AV Specialist Vol. 107 by Tim Jones

Gearhouse flies high with Emirates Economic adversity drives change

Christie scores at Confederations Cup

Broadcast graphics build the brand Building a film community in Africa See us at

Digital workflow: from design to delivery

Contents AV Specialist Volume 107

Gearhouse SA flies high with Emirates Gearhouse South Africa's Durban and Johannesburg branches combined resources and skills to provide all technical production - including rigging, sound, lighting, AV and sets required for the high profile launch of Emirates Airline’s new non-stop service between Durban and Dubai.

Building the brand “Branding” is a word that was rarely heard in television circles just a few years ago writes Dick Hobbs. Today it has become a key part of any station’s operations. In the multi-channel world it is vitally important that audiences can recognise your channel to keep them coming back.

23 The Confederations Cup held in South Africa during June provided broadcasters an opportunity to test themselves before the FIFA World Cup 2010.

Despite the sub zero temperatures and windy conditions, Gearhouse South Africa, under contract to VWV/Till Dawn, contrived to produce a spectacular closing ceremony for the FIFA Confederations Cup competition, which will long live in the memory of both live and television audiences.

Circulation Anne Ebrahim ann@avspecialist.tv Designer Rajiv Gopalan rajiv@avspecialist.tv Advertising sales Africa, Middle East, UK Richie Ebrahim richie@avspecialist.tv

Looking forward at IBC It may seem like an obvious thing to say, but the highlight of the big broadcast event of the year, IBC, is going to be the chance to look at the products of the future.

Publisher & Managing Editor Kevan Jones kevan@avspecialist.tv Feature Editor Dick Hobbs dick@avspecialist.tv

Christie has a ball at the Confederations Cup

From thought to theatre in one digital stream Last year CanDo Media took a bold step in the light of diminishing SABC work and decided to produce a Xhosalanguage feature film.

Publisher’s Note

Europe Emmanuel Archambeaud earchambeaud@wanadoo.fr Represented in the Middle East by: AV Specialist MENA FZ LLC PO Box 502314, Dubai United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 (0)4 391-4718 Fax: +971 (0)4 345-2898 e-mail: mena@avspecialist.tv Represented in Southern Africa by: Doddington Direct cc PO Box 3939, Honeydew, 2040, South Africa Tel: +27 (0)11 434-4227 Fax: +27 (0)865253852 Represented in Europe by: Def & Communication 48 Bd Jean-Jaurès, 92110 Clichy, France Tel: +33 (0)1 4730 7180 Fax: +33 (0)1 4730 0189

Ave qualified circulation (Jan - June 2009) 5404

With IBC just a short way away one of the questions broadcasters and suppliers will be asking themselves is just how long the current downturn is going to continue. Without a doubt, any commercial broadcasters who’ve relied on advertising revenues to sustain their operations are hurting. Subscriptionbased services seem to have held up reasonably well but even they’re looking at offering lower-cost packages to maintain subscriber volumes and minimize churn. In South Africa, the SABC has slashed its budget for local productions, informing independent producers that only 12 of the 47 productions commissioned in April will go ahead this year. The other 35 have either been cancelled or delayed. Actors, writers, producers and directors picketed the broadcaster’s Radio Park offices in protest at the decision to slash budgets for local programmes by R500-million (aprox US$60 million) while a spokesman for the SA Screen Federation predicted that in the next 18 months, “88 thousand people from within the production community will be unemployed and several production companies will close”. Elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East the situation isn’t that different. In Dubai, Jordan and Cairo, independent broadcasters and productions companies who’ve set up in the media freezones have been laying off staff and closing their doors – and throughout the continent, state-run broadcasters have been pulling in their horns. One concern is that people leaving the industry during the crisis will be lost to us forever. It’s hard work operating as an independent supplier to a fickle industry and talented individuals who leave now will be difficult to replace when the market turns.

Product

news Belden showcase HD products at IBC At IBC, Belden is set to focus on the cable developments for HD which offer extended broadcast quality. Visitors will be able to see the results of Belden’s work to upgrade and improve cables for both studio and field use, as well as cables for use in permanent installations. Belden cables deliver Installable Performance promising to deliver unequalled performance after installation thanks to the high-density nitrogen-gas-injected foam dielectric and use of both small and closed-cell bubbles. New developments and products which will be shown include the new hybrid fiber SMPTE311 HD camera assembly and HDMI cables for HD audio and video. The new Belden hybrid fiber SMPTE311 HD Camera Assembly was designed specifically for high definition (HD) fibered broadcast cameras and is ideal for Studio and Field Camera Applications, requiring multiplex audio and video signals and power. Adding range to reliability, these new Belden HD Camera Assemblies enable transmission distances of up to 4 thousand meters.

MediaMesh makes IBC debut Digital Rapids’ new MediaMesh digital media distribution system will make its IBC debut. Building on the Digital Rapids C2 media delivery framework, MediaMesh enables content ranging from ad spots and syndicated shows to long-form programming and digital cinema features to be transferred between content providers, contributors and distribution partners efficiently, automatically and at substantial cost savings over traditional physical ‘tape-and-truck’ delivery. The MediaMesh RX receiving/repackaging appliance provides robust functionality at the receiving end of the digital distribution chain with integrated inventory management, visual QC, conforming, repackaging and playout through an intuitive graphical interface. The C2 data delivery software will also be demonstrated on its own, combining exceptionally fast transfer speeds and reliability with parallel transfers, simultaneous send/receive and receipt verification for outstanding efficiency when distributing large files to multiple recipients.

Apple Updates Final Cut Studio with More Than 100 New Features

MediaDeck GX Playout Solution At IBC2009, Omneon will make its European debut of the new MediaDeck GX complete channel-playout solution that combines proven video server playout, worldclass graphics, and advanced audio processing, all of which operate under the control of the user's preferred automation system. Offering rich branding and master control functionality, the MediaDeck GX system makes

Apple has announced a significant update to Final Cut Studio with more than 100 new features and new versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Color and Compressor. Final Cut Studio features Final Cut Pro 7 which expands Apple’s ProRes codec family to support virtually any workflow and includes Easy Export for one step output to a variety of formats and iChat Theater support for real-time collaboration. “With 1.4 million users and 50 percent of the market,* Final Cut Pro is the number one professional video editing application,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The new Final Cut Studio includes more than 100 new features and dramatically expands Apple’s ProRes family of codecs so editors can work in the studio with the highest quality video or on location at low bandwidths.”

it easier and more affordable for broadcasters to launch new services or to make incremental additions to their existing channel lineup. In extending the MediaDeck system to include leading real-time graphics and branding technology, Omneon offers customers a powerful video processing platform that simplifies workflows and speeds deployment of channel chains. 2

The new DeckLink SDI gives you true broadcast 10 bit HD/SD-SDI capture/playback for US$295! For less than the cost of a box of videotapes, the new DeckLink SDI is the world’s most affordable and smallest capture card ever! DeckLink SDI works in true 10 bit SD and HD plus includes RS-422 deck control and reference input. Now you get a fantastic solution for editing, paint and design that meets tough broadcast technical standards.

Built in SD Keyer DeckLink SDI includes an internal SD keyer that lets you layer RGBA images over the live video input. You can also use the included Photoshop plug-ins for broadcast graphics! Use the free developer SDK to access all the DeckLink SDI features for Win, Mac, and Linux.

Connect to any SDI Deck or Monitor If you’re looking for an SDI solution that’s perfect for use with SDI decks, or large facilities with SDI routers, then DeckLink SDI gives you incredible 10 bit quality SD/HD-SDI capture and playback on Windows, Mac OS X and now Linux computers. DeckLink SDI also includes blackburst/tri-sync compatible reference input and 8 channels of SDI embedded audio.

Windows™, Mac OS X™ and now Linux™! DeckLink SDI is fully compatible with Apple Final Cut Pro™, Adobe Premiere Pro™, Adobe After Effects™, Adobe Photoshop™, Fusion™ and any DirectShow™ or QuickTime™ based software. DeckLink SDI instantly switches between 1080HD, 720HD, NTSC and PAL video formats.

Choose Your Video Quality DeckLink SDI gives you the freedom to choose the compressed or uncompressed video ﬁle format best for the work your doing. Easily work in JPEG, DVCPRO HD, ProRes(Mac), DV, HDV Playback and even perfect quality 10bit and 8bit uncompressed codecs!

DeckLink SDI

US$295

Meets Tough Broadcast Speciﬁcations SDI Eye Pattern in HD

SDI Jitter Performance in HD

SDI Eye Pattern in SD

SDI Jitter Performance in SD

Learn more today att www.blackmagic-design.com

IBC 2009, Amsterdam September 11â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 15, 2009 Booth 11-C20

The first choice for digital 35mm cameras. The Fujinon PL-Mount Zoom Lens for the highest resolution.

Product

news Innovation, Performance, Passion – It’s Gotta Be A Grass At IBC 2009, Grass Valley will present yet another strong showing of technologies and systems demonstrations that support a wide range of innovative broadcast and professional production applications and give users high performance, value, and a fast return on investment. The new Grass Valley Kayenne series of visions mixers, unveiled for the first time in April at NAB, offers many new groundbreaking features that once again puts Grass Valley at the forefront of switcher innovation. This nextgeneration product line offers a range of configurable mainframes that can include from 1.5 to 4.5 mix/effects (M/Es). It also features a newly designed panel with definable color change RGB buttons and a menu navigation system optimized for touchscreen use. All Source and function name displays use organic LEDs with high contrast and 178 degree viewing angles. An array of new features is included in this new interface that gives the user unique tools to better manage live production workflows. Grass Valley has applied the new Kayenne technology to the popular Kayak HD vision mixer family providing a new range of control panels for the mixer – 1 M/E through 4 M/E. This Kayenne XL Package adds new features to the user interface that are found only in Grass Valley vision mixers.

New For-A frame rate converter Since 2005, FOR-A has focused on delivering products and technologies in direct response to customer demand. During IBC the company will maintain its “Imagination to Creation” theme with a demonstration of new virtual studio technology and the European debut of the FRC-8000 frame rate converter. First shown in the United States at the 2009 NAB Show, the FRC-8000 multi-format frame rate converter is equipped with a new image processing board for HD and SD format conversion. The powerful, feature-rich unit uses FOR-A’s

vector motion compensation technology to perform integrated up, down, and cross conversion with the highest possible quality. The FRC-8000’s mathematical algorithms perform conversion tasks in two steps, first analyzing the pixels comprising each video frame to predict how they will move on screen, followed by conversion based on the number of lines required at output. Other features include one-touch setup, multichannel audio conversion, and optional two-channel Dolby E encoding and decoding.

A decade of Playout innovation

Optical fibre studio system

PlayBox Technology, the #1 international ‘TV station in a box’ manufacturer, has now been developing and refining its core video playout products for over 10 years, offering the best of both worlds – broadcast performance and IT prices. New at IBC, the PlayBox Edge Server is the centrepiece of the company’s unattended automated remote playout solutions that

Tevido is pleased to announce the introduction of the new NIPROS/1 optical fiber studio system. “With this exciting new addition, Tevido continues to expand its family of professional video production tools to meet the ever increasing demand for affordable high definition (HD) production solutions,” says managing director Hassan Ghoul. The new NIPROS/1 studio system is designed with small handy-type camcorders in mind. The system allows the adaptation of Sony HD handycam-type camcorders for use in studio operations and multi-camera field productions (AC or 12VDC operation). Now, together with the new PMW-EX3, full 1920x1080 HD productions are within the reach of smaller budgets, allowing more facilities to move up to high definition. 5

enable the full operation and monitoring of distant broadcast playout. This can use public internet as the link for all content delivery, control and monitoring. Customisable to fit user requirements, single and multi-channel operation and full equipment redundancy are available. Playbox is represented throughout the Middle East by Advanced Media Trading.

Product

news New series Vision Octane

New Wohler products at IBC With dual selectable SD/HD/3G inputs, the AMP1E16-3G 16 Channel Multirate SDI Audio Monitor is Wohler's first 1RU 16-channel 3G audio/video monitor with Dolby E as well as being Dolby Digital Plus ready. The straightforward control interface and overall look and feel mirrors that of Wohler's new AMP2-E16-3G 16 channel audio monitor. Like the AMP2E16-3G, the new AMP1-E163G provides monitoring for up to 16 channels of embedded audio within a single multirate SDI signal, thus serving as an ideal solution for complex

Ross Video will introduce Vision Octane, a new series of 1 - 8 MLE production switchers with a fully self-contained single 8RU processing chassis, at IBC 2009.Vision Octane is designed to accommodate the advanced needs of many types of production such as: multi-screen, multi-destination, split feed, monitor wall intensive and 3D productions, allowing each feed to achieve full production value without stealing resources from the main production. Vision Octane increases the production power within the same 8RU processing chassis as the current Vision QMD-X Series. Vision Octane offers 35 full screen HD Animation Stores, 24 channels of 3D DVE with warp, 96 inputs, 48 outputs – all assignable, 32 full keyers, 12 AuxKey Mixer / Keyers on the aux bus outputs, and 12 DVE key combiners, giving a total of 56 keyers in the system. “We are excited to be expanding the Vision line of production switchers once again,” said David Ross, CEO. “There simply isn’t anything else like it on the market today.”

multichannel and surround applications. Two of the three OLED screens can monitor 16 channels of audio simultaneously with flexible options for high-resolution 180-segment audio metering, while the third screen may display video or data. The screens also support the systems' intuitive and easy-touse interface for setup and configuration of monitor features. Integrated loudness measurement and dialnorm data are displayed to alert the operator if signals fall out of compliance with ITU1770/1771 standards.

IDX ships multi-use mounting racket

Clear-Com’s hybrid network heads to IBC Clear-Com will exhibit its Hybrid Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) Matrix/IP Server Network at IBC 2009. Already purchased by large broadcasters in France, Germany and Hungary, the Hybrid Network is a solution formed by combining the reliability of traditional TDM-based intercom systems with the flexibility and affordability of IP solutions. Designed to extend the reach of intercom capabilities to more users without the need for costly infrastructure, the Hybrid Network will be demonstrated live with several newly introduced Clear-Com products at the show. With the Hybrid Network, broadcasters can now achieve new, highly efficient production workflows and implement costeffective intercom expansion in their facilities. Clear-Com products are distributed in Southern Africa by Spescom Media IT, while NMK Electronics are the distributors for most of the Middle East.

IDX Technology is now shipping the A-MWR, a versatile new multi-function mounting bracket. The A-MWR bracket will attach directly to the V-Mount of virtually any SD or HD ENG camera and is designed to accommodate a wireless receiver unit, portable HDD recording device and other accessories. The A-MWR provides side and rear surface areas to mount equipment and

offers a multitude of screw mounting holes. A 2-pin D-Tap connection is accessible on the A-MWR to supply DC power directly from the battery to an on-board camera light or any other DC operated accessory. Two cable clamps are on hand to keep equipment cables safe and tidy. The depth of the A-MWR can be adjusted to four different positions and is compatible with all IDX Endura batteries, including those connected in PowerLink where two batteries can be connected together. The bracket can also be used with the IDX CW-5HD wireless transmission system, which can be attached directly to the V-Mount on the front of the transmitter unit. Depending on the user’s equipment setup, the rear plate on the A-MWR can be simply removed if it is not required for use.

Ready for your next adventure. Introducing the new, robust GY-HM700 tapeless camcorder. When you’re filming on location, equipment reliability is essential. Our GY-HM700 camcorder is able to withstand high temperatures and demanding conditions, so filming becomes a breeze. The shoulder-mounted camcorder – and its little brother, the hand-held GY-HM100 – both record native QuickTime files for Final Cut Pro and XDCAM-EX files for other major non-linear editing systems*, allowing you to start editing immediately without breaking a sweat. In addition, the camcorders record high definition video and audio directly to inexpensive, readilyavailable SDHC media cards, so there are no tape mechanisms or moving parts. So don’t wait around for file conversion or transcoding. Make a dash for JVC.

GY-HM100

GY-HM700

For further information on the new GY-HM700 camcorder and its little brother, the GY-HM100, please visit www.jvcpro.eu. *XDCAM-EX recording on GY-HM700 currently only possible using KA-MR100 SxS adaptor.

