TVBE November 2014 digital edition by Future PLC

www.tvbeurope.com

Business, insight and intelligence for the broadcast media industry

November 2014

The Art of Acquisition

New cameras, robotics and lighting

Transcoding forum Industry celebrates at the TVBAwards The new grammar of virtual reality Imagine where you could take your business... if technology didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand in your way. An all-new blueprint for managing, moving and monetizing video content is here. an evolutionary path that aligns current investments with the network of the future.

Find out more. imaginecommunications.com ÂŠ 2014 Imagine Communications

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EDITORIAL Executive Editor - James McKeown jmckeown@nbmedia.com Editor - Melanie Dayasena-Lowe mdayasena-lowe@nbmedia.com Staff Writer - Holly Ashford hashford@nbmedia.com NewBay Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England +44 207 354 6002 Contributors Mike Clark, Chris Forrester, David Fox, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett, Heather McLean, Adrian Pennington, Philip Stevens, Reinhard E Wagner Head of Digital - Tim Frost Human Resources & Ofﬁce Manager - Lianne Davey Head of Design & Production - Adam Butler Editorial Production Manager - Dawn Boultwood Senior Production Executive - Alistair Taylor Publisher - Steve Connolly sconnolly@nbmedia.com +44 207 354 6000 Sales Manager - Ben Ewles bewles@nbmedia.com +44 207 354 6000 Sales Executive - Richard Carr rcarr@nbmedia.com +44 207 354 6000 Managing Director - Mark Burton US Sales - Michael Mitchell Broadcast Media International, PO Box 44, Greenlawn, New York, NY 11740 mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv +1 (631) 673 0072 Japan and Korea Sales - Sho Harihara Sales & Project, Yukari Media Incorporated sho@yukarimedia.com +81 6 4790 2222 Fax: +81 6 4793 0800

Welcome

A celebration of excellence, innovation and endeavour A night to remember at the ﬁrst ever TVBAwards t was a night I will remember fondly. If you

were in attendance at the Hilton London Wembley on 23 October, I hope this is a

sentiment you will share. There was something unexpectedly pride-inducing about being the entity giving out awards that recognise the efforts and achievements of industry colleagues; the surprise, the joy, the thrill of receipt. It’s easy to forget all of this in the throes of organisation, and it made worthwhile the effort and labour that went into every detail of the inaugural TVBAwards. To the victors, the spoils, and my sincere congratulations go to all of our awards winners from the night. Yet, the nub of the evening, as I will eternally review it, was that beyond the

Circulation NewBay Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, LE16 9EF, UK

pomp and the ceremony, the occasion was one

Free subscriptions tvbe.subscriptions@c-cms.com Subscriptions Tel +44 1580 883848

– to celebrate all that is great about our industry

Our focus this month turns to acquisition, and the

in the company of friends and colleagues.

latest from the world of cameras, robotics and

This was a rare occasion to recognise those

lighting. Elsewhere, our Forum delves into the

pushing the boundaries in their ﬁelds, and honour

complexities of transcoding, the vital technical

TVBEurope is published 12 times a year by NewBay Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London, N1 8LN, England

their pursuit of excellence, innovation, and

component of the modern broadcast and

endeavour; doing so light of heart, and with

production chain, while our Workﬂow section

NewBay Media is a member of the Periodical Publishers Association

a glass in hand.

covers a diverse range of topics – from Riedel’s

of celebration; an opportunity – an excuse, even

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the night a success, including our sponsors:

involvement in Formula One, to virtual reality, to recording sound on Mount Everest.

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

IBC, Ericsson, and Manor Marketing; everyone in attendance; and our beloved events team,

down with to read again (minus a red pen).

Allow 8 weeks for new subscriptions and change of address delivery. Send subscription inquiries to: Subscription Dept, NewBay Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 7BR, England. ISSN 1461-4197

upon whom I seem to lavish praise at regular

I sincerely hope you enjoy it, too.

intervals, and rightly so. You can read our review

James McKeown

Printing by Pensord Press, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood NP12 2YA

of the evening on pages 38 to 39 of this edition.

Executive Editor

This is an issue I’m looking forward to sitting

4 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

In this issue

Broadcast camera round up

TVBAwards lights up Wembley

This issue, our acquisition feature focuses on the movers and shakers of the mid-market camera field, looking at the latest releases and technological developments. David Fox provides the lowdown

The first ever TVBAwards took centre stage at the Hilton London Wembley on 23 October, as the industry gathered to recognise those pushing the boundaries in excellence, innovation and endeavour in broadcast media

8 Opinion & Analysis

10 Opinion & Analysis

David Crawford, MD, satellite for Arqiva, explores the future of satellite TV in a hybrid connected world, and how to keep up with OTT and IP-delivered content

Steve Ballinger, head of broadcast at Carat, believes convergence is changing the way that people consume TV

12-27 Workflow Early producers of narrative live action VR are pioneering a visual and audio language that breaks the walls of cinematic convention, writes Adrian Pennington

Acquisition: Lighting

40 Transcoding Forum

46-50 Data Centre

Higher quality LEDs, particularly in conjunction with Fresnel lenses, and better colour temperature control are the key trends in broadcast lighting. David Fox reports

Transcoding is a vital part of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s broadcast and production chain. Philip Stevens moderates this editionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Forum that confronts the issues facing this complex technology

Akamai Technologies has released its Second Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report, providing insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds and broadband adoption across fixed and mobile networks

6 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Opinion & Analysis

Content Everywhere

round up

Melanie Dayasena-Lowe rounds up the latest Content Everywhere news, which looks at the number of 4K UHD homes expected by 2018, how multitasking while watching TV is on the rise, and the growth of the global pay-TV market

with their primary attention on the TV show while multitasking, versus last year’s 39 per cent. More than a quarter (26 per cent) of their TV time is spent multitasking with their main focus on another task, similar to the 2013 study, and 27 per cent of their TV time is spent only watching TV (not multitasking), down from 35 per cent in 2013. Despite the pronounced increase in TV multitasking, viewers continue to report that their alternate activities are only rarely related to the programme being watched. Only ﬁve per cent of respondents report TV-related multitasking every time (or almost every time) they watch TV, while 50 per cent report never or almost never engaging in TV-related

ore than 46 million households

multitasking. Top TV-time activities include browsing

worldwide will subscribe to a 4K UHD

the internet (74 per cent), reading or sending emails

pay-TV service by 2018, according

(73 per cent), and text messaging (71 per cent).

to new research from Parks Associates. Pay-TV

“Even given the proliferation of multitasking,

providers will deploy this service as a differentiator,

viewers remain primarily focused on the television

especially among younger consumers who are

shows they are watching,” said TiVo chief research

more likely to use new pay-TV features, such as TV

ofﬁcer, Jonathan Steuer. “To paraphrase the Bard,

Everywhere and cloud DVR, but also have slightly

‘the programme’s the thing!’”

lower subscription rates for pay-TV services. In the 18 and 22 have a pay-TV subscription, compared

Global pay-TV market to exceed 920 million subscribers in 2014

to 87 per cent among older consumers.

The worldwide pay-TV market is expected to surpass

US, 82 per cent of consumers between the ages of

“To enjoy the true beneﬁts of 4K, three things need to be present: the television, the content, and a way to get the content to the TV,” said Brett Sappington, director of Research at Parks Associates. “4K can deliver an enhanced experience to viewers, but these three factors are not yet aligned. Getting 4K content to the TV remains a key challenge, as is the

“Getting 4K content to the TV remains a key challenge, as is the pace of production of 4K content” Brett Sappington, Parks Associates

920 million subscribers by the end of 2014, according to ABI Research. Overall, pay-TV average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to drop slightly due to increasing price competition, but at a lower rate compared to the ARPU drop in 2013. “The growing number of HD subscribers, as well as major sporting events such as the World Cup 2014, have contributed to improving ARPU. As a result, the total

pace of production of 4K content.”

pay-TV market is expected to generate over $US269

Multitasking while watching TV

billion by the end of 2014,” explained Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of Core Forecasting.

TiVo’s second Annual TiVo Multitasking and Social

(51 per cent); compared to just over one third

TV Survey has shown a dramatic increase in

(36 per cent) in last year’s survey. Though TV

multitasking during TV viewing: over half of the 856

multitasking may be on the increase, viewers also

pay-TV subscriber base will grow to nearly

survey respondents reported multitasking every

report a rise in TV viewing as the primary focus:

1.1 billion subscribers generating $US323 billion by

time – or almost every time – they watch TV

47 per cent of respondents’ total TV time is spent

2019,” added Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.

“ABI Research anticipates that the worldwide

8 TVBEurope

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Opinion & Analysis

TV and convergence does satellite have a future? More service providers than ever are now entering the broadcast space and the technology landscape for content distribution can be confusing. David Crawford, MD of satellite at Arqiva, asks what this means for the future of satellite TV in a hybrid connected world

the latest breaking news or goals scored in the Premiership as they happen can leave people feeling left out, and unable to share and banter with other viewers. Using the red button to vote or interact with the show is an enhancement to linear viewing – not a replacement. The key to satellite is in its simplicity. While the television experience is now considered to be interactive, it is what we wrap around the viewing experience, rather than the content itself which makes it interactive. There are massive changes in the way we consume television now – such as where we watch it, what device we watch it on, and who we watch it with –

any are left bewildered by the choice,

is no reason why satellite – as a linear broadcast

but does this make it interactive? It’s become

leaving only the ‘gadget geeks’ able

technology providing a simple and reliable service

the norm now to tweet, post on Facebook or

to stay up to speed. But it is not just

– cannot continue to play a major role when there

use the red button on a remote control while

the tech-savvy who are enjoying regular use of

is little sign of change in viewing habits. While the

we watch TV. We want to share our thoughts

platforms like Netﬂix and BBC iPlayer. According

convergence of broadcast, IPTV and broadband

on what we view with our friends and other

to Netﬂix the average ‘streamer’ watches 46.6

delivery through smart TVs and set-top boxes

audiences. But underneath all of this, the content

hours of content monthly, and earlier this year BBC

(HbbTV) is well established across Europe, this sits

itself is a sequence of moving images which

iPlayer announced that in 2013 it had a record

alongside the provision of satellite delivered content.

are broadcast and watched in the quality and

three billion programme requests. These statistics

The point is that the end-user experience should not

speed that audiences have come to expect.

show the growing appetite for OTT content.

differentiate between the delivery method.

Many would argue that media convergence –

Viewers have a hunger for live programming,

A huge beneﬁt of satellite is in its ability to service large coverage areas, including hard-to-reach

where internet-based services are used seamlessly

especially when it comes to news, sports and

rural regions. In the UK, one satellite transponder’s

in line with traditional linear television viewing

reality TV. Despite our increased access to near-

coverage ability is as good as that of several

– will actually improve viewer experience and

line, off-line and archive programming, socially

hundred terrestrial hilltop-located transmitter towers.

the longevity of satellite rather than threaten it.

we expect to watch certain programming and

Rolling out broadband services for on-demand and

Many people still consider linear television to be

genres live. The beneﬁt of this being delivered via

catch up TV to land-based locations struggling for

‘real television’, with all other options viewed

satellite is the agility of SNG vehicles being at the

high speed broadband service, is not cost effective

as ‘something extra’. Connected devices are

live event and distributing the content globally,

for providers, as well as being incredibly difﬁcult to

becoming more and more ubiquitous, but there

quickly and efﬁciently. Missing The X Factor,

implement. Across some regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, the number of unique TV channels is expected to almost double from 2,800 now to 4,600 in 2023 (Euroconsult). This is due to be largely satellite driven. Satellite is very much alive and has a bright future. Hunger for live broadcasting is as strong as ever, and satellite is a cost effective and efficient way of transmitting these feeds over large and difficult to reach areas. Connected devices will play an important part in improving viewers’ experiences, allowing them to seamlessly interchange between live broadcast and the internet on their devices. In the future, it won’t be about the speed of broadband to homes – Netflix running UHD needs about 15-18mbps – it will be about the speed being able to support simultaneous streams, and more importantly that the broadband infrastructure (and CDNs) is able to support large scale delivery of live content (e.g. sports and The X Factor) to audiences of ten million plus. We see convergence not as a threat to satellite, but as the emergence of a hybrid world which offers real enhancement to consumers’ viewing experiences where available.

10 TVBEurope

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Opinion & Analysis

TV on command Steven Ballinger, head of broadcast at Carat, believes convergence is changing the way people consume TV

’d bet that many of you watched the Red

reinventing the water cooler moment. People

Wedding episode of Game of Thrones through

now want to watch TV as it happens, not three

your ﬁngers with a permanent wince on your

days later, because they want that instant

20 per cent of people say friends and family inﬂuence their TV viewing, up from ﬁve per cent in 2010

face. After all, it was one of the goriest (and most

realtime water cooler moment. They want to be

which grew its viewing during the show as social

memorable) pieces of TV programming ever

part of the conversation with friends and strangers

media recommendation created buzz around

created and aired.

as heads are being chopped off or Meth dealers

the content. More recently, when Luis Suarez was

are being blown up in nursing homes.

caught biting at the World Cup, social media

However, I’d also bet that 33 per cent of you had one of those shocked eyes on Twitter or

And then there is the ever growing, and

went crazy and viewing ﬁgures for the games

Facebook (or some other social network) to see

deadly serious, risk of being the victim of a

increased massively. This obviously also has huge

if everyone else was as (insert relevant emotion

spoiler. If you’re planning on watching catch-

ramiﬁcations for advertisers (hey, we’re a media

here) as you were.

up you have to pretty much become a hermit,

agency, we were going to get to it at some

in both the real and online worlds, to avoid this

point). It turns their advertising from a monologue

potentially evening-ruining situation.

to a dialogue. Using second screen opportunities

According to our recent research from our CCS proprietary research tool – a survey of 11,000 UK consumers’ media habits – this is how

such as AdSync or Shazam allows the user to

many people use social media to talk about the

Active viewers

access more content and means more dwell

TV that they are watching during the show.

This means that people are moving from passive

time for consumers with the brand, but also helps

Our research also found that this sort of

to active viewing. Viewers now have the ability

to drive convergence and get the consumer

appointment-to-view (ATV) TV was driving 35 per

to play along with the show (Million Pound Drop)

closer to the point of purchase. This is something

cent of people to actively plan their evenings

and even be part of the content of the show

that advertisers have been trying for a while with

around the TV schedule – a rise of ﬁve million

(the live social wall on Got To Dance).

more traditional advertising methods such as TV.

from four years ago. What this means is that TV shows like Breaking

This is also affecting viewing ﬁgures in realtime.

There have also been apps developed,

Our research shows that 20 per cent of people

such as Beamly (formerly Zeebox), which

Bad, Britain’s Got Talent and the aforementioned

say friends and family are a huge inﬂuence

encourage sharing with friends in the social

Game of Thrones are moving the nation from

on their TV viewing (up from ﬁve per cent in

space while watching TV.

the era of TV on-demand to the age of

2010) and this referral trafﬁc can positively or

TV on-command.

negatively affect a show’s progress.

