TVTechnology September 2015

September 2015 I Issue 4 I Volume 33

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1 Color - 0 Cyan / 100 Magenta / 99 Yellow / 4 Black

Focus

Inside BT Sport’s 4K OB truck

01 TVTE Sep15 Cover_final2.indd 1

Buyers Guide

Broadcast audio consoles

Product Review Canon C100 Mk II

28/08/2015 15:38

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CONTENTS THEY SEEK IP HERE. THEY SEEK IP THERE THERE is every chance that you won’t be able to visit a stand, complete a conversation, or eat a stroopwafel at IBC this year without someone mentioning IP. From remote production to content delivery it will permeate pretty much every corner of the RAI. The only surprise will be if the barman in the IBC Pub doesn’t offer you a large pint of it.

And this issue of TVTE is no different.

Much of it is dedicated to exploring where we are with IP, asking questions such as: is SDI baseband video dead? Are remote productions now feasible? And what new viewer experiences could IP allow?

And why? Because the broadcasters are keen to get rid of all their ‘flashing lights’ and adopt new and more efficient ways of working.

As Discovery Communications CTO John Honeycutt told me in the lead up the show: “We currently have too much specialised kit and too much nuance in workflows to suit certain needs and wants. We have to move on and we are not going to sit and wait for people. If vendors cannot move forward we are going to find another way to do it. That is the beauty of software. You can get there in more ways than one.”

The broadcast future will almost certainly be software-defined where everything happens over IP. Vendors beware.

Will Strauss, Editor

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CANON REVIEW The images are good, as is the ease of use but is the lack of 4K option on the Canon C100 Mark II a deal breaker?

Christina Fox finds out

SHARPSHOOTER Barrie Smith talks to Swedish cinematographer Nicklas Karpaty about filming ghosts and IKEA spots

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4K TRUCK

BROADCAST OVER IP We take a detailed look at the world of broadcast over IP by leaning on the insight of industry experts

We go inside UHD-1, Timeline Television’s all singing, all dancing outside broadcast unit built for BT Sport’s Ultra UD channel

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When it comes to buying a new audio console, there are a number of factors to consider, as our man David Davies finds out

IBC is here again, and to guide you around the vast halls of Amsterdam’s RAI complex, we’ve assembled a selection of key products and releases

BUYERS GUIDE: AUDIO

MARKETPLACE

True Cloud Playout IBC 2015 Stand 8.A21 11-15 September 2015 RAI Amsterdam

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info@veset.tv +44 208 123 4916 www.veset.tv

September 2015 TVTechnology

COMMENTARY

Dispelling the myth of cloud chaos Can broadcasters harness the power of cloud video without compromising IT control? Yes, argues Aframe CEO David Peto, but, to do so, they do need to be more proactive

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ithin the broadcast sector, people are busily improving collaboration and reducing production time by exploiting a range of cloud-based applications from Dropbox to highly sophisticated video production systems.

However, the ease with which these subscription-based apps can be purchased and deployed has resulted in some within IT raising concerns about a lack of central control and technology fragmentation. But is this concern really warranted? I believe not.

SEEK THE SOLUTION THAT IS RIGHT FOR THE BUSINESS The speed with which cloud-based applications are beginning to pervade businesses of every size has taken some organisations by surprise – not least in IT where the ease of deployment and the ability to rapidly exploit innovative applications to meet specific business requirements is a world away from the traditional, extended, on-premise deployment model.

It is important to recognise that some forwardthinking individuals across the business are now actively seeking ways to solve their specific problems. Moreover, they are exploiting free trials to assess the features and functionality; and using the SaaS subscription-based model to negotiate directly with vendors.

Cloud-based applications are hugely compelling in ensuring organisations are using technology that truly meets business needs.

The user-led approach does, however, potentially raise concerns for an IT team that has no knowledge of the different systems that have been adopted or the value of the contracts agreed. So, how should businesses approach the adoption of cloud?

KEEP THE IT DEPARTMENT IN THE LOOP Ensuring the IT department has oversight of the technology adoption across the organisation is essential. If it also has an understanding of the benefits being attained by each department, it becomes far easier to identify other business

TVTechnology September 2015

been imposed, while IT has the benefit of central control and visibility, as well as the financial value of a single contract negotiation and a structured agreement.

areas that may benefit: such as the development of a global news portal for newsgathering.

It is also a model far preferred by the technology vendors because it provides a single point of contact and discussion for on-going product development and enhancement that can be extremely valuable to both parties. An IT department that has access to all user and departmental feedback about ROI can give a vendor far better insight into on-going product developments that reflect broad, rather than department or genre specific, requirements.

TAKE A PROACTIVE APPROACH Given that most broadcasters will already have pockets of cloud deployment across the organisation, what is the best way forward for the CTO? Users have actively sought out and embraced these apps for a reason; and are gaining quantifiable value from the technology.

Taking a proactive approach is key. Sanctioning one cloud-based video production solution, and offering it to the organisation with no particular recommendation or forced adoption, and asking for feedback, transforms the entire model. Users perceive it to be self-selected because it has not

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PROVIDE A SINGLE LOCATION FOR ALL FOOTAGE In addition to achieving financial and corporate control, by avoiding the adoption of multiple cloud services the business minimises the risk of data fragmentation.

One of the fundamental requirements for any broadcaster is to enable effective, secure sharing of data. From sports and news departments sharing footage to the multiple groups that need access to drama content and related information, providing a single location for all production footage is an essential component of effective cloud utilisation. A fragmented adoption of cloud technologies fundamentally undermines that model and reduces ROI. UNDERSTAND THAT CLOUD CHAOS IS A MYTH Although cloud chaos may sound threatening, with the right attitude, it is also a myth. Despite the hype about cloud technologies and the proliferation of true cloud-based ways, broadcaster adoption is still in its infancy. But timing is key: staff are actively seeking out technologies in the cloud that are delivering value and improving day-to-day operations. And with the speed of deployment that underpins the cloud model, it is essential to take control today and exploit unprecedented user commitment to innovation and technology change.

There is no need to throw out every instance of ‘unauthorised’ cloud deployment: that misses the point and undermines user confidence in IT. Nor is this a model where forced adoption will work.

Instead, encouraging users to test out and play with specific cloud technologies and, critically, provide feedback on their viability and value, will enable businesses to truly harness the power of cloud video without compromising IT control.

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COMMENTARY

Time to elevate multiscreen expectations When it comes to multiscreen, smarter use of software and integration can deliver more, both for content owners and viewers, argues Kai-Christian Borchers, MD of 3 Screen Solutions

I

It is all too easy to say that multiscreen is about viewing content in any place on any device.

It is really about different navigation paradigms on multiple consumer devices and real-world ergonomics, different motivations, and matching content with different features; all of which have the shared goal of mutually enhancing each other.

But ensuring that the right kind of content reaches the right screens, reliably and in the correct format, is no easy task. While the goal is for the user experience to be smooth and seamless, achieving this is all underpinned by much technical complexity, including multiple layers of software.

Additionally, numerous back-end systems provided by multiple vendors need to be integrated and operate in harmony for a multiscreen TV business to attract viewers and grow. A truly joined-up cross-device and cross-content strategy is needed.

Importantly, there needs to be a solid understanding of how to deliver it.

TV delivered by satellite or cable; library and OTT content; as well as the vast, poorly catalogued expanse of the internet. Consumers expect to be able to access content from all of these sources intuitively and seamlessly.

Furthermore, pay-TV operators are striving to maximise the commercial value of the content they have invested in and make available to their subscribers.

Substandard analytics results in an inability to determine what device content is being consumed on. It also means urealised revenue opportunities. Without reliable data on the content available on multiple screens and silos, how and when

STANDARD SOFTWARE VS INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT Individual software is often perceived by service providers as the ‘diamond encrusted’ solution, requiring vast teams and big budgets. But in fact customer software is not scary or onerous if the development is done with the right partner who understands the needs of multiscreen service providers.

It’s all about bringing the benefit to the client. How many pay-TV providers have had to invest vast sums into fixing/altering productised platforms and services, originally bought off the shelf, just to try to make them work? Usability over the long term is worth aiming for.

With all this content available from the many different, sometimes incompatible, silos, I believe that there is need for a shop window for the viewer: a tailored, assembled channel that satisfies the varied taste of any consumer needs to be made available: like an all-youcan-eat buffet.

The appearance is a linear channel, which can be marketed: we call this paradigm ‘Lean Back 2.0’.

FALLING BETWEEN THE CRACKS In most of today’s multiscreen scenarios, the user has to actively, systematically rummage around in his or her silos for something to watch. Google TV is trying to overcome this, but no one has really cracked the challenge of making all silos equally searchable, in a smooth and seamless way.

But there is technology available that allows the viewer to browse in all these silos, seamlessly, so that when they search, they are accessing all silos in one manoeuvre.

Discovering content can be made possible on tablet or TV, and intuitively on both, in an all-included menu, with no typing or logging in and out.

With ‘cross-silo’ search capability, content owners can harness the full value of their offerings. Moreover, the consumer gets a powerful entertainment experience.

I truly believe that in terms of multiscreen, we’ve only just begun. The true power of multiscreen has still yet to emerge.

METADATA CHAOS This complexity is not made any easier by the fact that media companies today may be building their businesses based on metadata chaos.

Building offerings, business planning, and forecasting around metadata that is not reliable or is incomplete stands in the way of audiences finding the content they want.

In today’s multiscreen landscape, viewers are accessing content from multiple silos: pay-

TVTechnology September 2015

it is being consumed, as well as the licensing and contractual limitations on them, those who wish to create customer services have their hands tied.

Good businesses can only be built around good data. And only with joined-up, cross-silo content information can we find out where the money is.

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SHARPSHOOTER

The team

player

Whether he is filming ice skaters in -26C or shooting a major TV drama series for SVT, Swedish cinematographer Nicklas Karpaty knows that every production is a team effort, especially when it involves ghosts or military intervention. Interview by Barrie Smith Where did you grow up?

I was born in Gothenburg but we soon moved to Kopparberg in the middle of the Swedish forests.

When I was about five we moved again, this time to a small village close to Borås. My teenage years were spent in the countryside just south of Gothenburg on the west coast.

What languages do you speak?

I speak fairly fluent English, as I spent a year in Australia in my early 20s. In school, I learnt German for a few years, which I’m keen to practice whenever I can.

TVTechnology September 2015

I also understand Norwegian quite well after living in Lillehammer for three years.

What education have you had? Have you had any special training in camera work?

I have a university degree in Film Studies and a Bachelor of Cinematography from the Norwegian Film School. I have also attended workshops run

by Kodak, Sony and RED in the past.

