 live recording channel support. EVS’ new C-Cast Xplore web-browsing interface provides access to live multi-camera recording feeds and clips on XT servers.

EVS Entertainment will present the XS video server with advanced multicodec, native support including formats

Polecam Polecam Systems will launch new products at NAB 2014 including the Polecam Professional Pack, PPP. The PPP is developed from the existing and PSP+ package. Like the PSP+, the PPP is modular and provides a platform for cameras including RED, Canon, Panasonic and Sony.

Also new is the Antelope PICO high speed minicam. Polecam and LMC have partnered to bring super slow motion via a minicam that will mount on or off Polecam to give a new POV viewing experience.

The Polecam Grip Relocator package enables the Polecam operator to control the C300 remotely from their

such as I-Frame (DNxHD, ProRes, AVC-I) and Long Gop (XDCAM HD), with new 10GigE connectivity.

EVS Media will demonstrate the EVS OpenCubeHD/SD server for streamlined file-based, multi-format workflows that comply with all MXF standard formats. EVS Media will also present its latest closed captioning and subtitling solution.

Finally, EVS News will debut the XS NewsFlash, offering file and feed ingest, metadata and quick-turnaround virtual editing, disaster recovery, breaking news playout and more. www.evs.com SL3819

Tedial Tedial will be at NAB to demonstrate how it aims to help broadcasters and media companies, with its media management solutions, to increase creativity and improve workflow efficiency.

The company will highlight its solution to customer problems: ‘Find it, enrich it, publish it and manage it.’

Tedial asserts that broadcasters and media companies are experiencing an increase in the number of versions of programmes and other associated assets, often in diverse locations. The company provides metadata acquisition from third-party systems and guaranteed preservation, so wherever content

or work-in-progress is stored, its search tools will find it.

Tedial provides media management tools to catalogue, edit and enrich content.

The company offers a next-generation media workflow managing the transcoding of content and packaging of metadata to enable content delivery for multi-channel TV, catch-up services, VoD and OTT. At NAB Tedial will be showing a new user experience and integration with third-party scheduling and traffic systems combined with live workflow reporting dashboards. www.tedial.com N5711

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Live TV and TV Everywhere solutions from Snell

iMovix presents latest ultra motion tech

Snell Snell Kahuna At this year’s NAB, Snell will be showcasing new innovations from across its Live TV and TV Everywhere divisions.

This will include the first application for the Snell On Demand platform.

Snell will present new features for Momentum.

Active directory support enables users to drive security policies via centralised IT systems. Proxy browse capability can be used to manage captions and subtitles and the HTML5 browser-independent interface supports a choice of web browsers.

The first application for Snell’s On Demand framework, Alchemist OD offers a scalable motion compensated format and frame rate conversion software available on demand.

ICE-LE is the new version of Snell’s ICE channel-in-a-box, and now provides twice the 2D or 3D graphics capability within a standard 2RU

iMovix “At NAB 2014 we are bringing the latest in X10 ultra motion technology, now in a new modular product range that allows broadcasters to build the ideal system for any kind of sports broadcast application,” said Laurent Renard, CEO at iMovix. i-Movix will showcase its new line of products based on the X10 ultra slow motion technology. The new product line emphasises modular configurability to suit any Vision Research Phantom camera, and any configuration can be customised to meet performance and budget

system. In partnership with Quantum, Snell will also be showcasing ICE SAN for large-scale shared content storage.

Kahuna Maverik will make its NAB debut. It provides a reliable access control interface for studio and mobile TV programming, and offers 4K support.

Snell will also showcase new updates and features for its Sirius 800 router range, Luna router control panels and its Modular IQ range. www.snellgroup.com N1820

iMovix’s new product line emphasises modular configuarability targets across a range of production scenarios. The X10 product range has been optimised for upgradeability to allow for evolving production requirements and upcoming generations of cameras. www.i-movix.com C4742

Photon Beard goes Platinum Blonde for NAB Photon Beard UK lighting solutions company Photon Beard will launch its new Platinum Blonde HMI-focusable floodlight at NAB 2014.

