the journal of digital television · 2019. 7. 17. · february 2003 volume 45 number 2...

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THE JOURNAL OF DIGITAL TELEVISION

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THE JOURNAL OF DIGITAL TELEVISION

FEATURES74 Control room acoustics

gineering

By John StorykFind out what it takes to design an acoustically correctcontrol room.

80 Centralized and distributedbroadcastingBy Michel ProulxThe benefits of two popular consolidation models arereviewed in recent work projects.

BEYOND THEHEADLINES

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14 DeVolution

20 Spectrum management initiative mayimpact broadcasters

business Models

22 xDSL VOD for the masses

DIGITAL HANDBOOK

24 The digital video synchronizationconcept

Computers and Networks

30 Computer networking for beginners:Part II

Production Clips

34 Saving shot data

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(continued on page 6)

4 broadcastengineering.com FEBRUARY 2003

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FEBRUARY 2103 VOl ME 45 NUMBER 2

BroadcastEngineeringTHE JOURNAL OF DIGITAL TELEVISION

SYSTEMS DESIGNINTEGRATION

Transmission & Distribution

71 Eliminating that nasty ghost

96 111

NEW PRODUCTS& REVIEWS

Field Report

96 CanWest Global Toronto

Technology in Transition

98 Fiber optic systems

DEPARTMENTS10 Editorial

12 Reader Feedback

100 Classifieds

103 Advertisers Index

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Eitorial A A A i Ois

DTV wizardryIt was a dark and stormy night. Rain pelted me asI stumbled up the unlighted and rocky path. Iagain asked myself, "Why am I out here on such

a crummy night?" Then I remembered.Always looking for the latest news on digital TV, I

received a tip in my e-mail saying that a new DTV chiphad been discovered, one that claimed to make DTVreception easy and reliable. The secret behind this newchip was credited to the great Wizard Seetooths, mas-ter of the FOX cult. The wizard lives way up in theCaliforno mountains, hence my trek towards thewizard's cave at this ungodly hour.

As I neared the mountain's peak, a flash of lightningreflected off the opening of a small cave partially hid-den behind an outcropping of rocks and heavy brush.The cave opening was surrounded by relics of timelong ago - VHS tape machines, Plumbicon cameras.Near an ancient pine lay an old quad machine. Thecave opening was surrounded by mounds of worn outVHS cassettes.

As I moved forward, I stepped on a small tree branch.It broke with a crack. I froze.

"Halt, who goes there?" roared a voice from behindthe cave's dark entrance. I almost jumped out of myskin at the bellowing from beyond. "I said, who goes

there?" demanded the voice."It is I, editor of the famous magazine Broadcast En-

gineering. Who are you?" I asked."I am the great Wizard Seetooths, knower of all things

broadcast," the voice replied."Oh great Wizard Seetooths," I said, "I've heard that

you have solved the DTV reception dilemma. It is true?""Yes, it is true. I've solved all DTV reception prob-

lems, large and small, with my new Philips chip. Now,away with you," he shouted.

"But sir," I pleaded, "could there be some mistake?You see, others now dispute the IEEE report and yourpredictions. Even Philips has said it has no plans tomanufacture the DTV receiver chip as you claim."

"Those are lies, all lies. Now away with you, peon," boomed

the wizard. "I've said these things so they must be true. Itworks, trust me it works" continued the wizard. "Now beatit before I cancel my subscription to your magazine."

Having come this far, I tried again, "But Mr. Wizard,I implore you, the tests were merely theoretical.Shouldn't at least a prototype chip have been devel-oped before you claimed such predictable results?"

Suddenly, the Wizard's voice boomed even louderfrom behind the cave opening, "I've solved the DTVreception problem. Trust me, it works. Now get out ofhere before I turn you into a mere pixel."

Suddenly, a strong wind whipped across the moun-tain. Lighting flashed. As if by magic, the dark cur-tains hiding the cave opening parted and I was able tosee behind them. There was the Wizard Seetooths fran-tically stomping his feet and waving his hands. Smokebellowed from a fire at his feet as he yelled into a mi-crophone, "480 is truth; 480 is truth. 1080i and 720pare lies, damned lies:'

By now I'd heard enough and quietly backed down themountain trail away from the wizard's cave. As I turnedto go home, I could still hear the wizard shouting, "Trustme, the chip works. Wait, did I tell you 480 rules? Comeback, there's more. Did you know HD causes pimples?"

Must be the altitude, I thought to myself.

464-4-`/editorial director

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Diamonds or HD?

Brad,I surveyed the gals in our office - no

one would opt for high -definitiontelevision over a one -karat diamondring. Maybe the CEA needs to clarifythat the three Cs - color, cut and clar-ity - are top-notch and then ask thequestion again.

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MCG SURGE PROTECTION

Brad,You need a survey to realize these

facts? Nice article. And yes, I have beenusing screwdrivers and climbing tow-ers for years.

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Will digital work?

Brad,I have been reading your maga-

zine and editorial comments forsome time and have enjoyed yoursense of humor and insight regard-ing this digital conversion. I justdon't see it happening as seamlesslyas the transition to color.

The other night (late night) I waswatching a show about Kate Chopinon my local public TV station WGBYand the program started to break up- little squares appeared and disap-peared all over the screen. It was ob-viously a digital problem that I havenever encountered before. I stayedwith the program, not so much be-cause of interest in it but more to see

if they could clear up the problem.The squares increased in numberuntil there were lines of what lookedlike out -of -place puzzle pieces. Thesound started to break up, and fi-nally the screen went blank exceptfor the station tag in the lower rightcorner. They never showed the endof the program, and the next pro-gram did the same thing. Finally, Ishut off the TV and went to sleepwondering: Is this what the digitalfuture holds for us?

MIKE RIVERS

Digital does work

To the editor:I would just like to comment on

my perception of the accuracy ofyour article in the weekly Webnewsletter for Dec. 30, 2002, "DTV

reduced power, we are received inabout a 30 -mile radius.

The ATSC format appears to beVERY robust. We do have monitor-ing equipment and have made fieldtests. This digital stuff is going tofloat, and float well. Our owners can'tstand the fact that we are lagging be-hind. We are located on the NewMadrid fault, and because of that, weintend to keep our low -power HarrisRanger transmitter as a standby foremergencies. We purchased the Har-ris Flexicoder encoding system. Thisencoder (or any other for that mat-ter) is a big chunk of the cost of go-ing digital. Anyone who is on the airhas invested in their future.

In fact, I have been working fever-ishly over bids for a new, 1MW trans-mission system for us. I received mye-mail version of your publication

Anyone who is on the air has

invested in their future.

transition still going through the(slow) motions."

I am the chief engineer at NBC af-filiate WPSD-TV in Paducah, KY. Weserve western Kentucky, western Ten-nessee, southern Illinois and southeastMissouri.

In May 2002, the elbows started fly-ing around our area. As of now, wehave the ABC (WSIL) at full powerfrom Harrisburg, IL; FOX (KBSI) atfull power from Cape Girardeau,MO; PBS (WKMU and WKPD) fromMurray, KY, and Paducah, KY; andCBS at over half power (KFVS - CapeGirardeau, MO).

We are on with just under 5kW ERRWe are only 135 feet in the air withour antenna. At first, it was like a sci-ence project, with just a few viewers.That, however, is changing. With our

while I was working on the bids anddidn't really have time to write thisletter. But the article seemed very bi-ased. Not to mention the fact that theauthor's name didn't appear any-where near the article.

The article also failed to mention therequirement that was placed on CEMAlast year to provide ATSC tuners in sets,starting in 2004 (for big screens).

Anyway, although I've sent in anopposing opinion, I wouldn't havedone so had I not been provokedinto thought by your publication.Keep it up.

JOEY D. GILL

WPSD-TV


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DevolutionBY BY CRAIG BIRKMAIER

In a world where standards forconsumer electronic productshave evolved continuously in

recent decades, there remains a bas-tion of stability: broadcasting.

Audio has evolved from mono to hi-fi to stereo to quadraphonic to sur-round sound. Meanwhile, AM radiocontinues to thrive more than 80 yearsafter commercial service was initiated,and FM radio has been with us formore than 50 years.

The story for television broadcastingis much the same. NTSC and PAL con-tinue to dominate the television land-scape nearly five decades after the launchof color TV broadcasts. These analogvideo compression standards have en-dured the test of time, even as video ac-quisition, recording and display prod-ucts have evolved beyond their limits.

As testament to the entrenchment of525/625 -line interlaced video, the tran-sition to digital television has beendriven primarily by the digital encoding

: \I -

Delivering digital

(compression) of these legacy videoformats using a standard finalized in1995 - MPEG-2 MP@ML (Main Pro-file at Main Level). NTSC and PAL haveevolved into digital standard -definitionTV (SDTV) delivered primarily by DBSand cable. Meanwhile the transition to

and tens of millions of PCs can nowdecode MPEG-2 video streams.

So, given the historic longevity ofbroadcast standards, why are somepeople, including this author, suggest-ing that MPEG-2 is growing old? ThatNTSC and PAL compression will likely

In time, however, consumers learned to see theAchilles' heel of MPEG-2 compression.

digital high -definition TV broadcast-ing (HDTV) has languished as the con-sumer electronics industry has used theDTV transition to develop an HDTVbeachhead via DVD and DBS. Now thecable industry is embracing HDTV asa premium niche service.

Since 1995, hundreds of millions ofMPEG-2-enabled products have beensold. Last October DVD players passedthe 100 million -unit milestone. DBS anddigital cable set -top boxes account foranother 100 million MPEG-2 decoders,

II, 1 '1 11 11.1 III 1

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outlive MPEG-2?

Adapting to changeFor decades, broadcasters have worked

relentlessly to improve the deliveredquality of their product, while the con-sumer electronics industry has done thesame with television display technology.A major reason for the emphasis on evo-lutionary improvements in video qual-ity was the inflexibility of analog videocompression standards. The entirebroadcast pipe could only be used tocarry one program, but it still took manydecades to reach the point where thatpipe became the limiting factor in de-livered image quality.

Digital video compression changedthe rules of the game, despite the pro-tests of broadcasters. In the early '90sthe battle cry among broadcasters was:"We won't use no stinking compres-sion." The industry seemed obliviousto two realities:

1. Their success was based on the use ofan analog compression standard thatsqueezed three 6MHz (or greater) RGBsignals into one 6MHz channel. And dareI mention the use of interlace, whichadded another 2:1 compression hit?

2. Two-thirds of their viewers nolonger relied upon terrestrial broadcastreception; they had moved on to cablein order to get improved video qualityAND improved programming choice.


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In 1995, DirecTV proved that MPEG-2-based digitalvideo compression was a viable way to deliver televisionprogramming - hundreds of channels of television pro-gramming. And they tested the theory that consumers areprimarily interested in improved video quality. Whilebroadcasters toyed with the possibility of delivering digi-tally compressed HDTV in one 6MHz channel, DirecTVlearned just how hard they could push the limits of digitalcompression to deliver a multiplex of programs in one6MHz channel.

MPEG-2 compression enabled an entirely differentway of looking atvideo quality. By re-moving redundancyfrom video streamsand using predictiontechniques to im-prove compressionefficiency, it becamepossible, on average,to deliver what ap-peared to be better pic-ture quality. In time,however, consumerslearned to see theAchilles' heel ofMPEG-2 compression.

With analog corn-

Quan nationFT Errors

MPEG-2 codes reference framesand differences from predictionsusing the Discrete CosineTrans-form (DCT), applied to 8x8blocks of samples. The DCT co-efficients are then quantized. Ex-cessive quantization can causedistortion of high frequencyedges and blocking artifacts, asillustrated in this example.

pression, delivered image quality is relatively constant, withthe amount of information in the picture varying consid-erably to maintain the quality, using more or less of thechannel. Digital compression utilizes the channel far moreefficiently, but it can break down when there is too muchinformation for the allocated bit rate. The average bit raterequirements may be relatively low, but peak bit rate re-quirements can spike to two or three times the averagewhen there is high information content (too much finedetail or rapid action).

When the MPEG-2 standard was created, there were

It has taken only eight years to fullyexploit the encoding tools in the

MPEG-2 standard.

significant concerns about computational complexity, es-pecially for HDTV encoders. The standard was designed tolimit the complexity of the mass-produced decoders, defin-ing the syntax of the compressed stream to be encoded. Itwas assumed that encoders would evolve to improve deliv-ered image quality, just as analog video equipment evolvedto fully utilize the NTSC and PAL pipes.

And this is exactly what happened. The DBS system opera-tors have replaced their MPEG-2 encoders many times in

16 broacicastengineering.com FEBRUARY 2003

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fewer than eight years. Each new gen-eration has improved the delivered im-age quality for a given bit rate. For themost part, however, each new genera-tion has been used to reduce the bit rateneeded to deliver minimally acceptableimage quality so that more programscould be delivered.

As unlikely as it sounds, it has taken

only eight years to fully exploit theencoding tools in the MPEG-2 stan-dard. In other words, it doesn't getmuch better than this.

Meanwhile, video compression tech-nology has continued to evolve rap-idly, driven by the need to deliver ac-ceptable image quality at much lowerbit rates via the Internet and wireless

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telecommunications devices. At thesame time, Moore's Law has relegatedthe perceived complexity of MPEG-2encoding to the scrap heap of computerhistory. Today's ASICS, microproces-sors and memory chips provide fourto five times the computation resourcesavailable for the same cost in 1995.

The factor that has not changed insuch a dramatic fashion over thoseyears is access to bandwidth. The de-mand for more content is growingfaster than the bandwidth available todeliver it. DBS needs more capacity todeliver local -into -local broadcast pro-gramming to more markets. Cableneeds more capacity to offer video -on -demand services to digital cable sub-scribers. And broadcasters need abusiness model that is competitivewith the multichannel subscriptionservices it relies on today to reach 85percent of U.S. homes.

There are two ways for these indus-tries to adapt to the rapid pace ofchange in all that is digital:

1. Use more efficient modulationschemes that cram more bits into thesame amount of spectrum.

2. Use more efficient video com-pression to reduce the bit rate neededper program.

A variety of next -generation videocompression algorithms are vying for theopportunity to replace MPEG-2. Propri-etary codecs from Microsoft and RealVideo have been pushing the envelopein the PC -based streaming video mar-kets. And the Joint Video Team of the ISO

(MPEG) and ITU have just finished workon a standards -based codec that will be-come the MPEG-4 Part 10 (ISO) andH.264 (ITU) standards. In March we willexamine the technology behind thesenew codecs, and the prospects for theirdeployment as a replacement for MPEG-2, and in proposed enhancements to theATSC standard. BE

Craig Birkmaier is a technology consultantat Pcube Labs, and hosts and moderatesthe Open DTV Forum.

SENDSend questions and comments to:

[email protected]


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Spectrummanagement initiativemay impact broadcastersBY HARRY C. MARTIN

The Commission's SpectrumTask Force has taken its firststab at rewriting the FCC's

spectrum policies, releasing its reportin late November. The report, and thesupporting working group studies, ad-vocate a revolutionary approach tospectrum management and containproposals that may impact negativelyon television stations.

The task force recommends that theCommission move away from the cur-rent "command and control" regulatoryscheme, where the Commission specifiesthe type of services that may be offeredby its licensees, and instead utili7p a newmodel under which spectrum ownerswould have flexibility in terms of the ser-vices they provide. This new model, how-ever, would not apply in the area of broad-casting in light of the public interest ob-ligations imposed by the Communica-tions Act Indeed, the task force wants todilute TV broadcasters' spectrum rightseven as it denies them the spectrum useflexibility it recommends for other ser-vices. For instance, the report suggeststhat in high -density urban areas, wherespectrum demand is greatest, the Com-mission should consider licensing digi-tal television stations on single frequen-cies but with multiple low -poweredtransmitters, an approach possible withDTV but not analog transmissions. Thetask force sees this scheme improvingDTV coverage but also as a means to freeup TV spectrum for new services.

An outgrowth of the task force's report

--,,May 1, 2003, is the DTV buildout---

is a Notice of Inquiry adopted on Dec.11, 2002, that rails for comments on per-mitting new services within the TVbroadcast spectrum. While any such pro-posal is a long way from adoption, cur-rent TV licensees must remain aware ofthe possibility that the pressures being feltby the FCC to accommodate new tech-nologies may ultimately cause the erosionof their current exclusive spectrum rights.

FCC to crack down on feedelinquents

The FCC has proposed new rules that

the concept of "finality." Historically,once the Commission has acted, it has40 days within which to rescind ormodify its decision. If it does not actwithin that time frame, and if no oneseeks reconsideration or review of thedecision, then the decision becomes "fi-nal" and the parties subject to the deci-sion can move ahead safe in the knowl-edge that the Commission's decisionwill remain the same.

But under the concept that the FCChas proposed, parties would never beable to say for sure that an action had

The FCC has proposed to withhold action on any

application filed by anyone who is delinquent on

any debts owed to the Commission.

will significantly upsize the downside oftrying to stiff the Commission when itcomes to paying regulatory and otherfees. In particular, the FCC has proposedto withhold action on any applicationfiled by anyone who is delinquent onany filing fees, regulatory fees or otherdebt owed to the Commission.

The so-called "red light" rule wouldhave a couple of safety provisions to pre-vent major hardship or unfairness. Forexample, it would not apply if the de-linquent payment is being challenged orin emergency situations, nor would itapply to fines imposed by the FCC thathave not been enforced in court.

Still, the proposal has some scary ele-ments. For example, the FCC proposesto be able to rescind actions on grantedapplications - even years after their ap-proval - if it discovers that it was owedmoney at the time the application wasgranted. This could substantially erode

been final because the Commissionwould reserve the right to rescind anyaction at any time in the future shouldit determine that money was owed bythe applicant at the time of the action.

It also is unclear from the proposedrules whether the taint of delinquencyfor old debts can spread from the delin-quent payor to innocent parties whoown the station in the future. For ex-ample, if a station owner sells it withoutpaying regulatory fees for several years,would the FCC apply the red light ruleto the new owner? Clearly, aggressive en-forcement efforts against payment de-linquencies will likely be a source of sig-nificant confusion and uncertainty. BE

Harry C. Martin is an attorney with Fletcher,Heald & Hildreth PLC, Arlington, VA.


[email protected]


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The MSW-900 MPEG IMX camcorder is actually priced less than the BVW-D600 it

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magazines. You'll upgrade your on -air look with 1.2:2 component digital pictures at

50 megabits per second in MPEG compression. You'll be prepared for DTV with

pictures and up to eight channels of digital audio. You'll be able to

shoot longer, uninterrupted takes with on the small cassette.

And back at the station, you'll enjoy new workflow efficiencies. With streamlined

of content around your facility and around the world.

There's more, Sony's J series VTRs are a cost-effective way to play back the full range of

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02002 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whde or in part wahout written permission is prohibited. Features and specificitions Ire subject to changewihout notice.Sony, Betacam, 3etacam SP, Betacam SX and MPEG IMX are trademarks of Sony.

xDSL VODfor the massesBY PER LINDGREN AND CHRISTER BOHM

AS

ccording to Calmers In -tat Group, over 23 mil -ion households world-

wide will subscribe to video over xDSLby 2005. Already, we have seen inde-pendent operating companies (I0Cs)and ILECs starting to implementtriple -play services (voice, Internet,broadcast TV, video on demand, nearvideo on demand, etc.) over xDSL.

Cable MSOs, starting to offer triple -play services, have be-come serious con-tenders. Telecom op-erators need to chal-lenge this threat, andhave realized the po-tential business op-portunity in offer-ing new and existingservices over a singleinfrastructure.

The challenge liesin continuing to cutcosts on the tradi-tional services whileenabling new videoservices with highquality. When a sub-scriber has pur-chased a film, they expect that it will bedelivered with full quality, otherwisethe service will not be successful. TV/video, and especially video on demand(VoD), can seriously degrade the per-formance of the telecommunicationsinfrastructure. VoD requires a lot of ca-pacity in the network and can easilyrepresent over three -fourths of the traf-fic in triple -play networks. In today'sIP data networks, no resources are al-located before a video stream is set up,and resources are not fixed to certainusers as they are in telephony networks.Instead, a temporary overload situationcould occur if several users are up atthe same time, resulting in quality dis-

tortions for many users. To avoid this,providers have overprovisioned theirnetworks as much as six or seven times,resulting in low margins and long pay-back times to implement these services.

