Business, insight & intelligence for the media & entertainment industry
OCTOBER 2017
OCTOBER 2017
THE SPEED OF
SOUND Analysing the future of broadcast audio
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ACTIVATING VOICES “Broadcast audio is going through fundamental change”
W
hile experiencing my first IBC Show last month, it dawned on me just how much goes on behind the scenes of television that the viewer has no idea about. After running around all 15 of the RAI’s halls, I began to realise how much technology is used in the making of programmes I love to watch. It’s staggering really, and I suspect the average content consumer would be shocked at the level of IT and infrastructure there is within the television idndustry. It felt at times like a baptism of fire as I dashed from meeting to meeting, but I returned to London feeling as though I had learned a great deal, and I surprised myself on occasion – I definitely wouldn’t have been able to discuss packet loss before the show! There seemed to be three distinct themes at this year’s show: IP, the cloud and security. IP and the cloud are not new areas of discussion for the industry, and I suspect we’ll still be talking about them at IBC2018. But security and piracy are becoming more important, especially as viewers move away from linear TV to OTT and streaming. This year, we’ve had examples of major series such as Orange is the New Black and Game of Thrones being leaked ahead of their launch dates. The other big issue in terms of piracy is sport. The English Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga have both
announced measures to combat the issue of illegal streaming. Streaming piracy is regarded a ‘faceless crime’ – those that do it think it doesn’t matter because as far as they’re concerned no one gets hurt. What they’re not considering is the people working so hard behind the scenes so they can watch their favourite team. Bring them to IBC2018 and they would soon learn the difference! Back in the mists of time, or the mid-1990s, radio went through a fundamental change. Out went quarter-inch tape and in came digital. It was a game changer for everyone working in the industry. I was in my first job at Capital FM. Six weeks after I started, Capital moved from the old Euston Tower to its new home in Leicester Square, and with it everything I knew about radio production went out the window. Of course for radio, the introduction of digital has been life-changing and now broadcast audio is going through its own fundamental change. I keep hearing phrases like VoIP and AoIP, while voice activation seems to be about to dramatically alter the way we search for programming. So, I hope you enjoy this month’s issue focusing on the future of broadcast audio. n
JENNY PRIESTLEY, EDITOR
EDITORIAL Content Director: James McKeown jmckeown@nbmedia.com
Senior Account Manager: Richard Carr rcarr@nbmedia.com +44 207 354 6000
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Digital Director: Diane Oliver doliver@nbmedia.com
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Contributors: George Jarrett, Neal Romanek
Head of Production: Alistair Taylor ataylor@nbmedia.com
Sales Manager: Peter McCarthy pmccarthy@nbmedia.com +44 207 354 6025
Managing Director: Mark Burton mburton@nbmedia.com
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TVBE OCTOBER 2017 | 3
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IN THIS ISSUE
OCTOBER 2017
14 Sustainable Cybermen Doctor Who recently signed up to BAFTA’s albert sustainability initiative. Jenny Priestley investigates the decision to go green
20 Bricking it How do you turn LEGO building into mustwatch TV?
32 Transforming TV Ericsson’s Angel Ruiz looks at the new media landscape
34 Voice activation BBC R&D, along with Netgem, look at the rise of the voice activated assistant
20
38 Plugging the skills gap The BBC has delivered its biggest single investment in Scottish broadcast in over 20 years. George Jarrett finds out more
42 Women in broadcast, part two This month, James Groves hears from four more respected names in the industry: Anna Lockwood, Nicki Fisher, Margaret Craig and Lise Cosmi
48 TVBEurope at IBC2017 We honour the 22 winners of TVBEurope’s Best of Show awards at IBC2017 before Chris Forrester provides a wrap-up from the show’s 50th anniversary
i
Sony: Driving customer engagement Sony’s supplement looks at targeted broadcasing, sports production and streamlining the media supply chain
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OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Transforming TV into a fully integrated entertainment platform By Albert Dahan, co-founder and CTO, Metrological
C
onsumer demand for easy access to content from both the legacy and online premium video domains represents a major opportunity for multichannel video programming distributors (MPVDs) to differentiate their services. These new integrated experiences are critical to the reinvention of pay-TV. Integrating premium OTT services with access to app content can now be seamless and additive to the consumer experience with a time to market that spans months rather than years. Operators can further accelerate apps with technologies such as WPE (Web Platform for Embedded), a lightweight, software stack that enables them to deploy new cloud based services in an integrated experience on any (legacy) set-top box (STB). PERSONALISED/INTEGRATED TV EXPERIENCES Enabling OTT and app content to be personalised and related to what the viewer is watching on the main screen is one way that TV viewing can be enhanced. Enabling viewers to see app content that is relevant to what she is watching, and the ability to instantly click the overlay and see a clip makes viewing more interactive. For example, someone watching a football match could see YouTube clips of their favourite team side-by-side on the main TV viewing experience without looking away from the TV. Some MVPDs are beginning to introduce apps to drive live linear content that do not require authentication. For consumers, this means they can access content from an app containing live broadcast TV instead of going to a specific channel. UNIFYING OTT INTEGRATIONS WITH WPE MVPDs need to leverage the cloud as much as possible for OTT integrations, going beyond overlaying a cloudbased aggregation of OTT content onto their UIs. Content owners require compliance with approaches to
formatting, content protection and UX that have to be embedded into MVPDs’ content management workflows for delivery on STBs and unmanaged devices. MVPDs must integrate requirements within the limitations of legacy STBs. To do so they need to utilise cloud-based resources that provide the richness and variety of a personalised universal UX that can be continually attuned to evolving trends in consumer behaviour. The barriers to meeting these requirements are being overcome by using highly flexible, modular components based on internet standards. WPE Framework is a lightweight, hardware accelerated Application and UI Framework enabling operators to deploy web and native based services in an integrated experience on any STB. WPE can be embedded into MVPD workflows to access cloud-resourced and locally-hosted functionalities for delivery of a personalised next-generation UX on legacy STBs as well as new STBs and unmanaged IP devices. CONCLUSION MVPDs are well positioned in their unique ability to aggregate content from multiple services with advanced applications into a single point of access on all screens. In order to be successful, however, operators need a foundation that can be adjusted to continually add new services and apps with innovative approaches to configuring and personalising UIs across all screens. Leveraging app stores and app platforms along with a framework based on web technologies such as WPE, enables MVPDs to seamlessly integrate content with live TV along with additional tools needed to fully leverage the cloud and manage OTT integrations, such as Netflix, into their workflow. Going forward, operators can expand these capabilities to serve new opportunities within and beyond the pay TV UX as new technologies emerge to capture consumers’ interest. n
6 | TVBE OCTOBER 2017
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OPINION AND ANALYSIS
M
MoJo comes of age René Mørch, product manager, DPA Microphones
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obile connectivity hasn’t just revolutionised the way we consume content these days – it has also spawned a whole new way of creating it. Thanks to the advent of outlets such as Facebook Live, YouTube and other social media, anyone who owns a network connected smartphone or tablet can gather, edit and distribute their own unique stories. On a professional level mobile journalism, or MoJo as it is termed, is a vital part of the mix for broadcasters and news outlets who need to feed live content straight to their studios and social media platforms. In recent years much of the technological focus has been on improving video quality (from sub HD, to HD and now 4K), but it is also important that audio quality isn’t overlooked because decent sound really matters, especially when it comes to speech intelligibility. Smartphones have become an integral part of a traditional broadcaster’s toolbox, as they can easily be transformed into very portable live streaming units. Often Apps from professional live video transmission vendors such as AviWest, Live-U and MobileViewpoint are used to pave the way into the broadcast backbone, including set-up of the return audio from the anchor in the studio and the producer. Although much simpler set-ups are used when you are using your gear for a Facebook Live transmission, the same basic rule applies in both situations: there is no such thing as the perfect microphone. You’ll need to be able to switch from one type of microphone to
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OPINION AND ANALYSIS another depending on the situation you are covering, and more often than not you’ll need two inputs to ensure you are getting the best results. A typical way to enter a microphone signal into a mobile phone is via the 3.5mm audio jack that also houses the headphone output. Obviously the audio quality of this analogue input is not very high and it also doesn’t allow for the use of professional grade microphones. Moreover, it only allows you to connect one mono signal to the smartphone. Therefore, the thought process behind the development of DPA’s new d:vice MMA-A Digital Audio Interface, which was launched earlier this year, was to give journalists and content creators access to studio quality audio when they who use smartphones to record and stream audio on the go. d:vice is a two-channel microphone preamp and A/D converter that connects to your iPhone or iPad directly via the lightning connector. Also, it can be connected to PC and MAC via an additional supplied cable and can thereby be used as an external input soundcard. At just two inches in diameter it is also small enough to fit into your pocket or bag. To make live streaming easier, we’ve recently added a new ‘summing’ function, which takes the audio from two mics, combines it, and sends out a dual mono signal for a live stream via iPhone or iPad. Additionally, individual gain can be set for each mic, which is useful to ensure controlled output.
d:vice works with a range of DPA products, making it possible to pick the right microphone for specific situations. This versatility is already proving popular with broadcasters like Danish web channel, FoodTV, which recently live streamed a cooking show from a department store in Copenhagen using d:vice in conjunction with two DPA d:fine headset microphones. Despite the background noise of a busy department store, the audio quality of the live stream was exceptional. With so many new filmmaking and editing apps coming onto the market, it has never been easier for podcasters, vloggers and mobile journalists to create exciting and innovative content. From an audio point of view, d:vice is the final link in the chain – and in our humble opinion, the most important! n
“It’s important that audio quality isn’t overlooked, because decent sound really matters”
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OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Disrupting broadcast workflows – in a good way By T Shobhana, vice president and head of global marketing and communications, Prime Focus
D
epending on your point of view, disruption can be seen as a good thing, or a bad thing. From my point of view, the new options for managing broadcast media assets that are disrupting the status quo across the content supply chain are a very good thing. These new options promise to provide a higher level of collaboration, flexibility, and speed over existing systems, and in the process, significantly decrease operating costs. REPLACING OUTDATED MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT The Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry strives to efficiently deliver tailored content across many media outlets. Media asset management (MAM) systems are a critical tool to keep track of assets from concept through production, post, and distribution, but because these MAMs were not specifically designed for M&E workflows, they fall short when it comes to collaboration and supporting automation. In part, this situation developed because the market is made up of many specialised players, including broadcast and production companies, post houses, distributors, and many more, using multiple on-premise, nonscalable MAM systems that are not easily connected. These multiple systems are typically used for distinct content operations such as ingest, annotation, storage, and distribution. Some larger organisations even have separate MAMs serving different departments and locations. The inability to securely collaborate on these siloed MAM systems has resulted in a status quo of linear, manual workflows, duplication of metadata entry, and other inefficiencies that slow down the process. Today, complete Media ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning systems) with new hybrid cloud-based MAM systems designed specifically for broadcast operations are displacing the general-purpose MAMs, disrupting
this status quo and providing a new higher level of collaboration, flexibility, and speed to support content development through distribution. PURPOSE-BUILT HYBRID CLOUD A purpose-built hybrid cloud system is perfect for managing content workflows across multiple distributed locations. As it’s a cloud system, the solution enables internal and external stakeholders to access content anytime, anywhere; facilitating easy collaboration with multiple vendors and distributors. Users can perform operations like subtitling on a low-res proxy, with others such as editing carried out on the high-res content. In contrast to public cloud asset storage systems such as AWS or Azure, the solution’s hybrid workflow engine manages distributed workflows for the remote execution of tasks at service recipient sites as well as a central operations site. These tasks include transcoding (using Vantage Pro), Auto QC (using Baton/Cerify), file transfer (using Aspera/Signiant), file management and API integrations to ingest and deliver content. Moreover, data is protected with encryption, watermarking and content disaster recovery. However, the hybrid solution also has the ability to empower the content owners with the flexibility of embracing public cloud fully if need be as Media ERP systems are typically flexible and open. Having a unified Media ERP also supports the needs of the broader organisation, so that not only the creative team, but the marketing, legal, operations, sales and senior executive leadership teams can also review/ complete their tasks efficiently. This high efficiency through extreme automation across the organisation further helps lower the Total Cost of Operations (TCoP) by automating business processes around content and managing their business of content better. n
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OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Automation is what you need Peter Poers, business development manager, Jünger Audio
T
he world of broadcast is on the verge of a major revolution as automated production becomes increasingly common. From robotic cameras to the automatic mixing of audio sources – it is all being made possible by using system automation control that can take over the control of individual pieces of production gear. We also have next generation audio formats such as immersive and object-based coming into play. Currently under development, these will find their way into the broadcast and distribution mainstream very soon. So, what does this all mean and what challenges do we face as a result? TV and radio broadcast is already well served by automation as fully automated playout has been common for a long time. What the industry is looking for now is an expansion of automated procedures. This goes along with the introduction of IP based signal transport technologies that are allowing more flexibility in the production and distribution process, but also ask for a different level of production administration and content management. On the audio side we will face a situation where certain audio control tasks still need to be performed but, thanks to changes in the way we now work, they can no longer be performed in a conventional way. For instance, there is no space left in the production chain to install a conventional audio control room and have a human correct the audio signal composition. I’m not talking about creative decisions, but about situations where technical corrections and changes need to be performed. In addition, we also see demand for higher efficiency in production and for more remote live production as well. To meet these new demands, we need to look at the kind of audio control that is required and see how we can perform that control so we give producers and audio engineers the results they want. We also need to
look at how we integrate the equipment that performs these changes into an overall control system so that these decisions become part of the general workflow management system. At Junger Audio we are already preparing for this challenge by developing quality audio processing tools that are ready for automation. We have sophisticated adaptive audio control solutions in place. We can look for level, sound, mix and loudness by using our Smart Audio processing algorithms. Auto Program Feed Mixing and Auto Commentary Mixing for immediate creation of channel based legacy delivery formats are two of the procedures we can offer to make the introduction of OBA production easier. All our equipment offers Ember+ network-based remote protocol for integration into a variety of automation control systems. The consequent use of adaptive controlled processing algorithms will allow us to offer autonomous audio control procedures that can be well integrated to modern workflow designs. All our algorithms are programmed in a way that enables them to be easily integrated into other platforms supporting virtualised production workflows. Finally, all our solutions are proofed by long-term evaluation in the field by audio experts, so that we can deliver predictable audio control results. Our technology will enable broadcasters to start more automated audio production with confidence and predictable results, whilst ensuring that end users benefit from the enhanced listening experience of future audio formats with reliable performance. Obviously automated production can’t and shouldn’t substitute creative audio production and post production procedures, but it can and should increase efficiency and quality for audio control procedures that are simply technical. n
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Perfecting the Media Experience AWS Elemental combines the vast capabilities of the Amazon Web Services cloud with the deep video expertise of Elemental to power superior viewing experiences for consumers. Integrated solutions and flexible infrastructure give pay TV operators, content programmers, broadcasters and enterprise customers the ability to quickly, easily and economically scale video workflows and services on-premises and in the cloud.
