TVBE Nov 2013 digital edition

www.tvbeurope.com

Europe’s Television Technology Business Magazine

November 2013

Russian football gets graphic at Liga-TV HD news revolution for Denmark’s TV 2 Our full IBC2013 wrap-up

TVBEurope’s Fergal Ringrose bids farewell

TVBEurope 3

November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

News & Contents

4K and cinema:

At war or together forever?

BKSTS, THE society for the film and television industry in the UK held a panel discussion this month on ‘The Merging of Film and TV’, in association with the BFI. Chaired by BKSTS president Roland Brown, a panel of industry experts shared their views on ultra-high definiton technology, 4K television and cinema, and their future relationship.

Paul Scanlon, director of BT Media Broadcast UHD production, opened the discussion with a presentation on how BT Vision, in association with Ericsson, recorded a live multi-camera 4K/UHD production of a rugby match and broadcast it as-live to IBC in September. He questioned whether there was room for celluloid, arguing that “digital is moving forward and we have to embrace it.�

Milan Krsljanin, business development manager at ARRI shared a more positive outlook on film: “Hopefully film will last a long time because it is a beautiful medium.�

Television productions now rival film, Krsljanin argued, with BBC productions like Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders shot in the same quality as major films — “they really look outstanding.� As a result, “cinema needs to raise the bar and offer more than what’s available at home.� Krsljanin sees this as a “golden opportunity� to increase frame rate and dynamic range to encourage more people to pay for the cinema experience.

Panel members (front row) Andy Quested, Peter Wilson, Milan Krsljanin and Simon Gauntlett with (behind) BKSTS president and panel Chair Roland Brown

Moving cinema into the home Rather than more people visiting the cinema, the future will see the cinema experience moving into the home, commented

In agreement with much of Johns’ comment was Andy Quested, head of technology BBC HD & 3D. Audience demand for better colour, luminance and frame rate is

delivered to audiences. 4K comes with a cost — in workflow, cabling, storage etc.

As such, 4K productions will at first be limited to special events such as ballet performances, concerts and sports. There is also the question of audience demand — although the technology may be available to deliver such productions, broadcasters “actually need the audience that wants to see it. It’s a question of using the technology appropriately for the right venue, audience and content.�

Simon Gauntlett, technology director DTG, also placed an emphasis on content and raised the issue of how best to present content to the viewer. The merging of TV and cinema means that we have to move away from strict categorisation: “We are moving to a world with different types of content.�

“It’s when things move too quickly they start to fall apart. You need to take the time to do it, to get it right�

Chris Johns, chief engineer Broadcast Strategy, BSkyB Chris Johns, chief engineer Broadcast Strategy, BSkyB. More people are investing in bigger TV screens for their homes, with “84-inch becoming increasingly popular.� In Johns’ opinion, progression should happen gradually. “It’s great when things don’t move too fast,� he said. “It’s when things move too quickly they start to fall apart.

You need to take the time to do it, to get it right,� he concluded.

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growing, and we are “moving to a point when cinema and TV will merge to give us something better than real life.�

Despite this positive outlook, the practicalities of delivering such a service still need to be considered. Alison Hutchins, senior propositions manager BT Media and Broadcast, BT Wholesale, argued that “until compression technology is developed further� it cannot be

Things are moving at a rapid pace and the quality of some TV productions is now rivaling that of film, despite smaller budgets. Whether the “beautiful medium� of film remains popular is open to debate, though it seems cinema will have to offer audiences more if we are to apply Scanlon’s comment to the future of TV: “Technology moves forward and it wins in the end.�

Contents 1-25 News & Analysis Off the stage After 20 years at TVBEurope, Fergal Ringrose departs the editor’s chair 4 14-36 IBC Wrap-Up A look back at the new products, ideas and debates at this year’s IBC, held in Amsterdam in September, including reflections from key industry figures 14 New camera round-up: The evolution revolution David Fox looks at the new cameras and acquisition technology showing at IBC2013 18 Cheeseman scouts the clouds for Sky Neal Romanek talks with Sky’s head of advanced production and innovation on Sky’s relationship with the cloud 26 38-39 The Business Case Tim Thorsteinson departed as Grass Valley’s president and CEO in 2001. Now he is back, and makes time to catch up with David Fox 38 40-49 The Workflow Sport illustrated Philip Stevens discovers how Liga-TV is keeping up with Russian viewer demand for increasingly immersive football coverage 40 Progression and Evolutions Evolutions has branched out from Soho to open a new post production house in the south west of England. Holly Ashford finds out more about the Bristol facility 44 50 News Review A look back at some of the month’s most exciting stories from the broadcast technology industry 50

4 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2013

Opinion

EDITORIAL Editorial Director Fergal Ringrose tvbeurope@mediateam.ie Media House, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland +3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799

‘A little insight, hard work, great team and enduring passion for the business. If that’s my legacy at TVBEurope, I’ll happily take it’

Acting Editor Neal Romanek neal.romanek@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 Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington Associate Editor David Fox USA Correspondent Carolyn Giardina Contributors Mike Clark, David Davies, Richard Dean, Chris Forrester, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett, Heather McLean, Bob Pank, Nick Radlo, Philip Stevens, Reinhard E Wagner Digital Content Manager Tim Frost Office Manager Lianne Davey Head of Design & Production Adam Butler Editorial Production Manager Dawn Boultwood Senior Production Executive Alistair Taylor Publisher Steve Connolly steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk +44 207 354 6000

Off the stage

By Fergal Ringrose

BY THE time you read this I’ll have departed the editor’s chair at TVBEurope. I stepped down from the brand at the end of October.

I actually made this decision almost a year ago, returning home to Dublin from the 2012 Royal Television Society’s annual Thames Valley dinner.

Walking through Heathrow airport, the thought suddenly occurred to me that 2013 would mark 20 years since my first issue of TVBEurope — and with that realisation came an immediate and clear decision that it was time to step aside and let someone else take up the reins.

I went home that evening and headed up into the attic with a torch to dig out my first issue of TVBEurope. And there it was, at the bottom of a box of back issues — a yellow-paged, dust-laden April 1993 issue.

Twenty years. Decision made.

But I also knew it could not be just a question of walking straight out the door at that point. On top of our regular publishing schedule and editorial calendar (already fully mapped out for 2013) we also had commitments to deliver our Beyond HD Masters and IT Broadcast Workflow events in

June and July, and of course to publish The IBC Daily through the September show on behalf of the IBC Partnership.

Having been there at the start of TVBEurope in 1993, I’m enormously proud of its growth from debutant to marketleading title for the European broadcast technology business.

In print, events and digital I leave the brand in excellent shape with a superb team in place for future success, led by acting editor Neal Romanek, staff writer Holly Ashford, editorial production manager Dawn Boultwood, sales manager Ben Ewles and sales executive Richard Carr, and publisher Steve Connolly.

In that first issue in 1993 we carried stories about the battle between 1125/60 and 1250/50 as nascent standard for high definition broadcasting in Europe; the launch of the Digital Betacam compressed digital component VTR format; introduction of the Open Media Framework engine by Avid and 70 other vendors at NAB; early plans by HBO and Viacom to launch hundreds of niche channels enabled by new digital compression technologies; and the possibility of using automation to increase broadcast station efficiency and reduce costs.

In other words we commenced a series of European television technology journeys, many of which we’re actually still on today — analogue to digital, standard definition to HDTV (and beyond), linear to nonlinear, uncompressed to compressed, proprietary to generic, tapebased to tapeless, hardware to software, unicast to multicast, manual to automated, video to data, broadcast to IT. Our mission was to follow — and wherever possible, to lead — those change management journeys as they applied to European broadcasters.

In launching TVBEurope we also believed passionately that the broadcast equipment-buying environment had fundamentally changed; it was not simply engineering-driven, but also business-driven. Engineers could no longer make key equipment purchase decisions in isolation, based purely on technical specifications.

Buying teams comprising financial, operational and creative management would instead purchase new systems through collaborative business decisions and return on investment analysis.

That thinking was really what separated us from our

competitors at the outset.

Publishing dry engineering diagrams and descriptions alone would no longer be sufficient. If return on investment was central, then the overall business case must be examined and understood by both end-users and solutions providers.

If the process of broadcast operations was becoming more complex (which it was) and all of its aspects required explanation in our pages, then we would (a) need the best editorial team in Europe and (b) must simply work harder than everyone else to tell the right stories every issue, every month, every year.

No mystery there: a little insight, hard work, great team and enduring passion for the business. If that’s my legacy at TVBEurope, I’ll happily take it.

And thanks to your loyalty and support, I’ve been lucky enough to have the best seat in the house for the last 20 years. Many thanks indeed.

What’s next for me? I don’t know, time will tell. As Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels wrote in a recent Vanity Fair piece, “Unless you get off the stage, you cannot make another entrance.” That really applies to us all, doesn’t it?

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 Stuart Dinsey 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 http://curwood.coffeecup.com/ forms/TVBEurope/ 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 2013. 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 rates £64/€96/$120.

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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www.tvbeurope.com November 2013

A staggering 10,000 hours of TV transits through BT Tower each week

News Guest Opinion

NEWS IN BRIEF Ikegami and ARRI partner for Unicam HD Ikegami has launched a new Unicam HD camera that combines broadcast technology with cinematic image quality. The HDK-97ARRI is the result of a collaboration between Ikegami and ARRI, aiming to give the broadcaster and content producer ‘the best of both worlds’. It allows the picture characteristics of digital cinema to be achieved in a multi-camera production. Cameras can be operated in a conventional broadcast manner with a vision engineer operating multiple cameras. With a dynamic range of about 1000%, the dockable camera is close to the capability of film. The centrepiece of the camera is the Super 35mm CMOS sensor of the ARRI Alexa, with ARRI’s debayering electronics. 16-bit signals from the ARRI frontend are transferred to Ikegami’s digital signal processing, and all camera processes and functions are carried out in realtime.

New Italian distributor for Genelec Audio monitor specialist Genelec has announced a new distributor for Italy, MidiWare, following Genelec’s amicable split with long-time distributor, Leading Technology.

Based in Rome, MidiWare has a local sales office and demo space in the Lecco area close to Milan and represents other audio brands including SSL, REM, Moog, SE, and Novation. “MidiWare has a dynamic team that is focused on achieving results for their wide network of dealers and business partners,” said Jarmo Masko, Genelec international sales manager.

“They have excellent reach into the education sector through 30 years of experience, alongside their excellent programming and software based product expertise.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Leading Technology for their dedication to the Genelec cause for over 30 years and to wish them a fruitful future for their Monza-based operation.”

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Storing the digital future The rise of digital media will see data centres make a play for the film and broadcast industry, says Alex Rabbetts, MD MigSolv — who hopes that the next BAFTA award will go to... a UK data centre THE EXPONENTIAL growth of digital media content in broadcast and film has turned archiving and storage into one of the largest issues facing the industry. The sheer number of hours being filmed is vast, transforming the problem into more than a simple archiving and storage issue.

According to David Peto, CEO Aframe, “Storage, accessibility and making something findable will make digital content the focal point of any business in the media industry, with data centres playing a major role in the creation of a central media hub for broadcasters and film and programme-makers.”

Today, many perceive storage as simply a place to archive information for later retrieval, but global demands mean there is a need to create a central media hub or a ‘living entity’ where users can access content as and when needed and from any location around the world.

Data centres need to think beyond merely providing space, racks and power as the media industry looks to operators that can provide instant on-demand access to their content. As well as being scaled to support the data throughput demanded by users, the systems must make the whole process easy to use and economical — cloud will be incredibly important.

The sheer volume of data that is now being created by the television and film industry is breathtaking. To put this into context, take a standard TV broadcast. Assuming that the footage is filmed at 50MBps, then filming one minute of video will generate 375MB of

Alex Rabbetts: There are 17 news channels in the UK alone that broadcast 24 hours a day, meaning TV news alone generates 9180GB of data per day data. One hour of film generates 22.5GB of data.

There are 17 news channels in the UK alone that broadcast 24 hours a day, meaning TV news alone generates 9180GB of data per day. As news is a 365-day activity, this equates to 3,350,700GB of data per year.

A reasonable estimate of the amount of footage recorded for an hour of TV is a 70:1 ratio — a staggering 10,000 hours of TV transits through BT Tower each week.

Using these numbers, we can calculate that 15,750,000GB of

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data is generated and stored each week. That’s 819,000,000GB per year. Assuming that this has to be stored for the next 50 years, there is likely to be 40,950,000,000GB of data that must be stored somewhere! All this assumes that just one camera is used – in most cases more than one camera will be used, so the real number is much larger.

Gigabytes and zettabytes If you think about media as not just television, but include film, radio and even video created for YouTube, the numbers are

astronomical. Intel suggests that in just one minute, 30 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube and 1.3 million videos will be viewed via the site. The future is even more staggering.

According to Intel, by 2015 it would take five years to view all the video crossing IP networks in just one second!

Philip Low, MD BroadGroup Consulting, says: “Media represents a key vertical for the data centre industry. Storage security, content distribution, cloud agility and cost performance are all important requirements for this sector.

Data centres will need to stay competitive in the increasingly digital industry sector.”

Putting things in perspective, Cisco’s Visual Networking Index recently suggested that by 2016 the amount of data transferred across the Internet will breach the zettabyte threshold and that 55% of this data will be video. How big is a zettabyte? It is almost 1 trillion gigabytes! If one accepts that 1GB can store around 950 minutes of music, a Zettabyte would be capable of storing 2 billion years of music! That’s quite a lot of data.

Data centres: winners and losers The days of storing, (or losing), hundreds of rolls of film have long gone and have been replaced by data. This data must be stored somewhere and it must be available at any time for producers, editors and directors.

It must be stored in suitable data centres.

But not every data centre will be geared up for this kind of storage, so media companies

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www.tvbeurope.com November 2013

News & Analysis

VMI buys Telesend high definition video wireless link

Global storage demands mean there is a need to create a central media hub or a ‘living entity’

must be selective. Room for growth is an absolute imperative. Also critical is the ability to deploy additional storage quickly — no media company will want to deploy storage that isn’t used immediately.

The data centre must be ready to use straight away with no waiting for fit-out to be completed. Communications links will be equally important.

Media companies will not accept that a data centre is able to offer Internet links with just one supplier – they will require multiple carriers. The ability of

a data centre to provide multiple high bandwidth links will be key in their decision of which provider to choose.

For media companies the decision of which providers to use will not be based on location or on size of organisation, the decision will be entirely based on agility, flexibility, readiness, speed of deployment and on availability of carriers that can provide fast, big pipes that enable them to transfer these huge files quickly and easily around the globe. Data centres that can offer these attributes, along

with exceptional levels of customer service will be the winners and those that are restricted by rigid offerings and are unable to respond to customer needs will, undoubtedly be the losers.

The advent of 4K and 8K technology will exacerbate the problem but data centre operators with the right business model have the opportunity to make a major impact in this fast-moving market. Time for our finest data centre operators to dust off their tuxedos as they may make it onto the shortlist for next year’s BAFTA’s…

LONDON-BASED VMI has become the first camera rental company to buy Teletest’s HD video wireless link, the Telesend.

Teletest claims to provide the world’s only portable LCD monitor with an internal high definition receiver.

Transmitting a broadcastquality signal up to 70m, the Telesend offers users a choice of HD video and stereo audio transmitters which can be used with most batteries. The 7-inch monitor also features a “directors guard” to stop “wandering directors fingers” from adjusting the settings, leaving the director only to turn the monitor on and off or adjust the volume. The system also

claims to have auto-tuning of frequencies and zero latency.

The HD-SDI and HDMI Telesend transmitter can be mounted on any broadcast camera using a choice of V-Lock plates or can be carried in a shoulder or waist bag when using smaller cameras.

The transmitter is small enough to mount on 15mm rod systems and can easily be mounted on Steadicam rigs. All Telesend transmitters can be connected directly to laptops with HDMI outputs.

VMI’s managing director, Barry Bassett said, “We are excited to be the first to offer these new Telesend kits to drama and documentary

“The world’s only wireless HD monitor,” claims Telesend producers. These are excellent products because directors love the lightweight and compact LCD monitor with the receiver built in. The DFS auto tuning makes them simple to use and the range compares favourably with WEVI. We chose the smaller HDMI only transmitters as they fit perfectly on our DSLR and C300 rigs.”

Since it was established in 1979, VMI has been a supplier of cameras and lenses to companies throughout the UK and internationally, including Tiger Aspect, Hat Trick, Bentley, Big Talk and the BBC. The company claims to support every HD format and offers free camera training and testing facilities for camera crews, as well as offering viewing facilities for its production company clients.

UK-based Teletest is an approved supplier of wireless technologies for a wide range of companies, including major broadcasters, the military and police forces. www.vmi.tv www.teletest.tv

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www.tvbeurope.com November 2013

People on the move

By Neal Romanek

UK Screen Board gets new directors

Lesley Marr, Deluxe Media

Raft of new EVS appointments EVS HAS hired several new key members of staff. Frédéric Nys will join the company as SVP of global operations and professional services and will be based in EVS Belgium. Mohammed Bouita joins EVS as VP of sales for the Middle

The UK Screen Association has voted two new members onto the Board for 2013/14, Helen Alexander, director of operations and business development of audio post facility WB De Lane Lea, and Lesley Marr, COO of Deluxe Media.

UK Screen is the UK’s facilities trade body, representing companies servicing film, TV and commercials. “Our industry is in its biggest change/revolution,” said Marr, “and keeping up to speed with advances in technology, use of data, IT technologies and new ways of consuming content is a daily, fast-paced challenge, so I’m keen to explore how we can help demystify and work through some of these challenges through UK Screen.”

Frédéric Nys, EVS

Mohammed Bouita, EVS Jeff Baggett

Matthijs Zwart

Malcolm Robinson

Andrew Black

Stefano Pucello

ABS

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Broadcast Networks

Procam

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Systems integrator Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS) has brought Jeff Baggett onboard as COO. Bagget has a 30-year career with Intel Corporation. He is tasked with streamlining ABS’s operations in support of sales personnel.

Matthijs Zwart has been appointed linear operations director by Amsterdam digital media facility Chello DMC. Chello DMC underwent a restructuring of the business earlier this year.

Broadcast Networks has appointed Malcolm Robinson as director of media and broadcast solutions.

Robinson had been general manager for live production solutions at Sony PSE. Multiscreen software provider Clearleap has announced the

appointment of Jobst Muehlback as director, customer solutions architect, EMEA, and of Marco Silk as customer solutions architect, EMEA. DPA Microphones has restructured its management team.

Mikkel Nymand has been appointed to the newly created position of product manager and will report directly to CEO Christian Poulsen. Bo Brinck will fill another new post, global sales support manager. Kim Nedertorp will be responsible for sales within Nordic countries as the region’s new area manager, and Nils Vinding will be area manager for the UK, Switzerland and Central and South America. Francis Lai will head sales in the Far East. Ole Moesmann has been appointed to the new position of R&D manager.

Newly opened post house Evolutions Bristol has brought aboard the first members of its team.

Colourist Bill Wallace is the new head of grading. Joining him are Will Norie as head of audio, Tom Arnold as head of technical operations, Gabriel Wetz as head of post, and Robin Slater as senior post producer.