Enabling quality of service (QoS) inIP networks, even when the majorityof the traffic is real-time video, has be-come the new, real challenge whenbuilding triple -play access networks.Without putting restrictions on the en -

telephony network, and is not affectedby other traffic, e.g., when a neighborstarts downloading large amounts ofmaterial over the Internet. By combin-ing this with an optical control plane, avery cost-effective QoS IP solution fortriple -play networks is achieved. Thecontrol plane, for example using gen-eralized multi -protocol label switching(GMPLS) allows e.g., the VOD serverto initiate a channel for the requested

video, on demand.This simplifies provi-sioning and makes itpossible to get higherutilization of the re-sources. GMPLS isbeing standardized asa common controlplane for multi -ven-dor, multi -layer net-works. With GMPLSyou can control yournetwork from pack-ets, over TDM chan-nels down to wave-lengths and fibers.

To conclude, theconvergence betweenvoice, video and data

service is posing both a threat and anopportunity to the telecom operators.In order to not lose business to cableoperators and satellite providers, it is aroad most need to take. To overcomethe QoS bottlenecks in this migration,new innovative approaches usingGMPLS-like control planes and TDM IPQoS are being increasingly used for en-abling triple -play networks with VODover xDSL.

1201P -TV

VOD

Internet

Voice

TV/video, data and voicover the same fiber or A,

Internet

Switch

DSLAM

ADS

Master headend

M . EG MMEG

c h

STB Switch

DOS IP TVNODtransport solution

TV over DVBvia satellite

A=

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----- POTS

1129ADSL

E=itMD DS ADSL

ADSL / SL ADSL IC"

Figure 1.This QoS solution enables video, data and voice transmissionover one fiber to provide high -quality VOD and video -related services.

gineering of the network (such as thenumber of hops, topology, etc.), it ispossible to get as low as 10 percent to20 percent utilization in the telecom-munications network when trying tomaintain the QoS needed for video ser-vices. However, new innovative ap-proaches combining the best in IP andTDM networks can offer 100 percentQoS in combination with more than90 percent utilization (see Figure 1).Since this dramatically reduces CAPEXboth in terms of equipment and fiber/WDM infrastructure, the ROI im-proves dramatically.

With TDM QoS, the quality for thevideo streams is guaranteed, as in the

BE

Per Lindgren is vice president of businessdevelopment, and Christer Bohm is chieftechnical officer, of Net Insight.


Careful. Other stations might get jealous.Speed. Quality. Flexible workflow. From acquisition to air, you can Nye it all with Avid. Of course, yourcompetition might not be too happy about it. For more info, visit www.avid.com or call 800 949 2843.

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I-

The digitalvideo synchronizationconceptBY MICHAEL ROBIN

A*

s discussed in our Janu-ary 2003 article, compos-te analog NTSC and PAL

signals use the horizontal and verticalblanking intervals to carry horizontal,vertical and chrominance synchroniz-ing information. Early digital videoformats, including the 4F0 continuedthis legacy approach to synchronizingvideo signals. The complete analogvideo signal is sampled, resulting in adigital representation of the originalcomposite analog signal.

The dominant SDTV digital videostandard, Rec. 601, introduced atrailblazing concept of treating videosignals. The analog luminance (E'y)and color -difference (E'm and E'Ry)signals are band -limited and separatelysampled. The sampling frequencies areidentical for the two scanning formats525/60 and 625/50. The resulting digi-tal representations, Y, CB and CR, aresubsequently time -division multi-plexed into a parallel or serialdatastream for distribution or process-ing. Using the preferred sampling strat-egy (4:2:2) and number of bits persample (10), the resulting parallel data

FRAME RABHD shows slow growth

rate is 27Mwords/s. Because the com-ponent digital signal carries no analogtype sync information, the quantizingrange is extended, resulting in superiorSNR and picture quality.

Revisiting Rec. 601The analog video signal is sampled

at a multiple of the horizontal scan-ning frequency. As a result, the sam-pling instants are vertically aligned ona line -by-line and field -by -field basis.This is known as orthogonal sampling.

MB

samples per total line is 858 (num-bered 0 to 857) in the 525/60 standardand 864 (numbered 0 to 863) in the625/50 standard. Given fs = 6.75MHz,the number of samples per total linefor each of the CB and CR signals is 429(numbered 0 to 428) in the 525/60standard and 432 (numbered 0 to 431)in the 625/50 standard.

There are 720 active Y samples(numbered 0 to 719) and, respectively,360 each CB and CR samples (num-bered 0 to 359) in both standards.

The dominant SDTV digital video standard, Rec.

601, introduced a trailblazing concept of treating

video signals.In the 4:2:2 format, the E'y samplingfrequency is twice that of each of theE.B and signals. As a result thereare twice as many Y samples as thereare CB and CR samples.

The number of Y samples per totalline is equal to fs/f}, where fs =13.5MHz and fH is the horizontal scan-ning frequency. Given the slightly dif-ferent values of fir the number of Y

111111 i 111 1.1.1

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The horizontal blanking duration is138 clock intervals (numbered 720 to857) in the 525/60 standard and 144clock intervals (numbered 720 to 863)in the 625/50 standard.

The combined (multiplexed) num-ber of Y and CB/CR samples per totalline (words per total line) is 1716(numbered 0 to 1715) in the 525/60standard and 1728 (numbered 0 to1727) in the 625/50 standard.

The digital active line accommodates720 Y samples, 360CB samples and 360CR samples in both standards, or a to-tal number of 1440 words per activeline, numbered 0 to 1439.

Rec. 601 and videosynchronization

The Rec. 601 digital standard doesnot provide for the sampling of theanalog sync pulses. The digital syncinformation is carried by the timingreference signals (TRS). Two TRSsare multiplexed into the datastreamon every line immediately preceding


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itt lal"1" IMIVTrrPMMTTIIIIIIIMillitli'IMMI4! I I

00

0

4I

I-

0

Multiplexeddata

- - - -Multiplexed data

with EAV and SAV

Digital blanking276 words 0440-17151

Ancillary data space268 words (1444-1711)

cn ... C.07 0 c, 0

MGM .7,. O.00, Nr c.) NrLa CC 00 CCU >- C-1 ).. C.0 >. C-1 >-

Replaced by TRS

Cr.1 CO CO a,01 N -a7

>-

C.4o >-O Oco

Word no: F4 a.1.OO M

EAV

Replaced by TRS

Tming reference signals

N N r3AV

C. CO

Figure 1. Details of the 525/60 scanning standard horizontal blanking interval showing thecomposition of the 4:2:2 digital data multiplex and the position of the timing referencesignals, EAV and SAV

and following the digital active line are unique values that cannot be as -data. Eight data words in the horizon- sumed by the video signal.tal blanking interval are reserved for The position of the TRS in the datathe transmission of TRS. multiplex is shown in Figures 1 and 2

The TRS is a sequence of four 10- for the two scanning standards. Asbit words identifying the end of the shown in Figure 1, in the 525/60 for-

active video (EAV) and the start of mat the words numbered 1440the active video (SAV). The digital through 1443 are reserved for thesignal levels carried by SAV and EAV transmission of EAV. Words 1712

through 1715 are re-served for the trans-mission of SAY. Asshown in Figure 2, inthe 625/50 formatthe words 1440through 1443 are re-served for the trans-mission of EAV.Words 1724 through1727 are reserved forthe transmission ofSAV. The EAV andSAV signals retainthe same format dur-

ing the field blanking interval.Each TRS consists of a four -word se-

quence. The sequence of four words canbe represented, using a 10 -bit hexadeci-mal notation, in the following manner:

3FF 000 000 XYZThe first three words are a fixed pre-

amble. The 3FF and 000 hexadeci-mal values are reserved for timing

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T IL

00CC

IL

ID

identification. Theyunambiguouslyidentify the start ofEAV and SAV syncinformation as thevalues 3FF and 000cannot be assumedby the Y, CB and CRsignals.

XYZ represents avariable word. Itcontains informa-tion defining fieldidentification, stateof vertical blankingand state of hori-zontal blanking. It is evident that theTRS carries a large amount of infor-mation which may or may not beused, depending on the circum-stances. The unused blanking spacecan be used to carry ancillary datasuch as 16 digital audio channels,timecode or other information. BE

Multiplexeddata

Multiplexed datawith EAV and SAV

IRO VEi03 CC

3-

Word no: r.:,"?

CO

cr

Replaced by TRS

ct0- c%4

EAV

Digital blanking288 wolds (1440-1727)

Ancillary data space280 wards (1444-1723)

Tming reference signals

Replaced by TRS

ct LC) CDCV Co)

SAV

Figure 2. Details of the 625/50 scanning standard horizontal blanking interval showing thecomposition of the 4:2:2 digital data multiplex and the position of the timing referencesignals, EAV and SAV

Michael Robin, a fellow of the SMPTE andformer engineer with the CanadianBroadcasting Corp.'s engineering headquar-ters, is an independent broadcastconsultant located in Montreal, Canada.He is co-author of Digital TelevisionFundamentals, published by McGraw-Hill.

SENOSend questions and comments to:

michael [email protected]

11011 1111140

Digital

Television

FundamentalsDESIGN MSS i 10/4 OFSIDEO AND AMMO SYSTEMS

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The Second Editionof Michael Robin'sbook may beordered directlyfrom the publisherby calling800-262-4729.It is also availablefrom severalbooksellers.

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0 Computernetvvorkingfor beginners: Part IIBY BRAD GILMER

Last month, we discussed theIP structure of our samplenetwork. Using private &I-

Q dress space for our local network10.19.8.1-254, and subnet mask

CI 255.255.255.0, we are able to build anetwork for our office and supplyInternet connectivity to our users.

To access computers on the Internet,we could enter the IP address for eachcomputer directly (66.281.71.198, forexample). But it would be a lot easierjust to enter www.yahoo.com instead.When you enter a uniform resourcelocator (URL) such as for Yahoo, yoursoftware goes out to a domain -name -service (DNS) server to look up Yahooto find the IP address associated withthat name. Your ISP designates the DNSservers you assign to each workstation.In our example network, we will use205.152.37.254 and 205.152.144.235.

Register nowVeriSign (www.netsoLcom) is a govern-

ing body for DNS servers on the Internet.It is also one of a number of domain reg-istrars available on the Internet that reg-ister domain names. You can go toVeriSign's site and register a globallyunique name on the Internet To registera domain name, you need the IP ad-dresses for the DNS servers that willhouse the information for your domain.If you do a "WHOIS" lookup for"cisco.com" on the VeriSign site, you findthat there are two DNS servers associatedwith the domain: NS1.CISCO.COM(128.107.241.185) andNS2.CISCO.COM (192.135.250.69).These two DNS servers house all the in-formation regarding cisco.com.

When you enter "www.cisco.com" inthe address line of the Web browser on

a workstation, the local workstation que-ries the ISP's DNS servers205.152.37.254 and 205.152.144.235 forthe IP address of the Web site. One ofthe ISP's DNS servers then asks VeriSign,"Where can I find information about`cisco.com'?" TheVeriSign server re-plies that such in-formation can befound at128.107.241.185 or192.135.250.69.The ISP's DNSserver then asks oneof the Cisco servers,"Where can I find`www.cisco.com'?"The Cisco server replies,"www.cisco.com can befound at 198.133.219.25:'

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Assigning deviceaddresses

The final step to makethis all come together isto assign IP addresses toour various network de-vices. For our example,we will use Windows2000. Other versions of Windows aresimilarly configured. Various versionsof UNIX and MAC operating systemsall come with TCP/IP; they can be con-figured using the same informationconcerning IP address, subnet mask,gateway and DNS server.

To assign the IP information to theWindows 2000 computer, select"Start," "Settings" and "Control Panel."In the "Control Panel" window, open"Network and Dial -Up Connections."This will bring up a list of all the net-work connections on the PC. Highlight

the "Local Area Connection," right -click the icon and select "Properties."The computer will display the top win-dow shown in Figure 1.

"Client for Microsoft Networks" allowsour local computers to communicate

with each other on the localnetwork. "File and PrinterSharing for Microsoft Net-works" allows the local com-puter to share files and print-ers with other computers on

x

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The Ethernet Propertiesand Internet Protocol Prop-erties windows can beused to assign IP informa-tion and enter informa-tion for each workstation.

network. Neither ofthese services usesthe Internet, but youmight need them ifyou want your com-puter to share infor-mation on a localnetwork. The finalchoice in the list is"Internet Protocol(TCP/IP)." High-light "Internet Pro-tocol (TCP/IP)" andselect the "Proper-ties" button. Thiswill bring up thebottom windowshown in Figure 1.

Enter the IP information as shown inthe bottom window for each workstation.Remember that each IP address must beunique on the network. The subnet mask,default gateway and DNS server will becommon to all workstations.

In our network, we are configuringthe IP addresses of each workstationmanually. Each workstation will alwayshave the same IP address. Some net-works use Domain Host Control Pro-tocol (DHCP) to assign IP addressesautomatically. To use DHCP, you musthave a DHCP server running on your


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0

I-

I

network. If your network supportsDHCP, then you can choose to "Ob-tain IP address automatically:' DHCPwill then automatically assign yourcomputer an IP address the next timeyou log on to the network.

The routerOur example network uses a router to

connect to the Internet. The router's jobis to send all traffic not intended for thelocal network out to the Internet. Thetype of router you need depends on thetype of Internet connection you use (i.e.cable, xDSL, modem, etc). For cable orxDSL connections, a dual -Ethernetrouter will handle the task. The routerthat we will use in our example is aLinksys BEFSR11 dual -Ethernet router.Refer to the documentation specific toyour router for directions on how toaccess the router's configuration tool.The Linksys router uses a Web -basedconfiguration tool.

The router configuration is dividedinto two parts, LAN and WAN. The LANside of the router should be connectedto the local network. The WAN is con-nected to a modem that is supplied byyour Internet -service provider (ISP).The LAN IP address is taken out of theIP addresses that we allocated to our lo-cal network (10.19.8.1). The subnetmask of this address should match thesubnet mask of the other workstationson our network. The WAN address willcome from your ISP; most ISPs will as-sign an IP address to you automatically.On the router control page, select "Ob-tain IP Address Automatically." This willassign all the necessary information tothe router (IP address, gateway and DNSserver) to access the Internet.

You may need a username and pass-word or other configuration informa-tion from your ISP to access theInternet. You should be able to enterthis information into your router

through the configuration tool. Onceyou have the router configured, youshould attempt to connect to the ISPusing the configuration tool.

At this point, your network should beup and running, with a working con-nection to the Internet. Go to a work-station and open a DOS window by se-lecting "Start?' "Run" and "Command?'Then type "ping 10.19.8.1." You shouldsee a series of lines saying, "Reply from10.19.8.1: bytes=32 time < 10ms TTL= 60." This means your workstation cansuccessfully see the router. At this point,you should be ready to surf the Webwith your new network. BE

Brad Gilmer is president of Gilmer &Associates, executive director of the AAFAssociation, and executive director of theVideo Services Forum.


brad [email protected]

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generationQ takes the magic of Paintbox' and makes it run on everything frcm a standardPC to the world's fastest graphics workstation. Use AAF as a common arch ye format,throw in open networking, make everyriing multi-res capable and suddenly broadcastgraphics com.?. alive. Every desigrer car now have a next generation Paintbox on theirdesktop, while the high performance genetationQ systems handle the pressures anddeadlines of close -to -air. The fam ly woriks together resulting in greater creativity, easierteamworking and more efficiency

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Quante!

g SavingL. shot data2

I-J

4

BY MICHAEL CAPORALE

Choosing film parametersused to be fairly simple:Just pick an emulsion. With

this one choice you could specify the filmspeed, graininess, resolution, color ren-dition, latitude and color temperature.But modem professional video camerasoffer a range of parameters that werepreviously unavailable. Producers whonow work in video must select framerate, shutter percent, gain, gamma, ped-estal, black stretch, knee point, kneeslope, dynamic level, saturation, colorcorrection, white balance, matrix table,filters, camera setups, memory -card set-ups, number of users, and many otherparameters, all of which affect the out-come of the image. I own such a cam-era. And, after purchasing an upgradefor it, I suddenly felt the weight of allthose small decisions.The camera is the Varicam (AJ-

HDC27F), the updated version of the"27V" DVCPRO HD camcorder. Withthe upgrade, Panasonic has introducednew options that add functionality toprogramming the camera.

Shooting painsMy first project after receiving my up-

grade, a feature-length film with a "real-ity" dimension to it, provided an inter-esting test for the new technology. It re-quired me to shoot at least half the filmin a controlled situation and half in arun -and -gun documentary (ENG) style.I had one prep day, during which I cre-ated four programs that I stored in thecamera for the production.

Three months later, I had to get somepickup shots on that first movie andmatch the look of the previous shots.Good thing I stored the programs. I'msafe. Or am I?

Memory problemsHow could I possibly remember all the

choices I had made and recover themlater? Even selecting one of the 12 pro-grams I had stored didn't help, since Ihad made numerous tweaks during pro-duction. In addition, on run -and -gun as-signments I don't get a camera assistant,so keeping extensive notes on each shotis impossible. On small indie productionsit's pretty much the same. On a properlycrewed production it's less of a problem,but it's still an issue. Noone is trained to keepthose kinds of notesand, ultimately,doing so is verytime-con-suming.

I thoughtgood camera notesmight solve the prob-lem, but it's so much big-ger than that. Cameranotes have a way of sepa-rating themselves fromthe masters over time.

One idea I had was totrack the most critical in-formation on a dry -eraseslate. The informationwould then be on thetape and could not getseparated from the images. Figure 1shows mock-ups of the camera -specificslates I use. But I would really prefer asystem that is passive and transparent,especially for the larger, menu -heavybroadcast and HD cameras.

A little help, pleaseI'm calling on manufacturers to

consider this problem and developsolutions that track this data for us. Ihave it on expert advice that there areseveral workable possibilities:

1. Record the data through a cameraport to a PDA that can be attached to aprinter for archiving printed data and

P011etalON

flu

IMECTIN

OP

SOME

also can be used in the field by assistants.2. Broadcast this data to a slate that

will be photographed to tape. The slatewill thereby remain with the images forall to see and use in future shoots.

3. Store the complete files on themetadata track of the videotape itselfand provide users with a way to up-load that information from tape to acamera for replication.

For users who regard theirprograms as proprietary in-tellectual property, manu-facturers could provide anoverride or on/off function.A variation on this theme

would be to make allthe pertinent func-tions user -assign-able to a "my page"

TAN

1H,TER

'PROGRAM Ilr SOURCE

RED 1ST STRETCH 1°" TYL

I GAIN I.

Recording shot data on tape us-ing camera -specific dry -eraseslates is more reliable than writ-ing camera notes, but the slatesare cumbersome.

menu. This wouldput all the vari-ants on one, eas-ily accessiblemenu. Userscould select thepage for stor-age or broad-cast to the slateor cabling tothe PDA with-

out the need to store a lot of other data.This would also facilitate speedy accessof the most used data from a single page.Currently, modifying the look of thecamera is very time-consuming. All thevariables exist on many menu pages,each with submenus. I'd like to be ableto access the items that matter most tome all on one page and archive that in-formation for later retrieval.

One method might have advantagesover another. But clearly, users needsome way of managing this data. BE

Michael Caporale is a director of photogra-phy for 24p digital cinema.