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PRODUCTION AND POST
CREATING SUSTAINABLE CYBERMEN Season ten of Doctor Who was the first in the BBC’s sci-fi series to show off its sustainability credentials on screen. Production executive Tracie Simpson tells Jenny Priestley why the show decided to go ‘green’
I
t’s worth pointing out, Doctor Who has been tackling environmental themes in its stories since the show’s early days 50 years ago. But now it has signed up to BAFTA’s albert initiative, which aims to create sustainable productions which have a positive impact on the people and places involved in their creation. Tracie Simpson, production executive on Doctor Who, explains the show has been green for a number of years before joining albert. “Doctor Who has been measuring its carbon footprint since 2012 and was awarded albert certification in April 2016. We are definitely greener since measuring our carbon footprint.” Why did the show decide to sign up to albert? “We were encouraged by our BBC Sustainability team and our neighbours here in Roath Lock – Casualty and Pobol y Cwm,” explains Simpson. “After attending carbon literacy courses and encouraging our crew to attend them, we realised that there was so much more we should/could be doing.” So, what measures did the team put in place to make the production more sustainable? “The TARDIS was redesigned and included the installation of low energy lighting,” says Simpson. “Approximately 60 per cent of the lighting on the sets is low energy. The 2016 Christmas special filmed our ‘New York’ scenes in Bulgaria using mostly local crew and locally hired filming equipment, saving an estimated 35 tonnes of carbon emissions. “ The team have also put new measures in place for the production’s paperwork, not an easy feat when you have reams of paper needed for cast and crew. “All scripts are e-mailed and only printed by direct request and then are printed A5 and double sided,” explains Simpson.
“After attending carbon literacy courses, we realised there was so much more we could be doing” TRACIE SIMPSON, BBC
“Dropbox cloud-based file sharing is also used. Plus, accounts send out e-payslips as opposed to paper remittances.” “The sound department use rechargeable batteries wherever possible and the caterers follow sustainable guidelines around sourcing of food.” Simpson says the cast and crew were keen to get involved in the project and have become much more aware of the production’s sustainability credentials. The production team also issue a green-email to all the show’s guest stars and directors so that they are aware of the project as well. Of course, a show like Doctor Who relies heavily on its special effects. So, exactly how do you make the Cybermen sustainable? “In terms of our Prac FX we are trying to use materials that have less of an impact on our environment such as lead free explosives, water based paint and recycling wood for our breakaways,” says Simpson. “The Cybermen undersuits are foam latex of which the base is a naturally occurring material which will eventually naturally degrade. The rest of it is Polyurethane which can be recycled as an energy source.” And the shows other iconic bad-guys? “I’m not aware of any changes to the Daleks for albert,” she laughs. “We haven’t built any new Daleks, we continue to “recycle” them!” Finally, can Simpson do a bit of timetravelling of her own and tell us what the future holds for Doctor Who and albert? “For the next series, we are looking to issue even less paper scripts, schedules and callsheets,” she says. “We are also looking into Hybrid transport. We will continue to make our cast and crew aware of our sustainability targets. Making the production of the programme more environmentally friendly is a perfect fit for us. The Doctor would approve!” n
14 | TVBE OCTOBER 2017
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PRODUCTION AND POST
IP FOR IMMERSIVE, PERSONALISED AUDIO By Dee McVicker, marketing associate, Wheatstone
I
PICTURED BELOW: A Wheatstone LXE console in action
t’s hard to know for certain what the future of OTT, 8K and VR will look like. But whatever happens in the next year or five, audio will surely be more immersive, more personalised and will require sound engineers to work smarter. Mixing consoles have already begun to adapt to the new workload, thanks to IP audio networking. The “IP-ising” of the audio mixing console started some time ago with the advent of networked IP audio I/O devices, which have replaced hardware cards and have opened up new ways to route, mix and process audio beyond the console chassis. As a result, we’ve been able to move everything audio routing and logic related to the network, essentially removing the bloat from the audio console so it’s more streamlined and adaptable. Just as IP networking has made the mixer more flexible, it has also made it possible to virtualise mixing, EQ, mic control, IFB and a slew of other functions. In the studio, for example, mix-minus, mic and console settings can now follow talent so that people and shows are no longer moored to one studio or even one location. At the same time, single-purpose studios
can now serve multiple purposes. We know of news studios that are shared by two or more local network affiliates. These studios can quickly alternate newscasts from one to the other, all easily managed from a single IP audio console that handles the different mix-minus and audio mixing requirements of each newscast, right down to complicated live remote newscasts and making it possible to get the correct throw for each talent in succession. The advantages of IP audio networking are even more far-reaching for live production, where we’ve been able to exchange mixes and settings and even trigger IFB across a long-haul link from the main studio to a stadium or the local courthouse. In doing so, the news team or sports team can remain at the home studio to do all the mixing, instead of travelling with all that equipment to the site.
LEAVE THE CONSOLE AT HOME Today, setting up a wide-area network between the home studio and the remote venue is a simple matter of placing IP audio networking units and Ethernet switches on each end to extend workflows across the WAN. There are more long-haul connectivity options today than ever before, making it increasingly practical to link between the remote venue and the home studio rather than haul a console to the venue. Instead, small IP audio network units can now be used to ingest audio from microphones, cameras, production automation systems and other sources. For example, in the case of WheatNet-IP audio networking, specialised units called M4IP-USB BLADEs are used at remote venues and in studios as an interface between the microphones and the network. These four-channel mic processors have four XLR inputs and an Ethernet output port, with parametric EQ, de-esser and compressors for each channel. Similarly, another IP audio network unit, the HD-SDI Blade, can retrieve audio coming
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PRODUCTION AND POST from the cameras. These IP audio units handle the SDI audio directly, de-embedding it and sending it home as discrete audio. A MADI Blade can be interfaced with the IFB intercom system for adding that audio into the pipeline. Once set up, the IP audio network itself can serve as an IFB backbone that is routable by simply triggering cross points in the network – with zero latency between talent and crew in the field. Meanwhile, at the home studio (or anywhere in the network) an IP audio mixer such as the Wheatstone IP-64, Dimension Three Touch, LXE or Series Four, can turn mics on or off, control levels, and trigger IFB remotely. With audio resources such as mixminus, audio processing, and automation control virtualised into software modules on the network, rather than as fixed hardware on the console, all functions are seamlessly and easily accessible anywhere in the network. And because most IP audio networks are now AES67 compatible, it’s a relatively small matter to transport audio from, say, a live sound group that might have one network platform (such as a WheatNet-IP system) and a remotely located production facility that has another (such as Dante). ON THE SURFACE We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of what IP audio networking can do. We’ve seen console surfaces get smaller, more adaptable, more capable, and, in truth, stranger looking. One console-like appliance that is recognisable to anyone familiar with WheatNet-IP audio networks is the SideBoard, a surface that contains all the faders and controls typical of any control surface but in a four RU rackmount chassis. Another interesting appliance is the TS-4 or TS-22 talent station, which is essentially an IP audio console rolled into a small turret for putting mic controls, source selection, headphone volume and all the other necessary functions in front of talent. We can now source, route, mix, and send to air from just about any surface imaginable, in some cases without touching a single physical fader. We know of announcers broadcasting from a remote location using a touchscreen interface that is essentially a bank of faders, knobs and other software widgets on a flat screen monitor recessed into the furniture. Virtual surfaces like this are becoming more popular, thanks to the advent of apps such as Wheatstone’s ScreenBuilder that make it possible to create GUIs with the drag and drop of a widget on a screen, which can then be scripted
for controlling devices and various elements in the IP audio network. Not only can audio programming today function in a console-free environment, it can be more tightly routed and integrated with automated production systems such as Grass Valley Ignite, Ross Overdrive, and Sony ELC through IP. In fact, much of what we’ve learned about software apps is directly transferable to hardware. IP audio consoles such as Wheatstone’s configurable LXE are removing the limitations of a fixed surface by providing a completely reconfigurable architecture. Instead of mapping switches, buttons and knobs to a particular function that can never be changed, the LXE’s surface controls are completely programmable – and continually re-programmable - through a GUI similar to ScreenBuilder. Any button anywhere on the surface can be programmed at any time for talkback, cue, start/stop or for toggling between functions, which can also be tied to different elements such as microphones. In this new world of the expandable, adaptable and transformable broadcast console, there’s also something else going on: a fresh, new way of interacting with audio. One of the more noticeable features of new consoles like the LXE are their intuitive GUIs, which make them not only the ultimate user interface between announcer and listener/viewer but also between announcer and audio as well. Being able to “pinch” the right amount of EQ or boost/cut frequencies using touch, just scratches the surface of what these powerful platforms can do. All of that is going to be more and more important as sound engineers add more channels to their workflows for immersive audio, as they add more control parameters to those audio mixes for the personalised sound experience, and as they continue to reach a wide audience with a myriad of playback requirements for cable, broadcast, web, even mobile. n
‘Whatever happens in the next year or five, audio will surely be more immersive, more personalised and will require sound engineers to work smarter’
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BRICKING IT How do you make LEGO building into must-watch TV? Jenny Priestley speaks to Steph Harris, executive producer of Channel 4’s LEGO MASTERS, to find out
E
veryone loves LEGO. You might have played with it as a kid (or adult), you’ve probably stood on it at some point in your life and you can’t fail to be awed by the amazing creations featured in the likes of The Art of the Brick. At the end of this summer, Channel 4 decided to go one step further, launching new competition series LEGO MASTERS as a four-episode series. The show’s premise was to follow eight teams of two as they took part in challenges to create everything from miniature fairgrounds to creatures that would be used to adorn a tree. Each week Matthew Ashton, vice president of design for the LEGO Group, was on hand to both encourage and judge the final creations. The show reached its climax with two teams going head-to-head to create a build using up
to 500,000 bricks that measured 2x2 metres. So, why did Steph Harris, LEGO MASTERS executive producer, think LEGO building could be turned into TV gold? “There’s both a nostalgia and an instant connection,” she says. “Anyone can do it. It’s about unleashing that creativity in people and the scope of what you can do with LEGO is phenomenal. There’s always an appetite from broadcasters for new competitive formats that celebrate amateur passions as demonstrated to great success in shows like Bake Off and MasterChef. This felt like the only one where you could have all ages from eightto 80-year-olds on an even playing field.” Harris admits getting LEGO to agree to the series wasn’t particularly easy. “As one of the world’s most popular
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PRODUCTION AND POST brands, LEGO are understandably very protective – so gaining that access took over 12 months of charm and persistence,” she explains. “It felt like the stars were aligned with this though. A LEGO building competition feels like an obvious proposition and we’re not the only production company to have approached LEGO, but I think the point of difference with our format was the range of ages as LEGO is very much family focused; they also engaged with the playfulness of the LEGO MASTERS format, which took some of its inspiration from authentic real world LEGO competitions – and the tests they give their own employees.” With LEGO on board, production company Tuesday’s Child approached Channel 4 with their idea. “Channel 4 has a remit of not just serving 16-34 year olds, but reaching 10-15 year olds too as part of their Ofcom requirements so they felt this was a good fit to try and reach these younger viewers,” says Harris. However, there were other guidelines the show had to adhere to in order to keep on the right side of the regulator. “Avoiding undue prominence was our biggest challenge, but LEGO bricks are unique in terms of what you can do with them. We bought the bricks, established a non-LEGO vocabulary amongst our contestants and retained all editorial control. I think Channel 4 really liked the format because it had a sense of mischief, which was aligned with their sensibilities and they could see its broad appeal to all ages – particularly following their previous documentaries that went behind the scenes of the world’s biggest toy-maker.”