This might be a slightly grandiose statement,

Typically the viewing of a programme will be

So, whether a fan of dancing dogs or dangerous drug dealers, convergence is changing the way people consume TV

but the truth is that there is a shift in people’s

high at the start of the transmission and tail off

and we need to redeﬁne how we approach

perception of how TV should be viewed, as

towards the end. The opposite was true for an

programming, advertising and even

social media redeﬁnes the whole experience by

episode of Dynamo Magician Impossible –

scheduling to reﬂect this.

12 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Workﬂow The news team in the new Assembly Square facility

arlier this year, ITV Cymru Wales moved

into a new 1,050sqm broadcast facility in Assembly Square, Cardiff Bay – a

relocation that involved around 100 staff from the previous base at Culverhouse Cross on the outskirts of the Welsh capital. “The new base puts ITV Wales journalists and programme makers at the centre of the thriving cultural and business communities in Cardiff Bay and right next to the National Assembly of Wales,” explains Phil Henfrey, head of news and programmes at

A time for expansion and upgrades

ITV Cymru Wales. “The move represents a multi-million pound investment, combining the latest HD technologies, studio and editing facilities.” The relocation also offered the chance to install direct ﬁbre connections to the National Assembly of Wales building. He continued, “We’ve upgraded our facilities in the National Assembly for Wales building as an

Philip Stevens follows news operations located in two UK capital cities as they move into new facilities to progress upgrades, conversions and expansions

additional production and editorial base for our politics team and we’ve upgraded our North Wales bureau in Colwyn Bay to HD.”

TVBEurope 13

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow At the same time, ITV Cymru Wales has

Sony was also selected to provide the vision

replaced its two satellite trucks with

mixer – in this case a MVS3000. When it came to

state-of-the-art HD vehicles.

audio mixing, the ITV preference was an SSL C10 Compact Broadcast Console.

Mixed output

James McLoughlin, audio specialist for TSL,

Five-and-a-half hours of news and programmes

explains, “With the audio system being entirely

are generated each week from the new facility,

MADI-centric, we needed a console that could

including the ﬂagship ITV News Wales at 6pm,

process the vast amount of MADI I/O within

weekday lunchtime, and late bulletins and

the system. The C10 with redundant Blackrock

weekend bulletins, plus Wales news injects for

processor enabled us to not only manage

Good Morning Britain. There is also a weekly news review titled Newsweek Wales on Sunday

The new facility in Cardiff Bay that houses the ITV Cymru Wales production centre

the required MADI signals, but also create a backup path for every connection. Using a ﬁbre infrastructure, we were able to strategically position

mornings. Complementing the news output is one and half hours of current affairs, factual,

had satisﬁed the requirement for innovation

several stageboxes throughout the building to

sport and political programming each week.

at a competitive cost. Stevenson adds that

minimise cabling and create a wider system feel.”

“We also have a commercial relationship

the ability to deliver on time and to budget

with the Welsh language broadcaster S4C to

was paramount.

Clear communications Communications are provided by a Clear-Com

produce up to 30 hours a year of their current affairs and factual programming so we needed

The project

Eclipse HX-Delta/32 matrix with one E-MADI64-

a fully integrated HD system that would work

Keith Warrender, the TSL project manager for ITV,

HX card, one IVC-32-HX IP card and 17 V-Series

for different teams and different types of

takes up the story. “Work started on the project

rotary keypanels (1RU, 2RU and Desktop panels).

programming,” says Henfrey.

in November 2013 and was completed in June

The Eclipse HX matrix is connected to keypanels

2014. We were asked to equip the news studio

in the gallery, news ﬂoor and edit suites.

Overseeing the technical aspects of the move was systems integrator, TSL. “We wanted to

with production and sound control rooms, four

work with a team who would complement our

edit suites, two voice booths, one audio dubbing

one to the Assembly of Wales building and the

holistic approach to design and be innovative

room and a trafﬁc desk in the open plan

other to Colwyn Bay. The 64 channel MADI card

and responsive to our needs. This was our third

newsroom. The studio, which measures around

provides connection to the main audio router.

iteration of a regional news facility and the

87sqm, includes a green screen area for a stand-

second with an HD infrastructure,” explains

up weather position.”

Paul Stevenson, director of technology and

Four Sony HSC100RT cameras with Canon

There are also two remote panels over IP,

“The use of a single 64 channel MADI card connected to the core router allows for greater ﬂexibility in setups, without the need for extra

technical operations, ITV News. He says that TSL

K17ex7.7 lenses and mounted on Vinten Osprey

4-wire patch bays or 4-wire ports on the comms

was selected because there was an existing

pedestals are employed in the studio. The

matrix,” explains Stephen Sandford, product

relationship from earlier work and the company

cameras are controlled by Ross Furio robotics.

manager of Clear-Com.

14 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Workﬂow “It also means that signals to and from the Eclipse HX matrix can be easily monitored.” The addition of the IVC-32 IP card makes the connection to remote sites easy to implement. As

Chris Wood: “Viewers are very discerning”

about the United Kingdom from staff who are locally based. What’s more, they can often determine when the production is being directed at a speciﬁc audience. RT has long had a

IP connectivity is native and standard across all

presence in London, but now it is time to step

V-Series panels, they were deployed at remote

up local production.”

locations like the parliament building and other

Two studios

ITV Wales sites without hardwire connections. Sandford goes on, “The system was designed

The RT facility is based around two production

with expansion in mind. Half the 4-wire ports are

studios: the main Studio A measures about

free, and there are also free MADI and IP ports on

55sqm, while studio B is around 25sqm.

the matrix. Further 4-wire ports can also be freed

Solutions provider CVP was retained in February

up by moving non-gallery panels from analogue

2013 to equip the facility. “Our brief was to bring

connections to IP connections, without the need

together the most appropriate equipment within

for extra hardware as the V-Series panels come

the budget,” states Philip Hatch, CVP’s head of

with a native IP port enabled as standard.” Warrender reports that the X-Edit graphics

systems integration.

RT takes a view on London

That equipment includes a number of items

playout that was in use at the previous

Staying in the UK but moving from Wales to

from Sony. For example, Studio A is home to

Culverhouse Cross facility was relocated for use

London, it’s the turn of Russian news channel RT,

three HXC-100 cameras mounted on Vinten

in the new set-up. “ITV also brought across the

which is expanding its London operation.

pedestals, while a fourth can be found in Studio

Avid iNews NRCS which is linked to the graphics

Views from the Millbank Tower on the north bank

B. Where necessary, the cameras can be moved

system. Although the capability exists for ingesting

of the River Thames are stunning. And those vistas

between studios – or into parts of the RT facility –

legacy tape formats, the new facility is essentially

are available to production staff as backdrops at

as required.

tapeless with Avid handling live or ﬁle-based

the London headquarters of Russian 24 hour news

ingest, central storage and networked (shared)

channel, RT (formerly Russia Today).

editing. In common with many of today’s

In order to better serve its viewers in the UK,

“We decided to use manually operated cameras in the main studio to provide us with the versatility of angles,” says Wood. “A number

newsrooms, there is a mixture of journalists who

RT is expanding its London operation. As well as

of different programmes will be produced in a

carry out their own editing and craft editors for

increasing the number of journalists, two new

relatively small space, and to achieve different

the more complex projects.”

studios have been created to inject UK related

looks it will be necessary to position the cameras

news bulletins and other programmes into the

to suit production considerations. We also use a

main output from Moscow.

Steadicam for even more ﬂexibility.”

He concludes, “Both TSL and ITV are keen to use the knowledge gained from the ITV Cymru Wales installation for future upgrades across the ITV regions.”

“Viewers are very discerning,” maintains Chris Wood, CEO of RT-UK. “They like to see reports

Studio B includes a rack-mounted TBU and Soundcraft audio mixer. Where this studio is used for pre-recorded content, the output is fed to the Dalet Brio servers located in the adjoining ‘media hub’. This studio can also go ‘live’ independently from Studio A and provide ‘Up The Lines’ to Moscow and, indeed, any other news providers via the production lines to BT Tower. Autoscript has provided the prompting equipment mounted on each camera, including the Steadicam. The main gallery is equipped with a Sony MVS-6520 vision mixer. “We opted for the Sony mid-range mixer because it offers us all the features RT needed, without going to the top of the range solution. Again, it’s a case of using the budget to the very best advantage,” declares Hatch. The Sony MVS-6520 produces 2x16 way multi-viewers internally, the output of which are shown on Samsung 55-inch LCD displays. In addition, transmission and preview outputs are displayed on JVC screens. Sony has also supplied three BRC-H900 robotic cameras which deliver HD images via three half-inch Exmor CMOS sensors.

TVBEurope 15

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow Multi-image display

controlled by an ETC Smartfade 2496 in Studio A,

bureau) was to be mirrored in London. The Dalet

These images, together with pictures or images from

and ETC Smartfade 1296 in Studio B.

Enterprise Media Asset Management system

other sources, can be displayed on the Barco 3x3

“We are able to light the shows in a dynamic

video wall, the four Samsung 90-inch and one 65-

way – something that is difﬁcult to achieve within

inch LED screens located at various points around

a typical ofﬁce building and low ceilings and

Studio A. Behind these displays and occupying three

challenging construction,” states Hatch.

walls of the studio are 69 (60cmx60cm) LED screens.

On the audio side, four Sony UWP-X7s

allows both newsroom and media supervision features to be combined into a single application. “Since we ﬁrst started the London operation, our content has been sent to Moscow for archiving on the Dalet system,” explains Wood. “Having the

wireless microphone kits with ECM-77B Lavalier

same set-up in London means that we can readily

the various displays is handled through a Spyder

microphones are used in conjunction with a

access that earlier material if needed.”

X20 video processor and presentation switcher.

Soundcraft Si Expression 3 console. This mixer

Multi-image integration and manipulation for

“Both TSL and ITV are keen to use the knowledge gained from the ITV Cymru Wales installation for future upgrades across the ITV regions” Keith Warrender, TSL

“We will change the defused images and colours on this LED screen according to the programme

Once incoming materials have been ingested

provides 32 recallable microphone pre amps plus

and processed, these resources are available

four line inputs, four internal stereo FX returns, AES

to anyone on sites both within the facility and

in, and a 64x64 expansion slot.

remotely via a web browser to bureaux in other

Sennheiser EW 300 G3 In-Ear Monitors are provided for presenters, while radio Talkback

areas of the world. Playout to the gallery and other destinations is

comes from JVC/Kenwood NX-320E3 hybrid

provided by two 6-channel Dalet Brio servers.

handsets. “And reception coverage is vastly

Editing is carried out using Adobe Premiere Plus.

improved as a result of the digital air interface. The associated base station is assembled by Raycom

Expanding schedule

and I am particularly impressed at the quality and

The current schedule calls for RT UK to produce

features of this system compared to what you

four 30-minute bulletins a day anchored by Bill

would typically ﬁnd in a studio environment.”

Dod who has recently returned from working

Comms comes from RTS ZeusIII with a

with the network in Moscow. The studio will also

which is in production,” reveals Wood. “This

selection of desktop and rackmount panels,

generate the channel’s three times weekly

enables us to create a different feel in the most

and numerous 4-wire ports. Graphics are

Going Underground investigation programme.

economical way.”

produced by a VizRT system comprising Viz Artist,

“With the new studio commitments, we are

Graphics Hub, Viz Gateway for Newsroom

increasing the number of journalists we employ,

massive video wall that covers the whole studio

integration along with Viz Content Pilot and

and our UK-based ENG crews will rise from three

area. I think having images on a screen to which

a dual channel rendering Engine.

to ﬁve,” reveals Wood. “We are still in the midst of

He goes on, “I was not in favour of having a

an expansion programme that will see this local

presenters can point is preferable to an impressive, but maybe not so practical, large area display.” LED lighting comprises a mix of Desisti, Gekko Karesslite and ETC Source 4 lights. These are

Newsroom integration

operation contributing more to the channel and

It was speciﬁed that the Dalet newsroom system

adding that more local UK-based feel that will

already in use in Moscow (and RT’s Washington

beneﬁt our increasing number of viewers.”

16 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Workﬂow

Zero tolerance comms in F1

point-to-point connections for the team from the circuit to the team’s base ofﬁce. All of this is based on 8km to 12km of ﬁbre cable which is removed, shipped and re-installed at each of the 19 circuits, each year.

Dedicated fibre Surely a permanent installation makes more sense? After all, each circuit is already ringed with its own dedicated fibre. “Having our own dedicated fibre means that we are solely responsible for it; we install it, we test it and should anything go wrong they know who to blame,” says operations manager Richard Serschen. Signals are routed to a radio base station with three antennas (two receivers, one transmitter). Usually this is placed on the highest part of the circuit which is the race control tower but Monza’s race control is uniquely the same height as the surrounding paddock and grandstand buildings so Riedel places the antenna on a cherry picker. Nine of the teams are also equipped with Motorola TETRA radio intercom units. Some 1,500 are used during every race although this pales

Adrian Pennington visits the Italian Grand Prix in Monza to walk the pit lane with Riedel

accelerated. First McLaren, then motorsport trade

besides the 25,000 units used during the London

body FIA and even Bernie Eccelstone’s Formula

Olympics. Fortunately, Riedel owns the largest

One Management (FOM) and soon every team

radio rental ﬂeet in the world with 40,000 devices.

called on Riedel for race comms. Among the company’s innovations was

As if catering to all these high-proﬁle clients were not enough, Riedel also services

ormula One represents the cutting

something as obvious as making it possible for

broadcasters with RiLink which provides

edge of Riedel’s technology and while

a team member to communicate on the same

bidirectional links between RF cameras race side

radios are only the start, over the years

radio channel but at a different frequency so

and the broadcast station. Its longest standing

that multiple team conversations could occur.

broadcast client, RTL, transfers the international

it has developed several other services in communications and media backbone that

Before Riedel’s involvement, the driver was

programme video signal and additional signals

make it integral to team command, race control

able to listen and talk but there was a limitation

from its electronic news-gathering teams on

and even broadcasting of the Grand Prix circus.

because only one person could talk on a radio

location at each of the race venues to its

channel at a time. Riedel’s intuition was to

playout centre in Cologne. During off-peak hours

the opportunity to get involved in F1 around 20

solve this with an intercom system together with

when there is no signal transmission, RTL uses

years ago. “I was heard on local radio giving an

changing the conﬁguration of the radios.

the additional capacity for other purposes

Founder and CEO Thomas Riedel chanced by

interview about our work at Lillehammer (Winter

Riedel also developed a method for cutting out

such as ﬁle transfers to its archive in Cologne,

Olympics 1994) and quite by chance someone

the noise of the car when the driver is speaking to

which can be carried out automatically in

involved in Formula One passing by on the

the pit over the radio with a device that subtracts

managed workﬂows.

autobahn heard it, had never heard about us,

the noise of the car from the voice in realtime.

and was intrigued enough to put us in touch with the German Grand Prix,” he explains.

