Oser Communications Group
AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH NAB
Las Vegas Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Blonder Tongue Laboratories Debuts New HD-SDI Encoder
Broadcast Media Keeping Pace with a Rapidly Evolving Digital Ecosystem By Will Offeman, WideOrbit Chief Product Officer
Not long ago, I predicted that within the next five years the convergence of linear broadcast and digital advertising will become the norm, across both the buy-side and the sell-side. WideOrbit has made, and continues to make, incremental innovations to help bring the industry closer to realizing that convergence. WideOrbit was started 20 years ago with a simple goal: to make it easier to buy and sell media. With this in mind, we built our flagship product, WO Traffic, a traffic, sales, and billing system for over-the-air TV stations. Digital transformation is rapidly moving TV and radio advertising away from just a single spot broadcast over-the-air, with a large, unduplicated reach, to include addressable, targeted ads delivered digitally. To help our customers adapt to this shift, WideOrbit built Digital Orders modules into our WO Traffic and WO Network platforms, allowing broadcasters and networks to sell, invoice, and report on linear and digital ads together. While Digital Orders simplifies multi-channel order execution, we’re also extending our sales tools to enable the creation of digital proposals, allowing sales teams to effectively manage linear, digital, social, and audience extension buys in a single proposal. These sales tools encompass the prospecting, pitching, pipeline, pricing, and packaging process, including cross-platform campaign monitoring and stewardship. Aware that the digital ecosystem is evolving at breakneck speed, we acquired several
Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc., a leading U.S.-based designer and manufacturer of video telecommunications and cable transmission technologies, has just announced the newly updated NXG Platform with Quad HD-Serial Digital Interface (HD-SDI) solutions. This product and more will be on display for the virtual NAB 2021, highlighting the power and flexibility of Blonder Tongue’s solutions, which enable simple and cost-efficient complete re-distribution of IP and Broadcast video services. Used by broadcasters, video service providers and enterprise facilities, Blonder Tongue's highly customizable IP video transcoders, trans-modulators, receivers, and re-multiplexers are critical for modernizing and future-proofing video systems without costly updates or replacing existing infrastructure. The technologies streamline new deployments and can extend the life of existing equipment by supporting new and future capabilities. Blonder Tongue’s NXG Platform is a highly customizable, module-based IP digital video processing platform designed for delivering next generation video services on any generation of coax or ethernet wiring – without the need for replacing existing infrastructure. The carrier-grade 5-rack-unit (RU) NXG Platform, as well as the new compact 2 RU NXG Edge both feature swappable blades for complete customization to meet the specific technological needs of any broadcast facility or enterprise location, including hospitality, educational, MDU residential, healthcare,
BOOTH #N3238 SNAPSOUND Gets Dolby Atmos Certified with Help from Vintage King
BOOTH #C2637 Ad Insertion Platform Integrates Zixi for Targeted Ad Delivery
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By Eric Allen, Content Manager, Vintage King Audio
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While many are racing to incorporate immersive sound into their post-production rooms, SNAPSOUND has been certified by Dolby since 2019. Vintage King’s Chris Bolitho helped owner Zach Seivers create a Dolby Atmos room with an Avid S6 control surface and Meyer Sound monitors. Why did Zach make the leap to Dolby Atmos? “I felt quite cynical about Atmos in the early days of the format. Thankfully, my assumptions about the future of immersive sound were completely wrong,” said Zach. “Two big things changed. One, Dolby and Avid worked hard to make the tools and workflows simpler and easier to create mixes in Atmos. And two, Netflix (and later other platforms) began fully supporting and encouraging filmmakers to work in the format.” Making the switch to the S6 wasn’t complicated for Zach. SNAPSOUND’s owner had previously worked with other Avid control surfaces and was excited to take advantage of everything the brand’s latest creation had to offer. “Having worked on D-Commands, D-Controls, S3, etc., I found the sensitivity and smoothness of the [Avid S6’s] faders to be so special,” Zach said. “I honestly found the physical connection from my creative intention to the output to be incredible and it truly affected the quality and speed of my mixes.” When it came time to choose the monitors for his Dolby Atmos room, Zach’s prior listening experiences with Meyer Sound products proved to be critical. He was