CompetitiveS OP T He 11 0 _OUL 1.111E _ NOGG _

For Stations, Groups & Networks Summit

PRESENTED BY

A AS &CABLE

An In -Depth Look

at How Technology

Solutions are Driviig

Marketplace

Competitiveness

A S'ONSORED SUPPLEMENT TO BROADCASTING & CABLE AND BROADCAST ENGINEERING

Competitive Television TE014A04 SummitA Sponsored Supplement to Broadcasting & Cable and Broadcast Engineering

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PVTVBy ParkerVision

P A T H F I R EEnabling Digital Media

Letter from the Publishers

New technologies and solutions offer television station managementa competitive edge in their own market. From centralizing operations,moving to an IT -based infrastructure, and converting the station todigital, executives find many advances that offer the benefits ofoperating efficiencies and potential income enhancements.

One of the primary editorial missions of both Broadcasting & Cableand Broadcast Engineering magazines has been to provide televisionexecutives with the information they need to incorporate the latestdevelopments into their operations. It is clear that today, choosingthe right technology is crucial to the business success of stationgroups and networks.

The Competitive Television Supplement is a special project focusedon educating television station and network owners, managementand engineering talent on how technology solutions are drivingmarketplace competitiveness.

This supplement reflects a Competitive Television Summit heldFebruary 11th and 12th in the Washington, DC area. More than 80television executives joined 12 leading equipment providers to discuss,explore and find solutions which will improve their competitiveness.

We hope this special effort provides insight that is helpful to thereaders of both magazines, as they strive to make their enterprisemore competitive.

Regards,

Dennis TriolaTriolaPublisherBroadcast Engineering

Lawrence OliverVP/Group Publisher

Broadcasting & Cable

Contents

In Centralcasting, Less Seems to be More 3

Content Distribution Goes Down to the Wire . 8

Bit by Bit, the Digital Conversion is Happening . .13

Stations, groups on the huntfor DTV-related revenues 20

Is This IT? 28

Competitive Television TEILVOW SummitA Sponsored Supplement to Broadcasting & Cable and Broadcast Engineering

Specialized facilitieshave less glamourbut more potential

In Centralcasting,Less Seemsto be More

INI 2001, centralized operationsseemed to be a trend destined tobe like the DVD player: it would

catch on quickly and redefine anindustry. Instead, the centralcast-ing concept has run into somesnags that have given it the seem-ing relevance of a pet rock: itappeared to be a gooddecision at the time but iscurrently in the back ofthe closet.

Fortunately, the rea-sons for the downturn incentralcasting's attractive-ness has more to do withdistractions than withconceptual problems.

"The federally mandat-ed conversion to digitalhas been a technologicaland economic distractionfor broadcasters over thepast couple of years," says DavePolyard, OmniBus Systems vicepresident, sales and marketing. "Inaddition to a struggling economy,engineering departments are facedwith how to meet the FCC require-ments while at the same time look-ing at major workflow changes likecentralized operations. Centralizedoperations will happen once thereis room in the budget for it andonce certain bandwidth issues areresolved."

Some groups, like NBC andSinclair, have moved forward withcentralized operations this year in

an effort to improve at least oneaspect of their operations. NBC iscurrently rolling out a centralizedgraphics plant and earlier this yearcreated centralized station hubs,while Sinclair's News Central facili-ty promises to redefine the way thecompany distributes and gathers

Leitch's Agilevision can inset localcontent into centralized streams.

news content.The disparate interpretations of

centralcasting are one of the hurdlesfacing the implementation process.Stan Moote, Leitch vice president,says the concept of centralcastingused to mean centralization of all pro-duction facilities with programmingmoved to the remote sites for trans-mission. This is no longer the case.

"Centralcasting is a bit of a redherring," says Moote. "For someoperations it is ideal but for others it

is not-hence the disconnect."In fact, Al Kovalick, CTO

Broadcast Solutions, PinnacleSystems, says that centralized oper-ations for a specific area are current-ly supplanting centralcasting whichusually involved a station's entireoperations system. Centralized oper-

ations in different areas,like traffic or graphics, havetaken root.

"It's all happening, butno one method gets all thepress these days," he says.

Centralization doesseem to be gaining popu-larity in some news opera-tions. The challenge is toallow a very small produc-tion crew to direct multi-ple shows that share onlycertain segments.

"Perhaps two stationsuse the same weather and sportsbut have different lead-ins," saysParkervision's Matt Danilowicz."Our system allows for the easyintermix or breaking out of seg-ments across multiple, simultanousshows, but we're still looking for acustomer who wants to take on thischallenge."

There is, however, some com-monality. James Frantzreb, seniorproduct marketing manager, AvidBroadcast and Workgroups, sayscentralized operations require a

robust and fast distribution networkfor analog video and especially digi-

S3

Competitive Television TE=G7SummitA Sponsored Supplement to Broadcasting & Cable and Broadcast Engineering

tal video media andmetadata. Sinclair isusing Avid's Unityfor News systemwithin its NewsCentral facility, withthe server sitting atthe hub and actingas the central repos-itory for the content.This shows thatproducts specificallydesigned for cen-tralcasting aren'tnecessary but that,as Frantzrebexplains, the prod-ucts do need to benetwork -savvy andsupport inter -facilityproduction or distribution using IPand existing network links.

"This means design for realtimemedia and metadata exchange, andsupport for industry standard for-mats, networking protocols, andmedia and metadata exchange stan-dards like MXF, OMF, and AAF," hesays. "It's fair to say that with thistype of infrastructure and capability,centralcasting is supported as a mat-ter of course; it's just one of youroptions."

Along with being network savvyproducts also need to be scalable.

"It is difficult to make productssuitable for centralized operations,unless they are designed around theprinciples of distributed operationsand are inherently scalable," saysAndy Newham, OmniBus Systemsproduct manager, transmission.

Avid's Unity For News isat the heart of Sinclair'sNews Central operation.

"Many broadcastsolutions on themarket today werenot designed for thisenvironment andthey need to be re -engineered to workwith this operationalmodel."

This means thesupport of largenumbers of chan-nels, without creat-ing high staffingdemands for themonitoring and sys-tem management ofthose channels,Newham explains.

"Our system, forexample, can monitor large num-bers of channels, allowing full sys-tem control of all associated devicesand features from one interface," hesays. "The centralized operationproduct must also be able to copewith the complex demands ofregional opting in and out of cen-tralized transmission from the vari-ous supporting channels."

Jon Hdmmarstrom, vice presi-dent, worldwide sales and marketingfor Encoda's Automation ProductsGroup, agrees there is a need to sup-port remote control and communi-cations. He says scalability is impor-tant-in this case, the ability to han-dle multiple channels. Without thisfeature the desired improvements inoperational efficiency and capitalexpenses use won't be realized.

Even with the facilities in tune

with each other on the inside, thereare still problems on the outside.Connectivity costs-and even theability to connect-top the list of con-cerns. Moote, who points to his com-pany's Agilevision product as a solu-tion for inserting local content intocentralcasted streams, says that thelast -mile connectivity is often morecostly than the long-distance connec-tion that gets the content from thehub to the last mile.

Eric Fankhauser, vice president ofadvanced product development,says the existing infrastructure avail-able from ILEC's (Incumbent LocalExchange Carriers) is typically DS3at 44.736Mb/s. Monthly costs forDS3 start at $1,000-$2,000 andincrease from there depending ondistances involved and number oflines leased.

"Using a DS3 channel doesrequire signal compression asbroadcast video signals typicallyrange from 140Mb/s (NTSC) to1.485Gb/s (uncompressed HDTV),"he explains. "This signal compres-sion will reduce quality in thesecontribution feeds."

Fankhauser adds that if the userneeds multiple channels for multi-ple video feeds, the costs add upquickly.

"In the end, high ongoing costsassociated with last mile connectivitytake a significant bite out of cost sav-ings of centralcasting,"he says.

For those who do make the moveto centralcasting, Fankhauser pointsto the Evertz FacilityLINK BroadcastFiber Optic Interface Platform as a

S4

Competitive Television =0gGY SummitA Sponsored Supplement to Broadcasting & Cable and Broadcast Engineering

way to allow any type and numberof signals to be transmitted betweenclustered facilities.

Further compounding the last -mile cost is that centralcastingreduces one of the major benefits ofbeing part of a station group: theability to recognize cost savingsfrom volume discounts. Often theprovider of the last mile connectivi-

If a group's current traffic systems differ acrossthe group then it would be difficult to bring themunder a centralized operation without investingin a group -wide system.

ROI and there are more subtleconcerns than the physical andfiscal challenges involved," saysHammarstrom.

Hammarstrom says that most ofEncoda's clients have multiple prop-erties in a variety of markets. He alsointroduces another wrinkle: intrinsicvalue specific to a properties loca-tion, staff or management experience

Stan Encore uses Omnibus to handle its multichannel operation.

ty will be different for each of thestations, meaning each deal needsto be negotiated (and subsequentlyrenegotiated) on its own. This con-sequence drives costs skyward andcan result in pressures down the linewhen the time comes to renew dealsor simply assess the financial healthof the connectivity provider.

All of these factors have an impacton the ROI, negating many of thebenefits that make centralized opera-tions attractive in the first place.

"There must be an improvementin operating efficiency or increasedrevenue generation to provide the

"It is often difficult to make themove to centralize an all -or -noneproposition," he says. "Many broad-casters are still watching the earlyadventurers with trepidation."

Newham believes the majorinhibitors are the start up costs andsome organizational issues relatingto transfer of control.

"There is some sense of securityabout having local control, and thereneeds to be significant trust to bedeveloped before local control isreplaced," says Newham. "It's got tobe proven to work."

One daunting aspect of central-

ization is end -to -end monitoring.Geoff Hillier, Harmonic's conver-gent systems division director ofproduct marketing, says thatHarmonic's products for central -casting are in two main areas: con-tent distribution/transmission andnetwork management. The compa-ny's DiviCom family of encodersand remultiplexer systems providecontent compression and distribu-tion interfaces for content distribu-tion. "Distribution networks sup-ported include cable, terrestrialbroadcast, satellite, ATM and IP overEthernet," says Hillier. "TheHarmonic network managementsystem provides control and moni-toring to manage the end -to -endcentralcasting operations."

Hammarstrom has some rec-ommendations for those takingthe cautious approach. First, con-sider phased or regionalizedimplementation. Also, considercentralizing playout in one cityand ingest in another to takeadvantage of the intrinsic valueprovided by their current proper-ties, staff or capital investment.And finally, consider outsourcingoptions that allow a trained staffto operate the facility from dayone while also using establishedlarge-scale transmission facilitiesfor consolidation of operations.

"There are still a lot of optionsand the ROI analysis is quite corn-plex," he adds." As with all opportu-nities of this nature, not everyonewill profit from this kind of achange."

S5

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Grass Valley NASThe Grass Valley NAS system easily expandsto meet changing system requirements whilepreserving broadcasters' capital investmentsby using the same Grass Valley SAN high -availability design and Fibre Channel disk arraysin an Ethernet architecture. Using our advancedNewsShare GOS technology, deterministic serverand client bandwidth is ensured for smoothworkflows in demanding production environments.

Ethernet Network

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SUCCESS = RATINGS + EFFICIENCYBroadcasters are facing the realities of a tough economyand an increasingly competitive business environment.They must meet the challenges of multi -format requirements,repurposing and globalizing content, increasing productionquality-and creative freedom, all while delivering on thebottom line.

In this environment, the keys to success are workflow andcapital efficiency, having the right content, and superiorproduction value. The objective? Increased ratings value.For as broadcasters well know, the difference betweenbeing ranked number one or number three in a market canliterally mean millions of dollars in revenue. That's especiallytrue with news-cost per ratings points in news are evenhigher than in other programming.

There is no one -size -fits -all solution that will deliver morecompetitiveness and higher ratings for every broadcaster-each operation has its own unique infrastructure andapplications requirements. In some instances, a centralizedapproach to preparing and distributing content makes sense,in other situations geographic requirements call for adistributed approach. Products that can flexibly fit withina broadcaster's business model are key.

From cutting in half the number of playout channels neededfor multi -format broadcasting to driving more affordabledigital news production, the Grass Valley line of productsfrom Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions features acombination of multi -format architectures, innovative soft-ware and standard components to drive new efficienciesand price/performance levels for broadcasters.

Here's how ...

The Grass Valley Digital NewsProduction Solution touches theentire news production process,from field editing and low -resolutionediting at a journalist's desktopthrough high -end story finishingand automatic playout in a user -definable timeframe.

Already known for its ingest, editing, and playout components,the Grass Valley Digital News Production solution has recentlyexpanded. Key new products, including the software -basedNewsEdir SC nonlinear editor and the Grass ValleyNetworked Attached Storage (NAS) drive more affordabledigital news production-especially for small- and mid -market broadcast news operations.

Network Attached StorageLeveraging a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure to provideunprecedented, entry-level, shared -storage pricing the newGrass Valley NAS system can easily expand to meet changingsystem requirements while preserving broadcasters' capitalinvestments.

The NAS system leverages the high availability and provenworkflow -improving capabilities of the Grass Valley OpenStorage Area Network (SAN) and makes them available inan Ethernet architecture. In fact, it uses the same FiberChannel array as the SAN system and translates it intoEthernet connectivity, giving customers an extremely afford-able entry point for shared storage.

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I

M -210C I-0Control Frame

M-210( SDControl Frame

Providing fast, centralized access to everything from incomingfeeds to archived clips, the NAS system lets editors accessmultiple video files in multiple video formats, including DV50.It scales to 14.6 terabytes and provides CIFS-based appli-cations support for Grass Valley FeedClip " interactive feedcapture system; the NewsEdit, NewsEdit LT, and NewsEdit SCsystems; and the News() manual playback system.

The NAS system is also enabled by the new Grass ValleyCohere common storage architecture which featuresadvanced Grass Valley NewsShare'" DOS technology.Debunking the myth that NAS-based storage approachesoffer an unreliable quality of service, NewsShare technologyprovides deterministic server and client channel bandwidth,which is key to ensuring smooth workflows in demandingnews production environments.

Software -Based Nonlinear EditingBased on the NewsEdit nonlinear editor, the fastest hard -newsediting system on the market today, the software -basedNewsEdit SC system combines cuts -only edit bay capabilities,traditional A/B Roll Suite transition functions, and storageand network connectivity options to create a highly cost-effective editing toolset for journalists.

The NewsEdit SC system supports DV25 media, offers tightDV camcorder integration, and features up to four chanrelsof audio, internal storage, and a variety of networking options.Using it, editors can trim clips with frame accuracy, addbasic transitions and audio tracks, and complete deadline -

pressured assignments with ease.

Like the popular NewsEdit nonlinear editor, the NewsEdit SCsystem lets a field journalist see an edit while it's beingmade-there's no time wasted going back and reviewingcompleted segments. This capability makes the NewsEditSC system twice as fast as other nonlinear editors. TheNewsEdit SC system can also edit directly from videotape

ASI (future)

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Fl

Ethernet "- E_ _____

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to disk via a 1394 (FireWire)connection and RS -422 control.

Cutting ['layout ChannelsNeeded for Multi -formatProuramming in HalfAnswering the call for more costsavings through digitization, theEmmy award -winning Profile®line has added another industry

first: a server that can handle standard- and high -definition(SD and HD) materials in the same frame and in the sametimeline, significantly reducing broadcasters' costs ofupgrading to HD.

It's called the PVS 3000 Profile XP Media Platform.

Leapfrogging current server offerings which can providesimultaneous SD and HD capabil ties only through acombination of external multiple devices, the PVS 3000Profile XP Media Platform can play out SD and HD materialfrom the same server-and on the same timeline and inthe same server package.

Among its key features, the PVS 3000 offers HD verticalancillary data support for captioning and iTV data, as wellas support for SMPTE 334M, 291M, and EIA-708A standards.It also supports data bridging to seamlessly convert betweenSD VBI data and HD ancillary data.

Designed to fit into any topology, the PVS 3000 supportsstandalone, distributed, and SAN configurations. It's alsoavailable as an upgrade package for existing Profile XPMedia Platform users.

Competitive Television TECM OULOGGY Summit

A Sponsored Supplement to Broadcasting & Cable and Broadcast Engineering

Satellite still rulesbut terrestrial

networks startto catch on

Content DistributionGoes Down tothe Wire

THE BROADBAND boomwhich brought with it thepotential of a nation wired

on something other thanStarbucks ended about two yearsago. But even with the glory daysbehind us, broadcasters are usingwide -area networks, T1 lines andother terrestrial -based services asa way to deliver traditional contentoutside of satellite and FederalExpress.

"There is no doubt that the roleof satellites is under constant attackfrom other networking technolo-gies," says Stan Moote, Leitch seniorvice president. "As SAN (storagearea networks) and NAS (networkattached storage) environments arefully integrated into broadcastingsystems and the time taken to trans-port media across a public networkbecomes a non -issue, LANs (localarea networks) and WANs (widearea networks) will be used."

While at first glance this techno-logical attack seems like a full -onassault, the reality is that differencesin content requirements guaranteesatellite delivery won't go the way ofthe dinosaurs anytime soon.Companies like Pathfire, which usessatellites to deliver IP-packeted con-tent to video servers across thecountry for networks like NBC andCNN insure the satellite's future forthe time being.

There are two characteristicsindicating whether content is suit-able for satellite or terrestrial distri-

bution: point-to-point vs. point-to-multipoint and realtime vs. non-realtime. If time allows, non -real-time delivery via terrestrial fiber(used most often for promotions,syndicated content or non -live newsfeeds) is adequate. But if realtimecontent is being sent or hiccups inquality or speed are unacceptable,then satellite is still thepreferred method.

As for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint, JoeFabiano, CTO of IP-satellite deliveryprovider Pathfire, sayspoint-to-point distri-bution can more easilyswitch over to terrestri-al networking, butpoint-to-multipointdistribution will remainon satellite until robustterrestrial broadbandconnectivity is availableto all stations at anaffordable price.

Fabiano says he believes it will bethree or four years before thetelecommunications companies finda high enough concentration ofbusiness demand to justify the costof deploying fiber.

Eric Fankhauser, Evertz vice pres-ident of advanced product develop-ment, says even with fiber already inthe ground costs remain high. Oneof the biggest hurdles is the telecomtariff.

"It's currently cheaper to get a270Mb/s TV1 service than a 45Mb/sDS3 service from a telco, and that'sbecause the 270Mb/s service doesnot fall under the same telco tariffrequirements and hence can becharged for at a lower rate," he says.

Fankhauser adds that telco tariffstructures for services such as DS3

Encoda's traffic and management systems helpbroadcast organizations like BSkyB get a handle oncontent distribution.

are still based on the voice model,making them very expensive whenused for video or data transport.

The use of dark fiber, which thetelcos could light up for video trans-port services, isn't always an optionsince as in some regions a PublicUtility Commission (PUC) hasrestricted access.

But Fankhauser does see devel-oping technologies like CWDM(Coarse Wavelength Division

S8

Competitive Television TEWOUGVSummitA Sponsored Supplement to Broadcasting & Cable and Broadcast Engineering

Joe Fabiano of Pathfire

Multiplexing) making a difference."CWDM can help lower the cost

of last mile connectivity significant-ly," he says. "But the telcos need tooffer the required infrastructure forthis technology."

This leaves the hope for loweredconnectivity costs in the hands oftelco competitors. Unfortunately,many competitive local exchangecarriers (CLECs) ran into financialtroubles in the recent telecom train -wrecks.

Harmonic's encoders can package MPEG video into aIP-based stream.

"It's a basic Catch -22 situationwhere the telcos say the price forfiber will come down once more sta-tions use it, while many independ-ent broadcasters can't afford it," saysMike Cronk, Thomson Grass Valleyvice president and general manager,server and digital news production."We expect the situation to changein the next year or so, when manybroadcasters will be using sometype of fiber-optic distribution sys-tem-whether it's their own or one

rented from the local telco."Satellite delivery will be the most

cost-effective method of distributionfor a number years, according to TimSlate, Omneon vice president ofmarketing, who says the use ofcompression and efficient modula-tion schemes has made satelliteeven more attractive.

"For multicast and broadcast ofreal-time content that requiresguaranteed latency and on -timedelivery, satellite is still the leading

method for distribu-tion," he says.