Riedel supplies all 11 teams with an intercom

FIA team rules this year permit only 60 crew on-site but up to 250 might be at the factory at

system, typically incorporating two to four Artist

home and even split over three continents at

nodes, which are connected over a redundant

certain races. This is not only about cost though

company began supplying radios and headsets

ﬁbre ring to form a single non-blocking matrix. A

there are considerable savings in not sending

for marshalls and race control at the German

specially developed intercom interface, which is

200 additional crew to Australia by business class.

GP, then the European GP (held at Germany’s

geared to work even under the extreme F1 racing

“Team strategists feel more relaxed and are

Nürburgring) and then the Austrian GP.

conditions, allows for wireless comms between

better able to perform and make judgements

each driver and team or among the team.

within seconds, than they were when crowded

by Ferrari’s pit crew for Michael Schumacher,” he

One Artist node is placed in a weatherproof

around the pit lane and far from home,” says

recalls. “It had been sold by a dealer but this was

rack in each pit with at least one panel

Dario Rossi, Riedel head of motorsport. “What’s

the ﬁrst I knew of it. I was really proud and excited

connected to each node.

more, via RiLink teams can respond instantly.”

From that coincidental connection, his ﬂedgling

“After a few years I spotted our kit being used

so I went with a pile of business cards around the paddock and introduced myself.” The F1 business

Beyond intercom, Riedel has also established secure WAN MPLS data services, providing

The delay is 300 milliseconds from overseas, just ten milliseconds (tenth of second) in Europe.

TVBEurope 17

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow All weather

Toward IT and Skype

ﬂexibility and to achieve compatibility at the

The ﬁbre, the radios, and the Artist panels have

The company is also introducing its customers,

same time.” He added that these developments

to withstand the rigours of constant packing

step by step, into the world of IT-based media

marked the start of a new era for platform-based

and shipping but also climates with often severe

infrastructures. At IBC it released a new

products at Riedel. “We are moving away from

weather conditions ranging from rain in Europe,

Smartpanel designed to serve as a powerful

being a purely hardware driven company, to

to extreme heat and sand in Bahrain, to heat

multifunctional user interface with multitouch

becoming a software solutions player.”

and humidity in Asia. Newer ruggedised and

colour displays, a multilingual character set

lightweight versions of the kit is being introduced

and is sunlight readable. Another release,

partnership with Microsoft to bring a professional

from next season.

Tango TNG-200 is the company’s ﬁrst fully

version of Skype into play. The STX-200 broadcast-

networked platform based on the AES67 and

grade interface brings any Skype user worldwide

AVB standards.

into the broadcast environment. It meets

Riedel’s other key services and products for the FOM and FIA include wireless HD on-board camera solutions for the race cars, CCTV recordings of parc ferme as well as a Race Incident Detection and Review System to enable race control to view controversial situations from different camera angles. A Riedel-built ﬂyaway command centre takes in all of these feeds and time-stamps them on arrival. The car information excludes sensitive

Eye-catching news at the show was a

broadcasters’ increasing need for a reliable

“After a few years I spotted our kit being used by Ferrari’s pit crew for Michael Schumacher” Thomas Riedel

engine data but includes braking, gear change,

single-box solution that enables them to engage both reporters and viewers in live programming. Microsoft, which is looking to monetise its $8.5 billion 2011 acquisition, approached Riedel and asked if it wanted to tender for the development of a version of Skype speciﬁcally for the needs of the broadcast industry.

pit lane limiters and other information which the

The result, the STX-200, is licensed by Microsoft

race steward might use in the event of a yellow

“It’s all about ﬂexible connectivity beyond any

which integrates Skype into Riedel’s intercom

ﬂag incident. Since this needs to be decided

hardware limitations,” said founder

solutions. The unit offers HD-SDI, balanced XLR

in race time, when an incident occurs a Riedel

Thomas Riedel at IBC. “There is no need for

audio I/Os, remote management and

operator can take a snapshot of the relevant

discussions about the right connectivity solution

monitoring of Skype calls.

information and hand it over to the FIA.

for audio and video signals in broadcast

“By enabling the use of a tremendous volume

whether layer 1, layer 2 (such as AVB), or

of new content, the STX-200 will change the way

the many communications channels need to be

layer 3 (such as AES67 for audio or SMPTE 2022

broadcasters interact and engage with their

strictly encoded and segmented because much

for video). All of these standards have their

viewers,” said Thomas Riedel.

of the data and comms is closely guarded to

raison d’etre and we are convinced that

“Broadcasters now have live access to

prevent knowledge of it giving a competitor the

there are very good reasons for all three

quality video from the more than 300 million

edge in a sport where success is often decided

approaches and that they can perfectly

regular Skype users around the world, and the

by ﬁne margins. “The room for failure is zero

coexist. By supporting layer 1, 2, and 3

STX-200 equips them to take the best of this

tolerance,” says Serschen. “There has never been

interfaces, we will integrate all three transport

content to engage the imaginations and minds

a breakdown in this security yet.”

layers into one solution to maintain maximum

of their audiences.”

Naturally for all of these to work, all of the time,

18 TVBEurope

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Workﬂow

Recording Everest Award winning sound recordist Adrian Bell explains the challenges he faced while recording Everest, a feature ﬁlm in which a climbing expedition on Mount Everest is devastated by a severe snow storm

base camp the RF spectrum was very clear and open, we had very few interference issues and some of the range we got from the radio mics using the LP650 receiver antennas was brilliant. It was some of the best reception I have ever

verest was possibly one of the most

of their products. I needed to know that when I or

technically challenging commissions that I

one of my assistants puts a radio mic transmitter

have ever worked on as a production sound

on an A-list celebrity on a ﬁlm location that it

transmitters, some of the warmth from their bodies

mixer in the 30 years I have been working in the

wouldn’t be the weak link in my equipment chain,

was helping to extend the battery life of the

game. The main thing I was looking for regarding

especially for the demanding locations of Everest,

transmitters and there was deﬁnitely a trade off

radio mics was range. I already knew the

and this gear has never let me down so far in any

technical parameters of Lectrosonics equipment

of the projects I have worked on, whether for

as far as the delivery of full range audio recording

major feature ﬁlms or television productions.

and transmission, but it was the range I was

For the initial part of the shoot we were ﬁlming

interested in, for I was about to be recording

in Katmandu with maybe six or eight radio mics.

12 A-list celebrity artistes on a mountainside with

We ﬁlmed on a bus and around the streets, and

a ﬁlm unit based half a mile away.

there is very little RF activity in Katmandu so we

I decided to get involved with Lectrosonics

were lucky. We also ﬁlmed at the airport where

about two to three years ago. I was an avid

there was a lot of other RF around and the

fan of Audio Ltd radio mics from the late 80s

Lectrosonics proved very good at eliminating

when I ﬁrst went freelance and I stuck with them

some of the unwanted RF in that vicinity.

from that period. But when Lectrosonics made

experienced using any kind of radio mics. Because a lot of the actors were wearing the

“One of the most important things for me as a production sound mixer is having a support network of engineers and supply companies”

between having the transmitter outside the body

their product line available in Europe they soon

Open air

or having it in a warm protected pouch within the

proved that their products were absolutely far

One of the more remote areas where we

down snowsuit. We used Lithium batteries for this

superior to anything else on the market. This was

wanted the greatest range was close to base

project as a standard measure because of the life

especially true of the quality of the build and

camp on Everest. Quite a few of the actors were

expectancy of Lithium technology and because

the range of equipment on offer for working in a

wearing radio mics in thick down snowsuits. Our

we were working with fairly sensitive artistes who

more portable style or rack mount set up.

job was to get the Lectrosonics transmitters as

didn’t like having the batteries changed too often

close to the open air as possible to get the best

– it may well have been a half-mile trek to get to

transmission from the aerials. Fortunately, up near

these actors who were in fairly precarious positions

Lectrosonics has a team of people who are absolutely passionate about the design and build

TVBEurope 19

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow on the side of a mountain. Quite often they were

“Everest was possibly one of the most technically challenging commissions that I have ever worked on”

secured by safety climbers, safety ropes and wearing crampons which our sound team may not have been wearing, making it hard to get to them on that rock slope. We had to plan the situations where we had to re-battery these artists for whatever scene they were about to shoot. Director Baltasar Kormakur sometimes changed his mind as to which scene he was about to shoot, so we had to be ahead of the game as far as which scene we were prepared for, and which artistes were involved in which scene during the course of the filming. I generally have two sets of receivers in my sound kit. I have one set in a flight case or bag and another set in a rack on my sound cart. I don’t like swapping gear around from one to the other in the course of a day. I have no problem having two sets. One acts as a back-up to the other and I like to ensure that they are both maximised in terms of specification. One of the most challenging aspects of

Everest was ﬁlming in the old studio complex of

The Lectrosonics app LectroRM and Frequency

There is still some development potential I feel

Rome, where the RF is not controlled and not

Finder is an invaluable tool for frequency

with Lectro gear. Ideally that would be eight

licensed and certainly, for a European-wide

management and planning as far as I’m

receivers in a 1U rack mount unit. Anyone who

spectrum, really didn’t seem to ﬁt into any rules or

concerned. The app is very good at pinpointing

can do that will do very well. We are always trying

regulations. We unfortunately ended up having

what frequencies might be available in the area,

to minimise the footprint of our equipment on set.

to hire in some local frequencies and local

and might also be useful to plan out frequencies

The transmitters have possibly reached a point

bands of RF which were clear and marked out

that you have not got a licence for.

where they cannot be any smaller – they are very small, very lightweight, with very good battery life

by local hire companies. There was no other way of ﬁnding out that information apart from being

Lending support

and are very robust. From an engineering point

there and getting the local guys down to check

One of the most important things for me as a

of view I think it would be very hard to beat

exactly which bands and frequencies were clear.

production sound mixer is having a support network

Lectro transmitters.

This in no way affected the way the Lectrosonics

of engineers and supply companies. This is only

gear performed, it was simply down to the

coming to fruition now in the UK. 2013 was a good

is that there are some very loyal supporters

logistical set up of RF planning which is becoming

year for Lectrosonics to ﬁnally have a small network

of various types of radio mic equipment but

more common especially in and around cities.

of suppliers that can supply kit at a good rate and,

Lectrosonics has deﬁnitely shaken the industry

In London and busy studio complexes you need

more importantly, a source of technical support.

recently in the UK and as long as they keep

to do a very speciﬁc plan of where your radio

Lectrosonics has made great inroads into the UK and

producing the standard of products they do it

mics will be operating and what pitfalls you might

European market as far as their speciﬁcation supply

will keep them at the forefront of the market for

encounter during ﬁlming.

and technical support over that last year or two.

radio mic technology.

What I have found over the past few years

20 TVBEurope

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Workﬂow

The main studio, from which the various editions of the news programme are transmitted throughout the day, features 3mm pitch LED panels forming three displays

A new digital home for TG1 Mike Clarke reports on the features of the new digital HD studios, the base for Italian RAI’s TG1 news programme

he two new all-digital HD studios used for

The new look, on the other hand, came courtesy

Italy’s state broadcaster RAI’s channel

of a set incorporating the high visual impact of

1 ﬂagship news programme TG1 were

Lightbeam LED walls by Monza-headquartered

presented during the summer at RAI’s Saxa Rubra complex with the participation of general manager Luigi Gubitosi. As well as the technical aspects, the

Leading Technologies. The main studio, from which the various editions of the news programme are transmitted throughout the day, features 3mm pitch LED panels forming three

programme also has a new sound, thanks to the

displays, measuring respectively 3.7sqm (5x5 panels),

opening and closing music by Academy Award

8.8sqm (10x6 panels), and 13.2sqm (18x5 panels), all

winning composer Nicola Piovani (Life is Beautiful)

controlled by means of a NovaStar set-up.

TVBEurope 21

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow “We had an excellent and proﬁtable working relationship right from the drawing board stage with RAI’s set design department, and scenographer Carlo Canè and his collaborators Alessandra D’Ettore and Cecilia Guzzo” Alessandro Gianelli, Leading Technologies

The slim SL 03 BK I (384x384 mm) panels feature

ﬂexible LED panels and measuring 0.76x19.2m

SMD 2020 Epistar Black LED technology and, thanks

(the large top one) and 0.38x6.14m (the

to their compact dimensions, lightweight (10kg)

smaller lower ones). The 160x160mm 12mm

and simple fast mounting system, are suited to any

pitch panels have SMD 3528 LED, a 110°/110°

type of permanent or mobile installation. They are

viewing angle, >1300 cd/m2 luminance, 1000Hz

able to display images, text, graphics and video in

refresh rate, 50,000 hour life cycle and are also

2D/3D in the majority of video formats (AVI, MOV,

rated to IP20 (front and rear). The installation was

MPG, VOB, etc), have a 120°/120° viewing angle,

carried out by specialist Rome ﬁrm TVI Srl. Leading

1300 cd/m2 luminance, 1400Hz refresh rate, 100,000

Technologies’ technical department (in the

hour life cycle and IP31 rating front and rear.

person of engineer Alessandro Gianelli) provided

The main screen in the studio used for special

TVI with design and commissioning support for

TG1 reports is made up of 3mm pitch panels, is

the prestigious project. Gianelli explains, “Due to

also curved and measures 8.5x2.3m (22x6 panels).

the importance of the installation, each screen was

There are three LED ‘banners’, one high and two

designed and installed with total redundancy, as

low, formed by Lightbeam FD12WH 12mm pitch

far as both cabling and number of sending cards

22 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Workﬂow were concerned. The number of sending cards

their edges mate perfectly, achieving excellent

in the NovaStar control systems used with all the

results. Gianelli concludes, “Our interface at

3mm screens varies according to the size of each

RAI from a technical point of view was Fabrizio

screen. The key feature of this set-up is the complete

Pizzingrilli and I was technically responsible on

redundancy of the control system; each screen has

behalf of Leading Technologies. We had an

twice the necessary number of cards in a Master/

excellent and proﬁtable working relationship

Slave-type format: if any element of the master

right from the drawing board stage with RAI’s

group has a breakdown, the system automatically

set design department, and scenographer

switches over to the slave card, ensuring signal

Carlo Canè and his collaborators Alessandra D’Ettore and Cecilia Guzzo. It is always a pleasure

continuity without the video blacking out.” ‘hot swap’ procedure and, when switched

to work with extremely experienced people

include: a DVI video input; an audio input; two

on again, the panel automatically carries out

who are willing to cooperate to ﬁnd solutions

Ethernet output ports; an USB interface (which

conﬁguration procedure, without any additional

to any unforeseen events that can crop up

can be daisy-chained for uniform control),

work being required on the control set-up.

on installations of this calibre, and seamlessly

sending card supporting resolutions of 1280×1024,

The NovaStar system also constantly monitors

integrate all the various technical requirements

1024×1200, 1600×848, 1920×712 or 2048×668; a

all the screens’ ‘vital’ parameters.”

into their designs.”

