TVBE May 2014 digital edition

www.tvbeurope.com

Europe’s Television Technology Business Magazine

May 2014

The

Aiming high: Satellite focus

Sound Mixer Forum

future comes to NAB

Audio for Broadcast Special

TVBEurope 3

May 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

News & Contents

UK and China sign film treaty

Sony has been a leader in 4K production

Sony Gold Plus sponsor of Beyond HD Masters SONY HAS signed up as Gold Plus sponsor of this year’s Beyond HD Masters conference to be held at London’s BAFTA on 3 June.

In its partnership with FIFA, Sony will be pushing the boundaries of 4K sports production this summer when it produces three full matches in 4K at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Sony joins previouslyannounced Gold Sponsor ARRI at the conference. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, the ARRI Group is a manufacturer and distributor of motion picture camera, digital intermediate (DI) and lighting equipment.

The company comprises a global network of subsidiaries and partners throughout the film industry.

The group’s industryleading cinematography solutions include the ALEXA

camera system and AMIRA documentary-style camera, Master Anamorphic lenses, L-Series LED and M-Series HMI lights and ARRISCAN archive technologies.

Beyond HD Masters 2014 follows the successful series of HD and 3D Masters conferences from TVBEurope that helped to chart and forecast the maturation of HD and 3D in the broadcast market. Delegates will have the chance to hear from the world standardisation leaders, examine case studies from highprofile production trials, and find out the future for 3DTV in Europe, and more.

Sponsorship opportunities are available through richard. carr@intentmedia.co.uk, steve. connolly@intentmedia.co.uk or ben.ewles@intentmedia.co.uk on +44 (0) 207 354 6000. www.beyondhdmasters.com www.pro.sony.eu

A FILM co-production treaty between the UK and China has been signed by UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and Vice Minister Tong Gang of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). Vaizey visited China as part of a UK government delegation, aiming to push forward new areas of cultural collaboration and champion the UK’s creative industries.

The treaty was negotiated for the UK by the British Film Institute (BFI) with support from the DCMS and UK Trade and Investment in Beijing, and will allow qualifying co-productions to access national benefits including sources of finance and an easier passage to audiences. In the UK, this includes the Film Tax Relief and the BFI Film Fund.

Eligible co-productions will not be subject to China’s quota on foreign films, which only

permits a limited number of non-domestic titles to be shown in Chinese cinemas each year.

“The treaty will strengthen ties between our countries’ film industries, encouraging the sharing of knowledge and ideas as well as driving economic growth through film production,” said Ed Vaizey. “It will also enhance our respective cultural understanding and awareness through the making of films that reflect, enhance and convey the diversity of culture and heritage in both countries.”

Amanda Nevill, BFI CEO added: “The co-production treaty with China, which has the largest growing film industry in the world, is hugely significant for UK film as it will open the door for our filmmakers to collaborate and contribute to each other’s success.” www.bfi.org.uk

TVBEurope hosts workflow roundtable with Avid TVBEUROPE IS running another industry roundtable discussion at BT Tower on 13 May, this time hosted by Avid.

The list of high profile participants includes Steve Bennedik, head of technology for Sky News, Discovery post production manager Ian Draysey, Mark Wilson Dunn, VP sales and marketing for BT Media, Alla Salehian, CEO of TIMA (The International Media Associates), Paul Stevenson, director of technical operations for ITV News, and ITV’s head of

technology and innovation, Martyn Suker.

Paul Stevenson is one of the founding members of the Avid Customer Association Executive Board. The ACA is Avid’s initiative to provide strategic leadership to the media industry, collaborate with key industry leaders and visionaries, and deepen relationships between Avid and its customers.

Full coverage of the roundtable will be featured in the June issue of TVBEurope. www.tvbeurope.com

Contents 1-9 News & Analysis Evolving with disruptive markets TVBEurope’s new executive editor James McKeown takes a look at how modern, disruptive technology is impacting the broadcasting sector 4 10-27 NAB 2014 Wrap-Up Cloudbusting at NAB M&A, 4K, IP and the cloud.

Russell Grute discovered what’s on the horizon at NAB 12 The virtual NAB One of the main themes at NAB was virtualisation and the move to IP connectivity. Dick Hobbs reports 18 Audio over NAB Neal Romanek investigates the hot new audio products at the Show 25 28-35 Audio for Broadcast Mixing the future Avid’s Tom Graham looks into how fresh thinking is transforming audio consoles 30 The rise of HD audio The broadcast industry is taking a leading role in bringing HD audio to its audiences, writes Claus Menke, Sennheiser Professional Division 34 36-42 Sound Mixer Forum This month’s Forum, moderated by Philip Stevens, gathers leaders in the field of sound mixing 36 43-48 Satellite Focus The satellite industry: onwards and upwards Ian McMurray reports on news from the satellite industry at NAB 43 SES: 25 years of blistering success Chris Forrester speaks to Romain Bausch, who stepped down as CEO of SES after nearly two decades 47 50 News Review A pick of the most interesting stories and developments from the broadcast technology industry 50

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Editorial

EDITORIAL Executive Editor James McKeown james.mckeown@intentmedia.co.uk

Evolving with disruptive market conditions Digital transformation, converged markets and the onset of a Networked Society points to a complex but opportunity-laden future for the traditional broadcast sector, writes TVBEurope’s new executive editor, James McKeown IT GIVES me great pleasure to welcome you to the May issue of TVBEurope, my first as executive editor. It is a sincere honour to become part of such a dynamic and forward-looking industry at a fascinating and markedly encouraging juncture in its evolution.

It is a time of changing market conditions, and the manner in which modern, disruptive technology is impacting the broadcast sector is a trend with which I am acutely familiar from a previous, albeit recent life.

James McKeown

Conference season

Digital transformation The online gambling industry, within which I’ve spent the best part of the last decade, serving as editor of its leading trade publication, is very much in the grip of disruptive digital progression, which is not only changing the way products and services are produced and consumed, but the whole philosophy of how businesses coordinate and execute their strategies.

The major disruptor here has been the far-too-elongated dawn of mobile, and the spread of gaming’s accessibility to smartphones, tablet devices and Smart media. In truth, the conversation in gaming has existed beyond ‘mobilisation’ for some time; far more the

technologies, and the changes in user behaviour they engender; all part of a digital transformation that is redefining the frontiers of the business environment and that of its component companies.

This is evidently the case in the modern environment, and will most certainly continue in the future as digital transformation takes a more distinct hold on business sectors, and a Networked Society ushers

“I see many similarities between the broadcast and gaming industries. They are both innovation-rich sectors that have been compelled to diversify beyond their core competencies in adapting to emerging market conditions” James McKeown digitisation of an industry compelled into fast-tracking the development and deployment of its assets to keep pace with technology that refuses to sit still.

It is also a sector that has had to diversify beyond its core competencies to adapt to emerging, disruptive

reminder of this, and we summarise all of the important developments from the show — from the latest in 4K to the recent glut of M&A activity — in our NAB wrap-up this issue.

I see similar traits in the broadcast sector. As the boundaries between the telecoms and media sectors continue to blur, companies in both markets now preside over strategies that demand the expansion of the scope of their traditional reach and abilities to meet everevolving market conditions.

in a new dawn of superconnected, multi-channel complexity for broadcasters and service providers.

Effective execution of such strategies requires foresight, bravery and innovation; facets that are part of the broadcast sector’s DNA. The recent NAB in Las Vegas was yet another

Much of ‘what is to come’ within technical broadcast innovation will be discussed at our Beyond HD Masters conference at BAFTA, London, on 3 June. This year’s agenda has a firm emphasis on the future, and the trends and technologies that will be driving the European television broadcast market in the coming years. Conference chairman, John Ive, director of business development and technology at the IABM, will preside over a day of insight and analysis that will pore over the finer aspects of the debate surrounding the move to 4K, 8K, and the drivers of a future industry beyond HD. To examine the themes on the day’s agenda, John will be joined by an impressive roster of speakers that includes Stephan Heimbecher, head of innovations and standards/products and operations, technology, at Sky Deutschland; Andy Quested, head of technology for HD and UHD at the BBC; and Roland Vlaicu, senior director, broadcast imaging at Dolby Laboratories.

Many of you will still be recovering from a breathless NAB in Vegas, with one eye firmly on Amsterdam, and IBC2014 in September. But there is plenty happening in between to keep the industry (and myself) on the right page, including our IT Broadcast Workflow event on 8 July.

In fact, it is an exciting and opportune time to be entering the industry for the first time, and I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone at NewBay Media, Intent Media, and the industry itself, for offering such a warm welcome in my first weeks — I already feel very much at home and am looking forward to the challenge ahead.

Acting Editor Neal Romanek neal.romanek@intentmedia.co.uk Editor, Special Projects Melanie Dayasena-Lowe melanie.dayasena-lowe@intentmedia.co.uk Staff Writer Holly Ashford holly.ashford@intentmedia.co.uk Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England +44 207 354 6002 Contributors Mike Clark, David Davies, Chris Forrester, David Fox, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett, Heather McLean, Adrian Pennington, 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

TVBEurope is published 12 times a year by Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London, N1 8LN, England Intent Media is a member of the Periodical Publishers Association

© Intent Media 2014. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owners. TVB Europe is mailed to qualified persons residing on the European continent. Subscription is free.

Allow 8 weeks for new subscriptions and change of address delivery. Send subscription inquiries to: Subscription Dept, Intent Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 7BR, England.

ISSN 1461-4197 Printing by Pensord Press, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood NP12 2YA

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News & Analysis

Globecast and Sony for papal ceremony TO MARK the canonisation of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II, on 27 April, Globecast provided SNG trucks to manage and deliver live HD, 3D and 4K images. Transmitting live from the Vatican throughout the ceremony, Globecast supplied satellite uplinked video and audio services to Vatican Television, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland, BSkyB and Eutelsat.

The live 4K broadcast was produced in association with Sony, who supplied the 4K production infrastructure, while Globecast oversaw delivery.

“The participation at this historical event is a source of great satisfaction for Globecast,” said Alessandro Alquati, head of global services contribution at Globecast. “Thanks to our

The papal canonisation will be the first 4K broadcast of its kind

technical resources and knowhow, cooperation with our partners made this historical event available to everyone across the world. Globecast confirms once again its role as a key player for the transmission and distribution of large events.”

The event was produced by the Vatican Television (CTV), in collaboration with partners including Sky and Eutelsat.

Globecast provided 3D services for Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland and BSkyB 3D channels as well as providing HD services for the Sky Italia and BSKYB News channels; HD and 3D services for digital cinema and the 4K feed for a dedicated 4K view position at the Vatican. www.globecast.com ww.pro.sony.eu

STRYME and CVE partner for Telecom Italia AUSTRIAN BROADCAST solutions provider STRYME has teamed up with CVE Italy to enable Telecom Italia to enter the broadcasting sector.

CVE selected STRYME’s multi-channel GENESIX VideoServer with the aim of implementing a multichannel videoserver solution for Telecom Italia’s new live broadcasts of sports events, and optimising airtime of advertisement and product placements between games.

STRYME has already equipped its solution with multi-channel streaming in the H.264 format. STRYME CEO, Goce Zdravkoski, explained: “It is part of our company

The GENESIX VideoServer

by STRYME

policy to work closely with our customers to guarantee a costeffective solution that gives them the flexibility they need.

That is why the GENESIX VideoServer not only supports all industry-standard codecs and formats but can easily be

integrated with the customer’s infrastructure and workflows.

Our enhanced graphics engine also enables the quick and easy realisation of 2D and 3D graphic overlays. This is especially important for realtime feeds and for any future

graphics requirements which Telecom Italia may have.”

STRYME provided the videoserver, made customerspecific adjustments, completed the installation and gave initial user training. www.cve-italy.com

MBT partners with Perfect Memory MEDIA AND Broadcast Technologies (MBT) and Perfect Memory have signed a partnership agreement proposing a fully integrated solution of ‘structuration, research and semantic digital asset management.’ Through the agreement, the two French SMEs aim to meet the needs of both the French and international broadcast markets.

MBT claims the agreement acts as proof of its commitment to assist its customers with innovative and efficient media management solutions.

The partnership also allows Perfect Memory to showcase its solutions. MBT sought to broaden its products’ exposure to Perfect Memory’s technologies and reached out to the company, whose R&D work and products, MBT believe, fit with the current market needs.

Perfect Memory gives a new dimension to MAM (Media Asset Management) systems in the broadcast sector. Entry point in those MAM systems is often an ID, a title or a keyword, which allows a syntaxic search of media and related elements (subtitles, documents, etc). This search paradigm was good enough for a long time but over the last couple of years, with the multiplication of heterogeneous media, the creation of VoD platforms, and the arrival of players from the corporate market, the concept of non-deterministic search was introduced.

MBT’s MAM SPHERE allows access to semantic technologies and, the company claims, offers the end user a palette of high-performance guided search. www.mbt.tv

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People on the move

By Holly Ashford

Two appointments Electric Ray gets two MDs to Signiant board SIGNIANT HAS added two technology executives to its board of directors: Lawrence R. Kaplan and John McCoskey. Kaplan is president and CEO of SDVI Corporation, an early stage company focused on the benefits of virtualised video infrastructures. He was previously the founding CEO of Omneon, acquired by Harmonic in 2010. He also held senior positions with Sony, Grass Valley and Tektronix.

McCoskey is executive vice president and chief technology officer for the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade association that represents the six major studios.

“Signiant is playing a key role in the technical transformation of the media industry, and in this fast-moving market we recognise the need for experienced counsellors who have business acumen, technical insight, and a deep understanding of our industry,” said Margaret Craig, CEO of Signiant.

BAFTAwinning media exec Meredith Chambers has joined forces with Karl Warner to share managing director duties at their new indie Electric Ray. Chambers has joined Electric Ray, a joint venture with Sony Pictures Television, L-R: Meredith Chambers and Karl Warner to oversee, alongside and was previously Warner, the company’s commissioning editor, development slate and creative documentaries at Channel 4 and strategy. He joins from Shed executive editor, factual and Media-owned indie Twenty music, at BBC Wales.

Twenty, as creative director

Lawrence R. Kaplan

Dana Ross,

Ian Ousey,

Virginia Lee

John Aslet

Carle Duthoo

Kirsty Lamport

ARRI Rental Group

Audio Network

Cable Europe

Media Group

Prime Focus

Shure

The ARRI Rental Group has appointed Dana Ross to the role of international marketing executive. Ross will represent the company in LA. Ian Ousey has joined Audio Network as its new chief financial

officer. The company has also strengthened its senior management team with the in-house appointments of Juliette Squair, chief strategy officer and Chris Blakeston, chief operating officer. Ousey, previously

CFO of FremantleMedia Group, will head up the finance team.

Cable Europe has announced the appointment of Virginia Lee as director of communications. Matthias Kurth, executive chairman of Cable

Europe commented: “I’m delighted to announce Virginia’s appointment to Cable Europe, particularly at a time when this vibrant industry has such an incredibly strong story to tell.”

ChyronHego has made three new hires in Europe. Julian Reid joins as product specialist and Jonathon Roberts as sales director, both in the UK, while David Wessén joins the Stockholmbased team as head of production.

Douglas Gilstrap will resign from his role as senior vice president and head of group function strategy at Ericsson and leave the company’s executive leadership team. He joined Ericsson in

2009. The process to find a new head of strategy for the Ericsson Group will start immediately.

John Aslett, former director of Avid emerging markets, has joined Media Group International as managing director of its international operation. Paul Hennessy, CEO of MGI, said: “John’s strong technical background in broadcast and IT, combined with his regional knowledge and extensive sales experience, makes him a valuable asset for MGI and we are delighted that he is now heading up our Dubai operation.”

Prime Focus has added Carle Duthoo to its team as sales executive to manage the growing demand for multi-platform, digital and shortform post production.

Kirsty Lamport has been promoted to UK head of marketing at Shure Distribution. “I’m excited to be able to develop and drive the UK marketing team, and to be working more closely with Shure associates across Europe and the other manufacturers that we represent in the UK and Ireland to attain further outstanding results,” commented Lamport.

TSL Systems has a new UK sales manager with the appointment of Ben Tompsett. In the newly created role his responsibilities include driving sales of the company’s portfolio of systems integration services across its existing client database.