For UAE, please contact Oasis Enterprises LLC on +971 4282 1337 or email info@oasisppd.com. For South Africa, please contact Inala Broadcast on +27 (0)11 206 8344 or email info@inala.co.za. For Middle East & Africa, contact JVC Professional on +971 4 803 6210 or email exportsales@jvcpro.co.uk. ©2009 JVC Professional Europe Ltd. Apple, the Apple logo, Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Pro are trademarks of Apple Inc., registereed in the U.S. and other countries.

Product

news Innovative new technologies on show Quantel will be showing its range of post, DI and broadcast systems on its new, more environmentally friendly stand at IBC 2009. The emphasis is firmly on innovative new technologies that create better workflows, contain costs and streamline production timescales. Of particular interest will be Final Cut Pro running on Quantel systems. Now broadcasters can have the

Autodesk launch Lustre 2010 Autodesk Lustre 2010 is a colour-grading solution for creative look development, giving artists remarkable control over final colour and lighting effects for film and television projects. It’s ideal for developing complex looks for both stereoscopic and standard projects and offers a rich creative toolset for primary and secondary grading. Lustre 2010 integrates into a facility’s workflow and can share media and timelines with Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Smoke visual effects and finishing software. Available in several configurations and as a software-only version for the Flame or Smoke platform, Lustre offers a balance between performance, toolset and cost-effectiveness.

same fast Quantel sQ Server workflow with Final Cut Pro editors. And there are absolutely no compromises on speed or quality. This exciting new development is the first application of our new virtualisation technology and is released at the show. Final Cut Pro editors can be added to existing systems giving Quantel customers even more choice over how they benefit from the fast turnaround sQ workflow.

Anton Bauer lights up IBC Anton/Bauer is introducing its new LED EledZ and ULHM-LED light modules at IBC.“We are happy to finally provide an LED lighting solution for our customers,” says Martyn SlyJex, regional sales manager for EMEA. “With the additional power draw from today’s cameras, customers need a way to maximize their battery run-time. The EledZ and ULHM-LED lights successfully cut down on the total power consumption of a user’s lights, giving them an easy way to extend the run-

time and battery power.” Designed for use with the popular Anton/Bauer ElipZ 10K battery, the EledZ is an integral LED light perfect for today’s smaller handheld cameras. When used with the ElipZ battery system, the EledZ produces heat-free and flicker-free soft bright light of 5600K and weighs a mere 110g (4 ounces). Anton Bauer products are distributed throughout the Middle East by UBMS, while Tony Niemeyer is the distributor for Southern Africa.

New SeaSun underwater lights Litepanels, the LED lighting pioneer that revolutionized the film and video production business above sea level, has now teamed with Hollywood-based underwater motion picture specialist HydroFlex, Inc. to develop a family of next generation underwater lighting fixtures, the Litepanels SeaSun Underwater housing series. Many of the advantages that Litepanels LED lighting technology bring to above-water production crews provide similar advantages to those shooting beneath the waves, including the light fixtures’ small form-factors, panchromatic light output, low power draw and low heat generation. The low power draw of Litepanels LED lighting fixtures means that divers carrying the lights underwater can do so untethered from power cables to a surface craft, and can provide long shooting times from small battery packs carried with the SeaSun light fixtures. 9

Gearhouse SA were recently commissioned to stage a high-profile event to promote the launch of Emirate’s new non-stop service between Dubai and Durban.

Gearhouse SA flies high with Emirates Gearhouse South Africa's Durban and Johannesburg branches combined resources and skills to provide all technical production - including rigging, sound, lighting, AV and sets - required for the high profile launch of Emirates Airline’s new non-stop service between Durban and Dubai. he show was produced by Action packed show

Emirates with support from The Event Production Company and staged at the award winning Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban. It was project managed for GHSA by Durban branch operations manager, Stuart Andrews, who comments, "Emirates is a six star client and extremely precise in their requirements. Our local knowledge of the venue coupled with the fact that we could draw on expertise from other areas in the company to supply elements like the bespoke staging, enabled us to deliver these exacting standards".

Three distinct areas The event was divided into three distinct areas, all requiring individual treatments. The 1300 invited guests, including local VIPs, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Durban and other civic dignitaries, were first welcomed into a cocktail reception - which saw the venue's foyer transformed into an environment of Emirates First Class hospitality. Once registered, they enjoyed a glass of champagne and music from Durban jazz combo Beat Route.

Gearhouse supplied a 6 x 4.8 metre stage, with a custom backdrop and fascia created by Sets, Drapes and Screens (SDS) which is also part of the Gearhouse SA Group. An L-Acoustics 115 PA system was installed for the band, and the stage was subtly lit with ETC Source Four PARs and i-Pix BB4 LED wash lights. Two plasma screen walls were utilised for moving wallpaper and showing Emirates video clips. 10

Next, they passed through to an auditorium environment where the main presentation took place. This was a large area with tiered seating, featuring a flown lighting rig over the stage and a 15 metre wide by 4 metre high projection screen at the back of this. The show was a slick, action-packed, fast-track introduction to Dubai and the products and services offered by Emirates. It was presented by local TV celebrity Jailoshini Naidoo. Marcel Wijnberger from Gearhouse Media, Johannesburg, co-ordinated the video, working with Emirates’ Manager of Video Communications Mike Siddaway, who had produced all the show content in Dubai. Content was stored on two AV Stumpfl Wings servers (master & slave) and run in double HD (3384 x 1080 pixels), with two synched picture-in-picture video windows left and right of the screen and a high resolution background still covering the entire surface area. The PiPs showed a mix of playback video footage, live camera feeds and PowerPoint graphics. A Barco Encore system was used to size and switch all sources to the screen which was fed by four double stacked Christie 18K projectors (2 running live and 2 as hot backup).

Interactive buffet dinner The PA was an L-Acoustics dv-DOSC system, complete with a Yamaha LS9 mixer. Lighting for this and the other two areas was designed by Jason Fritz. The presentation area featured a mix of Martin Professional MAC 2K Profile and Robe ColorWash 700E AT moving light fixtures, plus a selection of conventionals, all programmed on an MA Lighting grandMA full size console and used to highlight the stage and set, and illuminate the room. Once the presentation was finished, it was party time! Guests entered an interactive buffet dinner and experienced the international culinary flavours for which Emirates is renowned. South Africa's favourite current rock band The Parlotones were secreted behind a scenic wall - built by SDS. This was flown out to reveal them, followed by a lively set which delighted the audience. The stage was lit with Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 700E ATs plus conventional lights controlled by an Avolites Pearl 2008 console, and the sound system spec'd for this room was LAcoustics Kudo, with HiQ115s for stage monitors and a Yamaha M7 mixer. The main challenge for the Gearhouse SA team was time. They got in on Saturday afternoon, and had to deliver all rooms ready for Monday morning

Emirates Road Show Macmillan Adam, a Dubai-based post production company was contracted to create an extravaganza of visual materials for Emirates Airlines to launch various new flight routes to a variety of new destinations. Working closely with the corporate communications department at Emirates headquarters, the team set about creating an informative and visually exciting showpiece of several videos, each with an aspect of the airline or Dubai in mind. The original template for the road show was created 2 years ago and has undergone many variations along its life span. From two screen edits to a picturein-picture experience for particular launches. The common working template was created at Macmillan Adam using a variety of specialized tools in the hands of some pretty creative folk.Initial edits were completed within an Avid Adrenaline environment. The distinctiveness of the project was that several editors worked simultaneously on the various edits rehearsals. "All went very smoothly," reports Andrews, "We all enjoyed a very positive collaboration between the

through the use of the company Lanshare. This unique environment consists of a central storage unit to which the company has 4 Avid Adrenaline edit suites connected. This allows simultaneous access to the vast amount of material that Emirates Airlines has in its library. All initial preliminary effects were tackled in After Effects and Digital Fusion. More recently the company has added a DS Nitris Version 10 to its arsenal which has also been tasked with various works. Additional 3D graphics and route maps were animated in Maya Complete. The result is a dramatic yet informative corporate communication that submerges the audience in a wealth of visual information. Supervising the post production as well as getting his hands dirty with editing on the Durban manifestation of the road show was a genuine South African, Carl Greiner. He was also one of the editors on the original incarnation having arrived in Dubai two and a half years ago. Gearhouse crew and the teams from Emirates and The Event Production Company".

Exclusively distributed in Southern Africa by Electrosonic SAcc www.electrosonic.co.za

011-770 9800 or 031-569 4422 or e-mail sales@electrosonic.co.za

Harness creative opportunity with the strongest ever XDCAM family line-up.

Since it revolutionised video production, the Sony Professional XDCAM has become second nature to the world’s broadcasters and film makers. And following the amazingly successful PDW-700 camcorder comes the new PDW-F800. You’ll get the same stunning HD 422 images, plus enhanced functions perfect for cinema and TV drama such as 24P* progressive recording, Quick and Slow motion. With fast and efficient file-based recording and linear editing through the new PDW-F1600 deck, you get all the creative power you need to realise your visions.

For further information contact Sony Professional Solutions M.E. P. O. Box 502050, Dubai Media City Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +9714 3918400 Fax: +9714 3918154 Email: middle.east@eu.sony.com Visit www.sonybiz.net/xdcam.

*23.98P Sony is a registered trademark of the Sony Corporation, Japan.

The DakarPress team did not miss one picture. The SOOM tube turns out to be especially practical and flexible. It is perfect for outdoor shootings.

It is important that the equipment can be set up quickly when the rally drivers show up and that it offers a stable base. SOOM is ideal for this purpose.

Adventure between two Oceans The route of this year’s Dakar Rally went through South America, subjecting participants and equipment to very extreme conditions. Bikers and quad pilots as well as teams in cars and trucks participated in this 31st rally of its kind in South America.

ameraman León Jansen and his DakarPress team from the Netherlands were also there. They have been accompanying the Dakar Rally (formerly the “Paris to Dakar Rally”) since 2004. The DakarPress, which started out as a one-man team, has now twelve members. Eight of them accompanied the race on location (including Hans van den Berg from Audipack Middle East) while four members manage the text, photo and video uploads in the Netherlands.

Professional equipment for professional news reports As the team grew, the work style became more and more professional, which also increased demands on equipment. This year Jansen and his colleagues were supported by professional equipment from Sachtler. They had the SOOM HiPod system, the 18 SL CF tripod system, FSB 6 pan and tilt head, FSB CELL power supply system, and the Reporter 8LED oncamera light in their bags. “We were working daily with camera support equipment from Sachtler. The reason we chose Sachtler was that panning the

(grassy plains) to deserts like the Atacama, to mountain ranges like the Andes. “Temperatures during the rally ranged from 86 to 131°F (30 to 55°C), and there was fine dust everywhere. We had to overcome big changes in altitude, and the air pressure was so low that in the mountains our air mattresses inflated themselves,” reports Dirk van der Veen of DakarPress. The equipment is subjected to extremely rough conditions during the rally. “All those rocks and the fine dust were the biggest threats to our cameras and tripods,” said Jansen. The Sachtler tripods are just perfect for such jobs. After two weeks of intensive use and 10,000 bumpy kilometers in the trunk, they still functioned perfectly.”

Quick set up, sturdy and reliable

The Sachtler combination of SOOM and the products of “Works-with-SOOM,” the fluid head FSB 6 and the FSB CELL, prove to be reliable and of high quality.

camera with their FSB head is especially easy, and their tripod extremely robust,” says Jansen. “The equipment is of extraordinary quality and reliability.”

An endurance race under adverse conditions The team of eight people: two cameramen, five photographers and one journalist, was on the road in January in two Toyota Land Cruisers. The multifaceted countryside of Argentina and Chile ranges from wide pampas 13

The fourteen stages of the nearly 6,000 mile (9,500km) desert rally between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans made enormous demands on members of the press. When the drivers of the rally showed up, the camera operators had to quickly set up their equipment. It was also very risky to shoot directly from the race track, especially at the road bends: “The System Video 18 SB is a stable base for our cameras and we are excited about how easy and fast we were able to extend the tripod legs of the Speed Lock tripod,” explained van der Veen. “The FSB 6 fluid head allows smooth moves while shooting, and the practical Reporter 8LED creates perfect light conditions. We were especially pleased that with these tripods we were able to position the cameras high enough for our tallest team members, who are both over 6 foot six.” On January 18 the some 500 vehicles arrived back in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, the starting point of the rally. Back in the Netherlands, 80,000 images and an endless amount of film material were waiting to be evaluated by the team of DakarPress.

number of advantages. First, of course, it ensures consistency, which is important for maintaining the brand. Second, it is very efficient, because once the design has been created you do not need a skilled artist: text can be entered into the template by any operator, or even from an automated system. Third, you can use relatively unsophisticated, and therefore very cost-effective, systems to complete

Searching the Harris Connectus database for templates and graphical image elements

The power of branding: associating wine with cricket

Building the brand Branding is a word that was rarely heard in television circles just a few years ago, writes Dick Hobbs. Today it has become a key part of any station’s operations. In the multi-channel world it is vitally important that audiences can recognise your channel to keep them coming back.

randing is more than just adding a logo to a corner of the picture: it means developing a strong visual identity for a programme, a strand or a channel, and maintaining it throughout every graphic. Ultimately, the viewer will always know which channel they are watching.

Integrate graphic treatments “For broadcasters, it means more pervasive control over the branding of their channels,” explained Alex Micallef, Autodesk head of systems in EMEA. “It also means they can efficiently integrate graphics treatments, templates and looks to their overall programming.” Autodesk products are generally seen as being aimed at the high end of post production, for highly creative applications rather than broadcast graphics, but they certainly have a place, particularly in the creation stages, and when an established look needs to be implemented very quickly. MBC in Dubai, for example, has Autodesk Flame and Smoke in its creative services division, which is available to other broadcasters as well as producing promos and graphics for MBC’s own channels. And in Qatar Al Jazeera uses the same tools for its documentary and children’s channels. A variant on the branding theme is the

common requirement today to put a sponsor’s brand into break bumpers and credit sequences for programmes. The Australian wine shipper Wolf Blass, for instance, currently sponsors cricket coverage in the UK, and its material clever conjures players up out of the liquid in its bottles. London post house Concrete created the sequences using Autodesk Smoke, based on high speed motion capture of real players using the Phantom camera. Zee TV in Dubai also uses Smoke to create promos and packaging for its music and lifestyle channel Zee Arabiya. The other manufacturer traditionally thought of as at the high end of graphics is Quantel, but again it has a broadcast products division. Quantel’s products tend to feature graphics facilities bundled within its news, sport and playout systems, often at surprisingly low cost: at NAB last year it launched a fully-featured editor at the same price as Final Cut Pro.

Templates police the brand The most common way for broadcasters to establish and police a brand identity, though, is through the use of templated graphics. Designers create a tightly defined look for the way that the identity is going to be portrayed, then users are allowed only to enter updated data to populate the templates. This has a 14

the graphic, without the high-speed creative toolset that an artist would expect. Finally – and related to the third point – you can have multiple playout devices populating templates, all working in parallel in different parts of an operation. Since its acquisition of Inscriber some years ago, Harris has become a leader in this field. It offers a graphics workflow system called Connectus. It divides its hardware up into two classes: publishers and receivers. This defines the relationship each has with the central server which acts as the traffic direction system for the network.

Using a managed network One of the advantages of using a managed network like this is that information can be sent to on-air devices ahead of time, to minimise the risk of problems with bandwidth. Last minute alterations to a graphic can be handled remotely, with only the data that has changed being sent, again to minimise network traffic and prevent bottlenecks. This is important because potentially Connectus can work over a wide area network. A broadcaster with a number of facilities – around the country or even on different continents - can connect its graphics devices through a single server hub, ensuring that everyone uses the latest version of the standardised templates, and every facility has the benefit of the speed and ease to get high quality graphics on air. The other big attraction of networked, templated graphics is that automation systems can sit on the same network, driving information into the system as required. In news, a MOS interface means that journalists can enter the names of interviewees into their scripts and expect to

see perfect captions appear at the right moment in the story, completely automatically. Other manufacturers offering this arrangement of sophisticated graphics creation tools networked to relatively inexpensive playout devices include Aston and Orad. For Aston, a name synonymous with television character generators, its new Aston 7 character generator is seen as one of the most advanced creation platforms. KTV in Kuwait has chosen it for its branding solution. Sports specialist broadcaster Setanta, which has grown rapidly over the last couple of years and now has some very impressive sports rights, feels that it needs strong audience recognition and so has a highly branded graphics philosophy, again powered by Aston 7.