Zixi, the industry leader for enabling dependable, live broadcast-quality video over any-IP, and award winning architect of the Software-Defined Video Platform (SDVP), announced an integration and partnership with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), the market leading provider of ad insertion solutions for broadcast and OTT environments with the patented DAIConnect SSAI platform, allowing content providers different ways to monetize live channels. DAIConnect allows one-to-one replacements of ad breaks for live streams as well as one-to-one insertions of ad breaks for on-demand content, allowing the manipulation of the stream manifest without altering customers’ video content, and is composed of multiple modules that can be used in combination. The Ad Break Composer is the core component creating a user targeted Ad Pod; built on editable templates, mixing ads that can come from one or more ad servers or SSPs, and other type of contents like ad bumpers, interstitials, promos and templates catered to customers’ needs. The AIP Manifest Manipulator inserts the created Ad Pod at the manifest level for each end user, and all ads and content are transcoded on the customer video profiles to avoid poor user experiences. The AIP Optimizer optimizes value of the ad break inventory enabling unified header bidding auction by connecting multiple demand sources to retrieve the highest revenue for each opportunity. AIP Insight enables the customer to see and analyze data about ad sales, viewership, performance, etc. AIP customers can ingest distribution feeds into the Zixi SDVP, control the SCTE35 markers and leverage Zixi live transcoding for OTT distribution in HLS or MPEGDASH, easily enabling ad insertion and monetization of these feeds. Combining DAIConnect with the SDVP allows the customer to have an OPEX model subscription that includes additional OTT services to answer broadcasters and operator’s
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Tuesday, October 12, 2021
The ACE-Flex Series: Taking Automated Captioning to the Next Level By Kathryn Armelie, Manager, Link Electronics
Marketing
Link Electronics unveils the newest addition to the ACE Series product line, the ACE-Flex Series. These Automated Captioning Engines use the latest in ASR technology to convert speech into text and caption data for up to four channels of audio simultaneously. Using a cuttingedge neural network linguistics algorithm, the ACE-Flex Series converts speech to text and sends out fully compliant captioning data, through traditional
broadcast or OTT streaming. This system is designed for customizable caption displays, and compatible with most closed captioning encoders or devices. The ACE-Flex Series is ideal for high-volume, multi-channel closed captioning environments, including broadcast hubs, government entities with concurrent meetings, corporations captioning simultaneous events, and universities captioning various live content or any situation where up to four channels of audio require captioning at the same time. More than 20 language packages are
Broadcasters Show Daily included, with the ability to translate and caption in multiple languages for more robust accessibility. The ACE-Flex Series has a web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) that contains an event scheduler and EPG functionality, allowing for different audio inputs and caption outputs on demand, with selectable onscreen caption location and position. The unit comes preset with standard audio and caption data outputs for Link Electronics encoders, making setup for the device quick and efficient. Continued on Page 9
ing of all inbound and outbound streams, your staff can easily see at a glance that signals are coming and going as they should. If there is an issue, you can quickly drill down and get the details you need to best address the problem. Each unit is listed in summary or detailed form so you can see exactly what is going on, including the last check in time, system health and critical statistics for each individual stream. The second essential part of a comprehensive monitoring solution is to be notified when things go wrong. The
Kimberly Oser Publisher Anthony Socci Vice President of Sales Yasmine Brown Production Manager/Art Director AJ Flick Senior Editor Jeanie Catron Associate Editor Susan Stein Customer Service Manager Marcos Morhaim Senior Account Manager Alisha Dicochea Account Manager
D2Monitor Solves Three Key Stream Monitoring Challenges As the number of streams grows within your operation, so does the challenge of monitoring each endpoint and stream to make sure they are working as expected. D2D Technologies answers the challenge with D2Monitor, an enterprise level monitoring and alerting platform that provides a comprehensive view into all of their systems. The first key to effective monitoring is to have a good centralized dashboard that consolidates the critical real time status from the devices and streams into a single view. By centralizing the monitor-
AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH NAB
Tara Neal Director of Operations Hannah Stefanovich Show Logistics & Distribution
D2Monitor system aggregates the SNMP alerts from each of the D2D systems and can be configured to automatically send the alerts over email to your on-call staff. Alerts can include loss of sync of any stream or one of the many data points that is continuously monitored. By using D2Monitor, you can get the alerts and notifications you need to maintain a high Continued on Page 9