Leif Friestad has been hired as managing director by VDC Trading.

“The attraction of VDC for me is that it is a superb brand, a real little gem. I am looking forward to being on board for the journey from good to great!” said Friestad.

Matt Graff, previously executive consultant at Zig Zag Productions, has been appointed commercial director. Leila Monks, who joined Zig Zag in 2011 will launch her own consultancy business.

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The feeling coming out of NAB 2014 was almost universally positive.

Is our long, dark nightmare of disruption over? Or is it just beginning?

Best NAB ever! (for some) Despite an unprecedented number of M&As and the continued unravelling of traditional workflows, the mood at this year’s NAB in Las Vegas was positive “IT’S BEEN one of my favourite NABs ever. Every customer has been positive,” gushed Grass Valley’s Michael Cronk.

And GV’s Cronk wasn’t alone in his enthusiasm for this years NAB Show. Almost as if they couldn’t believe it, vendors were saying — out loud — that the economic doldrums of the past few years were lifting.

“It feels like there’s pent-up demand,” said Eric Chang, VP of marketing for TVU Networks.

“It’s the most leads we’ve had at any show,” remarked Ensemble Designs’ Cindy Zuelsdorf.

‘Quality’ was the word that kept being bandied about. “The quality of visitors to our stand has been very high this year,” said an Avid representative.

There was the feeling that visitors to this year’s NAB came with mandates to be fulfilled and room in their budgets.

There seemed to be fewer casual visitors, companies reporting that many business meetings were— amazingly — ending with a client’s call to their CFO, rather than a handshake and “let’s talk again soon”.

Not everyone was on a pink cloud. A representative of one — recently acquired — company offering his point of view, said: “No, the traffic isn’t great. About the same as last year.” And Broadstream’s Mark Errington noted that there seemed to be increasingly less international traffic at NAB.

Acceleration That we are in the eye of a hurricane of industry change is obvious. Capture, workflow and delivery methods are being radically reshaped as the broadcast industry moves from an old industrial rate of change to the rate of change of the IT world. This upheaval means changes in technology, of course, but first and foremost it means changes in who the players are.

Two weeks before the show, Harris Broadcast split into two companies, Imagine Communications and GatesAir. At NAB, Imagine’s CEO Charlie Vogt surprised everyone at the

The future is coming: DJI’s new HD camera drones over Vegas

“It’s the most leads we’ve had at any show” Cindy Zuelsdorf, Ensemble Designs

The Imagine Communications/GatesAir party was the scene for announcing the Digital Rapids acquisition Imagine/GatesAir party, held at the Wynn Hotel’s Tryst Nightclub, by announcing Imagine’s acquisition of media transport specialist Digital Rapids.

In a talk with TVBEurope afterward, Imagine’s head of EMEA, Mathias Eckert, said that through acquiring Digital Rapids, the company had accelerated two years of engineering time.

And for the media industries, “acceleration” should be the watch word for 2014.

Future ready The list of acquisitions leading up to the show was breathtaking — the term ‘feeding frenzy’ comes to mind. At the show, or in the days leading up to it:

Dalet acquired Amberfin, Masstech acquired PlayBox, Quantel acquired Snell, Sintec acquired Pilat Media, Vislink acquired Pebble Beach, and Vizrt finally concluded its acquisition of Mosart Medialab.

And, of course, Belden signed the contracts in its acquisition of Grass Valley, joining it with Belden’s other top broadcast industry asset, Miranda. Belden’s intention to acquire Grass Valley had been announced in February, but the deal was only completed days before the show. Given the tight timeframes and early days ambiguity, the new Grass Valley, rebranded in Miranda’s familiar purple, hit

the show floor with remarkable confidence.

The old Miranda and Grass Valley booth locations were maintained, but a new visitor to the show might never have realised they had only recently been two different companies.

With ‘Future-ready’ as the new GV slogan, the two companies appeared to be integrating with remarkable efficiency.

David Cohen, formerly of Miranda, said of his new company, “Our goal is to minimise disruption with customers. Within 45 days of the show, we’ll announce what the new combined product line will be.

We want the customer to feel supported.”

He noted that as Belden has shepherded companies through acquisitions before, there was a clear roadmap being followed that it would be key to ensure such issues as billing and technical support remained seamless in the transition.

Both Grass Valley’s Michael Cronk and David Cohen agreed “there is very little product overlap” between the new Grass Valley’s two branches and that there are many opportunities for synergy that will benefit customers. Belden’s strategy is clearly to create a marriage where one and one will decisively equal more than two.

With such dynamic changes affecting NAB, the real question on TVBEurope readers’ minds will be whether the positive atmosphere of NAB2014 — still a North American-centric show at heart — will be reflected in the European industry. The condition of the business at its next milestone, IBC2014, will be very revealing. As the broadcast industry is turned on its head, will the resulting sparks ignite a new wave of development and prosperity?

Or are we in a tailspin of endless disruption?

Grass Valley took on the Miranda purple after its acquisition by Belden

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Wrap-Up

Cloudbusting at NAB M&A, 4K, IP and the cloud. Russell Grute discovered what’s on the horizon at NAB 2014 A LONG-AWAITED round of mergers and acquisitions hit some technology vendors like a freight train at NAB this year. One post-show industry newsletter highlighted 11 confirmed deals. There are more on the way. But who really cares? Visitors faced an unwanted distraction guessing how the newly merged companies might fit together and what it will mean for their current and future technology initiatives. However, I suspect that finance drove most of this and not innovation for customers. Are we seeing long-term romance, arranged marriages or shotgun weddings?

Which acquisitions are defensive and which have real forwardmotion, only time will tell — perhaps driven increasingly by investors’ timescales rather than

“The cloud is a great way to start a tech business” market requirements. Broadcast Innovation thinks that the Vizrt-Mosart and DaletAmberFin acquisitions are both interesting. Particularly when looking beyond the technology proposition and toward the capabilities of the teams acquired. Getting the right people into the right new roles

is the key to the most successful mergers. Broadcast Innovation will continue to watch carefully.

4K, IP and the cloud: the real driving forces this year?

In programme-making there has been substantial progress in the last 12 months with 4K, and beyond toward real Ultra

HD television. Creativity is the driving force here, well served by improved low-cost, entrylevel solutions from Blackmagic, Red, Sony and Panasonic.

AJA entered the fray with its cine-friendly 12-bit capable CION priced at $9,000; now a comparatively high-end price for entry level. Regardless of the current lack of standards and poor interoperability, cinematographers and television filmmakers have already seized the moment with 4K. They are further aided by stunning innovation downstream in high-resolution post production performance too. Avid, Quantel and, current darling of the industry, Adobe all showed what they could do, which was more than many expected, especially at the price.

Impressive demonstrations of

FCPX using the new MacPro from current industry pariah Apple apparently showed hundreds of layers of 4K being run without rendering. Trouble is you have to do it Apple’s way, and they keep changing their minds. Great for consumers though — maybe we’ll just make our own content from now on.

Compare 4K costs in 2014 with the launch of mainstream digital HD solutions te years ago when HD upgrade costs were typically more than double their SD equivalents. The end-to-end economics of HD are still challenging for many broadcasters, yet basic 4K looks to be shortcircuiting this in programmemaking and post already.

Ultra HD distribution is still a challenge, especially for broadcasters who are still reliant on traditional DVB and satellite routes to their core audiences.

During NAB, Netflix announced it would begin streaming 4K

TVBEurope 13

May 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Wrap-Up

An H.265 equipped TV or STB with “only” 15.6Mbps continuous streaming is all you’ll need to go OTT and see it natively

in some territories. An H.265 equipped TV or STB with “only” 15.6Mbps continuous streaming is all you’ll need to go OTT and see it natively.

However, getting to Ultra HD still requires the many consumerled and technical variables to be better balanced. More improved frames with better dynamic range, rather than simple eyecatching big-number resolution.

There is a risk of creating Ultra HD Lite, which could be too little too soon.

Realtime video-over-IP is a much drier subject. However, it’s the one that’s really going to change the game. There is much more to IP than just replacing broadcasters’ video crosspoints.

Widespread next generation video over IP is going to disrupt and resolve business models. Over the last year, content producers, broadcasters, pay TV operators, and telcos have been feverishly partnering, bundling and in some cases loss-leading until the right business models stabilise. Look again at the “interconnect” agreement between Netflix and Comcast in February.

Advances in codecs, streaming techniques and software network management have already created many options. But which companies will actually invest most in video IP technology; who really calls the shots and who will be the winners and losers?

Telcos and mobile operators are building the next generation video-ready IP internet distribution infrastructure.

Cloudbusting

Russell Grute: “Are paying audiences growing as rapidly as the number of multiscreen viewing options? And what does 4G mean for video, 4K and beyond?”

How can broadcast technology manufacturers drive and access this new ecosystem? Is it by sheer innovation and proprietary advantage or, more likely, by partnership? Something proprietary or something standards-based? Alternatives including the nimble AVB initiative or partnerships based around Cisco emerged more clearly at NAB. We’ve been here before a few times.

Crucially, IP is also enabling a new generation of media service providers to enter the game. Providing agile and often speculative third-party services to assist broadcasters with challenges in capacity and capabilities. Specialists are now providing secure media exchange, production logging and media management, archive curation, content enrichment and rich metadata. All of these were all on show at NAB, and thanks to IP, distance and location are no longer the barriers they once were.

Comments by two juxtaposed CEOs got us thinking again about cloud technology this year.

A seasoned international broadcast CEO stood back from a show floor demo and confided to me: “When it comes to the cloud and virtualised services, sometimes our technologists are looking at solutions we currently can’t easily write a contract on.

Our standard governance won’t allow us to store our production content or stage channel delivery with an untested vendor using a shared public cloud. Private cloud is perhaps something we should be doing ourselves but we can’t make that business case add up just yet. We have longrange fixed costs on data and satellite deals already in place.”

If cloud-enabled media exchange, content transformation and delivery are a future enabler, are some broadcasters and global media companies locked out? What if YouTube, Netflix, Google, Amazon (Fire TV launching in Europe) or Apple reach new audiences and revenue sooner?

By contrast an energetic and star-eyed CEO of yet another cloudy media services start-up hit me with: “Think about it, the cloud is a great way to start a tech business. No hardware development, we can launch immediately, test our services in the field, get some revenue, we shoulder none of the running costs and scale-up success is based on opex paid for by the

customer and, the infrastructure is paid for by the telcos! We only need one percent of the business of these big tech companies that are paying millions in defensive mergers and acquisitions. How can we lose?” I estimated that over 500 vendors, out of the 1,550 present at NAB, many of them start-ups, were promoting cloudbased technology or services. But who should you trust?

Where next for media technology?

As demonstrated at NAB this year, our converged industry is now passing through the eye of the storm and the clouds are finally beginning to align on the horizon. Finance, converged technology and changing business models now present an accelerating range of scenarios.

Are paying audiences growing as rapidly as the number of multiscreen viewing options?

What does 4G mean for video, 4K and beyond? As the resolution increases and IP standardisation helps align content production and broadcasting with telecommunications, progress for

content creators and broadcast channels will be more dependent on regional telecommunications infrastructure investment, too.

Wherever improved internet and 4G mobile services roll out then telcos, mobile operators and their partners will increasingly lead the way to new audiences and revenue.

And finally, back down to earth. The show-of-the-show for me was NewTek. If I could have picked just one thing to recommend this year I would have suggested everyone take 30 minutes to relax and watch the latest version of TriCaster put through its paces. Live on stage, leather-clad Captain Video and the ever-energetic Kiki S, as NewTek Girl, put on a great show complete with plenty of “holy Batman” script clichés. A great show is still what counts.

Russell Grute is founder of Broadcast Innovation, an independent broadcast and media technology consulting firm. The company advises broadcasters, media companies and service providers on improved media management strategy.

‘NewTek Girl’ and ‘Captain Video’: A great show is still what counts

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4K becomes affordable The rash of affordable 4K cameras and the ease of set-to-post workflow will make Ultra HD an attractive origination format for producers, writes Adrian Pennington ULTRA HD broadcasts are inevitable, and while there are serious debates to be had about the exact calibration of pixels, frame rate and dynamic range that will pique consumer interest, there’ll soon be no shortage of ways to produce it.

NAB was all about the affordability of 4K and the ease of set-to-post workflow.

Landing most column inches once again, as much for the nonchalant

The new Blackmagic URSA PL

presentation of CEO Grant Petty as for the wave of products announced at unfeasibly low prices, Blackmagic Design underscored the can-do attractiveness of 4K production.

Tempting price points from Blackmagic Blackmagic is releasing four new 4K cameras, including two URSA Super 35 models for feature film (with EF and PL mount), another similarly specced unit for broadcast featuring a B4 mount, and a Studio Camera for live production.

Explaining that one of the problems with live production is that most

cameras have not really been designed for the job, Petty said: “They don’t have the features that we need, such as a large bright viewfinder, talkback, tally or optical fibre plus almost all cameras are made from plastic.”

BM’s model takes care of all that, is cast from tough magnesium, features an active Micro Four Thirds lens mount to swap between ENG and higher quality lenses and has 12G-SDI connectivity which can route signals over a single fibre. That’s important because the company has updated its ATEM switcher to allow full control of this camera. It also bundles in a copy of the DaVinci Resolve colour grading software for good measure.

“We included a four-hour battery so it can work remotely at a live event where there’s no power connection so users

can take the camera closer to the action,” added EMEA sales director Simon Westland.

“We’ve miniaturised many of the functions but one we didn’t was the viewfinder. The ten-inch LCD is on the same axis as the lens, rather than having a monitor off-set, above or to the side of the camera. When you look down the viewfinder you are directly behind the lens, so

while it’s a very compact unit in all other aspects, it feels huge when you are behind it.”

An HD version of this camera is already shipping, with the £1,800 Ultra HD version due in June, available like the rest of Blackmagic’s range direct from the vendor. Although the price-point is tempting, proof as always will be in the willingness of cinematographers and producers to lens shows with them. Westland says all its cameras have gone through secret testing with users and that a number of high-profile projects are currently shooting with its cameras.

Blackmagic reverse engineered a camera product line based on its expertise in capture and playback devices.

AJA finds a gap in the market That’s the same route taken by AJA, which said its Cion 4K camera began life in the labs four years ago and has finally come to market now that it has developed the right sensor.

“Having a sensor is just the beginning,” said product manager Bryce Button. “The real work is in the colour science behind it.” Its rich colour settings will appeal to feature and commercials producers while its ENG style ergonomics will find favour with documentarians, reckons Button.

“In terms of non-traditional hardware companies moving into cameras, [Blackmagic] indicated that we could be

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NAB was all about the affordability of 4K and the ease of set-to-post workflow

Blackmagic’s Grant Petty: “(Most live production cameras) don’t have the features we need”

all the workflow needs and quality people are looking for.”

It offers in-camera recording directly to the Apple ProRes family of codecs — including the 12-bit 444. Available this summer, it can record directly to AJA Pak SSD media at up to 60fps and offers raw 4K data in an AJA file format which the company says will be opened to anyone, at 120fps via 3G-SDI. Involved in ProRes encoding for a decade, AJA has already monetised the R&D in this area, it says, so it does not have to pass this cost on and is one reason for its low price. At £5,400 Cion underlines how far down the price curve 4K is compared to HD at this point in its rollout.

Wrap-Up to use the entire width of a full-frame image sensor when shooting Ultra HD, said Sony.

The A7S is compatible with E-mount lenses, and it can also be used with A-mount and other lens systems with optional adapters and is also shipping later in 2014; pricing was not announced.

Arguably the more significant announcement from Sony is that its F55 and F5 units can be used in run and gun mode by way of a shoulder-mount kit. Features include a sliding shoulder pad, an audio control panel, and a wireless audio receiver slot. Sony has first mover status in 4K live production

The 4K heavyweights NAB, however, showed signs of fight back from heavyweights like Panasonic, which previewed (once again) the VariCam 35 incorporating its AVC-Ultra codecs, but this time with support from Codex Digital to deliver a 4K 120fps uncompressed RAW recorder. Due to market around IBC, the VariCam is for cinema, commercials and episodic production with a £35,000 pricetag.