Platinum Blonde is an energyefficient 1200W HMI linear lamp, provided in open face format.

It is suitable for any application where raw output is required, Photon Beard’s such as for use as a bounce Platinum Blonde light or for punching through diffusion to create a soft, debut at NAB. LedHead uses only powerful daylight source. Platinum 70W to provide the same illumination Blonde can be powered from as a 500W fixture. any domestic supply, as it draws A selection of lighting solutions only 1200W, while also being from Photon Beard’s complete range suitable as a generator supply for will be on show for visitors to mobile applications.

Photon Beard’s stand at NAB. LedHead, an LED version of the www.photonbeard.com company’s tungsten Redhead C7849 luminaire, will also make its world

2wcom’s FlexDSR02+

Four new products from 2wcom 2wcom At NAB 2wcom will be introducing new products, as well as showing the FlexDSR02+/FlexDSR04+, IRD for audio contribution via satellite and IP. “These extremely versatile, multi-faceted solutions are being deployed by major broadcasters to build the next generation of robust, high-quality cost-effective radio infrastructure,” commented Werner Drews, MD of 2wcom.

The company will extend its audioover-IP offering with the new AIC , a 19-inch unit that combines IP encoder and decoder functions in one

chassis. It suppports all current audio formats and providing network streaming connections.

The 2wcom FlexNsert DAB+ Distribution Inserter receives a DAB ETI data stream, converts the stream into a standard MPEG2-TS-signal and outputs it via ASI or Ethernet transport stream interfaces.

2wcom will debut a new solution for SFN FM networks at NAB 2014 that provides synchronisation for implementing FM SFN networks with existing analogue transmission infrastructure. www.2wcom.com 10202

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TMD’s Mediaflex demonstrated at NAB TMD TMD will demonstrate the full capabilities of its Mediaflex platform at NAB. “The move to multiple delivery platforms means that every player in the media chain has to be more efficient and agile if they are to succeed,” said Tony Taylor, chairman and CEO of TMD. “Package management is key to the success of digital content publishing, and

Mediaflex allows businesses to define and deliver packages to multiple platforms, and build workflows to maximise productivity and minimise operational costs.”

At the show, TMD will announce new software elements which draw on the power of the cloud, providing software as a service solution. The system architecture includes integration to cloud services including Amazon S3 and encoding.com.

Mediaflex is a modular platform which includes a customisable workflow engine.

This can be teamed with Mediaflex CI module, which allows users to design workflows using a simple graphical interface, and draws on business analytics to derive information and to further automate processes. www.tmd.tv N3425

Tech demos and key products from WORK Microwave WORK Microwave At NAB, WORK Microwave will demonstrate enhancements to its DVB-S2 Broadcast Modulator, Video ACM System, and fifth-generation Frequency Converter series.

Powered by a combination of video and IP technologies, WORK Microwave’s DVB-S2 Broadcast Modulator provides a solution for IP network links and TV contribution. Features include DVB-S2 multistream, TSoIP, wideband, and carrier ID. The DVB-S2 Broadcast Modulator platform supports nextgeneration DVB-S2 extensions.

A key highlight at the NAB Show from WORK Microwave will be its Video ACM System, an integrated data/video

WORK Microwave’s 5K-DV combined data and video modem

(DaVid) modem and encoding solution for enhanced video contribution. Video ACM combines WORK Microwave’s DVB-S2 Modem SK-DV and the EN-91 MPEG-4 HD ultra-low delay encoder from Adtec Digital.

The company will also demonstrate

Ka-band support for uplink and downlink services, superior phase noise, and adjustable slope compensation for its Fixed Frequency Block Converter product line. www.work-microwave.de SU8525

Emotion Systems introduces Emotion Engine Emotion Systems At NAB 2014, Emotion Systems will introduce Emotion Engine.