Orad has appointed Michael Katznelson as VP of sales. Prior to joining Orad, Katznelson held key managerial positions in CastUP (CISCO), Motorola Mobility, BitBand, and Gilat Satellite Networks.

Andrew Black has rejoined UK broadcast hire company Procam as its new UK sales director. Black previously worked at Procam in 2008 as the company’s client relations manager.

Timeline Television has brought on Malcolm Cowan as head of technology BT Sport. Cowan will run the facilities at BT Sport’s new production hub located in the former Olympic International Broadcast Centre in London.

Stefano Pucello has joined VDC, provider of specialist AV cables and solutions, as international sales manager.

Video advertising company Videology has appointed several new executives. Rhys McLachlan will be the new head of global TV strategies and Jana Eisenstein is the new SVP of Videology’s global accounts division. The company has also promoted Anne de Kerckhove to managing director of EMEA.

Peggy Stalhut, EVS East and Northern Africa. He will lead regional sales and the expansion of operations in the Middle East region. Cédric Tombeur has joined EVS as business development manager.

Jeff Gouch has been appointed sales manager, North Central Region, US, and Peggy Stalhut has come on board as marketing manager for The Americas.

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TVBEurope 13

November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

News & Analysis

Guest Opinion

UHD AFTER YEARS of less than enthusiastic purchasing in studio and field cameras, in no small part due to the worldwide economic recession, sales of cameras are undergoing a re-awakening. This finding is revealed according to a newly published report called ‘Studio/ Box Cameras World 2013’.

The annual study, conducted this summer, looked at camera purchasing as well as other camera-related factors across a worldwide, five region and seven segment research spread, including end-users in Broadcast/Cable, Production/ Post, Mobile/OB, Event Video, Independent, Institutional and Rental House, respectively.

And again, the study was organised by imaging sensor.

The study not only looked at UHD in Super 35 and 4/3-inch sensor iterations but also all other sensor configurations currently utilised among the Owned, Bought and Planned units. The main thrust of this interest is definitely in Super 35 and not nearly as much in 4/3-inch sensors.

Motion pictures and episodic TV have been transitioning to an alldigital workflow, and that has been a driver to the Super 35 sensor. While this industry embracing of Super 35 is palpable and an exciting and market-moving development in cameras and for lens makers, the study also saw a rise in use and purchasing of more traditional 2/3-inch sensor cameras, as a rising tide of camera sales has ‘lifted all boats.’ So, even traditional solutions using smaller sensors have benefited by renewed Super 35mm sensor-using UHD cameras already represent 16% of all cameras owned/installed spending on cameras.

This has had a salutary effect on lens sales as well. episodic TV applications. 2/3those, already increasing, On a global basis, from a inch represents 58%, ‘Other or purchases as well, just as colour sensor use perspective, Super Unknown’ sensors 21% and 4/3did once introduced.

35mm sensor-using UHD inch represents 5%, respectively.

While cameras benefit, at the cameras already represent 16% The arrival of UHD and same time camcorder sales (which of all cameras owned/installed larger image sensors has so far were suffering) are now also as of 2013, indicating a had no discernible impact on seeing somewhat of a rebound, dramatic swing towards higher PTZ box cameras, but even based on similar factors. They resolution and to the UHD level there, it is expected that higher were being primarily battered by productions they enable, and resolution — beyond HD — will the rise and popularity of one that obviously goes beyond be found attractive in the next DSLRs, which are capable of purely motion picture and few years and provide a boost to using interchangeable lenses,

Image ©: 2013 D.I.S. Consulting Corporation. All Rights Reserved

By Douglas I Sheer

re-awakens camera market allowing for a combination of primes and zooms. Now, however, with DSLRs slowing modestly, and many camcorders now deliverable with the potential of interchangeable lens use, they too are benefitting.

Since the arrival of Super 35 sensors several years ago a debate has waged on whether their use would spill out of digital cinematography, where they are already penetrating the ranks of independents and into other segments such as broadcast and institutional and moving well beyond rental houses. And, the report underscores that a trend is already underway, and goes well beyond rental houses.

Previous market interest in 3D turned out to be a dud, in cameras and other gear, and some fears were voiced by users that investments in UHD might be similarly ill-conceived.

Despite those fears, however, end-users seem to be much more enthusiastic about UHD.

Bio: Doug Sheer is CEO and chief analyst of DIS Consulting Corporation of Woodstock, New York.

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UHD, QC and AVB: unscrambling IBC Excitable sellers set out new tech faster than they could answer the deluge of questions arising from standards makers and prospective buyers. If ever there was a need for a roadmap, IBC2013 was it. Reflections from Mark Hill WITH THE fire-sale on 3D TV over, the shelves at the Amsterdam RAI had been swiftly restocked with 4K TV — or ‘UHD-1’, in European TV parlance. Like some pop-up store, here were UHD-1 cameras, servers, switchers, encoders and (the suspected root cause of all the disruption) displays.

UHD is set to fare better than 3D, as the former is essentially just more of the same that TV professionals already handle on a day-to-day basis: no Z-axis, dual optics, dual paths and unfashionable spectacles.

Despite what many on the show floor would have us believe, however, we are a long way from 4K being ready for primetime.

Beyond our mutual nod to, and liking for, the obvious spatial resolution improvement of UHD-1 (let’s agree not to mention

Mark Hill: With the change of the physical comes adoption of further layers of the OSI seven-layer model and firmly into the world of IP/IT UHD-2 specifically) over today’s HD, there is a lot of work to do if it is to be put into practice. We cheer, as UHD brings with it the death knell for our elderly, analogue compression fiend,

interlace. All UHD pictures will be displayed progressive scan and, crucially, acquired using cameras capturing whole frames at a time rather than making a frame from two fields, captured successively.

Of course, this will not relieve the industry of the challenge of having to add into the edit legacy content acquired as interlaced and in inferior resolutions. Moving the job of de-interlacing (and up-scaling) of legacy content wholly to the broadcaster environment, rather than the domestic one, will at least guarantee that far more money gets spent on these demanding processes, with better results.

Quality brings quantity Committing to gathering frames brings with it an opportunity to set the frame rate. In Europe, there is a good measure of agreement that the minimum frame rate for

UHD should be 50fps, while as much as 300fps has been suggested as beneficial. If UHD is going to take off anytime soon in Europe, 50fps looks like a reasonable starting point, with perhaps 120fps as a future (worldwide harmonised?) step.

UHD colourimetry is also set to benefit from an update, now that we are no longer constrained by the chemistry of the glowing phosphors of the CRT. An opportunity also exists to increase luminance and colour signal resolution from the current 8/10-bit norm to 12-, or even 16-bits. Such a move would pave the way for High Dynamic Range (HDR) working.

Crudely summarising, the HD to UHD-1 upgrade equation looks something like: [Increase spatial resolution = 4x bitrate required] x [Capture pictures

faster = 2x to 12x bitrate required] x [HDR/increasing bit-depth 1.25x to 2.00x bitrate required] = 10x to 96x bitrate required. This might be compared with a figure of 2x for moving from interlacedto progressive-scan HD, all other things being equal.

Compression to the rescue UHD represents a massive increased demand for bandwidth, processing power and storage volumes, all of which add up to money but rarely in a simple, linear fashion. To lessen the shock on the bottom line, we look again to video compression technologies to reduce the number of bits to be processed, stored and transported at the many points in the ‘glass to glass’ experience. Even at this early stage, it seems likely that base-level UHD-1 pictures can be coded for transmission so as to occupy as little, or no more, bandwidth as today’s HD pictures.

Those having 1.5G HD infrastructures at the heart of their station must now be wondering whether there will ever now be a need to upgrade to 3Gcapable ones. 3G infrastructures can accommodate HD (1080p50/60) working, but if your operation is based on HD (1080i25/30), are you really going to move to HD progressive as your next upgrade? Despite the appearance on the show floor of ‘6G’ coax-based interfaces, signal bandwidths for Ultra HD suggest that the Serial Digital Interface (SDI) has run out of road. Yes, for UHD you could start cabling equipment up with multiple paths of 3G and 6G coax interfaces, but we gave such practices up a long time ago with analogue component video and surely have no desire to return to those days.

UHD heralds the move away from broadcast industry proprietary, copper cable-based SDI and bespoke networks and towards the increasingly fibrebased interfaces and generic data networks of the IT world. This will represent a step change for systems integration (SI) companies and the installations they deploy in future.

Interconnects in fixed installations will move from cut length, terminate on demand copper cables, BNC plugs and jackfields and towards off-theshelf, pre-terminated lengths of single-and multi-mode fibre, plugged into optical interface ports. Faster, lighter, more eco-friendly. With the change of the physical comes adoption of further layers of the OSI sevenlayer model and firmly into the world of IP/IT.

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The forecast for usefulness of the cloud come IBC2014-time remains, well... cloudy

AVB to the rescue Set to ease the transition from broadcast-specific to IT-generic is AVB, or Audio Video Bridging, an IEEE standards initiative providing for time-critical, uncompressed baseband sound and/or vision to be carried over standard IP networks. AVB is applicable to wireless and wired communications, using copper or fibre infrastructure, so the media can be flexed to suit what needs to be carried.

A number of broadcast industry names (Avid, Axon, Barco, Calrec, Cisco, With the fire-sale on 3D TV over, the shelves at the Amsterdam RAI had been swiftly restocked with 4K TV

Quality Control IBC saw the launch of the EBU ‘periodic table’ of QC criteria for file-based AV content. Circa 160 tests have been scoped, with 50 or so defined in detail. Identified tests fall into four categories — Regulatory, Absolute (against a particular standard), Objective (quantifiable, but not necessarily having an applicable standard) and Subjective (may require human eyes and ears) and exist in one, or more, layers — Baseband, Bitstream, Wrapper, Cross-check (that values in the other three layers are in agreement).

Ten vendors are actively participating in the surrounding project and the results are expected to dovetail into the next part of the Framework for Interoperability of Media Services (FIMS) initiative and become part of UK Digital Production

Partnership (DPP) AS-11 standard for programme delivery.

Ongoing arguments about how much longer movie images will be captured on film media and whether cinema audiences should continue to be served the ‘film look’ aside, 4K/UHD-1 brings with it the best opportunity yet for convergence of master image capture between movies and TV. Movie content forms an obvious and ongoing source of potential content for UHD-1 broadcasters.

The source most often suggested at IBC, however, was live sports. The exchange of signals at baseband has always been a staple of live sports production. Equipment interfaces are ubiquitous and content moves, predictably, in realtime.

One of the great hopes for filebased working has always been that it would be somehow faster than baseband (and tapes), faster

than realtime. In practice, with the large file sizes associated with high definition content, this hope is not always realised. The cumulative latencies in processes of nonlinear editing, transcoding, file-packaging, staging, QC, network transfers, more staging, anti-virus checking, even more staging, can be considerable.

Where significant collaborative working between production partners and service providers is involved, this matter is already a concern with HD pictures.

Expect it to become a real issue with UHD.

Simple things take time For most broadcasters, the replacement of VTR-based technology with video servers for short-form replay has long since happened and was accomplished relatively swiftly. In 2013, delivery

of short-form content as files is the norm, however much trafficking/delivery of long-form content remains on videotape.

So what news of the work-a-day replacement for these transmission-ready videotapes, with their attached record reports?

One notable success in this regard is that of the UK Digital Production Partnership (DPP) in its drawing together of major UK broadcasters around a common set of technical requirements for file-based programme delivery. Key to the success of the DPP AS-11 standard, as it is known, is its simplicity and recognition of the crucial part that metadata has to play in the modern, broadcast ecosystem. Boiling down the ‘standards soup’ into only two base format choices and utilising the combined experience of practitioner participants has delivered an accessible and very practicable result.

Dolby, to name a few) have come together in the ‘AVnu Alliance’ to lend practical support to the project.

What future then for baseband audio and video routers, that have been getting larger and ever more dense over the years? If AVB becomes mainstream, router and mixer manufacturers (and by association, manufacturers of cameras, servers, and graphics on the source side and encoders and monitoring on the destination side) will have some serious re-engineering to do. – Mark Hill While on the subject of DPP at IBC, it also recently released the last in the trilogy of its ‘Revolution’ series of reports, this time aimed at shining the spotlight on another piece of Amsterdam fluff — the cloud.

Where once we used to debate what was meant by Media Asset Management (MAM), we now do the same for the cloud. Should the cloud be characterised as something technical — storage, networks, software applications, or something more editoriallyfriendly? Either way, the vibe from visitors on the show floor and the conclusions of the report were in general agreement. The forecast for usefulness of the cloud come IBC2014-time remains, well... cloudy.

Bio: Mark Hill is an industry consultant at Ixedia Ltd, www.ixedia.co.uk

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How can broadcasters really innovate when audiences are behaving so unpredictably?

Time to innovate The IT estate, the cloud, consumer technologies and social media are creating some highly disruptive options when blended with broadcasting — as consultant Russell Grute discovered at IBC “WHAT’S NEW for you at IBC this year?” That perennial question is posed to trusted colleagues, associates and even competitors, who try to sum it all up with a single snappy and compelling sentence.

Replies are of course many and varied, and it took me a little longer than usual to see what was really new this year, perhaps because “it” wasn’t “at” the show. Nevertheless a burning issue for IBC 2013 and a question that, by the time of writing, over 116 million viewers have asked themselves is: “What does the fox say?”

Stick with me.

In early September 2013, while established global player Discovery became Europe’s biggest TV network and US disruptor Netflix announced 36 million subscribers, the more compact Norwegian broadcaster TV Norge was enjoying a foxy global cross-media sensation.

A four minute pre-series promo entitled What Does the Fox Say?, featuring ‘Norwegian national treasures’ Ylvis propelled both Ylvis and TV Norge to unprecedented global

notice. Even before the new series was underway the promo had registered over 20 million hits online.

I noticed this not because I don’t mind foxes and rather like Norway, but mostly because I’m told what to watch by the junior digital natives (my kids) usually via YouTube. I wondered what drives the speed of such success, how did this audience grow so quickly? Apparently, traffic was initially driven by bloggers using Tumblr and Gawker and it didn’t take long for Twitter and YouTube to do the rest. By October, Ylvis were appearing on US primetime network shows, whilst the online audience continues to grow.

Audiences on the move There’s no shortage of new technology at IBC every year and in 2013 we all have to be equally conversant with the full range of converged technologies. The IT estate, the cloud, consumer technologies and social media are creating some highly disruptive options when blended with broadcasting.

How can broadcasters really

innovate when audiences are behaving so unpredictably?

For example, over the top TV (OTTTV) addresses viewers using internet delivery, and with personal browsers and devices providing a direct return path, it’s possible to measure changes in audience behaviour right down to an individual viewer. Although OTT currently only provides small revenue for broadcasters, it can influence audience behavior significantly by extending programming and advertising to other screens.

Promoters of OTT also contend that media companies that do not evolve to provide an engaging and personalised video experience across all screens will lose market-share and eventually will disappear. If that’s true, then this future vision will also require huge amounts of personalised audience feedback to be processed intelligently.

At IBC OTT solutions provider Ooyala stated that its analytics engine now processes over two billion events every day, derived from nearly 200 million viewers worldwide who watch their video on an Ooyala-powered player.

Russell Grute: The big guys are doing it big and yet, the small guys have every opportunity to do it even bigger OTT solutions providers at IBC were also featuring generic Google-style analytics and providing specialist data mining tools to capitalise on the intelligence gathered about audience movements.

The combination of social media and TV is now known as Social TV. Although predominantly US-based, the announcement of a tie up between Nielsen and Twitter to deliver Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings also caught my eye. To date only the number of tweets and respective Twitter authors has been measurable. A measurement of the audience of people who view those tweets is required for TV networks, advertisers and

agencies to know the true reach and influence of TV-related activity on Twitter.

It seems that media companies achieving broadcast innovation most successfully are those who can now tune into an audience instead of waiting for an audience to tune into them. In many ways this is almost the opposite of traditional broadcasting. By adapting their programming, making it discoverable through rich metadata and by occasionally short-circuiting the schedule using social media, broadcasters who already know their audiences are in good position to really drive TV everywhere.

This IBC’s Norwegian foxy example, although really just a highly original pop video used as a promotion for a popular national entertainment show, harnessed unexpected direct audience recommendation via social TV to achieve over 100 million views in less than a month.

The big guys are doing it big and yet, the small guys have every opportunity to do it even bigger.

Whether it’s through original talent, great programming, converged technology or just great timing, perhaps there’s never been a better time for broadcasters to innovate.

Bio: Russell Grute is managing director at Broadcast Innovation, an independent consultancy in media management for broadcasting and TV everywhere.

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New camera round-up: The evolution revolution Broadcasting may start with the camera, but it has been one of the last areas to gain from the move to IT-based hardware.

However, the benefits of softwareupgradeable flexibility are now emerging, with free or low-cost upgrades a key theme at IBC this year, reports David Fox ADVANCES SEEN at IBC2013 included the rise of 4K, which is almost ready for mainstream production, large sensor cameras, high-speed capture, and the release of miniature cameras usable in almost any type of production.

However, the biggest crowds on the show floor were headed in the direction of ARRI’s first documentary-style shouldermount digital camera, the Amira, which takes the sensor and many features of its Alexa, and adds such things as in-camera colour grading and 200fps shooting.

“Everyone wants the Alexa image quality, but they said make the camera smaller, lighter and more affordable,” said Stephan Shenk, ARRI’s general manager, camera division.

It has live colour management, with 3D LUTs in the camera. “A lot of people doing documentaries don’t have the time or budget to do elaborate colour grading, but they still want the look,” said Milan Krsljanin, ARRI’s director of business development.

The Alexa influence extended to the studio, where Ikegami was showing the new HDK-97 ARRI large-sensor camera. It is “a new type of dock-cam style studio camera with an ARRI front end, using a single large super 35mm sensor. It is ideal for studio drama or music,” said Masanori Kondo, president, Ikegami Europe. The first delivery, of eight PL-mount cameras, went to MTV, which used them for its Video Music Awards.

Entry level: Roache with Hitachi’s affordable new Z-HD6000 dockable camera

Shenk: The Amira is an Alexa “for single operator use and with perfect balance”

Touchscreen ergonomics: An LCD is the Production Camera 4K’s main user interface

Searle: IO’s tiny 2KSDI can now take EF-mount lenses

Could this be the Z1 for the 4K era?: The new Sony PXW-Z100 “Although it is the same sensor as the Alexa, it is Ikegami’s digital signal processing and TV output,” added Shenk. “It’s a collaboration between ARRI and Ikegami to bring the aesthetics of the motion picture to the TV studio.” It can do 1080 50p, as well as 24 and 25p, would normally be used with a fibre adaptor and will work with all of Ikegami’s existing Unicam HD accessories, so it can use the same base stations and control infrastructure.

Panasonic is also aiming for the studio drama market with its AKHC3500A. It offers progressive shooting (1080 at 25p, 23.98p or 29.97p) with cine gamma and various other improvements to take it beyond its existing AK-HC3500.

High speed, higher resolution: The Phantom Flex4K

However, it has three 2/3-inch IT CCDs rather than a single larger sensor. It boasts 60dB signal to noise, uses spatial pixel shift technology and a newly developed 16-bit A/D Digital Signal Processor (38-bit internal processing) for improved picture quality.