JVC revealed a quartet of 4K Blackmagic’s new Studio Camera: the ten-inch prototypes built from LCD viewfinder is on the same axis as the lens

“We are trying to design a camera that doesn’t cost a fortune with all the workflow needs and quality people are looking for” Bryce Button, AJA successful,” he admitted, although another motivation was a gap in the market for an inexpensive, high-quality imager that felt more like a conventional production camera, and less like a DSLR. “High-end feature films are probably best served by the Sony F65, but it costs ten times as much,” he said. “For the majority of work from indie films to docs and corporate, we are trying to design a camera that doesn’t cost a fortune with

Atomos’ 4K debut Who knows, maybe next year fellow capture card experts Atomos will have brought out its own 4K imager. It was content this year to release its first 4K product, the seven-inch Shogun 4K monitor and HDMI recorder, which works with Sony’s revamped A7S DSLR, outfitted with a 12.2 megapixel 35mm CMOS sensor for 4K video. What sets the product apart from the competition is its ability

and has already gained considerable knowledge of workflows for its cameras and production servers in application from theatre to sports and even Papal ceremonies. While companies like AJA and Blackmagic are still run by their founders and seem capable of unleashing groundbreaking products at will, the decision-making at traditional manufacturers can seem like turning around a tanker in a canal.

IP obtained from CMOS sensor developer, Altasens which it acquired in 2012 from Olympus.

These included a mini-cam with a target price of £2,500; the shoulder-mounted Elise (target price £10,000); and a gimbalmounted version co-developed with NHK (target price £15,000).

The latter kit cannot only shoot from aerial drones but stream the live video to the ground, useful for coordinating movie shoots.

“We’ve been speaking to [broadcast] networks who

have been requesting handheld handycam-type products with a large imager,” said marketing manager Craig Yanagni. “This is precisely what we’ve been targeting with this design concept.” And concept they remain, with JVC coy on commercialisation. “If demand is greater, the products will come sooner,” said Yanagni.

Injected with £15 million of Belden’s cash, Grass Valley heralded its NAB as ‘Future Ready’ and announced a 4K version of its outside broadcast stalwart LDX replete with threechip sensors, rather than one.

“4K production has been based on cameras that are really designed for film with PL-mount lenses, posing some difficulties with depth of field

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Wrap-Up for producers of drama, docs, sports and studio-based live shows to capture in Ultra HD. You don’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface, though, to find those arguing that resolution is not enough.

HDR: the game-changer

SMPTE’s Richard Welsh: “Since digital cameras already capture at such high resolutions, pixel count isn’t an issue for most creatives” and the amount of zooming you can do and sensitivity loss if you had to mount B4 lenses,” outlined Grass Valley’s marketing chief Mike Cronk.

“This is the first technology showing of a native-4K LDX camera with a B4 lens.”

However, outside broadcasters eager to equip with 4K shooters still only have one option — Sony — since Grass Valley declined to say when these cameras will be ready, although they are being trialed.

Having lost erstwhile leader of the rebellion Ted Schilowitz — now hoping to change the way Hollywood thinks about computing at chip developer Devil & Demon — Red Digital Cinema still made noise with 4K broadcast functionality for

“If demand is greater, the products will come sooner”

At NAB’s digital cinema summit, Richard Welsh, a SMPTE governor for EMEA, said since digital cameras already capture at such high resolutions, pixel count just isn’t an issue for most creatives.

High dynamic range (HDR), on the other hand, does provide a big creative and aesthetic difference.

“Once you get to the point of displaying that content in the cinema or the home, you can present what you actually captured in the scene,” he said.

“I think that’s a game-changer from creatives’ point of view.”

However, Welsh said, HDR is difficult to explain and

hard for people to envision until they’ve seen it. “The problem is, in order to sell that, consumers need a number they can understand, and they all understand pixel count. We know that from the camera industry, where they go for megapixels. But the numbers for HDR [measured in NITs, where 4,000 NITs is a target against current displays of 400 NITs] aren’t the sort of numbers you can throw out to consumers to tell that story. The engineering and creative side of the industry understand HDR, but it’s hard to sell.”

A notable exception to the 4K hoopla was ARRI which failed to debut its higher than 2.5K resolution camera which it has admitted is in the labs.

Nonetheless, if anyone can crack the code which permits rich colour depth, high frame rates, high resolution and high dynamic range all in one camera package, bet on them.

Craig Yanagni, JVC its Epic and Scarlet cameras.

The £4,000 module uses four 3G-SDI connections to broadcast 4K video at up to 60fps. Orders are being taken for the £9,000 Scarlet Dragon camera, due in June, which can capture 6K at 12fps, 5K at 30fps or 4K and HD at 48fps.

By the end of the year, there will be a plethora of options

AJA’s CION3 has come to market after four years of R&D

NEWS IN BRIEF Discounts and launches from PHABRIX PHABRIX used the recent NAB Show to announce improvements to its Sx handheld and Rx rack mount test and measurement instruments, as well as discounts on its products.

PHABRIX demoed its new handheld TAG at NAB, able to test most broadcast infrastructure needs.

The TAG, priced at £1,999, comes complete as an analyser/monitor with support for SD and HD. Its audio toolset includes full support for metadata, levels and logging of Dolby E, D and D Plus. www.phabrix.com NAB launches for PlayBox PlayBox Technology reported a successful NAB, including the release of its CaptureBox Pro and AirBox, following the company’s acquisition by Masstech, announced earlier this year.

“Our new partnership with Masstech helped make this an outstandingly successful show,” said Phillip Neighbour, business development manager of PlayBox Technology UK. PlayBox announced new additions to its product range. These included CaptureBox PRO, which enables multiple channels of HD or SD content to be captured from HD/SD SDI digital feeds, analogue sources and MPEG transport streams. Also released at NAB was AirBox, which provides automated content playout for satellite channels, cable headends, over-the-air broadcasters and corporate TV users. www.playbox.tv

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The virtual NAB 4K hype apart, the main theme of NAB 2014 was virtualisation and the seemingly inexorable move to IP connectivity. What were the key thinkers saying, and what does it mean? Dick Hobbs reports “SDN [SOFTWAREDEFINED NETWORKING] will happen faster than people think,” according to Charlie Vogt, president of what we are encouraged to call Imagine Communications, but which we all know and love as Harris Broadcast.

“Companies only have so much capex and so much resource,” he continued. “Have we convinced broadcasters and networks to move to SDN? Yes, we have. You will see some of the big networks making that transition very soon.”

Vogt’s view, one which was repeated widely around the show, was that standard IT industry technology and techniques should be used wherever possible and, furthermore, that the possibilities are rapidly increasing. Software-defined networking — the ability to abstract the data layer from the functional layer, so that the operator does not need to worry about how the content gets somewhere, just defines where it has to go — is a good example of the way things are moving.

For broadcast professionals, it means moving away from our traditional reliance on realtime, proprietary interconnections like SDI, and treating all content

as data. In practice, that means using IP, although Quantel’s Steve Owen did comment “if you were to start from scratch you probably would not pick IP, but it is quite good.”

Quantel — which now owns Snell so is back in the hardware business — was strongly pushing IP connectivity and IT routers, not least because of the vastly larger market and consequent economies of scale and scope for R&D. A number of vendors pointed out that the market for broadcast routers is around $300 million a year; the market for IT routers is around $3 billion a quarter, or 40 times the size. They also pointed out that today’s 10Gb ethernet will be updated to 100Gb ethernet soon enough.

IP routing is a great example of the way that other industries have paid for the R&D to benefit broadcasting. Richard Dellacanonica, CEO of Artel, told me “it’s the financial industry that drove all the latency out of IP”. Wall Street needed instant message transfers and total reliability, which means we benefit from the stability we need.

Artel was showing DigiLink, a signal routing system for SDI and ethernet which incorporates

Software defined video networking technology from Artel

Moving to IT development practices and Agile methodology, Quantel has released five updates for its Pablo Rio finishing platform since IBC last year

“If you were to start from scratch you probably would not pick IP, but it is Steve Owen, Quantel quite good” SDN to manage the end to end process. The devices are largely plug and play, and looking at it by eye, there seemed to be around half a second of latency from camera to screen via JPEG2000 in SMPTE 2022 encapsulation over fibre.

The vendors talking about IT routing — such as Evertz, Artel and Quantel/Snell — all made the point that while the underlying technology may be different, we still need the broadcast control layer. It has to look like the router panel as we currently know it, even if there is SDN technology under the hood which is doing the routing. IP inside, with broadcast services such as synchronisation and clean switching at the edge.

Virtualisation Ericsson was one of many companies talking about virtualising processor-intensive operations such as encoding. It has partnered with Elemental to put powerful encoding software onto a standard platform, which it calls Eve (Ericsson Virtualised Encoding).

The purpose of Eve is to be able to package content as it is called for, rather than saving it in an ever-increasing number of formats. Within three years, 90percent of the traffic on IP networks will be video, with 15 billion video-enabled mobile devices in use.

Elemental believes that consumers will pay for quality and resolution, so achieving the best compression performance

will be a critical factor. Hence Eve, which can be scaled up and down on a virtualised platform as required.

Harmonic, too, was showing encoding on virtual machines, with its VOS platform. The company still has a strong appliance business, but sees virtualisation as the way things are going. It also has a revenuesharing partnership with cloud service encoding.com.

The first implementation of the VOS platform, Electra XVM, also including playout automation, graphics and branding as well as high quality compression. To match the flexibility of the virtualisation, it is available with different pricing models, allowing users to buy or rent scalable licences.

One of the applications Harmonic suggests is for local and regional playout, as a point of insertion for localised content.

This application was the first big announcement from the new Grass Valley, formed from the merger with Miranda and based largely on Miranda technology.

Essentially, this puts the localisation point at the remote headend, in the form of a simple switch and a solid state disk.

Local content is delivered to the disk in advance (it stores 88 hours), and control is sent in the cloud to switch from master to regional services as required.

There is no mission-critical reliance on the cloud, and you can even function over 3G or 4G if the internet cable gets dug up.

Most important, because all you have at the remote headend is a simple switch and an SSD server, sitting on a single

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The market for broadcast routers is $300 million a year; the market for IT routers $3 billion a quarter. And 10Gb ethernet will soon be updated to 100Gb ethernet. The age of IP workflow is here

feedback from users to drive new revenue opportunities.

Meanwhile, the former Sintec people unveiled version 4 of OnAir, now on a common platform for linear and nonlinear delivery with better communication between all users.

Quality

Grass Valley Stratus offers localisation using a remote SSD server rack-mount card, you have no moving parts (no risk of failure), and a total power consumption of around 45W a channel (no need for air conditioning). It can be installed simply by connecting a couple of cables — a simple web server is included for remote set-up — so installation costs are virtually zero, too.

Playout “Controlling automation is not a problem any more,” according to Ian Fletcher, whose business card now says Grass Valley CTO for playout. “Automation should be a business problem.”

Pebble Beach is also addressing the business issues of playout. There is an increasing need for channels to be operated automatically, with remote monitoring and error reporting by exception. To meet these needs it has developed a web client which it claims to be as responsive as the traditional, directly connected fat client.

The web client will connect to any of the Pebble Beach automation systems over any network. Within it is a new product, Lighthouse, which provides a dashboard for the simple overview. It gives the user monitoring by exception, allowing fewer operators to control more channels by presenting them with only the information they need.

One company at NAB was claiming to manage “the

world’s largest television catch-up service”, despite it being something that few of us will have heard of and fewer still can use. The British Universities Film & Video Council now has more than a million programmes available online, for access by registered students.

The network is powered by technology from Cambridge Imaging. Inevitably for a service with virtually no funding and no revenue stream, the operation is largely automated. Whole broadcast transport streams are captured, with the metadata stripped out from the EPG. Another company doing unexpected and powerful things in content and rights management is Counterpoint Systems, which came out of the music industry to offer software systems to manage the financial status of contracts.

Users include BBC Worldwide, which uses the software to track its programme sales deals and co-productions, and DirecTV in the USA, which uses Counterpoint to pay individual channels their share of subscriptions.

One of the many acquisitions announced at or around the show was that of Pilat Media by Sintec. The two companies are pretty much in the same space, so it will be interesting to see how they progress.

The former Pilat part of the company is focusing on OTT, managing content alongside the back office routines. It collects

VidCheck was promoting its second generation automatic QC software, which now runs four files simultaneously, each faster than realtime. The tests are defined by templates, some of which are supplied as standard: iPlayer and DPP are in the first batch. Users can quickly set up their own by running a perfect piece of content through the machine and using that to define a template.

Telestream also has DPP (AS11) validation as part of the latest release of its transcoding platform, Vantage. And the whole platform is now available on Amazon Web Services — you can even buy it from Amazon Marketplace.

or 30 different promos for times and platforms, the Post Producer module takes in a template from one of the three As’ editing systems and churns out all the variants automatically.

This is similar to Pixel Factory, the popular product/ service from Pixel Power. James Gilbert was talking about the $1 promo, on the basis that his automated system could produce several hundred a day on a system that if bought would only cost around $50,000. As Pixel OnDemand, it is available on an opex basis, allowing you to buy processing time by the hour.

On the Dolby stand there was, to my eyes, a revelatory demonstration of a new high contrast monitor. As far as I understand it, there is a pixelfor-pixel blue LED backlight which illuminates a high output phosphor layer (the newest lamps from Photon Beard work the same way) which then pass through the LCD panel.

“No sensible CFO is going to allow a business to build its own data centre today” Margaret Craig, Signiant Telestream also talked to me about a new piece of software which is currently in beta but looks like being a life-saver.

Switch is a universal player, making a fist of decoding any video format at all. It is rather like VLC, which many of us rely on, but with the added benefit of using legal codecs throughout.

The other great benefit of Telestream Switch is that the player-only version is free, and a Pro version (which allows for audio shuffling, AS-11 metadata and more) will be a hardly scary $295.

Perhaps more unexpected from Telestream is a tool to automate promo production. Given that a single programme could need 20

The result is high brightness, of course, but also a genuinely extended contrast range, real detail in the low lights and blacks (which are actually very nearly black).

I am a great believer in high dynamic range and high frame rate being much better ways to improve perceived image quality rather than simply throwing more pixels at the screen, and this demonstration was excellent.

On the other hand, the Dolby glasses-free 3D screen was not so good, causing this viewer at least to see some unpleasant rippling artefacts. Down on the SGO stand was a screen from a company called StreamTV, which gave a much more solid

autostereoscopic 3D image with a very wide viewing angle.

The technology could be built into consumer electronics by next CES.

Cloud And finally, back to the concept of putting content in the cloud.

Margaret Craig, CEO of Signiant, told me emphatically that “no sensible CFO is going to allow a business to build its own data centre today. If public cloud storage is so cheap, why would you do anything else.”

Signiant’s Skydrop service goes quite a long way to eliminating the connectivity issues which could make that happen.

On the other hand, Amberfin’s Bruce Devlin cautioned “data centres are not making any money at the moment. Margins are too tight. The content we are working on needs uncompromised quality, but you cannot do that for 13c an hour which is what Amazon charges.”

Forbidden Technologies pioneered editing in the cloud five years ago. Among its new functionality this year was the ability to connect a Sony camera, which generates its own proxy, directly to the cloud for instant edit access from anywhere. “You have to offer more for less by changing the workflow,” according to Forbidden’s Greg Hirst.

At Nevion, which specialises in delivering high quality content over IP circuits with very low latency, it is all about creating “a virtual environment with the best people skills, wherever they are,” according to CEO Geir Bryn-Jensen.

The last word, like the first, goes to Imagine’s Charlie Vogt.

“Technology should just be the enabler for revenue generation — the content should be the differentiator,” he told me. “We have to make our customers as competitive as possible, as nimble as possible. Ten years from now, Netflix will look like ABC.”

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NAB’s conference sessions provided an efficient new technology indicator at the show

A year of transition for UHD A 30-year veteran of the NAB convention, David Kirk outlines the most significant presentations at this year’s NAB conference sessions EXPLORING 1,746 show booths during the 32 hours that the NAB show is open is one way to catch up on the latest broadcast innovations — half a minute per exhibitor if you factor in the time needed to walk from one booth to the next. A much more efficient new technology indicator is the NAB conference, running in parallel to the NAB trade show.