The NovaStar MCTRL300 controllers’ features

light sensor interface, an independent power

The 3mm panels measure 384x384mm;

LED technology is also integrated in the main

supply and two serial ports (UART OUT\UART IN).

so having to follow the curve of the set, it is

studio’s lighting, and the rig now includes 40

The 12 mm pitch banner screens are controlled by

inevitable that putting one alongside each

Rush PAR 2 RGBW Zoom LED ﬁxtures by Martin

an LINSN system, using the same modus operandi.

other they approximate the curve by means

Professional, one of the many audio, video

of a series of straight lines. However, thanks to

and lighting brands distributed by Leading

Vital parameters

a special metal support framework designed

Technologies in Italy. These single-lens units feature

Gianelli continues, “If necessary, technicians can

by Leading Technologies, TVI was able to

fully premixed colour via 12 RGBW LEDs, 10° to 60°

intervene on each single panel, carrying out

position the panels in such a way as to make

zoom, electronic dimming and strobe effect.

24 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Workﬂow Live streamed VR installation by Inition for Topshop

The new grammar of Virtual Reality Early producers of narrative live action VR are pioneering a visual and audio language that breaks the walls of cinematic convention, writes Adrian Pennington

The BBC experiments with VR

he rise of Virtual Reality (VR) would only be

Likely to become a household name on its

None of this hardware will ﬂy off the shelves

extraordinary if stereo 3D hadn’t emerged

commercial release, Facebook’s Oculus Rift (OR)

without content to watch, play or ‘use’ with it.

before it. In less than a year VR has taken

faces competition from Sony Morpheus and a range

Hence the wooing of TV and ﬁlm producers by OR

on much of the hyperbole used to describe

of companies offering ‘cinematic VR in your pocket’

which demonstrated Crescent Bay, its new lighter

digital 3D – as a new medium for immersive

including Google Cardboard for Android, Samsung

headset with motion tracking and integrated

entertainment beyond gaming.

Gear for Galaxy Note 4 and the Durovis Dive.

headphones, to Hollywood execs in September.

3DTV pioneer Atlantic Productions has produced three ten-minute VR pilots (a drama, a documentary and a CG ﬁlm) for OR and Samsung and is now ﬁelding interest from large international content providers. “VR is becoming a business model,” says CEO Anthony Geffen. Twentieth Century Fox has announced VR projects based on features The Maze Runner and

Wild, and another for its Night at the Museum franchise. Gravity’s post house Framestore opened an immersive content studio on the back of a VR simulation it created for HBO’s Game of Thrones. “When VR gets out into public hands we will see a social media of VR content explode along similar lines to the growth of YouTube,” says Henry Cowling, creative director at production company UNIT9. “Members of the public, brands and semi-professionals will use VR to deliver immersive experiences online. Users will access content from mobile devices. Games companies, movie studios and shortform viral ideas will take VR mainstream.” “The [VR] ﬁlming experience is akin to the bastard progeny of experimental theatre-in-the

TVBEurope 25

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow round and video game production,” wrote Neal

Much the same lesson is given by UNIT9, which

Because the user is immersed in a scene they

Ungerleider for Fastcolabs.com on the set of

has launched a VR division off the back of VR

naturally feel more in control of, so some form

horror short Black Mass, one of the ﬁrst attempts

campaigns for O2 and 5Gum. Any sudden

of interaction is desired. “In 2D, the director

by Hollywood of a straight to Oculus Rift

movement, change of direction or cut will

offers the viewer a very limited POV and we use

production. Coincidentally, digital media

be even more pronounced than stereo 3D

choreography and framing to give the viewer

company Ampliﬁed Robot is creating six VR

because of the familiar problems of having the

precise details,” says Cowling. “In VR, that

experimental projects one of which is of a portion

brain resolve depth and the eyes refocus to

language doesn’t apply to the same degree.

of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night shot against

avoid discomfort. “We want to train directors

The real question is how you position the user,”

green screen where actors will be ‘placed’ into

who are focussed just on VR experiences

he poses. “Do they take the part of a

a stately home.

Interior mapping using the structure device from structure.io

“To an extent, directors will lose complete command over the experience,” says Phil Harper, creative director at Atlantic’s division Alchemy VR.

Audio clues 3D positional sound is coming to consumer electronics in binaural and object-based methods. Vendors like Dolby may release an SDK for Atmos allowing producers to create soundscapes that can aid in directing audience attention. “You can’t control where the audience look but one of the things we’re learning is that, for example, when we walk along a street in real life we don’t spend all our time looking to the left or right or behind us,” adds Geffen. “Most vision is within 180° and that learnt behaviour follows through into VR.” There’s no rule which says a VR experience has to be 360°. A 180° ﬁxed position best seat in the

because we do see it as a different ﬁlm

character or assume a ﬂoating POV, or do

language,” explains Cowling.

other layers in the scene interact with you?”

“You have to have very long transitions and

house IMAX-style ﬁlm viewing is an application

ideally make as few cuts as possible. Basically

Live streaming VR

already advanced by Oculus Rift. Masking crew

360-VR is a way more fundamental paradigm

VR opens up space within a ﬁlm, for the viewer’s

and equipment, which will be visible in rushes

shift than 2D to 3D.”

imagination and awareness to complement the

from a 360° shoot, can be achieved readily if the production is shot against green screen. “For live events or documentaries why not reveal the crew?” asks Harper. “Immersion in an incredible landscape or scenario is more important than masking the artiﬁce of how you got there.”

Breaking the frame Live action VR production is still in its infancy. The rule book has not been written. “You’ve got to think of the project from the ground up since your location or studio, the cameraman, equipment and crew – everything will be in shot,” advises Andy Millns, co-founder, Inition. “You don’t need to be as frenetic in camera movements, you can slow the pace down and not refresh the angle as much (as 2D),” Millns explains. The vertiginous effect of swooping camera movements will induce sickness in the viewer especially if they don’t expect it. “If the camera is not gyroscopically level to the horizon you instantly feel it in your stomach. Very predictable movements are okay.”

26 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Workﬂow experience and narrative. A remarkably simple

“VR is not a fad,”

that and we’ve got to put the player inside

piece by visual artists Félix Lajeunesse and

comments Ben

the experience, where no matter where you

Paul Raphael is regarded as one of the best

Fender, founder

look you’re surrounded by a three-dimensional

examples to date for the Oculus Rift. Titled

of agency Drive

experience. That’s the future.”

Strangers – A Moment with Patrick Watson, the

Worldwide.

360-camera is static but places the viewer in the

“We’re trying to

interactive immersive experience which is much

musician’s studio, ﬂawless in its stitching

create photoreal

more controlled from the user’s point of view,”

and composition.

experiences.

said Douglas Trumbull, genius behind the VFX

VR breaks the

for Bladerunner and high frame rate cinema

world, although image quality and realtime

fourth wall and

exhibition systems.

image stitching needs development. This was

encompasses all

explored by Inition in February when it worked

of your senses...

some kind of virtual world that could possibly

with retailer Topshop to launch a new menswear

manipulates your

be the same as in a movie. There’s no reason

collection. Live video of a catwalk at the Tate

reality.”

why you can’t have a movie called Avatar and

Another possibility is live streaming into a VR

Turbine hall was ﬁlmed using wide angle 4K

Much the

“VR is trying to satisfy the desire for an

“It’s a ‘one person at a time’ experience in

a VR world called Pandora. The experiences

broadcast cameras in 180° and streamed to the

same could

are different but they might share the same

headgear of ﬁve competition winners watching

be heard from

intellectual property.”

in a Topshop store several miles away. BSkyB must have an eye on live streaming sports to VR headsets having taken a stake, with

UNIT9 is developing rigs which combine cameras and 3D scanning techniques

Steven Spielberg

At the recent OR developer’s conference in

speaking at

LA, Lucasﬁlm’s new media creative director

the USC School

John Gaeta said he is looking at virtual reality

Google, in VR developers Jaunt. Even the BBC has

of Cinematic Arts in July 2013: “We’re never

as a potential opportunity for the Star Wars

dabbled. It recorded a news bulletin in 360-video

going to be totally immersive as long as we’re

franchise. Could immersive world narratives

which enabled viewers to look around the entire

looking at a square, whether it’s a movie screen

for Star Wars or Avatar deliver the ﬁrst breakout

BBC News studio and production gallery.

or a computer screen. We’ve got to get rid of

hit? A potential drawback to VR is that the user

TVBEurope 27

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Workﬂow is required to block out the world by strapping a large piece of plastic to their face. Facebook may overcome this by incorporating avatars of friends into a social VR experience, but there’s another

360o video systems

interesting hybrid approach which mashes-up VR with augmented reality.

“Filming is the easy part to crack,” says

Geonaute’s 320 360° sports camera is loaded

Geffen. “Post is of another order of

with three 8-megapixel wide-angle lenses with

funded CastAR, uses micro-projectors that project

magnitude.” It’s why Atlantic chose to

single shot, burst and time-lapse modes.

a holographic-style 3D image onto a reﬂective

work though all the problems inherent in

surface several feet in front of the person wearing

VR by melding the talents of its in-house

includes two opposed hemispherical lenses to

special glasses – allowing users to see and interact

post outﬁt Zoo with its production side to

capture 360° stills, and weighs just 95g.

with an immersive scene in front of them.

form Alchemy.

Technical Illusions, the outﬁt behind kickstarter-

Ampliﬁed Robot (AR) is researching the idea

UNIT9 is developing rigs which combine

The smartphone-like 240 Ricoh Theta

Kickstarter-funded Giroptic’s 360cam has a unique, egg-shaped design, incorporating

of putting photorealistic 3D people and objects

cameras and 3D scanning techniques,

three 185° ﬁsh-eye lenses synchronised to

within a natural environment. It is working with

like a Kinect, to gather depth-map

capture and stitch images in realtime inside

Structure Sensor from structure.io, a device which

information which will be projected over

the camera.

attaches to a mobile phone or tablet to capture

the live action in post.

3D models of rooms.

“The major challenge with live action VR is

The palm-sized, spherical Bublcam houses four 190° 1.6 megapixel lenses and is capable

to deliver 3D when matching pairs of eight (or

of recording video at 30fps at 720p or 15fps at

augmented reality experiences where the real

so) cameras,” says Cowling. “Stereoscopy

1080p exporting as an MP4.

world is the game world.

works from one particular POV but as the

AR CEO Steve Dann hopes to create

Immersive journalism Former Newsweek correspondent Nonny de

Aircraft Flexible Nylon for up to 14 GoPros and

longer makes sense.”

software for stitching them in pairs to form 3D

Atlantic ﬁnds that GoPro-style rigs are

la Peña is pioneering immersive journalism

more practical for the form of shooting it does

using VR to recreate events and bring them

although lenses can only be synched to a

closer to audiences.

reasonable degree of accuracy.

Immersive journalism, as described by de

360Heros offers a 790 mount composed of

user turns their head in VR the stereo no

There are no shortage of systems for

360. It also has an underwater mounts for 360° sub-aqua capture. VideoStich Live from Paris’ VideoStitch has a range of rigs around 500 housing six to ten GoPros (it can work with other cameras)

la Peña on her blog, allows the participant to

capturing 360° video. Most are fully integrated

including the Freedom 360 Explorer for

enter a virtually recreated scenario representing

systems, meaning that they feature one battery,

underwater shots.

the news story. The participant will be typically

one memory card, a common optical axis,

represented in the form of a digital avatar.

shutter sync and a means of exporting and

Dragons and claims to be able to support live

stitching the overlapping feeds together.

streaming of UHD VR content at 60fps.

In Project Syria, she used VR to try to tell the plight of children in Aleppo. Using audio, video

Figure Digital’s Panopticam is a ball-like

NextVR has a rig outﬁtted with six Red

iSTAR, designed and manufactured by

and stills taken on scene, she recreated in CG

device featuring 36 HD cameras mounted

NCTech for mobile mapping, houses four

and the Unity game engine, a viewer experience

into a 3D printed spherical case that stands

sensors delivering a 50-megapixel spherical

of a street corner in Aleppo, a rocket attack

on a tripod.

image with up to 27 fstops.

and the aftermath in a refugee camp. However, the experience has been criticised

Jaunt has rigged together up to 14 GoPros.

France’s Kolor offers a range of image

Data from sets of three cameras is used to

stitching and 360° virtual tour solutions

for its lack of subjectivity and even of trivialising

triangulate image depth to create a ﬁnal 3D

branded Autopanor and Panortour and

the reporting of such a volatile subject.

stereo image pair for stitching.

includes a free video player.

28 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Acquisition — Cameras

Broadcast camera round up Mid-market movers David Fox investigates the movers and shakers in the camera market and the latest technology developments

his year has seen a huge number of new

bi-directional optical ﬁbre connections, plus a three

cameras introduced. Besides all of the

(4K) or four (HD) hour battery allowing independent

4K and high-end systems discussed in last

operation via a single optical ﬁbre cable.

month’s TVBEurope, there have been a lot of

The SK-1300 is Hitachi’s ﬁrst CMOS studio

changes in the low-end and middle market,

camera and “takes us to new levels of

including more affordable studio cameras, a

performance,” said Paddy Roache, director and

huge choice of compact and miniature cameras,

general manager, Hitachi UK.

and greater ﬂexibility for high-speed models.

Harvey: SK-1300 “offers higher sensitivity than our CCD versions”

The 3G-SDI 1080p camera “offers higher sensitivity than our CCD versions,” added Richard

camera with three 1/3 -inch CMOS sensors,

Studio and system cameras

Harvey, technical director. However, Hitachi was

and outputs 1920x1080 50i/59.94i, 1280x720

The sleek HD Blackmagic Studio Camera sells for as

“reluctant to leap into CMOS before we were

50p/59.94p, plus NTSC and PAL. It offers 58dB S/N

little as £1,125, while the Ultra HD model is £1,740. They

conﬁdent of reliability,” explained Roache.

and sensitivity of F11 for 1080/50i.

use micro four-thirds camera sensors (the HD version

The camera offers sensitivity of F11 at 1080/50p,

Also new is the HDK-790X, a studio version of

is slightly smaller than the 4K), and can take add-on

signal-to-noise of 62dB, realtime lens aberration

the portable 79GX, with additional, and more

B4 or other lens mounts. Besides the large (ten-inch

correction, quick focus and focus assist.

easily accessible, facilities, such as variable

1920x1200) viewﬁnder and the lens, they take up

Ikegami’s new HC-HD300 is a compact and

little space. They include talkback, tally lights and

“aggressively-priced” HD shoulder mountable

viewﬁnder markers and easy access to functions, such as a button for focus assist. Ikegami also has two new ultra-low light cameras: the HDL-4500 box camera has a minimum sensitivity of just 0.001 lux (or F22 at 2000 lux), with a S/N ratio of 56dB in HD. “It’s amazing. It will be ideal for wildlife and natural history,” said Mark Capstick, general manager, Ikegami Electronics UK. It uses three 2

/3 -inch CMOS sensors. Although it can be ﬁtted with

a viewﬁnder, shoulder pad and handle, there is also a new Unicam HD system camera version, the HDK-5500, which is more easily expandable with triax, ﬁbre or wireless backs.