Hitachi has gone the MOS sensor route with its first 3MOS sensor HD camera: the affordable Z-HD6000 portable studio/EFP dockable model that outputs 1080 50/60i with 1100TV lines resolution. “This is a global release. There is a large market in the US for universities and religious use. That market doesn’t exist in Europe at a high level, but this will be an excellent entry-level product for people with small

studios or OB vans,” said Paddy Roache, Hitachi director and general manager.

Sony introduced two new studio/OB camera ranges at IBC: the HSC-300R/RF and HSC100R/RF. These are essentially upgrades of its existing HSC-300 and HXC-100 system cameras, but with new 2/3-inch Power HAD FX CCDs with an S/N ratio of 60dB. The HSC-300R/RF models are compatible with the HDLA series of large lens adapters and equipped with Neutral Density and Colour Correction dual optical servo-controlled filter wheels for outside broadcast use, while the HSC-100R/RF models are compatible with a portable lens and more suited to studio use.

Grass Valley has extended its LDX camera range with the new LDX 80 for robotic or remote use, which is claimed to offer high sensitivity with “best signal-tonoise performance”. It uses Xensium-FT 2/3-inch CMOS 1080 50/60p imagers with global shutter, and there will be three versions: LDX Compact Premiere, LDX Compact Elite, and LDX Compact Worldcam, all software upgradable.

One selling point of the LDX range has been its flexibility, “allowing instant upgrades through perpetual or weekly licensing,” said Matt Allard, Grass Valley’s market development manager.

Remote miniatures Bradley Engineering launched three new miniature highresolution (HD/SD up to 1080p) camera heads all with 10:1 zoom lenses at IBC. The Eyeb all-in-one design has up to 99 pre-set positions for Pan, Tilt, Zoom and Focus, for commentary use, PoVs, or reality TV. The self-contained BEHD15 is designed to give greater detail in low light, without noise, has SDI and analogue outputs, is infrared sensitive and has an IP66 option. The mini, remote ball HDC150/150SR has 32 pre-sets, is designed for smooth, quiet operation and has an infrared mode.

Its new Cam-Ball 3 miniature rotating camera can have a 30x zoom lens to go with a new highresolution sensor with increased low light sensitivity. The 1080p PTZ camera offers 32 pre-sets in a lightweight, weatherproof carbon fibre housing, but users can remove the front seal to attach a wide angle lens.

Telemetrics’ new HDSC-1 Robotics Specialty Camera is compact, lightweight and uses a Sony 3.27-megapixel CMOS image sensor with a Canon 20x zoom lens. It provides native 1920x1080 HD-SDI video outputs as well as SD composite video outputs in NTSC and PAL. It also has a new Remote Camera Operation System, including a touch-screen Robotic Camera Control Panel, Camera Shader Panel for single operator control of studio operations, and Enterprise Database Control Software, for enterprise level camera control using an SQL database with configurable access control.

The first operational control panel for IO Industries’ Flare 2KSDI camera has been launched

by Polecam. This can control up to six cameras from one panel, including lens control (iris and

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IBC Wrap-Up

“Streaming and FTP upload is a very important issue for news”

focus) through the EF lens mount.

The camera can output 1080 50/60p 10-bit (4:2:2 or RAW) via a single link 3G-SDI connection.

IO’s Flare camera series has been extended to include a 12-megapixel model, giving 4096x3072 pixels at up to 125fps.

IO also has a new lens adaptor to allow its miniature cameras take Canon EF-mount lenses. “It’s an active adaptor, meaning we can remotely control the lens,” explained Andrew Searle, IO’s global sales manager.

“We’re really trying to focus on broadcasting,” he added, and the Polecam RCP is “really important for OB integration.

We’ve had a lot of interest for live sports, especially for shooting special angles for viewing on second screen apps at home.”

IndieCam has also added new broadcast-friendly functionality for its tiny cameras with its indieUIP (Indiecam Universal Image Processor), a “powerful but still miniscule standalone Image Processor” that “gives our camera very high-quality enhanced de-bayering, detail enhancement, noise management and RGB black balance,” explained Raphael Barth, managing director.

Also new is indieGS2K RAW recording on Convergent Design’s Odyssey and Gemini 4:4:4 recorders, which can take CinemaDNG RAW footage from up to four indieGS2K cameras at once. They include rich metadata and timecode support, and recording times start at 90 minutes per camera per SSD-module.

The new sinaCAM basic miniature camera is a 2D HD version of Solectrix’s twin-head 3D sinaCAM HD remote camera. It can be controlled using a standard Sony remote control panel in an OB vehicle. The sinaCAM basic has a single 2/3-inch CCD HD sensor, runs at up to 60fps, and has a RAW output option.

GoPro has upgraded its Hero cameras. The Hero3+ models are 20% smaller and lighter with 30% better battery life than previously.

They also have an improved lens, 4x faster WiFi, and a wider range of mounts. The $400 Hero3+ Black Edition also has a SuperView mode for more immersive wide-angle videos and an Auto Low Light mode that intelligently adjusts frame rate for varying lighting conditions.

The low-light performance of Ikegami’s new HDL-4500 super high sensitivity HD camera is such that “it will still give you colour pictures in star light,” according to Mark Capstick, general manager Ikegami UK. “It is a unique product. Its minimum illumination

Equipped for live production: Canon’s 4K C500 in a full broadcast cradle is less than 0.001 lux, in colour,” emphasised Kondo. It has three 2/3-inch CMOS sensors and can be used in normal conditions as a standard HD camera with an S/N ratio of 54dB, where it can also increase gain with lower noise.

Upgrade path Canon showed software upgrades for most of its cameras at IBC that brought many new features, including the ability to shoot in much lower light.

The firmware update will shift the maximum ISO setting on its EOS C500, EOS C300 and EOS C100 from ISO 20,000 to ISO 80,000, which its demonstration showed produced usable, if grainy, images.

There will also be a wide range of enhancements aimed at cinematic and drama production, notably for the 4K C500, including wider colour gamuts, a new highspeed mode at up to 120fps, and reduced fan noise during shoots.

ARRI is also upgrading its Alexa. The free Software Update Packet (SUP 9.0) offers higher speed recording, pre-record buffers, self-healing metadata (the ability to detect an incomplete metadata file, compare it with the recorded frames and reconstruct it, to stop the camera refusing this media for further recording), and support for SanDisk’s new CFast 2.0 media. The high-end Alexa XT can now go ‘open gate’, to use all 3434x3303 pixels on the sensor.

4K + large sensor Canon’s 4K DSLR camera, the EOS-1D C has become the first DSLR to meet the EBU Tech 3335 requirements for broadcast production. The camera is also gaining new features via a firmware update, including lens correction functions, storage of lens metadata, and improved audio with the ability to use an external audio source.

The new Blackmagic Design Production Camera 4K makes large-sensor 4K production a great deal more affordable — it costs £2589/€3089. Not surprisingly, there were thousands of preorders before the show.

It doesn’t do 50p, but it does support Ultra HD and 1080HD resolution capture at 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30p or 50/60i, and it has two quarter-inch jacks for audio instead of XLRs. It may not have the ergonomics and controls of a traditional camera, but its touchscreen controls are fairly simple to use, and it has useful metadata features.

There is also a Super35mm sensor, 6G-SDI output for live production, and a Thunderbolt connection. It takes EF and ZE mount lenses, records CinemaDNG RAW and Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) to its built-in SSD recorder, and comes with Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve colour grading software.

Sony is also bringing 4K to lower budget productions with the new PXW-Z100, which it hopes will do for 4K what the venerable Z1 did for HD, by allowing users to begin shooting UHD even if they deliver HD, “and giving them the comfort of knowing they are investing in future-proof technology,” said Sony channel sales manager (Northern Europe), Dave Cheesman.

It will cost about €6500 and record XAVC 4K 50p/60p, 4:2:2 10-bit at 500/600Mbps, HD at up to 223Mbps from its single 1/2.33inch 4096x2160 Exmor R sensor.

It should have similar low-light performance to the PMW-100.

Panasonic has revealed its plans to introduce a 4K VariCam camcorder and ambition to occupy the middle ground for 4K, with switchers, palmcorders, field recorders and other 4K products. “There are high-end cameras and some consumer cameras, but for TV production there isn’t much choice,” said Rob Tarrant, Panasonic’s European product manager, Broadcast and Pro AV. Its 4K/2K/HD codec will be AVC-Ultra444 and it will support 4K shooting from 24p to 100/120p using a newly developed Super35mm-size high sensitivity sensor offering wide dynamic range, extended colour space, and log support, recording to new Ultra P2 cards with a high speed PCIe interface.

Andre Meterian, Panasonic Europe, with Quentin Guiné and Thomas Jumel of BFMTV and the new AJ-PX270 While others are tentatively moving to 4K, Red has released its latest 6K Dragon sensor for the Epic (now also available in a carbon fibre version that weighs about 500g less). The Dragon can roar along at 100fps at 6K and can be fitted as an upgrade to existing Epic and Scarlet cameras.

On Stream For news, getting the story back fast is at least as important as picture quality, and a few cameras are now available with built-in streaming. JVC has upgraded its compact GY-HM650 camcorder to do live streaming using WiFi, 4G or 3G connections via USB while recording full HD to its SDHC/SDXC memory card, thanks to its integrated dual encoder. Material can also be uploaded in the background via FTP thanks to a clip trimming function, which allows users to select, copy, and dub sequences via a single button push.

“Streaming and FTP upload is a very important issue, for people to get content very fast from location to studio,” said JVC product manager, Gustav Emrich.

For French news channel BFMTV, the integrated mobile

network connectivity (3G/4G/WiFi) in Panasonic’s new AJ-PX270 handheld camera was a key factor in its decision to become the first purchaser of 1/3-inch camcorder on the day it launched at IBC. “Being able to send media while or right after shooting in different quality wasn’t possible without additional equipment. It’s an allin-one tool that will simplify the way field newsgathering works for journalists,” said Quentin Guiné, BFMTV’s head of maintenance and operations. www.arri.com www.blackmagic-design.com www.bradeng.com www.canon-europe.com www.gopro.com www.grassvalley.com www.hitachi-keu.com www.i-movix.com www.ikegami.de www.indiecam.com www.ioindustries.com www.jvcpro.eu www.livemotionconcept.de www.panasonic-broadcast.com www.red.com www.solectrix.de www.sinacam.eu www.pro.sony.eu www.telemetricsinc.com www.visionresearch.com

Higher and higher In the high-speed realm, the new Phantom Flex4K from Vision Research can deliver 1000fps at 4K (4096x2160) and twice that in HD. The super 35mm sensor digital cinema camera also features new hot-swappable Phantom CineMag IV storage in sizes up to 2TB. It outputs uncompressed Cine RAW, but in-camera compression will arrive via a firmware update in early 2014. It also has 3G HD-SDI video outputs for use with external recorders.

According to its first European buyer, Stephen Price, director of Love High Speed, it is “the most advanced digital high-speed camera ever produced,” with many improvements, notably “much more latitude, so it can capture much higher brightness levels than before,” which will simplify matching it to normal cameras and make it more usable in high-contrast lighting. “It’s a much cleaner video signal. You can look much deeper into the blacks.”

I-Movix has two significant upgrades for its cameras: what it claims is “the first and only fast processing automatic de-flickering solution” and automatic colour matching. Its d-flicker automatic de-flickering system works in realtime to eliminate any flickering problems typically found when using high-speed cameras in artificial lighting, and works with its SprintCam Vvs HD and X10/X10+ systems.

The new ColorMatch function does automatic in-field calibration between X10/X10+ systems and other cameras used in a live broadcast and should save time by simplifying the task of matching the colours between all cameras used at an event.

The tiny Antelope Pico can deliver 340fps in HD, and can be fully integrated into a live outside broadcast via three BNC cables to the CCU giving the OB truck total control of the camera and high-speed cache clips.

Nice Ni ce Pri Price ice Ba Baby... by... .

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November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

Freefly Systems’ Movi 10 stabiliser will carry up to 5kg and costs $15,000 for a complete rig

IBC Wrap-Up

Motion-control magic to multiglider sliders David Fox looks back to the IBC show, providing a review of the major camera support product launches at the event SMOOTH CONTROLLABLE movement at a low price is such an attractive feature that when a New Zealand start-up sought support for a simple device that combines motion control with time-lapse photography, it became a huge success on Kickstarter, with thousands of pre-orders and all of its initial production run sold in advance.

The Syrp Genie costs less than $1000 and uses a small base that can fit on a tripod or dolly for pan/tilt moves, or tracking using rope-driven linear movement, and is smaller, less complicated and less costly than existing systems. “In video mode, with the panning accessory attached, the Genie can perform perfectly smooth pans or tilts. When attached to a slider, the Genie will enable you to capture precise tracking shots that are otherwise impossible to get by hand,” said co-founder Ben Ryan.

On a slider, it is driven by a simple rope attachment (using 3mm rope that comes in 10m, 50m or 100m lengths), which can pull at least 20kg along a track. This also means it can pull itself along on a skateboard or even a hand-made cable-cam for longer shots.

High-speed robotics The Bolt High-Speed Cinebot from Mark Roberts Motion Control is a particularly quick robotic camera crane designed for high-speed cameras that MRMC thinks will also shine in automated studios, such as newsrooms (thanks to being very quiet), as well as in sports venues.

“We have other systems that are faster, but this ramps up or down much quicker,” explained MRMC’s CEO Assaff Rawner.

“It can go from stationary to move a metre and back to stationary in half a second.”

It carries up to 15kg and its ability to interface with Canon and Fujinon digital broadcast lenses means all aspects of the motion can be integrated as part of its trajectory.

MRMC also has three new Polycam software-controlled tracking systems for live sports production that allow multiple triangulated cameras and lenses to automatically track a point (or numerous points) of interest, simultaneously, in realtime, using a single control interface.

The new BlackcamSystem B10 is claimed to be the world’s smallest professional remote controlled camera system on

Up to speed: The Bolt High-Speed Cinebot rapidly accelerates and decelerates

tracks. The dolly and remote head measure just 18cmx14cmx10cm, weigh 2.3kg (plus miniature camera), and are quiet enough to be placed almost anywhere.

The black anodised track takes up little space, at 15cm wide and 3cm high, and can be linear or curved (with tight curves). The variable speed system can move at up to 1.5m per second.

Shotoku has a new ergonomic, high-resolution Virtual Tracking pan and tilt head that will work with a wide range of camera and lens configurations.

The SX-300VR promises “high-accuracy, realtime data output with absolutely no loss in manual performance.”

Its Serial Position Interface allows it to do framesynchronised high resolution data tracking, and it has the Viscam Fluid-Leaf Drag System for smooth, continuously adjustable pan and tilt drag with enhanced torque for improved operator control. It carries up to 38kg and, for realtime full 3D tracking, it can be used with one of Shotoku’s VR pedestals such as the TP-90. There is also a non-VR version, the SX-300.

Egripment has introduced an Encoding Package for VR work that can be fitted to many of its support products, including cranes, remote heads, telescopic columns and camera tracking dollies. Camera cranes for VRapplications are usually expensive, but the company promises that the Encoding Package will deliver “high quality and reliable crane operation in a much more affordable price range.” Existing Egripment cranes, such as the TDT Crane Arm, the Scanner Classic Arm, the Scanner Elite Arm, and the Jan Jib System, can be upgraded with the package.

The tracking interface provides information obtained from all measured axes via Ethernet, allowing multiple systems to be operated on one network, and tracking data can be easily integrated with graphics software.

Aerial hot shots Virtually there: An encoded Egripment TDT3.0 ENC in use at TVN Poland

The new Shotover F1 is a compact six-axis gyro stabilised platform for use on helicopters,

Like a dream: Genie being demonstrated by Ryan at IBC

VariZoom’s McKay takes Stealthy approach to camera support watercraft or almost anything that moves. It has look down capability and can be used inverted, or right side up for multiple mounting options. It can be rigged quickly and accommodates a wide range of cameras and lenses.

Its lightweight carbon fibre construction facilitates manoeuvrability (it pans 360º continuous, tilts +45 to -140º and rolls +-85º) and allows the F1 to ship as excess baggage on commercial flights. It is easily integrated onto a wide variety of mounting platforms, and uses fibre connections for 3GHz video feeds. It also features customisable graphics overlay for realtime operator feedback, auto or steerable horizon, inverted operation using autoposition detectors, and a choice of remote controlled polarised filter rotation, rain deflector and other accessories. GPS Geo pointing and auto tracking are also options.

Bradley Engineering’s new Gekko is a fast-reacting stabilised gimbal with remote control that can be used for aerial filming with small UAVs, on boats, cars or aircraft, and has its own battery for use with handheld cameras or cameras

on poles. Bradley has designed a clever joint that rotates in three axes to stabilise the camera for pan, tilt and roll, which means you can point the camera in any direction you like without drift.

“It is manufactured entirely from professional components, none of our parts come from the radio-controlled model aeroplane market, and none of the controls are plastic,” said company founder, David Bradley. The 1.4kg Gekko takes a payload of more than 10kg, so it can handle cameras of any size, from a GoPro to an ARRI Alexa. The cameras are fitted to a 200mm wide plate.

There is a built-in CCU and radio-operated remote control for the engineering set-up, gyros, motors and camera controls, including paint and racking.

There is an optional upgrade to Bradley’s larger Gyro controller, which offers more ergonomic actions.

An alternative method of controlling drone cameras is offered by a new remote control pan-bar with adjustable fluid feel. The Drone-Bar “is a collaboration between Cartoni and Mo-Sys Technologies [and] is based on Cartoni fluid heads,” said Mo-Sys’ CEO Michael Geissler.

The fluid damped pan bar connects to most RC camera gimbals (FreeFly, PhotoHigher, etc) commonly used with drones or UAVs. Drones “are gaining popularity and enabling new ways of filming. Those gimbals are under drones or also handheld like a Steadicam. In any case they need an additional camera operator, but those are now forced to use hobbyist-like radio control transmitters,” and this offers a professional alternative. He claimed that: “Some of the new breed of camera gimbal operators said

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IBC Wrap-Up ‘finally, the missing link to the professional shoot’.”

It has an integrated transmitter, interfaces to most common RC receivers, and will be useable with a hand wheel (coming soon). It has an adjustable smoothing feature to take jerkiness out of camera moves, plus a soft stop.

Stability packed Freefly Systems’ new Movi 10 is a three-axis camera stabiliser with three brushless motors that keep the camera where you want it however much you move it.

“You can balance your camera in virtually every situation,” claimed Freefly’s Toby Sali.

It can be locked to the horizon no matter where its handles are, will carry up to 5kg, and costs $15,000 for a complete rig with batteries, software and a complete remote control system with a 300m range (for pan, tilt, and speed of both so it can do smooth pans). There is a tablet app to change settings.

For broadcast, Sali sees this being particularly useful for news and sport. There will also be a $5000 M5 in December that can carry up to 3kg but doesn’t come with the remote control (it is compatible with it — up to 20 units can be on one remote).

Freefly is also working on mounts for cablecams, cars and Easyrigs.