The transition from HD to 4K and 8K was a dominant theme for many camera manufacturers. Kazuhiro Otsuki and colleagues (NHK Tokyo) contributed a paper describing recent work on satellite-to-home transmission of UHDTV2: “In Japan, Super Hi-Vision test services are planned to begin in 2016 and commercial services are scheduled for 2020.

the media components (audio, video, and other data) are encapsulated in an optimised MMT-based format for low delay decoding and carried in MMTP packets.”

UHDTV1 or UHDTV2?

Kazuhiro Otsuki and NHK Tokyo contributed a paper describing UHDTV2 satellite-to-home transmission NHK has studied MPEG Media Transport (MMT) as a transport protocol for next-generation broadcasting

systems since it enables hybrid delivery using broadcasting and broadband networks. In the proposed transport scheme,

Thierry Fautier of Harmonic addressed ‘Ultra HD in 2014: A Real World Analysis’: “UHDTV (sometimes called Ultra HD) for broadcast is starting to gain traction around the world through a number of major trials. Efforts are underway within the EBU/DVB to specify the key parameters for broadcast applications in terms of frame rate, bit depth, and colorimetry. The broadcast networks are not ready for UHDTV and, in the preliminary stages when the audience is still

limited, it is unclear if a broadcast mechanism is the best way to carry UHDTV as opposed to VoD. OTT is expected to be the first service deployed.

“There is a debate on UHDTV1 (3840x2160) versus UHDTV2 (7680x4320).

Harmonic believes that the electronic technology as well as the available bandwidth and cost per bit transmitted/stored will only allow UHDTV1 in the short-term and that UHDTV2 is more of a long-term goal. Japan has gone on the UHDTV2 trajectory, while the United States and Europe seem to favour UHDTV1.

“OTT will most likely be the first UHD service but there are some serious challenges in terms of QoS and the business model. OTT content via cable and fibre seems the best combination from a technology viewpoint, while from a business viewpoint it might take some

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Wrap-Up time to reach an agreement with content owners. This year should be a transition period for UHD, preparing for video infrastructure deployments in 2015 in order to be ready for the 2016 Olympics.”

Terrestrial broadcasting beyond DVB-T2 DVP project director Peter Siebert, with co-authors from BBC Research & Development, Panasonic and Teracam, considered the future of terrestrial television broadcasting in their presentation, ‘Technologies Beyond DVB-T2’: “Currently, DVB-T2 is the most efficient terrestrial broadcast system, however, there are technologies which can improve its efficiency.

There might be two ways forward: a low complexity route and a higher complexity

IP-based television production networks Justin Mitchell and colleagues described the latest phase of an ongoing BBC Research & Development project: ‘Making Television Programmes using IP Networks’: “Over the last year, BBC R&D has performed a series of trials producing TV, radio and web programmes using IP production techniques and a research prototype called Stagebox which has subsequently been licensed for commercial deployment. In these trials, we have moved away from traditional broadcast technologies such as HD-SDI. This has enabled us to provide the full range of production tools, such as production talkback (four-wire), clean feeds, camera control and genlock, all over a wide area IP network.

“The current model for an ISP is a connection charge and

drawbacks. It requires a separate cable for each signal. It allows some multiplexing of different signals on one cable but this is rather limited, quite applicationspecific and not very flexible.

Additionally, SDI by design is only unidirectional, where in quite a few cases signal flow is also bidirectional, which means more cables, connectors and ports on the router. To allow for maximum flexibility, today’s installations typically have a central-router architecture with all signal sources and destinations connected to a router in a central location; locally generated signals have to travel all the way to the central router and all the way back, even if the signal is used only locally.

“The video data-rates used in broadcast infrastructures have for a long time been substantially higher than datarates that were commercially

“In Japan, Super Hi-Vision test services are planned for 2016 and commercial services Kazuhiro Otsuki, NHK Tokyo scheduled for 2020”

“OTT will most likely be the first UHD service” — Thierry Fautier, Harmonic

route. The first one consists of TFS/ANP, improved error control coding and nonuniform constellations. The higher complexity route would add MIMO on top of the aforementioned technologies.

Whereas the first approach would be simple to implement on the transmitter and receiver side (especially where a second generation terrestrial broadcast system has not been introduced before), the related effort for the second approach would be significantly higher and would involve replacing aerials and further components on both sides — transmitter and receiver. The latter route might still be justified by scarce spectrum resources available for terrestrial broadcasting.”

a multi-year contract, with a few months lead time to arrange for installation. This makes it harder for productions to budget an ongoing cost, and also be flexible at an OB location. A new model is going to be required by the industry where additional ISP capacity can be used on an ad-hoc basis.

A model where costs are per week, not spread over two or three years, and one where the cost of a link does not exceed the cost of a satellite link.”

Ethernet-based Audio Video Bridging Jan Eveleens of Axon Digital Design addressed the challenge of ‘Introducing Ethernet AVB Technology in Live Production Environments’: “SDI interfacing has significant

available in Ethernet-based installations. This changed with the standardisation and introduction of 10GbE (10Gbs Ethernet) in 2002. 40GbE followed a few years later and 100GbE is also available, albeit currently mostly as back-bone/ interconnect between Ethernet switches. 400GbE is currently being standardised by the IEEE and 1TbE (1,000Gbs Ethernet) is already on the drawing board. So, from a bandwidth perspective, Ethernet link speeds are growing much faster than any other communication technology, driven by the multibillion-dollar sized R&D budgets of the IT industry. With the AVB elements added to the IEEE Ethernet suite of standards, this is the most viable system to succeed SDI in live production applications, offering substantial cost and flexibility benefits to the broadcast industry.”

Will AVB be good enough?

Peter Chave of Cisco Systems delivered a primer on ‘Routing Live Uncompressed Production Video on IP Networks’.

“A nexus of three events is propelling the IP shift to a tipping point.

1. New standards such as SMPTE-2022-1 and 2022-6 are breaking down the industry’s reliance on proprietary techniques and systems. As we have seen time and again, robust

Geert-Jan Gussen, Axon, indicating one of the AVB interface boards

Peter Chave, Cisco Systems, delivered a primer on ‘Routing Live Uncompressed Production Video on IP Networks’ common standards are a strong catalyst to industry change.

2. Ultra high definition (UHD) video (4K and 8K) is here.

To support these enormously demanding services with today’s infrastructure, we are bundling dual and quad coax together.

Clearly, this is only a stop-gap as we look for a better solution.

Do we go with another ‘tobe- finalised’ standard or with a ubiquitous and rich set of existing standards?

3. 10Gb Ethernet is now where 1Gb Ethernet was just a few years ago; the technology is available at commodity pricing. A universe of compatible equipment exists at a range of price points to accommodate ever-tightening budgets. Additionally, the industry has already defined 40Gbps, 100Gbps and 250Gbps Ethernet standards, ensuring a long future.

“SMPTE-2022 is playing a central role in the industry transition to the all-IP studio by providing a suite of standards concerned with the transmission of compressed and uncompressed video over IP. SMPTE-2022-6, in particular, provides a wrapper that encapsulates uncompressed baseband video such as SMPTE 292M (and other signals), so that it can be carried in IP frames.

“Once these signals can be carried as high bit rate IP traffic, studios can take advantage of a wide range of existing, standardised, IP mechanisms to optimise media transport.

“Audio Video Bridging (AVB) is a suite of standards developed by the IEEE specifically for carrying time-sensitive data across networks. Its origins are in consumer, automotive, and some professional audiovisual applications. The standard includes some capabilities similar to IP, such as time synchronisation and bandwidth reservation.

“The drawbacks with using AVB today, however, are its limitations with regard to layer2 switching, which effectively constrain deployments to islands. Extending to layer-3 is a necessity for most medium-tolarge real-world deployments.

Work is ongoing to address the layer-3 limitations of AVB but the solutions chiefly involve enabling tunneling between islands. The key difference between this approach and that of SMPTE and AES67 is that the latter approaches begin natively at layer-3. It remains to be seen if AVB — with some extensions — will be deemed ‘good enough’ for professional audio and video.”

NAB 2015 Spring Convention NAB returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center next April for the 2015 Spring Convention.

The conference opens Saturday 11 April, running through to Thursday 16 April. The exhibition runs as usual 9am to 6pm from Monday 13 through to 2pm on the Thursday.

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Wrap-Up

IP and smaller profiles were main themes in audio product launches at NAB 2014

Audio over NAB The zeal for IP-based workflows and more compact solutions didn’t end with the image at NAB. The sound world pushed the same envelope. Neal Romanek investigated the hot new audio products A THEME that seemed to touch every corner of the NAB show floor was the imminent arrival — some said it had already arrived — of ubiquitous IP workflows.

Audio vendors were at the forefront of discussion and implementation of A/V-over-IP and more than a few companies made announcements about their compatibility with IP formats. RAVENNA and Dante becoming the two most popular girls at the ball — competing for partnerships with the big audio manufacturers.

TVBEurope sat down with Lee Ellison, CEO of Audinate, developer of the Dante Ethernet audio networking standard.

The company has its roots firmly in IT with Dante’s birth in the NICTA research centre in Sydney, and Ellison underlined the fundamental fact that is disrupting the entire media industry: “What we do is move data.”

Being able to see audio — indeed any media — as pure data to be moved, processed, delivered, consumed, is what has given audio/video-over-IP start-ups an advantage over more conservative companies.

Understanding that data is almost infinitely malleable allows developers like Audinate — and their partners — to imagine audio workflows in new ways.

“The biggest challenge we face,” said Ellison, “is the fear in this industry.” Though he

couldn’t envision a retreat away from IP workflows, the unwillingness to move into new creative workflows could lead to half-implemented solutions, which serve neither the traditionalists nor the forward-thinkers.

“We’ve tried to make it easy.

We think it’s important that the devices name themselves, that all the IP addressing is taken care of underneath. The reason we have a large (market) share is because we make it easy to integrate, install and use.”

Ease of integration was something virtually every company emphasised in their NAB product announcements, and often with a nod toward audio-over-IP, if not a full embracing of it.

Audio-Technica (A-T) held ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions at its booth, offering visitors a chance to interact with audio industry experts in an intimate setting. The A-T experts included Emmy Award-winning sports and Olympic sound designer Dennis Baxter, and Lenis Bent, who was the first woman to receive a platinum album for engineering.

The Avid booth featured demonstrations of the company’s Avid Everywhere vision, including Pro Tools cloud capabilities allowing realtime remote collaboration.

One booth presentation featured an elegant Pro Tools collaboration demo showing

Calrec’s new Summa console

DK T7 Stereo is DK-Technologies’ new entry-level audio meter how a producer in California and a sound designer in Florida would work collaboratively in realtime to build, mix and deliver a soundtrack for a television spot.

The Avid Everywhere concept extends through to monetisation, allowing Pro Tools users to access a virtual marketplace where they can publish files and mixdowns.

They can buy and sell audio content with customisable

Orban’s free Loudness Meter now features support for 7.1 surround

rights and price offerings or simply use the marketplace for promotion, to connect with other professionals, or to source content themselves.

Calrec came to NAB with a new console, Summa (rebranded when it was discovered the console’s original name ‘Callisto’ had been registered by another audio company). The Summa console is designed for intuitive operation in live broadcast

applications, simplifying complex workflow tasks with an easy-to-navigate GUI. The control surface is available in fixed 20-, 32- and 44-fader configurations.

Calrec also announced its membership in the AoIP RAVENNA community, entering into a partnership agreement with RAVENNA’s ALC NetworX. The company also announced development for Audinate’s Dante AoIP

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Wrap-Up network interface, available later this year.

Danish microphone maker DPA introduced its new d:screet Omnidirectional Miniature Necklace microphone, the heavy-duty d:screet 4060 and 4061 omnidirectional miniature microphones, and the d:screet omnidirectional miniature mics with reinforced cable relief.

Console manufacturer DiGiCo announced new features and broadcast-specific versions of its SD range of mixing consoles.

New features include eight additional Flexi busses for the SD9 console and eight Flexi channels for the SD11i and SD11B, support for Optocore DD2, DD4 and X6 R-series interfaces, Post Fade insert for support of the new Waves Dugan plug-in, the capability to bring AES output into the matrix and the availability of aux sends on subgroups on live software.

An entry-level audio meter was shown by Copenhagenbased DK-Technologies. The new DK T7 Stereo was aimed at engineers who only work with stereo audio, whether in radio, post production or recording music for CD release. A scaleddown version of the DK T7, the DK T7 Stereo has a simple touch interface and includes industry compliant loudness readings, Vectorscope, FFT spectrum analysis and loudness logging and reporting.

“We recognised that our DK T7 audio meter was perfect for engineers working in stereo, but that we could reduce the cost to them by removing multichannel capabilities and SDI interface,” said Uffe Kjems Hansen, product marketing director of DK-Technologies.

“Therefore, we have targeted the same tools for stereo metering, and made it a much more cost-effective bargain.”

Emotion Systems introduced Emotion Engine, a software engine developed to deliver CALM loudness compliance.

TSL debuted two versions of its new AXIUS Ethernet switches

Emotion Engine can be used as a manual, fully automated, or standalone solution, all integrated within an automated enterprise system. The Emotion Engine toolset includes loudness compliance, channel remapping, duplication, Dolby E and Loudness Range (LRA) monitoring.

Finnish monitor company Genelec offered its 8010 Active Monitor, the smallest monitor in its 8000 Series. The 8010 is suitable for professional work in small studios and OB vans and features a balanced XLR input, 3-inch bass driver, ¾-inch tweeter and Class D power amplifiers. Genelec also showed its 1237A and 1238A Threeway Smart Active Monitors.

The SAM monitors feature on-board intelligence that allows them to adapt to their environment by tuning frequency response to compensate for room acoustics.

In conjunction with Artel Video Systems, Harman’s Studer announced that Artel’s DigiLink platform has been deployed to transport Studer A-Link audio data streams across fibre infrastructure. The company also announced that Evertz will include A-Link as a standard direct interface into Evertz router products, offering a single fibre cable connection, providing 640 channels of ‘zero latency’ digital audio between the console and video router.

NETIA showcased new products including an enhanced iSnippet Audio Editing Tool for iPhone and iPad. The upgraded iSnippet enables iOS device users to edit and index media from mobile devices and also record and export ready-tobroadcast assets from the in-studio Radio-Assist database.

The company also showed the new web

Pro Tools realtime remote collaboration was demoed as part of Avid Everywhere

“What we do is move data”

interface for its RadioAssist automation solution.

The new interface allows users to access the NETIA Radio-Assist database via any mobile device to search, browse, ingest, edit, export and publish audio or video.

Among the new products highlighted by Orban at the show were new Optimod digital radio audio processors, including the Optimod 1552 multi-stream audio processor and codec. The Optimod 1552 offers an integrated audio processing and network streaming solution in a 2-U rack chassis and the first Orban processor for non-pre-emphasised audio channels that incorporates Orban’s MX peak limiter technology. The company’s Optimod-FM 5700 now offers the sound of its 8500 model in a 1U package. Ethernet connectivity is standard, as is a PC remote control application that runs on Windows XP and higher, and that can control many 5700 units on a TCP/IP network.

Orban also presented Version 2.7 of the free Orban Loudness Meter for Windows and Mac now featuring support for up to 7.1-channel surround, as well as the ability to analyse files off-line in common formats to measure their ITU-R BS.1770-3

Lee Ellison, Audinate

Integrated Loudness and Loudness Range.

“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. The company has improved its MediorNet family of realtime networks for video, audio, data, and communications.

Among these refinements was the enabling of direct integration of Riedel MediorNet realtime networks with Studer consoles and cores. The new A-Link interface module gives Studer users a scalable audio routing system offering I/O capacities in excess of 10,000 I/ Os. The integrated system may be configured to provide a video and audio routing solution with de-embedded audio from the SDI streams being sent to the Studer consoles, with the return signals then embedded back into the video.

Riedel’s new AVB manager software solution provides generic AVB control for IEEE 1722.1-compliant AVB devices.