Once the deals were in place with both LEGO and Channel 4, Tuesday’s Child had to find the stars of their show. Harris says they were quite fortunate with the timing. “Alongside the usual targeting casting at fan events, schools and amongst fan communities, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about LEGO that went out on Boxing Day 2016,” she says. “We were able to put a casting shout out at the end of the programme. I think between Boxing Day and when we got back in the office there were several hundred emails.” As the production team began casting the show, they were also busy developing the kinds of challenges they wanted their builders to face. “Many of us have been to LEGOLAND and marvelled at the scale of the builds there. They take teams of professional builders weeks if not months to build, so our biggest challenge was how could we get anywhere close to that in a few hours of building,” explains Harris. “So we immediately thought we should go with pairs. This also had the advantage of providing the contestants with a natural comfort blanket in the shape of their best friend, mum, dad, uncle or cousin standing by their sides and also someone to bounce off. After an extensive casting process involving over 1000 applications, 50 pairs were invited down to London to take part in a series of audition challenges. “We gave them these challenges to test how creative they were, their level of technical ability, and how they worked together as teams to then decide on the final eight teams – which wasn’t an easy decision to reach.”
“I think Channel 4 really liked the format because it had a sense of mischief” STEPH HARRIS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
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PRODUCTION AND POST
PICTURED ABOVE: LEGO’s Matthew Ashton (centre), with guest judge Roma Agrawal and host Melvin Odoom
Harris admits one of the biggest worries for the production team was the amount of time it takes to produce a ‘build’ and how that would comply with working with younger builders. “The auditions gave us real confidence in the format as we quickly saw what could be achieved in a couple of hours of building. It surpassed our expectations of what might be achievable in the competition whilst working within in the limitations of child licencing regulations. In fact throughout the competition we were constantly blown away by what our talented teams achieved – age really is just a number when it comes to building with LEGO!” One of the most striking parts of LEGO MASTERS for the viewer was the ‘build room’ where most of the series’ challenges took place. Surprisingly, it wasn’t based in Denmark, but in London. “We filmed the build room in an architectural dance studio in East London,” reveals Harris. “Because people build with LEGO in their own homes, there’s not a natural space which says ‘LEGO’ in the way a kitchen shouts ‘this is where you cook’ but what became clear for both dedicated amateurs and professional LEGO builders – you need your bricks sorted.” “This presented a huge challenge to the team when the bricks arrived – unsorted!” she continues. “We had to employ a team of brick-sorters who quickly became experts and brick fanatics themselves. We ended up with over 1.2 million bricks and sorted each and every one into a separate compartment – which also helped the teams
achieve the ambition of their builds in the time we had.” Once all the bricks had been sorted, production began, with the camera team using Arri’s Amira cameras. “The series was filmed on Arri Amira cameras with Canon CN7 Zoom lenses for a natural look and feel of film and overall exceptional image quality,” explains DoP Anthony Dalton. “Image was shot in Log C for a visible correct contrast, true colour representation, and in general to have more control over the recorded picture so that the most could be made of the bright colour LEGO provides. Boxx TV Atom wireless video senders fed pictures to the gallery, which was placed just outside the main shoot area.” “Additional macro lenses were employed for close-ups of the intricate builds, which took hours or even days to complete,” Dalton continues. “DJI Ronins, sliders and the small Osmo cameras were used to introduce more dynamic shots and movement.” “To achieve the more distant long range shots we switched to the Fujinon Cabrio 85-300mm zoom lens. Colin Thwaites, lighting designer and gaffer, was instrumental in helping achieve the overall look; strong primary backgrounds and soft pools of light.” “We had a DoP and three other cameras shooting in that space,” adds Harris. “We had a portable gallery set up in a side room, and a team of story producers on the floor working with different teams, whilst the series producer and myself would concentrate on producing the set pieces and getting great performances out of our expert judges, and presenter, Melvin Odoom.” One of the big issues for the crew was that their work didn’t get in the way of what the teams were building. “From initial discussions with production, it was apparent that there could be no risk of any damage to any build and a cable link between camera and sound was out of the question,” explains Sam Mathewson, sound supervisor. “As getting a broadcast mix to camera was essential we used Zaxcom camera hops, providing a solid stereo link while using only one precious frequency. All the builders were mic’d up wth Zaxcom TRXla transmitters and Sanken cos11 microphones placed fairly closely to capture the best possible dialogue in the noisy environment of the build room.” Once filming was complete, the team moved on to post-production. “With any new series, there are always difficult decisions about what to include to ensure it’s a compelling watch for a broad audience – balancing getting to know all the teams and tell their stories with enough of the detail of how they constructed their builds to keep LEGO fans watching happy – and of course making it look and feel distinct from other competition shows was critical,” says Harris. Full post production was carried out by Evolutions. “Head colourist Tim O’Brien used
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PRODUCTION AND POST Baselight to create bold, saturated tones to make the most of the multi-coloured bricks,” explains line producer Rachael Hankinson. “Multiple layers were used to create graduated filters to spotlight the finished pieces and to create the glossy, rich feel across the series.” Audio post production was carried out by Richard Ashley and Chris Braaten. Ashley commented that the overall quality of the contributor’s mics was good. Some noise reduction was used and tidying up the noise created by the bricks was “tricky. Occasional enhancement of brick crashes was used and the temptation to add sound effects of car crashes was tempered!” Harris admits the production process was “really intense. The teams were absolutely brilliant but they are meticulous in everything they want to do and love to plan – and that’s what makes them such fantastic builders. Guy and Abraham, our two nine-year-olds, were a joy to watch, once they forgot about the cameras they would be bickering away like an old married couple whilst Uncle Daniel and his nephew Jack’s comedy banter really tickled viewers. What also was particularly wonderful to see was there was such warmth and camaraderie amongst all the
teams. They all took it really seriously but they would ask each other for help and they all supported one another which is rare to see in a competition show.” The series was commissioned in part to reach the 10-15 and illusive 16-34 year old market who “are not watching television in the traditional way, they’re watching content, when they want, on lots of different platforms,” says Harris. “The first programme delivered over a 200 per cent rise in younger viewers and doubled the slot average for 16-34 year olds. The series has quickly become appointment viewing for families of all generations watching together. You don’t need to love LEGO to watch the show, you can watch it for the characters, get drawn into the jeopardy of a competition or just marvel at the awesome reveals.” So, will we see a second series? “It’s not the easiest show to make because of the amount of bricks and the sorting, and then the time it takes to build and duty of care around filming with younger teams,” she explains. ‘But we’re hopeful Channel 4 will want to ‘build’ on the success of the first series, and with LEGO’s global appeal there’s an appetite for the show in other territories too.” n
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BECOMING A TRAINEE SOUND SUPERVISOR TVBEurope speaks to Heather Benson, trainee sound supervisor at ITV. She talks broadcast sound, Jeremy Kyle and gender diversity
How did your career in the broadcast audio industry come to be? I have worked in broadcasting for ten years, so as far as this industry goes I’m still only early in my career! After university, I worked at a large retail company as a trainee manager until a colleague offered to pass my CV along to her husband who worked at ITV, and this was the seed from which my future was about to blossom. My CV landed on the desk of Mike Hayes who was then operations manager at 3SixtyMedia. Mike invited me to come in and talk about what I wanted to do, and see if I would be a suitable person to enter the TV industry. What made you realise this was the career path you wanted to take? I hadn’t considered a career in broadcast sound until I came in to view a show on a shadow day with ITV back in 2008. Until that point all I wanted to do was sit behind a mixing desk either in post-production or music editing, but this changed my path completely. The production was The Jeremy Kyle Show and the
studio was electrifying. Having never even been in the audience for a show, to be backstage seeing the rehearsals and the energy in the studio once the audience arrived, is a feeling I will never forget. I enjoy the company of others, and having seen this environment first hand I couldn’t imagine a more suitable place for me to be. Trainee sound supervisor positions are highly sought after. What you were doing prior to this and how did the opportunity come about? Prior to being employed as a trainee sound supervisor at ITV, I worked as a regular freelancer in Manchester. Most of my work since 2011 has been at the MediaCity site for productions at both dock10 and Quay House. These productions were varied, from shows such as Blue Peter to BBC Sport output like the London 2012 Olympics, with each job requiring different skills. You never stop learning and it’s up to the individual to find out what is required of them and how to do it. Of course, this would not be possible without the support of an exceptional network of colleagues who have been invaluable in my career development.
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PRODUCTION AND POST The opportunity at ITV came up and I had to apply. The ITV team have always been very welcoming to me and they have a great attitude to developing people within the industry in both technical and production roles. Having seen substantial reductions in the sound department in the last ten years, I never imagined that a training position would even become available. For several years I took advantage of any available training with the supervisors whom I regularly assisted, which I think put me in good stead for the trainee sound supervisor role. How have you found the transition? There have been a few differences between my freelance roles and where I find myself now. I have found the transition fairly smooth in terms of learning technical skills. ITV head of sound Jake Knott has been brilliant at assessing my progress and allowing me room to grow. As part of my training we built up my time driving the Calrec Artemis to a point where I have recently been credited for my first full show mix. The team of supervisors and crew I have been surrounded with over the term of my career
have continued to help me develop, and I support them in return. In the last few months I have been supervisor on Countdown and Judge Rinder multiple times. Both shows have great technical and production teams that have been fully supportive with my transition into sole supervisor for full show days. I have worked a lot in different roles within both shows which I feel has helped. Which productions have you enjoyed working on and which have been challenging? I have been lucky enough to thoroughly enjoy all the shows I have worked on! There have only been a handful of times when I have found myself wondering why I took the job, a situation which I am sure many of the sound community can relate to. In those situations, I have actively ensured to make the most of the situation. There are hundreds of sound crews across the country, so I remind myself that I am grateful to have been chosen to work for that day. One of the most challenging productions to work on is Blue Peter as virtually no show is the same. There is a huge
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PRODUCTION AND POST difference between the show with a couple of presenters and a few VT inserts, and a live Christmas special with a 300-person choir and brass band, outside in the pouring rain! One of my favourite shows to work on is Countdown, but for very different reasons. Countdown is very structured and has quite a set format. The production team, cast and crew make it a thoroughly enjoyable day and the structure of the show has certainly helped with my development into a sound supervisor, as it enables me to really listen to the quality of the output with the knowledge of already knowing the format of the show. What have been the challenges you’ve faced and what has been your approach to resolving them? One of the biggest challenges has been how to lead a team rather than be just a part of it. It is a very different scenario heading up a team of sound engineers who have been in the industry much longer than I have, and act as their team leader. I have always been open with my colleagues about how their support has been crucial in my transition and I am constantly trying to share some of my newly learned information and skills with them also.
but personality and people skills play a much larger role in my view. Further up the ranks there does seem to be more men than women, although I think that this may be a hangover of previous years. When my colleagues talk of the days of BBC A and Q courses there were noticeably more men than women coming into the industry. A colleague of mine, Julie Metzinger remembers all too well how the industry used to be particularly lacking in females in sound. She was the only female sound crew in a team of around 300 less than 20 years ago. Julie has been very inspirational having been in the industry when gender was taken more into account, and it is hard work from Julie and other female supervisors that has helped to tackle the distinction between genders.
Calrec consoles are something you’re very familar with – are there any features on these consoles which make your job easier? I would have to say that Calrec’s auto mixer facility in particular is a brilliant tool, and goes a long way to make the audio much cleaner. When mixing a show with many contributors interjecting, this facility assists with differentiating between voices and removes some elements of colouration, which can make the mix sound muddy. It also allows for making one person’s microphone, such as a presenter, have more weight to it and therefore cut through other voices, which on certain shows is invaluable!
What needs to be done in your view to provide better equality of opportunity to women working in professional and broadcast sound? Whether you are male or female makes no difference to technical ability in my opinion, although I agree that there needs to be more opportunities for anyone to join the technical departments. In the freelance world that we work in, it can take many months – if not years – for anyone to be given a chance at a first level position. Most new entrants will have to graduate from university before even being considered for a work experience position, which limits the amount of people who consider our industry a viable option. If there is a disparity, I wonder if it is that more males are interested in doing the work that we do as opposed to hiring being in favour of men. In ten years, there have been less than a handful of people entering our department in the North. This isn’t a concern at the moment, but in ten years time I wonder what the department may look like if training and progression isn’t addressed.