Emotion Engine is a user-friendly software engine that has been developed to deliver CALM loudness compliance within

a suite of audio solutions designed to meet file-based media demands with efficiency and accuracy. Emotion Engine can be used as a manual, fully automated, or standalone solution, all integrated within an automated enterprise system.

Riedel to showcase “major enhancements” at NAB Riedel “The solutions we’re bringing to the NAB Show not only demonstrate major enhancements to our core products, but also showcase new refinements and developments,” said Riedel Communications’ CEO Thomas Riedel.

At NAB, the company will show how the new MediorNet firmware provides video router functionality and high-speed rerouting. The MediorNet family has also been expanded with the addition of the 2RU large-scale MediorNet MetroN core router.

Riedel has developed its first WANfocused solution. Using the MediorNet platform as a base, attendees at the 2014 NAB show will see how the networked approach of MediorNet can be expanded to include WAN capabilities.

Enabling direct integration of Riedel MediorNet realtime networks with Studer consoles and cores, the new A-Link interface module gives Studer

Riedel’s MediorNet MNXSS processing card users a scalable audio routing system offering I/O capacities in excess of 10,000 I/Os. The company’s virtual key panels enable the use of smartphones and tablets as control panels in combination with any Artist digital matrix intercom system.

Riedel’s AVB manager software solution provides generic AVB control for IEEE 1722.1-compliant AVB devices. www.riedel.net C4937

The Emotion Engine toolset includes loudness compliance, channel remapping, duplication, Dolby E and Loudness Range (LRA) monitoring. www.emotion-systems.com N3719

Shotoku will show its new carbon fibre tripods

Shotoku shows robotic and manual camera systems Shotoku At NAB Shotoku will show the enhancements to its manual camera support range with the new carbon fibre tripod system and pan and tilt solutions. It will also unveil its new ncam camera tracking system.

Shotoku’s new two-stage TTH1502C carbon fibre tripod gives operators a lightweight yet sturdy tripod system, suitable for EFP or documentary production.

One of the company’s latest mid-weight EFP pan and tilt fluid heads, the SX300 features a 40kg payload and wide-balance capability, and supports an array of cameras, lenses and accessories.

The SG900 manual pan and tilt head is suited to OB and studio production with teleprompters or box type lenses, supports 90kg, and features single knob balance adjustment.

The ncam camera tracking system features a multi-sensing bar mounted on the studio camera that provides realtime data to its associated tracking server.

The company is also showcasing its advanced TK-53VR crane and its entire range of control systems will be available for demonstration. www.shotoku.tv C8731

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SGL demos with FOR-A, Avid

Cobham features Nano HDTX and new receiver platform

SGL SGL will demonstrate a range of solutions at NAB, including the joint offering with FOR-A and codevelopments with Avid.

Acquiring material on the booth using a Go-Pro camera, SGL will demonstrate its live ingest-to-archive workflow, using FOR-A’s LTR Series, LTO-5 video archiving recorder. The combined offering enables customers to archive material that’s been recorded on the LTR, directly to LTO5 tape.

Since 2004 SGL and Avid have codeveloped archive content storage management solutions for broadcasters using Avid solutions. The Avid Interplay Archive is the only fully integrated archive and storage management component for the Avid Interplay digital workflow engine. At NAB SGL will show a full archive demonstration via Avid’s Interplay PAM system.

The company will also demonstrate the integration of FlashNet with Avid Interplay Web Services. www.sglbroadcast.com SL5306

Cobham RF specialist Cobham will feature its Nano HDTX at NAB 2014, as well as using the event to launch its new receiver platform.

Nano HDTX is an HD digital video transmitter designed specifically for POV and bodyworn applications and, the company claims, the world’s smallest wireless HD transmitter.

With Cobham COFDM and H.264 encoding technology at its core, the transmitter provides image quality retention over the

wireless link and supports composite, SDI, HD-SDI and HDMI video input formats.