It automatically detects and enumerates available AVB devices, supporting straightforward connection management via an intuitive GUI. At NAB, Sennheiser announced its support for the Dante multi-channel audio networking standard. “By joining this standard, we will be able to optimally cater to our customers in the broadcasting and live sound worlds,” stated Claus Menke, head of portfolio

management pro for Sennheiser’s Professional Division. The first product to make use of the network technology will be the company’s Digital 9000 wireless microphone system (see Menke’s contribution to our Audio For Broadcast focus on page 34).

Solid State Logic launched two new consoles, the C100 HD PLUS and C10 HD PLUS. The C100 HD PLUS is a large format broadcast console for news or sports and the company claims it delivers more processing than any previous SSL broadcast console. The C10 HD PLUS is a compact digital broadcast console that comes in sizes from 16 to 48 faders. The console is geared toward mid-scale broadcast facilities and can be built into vans for ENG operations. SSL also debuted its Network I/O: MADI-Bridge, a broadcast spec bridge between industry standard MADI audio format and Dante.

This is SSL’s first IP audio network interface. The company chose to utilise Audinate’s Dante technology because it met their technical requirements and had a critical mass that had greater appeal to the company than other AoIP solutions.

TSL Products launched its AXIUS range of managed Ethernet switches for audio/video over IP workflows. The AXIUS series comes in two versions: MES-1, a ten-port managed Ethernet switch offering eight 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and two 1Gb Ethernet SFP ports; and the MES-1-R, an eight-port switch with Neutrik latching connectors, built for challenging environments.

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Audio for Broadcast

Audio/video-over-IP broadcast revolution: The wave of the future

By Martin Dyster, head of audio, TSL Products THE BROADCAST industry is poised on the threshold of major workflow and equipment changes as manufacturers and studios explore the vast benefits of an audio/video-overIP infrastructure. While this scenario is more of a migration than a stampede at this point, the implications for the future of broadcast production are very bright indeed. Audio/video-overIP is a means to stream audio and video content over Ethernet LAN, WAN or Internet Protocol (IP) using open standard or proprietary protocols. The advantage of this infrastructure migration has far-reaching benefits that will affect every level of production by reducing installation complexity and cost, while increasing efficiency. This efficiency and cost benefit will allow for more programming options that might include local sporting events, for example, that are not covered now because of on-site production expense.

With audio/video-over-IP transportation, realtime mixing and editing, for example, can be carried out remotely from the main broadcast facility, rather than from an OB vehicle.

While all this is very promising, bringing the audio/ video-over-IP world under one synchronous and low latency infrastructure standard, or group of standards working together, is the main challenge facing the industry. As the equipment needed for this A/V migration is just now coming into play, the second challenge will see the production infrastructure beginning to change over from SDI and router-based to Ethernet, high-bandwidth switchers and internet connectivity.

Audio roots While the audio portion of the audio/video-over-IP equation, audio-over-IP, has been active for the last decade, the use of the technology has been limited to workflow elements such as remote contribution circuits and closed

The economy of scale will favour Ethernet over SDI in both price reduction and innovation infrastructures such as studio communications and inter-mixing console connectivity. The biggest drawback facing broadcasters using audio-over-IP has been the lack of interoperability between proprietary protocols and latency within shared or open

network systems. Also, where closed networks may guarantee quality of service (QoS) and fixed latency, shared networks can guarantee neither of these and severely restrict mission critical applications as a result. The list of proprietary audio-over-IP

protocols is extensive with several of the more popular versions, such as Dante, RAVENNA, RockNet, Livewire and CobraNet, being supported by multiple vendors.

It wasn’t until recently that the Audio Engineering Society (AES) took the initiative to improve protocol harmonisation by releasing the AES67 standard. AES67 proposes “an interoperability mode for transport of hi-performance audio over networks based on Internet Protocol”. The document further defines ‘hi-performance’ as implying low latency at sample rates of 44.1kHz or higher and resolution of 16 bits or more. Other recommendations, essential for television broadcast infrastructures, include signal synchronisation, clock identification, encoding and streaming, which will go a long way towards rationalising nonopen standard protocol use.

This interoperability mission is a giant first step in bringing disparate systems together to work in harmony within a facility to handle the ever-increasing complexity of producing audio for broadcast. Embedded SDI has given us a means to transport up to 16 channels of synchronous audio within a video signal, MADI supports 64 channels over a single coax or fibre, but audioover-IP, depending on bandwidth and data rate, is comparatively limitless in terms of channel count. The eventual marriage of audio with a video stream still leaves the door open for a grand open standard solution.

Bridging the gap The introduction of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Audio Video Bridging (AVB) open standard may well be the answer to the question that the broadcast television industry has been looking to solve in regard to audio/video-overIP workflow migration. AVB is a set of non-proprietary networking standards that has been developed by an IEEE committee as an extension of Ethernet, arguably the gold standard of digital networking.

AVB is a superior method for

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Audio for Broadcast transmitting audio and video streams with greater flexibility, improved reliability, and low latency within a facility.

Having developed initially as an ‘audio-over-IP’ solution, it provides advantages that meet the rigorous application requirements of the pro A/V market, and these improvements are now being developed for use within the broadcast sector as companies such as Riedel, Axon, Calrec and Avid introduce AVB solutions. The AVnu Alliance, the group tasked with AVB certification, now boasts 60 manufacturer members that include Dolby and Harman.

Additionally, the 2013 market for layer 2/3 Ethernet switches was around $22 billion worldwide, while the SDI router market approached the $300 million mark. Clearly, the economy of scale will favour Ethernet in both price reduction and innovation. It should be noted that other evolving and established protocols such as Dante, Ravenna, Stagebox and SMPTE 2022 will continue to be adopted in future, but now that AVB has finally arrived after years of development, interoperability with AVB will be a must-have across the board.

The future is now For IP to actually replace SDI within a broadcast infrastructure, programme makers across all genres and playout providers will need to be able to control and manipulate signals quickly and dynamically within the IP domain.

With TSL Products’ knowledge and product base encompassing more than just audio monitoring, it has become one of the first industry manufacturers to offer broadcasters a smooth pathway through the audio/video-overIP revolution. Migrating over to an IP infrastructure will have a profound impact on how facilities are built and how programming is produced in the future. Indeed, a major US TV network is currently building one of the world’s most advanced TV production facilities using an AVB audio backbone featuring TSL Products’ PAM1 and PAM2 AVB monitoring units in key positions across the facility.

The PAM AVB models are currently designed to sit within a hybrid environment where multichannel audio connectivity linking router, console and comms is over an AVB network. SDI is still used for transporting embedded audio

associated with HD video. The units offer audio confidence/ loudness compliance monitoring with features including dual OLED/LCD displays, video monitoring screen and 16 bargraph-type meters.

Audio-over-IP and AVB are here now, in use in varied applications throughout broadcast and, while a world without SDI may still be a little way off, we are witnessing the beginning of a transition from the old to the new. Live remote

production using bi-directional camera contribution links over IP, using technology such as Stagebox, marks an innovation in the way events can be produced by potentially removing the need to roll up a large OB truck

for the broadcast of minority sports or localised events.

With momentum and interest growing rapidly in an IP-based future, TSL Products is proud to be on the leading edge of this revolution.

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Audio for Broadcast

Mixing the future: How fresh thinking is transforming audio consoles

By Tom Graham, pro audio and pro mixing segment marketing manager, Avid IT’S AN exciting time for audio professionals. The rate of progress and innovation in the technology that serves our industry has been stunning and oftentimes a bit overwhelming.

Undreamed-of heights have been reached in audio quality, and the ability for audio professionals to achieve greater levels of creativity with sound and music are just some of the incredible benefits being experienced.

This progress is, however, matched by a tremendous increase in complexity of TV and film post as well as the broadcast workflows and results in major challenges facing audio

Last year Avid introduced the Avid S6 modular EuCon control surface

professionals. There is now a multitude of platforms on which to deliver audio and there is also intense competition for customers on those platforms.

Technology advances have allowed a lower-cost entry to creating and authoring, while consumption occurs on-demand

anywhere, anytime. Increased creativity and power also has a flipside, as sessions become more complex and the number of deliverables is on the increase.

Mixers and sound supervisors tell us that the reason for the former is basic human nature: as technology allows the options

to expand, producers and directors love the flexibility and choice. A prime example of this was the Oscar-winning Pro Tools ‘in the box’ mixes for Gravity. Re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay wanted the mix to be virtual from the start and to work very quickly because director Alfonso Cuarón, “always wants to address the broadest range of possibilities, he wants to try everything. We needed to do sophisticated work quickly, to be able to record that and save it in Pro Tools automation.”

Bigger track counts, tighter budgets Additionally, session size and track counts continue to grow bigger and are harder to manage, as well as deadlines

and budgets becoming tighter – not to mention the shrinking available physical space. To handle these challenges, mixers need to be more efficient and ergonomic in their workflows.

These concerns are common to the many pro music and post mixers we consulted with over the last few years, as well as chief engineers at major facilities.

Broadcasters are facing bigger challenges today, too. There is more legislation regarding broadcast levels, and mix deliverables and versioning have grown exponentially, it seems.

As with consumers, talent is increasingly mobile and/or working remotely, which adds further strain to traditional infrastructure. Efficiency and confidence in proven workflows are critical to meet these big challenges, while modern, responsive equipment that works well together is vital.

It became clear that a multifaceted solution to all these concerns was required; an open and integrated audio workflow that could connect audio

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Audio for Broadcast professionals, even remotely, and enable broadcasters to easily manage a variety of formats and deliverables. To address those needs, at NAB 2013 we released Pro Tools 11.

Later in the year at IBC 2013, we introduced the Avid S6 modular, customisable EUCON control surface.

This development was in response to evidence that the industry is ready to move beyond the traditional monolithic console. Mixers desire a high-density, ergonomic, expandable system with easily configurable workflows. Ergonomics, such as reach, tactile interaction, and visual feedback, are paramount to the mixer and should not obstruct or interfere with the sound. Equally desirable are rich visual feedback like professional metering, EQ curves, panning feedback, routing and scrolling waveforms to cue the mixer. Consoles need to be scalable in both width (number of channels) and depth (channel features and controls).

It’s important that such a

system builds upon proven technology and workflows, but also has the flexibility to control other apps – and in a deeper way than just the HUI protocol.

The dream system should cover a wide variety of physical sizes and price points, all of a high build quality.

Our conversations with audio professionals have shown that firmware updates and an expandable design, based around a set of small control modules that can be configured together, is also important.

Users need to scale or grow their system and it should all connect easily together and be simple to set up, much like ICON was. The S6 is already being relied upon for broadcast mixes by leading post production companies such as Technicolor in Toronto.

Facility-wide integration of solutions such as mixing consoles, DAWs, video editing systems and storage is also key if broadcasters and media companies are to adapt their workflows to address the changing media landscape.

The Farm: Building loudness into the mix In the TV post production universe, The Farm needs no introduction.

The company’s senior dubbing mixer, BAFTA winner Nick Fry, offers his experience on loudness compliance FOUNDED IN 1998, The Farm Group offers the full spectrum of sound and video post production, 4K and HD editing, and stereoscopic 3D services from our locations in London, Bristol, Manchester, and Los Angeles.

Our group has worked with international producers on many of the world’s most prestigious and highly-rated long-form TV programmes. Since the majority of these programmes are distributed in major media markets around the globe, loudness compliance has become a primary factor in our audio work.

Introducing CALM

The Farm has locations in London, Bristol, Manchester, and LA

With the CALM Act now in effect in the US and new loudness standards spreading across Europe and the rest of the world, the reality of having to monitor and manage audio loudness in addition to myriad other production tasks has sunk in. It became critical to adopt tools and plug-ins that could provide effective loudness control without disrupting our workflows or the creative process that’s so important for a good audio mix. After a few trials and errors, we

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Audio for Broadcast arrived at a winning solution: the NUGEN Audio Loudness Toolkit, consisting of the VisLM realtime visual loudness metering tool, LM-Correct for offline analysis and correction, and ISL for standard-compliant limiting.

Our earlier experience with loudness meters prior to adopting the NUGEN Audio suite convinced us that we needed a realtime metering solution that could offer reliability with an easy-to-read visual display. After testing meters from many different vendors, we chose VisLM, a visual loudness metering plugin that provides detailed and objective loudness measurement, history, and logging facilities in compliance with ITU, ATSC and EBU standards. Also, VisLM is compatible with our new ProTools 11 workflow, which enables us to perform a faster-than-realtime bouncedown to correct levels. VisLM is now our predominant loudness metering tool, with 20 licenses installed in The Farm’s audio operation.

BAFTA winner Nick Fry is senior dubbing mixer at The Farm Most important, VisLM offers a loudness metering solution that helps us deliver compliant audio without interfering with our creative process. Some of the loudness meters in our previous experience were filebased, which meant we had to play the entire programme out in advance to monitor and adjust loudness – taking away valuable time we needed for the creative process. As a realtime meter, VisLM is not only reliable but easy to use, with a highly intuitive graphical display that lets our audio mixers see instantly whether loudness levels are within

acceptable limits. That means we can keep an eye on loudness parameters while we’re creating the mix. At The Farm, all of our audio engineers are highly experienced, and their ears provide a reliable gauge of whether or not the mix is compliant; that is, within -24 LKFS/-23 LUFS target value that most loudness standards specify. They just need to glance at the VisLM screen occasionally to confirm that they’re on target.

Further testing We’ve also purchased a licence of NUGEN Audio’s LM-Correct as a backup in case the mix needs additional manual correction. Since time is obviously of the essence after the mixing process, LM-Correct offers intuitive corrections and an automatic method of rapidly conforming the audio to the loudness standards. We don’t use LM-Correct often, since VisLM is an ideal tool for getting loudness right during post production; still, it’s a great tool to have if we need it. We’re

VisLM is now The Farm’s predominant loudness metering tool, with 20 licenses installed in its audio operation

also in the testing stage with ISL, NUGEN Audio’s intersample true-peak limiter, which offers great promise for helping us tighten up true-peak limits of audio output.

Loudness compliance is a fairly new concept for post production professionals everywhere, and The Farm is no exception.

NUGEN Audio’s loudness plug-ins have played a significant role in getting us here, and we appreciate how approachable the NUGEN Audio team has been and how they’ve helped us understand the ins and outs of loudness measurement and correction.

best solution, and the one that offers the most creative freedom, is one that enables engineers to make the mix loudness-compliant during post production. With VisLM, loudness just becomes one more factor to be considered alongside other audio variables.

We believe we’re on the leading edge of delivering loudness-compliant audio that is satisfying to both consumers and creative professionals. www.farmgroup.tv www.nugenaudio.com

Maintaining creativity NUGEN Audio’s philosophy of loudness compliance is one that we wholeheartedly NUGEN’s LM-Correct plug-in “is a great tool to share — that the have if we need it”

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Photo: Chino Lemus

Audio for Broadcast

The rise of HD audio HIGH-QUALITY IMAGES have been high on the agenda in broadcasting for quite some time. While the professional AV industry is now talking about 8K technology, we are seeing 4K cameras arriving in a fastpaced prosumer field.

Adding soul to images Higher quality audio capture might not seem to be as much in the spotlight yet — but only at first glance. Sound may have always been a bit less spectacular than pictures, but throughout the industry, and beyond, there is the firm conviction that sound adds ‘soul’ to the images — and that an unprofessional soundtrack will be detrimental to the overall impact of a broadcast, film or video. Human beings have a feeling for sound quality, and a very holistic view of the final product. Those of you who ever had to watch a DVBT broadcast with a minimal, yet irritating, delay between image and audio know what I’m talking about.

The broadcasting industry has already taken a leading role in bringing HD audio to its audiences — audio that is a match for their HD pictures. At Sennheiser, we are tackling this issue from two sides: we want to set a benchmark in audio quality and also help with solutions that smoothly fit into the broadcasters’ established workflows.

in the UHF range – the only digital wireless system currently able to do this. This combination of UHF range and loss-free, compander-less audio allows broadcasters to operate professional multichannel wireless systems in the digital realm too. The biggest system implemented so far was used at the last Eurovision Song Contest, which made use of a total of 96 Digital 9000 microphone channels.

Feeling part of the action Another asset of this system is a massive workflow improvement in the set-up: on the RF side, the system is designed so carefully that it produces virtually no intermodulation products.