Have you found gender to be significant throughout your career? ITV in the North certainly has many more women than men working regularly within the sound department, partially due to the requirements of some of the shows we have and the size of the crews. Shows I have worked on elsewhere sometimes have a female sound assistant who is purely there to put microphones on female contributors in a crew full of men, though I haven’t personally found gender to matter most of the time. Our ears and technical abilities are not gender specific and I would like to believe that my technical ability comes into the equation before my gender. I do believe that it is important to have a mix of men and women on the crew,
To anyone just starting out, looking to be a sound supervisor one day; what advice would you give? Start from the bottom and work your way up! It is absolutely necessary to learn the basics of sound and not jump up the ladder too quickly. Most people get into sound imagining themselves as a mixer within a few years. In the broadcast industry, it generally takes over ten years to get that opportunity. You must take advantage of any opportunity given to you. Shadow days, work experience and training days are hugely important as they allow you to gain as much knowledge as possible and question more experienced members of any given crew that will help you to develop your skills to make you a better engineer. n
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FEATURE
KEEPING THE AIRWAVES SECURE Brad Price, senior product manager, Audinate
T
he IT revolution has been in full swing for decades now, yielding reality-bending changes in how business is conducted, how people communicate, and how we create, distribute and consume media. Despite the widespread effects it has had upon our lives, many industries are only recently adapting earlier practices to fit this new, and infinitely capable technological landscape. Broadcast falls into this category for many reasons. Earlier iterations of networking standards and hardware lacked the speed and time-awareness needed to work with large amounts of precisely synchronised media data. In the meantime, the needs of broadcasters drove the development of very capable point-to-point solutions that allowed a transition from analogue to non-networked digital workflows. In recent years, networking technology has experienced a series of breakthroughs that allow broadcasters to tap into the power of IT, and to begin to enjoy the benefits of scale, lower costs, and complete data fidelity across a wide range of products and facilities. With these new capabilities come risks that are very familiar to IT, but new to broadcast.
‘In recent years, networking technology has experienced a series of breakthroughs that allow broadcasters to tap into the power of IT’
The historic reliance upon non-networked technologies, both analogue and digital, has left many broadcast professionals unprepared for these new realities. Fortunately, the lessons that IT has learned over the years are readily accessible, and new tools are coming to the broadcast space that will help bring them into practical use by professionals. The complexity and interconnected nature of networked systems opens them to risks that were previously unimaginable. While some may see this as a reason to hold back deployment of networked workflows in broadcast, their interconnectedness is the very reason they are so valuable. Risks must be handled by design. FROM THE OUTSIDE The internet connects nearly every person on the planet – a huge asset with a large potential for misuse. Audio and video devices that are connected to the internet for purposes of management or configuration can do so safely, if appropriate precautions are taken. In 2016, hackers managed to take control of a Barix Streaming Client device and were able to change the audio content for several US radio stations in Texas and Colorado, replacing the regular programme material with an explicit podcast. The hackers found access through a weak or known password on the device, and then set their own strong password to slow any attempted repairs. In the recent past, where audio and video processing systems were completely contained within a facility, password management was not a big concern. But with access to the internet, station managers need to start thinking like IT – using strong, unique passwords
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FEATURE and keeping them carefully logged for easy retrieval. Too often users revert to simple passwords to ‘get the job done’, but that shortcut is no longer a viable option. In this case, the damage was limited primarily to embarrassment, but more dedicated hackers could have done far worse. INTENT TO DESTROY In the examples above, no serious harm befell the victims of these hacks, even if they raised alarms. But not all hacking is so juvenile or benign; in 2016, external hackers tried and nearly succeeded in literally destroying the systems of France’s TV5Monde. The attack began at night, rapidly taking down all 12 channels. Crews had to move rapidly, disconnecting systems to prevent or slow the advance of the attack. This attack was well considered and well researched. The hackers did proper reconnaissance, learning how TV5Monde processed and broadcast signals. They then created special software designed to corrupt or destroy the specific internet-connected devices that are at the heart of the station’s operations – encoders and decoders. The station was saved by quick acting technicians, limiting the immediate damage to €5 million. However, TV5Monde has been forced to spend millions of additional dollars on improved security and has altered in fundamental ways the manner in which they operate the station. MANAGING ACCESS One of the first and most essential jobs is to understand who can access your system, and how. There are often legitimate reasons for wide-open access to certain functions, as well as tightly restricted areas. Any decent system starts with users and allows administrators to control what they access, with the option to log actions within the system. One of the primary tools in this arena is Directory Services - that is, a system of users and passwords that is securely stored, and is used to authenticate users
‘One of the first and most essential jobs is to understand who can access your system, and how’
and assign them privileges. Systems like Microsoft Active Directory or LDAP are extremely mature and robust, allowing IT to have confidence with regard to user access. IT managers have used tools like these for many years, but broadcast professionals are just starting to see security-focused products come online. Because IT has invested heavily in these systems, there is a strong incentive for any security measures to take advantage of that work by providing solid integration with Active Directory and LDAP. This reduces redundant work and provides a single point of ‘truth’ for users. DANTE DOMAIN MANAGER Audinate’s Dante Domain Manager is an example of a user-access control product designed around IT security models. Dante Domain Manager encrypts all control traffic and locks Dante-enabled devices into defined groups, thereby limiting access to content by rogue devices. System privileges are defined on a peruser basis, integrating with Active Directory and LDAP to ensure that users need only be defined once for the entire network. Adding or removing a user from Active Directory directly affects user’s ability to access or manage the system, providing a single point of control for managers. The Dante-enabled devices managed by Dante Domain Manager are supported at the hardware level, by design. This means that even physical replacement of devices cannot deceive the system into accepting unauthorised hardware. STAY PREPARED None of this means that station managers need to morph into network security experts, although consultation is recommended when designing a system with some degree of internet access. The list of best practices is really quite succinct: n Stay aware of and use management tools to help you to secure and visualise your entire system n Assign user privileges only as needed to prevent tampering n Make sure your system keeps activity logs to trace incidents n Check with manufacturers of internet-connected products to ensure that you have access to the most recent updates, and that the product is configured for adequate security. Do not assume that it has strong passwords, or any at all! Consult with the IT department with which you work, or consider bringing in IT consultants to help determine your risk profile. They’ve been down this road before! n
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TVBE Supplements
TVBE October 2017 Supplement_V6 JP.indd 1
OCTOBER 2017
29/09/2017 12:11
SUPPLEMENT
TARGETED BROADCASTING BUILDS ENGAGED AUDIENCES Sony is more than just a manufacturer of great technology; it also provides services and solutions that help broadcasters and media companies engage better with their audiences, explains Richard Scott.
PICTURED FAR RIGHT: Richard Scott
A
t the risk of stating the obvious, TV viewing habits the world over continue to change rapidly. According to a Nielsen ‘Total Audience Report’ from earlier this year, both teens and younger millennials (18-27 year olds) are watching 40 per cent less traditional TV on average per day than they were five years ago. At the same time, older millennials (2836) are watching 25 per cent less. Traditional viewing is also falling among the older age groups too, albeit not as quickly. It coincides with a rise in the popularity of on-demand and streamed content being viewed on other devices and other platforms. But it’s not a simple lift-and-shift migration. The way in which TV is viewed has also changed too. According to research by Accenture, for example, 87 per cent of viewers use a mobile ‘second screen’ device while they watch a TV programme. This could be for additional statistics and data during a sporting event or for talking to friends on social media. From binge-watching boxsets to viewing content on virtual reality headsets, there are countless other examples too.
“Lose millennials now and the are unlikely to ever come back”
The upshot of this is that broadcasters need to work harder than ever to maintain their audience and build their brand. Making great content is not always enough. It has to be available whenever, wherever and however the audience demands it. This is how millennials consume media. And, as they are the future, lose them now and they are unlikely to come back. With this in mind, here at Sony we believe we are well positioned to help broadcasters transform their business so that they can better engage with this new generation of viewer. Over many years we have quietly but successfully provided media firms with the digital services, tools and solutions they need to both connect with their customers and make their media supply chains more efficient. Within the articles that follow, we will demonstrate our commitment to driving viewer engagement, especially in sport, and making improvements to the media supply chain that in turn allows more money to be spent on-screen. We will provide real-life, working examples of media customers who are building their brands and their audiences using innovative solutions developed by Sony. Broadcasters and media companies have long trusted Sony to deliver the best technology for content creation. But we also have scale and understanding to do so much more. Now we are going to prove it. Richard Scott is head of media solutions at Sony Professional Europe
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SUPPLEMENT
SPORTS PRODUCTION: RAISING THE GAME Hawk-Eye, Pulselive and PlayStation Live VR offer sports broadcasters the chance to drive customer engagement and win new viewers
PICTURED RIGHT: ATP Tennis events
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efore multi-channel television and the internet, sports fans were easily pleased. With so little sport being screened, just having cameras at an event was enough to keep most viewers happy. It was a rare treat. Today, with the advent of social media, live streaming, OTT services and next generation viewing experiences like virtual reality, audience expectations have risen. The appreciative sit-back-and-watch TV viewer is being supplemented with a more demanding generation of consumer who wants an enhanced interactive ‘experience’ across multiple screens. They don’t want to just choose an event to watch - they also want to choose how they watch it. With new media players entering the sports market, in turn providing further choice, the ability to offer a better viewing experience has become essential in the battle for eyeballs. As such, making use of innovative technology that helps to increase viewer engagement is crucial. Hawk-Eye - enhancing the fan experience Hawk-Eye Innovations, a Sony company, captures data from ball and player tracking cameras and uses it to deliver graphical analysis and insight. Not only has it helped to improve refereeing and umpiring decisions in sports like football, cricket and tennis, it has also enhanced the fan experience across broadcast and online channels. From a batsman’s wagon wheel in cricket coverage
to green screen analysis of a tennis player’s backhand, Hawk-Eye is responsible for delivering some of the most recognised and satisfying virtual graphics in sport. The Tennis Channel, for example, used Hawk-Eye’s augmented reality software to analyse and graphically display exactly how players completed certain shots during coverage of Wimbledon. Sky Sports utilised Hawk-Eye for its coverage of the British Masters golf, providing viewers with a ‘Green Reader’ that showed the potential putting line on certain greens. But Hawk-Eye is not just for enhancing the main broadcast coverage. It can also be used on second screens and in stadiums. Hawk-Eye’s Smart Replay technology, for example, can provide corporate guests at a venue with a next generation hospitality experience by making all TV angles and highlights immediately available within suites via touch screens. For second screen websites and apps, Hawk-Eye provides polling, voting and simulations that make the fan experience more dynamic during a live event. This work dovetails with its sister firm, Pulselive. Pulselive - making sport more interactive Pulselive, also a Sony company, deliver digital solutions to some of the world’s largest sport organisations, including the English Premier League, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and World Rugby. This involves creating, developing and managing digital platforms, reaching millions of sports fans
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SUPPLEMENT every day whether that’s the official Rugby or Cricket World Cup website or the Premier League’s iOS and Android apps. Operating at the intersection of digital, social media and broadcast, Pulselive focus on enhancing the live fan experience through interactive initiatives such as real-time audience polling on the BBC’s flagship football programme, Match of the Day. Second screen experiences have also been developed for broadcasters’ digital platforms. ESPN’s Courtcast, for example, integrates live coverage of all major tennis events, combining tournament data, live streaming, social media curation and Hawk-Eye data visualisation. Based out of the UK, Pulselive also invests efforts into emerging platforms. A major current focus is AI and how Pulselive’s clients can have a presence on platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. PlayStation VR Live - bringing the stadium into the living room PlayStation VR Live is a completely new concept in sports viewing. Powered by the Sony PlayStation, it combines a live immersive 180-degree view of the match - or any live event - with a TV broadcast feed, social connectivity and sports data. Viewers can enjoy seeing a game from inside the stadium (complete with cutting edge 3D audio) and also watch the broadcaster’s live coverage, access different angles, replays and data feeds, or interact with social media, all done using a PlayStation headset and controlled using a PlayStation controller. In June 2017, to prove the concept, Sony trialled the VR Live experience with UEFA during the Champions League football final. Following months of careful R&D, viewers in Germany were able to have an experience that was described as “just like sitting in the stadium” but augmented with data and social media. ATP Media and Sony also delivered a Live VR experience at the Rome and London ATP tennis events, offering up a virtual hospitality box, match statistics and social media feeds alongside the virtual experience and live broadcast. For the gaming generation that wants more than just passive TV viewing, VR Live brings them closer to the action while allowing them to customise their viewing experience and to stay in contact with friends. All from the comfort of their living room. For broadcasters, VR Live can be easily integrated into an existing production set-up. Locked-off Sony F55 cameras in the venue produce a single precompressed VR stream that is transmitted to the cloud. The packaging work is then handled by the PlayStation
and an accompanying app. It offers revenue opportunities too. Thanks to the PlayStation’s geo capabilities, advertising and sponsorship can be global or tailored to a local level, while pay-per-view options are already built-in. When attempting to satisfy the modern sports fan, broadcasters and media companies need to do more than just capture the action. They need to increase customer engagement and be distinct from their competition. Through innovative technology solutions like Hawk-Eye, Pulselive and VR Live, Sony can help them to do precisely that.