Wireless links as standard IP-enabled cameras, which make it simple to upload video ﬁles directly, even for live streaming, are a key trend among smaller cameras, particularly for ENG use. Panasonic’s new AJ-PX800 P2 HD camcorder will cost €13,400 and offers full networking with

Panasonic’s new AJ-PX800 is being used by ITN in its wireless networking trials

“the ability to stream straight from the camera a

TVBEurope 29

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Acquisition — Cameras “[The Panasonic AJ-PX5000 P2 HD cameras] allow us to send back footage without sat trucks or other links, delivering the content to our non-linear platforms faster than ever before” Bevan Gibson, ITN

developing our own receiver, and also partnering with Teradek,” said Lucie Wendremaire, Sony’s European product marketing manager for news and broadcast production. The system can work on networks with a very poor signal-to-noise ratio thanks to a new Quality of Service (QoS) application on the transmitter. footage without sat

In demonstrations, the signal broke up constantly without the app, but was usable with the app.

trucks or other

The QoS app will be a free upgrade in early 2015,

links, delivering the

for the CBK-WA100 wireless LAN/modem adapter.

content to our non-linear platforms faster than ever before.”

Wendremaire sees the new 22,500 PXW-X500 as “the ultimate broadcast camera from Sony.”

high-quality image with latency of less than one

Panasonic’s new HC-X1000 Ultra HD 4K

It uses three newly-developed 2/3 -inch CCD

second, so you can do a two-way interview over

camcorder can record UHD 60p/50p on an

sensors. “We truly believe this is best in class

a 4G network,” said Rob Tarrant, Panasonic’s

SD card. It can also record Cinema 4K.

quality, with no rolling shutting, no motion

European product manager. At 2.8kg, it is also “the lightest three-chip

artefacts, and a wider colour gamut than CMOS.”

On format

It records all the legacy codecs, plus XAVC

Sony has added the more efﬁcient XAVC recording

Intra and Long GoP, and will be able to have two

ITN is using it for a networking trial, allowing users

format to all of its XDCAM cameras (which still

optional codecs (ProRes and DNxHD, recording

to upload content in the background over IP, 3G,

also record MPEG-2 MXF), either I-frame or 10-bit

internally to SxS cards – available April). A further

4G and Wi-Fi at up to 6Mbps in proxy resolution,

Long-GoP – which gives greater quality at 50Mbps

option records at up to 120fps, “unique for a CCD

so that editors make their decisions, then send

than MPEG-2, “especially in the dark areas,

sensor. Normally a CCD cannot cope with such

an EDL back to the camera, uploading only the

where there is now very little noise,” said Robbie

high frame rates. This will make it very suitable for

full-resolution pictures they need.

Fleming, product marketing manager, entry-level

sport, thanks to the lack of rolling shutter,” she said.

production, who believes that 35Mbps XAVC is

The X500 can be used as a live camera with a

equal to 50Mbps MPEG-2.

ﬁbre or triax back.

/3 -inch shoulder-mount camera on the market.”

ITN is also using Panasonic’s AJ-PX5000 P2 HD cameras to deliver reports to its London head ofﬁce “very, very soon after it’s been shot,” said ITN CTO, Bevan Gibson. “It allows us to send back

It is adding live streaming in early 2015, with

Other new models include: the PXW-X200

a maximum of two seconds latency. “We are

(replacing the PMW-200) with three 1/2-inch

30 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Acquisition — Cameras CMOS sensors offering better sensitivity, new

It is the ﬁrst Cinema EOS camera to get

17x lens, and wireless links offering remote

integrated Wi-Fi, for ﬁle transfer via FTP, and can

control, FTP and live streaming via a Wi-Fi

record both MP4 and AVCHD (or HD and SD)

dongle or a 3G/4G USB stick.

simultaneously to the two SD cards (and upload the low-bitrate version).

The PXW-X180 and PXW-X160 have three 1

Canon’s new XF205 and XF200 each have

/3 -inch sensors and a 25x zoom with three

control rings. “It’s the widest lens we do and has

a single slightly-bigger-than 1/3 -inch CMOS

variable ND ﬁlters,” said Flemming. Users can

sensor and come with Wi-Fi and Ethernet LAN

record different formats on each card (of two)

connectivity, for direct or wireless connection

or relay record.

to smartphones, tablets and laptops, including

For very low-light, the 4K-capable A7S full-frame 35mm DSLR goes up to 409,600 ISO, recording XAVC-S (4:2:0 8-bit) at 50Mbps

Wendremaire: The new PXW-X500 is “the ultimate broadcast camera from Sony”

camera control, remote viewing and the ability to transfer ﬁles via FTP without additional software. A new CameraAccess function

internally to SD card, with S-log and Cine modes,

from the camera, and power it if necessary, and

allows lower-quality proxy ﬁles to be streamed

and 4K 4:2:2 output for an external recorder.

can also hold a wireless receiver, taking the audio

to another device via Wi-Fi, improving the

via the shoe so there is no need to plug it in via

speed in which content, such as news ﬂashes,

1-inch 4K sensor (a little larger than Super 16mm

XLR. It is limited to one channel at the moment, but

can be shared.

size). It will record 4K (via 500 upgrade early

there could be a dual-channel version in future.

The compact 2,313 PXW-X70 uses a single

2015), and records 1080 50/60p HD on two SD

Each camera has a 20x zoom lens (equivalent to 28.8 to 576mm at 35mm, f1.8), plus ND

cards in XAVC Long GoP at up to 50Mbps (4:2:2

EOS upgrade

ﬁlter, records at 50Mbps (MPEG-2) 4:2:2 MXF

10-bit), plus AVCHD and DV.

The new Canon EOS C100 Mark II is a

on Compact Flash (dual card slots) and can

comprehensive upgrade of its entry-level

simultaneously capture 35Mbps 4:2:0 MP4 ﬁles

for all of its new XDCAM cameras (except

Super35 camera, offering improved image

to an SD card, in HD or lower resolutions, for

the PMW-300), including the A7S and FS7. This

quality and creative ﬂexibility, easier operation

shooting for both broadcast and web channels,

intelligent hot shoe allows users to control a light

and wireless sharing.

plus two XLR inputs.

There is also a new MI (Multi-Interface) Shoe

TVBEurope 31

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Acquisition — Cameras B4 and after

The cameras also work in

The recently introduced Blackmagic Ursa PL and

tandem with Grass Valley’s

EF-mount UHD cameras will soon be joined by

K2 Dyno Replay System and

a Broadcast (B4-mount) version using a smaller

K2 Summit 3G Production

13.056mm x 7.344mm sensor than the other Super

Client, which, using Dyno’s

35mm models – the sensor and lens mount is a

AnySpeed technology,

user-upgradable block.

allows for smooth playback

It has dual CFast 2.0 card recorders for recording at up to 350MBps, with support for

Hero shot: GoPro’s new Hero4 is the latest in its best-selling line of action cameras

at any speed from zero per cent to 200 per cent.

ProRes and 12-bit CinemaDNG Raw.

ThenewStumpCamcanbe“completelyhoused inside a regulation-gauge cricket stump” Paul McNeil, Camera Corps

Heroic effort by miniature cameras The biggest name in small cameras is GoPro, which has just released its latest range: the Hero4. The $499 Hero4 Black offers 4K (and 12MP stills – at 30p),

Up to speed

2.7K (at 50p) and 1080p

I-Movix has introduced modular and UHD

at up to120fps, plus a

versions of its X10 high-speed system, using Vision

redesigned audio system

Research Phantom cameras.

with twice the dynamic

“There is now almost a bespoke answer for any

Canon’s EOS C100 Mark II is the ﬁrst

Integrated robotics: Telemetrics’ new Robo Eye HD pan/tilt/zoom camera

set of requirements a customer may have, but

range of previous models, Cinema EOS camera with integrated Wi-Fi improved image quality,

whatever the chosen conﬁguration the solution

better low light performance, highlight tagging,

Camera Corps also has three tiny new cameras:

will have all the advantages of the market-

improved user interface and faster Wi-Fi.

the Q3 robotic pan/tilt/zoom/focus camera; the

leading X10 core technology,” said I-Movix

The $399 Hero4 Silver records 2.7K/30p,

CEO, Laurent Renard. Every modular system requires the rack-mount X10 CCU, and conﬁgurations include: X10 USM, for very high frame-rate sports applications (up to

1080/60p and 720/120p, and includes a built-in touch display. There is also an entry-level $129 GoPro Hero, for 1080/30p and 720/60p. GoPro has also expanded its professional

2,600fps at 1080i, or 5,600fps at 720p); X10 Spine,

Protune mode to include colour, sharpness, ISO

which sits below a Phantom camera and supports

limit, and exposure controls.

the same frame rates but adds operational ﬂexibility for additional non-broadcast use; X10 SSM, for use as a conventional HD broadcast camera with the addition of continuously-recorded super slo-mo at 300fps (1080i) or 600fps (720p); and the X10 UHD, which works with the Phantom Flex4K and can do up to 500/600fps in HD or 100/120fps in 4K for live use, or can do up to 2,00fps in 1080i/1080p and up to 1,000fps in 4K for ultra-slow-motion applications. There are also RF wireless versions of each module. For multi-camera production there is the X10 Multi, which can be used with three camera heads (six channels). Grass Valley’s new LDX XtremeSpeed (LDX XS) 6x ultra-slow-motion system comes in both box and system camera models, delivering 150 or 179.82 3x frame rates and 300 or 359.64 6x frame rates in 1080i and 720p, plus 150 or 179.82 3x frame rates in 1080p, as well as 1x standard speed live output. There are also two new 3X cameras, the LDX HS (HiSpeed) and LDX Compact HS, successors to the LDK 8300, both of which are software upgradable to the LDX XS and LDX Compact XS, respectively.

very compact MeerCat; and the third-generation Stump Cam. The IP45-rated Q3 comes in the unobtrusive spherical housing of its Q-Ball predecessor, and has a 1/3 -inch 1920x1080 CMOS imager. The MeerCat is small enough to be used as a wearable camera, yet has full control, including

32 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Acquisition — Cameras manual iris. It has a very small footprint, 30x30mm,

A Robo Eye view

Its servo motors have stop accuracy of 0.005°

and is only 93mm high, to ﬁt very narrow locations.

The new Telemetrics Robo Eye integrated HD PTZ

and feedback accuracy of 0.000375°, and offer

It can deliver 1080p, 1080i or 720p video at 50,

camera has a Sony Exmor 2.18MP CMOS sensor

a pan/tilt velocity of 0.0 - 90° per second.

59.94 or 60Hz, via HD-SDI – or an optical feed using

and 30x zoom lens, with a S/N ratio of 50dB and

Camera Corps’ optical ﬁbre interface. The power

sensitivity of F8 at 2,000 lux.

supply and interface can be up to 30m from the

It offers native 1920x1080 HD-SDI and HDMI

Open goal Bradley Engineering’s elbow-shaped Elkam

camera head, and control signals can be delivered

outputs, plus SD composite video signals in NTSC

was designed to ﬁt in a corner post for rugby

over a standard audio line, so the interface can be

and PAL. Gain set-up is automatic with a manual

coverage, and is also ideal as an in-goal camera

any distance from the operator. Six MeerCats can

override, and up to 1,000 presets can be stored.

(it can simply hang in the netting), in corner

be controlled from one remote panel.

pockets for snooker, or on nest boxes for wildlife

The new Stump Cam can be “completely

productions – “because of its weight distribution,

housed inside a regulation-gauge cricket stump.

it just hangs, you don’t have to do any rigging,”

This gives users the freedom to place cameras

said CEO, David Bradley. It has a full HD 1/3 -inch CMOS sensor, a 100°

in the mid or outer stumps. Each camera can be conﬁgured with a choice of 50°, 100° or 128°

wide-angle lens and full remote control. It can

lenses to allow tight, wide or super wide shots,” said

be used with Bradley’s Remote Control Panel

Camera Corps’ projects manager Paul McNeil.

Mk3, which can control all four goalmouth cameras on the pitch.

“The Version 3 Cricket Stump Cam system consists

Bradley also introduced RD12, probably the

of four cameras: two for each wicket. A classic arrangement is to position one camera with a

smallest wireless CCU controller capable of

tight-angle lens facing forward to capture images

controlling all of the parameters on a broadcast

of the bowler and the oncoming ball. The second

camera. At just 100g and 88mmx60mmx12.5mm,

camera, ﬁtted with a super wide lens, is then ideally

it operates with Sony, Ikegami, Panasonic and Bradley cameras, controlling iris, tally, red gain,

placed to televise the wicket keeper. All four feeds are multiplexed onto single-mode ﬁbre.”

Goal keeper: Bradley gets up close with his new Elkam camera

blue gain and pedestal.

TVBEurope 33

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Acquisition — Cameras Marshall Electronics’ second-generation miniature

“The multiple camera installations are easy to

2MP HD-SDI camera, the CV500-M2, supports

set up and control from a central location,”

multiple formats, including 1920x1080 50p and 50i,

said Assaf Rawner, CEO of Mark Roberts Motion

and 1280x720 50p. It offers improved versatility,

Control. “In F1, for example, there could be

durability, compatibility, and functionality

substantial savings just on freight costs, taking

compared to its predecessor, with a full size HD-SDI

into account all the peripheral equipment

(BNC) and easily switchable M12 lenses.

needed to put an operator safely into the ﬁeld. The broadcast unit also has the advantage of

“We’ve expanded lens compatibility to a dozen Marshall HD lenses ranging from 2.5mm to

directly controlling and synchronising remote

50mm. Lens options and ease of installation make

cameras from one place, all over a standard

this camera possibly the most versatile PoV mini

Ethernet network.” Nikon’s €3,200 D810 and smaller D750 (€2,149

camera in the broadcast market today,” claimed Tod Musgrave, product marketing manager, Marshall Electronics.

Flip-up: Zuidweg demonstrates the new Nikon D750 video-focused DSLR

inc VAT) both offer full-frame and Super35 format shooting in full HD at up to 50/60fps, with clean HDMI out, plus simultaneous capture of full-

The new Flare 2KSDI-ENR is a major upgrade for IO Industries’ HD/2K mini camera, offering

an autotracking system for small studios or

resolution footage at up to 42Mbps in H.264 and

improved image quality and extra output

sports production.

on an external recorder.

formats. Besides outputting full 2K Raw for digital

It can track talent or objects in motion using

The D750 “is the ﬁrst pro camera in the Nikon

cinema or 4:2:2 for live broadcast, it now gains

automated cameras, MRMC’s AFC-100 heads

range with a ﬂippable [3.2-inch] screen,” said Frank

new RGB 4:4:4 output modes in 1080p and 2K.

and Polycam autotracking to track multiple focus

Zuidweg, co-ordinator Nikon Professional Services.

points. It has tracked cars at over 355kph (220mph),

It is also its ﬁrst full-frame (24x35.9mm) camera to

DSLRs on track for studios

accelerating through tight corners, demanding

have Wi-Fi for remote operation. “We’ve made

Nikon has two interesting new full-frame

ultra-fast response from the camera heads. A

it as compact and lightweight as possible [using

DSLRs designed for video use, and has linked up

single operator can automatically control the

carbon ﬁbre and magnesium], without losing any

with Mark Roberts Motion Control to create

synchronous movement of numerous cameras.

functionality for professional users,” he added.