Greater impact with 3D Emphasising that 3D graphics offer much more impact and audience appreciation, Orad’s networked solution is called 3DPlay. Again, this uses a central server for graphics sequences and templates. This can support multiple formats so the broadcaster can deliver HD, SD and mobile television from the same source if needed. The server is also capable of recording broadcast quality video, including from one of its own graphics devices. So if a particularly complex sequence is created which needs to be transmitted more than once it can be recorded then played out as a simple video stream, saving the graphics rendering power for other content.

Easing the load 3DPlay can treats multiple level events and animations as a single entity. Potentially this eases the load on the automation system, because far fewer secondary events are required, most of them being handled as part of a primary event in the graphics system. Complementing the playout device is 3Designer, the authoring system, which creates the templates in the first place, allowing the artist free rein over multiple layers and animations in a single sequence. Mathematical functions can be embedded into a template, for example to process sports statistics or voting data automatically. RTL in Germany, for example, uses 3DPlay for branding and data graphics around its Formula 1 coverage. As well as statistics and driver biographies, RTL uses a ticker across the bottom of the screen featuring SMS messages from viewers, automatically formatted and inserted into the template – a good way of engaging closely with the audience, and ensuring they stay watching.

Software as a service Perhaps the most dramatic change in the way that networked, templated graphics are used was announced recently by Chyron. Like Harris it was enabled by a strategic acquisition, this time of Axis Graphics in the middle of 2008. With remarkable speed, it has led to this new approach. What the Axis development platform offers is a centralised graphics server – which could be anywhere – running software as a service to create high quality sequences. Because the software is running on the remote server you do not need broadcast specification equipment to create the content: access to the service is through a web browser on any computer platform.

Virtual art department Chyron sums the solution up as “a virtual art department, a means of producing graphics faster and more costeffectively”. It is also an open platform so that other content providers can also reside on the same platform. It means that, when a story breaks, you can take your news template and pull content in from news sources like AP and Reuters, online picture libraries, or specialists like Microsoft Virtual Earth. When the graphic is completed it is delivered over the IP circuit to a suitable device for playout, which can be a simple transmission device or it can be something as sophisticated as the Chyron HyperX 3, which is claimed to be the most advanced graphics platform currently available. A secondary benefit of the open, web-based, cloud computing approach is that it can integrate with other software as a service solutions. Forbidden Technologies, for example, is becoming popular as a web-based broadcast editor, accessible on any computer (even laptops on the move). Linking Chyron graphics into a ForScene edit is now a simple process. Vizrt is also making moves towards the software as a service solution. It already has a proven system for web graphics, Escenic Content Studio, and at NAB this year it announced that it was to link this to the Vizrt broadcast graphics platform for a unified approach.

Automated channel branding In terms of automated channel branding, Pixel Power leads the way with its Pixel Promo software. This is available in a number of levels, but at its most complex it is capable not just of creating graphics sequences but of determining what those sequences should be. Its central software looks at the schedule and determines where there are slots for branding sequences: interstitials between 15

The Pixel Power Clarity 500, which can be used as a playout device in Pixel Promo

programmes, credits squeezebacks and so on. It then applies a set of rules to determine what the most appropriate content would be. So if the next programme is likely to appeal to the same audience, the squeezeback might trail the coming programme. But if there is a need for a change of mood it would insert something completely different: perhaps a weather forecast or a rundown of programmes later in the day.

Intelligent graphics A business programme might be preceded by the latest news from the world’s stock markets or currency exchanges. A programme on environmental issues would not be preceded by a trailer for Top Gear or Formula 1! In a way this is the ultimate application of the template principle. A designer defines the set of graphics which can be used, and which maintain the station’s brand. The promotion department also defines the set of content types: programme rundowns; business, weather or general news; trailers and so on. From then on, it can be left to operate completely on its own if necessary. The software can link to external devices, from temperature probes outside the building to remote databases.

Appealing to the audience In a crowded multi-channel market it is all too easy to limit the budget for promos and trailers, which means that every programme junction feels the same and audiences turn over or turn off. With Pixel Promo the potential is there for every programme junction to be different, and to be appealing to the audience watching at the time. And that is the primary impetus behind channel branding. You need to be sure that your audience knows which channel it is watching, but even more important you need them to be so excited by your offering that they use the branding to navigate back to your channel time and again. Good channel branding provides a huge return on investment.

A film community offers its best when it’s an organic extension of the society it springs from. Acclaimed films worldwide tend to be stories that were passionately made and toiled for by people with craft and belief, usually aimed at enriching our experience of that culture and to share the trials and tribulations of a particular heritage. If you add to that inherently strong messages, wellintentioned themes, and the desire to educate the people, you may have yourself a vibrant film industry that truly edifies its audience, rises above the entertainment value thus joining the ranks of socially aware and activist art worldwide.

Building the largest film community in Africa. In Africa, where films can be supremely powerful tools in sending out messages to the large population, the few men and women who persevere to produce films deserve to be acknowledged and congratulated on the humane and essential work they do. Of these people, veteran producer/director John Riber, along with his wife producer/editor Louise Riber, are noteworthy for having spent many years in various parts of Africa creating films from the people, for the people, driven by a desire to make the world around them a significantly better place. Hind Shoufani tracked John down and got the lowdown on his latest project.

n American, born and raised in India, John Riber completed university film studies in the United States in 1977 and subsequently set off for Asia where he spent ten years making independent films in Bangladesh and India. After moving to Zimbabwe in 1987, he established the Media for Development Trust (MFD), which is one of Africa’s leading film/ radio production and distribution houses. The collection of films made by MFD have laid the foundations for a distribution network across Africa through community groups, entrepreneurs, churches as well as urban and rural organizations. During his prestigious career, John has held a variety of posts in the film world, from being a film lab technician to cameraman, editor, scriptwriter and most notably as the producer of award-winning African feature films like Neria, More Time, Everyone’s Child and also as director of Yellow Card and the feature documentary Shanda. He is the producer/director of Consequences, an educational film about teenage pregnancy set in Kenya, as well

as producing the film It's Not Easy which was the first AIDS drama produced in Africa. It tells the story of Suna, a young, married business executive who ignores many warnings about AIDS. His career, relationships with his family and the story with his girlfriend are all going well for Suna, but everything changes when his newborn son is found to have HIV. The movie is a testament to Africa's struggle with the AIDS outbreak. The film was made in Uganda and has won eight awards.

50-million viewers One of John’s most noteworthy projects was the Zimbabwean feature film, 16

Yellow Card. It’s a 90-minute feature film about the love exploits of a teenage boy with a passion for football that’s been seen by at least 50 million people all over Africa since its release in April 2000. John attributes the film’s success to a massive distribution effort. "To measure the popularity of a film by the number of people in theatre seats is impossible," says John. Yellow Card was scheduled to be shot on 16 mm, much like earlier films from MFD’s production history, but their excellent record, combined with the potential of wider distribution in Africa, encouraged the granting agencies to increase the film’s budget to US$1,5 million.

Worldwide theatrical release The decision was made to shoot on 35 mm Panavision, a cinematic format that would significantly enhance the chance for worldwide theatrical release. Producers Louise and John Riber hired talented DOP Sandi Sissel (ASC), best known for her cinematography on Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay, and who is currently also a cinematography professor at the graduate

experience and the confidence to go on and carve a career out of filmmaking. “That is what we are supposed to be doing with donor money,” says John. “The process of making our films is as important, if not more important, than that of the final result of the films themselves.”

film program at New York University. Sissel accepted the job, at a fraction of her normal fee, because she liked the story and the chance to reach millions of young people on the African continent. The success of the film made all the hard work worth it, especially the difficult action sequences the team had to shoot.

An instinct to accomplish Swahili music videos

Filmmaking is something John feels he simply had to do, an instinct driving him to accomplish what he can with the few resources around. He goes on to insist that he feels incredibly privileged to have made a living at it and presently he is ready to slow down and focus more on teaching, training and handing over the more rigorous work to his sons, who are continuing in the same line of work. He is optimistic for the future, seeing as it is getting easier to do more and better work with the technologies that are available. There is a huge and growing demand for local programming in Africa, and that means more and more work to be commissioned.

In 2004, John moved to Tanzania where he established a branch office of MFD. Currently, John and a committed Tanzanian crew are producing a series of narrative music videos based on the first season of a Swahili radio serial drama, (52 weekly half hour episodes in its first year), titled Wahapahapa. It has been on the air since December 07. John’s son Jordan is directing, his wife Louise is his coproducer and the hope is that these music videos will be a catalyst for the funding of a TV series based on season one of the radio drama.

US-AID funded AIDS intervention This is a US-AID funded HIV/AIDS intervention. The storyline of the radio drama is build around a musical band of five men and one woman, struggling to make a living using their talent and creativity. The stories have dramatic plotlines that intertwine to portray the struggles of a community coming to grips with HIV prevention and management.

Not a commercial model “The film industry in Africa is not based on a commercial model, so it isn’t really sustainable,” explains John. “The Nigerians are changing that, but the small margins of profit in the African market trap Nigerian production values at a pretty low level.”

Carve a career Social stigma of HIV They deal with a variety of elements in this issue, such as prevention, stigma, treatment and care, whilst focusing more on the social issues of AIDS rather than the medical. The central themes are about relationships in light of this crisis. There were 8 music videos in the series, all shot on a budget of only US$120 thousand. “We had a substantial Tanzanian crew of twenty and hired all our equipment locally, so this was a good industry experience for Dar as Salaam; one of the more ambitious local film projects to date.” With the proposed TV series however, they will have to reach out beyond US-AID funding and look for other sponsors. John is looking for around US$1 million and asserts that, no matter what kind of track record you have, it’s always difficult raising money. “All our funding comes from sponsors (donors mostly) who are a transient group of people with their individual interests and agendas. The issue with this informal system is that a donor who is very supportive in a particular funding institution could move on and get replaced by someone who is not so interested in film.”

The upside to being in an environment not saturated with artists and crew members is their ability to produce for more than half a dozen first-time African directors. John is gratified when he witnesses the successes these young men and women who gain good practical

Letting go of the process “One of the interesting things about working in Tanzania is that we have to work in Swahili; a language that I do not have a very good grasp of yet, but I am determined to, eventually!” says John, “and while it is a real handicap in one sense, it is also liberating because it forces us to let go and allow Tanzanians to take more control of content decisions. I’ve always been interested in making films for African audiences; so working in Swahili is very exciting. And it brings me no small amount of pride and joy that there are a lot of people out there whom we can make very happy.”

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All eyes on Daktronic screens Next year, all eyes will be on South Africa as we host the world’s greatest sporting spectacular, the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup. At the same time, at two of the stadiums where the 2010 matches will be played, all eyes will be on Daktronic screens to follow every riveting detail of these unforgettable moments in history.

pectrum, the sole distributors of Daktronic screens, the world’s leading LED (light emitting diodes) screens, recently won two of the 10 bids for the giant LED displays to be installed at the 10 stadiums which will host the 2010 Soccer World Cup games next year. Spectrum has already completed the installation of two screens at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth and two screens at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. The screens will be used for playback, advertising and crowd entertainment. At the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Spectrum also installed the scoreboard with single red digits depicting the names of the teams, the score and the time. These screens and scoreboard were recently used during the touring of the British and Irish Lions rugby team when they played a local Southern Kings Invitational side. The two 55m2, 23mm pixel pitch screens, weighing 8 to 9 tons each (including the steel structures), were installed at the Nelson Mandela Stadium by five technicians in just one week. At Mbombela Stadium, the two 48m2, 23mm pixel pitch screens, weighing in at a massive 11.5 tons (including the steel structures) and suspended from the roof structure, were installed by five technicians within a week and a half – a significant feat of engineering precision. All the content management and control systems are conveniently located within the stadium’s central control room.

World-class screens It is no secret why the bids were awarded to Spectrum and Daktronics. A world-class event demands world-class screens. Daktronics provides more scoreboards and display systems for sports facilities than any other company in the world, including the high-precision scoreboards for the Olympic Games. The integrated Daktronics systems provide a seamless display of scoring, timing, statistics, public service messages, ingame promotions, graphics, animation, live video and video replays on the highest quality LEDs in up to 4.4 trillion shades of dazzling colour, to create a more entertaining experience. Since 2001 Daktronics has been recognised as the world’s leading supplier

of LED displays by iSupply (previously Stanford Resources), an independent research firm. Over its 40 year history, Daktronics has designed and manufactured tens of thousands of display systems for more than 52 000 customers in more than 100 countries. In the process, it has revolutionised the LED screen industry - the design and manufacture of the huge Coca-Cola spectacular in Times Square being but one example. It is an innovative three-dimensional Prostar LED display, six storeys high, weighing 30 tons and made out of 32 curved sections mounted on the famous #2 Time Square Tower. Not the usual flat screen, it resembles a deconstructed beverage can divided into separate convex, concave and sculpted sections, incorporating 2.6 million individual LEDs controlled by the sophisticated Daktronics control system.

Significant cost savings Daktronics also manufactures all the components of its display systems, which translates into absolute quality, significant cost savings and reliable, always-available supply of components for repairs and maintenance. As a result, the company offers a service agreement that includes an extensive spares package, along with a standard one-year warranty, which can be extended. Local maintenance and repairs are provided by Spectrum’s team of expert field engineers, who were highly trained by 19

Daktronic technicians. When all eyes turn to South Africa and to the Daktronics screens at the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums next year, two things are certain: the fans will be dazzled by the superb picture quality and accuracy of the display screens and South Africans will stand tall and proud under the scrutiny of the world, knowing that we have given local and international soccer fans an experience never to be forgotten.

The changing face of supply In my column for the IABM (the international association that represents suppliers in the broadcast and media technology sector) in the last issue of AV Specialist I mentioned the Big Broadcast Survey, undertaken by Devoncroft Partners. This time I want to talk a little bit more about this fascinating and impressive study.

monitors and test equipment into a single deal at one (reasonably attractive) price.

he researchers asked detailed questions of a good sample: around 5000 individuals from 110 countries around the world. These represent broadcasters and service providers, production and post production companies, educational establishments and students, consultants and freelancers, government bodies, and vendors and systems integrators. Care was taken to ensure there was a good balance between the large and small organisations.

Buying patterns vary

Brand values While much of the study is about brand values in the broadcast industry – and that makes very interesting reading – there are some very useful insights about technology and about the subject that I want to focus on today: the way that equipment will be bought and sold in the future. The first question posed was How do you typically purchase broadcast technology products?, with the options of direct from the vendor, via a systems integrator (and more on this in a moment) or from a dealer.

New buying patterns What I find interesting is that for broadcasters today barely more than one third of their purchases are direct from the manufacturer. In the past broadcasters would have expected to be courted by manufacturers as valued customers, and would probably not even consider going through an intermediary. That has changed. The driver, of course, is largely economic. The cost of sale for a broadcast vendor is high, and it is no longer affordable to send a sales team out to individually negotiate every sale. Even for relatively high value products virtually all vendors rely on a good distributor network, and focus their resources on supporting the sales channel at exhibitions and with key sales.