Cobham will also launch a new receiver platform at NAB, with 1080p60 4:2:2 10-bit decoding capabilities.

Available in 1RU or 2RU configurations, each receiver can decode two separate high definition signals, making them two receivers in one. The unit’s decoding algorithm has been engineered by Cobham to

The Nano HDTX is the world’s smallest wireless HD transmitter ensure full compatibility with all leading encoders.

The receiver can also act as an IP decoder using the interruptible foldback (IFB) audio input,

which when used with a Cobham IP encoder automatically provides IFB for the presenter. www.cobham.com C9515

DFT set for global launch at NAB DFT DFT is announcing the global launch of its new SCANITY HDR film scanner, and will also be showcasing its Wet-gate solution.

SCANITY HDR can handle a range of difficult and historicallyaged film issues. It facilitates the ingest of dense black and white

materials at realtime speeds using DFT’s new proprietary, tripleexposure technology.

SCANITY HDR will be shown at NAB in its pre-production guise, with the production model available later in the summer.

SCANITY HDR will come with the additional option of the new Wet-gate solution.

DFT will also present its Wetgate solution. Using new manufacturing and design techniques, DFT has developed an approach to the idea of wetting the material at the scanning stage.

PHANTOM II, DFT’s new software transfer engine solution, developed for existing SPIRIT data

transfers, will also be showcased at NAB. This allows existing Bones users to migrate their SPIRIT data transfers via this new software engine, which is supported by SUSE 11+ providing for future-proof data transfer strategy and fast interfacing to SAN and NAS solutions. www.dft-film.com SL15123

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The Business Case

Avid hopes to have a strong and shaping role in helping the media industry transform over the next few years

A new Avid for a new era As workflows undergo radical changes, Avid is stepping up to lead the way. Neal Romanek talked to Avid’s VP of sales international, Tom Cordiner, about the company’s new trajectory IN 2012, after heading Technicolor’s media, broadcast and telecom sales in Europe and parts of Asia, Tom Cordiner moved to Avid. After a year of running Avid’s sales business in EMEA, he was asked to take on Avid’s Asia business as well and has been head of Avid’s international sales arm since.

What do you think are the major issues facing the industry now? And what impact has the increasing move to cloud and IP production affected Avid?

Media professionals are facing unprecedented challenges, including: the accelerated digitisation of media assets, the ‘consumerisation’ of content and distribution, and the relentless pressure for operational efficiency to structure their operations to take advantage of a ‘content anywhere, anytime and on any device’ world. What a lot of companies are looking for is essentially one interconnected process.

As an example: broadcasters and content owners want to syndicate content on multiple platforms, as well as create promos and advertising material for that new platform, and at the same time broadcast on linear TV, and make it all one seamless process. If you can put all of those toolsets and all those production distribution capabilities onto one platform — as we are going to be doing

Cordiner: “I think what a lot of companies are looking for is essentially one interconnected process”

a year with Louis. The company is evolving, and Louis has built a very growth-minded team. He’s a very experienced technology and platform software executive and he has brought that attitude and thinking to Avid. It’s now a more focused company. He’s also developed our strategy and our vision for the future, Avid Everywhere, and sees Avid as having a strong and shaping role

“Often the distribution or the business end is starting to drive changes in how the creative process actually works” Tom Cordiner, Avid and are doing — it really starts to enhance how organisations reach their chosen audiences.

Our new direction takes us beyond the creative part of the business and links together the creative side with the business or monetisation part. One of the things we are seeing is that it’s a key priority for media companies to link these two parts together. Often the business end is starting to drive changes in how the creative process actually works. What we are building with our Avid Everywhere platform is a way to allow these two parts to come together and work in unison.

Have you seen a real change at Avid since Louis Hernandez took over as CEO last year?

Yes, very much so. I had a year at Avid with one CEO structure and now I’ve had

in building an ecosystem that’s going to benefit all of us. It certainly feels very exciting and there’s a lot of energy in the company right now.