Give us a flavour or some of your recent assignments I have just finished a shoot for the American FOX

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network as a part of a feature spot. I have also done quite a few fun commercials. In recent times, I have been involved in the grading for an SVT drama series, Ängelby, that I shot last year for the production company Tre Vänner. That’s good fun too, as it is a large part of my job to oversee the final stage of what I actually shoot.

I have also shot a crowdfunded film with director Kersti Grunditz called The Man Behind the Throne, a documentary about Michael Jackson’s choreographer, Vincent Paterson. I will hopefully start prepping on a feature that we may shoot in Morocco.

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Profile Name: Nicklas Karpaty Age: 42 Occupation: Cinematographer Base: Stockholm and Gothenburg Email: info@filmfotograf.se Web: nicklaskarpaty.com

although the horrors of the genocide were in their everyday life they have a strong desire to make a bright future for the country.

What country do you most like to shoot in?

Morocco is nice: great locations, climate, crew and people. And Italy, because of the food. I would like to shoot in India one day. It seems that things are happening everywhere: colours, people, shapes, buildings, animals, cars.

What was your first ever shooting job?

My first paid film job, I think, was during film school. I was put next to a camera shooting for Norwegian Television, outdoors in the freezing winter for an outdoor concert with a lot of snow, ice and ice skaters. I found out that I was just supposed to guard a camera that was remotely turned on/off during the event. Me and the camera were on ice and it was -26C.

“The organic look and feel of film has not been matched by digital formats. I still think a lot of features benefit from being shot on film” What do you like best: shooting commercials, features or documentaries?

I think I’ll continue to focus on features and TV drama, as it’s quite challenging and creative.

So far I’ve been lucky to mix assignments with documentaries and commercials.

Have you been busy?

The last few years have been very busy: a lot of commercials, including many IKEA spots. I’ve also done a number of drama series for Swedish television. Doing my own projects is good fun too. I did a teaser for a zombie series with a friend of mine and my own poetic short starring two dancers in a forest.

Where have you been shooting?

The last few years I have been to North America several times, also to Asia, Europe, South America and Africa. I love shooting in these exotic places, meeting many fantastic people who let us enter their world. In Rwanda, for example, we made many good friends and they showed us that

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I think the Easy-Rig, which was developed here in Sweden, is a very good tool but I would like it to be a bit more flexible for the body movements. Also, I hope that grip equipment, e.g. dollies and cranes, will be more safely constructed in the future.

How much 16:9 do you shoot?

The commercials, TV drama and documentaries are all in 16:9. When I shot on film stock it was mostly 1.85. One day I hope to shoot a film in anamorphic.

Do you mourn the passing of film as a capture medium?

I started in the 1980s working in a stills lab, developing film and copying, so I have a nostalgic feeling for film. In my opinion, the organic look and feel of film has not been matched by digital formats. I still think a lot of features benefit from being shot on film. However, I think its days are numbered, as film and its chemical processing are not very environmentally friendly. I lost my best friend to cancer and I think that working with strong chemicals, as we both did back then, could have had a part in his demise.

What is the best thing about your job?

It is creative, a team effort and rewarding plus no one day is like any other.

And the worst thing about your job?

Tight time schedules. Time limits can certainly be good for a film though. At the same time, it’s very

What camera equipment do you use?

In Sweden, the Arri Alexa is the most used professional camera. I’ve shot a lot with it. I like the skin tones from the Sony F65 and will try to shoot something with that when I get the opportunity. For commercials, I’ve shot a lot with the Canon C500 and C300 cameras and they perform very well too. However, the most important equipment is what you put in front of the camera: the lenses. I have my favourites in Zeiss Super Speeds, Ultra Primes, Schneider Cine-Xenar and some Russian lenses I tried, the Illumina S35 optics.

What other gear you have access to?

I have a DSLR camera for reccies and a colleague has a RED Dragon kit with RPPS who sometimes helps me out.

What useful piece of gear do you wish someone would invent?

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September 2015 TVTechnology

SHARPSHOOTER

likes a you’re

rewarding if the audience film

part of. It’s a team

effort and should be rewarded as such. However, working on a documentary, for example, you put a lot of time and energy into it, but it’s only the director that gets the credit.

Have you been involved in any assignments that didn’t capture the imagination?

I shot an information film for a medical tool once.

That was quite boring. But, I think you always learn some things you can benefit from in the future. They’re often part of what I bring to the next shoot.

“The building under the flag was a military compound. A small army of military were waiting outside the hotel for us and we were really close to being arrested”

TVTechnology September 2015

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Have you been involved in any scary assignments?

I once shot a ghost documentary in an old castle.

I still believe the ghost turned the camera on and off for me. Also, I shot a documentary about the former Queen of Iran. The director and I were in Cairo and I needed a shot of a plane landing in Cairo. The planes flew right above the hotel, so I simply filmed through the window and panned, following the airplane as it landed behind an Egyptian flag, with Cairo in the background.

Really nice shot I thought. What I didn’t realise was that the building under the flag was a military compound. A small army of military were waiting outside the hotel for us and we were really close to being arrested. The shot is in the movie though. On another shoot we were on the tenth floor of a hospital with a crane, dolly and tracks. Although the team all had safety wires, it was still scary.

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PRODUCT REVIEW

Up to the Mark?

The images are good and it is easy to use but is the lack of 4K option on the C100 Mark II a deal breaker? Review by Christina Fox

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hen Canon introduced the hugely popular EOS C300 camera, many people saw it as the budget Arri Alexa, and when it released the C100, it was the budget C300: using the same large sensor everyone loved, but losing the ability to record industry-standard 50Mbps video in the camera, although that was nothing the addition of an Atomos Ninja or similar recorder couldn’t address.

Many more cameras have come on to the market since then, so Canon had to improve the C100, replace it or abandon it. As you’d expect, Canon has done what it usually does with a successful camera, and introduced a Mark II version.

At first sight there isn’t a big difference in the old and new version. The alterations that have been made are small and incremental if taken on their own, but added together the changes show that Canon has been listening to its customers.

One of the most important changes is the addition of higher quality MP4 recording (to the twin SD card slots) along with the previous offering of AVCHD only (see box out below).

THE CANON C100 MARK II CAN RECORD AVCHD 50p 50i 25pf

28Mbps or 28Mbps LPCM 28Mbps LPCM, 24, 17 or 7Mbps 28Mbps LPCM, 24, 17 or 7Mbps

59.94p 59.94i 29.97pf 23.98p

28Mbps or 28Mbps LPCM 28Mbps LPCM, 24, 17 or 7Mbps 28Mbps LPCM, 24, 17 or 7Mbps 28Mbps LPCM, 24, 17 or 7Mbps

LPCM = Linear Pulse Code Modulation (audio)

MP4 / H.264 50p 25p

35Mbps 17 or 3Mbps

59.94p 29.97p 23.98p

35Mbps 17 or 3Mbps 17 or 3Mbps

35Mbps isn’t shabby, but for those needing more megabits per second and less compression the

TVTechnology September 2015

solution is using the HDMI socket and running video out to a separate recorder. I do find it surprising that at this price (£3,600 including VAT) they couldn’t have put in an HD-SDI socket: Canon’s own XF305 (also £3,600 inc VAT) and XF105 (£1,800 inc VAT) both have SDI sockets.

HDMI is just not secure enough to hold onto a cable. Give me a bayonet fitting any day: once it is plugged in, it stays in.

The camera has kept the same Super 35mm 8.3-megapixel CMOS sensor found in the original EOS C100 (and the EOS C300), but its image processing has had an upgrade to the Digic DV 4.

PROCESSING POWER The Digic DV 4 processor enables the C100 Mark II’s advanced new debayering algorithm for image processing called Over Sampling HD Processing. Using this method, the camera captures an Ultra HD image, the red, green and blue channels are separated into three individual 8-megapixel UHD signals (compared to 2-megapixels in the EOS C100), and the UHD RGB signals are then multiplexed and scaled down internally into the HD (1920x1080) signal that is recorded. This process results in appreciably improved image quality.

Disappointingly for many, although the camera captures a UHD image, you can’t then output it. I know for some people this is a deal breaker, but I’m not convinced that many of us need 4K right now. Ask yourself: how many of your friends have a 4K TV? Even the geeks I know in broadcast don’t have one: they are too expensive.

Certainly, many of the people I train shoot video for the web, where UHD is overkill at best.

If the client insists on 4K you can always hire in a suitable camera (or buy the newly released C300 Mk II or the less expensive, less flexible XC10).

However, using this over sampling method should not only offer improved image quality and perceived resolution but also a reduction in the occurrences of false colours and moiré patterning as well as limiting the levels of noise at high ISO. Indeed, the ISO range has increased from 80,000 (i.e. 42dB of gain) to 102,400 (44dB of gain), although that no longer sounds impressive

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Connections: Disappointingly, the C100 Mk II only has an HDMI output rather than the more secure HD-SDI

when you see video shot by moonlight on the Sony A7s, which can max out at 409,600 ISO. The dual pixel auto focus isn’t really new, but it does now come as standard (rather than an upgrade). I know some people will see autofocus as dumbing down, but we can’t all afford a focus puller and cine lenses. So, the auto focus will come in handy along with the auto focus lock button, which prevents focus hunting. The big downside is that the autofocus is still centre weighted and can’t be moved around the screen as with a DSLR. DETECTIVE WORK I’m also glad to see face detection. Some may see it as a gimmick, but if you’re a self shooter doing lots of interviews you’ll find it works well and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.

But, do be aware that face detection doesn’t work with all lenses. The review camera didn’t come with a lens so I used my Canon EF-S 18-135mm lens, which is incompatible with

35Mbps isn’t shabby, but for those needing more megabits per second and less compression the solution is using the HDMI socket and running video out to a separate recorder face detection. So, if you intend to use face detection, push auto iris or auto aperture, you’ll need a compatible lens: at the moment there are only five listed on the Canon website (all are STM lenses). z EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM z EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM z EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM z EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM z EF-S 10-18mm F4.5-5.6 IS STM One of the biggest changes is the screen. The hinge has moved from the top of the screen to the left hand side. Previously, it didn’t have a lot of flexibility of angles. Now it flips out, up, down and even around the side of the camera (through 270º). This will make running and gunning with the camera so much easier.

Whether you have the camera low down or above your head you’ll be able to see what you’re doing. Some people did complain that their (old) screen was a tad on the blue side.