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SUPPLEMENT
STREAMLINING THE MEDIA SUPPLY CHAIN With consumer demand for content showing no sign of abating, Sony is helping broadcasters and content creators to streamline their media management and their media supply chain
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hanks to the combination of multi-channel television, OTT, video-on-demand, and streaming services, there has never been more ways to consume video content. Whether you want to watch it live on the big TV in your living room or stream it to your mobile phone while on the move, televisual content is available anywhere and at anytime. Supply should really outweigh demand. But it doesn’t. Consumers cannot get enough. This gives broadcasters and other media companies a huge opportunity but also creates a major problem. There is a need to produce more content but there isn’t always the money to do so. As such, there is huge pressure to contain and reduce costs and, right now, one of the key areas of focus is the media supply chain. Sony’s Media Solutions Group has already made huge strides here, driving innovation for broadcasters around the world. Bringing the world together for CCTV The Beijing-based public national broadcaster CCTV operates 43 TV channels including six overseas in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Arabic. Its news operation consists of a large number of local, regional and overseas branches and offices. For news production, CCTV adopted a cloud-based global collaboration platform that has, at its heart, the same infrastructure as Sony’s omni-media network production system Media Backbone Hive. CCTV’s
collaborative network is accessible by all of its offices and locations and allows journalists to produce TV and new media content at the same time, as well as share and exchange content and access scheduling and planning functions. CCTV took a combined public and private cloud approach to the platform using Alibaba Cloud in China and Amazon Web Services in the US and splitting out the services elements from the main application and distributing them across the private cloud. ‘Pop up’ production infrastructure is also utilised when required. In 2016, during a major international sporting event, CCTV Sports created a ‘Converged Content Platform’ for distributing content online and via mobile phones. It resulted in a huge increase in the number of viewers that saw the content, jumping from an average of around 5,000 to more than 1,000,000. By employing cloud-native technologies, like those found in Media Backbone Hive, CCTV has become more efficient and streamlined its news production workflows. A unique public/private partnership with WGBH Along with its local programming commitments, Boston-based WGBH is the single largest producer of television, online and mobile content for the pan-US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). To cope with rising storage demands, and looking to spend less money on distribution and more on content creation, the broadcaster completely remodelled the way it manages, prepares and plays out
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SUPPLEMENT its programming. This was done by implementing Public Media Management (PMM), a cloud-based centralised media management and content distribution service developed in partnership with Sony. PMM orchestrates the acquisition, transcoding, quality assurance and delivery of nationally distributed public television content, giving users one touch distribution across broadcast, web, mobile, OTT and MVoD. Importantly, it is a nationwide service that can be rolled out across other member PBS affiliates facing the same challenges, allowing them to replace their existing master control with new technology that is paid for as a monthly operating expense. PMM works around a Network Operations Centre (NOC) located at WGBH that records and processes both real-time and recorded national content and transfers it to the cloud. Individual Nodes located at each PBS station then automatically download the required content based on a unique schedule. The Node also provides traffic management, automation, graphics, routing and storage. The PMM service uses a range of proven Sony technologies including the Media Backbone Enterprise Management System, Ci Cloud and Optical Disc Archive. With PMM in place, WGBH and other PBS stations are reducing the expense of master control, allowing them to focus on their mission of community engagement, providing content when, where and how audiences want it. Taking an ROI-based approach to deploying supply chain technology at Turner Turner Broadcasting System Europe, a Time Warner Company, is responsible for 35 TV channels across Europe covering multiple territories and multiple languages. Looking to modernise and streamline its media management and its workflows - but still retain the necessary flexibility to adapt to future business requirements - the broadcaster implemented Sony’s Media Backbone Conductor (MBC). Located at its European Media Hub in London, the media operations and workflow orchestration platform allowed Turner to automate many of its workflows, including the management of all media throughout the processing phases, and manual operations such as QC and review, ordering and approvals. It also handles file movement and storage, transcoding, auto QC and packaging for playout
and distribution. Working this way, the tools, processes and applications used in its various European Media Preparation Centres have been consolidated and standardised. With the multichannel and multi-language output in mind, MBC also helped to simplify the creation and management of over 30 different additional subtitle and audio tracks linked to each original master copy of a programme. For Turner, the return on this investment has been a more efficient and versatile operation that requires no video tape and less human resource. Conclusion As Sony is probably best well known for its imaging tools, it will come as no surprise to learn that, in the future, supply chain applications will start to dovetail with acquisition technology. The cloud-based workflow service for news production, such as XDCAM air, brings supply chain technology directly to the camera. This fundamentally changes both live and as-live production. It is just another of the many ways that Sony’s cloud-based media-specific applications, systems and services, can help broadcasters to streamline their media management and their media supply chain.
Supply should really outweigh demand. But it doesn’t.
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Recapture lost audiences Break the news first across all platforms with Media Backbone Hive. It’s time to reconnect with your lost audience in a more cost effective way. As viewers look to the internet, mobile and social media for their news fix, broadcasters can now reclaim this ‘Lost Audience’ with Media Backbone Hive, a Unified Content Platform linking everyone within the organisation to enable unified news production. One production system to deliver stories faster across multiple platforms online, TV and radio. No more silos. No more duplication of effort. And lots more flexibility.
Media Backbone Hive
Find out more pro.sony.eu/lost_audience TVBE October 2017 Supplement_V6 JP.indd 8
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OBITUARY
A HUMBLE LEADER Sam Blackman was one of the brightest figures in Portland’s resurgent tech scene, and a powerful voice for civic engagement
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he broadcast industry grieves for the loss of influential and respected leader Sam Blackman. The AWS Elemental co-founder and CEO passed away at the end of August after suffering a cardiac arrest at the untimely age of 41. The Portland native, who grew up lifeguarding at a public pool, leaves behind a young family and a rapidly growing business that helped transform Oregon’s Silicon Forest. After founding Elemental Technologies in 2006 with Brian Lewis and Jesse Rosenzweig, Blackman led the company from a tiny start-up to one of Portland’s major employers before selling it to Amazon in 2015 for $296 million. He stayed on as CEO. “AWS Elemental has lost a passionate, visionary and humble leader, and the world has lost an inspiring human being dedicated to community,” an AWS Elemental spokesman said. “Sam’s spirit will always be at the core of what we do. Sam loved his work, but his greatest love was for his wife and children.” A statement from Blackman’s family read: “Sam died peacefully surrounded by his loved ones. In his private life, he cherished his family, and in his public life he cherished his community and the business he founded, Elemental Technologies. “He was a passionate advocate for community service who rallied so many towards a greater good for the environment, hunger, education and inclusion. We are thankful to all those who have shared their thoughts and prayers for Sam.” Before Elemental, Blackman designed integrated circuit products for Pixelworks. He also held engineering positions at Silicon Graphics and Intel Corporation. The BBC implemented Elemental’s technology to stream footage of the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and it was also used by companies such as ABC and HBO to stream entertainment content.
“AWS Elemental has lost a passionate, visionary and humble leader, and the world has lost an inspiring human being”
Earlier this year, AWS Elemental partnered with NASA to produce the first live public 4K streaming broadcast from the International Space Station, with Blackman, from the NAB Show in Las Vegas, participating in a ground-breaking conversation with astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer from space. In 2014, Elemental started a series of 4K 4Charity Runs, which have raised more than $450,000 in support of those underrepresented in technology, and Blackman was a regular participant. Blackman earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Brown University, an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the University of Oregon. He leaves behind his wife of 12 years, Adriane, two young sons, Abe and Solly, his brothers Amos and Eli, his mother Susan and his niece Hannah, to whom we offer our deepest condolences. n
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FEATURE
TRANSFORMING TV By Angel Ruiz, president and CEO, media solutions, Ericsson
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n the last decade alone, we have witnessed tidal changes across the media landscape globally, particularly in the music and publishing industries, which have undergone complete and radical evolution. In the same way, we have seen a massive shift in the way video content is created, published and distributed with the rise of on-demand, the proliferation of devices, technologies and greater mobility. Today, viewer expectations and demands from service providers and operators are greater than ever before. Since my appointment as president and CEO of media solutions at Ericsson in June this year, I have been busy getting to know our customers and build an even deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities that face our industry today. As we demonstrated at IBC, we are implementing our strategic viewpoint for the future and the move towards realising the transformation of TV. Empowering both established players and the next generation of TV providers is an integral part of my job. Yet, it’s my view that we need to understand not only how to innovate for the future, but also to ensure that our customers and partners have the strong foundations they need to compete, differentiate and capitalise on new revenue opportunities today. A NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE While value propositions are changing beyond recognition, the inherent power of content to engage and retain audiences remains. In this period of enormous market disruption, the challenge comes down to how viewers find, appreciate and interact with that content. This is a time where operators and broadcasters can evolve, not just to remain relevant but also to capture the extraordinary opportunities available to them. With market fragmentation and competition comes a proliferation of new technologies and methods to
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FEATURE redefine the boundaries with which our industry operates. The convergence of telecoms, IT and media has opened up fresh ways for service providers to continue to differentiate and grow their subscriber base. It has also encouraged new entrants to launch innovative and competitive services. ENABLING TRANSFORMATION This year, I attended the IBC Show for the first time and throughout the week, my team and I presented the innovations we believe will drive the future, alongside the deliverable software and service solutions industry players need to compete today. By combining a full portfolio and our unique position at the intersection of software, cloud and IP, mobile and 5G, data and analytics, our aim is to enable the industry to thrive in today’s TV and media landscape. We showcased the latest from our leading media portfolio, including low latency, broadcast quality experiences for OTT delivery. We demonstrated how real-time analytics can drive unique immersive user experiences through our cloud TV platform and we shared the latest release of our Video Storage Processing Platform – the core of our pay-TV cloud DVR deployments worldwide today. We also showed how our end-to-end processing solutions for contribution and distribution can enable service and content providers to deliver content across different networks securely and efficiently, while maintaining quality. Our visitors were able to try out real applications of VR and 360-degree content and see for themselves how it can augment the UHD HDR broadcast experience. This unique demonstration enables the user to go beyond the immersive headset experience and enter into a virtual world, where they can share their experience with friends and family via a tablet or mobile device. THE FUTURE OF TV AND MEDIA I believe that as the industry undergoes this period of transformation and captures both the effect and benefits of future technology, the lesson is to understand how these changes will directly impact the consumer. While it’s easy to focus on the latest innovations, it’s also important to build and deliver solutions with the highest efficiency, the lowest latency and the best possible quality of experience for viewers. Software and cloud are helping to enable this change. Throughout the show, there were frequent reminders as to how critical these technologies will be to our industry’s future, and this was perhaps best
demonstrated by SMPTE’s approval of the first standards within SMPTE ST 2210, professional media over managed IP networks. The new standards suite specifies the carriage, synchronisation and description of separate elementary essence steams over IP networks in real-time for live production, playout and other media applications. By bringing together a common set of standards and specifications, the industry can now take another important step towards enabling all-IP infrastructures. However, we also know that through live transmissions, the evolution of UHD and the complexities of the production chain, we need to maintain a purposeful, carefully planned approach, which we term ‘considered innovation’. Where the cloud is unproven, we continue to retain, refine and evolve existing solutions, through research and development. And where cloud is ready, we’re accelerating. The opportunity has arrived for broadcasters, telcos, cable operators and content aggregators to enhance viewing experiences with a wide range of new service capabilities. With the industry changing continuously as new software-enabled services and alternative ways of viewing content emerge, we must ensure we’re prepared. We need to build upon the basic principles of the internet – namely intelligence, openness, and scale – to innovate and continue to engage and drive loyalty with viewers into the future. n
‘While it’s easy to focus on the latest innovations, it’s important to deliver solutions with the highest efficiency, the lowest latency and the best possible quality of experience’
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FEATURE
GOING INSIDE THE STORY By George Wright, head, internet research and future services, BBC R&D
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oice devices and voice assistants, in all their various forms – standalone device or built in to other consumer products – are exciting new ways to interact with the world, to receive factual updates, or enjoy entertaining pieces of content. The BBC’s R&D department has been working on creating and consuming content for devices and we have been developing a series of prototypes to explore what humans want from “Talking with Machines”. Using your voice as a means to explore worlds, or request content, is not a new invention. There have been prototype voice experiments around for many years. The recent low-cost, high-volume releases of devices from consumer manufacturers has sparked the interest of some researchers in BBC R&D. The combination of an always on, internet-connected voice activated device means that we have envisaged a series of scenarios in which the BBC and our audience can converse. One example is our prototype voiceinteractive radio drama The Inspection Chamber produced in conjunction with specialist audio company, Rosina Sound. It’s designed to allow you to play a part in the action with your own voice, to talk directly to the characters in their world while enjoying their story. We took our cues from immersive theatre productions, where the audience are part of a performance, and is – we hope – fun and quirky, and will provoke a range of emotions including frustration and confusion. We built the system behind this in such a way that allows us to release it on a number of different platforms, as well as to create other stories in the future. We’ve seen a lot of examples of interactive audio stories which operate with short chunks followed by a choice: would you like to go down the stairs or through the door? We don’t think this works particularly well – it takes you out of the moment and forces you to step back