Polecam users have traditionally used miniature cameras, but its latest

The new Vocas wooden handgrip fitted to a Canon C300

On the fly: Justin Brown (left with remote control) and Sam Schrader demonstrate the Movi 10 three-axis camera stabiliser from Freefly Systems

Something in the air: The new Miller Air System is designed for DSLRs and video cameras and can carry up to 5kg motorised heads can also be used with larger cameras, such as the Canon C300 or Red Epic.

A choice of head is included in the Polecam Starter Pack, which was introduced to bring the entry-level cost down. This has now been extended with the PSP+ (costing £6495), which adds a twin battery

V-mount plate and carbon fibre monitor clamp, as they were the two products most added by buyers to the PSP. VariZoom’s new $330 Stealthy is a five-in-one support “that is like a Swiss Army knife for video,” claimed VariZoom president, Tom McKay. It is a fully-gimbalised stabiliser, as well as a three-point shooter (a dropdown arm can be used against your chest for extra stability). It has a built-in short monopod, but can be converted to a long monopod (about 2m) with an optional accessory. There is also a straightforward handheld mode. It can be quickly switched between modes.

It can also be set down on a flat surface, “something that can’t be done with the most

popular stabilisers,” he said, with both handheld and threepoint modes self supporting.

It carries up to about 2kg (a Canon 5D), with an additional weight for balance, but as standard it is ideally limited to about 1kg. When not in use, it can be comfortably hung on your hip using its belt mount.

VariZoom also introduced its $600 DV MediaRig for the first time in Europe. The fully supported (shoulder and movable belt-mounted monopod) rig can carry 9kg, and is designed for DSLR and compact camera use.

Steadicam’s new Fawcett Exovest is an exoskeletal vest designed to redistribute camera weight to the optimum areas of the body, for better mobility and comfort. It has front and rear arm mounts and a pivoting exoskeletal structure that is adjustable on the fly.

Compared to conventional vests, it is less constrictive, allowing for better respiration, circulation and movement, so that it should feel lighter, more comfortable, and offer better control. After docking, the entire vest can be relaxed via one lever. Also new is the lightweight $100 Steadicam Curve stabilisation system for GoPro cameras, which can be used one-handed and is small enough to fit in a pocket.

Steadicam inventor, Garrett Brown, called it “the coolest Steadicam ever.”

Tripod + Dolly The new Panther Classic Plus Dolly promises rugged, almost maintenance free construction, easy operation and versatility.

It can be set up and adjusted without tools and comes with Panther’s High-Low Turnstile that simplifies moving to a low or high shooting position without removing Fluid Head or camera.

Its new powered P1 column is compact (20x20cm), light (29kg) and accelerates from 0 to 100%

in four seconds. The column lift is 50cm (82-132cm) and its height can be extended by 80mm tubes. It can be used with the compact P1 Dolly or other dollies as the basis of a versatile, modular system.

Panther’s new MultiGlider is a 2m camera-slider with an integrated and counter sliding weight that can be used horizontally, diagonally and vertically, once the camera weight (20-35kg) is balanced. It can be used as a JibArm when mounted with balance rod.

Camera level can be adjusted with the balance rod in parallel or automatic-tilt mode.

Also new is an extremely versatile modular system made up primarily of two components: a round baseplate with a bubble level and a leg, which can be put together with a selection of other components to create a table dolly, doorway dolly, LowBoy/HiHat, Bazooka Base, or fitted with a rotating seat, a Camera Base. The FlexGripKit even becomes a Studio Dolly if used with studio wheels or can be used as part of a slider or tracking dolly.

LazySuzy, from Matthews Studio Equipment, is an articulated camera platform that is claimed to “make shots move better, easier, faster and smoother.” It provides mobility through the use of an articulated double-swivel platform and allows a user to place the camera anywhere within a 62.5cm diameter circle without having to reposition the dolly, tripod, or car mount rig.

The camera can also be secured firmly for travelling or lock-off shots. It supports up to 30kg.

The new Air tripod is Miller’s first system aimed at both photographers and videographers, providing a durable fluid head and tripod system that supports both stills and video. It can carry up to 5kg on a strong, lightweight alloy body supported by the versatile

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Solo Rapid-Lock tripod, and is claimed to offer the same sort of performance as Miller’s awardwinning Compass, Arrow and Skyline ranges, including “soft take-offs, super-stable pan and tilt moves and smooth fluid stops.”

Get a grip The Easyrig is a unique way of shifting the weight of a camera to your hips, allowing you to get

cameras,” said Swedish cameraman, and Easyrig inventor, Johan Hellsten. “When shooting with the Easyrig Shoulder Mount it is like shooting with a big camera, in fact better because you have the two handles in front of you.” On top of the unit is a grip to attach the Easyrig system. It was because this isn’t available on other shoulder mounts that he made one himself.

Inventor Garrett Brown calls the new $100 Curve system for GoPro cameras the “coolest Steadicam ever” steadier, more controlled shots.

However, it was designed for larger, shoulder-mounted broadcast cameras. To work with smaller cameras, it requires the new €490 Easyrig Shoulder Mount.

It supports from 500g to 10kg, and “offers flexibility and mobility of operating handheld whilst retaining stability and control and is therefore ideal for DSLR and other small video

ARRI has extended its Pro Camera Accessories range for the diminutive Blackmagic Pocket Camera (MBP-3 adapter plate and Cage Hot Shoe CHS-4 top support), 16mm-format Digital Bolex (MBP-3 and ARRI cage system), Sony F5/F55 (15mm LWS console for batteries or recorder, and lightweight handgrip/record cable), and Canon C100/300/500

Hot Rod-ded: ARRI’s Pro Camera Accessories on a Digital Bolex

Easy does it: Hellsten’s Shoulder Mount is ideal for Gorilla film makers

cameras (Cage Hot Shoe CHS-3 top support, Cage Top Handle CTH-1).

The classic ARRI 300mm bottom plate has had its weight cut by a quarter, but will still withstand the same forces.

Heavy-duty Camlock fittings mean strong plate interfaces, while the rear release pin is redesigned to be more comfortable and reliable. There

are also two new longer balance plates: 450mm and 600mm (with adjustable 15mm or 19mm studio rod support brackets for very long lenses).

Vocas has two new handgrips.

Its new leather handgrip is shorter than the original, allowing users to support the camera closer to the lens and fit a follow focus.

This will also be sold in a kit with a left and right-handed version

of the handgrip and a simple 15mm bracket.

A wooden grip includes an integrated remote record switch, with camera specific cables for Canon’s EOS Cinema cameras, Sony’s PMW-F5/F55, and ARRI’s Alexa, Vocas has also released new height-adjustable versions of its 15mm Shoulder Base Plate that can be used with a wide variety of cameras, from Blackmagic Cinema camera to Red Epic. www.arri.com www.blackcamsystem.com www.bradeng.com www.cartoni.com www.easyrig.com www.egripment.com www.FreeflySystems.com www.mrmoco.com www.msegrip.com www.millertripods.com www.mo-sys.com www.panther.tv www.polecam.com www.senna.hr www.shotoku.co.jp www.shotover.com www.syrp.co.nz www.steadicam.com www.varizoom.com www.vocas.com

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24 TVBEurope

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IBC Wrap-Up

Cloudy with a chance of metadata A cloud hung over almost every hall at IBC, with services on offer for almost every part of the production chain including encoding, scheduling, promotion, sales and post. David Fox spoke with two big companies behind the clouds TWO OF the most interesting new offerings in the cloud were from Sony and Panasonic, each with different approaches: Sony working from the enterprise down to the one-man band, Panasonic from the camera to the newsroom.

Sony’s Ci is already in use, having been launched at NAB, but it is still in beta, and Naomi Climer, president, Sony Media Cloud Services, said: “We’re not going to finish this, ever. It’s going to be in continual development.”

Ci allows lots of people to view and comment on material, or to create and manage an archive. “It’s also a great way to get material from one place to another,” she said.

“It’s not one tool that tries to be everything to everybody. There is a ‘work in progress’ content creation side and a content

sharing and curation level. There is a huge overlap between the two, but a distinct difference in the design and feel.” The two sections are Workspace, for content creation and video production, and MediaBox, which is more of an organisational tool.

The key theme to both is collaborative production, with

Ahead in the clouds: Naomi Climer believes Ci will speed up workflows

several different applications available via the browser. At IBC these included three new apps: Ci RoughCut, which can produce EDLs for Avid or Final Cut Pro, and Ci AudioReview and Ci VideoReview, for reviewing, annotation, and collaboration.

For content creation, it is a quick way of getting material back from location, and to reduce bandwidth needs a lot of the workflow is based on proxies. “It means editors and senior personnel can start looking at material very early,” she said.

She sees it as “a tool that quite realistically could work for an individual and for an enterprise.

An organisation could have thousands of users on it. Sony Pictures is using it pretty intensively for stock footage, archive, editorial and for a new

movie.” It also uses it for sharing marketing material, while the University of Southern California film school uses it for content collaboration and marking.

Another possible use is for legal reviews, especially for fast-turnaround reality TV, helped by the ability to comment by frame, so there need be no ambiguity. It is easy to jump to any frame, so that if a producer is talking to an editor they can be sure they are looking at the same thing.

As it is a service, “it is ideal for customers who can’t get more capital expenditure, but can afford operational budget for storage,” she said.

Users can sign up online free to the creation workflow, with limited storage (5GB), buying extra storage only when they need it. If you upload HD it

can generate the proxy, or you can just upload the proxy if you have limited bandwidth.

MediaBox supports Aspera uploads (which will also come to Workspace), which can cope with 4K and reduce latency.

There is also a very simple to use iOS App. “We want to achieve that [simplicity of use] with any camera on the planet.

We can see opportunities throughout our hardware to make it cloud enabled. We want to help people to collaborate and share content,” she added.

“We can imagine quite a lot of things within the Sony world we want to do. It will be available all the time, as part of the new agile world.”

Sony announced wireless camera-to-cloud connectivity for its new and existing camcorders at IBC, with access to Ci via a

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November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

wireless adapter (CBK-WA100) that can automatically create XAVC proxies, allowing users to transmit files (both proxies and original high-res content) via 3G, 4G, LTE, or WiFi to the cloud or direct to the broadcaster. Because it has WiFi, the camera can also connect to mobile devices.

These can interact with the camera or control it using Sony’s Content Browser Mobile app. This allows users to log

Time for metadata Panasonic’s new cloud ENG system is aimed at making it simpler to preview images, add metadata and eventually stream live news. “Our vision is that all of our products are cloud capable and can support IP,� said Stephen Yeo, marketing director, PSCE. To increase its expertise in this area, in July Panasonic bought CameraManager, a Dutch company specialising in

Panasonic wants to offer this to its most important markets, particularly news production, where it has a very strong presence in European broadcasters (of the more than 300,000 P2HD units Panasonic has now sold, more than 70,000 of those are in Europe). “We are developing the backend and workflow to get the content back to base quickly and cost effectively,� explained Rob Tarrant, European product

“Part of the reason broadcasters aren’t using metadata is that cameramen don’t have time to do it. The people who benefit from metadata are back in the TV station�

Rob Tarrant, Panasonic metadata on set and review content without having to connect a monitor to the camcorder. The adapter is compatible with Sony’s XDCAM Memory camcorders as well as cameras with an HD-SDI output.

cloud-based surveillance systems with more than 40,000 cameras installed across Europe.

Although it mainly provides video surveillance as a service, its cloud services will also be extended to the business and consumer markets.

manager, Broadcast and Pro AV. “Part of the reason broadcasters aren’t using metadata is that cameramen don’t have time to do it. The people who benefit from metadata are back in the TV station, so this system allows them to create metadata, email

Welcome to a world of

Rob Tarrant with the new AJ-PX270 it to the cameraman for upload to the camera, and when the shoot is finished the proxy is pushed to the cloud, and can be viewed and edited,� he said. “The EDL can be sent back to the camera, which will then FTP full res quality to the cloud.� In future, users will also be able to stream live while recording so a piece can be edited and ready to go almost as soon as it is shot. Breaking news can even use the proxy for immediate use.

Panasonic already works with various uplink manufacturers, such as LiveU, to integrate these

wireless systems into the viewfinder, but its two new camcorders can also use a single SIM card to connect to the cloud. Both the â‚Ź23,000 shoulder-mount AJ-PX5000 (available now) and handheld AJ-PX270 (available Spring 2014) have this functionality, “so you can pick the camera that best suits the application,â€? he said.

They are also the first cameras with the AVC-Ultra codec built in rather than an optional upgrade. The EBU has recommended LonG 25 as full broadcast quality. “It’s the same quality as AVC-Intra 100.�

Two existing Panasonic camcorders already include advanced network functions: the AJ-HPX3100 and AG-HPX600.

They can use a WiFi connection to connect with a laptop or tablet.

This enables various wireless camera functions such as streaming, remote camera control and proxy list editing. www.cameramanager.com http://business.panasonic.eu/broa dcast-and-proav www.pro.sony.eu www.sonymcs.com

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26 TVBEurope

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IBC Wrap-Up

Cheeseman scouts the clouds for Sky

Cara Cheeseman: “50 to 60 times a day, people try to get through Sky’s firewall”

Neal Romanek talks with Sky’s head of advanced production and innovation on the broadcaster’s relationship with the cloud CARA CHEESEMAN is no stranger to new technologies.

She was 3D post production supervisor on Sky’s groundbreaking nature series Kingdom of Plants 3D which used a bewildering variety of cameras and photographic techniques to make the greenery of London’s Kew Gardens come alive in astonishing ways. This summer, Cheeseman became of head of advanced production and innovation at Sky. At IBC, she took part in a panel discussion on the current and

future uses of cloud production, hosted by Aframe founder David Peto [see ‘Breaking the production chain’, page 27].

Among Cheeseman’s responsibilities is helping Sky develop and streamline its tapeless workflows. Given Sky’s enormous library of assets, its need for security and reliability, and the difficulty in predicting how technologies will develop in the future, Cheeseman’s job is a complex one.

Sky has already made forays into cloud production and was introduced by a production company to cloud video production platform Aframe.

They have employed Aframe on several shows, including A League Of Their Own and Duck Quacks Don’t Echo. Part of Cheeseman’s job has been weighing the pros and cons of adopting an external cloud platform on a wide scale.

With a long history in post production, Cheeseman understands the immediate

benefits in cloud-based production, most obviously in practical time savings: “You don’t have to physically move files around, preparing disks, sending copies to commissioners.

When you add all those things up, they take up a lot of time. And media is generating larger and larger file formats.

At the same time, people are expecting quicker turnaround times.”

Sky’s relationship with Aframe has been positive, which has not been the case with every cloud solution Sky has investigated. “We’re always testing new products. We did a lot of testing when we looked at cloud solutions,” Cheeseman said, “Some have worked. And some have not worked at all – even the bigger ones.”

Heavyweight broadcasters like Sky are understandably slow to hand over the security of their most valuable assets to an

60 times a day, people try to get through Sky’s firewall.”

There are hints that the industry might be at the beginning of a cloud gold rush, with any company with a data centre offering a cloud solution.

Cheeseman underlines that Sky approaches partnership with cloud providers with much due diligence.

Cheeseman believes cloud platforms will certainly grow in number and breadth of offering in the next two years, but the very thing that makes the cloud so valuable – it’s near-infinite flexibility — can be a stumbling block to some cloud service providers. “A lot of companies are trying to do everything.

Everyone has different needs.

But it’s important to understand what you do and not try to be everything to everyone.”

Sky also needs to be sure that any company-wide solution is scalable – and there are not many companies in a position to offer that kind of scale with the level of security Sky requires.

Cheeseman wouldn’t say whether Sky would follow Sony in developing its own internal platform, but it’s possible that the best cloud provider for a big broadcaster is the broadcaster itself.

Transitioning to a post-tape world, with data universally accessible and able to be endlessly repurposed, may sound like too much change for anyone to cope with, but Cheeseman points out that the digitisation of workflows actually helps companies adapt, as they become less married to hardware which requires endless updating: “The cloud is a buffer to change”.

“A lot of companies are trying to do everything …but it’s important to understand what you do and not try to be everything to everyone” Cara Cheeseman outside enterprise. Sky has an enormous amount of content to store and manage, and being such a high profile company also can make it a target. “I have to make a business case for every decision and every purchase. One of the big things we struggle with at Sky is getting security right,” says Cheeseman, “It’s a big issue for us. Fifty to

November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 27

IBC Wrap-Up

Breaking the production chain The cloud promises to connect everybody, everywhere, all the time.

Neal Romanek looks at how close some IBC vendors came to the dream of universal connectivity “IT’S CLOSER to being an IT convention than a broadcast convention,” observed one high-profile attendee of this September’s IBC event in Amsterdam. And though 4K was a dominant topic of conversation, much of that conversation was about how to deal with 4K’s huge data files.

This year seemed to be the IBC where the possibilities of a fully connected world became apparent. Attendees began to see practical implications of working in the cloud, and well-developed cloud-based production solutions were shown off by a number of major companies.

In truth, broadcasters have been using cloud workflows for years; a post house with servers linked across its different locations operates, in some small degree, its own internal cloud. But what has changed is the scale — a combination of terrific expansion of storage space, ubiquitous remote connectivity and ever-increasing data transfer speed.

And the cloud is an evolving workspace — we can be certain that next year’s cloud solutions will be faster, cheaper and more easily accessible than this year’s.

The question staring broadcasters in the face is: why spend your own resources and real estate on servers and storage, when — for example — Amazon’s AWS cloud service has over half a million servers ready and waiting?

Avid showed off its vision for the future of workflows, Avid Everywhere. Avid Everywhere is an attempt to rethink content production workflow from the ground up, recognising that connectivity allows the sharing of information in endless permutations.

“It’s not a value chain anymore. It’s an ecosystem of networked collaborators,” said an Avid representative, “Just as consumers are no longer constrained by how and when they consume content, media organisations are no longer limited to working within the walls of their facility.” A decade ago, Avid Everywhere would have been a pie in the sky fantasy, but virtual workflows in the cloud make it not only possible, but in some ways inevitable.

London-based Aframe promoted its own cloud asset management platform and

Your Team For Broadcasting Solution.

David Peto: three million video files have gone through Aframe’s cloud system hosted a discussion, moderated by company founder David Peto, on the current and future uses of cloud production. Peto and his team built the software and system from the ground up, literally starting the company in a oneroom flat. As of IBC three million video files, not including metadata, have gone through the Aframe system, with the largest project clocking in at 6400 hours. Its clients include the BBC, Sky, Panasonic and MTV. Three panellists gave candid accounts of their experience with cloud production, Thomas Viner, executive producer at Arrow Media, Cara Cheeseman, head of advanced production and innovation at Sky, and Bryan Phillips, project manager at the digital production partnership, BBC. Viner, whose work is mostly in factual production, found that the cloud was useful in post, but location shooting prevented immediate cloud ingest of footage. “Getting to the cloud is the problem. We still send a drive to the post house.” The success of Panasonic’s cloud ENG solution suggests that this kind of problem may be eliminated in the near future.

Cloud production workflows offer the opportunity of bringing all parts of workflow together in a nonlinear, collaborative environment. The technology is available, it works, but the change in mindset required might be the biggest stumbling block to wide adoption.

Arrow’s Thomas Vinter summed up that resistance to change: “‘Workflow solution’.