Enrico Cecchi European Sales Broadcaster Show Daily is published by Oser Communications Group ©2021 All rights reserved. Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300/Fax: 520.721.6300 European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy www.osercommunicationsgroup.com
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Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Insulated Wire Inc. Offers Unprecedented Reliability Since IW introduced its High Performance 75 Ω cables, it has continued developing this technology to offer improved performance for 4K/8K/SDI applications. Precision 75 Ω N and high frequency BNC assemblies are being used in test and system applications up to 12 GHz, with customer proven performance to 18 GHz. It is currently prototyping a new HD-BNC male design for 1151/75 and 75 Ω BNC male for 2801/75 to provide lowest attenuation with excellent phase stability over temperature performance to 18 GHz. To support customer demand in new and existing high power markets, IW is pleased to announce the introduction of 7506. With an outer diameter of 0.780 inches, its newest 50 Ω cable provides a flexible alternative to similar line size cables with the advantages of stranded center conductor, laminated, EPTFE dielectric and Santoprene outer jacket to provide excellent attenuation and phase stability with flexure, and over temperature. Interconnect options include 1 5/8 EIA flange and 7/16 connec-
tors. Solder clamp termination style is used for all connector types to ensure optimum performance at high power levels. 1 5/8 and 7/8 EIA flange designs are also available for use with its established 4806 cable. With proven power handling of 17KW at 13.56MHz, 3KW at 1 GHz, and a range of interconnect options available, 4806 is an increasingly popular selection for broadcast transmission systems. IW 5 0Ω cables are used in custom configurations for high performance audio applications. Multi-coax composites using stranded center conductor cables are employed due to extremely low attenuation achieved by its low density PTFE proprietary lamination process and silver plated copper conductor and double shield design. Founded in 1970, Insulated Wire, Inc. developed a unique PTFE lamination process and applied it to the manufacturing of wire and cable. This process allowed IW to manufacture products of unprecedented reliability along with smaller diameters. Combining the lamination process with a
Caroline Beasley Named 2021 National Radio Award Recipient Beasley Media Group Chief Executive Officer Caroline Beasley has been named as the 2021 National Radio Award
Recipient. A 38-year veteran of the radio industry, she was appointed CEO of Beasley
Broadcasters Show Daily patented shield design allowed IW to become one of the leaders in low loss microwave transmission lines utilizing both solid and expanded PTFE dielectrics. In 1988, IW expanded its operations and created the IW Microwave Products Division, which offers a wide range of microwave cable assemblies that operate from the low MHz to 70 GHz in frequency. These cables, coupled with a broad array of connectors, allow IW to create custom assemblies for both military and commercial applications. IW strives to stay ahead of the everchanging military/commercial microwave markets by implementing new products and processes. These include cables with stable phase performance over both temperature and flexure, its Tuf-Flex™ cables which offer compression resistance up to 250 pounds per linear inch, polyurethane jacketed cables for low smoke/zero halogen applications and stranded center conductor cable for increased flexibility. Its high performance 75 Ω cables are being used in the video tracking and surveillance areas of UAVs, and satellite launch vehi-
Media Group in 2017. She previously held several senior-level positions, including executive vice president and chief financial officer. Beasley joined the company, founded by her father George Beasley, in 1983. Beasley serves as the chair of the BMI Board of Directors, as director of
cles. IW has developed special procedures to work with the increasing demand for smaller cables and connectors without compromising performance. IW’s engineering staff can help with questions that may occur during any phase of a project. This includes assistance for cable/connector configuration in racks, “black boxes,” and other systems where transmission line performance is critical, specialized custom designs and anything in between. IW can also be on-site to help with cable routing and installation. Engineering support is also available for optimal cable/connector selection for unique applications. IW operates two facilities; headquarters and cable manufacturing are located in Bayport, New York, and the Microwave Products Division, responsible for the production and sale of all microwave assemblies, is located in Bethel, Connecticut. For more information, visit booth #C8239, go to www.iw-microwave.com, call 203.791.1999 or email sales@ iw-microwave.com.
the Beasley Broadcast Group and on the FCC Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and the NAB Leadership Foundation Board of Directors. She is the immediate past chair of the Joint Board of the National Association of Broadcasters Board of Directors and is a former NAB Radio Board Chair.