“We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible with voice experiences for audiences”
outside of the story and consider your choice. We have done a lot of work around the emotional state of the person talking to the device, and the tone of voice that the device uses when talking back. We experimented with scripts and plans to allow us to map out the options and pathways that the human might take. As we do with any new research prototype, we spent some time working out the capabilities of the devices as supplied to us, and we also tried to work out where they may be soon. We are not yet live on these devices and so we have to be flexible and anticipate usage and patterns of behaviour. We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible with voice experiences for audiences. With The Inspection Chamber, the user is actively making choices and the story changes based on those decisions. But there are other techniques we’re exploring elsewhere in R&D that could also improve certain types of voice content too. For example, Perceptive Media is a more passive way of adapting a story around the user. We’ve produced a few examples to show how this works, including a radio drama that automatically references the city the listener is in, what the weather is like, and other little touches to make it feel more relevant to them. There are a number of opportunities to put content onto voice devices – from factual news to entertainment, to interactive discussions powered by the BBC’s expertise. But alongside the content experiences are equally important strands of our work that explore the more fundamental questions too. Questions like, how do you design an interface for a device with no screen? And what are the UX and interaction design patterns for spoken interfaces? The possibility of delivering knowledge and content to people in simple, human ways without using UIs or menus, is one that excites us in the BBC’s R&D team. n
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FEATURE
YOU’RE THE VOICE Sylvain Thevenot, managing director, operator solutions, Netgem, looks at the rise of the voice activated assistant
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oice is arguably set to become the defacto method for people to interact with their smart devices. Software that enables users to dictate and intelligently transcribe are nothing new. And in 2016 Google announced that 20 per cent of all searches on its mobile app are now done using voice, something not thought possible just a few years ago. Now, with the proliferation of smart home virtual assistants, people are speaking to their devices like never before. However, while it’s certainly helpful to ask Amazon Alexa to order your cab or turn on the lights, there’s so much more that voice control and smart home services can do – specifically from the perspective of the TV. Service providers are having to factor in how best to make voice a viable interaction tool for their customers. Arguably, the most important element of voice control is the user themselves, otherwise where would the command come from?! But, unlike a traditional remote control where anyone can use it, voice is much more nuanced and specific to the user. The BBC for example has recently announced plans to develop an experimental version its iPlayer service that enables the viewer to login using their unique voiceprint. It’s reassuring to see that those operators who are already using voice have taken these variations into account with their services, particularly in countries like Switzerland where they have to factor in different languages as well as accents. For those currently developing services, it’s also important to ensure the final devices can ignore the TV itself, otherwise it could lead to annoying challenges, as Xbox One users found when adverts quoting the command “Xbox On” did just that for their devices. One of the major problems consumers face across their different technologies is the level to which devices can integrate with each
“The ideal voice control situation is for a system like Alexa to be integrated within the entertainment set-up, regardless of the devices it is connecting with”
other, for example Apple’s Siri can’t instruct Amazon Fire TV. This is understandable from the brand’s perspective; it wants to deliver a quality experience that it believes is only possible by staying within its own ecosystem. However, it’s a pain point for the customers – they just want to navigate and watch their favourite programmes seamlessly. The ideal voice control situation is for a voice control system like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Voice assistant, or Microsoft Cortana to be seamlessly integrated within the entertainment set-up to access content, regardless of any specific devices it is connecting with. While voice does have lots of potential in the TV space, particularly in delivering enhanced search options, there’s still work to be done to prove it’s a secure mechanism. Past cases of users having to be careful of what they say in front of their screens have not helped the cause. To counter this, it’s important that operators can demonstrate that they take the user’s voice, and the data that it creates, seriously. It’s certainly promising that vendors, such as Amazon, do take this seriously and are even willing to go to court to manage that privacy. While voice control for the TV has existed for a number of years, we are only now really seeing it come to maturity with the growth of the virtual assistants’ market. The main challenge remains to provide a simple experience with direct access to relevant content. This is a real opportunity for those vanguard operators who are willing to stand out against their competitors. By making interaction with the TV easier and integrated openly with any voice assistant service that already exists in the home, they can create a neutral, yet powerful proposition that will entice the users to remain loyal to the operator’s TV service – as they will easily find the relevant content they like, by using simple voice commands. n
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FEATURE
TV LIVES ON By David Mühle, VP sales and channel, Ooyala
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venings after work spent in front of the TV are becoming a rare occurrence in today’s digital world. We have the internet to thank for this slow and steady decline in television viewing - daytime, primetime and late-night viewing frames become less relevant as sophisticated mobile devices enable users to view their favourite programmes at whatever time they wish. We are already enjoying the benefits of logging into Netflix and the likes to watch programmes on the commute to and from work, and just about anywhere. With a reliable internet connection, users can instantly watch OTT video content on the go, at any time. This is not news to many of us. Where little attention is being paid, live streaming apps are edging their way into mainstream interest. Ever watched the 10pm news live from your phone on a late journey home? Now imagine watching that big Premier League game via live stream on your phone without having to go through the pain of searching for and enduring poor-quality links from the internet. Access to live TV on connected devices is an area of opportunity only few have picked up on. Twitter recently signed deals to live stream Wimbledon and Comic-Con. Twitter has also announced plans to live stream concerts from popular artists through a partnership with Live Nation. In the US, Fox Sports has revealed plans to live stream the upcoming 20172018 UEFA Champions League matches via their Fox Sports’ Facebook page. It seems live streaming apps like Periscope (owned by Twitter) and Facebook Live are the great enablers of live-streamed TV – having TV streamed live in the palm of your hand. Media stalwarts are indeed taking notice of the live
streaming trend. The BBC currently allows viewers to watch live programmes via its OTT service BBC iPlayer in addition to the programmes available on-demand. Channel 4 also offers live viewing via its ‘Watch Live’ service online and in app. One thing to be concerned about is the scale at which today’s OTT video services can deliver live streaming of content, particularly for major events that spike viewership. In addition, much of live production is centred on TV-based broadcasting and leverages equipment designed for this approach rather than IP-based live broadcasting. IP-based delivery allows people to watch live news, sports, and other programming with the same freedom that they watch VoD today. Channel 4 still uses Adobe Flash for its online video player, which is to be phased out by 2020. Broadcasters not only need to prepare for a Flashfree environment but also need to prepare for high volumes of live viewing. Consumption of high-profile live events will reach well beyond the audience sizes that are achieved today. n
“It seems Periscope and Facebook Live are the great enablers of live-streamed TV”
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2018
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FEATURE
PLUGGING THE SKILLS GAP The BBC recently delivered its biggest single investment in Scottish broadcast content in over 20 years. George Jarrett speaks to NTFS director Jon Wardle to find out more
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he biggest ‘skills gap plugging’ story to emerge this year was the announcement by Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of £475,000 worth of funding for new production skills courses, under the management of The National Film and Television School (NFTS). These will run at facility hubs at BBC Scotland’s Glasgow and Dumbarton studios under the banner of NFTS Scotland. And with the BBC investing an extra £40 million per year in Scotland to fund a new channel due next year, plus more network output in the areas of news and drama, students that enroll from next April should find it easier to find work. The new school opens in January with further support from a set of media partners, including Channel 4, STV, and the producers David Brown (Outlander), Iain Smith (Mad Max Fury Road), and Andrew Macdonald (T2 Trainspotting). It will be structured around diversity and inclusion, with many fully funded scholarship places covered by bursary funding. Promising to ‘address gaps in existing provision,’ NFTS Scotland cited the areas of script editing, factual development and production accounting as currently being woefully short of talent. Courses will vary from three-month certificate opportunities, to full year diploma commitments, and short courses to provide
“We absolutely want the hub to work for people with ability, not just the ability to pay” JON WARDLE, NFTS
continuing professional skills development (CPD) in the areas of TV, games and film. Once under way, under the management of NFTS director Jon Wardle, 1,500 students are expected to graduate over five years. Other key names behind this huge project are Donalda MacKinnon, director of BBC Scotland, and BFI CEO Amanda Nevill.
SKILLS SHORTAGES WITH MIGRANT LABOUR In talking about the world’s best film school going north, Wardle first considered the precise spreadable value of that £475,000. “In addition to the funding announced by the Scottish government, the BBC is providing the space to house the new school (in its Scottish HQ at Pacific Quay and at Dumbarton). Both parties are also committed to ensuring that a third of all places in the first two years will be fully funded scholarship places to ensure that students will be drawn from a broad range of backgrounds,” he says. “We absolutely want the hub to work for people with ability, not just the ability to pay, and it is likely that we will receive further industry support to achieve that aim,” he adds. “We won’t start with 450 students, but will build up to that number gradually. On that basis in the first instance we expect to need a small number of full-time staff based at Pacific Quay and a range of visiting tutors to deliver the courses.” The hub will benefit from the back-office functions of registry and accounts being based at NFTS HQ in Beaconsfield. On the issue of inevitable market demand for the replication of the full set of production, technical and craft skill courses run at Beaconsfield, Wardle is clear. He says: “That might be the case, but we won’t be replicating what’s on offer by other further education and higher education providers in Scotland. If we think we can offer something unique and different to what’s
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FEATURE already available then we will take a serious look. “For example, we have been talking to one of the bigger higher education providers in Scotland about collaborating with them on a talent lab for emerging Scottish producers, but that would build on what already exists, it wouldn’t compete with it,” he adds. Looking at the tax provisions (producer incentives) introduced by the UK government, and the value of the pound, it is easy to see a rosy future for production work coming into Scotland, but what impact might a hard Brexit have on the unique economy film and TV drama currently enjoy, and on the number of foreign students who want to come over? “There are clear skills shortages with migrant labour, and that’s before we see the full effect of Brexit, therefore the need for high quality indigenous talent post Brexit will be even more pronounced. So this provides even more fuel to our fire to make an intervention now,” says Wardle. It will be interesting to see how the new Production Technology MA course offered by the NFTS and headed by John Maxwell Hobbs works out, and how that might appeal to NFTS Scotland students.
“We are looking into a wide range of courses and should there be demand for short courses or CPD in this area, it’s certainly something we will look at,” says Wardle. “We aren’t going to build facilities. For the first three years at least we are going to use existing resources at Pacific Quay and Dumbarton. We will, over time, purchase some of our own equipment to support delivery. We will also work with other partners in Edinburgh and Glasgow on delivery and deploy facilities beyond the BBC where it makes sense. “But this project is much more about building activity as opposed to building suites of shiny new facilities. To learn how to be a production accountant you don’t need much kit and the same goes for script supervision, yet these are two of the skills most in need in Scotland right now to support production,” he adds. “That’s not to say that we won’t teach equipment heavy courses, but we are looking at a variety of ways of resourcing these.” Looking forward five years, will NFTS Scotland be a mirror image of the Beaconsfield operation as Wardle plans to evolve that? And where might VR sit by then in terms of structured learning?
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“No, the Scotland base won’t be a mirror image of Beaconsfield. Some of the courses it offers will be the same and some distinctly different. The offer will take time to grow and in the first instance much of that offer won’t be full-time,” he says. “We teach VR at the NFTS as a part of a variety of courses as opposed to seeing it as an isolated discipline, and we will almost certainly adopt this approach in Scotland. In terms of games we do have plans to launch some short courses in this area,” he adds.
A lot of industry sectors are heavily reliant on freelancers. This points at the need for re-training in some areas, and lump numbers of replacement people in other areas who will need specialist training. What can NFTS Scotland do for the freelance community? “At the NFTS in Beaconsfield we run 45 short CPD courses a year working with approximately 500 people annually. We will develop a similar scale of offer in Scotland to support freelancers,” says Wardle.
10,000 IS A CONSERVATIVE FIGURE
“We will be looking to build a similar offer in Scotland, working with people making their living locally” JON WARDLE, NFTS
To get things kicked off, will Wardle use top skill set visitors for master classes and workshops as an adjunct to staff efforts? He says: “This is in the main how the school operates. We have very few full-time staff and many freelance tutors who come in and teach their particular specialism. For example, one of our graduates, Lewis Arnold came and fronted a directing course over a fortnight for us after he finished directing Broadchurch.
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“We will be looking to build a similar offer in Scotland, working with people making their living locally. We have a good head start on this as lots of our most successful graduates are Scottish, and live and work in Scotland,” he adds. Amanda Nevill nominates 10,000 as the haunting number of skilled people we have as an industry short fall. Given that other forms of digital imaging (beyond film and TV) are now much bigger in volume terms, perhaps the required intake for professional media production is in the multiple thousands? How does Wardle see the relationship with corporate, religious, and government communications in terms of them being production areas? “It’s not Amanda’s number, it comes from research the Work Foundation completed: 10,000 is probably a conservative figure if you factor in all the related areas of audio-visual communication across many sectors. We expect to see people from those areas coming on our courses in both Scotland and Beaconsfield,” he says.