Dick Hobbs is a well known commentator and writer on broadcast technology. Amongst his many roles is editorial consultant to IABM, the body which represents broadcast and media technology suppliers worldwide.

informed about the products and their capabilities. It is not enough for a dealer or distributor to simply collect orders. They have to take a proactive approach to serving the market. In turn, this means that even those products which were traditionally regarded as too complex to sell via a sales channel – playout automation, for example – are now handled by distributors. A good dealer can also provide a convenient service as well as competing on costs. A major production company in the UK, for example, recently migrated its flagship drama to high definition. While it negotiated directly with camera manufacturers, in the end it made its purchase through a dealer which packaged cameras, lenses, tripods,

Serving the market For this reason the Middle East and South Africa are served by excellent distributors, who are committed to the market. In turn, they have a distinct hold over their principals, the manufacturers, who recognise that for the distributors to be successful they have to be well 20

The chart shows that the proportions vary across the industry with, as you would expect, education, government and post being much more reliant on dealers. The cable and satellite industry still makes more than half its purchases direct from the manufacturer, but in part this is because of the nature of the industry. One of the biggest purchases for a service provider may be the choice of set-top box, and if you are buying tens of thousands – maybe millions – of units, you are likely to want to negotiate hard with the manufacturer itself. Those are huge sales, but of course many sales now are for much smaller numbers than before. A decade ago if you were thinking of setting up an edit suite you were considering an investment in six figures. Today you can buy the complete suite of post production tools – in something like Apple’s Final Cut Studio – for less than $1000. It is easier all round to ring a dealer with a credit card number

Products or solutions? The second question asked by the Big Broadcast Survey in this section was When purchasing broadcast technology products, do you prefer to buy from a single one-stop shop or select best of breed solutions from multiple vendors? As you can see from the chart - which is taken from the Big Broadcast Survey and reproduced thanks to Devoncroft Partners - in every category of respondents the strong preference was for shopping around to get the best of breed. That is perhaps surprising: many commentators

have felt for some time that the trend is rapidly moving towards the purchase of solutions rather than point products.

Research latest technology The thinking has been that users are increasingly reluctant to invest the time into researching the latest technology and its interconnectivity. They will specify the outcomes required, in terms of creativity or commercial goals as much as technical quality, relying on the vendor to choose the right elements and taking on the challenges of making them work together. The larger vendors, in turn, have engaged in a lot of consolidation recently, with the intention of being able to supply a broad swathe of the products for any project. Again, this has appeared to make commercial sense – but only if customers move towards the solution approach. This study suggests that there is still a strong desire among purchasers, right across the industry, to choose at the product level.

Best of breed It is an interesting question in the run-up to IBC. If the majority of customers still wish to buy best of breed, or at least be aware of what the best of breed options are, then large-scale, comprehensive exhibitions like IBC have an assured future. It is simply the best way to see and compare the offerings of the competing vendors. It is natural, then, that IBC should look at this topic in some detail, in a conference session co-produced by the IABM and featuring its North American liaison officer, Graham Sharp, on the panel.

Managing technology platforms As well as the solutions or point products issue, the session will also look at new methods of managing technology

platforms. Does a broadcaster even need to own its own equipment now? How much can be outsourced? What other models are there? In some fields the idea of outsourcing is well established. Few broadcasters own their own outside broadcast fleets any more, preferring to rent in from specialists precisely the equipment they need for each production. Companies like Live in the Middle East have seized on this market. It works well because the outsourcing company takes the investment risks on new technology like HD, but maintains high utilisation of the equipment by renting it out to multiple clients.

Outsourced playout centres In Europe there is a very strong market for outsourced playout centres, handing the actual delivery of content on to a specialist provider. The business model is similar: the provider bears the cost of investing in new technology, and has to be able to add new services quickly when required. The return comes from economies of scale: providers like Ascent Media, Chellomedia and Technicolor will

broadcast a hundred or more channels from a single playout centre. The BBC took a bold decision a number of years ago to hand its technology provision over to Siemens, who operate it under a managed services contract. While this was hailed as a major breakthrough, few other broadcasters have followed suit, and there is a feeling that this may be a step too far. Skills, knowledge and experience, once lost from an organisation, are hard to regain.

Challenge for the future The challenge for the future – and the subject of the IBC conference session – is the way in which the users of broadcast equipment are changing their habits. Will they continue to buy best of breed products? Will they prefer the commercial benefits of specifying solutions in terms of outcomes, and accept the de-skilling that this implies? Or will the industry increasingly move towards outsourcing, managed services and hosted applications? Only time will tell. The mood at IBC, and the debate in the IABM-hosted conference session, may give us some clues.

Sysmedia brings teletext to Kenya SysMedia has supplied the teletext production and insertion system used by Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) for the country’s first ever teletext service. The deal was overseen by SysMedia’s distributor for East Africa, Broadcast Solutions International in Nairobi.

he new teletext service is being carried across Kenya on KBC Channel One. At launch it includes local and international news, sports news and results, business/finance news, information about government activities, and an entertainment guide featuring complete listings for KBC’s radio and TV output. The intention is to expand this further as the popularity of the service and its associated advertising revenues grow. KBC has launched the new service

using an entry-level SysMedia teletext system with WinSPRITE page editing software and a TDG7 teletext inserter. This provides an easy upgrade path to a full PLASMA system in the future that can then handle multiple channels, automated content feeds and automatically scheduled service updates. Steve Areba, Managing Director of Broadcast Solutions International, says, “KBC is currently using a simple but effective system that has proved to be 21

reliable and suitable for the chosen content. SysMedia has provided a high level of technical back-up and advice, helping KBC to roll out the service.” Andrew Lambourne, CEO, SysMedia, adds, “Teletext remains a powerful and effective medium for information distribution, being easy to implement and inexpensive to operate. It is very pleasing to see a broadcaster introducing the benefits to a new region and we wish KBC every success.”

JVC solid-state camcorders chosen by IBC TV News IBC show broadcaster, IBC TV News, has chosen JVC’s tapeless camcorders for the IBC show in September. Developed for mainstream production, electronic newsgathering and cinematography, JVC’s handheld GY-HM100 and shouldermounted GY-HM700 camcorders are perfect for recording highquality images on the move, and will be used to capture all the action from this year’s event. The multi-media nature of IBC TV News means that a quick shoot-to-edit workflow is essential, and was a key factor in their choice of camera. With a website, video podcasts and mobile content, in addition to the breakfast programmes that get produced each day of the show, editing time is always at a premium. The GY-HM100 and GY-HM700 camcorders are the industry's first professional models to record files directly to solid state media in the native format used by Apple's Final Cut Pro™ editing system and in XDCAM-EX format for use with other editing systems, including EVS’s CleanEdit Suite, which will be used at the show. Both JVC cameras chosen by IBC TV News benefit from the same simple workflow but differ slightly in their applications. Weighing just 1.4kg, the JVC GY-HM100 is the smallest, lightest handheld professional HD camcorder in the industry. With selectable data rates up to 35Mbps, it delivers high quality images, with versatile features more typically found in larger, more expensive cameras. It has a professional 3-CCD format, which is on-par with broadcast cameras, and delivers highbandwidth recordings at 1080p, 1080i and 720p. The GY-HM100 is ideal for budget-conscious applications, or perhaps for use as a secondary camera to complement higher-end equipment. Meanwhile, the balanced weight distribution of the shouldermounted GY-HM700 makes it ideal for those long walks around the show, capturing the latest product news from exhibitors. Like the smaller GY-HM100, files are stored in the QuickTime (.MOV) format for Final Cut Pro, and to SxS media compatible with Sony's XDCAM-EX format via a dockable SxS media recorder, ideal for use with EVS CleanEdit Suite and other editing applications. This is perfect for gathering footage throughout the duration of IBC. The ability to record onto affordable dual hotswappable SDHC memory cards, with seamless switching, allows continuous capture of footage throughout the show, without spending a fortune on media. 22

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Christie has a ball at the Confederations Cup Despite the sub zero temperatures and windy conditions, Gearhouse South Africa, under contract to VWV/Till Dawn, contrived to produce a spectacular closing ceremony for the FIFA Confederations Cup competition, which will long live in the memory of both live and television audiences.

he event was staged before the Cup Final at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, which was won by Brazil. Among those in the crowd was newly elected, South African President Jacob Zuma. Three Christie Roadster S+16K SXGA+, 16,000 ANSI lumens projectors and three HD18K 1080 HD 18000 ANSI lumens devices, fitted with 6.9-10.4:1 HD zoom lenses, were deployed in pairs to project onto an 8m sphere, ‘floating’ at a height of 16m above the playing area. This provided the pageant with a real ‘wow’ factor. The sphere was constructed from a tensile tarpaulin, and all the Christie devices, were retro-fitted with the Twist modules. “This allowed us to wrap the entire sphere in one seamless, continuous 360 degree image,” said Gearhouse Audio Visual Operations Manager, Bhans Sheomangal.

Ingenious projection system Chris Grandin, of Gearhouse Media,who designed the ingenious projection, control and network systems, added, “The ball was divided up into three segments and Christie Twist software was used to wrap and blend the edges of the projected images to achieve the desired effect. “To achieve the 360 degree projection, I projected a pre-mapped grid onto the ball before matching the points from each projector onto the corresponding points on the grid. The Christie Twist software allows you to see the points that you are moving before you twist the image, which facilitated working in this way.

Pre-mapped grid “The pre-mapped grid approach is what enabled me to achieve such a smooth and seamless result, within a very short amount of time.” Grandin devised a wireless network system to control the projectors and Twist modules, comprised of three wireless access points with wireless bridges between the access points, and a high gain, omni-directional antenna situated at the central cluster of projectors. The network allowed him to walk freely around the ball, into the stands

and onto the field, to precisely line up points and match the images to the curve of the ball from every possible angle. The content was created by VWV Management and fired from a Dataton Watchout system. “There was no live camera work — it was all simply VT playback for the highlights package, maps and flags,” said Bhans.

Stabilise the image But given the unusual weather conditions, the biggest concern for the Gearhouse South Africa project team was to stabilise both the image and the ball in fairly high winds. They created bespoke brackets and platforms for the projectors, which were positioned side by side, and clamped to sections of truss, fixed to the stadium balconies. The inflatable sphere was launched using three winches, (one on the ground and two from the roof of the adjacent parkade), as well as five tethers. As the Ceremony drew to a close, the tethers and bottom winch were unhitched, allowing the sphere to float up to an 82m height and track sideways over the stadium for quick pre-match clearance. Under the inflatable, a bevy of South African singers, dancers and musicians brought the curtain down on an event which has huge significance. For this was seen as a trial run for next year's FIFA 23

World Cup. Summing up the event, Gearhouse’s Marketing Manager, Robyn D’Alessandro confirmed, “The equipment performed admirably under bitterly cold conditions. Although our crew has taken a bit of a beating in terms of enduring the freezing weather, the equipment performed absolutely perfectly throughout.” Held every four years in the World Cup host nation a year before the big event, the tournament also went off smoothly, with the only major upsets occurring on the field.

TRAINING SCHEDULE Over the course of the last two years InfoComm international have ramped up their skills development programme throughout Africa and the Middle East, and in partnership with AV Specialist and the Middle East Communications Industries Association (MECIA), have committed to promoting the adoption of professional standards, training and industry certification for the professional AV industry. The following courses will be presented during November 2009

GEN111 Essentials of the AV Industry The course provides in-depth explanations of the science and technology for basic audio, visual and audiovisual systems integration. A brief overview of the sales, rental/hire, design, and installation functions is included the course content. This course will build your understanding of the fundamentals used on a daily basis in the audiovisual industry.

Making Light Work Photon Beard is a major provider of studio and portable lighting for the professional broadcast market worldwide, as a result of the proven build quality and reliability of our equipment. With our recent growth, we are now in a position where we are continually developing new innovative products, all designed and manufactured at our UK factory.

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates 8-9 November 2009 Location: Johannesburg, South Africa 16-17 November 2009 Cost: Members US$1,000. Non-members US$1,500.

Our most recent introduction is a range of compact Tungsten studio Fresnels, from 300W to 2kW, featuring our customary dependable design and construction, and incorporating an innovative application of lamp technology and optical design.

GEN112 CTS Study Group This provides a forum for people to explore the new exam format and work collaboratively, studying the exam content areas with the help of facilitators. CTS Study Group includes: • Instructor and student led delivery of selected topics • Opportunities to study areas where you know you need help • Collaborative work groups with peers • Tips on how to assess your learning style to enhance the effectiveness of your study skills • An overview of the testing process, using the CTS Candidate Handbook

Full details of our extensive range of fluorescent and tungsten lighting, and our studio design and installation service are available from our website.

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates 10-12 November 2009 Location: Johannesburg, South Africa 18-20 November 2009 Cost: Members US$1,000. Non-members US$1,500.

Members-only combo pricing Take GEN111 Essentials of the AV Industry and GEN112 CTS Study Group both back-to-back for a special combo price of US$1,750! See website for details of our extensive range.

For more information on any of these training programmes email training@mecia.org or call +971 (0)4 433 3149

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Setting the standard for AV Excellence

Intersat Africa advances service delivery in Africa Newtec’s FlexACM solution assists Intersat Africa in optimizing its satellite space segment resources by achieving over 50 % throughput increase compared to DVB-S.

ue to the shortage of satellite space over Africa, Intersat Africa Limited, one of the largest providers of Internet solutions in the region, has been working with Newtec for over two years to establish a reliable service delivery model that couples efficiency with reliability. Abdul Bakhrani, CEO of Intersat Africa Limited said: “Intersat first tested Newtec’s Azimuth range of satellite modulators & demodulators on the SESNewskies NSS-703 satellite and we have not looked back since. Our engineers are extremely happy with the support from Newtec during the initial deployment and are looking forward to deploying Newtec’s latest Elevation FlexACM products on the transponders we have booked on the NSS-12 satellite.”

In December 2008, Intersat was awarded the KENET project in Kenya to connect all Universities and Higher Education establishments to the Internet using satellite technology. It acquired four transponders from Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and initiated service on DVB-S2 using equipment from another manufacturer that was already deployed on ABS. After a few days Intersat requested ABS to immediately switch to Newtec’s Azimuth hardware and also placed another order for more Newtec equipment to facilitate the changeover at their remote sites. “The service quality attained using the other manufacturer’s equipment did not match up to the amazing levels experienced when using Newtec”, said Wilfred Waithaka, General Manager of Intersat Africa Limited based in Nairobi,

Kenya. He also added: “We are currently testing Newtec’s FlexACM solution on large SCPC links. This FlexACM solution includes Newtec’s TelliNet TCP acceleration platform and we hope to achieve similar IP acceleration efficiencies to those seen since we started using Newtec’s TelliNet platform five years ago on small DVB links.” Serge Van Herck, CEO of Newtec said: “Intersat is one of the most respected providers of Internet solutions in Africa. We have been proud to support Intersat over the years and our products and solutions have an excellent record in meeting the customer’s needs every time. We look forward to continue partnering together with Intersat in order to help them achieve their business objectives.”

Vislink provides security framework for 2010 World Cup Highly versatile video surveillance system includes cellular diversity receive technology

islink’s Law Enforcement and Public Safety (LE&PS) business unit has received an order valued at over $1.5 million to provide strategic video surveillance services for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Vislink will work with its partners Zeiss and Telemedia to supply the South African Police Services (SAPS) with a comprehensive helicopter and ground based video downlink system. This network is supported by a combination of airborne, mobile and portable equipment that will include strategically located diversity receive sites enabling police teams on the ground to maximize their surveillance coverage area. “This solution was specifically designed with an emphasis on portable and fast deployable configurations allowing for simple set up and operation.” stated Mike Payne, Managing Director of Vislink’s LE&PS

business unit. “Our industry leading receive diversity capability expands the overall wireless surveillance coverage area in a way that is seamless to the end user.” The solution consists of both traditional diversity, as well as cellular diversity technology depending on the location. Specific equipment includes: MDR-2 diversity receivers, Link L2024 cellular diversity receivers as well as STRATA portable microwave transmit 25

systems with specialized HPU’s (High Power Units). After the completion of the 2010 World Cup, the SAPS will continue to use these systems for border patrol and general security around the region. This solution represents another step toward implementing Vislink’s LE&PS market strategy for Mobile Network Centric Solutions (MNCS) services. MNCS services provide mobile, fast deployable, self-sufficient communications support for phone, video, data and remote wireless IP network connectivity. Additionally, Vislink’s MNCS services can be configured with little, if any, reliance on existing infrastructure including power grid or data network support. MNCS is ideal for applications such as airborne downlinks, video Surveillance and tactical video analysis and satellite telecommunications worldwide.