But he quickly addsthat as broadband IPinfrastructure becomesmore widespread andlower in cost, it will gainthe added benefit ofguaranteed deliverywith error detection andretransmission ulti-mately reducing opera-tional cost.

"This will alleviatethe need to verify content at thereceiving site," Slate says."The ques-tion of when broadband willbecome widely available and cheapfrom end -to -end remains."

The consensus places that esti-mate at three to four years, withsome local spots still subject to tech-nical shortcomings or high cost.Even then, there's little doubt ofsatellite's viability as a transmissionmethod, especially with the need forHDTV distribution.

"IP and FTP are

core technologies

for our product lineand are increasingly

so for many other

companies across all

industry segments.

Broadcast engineering

departments are

already successfully

using these technologies

and the rest are likelyto follow shortly."

Joe Fabiano, Pathfire

"HD triples the bandwidthrequired for distribution," saysFabiano."And, as the quantity of HDcontent grows, it will serve tolengthen the viability time for satel-lite -based distribution. Additionally,this greatly increased bandwidthrequirement for HD further exacer-bates the last -mile problem for ter-restrial networks."

Another factor in satellite's favoris consolidation. As groups buymore stations, use of satellite distri-bution of files will be more cost-effective than other methods.

"I would like to see a satelliteservice where I send files as neededand only pay for the bytes sent,"saysAl Kovalick, CTO, Pinnacle Systemsbroadcast solutions. "The idea ofpaying for hours instead of bits maychange and would be a good modelto compete against the telcos."

Fiber could, however, find itsplace in the world of HD.Fankhauser says one situationwhere fiber could be used to trans -

S9

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Thomson's NewsBrowsesystem is an example of

how access to content andthe way it's distributed ischanging both inside and

outside a station.

,

mit an HD signal is a sports event."In this case, the native

1.485Gb/s HDTV signal can be sentback full bandwidth via fiber optics,"he says. "Where dark fiber is notavailable, the HD signal can belightly compressed and transportedback to the broadcast center over a270Mb/s TV1 telco service." Evertzrecently released a product that per-forms this compression of HD sig-nals into a standard 270Mb/s TV1format.

Kovalick adds that non-realtimefile transfer over DSL could occurfor HD content and, depending onthe length of the material, couldactually be practical.

Another attractive feature ofLANs and WANs instead of satelliteis that they are bi-directional, a fac-tor that could lead to a competitiveadvantage. For example, the Sinclairstation group's News Central opera-tion uses its WAN to connect sta-tions in 40 markets to one anotherand to a central hub. Transmissionspeeds via HT can hit three -timesreal-time, with a four -minute reporttransmitted at 8 MB/s received inroughly 14 minutes.

Full connectivity among the sta-tions is still to be completed, but onecan envision a local station inRochester calling a far-flung stationacross the country and requestingadditional footage for a news story,even going so far as to request thatfresh footage be shot.

"The drive for f.11 and IP distri-bution will come from contentproviders," says Andy Newham,OmniBus Systems product manager,transmission. "The use of multi -for-mat, multi -purpose content willmake IP their prime mechanism forcontent distribution and the use ofother technologies will not necessar-ily make economic sense for them."

But Newham says this trend willtake time, especially because broad-cast engineering departments needto make sure they understand theimplications of the technology.

"Step cautiously," advisesNewham. "Although PIP and IP arevery mature, there are still immaturestandards relating to digital rightsand digital asset management thatmean they are not yet ready for a fullembrace."

But there is little doubt that it'sworth of at least a tentative hug.Each year NAB conventions featuresmore and more products integratingIP and HI' technologies.

"IP and FIP are core technolo-gies for our product line and areincreasingly so for many other com-panies across all industry seg-ments," says Fabiano. "Many broad-cast engineering departments arealready successfully using thesetechnologies and the rest are likelyto follow shortly."

Adds Sony vice president of tech-nology and products HugoGaggioni, "TCP/IP technologies are

very important and are very much atthe forefront of our product design-ing decisions. Each broadcastermust evaluate the introduction of IT(or other technologies) according toits own analysis of improvements toits operational workflow."

Gaggioni says there are caseswhere it is financially and opera-tionally justifiable to continue toendorse more traditional technolo-gies and workflow.

Another area that is seeing newdistribution models is VOD.

"In realtime applications,Harmonic's systems can packagethe MPEG video into an IP-basedstream," says Geoff Hillier,Harmonic's convergent systemsdivision director of product market-ing. "For the transport of a pre -encoded stream in a VOD applica-tions, Harmonic enables operatorsto transport streams across a digitalDWDM/Gigabit Ethernet networkand then at the hub or regional head -end level convert the stream to a tra-ditional HFC transport (i.e., QAM)."

He adds that broadcast engineersshould evaluate where IP technolo-gy can be applied to enhance theircurrent distribution of content.

"Over time more facilities willhave access to high -bandwidth last -mile connections, so last -mile issueswill slowly be mitigated as stationsupgrade," says Kovalick."But this willtake time and we don't see any magicbullet for the last -mile problems."

S12

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THE ARGUMENT for con-verting a television stationplant to digital begins with

improved picture and audio quali-ty, eased operations and greaterflexibility, but in the end it's allabout one thing: return on invest-ment (ROI).

"Local broadcasters, the majornetworks, and independent stationgroups are making their decisionbased on cost and operational sav-ings," says Bruce Lane, ThomsonBroadcast director, technical support.

Lane is unabashed in saying themove is driven by ROI, saying itbegins with network devices thatmake it easier to collaborate. Otherfactors include SAN environmentsthat make production faster, allowinga station to get more programming

on the air (increasing ratings) morequickly than ever (increasing ratingseven more).

"There are several competitiveadvantages to making a move todigital," adds Stan Moote, Leitchsenior vice president. "First of all,digital signals that move through afacility are not subject to the degra-dations that analog signals suffer.The overall signal quality improve-ments will also help to differentiateone station from the other."

In addition, because digital prod-ucts are much more sophisticatedthan their analog predecessors, astation can simplify and consolidatemany of its processing operations,freeing up resources to concentrateon new business opportunities.

It's this sort of logical assessment

that makes the move to digital seemlike an easy one. Throw in the gov-ernment -mandated digital conver-sion of transmission facilities to dig-ital and it seems like an even easiersell. Cap it off with the ever -fallingcost of digital gear and who couldsay no?

Many broadcasters, as it turnsout, can say just that or at least theycan say "not yet." The reason forhesitance is pretty simple: the capi-tal needed to recognize improvedROI isn't available or is being spenton the addition of digital transmis-sion capabilities.

"I don't see any obstacles otherthan the current financial conditionsof the industry," says HugoGaggiano, Sony vice president oftechnology and products."And eventhat is questionable. Equipmentcosts and features are at their bestfrom end -user perspectives butthere's a paralysis in purchasingdecisions because economic expec-tations for the industry [haven'tbeen met]."

Nearly 750 broadcasters havealready implemented digital trans-mission facilities, and most of themview the expenditures as a cost ofdoing business. It's the savings real-ized in master control that can makean engineering department the bestfriend to a station's CFO.

Eric Fankhauser, Evertz vice pres-ident of advanced product develop-ment, says the equipment needed

$13

NEWS. Sony has it downThe future of the newsroom is digital, nonlinear and server based. This revolution inworkflow enables you to produce more while spending less. And it is appearingnightly at the many stations that have stepped up to Sony's NewsBaseTM system. Nonewsroom system offers better hooks to acquisition and ingest. No system betteranticipates the nonlinear and high definition future. And certainly none is morecomprehensive than what you see here: Sony's NewsBase system.

CnuTFNT INGEST AND FILINGMPEG ACQUISITION. Perfect for long form ENG, EFP andnews magazines, the new MSW-900 MPEG IMX camcorder actuallycosts less than the BVW-D600 it replaces. Yet it deliversbreathtaking 4:2:2 picture quality and a rich 50 Mbps, widescreenpicture that's more than ready for DTV!

BETACAM SX ACQUISITION. Sony's family of Betacam SXcamcorders are ideally suited to news. They offer 4:2:2 digitalquality at a cost-effective 18 Mbps in MPEG compression.

DVCAM ACQUISITION. For investigative reporting, Sony handheldDVCAM camcorders deliver broadcast -quality images fromcamcorders small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

BETACAM SP' ACQUISITION. If you're currently shooting onBetacam SP camcorders, you'll be happy to know that bothBetacam SX and MPEG IMX studio VTRs will play your analogfootage. So you can migrate to digital at your own pace.

AUTOMATED INGEST. For maximum workflow efficiency, theNewsBase system uses the same Media Object Server LMOS1protocol as today's newsroom computer and production automationsystems. For super -efficient recording of network feeds, everySony NewsBase newsroom system can work directly with thePathfire Digital Media Gateway' platform. Sony's NewsBlastsoftware enables remote crews to file stories without humanintervention at the station.

CONTENT PROCESSINGINTEROPERATES WITH NEWSROOM COMPUTER SYSTEMS INRCSI.If you have an NRCS or you're considering one, you'll be glad to knowthat Sony's NewsBase system works beautifully with third partysystems. You get all the control of your NRCS together with all theproduction efficiency of Sony's NewsBase system.

MAV-2000 NEWSROOM SERVER. Sony's NewsBase systemstreamlines news production, helping you get on air first, with thebest -looking packages. The Sony MAV-2000 newsroom serverenables multiple, simultaneous and instantaneous access to theday's news footage.

SIMULTANEOUS ACCESS AND WORKFLOW IMPROVEMENT. Thanksto the MAV-2000 server, one person can cut a story for the 5 o'clocknews while another cuts the story for the 11 o'clock while a third cutsthe tease. There's no contention for tapes, no need to make copies.

CLIPEDIT" JOURNALIST SOFTWARE. Sony software enablesjournalists to sit at their own PCs, viewing and even cutting thestory's footage on the same screen they use for wire service feedsand scriptwriting!

DNE-2000 NONLINEAR EDITING SYSTEM. After the rough cut,finish your package with the very fast, very powerful DNE-2000. Youcan edit from local tapes, central servers - or any combination of both.Material and EDL are easily transferred between the DNE-2000 andClipEdit Systems.

SHARED RESOURCES. The NewsBase system enables you to shareassets and storage capacity among several locations - a decidedcost savings for networks and station groups.

CONTENT DELIVERYNEWSBASE SYSTEM AND PLAY -TO -AIR WORKFLOW. Thanks tothe MOS interface, stories completed on the NewsBase system canappear immediately on your director's rundown. There's no need torush with tapes from the edit bay to the on -air system.

OFFLOADING THE NEWSBASE SERVER FOR NEARUNE ACCESS.You can offload the MAV-2000 newsroom server onto a Sony digitalcontent management system, which stores your content on data tapes.

SONY'S PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. For everything from initialconsulting to the industry's leading system integration toaward -winning after -sales service, you can depend on the expertsfrom Sony Professional Services.

SERVER MIRROR BACKS UP ON -AIR MATERIAL Redundancy in acomplex system can create peace of mind, and a backup videostorage solution for NewsBase systems provides that redundancy.As high -resolution video material is created on a NewsBase system,SERVER MIRROR automatically transfers this video material to aSony MAV-555A video server or other backup storage devices (e.g.,MAV-701. The material on the backup device provides a safe archiveof material, and a simple emergency play -to -air resource.

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"Because most facilities and plants have been designed

around a 300 -meter cable reach, significant building

and equipment location changes are needed to

accommodate HDTV." Eric Fankhauser, Evertz

for master control conversionincludes signal conversion gear foranalog -to -digital needs, upconver-sion to HD, and then downconver-sion to SD or NTSC for monitoringHD feeds.

To make sure that a conversion todigital is best for a station's opera-tions, it is valuable for a station toreview their current and potentialbusiness models," says Geoff Hillier,Harmonic's convergent systemsdivision director of product market-ing. "Research might include theviability of single versus multichan-nel operations, the ability to sell

advertising based on this decision,and whether they will simply pass -through network feeds or become apoint of local program origination."

A perfect example of the type ofmaster control products that can cutcosts are Parkervision's equipment.All of which is designed to give oneoperator greater control over theequipment used to play out news-casts and other content.

"If the station is converting fromanalog to digital our solutions willafford the station an immediateimprovement on air in terms of pic-ture quality and reliability," saysThomas McGowan, Parkervisionvice president of sales and market-ing, video business unit. "In mostcases workflow will increase withoutincreasing headcount."

But products like those fromParkervision also introduce a cultur-al shift in station operations, andcan thus prove contentious.Introducing equipment that may

result in staff cuts can leave employ-ees feeling threatened. And whenthe new equipment requires re-training, those with seniority canbecome anxious.

"The pervading culture is oftenamong the biggest obstacles when

Sony's HDCAM camcorders will playan important role in broadcasters'conversion to DTV

making a conversion of this scope,"says Jon Hammarstrom, vice presi-dent, worldwide sales and market-ing for Encoda's AutomationProducts Group. "A great many partsof an organization are being affectedby product and technology choicesusually limited to engineering."

Hammarstrom says the conver-sion can actually impact everyone ata station, from sales to editorial. Andthat means making sure everyonebuys into the concept before it is putin place.

"Even if the ROI is justified, suc-cess will depend on the peopleinvolved," he says.

Encoda is involved with trafficand billing software for a multitudeof industries, including broadcast.It's products are digital by definition,

and Hammarstrom says Encoda'ssystems help realize efficiency acrossengineering, operations and IT

through the automation of metadatacollection and distribution coupledwith flexibility for local ads sales.

"Digital technology providestremendous opportunities toimprove work flow," says Moote."Torealize gains the technology has tobe embraced by the completeorganization. Frequently old workpractices are maintained, eliminat-ing the value of new technology."

The newsroom is one such prob-lem area. Staff in a digital newsroomtend to have expanded duties, withreporters editing and working ongraphics. James Frantzreb, seniorproducts marketing manager, AvidBroadcast and Workgroups, saysthat perspective, reference, prepara-tion and training are the keys toeffectively digitizing the newsroom.

"Broadcasters should talk toother [stations] and see what hasworked and what hasn't," he says."Smooth installations are well -planned, with ample time for pre -installation, installation, training,trials, and switch -over."

One factor that will definitelyspur the conversion to the digitalnewsroom is the falling cost of non-linear editing systems. Frantzrebsays that the cost for an NLE is lessthan that for a tape -based system.

"Remaining obstacles have moreto do with budgets, business needs(e.g. competitiveness), and inertiathan any technological or logisticalbarrier," he adds.

S16

Competitive Television TTEVIIIN°OULOG4 Summit


Elements broadcastersshould expect from a vendorinclude "best practices" guide-lines for workflow and person-nel deployment, as well as train-ing for staff.

"In our experience, improvementsare immediate and clear: work getsdone more smoothly, more quickly,many fewer errors are made, produc-tion quality is better, and even thesignal looks better," he says.

One new development from Avidthat will impact news operationseven further is its NewsCutter Post -to -Web feature. Many TV stationshave successful Websites and thisproduct, according to Frantzreb, willmake it easier to get content fromthe newsroom onto the Web.

"With better management ofmedia assets, broadcasters will beable to serve up archives on demandand conceivably earn revenue in theprocess," he says."We're investing innext -generation content manage-ment technology that will extendthese benefits even further."

Another part of the news conver-sion is the move to a digital tape for-mat. DV video in a number of flavorsand bitrates has taken hold of theprofessional video industry and ismaking continued gains in thebroadcast market. When it comes todigital production formats, Gaggionirecommends component digitalvideo formats that are at least50Mbps or higher.

"If a station does any productionwork they must make sure to pro-vide the highest -quality picture pos-

The Leitch Opus dual -effects masterContol is upgradeable to HD.

sible in case up -conversion to HD isneeded. In addition, equipmentshould be able to handle metadata.Metadata's creation, updating anddatabases are very important."

Once master control and newshave made the transition, digitalinfrastructure components, such asrouting, jump into the spotlight.Fankhauser says the technologiesare added as needed, but the exist-ing analog infrastructure stays inplace as the majority of broadcastingis still analog.

The infrastructure market hasexpanded beyond conventionalvideo and audio routers to includeIP routers, Ethernet LANs and IP-based WANs. Andy Newham,OmniBus Systems product manag-er, transmission, points out thatwhile conventional routers are care-fully engineered to work withinbroadcast tolerances, insuring quali-ty output every time, the same can'tbe said of these new types ofrouters.

"There is no doubt that shortcom-ings can be addressed, but realtimeperformance [required by broadcast-ers] is probably not at the top of thevendors' priority lists," he says.

Distance of cable runs is also an

issue when considering theinclusion of HD in the digitalconversion.

"Analog video and 601 signalscan travel up to 300 meters overexisting coaxial cable, but HD is

limited to 100 meters," he says."Because most facilities and plantshave been designed around a 300 -

meter cable reach, significant build-ing and equipment location changesare needed to accommodateHDTV."

He recommends using fiberoptics technology, if possible. Aproduct like Evertz' fiber transportplatform can allow any type of sig-nal used in the broadcast industry tobe transported over fiber.

The simple reality of the conver-sion to digital is that even if a stationdoesn't have a grand plan for con-version, they are most likely gettingthere by default. Moote says thatcapital investments today are prima-rily for digital equipment.

"ln budget -constrained facilities,digital islands are created and theyare bridged into the existing analogfacility," he says. "In many cases, thecustomer tries to include as manydigital product as possible withintheii projects."

Of course the use of the worddigital does not automatically meanbetter quality.

"The premise that 'digital is bet-ter'is true up to a certain point,"saysMoote. "However, any signal con-verted from analog to digital canonly be as good as the equipmentthat conducts the conversion."

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Competitive Television T cH NOLO4 Summit


Multicasting showspromise but

currently finds fewon -air believers

Stations, groupson the hunt forDTV-related revenues

MU LTI CASTIN G providesthe pretty revenue whileHDTV provides the pretty

pictures.Over the years there have been

numerous debates over HDTV-fromwhich modulation standard to use,to which resolution to transmit, tothe long-standing debate bestknown as the HDTV chicken -and -the -egg conundrum: should DTVprogramming drive DTV set sales orshould DTV set sales drive DTV pro-gramming?

The government's mandated roll-out of DTV broadcasts has settledmost of these debates, particularlythe last one: as it stands now, calen-dar dates will determine how muchDTV programming must be offered,not the number of DTV viewers orDTV set penetration. The NAB willbe pushing for the transition to bedriven by consumer HDTV adoptionrates, but it's becoming increasinglyclear that both the FCC andCongress have little interest in giv-ing broadcasters a reason to moveback the 2006 deadline.

In many ways HDTV is an exam-ple of the adage"be careful what youwish for." Broadcasters lobbied forthe spectrum so they could offerdigital broadcasts. Then they got it,and now they have to figure outhow that digital spectrum is going toturn into new revenues.

There is a difference in how thenetworks can realize profits from

HDTV and DTV and how a stationcan do it. CBS executives say thattheir current sponsorship deals forHDTV sports programming do infact generate HDTV -related rev-enues. But an executive from anoth-er network holds that those revenuesare too small to get excited about.

For local broadcasters, revenue -

The EuertzMultiviewer can help monitore

generating sponsorship of HDTVlocal news is probably a pipe dream.This leaves multicasting as the pri-mary potential source for revenue, buteven that is a difficult proposition.

"So far it has been very difficult toestablish the business models tosupport such multicast operations,"says Sony vice president of technol-ogy and products Hugo Gaggioni.

"More specifically, multi -programtransmission has shown to be diffi-cult to support in terms of originalcontent different from what thecable or satellite services offer."

Bill Powers, Thomson Broadcastvice president, strategic accounts,says a broadcaster's ability to pro-gram a secondary channel needs to

multiple channels.

be at a cost that is low enough tojustify the marginal revenue dollars.

Using Harmonic encoders a sta-tion can statistically multiplex bothHD and SD streams for multi -chan-nel broadcast operations.