Many vendors build strong ties with particular university courses to source their talent, usually for software development. Are they becoming dominant at sucking out the talent the film industry might need? “I’m not sure I’ve seen companies ‘sucking out talent in their thousands’. Our experience is that companies respond really well to what we do because we keep it small and we put lots of resource into making sure every learning experience - whether it’s a two-day or a three-month course – intensively develops students’ skills in practical ways,” says Wardle. “For example, we run a character animation course with Aardman in Bristol, which attracts 100+ applications, and we take a dozen people with whom we work intensively over three months to hone their practical high-end animation skills,” he adds. “When they join us they usually have animation degrees already, but they haven’t had the focused, individual support and training to become excellent at what they do. That’s what we can do really well.” n
PICTURED ABOVE: Nicola Sturgeon (centre) with BBC Scotland director Donalda Mackinnon (left) and NTFS director Jon Wardle (right) at the NFTS Scotland announcement
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FEATURE
DRIVING DIVERSITY FROM THE TOP In part of two of our Women in Broadcast feature, James Groves hears from four more respected names. This month, we start with Anna Lockwood, head of market development, Telstra
I
’ve been in the media technology industry for over 20 years now, and it’s been a wonderful and deeply engaging and satisfying career choice. As a woman working in technology, we are better represented than ever before. But there is still much to do! At all roles and at all levels, women are still underrepresented in the broadcast business, and as an industry we need to address this imbalance – urgently! Companies around the world are more committed to gender diversity than ever, but the results aren’t yet being fully realised. Research and statistics show that women are often underrepresented at most corporate levels and very few make it far enough to be considered for the highest roles. For me personally, I’m proud to work for an organisation that is driving change for better representation in the workforce. At Telstra, we are committed to increasing the numbers of women in tech – at our company and in our industry. To accelerate the rate of change, we are focusing on three areas of activity – representation, learning and development and flexible work. Representation includes tracking diversity data, promoting gender equality, and ensuring gender pay equity. In our last report, female representation in the Telstra CEO leadership team stood at 45 per cent, with 41 per cent of all new hires, and 31 per cent of our entire workforce. Our target is 50 per cent female representation across the company at all levels. Diversity and inclusion has to be driven from the top. It’s wonderful to see women being appointed to executive positions in media and broadcast companies. Women leaders in both business and technical roles are great role models and contribute to creating diverse and high performing teams and companies. Equality through diversity and inclusion has upsides beyond the benefits it’s often aligned with. It helps improve our business
results, enhance our reputation, and attract, engage and retain talented people. Even better it enables us to understand the diverse needs of our customers. It’s not only the right thing to do; it’s also good business sense. As a member of RISE, I’m proud to be part of a community that brings together and empowers women in what is a traditionally male environment. As a mentor for students and young professionals, I am inspired by the next generation of media professionals, and hope to serve as a role model, coach and sponsor for young women rising in our industry. And in my board director roles at SMPTE and IABM and in my contributing member roles at SVG and CASBAA, I am deeply committed to creating an industry that is welcoming to women, and provides real opportunity for women to develop and thrive in their careers and lives. n
‘As a member of RISE, I’m proud to be part of a community that brings together and empowers women in what is a traditionally male environment’
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FEATURE
A SIGNIFICANT PACE OF CHANGE Nicki Fisher, sales director, EMEA, Clear-Com
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he industry is definitely changing to include more women in senior positions. I was recently delighted to see the appointment of the new IABM board members where, for the first time, half of the positions are held by women. Joining me on the board this year are; Muriel De Lathouwer, EVS Broadcast Equipment; Alison Pavitt, Pebble Beach; Esther Mesas, Tedial; and Anna Lockwood, Telstra I believe that this rate of change is accelerating at a significant pace already. There will always be companies that have a different view on what diversity in the workplace means. Clear-Com have a strong, balanced management team with the CEO, marketing director and two sales director roles being fulfilled by women. In my opinion, it’s all about inclusion and helping to support others to achieve their goals. This issue must be addressed at ‘grassroots’ level working with young people to encourage them to study science and engineering based subjects as well as providing opportunities that are both rewarding and fun to take part in. STEM is a good ambassador for this, working to achieve a world-leading education for all young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Appointments such as Carolyn McCall and Alex Mahon are a welcome change, but the most important thing is that the right person is selected for the job, regardless of their gender. People should enjoy their role and the contributions that they bring to that role, whether that relates to business or engineering. If we encourage young women to study science and engineering related courses, we will see a rise in the number of women applying for senior engineering positions. n
‘The most important thing is that the right person is selected for the job, regardless of their gender’
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E V E SA H E! T T DA 8th November 2017, Sway Bar, Holborn, London Join us in November for another fascinating evening of lively discourse and discussion with leading lights from the pro-audio spectrum.
Register for your free tickets at www.psnpresents.com Following our hugely successful evening of fat-chewing and beer-drinking in June, PSNEurope announces the sixth PSNPresents in November 2017.
If you have any questions regarding PSNPresents then please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team below Event enquiries Emine Partalci epartalci@nbmedia.com +44(0)203 829 2614
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FEATURE
AN UNINTENTIONAL EXCLUSION
T
he industry has definitely changed with the times, and every year we see a bit more diversity amongst the exhibitors and attendees at IBC. My sense is that it’s mostly an organic change aligned with changes in society at large, rather than a shift that is attributable to specific industry initiatives. While women are quite clearly underrepresented in the industry, I don’t feel that we have a problem of systemic or intentional exclusion. In my own long experience, the industry has always been welcoming and collegial with respect to all kinds of people – it’s just that not many women were coming through the door. I think it’s important for the industry to recognise and celebrate appointments like Carolyn McCall and Alex Mahon. I was delighted to hear them. One of the great things about the media business is the diversity of roles – ranging from executive to creative to technical. If women see that there are many paths to success in this industry and many opportunities to pursue their interests, they will be more inclined to see it as an appealing career choice. I hope Carolyn and Alex’s successes will be highly visible and they will be broadly recognised as competent executives, and I hope it won’t be necessary to continuously call attention to the fact that they are women. When accomplished people are successful in important roles and enjoy the full support of their industry colleagues – and they just happen to be women – that’s when we will be in a good place. Direct outreach to young people starting their work lives is really important, and I’m always happy to see organisations like the IABM and SMPTE develop initiatives that focus on early-career people. When those programmes are highly inclusive and designed to appeal to a broad range
Margaret Craig, CEO, Signiant
of pursuits, women will get the right message about our industry. And of course, those of us in leadership positions in individual companies need to be vigilant about ensuring that our organisations are welcoming to women. n
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FEATURE
LEAVING A LEGACY Lise Cosmi, chief external relations, HBS
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f I consider what I experience on a daily basis, I have not seen any change in this industry in 2017. We hear a lot more about women and gender equality in all industries, but ours has not taken any concrete step to help women step up the ladder or attract more women in the industry. Nothing happens overnight, but we could definitely do much more. If we do not accelerate now, the new generation will still be in the same situation in the future. The broadcast industry is complaining about the ageing of its talents and about the digital trend “swallowing” the millennials on the work market. But what do we do to attract the young ones – especially the girls? Nothing! All has to happen now to be ready tomorrow! Let’s leave a legacy to our daughters. Nowadays, the industry is changing rapidly, with broadcasters hiring more and more freelancers instead of core team staff. That’s having a double effect: the industry becomes less attractive to the young generation in general, since they cannot expect a proper career, and that applies even moreso for women, who are already more “fragile” on the working market, as a freelance position is far less protective for a potential mother. To be able to involve more women in our industry, you need three steps: One is to attract them, second is to train them, and third is to help them reach the top jobs. If you only deliver steps one and two, you’re still ultimately preventing them from having a fully-fledged career in the end. It does
not lead anywhere, or it will have the same effect as what happens in other industries, where women will think they are not “welcome” and abandon ship. To me, the appointment of ladies in the C-level positions is clearly a good sign. It means they can act as role models and encourage the younger generation of girls to join the market and push them along a similar career path. However, the most important part is not to become a “chief” but to follow your dreams whatever the position is. Whether technical or executive, we should be encouraging women to become who they want to become. We need role models in every position to encourage ladies, both young and mature, to become the person they always dreamt
‘We need role models in every position to encourage ladies, both young and mature, to become the person they always dreamt of becoming’
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FEATURE
THE VERY BEST OF IBC2017 NewBay was delighted to receive a record number of entries for its Best of Show Awards at IBC this year. We had the pleasure of handing out over 50 awards throughout the show floor across TVBEurope and sister brands TV Tech Global, Installation, Audio Media International, PSNEurope and Radio World International, showcasing the breadth of innovation at the show and in the broadcast market. Here are the 22 winners in the TVBEurope category, with judge’s comments
Company: Amino Communications Product: Amino Enable
Company: Aviwest Product: Air320
Judge’s comments: This virtual set-top box (STB) software is a great way for cable companies to continue using existing STB hardware. Also contributes substantially to industry sustainability, relieving service providers from having to immediately throw away and replace existing STBs.
Judge’s comments: Incredibly compact cellular transmitter. IP-capable functionality in a lunch box. Great for remote field based contribution.
Company: Aspera Product: FASPStream in conjunction with Telestream Vantage and Lightspeed Live Capture Judge’s comments: This may be the only such product that makes video file transfers available to be used as soon as enough is received to form some complete frames. This could play a big factor in getting an excerpt from a breaking news story on the air in a timely manner. Company: Avid Product: Avid Media Composer | First Judge’s comments: I really liked the concept of making this product available as a free download. This is a really great marketing idea and it also allows beginner editors to turn out quality work without having to take out a mortgage for the editing package.
‘NewBay’s Best Of Show awards honour the best new products on display at the IBC trade show in Amsterdam’
Company: Snapbox Product: DoPChoice Judge’s comments: As always, DoPChoice is a really great, very well thought-out kit for DP’s. Fantastic. Company: Easel TV Product: Suggested TV Judge’s comments: A truly great solution for content owners to create their own OTT platform out of the box. Company: Ericsson Media Solutions Product: MediaFirst Video Processing Encoding Live for mixing SDR content with HDR content in live broadcasting Judge’s comments: Excellent. Allows linear broadcasters to keep up with Netflix et al. Mixes SDR and HDR content and broadcasts in a way that works without creating many of the glitches you see when watching /SDR/ HDR mixed broadcasts.
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FEATURE Company: EVS Product: X-ONE
Company: NexGuard Product: Network ID
Company: TVU Networks Product: TVU Router
Judge’s comments: An ultra-simplified unified live production system that offers smaller and mid-sized productions the ability to ingest six camera feeds and import any other files. The system is easy to use, pleasing to the eyes and is a great extension of its Divys IP-based production switcher.
Judge’s comments: Effective watermarking of BC signal without impacting picture quality. Can trace pirate activity very well.
Judge’s comments: Simple idea but often, simple is best. Incredible functionality in a very compact, portable form factor.
Company: Paywizard Product: Paywizard Agile and Massive AXIS
Company: Verimatrix Product: Verspective RT
Company: Imagine Communications Product: Selenio Network Processor
Judge’s comments: This product really puts the customer first. A complex system that’s simplified to ensure longer-term customers.
Judge’s comments: Incredibly powerful IP band processor in a very compact form factor. Company: LiveU Product: LU600 with 4K HEVC Pro Card Judge’s comments: Quite stunning HEVC image quality! No compromise in picture quality versus form factor. Incredible. Must see.
Company: Sachtler and Vinten Product: flowtech tripod technology
Judge’s comments: Very well thought out and executed, and should have a ready market. The data harvested will certainly be much more comprehensive and include a larger (every customer on the CDN) database than is available with contemporary sampling methodology.
Judge’s comments: Nine great legs, really easy to adjust and lock, looking forward to 100mm version next year. Company: Telestream Product: Timed Text Speech Judge’s comments: Very impressive product. It’s a professional subtitling solution for auto-generating a transcript using speech-to-text technology. Cloudbased closed captioning is the next generation, and this product saves time and money, so that’s a pretty good start! Company: The Telos Alliance Product: Telos Infinity IP Intercom Judge’s comments: A great leap forward in IP intercom systems. It uses IP technology to change the way comms systems operate.
Company: SGO Product: Mistika VR Judge’s comments: This product is brilliant. It enables users working with multiple camera (360-degree capture) to produce high quality VR content with stitching, colour correction, correcting geometric distortions, removing interfering objects, and more. Once the operator is satisfied with the frame they are working on, the software automatically tracks and applies corrections to the entire sequence. Pretty remarkable!
Company: Timeline Television Product: Triple-expanding IP 4K HDR OB truck, UHD2 Judge’s comments: Everything about this truck is ordinary - if you live in 2020.
Company: V-Nova and THEO Technologies Product: Perseus-powered Universal Media Player Judge’s comments: This is a really important product. It’s a reliable, robust HD platform. There’s no pre-processing, so you can show live content. AND the QOE is solid and dependable. Brilliant! Company: x.news information technology Product: x.news Judge’s comments: Fantastic journalist research tool. Enables users to avoid fake news sources with verification functionality. All the sources without the clutter.
Company: NewTek Product: NDI PTZ Camera Judge’s comments: It may be the only such fully IP-connectivity PTZ camera out there, and as we all know, IP is where the video production world is headed. Great product.