Abu Dhabi TV goes High-definition! Abu Dhabi Media Company, one of the fastest-growing multi-platform media organizations in the region, will launch its High-Definition (HD) television channel in October, offering its UAE viewers the opportunity to revolutionise their television viewing experience.

he channel called Abu Dhabi HD, which will feature a wide range of programming including sporting events such as English Premiership football, documentaries from National Geographic Abu Dhabi, drama and movies, offers cinematic visual clarity on a television screen. Abu Dhabi HD will be accessible, through E-Vision, to viewers in the UAE with compatible HD television sets and set-top boxes, which are available from leading electronics retailers. Mohamed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, chairman of Abu Dhabi Media Company said: "Abu Dhabi Media Company is proud to play a role in contributing to the growth of Abu Dhabi as a regional and international media hub. With ADMC boasting forty years of successful broadcast history, and HD being lauded as the biggest breakthrough in broadcasting since colour television, it seemed natural for

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Abu Dhabi HD will be available through EVision in the UAE. Speaking at the launch, Humaid Rashid Sahoo (centre), CEO of EVision described how the service will provide outstanding content to viewers equipped with HD set-top-boxes that are easily available through consumer electronics stores.

ADMC to make High Definition television accessible to its viewers in the UAE.” Al Mazrouei’s enthusiasm is reflected by CEO Edward Borgerding,

who describes HD as the future of television and believes it’s essential that ADMC offers its viewers the opportunity to experience the latest most modern advances in television quality. He’s supported in this belief by Karim Sarkis, executive director of broadcast at ADMC. “HD TV has rapidly gained international popularity and we are delighted to be able to bring this experience into the homes of viewers in the UAE,” he says. “Abu Dhabi HD will be available through EVision, and will deliver rich, outstanding content to viewers equipped with easy-to-install HD TVs and set-top boxes. The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) function, will allow viewers to pause, rewind and record while watching the latest films, dramas, documentaries from National Geographic Abu Dhabi or sporting action from the English Premier League.”

BFE wins contract in Saudi Arabia BFE to deliver complete radio and IT technology for a new broadcasting centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

n the coming months, BFE will engineer for its customer, the Ministry of Culture and Information, 18 control rooms, 16 studios and 20 editing suites. This order marks a continuation of the good business relations between the system house and the Ministry, with BFE having already supplied the Ministry with three 5 camera OB Vans. Lawo Zirkon Mixers will be implemented in all studio areas. Lawo Z4 Mixers will be incorporated in only 10 of the editing suites. Two Lawo Nova73 mk2 Matrices and a Lawo Nova17 will be used for metering and monitoring in the master control room. BFEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s router control system KSC, relying on 35 control panels in the control rooms, will be responsible for controlling the audio routes as well as for monitoring the corresponding signals and functions. The Netia broadcasting and archiving system with 130 clients forms the core of the broadcasting centre. The French radio automation will be installed on HP client, storage and server components and linked via D-Link

gigabyte network components. In addition a Riedel intercom system with 63 panels and an Alpermann+Velte centralised clock system connected to 118 slave clocks will be installed. BFE will also provide various small devices tailored to customer

specifications such as 60 balancing amplifiers and over 150 headphone amplifiers. The sections described above will also all be fitted with BFE furniture, which is designed and manufactured in the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own workshops in Mainz.

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when it matters.

Welcome to the largest Arab community in the sky — only from Arabsat In a world getting more and more interconnected, Arabsat is helping to bring people closer and make the world a smaller place. As the largest satellite operator in the Arab world covering the Middle East and Africa—as well as Europe and beyond—only Arabsat offers the full spectrum of broadcast, telecommunications and broadband services. With the youngest satellites in the region, plus more satellites launching every year until 2012, this capacity will continue to grow and provide unprecedented reach, superior reliability and unmatched ﬂexibility for broadcast and telecom operators. Indeed, Arabsat gives you the most powerful way to reach and connect with the largest Arab community in the sky—and much more. Join our premium neighborhood now.

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Arabsat. Youngest ﬂeet. Highest reliability. Maximum ﬂexibility. Founded in 1976 by the 21 member-states of the Arab League, Arabsat has been serving the growing needs of the Arab world for over 30 years. The Arabsat world now covers millions of homes in over 100 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, including over 164 million people across 21 Arab countries. Serving the Middle East & Africa

Telecommunications Sector

Arabsat’s main coverage area spans the Middle East and North Africa including Sudan. However, in the last 5 years , the telecommunications sector in the north and south of Africa has experienced huge demand. Arabsat has thus started expanding its reach to bring all of Africa within its coverage area. To achieve this, Arabsat has added its 5-A, 5-C and Badr-5 satellites to cover Africa, complementing its original Middle East coverage. These satellites are located at the Arabsat orbital positions of 20º, 26º and 30.5º East . This vastly expanded reach will lead to the following enhanced offerings in Africa:

The current Arabsat 2-B satellite at 30.5º East and Badr-6 satellite at 26º East provide C-band coverage for two-thirds of the African continent. To expand its African coverage and reach all of the continent, Arabsat 5-A will be located at 30.5º East, replacing Arabsat 2-B by the end of 2009. Arabsat 5-A will provide higher spot power over the eastern and western parts of Africa.

Broadcasting sector Arabsat has started C-band transmissions of its Digital TV bouquets from its 30.5º East orbital position, creating a TV Hot-Spot for DTH TV services for all of Africa. Two bouquets are currently carrying over 20 TV channels. These bouquets will be transferred to the new Arabsat 5-A satellite planned for launch by end of 2009 to the same orbital position. Once launched, Arabsat will have 100% coverage of the African continent with excellent downlink power allowing dishes of just 1 to 1.2 meters to receive these TV channels. Additionally, Arabsat will launch its Badr-5 satellite in the first quarter of 2010. Badr-5 will cover the whole Middle East and North Africa, supporting its existing Ku-band TV Hot Spot at 26º East. It will act as an in-orbit hot backup satellite for the existing Arabsat fleet (Badr-4 and Badr-6) and provide expansion capabilities. On board the new Badr-5 satellite, a steerable Ku-band beam can be directed toward any area in the west of Africa—from Morocco in the north to South Africa in the south—to provide DTH services in Ku-band over specific target areas.

In addition, Arabsat has deployed another beam covering two-thirds of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. This beam operates in a planned C-band spectrum of 6.7 to 7.0 Ghz uplink. This new addition—which also covers Europe’s main Internet backbones—will provide vastly enhanced capacity for various telecom services, GSM backhauling, Internet and other VSAT or dedicated networks across the expanding Arabsat world. Towards the end of 2011, Arabsat will also launch its 5-C satellite and position it at 20º East, an ideal orbital position to cover the African continent. Arabsat is launching one satellite every year until 2012, vastly expanding its coverage across all of Africa. With its enhanced capacity, the Arabsat ﬂeet will be a vital contributor to African development, opening new business opportunities in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors, generating new jobs and stimulating the business environment with new tools for developing and growing the African economy.

For further information, please contact: Arab Satellite Communications Organization, P.O. Box 1038, Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh 11431, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Fax: +966 1 483 0940 Email: info@arabsat.com

Grass Valley delivers end-to-end news solution to Murr TV As part of its ambitious project to return to air in time for the national elections earlier this year, independent Lebanese broadcaster Murr TV turned to Grass Valley for a systems solution for its news production requirements. The timescale was tight, with just three months between the order and the station going on air.

he project covers systems integration, providing seamless interfaces with Murr TV’s Avid iNews newsroom and post production, and playout automation from Etere. This recent order includes 13 Grass Valley LDK 400 studio cameras, a Trinix NXT router with Jupiter control, and two Maestro master control switchers for the final transmission. The newsroom system is based on Grass Valley’s Aurora news production system, including desktop and craft editing as well as a 24-channel K2 media server with large-scale central storage. In the newsroom there are 19 Aurora Browse workstations to manage ingest and view the contents of the shared storage, 15 desktop editors, and four Aurora News editors for when packages need high-quality finishing.

“We needed to move very quickly on this project, so that Murr TV would be well established and all our systems working well before the Lebanon general elections at the beginning of June,” said Walid Dagher, Head of Engineering of Murr TV. “While we were talking to a number of potential suppliers, it was very clear that

Grass Valley was determined to demonstrate not just that it had the right products, but could provide a high level of support, both direct and through their local partner Pharaon Broadcast. We placed the order in late January 2009 and were on air by April 7.” “Because Grass Valley has a broad portfolio of products, as well as tremendous experience in developing and customizing projects to individual specifications, we were able to move quickly and deliver just what Murr TV requested,” said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Grass Valley. “This project was about more than hitting tight deadlines, it is about working with our customers to understand their workflows and to design a system that is going to work just the way each customer needs it to.”

World first as Tieline and SABC broadcast live over WiMAX IP Leading audio codec manufacturer Tieline Technology delivered a world sports first recently by broadcasting live audio over WiMAX IP during a match between Premier League football side Manchester City and local side the Kaiser Chiefs in Durban, South Africa.

he broadcast was initiated by Siemens and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and conducted with partners B&I Engineering and Multisource Telecoms, who are trialing the technology in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next year. "We connected a Tieline Commander G3 IP codec to an Airspan MicroMAXd ProST WiMAX(wireless Ethernet)standalone base station and broadcasted flawlessly over 3kms between ABSA Stadium in Durban and the SABC Broadcast Centre for the entire game," said Russel Jones, Engineer for B&I Engineering. "The SABC were thrilled with the results and they remarked that the connection sounded much clearer than their regular ISDN connections and audio latency was barely noticeable." Successful tests conducted prior to the live event over

The SABC and Tieline Technology delivered a world first when they broadcast live audio over WiMAX during a football match between Manchester City and local team, Kaiser Chiefs.

the Airspan WiMAX Ethernet links delivered solid audio at over 9kms between transmitter and receiver. "The potential for using WiMAX technology in broadcast

applications is only just being recognized," said Darren Levy, Tieline's International Marketing Manager. "Using WiMAX technology to obtain higher bandwidth IP connections has implications not only for remote outside broadcasts, but also for low cost permanent studio to transmitter link and network audio distribution applications." The Tieline codecs facilitated sending 20kHz broadcast quality stereo audio to the SABC Broadcast Centre via the WiMAX link at 256Kbps and received a return feed of the same quality that the commentators used as foldback/IFB. Tieline's unique QoS Performance Engine Technology delivered an extremely reliable IP connection with very low latency by using features such as automated jitter buffering and advanced forward error correction techniques, to replace any lost packets over the wireless network.

Looking forward at IBC It may seem like an obvious thing to say, but the highlight of the big broadcast event of the year, IBC, is going to be the chance to look at the products of the future. immediate future, in terms of new products and versions being launched at IBC this year? Here are some of the themes which are emerging from the preview press releases received so far.

Going green

es, one of the attractions of an exhibition is to see the latest developments from the manufacturers, who tend to use IBC as an opportunity to launch new products. But this year IBC itself is gazing into the future. In part this is a defence mechanism. With the numbers dramatically down at NAB earlier in the year, the IBC organisers have looked at a number of new ideas to keep people coming. One of these new ventures is the Innovation Arena. If you are familiar with the BBC television programme Dragon’s Den you will have some idea of how this works. 12 young and largely unknown companies have been invited to present new products for consideration by a panel of judges. They get five minutes to give the elevator pitch, then they are questioned.

long-established area to spot the hot products of the future. The New Technology Campus gives the chance for some of the research work described in the conference to be shown in prototype. There are plenty of examples of New Technology Campus demonstrations being snapped up by leading manufacturers and appearing as products at IBC a year or two later.

New technology campus A lot of the prospects for this year’s New Technology Campus are in the area of displays, with a holographic broadcast taking us even beyond the current hot topic of stereoscopic 3D. Even more advanced, there will be a demonstration of

launching what it calls “its most powerful, greenest compact router yet”, for example. There is a conference session on whether you can make installations cost effective and ecological at the same time, too.

Entry level pricing

Winner in each category The 12 are divided into four categories: consumer oriented innovation, agents of change, technology to the rescue and innovation for tomorrow. A winner will be chosen in each category, although all that is at stake is a certificate. The Innovation Arena is part of the conference, but exhibition visitors get a chance to look at the entrants in an special display area. This is an interesting idea, and one which I am very much looking forward to. IBC already has a

There is a lot of emphasis on saving energy. In truth it is surprising that this is only just coming to prominence, because virtually all the energy consumed in broadcast equipment is wasted – we will only end up with one volt of video. The waste ends up as heat which has to be taken away with expensive air conditioning, so you pay for it twice. The big energy consumers, of course, are transmitters, and manufacturers, including Grass Valley, Harris and Rohde & Schwarz are emphasising the energy efficiency of their new products. The environmentally sound message creeps in to a lot of announcements, though. Nevion – who we used to know as Network Electronics – is

multi-sensory interaction, allowing you to feel the presence of a virtual object. The New Technology Campus is part of the exhibition (it links hall 3 to hall 6) so is open to all visitors. It is always fun to spot what might change the way we work in future. These areas aside, what are the manufacturers promising us for the more 32

Offering high quality facilities at an entry level price – or bringing full functionality to every user, whatever the application – is another big trend. The new Atem production switcher from Echolab caught my attention at NAB, and it is getting its worldwide launch at IBC. It has up, down and cross conversion for everything from SD to 3Gb/s and lots of keyers for multiple layers. On the elQuip stand GlobalStreams will be launching the GlobeCaster studio in a box, which includes an automated switcher, realtime editor, graphics and animation, DVE, disk recorder, keyer and more. Top line of the

listed benefits from the manufacturer is “very aggressive economic pricing”. It will be demonstrated alongside the costeffective wireless camera link from Boxx TV. The company claims its new Meridian system is uncompressed in SD and HD with zero delay, but is still affordable for lower cost productions like conferences, college sports and web streaming. At the other end of the camera is a new range from lens maestros Cooke Optics. The Panchro is calibrated and colour matched to the top of the range Cooke lenses, but are priced to suit independent film and documentary makers and students, and “difficult situations such as crash scenes”.

Digital audio favourites Audio is not forgotten from this trend, either. SADiE from Prism Sound has long been a favourite digital audio workstation. New at IBC this year is a software-only version, running on a Windows PC. Quantel is being particularly secretive about its IBC launches, but it does tick two of the boxes of the moment by inviting visitors to “the more environmentally-friendly Quantel stand” and offering the low cost Final Cut Pro on Quantel. The company also hints at a new and economical way of working with virtualisation which, they claim, will let broadcasters do things that are impossible. One lucky visitor can win it free, too. Another company formerly regarded as the sole preserve of the premium end of the market is da Vinci, which is launching an entry-level colour grading system at IBC. Based on a PC, it gives you access to the full resolution and dynamic range of Red Raw files, as well as covering SD and HD resolutions. Da Vinci, incidentally, was one of the companies who spotted a good idea at an IBC New Technology Campus, and converted it into a product: in this case the Revival automatic restoration system.

Business efficiency Another major driver at IBC this year will be a striving for business efficiency, for ways to do what needs to be done in broadcasting which are as automated and streamlined as possible. There is

increasing interest in linking the broadcast technology platform to commercial systems. If nothing else, it helps the business understand how much everything costs. What is the real cost of making a series of promos? Is it better to create it in house, outsource it to a post production facility, or invest in automated graphics? Pilat Media is using the opportunity of IBC to host its own user conference, to talk about just these issues. It is the day before the exhibition opens, Thursday 10 September, and features sessions on reporting and business analytics as well as more familiar territory like advertising support and asset management. With the day ending with dinner at Amsterdam’s Supper Club, it sounds like an excellent idea.

for a given bitrate, and even when challenged it degrades rather more gracefully than MPEG.

Content security It is probably best suited to very high quality transmission, such as contribution and distribution links. Expect to see already proven products from a number of manufacturers, including

Individual TV experience Now an Ericsson company, Tandberg Television will be focussing on what it calls The Individual TV Experience at IBC. The aim is to show how the latest content on demand and management systems enable new revenue generating services which can be clearly differentiated. Making claims for the other trends, too, Tandberg says its compression products “reduce total cost of ownership and cut environmental impact”. The software products of TransMedia Dynamics (TMD) are designed to help people in business areas like planning and scheduling to access content and metadata from their desktops. The emphasis is on efficient media production and re-purposing, as well as advances in process integration.