This month will be Avid Connect, the inaugural event of the Avid Customer Association. What has the response been to the ACA? It’s been really positive. In certain markets it’s become almost overwhelming in terms of people wanting to get involved. We have an executive board that governs all of the various councils, with specific councils set up around strategy, around products, around service and delivery, around industry issues and obviously our partner and reseller networks too. We recently announced some key leadership: David Mash, SVP for innovation, strategy and technology

Avid Everywhere aims to be a platform that seamlessly joins the creative and business side of the industry

at Berklee College of Music, is in charge of the whole board of directors and executive chairmen.

Richard Friedel, who’s the EVP at Fox Networks, and Dr. Andreas Bereczky of ZDF in Germany are the two vice chairs.

It seems like a real transformation of Avid, like you’re really approaching the industry in a completely new way and moving to become a service provider.

It feels very different, but really it’s an evolution of how the market is developing. We’re taking a leadership role within that to help our customers and partners make these transitions and deal with all of the change that’s going on inside the industry. I think the scope of markets that we serve have very different needs, so some markets are very ready for a much more service-oriented offering and a model that’s much more cloud or platform-based. Other markets will take a more cautious approach to adopting that.

They’re a little more traditional in how they want to invest in technology. They

prefer to own their own infrastructure and buy in a more traditional way. But we’re very happy to continue to drive growth in those markets too. There’s a lot of flexibility built in to how we’re going to work with our customers and partners We view ourselves as being an open platform and an open partner to our customers and our resellers. We’re very excited about our new vision, and we’re looking forward to helping the industry move at the right pace in the right direction.

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Cloud for Broadcast

The reality is that a true cloud-based computing architecture should be far more reliable than the traditional broadcast playout system running on-site and backed up by a SQL database

Hard edges in the cloud In our February issue, Ian Fletcher, Miranda’s CTO of automation and playout, outlined the basics of cloud computing for broadcasters.

This month, he goes deeper into the possibilities for broadcast automation that cloud tools offer IN THE first of this two-part article, I talked about the need to be wary of solutions that come dressed in some of the clothing associated with ‘the cloud’, but which have limited potential because they do not implement a true cloud-computing architecture.

The key point to emphasise here is that if our industry is to benefit from the full, extraordinary potential of cloud computing, it requires vendors to fundamentally re-think and redesign solutions for this new architecture. The industry’s demands for increased agility, more channels, more localisation and more scale can’t be met by simply implementing more of the same technology we already have.

In the beginnings of broadcast automation, the aim was to produce a system that would unify the control of a large number of physical devices, and deliver realtime commands to execute operations such as switching, starting the video server, and bringing on the graphic.

Then, as IT technology matured, the industry moved towards newer technologies and the channel-in-the box paradigm.

The automation system and the device performing the playout became squeezed into one and the same system. At the same time, the needs of the broadcast industry have also grown more complex. Automation has gone from being concerned mainly with list-management and execution to a much more sophisticated set of capabilities.

Combining the ‘management’ functionality and the playout functionality in the same unit delivers many advantages, but there are also further gains to be made by separating them in any future architecture designed to deliver a highly scalable and agile solution.

On one hand, there is the act of playing out video clips, bringing on graphics, switching to live sources – all operations that need to be performed with accuracy measured in milliseconds. On the other, there are complex

information management tasks that do not require such deterministic responses. The way you go about designing a frameaccurate playout system is very different from the way you design a business management system.

And to take broadcast automation forward into a new generation of capability it makes sense to divide the functionality into two layers – the realtime playout/automation layer, and the management layer.

Why? Let’s return to the natural and justifiable caution broadcasters feel about losing control of the physical machinery and assets of broadcasting.

Playout from the cloud does not sound an enticing prospect to most broadcasters. Where is the security over content? How can the cloud deliver with frameaccurate timing?

delegated to individual computer nodes and the management layer can provide global control for any number of them.