So, they will be pleased to hear that the screen has also been upgraded from an LCD to a 3.5-

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September 2015 TVTechnology

PRODUCT REVIEW

Upgraded: Canon’s new C100 Mark II addresses many user issues with the original, but is it too late?

inch OLED with more accurate colour rendition for judging colour temperature. It also has its own power button: handy for switching it off and saving your battery.

Another useful addition is the vectorscope (previously available only on the C300 and C500), which is handy for checking skin tone and white balance.

ERGONOMICALLY PLACED A further important change is the joystick used to navigate the menus. In the original C100, it was ergonomically placed on the handgrip just where your thumb would sit. But, what if you removed the handgrip to use the camera in a rig?

Well, that made things very tricky until a firmware upgrade allowed you to assign buttons to the navigation functions. The good news is that there are now two joysticks. One is still on the handgrip, but the second one is on the lower left hand edge of the OLED screen.

Definitely an improvement and also freeing up the assignable buttons.

Speaking of which, they have increased in number from 15 to 17, which is great as long as you can remember what they all do, although

TVTechnology September 2015

On the menu: The OLED screen offers better colour rendition, and features a second joystick (lower left) for accessing menus

there is a status button to remind you which assignable button does what, and more besides.

There are also 14 menu functions you can register and re-order in the ‘My Menu’ – which saves time rootling through pages of menus.

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These together make this a conveniently customisable camera.

The C100 Mk I and II do have a built in microphone on the handle unit. If you removed the handle then your images were potentially

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On the record: The C100 Mk II has dual SD card slots for relay, simultaneous or continuous recording

mute, so Canon has given the Mk II a small microphone on the body of the camera that looks very similar to the microphone on a 5D. Sometimes you need that bit of scratch audio in order to sync sound in the edit. Again it’s a small addition but a useful one.

The new Wi-Fi capability will come in handy if you have the camera in an inaccessible location perhaps on the end of a boom arm.

It might have been a good idea to offer 4K but then why would people want to pay three times as much for the new C300 Mk II? You can connect it to a network in five different ways, so you’ll probably want to test this in advance of the shoot to make sure it is all working correctly.

Once it is up and running, you can use a browser to control the camera remotely.

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Video and photos can also be transferred

by FTP – a useful feature if you need an offsite file back-up or your images are time sensitive – as long as you can get a good connection in the local Starbucks.

THE VERDICT So, if you have up to £4,000 to spend, is the C100 Mk II for you? The upgrades look good.

Canon has listened to its customers and made changes. The media is cheap (unlike SxS for example), the images are good and it is easy to use. However, it might have been a good idea to offer 4K (at least as an upgrade), but then why would people want to pay three times as much for the new C300 Mk II (which, admittedly, has several excellent new features too, including up to 15 stops of dynamic range).

The other thing to consider is that the C100 Mk II costs only a little less than a new C300 (Mk I), which has been reduced in price prior to the shipping of the C300 Mk II, and the older C300 still has several advantages over the new C100, including HD-SDI output and built-in 50Mbps recording.

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This year we are please to have Dan Chung and the News Shooter team on our stand

Visit us at IBC Amsterdam Hall 11 Stand C61

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

Nikon G to AJA Cion

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September 2015 TVTechnology

FEATURE

The winding road to IP infrastructures

By John Ive, director of technology and strategic insight, IABM

f we discount the significance of what has happened to the industry in recent years and look back at previous decades, words such as ‘evolution’ and ‘revolution’ would rarely be used to describe changes in this sector. Yet, when we think about the enormity of the move to IP, it has shaken the entire broadcast infrastructure to the core and will change the workings of the industry both now and in the future.

I

THE IT DRIVERS According to the latest IABM DC’s figures, the professional broadcast and media industry is valued at $49 billion, a fraction of the value of the globe’s IT and telecom industries.

Subsequently, these industries have more money to invest in R&D, so it is no surprise that technological advancement in the IT industry can be capable of outstripping what can be achieved in the broadcast and media industry.

Traditionally, IT technology was not appropriate for specialised

TVTechnology September 2015

broadcast infrastructures, however, advancements in processing power, storage and networking capabilities have paved the way for its gradual introduction and today’s solutions can now satisfy many of the needs of the broadcast and media industry.

It makes sound financial sense for the broadcast and media industry to exploit technological developments wherever possible. Rather than effectively reinventing the wheel, it has become much more cost effective to ride on the back of the IT industry’s investment in R&D.

is easy to see why it doesn’t add up financially to reinvest and recreate a new infrastructure each time a new format comes along.

‘Symptomatic of the growing trend towards IT technology and outsourcing, for the first time in its history the industry is seeing more money being spent on services than hardware’

FLEXIBLE INFRASTRUCTURES We have reached a point where there is now such a proliferation of formats that we need an infrastructure to be less rigid and easily adaptable to cope with those different formats.

Historically, with each major change in format, broadcasters would have developed a new infrastructure. If we look at the amount of investment ploughed into global infrastructures in light of the shift from SD to HD, it

Change in formats is also happening far more rapidly: with 4K/UHD on the horizon and potentially 8K, it is placing even greater importance on flexible infrastructures.

The fact that IT technology is independent of any specific video format makes it very attractive. The industry now has a neutral platform

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for video data and it is the software that determines which format it is working in. In terms of hardware, broadcast and media specialists only have to invest once and they can handle multiple formats with that investment. This is far more difficult to do in the traditional bespoke broadcast and media world where we use interconnects such as SDI/HDI. BROADCAST BUDGETS Traditional investments in infrastructure involved large capital expenditure and this proved to be a challenge for companies to plan and budget for. The ability to have an infrastructure based upon annual revenue expenditure rather than a large irregular capital expenditure is particularly appealing to today’s cost conscious industry.

The IT industry is very familiar with this financial approach, with limited upfront costs and the recurring payments associated with outsourcing and cloud models.

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THE SHIFT TO SERVICES IABM DC’s latest figures covering the 2014-15 period showed that 54 per cent of total broadcast and media revenues ($25.6 billion) was from services. Symptomatic of the growing trend towards IT technology and outsourcing, for the first time in its history these figures indicate the industry is seeing more money being spent on services than hardware.

The broadcast and media industry is evolving, and is increasingly becoming a service-based industry. The research also showed that the top four global companies benefitting most from this shift are Cisco, Microsoft, HP and Dell in line with the investment trend from capital purchases to outsourcing, and bespoke hardware to IT hardware.

The greater emphasis on services and support has also prompted a profound change in the vendor community, which is restructuring itself from black box technology provision to service provision. In addition, the systems integrators are having a tough time redefining their business models away from margins on hardware orientated systems to becoming software integrators where they have to encourage customers to pay for consultancy.

BUYING CYCLES A decade ago, technology buyers were purchasing replacement boxes with large engineering groups and there was a strong focus on optimising the quality of video. The structural shift means traditional boxes are no longer being

replaced at the end of their depreciation cycle. End users and technology buyers are looking for agile technology infrastructures and, to a certain extent, quality is being taken for granted as there is a greater emphasis on creating content and a stronger focus on what audiences want. In the past, IABM noted an expenditure cycle of four years: expenditure peaked and dipped during this period partly as a result of various high profile sports events. Today, that cycle is diminishing, and hardware is only being invested in if it cannot be replaced by more generic IT technology.

THE FUTURE This structural shift marks the first stage of transition in broadcast technology from bespoke high value hardware-based proprietary solutions to open system architecture and flexible software-defined solutions. In the future, we’ll see a world where software will define the infrastructure and methodology; networks will be virtual; and automation will reside in and simultaneous multiple format playout will be delivered from, the cloud. This does not mean less expenditure: the industry is growing and more content is being created and consumed on multiple devices.

It looks like the broadcast and media industry better get used to the words ‘revolution’ and ‘evolution’ and take advantage of the new opportunities.

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17

FEATURE

The effects of converging worlds The convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications for IP-based production, by John Smith, head of EMEA, Media Links

O

ver the years, providing network transport solutions, one thing has become very clear: there is no one size that fits all. Each tailored customer solution requires partnerships with the total distribution and production chain to ensure the message is consistently delivered to the right device, in the right format, to the right person, all in-time and on-time. After all, you can’t ask to take the shot again at a live event.

However, by taking advantage of the falling prices of bandwidth plus the increased quality in video codecs and ultra-low latency delivery across WAN network infrastructure, broadcasters no longer need to carry the high cost of producing live events on-site. The technology is now available to enable broadcasters and network providers to convert and move the complete suite of broadcast signals – whether video, audio or data – onto their multi-service IP/Ethernet networks.

By using this remote production model, both 4K/60P, HD-SDI/3G-SDI camera feeds and data traffic can be sent from the remote venues directly

‘The high-performance, technically advanced solutions now available provide unmatched reliability to broadcasters looking at remote production’ to the studio, where all production and editing can take place. There are numerous advantages, including the fact that editors can utilise more sophisticated in-studio tools across the board. It also reduces or removes the need for broadcasters to have full capability production trucks and large crews on-site at the venue, therefore greatly reducing their operational costs. This is particularly relevant to the production of smaller-scale events: costs can be held low while at the same time increasing the overall production value.

The remote production over IP model is supported by Media Links MD8000 products that provide high quality and low-latency solutions for

TVTechnology Saturday 2015

moving multiple paths of video content encoded using JPEG2000 and sent as Ethernet frames over an IP network. To put this into practice, in 2007 we worked with numerous telecommunications providers and several partner organisations to establish a mezzanine compressed HD-SDI video circuit between two remote locations. The case study was aimed at identifying the relationship between satellite video acquisition versus high bit rate fibre optic video acquisition and how this translates to improvements and efficiencies as they relate to H.264 compression. The concept of introducing higher quality video encoded with JPEG2000 as the primary source feeding the final H.264 encoding process would allow for lower compression rates while also improving image quality and reducing the amount of bandwidth consumed across the network.

As a result, the Media Links MD8000 video over IP media transport and switching solutions, and the ProMD NMS Network Management System video over IP transmission now provides an efficient and reliable way to transport content between each venue and the broadcast studio. The utilisation of bandwidth is enhanced and media connectivity is maximised over the entire IP network and over long distances.

One way this is achieved in the telecoms sector is through hitless protection. This is the facility to switch between the primary and back-up line card without losing framing synchronisation when a primary line-card failure occurs. In this way, telecoms equipment provides uninterrupted or continuous service. The hitless protection switching can be enabled for any of the signals transported by the MD8000-JPEG. The two identical output streams are routed over separate paths to a single destination, where any errors on one stream are avoided by immediately switching to the other stream preventing packet loss during event and productions. This model has been used to provide live content contribution for the Sochi Winter Games and Fifa World Cup, experiencing 100 per cent uptime.