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY: Sander Ruijg
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IBC2017:
‘HFR IS SO LAST YEAR’ Chris Forrester reports on another trip to the Amsterdam RAI as 8K, IP, VR-AR-MR, and ‘FANG’ all hit the headlines
PICTURED ABOVE: A record number of delegates attended IBC this year, with over 57,000 appearing at the Amsterdam RAI
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t wasn’t easy picking a dominant theme at IBC2017. Past years have seen 4K/UHD emerge as one of the show’s strongest topics, but this year, there was more talk about 8K, from the likes of Sotiris Salamouris (CTO, Olympic Broadcast Services) reminding delegates that the upcoming Winter Games from South Korea will be the fourth Olympics to be captured in 8K. Sony was also busy, debuting its impressive 8K camera. As ever, NHK was showcasing impressive 8K in the Future Zone, and there were plenty of other exhibitors showing wonderful 8K footage and workflow solutions. IBC’s dedicated UHD panel agreed that the rollout of 4K had been slower than expected. Chris Johns,
Sky’s chief engineer of broadcast strategy, said that one of the key problems was that broadcasters have been pushed towards UHD by the manufacturers. “The screens came onto the marketplace, but there wasn’t the content,” he said. Bill Baggelaar, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s SVP, technology, said that position was changing, and 90-95 per cent of the company’s output was now acquired in UHD. And while HDR was frequently discussed, it was in the context that it was ‘done and dusted’ and the technology debate had moved onto other topics. Without doubt, those topics definitely included AR/ VR and MR. The Future Zone was full of products and demonstrations. The conference sessions also heard
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FEATURE plenty on the subjects. But panellists at IBC’s ‘Leaving the Hype behind’ session agreed that there was still some way to go. Ed Tang, founder/CTO at Avegant, the business behind the Glyph headset and technology, said that exciting as the industry is today, in reality it is at the same stage of development as the very early Motorola ‘brick’ mobile phones. “But we are moving very rapidly forward.” That progress was demonstrated in a powerful presentation by Leen Segers, who told delegates that some €490 million of investment cash had been raised in the past year, and that there were 487 companies in Europe working in the VR/AR/MR space. He said: “And it isn’t just start-ups. Players such as Barco and Zeiss are extremely active, as are studios, media, education, distribution, gaming, social media, sport and healthcare as well as the high-profile hardware producers. Things are getting better, and 360 is totally underestimated.” The content Keynote from Fox Networks Digital Consumer Group’s Brian Sullivan, while giving a reality check on the changes taking place in US broadcasting, also explained that 21st Century Fox was looking at these new technologies. “But, like everyone, we are
learning and we are investors in the concept,” he said. Another acronym, that of ‘AI’, was also much in discussion with strong expectations that major sports producers are looking hard at introducing AI into sports production. Dan Miodownik, chief content officer at Host Broadcast Services (and looking after the 2018 FIFA World Cup) said AI is certainly coming, “and quicker than we think. In automated production and where speed-to-air is more important than the finesse of the edit, it certainly speeds up production.” He also said viewers and users would see considerably more live streaming, as distinct from post produced sport. eSports was also on IBC’s agenda. Michiel Bakker, CEO of Ginx TV, who, in a Platform Futures conference session (eSports: the new broadcast game?), pointed out that eSports is beginning to overtake traditional sports, both in terms of audiences and prize money. The global eSports market is forecast to reach nearly $700 million this year, with prize money rising to $100 million a year. “Prize pools are on the increase - $24 million was the prize offered at a recent event. Prize pools for some tournaments are now on a par with some of the biggest sports, such as golf,” said Bakker. Last year, IBC delegates heard Sir Martin Sorrell
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FEATURE warn that the ‘new media’ players were out to eat broadcasters’ lunch. This year the theme was echoed in a half-dozen topical panels where Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google (FANG) were very much ‘hot topics’. By and large the speakers’ comments were not favourable, especially from news broadcasters who complained that sites such as Facebook are already suffering criticism for the amount of ‘fake news’ being carried, it was also alleged that they were not playing fair by paying for the news they were taking. For example, Nabil Wakim, head of editorial innovation at Parisian daily Le Monde, told delegates that Facebook’s fact checking simply does not work.
“Whatever we do, we must put the viewer first, and transmissions must be scalable” RICHARD LINDSAY-DAVIES, DTG
“We are part of the ‘Hoax Busters’ initiative, and try and debunk these stupid stories. But it is depressing how well Facebook works. One hundred false stories reached more than four million readers, and while most were on politics, there were stories on health, about dangerous cancer cures that simply do not work.” Facebook itself was present on a couple of panels. Product director Daniel Danker delivered an opening Keynote address, saying that video was “exploding” on Facebook, with video content making up 50 per cent of all the company’s mobile data traffic. “We expect it to grow to 75 per cent in the next five years,” said Danker. Facebook had launched video platform ‘Watch’ in August, with Danker describing how the social network has been working with publishers to produce content for the platform. “Watch also allows publishers to create groups that connect them with their audience – enabling them to engage with their community between episodes – particularly through the comments section.” The Advertising sector (‘Mad Men’) also featured at IBC, and again comments were targeted at the FANG quartet, with panellists saying that addressable TV advertising was the new mantra. “The world has moved on from the ‘spray and pay’ advertising methods,” said Les Carter (VP, chief architect, Cadent Technology)
“and shifting into data-driven TV.” Jon Block (VP/EMEA, product and placement at Videology) welcomed the prospects of dynamic adinsertion although cautioned that regulation and legal requirements could make life more difficult. “There’s no better way of reaching a large market than a wellcrafted 30-second ad in the middle of a peak-time show,” said Block. “Generally, broadcasters are only just becoming aware of the changes. ‘Talk to me in five years’ one player said to me recently, but we can do this stuff today.” The general consensus from a number of IBC panels was that the future for TV is in IP, but there were also strong warnings not to forget the viewer. Justin Gupta, ex-BBC and now Google’s head of broadcast and entertainment, said IP is changing everything and the viewer benefits. He said that some former very niche topics, such as eSports, had been brought to life by YouTube and were now mainstream, thanks to IP. Liz Ross, CEO at Freeview in Australia, warned that their own research showed that viewers don’t like multiple “coloured buttons” and she was anxious about menu-driven options. “Don’t design a system for youngsters. They’ll get it anyway. Design for older viewers, in the mass-market and elderly.” She was also concerned about any ‘IP-based broadcast’ system that went to rural and countryside locations where fibre would never be available. Richard Lindsay-Davies (CEO, DTG) warned: “Whatever we do, we must put the viewer first, and transmissions must be scalable. I fear that we may not be on a gentle flight-path [to an all-IP world], but fastapproaching a cliff-edge. And where’s the bandwidth? How do we overcome capped data-rates? I don’t think we have all the answers.” Bill Scott, CCO at Easel TV, was blunt, and said the future for TV was in platforms. “They are easier to launch, the technology is affordable and they understand their audience because of increasingly sophisticated data,” he said. Backing up his argument was Richard Broughton, research director at Ampere Analysis. He explained that SVoD/OTT revenues have grown extremely rapidly for the likes of Netflix, Amazon Video, Now TV and their local rivals, and are accelerating. Last year global revenues were worth $16 billion. By 2021 they will be about $44-$50 billion. “These revenues are not always cannibalistic,” Broughton said. “Frequently, consumers add services to their existing pay-TV packages. In 2015, it was around 24 per cent who had added an SVoD service. By Q3 this year that proportion had grown to 40 per cent. But it isn’t all happiness for the established, and traditional, pay-TV operators.” n
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YOUR ROADMAP FOR THE GLOBAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEM Africa ■ Asia-Pacific ■ Europe ■ Middle East ■ The Americas ■
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THE FUTURE OF WORK
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ROCKETING INTO NEW DIMENSIONS NUGEN Audio develops software that helps accelerate essential components of audio post production. Now the company is looking forward to supporting new types of content that are still in development. Neal Romanek reports
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TECHNOLOGY
D
evelopments in audio technology always precede developments in video. There’s no mystery around this. Audio takes up less data and is easier to move around, manipulate, store and transmit than video. But I think another reason is that we are often quite forgiving of sub-par video. We’ll all watch a pixelated, badly shot YouTube video, but when the sound is inaudible, or too loud, if the music overwhelms the dialogue, or if there’s wind noise or…you name it, the entire experience can be ruined. That means, you’ve got to get audio right. Half measures won’t cut it. UK-based manufacturer NUGEN Audio has been at the forefront of audio software tools. Serving primarily the film and TV post production, and to a lesser extent music, sectors, NUGEN has become a specialist in audio metering, particularly around loudness measurement, broadcast loudness compliance and Leg (m) for cinema trailer loudness measurements. NUGEN also specialises in upmix software, automating the creation of
surround audio or immersive audio formats, like Dolby Atmos. The company’s AMB Audio Management Batch Processor software automates a range of audio tasks, for loudness processing or upmixing for example. The AMB processor runs a lot of the same audio processors that the company offers as plug-ins, but also in a standalone, file-based environment. AMB supports multiple audio formats and working with the audio in various video formats, including MXF, ProRes and AVI. At last month’s IBC show in Amsterdam, the company added a Dolby Module to the AMB, which will allow easy integration with and output to multiple Dolby audio formats. “Loudness compliance is a very mature market now,” says NUGEN Audio technical director Dr Paul Tapper. “A loudness meter or loudness correction tool is something every audio post production guy knows he’s going to need. And because loudness can be a fiddly thing, it’s worth having a specialist tool for it. Sometimes the standards get updated and people want to know their tool is going to be up to date.”
“There is the sense in broadcast that object-oriented is where the industry is going to go” Dr Paul Tapper, NUGEN Audio
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TECHNOLOGY OBJECT IS THE SUBJECT But Tapper’s – and NUGEN’s – focus is on the future and the wealth of possibilities in IP-based production, and object-oriented audio. Dolby Atmos takes full advantage of the object-based world, in which audio objects are mixed or remixed according to metadata and no specific mix is fully “baked in”. “Immersive audio is something that a lot of customers are very interested in,” says Tapper. “One of the great things about the Dolby Atmos format is you make one master mix and you can deliver lots of other different formats from there. If someone needs a surround or a stereo deliverable, you can deliver those from the Dolby Atmos mix very easily.” Even in broadcast, Tapper is finding interest in Dolby Atmos and object-oriented audio formats. “There is the sense in broadcast that object-oriented is where the industry is going to go. To be able to instantly switch a game commentary from the home team to the away team is just one example of how the reduced cost of bandwidth is going to enable richer content. It’s going to be a more competitive space and engineers are going to have to be able to deliver content that lives up to that.” THE WORLD OF AMBISONIC 3D audio is a space of great interest to Tapper – and to NUGEN, particularly the possibilities of ambisonic audio. Ambisonic is a fully spherical sound space which encapsulates sound in the vertical plane as well as the horizontal. “Ambisonic is a mathematical decomposition of the audio space,” Tapper succinctly explains. “There are different orders of ambisonic. First order has four channels, second has nine channels, and third has 16 channels. So you get different levels of complexity but they don’t relate to specific speakers, like they would in a traditional channel audio mix.”
“In the 3D audio space, you have the immersive audio of Dolby Atmos and object tracks, but on the other side you have ambisonic audio which works for virtual reality content. Ambisonic is orientation agnostic and can cope with the orientation of the VR headset, no matter what it is. “The whole world of creating audio for VR seems more unclear than for Dolby Atmos. Atmos will certainly be where at least cinema audio will go. But for ambisonic audio, which will be the format for VR, it’s less clear what the consumer formats will likely be. But because it’s something that so many people are interested in, we want to provide tools for people to explore that space.” FORMAT WARS IN ANOTHER DIMENSION It’s still a bit Wild West with immersive audio formats. When it comes to ambisonic sound, it’s too early for any universal format to have been established. As VR heats up, so will the push to develop more standardised audio formats. “Unlike with Dolby Atmos, there’s not really a major force pushing forward a standard with ambisonic audio,” says Tapper. “The closest would be Facebook with Oculus Rift. But their format is a bit custom and it feels like a stepping stone toward what will become the standard in the long run.” Figuring out exactly what VR is for will go a long way toward determining how the technologies around it develop. “While there’s still a big question mark about exactly what kind of VR content people are going to want to pay for, it’s hard to decide exactly what the most appropriate formats for that content will be. “It’s almost a technology waiting for an audience. The hardware component has grown so rapidly in the past couple years, and it feels like it’s a technologically viable platform, and we’re now trying to figure out what the content for that platform should be. It may be content that we haven’t even thought of yet.” n
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DATA CENTRE
Innovation in pay-TV NAGRA, in partnership with MTM, recently published a report from its 2017 Pay-TV Innovation Forum. The global research programme examines the state of innovation in the pay-TV market
82
per cent of executives agree that competition in the pay-TV industry is set to increase over the next five years
71
per cent believe that service providers will struggle to grow their businesses during the same period
67
per cent of executives agree that competition from SVoD services will have a negative impact on pay-TV, pushing down prices and increasing churn
66
per cent agree that we will see a new wave of mobile-first services to cater to evolving consumer viewing habits
50
per cent of executives believe content piracy will lead to greater pressures on the industry over the next five years (up from 41 per cent in 2016) Service providers could stand to gain $7 billion in unrealised pay-TV revenue annually, if at least one in four consumers of pirated pay-TV services would switch to a legitimate option.
72
per cent of pay-TV providers see the benefits of engaging in anti-piracy activities
“It is clear that the industry recognises the changing nature of TV and the need to adapt quickly in this fastchanging environment� SIMON TRUDELLE, NAGRA
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