Identify relevant content Masters of the browse resolution service IPV will be formally launching Teragator, its new way of aggregating, managing and displaying metadata. The idea behind it is that it will enable users to identify more relevant content, particularly in news and sport, when searching through archives. The result should be that if you have Teragator then your stories will be more detailed, more compelling and, therefore, more attractive to the audience. If you retain a better audience your income should be more assured. Finally, just a couple more ideas which I think will be interesting at IBC. The compression algorithm JPEG2000 has been regarded as a bit complicated in the past, but it is now finding its place in the digital communications toolkit. Because of the way it works – wavelet compression, treating the whole frame in one, rather than the block nature of MPEG – JPEG2000 tends to deliver better quality 33

Nevion and T-VIPS. Security of content is vital, so fingerprinting and watermarking will be very important. Recently Dutch company Civolution acquired the intellectual property in the content protection systems originally developed by Thomson, and is now taking a more aggressive stance to their marketing. This is a comprehensive set of tools, covering everything from securing content exchange between post production houses for collaborative working through to watermarking for delivery to the home.

High quality projection With movies needing more and more digital post production, and post houses around the world all collaborating, there is a growing need to monitor using high quality projection rather than conventional monitors. The market is expanding for precision digital projectors with calibrated colour reproduction: I was impressed with the products from Projection Design when I saw them recently. There will, of course, be thousands of new and improved products on display at IBC: with more than 1000 exhibitors this year, each jostling for attention. In practical terms, it is impossible for any one visitor to see everything on display. You have to plan your way around. For all that, I am still a great believer in exhibitions, as a way of getting the industry together to see the latest technology, and to meet up and talk about it. It is not the only way that manufacturers will be seeking to communicate with their customers in future. Harris, for instance, will be launching an extremely bold concept at IBC. But for me nothing beats seeing things for myself, in person. So I will be touring the halls of IBC. See you there.

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Royal Bafokeng stadium gets a fresh coat of sound Reflecting natural features with its saddle shape, the Royal Bafokeng Stadium is set to play an important role and will embrace the 2010 legacy by being one of ten stadiums to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.

time constraints with the end result being superb sound quality.”

Nelson Mandela Bay stadium

The Royal Bafokeng stadium has been completely refurbished in preparation for the FIFA21010 World Cup.

commented, “The installation was completed timeously and under severe

In another project in Port Elizabeth, ProSound have also kitted out the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. This has been especially built for 2010. With a capacity of 50 000, the venue will host five first-round matches, one secondround, one quarter-final, and the thirdplace playoff. The structure is a futuristic soccer stadium, which is incorporated within a multi-purpose facility specifically designed to serve the community for years to come. Prosound were contracted by Dimension Data to do the full design, supply and installation of the sound system keeping in line with the FIFA requirements.

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eating 42 thousand fans, the stadium has been named after the Bafokeng people who live in the area. Prosound were contracted to Liviero to provide a sound system with good intelligibility and precise speaker coverage combined with high SPL capability. Their design utlises ElectroVoice Phoenix, FRX+660PI and ZX-5 controlled by Peavey Media Matrix, fitted with Crest CKI amplifiers. The Voice Evacuation System consisted of RCF PL60, Horn Speaker HD410T and the Dynacord DL800/15T. One of the major difficulties incurred was the damage to some of the existing speaker circuits due to construction work. This was overcome by meticulous tracing of the circuits by the installation team and pulling new cable circuits. Liviero’s Louis du Toit

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Barco empowers Abu Dhabi’s new Formula 1 race circuit Barco, a global leader in LED technology, is proud to announce that it has signed a deal in Abu Dhabi for the delivery of 14 LED displays for the new Yas Marina Circuit.

n total 452 square meter of LED will be installed around the track to optimize the fans' viewing experience. On 1 November 2009 this brand new race track will host the F1 season finale on the occasion of the first ever Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Yas Marina Circuit will host the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the next seven years, with the first ever Abu Dhabi grand prix taking place on 1 November 2009. To engage spectators and fans in the action, Aldar Properties has purchased 14 Barco SLite LED screens, totaling 452 sqm LED surface. The displays will be spread over the Formula 1 race track grounds and will be a mix of Barco's 10mm and 14 mm SLite outdoor LED displays. “We are glad to have Barco's SLite LED displays installed on the Yas Marina Circuit premises,” comments

Mohammed Al Mubarak, Chief Commercial Officer of Aldar Properties. “Our Formula 1 race track is designed by world renowned designer Hermann Tilke and will be finished to the highest standards. To underline the circuit's exclusive location, we needed high-

quality displays to broadcast visually stunning images of the race and all activities beyond. Barco's outdoor LED has extremely good viewing angles and will display the live action perfectly even in the bright Abu Dhabi sunlight.” “We are proud to have been selected by Aldar Properties; this deal confirms the excellent quality of Barco's outdoor LED solutions,” says Wim De Geest, General Manager Middle East for Barco's media and entertainment division. “Abu Dhabi is a booming region and we are proud to help stage the first ever Formula 1 grand prix in the country. The Yas Marina Circuit will be the most beautiful, innovative and luxurious motorsport circuit ever built. Barco's LED displays are a perfect fit for this environment as they will ensure maximum visibility for the leading Formula 1 brands.”

National Geographic launch dedicated Arabic channel National Geographic and Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) have announced a strategic partnership for the launch of a free-to-air National Geographic Channel Abu Dhabi (NGCAD) - the first international factual entertainment channel to be launched in the Arabic language.

ational Geographic Channel Abu Dhabi, dubbed completely into Arabic, aims to inspire a life-long passion for learning, to cultivate curiosity and wonder about the world and generate awareness, concern and knowledge about the planet. Its launch in Arabic marks the first time in the Middle East that high quality National Geographic content will be delivered to the region’s viewers dubbed into their native language, and the first time that the National Geographic Channel is being launched free-to-air. The region is currently hugely underserved in the international factual entertainment genre, giving the channel a first mover advantage. The strategic partnership between Abu Dhabi Media Company and the globally celebrated NGC is forged from ADMC’s vision to turn Abu Dhabi into a regional media hub and from the shared vision between the two to enhance the region’s understanding of the natural world and environment. Dedicated to understanding and protecting the planet with its worldwide reputation of producing credible and authentic content that fits different viewers’ interests, NGC Abu Dhabi offers smart, factual entertainment featuring science and technology, animals and nature, exploration and culture. The

channel will target an educated and discerning audience who are curious and sensitive about what’s happening in the world around them. The channel will also leverage a variety of multimedia channels for the promotion of National Geographic’s aims - including a dedicated website that will feature comprehensive information on programming including forthcoming feature highlights; an easy-view TV schedule; a variety of online games designed to encourage people to think

about the planet; a community section where viewers can ‘ask the experts’, contribute to online polls or enter competitions; and a video player where viewers can watch programme highlights and reviews. National Geographic Channel Abu Dhabi will also employ a variety of multimedia to reach out to viewers across the market - through print, TV, online and outdoor media; alongside school contact programmes and on the ground activations.

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Mediatech Africa reflects buoyant market in Southern Africa This year's Mediatech Africa show bucked international trends with a 15% increase in visitor numbers. Despite the increase, attendance from outside South Africa was disappointing and the show fell short of its claim to be a regional event.

his year’s Mediatech Africa show bucked international trends and managed to attract a significant 15% increase in visitors from the local market. Despite this achievement, the exhibition fell far short of its claim to be a regional show, only managing to draw a paltry 1% of visitors from neighboring countries. Event director Simon Robinson was pragmatic in his reaction. “Every other broadcast event hosted anywhere in the world during the last year has seen a drop in attendance so for us to achieve a 15% increase is testament to the buoyancy of our local market,” he says. Interestingly, nearly 70% of the visitors to this year’s event were first time visitors so not only does the country appear to have an active broadcast market but the demographics of the industry and the show are also changing fast. In analyzing where the extra participants came from, organizers point to the effort they put into increasing attendance by students (who accounted for about 10% of visitors) and the music and live events sector who’ve embraced the show as their own.

During the build-up to the show there’d been quite a lot of concern as to whether the organizers could pull off a successful event in the face of a difficult economy. A number of established suppliers decided not to exhibit and Panasonic’s absence was particularly noticed. It’s no secret that Panasonic have been reining in their marketing activities and having now cut their exhibition and advertising budgets it’ll be interesting to see how they set about reaching out to their customers. Another area of activity that was noted for its confusing presence was the professional AV market sector.

Christie, Barco and Optoma all had dedicated booths but the InfoComm round table hosted during the show was poorly attended and the InfoComm seminar programme was an absolute disaster. All three of the projector vendors reported positive interest from the broadcast and live events market but, despite the best efforts of the organizers, the B2B audio-visual market just didn’t turn up. In analyzing the success of the show, it’s important to recognize that Mediatech Africa is a bi-annual event that has largely evolved around the needs of the industry. While Thebe Exhibitions is a well-established show organizer, they’re largely guided by an industry panel that provides information on the trends and technologies driving the market. This insight has allowed the show to evolve according to the needs of the exhibitors – and it’s allowed the show to focus on developing those areas that provide meaningful value to the market. All in all, Mediatech Africa has been hailed as a resounding success and we look forward to the next event in 2011.

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Shirley Adams selected for Locarno film festival Centropolis Entertainment, the London Film School and South Africa’s Dv8 Films are proud to announce that the feature film Shirley Adams, directed by 26 year old Oliver Hermanus, has been selected for Main Competition at the prestigious A-festival Locarno, in Switzerland, taking place in August.

ocarno is one of the oldest and most established film festivals in the world and has been responsible for discovering the likes of Spike Lee, Milos Foreman, Mike Leigh and Stanley Kubrick. Oliver trained at the world famous London Film School, which has produced directors such as Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider), Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake) and director of photography Tak Fujimoto (Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense). Oliver completed his studies at London Film School after receiving a private scholarship from blockbuster film sensation Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot), who is also Executive Producer on Shirley Adams.

Fantastic filmmaking experience Shirley Adams is produced in association with the South African National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Rebate and the World Cinema Fund (Berlinale, Germany). Shirley Adams is the story of a mother who struggles to rehabilitate her son after he is paralyzed by a gunshot wound. “Shirley has been a fantastic filmmaking experience, and I am

overwhelmed by the amazing responses we have been receiving”, said Oliver on hearing the news. “Shirley Adams was selected for numerous A-list festivals over the last few months and it has been a tough but rewarding experience to decide which festival best suited the film. Locarno offers the film a fantastic platform for launching internationally”, says producer Michelle Wheatley. “I am very pleased there will be an international audience for this remarkable first feature,” said London Film School Director Ben Gibson. “It’s remarkable because Oliver is a hugely creative filmmaker with a voice and a style, and also because it’s a South African drama built around a complete character we must know, and not one who has been

invented as a political representation of some abstract idea: poverty, discrimination, bereavement. These rare things make it a very powerful film.” The film stars well known South African actress Denise Newman as Shirley, who claimed this was the hardest performance she has ever had to deliver. Other cast includes Keenan Arrison and a host of excellent Cape Town based actors. The film is produced by Michelle Wheatley and Jeremy Nathan (Dv8 Films), Executive Produced by Roland Emmerich and Kirstin Winkler (Centropolis), with Ben Gibson of the London Film School, in association with the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), the Department of Trade and Industry Rebate Scheme (DTI) and the World Cinema Fund (Berlinale).

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Largest line array PA in South Africa Northwind Recording appointed Gearhouse South Africa to team up, design and supply the largest ever line array PA system to date to be used in the country, for the 3-day 2009 Mighty Men Conference (MMC 09), staged at the Shalom Farm in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal.

omprising 172 L-Acoustics speaker enclosures, the show featured a main stage system and two delay rings at 100 and 180 metres respectively from the centre, calculated to cover a sound-field radius of 600 metre diameter. The event has become an annual pilgrimage, drawing people from all denominations and cultural groups within South Africa as well as Australia, UK and USA. The goal of the weekend is to gather men to pray, to worship, unite and heal broken families. The ministry and teaching is headed up by evangelist preacher Angus Buchan. The event has rapidly grown over the last five years to what has now attracted over 130,000 people - all of whom needed to clearly see and hear the onstage action.

360-degree audio system The 360 degree audio system was designed by Revil Baselga and modelled using Soundvision software. He chose LAcoustics to provide crystal clear speech intelligibility and uniform coverage across the vast area, and this also had to accommodate a band. The stage had a curved roof with clear skins supplied by Gearhouse sister company In2Structures, and was combined with a StageCo roof grid system minus the standard roof tarps. From this, four hangs of 8 VDOSC elements each with 2 dV-DOSC downfills were flown, complemented with dV front fills along each of the 4 lips of the stage. Around the first 100 metre delay ring were 2 hangs of 8 VDOSC a side on the east/west axis, and 4 flown hangs of 6 Kudos on the 60 degree lines around that circumference, all rigged on 10 metre high towers.

Outer delay ring For the outer delay ring, 4 stacks each with 6 Kudo speakers were positioned at the north/south/east/west /orientations, ground stacked at 6 metres high. Between each of these were 4 delays - of 4 dV-DOSC boxes each - also at 6 metres off the ground. The 32 SB28 subs were located at each corner of the stage, stacked in a cardioid pattern, with

The objective of the Mighty Men conference is to allow me to gather together to pray, worship, unite and heal broken families. This year's event attracted 130 thousand people - all of whom needed to clearly see and hear the onstage action.

8 firing in each direction. The show was engineered by Niklas Fairclough owner of Northwind Recording. Niklas chose to go analogue on this with a Midas XL3 console, complete with a 16 channel extender, and an immense amount of outboard gear - some supplied by Gearhouse and some of his own. The outboard count included 14 Drawmer gates, 8 channels of dbx 160SL and 6 of 160 4 channels of summit DCL200, BSS C2s, 4 EL8x Distressors, Avalon 747s and Avalon 737s and numerous effects. FOH was co-ordinated for Gearhouse by Adriaan van der Walt.

Audio monitoring Monitors were run on a Yamaha MCL7 console fitted with Aviom card, complete with 6 Sennheiser G2 IEM systems and Aviom mixers. Twelve Clair Brothers 12AM wedges were used for vocal monitors - 3 on each side of the stage, with a 3-way split going to the record truck. The stage action was overseen for Gearhouse by Tom Gordon. L-Acoustics amplification was also utilised throughout - the VDOSC powered by LA8 amps, with LA48s for the dvs and Kudos, 42

82 in total, along with 14 XTA crossovers a mix of 224s, 226s and 426s. The amps were all networked, the LAs run over Ethernet and controlled via LA Network, and the XTAs run via RS485 managed with their proprietary Audiocore programme.

Time alignment The time alignment was a massive challenge, and a fabulous result was achieved by systems engineer Jacob de Wit with a little help from SMAART. Baselga's crew of 8 also had to think on their feet at times! A good example of this was in developing a custom acoustic baffling system for the Kudo stacks in the first delay ring. Each of these was backto-back with a delay LED screen which kept throwing reflections into the arena. The treatment was developed using straw bales, which were plentiful on site and proved a highly effective solution.

And also ..... LEDVision (also a Gearhouse company) supplied Lighthouse R16 daylight LED screens for MMC 09. Four screens each made up from 6 x 4 panels

of Lighthouse were rigged from each side of the stage. Two of these had to be raised before the roof structure as its sides were lower than the screen height, a precise operation which added a day to the rig. The LED Systems Engineer was Allen Evans.

Maximise audience experience Another four 6 x 4 panel screens were rigged to the back of the aforementioned 60 degree Kudo delay towers stationed around the first ring. This position was chosen to maximise the audience viewing angles and coverage. LEDVision manufactured special SIB distribution boards to extend the data signal to run to the delay screens. Gearhouse Power supplied two 300KVA and two 120KVA generators which were used for all the production and site power. All the production equipment approximately 180 tonnes - was transported to and from site in 10 trucks, and included 4 all-terrain telescopic forklifts for moving kit around the site. The event was project managed on site by Eyal Yehezkely with onsite assistance (structures and site) by Attie van Staden, and co-ordinated generally by Gearhouse account handler Robyn Mulligan.