In this way, media content IP delivery and switching solutions can contribute to how live sporting events coverage can be

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revolutionised via remote production, through a standards-based product suite in the market that enables the adoption of media signal types to telecommunications standards like Ethernet, IP, SDH and SONET. From high profile live events to building large scale networks, clients on Best our Johnrely Smith video over IP and switching solutions to deliver pixel perfect video throughout the duration of some of the most widely viewed events in the world. To date, these types of data services and this transport technology has been deployed throughout North America, including numerous systems active on an optical mesh network in support of the local stadiums and arenas. In this way, major sporting event content is being transported to the relevant broadcaster with the use of JPEG2000 compression technology.

HD-SDI signals are compressed down to 275 Mb with an end-to-end latency under 100 ms from the venue to the production studios. In this way, advances in telecoms transmission can help editors needing to produce via IP. The high-performance, technically advanced solutions now available provide unmatched reliability to broadcasters looking at remote production, bringing together the normally disparate fields of broadcasting and telecommunications.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

FEATURE

The safest path to live remote production

BY OLIVIER SUARD

T

here is little doubt in the industry’s mind that IP across the entire workflow looks set to define the future of broadcasting. In the past, one area where it was met with the most scepticism is live remote production. However, with the latest technological advancements, IP in remote production has now become a practical, deliverable, and proven proposition that is helping major broadcasters to deliver the highest quality and most costeffective live content.

For all broadcasters, live content is extremely valuable, due to its unique capacity to draw-in viewers and advertisers, so every production has to be secure and reliable as well as commercially viable. In addition, with the proliferation of non-traditional broadcasters in the live space, the competition is higher

TVTechnology September 2015

than ever and the pressure has been compounded to produce live content more cost efficiently.

other data between the remote location and the central production facility. Rather than setting up a relatively expensive, specialist broadcast circuit, production companies are increasingly turning to IP contribution circuits. Broadcast vendors offer network management tools alongside encoding and encapsulation, which allow routing and redundant paths to be set up and connected as needed.

The cost savings can be substantial as there is no need to send large outside broadcast production trucks to the venue and fewer staff resources are required.

Remote equipment is compact so it minimises transport cost, and it is easy to set up and establish connections. Directors, editors and production staff can remain in the central production facility, working in their own familiar environment and there will be greater utilisation of the hardware, too, adding to the

THE LIVE PRODUCTION CHALLENGE Productions involving remote locations are often highly complex and present a number of challenges to broadcasters, whether it is the high costs incurred from specialist equipment and staff resources, or the logistics of booking satellite uplinks. Given the complexity and associated costs, there has been a strong drive from broadcasters to simplify the remote set-up for live events, and centralise as much of the production as possible.

IMPACT ON SIGNAL TRANSPORT In order to revolutionise production workflow in this way, it is essential to have extremely flexible, reliable, low latency, two-way transport of video, audio communication and

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cost efficiency. Recent technology advancements, including media gateways as well as advanced monitoring and management solutions, now exist to make IP highly reliable for the real-time distribution of broadcast-quality content.

IP CONTRIBUTION The revolution has largely been enabled by the ability to transport multiple signals – either uncompressed or with gentle mezzanine compression – over a range of fabrics, at low latencies.

The latest technologies are designed to take audio and video signals from a variety of baseband formats and transport them securely and with low and predictable latency and redundancy over IP networks.

The signals are transported either in uncompressed, linear form or compressed, using, for example, the low latency JPEG 2000.

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the benchmark

MONITORING In addition to the monitoring data that can be collected from equipment such as media gateways, monitoring devices play an important role when the network links are outsourced by the broadcaster to service providers, to deliver enhanced information about quality of service (QoS) and SLA parameters. These monitoring probes allow broadcasters to check the signals along the IP transport chain.

NETWORK MANAGEMENT One of the most important elements for these networks, particularly in live remote production setups, is flexibility. They need to be fast and allow easy-to-establish circuits between different points, as and when they were required.

In a number of cases, a telco may provide the infrastructure.

However, for some broadcasters, they prefer to have direct control of the network, including setting up and monitoring circuits. Tools such as the Nevion’s VideoIPath media services network management software address this demand. It uses open standards, and supports OpenFlow, one of the most widely used SDN protocols. The idea is

in camera control technology...

that the software hides the network complexity, so the planner simply sets up the source, the destination and the technical parameters and everything else, including route planning and automatic failover to alternates, happens automatically.

The latest solutions can be suited to any type of remote production, from high-end major sporting events involving multiple cameras and staff, to ad hoc productions with one or two staff on site and a couple of fixed cameras. One of the best recent examples of large scale remote productions was carried out by the American Pac-12 network of western states universities. Pac-12 network in the USA, for instance, covers 850 sports events a year by sending the cameras, microphones and commentators to site but doing all the production work in control rooms at its headquarters.

you can build on.

‘There has been a strong drive from broadcasters to simplify the remote set-up for live events, and centralise as much of the production as possible’

Our new Remote Camera Control System is fully integrated to manage and remotely control all your camera robotics operations with comprehensive CCU capabilities. And it’s designed for either stand-alone or

IP networks carry 15 or more live camera signals back to the control centre with virtually no latency. The network has reported significant cost savings with an estimated $12,000 to $15,000 saving on each event, or somewhere between $10 million and $13 million a year.

This new approach to remote production workflow creates a range of obvious benefits for broadcasters, from cost savings and increased flexibility, to new revenue opportunities and more compelling content. The latest solutions on the market will help broadcasters address any complexities associated with video over IP services ensuring that virtually any remote location can be connected, as needed, simply, affordably and reliably.

networked operation. So you can network several controllers and share stored camera presets, movements and set-up data across your entire studio operations – wherever they may be located. It’s the innovative solution for camera control that sets a new benchmark in performance and efficiency.

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21

FEATURE

Frame accurate switching of SMPTE2022 video over IP Control mechanisms for handling video streams in IT networks, by Axel Kern, senior product manager, L-S-B Broadcast Technologies

T

oday, television is served well by the SDI baseband router, coaxial cable and BNC connectors. However, new demands arising from 4K productions and distributed production workflows ask for a transition from SDI into IP infrastructure. In professional television applications, the transition will surely take several years: but it has begun already. It is anticipated that all major television facilities requiring flexible and larger switching capabilities will choose IT infrastructures based upon established commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) network switches. Therefore, the classic HD/3GSDI router will almost disappear over a period of time, being replaced by IP infrastructure.

IP Network switches with copper and optical wiring will be the infrastructure for video and audio data transport, including intra- and inter-facility video/audio connectivity. Edge devices with IP network ports will ensure that video and audio signals are injected into, and extracted from, the broadcast network in the appropriate production format and quality. However, legacy SDI routers and new IP infrastructure will live side by side for a number of years during the migration to full IP video routing. Tally management, scheduling, tie-

TVTechnology September 2015

line management are some of the topics to be addressed early on in this important migration.

During this migration process, the television industry is facing the need for tremendous amounts of content distribution as well as supporting new 4K-UHD formats that require switching of uncompressed video at bitrates of 12Gbps. It is simply impractical, or even impossible, to accomplish this with traditional broadcast SDI router design. To some extent, broadcasters are ‘forced’ to embrace enterprise-level IP networking that delivers per-port wire-rate bandwidth of 10GbE, 40GbE and even 100GbE. The problem here is that IP is not deterministic. There is currently no network technology available that natively guarantees 100 per cent delivery of broadcast content and control data in a shared environment.

Broadcasters need seamless ‘live’ switching of sources, as classic SDI routers have been doing for years. However, the classic SDI router approach of switching synchronous streams in a very small real-time window is not easily duplicated in an IP network. The challenge is to perform seamless frame-accurate switching – just as any classic SDI router has done for years – in an environment that is package oriented more than signal oriented.

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In an IP network, switching can be realised in three ways: source timed switching; switch timed switching; and destination timed switching.

SWITCH TIMED SWITCHING Switch timed switching is a solution which is difficult to implement in broadcast environments since scalability is difficult to achieve. Additionally, this solution is not independent of the switch manufacturers, and proprietary solutions will be their choice.

DESTINATION TIMED SWITCHING Destination timed switching is comparatively the easiest to implement, and is a make-beforebreak approach that has one major disadvantage: because the switching occurs at the destination port, both video IP streams must be sent to the destination, consuming double bandwidth.

SOURCE TIMED SWITCHING Source timed switching can be done precisely with frame accuracy using COTS IP network switches and various standardised flow control mechanisms, without consuming double bandwidth and without affecting future scalability.

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However, although source timed switching scales very well in terms of bandwidth usage, timing and the use of cascaded switches could be difficult to manage. In reality, broadcast networks will emerge with a heterogeneous approach to switching. There will be mixtures of source timed and destination timed switched gear existing equally side by side. Therefore, it becomes necessary to supply a network control mechanism that can handle both approaches.

A software-defined network must offer enough flexibility to handle any kind of switching mechanism in combination with network management software, which configures and controls the underlying network. A further necessity is the overall control through an orchestration layer since there is a need for infrastructure control more than just routing.

This gives broadcast professionals

the opportunity to: (a) define the network’s operational parameters; and (b) to easily configure any special processing and routing with a ‘push of a button or click of the mouse’.

To guarantee 100 per cent reliability and accessibility, the IP switching network needs an orchestration layer that has to address several challenges: z The ability to use traditional routing control panels and user interfaces is necessary z The control system has to allow seamless control interfacing between broadband and IP worlds zIt has to be capable of jointly controlling source-timed-switch and destination-timed-switch networks zBandwidth management zKnowledge of the properties of streams might be required for automatic processing and protection

z Router-like representations are limited with regards to controlling an IP network. An IP connection has more attributes than just sources and destinations, e.g. stream type, compression type, redundancy mechanisms z Dynamic router sizes The benefit of using a sophisticated control system as an orchestration layer in an IP network or in a mixed baseband/IP environment is the

separation between the control layer and the hardware layer. For the user, the overall feeling and workflows in broadcast environments will stay the same. Since technology is changing much faster than workflows, it is essential for the user to stick to common usability experiences and workflow designs. An intelligent system offers the freedom to stick to their workflows while the technology in the background is changing.

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September 2015 TVTechnology

FEATURE

Broadcast over IP The influence of IP networks in media production and distribution, by Douglas Parrish, president Americas and head of global online business, RR Media

W

e are experiencing a unique transformation of the media industry. Most notably felt in distribution – with the emergence of internet-based online and over-the-top delivery services – these same networks and technologies are also changing content creation, contribution, production, and channel origination.