Another important aspect in the audio experience for viewers is 5.1 surround sound. Sports broadcasts are among the leading formats that employ 5.1, to enhance the live experience for the TV audience and make them feel part of the action. A typical issue in 5.1 used to be the number of microphones needed and thus the complexity of integration of the microphone technology – a problem which Sennheiser has with its new Esfera surround microphone system.

Esfera basically consists of an array of two high quality MKH microphones in XY-configuration and a separate 19-inch processing unit, which decodes the stereo sound of the two mics into 5.1.

“We want to set a benchmark in audio quality and also help with solutions that smoothly fit into the broadcasters’ established workflows” No frequency calculation is required — the frequencies can simply be placed at equal distances within the frequency spectrum.

The system employs an algorithm that has been perfectly matched to the frequency response of the microphones, and converts the two mic signals

Sennheiser’s system With the development of the Digital 9000, Sennheiser has designed a wireless microphone system that is able to transmit uncompressed digital audio

Mexican singing star Benny Ibarra with Sennheiser’s Digital 9000

Photo: R. Kruse

By Claus Menke, head of portfolio management for Sennheiser’s Professional Division

Claus Menke, Sennheiser head of portfolio management pro

into the five surround signals using highly advanced beam forming principals. The processing unit is fitted with a studio grade A/D converter for the analogue inputs as well as AES3 inputs and AES3 outputs.

The parameters of the algorithms can be adjusted to taste from almost any device (including mobile) through the built-in web server.

The workflow advantages are obvious: mic integration via standard XLR cables, transmission of the mic signal via any multi-channel audio network or even wireless, conversion into 5.1 at any point in the workflow – whether directly at the microphone, in the OB van or in post production. For those

filming documentaries or working in ENG, for example, it will be sufficient to just take the compact microphone array to the location and perform the decoding into 5.1 later in the studio. As only two channels are needed, and most professional cameras sport four audio channels, the mic leaves enough channels open for an interview mic and a boom microphone. And your (surround) audio will travel with the video since all editing can be done on a stereo track instead of a 5.1 stem. Esfera can also be used with wireless cameras, nicely embedding the two channels of audio into the video stream.

Capturing an interview on the playing field with the surround sound from that exact space really creates the ‘be there’ experience to sports coverage.

I am certain that the importance of high quality audio will continue to grow, and that the commitment of the broadcast industry to quality will continue to spread.

May 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 35

Audio for Broadcast

THE NEW

G&D CONTROLCENTERDIGITAL For where you’ve gone and where you’re going

Show rimes TV series Shameless used DPA microphones technologyr during Season 4 filming

DPA Mics take Shameless role THE US version of comedy-drama series Shameless used DPA Microphone’s 4071 d:screet Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones on set and on location during filming of Season 4. The microphones were selected by Joe Michalski, production sound mixer for Shameless, and Mike Riner, head of production sound at the studio.

“We’d always read good things about the reliability of DPA Microphones and, of course, the clarity and the consistency of the sound of the products,” said Michalski.

“We did 12 episodes in Season 4, during which we used eight of the d:screet 4071 mics. I never once experienced a problem with them. With our previous microphones, we noticed that over time the sound started to become different from one to the next, so sometimes we had to use the worst ones just to make sure we had a consistent sound. With the d:screets, I could be using 20 different mics and they all sound exactly the same. That is a definite highlight for me.”

In order to conceal the microphones, the d:screet 4071s were usually hidden on a piece of the actors’ clothing, made possible because of the thin diameter of the mics’ cables. Designed for use as a placement mic, the d:screet 4071 has a low-cut acoustical quality incorporated into the capsule to serve as a built-in pre-amp. It also has a built-in boost to compensate for the loss of vocals when placed at an angle on the actors’ chests.

To protect the d:screet from the wind on location in Burbank and Chicago, the sound crew had to cover up the mic heads.

“There were times when my hands and head were freezing, and my headset didn’t work very well,” recalled Michalski. “But, I’d get back to the hotel at the end of the night and play back the audio and I’d realise that the recording still sounded great and was something that the editors could actually use.” The d:screet is built with a resistance to moisture and extreme temperature change. www.dpamicrophones.com

Jünger Audio fills processing gap

By Neal Romanek FOLLOWING DOLBY’s decision in 2013 to discontinue its DP570 Multichannel Audio Tool, dynamics specialist Jünger Audio claims to be the only company in the world that can supply a product to fill the gap.

The company says that its D*AP8 MAP Monitoring Audio Processor, which was on show at NAB 2014, is the only Loudness processor on the market capable of offering realtime metadata emulation as standard. This feature allows broadcast engineers in postproduction, DVD and DTV facilities to check the quality of Dolby Digital AC3encoded audio prior to transmission so they can monitor exactly what the

consumer will ultimately hear.

“Metadata emulation is very important to the broadcast community, especially those working in the USA where the ATSC has specified that all audio must be Dolby AC3 encoded prior to transmission,” says Jünger Audio’s CEO Peter Pörs. “Every set-top box in the USA — and in many other countries, too — has a Dolby Digital decoder installed as standard. These decoders receive audio metadata, which is the unique ‘data about data’ delivered by Dolby Digital bitstreams.

“Metadata is important because it ensures that television audiences at home hear their programs the way producers and content creators intended them to be.” www.junger-audio.com

Leading the way in digital KVM www.gdsys.de

The new G&D ControlCenter-Digital is the KVM Matrix Switch that’s ready to integrate with your broadcast equipment and installations today. Modular and able to adapt to virtually any environment, it’s also ready for the future.

As a modular system, transmission cards can be CAT or fiber or both and can be replaced during operation. Each port is flexible, to be used as an input or output. The ControlCenterDigital is cascadeable and fully compatible with the G&D DVICenter. Like the DVICenter, it also provides brilliant video quality, is intuitive and has an easy to configure user interface, a monitoring facility and SNMP. The system supports all relevant signals – single-link DVI, PS/2 and USB keyboards and mice, audio, USB 2.0 transparent and RS232. For high video bandwidths, a dual-link DVI/Display Port will follow. A host of other features include the capacity for multi-monitor workstations with CrossDisplay-Switching, three redundant power packs (replaceable in operation) and, of course, G&D’s renowned solid build quality.

For the stations and studios of today and for the ever changing demands of the road ahead, the new ControlCenter-Digital from G&D.

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Forum

In the mix Too often, audio post often takes second place to its video counterpart when it comes to talk of innovation. As part of our Audio for Broadcast focus, this month’s Forum gathers leaders in the field of sound mixing. Philip Stevens moderates BAD SOUND techniques can destroy a production just as readily as poor picture quality. So, where are we today with advances in audio technology? How have the ongoing loudness issues impacted on audio equipment makers? Is audio QC still down to the engineer’s ears?

To air their views, TVBEurope has invited (in alphabetical order) Sam De Pauw, VP, Salzbrenner

Stagetec; Niall Feldman, director of new products, SSL; Henry Goodman, head of sales and marketing at Calrec; Andrew Hills, product director, Studer Professional Audio; Martin Kloiber, VP audio product management, Avid; DiGiCo’s VP of sales, Ian Staddon, and technical director, John Stadius, and Christian Struck, senior product manager audio production, Lawo.

The loudness discussion has occupied minds for some time. What role do manufacturers of audio equipment play in those talks?

De Pauw: Within the Salbrenner Stagetec group we delegated one of our employees to actively take a role in the EBU/PLoud sessions/discussions.

Feldman: Loudness has been the focus of both standards and legislation over the past few years. That inevitably has been both a source of concern

for broadcasters and a source of opportunity for equipment makers. Being aware of, and involved in, standards discussions is important to anticipate what might be required, what may be desirable and, importantly, advise on what’s likely to be unfeasible. Loudness in Europe

has been a good example of how standards can be usefully and efficiently progressed.

Goodman: The role of a responsible manufacturer is to anticipate industry trends and to create tools to help customers avoid potential issues. This involves working very closely with customers, end users and industry

bodies like the AES, the IPS and the IABM to keep abreast of changing policies. The loudness debate has been rumbling on since the mid-1980s, and it is only relatively recently that the EBU and the Calm Act have imposed specific levels. As manufacturers, we have a responsibility to ensure that our development initiatives provide our customers with the equipment to continue to do what they do best — creating interesting and absorbing content.

We continue to keep a keen eye on the developing discussions concerning loudness content on mobile devices.

Niall Feldman, SSL

Martin Kloiber, Avid Kloiber: Equipment makers play a big role in the discussions. The broadcast customers face many challenges with loudness and level requirements and they communicate their needs and challenges to us. This is often at odds with what the content creators intended for their mix.

In other words, movie mixes are created with a different dynamic range and for different playout levels than commercials, and yet they often live side by side.

Plus, there are many standards out there, each of them targetting different usage scenario. Our job is to try to integrate solutions that they ask for and make them seamless.

For instance, in Pro Tools HD 11, we incorporated 17 different metering scales and ballistics that broadcasters and music mixers asked for, in addition to support for loudness metering with a host of plug-ins.

Struck: Even though the loudness discussion has been triggered by broadcasters and standardisation committees like EBU, it’s obvious that the manufacturers have a key role, as they have to provide the loudness measurement-capable equipment. Since the algorithm has been kept fairly simple, the industry was able to implement the loudness tools quickly and without major difficulties.

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May 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

“The best QC is still the engineer’s ears, and having an accurate listening environment is as important as it ever was” — Henry Goodman, Calrec

Narrowing that down a little. Have you made any changes to your equipment/ systems to handle loudness issues?

De Pauw: We incorporated loudness metering inside Nexus, this involved some hardware changes as well as specific software.

Feldman: SSL launched a metering product, the LMS-16, which provides a MADI connected, multi-channel loudness metering solution.

This integrates with our digital consoles and can also be used as a stand-alone device. Based on MADI and using an HDMI video output, it is easily and usefully connected to plant routing infrastructures for a flexible loudness metering solution.

Goodman: Calrec has responded to increased global emphasis on monitoring loudness levels by incorporating comprehensive loudness metering into all its consoles.

Loudness meters can be placed onto upstand TFT meter panels alongside regular audio level bargraphs, right in the operator’s line of sight, and can be assigned to main outputs, groups, auxes, tracks, external inputs and PFL busses. Each displays a variety of meters.

Hills: Studer Vista consoles are equipped with RTW loudness meters. The TM7 custom version includes different presets such as loudness metering according to ITU (BS1770 and BS1771), ATSC (A/85) and EBU (R128) recommendations in both stereo and surround.

PPM bar-graphs with many international scales, movingcoil instrument emulation and audio vectorscope displays are included.

Kloiber: Our Broadcast DSP consoles have made changes to integrate third-party tools for loudness metering. We also have new tools to support loudness metering like our new Pro Limiter

plug-in for Pro Tools. This supports loudness monitoring while our new control surface S6 offers the ability to view many different metering standards on the Meter Bridge — as well as integrated scrolling

Sound Mixer

Forum

waveforms. We also bundle plug-ins with loudness monitoring with our video editing software for broadcasters, Media Composer.

Struck: Lawo was following the standardisation process very

closely and, in addition, carried out in-depth scientific research on this topic. As a result, Lawo was the first console manufacturer to implement all live broadcast relevant components of the loudness

measurement standards in 2011. Unlike many others, our products can provide loudness measurement not only in master buses, but also in inputs and subgroups, which provides an extra benefit to the user.

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For more information on delegate bookings contact: Debbie Opeyokun +44 (0) 20 7354 6001 debbie.opeyokun@intentmedia.co.uk

PREVIOUS ATTENDEES INCLUDED: 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

38 TVBEurope

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Sound Mixer

Forum Have you found that demands from broadcasters for audio consoles have changed over the past few years?

De Pauw: Customers expect more flexible and compact systems, both on the I/O as well as the consoles themselves.

They also need larger amounts of DSP to cater for 5.1, stereo and international sound as well as total control from external systems.

Feldman: We have seen a move to smaller, simpler, broadcast production consoles over the past few years. We have also seen a rise in the use of production automation systems. This is partly the result of more capable processing making life easier for operators, plus a move of smaller stations from analogue to digital production technology.

Hills: We are seeing increased demand for broadcast production consoles across TV and radio applications.

Andrew Hills, Studer Professional Audio

Users are demanding more integration with other thirdparty systems.

Kloiber: Yes, they are typically looking for a smaller physical footprint and yet have a need for more channels/DSP processing to handle bigger multi-format audio productions. They are also looking for networked I/O and shared DSP to share between different rooms and consoles.

They want flexibility and easy scalability. Particularly in sports, there has also been a push for smaller, more powerful OB trucks and therefore they are looking for lighter weight equipment.

Staddon: Yes, the requirement of 5.1 processing alone affects many aspects of the consoles.

Not least the channel count of the console, but also the need for up mix and down mix to and from stereo and, of course, monitoring. Interfacing to the video world seamlessly, either directly or through router system by the implementation of differing ‘protocols’ is an additional requirement.

Struck: Since the complexity of productions constantly increases, broadcasters request

more and more tools that enable them to handle their daily business easier. Many of these requests refer to 5.1 workflows for productions with ever increasing channel count. In this context, it is obvious that there will be a need for state-of-the-art consoles capable of managing these challenges in the future.

for many years. Managing up mixing and downmixing to maintain a consistent surround performance from all types of production source is an essential part of a modern broadcast production console’s capabilities.

Kloiber: Yes — definitely.

Previously, stereo was the

Is the ability to provide conversion of stereo signals to surround sound now a standard feature on most consoles?

Feldman: Yes, all SSL’s broadcast consoles have supported surround operation

Ian Staddon, DiGiCo

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Sound Mixer

Forum dominant format. Now 5.1 multichannel mixing is common and stereo downmixes can be generated automatically, if the user decides to do so. System 5-B offers this functionality across many formats. Pro Tools also offers built-in downmix capabilities.

Struck: From our perspective this is a must for a modern, 5.1 capable desk. Lawo introduced its AMBIT upmix functionality in 2010.

Is there an increased call for audio-over-IP applications, and do they require different mixers/ mixing techniques?

De Pauw: Audio-over-IP is integrated through our Nexus routers. We keep all core routing within the TDM since it provides zero latency. Having to deal with a combination of low latency audio-over-IP signals with low latency signals coming to the mixer won’t make the sound engineer’s task easier.

Goodman: With specific reference to consoles, the art of mixing hasn’t changed.

Connectivity, with particular reference to control protocols and interoperable standards, has provided the most exciting possibilities. This is the Holy Grail — a networking standard that allows the use of a single high capacity network for all of a broadcaster’s infrastructure, with equipment monitoring and control protocols, together with some kind of system management, with all the equipment being able to talk to all of the control protocols on the network, irrespective of its manufacturer. The management of these exciting resources is one of the most important challenges facing all manufacturers in the broadcast arena at the moment.

Staddon: Yes, to a certain extent, but there may still be a degree of nervousness about

Where do you stand on the pros and cons of CPU processing as compared with SHARC and FPGA chips?

Henry Goodman, Calrec who in the engineering world has ultimate control of the system. Is it IT, or audio? Many places still want to keep the two domains separate. Our optical system allows us to be standalone as well as interface with other formats for networking.

broadcast products are already fully compliant, since AES67 is basically a sub-set of the RAVENNA audioover-IP specification. Even if audio-over-IP includes extra challenges for the audio and the IT departments, it’s our philosophy to

De Pauw: CPU processing gains momentum, but mainly for external plug-in servers. Broadcasters expect their systems to be up and running in seconds and can’t wait for an OS to load.

FPGA, as opposed to SHARC, is more of a strategic decision; and we use both in our systems. FPGAs allow use of a

“Customers expect more flexible and compact systems, both on the I/O as well as the consoles themselves” Sam De Pauw, Salzbrenner Stagetec Struck: There is definitely an increased call for audioover-IP applications. With AES67, this development will get another push. Lawo’s

seamlessly integrate audioover-IP capability into our products in order to keep mixing techniques as intuitive as today.

large number of processing channels on a single chip, for some applications that’s exactly what you need. Using SHARCs, however, allows

us to create much more modular systems.