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Broadcasters Show Daily WideOrbit (Cont’d. from p. 1)
companies to provide both a digital ad server for direct-sold orders, as well as a programmatic ad exchange. Our digital ad server supports VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) and the decisioning engine evaluates CPMs, priorities, IAB compete codes, geo-locations, frequency-capping, plus custom audience targeting via Lotame and Tru Optik. Our programmatic solution, WO Ad eXchange, serves as a Supply Side Platform and supports the Blonder Tongue Laboratories (Cont’d. from p. 1)
business parks, or stadiums. The new NXG-SDI-4 blade is the first HD-SDI interface for the NXG Platform, and enables users to encode up to 4 SD-SDI, HD-SDI or 3G-SDI sources for custom IP and RF re-distribution. This includes encoding to HEVC/H.265, MPEG-2/H.264, or MPEG-2, while supporting resolutions up to 1080p60. Audio can also be encoded to MPEG-2, AAC, AC3 (Dolby Digital) and MP3 formats. It’s an ideal solution for the broadcaster Vintage King (Cont’d. from p. 1)
astounded by their output each time he worked with them and thought they would be the perfect fit. “Since I work on a lot of projects that go to festivals and are screened theatrically, I felt like the Meyer Acheron Designer had the effect of giving me the size I need in the front channels to emulate a theatrical experience in a smaller Zixi (Cont’d. from p. 1)
needs. With the integration of the SDVP, AIP users can now leverage Zixi for live transcoding and seamless delivery of broadcast quality content over IP. The Zixi protocol is a resilient congestion and network-aware protocol that adjusts to varying network conditions and employs patented, dynamic Forward Error Correction techniques for error-free video transport over IP with 99.9999% uptime at minimal latency. It provides best-in-class security with DTLS and AES encryption, allows for protected multicast transport, provides bandwidth efficiency and enables encoder backpressure. Zixi ZEN Master is also integrated to enable users to manage large-scale configurations and orchestrate, analyze, monitor, Link Electronics (Cont’d. from p. 4)
The ACE-Flex Series is a serverbased solution housed in your own studio. As an on-premises solution, it is free from the requirements of connecting to the Internet, allowing for a secure captioning option. The unit accepts up to four simultaneous inputs of SDI/HD-SDI with D2Monitor (Cont’d. from p. 4)
quality operation. Once you have a good view into your systems and effective alerting if things go wrong, then your focus can shift to proactively identifying potential issues before they happen. A great exam-
IAB OpenRTB protocol for communication with Demand Side Platforms. We’re also working on an addressable project that will allow a playlist to be sent to both broadcast automation and streaming ad servers. Broadcast spots on the live stream can either benefit from extended reach or be replaced with addressable ads. WideOrbit continues to focus on meeting the needs of our supply-side customers as they navigate this digital transformation. That includes everything from NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) to FAST (Free
community, cruise ships and others who heavily rely on HD-SDI equipment interconnects. NXG supports remote management capability, as well as ‘copy and paste’ provisioning configurations to reduce operating and maintenance costs as well as rack space, and power requirements. This new solution is one of the latest in Blonder Tongue Laboratories’ growing portfolio of critical solutions and innovations, which includes the Clearview HDMI2 QAM/IP, the recently Updated Aircaster™ AQT8 Series
room,” Zach stated. “The surround monitors were perhaps an even more important decision to make given that they play a more integral role in Dolby Atmos, and the UP-4slims offered a couple of exciting features which, to my knowledge, no other manufacturer could offer.” Vintage King’s technical team worked with Zach to ensure that the installation process at SNAPSOUND went smoothly. Lead Technician Frank
alert and report on live video streams and devices across the Zixi Enabled Network of customers, integrated hardware and software applications and platforms and service providers standardized on Zixi. The SDVP’s Intelligent Data Platform (IDP) provides the transparency and control needed to guarantee reliable operation. Using advanced analytics, machine learning and AI, the IDP can intelligently alert users to problems before they happen through alerts, graphs, maps, charts and data visualizations that enable users to quickly interpret vast amounts of stream data and ensure broadcast-quality results. “The breadth of the features and functionality the SDVP provides allows our mutual customers to realize the best video quality with ultra-low latency,” said Laurent Potesta, CEO, Ad Insertion Platform. “Zixi
embedded audio, balanced analog audio, or balanced AES. Once a captioning task is complete, the ACE-Flex Series can create the files of your choice, such as a caption file, subtitle file, time stamped transcript, a Word document, plain text document, or a variety of other file types. The ACE-Flex Series is also available in a convenient bundle to include SCE-492 ple of this are variations in SRT Packet Loss or stream PCR Jitter that can indicate issues in the transmission chain which may need to be addressed. Rather than wait for an on-air event to occur, you can be proactive in maintaining the stream and network health so that you avoid a catastrophic issue. By continu-
Ad Supported Streaming Television) via OTT, to addressable ad enablement within vMVPDs. The prediction I referenced earlier still feels like a safe bet – within five years, digital/linear convergence will be the norm, across both the buy-side and the sell-side. But as media companies extend further into digital, advertisers who are currently digital-first will discover the unmatchable value of unduplicated reach, and of providing a shared, common experience – those “moments” and more.