What began years ago as an in-house physical to digital media transition in television production and broadcasting – moving from tape-based workflows to file-based workflows – has now progressed into a broader network-enabled mesh of connected content owners and service providers across the entire media value chain.

And while most perceptions are that the curation and movement of media in this new, networked environment are relatively easy to perform, one quick look under the surface exposes the difficulties encountered by any media workflow operating at scale. The number of standards and formats; diversity of origins and destinations; and size of media assets and network reliability and latency, all contribute to a new set of challenges that must be well understood and delicately managed, especially since, according to some sources, the amount of video consumed over the internet is now growing at a remarkable four times year on year.

From the inception of television, the intelligence of broadcasting systems was held simply at the point of origin. Scheduling of programmes and dayparts into linear channels was the domain of network programming executives with each day and daypart carefully programmed for each network’s maximum benefit. On the technical side, content was formatted into established broadcast standards and pushed out through antennas and, eventually, cable systems. But today that intelligence is shared in a complex relationship between the point of origin and the point of destination. Consumers can create their own convenient, personalised schedules from a global array of content and channels and watch whenever they like on a variety of smart (and mobile) devices: each delivering new richness and reach.

To deliver such capabilities, today’s media production and distribution workflows are expected to operate within a networked ecosystem in which the origin and destination are able to cross-communicate and the entire media supply

TVTechnology September 2015

chain reacts to the influences of content creators, distributors, and consumers around the world.

How differently the industry will operate when advertisers get real-time viewership metrics; content creators receive immediate consumer feedback; post production houses prepare content just in time for delivery; and programmers tailor content packages on-the-fly to match.

Unfortunately, this ecosystem is all too frequently described as ‘video delivered over the internet’ and therefore naively interpreted to mean video payload delivery over an IP network; since it differs technically from delivery over

‘Some say that the internet is still too immature for media production and distribution’ traditional cable or satellite. That basic description overlooks the presence of the subtle – but rich – intelligence and control that also flows (or should flow) backwards and forwards over the very same network. This intelligent control mesh creates the magic of the new media experience by integrating the creation-production-distributionconsumption value chain. It is the main reason why media production and delivery over IP networks is changing and impacting the consumer’s experience whilst disrupting traditional post production and network operators. This magic will continue to create more interactive immersive viewer experiences, reduce friction in the supply chain, and in some ways even reallocate the economics in the entire value chain.

The tight orchestration of transactions, commands, requests, and replies between content creators,

24

service providers and consumers forms the backbone of the new media supply chain, in which all participants interact – sometimes unknowingly – to deliver new service models and consumer experiences. In an almost contradictory sense, the network is responsible for handling two intertwined, but separate, payload classes: the lightweight control messages that form the intelligence layer of the ecosystem and the heavy video assets themselves.

Some say that the internet is still too immature for media production and distribution. Indeed, there are several issues to address, such as problems with popular content driving sudden peak traffic loads and unhappy viewers connecting through underperforming last mile internet service providers. All these contribute to a less-thantelevision-like experience. Production workflows can also be hindered by limited system integration and by the inefficiencies of moving large digital file assets through the network: what takes 15 minutes to move on a local network can easily increase to more than 24 hours for a remote site transfer.

However, all new technologies experience a period of transition from puberty to maturity, which also is a time during which consumer expectation and mastery are established. Gone today are the rolling pictures and the sometimes-corrective vertical hold knob from our digital televisions, and the dreaded words ‘we are experiencing technical difficulties’ put up on screen by a network in an operational crisis. Over the past 50 years, broadcast and cable television have become an operating gold standard – and this is what consumers now expect from the new internet television services.

Ultimately, we will get there. Early streaming struggled through its own growing pains – slow start-up, buffering, system crashes – but such developments as content distribution networks (CDN), adaptive bit rates, and computer/device operating systems designed for rich media have all improved the viewer experience, and more innovations will emerge. The internet is a democratic ecosystem, subject to the confederation of entities that cooperate (and compete) to deliver services. As it evolves, we can definitely look forward to having new media experiences at our fingertips wherever we are: at work, at home, on the run, in the car, or even in the air.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

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FEATURE

Inside UHD-1 TV Technology Europe takes a peek inside UHD-1, the Timeline Television outside broadcast unit built for BT Sport’s Ultra HD channel

Sound

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sports for high-end popular choice

Cameras

Twelve Sony HDC-4300 4K /HD live prod inch 4K imag uction camer ing devices. W as: the world ’s first 2/3ith the capability super slow m to shoot in HD otion HD they , 4K, and up to “make 4K TV 8x with a standar pr oduction prac d OB infrastruc tical and integr ture.” ate

TVTechnology September 2015

ow Server areabled EVS XT3 live production servers that44all0 server

-ena cludes a Sony Three Ultra HD ayout. Also in m ingest to pl fro l ro nt co ia med onitor.

M-X300 4K m chain and PV

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ALSO IN THE TRUCK • Axon Digital Design, supplier of the signal processing equipment, developed the U4T100 and U4T140 in close cooperation with BT Sport and Timeline. Both modules are part of Axon’s Synapse product line.

• The control and monitoring system in the truck that provides control and configuration of the router, Multiviewers, tally and glue is accomplished using Axon’s Cerebrum.

• Routing requirements are handled by a Snell Sirius 840 router.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

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September 2015 TVTechnology

FEATURE

Don’t cut the cord: coax is still going strong “Cabling, widgets and glue” to route AV signals have never been more important to the broadcast industry: and that includes good old coax cable, as Adrian Pennington discovers.

C

elebrating its fortieth birthday in 2016, Canford has certainly seen change throughout its existence: the difference now being the speed of change. Its broadcast customers range from equipment end-users, studio technicians, studio system integrators and OB truck builders.

“In essence, the routing of signals around a building or on location boils down to the loss of performance in the equipment at the receiving end,” says founder and chief designer Iain Elliott.

Attenuation is the power loss caused by a coax cable. The longer the coax, the greater the loss, but the loss is also frequency dependent, broadly rising with frequency (or waveform degradation).

Canford began in the analogue domain and encountered the first digital explosion with the AES digital audio specification for 110 ohms. On introduction in 1985 it caused some concern about how far a signal could travel without debilitating attenuation, an issue long since alleviated. “Exactly the same concerns occurred around SDI and now the hot topic is how far a SDI signal will go over 6G coax,” observes Elliott.

Until very recently there was no standard definition of what signal loss was acceptable to receiving kit for 6G. That meant different vendors used different tests to measure their equipment’s performance and the industry lacked a direct comparison between them. Now that SMPTE ST-2081 has been published these assumptions can be laid to rest. Accurate “what’s the maximum run length” figures can now be calculated for each design of coax cable, although manufacturers may or may not include safety margins which makes direct comparisons less straightforward.

“When 6G equipment first emerged I did some calculations based on the SMPTE 3G standard and basically found that you can’t go much more than 50 metres without having to use very large copper cable,” says Elliott. “That makes it very expensive and difficult to handle and terminate.”

TVTechnology September 2015

UNIVERSAL STANDARD With the increasing pace of the move from specialist broadcast cables and connectors to universal standard Category cables (Cat6 and Cat6A) and fibre, the product ranges Canford carries to support this technology are changing fast. But these changes always have knock-on effects. Finding an RJ45 connector large enough to fit onto Cat6A is not trivial, but exactly the sort of problem solving that is behind much of the firm’s product sourcing. While the bulk of cable is installed, deployable Category cables are now required to support location production.

“Category cables were not designed to be flexible,” says Canford. “They don’t lie flat on the ground because of the necessity to fix the geometry of the paired wires in relationship to one another.”

Canford was the first to introduce a truly deployable Cat5E cable that lies obligingly flat on the ground like a mic cable. “That cable proved extremely successful, but

28

inevitably some users then requested a deployable Cat6, so we did it,” he adds.

“But the principal method of attaining successful transmission of higher data rates is the accurate retention of the cable geometry, which is a direct conflict with achieving flexibility. A deployable Cat6A looks very challenging to produce economically. But we’ve already started the trial development work.”

Japanese group Senko also have DIY fibre termination kits suitable for location work, “another evolutionary product”. Canford sales of Cat6A are predicted to be significantly higher next year, based on a notable hike in interest now, but this does not signify a collapse in the market for coax.

“Coax is still there because there’s a broader market beyond broadcast in industrial, signage and education that wants BNC or Micro-BNC connectors and SDI coax. IP is coming, but for the vast majority of people there is a long life in SDI and coax.

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It’s interesting to note that the classic BBC PSF1/3M coax cable has refused to die, even though it’s now a pretty inefficient design.”

CO-AXIAL CONNECTORS For the majority of co-axial connectors, it is critical to have a connector that is specific to the cable to be used. Most connector manufacturers use a cable group coding system, but they are all different, as might be expected. Since a substantial number of Canford’s original range of co-axial cables were BBC designs, it is logical therefore to use the BBC’s own classification, extended to cover newer designs from Canford’s own range. When ordering connectors, it is essential to check that the correct crimp die is being used when making crimp terminations. Because there are small detail variations in similar connectors from each manufacturer, different crimp dies may be needed. A similar looking connector from another manufacturer, on the same size cable, does not guarantee that the crimp die regularly used will still work.

While Elliott highlights products from Draka (manufacturers of the Canford SDV series cables) and Belden as the dominant quality brands “you should not find any difference in performance between them. It’s understood [among manufacturers] that you don’t design a cable that needs a new connector but stick to a standard family of sizes of which 0.6/2.8 and 1.0/4.8 are the two most common.”

THE LAWS OF PHYSICS “The laws of physics command that there is only so much you can achieve with current cable technology,” says Elliott.

“You could gain an advantage by having a slightly larger centre wire but when manufacturers need to get higher precision in BNC performance, they tighten the tolerances and so constrain the centre wire closer to the primary specification.”

One technique that has improved cable performance is the use of gas injection for producing the physical foam dielectric of coaxial cables. The ideal dielectric would consist of a vacuum, but the practical need to insulate and accurately space both the inner and outer conductors demands a dielectric material with tough physical and electrical characteristics. Traditionally, that was made with a chemical mix injected into the cable, but newer methods made of nitrogen gas deliver a more consistent performance. This is particularly beneficial where a coaxial cable is exposed to crushing, squashing, and several bending manoeuvres during installation. The gas-injected dielectric also ensures a better life span and stable attenuation values.

“However, it requires a very, very expensive gas injector in the manufacturing process.

For the highest level of performance you have to get a very consistent formation in the dielectric. Beyond that, there’s not much more you can do.”