When people hear those words, they think ‘That’s not my job.’” www.aframe.com

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28 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2013

IBC Wrap-Up High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC or H.265) was one of the hot topics at IBC, writes David Fox. It can potentially deliver video at half the bandwidth needed by H.264, making it easier to transmit high definition to mobiles or higher resolutions such as 4K or 8K to set-top boxes

Highly efficient video compression HEVC WILL require new chips in set-top boxes, so while it will be relatively easy to implement in software on the latest mobiles and computers, or to implement in the contribution chain, it might take a few years before broadcasters can depend on it for transmission. However, there is an alternative that can deliver the same 50% cut in bitrate without any changes on the receiving end.

Beamr Video is “a perceptual quality filter that is highly correlated with human vision,” so it can “eliminate all the redundancies in video that are beyond human vision,” explained Beamr president Eli Lubitch.

“This quality filter is attached to standard encoders in such a way that we guide the coder to frame by frame reduce the bitrate to the lowest possible rate. We take out all the differences between the human spectrum and the CMOS sensor spectrum.” At IBC it showed 6Mbps and 3Mbps versions of a 1080p movie side by side with no noticeable difference between them.

Users can either deliver better quality at the same target bitrate, or offer identical quality with significant file savings, giving better delivery on mobiles or broadband and reducing mobile data bills.

“It will preserve all the settings and profiles, so for the clients it is transparent. You don’t need any special software in the receiving card,” he explained. “This will allow you to do 4K with standard H.264 with the same bandwidth as H.265, so it’s a way of delivering 4K now instead of waiting two years.”

If you do move to HEVC, Beamr can be used with it too.

“If someone has gained 50% efficiency by going to H.265, they could gain another 50% by using Beamr. We are incremental,” he claimed. Beamr Video is now available for an annual licence fee and has been the subject of 44 different patents and patent applications.

Haivision previewed end-toend live streaming of HEVC, using software-based encoding and decoding, as well as Hybrid Encoding, which makes the most of CPU and GPU utilisation for encoding or transcoding. This offers the combined density gains of GPU acceleration while maintaining the quality gains of pure software on the CPU. Haivision’s initial approach will take advantage of the latest Intel CPUs, which incorporate GPUs directly as cores within the chip.

HEVC on trial Thomson Video Networks also showed live HEVC broadcast and decoding using its latest Eli Lubitch: Beamr Video “will allow you to do 4K with standard H.264 with the same bandwidth as H.265”

Low bitrates Contribution is one area where HEVC could make an impact fairly quickly. LiveWire Digital showed a comparison at IBC of HEVC and H.264 at just 1Mbps.

“You don’t get an acceptable picture with H.264, but it is acceptable with HEVC,” said Richard Aylmer-Hall, business development manager. There were parts of the picture in HEVC at 1Mbps that didn’t match what H.264 could do at 2Mbps, but overall the quality was about the same at half the bitrate, with HEVC offering more accurate colour.

“We’ve been working hard to optimise our implementation of HEVC and will be launching an update to our file-based contribution tool M-Link Newscaster later this year,” he added.

However, it will be a while longer before Newscaster will be able to do live encoding in HEVC. “You could build a computer powerful enough, but it wouldn’t fit in a journalist’s laptop,” he said.

Currently LiveWire can do live full HD at 1080i at 2Mbps, and its goal is to do that below 1Mbps with HEVC.

Going live Of course, live HEVC encoding is possible using equipment that isn’t quite as journalist friendly.

Ericsson, for example, demonstrated live Ultra HD video contribution at 50p, 4:2:2, 10-bit resolution, while its new SVP 5500 is claimed to be the world’s first HEVC encoder for mobile, capable of realtime encoding at resolutions up to HD. Its main focus at IBC was delivery to mobile, and its LTE Broadcast products, which combine three new standards (HEVC, eMBMS and MPEGDASH), are designed to address consumer demand for media services over 4G (LTE).

Its AVP 4000 encoder will be upgradable to HEVC, but it is also claimed to offer gains for existing codecs. It “brings the highest performance we’ve ever had in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, primarily due to new work with algorithms,” offering 10-20% better efficiency compared to Ericsson’s previous generation, said Fabio Murra, head of portfolio marketing, compression. “Operators can not sit still waiting for HEVC, so they have to maximise the infrastructure they have in place today.”

Elemental Technologies has shown live encoding of HEVC at 1080p below 2.8Mbps using its Elemental Live platform.

It also showed 10-bit 4K and full frame rate HEVC video processing, as well as 4K HEVC

Richard Aylmer-Hall: HEVC contribution at 1Mbps should match what H.264 can do at 2Mbps streaming to multiple devices, and live HEVC encoding via Elemental Cloud.

Allegro DVT’s AL1200 and AL2200 were claimed to be “the world’s first live broadcast encoder and transcoder for HEVC” for resolutions up to HD. They support Transport Stream output and MPEGDASH, and come with either HD-SDI or MPEG-TS inputs.

Ateme released its first HEVC product, in the form of software upgrades allowing HEVC encoding to be embedded in both Titan Live/Titan File (its carrier-grade software video transcoding system for multiscreen delivery) and Kyrion DR8400, its universal Integrated Received Decoder (which was claimed to be the first IRD that can decode HEVC).

ViBE VS7000 multi-screen video system, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (which has HEVC decoding built in and is used in mobile devices), and adaptive streaming using MPEG-DASH. “Bringing a new technology to this space requires a perfect alignment of the entire video ecosystem,” said Eric Gallier, TVN’s VP of marketing.

“Illustrating the readiness of HEVC and DASH from the headend to the end-user device is a key step toward demonstrating to broadcasters how practical deployments can be implemented.”

The VS7000 is being used by HISPASAT for its 4K trial channel, which was launched at IBC and is one of the first steps in the H2B2VS and UltraHD4U

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IBC Wrap-Up

“You could build a computer powerful enough, but it would not fit onto a journalist’s laptop�

Eureka research projects, and Sky Italia’s UHD trials.

Meanwhile, Tata Communications has chosen Harmonic’s ProMedia file-based transcoding to deliver multiformat HEVC video over its Content Transform cloudbased video transcoding and delivery system.

This will provide Tier 1 operators “with easy access to HEVC support with the capacity, speed, and security required for delivering high-quality web and mobile services,� said Sameer Kanse, business head, Tata Communications’ Media Services. It will enable accelerated file transfers and reduce broadcasters’ capital expenditure.

supporting HEVC playback. www.allegrodvt.com www.ateme.com www.beamrvideo.com www.divx.com www.elementaltechnologies.com www.ericsson.com/televisionary/

www.haivision.com www.harmonicinc.com www.livewire.co.uk www.multicorewareinc.com www.thomson-networks.com www.rovicorp.com www.telestream.net

Freely available Telestream’s new Vantage 6 video processing platform for transcoding and file-based workflow automation can handle many different formats, including HEVC. Telestream also launched an open source H.265 encoder in partnership with MulticoreWare. The x256 project (x.265.org) aims to be as “robust, efficient and high quality� as their previous x264 collaboration. It will be free under GNU LGPL licensing, while commercial licenses will be available for companies to use it in their products.

Rovi launched DivX 10, the first consumer software for HEVC, enabling the free creation and playback of DivX video H.265 on Windows or Mac computers. “We believe DivX 10 is an application that will help fuel HEVC content availability and generate demand for playback support to be integrated into consumer electronics devices,� said Kanaan Jemili, SVP, product management, Rovi Corp.

The DivX HEVC profiles are supported across DivX Converter, DivX Player and DivX Web Player, and it allows realtime decoding of HEVC at up to 1080p on Intel i5 systems.

It will also create MP4 video for playback on iOS. Rovi’s end-to-end HEVC system also includes new MainConcept encoding SDKs for professional content creators, the DivX Video Service with DivX DRM for protected HEVC content delivery, and an extension to its DivX Certification programme that allows integrated circuit and CE device customers to quickly bring to market products

Greater efficiency: Ericsson’s AVP 4000 delivers anything from SD to UHD, using multiple codecs, and will be upgradeable to HEVC

www.ikegami.de

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Blackmagic, Canon and GoPro have shaken rivals into redesigning their own product lines

The next big leap Despite the rash of 4K products at IBC there are still only a handful of genuine options for acquiring high-end recorded or live action Ultra HD. Adrian Pennington considers the latest developments from the show VIEWERS CAN’T tell the difference between HD and 4K, they won’t pay a premium for it and there are much better uses of spectrum — the conclusion reached by delegates voting on the motion ‘Do we really need to go beyond HD?’ at an IBC conference session.

“4K is too expensive,” asserted Brian Lenz, chief innovation officer at satellite broadcaster Astro Malaysia.

“It’s very expensive to deliver and you need new STBs, new chips and new consumer displays. We have only just finished swapping out our SD edit suites to HD. You have to ask where the business model is, or rather is there a company out there which can make a business model work?”

Nonetheless Giles Wilson, head of compression business, Ericsson predicted: “In every mature TV market one operator will go to Ultra HD first, then the question for other broadcasters becomes ‘can I afford not to move to Ultra HD?’ because consumers will go where the most compelling user experience is. Ultra HD is about a sense of presence, not resolution. We are moving from viewing a picture in a frame to having a window on the world, from viewing to experiencing.”

While there are strong opinions on both sides — not least that Ultra HD should get out of the box with higher frame rates, higher than 8-bit colour, wider dynamic range and a readily understood consumer message — the practical issue of acquisition is slowly being solved.

It seems Russia will be first out of the blocks when NTV+ airs 4K coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter games in March.

The transmission would go to public viewing areas and cinemas. That distribution is also likely for matches of the 2014 World Cup. While just the final has been officially announced, it allowed Sony to assert that “4K is no longer a vision but a reality.”

“Why should you invest now in 4K?” asked Sony’s European

Katsunori Yamanouchi: “Why should you invest now in 4K? Because this live production system can also be used to shoot HD”

Giles Wilson: “We are moving from viewing a picture in a frame to having a window on the world; from viewing to experiencing”

Do we need to go beyond HD? Delegates to this IBC session said viewers can’t tell the difference between HDTV and 4K

VP Katsunori Yamanouchi.

“Because this live production system can also be used to shoot HD, by offering HD cut outs, downconversion or high frame rate sequences for slow motion.”

Sony’s new PWS-440 4K server makes it possible to record ISOs in 4K and to create slow motion and highlight editing in 4K. The unit supports four 4K inputs and contains up to five hours record time and is a direct competitor to EVS. The Belgian vendor incidentally has introduced a 4K version of its XT3 production server, enabling

live slow motion in Ultra HD as well as greater flexibility for high definition workflows.

“We are talking to OB operators around Europe about adding a 4K layer to their existing infrastructure,” explained Sony strategic marketing manager, live production, Claus Pfeiffer, insisting that 4K investment makes business sense. For example, a transmission camera adaptor attached to the F55 provides familiar CCU operation and talkback to the operator. “If they have

HDC2500 cameras they can reuse the CCU, reuse the viewfinder and the RCP control which means the additional investment necessary for 4K shooting is not so big,” he said.

Sony’s switcher houses a new upconversion processor to upres HDC-2500s to 4K. The same technology may make it possible to upscale HD from specialist aerial or railcameras for integration into a live 4K workflow. Shooting 60fps is also not considered an issue for what Sony considers the first phase of live 4K production.

“The EBU discussions are centering on 100fps but we can prove that 60fps is already capable of creating very good 4K images,” said Pfeiffer. “Since chipsets for STBs capable of 100fps might not arrive for a couple of years, 60fps makes 4K possible now.”

The F55 and F5 feature new high frame rate capability of 2K 240fps or 4K 60p. For higher 4K rates, Sony’s F65 will reach 120fps or you can turn to the Vision Research Super35 sensor Phantom Flex4K which will generate 4K 1000fps or 2000fps HD. It outputs uncompressed Cine RAW with in-camera compression to be introduced early 2014.

Sony’s FS-700 can also record 4K via external recorder and the company added a pair of NXCAM camcorders. The NEX-FS700R models feature a 4K Exmor Super35 CMOS sensor and enable 4K/2K recording on an external recorder. A firmware update includes the S-log2 gamma mode for wider dynamic range with Sony pitching the cameras at corporate, and low budget production.

Sensors and sensitivities Canon’s EOS-1D C is another option for those wanting premium HD today, with 4K capability tomorrow. It is newly minted as the first DSLR to meet the EBU Tech 3335 requirements for HD broadcast.

BSkyB and US network 3net have amassed a library of original 3D content shot mostly on Red cameras, which also means that “in theory they are UHD ready,” noted Chris Johns, Sky’s chief engineer.

While there must be a question mark hanging over the camera maker following the withdrawal of founder Jim Jannard from day to day activity and with marketing front man Ted Schilowitz also quietly leaving, Red is shipping the 6K Dragon sensor which is said to offer 17 stops of latitude.

Blackmagic’s 4K production camera was still not ready at IBC. “We have an issue with the manufacturer of the sensor,” explained Craig Heffernan, technical sales consultant. “We need to get it recalibrated. As with [Blackmagic’s 2K camera, which was also delayed] we are making sure we get it right out of the box.”

The company is introducing Ultra HD capability across its product line, at IBC debuting a 1 M/E production switcher and

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IBC Wrap-Up

Blackmagic’s Production Camera 4K: “We have an issue with the manufacturer of the sensor,” explained Craig Heffernan a 4K 6G-SDI version of waveform monitor Smartscope (a snip at £600). It also has IO boards, Da Vinci Resolve for grading and while its conversion and routing products are not yet 4K there are hints of ‘watch this space’ come NAB. “Like other manufacturers we are laying the groundwork for 4K so that when broadcasters do press the go button the products are there and the workflow is stable,” said Heffernan.

Blackmagic, Canon and GoPro have shaken rivals into redesigning their own product line. A number of DSLR-style units with 4K video capability

are in the pipeline, with Shoji Nemoto, EVP, corporate executive officer revealing that Sony’s “development will merge technology and design from the Alpha range [of consumer digital stills cameras] with professional technologies like XDCAM.” ARRI placed dynamic range ahead of resolution in the design of the Alexa and has seen it become a firm favourite of cinematographers. The company has confirmed that a technology beyond the current 3.5K sensor is planned, with the brains behind the Alexa’s original digital imaging core — German

company Solectrix – understood to be working on it.

Panasonic’s theme was ‘Practical 4K’. “There are a lot of cameras that can do 4K for high end cinema and while not discounting that market, we want to make 4K workflow practical for everyday TV production,” said Neil Noriaki Ugo, product manager. Its 4K Varicam, shown under glass at IBC, is due in 2014 recording to new P2 cards in compression scheme AVC Ultra.

Others to watch include Panavision’s long gestating digital cine camera with a possible 70mm sensor and Weisscam’s 4K version of its T-Cam. At IBC stereo 3D was virtually absent from booths, with vendors transferring their R&D and marketing dollars into 4K — which is seen by all as a safer bet. “You have to look at what is mainstream and what is the toy that is going to go away,” says Luc Doneux

be right for live sport. We believe 4K and 8K should have a better innings. We can use the same camera positions and shoot the same way as 1080i; the production is not an additional burden.”

Monitoring 4K a problem Until the ITU ratified Rec.2020 (successor to HD standard Rec.709) filters into product (not expected before NAB2014) there are no certified colour

“We knew 3D was not going to be right for live sport. We believe 4K and 8K should have a better innings. We can use the same camera positions and shoot the same way as 1080i” Luc Doneux, EVS The chip is the basis of Panasonic’s 4K product plans which includes a switcher, portable storage unit, studio camera and a handheld 4K camera as well as compatible video servers, colour grading and NLE systems.

EVP, Sports Division, EVS. “It’s not always easy to pick the right horse because some broadcasters want to be on the cutting edge to create uniqueness to their programming.

We knew 3D was not going to

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IBC Wrap-Up “Laser projection technology looks promising as well as the recent 4K DLP chips and the latest 4K Sony OLEDs but these are still to make it into the professional mainstream,” said SGO’s Nicholas Recagno.

Options include TVLogic’s 30-inch DCI unit and 56-inch broadcast model capable of 10-bit 3840x2160 display; JVC’s £13,000 84-inch quad-HD LCD can accept 4K from HDMI 1.4a at 120Hz 10-bit. Panasonic fields a 31-inch 4K LCD. Eizo’s FDH3601 was originally designed for air traffic control and geophysics, but a digital uniformity equaliser, and sRGB (Rec.709) colour space have found use on several [unnamed] features. It’s a whopping £12,000 though and built to order.

The ColorEdge CG276 takes a different approach and provides a colour managed display with integrated calibration that provides a good emulation of the DCI-P3 colour space, according to the company. However, the 2560x1440 screen resolution

means it is not able to deliver the pixel for pixel mapping of the FDH3601, reflected in the £1299 price.

Barco claims its DP4K-P is the only 4K projector dedicated to post production.

Technicolor Paris and CineLicious LA are named users. “Its native colour gamut is wider than DCI, so it can emulate different print film stocks and ensure that the projector can reach DCI more accurately, with different lamps and over time,” says Barco’s Tom Bert. “The projector in any type of post production or colour grading facility dealing with film is a critical piece of equipment. It should be absolutely correct in terms of image reproduction.”

Perhaps the most sage question to the industry’s mad rush to Ultra HD, to which I have not heard a reasoned reply, is what is wrong with lessening the compression on 1080i, making 1080p the standard it was always supposed to be and transmitting HD properly at only incremental cost?

Technology beyond the current 3.5K sensor is planned for the ARRI Alexa

Barco’s DP4K-P “the only 4K projector dedicated to post production” Dolby for instance was showing a master grading colour reference monitor at a 1080p resolution so good it looked like 4K. “The high

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The company is assessing launch of a 4K monitor, with cost and availability of the panels the main impediment.

“We know there is a need for professional reference in the field, in studio and post production but since most 4K grading is done on 2K proxies just now, we are taking our time to see who is adopting 4K before we bring product to market,” said Wang.

Slightly better HD won’t sell TV sets — which is of course the driving force behind the urgency in some quarters to do 4K now. www.arri.com www.blackmagicdesign.com www.barco.com www.canon.com www.eizo.co.uk www.ericsson.com www.evs.com www.dolby.com www.sky.com www.sony.co.uk www.technicolor.com www.tvlogic.tv

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IBC Wrap-Up

Acquisition, storage and data

6G SDI for UHDTV-1, 4K and 3D production

As at NAB in April so at IBC in September, themes of aggressive product pricing and accelerating a push to 4K. David Kirk looks back at the Amsterdam event videotape format wars and subsequent file-format skirmishes, the contest now worth following is between competing ways of streaming and routing audio and video within a content-production network.

Centre of attention is now on IP based technologies. Keyur Parikh and Junius Kim of Harris Broadcast addressed concerns about the reliability of IP links with their paper ‘Methods for robust audio streaming over impaired IP networks’. The essence of their case: “Migration from fixed-circuit based telecommunication services to IP based connections reduces operational expenses as well as providing flexibility in audio networking. However, the reliability and quality of IP connections can deter users from making this migration. A robust audio streaming over IP architecture includes elements such as forward error correction, interleaving, stream grouping, support for multiple IP networks, and dynamic and automatic network adaptation. Test results using both random and burst packet loss type IP networks show audio streaming performance improvements over a variety of impaired network environments.”