While the management layer of the automation system does not require the realtime frameaccurate responses that the playout layer must deliver, it must provide failsafe reliability and very high performance. This is where the unique capabilities provided by true cloud computing are critical, and the automation system of the future must be designed to exploit them to the full. The system needs to make full use of a multitenancy cloud environment that can dynamically scale with the load, to service many customers cost-effectively with the same set of computing resources, instead of dedicating computer resources to individual channels or customers.

Fletcher: “The design aim is to get to a point where the system is infinitely scalable and where there is no specific bottleneck when handling very large amounts of traffic” traditional broadcast playout system running on-site and backed up by a SQL database. At 2am on Sunday when there are no maintenance staff at the broadcast centre and the SQL server falls over, how long will it take to get that traditional system back on air?

To make a future automation system bomb-proof, guaranteed messaging and connectivity is essential. Non-deterministic behaviour of the network has to be assumed in the architecture. The public internet is very reliable, but it’s not deterministic, and that’s why you can’t rely on sending

“The industry’s demands for increased agility, more channels, more localisation and more scale can’t be met by simply implementing more of the same technology we already have” Ian Fletcher, Miranda The answer is that you don’t need playout from the cloud.

With the two layers of management and playout separated, we can take full advantage of cloud computing’s potential, while still retaining the vital frame-accurate control over playout that broadcasting is built on. The management layer can be moved to the cloud, where realtime dependency is not critical.

The realtime playout component can be designed separately and localised to where the media storage is: in this way it can operate with the high performance and availability demands that broadcasters require. The management system can be made capable of handling large numbers of channels because the computing platform it runs on doesn’t also have to cope with playing them out. Playout can be

The system has to be able to deal with failure — to be ‘stateless’.

The architecture has to be proof against the disappearance of any of its computing nodes at any time with no interruption to the service.

This kind of resilience already exists in many cloud-based services and one of the ways of testing true cloud-based systems is by deliberately provoking failure of nodes within them. The in-house system used by Netflix (known as The Chaos Monkey, and now available to other developers) goes through the cloud system randomly switching nodes off to test that the software has been properly designed to deal with that.

So while it’s natural for broadcasters to wonder whether cloud systems can be reliable, the reality is that a true cloud-based computing architecture should be far more reliable than the

frame-accurate messages around any kind of distributed computing environment. So for the playout functionality you need to use external time references and timestamping messages to ensure that the right message is processed at the right time by individual nodes within the network. It’s also essential to have guaranteed messaging. A correctly architected cloud-based computing architecture should be able to survive network cables being unplugged while schedules are being edited, and on reconnection the right device must automatically receive the messages that it missed.

Any as-run information should also be delivered after any interruption of connectivity, so that there is a clear record of what was played out and when.

For the cloud-based management functionality to be

effective, it also has to be fast.

The typical online shopping experience just won’t do for realtime operations in a broadcast centre. There has to be instant response from the automation environment, and this can be built-in by using web apps within the browser. Web apps exploit the power of modern web browsers to execute quite complex application code within the browser window.

With HTML5 and Javascript, rich applications can be built that perform the logic and user interaction directly in realtime within the web browser, while data is transferred separately between the application and the cloud-based system.

To deliver the speed of response the management layer needs, the cloud-based solution must also have a highly efficient back end. If you are designing a system from scratch it’s advantageous to avoid SQL and take a Big Data approach to the architecture, because SQL itself would become a bottleneck and a single point of failure. The design aim is to get to a point where the system is infinitely scalable and where there is no specific bottleneck when handling very large amounts of traffic.

Broadcasters’ demands for increased reliability and agility, more channel numbers, easier localisation, and elasticity of scale can’t be satisfied with more of the same – by cramming more functionality into increasingly complex boxes. Our expectations of automation have changed over the years, and it’s not enough to keep the same concepts and moving parts, even when collapsed together on IT hardware. Vendors that have just applied their existing automation systems to IT based playout hardware are missing the point. It’s time for a rethink.