THE 24G SDI ROADMAP THE SEEMINGLY hasty arrival of IP networking could see portions of the industry leap like lemmings into investment, but broadcasters could also choose to upgrade their SDI; for which the roadmap includes a 24G standard capable of 4K at 120 frames a second.

Meanwhile, the IT industry is upping bandwidth at such velocity that, already, technologies of 25GbE, 40GbE and even 100GbE are emerging with the cost reducing every day. Imagine Communications, which is outfitting Disney/ABC with IP, has ‘proof of concepts’ in its labs with 40GbE and even 100GbE backbones.

“IP networking offers a lot of different possibilities to the discrete video channels of coax but much of that is down to the capital kit that an operator decides they need for type of work they are going to do,” says Elliott.

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September 2015 TVTechnology

4K 4CHARITY FUN RUN

IBC2015 | Saturday, 12 September | 7:30am Amstel Park, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Register at 4K4Charity.com Join us for the 4K 4Charity Fun Run! Walk, jog or run your way through beautiful Amstel Park in support of major 4K industry achievements and charitable organizations. Amp it up with a challenge to your friends. Feel good about giving to those in need while engaging in a healthy activity yourself.

速

FEATURE

High fibre diet Argosy’s Josh Simons provides an in-depth guide to designing and supporting fibre in a broadcast environment

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ibre is now a standard part of the broadcast infrastructure. Today, most installation and maintenance engineers are familiar with fibre, although there is still concern that it is somehow more complicated to work with than copper coax.

First, we should define what we mean by fibre relevant to the broadcast industry. There is the SMPTE camera cable, which is a tightly defined structure containing a pair of fibres for the signals and two pairs of copper for signal and power.

We then have ‘tactical’ fibre. This is simply a multi-channel transmission medium, which can carry any signal from point to point. The design is focused on robustness to meet the requirement for repeatable deployment and recovery in harsh environments. Finally, there is ‘dark fibre’ which is installed for redundancy and for future expansion.

It is the capacity of fibre that means we should change the way we design cable-runs and deployments. We have to try to forget the heritage, and not simply replace copper with fibre. As well as being more cost effective, this will make for a more reliable, rugged installation.

It will also help with future expansion and the inevitable maintenance, so the cost savings are likely to continue.

AN OBVIOUS CONCLUSION We spend a lot of time talking to broadcast installation engineers and systems integrators, and from all our research we find that the vast majority of fibre failures happen either at the connector or within a metre or so of it. This is an obvious conclusion if you think about it.

Connecting fibres means pressing the two end faces of the glass together tightly, and this inevitably creates wear. If you introduce dust or other contaminants when you connect the fibres, then the wear is even greater. The part of the cable installers handle is near the connectors, so this is the area which is most likely to get damaged.

For standard installations, use a dedicated multi-core distribution cable. This can be broken out in a termination tray with a patch panel.

When planning the installation, assume there

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will be a need for expansion.

The cost of multi-core fibres is relatively trivial compared with the cost of re-engineering later: need four fibres, pull in 12; need 24 pull in 48: you will need them so build in plenty of extra capacity.

Fibre patch cords are readily available and cost very little. We worked with cable manufacturer Draka to develop a high-resilience cable, BendBright, which is very resistant to handling and is ideal for patch cords.

They are likely to last for years, but should one fail just throw it away and replace it: the cost is negligible.

Josh Simons, Technical Director, Argosy

‘The vast majority of fibre failures happen either at the connector or within a metre or so of it’ The same technique can be used for mobile and temporary installations. The Neutrik OpticalCon system is designed to be a secure and highly reliable connection for as many as 12 fibres in a single assembly. It is a simple push-pull connector to make rigging simple. However, if you need more you can have Tactical assemblies with ruggedised breakout and standard connectors up to 24 fibres.

SPECIALIST SKILLS Should a fibre cable be damaged it needs special skills to repair. At Argosy we have made an extensive investment in fibre optic splicing,

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polishing, and termination equipment to provide support for our customers. We can work with SMPTE and tactical fibres in a number of jacket and connections options, to meet the needs of the installation.

To effect assembly and repairs requires high precision equipment and while we can and do take it out to the field to effect repairs, it can be expensive.

There is an alternative solution, though, which again makes fibre the modern, practical solution.

If the failure virtually always occurs at the connector or in the last metre of cable, make that readily replaceable.

If you are providing fixed SMPTE camera connections, in a sports stadium perhaps, then rather than running SMPTE cable point to point, install infrastructure cable to breakout points near the outside broadcast connection point and camera location. Inside sealed boxes, terminate the cable with a high reliability, telco-standard interface like LC. Then simply use short SMPTE pigtail assemblies from the box to the panel.

If it fails, replace it with another: it will be relatively inexpensive, can be done within moments, and will be cheaper than a field repair. Then return the faulty pigtail to us to be repaired.

Fibre has huge technical advantages: it carries higher bandwidth signals over greater distances than copper. Talk to your cable supplier to get the best advice on the right choice of cable, connector and installation practice. The goal is a cable infrastructure that you can install and forget.

September 2015 TVTechnology

FEATURE

4K or fantasy?

Fibre, data networking or coax? Steve Lampen, multimedia technology manager at Belden, on solving the 4K cabling conundrum.

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hear a lot of consumers saying, “4K? It’s just another way of selling you a new TV.” But, on the professional side, on the broadcast or Hollywood side, that argument doesn’t apply.

So, is it for real? Is it really going to happen?

Or will we go straight to 8K like some of our Japanese friends have suggested.

Well, the politically correct answer is “I don’t know,” because there is no SMPTE standard.

I have friends on the committee and they tell me it has been written but not signed. Until that document is finished, anything I say here is a ‘best guess’ or possibly even wishful thinking.

But there is a ‘big picture’ view that may change everything. For one thing, there are three media that can carry 4K (12 GHz) video. The first is fibre optic cable.

Fibre has more than enough bandwidth. If you’re going long distances or need RFI/EMI

‘I predict that in less than 20 years, you will open the door to a TV station or a theatrical lighting control room and they will look like data centres’ noise immunity, it’s your only choice. While the fibre itself is cheap, the drivers and receivers are still expensive. And good luck finding any pricing on 4K boxes. Super-expensive. Of course, give them a few years and they’ll be $99 each. But, by that time, you will have missed that train.

The second choice, and the one that could be the ‘big winner’, is data networking. Clearly, 4K is data, so there’s nothing inherent in that bit stream to prevent it from being carried on data cables like 10GbaseT (Category 6a). Easily available, 10G cable and switches are common. Sure, they’re the most expensive of all those cables and switches, but not like fibre boxes. The problem is that a 10G pipe (with a bandwidth of 10 GHz) is not quite big enough for a 12GHz uncompressed video signal. So then we wait for the next data step, which looks like it might be 25 GHz. That would cover two 4K video channels. And they’re already working on Category 8, which will be 40Gbase-T, more than three 4K video signals down one, four-pair copper cable.

TVTechnology September 2015

The problem there is that the Category 8 cable will be limited to 30m (about 100 feet). Is that far enough? The data standards folks say that “30 metres is sufficient to cover 90 per cent of the cabling required in large data centres”. Of course, a data centre is not a TV station. Or is it?

MONEY TALKS I predict that in less than 20 years, you will open the door to a data centre or a TV station or a theatrical lighting control room, or just about anything, and they will all look like data centres.

It’s just that the product produced will be data, or video, or audio, or lighting control, or factory floor automation… They will all look exactly the same. And the reason why this will happen has nothing to do with what you want or what you know. It has to do with money. The data industry is more than 100 times bigger than the broadcasting industry. So those switches and servers on the data side are getting cheaper

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and cheaper while they are getting faster and faster (Moore’s law at work); what we like to call ‘economy of scale’. So, you’re going to go in that direction because you won’t be able to afford any other way. The irony here is that actual bandwidth of Cat 6a is 500 MHz. That’s the standard bandwidth required for Cat 6a. The medium with the lowest bandwidth is in first place (maybe). How do you turn four pairs of 500 MHz into ten gigabits? By putting steps between zero and one, something called PAM. 10Gbase-T runs on PAM 16 which puts 16 steps between zero and one. That means the precision of the cable and of the drivers and receivers must be orders of magnitude better than previous designs.

And, when they get to 40Gbase-T, the only way that makes financial sense is multiple 10G ‘lanes’.

Four 10G lanes in copper and eight lanes in fibre (four send, four receive). So that dream of a single fibre carrying your entire TV station; well, it’s just a dream for now.

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-40 DB @ ½ CLOCK QUAD LINK 3G X 4 = 12 GHZ EXISTING PRODUCTS FEET METRES

CABLE

Figure 1 – Return Loss of Belden 1855A Coax to 12 GHz

COAXING COAX The third medium, I almost forgot, is coax.

The same stuff you have been using to carry video since 1940. Of course, the quality and performance has changed a lot in 75 years. But 4K means a clock at almost 12 GHz, so Belden was totally prepared to start over with new cable designs. We even had new part numbers reserved. As a benchmark, to see where we were, we look our standard cables and statistically tested them. We looked at 30 pieces of each cable, from every machine that makes it, from

-40 DB @ ½ CLOCK DUAL LINK 6 GHZ X2 = 12 GHZ EXISTING PRODUCT FEET METRES

-40 DB @ ½ CLOCK SINGLE LINK 12 GHZ PROPOSED FEET METRES

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every factory that makes it. I’m showing you the return loss (impedance variations) for all 30 pieces for one of these cables in Figure 1. The red line is the expected maximum return loss in the new SMPTE standard. You can see our existing cable is miles away: much, much better.

This was a black day for Belden, because what this told us (and all the other cables were similar results) was that our existing cables were just fine at 12 GHz at 75 ohms. No new cables. No new designs. No hefty price increase. And the second table shows the calculated distance for our

Call: +44 (0) 1981 259020

common sizes of cables at 12 GHz (last column) based on an expected new formula in the SMPTE standard. Are these distance far enough? The industry standard 1694A has a recommended distance of 227 feet (69 metres). Bigger cables can go farther. This is the ‘safe distance’. The maximum distance is somewhere around double this number. Is that far enough? If not, then you’re into fibre.

So there are your choices, barring some technological breakthrough to some other kind of media. Which way do you want to go?

Visit: www.etlsystems.com

EXCELLING IN RF ENGINEERING Introducing an evolution in RF technologies for the RF distribution chain Flexibility. Performance. Reliability.

Showcasing at IBC will be new RF products which provide optimised performance, power consumption reductions, cost savings and rack space savings to teleports and broadcasters.

Call us, email us or see us at IBC 2015 to discuss how we can provide the solution for your RF requirements.