Picture: BBC Reseach & Development

COMPETITION AT every price point from prosumer right through to high-end broadcast becomes more fierce with every passing year, accelerated by introduction of increasingly ambitious software designed for latest-generation standardplatform computers. A classic example of the latter was Quantel’s new Pablo Rio 2KO post production system. This is capable of sourcing from 4K cameras and delivering 2K or stereoscopic HD in realtime, all from software running on a PC. A notable feature of IBC2013 was the growing number of broadcast tools based on the Apple iPhone, almost enough now to justify their own exhibition hall. Phone-based devices have one big advantage over traditional tools: they are harder to lose. If all else fails, you just call them from another phone and track the ringtone.

Downside is the shared battery.

Sony and Panasonic both displayed refined versions of their widescreen multi-camera systems.

These allow 16:9 HD content to be selected on a pan-and-scan basis either during a live broadcast or from a server. Sony’s 4K Live Production System uses two PMW-F55 4K cameras capable of capturing at up to 240fps. It is easy to imagine 8K sooner or later being applied in the same way for output as 4K or HD. Panasonic showed a system employing four AW-HE120 HD cameras to create a 64:9 aspect ratio ultra-wide-angle feed.

Most of the excitement at IBC2013 was in the conference presentations rather than the exhibition halls, reflecting an industry which is evolving faster now than ever. If you enjoyed the

Layers, zones and feeds structures in an IP studio

HEVC, next big thing?

Thorsten Lohmar: With LTE, one cell can contribute to up to eight independent single-frequency networks simultaneously

The IP Studio BBC Research & Development is developing a framework to investigate going beyond traditional technologies such as SDI towards IP-based studio infrastructure. PJ Brightwell and colleagues outlined this project in a paper titled ‘The IP Studio’.

“A unified approach to the identification and synchronisation of audio and video content and data and control events, and the

A 56-inch 4K OLED demo at Sony’s IBC stand

adoption of techniques and technologies proven to scale for the internet provide a level of flexibility that is not possible with traditional infrastructures. A potentially disruptive finding is the proposal to distribute and consume content and events as elemental grains.

“While this enables great flexibility for a variety of application use cases, it is something of a step-change from the usual practice of layering traditional bitstreams onto everfaster transports such as SDI over fibre. A software framework has been implemented to test the feasibility and usefulness of this approach in practice, through trials with productions and infrastructure providers, and to determine where future standards are needed. A joint task force on networked media has recently been established by the Video Services Forum, EBU and SMPTE.”

Jean-Pierre Henot and M Ropert of Envivio outlined the merits of H.265 as a compression standard for 4K production and transmission in their paper ‘HEVC, the next big thing?’. “High-efficiency video coding (HEVC) allows bitrate reduction of 50% while providing equivalent quality compared to its predecessor H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The availability of 4K/UHD TV devices at affordable prices, from US$1,500, shows that consumer technology may mature quickly.

“However that does not mean 4K/UHD TV services are ready for wide deployment. 4K/UHD is currently limited to 30fps in existing consumer devices.

This allows 4K movies to be displayed on consumer TV sets but 4K deployment will only happen with the support of 50fps as the minimum temporal resolution for smooth motion capture on sports events. A new generation of connectors will be required to support 4K at 50 or 60fps on consumer displays.

“Recording and connectivity in the studio is also a challenge.

With 4K, 60fps and at least 10 bits-per-sample, the bandwidth currently tops out at rates of 12Gbps at 4:2:2. The transmission bandwidth with existing H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression standard would require between 20 to 40Mbps to achieve acceptable video quality but the transmission cost would be too high to reach large audiences. 4K/UHD at 60fps is on its way, and HEVC is the enabling technology that allows for its transmission over multiple networks.”

Nigel Seth-Smith looked ahead to ‘6G SDI for UHDTV-1, 4K and 3D production’: “There is a pressing need to transport increased data rates in a secure, reliable and timely manner within the broadcast environment. An expansion of the capabilities of SDI is an appropriate choice for this purpose. However, there is no obvious ‘sweet spot’ for the next data rate. Arguments can be made for any rate between 6 and 192Gbps, or even 384Gbps for stereoscopic 3D. “Now that the SMPTE is standardising multiple 3Gbps links for transport of 6Gbps and 12Gbps signals, the first application of gearbox technology would be in combining these into 6G SDI or 12G SDI single links. The same approach could then be used to combine the 6Gbps and 12Gbps links into single 24, 48, 96 and 192Gbps links, once the technology for these links becomes appropriately affordable.

“A single 6G SDI link can transport any currently-defined 1080p format at any combination of frame rate and bit-depth. It can also carry the lower frame rate 2160p formats. Multiple links can be used to carry higher frame rate 2160p formats. 6G SDI can employ existing infrastructure using the existing SDI standard of scrambled NRZI encoded binary data.”

Television over mobile Thorsten Lohmar, senior specialist, Ericsson, discussed the subject of ‘Revolutionising video delivery in mobile networks with broadcast techniques’: “TV and video traffic are dominating today’s networks, growing from 40% to 90% of mobile traffic within the next three to four years. Long Term Evolution (LTE) Broadcast is a new technique allowing operators to manage the increasing data volume in a more efficient way.

“It is built on the 3GPP defined eMBMS technology release, which introduces the single frequency network transmission scheme into mobile networks. Using single frequency network technology for broadcast increases the signal quality, in particular in border areas between cells. With LTE, one cell can contribute to up to eight independent single-frequency networks simultaneously.

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Guest Opinion

NEWS IN BRIEF TC Electronic updates TC Icon software TC Electronic has added new features to its hardware units that support the LM6 and LM2 Loudness Radar Meters and the TC Icon control software.

TC Icon is a remote control application that allows for controlling and autologging from a vast number of units.

With the latest TC Icon v7 update, users can decide on a time interval from one hour to one week when logging data can be saved and organised for easy access and future reference. Units are connected via Ethernet to a PC or Mac running TC Icon software and the software pulls the data automatically, saving it to a user-specified folder. The update also emphasizes Peak to Loudness Ratio (PLR) over Loudness Range (LRA). Loudness Range quantifies loudness variations inside a program or a music track but isn’t very sensitive to transient limiting and clipping.

Peak to Loudness Ratio is a more appropriate measure of the effect of loudness restriction. PLR is also relevant when tailoring a track or a program to a certain amount of downstream headroom.

Better, not more pixels...

By Kris Hardiman, Head of product management, Red Bee Media FOLLOWING SUIT from NAB, 4K and 8K took pride of place at IBC this year. In fact, you couldn’t walk far around any of the exhibitor halls without being confronted by a large TV screen showing rich, deep images in the latest and greatest high definition.

‘It’s all here, it’s all do-able and your audiences want it right now’ was very much the (maybe slightly embellished) mantra from the vendor community.

And it’s not just the vendors.

There were also kind words for 4K uttered across the speaker circuit, with many broadcasters and studios discussing how they’re already capturing in 4K today, with the renewed attention to image quality ‘ushering in a new

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age of focus on the craft of cinematography’.

So, what’s not to like? Based on what I’ve seen at IBC this year, there seem to be few who doubt that 4K (or at least 8K!) is now coming. It has comprehensively moved on from an interesting project around the Olympics to something that’s going to hit our screens sooner rather than later. And therein lies the potential problem...

Beyond the producers and vendors, you don’t have to search too far to spot more than one furrowed brow from those involved in the world of content preparation and distribution. Among the many concerns harboured by the folks ‘technically’ charged with getting UHD on the air is the standards landscape around the first incarnation of 4K — which appears to be leaving some unimpressed — garnering

a fear that the consumer experience will be underwhelming.

And the questions don’t stop there. What will be the quality impact of showing up-converted assets on UHD screens? Are we set to unleash a new wave of confusion on audiences with UHD after the first rounds of HD ready, HDTV, 1080i, 1080p? Not to mention the trials and tribulations of working with what are still likely to be very large files in already creaking workflow.

There’s clearly a spectrum of concerns around 4K — ranging all the way from technology to audiences. And for me, it’s potentially the latter that represents the largest challenge.

Will audiences become disenchanted with UHD if the new ‘image quality landscape’ starts to become even more confusing, not ‘incredibly’ better, and at the same time

potentially short-lived (bearing in mind that the 4K screen you may buy next year could be superseded by an 8K one a couple of years after that)?

And even if 4K is a big consumer hit, will the increasingly cash-constrained broadcaster have the ability to upgrade multiple parts of its infrastructure estate to 4K, and then 8K? So, many questions for 4K — which in all fairness is why I think it has played and will continue to play such a big role both this year and in years to come. To repeat an oft-used phrase at IBC this year — ‘what we need are better pixels, not more pixels’. It strikes me that while this is abundantly true, we may also need to seriously think about how we take the consumer on the journey and figure out a business model that makes UHD work for everybody.

EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2014 JANUARY

Channel in a Box Debate

Acquisition Focus: Camera Lenses

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Summer of Sports OB Focus

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IBC Product Preview

IT Broadcast Workflow Wrap-Up

IP Networks to Replace SDI Loudness Control Roundtable Beyond HD: 4K Challenges

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Quality Control in TV Forum

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Best of IBC Awards

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Media Asset Management

Broadcast Archiving & Storage

Tapeless Video: External Recorders

Technologies for OTT Multiscreen Audio For Broadcast Special

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www.tvbeurope.com November 2013

The Business Case

Grass Valley goes back to the future Grass Valley has gone through several changes of ownership in the past decade or two, but it is once more an independent company — with a veteran name at its helm. Tim Thorsteinson departed as president and CEO in 2001. Now he is back, in the same role. David Fox caught up with him

Ready to fly: Grass Valley is starting to take off under Thorsteinson FOR SOMEONE who grew up an hour from Grass Valley, it is most definitely a return home: “For most of us, the business is not just a business. I’m very glad to be back. We’ve got supportive ownership (I’ve run this and Harris under eight different owners), which makes life a lot easier,” he says.

After his first stint at Grass, he was also president/CEO of Leitch, then president of the Broadcast Communications division of Harris Corporation (after Harris bought Leitch in 2005). Before rejoining Grass Valley he was also president/CEO of Enablence Technologies.

Thorsteinson has made a career out of being adaptable, a quality shared by Grass Valley.

As he points out, there are very few companies in the technology sector that have been around 52 years. “Virtually every

technology transformation the industry has seen, we’ve been a part of.”

Has there been much change since 2001? “It’s become a much more global business than it was when I was first at Grass

Valley.” For example, on one day at IBC, there were customers from 72 different countries with demonstrations being done in many languages.

“It’s a great business from that perspective. Very

interesting.” A lot of its customers are now talking about second screen applications, social media and 4K, and Grass had a good IBC, with more than 300 customer appointments — all of whom had budgets to

GV Director points way to nonlinear production GRASS VALLEY’S new GV Director nonlinear production centre, which combines the functionality of a switcher, video server, graphics generator and multiviewer in one application will start shipping soon, and, along with Scalable Video Systems’ new IT-based live production system, it represents a new trend in production systems that are much more software-driven and flexible.

“It’s a very strategic product for us.

We’ve already got so many pre-orders for it - most from western European

broadcasters,” says Said Bacho, senior VP of EMEA. “We’ve already started training on it,” adds Matt Allard, market development manager.

It certainly lives up to Tim Thorsteinson’s desire to appeal to more than just high-end broadcasters, GV’s traditional market, as this is also attracting universities, event producers and houses of worship. “It is using GPUs to do the work, which is how both we and [SVS] are trying to bridge the gap,” says the CEO. SVS was

created by a group of former Grass Valley engineers, but Thorsteinson is happy with the challenge. “I worry more about my own execution than the competition.”

GV Director is “both more and less than a switcher. We’ve been very careful about not positioning it as a switcher from Grass Valley,” says Allard. “It has an iPad type of touch pad that a lot of new entrants to the business will love, but traditional broadcasters

spend. Indeed, he has noticed a marked improvement in the broadcast market recently. “It’s stronger than it was a couple of years ago, around the world.”

However, any investment is happening in a very different broadcasting environment to when he was at Grass first. “As appointment TV has gone away, the consumption of content has changed so much. Where people are investing is live sports and that’s good for us, certainly half of our business if you count OB vans.” Beyond sports, its biggest focus is news, where its software-based workflow systems are winning orders from the likes of CNBC. Over the 12 years while he was away, Grass has transitioned from being “mostly a hardware company to delivering most of our products in software. It means customers can keep the same essential system and just upgrade underlying hardware and software.” This move has been driven by broadcasters, who increasingly demand standard hardware. It suits him as it means other hardware suppliers provide some of the support, “so it’s not us on the hook for their hard drive replacement.”

Harnessing the power of graphical processors has been a major aspect of making the most of IT, and Grass is using GPUs to do live work for its new GV Director nonlinear production system. “As the processing power increases, so will use of that technology,” he says.

However, as processing power rises, broadcaster demands for higher quality have increased even faster. “4K is not easy. If you’d asked me at NAB about 4K, I would have said it was far off, but today it seems a lot more pressing.”

Because Grass is already doing a total refresh of its Panel game: GV Director is a touchscreendriven non-linear production centre are also embracing the technology,” adds Bacho.

“What we’re seeing in traditional broadcasters is a different model of use.

Instead of having a technical director there may be a production assistant,” or some other less technical operator, says Allard. “Many are thinking of using it to create second screen content,” particularly for sport.

November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 39

The Business Case

Grass now has about 900 employees, more than a quarter product engineers

technology platforms, such as having moved to CMOS from CCDs for its cameras, it will be able to move to 4K “pretty quickly. We will show some things at NAB,� he says. “Timing is really important.

Ultimately everyone will do 4K, but whether it will be a year from now or five years, we can’t say.� Sports production, in particular, is seeing great interest in 4K, and he sees the Tokyo Olympics of 2020 really pushing the technical boundaries.

It already does 4K on its Edius nonlinear editor, and cameras will probably be next. “4K super slo-mo will be a really interesting prospect,� although it will mean surmounting “a complex set of problems,� he adds.

profitable now, and expect to remain so. There was a significant amount of restructuring to be done. We’re now adding people, particularly engineers. Things are never stable, but we’re done cutting,� he states.

Grass now has about 900 employees, more than a quarter of whom are engineers developing products (on which it spends $45 million a year), with a similar number doing support.

Some of its engineers have been with the company for more than 25 years, but it has a lot of new entrants too, although he believes the move to more IT-based infrastructures will take another three to five

years. “I get a good vibe out of the business. I ran a fibre optics company for a couple of years. That is a tough industry. Compared to some other technology companies, this is nice�.

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Switcher platforms Thorsteinson likes to think of Grass as being “in the business of solving our customer’s challenges. We’re very technology focused. I think we’re really a bridge between traditional technology and the future.�

However, one of his key aims is rebuilding on its past strengths. Grass intends to bring out three new switcher platforms in the next year, mainly aimed at new markets, or, to be more accurate, returning to some markets it used to be in. “We have nothing at the low end — 1M/E switchers and educational institutions — and there is a big market down there. There are a lot of people who want to switch video on the same technology as the big guys. We have a good brand in that space and we want to make the most of it.�

There will also be a new server and transmission platform soon, and new infrastructure products (routing, conversion and distribution applications). “We’d like to be in a position where people can buy pretty much anything they want from us,� he says. “Our biggest growth will come from integrators and distributors around the world. That’s a big part of our business that we think has been neglected.�

Now, other than in Australia, the company is out of the integration business, but it has taken a year to convince systems integrators, its ‘natural partners’, that it is no longer in competition with them. “We are now doing 35% of our business indirectly.

We hope to get it to 50%.�

Grass has already done well since his return in January. The second quarter, to the end of June, was its biggest ever. “We’re

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The Workflow

Sport illustrated Ever more information is being provided for viewers during football matches. Philip Stevens discovers how one production unit is meeting the challenge IN 2012, the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) launched its own media subsidiary and broadcasting operation known as Liga-TV. This production arm distributes the official RFPL channel Nash Football (НАШ ФУТБОЛ), featuring all league games live in both SD and HD versions.

At the same time, a partnership with the pay-tv operator NTV Plus saw the broadcaster take charge of the overall television production operation from its Moscow base.

The move allowed the RFPL live matches to be seen in more households — adding more subscriptions and, therefore, more revenue for the League.

The project also enabled production techniques to be enhanced so that coverage of the RFPL matches would match

those of the English and German sports channels.

In September this year, and as part of the plan to provide the highest level of production, Liga-TV commissioned a new graphics system that would bring more informative and dynamic graphics to its production. That package, which is used both in the OB trucks and for studio presentations, was put together

by Canadian creative agency, Motion Path, in conjunction with Orad.

“This is a complete graphics package for the coverage of the Russian football league, including in-game and studio production, with elements such as full-screen and lower-third graphics presenting complex and sophisticated football statistics in a new and exhilarating way,”

states Ofir Benovici, vice president of Marketing at Orad.

“The full graphics solution includes a rendering platform based on Orad’s new HDVG 2GO, 3Designer authoring tool, and 3DPlay that is used as the sports controller. All commonly used video files are supported, including codecs that support alpha channels.”

The package also enables Liga-TV to display line-ups that include clips of the players, yellow cards, team captains, comparison between groups according to defined criteria, player comparisons including top three in each category such

as ‘best forward’, ‘goal keepers’ and so on. In addition, graphics provide referee statistics and a smart game calendar showing upcoming games in a dynamic presentation.

During the game, on-screen clocks provide statistical information, such as corners, which player held the ball the most, substitutions and fouls.

Orad’s system automatically triggers the relevant player’s clips according to the data that

“Now our spectators can enjoy lots of interesting facts presented in an exciting way.

We are very happy with the result” Ilya Gerkus, Liga-TV comes online from the statistical database. In addition, the system enables the operator to manually incorporate relevant clips.

At the end of the game, Liga-TV presents full-screen graphics showing each player’s statistics during that game, along with relevant video footage. The system also allows viewers to select their ‘man of the match’ with voting figures appearing on screen.

Integrating data

Key player facts can be called up from regularly updated statistics using the Orad system

“The statistics and player profile graphics can be created in advance by the broadcaster via Orad’s 3Designer authoring

tool,” explains Benovici.

“When implemented with 3DPlay, the appropriate graphics can be used in the production environment. By seamlessly integrating with the league’s statistic and viewers’ voting databases, multiple data entry is avoided. In addition, Orad’s 3DPlay can also be integrated to all commonly used scheduling and automation systems.”

Benovici says that, in general, Orad’s systems can integrate with different types of gallery equipment such as switchers, consoles and so on. In this particular project, however, the operation is manually controlled by an operator and the output of Orad’s system is fed as fill and key into the switcher.

Although fed manually, a number of the realtime graphics operations are carried out in automatic mode.

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November 2013 www.tvbeurope.com

“The development of realtime graphics for sports is a complex task, both creatively and technically”

The Workflow

Motion Path’s dynamic graphics speedily provides details of the Man of the Match as soon as the choice is made “Working in a live — and fast-moving — environment such as a football game can be highly pressured, so we design systems with automatic and manual modes. In the automatic mode, the system inputs all the relevant information, team logos, player videos, etc, directly from the database, facilitating the workflow. In the event of a problem, the user can override the automatic mode and manually operate the systems.

In addition, Orad’s ‘smart’ logic eliminates user error by ensuring that no conflicting graphics are displayed.”