34 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Acquisition — Lighting

Taking a shine to LEDs Higher quality LEDs, particularly in conjunction with Fresnel lenses, and better colour temperature control are the key trends in broadcast lighting. David Fox reports

PowerCON power connector and battery input for portability. De Sisti has four new LED Fresnels, offering up to 56 per cent greater output in full ﬂood than previous models, with a Television

RRI, De Sisti, Videssence and Zylight are

all combining the single shadow beam of the traditional Fresnel lens with the

lower power needs of LEDs. The latest in ARRI’s L-Series of LED Fresnels, is

the 115W L5, which offers the same features as the L7, at half the weight and size. It is

Lighting Consistency Index of 90 for tungsten and

Space man: Polaczek with the new Sumo100, surrounded by the Sumolight LED Spacelight

92 for daylight versions. The compact 55W LED Magis has a 120mm Fresnel lens, the 110W LED Leonardo 6 and Leonardo Piccolo 6 have 150mm lenses, while the 150W LED Leonardo 10 has a 250mm lens. Users of existing De Sisti 1kW or 2 kW tungsten

tuneable from 2,800K-10,000K, has green/

Fresnels can retroﬁt a 110W LED in the 1kW or

magenta correction, hue selection, saturation

a 150W LED in the 2kW. Zylight has upgraded

control and DMX control.

its collapsible 100W F8 LED Fresnel. It delivers

There are L5-C (Colour), L5-TT (Tungsten

close to the output of a traditional 1kW Fresnel

Tuneable, 2,600K-3,600K) and L5-DT (Daylight

and collapses to less than 10cm thick for easy

Tuneable, 5,000K-6,500K) models. The L5-C is the

transport. Its yoke mount has now been angled

most tuneable, but the L5-TT and L5-DT are 25 per

for greater positioning range and is able to

cent brighter. New features of the L5 include a

accommodate 90° stand mounting.

TVBEurope 35

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Acquisition — Lighting The Rotolight Neo has dual knobs for brightness and colour temperature

standard 14.4v camera batteries

The Little VID LV050 (with stationary

or AC adapter, and is water

beam and permanent barn doors)

resistant (IP54).

and the Little VID-Focusable, LV050-F, mini LED lights have

Face to Facelite

lightweight, compact (165mm x

The lightweight new Videssence

152.4mm) housings. Passive cooling

Facelite 010 is a compact, high

delivers quiet operation, and power

colour rendering LED 10W niche light

is shut off to the driver and LED

that is easy to handle or mount in

when dimmed to zero with DMX so

tight quarters. It is designed to boost

no external relay or power cut off

the vertical light levels on a subject’s

is required. The 5.4kg Vidnel 050

face and features, to separate them

joins the Vidnel VN100 100W

from the ambient lighting. A smooth,

ﬁxture introduced last year, and is

“We went back to the drawing board to make the F8 even better, without changing the features that make it the most exciting lighting instrument on the market” Joe Arnao, Zylight

even wash of light is produced with

designed for key or back lighting.

the frosted spread lens gel that

It has a manual, lockable slide

comes as standard. The Osram/

bar, and spot focus delivers more

Sylvania HF2 Narrow Stick LED 3000K

than 1077 lux at 3.6m. There is DMX

lamp (optional 4000K) should last

control and onboard dimming. It

50,000 hours. Videssence also has

takes standard four-inch Gel Frame

three new Fresnel LED lights: the

and Barn Door accessories.

Vidnel 050 50W LED Fresnel; and

Plus, all locking and adjustment is done with a single knob. On the light: the self-locking focus now automatically holds focus position; it has improved bellows design for smoother operation; self-terminating DMX input; better protection from the elements; and a new heat sink orientation that allows 20 per cent better cooling. “We went back to the drawing board to make the F8 even better, without changing the features that make it the most exciting lighting instrument on the market” said Joe Arnao, president of Zylight. Available in daylight (5600K) or tungsten (3200K), it is fully dimmable with an adjustable beam spread (16-70°), using a patented focusing system for spot and ﬂood operations. It can be powered from

Altogether cooler: Improvements to the F8 include better cooling and smoother operation

two mini LED lights. All are rated at

Look soft

96+ CRI for tungsten – there are also

Photon Beard’s new PhotonBeam

daylight versions.

80 LED ﬂoodlight uses remote

36 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Acquisition — Lighting phosphor technology that has been adapted to

V- or Gold-mount 11-17v DC camera batteries.

soft shadows with even distribution and no pixel

enable it to provide near full spectrum, high CRI

De Sisti’s new LED softlights, the twin-array Soft-

effect from the LED. Kino Flo’s Celeb 400Q DMX

lighting. It is available in daylight 5600K

LED 2 and triple-array Soft-LED 3 lights, also use

softlight joins its Celeb range, which is claimed

or tungsten 3000K versions. Power can be

remote phosphors. They offer a controlled beam

to offer “the only stable, colour-variable

supplied from 90-260v AC mains or via standard

white source (daylight or tungsten) that produce

LED to ride the spectral sensitivity curves of digital cinema cameras.” The LED lights have been designed to offer peak lumen output without sacrificing Kino Flo’s signature True Match colour and soft light aesthetic. Special thermal dynamics (no metal fins or fans) are claimed to ensure the colour temperature will remain stable for 50,000 hours and output won’t fade. The 65x65cm DMX Celeb 400Q is tuneable from 2700K to 5500K (saveable as five presets) without affecting light output, while dimming (100 to zero per cent) won’t change the colour temperature settings.

Squaring off Litepanels’ new Astra 1x1 Bi-Color panel is up to four times as bright as its traditional 1x1 Bi-Color and offers a high CRI. The daylight-to-tungsten tuneable colour light is the ﬁrst in a new range. It offers higher intensity, a longer throw, and a wider effective beam spread than the original. It has both passive (silent) and active cooling (using an ultra-quiet fan module, for double light output). An optional communications module allows brightness, colour temperature and cooling mode to be controlled via DMX512. Additional wired and wireless communication modules are

The straight and narrow: The Videssence Facelite 010 is good in tight spaces

TVBEurope 37

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Acquisition — Lighting in development. Rosco’s new Braq

Space race

Cube packs 100W of LED output

Spacelights can consume a lot of

into a 12.5cm cube. The Braq Cube

power, and require a huge amount

WNC offers 7,000 lumens of white

of cable with large dimmer racks.

light tuneable from 2800K to 6500K,

“There have been a number of

and is powerful enough to hang

different LED-based approaches

from the grid, yet small enough to

to this problem over the past few

be mounted inside scenic elements.

years, but so far it doesn’t seem that

The Braq Cube 4C uses RGBW

Hang ten: The 150W LED Leonardo 10 is the largest of De Sisti’s new LED Fresnels

any of them have really caught on,”

quad-chip technology that

said Sumolight CEO Ralf Polaczek.

eliminates multi-coloured shadows

Generally the result has been heavy

and can create a fully blended

lights (weighing about 20 to 25kg)

palette of saturated, mid-tone and

with ﬁxed colour temperature, and

pale tint colours. It also produces

sometimes even fans. “Basically the

a white light that is particularly

lights in this category just haven’t

ﬂattering to skin tones.

been very exciting.”

“There have been a number of different LED-based approaches to this problem over the past few years, but so far it doesn’t seem that any of them have really caught on” Ralf Polaczek

that ranges from 4800K to 7000K. The 276W Wasp is ﬂicker free up to 225 million fps and has a powerful 10° beam that can do the work of smaller HMIs on set. When combined into arrays (called Killers) the Wasp is claimed to be the brightest ﬁxture that can be plugged into a wall. The six-light Killer is the equivalent

The smaller (10cm) Miro Cube

He hopes to change this with the

of a 4kW HMI running off of a single

The Daylight Dial is calibrated

LED wash light outputs 3,000+

new Sumolight LED Spacelight,

120v wall socket, while 240v allows

to prevent green/magenta

lumens and is available either as

which is fully dimmable and

as many as 12 to be plugged in at

shift and can transition all

a full colour mixing ﬁxture (Miro

ﬂicker free at any frame rate, and

once. The Wasp can be ﬁtted with

the way to deep blue

4C) or a tuneable (Miro WNC).

comes in a bi-colour, daylight

lenses and soft-boxes, or even the

moonlight, with little or no

The slim, soft Rosco LitePad LED

and tungsten versions. Its output

barrel of an ETC source 4, to create

dimming. It is now available

light has been upgraded, and

equals a traditional 6kW tungsten

a daylight spot.

across all of Hive’s lights.

is now fully customisable and

spacelight with a skirt but uses less

available in tuneable White and

than 500W and is fully passively

RGB conﬁgurations. It comes in

cooled. With 30° optics (quickly

two models: LitePad Axiom, in a

swappable) it gives more than

protective metal housing, and

550fc at 3m. It weighs about 5kg,

LitePad HO+, the raw LED light

including ballast, and has a

engine just 8mm thick.

DMX-RDM interface.

Neo dynamics

do some things many other lights

The Rotolight Neo is claimed to be

can’t, such as run off 12v from a car,

the world’s ﬁrst on-camera light

at high output. It boasts very high

with accurate electronic colour

colour accuracy (TLCI 99 and CRI

temperature display, for tuneable

95+) for daylight and tungsten. It

colour (3150K to 6300K in 10K steps).

outputs 1200 lux at 3m, is tuneable

The new Sumo100 LED light can

The bi-colour LED delivers 957 lux

from 3000K-5700K, with zero to100

at 90cm, and uses 120 LEDs for full

per cent dimming, weighs 2kg, and

spectrum colour reproduction with

offers interchangeable optics for

an overall CRI of 95 (and a skin tone

30°, 60° and 120° beam angles.

rating of more than 98). Neo can be powered by six AA batteries for up

Plasma buzz

to ﬁve hours (or three hours at 100

One of the few non-LED debuts is

per cent), or via an AC adapter or

Hive Lighting’s new Wasp Plasma

D-Tap, drawing just 9W at full power.

Par with tuneable Daylight Dial

38 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

TVBAwards

Broadcast talent is rewarded at inaugural TVBAwards Members of the BAFTA Albert Consortium collect the Sustainability Award for Albert+

TVBEurope executive editor James McKeown welcomes guests to the TVBAwards

Holly Ashford reports on the resounding success of our ﬁrst ever TVBAwards event on Thursday 23 October, where the broadcast media industry gathered to celebrate a year of achievement and progress, in the shadow of Wembley Stadium

The team from Milk VFX receive their TVBAward for Natural History Museum Alive

he grand ballroom at Hilton London

category and ﬁrst up on stage to collect the

awarded the Achievement in Fast Turnaround

Wembley was the setting for a truly grand

Achievement in Sound award was NUGEN Audio,

Broadcast for its successful delivery of a 4K

night in which deserving award winners

for its work on Later…with Jools Holland. This was

UHD TV broadcast of the World Cup over an IP

were recognised, and talent throughout the

followed by Achievement in Systems Integration,

network using Elemental Live encoding, while EVS

industry celebrated. TVBEurope executive editor

which went to Cambridge Imaging Systems. “The

walked away with Achievement in Multiplatform

James McKeown welcomed awards nominees,

award is for our work in UK education, providing

Content for its delivery of the showpiece

broadcast professionals, PR companies and

a catch-up TV service across 60 universities,” the

tournament. The partnership between EVS and

TVBEurope ﬁgures past and present, who packed

company explained. “The BBC and the British

specialist production company HBS provided the

out the venue. “Beyond the pomp and the

Universities Film and Video Council enabled us

live and multimedia production and distribution

ceremony, tonight we are coming together to

to capture TV and broadcast from the entire

workﬂow, including nearly 200 servers and

celebrate all that is great about our industry,

UK spectrum and also from foreign language

related connectivity. “With the trust of HBS and

in the company of friends and colleagues,”

channels and to produce those for catch-up,

FIFA we’ve been able to accomplish many things

opened McKeown. “We will be recognising

learning and research.” Finally, dock10 was

and the multiplatform delivery and multiscreen

those pushing the boundaries in their ﬁelds;

awarded Achievement in Post Production

delivery technology that we’ve put forward is

honouring the pursuit of excellence,

for work on hit TV drama series Happy Valley,

something we’re very proud of,” said EVS on

innovation, and endeavour.”

broadcast on BBC One.

receipt of its award. Achievement in Legacy

The awards were divided into four categories,

The World Cup was a major TV event this

with the aim of encompassing a broad range

year, so it’s perhaps of little surprise that the

of talent and expertise in the broadcast media

sporting highlight cropped up twice in the

ﬁeld. Presentations began with the Workﬂow

Delivery category. Elemental Technologies was

Content went to RR Media, for the British Pathe historic archive for YouTube. Within the Capture category, Beyond HD Achievement for Excellence in Image Capture

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

TVBEurope 39

TVBAwards was created to celebrate a

characters and BBC presenters.

company or in-house team

“We’re very proud not only of

responsible for outstanding use

representing the BBC, but also

of new and innovative image

representing everybody who

capture technologies in a live or

gave their lives through what was

recorded TV programme. TV2 ASA,

an incredibly tough campaign

Norway was the deserving winner

in the First World War,” commented

of the honour, for its work on the

Karmarama.

spectacular Fly med oss. “We set off

The Sustainability Award went to

in May 2014 with a helicopter and a

BAFTA Albert Consortium for

Cineﬂex camera and a 360-camera

its Albert +, an industry project

mounted on the helicopter. We

promoting sustainability in the

ﬂew for three weeks and got

production process.

some amazing pictures, both of

Channel 4 was the winner of the

mountains and people, all over

award for Outstanding Broadcast,

Norway,” explained the winners,

in one of the most eagerly

who didn’t forget to thank the stars

anticipated moments of the night.

of the documentary: “This award

The broadcaster demonstrated the

is actually also to the Norwegian

largest-ever UK TV commitment

people who went out on the top

to the Winter Paralympic Games

of the mountains and took their

in Sochi, delivering 50 hours of

clothes off and waved to us!”

coverage, with two further digital

The Achievement in Sports

streams providing 100 hours of

Broadcast award was picked up

additional content. “A lot of

by Presteigne Broadcast Hire, for

people have worked very hard on

its work, in association with CTV,

Channel 4’s behalf to deliver the

on The Boat Race – the annual

best possible coverage and to tell

shootout on the Thames between

the great stories of the Paralympics

the universities of Oxford and

we’ve been working with,” said

Cambridge. Receiving the award,

the broadcaster.

the company described the

The evening wrapped up with

project as “a technically complex

Dr David Wood, former deputy

programme both sides, which saw

technical director of the EBU

lots of innovation, and the ﬁrst use

and current chair of the World

of IP and RF mesh-based acquisition

Broadcasting Union’s Technical

systems, which is reﬂected in this

Committee, taking to the stage.

award.” Achievement in VFX went

Wood had previously been

to Milk VFX for the magical Natural

announced as the recipient of the

History Museum Alive, broadcast on

Lifetime Achievement award

New Year’s Day.

and shared with attendees a

The awards ceremony

reﬂection of fond memories of his

concluded with the presentation

career and experiences in the

of four Special Awards, the ﬁrst

broadcast industry.

of which went to Karmarama/

Simon Fell, technology and

Red Bee Media for the WW1 on

innovation director at the EBU

the BBC campaign. To mark the

described Wood as “a unique

centenary of the start of the First

talent well respected in the

World War, the BBC commissioned

industry. His humour and all round

programmes about the conﬂict to

enthusiasm for all things involving

run over four years and released

media technologies have given him

a ﬁlm showcasing the content.

international respect.”