"Capital Broadcasting Group'sstations WRAL and WRAZ inRaleigh are good examples of howbroadcasters are embracing digital

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Careful.Other stations might get jealous.More and more broadcasters are discovering that Avid's true, ingest-to-playoutnonlinear workflow is the solution of choice for affordable, best -in -classsystems that can increase productivity, enhance creativity, and control costs,helping you to stay ahead of the technology curve - and the competition.

The flexibility and scalability of broadcast solutions based on Avid Unity -for News or LANshare for News shared media networks enable stations tostreamline operations while intelligently building for the future, whetherthey're in market number 2 or 200. With products that improve newsproduction from direct ingest to mirrored playout, only Avid' broadcastsolutions can ensure a proven, integrated workflow that coordinates systemadministration, media management, storage, networking, editing and newsroomoperations, and allow broadcasters to:

> Share media assets, programming, and resources across and betweenorganizations, bureaus, affiliates and central locations over standard networks

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outfit mobile newsgathering vans and ENG crews with editing,production, ingest and playout capability while maintaining connectivitywith the station

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Avid's commitment to providing the industry's most open, standards -basedmedia environment - with complete support for the industry's leadingnewsroom computer systems - makes it possible for stations to plan anddesign an all -digital newsroom with confidence, knowing that their Avidsolution will keep them competitive in a fast -changing, fast-moving business.

Other stations might get jealous, but that's the price of success. Today, with

cost-effective Avid systems, the price of success has never been more affordable.

Be the envy of your competition with a broadcast solution from Avid.

For more information, visit www.avid.com/broadcastor call 800.949.AVID (2843).

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Competitive Television TEHaltgoGG7 Summit


to deliver more programs with high-er -quality video and audio as well asincrease advertising and other rev-enue generating options,"says GeoffHillier, Harmonic's ConvergentSystems division director of productmarketing. Both stations useHarmonic's DiviTrackXE system tostatistically multiplex high definition(HD) and standard definition (SD)TV programs

"Many have done multicastingand backed out when they found itdidn't produce substantive rev-enue," says Powers. "Those in themiddle have an easier time justifyingmulticasting as a low-cost means ofincreasing exposure of their brand."

Andy Newham, OmniBusSystems product manager agrees,adding that a weather channel or a24 -hour news network are the low -hanging fruit and thus not necessar-ily the most attractive for advertisers.Instead he thinks high -involvementchannels, such as local sports, aremore likely to generate the viewingbehavior sought by advertisers.

But one factor that may work infavor of a 24 -hour newschannel isthe influence of 24 -hour cable newsnetworks.

"Some stations will wrestle withthe concern that such re -transmis-sion may erode viewership oftheir primary newscast," saysParkerVision's Matt Danilowicz."Butthen again, the cable news networksare already proving that appoint-ment -based viewing is rapidly fad-ing away."

Pinnacle's MediaStream servercan be used for multicasting.

Stan Moote, Leitch senior vicepresident, says the difference will bein the scale of the gear.

"For example: video servers arelarger scale, master control switch-ers operate in tandem using bothautomation and control panelassignments allowing flexible oper-ations," he says.

The degree of local branding willalso impact operations.

"If a station wishes to send outfour feeds with local station logos,time of day, etc., they will need fourtimes the number of logo insertersin master control as in regularbroadcasting," says Eric Fankhauser,Evertz vice president, advancedproduct development. "A simplerapproach could involve pass -through of national feeds andbranding of local feeds."

Fankhauser adds that a combina-tion approach, broadcasting HDduring primetime and multicastsduring non-primetime, increasesthe impact on master control.

Another issue that becomes moredifficult with the introduction ofDTV is monitoring of the signals.Newham says even if third -partycontent distributors provide thefeed, the broadcaster must still makethe delivery monitoring decision. Headds that the OmniBus Colossustransmission system is a potentialsolution for delivering medium -to -large systems for multi -channel,multi delivery automation and con-trol systems across large numbers ofchannels.

All of these issues have made thearea of multicasting one of littleaction today. PBS stations in mar-kets like New York are multicastingchildren's channels but the reality isthat of the nearly 750 stations on theair digitally most are simply passingthrough HDTV content.

"No one is beating down ourdoors to be first in their market tomulticast," says Al Kovalick,Pinnacle Systems CTO, BroadcastSolution. "After all, only certaintypes of programs are conducive tomulticasting and sports is the likelyfirst candidate."

The multichannel capabilities ofvideo servers will be an importantenabling technology for multicastfacilities. Products from companieslike Pinnacle, Leitch, Avid andThomson Grass Valley are all typicalof the kind of systems available.

"Our Profile XP Media Platformvideo server is widely used through-out the industry, and broadcasterscan use add-on channels to drivemulticasting streams," says Powers.

Al Kovalick, CTO PinnacleSystems, says that his company'sMediaStream servers are being soldinto multicasting operations for sportsand even horse racing applications.

"One aspect that requires somecustomization is the selection ofwhich camera to broadcast on, say,one of four channels," he says. "Andour DekoCast on -air realtime com-positor and keyer is being used togive additional information to eachsignal in a multichannel bundle."

S24

The Conversion To Digital -

Inside The Control RoomTelevision stations areimplementing virtuallyevery conceivable cost -saving strategy toremain competitive.The next step isautomating thenews control room.

PVTV NEWS broadcastsflexible, live, late -breaking newscastsdaily in more than 35television stations,from DMA #1 to DMA#205, with minimalstaffing requirements

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Competitive Television TE%N°0uLoGG',ISummit


"Broadcasters will be replacing SD equipment with HD as theyprepare to purchase new equipment to replace older SD

devices...and studio production, news and field ops will beslow to change." Hugo Gaggioni, Sony

While multicasting may hold thebetter business opportunities, it'sthe high -quality video and audioassociated with HDTV that has abetter chance of grabbing and keep-ing viewers' attention.Unfortunately, when it comes tousing HDTV technology to gain acompetitive edge, the real advantageis to be found in more cost-effectivecontent production. One bit of goodnews is that the cost of HD produc-tion gear continues to fall.

"On our side of the business,competition among equipment

already drivenHDTV production down to aboutwhat it cost to produce analog NTSCbroadcast video only a few yearsago," says Powers. "Producers andbroadcasters have already voicedexpectations of being able to produceHTDV at a cost comparable to stan-dard definition digital television."

Gaggiano agrees. The cost of HDTVequipment has fallen very, very fast,he says, and Sony's HDCAM formatis a perfect example. Some modelsof HDCAM cameras carry a retailprice in the same range as an NTSCcamera five or six years ago.

For manufacturers like Sony thechallenge is convincing stationmanagement to budget as much forcameras as they did six years ago.Today's DV -based formats, likeSony's DVCAM format, providetremendous bang for the buck, withstations turning to these lower -costalternatives as replacements forolder cameras, particularly for newsoperations.

"It's a natural progression," saysGaggioni. "Broadcasters will bereplacing SD equipment with HD asthey prepare to purchase newequipment to replace older SDdevices. The areas of sports, docu-mentaries, arts and made -for -TVmovies are already changing to HDproduction values. But studio pro-duction, news and field ops will beslow to change."

Powers says this disparity is pri-marily due to the fact that localbroadcast competition is almostcompletely a battle between newsdepartments, an area where HDdoes not significantly enhance theviewing experience.

"Everyone's managing to thebottom line, and that typicallymeans controlling or lowering oper-ating expenses and restricting capi-tal expenditures," he says. "They'relooking to develop models that helpthem control the cost of running thebusiness or things that directlyenhance a station's ability to com-pete in the market."

Manufacturers are also lookingfor products to compete in the mar-ket, and those efforts could help bothmanufacturer and broadcaster thrive.

"Broadcasters and manufacturersalike are all pressing against theenvelope of technology," he says."Faster, better, more cost effective."

But faster, better and more costeffective requires a lot of develop-ment effort.

"In the end, producing new HDequipment is a big effort for manu-facturers," says Kovalick. "In addi-

tion, HD compression for produc-tion formats like Sony HDCAM,Panasonic D5 and other formats isnon-standard."

The small number of HDTV setsin a marketplace means the transi-tion to HDTV will not result in anynew advertising revenues-one ofthe major reasons some broadcast-ers, particularly Fox, are opting tosend out content at 480p resolution.With no return on investment today,why not wait to make the invest-ment until tomorrow, when viewer-ship is not only larger but alsomeasurable by Nielsen?

Nielsen has laid the technicalgroundwork for DTV and HDTVmeasurement in some of its newmetering technologies, to bedeployed in 2004. And one thing canbe said for HDTV owners: they arean enthusiastic bunch, and theyhave already shown loyalty for net-works that offer HDTV content.

Of course, when all broadcastersoffer HDTV programming such thatviewer loyalty will be moot and onceagain programs will be judged byquality of the content rather thanthe image. After all, it's been a whilesince viewers have lauded a pro-gram for being in color.

"The growth of HDTV facilities isincreasing slowly," adds Moote."This means that any investmentwill be recovered over a longerlength of time than before.However, the benefits of beingamongst the first to support broad-casters in their transition to HDTVwill pay for itself in the long run. "

S26

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Integration of ITinto broadcast

engineering posescultural challenges Is This IT?

IT WASN'T too long ago that abroadcast station's engineeringdepartment was dominated by

men and women who shared onething in common: when discussingtheir childhoods they invariablynoted something along the lines of,"I was always taking things apart tosee how they work and it drove myparents crazy."

Today's engineering departmentsare beginning to hear a differentchildhood story, one that is told bythose who have grown up with ITand computer network infrastructure.The difference is that instead of tak-ing apart things like toasters, radiosand TVs, they spent their childhoodsgetting into software programs tostudy code and learn programming.

That difference in storytelling isleading to a difference in the engi-neering environment. For one, manyolder, traditional broadcast engi-neers say it's difficult to find young,up-and-coming broadcast engi-neers. Those who may have studiedbroadcast engineering in collegefound themselves becominginvolved in IT, lured by the promiseof becoming a start-up millionaire.More importantly, the use of solid-state technology in devices likeradios and TVs makes the exercise ofopening up electronics goods to seehow they work a waste of time. Sothe inquisitive young engineeringmind has nowhere to go but to acomputer.

"In today's television stationthere has to be a good IT man,because everything new has someform of networking capability," saysTom McGowan, Parkervision vicepresident of sales and marketing forthe Video Business Unit. He tells thestory of a chief engineer who toldhim his station's IT departmentbegan with one PC, then anotherone. Soon someone said let's hookthe first one to the other one.

"Along the waysome PCs gotchanged to work-stations, and thenequipment startedrolling through thedoor day after daythat required con-nection," he says.And just like that,the IT departmenthad grown fromone PC

7-77,-W11111-71,22.....M.Z.,1111.1

Avid's Newscutter has moved into thefield thanks to laptop PC's.

to a vital part of the station infra-structure.

Jon Hammarstrom, vice presi-dent, worldwide sales and market-ing for Encoda's automation prod-ucts group, says that historically TT

tizing,

and engineers have been identifiedas the independent keepers of theirrespective technologies. Today theyare required to work together tomake a new process succeed.

"The managers will becomemore business influencers thantechnology influencers and sharethat responsibility to make theircompanies successful," he says.

The upside of IT is that it intro-duces a new level of scalability and

cost savings compared to tradi-tional broad-cast systems.It also intro-duces a newconcept: theuse of com-puter proto-cols like IP(InternetProtocol), HI(File TransferProtocol) andSNMP (SimpleNetwork

ManagementProtocol), all of which

will play a role in packe-transferring and monitoring

content distributed via an IT infra-structure.

Eric Fankhauser, Evertz vice pres-ident of advanced product develop-ment, says his company's VistaLINKallows network -enabled products tobe monitored from anywhere in theworld.

S28

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Pathfire's Digital MediaGateway (DMG) platform is con-necting networks, studios and othercontent providers to broadcastersthroughout the country such thatnews and syndicated content canbe received and integrated into thestation workflow in an efficient andstandardized manner.

Pathfire's Digital MediaGateway network is growing dailywith servers now installed at morethan 75% of broadcast stationsacross the country. By mid -2003most stations will have DMGservers installed and will be able toaccess a variety of content from agrowing number of contentproviders - all througha single platform.

Expanding DigitalEfficiency throughoutthe Station

Pathfire has beenworking closely withnumerous stations toensure the DigitalMedia Gateway(DMG) system fits intoa variety of station'sworkflow schemes. Inresponse to stationinput, Pathfire hasdeveloped severalperipherals and inter-faces for the DMG tointegrate into a variety ofstation environments.

For example, with the additionof the optional DMG 640 NewsConnect Module, broadcasters cannow select a single clip or a medialist and add it to the play -to -airserver or the newsroom editingsystem with a digital file transferdirectly from their DMG desktopclient interface.

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"The typical IT department works with hardware that is a blankslate... But broadcasters typically purchase hardware that hassoftware very tightly integrated into the gear."

"When a problem exists an alertis sent through the network, ineffect acting as an engineer's eyesand ears," he says.

Tim Slate, Omneon vice presi-dent of marketing, says thatOmneon has already incorporatedstandard IP networking technologyusing both it and SMB (ServerMessage Block, a protocol for shar-ing files between computers) into itsserver products.

"Broadcast engineers shouldapproach networking technologyjust as they approach any othertechnology," he says. "Take the timeand effort to learn how it works andcombine that knowl-edge with what theyalready know aboutreal -world broad-cast."

Slate says thatonce both are under-stood, it will becomeapparent whatworks, what doesn't,and when you needto be careful.

"The technologyshould be embracedbecause it does workwhen applied prop-erly, and it can improve efficiency ofyour facility," he says.

One example is Pinnacle's VortexNetworked News -which will soonbe used by CNN. It's almost 90% IT -based, according to Kovalick.

"We chose to get the SDI signalonto Ethernet as soon as possible,"he says. "Almost every operation an

Products from companies likeOmnibus rely heavily on PCtechnology.

Mark Hilton, Thomson Broadcast

editor needs can be done in realtimeor non-realtime over a well con-trolled Ethernet network."

The use of Ethernet networkinghas accelerated the move from tape -based operations to the use of videoservers that handle content as com-puter files. Computer -based nonlin-ear editing systems, newsroom sys-tems, and automation systems onlyadd to the trend toward IT, andaway from traditional broadcast.

"Broadcasters have or are becom-ing IT -savvy because they must,"says James Frantzreb, senior productmarketing manager, AvidTechnology broadcast and work -

groups. "While we'veseen some instancesof friction, we haveseen more examplesof cooperation. Theinevitable dynamics ofknowledge, genera-tion, personality andpolitics are always atwork, but it is defi-nitely true that the ITside is ascendant."

The challenge ofintegrating IT andbroadcast is more dif-ficult than handling

any potential personality clashes.Tim Slate, Omneon vice president ofmarketing, says the biggest differ-ence is the way the two industriesdefine reliability and performance.

"In most IT environments a serv-ice outage of an hour is a hugeannoyance but, in most cases, notcatastrophic," he says. "An outage of

just a minute in a broadcast environ-ment could mean a loss of revenuein the hundreds of thousands ofdollars."

Mark Hilton, product marketingmanager, Thomson Broadcast &Media Solutions, SignalManagement Solutions, agrees,adding that traditional TV engineersare more concerned with uptimeand reliability than IT engineers.

"While it's a nuisance to rebootan e-mail server, it typically does notdirectly impact the company's rev-enue stream," he says.

Slate says that the concept ofdelivering video as data is still a bitof a foreign concept to the IT world,especially when considering a sys-tem like a newsroom operation thatwould have simultaneous streams ofvideo routed to and from the storagesystems and application platforms.

Stan Moote, senior vice presidentof Leitch, says that there is no ques-tion that both IT and broadcast willbe involved in broadcasting plants.The trick, however, is to allow fortwo sets of IT groups: one that dealswith on -air operations and a moretraditional IT department that workswith email or billing systems.

"There's one IT culture that justkeeps things going and another thatruns things at the three or four 9's[of reliability, within reach of 100%reliability]," he adds."The key differ-ence between these two cultures isthe amount of dollars that get lostwhen the IT infrastructure fails."

Al Kovalick, Pinnacle SystemsCTO, Broadcast Solutions, agrees,

S30

OMNIBUS SYSTEMS provides broadcastersworldwide with comprehensive automation and assetmanagement solutions that address every area of atelevision facility and deliver wide-ranging customerbenefits and cost -savings across the full spectrum ofoperational processes.

More than 100 major broadcasters around the globenow deploy substantial and individually tailoredOmniBus configurations. These both enhanceautomation - from acquisition and recording throughlow- and high -resolution editing, media asset

management and playout to final archiving - andfacilitate the development of new business initiatives.

With group headquarters in Windsor, UK, and furtheroffices in Germany, Asia and on the East and Westcoasts of the USA, the company now employsapproximately 150 people worldwide.

The holder of the Queen's Award for Enterprise(Innovation) - the most prestigious prize available toUK -based industry - OmniBus controls hundreds ofproducts from scores of different manufacturersaround the world and has formed close technologicalpartnerships with many industry leaders.

"We believe that television is not simply a numbersgame," says Dave Polyard, OmniBus' Vice PresidentSales and Marketing, North America. "It's a creativemedium full of talented people whose skills andideas should be enhanced, rather than hindered,solutions.

by software

"We ensure that automation never stifles imagination or ambition.But we also realize that cost savings and efficiencies are similarlyvery important so we aim to provide the kind of technology thatkeeps the accountants smiling, too.

"By combining innovative thinking with leading -edge IT technologyand proven broadcast techniques and equipment, OmniBus"best-orbreed' solutions offer significant tangible benefits in terms of valuefor money and flexibility of working."

The OmniBus philosophy has always been to give people the right toolsto improve the way they do their jobs rather than replacing those jobswith technology, adds Polyard.

OMNIBUS SYSTEMS LIMITED

To this end. OmniBus offers sophisticated and scalablebroadcast solutions to every aspect of station production,

post -production and transmission.

Key applications include:

Transmission: OmniBus has been providing play -to -airsolutions since 1995. From single -channel playout with

regional commercial splits to true multi -channel andfrom conventional tape -based playout operations usingstand-alone cart machines to a mixture of tape and diskor exclusively disk -based, these are all areas whereOmniBus has proven expertise.

OmniBus interfaces to virtually every broadcast VTR,most cart machines and the vast majority of broadcastvideo servers and can mix and match interfaces andapplications for perfect playout solutions.

Newsrooms: Control of the news process is a keyapplication area in more than 75 percent of OmniBusinstallations around the world.

OmniBus assists and automates the ingest of all media,provides browse and on-line full -resolution editingfunctionality as well as sophisticated access to archivemedia via the Internet for remote users as well as bothmanual -assist and fully -automated playout.

Asset & Workflow Management: OmniBus believesin maximizing existing resources. Unlike many complexapproaches, OmniBus alone is focused on delivering the

correct data and the data analysis tools in the right place at the righttime. Operational efficiency is driven by the OmniBus architecture toautomate simply the movement of media and tasks between users andoffer a scalable, active solution. OmniBus asset management delivers

appropriate tools to each user at the desktop, as opposed to a fullyfeatured and unmanageable toolkit to all users.

Infrastructure: A fundamental area of the OmniBus offering, thecompany has a strong track record of major installations worldwideand is scoped for sign ficant development over the coming year.OmniBus' integrated infrastructere is widely regarded as a leadingsolution by other vendors and has attracted project partnerships withindustry leaders.

For more information visit www.omiibus.tv

Norwegian national broadcasterNRK has installed 12 OmniBussystems all configured asseparate domains butinterlinked via the Internet 1.,

through GAMMA (Global Asset& Media ManagementApplications). This integrationallows the news regions acrossthe country to exchange videoclips, graphics and databetween the sites. OmniBus alsoprovides a fully automated newsplayout operation at eachfacility.

Time Warner Cable selectedOmniBus to supply station -wide news automation, asse-and media management ancworkflow management systemsfor use in a number of its 24hour local news channelsacross the US. Its flagshipstation - NY1 in New York -uses OmniBus to fullyautomate its continuous newsoutput integrating third -part,graphics automation andnewsroom systems.