Stand 1.A33

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September 2015 TVTechnology

#CES2016

THE FORMULA FOR A BOLDER, BRIGHTER TOMORROW IS FILLED WITH TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND TANGIBLE APPLICATIONS. IT JUST SO HAPPENS, SO IS CES. REGISTER TODAY.

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KEEPING LIVE STREAMING LIVE

THE CHALLENGE H I G H AVA I L A B I L I T Y Live streaming’s real-time and reliability issues offer opportunities for new solutions that incorporate high availability, which is gaining importance for high-profile live events (e.g. the Olympics or Super Bowl), as well as for 24x7 linear TV services (e.g. AT&T U-verse or BBC iPlayer). In both cases, the stakes are high in terms of maintaining operational efficiency without jeopardizing service uptime.

For the past 15 years, Media Excel has powered the most high-profile video encoding and transcoding deployments worldwide for Fortune 500 operators; from mission-critical U.S. Department of Defense operations to Verizon’s Super Bowl and from LGU+ Google TV to AT&T U-verse’s 300-channel 24x7 services. While most legacy architectures struggle to provide 3 nines of uptime (10 minutes downtime per week), Media Excel’s architecture’s highly-available characteristics have proven delivery of 5 nines of uptime in an N+1 configuration (5 minutes downtime per year), and 7 nines of uptime in an 1+1 configuration (3 seconds downtime per year).

Based on the experience and feedback accumulated, we can solidly present 4 key aspects that operators need to evaluate for a live video encoding solution with highly available services:

High Availability by Design Media Excel’s product line, unlike solutions that mask and mitigate failures, has been designed with highavailability in mind from day one and has powered 7 nines live streaming solutions to more than 12 million pay TV subscribers even in its first year of deployment.

Redundancy For ground, virtual, and cloud deployments, multiple levels of redundancy is considered a critical service component. From the operating system and chassis to upstream and downstream service quality monitoring, a carrier-grade transcoding platform needs to leave nothing unchecked prior to actual deployment.

Media Excel’s product line has been designed as a carrier-grade hardware redundancy as well as evergreen features to compensate for upstream and downstream service disruptions.

High Density vs. High Availability The Media Excel architecture addresses the challenge of high availability, as it ensures full isolation between live services deployed on the same platform and enables the failover automation to individually migrate services across platforms, instead of failing over the entire platform and impacting the uptime of all hosted services.

Heuristics and Monitoring Media Excel’s solutions are constantly probed to provide a comprehensive report on input and output parameters that the high-availability architecture incorporates in real-time into the decision-making process. Those heuristics (e.g., rate fluctuation, frozen frames, packet loss, etc.) are also exposed to the operator and can be fine-tuned to match the SLA expectations of each individual service or group of services.

OUTLOOK As more operators move towards Ultra HD workflows to enhance service quality, service availability is further highlighted as the key factor in safeguarding quality of experience. This is further highlighted by the broader shift towards hybrid (ground and cloud) transcoding architectures, where redundancies and high-availability considerations are elevated.

Media Excel is already on the forefront of Ultra HD and HEVC deployments worldwide and our highly-available architecture delivers 7 nines of uptime.

T O L E A R N M O R E , P L E A S E V I S I T W W W. M E D I A E X C E L . C O M O R C O N TA C T U S AT I N F O @ M E D I A E X C E L . C O M .

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MARKETPLACE – BUYERS GUIDE

How to buy…

broadcast audio consoles When it comes to buying a new audio console, there are a number of factors to consider and price is only one of them, as David Davies finds out

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obustness, reliability, redundancy and cost-efficiency are what one might reasonably describe as evergreens on the requirement list when it comes to shopping for a new broadcast audio console.

But as an exciting/daunting era of integrated workflows and audio-over-IP beckons, the selection of the right desk for a broadcast facility or OB truck is arguably becoming ever more critical.

That’s not to say there isn’t a considerable amount of common ground between contemporary desks: indeed, that has only heightened over the last five to ten years as analogue has conclusively made way for digital workflows.

“As technology has levelled out, broadcast console capabilities have started to converge, but there are distinct differences in their respective functionalities,” says Calrec Audio vice president of sales, Dave Letson.

Accordingly, it remains vital for customers to be absolutely clear about their current requirements

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for any new desk, as well as any additional capacity likely to be required by, for example, new types of project.

FRIENDLY INTERFACES Shifts in industry working practices mean that the ratio of freelance personnel versus permanent staff has significantly tipped in favour of the former over the last decade. With operators likely to be obliged to work across multiple systems in any given time period, easy-to-use interfaces are pivotal.

On behalf of Harman mixers, global marketing director Keith Watson alludes to Studer’s Vistonics UI on its Vista consoles with unique ‘knobs on glass’ technology that provides the operator with visual feedback at the point of operation, and thereby reduces up to 30 per cent eye movement – lessening strain and tiredness.

“Even the most advanced and experienced operators and sound supervisors appreciate easy-to-learn and simple-to-operate equipment,” he says. “Add to that the changes in the industry

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resulting in more freelance operators who need to be flexible as to the employers’ equipment, particularly consoles, and the key importance becomes user interface and ease of learning.”

“Broadcasters are demanding even more versatility and integration from their audio equipment, and in this technologically progressive era, TV companies want to ensure that their systems can produce programmes efficiently and to required specifications” Dave Letson, Calrec Flexibility of operation may also extend to the ability to move room or facility during any given project. Suggesting the Pro Tools S6 control surface, Avid’s marketing director for pro audio,

September 2015 TVTechnology

MARKETPLACE – BUYERS GUIDE

Tony Cariddi, observes that system users “are able to easily travel from room to room, and carry with them an evolving mix, without losing work.

With layouts and Snapshot automation in the Pro Tools HDX engine, mixers can easily build, get to, and control things quickly. Then with EUCON connectivity, broadcasters can control multiple workstations from various manufacturers, providing more flexibility and versatility.”

NETWORKING CAPABILITY Almost as important as these factors, many would now argue, is a consoles readiness for audio over IP (AoIP)-based operation.

Unfortunately, for potential investors, no one single networking technology has assumed the status of all-conquering hero – although in truth, Audinate’s increasingly ubiquitous Dante doesn’t look to be too far away from taking the crown.

The new AES67 interoperability standard – which essentially provides a meeting point for existing networking technologies – looks likely to bring significant clarity to AoIP (indeed, for Letson, it has already given this area of endeavour “a massive boost”). For now, most manufacturers are helping their users by offering as many connectivity options as is feasibly possible. On behalf of Harman, Watson asserts:

TVTechnology September 2015

“We offer more options for I/O control than any other console manufacturer; we support a number of AoIP standards and protocols; and

“Audio over IP-based operation is certainly on its way, but I don’t think it will be this year or even next” Stephan Thyssen, TVN through the D23m [digital I/O system] and Infinity Core [processing engine] can process the largest broadcast feed requirements. We believe putting all your protocol eggs in one basket is a mistake.

We remain ‘network agnostic’ and will continue to offer our customers what they want – the maximum flexibility.”

Letson’s observations run along similar lines. “Calrec’s approach is an agnostic one, and we have pledged to support Dante, Ravenna and AES67. This provides our customers with the option to choose an upgrade path based on its suitability for

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them. But more than that, as all these protocols operate as a perfect companion technology for [connectivity interface] Hydra2, Calrec’s application adds a layer of broadcast-specific features to these products.”

However the future maps out in terms of individual solutions and the extent to which they are adopted, networking capability will undoubtedly continue to rise up the priority list for new system purchases, particularly as broadcasters look to optimise the cost-saving benefits of remote working for some larger-scale productions.

As Letson remarks: “The appeal of audio networking is clear: it saves money, increases efficiency, provides additional security and redundancy, and encourages remote working.”

FUTURE REQUIREMENTS If the feature list of audio consoles operating in their own right is growing ever longer, manufacturers are also having to bear in mind the probable role they will play in increasingly tightly integrated, building-wide configurations.

“Broadcasters are demanding even more versatility and integration from their audio equipment, and in this technologically progressive era, TV companies want to ensure that their systems can produce programmes efficiently and to required specifications,” says Letson.

“For their audio systems to achieve this, console manufacturers have a duty to give greater consideration to their networks as a whole, and to how efficiently they can be controlled.”

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“Large-scale I/O capacity and management including remote and dark fiber configurations are becoming more and more requested,” notes Watson. “Intuitive control surface UI will always be a key demand as well as console weight and size, especially for outside broadcast applications, where advanced materials research and engineering plays a big role. And of course, ease of integration into the studio environment and interfacing with various other equipment.”

Understandably, the companies interviewed for this piece were generally reticent when it came to discussing their plans for this year’s IBC, ahead of the show. But on the evidence of recent years, one should be prepared for exciting developments as manufacturers continue to raise their game in line with their customers’ increasingly exacting expectations.

An OB provider’s perspective The experience of Germany’s TVN Mobile Production with regard to audio consoles over the last few years echoes that of many other OB providers and broadcast centres.

In short, it has needed to maintain a consistent, high-performing specification in its four principal OB trucks while ensuring additional flexibility to accommodate an increasingly diverse range of commitments that spans sports, live music, public gatherings and more. “Reliability, ease of use, and ease of adaptability to multiple applications definitely top the shopping list when it comes to choosing audio consoles,” says TVN audio manager Stephan Thyssen.

After careful consideration of the various options, TVN has over the past few years standardised on Lawo consoles, specifically mc266 desks in all but one of the four trucks, with the other featuring an mc256. Starting this

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winter, the OB provider will begin upgrading all these desks to mark II versions: a process expected to take upwards of a year.

“The ability to update the system [without replacing it outright] was definitely a factor behind the selection of the Lawo desks,” says Thyssen. “Plus, it is very easy to integrate them into a workflow where overall system control is provided by L-S-B Technologies’ VSM (Virtual Studio Manager) technology. Then there is the well-known reliability and robustness of the Lawo consoles.”

There is also the obvious ready access to support provided by a fellow German company.

“Clearly we are based in the same country, so it makes sense on that level,” continues Thyssen.

“But apart from that, the quality of support has always been excellent, with advice at the end of the phone whenever we have required it.”

Nonetheless, he says that “we are always

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keeping a close eye on what other vendors are offering, and there are undoubtedly some other great systems out there: Calrec’s Artemis springs to mind. You have to be aware of how the market is developing.”

One way in which it is generally agreed that the market is developing is the trends towards audio over IP-based operation. Thyssen agrees, but suspects it will take rather longer to achieve mass adoption than some people have suggested: “It is certainly on its way, but I don’t think it will be this year or even next year.”