He adds that the provision of a linear key enables the system to work both in downstream and upstream workflows.

The systems can be integrated simultaneously to several databases and can show relevant

graphics/videos/statistics live.

“Orad’s systems support in this project an SQL server for statistical data, Excel for backup and manual mode, and an additional SQL server for the viewer voting database. The whole system is controlled by Orad’s 3DPlay from a PC.”

create a package of realtime, data-driven 3D graphics that would bring the quality of the broadcast to the new level. It

was decided to depart from the traditional style and to embrace the bold dynamic and engaging style of graphics.”

He reports that to achieve that result, Motion Path created its graphics in a virtual 3D space that looks and behaves like a computer game. Whenever possible, the designers use video portraits of the players instead of still photographs. “There are plenty of dynamic animations and transitions morphing one graphic into another.”

Maximovsky continues, “the project was accomplished on Orad’s 3Designer, a tool that allowed us a great degree of creative freedom. We believe that we managed to push the traditional boundaries of realtime graphics by designing the package for RFPL that looks like high-end post production material.

“Starting the project, we decided that we would not accept compromises either in visual nor in technical aspects of this project. As a result, RFPL received an aesthetically rich and sophisticated package with the Nash Football brand being the core element. We truly believe that a wealth of interesting and relevant data for true football fans is being presented clearly and with a dynamic look.” www.motion-path.com www.orad.tv www.rus.rfpl.org

Dynamic animations Design of the graphics used by Liga-TV was handled by Motion Path, based in Montreal. “Design for live sports events has always been a focal point of what we do at Motion Path,” emphasises Anton Maximovsky, president and CEO of the company.

“The development of realtime graphics for sports is a complex task, both creatively and technically. The aim of this project for Liga-TV was to

A dynamic graphic complete with clock can be created relevant to the time of day when the game is being played

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The Workflow

Alongside three pedestal cameras, Steadicam plays a part in creating a different dimension for news

HD news to Denmark Switching to HD allowed TV 2 opportunity to create a new on-air look and change working practices.

Philip Stevens investigates what was involved LOCATED JUST over 160km (100 miles) west of the Danish capital Copenhagen is the city of Odense. It is one of the oldest cities in the country and in 1988 celebrated its 1000th anniversary. In the same year, publicly owned TV 2 began nationwide broadcasting from the city, effectively ending the monopoly previously held by Danmarks Radio.

Today, TV 2 operates a main entertainment channel, plus others specifically catering for youth, the older audience and movie enthusiasts. There is also a 24-hour news channel based in Copenhagen. Alongside that 24/7 channel operation, there is a newsroom and studio in Odense that provides programmes for the main TV 2 channel. This operation is supplemented by eight autonomous regional stations, linked to the central newsroom via dedicated IP lines.

Earlier this year, a project to upgrade this news output to HD was completed by Danish Systems Integrator, Danmon Systems Group. “Our brief was to design,

integrate and bring into commission a 1920x1080 HD news studio at the Odense facility,” explains Søren Bruun, operations manager at Danmon.

“This was a new build and involved a studio measuring 630sqm, which includes the main presentation sets at one end and the weather presentation area at the other. Sony provided the camera units, three of which are mounted on Vinten Radamec robotic pedestals, while a fourth is linked to a Steadicam system.”

Accent on automation Bruun says that choice of equipment frequently came down to good user experience in the past. “For that reason, TV 2 also opted for a Mosart automation system to support the daily news programme production. The initial system was installed in the 24-hour news channel facilities back in 2007, so this upgrade presented an opportunity to standardise on the equipment in Odense.”

The new 11m videowall is illuminated by three Barco HDF-W26 projectors The production of news programmes is co-ordinated within the newsroom via an LSB Virtual Studio Manager and Mosart news automation. This arrangement allows operators access to control panels,

interfaces and external devices by means of an IP infrastructure linked to a VSMStudio server.

Kjeld Skovlund, TV 2’s head of Development explains more. “When we

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“We have removed the need for directors, vision mixers, graphics people, tape operators and so on”

were looking for an automation system, we chose Mosart because we could see from the way it is designed and the way that it worked, that it was made with producers in mind. Mosart uses a template-based structure that provides the security and predictability essential for our news service.

“Once those templates are set up for each of the scenarios we might face during a programme, you are guaranteed that everything — graphics, audio, video, DVEs and so on — will happen the way you expect each time. The Mosart system has been created with production workflow foremost – and is designed to help operators who work under pressure when they are live, on-air.”

Feeding the Mosart system is an iNews system. Other Avid solutions in place at TV 2 include ISIS 7000, Interplay PAM with Assist and Access. Avid NewsCutter XP is used for editing, which is carried out by journalist/producers at their desktops on news packages and by craft editors for more complex projects.

Graphics are supplied by three VizRT systems that drive the full-screen, overlay, and studio monitor displays.

Managing manpower Using the automated system allows for the possibility of reducing the number of gallery production staff. And in that connection, TV 2 has introduced new job functions in the form of producer and co-producer. Beyond that, the automation has allowed the gallery operation for regular news programmes to be situated in the newsroom itself.

“We have removed the need for directors, vision mixers, graphics people, tape operators and so on,” reports Michael Jensen, project manager for TV 2’s news department. “The producer sits in front of a three-screen display.

The right hand screen shows the output of the graphics system or any other source we care to select to view.”

He goes on to explain that the middle screen shows the output of the studio cameras, the incoming feeds, the prompt, the programme timer and all the other images associated with a traditional gallery set up. He admits the multiviewers images are small — but that the producer is sitting close enough that size isn’t a problem. Immediately in front of the multiviewers is the Mosart console that replaces the normal vision mixer.

So, what happens if a live event in the news programme overruns? How does the producer take over from the automation?

“You can use the keyboard to cut between different sources, such as live signals, cameras, servers and so on. When cutting out of running order, the timing is instantly recalculated. We normally set up one Live item in the iNews rundown to allow for timing such situations, and then use the F10-F11 on the keyboard to go back to DVE setup and live sources,” says Jensen.

The third — left hand — screen shows the iNews system where the producer can follow the rundown and, if necessary

The Workflow

Up close and personal: testing Steadicam moves with dummy news presenter

“Upgrading the news service from SD to HD presented us with an opportunity to create a more visually attractive and versatile on-screen look” Kjeld Skovlund make any script amendments. Jensen continues, “When we go on air we simply go to the centre keyboard and GUI and it all operates very simply. The producer can control all that happens during a show. If he or she decides to amend an item during the show, everyone is aware of that change, because everything is connected through the Mosart system.

Furthermore, the system keeps the audio, video and graphics all in sync.”

Updating the look The VizRT system is also employed to provide images to the new 11m videowall incorporated into the new studio. This videowall is illuminated by three Barco HDF-W26 projectors that provide blended back projection on a curved screen.

“Upgrading the TV 2 news service from standard definition to HD presented us with an opportunity to create a more visually attractive and versatile on-screen look,” states Skovlund. “Using the videowall provides numerous opportunities for many creative options for studio interview programmes as well as presenter-to-camera shots.”

He continues, “A number of options were considered before selecting Barco — plasma, fluorescent, LED and backlit LCD technologies. But in the end the image quality of the Barco, together with the brightness closely matching the studio lighting, led us to our choice. It is also very important for the news programmes that there are no visible transitions between screens in the videowall. The Barco solution provides the means to achieve this result, while creating a realistic background without receiving shadows from talent.”

Although the newsroom-based gallery operation works well for regular news

programmes, a more conventional control room linked to the news studio has been built for special events. “Again, there is an emphasis on equipment that has proved reliable in the past,” confirms Bruun. “This additional equipment includes a Grass Valley Kayenne vision mixer, two Studer Vista audio control desks, Miranda multiviewers, Gunterman & Drunk KVM systems, TC Electronic audio interfaces, Genelec stereo and surround-sound monitor loudspeakers,

Miranda glue, plus Omneon and EVS studio servers.”

He concludes, “The news operation of TV 2 continued without a break during the build and operator training was carried out without the regular output being affected.” www.tv2.dk www.avid.com www.barco.com www.danmonsystems.com www.evs.com www.gdsys.de www.genelec.com www.grassvalley.com www.l-s-b.de www.miranda.com www.mosart.no www.pro.sony.com www.studer.ch www.tcelectronic.com www.vintenradamec.com www.vizrt.com

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“The facility is all brand new, all compatible and all file-based”

The Workflow

Progression and Evolutions Evolutions is perhaps best known for its post house in London’s Soho, though since the company launched in 1994, it has opened an operation in New York and, this year, a facility in Bristol. Holly Ashford finds out more about the Bristol facility, based in the city’s media district EVOLUTIONS BRISTOL started operations in June and features several production offices, 16 offline suites, two Avid Symphony online suites, a Pro Tools 5.1 mixing theatre with a second under construction and a Baselight grading suite. “The facility is all brand new, all compatible and all file-based,” explains Gabriel Wetz, head of post production.

Rather than opting for FCP, an editing platform “not really supported any more”, Evolutions chose an Avid platform and ISIS storage. Being competitive means keeping up with the BBC, whose Broadcasting House is situated just a few doors down. The Beeb has replaced FCP with Adobe, so “it goes without saying” that Evolutions “need to offer an Adobe Premiere solution, so that people in the BBC know we’re able to support that and they can bring work to us.” The move seems to have paid off. Wetz stated that he “recently received a quote from someone wanting three Adobe edit suites in January for 60 weeks.”

Staying at the front The machine room will soon accommodate an extra ISIS 5500 and does not include tape decks, “which is probably going to become more common in post in the future,” says Wetz. The company decided to go straight in with file-based delivery, taking note of guidelines issued by the DPP and aiming to stay “right at the front.”

The dubbing theatre features Genelec speakers, and head of audio Will Norie works with Pro Tools 11 on a PC. Traditionally, when offline edits were finished all the data had to be transferred

One Born Every Minute The production team from Channel 4 documentary One Born Every Minute moved into Evolutions Bristol as soon as the facility opened its doors. Gabriel Wetz explains the intricacies of producing a rig show, which is filmed in nearby Southmead Hospital.

There are three elements to the production: cameras filming inside the hospital, Portakabins stationed outside, and of course all the work that takes place at Evolutions.

One of the Portakabins acts as the gallery with vision and audio mixing, as well as a production office at the site. It is “almost mind-boggling in complexity” says Wetz. The One Born team currently occupies 10 suites at the facility, using Cinegy logging software and cutting 20 episodes: filming is 24-hours a day, so the volume of data is huge.

Evolutions Bristol occupies two characterful Victorian properties on Bristol’s Whiteladies Road from the edit workspace to the dubbing theatres’ hard drives and uploaded.

However, with Pro Tools “Will can basically just open the offline workspace and there’s the editor’s timeline, there’s all the sound as the editor left it, with none of the messing around in the middle,” explains Wetz.

Dotted around the facility are a number of small, wall-mounted tablet computers.

“This is something we have in London,” Wetz explains: each tablet links to the company’s scheduling system via WiFi, refreshing every 15 minutes to display which clients are using which room and the jobs happening in each.

Equally interesting is the technology which can’t yet be seen – the launch of a cloud-based FORscene logging system.

This is already up and running in London, allowing

The facility Evolutions to at Evolutions ingest client Bristol will soon be media and load it onto a full to capacity, and server, which clients can Wetz describes its then access by logging in current state as from any web a “golden browser. This lets users view phase” rushes and add logging information,

The Baselight grading suite at Evolutions Bristol allowing them to get “as far ahead as they possibly can before they even set foot in the editing suite.”

Occupying two large Victorian period properties, Evolutions has moved its facility in without moving any of the “characteristics and charm” of the setting out. The suites are large and spacious, including the two dubbing theatres both of which — somewhat unusually in the industry — have large windows, creating a light, airy environment.

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The Workflow

Outsell TV offers executive peer councils

The facility has a ProTools 5.1 mixing theatre with a second in construction As space is not an issue, plans are afoot to install a lounge area for clients. “It’s a service industry, we’re here to service [clients’] needs and part of that is making sure they have a really nice experience.”

Another aspect of the company Wetz mentions is Evolutions’ team.

Both Gabriel and Tom Arnold, head of technical operations, are ex-Bristol-based Films at 59. Will Norie, head of audio, is another local recruit from Aardman. A key appointment from slightly further afield was Blair Wallace, as head of grading. He came to Evolutions from Envy in London, with impressive credits and years of industry experience.

Wetz stresses the importance of the appointment of a “really good colourist” as being “key to the business strategy”, considering the volume of high-end and factual programme making that happens in the area. Bristol offers a “growing creative pool” of talent, and Evolutions is already looking to appoint new members of the team.

A brave move So, with things going well in London, what could Evolutions gain from the move west? Wetz admits that, despite other post companies looking to open facilities in Bristol, Evolutions was “quite brave” in making the move. But it didn’t go in blindly: even before the opening, production company Dragonfly was requesting to set up and produce Channel

4 rig show One Born Every Minute, and RDF in London it had also expressed interest in using the site. Wetz explains that there are also “cost incentives to do things regionally.” One Born Every Minute for example, is filmed at nearby Southmead Hospital, and with the BBC as neighbours it’s perhaps no surprise that “we’ve already got BBC work that’s just come straight to us.”

Wetz confesses that “setting the place up has been quite challenging”, however, he is looking forward to the next phase: “running the facility, and delivering our clients’ work to the highest standards attainable.” Details of future projects are being kept under wraps, however. Wetz divulged that, as Norie had been mid-way through mixing Shaun the Sheep series 4 when he was at Aardman, “it seems fairly likely” that Evolutions will complete the second half. The company is also working on a pilot for RDF, which will hopefully lead to a 10-part commission.

The facility at Evolutions Bristol will soon be full to capacity, and Wetz describes its current state as a “golden phase.”

Given good relations with neighbouring companies, work in the pipeline and new members coming on board, it looks as though the move west will lead to further progression at Evolutions. www.dragonfly.tv www.evolutions.tv www.filmsat59.com www.rdftelevision.com

One of 16 spacious offline edit suites at Evolutions Bristol

NEWBAY MEDIA has partnered with media research and advisory firm Outsell to offer Outsell TV, a series of invitationonly executive councils that connect television industry experts to a community of their peers. The councils offer a peer-to-peer advisory group designed exclusively for CEOs, COOs, Presidents, and division heads.

Each Outsell TV council will be made up of a maximum of 20 executives from various areas of the television industry.

Councils, handpicked by previous council members and Outsell TV staff, are comprised of innovators and change agents from different market segments who are not direct competitors but who face similar concerns. Within the safety of the council, members can discuss and debate issues crucial to their success and share case studies and best practices.

Additionally, a top Outsell TV executive facilitates the council and stays in touch with members throughout the year. Outsell TV members also have access to Outsell TV research and lead analysts for confidential decision support.

“We are pleased to join Outsell to bring this dynamic concept to C-level professionals throughout the TV industry,” said Steve Palm, CEO of NewBay Media. “The expertise that both

partners bring in terms of market knowledge, analytical and data capabilities, council development, and networking will allow Outsell TV to serve the market in a deep, meaningful, and unusual way.”

“Our new Outsell TV membership service puts us at the epicentre of the broadcast industry during a time of unprecedented change,” said Anthea Stratigos, co-founder and CEO of Outsell. “This exclusive peer-to-peer community of executives from the highest levels across the TV industry, augmented by our factbased research and analysis, will help shape the future of broadcast and provide leaders with critical guidance as they position their companies for growth and success in the years ahead.”

“As an Outsell council member myself, I can attest to the impact of a personal peer group,” added Palm. “My business data and information council has provided me invaluable insights that I could not have gained anywhere else.

There is no substitute for peer-level advice from leaders who are experiencing similar challenges as you, but from different perspectives. I am anxious to see what solutions and innovations the Outsell TV councils create.”

More information on Outsell TV can be obtained at: http://www.outsellinc.com/services/outsell_tv

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“Isilon provides TVP with… a very easy way of administrating the whole MAM package”

The Workflow

Big green studio for TVP Poland Philip Stevens explores recent major studio and infrastructure improvements undertaken by the Polish State broadcaster TVP FROM ITS impressive headquarters in Warsaw, TVP (Polish Television) broadcasts two general entertainment channels, one 24-hour news outlet, 16 regional channels and seven speciality channels, including a high definition channel with pure HD content. The broadcaster’s stated mission is to give its viewers the opportunity to contact with Polish culture, tradition, language and, most importantly, national identity. About one third of the public broadcaster’s income originates in the receiver licence fee, while the remainder comes from commercials and sponsorship.

“Over the past several years, a variety of upgrade projects have been undertaken by TVP, especially in connection with the transition to high definition,” states Wieslaw Lodzikowski, head of Technology at TVP. Local systems integrator Studiotech was involved with many of these projects, including the HD upgrade of the facility’s Studio 3 and the installation of a new ingest area.

“The part of the upgrade project that involved the studio had to be completed within a four week period,” reports Tomasz Frankowski, CTO at Studiotech.

“Studio 3, which has been built

Tomasz Frankowski, CTO at Studiotech

The upgraded gallery serving Studio 3 includes a Snell Kahuna Flare vision mixer for virtual reality productions, is mainly used for political talk shows along with documentaries and commentaries. TVP already operated a Vizrt virtual studio, so we carried out an upgrade of hardware to HD. Although this was a standard VR package, the configuration and calibration was tailored to suit the needs of the broadcaster. We also increased the number of licences for the cameras in the studio.”

Those cameras are four Sony HXC-100 models, all manually operated. Each camera has a dedicated Ultimatte 11 chroma keyer to provide increased flexibility for directors and camera operators.

When it came to vision mixers, three manufacturers were considered, before a Snell Kahuna Flare was purchased. According to Frankowski the reasons for selecting that equipment included the adoption of Format Fusion, which allows the integration of SD material — such as live feeds in SD or from the archives — into HD productions without the need for upconversion, an easy GUI and a competitive price.

A second stage of the upgrade programme has seen the production gallery equipped with a Soundcraft Vi4 audio console.

Other equipment involved in the upgrade has included the re-installation of an existing intercom system from Telex and a Harris Inscriber G5 for graphics production.

A number of products from Evertz have also been

The upgrading of Studio 3 into an high definition virtual facility formed a major part of the recent upgrade at TVP commissioned. These include a routing system for video, tally, video and audio processors, glue for amplifiers, embedders, de-embedders, multiviewers for video walls and, most importantly, a management system that includes names and tally information. “Again, we opted for flexibility, reliability and the quality of processing and displaying,” states Frankowski.

Integrating ingest “The work surrounding the ingest area was a major task,” states Frankowski “Previously, TVP had employed a single server for ingest, but the upgrade required a massive number of feeds. The first stage called for a capacity of 400TB.” He says that five suppliers were considered before EVS was selected to provide the ingest system. “We felt that EVS offered a good understanding of TVP’s requirements, along with reliability and effective integration to the broadcaster’s MAM system.”

That media asset management element is based on Video Media Engine from VizRT. The ingest system also includes Isilon from EMC as central storage. “Isilon

provides TVP with flexibility in management, scalability in terms of size and bandwidth, Ethernet connection, and a very easy way of administrating the whole MAM package.”

Although quality control is not included in the system at present, plans call for this to be added in the near future. “The system that was commissioned has allowed TVP to increase the speed of work, and to introduce a full file-based workflow.”