%.0

Offering 13 full-time,commercial -free entertainmentchannels to more gyp 67million subscribersqpross threetime zones in the UnitedStates, the Starz EncoreGroup implemented OrrniBus'Colossus multi -channel contentdelivery system to manage thedelivery of 36 fully -mirroredchannels of pay -per -view

movies. OmniBus is alsomanaging media acquisitionand providing global mediaand asset management.

13 U

Interstar, a commercialchannel in Istanbul, hasimplemented Om-illius tocontrol media incest, prov deonipapediting fo theOnaration of sports -primarily soccer --iighlightpackages and to rovide s.channels of automatedplayout ising Coombus.Playout s from a combine:ionof tradit onal tare -base catmachines, stand-alone VTIsand video servers for thedelivery of interstitial material.

OMN GUS SYSTEMS LIMITED

OmniBus worked with ERTU,the Middle Eas:'s largestbroadcaster, to build the mostadvanced newsroom in theregion. ERTU transmits newsand entertainment in Arabic,English and French via 20channels to a btal viewingaudience of around 60 millionpeople in Egyp-. and aroundthe world. The 3mniBussystem forms the operationalhub of a fully -redundant serverinfrastructure at the Cairofacility and integrates with theENPS newsroon system.

014

Competitive Television TECH NVIOGG14 Summit


adding, "Younger CE's understandIT and appreciate what each tech-nology is best suited for. We suggestthat the business IT network at afacility and the broadcast produc-tion IT network be completely iso-lated to preserve each others bestfeatures. Its all about education."

The difficult part for broadcastmanagement is being able to affordthe higher -end IT types within abroadcast plant.

"Broadcasters and broadcast -equipment manufacturers all talkabout SuperBowl or primetime adrevenue and the reliabilityrequired," he says."The same is truefor many IT infrastructures."

What is also true is that IT infra-structures, properly implemented,can result in competitive advan-tages for a broadcaster. A digitalnewsroom means a story can get onthe air much more quickly and alsobe repurposed more easily.

Hilton says that virtually all ofThomson's new Grass Valley -brandproducts support some sort of ITinterface or use IT networks as theirprimary means of distributed oper-ation.

"Encore, our latest -generationcontrol system, is completely basedon a distributed IT network withapplications and hardware compo-nents are dispersed overLAN/WAN infrastructures," he says.

"With the right digital infrastruc-ture in place, the cost and opera-tional advantages are very com-pelling - even dramatic," saysFrantzreb. "Without the linear

process dependency of linear videoworkflow, work now happens inparallel."

The other advantage is that theIT culture is one of continual tech-nological progress. "There areadvantages to workflow innovation(better cost -efficiencies, newer andfaster operations) of IT -based prod-ucts," says Sony vice president oftechnology and products HugoGaggioni. "But still there must bespecific R&D, and engineeringinvestments to manufacture IT -based equipment that fully satisfiesthe broadcast requirements."

On the flip side IT -based prod-ucts often seem to be introduced ona whim, with upgrades occuring asfrequently as the latest boy band_ Inand of itself this represents a bigchange from broadcast. AndyNewham, OmniBus Systems trans-mission product manager, adds thatthe traditional TV broadcast envi-ronment usually has a doctrine offrozen format standards. Omnibuswill begin moving its products in

Omneons Media server systemexpands IT's role in engineering.

the IT mainstream this NAB when itintroduces a new range of news andtransmission products based on the.NET architecture.

"The benefits to the broadcasterincludes a more cost effective oper-ation with greater flexibility andscalability of content and distribu-tion, while providing a solid level ofredundancy that can protect againstfallibility of users and technology,"says Newham.

One difficulty all broadcastershave begun to mention is theincreased costs associated with theconstant development of functionsand features. Broadcasters findthemselves buying software licens-es and then needing to invest inyearly upgrades and service plans."

Manufacturers can no longerobtain an adequate return buildingcustom hardware-not when itcompeting against manufacturerswho are getting close to the sameresults with standard platforms likePCs and Windows -based applica-tions," says Matt Danilowicz ofParkerVision.

"Whether IT infrastructure ischeaper than broadcast comes backto the four 9s of reliability," saysMoote."Both broadcast and IT seg-ments are enjoying improvementsin the speed of technology and thereliability of products. And pricesare dropping. But that said, broad-casters are beginning to realize thatsoftware is a key component andnot as cheap as originally thought."

Regardless of which is cheaper orbetter, IT is here to stay.

S32

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No matterthe application

technology musthelp the bottom line

In the End, ROIMatters Most

THE ARTICLE concerning theconversion to digital laid outthe challenges of the balance

between technical innovation andfiscal responsibility. In reality, thosechallenges are actually part of thetechnologies and techniques foundon every page of this supplement.So how can the case for investing intechnology be made when budgetsare short?

"Technology can be used to pro-vide productivity enhancements andcost reductions, improving the bot-tom line," says Stan Moote, Leitchsenior vice president. "Technology isimproving the quality and reliabilityof industry -standard components,enabling these to be incorporatedinto broadcast equipment and opera-tions, reducing the cost of owner-ship."

Larry Kaplan, Omneon presidentand CEO, says the adaption ofmainstream information and net-working technologies in videoapplications is making it possible tobuild a shared infrastructure capa-ble of supporting multiple programservices at the same time. This sortof applications quickens the pace ofcapital return.

"It enables more efficient use ofcapital equipment, simpler opera-tions and lower operating expens-es," he says. "New applications andservices can be added much morequickly and less expensively to anexisting infrastructure."

It also allows for easier repurpos-ing and distribution. And eventhough the use of streaming videocan currently be desribed as littlemore than a trickle, that doesn'tmean that it won't emerge as aviable content delivery platform forbroadcasters within five to 10 years.

"Technology isbecoming more

affordable and lessof a risk... both

elements play a keyrole in the ROI

calculation process."

"Content distribution will rangefrom subscription -based streamingservices to SDTV and HDTV," addsKaplan.

The biggest impact driving ROImay actually have less to do withrevenues going up than with equip-ment costs coming down.

"Technology is becoming moreaffordable and less of a risk," saysJon Hammarstrom, Encoda'sAutomation Products Group vicepresident, worldwide sales andmarketing. "Both elements play akey role in the ROI calculationprocess."

Both Hammarstrom and GeoffHillier, Harmonic's ConvergentSystems Division director of prod-uct marketing, mention IT -basedsystems as a key to those fallingprices. Hillier says the cost of thehardware will be reduced in roughproportion to the number of users,and there are far more TT users thanbroadcast users. That means costswill drop quickly and significant-ly,-all the more reason for IT -basedsystems to continue to find a placein the broadcast plant.

"Using an infrastructure thattakes advantage of traditional ITproducts will allow the hardwarecost to decrease faster," he says."One example of this is using CAT5cable rather than Coax in the phys-ical infrastructure."

And finally there is the least obvi-ous ROI: return based around work-flow and efficiencies. Parkervision'sMatt Danilowicz says technologieslike those offered by his companywill deliver a comparable and-withappropriate time and training, amore flexible and even higher -qual-ity newscast.

"Stations are increasingly under-standing the importance of re -allo-cating staff savings to more localcoverage and more journalism toproduce a better product," he says.

The best ROI of all: happier andmore loyal viewers. Because, in theend, it's the audience that counts.

S34

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PATHFIREEnabling Digital Mete

Eliminatingthat nasty ghostBY DON MARKLEY

lie problem of ghosts in thepicture resulting from im-pedance mismatches has

been discussed in this column in thepast. However, there still seems to besome misunderstanding concerningthe cause of such ghosts. In addition,the transition to DTV has brought upsome new problem areas.

Kerry Cozad of Dielectric and BobPlonka of Harris have both presentedpapers discussing the problems ofVSWR in the digital antenna system atJEFE Broadcast Symposiums. Copies ofthese papers can be obtained from IEEE.

In all television antenna systems, theproblem of VSWR can be considered tobe caused by at least three separate ar-eas. First, and probably most significant,would be any mismatch between thetransmission line system and the an-tenna at the input to the antenna. A sig-nal reflected from that point will traveldown to the transmitting equipment, bereflected in part and travel back to theantenna. This twice -reflected signal isthen radiated as a signal delayed in timefrom the original. The radiated reflectedsignals appear in the receiver as ghostsof the original signal.

It is widely accepted that a VSWR at

1 =

Sta in connectedMore households are acquiring multiple cell phones

the input to the antenna of 1.05 or less,representing a reflection of no morethan 0.03, will result in acceptable per-formance regarding ghosts.

The next problem would be the elbowcomplex connecting the transmissionline to the base of the antenna. In somecases, as where the antenna is stacked oris a member of a group of antennas, theremay be more than one set of elbows in-volved, along with another complex at thebottom of the tower. A significant mis-

tory in a more controlled environment.The third and final contributor to the

system is the transmission line itself.Normally, that is not a problem if all con-nections are made properly and if theline hasn't been damaged during ship-ping or installation.

The mismatch problem at the antennais resolved in two distinct ways. First, theantenna should be tuned at the factoryfor a VSWR at visual carrier of 1.05 orless. The visual carrier frequency is the

There is no ghost in the DTV picture.

match in the elbow complex just underthe antenna can cause a ghost just as sig-nificant as one caused by the antennamismatch. Elbow complex mismatchesat the tower base would not be expectedto result in ghosting but will have an im-pact on the load seen by the transmitter.

The antenna and the elbow problemsboth have relatively simple solutions. Theelbow complex(s) should be assembledat the factory and tuned for proper op-eration on the channel(s) involved. Thisoften involves the installation of tuningslugs. Changing slugs in the field is usu-ally not advisable. For a large complex, itis better to have the work done at the fac-

U.S. households with cell phones

2001 2002 Change

Homes with one cell phone 30.6% 32.0% +4.0%

Homes with two cell phones 17.8% 24.2% +36.0%

Homes with three cell phones 5.1% 9.E% +95.0%

SOURCE: Mediamark Research wvvw.mediamark.corn

most important, as there is the greatestpower level at and immediately adjacentto that frequency. Then, after installa-tion, variable fine matching slugs at theantenna can be adjusted when the an-tenna checkout is completed. This ad-vice applies to analog systems. We willget to digital systems in a bit.

Modern network analyzers allow theVSWR at the antenna itself to be deter-mined. The transmission line can begated out of the measurement, allowingthe antenna to be seen by itself withoutthe effects of other VSWR contributors.Second, analyzers make use of a fast Fou-rier Transform to convert the frequencydomain representation to a time domainresponse. The measurement is takenover an adjustable width of frequencies.For evaluating the antenna, a narrowband of frequencies (either 6MHz or12MHz) is used. For the transmissionline system, bandwidths of 100- to400MHz are used for coaxial cable. Thewider bandwidths are much more ac-curate in pinpointing the exact locationof a discontinuity but are useless whenlooking at the bandwidth -limited matchto the antenna. The narrow bandwidthtests accurately represent the antennabut show other discontinuities as broad

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peaks in the response, making it diffi-cult to exactly locate the problem.

So, here is the normal drill. The initialmeasurement usually consists of lookingat the VSWR at the input to the transmis-sion line. The next measurement is nor-mally a narrowband look at the system,hopefully showing a nice flat transmissionline with only a mismatch at the antenna.

The antenna tuners are then adjusted tooptimize that match.. Then, widebandmeasurements are made to confirm thatthe transmission line system has no prob-lems with bad connections, dents, etc. Ifthat first narrowband measurement showsa problem in the transmission line, thatproblem should be addressed before at-tempting to optimize the antenna match,

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since a bad spot in the line will affect anysignal passing that point. In the case of thetype of measurements being discussedhere, that signal must pass the bad spottwice before a measurement can be made- causing significant errors. The final mea-surement is the VSWR at the input to thetransmission line.

Up to now, the entire discussion has been

about analog systems. In digital systems,there is no major energy contributor as inthe analog visual or aural carriers. Rather,the energy is mostly spread across the en-tire channel within the limits specified bythe mask filter. Also, there is no ghost inthe DTV picture. As is well known, the sig-

nal is either there and perfect or it is gone.

However, the reflections from the antenna

are still terribly significant. VSWR prob-lems contribute to the bit error rate. Whenthe bit error rate exceeds the threshold,good-bye picture. Therefore, it still is nec-essary to reduce the VSWR and associatedreflections to the greatest extent practical.Furthermore, the presence of VSWR inthe system will impact the correction pro-cess in the transmitter itself, something un-

known in analog systems.The result is the need for some new

standards of evaluation. The wholechannel must be carefully treated. Whileit may be possible to have the VSWR ex-ceed 1.1 or so at some point in the chan-nel, the average value of the VSWRshould be held to some reasonable value.In the meantime, lacking any other stan-dard, the only reasonable approach is tocontinue adjusting and tuning for thebest possible overall response. BE

Don Markley is president of D.L. Markleyand Associates, Peoria, IL.


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The audio production conat WNET, New York

By John Storyk

If there is one trend that the pro-fessional audio industry recog-nizes, it is the arrival of fully in-

tegrated digital -based broadcast andproduction facilities. Broadcast -indus-try control rooms (i.e., those used inradio, television, audio post produc-tion, etc.) are, of course, no exception.Much conversation continues overworkstation wars, format battles, etc.But, almost everyone agrees on the ba-sic premise that broadcasters need tolisten to audio in acoustically accurateenvironments. In fact, the standards forsuch environments have been betterdefined during recent years and ad-dress newer issues such as surroundsound. In this article, we visit the crite-ria used to design such environments.

Acoustical criteriaWe can think of any critical listening

environment in terms of two primary cat-egories of acoustical requirements: sound -

transfer acoustics and internal room

acoustics. Of course, finished design solu-tions often integrate both of these catego-ries, but let's look at them separately to un-derstand them more thoroughly.

Sound -transfer acousticsProduction environments need to be

quiet. But they often generate quite a bitof noise themselves and disturb sur-rounding spaces (including adjacentsuites). Sound -transfer acoustic designdeals with these issues. The goal is to cre-ate quiet spaces with typical noise -cri-teria (NC) values of 15 to 25. A noise -criteria value is a single number that ac-tually represents an algorithm of eightvalues of octave -band quietness mea-surements, weighted to reflect humanhearing more accurately. The lower theNC value, the quieter the room. Roomswith open microphones typically re-quire an NC value of 15. An NC valuebetween 20 and 25 is acceptable in post -

production environments. Knowing therequirement is one thing; achieving it is

quite another. Typically, acoustical en-gineers and architects design the bound-aries of the room "container" (the floor,walls and ceiling) to deliver the requiredNC value. Naturally, the room's quiet-ness most often is a function of the sur-rounding environments and good de-sign of the HVAC system. A quiet spaceis easier to accomplish in a quiet envi-ronment (i.e., one with quiet neigh-bors). For example, in preliminary de-sign, it would be unwise to place an iso/vocal booth (which requires NC15) nextto a large mechanical room. Most stu-dios with microphone rooms have simi-lar sound -isolation concerns because themost bothersome noise is often gener-ated from the control room itself.

Mainstream acoustic -isolation designin the United States typically uses the"room within a room" design method,

employing decoupledfloors, walls and ceilings.

This method takes intoaccount two importantprinciples: mass and

decoupling. Mass refers to density of theroom's boundary surfaces (floor, wallsand ceiling). Decoupling refers to the pro-cess of isolating the boundary surfacesfrom the surrounding structure.

Decoupling walls is simple to under-stand and relatively easy to achieve. It in-volves using separate stud systems andmultiple layers of gypsum board (some-times sandwiched with stiff materials,such as vinyl or soundboard) separatedby a small air space, and then repeatingthe process. But decoupling the floor andceiling is more complex since, of course,they cannot really "float." The best iso-lated floor is one that has separate con-crete slabs. This is usually possible in newconstruction and in slab -on -grade con-struction. When this is not possible, it isbest to use built-up decoupled flooringsystems with the inner partition built ontop of this flooring. Isolated (decoupled)ceilings come in two primary flavors: lidor suspended construction. A lid systemwill usually provide better results sincethe lid simply is not touching the otherelements of the room. But lid systems arelimited by the width and depth of theroom as well as height (since spanning

74 broadcastengineering.ccm FEBRUARY 2003

structural members become very deep asthe width and length increase). Often, theability to get long ceiling joists onto thesite will determine whether you can usethe lid isolation system. If you're design-ing larger rooms or rooms with more

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Figure 1. This drawing shows varia-tions in floor, wall and ceiling sys-tems for typical isolation sytems, in-cluding the difference between ceil-ing hanger and lid systems.

complex ceiling profiles, you need to in-stall a system of isolated hangers. Withthis system you must pay careful atten-tion to the selection and exact spacing ofthese hangers so that the loading is evenlyand correctly distributed throughout thesystem. You can achieve the requiredboundary -surface mass by using multiplelayers of gypsum board for the walls andmultiple layers of plywood and gypsumboard for the floor (see Figure 1).

Two remaining sound -transfer issueswe must consider are room penetra-tions (doors, windows, conduits, etc.)and HVAC layout. It is ironic that wespend so much time and money oncomplex, stiff, thick, expensive bound-ary systems only to make a great num-ber of holes in them. How we organizeand detail these penetrations usuallydetermines whether we achieve a suc-cessful acoustic -isolation system.Sound behaves very much like water inthat it can leak through the smallest ofopenings. Multiple wall systems entailmultiple window frames and glasspanes that need to be isolated to avoidresonance and sound leakage. Construct-ing isolated doors requires the same at-tention to detail. The quietness of a roomis often limited by the quietness of its

HVAC system. For ex-ample, designing a roomto have an NC value of 20(which is quite quiet)would require designingan HVAC system with anNC value of 20 or lower.There are several impor-tant components andtechniques you can use tominimize HVAC soundtransfer:

1. Use large ducts tocreate lower -than -nor-mal airflow speeds;

2. Use lined ducts toreduce machine noisetraveling down theducts;

3. Mount heavy equip-ment with springs and/or mass dampeningpads; or

4. Minimize room pen-etrations as they passthrough the soundboundary container.

For example, Figure 2shows the complex ductwork requiredfor the audio production control roomat WNET in New York

Remember, site selection is critical.And keep in mind that political solu-tions for quietness control are often thebest ones. A quiet space is easiest to ac-complish when you locate it next toquiet neighbors. Designing a small vo-cal iso booth to beNC15 at 63Hz maynot be the best wayto spend yourmoney, since youprobably won't berecording any in-formation at thatfrequency in such aroom. Also, try toavoid lightweightstructures. Slab -on -grade sites areusually superior.

Figure 2.This figure shows the complex ductworkrequired for the audit° production control roomat WNET in NewYork.

space. Small -room acoustics in stiffboundaries (these are the spaces we aretypically dealing with) concerns severaldifferent criteria and issues. We can con-trol internal room acoustic behavior bycontrolling room size and shape as wellas surface treatments. Think of a smallroom as two separate rooms that be-have differently at higher and lower

Near field

speakerDined sounc. Pathlength =

Near field Weaker mounted directly on tgp of console

Figure 3a. This drawing shows :he path of the directsound and the path of the raflect-A sound as it bouncesoff a large production console.

Internal room acousticsInternal room acoustics is the study of

how sound is propagated in an enclosed

frequencies. At mid and high frequen-cies (above 200Hz), we can treat sounda bit like rays of light, which travel instraight lines. At these frequencies, a


Near field

speaker Console

reflectionsDirect sow,

Near field speaker moved back approximately 8" - 12'

Figure 3b. By simply re -positioning the near -fieldspeaker, the reflection goes away, eliminating theinterference and its disturbing frequency response.

Top: Speaker - on console top notice poor frequency responseBottom: Speaker - 8" behind console improved frequency response

Figure 3c. These graphs show the frequency re-sponse at the operator's listening position for eachplacement of the speaker.