Karmarama created the TV spot,

Attendees enjoyed dinner at the Hilton before the Awards presentations got underway

TVBEurope would like to thank

which shows the war from various

our TVBAwards sponsors, Manor

perspectives, tied together with

Marketing, Ericsson and IBC, as well

the wartime song Pack Up Your

as all of our guests. For those who

Troubles In Your Old Kit-Bag, which

were unable to make it, we hope to

is sung or spoken by different

see you in 2015.

Lifetime Achievement winner Dr David Wood accepts his award from James McKeown

40 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Transcoding Forum

Delivering

a coded message Transcoding is a vital part of today’s broadcast and production chain. Philip Stevens moderates this month’s Forum which tackles some of the issues facing this complex technology

Different video and audio workflow environments mean that there is always a need for file transfers to take place. So what are the challenges for transcoding equipment makers? Does the use of second screens add complications? And has the ‘cloud’ made an impact on the transcoding scene? To discuss these and related issues, we’ve brought together (in alphabetical order) Bruce Devlin, chief media scientist, Dalet; Brick Eksten, VP product development, Imagine Communications; Simone Sassoli, VP marketing and business development at RGB Networks; Paul Turner, VP enterprise product management at Telestream; Owen Walker, head of product management, root6 Technology; Keith Wymbs, chief marketing officer for Elemental.

What are the biggest challenges facing makers of transcoding equipment and services? Devlin: As we start to deploy transcoding into the cloud the biggest challenge remains interoperability between systems. Gone are the days when a transcode was just a case of ﬂipping a codec from .mp2 to .mp4. The current transcode paradigm is much more like manufacturing on demand, with a different feature set between contribution transcoding,

“The current transcode paradigm is much more like manufacturing on demand, with a different feature set between contribution transcoding, and transcoding for web” Bruce Devlin, Dalet

and transcoding for web. Smart transcoding involves great deinterlacing, frame rate conversion, audio handling, captions and

and their resolutions. The challenge is that chip

subtitles and metadata handling with a minimum

set manufacturers are reticent to leap into the

of fuss for the end user – something Dalet

game. On the software side, we’ve crossed

AmberFin has been pushing for the last six years.

the line. We know that software can do most of

This complexity results in a legacy of years of ﬁles

what we would describe as being part of the

being made in the wild that contain subtle and

broadcast infrastructure in realtime. As you

expensive-to-correct issues in them. These issues

move to software, there are discussions about

can lie there until an upgrade of playout servers,

how you are going to manage or monitor the

transcode farm and/or editing equipment takes

systems and I think that is something the industry

place when the errors need to be addressed.

is a little bit behind in.

Eksten: The biggest single inﬂuence as we think

Turner: Whilst our business is to take ﬁles from

about transcoding and encoding and all the

one format and turn them into another, the

ramiﬁcations are the next generation formats

proliferation of those formats is a constant

TVBEurope 41

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Transcoding Forum issue. It has been made worse recently with

added services, such as 4K, while controlling

be used for a particular application – even if

the introduction of new cameras, both in the

costs. Elemental software-deﬁned video

that application changes over time. Another

professional arena and in smartphones. The world

frees video providers from the constraints of

challenge is supporting customers contending

of newsgathering has been hit with this last issue

dedicated equipment by allowing for the best

with increased demand for value add time-

as UGC becomes more and more of a source for

architecture and processor combination to

shifted services, adapting those for multiscreen

ﬁnal outputs. This is likely to continue as we move forward. The challenge is not so much in the decoding of the video and audio, but in ensuring that metadata survives the transcoding process. More and more of our customers’ workﬂows rely on manipulation of metadata, so preservation throughout the transcoding process is of great importance. Unfortunately, there are no real standards being enforced in this regard.

“Transcoding is not a creative task, it needs to be fast, reliable and automated” Owen Walker, root6 Technology

Walker: Transcoding is not a creative task, it needs to be fast, reliable and automated. It also needs to be part of an overall solution, it cannot be an island. Products which enable transcoding need to be workhorses which can scale to meet these demands and provide the formats and tools which clients require. The never-ending emergence of new standards requires root6 to deploy resources to stay relevant in a very dynamic, rapidly changing industry as the move to complete file-based workflows becomes the norm. Interoperability with third-party devices as part of a wider workflow, such as file-based QC, takes time in development, but can offer rich rewards, rather than having to develop every function in-house. Building tools which not only provide the required transcoding needs, but can also manage the workflow is key. Our ContentAgent product provides encoding, media management and metadata tracking with a complete toolset for automating the transcoding, management and distribution of digital media files. Its user interface has been designed to be operated by non-technical users using a graphical node-based workflow tool – to allow them to build their own workflows and apply automated decision processes, and provides a highly efficient encoding engine. Wymbs: The key challenges are keeping pace with rapid changes in streaming formats and video resolutions, increased emphasis on virtualisation, and helping customers maintain a balance between adding new value-

42 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Transcoding Forum viewing, monetising live services with targeted advertising, and managing multiple content delivery networks and network topologies. This necessitates a new class of video infrastructure. At IBC, Elemental introduced the Elemental Delta video delivery platform that helps content owners and distributors add new time-shifted services, reduce distribution costs and more precisely manage content in multiscreen delivery deployments.

Has the growing use of second screens made any impact when it comes to transcoding equipment and standards?

Bruce Devlin, Dalet

Simone Sassoli, RGB Networks

consumer. Many of these contain different media

cent of total global ad spend in the latter half of

to the ﬁrst screen and so have undoubtedly

2013. Fortunately, the unicast nature of multiscreen

increased the volume of transcoders required.

adaptive bitrate delivery of content provides

It has also added a new dimension in the

operators with a wealth of new opportunities to

Devlin: This depends on the deﬁnition of second

complexity of transcoding to be delivered. More

create a more personalised ad engagement

screen. A presentation at Broadcast Asia from

versions of more content packaged to more

experience in the multiscreen environment that, in

Twitter conﬁdently stated that the only second

deliverables with more automation and more

turn, drives revenue. RGB’s AIM is a leading alternate

screen app of signiﬁcance was Twitter. Other

metadata more cheaply.

content monetisation platform that enables relevant

deﬁnitions of second screen include dedicated

Sassoli: Advertising remains the primary revenue

advertising in realtime, across all video stream types,

apps and multi-view experiences for the

source for the TV industry – representing 57.6 per

on subscribers’ preferred viewing devices.

TVBEurope 43

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Transcoding Forum Turner: It has certainly driven the demand for

video is an infrastructure agnostic approach

high speed, parallel encoding at multiple bit

to implementing ﬂexible, scalable and easily

rates. We have speciﬁcally targeted a transcode

upgradable video architectures.

product at this area, focussing on high fan-out encoding from a single input encode. Walker: The explosion of media consumption equals more platforms, equals more material, equals more transcoding needs. The requirement to transcode media in an efﬁcient and timely

Does the increasing use of IP technology make any difference to transcoding practices?

manner requires the transcoding product to be able to manage and scale to meet the ever-

Devlin: On the human front, the increasing

growing demand for content in different formats

number of engineers who truly understand

for different platforms. Keeping track of ever-

storage and networking issues has made the

increasing versions of ﬁle-based material requires

transcoding vendor’s life less difﬁcult. Virtualisation

a product which not only transcodes, but also

and network licensing solutions have made life

manages the overall workﬂow keeping track of all

easier and more ﬂexible for the operational life

media assets. The key to enabling new workﬂow

of the transcode customer. The mass roll-out of

paradigms is to have a toolset which will allow the

contribution grade HD IP-streaming directly into

end user to build and design their own workﬂows –

live transcoders is, however, still some years off

which will then automate multi-platform delivery.

and remains an exotic solution today. I personally

Wymbs: Absolutely. Two cases in point include

wonder if the real, long-term solution will end up

the high-efﬁciency video coding – HEVC/H.265

using the cloud for this type of application.

– compression approach and software-deﬁned

Eksten: This is where all the excitement exists

video processing. HEVC is expected to become

today. The broad perspective at looking at IP

the video standard of choice for the next decade.

or IT, whatever term you use, is that there’s an

It will ﬁnd widespread adoption in streaming,

opportunity to beneﬁt from the economy of scale.

broadcast, satellite, cable, IPTV, surveillance,

As the computers get faster, as the networks get

corporate video and gaming applications before

faster, as the prices come down, there’s the thought

the end of the decade. As with each generation

that we are going to see cost savings and a ﬂexibility

effort’ network. It is designed to robustly deliver

of video compression technology before it, HEVC

for our infrastructure we never had previously. But

your emails, it is not designed to deliver every single

promises to reduce the overall cost of delivering

there’s a reality that is attached to that, which is

frame or frame boundaries. And especially if you

and storing video assets while maintaining or

that these systems were not really designed for the

start talking about UHD, it becomes really scary. So

increasing the quality of experience for the viewer.

type of work that we do. If you look at IP, it is a ‘best

we ﬁnd ourselves at this crossroads, where we have

Without sacrificing video quality, HEVC can reduce the size of a video file or bit stream by as much as 50 per cent compared to AVC/H.264 or as much as 75 per cent compared to MPEG-2 standards. This results in reduced video storage and transmission costs and also paves the way for higher definition content to be delivered for high-quality-of-experience consumer consumption for new value-add multiscreen and 4K services. When it comes to Software-Defined Video Processing, keeping pace with rapid changes in technology and consumer demand is a significant challenge to video providers as they try to address a plethora of internet-connected devices. Relying on traditional video processing infrastructure is becoming increasingly difficult and costly, yet video distributors simply do not have the option of ignoring demand for multiscreen video services as they risk permanent loss of customers to internetbased OTT alternatives. Software-defined video solutions offer a way around the tradeoff between the need for long-term investments in technology for video delivery and the expectation of shortterm return on investment. Software-defined

Brick Eksten, Imagine Communications

Keith Wymbs, Elemental

44 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Transcoding Forum how open source projects like this can help promote the use of standard APIs which make it much easier for vendor-to-vendor integration and for video service providers to migrate to a cloud-based video delivery model. We have just announced that we are developing an open source version of our popular TransAct Transcoder. Called ‘RipCode Transcoder’, the new, cloud-enabled software transcoder will provide RGB Networks’ customers with greater control, integration and ﬂexibility in their video delivery workﬂows. In a pioneering move, and harnessing the

Owen Walker, root6 Technology customers integrating islands of IT or IP into their systems – where it makes sense – then trying to plan a roadmap of how they are going to transition to everything. I think it is incredibly exciting because it

Paul Turner, Telestream

What impact has ‘the cloud’ had on transcoding practices?

creates opportunities for new product categories,

industry momentum toward developing cloud-based solutions, RGB Networks is actively welcoming operators and vendors to be part of a community of contributors to the open source project. Turner: Customers are showing great interest in the idea of transcoding in the cloud. It certainly

new technologies.

Devlin: There are two angles – technical impact

makes sense for many of them, but we feel

Wymbs: Absolutely. A good example of the

and business impact. A well-designed transcode

that in most cases, this technology will be used

opportunity and challenge of IP video and the vital

platform should offer the fault tolerant, ﬂexible

for peak throughput management and

role played by software-deﬁned video processing

performance required to scale independently

quarantined deployments. Peak management

is found in the pay-TV market. Consumers of

of where it is actually running. Dalet AmberFin

in the sense that customers will continue to

video have the power today. By and large,

has worked hard to achieve a resilient platform

have sufﬁcient capacity on premise to handle

they decide when, where, and how they watch

that can scale from a small laptop to hundreds

their typical workload, but will cope with

their videos. Pay-TV providers are accelerating

of nodes in a facility or in a cloud. This technical

peak demand by spinning up transcode farms

their IP-based video services to compete more

versatility makes the main impact of cloud a

in the cloud. Others will use the cloud to allow

effectively with rapidly emerging OTT providers.

business decision on resource allocation rather

them to quickly bring new services online in a

than a technical one of making it work. Many

secure, siloed fashion – quarantining the new

companies still prefer the owner-operator

service from their run-rate operations until

model where all of their content stays within

such time as they feel they want to pull that

the physical boundaries of their facility during

work on-premise. The cloud is not a cure-all,

a transcode. Others are experimenting with

though. Customers should carefully consider

cloud to discover the techno-commercial

the time and cost of transferring assets up to

beneﬁts. There isn’t a one-shoe-ﬁts-all way to get

the cloud service, and to download the

a win-win for every transcoder vendor and all

output ﬁles back to their own facilities. The costs

transcoder users.

can be quite high, and the transfer times

Eksten: Yes, it has. Part of that change started

can be quite long.

four or ﬁve years ago when we began thinking

Walker: Cloud transcoding is the natural

‘what is the value to the customer?’ When you

evolution to enable vast server farms to scale

think about the systems we are trying to use in a

the encoding of ﬁles quickly and efﬁciently.

cloud environment, they don’t exactly meet our

However, there are some challenges at this

But there’s an Achilles’ heel in many operators’ TV

requirements in broadcast. In an IP environment,

present time. Getting large media ﬁles to

Everywhere game plans – few or no live channels.

it’s all designed around ‘best effort’. When you

and from the cloud storage is a challenge,

To keep a competitive edge, pay-TV operators

take that into the cloud, it gets that much more

fast internet access is an absolute requirement,

need an offensive strategy that enables them to

challenging and so what we ﬁnd ourselves

and ﬁle delivery WAN acceleration tools must

easily ready their technology infrastructures for

having to do is look at the opportunities.

be deployed. The cloud storage itself needs

live linear streaming at the lowest possible total

Spending more time encoding a feature

to be able to support the bandwidth to

cost of ownership. Hardware-based approaches

because we can do it in the cloud means we

encode large media ﬁles and the servers

lack the agility and elasticity to get the job done.