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Electro-Voice in Sharm El Sheikh Electro-Voice is setting the tone in the Egyptian tourist centre Sharm El Sheikh

harm El Sheikh is one of the most popular holiday resorts on the Red Sea coast. Among the main attractions in the tourist metropolis are the new Il Mercato shopping mall and the Hard Rock Café. Electro-Voice is setting the tone in both locations. The Il Mercato shopping centre boasts numerous stores, boutiques, bars, and restaurants. To ensure homogeneous coverage throughout the length of the mall, Electro-Voice partners Alpha Audio installed 68 SX300PIX, 38 ZX1i-100T, and 48 EVID3.2T loudspeakers. Ten CPS2-T amplifiers drive the installation. More Electro-Voice speaker systems serve the main piazza in a mobile capacity. The piazza is used for concerts and live transmissions of sporting events, and there are plans to extend coverage to the 1,000-metre-long shopping promenade. The way for the extension has already been paved with the installation of three NetMax N8000 controllers linked via CobraNet.

The Hard Rock Café franchise in the city centre, a restaurant offering diners the delights of live music, is equipped with fourteen ZX1i-90, four EVID C8.2 and ten EVID C10.1 loudspeakers. Five CP1200 and six CP1800 amplifiers supply the requisite power. “This was by no means an easy project to land,” says Alpha Audio’s Hesham Enan. “We had to fight off fierce competition; but in the end, the management of the Hard Rock Café decided in favour of Electro-Voice for a number of reasons,

including our sterling reputation as a design team, the excellent support we offer customers, and the outstanding quality of the products themselves.” Evidence of Electro-Voice’s strong position in the Egyptian pro audio market can be found elsewhere in the city: Electro-Voice equipment (including ZX5 loudspeakers and microphones from the PolarChoice Family) is being used in the luxurious Hotel Savoy and the classy Pacha night club (Gladiator tops and Eliminator K-1 subs).

Saudi ministry to archive digital media assets Solution to help retrieve information and streamline broadcasting services as part of the ongoing modernization of Saudi TV and Radio

n a bid to streamline and digitize its media assets, the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information have rolled out a major archiving project with EMC Middle East, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions. As part of the ongoing transformation of Saudi TV and Radio, the new EMC information management solution will provide the Ministry with greater control over its media assets to boost its workflow efficiency and reduce cost of operations while protecting its legacy and automating the retrieval of information to streamline broadcasting services.

Rapid growth in Saudi market The broadcast sector in Saudi Arabia has grown rapidly in recent years, and the newly adopted digital Archive Information Management Solution will facilitate Saudi TV and Radio in seamlessly digitizing its

will protect over 270,000 video and 500,000 audio tapes that have the data on the history and culture of the Kingdom encompassing over 50 years.

Protecting media heritage

analog media assets representing years of the Kingdom’s heritage and in transforming its services to the broadcast industry standard. The Ministry is committed to protect the Kingdom’s legacy and to provide all Saudi citizens with a focal source of information about Saudi Arabia which will service its country-wide network of information centers. The EMC solution 45

“The protection of the Kingdom’s media heritage comes as a top priority for the Ministry. Availability and accessibility and ease of access to media assets are crucial factors in the broadcast industry to ensure effectiveness and maximum quality of broadcast services. By deploying EMC’s solution at two main sites, we will be able to digitize our Media Assets, to easily duplicate it thus protecting our rich heritage and ensuring constant, redundant and automated availability of information whilst reducing operational and maintenance costs,” explained Dr. Riyadh Najm, Deputy Minister for Engineering Affairs, MOCI.

Economic adversity is a powerful driver for change There was something slightly odd about the phrase I was going to start this article with. It was: “We are in an extended period of rapid change”. What's strange about it is that rapid change normally happens in short bursts. But this time, it's not. Rapid change is here to stay, and we're only just realising what the consequences are going to be.

ere's just one example: I can store the entire contents of four DVDs on a little plastic device on my keyring. It cost thirty dollars. That's four feature films, encoded as MPEG-2 (not, as we know, the most efficient video codec) on a device that has occupies less volume than three sugar cubes. That fact is staggering in itself; but what I find even more amazing is that the tools and techniques that produced that USB Flash Drive are getting better all the time, and that the rate of improvement is increasing. What does all this mean for the broadcast industry, and the so-called multi-media industries with which it is rapidly merging? The short answer is: total, absolute change.

Underlying trends The long answer? If you're going to stay in business, you need to be able to understand the underlying trends, extrapolate them further than you'd ever have thought it was realistic to do, and, above all, stay flexible. The broadcast industry used to be based around specialist technology and skills. If you wanted to set up a commercial television station, you'd look for people with broadcast experience to staff it. That's still

the process of change is that instead of progress being determined by, say, the rate of development of video cameras, it is actually governed by the increasing power of computers, the fall in price and the increasing availability of bandwidth, as well as the phenomenal progress that's happening in the field of broadcast technology itself. When you get parallel advances like these, you don't just add them together – you multiply them. And the most distinctive characteristic of things that are multiplied together is that they get bigger exponentially. Dave Shapton is a leading digital media expert in the UK. He’s also a respected journalist, writing features for a number of leading broadcast technology magazines around the world. He has written over a hundred and fifty nationally and internationally published articles. He’s worked with digital media for over twenty years.

true of course today, but apart from those directly concerned with acquisition and production, you also need experts in computing and networks, and quite possibly communications. That's because Broadcast is now a Convergence industry, where the convergence in question is between Computing, Telecommunications and Digital Media. What this means for

1948

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Columbia Records launch first long playing record

Philips and Sony launch Compact Disc

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Apple launch iPod

Visualising change The broadcast industry, therefore, is experiencing exponential change. Many people find it hard to visualise this, which is understandable. Most of us think of change as being a linear process. Ask a typical person what they think things will be like in ten years, and they'll say: pretty much like now, but somewhat more advanced. The reality is different. It's getting hard to predict what the industry will be like in three years time. In ten years, it could be unrecognisable. You can’t use the past ten years as a guide, because things have accelerated since then. The point is that if you have trends that

2008

Real-time content delivered anytime anywhere

25 years ago the world's first compact disc was produced at a Philips factory in Germany, sparking a global music revolution. More than 200 billion CDs have been sold worldwide since then and it remains the dominant format despite the growth in digital downloads. It took just four years for CDs to overtake LPs as the top-selling medium for the music industry in the United States. In October 2001 Apple introduced its iPod portable music player and by July 2008, more than 5 billion songs had been sold as iTunes downloads. Disruptive technologies can appear unexpectedly and one product that poses a potential threat to the iPod is represented by Spotify, an online music service that is mostly available in North West Europe. It allows you to stream real-time content to almost any playback device. You need to be connected to the internet to listen to your music but as broadband wireless continues to spread, the iPod one of the biggest paradigm changes to hit the music industry may itself be out-paradigmed.

produce thousand-fold changes in a decade – and if you have several of them, then you are faced with change that is simply incalculable from our current perspective. All you can do is use your imagination as far as it will go, and then try to go further.

Economics and innovation Of course, it's not all positive. Technology is heavily influenced by economics, and the current downturn is not the best climate for innovation. But the relationship between the economy and progress is not as simple as it would seem on the surface. The somewhat harsh reality is that if technology can make savings in staff costs, or can make a business more competitive in any way, then a recession will drive its adoption forward faster than at any other time. Adversity is a powerful driver for innovation. There isn't room here to postulate the entire future of the broadcasting business, nor am I qualified to do it, so what I will do is illustrate what happens when you take one or two aspects of broadcasting technology, and push them to extremes. But first, another illustration of the incredible rate of change.

FILM REIGNED SUPREME FOR 100 YEARS

BUT WAS COMPLETELY OVERPOWED BY DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY WITHIN 15 YEARS About fifteen years ago, digital still cameras started to appear. And they were terrible, with resolutions roughly equivalent to a still frame from a VHS recorder. It was hard to tell the difference between a car and a cow. At the time, there was absolutely no way that digital still cameras posed any sort of threat to film. Not even to the cheapest, most consumer-oriented film cameras. But companies like Kodak must have known that it was only a matter of time until film was a fossil. Film rained supreme for over a hundred years, without changing fundamentally. It only took ten years for digital photography to overtake it, and around fifteen years to replace it completely. The same thing is happening now with Cinema, and the last vestiges of film use will be reserved for productions that need that unique look (although others might disagree with me!).

Fast forward-very fast Five years ago, several people in the industry told me that digital still and video cameras were fundamentally different and that you would never be able to record HD video on a still camera device because – amongst other things – it would be impossible to get the data from the image sensor quickly enough. Fast-forward a mere five years, and we have a prosumer digital SLR, the Canon 5D MkII, capable of capturing HD video that looks fantastic. And then, of course, there's the Red One, which acquires video that looks good enough to use a still frame capture for a magazine cover. Kodak might have had fifteen years to plan for a new type of future, but, today, and increasingly so in the future, Disruptive Technology can come out of the blue. Without warning, entire industries can be undermined by a new innovation, which, most likely, will actually be the result of two fast-moving trends coming together.

Online music download Here's an example: Spotify is an online music service that is mostly available in North West Europe, presumably for licensing reasons. You can't download music from it; you can only stream content in real time. The music is buffered so cleverly on the user's computer that the experience is virtually identical to having the tracks stored locally; except that it isn't. So this only works if you are connected to the internet, but if you are, then it works very well indeed. Because of the internet requirement, Spotify can't replace iPods and portable MP3 players – yet. But it will be able to very soon. Mobile broadband is only a year or so away from being faster than average ADSL connections with adequate geographical coverage, and when that happens, with something like Spotify, there will no longer be any need to store your music collection. All you need to have with you is your “Playlist”: a simple text file, listing your favourite tracks, and a mobile broadband connection. So you won’t need an iPod anymore. One of the biggest paradigm changes to hit the music industry ever will have been “outparadigmed”.

Corning out of the blue If you think Spotfy came out of the blue, you should probably get used to the idea that the only way you can protect your business against the unknown is to understand the trends and what causes them, and then try to see where they 47

might go. But, beware, because you can’t spot a trend until it’s started. Sometimes you have to look at factors that can actually cause trends. What follows is an example of how far you can take a technology trend, and how, if you push it far enough, the landscape changes completely. 3D is looking like it might become an established technology, just like stereo records in the fifties, and colour television in the sixties. It’s got some way to go before there’s a universal standard for displaying 3D in the home. It’s much more likely that Cinemas will provide 3D projection by default in the near future, because Hollywood has latched on to 3D as a means to add value to their content and because it will drive people to the cinemas to experience it. It’s also harder to pirate.

Multi-viewpoint media But for us, what’s far more interesting than 3D itself is that to acquire 3D content, you have to capture the image from at least two different viewpoints. So it will, inevitably, become very much easier to handle multiviewpoint media, in editing and processing. Put this trend together with increasing processing power; and increasingly sophisticated software, and you get another possibility, which is that additional viewpoints can be extrapolated from existing ones. Whenever you have more than one angle on a scene, it is possible, to some extent, to create “inbetween” views. This process has limits, and certain assumptions have to be made, but it is possible. The more viewpoints you have, the better it gets. In fact, if you have enough cameras, it might even be feasible to pan smoothly from one viewpoint to another. Incredibly, Camera Angle, will just become another thing you can adjust in post production. The processing power needed to do this at all is extreme, but with capability (which includes processing power, memory bandwidth, and software sophistication) increasing a thousand-fold in a decade, we may be only a few years away from it. Don’t be surprised if we some examples at the 2012 Olympics.

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THIS FAIR IS ORGANIZED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE UNION OF CHAMBERS AND COMMODITY EXCHANGES OF TURKEY IN ACOORDANCE WITH THE LAW NUMBER 5174

Accelerating technology As Raymond Kurzweil mentions in his book The Singularity Is Near - which is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;user manualâ&#x20AC;? of accelerating technology - there are at least twelve separate mechanisms that the human brain uses to make sense of images. The end-result of this process is not that we see a pattern of pixels, but that we â&#x20AC;&#x153;knowâ&#x20AC;? that there are certain objects in our field of view (a tree, a face, or a teapot, for example). There are already software models that emulate these brain processes. Remember this while you read the next few paragraphs. Another field of technology that will have unexpected effects on the whole industry is Metadata. Sometimes thought of as one of the duller, more technical aspects of media asset management, metadata will hold the key to many new capabilities in broadcast technology. Metadata is normally thought of as a description of media content. Even in a basic form, it massively enhances the ability to search for a particular scene, or for an object or character within video footage.

Detailed metadata More detailed metadata makes searching easier. And the only limit to the quality of metadata is the ability of a

person or software program to extract relevant features and to describe them. As automatic content recognition gets better â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of scope for this â&#x20AC;&#x201C; metadata will eventually become so good that it can be used to reproduce video content completely. That might sound fanciful, but this sort of thing is already happening in a parallel universe: computer games. Photorealistic moving images are created from 3D models and environmental data. And in yet another field, security, a developer from a biometric monitoring and facialrecognition software company told me recently that the metadata that accompanies their CCTV footage is getting so good that they mostly ignore the video content!

image will be created from a description contained in the metadata. A video appeared on You Tube recently showing a 3D night-time cityscape that had been created automatically by a computer program. The software was merely told what buildings, streets and cars â&#x20AC;&#x153;tended to be likeâ&#x20AC;?, and created it without further input. (http://www.devtopics.com/pixel-cityprocedurally-generated-cityscape/) Put all of this together and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not hard to imagine a time, sooner than youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d think, when all you have to do to make a film is feed the script into a computer.

Stretching the limits Eventually we will come to the limits of pixel-based video. Instead, we will identify objects and elements within each video frame and store them in a database. Playback framerate and resolution will be determined by the playback device, because descriptions of objects donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a framerate or resolution. If bandwidth is low, the image will simple become more â&#x20AC;&#x153;genericâ&#x20AC;?, rather than degrading in sharpness and quality. The

Shamus Young is a software engineer who has created a nighttime cityscape that is â&#x20AC;&#x153;mostly made of lights and suggestions rather than real detail.â&#x20AC;? The city is entirely procedurally-generated, meaning the programme will contain no art assets such as bitmaps, textures or models â&#x20AC;&#x201D; everything must be built from scratch at startup. The result is an amazingly realistic live model.

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DOP Morrné Jacobsz waiting for the sun to reach champagne status before rolling on the funeral scene.

From thought to theatre in one digital stream Last year CanDo Media took a bold step in the light of diminishing SABC work and decided to produce a Xhosalanguage feature film. Working with students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the feature remained in a digital environment from script to screen. JJ van Rensburg shares his experience.

he acquisition medium for CanDo Media’s feature film Intonga was made when they were offered a Sony 350 XDCAM HD camera and other equipment by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. “It was an interesting proposal because we were required to employ students from the University on our production,” says van Rensburg, “but it’s important to understand that it was not a grudge decision. This was the beginning of an incredible journey together with the students and our professional staff. For almost all of us it was a first.” From the outset the production was beset by challenges created by an inexperienced crew and an extremely tight budget. “Apart from a small finishing grant from the University we received no financial help from the formal institutions,” says van Rensburg. “This meant that we would

not be able to afford matte boxes, filters, prime lenses, and a generator or elaborate lighting (never mind a caterer); so I planned the production schedule to make use of as much natural light as possible. We had 2 blonds and three redheads. That’s it! During the filming of one night scene, we only had access to one 15 amp plug and a large scene to light. This is where the XDCAM really came alive. The shoot took place over the winter period which also meant short days. Director of photography Morné Jacobsz had to push the little Sony XDCAM HD to its limits.”

XDCAM comes alive Writer/Director/Editor/Grader JJ van Rensburg with lead actor Mzukisi Ntantiso and boxer/actor Mandisi Mkile during the crew premierre of Intonga at Grand West Cassino in Cape Town

The shoot went well and 11 days, 84 scenes and 14 locations later the production crew returned with 12 XDCAM HD disks and several EX1 memory cards stored on a hard drive. “A note here for EX users;” advises van Rensburg. “Yes,

your memory cards are susceptible to computer viruses as we discovered when a student used an infected memory stick while we were busy down-loading our dailies. The virus infected our computer and we lost a critical shot, the only shot in the movie where we relied solely on the EX and a baby jib. Fortunately we were able to recover the footage but only after many hours of hard disk recovery.