The following equation is used to calculate the frequencyof the first null (where the first cancellation appears)

f = frequencyt = delay in secondsd = distance differencec = speed of sound

For a small console with nearfield monitors mounted on the console bithe distance difference (d) is in the order of 6" or 1/2'

thus' -0 / 2 ( 5)) = 1130 / 1 = 1130hz

leasured first frequency dip in previous slide.

Figure 3d. This figure shows how to calculate thefrequency of the first null created by the comb -filter effect.

room's reflection patterns can affectsound perception at a critical listeningposition. For example, Figure 3a showstwo paths taken by sound emanatingfrom a near -field speaker mounted ona production console. One is a directpath to the console operator; the otheris an indirect path reflected off the con-sole. The reflected sound arrives at theoperator's listening position just a fewmilliseconds later than the direct sound,and at a dB level not that much lowerthan the direct sound. The two sounds

interfere with one an-other, and the result is adisturbing frequency re-sponse for the operator.Figure 3b shows that, bysimply re -positioning thenear -field speaker, the re-flection goes away, elimi-nating the interferenceand its disturbing fre-quency response. Figure3c shows the frequencyresponse at theoperator's listening posi-tion for each placementof the speaker. Noticethat when the speaker isplaced on top of the con-sole, the frequency re-sponse at the operator'sposition (shown in thetop graph of Figure 3c)is similar to that createdby a comb filter. Figure3d shows how to calcu-late the frequency of thefirst null created by thiscomb -filter effect.At lower frequencies,

however, sound is less di-rectional and thus reflec-tion control becomes lessrelevant. At these fre-quencies, the ratio of rawroom dimensions andthe position of speakersand listener are more sig-nificant. The overall di-mensions of the roomwill effect the natural dis-tribution of eigentones(standing waves). Since

the rooms that we are dealing with typi-cally have stiff boundaries because oftheir sound -isolation requirements,there is little chance for the low frequen-cies to be absorbed. The surface treat-ments that we most commonly associ-ate with audio rooms (i.e., acoustic foam,acoustic panels, etc.) are relatively thin.They can convert mid- and high -fre-quency sounds to heat, but they havelittle effect on lower frequencies, whichsimply arrive at the stiff boundaries andreflect back into the room.

A common misconception is thatstanding waves are bad. Standing wavesalways exist in a closed environment.What we strive to do is to space thesefrequencies as evenly as possible. Thinkof standing waves as an indication of aroom's ability to resonate - to "ring out"or reinforce tones naturally. You canimagine that if the proportions of aroom are chosen correctly, then therewill be a more natural spacing of thetones and the room will tend to rein-force lower -frequency tones moreevenly. This is a good thing. The oppo-site, of course, would be harmful andtend to cause uneven frequency re-sponse at a critical listening position -not a good thing for audio playback.

So, the first step in room acoustic de-sign (after making sure that all equip-ment and furniture fits) is program sat-isfaction. Try to choose a room shapethat will space (organize) the low -fre-quency eigentones as evenly as possible.

By the numbersA story about room design and

standing waves comes to mind. I re-ceived a phone call one day from astudent with what he thought was asimple question. He said, "I have a20 -foot by 20 -foot room that I wantto use as a control room for my newstudio. What should I do to make itsound good?" That's a big question.Half of me wanted to explain thatthis was not really a one -sentence (orone -concept) answer, but my otherhalf accepted the challenge of tryingto give him a simple answer. After aminute of thinking, I answered,

jai

width 20length 20'height 9

Unevenly disinbutedroom modts

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Figure 4a. This drawing shows a 20 -foot by 20 -foot room plan and itsmodal distribution.

76 broadcastengineering.corn FEBRUARY 2003

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Figure 4b.This drawing shows a 16.5 -foot by 20 -foot room plan and itsmodal distribution. Note that as fre-quency rises, modal packing becomesso dense that eigentone analysis isno longer important. At that point weare more concerned with "ray acous-tics:' i.e., reflection control.

"Build a closet." He probablythought I was joking, but I still be-lieve this was a realistic answer. Thesquare room (20 feet by 20 feet) isalmost the worst possible shape youcan have. The only thing worsewould be a 20 -foot cube. Width and

length of identicaldimensions will,of course, causemany of the lower -f r e q u e n c yeigentones to beidentical, resultingin harsh frequencyanomalies - a

pileup of energy -as well as voids atother frequencies(see Figure 4a).These frequenciesare not that hardto calculate (f =565/ room dimen-sion). Multiplyingthis value by 2, 3,

By building a

closet in the room,he could, for ex-ample, create a lis-tening room thatwas 20 feet wideand (more or less)15.5 feet deep - amuch better roomratio (see Figure4b). He also wouldend up with a

closet for storage,and possibly a

good location fornoisy equipmentand other devices.Notice that I sug-

4, etc. gives you gested that 20 feet should be the width

Figure 5. This "pictogram"of ac-ceptable room ratios was firstpublished by Newman, Bolt,Beranek in 1957.

the frequencies for that particu_ardimension. Doing the same for thetwo other primary dimensions andthen listing the frequencies will eas-ily give you this distribution.

of his room. This is because by havingthe side walls further away from thelistening position, you improve mid -and high -frequency reflection control.You can easily analyze room ratios by

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Ayear ago, centralizedbroadcasting practicallymonopolized trade pub-

lications, industry gatherings, and theboardrooms of station groups, networksand equipment manufacturers alike.Centralized broadcasting is simple inconcept: a single location controls mul-tiple stations over a given geographicregion. The degree of control at the mainfacility can vary depending on the ob-jectives of the network or station group.

Now, 12 months later, the subject ofcentralized broadcasting has some-what lost the spotlight, but consolida-tion projects continue as stationgroups and networks work to stream-line operations and save costs whileworking on models to offer new andmore diverse services.

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Degrees of centralizationThere are a number of models for

centralized broadcasting, but they allhave the same basic objectives: takeadvantage of economies of scale andincrease productivity through col-laboration. Rather than having everystation in a broadcast group dupli-cate all functions at the local level, thegroup can consolidate certain keyfunctions: such as graphics, traffic,sales and archive management. Like-wise, rather than investing in highlypriced digital equipment at each indi-vidual site, a central facility can, in manycases, house the core infrastructure.

Thus, remote stations can functionwith a smaller equipment investmentand with a smaller operational staff.In certain cases, this may help withthe transition to digital because it canfree some stations from having tomake the capital investment in newequipment. The number of functionsand amount of equipment a particu-lar broadcast group centralizes de-pends on the structure and objectivesof the group.

There are many different scenarios forconsolidating operations. The two mod-els that represent polar opposites on thecontinuum are the centrali7Pd-playout

Above photo: Signal distribution and monitoring equipment plays an im-portant role at Maison Radio Canada, the origination facility for the cen-tralized broadcasting of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's French-language services across Canada. Photo courtesy Miranda.


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model and the distributed-playoutmodel. In the centralized-playout model,the central facility carries out as manyfunctions as possible. In the distributed-playout model, most functions remain atthe local level, with only some manage-ment and control activities transferred tothe central facility.

Centralized-playout modelIn the centralized-playout model, a

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The disadvantages of this model lie inthe cost of distributing the ready -for -airstreams to each of the individual stationsfrom the central location, as well as withthe risk involved in relying on thesecommunication links. The key new sys-tem element is remote monitoring toallow the central facility to monitor notonly what it is sending, but also whateach of the remote cities is actually air-ing. Such centralized operations use re-mote signal telemetry and streamingvideo over standard IP networks exten-sively to provide remote monitoring.

Centralization at the CBCCanadian broadcasters have chosen

the centralized-playout model for prac-tically all of their consolidation projectsin the past two years. Originally em-ployed by regional networks that op-erated four to six stations in a single

provincial region, the model has nowbeen deployed on a national level aswell. The Canadian Broadcasting Cor-poration (CBC) has recently completedan important consolidation project,centralizing all of its English -languagenetwork operations in Toronto. TheFrench -language network RadioCanada will soon do the same, consoli-dating its operations in Montreal. Thetwo centers are linked and, in the eventof a catastrophic failure at either cen-ter, will be able to act as backup with areduced number of feeds.

The CBC has deployed a fully central-ized model and uplink, mainly usingsatellites. It is a multiplex of 15 ready-

for -air streams to regional centers lo-cated throughout the country. The sys-tem streams local programming, newsand special events from each regionalcenter to Toronto through a combina-tion of telco lines and satellite returnpaths (see Figure 2). A network com-mand center (NCC) was constructedin Toronto to integrate and monitor the19 English -language services. One of themost important reasons the station de-cided to loop local programmingthrough Toronto and distribute a ready-

for -air signal by satellite was so it couldeventually feed isolated transmittersserving remote communities by satel-lite, thereby reducing operating cost. Theprincipal enabling technology for thissystem was the compression and multi-plexing technology to uplink 15 streamson a single multiplex.

Distributed-playout modelThe centralized playout model de-

scribed above has all but fallen out offavor in the United States in the pastyear. U.S.-based groups who studied themodel were not able to balance the costsavings of consolidating master -controloperations against the high cost of op-erating the real-time video links re-quired to stream ready -for -air streamsto each remote station. In some cases,especially in smaller cities where reduc-tion of local infrastructure makes mostsense, there may not have been sufficienttelco access. In addition to lack of suffi-cient cost savings, U.S. group owners

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Traffic automation Nodata preparation anddata entry

Commercials

Can be centralized if common automation and trafficsystems used at all facilities

No Commercials ingested centrally and pushed to local fileservers. Traffic and automation -related metadata iscreated centrally

Graphics and proiro Nocreation

Centrally created and pushed to local servers

Syndicated programs No

Local newscast Yes

Centrally downlinked, QA's and ingestedcommercial insertion points indentified, automation andtraffic system related meta data created centrally

Produced and inserted locally

Table 1. Non -live content can often be created or ingestedat a central location and then transferred to local sta-tions, while live content is often produced locally.

the final signal to air.U.S. group owners have instead opted

in increasing numbers for the distrib-uted playout model, which falls towardthe opposite end of the spectrum of con-solidation models. In the distributed-playout model, most of the equipmentand the primary station functions re-main at the local station level (see Fig-ure 3). Some content creation, ingestand preparation, traffic, and automationcan be centrali7Pd, but the local stationgenerates the final, ready -for -air signal.While the central station can push somematerial to the local stations using filetransfers, playout to air occurs from thelocal station server. Master control andthe responsibility for ensuring continu-ity in the programming - particularlyduring sporting events and other liveevents where break points cannot bepredicted - is left in the hands of a localmaster -control operator.

Among the benefits of the more dis-tributed approach is a reduced relianceon distribution links. High -capacitylinks are still required; but these linksare now carrying files transferred innon -real time, rather than real-timestreaming video. The performance char-acteristics on network links are less de-manding, the availability of networkproviders and methods are wider andthe costs lower. Losing the link for amoment does not take the signal off theair. Instead, the temporary loss of con-nection may require a resend of a file orsmall portion of a file. There are nowmodern protocol extensions designedspecifically for this purpose that allowthe resend to happen automatically andtransparently to the users. Another ad-vantage of the distributed-playoutmodel comes from the fact that the lo-cal stations remain whole and somewhat

autonomous. In addition to being safer,it is beneficial within the context ofchanging ownership rules and the lift-ing of restrictions on duopolies. A sta-tion that is still whole and autonomouscan be sold or traded more easily.

Among the disadvantages of this modelis an increase in the complexity of theautomation and content managementand distribution, because server andother on -air elements are distributed.

Where's the beef?While studying the costs of their con-

solidation options, group owners ana-lyzed workflows and operations in allof their facilities. In analyzing theworkflows at the individual stations,they reali71 d that there were more sig-nificant costs in non -live but daily taskssuch as production, graphics creation,traffic management, ingest and QA,than in master control. Moreover, theyfound that if they looked at all of thegroup facilities, there was a great dealof duplication in those daily tasks. Theyrecognized that many people were in-gesting the same content, performingQA, cataloging operations and enter-ing the metadata necessary for trafficand automation. Group owners sawthat they could generate significant sav-ings by consolidating these time -inten-sive, repetitive operations on non -livematerial. They concluded that theycould get the most possible benefit,without incurring the telco cost and therisks of total centralization.

The key is to consolidate non -liveportions of the workflow and to lever-age content distribution from central-ized servers to servers at individualstations using file -transfer techniquesover terrestrial or satellite networks.(See Table 1.)


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Which type of facility or operation best describes your primarybusiness classification? (Check only ONE box.)20 TV Station (including Networks & Low -Power TV)26 0 Combination TV & Radio Station39 0 Cable (including Networks)45 0 Telecoms29 El Recording Studio30 Teleproduction Facility/Independent Program Producer40 Post -Production Facility50 17 Streaming Media - Network Provider/ISP/IDC/Telco, Internet

Content Provider/Web Publisher, Services, Software Provide'31 0 Microwave, Relay Station or Satellite Company for TV

and Cable33 0 TV Consultant (Engineering or Management)46 I] Systems Integrator34 TV Dealer or Distributor35 0 Other (please specify):

Which of the following best describes your title? (Check onONE box.)

A. Company Management:01 0 Chairman of the Board02 President03 0 Owner04 El Partner05 Director06 0 Vice President07 El General Manager (other than in charge of Engineering

or Station Operations)08 E Other Corporate/Financial Official

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C. Operations & Station Management/Production & Programming:12 E Vice President Operations13 El Operations Manager/Director14 Station Manager15 D Production Manager16 E Program Manager17 E News Director1 8 0 Other Operations Title99 E Other (please specify):

4 Which statement best describes your role in the purchase ofequipment, components and accessories? (Check only ONE box.)A p Make final decision to buy specific makes, models, services

or programsB 7 Specify or make recommendations on makes, models,

services or programsC Have no part in specifying or buyingIncomplete forms cannot be processed or acknowledged. The publisher

reserves the right to serve only those individuals who meet the publicationqualifications. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for processing.

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February 2003

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5Which of the following types of equipment will you to evaluating1. for purchase in the next 12 months? (Check ALL that apply.)

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controls5N U Tubes50 0 Weather, radar RF products5R 0 Cable/set top/CA systems

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automation0 Software, engineering

2R LI Software, production,2S planning2V 6X Ll Video interface cards2X 6Y D Networking products

6Z U Digital asset management7. New Media/Internet

7A 7_1 Encoding products7B Li Internet service providers7C U ecommerce technology7D ri Content creation systems

8. U System integration/engineering services

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1. Audio Products1A U Audio consoles/mixers1B 0 Digital audio workstations1C 0 Distribution amplifiers1D 0 Headphones, headsets,

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Handling syndicated programs is an excellent example of atime- and labor-intensive process that is repeated (duplicated)at dozens, if not hundreds, of TV stations every day. Each facil-ity does the same thing: It aims the dish, tunes the receiver and

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records the show's content. Once the station checks the record-ing for errors and quality, it reviews the recording to identifycommercial -break insertion points and usually produces apromo dip based on excerpts from the show. The station thentransfers the program and promotional materials to a server orcassette and enters metadata required by the automation andtraffic systems. This same linear process is performed dozensof times each day. By contrast, a consolidated operation usingthe distributed model can perform this process at one locationand, after ingest and QA, can file -transfer the material to mul-tiple servers in multiple cities. If a large number of stations areinvolved, then the file transfer can be accomplished over satel-lite using IP over MPEG-2. Satellite -based delivery bypassesthe limitations of currently deployed WANs in terms of capac-ity and ability to handle multiple receive points (multicast).Broadcast groups need not tackle the consolidation of syndi-cated programs on their own. Modem video -service provid-ers have begun to ingest and prep syndicated programs anddeliver them by satellite to edge servers acting as electronic mailboxes located at local TV stations. The Holy Grail is to havematerial arrive at a facility and have the metadata automaticallyformatted for the local station's automation and traffic systemsso that material can be directly transferred to a station's serverand inserted in the lineup with minimal operator interven-tion. By offering a standard way of specifying metadata, MXF, anew standard soon to be approved by SMPTE, promises tofacilitate such direct transfers.

Hyper local newsThe Sinclair Broadcast Group recently detailed some of its

centralization plans in a series of press releases. Sinclair'sthinking has been to use the advantages of both models (real-time streaming and store -and -forward of files) while mini-mizing the disadvantages of both methods. With an eye onconsolidation, Sinclair built a 15,000 -square -foot produc-


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tion facility at its corporate headquar-ters in Baltimore. Here, both live andnon -live material is produced for itsstations. It broadcasts live national newsout to its client stations in real time oversatellite, while it file -transfers near -real-time material like the weather and othernon -time -sensitive content over theSinclair WAN to the stations for inser-tion. Sinclair is continuing to build outthe distribution network, and it planson linking all 40 of its stations to thisnetwork.

Among the many tasks the groupchose to consolidate, the most unusualand interesting was consolidating localweather reports for some of its stationsto its centralized production facility inBaltimore. On -air weather talent in Bal-timore produce multiple "local weather"segments. These segments are file -transferred to the local stations usingTelestream clip mail boxes (like an e-mail message with a large attachment),where they are inserted into the news. Itdoes this on a near -real-time basis. Thisarrangement has allowed the group toupgrade and improve its ability to de-liver local weather to its stations. Andthe cost savings in consolidating the useof expensive weather equipment andgraphics systems is considerable.

Although we think of the weather re-port as presented live from the studioof the station, Sinclair maintains that itmatters little whether the studio is in thelocal market or it is hundreds of milesaway. What is important is the qualityof the data and the professionalism ofthe presentation. Sinclair has partneredwith Accuweather to provide this data.Under these circumstances, weather is aperfect candidate for consolidation. Thecompany will be able to keep up withthe latest advances in weather graphicsand presentation techniques withouthaving to continuously upgrade equip-ment at each local station.

Looking aheadAt the heart of the distributed playout

model lies the important notion thatnon -live material does not have to behandled as a real-time, synchronousvideo stream; it can be treated as a file

instead. Files are easier to deal with thanstreams. They can be transferred asyn-chronously across a wider range of net-works. In this case, asynchronous trans-lates into two important concepts: 1) thetransfer can happen slower or faster thanreal time, depending on the link and, 2)the transfer can be achieved without theneed for operator intervention. Like ane-mail, once initiated, a file transfer justhappens. Computers at both ends takecare of the details. The network con-straints are simplified and the workflowbecomes nonlinear - two important in-gredients for dramatic simplificationof the overall process.

Until recently, exchanges based on filetransfers were not practical for manyreasons. First, legacy video servers usu-ally were proprietary boxes; the only wayto place content on the server was tostream it in through one of the server'svideo ports. Second, networks linkingvideo servers, particularly WANs, werenot fast enough or consistent enoughto handle large video files. Third, it wasnot possible to transfer files betweenservers from different vendors becauseeven though they may have used com-mon compression formats, they did notuse consistent file headers. It was alsonot possible to transfer transparentlyany metadata describing the attributesof the file from one server to another,unless of course both servers were fromthe same vendor.But the situation has been changing

rapidly lately, and the barriers listedabove have started to disappear. Severalfactors have converged to make file -

based operations across geographies andacross server platforms a reality. Thesefactors include recent advances in stor-age technology; high -capacity, wide -areadata networking over land -based linesor satellite; acceptance of MPEG-2 as auniversal compression format; and theemergence of MXF, an important newmetadata exchange format. Simplifica-tion of infrastructure and de -lineariza-tion of the workflow will have a majorimpact on TV facilities and on the waythey distribute TV content.

In the context of centralization andconsolidation, the simple fact is that


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Figure 3. In the distributed playout model, most of the equipment and the primary station functions remain at thelocal station levelmost material aired by local TV stationsis not live. (By popular estimates, lessthan 20 percent is live.) This ratio meansthat broadcasters can fully leverage thesimplified workflow and infrastructure

surrounding file -based operations.At the moment, there are two chief

disadvantages to the distributed-playoutmodel: the cost of putting complexserver systems at each and every facility,

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and the complexity of content distribu-tion and remote automation. Propo-nents of the centralized-playout modelmaintain that it is simpler to manage theoperation when all of the equipmentand the media are in one place. Well,video servers are no longer complex orexpensive. Consider what some are call-ing an edge server: a low-cost, highlyintegrated box that incorporates videoserver and switching functionality. Thisis a stand-alone device that can be re-motely controlled and whose contentcan be remotely loaded through signal-ing and data embedded in the networksignal feeding the station.