can do it more easily. And if we are managing

themselves need to be high-end machines to

Pay-TV providers enriching their current services

all of our queues, and our pipeline from end to

enable fast processing. As network bandwidth

with premium live-linear streaming services can

end, then we know when we can squeeze it

increases, cloud transcoding will become

strengthen their competitive position and speed up

into the overall workﬂow.

more obtainable for many media companies.

time to market by deploying SDVP architectures as

Sassoli: The IPTV industry has ﬁnally embraced

One of the most interesting aspects of cloud

the core of their next-generation infrastructures.

the cloud. And, at RGB Networks, we recognise

processing is the ability to subscribe to

“To keep a competitive edge, pay-TV operators need an offensive strategy that enables them to easily ready their technology infrastructures for live linear streaming at the lowest possible total cost of ownership” Keith Wymbs, Elemental

TVBEurope 45

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Transcoding Forum a cloud service on an ‘as needed’ basis: a‘Software as a Service’ model rather than using capital expenditure. Wymbs: Video processing in the cloud provides

What is the next innovation we can expect relating to transcoding?

the scalability required to seamlessly add

style of ﬂexibility, but in very dense and lower powered hardware packages. On the software side, we are going to see continued drive for optimisation. We are still learning about visual acuity – how people perceive content – and I

capacity in order to keep pace with growth,

Devlin: Increasing use of the smart toolbox such

think there have been some real breakthroughs

while also providing the elasticity to quickly

as (AT)3 from Dalet AmberFin. As transcoding

over the last 12 months or so that are allowing us

adjust capacity as demand ﬂuctuates. And

becomes ‘manufacture on demand’, the role of

to drive even greater compression.

while costs can sometimes be higher for cloud-

a smart transcoder will be to match the available

Turner: We see transcoding as much more

based solutions on a per-asset basis, overall

resources to each job’s requirements. (AT)3

than just converting media from one format to

costs can be optimised to accommodate

shows how a toolbox can be created that gives

another. We’re already producing products that

spikes in the demand. This improves business

different performance depending on the source

work in conjunction with Vantage’s transcoding

planning, eliminates ﬁnancial risk and replaces

material and the execution environment – CPU/

capabilities to reduce the repetitive operations

capital investments with operational expenses,

GPU/cloud. Ultimately, it’s a business decision to

required of many creative personnel in various

which often align expenses with revenues more

match the best resources to the money-making

workﬂows, and I think you’ll see an expansion of

tightly. With a cloud video processing service,

content. A modern transcode farm underpinned

that role continuing as we move forward.

such as the Elemental Cloud Platform as a

by great IPR allows this to happen.

Walker: As ﬁle-based delivery becomes

Service, users have more control than ever.

Eksten: On the hardware side, I think we will

the norm, having comprehensive delivery

Businesses can experiment with offerings

continue to see solutions driving density and

speciﬁcations will be paramount. At root6, we

before fully committing to large capital

quality, and, therefore, cost. You are going

have implemented a complete DPP workﬂow

investments and they can manage ﬂuctuations

to see much more dense platforms that are

solution with our ContentAgent product. From

in demand with ease rather than over-buying

going to be more easily traded off between

creating the AVC-I essence to metadata

processing capacity as a risk-mitigation

the number of streams and the quality of

insertion tools to visual and ﬁle-based QC,

measure for the business.

those streams. So a little bit of that software

we have got it covered.

46 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Data Centre

The global average connection speed increased 21 per cent from the ﬁrst to second quarter of the year

State of the internet Akamai Technologies has released its Second Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report. The report provides insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds and broadband adoption across fixed and mobile networks, overall attack traffic, global 4K readiness, IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 implementation, and traffic patterns across leading web properties and digital media providers

“T

he number of ﬁrsts we’re seeing in

gains were observed in all European countries,

by less than ten per cent, growing just ﬁve per

the Second Quarter, 2014 State of the

ranging from a low of 22 per cent in Austria and

cent from the ﬁrst quarter, while the highest growth

Internet Report make this a particularly

Italy to a high of 58 per cent in Ireland.

rate was seen in Portugal (up 92 per cent).

interesting quarter,” commented David Belson,

Average peak connection speeds in all

The global broadband (>4Mbps) adoption rate

editor of the report. “We’ve experienced our ﬁrst

European countries surveyed also saw signiﬁcant

grew by 5.6 per cent quarter-over-quarter to reach

quarterly decrease in global unique IP address

quarter-over-quarter growth. Romania came out

59 per cent. In Europe, Romania, Denmark and the

counts, the global average connection speed has

top, with an average peak connection speed

Netherlands joined Switzerland to become the only

risen above the 4Mbps broadband threshold, and

in excess of 60Mbps, while signiﬁcant quarter-

surveyed countries in the region with a broadband

Akamai’s customers experienced a reduction in

over-quarter increases pushed the Netherlands,

adoption rate of 90 per cent or more. Once again

the likelihood of repeat DDoS attacks.”

Switzerland and Belgium above 50Mbps.

all European countries had broadband adoption

The global high broadband (>10Mbps)

rates above 50 per cent. A review of the quarter-

The global average connection speed increased 21 per cent from the ﬁrst to second

adoption rate continued to see strong growth

over-quarter changes reveal that these were

quarter of the year and, at 4.6Mbps, exceeded

in the second quarter of 2014, reaching 23 per

positive but limited, with only Norway and Italy

the 4Mbps ‘broadband’ threshold for the ﬁrst time.

cent thanks to a 12 per cent increase during the

growing by more than ten per cent. The smallest

quarter. In Europe, Switzerland, the Netherlands

quarterly increases (less than one per cent) were

topped the European country listing, just ahead

and Romania recorded rates of 50 per cent or

seen in the United Kingdom and France.

of the Netherlands, with an average connection

more and, with the exception of Italy, all countries

speed of 14.9Mbps. Sustained quarter-over-

in the region achieved high broadband adoption

4K readiness

quarter growth was observed in all European

rates above ten per cent. Positive quarter-

Following the introduction of the ‘4K readiness’

countries; France had the lowest growth rate at

over-quarter changes were observed across all

metric in the First Quarter, 2014 State of the

7.4 per cent, while Romania achieved the biggest

surveyed countries. Finland was the only country

Internet Report, Akamai has again identiﬁed

increase at 27 per cent. Impressive year-over-year

to see its high broadband adoption rate increase

countries that are most likely to sustain connection

For the second consecutive quarter, Switzerland

TVBEurope 47

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Data Centre speeds above 15Mbps, as Ultra HD adaptive

originates, as well as the top ports targeted by

bitrate streams typically require bandwidth

these attacks. It is important to note, however,

between ten and 20Mbps. The ﬁndings do not

that the originating country as identiﬁed by the

account for other ‘readiness’ factors, such as the

source IP address may not represent the nation in

availability of 4K-encoded content or 4K-capable

which an attacker resides.

“69 per cent of countries and regions still showed year-over-year increases in unique IPv4 address counts” David Belson, Akamai

The European region experienced a modest

televisions and media players. This quarter the majority of European countries

quarter-over-quarter decline of 14 per cent, with 49

had more than ten per cent of their connections

reported attacks in the second quarter, down from

to Akamai at speeds above 15Mbps, with the

57 reported attacks in the ﬁrst quarter.

top three countries (Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden) seeing more than a quarter of their

IPv6 adoption

globally, 69 per cent of countries and regions still

connections at those speeds. Switzerland’s 33

In the second quarter of 2014, more than 788

showed year-over-year increases in unique IPv4

per cent 4K readiness rate was the highest seen

million IPv4 addresses from more than 238 unique

address counts.”

in the region. Both Portugal and Romania saw 4K

countries/regions connected to the Akamai

readiness rates more than double quarter-over-

Intelligent Platform. For the ﬁrst time in the history of

the IPv6 adoption list, holding seven of the top

quarter, while the smallest increase was seen in

the State of the Internet Report, the global unique IP

10 positions. IPv6 trafﬁc volumes more than

Finland (14 per cent).

address count declined quarter-over-quarter, by a

doubled from the previous quarter in the Czech

nominal 0.9 per cent.

Republic and were up by more than a third

Under attack

European countries continued to dominate

“Though even a minimal quarter-to-quarter

in Belgium. Romania and Germany however,

Akamai maintains a distributed set of

decline is unusual in the history of this report,

saw IPv6 adoption levels decline quarter-over-

unadvertised agents deployed across the internet

we see no reason for concern,” said Belson. “It

quarter, with Germany dropping 25 per cent.

to log connection attempts that the company

may be due to providers working to conserve

This, however, is due to the IPv4 request count

classiﬁes as attack trafﬁc. Based on the data

limited IPv4 address space, or likely was a result

growing more aggressively than the IPv6 request

collected by these agents, Akamai is able to

of increased IPv6 connectivity and adoption

count, resulting in a decline in the calculated

identify the top countries from which attack trafﬁc

among leading network providers. That said,

percentage of IPv6 trafﬁc.

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48 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Data Centre

Content without borders Monetising the European pay-TV revolution Braxton Jarratt, CEO of Clearleap, discusses his company’s recent study which outlines the changing face of service delivery among European pay-TV providers

behind its Infinity offering; and France’s Canal+ has launched CanalPlay. And as Netflix picks up the pace of its significant European roll-out, TV operators across Europe are preparing a counter-attack to respond to the demands of

he European TV industry is one of the most

With 750 million people, 53 countries, 28

an increasingly connected and media-savvy

vibrant environments in the world, offering

currencies and billions of IP devices, connecting

audience. But it is too little, too late?

signiﬁcant, untapped potential. Across the

European subscribers to content is complex,

There are signiﬁcant hurdles to overcome for

region, viewers are eager for quality content and

and competition is ﬁerce. Several streaming

TV executives looking to expand their breadth

are prepared to pay for the privilege. This makes

services expanded their footprint on the

of reach across Europe, not least because

Europe an immensely valuable region for the TV

continent this year: Germany’s Sky Deutschland

launching in new markets also comes with a

industry, worth in excess of $130 billion* a year.

has launched Snap; Italy’s Mediaset is standing

price tag. From the cost per hour of production

“As Netﬂix picks up the pace of its signiﬁcant European roll-out, TV operators across Europe are preparing a counter-attack to respond to the demands of an increasingly connected and mediasavvy audience”

to content agreements and legal restrictions, there are many regional variations that must be factored into the go-to-market plan. When crossing borders, content expenditures are considerable, and acquiring rights must be carried out on a territory-by-territory basis. To understand how companies are adapting to the challenges and potential offered by the region, Clearleap commissioned some exclusive, high-level research and interviewed over 30 European TV operators to understand how they are approaching the demands of content without borders. The headline ﬁnding was that OTT and TV-overIP services are already well established, at least in a 1.0 version. Forty-eight per cent of operators surveyed stated they had already launched an OTT service in some form, while a further 45 per cent had launched a SVOD/TVE service. For TV executives, OTT clearly presents a

With 750 million people, 53 countries, 28 currencies and billions of IP devices, connecting European subscribers to content is complex, and competition is ﬁerce

tremendous opportunity to reduce churn, increase subscribers, and generate new revenue streams.

TVBEurope 49

November 2014 www.tvbeurope.com

Data Centre When asked to describe how they currently manage their business processes to offer TV services to subscribers, the majority (65 per cent) said they used a partner. When asked about their future plans, the overwhelming consensus (87 per cent) were considering increasing the use of partner providers. Today’s TV executives are relying on partners to pick up the technology heavy-lifting so they can focus on their core content and services business while also delivering slick streaming solutions across a growing number of devices and platforms. When tied together correctly, multiscreen video logistics can help TV operators ramp up to a 2.0 OTT/TVE monetisation model. For pioneers able to combine great content and effective delivery within a viable business model, the rewards are signiﬁcant. For those that don’t meet consumer demands, it’s clear that others will. In an era where content lives without borders, now is the time to bring innovative new services to an eager market. * iDate: http://www.idate.org/en/ Research-store/

Current TV services being offered

50 TVBEurope

www.tvbeurope.com November 2014

Data Centre

Change is the only certainty

not yet embracing the need to change, the fear is that they will simply be left behind. Resources do seem to be one of the key challenges with 41 per cent stating ‘to meet our vision we need more resources’. Similarly, 28 per cent said: ‘it is difﬁcult with the expertise and experience we have to identify the way forward.” One respondent commented: “[I am] concerned that we do not have enough staff or budget to shift the business.” However, for most, the challenge is mainly about uncertainty: ‘It is difﬁcult to keep up with

By Andrew Ioannou, partner, Marquis Media Partners

Changing viewing habits

what the next big thing in viewing habits will be’

Many view change positively. Most (55 per cent)

(53 per cent). In addition, the pace of change

see changes in viewing habits as an opportunity. However, 37 per cent agreed with the statement: ‘we are unsure how to drive our technology strategy to remain ﬂexible for whatever

hen it comes to planning the evolution

emerges.’ When it comes to making a proﬁt 41

and development strategy of any

per cent of respondents were unsure how to

organisation, a clear vision of the future

monetise the new opportunities.

53 per cent said that ‘keeping up with the pace of change’ is an issue

is necessary. However, without a crystal ball how can we know precisely what the future will hold? As an organisation, Marquis Media Partners helps organisations shape their future through strategic technology planning, change management and deployment for organisations working in media and broadcast. With this in mind, we wanted to find out where the industry was on their future thinking and therefore commissioned two separate surveys of broadcast executives in 2014. We completed our first survey earlier this year and ‘changes in consumer viewing habits’ was shown to be the greatest business challenge, while ‘content management and distribution across multiple platforms’ led in terms of the greatest operational and technology challenges faced by the industry today. However, in our most recent survey, completed in August, we wanted to delve deeper and find out why such issues were influencing business strategy. We questioned

Yet, although what the future will bring is unclear,

is certainly on people’s minds: “The industry is

over 100 senior executives in the sector

the good news is that many organisations are

changing too fast for large companies to keep

about their businesses’ most pressing issues.

taking steps to address this pressing issue. More

pace,” one respondent commented.

Respondents were at director level or CTOs

than half (58 per cent) of ﬁrms either have a

from broadcasters from the UK, Europe and

team dedicated to addressing this challenge

developing and there is good news that the

the rest of the world.

or have already started working with partner

majority of organisations are adapting and

organisations to ﬁll the knowledge/resource

attempting to move forward by anticipating

many respondents citing uncertainty about the

gap. However, 11 per cent are concerned their

the new nature of future viewing habits even

future as a challenge. Forty per cent stated that

organisation is doing nothing or changes in

if they are not yet sure precisely what these

there was uncertainty about what technology to

viewing habits have not been addressed yet and

will look like. As one respondent said: “I

invest in to satisfy customer needs and more than

this does raise concerns. “The company I work

intend to be one of the survivors.” It seems

half (53 per cent) said that ‘keeping up with the

for is stubbornly trying to ignore the signs,” stated

that whatever the future holds, change will

pace of change’ is an issue.

one respondent. For those organisations who are

be the only certainty.

Some of the results were unsurprising with

What we do know is that the industry is