In the meantime, TVN continues to make extensive use of another, rather more wellestablished connectivity technology. “We still see MADI being used a great deal,” says Thyssen. “It’s interesting to note that a few years ago some people thought it was a ‘dead’ technology, and even I thought it might be for a while… but no! MADI remains hugely popular.”

September 2015 TVTechnology

MARKETPLACE

Amsterdam awaits Believe it or not, IBC is upon us once more. As goes with the territory, the pre-show marketing machine can leave you somewhat blinded by choice if you’re on the lookout for exciting new products to check out in Amsterdam. So, to help you along the way, TV Technology Europe, with the help of our colleagues at the IBC Daily, has distilled a select few products and releases that should be worthy of your attention as you trudge around the RAI’s cavernous halls

The vast Amsterdam RAI complex: bring comfortable shoes!

Aspera ‘breaks barriers’

Axon to celebrate Cerebrum

A new SaaS platform that allows “distance-neutral exchange of any size data over the Internet” is among the IBC highlights for Aspera. Built on the company’s FASP transport technology, Aspera Files allows data to be exchanged and delivered quickly and securely between end users across separate organisations.

Content can be stored and accessed in different cloud and

Axon Digital Design will showcase its latest 4K products and highlight the success of Cerebrum, its broadcast control and monitoring software, at IBC. Axon’s Synapse signal processing product line now offers a range of 4K products including a 4K up and down converter, a distribution amplifier, and two production tool boxes.

Both production Tool Boxes (U4T100 and U4T140) are intended to ease the strain of a four-wire production setup by carrying Vanc and Hanc data such as timecode and embedded audio.

TVTechnology September 2015

on-premise storage systems, and shared with a ‘drag and drop’ between users and trusted organisations regardless of where the content is located.

According to Aspera, this innovation “breaks all the enterprise barriers of conventional file sharing, allowing distanceneutral exchange of any size data over the internet, regardless of network conditions.”

Other IBC highlights include: FASPStream transport, which expands Aspera’s FASP transport technology for live and near-live data streaming, and version 2.3 of Aspera Orchestrator.

STAND 7.B27

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The U4T140 also provides a Dolby E encoder and decoder.

With IP and the next generation of standards a critical industry focus, Axon will also use the event to discuss its work in S2022 and deliver a proof of concept to demonstrate an Ethernet AVB backbone working effectively in a production environment.

STAND 10.A21/B21

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4K, IP and the cloud

Softwaredefined video to the fore

Grass Valley will bring its full stable of cameras, switchers, routers, servers, editing software, automation products and more to IBC, all of which make use of 4K, IP and the cloud.

The tandem of the LDX 86 Universe and K2 Dyno Universe Replay System is among the products Grass Valley will have

Software-defined video innovations that will aid the introduction of Ultra HD, MPEG-DASH and high dynamic range (HDR) services are the focus for Elemental Technologies at IBC. In addition to its full product suite, the company will showcase MPEG-DASH implementation, automatic provisioning of live channels in the cloud, CDNindependent ad insertion, ‘second generation’ 4K with high dynamic range (HDR) and workflows for better optimizing content monetization.“The future is now: MPEG-DASH is widely deployed, 4K UHD services are coming online and HDR is making an entrance,” said Keith Wymbs, Elemental CMO. STAND 4.B80

on show. The system allows any camera or replay position to be set up for regular HD, 4K, or extreme speed acquisition/replay.

All cameras in the LDX series are upgradable to next level formats through the GV-eLicense programmes.

The K2 Dyno is able to support four channels of 4K record

and two channels of 4K playback. Also available for demo will be the GV Convergent SDN. This platform gives operators control over the routing of IP signals to provides transparent control in hybrid/SDI workflows.

Stand 1.D11 and 1.E02

Surround sound upmixing developments A newly developed range of proprietary processes for completing stereo-to-5.1 or 7.1 sound upmixing will be on show during IBC. Combining several technologies – including frequency and time domain energy distribution and neural network artificial intelligence – the advance has been made by

Nugen Audio. It is said to allow producers to target various upmix goals including full stable surrounds, exact downmix matching, and/or full dialogue isolation. The first Nugen Audio product to include this new technology will be the Halo Upmix tool.

STAND 8.D56

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Nicola Pett Sales Executive Tel: +44 (0) 207 354 6000 Email: npett@nbmedia.com

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Trade Show Distribution

• IBC2015

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

US Central US, Canada & New England Vytas Urbonas Associate Publisher Tel:+1-212-378-0400 ext 533 Fax: +1-630-786-3385 Email: vytas@nbmedia.com

2015 NAB Show rt Special Repo

MAM forster s MEDIA INFORMATION b r o ad c a

age and 2015 Stor rders NAB Show reco w previe

EDITORIAL PLANNER 2015 Edition

James McKeown Executive Editor Tel: +44 (0) 20 7354 6002 Email: jmckeown@nbmedia.com

Then & Nowring

Mobile New

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Event Coverage

Features

• IBC2015 Product Preview

• Broadcast over IP • Feature interviews • Expert commentaries • Sharpshooter series • Audio for broadcast • User reports

Product Reviews

• Fibre, cable and connectors

41

Buyers’ Guides

• Audio consoles and equipment/accessories

Publication Dates • Ad close: Aug 18 • Distribution: Aug 28

US West Pete Sembler Tel: +1-650-238-0324 Fax: +1-650-238-0263 Email: psembler@nbmedia.com US Mid-Atlantic & Southeast.

3URGXFW 6KRZFDVH &ODVVLÀ HG $GV Michele Inderrieden Tel: +1-212-378-0400 x523 Fax: +1-301-234-6303 Email: minderrieden@nbmedia.com

September 2015 TVTechnology

MARKETPLACE ‘More than just resolution’

Problem solving with Ross

A 4K version of the Venice ingest and production server is among the highlights of Rohde & Schwarz’s ‘more than just resolution’ showcase at IBC. The Venice 4K records directly to 4K without the need for stitching processes, and synchronously converts material to HD-SDI and saves it as a file.

This parallel generation of both HD and 4K content provides TV studios with a feasible transition option until content is broadcast entirely in 4K, the company said.

Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) will also present a number of new products for post production and broadcast workflows with the next generation of the R&S Clipster mastering station making its debut.

Based on new hardware architecture, the updated device will include additional I/O, image processing and codec acceleration capabilities. The R&S Clipster is available in a number of different flavours from a starter version through to a dedicated IMF workflow version. STAND 7.E25

Ross Video is heading to Amsterdam with a specific message: to show how its technology can be used to provide complete solutions for different types of product environments. Virtual and augmented reality, news editorial, sports stadiums, legislative assembly and graphics are amongst the scenarios under the spotlight. Necessary for all the set-ups being demonstrated at IBC 2015 are Ross’ infrastructure products. New openGear modules will be shown that offer SFP-based SMPTE 2022 IP and VSF TR1 JPEG-2000

conversion. Ross’ infrastructure products include the H.264/ MPEG-4 AVC contribution encoders, 3G/HD/SD Distribution Amplifiers, Frame Synchronizers, and MC1 Master Control.

Among other products on hand for Ross include its Acuity production switcher and Carbonite Black (pictured) production engine with 3ME control panels.

STAND 9.C10.

Live action video redesigned Vislink will use IBC to showcase Point of View Live, a new offering that combines the broadcast-quality HD micro transmitter HeroCast with a dedicated wireless receive unit, the ProC HeroCast was developed in partnership with GoPro and is designed to work specifically with the GoPro Hero 4 and Hero 3+ product lines. Paired with Vislink’s technology, GoPro cameras can now transmit live HD video wirelessly. HEROCast can be mounted on helmets, the body, and a range of other applications.

Vislink will also showcase 4K wireless video transmission using its UltraCoder encoder working in conjunction with a new UltraDecoder that will be unveiled at the show.

STAND 1.A69

Hardwarebased H.265 encoder A completely hardware-based portable HEVC H.265 encoder is being launched at IBC. Vitec’s MGW Ace, which also features legacy H.264 capabilities, could be used for live news broadcasts or within sports stadiums.

Equipped with various I/Os and offering low power consumption using Vitec’s HEVC compression chip, the device is considered “ideal for any high-quality audio or video streaming, as well as KLV metadata requirements whether in the field or on the move.”

HEVC (H.265) compression reduces network bandwidth by up to 50 per cent compared to H.264.

Vitec will also show its MGW D265 Portable HEVC Decoder for the first time at IBC. The H.265 and H.264 IP Decoder is specifically designed to provide decoding for any IPTV and fullmotion-video application.

STAND 7.G16

CONTACTS EDITORIAL +44 (0) 20 7354 6002

SALES +44 (0)207 354 6000

EDITORIAL

ADVERTISING

PRODUCTION

EXECUTIVE EDITOR James McKeown jmckeown@nbmedia.com

SALES MANAGER Ben Ewles bewles@nbmedia.com

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Davis White

EDITOR Will Strauss wstrauss@nbmedia.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Nicola Pett npett@nbmedia.com

HEAD OF DESIGN, HERTFORD Kelly Sambridge ksambridge@nbmedia.com

CONTRIBUTORS David Fox, Adrian Pennington, Barrie Smith, Ann-Marie Corvin, David Davies, Christina Fox.

U.S. MIDWEST, NEW ENGLAND & CANADA Vytas Urbonas vurbonas@nbmedia.com

PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE Jason Dowie jdowie@nbmedia.com

NEWBAY MEDIA LLC CORPORATE

U.S. WEST Pete Sembler psembler@nbmedia.com

PRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Palm CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Paul Mastronardi CONTROLLER Jack Liedke GROUP CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Denise Robbins VICE PRESIDENT OF WEB DEVELOPMENT Joe Ferrick PUBLISHER Steve Connolly sconnolly@nbmedia.com

TVTechnology September 2015

U.S. SOUTHEAST AND MID-ATLANTIC, US CLASSIFIEDS & PRODUCT SHOWCASE Michele Inderrieden minderrieden@nbmedia.com

TV Technology Europe ISSN 2053-6674 (Print) ISSN 2053-6682 (Online) is published four times annually

by NewBay Media. ©2015 by NewBay Media.

All rights reserved.

Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London, N18LN, England Free subscriptions are available to professional broadcasting and audio visual equipment users.

Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome for review – send to James McKeown at the feedback address.

HONG KONG, CHINA, ASIA/PACIFIC Wengong Wang wwg@imaschina.com ITALY Raffaella Calabrese rcalabrese@broadcast.it LATIN AMERICA Susana Saibene susana.saibene@gmail.com

42

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