News needs Another company that has been heavily involved in providing equipment to TVP has been Dalet. All 15 regional operations have been equipped with Dalet News Pack for end-to-end, integrated news production.

This package provides the broadcasters with a complete set of tools from NRCS, video ingest, production to playout.

“Eleven regions are equipped with 24 workstations and four smaller regions with 15 workstations,” explains Raoul Cospen, director of Marketing and Business Development at Dalet. “Each workstation has access to all functions of the

newsroom and video production.”

All the regions are connected to each other using Dalet NetXchange. This enables the easy exchange of video content and stories between any sites, using the broadcaster’s WAN. All the produced material is also exported to the Warsaw Information Agency. NetXchange also ensures exchanges with TVP sports.

“In each site, Dalet News Pack is integrated with Harris Inscriber graphics system,” says Cospen. “Other integrations include Harmonic Omneon for playout video servers, Apple Final Cut Pro 7 for advanced editing — using Dalet Xtend for the integration, Autocue teleprompters and Rhozet transcoders for file-based ingest.”

When it comes to storage, Cospen reveals that in the main regions, 400 hours in MPEG-2 IMX 50Mbps with four PCM stereo 1.5Mbps at 48KHz 16-bit WAV is provided. In smaller regions, 200 hours of storage is available. Video is stored both in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, with a proxy resolution being generated for browsing and editing.

He continues, “TVP needed a very cost-effective system and this met the criteria. The integrated aspect of Dalet News Pack gives journalists, with a unified interface, all the tools they need on a daily basis. It simplifies drastically the training of the system. In the meantime, there is no specific integration that needed to be developed, while the hardware is fully IT-based, lowering total cost of ownership.

Because TVP needed a very cost-effective system, Dalet News Pack was an ideal solution.”

Frankowski believes that the recent upgrades have greatly enhanced the output of the TVP programming and the general workflow of the operation.

“With Studio 3 they are offered completely new possibilities through the use of the biggest green studio for television production in Poland. With the Central Ingest they have a faster, file-based — which means higher quality — throughput, plus a ready-to-implement digital archive. These projects have been a big success, and have been completed on time.” www.dalet.com www.emc.com www.evertz.com www.evs.com www.harrisbroadcast.com www.pro.sony.com www.snellgroup.com www.soundcraft.com www.studiotech.com.pl www.telex.com

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The Workflow

Maidstone Studios: indy upgrades to centre stage With an HD upgrade, Maidstone Studios hopes to become the go to location for near-London TV production. Neal Romanek visited the facility and talked with CEO Rowland Kinch about the indy studio’s present and future LOCATED AN hour’s drive from London in Maidstone, Kent, Maidstone Studios has been the occasional home of children’s programming and gameshows, including Take Me Out. But with the closing of the BBC’s Television Centre, demand for Maidstone’s stages has exploded. The facility had been host to HD shows on an ad hoc basis, but the new wave of interest has pushed the studio to invest in a full upgrade.

Maidstone CEO Rowland Kinch began to see that a full HD transition was inevitable: “We started to tip past the model of Pinewood — just an empty stage where they effectively bring in OB.

Maidstone’s big score this year was becoming the broadcast home to Later… with Jools Holland

“Now budgets are as tight as hell and there’s going to be resistance [to UHD). And if it’s going to be 10 times the cost? No, everyone’s going to laugh it out of court” Rowland Kinch For each HD show, we used to hire in a router and all the bits and pieces. It was a huge plug up and a massive amount of work.

“So we went out and bought some of the big bits of glue that we don’t want to hire in. We didn’t want to touch cameras, because they’re flavour of the week or flavour of the show, but we have pulled out the stops in terms of the major HD upgrades.”

The upgrade consisted primarily of kit from Miranda Technologies. Included were two NVISION 8140 hybrid routers, dual NVISION 9000 control systems, two sets of Densité 3 frames populated with multiple Miranda Kaleido-Modular multiviewer cards and the XVP-3901 3Gbps/HD/SD up, down and crossconversion platform. The hardware is

expandable to take into account any of Maidstone’s future needs. The studio upgrades also included a new Sony MVS 6530 production switcher and Studer mixing console.

Maidstone’s big score this year was becoming the broadcast home to Later… with Jools Holland — and the studio will also host Jools Holland’s live New Year’s show, Hootenanny. “Landing probably the world’s premiere live music show is a big deal for us,” says Kinch, “It’s full live, no delay. And the amount of capability and the way we can work with the Miranda Nvision are amazing. It’s night and day.”

For Kinch, the HD upgrade is essential to securing future business. “We’ve always been fighting for regular shows, then with the advent of Television Centre

Cloud and connection WHILE MAIDSTONE Studios has upgraded some features of its facility, at least one offering is at the leading edge: the studio has a formidable data centre. “We’ve got five POP’s and 90GB of edge transit,” says Rowland Kinch. “There are some massive synergies here as far as our fibre connectivity, and some of the skillsets from my network engineers in the IP world start to come across into the studio.

Owning a data centre means you start to understand the level two stuff, so we can

provide a lot of help. And there is discussion here about having an in-house cloud.”

Technical manager Smith notes that although Maidstone’s data capabilities have allowed it to expand its service, not everyone has been ready to use it: “We once offered to take the output of an EVS straight up to the servers of a post house in London. But then the post house said ‘We haven’t done that before’.

It shows you just how behind the curve some of the guys are, in real terms,” Kinch adds.

shutting, our phone has been off the hook. All of a sudden people had to find homes because they lost eight studios in central London. The level of interest quadrupled. ITV is now forming a partnership with us to give overflow capacity, so maybe our day has finally come instead of being a bit of an alsoran that turns up twice a year.”

An Ultra HD future?

With all the chatter of a move to 4K production, it’s easy to forget that many facilities are only now switching to HD. “SD is still very big out there,” notes

Rowland Kinch: “Maybe our day has finally come” Alastair Smith, Maidstone’s technical manager, who supervised the HD upgrade, “And there still aren’t that many HD channels to watch.”

Smith observes that while broadcasters may get to watch pure, uncompressed HD in the studio, the experience of the viewer is often very different, “When you get HD to the home, it’s been crushed. So with 4K, it’s going to be a while before you can get it into the front room.”

Kinch thinks it will be some time before a good business case can be made for 4K/Ultra HD upgrades. “We watched clearly the transition from SD to HD, and everyone sat on the fence and sat on the fence, until finally they were forced to do something. Now budgets are as tight as hell and there’s going to be resistance. And if it’s going to be 10 times the cost? No, everyone’s going to laugh it out of court.”

Kinch had the 4K conversation with Miranda, wanting to ensure that the Maidstone upgrade was state of the art.

“They came out with all the obvious reasons why you couldn’t do it yet, issues that still needed to be sorted out with 4K, because obviously they are looking at it seriously. There is a tipping point for everything, but I think it’s still five years off.”

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The Workflow

Realising the virtual Virtual graphics and moving cameras can make for a difficult partnership. Neal Romanek talks to Croatian company, Stype Grip, which offers a solution that allows 3D virtual objects to be reliably placed into any set with precision, using Vizrt software STYPE KIT employs a standard Stanton Jimmy crane to deliver pan, tilt and positional data that Vizrt software can use to realistically place virtual objects in a set. The system also has an auto-aiming feature that allows the camera to stay focused on any point on the real set or the virtual scene.

Every movement of the crane arm is recorded to a high degree of precision. Camera movement and position, including focal data, and pan, tilt and roll movements of the camera head are recorded too, as well as distance to the subject. This data is encoded and output to computer to allow the camera to interact with and focus on virtual objects in realtime.

The Stype Kit began with company CEO Stjepan Cajic’s

Stype Kit inventor and company CEO, Stjepan Cajic invention of an automatic focusing of the crane. Cajic, who was a national Croatian programming champion, began to develop the auto-aiming system as his graduate project.

Because the system was so

precise, Cajic thought it would be useful to allow the camera data to be sent to a 3D graphics engine.

Cajic explains: “It wasn’t until later that we found that the project was suitable for the virtual studio market. To be able to make this

automatic aiming really, really good, we pushed to the limits all the precision of camera data. And I had this idea that you could output the data to a computer to Autodesk Maya or 3D Studio Max. I didn’t have in mind realtime virtual studio applications at that time.”

Stype has developed a relationship with Vizrt and the two have recently partnered for a job in China. “Stype Grip has a good cooperation with Vizrt who see us as a good hardware provider for their software solution.”

The company’s big breakthrough came earlier this year when Fox Sports were putting together a virtual studio for its Australian National Rugby League coverage. Fox had not been able to find a suitable solution with its usual provider

Shotoku, and, discovering Stype Grip on the web, decided to take a gamble on the Stype Kit. “It was a lucky situation with us,” says Marko Nakić, Stype Grip’s creative director, “Fox already had an agreement with Shotoku. But for this new show they were making, they had some trouble, so Bob Slater, at Fox Sports, decided to speed things up a bit and he found us.”

“At first, they were a bit sceptical of course, because we are new on the market. We were not proven yet. But when they saw it and started using it, I guess they fell in love with it!”

Interest has surged since the Fox adoption. Stype Grip is currently getting enquiries from Canada, Spain, and China.

“Now is a period when a lot of people have seen what we did and a lot of people are interested to try it out for themselves.”

“When we mentioned an encoded crane to someone, they said ‘OK, another encoded crane’,” says Cajic, “but the automatic aiming combined with virtual output is what makes the product unique.”

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The Workflow

The Allotment builds new post pipeline with Facilis TerraBlock Shoreditch studio The Allotment began as a group of UK filmmakers sharing a creative space with a few outdated editing suites and half an idea to build a hub for local creative nomads. David Stewart tracks how things have developed since SINCE ITS inception in June 2013 with the start of production on The Lumo Project — a fourpart film series from Toy Gun Films and Big Book Media that chronicles the Canonical Gospels — The Allotment has achieved its vision. It has evolved into a full-blown boutique film editing studio with a cutting-edge post production pipeline supported

by Facilis TerraBlock shared storage.

Earlier this year, executive producer Hannah Leader enlisted the services of independent film editor and The Allotment founder Ben Hilton to complete post production for Lumo. Before commencing work on the film, Hilton researched the best kit available to design the studio’s ideal workflow from the ground up, starting with shared storage.

“We knew Lumo would be a huge undertaking, so we had to find the best kit for the

job including a SAN that could act as our storage backbone,” says Hilton. “We wanted something affordable and centralised that could withstand the test of time — which is why we opted for TerraBlock. It’s become the glue holding our facility together.”

The Allotment purchased TerraBlock through UK reseller Tyrell, which was on-site to ensure installation ran smoothly.

Today, the system sits at the centre of The Allotment’s 1500sqft studio, which was built atop an original Shakespearian theatre. It houses two Avid Media Composer 7 edit rooms complete with Apple Macs, Thunderbolt Displays and Avid Artist audio mixer, a main Media Composer 7 editing studio and a Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve colour grading suite, all connected to the TerraBlock via 10GbE.

With creativity driving Lumo and every project the Allotment team takes on, TerraBlock has proved an asset to the team, removing the tedious task of media management. “We never have to worry about moving files around or waiting around to watch blue bars fill up, which frees up more of my time for the creative. TerraBlock is so simple to manage that once media is ingested, it’s smooth sailing,” Hilton explains.

The plug-and-play functionality and advanced speed of the system have also come to play a key role in The Allotment’s everyday operations.

“The fact that I can create a volume, quickly load media and remove it is nice. If I want to share a project with everyone, I just throw it onto the TerraBlock and we’re good to go,” added Hilton. “Speed has also been a real game changer

Ben Hilton: “We knew Lumo would be a huge undertaking, so we had to find the best kit for the job” over the last few years, especially with data rates so high, and TerraBlock is fast. We’ve uploaded hours of material and never once had to wait to see something happen.”

Additionally, TerraBlock has simplified rush reviews for

Prepare for the unexpected

By Holly Ashford SWISS COMMUNICATIONS consultancy comexperts is enabling its clients to perfect their interview skills in a new ultra HD studio environment.

Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Production Studio 4K has been installed in a facility, which aims to replicate the environment their high-profile clients will experience when interviewed on national TV or appearing in televised debates. comexperts’ client roster includes politicians, government officials, CEOs and business leaders from Switzerland’s public and private sectors. The company’s clients can now take part in training sessions directed

by Patrick Senn, director of comexperts and a former TV and radio journalist. Senn uses his experience to create realistic crisis scenarios to help

Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Production Studio 4K has been installed in comexperts’ facility participants learn techniques to cope with potential situations they could find themselves in.

The ATEM Production Studio 4K has already been used to prepare Swiss politicians for Arena, a weekly live debate

programme. “Our facilities are just 200m away from Arena’s studio, so a few hours before, we offer the opportunity for guests to warm up in a very similar environment,” explains Senn.

“The show has huge influence

in Swiss politics, so debate participants have to be completely at ease in order to perform at their best. Nerves and lack of preparation can have major implications on a politician’s ambitions, so our studio offers a great way to get used to being on air.”

ATEM was selected as it enables Senn to offer clients a highly realistic studio environment, built around the latest broadcast technology, at an affordable rate. “We felt that although broadcasters are still working across SD and HD, upgrading to the ATEM Production Studio 4K means that our clients can experience a really high quality broadcast experience, to ensure they are completely prepared for what to expect in a real studio situation within an affordable budget.”

The switcher’s 6G-SDI and HDMI 4K video connections

directors visiting the studio.

Hilton says, “I’m not very technical, nor are the directors and freelancers we work with, but TerraBlock is so easy to use that there’s no need for an inhouse IT person during rush reviews. Visitors can easily plug in, log on and they’re in business; it’s that easy.

“TerraBlock’s taken quite a beating from us on several projects, but no matter how much we push it, the system continues to perform really well. I never have to worry about editors running around like a bunch of headless chickens screaming that the SAN is down.”

The Allotment is also currently working on a film and television series by XIX Entertainment that comprises more than 400 hours of 1960’s stock footage. Leveraging the rapid speed of the TerraBlock, The Allotment crew is able to quickly connect to the system, ingest hundreds of hours of material from all around the world and complete post production.

“As a boutique studio with aspirations to expand in the future, the scalability of TerraBlock is huge for us.

It’s one of the main reasons we opted to purchase the system. You can tell through Facilis’ updates that they pay attention to and truly value customer feedback.” www.theallotment.co.uk

enable the studio team to handle ultra HD 4K video sources via a single cable. The studio has a green box for chroma keying, three cameras and monitors for playback and review, which will all also be upgraded to support ultra HD 4K production.

Actors at the studio play news presenters, angry customers or opponents in debates.

“Our clients vary hugely in terms of budget, market and training requirements, so it is important to be conscious of our logistics and technical costs, as well as our own consultancy fees, so this was a very important factor in our decision to move early to 4K,” Senn continues. “Also, as my background is in journalism, rather than technical studio production, I need equipment for the studio that is broadcast quality but extremely simple to use within our studio set up. The ATEM Production Studio 4K fits this brief perfectly.” www.blackmagicdesign.com

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News Review

By Holly Ashford

Telegenic trial Axon 4K in Brazil

Great British Bake Off lights up with Stage Electrics: Stage Electrics worked with the design team at BBC2’s The Great British Bake Off to custom build a lighting solution for the hit TV series. The set for the show was rigged in the middle of a field, and Stage Electrics brought in BAFTA award-winning lighting designer Nick Collier to help design the lighting rig. It now sits in the roof of The Great British Bake Off ’s tent, producing the same very even lighting for each series. “We’re now starting series five and have done all the spin-offs including Junior Bake Off, The Great Comic Relief Bake Off and Sport Relief Bake Off. It’s a huge success story for the BBC and a great bit of quirky British television we’re really proud to be involved in,” commented Stage Electrics project manager Russell Payne. www.stage-electrics.co.uk

Lawo wins Emmy Engineering plaque Lawo was awarded an Emmy Engineering Plaque in LA last month. The award honours achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry. “I wish to thank all our partners and customers.

They have always supported us and pushed us to develop products that better suit their needs and support their

rapidly evolving workflow requirements,” said Philipp Lawo, CEO of the company.

Lawo pioneered the use of telecommunication protocols such as ATM/SDH (asynchronous transfer mode) and now RAVENNA (realtime audio-over-IP technology), making it possible to distribute broadband audio in realtime over WAN networks thousands of miles apart. www.lawo.com

ADVERTISER INDEX Adder ....................................25 AJA........................................12 BlackMagic.........................5, 31 Blackmagic ............................37 Bradley..................................23 Bridge Technologies ................3

Canon......................................9 Cinegy ..........................13, 15, 17 Cobalt....................................32 Digital Rapids .......................IFC DVS .......................................14 Evertz.....................................51

Working with Sony, Telegenic has developed a new Outside Broadcast vehicle, which was sent to Brazil to trial the acquiring and delivery of live 4K content. Trials took place at Estadio Mineiro in Belo Horizonte, one of six stadiums used for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013.

The matches are not planned for screening to an external audience and instead the trials, assessed the practicality of bringing 4K broadcast to future sporting events.

The capture of 4K pictures requires up and down converters to complement Telegenic’s existing range of Axon interfaces, and Axon developers were able to create hardware and

software for a quad high definition converter. www.axon.tv

Double success for Vinten Emmy-winning director Jody Eldred has praised both the Vinten Vision blue3 tripod system

and blueBridge accessory. Eldred specialises in shooting news, documentaries, episodic TV and unscripted programmes worldwide, and said of the Vinten products: “I generally don’t recommend that people use really lightweight heads for lightweight cameras,” said Eldred. “A lightweight camera and tripod system feels like you’re moving a feather, so everything, even your heartbeat is transmitted to that tripod and to the camera. It makes it difficult to do a very smooth pan or tilt, or even hold steady.”

However, on a recent assignment Eldred paired the Vinten camera support equipment with a Sony EX1 camera and was able to smoothly pan and tilt while zoomed to nearly full telephoto with excellent results. The Vision blue3 weighs 15lbs. www.vinten.com

Technicolor strikes back: Technicolor has provided post production colour grading and extensive VFX work for the latest installment of Emmy awardnominated Strike Back.

The action series was graded

by Technicolor’s principal colourist Paul Ensby on Autodesk Lustre. Strike Back is based on the novel by ex-special forces soldier Chris Ryan and follows a covert group of MI6 agents that undertakes missions across the globe.

“Filming mainly took place in South Africa and Hungary, but these countries stood in for a number of different locations,” explained Ensby. “The brief was to use colour and tone to create a sense of place so the viewer could quickly differentiate between each setting.

We needed to maintain the show’s signature style, which emphasises a strong colour palette and vivid tones but also to offer a visual short-hand to the location.” Strike Back is showing in the UK now. www.technicolor.com EVS.........................................6 Harris.......................................1 HHB ......................................39 Infortrend Europe..................48 Ikegami .................................29 ISE.........................................35 Lite Panels...............................7 Matrox ....................................11

MediaGenix ...............43, 45, 47 Miranda.................................33 MOG......................................24 Multidyne..............................26 Panasonic ..............................16 Playbox ......................22, 41, 52 Servizi Informatica.................27 Snell......................................20

SSL.......................................40 TC Electronics ........................10 TV Logic..................................8