Blonder Tongue Labs Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. is the oldest designer and manufacturer of telecommunications and cable television video transmission technology in the USA. The majority of its products continue to be designed and built in its state-of-the-art New Jersey facility, which has been the company's home for more than 50 years. Blonder Tongue Labs offers U.S.-based engineering and manufacturing excellence with an industry reputation for deliverVerschuuren was able to move quickly and have the room ready in only one day. “I think we literally had the whole room up and running in less than 12 hours,” Zach said. “That really surprised me and it’s a testament to his talent and experience that he was able to make it happen.” Thanks to the Dolby Atmos, Zach has already seen an increase in client interest at Snapsound.
has over 100,000 global instances, and the integration easily enables ad insertion and monetization of these feeds.” “DAIConnect is an innovative SSAI platform, allowing content providers different ways to monetize live channels,” said John Wastcoat, SVP Alliances and Marketing, Zixi. “Our customers are constantly looking for new and unique ways to create revenue streams and this partnership helps them do that.” About Zixi Zixi provides a cloud based and on-premises Software-Defined Video Platform that enables reliable broadcast-quality video delivery over any IP network, any protocol, any cloud provider and any edge device. The company offers technologies for broadcasters, enterprises, over-the-top video
caption encoders to create a complete automated captioning and encoding package. The ACE-Flex Series is backed by Link Electronics highly specialized engineering team, offering white glove setup and 24/7 technical support after the first year with warranty. The ACE-Flex Series will be highlighted at the 2021 NAB show at booth
ously monitoring each stream over time, you can use the D2Monitor system to identify minor issues before they become critical. To learn more about how D2D Technologies solves monitoring challenges, come see the D2Monitor solution in action at the D2D Technologies booth
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so many advertisers strive to create. So instead of mining the minutiae of demographic data hoping to serve, “The right ad to the right audience at the right time,” advertisers will come to understand the power of, “A common ad served to a common audience at different times,” to the benefit of those broadcasters who are ready to offer both. For more information, visit booth #N3238, go to www.wideorbit.com, or call 415.675.6700.
ing ultra-high reliability products. As a leader in cable television system design, the company provides service operators and systems integrators with comprehensive solutions for the management and distribution of digital video, IPTV, and high-speed data services, as well as RF broadband distribution over fiber, IP, and Coax networks for homes and businesses.
For more information, visit booth #C2637, go to www.blondertongue.com, email information@blondertongue.com, or call 732.679.4000.
“In all honesty, it already has happened,” Zach stated. “To be able to say that we can confidently work in the format has been a great advantage when speaking with clients who want their work to be screened in the best possible format on streaming platforms.” For more information, go to www. vintageking.com, call 818.237.9181 or email customerservice@vintageking.com.
providers, and mobile service providers around the world. The SDVP makes it easy and economical for media companies to source, manage, localize, and distribute live events and 24/7 live linear channels in broadcast QoS, securely and at scale, using any form of IP network or Hybrid IP environments. Zixi provides enhanced control in large complex networks with ZEN Master, a live video orchestration and telemetry control plane that provides visual tools to configure, orchestrate, and monitor live broadcast channels and events across industry protocols. Over 10+ years, the Zixi Enabled Network (ZEN) has grown to over 250 OEM and service providers and serves well over 700 customers representing most of the top media brands around the world with 20,000+ channels delivered daily. For more information, go to www.zixi.com.
#N6518, along with the full ACE Series line and other Link Electronics products such as caption encoders and decoders, signal generators, cross converters and more.
For more information, visit booth #N6518, go to www.linkelectronics.com, call 800.776.4411 or email sales@ linkelectronics.com.
#C3139. You can also download the free white paper How to Solve 3 Key Monitoring Challenges with D2Monitor at www.d2dtechnologies.com.
For more information, visit booth #C3139, call 904.323.4777 or go to www.d2dtechnologies.com.