Starting to edit Back at edit café in Cape Town, I upgraded my Avid Media Composer with SDI Mojo to version 3 and started the edit. I imported the clips directly from the camera with the Avid’s native XDCAM HD codec. The XDCAM EX stuff came in via Sony clip browser and also in native format. I loaded my script into the Media Composer and proceeded to place my takes on the script where they belong. It is actually sad to see how few editors make use of this incredible Avid feature. You only have your script on the screen, instead of endless clips in bins, and you can instantly view any take from any scene with reference to the script.

Less than two weeks It took me less than 2 weeks to assemble the entire 120-minute film in HD, together with a rough grade where required, and to prepare it for subtitling. Subtitling is usually a schlep. I grabbed the manual, read through the section on using the new ‘subclip generator’ and from then on it was a breeze. You simply create a new video track, drop the function on it and proceed by cutting it up in the places where you need titles. Then you copy and paste the text from the onscreen script to the master subclip window, select your universal font, size and position, and voila, all done. Intonga has over 1500 subtitles which took me about a week to do. The bonus is that you can change your mind at any time about the font, or any other parameters, and it will apply it to all the titles without having to change them individually. It has a few limitations, but invaluable to any subtitling job. Subclip Generator showed its true value when I later had to prepare play outs for DigiBeta and other formats, because you simply copy the track, change the parameters and its all done and reformatted. To make an opening sequence, the budget again spoke loudly, and with a few selected shots referenced to Adobe After Effects, and Avid’s functionality to display AE directly through the Mojo in full quality on an HD screen, I created and exported the title sequence as a Targa sequence back to Avid. Easy!

16-years sound experience I have 16 years of sound mixing experience and creating a fair quality scratch mix with library music was simple. I have ProTools 7.0 LE with a Digi 002 installed on the same machine as the Avid. Having the two packages on the same machine meant making Quick Time reference files and mixing it took me a couple of days. I authored a DVD from the final reference files and handed it over to my partners to present to the distributors. The results could not have been too bad, and after we got a commitment from NuMetro to distribute our movie, reality kicked in. Suddenly it was not a video anymore, but a big screen feature that would have a full digital release on movie screens throughout the country. To view HD in full quality on a decent monitor for grading, Sean du Toit of Spescom provided an Avid Adrenalin HD system during a quiet period in December. Another note is to remember that HD material is very resource hungry, but the HP 8600 workstation with 8Gb of RAM was cool in handling it, and I moved my stripped pair of SATA drives to the Adrenalin in order to handle the data throughput. Viewing the movie in proper HD for the first time showed up another problem. Because we did not have the budget for an HD monitor on set, we never noticed a dead pixel on the camera. If we spotted it during the shoot, a few black balances could have fixed it, but too late now.

Transcode the final edit I first transcoded the final edit to Avid DNxHD 185 X 10bit allowing me 185 Mb/sec to work with. Then I used the Avid’s scratch removal tool to clean the dead pixel and applied it to every single shot (870 of them) throughout the film 51

with one double click. The next step was to stabilise a few track shots which was incredibly easy. Then the grade could begin in earnest. Shot for shot I carefully watched the built in Wavefrom Monitor and Vector Scopes while I graded the scenes. Thank goodness for the many years of linear editing with scopes. The DOP Morné Jacobsz did not give me a lot to do with his good eye and our agreement to shoot everything in flat white balance for later treatment. I did have a few challenges on scenes where the weather did not play ball, and this is where my 16 bit Digital Film Tools plug-ins came in handy. I could apply grads, tints, colour enhancement, polarizers, do selective colour correction, relight darker scenes, rack the focus depth, and use some other fancy tools where I needed them. Because of these 16 bit tools, I could not view the timeline in real time, and worked on sections of the movie which I rendered over nigh to watch the next day. All in all it took 7 days to grade and render the whole movie with subtitles. The results were astounding. For the first time I saw the film in HD and if we had any doubts when we started, it all disappeared.

Original sound track Meanwhile, maestro and hyperenergetic Cedric Samson and I flew to Jo’burg to compose and record the music score at MasterMax Studios with the very competent Johan van der Colff, while my old friend Stef Albertyn worked on the 5.1 final mixes. After 5 wonderful and very emotional days we returned with 35 music cues all recorded in 3 days with some of South Africa’s top musicians. Then we set off to mix them in McGregor at Johan’s country studio. Another 5 days later Stef handed me a 5.1 mix, stereo .ac3 encoded surround tracks and all the separates on time-coded DA88 tape and disks required for play outs and delivery. But how do you show this to other people without playing it out to very expensive HD tape and a small budget, and how will I deliver it to NuMetro?

Simple DVD authoring After another few days of serious research on the Avid forums and practical testing, I sorted out BluRay authoring/burning that will give us full quality HD and 5.1 audio tracks on one disk. To be the first person to attempt something is a lonely task because there is no one to ask advice from. Avid’s DVDit HD was more than up to the task and I set off to find a burner and disks. Easier said than done… It was December

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holidays and most places were closed. I finally found an LG 50Gb burner but no 50Gb disks. Only 25Gb were available and hellishly expensive at more than US$40 per disk. Fortunately they were rewritable (a claimed 10,000 times). To fit our film on the disk I had to squeeze it from the original 35Mb/sec to 24Mb/sec until I can find larger disks. The authoring was surprisingly easy if you know what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing. It encoded the Quick Time reference file from Avid and the .ac3 encoded audio plus burn the disk in a matter of 4 hours. Again I was astounded by the result. It looked and sounded stunning and after a few private screening with full 5.1 audio, I was more than happy.

Now for the big screen Now for the big screenâ&#x20AC;Ś Many questions and a few e-mails later, a specification sheet arrived from NuMetro. They require a 25Kbps m2v file with program stream encoded .ac3 file for server distribution. No problem for Avidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sorenson Squeeze. I cleaned a hard drive and used the same Quick Time reference file and .ac3 audio I used for making the BluRay disks and imported these into Squeeze. The encoding took about 5 hours and the results were astounding. I

sent the hard drive to NuMetro and a few days later the film was running in the cinemas during the Faith Film Festival. We even had a mini-premiere for the cast and crew at Grand West cinema sponsored by NuMetro and Sun International. The picture looked stunning on the big screen and the audio mix that Stef did was excellent. We ended the evening with a very happy cast, crew and guests.

Subtitling tools As for other deliverables, NuMetro required Digital Betacam 16x9 and 4x3 letter-boxed copies for DVD authoring, and Betacam SP 4x3 letterboxed copies for broadcast distribution. This is where the subtitling tools in Avid proved their worth. On each of the copies, the titles had to be re-formatted and re-sized to fit the different sized screen, and this took all of 5 minutes to do on each copy. I then simply rendered them and played them out to tape via my standard Avid SDI Mojo. Intonga is scheduled for release in September this year in all the NuMetro digital cinemas.

Not for the faint hearted In summary I would like to say that this route is not for the faint hearted or

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inexperienced editors. You need to understand the medium very well, work meticulous all the way and takes a lot of dedication and an in-depth knowledge of your tools. On the bright side, it opens the doors for many of us that cannot afford to go the expensive and traditional 3rd party finishing studios with their high level and expensive equipment. If the film is scheduled for 35mm print release, you have no choice, but digital cinemas are becoming more popular and we will soon have them all ready. Another important point is that you do not expose the film at any point to possible piracy attempts as it never leaves your machine. What we have accomplished with this film is to show that with dedication, innovation and many years of experience you can make a full length feature film on a small budget without compromising on quality. Even if I had a much larger budget to work with, and the distributor do not require film prints, I will go the same route again. The results speak for themselves. Now to convince the DTI and NFVF that we can do it and that we are ready to mentor more students on the next movieâ&#x20AC;Ś and will someone please buy the film from oversees so that we can get our own Adrenalin and make the next movie even better?

Christie introduce Spyder X20 The new Christie Spyder X20 video processor brings the flexibility of a universal routing switcher and the versatility of a powerful video processor for mid-size applications that have multi-windowing, multiple displays and processing requirements. The Spyder X20 includes the matrix switching and integrated source monitoring functionality of the Christie Vista URS. It also includes all of the existing features of the Vista Spyder, such as high-end presentation capabilities and an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that appeals to experienced and new customers. New to the Spyder family and the AV industry at large is the unmatched 20 megapixel bandwidth feature, which is available in both of the models; the Spyder X20-1608 and the Spyder X20-0808. Both models support blending, windowing, mixing and scaling in any source format and then route the signal to any destination device.

Lighthouse debuts LED products Lighthouse Technologies has again put itself in the spotlight, launching the new LEDscape Mesh 123242 LED panel. This is a 12mm pixel pitch panel geared toward creative minds that need a versatile LED panel for original lighting arrays, full colour video or to combine with other lighting solutions. Mesh features wide 140° horizontal and 120° vertical viewing angles for excellent long-distance off-axis viewing, a necessity for staging and entertainment venues. Manufactured with aluminium, each panel is highly durable and 23% transparent, opening up users to a range of creative possibilities that will stretch one’s imagination to the limit.

Analog Way announce Hi-Resolution Switcher Analog Way, a leading designer and manufacturer of image converters and presentation switchers, is proud to announce a new release to its Seamless Switchers range. Opus is a multi-layer, hi-resolution mixer seamless switcher with 3 scalers. This high-grade easy to use A/V Presentation Mixer Switcher is particularly adapted to rental and staging and high-end installations due to its excellent versatility. With state

Barco strengthens technology leadership in digital cinema

of the art 100% digital processing, the Opus outputs Digital and Analog Signals in DVI and VGA (RGBHV) simultaneously with a selection of many formats from HDTV to Computer 2K. Opus provides a high image quality thanks to its true 10 bits SD/HD auto adaptive pixel by pixel 3D motion compensation processing, de-interlacing, auto 3:2 and 2:2 reverse pull down circuitry, processing and Frame follower.

Barco has announced a new range of DLP Cinema based digital cinema projectors. From next year onwards the company will market a full range of 2K and 4K-ready projectors, meeting the needs of small and large screen theatre owners at the lowest cost of ownership. Barco introduced its first DLP Cinema projector more than 10 years ago and has been the industry's technology pioneer since then. “Product leadership and customer value are the cornerstones of our digital cinema track record,” says Wim Buyens, VP business development Digital Cinema. “Customers appreciate our lowest cost of ownership, ease of use and superb reliability and recent successes in Asia, Europe and the Americas confirm that Barco is today the industry's first choice for future-proof projection.” Barco is represented throughout Southern Africa by Questek. 54

Mitsubishi launch slim bezel LCD monitor

CoolSign appoints MxN as regional VAR

Mitsubishi Electric’s Visual Information Systems division has launched a new and innovative 52” slim-bezel LCD monitor, the MDT521S. By integrating a stylish slim-bezel design with the very latest technological features, Mitsubishi have developed a first class LCD monitor which is ideal for a variety of applications including digital signage, retail outlets, security control rooms and airport information points. Mitsubishi’s MDT521S is beautifully designed and benefits from an attractive 19.5mm aluminium bezel, available in either a black or silver option. The narrow bezel gives the monitor a sleek appearance and minimizes image distortion in tiled installations; a combination of 25 panels (5 wide x 5 high) can be installed in one configuration to create a large format image or a variety of smaller high impact displays. With a new structure design feature this LCD can be used in landscape and portrait modes, as well as full-flat, face-up installations, for unique floor fittings.

MXN Middle East has been appointed as the Value Added Reseller (VAR) for the Middle East and North Africa regions by CS Software Holdings LLC, maker of the CoolSign digital signage software suite. “CoolSign is committed to the reseller channel and providing them the support they need to be successful in the marketplace. In some regions, such as the Middle East with its rapidly increasing demand for Digital Signage, it became clear that the best way for us to deliver that support is via a regional VAR,” said Lou Giacalone, Jr., president of CoolSign. “We are very proud to be appointed as VAR for CoolSign for this region, Raad Raad. “We are one of the few companies in the region that is completely dedicated to Digital Signage and all it’s aspects from content design, content management to consulting and fully integrated solutions.”

Crestron presents new wifi touchpanel New HD-SDI and DVI Multiviewers from TV One TV One will be showing their new C2-6104 DVI-I CORIOview Multiviewer and the C2-6204 HD-SDI CORIOview Multiviewer during IBC, illustrating just how simple and cost-effective it can be to display multiple windows of separate images on one screen. Perfect for Command and Control Rooms, including use within the medical and security industry, the new CORIOview range is based on TV One’s exclusive CORIO-2 technology and can accommodate 5 separate inputs, allowing the user to place four windows of any size and position on one screen, with the fifth input being available for a full screen, un-scaled

background image or to allow another Multiviewer to be connected. Several units can be cascaded together in this manner resulting in a further four windows per unit. Coloured borders and source labelling is available for each window and included features such as the Key mode allows any window to be keyed over any other with variable priority / layer control. Extra advanced features of the CORIOview range include Seamless Switching, Genlock, Chromakey, Lumakey and Mixing. All of this power is housed nicely in a compact 1RU case and provided with rackmount ears for easy installation into a standard 19” rack.

Crestron’s new TPMC3X Handheld WiFi Touchpanel delivers remarkably long range, omnidirectional communication, providing the full Crestron experience in a small, mobile form factor. With integrated 802.11a/b/g technology, the TPMC-3X ensures secure, high speed 2-way wireless performance, reliable Crestron control and Ethernet connectivity to view Webcams and video servers. The intelligently engineered 55

"sleep mode" enables the TPMC-3X to remain connected to the WiFi network while conserving the dealer-replaceable, rechargeable battery. Redefining handheld remote control, the TPMC-3X dramatically improves the range and performance from previous generations of WiFi devices. Featuring omnidirectional, 360-degree communications that optimises WiFi coverage, TPMC-3X is the ultimate mobile control solution. Significantly extending battery life, the TPMC-3X goes into a virtual "sleep" within seconds when idle. Maintaining a constant network connection, the TPMC-3X revives instantly when picked up. The highly responsive TPMC-3X is the ideal room controller for today's sophisticated boardrooms.

MENOS shortlisted for IBC Innovation award Newtec, a world-leading innovator in the satellite and communications industry, the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) and Arabsat, have announced that their MENOS project has been short-listed for the IBC2009 Innovation Awards.

ENOS (Multimedia Exchange Network over Satellite), a revolutionary networking concept used to exchange multimedia content over satellite, allows broadcasters to share video and audio material among scattered sites in a fully automated and cost efficient way. The MENOS system also provides the ASBU with a complete range of tools to facilitate the coordination of tasks and provide additional IP services across the network. MENOS is fundamentally different from traditional satellite contribution systems: with IP as the core-protocol, all exchanged material transmits through a central hub station, which also provides permanent two-way satellite IP connectivity among all remote stations. Advanced DVB-S2 modulation technology, combined with the statistical multiplexing of the data,

voice, television and radio signals, ensures the optimum efficiency of the satellite bandwidth usage. The 2008 Olympics saw the first use of MENOS by ASBU. Members were able to receive live Olympic coverage. After a year of operation, the system has proved to be reliable, including outstanding performance and quality of satellite VoIP. The ASBU/Arabsat MENOS system was commercially launched into full production in January 2009 and has

been in continual and expanding use since that date. Slaheddine Maaoui, Director General of the ASBU said: “The introduction of MENOS is an extremely important milestone for us, the Arab region and the broadcasting industry as a whole. The MENOS service is not only a powerful international exchange platform for radio and television, but a powerful IP based service that is going to revolutionize broadcast transmissions. We are all extremely proud of this award short-listing, giving recognition to our investment and belief in such a revolutionary concept.” Khalid Balkheyour, CEO of Arabsat, added: “The introduction of MENOS is a historical moment for the broadcast industry, and we are delighted that the Arabsat satellites are playing a key role in this.

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