Feldman: We have been pioneering the use of native CPU DSP in some of our digital products, but we also extensively use SHARC and FPGA processing in others. All three technologies have their extensive pros and cons for design and manufacture. We’re not sure that a user would appreciate (or care about) many of these, other than the speed of support and processing power evolution that using CPU processing promises. At the end of the day, provided that the software has been compiled correctly, a filter coefficient calculation should give the same result, regardless of the hardware platform on which it is executed.

Goodman: Calrec is firmly of the opinion that FPGAs are the only viable option for large-scale DSP processing.

There are applications where using FPGA couldn’t be justified economically, but it comes into its own when there are hundreds of channels of audio to be processed. The twin advantages are sheer power — Calrec’s Bluefin2 implementation provides over 1,000 channels of processing, with no sharing of resources — and resolution and dynamic range. When Calrec looked at the maths, using fixed point rather than floating point on FPGA allowed us to vastly improve on the

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Forum communicate with other complex production systems, such as automation, routing and comms systems. These complex demands have led to consoles with integral networked routing being commonplace and support for router and control protocols a necessary feature.

Hills: All of our consoles have been part of a network for some

the fly and provide any number of channels required.

Mixing consoles that instantly connect to a network and can be complemented by a variety of network-enabled devices, integrated with facility-wide non-blocking I/O routers capable of routing and processing any media format with over 10,000 I/Os.

“There may still be a degree of nervousness about who in the engineering world has ultimate control of the system. Is it IT or audio?”

John Stadius, DiGiCo performance of off-the-shelf DSP cards.

Hills: SHARC and FPGA chips have been widely used for large-scale audio processing and mixing. However, the industry has found it rather difficult to implement flexible audio processing in FPGA chips because making one small code change can mean a complete code retest of the whole system. Studer offers field configuration of the signal processing, which is not practical with FPGA technology. The development in processing power of CPU chips has vastly exceeded that of SHARC chips in the last 15 years (4,000-fold for CPUs against 22-fold for SHARC chips). Now, the availability of standard hardware and the latest multi-core CPU chips is able to offer many hundreds of channels of audio processing with low latency. CPUs offer the most flexible of DSP engines, which we can expect to grow (without complex and costly hardware redesigns) as the CPUs continue to get more powerful.

Stadius: Most CPU-based audio processors use multi-core devices. The main control operating system (Windows, Linux, etc) runs on one core, while the others are dedicated to realtime audio processing.

This has the advantage that it’s all on one chip. However, this can also be a major disadvantage. If you ever get an application error requiring a reboot, it will also reboot the audio. Having a separate DSP or FPGA system prevents

Ian Staddon, DiGiCo

Christian Struck, Lawo this, and keeps the audio flowing all the time. A CPUbased audio engine also relies on only having one block of common memory. This has to be shared by the operating system and the audio processor.

This can be a major bottleneck when large amounts of audio delay are required. A CPU based processor requires far more power than a FPGA processor. A SHARC/DSP system is comparable to that of a CPU one. Finally, a CPUbased processor is generally more expensive that its FPGA equivalent.

Is the best QC still the engineer’s ears? Or are automated audio QC procedures now fail-safe?

Goodman: We have spent a lot of time and research with customers across the globe to develop our GUI, especially on our latest line of consoles.

Our EQ facilities are easy to manipulate and very visual, but in a high-pressure environment of mixing a live show, the best QC is still the engineer’s ears, and having an accurate listening environment is as important as it ever was.

Kloiber: The engineer’s ears and eyes are still the best judge (as they can see the waveforms of the stems as well). Offline rendering is now possible and can be used for faster-thanrealtime deliveries if needed.

Staddon: These two are harder for us to reply on, but in real terms the QC is designed as a failsafe to fit in with levels and should not be used to replace the artistic ability of the mix engineer. Mixing by numbers never delivers the same end results for the viewer.

Have developments in other associated equipment — such as routers and networking systems — meant changes in consoles?

Feldman: Consoles are no longer the hub devices they once were. They still bring together many signals and processes. However, they are also key components in generating content for significant and complex distribution systems. Consoles now need to interact and

years with our Re-Link I/O sharing system. But to handle the increased channel count of this new mixer, we have also developed a new expanded I/O system called D23m. This uses a new up-to-1,500-channel super high capacity audio interface called A-Link. In collaboration with Riedel, we have also developed a distributed router, also using A-Link interfacing, capable of routing in excess of 10,000 audio signals.

Staddon: Not so much from a processing point of view, but more on an interface level, with the in-built routing as well as the integration of different protocols allowing for external control, automation, label transfer, and so on.

Struck: Networked audio systems, as originally introduced

by Lawo, have been pathbreaking and influenced workflows, as well as console designs. This puts us in a comfortable position for the next step in broadcast, which we see in the transition to a complete end-to-end IP-based workflow for both audio and video.

What is the next big innovation to be introduced into audio mixers?

De Pauw: Flexible, consoleindependent modular DSP cores that can be tailored on

Goodman: For many broadcasters, a decline in training resources and a general de-skilling of specific job roles has lead to a requirement for much simpler interfaces. While broadcasters will still require broadcast features and the reliability they expect from broadcast specialists like Calrec, they may not necessarily need a vast array of facilities to hand.

We feel that simpler consoles which ease operators through their mix will be increasingly useful in specific broadcast environments like local news, or in developing regions.

Hills: We work closely with our customers to constantly deliver new innovations.

We have just launched one of the most comprehensive and powerful mixing systems in the world; the Studer Infinity System and the Vista X console.

This new Infinity Processing technology is expandable and currently capable of 800-plus audio channels able to manage up to 10,000 inputs and 10,000 outputs.

Kloiber: You will see more integrated touch screen technology (much like our S6 surface), although faders, knobs and switches are still absolute requirements. Smaller footprints and networkable I/O and DSP are in the future for sure. www.avid.com www.calrec.com www.digico.biz www.lawo.de www.roland.co.uk www.stagetec.com www.solid-state-logic.com www.studer.ch

dam RAI RAI Amster Amsterdam Conffe erence 11-15 September | Exhibition 12-16 September

IBC2014 Discover More forefront more creative, IBC stands at the for efront of innovation, drawing mor e than 52,000+ cr eative, technical professionals from comprehensive and business pr ofessionals fr om over 170 countries. It couples a compr ehensive espected peer rreviewed eviewed today’s exhibition covering all facets of today’ s industry with a highly rrespected conference develop.. confer ence that helps to shape the way the industry will develop Also, take advantage of a variety of extra special features included as part of your registration at no extra cost: IBC Content Everywhere

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TVBEurope 43

May 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

One in three homes will receive TV signals via satellite by 2017 — up from one in four in 2012

Satellite Focus

The satellite industry: onwards and upwards SNG, DVB, LNB, OTT, ACM, DRM – for fans of satellite industry three-letter acronyms (TLAs), there was no better place to be than this year’s NAB. Ian McMurray reports ACCORDING TO some estimates, one in three homes will receive TV signals via satellite by 2017 — up from one in four in 2012. In regions where an existing TV infrastructure is less well developed, such as the Middle East and North Africa, Eutelsat believes that the number could already be as high as nine in ten. At NAB this year, it was those prospects for growth — and what that growth might look like — that were top of mind for satellite companies.

For many visitors, faced with a future that isn’t entirely predictable, ‘flexibility’ was high on their list of careabouts — along with the need to drive profitable revenue. Exhibitor 2wcom was responding with four new products on its NAB booth. The company’s new AIC audioover-IP encoder/decoder is described as a multipurpose solution for in-house distribution in broadcasting centres, with multi-service infrastructure and centralised administration. The FlexNsert DAB+ Distribution Inserter is claimed to offer versatile distribution options via satellite with advanced bandwidth saving and regionalisation, while the FMC01 is, according to 2wcom, a ground-breaking compact codec for high-quality FM MPX contribution and distribution via IP or E1 (G.703). The company was also highlighting a new solution for SFN FM networks that is said to provide assured microsecond-accurate synchronisation for implementing FM SFN networks with existing analogue transmission infrastructure.

Swiss Army knife “Our product development is driven by broadcasters’ increasing need to make use of a wide variety of infrastructure options, and to increase revenue through effective regionalisation of content and advertising,” said Werner Drews, managing director at 2wcom.

“Our SIRC (Satellite In-band Remote Control) technology provides a very effective regionalisation capability that allows networks to drive up income streams.

“All our products combine a big range of capabilities,” continued Drews.

“This means they can be used in widely varying ways, giving customers a lot of infrastructure flexibility and backup options, while still enjoying the benefits of using the same device, from one supplier. In fact some customers use the phrase ‘Swiss Army knife’ to refer to 2wcom products. This multi-role

supporting linear channels with playout and delivery services,” continued Jecko.

“It’s about the logistics involved in getting content from wherever it’s coming from to wherever it’s going to, and managing media through often complex, multi-party workflows and enabling specialists to collaborate in the preparation, packaging and delivery of content.”

Christine Jecko, Globecast: “Flexibility, scalability and suitability” versatility of the product line is highly regarded by today’s broadcasters.”

Also focusing on flexibility at NAB was Globecast. “Flexibility, scalability and suitability — those are the three watchwords that are central to being able to create bespoke packages for our customers,” noted the company’s vice president of marketing, Christine Jecko.

“The company enables tailored solutions for content providers of all shapes and sizes, creating the technical foundations that power monetisation.”

New monetisation tools were featured extensively on the company’s stand, which Globecast said help broadcasters maximise their revenues while handling the technical complexities associated with providing content to multiple platforms, in multiple formats, across multiple territories.

NAB also saw the first major launch of Globecast XN, which the company said is a key element of its portfolio. Globecast XN is said to allow users to quickly, easily and cost-effectively expand their content to new market audiences around the globe using the public internet network, and enable the delivery of live channels to IPTV and OTT platforms. It also allows those users, according to Globecast, to expand into new markets while limiting risk, significantly reduce backup link costs, collect feeds from event sites and deliver to the broadcaster, and quickly set up a last mile solution where dedicated fibre is unavailable.

No longer just linear “Of course, linear channels are still a major part of our business, but our sector is no longer simply about contribution or

and TSOIP to deliver what WORK describes as an advanced self-contained solution, with service providers able to transport up to six simultaneous video and data streams via a single TSOIP carrier. In addition, the DVB-S2 Broadcast Modulator platform supports next generation DVB-S2 extensions, providing satellite operators with a future-proof device.

Other technologies being showcased

by WORK included carrier ID support for the company’s DVB-S2 Broadcast Modulator. Through carrier ID support, WORK said that operators can define the modulation, channel coding, and signalling protocol intended for the identification of the host carrier to eliminate or reduce radio frequency interference between satellite signals and deliver a higher quality of service to customers.

WORK Microwave also used the opportunity provided by NAB to

“Flexibility, scalability and suitability — those are the three watchwords that are central to being able to create bespoke packages for our customers” Christine Jecko, Globecast Many visitors to NAB were also talking about consumer demand for high bandwidth services, and what that might mean in terms of the transition to IP — and, it seemed, trying to prepare accordingly. For many, that meant heading to the WORK Microwave stand, where the company was demonstrating its DVB-S2 Broadcast Modulator which integrates both DVB-S2 multi-stream

introduce its Video ACM System, which can transport multiple MPEG transport streams — up to six — and IP data into a DVB-S2 multistream, enabling simultaneous transportation of data (network connection) and live broadcasting (video content) over a single satellite carrier.

“We believe that our Video ACM System sets us apart from the competition

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Satellite Focus because it was the first technology of its kind available on the market,” said Joerg Rockstroh, product manager, modem technologies. “Ideal for point-to-point contribution links and Ku- and Ka-band optimisation applications, the Video ACM System offers a broad range of features and benefits.”

Manual becomes motorised Also talking about Ka-band at NAB, and showing off its capabilities with the technology, was Vislink. The company was showcasing its manual and motorised MSAT satellite data terminals and announcing its 2.4m Newswift antenna, as well as discussing with visitors the implications of its March acquisition of Pebble Beach Systems which Vislink said allows it to offer its global broadcasting clients a complete scene-to-screen solution.

The company said that the 2.4m Newswift antenna has been created to meet demands from Vislink’s customers in the African, APAC and Americas regions where a larger reflector is often needed, not only for broadcast purposes but also use by government departments.

The motorised MSAT is also the product of customer feedback.

“The industry is always looking for increasingly portable, yet high

quality, broadcast equipment,” said the company’s marketing operations manager Mark Anderson. “After all the talk about Ka-band and the evergrowing need for rapidly deployable SATCOM systems, Vislink has been working hard to meet these needs.

Following the success of the manual MSAT and demand from our customers for enhanced speed and mobility, Vislink developed a motorised version. The motorised MSAT is again a full tri-band optioned system with one button auto acquire, designed to meet the needs of customers across America for instant HD satellite newsgathering.

“The Motorised MSAT is a key piece of the puzzle for meeting the needs of broadcasters on the move,” he continued. “The fact that Vislink’s MSAT range can be easily transported anywhere in the world, and can be made operational within minutes, makes it ideal for transmitting a high speed data connection from any location.”

Another company with a recent acquisition to talk about was Eutelsat, who concluded an $831 million deal for Satmex (now Eutelsat Americas) in January.

“With the acquisition of Satmex, Eutelsat is significantly upscaling activity in the Americas to complement our strong

SatLink offered demonstrations of its OTT solutions

presence in fast-growing markets,” said Markus Fritz, director of commercial development and marketing. “Satmex’s strategic orbital slots, which will be expanded in 2015 with two further highperformance satellites, bring Eutelsat a robust platform from which to access significant opportunities in this region.”

Encrypted content Eutelsat also unveiled more of the unique features of its ‘smart LNB’. Leveraging the ability of the smart LNB to provide a satellite return link for Digital Rights Management, a live demo showed how encrypted content can be securely viewed in the home on fixed and mobile screens, enabling users beyond terrestrial networks to have a full Connected TV experience by satellite.

The ‘smart LNB’ is described by Eutelsat as a new-generation electronic feed connected to an antenna with an embedded transmitter for interactive applications such as HbbTV, pay-per-view, social networking, personal subscription management and live show participation (voting, comments and so on). It will, according to the company, transform mass market direct-to-home satellite services by enabling broadcasters and platform operators to bolt interactive value-added services onto broadcast platforms, circumventing viewer dependency on terrestrial fixed and mobile networks.

Over on the SatLink booth, the NAB focus was very much on OTT. “OTT has been talked about at length for a couple of years but only now is it coming to the forefront with broadcasters and other parties ready to adopt this technology,” explained David Hochner, CEO of SatLink. “This trend is by no means going to die down and we are expecting to see a real increase in the next 12 months of OTT technology deployments as the theory finally becomes a reality.”

Among the demonstrations offered

by SatLink was the opportunity to see its OTT solutions in action. For broadcasters and operators, these solutions include an end-to-end cloudbased interactive TV platform for any

Markus Fritz, Eutelsat: “Eutelsat is significantly upscaling activity in the Americas” device and any network. The end-to-end OTT platform is claimed to provide multi-channel live streaming, VoD and PVR features, creative monetisation solutions, wide analytics tools and more.

“What we believe we have is a solution that truly demonstrates the potential and benefits of interactive TV that is of a professional broadcasting standard and is easy to navigate, watch and, more importantly, sell on multiple devices and cross-screen,” concluded Hochner.

The company was also promoting its new DVB-S2 platform on Hotbird at 13.0 East to Europe at the show. Providing access to more than 123 million homes across Europe, and in partnership with Sky Italia Network Services, SatLink said that the service has been developed to meet the growing demand for HD content on a premium satellite to reach direct to home and the cable, satellite and pay TV markets. Already in use by Fashion TV, the company believes that this platform will provide the highest audience penetration across Europe.

It supports the Sky Italia Conditional Access (CA) system.

As ever, NAB provided an exciting insight into the satellite industry — from the perspective not only of what it has achieved, but also of what it still needs to achieve as it stands poised to become the dominant medium for bringing content to consumers, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.