As for the complexity of media dis-tribution and automation, all that re-mains is for TV automation systemsand media asset management systemsto evolve to the same level as they havein other file -intensive industries. Oncethis happens, users will no longer haveto worry about where to put that ma-terial and from where it will be playedout. The content and the intelligenceto play it will be truly distributed. Hav-ing simplified the entire operation, wewill be able to leverage our systems tofurther specialize our advertising andprogramming without incurring anyadditional cost or complexity. BE

Michel Proulx is vice president of productdevelopment at Miranda Technologies.


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CanWest GlobalTorontoBY BOB BURNS AND JOHN MCEWEN

CanWest Global Communi-cations is an internationalmedia company that owns,

operates and/or holds substantial inter-ests in conventional television, specialtycable channels, newspapers, out -of-

home advertising, radio networks andInternet portals in Canada, NewZealand, Australia, Ireland and theUnited Kingdom. The company's mainaudio control room recently underwenta significant expansion as part of a largerproject to enhance the organization's livenews capabilities. Global News has astrong commitment to live news, and itwas quickly determined that a strongeraudio console was needed to support theincreased news coverage. The studio hadbeen functioning with a 14 year -oldoutdated, analog board with limited re-sources that had developed numerousintermittents that were affecting the on -

air product.

Henry Brown, Senior Audio Opera-tor at CanWest Global, works at thefacility's new Wheatstone TV -80console.

The installation team was challengedwith the task of moving the old boardout and finding a new board thatwould accommodate the facility's in-creased requirements. An additionalgoal was to anticipate the growth ofits news services, including a morn-ing show and increased network re-sponsibility. A search -and -evaluation

process was launched that broughtnumerous broadcast console manu-facturers to the facility.

After studying our options, Wheat-stone was our favorite for this applica-tion, but we wanted the audio engineersoperating the equipment to be involvedin the final decision. Wheatstone was theoperators' choice as well, so followingthe lead of our sister station BCTV in

It served as a kind of dress rehearsal andhelped minimize the learning curve.

The "mock" environment also gaveus the opportunity to maximize thedesign of the room. We were able toperfect the layout and obtain the lookwe wanted before anything was bolteddown and wired in the new studio.

Because of our significant increasein live news production, the console's

Using Styrofoam and cardboard, our stagingdepartment fabricated an exact copy of the control

room, including all the equipment.

Burnaby, BC, we chose a WheatstoneTV -80 audio console. BCTV recentlyinstalled the console to support its"Sports Page" program.

A tour of Wheatstone's facility in NewBern, NC, increased our comfort level.Wheatstone arranged to have a TV -80available so we could become familiarwith its performance and operations.

Our next challenges were time andspace. We were in the middle of a se-rious upgrade that needed to be ac-complished in short order. In addi-tion, we had to remain on -air duringconstruction, which we did with aside -by -side temporary console whilewe removed the old one. The cutoverhad to be seamless. We formulated astrategy that required some extra ef-fort but proved extremely effective.Using Styrofoam and cardboard, ourstaging department fabricated an ex-act copy of the control room, includ-ing all the equipment.

The console was placed in the "mock"studio when it arrived, enabling our op-erators to train in an artificial but realis-tic environment, familiarize themselveswith the console, and address all opera-tional issues prior to going live with it.

dedicated IFB mix -minus buses wereattractive features for us. The upgradehas resulted in a huge live news ele-ment, including a helicopter program,a microwave truck, a satellite truck andfiber hookups. We now produce be-tween six and 10 live remotes in eachhalf-hour program, and the amplemix -minuses have given our report-ers the ability to communicate withthe station as well as the ability to heareach other. This feature strengthensthe reporters' participation in thenewscast, an invaluable tool for anews -intensive broadcaster in thehighly competitive market of Toronto.

The console offers a sturdy mechanicaldesign capable of sending two stereomaster and two mono master feeds to thenetwork if necessary. We can create morestereo or mono outputs simultaneouslythan we usually need with its availablegroup, masters and aux outputs.

The console has created a strongeraudio environment for CanWest'snews operation. BE

Bob Burns is director of technical services,and John McEwen is a technical producer,for CanWest Global.


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Fiber opticSystemsBY JOHN LUFF0 ver the last 10 years, two

major technical advance-ments have spurred inter-

est in fiber anew. HDTV occupiesabout 1.5Gb/s in transmission, andsending a signal with such high datarates is more practical when thetransmission medium performs wellat very high frequencies. SMPTE 292works only to about 90 to 120 meterson coax, but it can be transmitted forkilometers on fiber. This applies to fi-ber-optic camera cable as well, thoughthere is considerable industry concernabout using fiber-optic camera cablesin field production due to concernsover repair issues. Other high data ratesignals, such as high bit rate com-pressed and uncompressed video (upto 360Mb/s), similarly suffer poor per-formance at long transmissionlengths, i.e., more than 300 meters.

Fiber is a natural solution, and the de-velopment of more cost-effective hard-ware is spurring a surging interest in fi-ber equipment for delivery betweenbuildings (or within a large facility) andas a connection to video interconnec-tion companies. There has been a newclass of equipment designed to trans-port SMPTE 259, SMPTE 292 andDVB-ASI (compressed MPEG-2). Like

loss of the medium, just like the similarfigures for fiber. One difference is thatthe loss in fiber is not frequency -depen-dent, as most fiber used for video pur-poses carries a single frequency. To theloss in the cable, you must add the lossin the connectors, which cannotbe as low as the loss in aBNC, but can be below0.1dB. Add them up andsubtract the loss from theabsolute launch power, andthen you get the power re-ceived at the far end of themedium. As long as there ismargin left for the receiverto work properly, all shouldbe well. Fiber links are neverplanned with the theoreti-cal minimum loss, partiallybecause the variance in thequality of installations canhave an important effect onthe total link budget.

Multimode fiber allows the beam tobounce back and forth across as it passesdown the length of the fiber. There issome loss, though the fiber itself is largerin diameter and a bit more robust Single-

mode fiber has lower loss and is often litfrom a laser source instead of a diode withwider dispersion and lower power. As a

The development of more cost-effectivehardware is spurring a surging interest

in fiber equipmentany new technology, it helps to un-derstand the way it works and wherethe limitations are.

As with coax, fiber equipment is speci-fied for a total loss budget for the "cable:'We generally do not think of the lossbudget for coax, but look on the specifi-cations sheet for your favorite cable. Seethe loss in di3/100 feet? That defines the

result, single -mode fiber provides muchlower loss per Km and longer transmis-sion distances. It is also more expensiveand difficult to install.

Unlike coax, fiber can be illuminatedfrom both ends, making a single strandcapable of duplex transmission. To dothis, the two ends use frequency diversityand optical hybrids to connect both the

sending and receiving devices to a singlestrand. An ENG link using this approachwould be very small and cost-efficient,though the loss in the hybrid somewhatreduces the distance that can be achieved.

The data transmission industry worksmuch higher bandwidths(data rates) than conven-tional video links. Theimplementation of high -bandwidth fiber services fortelephony and data com-mon carriers has proceededat dizzying speed. One car-rier provided a sample tome of an array of fibers ar-ranged in a flat cable,stacked into a squarebundle and encased in whatlooked like PVC. I thoughtit was perhaps 100 fibers,but it really was more than850 in a "cable"less than 2.5

centimeters thick That's oneway to increase bandwidth.

Another is to use frequency divisionmultiplexing on a single fiber. Send manylight beams of slightlyvarying wavelengthdown one fiber and they won't interferewith each other. Modulate each oneseparately and that bundle of 800 fiberscan carry thousands of signals.

Fiber finds lots of other uses in televi-sion. Get familiar with this technologybecause it won't be that long beforeyour router and audio console havefiber connections on them. As con-sumer devices raise the manufactur-ing volume, we are likely to see morecost-effective and ubiquitous fiber-op-tic solutions in television.

with

Telecast Fiber Sys-tems' camera -mountedCopperHead combinesdigital and wavelengthmultiplexing to send allENG signals in both di-rections on a single fi-ber strand.

BE

John Luff is senior vice president ofbusiness development for AZCAR. To reachhim, visit www.azcarcom.

pSEND

Send questions and comments to:

john [email protected]


Edit Sweetusing a very well-known industry"pictogram" of accepted room ratios,first published by Newman, Bolt,Beranek in 1957 (see Figure 5). Usingthe pictogram involves three basicsteps:

1. Divide all room dimensions by theheight (making the height equal to 1).

2. Plot width and length on horizon-tal and vertical scales.

3. Determine acceptability by notingwhether plot is in or out of the "zone."

There is no one perfect room ratio.If there were, we would all know it andthus not have to deal with this prob-lem. Also, there are often situations inwhich architectural restrictions suchas columns, height limitations, etc.would thwart your attempts to createa room with well -distributedeigentones. If you can't create a roomwith a well -distributed lower -fre-quency eigentone balance, then youshould use carefully placed low -fre-quency absorption to minimize thesebuildups. But accomplishing this withthin materials is tricky. You can usemembrane absorbers or Helmholtzresonators. You can achieve even bet-ter low -frequency absorption effi-ciency by adding air space behindmore typical broadband absorptionmaterials.

Summary1. Remember that site location some-

times can be the most important partof designing a quiet room.

2. Try to create a room -plan layoutwith room ratios (width, length,height) that create acceptable low -fre-quency eigentone distribution.

3. Use geometry and well -appliedsurface treatments to distribute mid -and high -frequency "rays" to eliminatetime anomalies that can create harshfrequency functions.

All this must be accomplished with-out sacrificing the architectural goalsof the room: ergonomics and roomlayout. We will discuss this aspect inan article next month. BE

John Storyk is a principal owner of theWalters-Storyk Design Group.

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A PRIMEDIA Publication

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BPA

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INC. PH: 423-585-5827tm FAX: 423-585-5831

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BusinessWanted

BUSINESS WANTEDPrivate investor seeking to purchasebroadcast manufacturing firms, distribu-torships, divisions or product lines fromestablished companies. No dealerships,please. Contact [email protected] fax to 245-246-0165.

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Help WantedTECHNICAL DIRECTOR: KMOV is looking for a Technical Director, minimum3 years experience including proficiency with digital video production switch-ers, audio consoles, robotic cameras and Chyron. Send resume to Joe Miller,KMOV-TV, One Memorial Dr., St. Louis, MO 63102, [email protected] or fax314-621-1726. KMOV is an equal opportunity employer.


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(2002 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without writtenpermission is prohibited. Sony is a trademark of Sony.

WFNZ-TV, a Raycom Media station, has an opening for an Assis-tant Chief Engineer in Knoxville, TN. The successful candidatewill posses 5+ years experience in all facets of television broad-cast maintenance, solid knowledge of UHF television transmit-ters and RF systems. Candidates must possess above averagecomputer, technical and people skills, be able to work in an "oncall" status and assume the duties of Chief Engineer when calledupon. SBE certification preferred. Qualified candidates shouldsend your resume and salary requirements to: Tom Theilmann,WTNZ-TV, 9000 Executive Park Drive, Suite D-300, Knoxville, TN.37923. Or fax to (865) 691-6904. No phone calls please. EOE

D.L. MARKLEY& Associates, Inc.

CONSULTING ENGINEERS2104 West Moss Ave.Peoria, Illinois 61604

Phone (309) 673-7511 FAX (309) 673-8128www.dlmarkley.com

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view atwww.molloysoundandvideo.com

Help WantedAt Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company, oursuccess depends on every single employee's contributions- because the more we grow as individuals, the more wegrow as a company. Right now, we have the following open-ing in our Secaucus, NJlocation: Camera EngineerJob code:8162/CP In this position, you will manage technical issues inthe Production Camera Product category and communicatedirectly with key customers to gather information on poten-tial product enhancements, technical improvements, indus-try trends, service issues, and quality control issues. Youwill also provide support for key sales presentations as wellas post -sales customer support. We will rely on you to main-tain product knowledge through direct customer contactincluding product positioning, competitive analysis, cus-tomer usage, and new technological developments. Qualifi-cations: Bachelor's degree in Engineering required, post-graduate work helpful. 010 years' broadcast engineering ex-perience, preferably with experience in the film/HD produc-tion/postproduction environment. Detailed in-depth un-derstanding of modern television camera design/imagingtechnologies. Thorough understanding of the operationalrequirements for cameras in various environments. Stronginterpersonal and communication skills. In addition to anenvironment that's as innovative as our products, we offercompetitive salaries and superior benefits. Please forwardyour resume, including job code 8162/CP and salary require-ments, to: Panasonic-HR3A-5, One Panasonic Way,Secaucus, NJ 07094; Fax: 201-392-6007; E-mail:[email protected] Panasonic We are committed tocreating a diverse work environment and proud to be anequal opportunity employer (m/f/d/v). Pre -employment drugtesting may be required. Due to the high volume of response,we will only be able to respond to candidates of interest. Allcandidates must have valid authorization to work in the U.S.Thank you for your interest in Panasonic Broadcast & Tele-vision Systems Company, a subsidiary of MEI.

Help Wanted


Broadcast Engineering is not responsiblefor errors in the Advertisers Index. ffi

Page

AJA Video 78

Andrew Corp 72

Anton Bauer 92

Avid Technology 23,S22-23

Axon Digital 27

Azden 18

Benchmark Media Sys 99

Broadcast Software 16

Calrec Audio 93

Canon USA Broadcast 17

Cartoni USA 82

Clear-Com Intercom 85

Coherent Comm. 100

CPI/Eimac IBC

Dolby Labs Inc. 29

Encoda Systems S35

ESE 94

Evertz Microsystems S21

Florical Systems 19

Grass Valley/Thomson 13,S6-7

Harmonic, Inc S33

Harris Corp./Broadcast Div. 3

Henry Engineering. 100

HHB Communications 32

Horita 100

Intelsat 31

Lawson 99

Leitch BC,25,S18-19

Leader Insturments 81

L3 Communications 73

Maxell Corp 7

Miranda Tech 11

Modulation Science 83

NAB Broadcasters 89

Network Electronics 86

NSI 20

NVision 28

Omneon Video Networks S27

Omnibus Systems S31

Panasonic Broadcast & Digital 5

ParkerVision S25

Pathfire S29

Patchamp 90

PESA Switching Systems 79

Pinnacle Systems S10-11

Quantel 33

Rohde & Schwarz 15

Snell & Wilcox 8-9

Sony Business Systems & Solutions Co. 102

Sony Inc. 21,S14-15

Studio Exchange 100

Systems Wireless 77

Telecast Fiber Systems Inc. 91

Teranex 26

Triumph Communications 82

Utah Scientific 95

Videoframe 100

Vinten Broadcast Ltd. 97

Ward -Beck Systems Ltd. 84

Wheatstone Corporation IFC

FEBRUARY 2003

Advertiser Web siteHotline Address

530-274-2048

800-dial-4rf203-929-1100

800-949-2843

+1888-919-9379

516-328-7500

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212-586-7376

800-321-hdtv

818-760-8240

661-295-0300

650-592-1221

415-558-0200

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avid.corn

axon.tvazdencorp.combenchmarkmedia.com

calrec.comcanonbroadcast.comste-man.com

clearcom.comcocom.comeimac.comdolby.com

310-322-2136 ese-web.com

352-372-8326 florical.com

800-4HARRIS

626-355-3656

805-579-6490

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514-333-1772

732-302-3090

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hhbusa.comhorita.comintelsat.com/videosolutions

leitch.comLeaderUSA.com

L-3Com.com/edd/

maxellpromedia.commiranda.commodsci.comnab.org/conventions/nab2003

network-electronics.comnsystems.comNVision1.com

800-528-8601 panasonic.com/broadcast

201-457-1504 patchamp.com631-845-5020 PESA.com

quantel.com410-910-7800 rohde-schwarz.com

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broadcastengineering.com 103

EOM

A licenseto cheatBY PAUL MCGOLDRICK

It would really rankle an Ameri-can to have to go down to thepost office once a year and write

a check for $175 to buy permission touse his own television receiver. This isnot a cultural thing at all - it ranklespeople in the UK, where everybodyhas to do just that. The "TV Licence"(British spelling) is a holdout from thetheory that any use of the spectrum,either transmitting and/or receiving,makes the user into a "station" and itslocation should therefore be autho-rized with a bit of paper. Now, ofcourse, it is just a tax. But it is a tax fora purpose.

The first Radio Licence was issued in1922 at an annual cost of 10 shillings(two dollars at that time) and stayed atthat level until 1946 when the first TVLicence (including radio) was issued for£2. Contrast that with today's price tagof £112 fora color TV license and £37.50for monochrome. The money that israised pays for the BBC's programmingon six TV channels, network radio ser-vices, and all the regional TV and radioproduction and engineering costs. Theanachronism is that it is not a license towatch BBC programming: It is a licenseto watch UK TV.

The separation of church and statebetween the BBC and the UK govern-ment has always been a cornerstone ofthe corporation - although there havebeen some really interesting shades ofgray there over the years - and the origi-nal decision to fund the BBC from a li-cense fee meant that the authoritiescould say that taxpayer money was notbeing used... an interesting exercise inlogic. For many years the monies werecollected by the post office and handedto the BBC through the home office. In1991 the BBC took over the unpleasanttask of collecting the fees itself and cre-ated the TV Licensing Authority to at

least distance itself in name.This group employs 1700 people to

collect monies, issue licenses and enforcethe law. Five hundred of those employ-ees work away from the headquartersand the vast majority are inspectors wholook to identify what averages about1000 license evaders every day. With

CRT, or you may be driven past by theall -scary "Detector Van"! It used to bethat the post office would announcewhen one was going to be in an areaand, magically, licenses would bebought in bulk. But did the vans evenwork? Yes, they did; picking up theTV's local oscillator, the operators

The UK's "TV licence" is a holdout from the theorythat any use of the spectrum makes the user into a

"station"... and therefore should be taxed.

over 23 million licenses in force (end of2001), and all but 136,000 at the $175level, there is clearly a very large amountof money involved. And with the num-ber of households known to be over 26million, the TVLA is very interested inthe three million who are not licensed.

When you buy a TV, STB or a com-puter TV card, the retailer has to reportthe sale to the TVLA. If that buyer's ad-dress is not in the database he gets a let-ter. Even if you don't buy a product youare likely to get a letter anyway, often alot of letters, because the authority justdoesn't seem to believe that anyone cando without television. Second home?Get another license. Student at college?Get another license. Rent a room insomeone's house? Get another license.Use TV at work? Get another license.Operate a hotel? Get a license for the first15 receivers and then another license forevery five more (that's over $3000 a yearfora 100 -room hotel.) Legally blind? Youstill need a license but you do get a 50percent discount - such generosity.

So, after you buy that new TV withcash and give a false name and address,how do they catch you? If you are notin the database as being licensed, yourresidence may be visited by an inspec-tor looking for the telltale flicker of a

could even tell the residents whichchannel they had been watching, andthe equipment is now so sensitive thatthere are handheld units in service.

You don't need a license if you don'tconnect a TV to an antenna, cable or sat-ellite receiver and just use it to play backpre-recorded tapes or DVDs, nor if youonly watch satellite TV originating out-side the UK. But how do you prove it?

The PC user with a TV card has beenthe most popular target in the last 18months, but an even sorrier situation hasarisen with a decision that a broadbanduser who is streaming video from theBBCi Web site also needs a license. Butdon't worry if you are streaming BBCtelevision news in the United States, theyare only going after UK users.At the cost involved for the licenses

(and the UK isn't the only country tohave this system for funding the "pub-lic" broadcaster), there is inevitably go-ing to be cheating or evasion. Those thatpropose taxing the Internet in some wayshould look at this as a cautionary tale...but that's another column.

DE

Paul McGoldrick is an industry consultantbased on the West Coast.


[email protected]

104 broacicastengineering.com FEBRUARY 2003

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