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Satellite Focus

Satellite redundancy: switching to security Simen K. Frostad, chairman of Bridge Technologies, outlines how a Scandinavian telco has recently upgraded its backup infrastructure with the company’s Intelligent Redundancy Switch MOST MAJOR networks and service providers today are investing substantially in measures to increase resilience, extend coverage, and deliver a higher service quality. Quality enhancements come in many forms, but one of the key areas in this initiative is the provision of stronger backup resources to ensure continued service in the event of a technical failure in the main production chain. Backup infrastructure can now include more than one alternative chain, using a variety of technologies to transport the signal and often mixing satellite, ASI, and IP. With this palette of backup options to choose from, broadcasters and telecoms networks are now also searching for the most efficient and effective ways of switching between main and backup chains – possibly multiple backup chains – when problems do occur. There is an increasing demand for improvement over the previous generation of crude black box switchers and ETR alarm analysers, which have tended to provide an unsophisticated approach to a problem that needs a more subtle solution.

Simen K. Frostad, Bridge Technologies

Security in Scandinavia One of the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, has recently implemented a new backup infrastructure using one of the latest generation of switching devices designed for the new era of advanced backup solutions – the VB273 DVB-S/S2 Intelligent Redundancy Switch from Bridge Technologies.

The aim was to build a more secure redundancy solution that could be deployed decentralised. In these circumstances, robustness and an in-built capability to make switching decisions accurately and without delay, were high on the telco’s list of requirements.

Providing carrier-grade redundancy switching for the new infrastructure, the VB273 incorporates an automated decision engine that uses the full range of analysis capabilities developed by Bridgetech for its digital media monitoring systems, to provide a nuanced and precise evaluation of signal integrity. A signal tap from each input is transferred to an RF interface for RF signal detection and TS transfer to the controller module running the ETR290 analysis engines. The advanced ETR290 analysis functionality evaluates a range of key criteria and feeds the data to the decision engine, which compares error condition results against user defined rules to determine the correct automated action.

The VB273 module works with a VB272 and VB120 in a redundant chassis to monitor two signals from dual production chains and switch to the backup chain if the main chain fails. To ensure a high degree of integral resilience, the system features a dual-redundant powered chassis and magnetically latched relays. Even if the power should fail, there will be signal pass-through and the VB273 card can be removed with intact cabling, without causing signal disruption.

There is a demand for improvement over the previous generation of crude black box switchers

“The path that helps aim was to build the engineer maintain a clear a more secure understanding of operational redundancy status. solution that Since redundancy could be deployed switching is required decentralised” inoften locations that

For any eventuality In the event of failure and the possible need to override routine operation settings, the switch can operate in a fully autonomous mode, or with remote control from an NMS or both, or with a SuperLocal mode, which disables any remote commands. For on the spot manual operation, the front panel design’s illuminated controls show a visual signal

are remote and difficult to access, both the autonomous capability (or semi-autonomous operation in conjunction with the NMS) and the

manual override mode are important.

But the key difference between this and the previous generation of redundancy switches is the quality of the autonomous decision-making, which makes the unit capable of delivering value to the broadcaster both through the greater security provided, and in the cost reductions achieved by running a more intelligent solution that can be trusted to operate with much less human intervention. This, in turn, has implications for the scope and design of backup operation that companies can now contemplate. www.bridgetech.tv

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SES has grown from what one commentator described as an “upstart” to, by revenues and fleet size, the world’s largest satellite operator

Satellite Focus

SES: 25 years of blistering success In April, Romain Bauch stepped down as president and CEO of satellite operator SES after nearly two decades in charge. Chris Forrester spoke to him about the company’s past, and its new trajectory APRIL MARKED the end of Romain Bausch’s 19 years at the helm of communications giant, SES, as he stepped down as president and CEO. He has been appointed Chairman-elect of the Board of Directors. The new CEO is Karim Michel Sabbagh, well-known in the industry from his time at consultants Booz & Co and an existing member of the SES board.

Sabbagh stresses that he is not going to dramatically change what has been an outrageously successful business model.

Indeed, under Bausch’s leadership, Société Européenne des Satellites has grown from a 64-channel system to today’s 6,200+

an “upstart” to the world’s largest satellite operator (by revenues and fleet size).

Astra 1A was launched in December 1988, and went ‘live’ with a portfolio of 16 channels that included four from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television (Sky Channel, Eurosport, Sky News, Sky Movies) in February 1989, so its broadcasting 25th anniversary was just a couple of months ago. Incidentally, that debut satellite is still orbiting (although no longer in use).

That success has also been predicated on a number of dramatic industry ‘firsts’: SES pioneered direct-to-home transmissions; it was the first to co-locate satellites at the same orbital position

“We ultimately decided that Europe was different from the USA, and that SES’s position in the value chain should be as the satellite infrastructure and technical service provider, and that we should not go down the value chain” Romain Bausch standard-definition channels and some 1,700 in HD. It has also grown from what one commentator described at the time as

(at one stage, eight satellites at 19.2˚ East) and the first to tap into Europe’s enthusiasm for pay-TV. The list could go

A lifetime of launches To suggest that each and every satellite launch represents a headache for the complete team of launch engineers, satellite technicians and SES’ specialist personnel is the greatest understatement ever.

Everyone will do their very best, of course, but it also represents a financial headache that not even the best insurance policy can mitigate. The list of 40 satellites launched represents a superb lifetime’s work.

SES missions 1995-2014* Astra 1E October 1995 Astra 1F April 1996 Astra 1G December 1997 Astra 2A August 1998 Astra 1H June 1999 Astra 2B September 2000 Astra 2D December 2000 Astra 2C June 2001 Astra 3A March 2002 Astra 1K November 2002 (failed) AMC-9 June 2003 AMC-10 February 2004 AMC-11 May 2004 AMC-15 October 2004 AMC-16 December 2004 AMC-12 February 2005 Astra 1KR April 2006 AMC-18 December 2006 NSS-8 January 2007 (failed) Astra 1L May 2007 Sirius-4 (aka Astra 4A) November 2007 AMC-14 March 2008 (failed)

AMC-21 Astra 1M NSS-12 Astra 3B SES-1 SES-3 Astra 1N SES-2 QuetzSat-1 NSS-14 Astra 4B SES-6 Astra 2F Astra 2E SES-8 Astra 5B Astra 2G SES-9 SES-10

August 2008 November 2008 October 2009 May 2010 April 2010 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 September 2011 (aka SES-4) February 2012 (aka SES-5) July 2012 June 2013 September 2012 September 2013 December 2013 March 2014 Spring 2014 1H/2015 2H/2016

*Projects and missions initiated when Romain led the company

Romain Bausch, anticipating retirement on, and include Europe’s first-ever digital transmissions (Canal Plus 1996), as well as dominating UK, French and especially German broadcasting. SES debuted HDTV transmissions in late 2003. It was the first commercial operator to use Elon Musk’s privately-funded SpaceX/Falcon rocket system.

Looking back Bausch, looking back, admits that the SES purchase in 2001 of GE Americom, the huge 13-satellite US-based satellite operator, and then taking over global operator New Skies Satellite in 2006 “were really big events” and paved

SES Stats Market capitalisation European reach Global reach

€16.4 billion 151 million TV homes 291 million TV homes

the way for the global expansion that followed.

Bausch is hugely modest, even about these massive infrastructural changes.

But it is worth remembering that so many elements of broadcasting that we take absolutely for granted today were — at their time — massively risky.

48 TVBEurope

Audio for Broadcast The whole aspect of satellite broadcasting was itself hugely controversial and violently opposed to by almost all of Europe’s governments and public broadcasters, not least

the BBC which didn’t care one bit for the threat of the ‘upstart’ channels from a certain Australian.

He admits that in its early days SES might have missed an

opportunity when some industry players wanted the satellite company to itself launch a copy of DirecTV. “We ultimately decided that Europe was different from the USA, and A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket lifts SES-8 into space from Cape Canaveral (December 2013) that SES’s position in the value chain should be as the satellite infrastructure provider and technical service provider, and that we should not go down the value chain,” he says.

Satellite gambles SES launched digital TV with a bouquet for Canal+ in 1996, and in 1998, a huge digital bundle of channels from BSkyB. However, looking back at a long series of historical successes, it is all too easy to ignore the very real challenges that also existed at the time. Would digital TV catch on, for example?

It was by no means certain that Europe’s viewers would adopt the new broadcasting technology, let alone consumers around the rest of the world.

A major question concerned pay-TV and how it might progress in Germany, France and the UK. The signs looked good, but there were no guarantees and in Germany the risks and threat of digital TV failure were extremely real and hugely expensive for investors (German pay-TV is only now moving into profit).

The very nature of satellite broadcasting was also called into question as Europe’s well-established broadcasters readied themselves for a transition from a few terrestrial analogue channels to the potential offered by digital transmissions. The costs of a satellite and its launch (together anything between $250 million and $300 million) and a working life of 16-17 years means that it is an inherently risky business.

There are the ever-present risks of launch failure, which could severely upset even the best laid business plans.

Bausch has been at the helm during a period of spectacular growth, not just for SES but for the broadcasting industry worldwide. Where would the industry be without satellite TV? The SES’s fleet of 55 satellites from 37 orbital slots that girdle the Earth is an impressive legacy for any business, as are the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have flowed from satellite channels.

Date: Tuesday, June 3rd 2014 Venue: BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

PROGRAMME AND SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED For details visit www.beyondhdmasters.com

Formidable line-up of speakers will include:

John Ive Director of business development and technology for the IABM

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David Wood Chairman of the World Broadcasting Unions Technical Committee, Consultant, Technology and Innovation at European Broadcasting Union

Stephan Heimbecher Head of innovations and standards at Sky Deutschland

WHO SHOULD ATTEND Directors of Technology, Heads of Production at independent production companies, Directors of equipment rental or hire, Heads of Outside Broadcasts, Production Managers, Senior Directors, Heads of Cameras, Chief Engineers, Programme Operations Managers, Stereographers, Producers, Directors of Broadcasting, Studio Directors, Technical Consultants, Research Engineers

Richard Mills Chief Technical Officer at ONSIGHT

Andy Quested Head of Technology for HD and UHD, BBC

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WHY ATTEND? Discover the media eco-chain for ultra-HD Hear from the world standardisation leaders Case studies from high-profile production trials Find out the future for 3D TV in Europe Tech insights into frame rates, codecs, formats Meet the key market influencers and vendors Network with technology & production colleagues Know what the Beyond HD roadmap looks like PREVIOUS ATTENDEES INCLUDE Orange, ITV, Sony Pictures, Arqiva, 20th Century Fox, Telenor, Panavision Europe, BBC, S4C, Discovery Networks Europe, Sky, Pro TV, Siemens, MTV International, Dolby, EDU, Digital TV Group, Deluxe, Cambridge Research Systems Ltd, BKSTS, Bath University, Atlantic Productions, Finnish Broadcasting Co.,Fountain Studios, France Telecom/Orange Labs

Ruth Sessions Director of Operations at Atlantic Productions

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To book your tickets visit: www.beyondhdmasters.com or call Debbie Opeyokun +44 (0) 20 7354 6001 For details on sponsorship opportunities, please contact: Ben Ewles on +44 (0)207 354 6000 or ben.ewles@intentmedia.co.uk

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50 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com May 2014

News Review

By Melanie Dayasena-Lowe

Codex’s bombproof pipeline: Codex recording and workflow technologies have been used in the production of several Hollywood movies.

Marvel Studios has used Codex recording technology to streamline the capture-to-post workflow on several high-profile productions, the most recent of these being Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Cinematographer Trent Opaloch chose to frame the action in a widescreen anamorphic format, captured by ARRI Alexa Plus cameras shooting ARRIRAW with a 4:3 sensor and Codex Onboard S recorders.

“The most important thing for me was to get the best image, with the best camera system, using a bombproof pipeline from camera to edit,” said Opaloch. “Marvel has had a great, successful run over a number of pictures with Alexa and Codex. They’ve invested in Codex Vault. I was very happy with the Alexa/Codex combination. Technically, I never felt any restrictions.”

For Marvel’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, Newton Thomas Sigel ASC shot native 3D using dual ARRI Alexa M cameras, Codex recorders and TS5 3D rigs from 3ality, with Codex recording up to 60fps in ARRIRAW for each channel. www.codexdigital.com

The new Spatial Isolation Toolset works with all the associated additional object information, enabling the simple selection of any object or group of objects, providing total interactivity with respect to blending objects together through the use of Mistika’s advanced grading tools.

A FreeRide for Blackmagic This year’s Swatch FreeRide World Tour by The North Face, which showcases skiers and snowboarders at the top of Europe and North America’s biggest mountain ranges, was streamed live using a Blackmagic Design broadcast infrastructure, including the Teranex 2D Processor and ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher.

Three tons of broadcast equipment was helidropped on to the mountain, where a 14-person production crew assembled the unit in a heated tent to protect from freezing cold winds of up to 100km/h.

Six ATEM Camera Converters and more than 3km of optical fibre cable were used to position six cameras at the finish line, judges’ and presenters’ positions, while wireless cameras were positioned at the start gate and on a helicopter for wide angle shots. The fibre signals were converted back to SDI via two ATEM Studio Converters and routed through a Smart Videohub router to an ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher. www.blackmagicdesign.com

SGO unveils toolset SGO has announced the development of the Spatial Isolation Toolset to its Mistika DI, Grading and Finishing system for Mistika version 8.2

Spatial Isolation offers object separation inside the colour grading workflow, using the information provided by the previous effects and compositing systems. This means it is no longer necessary to spend time attempting to fine-tune an object’s integration with its surroundings with the slow and non-interactive capabilities provided within effects systems. www.sgo.es

Shure for Saracens Shure wireless microphone and in-ear monitoring systems featured heavily at the Wembley Stadium-based Rugby Union showdown between Saracens and Harlequins in March.

Richard Nowell Sound Services (RNSS), together with live sound consultant Roger Lindsay, was responsible for the live sound before and during the match.

“I’ve mixed the live sound and provided broadcast feeds for the past seven years at Wembley for all the NFL games,” explained Lindsay, “so the Saracens CEO, Edward Griffiths, thought I would be the ideal person to talk to. Edward is a big believer in making each Saracens game a spectacle involving music, light and sound, in the interests of giving the fans something extra.”

According to Nowell, four channels of Shure UHF-R wireless were used for the soloists in the Rock Choir, with Beta 58 handhelds, while the Oasis tribute act played live and used a standard live setup with cabled Shure SM58s. www.shuredistribution.co.uk

Sony trials 4K in Madrid Sony performed further 4K live production trials during ‘El Clásico’ at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid in March. In partnership with the technical services supplier MediaPro. Two Sony PMW-F55 35mm 4K cameras, each capable of capturing more than eight million pixels, were used to film the game live. The 4K images were viewed on two Sony PVM-X300 4K monitors in full resolution.

This successful 4K trial opens the door to making the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Spanish football league the first in the world to bring regular 4K broadcasts to the 2014-2015 season.

This new 4K trial serves as another rehearsal in the build-up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, for which Sony will be responsible for providing every single minute of live match footage in full HD, as well as producing the final in 4K. www.pro.sony.eu

DreamWorks opts for FLIX DreamWorks Animation has adopted the FLIX software solution by The Foundry for use in the pre production of animated features.

According to DreamWorks Animation writer, animator and director Jill Culton, “FLIX has been an essential tool in streamlining our story workflow process bringing it into the digital realm. We are now able to easily drop in our reorder storyboards, reducing time-consuming manual tasks that used to take us out of the creative flow.”

FLIX is a web-based visual story development tool and allows artists to find better and faster ways to draw and share storyboard panels.

Gregory Brentin, director of Workflow, DreamWorks Animation, said the tool will also be used for projects in development for TV distribution. www.thefoundry.co.uk

Jewel restored: Thirty years after it was first broadcast on British television, BBC Studios and Post Production’s Digital Media Services team has digitally restored and remastered over 30 hours of film from The Jewel in the Crown for ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

With the original series shot on 16mm film, much of it on location in rural India, the challenging brief for the team was to integrate the 1980s source footage with a variety of variable quality archive and historical footage so that the 13 restored episodes had a consistent look and feel throughout.

Kevin Shaw, lead technologist at BBC Studios and Post Production Digital Media Services, explained: “No two remastering projects are ever the same and they all pose their own particular challenges. But ultimately our job is to extract the finest possible images from whatever material we’re working with. This is always tricky when combining many different sources of footage of vastly differing quality. It’s a painstaking process to manually check and restore each image frame-by-frame but it means that we can ensure that every single detail is optimised for the viewer.” www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com